Fairhaven's military history is rich with stories of sacrifice

Posted on 20th May 2012 in The monuments of world
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jack iddon/The standard-Times, file Among the cannons at Fort Phoenix are these large Civil War-era pieces. The town and the fort have played key military roles since the Revolution.

By WILLIAM A. MONIZ

May 20, 2012 12:00 AM

Long before its 1812 incorporation, and for the 200 years since, Fairhaven has generously given of its men and women to America’s wars.

In July of 1675, the territory known as Dartmouth, which included present day Fairhaven, New Bedford, and Acushnet, was attacked by Wampanoag warriors. Under the leadership of their Sachem, or leader, Metacomet, known to the English as King Phillip, the Native Americans destroyed all 30 homes in the settlement, killing William Palmer, Jacob and Susannah Mitchell and John Pope in the process.

The town would remain abandoned until King Phillip’s War ended with the signing of the Casco Bay, Maine treaty in April, 1678. The following June, Dartmouth would hold its first town meeting in three years.

Almost a century later, on April 21, 1775, only two days after “the shot heard round the world,” Dartmouth mustered three companies of militia to join the minutemen laying siege to the Redcoats in the town of Boston. Three weeks later, under the command of Captains Daniel Egery and Nathaniel Pope, the 40-ton sloop Success carrying 25 minutemen, set out from Fairhaven to recapture two Colonial merchantmen recently seized by the British Sloop of War HMS Falcon.

After shadowing the British prizes under light winds on the foggy night of May 13, the Success, with Pope at the helm, surprised one anchored sloop at sunrise, overwhelming the British watch before they could cut free from their mooring. Pope, one minuteman, and the ship’s drummer then sailed the recaptured vessel and its British prize crew off to anchor at Fairhaven.

Success, now under Egery’s command, soon spotted the second sloop raising sail off West Island and gave pursuit. Approaching within musket range, Egery ordered his sharpshooter to take aim on an officer in British livery. “The shot felled the officer, more shooting followed, and the Englishmen struck their colors.” (Logs of the Dead Pirates Society, R. S. Peffer, Sheridan House, 2000)

The action resulted in the recapture of both Yankee sloops and the detention of 15 British prisoners including HMS Falcon’s gunner and ship’s surgeon. The first naval battle of the Revolutionary War had ended in an American victory. The wounded British officer who had taken a buckshot pellet to the skull, survived. According to Peffer’s account, the officer was quoted as saying that his family had been called “a hard-headed lot.”

On June 18, 1812, only four months after Fairhaven’s incorporation, President James Madison would sign a declaration of war against Great Britain. According to “Old-Time Fairhaven”, by Charles A. Harris, “In 1812 [ Ft. Phoenix] was again made serviceable, in anticipation of war, being refurbished with a new barracks. During that war the garrison repulsed an attempt to land barges from the British Sloop of War, Nimrod.”

Records provided by Fairhaven Director of Veteran’s Services Jim Cochran show that 14 town men served in “Mr. Madison’s War,” six in the Army and eight in the Navy. At the war’s end in 1815, the Fairhaven contingent had recorded no casualties.

Some 50 years later, Fairhaven servicemen would not be so lucky. Of the town’s 274 soldiers and sailors fighting for the Union in the Civil War, 31 would die from various causes, including; 9 killed in action, 10 of disease, and 3 while imprisoned by the Confederacy.

William H. Bryant, who died at his Fort Street home in 1929 at the age of 80, was a Civil War survivor. Only 15 years old when he enlisted in 1864, he needed his mother’s written consent to join Company D of the 3rd Massachusetts Cavalry. Bryant served in the Red River Campaign in Louisiana, and later saw action with General William Tecumseh Sherman in the Shenandoah Valley.

Trooper Bryant’s service continued even after the surrender of the Confederacy. In May of 1865, as the country transitioned from the Civil War to the Indian Wars, the 3rd Massachusetts was shipped off to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Under General Patrick Connor, Bryant participated in the infamous Powder River Expedition into Wyoming aimed at punishing the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux for earlier raids on settlers.

Bryant was mustered out of the Army at Boston in September of 1865 and 15 years later the 1880 census listed his occupation as “sailor.” Bryant is buried in Riverside Cemetery.

In 1898, Fairhaven would provide 10 soldiers, 2 sailors and 1 marine, to help “Remember the Maine” in the Spanish American War. All would return home safely.

Twenty years later, World War I would be another story. Of the 328 Fairhaven boys sent “over there” in 1918, 10 would be killed in action and five would die of disease and other causes. In a typical pithy notice, the November 15, 1918 edition of the Fairhaven Star recorded the death of Joseph Perry’s stepson; “Joseph J. Perry of 146 Adams Street received a telegram on Wednesday announcing the death, Oct.8, from broncho pneumonia of Private A. E. Melanson of the 5th Machine Gun Co. Only three days before Mr. Perry received the bad news, Armistice Day had officially ended the war.”

Like William Bryant in the mid-19 Century, Fairhaven’s Luther Pierce would see service in two wars. Commissioned a second lieutenant after graduating the Army Air Corps flying school in Sacramento, Calif. in 1942, Pierce was assigned as a navigator on a B-17 Flying Fortress. During World War II, the 27 year-old Pierce would survive an astonishing 50 bombing missions over Germany.

In 1947, now Captain Pierce was recalled to active duty and in 1950 was back flying combat missions, this time in the skies over Korea. On Oct. 3 of that year Captain Pierce’s luck would run out when his B-26 Invader bomber went missing on a mission over Wonsan.

Captain Pierce was one of seven Fairhaven servicemen to die in the United Nations’ so-called “police action.” A total of 590 Fairhaven men and women served during the Korean Conflict.

The submarine USS Grayback, launched at Groton, Conn. in 1941, compiled an extraordinary record during her 10 separate World War II patrols. At 64,000 tons, the Grayback ranked 20th among all submarines in total tonnage sunk, and 24th in number of ships sunk with 14. The submarine and her crew received two unit commendations and eight battle stars for her extensive Pacific theater service.

Fairhaven’s Carleton Fielding enlisted in the U. S. Navy in February 1943. A three-sport star at Fairhaven High, Fielding, nicknamed “Swede,” was a tenacious two-way lineman in football. At commencement ceremonies, he was the recipient of the coveted Sparrow Cup as the school’s outstanding senior athlete.

After graduating from submarine school at New London, Conn., in the summer of 1943, the 21-year-old Fielding was assigned to the Grayback. The following Jan. 27, a notice in the Fairhaven Star announced, “The engagement of Miss Phyllis E. Jenney … of 726 Washington St. to Seaman Second Class Carleton F. Fielding”»” The brief paragraph ended matter of factly with, “Seaman Fielding is on submarine duty.”

The marriage would never take place. On Feb. 25, 1944, having expended all but two of her torpedoes in sinking three enemy ships and damaging two others, the Grayback was ordered back to base at Midway Island. She would never arrive.

Pieced together from captured Japanese records, the Navy believes it knows the fate of the Grayback. On Feb. 27, 1944, at about the position the Grayback would have been on her way back to base, a Japanese carrier-based aircraft spotted an American submarine running on the surface in the East China Sea. The plane attacked and reported that the submarine “exploded and sank immediately.”

On March 30, 1944, the Grayback was listed as missing and presumed sunk with all 80 of her crew. A full two years later, on May 8, 1946, the Navy Department reported that Carleton Fielding was officially presumed lost. In the 1941 Huttlestonian yearbook, a forever young “Swede” Fielding gazes out over his selected aphorism, “There is always safety in valor.”

Fairhaven’s “Greatest Generation” contributed 1,502 men and women to the Armed Forces during World War II, the most of any war. Including Carleton Fielding, 51 would not return.

In the mid-1950s another Asian war erupted in French Indo-China that, by the mid-1960s would lead to massive American involvement in Vietnam. Of a total of 823 Fairhaven men and women to serve during the Vietnam War, eight would die in service, including four killed in action.

Ironically, one of the town’s highest profile military deaths during the Vietnam Era would occur in Canada. In September 1966, former Fairhaven resident Lt. Commander Richard Oliver, a member of the Navy’s crack Blue Angels aerobatic team, was killed when his F-11 Tiger fighter crashed during a Toronto air show.

Oliver became a town celebrity in 1949 when he rescued a young boy from drowning in the Acushnet River. For his heroics, the 14 year-old Oliver was whisked to New York City where, as a guest of the Boys Clubs of America, he was treated to a Yankees’ baseball game and a private dinner with the team’s iconic star, Joe Dimaggio.

Interviewed a few weeks before his death, the 31 year-old Oliver said, “Vietnam is where I’d like to be next, the more I read about the air war there, the more I wish I were there with those boys helping out.”

In this, its Bicentennial year, the town’s contribution to the nation’s wars continues. According to Veteran’s Services Director Cochran, 182 service men and women have served in the Persian Gulf and Middle East. In 2006, Marine Lance Corporal and Fairhaven native Patrick Gallagher, was killed when the truck in which he was riding rolled over near Asad, Iraq.

The town has over a dozen monuments to its veterans ranging from Revolutionary War plaques at Fort Phoenix, to the Civil War memorial at Bridge Park, to the World War II, Lookout Tower at West Island. Cochran credits the town’s various veterans organizations for their help in maintaining these monuments.

“I couldn’t ask for Fairhaven to be more patriotic,” says Cochran, “veterans’ activities get great support from the town.”



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In death – as in life – my mother was rescued by love | Jonathan Freedland

Posted on 18th May 2012 in The monuments of world

  • Jonathan Freedland

    • Sara Freedland and family
    Sara Freedland, with son Jonathan and grandson Jacob in 2005. Photograph: Toby Glanville for the Guardian

    Nearly 11 years have passed since I last broke my own rule and wrote in this place about something deeply personal. Then, in the summer of 2001, it was the birth of my first child and the article was a hymn of praise for the National Health Service that had ushered my son into the world.

    Today I write about my mother, who died 10 days ago. Once again – though this is not my only aim – I want to record my praise, even awe, for the people who looked after her. It was not so straightforward this time. Yes, the NHS funded it all, but my mother was tended to – at home in Bournemouth – by a variety of agencies, some public, some voluntary and one private. I confess that before this experience, I would have been wary of such an arrangement. But my prejudices were confounded. The team worked together with perfect efficiency, a coalition of Macmillan and Marie Curie nurses, agency staff, NHS district nurses and care assistants and the local GP. Not once did any information slip through the cracks. It meant we could fulfil our promise to my mother that she would spend her last weeks not in hospital or in a hospice, but at home.

    At no point, despite all the equipment and expertise that came through the front door, was money so much as mentioned. Never were we confronted with a choice of a cheaper option or a limit to our “cover”. My mother got all the care she needed and no one presented her or us with a bill. That is the glory of our national health system, one we take for granted too easily. It is a treasure to be cherished.

    And yet what will stay with me is a thought not about systems or organisations, but about people. Perhaps two dozen different women helped my mother in those last days. They were gentle and sensitive, speaking softly and with great care. Several of them, it turned out, were motivated by past experience of caring for their own, terminally ill relatives. On the last full day of my mother’s life, I noticed that the eyes of one nurse, Sue, were welling with tears. She had been watching me talk to my mother and had, I think, been reminded of her own farewell to her father. When she said goodbye to me, she said something I shall never forget. “Thank you for letting me in.”

    I never asked what any of these remarkable people are paid, but I don’t imagine it’s very much. And yet they do work that is tough, exhausting and priceless. I know the explanation for that paradox but, in truth, it is inexplicable.

    Still, what I’ve been thinking about most during these last 10 days is my mother. She won no prizes, she built no monuments – and yet her life was extraordinary. When I wrote a memoir of three generations of my family, including the lives of relatives involved in some of the epic political events of their era, it was nevertheless her story that touched people most.

    She was born Sara Hocherman in 1936, in the small town of Petach Tikva in what was then Palestine. She was two months premature: the doctors warned that her life was “hanging by a thread”. Her father was an ultra-orthodox Jew who showed his children what might politely be called distracted neglect. He did not provide for them or his wife and, after an older sister died through malnutrition, my mother’s mother returned to her native London with her two surviving children.

    By the time she was five, in 1942, Sara was an evacuee in the Bedfordshire countryside, taken in by a kindly unmarried lady who took a shine to the little girl. But Sara missed her mother terribly. In the spring of 1945, the war’s end approaching, a reunion seemed only weeks away. Then one of the very last V2 rockets to fall on London hit Hughes Mansions in the East End, killing 134 people; 120 of them were Jews, my mother’s 33-year-old mother among them. When everyone else was celebrating VE Day, eight-year-old Sara was in mourning.

    What followed were hard years in the post-war East End, and in 1949 a return to what was now Israel, to witness the earliest years of the state. That period was hard too: my teenage mother had to contend with poverty, family estrangement and disease. In 1955, Sara returned to England where she eventually met and found happiness with my father. Illness would strike again when my mother was 43; once more the doctors would say her life was hanging by a thread. But somehow she survived.

    There is so much to say about all of this, and one way or another I will spend the rest of my life saying it. But three points stand out.

    The first is that my mother’s experience made her much more hawkish than me on matters relating to Israel. To lose her mother (and an aunt) along with so many other Jews to one of Hitler’s bombs meant she had felt the breath of the Shoah on her neck: it entrenched a yearning that she felt as a desperate need, the craving for a place the Jews could call their own. She was not the only one to feel it. Whatever view you ultimately take on the Israel-Palestine question, you cannot hope to understand that conflict unless you also understand this need.

    Second, whenever one contemplates war or military intervention anywhere, one needs to contemplate this unbending fact: that every bomb or rocket that falls, no matter where in the world it lands, is destined to create another Sara Hocherman – a child who has lost a parent. And the pain of that act will live on through the decades and through the generations, as it did in my family.

    Lastly, my mother’s life was proof of the power of love. She was rescued first by her aunt, Yiddi, who took her in, and next by my father, who was with her for 52 years and with her at the very end. Their love ensured that, though my mother was unfathomably strong, she was never hard. She contained next to no bitterness, only oceans of empathy.

    So this weekend, do yourself this favour, if you can. As my mother would have put it, deploying the idiosyncratic grammar that was part Yiddish, part passive-aggressive self-deprecation, “Phone your mother: she’s also a person.”

    Jonathan Freedland has set up a Just Giving page in his mother’s name, for Macmillan Cancer Support

    Twitter: @j_freedland

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    Urban Adventures Settles into Two National Capitals: Washington, D.C. and London

    Posted on 8th May 2012 in The monuments of world

    Washington, D.C. (PRWEB) May 08, 2012

    Launching with two unique tours, Washington, D.C. Urban Adventures shows off the U.S. capital in a unique and innovative way: by eCruiser. On both tours, guests are transported across the city in small electric vehicles that afford unparalleled access to the city’s famous monuments and exciting local neighborhoods.

    “Washington, D.C., puts a great experience out there that hasn’t previously been available,” says Tony Carne, General Manager of Urban Adventures. “I think many people are surprised to learn the distances you need to walk to cover all of the main sights in D.C. Using the eco-friendly eCruisers means you don’t have to walk miles; you spend your time doing the important stuff, all with the helpful expert advice of a Washington, D.C., local. Our Urban Adventures tours give you a great overview of the main sites, as well as the kinds of unique and hidden gems that make all Urban Adventures tours so special.”

    Washington, D.C. Urban Adventures owners and operators, George and Judy Palmer, first joined the company by leading tours in Annapolis, Maryland, and have taken a unique and progressive approach to day tours in both cities by offering trips in eCruisers. Their tours in Washington, D.C., are different from the norm and their commitment to innovation and responsible travel exactly exemplifies Urban Adventures values.

    “We’re very excited to see Washington, D.C. Urban Adventures ready for the season ahead,” affirmed Carne. “Washington, D.C. Unveiled, which covers the capital’s must-see monuments and memorials, sets off daily at 10:00 a.m. Washington, D.C. Today explores local lore in the city’s less-touristed neighborhoods of Foggy Bottom, Chinatown and Eastern Market. The trips departs daily at 1:30 p.m. Both tours last approximately two hours and cost US$45.”

    Across the Atlantic, the big news in the UK capital of London is the announcement of the winners of the search for a new London Urban Adventures partner. Pulled from a pool of very high-quality entries, Paul Fitzjohn and Alicia Sheber were welcomed to the Urban Adventures family. They have already taken the reins of London Urban Adventures.

    “I’m so glad we didn’t take the traditional route in finding a management team for our London business, and instead put it out there for the whole world to be involved,” commented Carne. “We interviewed three incredible candidates and it’s safe to say that we wouldn’t have found them through a traditional job search. We weren’t looking for someone who wanted a job. We were looking for someone with a passion and enthusiasm for travel in general and London in particular. We definitely found that.”

    Both Fitzjohn and Sheber come with a wealth of experience, Fitzjohn with several years as a Blue Badge Guide and Sheber with a solid background in marketing. They are confident of their ability to carry London Urban Adventures successfully through this busy year of big events.

    At the moment, London Urban Adventures has seven tours, including two cycling day tours – one to Hampton Court Palace and the other to Windsor Castle – perfect for a summer pedal in London. There are also several walking tours that visit London’s diverse markets, neighborhoods and histories.

    “Whether you fancy London or D.C. this summer, Urban Adventures is your source for unique, local day tours, led by some very excited and enthusiastic teams,” concluded Carne. “We have a fantastic summer ahead and hope that we can share it with as many ‘Urban Adventurers’ as possible.”

    About Urban Adventures
    Urban Adventures are day tours with a difference, led by passionate locals who aim to show people a mix of world-famous sites and hidden gems while uncovering back streets, local hotspots, and quirky landmarks. Urban Adventures operates in more than 85 cities worldwide, and supports local communities and the environment through a commitment to responsible travel. Urban Adventures was launched in October 2009 by Intrepid Travel and the WHL Group, and since its inception, Urban Adventures has hosted over 50,000 satisfied travelers.

    For more information, visit http://www.urbanadventures.com or contact Tony Carne, General Manager, at tony(at)urbanadventures(dot)com, +61 3 9473 2626.

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    Borisopolis: London under Boris Johnson

    Posted on 29th April 2012 in The monuments of world

  • Rowan Moore

    • boris johnson
    ‘As much in love with the grand gesture as anyone’: Boris Johnson in the Royal Docks, 2011. Photograph: Julian Makey/Rex Features

    Mayors love buildings. They love the opportunities to pose in hard hats, to make their mark on their cities, to leave permanent monuments of their reigns and to demonstrate in the most tangible possible way that Something Is Being Done. Mayors have also been known to use large contracts and profitable planning consents to return favours to their supporters in construction and development and, in some disreputable cases, to take kickbacks themselves.

    London mayors have more reasons than most to like planning, architecture and design, as these are areas within their relatively limited range of powers where they have some influence. They oversee the London plan, which guides the future development of the city, and have the power to approve or refuse significant planning applications. They have budgets that can be spent on the city’s public spaces.

    Ken Livingstone, in his last incarnation as London mayor, pursued a policy of unstoppable growth, based on his belief, since discarded, in the permanent revolution of financial services. Nothing should stand in the way of developers erecting buildings that would serve the banks that would make the money, a portion of which could then be extracted to pay for the affordable housing that was made more necessary by the high property prices caused by the boom in financial services.

    He adopted Richard Rogers’s idea of the “compact city”, that it was good to densify and intensify the centre of London, rather than let it sprawl horizontally into the green belt. The results of his dash for growth, combined with the compact city, were a series of towers pushed through the planning system with Livingstone’s support: some, such as the Shard, are now being completed; some are poking their concrete lift cores into the air; some remain computer-generated images awaiting the funds to be turned into reality. Livingstone also pursued, with partial success, a policy of creating “100 public spaces”, based on Barcelona’s renewal of its streets and squares.

    Then came Boris Johnson, who has shown himself as much in love with grand gestures as anyone, although with limited funds to achieve them. He has therefore thrown himself behind the London River Park, a privately financed plan for a series of pontoons floating in the Thames that, while they will have some benches and green stuff here and there, will also have extensive corporate hospitality areas to pay for the project. He backed the Emirates Air Line, a cable car that may or may not be functioning in time for the Olympics, in return for sponsorship which means that the airline will get its name on the tube map. He has slathered the streets with blue cycle lanes, a colour by happy coincidence close to the branding of the sponsor of Boris bikes, Barclays Bank.

    He has promoted the Orbit, the 115m-high sculpture by Anish Kapoor next to the Olympic stadium, which reportedly arose from a chat between Boris and its sponsor, Lakshmi Mittal, in the gents’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos. And, indeed, unless there is some so far hidden genius to this structure, which will reveal itself once the public is allowed to explore it, it currently looks to me very much like a lot of steel and money pissed into the sky, to no great purpose except the vanity of those involved. Johnson has presented images of the Eiffel Tower visible above Parisian apartment blocks and sincerely seems to believe that the Orbit will be no less impressive seen from the future residential developments on the Olympic site. I doubt it.

    He has also backed the revival of the Routemaster bus, with the admirable intention of bringing back a bit of dignity and civility to public transport. These handsome if over-styled objects certainly lift the spirits in rare sightings along the 38 route – there are eight currently in operation – but until they become the standard rather than the exception they will remain in the category of rhetorical flourish.

    But if Johnson’s monuments suffer from the columnist’s love of making a splash, his mayoralty has been more impressive when it comes to things that are barely visible, or about taking stuff away rather than adding it. Recently, without much discussion or brouhaha, railings and barriers disappeared from London’s major roads, as part of a programme of “decluttering”. The theory is that if pedestrians and cars are less nannied by safety features, they will take greater responsibility for their own actions and behave more safely, with the added benefit that the streets look much better.

    The experience of High Street Kensington, which was decluttered some years ago, suggests that it works. No one yet knows for sure if the changes to London’s other roads will save lives or cause carnage of Charge of the Light Brigade proportions, and if it’s the latter it will come to seem like a very bad idea. Assuming it does not, decluttering represents a significant change in attitude to city streets – they are seen more as places to inhabit than as machines for channelling the movement of people and cars.

    Slightly more visible are the removal of the gyratory systems at Piccadilly Circus and elsewhere, and the X-shaped pedestrian crossing at Oxford Circus, devices that rebalance the relationship of pedestrians to vehicles in favour of the former. There is also the remaking of Exhibition Road, an impressive if partly compromised attempt to realise the concept of a “shared surface”, where people coexist with cars, on a large scale.

    Johnson’s officers have been trying to direct limited funds towards reviving London’s more obscure zones. There are officially 600 high streets in the capital, and Johnson has available £250m or so to spend on improving them, which works out at less than half a million per high street, which isn’t very much. The idea, therefore, is to do a lot with a little, to connect better the suburb of Rainham, for example, with its beautiful marshes; to put up a new sign on the library on Ponders End; to make a street market work better; to spruce up the lesser-known parks. It is arguably the closest any Tory politician has come to realising the fast fading idea of the Big Society.

    It’s not all that much, but it is in principle an intelligent use of scarce resources and is more effective than a grand plan of Livingstone’s for an area called Barking Riverside. This would have used up more than twice the budget at Johnson’s disposal for the whole of London on the infrastructure necessary to make it work. Meanwhile Johnson has also introduced minimum standards of space for new homes, including such things as balconies that are large enough to have some use. Developers predicted that this interference with their right to design very mean homes would make house building altogether impossible, but it has not turned out to be the case. Whatever the problems currently afflicting the construction industry, this has turned out to be the least of them.

    As for skyscrapers, the recession has reduced the number of controversial proposals landing on Johnson’s desk, although he did turn down a ridiculous plan for a huge glass funnel next to Battersea Power Station. On this occasion he resisted the temptation to identify himself with a pointless spike.

    This, then, is Borisopolis: a combination of show-off whatsits and fairly sensible stuff. When it comes to public space there is not a fundamental difference between Labour and Tory, Livingstone and Johnson. Both think it’s a Good Thing and both have an idea of a city that favours pedestrians and cyclists more than it did before. Johnson and his administration do however deserve credit for getting some things done that make London, in a modest way, a better place to live.

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    Shen Yun Performers Take a Break and Visit the Sights of London

    Posted on 14th April 2012 in The monuments of world

    Louis Makiello
    Epoch Times Staff     Created: April 13, 2012 Last Updated: April 13, 2012

    Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company

    Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company pictured together in front of Big Ben in London. (Simon Gross/The Epoch Times)

    Performers from Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company took a break in their busy schedule to visit London on Friday, Apr. 13, before an evening performance at the London Coliseum.

    The artists have performed in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, Stockholm, The Hague, and Zürich before coming to London. The entire company travels together in coaches. They have little free time left over from performing, travelling, practising, and attending VIP receptions.

    Brian Nieh, a dancer with the company, told The Epoch Times: “It’s just really nice to get out and check out the city sometimes because if you ask a lot of the dancers, they have the same feeling. Sometimes we get to a city and then all we see are the hotel, our bus, and then backstage. Sometimes we don’t even get to see the lobby.”

    The company walked around central London and saw the Houses of Parliament, Whitehall, Big Ben, a memorial for soldiers who died in the Battle of Britain, and Tower Bridge.

    Mr. Nieh said: “Europe is such a wonderful place with beautiful scenery and lots of history; it’s really great to be able to go out and check out famous monuments or buildings.”

    When not on tour, many of the performers train with some of the world’s top Chinese singers, musicians, costume designers, choreographers and other dancers to produce a new show every year.

    With additional reporting by Lee Hall.

    Shen Yun Performing Arts, based in New York, has three touring companies that perform simultaneously around the world, with a mission to revive traditional Chinese culture. Shen Yun Performing Arts International Company will perform at The London Coliseum until April 15.

    For more information visit ShenYunPerformingArts.org

    The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of Shen Yun Performing Arts.

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    The most popular game you never heard of

    Posted on 5th April 2012 in The monuments of world
    minecraft

    A screenshot from Minecraft.

    FORTUNE — When programmer Markus Persson, 32, began working on a side project called Minecraft in 2009 there was little to indicate it would go anywhere. His boss certainly didn’t think so. “I didn’t see any potential in it, and that’s the honest truth,” says Carl Manneh, who was then CEO of photo-sharing site jAlbum. When Minecraft revenues surpassed jAlbum’s shortly thereafter, Manneh realized just how wrong he’d been. Now, Manneh runs Mojang, the 25-person team behind the game. And Minecraft has become a gaming phenom with no signs of slowing down.

    Minecraft is a videogame only in the loosest sense. Digital sandbox is a more accurate description. Players are free to construct buildings and objects out of 3D cubes, polygonal Legos of sorts. The program, which is available for PCs as well as Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) phones, eschews the ultra-realistic, blockbuster graphics of contemporary computer games. With its pixelated, blocky textures, Minecraft looks like a relic from the Atari era. In one mode, players must gather resources during the day and fend off monster attacks at night; in another, they are free to create whatever they like.

    The game’s difficulty adds to the old school flavor. The learning curve can be punishing. In lieu of a manual, users are encouraged to buddy up with a “mentor” to show them the ropes or crawl user forums and web videos for tips on everything from scavenging for materials to building huge monuments. “The same thing that draws people to Minecraft is the same thing that draws people to make their own music videos or to try to sell their own crafts on Etsy,” explains Leigh Alexander, editor-at-large for game industry web site GamaSutra.

    This freeform gameplay has generated a robust culture, with players creating and sharing their designs online. A common internet meme over the past year has been “xyz re-created in Minecraft,” from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater to Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. Although the Mojang team says its largest demographic set is under 15, Minecraft’s users range in age from 9 to 70, casual gamer to seasoned veteran. To date, the game has more than 25 million registered users, 5 million of which paid upfront for a premium version with additional features.

    That has translated into a real business. The company reported $80 million in revenues — and $13.5 million in profit — through the end of 2011. Large publishers have come knocking with acquisition bids, rumored to be worth close to $1 billion. And rockstar entrepreneur Sean Parker flew the developers to London for a party hoping to woo them as a future investor.

    A good barometer of how rapidly the game has grown in popularity is MineCon, the annual Minecraft convention. Its first gathering in Bellevue, Washington two years ago was a low key affair attended by Persson and around 50 other devotees. Last November, MineCon drew 5,000 fans, packing the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. “Going from your small offices [in Sweden] to MineCon, and meeting these people, that’s when we realized how big Minecraft was and what kind of impact the game has made,” says Manneh.

    Markus_Persson

    Markus Persson, a.k.a. Notch.

    Minecraft’s success is largely due to Persson, its creator, described by industry insiders as bright with a sharp wit. He worked for some four-and-a-half years as a programmer for King.com, developing casual puzzle and shooting games with names like Funny Farm and Carnival Shootout before jAlbum. Persson never anticipated becoming a millionaire, let alone an industry luminary. Still Notch, as he calls himself online, already commands a sizable influence. More than 640,000 people follow his frequent updates on Twitter, while nearly 112,300 track him on Google+. (Persson declined to comment for this story.)

    Indeed, just as appealing to fans as Minecraft itself is Persson’s anti-establishment persona. He is above all a programmer, but he hasn’t shied away from controversy. In an interview with an industry trade publication last year, Persson said he may have quashed Electronic Arts (EA) boss John Riccitello’s potential acquisition hopes over luncg. When the CEO of game maker OMGPOP, which was recently acquired for $210 million by Zynga (ZNGA), made disparaging remarks about the one employee who did not make the move, Persson came to his defense. He shot back on Twitter, “You’re an insane idiot.” And when a fan admitted, also via Twitter, that he couldn’t to afford to buy Minecraft, Persson publicly recommended he pirate a copy. Instead of pocketing nearly $3 million in dividends last year, he gave it back to Mojang employees, bolstering his Robin Hood image.

    More importantly, Minecraft’s parent Mojang is bucking two of the biggest trends in games. It is unlike casual game makers Zynga and Rovio, pumping out low- and no-cost titles people play as diversions on the subway or at work. Nor is it like larger game firms EA and Activision (ATVI), which operate much like Hollywood studios, investing tens and sometimes hundreds of millions developing complex titles like Call of Duty. With its idiosyncratic approach, it is most like the old Blizzard, the small Irvine, California studio that wound up creating World of Warcraft, one of the most profitable franchises in history. (It eventually merged with Activision in 2007, an $18.9 billion tie up that created the world’s largest game maker.)

    Mojang is looking at ways to expand, which includes everything short of being acquired. That includes placing its bets on an all-new unrelated adventure game called Scrolls, which will initially roll out in an invite-only “closed alpha” in the next two months. And earlier this week, Persson announced another game, dubbed 0×10C, an ambitious-sounding multiplayer space travel game.

    Key to maintaining overall growth of Minecraft itself will be exploring opportunities that make sense for the game, says Scott Steinberg, head of business consulting for the video games firm TechSavvy. Mojang has been approached to develop the game into a TV show or film, although the company hasn’t committed to anything yet. A version of the game is headed to Microsoft’s (MSFT) Xbox Live this May. And merchandise, which generated nearly $1 million last year, will get a big boost later this year when an official Minecraft-inspired Lego set arrives. For Persson and crew, that is likely only to be the beginning.

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    Earth Hour: No lights, too, at world landmarks

    Posted on 1st April 2012 in The monuments of world

    3:17 am | Monday, April 2nd, 2012

    The Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are illuminated (above) shortly before the start of the 6th annual Earth Hour on Saturday. AFP

    Hundreds of world landmarks from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the Great Wall of China went dark on Saturday, part of a global effort to highlight climate change.

    “Earth Hour 2012 is a celebration of people power; the world’s largest mass event in support of the planet,” World Wildlife Fund (WWF) official Dermot O’Gorman told reporters in Sydney.

    The number of countries and territories that participated in Earth Hour grew from 135 last year to 147 this year, said WWF, the global environmental group which organizes the event.

    Libya, Algeria, Bhutan and French Guinea are among those participating for the first time.

    Earth Hour, held on the last Saturday of March every year, began as a Sydney-only event in 2007. The city’s iconic Harbor Bridge and Opera House were dimmed again this year.

    Australia is among the first countries to flick off the light switches each year; in New Zealand, Sky Tower in Auckland and the parliament buildings in Wellington switched off two hours earlier; Tokyo Tower was also dimmed and in Hong Kong, buildings along Victoria Harbor also went dark. All the events took place at 8:30 p.m. local time.

    “Global warming is a big issue,” said Rudy Ko of Taiwanese environmental group Society of Wilderness. “Everybody can help reduce the problem by turning the lights off.”

    Family time

    Ko said children should invite their parents “to turn the lights off, go out, go to the parks to do some exercise, and enjoy some family time instead of watching TV or play video games.”

    In Europe, 5,000 candles were lit in the form of a globe in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate before city officials switched off the monument’s lighting.

    More than 230 monuments and major gathering points in Paris were expected to dim lights for an hour—including Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, as well as fountains and bridges over the Seine.

    An exception: The Eiffel Tower, which the mayor’s office said would go dark for only five minutes “for security reasons.”

    Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral were among the other London landmarks to go dark.

    Managers at the Savoy hotel planned to light the lobby, bars and restaurants with candles.

    “Let us stand together to make of our world a sustainable source for our future as humanity on this planet,” the Nelson Mandela Center of Memory said in a tweet.

    Across the Nordic nations, government buildings and municipalities joined in, including Stockholm’s royal castle and the Swedish capital’s huge globe-shaped sports arena. In Sweden’s second-largest city, Goteborg, the main boulevard was bathed in an hour’s darkness.

    People launched paper lanterns into the air in St. Petersburg, Russia.

    Washington’s National Cathedral and New York’s Empire State Building also took part. AP

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    One-night stand: more than a billion switch off

    Posted on 1st April 2012 in The monuments of world
    text

    In the dark … the Badaling section of the Great Wall in China shortly before Earth Hour. Photo: Reuters

    WELL over a billion people turned off their lights for Earth Hour on Saturday night, in 150 nations and territories around the world, making it the largest voluntary event of its kind.

    Governments and citizens in 6525 cities, towns and municipalities joined in – about 24 per cent more than the previous peak last year, according to the organisers, the environment group WWF.

    ”It’s been five years since the first Earth Hour in 2007, and the extraordinary growth this year shows hope for action for the planet is not diminishing – instead it’s growing,” Earth Hour’s executive director, Andy Ridley, said.

    Advertisement: Story continues below

    text

    During the event. Photo: AP

    ”We hope that this strong signal gives leaders, whether of government organisations or communities, even more confidence to accelerate our journey towards a sustainable future.”

    The final estimate of the number of people who took part will take another month to firm, while polls are collated from around the world. Surveys last year estimated the event reached 1.8 billion people.

    About 40 per cent of the population of Sydney is thought to have taken part this year, a similar number to last year.

    The Harbour Bridge and Opera House were the first Sydney icons to go dark, followed by dozens of city office buildings in the CBD.

    The glittering face of Luna Park, which recently upgraded to more energy-efficient LED lights, switched off promptly at 8.30pm, while the lights of Coney Island followed a few minutes later.

    Thousands of monuments and major public buildings had their lights dimmed or switched off, including the Great Wall of China, Big Ben in London and the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

    Earth Hour dominated social media traffic, with one video about the event registering more than 4 million views on YouTube at the weekend.

    On Twitter, the words ”earth hour” were among the most popular terms used in English at the weekend, peaking as the 8.30pm local time event swept through Asia, and topping trends on Spanish-language Twitter feeds as it passed across South America.

    The former South African president Nelson Mandela posted the most popular tweet under the Earth Hour tag. It read: ”Let us stand together to make of our world a sustainable source for our future as humanity on this planet.”

    The Facebook website was used by citizens in war-torn Libya, northern Iraq and Kurdistan to co-ordinate a series of Earth Hour events.

    Earth Hour is supported by Fairfax Media, the publisher of the Herald.

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    Landmarks dimmed for Earth Hour

    Posted on 1st April 2012 in The monuments of world

    Hundreds of world landmarks from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the Great Wall of China have gone dark, part of a global effort to highlight climate change.

    Earth Hour, held on the last Saturday of March every year, began as a Sydney-only event in 2007. The city’s iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House were dimmed again this year.

    Australia is among the first countries to flick off the light switches each year – in New Zealand, Sky Tower in Auckland and the parliament buildings in Wellington switched off two hours earlier; Tokyo Tower was also dimmed and in Hong Kong, buildings along Victoria Harbour also went dark. All the events took place at 8.30pm local time.

    The WWF, the global environmental group which organises the event, said the number of countries and territories participating has grown from 135 last year to 147 this year.

    “Global warming is a big issue,” said Rudy Ko, of Taiwanese environmental group Society of Wilderness. “Everybody can help reduce the problem by turning the lights off.” Ko said children should invite their parents “to turn the lights off, go out, go to the parks to do some exercise, and enjoy some family time instead of watching TV or play video games.”

    In Europe, 5,000 candles were lit in the form of a globe in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate before city officials switched off the monument’s lighting.

    More than 230 monuments and major gathering points in Paris were expected to dim lights for an hour – including Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, as well as fountains and bridges over the Seine.

    There was one major exception – the Eiffel Tower, which the mayor’s office said would go dark for only five minutes “for security reasons”.

    Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and St Paul’s Cathedral were among the other London landmarks to go dark. Managers at the Savoy hotel planned to light the lobby, bars and restaurants with candles.

    “Earth Hour 2012 is a celebration of people power – the world’s largest mass event in support of the planet,” WWF official Dermot O’Gorman told reporters in Sydney.

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    World landmarks dimmed for Earth Hour

    Posted on 31st March 2012 in The monuments of world

    LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of world landmarks from Berlin‘s Brandenburg Gate to the Great Wall of China went dark Saturday, part of a global effort to highlight climate change.

    Earth Hour, held on the last Saturday of March every year, began as a Sydney-only event in 2007. The city’s iconic Harbor Bridge and Opera House were dimmed again this year.

    Australia is among the first countries to flick off the light switches each year; in New Zealand, Sky Tower in Auckland and the parliament buildings in Wellington switched off two hours earlier; Tokyo Tower was also dimmed and in Hong Kong, buildings along Victoria Harbour also went dark. All the events take place at 8:30 p.m. local time.

    The WWF, the global environmental group which organizes the event, said the number of countries and territories participating has grown from 135 last year to 147 this year.

    “Global warming is a big issue,” said Rudy Ko, of Taiwanese environmental group Society of Wilderness. “Everybody can help reduce the problem by turning the lights off.”

    Ko said children should invite their parents “to turn the lights off, go out, go to the parks to do some exercise, and enjoy some family time instead of watching TV or play video games.”

    In Europe, 5,000 candles were lit in the form of a globe in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate before city officials switched off the monument’s lighting.

    More than 230 monuments and major gathering points in Paris were expected to dim lights for an hour — including Notre Dame Cathedral, the Arc de Triomphe, as well as fountains and bridges over the Seine.

    An exception: The Eiffel Tower, which the mayor’s office said would go dark for only five minutes “for security reasons.”

    Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and St. Paul’s Cathedral were among the other London landmarks to go dark. Managers at the Savoy hotel planned to light the lobby, bars and restaurants with candles.

    “Let us stand together to make of our world a sustainable source for our future as humanity on this planet,” the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory said in a tweet.

    Across the Nordic nations, government buildings and municipalities joined in, including Stockholm’s royal castle and the Swedish capital’s huge globe-shaped sports arena. In Sweden’s second-largest city, Goteborg, the main boulevard was bathed in an hour’s darkness. People launched paper lanterns into the air in St. Petersburg, Russia.

    Washington’s National Cathedral was also expected to take part.

    Libya, Algeria, Bhutan and French Guinea are among those participating for the first time.

    “Earth Hour 2012 is a celebration of people power; the world’s largest mass event in support of the planet,” WWF official Dermot O’Gorman told reporters in Sydney.

    ___

    Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

    ___

    Online:

    http://www.earthhour.org/

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