Moscow Says Louis Vuitton Doesn’t Go With Red Square

路易威登收到莫斯科紅場「逐客令」

時尚ANDREW ROTH2013年11月29日

莫斯科紅場上，一個LV行李箱外形的巨大展館。

Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

莫斯科——如果列寧現在活了過來，而不是躺在附近的墓里氣得發抖的話，毫無疑問，他會被紅場上那個兩層樓高的復刻版路易威登(Louis Vuitton)行李箱驚呆。也許，他還會把那篇關於需要一個革命先鋒隊的著名文章的標題從《怎麼辦》(What Is To Be Done)改成《見鬼了，為什麼搞成這樣？》(Why the Heck Was It Done)。

這個巨大的豪華行李箱於本周竣工，距離克里姆林宮的圍牆只有幾步之遙，準備用來舉辦一場慈善展覽，陳列這家巴黎設計公司的箱包。甫一完工，它就在社交網絡上遭到冷嘲熱諷，被國家杜馬譴責，而批准這個臨時展覽的緊靠紅場的奢侈品百貨商店GUM也跟它撇清了關係。

這座行李箱有30英尺高（約合9米）、100英尺寬。在一片譴責聲中，迄今職位最高的批評者是總統行政辦公室的一名官員。幾家俄羅斯官方通訊社報道，此人周三表示，這座臨時展館是擅自搭建的，必須「立即拆除」。

紅場上不僅有列寧墓，而且慶祝蘇聯在二戰中戰勝德國的年度閱兵儀式也在這裡舉行。儘管法律禁止紅場上出現任何「有損歷史原貌」的東西，但是近年來，這裡已經舉辦過音樂會、越野摩托車特技表演，出現過一個商業溜冰場，以及迪奧(Dior)的巨型金屬展館。

「在紅場上發生任何事情都是不可接受的，」60歲的塔季揚娜·費度 索娃(Tatyana Fedosova)說。她穿着艷紅色的冬衣，當時正在午休，說話的時候仰頭凝視着那棟建築。「這是一個神聖的地方。我們以前的領袖就葬在這裡。我覺得，有 個溜冰場已經不太好了，現在這個實在是太過分了。 」

本周早些時候，議員們開始對路易威登發起抨擊。來自共產黨的杜馬議 員謝爾蓋·奧布霍夫(Sergey Obukhov)稱，紅場是「俄羅斯政府的一個神聖之地」。他還說，「有一些標誌是不容貶低或褻瀆的。」亞歷山大·西佳金(Aleksandr Sidyakin)是普京所在的執政黨——統一俄羅斯黨的議員，他要求調查這座建築是否違反了廣告法。

GUM百貨公司周三發表聲明稱，鑒於「部分俄羅斯人的看法」，他們已經要求路易威登駐俄羅斯的代表拆除這個展館。

路易威登在宣傳活動中融入俄羅斯政治元素已經不是第一次了。在2007年的一則雜誌廣告上，前蘇聯領導人米哈伊爾·戈爾巴喬夫(Mikhail S. Gorbachev)坐着一輛車經過柏林牆，身旁的路易威登包里塞滿了俄羅斯自由派雜誌。

可是現如今，人們對莫斯科公共場所的美化特別關注，而且社交網絡迅速聚集了大量批評和PS處理過的圖片——比如列寧墓被惡搞成路易威登包的樣式——公眾的嘲笑迅速引起了官方的威脅。

對於展館是否會被拆除，路易威登公司周三晚上沒有作出回應，不過，時裝模特娜塔麗·沃佳諾娃(Natalia Vodianova)在Facebook上發帖說，「希望這次展覽不會取消，只是轉移到另一個地方進行。」按照計劃，展覽的門票收入將捐獻給她牽頭的慈善基金。

35歲的亞歷山大·杜博夫(Aleksandr Dubov)是一名來自葉卡捷琳堡的遊客。周三時，他在展館周圍的金屬柵欄邊說，自己「跟這個行李箱沒有私人恩怨」。

「至少他們可以讓它留在這裡，直到展覽結束，」杜博夫說。他穿着皮夾克，帶着一個仿鱷魚皮材質的包，圍着展館繞了一圈，間或停下來拍照。

「這是個神聖的地方？」他指着廣場的另一側問，「那裡已經有了一個巨大的商場。」

翻譯：土土

Moscow Says Louis Vuitton Doesn’t Go With Red Square

By ANDREW ROTHNovember 29, 2013

A gigantic luxury replica of a Louis Vuitton traveling trunk on Red Square in Moscow.

Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

MOSCOW — If Lenin were alive today, instead of spinning in his mausoleum nearby, he no doubt would be aghast at the two-story replica of a Louis Vuitton traveling trunk on Red Square. He might also update the title of his famous essay on the need for a revolutionary vanguard party, asking not “What Is To Be Done” but “Why the Heck Was It Done?”

Since construction finished this week, the gigantic luxury trunk, which is just steps from the Kremlin walls and was set to hold a charity exhibition of suitcases by the Paris-based designer, has been panned on social networks, denounced at the Duma and disowned by GUM, the luxury department store that abuts Red Square and approved the temporary exhibition.

In the highest-ranking condemnation yet of the 30-foot-tall, 100-foot-wide trunk, an official in the Presidential Administration on Wednesday said the temporary pavilion was unauthorized and demanded that it be “dismantled immediately,” several state news agencies reported.

Despite a legal ban on anything that “violates the historical appearance” of Red Square, the site of the Lenin mausoleum and yearly military parades celebrating the Soviet victory over Germany in World War II, the space has hosted concerts, dirt-bike stunt shows, a commercial ice-skating rink and a Dior exhibition in a gigantic metallic pavilion in recent years.

“Everything that is happening on Red Square is unacceptable,” Tatyana Fedosova, 60, who was dressed in a bright red winter coat, said as she tilted her head back to gaze at the trunk during her lunch break. “This is a sacred place. Our former leaders are buried here. I thought that the ice-skating rink here was not great, but this is too much.”

Lawmakers began lashing out at Louis Vuitton earlier this week. Sergey Obukhov, a Communist deputy for the Duma, called the square a “sacred place for the Russian government.” He added, “There are symbols that are forbidden to debase or defile.” Aleksandr Sidyakin, a member of President Vladimir V. Putin’s governing United Russia party, demanded an investigation into whether the structure violated any laws on advertising.

GUM, the department store, said in a statement Wednesday that it had told the Russian representative of Louis Vuitton to tear down the exhibition hall, in light of “the position of a part of the population.”

This is not the first time Louis Vuitton has become enmeshed into Russian politics in its marketing campaigns. In 2007, a magazine advertisement showed the former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev riding in a car past the Berlin Wall with a Louis Vuitton bag stuffed with liberal Russian magazines.

But with special attention now being paid to the beautification of Moscow’s public spaces, and social networks swiftly churning out criticism and Photoshopped pictures — like one of Lenin’s tomb reupholstered to look like a Louis Vuitton bag — the public ridicule swiftly led to official threats.

The fashion house did not respond Wednesday evening to questions on whether the exhibition hall would be removed, but Natalia Vodianova, a fashion model and the head of the charitable fund set to receive the ticket receipts from the exhibition, said in a Facebook post, “Let us hope that the exhibition is not canceled, but just moved to another place.”

Standing by the metal barriers installed around it on Wednesday, Aleksandr Dubov, a 35-year-old tourist from Yekaterinburg, said he had “nothing personally against the suitcase.”

“At least they could leave it up until the exhibition,” said Mr. Dubov, dressed in a leather jacket and carrying a bag made from fake alligator skin. As he circled the building, he stopped occasionally to snap pictures.

“Is this a sacred place?” he asked, gesturing to the other side of the square. “There is already an enormous mall on it.”

36 Hours in Shanghai

Qilai Shen for The New York Times

Clockwise from top left: dancing in Fuxing Park; Rockbund Art Museum; shadows of dancers in Fuxing Park; Mayumi Sato; and dishes at Cha’s Restaurant.

By JUSTIN BERGMAN

Published: November 28, 2013

What takes most cities eons to build, Shanghai can do overnight. Consider this: Just a decade ago, the city had four metro lines; now there are a dozen. The Jin Mao Tower was the tallest building in the neon-streaked financial center of Pudong; it has since been surpassed by the Shanghai World Financial Center and the nearly completed Shanghai Tower, which will be the second-tallest building in the world (after Dubai’s Burj Khalifa) when it’s finished next year. Still, what fascinates about this city is how little seems to have changed in the maze of lanes that have (thus far) eluded the bulldozer in the Old City or the former foreign concessions. Here, residents haggle over freshly caught fish in tiny markets or doze in lawn chairs on summer afternoons, ignoring the pounding jackhammers. Shanghai is remaking itself to become a “City of the Future,” but what’s so alluring is how much old-world character remains.

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Shanghai

More 36 Hours Articles

FRIDAY

3 p.m.
1. Model City

Start with an overview. Spanning the third floor of the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center (admission 30 renminbi, or about $5 at 6 renminbi to the dollar) is a model of the city as it’s expected to look in 2020, with thousands of miniature buildings, elevated highways lined with yellow lights and streetlamps the size of toothpicks. The kitsch tour of Shanghai continues in the adjacent 360-degree projection theater, where visitors are taken on a virtual aerial tour of the city, swooping over bridges and high-speed trains as fireworks explode in the smog-free sky. It’s a paean to mass development, 21st-century Chinese style — big, brash and over the top.

4:30 p.m.
2. Glamour Shots

While swaths of old Shanghai have fallen, many historic buildings have been spared and refurbished in recent years, particularly around the Bund. One noteworthy project is the Rockbund Art Museum (15 renminbi), housed in an extensively renovated 1930s Art Deco building. The museum exhibits works by well-known contemporary artists like Cai Guo-Qiang and Zhang Huan and isn’t afraid to take risks: One show featured live monkeys in a cage with a robotic Confucius until the government ordered the primates removed. Around the corner is Yuanmingyuan Road, a block of equally stunning turn-of-the century buildings that doubles as a catwalk for brides in red dresses preening for wedding photographers.

7 p.m.
3. Party Like It’s 1929

Shanghai’s historic Bund hasn’t looked this good since Noël Coward and Charlie Chaplin were party guests in the city’s glamorous prewar years. As part of the city’s sprucing-up for the 2010 World Expo, the concession-era strip underwent a three-year restoration that moved most of the traffic underground and widened the riverside promenade to create a pleasant place to stroll in the evenings (minus the crowds). Several iconic properties have also recently returned to their former splendor. Splurge on a 500-renminbi glass of Yao Ming’s cabernet sauvignon — or a more reasonably priced bottle from the extensive wine list — on the rooftop bar at the House of Roosevelt, a neo-Classical building restored by a company run by Theodore Roosevelt’s great-grandson Tweed. Or drop by the Long Bar at the Waldorf Astoria, a 110-foot-long recreation of the original Long Bar at the former Shanghai Club, an exclusive British gentleman’s club that became a KFC in the 1990s.

8 p.m.
4. A Movable Feast

Jason Atherton is building quite a culinary empire in Asia. The Michelin-starred chef behind Pollen Street Social in London has opened six restaurants in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore since 2010, including the new Commune Social, a playful tapas restaurant where eating a meal feels more like barhopping. First, small plates of miso-grilled mackerel with wasabi avocado and cucumber chutney (88 renminbi) and oysters with Vietnamese dressing (48 renminbi each) are served at the informal tapas bar overlooking the busy kitchen. Next, diners head to the narrow, white-tiled dessert bar to watch the South African pastry chef Kim Lyle make inventive desserts like goat’s cheese, yogurt sorbet and honeycomb frozen with liquid nitrogen (55 renminbi). The last stop is the hidden cocktail bar upstairs for a PBJ (cognac, cherry brandy, peanut butter, strawberry jelly; 88 renminbi), a nightcap that doubles as a midnight snack.

SATURDAY

10 a.m.
5. Powerful Art

Shanghai could never be criticized for lack of ambition. Not content with being merely a financial hub, the city has been on a museum building spree in recent years to establish itself as a global arts center, too. One of the more promising institutions is the Power Station of Art, which opened last October in a late 19th-century power plant that was renovated for the 2010 Expo. With its industrial feel and focus on modern art, the museum feels similar to the Tate Modern, and it’s already hosted several major exhibitions, including the Shanghai Biennale and the largest collection of Andy Warhol’s art in Asia (though the Mao Zedong portraits were left out for obvious reasons). After checking out the art, take in the view of the barges chugging lazily up the Huangpu River from the expansive fifth-floor deck.

Noon
6. Healthful Eats

In response to China’s mounting food safety concerns, many local restaurants are now taking a healthier approach to cooking, such as Jian Guo 328, which prides itself on using only high-quality cooking oil, filtered water and no MSG. (The Taiwanese owner also bans smoking.) Menu standouts are all Shanghainese favorites: cong you ban mian (noodles in scallion oil; 18 renminbi), xie fen dou fu (custard-like tofu with flakes of crab and crab roe; 32 renminbi) and shi zi tou mian (a giant pork meatball in noodle soup; 28 renminbi). Not only is the food deliciously authentic, it’s much lighter than other local joints.

2 p.m.
7. Designer District

With its charming villas and bohemian vibe, the former French Concession has become a magnet for artists and designers opening boutiques. Dong Liang Studio is the place to find rising fashion talents, such as Christopher Bu, the stylist for the Chinese “it” girl Fan Bingbing. At Brut Cake, Nicole Teng makes tote bags and upholstered furniture using old Chinese fabrics. Down the street, stop at the Japanese designer Mayumi Sato’s shop for women’s clothes of brightly patterned organic cottons, silks and vintage kimono fabrics; and Piling Palang for Deng Bingbing’s exquisite ceramic and cloisonné pieces.

4 p.m.
8. Dancing With the Retirees

When you’re all shopped out, a respite awaits on the other side of the former French Concession in Fuxing Park, where elderly Shanghainese come for gossip — and a bit of a show. Old men in Mao jackets chain-smoke and play cards on park benches, drawing hordes of onlookers, while small troupes of musicians gather in hidden corners to sing Peking opera classics. The main attraction, however, happens beneath the towering plane trees in the center of the park where well-dressed couples show off their best ballroom dancing moves to syrupy Chinese love songs.

7:30 p.m.
9. Cinematic Cuisine

If the 1960s Hong Kong diner décor at Cha’s Restaurant looks like a movie set, that’s because it is. Well, sort of. Charlie Hau, a Hong Kong movie producer, opened a traditional cha chaan teng (tea restaurant) in Shanghai after struggling to find authentic Cantonese food while shooting the Ang Lee film “Lust, Caution.” Mr. Hau’s cinematic expertise ensured that every detail was perfect, from the leather-backed booths and 1960s china patterns to a menu that includes Hong Kong staples like poached chicken in soy sauce (60 renminbi for a half-bird) and pineapple buns (8 renminbi). Cha’s has become a hit with the Hong Kong diaspora, as well as trendy young Shanghainese with dyed hair and high-tops, so be prepared for a wait.

10:30 p.m.
10. Spanish Speakeasy

Shanghai’s cocktail scene has become highly competitive in recent years, with a constantly revolving door of new speakeasy-style bars and enterprising mixologists. One bar, however, has separated itself from the pack: the Barcelona native Willy Trullás Moreno’s El Cóctel, which combines Spanish-style décor (leather ottomans, exposed brick walls, a floral ceiling design by a Barcelona artist) with one of the most colorful drinks menus in town (the Late Night Tale, 84 renminbi, for instance, is made with Tennessee whisky, Canadian maple syrup, coffee — and a side of insomnia). For a night spot with more bounce, pull up a stool outside one of the shoe-box bars on Yongkang Road — a former vegetable market that has become a raucous bar street popular with the fixed-gear-bike-riding expat community.

SUNDAY

10:30 a.m.
11. Sidewalk Snacks

Breakfast in China is best enjoyed on the street, still piping hot from the wok or steamer. The only difficulty is deciphering a Chinese menu. UnTour Shanghai (untourshanghai.com), a street culinary tour company, simplifies the process by doing the ordering for you. The Dumplings Delights tour (400 renminbi) spans the breadth of China, from cabbage-filled jiao zi eaten in wintry northeastern China to delicate shrimp almond pastries from southern China and, of course, Shanghai’s famous xiao long bao (soup dumplings) — all in a two-square-block area. Fortunately, there’s enough walking between stops to justify such gluttony, though in anything-goes Shanghai, you’ll need little excuse.

THE DETAILS

1. Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center, 100 Renmin Avenue; supec.org.

2. Rockbund Art Museum, 20 Huqiu Road; rockbundartmuseum.org.

3. House of Roosevelt, 27 East Zhongshan First Road; 27bund.com. Waldorf Astoria, 2 East Zhongshan First Road; www.waldorfastoriashanghai.com.

4. Commune Social, 511 Jiangning Road; communesocial.com.

5. Power Station of Art, 200 Huayuangang Road; powerstationofart.org.

6. Jian Guo 328, 328 West Jianguo Road, 86-21-6471-3819.

7. Dong Liang Studio, 184 Fumin Road, 86-21-3469-6926. Brut Cake, 232 Anfu Road, brutcake.com. Mayumi Sato, 169 Anfu Road; mayumisato.com. Piling Palang, 183 Anfu Road.

8. Fuxing Park, 2 Gaolan Road.

9. Cha’s Restaurant, 30 Sinan Road; 86-21-6093-2062.

10. El Cóctel, 47 Yongfu Road, el-coctel.com.

11. Dumplings Delights tour, UnTour Shanghai; untourshanghai.com.

St. Andrew's Day, Scotland,

St. Andrew's Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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St. Andrew's Day is the feast day of Saint Andrew. It is celebrated on the 30th of November. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and St. Andrew's Day ...

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台灣織襪業始祖 「吳福洋襪子故事館」

台灣織襪業始祖 「吳福洋襪子故事館」成立

 

 

 

 

點擊圖片可瀏覽相關圖片

新北市的第20家觀光工廠「吳福洋襪子故事館」，今(28)日在新北市長朱立倫與貴賓們啟動手搖織襪機的方式下開幕。圖3-1：陳冠廷/攝

新頭殼newtalk2013.11.28 陳冠廷/新北報導

台灣織襪業的始祖「吳福洋」，經新北市政府的輔導下成立「吳福洋襪子故事館」；吳福洋針織第3代經營者吳泓洲強調，當同業都外移中國時，我們仍堅持根留台灣，並藉由襪子故事館的開放，紀錄、保存、見證吳福洋及台灣織襪業的軌跡。

這座位於新北市林口工業區的吳福洋針織股份有限公司，今（28）日搖身變成新北市的第20家觀光工廠「吳福洋襪子故事館」，民眾可以看到各式各樣色彩繽紛 的襪子，還有各類展示的機具，見證台灣織襪業的發展歷史外，也教育消費者選購適合人生不同階段的「好襪子」；新北市長朱立倫特地前來頒發新北產業觀光的認 證，並與孩童們共同體驗手工製襪的過程。

朱立倫說，今天是第1次體驗手搖的織襪機，但體驗實用又好穿的「吳福洋襪子」已經好幾年，很驕傲新北市有這樣一家優質的織襪公司，努力地把產業留在台灣， 已傳承至第4代，在傳統中求創新，保存見證台灣襪品發展歷程，並結合休閒觀光教育功能，變身成為新北市的第20家觀光工廠；未來市府將繼續積極尋找具有故 事性、歷史性與創新創意的產業，把產業特色轉換成觀光的資源，以豐富民眾的休閒生活體驗。

吳福洋針織第3代經營者吳泓洲表示，「吳福洋」的名稱源自於其祖父吳迺洋，當初創業時為緬懷曾祖父吳福堂，結合2人的名字，具有紀念先人和飲水思源的意 義，從日據時代開始營業，現在傳承第4代，兒子吳睿哲也從國外返台接棒，現擔任故事館的執行長；此外，當同業都外移中國時，我們仍堅持根留台灣，現在藉由 襪子故事館開放織襪流程、鼓勵民眾參與，提供一個兼具娛樂化、知識化的產業教育環境，並期許能為台灣的織襪業貢獻一份心力。

從手搖的織襪機開始，織襪產業經歷半自動、高產能全自動化，至最新環保與機能素材的提升，吳福洋針織參與台灣織襪工業的發展史，且不同於一般襪子分工製造 的模式，吳福洋從原料、設計、織造、銷售，不假他人之手，永遠掌控老襪廠對品質的堅持；吳泓洲希望能創立一個襪品文物館，保留台灣襪業的發展與吳福洋的歷 史，因此有規劃「觀光工廠」的想法，並融入「生活」、「創意」、「教育」、「傳承」的概念，增進大眾對於織襪業的相關知識。

經濟發展局長葉惠青指出，新北市輔導設立20家觀光工廠，各具特色與故事性，吳福洋針織是台灣第一家襪子工廠，創立於西元1936年，從早期手搖織襪、半 自動織襪，到先進的電腦製襪，完整保存織襪產業的珍貴資料；市府與業者經過1年多的努力，輔導成立「吳福洋襪子故事館」，除文物的展示，更搭配季節規畫主 題的DIY課程，體驗傳統手搖織襪的樂趣，編織出屬於個人獨特的織品。

Taking Flight: Balloons Fly in Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

Balloons Fly in Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade

Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Taking Flight: Balloons floated down the route of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade after an early scare they might be grounded because of high winds.

By NATE SCHWEBER and SARAH MASLIN NIR

Published: November 28, 2013

When Iris Guidry’s alarm sounded at 5:45 a.m. Thursday, before a glow of sunrise unveiled a blue sky, she turned on her TV to check the weather for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“I was scared we weren’t going to see the balloons,” said Ms. Guidry, an actress who moved to Edgewater, N.J., from Michigan two months ago and had never before attended the parade.

“This was on my bucket list,” she said. “When you see it on TV you’re like, ‘How do they do it?’ And with the balloons and the weather you think, ‘Oh lord, how are they going to be able to do it?'”

But despite fears that unusually high winds would force their grounding, the giant balloons of characters like SpongeBob SquarePants and Snoopy indeed made their annual march in the parade.

The decision was greeted with relief by the families who lined the streets and endured the bristling cold to take in the spectacle. But the challenges of maneuvering the giant balloons in the high winds were apparent even before the parade began.

While floating in place on 77th Street, the Sonic the Hedgehog balloon was at times wildly flailing, crashing into a tree and sending branches and twigs tumbling down. Shortly afterward, a parade official ordered handlers to significantly lower the balloons.

The decision had been up in the air because of concerns that the winds would exceed the city’s limit for flying balloons, sustained winds of 23 miles per hour and gusts exceeding 34 m.p.h. Those limits were put in place after a Cat in the Hat balloon hit a lamppost at 72nd Street and Central Park West in 1997, knocking down part of the pole and injuring four spectators.

Above the parade route on Thursday, a few wispy, white clouds scooted above the skyscrapers. But on the streets the winds were milder than the cold. Parade watchers blew in their cupped hands and stomped their feet to stay warm. A few shook chemical heat packs as they bunched against the Police Department’s crowd-control fences.

For Robin Andrews and her husband, Bill, the crisp air and sunlight were a balmy relief. They braved rain and sleet a few days earlier, as they rode a three-wheeled motorcycle from Houston to New York.

“This is not as cold as it was on that bike,” said Ms. Andrews, 55, cradling her 4-year-old granddaughter, Isabella Andrews.

The Andrewses drove to New York to spend Thanksgiving with their in-laws. Their son, Christopher Andrews, 36, flew up from Houston with Isabella and his wife, Jessica Moya, 34, a New York native who took on the role of tour guide.

“I enjoyed the parade growing up, and I wanted them to enjoy it, too, but I was worried about the weather,” said Ms. Moya, now an event planner in Houston.

She added that she was particularly concerned whether the balloons would be out.

“That’s the main attraction,” she said. “The balloons.”

Bill Andrews, 64, who retired from the carwash business in Houston and would climb with his wife on the three-wheeled Honda Goldwing in the morning for the long drive back, agreed.

“It wouldn’t be a parade,” he said, “without the balloons.”

Kevin Sullivan, 29, a librarian from Manchester, Conn., craned his neck from the corner of 42nd Street up Avenue of the Americas. On his shoulders sat his 4-year-old niece, Lillian Sullivan, dressed in a silky pink Hello Kitty jacket. Mr. Sullivan had promised her that she would see a giant Hello Kitty balloon.

“It’s my favorite,” she said. “Because I like it.”

Mr. Sullivan flexed his knees, so that Lillian bounced. She said that she was cold, but not too cold.

Jess Sokol, Mr. Sullivan’s wife, explained that they would stay tenacious.

“Are the balloons going to happen?” said Ms. Sokol, 28, a manager. “We’re here regardless.”

Around 9:20 a.m., a Snoopy balloon the size of a city bus appeared, floating over the north end of Avenue of the Americas. The balloons had indeed come out. The faithful let out a cheer. 

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Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Pikachu was one of 16 giant balloons that could have been grounded because of high winds.

Taking Flight

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Todd Heisler/The New York Times

A marching band before the parade.

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Todd Heisler/The New York Times

On the streets, the winds were milder than the cold — perfect for Spider-Man.

Taking Flight

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Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

A warm welcome by the Snoopy balloon. Some spectators said the parade wouldn’t be same without the balloons.

Taking Flight

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Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

The decision to float the balloons was greeted with relief by the families who lined the streets.

Taking Flight

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Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The parade made its way down Central Park West.

Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Balloon handlers were able to control their balloons without incident.

Britain's tourist economy

Leaving the Cornish pasties behind

Nov 28th 2013, 9:00 by C.R. | LONDON

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IN THIS week's print edition we looked at a new report which suggested that Britain’s tourist industry could help boost its regional economies.

New research published on November 21st by Deloitte, a consultancy, has raised hopes that tourism can help Britain’s regions reduce their reliance on other industries. It predicts that the sector will grow by 3.8% a year between now and 2025—much faster than manufacturing, retail or construction. Tourism, it says, has been Britain’s fastest-growing employment sector since 2010. Unusually, northern England, Wales, and rural Scotland—areas which otherwise struggle to attract new businesses—have recently seen particularly strong job growth.

The report also stresses the importance of tourism to the wider British economy. Deloitte estimates that the tourism industry, and its supply chain, already produces 9% of Britain’s GDP. And it forecasts that this will steadily grow to 10% of output over the next decade or so. Between 2010 and 2012 alone, one-third of new jobs created in the British economy were generated by the tourism industry, around 150,000 in total.
However, the report forecasts that the balance between Britons and foreigners using Britain's visitor facilities will change over time. Spending by foreign visitors, the report forecasts, will grow by over 6% a year, with spending by Britons holidaying at home rising by only about 3%, in comparison.
Saying which parts of Britain will benefit most—and lose out most—from this change is a difficult question. London will surely benefit; 53% of spending by foreign visitors already takes place there. However, what will happen in Britain’s other regions will be much less predictable.
Some dramatic shifts in the geography of Britain’s tourism economy are already underway. Nationally, the outlook for the industry is healthy. Spending by foreign visitors in Britain reached record levels in July, according to the Office for National Statistics and the number of jobs in the sector is still increasing. In contrast to the widening gap between the prospering south and the depressed north in the rest of the economy, the tourism industry north of the River Trent and west of the River Severn appears to be booming. However, according to data produced by Deloitte showing where jobs were gained and lost in the tourism sector between 2010 and 2012, many parts of the south-west, East Anglia, and East Anglia lost over 5% of their tourism-related employment in this period (see maps).

But the average hides several areas that did much worse than this. Just north of London, Harlow and St Albans in Hertfordshire lost 51% and 40% of their tourism-related jobs. More worryingly, places where tourism accounts for the high percentage of total employment also did badly. Cornwall, where tourism provides 7% of jobs, lost 17%, and the Isles of Scilly, where it accounts for 15%, lost a whopping 43%.
In contrast, the number of tourism-related jobs rose strongly in London (boosted by the 2012 Olympics games) and in Wales, rural Scotland and northern England. Even in grimy Stockton-on-Tees, the number of jobs went up by 103%, and in rather unpicturesque Barking and Dagenham in London by 95%.
In part, this rather strange pattern—London and “outer” Britain doing particularly well—is due to the economy as a whole doing well. Holiday makers in the south-west and East Anglia—the areas that have done worst in terms of employment—tend to be the places Britons from the south-east tend to go on holiday to. As British consumer confidence has returned over the last few years, it seems that they are rediscovering a taste for short-haul travel abroad again. Foreign tourists appear to have been unable to make up the shortfall from Britons going to places with better weather—visitors from abroad tending to be more attracted to places like London, Edinburgh and the quaint scenery of Wales and Scotland instead.
But it remains to be seen whether places like Cornwall can attract foreign tourists, over the horizon of Deloitte's report, to replace the Britons who now holiday elsewhere. Although it may be too soon to judge whether the benefits of Britain’s booming tourism industry can be spread equally throughout its regions, looking at the most recent trends, this seems exceedingly unlikely.

a new Chinese air defense zone

Japanese airlines to stop giving China flight plans through new zone

BY TIM KELLY

TOKYO Tue Nov 26, 2013 11:36am EST

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's PC3 surveillance plane flies around the disputed islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku isles in Japan and Diaoyu in China, in this October 13, 2011 file photo.

CREDIT: REUTERS/KYODO/FILES

(Reuters) - Japan's two biggest airlines have bowed to a government request to stop filing flight plans demanded by China on routes through a new Chinese air defense zone, whose creation has ratcheted up tensions over the bitterly disputed region.

Both ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines, which had been informing China's aviation authorities of flights through the zone established in the East China Sea on Saturday, will stop doing so from Wednesday, spokesmen for the carriers said.

Japan and the United States sharply criticized the creation of the defense area, seen as a bid to chip away at Tokyo's claim to administrative control over the maritime region.

The region includes small uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, which are at the center of a row between Beijing and Tokyo.

By demanding carriers file flight plans through the zone or risk being intercepted by military jets, China is forcing carriers including JAL and ANA to effectively acknowledge Beijing's authority over the "Air Defense Identification Zone", which is about two-thirds the size of the UK.

But by persuading ANA, JAL and other carriers to ignore the zone, Japan's Primes Minister Shinzo Abe may be calling China's bluff.

Abe's government earlier warned of possible unexpected consequences if Beijing enforced the rules. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described the move a "destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region".

China's Defense Ministry countered by lodging protests with the U.S. and Japanese embassies in Beijing.

Civil aviation officials from Hong Kong and Taiwan on Monday said their carriers entering the zone must send flight plans to Chinese aviation authorities. A transport ministry official in Seoul said South Korean planes would do the same.

(Editing by Tom Pfeiffer and David Holmes)

尼泊爾藍毗尼 Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini in Nepal.

1. Lumbini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumbini‎

   Lumbini, where the Buddha lived until the age of 29, has a number of temples, including the Mayadevi temple, and others under construction. Also located here ...

   ‎Lumbini Gardens - ‎Lumbini Park - ‎Lumbini Zone

2. News for lumbini

   
   1. 'Earliest shrine' uncovered at Buddha's birthplace

      BBC News ‎- 10 minutes ago

      They unearthed a 6th Century BC timber structure buried within the Maya Devi Temple at Lumbini in Nepal. The shrine appears to have housed ...

尼泊爾 發現最老佛寺遺跡 考古學家在釋迦摩尼誕生地、尼泊爾藍毗尼的「摩耶夫人廟」內地下挖掘到據信是目前所知最早佛寺的遺跡。圖為僧侶在摩耶夫人廟內敬拜。 （法新社） 〔編譯管淑平／綜合報導〕考古學家在位於尼泊爾藍毗尼的佛教創始人釋迦摩尼出生地，發現一座此前未知的木造寺廟遺跡，這座古寺有2600年之久，據信是目前所知年代最早佛寺，這項發現佐證釋迦摩尼生存在西元前6世紀的說法，有可能改寫對佛教起源的了解。不過也有學者對這項說法不能認同。 迄今已有2600年 尼泊爾帕蘇帕提發展基金會執行主任阿查里亞與英國德漢大學教授康寧漢率領的考古團隊，在藍毗尼的「摩耶夫人廟」內的「阿育王廟」地下挖掘到這座古寺遺跡，經放射性碳素和光釋光鑑定其年代為西元前6世紀。 恐改寫佛教起源 康寧漢說，這處古寺由村民建造，設計類似其上方磚造的阿育王廟，不過中央有一開放空間，地質考古證實存有樹根，似乎曾有一棵樹從這往外生長，這棵樹可能就是摩耶夫人誕下釋迦摩尼時攀扶的娑羅樹。此外，考古團隊沒在這處遺跡發現財物或者切割獸骨，意味當時最早一批追隨者即如佛陀教誨，吃素、不殺生、放棄物質財富。 這是首次發現能精確定出佛陀生存年代，並與佛教連結的實體證據。釋迦摩尼生存年代一直未有定論，從西元前300到600多年的說法都有。此前藍毗尼所知最早的佛教建築是西元前249年由印度阿育王所立的一根石柱，上面刻有阿育王的敕令。 康寧漢說，現今所知的佛陀生平都來自口傳或經文，現在發現這座古寺，解開了長久以來有關他生存年代以及佛教何時扎根的爭論。 有學者相信，這項發現可能掀開佛教學術史的新頁。但也有其他學者持保留態度，倫敦大學學院南亞建築學講師茱莉亞．蕭說，當時普遍存有拜樹習俗，而且佛教儀軌也可能與其他更早就存在的傳統習俗相同。牛津大學知名佛教學者貢布里奇（Richard Gombrich）直斥這項發現是「垃圾」，因為此地可能是當時許多教派宗教中心，之後才改佛教用途。還有學者質疑，考古團隊挖掘範圍太小，證據力不足。

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Findings shed light on dates for the life of Buddha

Traci Watson, Special for USA TODAY3:23 p.m. EST November 25, 2013

Archaeological evidence provides new insight into dates when the Buddha lived and died.

(Photo: Ahn Young-joon, AP)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• New research puts death of the Buddha about 100 years earlier than previous estimates
• Scholars had not agreed upon even which century Buddha was born
• Some scholars still skeptical of the new findings

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Scientists have uncovered the first physical evidence showing when the great religious leader known as the Buddha passed away, a date crucial to scholars and adherents of Buddhism.

Excavations in 2011 and 2012 at a site known as the Buddha's birthplace imply he died – or, more accurately, experienced his "great passing away" – in the sixth century B.C., roughly 100 years earlier than the scholarly consensus. The debate over the timing is not just academic: Buddhist countries such as Thailand use a dating system pegged to the year of the Buddha's death, and some of his prophecies imply no one will achieve enlightenment a certain number of years after his passing.

"The find is very important," says the University of Michigan's Donald Lopez, who was not involved in this latest research but is the author of a new history of the Buddha. Whether or not it settles when the Buddha lived and died, "it does provide an important archaeological piece of the puzzle of when the Buddha lived, a puzzle that has vexed Buddhists for centuries."

The research appears in the latest issue of the journal Antiquity and was partially funded by the National Geographic Society.

Though Jesus' birth has been pinpointed to within a few years, scholars have argued for decades over not just the year but even the century of the Buddha's life. According to Buddhist tradition, the baby who would become the Buddha was born as his mother, Queen Maya Devi, grasped a tree in a beautiful garden. Scholars have placed his birth at the Nepalese village of Lumbini at the foothills of the Himalayas, but opinions vary so widely about which century he lived in that "it's mildly embarrassing," Lopez says. Some schools of Buddhism put his death at 544 B.C., but most historians conclude that he died between 420 and 380 B.C.

Digging at Lumbini, a team of archaeologists found that beneath the remains of a third-century B.C. brick shrine lay remnants of an older brick structure, and below that hints of an even older wooden structure. All three were built around a central open-air courtyard, never covered by a roof, where a tree had once grown. Perhaps, the archaeologists say, it was a temple built around a living tree. Such "tree shrines" are depicted in ancient Buddhist sculptures and still exist in Sri Lanka.

When the researchers analyzed the age of sand and bits of charcoal from the site, they found that the wooden shrine had been built in the sixth century B.C. Pilgrims began visiting sites important in the Buddha's life right after his death, so the fact that a shrine rose at his birthplace in the sixth century B.C. lends support to the idea that he died in that century, too, says excavation leader Robin Coningham of Durham University in the United Kingdom.

Other scholars are either mildly or totally skeptical.

"Rubbish," says Richard Gombrich, a historian emeritus of Buddhism at the University of Oxford. "There's no evidence that what was there already was a Buddhist shrine. None!" He and Lopez both say it's possible that the site could have been built as a religious center for one of the many cults of the day, then repurposed into a site of Buddhist veneration.

An archaeologist who has worked in Nepal says she's concerned that the Lumbini team is drawing conclusions from a very cramped excavation site

"The only problem … is that the excavation was done in a very, very small area," says Nancy Wilkie, a professor emeritus at Carleton College in Minnesota, noting that the finding of a wooden structure is based only on five holes where wooden posts once stood. "It's a really small bit of evidence."

Coningham responds that the footprints of the three stacked structures correspond so closely, it seems likely that the site had a similar purpose for its entire history. If one religious group had taken over the site from another, there should've been dramatic changes, he says. When asked whether his team's findings are likely to settle the Buddha's dates, Coningham laughs.

"There will always be questions," he says. "And there always should be questions."

Museum Mayer van den Bergh

書堆有一本 Museum Mayer van den Bergh的英文簡介.
沒有寫那一年造訪的. 也許1989-1991年之間.

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Museum Mayer van den Bergh

Museum Mayer van den Bergh is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium. The collection once belonged to art collector Fritz Mayer van den Bergh. Wikipedia

Address: Lange Gasthuisstraat 19, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium

 

 

 此youube 非英語:Museum Mayer van den Bergh - YouTube

不過似乎介紹鎮館之寶:

Page from the Breviarium Mayer van den Bergh, depicting The torture of multiple saints

• Breviarium Mayer van den Bergh, a late 15th century or early 16th century illustrated manuscript of 1412 pages, probably made for a rich Portuguese in Antwerp by Simon Bening, Gerard Horenbout and Jan Provost, Flemish miniaturists from the school of Ghent and Bruges.