Yesterday I had a healing session over the phone with a woman who'd been highly recommended to me by a mutual friend. It was the first time we'd talked. I liked her and we were very tuned in to each other. She told me she works with the Ascended Masters and named Jesus Christ and Yogananda. After the session I walked into my office. The sun was shining through the window, a single light beam specifically illuminating a picture of Jesus Christ that was sitting on my laptop. At that moment I remembered that I bought it at Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship retreat and ashram in Encinitas, California when I lived in Encinitas in the 1970s. A nice little bit of synchronicity! :-)

When I was growing up (and this isn't going to be an overly nostalgic story. True story, but not overly nostalgic,) we would drive up to downtown Titusville and run our errands. Sometimes if we went into old downtown, we would pass the Pritchard House by. I must say that I have been captivated by it since childhood and had been curious about it from the start.

 

At about 12 or 14, I had a copy of "Florida's Historic Architecture" given to me and I started looking around for information about the Pritchard House and found out the general statistics: the house being built in 1891; the family still owning the house to this day, etcetera.

 

Whether the house was occupied to this day was unknown to me growing up, but with its peeling pain and sagging shutters who would know?

 

It all changed in 2004, when I met Mrs. Schuster right after hurricane Jeanne blew through the area. I wanted to see if the house had been damaged, so, reluctantly, I was driven up to Titusville and I found an upper floor window broken. A glazier's truck sat on the curb. The glazier's ladder was leaning up against the side of the house. I became very self-conscious carrying the camera with me, and I wasn't quite sure whether I would be run off by this glazier working as I shot the house (because when you stand in front of the house, that's just what you do by nature. Stand in front of it yourself, with a camera in hand, and you'll know what I mean!)

 

So, cautiously, I walked over to the glazier and asked him if he knew if the owners of the house would mind if I went around photographed the house from the sidewalk. He didn't seem to care, and heck, I could hardly hear a word he was saying over the screeching traffic of US1 whizzing northbound behind me.

 

I heard a female voice and turn in its direction of origin. There was an elderly lady in sunglasses standing on the porch.

 

Well, what was I to know? I didn't think there was anyone living in the house. I didn't know what to think. Would I be run off of the sidewalk by an irate elderly woman?

 

The lady continued: "I'm the owner of this house."

 

"Oh," I said, and then introduced myself. I asked if I could enter the gate and talk with her on the porch steps and she said "Yes." So I walked up to the porch steps and we started to talk.

 

"Would you mind if I took some pictures of the house?" I asked.

 

She shrugged, with a c'est la vie smile on her face: "Everyone else does."

 

So the conversation went from there. She is an amazing lady and can tell you almost anything you want to know about the house. You would never guess her actual age - and you would be very, very surprised once you found out. I saw the Dining Room, Reception Hall (the family calls it the "Living Room") and the Parlor. It was simply an amazing experience.

 

It was almost by accident that the next year I would find out about the North Brevard Heritage Foundation and become involved with the restoration process of this house.

 

In a way, it has been a realization of a childhood dream. I don't think I would trade it for anything.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Due to the restrictions of the Versailles treaties, the Reichswehr was already dealing with the increasing mobilization and motorization of the army after the end of the First World War. The realization that the speed of the troop units required appropriate equipment was available early on. However, the Reichswehr suffered from financial constraints and during the Weimar Republic the industry only had limited capacity for series production of larger, armored vehicles.

 

Nevertheless, at that time the Sd.Kfz. 3 (unarmored half-track transport vehicle/1927), the ARW (eight-wheel car/1928) and the ZRW (ten-wheel car/1928) provided fundamental experience. The findings of these tests and the troop testing with the Sd.Kfz. 3 enabled a more precise specification of the new vehicles to be developed. The "heavy" armored cars were primarily intended for the reconnaissance units of the new armored forces.

 

The incipient rearmament could only start with a "cheap" solution, though. A three-part armored structure for the chassis of commercially available off-road trucks was developed by the Army Weapons Office, Dept. WaTest 6, in cooperation with the company Deutsche Eisenwerke AG. The typical truck chassis featured front-wheel steering and a driven bogie at the rear (4x6 layout). In June 1929, the companies Magirus, Daimler-Benz and Büssing-NAG were commissioned to develop the desired armored car from it. If you consider that this truck class was developed for a payload of 1.5t, you can already conclude from this that the vehicles, which are now equipped with a significantly heavy armored structure, had little off-road mobility. Even if the appearance of the vehicles supplied by the different manufacturers was similar, there were external distinguishing features by which the manufacturer could be identified. The vehicles were tested in the Reichswehr from 1932 and introduced later.

 

One of the four crew members (driver, commander, gunner, radio-operator) was used as a reverse driver: with the narrow streets of the time and a turning circle of between 13 and 16m, this function was essential for a truck-sized heavy reconnaissance vehicle. The chassis had the excellent ladder-type configuration, able to withstand the stress of rough rides at high speed. The scout car was 5570 mm long, 1820 mm wide, 2250 mm high and weighed 5.35, 5.7 or 6 tons, depending on the manufacturer. The hull was made of welded steel armor, 5 to 14.5 mm (0.2-0.57 in) thick depending on the angle (bottom to front) with well-sloped plates. The armament consisted of a 2 cm KwK 30 with 200 rounds and a MG 13 with 1300 rounds in a manually operated turret. The fuel supply was 90, 105 or 110 liters, but with a consumption of about 35 or 40 liters per 100 km, this resulted in a completely inadequate range for a scout car.

 

Having no true alternatives at hand, the armored 4x6 car was accepted and became known as the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-wheel), and it was subsequently developed into two more vehicles. Up until 1937, 123 vehicles were built as Sd.Kfz. 231 reconnaissance cars and Sd.Kfz. 232 radio trucks. A further 28 were manufactured as Sd.Kfz. 263 (Panzerfunkwagen) command vehicles.

As early as 1932, after testing the pilot series, it was clear that the interim solution of "cheap" 6-wheel vehicles would not meet the future requirements of the armored divisions now planned. It was planned that from 1935/36 at least 18 vehicles of a new type that would meet the requirements for off-road mobility and high road speeds should be produced annually. Büssing-NAG had obviously made a good impression with the ARW and was now commissioned to make the revised vehicle ready for series production, which would become the SdKfz. 231 (8-Rad). The overall concept was completed between 1934 and 1935 and already showed all the features of the future type: all 8 wheels driven and steered, the same speed forwards and backwards, ability to change direction in less than 10 seconds, and a turning circle of "only" 10.5m. The vehicle layout was changed, too: the engine bay was relocated to the rear, the crew compartment was placed at the front end. This improved weight distribution, handling, and the field of view for the main forward driver.

The purpose of the new vehicles was identical to that of the earlier heavy 6-wheel vehicles, they were used on the same sites and so the same ordnance inventory designation was adopted, despite the vehicle’s many modifications. The so-called Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) was armed, corresponding to its 6-Rad counterpart, with a 2cm KwK 30 and the MG 13 (later MG 34) in a rotating turret. Likewise, the Sd.Kfz. 232 (8-Rad) carried a large, curved bow antenna, and there was a Sd.Kfz. 263 (8-Rad) command vehicle, too.

 

Nevertheless, the Army Weapons Office demanded a short-term solution for a vehicle based on the 4x6 chassis that offered better off-road performance and armament, namely a 37 mm anti-tank gun, with at least comparable range and armor protection. This interim vehicle was supposed to be ready for service in early 1934. Magirus accepted the challenge and proposed the Sd.Kfz. 241, a 4x8 vehicle. It retained the old overall 6-Rad layout with the front engine under a long bonnet, but it had a fourth steered axle added to lower ground pressure and improve the vehicle’s trench bridging capabilities. The powered two rear axles retained the 6-Rad’s twin wheels, so that the vehicle stood on a total of twelve tires with a relatively large footprint. The armored hull was very similar to the Sd.Kfz. 231 6-Rad, but carried a new, bigger turret with a 3.7 cm KwK 30 L/45 gun and an axis-parallel 7.92 mm MG 34 light machine gun.

 

The box-shaped turret exploited the hull’s width to the maximum and had a maximum armor of 15 mm, no base and the seat of the commander was attached to the tower wall. The commander sat elevated under a raised cupola in the rear section of the turret, just behind the main gun. He had five viewing slits protected by glass blocks and steel slides for all-round visibility. The gunner/loader, standing to the left of the main gun, had to constantly follow the movement of the turret, which was done by hand. In order to support the gunner when slewing the turret, the commander had an additional handle on the right side. The two crew members also had a turret position indicator.

The cannon was fired electrically via a trigger, the machine gun was operated mechanically with a pedal. To aim and view the outside, the gunner had a gun sight to the left of the gun with an opening in the gun mantlet. Standard access to the vehicle was through low double-doors in the vehicle’ flank, but side exit openings in the turret with two flaps each were also frequently used to board it. Another entry was through the commander cupola’s lid.

With all this extra hardware, the Sd.Kfz. 241’s overall weight rose considerably from the late Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) nearly 6 tons to 7.5 tons. As a consequence, the chassis had to be reinforced and a more powerful engine was used, a 6-cylinder Maybach HL 42 TRKM w carburetor gasoline engine with 4170 cc capacity and 100 hp (74 kW) output at 3000 rpm.

 

As expected, the Sd.Kfz. 241 was not a success. Even though the first vehicles were delivered in time in mid-1934, its operational value was rather limited. Off-road capability was, due to the extra weight, the raised center of gravity and the lack of all-wheel drive, just as bad as the 6-Rad vehicles, and the more powerful engine’s higher fuel consumption allowed neither higher range, despite bigger fuel tanks, nor a better street performance. The only real progress was the new 3.7 cm KwK 30’s firepower, which was appreciated by the crews, even though the weapon was only effective against armored targets at close range. At 100 m, 64 mm of vertical armor could be penetrated, but at 500 m this already dropped to 31 mm, any angle in the armor weakened its hitting power even further. The weapon’s maximum range was 5.000m, though, and with HE rounds the Sd.Kfz. 241 could provide indirect fire support. Another factor that limited the vehicle’s effectiveness was that the gun had to be operated by a single crew member who had to load and aim at the same time – there was simply not enough space for a separate loader who would also have increased the gun’s rate of fire from six to maybe twelve rounds per minute. The vehicle’s armor was also inadequate and only gave protection against light firearms, but not against machine guns or heavier weapons. On the other side, the cupola on top of the turret offered the commander in his elevated position a very good all-round field of view, even when under full protection – but this progressive detail was not adopted for the following armored reconnaissance vehicles and remained exclusive to German battle tanks.

 

Only a total of fifty-five Sd.Kfz. 241s were completed by Magirus in Cologne until 1936, when production of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) vehicle family started and soon replaced the Sd.Kfz. 241, which was primarily operated at the Eastern Front in Poland and Czechoslovakia. By 1940, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left in any frontline army unit, but a few survivors were grouped together and handed over to police units. Their main gun was either completely deleted or sometimes replaced with a second machine gun, and they were used for urban patrols and riot control duties. However, by 1942, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left over.

  

Specifications:

Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/rear driver)

Weight: 7.5 tons (11.450 lb)

Length: 5,85 metres (19 ft 2 in)

Width: 2,20 metres (7 ft 2 ½ in)

Height: 2,78 metres (9 ft 1 in)

Ground clearance: 28.5 cm (10 in)

Suspension: Torsion bar and leaf springs

Fuel capacity: 150 litres (33 imp gal; 40 US gal)

 

Armor:

8–15 mm (0.31 – 0.6 in)

 

Performance:

Maximum road speed: 70 km/h (43.5 mph)

52 km/h (32.3 mph) backwards

Operational range: 250 km (155 miles)

Power/weight: 13 PS/ton

 

Engine:

Maybach HL42 TRKM water-cooled straight 6-cylinder petrol engine with 100 hp (74 kW),

driving the rear pair of axles

 

Transmission:

Maybach gearbox with 5-speed forward and 4-speed reverse

 

Armament:

1× 37 mm KwK 30 L/45 cannon with 70 rounds

1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun mounted co-axially with 1.300 rounds

  

The kit and its assembly:

This fictional armored car was inspired by a leftover rear axles from an Italeri Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) model that I converted into a fictional half-track variant some time ago. I wondered if the set could be transplanted under an 8-Rad chassis, to create a kind of missing link to the 8x8 successors of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) with a total of twelve tires on four axles.

 

The basis became a First to Fight 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) kit – a rather simple and robust affair, apparently primarily intended for tabletop purposes. But the overall impression is good, and it would be modified, anyway, even though the plastic turned out to be rather soft/waxy and the parts’ sprue attachment points a bit wacky.

 

The hull was “turned around” to drive backwards, so that its rear engine ended up in the front. I eventually only used the rear twin wheels from the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad), but not its single axles and laminated springs. Instead, I first cut the OOB mudguards in two halves, removed their side skirts and glued them onto the lower hull in reversed order, so that the exhausts and their muffler boxes would end up at the rear of the front fenders. With these in place I checked the axles’ position from the OOB ladder chassis, which is a single, integral part, and found that the rear axles’ position had to be moved by 2mm backwards. Cutting the original piece and re-arranging it was easier to scratch a new rear suspension, and the rocker bars had to be shortened to accept the wider twin wheels.

 

The original small turret with the 20 mm autocannon was deleted and replaced with core elements from a Panzer III turret, left over from previous conversion projects. Wider than any original turret of the Sd.Kfz. 231/232 family, it had to be narrowed by roughly 5mm – I had to cut a respective plug from the turret’s and the mantlet’s middle section, the deformed hatch was covered under a Panzer III commander cupola. To mate the re-arranged turret with the OOB adapter plate to mount it onto the hull, and to add overall stability to the construction, I filled the interior with 2C putty.

The typical storage bin at the turret’s rear was omitted, though, it would have made it too large for the compact truck chassis. The shape was a perfect stylistic match, even though, with the longer gun barrel, the vehicle reminds a lot of the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car?

 

Most small details like the bumpers and the headlights were taken OOB, I added a whip antenna base at the rear and mounted two spare wheels at the back, one of them covered with a tarpaulin (made from paper tissue drenched with white glue, this was also used to create the gun mantlet seals).

  

Painting and markings:

Typical for German vehicles from the early WWII stages the Sd.Kfz. 241 was painted Panzergrau (RAL 7021; I used Humbrol 67, which is authentic, but mixed it with some 125 to create a slightly lighter shade of grey) overall - quite dull, but realistic. To make the vehicle look more interesting, though, I added authentic contemporary camouflage in the form of low-contrast blotches with RAL 8017, a very dark reddish brown, mixed from Humbrol 160 and some 98. Better, but IMHO still not enough.

 

After the model received a washing with highly thinned red-brown acrylic artist paint I applied the few decals and gave the parts an overall dry-brushing treatment with grey and dark earth. Everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. For even more “excitement”, I decided to add a coat of snow.

For the simulated “frosting” I used white tile grout – which has the benefits of being water-soluble, quite sturdy to touch and the material does not yellow over time like gypsum.

 

First, the wheels, the chassis and the inside of the wheel arches received a separate treatment with relatively dryly mixed tile grout, simulating snow and dirt clusters. Once thoroughly dried, the wheels were mounted. Then the model was sprayed with low surface tension water and loose tile grout was drizzled over hull and turret, creating a flaky coat of fake snow. Once dry again, everything received another coat of matt acrylic varnish to protect and fixate everything further.

  

A relatively quick build, done in a few days. The First to Fight kit is very simple and went together well, but I’d use something else the next time due to the odd material it was molded with. The outcome of an 4x8 scout car looks quite plausible, though, like the missing link between the Sd.Kfz. 231 and 232 – the unintended similarity with the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car was a bit surprising, though. And the snow on the model eventually makes it look a bit more interesting, the stunt was worth the effort.

The Universe ❤ ツ

 

You may be familiar with much of the information presented here, either intellectually or intuitively, or perhaps you may be aware of different pieces of the puzzle. In any case, you may also discover something new or gain valuable insights as your subconscious connects the dots. Once you begin to assimilate and apply this knowledge your life will never be the same again. You will begin to view, perceive and experience reality in an entirely new, very liberating way.

 

When you become aware of the true nature of reality, you will begin to understand who you truly are and how the universal laws affect your life and the world around you. With this realization comes a certain degree of responsibility as you will no longer be oblivious to the fact that you are in complete control of your life experience and what this truly means. This new understanding of Life, the Universe and the laws that govern it is the key to your true freedom. All of this wisdom already exists within you as innate knowledge encoded in your DNA. It contains all of the information related to who you truly are, your past lives, your galactic and spiritual heritage and all of the information relating to your individual evolution as a light being. Your understanding of the information presented here will vary depending on your level of activation or spiritual development. The further you progress on your quest, the greater the responsibility in terms of applying what you are learning to your life and the world around you.

 

The first thing you need to be aware of is your personal belief system. Your belief system has been shaped by the various thought forms and emotions you have experienced since early childhood right up to the present day. There are also thought forms from your earliest ancestors and your past lives encoded within your DNA (cellular memory) which also affect your belief system. Your belief system encompasses more than just religion or spiritual beliefs, it is your understanding of the world around you and how you experience or interpret your reality. Everyone is entitled to their belief system and the information presented here is open to your interpretation. If you do not agree with something or you feel it doesn't fit with your belief system simply discard it. All you need to do is approach the information with an open heart and an open mind.

 

The Energetic Universe ❤ ツ

 

Everything that we can see and all that we can't exists as a form of energy. The entire universe and all of creation is a manifestation of this energy. Even the dense human form is constructed from this universal energy, from the highly energetic particles we call atoms. Science has shown the structure of an atom to be mostly space with a few tiny particles thrown in, which are in turn made up of even smaller particles. All physical matter is well over 90% pure space. The rest is resonating Light patterned by consciousness. It is all Light.

 

Scientifically speaking, Einstein’s theory of relativity E=mc² demonstrates how energy and mass (matter) are equivalent and transmutable. As you approach the speed of light you are converted into pure energy. If we go beyond the physical universe, into the microscopic universe, past the cells that make up our bodies, past the molecules which make up our cells, into the atomic and subatomic realms, the lines of reality begin to blur. No longer are objects seemingly separate from ourselves, everything becomes a sea of atoms and sub atomic particles. An integrated ocean of pure energy. From this comes the understanding that we are all connected with everything. This is one of the fundamental concepts that need to be understood in order to disconnect yourself from the illusion of a reality of separation. We are all one.

 

The Multi-Dimensional Universe ❤ ツ

 

Our universe contains many different dimensions superimposed over one another. These dimensions are separated from each other along different octaves determined by the rate of vibration of light. It is similar in concept to the musical scale. As the strings generating music vibrate at different levels they produce different harmonics and sounds. The greater the vibration of light, the higher you move through the dimensional levels eventually returning to the source, or God.

 

As an analogy: picture an onion and all of its layers in your mind. The whole onion represents God, and its different layers represent the different dimensions that make up our universe. Each dimension or layer exists separately to the others yet all are still part of the whole. In reality all of the dimensions co-exist simultaneously over lapping each other however each level is clearly defined and only accessible via a certain light pattern or vibration.

 

Everything exists as a form of energy and has a vibration associated with it. Your physical body, which is really made of light, is vibrating at a specific frequency. The higher your vibration, the greater your expansion as you shed density towards becoming pure energy. As you lower your vibration you descend further into density. It is important for you to understand that different emotional states trigger vibrational changes within the human being. There are only two core emotions that we feel, these being the emotions of Love and Fear. Every other emotion we experience comes from these two basic emotions. Fear produces a lower frequency or vibration within you where as Love produces a higher frequency or rapid vibration. This is another key concept that needs to be understood in order for spiritual progression. It is very important to practice the art of unconditional love in your life, as this raises your frequency or vibration allowing you to access the higher dimensions, taking you closer to Spirit. All of our spiritual teachers and masters throughout history have urged us to love one another… Why ? Because the vibration of love is the core harmonic/pattern of our bodies. It turn us ON in regenerative ways, where as fear turns us OFF in degenerative ways.

 

There is only Love and Light, they are one and the same, they represent Spirit. Everything starts from Spirit as pure love and light. As you begin to lower your light vibration you begin to seemingly separate from this source, downward through the dimensions towards the other end of the scale, deeper into density (less light energy), darkness (less light) and fear (less love). You can never totally separate from the source as you are a fragment of Spirit.

 

Each of the dimensional levels in our universe have different universal laws affecting them. Trying to understand the higher dimensions is impossible from the context and perspective of our third dimensional existence in limited consciousness. During waking reality you exist on the third dimension. In actual fact you are a multi-dimensional being existing on a number of levels all at once, however you are only aware of this 3rd dimensional existence which constitutes the physical world around us. You are a transitional being living a human life on the planet Earth. When your physical body dies you don't actually go anywhere, however you do move into a higher dimension, in your Astral Body. You transition from the 3rd dimension into the 4th, which is where you will find the astral plane. Funnily enough, the 4th dimension is also where you go every single night when you go to sleep! This transition is not new to you, it is your true home.

 

Take a moment to process this information. This is how you can still see loved ones that have crossed over in your dreams. In reality they can visit you while you’re in the 3rd dimensional waking state at any time and they can see you but you can’t see them for they exist in a higher vibration in a higher dimension. It's simillar to the electro-magnetic spectrum where we can only see the frequencies of visible light, the rest (infra-red, microwave, ultra violet, X-rays, Gamma Rays, Cosmic Rays) are invisible to us. They permeate everything but we cannot see them. Remember that all the dimensions overlap. It is possible to access the higher dimensions through your consciousness, using natural psychic abilities, but your ability to interpret and manipulate the energy around you is limited by your belief system. You must believe in something before it can become a reality.

 

Now you can begin to understand some of the differences between the 3rd dimension and the 4th. When you are dreaming you are not bound by the same physical (universal) laws as you are here in this dimension. You are immortal, able to fly, teleport, walk through walls, change your physical appearance, look at an object from all sides at once, and experience the world in a totally different way, which is often why dreams often don't make sense when you wake up and put them back into a 3D box. When you are dreaming your subconscious mind is running the show, however it is possible for you to consciously experience the 4th dimension, through thought/astral projection, lucid dreaming, physical ascension or death.

 

You are in complete control of every aspect of your life experience here on Earth. Before you incarnate you predetermine several exit windows, or opportunities for you to potentially terminate your incarnation. During the course of your life certain events may happen where you are involved in an accident, or you become ill, when you have the opportunity to evaluate your progress on a higher level and make the choice to continue or leave. The third dimension or life is a great school where you have the ability to learn many valuable lessons and accelerate your progress very quickly, while in this state of amnesia. When you terminate your incarnation and decide to leave you re-enter Earth's incarnational cycle. When you are ready you will reincarnate back onto the Earth and continue your spiritual evolution. The Earth has shifted to a new energy and the time is approaching for the entire planet and her inhabitants to experience a new level of reality. We are heading towards the 5th dimension (physical/planetary ascension). We will not be skipping the 4th; we have already spent much time there in between incarnations, it is our true home.

 

Consciousness ❤ ツ

 

Everything is connected! There is only one Reality and one God, but there are many, many ways that the one Reality can be interpreted. In fact, the number of ways to interpret the Reality are just about infinite. There are certain realities that many people have agreed on, and these realities are called levels of consciousness. There are realities that extremely large numbers of beings are focusing on, which include the one you and I are experiencing right now. At one time we existed on Earth in a very high level of awareness that was far beyond anything we can even imagine now. We hardly have even the capability to imagine where we once were, because who we were then is so out of context with who we are now. Because of the events that happened between 16,000 and 13,000 years ago, humanity fell from that very high place through many dimensions and overtones, ever increasing in density, until we reached this particular place, which we call the third dimension on planet Earth, the modern world.

 

Our consciousness is not stored in the body or the brain. When you understanding that, you begin to realise that there is a common spiritual bond between all things in the universe, and that we are all part of the one divine intelligence. Your consciousness can be viewed as existing in two parts, as the individual and the group. You are most familiar with your individual consciousness in this reality of separation which creates the illusion that you are inside a body looking out into the world at everything around you that is separate from yourself. However, your consciousness is also connected to the group, or mass consciousness of every human on the planet (which is then connected to the mass consciousness of the Earth, which is connected to the solar system, connected to the central sun of the galaxy, all the way back to unity consciousness with Source or God). Consciousness is the force that connects the spiritual realms with the physical creation.

 

Consciousness is the seat of the soul, and the source of all creation. Consciousness is what moulds and creates our reality. Scientifically this is demonstrated in quantum physics. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that the mere act of looking at an object will change its state from what it originally was, not enabling us to see its original state. Another experiment that demonstrates how conscious throughts affect our reality was performed by Japanese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto. He devised a technique to photograph water crystals and essentially capture the state of the water which had been affected by conscious thoughts, feelings and emotions. He separated the water into bottles, and on each bottle was taped a message, such as “I love you”, “I hate you”, and “You make me sick, I will kill you”. After a period of time the water was frozen then examined. The resultant formation of the water crystals matched the energetic structure of the messages. The messages of love created elaborate crystals with beautiful symmetry, while the messages of hate generated crystals of no form, dysfunction, and distress. This is more tangible proof that thoughts and feelings affect physical reality/matter. What is interesting to note here is that the human body is over 70% water. If thoughts and feelings could affect water like that, imagine what our thoughts and feelings are doing to us. Consciousness is what binds our universe together and it is what creates our reality.

 

“The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order” Stephen W. Hawking. This unified field of consciousness and energy is our concept of Spirit. The conscious living universe exists on an unimaginable scale. In this reality of separation most of us are preoccupied with daily life, and the "external" world we see with our eyes. It’s not often we raise our thoughts above this to the higher consciousness which makes up our universe, and the realization that we are all from the same source and that we are all connected.

 

How Big is God? ❤ ツ

 

I want you to imagine the Atlantic Ocean. It's huge! Yet this ocean has a oneness about it. This entire ocean is pulled as one object by the moon. Seemingly as one entity, it bulges gently and causes tides and waters to be pushed and pulled on beaches thousands of miles apart. If you study the tides and the currents, you might wonder how there could be a system where the ocean seems to respond as though it were one consciousness. It seems to coordinate itself in many ways, yet it's made of trillions of parts called water molecules.

 

Now here's the metaphor: The ocean is made of water, which is the water molecule you know as H2O. So I want you to visualize in your mind how many molecules there are in the ocean! I'll give you a moment to count them.

 

You can't do it, can you? It's an unbelievably large number, understandable only by math. It's too big to imagine, so notations in mathematics would be given that only the mathematicians can truly grasp. It would be a number that would be so large that it would be out of your view as a Human.

 

Now, imagine (in this metaphor) that each one of those molecules is an angel. In addition (just to make this more complex), somehow these trillions and trillions of molecules know one another! They all know each other at a quantum level... it's a system where what happens to one of them happens to them all - at the same time. Somehow they're all connected. One knows the other no matter how many thousands of miles apart they are within the ocean. Can you imagine such a connection?

 

Consider the ocean in this metaphor for a moment, to be what you think of as God. God is not one thing, but a combination of trillions of parts of angelic consciousness (the ocean). Contemplate just how big this would be to a molecule! Now take a small glass of water, fill it almost to the top with a little of this enormous ocean, then let it bob around in a gentle way on the ocean's surface. For this metaphor, the glass of water is planet Earth.

 

Now I want you to notice something: The glass is filled with water from the ocean. Are you starting to understand? Whatever the ocean means to you, it's also in the glass. In fact, if you were in the glass, and you were a molecule of H2O, you wouldn't be able to see through the glass clearly. In fact, you wouldn't even know that the ocean existed. Yet you'd be pushed and pulled and bobbed around just as though you were part of the ocean.

 

Without the knowledge of this vast ocean, you wouldn't truly know who you were. You wouldn't even know you were an H2O molecule. When you looked around spiritually, you might say, "Well, it looks like the wall of our water glass is the limit. We're contained by the glass and we can't see anything beyond it. We can't see outside! In addition, there's no evidence that there's anyone beyond the glass. So we'll turn inward and examine only ourselves." This is the earth.

 

But if the glass contains ocean water, this means that the glass actually contains angels [according to the metaphor]! But in this case, they're angels that don't seem to know that they're angels. There seems to be total isolation, and disconnected from everything except what's going on in the glass of water. The water in the glass can't even see how big the ocean is... if they even believe there is one. Oh, they can look at the stars and appreciate the Universe, but they can't see through the glass to really see how big God is.

 

Yet there's something interesting going on here. There's a mass intuition. At the centre of every molecule, somehow they know that there's something bigger than themselves. It's intuitive, and all throughout the glass it's felt. Here is a fact of your humanness: Eighty-five percent of humanity believes in the afterlife. Hundreds of religions, developed independently at many times and places in history, all have something in common: They believe that when you leave Earth, you go somewhere else!

 

Now, 85 percent would be an amazing number if you were doing a political poll! It's more than a majority - it's a mandate of consciousness. And so at the cellular level, the Human Being knows that there's something beyond the glass. Even though there's no entity that can prove it, the belief continues through the ages and into the future, and men and women continue to die in battle defending their belief that beyond the glass is their own God.

 

Eighty-five percent of the people on the earth can't all have the same thought and have it be a coincidence, or just wishful thinking. At some level, you not only know about the ocean on the other side of the glass, but you also know about the family who's there... trillions and trillions of them. If you could only know more! That's the spiritual quest that often drives Human cultures and even wars, where one side believes that their God is better than the other. Therefore, they kill each other to rid the planet of "wrong thinking." Odd, isn't it, how the unseen actually postures governments, shapes countries, and creates wars? That's a lot of effort and energy spent on "wishful thinking."

 

We stop and apologize for having to use metaphors so often, but we must give you this information in this fashion to even get to the next step of the teaching. And so I'm going to stop for a moment and ask you this question: Do you see how amazing this system is?

 

How big is God? ❤ ツ

 

Big enough to have created multiple Universes - trillions and trillions of angelic entities, stretching farther than you can imagine - levels of dimensionality that you cannot conceive of. Bigger than big!

 

Yet small enough to love you and live in your heart.

 

What is the perception, therefore, of God? Looking at it from the outside of the glass, it's actually quite amusing for us [Kryon]. Let me tell you what happens: The molecules in the glass [Human-angels] start to look around and wonder about everything. As discussed, they believe in the afterlife. Therefore, they feel there must be a God somewhere. Then they decide from the depths of their wisdom that God must be a giant molecule! Why? Because it's the only thing they can see. They have only one model - themselves. Then they say that there's proof of this, since scripture says so. In just one example, there's Holy Scripture that says that you're "made in the image of God." Now, if you're a molecule, God must therefore be a giant molecule, too, since, if you believe scripture, you look just like God.

 

How can I tell you this, dear one? This is the premise we've taught from the beginning that's so difficult for you to grasp. You have it reversed! Your logic is reversed. You don't understand this because you can't broach the glass. "Made in His image" means that every single molecule in the glass is part of the ocean! You have it backwards, you see. God's "image" is the mastery of the Universe. It's the divinity of the angelic realm, and it is indeed your image. The "image" is inside you.

 

It's interesting that Humans can only imagine the highest thing in their own reality. And so those in the glass, for thousands of years, have decided that God is a molecule. Pictures of God are Human-like, and all the angels are, too. Every time an angel appears on Earth, those who create the history of the event have to put skin and wings on them, pretend they're of singular nature, and give them one name. This is very funny! For angels are interdimensional, without wings or Human form, and they always have a "group" attribute. That's because they represent the consciousness of the whole ocean. But in order for Humans to grasp their visit, they're brought to the Human form and level.

 

You see how limited that is? Think of it... if that glass contained only anteaters, they would have chosen to say that God must be a large anteater! Then they'd go on to say, "When I get to heaven, there will be lots of ants!" Amusing, isn't it? But that's not very different from what most Humans do. You've been told that when you go to heaven, there will be streets of gold - mansions for each one of you. Some cultures believe that you'll be met by 72 virgins [just the men qualify for this, of course]. Do you see what I'm saying? You can only go to the limit of the wall of the glass based on your spiritual thinking and your own reality. Your idea of what God must be and what heaven must be is contained in, and limited to, your own Human experience.

 

The truth? There are no streets or mansions (or Human virgins) when you get to the other side of the glass. What there is, is a splendorous reality that you instantly remember. There is expansion, and you become the part of God that you always were, and all is known. You go home! In this metaphor, the wall of the glass is the veil. You can't see through it, and you never actually see the ocean [God]. So everything you conceive of isn't much bigger than the glass, and that's what you decide to worship. You worship what you can't see, thinking that whatever that force is on the other side of the glass, it has to be wiser and bigger than you. What you don't understand is the actual test you're in that creates this.

 

Can angels, sequestered in the glass, eventually discover the truth about who they are? Will they ever acknowledge that they're part of the ocean? Or will they eventually kill each other trying to reach the streets of gold or the 72 virgins? This is what the Kryon work is about. We're here because there's an awakening... a great shift... and humanity is beginning to see through the glass. Let me make a statement. There's nothing to worship; there's everything to discover. It's time you thought interdimensionally.

 

But let's stop for a moment. Look at the system and all that it represents. God is huge - immense. The ocean stretches for trillions of light years, through quantum Universes and multiverses, yet the angels all know each other. How can this be? It's the staple of an interdimensional existence... that everything is connected, yet seemingly separate and removed by distance. Spread through the Universe is a hugeness you cannot imagine, but since the angels are all connected in real time, every single one of them knows your name! You see?

 

How big is God? ❤ ツ

 

Big enough to have created the Universe... yet small enough to know your name - small enough to be here today - small enough to be next to you as you read these words.

 

Spinchat Healing - the Gifted Revolution

 

www.spinchat.com/group/Healing_-_Meditation_-_Karma_-_Spi...

With her passion for helping individuals reach their deepest possible realizations, renowned spiritual teacher, #Berdhanya Swami Tierra provides insight on whether or not #homosexuality is an impediment to #SpiritualAwakening. Regardless of gender or sexuality, Berdhanya encourages all individuals with an interest in getting to know their true selves to join in her teachings.

Some great quotes from a Contact in Canberra.. Pure...

 

"Shoot any scene at the time of realization of the highest emotional stress coupled with sense of pictorial form - is a decisive moment". Henri Cartier-Bresson

 

“I hope that my work will encourage self expression in others and stimulate the search for beauty and creative excitement in the great world around us.”-Ansel Adams

 

“True education is concerned not only with practical goals but also with values.”- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

 

“Buildings should keep you dry and feed the soul.” - Zaha Hadid .

 

"As swift as the wind, quiet as a forest, furious as fire, immovable as a mountain." - Takeda family

 

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are. I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not."- Kurt Cobain

 

"A friend is nothing but a known enemy."- Kurt Cobain

 

"The duty of youth is to challenge corruption."- Kurt Cobain

 

"There's nothing better than having a baby. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world." - Kurt Cobain

 

"We're so trendy we can't even escape ourselves."- Kurt Cobain

 

"Rap music's been around for too long now to be inspirational. The words are, but the music isn't."- Alexander Lee McQueen

 

"You can only go forward by making mistakes." - Alexander Lee McQueen

 

"Music assists him in the use of harmonic and mathematical proportion."- Vitruvius

 

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." - Pablo Picasso

 

"I am still learning." - Michelangelo

 

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings." - Salvador Dali

 

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. Vincent Van Gogh

 

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh

 

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God's help I shall succeed. Vincent Van Gogh

 

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. Vincent Van Gogh

 

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream. Vincent Van Gogh

 

When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - Religion. Then I go out and paint the stars. Vincent Van Gogh

 

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model. Vincent Van Gogh

 

Do something worth remembering. Elvis Presley

 

Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it, you have it all over. Elvis Presley

 

I'am not the King. Jesus Christ is the King. I'am just entertainer. Elvis Presley

 

A live concert to me is exciting because of all the electricity that is generated in the crowd and on stage. It's my favorite part of the business, live concerts. Elvis Presley

 

People think you're crazy if you talk about things they don't understand. Elvis Presley

 

You only pass through this life once. You don't come back for an encore. Elvis Presley

 

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine. Elvis Presley

 

I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to. Elvis Presley

 

I believe the key to happiness is : someone to love , something to do , and something to look forward to. Elvis Presley

 

When things go wrong don't go with them. Elvis Presley

 

"Be as you wish to seem." Socrates

 

"Wisdom begins in wonder. " Socrates

 

"Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live." Socrates

 

"A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true." Socrates

 

"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant." Socrates

 

"True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing." Socrates

 

"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior." Socrates

 

"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us." Socrates

 

"I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean. " Socrates

 

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates

 

"Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for. " Socrates

 

"He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy." Socrates

 

"By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher." Socrates

 

"I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. " Socrates

 

"From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate." Socrates

 

"Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us." Socrates

 

"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature." Socrates

 

"I was angry and frustrated until I started my own family and my first child was born. Until then I didn't really appreciate life the way I should have, but fortunately I woke up." Johnny Depp

 

"The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants." Johnny Depp

 

"When kids hit one year old, it's like hanging out with a miniature drunk. You have to hold onto them. They bump into things. They laugh and cry. They urinate. They vomit."

Johnny Depp

 

"If there's any message to my work, it is ultimately that it's OK to be different, that it's good to be different, that we should question ourselves before we pass judgment on someone who looks different, behaves different, talks different, is a different color. " Johnny Depp

 

"Trips to the dentist - I like to postpone that kind of thing."Johnny Depp

 

"I'm not sure I'm adult yet." Johnny Depp

 

"There's a drive in me that won't allow me to do certain things that are easy. " Johnny Depp

 

"The term 'serious actor' is kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? Like 'airplane food.' " Johnny Depp

 

"As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too." Johnny Depp

 

"I'm an old-fashioned guy... I want to be an old man with a beer belly sitting on a porch, looking at a lake or something."Johnny Depp

 

"People say I make strange choices, but they're not strange for me. My sickness is that I'm fascinated by human behavior, by what's underneath the surface, by the worlds inside people." Johnny Depp

 

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." Francis of Assisi

 

"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love." Francis of Assisi

 

"For it is in giving that we receive." Francis of Assisi

 

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. " Steve Jobs

 

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." Steve Jobs

 

" That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." Steve Jobs

 

"Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn. " Steve Jobs

 

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. " Steve Jobs

 

"I believe life is an intelligent thing: that things aren't random. " Steve Jobs

 

"Things don't have to change the world to be important." Steve Jobs

 

"Stay hungry, stay foolish." Steve Jobs

 

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it." Steve Jobs

 

"I think money is a wonderful thing because it enables you to do things. It enables you to invest in ideas that don't have a short-term payback. " Steve Jobs

 

" Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: 'Oh, that's just the way things are done around here.' Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business. " Steve Jobs

 

"Technology is nothing. What's important is that you have a faith in people, that they're basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they'll do wonderful things with them. " Steve Jobs

 

"You have to be very focused and work very hard, but it is not about working hard without knowing what your aim is! You really have to have a goal." Zaha Hadid

 

"I have always appreciate those who dare to experiment with materials and proportions." Zaha Hadid

 

"I don't think that Architecture is only about shelter...it's should be able to excite you , to calm you, to make you think." Zaha Hadid

 

“Be - don't try to become” . Osho

 

“Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots. Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed, and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree, the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. That's its balance.” Osho

 

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." and so in you the child your mother lives on and through your family continues to live... so at this time look after yourself and your family as you would your mother for through you all she will truly never die.” Osho

 

“Truth is not to be found outside. No teacher, no scripture can give it to you. It is inside you and if you wish to attain it, seek your own company. Be with yourself. ” Osho

 

“If you love a flower, don’t pick it up.

Because if you pick it up it dies and it ceases to be what you love.

So if you love a flower, let it be.

Love is not about possession.

Love is about appreciation.” Osho

 

“Experience life in all possible ways --

good-bad, bitter-sweet, dark-light,

summer-winter. Experience all the dualities.

Don't be afraid of experience, because

the more experience you have, the more

mature you become.” Osho

 

“Creativity is the greatest rebellion in existence.” Osho

 

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” Osho

 

“Friendship is the purest love. It is the highest form of Love where nothing is asked for, no condition, where one simply enjoys giving.” Osho

 

“Be realistic: Plan for a miracle”. Osho

 

“Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It does not shout at you, that is true. And if you are a little silent you will start feeling your way. Be the person you are. Never try to be another, and you will become mature. Maturity is accepting the responsibility of being oneself, whatsoever the cost. Risking all to be oneself, that's what maturity is all about.” Osho

 

“Life begins where fear ends.” Osho

 

"I'm simply saying that there is a way to be sane. I'm saying that you can get rid of all this insanity created by the past in you. Just by being a simple witness of your thought processes.

 

It is simply sitting silently, witnessing the thoughts, passing before you. Just witnessing, not interfering not even judging, because the moment you judge you have lost the pure witness. The moment you say “this is good, this is bad,” you have already jumped onto the thought process.

 

It takes a little time to create a gap between the witness and the mind. Once the gap is there, you are in for a great surprise, that you are not the mind, that you are the witness, a watcher.

 

And this process of watching is the very alchemy of real religion. Because as you become more and more deeply rooted in witnessing, thoughts start disappearing. You are, but the mind is utterly empty.

 

That’s the moment of enlightenment. That is the moment that you become for the first time an unconditioned, sane, really free human being.” Osho

 

“You feel good, you feel bad, and these feelings are bubbling from your own unconsciousness, from your own past. Nobody is responsible except you. Nobody can make you angry, and nobody can make you happy.” Osho

 

“Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be realized.” Osho

 

“Intelligence is dangerous. Intelligence means you will start thinking on your own; you will start looking around on your own. You will not believe in the scriptures; you will believe only in your own experience.” Osho

 

“Courage Is a love affair with the unknown”. Osho

 

“If you are a parent, open doors to unknown directions to the child so he can explore. Don't make him afraid of the unknown, give him support. ” Osho

 

“The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death.” Osho

 

“Whatever you feel, you become. It is your responsibility.” Osho

 

“You exist in time, but you belong to eternity. You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time. You are

deathless, living in a body of death. Your consciousness knows no death, no birth. It is only your body that is born and dies. But you are not aware of your consciousness. You are not conscious of your consciousness. And that is the whole art of meditation. Becoming conscious of consciousness itself.” Osho

 

“Be less of a judge and you will be surprised that when you become a witness and you don't judge yourself, you stop judging others too. And that makes you more human, more compassionate, more understanding.” Osho

 

“A little foolishness, enough 2 enjoy life, & a little wisdom to avoid the errors, that will do”. Osho

 

“You become more divine as you become more creative. All the religions of the world have said God is the creator. I don’t know whether he is the creator or not, but one thing I know: the more creative you become, the more godly you become. When your creativity comes to a climax, when your whole life becomes creative, you live in God. So he must be the creator because people who have been creative have been closest to him. Love what you do. Be meditative while you are doing it – whatever it is”. Osho

 

Definition of meditative - (adjective) -

of, involving, or absorbed in meditation or considered thought.

 

“In love the other is important; in lust you are important” . Osho

 

“It's not a question of learning much. On the contrary. It's a question of unlearning much.“ Osho

 

“All that is great cannot be possessed - and that is one of the most foolish things man goes on doing. We want to possess.” Osho

 

“The moment you become miserly you are closed to the basic phenomenon of life: expansion, sharing. The moment you start clinging to things, you have missed the target - you have missed. Because things are not the target, you, your innermost being, is the target - not a beautiful house, but a beautiful you, not much money, but a rich you, not many things, but an open being, available to millions of things.” Osho

 

“If you want to learn anything, learn trust - nothing else it needed. If you are miserable, nothing else will help - learn trust. If you don't feel any meaning in life and you feel meaningless, nothing will help - learn trust. Trust gives meaning because trust makes you capable of allowing the whole descend upon you.” Osho

 

“I love, because my love is not dependent on the object of love. My love is dependent on my state of being. So whether the other person changes, becomes different, friend turns into a foe, does not matter, because my love was never dependent on the other person. My love is my state of being. I simply love.” Osho

 

First visit 9 july 2009

Photos taken and published with permission of the Self-Realization Fellowship, www.yogananda-srf.org

 

215 West K Street

Encinitas, CA 92024

(760) 753-2888

Somewhere in North GA

View On Black

something strange.....is happening to me.....

something more.....than my two eyes can see.....

 

Johnny Rivers "Realization" 1969

 

Music from my hippy-psychadelic period.

I get lost in the crashing and beating of the waves.

I cry at how the tide never stops kissing the shore, no matter how many times it's sent away.

The wind steals my thoughts and she sends them out to sea.

I scream to get them back, but she's just protecting me.

 

Banished forever now into the depths of the ocean.

Swallowed by the whale of good emotion.

I will lift my head high and make my footprints in the sand.

 

With rising tides and realizations.

I now stand on solid foundations.

No longer will I be defeated.

  

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

Due to the restrictions of the Versailles treaties, the Reichswehr was already dealing with the increasing mobilization and motorization of the army after the end of the First World War. The realization that the speed of the troop units required appropriate equipment was available early on. However, the Reichswehr suffered from financial constraints and during the Weimar Republic the industry only had limited capacity for series production of larger, armored vehicles.

 

Nevertheless, at that time the Sd.Kfz. 3 (unarmored half-track transport vehicle/1927), the ARW (eight-wheel car/1928) and the ZRW (ten-wheel car/1928) provided fundamental experience. The findings of these tests and the troop testing with the Sd.Kfz. 3 enabled a more precise specification of the new vehicles to be developed. The "heavy" armored cars were primarily intended for the reconnaissance units of the new armored forces.

 

The incipient rearmament could only start with a "cheap" solution, though. A three-part armored structure for the chassis of commercially available off-road trucks was developed by the Army Weapons Office, Dept. WaTest 6, in cooperation with the company Deutsche Eisenwerke AG. The typical truck chassis featured front-wheel steering and a driven bogie at the rear (4x6 layout). In June 1929, the companies Magirus, Daimler-Benz and Büssing-NAG were commissioned to develop the desired armored car from it. If you consider that this truck class was developed for a payload of 1.5t, you can already conclude from this that the vehicles, which are now equipped with a significantly heavy armored structure, had little off-road mobility. Even if the appearance of the vehicles supplied by the different manufacturers was similar, there were external distinguishing features by which the manufacturer could be identified. The vehicles were tested in the Reichswehr from 1932 and introduced later.

 

One of the four crew members (driver, commander, gunner, radio-operator) was used as a reverse driver: with the narrow streets of the time and a turning circle of between 13 and 16m, this function was essential for a truck-sized heavy reconnaissance vehicle. The chassis had the excellent ladder-type configuration, able to withstand the stress of rough rides at high speed. The scout car was 5570 mm long, 1820 mm wide, 2250 mm high and weighed 5.35, 5.7 or 6 tons, depending on the manufacturer. The hull was made of welded steel armor, 5 to 14.5 mm (0.2-0.57 in) thick depending on the angle (bottom to front) with well-sloped plates. The armament consisted of a 2 cm KwK 30 with 200 rounds and a MG 13 with 1300 rounds in a manually operated turret. The fuel supply was 90, 105 or 110 liters, but with a consumption of about 35 or 40 liters per 100 km, this resulted in a completely inadequate range for a scout car.

 

Having no true alternatives at hand, the armored 4x6 car was accepted and became known as the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-wheel), and it was subsequently developed into two more vehicles. Up until 1937, 123 vehicles were built as Sd.Kfz. 231 reconnaissance cars and Sd.Kfz. 232 radio trucks. A further 28 were manufactured as Sd.Kfz. 263 (Panzerfunkwagen) command vehicles.

As early as 1932, after testing the pilot series, it was clear that the interim solution of "cheap" 6-wheel vehicles would not meet the future requirements of the armored divisions now planned. It was planned that from 1935/36 at least 18 vehicles of a new type that would meet the requirements for off-road mobility and high road speeds should be produced annually. Büssing-NAG had obviously made a good impression with the ARW and was now commissioned to make the revised vehicle ready for series production, which would become the SdKfz. 231 (8-Rad). The overall concept was completed between 1934 and 1935 and already showed all the features of the future type: all 8 wheels driven and steered, the same speed forwards and backwards, ability to change direction in less than 10 seconds, and a turning circle of "only" 10.5m. The vehicle layout was changed, too: the engine bay was relocated to the rear, the crew compartment was placed at the front end. This improved weight distribution, handling, and the field of view for the main forward driver.

The purpose of the new vehicles was identical to that of the earlier heavy 6-wheel vehicles, they were used on the same sites and so the same ordnance inventory designation was adopted, despite the vehicle’s many modifications. The so-called Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) was armed, corresponding to its 6-Rad counterpart, with a 2cm KwK 30 and the MG 13 (later MG 34) in a rotating turret. Likewise, the Sd.Kfz. 232 (8-Rad) carried a large, curved bow antenna, and there was a Sd.Kfz. 263 (8-Rad) command vehicle, too.

 

Nevertheless, the Army Weapons Office demanded a short-term solution for a vehicle based on the 4x6 chassis that offered better off-road performance and armament, namely a 37 mm anti-tank gun, with at least comparable range and armor protection. This interim vehicle was supposed to be ready for service in early 1934. Magirus accepted the challenge and proposed the Sd.Kfz. 241, a 4x8 vehicle. It retained the old overall 6-Rad layout with the front engine under a long bonnet, but it had a fourth steered axle added to lower ground pressure and improve the vehicle’s trench bridging capabilities. The powered two rear axles retained the 6-Rad’s twin wheels, so that the vehicle stood on a total of twelve tires with a relatively large footprint. The armored hull was very similar to the Sd.Kfz. 231 6-Rad, but carried a new, bigger turret with a 3.7 cm KwK 30 L/45 gun and an axis-parallel 7.92 mm MG 34 light machine gun.

 

The box-shaped turret exploited the hull’s width to the maximum and had a maximum armor of 15 mm, no base and the seat of the commander was attached to the tower wall. The commander sat elevated under a raised cupola in the rear section of the turret, just behind the main gun. He had five viewing slits protected by glass blocks and steel slides for all-round visibility. The gunner/loader, standing to the left of the main gun, had to constantly follow the movement of the turret, which was done by hand. In order to support the gunner when slewing the turret, the commander had an additional handle on the right side. The two crew members also had a turret position indicator.

The cannon was fired electrically via a trigger, the machine gun was operated mechanically with a pedal. To aim and view the outside, the gunner had a gun sight to the left of the gun with an opening in the gun mantlet. Standard access to the vehicle was through low double-doors in the vehicle’ flank, but side exit openings in the turret with two flaps each were also frequently used to board it. Another entry was through the commander cupola’s lid.

With all this extra hardware, the Sd.Kfz. 241’s overall weight rose considerably from the late Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) nearly 6 tons to 7.5 tons. As a consequence, the chassis had to be reinforced and a more powerful engine was used, a 6-cylinder Maybach HL 42 TRKM w carburetor gasoline engine with 4170 cc capacity and 100 hp (74 kW) output at 3000 rpm.

 

As expected, the Sd.Kfz. 241 was not a success. Even though the first vehicles were delivered in time in mid-1934, its operational value was rather limited. Off-road capability was, due to the extra weight, the raised center of gravity and the lack of all-wheel drive, just as bad as the 6-Rad vehicles, and the more powerful engine’s higher fuel consumption allowed neither higher range, despite bigger fuel tanks, nor a better street performance. The only real progress was the new 3.7 cm KwK 30’s firepower, which was appreciated by the crews, even though the weapon was only effective against armored targets at close range. At 100 m, 64 mm of vertical armor could be penetrated, but at 500 m this already dropped to 31 mm, any angle in the armor weakened its hitting power even further. The weapon’s maximum range was 5.000m, though, and with HE rounds the Sd.Kfz. 241 could provide indirect fire support. Another factor that limited the vehicle’s effectiveness was that the gun had to be operated by a single crew member who had to load and aim at the same time – there was simply not enough space for a separate loader who would also have increased the gun’s rate of fire from six to maybe twelve rounds per minute. The vehicle’s armor was also inadequate and only gave protection against light firearms, but not against machine guns or heavier weapons. On the other side, the cupola on top of the turret offered the commander in his elevated position a very good all-round field of view, even when under full protection – but this progressive detail was not adopted for the following armored reconnaissance vehicles and remained exclusive to German battle tanks.

 

Only a total of fifty-five Sd.Kfz. 241s were completed by Magirus in Cologne until 1936, when production of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) vehicle family started and soon replaced the Sd.Kfz. 241, which was primarily operated at the Eastern Front in Poland and Czechoslovakia. By 1940, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left in any frontline army unit, but a few survivors were grouped together and handed over to police units. Their main gun was either completely deleted or sometimes replaced with a second machine gun, and they were used for urban patrols and riot control duties. However, by 1942, no Sd.Kfz. 241 was left over.

  

Specifications:

Crew: Four (commander, gunner, driver, radio operator/rear driver)

Weight: 7.5 tons (11.450 lb)

Length: 5,85 metres (19 ft 2 in)

Width: 2,20 metres (7 ft 2 ½ in)

Height: 2,78 metres (9 ft 1 in)

Ground clearance: 28.5 cm (10 in)

Suspension: Torsion bar and leaf springs

Fuel capacity: 150 litres (33 imp gal; 40 US gal)

 

Armor:

8–15 mm (0.31 – 0.6 in)

 

Performance:

Maximum road speed: 70 km/h (43.5 mph)

52 km/h (32.3 mph) backwards

Operational range: 250 km (155 miles)

Power/weight: 13 PS/ton

 

Engine:

Maybach HL42 TRKM water-cooled straight 6-cylinder petrol engine with 100 hp (74 kW),

driving the rear pair of axles

 

Transmission:

Maybach gearbox with 5-speed forward and 4-speed reverse

 

Armament:

1× 37 mm KwK 30 L/45 cannon with 70 rounds

1× 7.92 mm MG 34 machine gun mounted co-axially with 1.300 rounds

  

The kit and its assembly:

This fictional armored car was inspired by a leftover rear axles from an Italeri Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) model that I converted into a fictional half-track variant some time ago. I wondered if the set could be transplanted under an 8-Rad chassis, to create a kind of missing link to the 8x8 successors of the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad) with a total of twelve tires on four axles.

 

The basis became a First to Fight 1:72 Sd.Kfz. 231 (8-Rad) kit – a rather simple and robust affair, apparently primarily intended for tabletop purposes. But the overall impression is good, and it would be modified, anyway, even though the plastic turned out to be rather soft/waxy and the parts’ sprue attachment points a bit wacky.

 

The hull was “turned around” to drive backwards, so that its rear engine ended up in the front. I eventually only used the rear twin wheels from the Sd.Kfz. 231 (6-Rad), but not its single axles and laminated springs. Instead, I first cut the OOB mudguards in two halves, removed their side skirts and glued them onto the lower hull in reversed order, so that the exhausts and their muffler boxes would end up at the rear of the front fenders. With these in place I checked the axles’ position from the OOB ladder chassis, which is a single, integral part, and found that the rear axles’ position had to be moved by 2mm backwards. Cutting the original piece and re-arranging it was easier to scratch a new rear suspension, and the rocker bars had to be shortened to accept the wider twin wheels.

 

The original small turret with the 20 mm autocannon was deleted and replaced with core elements from a Panzer III turret, left over from previous conversion projects. Wider than any original turret of the Sd.Kfz. 231/232 family, it had to be narrowed by roughly 5mm – I had to cut a respective plug from the turret’s and the mantlet’s middle section, the deformed hatch was covered under a Panzer III commander cupola. To mate the re-arranged turret with the OOB adapter plate to mount it onto the hull, and to add overall stability to the construction, I filled the interior with 2C putty.

The typical storage bin at the turret’s rear was omitted, though, it would have made it too large for the compact truck chassis. The shape was a perfect stylistic match, even though, with the longer gun barrel, the vehicle reminds a lot of the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car?

 

Most small details like the bumpers and the headlights were taken OOB, I added a whip antenna base at the rear and mounted two spare wheels at the back, one of them covered with a tarpaulin (made from paper tissue drenched with white glue, this was also used to create the gun mantlet seals).

  

Painting and markings:

Typical for German vehicles from the early WWII stages the Sd.Kfz. 241 was painted Panzergrau (RAL 7021; I used Humbrol 67, which is authentic, but mixed it with some 125 to create a slightly lighter shade of grey) overall - quite dull, but realistic. To make the vehicle look more interesting, though, I added authentic contemporary camouflage in the form of low-contrast blotches with RAL 8017, a very dark reddish brown, mixed from Humbrol 160 and some 98. Better, but IMHO still not enough.

 

After the model received a washing with highly thinned red-brown acrylic artist paint I applied the few decals and gave the parts an overall dry-brushing treatment with grey and dark earth. Everything was sealed with matt acrylic varnish. For even more “excitement”, I decided to add a coat of snow.

For the simulated “frosting” I used white tile grout – which has the benefits of being water-soluble, quite sturdy to touch and the material does not yellow over time like gypsum.

 

First, the wheels, the chassis and the inside of the wheel arches received a separate treatment with relatively dryly mixed tile grout, simulating snow and dirt clusters. Once thoroughly dried, the wheels were mounted. Then the model was sprayed with low surface tension water and loose tile grout was drizzled over hull and turret, creating a flaky coat of fake snow. Once dry again, everything received another coat of matt acrylic varnish to protect and fixate everything further.

  

A relatively quick build, done in a few days. The First to Fight kit is very simple and went together well, but I’d use something else the next time due to the odd material it was molded with. The outcome of an 4x8 scout car looks quite plausible, though, like the missing link between the Sd.Kfz. 231 and 232 – the unintended similarity with the Soviet BA-10 heavy armored car was a bit surprising, though. And the snow on the model eventually makes it look a bit more interesting, the stunt was worth the effort.

“In self-realization our experience of ourselves is a pure act of consciousness. We know ourselves by directly being ourselves. All self-images have been rendered transparent and we no longer identify with any construct in the mind. There is no reactivity to past, present or future. There is no effort to be ourselves. There is no interference with our experience, no manipulation, no activity – inner or outer – involved with maintaining our identity. We simply are. We are able to respond, feel, think, act – but from a purely spontaneous and authentic Presence. We are not defensive, not judging ourselves, not trying to live up to any standard. We may also be silent, empty or spacious. We do not have to do anything to be ourselves. We are whole, one, undivided. It is not the wholeness of the harmony of parts, but the wholeness of singlehood. We are one. We are ourselves. We are being. We simply are.” - A. Hameed Ali

 

Name: Kraanspoor

City: Amsterdam

Architect(s): OTH (Ontwerpgroep Trude Hooykaas bv)

realization: 2007

 

Kraanspoor (translated as craneway) is a light-weight transparent office building of three floors built on top of a concrete craneway on the grounds of the former NDSM (Nederlandsche Dok en Scheepsbouw Maatschappij) shipyard, a relic of Amsterdam’s shipping industry. This industrial monument, built in 1952, has a length of 270 meters, a height of 13,5 meters and a width of 8,7 meters. A street length and width. The new construction on top is the same 270 meters long, with a width of 13,8 meters, accentuates the length of Kraanspoor and the phenomenal expansive view of the river IJ. Fully respecting its foundation, the building is lifted by slender steel columns 3 meters above the crane way, appearing to float above the impressive concrete colossus.

 

The challenge of the design for OTH was to utilize the maximum allowable load of the existing craneway. The concrete craneway functions as a foundation, and carries the maximum possible weight of a three storey building, with an asymmetrical overhang on the water-side; this is due to the heavier load barring function for the former revolving cranes that cantilevered to this side. The light-weight building of steel construction made the light-weight floors necessary. By using a hollow Infra+ floor system, the piping and wiring are tucked away in the floor allowing for a maximum clear height.

 

The glass building is clear and simple in plan. The newly built construction is characterized by its transparent double-skin climate façade of glass: the outer layer of moveable motor-driven glass louvers appear as lace-work around the building, the inner façade is of hinged timber windows with a full height from office floor to ceiling. This climate façade allows natural ventilation of the offices and acts as a buffer against heat in the summer and cold in the winter. The concrete Infra+ underfloor of only 70mm allows for concrete core activity. The water from the IJ river is pumped up and used for heating as well as cooling via a water pump.

 

The pre-existing facilities have been utilised in the building’s new function. The former four old stairwells still remain as entrance to the building and are foreseen with panorama lifts and new stairs. The two gangways/catwalks alongside the concrete craneway function as fire-escape routes. In the heart of the original concrete structure, underneath the new structure, is extensive archive/storage space.

 

"A seamless combination of old and new – industrial heritage and modern architecture in which the waterways are restored and the slipway determines the orientation. The entire place with its shipping industrial past has an intense energy. The object is to intertwine the old with the new, to preserve history, and not loose this energy.

 

The wharf is dead? – Long live the wharf."

 

text: www.archdaily.com

This is the realization of the pattern I created for a hungarian bride using hungarian embroidery elements. The henna is Tunisian style where like in Yemen gall ink is used to high light the henna.

 

Khidab is a Gall ink which is employed in Yemen mainly in the mountainous regions around the capital Sanaa instead of henna. For an account how it is made you can download an article:

Yemeni Women’s Body Painting with Black Gall Ink Khidab, Production Methods,

from my colleage Dr. Hanne Schönig at www.henna-und-mehr.de/pdf/Khidabartikel_eu.pdf; (Englisch)

or www.henna-und-mehr.de/pdf/schoenig_deutsch.pdf (German)

 

If you like to see original Yeminite bodypaintings with this ink visit: www.henna-und-mehr.de/de/khidabslide.html (German) or

www.henna-und-mehr.de/franz/khidabslide.html (French)

www.flickr.com/groups/huenersen/

who you are vs. who you want to make yourself into.

A blessing and a curse...

Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread. (Richard Wright)

 

#ChaChaPhoto #Lahore #DelhiGate #BreadMaker #OldFellow #Street #Portrait #StreetPortrait #EnvironmentalPortrait #Travel #OnTheJob

 

© Zahid Farooq Photography

國立台灣文學館 - 書上珍珠台日藏書票特展 / 光影之下曾經來過 - 藝術是創作者自我的實現

National Museum of Taiwanese Literature - The Exhibition of the Taiwan & Japan Exlibris / Under the lights and shadows we had come and gone - Art is creator self-realization

Museo Nacional de la literatura taiwanesa - La Exposición de la de Taiwán y Japón Exlibris / Debajo de las luces y de las sombras habíamos venido y habíamos ido - El arte es self-realization del creador

国立の台湾の文学館 - 本の上で真珠の台湾日蔵書の切符特に展 / 光影の下はかつて来た(よこした)ことがありました - 芸術は作者の自己の実現です

Nationalmuseum der taiwanesischen Literatur - Die Ausstellung der Taiwan & Japan Exlibris / Unter den Lichtern und den Schatten waren wir gekommen und gegangen - Kunst ist Schöpfer Self-realization

Musée national de la littérature taiwanaise - Le Salon de la Taiwan et le Japon Exlibris / Sous les lumières et les ombres nous étions venus et étions allés - L'art est self-realization de créateur

 

Tainan Taiwan / Tainan Taiwán / 台灣台南

 

久石讓 - 宮崎駿 魔法公主(管樂演奏)

{ 魔法の王女/Black magic princess }

 

{View large size on black}

 

{My BLOG/管樂雅集台南孔廟精彩演出-2010楊老大生日快樂}

{Wind instrument music elegant gathering Tainan Confucian temple splendid performance - Saxbai Yang happy birthday 2010 }

{Funcionamiento espléndido de acopio elegante del templo confuciano de Tainan de la música del instrumento de viento - Feliz cumpleaños 2010 de Saxbai Yang}

{管楽の風雅に集う台南孔子廟のすばらしい公演-2010楊は非常に誕生日おめでとうございます}

{Windinstrument-Musik elegante erfassenherrliche Leistung des tainan-konfuzianischen Tempels - Saxbai Yang alles Gute zum Geburtstag 2010}

{Exécution splendide sourcilleuse élégante de temple confucien de Tainan de musique d'instrument de vent - Joyeux anniversaire 2010 de Saxbai Yang}

 

{My Blog / 不斷成長與進步的喜悅-管樂雅集}

{My Blog / The joy of the Grows unceasingly and the progress - Wind instrument music elegant gathering}

{Mi blog / La alegría del crece incesante y el progreso - Reunión elegante de la música del instrumento de viento}

{Mein Blog / Die Freude an wächst fortwährend und der Fortschritt - Elegante Versammlung der Windinstrument-Musik}

 

{My Blog/台南府城的日本時代-Swing Girl}

{My Blog/The Japanese times of the Tainan city-Swing Girl}

{Mi blog/los tiempos japoneses de la ciudad de Tainan - haga pivotar a la muchacha}

{Mein Blog/die japanischen Zeiten der Tainan-Stadt - schwingen Sie Mädchen}

 

便宜的標準鏡一樣純淨

The cheap standard kit lens is equally pure

La lente estándar barata del kit es igualmente pura

安い標準的な鏡は同様に清浄です

Das preiswerte Standardinstallationssatzobjektiv ist gleichmäßig rein

  

可用放大鏡開1:1原圖

The available magnifying glass opens 1:1 original picture

La lupa disponible abre el cuadro de la original del 1:1

利用できる拡大鏡は1:1の原物映像を開ける

Die vorhandene Lupe öffnet 1:1vorlagenabbildung

 

書中風起雲動 劍下虎嘯龍吟

The book stroke has the clouds to move under the sword the tiger's roar and dragon to recite

 

誰知成敗早已天定

Who knows the success or failure already to decide for GOD

 

回首江山依舊 入眼夕陽正紅

Who looks back on the landscape as before pleasant setting sun is red now

 

但願人長久情長在

Hopes the persons long-time sentiment exist

 

熱蘭劍士無悔無憾

The Zeelandia's swordsman regretless not regrets

 

This is my lovely friend Kelly. Kelly is one of those people that easily makes you feel welcomed and accepted. She was my first real model. She was really great to work with, and a natural model. The Yosemite fires were going on at this time, and we weren't really sure if it was the best day for shooting because of the haze. It actually created the perfect ambient lighting for the shoot. The photo was shot partly in Woodward Park in Fresno, and partly downtown (Security Bank Building).

 

From the 'Dreaming in Light' series

Alpha Auer's installation "Listen …" at "Topophonia: 4 Realizations in sound" strongly overwhelmed by SaveMe Oh's particelshows.

  

link to the destination

  

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

 

From the description:

 

TOPOPHONIA: 4 Realizations in Sound

HUMlab at Umea University in Sweden has generously provided this Yoshikaze "Up in the Air" Residency. I'm very grateful to Goodwind Seiling and HUMlab for the opportunity to participate in this program.

My idea for this residency was to ask 3 fellow artists each to create an artwork all using the same concept. I would also create my own version. (Although, my version shouldn't be thought of as 'definitive'.)

The concept is simple: use **sounds only** to guide an avatar around a build. I asked them to avoid providing visual cues for avatars to use in reaching whatever kind of goals the artists envisioned.

You will find four completely different pieces, four totally different visions of what that initial concept suggested. To me, the fact that our four versions are so different is tremendously exciting. It is further proof that the artist's mind is unlimited in its ability to make sense of the world, and to convey that sense to others.

Please be sure to visit all four installations. You will find TP kiosks on each level, and on the ground if you should somehow end up there. Have fun!

Oberon Onmura

January, 2013

 

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

 

The "Somewhere in sl" picture series (or "The Adventures of WuWai in Second Life") is my guide and bookmark folder to wonderful, artful, curious or in other way remarkably sims of second life with travel guide WuWai Chun.

 

(More pictures of WuWai's adventures: Follow this link)

Original pen and ink drawing

by Chelsea Rose

 

www.lucidopticlab.com

A beautiful place to meditate.

 

Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine

Pacific Palisades, California

 

I just discovered all the image editing tools... the 'photoshop' if you will (though I did this in aperture).

 

I haven't done this kind of stuff since film/darkroom days, mostly because I hadn't found a need. but I discovered that a lot of the stuff I've been doing with hdr is actually available just because of the high bit rate of the raw files. I never bothered to bother with them before.

 

anyway: this is an example. just by using the 'development' process on the raw file I got almost all of the range I needed. (btw: the previous image of the backhoe is the same process only via adobe dng development).

 

I also realized, looking at the pic, that even though I'm miserable most of the time, and probably totally crazy too, I don't think I'm in a bad place, once I step back and look at it.

 

I got this cute car, and I was spending a winter thursday out tootling around. I've got a set of window sashes that I'm going to turn into art and 40lbs of birdseed. and I'm in a state/place where I can stop and take pictures of a construction site for no reason other than that I wanted to.

 

what makes me particularly happy regarding this pic is that I was able to get the bright orange of the near side of the car out of the shadows and bring the sky down to blue. I really like those colors against each other. doing it via HDR would have sacrificed detail and it takes a while and it's a pain to take the frames correctly. much nicer this way.

Towards the end of the Korean War, the USAF came to the realization that their transport fleet was becoming obsolete. The C-46 Commandos and C-47 Skytrains in service were no longer adequate, while the C-119 Flying Boxcar was having difficulties. In 1951, the USAF issued a requirement for a new tactical transport, an aircraft that would need to carry at least 72 passengers, be capable of dropping paratroopers, and have a ramp for loading vehicles directly into the cargo compartment. Moreover, it must be a “clean sheet” design, not a conversion from an existing airliner, and the USAF preferred it be a turboprop design. Five companies submitted designs, and six months later the USAF chose Lockheed’s L-402 design—over the misgivings of Lockheed’s chief designer, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, who warned that the L-402 would destroy the company. Little was Johnson to know that, fifty years later, the L-402—designated C-130 Hercules by the USAF—would still be in production, and one out of only five aircraft to have over 50 years of service with the original purchaser.

 

The C-130 was designed to give mostly unfettered access to a large cargo compartment—the ramp forms an integral part of the rear fuselage, the wing is mounted above the fuselage, and the landing gear is carried in sponsons attached to the fuselage itself, while the fuselage has a circular design to maximize loading potential. The high wing also gives the C-130 good lift, especially in “high and hot” situations. The Allison T56 turboprop was designed specifically for the Hercules, and has gone on to become one of the most successful turboprop designs in history.

 

After two YC-130 prototypes, the Hercules went into production as the C-130A in 1956, to be superseded by the improved C-130B in 1959. The latter became the baseline Hercules variant: C-130As had three-blade propellers and a rounded “Roman” nose, while the B introduced the more familiar, longer radar nose and four-blade propellers. (Virtually all A models were later retrofitted to the long nose, though they kept the three-blade propellers.) In the 50 years hence, the basic C-130 design has not changed much: the C-130E introduced underwing external fuel tanks, while the C-130H has a slightly different wing. Even the new C-130J variant only introduced new engines with more fuel efficient six-bladed propellers: the basic design remains the same. Lockheed also offers stretched versions of the Hercules, initially as a civilian-only option (the L-100-30); the British Royal Air Force bought this version as the C-130K and it was later adopted by other nations, including the United States.

 

The basic C-130 is strictly a transport aircraft, but the versatility of the aircraft has meant it has been modified into a dizzying number of variants. These include the AC-130 Spectre gunship, the HC-130 rescue aircraft and WC-130 weather reconnaissance version. Other versions include several dozen EC-130 electronic warfare/Elint variants, KC-130 tankers, and DC-130 drone aircraft controllers. The USAF, the US Navy, and the US Marine Corps are all C-130 operators as well. Besides the United States, there are 67 other operators of C-130s, making it one of the world’s most prolific aircraft, with its only rivals the Bell UH-1 Iroquois family and the Antonov An-2 Colt biplane transport. C-130s are also used extensively by civilian operators as well as the L-100 series.

 

The “Herky Bird,” as it is often nicknamed, has participated in every military campaign fought by the United States since 1960 in one variation or the other. During Vietnam, it was used in almost every role imaginable, from standard transport to emergency bomber: as the latter, it dropped M121 10,000 pound mass-focus bombs to clear jungle away for helicopter landing zones, and it was even attempted to use C-130s with these bombs against the infamous Thanh Hoa Bridge in North Vietnam. (Later this capability was added as standard to MC-130 Combat Talon special forces support aircraft; the MC-130 is the only aircraft cleared to carry the GBU-43 MOAB.) It was also instrumental in resupplying the Khe Sanh garrison during its three-month siege. Hercules crews paid the price as well: nearly 70 C-130s were lost during the Vietnam War. In foreign service, C-130s have also been used heavily, the most famous instance of which was likely the Israeli Entebbe Raid of 1976, one of the longest-ranged C-130 missions in history. C-130s are often in the forefront of humanitarian missions to trouble spots around the world.

 

As of this writing, over 2300 C-130s have been built, and most are still in service. It remains the backbone of the USAF’s tactical transport service; attempts to replace it with the Advanced Tactical Transport Program (ATTP) in the 1980s and to supplement it with the C-27J Spartan in the 2000s both failed, as the USAF realized that the only real replacement for a C-130 is another C-130.

 

An early "Roman Nose" C-130A--without the C-130's distinctive radar nose profile--54-1633 was intitially assigned to the 314th Troop Carrier Wing at Stewart AFB, Georgia in 1957, and remained with the unit after it was moved to Little Rock AFB, Arkansas. It would then be relegated in 1972 to the 913th Tactical Airlift Group (Reserve), also at Little Rock. In 1977, 54-1633 finally left Arkansas, serving with the 139th TAG (Missouri ANG) at St. Joseph. It was retired in 1984, but refurbished and sold to the Chadian Air Force. Sadly, as TT-PAB, 54-1633 would crash on takeoff in 1986.

 

Many of the USAF's "Roman Nose" C-130As were later refitted with standard noses, but 54-1633 kept its profile until it was retired, though it was likely refitted before going to Chad. This picture's location is unknown, but it was while the aircraft was still with the 314th--given that it carries Southeast Asia camouflage, it's likely the picture was taken in the early 1970s.

 

(Disclaimer: I found this picture among other photos in my dad’s slides. I’m not sure who took them; some of them may be his. If any of these pictures are yours or you know who took them, let me know and I will remove them from Flickr, unless I have permission to let them remain. These photos are historical artifacts, in many cases of aircraft long since gone to the scrapyard, so I feel they deserve to be shared to the public at large—to honor the men and women who flew and maintained them.)

Note about this photograph: (rant inserted in July, 2015)

 

As you can see this photo has been up for nearly 8 years and, as of late, I had come to the realization that there are sleezy operators on the internet who will stop at nothing to make money on their sites by swiping other's work and displaying ads and giving NO attribution or credit to the original creator. I had originally posted this photo on Flickr and realized that it was getting more views than all of my other photos combined. So I set out to document what it was that made this particular building famous in my patently verbose way. I noticed that the more I typed and especially after adding links, the more views it got.

 

Originally on Google image search, it wended its way up to the first place if one searched for "Scranton Prep". That was not really my intention as the School itself should have top billing. I would settle for row 5 or 6 on page 1! Anyway, one day a couple of years ago, it fell totally off the Google radar and was only available if one was to add "Flickr" in the query. I don't really care as I am not really interested in the number of views though I found it interesting that this particular photo got so many views.

 

So then, in the interest of appeasing the Google gods and obtaining their algorithmic absolution, I put the same photo on Panaramio, another google property. This also allowed it to be viewed in Google Earth which I thought would get me the indulgence I was seeking on Google image search. Wrong!

 

So along comes this sleeze bag operator from the Czech republic by the moniker mapio.com which was using my photo (along with others that they swiped including the Scranton Fire Department) as background for their commercial pages, which, from what I can tell is a source of revenue as they display text ads for mostly educational sites.

 

Instead of my Flickr photo working its way back up, they chose my image which was expropriated by mapio (interestingly, they swiped it from Panaramio! - I don't know or care if Google is aware of it) Interestingly, even though I deleted my photo from Panaramio, it is still displayed on the top row of pictures (not in full resolution though) of Google image search though no longer on the mapio site as a background. Further, if one goes to mapio.com there is no way to leave feedback as in "I don't appreciate that you stole my photo without attribution".

 

If you go to their plain vanilla web address, mapio.com, you would not realize that they do more than rent out apartments in London without further digging. It is ironic that Google image search continues to display the mapio photo as if it belongs there even though they swiped it from Panaramio and it is no longer there! That obviously means that mapio has the photo cached.

 

That is the real reason for this rant. At the very minimum, any site wanting to use anyone else's photo or other media, should request permission to do so. I have had a few requests for that type of thing and I was glad to do so. Also, my photo not need to be the #1 photo (it is and has been on Yahoo image search which uses Bing as their search engine). I do not need to be embarrasingly successful...

  

Update 5-15-15

Though you can see an an approximation of the above image at google images, it is now a low resolution version hosted by flip.life (whoever they are) and, if one was to click on the "View Page" for further information, there is no information, in fact there is no photo!

 

Update: 5-16-15

Of all things, my actual Flickr photo is the one displayed on google images once again. It shows that, with persistence, one can take control of one's internet presence even if it is via a circuitous and devious route.

 

-- END of RANT --

 

Just sit back and eat the popcorn and enjoy our main feature...

  

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--------------------- The Scranton Preparatory School ------------------------

---------------------------------- aka Scranton Prep ----------------------------------

----- 1000 Wyoming Avenue in Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA -----

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The vantage point of this photo is through the fence abutting the railroad tracks behind the school's athletic field; the school itself is seen beyond the field and Wyoming Avenue. One of two relatively recent (2005+) additions can be seen to the left of the main building. It is actually the second iteration of wings built on the site of the former outdoor basketball courts and, like the smaller former wing, houses a gymnasium. The complementary addition on the right contains science laboratories and a lecture hall. That addition is not as large because it does not have the depth (from front to back) as it abuts a car dealership.

 

The Scranton Preparatory School, "Prep", was founded in 1944 by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and was originally located in the 300 block of Wyoming Avenue. Its first home was a building next to the Cathedral rectory which had been vacated by the University of Scranton (formerly Saint Thomas College) when the university relocated to larger quarters at the Scranton estate in the area of Madison Avenue and Linden Street. That building is gone; its replacement is a prayer garden.

 

Prep later moved to a building at the east corner of the same block at the intersection of Wyoming Avenue and Mulberry Street. That building formerly housed the Thompson Private Hospital.

 

.The school remained there until 1961 when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania decided to widen Mulberry Street resulting in the demolition of the building. There was a two-year temporary relocation to a building at the University of Scranton while a new site was located. An ideal candidate was located in the 1000 block of Wyoming Avenue at the site of the former Women's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences* (see footnote below) , a branch of the International Correspondence Schools. The school relocated to that building, pictured here, in 1963.

 

. Prep's enrollment grew substantially in 1971 as a result of the additional students from the all-girls' Marywood Seminary whose building had been destroyed by fire. Prior to the combination, Prep had been an all-boys' school. The current enrollment for the school (2016-17) is 775 students.

 

. If this building looks somewhat familiar, you may have seen its image in the old Popular Mechanics among others. Page three of the magazine was many times a full page advertisement for the International Correspondence Schools (ICS), which advertised heavily in popular technical magazines and had their headquarters in Scranton. The building was featured in the upper left corner of their study manuals and and there was nearly always a likeness of one of their manuals in the advertisement. Too, there was usually a bright yellow, double tear-off postage-paid return card for those interested in furthering their education in "The World's Schoolhouse". (Who or what was the second one for??!).

  

. The athletic field in the foreground of the above photo was previously occupied by a factory known as Haddon Craftsmen, the printing subsidiary of ICS. It occupied the entire block across the street from the Women's Institute. In perhaps the ultimate example of addressing simplicity and a study of worker/management dichotomy , the Women's Institute's address was 1000 Wyoming Avenue and Haddon's address was 1001 Wyoming Avenue. It pretty much boiled down to the boys being on one side of the street and the girls on the other. Amazing things can happen when there is one building per block on each side.

 

Haddon printed the course books for the correspondence courses as well as other textbooks for Intext (The International Textbook Company), the parent company of ICS that supplied textbooks used in college courses. In its latter days before it closed, Haddon Craftsmen was spun off from Intext and printed, among other things, paperback book selections for the Book of the Month Club.

 

.One mysteriously vanished detail of the demolition of the Haddon Craftsmen printing plant is an historical marker honoring Thomas J. Foster, the founder of ICS, which adorned the plant on the Wyoming Avenue side. In a rather grandiose proclamation, it stated that ICS was the "World's Schoolhouse". You can see an image of the plaque along with a comprehensive narrative of ICS's raison d'etre here. A rendering of the Haddon Craftsmen printing plant can be seen here. The vantage point for this image is catty-cornered to Haddon, in other words, if you were in the north corner of Coyer Motors, a tiny Pontiac dealership with room for a single automobile in its showroom. That property is now home to that paragon of fast food haute cuisine, Wendy's.

 

There is a street off to the left called Institute Way. The volume of mail was such that ICS had its own zone code (15, as in Scranton 15 Penna.) which later became zip code 18515 and is used to this very day by its successor institution Penn Foster . The value of having its own zip code has been largely attenuated, given that the terms "distance learning" and "online learning" have replaced "mail correspondence course" in the parlance of this type of education. Stamps are now optional!

 

When ICS moved to "new and improved" quarters on Oak Street in North Scranton in 1963, this building became the home of Prep. Along with classrooms and a chapel, it had residential quarters for the Jesuits on the 4th floor and a TV/radio station (not related to the school) in the basement.

  

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* NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE *

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If you read on, you will see that there is a quiz at the end of this passage. It is recommended that, if one chooses to take the quiz, that it be self-scored.

 

As you may have NOTICEd, this segment is conveniently perforated so that you can cut and paste it and take it home if desired. If you are already at home, then you are already at home.

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********************* DO NOT attempt to mail it in! **********************

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The following is related only tangentially to the current building and is included for historical and amusement purposes only. It is not required reading for present day Cavaliers.

 

If you are, or have ever been a Cavalier after 1976 the following is arcane and superfluous information and will not appear on the graduation test. You need not read it!

 

Those who graduated in or before 1976 will be quizzed on call letters, frequencies, and TV and radio personalities.

 

One final preface to the next section is that, as usual, the people behind the scenes, the engineers, camera persons, secretaries, and others really deserve a lot of credit for any broadcast organization's success. They are, perhaps by omission and invisibility, the unsung heroes of broadcasting. This is largely because we never hear their names or see fast-scrolling credits which may or may not include them. What we see and hear on a daily basis is the "talent" or on-air personalities who are also essential and, because of their notoriety, appear to be 100% of tele-organizations. So, in a some way, we owe a good deal of gratitude to these invisible people for their contributions.

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--------------------------- TALES OF THE BASEMENT -----------------------------

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.First there was radio...

 

. In the olden days (the '60s and '70s), the basement of Prep was home to WGBI-TV (later changed to WDAU - channel 22) and WGBI-AM (910 kHz) and later WGBI-FM (101.3 mHz) radio. All were affiliates of the Columbia Broadcasting Sytem (CBS). The stations were owned by the Megargee family whose mainstay was the paper business.

 

Market penetration by the Megargee Paper Company, paper-wise, was such that its ubiquity ensured that no matter in which area restroom one chose to relieve oneself, it was assured that the label on the toilet paper and paper towel dispensers bore their brand.

 

.In the real olden days and after several frequency changes, WQAN (a Scranton Times/Lynett media company) and WGBI-AM (a Megargee of paper fame station) both broadcasted on 880kHz, the former from dawn until noon and the latter from noon until signoff. The stations operated at 1000 watts during the daytime and 500 watts at night.

 

.WQAN and WGBI shared the 880kHz frequency from the early 1930s until 1941 when the shared frequency was changed to 910kHz. This continued until 1948 when WQAN was allotted the 630kHz slot.

 

Urban legend has it that WQAN stood for "We Quit At Noon". That may be the actual derivation of the station's call letters. WQAN's call letters were changed to WEJL in January of 1954, the letters EJL being the initials of the newspaper's publisher Edward J. Lynett. According to the same urban legend types, the letters GBI in WGBI stood for "God Bless the Irish".

 

WGBI AM kept the 910kHz frequency and continued to use it for many years. Its mainstay was (both!) country and western music with the usual news and weather reports.

 

When Entercom lost its lease on WBZU's transmitter site on Davis Street in South Scranton in 2006, (WBZU is the current call letters of WGBI's 910kHz frequency) it set the stage for an ironic twist of fate. It turns out that WBZU and WEJL (formerly WGBI and WQAN) are once again located, equipment-wise, in the same location. This time, it is in the Scranton TImes building that the twain meet and their their transmitters are in the same room. Both broadcast from the tower atop the Scranton Times building at Penn Avenue and Spruce Street. These stations, which had parted company in 1948 are, once again, broadcasting side by side after a nearly 60 year hiatus!

 

...then came along that new-fangled invention, the television...

 

WGBI radio predated the televison station by nearly three decades. WGBI-AM began broadcasting in 1925 and WGBI-TV began in 1953.

 

In 1958 the McGargee family, the owners of WGBI TV, entered into a limited partnership with the Philadelphia Bulletin newspaper which operated WCAU TV in Philadelphia. The call letters of the TV station were then changed to WDAU. The Bulletin opted to sell WCAU, which then became a network O&O (owned and operated) and keep the smaller WDAU when forced by the Federal Communications Commission to divest itself of one of the television stations. The FCC deemed that there was too much signal overlap in the Lehigh Valley (Allentown) area where both signals were available. The partnership was dissolved a year later in 1959, the Bulletin selling its share back to the McGargees.

 

.In this era, Channel 22 was, hands down, the TV station as, along with the best local news gathering organization, the station was part of the CBS network which was the radio and television network. The local TV competition was WBRE, the NBC affiliate, and WNEP, the ABC affiliate. Too, there was a fair amount of synergy between TV and radio whereby some of the talent, including Tom Reilly and Bill White, among others, appeared on both media. Just imagine, one could watch the 6 o'clock news and on the way to the store in their '57 Chevy hear the same people talking at them!

 

.The entire TV menu at this time consisted of WDAU-22 (CBS), WBRE-28 (NBC), and WNEP-16 (ABC). Yes children, until WVIA, the PBS affiliate appeared on the scene in 1966, the entire TV world consisted of 3 TV stations! Nearly all broadcast stations, and TV sets for that matter, were black and white prior to 1965.

 

These were the days before the remote control; the term "couch potato" was not yet vernacular. One, upon hearing the phrase, might have thought that there was a misplaced spud on your davenport. TV viewers did not have the option of swiftly rotating though 500 channels of nothingness; three were plenty. One effect of the actual effort required to change channels is that people, many times, left their set tuned to a single station for an entire night. Too, it was a contest among the networks to see if they could lure you into leaving the dial set to their station.

 

.To add to the complexity of owning a set, there were many older TVs which received VHF only and in order to receive the UHF stations (those from 14 to 83), one needed a "converter box" as all TV stations in the Great Northeast (PA) were UHF. The converter box was a little box which sat atop the TV through which the antenna wire was routed, some electronic mumble jumble took place and then the resultant signal was routed to the TV via channel 3. These boxes (why are there always boxes involved with TV?) also had a separate electrical plug as they contained tubes. The TV was tuned to channel 3 (sound familiar?!!) and then one tuned the set through the converter box.

 

.As a bonus, semi-off topic, aside, I present the following:

 

Did you know that the TVs of old, the ones with the cathode ray tubes, (the analog ones) could be used to detect tornadoes or other storms in your area? It seems that storms broadcast on channel 2, much as channel 2 did. The method involved tuning the set to channel 13 and turning the brightness down just to where the screen was darkened and then tuning the set to channel 2. If there was a storm in the area, with each lightning strike, you would see the corresponding spikes on your CRT (here we are using the TV in monitor mode and hopefully you do not live in a city where there is an actual channel 2 broadcasting to spoil the fun). If there was an approaching tornado, the entire screen would glow so you knew to unplug your set and proceed directly to your tornado shelter. Maybe it would be best to place the TV in your tornado shelter and watch it until the power went out. By the way, there is nothing preventing you from trying this out if you have an old set lying aroud the house which has not been sacrificed due to our penchant for more pixels and the latest and greatest 3D 16384p 60" 7.1 theatre surround sound flat screen HD TV screens. Compare this product description with "da tube" which pretty much described a TV set in days gone by.

 

.For those of you who might be inclined to think that the previous passage was fabricated so that I might up my tube cred and continue my propensity for verbosity, which, given the lack of brevity in this mere photo description (!) seems not out of the realm of possibility, see the following link: Storms on TV

 

.End of bonus segment, now back to our regularly scheduled program

 

.Though their signals were easy to pick up in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre "metro areas", it was nearly impossible to get a signal outside of these urban areas. It seems that the undulating topography of heynaville (for clarification and further information on everything heyna, see Tutorial on Heynabonics ), otherwise known as Northeastern Pennsylvania, wreaks havoc on the electromagnetic emissions known as television signals. Simply stated, the folks out in the boonies could not get the TV signals.

 

.At this juncture in the annals of TV, a person in a metro area could easily get TV signals using a bow tie or rabbit-ear indoor antenna. The main problem with the "stronger" signal in these areas is that sometimes the signal could "ghost", a phenomenon whereby the viewer would not only see the intended transmission but, at times, a slightly off-registration "ghost" of the picture. These ghosts were caused by TV signals reflecting off large buildings or other objects. Many of these aberrations could be resolved by having someone else move the antenna about while you observed the screen. The best picture, it seems, always managed to leave the antenna holder/adjuster in a Twister-like body position and there were the predictable gripes as he/she put the antenna in a position "about" where it was optimum.

 

.Those in the intermediate area, say 8 to 10 miles away, depending on topography, could get a reasonable facsimile of a picture with an outdoor, roof-mounted antenna. It was found that wrapping a bit of aluminum foil around the antenna lead-in wire aided in minor adjustments to the picture. So if you needed to get rid of a minor ghost or snowy picture, the picture could be adjusted by sliding the foil up or down the wire as needed. People outside this range were able to get signals mostly through sheer will power and the expenditure of a goodly amount of funds for outdoor, roof-mounted antennae.

 

At this point, the only things keeping one from a clear TV picture were electromagnetic pulses, coronal mass ejections leading to minor EMPs), snow, fog, the cold war, high winds, communists, and rain. Reception, along with the dreaded horizontal and vertical hold adjustments on the TV required perseverance and experimentation if one was to be an avid TV watcher.

 

...it was then decreed that all TVs must have a coaxial cable attached and thus ended "free" TV as we knew it...

 

To solve the problem of lack of, or, at best, lousy, signal, the stations employed "translators" (no these were not people who translated heynabonics to English for the broadcasts!). These were additional broadcast towers distributed around NEPA (northeast Pennsylvania) to allow folks in say, Palmerton, Slatedale, and Slatington to get a reasonable semblance of a signal. These were not received on the regular station number, 22 in the case of WDAU, but rather, say for example, channel 18 in Clarks Summit or 52 in Hop Bottom.

 

Coincident with the rise of the translator, there was another industry, in its nascent stage, supplying TV signals to those who still had no reception. It was something called cable TV (or, in broadcast parlance, Community Antenna Television, or CATV) whose mission was to carry the local stations out to the valleys to the south and west where reception was otherwise impossible. This amounted to a guy locating an antenna on top of a mountain where he could receive the signal, amplify it by electronic means, and sell the signal to customers who were along the route of the wire. The charge was $2.00 per month for the service. They too had all of 3 stations on their schedule, though some subscribers in the southern reaches could get additional stations from the Philadelphia or New York areas.

 

Yes folks, cable TV was invented here in hard coal country in the little 'burgh of Mahanoy City so that an appliance store owner could sell more TVs. Though you may curse your Comcast or Time Warner cable bill, without cable it was impossible for a goodly segment of the population to receive any moving pictures on the television and for others to receive a clear signal.

 

Service Electric, which started operations in 1948 and still in business today, was a pioneer in the field. That may be why the first official broadcast of HBO was made from New York to Wilkes Barre in 1972 on Service Electric, a fact attested to on a bronze plaque on Public Square in Wilkes Barre.

 

--Yet another bonus, semi-off topic aside:

 

Certain areas in the Pocono mountains such as Tobyhanna and Mount Pocono were TV heaven. You could, with a moderate investment in an external VHF/UHF outdoor antenna, receive all the New York and Philadelphia stations plus the local UHF stations. Nearly the entire VHF dial from 2 to 13 had available stations. The quality of the signal depended on the weather and the amount spent on the antenna. Those with the best reception had the full dresser Channel Master fish bone antenna with the 360 degree rotating motor for VHF. You would turn on the desired station and turn the direction dial to the direction of the source station. Most times these directions were either known or actually marked on the rotation control knob. Some of the stations available were WCBS, KYW, WNBC, WNEW, WPVI, WABC, WOR, WCAU, WPIX, and WNET. It was like having cable before cable!

 

-- End of bonus segment. We now rejoin our regularly scheduled blurb which is already in progress.

 

.An odd situation was caused by the expensive AT&T/Bell System leased line to New York City for WDAU to recieve network programming. Rather than pay what they considered the exorbitant fee, a microwave relay system was set up to receive broadcast signal from WCBS in New York. This system was not unlike the system set up for cable TV where a receiver was placed on a mountain top and the signal was amplified. In this case, instead of being fed into a cable system, the signal was passed along to the next microwave tower in the chain. In the case of WDAU, the primary receiver was in Effort, PA in the Poconos and the signal was then beamed to the transmitter building atop the West Mountain in Scranton.

 

A problem occurred when WDAU had to sync with the CBS network for national programming. The engineers in the studio weren't able to see the WCBS signal and therefore an engineer had to be stationed at the transmitter to effect the changes as needed. This all had to be done with precise timing rather than cues from the station. Presumably there also had to be a switch at the commercials so those in Scranton would see commercials for da Acme and the Scranton Dry and not Crazy Eddie's commercials which were, as self-proclaimed, totally insane.

 

WDAU was not alone in having a cobbled-together system as similar methods were employed by WBRE in getting NBC's signal from New York to Wilkes-Barre and WNEP in getting ABC's signal from New York to Avoca. A side effect of all this cobbled-togetherness was that the TV signals' quality was, from time to time, not quite up to broadcast standards and there were the predictable complaints.

 

...they somehow all managed to operate in the cramped quarters....

 

When the local news made its debut on WDAU and other local TV stations, it was uncharted territory; they were flying by the seat of their pants, so to speak. The segments were 15 minutes long and consisted largely of the newsman reading reporter-generated news or copy from the newspaper. These documents were either held in his hand or laid on the desk, either of which required the anchor to be looking down a good deal of the time. There would be an occasional quick look up at the camera, hoping that his newspeak buffer did not run dry or his reading and speaking would get out of sync.

 

At this point in TV history, TV studios (also known as "sets") were rather primitive. Instead of having green screens , which enabled "chroma key", a method of cutting and pasting the talent's image superimposed over other graphics, the backdrop consisted of a textured, glittered wall. The field reporters were not giving live updates with the attendant graphics for their names and story lines; these were all shot on site on film and processed back at the station. In the weather segment, there were no dynamically updated, full color doppler radar weather updates. The highs, lows, and weather fronts were magnets arranged on a display board map.

 

These were the days before the teleprompter, chryron, chroma key, superimposed picture-in-picture and all the other equipment which give today's news broadcasts a very polished appearance.

 

What was remarkable was that, in this limited space, along with TV and radio studios and the requisite control rooms, there was a film processing area and a film library (Who can forget those "Movie for a Sunday Afternoon" etc. where cowboys and indians, Lawrence of Arabia type, and infinite World War 2, movies were played until the film reels wore out??!).

 

This was an era before ENG (Electronic News Gathering) where the live remote via microwave and later satellite was still a dream. The news was captured entirely on film shot by the photographers at the scene and rushed to the station and processed, hopefully in time for the next news broadcast. Submarine designers or NASA could surely have taken a clue on space utilization from this organization, where every cubic inch had to matter!

 

...and, as with all empires, it too must fall...

 

.Alas all of the former McGargee broadcasting empire has morphed into other entities. WDAU-TV was sold to Keystone Broadcasters in 1984 and redesignated WYOU. They initially moved broadcasting operations to the former Kresge's store which abutted the Scranton Dry Goods store on Lackawanna Avenue.

 

.That change also marked the end of the common ownership of the TV and radio stations. WYOU - the former WDAU (Channel 22 (13) - CBS affiliate), is currently owned by Mission Broadcasting and operated by the same company, Nexstar, that owns WBRE (Channel 28 (11) - NBC affiliate) in Wilkes-Barre. Both TV stations are currently located in the same building on Franklin Street near Public Square.

 

One downside to the WYOU/WBRE merger is that, upon the consolidation of the studios to Franklin Street in Wilkes Barre and the relocation of all their transmitters to Penobscot Mountain near Mountaintop, they decided to do away with all of their translators. Contrast that with WNEP which still maintains several translators reaching all the way to State College in the middle of the state and one can easily see why WYOU/WBRE are a distant 2nd and 3rd place finishers when it comes to audience size in the NEPA market. The Nexstar philosophy is that 90% of the people watching their station(s) are receiving it on cable therefore they don't need the expense of multiple translators.

 

.The radio stations were sold to Entercom in the early 1990s. WGBI-FM (101.3mHz) which had a soft rock format is now WGGY in Pittston doing a country thing. WGBI-AM (910khz) which was unabashedly country is now part of the greater WILK AM/FM conglomerate. It has a talk format that simulcasts in Wilkes Barre, Scranton, and Hazleton, and has a nearly 50 mile monopoly on talk radio in the region.

 

WGBI AM now bears the undignified moniker of WBZU AM and is merely, to use TV jargon, a translator. Though running on the classic 910kHz frequency, it is a tool with no personality of its own. Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, Ferlin Husky, and Merle Haggard surely are not tuned to BZU in their respective places of rest.

 

When WDAU moved out of Prep in 1984, its new home was the former Kresge's 5 and 10 Cent Store (note the F. W. Woolworth store further up the block, about the 4th iteration of Woolworth's opened by C. S. Woolworth mentioned at the outset of this description) downtown on Lackawanna Avenue. It remained there until Southern Union, a gas and oil conglomerate whose operations were largely located in Texas, through the beneficence of a hometown boy, bought the property and demolished Kresge's to build their expensive and fleeting headquarters. WYOU/WBRE then moved their Scranton operations next door to a corner of the Scranton Dry Goods building at Wyoming and Lackawanna Avenues. These days, WYOU, the formerly fabulously fantastic WDAU plays second fiddle to its ugly big sister WBRE.

 

...and that, folks, is the brief, concise history of a diminished broadcasting empire whose greatness will live on only in our memories and imaginations (and of course on Flickr!).

 

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------------------------------------ UPDATES ----------------------------------------------

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This will be updated periodically as the various internets and time allow.

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Update April 3, 2009

 

WYOU announced that they will no longer be doing local news. They will offer Judge Judy or some similar tripe in its place. Sadly, they probably will have higher ratings.

 

Further Update sometime later 2012

 

WYOU once again has local news. It is a simulcast with its sister station WBRE. The only difference in the newscasts is the superimposed logo at the bottom right corner of the screen identifying the station one happens to be viewing.

 

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---------------------- New and Improved: Quizzes -----------------------------

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This section will be updated periodically and I will post an email address where you can send your test for grading.

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WDAU quiz:

 

1. The main news anchor for much of the 60s was:

 

a. Mark Hiller

b. John Glough

c. Derry Bird

d. Perry Como

e. David DeCosmo

f. Franklin D. Coslett

g. John Perry

h. Hoyt Keiser

i. Tom Powell

j. Tom Bigler

k. Joey Shaver

l. Jerry Griffin

j. Bill O'reilly

 

2. A typical news/weather/sports lineup in the 60s would include (pick 3):

 

a. Vince Sweeny

b. Bill White

c. Harry West

d. Jack Doneger

e. Bill Flanagan

f. Nolan Johannes

g. Debbie Dunlavey

h. Jim Mustard

i. John Perry

j. Joe Zone

k. Tom Reilly

l. Lorri Lewis

m. J. Kristopher

n. Phil Cummins

o. Joe Dobbs

p. John Glawe

q. Bob Carroll

 

3. The signoff (Remember when TV stations actually signed off?) for WDAU started with:

 

a. The national anthem

b. "Hey all you coal miners out there..."

c. "From the basement of Scranton Prep..."

d. "Serving the industrial valleys of Pennsylvania..."

e. "That's all for today..."

 

4. The nearest donut/coffee shop to (and possibly half of the customer base of) WDAU was:

 

a. Mr. Donut

b. Curry Donut

c. Krispy Kreme

d. Dunkin Donuts

 

5. The official licensees of WDAU/WGBI was/were:

 

a. Roy Stauffer's Chevrolet

b. Megargee Paper Co.

c. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Broadcasting Inc.

d. International Correspondence TV Inc.

e. Coyer Motors

f. Scranton Broadcasters Inc.

g. Burne Oldsmobile

 

6. During Station Identification (yet another "remember those"? questions), along with the call letters, channel number, and location, the following was shown:

 

a. A commercial

b. Public Service Announcements

c. Time and Temperature

d. Current Mine Subsidence information

e. School Closings

 

7. As part of WDAU's signoff each night, a video of an Air Force plane flying at high speed and altitude and accompanied by a (rather dramatic) poem by John Gillespie Magee was shown. The poem, whose last stanza is excerpted here:

 

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

 

was shown just prior to the national anthem. That poem was called:

 

a. Flying High

b. Hang 'em High

c. Twelve O'clock High

d. High Flight Poem

 

8. This is a quasi off-topic question: (quasi because it surely was reported on by WDAU) : The out-of-contol truck, the one popularized in Harry Chapin's immortal ballad "30,000 Pounds of Bananas", after overturning and disgorging its contents, came to a screeching halt at:

 

a. Chick's Diner

b. The beer distributor across from Chick's diner

c. The intersection of Harrison Avenue and Moosic Street

d. The intersection of Irving Avenue and Moosic Street

e. 1001 Wyoming Avenue

 

9. The very last image broadcast each day before the transmitter was turned off and the picture went to snow was:

 

a. A picture of the building

b. A picture of Madge Megargee Holcomb, the station owner

c. A test pattern

d. A random picture of paper products from the Megargee Paper Company

e. Live TV shot of Scranton Prep and WDAU staff schmoozing over coffee and doughnuts at Krispy Kreme

f. A live shot of the Krispy Kreme donut shop showing late night WDAU employees drinking coffee

 

10. The weather segment at WDAU was often sponsored by firms such as Bell Telephone or gasoline distributors. At one point, an oil company sponsored the segment which required the weatherman to use a car antenna as his pointer. Atop the antenna was a red ball. That sponsor was:

 

a. Shell

b. Texaco

c. Hess

d. Atlantic

e. Mobil

f. Sinclair

g. Esso

 

11. WDAU and WGBI had their transmitter on:

 

a. Penebscot Mountain

b. Bald Mountain, west of Scranton

c. Mountain Top

d. Colocated with WEJL atop the Scranton Times tower

e. Mount Pocono

 

12. WGBI radio's format was:

 

a. Hard Rock

b. Talk

c. Heavy Metal

d. Country and Western

e. Classical

  

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I will post the answers out there in internetville once I figure out what they are.

 

Update 4-12-13

 

Since this seems like just as good an internet as any, the answers are:

 

1. g 2. ibk 3. d 4. c 5. f 6. c 7. d 8. d 9. c 10. d 11. b 12. d

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

 

Finally, if the Tales of the Basement has whetted your appetite for all things WDAU, a most excellent (former) TV station, a most excellent site is maintained by a former WDAUer:

 

Carl Abraham's WDAU site

 

Go there and you can Catch 22.

 

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 preset

i've realized a lot being away at college

a lot.

 

and most of it seems so unreal to be true.

im glad i can spot the truth

  

also

www.formspring.me/stephyy16

When we descended upon the US 127 overpass at Dawn, we knew there was a 4000-series leader on Q296 and assumed it was a UP unit. Soon it became apprarent that it was an SD40-3. Dave Oroszi who was shooting it just out of frame below was pleased. He said it was the best shot he's gotten to date of a "Spongebob."

Big On Black

 

You know, I've never been good at waiting. For anything, really. I'm an instant gratification kind of girl. Patience is not my strong point. There are a lot of times where I just want to push fast forward and arrive magically in the future on days of my choosing, skipping the painful waiting period. But whenever I start getting too antsy about wanting to jump right to it, I remember something that my grandpa told me when I was little: sometimes the anticipation is better than the realization. That kind of goes hand in hand with the old saying that life isn't the destination, it's the journey.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say, both to myself and to a few of my close friends also torturing themselves with waiting situations right now, is that sometimes you have to remind yourself that as much as you want something to happen, it's these moments right now, the build up, the butterflies in the stomach, the anticipation, the abstract visions of how it will all play out, that make up the fabric of your life.

 

Big events, big news, big days will come and go. It's all of the idle time in between (and what you choose to do with it) that shapes how you'll view those things when they happen and how you'll remember them once they're over and done.

 

365 Days (self portraits): Day 349

Towards the end of the Korean War, the USAF came to the realization that their transport fleet was becoming obsolete. The C-46 Commandos and C-47 Skytrains in service were no longer adequate, while the C-119 Flying Boxcar was having difficulties. In 1951, the USAF issued a requirement for a new tactical transport, an aircraft that would need to carry at least 72 passengers, be capable of dropping paratroopers, and have a ramp for loading vehicles directly into the cargo compartment. Moreover, it must be a “clean sheet” design, not a conversion from an existing airliner, and the USAF preferred it be a turboprop design. Five companies submitted designs, and six months later the USAF chose Lockheed’s L-402 design—over the misgivings of Lockheed’s chief designer, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, who warned that the L-402 would destroy the company. Little was Johnson to know that, fifty years later, the L-402—designated C-130 Hercules by the USAF—would still be in production, and one out of only five aircraft to have over 50 years of service with the original purchaser.

 

The C-130 was designed to give mostly unfettered access to a large cargo compartment—the ramp forms an integral part of the rear fuselage, the wing is mounted above the fuselage, and the landing gear is carried in sponsons attached to the fuselage itself, while the fuselage has a circular design to maximize loading potential. The high wing also gives the C-130 good lift, especially in “high and hot” situations. The Allison T56 turboprop was designed specifically for the Hercules, and has gone on to become one of the most successful turboprop designs in history.

 

After two YC-130 prototypes, the Hercules went into production as the C-130A in 1956, to be superseded by the improved C-130B in 1959. The latter became the baseline Hercules variant: C-130As had three-blade propellers and a rounded “Roman” nose, while the B introduced the more familiar, longer radar nose and four-blade propellers. (Virtually all A models were later retrofitted to the long nose, though they kept the three-blade propellers.) In the 50 years hence, the basic C-130 design has not changed much: the C-130E introduced underwing external fuel tanks, while the C-130H has a slightly different wing. Even the new C-130J variant only introduced new engines with more fuel efficient six-bladed propellers: the basic design remains the same. Lockheed also offers stretched versions of the Hercules, initially as a civilian-only option (the L-100-30); the British Royal Air Force bought this version as the C-130K and it was later adopted by other nations, including the United States.

 

The basic C-130 is strictly a transport aircraft, but the versatility of the aircraft has meant it has been modified into a dizzying number of variants. These include the AC-130 Spectre gunship, the HC-130 rescue aircraft and WC-130 weather reconnaissance version. Other versions include several dozen EC-130 electronic warfare/Elint variants, KC-130 tankers, and DC-130 drone aircraft controllers. The USAF, the US Navy, and the US Marine Corps are all C-130 operators as well. Besides the United States, there are 67 other operators of C-130s, making it one of the world’s most prolific aircraft, with its only rivals the Bell UH-1 Iroquois family and the Antonov An-2 Colt biplane transport. C-130s are also used extensively by civilian operators as well as the L-100 series.

 

The “Herky Bird,” as it is often nicknamed, has participated in every military campaign fought by the United States since 1960 in one variation or the other. During Vietnam, it was used in almost every role imaginable, from standard transport to emergency bomber: as the latter, it dropped M121 10,000 pound mass-focus bombs to clear jungle away for helicopter landing zones, and it was even attempted to use C-130s with these bombs against the infamous Thanh Hoa Bridge in North Vietnam. (Later this capability was added as standard to MC-130 Combat Talon special forces support aircraft; the MC-130 is the only aircraft cleared to carry the GBU-43 MOAB.) It was also instrumental in resupplying the Khe Sanh garrison during its three-month siege. Hercules crews paid the price as well: nearly 70 C-130s were lost during the Vietnam War. In foreign service, C-130s have also been used heavily, the most famous instance of which was likely the Israeli Entebbe Raid of 1976, one of the longest-ranged C-130 missions in history. C-130s are often in the forefront of humanitarian missions to trouble spots around the world.

 

As of this writing, over 2300 C-130s have been built, and most are still in service. It remains the backbone of the USAF’s tactical transport service; attempts to replace it with the Advanced Tactical Transport Program (ATTP) in the 1980s and to supplement it with the C-27J Spartan in the 2000s both failed, as the USAF realized that the only real replacement for a C-130 is another C-130.

 

96-5432 was probably one of the last H-model C-130s built, and began its career with the 302nd Operations Group (Reserve) at Peterson AFB, Colorado in 1997--making it, by C-130 standards, relatively young. It next served with the 130th Airlift Wing (West Virginia ANG) at Charleston, where it was named the "General Mac" for James McLaughlin, who was the first commander of the West Virginia ANG after World War II.

 

In March 2022, it was reassigned to the 120th Airlift Wing (Montana ANG), and was renamed the "City of Great Falls," becoming the 120th's "boss bird." As the CO's aircraft, the "City of Great Falls" also carries the 120th's heritage scheme--the checkerboard on the engine nacelles and the invasion stripes on the fuselage and wings are a throwback to the 371st Fighter Group of World War II, which flew P-47 Thunderbolts. One of the 371st's squadrons, the 40th, after the war was redesignated the 186th FS, and became the only squadron of the then-120th Fighter Group. Unlike the rest of the 120th's C-130s, which carry the CM Russell skull and mountain tail emblem, 96-5432 carries a "Big Sky Country" tail stripe--also a throwback, to the time when the 120th flew the F-106 Delta Dart. (It's blanked out by the wing here.)

 

I had been meaning to get a picture of the new "City of Great Falls" for quite awhile--I've seen it flying over my house a few times. Though I will always love the 120th's fighter days, this scheme looks good on a "Herky Bird" too.

6:45 A.M., February 21, 2015, I looked out my window in Troy, New York, USA, to check the weather. Snow is expected, by mid-afternoon, & I wanted to see if it would come early & disrupt my plans, yet again. What I hadn't realized is that, for the sake of preserving my privacy (closed shades until I'm up & dressed), I've been depriving myself of sunrises, ever since I moved into my apartment! What a lovely surprise, this morning!

Thaumatophyllum sp. and T. giganteum - Self-Realization Fellowship Meditation Gardens, Encinitas, California

So... I had a realization earlier today about how much life can change in just one year. At this point last year I was still going to school for web design and I was extremely unhappy with the thought of coding and designing my life away.

 

In 2013 I made an epic and slightly sudden switch to photography and it has been such an amazing journey! There have been so many ups and downs, but all the changes have taught me so much and I have grown in art and also just as a person.

 

Anyways.. I know I don't post on flickr much anymore, but I just wanted to post this little update =) xoxo

Pentax Espio 80 Delta 400 EcoPro 1+1 11/26/2023

Our Daily Challenge: Inconvenient

 

One of my most favorite local haunts is the Self Realization Fellowship in Encinitas, California. This image is of the spot where the original temple stood. Sadly it crumbled into sea in 1942 after only five years after being built. The original building is gone, but the fellowship is thriving. it is inconvenient that the original building is gone, but joyous that the gardens and the fellowship thrive today.

  

Thank you so much for your views, comments and favs. I really do appreciate every one!

My images are posted here for your enjoyment only. All rights are reserved. Please contact me through flickr if you are interested in using one.

 

The original photo is taken from Google.com,

and belongs to its respective owner.

 

Digitalpaint

"Ahhh a new toy ,thanks now gimme and watch me run."