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SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Barbara Pelletreau and Mary Tyren attend CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Devlin Shand for Drew Altizer Photography)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Pablo Bravo and Sister Mary Haddad attend CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Devlin Shand for Drew Altizer Photography)
"New Views of Humankind" is the title of the main exhibition in the new Ars Electronica Center. Here you can see the "BioLab" where you can clone flowers or test microscopes.
credit: rubra
The butterfly has a message for humankind: "You really should have stopped decades ago. The future is now out of humankind's hands. The human species hasn't had any direct experience of precisely how dangerous a planet the Earth is but the species will learn this lesson soon. This civilization which humankind has built with such pride won't survive and humankind will soon follow its global technological civilization to nonexistence. But this isn't the end. The Universe will continue along without humankind for trillions of years."
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Theresa Shargill, Kristi Yamaguchi and Dr. Narinder attend CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Devlin Shand for Drew Altizer Photography)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Debbie Melfi, Mitch Melfi, Myra Ruttenberg and Monetta White attend CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Natalie Shrik for Drew Altizer Photography)
DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 22JAN16 - Nita A. Farahany, Professor, Law and Philosophy, Duke University, USA, speaks during the open forum session 'Life in 2030: Humankind and the Machine' at the Annual Meeting 2016 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2016.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/swiss-image.ch/Photo Michele Limina
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Atmosphere at CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Devlin Shand for Drew Altizer Photography)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Brenda Wright attends CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Drew Altizer)
I took the photos in this series for Birth for Humankind, an organisation that provides free birth support and education for pregnant women in Melbourne who are experiencing financial and social hardship.
You can read the story behind these photos here: medium.com/@Birth_for_HumanKIND/the-beautiful-bond-betwee...
Rock Formations & Flora (Xerophyta retinervis) at the "Cradle of Humankind" (a World Heritage Site in Kromdraai, Gauteng, South Africa). Spotted Aloes (Aloe greatheadii var. davyana) and Proteas (Sugar Bush) are scattered throughout the grasslands.
"Mrs. Ples" (Australopithecus africanus) was found in this area in 1947, and is currently the oldest human fossil found to date. This gave rise to the idea that Africa is the "Cradle of Humankind".
In 2008 two fossilised skeletons of a new species of early human "Australopithecus sediba" were discovered.
Winter, June 2007.
Best viewed LARGE.
Martin
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Administrator of:
All things beautiful in Nature Group
For the first few hundred thousand years humankind knew exactly where food came from. There was a close relationship between hunter and prey, gatherer and bounty, farmer and harvest. But somehow, in the last few decades, humankind just lost it. Beyond the fact that milk may contain more growth hormones than certain baseball players (looking at you big headed Barry Bonds) and genetically modified veggies may be insect-lettuce hybrids, it is simply difficult to fall in love with food when you don’t know its origin.
Storytellers Remembering Futures from the Past takes place in a new world 7 generations from now. The Earth has become uninhabitable and humankind has been forced to find a new home amongst the stars. The Diné moved to a planet with two moons who hold the world in balance. This world is the 5th world the Diné have lived in, the next step in our Creation Story. The people terraformed the planet to look like their home in Round Rock,
Arizona. The hogans (traditional Diné houses) are partially made of glass and rigid woven panels. The image depicts storytellers who are remembering creation stories and archiving them to be shared later with their community. They use a form of telepathy, with each dot representing a story from Diné history. The piece shows the
resiliency of our cultures, our people, our stories and how all of that is maintained and nourished by the matriarchs of our families. They reinforce that no matter what future we live through, we will not lose who we are as Diné.
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This work was commissioned by the Initiative for Indigenous Futures as part of the Illustrating the Future Imaginary series. Please see abtec.org/iif/outputs/illustrating-the-future-imaginary for more information. Please contact info@abtec.org if you are interested in using the images in any public context.
Brandon 3 October 2013: At the Lignacite Lecture 2013 Professor Doug King spoke about Building on Evolution, and called for the need to change the construction paradigm to ensure high performance, low impact buildings, which are essential to the future of humankind.
The Lecture, which was this year held at The Royal Society in London, was attended by architects, specifiers, designers, environmentalists and representatives from construction and local authorities, who came to hear Professor Doug King speak about the need to learn from the evolved wisdom of historic builders.
He said: “In the next 40 years, to accommodate the rapid growth in urban population, humankind will likely have to build as much new urban fabric as already exists today. We will not have time to correct mistakes. We need to ensure that the buildings we put up are genuinely sustainable: appropriate for their cultural and climatic locations, as well as minimising use of resources.
“Everywhere I look, I find evidence of underlying physical properties that have influenced the choices of generations of builders. From structure to roof tiles to paint, the properties of certain materials and methods have brought benefits to buildings, despite these rarely being overtly recognised. We need to examine these with a view to identifying new opportunities for creating high performance, low impact buildings that have not yet even been imagined.”
Chairman of leading masonry products manufacturer, Lignacite, Giles de Lotbiniere, was delighted Professor King accepted his invitation to address this year’s Lecture: “He is a building physicist and one of the most influential figures on sustainable construction in the world. He raised some important points, and at Lignacite we are already working to address his challenge of developing high performance, low impact buildings and conserving resources by using up to 50% of recycled materials in our products.
“Recently we also launched The Carbon Buster, which is the world’s first carbon negative building block, and incorporates recycled materials and carbonated aggregates, which are derived from by-products from waste to energy plants. We believe this block has an important role to play in helping to meet the UK’s zero carbon homes targets and build a more sustainable future,” he said.
The Lignacite Lecture is an annual event, which dates back to year 2000. Since then, a variety of topics ranging from The Relationship between Art & Architecture to Biomimicry and the Ecological Age have been covered by high profile speakers, including Sir Terry Farrell, Anthony Gormley OBE, Ken Shuttleworth and Professor David Mach.
ENDS
More information:
An edited version of Professor King’s Lignacite Lecture is available here: www.dougking.co.uk/building-on-evolution/
For more information, please contact marit@meyerbell.co.uk
Lignacite:
Lignacite is a leading UK manufacturer of masonry products designed for internal or external use. Founded in 1947, it remains a family owned company managed by Allan Eastwood. The Lignacite masonry range incorporates a range of recycled and waste materials, including glass, wood particles, Furnace Ash, Recycled concrete, china clay and shells. The company also provides products to encourage biodiversity in construction. The company uses aggregates from its own local quarry in Brandon, and has supplied many high profile buildings in the UK, including the Shard, the Gherkin, Olympic Village, Heathrow Airport, Stanstead Airport, Canary Warf and the Olympic Stadium. For more information, visit www.lignacite.co.uk
Professor Doug King:
Doug King FREng CEng CPhys CEnv FInstP FEI FCIBSE HonFRIBA is, according to Building Design, one of the most influential figures in UK sustainable construction. He has been the environmental engineer behind numerous ground-breaking, critically acclaimed, buildings including; the Stirling Prize shortlisted Weald & Downland Gridshell, The Innovate Office Leeds, which triggered the introduction of BREEAM Outstanding, The Genzyme Centre in Cambridge Massachusetts, at the time the largest LEED Platinum building in the world, and Sainsbury’s original Eco-Superstore at Greenwich. Doug King now works as a freelance consultant, helping construction clients, designers and supply chains to realise genuinely high performance, low impact buildings. He teaches environmental design widely, to both engineers and architects and is a visiting professor at universities in the UK, China and Russia.
For more information please visit: www.dougking.co.uk
For video highlights of the lecture please see: www.dougking.co.uk/building-on-evolution
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 10 - Lloyd Dean, Suzanne Dean, Sabrina Shannon, Carol Keehan and Kevin Lofton attend Humankindness Gala 2018 on May 10th 2018 at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Alexandra Malek for Drew Altizer Photography)
Because few people are aware of the God-ordained festivals spelled out in the Bible, few understand God’s step-by-step plan of salvation revealed through these celebrations. The meaning of the eighth day corresponds to Ezekiel’s vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, referring to a time when lost family members will be joyously joined together again to learn God’s ways while living under utopian conditions of mutual love, peace and prosperity.
When he was 30 years old, Ezekiel began to experience astonishing visions from Almighty God. Perhaps in a personal diary, he recorded the exact date on which the first vision occurred: “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God” (Ezekiel 1:1, emphasis added throughout).
The invisible barriers between heaven and earth were supernaturally parted for Ezekiel. But what did this prophet actually see in vision? Moving beyond the introductory revelation of the awesome angelic realm, we fast-forward to verses 26 and 28. “On the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it… This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” Ezekiel initially reacted just like the prophet Daniel and the apostles Paul and John did later. “So when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of One [God] speaking. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you’…And He said to me; ‘Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel’ ” (Ezekiel 1:28; Ezekiel 2:1-3). God gave Ezekiel a great mission to accomplish. He had important announcements to make. These were intended to reach people far beyond his own time to people down through the ages. And one important vision would serve to encourage all who have ever lived in facing the same remorseless enemy—the seemingly hopeless ending of life in death.
The Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones (or The Valley of Dry Bones or The Vision of Dry Bones) is a prophecy in chapter 37 of the Book of Ezekiel. The chapter details a vision revealed to the prophet Ezekiel, conveying a dream-like realistic-naturalistic depiction. Ezekiel continued to have visions throughout his prophetic ministry. The one in the 37th chapter speaks directly to the desperate plight of Israel down through the ages. Its intriguing description of the valley of dry bones was the subject of a popular song, “Dry Bones,” during the mid-1950s. No matter how many times one rereads it, this account remains both arresting and suspenseful to the converted mind. But even more important is the profound meaning for us—and for our departed loved ones, who may never have been called of God or spiritually converted during this age. This remarkable, comforting vision assures us that we will see them again!
“The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones . . . and He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ So I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know’ ” (Ezekiel 37:1-3). God must not be underestimated. He asked the patriarch Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). Centuries later He posed the same question to the prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). Ezekiel’s vision continues: “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live’ . . . Also He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live’ ”’” (Ezekiel 37:5; Ezekiel 37:9). Physical human beings cannot live without drawing breath—the essence of our fleshly life. Even excellent swimmers, experts at holding their breath, cannot survive long without breathing air. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived , and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army” (Ezekiel 37:10). In his vision the prophet sees himself standing in the valley full of dry human bones. He is commanded to carry a prophecy. Before him the bones connect into human figures, then the bones become covered with tendon tissues, flesh and skin. Then God reveals the bones to the prophet as the People of Israel in exile and commands the Prophet to carry another prophecy in order to revitalize these human figures, to resurrect them and to bring them to the Land of Israel.
The prophet did have a comparatively small personal audience in Babylon of fellow captives from Judah (Ezekiel 3:11). But the real import of his message was not primarily for these deported, displaced prisoners who could do little about their circumstance. It’s important to understand that the kingdoms of Israel and Judah had separated after King Solomon’s death and that the people of the kingdom of Israel had already gone into captivity at the hands of the Assyrians during the latter part of the eighth century B.C.—well over a century before Ezekiel prophesied. And by the time his prophecies began, some of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah were likewise already in captivity, first by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians, with most of the rest soon to follow as a result of later Babylonian invasions.
Careful reading of Ezekiel’s prophetic message will reveal that it was aimed mainly at the distant future, primarily directed to the end-time descendants of Israel. Much of God’s revelation to him revolved around crucial, end-time events—both positive and negative—that would take place centuries in the future. In the prophecy Jesus Christ gave on the Mount of Olives the week He died, He plainly stated regarding the end-time, “For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written [in the Old Testament prophets, including Ezekiel] may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22). But cataclysmic occurrences at the close of man’s age are just one aspect of this overall prophetic scenario. Notice the apostle Peter’s words to the crowd gathered in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost seven weeks after Jesus’ death and resurrection: “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets [again including Ezekiel] since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21). This insightful passage depicts a future golden age brought to a suffering humanity by the returning Jesus Christ, lasting 1,000 years (see Revelation 20:1-6). Israel’s prophets aptly describe this long period of peace, prosperity and well-being. One of God’s annual festivals, the Feast of Tabernacles, corresponds directly to Christ’s coming millennial reign. God continued to instruct Ezekiel: “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them’ ” (Ezekiel 3:4). Our Creator speaks to a rebellious people who have rarely been inclined to take His warning messages seriously. Their descendants down through time have most often chosen to remain in the depths of idolatry and Sabbath-breaking, two sins against God that Ezekiel emphasized (Ezekiel 14:1-6; Ezekiel 20:12-13; Ezekiel 20:16-17; Ezekiel 20:24; Ezekiel 22:3; Ezekiel 22:8). Tragically, these two trends continue unabated today. But who truly represents the “Israel” today to whom these prophecies are intended? The present tiny state of Israel consists mostly of Jews descended from those of the kingdom of Judah, so the name Israel is a misnomer. History and Bible prophecy show that the modern descendants of the other tribes of Israel stand clearly identified as the Americans, British Commonwealth and peoples of northwestern Europe. For the biblical and historical evidence, request or download our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy . You cannot truly grasp God’s prophetic message to humankind apart from the essential knowledge disclosed in this eye-opening publication The modern descendants of Israel have been likewise rebellious against God. And all share in the same fate—national punishment and, for each individual, the ultimate penalty of sin, which is death (Romans 6:23). The prophecies of future national blessings are encouraging, but what good are they to those who have died? After the Exodus from Egypt, a whole generation of disobedient Israelites perished in the wilderness. Later, many died at the hands of ruthless Assyrian invaders. Much later, about 40 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, many died tragically as a result of the Roman invasion of Judea and the capture of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
Of course, the same fate is shared by those who never had the opportunity to choose a way of life to follow. Consider all those little babies Herod cruelly killed in a failed effort to murder the Christ child. Their parents were devastated with unrelieved grief. “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Matthew 2:18). Are these children, then, now lost? So many people among the Israelites have died as victims of evil and injustice. Today we remember the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews were callously murdered in Central and Eastern Europe. How should we try to understand all of these tragic occurrences? Is there no hope for even innocent children who died in infancy without ever knowing why? Of course, these questions beset people of every nation—not just Israel. But God has given a special message through Ezekiel to Israel in this regard—one that holds significance for all people.
Ezekiel continued to have visions throughout his prophetic ministry. The one in the 37th chapter speaks directly to the desperate plight of Israel down through the ages. Its intriguing description of the valley of dry bones was the subject of a popular song, “Dry Bones,” during the mid-1950s. No matter how many times one rereads it, this account remains both arresting and suspenseful to the converted mind. But even more important is the profound meaning for us—and for our departed loved ones, who may never have been called of God or spiritually converted during this age. This remarkable, comforting vision assures us that we will see them again! The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones . . . and He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ So I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know’ ” (Ezekiel 37:1-3). God must not be underestimated. He asked the patriarch Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14). Centuries later He posed the same question to the prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” (Jeremiah 32:27). Ezekiel’s vision continues: “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live’ . . . Also He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God: ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live’ ”’” (Ezekiel 37:5; Ezekiel 37:9). Physical human beings cannot live without drawing breath—the essence of our fleshly life. Even excellent swimmers, experts at holding their breath, cannot survive long without breathing air. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived , and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army” (Ezekiel 37:10).
Thevast majority of mankind will receive their opportunity for salvation during the great resurrection to judgment that we have been reading about in Ezekiel 37:1-14. And in Ezekiel 18:32 we read, “ ‘For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn [to righteousness] and live!’”As mentioned earlier, the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the Feast of Ingathering, pictures Christ’s millennial reign. But immediately following this seven-day Feast is a separate one-day celebration referred to simply as “the eighth day” (Leviticus 23:34-36; Numbers 29:35; 2 Chronicles 7:9; Nehemiah 8:18). The real meaning of this celebration is rarely understood in modern theological circles. Yet it represents an essential missing piece to the puzzle of salvation. This special Holy Day directly corresponds to the Great White Throne Judgment period, during which God will give all those who have ever lived but never really understood the truth their first real opportunity for salvation.
www.ucg.org/the-good-news/ezekiels-vision-of-the-valley-o...
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Nicole Dean, Lindsey Dean, Nathan Dean and Suzanne Dean attend Dignity Health Foundation’s Humankindness Gala 2017 on May 18th 2017 at City Hall in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Jana Asenbrennerova for Drew Altizer Photography)
For the first few hundred thousand years humankind knew exactly where food came from. There was a close relationship between hunter and prey, gatherer and bounty, farmer and harvest. But somehow, in the last few decades, humankind just lost it. Beyond the fact that milk may contain more growth hormones than certain baseball players (looking at you big headed Barry Bonds) and genetically modified veggies may be insect-lettuce hybrids, it is simply difficult to fall in love with food when you don’t know its origin.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 10 - Sabrina Shannon, Carol Keehan and Kevin Lofton attend Humankindness Gala 2018 on May 10th 2018 at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Alexandra Malek for Drew Altizer Photography)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Performance attends CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Jessica Monroy for Drew Altizer Photography)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - May 18 - Liam Mayclem attends CommonSpirit's Humankindness Gala 2023 on May 18th 2023 at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA (Photo - Devlin Shand for Drew Altizer Photography)
The Damanhur, Temples Of Humankind, a gorgeous series of underground temples in northern Italy.
www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.ht...
Sometimes a single image can change one's understanding of a person, place or thing.
Here, seeing a photo of Joe Knowles standing next to his car, one of the most advanced vehicles of the era, transformed my view of the pioneering reality star who was known in his day as The Nature Man from coast to coast.
Yes, Americans are notorious for living beyond their means, and that may have been the case here. Or perhaps Joe Knowles was just enjoying the rewards of his hard work.
As newspapers of the era liked to point out, Joe Knowles became famous for his ability to abandon the trappings of civilization and survive in the wilderness, but he was equally well adapted to the comforts and luxuries of city living.
Proving a point about humankind's ingenuity under primitive conditions was Knowles' passion, but he was also a hard-working entrepreneur and promoter. This photo suggests that Knowles not only made good money but was able to hang onto it.
As soon as Knowles returned from the forests of the Siskiyous in 1914, he began making personal appearances in Oregon and California to demonstrate his survival skills. In time he added a tame bear to his act. Then he landed a movie deal that took him back to the Siskiyous, There, his encounters with a cougar and perilous rapids put him back in the headlines.
Turning up In New York, Knowles announced the next chapter in his wilderness adventures: he would mentor two intrepid women in his woodcraft! To prove he was serious, Knowles sat for a publicity photo with the two "Eves" that graced the pages of many a publication.
This twist was hardly surprising. By then, several women had already made their own bids for the limelight by publicly professing their intention to emulate The Nature Man on their own. Almost from the outset, the press had evinced a coy preoccupation over how Knowles's female imitators might be attired on Day One. Victorian prudishness had receded far enough by the teens of the 1900s that reporters could write that Knowles planned to enter the forest nude, though not far enough that they could publish photos of Knowles in the altogether. Today, some might call that state of affairs titillating.
The story behind Joe Knowles' announcement that Elaine Hammerstein (a cousin of the hugely famous Oscar Hammerstein II) would be joining him in the Adirondacks for a reprise of his earlier exploits in the woods is surely worthy of a movie. Nothing in Elaine's basic biography even hints that such a feat might have interested her. Nothing more appeared about the project in the New York press after the splash of the announcement. An item in a Western newspaper reported that an early winter had forced the two of them to call off their plans. Joe himself said that Elaine found her grass skirt not up to the challenge of keeping her warm.
When America's entry into the Great War in 1917 muted the public's enthusiasm for Joe Knowles' nature act, he reinvented himself as the West's leading instructor on woodlore at scout gatherings.
It was his first such event that brought him to the North Beach Peninsula for the first time around 1916. By 1917 Joe Knowles had settled in the village of Seaview, where was immediately hailed as a regional celebrity and accomplished artist. In other words, he was the classic local character. Knowles was famous for being famous, making him a celebrity, but unlike many of that ilk, he had solid accomplishments to his name. By then, "Knowles" had entered the American lexicon as a metaphor for nudity or a penchant for roughing it.
His stature led him to secure numerous commissions, including a series of murals in 1924 for the newest theater in Astoria, Oregon, which was just then rebuilding its downtown after a devastating fire. That year he also painted portraits of the chief justices of the Supreme Courts of Oregon and Washington. The former was received with great fanfare in the press and in real life.
It's at that juncture that we catch up with Joe Knowles standing next to his flashy new car in Portland. This was as much a publicity shot for Knowles as it was for the auto dealership.
© Alan Davey 2024 All rights reserved.
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About the Rickenbacker Vertical Eight Superfine
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By
David Conwill
Updated
August 27, 2024
in Classics, Hemmings Classic Car, Magazine
Too Much, Too Soon – 1925 Rickenbacker Vertical Eight Superfine
The creative genius of car enthusiasts and the cold calculations of businessmen are the age-old yin and yang of the automobile industry. Think of the car enthusiast as an artist, driven to create the purest expression of his or her vision in steel, glass, and rubber–regardless of expense. The businessmen are there to make sure that the unfettered vision doesn’t bankrupt the company. Both the artist and his or her fans may decry the artificial limitation on mechanical genius, but the graveyard of the car business is littered with nameplates that went too far, too fast, and were unable to sustain themselves.
By the time he was approached to append his appellation to the eponymous company in 1921, Eddie Rickenbacker’s car-enthusiast credentials were already well-established: He first rose to prominence as a race-car driver in the 1911-’17 era, having appeared in every Indianapolis 500 race before World War I, and as a driver for the factory teams of Peugeot and Maxwell.
During the war, he was the United States’ “Ace of Aces,” having shot down a confirmed 26 enemy aircraft at the controls of his Nieuport and SPAD biplanes. He was promoted to the rank of major at the end of his service, but throughout his life preferred the rank he felt he had earned, that of captain. By 1918, “Captain Eddie” was already a household name in America.
Rickenbacker wasn’t merely a good driver and pilot. Before his skill at the wheel was recognized, Rickenbacker had seen to his education via a correspondence course in engineering. An early internal-combustion enthusiast, he had also worked for the Columbia Buggy Company selling its Firestone-Columbus automobiles.
Further, Rickenbacker was already associated with General Motors founder Billy Durant, thanks to a marketing arrangement wherein Rickenbacker promoted GM’s Sheridan division. In 1922, he would actually marry Durant’s ex-daughter-in-law. So when Barney Everitt, William Metzger, and Walter Flanders– three men with enormous experience in the auto industry– joined with Rickenbacker, they were getting far more than just a famous name.
Everitt, Metzger, and Flanders are best remembered for the E-M-F Company, which was eventually folded into Studebaker– though that was far from their only accomplishment. They were, respectively, a body man, a salesman, and a production man. All three had good reputations as auto executives, though their companies usually did not survive long after their personal leadership had departed. Rickenbacker was, sadly, not to be an exception.
Captain Eddie himself had initially wished to stay in aviation after the war. Unfortunately, the postwar recession, combined with a glut of surplus aircraft, meant that the fledgling aircraft industry was struggling. Instead, he reverted to his prewar enthusiasm for the automobile. In the 1920s, the line between automotive technology and aviation was far thinner than today, and the disciplines cross-pollinated liberally.
What Rickenbacker wanted in his own new car was to bring the high-performance technology of military aircraft and racing cars to the street. He was not alone in this, with the Chevrolet brothers (who had previously sold their family name to Durant) making similar plans at the same time to turn their Frontenac racing team into a producer of road cars. Rickenbacker got further, however, and while Frontenac was forced to produce speed parts for the Ford Model T, Rickenbacker really did produce what the company termed “a car worthy of its name.”
The biggest technical triumph of the original Rickenbacker Six was its “tandem flywheel.” Captain Eddie had been impressed by the smoothness of the liquid-cooled inline engines of his German opponents in the skies over France. When he was able to inspect the inner workings of crashed or captured airplanes, he discovered that their crankshafts had flywheels at both ends, greatly reducing the vibration transmitted outside of the engine.
What most people remember about Rickenbacker, however, was its pioneering use of four-wheel brakes in the medium-price field. Even the prototype chassis, displayed at the 1922 New York Auto Show, had front-wheel brakes present, a major departure for the time. In June of 1923, both Duesenberg and Rickenbacker announced that four-wheel braking would now be standard. For Duesenberg, a race-bred, high-performance, luxury car, this was not much of a surprise. For a less-expensive car like Rickenbacker, it was remarkable in the extreme.
Other companies soon followed suit, though Studebaker actually launched a smear campaign attempting to paint front brakes as unsafe, and Rickenbacker felt the pressure to continue to update its product line. For 1925, the year of our feature car, the original 58-horsepower, 218-cu.in. straight-six was upgraded to a 236-cu.in. engine with seven main bearings, producing 68 horsepower. The six-cylinder engine was also joined by an L-head, 80-horsepower, 268-cu.in. straight-eight with nine main bearings. The six retained the traditional 117-inch wheelbase, but the eight received a lengthened 121.5-inch wheelbase. The lines were otherwise quite similar.
This “Vertical Eight Superfine,” as the new-for-1925 eight was called, was an excellent car–smooth and powerful. The details are outstanding for a car at its price point, right down to the “hat-in-the-ring” logo, borrowed from the United States Army Air Service’s 94th Pursuit Squadron, Rickenbacker’s own unit, cast into the rear axle housing where only someone crawling underneath the car could see it. In bringing luxury-car features to the mid-price field, it was arguably five years ahead of the competition.
Unfortunately, just as the company seemed to be finding its footing, Flanders–a crack production specialist who had helped Ford Motor Company on its way to the moving assembly line– was killed in a car accident. At the same time, dealers began fleeing the fold, possibly due to Studebaker’s hatchet job (though it wouldn’t stop newcomer Chrysler from adopting four-wheel hydraulic brakes that year) or possibly due to word of the kind of executive infighting that had brought down other efforts by the founders of E-M-F.
It was in this environment that Captain Eddie left the automotive firm bearing his name in 1926. Soon after, he would buy the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which he would own until 1945, and embark on a career as an aviation executive that would keep his name in the public eye until his death in 1973.
Rickenbacker, the company, kept trying, promoting its Super Sport boat-tailed coupe as the fastest four-passenger automobile for sale (faster models from the likes of Duesenberg seated only two) and introducing dual-carburetor engines for 1927. But it was not enough, and the firm did not survive to sell 1928 models.
It is said that after the company folded, Captain Eddie personally repaid all debts he had guaranteed for the company, despite a bankruptcy discharge, burnishing his reputation as an ethical businessman. Everitt went on to help found the Verville Aircraft Company in the same Detroit factory building that had housed Rickenbacker. Metzger also got into aviation, helping form Stinson Aircraft in 1926.
As an interesting aside, the tooling for both the six-cylinder and eight-cylinder 1927 Rickenbackers was sold to a Danish businessman in Germany named Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen who had planned to produce the engines for sale to European automakers. When no orders were forthcoming, Rasmussen instead shopped his designs to Audi, in which he was the majority shareholder. This resulted in the Rickenbacker 6-70 becoming the Audi Type-T “Dresden” and the eight-cylinder Rickenbackers becoming the Audi Type-SS “Zwickau.” Both were produced until 1932.
That makes the four-passenger coupe on these pages a rarity to begin with. In fact, it is believed by the Rickenbacker Club of America to be the only surviving 1925 eight-cylinder coupe. It should come as no surprise, then, that for the past 48 years it has been a part of the Automobile Gallery of the Heritage Museums & Gardens, in Sandwich, Massachusetts. The Automobile Gallery has as its nucleus the collection of pharmaceutical heir J.K. Lilly III, and the Rickenbacker was acquired by Lilly in 1966.
We spoke with Director of Collections and Exhibits Jennifer Madden, and she told us that Lilly acquired the car from a Dearborn, Michigan, collector named J. Walter Heater. We don’t know if there is a connection, but Heater was an executive with a Detroit firm called Fleet Supply Corp. (“parts and supplies for trucks, trailers, and cars”). The address for Fleet Supply, 2896 Central Avenue, was less than a mile from the still-extant former Rickenbacker factory at 4815 Cabot Street–could that have sparked Heater’s interest in finding a Rickenbacker?
Heater found the car in 1960 in what the Detroit Free Press described as “an abandoned garage on Ferry Park Avenue near the Lodge Freeway.” The previous owner, a man named Gauss, was a retired Army engineer. According to a letter in the car’s file at the Heritage Museums, Gauss had sold his home and actually lived in the car in his garage for 15 years!
Heater restored the Rickenbacker, completing the job in 1962. The coupe was immediately recognized as Grand Champion at the Henry Ford Museum’s Old Car Festival in the division for cars built between 1917 and 1925. While it was in his care, it was reunited with Captain Eddie for a television show apparently called On the Street.
Sometime around 1966, Heater and Lilly happened to encounter one another, and Heater told Lilly about his Rickenbacker. The two men corresponded that summer regarding the car, and eventually it was settled that Lilly would purchase it for $5,000 (a little more than $37,500 adjusted for inflation).
Heater even offered to drive the Rickenbacker from Dearborn to Boston for Lilly to take delivery. In a letter, he noted “it runs very well at 55-60 mph, which means two days on the road from here.” Eventually, it was settled that Heater would meet a representative of Lilly’s in Syracuse, New York, about half way between the two men. Heater apparently took the Greyhound home.
It’s not recorded why the Rickenbacker caught Lilly’s fancy. Perhaps it was just the excellent restoration that the car still wears today–having been museum-kept since 1969 and undriven since sometime in the 1970s, although the museum intends to get it driving again soon. It is worth noting that the Lilly family’s roots are not in Boston, or Cape Cod, but rather in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Rickenbacker name and the speedway are icons. It’s not impossible that Lilly, who was six when this car was built, recalled the excitement associated with Captain Eddie and his airplane-inspired car way back when.
Though it survived only a brief six model years, and only an estimated two dozen examples remain, the Rickenbacker is well remembered today, thanks to its technical sophistication and its association with one of America’s greatest aviation heroes. If you are lucky enough to see or experience one, linger awhile and soak in the details, quality construction, mechanical elegance, and handsome styling. You will be glad you did.
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Eastbound billboard on the Santan Freeway Loop 202 for Dignity Health.
ER kindness.
Stat.
Hello humankindness
Chandler Regional Medical Center, 1955 W Frye Rd, Chandler, AZ 85224
(480) 728-3000
Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, 3555 S Val Vista Dr, Gilbert, AZ 85297
(480) 728-8000
The Dignity Health Name
We chose the name Dignity Health because the value of dignity is woven into the fabric of our culture. Our mission, vision and values were all formed out of the recognition of the inherent dignity of each person. It also represents our commitment to delivering excellent medical care to all, to advocating on behalf of the poor, and to partnering with others to improve the quality of life.
The Dignity Health Logo
The logo represents the coming together of caregivers, services, care centers, etc., to create a continuum of care. The three sections remind us of the three dimensions of our mission—healing, advocacy, and partnering. The icon surrounds a central space, symbolizing how an integrated health system honors the inherent dignity of each individual.
To learn more please visit Dignity Health at dignityhealth.org.
The Santan Freeway is in the southeast valley of Phoenix. Onsite Insite offers billboards along the Santan Freeway between I-10 and the Price Freeway Loop 101 in Chandler.
UNIQLO Ginza / ユニクロ銀座店
I was asked by UNIQLO to create six designs for their Nippon-Omiyage T-shirt lineup, the second three in the series were Onsen, Sakana and Animal Onomatopoeia. All using handmade typography and a connection to the subject itself.
ユニクロの「日本のお土産シリーズ」のデザインに参加させて頂きました。ハンドメイドのタイポグラフィーを使って、イメージを表現するという内容です。2013年の春夏に発売されたのは「東京」「銀座」「神戸」の三都市のお土産でした。2013年の秋冬シーズンは、日本の好きなところを何でもデザインしてもいいという内容でしたので、僕も日本人に負けないぐらい大好きな「温泉」「さかな」をモチーフにデザインしました。「温泉」のデザインでは、日本で大流行している"ゆるキャラ" もつくってみました。３つめのデザインは、音を表現する擬音語が英語と違うところ面白くて、動物の鳴き声をタイポグラフィーにしてデザインしてみました。
Sakana 魚屋
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One of the things I’ve noticed as a foreigner is that the Japanese absolutely love fish, the only Japanese people I know that don’t eat fish are those with an allergy to it. I wanted to create a t-shirt that celebrated this extreme love of fish, both as a food but also a sport, something more subtle than the obvious and overused fish imagery commonly used. Using hand printed shapes and typography I created a simple design that everyone can understand even if they can’t read Japanese.
日本人の魚の消費量の多さは、類を見ないと思います。アレルギー体質という以外の理由で、魚を食べない日本人に出会ったことがありません。魚を食べる事だけでなく、釣りをこよなく愛する方々も多くいます。そんな魚を愛する大勢の日本人の方々に敬意を評して、ハンドメイドの版画の様なイメージと文字で、日本語が読めなくても、魚を愛する想いが伝わるイメージを作ってみました。
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Dear Firoze,
We just want to place on record, our deep appreciation for all that you do for humankind.
We are with you in spirit and in truth.
Blessings & Respect,
Your brother in Christ,
Joe Dias
DNA E-Paper - Daily News & Analysis -Mumbai,India
epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?pgNo=5&edcode=820...
epaper.dnaindia.com/print.aspx?id=13981&boxid=2658860...
Seeking inspiration from stations of the cross
Christians take out processions to experience the pain and
sacrifice Christ went through
Ashutosh Shukla
DNA [Daily News and Analysis]
Saturday, Apr 07, 2012, City, MUMBAI, page 5.
At Pratirakhsa Nagar, Vakola, fashion designer Firoze Shakir
stands out in the thousands gathered to see the enactment of
crucifixion of Christ. A Muslim by faith, it is not his fancy
Malang wardrobe, but his bare feet in the scorching summer
afternoon, which draws attentions. Apparently, he is here to see
the "passion of Christ".
Though he is clothed and even sits in a truck sometimes, the
scorching ground does make it unbearable for his bare feet.
"Christ walked barefoot. And it is the physicality of this pain
that I wanted to go through. For me, walking barefoot is giving
back to the society, as taught in my convent school," says
Shakir.
The 40-year-old Shakir, who has studied in the Holy Name
High School at Colaba, has been covering the 'stations of cross',
as the enactment plays are called, for five years now. "I even
go for the Lalbaug Raja ganapati too and take pictures for
posting them on flicker for people to see and follow," he adds.
A self-confessed poet, Shakir wants to prove that walking
aside Christians helps him "appreciate beauty of other religions"
and "identify with their pain", thus making more human. "I like
the passion of the Christ. I see his pain like that of Imam
Hussein. As a poet I see a metaphor there," he says.
While Shakir attended the stations of cross to prove his
point of religious harmony, many others came to learn from the
Christ's sufferings and the forgiveness he preached. "The walk
is a small act of reverence I make for his sacrifice for us.
It's a day of prayers and we look to learn from him," said Judith
Daftary, a 39-year-old who had come alone all the way from Marol
alone.
The D'Souzas who had come with their entire family wanted
their children to learn from Christ. "I want my kids to know the
sufferings He went through," said Ivy D'Souza, 36-year-old Santa
Cruz resident and mother of two.
DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 22JAN16 - Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor-in-Chief, The Economist, United Kingdom, is captured during the open forum session 'Life in 2030: Humankind and the Machine' at the Annual Meeting 2016 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2016.
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM/swiss-image.ch/Photo Michele Limina