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As typhoon is coming this way, the weather is hot and sunny. Before the sunset, the city is shining and glowing. This is one of my favorites too.
颱風來臨前，天氣總是很晴、很熱，但是也讓城市閃耀著光芒，最愛夕陽照射下的台北~
虎山峰, 南港, 台北市
Mt. Tiger Peak, Taipei, Taiwan
- ISO 100, F22, 0.6 sec, 29mm
- Canon 550D with EOS 16-35mm f/2.8 L lens +ND8
- Sunset @6.39pm / Shot @ 6.20pm
This is the Arctic Fox in winter fur. He looks completely different in his summer coat. This farm2.static.flickr.com/1209/872375722_6c00551ee5_o.jpg is a photo of an arctic fox in summer coat.
Lichfield Cathedral is situated in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. It is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires
The Distillery by Capital Spirits is Beijing’s first bar and craft distillery. With its new custom built state of the art 100L copper fitted column still distillator, The Distillery is creating small batches of house distilled spirits such as London Dry style gins, vodkas, fruit based schnapps, and rums.
Our goal is to celebrate the heritage of Western spirit distillation with a Chinese twist. With our larger distillator and expanded space we are creating craft liquors using unique ingredients native to China and offering our products [as demonstration purposes] to our customers. As with the original Capital Spirits Baijiu Bar, The Distillery continues to offer the same tasting room concept with an expanded menu of liquor flights. Customers at The Distillery can learn, taste and discover flights of unique craft spirits of rum, gin and vodka from around the world.
Enjoy our house distilled spirits as well as classic cocktails such as Manhattans, Side Cars, Gin & Tonics, Tom Collins, Old Fashioned, and Martinis can be made with a variety of different gins, vodkas, rums and whiskeys from around the world. We stock a growing collection of over a dozen gins, as well as one of Beijing’s best bourbon selections. All spirits also available in 15ml tasting pours served in professional “tulip” glasses besides in full servings or in cocktails. Tasting pours are 15-30RMB each to try some of the world’s best spirits. We also feature draft beer from Arrow Factory Brewery and Slow Boat.
LOCATION: 辛寺胡同23号 （XinSi Hutong #23)
OPEN EVERY Mon -Sat 8PM – 12:30 AM (or later)
CLOSED on Sundays
Hand over your heart with this unique handcrafted card.
The tag part was stitched together on my sewing machine. Every element is hand cut from a variety of papers, some handmade. The tag features a red eyelet and a bit of fancy yarn. I age the pieces with brown ink to give them a vintage feel.
This card measures 4-1/4 x 5-1/2 inches (10.8 cm x 14 cm) and comes with a coordinating envelope that is A2 size. It is BLANK inside awaiting your special message of love. I know your special man or your special lady will enjoy this card.
Each handcrafted card is made one at a time so they are little works of art themselves and suitable for framing. All materials are acid-free so they are keepsakes that will last throughout the years, and come from a smoke & pet-free art studio. Every card is hand signed on the back by the artist, Vickie Porter.
Fall/Winter weather is what we live for in South Florida. Owen absolutely loves to be outside with us on the patio area of the pool deck, can’t you tell? He is literally just the best boy!
Cameron, LA is an ill-fated town that suffered the wrath of Mother Nature twice in the form of two back-to-back hurricanes only several weeks apart during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. First came Laura, a powerful and deadly category 4 storm that killed over 70 people. Then came Delta. Although Hurricane Delta’s winds were not as strong as Laura’s, the category 2 hurricane further devastated an already decimated region along the gulf coast that was still without power and many of the residents unable to rebuild or even finish surveying the destruction from the first hit.
Within weeks, both of these two hurricanes made landfall less than 20 miles apart. Some areas have never recovered. The town of Cameron was essentially wiped off of the map. These photos are from that gulf region, almost all of these were taken within Cameron, though a few are from Lake Charles (a larger city only a few miles north of the coast). Lake Charles was the largest city with the misfortune of being in the direct path of Laura while still a cat 4 storm. The local population was slightly over 77,000 people when the hurricanes hit (according to the 2019 census data on Wiki).
Seeing the destruction first-hand, all of these months later, was a very sobering and solemn experience. I hope these areas can eventually recover, but it’s difficult to see how in some of the hardest hit locations where the majority of the structures have been stripped down to their foundations and even the topography itself has been permanently altered.
All photos of these photos are CC, all or mostly unedited, and were taken at the end of January, 2021.
-DA
Britain is the worst country in the western world for heavy drinking among professional women, according to research showing “the dark side of equality”.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows women in this country are twice as likely to be problem drinkers if they have a good education.
Authors warned that Britain is one of the few countries in the world in which professional women appear to be drinking to keep up with men.
One in five women in England who has been to university regularly drinks too much, the report found – compared with one in ten of those with lower levels of education.
The research found that the link between high levels of education among women and hazardous drinking was stronger in this country than in any other.
One more for the road ?? Well I guess that women have just as much rite to get smashed out of their minds as men.
____________________________________
El lado oscuro de la igualdad.
Gran Bretaña es el peor país del mundo occidental por consumo excesivo de alcohol entre las mujeres profesionales, según un estudio que muestra "el lado oscuro de la igualdad".
Un informe de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE) muestra que las mujeres en este país son dos veces más propensos a ser bebedores problema si tienen una buena educación.
Autores advirtió que Gran Bretaña es uno de los pocos países en el mundo en el que las mujeres profesionales parecen estar bebiendo para mantenerse al día con los hombres.
Una de cada cinco mujeres en Inglaterra que ha estado a la universidad bebe regularmente demasiado, según el informe - en comparación con uno de cada diez de los que tenían niveles más bajos de educación.
La investigación encontró que el vínculo entre los altos niveles de educación entre las mujeres y el consumo de riesgo fue más fuerte en este país que en cualquier otro.
Uno más para el camino ?? Bueno, yo supongo que las mujeres tienen tanto rito para obtener estrelló fuera de sus mentes que los hombres.
Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. At a surface elevation of 6,225 ft (1,897 m), it is located along the border between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America. Its depth is 1,645 ft (501 m), making it the deepest in the United States after Crater Lake (1,945 ft (593 m)). Additionally, Lake Tahoe is the sixth largest lake by volume in the United States at 122,160,280 acre·ft (150,682,490 dam3), behind the five Great Lakes.
The lake was formed about 2 million years ago and is a part of the Lake Tahoe Basin with the modern lake being shaped during the ice ages. It is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides. The area surrounding the lake is also referred to as Lake Tahoe, or simply Tahoe. More than 75% of the lake's watershed is national forest land, comprising the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the United States Forest Service.
Lake Tahoe is a major tourist attraction in both Nevada and California. It is home to a number of ski resorts, summer outdoor recreation, and tourist attractions. Snow and skiing are a significant part of the area's economy and reputation. Mountain and lake scenery are attractions throughout the year. The Nevada side also includes large casinos. Highways provide year-round access from Reno, Carson City, and Sacramento.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
This is very close to the other seascapes I have done but still something a little different. I thought I would try shooting 3 different compositions and here are the results.
This is the first image I took which I was happy with right out of camera and didn't have to touch up much.
A third image can be found in the full post on my website :D
Amberd is a 7th century Armenian fortress located 2,300 meters (7,546 ft) above sea level on the slopes of Mount Aragats. The name translates to "fortress in the clouds" in Armenian.
The site where the fortress sits presently started as a Stone Age settlement. During the Bronze Age and Urartian periods, a fortress had been built that is now obsolete. Some sources say that Amberd used to be a summer residence for kings. The castle of Amberd and some sections of walls were constructed in the 7th century AD as a possession of the noble House of Kamsarakan.
The site remained abandoned and untouched until the 20th century, when reconstruction and archaeological excavations began.
Wikipedia
And YES, I climbed up that wall! There is a magnificent view from there! :)
Thanks for your visit and have a great day!
There are little blossoms allready :) Nice to see spring is coming :) Weather to make better pictures haha! (thanks to raymond;))
Have a nice weekend you all :)
This is another shot from a photo session a couple of weekends past. Here I'm wearing another new dress, this one from Wicked Temptations, a black wet look lycra spandex T-back, zip front minidress matched up with my black lycra spandex gauntlets- also from WT, Osé Retina black lurex fishnet hose over Hanes Alive pantyhose and my super sexy thigh high platform stiletto boots with the 6" heels.
I hope you like my outfit and how I look wearing it!
To see more pix of me in other tight, sexy and revealing outfits click this link:
www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157623668202157/
To see more pix of me in kinky boots click here: www.flickr.com/photos/kaceycdpix/sets/72157622816479823/
DSC_6556-7
Here are a few more shots of my lovely old, 1968, Vespa VLB Sprint.
These photos were taken just before I left to teach at the University of Pretoria this morning, and the later ones in the 'scooter parking garage' on campus.
Please excuse the flare from the license plates... I couldn't get the colour quite right without the flash.
Anyway, she is looking great, running great, and drawing a lot of attention. Most of all, she is fantastic to ride! - Uploaded with a demo version of FlickrExport 2.
Main rooms[edit]
The gatehouse is of 1406, and the block to its left, now the shop and cafe, has Gothic windows facing the moat. The main facade is medieval to the left, but in Elizabethan prodigy house style at the centre and right. The chapel is 14th-century Decorated Gothic, the other main rooms that are opened mainly Elizabethan. The great hall runs along the facade. Upstairs there is a long gallery overlooking the gardens at the rear.[4]
The best bedrooms have two very elaborate chimneypieces, in the Queen's Bedroom (used by Anne of Denmark) a stone one heavily decorated with ornament in a style "proclaiming the Renaissance but simultaneously revealing a still very imperfect comprehension of what it was all about". This was presumably the result of a local carver with access to an ornament pattern book such as those by Hans Vredeman de Vries; the two human heads still look distinctly medieval. The other chimneypiece, in the bedroom James I used, is at another stylistic extreme; a very polished and spacious stucco piece in a style comparable to that of the First School of Fontainebleau, and probably not made by English artists. The central medallion, with a mythological scene, is designed by Rosso Fiorentino, and also appears in the Palace of Fontainebleau. This is flanked by two large nude boys. The Italian artists of the Tudor court Henry VIII used at Nonsuch Palace have been suggested; the pieces were almost certainly made elsewhere and taken to Broughton.[5]
There are several fine plasterwork ceilings, the most spectacular in the Great Parlour on the first floor, and the Oak Room below it. There is 18th-century painted Chinese wallpaper of different tree, bird and flower designs in three bedrooms, in very good condition. At roof level there is a room believed to be that "with no ears", where the 1st viscount plotted with Parliamentary leaders in the years before the Civil War.[6] The gardens have long herbacious borders, at their best in summer.
Films and TVs[edit]
Parts of the films The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), Oxford Blues (1984), Three Men and a Little Lady (1990), The Madness of King George (1994), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Jane Eyre (2011) were shot in the castle. TV filming for parts of Elizabeth The Virgin Queen, Friends and Crocodiles, 1975 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show, Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, and the titles of Noel's House Party also took place there. The castle has been used as the location for several other films and TV programmes[7] including an adaptation of Jane Eyre and
Concerts[edit]
In August 1981, the electric folk band Fairport Convention held their annual reunion concert at Broughton Castle, rather than the usual Cropredy location.[8] The concert was recorded, and released on the album Moat on the Ledge (1982).
Fiction[edit]
Published in April 2009, The Music Room is a novel by William Fiennes. This fictionalized memoir of his childhood and his epileptic brother is set in (the never identified) Broughton Castle. It has been described as "a beautiful poem of a tribute to his family, his parents, the magical, moated castle that was his home"
Wikipedia
Spring is like a perhaps
hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving new and
old things, while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there) and
without breaking anything.
-- e e cummings
This piece (and this series) is a massive departure for me in terms of style and approach. But feeling compelled by the dynamics tearing our nation in two, I knew I needed to express them, even though I had no idea what I was doing or where this spontaneously born series would go.
Outside of my studio in downtown Los Angeles, I laid the piece out covering it with the gunpowder. It's an element that one cannot control as can be seen in the video. The second to last burst of fire is the dead center burst between the two impotent shotguns.
Having no idea what to title the piece up until then, I looked at the starbursts covering the sky once the smoke cleared and head the word "Anthem." I then wove the same colors from the works "Ten to Midnight" and "The Nine" for all of the obvious reasons.
Long ago the philosopher Georg Hegel proposed that there is only one "State" expressing itself in two opposing sides to keep people enslaved to that state through constant division.
"...the State 'has the supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State... for the right of the world spirit is above all special privileges.'
"The Hegelian dialectic is the ridiculous idea that constant conflict and continual merging of opposite ideologies, as established by extreme right or left belief systems, will lead spiritual mankind into final perfection. (Americans understood man's spiritual quests to be outside the realm of government control). Hegel's brilliance rests in his ability to confuse and obfuscate the true motives of the planners, and millions of people world-wide have been trying to make sense of why it doesn't work for over 150 years. But like the definition of insanity, the world keeps trying it over and over expecting different results. ..."
To see the fiery creation
youtu.be/4amiMyWKz28
To purchase prints and even the original....
kevissimo.squarespace.com/shop…
Mamiya 645 // Tri-X // Agfa Rodinal
My friend Michael Naimark is exploring new ideas for virtual reality experiences, in collaboration with Google and other researchers. To discuss this work, we got together with two other colleagues, Steve Gano and Jim McKee -- with whom we worked at the Apple Multimedia Lab in the eighties, pushing the envelope on related questions.
We started with a tour of the historic Sentinel Building in North Beach, home of American Zoetrope -- where Francis Coppola worked on many cinematic masterpieces like The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. We checked out the underground screening room and sound mixing room where some of that work took place, then headed upstairs to Michael and Jim’s studios, for a wonderful conversation about the new VR frontier.
Michael and his colleagues are researching how people are represented in virtual reality. Their first experiment at Google’s “Big Chairs” Park led to some helpful guidelines on how to film people for VR, by using different camera angles and distances.
They’re also investigating ‘hyper-images’ that resemble a group of people, but that are shot at different times and composited together to create both ‘credible’ and ‘incredible’ pictures. To enable more experiments like these, Michael is developing ‘IMU VR’, a new type of camera that could make it easier for communities to tell their stories in VR. More on this later.
It was great to reconnect with my colleagues and brainstorm these ideas together. It felt like the good old days, and the creative juices were flowing all over again ...
Learn more about Michael Naimark’s work:
View more photos about Virtual Reality:
Do you girls pick a dress to showcase your very luscious feeling sheer tights or do you pick your tights to showcase your cute LBD?!? Such deep thoughts……either way…..we soooo relish in the joy!!! Have a happy one awesome flickerettes!!!💋💕💋❤️
this is a suet feeder . I hope the birds come to it . the feeder is hanging on a branch way down by the fence at the far side of the road
AS OF TODAY NOT ONE CREATURE OF ANY KIND HAS COME TO THE FEEDER . I EVEN ADDED A PLATE FULL OF SEEDS AND PEANUTS STILL NOTHING TODAY IS JAN 30 2014 SO 5 DAYS NOW WITHOUT ONE CREATURE
St Mary, Swardeston, Norfolk
The parish is best known as the home of early 20th Century heroine Edith Cavell. Her father was the Vicar.
A relief of Grief laying flowers before a headstone bearing the initials WD, on the headstone of Walter James Davy (1880s).
PEACE! peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep,—
He hath awakened from the dream of life;
’Tis we who, lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance strike with our spirit’s knife
Invulnerable nothings. We decay
Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief
Convulse us and consume us day by day,
And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.
P B Shelley, from Adonais, 1821
In 2007, I wrote: I came here on what was just about the only gloomy day in March 2007. But Swardeston is an appropriate place to come to feeling slightly sombre, and it is a place to leave uplifted as well.
For forty-six years at the end of the 19th century and the start of the 20th century, the Vicar here was Frederick Cavell. He transformed the church and the village, and left it its greatest legacy. The first hint of this comes as you approach the church from the south. The bulky, granite war memorial is no different to a thousand others, except that the first name under the legend Pro Patria is Edith Louisa Cavell. It should be said that her name comes first simply in alphabetical order, but she was quite the most famous woman to be killed in World War One, and one of the most significant English figures of that slaughter. Her story was one of the most fondly told in the years after the War, an expression of Englishness. Indeed, a near-hysteria became associated with her legend. If the English nation hadn't embraced protestantism so firmly, then no doubt she'd be recognised as a Saint by now.
Edith's father's church is a long, tall, simple building, all under one roof and probably originally Norman. The 14th and 15th centuries saw a big rebuilding here, leaving the tower and most of the window tracery. You step into a light space; the nave windows are almost entirely clear, and there is a sense of height.
Edith Cavell's portrait hangs simply in the north-west corner. Frederick Cavell's first action on arriving in the Parish was to build a magnificent new Vicarage beside the church. It is today a private house. While the Vicarage was being built, The Cavells lived in a Georgian farmhouse nearby, and this was where Edith Cavell was born in 1865. Edith's letters reveal that her low church father was a bit of a puritan, and she would spend much of her early life wandering the parish, drawing and painting. At school, she showed a talent for languages, particularly French, and in 1890, at the age of 25, she set off for Brussels to work as a governess. Five years later, she was back in Swardeston, nursing her father through an illness, and this seems to be what set her mind to training as a nurse.
She worked in hospitals in Kent, London and Manchester, before setting off back to Brussels in 1906. She ran a training school for nurses there, but often returned to Norfolk, and it was while in the county that she heard of the German invasion of Belgium in 1914. She made her fateful decision to return to the country, and would never see England again.
From the stories, it is easy to imagine some dynamic, flighty young girl putting the world to rights, but of course Cavell was forty-eight years old when she headed back across the German Ocean. From then on, the story is well known. Her training school nursed soldiers of both sides, but she also saw it as her humanitarian duty to help hunted British soldiers escape back to England. Inevitably, she was caught, and shot by the Germans on the morning of October the 12th, 1915, a few weeks before her fiftieth birthday. Her last words would have been familiar to any English person in the first half of the 20th century: Standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realise that Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone.
She was buried in a military cemetery, and part of the cross which marked her grave is now in a glass case in Swardeston church, like a holy relic. After the War, Cavell's body was brought back to England, and, after a funeral in Westminster Abbey, she was buried in the Cathedral close in Norwich. There is a fine, dramatic monument to her outside the National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square, and a fairly awful one outside the Erpingham Gate of Norwich Cathedral. Perhaps the best memorial, though, is the east window here at Swardeston, completed before the end of the War by Ernest Heasman. In light, muted colours, Edith Cavell kneels in her nurse's uniform at the foot of the cross, accompanied by smaller, appropriate figures, including St Agnes, St Margaret and Florence Nightingale.
No doubt this church still receives many visitors brought here by Edith Cavell's story*, and you'll find it open every day. Also worth seeing are some images in continental glass, one a roundel depicting the Blessed Virgin and child with a Bishop, the other a rectangular pane depicting St Matthew.
Frederick Cavell's low church restoration has left the interior simple and fitting. There are old benches, the skeleton of a 15th century screen, and the beautiful rustic timber roof. The font is large and plain, the 17th century font cover elegant. Nothing terribly exciting, but this building retains a feel of the time of its restoration, and Edith Cavell would certainly recognise it today.
Outside, the weather was deteriorating, the gloom now punctuated by bursts of drizzle. The rooks collected miserably in the large oak to the north. But all along the path, the daffodils lifted their haughty golden heads and showed that Spring had come again.
*Since 2015 visitors can also enjoy the Cavell Rooms to the north of the church, which contain a permanent display about the life of Edith Cavell.
This is a scan of an original kodachrome slide. It was scanned with an Epson Pro V750, and finished up with very minor post processing work in Photoshop.
Clicking on the Photo will enlarge it to its full size for your screen
The original comes from my own slide collection, which contains both my own photos and those acquired over the past forty or so years collecting.
Uploading of photos in this Flickr collection is for one reason only, and that is to allow them to be enjoyed by people who find them of interest. Otherwise, much of this material would continue to remain hidden away in boxes and pages. Comments on the photos are welcomed.
MSN: 19114
TYPE/SRS: Boeing 727-27C
REG'N: N7275
OPERATOR: Braniff International
LOCATION: New York-LGA
REMARKS: with Eastern Electra N5523 on departure in background
This is a classic vintage photograph (likely a studio portrait from the late 1910s to early 1920s) showing two young Red Army soldiers from the early Soviet era, probably during or shortly after the Russian Civil War (1917–1922).The men are dressed in the distinctive winter uniforms of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), the newly formed Bolshevik military force. Key details include:Budenovka hats — These iconic pointed woolen caps (officially called "broadcloth helmets" or шлем суконный) feature a tall, stiff spike on top and fold-down earflaps/neck flaps (currently folded up). Each has a prominent red star sewn on the front, a revolutionary symbol introduced around 1918–1919. The design drew inspiration from old Russian folklore helmets but became a hallmark of early Red Army troops, especially in winter campaigns. (The name "budenovka" became popular later, after cavalry commander Semyon Budyonny, though it was used from 1918 onward.)
Long wool greatcoats — These heavy, ankle-length overcoats in khaki/grayish tones provided warmth and were standard issue (often recycled or adapted from Imperial Russian stocks). They have high collars with red piping or tabs (visible on the collars, likely indicating infantry branch), cross-body rifle slings, and simple belts with buckles.
The Russian Civil War was a multi-sided civil conflict in the former Russian Empire, lasting from November 1917 to October 1922, sparked by the Bolsheviks' overthrow of the Russian Provisional Government during the October Revolution. It pitted the Red Army, led by the Bolsheviks under Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, against the White movement, a coalition of anti-Bolshevik forces including monarchists, liberals, and moderate socialists, supported by foreign interventionists such as the United Kingdom, France, the United States, and Japan. The war also involved rival socialist groups like the Makhnovshchina and the Green armies, as well as nationalist movements across the former empire. The Bolshevik victory led to the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and ultimately the formation of the Soviet Union.
the city Autun and it is flowers with the
Balthus Passage.
in the Saône-et-Loire Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, located in the Morvan regional nature park
in France
Palermo
Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo, located in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As an architectural complex, it is characterized by the presence of different styles, due to a long history of additions, alterations and restorations, the last of which occurred in the 18th century.
The church was erected in 1185 by Walter Ophamil, the Norman archbishop of Palermo and King William II's minister, on the area of an earlier Byzantine basilica. By all accounts this earlier church was founded by Pope Gregory I and was later turned into a mosque by the Arabs after their conquest of the city in the 9th century. Ophamil is buried in a sarcophagus in the church's crypt. The medieval edifice had a basilica plan with three apses.
The upper orders of the corner towers were built between the 14th and the 15th centuries, while in the early Renaissance period the southern porch was added. The present neoclassical appearance dates from the work carried out over the two decades 1781 to 1801, supervised by Ferdinando Fuga and Giuseppe Venanzio Marvuglia. During this period the great retable by Gagini, decorated with statues, friezes and reliefs, was destroyed and the sculptures moved to different parts of the basilica. Also by Fuga are the great dome emerging from the main body of the building, and the smaller domes covering the aisles' ceilings.
Arab-Norman Palermo and the Cathedral Churches of Cefalù and Monreale is a series of nine religious and civic structures located on the northern coast of Sicily dating from the era of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily (1130-1194): two palaces, three churches, a cathedral, and a bridge in Palermo, as well as the cathedrals of Cefalù and Monreale. They have been designated together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This dedication took place in 2015.
Richmond Castle in Richmond, North Yorkshire, England, stands in a commanding position above the River Swale, close to the centre of the town of Richmond. It was originally called Riche Mount, 'the strong hill'. The castle was constructed by Alan Rufus from 1071 onwards following the Norman Conquest of England, and the Domesday Book of 1086 refers to 'a castlery' at Richmond.
In the 12th century, his great-nephew Conan expanded the castle and built the keep. Although it was derelict by 1540, it was restored centuries later. The property is the best-preserved early Norman castle in England and an important tourist attraction.
Richmond Castle consists of four main parts: a triangular main enclosure, an outer enclosure to the east, a keep at the northern corner of the main enclosure, and a small enclosure around the keep.
In 1069 William the Conqueror had put down a rebellion at York which was followed by his "harrying of the North" – an act of ethnic cleansing which depopulated large areas for a generation or more. As a further punishment, he divided up the lands of North Yorkshire among his most loyal followers. Alan Rufus, of Brittany, received the borough of Richmond and began constructing the castle to defend against further rebellions and to establish a personal power base. His holdings, called the Honour of Richmond, covered parts of eight counties and amounted to one of the most extensive Norman estates in England.
A 100-foot (30 m)-high keep of honey-coloured sandstone was constructed at the end of the 12th century by Duke Conan IV of Brittany. The Earldom of Richmond was seized in 1158 by Henry II of England. It was King Henry II who probably completed the keep which had 11-foot (3.4 m)-thick walls. Modern visitors can climb to the top of the keep for magnificent views of the town of Richmond. At the same time that the keep was probably completed, Henry II considerably strengthened the castle by adding towers and a barbican. Henry III and King Edward I spent more money on the site including Edward's improvements to the keep interior.
In addition to the main circuit of the wall, there was the barbican in front of the main gate which functioned as a sealed entry space, allowing visitors and wagons to be checked before they gained entry to the castle itself. On the other side of the castle, overlooking the river, was another enclosure or bailey called the Cockpit, which may have functioned as a garden and was overlooked by a balcony. A drawing of 1674 suggests there was another longer balcony overlooking the river side of Scolland's Hall, the great hall.
Richmond Castle had fallen out of use as a fortress by the end of the 14th century and it did not receive major improvements after that date. A survey of 1538 shows it was partly in ruins, but paintings by Turner and others, together with the rise of tourism and an interest in antiquities, led to repairs to the keep in the early 19th century.
In 1855 the castle became the headquarters of the North Yorkshire Militia, and a military barracks block was constructed in the great courtyard. For two years, from 1908 to 1910, the castle was the home of Robert Baden-Powell, later founder of the Boy Scouts, while he commanded the Northern Territorial Army but the barracks building was demolished in 1931.
The castle was used during the First World War as the base of the Non-Combatant Corps made up of conscientious objectors – conscripts who refused to fight. It was also used to imprison some conscientious objectors who refused to accept army discipline and participate in the war in any way. These included the "Richmond Sixteen" who were taken to France from the castle, charged under Field Regulations, and then sentenced to death, but their death sentences were commuted to ten years' hard labour.
The original 11th-century main gate arch is now in the basement of the later 12th century keep which was built in front of it; the original arch was unblocked in the 19th century.
The castle is a scheduled monument, a "nationally important" historic building and archaeological site which has been given protection against unauthorised change. It is also a Grade I listed building.
According to legend, King Arthur and his knights are sleeping in a cave underneath the castle. It is said that they were once discovered by a potter named Thompson, who ran away when they began to awake. Another legend tells that a drummer boy was lost while investigating a tunnel, and that his ghostly drumming is sometimes heard around the castle.
The cell block at the castle contains 2,300 examples of graffiti left by those imprisoned there, from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1970s. Perhaps the most significant of the mark makers were the Richmond Sixteen, who were conscientious objectors imprisoned there during the First World War.
Alan Rufus, alternatively Alanus Rufus (Latin), Alan ar Rouz (Breton), Alain le Roux (French) or Alan the Red (c. 1040 – 1093), 1st Lord of Richmond, was a Breton nobleman, kinsman and companion of William the Conqueror (Duke William II of Normandy) during the Norman Conquest of England. He was the second son of Eozen Penteur (also known as Eudon, Eudo or Odo, Count of Penthièvre) by Orguen Kernev (also known as Agnes of Cornouaille).[b] William the Conqueror granted Alan Rufus a significant English fief, later known as the Honour of Richmond, in about 1071.
Biography
Alan Rufus is first mentioned as a witness (along with his mother Orguen and brothers Gausfridus, Willelmus, Rotbertus, Ricardus) to a charter dated to 1056/1060, issued by his father Eozen to the Abbey of Saint-Aubin in Angers (q.v. Albinus of Angers).
Alan already held some property in Rouen, the capital of Normandy, and was lord of Richemont in Upper Normandy before September 1066. In 1066 or 1067, William of Normandy assented to the gift by Alan Comes (i.e. Alan Rufus) to St-Ouen de Rouen of the church of Saint-Sauveur without Rouen, and of the nearby church of Sainte Croix des Pelletiers, which had been his gift to Alan.
Alan was probably present at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066. On the journey to the battle site near Hastings, the Breton forces formed the vanguard, arriving a good half-hour before the rest of William's army. In the battle formation, Bretons are mentioned variously as in the left-wing or in the rear-guard of the army. Geoffrey Gaimar's L'Estoire des Engles and Wace's Roman de Rou both assert Alan Rufus's presence as Breton commander in the battle,[c] and praise his contribution: Gaimar says "Alan and his men struck well" and Wace states that they did the English "great damage".
A column of Norman cavalry swept into the Cambridge area in late 1066 and built a castle on the hill just north of the river crossing. Alan's first possessions in England were in Cambridgeshire, so he may have obtained them about this time. The Cambridgeshire town of Bourn, west of Cambridge and due north of London, along with several other towns in the area were according to the Domesday Book held in 1066 by the royal thane Almer of Bourn as a tenant of Edith the Fair. Alan's early acquisitions in England included many land titles that had been in the possession of King Harold's wife Edith the Fair, including all but one of her holdings in Cambridgeshire) Alan later favored Almer by giving him two additional manors.
In 1067, Alan witnessed a charter of King William to the monks of St Peter's at Westminster.
In January 1069, Earl Edwin in Yorkshire and his brother Earl Morcar in Northumberland rebelled. In late 1069, the King brought an army north to combat the rebels and recover York. According to the Register of Richmond, it was at the instigation of Queen Matilda, during the Siege of York, that King William conceded to Alan the Honour of Richmond (the Hundred of the "Land of Count Alan" in Yorkshire) in North Yorkshire. Unusually, within the land of Count Alan, King William himself and his half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain received only one manor each: William sharing one with Alan at Ainderby Steeple, on the eastern fringe of the Land, while Robert held one on its southern edge. The wording of the proclamation is:
Ego Wil(el)mus cognomine Bastardus Rex Anglie do et concedo tibi Nepoti meo Alano Britannie Comiti et heredibus tuis imperpetuum omnes uillas et terras que nuper fuerunt Comitis Edwyni in Eboraschira cum feodis Militum et ecclesiis et aliis libertat(ibus) et consuetudinibus ita libere et honorifice sicut idem Edwinus ea tenuit. Dat(um) in obsidione coram Ciuitate Ebor(aci).
Philemon Holland's English translation of William Camden's "Brittania" (1607) renders the proclamation:
I William surnamed Bastard, King of England, doe give and grant unto thee my Nephew[d] Alane Earle of Britaine, and to thine heires for ever, all and every the manour houses and lands which late belonged to Earle Eadwine in Yorkeshire, with the knights fees and other liberties and customes, as freely and in as honorable wise as the said Eadwin held the same. Given at our leaguer before the City of Yorke.
Alan Rufus began construction on Richmond Castle in 1071, to be the principal manor and center of his honour. As the first constable of his new castle, Alan chose Enisant Musard, the husband of one of his half-sisters. Richmond Castle overlooks the old Roman fort at Catterick, North Yorkshire. Alan's properties extended over the entire length of Earningas Street, the old Roman road from London to the North, heading to Edinburgh; this road was renamed Ermine Street.
In folklore, Alan has an association with King Arthur: in the tale of Potter Thompson, Arthur and his knights are said to lie at rest under Richmond Castle.
In Richmondshire, the Domesday Book's "Land of Count Alan", many of the Anglo-Dane lords, or their heirs, were retained in their pre-1066 positions of authority. The locations where this was done were complementary to those owned by the deceased Edwin, Earl of Mercia, whereas many of those where Edwin had been Overlord were given to Alan's Breton relatives: his half-brothers Ribald, Lord of Middleham, Bodin, Lord of Bedale, and Bardolf, Lord of Ravensworth, and their wet-nurse, Orwen. Other tenants of Alan in Yorkshire were English lords from East Anglia.
In the 1080s, Alan witnessed several documents of King William in England and Ghent, and one of Queen Matilda in England.
For the period from about 1083-1086 (the exact dates are uncertain) the formidable Sainte-Suzanne Castle was besieged by the king's army. King William I established a fortified camp at Beugy, about 800 metres north of the castle, manned by William's best household knights under the command of Alan Rufus. The siege did not go well, the castle proving to be well-defended. Wealthy Norman and English lords were frequently captured. After a year, Alan handed command to another Breton, who was later slain, along with many of the king's knights, aggrieving William sufficiently to come to terms with the commander of the castle.
It is likely that Alan was with King William I and the other members of the King's Council at Gloucester in Christmas 1085 when they discussed preparations for the extensive survey of England, later known as the Domesday Survey. On this survey was based the Domesday Book, which comprises two volumes, Little Domesday and Great Domesday.
Through 1086, Alan and Robert of Mortain attended on King William, e.g. at Fécamp in Normandy and in Wiltshire in south-west England.
By 1086 Alan had become one of the richest and most powerful men of England. Alan is mentioned as a lord or tenant-in-chief in 1,017 entries of the Domesday Book, behind only King William I and Robert, Count of Mortain in the number of holdings. The most powerful magnate in East Anglia and Yorkshire, he also possessed property in London, in Normandy (e.g. in Rouen and Richemont), and in Brittany. Alan Rufus is third (not including the King and his immediate family) among the barons in terms of annual income, which was about £1,200. His income in the year of his death, 1093, was £1,100.
Alan donated large sums to a number of religious houses, but most famously founded, with King William II, the Benedictine St Mary's Abbey in York in early 1088.
Alan was among the first four magnates to support William II of England against the Rebellion of 1088 in favour of the Duke of Normandy, Robert Curthose. The uprising was led by the recently freed Odo, Earl of Kent, Bishop of Bayeux, and joined by several major magnates. Beginning in March 1088, Alan was granted additional territory by King William from the confiscated lands of his neighbours who had rebelled. In or before 1089, Alan Rufus issued a charter at Rochester, Kent, Bishop Odo's former principal manor.
William de St-Calais had been in the army led by the king against Bishop Odo, but suddenly fled north to his castle at Durham. After the rebellion was defeated, Roger of Poitou, Alan Rufus, Odo of Champagne, and Walter d'Aincourt were sent to persuade St-Calais to surrender. After a lengthy parley during which they waited outside the castle, St-Calais agreed to surrender his person and stand trial, but only once they signed a complex document promising safe conduct before, during, and after the trial. Alan Rufus played a significant role in the subsequent trial of St-Calais, which commenced on 2 November 1088 at Salisbury in Wiltshire.
Wilmart's interpretation is that in exchange for St-Calais agreeing to submit to the King's judgement, Alan and the other royal officers signed a document guaranteeing St-Calais's safety before and after the trial. When St-Calais cited this in court, there was uproar, but Alan calmly confirmed St-Calais's statement and then said that if there were any fault here, it was his (Alan's). Alan concluded by begging the king not to attempt to coerce him into committing perjury; otherwise, he (Alan) would believe himself obliged to refuse to serve the king.
St-Calais was held in custody at Wilton Abbey until 14 November. Alan escorted St-Calais to Southampton to await passage to Normandy and exile.
According to Christopher Clarkson, in 1089 Count Alan persuaded King William II to convene ("assemble") England's very first "High Court of Parliament" ("under that name") at York.
Saint Anselm, in two letters addressed (perhaps in 1093–1094) to Gunnhild the youngest daughter of King Harold II and Edith the Fair, reprimanded her for abandoning her vocation as a nun at Wilton Abbey to live with Alan Rufus, intending to marry him, and after his death living with his brother Alan Niger ("the Black"). The historian Richard Sharpe has theorised that Matilda d'Aincourt, wife of Walter d'Aincourt, was the natural daughter of Alan Rufus and Gunnhild. In the same article, Sharpe also cited Trevor Foulds's suggestion that Matilda may have been a daughter of King William I and Queen Matilda; although Orderic Vitalis does not mention her name in his list of their daughters, Domesday does name a "Matilda, the King's daughter".
Wilmart thought Alan Rufus's death was sudden and unexpected. There are conflicting sources for the year of its occurrence. Two medieval sources (the 12th century Margam Annals and Stephen of Whitby's brief history of St Mary's, York) indicate that he died in 1089 or shortly thereafter, but scholars have concluded that 1093, perhaps on 4 August, is more likely. His body was transported to the abbey at Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk where he was buried in the cemetery outside the south door. Subsequently, his family and the monks of the Abbey of St Mary in York succeeded in their petition to have him reburied inside Bury Abbey.
Alan Rufus died childless. As Lord of Richmond, Alan Rufus was succeeded by his younger brothers: Alan Niger who also died without issue, followed by Stephen, Count of Tréguier.
Other activities of Count Alan Rufus
Beneath Richmond Castle, Alan founded the town of Richmond, North Yorkshire. He also built the original manor house of Costessey Hall, Alan's caput at Costessey in Norfolk, on the north side of the River Tud in Costessey Park.
Other media
In 2019 Magneto dayo Released a song titled "Alan Rufus" referencing the Count.
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that it uses these properties to "bring the story of England to life for over 10 million people each year". Within its portfolio are Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Tintagel Castle and the best preserved parts of Hadrian's Wall. English Heritage also manages the London blue plaque scheme, which links influential historical figures to particular buildings.
When originally formed in 1983, English Heritage was the operating name of an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government, officially titled the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, that ran the national system of heritage protection and managed a range of historic properties. It was created to combine the roles of existing bodies that had emerged from a long period of state involvement in heritage protection. In 1999, the organisation merged with the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and the National Monuments Record, bringing together resources for the identification and survey of England's historic environment.
On 1 April 2015, English Heritage was divided into two parts: Historic England, which inherited the statutory and protection functions of the old organisation, and the new English Heritage Trust, a charity that would operate the historic properties, and which took on the English Heritage operating name and logo. The British government gave the new charity an £80 million grant to help establish it as an independent trust, although the historic properties remain in the ownership of the state.
History
Non-departmental public body
Over the centuries, what is now called "heritage" has been the responsibility of a series of state departments. There was the "Kings Works" after the Norman Conquest, the Office of Works (1378–1832), the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues and Works (1832–1851), and the Ministry of Works (1851–1962). Responsibility subsequently transferred to the Ministry of Public Building and Works (1962–1970), then to the Department of the Environment (1970–1997), and it is now with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The state's legal responsibility for the historic environment goes back to the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. The central government subsequently developed several systems of heritage protection for different types of assets, introducing listing for buildings after World War II, and for conservation areas in the 1960s.
In 1983, Secretary of State for the Environment Michael Heseltine gave national responsibility for the historic environment to a semi‑autonomous agency (or "quango") to operate under ministerial guidelines and to government policy. The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission was formed under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983 on 1 April 1984. The 1983 Act also dissolved the bodies that had previously provided independent advice – the Ancient Monuments Board for England and the Historic Buildings Council for England – and incorporated those functions into the new body. Soon after, the commission was given the operating name of English Heritage by its first chairman, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu.
A national register of historic parks and gardens, (e.g. Rangers House, Greenwich) was set up in 1984, and a register for historic battlefields (e.g. the Battle of Tewkesbury) was created in March 1995. 'Registration' is a material consideration in the planning process. In April 1999 English Heritage merged with the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) and the National Monuments Record (NMR), bringing together resources for the identification and survey of England's historic environment. By adoption, that included responsibility for the national record of archaeological sites from the Ordnance Survey, the National Library of Aerial Photographs, and two million RAF and Ordnance Survey aerial photographs. Those, together with other nationally important external acquisitions, meant that English Heritage was one of the largest publicly accessible archives in the UK: 2.53 million records are available online, including more than 426,000 images. In 2010–11, it recorded 4.3 million unique online user sessions and over 110,000 people visited NMR exhibitions held around the country in 2009–10. In 2012, the section responsible for archive collections was renamed the English Heritage Archive.
As a result of the National Heritage Act 2002, English Heritage acquired administrative responsibility for historic wrecks and submerged landscapes within 12 miles (19 km) of the English coast. The administration of the listed building system was transferred from DCMS to English Heritage in 2006. However, actual listing decisions still remained the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who was required by the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 to approve a list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest.
Following the Public Bodies Reform in 2010, English Heritage was confirmed as the government's statutory adviser on the historic environment, and the largest source of non-lottery grant funding for heritage assets. It was retained on grounds of "performing a technical function which should remain independent from Government". However, the department also suffered from budget cuts during the recession of the 2010s, resulting in a repairs deficit of £100 million
The waxwings are three species of passerine birds classified in the genus Bombycilla. They are pinkish-brown and pale grey with distinctive smooth plumage in which many body feathers are not individually visible, a black and white eyestripe, a crest, a square-cut tail and pointed wings. Some of the wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name. According to most authorities, this is the only genus placed in the family Bombycillidae, although sometimes the family is extended to include related taxa that are more usually included in separate families: silky flycatchers (Ptiliogonatidae (e.g. Phainoptila)), Hypocolius (Hypocoliidae), Hylocitrea (Hylocitreidae), palmchats (Dulidae) and the Hawai'ian 'honeyeaters' (Mohoidae). There are three species: the Bohemian waxwing (B. garrulus), the Japanese waxwing (B. japonica) and the cedar waxwing (B. cedrorum).
Waxwings are not long-distance migrants, but move nomadically outside the breeding season. Waxwings mostly feed on fruit, but at times of year when fruits are unavailable they feed on sap, buds, flowers and insects. They catch insects by gleaning through foliage or in mid-air. They often nest near water, the female building a loose nest at the fork of a branch, well away from the trunk of the tree. She also incubates the eggs, the male bringing her food to the nest, and both sexes help rear the young. Waxwings appear in art and have been mentioned in literature.
This is an image from my collection. Although predominantly slide scans, it includes other types of media as well. All have been collected over the past 40+ years of shooting Kodachrome and digital images, slide purchases and many years of exchanging. I was fortunate enough to trade with some of the best airliner photographers around the world.
Created in 2017, this is a curated archive that serves to share what otherwise would be kept in binders and boxes, not being enjoyed by anyone, myself included.
REGISTRATION : N3HH
MFR TYPE & SERIES : Convair 440-48
MSN : 173
OPERATOR : Laredo Air
AIRPORT (WHEN KNOWN) :
DATE (WHEN KNOWN) :
PHOTOGRAPHER (WHEN KNOWN) :
REMARKS:
This is for Its An Addiction – Assignment #6 – Water Animation
This is for S2 Wraps Blends Beyond Blends group
Thank you very much to Peta Evans-Taylor for the use of one of her self-portraits :))
Peta Evans Taylor is a fantastic Singer/Songwriter. She is a beautiful & talented young lady
Please visit Peta’s Web Site
This is the same photo as the previous one with selective color and HDR
This was taken at night looking into the West Coast Coffee shop. Many ArtPrize pieces are in this shop. ArtPrize officially starts on Sept 18....my favorite time of the year in Grand Rapids.
Painting on back wall..."Imminent Attack" Brian Peterson
there's black, there's white, and lots of shades in between.
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 640
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash
3x2 project.
That is, three targets for two astrophotographers (or self-styled so), myself and Alessandro Bucci.
Second target of the joint project, in fact the main subject, what pushed us to "join forces" for this project was the reflection nebula M78, in Orion. Beautiful subject, yet difficult if not taken from sufficiently dark skies, which requires a lot of care even in the processing phase. It took me about a week of attempts and "pauses for reflection" before reaching the result below, which seems to me quite satisfactory overall.
Unfortunately we were unable to dedicate the two entire evenings to shooting, due to the atmospheric problems I mentioned in the previous post, but 13 hours of shooting still proved to be enough to finally obtain a good photo on this target which I had never shot in optimal conditions.
Hope you like it as well!
Techinical data:
159x300s T-20°/-10° Gain 100 (13h25m Total Integration Time)
Bortle 3 rural sky, Pietralunga, PG (Italy)
Equipment:
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200 @F4.5 1140mm
Tecnosky 0.95x Coma Corrector
Omegon veTEC571C Color
ZWO OAG + ASI290MM Mini
Ioptron CEM70
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200
Skywatcher Coma Corrector 1x
Toupteck 571c Color
ZWO OAG + ASI224MC
Skywatcher Eq6-R
Software:
N.I.N.A., PHD2
Processing(Francesco Radici):
Pixinsight, Photoshop
Progetto 3x2.
Ovvero, tre target x due astrofotografi (o sedicenti tali), il sottoscritto ed Alessandro Bucci.
Secondo obiettivo del progetto congiunto, nonché il soggetto principale, quello che ci ha spinto ad "unire le forze" per questo progetto era la nebulosa a riflessione M78, nella costellazione di Orione. Soggetto bellissimo, quanto ostico se non ripreso da cieli sufficientemente bui, che richiede molte accortezze anche in fase di elaborazione. Ho impiegato circa una settimana tra tentativi e "pause di riflessione" prima di giungere al risultato qui sotto, che mi sembra abbastanza soddisfacente, nel complesso.
Purtroppo non siamo riusciti a dedicare le due intere serate alle riprese, per i problemi atmosferici di cui accennavo nel precedente post, ma 13 ore di riprese si sono rivelate comunque abbastanza per ottenere finalmente una buona foto su questo target che non avevo mai ripreso in condizioni degne.
Spero piaccia anche a voi!
Dati di ripresa:
159x300s T-20°/-10° Gain 100 (13h25m Total Integration Time)
Cielo rurale Bortle 3 Località Pietralunga (PG)
Questi i due setup:
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200 @F4.5 1140mm
Tecnosky 0.95x Coma Corrector
Omegon veTEC571C Color
ZWO OAG + ASI290MM Mini
Ioptron CEM70
Skywatcher Newton 254/1200
Skywatcher Coma Corrector 1x
Toupteck 571c Color
ZWO OAG + ASI224MC
Skywatcher Eq6-R
Software di ripresa:
N.I.N.A., PHD2
Elaborazione (Francesco Radici):
Pixinsight, Photoshop
Today is my 12th Trannyversary… the day when I celebrate the anniversary of the first time I ever fully dressed up in 2011 and became Penny.
The pic on the right is from 10 years ago, and was when I finally found the look I wanted for myself after dressing up for a couple of years. I kept pretty much the same look until two years ago when I had a revamp and went blonde, changed my eye makeup, and did my lips differently.
Living in the sunshine for three and a half years has made me way more tanned now… I didn’t realize how pasty white I used to be!
It is a former estate garden featuring annuals, roses and wildflowers and an extensive rockery. It is located on Wilket Creek, one of the tributaries of the Don River West Branch. The estate's title was once held by Alexander Milne, a Scottish weaver who settled here after the War of 1812 and left in 1832. The land and the woolen/saw mills was obtained by Rupert E. Edwards in 1944 and created his country home. Edwards home was left in neglect and was purchased by the Municipality of Metro Toronto in 1955 and became Edwards Gardens in 1956.
This is my friend Nik Voon who I have been speaking to on Flickr and Tumblr for at least a year now.
On my way back from my KL trip, I finally got to meet him during my stopover in Singapore. Nik was kind enough to come all the way to the airport to meet my girlfriend and I :D
I've got to watch Nik improve over time and in no time, he'll probably be better than me with how dedicated he is to his photography!
Hopefully I get to come back to Singapore soon so we can meet again (and I won't be so drowsy next time)!!!
A team of astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has measured the universe's expansion rate using a technique that is completely independent of any previous method.
Knowing the precise value for how fast the universe expands is important for determining the age, size and fate of the cosmos. Unraveling this mystery has been one of the greatest challenges in astrophysics in recent years. The new study adds evidence to the idea that new theories may be needed to explain what scientists are finding.
The researchers' result further strengthens a troubling discrepancy between the expansion rate, called the Hubble constant, calculated from measurements of the local universe and the rate as predicted from background radiation in the early universe, a time before galaxies and stars even existed.
This latest value represents the most precise measurement yet using the gravitational lensing method, where the gravity of a foreground galaxy acts like a giant magnifying lens, amplifying and distorting light from background objects. This latest study did not rely on the traditional "cosmic distance ladder" technique to measure accurate distances to galaxies by using various types of stars as "milepost markers." Instead, the researchers employed the exotic physics of gravitational lensing to calculate the universe's expansion rate.
The astronomy team that made the new Hubble constant measurements is dubbed H0LiCOW (H0 Lenses in COSMOGRAIL's Wellspring). COSMOGRAIL is the acronym for Cosmological Monitoring of Gravitational Lenses, a large international project whose goal is monitoring gravitational lenses. "Wellspring" refers to the abundant supply of quasar lensing systems.
The research team derived the H0LiCOW value for the Hubble constant through observing and analysis techniques that have been greatly refined over the past two decades.
H0LiCOW and other recent measurements suggest a faster expansion rate in the local universe than was expected based on observations by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite of how the cosmos behaved more than 13 billion years ago.
The gulf between the two values has important implications for understanding the universe's underlying physical parameters and may require new physics to account for the mismatch.
"If these results do not agree, it may be a hint that we do not yet fully understand how matter and energy evolved over time, particularly at early times," said H0LiCOW team leader Sherry Suyu of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, the Technical University of Munich, and the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, Taiwan.
How They Did It
The H0LiCOW team used Hubble to observe the light from six faraway quasars, the brilliant searchlights from gas orbiting supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies. Quasars are ideal background objects for many reasons; for example, they are bright, extremely distant and scattered all over the sky. The telescope observed how the light from each quasar was multiplied into four images by the gravity of a massive foreground galaxy. The galaxies studied are 3 billion to 6.5 billion light-years away. The quasars' average distance is 5.5 billion light-years from Earth.
The light rays from each lensed quasar image take a slightly different path through space to reach Earth. The pathway's length depends on the amount of matter that is distorting space along the line of sight to the quasar. To trace each pathway, the astronomers monitor the flickering of the quasar's light as its black hole gobbles up material. When the light flickers, each lensed image brightens at a different time.
This flickering sequence allows researchers to measure the time delays between each image as the lensed light travels along its path to Earth. To fully understand these delays, the team first used Hubble to make accurate maps of the distribution of matter in each lensing galaxy. Astronomers could then reliably deduce the distances from the galaxy to the quasar, and from Earth to the galaxy and to the background quasar. By comparing these distance values, the researchers measured the universe's expansion rate.
"The length of each time delay indicates how fast the universe is expanding," said team member Kenneth Wong of the University of Tokyo's Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, lead author of the H0LiCOW collaboration's most recent paper. "If the time delays are shorter, then the universe is expanding at a faster rate. If they are longer, then the expansion rate is slower."
The time-delay process is analogous to four trains leaving the same station at exactly the same time and traveling at the same speed to reach the same destination. However, each of the trains arrives at the destination at a different time. That’s because each train takes a different route, and the distance for each route is not the same. Some trains travel over hills. Others go through valleys, and still others chug around mountains. From the varied arrival times, one can infer that each train traveled a different distance to reach the same stop. Similarly, the quasar flickering pattern does not appear at the same time because some of the light is delayed by traveling around bends created by the gravity of dense matter in the intervening galaxy.
How it Compares
The researchers calculated a Hubble constant value of 73 kilometers per second per megaparsec (with 2.4% uncertainty). This means that for every additional 3.3 million light-years away a galaxy is from Earth, it appears to be moving 73 kilometers per second faster, because of the universe's expansion.
The team's measurement also is close to the Hubble constant value of 74 calculated by the Supernova H0 for the Equation of State (SH0ES) team, which used the cosmic distance ladder technique. The SH0ES measurement is based on gauging the distances to galaxies near and far from Earth by using Cepheid variable stars and supernovas as measuring sticks to the galaxies.
The SH0ES and H0LiCOW values significantly differ from the Planck number of 67, strengthening the tension between Hubble constant measurements of the modern universe and the predicted value based on observations of the early universe.
"One of the challenges we overcame was having dedicated monitoring programs through COSMOGRAIL to get the time delays for several of these quasar lensing systems," said Frédéric Courbin of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, leader of the COSMOGRAIL project.
Suyu added: "At the same time, new mass modeling techniques were developed to measure a galaxy's matter distribution, including models we designed to make use of the high-resolution Hubble imaging. The images enabled us to reconstruct, for example, the quasars' host galaxies. These images, along with additional wider-field images taken from ground-based telescopes, also allow us to characterize the environment of the lens system, which affects the bending of light rays. The new mass modeling techniques, in combination with the time delays, help us to measure precise distances to the galaxies."
Begun in 2012, the H0LiCOW team now has Hubble images and time-delay information for 10 lensed quasars and intervening lensing galaxies. The team will continue to search for and follow up on new lensed quasars in collaboration with researchers from two new programs. One program, called STRIDES (STRong-lensing Insights into Dark Energy Survey), is searching for new lensed quasar systems. The second, called SHARP (Strong-lensing at High Angular Resolution Program), uses adaptive optics with the W.M. Keck telescopes to image the lensed systems. The team's goal is to observe 30 more lensed quasar systems to reduce their 2.4% percent uncertainty to 1%.
NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, expected to launch in 2021, may help them achieve their goal of 1% uncertainty much faster through Webb's ability to map the velocities of stars in a lensing galaxy, which will allow astronomers to develop more precise models of the galaxy's distribution of dark matter.
The H0LiCOW team's work also paves the way for studying hundreds of lensed quasars that astronomers are discovering through surveys such as the Dark Energy Survey and PanSTARRS (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System), and the upcoming National Science Foundation's Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which is expected to uncover thousands of additional sources.
In addition, NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will help astronomers address the disagreement in the Hubble constant value by tracing the expansion history of the universe. The mission will also use multiple techniques, such as sampling thousands of supernovae and other objects at various distances, to help determine whether the discrepancy is a result of measurement errors, observational technique, or whether astronomers need to adjust the theory from which they derive their predictions.
The team will present its results at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/cosmic-magnifying-glass...
Credits: NASA, ESA, S.H. Suyu (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Technical University of Munich, and Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics) and K.C. Wong (University of Tokyo’s Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe)
This photograph is of the time when Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II (ra) visited Quetta, capital city of the province of Balochistan - Pakistan.
Taken from MTA International documentaries on the lives of His Holiness Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih II (ra) and His Holiness Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih V (aba).
Front row just behind Huzur (ra) from right to left:
1. Late Haji Zia-ul-Haq Khan sahib, British Government Officer (my maternal grandfather).
2. Late Mr. Shams-ul-Haq Khan, started career with the Civil and Military Gazette, Analyst at Radio Pakistan, Bureau Chief Daily Dawn, Columnist The Friday Times & President Balochistan Union of Journalists (my father).
3. Late Dr. Ghafoor-ul-Haq Khan sahib (brother of my maternal grandfather Haji Zia-ul-Haq Khan sahib).
4. Late Major Dr. Siraj-ul-Haq Khan sahib (my paternal grandfather).
May Allah rest souls of my ancestors in peace and their generations after generation be always loyal to the Institution of Ahmadiyya Khilafat. Ameen.
Eiffel Tower Strairs
We walked to the second floor.
Iphone shot - Hipstamatic - Photoshop CS5 - Large is so much better!
The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The third level observatory's upper platform is at 279.11 m the highest accessible to public in the European Union and the highest in Europe as long as the platform of the Ostankino Tower, at 360 m, remains closed as a result of the fire of August 2000. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.
The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift (elevator), to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift - stairs exist but they are not usually open for public use. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.
History
Origin
First drawing of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Koechlin
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers who worked for the Compagnie des Establissments Eiffel after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair which would celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. In May 1884 Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Initially Eiffel himself showed little enthusiasm, but he did sanction further study of the project, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first level and other embellishments. This enhanced version gained Eiffel's support, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a paper on the project to the Société des Ingiénieurs Civils: after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise "not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude."
Little happened until the beginning of 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as President and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as Minister for Trade. A budget for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was being held for a centerpiece for the exposition, which effectively made the choice of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June it presented its decision, which was that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or insufficiently worked out. After some debate about the exact site for the tower, a contract was finally signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him one and a half million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the following twenty years. Eiffel later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.
The "Artists Protest"
Caricature of Gustave Eiffel comparing the Eiffel tower to the Pyramids.
The projected tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe that it was feasible and also from those who objected on artistic grounds. Their objections were an expression of a longstanding debate about relationship between architecture and engineering. This came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: A "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Charles Alphand, the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, and was published by Le Temps.
"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"
Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian Pyramids : "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way ? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris ?" These criticisms were also masterfully dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell that …this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and going on to point out that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before and was already under construction. Indeed, Garnier had been a member of the Tower Commission that had assessed the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the Tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"
Some of the protestors were to change their minds when the tower was built: others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant[20] supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.
Construction
Foundations of the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower under construction between 1887 and 1889
Work on the foundations started in January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[21] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block built of limestone each with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored into the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were complete by 30 June and the erection of the ironwork began. The very visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed:
The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from the factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all there were 18,038 pieces of puddle iron using two and a half million rivets.
At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers but about halfway to the first level construction was paused in order to construct a substantial timber scaffold. This caused a renewal of the concerns about the structural soundness of the project, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in each leg. The critical stage of joining the four legs at the first level was complete by March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost precision, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs: hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, each capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and in addition the legs had been intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold.
No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died during construction.
Inauguration and the 1889 Exposition
The 1889 Exposition Universelle for which the Eiffel Tower was built
The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and on the 31st Eiffel celebrated this by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. Since the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, Eiffel frequently stopping to make explanations of various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including Nouguier, Compagnon, the President of the City Council and reporters from Le Figaro and Le Monde Illustré completed the climb. At 2.35 Eiffel hoisted a large tricolore, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired from the lower level. There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and the fitting out of the facilities for visitors, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the Exposition on 6 May, and even then the lifts had not been completed.
The tower was an immediate success with the public, and lengthy queues formed to make the ascent. Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been nearly two million visitors.
Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. In the opening weeks of the First World War the powerful radio transmitters using the tower were used to jam German communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.
Subsequent events
10 September 1889 Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message— To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.
19 October 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont in his Dirigible No.6 won a 10,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St Cloud to the Eiffel tower and back in less than half an hour.
1910 Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are today known as cosmic rays.[28]
4 February 1912 Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made parachute.
1914 A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.
1925 The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.
1930 The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.
1925 to 1934 Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.
1940–1944 Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika[citation needed], but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.
3 January 1956 A fire damaged the top of the tower.
1957 The present radio antenna was added to the top.
1980s A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Josephine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.
31 March 1984 Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.
1987 A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the ground.
27 October 1991 Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures of bungee jumping (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.
New Year's Eve 1999 The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris's Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.
28 November 2002 The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.
2004 The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.
Design of the tower
Material
The Eiffel Tower from below
The puddle iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-metre-square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.
Wind considerations
At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:
Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be […] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[37]
Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.
Accommodation
When built, the first level contained two restaurants: an "Anglo-American Bar", and a 250 seat theatre. A 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) promenade ran around the outside.
On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was produced. There was also a pâtisserie.
On the third level were laboratories for various experiments and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests. This is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike models of Gustave and some guests.
Engraved names
Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.
Maintenance
Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 15 cm due to temperature.
Aesthetic considerations
In order to enhance the impression of height, three separate colours of paint are used on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of bronze. On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.
The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby architecture.
One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 storeys, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.
Popularity
More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889, including 6,719,200 in 2006. The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.
Passenger lifts
Ground to the second level
The original lifts (elevators) to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing lifts climbing to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The East and West lifts were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains and rollers. The North and South lifts were provided by the American company Otis using car designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.
The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between landings.
The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the lift carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted statically. Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and pass up through a series of guiding sheaves to above the second floor and then through a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.
This arrangement means that the lift carriage, complete with its cars and passengers, travels 8 times the distance that the rams move the chariot, the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers, plus extra to account for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in three accumulators, complete with counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.
The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the lifts easier to operate. A new computer-controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself, thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.
Owing to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each lift in normal service takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.
The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their turn proved to be inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts and were scrapped from the South pillar in 1900 and from the North pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to repower them with an electric motor. The North and South pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965 when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern cable hoisted system in the north pillar using a cable-hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter lift was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.
The South pillar acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis. A further four-ton service lift was added to the South pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.
The East and West hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the lift.
Second to the third level
The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service lift in the background.
The original lifts from the second to the third floor were also of a water-powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81-metre-long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. A lift car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The ten-ton cars held 65 passengers each or up to four tons.
One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.
The original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the capacity to move as many people as the three public lower lifts and long lines to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the lifts were replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the lift halfway.
The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was constructed.
Restaurants
The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 tour Eiffel, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Le Jules Verne, a gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.
Attempted relocation
According to interviews given in the early 1980s, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with French President Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original location.
Economics
The American TV show Pricing the Priceless speculates that in 2011 the tower would cost about $480,000,000 to build, that the land under the tower is worth $350,000,000, and that the scrap value of the tower is worth $3,500,000. The TV show estimates the tower makes a profit of about $29,000,000 per year, though it is unlikely that the Eiffel Tower is managed so as to maximize profit.
It costs $5,300,000 to repaint the tower, which is done once every seven years. The electric bill is $400,000 per year for 7.5 million kilowatt-hours.
The Tokyo Tower in Japan is a very similar structure of very similar size. It was finished in 1958 at a final cost of ¥2.8 billion ($8.4 million in 1958).
Source Wikipedia
This is photographed out of my car window, waiting at red lights in middle of the wonderful town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen!
In the foreground you can see the beautiful mountain "Alpspitze" (2.628m) and the Alpspitze mountain station "Osterfelderkopf" with the "AlpspiX" Viewing Platform hovering 13 meters (42 feet) over an empty void in the shape of an 'X' with two protruding platforms. The exceptional architecture opens unmatched views towards Zugspitze peak and the Höllental gorge and lets visitors experience a spectacular alpine high.
There is an altitude difference (prominence) from almost 2.000m bottom up from Garmisch to the summit of Alpspitze!
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An einer roten Ampel in Garmisch aus dem Auto heraus fotografiert. Das Gipfelkreuz der Alpspitze steht auf 2.628m. Da Garmisch auf etwas über 700m liegt, beträgt der Höhenunterschied hier knapp 2.000m!
Für mich immer wieder faszinierend ist die gut erkennbare Faltung an der Felspyramide der Alpspitze, die durch glaziale Erosion entstanden ist. Garmisch war während der letzten Eiszeit - der Würmeiszeit - mit einer Eisdecke von ca. 1.700 m über NN überzogen.
siehe auch Link: Geotop Alpspitzgebiet
Links die Bergstation der Alpspitzbahn am Osterfelderkopf. Wenn man genau hinsieht, erkennt man rechts von der Bergstation auch den AlpspiX, die Aussichtsplattform auf 2.080m Höhe!