The triennial Taiwan International Percussion Convention (TIPC) is back this year in the seventh festival of percussion music sponsored by the Taipei-based Ju Percussion Group (朱宗慶打擊樂團). This year’s lineup includes three Taiwanese groups and 10 international groups, some of which are returning to the festival after previous visits, while others will be new to local audiences. The Ju Percussion Group will open the event on May 20 at the National Concert Hall, followed by Forum Music Ensemble (十方樂集) on May 21 and Ensemble 1002 (1002打擊樂團) on May 22. In addition to performances in Taipei at the National Concert Hall, selected acts will perform in Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Sinjhuang, Jhongli, Hsinchu, and Yuanlin. A full English-language schedule can be found at ushop1023.ecmaster.tw/products.asp. Tickets are NT$400 to NT$1,500 for concerts at the National Concert Hall, Taipei City, and NT$300 to NT$1,300 at other venues. There will also be a number of free performances outside Taipei. Detailed English information about the groups can be found at ushop1023.ecmaster.tw.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
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A fossil jawbone found by a British girl and her father on a beach in Somerset, England belongs to a gigantic marine reptile dating to 202 million years ago that appears to have been among the largest animals ever on Earth. Researchers said on Wednesday the bone, called a surangular, was from a type of ocean-going reptile called an ichthyosaur. Based on its dimensions compared to the same bone in closely related ichthyosaurs, the researchers estimated that the Triassic Period creature, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis, was between 22-26 meters long. That would make it perhaps the largest-known marine reptile and would