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How to Stock a Korean Pantry: Jeot, Jang, and More Ingredients to Know
Sonja Swanson
Everything you'll need to stock a full Korean pantry.
Published: February 21, 2018 Last Updated: June 26, 2019
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[Photographs: Michelle Min. Video: Serious Eats Video.]
Korean food always seems to be on the verge of having its moment in the press. It seems like every couple of years, some publication somewhere will identify it as the next up-and-coming cuisine, even though Maangchi is a household name and bottles of probiotic kimchi "gut shots" stand on supermarket shelves alongside Guy Fieri's Korean BBQ Wing Sauce. At my local K-town grocery store, I sometimes see more non-Koreans than Koreans, and a whole lot of people in the United States appear to already know that there's more to Korean cuisine than just kimchi and barbecue. But eating Korean food is one thing, and knowing how to stock your pantry to cook it is another.
I grew up in a Korean-American household, and our dinner table frequently featured rice and banchan, those small, savory side dishes, like pickles, blanched bean sprouts, and sautéed anchovies. Kimchi was always a side with our Thanksgiving turkey. But it wasn't until I took a cooking class with Seoyoung Jung in Seoul that I started to reassess what I knew about Korean cuisine and reflect on the fundamentals of Korean ingredients.
Jung has worked to broaden the world's conception of Korean cuisine ever since she started cooking professionally in the US. Her background is in classic French cuisine—she studied at The Culinary Institute of America and went on to work in the kitchens of Eleven Madison Park, Gordon Ramsay at The London, and Oceana—but she moved back to Seoul in 2011 and started working as a research and development chef in the Korean fermented-foods industry. In her free time, Jung earned a certification from the Institute of Korean Royal Cuisine, where recipes and techniques used to prepare food in the royal kitchens of the Joseon Dynasty are preserved and passed on.
After we met, she invited me to join her on a yearlong blog project, traveling around the countryside to farms and fishing villages, to explore the country's full range of seasonal ingredients. One year turned into three years, and I learned that even though Korean cuisine varies by region—for example, it tends to be spicier and saltier in the warmer southern areas, since capsaicin and salt function as natural preservatives—nearly all Korean kitchens have a set of core ingredients in common. Naturally, to compile this list of essential pantry items, I sought out Jung's expertise.
One of the first points she emphasizes: "Chilies and garlic are important, but I really wish people knew that not all Korean food is spicy!" There's a lot more to Korean cuisine: earthy bean-paste soups, mild rice porridges, icy buckwheat noodles, lightly seasoned vegetable banchan, and an abundance of savory dumplings with no chili pepper heat at all. "There are even white kimchis made without chili powder," Jung says. She also points to often-overlooked Korean culinary traditions like royal cuisine, which is rarely spicy because heat masks the natural flavors of the high-quality ingredients brought to the royal kitchens, and temple food, which eschews spices and alliums because they are said to excite the senses and distract from spiritual contemplation.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the Korean pantry is a living one. "Fermentation is essential to Korean cooking," Jung says. With Korea's hot, humid summers and freezing-cold winters, preserved foods naturally became a cornerstone of the cuisine. Though kimchi is probably Korea's most famous fermented product, fermented soy and fermented seafood are just as important.
So without further ado, here's everything you'll need to dive into Korean cooking.
The Three Essential Jang
From left to right: Mac artisanal ganjang, Mac sweet rice gochujang and Chung Jung One sunchang gochujang (top row), Jookjangyeon artisanal doenjang and Sempio togul doenjang (bottom row), Sempio Joseon ganjang, Sempio jin ganjang, Chung Jung One organic yangjo ganjang.
"To understand Korean cuisine, you have to understand jang," says Jung. "Koreans use jang to season almost everything!" Jang are sauces made from fermented soy blocks, or meju, which are pressed from boiled soybeans and inoculated with wild molds like Aspergillus oryzae or the bacteria Bacillus subtilis (or both) using rice straw. There are many kinds of jang, but you'll find three in every Korean kitchen: ganjang (soy sauce), doenjang (soybean paste), and gochujang (chili paste). Traditionally, ganjang and doenjang were made together in one earthenware jar at the beginning of winter—Jung calls them "twins from one mother." The meju are soaked in brine and release flavorful amino acids as the mold and bacteria break down the soy proteins over the cold winter months. When the solids are strained out, they're fermented separately as doenjang, while the dark and flavorful brine ferments to become ganjang. Gochujang is made in a separate process by mixing crushed meju powder with a grain porridge, rice syrup, salt, and chili powder.
Ganjang
Most large Korean grocery stores carry a dizzying array of soy sauces, but to simplify things, Jung suggests looking for three basic varieties: Joseon ganjang, yangjo ganjang, and jin ganjang. Joseon ganjang (also called guk-ganjang, or soup soy sauce), is made with just soybeans, salt, and water and typically ferments for about a year. Its flavor tends to be more assertive than the other ganjang, with more funky, meaty notes, especially in artisanal products. Jung likes using Joseon ganjang anywhere soy sauce is required as a seasoning—soups, banchan, et cetera. She suggests using it to season food a little at a time while you get used to its flavor profile. Sempio's Joseon ganjang is a mild, easy-to-find brew, and Mac makes a Joseon ganjang that you'll find in larger Korean markets. Yangjo ganjang is made in the same way as Joseon ganjang and ferments for about six months, but the fermented mixture also includes wheat, a holdover from Japanese colonization. "The wheat makes yangjo ganjang sweeter, so keep that in mind when cooking," Jung advises. Yangjo ganjang is good for meat marinades and dipping sauces, and makes an acceptable substitute for Joseon ganjang if you're not a fan of the latter's stronger flavors. Look for Chung Jung One's organic yangjo ganjang. Finally, jin ganjang is a sauce made with soy proteins that are quickly and thoroughly broken down with chemical enzymes, resulting in an ultra-savory, one-note seasoning—pretty much equivalent to your garden-variety bottom-shelf soy sauce. "The name 'jin ganjang' used to refer to soy sauce that was aged for three to five years, but today it's used for this cheap, mass-produced product," Jung explains. "Still, if you're cooking in bulk, like making soy pickles, jin ganjang can be useful."
Doenjang
Like other fermented soybean pastes, doenjang is savory and full of umami. It tends to be darker and funkier than miso, but it doesn't have quite the pungency of black bean paste. Doenjang traditionally ages for two years, though industrial processes are much shorter—and just as with ganjang, some doenjang is now made with wheat, resulting in a sweeter product, so Jung advises looking at ingredient labels before buying. These days, she says, most Korean young people have grown up with and prefer the sweeter doenjang. It's more difficult to find doenjang without wheat in the US, but if you can get your hands on some, give it a try for a deeper, more rustic flavor profile. Jung likes Sempio's togul doenjang, a naturally fermented product that uses non-GMO beans and is aged in a cave. Jookjangyeon, an artisanal producer that ages its jang in earthenware jars, has recently started exporting its products to the US, and you can find its doenjang at some large Korean grocery stores.
Doenjang can be used in marinades and dipping sauces, and is a very common stew and soup base. "It goes really well with aged cheese!" Jung says. It's also a key ingredient in ssamjang, a dipping sauce for barbecue and lettuce wraps. Jung's recipe for ssamjang calls for mixing one part doenjang and one part gochujang ("or more, if you want it spicier") with crushed roasted sesame seeds, minced garlic, and a little sesame oil. Doenjang is similar in some ways to miso, though, if you plan to substitute it in recipes that call for miso, keep in mind that it is funkier and much saltier, and adjust accordingly.
Gochujang is a relative newcomer in Korea, as chilies weren't widely used on the peninsula until the 1600s. It's made from a usually rice-based grain porridge, gochugaru (more on this below), meju powder, and salt, and carries a natural sweetness from the fermenting grains. This sweetness, along with its addictive, fruity fire, has made gochujang one of Korea's most popular fermented exports. Jung cautions against buying gochujang that contains corn syrup, which is more intensely sweet than the jocheong, or rice syrup, that's traditionally used; you can always add more sweetness later if you need it. Chung Jung One's sunchang gochujang is made with Korean rice syrup and no additives, and you can find Mac's sweet rice gochujang, a small-batch product, in some large Korean grocery stores. Gochujang is great for marinades, dipping sauces, and seasoning banchan. Try a generous dab with some sesame oil on your bibimbap, or mix it with vinegar for sashimi.
The Gajeun Yangnyeom ("Everything Seasonings")
"Every Korean mom has their own blend of seasonings they put into their gajeun yangnyeom," says Jung. This "everything seasoning" is one of those essential, ambiguous ingredients used to flavor banchan or marinades: A typical Korean-mom recipe, Jung explains, will tell you to season your banchan (especially blanched vegetables) as you go along using your gajeun yangnyeom, which includes something salty, like jang, and, often but not always, something sweet, like sugar or plum syrup. The baseline version is a mix of jang, gochugaru, crushed garlic, minced daepa (Welsh onion), and crushed toasted sesame seeds.
Gochugaru
Gochugaru, or chili powder, has a different flavor profile from the chili powder you typically find on Western supermarket shelves. "It's not sharp and fiery, but it has more of a continuous, long-lasting heat with more fruity tones," Jung says. One exception is cheongyang gochugaru, a variety that kicks up the heat several notches (and is fairly hard to find in the US). In general, you'll encounter two different grinds of gochugaru: The coarse grind is the general go-to product—in coffee terms, it's close to a coarse, French-press grind. Goun gochugaru, more akin to an espresso grind, is a finer powder used for making gochujang and coloring the brine in water kimchi.
Koreans are picky about their chili powder—many will grow and sun-dry their own chilies in the early fall, then bring them to the local mill for grinding, or buy dried chilies at the mill and have them ground on the spot. If you can't hop on a plane to pick up freshly ground gochugaru from Korea yourself, Jung suggests you look for bright red chili powder that's made in Korea: "Sun-dried chilies, or taeyangcho, have a brighter color and a more natural aroma, but darker gochugaru was most likely heat-dried, which changes the flavor." She recommends storing your gochugaru in the freezer for optimal freshness year-round.
Crushed Garlic
Korean cooking calls for frequent and prodigious use of garlic, so it's common to crush a whole bunch in one go and store it in the fridge or freezer. Jung soaks the cloves in room-temperature water for a few minutes to make them easier to peel. "Our grandmothers' generation would pound the garlic with a mortar and pestle, which creates more juice and develops the character of the garlic," Jung says, "but a food processor also works just fine." She also likes to press the finely crushed or minced garlic flat in a plastic zipper-lock bag and use the back of a knife to score it before freezing, so it's easy to break off as much frozen garlic as she needs later. The next time you're at the Korean market, keep an eye out for a Korean cooking knife: Their handles often have a flat metal base for pounding garlic right on your cutting board.
Minced Daepa
Daepa, or Welsh onion, is basically a giant scallion—"but don't confuse it with a leek!" laughs Jung. Leeks are tougher and get quite sweet when cooked, she explains, while daepa has more garlicky spice and is typically used alongside garlic. Koreans use the firm white and pale-green base for seasoning, and the floppy, darker-green section for soup stock. "The green part is usually stickier and spicier, while the white part is sweeter," Jung says. She prefers freshly minced daepa, but says if you want to freeze a bunch, make sure they're completely dry first to avoid mushiness. You can substitute scallions for daepa in a pinch. This video demonstrates a quick way to mince daepa.
Crushed toasted sesame seeds are called ggaesogeum. Jung buys her sesame seeds whole and untoasted and stores them in the freezer. Later, she toasts small batches at a time, starting by rinsing and draining the seeds. "Rinsing makes a huge difference and keeps the seeds plump," she says. Gently toast them in a dry pan over medium-low heat "until you start to hear a crackling dadak! dadak! sound." You should also see the seeds turn a light golden brown, and smell a gently toasted sesame aroma rising from the pan. Jung keeps her roasted sesame seeds in a jar and gently grinds them with a mortar and pestle right before use. (If you're feeling lazy, you can also crush a spoonful between your palms.)
Plum Syrup
Maesil cheong, or plum syrup, rose in popularity as an alternative to sugar in the last 30 or so years, due in part to the alleged health benefits of green plums aged in sugar. "In any case, maesil adds a really nice touch, similar to finishing with vinegar," Jung says. "It brightens up your food."
If you can find green plums in spring, she suggests making your own: Mix equal parts pitted plums and sugar in a jar (or use up to 1.2 parts sugar, if you live in a warm place prone to mold), and let the syrup form naturally over a few months. "Or try making a cheong with fresh cranberries, apples, or onions."
Freshly pressed sesame oil, or chamgireum, has an amazing aroma, but it can be hard to find in the States.* Your next-best option is to look at the sell-by date for the freshest oil available and store it in the fridge after buying. Jung also likes deulgireum, or perilla seed oil, a milder cousin to chamgireum. Since both have low smoke points, she sometimes mixes them with another cooking oil, like grapeseed, when using them for cooking, but says that they're usually best used as finishing oils. (You can also include them in your everything seasoning.)
* Chong's Grocery in Los Angeles does sell and ship fresh-pressed sesame oil ($13 for 16 ounces) and perilla oil ($19 for 16 ounces). It's easiest to have a Korean speaker call and receive the text message with ordering instructions.
It's always good to have a little vinegar on hand. Vinegar, says Jung, pairs well with both ganjang and gochujang in banchan seasonings, and cho-gochujang, a vinegared version, is a popular dipping sauce for raw fish and lightly blanched vegetables. She recommends makgeolli shikcho, which is brewed from rice alcohol, but it can be difficult to find in the US; hyunmi shikcho (brown rice vinegar) is a good second choice.
Cooking Alcohol
Koreans use cooking alcohol to reduce strong odors from meat and fish. "We are not a fan of blood flavor—for dishes like galbi [grilled short ribs], we even soak the meat overnight in cold water to remove blood!" Jung explains. Her first choice for cooking alcohol is cheongju, a mid-range-ABV brew similar to sake (try Kooksoondang's Yedam). Absent that, you can substitute soju or even vodka.
Jeot (Salted, Fermented Seafood)
From left to right: sandlance, anchovy, and shrimp jeot.
Jeot, Korea's salted, fermented seafood condiments, give an extra savory, umami boost to your cooking—and there are over 160 varieties, including salt-cured clams, squid, and fish innards. They're an essential element in most kimchi recipes, too. "If you use salt, you only get saltiness, but if you use jeot, you get way more depth of flavor," says Jung. Jeot is sold in both strained, liquid form and paste-like solid form. Two popular types of liquid jeot are myeolchi jeot (anchovy sauce) and gganari aekjeot (sandlance sauce, made from a small fish that burrows into sand). "If you're a huge fan of fishy flavors, go for the anchovy jeot, which is stronger than sandlance jeot," Jung advises. Liquid jeot can be mixed with soy sauce or can even replace it entirely, especially in seafood-based soups, like miyeok-guk (seaweed soup), though be warned that the result will be pretty fishy. Korean fish sauce, Jung says, has more sharp and clear flavors than Thai or Vietnamese fish sauce, but you can use those in place of Korean fish sauce if you need to—just be sure to taste as you go along.
If you're stocking up on jeot, you can't go wrong with saewoo jeot, fermented shrimp paste. Hundreds of tiny pink shrimp are packed into each jar, which will keep in your fridge for years. "Saewoo jeot is the mildest of the three, and also the sweetest because of the shrimp," says Jung. If you're new to fish sauce, she recommends starting with this versatile jeot: Use it in kimchi, steamed egg dishes, and sautéed squash—or even try throwing some into your next pasta sauce. "It's funky, salty, and sweet all at once."
Soup Stock Ingredients
There are all kinds of soup stocks in Korea, but one of the most common is an anchovy-based broth. Simmering these ingredients together is the first step in most soup and stew recipes.
Dried Anchovies
You'll find a range of dried-anchovy sizes, but for soup stock, Jung recommends going with larger fish, about the size of your little finger or larger (the smaller anchovies are for banchan). Look for plump fish with unbroken, silvery skin. If you're truly dedicated, pluck out the guts and heads to remove bitter flavors. Here's a video showing how it's done.
Dasima
Dasima is also known by its Japanese name, kombu. You can buy this glutamate-rich dried kelp in flat sheets or precut into small squares or long strips. Before using, Jung wipes any residual white powder off with a damp cloth. "It's all natural, nothing to worry about, but I like to make sure there aren't any impurities or dust on my dasima," she explains. Wiping is better, she says, because rinsing your dasima can render it slimy. Jung's secret dasima tip: "Always make dasima broth with some kind of protein, like anchovies, never just kelp alone," she says. "The glutamates in the kelp plus the protein molecules give you umami synergy, which really amplifies the umami flavor!"
If you're feeling ambitious (or if you happen to have any of these odds and ends lying around the kitchen), throw in some dried pyogo (shiitake) mushrooms, white radish, green daepa leaves, dried pollack heads, or onion to add complexity to your stock. But ultimately, Jung says, all you need for a good stock is anchovies and kelp. For the lazy among us, check out her recipe for an easy, make-ahead refrigerator soup stock here.
Sonja writes about food, travel, and culture from the American Southwest with annual trips to Korea, her home of seven years. She was an editor at Time Out Seoul, worked in radio and marketing, and co-founded the Korean food blog Bburi Kitchen. There is always something fermenting in her kitchen (and only sometimes by accident).
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Far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro elected president of Brazil
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Essel Infra inks Concession Agreement with National Mission for Clean Ganga in Delhi for development of Sewage Treatment Plant under Hybrid Annuity based PPP mode
AcademicsCommon Entrance ExamEdu Business News
By India Education Diary Bureau Admin	 Last updated Apr 27, 2020
Chennai, October 11, 2017: Essel Infra, an enterprise of Dr. Subhash Chandra led Essel Group signs Concession Agreement with National Mission for Clean Ganga in Delhi for development of Sewage Treatment Plant under Hybrid Annuity based PPP mode. Essel Infra is the PPP Partner for this 50 MLD Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) contract based on Hybrid Annuity-PPP model. This project is the very first of the two such projects awarded under Namani Gange Program.
The project, which will be constructed in eighteen months and will be operated and maintained for 15 years by Essel Infra. This STP will treat 5 crore litres of sewage of Varanasi city every day. The project will use world class SBR (Sequencing Batch Reactors) technology to treat sewage as per stringent international quality standards. Currently, the entire sewage is being pushed in the River Gange without any treatment mechanism and is a major source of pollution in the river.
On the occasion, Mr. Rohit Modi, CEO, Essel Infra, said, "We are proud to be associated with the 'Namami Gange Programme' helmed by Hon'ble Prime Minister. This is an important milestone to achieve the goal of 'Swachh Bharat' and cleaning the Holy River Ganga. We are committed to complete the project before the scheduled timeline".
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rana Kapoor, MD & CEO, YES BANK and Chairman, YES Global Institute said, "NAMAMI GANGE Projects are a true manifestation of the Clean India initiative. YES BANK, given its Responsible Banking ethos, is committed to sustainable projects in Sewage Treatment Plants and other related segments, which have significant social and ecological impact.
Essel Infra has a proven track record in executing urban infra projects and we are pleased to be supporting this 1st of its kind project in India."
Essel Infra is leading the consortium for the project, will undertake complete designing, development, finance and construction work of the STP, its Effluent Disposal Pipeline and all associated infrastructure. The company is a well-established name in the infra sector due to its indelible credibility of undertaking large projects across the length and breadth of the country with the help of its state-of-art equipment and highly trained manpower. This first of a kind Sewage Treatment Project is being managed under the 'Namami Gange Programme', a Flagship Programme of the Central Government.
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Economic situation virtually unchanged
© Hollandse Hoogte / Michiel Wijnbergh Fotografie
According to the CBS Business Cycle Tracer, the economic situation has remained virtually unchanged in December compared to the previous four months. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports that all indicators in the Tracer as published mid-December are performing above the level of their long-term trend.
The CBS Business Cycle Tracer is a tool used to monitor the situation and the developments in the Dutch economy. It uses thirteen key macro-economic indicators. Together, these provide a coherent macro-economic picture which is based on CBS figures published over the past month or quarter. It does not represent the situation at the level of individual households, businesses or regions.
Show datatableBusiness Cycle Tracer indicator (unweighted average of the indicators in the CBS Business Cycle Tracer) (distance to the long-term trend (=0))Hide datatableBusiness Cycle Tracer indicator (unweighted average of the indicators in the CBS Business Cycle Tracer) (distance to the long-term trend (=0))
Business Cycle Tracer indicator (unweighted average of the indicators in the CBS Business Cycle Tracer) (distance to the long-term trend (=0))
Consumers less confident, producers more confident
The mood among Dutch consumers has deteriorated again in December compared to the previous month. Producer confidence improved in November. The confidence indicators remain well above their long-term average.
Show datatableConsumer and producer confidence (seasonally adjusted) (average of the component questions)Hide datatableConsumer and producer confidence (seasonally adjusted) (average of the component questions)
Consumer and producer confidence (seasonally adjusted) (average of the component questions)
-4 2.5
-8 -2.2
-16 -3.2
-11 0.1
Household consumption, investments and exports growing
The volume of investments in tangible fixed assets was 7.4 percent up in October 2018 relative to the same month last year. Investments in dwellings, buildings and machinery were up again.
The total volume of goods exports grew by 5.1 percent in October relative to October 2017. Relative growth was higher than in September. In October 2018, exports of transport equipment, metal products, machinery and appliances increased most notably.
Dutch household consumption was 1.7 percent up in October 2018 over October 2017. The growth rate was the lowest so far this year. In October 2018, consumers mainly spent more on services.
Manufacturing output over 3 percent up in October
The average daily output generated by the Dutch manufacturing industry was 3.4 percent up in October compared to the same month last year. The growth rate was slightly higher than in September. The transport equipment industry realised the strongest production growth.
More bankruptcies in October
The number of corporate bankruptcies has increased again. There were 13 more bankruptcies in November 2018 than in the previous month. In September, the number of bankruptcies reached the lowest level since 2001. However, the trend has been fairly flat for over a year.
Number of jobs continues to grow
In Q3 2018, the number of full-time and part-time jobs held by employees and self-employed rose by 56 thousand relative to the previous quarter. It is the seventh consecutive quarter with job growth exceeding 50 thousand. Within one year, the number of jobs grew by 268 thousand.
The total number of hours worked by employees and self-employed reached 3.4 billion in Q3 2018. When adjusted for seasonal effects, this is 0.8 percent more than in Q2.
The number of job vacancies grew by 11 thousand in Q3 2018. As a result, 262 thousand job vacancies were available at the end of the quarter. The number of vacancies reached its highest level ever.
Tension in the labour market increased further in Q3; for each job vacancy there were 1.3 unemployed. The labour market was as tight as in the first three quarters of 2008.
The unemployment rate decreased in November to 3.5 and for the first time it is lower than just before the economic crisis in 2008. Unemployment declined by an average of 9 thousand per month to 326 thousand in November.
Show datatableGDP (volume), seasonally adjusted (2010=100)Hide datatableGDP (volume), seasonally adjusted (2010=100)
GDP (volume), seasonally adjusted (2010=100)
Quarter 1
GDP growth 0.2 percent in Q3 2018
Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.2 percent in Q3 2018 relative to the previous quarter, according to the second estimate of GDP conducted by CBS. GDP grew by 2.4 percent relative to Q3 2017.
On Thursday 14 February 2019, CBS will publish the first estimate of GDP and employment in Q4 2018. In addition, the annual figures over 2018 will be published.
Visualisation - Statistics Netherlands' Business cycle tracer


Difficulty: Quite a long walk but much of it is in shaded areas. Some ascent and descent although this is largely gradual. There are a number of opportunities for resting and refilling water bottles.
The walk starts from the Kelefos Medieval Bridge situated to the north west of the comparatively well-known village of Omodos. You will need to drive to the small village of Agios Nikolaos on the F620, heading down through the village and following the signs to the bridge, which is situated in the valley bed some 6km beyond. Once there you will see a large area to park your car. Your walk starts here.
Near the car park is a sign directing you to the Komititzi picnic site (12km). For the time being this direction is also the road to Milikouri and to Kaminaria. You will be walking up a quiet and pleasant country road with the River Platys on your left.
After about 20 minutes of comparatively easy uphill walking you will come to a junction. Turn left here, following the green signs directing you to 'Mylikouri 12km' and 'Picnic Site Komititzi 10 km'.
You are now on an earth track which drops steeply down to the river below. Very soon you cross a pair of concrete bridges over the river. The path leads into deciduous woodland following a clearly-defined path which keeps the river to its right. There is little opportunity to go astray at this point.
The track winds its way through beautiful woodland, hugging the course of the river and providing easy walking. The trees were alive with birdsong when we walked this route and the only other sound was the crashing of the water as it flowed over rocks and down a series of mini waterfalls.
…and a quarter of an hour later – at 1 hour 50 minutes – you will reach a signed T-junction. You will need to turn right here, following the signs to 'Komitigi Picnic Site 1.5 km' and to 'Kykkos 15 km'.
You are now on the E4 European Long Distance Path.
We had to ford a small stream at the junction but thereafter continued walking through a clearly-defined woodland path, arriving at the Komititzi picnic site after 2 hours 10 minutes. At this point the Mylikouri and Pyknopitia rivers converge to become the Platys river.
When you have taken advantage of the picnic benches (note there is no drinking water available at this site) continue past Komititzi along the earth road which continues gently uphill. There is no immediate E4 sign to point the way from Komititzi but keep the stream on your right, albeit far below as your path climbs along the side of the valley. After about 10 minutes' walking you will pass an E4 sign to your right.
One kilometre from Komitizi (2 hours 30 minutes) you reach a fork in the earth road. There are E4 signs here including one pointing back to the picnic site. Continue along the E4 by taking the right hand fork and heading downhill.
Four minutes later you will reach the river bed. Your path crosses the river (there could be quite a lot of water here in winter, but as you can see there was no problem in June) and then turns 360 degrees to climb up the other side of the valley. As the path rises steadily the views across the neighbouring hills and valleys become increasingly impressive.
Continue along the earth road. At 2 hours 55 minutes you will reach a junction with a sharp dog-leg heading downhill to your right.
There is an E4 sign here but it is potentially confusing. IGNORE the dog-leg track and keep walking straight on. A couple of minutes later you will be walking past a chain link fence on your right which you can actually be seen from the junction.
Keep walking on the main track. It heads briefly downhill before doubling back on itself and winding uphill again with farmland below to the right.
At 3 hours 10 minutes you will walk past this little shrine at the side of the track.
The CTO map shows a church somewhere near here dedicated to Profitis Ilias. We couldn't find it the first time we walked this route but have since spotted it in the distance , high above the path. The views of the valley below you are sensational. It feels very remote here.
After 3 hours 30 minutes a concrete road briefly replaces the earth track as you pass a cherry orchard on your right. The road climbs quite steeply here for a couple of minutes, then you will reach a junction at the saddle of the hill. Take the right hand fork, following the E4 signpost.
The track starts to wind down the side of the hill, through vineyards and orchards and in just a few minutes, heading downhill and ignoring any tracks to left or right, you will be able to see the other church marked on the CTO map; Agios Vasileios. Reach this tiny 16th Century church at 3 hours 40 minutes. There are some pleasant shady benches here.
Continuing downhill and still on the E4 you will soon see the village of Kaminaria below you. As you reach the outskirts of the village at 3 hours 55 minutes you will pass this shrine to Agios Ermolaos.
Continue downhill on the main street through the sleepy village of Kaminaria where there are a couple of coffee shops (one of which is usually open!) and a drinking water supply (always working…so far!).
Leave the village on the road which heads down the valley. You will pass a shrine to St George at the roadside and at 4 hours 20 minutes you will reach a junction where a concrete road heads to your left. This concrete road is the E4 route to Agios Georgios – not our destination for this walk.
So now you leave the E4 and continue along the asphalt road downhill. You will walk down this road for about 45 minutes. It is very quiet and you are unlikely to encounter much traffic. Once when we were walking along here a lovely couple emerged from their orchard and handed us a bag of cherries. Delicious.
At 5 hours 5 minutes you will reach Elias Bridge, a very pretty spot where you will probably see frogs and, if you are lucky, freshwater crabs basking on the rocks.
When you are ready to continue, walk back to the road and with your back to the bridge, turn left, heading downhill and after a couple of minutes crossing the road bridge.
You are on the Venetian Bridges Nature Trail. For 15 minutes you will continue along the asphalt road but it really is very quiet indeed and follows the course of the stream to your right – very pretty.
At 5 hours 20 minutes the nature trail leaves the road and heads into the forest to your left.
Follow the well signed path as it climbs, then descends through the woods. You will catch glimpses of Arminou Dam and reservoir through the trees.
At 5 hours 50 minutes your path crosses the road…….
…….to return you – within a couple of minutes – to your starting point at Kelefos Bridge.


Greatest artworks in high quality to puzzle on your iPad. Selection of 80 amazing paintings from Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Monet, Renoir, Rubens, Vermeer, Gauguin and others outstanding authors.
The app has a lovely interface that will bring you the experience of visiting a real art museum walking through 4 different art galleries.
By completing each puzzle you will be able to admire another wonderful art masterpiece, save it to your Photo Albums and use as wallpapers.
- 'Renoir Gallery' - a selection of 20 wonderful paintings of Pierre-Augustine Renoir.
- 'Edgar Degas Gallery' - great collection of 20 beautiful works of Edgar Degas.
- 'Leonardo & Raphael Gallery' - Wonderful selection of 20 brilliant works of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael.
Very educational and entertaining, it will surely become one of your favorite iPad apps.


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home // News // Geelong: Start of fluoride low-key //
Geelong: Start of fluoride low-key
Source: Star News Group | June 4th, 2009 | By Jessica Benton
Fluoridation is set for a low-key debut in the region, according to State Government.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Daniel Andrews said the Government had "no plans" for an official ceremony to mark the beginning of fluoridation on June 22.
Barwon Freedom from Fluoridation secretary David McRae accused the Government of "running for cover" rather than celebrating Geelong's most-controversial public health initiative.
"Normally, when there's a new government initiative you have the Premier, the relevant minister and all the local MPs lining up and smiling side by side," he said.
"They're all being very quiet about this one. Are they deeply embarrassed by it?
"Perhaps they've been caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare where they have a policy but at the same time they've become aware of its flaws."
Association president Keith Oakley said the anti-fluoride campaign would continue after June 22.


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text:
Charleston's Defensive Strategy of 1703
Friday, December 03, 2021 Nic Butler, Ph.D.
When Queen Anne of England declared war on France and Spain in 1702, the people of South Carolina were overwhelmed with anxiety about the security of Charleston, the colonial capital. Fortifications built along the town's eastern waterfront provided some protection against potential invaders, but the rest of the community was open to attack. After a Carolina military expedition failed to capture Spanish St. Augustine, the provincial government adopted an emergency plan in late 1703 to build an entrenchment around Charleston—an earthen wall and moat to surround and protect the capital's urban core.
"Entrenchment" is a term used in military architecture to describe a pair of linear defensive components often used to protect a specific area like a town. First, workers excavate a perimeter trench or ditch or moat to slow or deter attackers on foot or on horseback. Second, workers pile the excavated earth next to the ditch to form a defensive berm. The resulting berm or "entrenchment" serves as a protective barrier to shield defenders and repulse attackers who might approach or traverse the ditch. Due to the nature of the materials involved, entrenchments are relatively inexpensive and simple to create, but they are inherently impermanent works. They are best suited for temporary occasions, like sieges, in which an attacker arrives at the perimeter of a town or castle and rapidly constructs a line of entrenchment to defend its approach. To render such earthworks more permanent, builders can add rigid materials like bundles of sticks (fascines), boards, bricks, or stones to hold the earth in place. These materials provide reinforcement, or "revetment," that can extend the lifespan of an entrenchment indefinitely if properly maintained.
Charleston Time Machine · Episode 221: Charleston's Defensive Strategy of 1703
The earthen entrenchments constructed within urban Charleston during the early years of eighteenth century endured on the landscape for a single generation, but they have long formed one of the most iconic and misunderstood features in the narrative of local history. The so-called "Crisp Map" of South Carolina, published in London in 1711, depicts Charleston as what we might describe as a "walled city," outlined by a trapezoid-shaped network of walls, moats, bastions, redans, and drawbridges. This illustration has been reproduced in countless books and articles over the past three centuries, accompanied by vague descriptions of the town's early defenses. Absent among this literature, however, is any detailed discussion of when, why, and how Charleston's earthen walls were created. Today's program focuses solely on the historical context that triggered the decision to enclose the town behind a defensive wall and moat. In future programs, we'll continue this narrative by examining the methods of constructing the entrenchments, the ongoing efforts to repair them, and the eventual decision to remove them from the urban landscape.
Shortly after moving the capital of South Carolina to the peninsula known as Oyster Point in 1680, the provincial legislature authorized the construction of some rudimentary fortifications made of earth and wood along the Cooper River waterfront of "new" Charles Towne (now Charleston). Work commenced in 1694 to build a brick "wharf wall" along the east side of modern East Bay Street, measuring nearly one half of a mile in length. The storm surge associated with a strong hurricane in the autumn of 1700 ruined much of the initial brickwork, but the project quickly rebounded and continued. By the summer of 1702, South Carolina's provincial government mounted two dozen cannon at three emplacements along the unfinished brick "wharf wall": an unfinished brick "fort" (later called Granville Bastion) at the southern end of the Bay, a small battery of unknown materials at the east end of Tradd Street; and a completed brick Half Moon Battery at the east end of Broad Street. Beyond these works along Charleston's eastern waterfront, the south, west, and northern parts of the town remained unguarded.
In August 1702, news arrived in Charleston that King William II of England had died in March, and his successor, Queen Anne, had declared war on France and Spain in May. Historians refer to this international conflict as Queen Anne's War, or the War of Spanish Succession, which was destined to last for eleven years. Although most of the fighting took place in Europe, the conflict extended across the Atlantic to include the various colonies in the Americas. For the first time since the settlement of the South Carolina in 1670, a state of formal warfare now existed between the English government in Charleston and the Spanish government at St. Augustine, Florida. The Floridians had recently completed an impressive stone fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos, to defend their capital, while the waterfront defenses of Charleston remained relatively weak and unfinished. After learning of the new declaration of war, South Carolina's provincial government was compelled to consider methods of improving the fortifications around its capital as quickly and cheaply as possible.
During a legislative session held in August and September 1702, the South Carolina General Assembly ordered the continuation of work on the existing waterfront fortifications, but did not discuss plans for any new defensive works around the capital town. Instead, the provincial government chose to pursue an offensive strategy. Governor James Moore convinced the assembly to fund a preemptive attack on the capital of Spanish Florida rather than wait for Spanish forces based in St. Augustine or Havana to launch an attack on the capital of South Carolina.[1] After weeks of planning and preparation, a squadron of vessels and armed men sailed from Charleston in October 1702 and commenced a siege of St. Augustine in early November. The Carolina forces sacked and burned the town, but lacked sufficient firepower to subdue Spanish forces ensconced within the Castillo de San Marcos. Governor Moore later acknowledged that the "castle" of San Marcos was "much stronger then [sic] it hath been represented to us by any person."[2] When shiploads of Spanish reinforcements arrived from Havana in late December, the South Carolina troops set fire to their own vessels and marched home over land.[3]
Two weeks after abandoning the siege of St. Augustine, Governor Moore was back in Charleston to address the opening of a new session of the South Carolina General Assembly. The text of his speech to the Commons House on January 14th, 1703, does not survive, but the response from the House provides an outline of its content. Having failed in his recent effort to conquer the capital of La Florida, Governor Moore warned his colleagues that Spanish forces would likely retaliate by launching an attack on the capital of South Carolina. He therefore advised the assembly to consider various ways and means of improving the defensive works around urban Charleston. The Commons House immediately appointed a committee to consider this topic, and one week later, on 23 January, the committee presented to the House a report and "a platt to make Charles Towne more defencible."[4]
Political squabbling over the failed raid on St. Augustine postponed debate of the committee's report and plat until February 18th. After a brief, unrecorded discussion on that date, the members of the Commons House resolved "that there be an entrenchment on ye back part of ye towne, for the security thereof." This rather vague phrase suggests a plan to trace a line of entrenchment around the undefended parts of Charleston, to the south, north, and west of the small settlement crowded along the Cooper River waterfront. Although details are lacking to confirm the nature of the plan submitted in February 1703, the report and plat were sufficiently robust for the Commons House to order one of its members to prepare a bill to implement and fund the proposed entrenchments. That bill never materialized, however, because the assembly adjourned for a recess one week later and was then dissolved when Sir Nathaniel Johnson received a commission to serve as governor of South Carolina.[5]
After a round of provincial elections in late March, a new General Assembly convened in Charleston in mid-April 1703. Governor Johnson, like his predecessor, encouraged the Commons House to finish the waterfront fortifications and consider methods of making the rest of Charleston more defensible. A committee assigned to this task submitted on May 7th a plan to "make a work or trenchm[en]t," but the geographic scope of this new plan was more specific than the one mentioned several months earlier. It was to be confined to the southern tip of the peninsula, "att ye White point for ye defence & safty of soldiers when comanded to oppose ye landing of an enemy in that place." Furthermore, the Commons House assigned a sort of hypothetical status to the proposed entrenchment by ordering it to be made "in such place, & in such forme & at such time, as ye Generall [Governor Johnson] shall direct & order." Johnson made no such orders, however, and in September the legislature voted to suspend further consideration of the proposed "breast worke along ye White point."[6]
The decision to postpone discussion of new fortifications in Charleston was soon reversed by the arrival of terrifying news. In the autumn of 1703, a combined Spanish and French force sailed from Havana and sacked the town of Nassau, the capital of the English colony of the Bahama Islands.[7] The invaders obliterated the settlement, murdered scores of inhabitants, and held the English governor as a prisoner for ransom. Former South Carolina governor Robert Quary was residing in Virginia when he heard news of the raid that October, and immediately feared for the safety of his former neighbors. Quary informed the English government that "the next step will be ye taking of Carolina," and lamented that the people of Charleston were "in no condition to defend themselves."[8]
Governor Nathaniel Johnson shared Quary's fear. In November 1703, after hearing credible intelligence that Spanish forces were preparing to attack South Carolina, Johnson called for an emergency legislative session to address the potential danger.[9] The elected representatives gathered in Charleston on December 7th, and the following day heard a rousing speech from the governor. The text of Johnson's speech does not survive, but, as with Governor Moore's speech a year earlier, the formal response from the Commons House provides an outline of its content. On December 9th, the Commons House sent Johnson a message of thanks: "Wee the Commons returne your Honr. the hearty thanks of the House for your kind speech, and for your great care over us, in calling us to meet together in this dangerous juncture, to consult upon methods for the security of this province."
After commending the governor for his vigorous leadership "in the time of allarum," the Commons House began to debate various topics suggested in Johnson's speech. The first "article" of their discussion responded to the crux of the governor's advice: "The Question is, whether this House is of opinion that an entrenchment shall be drawn through part of Charlestowne for the defence of the same." After the votes were tallied, the question "carried in the affirmative," and the House appointed a committee "to view the most proper ground for the s[ai]d entrenchment to be made, and draw a platt of the same, and present it to this House tomorrow."[10]
The members of the committee assigned this task commenced their work immediately, but apparently were unsure how to proceed. Unless they had prior experience with building fortifications, they might have pondered a number of practical topics, such as how broad and how deep to dig the moat, how broad to make the earthen rampart, how tall to pile the parapet wall, and how to prevent the earthen walls from washing away during rainstorms. If the line of the proposed entrenchment was to be "drawn through part of Charlestowne," which part of the town should be included within the walls, and which parts excluded? Once they had perfected a scaled plan on paper, how were they supposed to transfer the design onto the urban landscape?
To resolve such hypothetical questions, the Commons House sent two of its members to visit the governor on December 10th, "to know his opinion upon the entrenchments." Sir Nathaniel Johnson was a man of significant military experience in the English army, but he apparently lacked practical knowledge related to the design and construction of fortifications. To assist with such matters, the governor advised the Commons House "that Capt. Sam. Du Burdaux and Mr. Lomboyce be sent for to have their opinions upon the entrenchment of the Towne." To expedite invitations to these men, Governor Johnson volunteered to "send for Lomboyce," while the Commons House agreed to summon Du Burdaux.[11]
The two men in question were both Huguenot immigrants, French Protestants who had come to South Carolina in the late seventeenth century to escape religious persecution in their homeland. Their names are rendered in a variety of misspellings among the extant records of South Carolina's early government, but we can identify the subjects with some confidence. Samuel DuBourdieu, "squire," migrated from Brittany in Northern France to Charleston in 1686. He soon moved northward with a handful of other Huguenots to settle on the frontier area along the Santee River. Although he later moved westward to a plantation near the western branch of the Cooper River, part of the DuBordieu family moved northward into modern Georgetown County where the name is now pronounced "Debidue."[12] Similarly, Jacques le Grand, sieur de Lomboy (1659–1725) was a native of Normandy in northern France who came to South Carolina before the end of the seventeenth century. Like Mons. DuBourdieu, Jacques or James de Lomboy settled among other Huguenot refugees along the Santee River and lived the rest of his life primarily as a rural planter.[13]
In mid-December 1703, South Carolina's predominantly-English government reached out to a pair of French immigrants for military advice during an emergency situation. This gesture suggests that Messieurs DuBourdieu and Lomboy possessed some particular knowledge of military architecture, engineering, or project management, or some combination thereof. Details related to their professional experiences in France are now lacking, but we know that the members of the South Carolina government valued the knowledge and skills of their French neighbors in 1703, and invited them to contribute to the defense of their new home.
On December 17th, one week after the government reached out to the Huguenots living on the rural frontier, Samuel DuBordieu visited the Commons House of Assembly and "laid before this House a draught of the fortifications of Charlestowne." The House immediately appointed a committee to inspect the submitted draught, "to supervise the lines of the s[ai]d fortifications, and report the damages that the said lines [of the entrenchment] may do to each inhabitants lott, tomorrow."[14] The committee reported the next day that "the said line is little or no damage to the owners of those lotts it runeth over." The committee added "that they also approve of the draught of the said fortification, already drawn, and brought into this House by Capt. Du Burdeaux."[15]
The lines of entrenchment drawn around Charleston by Samuel DuBourdieu in 1703 cut through both public streets and private lots. This intrusion did not cause great hardship to the town's inhabitants, however, because the vast majority of the residences and businesses were clustered near modern East Bay Street, between the south side of modern Tradd Street and the north side of modern Queen Street. Beyond the Anglican Church at the southeast corner of Meeting and Broad Streets, and the Congregational Meeting House a few hundred yards to the north, there was very little development standing on the west side of modern Meeting Street in the winter of 1703. DuBourdieu's "draught" struck a balance between two competing interests. The outline or "trace" he submitted to the provincial government was sufficiently large to avoid passing through numerous settled properties, but sufficiently small to create an "enceinte" or enclosure that could be defended by the town's small population of adult White males. The government was prepared to compensate property owners impacted by the exercise of eminent domain, and the community was willing to tolerate the temporary closure of a few streets in order to survive the present emergency. The immediate threat was real, and, as later government records indicate, the local population understood that the intrusive earthen fortifications would not stand forever.
Once the committee began laying out the lines of entrenchment on the landscape, they encountered a conundrum beyond their collective experience. After voicing some unspecified questions to the Commons House on December 21st, the Speaker of the House ordered the committee "to view again the line of fortification and discourse Mr. Longboice [Lomboy] for further advice, and report the same to this House tomorrow morning."[16] Their questions apparently related to the geometry of military architecture. Fortification theory of that era required a clear line of sight between a bastion or gun emplacement and its neighboring bastions to the left and right, to facilitate lines of fire for their mutual defense during an attack. For reasons unknown, the proposed line of entrenchment along the south side of the town did not or could not follow a straight path from the town's principal gun battery (later known as Granville Bastion) on the east to the new bastion proposed to stand at the southwest corner of Meeting and Tradd Streets (now the site of the First Scots Church). The line in question, as drafted by Monsieur DuBourdieu and perhaps altered to suit property owners at the southern end of modern Church Street, included a jog or bend in the line that would obstruct the line of fire between the southeastern and southwestern bastions.[17] After viewing the ground with Monsieur Lomboy, the committee reported the next day "that it is necessary for clearing the line of entrenchment from the Great Battery [Granville Bastion] to add a small bastion 21 foot long and 14 foot wide." Although this brief description does not specify the location of the proposed additional battery, and the dimensions were probably muddled by a nineteenth-century copyist, the structure resulting from this discussion is almost certainly the feature identified on the "Crisp Map" of 1711 as "Ashley Bastion."[18]
On the 23rd of December, 1703, the South Carolina General Assembly ratified a new law titled "An Additional Act to an Act entituled 'An Act to prevent the Sea's further encroachment upon the Wharfe at Charles Town'; and for the repairing and building more Batterys and Flankers on the said Wall to be built on the said Wharfe; and also for the fortifying the remaining parts of Charles Town by Intrenchments, Flankers and Pallisadoes, and appointing a Garrison to the Southward." The initial paragraphs of this "entrenchment act of 1703," as we might call it, included instructions for finishing the brick wharf wall along the east side of East Bay Street. That material forms a continuation of legislation ratified in the autumn of 1700 and lies outside the scope of the present conversation, however, so I'll defer discussion of it to a future program about of the waterfront brickwork.[19]
The bulk of the lengthy text of the 1703 act relates to the application of public funds to the construction of "such additional walls, gates and other conveniences for the men [that] shall be added to the great battery [Granville's Bastion] and the halfe moone at the watch-house[,] as shall be ordered by an ordinance of the General Assembly." As we have seen, however, the assembly had already partnered with Samuel DuBourdieu and James de Lomboy to design and plan the execution of a line of entrenchments around the town. The act of December 23rd merely set that plan in motion.[20]
To execute the defensive works designed in great haste in December 1703, the provincial government appointed Lieutenant Colonel William Rhett (1666–1723) to act as the "sole commissioner" of the project. Although some historians have misinterpreted Rhett's contributions to Charleston's early fortifications, his role was clearly administrative. Like the general contractor of a modern construction project, Rhett was in charge of procuring the materials, tools, and labor required to execute the plans created by other specialists. The law empowered Rhett to "impress" or commandeer enslaved laborers, tools, equipment, and materials needed for the fortifications, and to issue IOUs that the General Assembly would pay at some future date.[21] To clarify the objective of this public-works project, the text of the act defined the general outline of the entrenchments to enclose the "back" of the town:
"That is to say, from the angle of the great fort [Granville Bastion] to the end of the Church-street [the modern intersection of Meeting Street at Tradd Street], and from the angle of the said street to the swamp near Mr. Archibald Stobo's meeting house [the modern intersection of modern Meeting and Cumberland Streets], and from the said meeting house eastward to the said battery, that is appointed to be built at the northernmost angle of Col. Robert Daniel's northernmost lot, fronting Cooper River [that is, at the southeast corner of modern East Bay and Market Streets]; which said fortifications shall be [made] by intrenchments, flankers and parapets, sally ports, a gate, drawbridge and blind necessary for the same, and shall be made at the sole charge and expence of the publick, and according to such method as the said William Rhett, who is also hereby appointed the sole commissioner for manageing these additional fortifications, shall, with the advice and consent of the Right Honorable the Governor as aforesaid, direct."[22]
Rhett was authorized to cut down any trees standing in the path of the entrenchment or judged "prejudicial" to the fortifications, and to take from nearby forests whatever pine trees might be required for the works. The text of the 1703 act does not articulate the purpose of such pine trees, but they were likely intended to create revetments to hold the earthen walls in place. Similarly, the act promised future compensation to the owners of "any lott or part of a lott" in Charleston by appraising "so much ground as shall be used in the fortifications." The extant public records of this era contain no references to the removal of any houses standing in the path of the entrenchments, but the excavations undoubtedly required the removal of numerous fences enclosing private lots, pastures, and gardens on the periphery of the young settlement.[23]
Immediately after ratifying the act to initiate the entrenchments, the South Carolina Commons House ordered the public treasurer to pay £10 sterling to Captain Samuel DuBourdieu "for his trouble and charges in drawing the line, for the entrenchment, designed for Charlestowne, and drawing a platt of the same."[24] James de Lomboy later received a much larger reward for his contributions to the town's defenses, but the bulk of his efforts belong to the next chapter in this story. Between late December 1703 and the end of 1704, scores of enslaved Africans wielded picks and shovels to excavate a continuous broad ditch or moat, measuring nearly a mile in length, around the highest and driest sixty-two acres of urban Charleston. Their labors, under the supervision of James de Lomboy and William Rhett, sculpted a massive wall of earth and wood that protected the capital of South Carolina during an era of great danger.
[1] A. S. Salley, ed., Journals of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina for 1702 (Columbia: The State Company for the Historical Commission of South Carolina, 1932), 64–66.
[2] James Moore and Robert Daniel to the Council of South Carolina, November 1702, item No. 1193 in Cecil Headlam, ed., Calendar of State Papers Colonial Series, America and West Indies, volume 20, 1702 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1912), 745–46.
[3] See Charles W. Arnade, The Siege of St. Augustine in 1702 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1959).
[4] A. S. Salley, ed., Journals of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina for 1703 (Columbia: The State Company for the Historical Commission of South Carolina, 1934), 5–7, 10, 12, 16, 22. The committee included Dr. Charles Burnham, James Serrurier Smith, George Logan, and William Smith.
[5] Salley, ed., Journals of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina for 1703, 49.
[6] Salley, ed., Journals of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina for 1703, 95, 90, 118.
[7] John Oldmixon, The British Empire in America, volume 2 (London: John Nicholson, 1708), 359–60, says two raids took place in July and October. More reliable sources point to a single raid in late August. See Michael Craton, A History of the Bahamas (London: Collins, 1958), 93.
[8] Robert Quary to the Board of Trade and Plantations, 15 October 1703, item No. 1150 in Cecil Headlam, ed., Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, volume 21, 1702–1703 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1913), 737.
[9] Alexander Salley's published transcription of the Journals of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina for 1703 does not include the emergency session of 7–23 December. The original manuscript journal of this session is not extant, but the South Carolina Department of Archives and History (hereafter SCDAH) holds a manuscript copy of it made ca. 1850 by John Sitgreaves Green.
[10] SCDAH, Journal of the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly (Green's transcription), 1702–6, pages 197–98. The committee included Captain Parris, Major Colleton, Colonel Logan, and Captain Cantey.
[11] Commons House Journal, 1702–6, page 200. The two representatives were Ralph Izard and James Serrurrier Smith.
[12] Bertrand Van Ruymbeke, From New Babylon to Eden: The Huguenots and their Migration to Colonial South Carolina (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006), 62, 73, 83, 86, 116; Susan Baldwin Bates and Harriott Cheves Leland, French Santee: A Huguenot Settlement in Colonial South Carolina (Baltimore, Md.: Otter Bay Books, 2015), 281, 309–10.
[13] Robert Wilson, ed., "Wills of South Carolina Huguenots," Transactions of the Huguenot Society of South Carolina 13 (1906): 21–25; Bates and Leland, French Santee, 218–22.
[14] Commons House Journal, 1702–6, page 212. The committee included James Risbee, Richard Beresford, John Stroud, James Serrurier Smith.
[15] Commons House Journal, 1702–6, pages 213–14.
[16] Commons House Journal, 1702–6, page 218.
[17] The conundrum concerning the southern line on 21–22 December 1703 might have been related to the presence of a brick wall extending from Granville Bastion approximately one hundred feet to the west. This wall, which appears on seveal plats as late as 1755, was probably not created during the entrenchment campaign of 1703–4. I believe it represented a vestige of the unfinished fort of 1697 (see Episode No. 197).
[18] Commons House Journal, 1702–6, page 220. The original manuscript journal does not survive, and this description of the additional bastion exists only in Green's ca. 1850 transcription, which I have triple-checked for accuracy. I believe Mr. Green likely mis-transcribed the numerals in the dimensions of the additional bastion.
[19] See sections I–IV and VIII of Act No. 219, "An Additional Act to an Act entituled 'An Act to prevent the Sea's further encroachment upon the Wharfe at Charles Town'; and for the repairing and building more Batterys and Flankers on the said Wall to be built on the said Wharfe; and also for the fortifying the remaining parts of Charles Town by Intrenchments, Flankers and Pallisadoes, and appointing a Garrison to the Southward.," ratified on 23 December 1703, in David J. McCord, ed., The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, volume 7 (Columbia, S.C.: A. S. Johnston, 1840), 28–33. The engrossed manuscript copy of this act is held at SCDAH.
[20] See section IX of Act No. 219.
[21] See sections V, VI, VII, XI, XV, and XVI of Act No. 219.
[22] See section X of Act No. 219.
[23] See sections XI, XII, XIII of Act No. 219.
NEXT: A 'Banjer' on the Bay of Charleston in 1766
PREVIOUSLY: The First People of the South Carolina Lowcountry
See more from Charleston Time Machine


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PayPal revenues miss but growth is strong from new acquisitions
PayPal revenues missed, but strong growth from its recent iZettle and Hyperwallet acquisitions and booming business at Venmo point to a strong outlook for the payments giant.
In all, PayPal saw revenues for the quarter of $4.23 billion against analysts' estimates of $4.24 billion, according to data from Yahoo Finance. Earnings per share at the company were up to 69 cents versus analysts' expectations of 62 cents on a non-GAAP basis.
For the full year, PayPal saw revenue hit $15.45 billion versus analysts' estimates of $15.46 billion.
The addition of 2.9 million net new active accounts resulting from the acquisitions of Hyperwallet and iZettle show how those two deals are already adding value, as PayPal moves to expand internationally and away from its core market in the U.S.
Payment transactions totaled 2.9 billion for the quarter, up 28 percent, and the $164 billion in total payment volume was a 23 percent increase from the year ago period.
"In 2018 we set new benchmarks for the company for revenue, net new active accounts and engagement across our platform. We launched new products, strengthened existing relationships and entered into new strategic partnerships with some of the biggest and most influential global brands in technology, retail and finance," said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal. "We greatly expanded our global reach, serving 267 million customer accounts, including 21 million merchant accounts. We believe 2019 will be another strong year for us, and we intend to build on our strengths to extend our leadership as the leading open digital payments platform."
Other than the additions from the new acquisitions, the other bright spot for PayPal was the volume coming in from its Venmo business. In all, volume of Venmo transactions hit $19 billion, growing by 80 percent, in the fourth quarter. For the year, nearly $62 billion changed hands on the Venmo platform.
Mobile payments were also up for the company. Roughly $67 billion was transacted through mobile devices for the quarter, a 40 percent boost on year-ago numbers.
Despite the generally positive outcomes, PayPal's stock was down 4.4 percent to $88.11 in after-hours trading on the Nasdaq.


Let's consider the new iPhone 5C1 first, because it's easier to understand.
On the inside, it's an iPhone 5, with a few relatively minor upgrades. (To wit: the cellular antenna now supports more LTE bands and faster LTE speeds, and the front-facing FaceTime camera is better.) Otherwise, it's the same A6 processor, the same iSight camera, the same everything as in the iPhone 5, so far as Apple has claimed and I can tell. I've run a few benchmarks (see below), and on each, my 5C review unit scored nearly identically to my personal iPhone 5. And the 5C camera, to my eyes, produces identical results to that of the 5.
That is not to say the iPhone 5C is uninteresting. It simply is not interesting in terms of tech specs.
Any praise or criticism of the 5C is thus about fashion, branding, and marketing. These are perfectly valid criteria. Fashion and branding are about emotion. The 5S is another engineering triumph for Apple (and no slacker in the fashion/branding game either). The 5C, though, is purely an emotional play — and, I think, a winning one.
Apple has made colorful devices before. Other companies have made colorful touchscreen smartphones before. But there's never been a colorful iPhone before. There is now, and people are noticing.
A few times this week I've repeated the notion that in marketing, what looks new is new. The technically-minded may well view the 5C as a "rebadged iPhone 5", but the overwhelming majority of people are not technically-minded, and to them, if it looks like a new iPhone, it is a new phone. To paraphrase Stanley Kubrick, the truth of the iPhone 5C is in the feel of it, not the think of it. Most people make purchasing decisions based as much or more on emotion than logic.
My review unit from Apple is the pink one, with a blue case, with 32 GB of storage and running on Verizon's network. (I did not ask for any specific colors or network.) Pink is the last color I'd choose for myself, personally, but I think it's a fine pink, and likely to prove incredibly popular. Like all the 5C color choices, it looks bright and friendly. It feels slick but not slippery. Feel-wise it's not too dissimilar from the old 3G and 3GS (both of which I still have sitting here in my office), but it presents a far more premium overall effect than those previous forays into plastic iPhones. The 3G/3GS had more seams (because of the metal bezel between the plastic back and front touchscreen), and those seams were more noticeable. The 5C has just one seam, between the plastic and the glass, and that seam is very tight. The 5C is not as thin as the 5 or 5S, but it's so much thinner than the 3G/3GS it's not even funny. Side-by-side it's hard to believe the 3GS is only four years old. The 5C buttons — power, ringer toggle, volume, and home — all feel good, with nice crisp clickiness.
And if I'm right, and the 5C proves popular, there's an operational win for Apple as well. The 5C's components are mostly those of the year-old iPhone 5 — a phone Apple already knows how to produce in very high volume. Though the case is new, surely plastic cases are easier (and cheaper) to fabricate than aluminum ones. The iPhone 5C could be the first new iPhone for which Apple has no problems meeting demand — not because demand is low, but because supply is easier to achieve.
You can't swing a stick and not hit some Apple bear beating the drum that Apple is no longer capable of innovation. They could do it under Steve Jobs, can't do it without him, and the proof is in the pudding. Under Steve Jobs, Apple released innovative products like clockwork: iPod, iPhone, MacBook Air, iPad. Under Tim Cook, nothing but the same products, slightly improved.
Here's the thing. The arguments of the "Apple can no longer innovate" bears could be applied just as aptly to the products Apple released under Steve Jobs. Imagine if Jobs had left the company in late 2007, after the release of the original iPhone — the one product that at least in hindsight everyone can agree was truly revolutionary. Now further imagine that Apple had then gone on, in Jobs's absence, to do everything else exactly the same as they did in the real world, where Jobs remained CEO until 2011.
The iPhone 3G in 2008? Nothing but the original iPhone with a plastic case — an aesthetic step backward from the gorgeous metal of the original iPhone — and the addition of 3G cellular networking — which these naysayers all argued the original iPhone should have shipped with in the first place back in 2007. The 3GS in 2009? Just a slightly faster 3G. No innovation in two years. The original iPad, now hailed as one of the Jobs-led Apple's historic innovations? In reality, it was widely panned upon release as "just a big iPhone". Take that response to the original iPad and multiply it by jackass-finity to measure the response in my hypothetical scenario where Jobs had left Apple in 2007.
It might have been hard for anyone to argue that the retina display in 2010's iPhone 4 wasn't innovative, but Apple's naysayers — in the real world, not my hypothetical one — looked right past it as they worked themselves into a frenzy over Antennagate. Now imagine how Antennagate would have played out if Jobs had then been out of the company for three years. These critics would have apoplectically jumped from "Apple can't innovate without Steve Jobs" to "Apple can't even make a functioning cell phone antenna without Steve Jobs".
The square-pegged facts have been hammered to fit the round-hole narrative, and there's no better example than Antennagate. The GSM iPhone 4 remained on sale until this week, with no changes to its antenna, and no ongoing complaints from users.
Refinement, in the eyes of these naysayers, does not count as innovation. Only revolution counts. But the iPhone needs no revolution. It continues to sell better year-over-year, year after year, without lowering its prices. Every step of the way between 2007 and that lone original iPhone — running an OS with no third-party apps, no multitasking, not even copy-and-paste — and today's world, where Apple is on the cusp of selling its 700 millionth iOS device and the lineup ranges from the iPod Touch to the iPhones to two sizes of iPad, has been about just that: refinement.
The iPhone 5S shows that there remains much room for refinement.
First, performance. Apple claims this is the biggest year-over-year improvement in computing performance in the history of the iPhone, and in both my day-to-day experience2 and some benchmark testing over the past week, I have no reason to doubt them. The iPhone 5S is fast.
Indeed, there's little to be gained from slapping a 64-bit chip into today's smartphones, aside from being the first to say you've done so.
That's nonsense. There are serious performance gains by going 64-bit. Addressing more than 4 GB of memory is not the only advantage.
I stand by that, but this deserves a full explanation.
ARM is not a hypothetical computing platform. It's a specific one. And ARMv7, the 32-bit platform upon which Apple's previous generation A6 CPU was built, is, in some ways, similar to the old 32-bit x86 architecture: an amalgamation of cruft, some of it dating back decades.
Fundamental to ARMv8 has to be the new instruction set, known as A64; the encoding of instructions to enable an application to utilize a 64-bit machine. ARM took the decision to introduce 64-bit through a new instruction set rather than extension of an existing instruction set for many good reasons. Most notably, and probably as no surprise, because we could develop a new independent instruction set to execute code in a lower power manner than by adding instructions to the existing instruction set. Of course, for compatibility reasons, we still support the entire ARMv7 machine in the new ARMv8 architecture, but when running 64-bit software, this part of the machine is not being used, and the area of complex legacy it had built up does not need to be active when running in the 64-bit ISA, unlike other architectures where 64-bit extension was simply added to the historical complexity and legacy of their 32-bit mode. The new ISA drew upon the years of experience of building different micro architecture implementations, so again it was defined so that these new processors can be more easily optimized for low power operation — an opportunity not really offered since the first ARMv4 machine that resulted in the now legendary low power ARM7 processors.
What does this mean? It means, for one thing, that the biggest reason for the performance and power consumption improvements going from the A6 to A7 is the switch from the ARMv7 to ARMv8 architectures, not 32- to 64-bit. ARMv8's improved instruction set alone has resulted in 15-20 percent performance gains while simultaneously using less power, from what I've been told by informed sources. And though Apple could have gone to ARMv8 while remaining 32-bit only, it made no sense not to go 64-bit.
There are applications today — imaging, gaming, cryptography, video and photo filters — that will benefit from 64-bit despite the fact that the iPhone 5S has just 1 GB of RAM. It should prove faster overall, even if only slightly, than a hypothetical A7 that had switched to ARMv8 but remained 32-bit only.
But the big win is laying the groundwork for the future. iOS developers should have few problems recompiling their apps for 64-bit. (My Q Branch colleague Brent Simmons on how long it took to get Vesper to compile cleanly for 64-bit: "Just a few minutes.") Apple's been through this transition before, with Cocoa on Mac OS X,3 and any iOS developer who didn't see this transition coming sooner or later simply wasn't paying attention. Many apps should be native 64-bit binaries soon. By next year, when the A7 works its way down to the mid-range iPhones, most will be. And two years from now, it's almost certain that all new iOS devices being sold will support 64-bit. It won't be long until Apple can consider dropping 32-bit support and going 64-bit only. By the time it becomes feasible for iOS devices to have more than 4 GB of RAM, iOS will have already been a native 64-bit platform for several years.
The single-core score is useful for estimating the performance of non-threaded tasks. Single-core performance is arguably the most important score Geekbench 3 provides for estimating real-world performance, especially on mobile devices. Just about every task will benefit from improved single-core performance, but only properly threaded tasks will benefit from improved multi-core performance.
That said, there are certainly benefits to having more than one core even if your tasks aren't threaded (e.g., keeping the foreground application responsive while other applications or tasks run in the background).
What I find remarkable about the 5S's benchmarks is not that they're the current top scores in the mobile world,5 but rather that they're at the top despite the fact that Apple famously values the ratio of performance-to-power-consumption far more than performance in and of itself.
And so how is the battery life on the 5S? It's great. I did not run any battery life tests, but I've used it for seven days, including several days while I was traveling and it served not just as my primary iPhone but as my primary computer. The battery has yet to fall below 20 percent. (To be clear, I charge my iPhone overnight while I sleep.) My guess is that actual battery tests will show that it lasts as long or longer than the iPhone 5, despite the 2× CPU performance gains.
One last novelty in the A7: the M7 motion co-processor. I found no good way to test it yet, though. Apple claims some uses for it built in to iOS, such as checking the network for background updates less frequently when the device hasn't been moved in a while (e.g. if you're sleeping), and switching between driving and walking directions in Maps when it detects that you've parked your car and have gotten out — but mostly the M7 seems to me an opportunity waiting for third-party developers to take advantage of it.
My family went to Disney World this summer, and the parks there switched recently to new RFID-based entry passes. You pair them with a fingerprint scan the first time you use them, and subsequently, you press the pass against (or just near) a sensor at the park gates, then confirm your fingerprint, and you're in. The fingerprint scanning worked reliably, but it also consistently took a few seconds and some back-and-forth rolling on the scanner to register.
Touch ID on the iPhone 5S is nothing like that. Adding a new fingerprint (iOS allows you to save up to five, enough for both your thumbs, both pointer fingers, and one more for, say, a trusted family member) takes upwards of a minute. It's a borderline tedious process of repeatedly lifting and placing the finger on the sensor. But it's easy enough, and the on-screen instructions nicely guide you through it.
You know how iOS touch latency and scrolling performance have always been far ahead of its competition? The way you could just tell that internally, Apple had uncompromising standards for how responsive these things needed to be? That's what Touch ID is like — it's to all previous fingerprint scanners I've seen what the original iPhone was to previous touchscreen computers.
If there's a single fundamental knock against Apple that rings true, it's that Apple does not do well with online services. I think Siri is good and getting better — on a whim I asked her the other day who was pitching in the Yankees game that night, and she replied with the correct answer very quickly — but there's no question that Google Now is faster. There's too much latency with Siri.
Touch ID's extraordinary performance and accuracy fit right into that story. There's nothing "online" about Touch ID. Instead it's what Apple does best: a complete experience hosted entirely on the device. Your fingerprint data is not just "not stored in iCloud yet", it is not stored in iCloud by design, and according to my sources, never will be. iOS, even the system itself, cannot read from or write to the secure storage location where fingerprint data is stored — only the Touch ID hardware sensor itself can. And what is stored in that secure location are not fingerprint images, but cryptographically hashed values, unique both to your finger's biometric data and the device itself on which you scanned it. Even if someone does figure out how to obtain the fingerprint data from the secure storage on your iPhone, that fingerprint data should prove useless anywhere but on the unique Touch ID sensor on that iPhone itself — which device would have to be in the possession of your attacker/adversary in the first place for them to read the data.
I'd be far more concerned about a nefarious criminal (or, let's face it, nefarious snooping government agency) decrypting the passwords I've saved on my iPhones ever since 2007 than their obtaining the fingerprint data stored by the Touch ID sensor.
In practice, Touch ID has proved incredibly convenient. I always knew that entering my lock screen passcode and App Store password dozens of times a day, every day, was a hassle, but I had no idea how much of a hassle it was until I didn't have to do it any longer. It's quickly habit-forming, too. After just a few days testing the 5S, whenever I go back to my personal iPhone 5, I inevitably try to unlock it with my thumbprint without thinking — then silently curse its old dumb home button as I peck my passcode.
Simply as a home button, the 5S Touch ID sensor is an improvement too. As an essential component to the iOS user experience, I've felt ever since 2007 that Apple's home buttons weren't good enough. They felt nice, but nice isn't good enough for a button you click so often. (And on a few of my iPhones, they've had a tendency to get squishy or even stuck after a few months.) The iPhone home button should feel great. The 5S home button does. You can tell by touch that it's not plastic, and its clickiness is superb. It is now flat, not concave, but it is recessed from the front face of the phone — the metallic ring is sloped downward. The new home button is an upgrade in every way, even putting Touch ID aside.
Technically, the 5S camera appears to be an improvement, but a relatively minor one, over that of the 5 (and 5C). The sensor's pixels are slightly bigger, and the lens has gone from an aperture of f/2.4 to f/2.2. I definitely see some improvement in low-light situations, but not radically so. The new True Tone flash sounds great, and in my testing really does noticeably improve the quality of photos taken using the flash — but personally I almost never take photos with flash, and True Tone won't change that.
But yet in practice I've found the iPhone 5S is clearly a significant improvement over the 5 for photography. One reason is the new Slo Mo video mode, which is very fun. The second, and I suspect more useful reason: burst mode. Burst mode is terrific not just because the camera hardware is capable of shooting 10 photos per second, but because of what happens after that. In your Camera Roll, each burst appears as a single item, with the appearance of a stack of photos. Hold down the shutter button for 3 seconds and take 30 photos, and they'll appear as a single stack in Camera Roll. Open a burst stack and you can pick which one (or ones) you want to keep. Those selections then become first-class photos in your Camera Roll. Then — and here's the genius — you can delete the burst stack, getting rid of all the other photos from that burst in a single action.
I've been shooting photos with an SLR for over 10 years, and especially after switching from film (expensive!) to digital, I've often shot in continuous/burst mode. The reason: with moving subjects, shooting in a burst increases your chances of getting at least one really good exposure, where your subjects are in focus, well-framed and well-lit, with their eyes open, etc. The problem: cleaning up all the rejected photos from the burst. With the iPhone 5S, Apple has solved that problem. Burst mode alone might be the single biggest leap forward ever in iPhone photography — it's a feature that puts multi-thousand dollar SLRs to shame.
The Slo Mo feature is also enabled as much by software cleverness as hardware capabilities. Slo Mo appears as a separate mode in the camera app; the regular Video mode still shoots at 30 fps, to keep file sizes down. When you shoot a clip in Slo Mo, after you're done, you get a simple editing timeline where you can adjust which portion of the clip you want to appear in slow motion. It couldn't be simpler.
I agreed with him then, and agree with him now. Not a word from Apple, though, about any sort of improvement to Photo Stream.
With Touch ID they've eliminated the need to enter a passcode to unlock your phone and a (one hopes) complex password to download apps and media from the iTunes Store. Mere conveniences, yes, but very nice ones indeed. They've also potentially set the stage for numerous future conveniences. Imagine Touch ID integrated with the upcoming iCloud Keychains.
With the camera they've created a simple, intuitive interface for taking bursts of fast action or won't-stay-still kids and pets. It's a wonderful hardware feat to put a 10 fps still camera in a remarkably thin mobile phone (a phone with no inelegant bulge to accommodate more distance between lens and sensor, at that). But the real innovation — there's that word — is software, right there on the device itself, that makes it easy to select only the shots from those bursts that you really want to keep, and to throw away the rest.
This is what innovation, real innovation, looks like.6 It's like the Thomas Edison quote, "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Innovation is missed by most people because it is so often incremental.
Let's get this capitalization thing out of the way, too. Yes, I'm using 5C and 5S, with uppercase letters, and Apple is using 5c and 5s. Why? These names are initialisms, words where you pronounce them by spelling out the letters of their names. In an initialism, according to all standard style guides, all letters are capitalized. That's it. If Apple chooses, for marketing reasons, to capitalize these letters differently, that's on them. It's a style choice, not a spelling choice.
Consider the iPhone 4S. For two years Apple has styled it with an uppercase S. As of last Tuesday, upon the release of the 5S and 5C, they now style it with a lowercase s: iPhone 4s. It's the same device. The box is even the same. Apple simply now styles it differently in their own material.
As for why Apple made this change, here's my theory: "5S", at a glance, is hard to distinguish from "55" or "SS" in many fonts. (Or "S5" for that matter, which might come into play with Samsung's next-generation Galaxy phones.) Thus, my guess is Apple decided to lowercase the s to clarify the difference between the glyphs. The 5C and 4S simply came along for the ride for consistency's sake.
I think it would be better to state: executing in 64-bit mode will increase speed IN SPITE OF the 64-bit aspect of the mode.
Just doing (1) would slow things down a little because the caches and memory bus would have to handle more data, making them less effective. PowerPC saw exactly this slowdown on the G4 and G5 when running 64-bit instead of 32-bit because PowerPC already had all features mentioned in (2) available in 32-bit mode so you were seeing only the effects of (1) without any additional benefit of (2).
Just doing (2) could have been a possibility if the designers of ARM had chosen it. However, the way the ARM is designed you need to accept (1) if you want the speed benefits of (2). This is the same situation as x86-64 and will result in the same conclusion: executing in 64-bit mode will increase speed IN SPITE OF the 64-bit aspect of the mode.
Speaking of what things look like, I should mention that my 5S review unit is, yes, the gold one. Everyone I've shown it to thinks it looks nice. Not everyone says it's the one they themselves would choose, but they all think it looks nice. That, in and of itself, is something, considering the collective "Yuck" so many of us (including, yes, yours truly) gave when rumors first leaked of a gold-colored iPhone. Personally, my gripe isn't the gold but the white face. I've just never liked white surrounding my iOS displays.
I haven't seen the black space gray 5S since the hands-on area at last week's announcement event, but that's the one I plan on ordering for myself. "Space gray" is not dark, and the overall effect is reminiscent of the original 2007 iPhone. My wife prefers the gold one, though, no hesitation. I remain firm with my day one prediction that the gold model will be the best-selling 5S color choice.


text:
Q: Android getting result of AsyncTask in main Activity and add views to XML layout outside onCreate method I'm trying to obtain a list of videos from Youtube to be displayed on my Activity.
I've created the main activity MediaActivity.java with two methods, onCreate and getResult which is called from the onPostExecute method in the AsyncTask class.
Here is the MediaActivity code:
    public class MediaActivity extends Activity {
    YoutubeConnect youtubeRequest = new YoutubeConnect();
    ViewGroup media;
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        youtubeRequest.execute();
        setContentView(R.layout.media);
        media = (ViewGroup) this.findViewById(R.layout.media);

    }

    public void getResult(String result) throws JSONException {

        JSONObject jsonObj = new JSONObject(result);

        JSONObject jsonObj2 = jsonObj.getJSONObject("feed");
        JSONArray the_json_array = jsonObj2.getJSONArray("entry");

        int size = the_json_array.length();

        for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) {

            //get all infos
               [...]
            LinearLayout main = new LinearLayout(this);
            main.setOrientation(0);
            main.setLayoutParams(new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));

            //thumb
            WebView thumb = new WebView(this);
            thumb.loadUrl(video_thumb);
            main.addView(thumb);

            LinearLayout right = new LinearLayout(this);
            right.setOrientation(1);
            right.setLayoutParams(new LayoutParams(LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT));

            //title
            TextView title = new TextView(this);
            title.setText(video_title);
            right.addView(title);

            //description
            TextView description = new TextView(this);
            description.setText(video_description.substring(100)+"...");
            right.addView(description);

            //views
            TextView views = new TextView(this);
            views.setText("Views: "+video_views);
            right.addView(views);

            main.addView(right);

            this.media.addView(main);
        }

     }

}

This is my custom AsyncTask class code:
 public class YoutubeConnect extends AsyncTask<String, String, String> {

    public YoutubeConnect() {
    }

    @Override
    protected String doInBackground(String... params) {
         try {
             String APIurl = "https://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos?author=author&alt=json";
                DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
                HttpGet request = new HttpGet(APIurl);
                HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);
                BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent(), "UTF-8"));
                StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
                for (String line = null; (line = reader.readLine()) != null;) {
                    builder.append(line).append("\n");
                }
                return builder.toString();

            } catch (Exception e) {
                return null;
            }

    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
        super.onPostExecute(result);
        MediaActivity mainthread = new MediaActivity();
        try {
            mainthread.getResult(result);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

 }

This is the log:
 05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687): java.lang.NullPointerException
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.content.ContextWrapper.getResources(ContextWrapper.java:81)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.view.View.<init>(View.java:2696)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.view.ViewGroup.<init>(ViewGroup.java:374)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.widget.LinearLayout.<init>(LinearLayout.java:166)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at wachipi.palio.MediaActivity.getResult(MediaActivity.java:47)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at wachipi.palio.YoutubeConnect.onPostExecute(YoutubeConnect.java:41)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at wachipi.palio.YoutubeConnect.onPostExecute(YoutubeConnect.java:1)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.os.AsyncTask.finish(AsyncTask.java:602)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.os.AsyncTask.access$600(AsyncTask.java:156)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.os.AsyncTask$InternalHandler.handleMessage(AsyncTask.java:615)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4424)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
05-17 11:01:26.383: E/AndroidRuntime(2687):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

Before various attempt the setContenView and ViewGroup lines were inside the getResult method, but it gave me other errors. I've also tried to use the debugger but it gives me error "source not found", I think something is missing in my installation.
I really can't understand why it throws this error and can't find anything about it.

A: That exception probably comes from you instantiating a new MediaActivity instead of using the Activity instance from which you started the thread:
MediaActivity mainthread = new MediaActivity();//don't do this

Instead pass a reference of your MediaActivity in the YoutubeConnect task and use that reference to call getResult:
private MediaActivity activityRef;

public YoutubeConnect(MediaActivity activityRef) {
     this.activityRef = activityRef;
}

and in the onPosteExecute method:
@Override
protected void onPostExecute(String result) {
    try {
        activityRef.getResult(result); // you should have some ckecks to see if the activity is still available.
    } catch (JSONException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Then to make a new YoutubeConnect task:
    YoutubeConnect youtubeRequest;
    ViewGroup media;

    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.media);
        youtubeRequest = new YoutubeConnect(this);
        youtubeRequest.execute();
        media = (ViewGroup) this.findViewById(R.layout.media);
    }

Also, with this:
media = (ViewGroup) this.findViewById(R.layout.media);

You're searching for a View in the current layout by a layout file name and not an id. It should be like this:
media = (ViewGroup) this.findViewById(R.id.view_id_from_the_layout);

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