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july - National Ice Cream Month

7/25/2020

0 Comments

 
​The third Sunday of July -- this year July 19 -- was National Ice Cream Day, and July is National Ice Cream Month, both established by presidential proclamation in July of 1984. I intended this post for Ice Cream Day but life misfired and I didn’t make it. Rather than let it sit for a year, I decided to post it because it is still National Ice Cream Month for a few days and, if you like it, Ice Cream is always good.
​

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WHAT'S IN A NAME? 
Ice cream is one of many similar “frozen” desserts including "frozen custard," "frozen yogurt," "sorbet," "gelato," and “sherbet”. These terms are used to distinguish different varieties and styles.

In the United States, “ice cream” applies to a single variety, and most governments around the world regulate the terms used according to relative quantities of the main ingredients (usually the amount of cream) and trade agreements. [e.g. Brandy and cognac are essentially the same, but any beverage using the name Cognac must be made in the Cognac region of France, while brandy can be made anywhere in the world. Both are made from grapes, and actually come from white wine.]
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Today’s style of ice cream was made possible only by the discovery of the endothermic effect which allows cream to be frozen. Prior to this, cream could only be chilled. It was the addition of salt, which lowers the melting point of ice by drawing heat from the cream and allows it to freeze.


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WE ALL HAVE A PAST
Even ice cream has a long history. Like many things, the earliest precursors of ice cream came from China, although the dates are rather fuzzy. Following is a list of more-of-less-factoids about the origins and development of ice cream.

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King Tange of Shang Dynasty
​Photo source: https://www.ancient.eu/Shang_Dynasty/

1617 – 1588 BC
The Chinese are credited with making the first iced dessert, which was snow gathered from the mountains with fruit juice poured over it. King Tang of Shang of China had 94 ice men who helped to make a dish of buffalo milk, flour and camphor. Later, they developed another similar mixture of milk and rice frozen by packing it in snow. They are known to use ice houses to keep food cool as early as 1100 BC. The earliest known ice house [yachal] dates to 1780 BC, built by Zimri-Lim, the King of Mari, in the northern Mesopotamian town of Terqa.


970 -931 BC
Biblical references also show that King Solomon was fond of iced drinks during harvesting, and there is evidence that similar iced fruit drinks were popular in other locations in the middle east.


400 BC
400 BC, the Persians concocted a special chilled food, similar to a snow come, made of rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during summers. The ice was mixed with saffron, fruits, and various other flavors.

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356 – 323 BC
Alexander the Great enjoyed snow and ice flavored with honey and nectar. He is known to have used ice houses during his reign.


Photo credit: Daily Mail Online
​​Photo Source: funeralwise.com/alexander-great



200 BC
The first known record of the endothermic effect is written in the Indian collection of fables entitled Pancatantra, dating back to 200 BC. Some sources indicate it was the written in the 4th century AD.
200 BC
At about the same time the Chinese took an innovative leap from a sorbet to a sherbet-ice cream by introducing a basic milk and rice mixture which was frozen by packing it into snow.
100 BC – 400 AD
The Romans used snow flavored with fruits and juices. During the reign of Nero Claudius Caesar (A.D. 54-86), he frequently sent runners into the mountains for snow. The Romans used Ice houses from about 300 BC to keep foods fresh.
400 AD
In 400 BC, the Persians came up with a special chilled food, made of milk, sugar, rose water and vermicelli, which was served to royalty during summers.                                  
A ancient-type yakhchal in Yazd, Iran - Photo source:south-africa.blaauwberg.net/

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​  618 - 907 AD
During the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese concocted a type of ice cream using heated, fermented milk, flour, and camphor. This began to resemble what we call ice cream.

1200s AD
The earliest written description of the endothermic effect (freezing) comes in the 13th century writings of Ibn Abi Usaybia, an Arab physician. The technique of "freezing" does not appear in any known  European sources before to the 16th century.

“The origins of the ice cream we know today are believed to have first emerged in Italy. In view of the strong Arabic influences there, drawing upon the ancient iced traditions of Rome, of China as well as of others, this does not appear too surprising. Sicily itself was actually an  Islamic Emirate during the years 965 to 1072, so in a sense the ‘oriental traditions’ may have bloomed on European soil in their very own right.”   https://www.icecreamnation.org/ancient-china/

1300s AD
The explorer, Marco Polo (1254-1324), is believed to have seen ice-cream being made during his trip to China and introduced the dessert to Italy. He returned to Italy from the Far East with a recipe that closely resembled what is now called sherbet.                                                             
Painting of Marco Polo receiving recipe from Khubla Khan
                                                                                                                                      Photo source: icecreamnation.org/ancient-china/


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Since the Arabs had perfected the methods for making ice cream, Marco Polo was not necessarily the person who introduced those methods to Europe. There were many opportunities for the information to reach Europe. The Italians are credited for creating the first ice cream [similar to today’s gelato] some time during the thirteenth century.

1533 AD
France was introduced to the Italian ice-cream-like frozen desserts by Italian Catherine de Medici when she became the wife of Henry II of France.

1559 AD
Europeans develop a method whereby a freezing effect was created by using ice and salt – the technical precondition for ice cream-making of a more modern type.

1600s AD
King Charles I of England (1600-1649), is said to have offered his chef £500 a year to keep his ice-cream recipe a secret from the rest of England.

1600s AD
In the sixteenth century, the Persianate Mughal emperors from India employed relays of horsemen to bring ice from the Hindu Kush to Delhi, where it was used in fruit sorbets. Qulfi (also Kulfi) is a popular frozen dairy dessert from India and is often described as "traditional South Asian ice cream." It was adopted from Persian bastani sonnati, Persian ice cream.

1686 AD
Ice cream was first made available to the general public when Sicilian chef Procopio Cutò (also known by his Italian name Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli and his French name François Procope), introduced a recipe blending milk, cream, butter and eggs at Café Procope, the first café in Paris.

1744 AD
The first official account of ice cream in the New World comes from a letter written in 1744 by a guest of Maryland Governor William Bladen.

1776 AD
Phillip Lenzi opened the first ice cream shop in America in New York City in 1776. The term "iced cream" from "iced tea". The first advertisement for ice cream in the United States appeared in the New York Gazette on May 12, 1777.

1790 AD

Records kept by a Chatham Street, New York, merchant show that President George Washington spent approximately $200 for ice cream during the summer of 1790. Inventory records of Mount Vernon taken after Washington's death revealed "two pewter ice cream pots."
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1800s AD
Ice cream remained a rare and exotic dessert enjoyed mostly by the elite until insulated ice houses were invented around 1800. At that point ice cream became more accessible to the general public.
​Noblewomen eating ice cream in a French caricature, 1801.
Photo source:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Glaces.jpg
​

1801 AD
Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, is said to be the first person to write down a recipe for Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream, believed to be the oldest recipe for ice cream in the US. The original document resides in the Library of Congress.


1813 AD
Dolly Madison served a magnificent strawberry ice cream creation at President Madison's second inaugural banquet at the White House.

1825 AD
Edible ice cream cones were mentioned in French cooking books as early as 1825, when Julien Archambault described how one could roll a cone from "little waffles".

1832 AD
American confectioner, Augustus Jackson, created multiple ice cream recipes as well as a superior technique to manufacture ice cream.

1843 AD

Philadelphian, Nancy Johnson, received the first U.S. patent for a small-scale hand-cranked ice cream freezer.
Photo source: snowballmachinery.wordpress.com/first-ice-cream-machine/

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​1851 AD
Jacob Fussell, a Baltimore milk dealer, pioneered the first commercial manufacturing ice cream in America.

1874 AD
 The ice cream soda was invented by American Robert Green, although there is no
                                             conclusive evidence to prove his claim.

1888 AD
Another printed reference to an edible cone is in Mrs A. B. Marshall's Cookery Book, written by Agnes B. Marshall (1855–1905) of England. Her recipe for "Cornet with Cream" said that "the cornets were made with almonds and baked in the oven, not pressed between irons".

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​She wrote four books: Ices Plain and Fancy: The Book of Ices (1885), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Book of Cookery (1888), Mrs. A.B. Marshall's Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes (1891) and Fancy Ices (1894) and gave public lectures on cooking. She even suggested using liquid nitrogen to make ice cream.

Agnes Marshall, "queen of ices"
instrumental in making ice-cream fashionable
Photo source: factory-shops-cape-town-south-africa.blaauwberg.net/



LATE 1800s AD
Several men claimed to have created the ice cream sundae originated in the late 19th century. Some sources claim the invention of the sundae was intended to circumvent blue laws, which forbade serving sodas on Sunday. Towns claiming to be the birthplace of the sundae include Buffalo, Two Rivers, Ithaca, and Evanston.

1902-1903 AD

Edible ice cream cones were patented by two entrepreneurs, both Italian, separately in the years 1902 and 1903. Antonio Valvona, an ice cream merchant from Manchester, UK, patented a biscuit cup producing machine in 1902; in 1903, Italo Marchioni, an Italian ice cream salesman, filed for the patent of a machine which made ice cream containers.

1904 AD
A man named Ernest E. Hamwi is also given credit by some for inventing the ice-cream-cone, which seems contrary to the fact that patents granted a year before. However, the legend has it that during the 1904 St Louis World's Fair in the United States, his waffle booth was next to an ice-cream seller who ran short of dishes. As a favor, Hamwi rolled his waffles to hold the ice-cream and the cone was born. Probably both are true.

1920 AD
Harry Burt puts the first ice cream trucks on the streets in the US.

1930 AD
A larger, "dripless cake cone" with a larger bowl-shape was invented in the 1930s. It allowed the ice-cream to sit in the bottom of the cone rather than nestle on the top.

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1984 AD
Former US president Ronald Reagan, issued Presidential Proclamation 5219, designating the third Sunday of July as National Ice Day and the month of July as National Ice Cream Month.
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                                                     Photo source: blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/national-ice-cream-month/

ICE CREAM AROUND THE WORLD
The development of all ice cream may be a world-wide team effort, but not all ice cream is created equal. All versions are delicious, but there are in traditional recipes and flavors, both locally as well as internationally. Here are a few of the most interesting.
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Persian Bastani
Made from Persian Rose Water, Saffron and Pistachio Ice Cream
                                                                                                     Photo Credit: Izy Hossack
                                                                 Photo source: food.com/recipe/bastani-persian

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Italian Gelato
Gelato is a popular frozen dessert of Italian origin. It is generally made with a base of 3.25% milk and sugar. It is generally lower in fat than other styles of frozen desserts. Wikipedia
                                                                                    Photo Credit: Suzanne Ball | Food, Food blog
                                                                                    Photo source: epicurean-traveler.com/gelato

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Japanese Mochi
Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made with glutinous rice flour and has a chewy texture. Mochi Ice Cream is a thin layer of mochi wrapped around an ice cream filling. It’s creamy, sweet, with a little chewy outer shell, and just a very delightful treat.

Photo Source: kirbiecravings.com/mochi-ice-cream/

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Chinese Huangjiu Bangbing
New in 2016, Huangjiu Bangbing is now the most popular ice cream in China, It tastes like wine and is made from yellow rice or millet, sold more than 40,000 sticks in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province alone in the first year on the market. While the Chinese ice cream isn’t so different in texture, they go in for bizarre flavors, such as beer, chili, garlic, and celery.  Photo Credit and Source: chinadaily.com.cn/Bangbing

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Israeli Halva
Halva, a sweet candy-like treat made from sesame seeds mashed into a sugar-and-honey paste, is common in many Israeli dishes. On a hot day in Tel Aviv, cooling off with Halva ice cream is a popular pastime.
​Photo Credit: Thinkstock - Photo source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-the-world

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Turkish Dondurma
Turkish ice cream, dondurma, has a similar pliability to taffy. The street vendors in Istanbul have fun with its pliable texture, wowing passersby with its ability to not fall off a stick or melt. It’s thickened with salep, a flour made from orchids, which only adds to its exotic appeal.
                                     Photo Credit: iStock - Photo Source: 
Photo Source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world


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Filippino Cheese Ice Cream
Ice Cream from the Philippines mixes two comfort foods that to the American ear may sound odd … cheese and ice cream. Once sold only by street vendors, today it’s crafted with real cheddar cheese by the brand Magnolia and sold in grocery stores all over the Philippines.                           
                                            Photo Credit: iStock - Photo Source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world
​

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German Spaghetties
Leave it to the Germans. Germany’s spaghettieis resemble a plate of pasta, but this is vanilla ice cream drawn through a pastamaker and then topped with a strawberry topping (to look like tomato sauce). This playful play on pasta was created by an Italian in Germany in the 1960s and has been a popular dessert ever since.

Photo credit: Christian Cable, flicker - Photo source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world

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Indian Kulfi
A mix of condensed milk, sugar and exotic flavors like saffron and cardamom, Kulfi has a dense texture more similar to custard than ice cream. Traditionally, this cool treat was only found in India’s street markets, kept frozen in earthenware pots of ice and salt. Now its popularity is so widespread, you can find it in Whole Foods’ frozen-food aisles.

Photo credit: Christian Cable, flicker - Photo source: travelchannel.com/ice-cream-around-world
 

ENJOY YOURSELF AND EAT AS MUCH ICE CREAM AS YOU WANT!
 
Sources:
http://www.holidayscalendar.com/event/national-ice-cream-day/
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-ice-cream-day-third-sunday-in-july/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/find_out/guides/tech/ice-cream/newsid_3634000/3634978.stm#:~:text=An%20ice%2Dcream%2Dlike%20food,by%20packing%20it%20into%20snow.
https://www.idfa.org/the-history-of-ice-cream
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_cream
https://factory-shops-cape-town-south-africa.blaauwberg.net/articles/all-about-foodstuffs/all-about-ice-cream
https://icecream.fandom.com/wiki/History_of_Ice_Cream#:~:text=History%20of%20Ice%20Cream,creating%20ice%20cream%20and%20milk.
https://epicurean-traveler.com/three-rules-of-gelato-how-to-order-like-an-italian/
https://chinafoodingredients.com/2015/08/21/china-the-worlds-biggest-ice-cream-market/#:~:text=Ice%20cream%20is%20believed%20to,up%20to%20the%20frosty%20dessert.&text=The%20Chinese%20word%20for%20this,Chinese%20word%20for%20'ice'.
https://www.travelchannel.com/interests/food-and-drink/photos/ice-cream-around-the-world
https://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/10-extreme-ice-cream-flavors
https://kirbiecravings.com/mochi-ice-cream/
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/food/2016-08/04/content_26345623.htm
https://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating/stories/10-extreme-ice-cream-flavors
https://www.icecreamnation.org/ancient-china/
https://forknchopstix.com/did-the-chinese-invent-ice-cream/
Photos only:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Glaces.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24554290
https://factory-shops-cape-town-south-africa.blaauwberg.net/articles/all-about-foodstuffs/all-about-ice-cream
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69984
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38329624
food.com/recipe/bastani-persian
https://snowballmachinery.wordpress.com/2015/01/14/the-first-ice-cream-machine/
http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/leonco/2015/07/15/july-national-ice-cream-month/

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The rainbow Mountains, China

7/10/2020

1 Comment

 
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I’m off on a binge about the marvels of nature; particularly colors in geology.

My initial interest in travel was driven by my background in architecture. I wanted to see how ancient cultures expressed their ideas and values in their architecture. I still desire that, but experience has expanded my horizons to consider the impacts of the geology and other natural phenomenon on both the culture and the architecture. Now I’m all about interesting and unusual places.

It’s much easier these days to even find out about such locals than it was before the internet, but traveling to remote places is harder and harder for me. So I’m taking you on trips to interesting places through others, their writing and
photography.

THE RAINBOW MOUNTAINS, CHINA
I had never heard of the Rainbow Mountains, much less aspired to go there, when I ran onto a reference stating that something was a colorful as the Chinese Rainbow Mountains. I had to know.

They are located in Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park which is in the Gansu province of northwest China. The 200 square mile site was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. The park has been popular with Chinese tourists for years but only now becoming an attraction for foreign visitors.
​
The two maps show the location in China and how that country relates to surrounding countries. The region we are talking about is in yellow.

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Photo Source: https://sites.psu.edu/passionallywagner/2015/11/16/rainbow-mountains/
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Photo source: https://www.chinadiscovery.com/gansu/zhangye/maps.html
SHAKE IT UP, BABY
These mountains are composed of sedimentary rock, cretaceous sandstones and siltstones, deposited in more or less flat layers millions of years ago, on the bed of the ocean.

​The deposits contained iron, trace minerals and organic matter. Fifty-five million years ago tectonic forces created the Himalayas Mountains as the Indian Tectonic Plate collided into the Eurasian Plate, folding the flat layers and thrusting them upward and exposing the sedimentary layers at weird angles.
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​The colors of sedimentary layers exposed by the mountain-making process often have complicated origins. The range of colors includes the primary colors and generally result from the compounds of iron, organic carbon, and trace minerals. Weathering and erosion remove the upper strata of siliciclastic rocks and bring to light amazing variations in color.

Image source: campbellhigh.org/ourpages/2017/

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A COUPLE OF IMPORTANT POINTS
Before you peruse the photographs, which blew my socks off, a couple of points about our perception of color to keep in mind.

Let There Be Light

Newton observed that color is not inherent in objects. Rather, the surface of an object reflects some colors and absorbs all the others. The human eye perceives only the reflected colors.

Together, the human eye and brain translate light into color. When an object appears black, the object or surface is absorbing all wavelengths light. When we see white, the object is reflecting all wavelengths of light. When it appears as a particular color, the object is reflecting only one wavelength (which we perceive as a color) and absorbing all others.

My first point is that light (intensity, direction, etc.) makes the difference in how something looks.

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​Beauty In The Eye Of The Beholder
The other point is that photographers usually want a beautiful, or at least artistic, representation of the subject being photographed.

Cameras can be set to manipulate light. I’m not implying the photos are doctored, but they are probably taken at the best time of day in the right weather to get the most vivid colors. Standing there, you might see what appears in the photo to the right. The professional photographs will show the mountains at their most dramatic. It is all in the lighting.                                           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Photo Credit: Tim Zachernuk - Photo Source: grist.org/stripey-mountain   
EVERYTHING'S COMING UP RAINBOWS

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Photo Credit: imaginechina.com;  Image Source: forbes.com/2016/rainbow-mountains
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                 Photo source: travelercorner.com/rainbow-mountains

This land is do dry that there are no plants on animals there. That’s dry. The hills consist of multi colored sandstone such as red, blue, green, brown and yellow.
 

The primary color is a deep red sandstone. Weathering, mixed with water and oxygen oxidizes elemental iron into iron oxide, which is notable for its dark red coloring. The Rainbow Mountains are largely characterized by this iron oxide staining of its sandstone Danxia formation.
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Photo Credit: Angelinaloren
Photo source: flickr.com/photos/75515041@N06


Instances occur where oxides form different colors; oxidized limonite or goethite will produce brown or yellow staining of sandstones, magnetite can form black staining of sandstones. If there is iron sulfide present, you will get a metallic yellow color imparted by the sulfur. Meanwhile, green coloring is often due to chlorite or iron silicate clays. The bluish-greenish-gray is produced from either organic plant matter or a mineral called glauconite found in marine environments. 
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         Photo source: in.musafir.com/blog/                                Photo Credit: imaginechina.com                                             Pinned by: Terra Hermética
                                                                                  Photo 
Source: forbes.com/2016/rainbow-mountains              Photo source: facebook.com/photo?fbid=2328

MORE RAINBOWS
I was surprised to discover another range of Rainbow Mountains, this time located in the Andes of Peru, about two hours drive from Cusco. After all, rainbows exist around the world, so why not rainbow mountains.

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Photo Credit: By Peruwikila - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
Photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76653424

 
Vinicunca, or Winikunka, also called Montaña de Siete Colores, Montaña de Colores or Rainbow Mountain. Here there are seven colors due to mineralogical composition. Pink is red clay, mud and sand. The white comes from calcium carbonate, red from iron and clay. Green is a compound of phyllites and clays rich in ferro magnesian. Yellow due to sandstone rich in sulfurous minerals. The sources seem to rarely mention the blue coloration.

SO MANY WONDERFUL PLACES TO GO AND NOT ENOUGH TIME
 
Sources:
https://www.chinahighlights.com/zhangye/attraction/danxia-landform-geological-park.htm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2016/03/02/rainbow-mountains-china-earths-paint-palette/#4879b7db3e5e
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rainbow-mountains-china-danxia-landform_n_3683840?guccounter=1&guce_referrer
http://inspire.lifepinner.com/2019/03/29/true-colors-of-china-rainbow-mountains/
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/rainbow-mountains-china
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/aug/01/rainbow-mountains-china-in-pictures
https://www.chinahighlights.com/zhangye/attraction/danxia-landform-geological-park.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/aug/01/rainbow-mountains-china-in-pictures#/?picture=414163198&index=0
https://www.pantone.com/color-intelligence/articles/technical/how-do-we-see-color
https://www.minerals.net/resource/property/color.aspx
https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-do-rocks-get-their-colors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhangye_National_Geopark
https://csmgeo.csm.jmu.edu/geollab/Fichter/SedRx/color.html
https://weather.com/science/news/breathtaking-rainbow-rocks-china-20130710
Photos only:
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=232810990695661&set=pcb.232812080695552
https://grist.org/living/zen-break-check-out-chinas-gorgeous-stripey-mountains/
https://in.musafir.com/blog/most-extraordinary-mountains-in-the-world.aspx
https://in.musafir.com/blog/most-extraordinary-mountains-in-the-world.aspx
https://www.flickr.com/photos/75515041@N06/10791466616
http://travelercorner.com/rainbow-mountains-zhangye-danxia-landform-china/




1 Comment

EVERYTHING YOU NEVER NEEDED TO KNOW ABOUT THE 4TH OF JULY

7/3/2020

0 Comments

 
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Since Fourth of July is upon us, I’m blogging about US Independence Day. I try to be timely by recognizing and writing blogs about holidays and observance days that we hold dear in the United States…or not so dear, as it appears sometimes.

But alas, after I did some preliminary research, I realized there isn’t much to write about the Fourth of July that everyone doesn’t already know. Or so I thought!
                                             
 Image credit: Library of Congress
▲Photo source: nashvillelife.com/4th-of-July                                                         Photo source: loc.gov/exhibits/treasures ▼ 

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HAVE YOU READ “THE DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE” RECENTLY?
Listening to the news over the last several months, I’ve wondered what the words “independence” and “freedom” mean to the people of the United States. We all seem to have our own version, and sometimes they are incompatible.

I’m willing to bet that only a small percentage of Americans have read the Declaration of In-dependence in the last ten years; a few, never.

According to some historians, it is the most important document ever written in this country; even more important than the Constitution, because it identifies the principles by which this nation holds together. Right now we need to be held together more than ever before. We only have ourselves to do that.

Read it. You may find out it does or doesn’t say some of the things you think it does. The word ”independence” isn’t even in the adopted title. Still, the words continue to resonate in the 21st century as fundamental truths.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT FOURTH OF JULY

Although articles are often entitled “fun facts”, they are usually “interesting” facts about the holiday. I did learn a few thing I never knew or didn’t remember after a hiatus of sixty years…and it’s always interesting to see how many “known facts” on the internet disagree with each other.

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​JUST LIKE TODAY, IT WAS ALL ABOUT TAXES
"Taxation without representation!"

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War [April 1775], not many of the colonists wanted complete separation from Great Britain, but gradually the population began to favor complete independence. You all remember that, right?

Of course you do. And you remember, when Richard Henry Lee introduced his motion to the Continental Congress for independence, it was tabled and a five-man committee appointed (Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York) to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain. Maybe you recall hearing that, too.

On July 2nd, 1775, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (NY delegation abstained) and on July 4th, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson.                  “Declaration of Independence” painting by John Trumbull 1818
                                                                                                                                                   
▼   Photo source: acei-global.blog/facts-about-the-4th-of-july

FACTS YOU’LL NEVER NEED ABOUT JULY FOURTH
I found these facts interesting although not of monumental significance in terms of the history of the United States. They are in no particular order and, as you can see, are not particularly memorable.

● John Adams believed July 2nd was the correct date on which to celebrate the birth of American independence, and would reportedly turn down invitations to appear at July 4th events in protest.
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● John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence who later became presidents, both died within hours of each other on July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
◄​ Photo source: acei-global.blog/facts-about-the-4th-of-july

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● According to the editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Jefferson’s inveterate shyness prevented him from playing a significant role in the debate within Congress. John Adams, a leader in those debates, remembers that Jefferson was silent even in committee meetings, though consistently staunch in his support of independence…”  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Declaration-of-Independence
That was news to me. I never thought of Jefferson as being shy.
◄Jefferson’s portrait painted by Charles Wilson Peale, 1791
Photo source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Declaration-of-Independence

● “Only two Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The majority of signers penned their signatures on August 2, 1776.” http://www.rfdtv.com/story/32328872/4th-of-july-fun-facts#.WwhI_0gvzcc

Or was it only one?

● “Only John Hancock actually signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. All the others signed later.” https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
​

● The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 men from 13 colonies. Of those 56, eight were born in Great Britain.
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● Benjamin Franklin, the oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence [70 at the time], proposed the turkey as the national bird but was overruled by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who recommended the bald eagle.

● The youngest signer was Thomas Lynch, Jr. [27] of South Carolina. https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
Or was he?
● “…Edward Rutledge was the youngest at age 26.” http://thepioneerwoman.com/fun-and-learning/twenty-interesting-things-about4th-of-july/

● The original draft of the Declaration of Independence was lost. http://www.rfdtv.com/story/32328872/4th-of-july-fun-facts#.WwhI_0gvzcc   Library of Congress   
Oh, well. I’m sure they have a copy of the one that was adopted and signed.

● Congress made Independence Day an official unpaid holiday for federal employees in 1870. It didn’t become a federal paid holiday until 1938.

● The first Independence Day celebration took place in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776. This was also the day that the Declaration of Independence was first read in public after people were summoned by the ringing of the Liberty Bell.


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● The Liberty Bell was cast at London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry. It arrived in Philadelphia in August, 1752. The metal was too brittle and it cracked during the test strike. It was recast twice by local workmen. In its early years the bell was used to summon lawmakers to legislative sessions and to alert citizens about public meetings and proclamations.

● Every 4th of July the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is tapped [not actually rung] thirteen times in honor of the original thirteen colonies.


Photo Credit: posted to Flickr by Tony the Misfit at flickr.com/photos/
Photo source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberty_Bell_2008.jpg

● The tune of the National Anthem was originally an English drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The words have nothing to do with consumption of alcohol but the “melody that Francis Key had in mind when he wrote those words did originate decades earlier as the melody for a song praise of wine.”  http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm

READ THE DOCUMENT. THEN GO CELEBRATE THAT YOUR LIVE HERE.
□

Sources:
https://parade.com/24863/kenjennings/america-101-take-our-fourth-of-july-quiz/
https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/july-4th
http://www.pbs.org/a-capitol-fourth/history/history-independence-day/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/fireworks-american-history_n_5552960.html
https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
http://thepioneerwoman.com/fun-and-learning/twenty-interesting-things-about4th-of-july/
http://www.rfdtv.com/story/32328872/4th-of-july-fun-facts#.WwhI_0gvzcc
2020
https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-real-independence-day-tt-0702-20190702-l3vl5kijdzci3jhbkbrecfaz2m-l3vl5kijdzci3jhbkbrecfaz2m-story.html
https://www.dtnext.in/Lifestyle/Spirituality/2018/08/13022008/1084010/What-is-the-true-meaning-of-independence.vpf
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2014/06/er_pursuit_of_happiness/campus.html
https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-what-independence-day-really-means-20190704-teue64vyz5getk4jaq4v3z2qxe-story.html
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1776-1785/the-final-text-of-the-declaration-of-independence-july-4-1776.php
https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/declaration-of-independence
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1776-1785/jeffersons-draft-of-the-declaration-of-independence.php#par1
http://nashvillelife.com/Nashville-4th-of-July-Parades  
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/uc004215.jpg|
https://acei-global.blog/2013/07/03/20-fun-facts-about-the-4th-of-julyindependence-day/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberty_Bell_2008.jpg


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    Author R. Ann Siracusa

    Novelist, retired architect and urban planner, world traveler, quilter, owl collector, devoted wife-mother-grandmother, great-grandmother, and, according to some, wild-assed liberal.

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