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Character Creation
Psylocke is the name of two connected fictional mutant superheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men.
The first character to use the Psylocke moniker, Betsy Braddock, was a supporting character in stories focusing on her twin brother Brian, adopting the codename upon joining the X-Men. For 29 years of publication history, the character was body-swapped in-story with the assassin Kwannon.
Kwannon took on the moniker to become the second Psylocke after both women returned to their respective bodies and Braddock claimed the mantle of Captain Britain.
In addition to their presence in numerous X-related team titles over the decades, both iterations of Psylocke have been featured in various limited series and one-shots. In 1997, Betsy Braddock, as Psylocke, appeared in the 4-issue team-up series Psylocke and Archangel: Crimson Dawn. Additionally, she starred in the one-shot X-Men: Sword of the Braddocks #1 in 2009 and the solo 4-issue series X-Men: Psylocke in 2010. During the Krakoan Age, Kwannon as Psylocke appeared in various team books such as the Hellions (2020) and Marauders (2022) and then starred in the one-shot X-Men: Blood Hunt – Psylocke #1 in 2024. As part of the X-Men: From the Ashes relaunch, Kwannon as Psylocke is set to star in a new solo ongoing series starting in November 2024.
Publication History
Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with Captain Britain and the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Herb Trimpe in 1976, she first appeared in the Marvel UK series Captain Britain.
Betsy Braddock was a supporting character in the adventures of her twin brother, Brian Braddock, as the original Captain Britain, before temporarily becoming the superheroine Captain Britain herself and later joining the X-Men in 1986 as Psylocke, a codename coined by the villains Mojo and Spiral. Presented as a precognitive in the pages of Captain Britain and then as a telepath, she was later established to be a mutant, developing telekinesis as well as martial arts skills, the latter of which derived from a body swap with the Japanese mutant ninja Kwannon lasting nearly 30 years of publication history. She and Kwannon were returned to their original bodies in a 2018 story, after which, Betsy took up the mantle of Captain Britain, while Kwannon adopted the Psylocke identity.
Many alternative versions of the character have also appeared in several comics series of Marvel Multiverse, as well as in various other media and merchandise, notably in numerous video games. The body-swapped iteration of the character was portrayed by Meiling Melançon in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand and by Olivia Munn in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse.
Origin
Elizabeth Braddock's father, James Braddock Sr used to live in a different dimension. He was sent to Earth to create the ultimate protector, Captain Britain. He ended up having twins, Elizabeth and Brian. Betsy and her twin brother's lives were anything but normal. Betsy was born and raised in Great Britain in a small town called Maldon, Essex. Psylocke is one of the few Marvel characters that was actually given a birth date. She was born a bit after midnight on April 23, 1956. (Since comics characters never age, or age very slowly, the year of her birth varies). Her parents died when she and her brother were in their late teens or early twenties. Brian began pursuing physics as a major during college while Betsy decided to become a charter pilot. Brian would eventually become Captain Britain. Betsy initially possessed precognitive powers, and later developed telepathic abilities as a consequence of being born a mutant.
Creation
Psylocke made her first appearance in Captain Britain #8, a Marvel UK publication, in December 1976 and was created by Chris Claremont. She made her U.S. comics debut just under a decade later, in October 1986's New Mutants Annual #2.
Character Evolution
"Like all admitted to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, I am a mutant (though, I fear, no longer a "youngster"). I am a telepath... born with the power to project thoughts, and perceive those of others" -- Psylocke (Betsy Braddock).
Betsy Braddock has been through many changes over the years. Starting in a supporting role with Captain Britain (although she did stand in for him briefly), her move to US Marvel comics made her a key member of the 1980s X-Men. Psylocke differed from many X-Men as she was willing to kill enemies. Her character was portrayed as resilient (as shown in her classic confrontation with Sabretooth), but physically weak, resulting in her wearing armor for a time. Her aspirations to be a warrior were fulfilled during the Acts of Vengeance story arc when she became a ninja, although Chris Claremont has been quoted as saying that the transformation (as he saw it) was a physical/magical one, rather than a "body swap" as established after his departure from writing X-Men comics. After the swap Psylocke's personality changed, becoming much more mysterious and cold, but this was revealed to be Kwannon's personality influencing her. She returned to her normal self after Kwannon died of the Legacy Virus and her mind was clearer. Her first serious brush with death saw her acquire new powers from the Crimson Dawn, where she gained a mysterious red tattoo over her left eye and new shadow bending powers.
However, the Crimson Dawn was slowly wiping away Psylocke's personality, making her much more cold and distant. Psylocke later battled the Shadow King and locked him in her mind, which meant she could no longer use her telepathy. After this, during training with Jean Grey, Psylocke's telepathy got switched with Jean's telekinesis powers. Her actual death in X-Treme X-Men #2 (2001) and subsequent return in Uncanny X-Men #455 brought her back with a combination of the two powers, her telekinesis augmenting her physical fighting skills. For a time she was placed with the reality-hopping Exiles, but has since returned to her classic role as a member of the X-Men. She was also part of the new Uncanny X-Force, a secret team of mutants led by Wolverine, formed to preemptively kill threats to mutant-kind. Every member of the team has been manipulated in some way with Psylocke acting as the moral compass of the group. Psylocke is willing to kill but has her boundaries, shown when it came to the decision of killing the child Apocalypse.
Beginning
One day Betsy received news that her brother Jamie had been injured in an accident, so Betsy called Brian and the two flew back to their mansion in Britain. Their plane crashed after a psychic attack when they began to close in on the mansion. After the plane crash with Brian, Betsy would be influenced by mind control by Dr. Synne. They would be able to restrain Betsy but it was nothing short of easy. Next Brian would defeat Synne and he would lose control over one of his agents, who would reveal that he was truly working for the Red Skull. Brian would team up with Captain America to defeat the Red Skull. Betsy later discovered that she had precognitive abilities that grew to telepathic powers. For a long time, Betsy had lost track of her brother because of his adventures in America and other dimensions. Betsy would soon quit her charter pilot job and pursue a career in modeling.
S.T.R.I.K.E.
To set herself apart, she began dying her hair purple and her career took off. While Brian was overseas at college, Betsy was recruited into S.T.R.I.K.E.'s Psi Division. During her time there, she would develop a romantic relationship with fellow S.T.R.I.K.E. member, Tom Lennox. While working with S.T.R.I.K.E. one of her assignments was to infiltrate the Hellfire Club (her father had been the Black Bishop of the London branch), but the mission was soon abandoned when she encountered Sage who warned her to stay away. When the crimelord Vixen secretly took over S.T.R.I.K.E. Betsy and her fellow telepaths were targeted lest they expose the infiltration; the assassin Slaymaster was sent after them, killing all but Betsy, her lover Tom Lennox and friend Alison Double before Betsy contacted Brian, who stopped the assassin. Later, the mutant Mad Jim Jaspers used his powers to warp reality, taking over the U.K. and banning superhumans, forcing Betsy and her friend to go on the run.While Captain Britain went to confront him, armored hero hunters found and raided their hideout. Tom sacrificed himself trying to buy the others enough time to escape, but Betsy was captured and sent to a concentration camp. During her time in the camp she met a woman named Victoria Bentley ( Dr. Strange's friend) and Victoria would teach Betsy how to harness the trauma she had gone through and use it to power her psi energies. Eventually they would be let out after Captain Britain stopped Jaspers. Upon repairing the damage that was caused by the reality warp, an alternate version of Captain Britain called Kaptain Briton switched places with the original Captain Britain, and handed him over to the pursuing Technet. He then proceeded to try and rape Betsy, but in self-defense Betsy attacked him mentally and killed him.
The New Captain Britain
At the urging of the RCX, Betsy Braddock takes over her twin’s mantle as Captain Britain when Jeeves presents her with a modified Captain uniform (from the dead Kaptain Briton) that enhances her powers. Together with Captain UK, she foils robberies and the like until Captain UK returns to her previous life. However, soon a group of Warpies are kidnapped by the Vixen, who challenges Betsy out to a fight to save the children. Reluctantly, Betsy accepts even though she knows it’s a trap. What, or rather who, confronts her is her old enemy Slaymaster, also in an enhanced suit courtesy of the Vixen. The ruthless assassin quickly takes out the inexperienced heroine and blinds her. Brian immediately experienced a psychic flash of Betsy’s pain. He flies to her and finds his maimed twin. In a berserker rage, he kills Slaymaster and returns Betsy to the manor where he wants to throw out the RCX agents.
Betsy forbids him from doing so and reveals that Agent Gabriel, who is in love with her, even tried to stop her from taking this risk. Brian isn’t pleased but accepts her decision and returns to Meggan’s side. He finally accepts that he is Captain Britain and nobody else. She was offered cybernetic eyes from RCX but refused to take them and decided to rely on her telepathy to see. Gabriel would soon propose to Betsy, which she accepted. The couple went on vacation to Switzerland so Betsy could recuperate in peace.
X-Men
In Switzerland, Betsy was using her telepathy to see the world through the eyes of other people around her. There, she was captured by Mojo and Spiral, who held her captive for about a year, during which they gave her bionic eyes to replace the damaged ones. They named her “Psylocke“ and made her the star of a TV show called “Wildways”, which in actuality was in an other-dimensional realm. Kids all over the world were encouraged to call a certain phone number and join the Wildways and, ultimately, the New Mutants became involved too.
After Warlock and Cypher finally released Betsy from Mojo’s hold, all of them returned to Westchester. Betsy decided to stay at Xavier’s school, so she could learn how to master her powers, since she felt she had been the victim for far too long. Strangely, the bionic eyes remained with Betsy , giving her visual sight again. Little did she know that the implanted eyes could also function as cameras that allowed Mojo to record everything she saw and broadcast it as TV shows in his Mojoverse. Over the following days, Psylocke discovered, through her telepathy, that Cypher was in love with her. Even though she had similar feelings, she did not explore their relationship further since he was underage.
In the Mutant Massacre story arc, Betsy would be able to prove herself to the X-Men. Sabretooth invaded the mansion while the X-Men and New Mutants were away on assignments. Betsy protected the children at the mansion and was able to last long enough until Wolverine arrived to engage in one on one combat with Sabretooth. Betsy would then scan Sabretooth's mind to figure out his plans. It was her bravery in risking her life luring Sabretooth away from the Xavier Institute and the injured inside that earned her Wolverine's respect.
Later when the X-Men shows became an resounding success, Mojo tried to turn them into his loyal servants by reducing them to childhood and raising them anew. They were saved form this fate by the New Mutants. During the fight, Betsy learned the true purpose of her bionic eyes, but she decided to keep it secret. During a battle with Adversary, Betsy was killed, then resurrected and teleported away to Australia by Roma. After this Betsy decided to wear armor to protect herself. Later, Storm was thought to be dead and several other X-Men like Wolverine and Rogue were missing, so Psylocke took leadership of the X-Men. Much to the dislike of Havok who didn't trust Betsy because of her casual reading of his mind.
The Body Transfer
To prevent the X-Men's death, which she had foreseen in a precognitive vision, Betsy sent the team through the Siege Perilous, a device given to her by Roma, Merlyn's daughter. The Siege Perilous would give them all new lives. Betsy awoke on an island near China without her memories. She was found by the evil ninja group, The Hand. The leader of The Hand, Matsu'o Tsurayaba, wanted to save the life of his brain-dead girlfriend, Kwannon. To do so, he had Spiral's Bodyshoppe switch Betsy's and Kwannon's souls. Spiral not only switched their bodies but also fused their minds and physical features. They shared the same memories and shared half of Psylocke's telepathic powers.
Betsy was given to The Mandarin to serve as his assassin. While working as an assassin, Betsy changed her armor to a more revealing outfit, and learned to focus her psychic energy and turn them into "psychic knifes". On her first assignment as Lady Mandarin, she had to battle Wolverine. When she stabbed Wolverine in the head with her psychic knife, it showed her his memories and revealed to Psylocke who she truly was.
Psylocke then rejected her role as Lady Mandarin and escaped with Wolverine and Jubilee to Genosha. In Genosha, Psylocke, Wolverine, and Jubilee discovered that the X-Men and the New Mutants had been captured by Cameron Hodge. They met Havok in Genosha and went on to defeat Cameron Hodge and free the X-Men. Once the X-Men were freed, they all headed back to New York. Soon, Psylocke’s loyalties were put to the test. Shortly after the original five X-Men rejoined the team, they found themselves under attack by Fenris and Matsu'o Tsurayaba. During the battle, he used a post-hypnotic command, causing Betsy to switch sides and oppose the X-Men. Her entire team ended up captive, but it turned out that she was only feigning obedience. Psylocke had truly overcome her brainwashing.
When the X-Men split into two teams, Psylocke joined Cyclops' team. She eventually started flirting with him and when Jean Grey found out, the two started fighting. They were interrupted when Kwannon (now calling herself Revanche) turned up at the Xavier Institute (in Betsy's body) and claimed to be the real Psylocke. Not knowing what or who to believe, the X-Men had no choice but allow her to stay. Revanche then confessed to Psylocke that she had contracted the Legacy Virus thanks to Spiral. Soon after, Revanche was mercy-killed by Matsu'o Tsurayaba. Upon her death Betsy gained her full telepathic powers and the remaining pieces of herself, but was still able to retain Revanche's martial arts skills. Kwannon's fractured memories and personality were also removed from Psylocke's mind by Matsu'o who gained a small fraction of Kwannon's psychic powers. Afterwards, Jean re-trained Betsy to use her telepathy. Betsy then also started a relationship with Angel.
The Crimson Dawn
Sabretooth had been living in the mansion pretending to be mentally handicapped and subsequently attacked Boomer. Psylocke, in an attempt to save Boomer, battled Sabretooth. Although Psylocke was now a master martial artist, Sabretooth's raw strength was too much for her. In a desperate attempt to beat him, she stabbed him in the head with her psychic knife. However, due to being stabbed in the head already by Wolverine, he lost part of his brain so he was immune to the psychic attacks from Psylocke. Sabretooth then proceeded to brutally beat Psylocke to near death. In a desperate attempt to save her life, Angel, Wolverine, and Doctor Strange went to the Crimson Dawn to retrieve a magical healing liquid. They found it and used it on Psylocke, however there was a side effect. It left a red dagger tattoo on Psylocke's left eye. This gave her the ability to hide and teleport through shadows. The tattoo also made her personality colder, which put a strain on her relationship with Angel. Her new powers and cold personality shook the team, with even Quicksilver commenting how he thought he found it difficult emotionally connecting to people.
During their time away from the team, Psylocke and Archangel encountered Maggott, sensing a dark presence within him, Psylocke mistook him for being evil and attacked him. Maggot instinctively fought back but was defeated by the two. Psylocke feels compelled to teleport Maggott and herself in an unknown location, eager to solve the living enigma that Maggott is. Archangel and Maggott’s techno-organic slugs follow along and they are all drawn in the Antarctica citadel. There, Erik the Red ( Magneto in disguise) kidnaps the team and makes them participate in a mock trial for Gambit, where his participation in the Mutant Massacre is revealed.
When a demon named Kuragari took over the Crimson Dawn, he demanded a debt be paid for the healing liquid they used for Psylocke. He wanted to corrupt Psylocke and make her his queen. However, in order for Psylocke to be freed, Angel gave part of his essence to Kuragari. Once Psylocke was freed from Kuragari, the two of them defeated the demon. After this incident, Angel and Psylocke retired from the X-Men.
The Shadow King
Storm received a message from her adopted mother asking for help. Storm gathered Psylocke, Wolverine, and a few other untrained X-Men. Psylocke teleported them all using her Shadow Teleport ability. When they arrived, Psylocke and Wolverine were immediately engaged in battle with sand-warriors. When they finally located Storm and her mother in the village, the other villagers were kidnapped by Ananasi. Psylocke scanned Storm's mother and found out that their enemy was a powerful telepath whose barriers even Psylocke couldn't get past. Psylocke decided to take the fight to the Astral Plane. There they discovered the villagers standing there as if they were mindless. During a fight with Ananasi, Psylocke accidentally stabbed a mindless villager with the psychic knife. This caused a giant shock-wave that disabled the powers of anyone that was a telepath. Ananasi finally took off his mask and revealed that he was the Shadow King. The Shadow King was able to trick Psylocke into using her psi-wave to remove all mutant telepathy on Earth so he could mind control everyone. They battled each other, and the Shadow King destroyed Psylocke's psychic form which nearly killed her. Psylocke was able to survive with the help of the Crimson Dawn.
She gained a new shadow form with new abilities. Psylocke then helped Storm's mother escape from the prison and together they found Storm. Psylocke turned the two into shadows because the Shadow King could not sense them in that form. Psylocke engaged him in battle again and tried to hold him off; as Psylocke could not hold the shadow covering Storm and her mother and use her abilities to fight the Shadow King at the same time, she tossed them back to reality. Psylocke then submitted to defeat and swore allegiance to the Shadow King. However, he did not believe her and took her to his prison. The Shadow King devised a plan to take over everyone's mind, but was tricked by Psylocke into over using himself. With a weakened Shadow King, Psylocke was able to separate him from his powers. Therefore, she was able to trap him in the psi-plane. However, in order for her to keep him imprisoned she had to keep her telepathic powers focused on trapping him, which is the reason why she temporarily lost the ability to use it.
Return to the X-Men
Later, along with many over women in Wolverine's life, Psylocke was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Viper into attacking Wolverine and Jubilee. Psylocke proved to be one of the greatest threats amongst the women as Wolverine and Jubilee couldn't escape her psychic detecting and martial arts skills, however the women were freed from Vipers influence. Also, when Wolverine was brainwashed by Apocalypse into the Death persona, Psylocke, Archangel and others attempted to help him. To help find where Wolverine was, Betsy forced herself into using Cerebro, even though there was a risk the Shadow King would escape. Whilst using Cerebro the Shadow King began to lure Betsy into freeing him, but before it was too late Warren used their psychic connection to stop her and save her from herself, telling her he'd always be there to save her. After this, Psylocke and Angel then helped the X-Men defeat Apocalypse and his forces.
When Jean tried to help Psylocke deal with the Shadow King, the two ended up switching powers. So Psylocke's telepathy was added to Phoenix's telepathy, and Psylocke gained telekinesis. Psylocke then returned to active duty on the X-Men with Angel, but due to family troubles, he was only a reserve member whilst she remained on the active roster. During her time back on the time she battled such threats as the Goth and the Neo. During a well earned break, the team were attacked by Stryfe an two prime sentinels under his control. Surprisingly, Stryfe was defeated by Betsy, Stryfe swore revenge on her for humiliating him.
One night during dinner with Warren, the pair were attacked by the Twisted Sisters who were hired by an unknown individual to target and kill one of the two. The couple defeated them and assumed it was Warren who was being targeted. However, from a distance, an unknown telepath watched and revealed his intentions were to murder Betsy. The persons identity was never revealed. But he was suspected to be Stryfe. She also participated in the intergalactic, Maximum Security. Almost immediately after his joining the team, there was some romantic tension between Neal Shaara and Betsy. Their attraction developed to such degree that they did not even care to hide their flirtation in front of Warren which resulted in a break-up with Angel.
The Fall and Rise Of Psylocke
Psylocke then joined Storm's X-treme X-Men team to search for Destiny's diaries in Spain and continued her relationship with Neal. Psylocke fought a man named Vargas, but his sword skills were too much for Psylocke. Vargas ended up killing Psylocke. Psylocke's body was then buried at the Braddock family estate. However, her spirit met with Bishop in one of Gateway‘s Aborigine dreamtime sequences, to help him figure out some hints of the future. Right as she prepared to depart to the afterlife, a glowing portal appeared behind her and Betsy’s spirit was sucked in by a skulled figure. Psylocke was then mysteriously restored on the exact spot where she was apparently murdered and her Crimson Dawn tattoo was gone, and so were the powers that it gave her. Psylocke did not regain her telepathy but the telekinesis that she got from Jean became much stronger.
Betsy had no idea how her restoration came to be and, worse, she was taken into custody by the Guardia Civil, who then notified Storm’s team of X-Men, now being referred to as the X.S.E. When they arrived, Betsy angrily lashed out at Bishop for not telling anyone about what he had seen in the dreamtime sequence and naturally blamed him as he was the last person she saw.
After she had calmed down a bit, the X-Men decided to take her home to the Xavier Institute to confirm whether she was indeed who she claimed to be. The team didn’t have the chance to check Betsy’s credentials, though, due to an emergency. While left alone in the Blackbird, Betsy had a vision about her mindscape and how it had been altered. More importantly, her brother, mad and powerful Jamie, appeared in there apparently pulling the strings. When the X.S.E. were captured and brought to the Savage Land, it was up to Psylocke and fledgling new student X-23 to rescue the others. Trying to track down her comrades, Betsy bonded somewhat with the young female clone of Wolverine. Eventually, they found and rescued the others, and during the fights with the Saurid race, who were behind the kidnapping, Betsy quickly regained the X-Men’s trust and acceptance.
She learned that her still rather untried telekinetic powers were more powerful than anticipated and also had the side effect of making her immune to all kinds of telepathy - whether communication or attacks. Even Marvel Girl admitted that the level of her telekinesis was beyond hers. After this Psylocke returned to the X-Mansion and re-joined the X-Men, helping battle Mojo and Spiral and the Shi'ar Death Commandos but continued to see Jamie. During this time, Betsy befriended Rachel Summers.
House of M
During the House of M, Betsy and Rachel proved to be linked and, instead of being changed like everyone else, they found themselves pulled into the so-called White Hot Room, the core of creation. However, not even there were they safe from mad Jamie’s manipulations, for after claiming that he had bound their lives and fates together, he transported Betsy and Rachel back to Earth. They too ended up caught in the Scarlet Witch’s reality warp, living new lives and unaware of their previous existence, until Betsy’s twin brother Brian was haunted by dreams of the end of the universe. He convinced Betsy and the several others to investigate the problem and they stopped said threat to reality in the nick of time. In this reality, Psylocke was Princess Royal Elisabeth Glorianna Braddock, sister to the Monarch of England. She was actually the elder of the twins, and thus the rightful heir to the throne. However, she chose to abdicate in favor of her brother so that she could travel the world with her "lady-in-waiting", Rachel Grey.
Post House Of M, Psylocke retained her powers and remained with the team and accompanied several X-Men (Rachel, Kitty Pryde and Kurt Wagner, all ex-Excalibur members) to visit Brian Braddock and helped him get his new team Excalibur off the ground. Psylocke also helped defeat the Shi'ar Death Commandos after they killed the entire Grey family. She also helped battle them yet again in New York, taking down their War Skrull. During her time on the team she often flirted with members of the team including Beast, Nightcrawler and Cannonball.
First Fallen
It was then revealed that Psylocke had been resurrected by her eldest brother Jamie Braddock. Jamie has the ability to manipulate the quantum strings that comprise reality. Jamie also claimed that he had made Psylocke immune to reality warping. Jamie said that this was all a plan to make Psylocke the ultimate weapon against the "Foursaken" and more importantly, the First Fallen. that having the ability of not being effected by manipulation would ultimately save reality. A Watcher appeared and explained the threat of the First Fallen, saying he was the male equivalent of the Phoenix and could destroy reality. Then, Jamie was grabbed by a mysterious giant hand and Nightcrawler teleported everyone out of the area to chase after Jamie and prevent the interference of the O.N.E. After being teleported, the team fought with the Foursaken and Psylocke and the team were kidnapped by the Foursaken, but they could not detect Psylocke, exactly as Jamie had planned.
Psylocke, the X-Men, and the Foursaken were then transported to another dimension, the First Fallen's realm. In this realm, the team were powerless except for Psylocke, thanks to her new powers, but was also separated from the team. Psylocke then used her powers to reveal the true form of the First Fallen and shatter the illusion of the 'peaceful' dimension. Angered, the First Fallen tried to kill the others, but Jamie teleported them away, saving Psylocke who planned to sacrifice herself to save her team-mates. It is unknown whether Jamie survived.
After Psylocke helped Storm free some people in Africa, she returned to England to talk to her brother, Brian, about Jamie. The Shadow King had returned by then and taken over an alternate reality Professor X. He lured Psylocke to visit him and controlled all the members of New Excalibur - minus Sage - into beating Brian. Psylocke created a telekinetic bubble inside Shadow Xavier's brain to give him a stroke, which freed New Excalibur from his control. Just as Psylocke was about to hit the killing blow with her psychic sword, she disappeared in a flash of light.
Joining the Exiles
Betsy wasn't unhinged from time as the Exiles usually are, but was still recruited to help mend broken realities. When she was brought to the Panoptichron - the Crystal Palace she was greeted by an alternate reality Sabretooth, who she instinctively lashed out at because of her nearly being killed twice by her reality's Sabretooth. Eventually, after a long fight, Psylocke realized that this Sabretooth was not the evil man she knew, but a much nicer counterpart of Sabretooth. She then met Morph and Heather Hudson, and they told her about the other Exiles members in trouble in Earth-1720. Psylocke, Sabretooth and Morph teleported there to look for their teammates. They battled a few Hydra members and eventually caught up with that reality's Mr. Fantastic. Later, they realized that the other Exiles members were brainwashed and forced to join HYDRA.
Psylocke then had to confront Madame Hydra (Invisible Woman in this reality) and her lover, Wolverine. Psylocke had the upper hand on Wolverine until Slaymaster showed up. She became so terrified of him that she forgot about Wolverine, who ended up stabbing her in the back - Slaymaster is a man she had never been able to beat and it was Earth-616 Slaymaster that took out her eyes long ago. Later, the entire reality seemingly exploded before Heather's eyes, but in fact Reed Richards actually saved it. Everyone was able to recuperate fully and finally returned to the Exiles command center. However, the entire place was deserted. They discovered that six months had gone by, and since Heather thought the team was dead, she just left and went home to her own reality.
Psylocke agreed to be a member of the Exiles and decided to work with the computers first in order to get used to her new surroundings. While working at the monitors, Betsy fell asleep. However, she didn't have an ordinary dream. She fell into a little island in space where an old couple were having lunch. They asked her to stay and eat, and while Betsy was thinking the old lady responded to Betsy's question. Shocked that they could read her mind, the couple began talking to her about the universe and how all of time and space were unraveling. The man asked Betsy to save it as she woke up. All of a sudden, a mysterious girl was transported right next to Betsy at the Exiles' Headquarters. The girl turned out to be an alternate reality of Kitty Pryde. Betsy tried to help her but she began freaking out and hurt herself after running into a wall she couldn't phase through. Betsy then took her to the infirmary.
Meanwhile, Doctor Doom of an alternate reality got his hands on the Tallus from Sabretooth. He used it to transport his men to the Exiles' headquarters, where Betsy tried to fend them off. However, they overwhelmed her and electrocuted her unconscious. Luckily for Betsy, Thunderbird, who had been in a coma after a battle with Galactus and kept in stasis in the infirmary, had just awakened, and despite not knowing who Psylocke and Shadowcat were, immediately sided with them and fought off the intruders. After successfully getting rid of Doom's henchmen, the three of them witnessed the annihilation of the reality the other Exiles had been sent to. Psylocke noticed that their teammates had been scattered over various realities, thus complicating the task of retrieving them all.
Thankfully, the Exiles managed to get back together, and Betsy and Thunderbird treated themselves with a visit to the New Excalibur team's victory celebration. Upon opening the door, Brian was shocked to see his sister - whom he believed dead - alive and well. The twins started talking about their latest respective adventures, leading to Brian being slightly annoyed that the Exiles had seemingly taken up what used to be his task - e.g. defending the Multiverse. However, the doorbell rang once more, this time resulting in Brian being gravely injured by Rouge-Mort. Betsy obviously attacked her in retaliation, but her blows seemingly did not affect Rouge-Mort. Both teams - Exiles and New Excalibur - managed to escape, but this was only the beginning of a series of events related in X-Men: Die By The Sword, which led to a few line-up changes for both teams and most importantly the death of Roma.
After these events, Betsy told Brian she would stay with the Exiles, as she considered Professor X already had more X-Men than he could use. Longshot decided to stay back with Dazzler, whereas Sage, now with Roma's memories, joined the Exiles. In the meantime old Exiles members Nocturne and Thunderbird took a sabbatical to recuperate after Nocturne's stroke. Blink joined them leaving Sabretooth as team leader and recently added members Rogue (of Earth-1009) and Mystiq (the male counterpart of Mystique from Earth-797) along with Morph, Psylocke, Shadowcat and Sage as the new team roster. Psylocke still couldn't be detected by the Palace's computer so Sabretooth created an armband for her serving as her personal version of the Tallus. As a result Psylocke would now be able to fully function within the Palace although previously it seemed that she was considered non-existent for The Computer.
The Return of Lady Mandarin and the Slaymaster
Betsy traveled to several realities. Upon arriving on a certain Earth, Psylocke had a mental breakdown due to this world's Psylocke counterpart's psyche being at war with Betsy's own psyche in order to control her body. This reality's Ogun approached Psylocke and offered to train her so she could avenge the death of his apprentice, who was killed by Slaymaster, who was killing different alternate versions of Psylocke due to her defeating him in an earlier mission. Turns out that that reality's version of Psylocke was actually Lady Mandarin trying to take over Betsy's body. During the battle of the psyches, Lady Mandarin begins to start winning over Betsy. This causes Betsy's appearance to start changing into Lady Mandarin's, in-particular, the return of the Crimson Dawn tattoo. Eventually Betsy gets the upper hand and, in tears, kills Lady Mandarin and is 'finally free'. After the fight, Betsy is finally able to face the Slaymaster.
During a mission against the Shi'ar Death Commandos, Psylocke is shot in the back and uses her TK to keep the wound together whilst fighting. Soon the Slaymaster arrives and stabs Betsy in the back. Psylocke fights him hand to hand while trying to concentrate on keeping her wounds together. She eventually defeats him but doesn't kill him, saying she's not a killer. After trying to attack her again, the Slaymaster teleports away. During the mission, Betsy's teammate Cat was killed. Betsy mourns her death but eventually returns to the crystal palace with Mystique, Sabretooth, Gambit, where they meet Sage. Tessa explains that she has merged the essence of her being with that of the palace and that whenever someone tries to communicate with the palace, they'll be talking to her. Betsy was mad at Sage and ran away. Tessa follows her and says that she did what she had to do because the palace had lost its soul and because of that, whole dimensions were ending and the omniverse was dying. Psylocke and Sage had a heart-to-heart and Betsy asks her what if this has no going back to what Sage responds that she simply doesn't care: she says she has a sense of everything and might as well make existence a better place. Later Betsy and Sabretooth express their feelings more intimately.
Later, the Slaymaster continues to kill alternate versions of Psylocke, and each time he does Betsy gets slammed by a resonance wave of energy in the Crystal Palace. She decides it's time to bring this to an end. Betsy asks Sage to run a hologram simulation of Slaymaster so she can train, however this simulation ends up defeating her. Psylocke runs away, but Sage catches up with her and share some words. While both are at it, the Crystal Palace shows them a vision of Slaymaster killing Brian, Betsy's twin brother. Psylocke decides to go back to the 616 timeline to stop him. After spending the whole day in London, Slaymaster finally shows up. They fight, but Slaymaster easily beats Psylocke. When Captain Britain arrives to help her, Betsy says this is her fight and asks her brother to let her finish this by herself. Psylocke severely beats Slaymaster, so he tries to run away, but Betsy breaks his teleporter. She says this is a challenge to the death and all the Psylockes from all the different realities that Slaymaster killed manifest themselves to witness the battle's final end and she finally kills him once and for all. Brian and Betsy talk for a bit and hug each other. In the end, she returns to the Crystal Palace and reunites with Sabretooth, kissing him.
Rejoining the X-Men
When Madelyne Pryor returned calling herself The Red Queen she had Spiral, Lady Deathstrike, and Chimera, all members of her Sisterhood of Mutants, bring the body of Kwannon (which is also Betsy's original body) to their hideout. She revealed that she had found Psylocke's Asian body "dancing between parallel worlds". Through a ritual the Red Queen, using the combined might of the Sisterhood, reanimated the dead body and transferred Betsy's mind back into her original form, while the Asian body of Kwannon simply appeared to die. When the Sisterhood attacked the X-Men in order to gain a lock of Jean Grey's hair that Wolverine had stored, it was Psylocke who did battle with Logan until they managed to escape. When the X-members Dazzler, Storm, Karma, and Emma came to confront the Sisterhood at their base, Psylocke and the Mastermind sisters were left to battle them.
Dazzler tries to reason with Psylocke and bring her back to her senses, but it's hopeless. Dazzler then generates a huge beam of light and ends up blowing off half of Betsy's face. Psylocke manages to break free for a moment and uses her psi-knife on herself. Inside Psylocke's mind, the real Betsy is at war with her evil self, and ultimately kills the evil being inside of her. Dazzler tries to wake up a seemingly dead Psylocke, when Betsy suddenly awakes in the Asian body. Psylocke freed of the Sisterhood's control rejoins the X-Men. Psylocke reveals she has regained her telepathy (while also retaining her telekinesis) and travels back in time with Beast and his X-Club in order to study the birth of mutant kind and find a way to revert M-Day.
During Utopia, Betsy is seen trying to handle the riots in San Francisco, later Cyclops gives Psylocke and the X-Club members a mission to install a number of devices on a huge piece of rock under the sea. When the devices are successfully installed Cyclops gives the order to "rise". When risen the rock is identified to be Asteroid M and will now serve as the X-Men's new base of operations called Utopia. Later when the group arrive on top of Utopia they join the battle against Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers and remaining Dark X-Men. The group take on Dark Beast and Betsy impales him with her psychic katana. After the battle is won she is seen with Emma Frost and Kavita Rao, consulting about Emma's void sliver.
Nation X
After Utopia, Psylocke helps Namor, along with the rest of the X-Men, defeat a monstrous version of his deceased ex-wife Marrina. Betsy amplifies Iceman's powers telepathically to an extremely powerful level. Psylocke also witnesses Deadpool begging to join the X-Men and helps invade the Hidden City of Atlas after the Agents of Atlas steal Cerebra, she is defeated in battle by Namora. After this, Psylocke and Nightcrawler try to rescue Wolverine from the clutches of Dr. Rot. Kurt and Betsy find a giant psychic engine built with human brains. Psylocke tells Nightcrawler not to smash it, as the engine is like a giant psychic bomb, just waiting to go off. Betsy explains that the bomb could turn everyone crazy for a few moments, she then defuses it carefully with her psy-knife. After one of the bombs go off, Kurt and Betsy temporarily go insane but are saved by Wolverine.
After they come to their senses, Nightcrawler finds some of Betsy's hair in his mouth, they promise to never talk about what happened in that thirty seconds again. Psylocke and Nightcrawler are then approached by Pixie's mother, Mrs. Gwynn, asking where her daughter is, they promise to find and rescue her. Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Rockslide, Anole and Blindfold go looking for the missing girls: Pixie, X-23, Mercury and Armor. Whilst looking the group comes into conflict with the Mastermind sisters and Mrs. Gwynn.
Later Psylocke is the only person present when Dr. Takiguchi passes away, she informs the X-Men in tears and attends his funeral. During the funeral Magneto gatecrashes, Cyclops informs Betsy to use her psychic knife on Magneto, if necessary. Suddenly the island is attacked by three Predator X, Psylocke helps defeat one of the creatures. After that Psylocke helps Cyclops and Professor X attempt to get the sliver of the Void out of Emma Frost's head, Betsy's role was to lobotomize Emma or Cyclops if the void took over. After the sliver of the Void is successfully sealed, Beast tells the small group that he's leaving, much to Betsy's shock.
Shortly after this, Cyclops sends Wolverine, Psylocke and Colossus to hit NY to track down where the Predator X's came from and the source of the nanites. Logan follows the remaining Predator X's scent to the sewers of the city, where the X-Men find out that Fantomex already dealt with the monster. The X-Men ask for Fantomex's aid to determine where the Predators came from, but Fantomex is not willing to help. The group track the Predator's point of origin inside a building, where the super-powered beings who sent the Beasts are waiting for them. They then engage in battle. The villains easily overcome the X-Men, as they have data on the X-Men's powers and fighting techniques. Fantomex arrives to help the X-Men, while E.V.A. shuts down the Facility's computer with all the stolen data. Wolverine, Psylocke, Colossus and Fantomex now manage to take on their foes.
On their way back to Utopia, the group receive word of Kitty Pryde returning. They arrive as fast as they can. Psylocke then witnesses Kitty's return to the X-Men. Days pass and after their mission together, Fantomex gives Psylocke flowers, hinting at a new romance between the two.
Kill Matsuo
With the crisis in San Fransisco past, Psylocke turns her attention to personal matters, namely restoring her old body to the sanctity of its grave in Tokyo. Somewhat shaken by this latest (albeit temporary) body-swap and seeking to make sense of her being and her identity, Betsy hoped that by putting her past self to rest, she would be able to move forward with her life. Taking a Blackbird to Tokyo along with Wolverine (who had some business of his own to take care of), Betsy is attacked by Hand ninjas at the graveyard. While she fights them off, she sees, horrified, as they destroy her old body in the name of Matsuo Tsurayaba, and vows revenge against the man who had destroyed the last link to her past. As Betsy went on a rampage through the Tokyo underworld in order to find her tormentor, she quickly discovered that things were not entirely as they seemed. The X-Men's old ally Yukio was intent on keeping her from killing Matsuo, while another assassin, the fiery Jinn, was also hunting him down in retaliation for the murder of his pregnant wife.
Her anger fading, Psylocke defeated the two before tracking Matsu'o down, intent on understanding why he had done these things in an attempt to evade his manipulations. What she saw horrified her; Mat'suo had been reduced to an armless shell of a man by Wolverine, who had continued his tradition of removing one of Matsuo body parts on the anniversary of Mariko Yashida's death until there was little left of the man. Matsuo had engineered these attacks in order to ensure his death at the hands of either Psylocke or Jinn, as he could not longer take his own life, and Mariko's anniversary had come again. Stunned, Psylocke was confronted by Wolverine, who had come once again to take his pound of flesh from the murderer of his love, and Betsy soon found herself fighting against him.
Psylocke realizes Matsuo purposefully provoked her and Jinn hoping that he would no longer need to suffer at the hands of Wolverine. Betsy tries to talk Logan out of it, but it's useless. Wolverine attacks Psylocke, and Betsy uses her psi-knife on Logan expecting that he would come to his senses. It doesn't work. Psylocke learns the hard way that only the animal in him remains.
The brutal battle continues, Wolverine not stopping, Psylocke is unable to focus until Jinn wakes up; he takes on Logan and tells Betsy that he's going home and that she should follow her own advice: to choose to live. Wolverine returns and stabs Jinn, who flies away in pain. Betsy manages to focus and uses her psi-knife on Logan one more time. Psylocke remembers Jinn's words. She comes to the conclusion that this life isn't hers and that she died a long time ago. She's tired of fighting. Psylocke drops her weapons and tells Wolverine that if he wishes to kill her, then be it. After a few moments of silence, Logan tells her to kill Matsuo, but warns her that they will have a talk later about this desire to die that she has developed.
And so he leaves with Yukio to the Blackbird. Psylocke faces Matsu'o once more. He knew it was going to be her to kill him. He's ready. Psylocke uses her telepathy on Matsuo, making him see his body the way it once was, as well as Kwannon to receive him with open arms. Betsy kills him. "For so long, my life has been out of my own control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered. I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul. Myself. But no more. Now I know who I am."
Back in Utopia, Psylocke meets Mercury. Betsy praises her for not wanting to kill Sack earlier, despite everything she's been through. Psylocke tells her to "Hold on to yourself with everything you've got". Mercury asks her if she found what she was looking for in Japan, to what Betsy replies: "It's a start".
Second Coming
Cyclops assembles a main Alpha Roster team to go to where Cable was detected. Psylocke is part of the Alpha Roster along with, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, X-23, Angel and Magik. The team is teleported to Winchester where Cable and Hope where, but the two are already gone, leaving only dead The Right soldiers behind. Cyclops then orders the team to bring back Hope to Utopia. Magik teleports the Alpha Roster right above the Sapien League's vans. The X-Men manage to beat them, X-23 kills one in cold blood to force the other to speak. Nightcrawler is outraged by Laura's killing. Psylocke is upset as she realizes Wolverine, X-23 and Angel are keeping something from the rest of them. Betsy, Kurt and Peter keep asking who are they, but the X-Forcers don't give them an answer. Wolverine then reveals the secret of X-Force to the three, but they have to continue on with their mission.
Eventually the Alpha team find Hope and Cable, and they join them in their fight against the Purifiers. During the fight, Warren kills several soldiers and cuts Stryker in half. Psylocke is shocked by what she sees. Psylocke is then assigned to follow Hope with Colossus, whilst driving to their location, Psylocke senses a missile but is unable to stop it and it hits Wolverine, X-23 and Ariel's car. Later in Nebraska, the Alpha Team finally reaches Cable and Hope, after Rogue and Hope leave, Alpha and Cable stay behind as a distraction to Bastion. While being attacked by armored soldiers and a jet. Psylocke uses her TK, to perform a fastball special with X-23, sending her to the jet so she can take it out. Later, the Alpha Team returns to Utopia. Colossus wants to get Pixie to rescue Illyana, but Betsy tells him to wait and that they'll find her. Betsy notices the look on Emma's and Scott's faces. She just asks them "Who?", but Wolverine already knows the answer: "Elf".
She then attends his funeral. When Bastion is surrounding San Francisco with a giant impenetrable sphere, Psylocke tries to stop it from closing by focusing her Telekinesis but it doesn't stop it and San Francisco is trapped. Psylocke is part of a team of mutants that Cyclops gathers to hit the mainland so as to keep the order and recon. While doing so, they notice a glowing sphere near the Golden Gate bridge. Psylocke realizes this smaller sphere is a portal as she picks up readings through it, not human minds per se. Suddenly, Nimrods sentinels begin to emerge from it with orders to kill them all. Psylocke helps fight the robots, combining her telekinesis with Hellion's in order to rip a Nimrod apart.
She then rushes to Julian's aid with Surge and X-23, after his hands are destroyed. Later, Scott orders Psylocke to get people far away from the sphere. She goes to the streets of San Francisco, using a motorcycle and her telepathy in order to quickly and safely evacuate civilians. Later she helps defeat the invading Nimrods with Iceman and Fantomex. After, she re-joins the fight on the Golden Gate Bridge. After the Nimrods are defeated, she witnesses X-Force's return, Cable's death and Hope turning into the phoenix. After Cable's funeral, Cyclops tells Wolverine that there is no place for X-Force in the future of the X-Men. Logan agrees with him, but as soon as Cyclops leaves, he gathers his new X-Force: Archangel, Psylocke, Fantomex and Deadpool. He says there’s only one rule: No one can know...
Post Second Coming
Psylocke is one of the X-Men that teleport to San Francisco Harbor in order to be celebrated for saving the city from destruction. Cyclops then decides to assemble a team of 'heavy-hitters' to help rebuild San Francisco from the destruction caused by the Nimrods during Second Coming. Cyclops decides to send Magneto, Colossus, Psylocke, Rogue, Omega Sentinel, Danger and Random to San Francisco in order to rebuild and repair the city from the destruction caused by their battle against Bastion. Rogue brings Hellion along, hoping to take him out of himself for a while. Hope also volunteers to go. In San Francisco, the X-Men do their part at the construction site. Psylocke and Hellion are responsible for clearing the ground. Omega Sentinel realizes some of her systems are malfunctioning, which leads her to attack both Hellion and Hope. Cyclops interviews all involved at the scene, Psylocke tells him that her telepathy comes and goes if she's pushing all-out with her telekinesis, which made it hard to focus in on any one point.
After this, Psylocke and old team-mate Dr. Cecilia Reyes journey to Mexico to assist one of the new mutants that emerged due to Hope's return. His name is Gabriel Cohuelo. The boy is in a state of panic and Psylocke notes that his thoughts are moving incredibly fast. He suddenly vanishes, although Psylocke can still sense his presence in the room. She taps into Cecilia Reyes' head and strengthens her powers with her psychic powers to seal off the room to keep him in while Hope saves him.
During Curse of the Mutants, Psylocke is part of a squad of X-Men that teleports into a vampire island to help Storm and Gambit take down a horde of vampires. However this is all that's seen of Psylocke during the event. Psylocke is also one of the mutants called in to help save the New Mutants from project purgatory. She also pays her respects to the Human Torch at his funeral.
Psylocke also teams up with Hercules to easily defeat the Griffin. After the fight, Hercules propositions Betsy, not remembering a past 'encounter' years before, Psylocke proceeds to punch him in the face for being so ignorant. Psylocke is one of the mutants present on Utopia after a mutant virus spreads which removes their powers and slowly kills them. She takes part in the attack against Lobe and the Sublime corporation, even though she was powerless. However they manage to defeat their opponents and obtain their powers again.
X-Force
Warren and Betsy rekindle their past relationship and after becoming a part of Wolverine's X-Force. Psylocke dreams of Warrens Archangel's persona threatening her. Betsy wakes up by Warren's side and explains that if she were to remove "Archangel" permanently, it would fracture Warren's mind. Warren says he needs Betsy to keep Archangel from going too far, so he can use it do to some good in X-Force. Psylocke and Angel then join Wolverine and Fantomex, and they all head to the place Deadpool found the Clan Akkaba. When they enter the Clan's headquarters, Wolverine attacks another giant statue; however he becomes possessed by it. The same happens to Psylocke when she uses her psi-knife on it. Fantomex misdirects the statue's feelings and destroys it, setting Psylocke free. Betsy then frees Wolverine, using her psi-knife. The team finds Deadpool, and Warrens explains that Clan Akkaba has found a way to resurrect Apocalypse and that his horsemen have been awoken.
They need to kill Apocalypse. Somewhere else, Clan Akkaba is raising a young boy, the new Apocalypse. At Cavern X (X-Force's new secret base), Wolverine, Psylocke, Fantomex and Deadpool all train in the new Danger Room in a scenario where Apocalypse controls Archangel and Psylocke has to kill him, which she successfully does. Warren interrupts and asks what's going on. Betsy remains speechless as Wolverine explains that he's having Betsy do it with all the team and that she's got the power to 'flick' the teams switches, and that repeating the scenario should make the actual act easier should it come to it. Warren sarcastically replies that he's glad she passes. Later before the team leave for the moon, Betsy tells Warren they should speak first.
She tells him that her reasoning for joining was not only to help contain Archangel but also that after Nightcrawler's death, she was completely numb, she didn't have anything left to give, she was at a deep hopelessness, an unending avalanche and at the bottom of it, digging forever. She sat for days, searching for the last time she felt human. Only Warren came to mind. She tells him that Apocalypse will not manipulate him again, she's with him to the very end. Once they arrive on the moon, Psylocke senses a Horseman of Apocalypse, saying his mind is full of disgusting anger and that the other Horsemen are surrounding them. X-Force is received by the Final Horsemen. The two teams fiercely fight, EVA is decimated, the team scattered, diseased and terribly injured.
Betsy looks in the minds of the Horsemen, finding out their names, histories and powers. She tells Wolverine that Death's power comes from metal, using his rings to inflict disease on the team. Wolverine then takes on Death, leaving Fantomex and Psylocke to take on the others. Betsy turns off Fantomex's ears, so he can be safe from Famine's bio-sonic consumption. She also disconnects his peripheral and nociceptor nerves in order to turn off his pain. War then knocks out Betsy with a punch to the head. War, then took Psylocke and returned with her to his room. There she heals and when she wakes, War tells her he is in love with her. After Fantomex's misdirection wears off, the rest of the Horsemen retreat to their base and prepare to lift-off. Psylocke, who made it inside, flirts with War, and gets close enough to him to drive her psychic knife into his skull, incapacitating him. The ship is about to take off, and Wolverine, Fantomex, Deadpool and Archangel are left behind.
With the ship about to take off, Apocalypse is playing with figurines, when the door opens and a sword welding Psylocke approaches the frightened Kid Apocalypse. While Fantomex and Wolverine dispose of the Horsemen, Fantomex uses his powers to trick the ship that Betsy's on into believing that it has already teleported. Psylocke makes her way to the inner chambers of the child Apocalypse and finds it harder to accomplish her task than she ever dreamed of. The rest of the team find the two and intended to kill him. Betsy fiercely vows to protect the child, stating she will kill anyone that attempts to harm the boy.
Archangel fiercely argues with her and then goes berserk; which forces Betsy to beat him down, standing over him with her sword ready to strike down, but can't and lowers her sword. The team then comes to an agreement that the child can be saved, until the X-Force members are left shocked looking back at Fantomex who has shot the boy dead with a bullet to the head. Fantomex then closes the child's eyelids and the very stunned team heads back home. After, she attends the team meeting where Deadpool explains his discomfort about the last mission. Seemingly taking Deadpool's side she accuses Wolverine of trying to convince himself that what they did was right.
But later she tries to comfort him saying that it's been a strain on all of them and no one blames him. But he shrugs her off, stating, 'does I look worried?' After this, Betsy engages in a conversation with her brother, telling him that she aided in an assassination of a child, he tells her that he can never absolve her of what she did, but he will always love her, however, it's only a danger room hologram. Warren finds her and tells her that Fantomex is in trouble,she shrugs him off saying that he can take care of himself. But the team later arrive to help him and complete their mission.
Return of the Reavers and the Shadow King
Deadpool does a recon on the Outback town, where he learns from Gateway that the Reavers and Lady Deathstrike are back and planning an attack on Utopia. X-Force decides to learn the details of their plot and then kill all of them. Psylocke is especially happy as she will finally make the Reavers pay for what they did to her and the X-Men years ago. The Reavers are blackmailing Gateway to open a portal to Utopia, otherwise they'll kill his family/tribe. X-Force then confronts the Reavers in Australia. While Logan and Deathstrike fight, one of the Reavers blows up in front of Fantomex and Deadpool. Psylocke and Archangel are left against the rest of them. Some of the Reavers are seen using Gateway's portal to Utopia, and Psylocke goes after them alone. Pixie was on security duty and spotted intruders on radar on Utopia. Cyclops and Magneto find out they're Reavers, but by the time they find them they're all dead. Psylocke had used her telepathy and stealth to get to the Reavers before the X-Men do and kill them. She leaves their corpses and leaves Utopia unnoticed. Later, Wolverine tells Psylocke she doesn't look so happy about the revenge she just had.
After this, Betsy senses weird psychic emanations coming from a military base and sends Deadpool to investigate. Whilst he's there, Betsy and Warren continue having another psychic therapy session, where Betsy ends up trapping the "Archangel" persona in one of Warren's first moments of rage. X-Force then decides to head to the military base because they have lost contact with Deadpool. Psylocke tells the others there is a powerful telepath working in that base, and asks them to guard her while she investigates; she then finds The Shadow King on the astral plane. They begin to fight, with Betsy donning her Lady Mandarin armor in astral form. The Shadow King finds a crack in Betsy's psy shields and starts filling her head with images of her brothers telling her how shocked they are that she's a killer and that their father would be disappointed however she manages to escape. While all of that was happening in the Astral Plane, the Shadow King had taken control over the team.
Fantomex was left alone to protect Betsy's body by misdirecting them. The mind-controlled Archangel tries to launch the missiles at Utopia. Psylocke tries to stop him, but she gets locked out of the missiles launch room, where only Warren and one other mind-controlled employee were. The Shadow King frees the Archangel persona which takes full control of Warren and cuts the Shadow King in half, to Betsy's surprise Archangel then casts her out of Warren's mind, telling her she won't remember him being freed. Warren then kills the employee who was about to launch the missiles. Unknown to Betsy and the team, the employee was already free of the control, and Warren had a choice of whether to kill him or not.
Dark Angel Saga
Unaware of Archangel taking full control of Warren, Betsy approached Warren, asking why he was avoiding her and lying all the time, telling him they were due another psychic session. Warren shrugged Betsy off, claiming to have control over Archangel all by himself. Concerned, Psylocke went to Wolverine, telling him that there was a problem with Warren. Later one, Wolverine then finds Warren attempting to kill a man who knows X-Force's secret. They battle and Warren is able to temporarily hold Archangel back, when Psylocke uses her psychic knife to knock Warren out. She then wiped the memories of the man who knew about X-Force. Unwilling to kill Warren, the team needed to find an expert who could help, leading them to break Dark Beast out of prison. Dark Beast tells the team that to stop Warren from becoming Apocalypse, they need to travel to the Age of Apocalypse and obtain the life seed.
The team travel to the Age of the Apocalypse where that realities team of X-Men engages them in battle, thinking them to be allies of McCoy. Psylocke stops Wolverine from killing Sabretooth, informing him that this man is very different to the man they know. However, AOA Sunfire destroys the seed of life and Dark Beast leaves the team stranded in the reality without any means of getting home. Sabretooth stops the team from fighting, informing them that he and Psylocke have history together. Psylocke calls Creed a presumptuous ass and that he has no idea what she's been through since they last met. On the way back to the AOA X-Men's home, Psylocke thanks Fantomex for coming to help Warren, but Fantomex merely states that he isn't doing it for Warren. Back in HQ, the team find out that there is only one man who can send them home, Gateway. But he is being held in the Akkaba prison, The Sky.
After the meeting, Fantomex tries to speak to Psylocke, but she brushes him off. Fantomex grabs her arm and doesn't feel like being avoided or barked at anymore, accusing Betsy of being rude. Still holding a grudge against Fantomex because of the the child Apocalypse's murder, Psylocke feels she is within. However, Fantomex claims he prevented the child from turning into Apocalypse, something which has happened to Warren, who was under Betsy's watch, implying Betsy was responsible for what's happening, saying it's her mess they're cleaning up and that she doesn't love Warren, she loves being needed. Exasperated, Psylocke demanded that they're not through, to Fantomex who walked away from Betsy, saying he has no idea what she and Warren have been through. In a fit of rage, Betsy punches Fantomex, demanding that he looks at her when she's talking to him.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
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A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock
Publisher: Marvel
First Appearance:
As Betsy Braddock:
Captain Britain (vol. 1) #8 (December 1976)
As Captain Britain:
Captain Britain (vol. 2) #2 (January 1986)
As the Psylocke:
New Mutants Annual #2 (October 1986)
Created by: Chris Claremont (writer)
Herb Trimpe (artist)
Psylocke has been seen in the Labor Day festivities, rooftop chatting with Phoenix.
Here's a nice iteration of the fourth-generation Firebird in convertible form. I believe this is a 1994 model.
Pontiac's 2 + 2 sports coupe helped the Indian Division maintain its "excitement" image, but whil the bigger, more powerful engines were reserved for the Formula and Trans Am editions, the convertible, with its standard 3.4-liter V-6, wasn't exactly a boring ol' fleet car either.
Sadly, the decline in interest in sports coupes led to the discontinuation of the Firebird and its Chevrolet Camaro cousin after the 2002 model year. By the time the Camaro came back in 2010, Pontiac itself was being discontinued.
Taken with my flip phone.
Date: March 2016
Medium: Digital Photomontage
Locations: Tokyo, Japan and Carmel, CA.
Dimension: 32" x 64"
© 2016 Tony DeVarco and Mayako Nakamura
In collaboration with the artist Mayako Nakamura www.flickr.com/photos/ma85/
Second Iteration of my cockpit for the Transcontinental Race. Now with computer bridge at the extension tips and smartphone in weatherproof case added.
I wrote some sentences and show some more detail photos on my blog.
--
Die zweite Iteration meines Cockpits für das Transcontinental Race. Nun zusätzlich mit Verbindungsbrücke an der Spitze zwischen den Griffstücken und Smartphone in Wetterschutzhülle.
Ich habe ein paar Sätze dazu geschrieben und zeige ein paar mehr Detailfotos auf meinem Blog: torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/tcr-cockpit-v0-2/
Splash (Iteration I)
2017
20 x 26.75 inches (508 x 680 millimeters)
Archival inkjet print on paper
© 2017 Tony DeVarco and Mayako Nakamura
Splash (Iteration II)
2017
20 x 26.75 inches (508 x 680 millimeters)
Acrylic, charcoal, pastel, pencil on archival digital print on paper
© 2017 Tony DeVarco and Mayako Nakamura
Part of the new series Bonnie DeVarco is calling "Figure | Ground" in collaboration with the Japanese Artist Mayako Nakamura.
Mayako Nakamura's Flickr site: www.flickr.com/photos/ma85/
The Duck Pond Fractal - 'Quacktal'
-(0.065+0.02i)z² +(0.12-0.17i)/z² -(2+1.36i)/z³ +0.96+0.08i, origin at center
generally – fractals of type az² + b/z², |a|<1.0 often create bubble -like patterns.
( pay attention to iteration -style tags: --> )
This is the third iteration of my Landshark frame. These came about because my friend Pete asked for a squad that was like "Fuzzy Pink Bunny Slippers". I came up with a squad for this game but Pete said he was "Landsharks 4 Life" so I began working on modding the existing Landsharks squad to something different.
Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack Stats: 2Rh+d8 (flamethrowers) 2B (shield generators) 1Gd8 (no ranged weapons) 2W.
The second iteration of my work in progress, mass-production open top hopper car using Collectible Minifig Bases.
Incorporating some ideas from around the 'net, I am really liking the changes.
--The overall length has been increased, so it is now true to scale to a 34' hopper.
--The sidewalls have been thinned by one plate and tiles added, which better creates the illusion of ribs.
--The change to the sidewalls doesn't affect the car's overall stability and actually makes it a cheaper build (for me since I have CMF bases and 1x8 tiles out the wazoo).
--And before anyone says anything - YES, I'm using buffers. In fact these trucks and buffers were stolen from another MOC (I don't have spare wheels), and the final copies of my hoppers will use the new enclosed magnet type buffer couplers. It's just too expensive to get loose magnet couplers anymore, especially since I still have to buy all the bases and wheels for these hoppers. I'll save the loose magnet couplers for my steam engines.
ReGenerations Iteration II
In collaboration with the work of Tony Devarco www.flickr.com/photos/tonydevarco/
CoLab with Mayako Nakamura
www.flickr.com/photos/tonydevarco/sets/72157649519692395/...
ReGenerations
This is the third iteration of my Landshark frame. These came about because my friend Pete asked for a squad that was like "Fuzzy Pink Bunny Slippers". I came up with a squad for this game but Pete said he was "Landsharks 4 Life" so I began working on modding the existing Landsharks squad to something different.
Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack Stats: 2Rd (gun pod) 1B (shield generator) 1G (hover engine) 1Y(sensor pod) 2W+SSR.
Another iteration of the household mobility geography for Sydney. All moves made from one location to another within Sydney. The colour scheme is Magenta for smallest volume through white and to green. A locality of moves is presented, coupled with an inflow and outflow of households to locations around the edges of the city. Firstly those moving into the urban area, then replaced with new households moving out to more suburban fringe areas can be seen.
Talisman Sabre 2023
Exercise Talisman Sabre 2023 (TS23) will run from 22 July to 4 August 2023 and will be the 10th and largest iteration of the exercise. It will consist of field training exercises incorporating force preparation activities, amphibious landings, ground force manoeuvres, and air combat and maritime operations.
Forces will be moving into Australian training areas from mid-July 2023.
Participants
More than 30,000 military personnel from 13 nations will directly participate in TS23, with others attending the exercise as observers.
Fiji, France, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany will attend as participants. The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will also attend as observers to the exercise.
The third iteration of the original Leica M4, the M4-P, is the successor to the M4-2 or the rangefinder that saved Leitz's rangefinder line of cameras. Produced in Midland, Ontario, by Ernst Leitz Canada and released in 1980. The M4-P offers up auto-adjusting frame lines for a set group of focal lengths and is often called the inexpensive M-Series Rangefinder.
The total review drops in September 2023!
Nikon D750 - AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.4D
Editor: Adobe Lightroom CC
Meiji Shrine (明治神宮 Meiji Jingū?), located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.[1] When Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shōken in 1914, the Japanese people wished to pay their respects to the two influential Japanese figures. It was for this reason that Meiji Shrine was constructed and their souls enshrined on November 1, 1920.[2]
After the emperor's death in 1912, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration. An iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken had been known to visit was chosen as the building's location. Construction began in 1915, and the shrine was built in the traditional Nagarezukuri style and is made up primarily of Japanese cypress and copper. It was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926.[3]
The original building was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of World War II. The present iteration of the shrine was funded through a public fund raising effort and completed in October, 1958.[4]
Meiji Shrine was brought into the flow of current events with the 2009 visit of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After arriving in Tokyo on her first foreign trip representing the newly elected President Barack Obama, she made her way to this shrine in advance of meetings with Japan's leaders to show her "respect toward history and the culture of Japan." [5]
Meiji Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of 700,000 square-meters (about 175 acres). This area is covered by an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established. The forest is visited by many people both as a spiritual home of the people and as a recreation and relaxation area in the center of Tokyo.[2] The shrine itself is comprised of two major areas:
[edit]Naien
The Naien is the inner precinct, which is centered on the shrine buildings and includes a treasure museum that houses articles of the Emperor and Empress. The treasure museum is built in the Azekurazukuri style.
[edit]Gaien
The Gaien is the outer precinct, which includes the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery that houses a collection of 80 large murals illustrative of the events in the lives of the Emperor and his consort. It also includes a variety of sports facilities, including the National Stadium, and is seen as the center of Japanese sports. It also includes the Meiji Memorial Hall, which was originally used for governmental meetings, including discussions surrounding the drafting of the Meiji Constitution in the late 19th century. Today it is used for Shinto weddings.
how's the view from down there?
actually not too bad, considering you just dropped something on my head and I'm lying on the ground.
yeah. my gravity acceleration sensor. a sacrifice for science.
easy for you to say.
true.
Two Changes:
replaced wheels (they didn't stay on well) with rudimentary legs.
switched eyes for 1x1 round plate.
Previous Iteration:
Prior to this, all the efforts by our team of two (me and my granddaughter) to build a 'snow house' haven't been quite successful. First iteration was never finished because some other kids (it's hard to imagine adults being involved in such an act) wrecked the unfinished project. Then, we attempted to salvage the material, the densely packed snow in the ruins, which I cut into a bunch of building blocks. The igloo that resulted wasn't finished either for some different reason.
However, the future of this quinzee-type dwelling looks more promising. We'll be gradually putting more material outside, and carving out more spacious cave in the inside. Fun job!
A well-handled 1:4 foam model of my chair, option 06... Made on our cnc foam wire-cutter.... It's amazing how much sculptural form you can get from just two projected drawings.
Not a well known fact today, but early iterations of what we now call 'tractors' were powered by steam engines. Not only that, they weren't called 'tractors' but 'traction engines', kind of like a 'stem engine' but for providing tractive ground locomotion.
It is easy to see how they then became known as 'tractors'.
In the Steampunk universe, the primary energy system winds back 150 years to the steam boiler. If we were then to trace this through to the present (mostly), we should end up with something a bit like this:
The 'Royal Express Heavy Steam Traction Engine'. Kind of the steam-powered version of today 400 hp tractors.
Much of the other required innovations are still present: big broad tyres, multiple lights, lifting and drive fixtures front and rearm, glassy cabin for good visibility, mirrors and warning lights. All presented in the ornate Steampunk style.
Key changes are the steam boiler and condenser in place of a petrol or diesel internal combustion engine, and the use of, and storage systems within the tractor for coal or other suitable heat generation. Actually, many stationary power systems today rely on steam, electricity generation supplied by coal-powered stations powers most of Australia's energy transmission (electricity) needs, though in other countries the use of nuclear energy still uses steam generation to run turbines. But I digress. I think much of the fun of steampunk is living within a universe being polluted by steam-powered machines with minimal particulate cleaning.
This Lego miniland-scale Steampunk 'Royal Express - Heavy Steam Traction Engine' has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 86th Build Challenge, - 'Steampunk Motorworks', - a challenge to create land vehicles in Steampunk style and form.
Meiji Shrine (明治神宮 Meiji Jingū?), located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.[1] When Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shōken in 1914, the Japanese people wished to pay their respects to the two influential Japanese figures. It was for this reason that Meiji Shrine was constructed and their souls enshrined on November 1, 1920.[2]
After the emperor's death in 1912, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration. An iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken had been known to visit was chosen as the building's location. Construction began in 1915, and the shrine was built in the traditional Nagarezukuri style and is made up primarily of Japanese cypress and copper. It was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926.[3]
The original building was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of World War II. The present iteration of the shrine was funded through a public fund raising effort and completed in October, 1958.[4]
Meiji Shrine was brought into the flow of current events with the 2009 visit of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After arriving in Tokyo on her first foreign trip representing the newly elected President Barack Obama, she made her way to this shrine in advance of meetings with Japan's leaders to show her "respect toward history and the culture of Japan." [5]
Meiji Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of 700,000 square-meters (about 175 acres). This area is covered by an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established. The forest is visited by many people both as a spiritual home of the people and as a recreation and relaxation area in the center of Tokyo.[2] The shrine itself is comprised of two major areas:
[edit]Naien
The Naien is the inner precinct, which is centered on the shrine buildings and includes a treasure museum that houses articles of the Emperor and Empress. The treasure museum is built in the Azekurazukuri style.
[edit]Gaien
The Gaien is the outer precinct, which includes the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery that houses a collection of 80 large murals illustrative of the events in the lives of the Emperor and his consort. It also includes a variety of sports facilities, including the National Stadium, and is seen as the center of Japanese sports. It also includes the Meiji Memorial Hall, which was originally used for governmental meetings, including discussions surrounding the drafting of the Meiji Constitution in the late 19th century. Today it is used for Shinto weddings.
2012..
In technology, 2012 gave us more iPhones and iPads. We saw more-of-the-same computers. We saw dozens of iterative Android Phones and Tablets, so many that they are like fish in a barrel, clammering over each other for momentary superiority. Really strong products drowning in a sea of their own making. We saw Microsoft, struggling to re-invent itself through bold, but probably - too late - to dent the universe - product releases and marketing millions. We saw Apple, shifting under new leadership trying to maintain its stride but largely failing to dazzle and inspire.
In photography, we saw some new gear. Much of them obvious iterations on existing strong products. The D700 v 5dMk2 debate turned to a D800 v Canon 5D Mk3 debate. At least Lytro tried something new. We saw social media clammering to channel the massive flood of photography brought about largely by explosions of phone/cameras. We saw some of the same people at the top of the social media/photography pyramid continue to inspire and train and of course, sell their warez along the way. I saw a half-dozen around me, new-to-photography and trully talented try to break out into the industry with the same frustrating setbacks we all experience at first.
As a nation, we saw the continuance of the polarized politics that prove our form of Government no longer works. Our country is still dedbating the same issues they were 20, 30 years ago. Abortion, gun control & equal rights for citizens. We the taxpayers pay them to flip back and fourth on these topics every four years in probably the greatest con-game ever devised. We heard about the dangers of fiscal cliff's and then rode right over it. We heard about a pending apocalypse and skipped right over that. We watched a monster commit unthinkable atrocities to children and our typical national response to limit the rights of citizens in response. We watched one of Washington's most powerful lobbies respond to the event with a poorly timed, weak and tired argument instead of contributing to a national discussion on the viability of Assault Weapons. After all Mortal Kombat is to blame. (throws freeze ray, then teleports to the next paragraph)
As a family, my wife and I watched my children grow a little older and develop little quirks and nuances that will one day form their adult personalities. Ever-pressed by the notion that these little people in my house will all-to-soon be big people moving away to their own lives, I tried my best to balance work & life. In that balancing act, something always gets dropped but from the smiles of my kids and the conitnued paycheck, I guess I got the balance right.
As a career, I came to some powerful realizations concerning others' motives and planted the seeds for future endeavours. I can't control my title, I can't control the markets but I can always make plans and work towards the goals. In the end, I'm sure it will all work out well.
As for what 2013 will hold? I'm sure that next December the Earth will still be spinning. We'll all be a little older, we'll have crappier music to listen to and we'll see more of the same. A government that disappoints at least half of the population (the left or the right half, does it matter?). We will see companies do what companies do, maximize profits and we'll see employees do what employees do -- gripe about their bosses. We'll see death and life, we'll be touched by extraordinary loss and inspired by moments of magic. That's life. and it continues in a new arbitrary unit of measurement today, that we call, the new year..
I hope yours is fantastic.
Clients: Derwent London plc
White Collar Factory at Old Street Yard is the built iteration of an eight-year research project led by AHMM with Derwent London. It comprises a complex of six buildings including offices, studios, incubator space, restaurants and apartments set around a new piece of public realm, with the sixteen-storey White Collar Factory tower at its heart. This major new office building features flexible floor plates, operable windows allowing for extensive natural ventilation, and generous volumes with active exposed concrete soffits and core. The mini-tower represents a new type of development that takes its cue from the multi-level factory typology. Together, the buildings create a new and more permeable piece of city that references the alleys and passageways of the historic urban grain.
The Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset. Since opening in 1864, it has been a toll bridge, the income from which provides funds for its maintenance. The bridge is built to a design by William Henry Barlow and John Hawkshaw, based on an earlier design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It is a Grade I listed building and forms part of the B3129 road.
The idea of building a bridge across the Avon Gorge originated in 1753. Original plans were for a stone bridge and later iterations were for a wrought iron structure. In 1831, an attempt to build Brunel's design was halted by the Bristol riots, and the revised version of his designs was built after his death and completed in 1864. Although similar in size, the bridge towers are not identical in design, the Clifton tower having side cut-outs, the Leigh tower more pointed arches atop a 110-foot (34 m) red sandstone-clad abutment. Roller-mounted "saddles" at the top of each tower allow movement of the three independent wrought iron chains on each side when loads pass over the bridge. The bridge deck is suspended by 162 vertical wrought-iron rods in 81 matching pairs.
The Clifton Bridge Company initially managed the bridge under licence from a charitable trust. The trust subsequently purchased the company shares, completing this in 1949 and took over the running of the bridge using the income from tolls to pay for maintenance. The bridge is a distinctive landmark, used as a symbol of Bristol on postcards, promotional materials, and informational web sites. It has been used as a backdrop to several films and television advertising and programmes. It has also been the venue for significant cultural events such as the first modern bungee jump in 1979, the last Concorde flight in 2003 and a handover of the Olympic Torch relay in 2012.
It is unknown when the first bridge was constructed across the Avon in Bristol, but the first stone bridge, Bristol Bridge, was built in the 13th century. It had houses with shopfronts built on it to pay for its maintenance. A 17th-century illustration shows that these bridge houses were five storeys high, including the attic rooms, and that they overhung the river much as Tudor houses would overhang the street. In the 1760s a bill to replace the bridge was carried through parliament by the Bristol MP Sir Jarrit Smyth. By the early 18th century, increase in traffic and the encroachment of shops on the roadway made the bridge fatally dangerous for many pedestrians. A new bridge, designed by James Bridges and finished by Thomas Paty was built in 1769 and 1776. Resentment at the tolls exacted to cross the new bridge occasioned the Bristol Bridge Riot of 1793. Other crossings were considered, but were restricted by Admiralty rules that stipulated that any bridge had to be at least 100 feet (30 m) above the water to allow the passage of tall-masted warships to Bristol Harbour. To achieve this, any bridge constructed between Bristol Bridge and Avon Gorge, from Hotwells to Ashton Gate, would require massive embankments and viaducts. The alternative was to build across the narrowest point of the Avon Gorge, well above the height required for shipping.
In 1753 Bristolian merchant William Vick had left a bequest in his will of £1,000 (equivalent to £160,000 in 2021), invested with instructions that when the interest had accumulated to £10,000 (£1,620,000), it should be used for the purpose of building a stone bridge between Clifton Down (which was in Gloucestershire, outside the City of Bristol, until the 1830s) and Leigh Woods in Somerset. Although there was little development in the area before the late 18th century, as Bristol became more prosperous, Clifton became fashionable and more wealthy merchants moved to the area.[9] In 1793 William Bridges published plans for a stone arch with abutments containing factories, which would pay for the upkeep of the bridge. The French Revolutionary Wars broke out soon after the design was published, affecting trade and commerce, so the plans were shelved. In 1811 Sarah Guppy patented a design for a suspension bridge across the gorge but this was never realised and was not submitted to the later competition.
By 1829, Vick's bequest had reached £8,000, but it was estimated that a stone bridge would cost over ten times that. A competition was held to find a design for the bridge with a prize of 100 guineas. Entries were received from 22 designers, including Samuel Brown, James Meadows Rendel, William Tierney Clark and William Hazledine. Several were for stone bridges and had estimated costs of between £30,000 and £93,000. Brunel submitted four entries. The judging committee rejected 17 of the 22 plans submitted, on the grounds of appearance or cost. They then called in Scottish civil engineer Thomas Telford to make a final selection from the five remaining entries. Telford rejected all the remaining designs, arguing that 577 feet (176 m) was the maximum possible span. Telford was then asked to produce a design himself, which he did, proposing a 110-foot-wide (34 m) suspension bridge, supported on tall Gothic towers, costing £52,000.
The Bridge Committee which had been set up to look at the designs sponsored the Clifton Bridge Bill which became an Act when the Bill received the Royal Assent on 29 May 1830. The Act appointed three Trustees to carry through the purposes of the Act, with powers to appoint more up to a total not exceeding thirty five or less than twenty. The three Trustees named in the Act were the Master of the Society of Merchant Venturers, the Senior Sheriff of the City and County of Bristol and Thomas Daniel. The Act allowed a wrought iron suspension bridge to be built instead of stone, and tolls levied to recoup the cost.
The three Trustees named in the Act met on 17 June 1830 and appointed further Trustees, bringing the total up to 23. There were additions to this number in the weeks which followed, so by early July 1830 there were 31 in all, although not everyone had been formally sworn in by that date. Others included Thomas Durbin Brice, Master of the Society of Merchant Venturers, George Daubeny, John Cave, John Scandrett Harford, George Hilhouse, Henry Bush, and Richard Guppy.
The first full meeting of the Trustees was held on 22 June 1830 in the Merchants Hall in Bristol. Alderman Thomas Daniel was in the chair. 86 people had committed £17,350, an average of just over £200 each.
These funds raised during the first few months of 1830 were not sufficient for the construction. Despite this Brunel produced a new proposal costing £10,000 less than Telford's design and gained support for it in the local press. James Meadows Rendel, William Armstrong and William Hill also submitted new, cheaper proposals, complaining that the committee had not set a budget. In 1831 a second competition was held, with new judges including Davies Gilbert and John Seaward examining the engineering qualities of the proposals. Thirteen designs were submitted; Telford's was the only one in which the chains achieved the weight per square inch required by the judges but it was rejected as being too expensive. The winner was declared to be a design by Smith and Hawkes of the Eagle Foundry in Birmingham. Brunel had a personal meeting with Gilbert and persuaded him to change the decision. The committee then declared Brunel the winner and he was awarded a contract as project engineer. The winning design was for a suspension bridge with fashionably Egyptian-influenced towers. In 2010, newly discovered letters and documents revealed that, in producing his design, Brunel hadn't taken advice from his father, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, who had offered to help. The elder Brunel had recommended including a central support for the bridge, as he did not believe a single-span bridge of such length could be constructed. His son chose to ignore his advice.
A ceremony to mark the start of the construction works was held Monday 20 June 1831. Work started on blasting of St. Vincent's Rock, on the Clifton side of the gorge. Four months later work was halted by the Bristol riots, which took place after the House of Lords rejected the second Reform Bill, which aimed to eliminate some of the rotten boroughs and give parliamentary seats to Britain's fast growing industrial towns such as Bristol. Five to six hundred young men were involved in the riots and Brunel was sworn in as a special constable. The riots severely dented commercial confidence in Bristol; subscriptions to the bridge company ceased, and along with it, further construction of the bridge.
After the passing of the Act for the Great Western Railway reestablished financial confidence, work resumed in 1836, but subsequent investment proved woefully inadequate. Despite the main contractors going bankrupt in 1837, the towers were built in unfinished stone. To enable the transfer of materials, a 1,000-foot-long (300 m) iron bar, which was 1.25 inches (32 mm) in diameter, had been drawn by capstan across the gorge. A contract was placed with Dowlais Ironworks to supply 600 tons of bar iron, which was to be transported to the Copperhouse foundry to be forged into bar chains. By 1843 funds were exhausted and another £30,000 was needed. As the work had exceeded the time limit stated in the Act, all work stopped. Brunel suggested building a deep water pier at Portbury, which would make the bridge an essential road link, but funds for this scheme were not forthcoming. In 1851, the ironwork was sold and used to build the Brunel-designed Royal Albert Bridge on the railway between Plymouth and Saltash. The towers remained and during the 1850s intrepid passengers could cross the gorge in a basket slung from the iron bar.
Brunel died in 1859, without seeing the completion of the bridge. His colleagues in the Institution of Civil Engineers felt that completion of the Bridge would be a fitting memorial, and started to raise new funds. In 1860, Brunel's Hungerford suspension bridge over the Thames in London was demolished to make way for a new railway bridge to Charing Cross railway station. Its chains were purchased for use at Clifton.
A revised design was made by William Henry Barlow and Sir John Hawkshaw, with a wider, higher and sturdier deck than Brunel intended, with triple chains instead of double.
It has been argued that the size and technology of these revisions was so great that the credit for its design should go to Barlow and Hawkshaw. The towers remained in rough stone, rather than being finished in the Egyptian style. Work on the bridge was restarted in 1862. Initially a temporary bridge was created by pulling ropes across the gorge and making a footway of wire ropes with wood planks held together with iron hoops. This was used by the workers to move a "traveller", consisting of a light frame on wheels, to transport each link individually, which would eventually make up the chains supporting the bridge. The chains are anchored in tapering tunnels, 25 metres (82 ft) long, on either side of the bridge and plugs of Staffordshire blue brick infilled to prevent the chains being pulled out of the narrower tunnel mouth. After completion of the chains, vertical suspension rods were hung from the links in the chains and large girders hung from these. The girders on either side then support the deck, which is 3 feet (0.91 m) higher at the Clifton end than at Leigh Woods so that it gives the impression of being horizontal. The strength of the structure was tested by spreading 500 tons of stone over the bridge. This caused it to sag by 7 inches (180 mm), but within the expected tolerances. During this time a tunnel was driven through the rocks on the Leigh Woods side beneath the bridge to carry the Bristol Port Railway to Avonmouth. The construction work was completed in 1864–111 years after a bridge at the site was first planned.
The Avon Gorge (grid reference ST560743) is a 1.5-mile (2.5-kilometre) long gorge on the River Avon in Bristol, England. The gorge runs south to north through a limestone ridge 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Bristol city centre, and about 3 miles (5 km) from the mouth of the river at Avonmouth. The gorge forms the boundary between the unitary authorities of North Somerset and Bristol, with the boundary running along the south bank. As Bristol was an important port, the gorge formed a defensive gateway to the city.
On the east of the gorge is the Bristol suburb of Clifton, and The Downs, a large public park. To the west of the gorge is Leigh Woods, the name of both a village and the National Trust forest it is situated in. There are three Iron Age hill forts overlooking the gorge, as well as an observatory. The Clifton Suspension Bridge, an icon of Bristol, crosses the gorge.
The River Avon is a river in the southwest of England. To distinguish it from a number of other rivers of the same name, it is often called the Bristol Avon. The name 'Avon' is loaned from an ancestor of the Welsh word afon, meaning 'river'.
The Avon rises just north of the village of Acton Turville in South Gloucestershire, before flowing through Wiltshire into Somerset. In its lower reaches from Bath (where it meets the Kennet and Avon Canal) to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth near Bristol, the river is navigable and is known as the Avon Navigation.
The Avon is the 19th longest river in the United Kingdom, at 83 miles (134 km), although there are just 19 miles (31 km) as the crow flies between the source and its mouth in the Severn Estuary. The catchment area is 2,220 square kilometres (860 sq mi).
Clifton is both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The eastern part of the suburb lies within the ward of Clifton Down.
Notable places in Clifton include Clifton Suspension Bridge, Clifton Cathedral, Clifton College, The Clifton Club, Clifton High School, Bristol, Goldney Hall and Clifton Down.
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. The county is the West of England combined authority area, this includes the Greater Bristol area (eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom) and nearby places such as Bath.
Iron Age hillforts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon. Around the beginning of the 11th century, the settlement was known as Brycgstow (Old English: 'the place at the bridge'). Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county corporate. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities, after London, in tax receipts.
A major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetian, became the first European to land on mainland North America. In 1499, William Weston, a Bristol merchant, was the first Englishman to lead an exploration to North America. At the height of the Bristol slave trade, from 1700 to 1807, more than 2,000 slave ships carried an estimated 500,000 people from Africa to slavery in the Americas. The Port of Bristol has since moved from Bristol Harbour in the city centre to the Severn Estuary at Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Dock.
The city's modern economy is built on the creative media, electronics and aerospace industries; the city-centre docks have been redeveloped as cultural and heritage centres. There are a variety of artistic and sporting organisations and venues including the Royal West of England Academy, the Arnolfini, Spike Island, Ashton Gate and the Memorial Stadium. The city has two universities; the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol). It is connected to the world by Bristol Airport; to the rest of the Great Britain via Bristol Temple Meads and Bristol Parkway mainline rail stations; by road by both the south-west to West Midlands M5 and the London to South Wales M4 (which connect to the city centre by the Portway and M32).
It was named the best city in Britain in which to live in 2014 and 2017; it won the European Green Capital Award in 2015. The city had the largest circulating community currency in the UK, the Bristol Pound, which was pegged to the pound sterling before it ceased operation in August 2020.
Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.
Somerset is a predominantly rural county, especially to the south and west, with an area of 4,171 km2 (1,610 sq mi) and a population of 965,424. After Bath (101,557), the largest settlements are Weston-super-Mare (82,418), Taunton (60,479), and Yeovil (49,698). Wells (12,000) is a city, the second-smallest by population in England. For local government purposes the county comprises three unitary authority areas: Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset, and Somerset.
The centre of Somerset is dominated by the Levels, a coastal plain and wetland, and the north-east and west of the county are hilly. The north-east contains part of the Cotswolds AONB, all of the Mendip Hills AONB, and a small part of Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs AONB; the west contains the Quantock Hills AONB, a majority of Exmoor National Park, and part of the Blackdown Hills AONB. The main rivers in the county are the Avon, which flows through Bath and then Bristol, and the Axe, Brue, and Parrett, which drain the Levels.
There is evidence of Paleolithic human occupation in Somerset, and the area was subsequently settled by the Celts, Romans and Anglo-Saxons. The county played a significant part in Alfred the Great's rise to power, and later the English Civil War and the Monmouth Rebellion. In the later medieval period its wealth allowed its monasteries and parish churches to be rebuilt in grand style; Glastonbury Abbey was particularly important, and claimed to house the tomb of King Arthur and Guinevere. The city of Bath is famous for its Georgian architecture, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The county is also the location of Glastonbury Festival, one of the UK's major music festivals.
Somerset is a historic county in the south west of England. There is evidence of human occupation since prehistoric times with hand axes and flint points from the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras, and a range of burial mounds, hill forts and other artefacts dating from the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. The oldest dated human road work in Great Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BCE.
Following the Roman Empire's invasion of southern Britain, the mining of lead and silver in the Mendip Hills provided a basis for local industry and commerce. Bath became the site of a major Roman fort and city, the remains of which can still be seen. During the Early Medieval period Somerset was the scene of battles between the Anglo-Saxons and first the Britons and later the Danes. In this period it was ruled first by various kings of Wessex, and later by kings of England. Following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon monarchy by the Normans in 1066, castles were built in Somerset.
Expansion of the population and settlements in the county continued during the Tudor and more recent periods. Agriculture and coal mining expanded until the 18th century, although other industries declined during the industrial revolution. In modern times the population has grown, particularly in the seaside towns, notably Weston-super-Mare. Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries are based in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the acreage of apple orchards is less than it once was.
The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods saw hunter-gatherers move into the region of Somerset. There is evidence from flint artefacts in a quarry at Westbury that an ancestor of modern man, possibly Homo heidelbergensis, was present in the area from around 500,000 years ago. There is still some doubt about whether the artefacts are of human origin but they have been dated within Oxygen Isotope Stage 13 (524,000 – 478,000 BP). Other experts suggest that "many of the bone-rich Middle Pleistocene deposits belong to a single but climatically variable interglacial that succeeded the Cromerian, perhaps about 500,000 years ago. Detailed analysis of the origin and modification of the flint artefacts leads to the conclusion that the assemblage was probably a product of geomorphological processes rather than human work, but a single cut-marked bone suggests a human presence." Animal bones and artefacts unearthed in the 1980s at Westbury-sub-Mendip, in Somerset, have shown evidence of early human activity approximately 700,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens sapiens, or modern man, came to Somerset during the Early Upper Palaeolithic. There is evidence of occupation of four Mendip caves 35,000 to 30,000 years ago. During the Last Glacial Maximum, about 25,000 to 15,000 years ago, it is probable that Somerset was deserted as the area experienced tundra conditions. Evidence was found in Gough's Cave of deposits of human bone dating from around 12,500 years ago. The bones were defleshed and probably ritually buried though perhaps related to cannibalism being practised in the area at the time or making skull cups or storage containers. Somerset was one of the first areas of future England settled following the end of Younger Dryas phase of the last ice age c. 8000 BC. Cheddar Man is the name given to the remains of a human male found in Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge. He is Britain's oldest complete human skeleton. The remains date from about 7150 BC, and it appears that he died a violent death. Somerset is thought to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from about 6000 BCE; Mesolithic artefacts have been found in more than 70 locations. Mendip caves were used as burial places, with between 50 and 100 skeletons being found in Aveline's Hole. In the Neolithic era, from about 3500 BCE, there is evidence of farming.
At the end of the last ice age the Bristol Channel was dry land, but later the sea level rose, particularly between 1220 and 900 BC and between 800 and 470 BCE, resulting in major coastal changes. The Somerset Levels became flooded, but the dry points such as Glastonbury and Brent Knoll have a long history of settlement, and are known to have been occupied by Mesolithic hunters. The county has prehistoric burial mounds (such as Stoney Littleton Long Barrow), stone rows (such as the circles at Stanton Drew and Priddy) and settlement sites. Evidence of Mesolithic occupation has come both from the upland areas, such as in Mendip caves, and from the low land areas such as the Somerset Levels. Dry points in the latter such as Glastonbury Tor and Brent Knoll, have a long history of settlement with wooden trackways between them. There were also "lake villages" in the marsh such as those at Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare. One of the oldest dated human road work in Britain is the Sweet Track, constructed across the Somerset Levels with wooden planks in the 39th century BC, partially on the route of the even earlier Post Track.
There is evidence of Exmoor's human occupation from Mesolithic times onwards. In the Neolithic period people started to manage animals and grow crops on farms cleared from the woodland, rather than act purely as hunter gatherers. It is also likely that extraction and smelting of mineral ores to make tools, weapons, containers and ornaments in bronze and then iron started in the late Neolithic and into the Bronze and Iron Ages.
The caves of the Mendip Hills were settled during the Neolithic period and contain extensive archaeological sites such as those at Cheddar Gorge. There are numerous Iron Age Hill Forts, which were later reused in the Dark Ages, such as Cadbury Castle, Worlebury Camp and Ham Hill. The age of the henge monument at Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but is believed to be from the Neolithic period. There is evidence of mining on the Mendip Hills back into the late Bronze Age when there were technological changes in metal working indicated by the use of lead. There are numerous "hill forts", such as Small Down Knoll, Solsbury Hill, Dolebury Warren and Burledge Hill, which seem to have had domestic purposes, not just a defensive role. They generally seem to have been occupied intermittently from the Bronze Age onward, some, such as Cadbury Camp at South Cadbury, being refurbished during different eras. Battlegore Burial Chamber is a Bronze Age burial chamber at Williton which is composed of three round barrows and possibly a long, chambered barrow.
The Iron Age tribes of later Somerset were the Dobunni in north Somerset, Durotriges in south Somerset and Dumnonii in west Somerset. The first and second produced coins, the finds of which allows their tribal areas to be suggested, but the latter did not. All three had a Celtic culture and language. However, Ptolemy stated that Bath was in the territory of the Belgae, but this may be a mistake. The Celtic gods were worshipped at the temple of Sulis at Bath and possibly the temple on Brean Down. Iron Age sites on the Quantock Hills, include major hill forts at Dowsborough and Ruborough, as well as smaller earthwork enclosures, such as Trendle Ring, Elworthy Barrows and Plainsfield Camp.
Somerset was part of the Roman Empire from 47 AD to about 409 AD. However, the end was not abrupt and elements of Romanitas lingered on for perhaps a century.
Somerset was invaded from the south-east by the Second Legion Augusta, under the future emperor Vespasian. The hillforts of the Durotriges at Ham Hill and Cadbury Castle were captured. Ham Hill probably had a temporary Roman occupation. The massacre at Cadbury Castle seems to have been associated with the later Boudiccan Revolt of 60–61 AD. The county remained part of the Roman Empire until around 409 AD.
The Roman invasion, and possibly the preceding period of involvement in the internal affairs of the south of England, was inspired in part by the potential of the Mendip Hills. A great deal of the attraction of the lead mines may have been the potential for the extraction of silver.
Forts were set up at Bath and Ilchester. The lead and silver mines at Charterhouse in the Mendip Hills were run by the military. The Romans established a defensive boundary along the new military road known the Fosse Way (from the Latin fossa meaning ditch). The Fosse Way ran through Bath, Shepton Mallet, Ilchester and south-west towards Axminster. The road from Dorchester ran through Yeovil to meet the Fosse Way at Ilchester. Small towns and trading ports were set up, such as Camerton and Combwich. The larger towns decayed in the latter part of the period, though the smaller ones appear to have decayed less. In the latter part of the period, Ilchester seems to have been a "civitas" capital and Bath may also have been one. Particularly to the east of the River Parrett, villas were constructed. However, only a few Roman sites have been found to the west of the river. The villas have produced important mosaics and artifacts. Cemeteries have been found outside the Roman towns of Somerset and by Roman temples such as that at Lamyatt. Romano-British farming settlements, such as those at Catsgore and Sigwells, have been found in Somerset. There was salt production on the Somerset Levels near Highbridge and quarrying took place near Bath, where the Roman Baths gave their name to Bath.
Excavations carried out before the flooding of Chew Valley Lake also uncovered Roman remains, indicating agricultural and industrial activity from the second half of the 1st century until the 3rd century AD. The finds included a moderately large villa at Chew Park, where wooden writing tablets (the first in the UK) with ink writing were found. There is also evidence from the Pagans Hill Roman Temple at Chew Stoke. In October 2001 the West Bagborough Hoard of 4th century Roman silver was discovered in West Bagborough. The 681 coins included two denarii from the early 2nd century and 8 Miliarense and 671 Siliqua all dating to the period AD 337 – 367. The majority were struck in the reigns of emperors Constantius II and Julian and derive from a range of mints including Arles and Lyons in France, Trier in Germany and Rome.
In April 2010, the Frome Hoard, one of the largest-ever hoards of Roman coins discovered in Britain, was found by a metal detectorist. The hoard of 52,500 coins dated from the 3rd century AD and was found buried in a field near Frome, in a jar 14 inches (36 cm) below the surface. The coins were excavated by archaeologists from the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
This is the period from about 409 AD to the start of Saxon political control, which was mainly in the late 7th century, though they are said to have captured the Bath area in 577 AD. Initially the Britons of Somerset seem to have continued much as under the Romans but without the imperial taxation and markets. There was then a period of civil war in Britain though it is not known how this affected Somerset. The Western Wandsdyke may have been constructed in this period but archaeological data shows that it was probably built during the 5th or 6th century. This area became the border between the Romano-British Celts and the West Saxons following the Battle of Deorham in 577 AD. The ditch is on the north side, so presumably it was used by the Celts as a defence against Saxons encroaching from the upper Thames Valley. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Saxon Cenwalh achieved a breakthrough against the British Celtic tribes, with victories at Bradford-on-Avon (in the Avon Gap in the Wansdyke) in 652 AD, and further south at the Battle of Peonnum (at Penselwood) in 658 AD, followed by an advance west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett.
The Saxon advance from the east seems to have been halted by battles between the British and Saxons, for example; at the siege of Badon Mons Badonicus (which may have been in the Bath region e.g. at Solsbury Hill), or Bathampton Down. During the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries, Somerset was probably partly in the Kingdom of Dumnonia, partly in the land of the Durotriges and partly in that of the Dobunni. The boundaries between these is largely unknown, but may have been similar to those in the Iron Age. Various "tyrants" seem to have controlled territories from reoccupied hill forts. There is evidence of an elite at hill forts such as Cadbury Castle and Cadbury Camp; for example, there is imported pottery. Cemeteries are an important source of evidence for the period and large ones have been found in Somerset, such as that at Cannington, which was used from the Roman to the Saxon period. The towns of Somerset seem to have been little used during that period but there continued to be farming on the villa sites and at the Romano-British villages.
There may have been effects from plague and volcanic eruption during this period as well as marine transgression into the Levels.
The language spoken during this period is thought to be Southwestern Brythonic, but only one or two inscribed stones survive in Somerset from this period. However, a couple of curse tablets found in the baths at Bath may be in this language. Some place names in Somerset seem to be Celtic in origin and may be from this period or earlier, e.g. Tarnock. Some river names, such as Parrett, may be Celtic or pre-Celtic. The religion of the people of Somerset in this period is thought to be Christian but it was isolated from Rome until after the Council of Hertford in 673 AD when Aldhelm was asked to write a letter to Geraint of Dumnonia and his bishops. Some church sites in Somerset are thought to date from this period, e.g., Llantokay Street.
Most of what is known of the history of this period comes from Gildas's On the Ruin of Britain, which is thought to have been written in Durotrigan territory, possibly at Glastonbury.
The earliest fortification of Taunton started for King Ine of Wessex and Æthelburg, in or about the year 710 AD. However, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle this was destroyed 12 years later.
This is the period from the late 7th century (for most of Somerset) to 1066, though for part of the 10th and 11th centuries England was under Danish control. Somerset, like Dorset to the south, held the West Saxon advance from Wiltshire/Hampshire back for over a century, remaining a frontier between the Saxons and the Romano-British Celts.
The Saxons conquered Bath following the Battle of Deorham in 577, and the border was probably established along the line of the Wansdyke to the north of the Mendip Hills. Then Cenwalh of Wessex broke through at Bradford-on-Avon in 652, and the Battle of Peonnum possibly at Penselwood in 658, advancing west through the Polden Hills to the River Parrett. In 661 the Saxons may have advanced into what is now Devon as a result of a battle fought at Postesburh, possibly Posbury near Crediton.
Then in the period 681–85 Centwine of Wessex conquered King Cadwaladr and "advanced as far as the sea", but it is not clear where this was. It is assumed that the Saxons occupied the rest of Somerset about this time. The Saxon rule was consolidated under King Ine, who established a fort at Taunton, demolished by his wife in 722. It is sometimes said that he built palaces at Somerton and South Petherton but this does not seem to be the case. He fought against Geraint in 710. In 705 the diocese of Sherborne was formed, taking in Wessex west of Selwood. Saxon kings granted land in Somerset by charter from the 7th century onward. The way and extent to which the Britons survived under the Saxons is a debatable matter. However, King Ine's laws make provision for Britons. Somerset originally formed part of Wessex and latter became a separate "shire". Somersetshire seems to have been formed within Wessex during the 8th century though it is not recorded as a name until later. Mints were set up at times in various places in Somerset in the Saxon period, e.g., Watchet.
Somerset played an important part in defeating the spread of the Danes in the 9th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records that in 845 Alderman Eanwulf, with the men of Somersetshire (Sumorsǣte), and Bishop Ealstan, and Alderman Osric, with the men of Dorsetshire, conquered the Danish army at the mouth of the Parret. This was the first known use of the name Somersæte. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reports that in January 878 the King Alfred the Great fled into the marshes of Somerset from the Viking's invasion and made a fort at Athelney. From the fort Alfred was able to organize a resistance using the local militias from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.
Viking raids took place for instance in 987 and 997 at Watchet and the Battle of Cynwit. King Alfred was driven to seek refuge from the Danes at Athelney before defeating them at the Battle of Ethandun in 878, usually considered to be near Edington, Wiltshire, but possibly the village of Edington in Somerset. Alfred established a series of forts and lookout posts linked by a military road, or Herepath, so his army could cover Viking movements at sea. The Herepath has a characteristic form which is familiar on the Quantocks: a regulation 20 m wide track between avenues of trees growing from hedge laying embankments. The Herepath ran from the ford on the River Parrett at Combwich, past Cannington hill fort to Over Stowey, where it climbed the Quantocks along the line of the current Stowey road, to Crowcombe Park Gate. Then it went south along the ridge, to Triscombe Stone. One branch may have led past Lydeard Hill and Buncombe Hill, back to Alfred's base at Athelney. The main branch descended the hills at Triscombe, then along the avenue to Red Post Cross, and west to the Brendon Hills and Exmoor. A peace treaty with the Danes was signed at Wedmore and the Danish king Guthrum the Old was baptised at Aller. Burhs (fortified places) had been set up by 919, such as Lyng. The Alfred Jewel, an object about 2.5 inch long, made of filigree gold, cloisonné-enamelled and with a rock crystal covering, was found in 1693 at Petherton Park, North Petherton. Believed to have been owned by Alfred the Great it is thought to have been the handle for a pointer that would have fit into the hole at its base and been used while reading a book.
Monasteries and minster churches were set up all over Somerset, with daughter churches from the minsters in manors. There was a royal palace at Cheddar, which was used at times in the 10th century to host the Witenagemot, and there is likely to have been a "central place" at Somerton, Bath, Glastonbury and Frome since the kings visited them. The towns of Somerset seem to have been in occupation in this period though evidence for this is limited because of subsequent buildings on top of remains from this period. Agriculture flourished in this period, with a re-organisation into centralised villages in the latter part in the east of the county.
In the period before the Norman Conquest, Somerset came under the control of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, and his family. There seems to have been some Danish settlement at Thurloxton and Spaxton, judging from the place-names. After the Norman Conquest, the county was divided into 700 fiefs, and large areas were owned by the crown, with fortifications such as Dunster Castle used for control and defence.
This period of Somerset's history is well documented, for example in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and Asser's Life of Alfred.
This is the period from 1066 to around 1500. Following the defeat of the Saxons by the Normans in 1066, various castles were set up in Somerset by the new lords such as that at Dunster, and the manors was awarded to followers of William the Conqueror such as William de Moyon and Walter of Douai. Somerset does not seem to have played much part in the civil war in King Stephen's time, but Somerset lords were main players in the murder of Thomas Becket.
A good picture of the county in 1086 is given by Domesday Book, though there is some difficulty in identifying the various places since the hundreds are not specified. The total population given for the county, which had different boundaries to those today, was 13,399, however this only included the heads of households, so with their families this may have been around 67,000. Farming seems to have prospered for the next three centuries but was severely hit by the Black Death which in 1348 arrived in Dorset and quickly spread through Somerset, causing widespread mortality, perhaps as much as 50% in places. It re-occurred, resulting in a change in feudal practices since the manpower was no longer so available.
Reclamation of land from marsh in the Somerset Levels increased, largely under monastic influence. Crafts and industries also flourished, the Somerset woollen industry being one of the largest in England at this time. "New towns" were founded in this period in Somerset, i.e. Newport, but were not successful. Coal mining on the Mendips was an important source of wealth while quarrying also took place, an example is near Bath.
The towns grew, again often by monastic instigation, during this period and fairs were started. The church was very powerful at this period, particularly Glastonbury Abbey. After their church burnt down, the monks there "discovered" the tomb of "King Arthur" and were able rebuild their church. There were over 20 monasteries in Somerset at this period including the priory at Hinton Charterhouse which was founded in 1232 by Ela, Countess of Salisbury who also founded Lacock Abbey. Many parish churches were re-built in this period. Between 1107 and 1129 William Giffard the Chancellor of King Henry I, converted the bishop's hall in Taunton into Taunton Castle. Bridgwater Castle was built in 1202 by William Brewer. It passed to the king in 1233 and in 1245 repairs were ordered to its motte and towers. During the 11th century Second Barons' War against Henry III, Bridgwater was held by the barons against the King. In the English Civil War the town and the castle were held by the Royalists under Colonel Sir Francis Wyndham. Eventually, with many buildings destroyed in the town, the castle and its valuable contents were surrendered to the Parliamentarians. The castle itself was deliberately destroyed in 1645.
During the Middle Ages sheep farming for the wool trade came to dominate the economy of Exmoor. The wool was spun into thread on isolated farms and collected by merchants to be woven, fulled, dyed and finished in thriving towns such as Dunster. The land started to be enclosed and from the 17th century onwards larger estates developed, leading to establishment of areas of large regular shaped fields. During this period a Royal Forest and hunting ground was established, administered by the Warden. The Royal Forest was sold off in 1818.
In the medieval period the River Parrett was used to transport Hamstone from the quarry at Ham Hill, Bridgwater was part of the Port of Bristol until the Port of Bridgwater was created in 1348, covering 80 miles (130 km) of the Somerset coast line, from the Devon border to the mouth of the River Axe. Historically, the main port on the river was at Bridgwater; the river being bridged at this point, with the first bridge being constructed in 1200 AD. Quays were built in 1424; with another quay, the Langport slip, being built in 1488 upstream of the Town Bridge. A Customs House was sited at Bridgwater, on West Quay; and a dry dock, launching slips and a boat yard on East Quay. The river was navigable, with care, to Bridgwater Town Bridge by 400 to 500 tonnes (440 to 550 tons) vessels. By trans-shipping into barges at the Town Bridge the Parrett was navigable as far as Langport and (via the River Yeo) to Ilchester.
This is the period from around 1500 to 1800. In the 1530s, the monasteries were dissolved and their lands bought from the king by various important families in Somerset. By 1539, Glastonbury Abbey was the only monastery left, its abbot Richard Whiting was then arrested and executed on the orders of Thomas Cromwell. From the Tudor to the Georgian times, farming specialised and techniques improved, leading to increases in population, although no new towns seem to have been founded. Large country houses such as at Hinton St George and Montacute House were built at this time.
The Bristol Channel floods of 1607 are believed to have affected large parts of the Somerset Levels with flooding up to 8 feet (2 m) above sea level. In 1625, a House of Correction was established in Shepton Mallet and, today, HMP Shepton Mallet is England's oldest prison still in use.
During the English Civil War, Somerset was largely Parliamentarian, although Dunster was a Royalist stronghold. The county was the site of important battles between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, notably the Battle of Lansdowne in 1643 and the Battle of Langport in 1645. The castle changed hands several times during 1642–45 along with the town. During the Siege of Taunton it was defended by Robert Blake, from July 1644 to July 1645. This war resulted in castles being destroyed to prevent their re-use.
In 1685, the Duke of Monmouth led the Monmouth Rebellion in which Somerset people fought against James II. The rebels landed at Lyme Regis and travelled north hoping to capture Bristol and Bath, puritan soldiers damaged the west front of Wells Cathedral, tore lead from the roof to make bullets, broke the windows, smashed the organ and the furnishings, and for a time stabled their horses in the nave. They were defeated in the Battle of Sedgemoor at Westonzoyland, the last battle fought on English soil. The Bloody Assizes which followed saw the losers being sentenced to death or transportation.
The Society of Friends established itself in Street in the mid-17th century, and among the close-knit group of Quaker families were the Clarks: Cyrus started a business in sheepskin rugs, later joined by his brother James, who introduced the production of woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes. C&J Clark still has its headquarters in Street, but shoes are no longer manufactured there. Instead, in 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom.
The 18th century was largely one of peace and declining industrial prosperity in Somerset. The Industrial Revolution in the Midlands and Northern England spelt the end for most of Somerset's cottage industries. However, farming continued to flourish, with the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society being founded in 1777 to improve methods. John Billingsley conducted a survey of the county's agriculture in 1795 but found that methods could still be improved.
Arthur Wellesley took his title, Duke of Wellington from the town of Wellington. He is commemorated on a nearby hill with a large, spotlit obelisk, known as the Wellington Monument.
In north Somerset, mining in the Somerset coalfield was an important industry, and in an effort to reduce the cost of transporting the coal the Somerset Coal Canal was built; part of it was later converted into a railway. Other canals included the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, Westport Canal, Grand Western Canal, Glastonbury Canal and Chard Canal.[9] The Dorset and Somerset Canal was proposed, but very little of it was ever constructed.
The 19th century saw improvements to Somerset's roads with the introduction of turnpikes and the building of canals and railways. The usefulness of the canals was short-lived, though they have now been restored for recreation. The railways were nationalised after the Second World War, but continued until 1965, when smaller lines were scrapped; two were transferred back to private ownership as "heritage" lines.
In 1889, Somerset County Council was created, replacing the administrative functions of the Quarter Sessions.
The population of Somerset has continued to grow since 1800, when it was 274,000, particularly in the seaside towns such as Weston-super-Mare. Some population decline occurred earlier in the period in the villages, but this has now been reversed, and by 1951 the population of Somerset was 551,000.
Chard claims to be the birthplace of powered flight, as it was here in 1848 that the Victorian aeronautical pioneer John Stringfellow first demonstrated that engine-powered flight was possible through his work on the Aerial Steam Carriage. North Petherton was the first town in England (and one of the few ever) to be lit by acetylene gas lighting, supplied by the North Petherton Rosco Acetylene Company. Street lights were provided in 1906. Acetylene was replaced in 1931 by coal gas produced in Bridgwater, as well as by the provision of an electricity supply.
Around the 1860s, at the height of the iron and steel era, a pier and a deep-water dock were built, at Portishead, by the Bristol & Portishead Pier and Railway to accommodate the large ships that had difficulty in reaching Bristol Harbour. The Portishead power stations were coal-fed power stations built next to the dock. Construction work started on Portishead "A" power station in 1926. It began generating electricity in 1929 for the Bristol Corporation's Electricity Department. In 1951, Albright and Wilson built a chemical works on the opposite side of the dock from the power stations. The chemical works produced white phosphorus from phosphate rock imported, through the docks, into the UK. The onset of new generating capacity at Pembroke (oil-fired) and Didcot (coal-fired) in the mid-1970s brought about the closure of the older, less efficient "A" Station. The newer of the two power stations ("B" Station) was converted to burn oil when the Somerset coalfields closed. Industrial activities ceased in the dock with the closure of the power stations. The Port of Bristol Authority finally closed the dock in 1992, and it has now been developed into a marina and residential area.
During the First World War hundreds of Somerset soldiers were killed, and war memorials were put up in most of the towns and villages; only a few villages escaped casualties. There were also casualties – though much fewer – during the Second World War, who were added to the memorials. The county was a base for troops preparing for the 1944 D-Day landings, and some Somerset hospitals still date partly from that time. The Royal Ordnance Factory ROF Bridgwater was constructed early in World War II for the Ministry of Supply. It was designed as an Explosive ROF, to produce RDX, which was then a new experimental high-explosive. It obtained water supplies from two sources via the Somerset Levels: the artificial Huntspill River which was dug during the construction of the factory and also from the King's Sedgemoor Drain, which was widened at the same time. The Taunton Stop Line was set up to resist a potential German invasion, and the remains of its pill boxes can still be seen, as well as others along the coast. A decoy town was constructed on Black Down, intended to represent the blazing lights of a town which had neglected to follow the black-out regulations. Sites in the county housed Prisoner of War camps including: Norton Fitzwarren, Barwick, Brockley, Goathurst and Wells. Various airfields were built or converted from civilian use including: RNAS Charlton Horethorne (HMS Heron II), RAF Weston-super-Mare, RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron), Yeovil/Westland Airport, RAF Weston Zoyland, RAF Merryfield, RAF Culmhead and RAF Charmy Down.
Exmoor was one of the first British National Parks, designated in 1954, under the 1949 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act. and is named after its main river. It was expanded in 1991 and in 1993 Exmoor was designated as an Environmentally Sensitive Area. The Quantock Hills were designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1956, the first such designation in England under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. The Mendip Hills followed with AONB designation in 1972.
Hinkley Point A nuclear power station was a Magnox power station constructed between 1957 and 1962 and operating until ceasing generation in 2000. Hinkley Point B is an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR) which was designed to generate 1250 MW of electricity (MWe). Construction of Hinkley Point B started in 1967. In September 2008 it was announced, by Électricité de France (EDF), that a third, twin-unit European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) power station known as Hinkley Point C is planned, to replace Hinkley Point B which was due for closure in 2016, but has now has its life extended until 2022.
Somerset today has only two small cities, Bath and Wells, and only small towns in comparison with other areas of England. Tourism is a major source of employment along the coast, and in Bath and Cheddar for example. Other attractions include Exmoor, West Somerset Railway, Haynes Motor Museum and the Fleet Air Arm Museum as well as the churches and the various National Trust and English Heritage properties in Somerset.
Agriculture continues to be a major business, if no longer a major employer because of mechanisation. Light industries take place in towns such as Bridgwater and Yeovil. The towns of Taunton and Shepton Mallet manufacture cider, although the number of apple orchards has reduced.
In the late 19th century the boundaries of Somerset were slightly altered, but the main change came in 1974 when the county of Avon was set up. The northern part of Somerset was removed from the administrative control of Somerset County Council. On abolition of the county of Avon in 1996, these areas became separate administrative authorities, "North Somerset" and "Bath and North East Somerset". The Department for Communities and Local Government was considering a proposal by Somerset County Council to change Somerset's administrative structure by abolishing the five districts to create a Somerset unitary authority. The changes were planned to be implemented no later than 1 April 2009. However, support for the county council's bid was not guaranteed and opposition among the district council and local population was strong; 82% of people responding to a referendum organised by the five district councils rejected the proposals. It was confirmed in July 2007 that the government had rejected the proposals for unitary authorities in Somerset, and that the present two-tier arrangements of Somerset County Council and the district councils will remain.
Meiji Shrine (明治神宮 Meiji Jingū?), located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.[1] When Emperor Meiji died in 1912 and Empress Shōken in 1914, the Japanese people wished to pay their respects to the two influential Japanese figures. It was for this reason that Meiji Shrine was constructed and their souls enshrined on November 1, 1920.[2]
After the emperor's death in 1912, the Japanese Diet passed a resolution to commemorate his role in the Meiji Restoration. An iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken had been known to visit was chosen as the building's location. Construction began in 1915, and the shrine was built in the traditional Nagarezukuri style and is made up primarily of Japanese cypress and copper. It was formally dedicated in 1920, completed in 1921, and its grounds officially finished by 1926.[3]
The original building was destroyed during the Tokyo air raids of World War II. The present iteration of the shrine was funded through a public fund raising effort and completed in October, 1958.[4]
Meiji Shrine was brought into the flow of current events with the 2009 visit of United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After arriving in Tokyo on her first foreign trip representing the newly elected President Barack Obama, she made her way to this shrine in advance of meetings with Japan's leaders to show her "respect toward history and the culture of Japan." [5]
Meiji Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of 700,000 square-meters (about 175 acres). This area is covered by an evergreen forest that consists of 120,000 trees of 365 different species, which were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established. The forest is visited by many people both as a spiritual home of the people and as a recreation and relaxation area in the center of Tokyo.[2] The shrine itself is comprised of two major areas:
[edit]Naien
The Naien is the inner precinct, which is centered on the shrine buildings and includes a treasure museum that houses articles of the Emperor and Empress. The treasure museum is built in the Azekurazukuri style.
[edit]Gaien
The Gaien is the outer precinct, which includes the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery that houses a collection of 80 large murals illustrative of the events in the lives of the Emperor and his consort. It also includes a variety of sports facilities, including the National Stadium, and is seen as the center of Japanese sports. It also includes the Meiji Memorial Hall, which was originally used for governmental meetings, including discussions surrounding the drafting of the Meiji Constitution in the late 19th century. Today it is used for Shinto weddings.
The third iteration of the original Leica M4, the M4-P, is the successor to the M4-2 or the rangefinder that saved Leitz's rangefinder line of cameras. Produced in Midland, Ontario, by Ernst Leitz Canada and released in 1980. The M4-P offers up auto-adjusting frame lines for a set group of focal lengths and is often called the inexpensive M-Series Rangefinder.
The total review drops in September 2023!
Leitz Leica M4-P - 7Artisans DJ-Optical 35/2 - Kodak Tri-X 400 @ ASA-320
Ilford Ilfotec HC (1+47) 8:30 @ 20C (Constant Rotation)
Meter: ReveniLabs Incident Meter
Scanner: Epson V700 + Silverfast 9 SE
Editor: Adobe Photoshop CC
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Menger torus, computed from the deformations and copies of eight Menger cylinders.
The latest iteration of a 'GWR Icon', in the form of HST power car 43005 in GWR green waits on the blocks at London Paddington on 20th February 2017, whilst Isambard Kingdom Brunel sits proudly in front.
The general public should be banned from station platforms as they tend to get in the way :-)
The latest iteration of the Sydney light rail network, including the Dulwich Hill extension that opened in March 2014 (the line previously ended at Lilyfield). Map circa November 2015.
Sydney has done a nice job creating a unified map style. Compare this light rail and the corresponding Sydney Trains map.
Also check out this and this (with the dismantled Monorail) older versions of the Sydney light rail map from February 2014.
The Audi A8 is a four-door, full-size, luxury sedan manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Audi since 1994. Succeeding the Audi V8, and now in its third generation, the A8 has been offered with both front- or permanent all-wheel drive - and in short- and long-wheelbase variants. The first two generations employed the Volkswagen Group D platform, with the current generation deriving from the MLB platform. After the original model's 1994 release, Audi released the second generation in late 2002, and the third and current iteration in late 2009.
Notable for being the first mass-market car with an aluminium chassis, all A8 models have used this construction method co-developed with Alcoa and marketed as the Audi Space Frame.
A mechanically-upgraded, high-performance version of the A8 debuted in 1996 as the Audi S8. Produced exclusively at Audi's Neckarsulm plant, unlike the donor A8 model, the S8 has been available only in short-wheelbase form and is fitted standard with Audi's quattro all-wheel drive system.
FIRST GENERATION (D2, Typ 4D; 1994–2002)
DEVELOPMENT
In 1982, Ferdinand Piëch signed an agreement with Aluminum Company of America. The objective was to design and develop a car that would be substantially lighter than any other vehicles in its class (to compensate for the fact that standard all-wheel drive was around 100 kg heavier than competitors' rear-wheel drive). In the late 1980s, it was decided that the target vehicle would be a successor to the V8 (Typ 4C) flagship introduced in 1988. By 1991, a final design by Chris Bird and Dirk van Braeckel was chosen and frozen for series production in 1992. In September 1993, the Audi Space Frame (ASF) Concept was unveiled at the 1993 Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) as a D2 Typ 4D prototype in polished aluminum. Pilot production began in December 1993 and development ended in early 1994, at a total cost of $700 million (£418.1 million).
INTRODUCTION
The Audi A8 (Typ 4D) was presented in February 1994 and debuted at the 1994 Geneva Auto Show in March, with full-scale factory production commencing in June 1994, although it was not until October 1996, for the 1997 model year that it became available in North America. Unlike its predecessor, the Audi V8 model, which was built on an existing steel platform, the A8 debuted on the then-new Volkswagen Group D2 platform, an all aluminium monocoque, marketed as the "Audi Space Frame" (ASF), which helped to reduce weight and preserve structural rigidity. The saloon/sedan was offered in both the A8 (standard wheelbase), and the A8 L extended or long-wheelbase (LWB) version. The A8 L adds 127 mm of rear legroom. Updates to the car in 1997 included the addition of six interior airbags.
In 1997, Audi introduced the first series production ESP Electronic stability control for all-wheel drive vehicles (Audi A8 and Audi A6)– the world's first production cars with both front and rear side airbags.
For 1997, the new A8 was available with either front-wheel drive (FWD), or the Torsen-based quattro permanent four-wheel drive. The FWD models are powered by a 2.8-litre V6 engine, producing 142 kilowatts (193 PS; 190 bhp), and a 3.7-litre V8 engine producing 171.5 kilowatts (233 PS; 230 bhp), while the quattro received a 4.2-litre V8 producing 220 kilowatts (299 PS; 295 bhp).
The A8 is available with standard luxury amenities, including dual-zone climate control, wood and leather interior trim, 14-way power and heated seats, and an enhanced Bose audio system.
In 1999, Audi's flagship received side curtain airbags, new colours, and restructuring of option packages. The North American "warm weather package" added a solar sunroof which allows the interior ventilation fans to run, keeping the interior cool while the car is parked with the engine turned off. Changes to all models included a larger passenger-side mirror, and a first aid kit located in the rear centre armrest.
In 1999 for the 2000 model year came a minor front-end restyle, with new, larger, clear headlights, a revised grille, and lower front valance with standard projection fog lamps. On the interior, the seats received a new, horizontal stitch pattern. Also, the 3.7-litre V8 FWD model was dropped, leaving the 2.8 V6 model and the long-wheelbase and short-wheelbase 4.2-litre quattro. These restyled cars also featured revised external door handles and an integrated radio antenna. For 2000, the North American A8 line-up was expanded to include the A8 L.
In 2001, Audi introduced its new W12 engine, a compact 6.0-litre unit developed by effectively mating two VR6 engines together at the crankshaft. The engine quickly became available in the A8, though only to European and Asian customers. From its introduction through its discontinuation in 2003, only 750 of the D2 "W12" models were produced. 2001 also marked the debut of the high-performance S8 variant in North American markets.
In 2002, the A8 L received standard xenon high-intensity discharge lamp (HID) headlights, and a heated steering wheel. A tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS), an updated Symphony II stereo, and new exterior colours were also added. For 2002, all A8 variants received a trunk/boot interior release lever to facilitate escape in the event an individual became trapped within.
Factory production of this generation ceased at Number 105,092 on August 4, 2002.
COUPE (PROTOTYPE)
In 1997, IVM Automotive of Munich, Germany built a two-door Audi A8 Coupé. The car was unveiled at the 1997 Geneva Motor Show. Audi contracted IVM to build the prototype, and was considering production of the vehicle. The coupé had a re-engineered aluminium body, shorter than the production A8 saloon. Like the Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, there was no central "B" pillar, giving the car a seamless design with a gradually sloping roofline. The car included custom leather seats which could seat four. Ultimately, Audi decided not to put the A8 Coupé into production, citing lower-than-expected sales figures for the similar BMW 8 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupé. Only one A8 Coupé was ever built. The single prototype, painted in a colour called "Ming Blue pearl", remains the property of IVM Automotive, and resides in Munich. Its last public appearance was in 2002 on a series of test drives.
S8
Audi introduced the S8 4.2 quattro into the European market in 1996. The S8 followed the naming convention of other high-performance Audi "S" models such as the Audi A6-derived S6 and was similar in vein of Mercedes-Benz AMG models. In markets such as the UK, the S8 was only available with the automatic transmission. Cosmetically, Audi differentiated the S8 from the A8 with solid aluminium alloy door mirror housings, chrome-effect beltline and lower front grille trim, and polished twin exhaust pipes, along with subtle "S8" badging. 14-way power adjustable and heated sports front seats with memory function were fitted as were heated rear seats. Standard alloy wheels were 18-inch cast aluminium alloy "Avus" six-spoke style. After the 1999 facelift, 20-inch polished nine-spoke RS wheels became an option. In 2002, 18-inch nine-spoke RS wheels became a no-cost option.
At the same time of the A8's facelift in late 1999, the S8 received the same cosmetic upgrades. This update marked the release of the S8 to the North American market. Production of the D2 series S8 ended in September 2002.
The D2 series S8 featured an uprated, 250 kW (335 hp) version of the 4.2-litre V8 with four valves per cylinder. From late 1999, Audi increased this to five valves per cylinder with power increased to 265 kilowatts (355 hp) and 430 newton metres. From launch in 1996, European-market models came standard with a six-speed manual transmission. A sports-recalibrated version of the ZF 5HP24 five-speed tiptronic automatic, featuring "Dynamic Shift Programme" (DSP) was released a year later and was the only transmission available in most other markets.
A retuned, 20-millimetre (0.8 in) lowered sports suspension included a 30 percent stiffer spring rate and 40 percent more compression damping in the shock absorbers. Speed-sensitive "servotronic" power assisted steering was also standard.
The brakes featured Bosch 5.3 anti-lock braking system (ABS), with electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD), and worked radially ventilated front discs. From 2002, an upgraded Bosch 5.7 electronic stability programme became standard fitment.
SECOND GENERATION (D3, Typ 4E; 2002–2009)
The second-generation Audi A8 (Typ 4E) built on the Volkswagen Group D3 platform was unveiled via press release in July 2002 and introduced in November 2002 in Europe and in June 2003 (as a 2004 model) in the United States. The model was longer than the previous generation, with room for four or five large adult occupants in the cabin, depending on rear seat configuration. The D3 development program began in 1996, with the design process commencing in Ingolstadt in 1997. The whole Audi design studio based in Ingolstadt first contributed sketch proposals, from which numerous different themes emerged. Six of them were developed into full size clay models and worked up in a traditional manner adjacent to full size tape drawings. At least three one quarter scale models were produced to explore other design variations.
The six full size exterior clay models were reduced to two in late 1998 and these continued to be refined in parallel for a year. At the end of 1999 the final theme selection was made, by Miklós Kovács and Imre Hasanic the main contributing designers. This lengthy development time was in part due to the body being made from aluminium, a material less able to take the small radii of sharp feature lines such as those on the (steel bodied) A4 (B6) designed in 1998.
In parallel to the exterior design development the interior design was progressed with a total of four full size models produced and the production car's horizontally themed instrument panel design dominant from early on, with Norbert Schneider, Mark Bergold and Enzo Rothfuss the main contributing designers.
Grouping major controls nearer the driver for a more driver focused identity whilst creating a more airy and spacious feel were early priorities for the interior design team was headed by Jurgen Albamonte. This was in part facilitated by the Multi Media Interface (MMI) designed by Jurgen Schröder, that pioneered on the D3 A8 after the Audi Avantissimo concept car preview, and also by class leading colour and trim from Barbara Krömeke and Melinda Jenkins.
Under the supervision of Dany Garand, during the first half of 2000 exterior and interior clay models were digitized and developed using digital design tools in a supporting, not leading, capacity. The D3 final production design was later frozen in the summer of 2000 for an August 2002 start of production.
The A8 was previewed 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show by the Audi Avantissimo concept car. This concept introduced much of the technology later available on the series production A8 D3, including: Multi Media Interface, 6-speed automatic transmission with shift paddles, V8 biturbo engine (S8), self-levelling adaptive air suspension with continuously controlled damping, electric park brake, bi-xenon headlights with static Adaptive Front Lighting System (AFS) curve headlights, dashboard, driver identification systems with fingerprint scanner.
As with the previous version, two body variants of the second generation A8 are offered, the A8 (standard, or short wheelbase), and the long-wheelbase (LWB) A8 L. The A8 L adds 120 mm to the rear legroom and 11 mm to the overall height of the car.
INNOVATIONS
- World premiere of Multi Media Interface (MMI) in-car user interface (similar to BMW iDrive)
- Multiplexed high speed MOST Bus optical fiber data networks (interconnecting tens of microprocessors on common databusses), integrated with MMI.
- First Audi with Bi-Xenon HID headlamps for both low and high beam
- World premiere of static Adaptive Front Lighting System (AFS) curve headlights (from Hella)
- First Audi with 4-wheel Adaptive Air Suspension and Continuous Damping Control (CDC)-(Skyhook suspension).
- First Audi GPS navigation system with DVD maps
- First Audi with six-speed automatic transmission (Tiptronic)
- First Audi featuring driver identification system.
In 2005, new internal combustion engines became available. For European and Asian market customers, the entry-level 3.0-litre V6 engine was replaced with a new 3.2-litre unit featuring Fuel Stratified Injection (FSI), which it shared with the Audi B7 A4 and Audi C6 A6. The top-of-the-line W12 version debuted that year. The advantage of the W12 engine layout is its compact packaging, allowing Audi to build a 12-cylinder sedan with all-wheel drive, whereas a conventional V12 could only have a rear-wheel drive configuration as it would have no space in the engine bay for a differential and other components required to power the front wheels. In fact, Audi's 6.0-litre W12 is actually slightly smaller by overall dimensions than the 4.2-litre V8.
In addition to the added power trains, Audi restyled the D3 platform A8 range slightly in 2005, giving all variants a taller, wider trapezoidal single-frame grille. The top-of-the-line W12 engined W12 version was the first model to be equipped with this grille; V8 engined models were fitted with the new grille the following year.
The D3 generation A8 introduced the 235 kW (315 hp) 4.2-litre Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) V8 engine (subsequently uprated to 240 kW (322 hp)). The engine uses two turbochargers and two intercoolers, with each turbocharger functioning exclusively for one bank of four cylinders.
The adaptive air suspension gives the vehicle clearance a range from its normal 120 mm up to 145 mm in lift mode and down to 95 mm in the Autobahn mode, which is automatically activated when a speed of more than 120 km/h is maintained for more than 30 seconds.
In September 2005 Audi became the first car maker to offer the 1,000-watt 14-channel ICEpower sound system option from Bang & Olufsen.
A8 L W12 QUATTRO SECURITY
It is an armoured vehicle with B6+ and B7 (European standard) ballistic ratings. It includes a W12 engine rated 331 kW (450 PS) and 580 N·m (428 lbf·ft), emergency exit system featuring pyrotechnic blown-out doors, fire extinguisher system with spray jets located in the engine compartment, underbody and in the wheel arches; smoke extractor in passenger compartment, run flat tires, bullet proof windows, the full protection plus package and LED flashers in the exterior mirrors. Buyers are also offered facility to dispatch two drivers on a special training course.
S8 5.2 FSI QUATTRO
The S8 high-performance sports variant, now called the "Audi S8 5.2 FSI quattro" was announced in the last quarter of 2005 and full production started in June 2006 and ended in September 2009.
The S8 includes subtle detailing to distinguish it from its related A8. The trapezoidal "single-frame" grille bears the characteristic Audi "S model" vertical strut detail which are highlighted in a chrome finish. "S8" badging is displayed front and rear, whilst "V10" badges are displayed on each front wing above the side-repeater indicators. The rear boot-lid incorporates a subtle rear spoiler, and the rear is finished with four chromed oval exhaust tailpipes. Adaptive Xenon-plus high-intensity discharge (HID) headlamps include static turning lights, along with "swiveling" dynamic cornering lights. Daytime running lamps are five light-emitting diodes (LEDs) incorporated into a cloverleaf designed reflector, incorporated into the main headlamp housing.
The D3 series S8 features a 5.2-litre all-aluminium alloy four-valves per cylinder V10 petrol engine. This engine is a derivative of the Lamborghini Gallardo's original 5.0-litre Lamborghini V10, which was also developed under the Volkswagen Group ownership. On this Audi-only variant, compared to the Lamborghini engine, it features a longer stroke and wider bore - which increases the displacement of the engine, and produces more torque at lower revs, making it more suitable for the larger and heavier full-sized luxury Audi application. It produces 331 kW (444 hp) of power and 540 N·m of torque. By having its bore whittled out an additional 2 millimetres, displacement in the S8 application increases from 5.0- to 5.2-litres. The engine also features Audi's direct-injection system, called Fuel Stratified Injection (FSI).
A sports-optimised ZF 6HP26-A61 six-speed tiptronic automatic transmission with "Dynamic Shift Programme" (DSP) and "sport" mode, with steering wheel mounted paddle-shifters, is the only offering. Output is transmitted via Audi's quattro all-wheel drive system, initially using the Torsen T-2 50:50 dynamic centre differential, and from 2007 for the 2008 model year, utilising the Torsen T-3 asymmetric dynamic centre differential, with a "default" torque distribution of 40 percent to the front axle and 60 percent to the rear.
The S8's top speed is electronically limited to 250 km/h. Audi's factory performance claims indicate a 0 to 100 km/h time of 5.1 seconds whilst consuming 98 RON unleaded petrol. The S8 has similar performance to Audi's own top-of-the-line A8 L W12, though the W12 is more expensive, has more torque, and built on a longer wheelbase. Compared to the A8 L W12, the S8 has sportier mechanical features such as a firmer suspension, larger wheels, and ceramic brakes. The shorter wheelbase and 10-cylinder engine save weight for better handling, but at 5.4 seconds from 0–60 mph the S8 trails the W12.
The S8, like its related A8, utilises a multi-link suspension layout front and rear, with pressurised air springs. However, for the S8, the effective spring and damper rates are noticeably firmer, along with re-engineered suspension mounts.
The brake system consists of radially ventilated discs all round. The discs are clamped with gloss-black painted dual-piston calipers up front, and a single-piston sliding caliper at the rear, coupled to an electro-mechanical parking brake. A Bosch ESP 5.7 (later upgraded to ESP 8.0) electronic stability control, with ABS, brake assist, EBD complete the brake system. Optional "Audi ceramic" carbon fibre-reinforced silicon carbide (C/SiC) composite front and rear brakes are available, which use radially vented, and floating SGL Carbon discs, with anthracite grey painted twelve-piston fixed Brembo monobloc alloy calipers. Standard alloy wheels consist of 20-inch "S design" alloy wheels.
A8L CENTENNIAL LIMITED EDITION (2009–)
The A8L Centennial Limited Edition (奧迪A8L百年限量版) is a limited (800 units total) version of the A8L 3.0 FSI with multitronic and the A8L 6.0 W12 quattro for the Chinese market, commemorating Audi's 100th anniversary. It included horizontal chrome-plated front grille (from the A8L 6.0 W12 quattro), "V6" metal logo at the upper left of the air-inlet grille (A8L 3.0 FSI), LED daytime running lights, heated leather steering wheel, 19-inch 12-spoke polished aluminium alloy wheels, heated steering wheel in grey leather with beige stitching, Bang & Olufsen advanced audio system, Alcantara equipment bag, Assam ash red veneer, floor mat with aluminium trim, a metal 'Audi exclusive' commemorative logo at inn door trims.
The vehicles went on sale on the 18 October 2009 as 2010 model year vehicles.
In North America, only the 4.2 V8, 5.2 V10, and 6.0 W12 petrol engines are available. The 4.0 TDI was discontinued when the 4.2 TDI was introduced.
Third generation (D4, Typ 4H; 2010–present)
The third generation of the Audi A8 was introduced in Miami on 30 November 2009. The chassis was built on the Volkswagen D2 platform.
INITIAL RELEASE
NEW FEATURES
Changes include:
Full LED headlamps with Automatic high beam switching or Audi adaptive light (Xenon) with variable headlight range control
enhanced MMI Multi Media Interface with touchpad & handwriting recognition for the phone and navigation system, using Nvidia Tegra System on a chip for very high processing speed.
optional 1,400 watt Bang & Olufsen sound system.
driver assistance systems networked using FlexRay technology.
Hard disk drive GPS navigation with 3D computer graphics with Google Earth.,
navigation system coordinates input to the adaptive headlights, transmission, adaptive cruise control and electronic stability control.
Infrared Night Vision Assistant with pedestrian recognition
broadband internet with UMTS 3G and WLAN-Hotspot
First production Audi with a Collision avoidance system: Pre sense (similar to Mercedes-Benz Pre-Safe). The full version of the system (Pre Sense Plus) works in four phases. In the first phase, the system provides warning of an impending accident, while the hazard warning lights are activated, the side windows and sunroof are closed and the front seat belts are tensioned. In the second phase, the warning is followed by light braking, strong enough to win the driver's attention. The third phase initiates autonomous partial braking at a rate of 3 m/s². The fourth phase decelerates the car at 5 m/s² followed by automatic deceleration at full braking power, roughly half a second before projected impact. A second system, called (Pre Sense Rear), is designed to reduce the consequences of rear-end collisions. The sunroof and windows are closed and seat belts are prepared for impact. The optional memory seats are moved forward to protect the car's occupants. The system uses sensor fusion with twin radar and a mono camera and was introduced in 2010.
A8 (L) (2010–)
The third-generation Audi A8 (L) (Typ 4H) is based on the Volkswagen Group MLB platform, but retains the Audi Space Frame aluminium construction of the previous A8, making it the lightest all-wheel drive car in the full-size luxury segment, while also giving it best-in-class fuel economy. The quattro all-wheel drive system splits torque with a default bias of 40 percent front and 60 percent rear.
The vehicle was unveiled in Design Miami 2009 on 30 November 2009., followed by the 2010 North American International Auto Show.
Early models include A8 4.2 FSI quattro (372PS), A8 3.0 TDI quattro (250PS), A8 4.2 TDI quattro (350PS). A8 3.0 TDI (204PS) was added later.
Initial internal combustion engine options comprise 4.2-litre Fuel Stratified Injection (FSI) petrol and Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) diesel V8s, with 273 kW (366 hp) and 258 kW (346 hp) respectively. A 3.0-litre V6 TDI with either 184 kilowatts (247 hp) or 150 kilowatts (201 hp) will be available later. A 6.3-litre W12 engine only for the long wheelbase model was made available in 2010, and compared to its predecessor it has a larger displacement and direct fuel injection. All engines are mated to the new eight-speed ZF 8HP automatic transmission. Although other Audi vehicles such as the 2010 Audi S4 and 2011 Audi A7 had switched from the 4.2l V8 to the 3.0L supercharged V6, the Audi A8 retained a higher-output 4.2L V8 as the base engine for the 2011 and 2012 model years in North America.
Taiwan models went on sale on the 11th November 2010 . Early models include 3.0 TFSI quattro (290PS).
A8 L (2010–PRESENT)
The vehicle was unveiled in Auto China 2010., followed by the 2011 Taipei Motor Show (A8 L W12 quattro).
German models went on sale in the fall of 2010. Early models include a 3.0 TFSI quattro (290PS), a 4.2 FSI quattro (372PS), a W12 6.3 FSI quattro (500PS), a 3.0 TDI quattro (250PS) and a 4.2 TDI quattro (350PS).
Taiwan models went on sale on the 11th November 2010. Early models include a 3.0 TFSI quattro (290PS) and a 4.2 FSI quattro (372PS).[42] The A8L W12 quattro was added in 2011. the A8L 4.0 TFSI quattro was added in 2012.
Chinese models went on sale in 2011. Early models include an A8L 3.0 TFSI low quattro (289PS), and an A8L 3.0 TFSI high quattro (333PS).
A8 HYBRID CONCEPT (2010)
The concept vehicle includes a 2.0 TFSI engine rated at 211 PS (155 kW; 208 bhp) and 350 N·m @1500–4200 rpm, a disc-shaped electric motor rated 45 PS (33 kW; 44 bhp) and 211 N·m, lithium-ion battery, luggage space of 400 liters (14.13 cubic feet), 21-inch wheels with 265/35 tires, Prism Silver body colour with Spectra Flair accent colour, 'hybrid' lettering on both front fenders, illuminated doorsteps with 'hybrid' insignia.
The vehicle was unveiled in 2010 at The Geneva Motor Show.
A8 L long-term evolution broadband prototype (2011)
It is a version of the A8 L demonstrating 4G long-term evolution (LTE) broadband technology. Developed in collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent, the car's mobile broadband connection is a fourth generation (‘4G’) technology with data transfer speeds of up to 100Mbit/s.
During the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG, announced that LTE technology would be used in cars by early 2011. The A8 L prototype was unveiled weeks later.
A8 L SECURITY (2011–PRESENT)
The A8 L Security is an armoured version of the A8 L with class VR 7 ballistic protection standard (tested as per BRV 2009 guidelines), resistance to explosions against a military hand grenade (tested as per ERV 2010 guidelines), with certain areas of the armouring complies with the criteria for class VR 9 and VR 10, a core safety cell made from hot-formed armoured steel, aramide fabric, ceramics, special alloyed aluminium and multilayer glass; overlapping protective materials at the joints, aluminum side sills with solid steel sections, aluminum alloy armored floor, side windows, windshield and rear window made of special glass with a polycarbonate coating; optional electromechanical window openers, closing assist feature comes standard for the doors, communication box in the luggage compartment (light ceramic doors, aluminum frame), optional battery and the fuel tank protection, two-way communication system with a speaker in the single-frame grille and microphones for the cabin and exterior, an emergency exit system with pyrotechnical separating screws in the hinges, fire extinguisher system, emergency fresh-air system with two oxygen cartridges, a smoke extractor for the passenger compartment, an LED signaling system for convoy travel, flashing lights, a siren, a preparation for professional mobile radio systems, a flag holder, a permanently installed telephone, an accident data recorder, an additional rearview camera and a heated windshield plus partially heated side windows, four-zone climate control system with an ionizer to freshen the air, electric rear blinds, the sonorous Bose surround sound system and a TV tuner, rear are two individual seats with power adjustment, front comfort seats with heating and optional massage and ventilation functions, standard full-leather package, optional relaxation seat (adjustable right-hand rear seat with a power-adjustable footrest, heating and massage), optional center console with large storage compartments and rear seat entertainment system with two 10.2-inch displays, optional folding table, optional refrigerator optional parking heater, Bluetooth car phone online, integrated UMTS module, optional separate telephone handsets, 19-inch forged wheels featuring in semipolished two-tone finish, 255/720 tires with a high load index of 117, synthetic rings on the rims, optional full-size spare tire.
The first model included a W12 engine rated 368 kW (500 PS) and 625 N·m, with delivery began in late summer 2011. An additional engine model with improved fuel efficiency went on sale in 2012.
The vehicle was unveiled at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show.
Deliveries began in late summer 2011.
A8 HYBRID (2012–PRESENT)
The production version includes an electric motor rated at 40 kW (54 PS) and 210 N·m, 1.25 kWh lithium-ion battery, 18-inch 10-spoke alloy wheels in turbine blades design (optional 19-inch), hybrid badges, metallic paint finish (optional Arctic Silver body colour), three-zone automatic air conditioning, LED headlights, and a BOSE sound system. Pure electric mode is available for either a top speed of 100 km/h or for up to 3 kilometres at a constant speed of 60 km/h. It went on sale in 2012.
The vehicle was unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
A8 L W12 Audi EXCLUSIVE CONCEPT
It is a limited (50 units) version of the A8 L W12 with seats upholstered in Cognac-colored leather by Poltrona Frau, inlays made from the wood olive ash natural, light gray-brown veneer, sill trims with "Audi exclusive concept" lettering, deep-pile carpeting.
The vehicle was unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
A8 L HYCRID
The long wheelbase version of the A8 hybrid was unveiled in 2010 at the Beijing Auto Show.
S8 4.0 TFSI QUATTRO (2012–PRESENT)
The D4 series Audi S8 4.0 TFSI quattro went on sale in 2012. Like the previous iteration, the S8 costs less than the A8 L W12.
The S8 can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) in 4.2 seconds. It is powered by a 4.0-litre TFSI biturbo V8 engine with 382 kW (512 hp). The engine utilises cylinder deactivation so it can run as a V4 for better fuel economy.[69] The S8's engine is shared with the Bentley Continental GT, while a detuned variant of the engine makes 420 hp which is found in the 2013 Audi S6, Audi S7, and Audi A8. Direct competitors include the BMW Alpina B7 and Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG, which also have biturbo V8 engines.
The vehicle was unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show, and went on sale in spring 2012.
Taiwan models went on sale in 2013.
MARKETING
As part of the Audi A8 launch in Taiwan, Audi built up Audi pavilion in Xin-Yi district, with Tom Dixon invited for the launch event. Yu-Cheng Chou and Chun-Ten Lin's art works were displayed with A8.
The Audi A8 3.0 TFSI quattro (290PS) was used in Transporter: The Series.
2013 MODEL YEAR UPDATE
Early German A8 models include 3.0 TFSI quattro (290PS), 4.0 TFSI quattro (420PS), 3.0 TDI (204PS), 3.0 TDI quattro (250PS), 3.0 TDI clean diesel quattro (250PS), 4.2 TDI quattro (350PS), A8 L W12 quattro (500PS), A8 hybrid 2.0 TFSI. Early German A8 L Security models include 4.0 TFSI quattro, W12 6.3 FSI quattro.
The updated A8 uses LED headlight technology, with automatic high beam lighting, Osram supplies the LEDs while Hella supplies the headlamp itself.
Early US models include the A8(L) 3.0 TFSI quattro (333PS), the A8(L) 4.0 TFSI quattro, the S8 4.0 TFSI quattro and the A8 L W12 6.3 FSI quattro. The A8 3.0 TFSI quattro and A8 4.0 TFSI quattro replaced the A8 4.2 FSI quattro.[80] The A8 3.0 TDI clean diesel quattro (240PS) was unveiled at the 2012 L.A. Auto Show, and was set to go on sale in Spring 2013 as a 2014 model year vehicle. The A8 L 3.0 TDI clean diesel quattro (240PS) was set to go on sale in Spring 2013 on sale as a 2014 model year vehicle.
Chinese models include the A8L 30 FSI (204PS), the A8L 40 hybrid, the A8L 45 TFSI quattro (290PS), the A8L 55 TFSI quattro (333PS), the A8L W12 FSI quattro and the S8 4.0 TFSI quattro.
The A8 L 2.0 TFSI hybrid is sold as an A8L 40 hybrid in China.
The A8 L 3.0 TFSI quattro (290PS) is sold as an A8L 45 TFSI quattro in China.
TRANSMISSION
All models include an eight-speed tiptronic transmission.
PRUDUCTION
2013–2014 Audi A8 and S8 vehicles equipped with a standard sunroof, manufactured between March 12, 2013 and July 15, 2013 were recalled due to possible shattering of sunroof glass panel.
WIKIPEDIA
Another iteration. Stations/stops with unknown ridership (mostly Thruway Bus stops) no longer show up as a single pixel. Some missing ridership data has been added for places like Vancouver, BC, NEC between New Haven and Boston, and Lorton/Sanford (Auto Train).
I lightly profiled this pair of arms for Mobici last year....(the left, non drive side arm shows that iteration),,,
He liked them, but said he wanted a "Mo-bici" profile put on them,,,
so now the right arm now has a stronger, rounded bevel that runs from the sides right into the flute,,
(on the left arm note the flat part either side of the flute),.
I wish I had a stock, boxy arm to show the progression of these modifications,,,
I'll work on the left arm some other evening, but this is enough for tonight.
This is the general layout of the desk.
I'm running Windows 8 right now, which is a change from my usual Ubuntu. WIn8 is quite great, though, and it's nice to not have to reboot to play games on steam or whatever.
Type of Item: New Release
Item Details: Cute unisex face blush with five components. Two different nose tip sizes, two different cheek sizes and a nose bridge on BOM layers for Lelutka Evox and AK ADVX heads. Individual colors 125L, Fatpack 300L with bonus snow freckles
Release Date: December 12, 2022
Teleport to Iterations
www.seraphimsl.com/2022/12/12/new-release-winter-face-at-...
A locomotive of the Kuranda Scenic Railway
This is actually one of my oldest train designs and is mostly unchanged from when I first made it a year and a half ago but I've added quite a few extra details I'd missed out then.
Bit by bit, the walls of Sri Mariamman Temple in Singapore will be white again. Right after that guy finds longer stick.
Introducing the Iommian 7th iteration i-Fighter, codename: SPiNNER.
Features a control pod that rotates on the z-axis to keep the pilot stable while the fighter rolls or spins (pointless in space but it looks cool). The propulsion ring features almost 320 degrees of directional vectoring for extreme maneuverablity. Fighter operations controlled by two blue touch screens. Droid socket fits standard R2 unit (pictured here with R2-P3). Armaments include: 2 proton torpedo launchers (4 torpedoes each) and 4 laser cannons. The i-Fighter is not equipped with any kind of landing-gear, instead it relies on its repulsorlift generator to keep it hovering above the landing surface.
Built for the 2011 FBTB Alphabet Fighter Contest.
a.k.a. 'back to basics'
pretty significant update(s) since the last iteration:
the carabiners are gone from my on-person carry, they weighed on my belt loops and made too much noise - the alternative was to tuck their contents into both back pockets but then that obstructs access to wallet and knife. so they've been moved to the SeV (which will be part 2 of this EDC trilogy).
- BlackBerry 9650
updated with BBOS6, better than ever. still getting used to the fact that i can now watch youtube videos.
- 4Sevens AA² Tactical (R5 Edition)
still a great everyday light, 5 lumens is more than enough to illuminate a pitch-black apartment or the inside of a computer, and the high end is blindingly bright. even so, at some point i hope to upgrade to the Nitecore IFD2.
- Spyderco UKPK, Carbon Fiber
designed by the geniuses at Spyderco to circumvent the ridiculously restrictive knife laws in England. which are pretty much identical to the ridiculously restrictive knife laws in NYC. razor-sharp one-handed opener, and 100% street legal.
- Casio G-Shock Cockpit Series 702BD
there is nothing i don't like about this watch. i used to want the Tissot T-Touch but have since realized that most of the features are kind of gimmicky. i could go for a Hublot Big Bang (Earl Grey, 301.ST.5020.ST) but don't have a spare $10K. and there's always the Luminox Blackout (A.3152.BO) but then i'd miss the alarms, multiple time zones, stopwatch, timer, digital readout.. yeah the G-Shock is a keeper.
- Used Rubber wallet
16 years old, and still going strong.
- Moleskine Volant
the littlest black book.
- Tuff-Writer Operator Series
nevermind what i said about the Embassy Pen from CountyComm. the Tuff-Writer (whose design CountyComm completely ripped off) is everything that pen wishes it were. i was going to go with the Frontline Series but this one is thicker, with a bit more of an ergonomic design.
new.best.pen.ever.
a tiny metal weatherproof brick that takes excellent pictures and videos. a camera for all seasons.
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Connecting a web of moving points with straight plan lines over a Half-edge Mesh topography (HEM class for Anar+ and Processing.
Topography model of Zermatt area from SwissTopo. This example contains 27002 faces, 20 points, and creates 190 connections and ~17000 segments per frame. This is able to run in 29:00 on my laptop (4.25 sec/frame)
Code here.