"MEN’S SUBJECTION TO ROMANTIC LOVE
In Love’s Labor’s Lost. men’s power and autonomy wither as the men fall prey to romantic love. At the beginning of the play, the men are in full command. The king and his courtiers, all noble, rich, intelligent, and powerful, speak grandly about their own fame and grace, which they confidently anticipate. By the end of the play, they have broken their most cherished oaths, acted like idiots, dressed up in disguises that fool nobody, and used ail of their intelligence and passion in the service of women who leave them. As great as the noblemen’s power is, the power of romantic love is greater.
At the outset, the king and his friends view women as objects they can do without—a luxury that is difficult to give up, but a dispensable luxury. They assume their lives will be improved without women, reinforcing the idea, inherited from ancient Greece, that women and the passions they arouse keep men from wisdom and intellectual achievement. As Don Armado says of Jaguenetta, women are “the weaker vessel” (1.1.256). But by the end of the play, women have subdued men. The men have abandoned their former oaths and beg their departing lovers to stay with them longer. The tables have turned, and the women are now the ones in the powerful position of withholding love, as the men were in the first act. The princess’s hunt symbolizes the rising power of women. The hunt, a typically masculine activity, and the image of a woman wielding a weapon, suggest that the males are now the prey. Indeed, the princess bags a male deer."
--- Sparknotes 101: Shakespeare
L'origine de Bert
Friday, January 18, 2013
Links - 18th January 2013
"Though liberals do a great deal of talking about hearing other points of view, it sometimes shocks them to learn that there are other points of view.." - William F. Buckley, Jr.
***
China's 'Leftover Ladies' Are Anything But - "an estimated 7 percent of college-educated women in Shanghai remain single at age 45... Refuting stereotypes of docility, today’s Chinese professional women say they are even more ambitious at work than their American counterparts. Seventy-six percent of Chinese women surveyed in 2011 by the New York-based Center for Talent Innovation said they “aspire to top jobs,” vs. 52 percent of Americans. Chinese women employed by multinational companies frequently work more than 70 hours a week. One hurdle in finding a spouse is China’s long-standing tradition of hypergamy—or women marrying up, in terms of income and status. The older and more accomplished a Chinese woman is, the narrower her potential dating pool... Even with millions more men than women overall in China... [27 percent] percent of urban Chinese women in their late 20s [are single]... Unmarried women in their late 20s or older are often referred to in newspaper reports and sitcoms as sheng nu, or “leftover ladies,” a term that misleadingly implies these women have failed to meet men’s standards, as opposed to having higher standards of their own... the percentage of young women in Beijing who were sexually experienced before their weddings in 1989 was just 15 percent. Today it is between 60 percent and 70 percen"
Happpily, this doesn't blame the men
If you look like me, I'll talk to you: a preliminary study of ethnic identity and inter‐ethnic interaction among women in Singapore - "intra‐ethnic spontaneous interaction is more likely to occur among women who display a strong national identity. Moreover, younger women, who were exposed during their school years to the government's recent drive to nurture ethnic and cultural differences, are less open to inter‐ethnic interaction than are women in their 30s and older, who grew up when the government drive was towards creating one common national identity for the people of Singapore"
Suppression as a Stereotype Control Strategy - "Recent research reveals that efforts to suppress stereotypic thoughts can backfire and produce a rebound effect, such that stereotypic thinking increases to a level that is even greater than if no attempt at stereotype control was initially exercised"
An obsession with suppressing/eliminating stereotypes is counter-productive - the stereotype rebound effect
Sinkie girl on Channel 8 dating show - "Qyf Do u mind your bf career minded?
GCP: I don't mind,i like men who earn lots of money,then i have security,if men no money,relationship good also useless
Sinkle men1:A relationship what did u look at best?
GCP:Must be passionate,no need to say love me,must have stable income,should earn at least 6k per mth,i think this expectations is not high
All 3 sinkle men look stunned"
Clip from Love In Progress 爱。进行中 Ep 5
Japanese Noodle Bath - YouTube
RWS' dolphin Wen Wen died from acute bacteria infection
Luckily it was in captivity and had the chance of getting medical attention
SBS driver faces disciplinary action for verbal abuse - "Public relations consultant Leona Lo posted on her blog that she was walking from Bedok Temporary Interchange to the MRT station when a bus driver shouted “Ah Kua” and mimicked her gait, while other SBS employees hooted and clapped."
Best comment: "“Ah Kua” is a hokkien derogatory term used for transgenders and trans-sexuals." That's what the article above trying to tell us. But it is incorrect to say that hokkien word for transgender is derogatory as that is the only single, less hurtful, hokkien vocab that people here understood for transgenders. It only becomes derogatory when an adjective like "chao" (smelly) Ah Kua is added to it. It is even more demeaning when people refer to them as "pian tai", literally meaning abnormal sexually in a disgusting way. So, people should not take the word "Ah Kua" in hokkien out of context, unless you can show us another hokkien word that describe transgenders in a more respectful manner in your own mannerism.
But having said that, i do not approved of the bus captain's doing the Ah Kua gait. That is, so disrespectful. Hope my explanations go some way to putting things in perspective."
Gayness mandatory in schools: Gay victims of prejudice to become new McCarthyites - "Here’s a question shortly coming to an examination paper near you. What have mathematics, geography or science to do with homosexuality? Nothing at all, you say? Zero marks for you, then... many gay people are themselves uneasy or even appalled by this increasingly oppressive use of their cause. Privately, many will say that all they ever want is to live free from discrimination and not to provoke discrimination against others. After the case of Christian street preacher Dale McAlpine, the gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell spoke out in support of the rights of people to express their views against homosexuality... the obsession with equality has now reached ludicrous, as well as oppressive, proportions. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has paid £100,000 for a report into how efforts to boost Britain’s coastal fish stocks would affect minority communities including the Chinese, homosexuals and Welsh speakers. And the Department for Transport issued a study looking at harassment and discrimination on ships and hovercraft against a range of groups, including transsexuals."
Is school biased against boys? - "The materials used, methods of teaching and the restrictions of the National Curriculum all favour the way girls learn. As a result, our boys are failing in alarming numbers... Texts stipulated by the National Curriculum are seen as geared more towards girls than boys. Research has shown that in classes where boys were taught English from non-fiction texts rather than classical novels, boys achieved better results. The change from an exam-based educational system to a continuously assessed one is also seen to benefit girls who are generally more organised, have better perseverance skills, and are less easily discouraged than boys."
One in 66 Britons is gay or bisexual - NOT one in ten, as previously thought - "The Office of National Statistics survey found that 1.5 per cent of men say they are gay, 0.7 per cent of women say they are lesbian, and 0.4 per cent of people identify themselves as bisexual"
Mark Regnerus and the Role of Faith in Academics - NYTimes.com - "In June, a sociologist named Mark Regnerus published a paper arguing that young adults with a parent who had had a same-sex relationship fared worse than those raised by biological parents without histories of same-sex relationships. He found, for example, that if your mother had a lesbian relationship, you were more likely to have been on welfare, to be unemployed, even to have been molested. Those with gay fathers did not suffer quite as badly... Dr. Regnerus, who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, was immediately called a fraud, a charlatan, a shill for the religious right. Two hundred scholars signed a letter attacking his paper and the journal, Social Science Research, that published it... the University of Texas conducted an inquiry [and] found “no evidence” of scientific misconduct in Dr. Regnerus’s study... Dr. Regnerus has a long history as an outspoken Christian who once said his faith and his scholarship were intertwined. So it is fair to ask what he meant... Is there a Christian way to crunch numbers? “The answer, in my personal opinion, is no,” said Mark Chaves, a sociologist of religion at Duke Divinity School. But, he added, religious concerns “can very profoundly shape the kinds of questions we ask, and what we’re interested in, what we think is important and so on.” So while “in the narrowest sense it doesn’t affect his computations,” Dr. Regnerus’s Christian faith may have drawn him to questions about same-sex relationships and family structure. And a religious worldview, like any worldview, can dispose a researcher toward certain mistakes in thinking"
People only ask about the role of ideology when they don't like the findings (i.e. not scholar-activists).
Same-sex parenting and children’s outcomes: A closer examination of the American psychological association’s brief on lesbian and gay parenting - "In 2005, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued an official brief on lesbian and gay parenting. This brief included the assertion: ‘‘Not a single study has found children
of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents’’ (p. 15). The present article closely examines this assertion and the 59 published studies cited by the APA to support it. Seven central questions address: (1) homogeneous sampling, (2) absence of comparison groups, (3) comparison group characteristics, (4) contradictory data, (5) the limited scope of children’s outcomes studied, (6) paucity of long-term outcome data, and (7) lack of APA-urged statistical power. The conclusion is that strong assertions, including those made by the APA, were not empirically warranted. Recommendations for future research are offered."
People only pick on methodology when they don't like the findings (e.g. Regnerus's study)
Gay parents: are they really no different? - "the conventional wisdom has been that there are “no differences” of note in the child outcomes of gay and lesbian parents... Ten years later, the discourse has actually shifted further still, suggesting that same-sex parents now appear to be more competent than heterosexual ones... The rapid pace at which the overall academic discourse surrounding gay and lesbian parents’ comparative competence has swung—from the wide acknowledgement of challenges to “no differences” to more capable than mom and pop families—is notable, and frankly a bit suspect. Scientific truths are seldom reversed in a decade. By comparison, studies of adoption—a common method by which many same-sex couples (but even more heterosexual ones) become parents—have repeatedly and consistently revealed important and wide-ranging differences... the scholarly community has often been treated to small, nonrandom “convenience” studies of mostly white, well-educated lesbian parents, including plenty of data-collection efforts in which participants knew that they were contributing to important studies with potentially substantial political consequences, elevating the probability of something akin to the “Hawthorne Effect.” This is hardly an optimal environment for collecting unbiased data (and to their credit, many of the researchers admitted these challenges)"
Gay Parenting Does Affect Children Differently, Study Finds -- Authors Believe Gay Parents Have "Some Advantages" - "Teen-age and young adult girls raised by lesbian mothers appear to be more sexually adventurous and less chaste than girls raised by heterosexual mothers. Sons, on the other hand, were somewhat less sexually adventurous and more chaste than boys raised by heterosexuals."
***
China's 'Leftover Ladies' Are Anything But - "an estimated 7 percent of college-educated women in Shanghai remain single at age 45... Refuting stereotypes of docility, today’s Chinese professional women say they are even more ambitious at work than their American counterparts. Seventy-six percent of Chinese women surveyed in 2011 by the New York-based Center for Talent Innovation said they “aspire to top jobs,” vs. 52 percent of Americans. Chinese women employed by multinational companies frequently work more than 70 hours a week. One hurdle in finding a spouse is China’s long-standing tradition of hypergamy—or women marrying up, in terms of income and status. The older and more accomplished a Chinese woman is, the narrower her potential dating pool... Even with millions more men than women overall in China... [27 percent] percent of urban Chinese women in their late 20s [are single]... Unmarried women in their late 20s or older are often referred to in newspaper reports and sitcoms as sheng nu, or “leftover ladies,” a term that misleadingly implies these women have failed to meet men’s standards, as opposed to having higher standards of their own... the percentage of young women in Beijing who were sexually experienced before their weddings in 1989 was just 15 percent. Today it is between 60 percent and 70 percen"
Happpily, this doesn't blame the men
If you look like me, I'll talk to you: a preliminary study of ethnic identity and inter‐ethnic interaction among women in Singapore - "intra‐ethnic spontaneous interaction is more likely to occur among women who display a strong national identity. Moreover, younger women, who were exposed during their school years to the government's recent drive to nurture ethnic and cultural differences, are less open to inter‐ethnic interaction than are women in their 30s and older, who grew up when the government drive was towards creating one common national identity for the people of Singapore"
Suppression as a Stereotype Control Strategy - "Recent research reveals that efforts to suppress stereotypic thoughts can backfire and produce a rebound effect, such that stereotypic thinking increases to a level that is even greater than if no attempt at stereotype control was initially exercised"
An obsession with suppressing/eliminating stereotypes is counter-productive - the stereotype rebound effect
Sinkie girl on Channel 8 dating show - "Qyf Do u mind your bf career minded?
GCP: I don't mind,i like men who earn lots of money,then i have security,if men no money,relationship good also useless
Sinkle men1:A relationship what did u look at best?
GCP:Must be passionate,no need to say love me,must have stable income,should earn at least 6k per mth,i think this expectations is not high
All 3 sinkle men look stunned"
Clip from Love In Progress 爱。进行中 Ep 5
Japanese Noodle Bath - YouTube
RWS' dolphin Wen Wen died from acute bacteria infection
Luckily it was in captivity and had the chance of getting medical attention
SBS driver faces disciplinary action for verbal abuse - "Public relations consultant Leona Lo posted on her blog that she was walking from Bedok Temporary Interchange to the MRT station when a bus driver shouted “Ah Kua” and mimicked her gait, while other SBS employees hooted and clapped."
Best comment: "“Ah Kua” is a hokkien derogatory term used for transgenders and trans-sexuals." That's what the article above trying to tell us. But it is incorrect to say that hokkien word for transgender is derogatory as that is the only single, less hurtful, hokkien vocab that people here understood for transgenders. It only becomes derogatory when an adjective like "chao" (smelly) Ah Kua is added to it. It is even more demeaning when people refer to them as "pian tai", literally meaning abnormal sexually in a disgusting way. So, people should not take the word "Ah Kua" in hokkien out of context, unless you can show us another hokkien word that describe transgenders in a more respectful manner in your own mannerism.
But having said that, i do not approved of the bus captain's doing the Ah Kua gait. That is, so disrespectful. Hope my explanations go some way to putting things in perspective."
Gayness mandatory in schools: Gay victims of prejudice to become new McCarthyites - "Here’s a question shortly coming to an examination paper near you. What have mathematics, geography or science to do with homosexuality? Nothing at all, you say? Zero marks for you, then... many gay people are themselves uneasy or even appalled by this increasingly oppressive use of their cause. Privately, many will say that all they ever want is to live free from discrimination and not to provoke discrimination against others. After the case of Christian street preacher Dale McAlpine, the gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell spoke out in support of the rights of people to express their views against homosexuality... the obsession with equality has now reached ludicrous, as well as oppressive, proportions. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has paid £100,000 for a report into how efforts to boost Britain’s coastal fish stocks would affect minority communities including the Chinese, homosexuals and Welsh speakers. And the Department for Transport issued a study looking at harassment and discrimination on ships and hovercraft against a range of groups, including transsexuals."
Is school biased against boys? - "The materials used, methods of teaching and the restrictions of the National Curriculum all favour the way girls learn. As a result, our boys are failing in alarming numbers... Texts stipulated by the National Curriculum are seen as geared more towards girls than boys. Research has shown that in classes where boys were taught English from non-fiction texts rather than classical novels, boys achieved better results. The change from an exam-based educational system to a continuously assessed one is also seen to benefit girls who are generally more organised, have better perseverance skills, and are less easily discouraged than boys."
One in 66 Britons is gay or bisexual - NOT one in ten, as previously thought - "The Office of National Statistics survey found that 1.5 per cent of men say they are gay, 0.7 per cent of women say they are lesbian, and 0.4 per cent of people identify themselves as bisexual"
Mark Regnerus and the Role of Faith in Academics - NYTimes.com - "In June, a sociologist named Mark Regnerus published a paper arguing that young adults with a parent who had had a same-sex relationship fared worse than those raised by biological parents without histories of same-sex relationships. He found, for example, that if your mother had a lesbian relationship, you were more likely to have been on welfare, to be unemployed, even to have been molested. Those with gay fathers did not suffer quite as badly... Dr. Regnerus, who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, was immediately called a fraud, a charlatan, a shill for the religious right. Two hundred scholars signed a letter attacking his paper and the journal, Social Science Research, that published it... the University of Texas conducted an inquiry [and] found “no evidence” of scientific misconduct in Dr. Regnerus’s study... Dr. Regnerus has a long history as an outspoken Christian who once said his faith and his scholarship were intertwined. So it is fair to ask what he meant... Is there a Christian way to crunch numbers? “The answer, in my personal opinion, is no,” said Mark Chaves, a sociologist of religion at Duke Divinity School. But, he added, religious concerns “can very profoundly shape the kinds of questions we ask, and what we’re interested in, what we think is important and so on.” So while “in the narrowest sense it doesn’t affect his computations,” Dr. Regnerus’s Christian faith may have drawn him to questions about same-sex relationships and family structure. And a religious worldview, like any worldview, can dispose a researcher toward certain mistakes in thinking"
People only ask about the role of ideology when they don't like the findings (i.e. not scholar-activists).
Same-sex parenting and children’s outcomes: A closer examination of the American psychological association’s brief on lesbian and gay parenting - "In 2005, the American Psychological Association (APA) issued an official brief on lesbian and gay parenting. This brief included the assertion: ‘‘Not a single study has found children
of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents’’ (p. 15). The present article closely examines this assertion and the 59 published studies cited by the APA to support it. Seven central questions address: (1) homogeneous sampling, (2) absence of comparison groups, (3) comparison group characteristics, (4) contradictory data, (5) the limited scope of children’s outcomes studied, (6) paucity of long-term outcome data, and (7) lack of APA-urged statistical power. The conclusion is that strong assertions, including those made by the APA, were not empirically warranted. Recommendations for future research are offered."
People only pick on methodology when they don't like the findings (e.g. Regnerus's study)
Gay parents: are they really no different? - "the conventional wisdom has been that there are “no differences” of note in the child outcomes of gay and lesbian parents... Ten years later, the discourse has actually shifted further still, suggesting that same-sex parents now appear to be more competent than heterosexual ones... The rapid pace at which the overall academic discourse surrounding gay and lesbian parents’ comparative competence has swung—from the wide acknowledgement of challenges to “no differences” to more capable than mom and pop families—is notable, and frankly a bit suspect. Scientific truths are seldom reversed in a decade. By comparison, studies of adoption—a common method by which many same-sex couples (but even more heterosexual ones) become parents—have repeatedly and consistently revealed important and wide-ranging differences... the scholarly community has often been treated to small, nonrandom “convenience” studies of mostly white, well-educated lesbian parents, including plenty of data-collection efforts in which participants knew that they were contributing to important studies with potentially substantial political consequences, elevating the probability of something akin to the “Hawthorne Effect.” This is hardly an optimal environment for collecting unbiased data (and to their credit, many of the researchers admitted these challenges)"
Gay Parenting Does Affect Children Differently, Study Finds -- Authors Believe Gay Parents Have "Some Advantages" - "Teen-age and young adult girls raised by lesbian mothers appear to be more sexually adventurous and less chaste than girls raised by heterosexual mothers. Sons, on the other hand, were somewhat less sexually adventurous and more chaste than boys raised by heterosexuals."
Post ID: 6216862730111058226
Europe CNY 2012 - Day 9, Part 1 - Edinburgh Castle
"I adore war. It's like a big picnic without the objectlessness of a picnic... The fighting excitement vitalises everything... One loves one's fellow-man so much more when one is bent on killing him." - Julian Grenfell
***
Europe CNY 2012
Day 9, Part 1 - 27th January - Edinburgh Castle
Sadly I forgot to charge my camera battery the previous night and only had one, so I ran out later in the day.
Glasgow Architecture
Cornish Pasty for breakfast (with another smoothie from the previous night - they were 2 for £3 - and crisps). This one was more like a Polar curry puff with flaky pastry, versus the firmer more crumbly one I'd had in London. I'm reasonably sure a pasty is not supposed to be flaky like a croissant!
Worse, there was no meat - all I felt was potato (so it was like a curry puff in another way)
Annoyingly my Walkers Worcestershire crisps were lao hong because there was a hole in the packet (no wonder it was deflated - I should've realised). Next time I must only take puffy packets.
Not a condom vending machine but for umbrellas. And cheap too (£3)
Very Problematic Robin Hood Tax sticker. Besides the problems with the tax it basically paints financiers as evil. Bah.
George IV of Hannover, George Street
Edinburgh Train Station
There was an interesting place called Makars' Court, with quotes from Scottish writers in the floor.
On Makars' Court
"Freedom is a noble thing" - John Barbour
"Populo enim jus eft, ut Imperium, cui veut, déférât" - George Buchanan
"Blessed be sempill lyfe without in dreid" - Robert Henryson
"Auld Reikie, wale o' ilka Town" - Robert Fergusson
"Sing it aince for pleasure, Sing it twice for joy." - J.K. Annand
"He was eident,/ he was blye,/ in Scotlands cause" - Douglas Young
Full list of the quotes of Makar's Court: Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature: The Literary City
Makars' Court
"This is my own, my native land!" - Sir Walter Scott
"I rattled/down the/High Street/in high elevation/of spirits" - James Boswell
Lady Stairs Close
What looks like a church is Edinburgh's Festival Centre: "The building remains the property of the Church of Scotland having been leased to support its new use."
West Bow
"Papa Djabs Big Cock Is Out Now" - ???
"Confusion is Sex" - ???
Edinburgh Castle
In front of castle
Crosses. Celtic Crosses, naturally.
Edinburgh New Town, sea
Castle Square
View of Edinburgh
View of Edinburgh
Outside Edinburgh Castle: Panorama of Edinburgh
Entrance. On the left is Robert the Bruce, on the Right is William Wallace. The statues date from 1929, and the gatehouse 1887.
Portcullis Gate
Memorial plaque - to a guy who defended the castle against... The English
Plaques on the history of the castle:
100 BC
AD 600
AD 1093
AD 1314
AD 1457
AD 1566
AD 1573
AD 1689
AD 1818
Edinburgh Castle lookout: Panorama of Edinburgh
Edinburgh from battlements
Train Station, Scottish National Gallery, Scott Monument
Home of many Units
There were some army unit museums, but none dealt with Pre-Stuart military history, i.e. when they were fighting the English.
Late 17th c Scottish Dragoon
Capture of French standards at Waterloo
Music in the regiment
The Greys at Waterloo, Regimental Standard of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 1971-1994
Scotland for ever!
"The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers & Greys)"
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers & Greys) Regimental Museum
In the museum, I became acquainted with the most deadly of all Scottish Weapons
Unchained Melody played on Bagpipes
"Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard". Wut.
The Origin of The Royal Scotts
How to use a musket
Scottish Childcare: "It was at Malplaquet that a soldier's wife who had been in winter quarters, decided to return home to Scotland. She handed her infant son to his father, Private McBain, who was on parade. Having nowhere else to put him, Private McBain fought the battle with the child in his knapsack."
The Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Ensign Kennedy, rescuing the colours
On the Colours
The military: desperately searching for relevance in a post-war world
You can tell they're not happy about Overstretch.
To think that some people suggested just rolling over and surrendering to Communism.
At the end I found out that the unit didn't even exist anymore. Bah.
"The Genealogy of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
Colonel-in-Chief - HM The Queen"
The Queen is only a Colonel?! And yet she's Commander-in-Chief. Maybe because the unit doesn't have any post above Colonel.
Foog's Gate
Scottish National War Memorial
View of Edinburgh
Dog cemetery (for regimental mascots and officers' dogs only, naturally)
Edinburgh's New Town
Mons Meg (huge Cannon)
St Margaret's Chapel, 12th c.
Inside
St Margaret
St Columba
Altar
At the back is St Andrew on a fish
St Andrew on a fish
Forewall Battery
Half-moon battery
Wall of War Memorial
On David's Tower (remains)
Buried Treasure
Funky colours
Death in the cellars
Royal Palace
On the Scottish Crown Jewels (note that there are no English crown jewels). As with the War Memorial (and the UK Crown Jewels) there was no photography permitted.
They were last used in 1651 and the Crown is used for Scottish Parliament. There was the Stone of Scone ("Stone of Destiny") also.
As jewels go they weren't numerous: just a crown, sword with scabbard, a couple of jewels and a stone. But hey they are older than the UK ones.
On Laich Hall
Laich Hall
Fireplace
Coat of arms on window
Fireplace
Queen Mary's Chambers
Charles II
James VI/I
Charles II
Queen Mary's Chamber
Mary Queen of Scots
Coat of Arms
Coat of Arms
Scottish War Memorial
The war memorial was nice, with the regimental colours and country flags. There were leather-bound tomes each for a unit, with names of dead from the World Wars.
The building was turned into a war memorial in 1920. Before it was a barracks of 3-4 storeys so the interior was gutted.
There was a silver box surrounded by kneeling/praying angels. Inside was a an original roll with the names of WWI dead.
The stained glass was novel, with scenes of people manning AA guns (it was a war memorial after all). The zeppelins on the stained glass surprised me, though.
The Air Force wing had "I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself". Another side was for the navy. I thought there was no army section, but individual army units got their sections so that was better.
The most decorated drainpipe I've seen
Great Hall Entrance
Crown Jewels building
Weapons Hall
Trench Mortars
War Memorial again
There was an exhibition on prisoners and prisons.
Graffiti
Rations for POWs.
POWs got paid too!
Edinburgh Castle
HMS St George, made by a prisoner
Bank of Scotland dies and forged bbanknotes
How to forge currency
Straw goods
Pre-Geneva Convention POW Rules
Quarters
Lang stairs
Exit
Edinburgh
Ensign Ewart tomb. He captured a French standard at Waterloo, which inspired the Royal Scots Greys' badge, tsk.
Duke of York
Scottish Horse
Kids and Edinburgh's Festival Centre
Braveheart
The Scottish National Gallery sounded nice but I only had a day for Edinburgh (I hadn't considered spending the night in Glasgow or going to the highlands). Ah well, if I ever go back.
In Glasgow I didn't see any EU GB license plates (and indeed saw the fake EU SCO one). In Edinburgh I saw a few - probably because of Crown administrators.
***
Europe CNY 2012
Day 9, Part 1 - 27th January - Edinburgh Castle
Sadly I forgot to charge my camera battery the previous night and only had one, so I ran out later in the day.
Glasgow Architecture
Cornish Pasty for breakfast (with another smoothie from the previous night - they were 2 for £3 - and crisps). This one was more like a Polar curry puff with flaky pastry, versus the firmer more crumbly one I'd had in London. I'm reasonably sure a pasty is not supposed to be flaky like a croissant!
Worse, there was no meat - all I felt was potato (so it was like a curry puff in another way)
Annoyingly my Walkers Worcestershire crisps were lao hong because there was a hole in the packet (no wonder it was deflated - I should've realised). Next time I must only take puffy packets.
Not a condom vending machine but for umbrellas. And cheap too (£3)
Very Problematic Robin Hood Tax sticker. Besides the problems with the tax it basically paints financiers as evil. Bah.
George IV of Hannover, George Street
Edinburgh Train Station
There was an interesting place called Makars' Court, with quotes from Scottish writers in the floor.
On Makars' Court
"Freedom is a noble thing" - John Barbour
"Populo enim jus eft, ut Imperium, cui veut, déférât" - George Buchanan
"Blessed be sempill lyfe without in dreid" - Robert Henryson
"Auld Reikie, wale o' ilka Town" - Robert Fergusson
"Sing it aince for pleasure, Sing it twice for joy." - J.K. Annand
"He was eident,/ he was blye,/ in Scotlands cause" - Douglas Young
Full list of the quotes of Makar's Court: Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature: The Literary City
Makars' Court
"This is my own, my native land!" - Sir Walter Scott
"I rattled/down the/High Street/in high elevation/of spirits" - James Boswell
Lady Stairs Close
What looks like a church is Edinburgh's Festival Centre: "The building remains the property of the Church of Scotland having been leased to support its new use."
West Bow
"Papa Djabs Big Cock Is Out Now" - ???
"Confusion is Sex" - ???
Edinburgh Castle
In front of castle
Crosses. Celtic Crosses, naturally.
Edinburgh New Town, sea
Castle Square
View of Edinburgh
View of Edinburgh
Outside Edinburgh Castle: Panorama of Edinburgh
Entrance. On the left is Robert the Bruce, on the Right is William Wallace. The statues date from 1929, and the gatehouse 1887.
Portcullis Gate
Memorial plaque - to a guy who defended the castle against... The English
Plaques on the history of the castle:
100 BC
AD 600
AD 1093
AD 1314
AD 1457
AD 1566
AD 1573
AD 1689
AD 1818
Edinburgh Castle lookout: Panorama of Edinburgh
Edinburgh from battlements
Train Station, Scottish National Gallery, Scott Monument
Home of many Units
There were some army unit museums, but none dealt with Pre-Stuart military history, i.e. when they were fighting the English.
Late 17th c Scottish Dragoon
Capture of French standards at Waterloo
Music in the regiment
The Greys at Waterloo, Regimental Standard of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 1971-1994
Scotland for ever!
"The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers & Greys)"
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers & Greys) Regimental Museum
In the museum, I became acquainted with the most deadly of all Scottish Weapons
Unchained Melody played on Bagpipes
"Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard". Wut.
The Origin of The Royal Scotts
How to use a musket
Scottish Childcare: "It was at Malplaquet that a soldier's wife who had been in winter quarters, decided to return home to Scotland. She handed her infant son to his father, Private McBain, who was on parade. Having nowhere else to put him, Private McBain fought the battle with the child in his knapsack."
The Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Ensign Kennedy, rescuing the colours
On the Colours
The military: desperately searching for relevance in a post-war world
You can tell they're not happy about Overstretch.
To think that some people suggested just rolling over and surrendering to Communism.
At the end I found out that the unit didn't even exist anymore. Bah.
"The Genealogy of the Royal Regiment of Scotland
Colonel-in-Chief - HM The Queen"
The Queen is only a Colonel?! And yet she's Commander-in-Chief. Maybe because the unit doesn't have any post above Colonel.
Foog's Gate
Scottish National War Memorial
View of Edinburgh
Dog cemetery (for regimental mascots and officers' dogs only, naturally)
Edinburgh's New Town
Mons Meg (huge Cannon)
St Margaret's Chapel, 12th c.
Inside
St Margaret
St Columba
Altar
At the back is St Andrew on a fish
St Andrew on a fish
Forewall Battery
Half-moon battery
Wall of War Memorial
On David's Tower (remains)
Buried Treasure
Funky colours
Death in the cellars
Royal Palace
On the Scottish Crown Jewels (note that there are no English crown jewels). As with the War Memorial (and the UK Crown Jewels) there was no photography permitted.
They were last used in 1651 and the Crown is used for Scottish Parliament. There was the Stone of Scone ("Stone of Destiny") also.
As jewels go they weren't numerous: just a crown, sword with scabbard, a couple of jewels and a stone. But hey they are older than the UK ones.
On Laich Hall
Laich Hall
Fireplace
Coat of arms on window
Fireplace
Queen Mary's Chambers
Charles II
James VI/I
Charles II
Queen Mary's Chamber
Mary Queen of Scots
Coat of Arms
Coat of Arms
Scottish War Memorial
The war memorial was nice, with the regimental colours and country flags. There were leather-bound tomes each for a unit, with names of dead from the World Wars.
The building was turned into a war memorial in 1920. Before it was a barracks of 3-4 storeys so the interior was gutted.
There was a silver box surrounded by kneeling/praying angels. Inside was a an original roll with the names of WWI dead.
The stained glass was novel, with scenes of people manning AA guns (it was a war memorial after all). The zeppelins on the stained glass surprised me, though.
The Air Force wing had "I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you unto myself". Another side was for the navy. I thought there was no army section, but individual army units got their sections so that was better.
The most decorated drainpipe I've seen
Great Hall Entrance
Crown Jewels building
Weapons Hall
Trench Mortars
War Memorial again
There was an exhibition on prisoners and prisons.
Graffiti
Rations for POWs.
POWs got paid too!
Edinburgh Castle
HMS St George, made by a prisoner
Bank of Scotland dies and forged bbanknotes
How to forge currency
Straw goods
Pre-Geneva Convention POW Rules
Quarters
Lang stairs
Exit
Edinburgh
Ensign Ewart tomb. He captured a French standard at Waterloo, which inspired the Royal Scots Greys' badge, tsk.
Duke of York
Scottish Horse
Kids and Edinburgh's Festival Centre
Braveheart
The Scottish National Gallery sounded nice but I only had a day for Edinburgh (I hadn't considered spending the night in Glasgow or going to the highlands). Ah well, if I ever go back.
In Glasgow I didn't see any EU GB license plates (and indeed saw the fake EU SCO one). In Edinburgh I saw a few - probably because of Crown administrators.
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