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Choosing lottery tickets in Thailand is a complex business. Many people have very individual and sophisticated systems for predicting the winning numbers. Significant events can be taken as signs - the date/time of a death or birth, the last two digits of a car number plate involved in a crash - and commonly, numbers that might appear in some form in dreams.
My photographs are (C) Copyright Richard Friend and All Rights Reserved
This is the holocaust memorial in Boston. Etched into the glass are the serial numbers of all who died in the concentration camps.
(this image has not been photoshopped)
Drawing lottery numbers using a rotavator. This popular social game is commonly known as Bingo in Australia.
This ancient machine perforates letters and numbers in the edge of sheets of paper, such as cheques or legal documents, to identify them in a way that cannot be erased or altered. Up to eight single-character pin units can be fitted (see next photo); the sliding plate with the hole locks them in place and stops them sliding out again in use. There's no maker's name but I guess early 20th century.
When it arrived with me it had been stored in a damp shed for years and needed some work to get it going again. There were three boxes of pin units, mostly numbers and mostly rusted to uselessness, but a lot of penetrating oil and careful levering got one set in usable condition again. I'm fascinated by gadgets like this and I'm sure it will be very useful. For something, someday …
over 30,000 people have died in Mexico since this government took over five years ago, and the war against organised crime started ...
some statistics say 36,000, some say 40,000 ...
any number is outrageous
9000 death people are not even identified yet [1] ...
and most of them will not ...
kidnapping, extortion, drug dealing, cold blood murder, flow of weapons have dramatically increased over the past five years ...
male, female, old people, teenagers, children are no longer safe in this country, they are targeted too ...
people shouldn't die like this ...
not even criminals ...
nobody deserves to be murdered ...
the government says that only a tiny percentage of the deaths were innocent (356 people [2]) ...
nobody believes those numbers ...
death people are not numbers, they are not just casualties ...
they were dreams, love, cries, laughs, friends, ... brothers ... potentials... hopes ...
of course, organised crime is causing almost all the deaths, but the government must accept their part of responsibility in letting this situation to spread out of control, and they should face the consequences ...
the despair climate is also deepen with the lack of opportunities, namely unemployment ...
the most desperate people are dragged to the organised crime world ...
corruption is spread all over, from the street policeman to the highest employee of the government ... yet no high-ranking official has been apprehended yet ...
this is not the country I was born ...
... in which I grew up ...
... in which, being a child, I could go alone to the school, or to the grocery store or the parlour ...
... in which I used to play baseball or any game outside with my neighbours, also children ...
... in which any crime was not common and everybody reacted frightened or concerned, and not with indifference ...
being a huge amount of crimes, we are getting used to them ...
that is awful, we should never get used to murder ... never.
every day sadness, despair, hopelessness are growing in more and more Mexicans ...
this is not the country in which I grew up happy ...
this can't be this country's fate ...
how come will we overcome this situation ? ...
what is the answer to this riddle ? ...
what are even the appropriate questions ? ...
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[1] unidentified ...
[2] casualties ...
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thanks for reading :)
smile, have a great day !!
I wore this outfit for two days. Over the course of those two days, I swam 3200 yards, spent $85, ran 20 miles, cooked 11 dishes, drank 4 gin and tonics, and watched 1 entire movie. I also slept more hours than I care to admit.
Dress, Jam’s World (thrifted). Shirt, Old Navy. Belt, thrifted. Leggings, Allen B. Moccasins, Minnetonka (gift). Earrings, Monica D. Bag, Nine West.
I am most pleased about all the cooking. Now I have delicious leftovers to eat all week:
Chi-Chi’s Corn Cake (well, we finished that entire thing over the weekend, so no leftovers)
Mexican Street Corn
Carrot and Red Cabbage Slaw
Refried Bean Enchiladas
Curried Beet and Yam Soup
Tabouli
Hummus
Roasted Asparagus
Sweet and Spicy Broccoli
Garlic and Ginger Tofu
Teriyaki Beet Greens (I also ate all of that)
Most of that $85 was spent on groceries.
This picture is dedicated to a a Stand Up Against Poverty that's a worldwide call to take action against poverty and inequality and for the Millennium Development Goals.
Stand Up is led across the world by the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and the UNMC (United Nations Millennium Campaign)
In 2007 43.7 million people across the globe who participated in Stand Up events to show that they refuse to stay silent or seated in the face of poverty.
In 2006 GCAP, MAKE POVERTY HISTORY coalitions and UNMC set a Guinness World Record for the most number of people to ever to simultaneously 'Stand Up' against poverty within a 24 hour period. The initiative was held as a part of GCAP's Month of Mobilization and the release of the record numbers was set to coincide with The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The official record, that Guinness calls the largest single coordinated movement of people in the history of the Guinness World Record, was set at 23,542,614. In 2007 the figures were almost doubled with 43.7 million people participating in ‘Stand Up’ events setting a new Guinness World Record.
Join them online at:
For Pete's sake, Belle, it's not like we planned this. These things happen and "the numbers just don't add up!" So get off your soap box! I don't want to hear any more about it!
And, Jane, "just where did you think you were going?" We have work to do!
Day 146 - 365 Velvet 56 Project
Went on a scavenger hunt for numbers today thanks to a photography prompt. Found some good ones.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
AGO was founded in 1911 in Munich as Flugmaschinenwerke Gustav Otto by Gustav Otto and a Dr Herbert Alberti. Gustav, the son of Nicolaus Otto – inventor of the four-stroke engine, was a pioneer aviator (pilot's license No. 34) and engine-builder. As was usual in those days, a flying school was attached to the business – one of its later students was Ernst Udet. The initials AGO had a variety of meanings (such as Aktiengesellschaft Otto) during the company's lifetime, but in its final version stood for Apparatebau GmbH Oschersleben. At its peak, the company employed around 4,500 people.
After the outbreak of World War I, AGO built a series of military reconnaissance aircraft, beginning with the AGO C.I – a pusher-powered biplane designed by August Haefeli. The most successful of AGO's wartime aircraft was the C.IV of 1916, of which 70 examples were built. After the Armistice, Otto tried automobile manufacturing, but in 1919 had to dismiss the employees of the Berlin company and divest himself of the Oschersleben factory. He himself withdrew to Lake Starnberg where he died in 1926. The company continued, and in the same year developed 20 new hectares of factory space near the Sudenburger Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei AG plant at Magdeburg. By 1928 this enterprise was also forced to close. On 30 July 1930, AGO's remaining assets were sold at auction by order of the court.
In 1933 the government resurrected AGO by refurbishing the Oschersleben plant for aircraft production once more. The first order was for 36 Arado Ar 65 fighters, 197 Arado Ar 66 trainers, and 71 Heinkel He 51 fighters. The first of these to fly was an Ar 65s, on 1 May 1935. This was followed by an order for 140 Henschel Hs 123 dive-bombers delivered at the end of 1937, AGO's introduction to all-metal construction. Next came orders for 241 Gotha Go 145 trainers and 187 Arado Ar 96, and then 150 Henschel Hs 126 reconnaissance aircraft. This latter order was increased to 390 units in Summer 1938. Between March 1937 and March 1938, AGO built 121 Focke-Wulf Fw 44. In 1938, production of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 began, and from 1941 onwards, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 became the mainstay of AGO's production.
AGO only designed a few aircraft on their own and produced them during WWII. The first new AGO aircraft becoming the AGO Ao 192 Kurier of 1937. The last type that went into production was the Ao 175, a reconnaissance and liaison aircraft. A design for a heavy fighter project, the Ao 225 did not progress past the wind-tunnel stage and even the 8−225 RLM airframe designator for the type was withdrawn by the RLM and reassigned to Focke-Achgelis.
The Ao 175 was conceived when the Henschel Hs 126, a pre-war twin-seat design from 1936 with a parasol wing reconnaissance and observation short range aircraft, entered service. While fulfilling its duties it lacked overall performance, the type showed little development potential, so that the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) issued a specification for an advanced short-range reconnaissance aircraft to succeed the type in the tactical support role provided by the Luftwaffe to the Wehrmacht. While Arado Flugzeugwerke (Arado) had responded with the Arado Ar 198, Focke-Wulf's design team produced the Fw 189, a twin-boom aircraft with a central crew gondola with a glazed stepless cockpit. AGO proposed the Ao 175, which was, using the Hs 126 as benchmark, the most conventional design, and it was adopted together with the bigger Fw 189.
The Ao 175 was a conservative design and followed the Hs 126’s parasol layout with a fixed landing gear but differed in some details and offered a better overall performance. The aircraft’s overall dimensions were like the Hs 126, but the all-metal fuselage was sleeker, with a fully closed and generously glazed cockpit for pilot and observer who sat in tandem. The cabin offered space for an additional folding seat for a passenger or a third crewman, e.g. an observer or a camera operator.
For reconnaissance duties the Ao 175 featured three camera compartments behind the cabin: a vertical rack, an oblique forward rack, and a compartment for a horizontal camera with a window in the port side flank. Rb 20/30 and Rb 50/30 cameras could be mounted in each, the oblique rack could even hold a longer Rb 75/30 camera.
The Ao 175’s high wing was mounted above the cockpit and braced against the fuselage, but with less struts and drag than on the Hs 126. A fixed slat ran along the entire length of the wing's leading edge while a hinged and slotted set of control surfaces ran along the entire length of trailing edge. This arrangement was allegedly inspired by an earlier Junkers wing design concept, referred to as a “Doppelflügel” or "double-wing" aircraft wing control surface. On the Ao 175, this setup along each wing panel's trailing edge was split nearly 50/50 between the inboard-located flaps and outboard-located ailerons, which, in turn, included trim tab devices over half of each aileron's trailing edge length. This combination of flaps and slats created an impressive STOL and slow airspeed performance – in fact, the design was so effective that the Ao 175 could land almost vertically when flying against the wind and also required less than 100 m of runway for taking off.
The Ao 175’s powerplant was a liquid-cooled Jumo 211A with 1.000 hp – an unusual choice for a reconnaissance aircraft that operates at low altitudes, but the engine was chosen because it was available and proven, and it offered a relatively low cowling that resulted in a very good field of view for the pilot ahead and downwards. Thanks to the relatively powerful engine and good aerodynamics the Ao 175 achieved a top speed of more than 400 km/h, considerably more than any other German reconnaissance type of the early and mid-war period.
The Ao 175’s armament was still relatively light. It consisted of a synchronized single 13 mm MG 131 in the cowling in front of the cockpit which fired through the propeller disc, and for defense a 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 15 machine gun in a dorsal flexible mount position fired to rear – even though several other, heavier weapons like the twin-barrel MG 81Z or another MG 131 were frequently mounted by the crews.
A ventral hardpoint could carry a single 250 kg (550 lb) bomb or similar loads (e .g. a rack with 2x2 50 kg bombs), but in practice this was hardly ever used. Instead, a 300 l drop tank was frequently carried to extend range and loiter time, or a cargo container of similar shape when the aircraft was used for liaison missions.
During early 1940, Luftwaffe pilots commenced training on the new type. While operational trials of the type were quite successful, Luftwaffe officials concluded that there was little advantage to withdrawing the existing Hs 126s in favor of Ao 175s. Instead, the service decided to introduce the type relatively slowly, thus the Ao 175, just like the Fw 189, was not operational at any meaningful quantity until the summer of 1942. This delay did allow for some refinements to the aircraft, though, particularly its airframe, to be performed during 1941. Modifications around this time included desert survival gear and floats, because most of the first Ao 175 A-1 production models were sent into the MTO and operated in North Africa, Italy, and the Balkans.
By September 1942, 172 Ao 175s were reportedly operational at the Southern front, making up the majority of short-range reconnaissance aircraft present. After that, more aircraft of the improved B variant were delivered, primarily to the Eastern front. Thanks to its relatively high speed and maneuverability Soviet fighters had difficulties targeting the Ao 175, and the Flamingo was often able to out-turn attacking fighters by flying in a tight circle into which enemy fighters could not follow or use the aircraft’s excellent climbing ability at low altitude to move out of fighters’ way. Ao 175 also saw service on other fronts, including West in France and Belgium and even the Middle East.
Production ended in 1944 after roughly 750 aircraft, exact production numbers remain uncertain because production was, beyond ARO’s Oschersleben factory, also carried out in France and Czechoslovakia.
General characteristics:
Crew: 2 (plus 1 optional passenger)
Length: 11.5 m (37 ft 8.75 in)
Wingspan: 13.86 m (45 ft 4.75 in)
Height: 4,18 m (13 ft 8 in)
Wing area: 30.0 m² (322 ft²)
Empty weight: 2,030 kg (4,480 lb)
Loaded weight: 2,493 kg (6,483 lb)
Powerplant:
1× liquid-cooled Jumo 211A with 1.000 hp (736 kW) at 2.200 rpm,
driving a three-blade Junkers constant speed propeller
Performance:
Maximum speed: 395 km/h (245 mph, 215 kn) at 2,500 m (8,200 ft)
Cruise speed: 317 km/h (197 mph, 171 kn)
Landing speed: 65 km/h (40 mph; 35 kn)
Stall speed: 55 km/h (34 mph; 30 kn)
Take-off distance to 50 ft (15 m): 150 m (491 ft)
Range: 1,500 km (620 mi, 540 nmi)
Service ceiling: 7,000 m (23,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 550 m/min (1,800 ft/min)
Time to altitude: 4,000 m (13,000 ft) in eight minutes and 18 seconds
Wing loading: 166 kg/m² (34 lb/ft²)
Armament:
1x 13 mm MG 131 machine gun in the nose, synchronized to fire through the propeller
1x 7.92 mm MG 15 machine gun in a flexible dorsal mount
(often replaced with a 7.92 mm MG 81Z or a 13 mm MG 131).
1x ventral hardpoint for a 250 kg (550 lb) bomb or a 300 l (66 imp. gal/80 US gal) drop tank
The kit and its assembly:
This build is the result of a long gestation and the use of several kitbashing remains from former projects – incidentally all German donors. At the core was a leftover but complete MPM Ju 87 A fuselage, a typical early short-run kit with thick sprues and massive attachment points of the parts, lack of locator pins on the parts, dubious fit, and a very thin and wobbly vacu canopy. Nothing you really want to work with…
I also had wings and landing gear from an Italeri Hs 126, and recently it struck me to combine these with the Ju 87 fuselage into a mid-war recce/spotter aircraft.
However, as simple as this sounds, closer inspection of the hardware revealed several flaws in my plan, and overcoming these required more planning. This led eventually to more/extra donor parts in the form of Fi 156 wings (Academy kit) to bring the concept to fruition, because the deep Hs 126 wings and their elliptical shape would not match well with the rest of the Ju 87, and especially not with its cockpit position and glazing. As a bonus, though, the Fi 156 wings also had the benefit of a square shape which would match well with the Ju 87 stabilizers, and they also had a kinked root for a direct attachment to the fuselage instead of the Hs 126’s indirect struts arrangement. The Hs 126’s spatted landing gear was to be retained, though, because it would fit very well under a Ju 87.
Work started with the chunky fuselage, and I kept it mostly OOB. The only major change is the addition of an adapter for the propeller mounted on an axis (OOB there is NOTHING – you are supposed to glue the spinner to the hull, and that’s it!), and I added some struts inside of the cockpit (inspired by the Westland Lysander’s construction) because the wings would require some support in real life. Major PSR and body work was required to make the Ju 87 wing roots disappear on the fuselage, a ventral display holder adapter was added, as well as camera fairings behind the cockpit. On the original Ju 87 stabilizers simpler support struts were used (actually from the Ju 87 A’s landing gear), and the Hs 126 landing gear and its spats were glued to the lower hull behind the engine.
The biggest challenge became the attachment of the wings, though, because they had to be mounted somehow to the glazing. This would already be tricky with a styrene canopy, but the Ju 87’s thin vacu canopy – due to its instability and the material as such – called for a scratched solution/construction! I initially tried to use the clear parts from the Fi 156 kit, but they would not fit. My solution eventually was again inspired by the Westland Lysander, or better the Matchbox kit’s construction: I cut two slits into the vacu canopy and placed a horizontal styrene bar through them, so that the Fi 156 wings could be mounted on their original attachment points. However, they ended up quite ahead, but at least I had them in a plausible position, even though the whole thing was not stable.
The next problem arose through the canopy itself: mounting a thin and rather flexible vacu piece on the OOB Ju 87 would already have been a stunt, but now it also carried very fragile and instable wings! With much patience and after several failed attempts I was able to fix the vacu canopy in place (with super glue and white glue), and once it was in position I added the wings support struts from the Hs 126 to stabilize the whole parasol construction and somewhat relieve the canopy from the wings’ weight. Never again…!
Painting and markings:
Putting the Ao 175 into the MTO was a good excuse to apply a German North Africa paint scheme, brought to Northern Italy with withdrawing units. The plan was to create an aircraft with field camouflage over a standard paint scheme, and to this end the painting process became a bit more complex than usual.
The core scheme is a simple, uniform RLM 78/79 (Himmelblau and Sandgelb) livery with a low and straight waterline, plus white MTO markings on fuselage and wing tips. For the Sandgelb I used Modelmaster 4789, which is a nice brownish tone that is not too bright and yellow-ish, and Tamiya XF-23 for Himmelblau, which is a tad darker and more greyish than RLM65. At this stage the white wingtip undersides were painted, too.
For the post-camouflage look the markings were added now – puzzled together from various sources. The tactical code is a mix of the Academy Storch’s individual “BA” code, which is a staff code with an unusual green letter, with a smaller unit code. The underwing “Bs” came from the Storch, as well as the fuselage Iron Crosses. The national markings above and under the wing came from a TL Modellbau aftermarket sheet, the Iron Crosses on the upper side lack black edges, so that there is no stark contrast with the Sandgelb around them. The unit badge under the windscreen is fictional, IIRC from a late German Bf 109, though. A light black ink washing was used to emphasize some seams, esp. for the flaps, and a light post-shading was done to add surface structure.
After that the tedious process of adding a meander pattern with RLM 80 (Olivgrün) over the Sandgelb base, around all markings. For the sake of easy application, I used acrylic Revell 65 (Bronzegrün, RAL 6031). Everything was done with a relatively small brush and took some time and several turns to cover area by area with the green wiggles. Some wet sanding was later used to simulate some wear and tear around the leading edges.
The propeller spinner became green with a white spiral, repeating the staff marking from the individual code letter. The propeller blades were painted with a very dark mix of green-grey and black.
As finishing steps some soot stains were created with graphite behind the exhausts, the position lights were made with clear paint on a silver base, the camera lenses (black decal material) received a glossy finish with ClearFix, and the wire antennae from the wingtips to the fin were created with heated black sprue material.
The finished aircraft looks disturbingly plausible – either like a sinewy and streamlined Henschel Hs 126, or a Fi 156 on steroids! The Fieseler Storch’s square wings are a great supplement to the equally shaped Ju 87 stabilizers, and the fixed landing gear with spats does not look out of place, either. Biggest stunt was the fitting of the high wings into/with the wobbly vacu canopy, though, and while this was a really complicated affair I am very happy how it turned out, and it’s even quite stable/rigid, thanks to the Hs 126 support struts. And the complex paint scheme effectively hides some flaws…
Shelves and shelves of colorful shoes can only mean one thing... Bowling!
Ever play some Candle Pin? You use three balls which are smaller in diameter with no finger holes, leave the dead wood, score in columns not rows. Found often in New England.
I was in my early to mid-teens before I did some regular bowling.
Some links: