View allAll Photos Tagged Computerized
We were trying to find the Davis Water Treatment Plant. We kind of veered off the beaten path and spotted a sign that read: “Borrowing Owls On the Ground, Drive Slowly.” Yea right. Then we spotted something out of the corner of our eyes, heads twisting forwards and backwards so perfectly in sync that they could have been computerized. They were Burrowing Owls ! And just a few feet from the road. Oh yea, we stopped and took numerous images from the car.
The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952) is a supernova remnant in the constellation of Taurus, it was first identified in 1731 by English astronomer John Bevis. The nebula was independently rediscovered in 1758 by Charles Messier as he was observing a bright comet. Messier catalogued it as the first entry in his catalogue of comet-like objects.
After some observation, noticing that the object that he was observing was not moving across the sky, Messier concluded that the object was not a comet. Messier then realized the usefulness of compiling a catalogue of celestial objects of a cloudy nature, but fixed in the sky, to avoid incorrectly cataloguing them as comets.
William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse observed the nebula at Birr Castle in 1844 using a 36-inch (0.9m) telescope, and referred the nebula as the "Crab Nebula" because a drawing he made of it looked somewhat like a crab. He observed it again later, in 1848 using a 72-inch (1.8m) telescope and could not confirm the supposed resemblance, but the name stuck nevertheless.
Equipment:
Celestron 9.25” 2350mm Edge-HD Telescope
Celestron .7 EdgeHD Reducer Lens
Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro Computerized GoTo Telescope Mount
Orion 50mm Helical Guide Scope & StarShoot AutoGuider
Celestron 9x50 Finder Scope
ZWO ASI294MC Pro Color Camera
ZWO 1.25” Duo-Band Filter
PHD2 Guiding Software
SharpCap Pro
Thank you for your comments,
Gemma
computerized container terminal in the morning hours, Hamburg
'well' framed in the bg is the Köhlbrandbrücke (bridge)
The Buffalo Bill Dam stands in Shoshone Canyon on the Shoshone River just 6 miles upstream of Cody Wyoming. The dam is anchored in Archean granites and gneisses that were part of Wyoming when it was a separate microcontinent about 2.5 billion years ago.The north side of the canyon is known as Rattlesnake Mountain. Cedar Mountain is on the south side. These mountains are part of a large faulted anticline that formed during the Laramide mountain-building episode around 70 million years ago.
America’s first ever mass concrete dam rose 325 feet high above the canyon floor which made it the tallest dam in the world at the time of its completion. The arch dam was constructed between 1904 and 1910. It was one of the first arch dams in the U.S. to be designed using a mathematical method of analysis. Engineer Edgar Wheeler considered changing water surface elevations, variation in temperature and deflection issues. This allowed him to determine the distribution of loads both horizontally and vertically. This was the forerunner of the Trial-Load Method of arch dam stress analysis which is the predecessor of today's computerized systems. The dam is a constant-radius arch concrete structure with a radius of 150 feet and a crest length of 200 feet. Twenty-five percent of the dam is composed of hand-placed rocks, called plum stones, weighing 25 to 200 pounds each.
Prior to irrigation the Big Horn Basin was a dry desert averaging only 7 to 12 inches of rainfall per year. Despite the low rainfall the area has rich and deep soils. Visionaries like showman Colonel William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody saw the potential benefit to irrigating the arid land and raising agricultural crops. In 1897 and 1899 Colonel Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about 169,000 acres of land in the Bighorn Basin. They began developing a canal to carry water diverted from the river, but their plans did not include a water storage reservoir. Colonel Cody and his associates were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan. Early in 1903 they joined with the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners in urging the federal government to step in and help with irrigation development in the valley.
The Shoshone Project became one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the newly formed Reclamation Service, later to become known as the Bureau of Reclamation. After Reclamation took over the project in 1903, investigating engineers recommended constructing a dam on the Shoshone River in the canyon west of Cody.. Originally called the Shoshone Dam it was renamed in 1946 the Buffalo Bill Dam in honor of one of its biggest proponents, Buffalo Bill.
In the early 1900s, building a large dam in a remote location offered many challenges. Concrete was placed and cured despite below-zero temperatures, requiring steam fittings to carry heat to the construction site. To excavate the dam abutments on the sheer walls of the canyon, workmen risked their lives, hanging from spider lines connected to cableway towers. Seven workman died during the construction of the dam over the six year period. Manpower was limited on the sparsely populated frontier. Contractors and laborers had to be imported and trained. Thousands of tons of materials had to be delivered to the site over the precipitous canyon road. But despite all theses obstacles, the dam was completed in 1910.
Because of its historical significance, Buffalo Bill Dam was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is also a National Civil Engineering Landmark.
Between 1988 and 1993, the height of the dam was raised another 25 feet to its present total height of 350 feet.
This photo taken on Great Dam Day 2021,
References:
usbr.gov/gp/multimedia/publications/buffalo_bill_brochure...
www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/buffalo-bill-dam-wyoming
www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage...
(repost)
That is what the California Highway Patrol officer said.
We were ensconced in an open garage waiting out an armed 211 suspect when those words were spoken.
My call came in at 2:30. A man was barricaded in his apartment after a shootout with police. At the time, I was home sick with a headache the size of the Rock of Gibraltar. But a barricade is a barricade and I threw on some clothes and rushed to the scene.
I stopped at the road closure and was waved through by one of the CHP guys that yelled, “Hey, I know you....go ahead.”
“OK”
After parking the car where the chippy said I should, I asked our esteemed parking enforcement officer (also known as the Parking Nazi) who was standing guard, where was everything happening and where should I go.
He motioned somewhere down the street towards some low-rent apartment complexes and told me to walk on the right side of the street through a vacant lot - nothing but dirt and a creosote bush.
“OK.”
I kept an eye out for what was going on and watched as the guys from the PD’s Special Response Team ( SRT) moved into place.
“Cool,” thought I and grabbed a few shots of one of the guys creeping across the roof, rifle in front of him, pack behind. I thought, “If I get nothing else this will be good art."
I heard people yelling at me and here comes the PIO from the Barstow Police running across the street telling me that hey, I was right in the line of fire and I should like move.
“OK.”
“Don’t go south of the palm tree,” he said, “that way you won’t be in the line of fire.”
“OK. Can I stand behind the palm tree?”
“Sure,” he said, “but I’m not responsible if you get shot.”
“OK”
Seemed to be my thought processes at the time, singular “OK’s”
I stood behind the palm tree for a little bit and then moved — I really wasn’t in the mood to get shot.
The reporter showed up, a radio guy showed up, a small TV station guy showed up and we all sat around in the heat waiting for something to happen....for a long time.
Negotiators were on the phone, relatives got on the phone to try and talk this guy out. The man had been wounded slightly in the first shootout — shot in the hand and the arm — and yelled out to his friends that he was afraid the cops were going to shoot him on sight.
We all knew that this would never happen, but the guy wouldn’t come out. The cops even brought him cigarettes when he asked for them - actually threw them up to him on the balcony. If they had wanted to shoot him, they could have at that time.
I got permission to wander a bit, down in parking area where the CHP rifle shooters were set up — watched them concentrate completely down their black gun sites. I was close enough that if I stuck my head out I could see the guy’s balcony — really, really well — with bloody curtains swaying in the wind.
Time wore on, heat got worse, men got shifted around so as to give the ones sitting in the sun a break.
We waited. Cops gave me Gatorade and water. It was hot.
As dusk set in I kept hoping this guy would come out with his hands up while I still had light to shoot by. Even with my new digital camera (YEA!) I was still a newbie at using the flash in low light situations so I wanted halfway good light.
I simply couldn’t figure out why this guy would NOT come out.
Was it the macho mentality of the whole gang banger personality? Was it that he knew he was facing some major jail time? He was already a loser in that department. What possibly could be worth prolonging this stand-off?
Time wore on some more. The apartment complex residents started getting restless. Hoots and hollers and jungle-like monkey noises came from the apartments and from those watching and waiting behind the lines. A bottle was thrown.
I have to admit, this made a me a tad nervous. I could just see this thing erupting into an all-out riot. Half the people in the complex were convinced the cops were going to gun the guy down and the other half were afraid of the first half.
Soon the cops had enough waiting and started firing tear gas canisters into the apartment. Oh my! Horrible sound those loud guns. Once that tear gas thing started I didn’t stick my head out any more. I crouched down behind a car. I could still see the CHP shooters but wasn’t in the line of fire.
Good thing.
Several minutes after the first rounds of tear gas were volleyed into the apartment there came three quick shots - pop - pop - pop — out the sliding glass door — over the balcony.
“Holy shit,” thought I, “that guy is firing at us.”
“Hey,” I yelled, “Was he shooting this way.”
“Yes, Lara, he was shooting this way.”
I crouched down lower. Just about fully dark now. The people that had come out to watch were yelling the guy was yelling babies were screaming and one Barstow cop remarked, “I can’t believe these people brought their kids out to a gunfight.”
Law enforcement did not return gun fire but more tear gas was used.
Still no sound, no reaction from the barricaded man.
One of the CHP guys came back down into our spot and said that after the three rounds fired by the suspect, one more shot was heard a few minutes later - muffled. Not aimed out the sliding glass door — inside the building.
He said quietly that he had heard _that_ sound before.
Time was starting to lose meaning. Amidst the noise and chaos I had been on the phone relaying the latest developments to the reporter who had gone back to write his story. More tear gas was lobbed into the building but the feeling was that the man had offed himself with that final fourth shot.
My deadline to leave was fast approaching — close to 9 p.m. I had the images from the afternoon’s deployment and some close-ups of the guys close to me. But no resolution. No closure.
The crowd up the street was really starting to turn ugly and I debated going up to photograph that, but figured that a camera flashing would trigger the already riotous behaviour that was growing.
Two guys threw bottles at the sheriff’s SWAT team. Ooooh, not a good idea. Those SWAT-dudes are bad-asses with attitudes and guns. They do NOT take kindly to being pelted with bottles. The bottle-throwers were arrested and the crowd scene cooled after that.
No lights were on in the apartment, no movement was seen and all negotiations had long since broken off. The man’s last words and comments to the negotiator were pretty much that the only way he was going to leave was in a body bag.
I still hoped not, but I left to file my art. Before I left the center of the action, which is where I had been allowed to stay (don’t ask me why, I was just allowed to stay.) I made sure the police chief and one of the LT’s knew I was returning and wanted to be back close to where things were happening.
“Sure.” they said, “Just show your press pass, tell whoever we said it was ok and come on back - stay out of the line of fire.”
“OK”
I left, filed the creeping-across-the-roof pic and one of two officers and a bullet proof shield and came back.
Things were as I left them — no more noise, no more nothing.
About 11 p.m. the sheriff's office took over. The Barstow PD SRT and CHP back-ups had been on duty squinting down their sites for almost 8 hours, it was time for a relief team.
I watched the camouflaged SWATs come in, dash about the courtyard smashing out the remaining lights that would put them in danger and get into place, covering each other with guns pointed toward the apartment as they ran across the courtyard.
I couldn’t help myself, I thought “Jeez, this is just like in the movies.” Only this time it was for real — surrealistic, but real.
When the Barstow guys and CHP left I was still standing there all by my lonesome. One of them yelled back at me, “You probably ought to come out too.”
“OK.”
That seemed like a good idea to me — it was dark and I didn’t like being alone.
I came up out of the garage hole and plopped down on the front of a fire truck. Sheriff’s homicide detectives were wondering who the hell was I and why was I there. I smiled, introduced myself and sat back quietly on the fire engine, hoping that no one would actually notice me. I even put my camera down.
The sheriff’s Captain saw me, smiled and let me stay. I was now considered a “friendly.” Cool.
I had kept in contact with the night editor at our sister paper, even after the Dispatch went to bed, did some interviewing, got the correct on-the-record-quotes that supported the police’s version of what happened and waited — and waited.
For almost an hour after the SO took over a deputy called out over a loud speaker. “Aaron. Come out with your hands up. The building is surrounded.” Every few minutes for almost an hour. Over and over. The same tone of voice. No emotion. It could have been a computerized recording it was so precisely repeated, but it wasn’t.
Aaron didn’t come out.
Talking time was up and the SWAT team started in with more powerful tear gas. Volley after volley. No Aaron. He was either immune to the gas or dead.
Soon the team took out the doors and entered the building using flash-bang devices before going into each room - “auditory and visual distractions” they call them.
Hell honey, those are bombs.
Every time they said over the radio they were setting off another one, all the law enforcement guys, suits, SWAT dudes, everybody around me, put their fingers in their ears. I wish I had photographed that, but it is hard to hold a camera with your fingers in your ears.
Time moved faster, soon after the SWAT guys entered they called for the SO medics that had flown in on a chopper. Word came out fast that it was over, Aaron was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
It was one o’clock in the morning. There was almost a palpable sigh, a slumping of the shoulders when it was over. I had been at the scene for almost ten hours.
It was not a good resolution. Not the one that everyone; law enforcement, medics, firefighters, friends and family had hoped for.
I remembered what the CHP shooter said after word came in about the fourth shot — “We are in a stand-off with a dead man.”
He was right.
•••••••••••••
Rest in Peace Aaron
The Peak Tram is a funicular railway which carries both tourists and residents to the upper levels of Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong.
Running from Garden Road Admiralty to Victoria Peak via the Mid-Levels, it provides the most direct route and offers good views over the harbour and skyscrapers of Hong Kong.
In 1881 Alexander Findlay Smith first put the project of a Peak Railway into shape and presented a petition for a concession to the governor of Hong Kong. The necessary legislation was passed two years later, and the construction was begun in 1885.
As a revolutionary new form of transport for Asia at the time, the tramway was considered a marvel of engineering upon its completion. It was opened for public service in 1888 by the then governor Sir George William des Voeux. As built, the line used a static steam engine to power the haulage cable. It was at first used only for residents of Victoria Peak. Despite that, it carried 800 passengers on its first day of operation, and about 150,000 in its first year. The tram's existence accelerated the residential development of Victoria Peak and the Mid-Levels.
From 1908 to 1949, the first two seats in the front of the tram were reserved for the governor of Hong Kong, to which was attached a bronze plaque reading: "This seat is reserved for His Excellency the Governor". The seats were not available to ordinary passengers until two minutes before departure.
In 1926, the steam engine was replaced by an electric motor. In 1941 during the Battle of Hong Kong, the engine room was damaged in an attack. Services were not resumed until after the end of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.
In 1956, the Peak Tram was equipped with a new generation of lightweight metal-bodied cars, each of which seated 62 passengers.
The system was comprehensively rebuilt in 1989 by the Swiss company, Von Roll, with a new track, a computerized control system, and two new two-car trams with a capacity of 120 passengers per tram. By the time of Hong Kong's transfer from Britain to China the system carried some 2 million passengers annually, today, more than 4 million people ride the Peak Tram annually, or an average of over 11,000 every day.
Of prior rolling stock, only two 1956 fourth generation all-aluminium cars survive; one is displayed at the upper terminal, and another can be seen on a disused spur track after leaving Garden Road. No earlier cars exist, but a replica of the first car is displayed in the Peak Tram Historical Gallery.
Information Source:
Table games [gambling is done via machines including solitaire, blackjack, craps, etc.] in full size computerized video format that simulate the live dealer experience. - Magic City Casino, Miami, Florida
This was taken on the eastern side of the "Great Lawn" of Central Park. I took another photo of this young woman to provide more of a wide-angle perspective; click here to see it. Note: this photo was published in a Jun 15, 2010 Technologeek blog, with the same title as the caption that I used on this Flickr page. It was also published in an undated (early Dec 2010) Best Teen Bikini blog, with the same title and detailed notes as what I had written on this Flickr page.
Moving into 2011, the photo was published in an undated (late Jan 2011) Nice Cheap Computer Parts photos blog, as well as a Feb 4, 2011 posting in the same blog -- each with the same title and detailed notes as what I had written here on this Flickr page. It was also published in a May 23, 2011 blog titled "Which Gadgets Should I Bring With Me on Vacation?"
Moving into 2012, the photo was published in an "Everything Coach Store" blog, in a posting titled "Unravel the Benefits of Designer Eyeglasses." It was also published in a Mar 23, 2012 blog titled "Wie normal ist die Rolle des Smartphones in deinem Sexleben? [Studie]" And it was published in a May 2,2012 blog titled "スマホ症候群チェック." It was also published in a Jun 8, 2012 blog titled "Do you work on vacation? " It was also published in a Jul 8, 2012 blog titled "Teens Texting Nude Photos of Themselves Are Getting Out of Hand." And it was published in a Jul 13, 2012 blog titled "E-Mail am Wochenende, zwischen Kind und Kegel." And it was published in an Aug 2, 2012 blog titled "Paris kämpft gegen Freizügigkeit."
Moving into 2013, the photo was published in an undated (mid-Sep 2013) blog titled "6 Tips for Flirting Over Text With Guys." And it was published in a Nov 18, 2013 blog titled "The Majority of American Travelers Stay Plugged in on Vacation." It was also published in a Nov 13, 2013 blog titled "5 Things Marketers Can Learn From High School Students," as well as a Dec 1, 2013 blog titled "Snapchat and Selfi IM - What You Need to Know Now."
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Looking back on some old photos from 40-50 years ago, I was struck by how visible the differences were between the culture of then, versus the culture of now. In some cases, it was evident from the things people wore, or carried, or did, back then which they no longer do today. But sometimes it was the opposite: things that didn't exist back in the 1960s and 1970s have become a pervasive part of today's culture.
A good example is the cellphone: 20 years ago, it simply didn't exist. Even ten years ago, it was a relatively uncommon sight, and usually only on major streets of big cities. Today, of course, cell phones are everywhere, and everyone is using them in a variety of culture contexts.
However, I don't think this is a permanent phenomenon; after all, if you think back to the early 1980s, you probably would have seen a lot of people carrying Sony Walkmans, or "boom-box" portable radios -- all of which have disappeared...
If Moore's Law (which basically says that computers double in power every 18 months) holds up for another decade, then we'll have computerized gadgets approximately 100 times smaller, faster, cheaper, and better -- which means far better integration of music, camera, messaging, and phone, but also the possibility of the devices being so tiny that they're embedded into our eyeglasses, our earrings, or a tattoo on our forehead.
So the point of this album is to provide a frame of reference -- so that we can (hopefully) look back 10-20 years from now, and say, "Wasn't it really weird that we behaved in such bizarre ways while we interacted with those primitive devices?"
The Grumman X-29A was an experimental aircraft with forward-swept wings, designed in the 1980s. It featured a General Electric F404 engine, enabling supersonic speeds. Notably, its advanced computerized flight control system managed inherent instability, showcasing the potential for unconventional aerodynamic configurations in future aircraft development.
Library
With more than 40,000 volumes. The magnificent Neo-Gothic Library of the Casino of Madrid dates back to 1890. Like the Senate, it is inspired by the neogothic style, very popular in the last years of the nineteenth century (when the current casinist building begins). Its construction was entrusted to the workshops of Bernardo Asins, who made shelves and ladders of iron to protect to the room of possible fires.
At present, the Library of the Casino has funds over 40,000 volumes, all of them computerized, predominating works of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth.
Biblioteca
Con más de 40.000 volúmenes. La magnífica Biblioteca neogótica del Casino de Madrid data de 1890. Al igual que la del Senado, está inspirada en el estilo neogótico, muy popular en los últimos años del siglo XIX (cuando comienza a proyectarse el actual edificio casinista). Su construcción fue encomendada a los talleres de Bernardo Asins, quienes realizaron estantes y escalerillas de hierro para proteger a la sala de posibles incendios.
En la actualidad, la Biblioteca del Casino dispone de unos fondos superiores a 40.000 volúmenes, todos ellos informatizados, predominando las obras del siglo XIX, y de comienzos del XX.
The skull and bones of the front legs are seen tucked into the shell of this 3-toed box turtle as image with computerized tomography radiology. The system allows the doctors to rotate and look at the internal bones and organs inside the animal without harming it. This turtle is 90 years old and has passed through 3 generations of humans.
This building was known as the "NA Interlock Signal Tower" but since it was a single floor structure, most locals referred to it as the "NA Cabin". It was used on the B&O Railroad up until the end of 2003 and housed switching and signaling gear that controlled the movement of trains within the railyard. Each major railyard once had similar switching and signaling structures and most were replaced by computerized switches and signals that can be operated remotely without an actual presence within the railyard.
There are a collection of historic photos showing the internals of the NA Tower and its signaling and switching gear that was once employed there on this blog entry: position-light.blogspot.com/2014/05/photos-na-tower.html
Technical details:
Canham wood 5x7 large format film camera.
Schneider Symmar-S 210mm F5.6 lens with Hoya Yellow-Green X0 glass filter.
Ilford Delta 100 @ 100 ISO.
Developed using prototype 20th Century Camera 8-sheet 5x7 reel for Jobo Multitank-5 on Uniroller 352 auto-reversing rotary base in Pyrocat HD 1:1:100 for 13 minutes.
Scanned on Epson 4990 using VueScan.
Photography for me is much more than a means to an end. Every step I take in pursuit of images such as this helps form the mosaic that is my life. It's quite often thrilling to discover places and situations that result in memorable photos. But the underlying memories are equally vital. I often equate the scenes I encounter to creations on a Hollywood movie set. Yet they are very real, and I am standing in them, immersed in the atmosphere of wherever I finds myself.
All of that said, lately I'm having reluctance accepting artificial intelligence (AI) imagery into the same genre as actual photos of actual places. More than once I've clicked on a flickr thumbnail of an incredible scene wondering how on earth someone managed to capture it. I invariably feel disappointment when I discover it was purely a computerized creation. It's one thing to enhance a picture in Photoshop, but quite another to invent it out of while cloth. Feels like cheating at some level, particularly if the photo is passed off as organic. I'm okay seeing AI images, I just prefer to know when I am and am not. Unfortunately the line will become ever more blurry as the tools to generate it become increasingly available.
AI definitely has its place, and like it or not, it's here to stay. In fact it's permeating our society at all levels on a daily basis. It's being used for both healing and good, and dark and evil. And everything in between. I recently got involved with AI-generated images for a book project. Looking into copyright issues, I was surprised to discover that AI images are not eligible for copyright protection because they lack a human creator. Apparently intellectual property still requires an actual intellect. Who knew. When I inquired about how these particular images were acquired (because several depicted real-life celebrities, I was informed that the AI program renders original art based on internet searches of copyrighted photos. So sooner or later, my photos (and yours) will become source material for AI creations.
N522AX / very large air tanker (VLAT) 912/10 Tanker Air Carrier McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 Serial number 48315 LN:436
The DC-10’s air speed during drops is normally 278 km/h (150 knots) at about 200-250 ft.
The flow rate from the tanks is controlled by using the doors and adjusting the amount that they are opened. This is controlled by a computerized processor with programmed settings for achieving different coverage levels as dialed up on the tank controls. There are eight standard coverage level settings (1–8) on the control panel.
A tribute to all the past, present, future hard working men, women and children in the world.
Manual labour (in British English, manual labor in American English) or manual work is physical work done by humans, in contrast to labour by machines and working animals. It is most literally work done with the hands (the word "manual" comes from the Latin word for hand) and, by figurative extension, it is work done with any of the muscles and bones of the body. For most of human prehistory and history, manual labour and its close cousin, animal labour, have been the primary ways that physical work has been accomplished. Mechanisation and automation, which reduce the need for human and animal labour in production, have existed for centuries, but it was only starting in the 18th and 19th centuries that they began to significantly expand and to change human culture. To be implemented, they require that sufficient technology exist and that its capital costs be justified by the amount of future wages that they will obviate. Semi-automation is an alternative to worker displacement that combines human labour, automation, and computerization to leverage the advantages of both man and machine.
Although nearly any work can potentially have skill and intelligence applied to it, many jobs that mostly comprise manual labour—such as fruit and vegetable picking, manual materials handling (for example, shelf stocking), manual digging, or manual assembly of parts—often may be done successfully (if not masterfully) by unskilled or semiskilled workers. Thus there is a partial but significant correlation between manual labour and unskilled or semiskilled workers. Based on economic and social conflict of interest, people may often distort that partial correlation into an exaggeration that equates manual labour with lack of skill; with lack of any potential to apply skill (to a task) or to develop skill (in a worker); and with low social class. Throughout human existence the latter has involved a spectrum of variants, from slavery (with stigmatisation of the slaves as "subhuman"), to caste or caste-like systems, to subtler forms of inequality.
Economic competition often results in businesses trying to buy labour at the lowest possible cost (for example, through offshoring or by employing foreign workers) or to obviate it entirely (through mechanisation and automation).
For various reasons, there is a strong correlation between manual labour and unskilled or semiskilled workers, despite the fact that nearly any work can potentially have skill and intelligence applied to it (for example, the artisanal skill of craft production, or the logic of applied science). It has always been the case for humans that many workers begin their working lives lacking any special level of skill or experience. (In the past two centuries, education has become more important and more widely disseminated; but even today, not everyone can know everything, or have experience in a great number of occupations.) It has also always been the case that there was a large amount of manual labour to be done; and that much of it was simple enough to be successfully (if not masterfully) done by unskilled or semiskilled workers, which has meant that there have always been plenty of people with the potential to do it. These conditions have assured the correlation's strength and persistence.
Throughout human prehistory and history, wherever social class systems have developed, the social status of manual labourers has, more often than not, been low, as most physical tasks were done by peasants, serfs, slaves, indentured servants, wage slaves, or domestic servants. For example, legal scholar L. Ali Khan analyses how the Greeks, Hindus, English, and Americans all created sophisticated social structures to outsource manual labour to distinct classes, castes, ethnicities, or races.
The phrase "hard labour" has even become a legal euphemism for penal labour, which is a custodial sentence during which the convict is not only confined but also put to manual work. Such work may be productive, as on a prison farm or in a prison kitchen, laundry, or library; may be completely unproductive, with the only purpose being the effect of the punishment on the convict; or somewhere in between (such as chain gang work, treadwheel work, or the proverbial "breaking rocks"—the latter two of which are almost certain to be economically unproductive today, although they sometimes served economic purpose in the preindustrial past).
There has always been a tendency among people of the higher gradations of social class to oversimplify the [partial] correlation between manual labour and lack of skill (or need for skill) into one of equivalence, leading to dubious exaggerations such as the notion that anyone who worked physically could be identified by that very fact as being unintelligent or unskilled, or that any task requiring physical work must (by that very fact) be simplistic and not worthy of analysis (or of being done by anyone with intelligence or social rank). Given the human cognitive tendency toward rationalisation, it is natural enough that such grey areas (partial correlations) have often been warped into absolutes (black and white thinking) by people seeking to justify and perpetuate their social advantage.
Throughout human existence, but most especially since the Age of Enlightenment, there have been logically complementary efforts by intelligent workers to counteract these flawed oversimplifications. For example, the American and French Revolutions rejected notions of inherited social status (aristocracy, nobility, monarchy), and the labour movements of the 19th and 20th centuries led to the formation of trade unions who enjoyed substantial collective bargaining power for a time. Such counteractive efforts have been all the more difficult because not all social status differences and wealth differences are unfair; meritocracy is a part of real life, just as rationalisation and unfairness are.
Social systems of every ideological persuasion, from Marxism to syndicalism to the American Dream, have attempted to achieve a successfully functioning classless society in which honest, productive manual labourers can have every bit of social status and power that honest, productive managers can have. Humans have not yet succeeded in instantiating any such utopia, but some social systems have been designed that go far enough toward the goal that hope yet remains for further improvement.
At its highest extreme, the rationalised distortion by economic elites produces cultures of slavery and complete racial subordination, such as slavery in ancient Greece and Rome; slavery in the United States; or slavery under Nazism (which was defeated in 1945). Concepts such as the Three-fifths compromise and the Untermensch defined slaves as less than human.
In the middle of the spectrum, such distortion may produce systems of fairly rigid class stratification, usually rationalised with fairly strong cultural norms of biologically inherited social inequality, such as feudalism; traditional forms of aristocracy and monarchy; colonialism; and caste systems (e.g., Apartheid, separate but equal/Jim Crow, Indian caste). One interesting historical trend that is true of all of the systems above is that they began crumbling in the 20th century and have continued crumbling since. Today's forms of them are mostly greatly weakened compared to past generations' versions.
At the lowest extreme, such distortion produces subtler forms of racism and de facto (but not de jure) inequality of opportunity. The more plausible the deniability, the easier the rationalisation and perpetuation. For example, as inequality of opportunity and racism grow smaller and subtler, their appearance may converge toward that of meritocracy, to the point that valid instances of each can be found extensively intermingled. At such areas of the spectrum, it becomes ever harder to justify efforts that use de jure methods to fight de facto imbalances (such as affirmative action), because valid instances can be highlighted by all sides. On one side, the cry is ongoing oppression (ignored or denied) from above; on the other side, the cry is reverse discrimination; ample valid evidence exists for both cases, and the problem of its anecdotal nature leaves no clear policy advantage to either side. Source Wikipedia.
TD : Agfapan 100 Professional 35mm film, developed in D-76 1+1 for 7 minutes. Exposure ISO 100 @35mm lens, natural daylight. Scanned with Alpha 6000 edited in ACR, inverted in CS6.
Ruffle attachment to my 1891 Singer treadle sewing machine. The attachment has a patent date of 1888. I have all the complete attachments, the wood box it came in, and the original manuals for the machine and the attachments. I've sewn quilts and civil war reenacting clothing for myself and my son when he was young. It sews like a dream, but I do love my modern computerized machine.
Who doesn't love their sewing machine? A girl's always gotta be prepared for emergencies...like stitching her man's name on a pair o'pants
Not really tatty...but over 10yrs old...and NOT computerized...LOL!!...but it does repair some tatty butt covers!
The Borobudur Temple in Yogyakarta, Indonesia is the world's largest Buddhist temple. Erected in the ninth century, this temple has stood for over a millenia. It is an amazing feeling climbing those steps in the predawn hours, Milky Way overhead, and realizing that men built this before cranes, power tools, or computerized blueprints, and yet it still stands... in defiance of time and the elements.
Created for I Made This theme in Macro Monday HMM! :-)
Both items are crafted by me. With the help of computerized machines - a laser engraver/cutter and a 3D printer. You create the files in the computer & send them over your wireless network to the machine so it can do its thing.
The Cutting Board is a gift for my sister in law Marilyn who loves to cook. The little cube guy is for me. For now. He may well become a gift too. I always make extras in case someone comes over and likes it. I just give it to them if they like it. So I always have lots of fun stuff for them to peruse through. :-) Anyhoo..
I pre-painted some Maple wood, then engraved the words. Then the Cutting Board shape was cut from it. I used a few different colors of pink & purple paint. The glitter effect on the Cutting Board is not because of glitter, but because some of the paints had mica power inside & I added a final clear seal coat that I added some mica to. It’s multi-colored and very sparkly. :-) It’s not perfect but I’m only at this lasering thing a bit over 2 years and I’m still learning. It does look better when it’s not being examined so up close like this macro! lol.. All I see is what I’d do differently.. next time.
The little cube guy was 3D printed using sparkly gold filament. He has the cutest feet!! Not seen well in the pic. It’s hard to get it all in in just 3 inches! He’s my little helper here.. the Cutting Board needed help staying upright. That’s it. Hope you like.
Look ! Something illusory, mirage Reflections, light, mirrors. The Café in Pistolstræde. 2008 © All rights reserved.
BILD1596-U1
Yes, this is a real image taken from the planet Earth. It is known as the Andromeda Galaxy and is located about 2.5 million light years away.
Many people think that you must send a satellite and expensive equipment up to space in order to capture the true beauty of what's above. This is false.
I captured this image by taking many light, dark, flat, and bias frames. A computerized equatorial mount was also the key to this, as it allowed me to take pictures of the stars without them trailing out.
I know the image isn't that great because of the graininess and size of the subject, but I promise that there will be many more to come and they will look even better.
Nikon D7000, Nikon 80-200mm @ 200mm, f/5.6, ISO 2500, 30 sec
Lights: 27 x 30 sec, 5 x 75 sec
Darks: 27
Flats: 13
Biases: 27
The company was founded as Kristiansands Nikkelraffineringsverk A/S in 1910 by, among others, Samuel Eyde, Anton Grønningsæter, Jacob Børresen and Victor Hybinette. Hybinette had invented and patented a process for refining nickel by electrolysis: the Hybinette process. The Hybinette process was in use until 1975, when it was replaced by the so-called KL process, which is still in use in a modified version (the KLA process).
The raw materials for the plant initially came from the Flåt mines near Evje, around 70 km north of Kristiansand, where nickel ore was mined from 1872 to 1946. Even after the First World War, however, it was clear that the mines could not supply as much as the nickel plant needed. The plant also experienced a major fire, and struggled with low nickel prices on the world market and generally difficult economic times. In 1929, the owners therefore accepted a takeover offer from Canadian Falconbridge Nickel Mines, and the plant was named Falconbridge Nikkelverk AS. Falconbridge had discovered large deposits of nickel-bearing ore in Sudbury, Canada, which could be sent to Kristiansand for refining.
As early as 1966, the plant installed computerized process management, allegedly as the first company in Norway. With further streamlining, staffing has decreased from around 1,600 people in 1974 to around 500 in 2008, while production has tripled, emissions to air and water have almost disappeared, and electricity consumption has been reduced by 60%.
In October 2006, Falconbridge Ltd was acquired by Xstrata. 7 years later, in 2013, Xstrata merged with Glencore. Glencore employs close to 190,000 and has businesses within a wide range of industries, - minerals and mines, oil, grain, production of metals etc. Today, the company markets itself as Glencore Nikkelverk AS.
This photo of the Triangulum Galaxy was taken at the Northern Skies Observatory in Peacham, Vermont. The telescope is a PlaneWave f/6.8 17-inch CDK. The camera mounted on the telescope is an Apogee Alta F16M Monochrome CCD with a Kodak 52 mm full frame sensor.
Also known as Messier 33 (M33) or NGC 598, Triangulum is a spiral galaxy about 3 million light years away, has a diameter about half that of our Milky Way, and contains 40 billion stars. It lies within the constellation Triangulum in the northern sky, relatively close to the Andromeda galaxy.
Most observatory cameras are set up to take monochrome images only. A red filter, green filter, and blue filter are usually used to bring color to the final image. In addition to those 3 filters, an H-alpha filter was used for this photo. The H-alpha filter isolates a visible spectrum of light that shows destabilized hydrogen. The irregular shaped red objects in the photograph, some with white in them, are ionized hydrogen gas clouds. We are able to see them clearly in the photo because of the use of the H-alpha filter. These ionized hydrogen gas clouds, also called H II regions, reach temperatures of 10,000 degrees Kelvin and are massive areas of star birth.
Taking the Photo:
Taking the photo itself is pretty easy because everything is computerized. It is not necessary to look through the telescope, find the object in the sky and focus on it, or even be at the observatory to request a photo. The observatory is one of about 20 in the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network. To take the photo, we logged into that site and put in a "plan". For the plan, we specified the object to be photographed (M33), the filters to be used (the 4 filters mentioned above), and the exposure time (we used 5 minutes per image). A monochrome image is created for each filter used.
The plans are placed in a queue. The images are taken automatically when conditions are right, e.g. clear skies, dark skies, and the object to be photographed is visible to the telescope. That could potentially be a week or more, especially if there are lots of plans queued up or lots of cloudy nights. When the time comes, the door on the dome opens (if not already open), and both the telescope and door robotically position themselves to take the images. They also must continue to track the object precisely for the duration, in this case about 20 minutes (5-minute exposures for each filter, plus time to load the filters). Each of the 4 filters get loaded automatically at the point it is needed.
Processing the Photo:
The images created are in FITS format (Flexible Image Transport System), most commonly used in scientific applications, especially astronomy and microscopy. This format is not supported by typical photo editing software such as Photoshop or Lightroom. In order to process the monochrome images, I had to learn ImageJ, a free open-source, Java-based application developed by the National Institute of Health.
When I first opened the monochrome images in ImageJ, they were almost entirely black, with just a few white dots scattered around. Looking at the histogram, it very closely hugs the left boundary. There is data there, but it is all very dark. One of the first steps needed is to do a "logarithmic stretch" on each image. This effectively spreads out the histogram towards the center. Actually, this stretching also happens behind the scenes with traditional DSLR and other cameras. If shooting in JPG format, the camera's firmware does this stretching for you. If shooting in RAW, the stretching occurs at the point the RAW data is opened in image processing software such as Lightroom.
After the stretching in ImageJ, you basically do brightness adjustments on each of the images, then create a color composite from which you can do final color balancing. I also did manual image alignment. The stars in the composite should be white, so for example, if you zoom in on the stars and see red at the top of most of them, then the image associated with the red filter needs to be moved down one or more pixels in the composite. It was actually quite simple to do the alignment.
Additional options in ImageJ allow for noise reduction, sharpening, etc. There are also many available plugins, an example of which would be for building mosaics (analogous to panoramas). If you wanted to photograph the Andromeda galaxy on this telescope, for example, a mosaic would be required because the image of Andromeda is too large to fit on a single frame!
When processing in ImageJ is complete, the composited image can be saved in a variety of formats. I saved to TIFF, brought it into my usual software to set EXIF info, and did the noise reduction, sharpening, and other processing there as well.
For additional info and a photo of the Northern Skies Observatory, see: www.flickr.com/photos/davetrono/42239486970
Northern Skies Observatory website: www.nkaf.org
I captured this image of a dark nebula with my telescope equipment while at Mount Rainier National Park. The combined exposure to create this photo was 4.5 hours using a computerized mount that held my 8" Newtonian telescope, which kept the stars sharp and pinpoint. This nebula is made out of dust and gas that star light illuminates, so we can see the structure. The brilliant gold and blue stars burn at different temperatures, yellow stars burn cooler and blue stars burn hotter.
Object: Dark Shark Nebula (LDN 1235)
Optics: ASA 8" H F/2.8 Astrograph
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G
Guiding: 50 mm Finder, Orion SSAG and PhD
Camera: Astrodon Filter Modified Canon Xsi (450D)
F/stop: F/2.8
Exposure: 4.5 hours
ISO: 1600
Mode: RAW
White Balance: Custom
Filter: None
Conditions: Temp. 45 degrees F
Dates: August 7th and August 16th, 2015
Location: Mount Rainier National Park, WA
Calibration: ImagesPlus 4.50
Calibration Frames: Darks, flats, flat darks and bias
Processing: PixInsight and Photoshop
"But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. For man had succeeded in destroying the world ...”
('Power Armor' by Funko / Legacy Collection)
A group of hikers pose for a photo below the Buffalo Bill Dam. The Dam stands in Shoshone Canyon on the Shoshone River just 6 miles upstream of Cody Wyoming. The dam is anchored in Archean granites and gneisses that were part of Wyoming when it was a separate microcontinent about 2.5 billion years ago.The north side of the canyon is known as Rattlesnake Mountain. Cedar Mountain is on the south side. These mountains are part of a large faulted anticline that formed during the Laramide mountain-building episode around 70 million years ago.
America’s first ever mass concrete dam rose 325 feet high above the canyon floor which made it the tallest dam in the world at the time of its completion. The arch dam was constructed between 1904 and 1910. It was one of the first arch dams in the U.S. to be designed using a mathematical method of analysis. Engineer Edgar Wheeler considered changing water surface elevations, variation in temperature and deflection issues. This allowed him to determine the distribution of loads both horizontally and vertically. This was the forerunner of the Trial-Load Method of arch dam stress analysis which is the predecessor of today's computerized systems. The dam is a constant-radius arch concrete structure with a radius of 150 feet and a crest length of 200 feet. Twenty-five percent of the dam is composed of hand-placed rocks, called plum stones, weighing 25 to 200 pounds each.
Prior to irrigation the Big Horn Basin was a dry desert averaging only 7 to 12 inches of rainfall year. Despite the low rainfall the area has rich and deep soils. Visionaries like showman Colonel William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody saw the potential benefit to irrigating the arid land and raising agricultural crops. In 1897 and 1899 Colonel Cody and his associates acquired from the State of Wyoming the right to take water from the Shoshone River to irrigate about 169,000 acres of land in the Bighorn Basin. They began developing a canal to carry water diverted from the river, but their plans did not include a water storage reservoir. Colonel Cody and his associates were unable to raise sufficient capital to complete their plan. Early in 1903 they joined with the Wyoming Board of Land Commissioners in urging the federal government to step in and help with irrigation development in the valley.
The Shoshone Project became one of the first federal water development projects undertaken by the newly formed Reclamation Service, later to become known as the Bureau of Reclamation. After Reclamation took over the project in 1903, investigating engineers recommended constructing a dam on the Shoshone River in the canyon west of Cody.. Originally called the Shoshone Dam it was renamed in 1946 the Buffalo Bill Dam in honor of one of its biggest proponents, Buffalo Bill.
In the early 1900s, building a large dam in a remote location offered many challenges. Concrete was placed and cured despite below-zero temperatures, requiring steam fittings to carry heat to the construction site. To excavate the dam abutments on the sheer walls of the canyon, workmen risked their lives, hanging from spider lines connected to cableway towers. Seven workman died during the construction of the dam over the six year period. Manpower was limited on the sparsely populated frontier. Contractors and laborers had to be imported and trained. Thousands of tons of materials had to be delivered to the site over the precipitous canyon road. But despite all these obstacles the dam was completed in 1910.
Because of its historical significance, Buffalo Bill Dam was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It is also a National Civil Engineering Landmark.
Between 1988 and 1993, the height of the dam was raised another 25 feet to its present total height of 350 feet.
References:
usbr.gov/gp/multimedia/publications/buffalo_bill_brochure...
www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/buffalo-bill-dam-wyoming
www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage...
The job I had the past few years had taken up all of my landscape photography time, and thankfully it is over and I will be doing work that will allow more free time for photography. In the meantime I have been acquiring a telescope and computerized mount system for deep space imaging.
This is the very first image I processed, the Orion Nebula (with smaller Running Man Nebula above) using my standard Sony SLT that I carried for many years. Recently I purchased a dedicated astronomy CMOS camera that is monochrome and it's like learning photography all over again from complete scratch.
The image acquisition and processing time for these captures can be extremely time consuming, especially when learning. The software and hardware can be very challenging as well...one time I go out and everything runs smooth, the next program and driver issues for no apparent reason.
A mesmerizing display that changes with the music that is located in the Jordan's Furniture Store, New Haven, Connecticut.
© Cynthia E. Wood
www.cynthiawoodphoto.com | FoundFolios | facebook | Blurb | Instagram @cynthiaewood
From Eric Staller's website: "The LIGHTMOBILE (1985) was the first in the urban UFOs series. A Volkswagen beetle covered with 1659 lamps that are computerized into 20 different patterns of light flowing over the car. I have shared it with hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of New York, Chicago, Boston, Montreal, Amsterdam, Basel, Berlin, Brussels and Nagoya."
(...and now, San Francisco!)
1962 Oldsmbile F-85 Jetfire Hardtop Coupe
General Motors was flexing its engineering muscles in the early Sixties, especially when it came to the corporation’s new Y-body small cars. The line of 112-inch-wheelbase premium compacts included the Pontiac Tempest with independent rear suspension and curved “rope drive” driveshaft. Meanwhile, the Buick Special and Oldsmobile F-85 bowed in 1961 with an aluminum V8, followed in ’62 by a 90-degree V6 initially exclusive to Buick.
In April 1962, Olds introduced America’s first mass-market turbocharged car, the F-85 Jetfire. (Chevrolet brought out its turbocharged Corvair Monza Spyder about a month later.) A turbocharger uses the force of escaping exhaust gas to turn impellers that raise air pressure in the intake manifold, forcing the fuel mixture into the combustion chambers for more power. Working with Garrett AirResearch, Olds adapted a turbocharger to the 215-cid aluminum V-8. Where naturally aspirated versions made 155 or 185 horsepower, the Jetfire’s “Turbo Rocket” version put out 215 horsepower.
Turbo engines usually have reduced compression to avoid preignition or “pinging,” but to reach the magic one-horsepower-per-cubic-inch mark, Olds engineers used a high 10.25:1 compression. To head off detonation, an ingenious fluid-injection system added a 50/50 mix of water and alcohol (“Turbo-Rocket Fluid”) to the fuel mixture to lower the combustion-chamber temperature. A wastegate limited turbo boost.
Inside, a vacuum-boost gauge on the standard center console indicated if the turbo was doing its job. The gauge also included a warning light to remind owners to refill the Turbo-Rocket Fluid tank—a bottle in the engine bay held an emergency supply.
A Jetfire could go 0-60 mph in 8.5 seconds and had a top speed of 107. The quarter-mile run was achieved in 16.8 seconds. All Jetfires were hardtop coupes with standard front bucket seats. The Jetfire cost $3049.
Oldsmobile engineers came up with a lot of ingenious engineering to make the turbo work, but ultimately the engine was unreliable in the hands of average owners who often failed to refill the Turbo-Rocket Fluid tank. In 1965 Olds recalled the Jetfires to replace the turbocharger with a conventional four-barrel carburetor. Today, turbos benefit from computerized technology and are increasingly popular because they generate more power from small, fuel-efficient engines.
Only 3765 Jetfires were sold in 1962, with a further 5842 built in its final year of 1963. It’s estimated that only 30-35 with a functioning turbocharger remain. It is one of only about 50 ’62s with a four-speed manual transmission.
This is the transformers that I always loved as a child... Soundwave is a myth for me, probably his distinctive monotone (computerized voice) has always struck my head, or the fact that he have inside other micro robots.
This is my personal recreation of a mith.
Of course he is transformable, here "Cassette recorder mode"
Union Pacific 4-8-4 steam locomotive 844 glides over the Mojave River in the second bridge in Afton Canyon. I love the way the smoke is in and out of the girders on the bridge, and UP's colorful consist blends well with the splash of green and yellow in the river bed. A beautiful sight.
I took a break from my usual landscape shots to indulge my childhood fascination with steam locomotives. In the electronic age it's crazy to think of how much power is controlled by purely mechanical means here. It's hard to imagine something like this being built today, and yet in 1944 such a beautiful locomotive was made without any of the modern computerized tools we all take for granted today.
Southeast Financial Center is a two-acre development in Miami, Florida, United States. It consists of a 764 feet (233 m) tall office skyscraper and its 15-story parking garage. It was previously known as the Southeast Financial Center (1984–1992), the First Union Financial Center (1992–2003), and the Wachovia Financial Center (2003-2011). In 2011, it retook its old name of Southeast Financial Center as Wachovia merged with Wells Fargo and moved to the nearby Wells Fargo Center.
When topped-off in August 1983, it was the tallest building south of New York City and east of the Mississippi River, taking away the same title from the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, in Atlanta, Georgia. It remained the tallest building in the southeastern U.S. until 1987, when it was surpassed by One Atlantic Center in Atlanta and the tallest in Florida until October 1, 2003, when it was surpassed by the Four Seasons Hotel and Tower, also in Miami. It remains the tallest office tower in Florida and the third tallest building in Miami.
Southeast Financial Center was constructed in three years with more than 500 construction workers. Approximately 6,650 tons of structural steel, 80,000 cubic yards of concrete and 7000 cubic tons of reinforcing steel bars went into its construction. The complex sits on a series of reinforced concrete grade beams tied to 150 concrete caissons as much as ten feet in diameter and to a depth of 80 feet. A steel space-frame canopy with glass skylights covers the outdoor plaza between the tower and low-rise building.
The tower has a composite structure. The exterior columns and beams are concrete encased steel wide flanges surrounded by reinforcing bars. The composite exterior frame was formed using hydraulic steel forms, or "flying forms," jacked into place with a "kangaroo" crane, that was located in the core and manually clamped into place. Wide flange beams topped by a metal deck and concrete form the interior floor framing. The core is A braced steel frame, designed to laterally resist wind loads. The construction of one typical floor was completed every five days.
The low-rise banking hall and parking building is a concrete-framed structure. Each floor consists of nearly an acre of continuously poured concrete. When the concrete had sufficiently hardened, compressed air was used to blow the forms fiberglass forms from under the completed floor. It was then rolled out to the exterior where it was raised by crane into position for the next floor.
The building was recognized as Miami's first and only office building to be certified for the LEED Gold award in January 2010.
The center was developed by a partnership consisting of Gerald D. Hines Interests, Southeast Bank and Corporate Property Investors for $180 million. It was originally built as the headquarters for Southeast Bank, which originally occupied 50 percent of the complex's space. It remained Southeast Bank's headquarters there until it was liquidated in 1991.
The Southeast Financial Center comprises two buildings: the 55-story office tower and the 15-story parking annex. The tower has 53 stories of office space. The first floor is dedicated for retail, the second floor is the lobby and the 55th floor was home to the luxurious Miami City Club. The parking annex has 12 floors of parking space for 1,150 cars. The first floor is dedicated for retail, the second floor is a banking hall and the 15th floor has the Downtown Athletic Club. A landscaped plaza lies between the office tower and the parking annex. An enclosed walkway connects the second story of the tower with the second story of the annex. The courtyard is partially protected from the elements by a steel and glass space frame canopy spanning the plaza and attached to the tower and annex. Southeast Bank's executive offices were located on the 38th floor. Ground was broken on the complex on December 12, 1981 and the official dedication and opening for the complex was held on October 23, 1984.
The Southeast Financial Center was designed by Edward Charles Bassett of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The Associate Architect was Spillis Candela & Partners. It has 1,145,311 ft² (106,000 m²) of office space. A typical floor has about 22,000 ft² (2,043.87 m²) of office space. Each floor has 9 ft x 9 ft (2.7 m x 2.7 m) floor to ceiling windows. (All of the building's windows are tinted except for the top floor, resulting in strikingly bright and clear views from there.) The total complex has over 2.2 million ft² (204,000 m²). The distinctive setbacks begin at the 43rd floor. Each typical floor plate has 9 corner offices and the top twelve floors have as many as 16. There are 43 elevators in the office tower. An emergency control station provides computerized monitoring for the entire complex, and four generators for backup power.
The Southeast Financial Center can be seen as far away as Ft. Lauderdale and halfway toward Bimini. Night space shuttle launches from Cape Canaveral 200 miles to the north were plainly visible from the higher floors. The roof of the building was featured in the Wesley Snipes motion picture Drop Zone, where an eccentric base jumper named Swoop parachutes down to the street from a suspended window cleaning trolley. The building also appeared in several episodes of the 1980s TV show Miami Vice and at the end of each episode's opening credits.
Zara founder Amancio Ortega purchased the building from J.P. Morgan Asset Management in December 2016. The purchase price was reportedly over $500 million, making it one of the largest real estate transactions in South Florida history.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Financial_Center
www.emporis.com/buildings/122292/wachovia-financial-cente...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
Boeing B-29 Superfortress “FIFI”, serial number 44-62070
FiFi, a B-29 bomber, and one of the more notable planes, participated in a special event at the New Century Air Center in Gardner, Kansas. The event was called the Air Power History Tour, where three working World War II airplanes were on display until Sunday. The event took place August 20 through August 24 at the New Century AirCenter in Gardner Kansas. This picture taken Sunday, August 24th.
This particular aircraft was delivered to the U.S. Army Air Corps in Salina, Kansas, on July 31, 1945. It remained state-side for its entire career, assigned to several airbases including Strategic Air Command, Grand Island Field, Nebraska. It was converted to a TB-29 trainer in 1953 and transferred to the U.S. Navy in 1956 and eventually ended up at China Lake, California.
The B-29 was designed as a long-range heavy bomber, and whose nickname “Superfortress” is derived from the B-17 “Flying Fortress” nickname coined by Richard L. Williams, a writer and editor for the Seattle Times, when he was assigned to write a caption on a photo of the Model 299, a prototype of the B-17 that was unveiled at Boeing on July 17, 1935. Boeing presented a prototype as early as 1939, but the production version did not see combat until 1944. B-29s were flown in the Pacific Theater during World War II, where their long range and large bomb load were most needed (although two were delivered for non-combat to Europe late in the war – my dad was there in 1946 and spoke of them). The B-29 is, of course, most known for having dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (a secondary target chosen due to poor visibility over the primary target of Kokura). After its establishment in 1946, the U.S. Strategic Air Command began deployment of B-29s, some as RB-29 reconnaissance aircraft.
Powered by four Wright R-3350-23 Duplex/Cyclone engines, the B-29 was the first bomber to have pressurized crew compartments: forward, aft, and tail gunner positions, with a pressurized connecting tunnel over the bomb bays. It was entirely innovative in its use of an analog computerized remote-controlled sighting system for the guns. Except for the tail gunner, the gunners no longer sat in turrets but rather in sighting stations using a remote periscope sighting system for the turrets which had switches to obtain or relinquish control of the four turrets; the top turret gunner/central fire control officer had switches for changing control as to which gunner was on the target depending on his field of view; the gunners communicated via the interphone system.
The bombardier was generally responsible for the forward dorsal 4-gun turret and the forward ventral 2-gun turret for frontal attacks. Armament in this aircraft includes: twin-mounted General Electric .50 caliber machine guns in remote-controlled forward and rear ventral turrets and a ventral rear aft turret, and quad-mounted .50 cal. in a remote-controlled forward dorsal turret, and a pair in the tail turret. (Armament varied in these aircraft and a 20 mm cannon was added to the tail turret on some aircraft).
The crew generally consisted of ten: pilot, co-pilot, bombardier/togglier, flight engineer, radio operator, navigator, right gunner, left gunner, top gunner or central fire control, tail gunner (11 when radar was used). The top gunner sat in a pedestal seat nicknamed the “Barber’s Seat.” Due to the complexity of this aircraft, the flight engineer (who sat behind the co-pilot, facing aft and looking at an array of controls) had a very active role in flying the aircraft, responsible for the minute-by-minute monitoring and control of the engines. Each crew position was fitted with a 1936 Ford ashtray. The aircraft had a forward and smaller aft bomb bay and could carry a range of ordnance.