Wickham Place is the London home of Lord and Lady Southgate, their children and staff. Located in fashionable Belgravia it is a fine Georgian terrace house.

 

Today we are in the day nursery where we are celebrating the Southgate’s daughter, Sarah’s, birthday. As instructed by Lady Southgate, the children, Piers and Sarah, have been taken for a special trip to St. James’ Park to feed the swans and other waterfowl that live on Duck Island on St. James’ Park Lake by Nanny Tessa. Whilst they are away, the Southgate’s cook, Mrs. Bradley, and her scullery maid Agnes set the nursery table with the china and tablecloth especially reserved for special occasions, Nanny Tessa’s beloved floral teapot, a vase of fresh flowers from the Wickham Place garden, a jug of milk, a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice, some beautiful floral cupcakes and a strawberry Victoria sponge cake made by Mrs. Bradley and Agnes.

 

Bursting into the nursery, Piers and Sarah stop in their tracks, their mouths and eyes agog at the beautiful table setting.

 

“Oh Piers, look!” gasps Sarah. “Isn’t it wonderful! Do you suppose it’s for me?”

 

“Well of course it’s for you,” Piers scoffs with the knowledge that the year and a half of gives him. “Who else would it be for?”

 

“Happy birthday Sarah!” Lady Southgate exclaims with pure joy, slipping out from her hiding place through the door of the adjoining night nursery where Nanny Tessa and the children sleep.

 

“Mamma!” Sarah gasps.

 

Forgetting all the protocol that is usually associated with a visit from their parents, Sarah and Piers rush from Nanny Tessa’s side into their mother’s open arms, as the lady bends down and envelops her in a warm embrace. They lavish each other in kisses and laugh wholeheartedly.

 

Unlike most of her British friends, Lady Southgate has a different idea about parenting and doesn’t like to remain the cool and distant figure most Edwardian children view their parents as. She finds any excuse she can to visit the nursery and enjoys spending time with her children when she can, taking an active interest in their lives. Nanny Tessa, a seasoned nanny, does not entirely approve of Lady Southgate’s rather unorthodox approach to parenting, and if Lady Southgate’s husband knew, he wouldn’t approve either. Both come from the majority that like the status quo who believe that children should only be seen for one hour every evening under strict supervision of their nanny in the drawing room just before bedtime.

 

“Let me look at you!” Lady Southgate exclaims, resting back on her haunches placing a hand on each child’s cheek as she takes in their happy smiles and sparking eyes. “Why Sarah, I do think your hair is looking particularly beautiful today with that lovely pale blue bow.” She turns to her son. “And Piers, I’m sure you’ve grown a full inch since last I saw you!”

 

“Oh, I have Mamma!” Piers leans back and stands proudly to attention. “Look!” He places his right hand flatly across his head as if indicating an invisible measurement.

 

“Ahem!” Nanny Tessa bristles, looking down her nose in distain at the vulgar show of emotion. “Children! That’s no way to greet your Mamma.”

 

The children’s faces both fall a little as they turn to their Nanny, who loves them very much, but is quite strict about good manners and proper behaviour.

 

“Oh nonsense, Nanny!” Lady Southgate chides her quickly. “This isn’t the drawing room before bedtime, is it children?” The children smile and shake their heads. “No! So, I think we can allow ourselves a little informality on this occasion,” She smiles. “Especially as it is Sarah’s birthday.” She reaches behind her and withdraws a present wrapped in magenta wrapping paper that she has kept hidden from view.

 

“Oh Mamma!” Sarah gasps. “Thank you very much!” She kisses her mother delicately on the cheek and accepts the gift held out to her with a sudden awkward shyness.

 

“But,” Lady Southgate adds seriously. “This must be out little secret. All of our secret.” She looks sharply at the nanny, who quickly looks away attempting avoid her gaze and thus become complicit in this secret. “So, when you come down this evening and tell your Pappa how much you enjoyed your birthday tea and the presents we have given you, you must pretend that I haven’t been here and tell me just the same as you tell him. Alright?”

 

“Yes Mamma!” Sarah says dourly.

 

“Alright Mamma.” Piers promises seriously.

 

“Good!” Lady Southgate sighs, rising awkwardly to her feet, brushing out the crumples in her French blue serge fitted skirt front.

 

“Now children,” Nanny Tessa says matter-of-factly. “Give me your coats and hats and then you may take your places at the table.”

 

The children gladly obey, relinquishing their outer clothes to Nanny and hurrying to the table where their mother is already seated. Sarah takes the seat of honour between her mother and her brother, whilst Piers sits with Nanny Tessa seated to his left.

 

“Cook has been busy,” Lady Southgate exclaims. “Just look at those pretty floral cupcakes!”

 

“And a strawberry Victoria Sponge, Sarah,” Nanny Tessa says as she joins them. “Your favourite! What a lucky girl you are.” She smiles beatifically.

 

Sarah blushes and falls silent as she takes in the beautiful cupcakes, each topped with cream icing, sugar sprinkles and a marzipan flower, and the splendid pink iced birthday cake dusted with icing sugar and decorated with whipped cream and fresh strawberries.

 

“Will you be mother*, Nanny Tessa?” Lady Southgate asks. “And I’ll hand out the cupcakes.”

 

“Of course, Lady Southgate,” Nanny Tessa replies obsequiously. She takes up her teapot and pours tea for her mistress first, and herself. “And what would you like to drink, Sarah?”

 

“May I have orange juice, please Nanny?” she asks politely.

 

“You may, Sarah.” Nanny gifts her charge with a beaming smile as she fills her glass with orange liquid from the jug.

 

“What lovely manners you have, Sarah.” Lady Southgate acknowledges, also smiling at her dark haired daughter.

 

“May I have milk please Nanny?” Piers pipes up.

 

“You may Piers,” the older woman replies. “But not before I ask you.”

 

Rebuked, Piers sinks a little lower in his seat.

 

“Now,” Nanny Tessa turns to Piers. “What would you like to drink, Piers?”

 

“May I have milk please, Nanny?”

 

“You may young man, because now you have been asked.” She fills his glass with creamy white milk bought fresh from the milk float in the square outside Wickham Place by Agnes just this morning. “It is always polite to wait until you are asked, before you share what you would like to eat or drink.”

 

“Yes, Nanny Tessa.” Piers answers.

 

“Well Sarah,” Lady Southgate asks. “Aren’t you going to open your gift?”

 

“Oh yes!” Sarah says excitedly, having quite forgotten that she was holding her gift tightly to her chest.

 

She carefully pulls at the wrapping, but even her gentle tugs cannot stop the paper from being torn, and once it starts, she quickly forgets about being delicate and ladylike. Both Lady Southgate and Nanny Tessa chuckle and exchange indulging glances with one another as the little girl loses all self-consciousness and enjoys the playful child-like moment of abandoned delight at unwrapping her gifts. Within the pink paper she finds a copy of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ by L. Frank Baum, and ‘The Wonderful Game of Oz’ boxed boardgame. She squeals with delight, carefully places both presents on the table where Piers can see them too and throws her arms around her mother’s neck.

 

“Oh thank you Mamma!” she gasps, showering her with kisses.

 

“And your Pappa,” Nanny Tessa adds.

 

“You’re welcome, darling!” Lady Southgate replies. “You can thank both of us properly when you come down to the drawing room this evening.”

 

“Yes, Mamma.”

 

“I take it you like your presents then, Sarah?”

 

“Oh yes Mamma! They are wonderful!”

 

“We can start reading the first chapter at bedtime tonight, Milady.” Nanny Tessa says.

 

“And perhaps we might all play the board game after tea?” Piers asks hopefully.

 

“Oh, what a good idea, Piers!” Sarah says. “May we Mamma? May we Nanny Tessa?”

 

“I don’t see why not.” Nanny Tessa says.

 

“I can only stay for a little while though, children,” Lady Southgate adds. “I must go soon and change. Your Pappa will be home before we know it, and I must be there to greet him.” The children both look downcast. “Now! Now! No glum faces. It’s Sarah’s birthday! Let’s eat these cupcakes, and then we will sing happy birthday to Sarah and have a slice of birthday cake before we play the game.”

 

The children and their Nanny all smile and everyone at the table takes up their dainty floral cupcake and starts eating it.

 

*The meaning of the very British term “shall I be mother” is “shall I pour the tea?”

 

You might be surprised to learn that this rather delicious birthday nursery tea is not exactly what it seems. It is in fact made up of 1:12 size artisan miniatures from my large collection, including a couple of items that I have had since my childhood.

 

I wanted to create this tableau to celebrate the birthday of one of my favourite children’s books, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ by L. Frank Baum, which was first published on the 17th of May 1900 by George M. Hill Company, New York. I was read it as a child, and then read it, and all the thirteen subsequent L. Frank Baum Oz books when I was twelve. I still have the books to this day, and whilst they fell out of favour and were very hard to get hold of for many years, I am pleased to say that all the Baum Oz books have now been re-published in individual and omnibus form, which has enabled me to introduce the delight of Oz and all the wonderful people and creatures who inhabit the magical land surrounded by a deadly desert to my godchildren.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableau include:

 

The edition of ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ on the table features the original American edition cover with the Cowardly Lion wearing the green spectacles everyone entering the Emerald City had to wear. An artisan miniature made by Little Things of Interest in Ohio, this book can be opened and features readable text in an abridged version of the story, and also copies of the original W.W. Denslow illustrations. Based on whimsical stories he told his children, Lyman Frank Baum’s book is known as the first American faerie tale. Following the adventures of Kansas girl Dorothy Gale and her friends the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion across the Land of Oz, ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ was just the first of fourteen Oz books written by L. Frank Baum. Originally published somewhat reluctantly, the book is now one of the best-known stories in American literature and has been widely translated into any number of languages. It led not only to further books but to successful Broadway shows, silent films and of course the MGM movie musical, ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

 

‘The Wonderful Game of Oz’ on the table is a 1:12 artisan miniature made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. ‘The Wonderful Game of Oz’ was just one of the many pieces of promotional merchandise that was produced after the great success of the Oz books. Based on the L. Frank Baum book and characters, the game board and pieces are based on the John. R. Neil book illustrations. John. R. Neil illustrated all the Oz books except ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ which was illustrated by W. W. Denslow. In the game, you make your way through Oz, from Munchkinland to the Emarald City. Published by Parker Brothers in Salem Massachusetts in 1921, I hope you will forgive me for putting it in this story, which is set around 1910, and will indulge me as I celebrate everything Oz in this tableau.

 

The divine little cupcakes, each with a flower on the top, has been made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. Her work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination. Each cupcake is only five millimetres in diameter and eight millimetres in height! The strawberry birthday cake has also been made from polymer clay and is very realistic and was made by Karen Ladybug miniatures in England.

 

Nanny Tessa’s floral teapot I acquired from a specialist high street tea shop when I was a teenager. I have five of them and each one is a different shape and has a different design. I love them, and what I also love is that over time they have developed their own crazing in the glaze, which I think adds a nice touch of authenticity.

 

The jug and glass of orange juice, the jug and glass of milk and the glass vase of flowers all came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering. All the pieces are made from very fine glass and are hand blown, so each one is unique.

 

The porcelain tea set, which has two matching cups and saucers, a milk jug and sugar bowl, were part of a job lot of over one hundred pieces of 1:12 chinaware I bought from a seller on E-Bay. The pieces are remarkably dainty and the patterns on them are so pretty. The floral plates are part of a larger dinner set I acquired through a miniature stockist on E-Bay.

 

The tablecloth has been crocheted by hand and is actually a small doily that I picked up in an antique market. I imagine it is around one hundred years old. When I bought it, it was badly stained, but some bleach and lemon juice quickly righted this and brought it back to its original gleaming white. I loved it for its delicate weave.

 

The table itself is a Jacobean style round drop leaf table of dark stained oak which I have had since I was seven. The dainty little chairs are carved from fruitwood and were part of a lot I bought at auction many years ago.

 

In the background you can catch glimpses of the Wickham Place nursery which is papered with William Morris’ ‘Willow Bough’ pattern. In Nanny’s chair by the fire sits a big teddy bear, which is one of just a number of small 1:12 size teddy bears that I have in my collection. The ewer set in blue and white Delftware I also acquired from a specialist high street miniatures shop when I was a teenager.

Junk style sightseeing boat "Aqua Luna" (張保仔, "Cheung Po Tsai") with the HKCEC in the background. Despite her "old" or "vintage" appearance, "Aqua Luna" was launched in 2006 and thus only 3 years old at the time the photo was taken.

Side remark - there are many flickr photos that do show Aqua Luna - but even if the name on the bow is clearly readable, many do wrongly identify her as Duk Ling (Hong Kong's other - and real old - junk)

 

Shot from Central Pier No. 9.

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

A great British seaside treat complete with traditional block lettering through the tube so at one end the words are readable and at the other they are backwards!

 

Made from felt and stuffed with polyfil. Completely hand sewn and stuffed.

An industrial corner in Dampremy, sealed off by a half-wall and a faded "private property" sign. The buildings behind it are in clear view. An industrial corner in Dampremy is fenced off by a half-wall and a worn "private property" sign. Behind it, the buildings are visibly deteriorating, with broken windows, rusted fixtures, and peeling paint. The faded lettering on the old workshop façade is hardly readable anymore. This scene is typical of parts of Charleroi, an area once defined by industry, now marked by rust, concrete, and gradual decay.

Here is a new set of LEGO ideas and techniques, made with LDD

I'm sure you'll find a use to this idea

I tried to make the explanation readable thanks to the colors as if we had a tutorial

 

Do not forget to watch the album with all the right techniques on your right =>

 

Find all my creations on Flickr group « News LEGO Techniques ».

This Flickr group includes:

 

- Ideas for new LEGO pieces

- Techniques for assembling bricks

- Tutorials for making accessories, objects, etc.

 

we’re encouraging each others’ efforts at making custom Missy and Thirteen. and i sent her like maybe 2 MtM bodies?

 

she sent me AN ENTIRE HAND MADE OFFICIAL THIRTEEN OUTFIT and stim-jars (the photo does not do them justice, they are SO COOL) and bandes-dessinées (actually readable if i could see that small haha … but the dolls can!)

 

…and one of my favourite anime characters (Chi sweet home cat) as just one of the extras! <3 <3

Edited by Jeff Wilson, www.flickr.com/photos/jawilson85/ .

 

Music by Löhstana David featuring the songs "Demain je change de vie" and "La rupture." www.jamendo.com/en/album/92133

 

View the readable version on Vimeo. This is why Flickr needs longer videos! vimeo.com/28990706

 

Since there are so many questions... Pacdog lost parts of 5 fingers in an accident. We decided he deserved some cheering up. He's the guy holding the "completely unsuspecting" sign.

You know, the story wouldn't be complete without the second half. This is the re-do of the wall after they had asked me to make it look more traditional. They were really appreciative when all was said and done because they thought the other version was too hard to read and was dark. I tried to make this one pop a lot harder so I added some brighter colors. The white always helps make things pop. I also added a Hot yellow force-field around the piece too. The letters got changed up a little bit as well but that was to just make it a little more legible. It always amazes me when people hire on a graffiti writer and then ask for you to make it readable. I always have to ask them, readable like a sign or just more simplified. The answer is always, "I don't know? You know...... readable." I just say "Sure, I can do that." and move on. Work time!

Banana Yoshimoto wrote this. Dealing with loss and love and other stuff, it was very readable and short enough for a single sitting.

Give it a go.

Portugal, Lisboa, Belem, Avenida de Brasilia, Electricity museum, former low pressure boiler building, water treatment facility (cut from B & T).

 

The Meseu da Electricidade is one of the most striking technology museums we ever visited. It´s the giant Tejo power station, built in 1908 by the CRGE (Companhias Ruinidas de Gas e Electricidade) as the 'Estacão Eléctrica Central Tejo' and also kown as ‘Central da Junqueira’ power station. The facility was expanded and modernized in different steps. The last step was taken in 1951. It´s kinda ironic that due to the new national power grid policy and the prime role hydro-electric power generation in it, the Tejo station then already had the status of reserve station, mainly kept on stand-by.

 

The power station was coal fired and employed towering Babcock & Wilcox high pressure boilers. It could provide the whole of Lisbon with electricity and was decommissioned and mothballed in 1972. It´s max output was 65 MW. In comparison a modern metropolitan coal/biomass fired power station outputs up to 1500 MW. There's by the way a lively debate about these kind of modern coal fired plants because the relatively high amount of NOx, SOx and CO2 in their combustion fumes. There's a drive to phase them out and rely on gas fuelled ones or, preferably, ones that use wind and other sustainable energy sources instead. So in a way Portugal, like for instance Norway, (although Norway skipped the coal phase) was ahead of the game.

 

Anyway, after a while it was decided that the old mothballed Tejo power station should be turned into a museum. And the result was spectacular. The vintage technology is very well preserved and made readable via didactic cut-opens and access areas. And some dioramic scenes to enhance storytelling /realism and a permanent exposition about the world of energy and the generation of it were added The museum opened in 1990 and was renovated and modernized from 2001-2006. It´s now the most popular Portuguese museum.

 

"This post depicts the upper levels of the former low pressure boiler building. Seen here is a part of the water treatment facility. It purified the Tejo water that was let into the power plant. This purification of the water was crucial because the Tejo powerplant utilized 'water pipe 'boilers: the water ran trough pipes that are led through the furnace and is heated this way. Calcium and other chemical substances in the water would damage the pipes.

 

Main source: here

 

St.Croix Tower MN. Lever manipulation chart. Sorry for the quality,but still readable. Shows Stillwater Branch arcing across CB&Q diamonds. Center siding gone after 65 flood not shown.

Favorable passage over Oria of the Chinese space station Tiangong.

Credit: Giuseppe Donatiello

 

Stack of six shots of 30s at 400 ISO with the Canon 24mm STM used in Tv mode (shutter priority) to obtain a readable image despite a clear sky.

  

The information and annotations in the image are of scientific utility because they identify the subject and place it in a specific moment. They also indicate the subject of interest. The absence of such information makes the images useless.

  

Verdun (55)

 

The one with the readable plate: 1991 Mazda 626 1.8 12V

 

These would've been worth a stop indeed, but I wasn't driving and not alone.

Fortunately the number is readable on the cab side, RT 433 which was HLX 250. The bus was a Weymann bodied AEC, new to London Transport in October 1947, it arrived at Birds from store at Abbey Wood in December 1963. When it arrived it was placed in the "Too good to scrap" area but didn't find a buyer and was soon moved down into the pit of no return.

Copyright Geoff Dowling: All rights reserved

The History of Kamerawerk Gebr.Wirgin and Edixa Reflex

by Klaus-Eckard Riess

 

www.fotohistoricum.dk/riess_wp/de-andre/hos-wirgin-d/

 

Im o.a link schildert Klaus-Eckard Riess seine Erlebnisse Ende der 1950er Jahre bei Wirgin in Wiesbaden. Riess hatte gerade seine Meisterausbildung bei Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart abgeschlossen und wechselte zu einem neuen Arbeitgeber nach Skandinavien, der dort eine Werksvertretung der Fa. Gebr. Wirgin Wiesbaden unterhielt. Weil Wiesbaden nicht weit weg von Stuttgart war, bat ihn sein neuer Arbeitgeber sich dort erst einmal etwas umzuschauen.

 

Kompetent und humorvoll schildert Riess, was er dort gesehen und erlebt hat. Herrlich seine Beschreibung der rustikalen Produktionsmethoden, wie er den Chef Henry Wirgin erlebt hat und wie sich die Belegschaft über die Sparsamkeit des Chefs lustig gemacht hat.

 

Insgesamt ein sehr lesenswerter Erlebnisbericht aus einer Zeit, der man das Prädikat „gute alte Zeit“ geben möchte, wohl wissend, dass sie so gut nicht war.

 

www.fotohistoricum.dk/riess_wp/de-andre/hos-wirgin-d/

 

(engl. language)

 

In the link above, Klaus-Eckard Riess describes his experiences in the late 1950s at Wirgin in Wiesbaden. Riess had just completed his training as a master craftsman at Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart and moved to a new employer in Scandinavia, which had a factory representative of Wirgin Wiesbaden. Because Wiesbaden was not far from Stuttgart, his new employer asked him to have a look around there first.

 

In a competent and humorous way Riess describes what he saw and experienced there. His description of the rustic production methods, how he experienced the boss Henry Wirgin and how the staff made fun of his thriftiness was wonderful.

 

All in all a very readable experience report from a time which one would like to give the predicate "good old times", knowing full well that it was not so good.

 

my photos overview

www.fluidr.com/photos/193216061@N05

Today we continue our visit of the richest and most powerful Benedictine abbey of the Cotentin peninsula: Saint Vigor of Cerisy-la-Forêt.

 

The year is 510 AD in what would one day be known as Normandy. The Gallo-Roman Antiquity ended a few decades ago under the brutal assaults of the invaders from the East and the Western World has been plunged into what some will call the Dark Ages. Among the ruins and the waste, beacons of Christian light endure here and there, one of them being a holy man named Vigor. An early disseminator of the Christian faith in Normandy, he now lives a hermit’s life, until a local lord named Volusien pulls him out of his spiritual retreat to “slay a horrible serpent that slaughtered man and beast alike” —probably an image for some local Gaulish Pagan idol involving animal and human sacrifices. Vigor having accomplished the mission (read: converted the concerned Pagans to Christianity), Volusien gave him a tract of land with 25 villages in the area.

 

Thus endowed, Vigor founded an abbey dedicated to the saints Peter and Paul. We know very little about it, except that it was destroyed by the Vikings during the 9th century.

 

Indeed, after Emperor Charlemagne’s passing in 814, the region became more and more frequently the object of Viking raids. The men from the North, however, soon settled in Neustria (of which Normandy was a part), and over the following 200 years, converted massively to Christianity and became fierce defenders and proponents of that faith. In 1032, Duke Robert of Normandy, father of William the Conqueror, was about to leave on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Before his departure, he raised the ruins of the old abbey of Cerisy, founding a new one to be dedicated to Vigor, and upon his return in 1034, he gave the budding abbey the relics he had bought in the Holy Land from the Patriarch of Jerusalem. An arm bone of Saint Vigor was added in 1042, and that same year, Duke William bestowed even more endowment on the abbey.

 

According to some scholars, construction of the vast abbey church wouldn’t have begun before 1068, which seems a bit late to me. It did begin with the famous, unique three-level apse lit by no less than fifteen (!) large windows, certainly a most notable architectural feat for the day. The floor plan was the traditional Benedictine one, just like the two large abbeys in the city of Caen, which we have already visited, and the material was the equally famous pierre de Caen. The church was completed around 1090, and the next century saw the abbey at the apex of its influence and power, counting up to eight priories, two of them in England. At that time, a common faith and staunch defense of the Roman Catholic Church united the Normans of England, France, southern Italy (including Sicily) and Greece.

 

As centuries rolled by, the abbey of Cerisy suffered the same fate as all other monasteries in France, falling under the in commendam régime in the 1500s before being shut down by the French Revolution with the few remaining monks being sent away. In 1811, further to a thunder strike, it was decided to knock down the four westernmost rows of the nave and the façade, which were too damaged to be rebuilt without substantial funds, which were not available.

 

What remained of the abbey church, then the parochial church, was listed in 1840 of the very first list of Historic Landmarks. Restoration works were carried out in the 1880s, and again in 1964.

 

The last three remaining rows of the nave (out of the original seven, not counting the westwerk) and the enormous transept arm that eats up part of the lower modénature (relief decoration on a wall) of the bell tower. Notice when you zoom in that the transept arm elevation is almost entirely appareled in opus spicatum, which is one of the reasons why 1068 to begin construction (with the apse, then moving westward) seems too late to me.

 

I would vouch that this part was not built after 1050, and probably earlier, which would be congruent with the 1032 time marker mentioned above. As a future upload will show, this old way of appareling a wall during the pre-Romanesque and Romanesque periods will also appear on the nave walls, which themselves were built after the transept, as the construction works moved westward.

 

It is always wonderful to me how the stones can be “read”, and how they manage to silently tell the story and history of a monument... That is why I am so irate whenever I see venerable walls all plastered over and therefore silenced! For God’s sake, let the age old stones tell their tale and sing their song!

 

From a more down-to-earth, technical standpoint, this photo is a three-exposure vertical panorama stitched in Photoshop. I had to resort to that technique to include all of the monument while keeping the camera in the relative shadow of the bell tower —otherwise, the photo would have been barely readable because of the strong backlighting from the morning Sun.

Portugal, Lisboa, Belem, Avenida de Brasilia, Electricity museum, High pressure boiler building, Inside the furnace of boiler nr 15 (20% cut from all sides).

 

The Meseu da Electricidade is one of the most striking technology museums we ever visited. It´s the giant Tejo power station, built in 1908 by the CRGE (Companhias Ruinidas de Gas e Electricidade) as the 'Estacão Eléctrica Central Tejo' and also kown as ‘Central da Junqueira’ power station. The facility was expanded and modernized in different steps. The last step was taken in 1951. It´s kinda ironic that due to the new national power grid policy and the prime role hydro-electric power generation in it, the Tejo station then already had the status of reserve station, mainly kept on stand-by.

 

The power station was coal fired and employed towering Babcock & Wilcox high pressure boilers. It could provide the whole of Lisbon with electricity and was decommissioned and mothballed in 1972. It´s max output was 65 MW. In comparison a modern metropolitan coal/biomass fired power station outputs up to 1500 MW. There's by the way a lively debate about these kind of modern coal fired plants because the relatively high amount of NOx, SOx and CO2 in their combustion fumes. There's a drive to phase them out and rely on gas fuelled ones or, preferably, ones that use wind and other sustainable energy sources instead. So in a way Portugal, like for instance Norway (although Norway skipped the coal phase), was ahead of the game.

,

Anyway, after a while it was decided that the old mothballed Tejo power station should be turned into a museum. And the result was spectacular. The vintage technology is very well preserved and made readable via didactic cut-opens and access areas. And some dioramic scenes to enhance storytelling /realism and a permanent exposition about the world of energy and the generation of it were added The museum opened in 1990 and was renovated and modernized from 2001-2006. It´s now the most popular Portuguese museum.

 

This post depicts the interior of the furnace of high pressure Babcock & Wilcox water pipe boiler nr 15, the one that was installed in 1951. Shown is the furnace bed and brick furnace lining and some water piping .The way it´s presented, it seems like the coal is still burning, and fiercly so. Through the out door you can see one of the big pillars of the iron skeleton of the building.

More about boiler nr 15 : "The almost ten-year difference between the installation of the first high pressure boilers and this final one results in differences between them. For instance, boiler 15 already came equipped with naphtha injectors (in the others, these were added progressively), the control table is more advanced in registering and reading the boiler’s operational data, the boiler dust (ash) pan has six coal hoppers to expel boiler dust and coal (in the other there were only three), and it is also slightly larger in size"

 

Main source: here

 

Nice top .. many options.

But for understanding extensive HUD you need university lolzz

The center part is very bad readable on some backgrounds

You REALLY need te screencap :

gyazo.com/976671b789aac113b590e8cccb41d6c2

Dreamscope filter was probably an Indian or Islamic tapestry or painting. I ran it through Topaz Clean to change it from dots to more line-based styling, and boosted it with some Pixel Benders Oil Paint. Then I blended in some of the colors of the original photo for better readability.

Googel translater

My latest book. But onely in Norwegian.

Then the book about The Magic Runes is finished.

 

Here you will find the story of the runes, the most exciting our Nordic wolves left behind. Symbols filled with occult explosive power, as effective today as they were when they came into being.

 

The manuscript was originally written in 1991. It came about shortly after I finished Shaman's horse.

At that time I had already used the runes as guides and guides for several years. They had served me so well that I decided to share the knowledge with you.

The story of the runes was almost finished when the construction of Bronze Square overshadowed everything else. The magic runes were left hidden and almost forgotten on an old hard drive.

 

Only in 2014 did I reopen the old manuscript. After a quick read, I posted The Magic Runes on 'gormjarl.no'.

Over the next few years, statistics showed that more and more people were visiting. It was clear that what I wrote about the runes was popular.

In the winter of 2019, the last book in the series Sagaen on Vilje Gormsdatter was published, finally I had time to read the manuscript that was online. I realized that the reader deserved a more readable presentation.

Today, after 1155 hours behind keyboards, the magic runes have become the way I feel you and I deserve it.

 

To understand the runes, it is important to understand the life, the world view and, not least, the conditions of those who characterized them. The first part of the book is devoted to the actual and occult history of men, a symbiosis in which facts and fiction are at times difficult to distinguish.

I tell you about the occult figures that characterized the runemakers' everyday life, trolls, jotns, elves not to forget Habits and Aces. There are many to take off.

 

It is almost two thousand years since Nordic wolves first activated the runes. Seeing women who with the help of Seid filled the mind of each rune with their occult knowledge. A magical reality that is still available, as strong as it was then.

 

In the second part of the book I go through rune by rune. You will become acquainted with the character's cosmology, before sharing my own experience with the rune and explaining how the occult symbols act as guides in different oracles.

If you become friends with the runes, you get 24 helpers who know the past, understand the present and give you a glimpse into the future. The occult symbols give you the answers you need.

 

You order The Magic Runes from gormjarl@online.no

NOK 400 includes domestic shipping.

 

You can buy The Magic Runes at Bronze Square. My other books are: 'The Shaman's Horse', the 7 books in the series 'The Story of Will Gorms Daughter' and 'My Father's War'.

 

You can follow The Magic Runes on Facebook: www.facebook.com/The Magical- runes-107384200967270 / details

 

Så er boken om De magiske runene ferdig trykket.

Her får du historien om runene, det mest spennende våre nordiske volver etterlot seg. Symboler fylt med okkult sprengkraft, like effektive i dag som den gang de ble til.

 

Manuskriptet ble opprinnelig skrevet i 1991. Det ble til like etter at jeg var ferdig med Sjamanens hest.

Den gang hadde jeg allerede i flere år brukt runene som hjelpere og rettledere. De hadde tjent meg så godt at jeg bestemte meg for å dele kunnskapen med deg.

Historien om runene var nesten ferdig da byggingen av Bronseplassen overskygget alt annet. De magiske runene ble liggende gjemt og nesten glemt på en gammel harddisk.

 

Først i 2014 åpnet jeg på nytt det gamle manuskriptet. Etter en hurtig gjennomlesing la jeg De magiske runene ut på 'gormjarl.no'.

De neste årene viste statistikken at stadig flere var innom siden. Det var tydelig at det jeg skrev om runene var populært.

Vinteren 2019 ble siste bok i serien Sagaen om Vilje Gormsdatter gitt ut, endelig fikk jeg tid til å finlese manuskriptet som lå på nettet. Jeg innså at leseren fortjente en mer lettlest presentasjon.

I dag, etter 1155 timer bak tastaturer, er De magiske runene blitt slik jeg føler at du og jeg fortjener den.

 

For å forstå runene er det viktig å forstå livet, verdensbildet og ikke minst forutsetningene til de som preget dem. Første del av boken er viet menneskenes faktiske og okkulte historie, en symbiose hvor fakta og fiksjon til tider er vanskelig å skille fra hverandre.

Jeg forteller om de okkulte gestaltene som preget runemakernes hverdag, troll, jotner, alver for ikke å glemme Vaner og Æser. Det er mange å ta av.

 

Det er snart to tusen år siden Nordiske volver for første gang aktiviserte runene. Seende kvinner som med hjelp av Seid fylte hugen til hver enkelte rune med sin okkult kunnskap. En magisk virkelighet som fremdeles er tilgjengelig, like sterk som da den ble til.

 

I andre del av boken går jeg gjennom rune for rune. Du blir kjent med tegnets kosmologi, før jeg deler egen erfaring med runen og forteller hvordan de okkulte symbolene fungerer som rettledere i forskjellige orakler.

Blir du venn med runene får du 24 hjelpere som kjenner fortiden, forstår nåtiden og gir deg et gløtt inn i framtiden. De okkulte symbolene gir deg de svarene du trenger.

 

Du bestiller De magiske runene fra gormjarl@online.no

Kr 400 inkluderer forsendelse innenlands.

 

Du kan kjøpe De magiske runene på Bronseplassen. De andre bøkene mine er: 'Sjamanens hest', de 7 bøkene i serien 'Sagaen om Vilje Gormsdatter' og 'Min fars krig'.

 

Du kan følge De magiske runene på Facebook: www.facebook.com/De-magiske-runene-107384200967270/

  

good 95 view, ran for a while, then buffed, and now the cheap buff paint is fading and its readable again kinda

Found in the Mission, San Francisco, California. This is LOL funny. Should be readable when seen large.

Hi there everyone.

I remember when I was studying Shakespeare in the US how difficult it was to grasp the meanings of old English. I do remember struggling with the history and language trying to understand what I was reading. I mean imagine that I read some lines, then watch the play recorded on a video tape and then discover that there was a joke said and that I could even guess it was a joke. I remember that it usually took me two weeks of continuous reading to finish reading one play. I am talking here about reading the text not the criticism and the history of the play.

I tried hard to translate some Arabic lines of poetry to you. Being no poet at all, this was very difficult. I then chose to ask our great friend Google about some trials of translating Arabic poetry to English. I found a great site and want to tell you about it. On this site, a hundred Arabic love lines of poetry are translated into English. You may love them, you may not. Remember that this is a different culture than yours. Remember also that it is very difficult to translate a line of poetry to another language. I mean we are not taking about translating words. Read here to know what is invloved in translating poetry:

“Poetry translation may be defined as relaying poetry into another language. Poetry's features can be sound-based, syntactic or structural or pragmatic in nature. Apart from transforming text, poetry translation also involves cognition, discourse, and action by and between human and textual actors in a physical and social setting. A poetry translation project usually aims to publicize a poet or poets. Poetry translation is typically overt. Poetry translators are concerned to interpret a source poem's layers of meaning, to relay this interpretation reliably, and/or to ‘create a poem in the target language which is readable and enjoyable as an independent, literary text. Poetry translation involves challenges and these are highlighted in this article. Poetry accounts for a tiny proportion of world translation output. Case studies and examples taken from poetry, however, have dominated theory-building in translation studies at the expense of more frequently translated genres.”

www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/97801992393...

I chose some lines from this site vb.3dlat.com/showthread.php?t=140764 I did include the Arabic line of poetry and the translation of it. I Hope you enjoy these lines:

وما كنتُ ممن يدخلُ العشقُ قلبَهُ = ولكنّ من يُبصِرْ جفونكِ يَعشقُ

 

Love was never able to enter my heart; but seeing your eyes one inevitably falls in love

 

وما عجبي موت المحبينَ في الهوى = و لكن بقاءَ العاشقينَ عجيبُ

 

I never wonder why lovers die of love; but I am amazed how those who fall in love can remain alive

 

وإني لأهوى النومَ في غير حينهِ = لعلَ لقاءً في المنامِ يكونُ

 

O, how I desire to fall asleep at any moment, perchance I may see the beloved in my dreams

 

نقـّلْ فؤادكَ حيث شئتَ من الهوى = ما الحبُّ إلا للحبيبِ الأولِ

 

Let your heart roam and browse in fields of affection, true and lasting love, however, belongs only to the first love.

إذا شئتَ أن تلقى المحاسنَ كلها = ففي وجه من تهوى جميعُ المحاسنِ

 

If you wish to see all the charming and beautiful things in the world, you need not look beyond the face of your beloved.

رأيتُ بها بدراً على الأرض ماشياً = ولم أرَ بدراً قـّط يمشي على الأرض

 

In her, I saw a full moon walking on earth, though never before have I seen a moon on earth walking

ضممتكِ حتى قلتُ ناري قد انطفتْ = فلمْ تـُطفَ نيراني وزيدَ وقودها

 

When I embraced you so close, I thought the fire of my passion would die down; my fires never subsided, their flames roared instead

و قلتُ شهودي في هواكِ كثيرة ٌ = وأَصدَقهَا قلبي ودمعي مسفوحُ.

 

I said there are many who bear witness to my love for you; most truthful are my heart and my copious tears

 

The Master Plan has many paths. Some turn to the dark side of Skynet, and most lead to user happiness…

 

(Text is more readable at full size, or next frame)

Knowing the NS 21A was going to be through the Toledo area long before nose light would be possible and not having a lot of time/freedom for the day to chase I decided to try a new for me broadside coming off the new underpass in Holland for a distinct location shot. I wish the "Welcome to Holland - Springfield" on the bridge was painted rather than inset so that it'd stand out better and be more readable but it's still better than just a generic broadside of it leaving town. 4/29/18 Holland, OH

Photographer: Zangaki

Certainly a later pirated print since attempts were made to erase the name "Zangaki" and the title, but it is still readable.

 

A (non-comprehensive) look at contemporary Latin American creativity.

Type treatments, graphics and fonts I created along side InHouse International (www.weareinhouse.com) for Gopher Illustrated (www.gopherillustrated.org) and Tóxico Cultura (www.toxicocultura.com/). The piece was to be handed out to TED fellows at TEDGlobal gathering at Edinburgh during June 2012. You can download the online (readable) version here >> bit.ly/NMN-TEDGlobal

Just a couple of photos from refurbished (kinda project) Tempo T29KLN's first day bearing a white LED destination display I've rediscovered and re-edited 😁

 

Complimenting its sparkly white LED saloon uplighting and headlights *and* shiny chrome alloys, whilst of course improving readability and letting it blend in with the new dedicated Coastliner Enviros, 29's the first Lynx Tempo to get a white front destination (even if it's probably been acquired from the Reading DAFs)!!

 

You can tell how fresh the paint on 29 is here - although 6's coat has worn well, the daily bus wash has dulled the shine!

Stanier Pacific 46252 City of Leicester is racing through Lichfield Trent Valley, the loco is carrying the Red Rose headboard. The lengthy train was a Euston to Liverpool service.

Lichfield has changed considerably since this 1953 photograph was taken. The tall signal box has gone and overhead wires dominate the scene today, to the left are the maltings, they were served by a siding which diverged from the high level to low level connection. The station yard, packed with cars today still has a country railway appearance, a few spotters stand at the end of the bay platform, from there they can observe the high level line as well as the West Coast main line.

 

46252 was built at Crewe and entered traffic in June 1944, it was withdrawn in June 1963 and scrapped in September of that year.

 

The quality of this negative is poor, it was over-exposed and has unfortunately also turned rather brown, both have contributed to the higher than normal visible grain, for that reason I have kept contrast and sharpening to a minimum. That said I wonder if any of our little electrical pictures will be readable in 2081.

Peter Shoesmith 04/07/1953

Copyright John Whitehouse & Geoff Dowling: All rights reserved

I kinda had a hard time thinking how to hide his name. :P But it's still sorta readable if you know who it is. :D

Near the end of Elvira Street in Granada and close to the old city gate is this image on a wall. It is located above a rectangular trough of water that is fed continuously by two small pipes, one at each end. There is a reflection of the buildings across the street.

There is a plaque underneath this photo that I have also uploaded. I did my best to make it readable if there are any viewers who would like to try to translate it. There is a date of 1671 on the plaque. On the image itself is a date of 1861 just above the railing. Trish Mayo in the comment below has identified this image. Thank you Trish.

altered newspaper, thread and ink.

"Where" was text on the newspaper, no longer readable

Snuffling around Burton-upon Trent, Shobnall is 44599, the steamy departure is watched by the signalman from his neat Midland Railway signal box. To the left a Johnson 1F 0-6-0 is waiting, the locomotive so filthy only the 4 is readable.

44599 was a Fowler 4F built at Derby Works in April 1940, it was withdrawn 11/1965 and cut at Arnott Young (Parkgate) 01/1966, the loco was allocated to Burton-upon-Trent, 17B

Peter Shoesmith 31/08/1957

Copyright Geoff Dowling & John Whitehouse: All rights reserved

At the beginning of his eminently readable and laconic history - often highly humorous - of Steuben County (1853), Guy Humphrey McMaster (1829-1887), sometime historian and lawyer of Bath, New York, writes tongue-in-cheek: 'The early History of Steuben County cannot be a record of events which are called great.' Although geologically it must have been no less than cataclysmic. And a bit later he notes that even Native Americans of the Six Nations - in his parlance of course 'Indians' - had made little inroads into the area, which includes the gorge of Stony Brook. Given the friendly relation of the first backwoodsman and his Native companion who in 1787 stand at the beginning of Steuben history, peace pipes hardly needed smoking...

Here though is Indian Pipe, Monotropa uniflora, which I saw in the forest of Stony Brook. An early description by intrepid Mark Catesby (1682-1749) is quite short and matter-of-fact - very different from most of his other portrayals. But his sketch of our plant is rather beautiful even though it's virtually colorless.

This was captured mid November around 11 o'clock 3 years ago and caught me off guard and lasted only a few minutes. Since then, I have been trying to recreate this shot, with no luck. The sun moves pretty fast this time of the sun angle changes quickly knowing this I had to move fast..

As a norm on complex lighting scenarios I use a handheld calibrated spot meter to calculate the exposure, today the spot meter display was i not readable due to being out in the cold to long.

Using the in camera spot meter I missed a bit and ran out of dynamic range which I couldn't recover made it work the best I could.

After 40 years of trying to recreate images I should know by now it not going to happen.

Quick ramble round Central Square in Nowa Huta. The images are easily readable. Good practice, not targeted walk, but free-mind adventure. :)

Portugal, Lisboa, Belem, Avenida de Brasilia, Electricity museum, the hall of the turbo alternators, AEG turbo alternator (uncut)

 

The Meseu da Electricidade is one of the most striking technology museums we ever visited. It´s 'Tejo power', built in 1908 by the CRGE (Companhias Ruinidas de Gas e Electricidade) as the 'Estacão Eléctrica Central Tejo' and also kown as ‘Central da Junqueira’ power station. The facility was expanded and modernized in different steps. The last step was taken in 1951. It´s kinda ironic that due to the new national power grid policy and the prime role hydro-electric power generation in it, the Tejo station then already had the status of reserve station, mainly kept on stand-by.

 

The power station was coal fired and employed towering Babcock & Wilcox high pressure boilers. It could provide the whole of Lisbon and a part of the Tejo region with electricity and was decommissioned and mothballed in 1972. It´s max output was 65 MW. In comparison a modern metropolitan coal/biomass fired power station outputs up to 1500 MW.

 

There's by the way a lively debate about these kind of modern coal fired plants because the relatively high amount of NOx, SOx and CO2 in their combustion fumes. There's a drive to phase them out and rely on gas-fuelled ones or, preferably, wind and other sustainable energy sources instead. So in a way Portugal, like for instance Norway (although Norway skipped the coal phase, thanx Jack), was ahead of the game.

 

Anyway, after a while it was decided that the old mothballed Tejo power station should be turned into a museum. And the result was spectacular. The vintage technology is very well preserved and made readable via didactic cut-opens and access areas. And some dioramic scenes to enhance storytelling /realism and a permanent exposition about the world of energy and the generation of it were added The museum opened in 1990 and was renovated and modernized from 2001-2006. It´s now the most popular Portuguese museum..

 

This post depicts the area where the actual electric current generation takes place: the main hall, the one with the turbo alternators. There once were 5, now there are two and one of them (#3) is opened to reveal the innards. On the left the steam turbine section, on the right the alternator. The turbo is a Curtis type (axiial, 8 blades) fed with superheated steam. Rotational speed was 3000 rpm. Build by AEG in 1936. The output of the unit on display was some 12 MW, enough to supply 1/5th of Lisbon and the part of the Tagus valley up to Santarém with electricity. Nowadays a modern TGV high speed train set travelling at full speed consumes that same amount of power and the Portuguese Alfa Pendular HST (which is shorter and slower) half of it. So it's no surrpise that the output of modern turbo-alterrnators isn't presented in MW any more but in GW (1000 MW)

 

Main source: here

The We are Here challenge on May 4 2017 was: May the Fourth be with You

 

I had this idea first with Mahler's 4th, but the only single (non-boxed set) album cover that I had just wouldn't have been readable in the photograph. On the other hand, was Darth Vader a Mahler guy? Probably more the Bruckner type anyway...

 

Lighting: 1 SB-600 1/16 above right thru umbrella, 1 Neewer 750ii 1/8 left into umbrella, wireless triggers

Pieter de Ring (1615/1620 - September 22, 1660) -Natura morta con strumenti musicali - (1650) oil on canvas 105,6 x 81,7 cm - Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

 

Pieter de Ring era specializzato in nature morte ed era meglio conosciuto per le sue ricche rappresentazioni di banchetti. Il quadro di Berlino appartiene ai giorni maturi dell'artista. Tematicamente è da attribuire all'area delle cosiddette rappresentazioni della vanitas ed è nella tradizione della natura morta di Leida, come fu fatta da David Bailly il Vecchio. Jaques de Gheyn o Jan Davidsz:

Il globo terrestre, con il riferimento all'allora possesso coloniale spagnolo del Messico, simboleggia sia la scienza naturale che il potere mondano. Il libro, logoro dall'uso frequente, è simbolo di educazione ingannevole, rappresenta allo stesso tempo poesia e arte visiva. La pagina sinistra del libro mostra sotto l'angolo piegato le parole "Memento mori" (memoria della morte) e una poesia, i cui versi leggibili riflettono anche i pensieri della caducità. Le bolle di sapone che il giovane soffia nel disegno del libro rimandano all'immagine dell'homo bulla (l'uomo è una bolla di sapone). Violino, flauto e spartiti, ma anche il nautilus simboleggiano il senso di vanità e caducità che è racchiuso nella musica. Dadi, borse vuote, monete d'oro e d'argento, come una perla su una catena d'oro, indicano anche l'insicurezza e la volatilità dei beni terreni. La clessidra è appoggiata al globo come antico simbolo del trascorrere del tempo. Un anello con sigillo sulla canna del calamaio può essere visto qui come un utensile per lo strumento di scrittura, e allo stesso tempo potrebbe essere una seconda firma del nome dell'artista, poiché Pieter de Ring ha firmato le sue immagini con una rappresentazione di un anello .

 

Pieter de Ring specialized in still lifes and was best known for his rich representations of banquets. The painting in Berlin belongs to the artist's mature days. Thematically it is to be attributed to the area of the so-called vanitas representations and is in the tradition of the Leiden still life, as it was done by David Bailly the Elder. Jaques de Gheyn or Jan Davidsz:

The globe, with its reference to the then Spanish colonial possession of Mexico, symbolizes both natural science and worldly power. The book, worn from frequent use, is a symbol of deceptive education, representing both poetry and visual art. The left page of the book displays under the folded corner the words "Memento mori" (memory of death) and a poem, whose readable lines also reflect thoughts of transience. The soap bubbles that the young man blows in the book's drawing refer to the image of homo bulla (man is a soap bubble). Violin, flute and sheet music, but also the nautilus symbolize the sense of vanity and transience that is contained in music. Dice, empty purses, gold and silver coins, like a pearl on a gold chain, also indicate the insecurity and volatility of earthly possessions. The hourglass rests on the globe as an ancient symbol of the passage of time. A signet ring on the barrel of the inkwell can be seen here as a tool for the writing instrument, and at the same time could be a second signature of the artist's name, as Pieter de Ring signed his images with a representation of a ring .

view larger

 

This is the first migratory bird to perch along the Susquehanna River and be spotted, and have a readable band of 2007 (for me at very least)! This fella has two bands, a blue (NY) and a silver (federal) one. The NY tag reads: S 04. I hope to find out its history this week sometime...

 

(no invites please)

 

See more eagle action at Woody's site: www.woodyseagles.com/1.html

 

see also a page from where "Sofie's" from - goodyearlake.org/EAGLES.aspx

 

Recycling Centre

 

This image is part of the series, (Re)cycle.

 

Magazines and their supplements lie on the floor, many of which have not been read (you can look carefully and see stacks of papers). The title you can see most of, purely by chance, was 'AMAZON' that day. Much of the recycling debate was started by the destruction of precious and unique forests like this.

 

In the UK in 2013, we read 16 million newspapers daily (courtesy of a classic educational video produced by a young-looking Vernon Kay). No matter how you spin it, that is a lot of raw materials, a lot of labour, a lot of energy in production and ultimately, a lot of paper. On top of that, the UK also maintains a desire for a good old magazine (who doesn't like a copy of Outdoor Photography or B+W?!). In addition, it seems we love a bit of cardboard to wrap around our precious cornflakes.

 

Of all of this paper though, it is a sore fact that 60% finds its way into a landfill site. That's 9.6 million newspapers daily, to the dump.

 

Society has tried to do something about it. On a global scale, countries have signed up to agreements with regard to carbon emissions and national governments have given instruction to local authorities to meet recycling standards nationwide, before a certain 2020 deadline. But is it working?

 

Being an architectural and industrial photographer primarily, I was very keen to be able to make some stills of a recycling plant and read (excuse the awful pun) into the industry a little further.

 

At the back of industrial estates you will find recycling centres. They are dotted all over the urban landscape: hovering up what they can in used paper + cardboard, shredding it and sending it off to a paper factory that will turn it in to pulp, de-ink it and reconstitute the same old paper into a new, readable form. Obviously this also takes a whole lot of energy, but far less than the growing of new trees and transporting them for our daily read. In that sense, these centres are positive places.

 

Although recycling is obviously trying to make a difference to this landfill and subsequent pollution problem, the sad fact about it remains - a lot of the paper you are about to see in this project was not read. The papers and their supplements failed to sell and therefore did not make circulation. It is certainly not the recyclers that are at fault here. It's questionable if anyone should even be to 'blame' for such a lot of wasted paper. It just seems ridiculous that with the amount of technology and ways to read our news, that we still have this much waste, especially with products which were not even used in the first place.

 

Next time I read a paper, I will have a better think about which bin to place it in.

Putting up my seemingly endless supply of images from our holiday in Scotland last year, I thought the Flickr Map gave a good visual indication of the amount of travelling we did, almost covering the length and breadth of the country!

 

Then, it was just a case of getting the right level of zoom to be readable, and then scrolling around to get enough screen captures so that a mosaic could be made.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here is a new set of LEGO ideas and techniques, made with LDD

I'm sure you'll find a use to this idea

I tried to make the explanation readable thanks to the colors as if we had a tutorial

 

Do not forget to watch the album with all the right techniques on your right =>

 

Find all my creations on Flickr group « News LEGO Techniques ».

This Flickr group includes:

 

- Ideas for new LEGO pieces

- Techniques for assembling bricks

- Tutorials for making accessories, objects, etc.

Conrail Riverline northbound with a solid consist of trailers on flatcars rolling past the Orange & Rockland Generating Station in Tomkins Cove NY. The siding to the left next to the Hudson River was a dropping off spot for loaded coal trains that fueled the plant. Today that beat up old siding is where opposing mainline freights can pass each other in the CP36, CP38 area and the generating station has been torn down years ago. The generating station site was used as a staging area for the movement of heavy steel and materials for the building and dismantling of the new and old Tappan Zee Bridge. I was surprised that some road sections of the old bridge were once again reused for other road projects and I am not sure what is going on at the ex plant site at this time. I was shooting wide open with ASA 64 Kodak film and managed at least to get the numberboards readable. Some railroads called them Van trains or Railvan trains but I used the name Piggyback. What was Conrail's preferred name for these trains?

SD40-2 6524, SD40-2 6520, SD40-2 6363. Howard Kent Jr. 10-1982.

L’atmosphère très « Front Populaire » qui émane de cette œuvre fut voulue par son auteur qui avait adhéré au parti communiste en 1945. Fernand Léger souhaitait en effet rendre ses toiles lisibles et accessibles au plus grand nombre et appliquait pour cela sa célèbre théorie du contraste -qui guida, d’ailleurs, l’ensemble de son travail- contraste à la fois des formes (où s’opposent des formes nettement découpées à des zones plus floues) et des couleurs (en opposant de nouveau des verts aux rouges ou des jaunes et des bleus). Cette toile fut aussi conçue comme un hommage à Louis David, peintre quasiment officiel de la Révolution française.

 

The atmosphere very "Popular Front" that emanates from this work was wanted by its author who had joined the Communist Party in 1945. Fernand Léger wanted indeed make his paintings readable and accessible to the greatest number and applied for this his famous theory of contrast - which guided, moreover, the whole of his work - contrasts at the same time forms (where oppose sharply cut shapes to more blurred areas) and colors (opposing again green to red or yellow and blue). This painting was also conceived as a tribute to Louis David, an almost official painter of the French Revolution.

This old beach house still has surprises after all these years! I learned that yesterday, when I resumed my winter project of cataloguing the original owners' [1] small library by the fireplace.

 

To make room on the shelves for the books I have already catalogued, I was removing volumes I haven't looked at yet and stacking them on the table.

 

That was when I found myself holding a book that was larger and heavier than the rest of its vintage companions. It was neither fiction nor scripture nor natural history, the three main topics in the library that came with the house when my father-in-law bought it in the early 1940s.

 

It was an 8th grade geography textbook dated 1914, and it had belonged to the Seeley's only child, Tyler Woodward Seeley (1906-1995).

 

The first thing I do after dusting off a book is look for inscriptions. I am hoping to find "West Dunes" in Mayannah Woodward Seeley's now-familiar hand, and I often do. This time I did not.

 

Instead, I encountered nine full pages of Tyler's drawings on the flyleaves and inside covers. It was almost like stumbling into a cave with stone-age paintings on the walls. Who was the last person to see Tyler's art? That I do not know, but I do know that I want others to enjoy them too. Without further ado, here they are.

 

This page is dominated by a large side-view automobile drawn as a partial cutaway, with the exterior body reduced to a thin outline so that internal systems can be shown simultaneously. At the front, the engine is rendered with multiple vertical cylinders and a simplified crankcase; connecting lines indicate the direction and transmission of power rather than precise mechanical detail. A prominent shaft or conduit projects rearward from the engine, visually collapsing engine, clutch, and transmission into a single readable path of force.

 

The human figure is seated not in the driver’s position but in the rear passenger compartment. The profile, posture, and hat—specifically a flat-crowned boater with ribbon—suggest a socially specific passenger rather than an operator. The figure could plausibly represent a woman, and in any case reads as an occupant to be conveyed rather than one controlling the vehicle. Near the base of the front seat, a protruding tubular form extends into the rear compartment. Its placement and form are consistent with a speaking tube, a technology still common in ships, trains, large houses, and luxury conveyances in the early twentieth century. Such a feature implies chauffeur-driven operation and reflects the upper-middle-class or elite social world in which Tyler was raised, where mediated communication between driver and passenger was normalized.

 

At the far right, the rear wheel departs strikingly from automotive convention. It is greatly oversized and ringed with pronounced teeth or spikes, reading less as a pneumatic tire than as a dedicated traction device. Its lower edge aligns with the ground plane established by the front wheel, confirming that the exaggerated scale is intentional. The serrated rim suggests mechanical engagement with the surface—bite rather than friction—and recalls the massive spiked rear wheels of steam tractors and road locomotives, machines that remained within living memory in the 1910s and 1920s. By echoing these forms, the drawing frames traction as a central engineering problem in conventional cars and invokes an earlier, visibly forceful solution adapted to a newer vehicle.

 

An angled rod or linkage attaches to the rear wheel at an off-center point rather than at the hub. This configuration resembles the side-rod and crank mechanisms of steam engines, where tangential force produces rotation. Power is imagined as something applied visibly and mechanically rather than transmitted invisibly through a concealed driveshaft. The rear wheel thus functions as both point of contact with the ground and a demonstrative mechanism for converting effort into motion.

 

Smaller subsidiary sketches populate the page: a low wheeled platform beneath the chassis; isolated curved and rectangular forms resembling housings or ducts; and partial outlines of controls and conduits. These appear to be parallel explorations of components rather than background ornament, using the page as a working surface for mechanical thinking.

 

Overall, the drawing treats the automobile not as a finished consumer object but as an unresolved system shaped by competing demands: traction on poor roads, visible transmission of power, and a social arrangement in which a rear passenger—possibly female—communicates with an unseen driver through mechanical means.

 

This text is a collaboration with ChatGPT.

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

[1] The original owners of the beach house were Rev. Boudinot Seeley (1877-1937) and his wife, Mayannah Woodward Seeley (1878-1971).

 

Both were well-off Portlanders educated back East in the late 19th century. They had a home in Portland's West Hills and a plain and simple beach house in Washington on what was then called the North Beach Peninsula. The peninsula was popular among Portlanders in the late 1800s and early 1900s when it was difficult to reach the Oregon coast.

 

An AE6/6 is passing through Lugano Paradiso with a freight train, in the background is Lag di Lugano. The number of the loco is not quite readable but the crest identifies it as 11424. Thanks to Gent of Leisure and Nigel P{itt for Identifying the loco.

Peter Shoesmith

Copyright John Whitehouse & Geoff Dowling: All rights reserved

View large.

 

Special NOTE: On Feb. 8, 2012 I attached a comment, readable & easily discoverable on Page 2 of the comments below, that details the vast corporatist scheme, fronted by Jeb Bush, financed in part with hundreds of millions from Rupert Murdoch (FOX nooze), to privatize American public education & reduce it to 'virtual' schools - not to improve anything (as national & international educational research studies clearly show), but rather to become the final recipients of the taxes people pay so that they can skim huge profits off of the top while providing grotesquely inferior services & lots of lying propaganda to keep the public bamboozled. I beg everyone to read the report.

 

The McGuffey's Ecclectic Spelling Book was published in 1879.

 

Raymond Cyrus Hoiles (1878-1970) founded Freedom Communications, a newspaper publishing & broadcasting company that has never hesitated to shape the news to fit right wing ideology. When Hoiles was alive & roaring I lived in Orange County, California, home of the equally right wing Walt Disney & Walter Knott, & was frequently compelled to suffer people who agreed with Hoiles' constantly editorialized insistence that public education was a form of theft & communism that must at once be got rid of. Hoiles was motivated by his fundamentalist Christian persuasions, & quite serious. We should restrain our laughter at the abysmal stupidity of his example, because in many ways he & people like him won & are still winning control of public education. - To introduce the article below, I'll say a little about the Christian strategy.

 

For many years Orange County's teachers worked under a Draconian ruling that forbade the teaching of values. There is no way around the fact, however, that the statement, "Values may not be taught," is itself a value statement belonging to a class of propositions known as Epimenidean Paradoxes. A comparably illustrative sentence would be, "This is not a sentence." Or, a favorite of the best hypnotists, used when addressing a resistant subject, "Do not obey any instruction which I give you."

 

What, then, was intended by those who created the paradoxical Orange County law? Well, if any teacher dared to say or imply something that would be disagreeable to any person whose beliefs began & ended with church, flag & free-for-all capitalism, then that teacher could be charged with teaching values & be suspended. One family friend, a young man teaching at an elementary school in Anaheim, was charged, hounded, publicly disgraced, threatened with death & discharged from his post, immediately after which he died from a heart attack. The case was depicted in Life Magazine. His only crime was that he was Jewish. His wife, also a teacher, remained bereft & embittered the rest of her long life.

 

These people became increasingly invisible over time, largely by devising ever more clever ways for gaining control of both education policy & the public dialogue about education.

 

Ralph Reed, working for Pat Robertson & the Christian Coalition, devised the "stealth agenda" to place fundamentalists in every local school board in America. The plan helped select & fund candidates, who in accord with Reed's instructions never mentioned their religion or religious connections when campaigning for office. In 1983 Reed rigged an election at his university - he got started early, in other words. Recently we learned that Mr. Reed & Jack Abramoff were associate crooks. The revelation forced Reed to abandon his run to become the lieutenant governor of Georgia. Mr. Reed will not disappear, however. He remains a darling of the far Christian right, & owns Century Strategies, a dirty-tricks political consulting & lobbying organization. In 1999 Karl Rove got reed a nice contract with Enron, which was paying Reed $30,000 per month. And guess who recently went to Georgia to try to save poor Reed? Rudy Giuliani, who has the hots to be the next U.S. president & is pandering to the Christians so he can be their new burning Bush.

 

Stealthiness did not go away when the Christian Coalition folded & Reed went off on his own to rig elections for big bucks. Rather, the stealth moved into policy matters. For instance, all the phony propaganda claiming religious & private education is more successful, creating the excuse to promote vouchers (for which the motives are both religious & racist). Or, most recently, Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which was sought by the Christians not because they believed all the testing of students would lead to improved education, but rather because they wanted teachers to be made too busy preparing students for endless tests about facts to find time to do the great evil thing, which is the teaching of concepts. Teaching concepts leads to teaching logic, scientific & other academic methodologies which by their nature instill respect for critical - read, skeptical - thinking. Dogmatists, advertisers & con men have equal cause to fear skepticism.

-------------------------

 

From: Truthdig.com

 

Taking Back Our Schools--and Fixing Them

 

Full text with links: www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060425_taking_back_our_sch...

 

Posted on Apr. 25, 2006

 

By Wellford Wilms

 

The recent news reported in The New York Times that schools are throwing out science, social studies and art to make time for drilling students in remedial math and reading is a sign of things gone terribly wrong. Former New York State Commissioner of Education Thomas Sobol told the Times that narrowing education to just math and reading would be akin to restricting violin students to playing scales day after day. “They’d lose their zest for music.” But most schools that serve poor populations, like those in Cuero, Texas, are squeezed to meet federal math and reading standards. Cuero Superintendent Henry Lind told the paper, “When you have so many hours per day and you’re behind in some area that’s being hammered on, you have to work on that.”

 

But by the looks of things, hammering students for higher test scores isn’t making much of a difference. Most students have already lost their zest for learning. How do we know? In Los Angeles, upwards of 50% of Latino and African American students never finish high school. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

I’ve been a professor of education at UCLA for more than 25 years and am convinced that despite the fads that come and go, nothing has put a dent in the public schools’ failure to educate inner-city children. In fact, things are getting worse. But I am also convinced that we’ve been looking in the wrong places for solutions. My own research across a wide array of organizations—corporations, trade unions, public schools, colleges, teacher unions and police agencies—suggests another way of looking at the problem and that solutions will come from a new direction.

 

This essay is a proposition—one that I hope will spark a lively debate among Truthdig readers and inform policy leaders. Future essays will examine Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign to take over the public schools, analyze whether teacher unions can be a force for productive change, and expose promising ways to rebuild public investment in the schools.

 

Let’s start with Jonathan Kozol’s new book, “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.” It is a scathing indictment of American social policy that banned racial segregation in public schools in 1955 and then turned a blind eye to its implementation. Today, Kozol says, schools are more segregated than ever. But he fails to explain why resegregation has occurred. Because Kozol overlooks the root causes of the problem, his solutions—spending more money on dysfunctional schools and wishing for a social mandate to desegregate the schools—miss the point.

 

To be sure the problems are undeniable. Kozol examines the appalling condition of big-city schools. In school after school we see children who are brimming with potential but who are walled off from the larger society and abandoned by the schools. Most middle-class white Americans simply cannot comprehend the horrid schools that Kozol describes. Ceilings fall in, toilets are filthy, libraries, music and arts have been stripped away. Teachers in these schools, who are paid 40% less than teachers in the suburbs, are forced to teach “scripted” lessons that are written for children who are deemed incapable of learning.

 

It is all part of the latest reform pushed by the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind initiative, a reform aimed at the singular pursuit of increasing test scores. Learning has been stripped of its intrinsic meaning and reduced to simplistic steps—“Authentic Writing,” “Active Listening,” “Accountable Talk”—that hamper teachers in teaching anything but how to take a test. Behind it all is an attempt to impose control, much as mass production techniques were used a century ago, to standardize instruction to fit new immigrants to the system.

 

Meanwhile, millions of children are failing. In nearly half of the high schools in America’s 100 largest districts, fewer than 50% of students graduate in four years. Most of these students are from poor Latino and African-American families. And from 1993 to 2000 the number of failing schools has mushroomed by 75%. Mayor Villaraigosa calls Los Angeles’ high dropout rates “numbers that should put a chill down your spine.”

 

The reasons, Kozol argues, are lack of money and racial discrimination that produce inferior and segregated schools. No doubt this is partly true. We have tried to desegregate the schools for a half-century and failed. Middle-class white parents have voted for individual freedom with their feet, enrolling their children in private schools, leaving the public schools more segregated than ever. The same is true for middle-class black families. Gail Foster, an educator who has studied black independent schools, was quoted in 2004 in The New York Times as saying: “Many of the most empowered parents and families are removing their children. What’s left, in even working-class communities, are schools filled with the least empowered families. Families with the least parent involvement to offer, families with the least help with homework to offer. There’s been a continual outflow for at least 10 years, and it isn’t stopping now.”

 

More money is not the answer either. Kozol points to wide disparities in educational expenditures ranging from $11,700 per student in New York City to $22,000 in suburban Manhasset. Disturbing as that is, study after study shows that equalizing money does not necessarily equalize learning.

 

In 1966, sociologist James Coleman conducted the most extensive study ever made of desegregating education and found that what mattered most in students’ learning was the economic status of their peers rather than the racial makeup of the school. He also found that school funding was not closely related to students’ achievement—their families’ economic status was far more predictive. Coleman’s findings were controversial and led to a bitter debate, but they have been replicated many times. Daniel Patrick Moynihan summed it up best when he commented shortly after Coleman’s groundbreaking study, “We should begin to see that the underlying reality is not race but social class.”

 

Since social class matters because money follows privilege, and since desegregation will take generations to eradicate, what can be done now? Are poor children doomed to attend grossly inadequate schools? Surely not. We must find ways to remove the influences that have crippled the schools. Money must be diverted from bloated bureaucracies that snuff out innovation. Instead it must go directly to schools where principals and teachers can influence what is taught and what children learn, and help bring parents back into the fold. Otherwise, it is going down a rat hole.

 

Parents have a significant role to play in their children’s education, but their voices have been largely silenced. Over the last 40 years, we have witnessed the decline of civic involvement and the growing dominance of self-interest over the greater good, a social deterioration that sociologist Robert Putnam calls “hollowing out” in his 2000 book “Bowling Alone.” One result, as the old saying goes, is that “the rich get richer” and the poor fall ever further behind in crumbling schools.

 

Over the last 25 years, education in general has been taken from ordinary citizens and teachers by politicians, administrators, union leaders, publishers, test makers, consultants, university professors, hardware and software developers and the media, each playing its part in keeping alive the illusion of reform. All in all, this $1-trillion industry has replaced the common interest, and no one, it seems, can muster the will to rein it in.

 

Local control is only a dim memory. Decisions now come from the top—from the federal and state governments, school boards and high-level administrators who have little knowledge of what goes on in the classroom. Teachers are left out of these decisions, carrying on the best they can, safe in the assumption that the newest fad, like those before it, will blow over. Parents are all but forgotten.

 

While command-and-control management may seem to produce results in the short run, it strips schools of the capacity to develop the stable leadership that is necessary to sustain success. Principals are besieged with demands from district offices and from the educational fads that emanate from publishers and university researchers. Many principals know that they put their careers in peril unless they do what their bosses want. One elementary school principal told me, “District directives undermine our own abilities to think for ourselves, to believe in what we see and know.” When schools discover something that works, it is rarely sustained because they lack authority or stable leadership.

 

In 1969 when I worked for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, I monitored the schools in impoverished Ocean Hill-Brownsville in New York City. The local school board hired a charismatic superintendent, who fired incompetent teachers and hired young and idealistic ones. The firings set the local board at odds with the huge teachers’ union, which demanded due process for the fired teachers. The superintendent, Rhody McCoy, was convinced that good teachers had to respect the children they taught. He put it in plain words: “If you’re convinced that this kid is doomed by nature or by something else to lead a shrunken and curtailed life, then you’re basically incompetent to teach that child.” The experiment worked. Observing classrooms left no doubt in my mind that students were learning. Eager first-graders sat attentively on the floor in semicircles shouting out answers to fraction problems and reading aloud. The schools buzzed with excitement as parent helpers streamed in and out of classrooms. But in a bitter power struggle the board seized authority and the experiment ended.

 

Years later, in 1985, Deborah Meier, a passionate educator who founded Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary School, achieved stunning successes that led the school to be celebrated as a model alternative school in Time magazine. But it could not be sustained beyond Meier’s unique leadership. Today, 10 years after Meier left, a respected children’s advocacy group, Insideschools and Advocates for Children, reports that the Harlem school “…has fallen on hard times in recent years with rapid staff turnover, low staff morale and uneven discipline.”

 

In risk-averse environments like public schools, few principals will stick out their necks, because they don’t want to buck the bosses downtown. Courageous and visionary principals like Rhody McCoy and Deborah Meier keep coming. But charismatic leadership is no match for heavy-handed district management, which always wins out.

 

Take Foshay Learning Center in Los Angeles, for example. In 1989, Howard Lappin took over a failing middle school. With the help of teachers and an infusion of money, Lappin wrested control from the district and transformed Foshay. The school expanded into a K-12 “learning center” and became largely autonomous of the district’s bureaucratic requirements. Teachers and administrators decided who would be hired and what would be taught. Foshay succeeded, and in 2000 its high school was selected by Newsweek as one of the 100 best in America. But in 2001 Lappin retired, and his unique leadership was lost. Today Foshay is being threatened with sanctions by the district and the county because gains in students’ test scores have stalled. As the school has fallen under the district’s “one-size-fits all” bureaucratic requirements, the impact has been to undermine the once vibrant teacher leadership that made the school so enviable.

 

The problem with public education is not with the teachers, or with the children, but the way we organize the schools. Probably the greatest casualties are teachers themselves, who are forced to accept decisions by authorities about teaching that they know to be nonsense. One professor interviewed by Kozol said that forcing an absurdity on teachers teaches something: acquiescence. For example, in study after study, teachers report that relying on test scores as sole marks of student achievement and teaching scripted lessons destroy students’ natural love of learning. And such practices also erode teachers’ professional authority, which is fundamental to student learning.

 

Why is it so hard to foster the only kind of reform that really works, which is right in the schoolhouse? Because politicians, school board members and administrators are under intense pressure to produce immediate results, i.e., higher and higher test scores—a goal that is pursued through directives from districts with little input of principals, teachers and parents. Superintendents serve at the pleasure of school boards, and most board members are elected or appointed and have limited terms of office. As test scores have become the measure of educational quality, everyone is under immense pressure to show fast results or be turned out.

 

No wonder that school boards hire superintendents who promise to deliver quick results. But few do. Superintendents last on average only three or four years. Many are thwarted by outmoded bureaucracies that were designed a century ago using top-down control practiced in American industry to mass-produce learning. Within these organizations, power has quietly accumulated, making them all but impervious to outside influence. Sid Thompson, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, told me: “Trying to change the district is like trying to change the direction of a fast-moving freight train. You might knock it off course for a moment, but before you know it it’s rattling right down the tracks again.”

 

Frustration and suspicion about who might emerge from the shadows to sabotage their plans often lead superintendents to jealously guard their power. In 2002, Day Higuchi, then president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the Los Angeles teacher union, had high hopes for working with the school district’s new “can-do” superintendent, Roy Romer. Higuchi hoped that Romer would endorse a new union initiative called Lesson Study, a plan to help teachers work collectively to improve classroom lessons. At a breakfast meeting that I attended, Higuchi presented Romer with an invitation to work with the union to develop and spread Lesson Study across the district. When Higuchi finished, Romer flipped over his paper placemat and with a red felt pen drew a box with an S in it. “That’s me,” he said. Beneath he drew 11 boxes with smaller s’s in them, representing the 11 local superintendents, and below that, a number of small boxes with roofs, representing schools and teachers. Then, pulling his face near to Higuchi’s, he drew bold red arrows pointing downward from the top. Romer jabbed his pen in the air to accentuate each word: “You cannot usurp my authority to manage this district!” It was a dumbfounding moment, one that revealed the true underside of the use of power. Here was a chance for a new superintendent to forge a small but significant step with the union, but Romer, who recently announced his resignation, explained that he was “in a hurry.” He clearly had little time for ideas that were at odds with his own. In the end his refusal to work with the union undermined the possibility of creating a broader base of power that could transcend self-interest.

 

Nor are the unions exempt from self-interest. A few years ago I helped establish a national group of union presidents called TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network) who were dedicated to remaking their unions as forces to improve education. One way was to cooperate with administrators and encourage teachers to use their classroom know-how to redesign teaching at the schoolhouse. But hostility and mistrust run deep. The union leaders became nervous, fearing that fellow unionists would attack them for “collaborating” with the enemy and that if the effort to collaborate failed they would share the blame. Don Watley, president of the New Mexico Federation of Educational Employees, commented: “It’s like the Normandy landing. We’ve got the best troops in the world. We’ve got the best officers in the world. And we’ve got the best equipment in the world. But at 0800 when we hit the beach half of us are going to get killed!” Sadly, in the years to come, the ingrained mistrust, and the unpredictable dance of union politics, prevented these unionists from becoming a positive force in educational reform. Instead, they have been reduced to stockpiling power, much as the Soviets and Americans stockpiled nuclear weapons during the Cold War, to oppose any hostile moves the other side might make.

 

So what can be done to break the standoff between teacher unions and districts? How can teachers’ professional authority be restored? How can parents be awakened and brought back into the fold? Experience shows that it can be done. Schools such as Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary, Los Angeles’ Foshay Learning Center, those in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, and many others attest to the fact that schools can be made into safe places where children learn. Sustaining them is the hard part.

 

There is little doubt that trying to build good schools with command-and-control management doesn’t work. School boards, superintendents and union officials need to clear the obstacles—unnecessary bureaucratic requirements and outmoded work rules—to make innovation at the schoolhouse possible. These top-level educational leaders also must make resources available to support new ways of teaching. Jonathan Kozol has it right. Teaching is the only reform that counts and it can be done only at the schoolhouse by teachers, principals, parents and students working together.

 

Turning school districts upside down will also mean turning a century of top-down management on its head. But where is such bold leadership to be found? One promising place is among big-city mayors. But they must resist trying to take over the schools, as they did in New York, Chicago and Boston with mixed results at best. Instead, popular mayors could use their influence and visibility to tell the truth about the condition of education and to build a popular consensus about how change must occur.

 

In the next essay I am going to examine what mayors can do. Waiting for the schools to be saved by someone else is nonsense. Only concerted local action offers a chance. Doubters should recall Margaret Mead’s observation: “Never doubt that a small group of concerned people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.

Copyright © 2006 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.

 

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From a high point on the Caliente-Bodfish Road (483), you can get this good view of Lake Isabella. Created by a dam in 1953, Lake Isabella is one of the largest reservoirs in California. It marks the junction of the north and south forks of the Kern, a major river system of the Sierra Nevada. The town of Bodfish is in the foreground, with the town of Lake Isabella behind it. Named for the queen of Spain who funded Columbus, Lake Isabella is a popular recreation spot for water skiers and fishermen.

 

The view is north from what is effectively the southern end of the Sierra Nevada. Highway 178 heads right (east) of the lake to Walker Pass, named after mountain man Joseph R. Walker who traveled over it in 1834 and 1843. John C. Fremont later came over the southern pass and recommended it be named after Walker.

 

Walker was the first Euro-American to discover Yosemite on a harrowing journey he led over the Sierra from the east. It is described in a first-person journal by Zenas Leonard, a member of the party. In his journal (readable online), Leonard describes how the starving men, freezing in the snow, had to eat some of their horses in the mountains to survive. Farther on, they encountered Yosemite Valley and its waterfalls. Impressed as they were, they were not in the mood for tourism; they were desperately trying to find a way down out of the mountains, but the steep valley walls hindered their progress. They eventually made it to the Central Valley. Old Joe Walker carried on as a scout after the mountain man era, and died at age 78 in Walnut Creek north of San Francisco Bay, in 1876.

 

From Lake Isabella, highway 178 follows the Kern as it flows southwest (left) to the Central Valley at Bakersfield. Whitewater rafting trips are popular above and below the lake. South of here (behind the camera), road 483 climbs up to Havilah and then into Walker Basin.

 

Since the dam was built over 50 years ago, engineers realized it is near an active fault. It is also not large enough to store floodwaters from a potential rare heavy snowmelt, and seepage has been an ongoing problem. Worried about potential catastrophic consequences of a dam failure, engineers are currently working on modifications to the earthen dam, its outlet channels and the highways nearby. Don't even think about all that water dumping down the steep canyon into Bakersfield.