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He's probably the station's most amusing (off color) DJ.
Thank god for Epson's ICE software and Photoshop. You should've seen how terrible this looked after an untouched scan. Scuffs, fingerprints, dust, scratches... Effin' Express Photo in Foster City doesn't even give you an envelope or sleeves for negs when you develop only. The film just sits in a basket out in the open, like so much trash, until you come pick it up, and then he just rolls it up and hands it to you. Do snapshooters not even want their negatives any more these days?? What. the. hell.
“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”
Children playing in an Internally Displaced Persons camp, in Juba, South Sudan. The camp is home to 10,000 South Sudanese who fled deadly violence that erupted mid December last year. Your support is providing safe spaces for young children, where they learn basic English and Math, and receive trauma counselling.
Further info:
Photo from the UN House Juba 3 IDP camp, in Juba, South Sudan. Juba 3 IDP camp is home to over 10,000 South Sudanese who fled deadly violence that erupted mid December last year.
Caritas member Trócaire has partnered with the Daughters of Mary Immaculate (DMI) Sisters to provide emergency food to the displaced families here. The DMI sisters also provide safe spaces for young children, where they learn basic English and Math, and also support them psychologically through trauma counselling.
Assyrian reliefs
Mostly dating from the period 880-612 BC, these carved scenes are found on free-standing stelae and as panels cut on cliffs and rocks at distant places reached by the Assyrian kings during their campaigns. The most spectacular use of stone reliefs, however, was as panels which decorated the mud-brick walls in palaces and temples up to a height of 2.6 metres.
The scenes were originally picked out with paint, which occasionally survives, and work like modern comic books, starting the story at one end and following it along the walls to the conclusion.
The Assyrians used a form of gypsum for the reliefs and carved it using iron and copper tools. The stone is easily eroded when exposed to wind and rain and when it was used outside, the reliefs are presumed to have been protected by varnish or paint. It is possible that this form of decoration was adopted by Assyrian kings following their campaigns to the west, where stone reliefs were used in Neo-Hittite cities like Carchemish. The Assyrian reliefs were part of a wider decorative scheme which also included wall paintings and glazed bricks.
The reliefs were first used extensively by king Ashurnasirpal II (about 883-859 BC) at Kalhu (Nimrud). This tradition was maintained in the royal buildings in the later capital cities of Khorsabad and Nineveh.
www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/articles/a/assyr...
THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL MOTOR SPORT
WHAT IS TRACTOR PULLING?
Tractor pulling competitions take place on a 100 metre track, and involve the machines pulling a weight transfer sledge. A weight transfer sledge basically gets heavier to pull as it is pulled down the track. This is achieved by increasing the weight on the pan of the sledge by moving the weight box from the rear to the front of the sledge as the sledge is pulled forward. The winner of the competition is the machine that can pull the sledge the furthest.
If more than one competitor completes the 100 metre track with the sledge (a full pull), then the sledge is made harder to pull, and the competitors who made a full pull go again until they are stopped and a winner obtained.
Tractor pulling is called “The World’s Most Powerful Motor Sport” with some machines producing in excess of 9000 horsepower. However, the sport has many varied classes ranging from the small, single engined 950kg Modifieds, through the stock machines to the multi-engined 4.5 tonne machines. Here is a brief description of the classes which are competed at events with the North West Tractor Pulling Club. The weight of each class is the weight of the machine and driver ready to compete.
Super Farm Class
The Super Farm class is based on a stock farm tractor and is limited to one turbo charger and a RPM limit of 2800. The original tractor engine must be used. This is a low cost class and a starting class for many tractor pulling competitors. The class is competed at 3.5 tonnes.
Under 401 Prostock Class
The Under 401 Prostock class is again based on a farm tractor using the original engine; it’s limited to one turbo charger and a engine size of 401 cubic inches (6.57 litres). There is no RPM limit on this class, which for many is the next step up from Super Farm in the world of tractor pulling. The Under 401 Prostock class is competed at 3.5 tonnes.
Prostock Class
The Prostock class is the next level of stock machines used in tractor pulling. This class is again limited to one turbo charger, but with a larger limit to the engine size of 510 cubic inches (8.36 litres), and again must use the original engine block and cylinder head. These machines become much more highly tuned than the previous classes and again compete at 3.5 tonnes.
Superstock Class
The Superstock class is the most highly tuned of the tractor pulling stock classes. Based on a stock tractor, the machines can use up to 3 turbo pressure stages. As long as the original engine block is used, they can be tuned to almost any level, most these days not using the tractor’s original fuel of diesel but choosing to run on methanol to achieve more power. The Superstock class again competes at 3.5 tonnes.
950kg Modified Class
The smallest of the modified classes, and formally called the Mini Modified class, this tractor pulling class is a single engine machine weighing in at just 950kg complete with driver. The engines used in the 950kg Modified class range from supercharged V8’s to turbine engines and even V12 aircraft engines.
Modified Class
This is the class where almost anything goes – in the Modified class, you’ll see any combination of engines, gearboxes and rear axles imaginable. This class is competed at 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 tonnes. ETPC limitations are set to limit which engine combinations can be used to obtain a fair horsepower limit for each weight class.
The 4.5 tonne class is the most powerful in the tractor pulling world, seeing engine combinations like 5 V8s, 3 V12 aircraft engines or 4 turbines. Horsepowers over 9000 are not uncommon. The BTPA also has a Limited Modified class, this is a 3.5 tonne class with lower horsepower limits than the normal 3.5 class so as to provide a lower cost entry class into the Modified division.
Two Wheel Drive Class
This single V8 engined tractor pulling class is basically a modified class with a dragster/funny car type body fitted. The engine size of this class is limited depending on the type of cylinder heads fitted. This provides a class where the competition is very close. The Two Wheel Drive class is competed at 2600 kg.
Trucks
This class is basically a road-going twin-axle truck with safety modifications for tractor pulling. The amount of tuning allowed has been kept low to provide an entry level class into tractor pulling. The class is competed at 8.5 tonnes.
Modelling a beautiful outfit by Virginie, and a gorgeous purse which is a great gift from Rhonda!!!! Elise is pleased with her new handbag!
OOak jewelry set handmade by me, currently on ebay www.ebay.com/sch/isajm75/m.html?item=111095082821&ssP...
Most often viewed videos/photos (top10):
www.flickr.com/photos/ljcouple/sets/72157640904897455/
To see all of the sets of photos & videos, please click on the following:
Monday, October 1st, 2012
Deloitte Execs Handing Women Pashminas
Photograph by Heidi Laughton/Fortune Most Powerful Women
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
SPORTS AND LEADERSHIP *
Forty years after Title IX, MPW CEOs share how sports helped them become leaders.
Speakers:
Ellen Kullman, Chair and CEO, DuPont
Patricia Woertz, Chairman, President and CEO, Archer Daniels Midland Co.
Moderator: Pattie Sellers, Fortune
Introduction: Billie Jean King, Co-founder World Team Tennis and President
Billie Jean King Enterprises, Inc.
Photograph by Stuart Isett/ Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit
MOST Conference-Interactive Team-Building Activities. Photo by Kevin Bain/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services.
Most of the performers on the Mile have a cluttered backdrop, but this artist chose her background with a lot of care and it made her outfit and performance even more striking.
Sometimes a single image can change one's understanding of a person, place or thing.
Here, seeing a photo of Joe Knowles standing next to his car, one of the most advanced vehicles of the era, transformed my view of the pioneering reality star who was known in his day as The Nature Man from coast to coast.
Yes, Americans are notorious for living beyond their means, and that may have been the case here. Or perhaps Joe Knowles was just enjoying the rewards of his hard work.
As newspapers of the era liked to point out, Joe Knowles became famous for his ability to abandon the trappings of civilization and survive in the wilderness, but he was equally well adapted to the comforts and luxuries of city living.
Proving a point about humankind's ingenuity under primitive conditions was Knowles' passion, but he was also a hard-working entrepreneur and promoter. This photo suggests that Knowles not only made good money but was able to hang onto it.
As soon as Knowles returned from the forests of the Siskiyous in 1914, he began making personal appearances in Oregon and California to demonstrate his survival skills. In time he added a tame bear to his act. Then he landed a movie deal that took him back to the Siskiyous, There, his encounters with a cougar and perilous rapids put him back in the headlines.
Turning up In New York, Knowles announced the next chapter in his wilderness adventures: he would mentor two intrepid women in his woodcraft! To prove he was serious, Knowles sat for a publicity photo with the two "Eves" that graced the pages of many a publication.
This twist was hardly surprising. By then, several women had already made their own bids for the limelight by publicly professing their intention to emulate The Nature Man on their own. Almost from the outset, the press had evinced a coy preoccupation over how Knowles's female imitators might be attired on Day One. Victorian prudishness had receded far enough by the teens of the 1900s that reporters could write that Knowles planned to enter the forest nude, though not far enough that they could publish photos of Knowles in the altogether. Today, some might call that state of affairs titillating.
The story behind Joe Knowles' announcement that Elaine Hammerstein (a cousin of the hugely famous Oscar Hammerstein II) would be joining him in the Adirondacks for a reprise of his earlier exploits in the woods is surely worthy of a movie. Nothing in Elaine's basic biography even hints that such a feat might have interested her. Nothing more appeared about the project in the New York press after the splash of the announcement. An item in a Western newspaper reported that an early winter had forced the two of them to call off their plans. Joe himself said that Elaine found her grass skirt not up to the challenge of keeping her warm.
When America's entry into the Great War in 1917 muted the public's enthusiasm for Joe Knowles' nature act, he reinvented himself as the West's leading instructor on woodlore at scout gatherings.
It was his first such event that brought him to the North Beach Peninsula for the first time around 1916. By 1917 Joe Knowles had settled in the village of Seaview, where was immediately hailed as a regional celebrity and accomplished artist. In other words, he was the classic local character. Knowles was famous for being famous, making him a celebrity, but unlike many of that ilk, he had solid accomplishments to his name. By then, "Knowles" had entered the American lexicon as a metaphor for nudity or a penchant for roughing it.
His stature led him to secure numerous commissions, including a series of murals in 1924 for the newest theater in Astoria, Oregon, which was just then rebuilding its downtown after a devastating fire. That year he also painted portraits of the chief justices of the Supreme Courts of Oregon and Washington. The former was received with great fanfare in the press and in real life.
It's at that juncture that we catch up with Joe Knowles standing next to his flashy new car in Portland. This was as much a publicity shot for Knowles as it was for the auto dealership.
© Alan Davey 2024 All rights reserved.
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About the Rickenbacker Vertical Eight Superfine
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By
David Conwill
Updated
August 27, 2024
in Classics, Hemmings Classic Car, Magazine
Too Much, Too Soon – 1925 Rickenbacker Vertical Eight Superfine
The creative genius of car enthusiasts and the cold calculations of businessmen are the age-old yin and yang of the automobile industry. Think of the car enthusiast as an artist, driven to create the purest expression of his or her vision in steel, glass, and rubber–regardless of expense. The businessmen are there to make sure that the unfettered vision doesn’t bankrupt the company. Both the artist and his or her fans may decry the artificial limitation on mechanical genius, but the graveyard of the car business is littered with nameplates that went too far, too fast, and were unable to sustain themselves.
By the time he was approached to append his appellation to the eponymous company in 1921, Eddie Rickenbacker’s car-enthusiast credentials were already well-established: He first rose to prominence as a race-car driver in the 1911-’17 era, having appeared in every Indianapolis 500 race before World War I, and as a driver for the factory teams of Peugeot and Maxwell.
During the war, he was the United States’ “Ace of Aces,” having shot down a confirmed 26 enemy aircraft at the controls of his Nieuport and SPAD biplanes. He was promoted to the rank of major at the end of his service, but throughout his life preferred the rank he felt he had earned, that of captain. By 1918, “Captain Eddie” was already a household name in America.
Rickenbacker wasn’t merely a good driver and pilot. Before his skill at the wheel was recognized, Rickenbacker had seen to his education via a correspondence course in engineering. An early internal-combustion enthusiast, he had also worked for the Columbia Buggy Company selling its Firestone-Columbus automobiles.
Further, Rickenbacker was already associated with General Motors founder Billy Durant, thanks to a marketing arrangement wherein Rickenbacker promoted GM’s Sheridan division. In 1922, he would actually marry Durant’s ex-daughter-in-law. So when Barney Everitt, William Metzger, and Walter Flanders– three men with enormous experience in the auto industry– joined with Rickenbacker, they were getting far more than just a famous name.
Everitt, Metzger, and Flanders are best remembered for the E-M-F Company, which was eventually folded into Studebaker– though that was far from their only accomplishment. They were, respectively, a body man, a salesman, and a production man. All three had good reputations as auto executives, though their companies usually did not survive long after their personal leadership had departed. Rickenbacker was, sadly, not to be an exception.
Captain Eddie himself had initially wished to stay in aviation after the war. Unfortunately, the postwar recession, combined with a glut of surplus aircraft, meant that the fledgling aircraft industry was struggling. Instead, he reverted to his prewar enthusiasm for the automobile. In the 1920s, the line between automotive technology and aviation was far thinner than today, and the disciplines cross-pollinated liberally.
What Rickenbacker wanted in his own new car was to bring the high-performance technology of military aircraft and racing cars to the street. He was not alone in this, with the Chevrolet brothers (who had previously sold their family name to Durant) making similar plans at the same time to turn their Frontenac racing team into a producer of road cars. Rickenbacker got further, however, and while Frontenac was forced to produce speed parts for the Ford Model T, Rickenbacker really did produce what the company termed “a car worthy of its name.”
The biggest technical triumph of the original Rickenbacker Six was its “tandem flywheel.” Captain Eddie had been impressed by the smoothness of the liquid-cooled inline engines of his German opponents in the skies over France. When he was able to inspect the inner workings of crashed or captured airplanes, he discovered that their crankshafts had flywheels at both ends, greatly reducing the vibration transmitted outside of the engine.
What most people remember about Rickenbacker, however, was its pioneering use of four-wheel brakes in the medium-price field. Even the prototype chassis, displayed at the 1922 New York Auto Show, had front-wheel brakes present, a major departure for the time. In June of 1923, both Duesenberg and Rickenbacker announced that four-wheel braking would now be standard. For Duesenberg, a race-bred, high-performance, luxury car, this was not much of a surprise. For a less-expensive car like Rickenbacker, it was remarkable in the extreme.
Other companies soon followed suit, though Studebaker actually launched a smear campaign attempting to paint front brakes as unsafe, and Rickenbacker felt the pressure to continue to update its product line. For 1925, the year of our feature car, the original 58-horsepower, 218-cu.in. straight-six was upgraded to a 236-cu.in. engine with seven main bearings, producing 68 horsepower. The six-cylinder engine was also joined by an L-head, 80-horsepower, 268-cu.in. straight-eight with nine main bearings. The six retained the traditional 117-inch wheelbase, but the eight received a lengthened 121.5-inch wheelbase. The lines were otherwise quite similar.
This “Vertical Eight Superfine,” as the new-for-1925 eight was called, was an excellent car–smooth and powerful. The details are outstanding for a car at its price point, right down to the “hat-in-the-ring” logo, borrowed from the United States Army Air Service’s 94th Pursuit Squadron, Rickenbacker’s own unit, cast into the rear axle housing where only someone crawling underneath the car could see it. In bringing luxury-car features to the mid-price field, it was arguably five years ahead of the competition.
Unfortunately, just as the company seemed to be finding its footing, Flanders–a crack production specialist who had helped Ford Motor Company on its way to the moving assembly line– was killed in a car accident. At the same time, dealers began fleeing the fold, possibly due to Studebaker’s hatchet job (though it wouldn’t stop newcomer Chrysler from adopting four-wheel hydraulic brakes that year) or possibly due to word of the kind of executive infighting that had brought down other efforts by the founders of E-M-F.
It was in this environment that Captain Eddie left the automotive firm bearing his name in 1926. Soon after, he would buy the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which he would own until 1945, and embark on a career as an aviation executive that would keep his name in the public eye until his death in 1973.
Rickenbacker, the company, kept trying, promoting its Super Sport boat-tailed coupe as the fastest four-passenger automobile for sale (faster models from the likes of Duesenberg seated only two) and introducing dual-carburetor engines for 1927. But it was not enough, and the firm did not survive to sell 1928 models.
It is said that after the company folded, Captain Eddie personally repaid all debts he had guaranteed for the company, despite a bankruptcy discharge, burnishing his reputation as an ethical businessman. Everitt went on to help found the Verville Aircraft Company in the same Detroit factory building that had housed Rickenbacker. Metzger also got into aviation, helping form Stinson Aircraft in 1926.
As an interesting aside, the tooling for both the six-cylinder and eight-cylinder 1927 Rickenbackers was sold to a Danish businessman in Germany named Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen who had planned to produce the engines for sale to European automakers. When no orders were forthcoming, Rasmussen instead shopped his designs to Audi, in which he was the majority shareholder. This resulted in the Rickenbacker 6-70 becoming the Audi Type-T “Dresden” and the eight-cylinder Rickenbackers becoming the Audi Type-SS “Zwickau.” Both were produced until 1932.
That makes the four-passenger coupe on these pages a rarity to begin with. In fact, it is believed by the Rickenbacker Club of America to be the only surviving 1925 eight-cylinder coupe. It should come as no surprise, then, that for the past 48 years it has been a part of the Automobile Gallery of the Heritage Museums & Gardens, in Sandwich, Massachusetts. The Automobile Gallery has as its nucleus the collection of pharmaceutical heir J.K. Lilly III, and the Rickenbacker was acquired by Lilly in 1966.
We spoke with Director of Collections and Exhibits Jennifer Madden, and she told us that Lilly acquired the car from a Dearborn, Michigan, collector named J. Walter Heater. We don’t know if there is a connection, but Heater was an executive with a Detroit firm called Fleet Supply Corp. (“parts and supplies for trucks, trailers, and cars”). The address for Fleet Supply, 2896 Central Avenue, was less than a mile from the still-extant former Rickenbacker factory at 4815 Cabot Street–could that have sparked Heater’s interest in finding a Rickenbacker?
Heater found the car in 1960 in what the Detroit Free Press described as “an abandoned garage on Ferry Park Avenue near the Lodge Freeway.” The previous owner, a man named Gauss, was a retired Army engineer. According to a letter in the car’s file at the Heritage Museums, Gauss had sold his home and actually lived in the car in his garage for 15 years!
Heater restored the Rickenbacker, completing the job in 1962. The coupe was immediately recognized as Grand Champion at the Henry Ford Museum’s Old Car Festival in the division for cars built between 1917 and 1925. While it was in his care, it was reunited with Captain Eddie for a television show apparently called On the Street.
Sometime around 1966, Heater and Lilly happened to encounter one another, and Heater told Lilly about his Rickenbacker. The two men corresponded that summer regarding the car, and eventually it was settled that Lilly would purchase it for $5,000 (a little more than $37,500 adjusted for inflation).
Heater even offered to drive the Rickenbacker from Dearborn to Boston for Lilly to take delivery. In a letter, he noted “it runs very well at 55-60 mph, which means two days on the road from here.” Eventually, it was settled that Heater would meet a representative of Lilly’s in Syracuse, New York, about half way between the two men. Heater apparently took the Greyhound home.
It’s not recorded why the Rickenbacker caught Lilly’s fancy. Perhaps it was just the excellent restoration that the car still wears today–having been museum-kept since 1969 and undriven since sometime in the 1970s, although the museum intends to get it driving again soon. It is worth noting that the Lilly family’s roots are not in Boston, or Cape Cod, but rather in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Rickenbacker name and the speedway are icons. It’s not impossible that Lilly, who was six when this car was built, recalled the excitement associated with Captain Eddie and his airplane-inspired car way back when.
Though it survived only a brief six model years, and only an estimated two dozen examples remain, the Rickenbacker is well remembered today, thanks to its technical sophistication and its association with one of America’s greatest aviation heroes. If you are lucky enough to see or experience one, linger awhile and soak in the details, quality construction, mechanical elegance, and handsome styling. You will be glad you did.
www.hemmings.com/stories/too-much-too-soon-1925-rickenbac...
The Four Counties Ring is one of the most varied narrowboat holiday routes. It takes in the counties of Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and West Midlands. Highlights include the Industrial Canal Heritage of the Stoke-on-Trent potteries region, the wealthy pasturelands of Cheshire, to the stunning remote sandstone cuttings of Shropsire. This route is commonly used by holiday boaters typically taking about a week to complete. It is 109 miles, 94 locks and takes around 56 hours travelling. The ring traverses parts of the five canals listed, in anti-clockwise order from Middlewich Junction: Wardle Canal, Shropshire Union (Middlewich Branch), Shropshire Union Canal, Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal and the Trent and Mersey Canal. When we traversed the Ring, it was in a clockwise direction starting and ending at Great Haywood Junction. It was in June of 1985, a quite wet and windy month in that year and in a boat whose reversing gear seemed not to like me.
Though commercial use of the UK's canals declined after the Second World War, recreational use gradually increased as people had more leisure time and disposable income. The establishment in 1946 of a group called the Inland Waterways Association by L. T. C. Rolt and Robert Aickman has helped revive interest in the UK's canals to the point where they are a major leisure destination.
With Gratitude to Wikipaedia
Since the formation of the Basingstoke Canal Purchasing Committee in March 1949, waterway restoration organisations have returned many hundreds of miles of abandoned and remainder canals to use, and work is still ongoing to save many more. Many restoration projects have been led by local canal societies or trusts, who were initially formed to fight the closure of a remainder waterway or to save an abandoned canal from further decay. They now work with local authorities and landowners to develop restoration plans and secure funding. The physical work is sometimes done by contractors, sometimes by volunteers. In 1970 the Waterway Recovery Group was formed to co-ordinate volunteer efforts on canals and river navigation's throughout the United Kingdom.
British Waterways began to see the economic and social potential of canalside development, and moved from hostility towards restoration, through neutrality, towards a supportive stance. Whilst British Waterways was broadly supportive of restoration, its official policy was that it would not take on support of newly restored navigation's unless they came with a sufficient dowry to pay for their ongoing upkeep. In effect, this meant either reclassifying the Remainder Waterway as a Cruising Waterway or entering into an agreement for another body to maintain the waterway.
There has also been a movement to redevelop canals in inner city areas, such as Birmingham, Manchester, Salford and Sheffield, which have both numerous waterways and urban blight. In these cities, waterways redevelopment provides a focus for successful commercial/residential developments such as Gas Street Basin in Birmingham, Castlefield Basin and Salford Quays in Manchester, Victoria Quays in Sheffield. However, these developments are sometimes controversial. In 2005 environmentalists complained that housing developments on London's waterways threatened the vitality of the canal system.
Today the major majority of canals in England and Wales are managed by the Canal & River Trust which, unlike its predecessor British Waterways, tries to have a more positive view on canal restoration and in some cases actively supports ongoing restoration projects such as the restoration projects on the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal and the Grantham Canal.
The Citroen DS4 was voted 'most beautiful car' last year. Creative FX have arguably made it even more beautiful with this chrome wrap. Photographs by RONIN Marketing.
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012
THE BIG GET-TO-KNOW-YOU
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit
RD8556. Probably the most bizarre vehicle on any railway is the replica of Spooner’s Boat. The original boat was built partly as an inspection vehicle and partly as a private vehicle for the Spooner Family. Its date of construction is unknown but almost certainly predates the operation of steam locomotives (1863), being referred to with amused approval by Capt. Tyler, HM Inspector of Railways, in 1864.
It is recorded as being demonstrated in 1876 and achieving a speed of 27mph and being able to stop from this within 30 yards. It came to a sticky end when Charles Easton Spooner disobeyed the rules for train staff working and crashed into an up train in February 1886.
The replica was built by a local boat builder in Porthmadog and ‘launched’ in 2005. It now makes appearances when special events are run on the Ffestiniog Railway. The procedure is to take it up the line attached to the rear of an up train and then come down the line by gravity. The sail is only needed for the level section across The Cob.
The historical data is taken from the excellent Festipedia website : www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/The_Boat
Saturday, 12th October, 2013. Copyright © Ron Fisher.
Photo that accompanied Shelf Appeal blog post April 18, 2010: Revolutionary mother.
http://www.shelfappeal.com/2010/04/revolutionary-mother.html
Ditshupo aka Dee Most Beautiful Botswana Nurse in Black Top with Tropical Flowers including Strelitzia Bird of Paradise White and Yellow Roses and Sunflowers from Columbia Road Sunday Flower Market Portrait Photoshoot Shoreditch Studio London
Time for my annual retrospective!
1. Awakening in fire, 2. Mysterious Morning, 3. Lonely on the water - monochrome, 4. Artisanal Hands V - Gentle Touch [Artisanal Hands Project], 5. Lonely on the water - color, 6. In a grey world. [Monochrome version of "Why worry about the rain?"], 7. Morning Ferry, 8. Fading - Monochrome, 9. Submarine and Space Needle, 10. Rush Hour, 11. An experiment in light painting, 12. They've paved paradise..., 13. All Natural [Monochrome], 14. The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle..., 15. Fast and slow..., 16. Discarded, 17. Delicate - Artisanal Hands X [Artisanal Hands Project], 18. Engine Room, 19. Eye and the Needle, 20. Convergence [Monochrome], 21. Lightly Floating, 22. Splat, 23. Bubble Flowers II, 24. Artisanal Hands IV - Interactive Creation [Artisanal Hands Project], 25. Chasing Shadows, 26. A Christmas ornament beckons [re-edit, see description], 27. Say Cheese!, 28. Serendipity rules! my most interesting pictures of 2011, 29. Swirl - Monochrome, 30. Chasing, 31. In two worlds, 32. Artisanal Hands VII - Teaching (Monochrome) [Artisanal Hands Project], 33. Campground Falls, 34. Soaring in Blue, 35. There is no Art before Coffee!, 36. Bubble Flowers I
Unlike 2011, no real theme emerges... but a lot of interesting photography. Other then my photographers's block towards the end of the year, it was a good year overall.
More comments below:
Monday, October 1st, 2012
Shiseido sponsor table in pre-function area
Photograph by Heidi Laughton/Fortune Most Powerful Women
The most eminent member of the Strickland family of Apperley Court is commemorated in this Victorian stained glass window in St Mary the Virgin, Deerhurst.
Hugh Edwin Strickland was a noted geologist, ornithologist and natural scientist at Cambridge University.
Unfortunately in studying geological strata in a railway cutting he stepped in the way of a train and was killed at the age of 42.
His name lives on principally as the author of the Strickland Code of Zoological Nomenclature, establishing conventions for naming animal species which are still in use today. He was an avid collector of birds and the University Museum of Zoology Cambridge is fortunate to be the custodian of over 6000 of his specimens along with an archive of over 3300 documents and correspondence.
The Most Scenic Spot in Northern Laos, Nong Kiau is a small rustic town by the bridge where the Route 1 to Sam Neua and Vietnam crosses the Ou River.
All our 15 bungalows feature a spacious 40 square meters private room with big private balcony and large bathroom. Source: nongkiau.com
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Nong Khiaw (ຫນອງຂຽວ) is a traveller's haven in the truest sense, offering pampering, good food, decent accommodation and bags of activities with established adventure-tour operators. Nestled on the west bank of the Nam Ou (the river almost currentless since the building of the dam upstream), spanned by a vertiginous bridge and bookended by towering limestone crags, it's surely one of the most photogenic spots in Laos. On the river's scenic east bank (officially called Ban Sop Houn) is the lion's share of guesthouses and restaurants.
Be aware that Nong Khiaw is alternatively known as Muang Ngoi (the name of the surrounding district), creating obvious confusion with Muang Ngoi Neua, a 75-minute boat ride further north. Source: www.lonelyplanet.com
Mostar es una ciudad de medianas dimensiones, aunque lo más visitado e interesante es la zona del puente y alrededores. Es el núcleo principal de Herzegovina.
Fundada por los turcos en el siglo XV, en un estratégico paso fluvial, el barrio antiguo posee todos los alicientes necesarios para satisfacer a los miles de visitantes que se acercan, incluido el Puente (Stari Most), convertido en un símbolo de lo que fue la guerra de los Balcanes.
Estos turcos, llenaron de mezquitas y encanto Mostar, sobretodo el barrio de Kujundziluk. Durante años, aquí convivieron musulmanes y cristianos, entre otras religiones, aunque los cristianos abundan más en la orilla Oeste.
En 2005, Mostar pasó a formar parte de la lista de lugares Patrimonio de la Humanidad de la Unesco.
5th November 2006: Lewes, East Sussex. The town's most important annual event is Lewes Bonfire - Guy Fawkes Night celebrations on the 5th of November. In Lewes this event not only marks the date of the uncovering of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605, but also commemorates the memory of the seventeen Protestant martyrs.
The current celebrations take the form of a series of torchlit processions through the town. The event is organised by the local bonfire societies, under the auspices of the Lewes Bonfire Council[13]. Lewes itself currently has seven bonfire societies (Nevill Juveniles is a children's society and holds its celebrations a week or two before 5th November; Southover, which disbanded in 1985, reformed in 2005) and a number of nearby towns have their own bonfire societies. The other five local bonfire societies from the town (Cliffe, Borough, Commercial Square, South Street and Waterloo) each proceed on their own route accompanied by a number of other societies from the neighbouring towns.
Each bonfire society has its own traditional costumes (ranging from Tudor dress to Mongol warriors). A number of large effigies are drawn though the streets. Effigies of Guy Fawkes and Pope Paul V[14], who became head of the Roman Catholic Church in 1605, feature every year. In addition, each of the five main local societies creates a topical "tableau" (usually, but not always, representing a human figure or figures), and the Cliffe society displays on pikes the heads (also in effigy) of its current "Enemies of Bonfire", who range from nationally reviled figures to local officials who have attempted to place restrictions on the event. Restrictions are generally ignored by the Societies.
In 2001 an effigy of Osama bin Laden ensured that the annual event received more press attention than usual (it featured on the front page of some national newspapers) as did the Firle Bonfire Society's 2003 choice of a gypsy caravan. To mark the demise of the 17 martyrs, 17 burning crosses are carried through the town, and a wreath-laying ceremony occurs at the War Memorial in the centre of town. A flaming tar barrel is also thrown into the river Ouse; this is said to symbolise the throwing of the magistrates into the river after they read the Riot Act to the bonfire boys in 1847, but may also be an echo of Samhain traditions. The festivities culminate in five separate bonfire displays, where the effigies are destroyed by firework and flame. Up to 80,000 people have been known to attend this local spectacle, coming from all over the South and sometimes further afield.
A most perplexing barn. The logs, though seemingly circular-sawed (!), are fitted imprecisely; in barns, logs serve only as structural support, rendering chinking and daubing unnecessary. Chinking and daubing this building would be an impossible task, given the enormous gaps between the logs.
Considering the peculiarities of construction, it's unlikely that CCPV's provided date of 1803 is correct. Before its relocation, the barn stood in Turtle Creek Township, Warren County, on a farm bordering the Union Village Shaker settlement.
Most azaleas we are familiar with today are descended from Asian shrubs, and were originally cultivated by monks of the Buddhist monasteries. The first azalea in Europe was brought from Java to the Netherlands in 1680. Across Europe, breeding of any kind was in the hands of the aristocracy. England was initially home to the most crossings. At that time, azaleas were extremely rare and expensive.