Pregled posta

Marketing

An alternative caption to this picture is “An English Naval Officer bartering with a Maori” and is attributed to “The Artist of the Chief Mourner”. Since the man portrayed is wearing a Naval Uniform there is a valid question of whether or not this is Banks.

Tupaia and his 12 year-old servant Taiata were taken on board Endeavour at Tahiti in July 1769 and both died of disease contracted at Batavia in November 1770. Tupaia was not only a priest but a warrior, navigator and artist who had first met Europeans when Captain Samuel Wallis anchored HMS Dolphin in Matavai Bay in June 1767. Tupaia more than fulfilled expectations and in the eighteen months before he died he acted as guide, interpreter and mediator. One of the artefacts brought back to Europe from this voyage is Tupaia’s Chart, catalogued in the British Museum as a “Chart of the Society Islands with Otaheite in the centre July-Aug 1769”. Though it cannot be read as a Mercator projection the proposition is that it was in fact a mosaic of sailing directions or plotting diagrams drawn on paper, similar to those made by master navigators tracing lines in the sand or arranging pebbles on a mat to instruct their pupils. Banks described how, in 1769, Tupaia, with his "own hands, "made this chart for Captain Cook”. A remarkable testament to the breadth of Polynesian knowledge of the Pacific, it covers about 4,000 kilometres of the Pacific, extending from Rotuma to the Marquesas. Two copies of the chart were made, and two were lost.

Cook records Tupaia and Taiata boarding Endeavour in his log for 13th July 1769:
For some time before we left this Island several of the Natives were daily offering themselves to go away with us; and as it was thought they must be of use to us in our future discoveries we resolved to bring away one whose name is Tupia, a Chief and a Priest. This man had been with us most part of the time we had been upon the Island, which gave us an opportunity to know something of him. We found him to be a very intelligent person, and to know more of the Geography of the Islands situated in these Seas, their produce, and the religion, laws, and Customs of the inhabitants, than any one we had met with, and was the likeliest person to answer our Purpose. For these reasons, and at the request of Mr. Banks, I received him on board, together with a young Boy, his Servant.

Banks’ Endeavour Journal for July 12 records:
This morn Tupia came on board, he had renewd his resolves of going with us to England, a circumstance which gives me much satisfaction. He is certainly a most proper man, well born, chief Tahowa or priest of this Island, consequently skilld in the mysteries of their religion; but what makes him more than anything else desirable is his experience in the navigation of these people and knowledge of the Islands in these seas; he has told us the names of above 70, the most of which he has himself been at. The Capt’n refuses to take him on his own account, in my opinion sensibly enough, the government will never in all human probability take any notice of him; I therefore have resolv’d to take him. Thank heaven I have a sufficiency and I do not know why I may not keep him as a curiosity, as well as some of my neighbours do lions and tygers at a larger expence than he will probably ever put me to; the amusement I shall have in his future conversation and the benefit he will be of to this ship, as well as what he may be if another should be sent into these seas, will I think fully repay me. As soon as he had made his mind known he said that he would go ashore and return in the evening, when he would make a signal for a boat to be sent off for him; he took with him a miniature picture of mine to shew his friends and several little things to give them as parting presents. After dinner we went ashore to the Marai no Dootahah of which I was desirous to have a drawing made and had not yet done it. We no sooner landed than several of our friends, those who were not totaly afronted at the imprisonment of the day before yesterday, came to meet us; we proceeded with them to Dootahahs house where was Oborea etc. They were glad to see us and a perfect reconciliation ensued, in consequence of which they promisd to visit us tomorrow morning to take their leave of us, as we told them that we should sail before noon. With them was Tupia who most willingly returnd in the boat with us aboard the ship where he took up his lodgins for the first time.

Sydney Parkinson also records their embarkation in his journal entry for 13th July 1769:
On the 13th, several of the natives came on board to take leave of us, to whom we made some presents; and, at parting with us, they appeared very sorrowful. In the forenoon we weighed anchor, and sailed, with a fine breeze, from the west, steering our course W. by N. having Toobaiah, and his little boy Taiyota, on board with us. On our leaving the shore, the people in the canoes set up their woeful cry

Walt Disney World
EPCOT Center Future World

“Walt Disney World is cutting operating hours for its monorail, a move designed to give maintenance crews more time to work on the aging transportation system.

Disney plans to begin shutting down monorail service one hour after regularly scheduled park closings in the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, the two theme parks served by the resort's trains. In addition, Disney will no longer run the trains during evening "Extra Magic Hours," the late-night period during which only guests staying in Disney hotels are allowed in the parks.

Disney had previously kept its trains running until at least one-and-a-half hours after park closing or through any extended hours. The changes are effective beginning [7/12/11] at Epcot and Aug. 1 for the Magic Kingdom.

Disney World spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said Monday the reduced hours are "to accommodate for planned maintenance" on the trains, which are approximately 20 years old. Exiting theme-park guests will instead be transported to their cars or hotels via buses or boats.

The move, which is certain to anger some Disney guests who pay a premium to stay in hotels built along the monorail, illustrate the pressure Disney World's monorail has come under as the giant resort has expanded park hours and hosted ever-larger crowds.

Because of "Extra Magic Hours" — a key perk that Disney has used to drive occupancy in its roughly two-dozen hotels — the Magic Kingdom will on some nights not close until 3 a.m. and will then reopen again at 7 a.m. Disney says it takes 90 minutes for its monorail trains to cycle down at the end of the night and another 90 minutes to restart at the beginning of the day. The result: As little as one hour of downtime for some trains.

Disney said the Magic Kingdom had extended hours for 26 of the 30 days in April.
Company followers say the monorail's reliability has suffered in recent years. In one particularly embarrassing example in late 2009, the system lost power following a computer hard-drive failure at about 1 a.m. It took Disney and emergency-response crews nearly three hours to unload every passenger.

"There are definitely more monorails going down" because of service interruptions, said John Frost, publisher of the Disney Blog, a popular website. "I think it's been pretty obvious that [transportation maintenance] is one of the areas they cut back on during the recession."
In addition, Disney World's monorail fleet has been operating shorthanded — with 11 trains instead of 12 —since a July 5, 2009, train collision that killed a 21-year-old monorail driver. Disney salvaged one train using cars from each of the two involved in the crash, but it has not replaced the second train.

Frost predicted Disney will face a backlash from guests staying at the three Disney hotels on the monorail route: Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Disney's Polynesian Resort and Disney's Contemporary Resort.

"Those are the most-expensive hotels on the property, and those are your clientele who expect the most preferred treatment," Frost said.

Some others say they suspect Disney's real motivation for shutting down the monorails early is cost savings. "One hopes they aren't masking budget cuts behind illusory repairs," said Kevin Yee, an author who writes for the Disney news site MiceAge.com.

Disney said it has not yet decided whether it will operate the trains during extra ticketed events — such as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party — that are staged many nights in the Magic Kingdom during the fall and early winter.

"We will assess the maintenance schedule after a period of time running one hour after park close," Suarez said.” - Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel - 7/12/11

Sounds like this is a good move by WDW Transportation. These trains have been running long hours for a long time and it sounds like it will help improve their reliability and longevity.

I intentionally went off center with SSE just to see more of the Monorail coming through the frame. Now, I'm second guessing myself that maybe it would look better centered in the background?