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Go North East's unallocated "The Angel" branded Wright StreetDeck Micro-Hybrid 3 6319 (NK67 GMX) is pictured here in the yard at Saltmeadows Road Depot, Gateshead, following the application of branding prior to entering service, whilst undergoing final preparation for service ahead of its allocation to Chester-le-Street Depot. 30/09/17
Representing an investment of approximately £4.3 million, this batch of vehicles have been ordered to upgrade "Angel" service 21, which is currently allocated Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodied Volvo B5LHs, partially funded by a grant of £1,119,235 in Round 3 of the Green Bus Fund in 2012.
These vehicles feature the latest technology, and are fitted with the third generation of Wrightbus' Micro-Hybrid system. This system allows a 21% fuel and CO2 saving; and is achieved by carrying through the technologies from the previous two generations of the Micro-Hybrid systems, as well as additional features being added, such as a third smart alternator to power new electric features such as an electric air compressor, which reduces engine load and fuel consumption. As well as this, the vehicles feature Euro 6 stop/start engines.
Internally; they feature Esteban Civic V3 seating complete with leather and soft topper foam for added comfort; four tables on the upper saloon; two-colour Tarabus 'Wood Effect' flooring; and blue accent lighting, which is fitted underneath seats and on the stairwell, to provide extra light on the gangway.
A first for Go North East; this batch of vehicles also includes a glass staircase, for added style and again providing further light on the stairwell.
Like all new vehicles; they feature Wi-Fi, 'Next Stop' audio-visual announcements and USB connections as standard, though these vehicles also feature three-pin power sockets on the upper saloon tables.
I’m proud that LUMAS, a first class galleria, sell some of my pictures as a LIMITED EDITION now.
All pictures are complete new versions of the original RAW pictures, using the latest technologies to get the highest print quality. LUMAS works with first class WhiteWall print service and deliver the highes quality available.
A couple of weeks before they send me the final artist proofs (size 110x165 cm) and the quality blow me away.
LUMAS will show some of my work around the world at up to 30 galleries. If you like to see a printed version, please check the LUMAS website at www.lumas.de or call your local LUMAS gallery and ask about my work.
You find this picture at www.lumas.de/pictures/wolf_ademeit-1/zebra_portrait/
EarthSky
Human WorldSpaceflight
New NASA moon suit makes its debut
Posted by
Deborah Byrd
March 16, 2023
The NASA moon suit was unveiled during an event at Space Center Houston in Texas on Wednesday.
After a series of delays, the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission – our first step in a future return to the moon – launched on November 16, 2022. The second of three Artemis missions – a crewed mission this time, Artemis 2 – is still scheduled to launch in November of 2024 and to send three astronauts on a journey around the moon. But all eyes are beginning to turn toward the real crux of the three Artemis missions, the third mission, which will send humans back to the moon’s surface, perhaps as early as December 2025. That mission will feature the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in December 1972. And yesterday – March 15, 2023 – NASA unveiled the new moon suit that’ll be worn by the astronauts on the moon.
Those astronauts will be bound for the moon’s South Pole.
Axiom Space, an independent space contractor located in Houston, Texas, made the new suits. They showed off their first prototype Wednesday during an event at Space Center Houston in Texas.
When NASA sends the first astronauts back to the moon in mid-decade, moonwalkers will wear the Axiom Space spacesuits. NASA selected the company to develop the modern suits for the Artemis 3 mission and participated in activities when the first prototype was revealed Wednesday during an event at Space Center Houston in Texas. NASA said:
Called the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit, or AxEMU, the spacesuit builds on NASA’s spacesuit prototype developments and incorporates the latest technology, enhanced mobility, and added protection from hazards at the moon.
NASA said that AxEMU incorporates the name Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) and that the prototype development is aimed toward advanced spacesuit designs for multiple space destinations. NASA said:
Axiom Space used the experience, expertise, and data behind the xEMU as a basis for the design and development of the AxEMU, including advancements in technology, training, astronaut feedback on comfort and maneuverability, and compatibility with other NASA systems. Leaning on NASA’s prior development efforts is helping Axiom Space reduce technical and schedule risk.
NASA experts defined the technical and safety standards by which the spacesuits will be built, and Axiom Space agreed to meet these key agency requirements. The AxEMU features the range of motion and flexibility needed to explore more of the lunar landscape, and the suit will fit a broad range of crew members, accommodating at least 90 percent of the US male and female population.
Axiom Space will continue to apply modern technological innovations in life support systems, pressure garments, and avionics as development continues.
Next, testing phase
NASA said that Axiom Space is responsible not only for the design, development, qualification, certification, and production of flight training spacesuits and support equipment, including tools … but also for testing the suit in a spacelike environment. There’s more about that environment – an underwater tank called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, at Johnson Space Center in Houston – in the video above.
And NASA pointed out that our return to the moon, this time, isn’t seen as a one-shot undertaking. Instead, it’s seen as the first of a series of steps that’ll carry astronauts deeper into the solar system:
Through Artemis, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon, paving the way for a long-term, sustainable lunar presence to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before and prepare for future astronaut missions to Mars.
Astronaut in a white spacesuit training underwater.
An astronaut training in the old spacesuit, in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Johnson Space Center Houston. Image via NASA/ Wikimedia Commons.
Bottom line: Working with the Houston-based company Axiom Space, NASA unveiled a prototype of its new moon suit on March 15,
By Deborah Byrd
About the Author:
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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USGS uses the latest technology in satellite radio-tracking to fill key information gaps on how polar bears use both the sea ice and land. Adult female polar bears are captured, fitted with satellite telemetry collars, and followed throughout their annual range. Working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, we're also experimenting with glue-on and ear tag satellite transmitters, which can be deployed on adult male bears and younger, still-growing bears.
Polar bears are tied to the sea ice for nearly all of their life cycle functions. Most important of these is foraging, or access to food. Polar bears almost exclusively eat seals, and they are equally as dependent upon the sea for their nutrition as are seals, whales, and other aquatic mammals. Polar bears are not aquatic, however, and their only access to the seals is from the surface of the sea ice. Over the past 25 years, the summer sea ice melt period has lengthened, and summer sea ice cover has declined by over half a million square miles. In winter, although sea ice extent has not changed as greatly, there have been dramatic reductions in the amount of old ice, predominantly in the western Arctic. This loss of stable old ice has set up additional losses of sea ice cover each summer because the thinner younger ice is more easily melted during the recent warmer summers.
You can read more about polar bear research, sea ice, and access current tracking maps of polar bears at on.doi.gov/PolarBearTracking
Photo by: Steven Amstrup, USGS, 2001
Guemes Channel - Sea Trials
On July 1, 2016 after four years of construction the Research Vessel Sally Ride was officially signed over to Scripps Institution of Oceanography by the builder Dakota Creek Industries of Anacortes, Washington.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Story Number: NNS160225-13Release Date: 2/25/2016 3:05:00 PM
ANACORTES, Wash. (NNS) -- The Navy's Auxiliary General Purpose Oceanographic Research Vessel (AGOR), R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28), successfully completed Builder's Trials, Feb. 21, off the coast of Anacortes.
Builder's Trials for Sally Ride tested various shipboard systems and ensured readiness prior to conducting Acceptance Trials with the U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey.
The propulsion system, mission-over-the-side handling equipment, anchor handling system, and work/rescue boat launch system were among the systems successfully demonstrated.
"R/V Sally Ride performed remarkably well during Builder's Trials these past few weeks," said Mike Kosar, program manager for Support Ships, Boats, and Craft. "Our entire Navy and shipbuilder team have done an outstanding job in preparing the vessel for upcoming acceptance trials."
Based on a single-hull commercial design, R/V Sally Ride is approximately 238 feet long and incorporates the latest technologies, including high-efficiency diesel engines, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with the world. Oceanographic Research Vessels provide scientists with the tools and capabilities to support ongoing research, including in the Atlantic, Western Pacific and Indian Ocean regions across a wide variety of missions.
Upon delivery, the ship will be operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography under a charter party agreement with Office of Naval Research. The vessel has accommodations for 24 scientists and will operate with a crew of 20.
This is the second ship of its class built by Dakota Creek Industries. The shipbuilder also constructed R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27), which delivered to the Navy in September 2015.As one of the Defense Department's largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and boats and craft.
The Neil Armstrong-class of research vessels are modern research vessels based on a commercial design, capable of integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas. The Neil Armstrong-class will feature a modern suite of oceanographic equipment, state of the art acoustic equipment capable of mapping the deepest parts of the oceans, advanced over-the-side handling gear to deploy and retrieve scientific instruments, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with land-based sites worldwide. Enhanced modular onboard laboratories and extensive science payload capacity will provide the ships with the flexibility to meet a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges in the coming decades.
U.S. Navy research vessels being built at Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes will be named after Neil Armstrong & Sally Ride
Mission: Integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas.Oceanographic sampling and data collection of surface, midwater, sea floor, and sub-bottom parameters.
Quantity: Two (2)
User: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (AGOR 27),
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (AGOR 28)
Ship Names: R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27)
R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28)
Builder: Dakota Creek Industries, Inc.
Contract: FFP (Firm Fixed Price)
Contract Value: $177.4M
ROM Unit Cost: $74.1 M (lead), $71.0M (follow)
Key Characteristics:
• Hull Material Steel; Aluminum pilothouse
• Length 238 ft
• Beam (Max) 50 ft
• Draft 15 ft
• Displacement 3043 LT (Full Load)
• Sustained Speed 12 kts
• Range 10,545 nm
• Endurance 40 days
• Propulsion 4 x 1044 kW Diesels, 2 x 879 kW Electric
Propulsion Motors, 2 x Controllable Pitch
Propellers, Bow & Stern Thrusters
• Accommodations 20 crew, 24 science berths
• ABS Classed/ABS Designed to ABS !A1 Circle E, !AMS
Nilgiri Mountain Railway was declared UNESCO's world heritage site in 2005. British built it in 1908 and train runs on 1,000 mm track known as meter gauge and also known as a toy train. Nilgiri mountain railway runs from Mettupalayam to Ooty (Udagamandalam) via Coonoor in the Nilgiri Hills.
India has two more , Shimla and darjeeling circuit. Luckily i have covered all three Unesco train circuits. Darjeeling is special as it has ( difficult to maintain) steam locos as on today. Dont know how long this legacy will continue as maintenance is huge issue for steam engines.
Mountain Railways of India ( from official site )
(1) Darjeeling Himalayan Railway was the first, and is still the most outstanding, example of a hill passenger railway. Opened in 1881, its design applies bold and ingenious engineering solutions to the problem of establishing an effective rail link across a mountainous terrain of great beauty.
(2) The construction of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, a 46-km long metre-gauge single-track railway in Tamil Nadu State was first proposed in 1854, but due to the difficulty of the mountainous location the work only started in 1891 and was completed in 1908. This railway, scaling an elevation of 326 m to 2,203 m, represented the latest technology of the time.
(3) The Kalka Shimla Railway, a 96-km long, single track working rail link built in the mid-19th century to provide a service to the highland town of Shimla is emblematic of the technical and material efforts to disenclave mountain populations through the railway. All three railways are still fully operational.
Located at Broadway and East 18th Avenue in Denver, Colorado, Trinity United Methodist Church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places July 28th, 1970.
Architecture and Ornamentation
Modern Gothic
Trinity United Methodist Church is one of the finest examples of "Modern Gothic" architecture in the United States. According to definitions of design, "the church is an auditorium clothed in a Gothic shell." What made the building "modern" in 1888 was the marriage of Gothic detailing, and a Rococo theater with the latest technology.
By using blocks of locally quarried Castle Rock rhyolite on the building’s face exterior, Robert Roeschlaub was able to stay true to the traditions of the "Arts and Crafts movement." This simply means that he looked to nature for inspiration. The rhyolite facing and sandstone trim allow the church to blend with its native surroundings.
The opportunity to build Trinity’s spire was "the magnificent goal of Robert Roeschlaub’s career as a church designer." The spire stands 183’ 7 1Ï2" from the ground. Because of the height, the usual scaffoldings and cranes couldn’t be used during construction. Roeschlaub invented a cage-like mechanism that surrounded the spire, allowing workers and needed materials to be raised and lowered. In 1888, it was one of the tallest stone towers in the United States.
At the main Broadway entrance to the church you will find patterned wrought-iron gates. Portions of the gates and their hinges were designed by the architect in the tradition of medieval prototypes. Additions have since been made.
I haven't had a good relationship with photography for several months. It is a period that almost nauseated me, it is not a question of "photographic inspiration". It is probably the fault of the photographic pollution of social media and photo groups where it is always worth spending a few minutes, to have evidence of the cause of this disorder. Discussions on the latest technologies, methods of correction of portraits with separation of frequencies, women (and always only women) half-naked with porcelain skin, surreal HDR, post-push production, tricks to get more likes, comments from "scientists", insults ... a true bazaar. The result of these few minutes spent is the thought "ok, I have enough".
I am astonished to see photos taken in the mid-1900s in black and white ... I love reading books and articles that talk about photo journalism, looking for real photos of a past period that I didn't experience ... no, the current photographic world is not for me.
However, there are situations in which the real passion for photography starts in a fraction of a second. This spark is for me called reportage, and it is that occasion when I can tell a story. Or at least I try, I try to share an interesting story, at least for me.
I've always loved photographing people, not because they are photogenic or not, but because they definitely have something to tell. I like to talk to people before the photos, I like to establish a small bond to make them feel at ease so that they show themselves for what they are. If I had to choose between photographing a world-famous supermodel or an elder person, my choice would surely fall on the latter. They are above all those that intrigue me. Also, most likely, seniors are pleased to have someone to talk to for a few minutes.
I accidentally met an elderly gentleman who has an optic where he makes crafted frames for eyeglasses. He represents the fourth generation of this family activity. One evening, although he had already closed up shop, I asked him when I could have gone through to have my new eyeglasses shaped, given that they had caused me an annoying wound on my ear. Without thinking about it for a minute, he reopened the store and spent a good half hour shaping a pair of glasses not purchased by him. The result was fabulous: I have a pair of glasses whose frame follows exactly the shape of my skull. The glasses no longer slip from my nose, I have no problems, and it almost seems to me to see better. I tried to pay it, but it was categorical "No need, don't worry".
Craftsmen first use the heart, and then the hands. We chatted for a few minutes and asked him if he would like to have some pictures taken in his small shop, as a sign of gratitude for what he did. I told him that I would also do a craft job, taking analog photos and printing them in my darkroom. Unexpectedly. he was more than happy to accept my proposal. Appointment for the following Saturday at 16:00.
For me this story speaks of kindness, speaks of the artisan world that the modern consumer world does not value in favor of mass distribution, talks about my father who entered the world of work in an optical company. He speaks of the imperfections of artisanal creations, but also of those of analogical photography: without automatisms, without margins of error. Everything must be done with no hurry, with due time. Maybe the magic is all there.
Kodak TX400
Hasselblad 500 c/m
Zeiss 80mm f/2.8 / Zeiss 50mm f/4
Upper-deck interior shot of Go North East's Crook-based "The Castles Express" branded Wright StreetDeck 6301 (NK16 BXA) is pictured here at Durham Market Place, Durham, whilst attending a publicity event to promote the investment into new vehicles on service X21. 01/03/16
Representing an investment of over £1.5m, this batch of vehicles are believed to be in line to upgrade "Pronto" services X21 and X46. These vehicles feature the latest technology, and are fitted with Daimler 4-cylinder, 5.1-litre OM934 Euro-6 Emission compliant engines. Internally; they feature Esteban Civic V3 seating complete with e-leather; four tables on the upper saloon; two-colour Tarabus 'Wood Effect' flooring; and blue accent lighting, which is fitted underneath seats, to provide extra light on the gangway.
The vehicles are also feature the provision of free Wi-Fi and power sockets, including USB charging points, allowing customers to keep connected on the go.
"The Castles Express" will become the new brand name for service X21, replacing "Pronto". The X21 service links Newcastle, Chester-le-Street, Durham and Bishop Auckland, all of which have prominent historic castles.
The new vehicles are due to enter service on Monday 7th March 2016.
Go North East's Crook-based "The Castles Express" branded Wright StreetDeck 6303 (NK16 BXC) is pictured here at Eldon Square Bus Station, Newcastle upon Tyne, whilst working "The Castles Express" service X21 to Bishop Auckland. 12/03/16
Representing an investment of over £1.5m, this batch of vehicles are believed to be in line to upgrade "Pronto" services X21 and X46. These vehicles feature the latest technology, and are fitted with Daimler 4-cylinder, 5.1-litre OM934 Euro-6 Emission compliant engines. Internally; they feature Esteban Civic V3 seating complete with e-leather; four tables on the upper saloon; two-colour Tarabus 'Wood Effect' flooring; and blue accent lighting, which is fitted underneath seats, to provide extra light on the gangway.
The vehicles are also feature the provision of free Wi-Fi and power sockets, including USB charging points, allowing customers to keep connected on the go.
Go North East is currently trialling 'BUS REVERSING' messages on the destination display. When the reverse gear is engaged by the bus driver, the message automatically comes up on the destination display, alerting bystanders of the potential hazard, advising them to stand clear of the vehicle.
The message is anticipated to be most helpful at bus stations with reverse bays. Quite often, passengers wishing to board attempt to flag the bus down after the doors have already been closed and the driver has started to reverse.
Amsterdam Light Festival 2023-2024.
« Le Saut »or The Jump is a light installation that deals with the relationship of humans to new technologies. Should we throw ourselves headlong into all these novelties or rather take a step back and think about technological sobriety? With the digitization of our world, the border between the real and the digital is becoming more and more diluted, meeting by zoom, online games, remote work, metaverse… We see a statue almost levitating above the water, as if it were throwing itself into the water, in this virtual world but with very real consequences. Maybe her blindness will make her fall by missing out on more essential things, like the environment. This frantic race for the latest technologies, without knowing their real impact on us, with the example of 5g, 6g soon 7G. But in another point of view, this leap forward also shows how technology brings to the viewer new sensations and no creative limits. We know that VR experiments in neuroscience, bring a lot to research and on different types of neurological symptoms. There are benefits in several areas, whether in terms of creation with all these new writings, but also in terms of health. At the sight of this installation each spectator will be brought to an awareness of his personal relationship to technology and its perspective vis-à-vis our contemporary society.
Well, it's my birthday today. I was born Dec 3rd, 1963. Yep 52 years old. So we (my wife and I) still get each other small thoughtful gifts but we kind of allow each other to buy something big and special for ourselves at our birthday. So I got an iPad Pro. Big screen. Latest technology. Love it. But Jasper grabbed it from me today and started surfing Dogsgonewild.com. Surfing babes? Really? Ok. The dog on that screen IS pretty cute.
How many of us enjoy times of solitude? I know I do. But now, always armed with the latest technology, are we ever really alone? I try to convince myself that I carry my smart phone for the onboard camera, only. It was, after all, the excuse I used for purchasing a smart phone. But even I find myself giving in to other features such as text messaging, Instagram (I need a place to post my smart phone images, you know), Flickr, Facebook, etc. Now that my children have grown I see how that generation can never part with their “machines”. Smart phones, iPads, even coffee drinkers enjoying a simple beverage at Starbucks can’t seem to leave their laptops at home.
The activity this young lady is partaking in is the norm among her peers. Always typing, giggling, or smiling at their screens. I laugh at what I call “Virtual Schizophrenia” where people roam the streets while yelling obscenities but then you discover the unseen recipient of their scorn is on the other end of a well-concealed Bluetooth. Yep! If our machines aren’t making us crazy they certainly are causing us to seem that way. =)
Beauty and the Beast
In a world obsessed with the latest technology, people believed new gadgets promised better results. Relics of the past, once built to last, were cast aside and forgotten. Devices that had served faithfully for years now lay abandoned. Yet, the truth lingered: less was always more. The simplicity and durability of those relics had a lasting value, offering loyalty that no fleeting innovation could replace. Time revealed that progress often masked a fading connection to what truly mattered.
by me
Photography and film processing; LC Nevermind(Luis Campillo)
Artistic direction, MUAH, props, caption and model; Lis Xia
Gear; Rolleiflex Automat RF 111A, CZ Jena Tessar 7,5cm, 1998 expired Kodak Vericolor 400
photos for the collage with Canon G12
in english language below
Wer heute - immer noch oder wieder – analog fotografiert, der steht oft vor dem Problem „wie bekomme ich das Foto auf den Computer, um es z.B. hier bei flickr zeigen zu können?“
Die schnellste und einfachste Lösung ist den Film in eine der großen Drogeriefilialen zu bringen und dort entwickeln zu lassen. Mit Foto-CD kostet ein 36er Film ca. 10€. Dieser Preis ist nur deshalb möglich, weil der gesamte Prozess mit modernster Technik vollautomatisch erfolgt.
An dieser Stelle will ich mit meinen Erfahrungen und meiner Lösung aufsetzen.
Der vollautomatische Prozess einer standardisierten C41 Filmentwicklung führt zu Resultaten, die ich mit einem C41 ChemieSet nicht besser und preiswerter hinbekäme. Zu einem anderen Ergebnis komme ich bei der automatischen Ausbelichtung von Negativen. Im besten Fall bekomme ich ein Ergebnis "state of the art" aktueller Scannertechnik.
Solche digitalisierten analogen Fotos sind damit hauptsächlich ein Resultat der eigesetzten Technik, vom "Klick" bis zum fertigen Foto. Ähnlich einem Digicamfoto im Automatikmodus, nur nicht so "gut".
Auch ein "Experte" wird anhand solcher Fotos nicht erkennen, ob mit einer Voigtländer CLR, Rollei 35, OM2 oder Leica fotografiert wurde.
Eine Eigenschaft von Automatiken ist, dass sie einen definierten Standard abdecken aber kaum Raum für Nuancen lassen. Letztere, sowie kleine charmante Fehler, werden nach vorgegebenen Parametern automatisch korrigiert.
Fazit: mein Beitrag zu einem "tollen Foto" ist übersichtlich gering. Er erschöpft sich in der Motivauswahl und einer rudimentären Bedienung der analogen Technik.
Dazu kommt, dass die niedrige Auflösung (ca. 1,5 MB je KB-Kleinbild Foto), kaum Spielraum für Korrekturen der automatischen Parameter, z.B. Tonwert, Farbe, Kontrast etc., bietet.
Absehbarer Frust für einen Sammler, der mit seinen „Schätzchen“ gerne auch mal fotografiert?
Muss nicht sein, wenn man den letzten Schritt des Laborprozesses, das Digitalisieren, selber macht.
Wie das einfach und sehr kostengünstig geht, will ich nachstehend aufzeigen.
Ich benötige also zunächst nur ein Negativ. Die Herstellung überlasse ich einem Großlabor, welches das viel besser und preiswerter kann als ich. Kosten dafür betragen ca. 2,50€, zusätzlich die obligatorischen Papierabzüge (im kleinsten Format). Gesamtkosten ca. 7,50€ je Film. Auf Erstellung einer Foto CD verzichte ich, weil ich ja selber scannen will.
Das Negativ scanne ich mit einem einfachen Photoscanner mit Durchlichteinheit im manuellen Modus mit der höchsten Auflösung (bei meinem scanner sind das 1600 dpi). Der Photoscanner ist dazu mit einem PC verbunden, der den Scanner steuert. Das Scan-Ergebnis bearbeite ich danach mit einer Bildbearbeitungssoftware. Fertig.
Soweit der Blick aus 10.000 Meter Höhe. Nachstehend eine kurze Beschreibung meines Equipment, welches sich aus meiner Vorliebe für Photoshop CS2 ergibt. Wieso das? CS2 ist ein professionelles Werkzeug von Adobe, das nichts mehr kostet aber „alles kann“, wenn man sich ausreichend mit dem Werkzeug beschäftigt.
Die erforderlichen Geräte setzen sich wie folgt zusammen: Ein alter Computer Latitude D520 mit Windows XP und Photoshop CS2, verbunden mit einem ebenso alten „Epson Perfection 1660 Photo“. Das Ergebnis sind scans mit >10 MB 2282x1550 pixel (je KB-Kleinbild Foto). Diese TIF-Dateien bieten ausreichend Potenzial für eine abschließende Bildkorrektur.
Der Arbeitsplatz ist nur beispielhaft. Entscheidend ist ausschließlich, dass alle Komponenten (Rechner, Scanner, Bildbearbeitungs-SW) von einem Betriebssystem unterstützt werden. Bei älterem Equipment ist Windows XP oft eine sehr gute Lösung. Prozessortakt und RAM sind eher nebensächlich.
Auch Photoshop CS2 muss nicht sein. Es gibt genügend andere Freeware, die gute Leistungen bei der Bild-Nachbearbeitung erbringen und einen Scanner ansteuern können.
Ein paar Anmerkungen zum scannen. Ich habe die Erfahrung gemacht, dass es für die Bildqualität egal ist, ob beim scannen die Emulsion oder die glatte Schicht des Negativs oben ist. Ggf. muss das Foto bei der Nachbearbeitung noch horizontal gespiegelt werden. Wichtiger ist, dass beim Einschieben in die Negativschablone eine Planlage verbogener oder gewölbter Negative erreicht wird. Ansonsten ergeben sich Unschärfen, die digital nicht korrigiert werden können.
Das scannen übernimmt die Scanner-eigene SW. Ich wähle dazu den manuellen Modus mit automatischer Belichtung, weil ich danach sowieso korrigiere. Ziel des scans ist nicht ein fertiges Bild, sondern eine Datei mit vielen BildInformationen. Deshalb wähle ich die höchste Dpi-Stufe und das Dateiformat TIF.
Abschließend noch ein paar Anmerkungen zur Bildbearbeitung. Die Anpassungen sind erforderlich, weil ich – wie oben beschrieben - die Scanner-Software (Twain) auf "Automatik" eingestellt habe. Damit passen erste wichtige Parameter wie z.B. die Helligkeit zumindest bei meinem Scanner einigermaßen.
Ab jetzt erfolgt der Prozess, den ich keiner Automatik der Welt überlasse und auch keinem kleinen professionellen scan-Service mit tollen Mitarbeitern. Denn "ich will eigene Ergebnisse".
Der erste Schritt ist ein Aufruf der „Gradationskurven“. Bei CS2 werden dort – neben den Kurven – 3 Pipetten gezeigt. Die rechte davon korrigiert das Foto auf Basis „weiß“. Gehen Sie an eine Stelle des Bildes, die eigentlich weiß sein soll, z.B. Sommerwolken. Dort anklicken und – wenn Sie ein Sonntagskind sind – haben Sie mit einem Klick ein wunderbar ausgeglichenes Bild. Ansonsten mehrmals ausprobieren oder den üblichen Feinschliff von Tonwert, Kontrast, Farbe etc. schrittweise durchführen.
Bei CS2 lassen sich die grundlegenden Anpassungen im Menue unter „Bild anpassen“ im oberen Block unter Tonwertkorrektur, Auto-Tonwertkorrekt usw. durchführen.
Das so entstandene digitale Foto trägt somit schon einmal meine "Handschrift". Der Grad einer eigenen "Handschrift" lässt sich unbegrenzt steigern. Grenzen setzten lediglich die eigene Phantasie und die Virtualität mit der man "auf dem Klavier", sorry der Software, spielen kann.
Übrigens, den oben beschriebenen Arbeitsplatz nutze ich nur zum scannen, denn für die digitale Nachbearbeitung ist deutlich mehr Rechnerleistung erforderlich. Die Kosten für die gebrauchten Geräte eines solchen Scan-Arbeitsplatzes sollten 50€ nicht übersteigen.
Gutes Gelingen
Anyone who takes analog photos today - still or again - is often faced with the problem "how do I get the photo onto the computer so that I can show it here at flickr, for example?
The fastest and easiest solution is to take the film to one of the large drugstore branches and have it developed there. With photo CD a 36 film costs about 10€. This price is only possible because the entire process is fully automated using the latest technology.
This is where I want to start with my experience and my solution.
The fully automatic process of a standardized C41 film development leads to results which I could not achieve better and cheaper with a C41 chemistry set. I come to a different result with the automatic exposure of negatives. In the best case I get a result "state of the art" of current scanner technology.
Such digitised analogue photos are thus mainly the result of the applied technique, from the "click" to the finished photo. Similar to a digicam photo in automatic mode, only not so "good".
Even an "expert" will not be able to tell from such photos whether a Voigtländer CLR, Rollei 35, OM2 or Leica was used.
The character of automatics is that they cover a defined standard but leave hardly any room for nuances. The latter and small charming errors are automatically corrected or ironed out according to predefined parameters. Conclusion: my contribution to a "great photo" is clearly small. It is exhausted in the choice of motifs and a rudimentary handling of the old analog treasures.
In addition, the low resolution (approx. 1.5 MB per KB small picture photo) offers hardly any leeway for corrections of the automatic parameters, e.g. tone value, color, contrast etc.
Predictable frustration for a collector who likes to take pictures with his "sweethearts"?
Not necessarily, if you do the last step of the laboratory process, the digitizing, yourself.
How this can be done simply and very inexpensively is shown below.
So I only need a negative first. I leave the production to the industrial laboratory, who are much better at it than I am. Costs for this are about 2,50€, plus the obligatory paper prints (in the smallest format). I do without the photo CD. Total costs about 7,50€ per film.
I scan the negative with a simple photo scanner with a transparency unit in manual mode with the highest resolution (in my scanner this is 1600 dpi) in manual mode. The photoscanner is connected to a PC, which controls the scanner. I then process the scan result with an image processing software. Done.
So much for the view from a height of 10.000 meters. The following is a short description of my equipment, which results from my preference for Photoshop CS2. Why is that? CS2 is a professional tool from Adobe, which doesn't cost anything more but "can do everything" if you spend enough time with the tool.
The rest of my tool is composed as follows: An old computer Latitude D520 with Windows XP and Photoshop CS2, connected to an equally old "Epson Perfection 1660 Photo". The result are scans with >10 MB 2282x1550 pixel (each KB small picture photo). These TIF files offer enough potential for a final image correction.
The workplace is only exemplary. The only decisive factor is that all components (computer, scanner, image processing software) are supported by an operating system. In case of older equipment, Windows XP is often a very good solution. Processor clock and RAM are rather unimportant.
Also Photoshop CS2 is not necessary. There are enough other freeware that can perform well in image post-processing and can control a scanner.
And a few more remarks about scanning. I made the experience that it doesn't matter for the image quality if the emulsion or the smooth layer of the negative is on top when scanning. You may have to flip the photo horizontally during post-processing. It is more important that a flatness of bent or curved negatives is achieved when inserting them into the negative stencil. Otherwise, blurriness will result which cannot be corrected digitally.
The scanning is done by the scanner's own SW. I choose the manual mode with automatic exposure, because I correct afterwards anyway. The goal of the scan is a file with a lot of image information. Therefore I choose the highest Dpi level and the file format TIF.
Finally a few remarks about image processing. The adjustments are necessary because - as described above - I set the scanner software (Twain) to "automatic". Thus first important parameters like e.g. the brightness fit at least with my scanner to some extent.
From now on, the process, which I don't leave to any automatic system in the world and also to a small professional scan service with great employees, will be done. Because "I want my own results".
My first step is to call up the "gradation curves". In CS2, 3 pipettes are shown there - besides the curves. The one on the right corrects the photo on basis "white". Go to a part of the image that should actually be white, e.g. summer clouds. Click there and - if you are a Sunday child - you will have a wonderfully balanced picture with just one click. Otherwise try it out several times or do the usual fine tuning of tonal value, contrast, colour etc. step by step.
With CS2, the basic adjustments can be made in the menu under "Adjust Image" in the upper block under Tone Value Correction, Auto Tone Correct etc.
The resulting digital photo will therefore already bear my "signature". The degree of your own "handwriting" can be increased indefinitely. The only limits are your own imagination and the virtuality on which you can play "on the piano", sorry software.
By the way, I only use the workplace described above for scanning, as for the digital post-processing significantly more computer power is required. The costs for the used equipment of such a scan workstation should not exceed 50€.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Polytechnic University’s iconic Innovation, Science and Technology (IST) Building in Lakeland now ranks as one of the 16 “most breathtaking” buildings in the world, according to a survey of architects, placing it alongside iconic structures such as the Parthenon in Greece, the Empire State Building and Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” residence.
Business Insider’s “Tech Insider” magazine surveyed 16 prominent architects, asking each to pick just one structure they fondly think of as “breathtaking.” Architect Marica McKeel of Studio MM worked on the IST Building design and said, “Not only do I love the design of the Innovation, Science and Technology Building, but I feel a real connection to this project and to the Lakeland community as my father grew up in Lakeland and I still frequently visit family there.”
Designed by internationally-renowned architect Dr. Santiago Calatrava, the IST Building is the cornerstone of Florida Poly’s campus and the University’s main classroom and laboratory building. The 162,000-square-foot, white-domed building is a moveable and functional work of art, with a louvered roof system that adjusts with the sun’s angle, surrounded by a ring of curved metal pergolas that shade its outer terrace and walkways.
Calatrava repeatedly breaks new ground in architecture, with soaring designs for a new transit station at the rebuilt World Trade Center, a spiraling “Turning Torso” skyscraper in Sweden and the Peace Bridge in Calgary. Among the numerous awards associated with the IST Building is the distinguished Engineering News Record’s (ENR) Global Project of the Year award.
“The IST Building was created to provide an inspiring, modern atmosphere for learning, collaboration and innovation,” said Florida Poly President Dr. Randy K. Avent. “It’s invigorating to walk into this building each day and work alongside faculty, students and staff in one of the world’s most advanced structures.”
The IST Building houses 26 classrooms, the Aula Magna auditorium, faculty and administrative offices, an 11,000-square-foot Commons area and 11 innovation labs – including a 3D printing lab, cyber security lab and heath informatics lab – where students are able to get hands-on experience with the latest technology. Skanska USA was the lead contractor.
Other top accolades earned by the IST Building include:
2014 Engineering News Record Global Best Project by Engineering News Record
Best Projects: 2014 Project of the Year – Southeast Region, Best Higher Education/Research by Engineering News Record
2014 Metal Construction News Design Award in Metal Building Systems
2014 Best Innovative Structural Steel Project of the Year by the American Institute of Steel Construction
2015 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel (IDEAS2) Award
2015 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture
Data above originated from the following website:
floridapolytechnic.org/news-item/florida-polys-ist-buildi...
As part of Transdev's 2.3m investment of the Yorkshire Coastliner fleet at Malton. 10 new buses were ordered from Wrightbus in the shape of Wright Gemini 3's on a Volvo B5TL twin Turbo chassis.
These have been fitted with the latest technology simular to the "36". As so they come with Free 4G WiFi, high spec seating and tables as standard. They also feature USB, mains and Wireless charging facilities as well as next stop information and Mobitecs "Countdown" displays to show how long before departure time.
After being showed off at a Launch event in York the previous Thursday. BT66 MVP (3632) sits in the park at Leeds Bus Station after making its service debut for the new fleet. Yours truly being on-board on its first trip.
Now this mecha took the clmntinE Industries a long time to produce. Hold on to your seats boys and girls for this mecha is gonna be nasty with the numerous swords it carries! With X2 Buster Swords which provide destructive kinetic energy per strike, this Talos variant is equiped with the latest technology in close quater combat. The X5 combat blades, allows the operator to slice, dice and throw these blades with ease. Fret not, this mecha also comes with X2 long range recoil hip cannons that allow you to take shots that are far and with accuracy. To top it off, X4 defense missile pods are added in the legs of this mecha. And to finish off, a massive X4 barrel-pod mini-gun; to gun down all your opponents. Control the battle field, pilot the Thronus.
These curious kids don't have the latest technology to play with but their lives are packed with outdoor activities
The Postcard
A postally unused postcard that was published in 1986 by Impact of Pittsburg, California 94565. The card, which was designed and distributed in the USA, was printed in Korea.
The photography was by Ken Raveill, and the card, which has a divided back, was made with recycled paper.
Hearst Castle
Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada ("The Enchanted Hill"), is an estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his architect Julia Morgan, the castle was built between 1919 and 1947.
George Bernard Shaw described Hearst Castle as:
"What God would have built
if he had had the money."
Today, Hearst Castle is a museum open to the public as a California State Park and registered as a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark.
George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's father, had purchased the original 40,000-acre (162 km2) estate in 1865 and Camp Hill, the site for the future Hearst Castle, was used for family camping vacations during Hearst's youth.
In 1919 William inherited $11,000,000 (equivalent to $172,000,000 in 2021) and estates, including the land at San Simeon. He used his fortune to further develop his media empire of newspapers, magazines and radio stations, the profits from which supported a lifetime of building and collecting.
Within a few months of Phoebe Hearst's death, he had commissioned Morgan to:
"Build something a little more
comfortable up on the hill."
This was the genesis of the present castle. Morgan was an architectural pioneer:
"America's first truly independent
female architect."
She was the first woman to study architecture at the School of Beaux-Arts in Paris, the first to have her own architectural practice in California, and the first female winner of the American Institute of Architects' Gold Medal.
Julia worked in close collaboration with Hearst for over twenty years, and the castle at San Simeon is her best-known creation.
In the Roaring Twenties and into the 1930's, Hearst Castle reached its social peak. Originally intended as a family home for Hearst, his wife Millicent and their five sons, by 1925 he and Millicent had effectively separated and he held court at San Simeon with his mistress, the actress Marion Davies.
Their guest list comprised most of the Hollywood stars of the period; Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Greta Garbo, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford, Jean Harlow and Clark Gable all visited, some on multiple occasions.
Political luminaries encompassed Calvin Coolidge and Winston Churchill, while other notables included Charles Lindbergh, P. G. Wodehouse and George Bernard Shaw.
Visitors gathered each evening at Casa Grande for drinks in the Assembly Room, dined in the Refectory and watched the latest movie in the theater before retiring to the luxurious accommodation provided by the guest houses of Casa del Mar, Casa del Monte and Casa del Sol.
During the days, they admired the views, rode, played tennis, bowls or golf and swam in "the most sumptuous swimming pool on earth".
While Hearst entertained, Morgan built; the castle was under almost continual construction from 1920 until 1939, with work resuming after the end of World War II until Hearst's final departure in 1947.
Hearst, his castle and his lifestyle were satirized by Orson Welles in his 1941 film Citizen Kane. In the film, which Hearst sought to suppress, Charles Foster Kane's palace Xanadu is said to contain:
"Paintings, pictures, statues, the very stones
of many another palace – a collection of
everything so big it can never be cataloged
or appraised; enough for ten museums; the
loot of the world".
Welles's was referring to Hearst's mania for collecting; the dealer Joseph Duveen called him the "Great Accumulator".
With a passion for acquisition almost from childhood, he bought architectural elements, art, antiques, statuary, silverware and textiles on an epic scale. Shortly after starting San Simeon, he began to conceive of making the castle:
"A museum of the best
things that I can secure".
Foremost among his purchases were architectural elements from Western Europe, particularly Spain. Over thirty ceilings, doorcases, fireplaces and mantels, entire monasteries, paneling and a medieval tithe barn were purchased, shipped to Hearst's Brooklyn warehouses and transported on to California.
Much was then incorporated into the fabric of Hearst Castle. In addition, he built up collections of more conventional art and antiques of high quality; his assemblage of ancient Greek vases was one of the world's largest.
In May 1947, Hearst's health compelled him and Marion Davies to leave the castle for the last time. He died in Los Angeles in 1951, and Morgan died in 1957. The following year, the Hearst family gave the castle and much of its contents to the State of California, and the mansion was opened to the public on the 17th. May 17, 1958.
It has since operated as the Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, and attracts about 750,000 visitors annually.
The Hearst family retains ownership of the majority of the 82,000 acres (332 km2) wider estate and, under a land conservation agreement reached in 2005, has worked with the California State Parks Department and American Land Conservancy to preserve the undeveloped character of the area.
Early History to 1864
The coastal range of Southern California has been occupied since prehistoric times. The indigenous inhabitants were the Salinans and the Chumash. In the late 18th. century, Spanish missions were established in the area in order to convert the Native American population.
The Mission San Miguel Arcángel, one of the largest, opened in what is now San Luis Obispo county in 1797. By the 1840's, the mission had declined and the priests departed. In that decade, the governors of Mexican California distributed the mission lands in a series of grants.
Three of these were Rancho Piedra Blanca, Rancho Santa Rosa and Rancho San Simeon. The Mexican–American War of 1846–1848 saw the area pass into the control of the United States under the terms of the Mexican Cession. The California Gold Rush of the next decade brought an influx of American settlers, among whom was the 30-year old George Hearst.
Buying the land: 1865–1919
Born in Missouri in 1820, George Hearst made his fortune as a miner of gold and silver, notably at the Comstock Lode and the Homestake Mine. He then undertook a political career, becoming a senator in 1886, and bought The San Francisco Examiner.
Investing in land, he bought the Piedra Blanca property in 1865, and subsequently extended his holdings with the acquisition of most of the Santa Rosa estate, and much of the San Simeon lands.
In the 1870's George Hearst built a ranch house on his estate, which remains a private property maintained by the Hearst Corporation. The San Simeon area became a site for family camping expeditions, including his young son, William. A particularly favored spot was named Camp Hill, the site of the future Hearst Castle.
Years later Hearst recalled his early memories of the place:
"My father brought me to San Simeon
as a boy. I had to come up the slope
hanging on to the tail of a pony.
We lived in a cabin on this spot and I
could see forever. That's the West –
forever."
George Hearst developed the estate somewhat, introducing beef and dairy cattle, planting extensive fruit orchards, and expanding the wharf facilities at San Simeon Bay. He also bred racehorses.
While his father developed the ranch, Hearst and his mother traveled, including an eighteen-month tour of Europe in 1873, where Hearst's life-long obsession with art collecting began.
When George Hearst died in 1891, he left an estate of $18 million to his widow including the California ranch. Phoebe Hearst shared the cultural and artistic interests of her son, collecting art and patronizing architects.
She was also a considerable philanthropist, founding schools and libraries, supporting the fledgling University of California, Berkeley, including the funding of the Hearst Mining Building in memory of her husband, and making major donations to a range of women's organizations, including the YWCA.
During the late 1890's, Mrs Hearst encountered Julia Morgan, a young architecture student at Berkeley. On Phoebe Hearst's death in 1919, William Hearst inherited the ranch, which had grown to 250,000 acres and 14 miles (23 km) of coastline, as well as $11 million.
250,000 acres is a huge area for an estate - to accommodate that area in a square, it would need sides of over 19.8 miles (32 km).
Within days of his mother's death, William was at Morgan's San Francisco office.
Julia Morgan
Julia Morgan, who was born in 1872, was 47 when Hearst entered her office in 1919. Her biographer Mark A. Wilson has described her subsequent career as that of:
"America's first independent
full-time woman architect".
After studying at Berkeley, where she worked with Bernard Maybeck, and in 1898 she became the first woman to win entry to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Passing out from the École in 1902, Morgan returned to San Francisco and took up a post at the architectural practice of John Galen Howard.
Howard recognized Morgan's talents, but also exploited them:
"The best thing about this person
is, I pay her almost nothing, as it is
a woman."
In 1904, Julia passed the California architects' licensing examination, the first woman to do so, establishing her own office in 1906 at 456 Montgomery Street in San Francisco.
During her time with Howard, Morgan was commissioned by Phoebe Hearst to undertake work at her Hacienda del Pozo de Verona estate at Pleasanton. This led to work at Wyntoon and to a number of commissions from Hearst himself; an unexecuted design for a mansion at Sausalito, north of San Francisco, a cottage at the Grand Canyon, and the Los Angeles Examiner Building.
In 1919, when he turned up at Morgan's office, Hearst was fifty-six years old, and the owner of a publishing empire that included twenty-eight newspapers, thirteen magazines, eight radio stations, four film studios, extensive real-estate holdings and thirty-one thousand employees.
He was also a significant public figure: although his political endeavors had proved largely unsuccessful, the influence he exerted through his direct control of his media empire attracted fame and opprobrium in equal measure.
In 1917, one biographer described him as:
"The most hated man
in the country".
The actor Ralph Bellamy, a guest at San Simeon in the mid-1930's, recorded Hearst's working methods in a description of a party in the Assembly Room:
"The party was quite gay. And in the midst of it,
Mr Hearst came in. There was a teletype machine
just inside, and he stopped and he read it.
He went to a table and picked up a phone.
He asked for the editor of his San Francisco
newspaper and he said, 'Put this in a two-column
box of the front pages of all the newspapers
tomorrow morning.'
And without notes he dictated an editorial."
Morgan and Hearst's partnership at San Simeon lasted from 1919 until his final departure from the castle in 1947. Their correspondence, preserved in the Julia Morgan archive in the Robert E. Kennedy Library at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, runs to some 3,700 letters and telegrams.
Victoria Kastner, Hearst Castle's in-house custodian, has described the partnership as "a rare, true collaboration," and there are many contemporary accounts of the closeness of the relationship. Walter Steilberg, a draughtsman in Morgan's office, once observed them at dinner:
"The rest of us could have been a
hundred miles away; they didn't pay
any attention to anybody ... these
two very different people just clicked".
Thomas Aidala, in his 1984 history of the castle, made a similar observation:
"Seated opposite each other, they
would discuss and review work,
consider design changes, pass
drawings back and forth ... seemingly
oblivious of the rest of the guests."
Having a Ball: 1925–1938
Hearst and his family occupied Casa Grande for the first time at Christmas, 1925. Thereafter, Hearst's wife, Millicent, went back to New York, and from 1926 until they left for the last time in 1947, Hearst's mistress Marion Davies acted as his chatelaine at the castle.
The Hollywood and political elite often visited in the 1920's and 1930's. Among Hearst's guests were Calvin Coolidge, Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, the Marx Brothers, Charles Lindbergh, and Clark Gable.
Churchill described his host, and Millicent Hearst and Davies, in a letter to his own wife:
"A grave simple child – with no doubt a
nasty temper – playing with the most
costly toys.
Two magnificent establishments, two
charming wives, complete indifference
to public opinion, oriental hospitalities."
Weekend guests were either brought by private train from Glendale Station north of Los Angeles, and then by car to the castle, or flew into Hearst's airstrip, generally arriving late on Friday evening or on Saturday. Cecil Beaton wrote of his impressions during his first visit for New Year's Eve in 1931:
"We caught sight of a vast, sparkling white
castle in Spain. It was out of a fairy story.
The sun poured down with theatrical
brilliance on tons of white marble and white
stone.
There seemed to be a thousand statues,
pedestals, urns. The flowers were unreal in
their ordered profusion.
Hearst stood smiling at the top of one of
the many flights of garden steps".
Guests were generally left to their own devices during the day. Horseback riding, shooting, swimming, golf, croquet and tennis were all available, while Hearst would lead mounted parties for picnics on the estate. The only absolute deadline was for cocktails in the assembly room at 7.30 on Saturday night.
Alcohol was rationed; guests were not permitted to have liquor in their rooms, and were limited to one cocktail each before dinner. This was due not to meanness on Hearst's part, but to his concerns over Davies's alcoholism, though the rule was frequently flouted.
The actor David Niven later reflected on his supplying illicit alcohol to Davies:
"It seemed fun at the time to stoke up
her fire of outrageous fun and I got a
kick out of feeling I had outwitted one
of the most powerful and best informed
men on earth, but what a disloyal and
crummy betrayal of him, and what a
nasty potential nail to put in her coffin."
Dinner was served at 9.00 in the refectory. Wine came from Hearst's 7,000-bottle cellar. Charlie Chaplin commented on the fare:
"Dinners were elaborate -- pheasant, wild
duck, partridge and venison -- but were
also informal: amidst the opulence, we
were served paper napkins, it was only
when Mrs Hearst was in residence that
the guests were given linen ones."
The informality extended to the ketchup bottles and condiments in jars which were remarked on by many guests.
Dinner was invariably followed by a movie; initially outside, and then in the theater. The actress Ilka Chase recorded a showing in the early 1930's:
"The theater was not yet complete – the plaster
was still wet – so an immense pile of fur coats
was heaped at the door, and each guest picked
one up and enveloped himself before entering...
Hearst and Marion, close together in the gloom
and bundled in their fur coats, looked for all the
world like the big and baby bears".
Movies were generally films from Hearst's own studio, Cosmopolitan Productions, and often featured Marion Davies. Sherman Eubanks, whose father worked as an electrician at the castle, recorded in an oral history:
"Mr Hearst would push a button and call up to
the projectionist and say 'Put on Marion's Peg
o' My Heart'.
So I've seen Peg o' My Heart about fifty times.
This is not being critical. I'm simply saying that's
the way it was. This repetition tended to put a
slight strain on the guests' gratitude."
In 1937, Patricia Van Cleeve married at the castle, the grandest social occasion there since the visit of President and Mrs Coolidge in February 1930. Ken Murray records these two events as the only occasions when formal attire was required of guests to the castle.
Van Cleeve, who married the actor Arthur Lake, was always introduced as Marion Davies' favorite niece. It was frequently rumored that she was in fact Davies and Hearst's daughter, something she herself acknowledged just before her death in 1993.
In February 1938, a plane crash at the San Simeon airstrip led to the deaths of Lord and Lady Plunket, who were traveling to the castle as Hearst's guests, and the pilot Tex Phillips. The only other passenger, the bobsledding champion, James Lawrence, survived.
The Specter at the Feast: Hearst, Welles and Xanadu
Hearst Castle was the inspiration for Xanadu, and Hearst himself the main model for Charles Foster Kane in Orson Welles's 1941 film Citizen Kane.
Having made his name with the Mercury Theatre production of The War of the Worlds in 1938, Welles arrived in Hollywood in 1939 to make a film version of Joseph Conrad's novel, Heart of Darkness for RKO Pictures.
The film was not made, and Welles began a collaboration with the screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz on a screenplay originally entitled American. The film tells the stories of Kane, a media magnate and aspiring politician, and of his second wife Susan Alexander, a failed opera singer driven to drink, who inhabit a castle in Florida.
Filming began in June 1940, and the movie premiered on the 1st. June 1941. Although at the time Orson Welles and RKO denied that the film was based on Hearst, his long-time friend and collaborator, John Houseman was clear:
"The truth is simple: for the basic concept
of Charles Foster Kane and for the main
lines and significant events of his public life,
Mankiewicz used as his model the figure of
William Randolph Hearst".
Told of the film's content before its release – his friends, the gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons having attended early screenings – Hearst made strenuous efforts to stop the premiere. When these failed, he sought to damage the film's circulation by alternately forbidding all mention of it in his media outlets, or by using them to attack both the movie and Welles.
Hearst's assault damaged the film at the box office, and harmed Welles' subsequent career.
Since its inception in 1952 through to 2012, the Sight and Sound Critics' Poll voted Citizen Kane the greatest film of all time in every decade of polling. On the 9th. March 2012 the film was screened in the movie theater at Hearst Castle for the first time as part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival.
Depression, Death and After: 1939–Present
By the late 1930's, the Great Depression and Hearst's profligacy had brought him to the brink of financial ruin. Debts totaled $126 million, and he was compelled to cede financial control of the Hearst Corporation. Newspapers and radio stations were sold, and much of his art collection was dispersed in a series of sales, often for much less than he had paid.
Hearst railed against his losses, and the perceived incompetence of the sales agents, Parish-Watson & Co:
"They greatly cheapened them and us,
he advertises like a bargain basement
sale. I am heartbroken".
Construction at Hearst Castle virtually ceased. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the castle was closed up and Hearst and Davies moved to Wyntoon, which was perceived to be less vulnerable to enemy attack.
They returned in 1945, and construction on a limited scale recommenced, finally ending in 1947. In early May of that year, with his health declining, Hearst and Davies left the castle for the last time. The pair settled in at 1007 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills.
William Randolph Hearst died in 1951, his death abruptly severing him from Davies, who was excluded from the funeral by Hearst's family:
"For thirty-two years I had him,
and they leave me with his
empty room".
In 1950 Julia Morgan closed her San Francisco office after a career of forty-two years. Ill health marred her retirement and she died, a virtual recluse, in early 1957.
In 1958 the Hearst Corporation donated Hearst Castle, its gardens, and many of its contents, to the state of California. A plaque at the castle reads:
"La Cuesta Encantada presented to
the State of California in 1958 by the
Hearst Corporation in memory of
William Randolph Hearst who created
this Enchanted Hill, and of his mother,
Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who
inspired it".
The castle was opened to the public for the first time in June 1958. Hearst Castle was added to the National Register of Historic Places on the 22nd. June.
Hearst was always keen to protect the mystique of his castle. In 1926, he wrote to Morgan to congratulate her after a successful party was held on the hill:
"Those wild movie people said it was
wonderful and that the most extravagant
dream of a movie picture fell far short of
this reality. They all wanted to make a
picture there but they are NOT going to
be allowed to do this."
Commercial filming at the castle is still rarely allowed. Since 1957 only two projects have been granted permission:
-- Stanley Kubrick's 1960 film Spartacus used the castle to stand in as the villa of Marcus Licinius Crassus, played by Lawrence Olivier.
-- In 2014, Lady Gaga's music video for "G.U.Y." was filmed at the Neptune and Roman Pools.
On the 12th. February 1976, the Casa del Sol guesthouse was damaged by a bomb. The device was placed by allies of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), in retaliation for Patty Hearst, Hearst's granddaughter, testifying in court at her trial for armed robbery, following her kidnapping by the SLA in 1974.
On the 22nd. December 2003, an earthquake occurred with its epicenter some three miles north of the castle. With a magnitude of 6.5, it was the largest earthquake recorded at San Simeon. The very limited structural damage which resulted was a testament to the quality of the castle's construction.
Since its opening, the castle has become a major California tourist attraction, attracting over 850,000 visitors in 2018. Recent changes to the tour arrangements now allow visitors time to explore the grounds independently at the conclusion of the conducted tours.
The Hearst family maintains a connection with the castle, which was closed for a day in early August 2019 for the wedding of Amanda Hearst, Hearst's great-granddaughter.
The castle closed in March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After 2 years of closure and repairs to the access road due to rainstorm damage, the castle reopened on the 11th. May 2022.
Architecture of Hearst Castle
Hearst's original idea was to build a bungalow, according to Walter Steilberg, one of Morgan's draftsmen who recalled Hearst's words from the initial meeting:
"I would like to build something up on
the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of
going up there and camping in tents.
I'm getting a little too old for that.
I'd like to get something that would
be a little more comfortable".
However within a month, Hearst's original ideas for a modest dwelling had greatly expanded. Discussion on the style began with consideration of "Jappo-Swisso" themes. Then the Spanish Colonial Revival style was favored. Morgan had used this style when she worked on Hearst's Los Angeles Herald Examiner headquarters in 1915.
Hearst appreciated the Spanish Revival but was dissatisfied with the crudeness of the colonial structures in California. Mexican colonial architecture had more sophistication, but he objected to its abundance of ornamentation.
Thomas Aidala, in his 1984 study of the castle, notes the Churrigueresque influence on the design of the main block:
"Flat and unembellished exterior surfaces;
decorative urges are particularized and
isolated, focused mainly on doorways,
windows and towers".
The Panama-California Exposition of 1915 in San Diego held the closest approximations in California to the approach Hearst desired. But William's European tours, and specifically the inspiration of the Iberian Peninsula, led him to Renaissance and Baroque examples in southern Spain that more exactly suited his tastes. He particularly admired a church in Ronda, Spain and asked Morgan to model the Casa Grande towers after it.
In a letter to Morgan dated 31st. December 1919, Hearst wrote:
"The San Diego Exposition is the best source
of Spanish in California. The alternative is to
build in the Renaissance style of southern Spain.
We picked out the towers of the church at Ronda...
a Renaissance decoration, particularly that of the
very southern part of Spain, could harmonize well
with them.
I would very much like to have your views on what
style of architecture we should select."
This blend of Southern Spanish Renaissance, Revival and Mediterranean examples became San Simeon's defining style:
"Something a little different than other
people are doing out in California".
The architectural writers Arrol Gellner and Douglas Keister describe Casa Grande as
"A palatial fusion of Classicism and Mediterranean
architecture that transcended the Mission Revival
era and instead belonged to the more archaeological
Period Revival styles that gained favor after the
Panama-California Exposition of 1915".
Hearst Castle has a total of 42 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres (half a square kilometer) of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, a movie theater, an airfield and, during Hearst's lifetime, the world's largest private zoo.
Hearst was an inveterate rethinker who would frequently order the redesign of previously agreed, and often built, structures: the Neptune Pool was rebuilt three times before he was satisfied.
He was aware of his propensity for changing his mind; in a letter dated the 18th. March 1920, he wrote to Morgan:
"All little houses stunning. Please complete
before I can think up any more changes".
As a consequence of Hearst's persistent design changes, and financial difficulties in the early and later 1930's, the complex was never finished.
By the late summer of 1919, Morgan had surveyed the site, analyzed its geology, and drawn initial plans for Casa Grande. Construction began in 1919 and continued through 1947 when Hearst left the estate for the last time.
During the early years of construction, until Hearst's stays at San Simeon became longer and more frequent, his approval for the ongoing design was obtained by Morgan sending him models of planned developments.
By the late 1920's the main model, designed by another female architect Julian C. Mesic, had become too large to ship, and Mesic and Morgan would photograph it, hand-color the images, and send these to Hearst.
Construction of Hearst Castle
The castle's location presented major challenges for construction. It was remote; when Morgan began coming to the estate for site visits in 1919, she would leave her San Francisco office on Friday afternoon and take an eight-hour, 200-mile train journey to San Luis Obispo, followed by a fifty-mile drive to San Simeon.
The relative isolation made recruiting and retaining a workforce a constant difficulty. In the early years, the estate lacked water, its limited supplies coming from three natural springs on Pine Mountain, a 3,500-foot-high (1,100 m) peak seven miles (11 km) east of Hearst Castle.
The issue was addressed by the construction of three reservoirs, and Morgan devised a gravity-based water delivery system that transported water from the nearby mountain springs to the reservoirs, including the main one on Rocky Butte, a 2,000-foot (610 m) knoll less than a mile southeast of Hearst Castle.
Water was of particular importance; as well as feeding the pools and fountains Hearst desired, it provided electricity, by way of a private hydroelectric plant, until the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation began service to the castle in 1924.
The climate presented a further challenge. The proximity to the coast brought strong winds in from the Pacific Ocean, and the site's elevation meant that winter storms were frequent and severe.
After a period of severe storms in February 1927, Hearst wrote a letter:
"We are all leaving the hill. We are drowned,
blown and frozen out. Before we build anything
more, let's make what we have practical,
comfortable and beautiful.
If we can't do that we might just as well change
the names of the houses to Pneumonia House,
Diphtheria House and Influenza Bungalow.
The main house we can call the Clinic."
Water was also essential for the production of concrete, the main structural component of the houses and their ancillary buildings.
Morgan had substantial experience of building in steel-reinforced concrete and, together with the firm of consulting engineers Earl and Wright, experimented in finding suitable stone, eventually settling on that quarried from the mountain top on which the foundation platform for the castle was built.
Combining this with desalinated sand from San Simeon Bay produced concrete of exceptionally high quality. Later, white sand was brought in from Carmel. Material for construction was transported either by train and truck, or by sea into a wharf built in San Simeon Bay below the site. In time, a light railway was constructed from the wharf to the castle, and Morgan built a compound of warehouses for storage and accommodation for workers by the bay.
Brick and tile works were also developed on site, as brick was used extensively, and tiling was an important element of the decoration of the castle. Morgan used several tile companies to produce her designs, including Grueby Faience, Batchelder, California Faience and Solon & Schemmel.
Albert Solon and Frank Schemmel came to Hearst Castle to undertake tiling work, and Solon's brother, Camille, was responsible for the design of the mosaics of blue-and-gold Venetian glass tile used in the Roman pool and the murals in Hearst's Gothic library.
Morgan worked with a series of construction managers; Henry Washburn from 1919 to 1922, then Camille Rossi from 1922, until his firing by Hearst in 1932, and finally George Loorz until 1940. From 1920 to 1939, there were between 25 and 150 workmen employed in construction at the castle.
Costs of Hearst Castle
The exact cost of the entire San Simeon complex is unknown. Kastner makes an estimate of expenditure on construction and furnishing the complex between 1919 and 1947 as "under $10,000,000".
Thomas Aidala suggests a slightly more precise figure for the overall cost at between $7.2 and $8.2 million. Hearst's relaxed approach to using the funds of his companies, and sometimes the companies themselves, to make personal purchases made clear accounting for expenditure almost impossible.
In 1927 one of his lawyers wrote:
"The entire history of your corporation
shows an informal method of withdrawal
of funds".
In 1945, when the Hearst Corporation was closing the Hearst Castle account for the final time, Morgan gave a breakdown of construction costs, which did not include expenditure on antiques and furnishings.
Casa Grande's build cost is given as $2,987,000, and that for the guest houses, $500,000. Other works, including nearly half a million dollars on the Neptune pool, brought the total to $4,717,000.
Morgan's fees for twenty-odd years of almost continuous work came to $70,755. Her initial fee was a 6% commission on total costs. This was later increased to 8.5%. Many additional expenses, and challenges in getting prompt payment, led her to receive rather less than this.
Kastner suggests that Morgan made an overall profit of $100,000 on the entire, twenty-year, project. Her modest remuneration was unimportant to her. At the height of Hearst's financial travails in the late 1930's, when his debts stood at over $87 million, Morgan wrote to him,
"I wish you would use me in any way
that relieves your mind as to the care
of your belongings. There never has
been, nor will there be, any charge in
this connection, it is an honor and a
pleasure".
Casa del Mar
Casa del Mar, the largest of the three guest houses, provided accommodation for Hearst himself until Casa Grande was ready in 1925. He stayed in the house again in 1947, during his last visit to the estate.
Casa del Mar contains 5,350 square feet (546 square meters) of floor space. Although luxuriously designed and furnished, none of the guest houses had kitchen facilities, a lack that sometimes irritated Hearst's guests. Adela Rogers St. Johns recounted her first visit:
"I rang and asked the maid for coffee.
With a smile, she said I would have to
go up to the castle for that.
I asked Marion Davies about this. She
said W. R. Hearst did not approve of
breakfast in bed."
Adjacent to Casa del Mar is the wellhead from Phoebe Hearst's Hacienda del Pozo de Verona, which Hearst moved to San Simeon when he sold his mother's estate after her death in 1919.
Casa del Monte
Casa del Monte was the first of the guest houses, originally entitled simply Houses A (del Mar), B (del Monte) and C (del Sol). It was built by Morgan on the slopes below the site of Casa Grande during 1920–1924.
Hearst had initially wanted to commence work with the construction of the main house, but Morgan persuaded him to begin with the guest cottages because the smaller structures could be completed more quickly.
Each guest house faces the Esplanade, and appears as a single story at its front entrance. Additional stories descend rearward down the terraced mountain side. Casa del Monte has 2,550 sq ft (237 sq. meters) of living space.
Casa del Sol
The decorative style of the Casa del Sol is Moorish, accentuated by the use of antique Persian tiles. A bronze copy of Donatello's David stands atop a copy of an original Spanish fountain.
The inspiration for the fountain came from an illustration in a book, The Minor Ecclesiastical, Domestic and Garden Architecture of Southern Spain, written by Austin Whittlesey and published in 1919.
Hearst sent a copy to Morgan, while retaining another for himself, and it proved a fertile source of ideas. The size of the house is 3,620 square feet (242 sq. meters).
Morgan's staff were responsible for the cataloguing of those parts of Hearst's art collection which were shipped to California, and an oral record made in the 1980's indicates the methodology used for furnishing the buildings at San Simeon:
"We would set the object up, and then I would
stand with a yardstick to give it scale. Sam Crow
would take a picture. Then we would give it a
number and I would write a description.
These were made into albums.
When Mr Hearst would write and say 'I want a
Florentine mantel in Cottage C in Room B, and
four yards of tiles,' then we would look it up in
the books and find something that would fit."
Casa Grande
Construction of Casa Grande began in April 1922. Work continued almost until Hearst's final departure on the 2nd. May 1947, and even then the house was unfinished. The size of Casa Grande is 68,500 square feet (5,634 sq. meters).
The main western façade is four stories. The entrance front, inspired by a gateway in Seville, is flanked by twin bell towers modeled on the tower of the church of Santa Maria la Mayor.
The layout of the main house was originally to a T-plan, with the assembly room to the front, and the refectory at a right angle to its center. The subsequent extensions of the North and South wings modified the original design.
As elsewhere, the core construction material is concrete, though the façade is faced in stone. In October 1927 Morgan wrote to Arthur Byne:
"We finally took the bull by the horns
and are facing the entire main building
with a Manti stone from Utah."
Morgan assured Hearst that it would be "the making of the building".
A cast-stone balcony fronts the second floor, and another in cast-iron the third. Above this is a large wooden overhang or gable. This was constructed in Siamese teak, originally intended to outfit a ship, which Morgan located in San Francisco.
The carving was undertaken by her senior carver Jules Suppo. Sara Holmes Boutelle suggests Morgan may have been inspired by a somewhat similar example at the Mission San Xavier del Bac in Arizona. The façade terminates with the bell towers, comprising the Celestial suites, the carillon towers and two cupolas.
The curator Victoria Kastner notes a particular feature of Casa Grande, the absence of any grand staircases. Access to the upper floors is either by elevators or stairwells in the corner turrets of the building. Many of the stairwells are undecorated and the plain, poured concrete contrasts with the richness of the decoration elsewhere.
The terrace in front of the entrance, named Central Plaza, has a quatrefoil pond at its center, with a statue of Galatea on a Dolphin. The statue was inherited, having been bought by Phoebe Hearst when her son was temporarily short of money.
The doorway from the Central Plaza into Casa Grande illustrates Morgan and Hearst's relaxed approach to combining genuine antiques with modern reproductions to achieve the effects they both desired. A 16th.-century iron gate from Spain is topped by a fanlight grille, constructed in a matching style in the 1920's by Ed Trinkeller, the castle's main ironmonger.
The castle made use of the latest technology. Casa Grande was wired with an early sound system, allowing guests to make music selections which were played from a Capehart phonograph located in the basement, and piped into rooms in the house through a system of speakers. Alternatively, six radio stations were available.
The entire estate was also equipped with 80 telephones, operated through a PBX switchboard, which was staffed 24 hours a day, and ran under the exclusive exchange 'Hacienda'.
Fortune recorded an example of Hearst's delighting in the ubiquitous access the system provided:
"A guest) fell to wondering about the result
of a ball game while seated by a campfire
with Mr Hearst, a day's ride from the castle.
'I'll tell you' volunteers Mr Hearst and,
fumbling with the rock against which he was
leaning, pulls from there a telephone, asks
for New York, and relieves his guest's curiosity".
The Assembly Room
The assembly room is the main reception room of the castle, described in 1985 by Taylor Coffman as:
"One of San Simeon's most
magnificent interiors".
The fireplace, originally from a Burgundian chateau in Jours-lès-Baigneux, is named the Great Barney Mantel, after a previous owner, Charles T. Barney, from whose estate Hearst bought it after Barney's suicide.
The ceiling is from an Italian palazzo. A concealed door in the paneling next to the fireplace allowed Hearst to surprise his guests by entering unannounced. The door opened off an elevator which connected with his Gothic suite on the third floor.
The assembly room, completed in 1926, is nearly 2,500 square feet in extent, and was described by the writer and illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans as:
"Looking like half of Grand
Central Station".
The room held some of Hearst's best tapestries. These include four from a set celebrating the Roman general Scipio Africanus, designed by Giulio Romano, and two copied from drawings by Peter Paul Rubens depicting The Triumph of Religion.
The need to fit the tapestries above the paneling and below the roof required the installation of the unusually low windows.
The room has the only piece of Victorian decorative art in the castle, the Orchid Vase lamp, made by Tiffany for the Exposition Universelle held in Paris in 1889. It was bought by Phoebe Hearst, who had the original vase converted to a lamp. William placed it in the assembly room in tribute to his mother.
The Refectory
The refectory was the only dining room in the castle, and was built between 1926 and 1927. The choir stalls which line the walls are from the La Seu d'Urgell Cathedral in Catalonia, and the silk flags mounted on the walls are Palio banners from Siena.
Hearst originally intended a "vaulted Moorish ceiling" for the room but, finding nothing suitable, he and Morgan settled on the Italian Renaissance example, dating from around 1600, which Hearst purchased from a dealer in Rome in 1924.
Victoria Kastner considered that the flat roof, with life-size carvings of saints:
"Strikes a discordant note of
horizontality among the vertical
lines of the room".
The style of the whole is Gothic, in contrast to the Renaissance approach adopted in the preceding assembly room. The refectory is said to have been Morgan's favorite interior within the castle.
The design of both the refectory and the assembly room was greatly influenced by the monumental architectural elements, especially the fireplaces and the choir stalls used as wainscoting, and works of art, particularly the tapestries, which Hearst determined would be incorporated into the rooms.
The central table provided seating for 22 in its usual arrangement of two tables, which could be extended to three or four, on the occasion of larger gatherings. The tables were sourced from an Italian monastery, and were the setting for some of the best pieces from Hearst's collection of silverware. One of the finest is a wine cooler dating from the early 18th. century and weighing 14.2 kg by the Anglo-French silversmith David Willaume.
The Library
The library is on the second floor, directly above the assembly room. The ceiling is 16th. century Spanish, and a remnant is used in the library's lobby. It comprises three separate ceilings, from different rooms in the same Spanish house, which Morgan combined into one.
The fireplace is the largest Italian example in the castle. Carved from limestone, it is attributed to the medieval sculptor and architect Benedetto da Maiano.
The library contains a collection of over 5,000 books, with another 3,700 in Hearst's study above. The majority of the library collections, including Hearst's choicest pieces from his sets of, often signed, first editions by Charles Dickens, his favorite author, were sold at sales at Parke-Bernet at 1939 and Gimbels in 1941. The library is also the location for much of Hearst's important holding of antique Greek vases.
The Cloisters and the Doge's Suite
The Cloisters form a grouping of four bedrooms above the refectory and, along with the Doge's Suite above the breakfast room, were completed in 1926. The Doge's Suite was occupied by Millicent Hearst on her rare visits to the castle.
The room is lined with blue silk, and has a Dutch painted ceiling, in addition to two more of Spanish origin, which was once the property of architect Stanford White.
Morgan also incorporated an original Venetian loggia in the suite, refashioned as a balcony. The suite leads on to Morgan's inventive North and South Duplex apartments, with sitting areas and bathrooms at entry level and bedrooms on mezzanine floors above.
The Gothic Suite
The Gothic suite was Hearst's private apartment on the third floor. He moved there in 1927. It comprises the Gothic study or library and Hearst's own South Gothic bedroom and private sitting room.
The ceiling of the bedroom is one of the best Hearst bought; Spanish, of the 14th. century, it was discovered by his Iberian agent Arthur Byne who also located the original frieze panels which had been detached and sold some time before.
The whole was installed at the castle in 1924. The space originally allocated for the study was too low to create the impression desired by Morgan and Hearst, a difficulty Morgan surmounted by raising the roof and supporting the ceiling with concrete trusses.
These, and the walls, were painted with frescoes by Camille Solon. Light was provided by two ranges of clerestory windows. The necessity of raising the roof to incorporate the study occasioned one of the few instances where Hearst hesitated:
"I telegraphed you my fear of the cost...
I imagine it would be ghastly."
Nevertheless Morgan urged further changes and expense. The result vindicated Morgan. The study, completed in 1931, is dominated by a portrait of Hearst at age 31, painted by his life-long friend, Orrin Peck.
The Celestial Suites
The Celestial bedrooms, with a connecting, shared, sitting room, were created between 1924 and 1926. The bell towers were raised to improve the proportions of the building, and the suites constructed in the spaces created below.
The relatively cramped spaces allowed no room for storage, and en-suite bathrooms were "awkwardly squeezed" into lower landings. Ludwig Bemelmans, a guest in the 1930's, recalled:
"There was no place to hang your
clothes, so I hung mine on wire
coat hangers that a former tenant
had left hanging on the arms of
two six-armed gold candelabra,
the rest I put on the floor".
The sitting room contains one of the most important paintings in Hearst's collection, Bonaparte Before the Sphinx (1868) by Jean-Léon Gérôme. The suites are linked externally by a walkway, the Celestial Bridge, which is decorated with elaborate tiling.
The North and South Wings
The North, or Billiard, and the South, or Service, wings complete the castle, and were begun in 1929.
The North wing houses the billiard room on the first floor, which was converted from the original breakfast room. It has a Spanish antique ceiling and a French fireplace, and contains the oldest tapestry in the castle, a Millefleur hunting scene woven in Flanders in the 15th. century.
The spandrel over the doorcase is decorated with a frieze of 16th. century Persian tiles depicting a battle. The 34 tiles originate from Isfahan and were purchased by Hearst at the Kevorkian sale in New York in 1922.
The theater, which leads off the billiard room, was used both for amateur theatricals and the showing of movies from Hearst's Cosmopolitan Studios. The theater accommodated fifty guests and had an electric keyboard that enabled the bells in the carillon towers to be played. The walls are decorated in red damask, which originally hung in the Assembly room, and feature gilded caryatids.
The upper stories of the North Wing were the last to be worked upon, and were never completed. Activity recommenced in 1945 and Morgan delegated the work to her assistant, Warren McClure. Many of the rooms are unfinished, but Aidala considers that the bathrooms in the wing represent first-rate examples of streamline design.
The Service Wing contains the kitchen. The hotel-scale units and worktops are constructed in Monel Metal, an expensive form of nickel alloy invented in 1901. The wing contains further bedroom suites, a staff dining room, and gives entry to the 9,000 square foot basement which contained a wine cellar, pantries, the boiler plant which heated the main house, and a barber shop, for the use of Hearst's guests.
Planned but Uncompleted Elements
Hearst and Morgan intended a large ballroom or cloister to connect the North and South wings at the rear of Casa Grande and unify the whole composition, but it was never undertaken.
In 1932, Hearst contemplated incorporating the reja (grille) he had acquired from Valladolid Cathedral in 1929 into this room. He described his vision in a letter to Morgan dated that year:
"A great ballroom and banqueting hall,
that is the scheme! Isn't it a pippin."
The letter was signed "Sincerely, Your Assistant Architect".
Other structures that did not develop beyond drawings and plans included two more guest houses, in English and Chinese architectural styles.
Collections
After a visit to Ansiglioni's workshop in 1889, William wrote the following in a letter to his mother:
"Why didn't you buy Ansiglioni's Galatea. It is
superb...I have a great notion to buy it myself,
the one thing that prevents me is a scarcity of
funds.
The man wants eight thousand dollars for the
blooming thing. I have the art fever terribly.
Queer, isn't it?
I never miss a gallery and I go and nosey about
the pictures and statuary and wish they were mine."
Hearst was a voracious collector of art, with the stated intention of making the castle "a museum of the best things that I can secure."
The dealer Joseph Duveen, from whom Hearst bought despite their mutual dislike, called him the "Great Accumulator." His robust approach to buying, particularly the purchase and removal of entire historic structures, generated considerable ill-feeling, and sometimes outright opposition.
William's deconstruction and removal of the 14th. century Bradenstoke Priory in England led the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to organize a campaign which used language so violent that its posters had to be pasted over for fear of a libel suit.
Hearst sometimes encountered similar opposition elsewhere. In 1919 he was writing to Morgan about:
"The patio from Bergos (sic) which, by the
way, I own but cannot get out of Spain".
The dismantling of a monastery in Sacramenia, which Hearst bought in its entirety in the 1920's, saw his workmen attacked by enraged villagers.
Hearst's tardiness in paying his bills was another less attractive feature of his purchasing approach; in 1925 Morgan was obliged to write to Arthur Byne:
"Mr. Hearst accepts your
dictum – cash or nothing".
Some of the finest pieces from the collections of books and manuscripts, tapestries, paintings, antiquities and sculpture, amounting to about half of Hearst's total art holdings, were sold in sales in the late 1930's and early 1940's, when Hearst's publishing empire was facing financial collapse, but a great deal remains.
William's art buying had started when he was young and, in his tested fashion, he established a company, the International Studio Arts Corporation, as a vehicle for purchasing works and as a means of dealing with their export and import.
In 1975, the Hearst Corporation donated the archive of Hearst's Brooklyn warehouses, the gathering point for almost all of his European acquisitions before their dispersal to his many homes, to Long Island University.
As of 2015, the university has embarked on a digitization project which will ultimately see the 125 albums of records, and sundry other materials, made available online.
Antiquities
The ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities are the oldest works in Hearst's collection. The oldest of all are the stone figures of the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet which stand on the South Esplanade below Casa Grande. They date from the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, approximately 1550 to 1189 BC.
Morgan designed the pool setting for the pieces, with tiling inspired by ancient Egyptian motifs. In the courtyard of Casa del Monte is one of a total of nine Roman sarcophagi collected by Hearst, dated to 230 AD, and previously held at the Palazzo Barberini, which was acquired at the Charles T. Yerkes sale in 1910.
The most important element of the antiquities collection is the holding of Greek vases, on display in the second-floor library. Although 65 vases were purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after Hearst's death, those which remain at the castle still form one of the world's largest private groups. Hearst began collecting vases in 1901, and his collection was moved from his New York homes to the castle in 1935.
At its peak, the collection numbered over 400 pieces. The vases were placed on the tops of the bookshelves in the library, each carefully wired in place to guard against vibrations from earthquakes. At the time of Hearst's collecting, many of the vases were believed to be of Etruscan manufacture, but later scholars ascribe all of them to Greece.
Sculptures
Hearst often bought multiple lots from sales of major collections; in 1930 he purchased five antique Roman statues from the Lansdowne sale in London. Four are now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and one in the Metropolitan.
William collected bronzes as well as marble figures; a cast of a stone original of Apollo and Daphne by Bernini, dating from around 1617, stands in the Doge's suite.
In addition to his classical sculptures, Hearst was content to acquire 19th. century versions, or contemporary copies of ancient works:
"If we cannot find the right thing
in a classic statue, we can find a
modern one".
He was a particular patron of Charles Cassou, and also favored the early 19th. century Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen whose Venus Victorious remains at the castle.
Both this, and the genuinely classical Athena from the collection of Thomas Hope, were displayed in the Assembly room, along with the Venus Italica by Antonio Canova. Other works by Thorvaldsen include the four large marble medallions in the Assembly room depicting society's virtues.
Two 19th. century marbles are in the anteroom to the Assembly room, Bacchante, by Frederick William MacMonnies, a copy of his bronze original, and Pygmalion and Galatea by Gérôme.
A monumental statue of Galatea, attributed to Leopoldo Ansiglioni and dating from around 1882, stands in the center of the pool on the Main terrace in front of Casa Grande.
Textiles
Tapestries include the Scipio set by Romano in the Assembly room, two from a set telling the Biblical story of Daniel in the Morning room, and the millefleur hunting scene in the Billiard room. The hunting scene is particularly rare, one of only "a handful from this period in the world".
Hearst also assembled and displayed an important collection of Navajo textiles at San Simeon, including blankets, rugs and serapes. Most were purchased from Herman Schweizer, who ran the Indian Department of the Fred Harvey Company.
Originally gathered at Hearst's hacienda at Jolon, they were moved to Wyntoon in 1940 before being brought to San Simeon. They were finally donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1942.
Hearst was always interested in pieces that had historical and cultural connections to the history of California and Central and Latin America. The North Wing contains two Peruvian armorial banners. Dating from the 1580's, they show the shields of Don Luis Jerónimo Fernández Cabrera y Bobadilla, Count of Chinchón and viceroy of Peru.
Nathaniel Burt, the composer and critic evaluated the collections at San Simeon thus:
"Far from being the mere kitsch that
most easterners have been led to
believe, San Simeon is full of real
beauties and treasures".
Paintings
The art collection includes works by Tintoretto, whose portrait of Alvisius Vendramin hangs in the Doge's suite, Franz Xaver Winterhalter who carried out the double portraits of Maximilian I of Mexico and his empress Carlota, located in Casa del Mar, and two portraits of Napoléon by Jean-Léon Gérôme.
Hearst's earliest painting, a Madonna and Child from the school of Duccio di Buoninsegna, dates from the early 14th. century. A gift from his friend, the editor Cissy Patterson, the painting hangs in Hearst's bedroom.
Portrait of a Woman, by Giulio Campi, hangs in a bedroom in the North Wing. In 1928 Hearst acquired the Madonna and Child with Two Angels, by Adriaen Isenbrandt.
The curator Taylor Coffman describes this work, which hangs in the Casa del Mar sitting room, as perhaps "San Simeon's finest painting". In 2018, a previously unattributed Annunciation in the Assembly room was identified as a work of 1690 by Bartolomé Pérez.
The Gardens and Grounds of Hearst Castle
The Esplanade, a curving, paved walkway, connects the main house with the guest cottages; Hearst described it as:
"Giving a finished touch to the big
house, to frame it in, as it were."
Morgan designed the pedestrianized pavement with great care, to create a coup de théâtre for guests, desiring:
"A strikingly noble and saississant effect
be impressed upon everyone on arrival."
Hearst concurred:
"Heartily approve. I certainly want that
saississant effect. I don't know what it
is, but I think we ought to have at least
one such on the premises".
A feature of the gardens are the lampposts topped with alabaster globes; modeled on "janiform hermae", the concept was Hearst's. The Swan lamps, remodeled with alabaster globe lights to match the hermae, were designed by Morgan's chief draftsman, Thaddeus Joy.
Others who influenced Hearst and Morgan in their landscaping include Charles Adams Platt, an artist and gardener who had made a particular study of the layout and planting of Italian villas. Also Nigel Keep, Hearst's orchardman, who worked at San Simeon from 1922 to 1947, and Albert Webb, Hearst's English head gardener who was at the hill from 1922 to 1948.
The Neptune Pool
The Neptune Pool, "the most sumptuous swimming pool on earth", is located near the edge of the hilltop. It is enclosed by a retaining wall and underpinned by a framework of concrete struts to allow for movement in the event of earthquakes.
The pool is often cited as an example of Hearst's changeability; it was reconstructed three times before he was finally satisfied. Originally begun as an ornamental pond, it was first expanded in 1924 as Millicent Hearst desired a swimming pool.
It was enlarged again during 1926–1928 to accommodate Cassou's statuary. Finally, in 1934, it was extended again to act as a setting for a Roman temple, in part original and in part comprising elements from other structures which Hearst transported from Europe and had reconstructed at the site.
The pool holds 345,000 gallons of water, and is equipped with seventeen shower and changing rooms. It was heated by oil-fired burners. In early 2014, the pool was drained due to drought conditions and leakage.
After a long-term restoration project to fix the leaking, the pool was refilled in August 2018. The restoration of the pool was recognized with a Preservation Design Award for Craftsmanship from the California Preservation Foundation in 2019.
The pool is well-supplied with sculpture, particularly works by Charles Cassou. His centerpiece, opposite the Roman temple, is The Birth of Venus. An even larger sculptural grouping, depicting Neptune in a chariot drawn by four horses, was commissioned to fill the empty basin above the Venus. Although carved, it was never installed.
Roman Pool
The Roman Pool, constructed under the tennis courts, provided an indoor alternative to the Neptune pool. Originally mooted by Hearst in 1927, construction did not begin until 1930, and the pool was not completed until 1935.
Hearst initially wanted the pool to be fed by salt-water, but the design challenges proved to be insuperable. A disastrous attempt to fulfill Hearst's desires by pouring 20 tons of washed rock salt into the pool saw the disintegration of the cast-iron heat exchanger and pump.
Inspiration for the mosaic decoration came from the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna. The tiles are of Murano glass, with gold-leaf, and were designed by Solon and manufactured in San Francisco.
Although a pool of "spectacular beauty", it was little used as it was located in a less-visited part of the complex.
The Pergola and Zoo
Two other major features of the grounds were the pergola and the zoo. The pergola, an ornamental bridleway, runs to the west of Casa Grande. Comprising concrete columns, covered in espaliered fruit trees, Morgan ensured that it was built to a height sufficient to allow Hearst, "a tall man with a tall hat on a tall horse", to ride unimpeded down its mile-long length.
Plans for a zoo, to house Hearst's large collection of wild animals, were drawn up by Morgan, and included an elephant house and separate enclosures for antelopes, camels, zebras and bears. The zoo was never constructed, but a range of shelters and pits were built, sited on Orchard Hill.
The Estate
At the height of Hearst's ownership, the estate totaled more than 250,000 acres. W. C. Fields commented on the extent of the estate while on a visit:
"Wonderful place to bring up children.
You can send them out to play. They
won't come back till they're grown."
23 miles to the north of the castle, Morgan constructed the Milpitas Hacienda, a ranch-house that acted as a trianon to the main estate, and as a focus for riding expeditions.
Appraisals of Hearst Castle
As with Hearst himself, Hearst Castle and its collections have been the subject of considerable criticism. From the 1940's the view of Hearst and Morgan's most important joint creation as the phantasmagorical Xanadu of Orson Welles's imagination has been commonplace.
Some literary depictions were gently mocking; P. G. Wodehouse's novel of 1953, The Return of Jeeves has a character describe her stay:
"I remember visiting San Simeon once,
and there was a whole French Abbey
lying on the grass."
John Steinbeck's unnamed description was certainly of Hearst:
"They's a fella, newspaper fella near the
coast, got a million acres. Fat, sof' fella
with little mean eyes an' a mouth like a
ass-hole".
The writer John Dos Passos went further, explicitly referencing Hearst in the third volume of his 1938 U.S.A trilogy:
"The emperor of newsprint retired to his
fief of San Simeon where he built an
Andalusian palace and there spends his
last years amid the relaxing adulations
of screen stars, admen, screenwriters,
publicity-men, columnists.
Until he dies, a spent Caesar grown old
with spending."
The English architectural writer Clive Aslet was little more complimentary about the castle. Disliking its "unsympathetic texture of poured concrete", he described it as "best seen from a distance".
The unfinished, and unresolved, rear façade of Casa Grande has been the subject of particular negative comment; Carleton Winslow and Nicola Frye, in their history from 1980, suggest:
"The flanking North and South wings
compete rather disastrously with the
central doge's suite block."
Others questioned the castle's very existence; the architect Witold Rybczynski asked:
"What is this Italian villa doing on the
Californian Coastal Range? A costly
piece of theatrical décor that ignores
its context and lacks meaning."
Hearst's collections were similarly disparaged. The art historian William George Constable echoed Joseph Duveen when he assessed Hearst as:
"Not a collector but a gigantic
and voracious magpie."
Later decades after Hearst's death have seen a more sympathetic and appreciative evaluation of his collections, and the estate he and Morgan created to house them.
The director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Hoving, although listing Hearst only at number 83 in his evaluation of America's top 101 art collectors, wrote:
"Hearst is being reevaluated. He may
have been much more of a collector
than was thought at the time of his
death."
The curator Mary Levkoff, in her 2008 study, Hearst the Collector, contends that he was indeed a collector, describing the four separate "staggeringly important" collections of antique vases, tapestries, armor and silver which Hearst had brought together.
She wrote of the challenge of bringing their artistic merit to light from under the shadow of his own reputation.
Of Morgan's building, its stock has risen with the re-evaluation of her standing and accomplishments, which saw her inducted into the California Hall of Fame in 2008. She became the first woman to receive the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2014, and to have an obituary in The New York Times as recently as 2019.
The writer John Julius Norwich recorded his recantation after a visit to the castle:
"I went prepared to mock; I remained
to marvel. Hearst Castle is a palace in
every sense of the word."
Final Thoughts From William Randolph Hearst
"News is something somebody doesn't
want printed; all else is advertising.”
"Don't be afraid to make a mistake,
your readers might like it."
"Putting out a newspaper without
promotion is like winking at a girl
in the dark -- well-intentioned, but
ineffective."
"Truth is not only stranger than
fiction, it is more interesting."
"You must keep your mind on the
objective, not on the obstacle."
Scarlett Raven and Marc Marot’s latest exhibition, The Danger Tree, commemorates the World War I’s most iconic poets using the latest technology in augmented reality to weave poetry, animation and music into traditional art. Each painting in this poignant exhibition tells an immersive story of the soldiers who fought and fell in the Great War between 1914 and 1918.
RIAT 2015 witnessed a British airshow 'first' when the JMSDF displayed two examples of its Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft - one static (5507) and one flying (5504). It was also the first time any Japanese military aircraft had taken part in a European flying display.
As the successor to the P-3C, the P-1 is used for prolonged, extensive patrols in the sea areas surrounding Japan.
The P-1 is a totally new aircraft that was developed and manufactured domestically, including the airframe, the engines and the patrol systems.
With its latest technologies, the P-1 flies faster and has a greater range and useful load than the P-3C, enabling it to patrol the extensive sea areas surrounding Japan for many hours.
Info from Kawasaki at: global.kawasaki.com/en/mobility/air/aircrafts/p_1.html
New family Car
[SURPLUS MOTORS] Fuse v7.0 Version v7.0
This purpose build, electric SUV is the modern way to transport family and friends around town. Imposing, modern looks and the latest technology. This is the future way of family travel!
Of course it comes with all the other options you are used to from us!
It comes with a charger. This charger is compatible with all our EV vehicles and with other vehicles that use the Vision Motoros EV system.
The Fuse is also GTFO! ready.GTFO! is a fun cargo game. More info on sl-gtfo.com/
The Fuse uses PBR and ALM effects
Redesigned and optimized for Second Life by Surplus Motors
We worked hard and did a lot of testing to ensure you will have a great experience while driving this car. The feedback we had from our testers has been really awesome.
[SURPLUS MOTORS] Panther v7.0
and
[SURPLUS MOTORS] Zaldi v7.0
Jules Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/93169498@N08/
Surplus Flickr: www.flickr.com/groups/surplusmotors/
Marketplace: marketplace.secondlife.com/en-US/stores/124438/
InWorld Mainstore: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Amityville/69/69/24
Credit to Deth for inspiration and some part usages.
Credit to Garde for major inspiration on this weapon.
MPA's latest main line assault weapon, designed as an entry bid for a western nation's weapon competition, the T1 MAWP Jörmungandr hopes to be the first MPA weapon to achieve large scale adoption by a nation's military.
The purpose of the Jörmungandr is to field unmatched firepower at close to medium ranges, particularly to dominate the growing urban battlefield.
It features a double barrel firing system that alternates firing times to allow for a high rate of fire without overheating. In addition to this, a high cap side ported integrated shotgun for room clearing.
Default ships with 40rd mag. Shotgun also holds 40 caseless shells in a helical tube mag above the barrel of the shotgun.
As always, MPA is proud to present the latest technology integrated into a weapon.
Hard to believe 15 years have gone by since EMD's dream of a 6000 h.p. locomotive on one platform fell flat on its face. The latest technology, and SD70ACe with Individual Axle Control (IAC), awaits a turn in the shop to be completed and delivered to the builder. For a look at full roster view of one of these, go to locoslides.com/Coming_soon.php
"Victoria Mansion, also known as the Morse-Libby House or Morse-Libby Mansion, is a landmark example of American residential architecture located in downtown Portland, Maine, United States. The brownstone exterior, elaborate interior design, opulent furnishings and early technological conveniences provide a detailed portrait of lavish living in nineteenth-century America. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its architectural significance as a particularly well-preserved Italianate mansion.
This stately brownstone Italianate villa was completed in 1860 as a summer home for hotelier Ruggles Sylvester Morse. Morse had left Maine to make his fortune in hotels in New York, Boston and New Orleans. The house was designed by the New Haven architect Henry Austin. Its distinctive asymmetric form includes a four-story tower, overhanging eaves, verandas, and ornate windows. The frescoes and trompe-l'œil wall decorations were created by the artist and decorator Giuseppe Guidicini.
The building is recognized as one of the finest, and least-altered examples of a large Italianate brick/brownstone home in the United States. Gustave Herter created the interiors in a range of styles, and this house is his earliest known and only intact commission. Due to donations by the Libby family, 97 percent of the original contents survive, including Herter furniture, elaborate wall paintings, artworks, carpets, gas lighting fixtures, stained glass, porcelain, silver, and glassware.
The house has twin sinks in the guest bedroom on the second floor; a Turkish smoking room, which is one of the first example of Islamic architecture in the United States; carved marble fireplaces; and a flying staircase. When designing the home, Morse incorporated features from his luxury hotels, including the large and tall entryway, and wall-to-wall carpeting. The house used some of the latest technologies of the era (some of which he also took from his hotels), such as central heating, gas lighting, hot and cold running water, and a servant call system. As part of a new and unique design, the water for the house was provided by gutters in the tower and third floor, which ran down through pipes into all the rooms, with separate pipes for heated water, which was heated using coal, and another for cold water.
Morse lived in the house until his death in 1893. A year later, the house and its contents were sold by his wife to Joseph Ralph Libby, a Portland merchant and department store owner. The Libby family occupied the house for over 30 more years, until 1928, without making significant changes to it. However, one significant change made was the repainting of the green room in white, which restorationists were unable to restore once it became a museum.
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropolitan area in the United States. Portland's economy relies mostly on the service sector and tourism. The Old Port is known for its nightlife and 19th-century architecture. Marine industry plays an important role in the city's economy, with an active waterfront that supports fishing and commercial shipping. The Port of Portland is the second-largest tonnage seaport in New England.
The city seal depicts a phoenix rising from ashes, a reference to recovery from four devastating fires. Portland was named after the English Isle of Portland, Dorset. In turn, the city of Portland, Oregon was named after Portland, Maine. The word Portland is derived from the Old English word Portlanda, which means "land surrounding a harbor". The Greater Portland area has emerged as an important center for the creative economy, which is also bringing gentrification." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
CANADA 82, the first International Philatelic Youth Exhibition ever held outside Europe, will take place in the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto from 20 to 24 May 1982. Seventeen or more foreign postal administrations have indicated that they will either attend or provide an exhibit. Visitors will view 1,000 or more frames of international class material, and a court of honour will contain portions of world-famous collections. An engraver will be on hand demonstrating the highly intricate skill of stamp engraving. Canada Post Corporation will demonstrate Telepost and Intelpost, the latest technology in the delivery of mail electronically. Canada's National Postal Museum will provide a unique display of stamps from Canada's National Stamp Collection.
Young people have long been interested in stamp collecting. It was a boy who found the only known copy of the famous British Guiana 1-cent magenta of 1856. Philately enables young people to make new friends and to learn more about history, geography, nature, arts and science. To commemorate CANADA 82 and to honour the work of young collectors, Canada Post Corporation will issue the second souvenir sheet in Canada's postal history. The sheet will include the two stamp-on-stamp commemoratives issued on 11 March 1982. These portrayed the Three penny Beaver and the "Mountie" stamp of 1935. The sheet will also include the three stamps - a 30-cent, a 35-cent, and a 60-cent stamp - to be issued on 20 May 1982, in conjunction with the exhibition.
The 60-cent stamp shows the "Bluenose" stamp of 8 January 1929, also part of the Scroll issue. Under the command of Angus Walters, the "Bluenose" dominated its American rivals in a celebrated series of races for the International Fisherman's Trophy. The stamp was designed by the Toronto firm of Gottschalk + Ash Ltd. The image of the engraved classic stamp has been printed in lithography using two special colours. The tagging bars appear in the white margin of the classic stamp image. This feature permits the background colour of the design to extend through the perforations for the first time on Canadian stamps.
The LEAP Mk. 4 is a light tank, capable of being deployed and / or airborne quickly in any battlefield, equipped with an automated compact turret equipped with a 120 mm OGEL-500 cannon. This vehicle is equipped with the latest technologies in both offensive and defensive military fields. The weapons are remote-controlled to automatically engage targets, especially useful for the 30mm cannon integrated in the CROW system, against slow planes and helicopters. The turret is also armed with 6 missile launchers encapsulated in the turret, divided into 4x ATGM and 2x AA. The 3-member crew is safe in the central safety capsule, protected by composite armor and ERA. The engine is front and produces 800 HP. The LEAP Mk. 4 is also equipped with a smoke launcher, Gunshot Detection System, Laser Warning System, and a meteorological-barometric detector. Finally, this vehicle has amphibious capabilities (it can immerse itself completely, thanks to a side air intake that can be raised when needed). Inspired from Israeli Merkava tank.
It is 1985 now. Technologies are developing with might and main, and people are dreaming of the second millennium's coming. Arcar does not stand aside and presents its vision of the car of the year 2000 with an simple name: 2000.
The 2000 Concept was conceived as a compact sports sedan, packed with the latest technologies 1985 could offer.
One functional car was built. The production version, called Enshu, will enter the market five years after concept presentation, but it is a story for another time.
Curtis Wharf, Guemes Channel.
Built in 2019 by Dakota Creek Industries (DCI) Anacortes, Washington.
"This US flagged Amendment 80 replacement vessel designed for Fishermen’s Finest by Skipsteknisk AS (ST-116XL) specifically for catching and producing frozen at sea white fish products, groundfish, including yellow and rock sole species. Operations will be the North Pacific Gulf of Alaska, Chukchi Sea and Bering Sea."
dakotacreek.com/project/fishermens-finest-trawler/
"The Vessel joins 6 other ST-116 design trawler (ST116 Class), operating around the world and will be the first ST-116XL, and first to operate in the United States. The Vessel will be powered by a MAN 8L32/44CR diesel engine, utilizing the latest Common Rail technology." - Fishermen’s Finest
from arrangement and requirements analysis to design and implementation, we help you grasp small to medium business requirements for Latest and updated technologies we then plan, design, and implement the new technology and Lastly we provide onsite user guidance and turnover for funding on the technology typical projects include Server Migration and Updated, Application Development, and Integration and Design of latest Technologies.
We’re at Little Bedwyn on my beloved local rail track, the former Berks & Hants. This beautiful stretch of track, where the latest technology in rail travel runs alongside the Kennet &Avon Canal, which for many years was also a significant route for transporting freight and goods between Bristol and London, albeit not a particularly quick one. I love the juxtaposition of the two. The shot is taken from the bridge in the picturesque hamlet of Little Bedwyn, that lies to the west of Hungerford. The bridge spans both rail and the canal. Here we see service 1A84, the 10.15 from Penzance to Paddington, being operated by Hitachi Unit 802020, that carries a theme of ‘The nation says thank you’. The special design features words of gratitude in 116 different languages used by those living across the GWR network. The livery was the result of a ‘Design a Train’ competition held by the Great Western Railway to thank key workers for their incredible efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The design was a culmination of 3 winning entries from Teenagers. I have previously posted a shot of this unit passing the Crofton Pumping Station on July 20th 2020, a glorious day much like today.
When you call upon the Calvary, you call upon the Impulser (Series). With the latest technologies in Mecha development pack into this machines, you can dominate the battlefield.
And oh, the red one? It is just clmntinE's Custom prototype.
This is the Impulser; Standard Infantry Configuration with High-Type Maneuver Equipment. This mobility pack boosts in agility and dog-fighting, armed with a suppressor beam gun with bayonet, it got all the bases covered.
'Raspberry Ripple' painted Empire Test Pilots School's Avro (Hawker Siddeley) Andover C.1 XS606 parked outside Shoreham's Terminal building back in 1986.
Singer Link Miles Ltd., built both civil and military Flight Simulators over in nearby Lancing and the ETPS would make an annual pilgrimage here from their base at Boscombe Down for the students to view and try their hand on the latest technology that the company could offer.
Whilst the School still flourishes at Boscombe, Singer Link Miles folded - as did their Andover, being sold off as TL-AEW for use in relief work in Africa.
Unfortunately, on the 10th November 2015 she crashed and burnt out on take-off from Malakal Airport in South Sudan.
Luckily all four crew survived.
Scanned Kodak Gold 100 Negative
Scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) are continuing to work with a range of industry partners to develop the Army’s Future Soldier Vision (FSV), showcasing the personal equipment that soldiers could be using by the mid-2020s.
As well as the design of advanced combat clothing, which includes new materials like four-way stretch fabric and silent hook and loop pockets, new body armour will be lighter, and a new high-tech helmet will have state-of-the- art built-in communication systems.
The Vision is part of the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) plan to ensure that British Soldiers have high-quality equipment utilising the latest technologies, as part of an integrated system. Future Soldier Vision (FSV) gives companies an aim point – an example of an integrated soldier system that balances military need with technology that delivers distributed power to data, scaleable and integrated protection, augmented surveillance and target acquisition, and a range of functional fabrics incorporated into the clothing.
Partners include The Royal College of Art (RCA) who provided professional designers, who – when they weren’t working in London on high-end jewellery – spent months working on the clothing to ensure prototypes were fitted to the body, were easy to run in and comfortable to wear.
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© Crown Copyright 2014
Photographer: DSTL Porton Down Photographer
Image 45163940.jpg from www.defenceimages.mod.uk
This image is available for high resolution download at www.defenceimagery.mod.uk subject to the terms and conditions of the Open Government License at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/. Search for image number 45163940.jpg
For latest news visit www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence
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Brennan and Geraghty’s Store Museum, Maryborough.
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Well stocked hardly describes this 1870s era store with its collection of product and paperwork going back over 140 years..
The National Trust is a community-based organisation dedicated to conserving Australia’s Indigenous, natural and historic heritage through amazing properties like Maryborough’s Brennan & Geraghty’s Store Museum. Here you can take your children through a time warp – back to the early twentieth century in the store that time forgot. With some items of stock dating back as far as the 1890s, Brennan & Geraghty’s Store is like no other shop..
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Established in 1871 by brothers-in-law Patrick Brennan and Martin Geraghty, the store remained in the same family for 101 years, until its closure in 1972. The doors closed on over 50,000 stock items, in addition to the store’s trading records. Following acquisition in 1975 by the National Trust, Brennan & Geraghty’s Store was reopened as a heritage museum with an interesting twist on consumerism..
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Discover shelf after shelf of products used in an era when the latest technology was a wireless radio, when milk was still delivered by hand in a glass bottle that was washed and returned for reuse and decades of records were handwritten into huge volumes! These records, and the goods left on the shelves, show how retail trading once was conducted in a regional Queensland town..
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The Brennan & Geraghty’s Store complex includes the store itself, a stable, a cottage and ‘Uskerty’, the early twentieth-century residence built by Martin Geraghty. All are constructed in light-frame timber and iron, with parts of the store, including the fittings, recycled from other buildings previously located on the site.
Go North East's unallocated "Green Arrow" branded ADL Dart SLF 5/ADL Enviro 200MMC 5495 (NK69 FBG) is pictured here at the Metrocentre Coach Park, Gateshead, prior to entering service at Go North East. 26/09/19
The region’s largest bus company, Go North East, has invested £1.8 million in 11 brand-new, state of the art, environmentally friendly buses for its popular Green Arrow services.
The buses build on the operator’s existing investment, which has already seen 170 low-emission buses join the fleet in recent years, and a total of £12 million set to be invested in further better buses over the next 12 months.
The new Green Arrow buses, which were built in the north at the Scarborough factory of Alexander Dennis, will be rolled out over the next fortnight onto the company’s 97 route which serves Newcastle, Gateshead, Bensham, Lobley Hill, Whickham, Swalwell and intu Metrocentre with buses running up to every 15 minutes.
With a striking green livery, the buses are packed full of creature comforts and the latest technology including comfortable luxury seating with mobile phone holders, free Wi-Fi, media tables featuring wireless charging pads and at-seat USB charging points. There is also no need to worry about missing your stop, as the buses are fitted with next stop audio and visual passenger information systems.
The seats and interior colourscheme have been re-designed by design agency Creating Desire.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the album's release, the previous version of the planetarium show has been reimagined as a visual reinterpretation: Featuring state-of-the-art full-dome technology, surround sound, and a dynamic laser show, it creates an immersive experience that seems to transcend reality. Each song on the album has its own theme, offering a futuristic look forward or a retrospective on Pink Floyd's visual history. All convey a unique experience of time and space, utilizing the latest technology that only a planetarium can offer....Planetarium Berlin
Time
LAKELAND, Fla. – Florida Polytechnic University’s iconic Innovation, Science and Technology (IST) Building in Lakeland now ranks as one of the 16 “most breathtaking” buildings in the world, according to a survey of architects, placing it alongside iconic structures such as the Parthenon in Greece, the Empire State Building and Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Fallingwater” residence.
Business Insider’s “Tech Insider” magazine surveyed 16 prominent architects, asking each to pick just one structure they fondly think of as “breathtaking.” Architect Marica McKeel of Studio MM worked on the IST Building design and said, “Not only do I love the design of the Innovation, Science and Technology Building, but I feel a real connection to this project and to the Lakeland community as my father grew up in Lakeland and I still frequently visit family there.”
Designed by internationally-renowned architect Dr. Santiago Calatrava, the IST Building is the cornerstone of Florida Poly’s campus and the University’s main classroom and laboratory building. The 162,000-square-foot, white-domed building is a moveable and functional work of art, with a louvered roof system that adjusts with the sun’s angle, surrounded by a ring of curved metal pergolas that shade its outer terrace and walkways.
Calatrava repeatedly breaks new ground in architecture, with soaring designs for a new transit station at the rebuilt World Trade Center, a spiraling “Turning Torso” skyscraper in Sweden and the Peace Bridge in Calgary. Among the numerous awards associated with the IST Building is the distinguished Engineering News Record’s (ENR) Global Project of the Year award.
“The IST Building was created to provide an inspiring, modern atmosphere for learning, collaboration and innovation,” said Florida Poly President Dr. Randy K. Avent. “It’s invigorating to walk into this building each day and work alongside faculty, students and staff in one of the world’s most advanced structures.”
The IST Building houses 26 classrooms, the Aula Magna auditorium, faculty and administrative offices, an 11,000-square-foot Commons area and 11 innovation labs – including a 3D printing lab, cyber security lab and heath informatics lab – where students are able to get hands-on experience with the latest technology. Skanska USA was the lead contractor.
Other top accolades earned by the IST Building include:
2014 Engineering News Record Global Best Project by Engineering News Record
Best Projects: 2014 Project of the Year – Southeast Region, Best Higher Education/Research by Engineering News Record
2014 Metal Construction News Design Award in Metal Building Systems
2014 Best Innovative Structural Steel Project of the Year by the American Institute of Steel Construction
2015 Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel (IDEAS2) Award
2015 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture
Data above originated from the following website:
floridapolytechnic.org/news-item/florida-polys-ist-buildi...
latest technology - in 1992. although we are one of those older households that still has a home phone number (in addition to a cell phone) we decided it was time to rid the house of this relic. It still works perfectly. Wish I could say the same about my mobile / cell phones when it is 27.
Scarlett Raven and Marc Marot’s latest exhibition, The Danger Tree, commemorates the World War I’s most iconic poets using the latest technology in augmented reality to weave poetry, animation and music into traditional art. Each painting in this poignant exhibition tells an immersive story of the soldiers who fought and fell in the Great War between 1914 and 1918.
The Y-02 "Vanguard" is a air superiority and interceptor stealth fihting jet built by Goosetrop Industries for Plighia military air force, to replace the old Y-01 designed during the Cold War. The Y-02 is a variable geometry wing jet capable of reaching 2600 km / h and capable of landing and taking off from an aircraft carrier, demonstrating great versatility. The Y-02 is equipped with the latest technologies in avionics and warfare, capable of penetrating deeply into enemy territory without being detected, or launching to detect any hostile aircraft that violates the allied airspace. Among its features we also find internal compartments for missiles of all kinds, plus external hooks to the bulkheads of these compartments, to deploy additional armaments or accessories. Finally, the Y-02 is equipped with an advanced on-board computer equipped with AI and deep-learning capabilities, which makes it capable of operating without the aid of the pilot, if the latter is incapacitated, and, in some cases , operate as an unmanned drone, with the ability to observe the battlefield at 360 degrees thanks to cameras positioned on the fuselage.
"Are you looking to get off your family carbon farm? Not interested in going to work at the Uranium processing plant like all of your high school friends? Want more from life? Excitement, adventure, and more?
Consider a career in the Lunarian Police force, the solar systems finest private corporate police force!
Enjoy luxury company housing, exciting extra-planetary vacation package options year-to-year, as well as a fulfilling career protecting some of the governments most priced laboratories on the Moon!
You'll get to handle some of the latest technology as a part of your daily work, like the exciting Quanntomizer prototype! It uses a proprietary Brimley bulb exclusive to government contractors, with a trade secret booster power cell that enables the Quantomizer's powerful cannon to safely fire. It causes atomic destabilization 200% faster than competitor's atomizers."
Guemes Channel - Sea Trials
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Story Number: NNS160225-13Release Date: 2/25/2016 3:05:00 PM
ANACORTES, Wash. (NNS) -- The Navy's Auxiliary General Purpose Oceanographic Research Vessel (AGOR), R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28), successfully completed Builder's Trials, Feb. 21, off the coast of Anacortes.
Builder's Trials for Sally Ride tested various shipboard systems and ensured readiness prior to conducting Acceptance Trials with the U.S. Navy's Board of Inspection and Survey.
The propulsion system, mission-over-the-side handling equipment, anchor handling system, and work/rescue boat launch system were among the systems successfully demonstrated.
"R/V Sally Ride performed remarkably well during Builder's Trials these past few weeks," said Mike Kosar, program manager for Support Ships, Boats, and Craft. "Our entire Navy and shipbuilder team have done an outstanding job in preparing the vessel for upcoming acceptance trials."
Based on a single-hull commercial design, R/V Sally Ride is approximately 238 feet long and incorporates the latest technologies, including high-efficiency diesel engines, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with the world. Oceanographic Research Vessels provide scientists with the tools and capabilities to support ongoing research, including in the Atlantic, Western Pacific and Indian Ocean regions across a wide variety of missions.
Upon delivery, the ship will be operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography under a charter party agreement with Office of Naval Research. The vessel has accommodations for 24 scientists and will operate with a crew of 20.
This is the second ship of its class built by Dakota Creek Industries. The shipbuilder also constructed R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27), which delivered to the Navy in September 2015.As one of the Defense Department's largest acquisition organizations, PEO Ships is responsible for executing the development and procurement of all destroyers, amphibious ships, special mission and support ships, and boats and craft.
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The Neil Armstrong-class of research vessels are modern research vessels based on a commercial design, capable of integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas. The Neil Armstrong-class will feature a modern suite of oceanographic equipment, state of the art acoustic equipment capable of mapping the deepest parts of the oceans, advanced over-the-side handling gear to deploy and retrieve scientific instruments, emissions controls for stack gasses, and new information technology tools both for monitoring shipboard systems and for communicating with land-based sites worldwide. Enhanced modular onboard laboratories and extensive science payload capacity will provide the ships with the flexibility to meet a wide variety of oceanographic research challenges in the coming decades.
U.S. Navy research vessels being built at Dakota Creek Industries in Anacortes will be named after Neil Armstrong & Sally Ride
Mission: Integrated, interdisciplinary, general purpose oceanographic research in coastal and deep ocean areas.Oceanographic sampling and data collection of surface, midwater, sea floor, and sub-bottom parameters.
Quantity: Two (2)
User: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (AGOR 27),
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (AGOR 28)
Ship Names: R/V Neil Armstrong (AGOR 27)
R/V Sally Ride (AGOR 28)
Builder: Dakota Creek Industries, Inc.
Contract: FFP (Firm Fixed Price)
Contract Value: $177.4M
ROM Unit Cost: $74.1 M (lead), $71.0M (follow)
Key Characteristics:
• Hull Material Steel; Aluminum pilothouse
• Length 238 ft
• Beam (Max) 50 ft
• Draft 15 ft
• Displacement 3043 LT (Full Load)
• Sustained Speed 12 kts
• Range 10,545 nm
• Endurance 40 days
• Propulsion 4 x 1044 kW Diesels, 2 x 879 kW Electric
Propulsion Motors, 2 x Controllable Pitch
Propellers, Bow & Stern Thrusters
• Accommodations 20 crew, 24 science berths
• ABS Classed/ABS Designed to ABS !A1 Circle E, !AMS
Música e imagen van unidas. Adjunto una misteriosa composición del grupo: TANGERINE DREAM
Pulsar CTRL al mismo tiempo ♫♫ legend ♫♫
El Museo de la Siderurgia y la Minería de Castilla y León está ubicado en el Valle de Sabero, enclave natural privilegiado, que ha estado habitado desde tiempos remotos, evolucionando en el tiempo desde formas sociales de subsistencia propias de una comunidad rural hasta la cristalización de una utopía, la implantación de la primera industria siderúrgica del país en las primeras décadas del siglo XIX, con la construcción del complejo siderúrgico de San Blas, que aplicaba la tecnología más avanzada del momento y que integraba un alto horno de cok y una Ferrería, nave neogótica destinada a taller de forja y laminación.
Los arcos de la Ferrería construidos en ladrillo, son originales. Una mirada hacia el techo a veces nos depara sorpresas.
The Museum of Mining Metallurgy and Castilla y León is located in the Valley of Sabero, privileged natural enclave, which has been inhabited since ancient times, evolving over time from social forms of subsistence typical of a rural community to the crystallization of utopia, the implementation of the country's first steel industry in the early decades of the nineteenth century with the construction of the steel complex of San Blas, which applied the latest technology of the moment and that integrated blast furnace coke and Forge, neo-Gothic nave workshop aimed at forging and rolling.
Different TV news outlets were at this particular event. There is an Armenian language TV station located in Glendale, and this may have been a cameraman from that station. I couldn't hear what they were saying, as the courtyard created not-so-great acoustics. But I always like to get photos of TV news crews, as well as the latest technology they use.