March 21, 2023 Upload: Considered among the oldest towers in the world and one of the symbols of Istanbul, Galata Tower (Galata Kulesi) was included in the UNESCO World Heritage Temporary List in 2013. Galata Tower, one of the most important structures that make up the silhouette of Istanbul, was used as a long-term fire watchtower and was named Galata Fire Tower.
Video timeline: 00:00 INTRO 01:35 BUYUK HENDEK STREET (AROUND GALATA TOWER) 07:40 GALATA TOWER SQUARE 10:40 GALIP DEDE STREET 14:40 ISTIKLAL STREET ISTANBUL 38:10 TASIM SQUARE ISTANBUL
Galata Tower was first built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinianos in 507-508 AD. The ancient Tower of Galata “Megalos Pyrgos”, which means Great Tower stood on the north side of the Golden Horn in Istanbul, located in the citadel of Galata. The tower then marked the northern end of the great chain, which was expanded across the mouth of the Golden Horn to prevent enemy ships from entering the harbor. The tower contained a mechanism for raising and lowering the chain. This tower should not be confused with the present time Galata Tower, which is still standing and located at the northernmost and highest point of the citadel of Galata.
Bon Appétit (March 21, 2023) – A perfect Peking Duck is maroon in color, with crispy skin encasing juicy, tender meat— and Han Li-Jun, founder and head chef of Chili House in San Francisco, has been in the craft of making it for 3 decades. Watch him break down each step in the intricate process, as demonstrated by his collaborator Chef Han, in serving authentic and traditional Peking Duck.
Chili House SF is an authentic Chinese Food Restaurant located in the Richmond District of San Francisco, California. Our executive chef, Chef Han, has been cooking since 1988 and has had the privilege of serving his cuisine to Chinese Presidents and Foreign Ministers.
FRANCE 24 (March 21, 2023) – Once important seats of Christian worship, and now treasures of the country’s heritage, French abbeys often have surprising histories. That’s the case of Fontevraud abbey, in the former duchy of Anjou. Run by a woman during its heyday, the abbey was turned into a prison after the French Revolution.
In Alsace, the abbey of Mont Sainte-Odile is famous for its supposedly miraculous spring water. Finally, on the outskirts of Montpellier, Valmagne abbey used to be a wine cellar. Visitors can still observe the gigantic barrels that were once used to store thousands of litres of wine.
The Local Project – (March 21, 2023) – Celebrating a 1970s clifftop house and its original design, Stawell House by Architects EAT is a culmination of subtle restorations and additions that bring a modern liveliness to the home’s 50-year-old history.
Video timeline:00:00 – Introduction to the 1970s Clifftop House 00:26 – The Location and The History 00:56 – Clifftop Views 01:14 – A Walkthrough of the Home 01:53 – Experiencing Everything Nature Has to Offer 02:08 – The Materials 03:18 – A Personal Project for the Owners 03:57 – The Landscape 04:18 – A Restoration Project not a Redesign
Located in Studley Park, Melbourne, the 1970s clifftop house showcased original architecture that could not be replicated. However, desiring a respectful and modern update the clients chose to collaborate with Architects EAT, who agreed that retaining Stawell House’s character was important. While also taking on the role of project managers, the owners were able to maintain an intimate and collaborative throughout the entire process of restorations. Overlooking the Yarra River, the 1970s clifftop house asserts itself as part of the landscape blending effortlessly into the topography.
As the house tour begins, Stawell House’s modern renovations unfold like a sincere love letter to its original form. Beginning from the façade, the red brick home references the traditional build, yet once the door opens modern uplifts begin to take centre stage. After a linear skylight leads onto the kitchen and dining space, guests and owners make way to the balcony, which overlooks the west. Additionally, a spare bedroom and bathroom and the master bedroom have been installed on the entrance level to allow the owners ease of movement from private rooms to the public spaces.
Located downstairs, the guest room has been built with an ensuite containing an outdoor bathtub allowing the guest to fully experience the elements. To deal with the effects of a west-facing house, the architects have delivered a range of architectural devices which includes external steel shading. The external materials used for the 1970s clifftop house provide a weather resistance while also maintaining a tree like appearance to fit in with the surrounds. Honouring the original layout of the home, the floorplan remains wide as to allow an ease of movement and living.
Furthermore, timber cladding has been heavily featured on the internal walls and windows. Taken from the original home, the timber has been painstakingly removed, sanded and oiled again before re-use. Managing the entire construction process themselves, the owners work closely with the builders and trades to deliver personal modern updates to the 1970s clifftop house. Showing Architects EAT a range of design inspirations found in magazines, the owners were able to collaborate and create a home that reflects their personalities.
Additionally, the owner has also worked on the landscape, adding a deep personal touch that will grow with the home. Focused more on restoration rather than redesign, Architects EAT have worked closely with the owners and the trades to create a defining home for the modern age.
“This is going to change the world as we know it.”
“The pictures are a documentation of the brutality within the conflict itself. It’s about civilians and civilian casualties because they are the ones hit the hardest. “
“The Russians are terrorizing the civilian population. They are hitting civilian infrastructure, may it be water, electricity, or heating. That brutality is extremely important to show. For me, it is about getting as close to these people as possible.”
Grarup is convinced that the ongoing war in Ukraine will mark the beginning of a new area that will isolate Russia from the Western World for generations to come: “I have been covering wars and conflicts for the last 35 years – just about every conflict you can imagine. In many ways, the brutality of the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 is second to none. But the war in Ukraine comes really, really close. It’s basically a country which is desiring democracy and freedom and independence – and because of that, its people are killed.”
Grarups also reflects upon his feelings covering the war, such as his general discomfort with silence as “you can be sure that something is about to happen.” On the other hand, he sees the necessity to document the war for future generations and the possible prosecution of war crimes. “What I like about black-and-white photography is its timelessness. We think in our part of the world that the world has changed, developed, and moved far away from what we have seen historically.
But the fact is: It hasn’t. It’s still the same atrocities. It’s still the same victims.” Jan Grarup was born in Denmark in 1968 and is today regarded as one of the leading and most experienced war photographers globally. Already in 1991, the year of his graduation, he won the prestigious Danish Press Photographer of the Year Award, a prize he would receive on several further occasions. In 1993, he moved to Berlin for a year, working as a freelance photographer for Danish newspapers and magazines. Afterwards, Grarup covered many wars and conflicts worldwide, including the Gulf War, the Rwandan genocide, the siege of Sarajevo and the Palestinian uprising against Israel in 2000.
His coverage of the conflict between Palestine and Israel led to two series: The Boys of Ramallah, which earned him the Pictures of the Year International World Understanding Award in 2002, followed by The Boys from Hebron. His book, Shadowland (2006), presents his work during the 12 years he spent in Kashmir, Sierra Leone, Chechnya, Rwanda, Kosovo, Slovakia, Ramallah, Hebron, Iraq, Iran, and Darfur. In the words of Foto8’s review, it is “intensely personal, deeply felt, and immaculately composed.”
His second book, Darfur: A Silent Genocide, was published in 2009. In 2017 he released the prizewinning bestseller And Then There Was Silence. He is currently working on a follow-up called While We Bleed with Danish author Adam Holm about the war in Ukraine. Jan Grarup has won numerous prizes for his dedicated work, for example eight World Press Awards, the Pictures of the Year International World Understanding Award, the UNICEF Children Photo of the Year Award, Visa d’Or, Leica Oskar Barnack Award, to mention a few of the more prestigious ones. Jan Grarup was interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The interview took place at the Danish War Museum in March 2023 on the occasion of Grarup’s exhibition One Year With War. Camera: Jakob Solbakken Edited by: Helle Pagter Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
March 21, 2023: The Zoo Zürich is a zoo located in Zürich, Switzerland and is considered one of the best zoos in Europe. Opened in 1929, it is the third oldest zoo in Switzerland and it accumulated a collection of 2,200 specimens of 300 species by its seventy-fifth year.
The over 90-year-old Zurich Zoo lies in an idyllic location on the Zürichberg, in the city’s Fluntern quarter. The zoo is located high above the rooftops of Zurich, surrounded by greenery, yet can still be reached quickly and easily from the city center.
Approximately 4,000 animals representing 380 different species live at Zurich Zoo. The oldest resident is Nigrita, a Galapagos giant turtle. She is over 70 years old and has been living at the zoo since 1946.
Curves Magazin (March 20, 2023) – An epic road trip through Patagonia in Southern Argentina.
Patagonia, semiarid scrub plateau that covers nearly all of the southern portion of mainland Argentina. With an area of about 260,000 square miles (673,000 square kilometres), it constitutes a vast area of steppe and desert that extends south from latitude 37° to 51° S.
It is bounded, approximately, by the Patagonian Andes to the west, the Colorado River to the north (except where the region extends north of the river into the Andean borderlands), the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Strait of Magellan to the south; the region south of the strait—Tierra del Fuego, which is divided between Argentina and Chile—also is often included in Patagonia.
Desert and semidesert cover the Patagonian tableland that extends from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. The general aspect of this tableland is one of vast steppelike (i.e., virtually treeless) plains, rising in terrace fashion from high coastal cliffs to the foot of the Andes; but the true aspect of the plains is by no means as simple as such a general description would imply. The land along the Negro River rises in a series of fairly level terraces from about 300 feet (90 metres) at the coast to about 1,300 feet at the junction of the Limay and Neuquén rivers and 3,000 feet at the base of the Andes. The tableland region rises to an altitude of 5,000 feet.
South of the Negro River, the plains are much more irregular. Volcanic eruptions occurred in this area until fairly recent times, and basaltic sheets covered the tableland east of Lakes Buenos Aires and Pueyrredón. Near the Chico and Santa Cruz rivers, the plains have spread to within about 50 miles (80 kilometres) of the coast and reach almost to the coast south of the Coig and Gallegos rivers. In places, basaltic massifs (mountain masses) are the salient features of the landscape.
National Trust (March 20, 2023) – In this episode of The Wild Life, a new series of nature films from the National Trust, presenter Jules Hudson heads to Eryri (Snowdonia) to learn about a tree planting project that will help to protect the landscape for the next hundred years and beyond.
Join Jules on his visit to Hafod Garregog – a Celtic rainforest and reclaimed seabed along Afon Glaslyn (River Glaslyn). National Trust rangers have planted native saplings here to store carbon, slow the flow of water and provide a boost for nature and wildlife. Jules discovers that local tree species such as willow, aspen and hornbeam are less susceptible to diseases and can adapt better to the climate.
These trees will also create homes for warblers, moths, bats and nearby otters, as well as encourage a diverse variety of plants to grow. You’ll also discover how the National Trust works with volunteers to plant trees and find out more about the charity’s wider ambition to plant and establish 20 million trees by 2030.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (March 19, 2023) – Go behind the scenes with artist Cecily Brown, who discusses the inspiration and making of Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid, the first full-fledged museum survey of Brown’s work in New York since she made the city her home.
Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid assembles a select group of some fifty paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and monotypes from across her career to explore the intertwined themes of still life, memento mori, mirroring, and vanitas—symbolic depictions of human vanity or life’s brevity—that have propelled her dynamic and impactful practice for decades. On view April 4th, 2023 through December 3rd, 2023.
CBS Sunday Morning (March 19, 2023) – We leave you this Sunday with giant tortoises on Santa Cruz Island, in Ecuador’s Galápagos National Park. Videographer: Alan Golds.
There are 13 living species of Galápagos tortoises, which are also sometimes called giant tortoises. These reptiles are among the longest-lived of all land vertebrates, averaging more than a hundred years. The oldest on record lived to be 175. They are also the world’s largest tortoises, with some specimens exceeding five feet in length and reaching more than 500 pounds.
Giant tortoises were once so abundant on the Galápagos archipelago off Ecuador that the Spanish sailors who explored the region in 1535 named the string of islands for them. (The Spanish word for tortoise is galápago.) Although the islands were once thought to be home to at least 250,000 tortoises, only about 15,000 remain in the wild today.
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Curves Magazin (March 20, 2023) – An epic road trip through Patagonia in Southern Argentina.
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