From Screenrant

The news that a mid-budget villain team-up movie full of some of the more B-List DC characters was a bit of a puzzler when officially announced as part of the studio’s long-term plan for their own movie universe, but expectations quickly ramped up with the hiring of Fury helmer Ayer and the confirmation that we’d be seeing a newly cast Joker (Jared Leto) and inaugural big screen versions of villains like Deadshot (Will Smith) and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie).

 

Jared Leto’s Joker has been the focus of most of the recent rumors, and the newest – courtesy of Latino Review’s El Mayimbe - has centered on which incarnation of the Clown Prince of Crime Suicide Squad will take its cue from. In this case – surprising almost no one – the report claims that Frank Miller’s celebrated The Dark Knight Returns will serve as the main inspiration. One big rumor, however, had to do with a different Batman villain: Dr. Hugo Strange.

 

According to Mayimbe, Strange is a psychiatrist at “the prison,” which we’re assuming is Amanda Waller’s (Viola Davis) Belle Reve. He evidently is a large part of the story, but there are no casting rumors floating around just yet. Strange has several scenes with both the Joker and Harley Quinn, with no formal security present during these exchanges.

 

The dynamic between Harley and the Joker has taken center stage when present with Suicide Squad rumors, but if Hugo Strange really is involved, it could be a big clue toward what kind of stories will appear when Ben Affleck’s Batman gets his solo adventure.

 

Dr. Hugo Strange first appeared in Detective Comics #36 in 1940 as a genius scientist who creates a dense fog to hide his gang’s bank robberies, and toward the end of his first run in the comics he creates hulking monsters out of criminals and sends them out to terrorize Gotham City. After an apparent death, Strange reappeared in the 1970s, again as a monster-maker, and eventually discovered Bruce Wayne’s dual identity as Batman.

  

The acclaimed early-’90s Prey comic book story arc established Hugo Strange as a brilliant psychiatrist whose insight into Batman’s psyche not only shakes up Bruce Wayne but leads to Strange’s own twisted obsession with the Caped Crusader. Strange eventually creates his own makeshift Batman costume to live out his monomaniacal desire to take the hero’s place as Gotham’s savior.

  

This particular aspect of Strange’s pathology was included in his highly effective role as the main antagonist of the Batman: Arkham City video game, which showcased his genius-level intellect and his skill at manipulating the minds of others. While Suicide Squad finds the Joker already established as Batman’s nemesis, it could serve as something as an origin story for Hugo Strange.

 

There is no confirmation that Strange will actually appear, but including him in scenes with an incarcerated, Hannibal Lecter-esque Joker (or so the rumor goes) would not only serve as a conduit for the Joker’s backstory and history as a mass-murderer, but the mad clown’s influence on Strange could help set up future storylines based on arcs like Prey. Strange is a character who could appear across multiple titles within DC’s shared universe, his megalomania developing all the while.

 

Still, all we have is a rumor… and while El Mayimbe has at times hit the mark (mostly with his Marvel scoops), he has also been duped in the past. Take it with some salt, but the Joker will have to talk to someone, and there are few other Batman villains who could fit into the role in Suicide Squad and have a larger relevance in future films.

 

Suicide Squad opens in theaters on August 5, 2016.

Source: Latino Review

Published by - Anthony Vieira

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A yellow license plate indicates a private vehicle in North Korea.

Day 4 - Photowalk

 

Apparently my phone was a no go today, because it is too full of photos of my dog ha. So I had to wait until I got home. Took this on a walk with the dog. I love finding pockets of light. The lights are from the back of the gas station (where the car wash is) that filter down onto the school field. It's not in focus and I'm learning to be ok with that :)

Friends,

   

A. Kalam has been saying since 2004 that he never spoke to Sonia Gandhi about Citizenship.

   

19-05-2004 : Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi

   

PRESS RELEASE

   

It has been reported in a section of the press that the President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had discussed the citizenship issue with Smt. Sonia Gandhi when she met him yesterday at Rashtrapati Bhavan. This is contrary to facts. It did not figure in the discussions at all."Press releases dating back to 2004 are unavailable on presidentofIndia's website. They were removed after 2007 Presidential elections.But one can always get a hard copy from President's Secretariat).Press information Bureau's link : pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=1730

 

is as credible as original source.

   

After demitting office, APJ Abdul Kalam himself made it clear in an interview.P M Nair, then secretary to the President in his book “The Kalam Effect: My years with the President” further confirms it.

   

==============================

   

Some people say they do not believe govt. sites, please see these non-govt. sites-

   

www.hindu.com/2005/04/08/stories/2005040815281100.htm

   

articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2004-05-20/india/283...

   

Subramaniam Swamy has been using Abdul Kalam for his own purposes. Now, I may or may not support Abdul Kalam but am against using of SS of someone for his own publicity.

   

Either Abdul Kalam is lying or SS is lying. Andh-bhakts of SS should ask him to provide proof of his theory that Kalam spoke with Sonia about citizenship.

   

B. Now Kalam has again said in his book that he never spoke to Sonia about her Citizenship.

   

Please read this extract from his own book , in his own words-

   

www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article3585638.ece

   

"

 

On Sonia Gandhi as Prime Minister

   

One of the responsibilities of the President is to appoint the Prime Minister after every general election or whenever an occasion arises for change of the incumbent. On these occasions the President has to satisfy himself there is a party or a coalition which has the required number of members to form a stable government. The process of selection becomes more complex when there is more than one contender laying claim to government in view of none of the parties having a clear majority in the House. In this context, the 2004 election was an interesting event. The elections were over, the results had been announced and none of the parties had the strength to form the government on their own.

   

The Congress party had the largest number of members elected. In spite of that, three days had passed and no party or coalition came forward to form the government. It was a cause of concern for me and I asked my secretaries and rushed a letter to the leader of the largest party — in this case the Congress — to come forward and stake the claim for forming the government.

   

I was told that Sonia Gandhi was meeting me at 12.15 in the afternoon of 18 May. She came in time but instead of coming alone she came with Dr. Manmohan Singh and had a discussion with me. She said that she had the requisite numbers but she did not bring the letter of support signed by party functionaries. She would come with the letters of support on the 19th, she said. I asked her why do you postpone. We can even finish it this afternoon. She went away. Later I received a message that she would meet me in the evening, at 8.15 p.m.

   

While this communication was in progress, I had a number of emails and letters coming from individuals, organisations and parties that I should not allow Mrs Sonia Gandhi to become the Prime Minister of our country. I had passed on these mails and letters to various agencies in the government for their information without making any remarks. During this time there were many political leaders who came to meet me to request me not to succumb to any pressure and appoint Mrs Gandhi as the Prime Minister, a request that would not have been constitutionally tenable. If she had made any claim for herself I would have had no option but to appoint her.

   

At the allotted time, 8.15 p.m., Mrs Gandhi came to Rashtrapati Bhavan along with Dr. Manmohan Singh. In this meeting after exchanging pleasantries, she showed me the letters of support from various parties. Thereupon, I said that is welcome. The Rashtrapati Bhavan is ready for the swearing-in ceremony at the time of your choice. That is when she told me that she would like to nominate Dr. Manmohan Singh, who was the architect of economic reforms in 1991 and a trusted lieutenant of the Congress party with an impeccable image, as the Prime Minister. This was definitely a surprise to me and the Rashtrapati Bhavan Secretariat had to rework the letter appointing Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister and inviting him to form the government at the earliest.

   

Finally, the swearing-in took place on 22 May with Dr. Manmohan Singh and sixty-seven Ministers in the splendid Ashoka Hall.

   

I breathed a sigh of relief that this important task had finally been done. However, I did puzzle over why no party had staked a claim for three days.

   

(Excerpted with permission from A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Turning Points: A Journey Through Challenges. Published by HarperCollins, 2012.)

   

=====================================

   

This writing categorically shows that Kalam --- not out of wish, but out of what Constitution asked him to do --- had almost prepared for swearing in ceremony for Sonia as PM. It would have been saddest day in history of India, but then Kalam had no choice.

   

It was because of 1000s of public demonstrations across country, and also perhaps pressure of MNC-owners , that Sonia decided to step out and appoint MNC-puppet MMS as PM.

   

But liar Subramaian Swamy had no role to play

   

This is confirmed by book written by Kalm`s secretary, Nair . See these links-

 

ebookee.org/The-Kalam-Effect-My-Years-with-the-President_...

 

www.facebook.com/groups/rrgindia/doc/354550754594372/

   

=================

   

The reality is Subramanian Swamy helped Sonia become PM in 1999 by helping her dethrone ABV. Subramanian Swamy acted as Sonia agent in 1999. Even now, by opposing narco-test on A Raja in public in, Subramanian Swamy is helping Sonia .

   

======

   

C. Some Andh-bhakts of SS are quoting RTI reply to Subhash Agrawal-

 

Here is quote of the RTI-

 

" In its reply, dated 26th April 2012, the secretariat said that, “Letter written by Dr Subramanian Swamy, president, Janata Party to the president was inter alia, a communication sent in confidence by him to the president, based on which the president exercised his/her discretion to appoint the prime minister under Article 75.”

 

However, the president’s secretariat refused to furnish the copy of the letter as asked by Mr Agrawal in his RTI application. “Disclosure would be a breach of confidentiality and fiduciary relationship and therefore attracts section 8(1) (e) of RTI Act.”

 

Please note the word `inter alia` which means `amongst others . SS and others had witten to Kalam but Kalam never spoke with SG about citizenship and depending on the circumstances described above, appointed MMS as PM.

 

And `Taken into account` does not mean accepted. SS is fooling people along with paid media.

 

Citizenship issue cannot be constitutionally decided by the President , but that is a matter of courts.

 

D. Claims of Subramaniam that Sonia is not a citizenship-

 

Please see what different people have to say about this matter at this link-https://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&&note_id=422844064401267&id=168540969831579This matter also went to the courts two times but has been dismissed by the courts.If Subramaniam claims that Sonia is not a valid citizen of India, how come she is M.P ? Why did SS not go to court and get cancelled her status as M.P ?SS andh-bhakts can even now ask SS to do so.

 

========================

 

Further reading-

 

0058. Subramaniam Swamy is not fighting against corruption but misleading activists and wasting their time

 

www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=353812127971128

 

===================

 

Story of SS has many many flaws-

 

1. President does not have power to decide on these issues like whom to appoint PM , citizenship of Sonia is valid or not.

 

This is for the Courts to decide or for the MPs to decide, not the President.

 

2. SS says about a letter which Kalam wrote to Sonia Gandhi.

 

Now, suppose there is no such letter, then how can Kalam give such letter.

 

Suppose there is such a letter , and since SS has accused Kalam of lying, SS the RTi expert should get via RTI or other means the letter.

 

Kalam , as ex-president, has no powers to do so. So, blame cannot and should not be put on Kalam for not giving letter, especially if there is no such letter.

 

3. Kalam has been saying this since 2004 that he never talked with Sonia about citizenship issue.

 

He gave 2 press statements, nterviews regarding this and his secretary also confirmed this in his book.

 

Despite this , large section of the press, that is paid media was saying Kalam is responsible for convincing Sonia not to become PM. And SS also was part of that.

 

Many times we informed SS personally about this but he ignored this and the paid media also downplayed Kalam`s statements.

 

Now, when Kalam is going to release the book which is saying the same thing, the paid media is forced to tell the truth or it will be exposed. And some media even said (Firstpost) that Kalam backtracked which is totally false.

 

====================

 

Truth must be many times investigated. How ? Just twitter/e-mail SS asking him to do things-

 

1. Give the proof that Kalam wrote or spoke to Sonia about Citizenship issue. Kalam is not bound to do so in any way. Until SS or anyone gives proof, allegations on Kalam should be not done.

 

2. Just bhashans against Sonia Gandhi and Congress do not make someone anti-congress. Therefore, please ask SS why he refuses to demand narco of Sonia Gandhi and gang and post the replies/no-replies in public.

 

This will not take more than 10 minutes of citizens time but the country will greatly benefit by this .

 

=================================

 

Lets say SS alias Satyawadi Harischandra has stopped Sonia from becoming PM. The question is what's the benefit we citizens got having MMS as PM ?

 

Why SS keeps saying MMS is a honest PM can't he see Country is going to Hell ?

 

All his activities are time pass.

I have owned this cash register for several decades now, of which I rescued from a fire damaged pharmacy on New York's Lower East Side around 1995. (At that time, one of the owners of the pharmacy chain I was working for (Thriftway Pharmacy) had a side business of buying out sundries & merchandise from bankrupt and smoke/water damaged retail stores at substantially cut prices, and reselling them at nominal prices thereby substantially increasing the profit margin.

 

In the process of clearing out one such place, I happened upon this cash register lying on its side under the pharmacy shelves in about 2 inches of murky water.

 

To be quite honest, it almost was not rescued, as my transportation that day was my bosses brand new Mercedes 500SEL, and as you can imagine he was extremely reluctant in allowing some dripping, sooty monstrosity in his new car. He wouldn't even allow it in the trunk. I managed to convince him to allow me to take it but only after I wrapped it in three contractor bags and agreed to hold it in my lap for the hour long ride home.

 

Upon my getting it home, I immediately proceeded to clean it up. I took note that one of the glass panels were broken (the customer side) and the top glass completely gone. The NO SALE flag was also missing. I had my local glazier cut me replacement glass and I installed it, but not before I made a crude NO SALE flag out of cardboard and a Qtip..

 

The dealer markings reflect that this machine was sold by:

Bronx Cash Register

341 East 149 Street,

Bronx, NY

established 1912,

MOtt Haven 9-5888

 

As it turned out Bronx Cash Register was still in business and I contacted them but they could not offer information, sales records or parts.

 

It operates fairly smoothly, then out of the blue, the keys will jam. I learned the mechanism pretty well from my cleaning, so I pretty much know how to unjam it without too much effort. Upon my examination I discovered that someone very crudely tried to repair the dollar position advance wheel and cam on the days tally wheel.

 

The tally advance up to 99 cents but does not advance the to the next dollar. I loosened up the set screw and pushed it off to the side, disabling the dollar advance.

 

After getting it all cleaned and lubricated I put some circa 1928 currency and older silver coinage in it. And it sat on my desk in my room for years. My father enjoyed its presence as he also had an National cash register (see other album), but his is a much younger Model 1098 that came from a toy store "Waldell's Hobbies on Cortelyou Road, Brooklyn) that bought out. (Model 1098 - s/n 2726474). I think is can be a safe conclusion that my affection for cash registers came from him!

 

After the internet makes its way into my life, I was able to determine it is a 300 series.

I subsequently move upstate and continued displaying it and has been a focal point of my furnishings.

 

Recently, events in my life have seen me relocate to Texas and of course, the register came with me. Space is a little more at a premium, so it was in storage. So for a rainy day project today, I decided to get the register out of storage and clean it up. Also, the keys got jammed again when a friend tried to operate it.

 

So, I took the case apart, vacuumed and blew down the innards with an air nozzle, and got the mechanism to release. Somehow that welded cam wheel slipped back to its original place in moving.

 

I lubricated all moving parts with a liberal application of PB Blaster and wipe down. Upon reassembly, and as I now had the advantage of the internet as a resource for parts and information, I decided to do a little research

 

After finding a lot of 300 series in brass, I found none painted. This made me slightly suspicious. Mine is clearly black wrinkle finish paint. Honestly, it appears quite well done, with all parts inside & out evenly coated. I couldn't help but feel it was a factory paint. I searched eBay, and the web, but alas couldn't not find a painted model.

 

I learned where the model number should be, but on first exam, it was not present on my machine and my tag area appeared blank. But, after a closer exam, there were in fact screws holding down a plate, so after quick work with a screwdriver, I realized the model s/n tag had been screwed on to the machine face down and painted over! This must have been done before I owned it as I would not have done such a thing..

 

This would now lead me to believe the machine has been painted after original purchase and now perhaps not original as I once thought.

 

Once I turned the tag over, I learned it was a Model 312, with s/n 1283677. (Made after 6/6/1913 if I understand the data records correctly). I also took the cash drawer out and read the guarantee label affixed to the bottom:

 

Register Number 2388283

Size 711

Finish Mah

Tracer (blank)

Customer (blank)

 

Not listed on the label but confirmed from collector websites is the ornate pattern on the case is "Dolphin" and was designed by none other the Tiffany.

 

So now my questions. Internet references reflect the following versions of the Model 312:

 

( A ) Bronze, oxidized and relieved

This cabinet was a solid bronze casting that was dipped in a black oxide chemical, which turned the cabinet black. The flat edges and the high points of the casting were polished, leaving the black in the low areas and highly shined bronze edging. It was then lacquered to maintain the finish.

 

( B ) Nickel plated*

This cabinet is usually a solid yellow brass (or sometimes cast iron)* casting that was nickel plated. The drawer front was generally solid nickel because the nickel plating would easily wear off when closing the drawer. Yellow brass is made from copper, zinc and tin. Bronze is copper and tin. Both copper and tin are expensive, so the zinc makes it a lot cheaper to make and was used for most plated machines. Often if they didn't have all of the parts in brass, they would use a bronze part. After many years of wear, the nickel becomes worn off in spots. If you remove all of the nickel, you often find 3 colors, red bronze, yellow brass and solid nickel. This machine will have to be re-plated? Highly polished and lacquered.

 

( C ) Bronze, natural color.

This cabinet was solid bronze castings. Highly polished and lacquered.

 

( D ) Oxidized copper and relieved*

This machine is usually made with yellow brass (or cast iron)* casting which were copper plated. The copper was thicker than nickel and would not wear off, so the drawer front was also copper plated brass. It was dipped in the black oxide chemical and the edges and high points of the pattern were highly polished, leaving bright copper edging with the lower areas black. Also lacquered.

 

( E ) Yellow brass, Natural color

This machine was solid brass castings that were highly polished and lacquered.

 

( En ) Black enamel, ornamented. (Class 100 only)

This machine is solid yellow castings that were dipped in black oxide and the edges and high points highly polished leaving the black in the low areas. Also lacquered.

 

Wood Cabinets

Some of the early machines were offered in a solid wood cabinet. These cabinets were made from Oak, Quarter Sawn Oak, Birch, Mahogany, Black Walnut and many other expense woods. They had burled veneer and fancy inlayed patterns of different wood veneers. These were often accented with brass and nickel inlays, as well as nickel plated drawer pull and other hardware.

 

Many inlay patterns were named such as: The Shell Pattern,Lilly of the Valley, Tulip Pattern, and the Persimmon pattern.

 

Clearly, my machine is NOT any of the above. It is NOT an early machine (those being 1800's), but my drawer is marked for Mah (Mahogany) and it's obvious there is no wooden cabinet. Was the current drawer a replacement?

 

What does an original Model 312 in Mah finish look like?Does that mean a brown paint? This machine is clearly black wrinkle finish and the only wood is the base, which is painted black as well.

 

I looked at some of the locations where the paint was chipped and the underlying metal does appear to be polished nickel. Therefore, would the paint be original from National or is this a customer applied paint job?

 

Hours of research on the web does not turn up painted examples of a 312. Also the case is mostly not magnetic, however in some areas this is a weak pull, but I'm concluding the magnet is attracted to the cast iron internal frames.

 

If the black wrinkle finish is not original, whether to leave the machine as is or strip the finish is to be decided. I wish to make it clear, I know this decision is up to my preference, but I also wish to make it clear the machine is more of sentimental value than monetary value, so a restoration to original condition for eventual resale or to increase in value is not my intent as I have no plans to sell it..

 

The denomination keys "buttons": I looked at the vintage catalog, and it shows white numerals on black for all keys except NO SALE which is black on orange. My register however has:

 

- black numerals on white for the 10 cent denominations (10, 20, 30, 40, 50);

- white numerals on red for the cent denominations (1 through 9 EXCEPT the 5 which is black on white).

- black on orange for NO SALE.

 

I know that the 5 button on adding machines, calculators and other registers almost always contrasted for easy recognition so this I figure is original, and as dad's model 1098 is the same way.

 

I would like to replace the NO SALE flag with an original. An unrestored one to match the other flags would be preferred. As the NO SALE flag appears to be in the same position on all the 300 models (far right for the clerk - far left for the customer), I would conclude all the 300 series NO SALE flags are compatible.

 

The drawer front is clearly smooth painted metal. All the images I've encountered show the cast National drawer front. Is mine missing or was there / this a "budget" model 312 omitted some of the ornamentation or perhaps there was a wood front in Mahogany?

 

On the right side of the keyboard, the numerals 5145 are stamped into the front edge. This number is also stamped on the inside of the back metal case. It does not match the warranty registration or the serial number.

 

So many questions abound. If you have answers, please feel free to contact me at bedt14@aol.com

Owned by: Republic Services of Ohio

Chassis: Mack MR

Body manufacturer: McNeilus Heavy Duty

Type of truck: Rear Loader

Additional notes: This is a picture from my lot visit on 2-19-11. View all my pics in my sideshow at www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwnzFng8_os&feature=channel_v...

 

Formerly Unit 687

One of my own vintage coloring books. This great Whitman Lassie coloring book has three stories featuring the brave dog and her Park Ranger master (from the later versions of Lassie).

 

I colored these pages when I was in the fifth or sixths grade.

In the tiny group of gamblers who have become top players at both blackjack and poker, there is only one woman. In her own words, Cat Hulbert describes how she got rich beating male opponents – and the casinos – and explains why in her view women are innately better at poker than...

 

www.23h.info/cat-hulbert-got-rich-beating-men-game/

On the 7th and 8th of September 2013, the annual Growing your Own event sees home-grown vegetables and flowers battle it out in an attempt to take first prize.

 

We sent Matthew, our multi-talented events apprentice, out to capture these excellent photos!

 

www.beamish.org.uk/events

Springy handmade book contained in its own box

My own creation ("MOC") based on the parts from the LEGO City, Friends, and Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendars, Days 1-12, a micro-scale jet-powered ice speeder. This is page 2 of 2 pages of instructions if you want to build it yourself.

 

Unboxing and building the models from the 2022 LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy, Friends, and City Advent Calendars. Also posting daily videos in a YouTube playlist about this:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDpFEFhrXPzPrFHyt_VX4Po-8C...

 

amzn.to/3iwBd8M LEGO 41690 LEGO Friends LEGO® Friends 2022 Advent Calendar

amzn.to/3OTwji2 LEGO 76231 LEGO Marvel Guardians of The Galaxy 2022 Advent Calendar

amzn.to/3umaaQd LEGO 60352 City 2022 Advent Calendar

The Great North Museum: Hancock is a museum of natural history and ancient civilisations in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.

 

The museum was established in 1884 and was formerly known as the Hancock Museum. In 2006 it merged with Newcastle University's Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Museum to form the Great North Museum. The museum reopened as the Great North Museum: Hancock in May 2009 following a major extension and refurbishment of the original Victorian building. The museum and most of its collections are owned by the Natural History Society of Northumbria, and it is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle University.

 

The museum is located on the campus of Newcastle University, next to the Great North Road, and close to Barras Bridge. The nearest Tyne & Wear Metro station is Haymarket, and there is also a bus station at Haymarket.

 

One of the Second World War air raid shelter openings into the Victoria Tunnel is beneath the grounds of the museum.

 

The collection of the Hancock Museum can be traced to about 1780 when Marmaduke Tunstall started accumulating ethnographic and natural history material from around the world. He then brought his collection from London to North Yorkshire. In 1790 Tunstall died, and George Allan of Darlington purchased Tunstall's collection; and later in 1823 it was acquired by the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. A wombat, which is still on display, is considered to be the earliest object in the collection. It was the first complete wombat specimen to reach Europe. In 1829 the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne (now the Natural History Society of Northumbria) was formed as a scientific offshoot of the Literary and Philosophical Society. Amongst the founding and early members of the Natural History Society were Joshua Alder, Albany Hancock, John Hancock, Prideaux John Selby and William Chapman Hewitson.

 

The museum opened on its current site in 1884 after the collection of the Natural History Society outgrew its small museum, located on Westgate Road, which opened in 1834. A major benefactor to the museum was William Armstrong who gave the then large sum of £11,500. Armstrong had also founded the College of Physical Science which later became part of Newcastle University. The museum was renamed in the 1890s, after the local Victorian naturalists, Albany and John Hancock. In 1959 the Natural History Society agreed with the University of Newcastle for the university to care for the building and collections, and since 1992 the university has contracted with Tyne & Wear Museums to manage the museum under a Service Level Agreement.

 

The Hancock Museum was closed on 23 April 2006 for refurbishment and did not reopen until 23 May 2009. It was completely refurbished and extended as part of the Great North Museum Project, at a cost of £26 million. Great North Museum project is a partnership between Newcastle University, Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle City Council, the Natural History Society of Northumbria and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. The project was made possible with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund, TyneWear Partnership, One NorthEast, the European Regional Development Fund, Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Wolfson Foundation and The Northern Rock Foundation, as well as numerous other trusts and foundations. The building architects were Terry Farrell and Partners; Sir Terry Farrell is a native of Newcastle, and had previously been a student at Newcastle University.

 

The new museum includes new displays on natural history and geology, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, Romans and Hadrian's Wall, World Cultures and Pre-history. It also includes an interactive study zone, an under 5's space, and a digital Planetarium, as well as new learning facilities, a new temporary exhibition space, and a study garden. The new museum houses not only the Hancock Museum collections, but also those of the university's Museum of Antiquities and Shefton Museum. The building that formerly housed the Museum of Antiquities was later demolished. The Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum Project, but is not relocating to the Hancock, and is remaining in Newcastle University's Fine Art Building.

 

In September 2008, the Great North Museum searched for a lookalike of the Emperor Hadrian, for a photo shoot, whose likeness would feature in a permanent display at the Hancock Museum. On 21 November 2008 the 'Be Part of It' campaign was launched, and it was announced that the Great North Museum: Hancock would be opening in May 2009. Athlete Jonathan Edwards is the patron of the 'Be Part of It' campaign. Other celebrity supporters of the museum include Sir Thomas Allen and Adam Hart-Davis. Donors to the campaign have the opportunity to have their name (or the name of a loved one) permanently included on a donor wall in the museum.

 

The Great North Museum formally re-opened on 23 May 2009. In August the museum announced that they had surpassed their expected annual target of 300,000 visitors. By August over 400,000 people had visited the reopened museum. On 6 November 2009 HM The Queen officially opened the Great North Museum. In 2009, the Great North Museum had over 600,000 visitors.

 

By August 2010, the reopened Great North Museum had welcomed its one millionth visitor.

 

Among the museum's permanent residents are a life-size cast of an African elephant; the Egyptian mummy Bakt-en-Hor (previously known as Bakt-hor-Nekht); a full size replica of a T-Rex skeleton; and Sparkie, Newcastle's famous talking budgie, who was stuffed after his death in 1962 and is now the subject of a new opera by Michael Nyman.

 

The full size cast of an African Elephant was built in the Living Planet gallery. The model was crafted by Zephyr Wildlife, who took a cast from an actual stuffed elephant at a museum in Bonn in Germany. To get the elephant into the museum a crane, from Bel Lift Trucks, had to be used. The full size model of a T-Rex dinosaur has been shipped from Canada, where it was built by a company called Research Casting International. It forms part of the display known as the Fossil Stories gallery. The T-Rex model was one of the first items to be placed in the new museum, due to its size. In 1908, the Manchester taxidermist Harry Ferris Brazenor mounted a "fine bison bull" for the museum.

 

Other exhibitions include 'Hadrian's Wall' looking at Roman life in the north of England, 'Natural Northumbria' focusing on the wildlife found in the northeast, 'Ancient Egypt' looking at the Ancient Egyptians and featuring the museum's two mummies, 'Ice Age to Iron Age' detailing the history of the British Isles over the past 12,000 years, 'World Cultures' featuring artifacts and displays from cultures across the globe, 'The Shefton Collection' with one of the most detailed collections of Greek artifacts in the UK and 'Explore' which is a more hands-on area of the museum and features regular interactive sessions.

 

There were live animals on display but these have now been withdrawn, as well as a conference area for corporate events and a fully provisioned learning suite for school visits.

 

The museum was entered into the 'long list' for the 2010 Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries.

 

The interactive Bio-Wall features hundreds of creatures, that visitors will be able to investigate and find out where they live and how they survive in such extreme places as the Arctic and Desert. There is also a great white shark display, polar bear and giraffe specimens from the historic Hancock collections and a moa skeleton. Also between May and October 2019 the museum hosted Dippy the dinosaur as part of its UK tour.

 

Within the museum's archives are the nineteenth century botanical paintings by Margaret Rebecca Dickinson of plants from the Newcastle and Scottish Borders region.

 

Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.

 

Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

 

The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.

 

Roman settlement

The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

 

The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.

 

Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.

 

Anglo-Saxon development

The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.

 

Norman period

After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.

 

In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.

 

Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.

 

Middle Ages

Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.

 

The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.

 

Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.

 

In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.

 

In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.

 

Religious houses

During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.

 

The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.

 

The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.

 

The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.

 

The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.

 

The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.

 

All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.

 

An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.

 

Tudor period

The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.

 

During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).

 

With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.

 

Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.

 

The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.

 

In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.

 

Stuart period

In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.

 

In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.

 

In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.

 

In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.

 

In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.

 

A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.

 

Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.

 

In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.

 

In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.

 

Eighteenth century

In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.

 

In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.

 

In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.

 

Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.

 

The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.

 

In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.

 

A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.

 

Victorian period

Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.

 

In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.

 

In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.

 

In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.

 

In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.

 

Industrialisation

In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.

 

Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:

 

George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.

George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.

 

Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.

 

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.

 

William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.

 

The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:

 

Glassmaking

A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.

 

Locomotive manufacture

In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.

 

Shipbuilding

In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.

 

Armaments

In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.

 

Steam turbines

Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.

 

Pottery

In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.

 

Expansion of the city

Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.

 

Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.

 

Twentieth century

In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.

 

During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.

 

In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.

 

Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.

 

As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.

 

In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.

 

As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.

 

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.

 

Recent developments

Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.

 

BYOB stands for "bring your own bottle," "bring your own beer" or "bring your own booze.

 

BYOB is often placed on an invitation to indicate that the host will not be providing alcohol and that guests are welcome to bring their own. Some restaurants may allow customers to bring their own bottle, subject to fees or membership conditions. I first came across the expression in the 1970s when I visited a restaurant near the central bank in Dublin however as far as I can remember you could only bring wine and there was a bottle opening fee ["corking fee"].

my own reflection and that of my grandson are caught in the low setting sunlight, while out taking pictures in Ashford this afternoon, Another Derooys outfit parked up in the roads of Ashford , it looks as though it is being resecured with strapping.

You can create your own elephant art or wall art using these wooden printing blocks carved from India. Here at Colouricious we have been block printing to make progress on our elephant designed quilt. To see more on these wooden printing blocks for textile printing go to www.colouricious.com/shop/craft-ideas-elephants

Owned by FUC - Ferrovie Udine Cividale, E.190.302/190 302 waits to enter Villach Hbf at the western end of the station, preparing to back onto the stock for REX 1821, the 0942 to Udine via Tarvisio Boscoverde. Rather unusually, the locomotive is the only part of the service that isn't a part of ÖBB; Austrian train designations (REX) and Austrian coaches are used on the service.

Architects; Alan & Mairian Hope, 1939.

Designed by architect couple Alan and Mairin Hope for themselves in 1939. It is almost self/built with the help of friends, concrete block walls are cladded with cedar boarding externally while ply wood sheets cover most of the interior surfaces. There is a later addition over the main entrance to cater for a growing family. The house is now occupied by Hope’s granddaughter and her family. Their daughter built her own house nearby, if I am not mistaken herself an architects as this seems to be a family full of architects.

The house must be nearly impossible to heat but the lack of heat is replaced by a glorious warmth provided by the materials and furniture gradually accumulated over number of years. The continuity of family occupancy with the original photos and watercolour paintings must be integral part of growing for successive generations, sharing the physical and no doubt certain spiritual overlooking by the past generations.

The house oozes strong Scandinavian influence while remains firmly imbedded in local modernist traditions. The visit to this house after being bombarded by lovely Georgian and Miesian Modernism of some Dublin buildings was such a contrast and delight. The children were packed and sent to grandmother’s house next door to allow curious architecture lovers to walk over their house.

Couldn’t think of better environments to bring up generations who know their family background before they are able to walk and talk in safe, open and healthy surroundings.

The original sketch now hangs with many other delightful watercolours by architects.

 

Ralph Metzger owns an agricultural trucking company and a grain elevator near Yolo, CA which is north of Woodland, CA on I5. In a spare couple of acres with I5 in the background he plants an annual Zinnia Patch. It's a community contribution. The patch is open to anyone to take some Zinnias for free. He only asks that if you take some that you take some more for someone who can't get out & get their own. The flowers attract bees & bee flies mostly but there are other creatures in the mix. There are shears & vases provided, but it's safer to bring your own.

 

I've photoed here previously and have other images back in my Photostream.

 

sacramentovalley.org/stories/yolo-zinnia-patch/

  

Owned by: WM Waste Management Inc.

Addition notes: WM of NM

Location of photo: New Mexico

Whitehall Lane Winery and Vineyards, Napa Valley, California, USA

 

A small, family owned winery in Napa Valley's historic Rutherford appellation owning approximately 110 acres of prime Valley-floor vineyards including the Leonardini Vineyard in St. Helena and are committed to making the finest Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Reserve wine.

 

The winery continues to receive accolades and awards for producing some of the greatest wines in the world. In Wine Spectator Magazine's year-end ranking of wines, Whitehall Lane has been honored an unprecedented three times in five years for producing wines rated among the top five in the world. The winery has also been voted Winery of the Year from the Quarterly Review of Wines and Wine and Spirits Magazine.

 

History:

Whitehall Lane was founded in 1979 but the history of the soil cultivation dates back two centuries. In the mid 1800's, Napa Valley settlers were drawn to the deep, loamy soils and ideal climate, planting high quality grape vines at the Whitehall Lane Winery site. A barn constructed in the early 1900's for equipment storage is still used today. In 1979, two brothers started the winery and directed their winemaking efforts successfully to Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. They named the winery after the road that runs along the south border of the property, Whitehall Lane.

 

In 1993, the Leonardini Family of San Francisco took control of the Whitehall Lane estate. They updated the winemaking, instituted a new barrel-aging program and continued sourcing the finest vineyards. We started with one vineyard and now own six prime vineyards that are the cornerstone on which the wines are made and include the Whitehall Lane Estate Vineyard, Rutherford West Vineyard and Bommarito Vineyard in the Rutherford Appellation, the Leonardini Vineyard and Fawn Park Vineyard in St. Helena and the Oak Glen Vineyard in the Oak Knoll District. The Estate Vineyard is 25 acres of "Rutherford Dust" offering beautiful Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. The Rutherford West Vineyard offers outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon fruit while the Bommarito Vineyard is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The Leonardini Vineyard is 14 acres of gravely soil yielding powerful Cabernet Sauvignon fruit and elegant yet intense Merlot grapes that go into the "Leonardini Vineyard" vineyard-designated wine. The Fawn Park Vineyard is on a gentle slope of Eastern hillside and produces intense Cabernet Sauvignon. The 25-acre Oak Glen Vineyard produces flavorful Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.

 

In our short history, Whitehall Lane has developed into a world-class winery. The efforts of the Leonardini Family are evident in the recent run of accolades from wine publications but are even more apparent in the beautifully made, elegant wines we continue to make.

Visitors joined us at the August Friday Late and explored how a new kind of growing is springing up across our capital. Faced with a continuing population boom and climate change, discover how citizens are leading the revolution in food production and helping to create a more edible city.

 

#FridayLate

Workshop with David Stanway in April. (www.davidstanwayphotography.com). Many thanks to the very patient model, Becky Arnold

 

Model: Becky Arnold

MUA: Gillian Stapleton

Hair: Kirill Olegovich & Kristina Salina

Stylist: Carina Cunningham

and: Ben Solis

Own photographic work, plaster, paint, ink, tissue paper. January 2014

Mais corujas...corujas...corujas....

Warrington's Own Buses YJ57BPU 80 seen on Legh Street on service 16 to Warrington Interchange

Sneaking around the house in the evning, own field barn, proper style, good for storing wood for the fireplace, will last for centuries with roof intact and without single drop of paint.

 

PS: including some Christmas and other old stuff decorations.

Council owned, Grade I Listed Jacobean mansion completed by Sir Thomas Holte in 1635.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aston_Hall

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Holte

Truck has functional terrain suspension and tipper. Front mudguards are non-lego parts (Megabloks).

 

Here you can see this vehicle in movement: youtu.be/hH7Xn8CoOtw.

As soon as I entered Pizza Express in Ambience Mall, I noticed that it was very tastefully done & lit up or to put in simple words a customer’s delight. Our review started with a fun exercise, making our own Pizza!. The bloggers present had to make a pizza using ingredients provided to us and the best looking pizza was actually awarded a prize at the end of the evening,

 

Coming back to the dinner, I ordered Orange juice, pineapple juice, Berry Frezta & Peach ice tea. All of them were good especially the berry freest as it gave a much needed refreshment to the start of the meal .

 

For starters, I ordered a dish called Ramiro Al Forno. It was basically crispy bell peppers with goat cheese, herbal leaves with some mushroom & a balsamic syrup glaze with the mushiness of goat cheese & mozzarella. Cheese lovers would totally dig this creation. On another note, the names of all the dishes were as they are all over the world, in Italian. Good to know they are not changing anything for an Indian audience.

 

The second starter was Polpette (Chicken meat balls in chicken Bolognese sauce) which had minced chicken & the meat balls. I was completely taken in by the hearty dish of meatballs doused in the gravy garnished with fresh parsley and served with warm dough sticks.The third starter I had was Dough balls Poppio which was made of basil pesto, pesto rosso & garlic butter. I found it to be decent but I must compliment the basil pesto. Their recipe is to die for and one of the most fresh and sublime tasting pestos in the city.

Then I had Penne Pollo Piccante pasta in white sauce as well as Red Pasta Penne Siciliana. I found it lacking in a flavour and also as I like my pasta to be well cooked, the al dente version did not suit my palette.Anyway people who enjoy al dente pasta might like these dishes. I also had Goat Cheese Salad. It was full of great goats cheese & many salad leaves and was nutritious and light.

 

Coming to the pizzas which were thin crust, very crispy and probably the best!!!

 

The veg pizzas I had were Padana which was made of goat’s cheese, spinach & caramelized onions. It was really yum. This name(padana) comes from a Valley in Italy. While I was eating, there were performances by the chefs which I enjoyed a lot as I was entertained as well while eating. The pizza chefs had amazing pizza tossing skills that kept me in raptures.

 

The other veg pizza was Pomodoro Pesto- This thin crust pizza is served on an authentic Italian Romana base. Each slice of Pomodoro Pesto topped with juicy marinated cherry tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil turned out to be a melt-in-the-mouth heaven with flavours worth cherishing. This for me was the most spectacular dish of the night and I doubt there are many better pizzas in Delhi at the moment. I could com back just for this to Pizza Express again and again.

The last veg pizza was Cipolla Piccante which had onions, green chillis and jalapenos. It again had a great combination of flavours and was a hit among the fellow bloggers.

 

I also got to try some of their non-veg pizzas, the smokey chicken one called Pollo Ad Astra which was mixed with many fine ingredients & spices that I fell in love with the taste. The other non veg pizza was Pollo Forza which was okay and the third one was American pepperoni which was good. We had chilli & garlic oil on our tables to have it with the pizzas which made the pizza more delicious & juicy to taste. To conclude, their pizzas were too good to resist and as a combination maybe the best in town

For desserts, I had choco fudge cake with mascarpone cheese which was just amazing. Even the other desserts I had like the banoffee pie was irresistible. In fact you must never miss out on their cheesecake too as it is one of the best baked variety the I’ve had. Overall their pizzas and desserts make it a fine fine place to dine.

 

Overall I was impressed with the ambience, the hospitality, the quick service & the food above all. I would recommend this place highly to people who love variety & a touch of “Italiano” in their pizzas.Loved the team of the amazing chefs who never got tired of serving & performing. Hats off to them! I definitely want to come again to try the other yummy sounding stuff on the menu.

 

With so many hammer ponds in this small area I am surprised that there aren't more houses like this...

Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved ruined Cistercian monasteries in England. It is located approximately 3 miles (5 kilometres) south-west of Ripon in North Yorkshire, near to the village of Aldfield. Founded in 1132, the abbey operated for 407 years becoming one of the wealthiest monasteries in England until its dissolution in 1539 under the order of Henry VIII.

 

The abbey is a Grade I listed building owned by the National Trust and part of the designated Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

Foundation

 

After a dispute and riot in 1132 at the Benedictine house of St Mary's Abbey, in York, 13 monks were expelled (among them Saint Robert of Newminster) and, after unsuccessful attempts to form a new monastery were taken under the protection of Thurstan, Archbishop of York. He provided them with land in the valley of the River Skell, a tributary of the Ure. The enclosed valley had all the natural features needed for the creation of a monastery, providing shelter from the weather, stone and timber for building, and a supply of running water. After enduring a harsh winter in 1133, the monks applied to join the Cistercian order which since the end of the previous century was a fast-growing reform movement that by the beginning of the 13th century was to have over 500 houses. So it was that in 1135, Fountains became the second Cistercian house in northern England, after Rievaulx. The Fountains monks became subject to Clairvaux Abbey, in Burgundy which was under the rule of St Bernard. Under the guidance of Geoffrey of Ainai, a monk sent from Clairvaux, the group learned how to celebrate the seven Canonical Hours according to Cistercian usage and were shown how to construct wooden buildings in accordance with Cistercian practice.

 

Consolidation

 

After Henry Murdac was elected abbot in 1143, the small stone church and timber claustral buildings were replaced. Within three years, an aisled nave had been added to the stone church, and the first permanent claustral buildings built in stone and roofed in tile had been completed.

In 1146 an angry mob, annoyed at Murdac for his role in opposing the election of William FitzHerbert as archbishop of York, attacked the abbey and burnt down all but the church and some surrounding buildings.The community recovered swiftly from the attack and founded four daughter houses. Henry Murdac resigned as abbot in 1147 upon becoming the Archbishop of York and was replaced first by Maurice, Abbot of Rievaulx then, on the resignation of Maurice, by Thorald. Thorald was forced by Henry Murdac to resign after two years in office. The next abbot, Richard, held the post until his death in 1170 and restored the abbey's stability and prosperity. In 20 years as abbot, he supervised a huge building programme which involved completing repairs to the damaged church and building more accommodation for the increasing number of recruits. Only the chapter house was completed before he died and the work was ably continued by his successor, Robert of Pipewell, under whose rule the abbey gained a reputation for caring for the needy.

 

The next abbot was William, who presided over the abbey from 1180 to 1190 and he was succeeded by Ralph Haget, who had entered Fountains at the age of 30 as a novice, after pursuing a military career. During the European famine of 1194 Haget ordered the construction of shelters in the vicinity of the abbey and provided daily food rations to the poor enhancing the abbey's reputation for caring for the poor and attracting more grants from wealthy benefactors.

In the first half of the 13th century Fountains increased in reputation and prosperity under the next three abbots, John of York (1203–1211), John of Hessle (1211–1220) and John of Kent (1220–1247). They were burdened with an inordinate amount of administrative duties and increasing demands for money in taxation and levies but managed to complete another massive expansion of the abbey's buildings. This included enlarging the church and building an infirmary.

 

Difficulties

 

In the second half of the 13th century the abbey was in more straitened circumstances. It was presided over by eleven abbots, and became financially unstable largely due to forward selling its wool crop, and the abbey was criticised for its dire material and physical state when it was visited by Archbishop John le Romeyn in 1294. The run of disasters that befell the community continued into the early 14th century when northern England was invaded by the Scots and there were further demands for taxes. The culmination of these misfortunes was the Black Death of 1348–1349. The loss of manpower and income due to the ravages of the plague was almost ruinous.

A further complication arose as a result of the Papal Schism of 1378–1409. Fountains Abbey along with other English Cistercian houses was told to break off any contact with the mother house of Citeaux, which supported a rival pope. This resulted in the abbots forming their own chapter to rule the order in England and consequently they became increasingly involved in internecine politics. In 1410, following the death of Abbot Burley of Fountains, the community was riven by several years of turmoil over the election of his successor. Contending candidates John Ripon, Abbot of Meaux, and Roger Frank, a monk of Fountains were locked in conflict until 1415 when Ripon was finally appointed, ruling until his death in 1434. Under abbots John Greenwell (1442–1471), Thomas Swinton (1471–8), John Darnton (1478–95), who undertook some much needed restoration of the fabric of the abbey, including notable work on the church, and Marmaduke Huby (1495–1526) Fountains regained stability and prosperity.

At Abbot Huby's death he was succeeded by William Thirsk who was accused by the royal commissioners of immorality and inadequacy and was dismissed as abbot. He was replaced by Marmaduke Bradley, a monk of the abbey who had reported Thirsk's supposed offences, testified against him and offered the authorities six hundred marks for the post of abbot. In 1539 it was Bradley who surrendered the abbey when its seizure was ordered under Henry VIII at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

 

The abbey precinct covered 70 acres (28 ha) surrounded by an 11-foot (3.4 m) wall built in the 13th century, some parts of which are visible to the south and west of the abbey. The area consists of three concentric zones cut by the River Skell flowing from west to east across the site. The church and claustral buildings stand at the centre of the precinct north of the Skell, the inner court containing the domestic buildings stretches down to the river and the outer court housing the industrial and agricultural buildings lies on the river's south bank. The early abbey buildings were added to and altered over time, causing deviations from the strict Cistercian type. Outside the walls were the abbey's granges.[citation needed]

The original abbey church was built of wood and "was probably" two stories high; it was, however, quickly replaced in stone. The church was damaged in the attack on the abbey in 1146 and was rebuilt, in a larger scale, on the same site. Building work was completed c.1170.[11] This structure, completed around 1170, was 300 ft (91 m) long and had 11 bays in the side aisles. A lantern tower was added at the crossing of the church in the late 12th century. The presbytery at the eastern end of the church was much altered in the 13th century. The church's greatly lengthened choir, commenced by Abbot John of York, 1203–11, and carried on by his successor terminates, like that of Durham Cathedral, in an eastern transept, the work of Abbot John of Kent, 1220–47. The 160-foot-tall (49 m) tower, which was added not long before the dissolution, by Abbot Huby, 1494–1526, is in an unusual position at the northern end of the north transept and bears Huby's motto 'Soli Deo Honor et Gloria'. The sacristry adjoined the south transept.

The cloister, which had arcading of black marble from Nidderdale and white sandstone, is in the centre of the precinct and to the south of the church. The three-aisled chapter-house and parlour open from the eastern walk of the cloister and the refectory, with the kitchen and buttery attached, are at right angles to its southern walk. Parallel with the western walk is an immense vaulted substructure serving as cellars and store-rooms, which supported the dormitory of the conversi (lay brothers) above. This building extended across the river and at its south-west corner were the latrines, built above the swiftly flowing stream. The monks' dormitory was in its usual position above the chapter-house, to the south of the transept. Peculiarities of this arrangement include the position of the kitchen, between the refectory and calefactory, and of the infirmary above the river to the west, adjoining the guest-houses.

 

The abbot's house, one of the largest in all of England,is located to the east of the latrine block, where portions of it are suspended on arches over the River Skell.It was built in the mid-twelfth century as a modest single-storey structure, then, from the fourteenth century, underwent extensive expansion and remodelling to end up in the 16th century as a grand dwelling with fine bay windows and grand fireplaces. The great hall was an expansive room 52 by 21 metres (171 by 69 ft).

Among other apartments, for the designation of which see the ground-plan, was a domestic oratory or chapel,

 

1⁄2-by-23-foot (14 by 7 m), and a kitchen, 50-by-38-foot (15 by 12 m)

 

Medieval monasteries were sustained by landed estates that were given to them as endowments and from which they derived an income from rents. They were the gifts of the founder and subsequent patrons, but some were purchased from cash revenues. At the outset, the Cistercian order rejected gifts of mills and rents, churches with tithes and feudal manors as they did not accord with their belief in monastic purity, because they involved contact with laymen. When Archbishop Thurstan founded the abbey he gave the community 260 acres (110 ha) of land at Sutton north of the abbey and 200 acres (81 ha) at Herleshowe to provide support while the abbey became established. In the early years the abbey struggled to maintain itself because further gifts were not forthcoming and Thurstan could not help further because the lands he administered were not his own, but part of the diocesan estate. After a few years of impoverished struggle to establish the abbey, the monks were joined by Hugh, a former dean of York Minster, a rich man who brought a considerable fortune as well as furniture and books to start the library.

By 1135 the monks had acquired only another 260 acres (110 ha) at Cayton, given by Eustace fitzJohn of Knaresborough "for the building of the abbey". Shortly after the fire of 1146, the monks had established granges at Sutton, Cayton, Cowton Moor, Warsill, Dacre and Aldburgh all within 6 mi (10 km) of Fountains. In the 1140s the water mill was built on the abbey site making it possible for the grain from the granges to be brought to the abbey for milling.Tannery waste from this time has been excavated on the site.

Further estates were assembled in two phases, between 1140 and 1160 then 1174 and 1175, from piecemeal acquisitions of land. Some of the lands were grants from benefactors but others were purchased from gifts of money to the abbey. Roger de Mowbray granted vast areas of Nidderdale and William de Percy and his tenants granted substantial estates in Craven which included Malham Moor and the fishery in Malham Tarn. After 1203 the abbots consolidated the abbey's lands by renting out more distant areas that the monks could not easily farm themselves, and exchanging and purchasing lands that complemented their existing estates. Fountains' holdings both in Yorkshire and beyond had reached their maximum extent by 1265, when they were an efficient and very profitable estate. Their estates were linked in a network of individual granges which provided staging posts to the most distant ones. They had urban properties in York, Yarm, Grimsby, Scarborough and Boston from which to conduct export and market trading and their other commercial interests included mining, quarrying, iron-smelting, fishing and milling.

The Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 was a factor that led to a downturn in the prosperity of the abbey in the early fourteenth century. Areas of the north of England as far south as York were looted by the Scots. Then the number of lay-brothers being recruited to the order reduced considerably. The abbey chose to take advantage of the relaxation of the edict on leasing property that had been enacted by the General Chapter of the order in 1208 and leased some of their properties. Others were staffed by hired labour and remained in hand under the supervision of bailiffs. In 1535 Fountains had an interest in 138 vills and the total taxable income of the Fountains estate was £1,115, making it the richest Cistercian monastery in England.

After the Dissolution

 

The Gresham family crest

The Abbey buildings and over 500 acres (200 ha) of land were sold by the Crown, on 1 October 1540, to Sir Richard Gresham, at the time a Member of Parliament and former Lord Mayor of London, the father of Sir Thomas Gresham. It was Richard Gresham who had supplied Cardinal Wolsey with the tapestries for his new house of Hampton Court and who paid for the Cardinal's funeral.

Gresham sold some of the fabric of the site, stone, timber, lead, as building materials to help to defray the cost of purchase. The site was acquired in 1597 by Sir Stephen Proctor, who used stone from the monastic complex to build Fountains Hall. Between 1627 and 1767 the estate was owned by the Messenger family who sold it to William Aislaby who was responsible for combining it with the Studley Royal Estate.

 

Burials

 

Roger de Mowbray, 1st Baron Mowbray

John de Mowbray, 2nd Baron Mowbray

Abbot Marmaduke Huby (d. 1526)

Rose (daughter of Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester), wife of Roger de Mowbray, 1st Baron Mowbray

Henry de Percy, 1st Baron Percy

William II de Percy, 3rd feudal baron of Topcliffe

Becoming a World Heritage Site

The archaeological excavation of the site was begun under the supervision of John Richard Walbran, a Ripon antiquary who, in 1846, had published a paper On the Necessity of clearing out the Conventual Church of Fountains.In 1966 the Abbey was placed in the guardianship of the Department of the Environment and the estate was purchased by the West Riding County Council who transferred ownership to the North Yorkshire County Council in 1974. The National Trust bought the 674-acre (273 ha) Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal estate from North Yorkshire County Council in 1983. In 1986 the parkland in which the abbey is situated and the abbey was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It was recognised for fulfilling the criteria of being a masterpiece of human creative genius, and an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates significant stages in human history. Fountains Abbey is owned by the National Trust and maintained by English Heritage. The trust owns Studley Royal Park, Fountains Hall, to which there is partial public access, and St Mary's Church, designed by William Burges and built around 1873, all of which are significant features of the World Heritage Site.

The Porter's Lodge, which was once the gatehouse to the abbey, houses a modern exhibition area with displays about the history of Fountains Abbey and how the monks lived.

In January 2010, Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal became two of the first National Trust properties to be included in Google Street View, using the Google Trike.

 

Film location

 

Fountains Abbey was used as a film location by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark for their single "Maid of Orleans (The Waltz Joan of Arc)" during the cold winter of December 1981. In 1980, Hollywood also came to the site to film the final scenes to the film Omen III: The Final Conflict.Other productions filmed on location at the abbey are the films Life at the Top, The Secret Garden, The History Boys, TV series Flambards, A History of Britain, Terry Jones' Medieval Lives, Cathedral, Antiques Roadshow and the game show Treasure Hunt. The BBC Television series 'Gunpowder' (2017) used Fountains Abbey as a location.

OWNED BY RUSSELL BRAND

The John Muir National Historic Site is located in Martinez, in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It preserves the Italianate Victorian mansion where the naturalist and writer John Muir lived, as well as a nearby 325 acres (132 ha) tract of native oak woodlands and grasslands historically owned by the Muir family. The main site is on the edge of town, in the shadow of State Route 4, also known as the "John Muir Parkway".

 

John Muir’s home was among the grandest of its time, and costing $20,000 to build, an extravagant amount in its day. An article in the Martinez Gazette, written while the house was being constructed, said “with but one or two exceptions, it will be the finest and most complete private residence in the county.”

 

The house, completed in 1882, was built for Dr. John and Louisiana Strentzel, Muir’s parents-in-law. The Strentzels gave their original house to John and his bride Louie as a wedding gift. When Dr. Strentzel died in 1890, the Muirs moved into this house.

 

The seventeen-room home is in the Italianate style of late Victorian architecture, and is constructed mostly of redwood. The architects were Wolfe and Son of San Francisco. The home incorporates key features of the Italianate style, including: a rectangular, symmetrical shape, wide eaves with brackets and cornices, a porch with balustrades, a square cupola and high, double-paned windows with hood moldings.

 

The interior of the 10,000 square-foot house with 12-foot-high ceilings has retained many of its original features, including the Douglas fir floor and black walnut staircase banister. Note the crack in the transom over the front door, which occurred during the Port Chicago explosion of World War II. Phone service was installed in 1884 by Dr. Strentzel, and the house was one of the first in the area to have it (the phone in the downstairs hallway is not original).

 

The house suffered some damage during the 1906 earthquake, including two of the Italian marble fireplaces. Muir replaced the east parlor’s damaged fireplace with a large, Mission style brick one. He described it in a letter to a friend, “In particular I've built a big fireplace, almost suitable for mountaineers, into which I roll a jolly pair of logs two feet in diameter and pile a half dozen smaller ones between and back of them making fires that flame and roar and radiate sunny heat like those we built on the frosty Coyote Meadows above the canyon of the Kern.” (January 7, 1907)

 

Furnishings in the home are from the period, but did not belong to the Muirs or Strentzels. An exception is John Muir’s original desk in his “scribble den,” where he penned most of his published works, including his books—writings that paved the way to preserving our nation’s most beautiful natural lands, or “wild places.”

Upstairs, the small balcony at the end of the hall is where Muir slept on many clear nights, seeming to prefer having the stars over his head to a roof.

 

When John Muir died in 1914 (nine years after his wife), his grown daughters Wanda and Helen sold the house. It remained in the hands of private owners until local citizens (including those who established the John Muir Association) worked for the historic structure’s establishment as a public treasure. The National Park Service bought the house in 1964, along with nine acres of the Muir’s fruit ranch. In 1993, NPS bought an additional 326 acres, known as Mt. Wanda.

 

Next to Alhambra Creek, about a mile from the house, Muir was buried next to his wife on what was once part of the original 2,600-acre ranch.

 

The grounds of the 9 acre main site contain grapevines and an orchard with many types of fruit trees as well as many mature exotic trees from around the world that were growing at the time Muir lived. Also to be found are exhibits and machinery of ranch life in the late 1800's.

A 'must see' on the same property is the preserved Vincente Martinez Adobe home built in 1849.

 

While living here, Muir realized many of his greatest accomplishments, co-founding and serving as the first president of the Sierra Club, in the wake of his battle to prevent Yosemite National Park's Hetch Hetchy Valley from being dammed, playing a prominent role in the creation of several national parks, writing hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles and several books expounding on the virtues of conservation and the natural world, and laying the foundations for the creation of the National Park Service in 1916.

 

The park's museum collection includes historic documents and artifacts that relate to the writing, travels, political activities and daily life of John Muir and his family in Martinez. Significant portions of the collections include over 1,000 plant specimens collected by Muir during his many travels, photographs of his travel, correspondence to and from Muir, books from his personal library, and first editions of his published works. Many of Muir's original items were graciously donated by Muir family members.

 

The collection also includes Victorian era furnishings, clothing, household goods, farm implements, books and textiles that are not unique to Muir or his home; however, these pieces allow us to interpret the day-to-day life on the Martinez fruit ranch. The collections are displayed in the home, carriage house and through exhibitions in the Visitor Center.

 

The Muir house was documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1960.

It became a National Historic Site in 1964, is California Historical Landmark no. 312, and National Historic Landmark, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

In 1988 nearby Mount Wanda Nature Preserve was added to the Historic Site.

VETERANS DAY OBSERVANCE 20th Anniversary STORYTELLING: IN THEIR OWN WORDS at the Vietnam Women's Memorial at Constitution Gardens off Constitution Avenue near 21st Street, NW, Washington DC on Monday afternoon, 11 November 2013 by Elvert Barnes Photography

 

Learn more about Vietnam Women's Memorial / STORYTELLING at www.vietnamwomensmemorial.org/stories.php

 

Visit Elvert Barnes VIETNAM WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL docu-project at elvertbarnes.com/VWVM

Tranmere land was owned by a brother of Sir John Morphett (of Cummins House), George Morphett a politician for West Torrens and land owner. When he returned to England in 1891 he sold the land to wealthy Rundle Street Draper George Hunt. In 1898 Hunt built Tranmere House in late Victorian fanciful style with a central tower, a church style spire and fanciful cupolas on the rounded corners. It was a grandiose house built to impress but would not have granted access to socialisation with the “establishment” of Adelaide. Mr Hunt died in 1911 and in 1915 his son Claude Hunt leased the house to the Defence Department as a nursing home for injured World War One soldiers. In 1923 the owners were holding garden parties at Tusmore House to raise funds for a bowling club. In 1925 they sold off one third of their garden to the new Bowling Club. About this time the house was divided into several self contained flats. In 1927 the 17-roomed mansion was sold again by Mrs Hulme Smith. In the 1940s it was owned by a Mr Collins. It has had many owners over the years and is now still occupied as a single dwelling but it is in a sad state of neglect.

Go Ian! He scored right after this.

I don't own too many extravagant collectibles, mostly due to desire not to overdo the spending, but also due to space limitations, as these generally tend to me fairly large.

 

But once in a while, a bargain comes along and you found your excuse to get it anyway.

 

Presenting the Pop Culture Shock (PCS) 1/3 scale Alpha Chun Li, Number 118 of 350.

 

Now I knew of and had seen pictures of this statue. Most coveted of the three different costumes, retailing for around $900 USD and getting much worse in the aftermarket.

 

I happened to find a guy locally who was trying to make some space, and upon closer inspection of said statue, was kind enough to give me further discounts, resulting in very nice, box less statue for $600 CAD.

 

For those who are unfamiliar with the company, PCS produces mixed media statues of various scales (typically 1/6 to 1/3 scale) of several popular IPs. Bodies are of painted Polystone, and the outfits are fabric. Depending on the way parts connect together, there may be metal pins or magnets involved.

 

In terms of size, Chun Li here comes in at just under 30 inches tall, fully assembled.

 

This particular sculpt of Chun Li is very aesthetically pleasing, to say the least. Given a very curvy, but muscular physique, the larger scale just makes every bulge just that much larger than life, and the Alpha suit does a much better job at showcasing her physique than her traditional outfit, though for those in for a bit more skin, the Battle Dress is clearly the winner.

 

This is probably one of the finest American sculpts of Chun Li I've ever seen, which is another reason I eagerly brought her home to my collection. Some of the Chun Li work from PCS, however, is the stuff that nightmares are made of.

 

One particularly interesting educational moment for me was the realization that even at this price point, nothing is perfect. The outfit was fantastic, but the paint was off - there were some less than crisp areas on her sneakers and bracelets, and much to my surprise, they didn't even finish painting the whites of her eyes.

 

Still, despite these flaws, I highly doubt you'll find a more dominant statue of the Strongest Woman in the World for your shelf.... provided your shelf can hold up the weight of this thing.

the back of a closed hardware store in small town Iowa.

 

Explore #383

Owned by Flexjet

A lot of products on the market today, such as all Toys-to-Life products, use NFC, near-field communication technology – or basically just a little receiver antenna that reacts to a radio signal to transfer information over short distances. Tons of stuff use tech like that, like contactless cards, security keys, etc. It’s popular because it’s […]

  

www.fbtb.net/video-games/2021/05/21/how-to-make-your-own-...

For the Origami Forum Nov 11 challenge

 

diagrams: origami.jenskober.de/diagrams.php

Origami Deutschland 2012

East Bay Origami Convention 2012

MFPP - Rencontres de mai 2014

BOS Magazine 299 (2016)

Privately Owned Public Space (POPS 154).

Rovos Rail has a style all its own; created by Rohan Vos in 1989, his very special train tours have matured into an harmonious blend of earthy African safari and traditional luxury – except that a divine soak in a full-sized bath in a train was always rare, even on Royal trains.

ABOUT THE TRAIN

The Pride of Africa trains from Rovos Rail are a wonderful ‘vehicle’ within which one can experience the vast continent of Africa, from South Africa to as far north as Egypt, with north and southbound routes between Pretoria and Cape Town as well as a range of spectacular journeys. The trains combine the golden age of rail travel with modern conveniences, creating an unforgettable extravagant elegance of a bygone era.

From the start of your journey in the fabulous Edwardian styled departure room, to the memorable time spent on the opulent Pride of Africa, this is an experience not to be missed.

Accommodation

Suites

All these luxurious suites are air-conditioned with en-suite facilities, decorated in beautiful wood panelling and period Edwardian features. There are three styles that guests can choose from (Royal, Deluxe, Pullman), with varying levels of luxury, and all offer every modern convenience and comfort, with fittings and facilities of the highest standard and are equipped with a writing area and a personal safe for valuables. There is also a mini bar filled with beverages of the passengers’ choice and 24 hour room service.

The four Royal Suites (16sqm) each have their own private lounge area and feature a full en-suite bathroom with shower and Victorian bath.

The Deluxe Suites (11sqm) each have a lounge area and en-suite bathroom with shower.

The Pullman Suites (7sqm) are equipped with a comfortable sofa-seat during the day, converting to double or twin beds for the evening, and also have an en-suite bathroom with shower.

Dining Cars

The beautiful dining cars provide a wonderful range of food that includes local delicacies such as game with an emphasis placed on fresh and seasonal ingredients, complemented of course by excellent South Africa wines. The ambiance created by a Victorian setting, with crisp linen, sparkling glass and silver, and seamless service, charms the diners.

Lounge and Observation Cars

Sitting in the opulence of the lounge cars allows the opportunity to relax and watch the spectacular scenery, whilst the rear of the Observation car affords one the amazing experience of being outside whilst the train is moving.

Loews Ventana Canyon Resort is owned by Ventana Canyon Partnership, headed by William Estes III.

 

Tucson developer, William (Bill) Estes, Jr.(1938-2009), built Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson. Estes was the founder of Estes Homes and built some 40,000 homes throughout Tucson and Phoenix. Loews operates the hotel under a management contract with Ventana Canyon Partnership. Lowes Ventana Canyon Resort opened in December 1984 following the opening of the 380 room Loews Paradise Valley (more recently a Wyndham and now DoubleTree) at 5401 N Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale, Arizona.

 

Loews Ventana Canyon lies in the Sonoran Desert at the base of the Santa Catalina mountains overlooking the city of Tucson. Architects John C. Hill, Jr. (AIA) and William Kenneth Frizzell (AIA) stated in 1985 - “The major organizing element of our design was the natural environment and we wanted the hotel to look like a part of the landscape.”

 

Their design task: 400 rooms, no more than two above ground stories due to zoning restrictions, and covering the least amount of area as possible to minimize environmental impact while simultaneously highlighting both the city of Tuscon and desert surrounding. Their firm, Frizzell Hill Moorehouse, won the closed competition by utilizing a basement for administration and ancillary functions, which conserved prime space for rooms.

Influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, the design utilizes pleated vertical towers to blend with local cacti as well as a low-rise, earth brown exterior boasting exposed aggregate to reflect indigenous geology. It’s stone architecture blends into the desert mountains.

 

There are two Tom Fazio-designed golf courses - Loews Ventana Canyon Resort's Mountain course (1987) and Canyon course (1985) - with striking Sonoran Desert backdrops and saguaros. Plenty of wildlife with coveys of quail, red-tailed hawks, bobcats, deer, rabbits, coyotes and roadrunners at an elevation of 3,013 feet.

 

Architectural Digest called it the “first environmentally-conceived resort in North America.”

 

Loews Hotels parent company is Loews Corporation which also owns an oil-drilling company, natural-gas pipelines and Chicago-based commercial insurer CNA Financial Corp. CNA Financial Corporation is one of the largest commercial property and casualty insurance organizations in the United States. Loews owned Bulova Watches until 2007. The Tisch brothers gained control of Loew's Theaters in 1960, thus the name but they dropped the apostrophe for their corporate name. Loews Lorillard tobacco division included brand leader Newport cigarettes.

 

Jonathan Tisch is the chairman of Loews Hotels and co-chairman of Loews Corp. Tisch, 57, is also treasurer of the National Football League’s New York Giants.

 

Loews Hotels currently owns and/or operates 19 hotels in the U.S. and Canada. Previously Loews operated the Loews Monte Carlo, Loews La Napoule, Loews Le Concorde in Quebec City, Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C. and Loews Anatole.

 

The parents of Preston and Laurence Tisch bought the Laurel-in-the-Pines Hotel in Lakewood, NJ in 1946. That hotel's success was the springboard for Loews Corp. By 1956, the brothers were in a position to build their first hotel, the Americana in Bal Harbour, Fla., for $17 million in cash.

 

“There's nothing you can know that isn't known.”

www.dreamwheelsjax.com

Dream Wheels is a Jacksonville used car and pre-owned vehicle dealership that isn’t your typical dealer, and is family owned and operated since 2014. We do things differently, such as not having high overhead costs, which saves our customers thousands. At Dream Wheels, we carry only the finest “like new” inventory, that have been well maintained and have low mileage. Our relationships with banks are backed with decades of finance experience, which allows us to provide a huge amount of financing options for our customers.

My own Lego creation based on the Lego set 40192-1 (LEGO Ferrari 250 GTO). Here you can watch this car in movement: youtu.be/xd_SGKQ864s.

The 7th in a line of coilguns by, originally state owned, Luprecal arms. This rifle is often considered the all around worst of Luprecal's models.

 

The improvements it made on the previous six model's charge times came at the cost of weight, size, and heat as a result.

 

Despite these drawbacks, it is still a decent firearm. It is capable of getting nearly any job done with ease, that is if you can juggle heat management, bulky batteries, and problems with door frames.

  

Notes:

"Mk. 7, I mean, its bad, but its Luprecal! Even their bad guns are still pretty damn good. If anything the Mk. 7 was a good step towards the Mk. 8, which, if you ask me, was the best of them all."

 

"Just keep an eye on the battery and bring a pair of cooking mittens and you'll have no problem with this thing, it's a coilgun you know? Kills most everything at all practical ranges."

 

"Quebec swears on God that if you try to lean the batteries they explode, so, don't do that."

  

Made in Pimp My Gun