Vintage farm equipment at Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of it’s kind, in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day. Piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

Under construction, the first methane reactor in the nation, that uses a endothermic gasifier, is being installed at the Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of it’s kind in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day. Piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

Under construction, the first methane reactor (right) in the nation, that uses a endothermic gasifier, to extract methane, to fuel for these engine powered electric generators (gensets, left) being installed at the Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of it’s kind in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day. Piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

[Source]

 

By March 1890, the B&O [Baltimore & Ohio Railroad] line between St. George and Cranford Jct. was open to traffic.

 

By February 1896, the B&O found itself bankrupt. While paying dearly to reach New York, the B&O had neglected its western lines that were now in poor condition. In an attempt to refinance, J. P. Morgan intervened and replaced B&O’s top management. By 1900, the B&O was put under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which made a number of improvements to the road. The PRR allowed the newly-developed New Jersey, New York and Staten Island properties to remain intact. For a short while in 1900 the SIRT operated a B&O connection passenger train from St. George to Plainfield, NJ Within a few years the B&O was profitable again and emerged from PRR control as a stronger railroad.

 

By the 1910’s, Staten Island was showing its shortcomings in handling B&O freight. Both Arlington and St. George Yards were choked with cars, many awaiting car float transport to West 26th Street and other connections around the harbor. To ease the load on Staten Island by 1912, the B&O again ran through freight into Jersey City on the Jersey Central. Staten Island would continue to be used as well and developed a heavy coal trade for the B&O. Staten Island’s deep water piers never generated traffic of the size experienced along the East and Hudson Rivers except in wartime.

 

As WW I developed, US railroads were put under the management of the USRA. In April 1918, B&O passenger trains were routed directly into Pennsylvania Station in New York. The move was mandated by the U.S.R.A. to ease the heavy traffic strain on the PRR as the B&O was underutilized.

 

During 1925 and 1926 Staten Island’s line saw a few experimental B&O passenger runs made to consider options. However, the long boat ride to Manhattan from Staten Island was not favorable for speed. From this point onward, the B&O resolved that if it could not compete with PRR passenger service on the basis of time to Washington, they would better it with quality.

 

B&O crews did not operate into Staten Island. SIRT crews handled all the traffic to and from Cranford Jct. During WW II, the SIRT exclusively handled all east coast military hospital trains. The Stapleton piers were designated for hospital ship docking. New York was the only east coast Port of Call for European Theatre hospital ships. The hospital trains ran through to their inland connections via Cranford Jct. Some stopped at Arlington to transfer wounded servicemen to a large military hospital on Staten Island. Troop movements, POW trains and war materiel as well crossed the Arthur Kill to and from Cranford Jct. and their appointed destinations. This kept the five mile stretch of B&O track in Union County N. J. busy and shiny. In 1944, the B&O conveyed its Baltimore & New York Railway property to the Staten Island Rapid Transit and dissolved the B&NY The SIRT worked this line with its own as well as assigned B&O locomotives since it was opened in 1890.

 

Before, during WW II and after, there were a number of special trains beyond the troop movements that were handled by the B&O over its New Jersey track to Staten Island. One pre-war train was a special for Winston Churchill, taking him to a ship at Stapleton for one of his many Atlantic crossings. SIRT provided a shined-up locomotive, sporting polished rods, white driver tires and a white-uniformed engine crew for that movement.

 

The very last SIRT special was for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip of England on October 21, 1957. They traveled by rail from a state meeting with President Eisenhower in Washington DC to New York and a ride on the Staten Island Ferry. Their trains (press and royal) left Washington the evening of October 20 for Camp Kilmer New Jersey, traveling over the B&O and Reading Company. The movement was similar to a POTUS (President of the US) with extremely high security and secrecy.

 

Both trains reached the Camp via Reading’s Port Reading Branch. At the Camp, the trains were reconfigured by dropping the two leading diesel units of each, leaving one unit each for the next part of the trip to Staten Island. This was done for passing over the Arthur Kill swing bridge which had a limited load capacity. The two lead diesel sets were then taken to Cranford Junction via the Reading and Jersey Central to await return of the equipment from Staten Island.

 

On Monday, October 21 at 6 AM, the 10 car press train left Camp Kilmer over the Lehigh Valley to Staten Island Junction and the SIRT. Exactly one hour later, the 11 car heavy-weight Pullman-equipped royal train followed. Both specials rolled directly and non-stop into a freight yard at Stapleton. It was specially cleaned up for the occasion as was the motorcade’s route along Bay Street to St. George Ferry Terminal. As soon as the Queen’s motorcade left the yard, an SIRT switcher took each train back to Cranford Junction, hauling them in reverse. From Cranford, the equipment of both trains dead-headed to Baltimore early that afternoon.

 

After WW II, railroads declined in importance, efficiency and traffic. Highway construction aided the decline and the water barriers around New York were making the car float and lighterage business an expensive proposition for the railroads. Equipment was aging across the board for the B&O as well as other lines. On April 26, 1958, the B&O ran its last passenger trains to New York and out of Jersey City. All was typical, full B&O service right to the end. The next day, all B&O rolling stock at Jersey City was assembled into long trains of up to 30 or more passenger and express cars and deadheaded to Baltimore.

 

In November 1957, an Esso oil tanker collided with the old Arthur Kill bridge, knocking it off its central pivot. With the bridge rendered useless, the B&O immediately transferred all Staten Island freight to Jersey City. Car floats were used to bring Staten Island rail traffic back to St. George. By 1959, a new 558 foot single track vertical lift span replaced the old swing bridge. It is the longest of its type in the U.S. Along with the new bridge, the entire line from Cranford Jct to Arlington Yard was re-laid with new, heavier rail. A three mile branch line was extended from Gulf Port to Travis, along Staten Island’s west shore. This was done for unit coal trains coming from West Virginia to service a new Consolidated Edison power plant. Even late in the 1950’s, the B&O continued to invest in its New Jersey and Staten Island holdings.

 

By 1973, the Jersey Central closed its car float yard at Jersey City. The B&O then moved its car float freight back to St. George on Staten Island. In September 1979, this car float operation was taken over by the New York Dock Railway and was terminated in 1980. The St. George Yard was essentially abandoned, except for servicing a few isolated Staten Island industries still using rail service.

 

The interline tariff routing arrangement used by B&O/Chessie to reach New Jersey and New York was ended by Conrail in the early 1980’s, leaving the line completely out of the New Jersey freight market. In April 1985, the operating rights for the tracks between Cranford Jct to St. George were sold to the Delaware-Otsego Corp. of Cooperstown, NY.

 

Staten Island’s operation had been reduced to one isolated crew working four or five days a week. By October, 1989, the Delaware-Otsego Corp. embargoed the Staten Island North Shore line between Elm Park and St. George. The track in New Jersey was also put out of use for a while following a fire from a box car standing on a wood trestle near the Exxon Refinery. By 1990, all rail freight service to and from Staten Island ceased.

 

Singapore (Listeni/ˈsɪŋɡəpɔːr/), officially the Republic of Singapore, and often referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City, and the Red Dot, is a global city and sovereign state in Southeast Asia and the world's only island city-state. It lies one degree (137 km) north of the equator, at the southernmost tip of continental Asia and peninsular Malaysia, with Indonesia's Riau Islands to the south. Singapore's territory consists of the diamond-shaped main island and 62 islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its total size by 23% (130 km2), and its greening policy has covered the densely populated island with tropical flora, parks and gardens.

 

The islands were settled from the second century AD by a series of local empires. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore as a trading post of the East India Company; after the company collapsed, the islands were ceded to Britain and became part of its Straits Settlements in 1826. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from Britain in 1963, by uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but was expelled two years later over ideological differences. After early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its human capital.

 

Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub. Its standings include: "easiest place to do business" (World Bank) for ten consecutive years, most "technology-ready" nation (WEF), top International-meetings city (UIA), city with "best investment potential" (BERI), 2nd-most competitive country (WEF), 3rd-largest foreign exchange centre, 3rd-largest financial centre, 3rd-largest oil refining and trading centre and one of the top two busiest container ports since the 1990s. Singapore's best known global brands include Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport, both amongst the most-awarded in their industry; SIA is also rated by Fortune surveys as Asia's "most admired company". For the past decade, it has been the only Asian country with the top AAA sovereign rating from all major credit rating agencies, including S&P, Moody's and Fitch.

 

Singapore ranks high on its national social policies, leading Asia and 11th globally, on the Human Development Index (UN), notably on key measures of education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, housing. Although income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, and the country has one of the highest per capita incomes, with low taxes. The cosmopolitan nation is home to 5.5 million residents, 38% of whom are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. Singaporeans are mostly bilingual in a mother-tongue language and English as their common language. Its cultural diversity is reflected in its extensive ethnic "hawker" cuisine and major festivals - Chinese, Malay, Indian, Western - which are all national holidays. In 2015, Lonely Planet and The New York Times listed Singapore as their top and 6th best world destination to visit respectively.

 

The nation's core principles are meritocracy, multiculturalism and secularism. It is noted for its effective, pragmatic and incorrupt governance and civil service, which together with its rapid development policies, is widely cited as the "Singapore model". Gallup polls shows 84% of its residents expressed confidence in the national government, and 85% in its judicial systems - one of the highest ratings recorded. Singapore has significant influence on global affairs relative to its size, leading some analysts to classify it as a middle power. It is ranked as Asia's most influential city and 4th in the world by Forbes.

 

Singapore is a unitary, multiparty, parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959. One of the five founding members of the ASEAN, Singapore is also the host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat, and a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement, and the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The English name of Singapore is derived from the Malay word, Singapura, which was in turn derived from Sanskrit (Singa is "lion", Pura "city"; Sanskrit: सिंहपुर, IAST: Siṃhápura), hence the customary reference to the nation as the Lion City, and its inclusion in many of the nation's symbols (e.g., its coat of arms, Merlion emblem). However, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island; Sang Nila Utama, who founded and named the island Singapura, most likely saw a Malayan tiger. It is also known as Pulau Ujong, as far back as the 3rd century, literally 'island at the end' (of the Malay Peninsula) in Malay.

 

Since the 1970s, Singapore has also been widely known as the Garden City, owing to its extensive greening policy covering the whole island, a priority of its first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, dubbed the nation's "Chief Gardener". The nation's conservation and greening efforts contributed to Singapore Botanic Gardens being the only tropical garden to be inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The nickname, Red Dot, is a reference to its size on the map, contrasting with its achievements. In 2015, Singapore's Golden Jubilee year, the celebratory "SG50" branding is depicted inside a red dot.

 

HISTORY

Temasek ('Sea Town' in the Malay language), an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire, is the earliest written record relating to the area now called Singapore. In the 13th century, the Kingdom of Singapura was established on the island and it became a trading port city. However, there were two major foreign invasions before it was destroyed by the Majapahit in 1398. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was nominally part of the Johor Sultanate and the island sank into obscurity for the next two centuries, while the wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control.

 

BRITISH COLONISATION 1819-1942

In 1819, Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived and signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor, on behalf of the British East India Company, to develop the southern part of Singapore as a British trading post. In 1824, the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, becoming the regional capital in 1836.

 

Prior to Raffles' arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860, the population had swelled to more than 80,000 and more than half were Chinese. Many immigrants came to work at rubber plantations and, after the 1870s, the island became a global centre for rubber exports.

 

After the First World War, the British built the large Singapore Naval Base. Lieutenant General Sir William George Shedden Dobbie was appointed General Officer Commanding of the Malaya Command on 8 November 1935, holding the post until 1939;

 

WORLD WAR II AND JAPANESE OCCUPATION 1942-45

in May 1938, the General Officer Commanding of the Malaya Command warned how Singapore could be conquered by the Japanese via an attack from northern Malaya, but his warnings went unheeded. The Imperial Japanese Army invaded British Malaya, culminating in the Battle of Singapore. When the British surrendered on 15 February 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the defeat "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history". Between 5,000 and 25,000 ethnic Chinese people were killed in the subsequent Sook Ching massacre.

 

From November 1944 to May 1945, the Allies conducted an intensive bombing of Singapore.

 

RETURN OF BRITISH 1945-59

After the surrender of Japan was announced in the Jewel Voice Broadcast by the Japanese Emperor on 15 August 1945 there was a breakdown of order and looting and revenge-killing were widespread. The formal Japanese Occupation of Singapore was only ended by Operation Tiderace and the formal surrender on 12 September 1945 at Singapore City Hall when Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia Command, accepted the capitulation of Japanese forces in Southeast Asia from General Itagaki Seishiro.

 

A British Military Administration was then formed to govern the island. On 1 April 1946, the Straits Settlements were dissolved and Singapore became a separate Crown Colony with a civil administration headed by a Governor. Much of the infrastructure had been destroyed during the war, including the harbour, electricity, telephone and water supply systems. There was also a shortage of food leading to malnutrition, disease, and rampant crime and violence. High food prices, unemployment, and workers' discontent culminated into a series of strikes in 1947 causing massive stoppages in public transport and other services. In July 1947, separate Executive and Legislative Councils were established and the election of six members of the Legislative Council was scheduled for the following year. By late 1947, the economy began to recover, facilitated by a growing demand for tin and rubber around the world, but it would take several more years before the economy returned to pre-war levels.

 

The failure of Britain to defend Singapore had destroyed its credibility as an infallible ruler in the eyes of Singaporeans. The decades after the war saw a political awakening amongst the local populace and the rise of anti-colonial and nationalist sentiments, epitomized by the slogan Merdeka, or "independence" in the Malay language.

 

During the 1950s, Chinese Communists with strong ties to the trade unions and Chinese schools carried out armed uprising against the government, leading to the Malayan Emergency and later, the Communist Insurgency War. The 1954 National Service Riots, Chinese middle schools riots, and Hock Lee bus riots in Singapore were all linked to these events.

 

David Marshall, pro-independence leader of the Labour Front, won Singapore's first general election in 1955. He led a delegation to London, but Britain rejected his demand for complete self-rule. He resigned and was replaced by Lim Yew Hock, whose policies convinced Britain to grant Singapore full internal self-government for all matters except defence and foreign affairs.

 

SELF-GOVERNMENT 1959-1963

During the May 1959 elections, the People's Action Party won a landslide victory. Singapore became an internally self-governing state within the Commonwealth, with Lee Kuan Yew as its first Prime Minister. Governor Sir William Allmond Codrington Goode served as the first Yang di-Pertuan Negara (Head of State), and was succeeded by Yusof bin Ishak, who became the first President of Singapore in 1965.

 

MERGER WITH MALAYSIA 1963-65

As a result of the 1962 Merger Referendum, on 31 August 1963 Singapore joined with the Federation of Malaya, the Crown Colony of Sarawak and the Crown Colony of North Borneo to form the new federation of Malaysia under the terms of the Malaysia Agreement. Singaporean leaders chose to join Malaysia primarily due to concerns over its limited land size, scarcity of water, markets and natural resources. Some Singaporean and Malaysian politicians were also concerned that the communists might form the government on the island, a possibility perceived as an external threat to the Federation of Malaya.However, shortly after the merger, the Singapore state government and the Malaysian central government disagreed on many political and economic issues, and communal strife culminated in the 1964 race riots in Singapore. After many heated ideological conflicts between the two governments, on 9 August 1965, the Malaysian Parliament voted 126 to 0 to expel Singapore from Malaysia with Singaporean delegates not present.

 

INDEPENDENCE 1965 TO PRESENT

Singapore gained independence as the Republic of Singapore (remaining within the Commonwealth of Nations) on 9 August 1965. Race riots broke out once more in 1969. In 1967, the country co-founded ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and in 1970 it joined the Non-Aligned Movement. Lee Kuan Yew became Prime Minister, leading its Third World economy to First World affluence in a single generation. His emphasis on rapid economic growth, support for business entrepreneurship, limitations on internal democracy, and close relationships with China set the new nation's policies for the next half-century.

 

In 1990, Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee as Prime Minister, while the latter continued serving in the Cabinet as Senior Minister until 2004, and then Minister Mentor until May 2011. During Goh's tenure, the country faced the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak and terrorist threats posed by Jemaah Islamiyah.

 

In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the country's third Prime Minister. Goh Chok Tong remained in Cabinet as the Senior Minister until May 2011, when he was named Emeritus Senior Minister despite his retirement. He steered the nation through the 2008 global financial crisis, resolved the disputed 79-year old Malayan railways land, and introduced integrated resorts. Despite the economy's exceptional growth, PAP suffered its worst election results in 2011, winning 60% of votes, amidst hot-button issues of high influx of foreign workers and cost of living. Lee initiated a major re-structuring of the economy to raise productivity, improved universal healthcare and grants, especially for the pioneer generation of citizens, amongst many new inclusive measures.

 

On 23 March 2015, its founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who had 'personified Singapore to the world' for nearly half a century died. In a week of national mourning, 1.7 million residents and guests paid tribute to him at his lying-in-state at Parliament House and at community sites around the island.

 

Singapore celebrated its Golden jubilee in 2015 – its 50th year of independence, with a year-long series of events branded SG50. The PAP maintained its dominance in Parliament at the September general elections, receiving 69.9% of the popular vote, its second-highest polling result behind the 2001 tally of 75.3%.

 

GEOGRAPHY

Singapore consists of 63 islands, including the main island, Pulau Ujong. There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north and the Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's smaller islands. The highest natural point is Bukit Timah Hill at 163.63 m. April and May are the hottest months, with the wetter monsoon season from November to January.

 

From July to October, there is often haze caused by bush fires in neighbouring Indonesia, usually from the island of Sumatra. Although Singapore does not observe daylight saving time (DST), it follows the GMT+8 time zone, one hour ahead of the typical zone for its geographical location.

 

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing constituencies. The country's constitution establishes a representative democracy as the political system. Executive power rests with the Cabinet of Singapore, led by the Prime Minister and, to a much lesser extent, the President. The President is elected through a popular vote, and has veto powers over a specific set of executive decisions, such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of judges, but otherwise occupies a largely ceremonial post.

 

The Parliament serves as the legislative branch of the government. Members of Parliament (MPs) consist of elected, non-constituency and nominated members. Elected MPs are voted into the Parliament on a "first-past-the-post" (plurality) basis and represent either single-member or group representation constituencies. The People's Action Party has won control of Parliament with large majorities in every election since self-governance was secured in 1959.

 

Although the elections are clean, there is no independent electoral authority and the government has strong influence on the media. Freedom House ranks Singapore as "partly free" in its Freedom in the World report, and The Economist ranks Singapore as a "flawed democracy", the second best rank of four, in its "Democracy Index". Despite this, in the 2011 Parliamentary elections, the opposition, led by the Workers' Party, increased its representation to seven elected MPs. In the 2015 elections, PAP scored a landslide victory, winning 83 of 89 seats contested, with 70% of popular votes. Gallup polls reported 84% of residents in Singapore expressed confidence in the government, and 85% in its judicial systems and courts – one of the highest ratings in the world.

 

Singapore's governance model eschews populist politics, focusing on the nation's long-term interest, and is known to be clean, effective and pragmatic. As a small nation highly dependent on external trade, it is vulnerable to geo-politics and global economics. It places great emphasis on security and stability of the region in its foreign policies, and applies global best practices to ensure the nation's attractiveness as an investment destination and business hub.

 

The legal system of Singapore is based on English common law, but with substantial local differences. Trial by jury was abolished in 1970 so that judicial decisions would rest entirely in the hands of appointed judges. Singapore has penalties that include judicial corporal punishment in the form of caning, which may be imposed for such offences as rape, rioting, vandalism, and certain immigration offences.There is a mandatory death penalty for murder, as well as for certain aggravated drug-trafficking and firearms offences.

 

Amnesty International has said that some legal provisions of the Singapore system conflict with the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that Singapore has "... possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population". The government has disputed Amnesty's claims. In a 2008 survey of international business executives, Singapore received the top ranking with regard to judicial system quality in Asia. Singapore has been consistently rated among the least corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International.

 

In 2011, the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index ranked Singapore among the top countries surveyed with regard to "order and security", "absence of corruption", and "effective criminal justice". However, the country received a much lower ranking for "freedom of speech" and "freedom of assembly". All public gatherings of five or more people require police permits, and protests may legally be held only at the Speakers' Corner.

 

EDUCATION

Education for primary, secondary, and tertiary levels is mostly supported by the state. All institutions, private and public, must be registered with the Ministry of Education. English is the language of instruction in all public schools, and all subjects are taught and examined in English except for the "mother tongue" language paper. While the term "mother tongue" in general refers to the first language internationally, in Singapore's education system, it is used to refer to the second language, as English is the first language. Students who have been abroad for a while, or who struggle with their "Mother Tongue" language, are allowed to take a simpler syllabus or drop the subject.

 

Education takes place in three stages: primary, secondary, and pre-university education. Only the primary level is compulsory. Students begin with six years of primary school, which is made up of a four-year foundation course and a two-year orientation stage. The curriculum is focused on the development of English, the mother tongue, mathematics, and science. Secondary school lasts from four to five years, and is divided between Special, Express, Normal (Academic), and Normal (Technical) streams in each school, depending on a student's ability level. The basic coursework breakdown is the same as in the primary level, although classes are much more specialised. Pre-university education takes place over two to three years at senior schools, mostly called Junior Colleges.

 

Some schools have a degree of freedom in their curriculum and are known as autonomous schools. These exist from the secondary education level and up.

 

National examinations are standardised across all schools, with a test taken after each stage. After the first six years of education, students take the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), which determines their placement at secondary school. At the end of the secondary stage, GCE "O"-Level exams are taken; at the end of the following pre-university stage, the GCE "A"-Level exams are taken. Of all non-student Singaporeans aged 15 and above, 18% have no education qualifications at all while 45% have the PSLE as their highest qualification; 15% have the GCE 'O' Level as their highest qualification and 14% have a degree.

 

Singaporean students consistently rank at or near the top of international education assessments:

- In 2015, Singapore topped the OECD's global school performance rankings, based on 15-year-old students' average scores in mathematics and science across 76 countries.

- Singaporean students were ranked first in the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, and have been ranked in the top three every year since 1995.

- Singapore fared best in the 2015 International Baccalaureate exams, taken in 107 countries, with more than half of the world's 81 perfect scorers and 98% passing rate.

 

The country's two main public universities - the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University - are ranked among the top 13 in the world.

 

HEALTH

Singapore has a generally efficient healthcare system, even though their health expenditures are relatively low for developed countries. The World Health Organisation ranks Singapore's healthcare system as 6th overall in the world in its World Health Report. In general, Singapore has had the lowest infant mortality rate in the world for the past two decades.

 

Life expectancy in Singapore is 80 for males and 85 for females, placing the country 4th in the world for life expectancy. Almost the whole population has access to improved water and sanitation facilities. There are fewer than 10 annual deaths from HIV per 100,000 people. There is a high level of immunisation. Adult obesity is below 10%

 

The government's healthcare system is based upon the "3M" framework. This has three components: Medifund, which provides a safety net for those not able to otherwise afford healthcare, Medisave, a compulsory health savings scheme covering about 85% of the population, and Medishield, a government-funded health insurance program. Public hospitals in Singapore have autonomy in their management decisions, and compete for patients. A subsidy scheme exists for those on low income. In 2008, 32% of healthcare was funded by the government. It accounts for approximately 3.5% of Singapore's GDP.

 

RELIGION

Buddhism is the most widely practised religion in Singapore, with 33% of the resident population declaring themselves adherents at the most recent census. The next-most practised religion is Christianity, followed by Islam, Taoism, and Hinduism. 17% of the population did not have a religious affiliation. The proportion of Christians, Taoists, and non-religious people increased between 2000 and 2010 by about 3% each, whilst the proportion of Buddhists decreased. Other faiths remained largely stable in their share of the population. An analysis by the Pew Research Center found Singapore to be the world's most religiously diverse nation.

 

There are monasteries and Dharma centres from all three major traditions of Buddhism in Singapore: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Most Buddhists in Singapore are Chinese and are of the Mahayana tradition, with missionaries having come into the country from Taiwan and China for several decades. However, Thailand's Theravada Buddhism has seen growing popularity among the populace (not only the Chinese) during the past decade. Soka Gakkai International, a Japanese Buddhist organisation, is practised by many people in Singapore, but mostly by those of Chinese descent. Tibetan Buddhism has also made slow inroads into the country in recent years.

 

CULTURE

Singapore has one of the lowest rates of drug use in the world. Culturally, the use of illicit drugs is viewed as highly undesirable by Singaporeans, unlike many European societies. Singaporeans' disapproval towards drug use has resulted in laws that impose the mandatory death sentence for certain serious drug trafficking offences. Singapore also has a low rate of alcohol consumption per capita and low levels of violent crime, and one of the lowest intentional homicide rate globally. The average alcohol consumption rate is only 2 litres annually per adult, one of the lowest in the world.

 

Foreigners make up 42% of the population, and have a strong influence on Singaporean culture. The Economist Intelligence Unit, in its 2013 "Where-to-be-born Index", ranks Singapore as having the best quality of life in Asia and sixth overall in the world.

 

LANGUAGES; RELIGIONS AND CULTURES

Singapore is a very diverse and young country. It has many languages, religions, and cultures for a country its size.

 

When Singapore became independent from the United Kingdom in 1963, most of the newly minted Singaporean citizens were uneducated labourers from Malaysia, China and India. Many of them were transient labourers who were seeking to make some money in Singapore and they had no intention of staying permanently. A sizeable minority of middle-class, local-born people, known as the Peranakans, also existed. With the exception of the Peranakans (descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants) who pledged their loyalties to Singapore, most of the labourers' loyalties lay with their respective homelands of Malaysia, China and India. After independence, the process of crafting a Singaporean identity and culture began.

 

Former Prime Ministers of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, have stated that Singapore does not fit the traditional description of a nation, calling it a society-in-transition, pointing out the fact that Singaporeans do not all speak the same language, share the same religion, or have the same customs. Even though English is the first language of the nation, according to the government's 2010 census 20% of Singaporeans, or one in five, are illiterate in English. This is a marked improvement from 1990 where 40% of Singaporeans were illiterate in English.

 

Languages, religions and cultures among Singaporeans are not delineated according to skin colour or ancestry, unlike many other countries. Among Chinese Singaporeans, one in five is Christian, another one in five is atheist, and the rest are mostly Buddhists or Taoists. One-third speak English as their home language, while half speak Mandarin Chinese. The rest speak other Chinese varieties at home. Most Malays in Singapore speak Malay as their home language with some speaking English. Singaporean Indians are much more religious. Only 1% of them are atheists. Six in ten are Hindu, two in ten Muslim, and the rest mostly Christian. Four in ten speak English as their home language, three in ten Tamil, one in ten Malay, and the rest other Indian languages as their home language.

 

Each Singaporean's behaviours and attitudes would therefore be influenced by, among many other things, his or her home language and his religion. Singaporeans who speak English as their native language tend to lean toward Western culture, while those who speak Chinese as their native language tend to lean toward Chinese culture and Confucianism. Malay speaking Singaporeans tend to lean toward the Malay culture, which itself is closely linked to the Islamic culture.

 

ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS

At the national level in Singapore, meritocracy, where one is judged based on one's ability, is heavily emphasised.

 

Racial and religious harmony is regarded by Singaporeans as a crucial part of Singapore's success, and played a part in building a Singaporean identity. Singapore has a reputation as a nanny state. The national flower of Singapore is the hybrid orchid, Vanda 'Miss Joaquim', named in memory of a Singapore-born Armenian woman, who crossbred the flower in her garden at Tanjong Pagar in 1893. Many national symbols such as the Coat of arms of Singapore and the Lion head symbol of Singapore make use of the lion, as Singapore is known as the Lion City. Other monikers by which Singapore is widely known is the Garden City and the Red Dot. Public holidays in Singapore cover major Chinese, Western, Malay and Indian festivals.

 

Singaporean employees work an average of around 45 hours weekly, relatively long compared to many other nations. Three in four Singaporean employees surveyed stated that they take pride in doing their work well, and that doing so helps their self-confidence.

 

CUISINE

Dining, along with shopping, is said to be the country's national pastime. The focus on food has led countries like Australia to attract Singaporean tourists with food-based itineraries. The diversity of food is touted as a reason to visit the country, and the variety of food representing different ethnicities is seen by the government as a symbol of its multiculturalism. The "national fruit" of Singapore is the durian.

 

In popular culture, food items belong to a particular ethnicity, with Chinese, Malay, and Indian food clearly defined. However, the diversity of cuisine has been increased further by the "hybridisation" of different styles (e.g., the Peranakan cuisine, a mix of Chinese and Malay cuisine).

 

WIKIPEDIA

Past family members rest in the family cemetary at Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of it’s kind, in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day. Piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

Built in 1895-1896, this Chicago School-style thirteen-story skyscraper was designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler for the Guaranty Construction Company. It was initially commissioned by Hascal L. Taylor, whom approached Dankmar Adler to build "the largest and best office building in the city,” but Taylor, whom wanted to name the building after himself, died in 1894, just before the building was announced. Having already had the building designed and ready for construction, the Guaranty Construction Company of Chicago, which already had resources lined up to build the project, bought the property and had the building constructed, with the building instead being named after them. In 1898, the building was renamed after the Prudential Insurance Company, which had refinanced the project and became a major tenant in the building after it was completed. Prudential had the terra cotta panels above the main entrances to the building modified to display the company’s name in 1898, upon their acquisition of a partial share in the ownership of the tower. The building became the tallest building in Buffalo upon its completion, and was a further refinement of the ideas that Sullivan had developed with the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, which was built in 1890-92, and featured a design with more Classical overtones, which were dropped with the design of the Guaranty Building in favor of a more purified Art Nouveau and Chicago School aesthetic, and with more intricate visual detail, with the ornate terra cotta panels cladding the entire structure, leaving very few areas with sparse detail. The building is an early skyscraper with a steel frame supporting the terra cotta panel facade, a departure from earlier load bearing masonry structures that had previously been predominant in many of the same applications, and expresses this through large window openings at the base and a consistent wall thickness, as there was no need to make the exterior walls thicker at the base to support the load from the structure above. The building also contrasts with the more rigid historically-influenced Classical revivalism that was growing in popularity at the time, and follows Sullivan’s mantra of “form ever follows function” despite having a lot of unnecessary detail on the exterior cladding and interior elements. The building’s facade also emphasizes its verticality through continual vertical bands of windows separated by pilasters that are wider on the first two floors, with narrower pilasters above, with the entire composition of the building following the tripartite form influenced by classical columns, with distinct sections comprising the base, shaft, and capital, though being a radical and bold abstraction of the form compared to the historical literalism expressed by most of its contemporaries, more directly displaying the underlying steel structure of the building.

 

The building is clad in rusty terra cotta panels which feature extensive Sullivanesque ornament inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, which clad the entirety of the building’s facades along Church Street and Pearl Street, with simpler red brick and painted brick cladding on the facades that do not front public right-of-ways, which are visible when the building is viewed from the south and west. The white painted brick cladding on the south elevation marks the former location of the building’s light well, which was about 30 feet wide and 68 feet deep, and was infilled during a 1980s rehabilitation project, adding an additional 1,400 square feet of office space, and necessitating an artificial light source to be installed above the stained glass ceiling of the building’s lobby. The building’s windows are mostly one-over-one double-hung windows in vertical columns, with one window per bay, though this pattern is broken at the painted portions of the non-principal facades, which feature paired one-over-one windows, on the second floor of the principal facades, which features Chicago-style tripartite windows and arched transoms over the building’s two main entry doors, on the thirteenth floor of the principal facades, which features circular oxeye windows, and at the base, which features large storefront windows that include cantilevered sections with shed glass roofs that wrap around the columns at the base of the building. The building’s terra cotta panels feature many natural and geometric motifs based on plants and crystalline structures, the most common being a “seed pod” motif that symbolizes growth, with a wide variation of patterns, giving the facade a dynamic appearance, which is almost overwhelming, but helps to further grant the building a dignified and monumental appearance, and is a signature element of many of the significant works of Adler and Sullivan, as well as Sullivan’s later independent work. The building’s pilasters halve in number but double in thickness towards the base, with wide window openings underneath pairs of window bays above on the first and second floors, with the pilasters terminating at circular columns with large, decorative, ornate terra cotta capitals in the central bays, and thick rectilinear pilasters at the corners and flanking the entry door openings. The circular columns penetrate the extruded storefront windows and shed glass roofs below, which formed display cases for shops in the ground floor of the building when it first opened, and feature decorative copper trim and mullions framing the large expanses of plate glass. The base of the building is clad in medina sandstone panels, as well as medina sandstone bases on the circular columns. The major entry doors feature decorative copper trim surrounds, a spandrel panel with ornate cast copper detailing above and the name “Guaranty” emblazoned on the face of each of the two panels at the two entrances, decorative transoms above with decorative copper panels as headers, and arched transoms on the second floor with decorative terra cotta trim surrounds. Each of the two major entrance doors is flanked by two ornate Art Nouveau-style wall-mounted sconces mounted on the large pilasters, with smaller, partially recessed pilasters on either side. The building features two cornices with arched recesses, with the smaller cornice running as a belt around the transition between the base and the shaft portions of the building, with lightbulbs in each archway, and the larger cornice, which extends further out from the face of the building, running around the top of the building’s Swan Street and Pearl Street facades, with a circular oxeye window in each archway. The lower corner recessed into the facade at the ends, while the upper cornice runs around the entire top of the facade above, with geometric motifs in the central portions and a large cluster of leaves in a pattern that is often repeated in Sullivan’s other work at the corners. The spandrel panels between the windows on the shaft portion of the building feature a cluster of leaves at the base and geometric patterns above, with a repeat of the same recessed arch detail as the cornice at the sill line of each window. The pilasters feature almost strictly geometric motifs, with a few floral motifs thrown in at key points to balance the composition of the facade with the windows. A small and often overlooked feature of the ground floor is a set of stone steps up to an entrance at the northwest corner of the building, which features a decorative copper railing with Sullivanesque and Art Nouveau-inspired ornament, which sits next to a staircase to the building’s basement, which features a more utilitarian modern safety railing in the middle.

 

The interior of the building was heavily renovated over the years before being partially restored in 1980, with the lobby being reverted back to its circa 1896 appearance. The Swan Street vestibule has been fully restored, featuring a marble ceiling, decorative mosaics around the top of the walls, a decorative antique brass light fixture with Art Nouveau detailing and a ring of lightbulbs in the center, the remnant bronze stringer of a now-removed staircase to the second floor in a circular glass wall at the north end of the space, and a terazzo floor. The main lobby, located immediately to the west, features a Tiffany-esque stained glass ceiling with ellipsoid and circular panels set into a bronze frame that once sat below a skylight at the base of the building’s filled-in light well, marble cladding on the walls, mosaics on the ceiling and around the top of the walls, a bronze staircase with ornate railing at the west end of the space, which features a semi-circular landing, a basement staircase with a brass railing, a terrazzo floor, and multiple historic three-bulb wall sconces, as well as brass ceiling fixtures matching those in the vestibule. The building’s elevators, located in an alcove near the base of the staircase, features a decorative richly detailed brass screen on the exterior, with additional decorative screens above, with the elevator since having been enclosed with glass to accommodate modern safety standards and equipment, while preserving the visibility of the original details. Originally, when the building was built, the elevators descended open shafts into a screen wall in the lobby, with the elevators originally being manufactured by the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company, with these being exchanged in 1903 for water hydraulic elevators that remained until a renovation in the 1960s. Sadly, most of the historic interior detailing of the upper floors was lost during a series of renovations in the 20th Century, which led to them being fully modernized during the renovation in the 1980s, with multiple tenant finish projects since then further modifying the interiors of the upper floors.

 

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975, owing to its architectural significance, and to help save the building, which had suffered a major fire in 1974 that led to the city of Buffalo seeking to demolish it. A renovation in the early 1980s managed to modernize the building while restoring the lobby and the exterior, which was carried out under the direction of the firm CannonDesign, and partial funding from federal historic tax credits. The building was purchased in 2002 by Hodgson Russ, a law firm, which subsequently further renovated the building to suit their needs, converting the building into their headquarters in 2008. This renovation was carried out under the direction of Gensler Architects and the local firm Flynn Battaglia Architects. The building today houses offices on the upper floors, with a visitor center, known as the Guaranty Interpretative Center, on the first floor, with historic tours offered of some of the building’s exterior and interior spaces run by Preservation Buffalo Niagara. The building was one of the most significant early skyscrapers, and set a precedent for the modern skyscrapers that began to be built half a century later.

Was back playing DIY last night and refining the clamp a bit more, but that doesnt mean I cant try and make a nice pic :)

Previous shots were taken with my P&S so it was nice to use a DSLR so it can be seen in more detail.

The rubber pads on the jaws of the clamp are working great, even on quite slippery surfaces, like shown here mounted on the leg of a tripod.

I have also found (after this photo was taken) that by using a half inch or 12mm M4 nut and bolt, that I can mount several on the clamp and have a choice of mounting points for the ballhead, on the same clamp.

The ballhead assembly can then be taken off the nut and bolt by hand and moved from one mounting point to another.

At one time, I did have 2 flashes mounted on the same clamp :)

So I guess I need to go out and get a few more of these mini tripods to remove the heads. Only a Pound (GB) at Poundland, 5 times that much at Jessops :(

 

I wasnt going to post a setup shot today, but I guess it wont do any harm showing how all this fitted on the coffee table and it also shows the 2 flashes mounted on the clamp.

 

Refining the 2020 Äppelwoi harvest

Current waste management system at Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm that, a few months earlier, refinanced the facility to add a first of it’s kind, in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (not seen), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day. Piped to a series of cement holding tanks, mechanical equipment, separate solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

South Asian sweets are the confectionery and desserts of South Asia. Thousands of dedicated shops in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka sell nothing but sweets.

 

Sugarcane has been grown in India for thousands of years, and the art of refining sugar was invented there. The English word sugar comes from a Sanskrit word sharkara, while the word candy comes from Sanskrit word khanda (jaggery) - one of the simplest raw forms of sweet. Over its long history, cuisines of the Indian Subcontinent developed a diversified array of sweets. Some[3] claim there is no other region of the world where sweets are so varied, so numerous, or so invested with meaning as the Indian Subcontinent.

 

In India's diverse languages, sweets are called by numerous names, one common name being Mithai (मिठाई). They include sugar, and a vast array of ingredients such as different flours, milk, milk solids, fermented foods, root vegetables, raw and roasted seeds, seasonal fruits, fruit pastes and dry fruits. Some sweets such as kheer are cooked, some like burfi are baked, varieties like Mysore pak are roasted, some like jalebi are fried, others like kulfi are frozen, while still others involve a creative combination of preparation techniques. The composition and recipes of the sweets and other ingredients vary by region. Mithai are sometimes served with a meal, and often included as a form of greeting, celebration, religious offering, gift giving, parties, and hospitality in India. On Indian festivals - such as Holi, Diwali, Eid, or Raksha Bhandan - sweets are homemade or purchased, then shared. Many social gatherings, wedding ceremonies and religious festivals often include a social celebration of food, and the flavors of sweets are an essential element of such a celebration.

 

HISTORY

Ancient Sanskrit literature from India mention feasts and offerings of mithas (sweet). One of the more complete surviving texts, with extensive description of sweets and how to prepare them is the Mānasollāsa (Sanskrit: मानसोल्लास; meaning in Sanskrit, the delight of an idea, or delight of mind and senses). This ancient encyclopedia on food, music and other Indian arts is also known as the Abhilaṣitārtha Cintāmaṇi (the magical stone that fulfils desires). Mānasollāsa was composed about 1130 AD, by the Hindu King Somesvara III. The document describes meals that include a rice pudding which are called payasam (Sanskrit: पायसं) are in modern Indian languages is called kheer. The document mentions seven kinds of rice.

 

Mānasollāsa also describes recipes for golamu as a donut from wheat flour and scented with cardamom, gharikas as a fried cake from black gram flour and sugar syrup, chhana as a fresh cheese and rice flour fritter soaked in sugar syrup that the document suggests should be prepared from strained curdled milk mixed with buttermilk, and many others. Mānasollāsa mentions numerous milk-derived sweets, along with describing the 11th century art of producing milk solids, condensed milk and methods for souring milk to produce sweets.

 

The origin of sweets in Indian subcontinent has been traced to at least 500 BC, where records suggest both raw sugar (gur, vellam, jaggery) as well as refined sugar (sarkara) were being produced. By 300 BC, kingdom officials in India were including five kinds of sugar in official documents. By the Gupta dynasty era (300–500 AD), sugar was being made not only from sugar cane, but other plant sources such as palm. Sugar-based foods were also included in temple offerings, as bhoga for the deities, which after the prayers became Prasād for devotees, the poor or visitors to the temple.

 

VARIETIES

BARFANI TODA

Barfi is a sweet, made from milk solids (khoya) or condensed milk and other ingredients like ground cashews or pistachios. Some barfi use various flours such as besan (gram flour). Barfi may be flavored with pastes or pieces of fruits such as mango, banana, berries, coconut. They may include aromatic spices such as cardamom and rose water to enhance the sensual impact while they are consumed.

 

Sometimes a thin inert silver or gold layer of edible foil is placed on top face of burfi for an attractive presentation. Gold and silver are approved food foils in the European Union, as E175 and E174 additives respectively. The independent European food-safety certification agency, TÜV Rheinland, has deemed gold leaf safe for consumption. Gold and silver leaf are certified kosher. These inert metal foils are neither considered toxic to human beings nor the broader ecosystem.

 

CHAM-CHAM

Cham Chams are prepared from flattened paneer (a form of curdled milk solids, cheese) sweetened in syrup.

 

CHHENA MURKI

Chhena murki, or chenna murki, is a sweet made from an Indian version of cottage cheese, milk and sugar in many states such as Odisha. Milk and sugar are boiled to a thick consistency. Round, cubes, cuboid or other shapes of cottage cheese are soaked in the milky condensate It basically started from coastal areas in the district of Bhadrak and nowadays it is available in all parts of Odisha. Other flavors and aromatic spices are typically added. It is also known by Bangladeshi and Guyanese people as pera.

 

CHHENA PODA

Chhena Poda is a cheese dessert from the state of Odisha in eastern India. 'Chhena poda' literally means 'burnt cheese' in Odia. It is made of well-kneaded homemade cottage cheese or chhena, sugar, cashew nuts and raisins, and is baked for several hours until it browns. The best quality of Chhena Poda is found in the localities of Nayagarh District in Odisha.This sweet is best taste when it is consumed within two days of preparation

 

CHIKKI

Chikki is a ready-to-eat solid, brittle sweet generally made from casting a mix of dry nuts and hot jaggery syrup. Peanuts and jaggery mix are most common. Other than almonds, cashews, walnuts, sesame and other seeds, varieties of chikki are also prepared from puffed or roasted Bengal gram, puffed rice, beaten rice, puffed seasonal grains, and regional produce such as Khobara (desiccated coconut). Like many Indian sweets, Chikki is typically a high protein delicacy.[

 

GAJRELA

Gajrela, also called Gajar halwa, is a seasonal pudding-like sweet made from carrot. It is popular in Punjab regions of India, agricultural belt of North India, now common in many parts of South Asia. It is made by slowly cooking carrot with ghee, concentrated and caramelized milk, mawa (khoya) and sugar; often served with a garnish of aromatic spices, almonds, cashews or pistachios. The recipes vary by region, and Gajrela may be cooked without ghee, then include cheese or other milk solids for sophisticated mix of flavors. It is common in Indian restaurants and is a seasonal street and cafe food during post-monsoon through spring festive celebrations.

 

GULAB JAMUN

Gulab jamun is a common sweet found in India, and Nepal. It is made out of fried chenna (milk solids and cheese) balls soaked in sweet rose-water flavoured syrup.

 

JALEBI OR IMARTI

Jalebi is made by deep-frying a fermented batter of wheat flour with yoghurt, in a circular (coil-like) shape and then soaking it in sugar syrup. Imarti is a variant of Jalebi, with a different flour mixture and has tighter coils. Typically Jalebi is brown or yellow, while Imarti is reddish in colour. Often taken with milk, tea, yogurt or Lassi. In classical Sanskrit literature, jalebis have been referred to as kundalika or jalavallika.

 

KHAJA

Khaja is a sweet of India. Refined wheat flour, sugar and oils are the chief ingredients of khaja.

 

It is believed that, even 2000 years ago,[citation needed] Khajas were prepared in the southern side of the Gangetic Plains of Bihar. These areas which are home to khaja, once comprised the central part of Maurya and Gupta empires. Presently, Khajas are prepared and sold in the city of Patna, Gaya and several other places across the state of Bihar. Khajas of the Silao and Rajgir are known for their puffiness.

 

Khajas have travelled to some other parts of India, including Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. Khaja of Kakinada, a coastal town of Andhra Pradesh is very much famous in South India and Orissa. This Khaja is dry from outside and full of sugar syrup from inside and is juicy. Khaja of Puri is also very famous. At first, the batter is of wheat flour, mawa and oil. It is then deep fried until crisp. Then a sugar syrup is made which is known as "pak". The crisp croissants are then soaked in the sugar syrup until they absorb the sugar syrup.

 

KULFI

Kulfis are traditional South Asian ice-cream, where flavored milk is first condensed and caramelized by slow cooking in presence of a small quantity of rice or seasonal grain flour; once condensed, dry nut pastes and aromatic spices are added, the mix frozen in small earthen or metal cans. This creates one of the densest known form of frozen sweets; it is typically served between -10 to -15 C when they are easier to spoon and eat. It comes in a variety of flavours such as mango, kesar, pistachios, badam (almond), coconut and plain. It is also a street side urban as well as rural India summer time snack and festive sweet, where food hawkers carry around frozen mounds of kulfi in a big earthen pot and play a particular horn music to attract customers. These vendors are known as "kulfiwalla" (one who sells kulfi).

 

KHEER OR PAYAS

Kheer is a pudding, usually made from milk, sugar and one of these ingredients - vermicelli, rice, Bulgar wheat, semolina, tapioca, dried dates, and shredded white gourd. It is also known as "Payas".

 

As sweet rice pudding, payas has been a cultural dish throughout the history of India, being usually found at ceremonies, feasts and celebrations. In many parts of India, ancient traditions maintain that a wedding is not fully blessed if payas (or payasam as known in South India) is not served at the feast during traditional ceremonies like marriage, child birth, annaprasan (first solid feed to child), and other occasions. Other than sweet yoghurt, some families include kheer in the last meal, as hospitality and auspicious food, before a family member or guest departs on a long journey away from the home.

 

LADDU

Laddu (sometimes transliterated as laddoo or laadu) is made of varieties of flour, grains, pulses, semolina, regional or seasonal fruits, dry fruits, and other ingredients cooked with sugar, then shaped into bite-size or larger spheres. Laddu is mentioned in ancient Sanskrit documents as temple offerings, and is referred to as Ladduka. They are popular all over India, easy to prepare, and come in dozens of varieties. Laddu is often made to celebrate festivals, religious ceremonies, or household events such as weddings.

 

One example of laddu is Motichoor Ka Ladoo. It is a sweet food in states like Bihar, made from roasted gram flour flakes which are sweetened, mixed with almonds, rolled into a batter which is then cast into mini balls and fried in ghee. Every mini ball called 'boondi' has enough sugar that melts like a fresh sweet. The mini balls are then combined with aromatic spices and then formed into bite-size spheres, which are called Motichoor Ka Ladoo. When bit, the mini balls distribute over the tongue for a burst of flavors throughout the mouth. Other examples include Tirupati Laddu so popular that over a million Laddu are distributed every week from a single temple of Lord Venkateswara.

 

MALPOA

Malpoa is the most ancient homemade sweets of India.[citation needed] It is a form of pancake (made of wheat or rice flour) deep fried and sugar syrup.

 

NARIKOL LARU

Narikol Laru is a dessert from Assam. They are ball-shaped and made from khoa/condensed milk and coconut, a traditional food during bihu and pujas

 

PARWAL KI MIHAI

Parwal Ki Mithai is a dry sweet made of the vegetable parwal, a kind of gourd. The shell of parwal is filled with milk solids, then cooked. It is rather popular in Bihar, but also found in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

 

PATHISHAPTA

Pathishapta is a Bengali dessert. The final dish is a rolled pancake that is stuffed with a filling often made of coconut, milk, cream, and jaggery from the date palm. These desserts are consumed in Thailand as well.

 

RASGULLA

Rasgulla is a popular sweet in South Asia. They come in many forms, such as Kamalabhog (Orange Rasgulla), Rajbhog (Giant Rasgulla), Kadamba often served with kheer, Rasamundi, Raskadamba, and others. Some are white, others cream, brown, gold or orange colored. They are called Rasbari in Nepal. This dish is made by boiling small dumplings of chhenna and semolina mixture in sugar syrup. Once cooked, these are stored in the syrup making them spongy. Increasing the semolina content reduces the sponginess and hardens them, creating variety of textures. Some Rasgulla are stuffed inside with treats, such as dry fruits, raisins, candied peel and other delicacies to create a series of flavors experienced as they are consumed. Some versions, called danedhar, are removed from syrup and sugar coated into shapes of fruits and other creative designs. These are festive foods found year round, in many parts of India.

 

RAS MALAI

Ras malai or rosh malai is a dessert eaten in India and Bangladesh. The name ras malai comes from two words in Hindi: ras, meaning "juice", and malai, meaning "cream". It has been described as "a rich cheesecake without a crust. Ras malai consists of sugary white, cream or yellow-coloured (or flattened) balls of paneer soaked in malai (clotted cream) flavoured with cardamom.

 

SANDESH

Sandesh is a sweet made from fine cheese made from cow's milk kneaded with fine ground sugar or molasses. This is a sweet from West Bengal and Odisha. Revered for its delicate making, and appreciated by the connoiseur, this represents sweet making at its finest. Sandesh comes in two varieties, "Norom Pak" (the softer version) and "Koda Pak" (the harder version). The softer version although more gentle and considered better, is fragile. The harder version is robust and often easier for storage. Molasses made from dates can be used to make a special variation of Sandesh called "Noleen Gurher Sandesh" (a Sandesh made from "Noleen Gurh" or molases from dates) or simply "Noleen Sandesh".

 

SEL ROTI

Sel roti is a Nepali home-made circular-shaped bread or rice donut, prepared during Tihar, a widely celebrated Hindu festival in Nepal. It is made of rice flour with adding customized flavors. A semi liquid rice flour dough is usually prepared by adding milk, water, sugar, butter, cardamom, cloves and other flavors of personal choice.

 

SHRIKHAND

Shrikhand is a creamy dessert made out of strained yogurt, from which water is drained off completely. Dry fruits, mango puree, saffron or cardamom and sugar are added to the thick yoghurt to get the desired flavour and taste. It is served chilled. It is a West Indian traditional dish.

 

OTHER SWEETS

Other traditional Indian sweets and desserts famous throughout the history of Indian food include:

 

- Mysore pak (a dessert made out of ghee, sugar and chick pea flour),

- Halwa (or Halva in modern English spelling); made out of flour, butter and sugar

- Jangiri

- Jhajariya

- Dharwad pedha

- Karadantu

 

WIKIPEDIA

This land was originally owned by the Earl of Dunkeld, but between 1752 and 1824 the principal business conducted on site was sugar refining.

 

The first refinery, or 'sugar workhouse', belonging to the trustees of the Edinburgh Sugar House, was destroyed by fire in 1800, but David Jardine & Co. rebuilt the property and continued a similar trade.

_____________________________

The Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland, consisted originally of the main street, now known as the Royal Mile, and a large number of small alleyways that led off it to the north and south. Some of these lead to open courtyards and are therefore called “courts”. Others are open thoroughfare wide enough for a horse and cart, and are called “wynds”, a reference to the way they wind along. But most of these alleyways are called “closes”, because they lead to private property and are hence gated and closed to the public.

A "Give Thanks" sign at Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of it’s kind, in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day. Piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

A decorative anchor hangs on one of the homes at Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of its kind in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day; piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation as well. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation and a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

Welcome to changxing refractory company.We offer a variety of castable refractory material which including low cement castable,dense castable,insulating castable,fireclay,gunning mix,furnace & thermal lining filter material,coating for tundish,ladle,boiler or other kiln industry.http://www.chinafirebrick.com/38Refining-Slag.html

A beverage is always appreciated at Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of its kind in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day; piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation as well. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation and a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

Shell Norco Refining Company

Farm equipment at Doug Jernigan Farms, a three-generation family farm and employer who, a few months earlier, refinanced a first of its kind in the nation, swine-turkey waste to renewable energy system (RES), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP) loan guarantee in Mt. Olive, NC, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015.

 

Typical systems separate methane gas for energy, solids are disposed or repurposed and liquids are cleaned. This new system addition takes the watery manure effluent to a new and as Mr. Jernigan say’s “prolific profit” producing state through savings and sales. “There is an opportunity for the farm to make money doing a good thing for the environment.”

The system handles about 75,000 gallons of swine and turkey waste effluent each day; piped to a series of tanks, and mechanical equipment that separates solids, and liquids. The current treatment facility biologically removes ammonia nitrogen with bacteria adapted to high-strength wastewater; removes phosphorus via alkali precipitation; and reduction emissions of odorant compounds, ammonia, pathogens, and heavy metals to the environment. The water is cleaned for reuse in the swine and turkey operations that wash more manure into the cycle of the system.

The new methane reactors (under the framework of what will be a C-span structure) use an endothermic gasifier that heats the waste solids to very high temperatures to the point that they release gases. The clean methane gas will fuel an engine that turns a 300KW electrical generator producing electricity; ethanol will help fuel farm equipment, and resulting potash solids can be used or sold for agricultural fertilizer. Excess amounts of electricity, that the farms cannot use, will be sold and transmitted to the local energy company, for use by residents and businesses; renewable energy credits (REC) are sold to a different energy company.

With a system that eliminates all ammonia and other odor creating compounds, Mr. Jernigan says, “What I’m doing is good for the environment; it’s good for the farm in the respect that you’re getting rid of waste that you’re creating in a high-tech way. There’s no footprint. It’s just gone.”

Doug and Aileen are lifelong farmers and they have three grown children that work in the farm operation as well. Their farm currently operates a 21,600 finishing farm operation, an eight house turkey operation, a 250 head cow /calf operation. The farm also consists of 2,400 acres of row crop production (cotton, corn, soybeans and wheat).

Doug Jernigan’s grandfather started farming here in 1941, and he continues the tradition with his business that began in 1974.

In talking about the greater potential of this technology and what others should consider, Jernigan says, “I see it as a win-win thing.”

For more information about USDA, RD and REAP please see: www.usda.gov, www.rd.usda.gov, and www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/rural-energy-america-pr...

USDA Photo by Lance Cheung

 

*The treatment system (without the methane reactor) was documented to remove, on a mass basis, approximately 99% of total suspended solids, 98% of COD, 99% of TKN, 100% ammonia, 100% odor compounds, 92% phosphorus, 95% copper, and 97% zinc from the flushed manure. Fecal coliform reductions were measured to be 99.98%

 

#Refinance Home #Mortgage #Loans

Colorado Springs LoansbyErick.com

Australasian Sugar Refining Company complex 1891, 1899 -conversion to apartments in the 1980s.

Designers: Hyndman and Bates.

.

`The site of the factory was included in Section 2B [of the original Port Melbourne survey], which was surveyed into four allotments early in the history of Sandridge. By November 1860 three of these had been purchased by A. Ross, joining William Jones, S.G. Henty and P. Lalor as owners of the section (2)..

.

In February 1890, the Melbourne Tram and Omnibus Company Limited, had stables, offices, land and an omnibus repository on the section.(3) [Most of the present buildings on the site date from 1891, when the Australasian Sugar Refining Company established a refinery.(4)] On the MMBW detail plan dated 1894, the section is labelled 'sugar works' and the configuration of buildings approximately conforms with the present layout. [The refinery was closed in 1894 following its purchase by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company as part of a move to strengthen its monopoly.].

.

[In 1899, Robert Harper and Company Pty Ltd converted the buildings to a starch factory, and various brick additions were constructed to designs by Hyndman and Bates, architects.(5)] When the sewerage was connected in 1899, a plan was drawn by the architects and this closely resembles the 1894 MMBW detail plan configuration. (6) .

.

The buildings .. form the major part of the original factory complex on the site, one of the largest nineteenth century industrial sites in Victoria. The complex as a whole is significant for its large size and range of building types. The dramatic massing and height of the 9 Beach Street buildings gives them additional importance as local landmarks as viewed both from the surrounding streets and the sea..

.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.

The former Australasian Sugar Refining Company and Robert Harper starch factory complex can be compared with a number of other large nineteenth century industrial complexes in Melbourne. These include the former Yorkshire Brewery, Wellington Street, Collingwood (from 1876), the former Victoria Brewery, Victoria Parade, East Melbourne (established 1854), the former Kimpton's Flour Mill, Elizabeth Street, Kensington, the Thomas Brunt flour mill and Brockhoff and T.B. Guest biscuit factories complex, Laurens and Munster Streets, North Melbourne (from 1888-9) and the Joshua Bros (now CSR) sugar refinery, Whitehall Street, Yarraville (established 1873). All of these are representative of the development in Victoria of the manufacture of foodstuffs and related raw materials. Of these, the CSR refinery is the most directly comparable in terms of original function and the scale and massing of the buildings. Established significantly earlier than the Port Melbourne refinery, the site is larger and more intact..

.

In the local context, the only other surviving industrial site of comparable scale is the Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory complex (q.v.). This complex is of state significance, and is considerably earlier, with parts dating from the 1850s. The predominantly two- and three-storey buildings, however, are of a different type to the former refinery and starch factory buildings..

Allom Lovell and Associates 1995 cite Jacobs Lewis Vines. Port Melbourne Conservation Study:.

 

Aerial view of an artisanal refining site (Bodo West, Bonny LGA)

 

2010 © UNEP

For further information go to www.unep.org/disastersandconflicts/

Rough draft. I will refine this. Made this in iPhoto. First attempt.

Great evening, good music!

 

Music: Old Joe Clark, 1934, Wayne Perry

 

Refine your vision !

___

Jasa photo produk + editing !

Photography Service 📷

___

Photo by @refinephoto.id

Product : Ultraboost 3.0

Built in 1895-1896, this Chicago School-style thirteen-story skyscraper was designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler for the Guaranty Construction Company. It was initially commissioned by Hascal L. Taylor, whom approached Dankmar Adler to build "the largest and best office building in the city,” but Taylor, whom wanted to name the building after himself, died in 1894, just before the building was announced. Having already had the building designed and ready for construction, the Guaranty Construction Company of Chicago, which already had resources lined up to build the project, bought the property and had the building constructed, with the building instead being named after them. In 1898, the building was renamed after the Prudential Insurance Company, which had refinanced the project and became a major tenant in the building after it was completed. Prudential had the terra cotta panels above the main entrances to the building modified to display the company’s name in 1898, upon their acquisition of a partial share in the ownership of the tower. The building became the tallest building in Buffalo upon its completion, and was a further refinement of the ideas that Sullivan had developed with the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, which was built in 1890-92, and featured a design with more Classical overtones, which were dropped with the design of the Guaranty Building in favor of a more purified Art Nouveau and Chicago School aesthetic, and with more intricate visual detail, with the ornate terra cotta panels cladding the entire structure, leaving very few areas with sparse detail. The building is an early skyscraper with a steel frame supporting the terra cotta panel facade, a departure from earlier load bearing masonry structures that had previously been predominant in many of the same applications, and expresses this through large window openings at the base and a consistent wall thickness, as there was no need to make the exterior walls thicker at the base to support the load from the structure above. The building also contrasts with the more rigid historically-influenced Classical revivalism that was growing in popularity at the time, and follows Sullivan’s mantra of “form ever follows function” despite having a lot of unnecessary detail on the exterior cladding and interior elements. The building’s facade also emphasizes its verticality through continual vertical bands of windows separated by pilasters that are wider on the first two floors, with narrower pilasters above, with the entire composition of the building following the tripartite form influenced by classical columns, with distinct sections comprising the base, shaft, and capital, though being a radical and bold abstraction of the form compared to the historical literalism expressed by most of its contemporaries, more directly displaying the underlying steel structure of the building.

 

The building is clad in rusty terra cotta panels which feature extensive Sullivanesque ornament inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, which clad the entirety of the building’s facades along Church Street and Pearl Street, with simpler red brick and painted brick cladding on the facades that do not front public right-of-ways, which are visible when the building is viewed from the south and west. The white painted brick cladding on the south elevation marks the former location of the building’s light well, which was about 30 feet wide and 68 feet deep, and was infilled during a 1980s rehabilitation project, adding an additional 1,400 square feet of office space, and necessitating an artificial light source to be installed above the stained glass ceiling of the building’s lobby. The building’s windows are mostly one-over-one double-hung windows in vertical columns, with one window per bay, though this pattern is broken at the painted portions of the non-principal facades, which feature paired one-over-one windows, on the second floor of the principal facades, which features Chicago-style tripartite windows and arched transoms over the building’s two main entry doors, on the thirteenth floor of the principal facades, which features circular oxeye windows, and at the base, which features large storefront windows that include cantilevered sections with shed glass roofs that wrap around the columns at the base of the building. The building’s terra cotta panels feature many natural and geometric motifs based on plants and crystalline structures, the most common being a “seed pod” motif that symbolizes growth, with a wide variation of patterns, giving the facade a dynamic appearance, which is almost overwhelming, but helps to further grant the building a dignified and monumental appearance, and is a signature element of many of the significant works of Adler and Sullivan, as well as Sullivan’s later independent work. The building’s pilasters halve in number but double in thickness towards the base, with wide window openings underneath pairs of window bays above on the first and second floors, with the pilasters terminating at circular columns with large, decorative, ornate terra cotta capitals in the central bays, and thick rectilinear pilasters at the corners and flanking the entry door openings. The circular columns penetrate the extruded storefront windows and shed glass roofs below, which formed display cases for shops in the ground floor of the building when it first opened, and feature decorative copper trim and mullions framing the large expanses of plate glass. The base of the building is clad in medina sandstone panels, as well as medina sandstone bases on the circular columns. The major entry doors feature decorative copper trim surrounds, a spandrel panel with ornate cast copper detailing above and the name “Guaranty” emblazoned on the face of each of the two panels at the two entrances, decorative transoms above with decorative copper panels as headers, and arched transoms on the second floor with decorative terra cotta trim surrounds. Each of the two major entrance doors is flanked by two ornate Art Nouveau-style wall-mounted sconces mounted on the large pilasters, with smaller, partially recessed pilasters on either side. The building features two cornices with arched recesses, with the smaller cornice running as a belt around the transition between the base and the shaft portions of the building, with lightbulbs in each archway, and the larger cornice, which extends further out from the face of the building, running around the top of the building’s Swan Street and Pearl Street facades, with a circular oxeye window in each archway. The lower corner recessed into the facade at the ends, while the upper cornice runs around the entire top of the facade above, with geometric motifs in the central portions and a large cluster of leaves in a pattern that is often repeated in Sullivan’s other work at the corners. The spandrel panels between the windows on the shaft portion of the building feature a cluster of leaves at the base and geometric patterns above, with a repeat of the same recessed arch detail as the cornice at the sill line of each window. The pilasters feature almost strictly geometric motifs, with a few floral motifs thrown in at key points to balance the composition of the facade with the windows. A small and often overlooked feature of the ground floor is a set of stone steps up to an entrance at the northwest corner of the building, which features a decorative copper railing with Sullivanesque and Art Nouveau-inspired ornament, which sits next to a staircase to the building’s basement, which features a more utilitarian modern safety railing in the middle.

 

The interior of the building was heavily renovated over the years before being partially restored in 1980, with the lobby being reverted back to its circa 1896 appearance. The Swan Street vestibule has been fully restored, featuring a marble ceiling, decorative mosaics around the top of the walls, a decorative antique brass light fixture with Art Nouveau detailing and a ring of lightbulbs in the center, the remnant bronze stringer of a now-removed staircase to the second floor in a circular glass wall at the north end of the space, and a terazzo floor. The main lobby, located immediately to the west, features a Tiffany-esque stained glass ceiling with ellipsoid and circular panels set into a bronze frame that once sat below a skylight at the base of the building’s filled-in light well, marble cladding on the walls, mosaics on the ceiling and around the top of the walls, a bronze staircase with ornate railing at the west end of the space, which features a semi-circular landing, a basement staircase with a brass railing, a terrazzo floor, and multiple historic three-bulb wall sconces, as well as brass ceiling fixtures matching those in the vestibule. The building’s elevators, located in an alcove near the base of the staircase, features a decorative richly detailed brass screen on the exterior, with additional decorative screens above, with the elevator since having been enclosed with glass to accommodate modern safety standards and equipment, while preserving the visibility of the original details. Originally, when the building was built, the elevators descended open shafts into a screen wall in the lobby, with the elevators originally being manufactured by the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company, with these being exchanged in 1903 for water hydraulic elevators that remained until a renovation in the 1960s. Sadly, most of the historic interior detailing of the upper floors was lost during a series of renovations in the 20th Century, which led to them being fully modernized during the renovation in the 1980s, with multiple tenant finish projects since then further modifying the interiors of the upper floors.

 

The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975, owing to its architectural significance, and to help save the building, which had suffered a major fire in 1974 that led to the city of Buffalo seeking to demolish it. A renovation in the early 1980s managed to modernize the building while restoring the lobby and the exterior, which was carried out under the direction of the firm CannonDesign, and partial funding from federal historic tax credits. The building was purchased in 2002 by Hodgson Russ, a law firm, which subsequently further renovated the building to suit their needs, converting the building into their headquarters in 2008. This renovation was carried out under the direction of Gensler Architects and the local firm Flynn Battaglia Architects. The building today houses offices on the upper floors, with a visitor center, known as the Guaranty Interpretative Center, on the first floor, with historic tours offered of some of the building’s exterior and interior spaces run by Preservation Buffalo Niagara. The building was one of the most significant early skyscrapers, and set a precedent for the modern skyscrapers that began to be built half a century later.

Fossil Fuels are bad for your boobs.

 

That’s pretty much it. It turns out that the chemicals produced during the extraction, refining, and use of fossil fuels; high levels of benzene, toluene, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a few other bad guys are known carcinogens. That’s why Honor the Earth is introducing the pipeline free breast campaign, as a part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, just to be clear, we’re not the only ones on this. Last year, Baker Hughes, who makes the enormous drill bits for the fracking industry introduced some pink drill bits for breast cancer awareness month, and donated $l00,000 for the second year in a row to Susan G. Komen, the best-funded breast cancer organization in the U.S. In return, apparently Baker Hughes got to use the specific shade of pink Susan G. Komen has trademarked. (Who knew they could trademark a shade of pink?)

  

Let’s get real: Pipelines, Fracking and the Tar Sands are Bad for your Boobs; they are bad for your health:

  

Researchers have known for years that the fossil fuel industry creates and releases carcinogens into the environment. Back in the 80’s researchers at Lawrence Livermore Labs in California, found that breast cells growing in culture exposed to benzopyrene had altered genetic make-up. Benzopyrene is the most common carcinogen in the environment that results from burning fossil fuels.

  

Benzene, a major chemical associated with the fossil fuel industry, is recognized as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Benzene is known to influence the development of leukemia, breast and urinary tract cancers. Benzene has also been linked to reduced red and white blood cell production, decreased auto-immune system, deformed spermatozoa and chromosomal mutations.

Benzene itself is known carcinogen.

  

Radon, an odorless radioactive gas which is found existing in bedrock has also been linked to cancer and the fossil fuel industry. Exposure to radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the US, and new studies have linked fracking to increased radon exposure. Radon can be released into groundwater and the air by the fracking process. Radon also travels with the fracked oil and gas through the pipelines to refineries and to the point of use, exposing communities along the way.

  

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are persistent chemicals that are also known carcinogens and genetic mutagens. PAHs can also affect childhood development, including; asthma, low birth weight, heart malformations, and behavior disorders.

  

Communities around the Alberta tar sands fields have been suffering from dangerously high levels of PAHs in the environment and have been reporting subsequently high rates of rare cancers and other diseases.

“More women in the community are contracting lupus. Infant asthma rates have also increased. During the summer months, it is not uncommon to find mysterious lesions and sores after swimming in Lake Athabasca. “When you look at what is happening in the area, it can’t not be related to development,” says Eriel Deranger, a spokesperson for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. ‘Too many times, we see things in the animals and health that the elders have never seen before.’”

  

Spills and accidents can also expose communities to PAHs. After the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon spill, scientists found PAH levels to be 40 times higher than background levels. Fisherman also reported mutations and tumors on local shrimp and crabs. Scientists from several disciplines and universities cite PAHs as most likely cause.

  

The effects of these chemicals on humans and the environment should be a major concern of American lawmakers. Will we begin to see a sharp rise in rare cancers in oil producing and refining communities? Transportation corridor communities are also at risk. North Dakota had over 300 oil spills reported as of 2012, but the self reporting of oil and pipeline companies, including Enbridge ( with 800 spills in a decade) is in fact a risk to your breasts, and your health.. For sure, the l7,000 miles of pipeline in North Dakota as well as nearly l0,000 miles of pipeline in Minnesota, pose some risks.

  

The EPA is finally taking notice of the vast amount of toxins being emitted by the oil refining process, recently passing tough new restrictions on emissions.

  

In 2012, Marathon Oil completed a $2.2 billion upgrade on their 8l year old Detroit facility to process tar sands oil. Marathon’s expansion promises to create 135 jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenues. Even more important, Marathon says, it will help ensure that Michigan's only oil refinery will operate well into the future.

  

“…A reporter asked me what tar sands smell like, and it smells like death. And that’s what it is…”

Emma Lockridge

  

The Marathon oil refinery is in Boynton, Michigan; zip code 48217. It is known as Michigan’s most polluted zip code.

  

“ … We have a tar sands refinery in our community and it is just horrific. We are sick community.” Emma Lockridge explains. We have tried to get them to buy us out. They keep poisoning us. And we cannot get them to buy our houses. “ I can’t hardly breathe here. I have had kidney failure. Neighbor died on dialysis, Neighbor next door with dialysis. Neighbor across the street has kidney failure. The chemicals in our pipelines and are in our water will be the same chemicals that come through your land and can break and contaminate. We have cancer, we have autoimmune illnesses, we have MS, we have chemicals that have come up into our homes through the sewer. Those are from the companies, they end up in the public water and sewer system...They are poisoning us.”

  

Join Honor the Earth for this campaign. Fossil Fuels are bad for your breasts. And, a fossil fuel free future is healthy for all women, children, men and Mother Earth.

  

Models for the campaign continue to come forward. Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska, a lead organization fighting the Keystone XL Pipeline joined for a picture, noting” I’m standing up against Keystone XL because of the risks to our water and our health. The oil and gas industry denies the link of their risky product and cancer, just like the tobacco companies did years ago. Today, we stand up for women’s health."

 

Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network posed with two logos; Mossett is from the Ft. Berthold reservation, where radioactive and salt spills, as well as radioactive fracking socks litter sections of the reservation. Supporting groups include VDay, Indigenous Women’s Network, and Babes Against Biotech. Other women are encouraged to join, and the materials can be downloaded off the Honor the Earth web site.

  

Sources: www.alternet.org/story/155022/the_human_cancer_risks_pose...

  

america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/10/8/pink-dri...

  

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19830105&...

  

planetsave.com/2013/12/07/pollution-air-pollution-water-p...

 

Australasian Sugar Refining Company complex 1891, 1899 at conversion to apartments in the 1980s.

Designers: Hyndman and Bates.

.

`The site of the factory was included in Section 2B [of the original Port Melbourne survey], which was surveyed into four allotments early in the history of Sandridge. By November 1860 three of these had been purchased by A. Ross, joining William Jones, S.G. Henty and P. Lalor as owners of the section (2)..

.

In February 1890, the Melbourne Tram and Omnibus Company Limited, had stables, offices, land and an omnibus repository on the section.(3) [Most of the present buildings on the site date from 1891, when the Australasian Sugar Refining Company established a refinery.(4)] On the MMBW detail plan dated 1894, the section is labelled 'sugar works' and the configuration of buildings approximately conforms with the present layout. [The refinery was closed in 1894 following its purchase by the Colonial Sugar Refining Company as part of a move to strengthen its monopoly.].

.

[In 1899, Robert Harper and Company Pty Ltd converted the buildings to a starch factory, and various brick additions were constructed to designs by Hyndman and Bates, architects.(5)] When the sewerage was connected in 1899, a plan was drawn by the architects and this closely resembles the 1894 MMBW detail plan configuration. (6) .

.

The buildings .. form the major part of the original factory complex on the site, one of the largest nineteenth century industrial sites in Victoria. The complex as a whole is significant for its large size and range of building types. The dramatic massing and height of the 9 Beach Street buildings gives them additional importance as local landmarks as viewed both from the surrounding streets and the sea..

.

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS.

The former Australasian Sugar Refining Company and Robert Harper starch factory complex can be compared with a number of other large nineteenth century industrial complexes in Melbourne. These include the former Yorkshire Brewery, Wellington Street, Collingwood (from 1876), the former Victoria Brewery, Victoria Parade, East Melbourne (established 1854), the former Kimpton's Flour Mill, Elizabeth Street, Kensington, the Thomas Brunt flour mill and Brockhoff and T.B. Guest biscuit factories complex, Laurens and Munster Streets, North Melbourne (from 1888-9) and the Joshua Bros (now CSR) sugar refinery, Whitehall Street, Yarraville (established 1873). All of these are representative of the development in Victoria of the manufacture of foodstuffs and related raw materials. Of these, the CSR refinery is the most directly comparable in terms of original function and the scale and massing of the buildings. Established significantly earlier than the Port Melbourne refinery, the site is larger and more intact..

.

In the local context, the only other surviving industrial site of comparable scale is the Swallow and Ariell Biscuit Factory complex (q.v.). This complex is of state significance, and is considerably earlier, with parts dating from the 1850s. The predominantly two- and three-storey buildings, however, are of a different type to the former refinery and starch factory buildings..

Allom Lovell and Associates 1995 cite Jacobs Lewis Vines. Port Melbourne Conservation Study:.

 

Wanhao is a manufacturer who is specialized in designing various kinds of furnace and making refractories for electric furnace, ladle, tundish, blast furnace, AOD furnace, IF furnace, etc. With strong technical ability, advanced technology and equipment, Wanhao has established technical cooperation relationship with some refractory research institutions and universities.

Refining the snow

 

Build log

www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235000922-ba...

This particular project began back in January of 2010, and it started with the name. I worked with her in refining her business name. She didn't want the typical dental name incorporating the word "smiles" like everyone else. Something clean, simple, and reflects the nature of the business. We went back and forth several times and one word kept on sticking, and it wasn't taken. It was the word "pure", and it sounded really nice with the word "dental". "Pure" represents cleanliness, and that's why we go to the dentist – to keep our teeth/mouth as clean as possible. Then the word "spa" was thrown into the name, because this new office was going to embody spa-like services. There is this new trend called "dental spa" where dental offices want their offices to now be soothing and comforting for their client visits. And we all know, dental offices aren't at the top of anyone's list for places to go visit.

 

With the name down, Pure Dental Spa, it was time to develop the identity. As soon as the name was selected, I had a good idea on how it was going to look, and the client was totally one the same page with me; it was great. The fact that I knew I was going to be working on the interior decor of her office, it helped me build her brand colors since she really wanted an avocado-like green color on her office wall. I envisioned in my mind seeing the word "pure" all in white against the green wall, and it truly brought out the essence of clean in the word and the nature of the business.

 

Pure Dental Spa color palette: white, grey & green. White is pure and clean. Grey represents a brushed aluminum material and the sterilized equipment that is used to clean our teeth. And green is fresh, calming, and it is all "spa".

 

For the logo identity, I used a very clean, modern typeface, Helvetica Neue, and balanced the weights and the kerning between the letters. "Pure" is the boldest and "dental" is the second heaviest weight. Those two words have the most emphasis in weights, because they are the most important. "Spa" is secondary, but still important to the overall vision.

 

For the logo identity, I used a very clean, modern typeface, Helvetica Neue, and balanced the weights and the kerning between the letters. "Pure" is the boldest and "dental" is the second heaviest weight. Those two words have the most emphasis in weights, because they are the most important. "Spa" is secondary, but still important to the overall vision.

 

For the business/appointment cards, I knew we had to print them with a very cool technique called blind embossing – where an image is raised up from the flat surface of the paper. This was how I was able to keep the word "pure" white on white paper. And on the reverse-side, the paper was flooded with green, and where the word "pure" was embossed, it was kept white also. These are some well-designed appointment cards I must say.

 

Originally, I wasn't planning on designing her website since I am not a huge fan of website design. I always felt it was one of my weaknesses. I thought I was going to be handing over logo files, color codes and some images. But after we saw the first round from the programmers, I knew I had to get my feet wet and guide the overall structure, because it wasn't meshing with her brand essence, and I couldn't let that happen.

 

To see more custom design projects, visit www.designwithchon.com

Like me on Facebook! www.facebook.com/DesignWithChon

 

.............................

 

Design With Chon (DWC), a boutique design studio with defined niches in (1) visual communication, (2) event design and (3) interiors. Each of these industries are huge in themselves, but DWC has an understanding that bridges them together — color, balance, texture, order and a good eye for design. DWC’s goal is to achieve good design in all its various forms, whether it’s from the branding of your business to saying “I do” to transforming a dwelling in your home. Let me, “Chon," be your go-to person for good design, color, great photography and art. A balanced environment makes you feel good, and I am here to inspire your surroundings.

 

If you’re interested in sharing an idea or a project, drop me a line at designwithchon[at]gmail.com to start the conversation.

 

©Design With Chon. All Rights Reserved.

The Avro Vulcan (officially Hawker Siddeley Vulcan[2] from July 1963)[3] is a jet-powered delta wing strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. Aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe and Company (Avro) designed the Vulcan in response to Specification B.35/46. Of the three V bombers produced, the Vulcan was considered the riskiest option. Several scale aircraft, designated Avro 707, were produced to test and refine the delta wing design principles.

 

The Vulcan B.1 was first delivered to the RAF in 1956; deliveries of the improved Vulcan B.2 started in 1960. The B.2 featured more powerful engines, a larger wing, an improved electrical system and electronic countermeasures (ECM); many were modified to accept the Blue Steel missile. As a part of the V-force, the Vulcan was the backbone of the United Kingdom’s airborne nuclear deterrent during much of the Cold War. Although the Vulcan was typically armed with nuclear weapons, it was capable of conventional bombing missions, a capability which was used in Operation Black Buck during the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina in 1982.

 

The Vulcan had no defensive weaponry, initially relying upon high-speed high-altitude flight to evade interception. Electronic countermeasures were employed by the B.1 (designated B.1A) and B.2 from circa 1960. A change to low-level tactics was made in the mid-1960s. In the mid-1970s nine Vulcans were adapted for maritime radar reconnaissance operations, redesignated as B.2 (MRR). In the final years of service six Vulcans were converted to the K.2 tanker configuration for aerial refuelling.

 

Since retirement by the RAF one example, B.2 XH558, named "The Spirit of Great Britain" has been restored for use in display flights and air shows, whilst two other B.2s, XL426 and XM655, are kept in taxiable condition for ground runs and demonstrations at London Southend Airport and Wellesbourne Mountford Airfield respectively.

Refining the snow

 

Build log

www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235000922-ba...

Title: Sinclair Refining laboratory... at Corpus Christi

 

Creator: Robert Yarnall Richie

 

Date: ca. October - December 1944

 

Part Of: Robert Yarnall Richie photograph collection

 

Place: Corpus Christi, Texas

 

Physical Description: 1 negative film: black and white; 10.1 x 12.5 cm.

 

File: ag1982_0234_2665_17_ebbadger_sm_opt.jpg

 

Rights: Please cite DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University when using this file. A high-resolution version of this file may be obtained for a fee. For details see the sites.smu.edu/cul/degolyer/research/permissions/ web page. For other information, contact degolyer@smu.edu.

 

For more information, see: digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ryr/id/961

 

View the Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection digitalcollections.smu.edu/all/cul/ryr/

Fossil Fuels are bad for your boobs.

 

That’s pretty much it. It turns out that the chemicals produced during the extraction, refining, and use of fossil fuels; high levels of benzene, toluene, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a few other bad guys are known carcinogens. That’s why Honor the Earth is introducing the pipeline free breast campaign, as a part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, just to be clear, we’re not the only ones on this. Last year, Baker Hughes, who makes the enormous drill bits for the fracking industry introduced some pink drill bits for breast cancer awareness month, and donated $l00,000 for the second year in a row to Susan G. Komen, the best-funded breast cancer organization in the U.S. In return, apparently Baker Hughes got to use the specific shade of pink Susan G. Komen has trademarked. (Who knew they could trademark a shade of pink?)

  

Let’s get real: Pipelines, Fracking and the Tar Sands are Bad for your Boobs; they are bad for your health:

  

Researchers have known for years that the fossil fuel industry creates and releases carcinogens into the environment. Back in the 80’s researchers at Lawrence Livermore Labs in California, found that breast cells growing in culture exposed to benzopyrene had altered genetic make-up. Benzopyrene is the most common carcinogen in the environment that results from burning fossil fuels.

  

Benzene, a major chemical associated with the fossil fuel industry, is recognized as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Benzene is known to influence the development of leukemia, breast and urinary tract cancers. Benzene has also been linked to reduced red and white blood cell production, decreased auto-immune system, deformed spermatozoa and chromosomal mutations.

Benzene itself is known carcinogen.

  

Radon, an odorless radioactive gas which is found existing in bedrock has also been linked to cancer and the fossil fuel industry. Exposure to radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the US, and new studies have linked fracking to increased radon exposure. Radon can be released into groundwater and the air by the fracking process. Radon also travels with the fracked oil and gas through the pipelines to refineries and to the point of use, exposing communities along the way.

  

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are persistent chemicals that are also known carcinogens and genetic mutagens. PAHs can also affect childhood development, including; asthma, low birth weight, heart malformations, and behavior disorders.

  

Communities around the Alberta tar sands fields have been suffering from dangerously high levels of PAHs in the environment and have been reporting subsequently high rates of rare cancers and other diseases.

“More women in the community are contracting lupus. Infant asthma rates have also increased. During the summer months, it is not uncommon to find mysterious lesions and sores after swimming in Lake Athabasca. “When you look at what is happening in the area, it can’t not be related to development,” says Eriel Deranger, a spokesperson for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. ‘Too many times, we see things in the animals and health that the elders have never seen before.’”

  

Spills and accidents can also expose communities to PAHs. After the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon spill, scientists found PAH levels to be 40 times higher than background levels. Fisherman also reported mutations and tumors on local shrimp and crabs. Scientists from several disciplines and universities cite PAHs as most likely cause.

  

The effects of these chemicals on humans and the environment should be a major concern of American lawmakers. Will we begin to see a sharp rise in rare cancers in oil producing and refining communities? Transportation corridor communities are also at risk. North Dakota had over 300 oil spills reported as of 2012, but the self reporting of oil and pipeline companies, including Enbridge ( with 800 spills in a decade) is in fact a risk to your breasts, and your health.. For sure, the l7,000 miles of pipeline in North Dakota as well as nearly l0,000 miles of pipeline in Minnesota, pose some risks.

  

The EPA is finally taking notice of the vast amount of toxins being emitted by the oil refining process, recently passing tough new restrictions on emissions.

  

In 2012, Marathon Oil completed a $2.2 billion upgrade on their 8l year old Detroit facility to process tar sands oil. Marathon’s expansion promises to create 135 jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenues. Even more important, Marathon says, it will help ensure that Michigan's only oil refinery will operate well into the future.

  

“…A reporter asked me what tar sands smell like, and it smells like death. And that’s what it is…”

Emma Lockridge

  

The Marathon oil refinery is in Boynton, Michigan; zip code 48217. It is known as Michigan’s most polluted zip code.

  

“ … We have a tar sands refinery in our community and it is just horrific. We are sick community.” Emma Lockridge explains. We have tried to get them to buy us out. They keep poisoning us. And we cannot get them to buy our houses. “ I can’t hardly breathe here. I have had kidney failure. Neighbor died on dialysis, Neighbor next door with dialysis. Neighbor across the street has kidney failure. The chemicals in our pipelines and are in our water will be the same chemicals that come through your land and can break and contaminate. We have cancer, we have autoimmune illnesses, we have MS, we have chemicals that have come up into our homes through the sewer. Those are from the companies, they end up in the public water and sewer system...They are poisoning us.”

  

Join Honor the Earth for this campaign. Fossil Fuels are bad for your breasts. And, a fossil fuel free future is healthy for all women, children, men and Mother Earth.

  

Models for the campaign continue to come forward. Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska, a lead organization fighting the Keystone XL Pipeline joined for a picture, noting” I’m standing up against Keystone XL because of the risks to our water and our health. The oil and gas industry denies the link of their risky product and cancer, just like the tobacco companies did years ago. Today, we stand up for women’s health."

 

Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network posed with two logos; Mossett is from the Ft. Berthold reservation, where radioactive and salt spills, as well as radioactive fracking socks litter sections of the reservation. Supporting groups include VDay, Indigenous Women’s Network, and Babes Against Biotech. Other women are encouraged to join, and the materials can be downloaded off the Honor the Earth web site.

  

Sources: www.alternet.org/story/155022/the_human_cancer_risks_pose...

  

america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/10/8/pink-dri...

  

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19830105&...

  

planetsave.com/2013/12/07/pollution-air-pollution-water-p...

 

Fossil Fuels are bad for your boobs.

 

That’s pretty much it. It turns out that the chemicals produced during the extraction, refining, and use of fossil fuels; high levels of benzene, toluene, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a few other bad guys are known carcinogens. That’s why Honor the Earth is introducing the pipeline free breast campaign, as a part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, just to be clear, we’re not the only ones on this. Last year, Baker Hughes, who makes the enormous drill bits for the fracking industry introduced some pink drill bits for breast cancer awareness month, and donated $l00,000 for the second year in a row to Susan G. Komen, the best-funded breast cancer organization in the U.S. In return, apparently Baker Hughes got to use the specific shade of pink Susan G. Komen has trademarked. (Who knew they could trademark a shade of pink?)

  

Let’s get real: Pipelines, Fracking and the Tar Sands are Bad for your Boobs; they are bad for your health:

  

Researchers have known for years that the fossil fuel industry creates and releases carcinogens into the environment. Back in the 80’s researchers at Lawrence Livermore Labs in California, found that breast cells growing in culture exposed to benzopyrene had altered genetic make-up. Benzopyrene is the most common carcinogen in the environment that results from burning fossil fuels.

  

Benzene, a major chemical associated with the fossil fuel industry, is recognized as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Benzene is known to influence the development of leukemia, breast and urinary tract cancers. Benzene has also been linked to reduced red and white blood cell production, decreased auto-immune system, deformed spermatozoa and chromosomal mutations.

Benzene itself is known carcinogen.

  

Radon, an odorless radioactive gas which is found existing in bedrock has also been linked to cancer and the fossil fuel industry. Exposure to radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the US, and new studies have linked fracking to increased radon exposure. Radon can be released into groundwater and the air by the fracking process. Radon also travels with the fracked oil and gas through the pipelines to refineries and to the point of use, exposing communities along the way.

  

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are persistent chemicals that are also known carcinogens and genetic mutagens. PAHs can also affect childhood development, including; asthma, low birth weight, heart malformations, and behavior disorders.

  

Communities around the Alberta tar sands fields have been suffering from dangerously high levels of PAHs in the environment and have been reporting subsequently high rates of rare cancers and other diseases.

“More women in the community are contracting lupus. Infant asthma rates have also increased. During the summer months, it is not uncommon to find mysterious lesions and sores after swimming in Lake Athabasca. “When you look at what is happening in the area, it can’t not be related to development,” says Eriel Deranger, a spokesperson for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. ‘Too many times, we see things in the animals and health that the elders have never seen before.’”

  

Spills and accidents can also expose communities to PAHs. After the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon spill, scientists found PAH levels to be 40 times higher than background levels. Fisherman also reported mutations and tumors on local shrimp and crabs. Scientists from several disciplines and universities cite PAHs as most likely cause.

  

The effects of these chemicals on humans and the environment should be a major concern of American lawmakers. Will we begin to see a sharp rise in rare cancers in oil producing and refining communities? Transportation corridor communities are also at risk. North Dakota had over 300 oil spills reported as of 2012, but the self reporting of oil and pipeline companies, including Enbridge ( with 800 spills in a decade) is in fact a risk to your breasts, and your health.. For sure, the l7,000 miles of pipeline in North Dakota as well as nearly l0,000 miles of pipeline in Minnesota, pose some risks.

  

The EPA is finally taking notice of the vast amount of toxins being emitted by the oil refining process, recently passing tough new restrictions on emissions.

  

In 2012, Marathon Oil completed a $2.2 billion upgrade on their 8l year old Detroit facility to process tar sands oil. Marathon’s expansion promises to create 135 jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenues. Even more important, Marathon says, it will help ensure that Michigan's only oil refinery will operate well into the future.

  

“…A reporter asked me what tar sands smell like, and it smells like death. And that’s what it is…”

Emma Lockridge

  

The Marathon oil refinery is in Boynton, Michigan; zip code 48217. It is known as Michigan’s most polluted zip code.

  

“ … We have a tar sands refinery in our community and it is just horrific. We are sick community.” Emma Lockridge explains. We have tried to get them to buy us out. They keep poisoning us. And we cannot get them to buy our houses. “ I can’t hardly breathe here. I have had kidney failure. Neighbor died on dialysis, Neighbor next door with dialysis. Neighbor across the street has kidney failure. The chemicals in our pipelines and are in our water will be the same chemicals that come through your land and can break and contaminate. We have cancer, we have autoimmune illnesses, we have MS, we have chemicals that have come up into our homes through the sewer. Those are from the companies, they end up in the public water and sewer system...They are poisoning us.”

  

Join Honor the Earth for this campaign. Fossil Fuels are bad for your breasts. And, a fossil fuel free future is healthy for all women, children, men and Mother Earth.

  

Models for the campaign continue to come forward. Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska, a lead organization fighting the Keystone XL Pipeline joined for a picture, noting” I’m standing up against Keystone XL because of the risks to our water and our health. The oil and gas industry denies the link of their risky product and cancer, just like the tobacco companies did years ago. Today, we stand up for women’s health."

 

Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network posed with two logos; Mossett is from the Ft. Berthold reservation, where radioactive and salt spills, as well as radioactive fracking socks litter sections of the reservation. Supporting groups include VDay, Indigenous Women’s Network, and Babes Against Biotech. Other women are encouraged to join, and the materials can be downloaded off the Honor the Earth web site.

  

Sources: www.alternet.org/story/155022/the_human_cancer_risks_pose...

  

america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/10/8/pink-dri...

  

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19830105&...

  

planetsave.com/2013/12/07/pollution-air-pollution-water-p...

 

2022/05/21

お台場・青海南ふ頭公園

REFINE×フレッシュ！ダイサツ

Singapore (Listeni/ˈsɪŋɡəpɔːr/), officially the Republic of Singapore, and often referred to as the Lion City, the Garden City, and the Red Dot, is a global city and sovereign state in Southeast Asia and the world's only island city-state. It lies one degree (137 km) north of the equator, at the southernmost tip of continental Asia and peninsular Malaysia, with Indonesia's Riau Islands to the south. Singapore's territory consists of the diamond-shaped main island and 62 islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its total size by 23% (130 km2), and its greening policy has covered the densely populated island with tropical flora, parks and gardens.

 

The islands were settled from the second century AD by a series of local empires. In 1819, Sir Stamford Raffles founded modern Singapore as a trading post of the East India Company; after the company collapsed, the islands were ceded to Britain and became part of its Straits Settlements in 1826. During World War II, Singapore was occupied by Japan. It gained independence from Britain in 1963, by uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia, but was expelled two years later over ideological differences. After early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its human capital.

 

Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub. Its standings include: "easiest place to do business" (World Bank) for ten consecutive years, most "technology-ready" nation (WEF), top International-meetings city (UIA), city with "best investment potential" (BERI), 2nd-most competitive country (WEF), 3rd-largest foreign exchange centre, 3rd-largest financial centre, 3rd-largest oil refining and trading centre and one of the top two busiest container ports since the 1990s. Singapore's best known global brands include Singapore Airlines and Changi Airport, both amongst the most-awarded in their industry; SIA is also rated by Fortune surveys as Asia's "most admired company". For the past decade, it has been the only Asian country with the top AAA sovereign rating from all major credit rating agencies, including S&P, Moody's and Fitch.

 

Singapore ranks high on its national social policies, leading Asia and 11th globally, on the Human Development Index (UN), notably on key measures of education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, housing. Although income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, and the country has one of the highest per capita incomes, with low taxes. The cosmopolitan nation is home to 5.5 million residents, 38% of whom are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. Singaporeans are mostly bilingual in a mother-tongue language and English as their common language. Its cultural diversity is reflected in its extensive ethnic "hawker" cuisine and major festivals - Chinese, Malay, Indian, Western - which are all national holidays. In 2015, Lonely Planet and The New York Times listed Singapore as their top and 6th best world destination to visit respectively.

 

The nation's core principles are meritocracy, multiculturalism and secularism. It is noted for its effective, pragmatic and incorrupt governance and civil service, which together with its rapid development policies, is widely cited as the "Singapore model". Gallup polls shows 84% of its residents expressed confidence in the national government, and 85% in its judicial systems - one of the highest ratings recorded. Singapore has significant influence on global affairs relative to its size, leading some analysts to classify it as a middle power. It is ranked as Asia's most influential city and 4th in the world by Forbes.

 

Singapore is a unitary, multiparty, parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959. One of the five founding members of the ASEAN, Singapore is also the host of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Secretariat, and a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement, and the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

ETYMOLOGY

The English name of Singapore is derived from the Malay word, Singapura, which was in turn derived from Sanskrit (Singa is "lion", Pura "city"; Sanskrit: सिंहपुर, IAST: Siṃhápura), hence the customary reference to the nation as the Lion City, and its inclusion in many of the nation's symbols (e.g., its coat of arms, Merlion emblem). However, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island; Sang Nila Utama, who founded and named the island Singapura, most likely saw a Malayan tiger. It is also known as Pulau Ujong, as far back as the 3rd century, literally 'island at the end' (of the Malay Peninsula) in Malay.

 

Since the 1970s, Singapore has also been widely known as the Garden City, owing to its extensive greening policy covering the whole island, a priority of its first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, dubbed the nation's "Chief Gardener". The nation's conservation and greening efforts contributed to Singapore Botanic Gardens being the only tropical garden to be inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The nickname, Red Dot, is a reference to its size on the map, contrasting with its achievements. In 2015, Singapore's Golden Jubilee year, the celebratory "SG50" branding is depicted inside a red dot.

 

HISTORY

Temasek ('Sea Town' in the Malay language), an outpost of the Sumatran Srivijaya empire, is the earliest written record relating to the area now called Singapore. In the 13th century, the Kingdom of Singapura was established on the island and it became a trading port city. However, there were two major foreign invasions before it was destroyed by the Majapahit in 1398. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was nominally part of the Johor Sultanate and the island sank into obscurity for the next two centuries, while the wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control.

 

BRITISH COLONISATION 1819-1942

In 1819, Thomas Stamford Raffles arrived and signed a treaty with Sultan Hussein Shah of Johor, on behalf of the British East India Company, to develop the southern part of Singapore as a British trading post. In 1824, the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, becoming the regional capital in 1836.

 

Prior to Raffles' arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860, the population had swelled to more than 80,000 and more than half were Chinese. Many immigrants came to work at rubber plantations and, after the 1870s, the island became a global centre for rubber exports.

 

After the First World War, the British built the large Singapore Naval Base. Lieutenant General Sir William George Shedden Dobbie was appointed General Officer Commanding of the Malaya Command on 8 November 1935, holding the post until 1939;

 

WORLD WAR II AND JAPANESE OCCUPATION 1942-45

in May 1938, the General Officer Commanding of the Malaya Command warned how Singapore could be conquered by the Japanese via an attack from northern Malaya, but his warnings went unheeded. The Imperial Japanese Army invaded British Malaya, culminating in the Battle of Singapore. When the British surrendered on 15 February 1942, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the defeat "the worst disaster and largest capitulation in British history". Between 5,000 and 25,000 ethnic Chinese people were killed in the subsequent Sook Ching massacre.

 

From November 1944 to May 1945, the Allies conducted an intensive bombing of Singapore.

 

RETURN OF BRITISH 1945-59

After the surrender of Japan was announced in the Jewel Voice Broadcast by the Japanese Emperor on 15 August 1945 there was a breakdown of order and looting and revenge-killing were widespread. The formal Japanese Occupation of Singapore was only ended by Operation Tiderace and the formal surrender on 12 September 1945 at Singapore City Hall when Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of Southeast Asia Command, accepted the capitulation of Japanese forces in Southeast Asia from General Itagaki Seishiro.

 

A British Military Administration was then formed to govern the island. On 1 April 1946, the Straits Settlements were dissolved and Singapore became a separate Crown Colony with a civil administration headed by a Governor. Much of the infrastructure had been destroyed during the war, including the harbour, electricity, telephone and water supply systems. There was also a shortage of food leading to malnutrition, disease, and rampant crime and violence. High food prices, unemployment, and workers' discontent culminated into a series of strikes in 1947 causing massive stoppages in public transport and other services. In July 1947, separate Executive and Legislative Councils were established and the election of six members of the Legislative Council was scheduled for the following year. By late 1947, the economy began to recover, facilitated by a growing demand for tin and rubber around the world, but it would take several more years before the economy returned to pre-war levels.

 

The failure of Britain to defend Singapore had destroyed its credibility as an infallible ruler in the eyes of Singaporeans. The decades after the war saw a political awakening amongst the local populace and the rise of anti-colonial and nationalist sentiments, epitomized by the slogan Merdeka, or "independence" in the Malay language.

 

During the 1950s, Chinese Communists with strong ties to the trade unions and Chinese schools carried out armed uprising against the government, leading to the Malayan Emergency and later, the Communist Insurgency War. The 1954 National Service Riots, Chinese middle schools riots, and Hock Lee bus riots in Singapore were all linked to these events.

 

David Marshall, pro-independence leader of the Labour Front, won Singapore's first general election in 1955. He led a delegation to London, but Britain rejected his demand for complete self-rule. He resigned and was replaced by Lim Yew Hock, whose policies convinced Britain to grant Singapore full internal self-government for all matters except defence and foreign affairs.

 

SELF-GOVERNMENT 1959-1963

During the May 1959 elections, the People's Action Party won a landslide victory. Singapore became an internally self-governing state within the Commonwealth, with Lee Kuan Yew as its first Prime Minister. Governor Sir William Allmond Codrington Goode served as the first Yang di-Pertuan Negara (Head of State), and was succeeded by Yusof bin Ishak, who became the first President of Singapore in 1965.

 

MERGER WITH MALAYSIA 1963-65

As a result of the 1962 Merger Referendum, on 31 August 1963 Singapore joined with the Federation of Malaya, the Crown Colony of Sarawak and the Crown Colony of North Borneo to form the new federation of Malaysia under the terms of the Malaysia Agreement. Singaporean leaders chose to join Malaysia primarily due to concerns over its limited land size, scarcity of water, markets and natural resources. Some Singaporean and Malaysian politicians were also concerned that the communists might form the government on the island, a possibility perceived as an external threat to the Federation of Malaya.However, shortly after the merger, the Singapore state government and the Malaysian central government disagreed on many political and economic issues, and communal strife culminated in the 1964 race riots in Singapore. After many heated ideological conflicts between the two governments, on 9 August 1965, the Malaysian Parliament voted 126 to 0 to expel Singapore from Malaysia with Singaporean delegates not present.

 

INDEPENDENCE 1965 TO PRESENT

Singapore gained independence as the Republic of Singapore (remaining within the Commonwealth of Nations) on 9 August 1965. Race riots broke out once more in 1969. In 1967, the country co-founded ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and in 1970 it joined the Non-Aligned Movement. Lee Kuan Yew became Prime Minister, leading its Third World economy to First World affluence in a single generation. His emphasis on rapid economic growth, support for business entrepreneurship, limitations on internal democracy, and close relationships with China set the new nation's policies for the next half-century.

 

In 1990, Goh Chok Tong succeeded Lee as Prime Minister, while the latter continued serving in the Cabinet as Senior Minister until 2004, and then Minister Mentor until May 2011. During Goh's tenure, the country faced the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak and terrorist threats posed by Jemaah Islamiyah.

 

In 2004, Lee Hsien Loong, the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew, became the country's third Prime Minister. Goh Chok Tong remained in Cabinet as the Senior Minister until May 2011, when he was named Emeritus Senior Minister despite his retirement. He steered the nation through the 2008 global financial crisis, resolved the disputed 79-year old Malayan railways land, and introduced integrated resorts. Despite the economy's exceptional growth, PAP suffered its worst election results in 2011, winning 60% of votes, amidst hot-button issues of high influx of foreign workers and cost of living. Lee initiated a major re-structuring of the economy to raise productivity, improved universal healthcare and grants, especially for the pioneer generation of citizens, amongst many new inclusive measures.

 

On 23 March 2015, its founding prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, who had 'personified Singapore to the world' for nearly half a century died. In a week of national mourning, 1.7 million residents and guests paid tribute to him at his lying-in-state at Parliament House and at community sites around the island.

 

Singapore celebrated its Golden jubilee in 2015 – its 50th year of independence, with a year-long series of events branded SG50. The PAP maintained its dominance in Parliament at the September general elections, receiving 69.9% of the popular vote, its second-highest polling result behind the 2001 tally of 75.3%.

 

GEOGRAPHY

Singapore consists of 63 islands, including the main island, Pulau Ujong. There are two man-made connections to Johor, Malaysia: the Johor–Singapore Causeway in the north and the Tuas Second Link in the west. Jurong Island, Pulau Tekong, Pulau Ubin and Sentosa are the largest of Singapore's smaller islands. The highest natural point is Bukit Timah Hill at 163.63 m. April and May are the hottest months, with the wetter monsoon season from November to January.

 

From July to October, there is often haze caused by bush fires in neighbouring Indonesia, usually from the island of Sumatra. Although Singapore does not observe daylight saving time (DST), it follows the GMT+8 time zone, one hour ahead of the typical zone for its geographical location.

 

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government representing constituencies. The country's constitution establishes a representative democracy as the political system. Executive power rests with the Cabinet of Singapore, led by the Prime Minister and, to a much lesser extent, the President. The President is elected through a popular vote, and has veto powers over a specific set of executive decisions, such as the use of the national reserves and the appointment of judges, but otherwise occupies a largely ceremonial post.

 

The Parliament serves as the legislative branch of the government. Members of Parliament (MPs) consist of elected, non-constituency and nominated members. Elected MPs are voted into the Parliament on a "first-past-the-post" (plurality) basis and represent either single-member or group representation constituencies. The People's Action Party has won control of Parliament with large majorities in every election since self-governance was secured in 1959.

 

Although the elections are clean, there is no independent electoral authority and the government has strong influence on the media. Freedom House ranks Singapore as "partly free" in its Freedom in the World report, and The Economist ranks Singapore as a "flawed democracy", the second best rank of four, in its "Democracy Index". Despite this, in the 2011 Parliamentary elections, the opposition, led by the Workers' Party, increased its representation to seven elected MPs. In the 2015 elections, PAP scored a landslide victory, winning 83 of 89 seats contested, with 70% of popular votes. Gallup polls reported 84% of residents in Singapore expressed confidence in the government, and 85% in its judicial systems and courts – one of the highest ratings in the world.

 

Singapore's governance model eschews populist politics, focusing on the nation's long-term interest, and is known to be clean, effective and pragmatic. As a small nation highly dependent on external trade, it is vulnerable to geo-politics and global economics. It places great emphasis on security and stability of the region in its foreign policies, and applies global best practices to ensure the nation's attractiveness as an investment destination and business hub.

 

The legal system of Singapore is based on English common law, but with substantial local differences. Trial by jury was abolished in 1970 so that judicial decisions would rest entirely in the hands of appointed judges. Singapore has penalties that include judicial corporal punishment in the form of caning, which may be imposed for such offences as rape, rioting, vandalism, and certain immigration offences.There is a mandatory death penalty for murder, as well as for certain aggravated drug-trafficking and firearms offences.

 

Amnesty International has said that some legal provisions of the Singapore system conflict with the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that Singapore has "... possibly the highest execution rate in the world relative to its population". The government has disputed Amnesty's claims. In a 2008 survey of international business executives, Singapore received the top ranking with regard to judicial system quality in Asia. Singapore has been consistently rated among the least corrupt countries in the world by Transparency International.

 

In 2011, the World Justice Project's Rule of Law Index ranked Singapore among the top countries surveyed with regard to "order and security", "absence of corruption", and "effective criminal justice". However, the country received a much lower ranking for "freedom of speech" and "freedom of assembly". All public gatherings of five or more people require police permits, and protests may legally be held only at the Speakers' Corner.

 

EDUCATION

Education for primary, secondary, and tertiary levels is mostly supported by the state. All institutions, private and public, must be registered with the Ministry of Education. English is the language of instruction in all public schools, and all subjects are taught and examined in English except for the "mother tongue" language paper. While the term "mother tongue" in general refers to the first language internationally, in Singapore's education system, it is used to refer to the second language, as English is the first language. Students who have been abroad for a while, or who struggle with their "Mother Tongue" language, are allowed to take a simpler syllabus or drop the subject.

 

Education takes place in three stages: primary, secondary, and pre-university education. Only the primary level is compulsory. Students begin with six years of primary school, which is made up of a four-year foundation course and a two-year orientation stage. The curriculum is focused on the development of English, the mother tongue, mathematics, and science. Secondary school lasts from four to five years, and is divided between Special, Express, Normal (Academic), and Normal (Technical) streams in each school, depending on a student's ability level. The basic coursework breakdown is the same as in the primary level, although classes are much more specialised. Pre-university education takes place over two to three years at senior schools, mostly called Junior Colleges.

 

Some schools have a degree of freedom in their curriculum and are known as autonomous schools. These exist from the secondary education level and up.

 

National examinations are standardised across all schools, with a test taken after each stage. After the first six years of education, students take the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), which determines their placement at secondary school. At the end of the secondary stage, GCE "O"-Level exams are taken; at the end of the following pre-university stage, the GCE "A"-Level exams are taken. Of all non-student Singaporeans aged 15 and above, 18% have no education qualifications at all while 45% have the PSLE as their highest qualification; 15% have the GCE 'O' Level as their highest qualification and 14% have a degree.

 

Singaporean students consistently rank at or near the top of international education assessments:

- In 2015, Singapore topped the OECD's global school performance rankings, based on 15-year-old students' average scores in mathematics and science across 76 countries.

- Singaporean students were ranked first in the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, and have been ranked in the top three every year since 1995.

- Singapore fared best in the 2015 International Baccalaureate exams, taken in 107 countries, with more than half of the world's 81 perfect scorers and 98% passing rate.

 

The country's two main public universities - the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University - are ranked among the top 13 in the world.

 

HEALTH

Singapore has a generally efficient healthcare system, even though their health expenditures are relatively low for developed countries. The World Health Organisation ranks Singapore's healthcare system as 6th overall in the world in its World Health Report. In general, Singapore has had the lowest infant mortality rate in the world for the past two decades.

 

Life expectancy in Singapore is 80 for males and 85 for females, placing the country 4th in the world for life expectancy. Almost the whole population has access to improved water and sanitation facilities. There are fewer than 10 annual deaths from HIV per 100,000 people. There is a high level of immunisation. Adult obesity is below 10%

 

The government's healthcare system is based upon the "3M" framework. This has three components: Medifund, which provides a safety net for those not able to otherwise afford healthcare, Medisave, a compulsory health savings scheme covering about 85% of the population, and Medishield, a government-funded health insurance program. Public hospitals in Singapore have autonomy in their management decisions, and compete for patients. A subsidy scheme exists for those on low income. In 2008, 32% of healthcare was funded by the government. It accounts for approximately 3.5% of Singapore's GDP.

 

RELIGION

Buddhism is the most widely practised religion in Singapore, with 33% of the resident population declaring themselves adherents at the most recent census. The next-most practised religion is Christianity, followed by Islam, Taoism, and Hinduism. 17% of the population did not have a religious affiliation. The proportion of Christians, Taoists, and non-religious people increased between 2000 and 2010 by about 3% each, whilst the proportion of Buddhists decreased. Other faiths remained largely stable in their share of the population. An analysis by the Pew Research Center found Singapore to be the world's most religiously diverse nation.

 

There are monasteries and Dharma centres from all three major traditions of Buddhism in Singapore: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Most Buddhists in Singapore are Chinese and are of the Mahayana tradition, with missionaries having come into the country from Taiwan and China for several decades. However, Thailand's Theravada Buddhism has seen growing popularity among the populace (not only the Chinese) during the past decade. Soka Gakkai International, a Japanese Buddhist organisation, is practised by many people in Singapore, but mostly by those of Chinese descent. Tibetan Buddhism has also made slow inroads into the country in recent years.

 

CULTURE

Singapore has one of the lowest rates of drug use in the world. Culturally, the use of illicit drugs is viewed as highly undesirable by Singaporeans, unlike many European societies. Singaporeans' disapproval towards drug use has resulted in laws that impose the mandatory death sentence for certain serious drug trafficking offences. Singapore also has a low rate of alcohol consumption per capita and low levels of violent crime, and one of the lowest intentional homicide rate globally. The average alcohol consumption rate is only 2 litres annually per adult, one of the lowest in the world.

 

Foreigners make up 42% of the population, and have a strong influence on Singaporean culture. The Economist Intelligence Unit, in its 2013 "Where-to-be-born Index", ranks Singapore as having the best quality of life in Asia and sixth overall in the world.

 

LANGUAGES; RELIGIONS AND CULTURES

Singapore is a very diverse and young country. It has many languages, religions, and cultures for a country its size.

 

When Singapore became independent from the United Kingdom in 1963, most of the newly minted Singaporean citizens were uneducated labourers from Malaysia, China and India. Many of them were transient labourers who were seeking to make some money in Singapore and they had no intention of staying permanently. A sizeable minority of middle-class, local-born people, known as the Peranakans, also existed. With the exception of the Peranakans (descendants of late 15th and 16th-century Chinese immigrants) who pledged their loyalties to Singapore, most of the labourers' loyalties lay with their respective homelands of Malaysia, China and India. After independence, the process of crafting a Singaporean identity and culture began.

 

Former Prime Ministers of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, have stated that Singapore does not fit the traditional description of a nation, calling it a society-in-transition, pointing out the fact that Singaporeans do not all speak the same language, share the same religion, or have the same customs. Even though English is the first language of the nation, according to the government's 2010 census 20% of Singaporeans, or one in five, are illiterate in English. This is a marked improvement from 1990 where 40% of Singaporeans were illiterate in English.

 

Languages, religions and cultures among Singaporeans are not delineated according to skin colour or ancestry, unlike many other countries. Among Chinese Singaporeans, one in five is Christian, another one in five is atheist, and the rest are mostly Buddhists or Taoists. One-third speak English as their home language, while half speak Mandarin Chinese. The rest speak other Chinese varieties at home. Most Malays in Singapore speak Malay as their home language with some speaking English. Singaporean Indians are much more religious. Only 1% of them are atheists. Six in ten are Hindu, two in ten Muslim, and the rest mostly Christian. Four in ten speak English as their home language, three in ten Tamil, one in ten Malay, and the rest other Indian languages as their home language.

 

Each Singaporean's behaviours and attitudes would therefore be influenced by, among many other things, his or her home language and his religion. Singaporeans who speak English as their native language tend to lean toward Western culture, while those who speak Chinese as their native language tend to lean toward Chinese culture and Confucianism. Malay speaking Singaporeans tend to lean toward the Malay culture, which itself is closely linked to the Islamic culture.

 

ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS

At the national level in Singapore, meritocracy, where one is judged based on one's ability, is heavily emphasised.

 

Racial and religious harmony is regarded by Singaporeans as a crucial part of Singapore's success, and played a part in building a Singaporean identity. Singapore has a reputation as a nanny state. The national flower of Singapore is the hybrid orchid, Vanda 'Miss Joaquim', named in memory of a Singapore-born Armenian woman, who crossbred the flower in her garden at Tanjong Pagar in 1893. Many national symbols such as the Coat of arms of Singapore and the Lion head symbol of Singapore make use of the lion, as Singapore is known as the Lion City. Other monikers by which Singapore is widely known is the Garden City and the Red Dot. Public holidays in Singapore cover major Chinese, Western, Malay and Indian festivals.

 

Singaporean employees work an average of around 45 hours weekly, relatively long compared to many other nations. Three in four Singaporean employees surveyed stated that they take pride in doing their work well, and that doing so helps their self-confidence.

 

CUISINE

Dining, along with shopping, is said to be the country's national pastime. The focus on food has led countries like Australia to attract Singaporean tourists with food-based itineraries. The diversity of food is touted as a reason to visit the country, and the variety of food representing different ethnicities is seen by the government as a symbol of its multiculturalism. The "national fruit" of Singapore is the durian.

 

In popular culture, food items belong to a particular ethnicity, with Chinese, Malay, and Indian food clearly defined. However, the diversity of cuisine has been increased further by the "hybridisation" of different styles (e.g., the Peranakan cuisine, a mix of Chinese and Malay cuisine).

 

WIKIPEDIA

A JAC Refine photographed in Anting, Shanghai municipality, China.

May 12, 2019 - Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio located at 951 Chicago Ave., Oak Park, IL.

"In 1889 Wright completed the construction of a small two-story residence in Oak Park on the Western edges of Chicago. The building was the first over which Wright exerted complete artistic control. Designed as a home for his family, the Oak Park residence was a site of experimentation for the young architect during the twenty-year period he lived there. Wright revised the design of the building multiple times, continually refining ideas that would shape his work for decades to come.

 

The semi-rural village of Oak Park, where Wright built his home, offered a retreat from the hurried pace of city life. Named “Saint’s Rest” for its abundance of churches, Oak Park was originally settled in the 1830s by pioneering East Coast families. In its early years farming was the principal business of the village, however its proximity to Chicago soon attracted professional men and their families. Along its unpaved dirt streets sheltered by mature oaks and elms, prosperous families erected elaborate homes. Beyond the borders of the village farmland and open prairie stretched as far as the eye could see.

 

The Oak Park Home was the product of the nineteenth century culture from which Wright emerged. For its design, Wright drew upon many inspirational sources prevalent in the waning years of the nineteenth century. From his family background in Unitarianism Wright absorbed the ideas of the Transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, who encouraged an honest life inspired by nature. The English Arts and Crafts movement, which promoted craftsmanship, simplicity and integrity in art, architecture and design, provided a powerful impetus to Wright’s principles. The household art movement, a distinct movement in middle-class home decoration, informed Wright’s earliest interiors. It aimed, as the name implies, to bring art into the home, and was primarily disseminated through books and articles written by tastemakers who believed that the home interior could exert moral influences upon its inhabitants. These various sources were tempered by the lessons and practices Wright learned under his mentors, Joseph Lyman Silsbee and Louis Sullivan.

 

For the exterior of his home, Wright adapted the picturesque Shingle style, fashionable for the vacation homes of wealthy East Coast families and favored by his previous employer, Silsbee. The stamp of Sullivan’s influence is apparent in the simplification and abstraction of the building and its plan. In contrast to what Wright described as “candle-snuffer roofs, turnip domes [and] corkscrew spires” of the surrounding houses, his home’s façade is defined by bold geometric shapes—a substantial triangular gable set upon a rectangular base, polygonal window bays, and the circular wall of the wide veranda.

Despite its modest scale, the interior of the home is an early indication of Wright’s desire to liberate space. On the ground floor Wright created a suite of rooms arranged around a central hearth and inglenook, a common feature of the Shingle style. The rooms flow together, connected by wide, open doorways hung with portieres that can be drawn for privacy. To compensate for the modest scale of the house, and to create an inspiring environment for his family, Wright incorporated artwork and objects that brought warmth and richness to the interiors. Unique furniture, Oriental rugs, potted palms, statues, paintings and Japanese prints filled the rooms, infusing them with a sense of the foreign, the exotic and the antique.

 

In 1895, to accommodate his growing family, Wright undertook his first major renovation of the Home. A new dining room and children’s playroom doubled the floor space. The design innovations pioneered by Wright at this time marked a significant development in the evolution of his style, bringing him closer to his ideal for the new American home.

 

The original dining room was converted into a study, and a new dining room replaced the former kitchen. The dining room is unified around a central oak table lit through a decorative panel above and with an alcove of leaded glass windows in patterns of conventionalized lotus flowers. The walls and ceiling are covered with honey-toned burlap; the floor and fireplace are lined with red terracotta tile.

 

The new dining room is a warm and intimate space to gather with family and friends. The Wrights entertained frequently, and were joined at their table by clients, artists, authors and international visitors. Such festive occasions, according to Wright’s son, John, gave the house the air of a “jolly carnival.”

The 1895 playroom on the second floor of the Home is one of the great spaces of Wright’s early career. Designed to inspire and nurture his six children, the room is a physical expression of Wright’s belief that, “For the same reason that we teach our children to speak the truth, or better still live the truth, their environment ought to be as truly beautiful as we are capable of making it.” Architectural details pioneered by Wright in this room would be developed and enhanced in numerous commissions throughout his career.

 

The high, barrel-vaulted ceiling rests on walls of Roman brick. At the center of the vault’s arc a skylight, shielded by wood grilles displaying stylized blossoms and seedpods, provides illumination. Striking cantilevered light fixtures of oak and glass, added after Wright’s 1905 trip to Japan, bathe the room in a warm ambient glow. On either side of the room, window bays of leaded glass with built-in window seats are at the height of the mature trees that surround the lot, placing Wright’s children in the leafy canopy of the trees outside.

 

Above the fireplace of Roman brick, a mural depicting the story of the Fisherman and the Genie from The Arabian Nights is painted on the plastered wall. An integral architectural feature within the room, the mural was designed by Wright and executed by his colleague, the artist Charles Corwin. It is a fascinating blend of decorative motifs; forms from exotic cultures—such as Egyptian winged scarabs—are combined with flat, geometric designs that echo the work of Wright’s international contemporaries, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Vienna Secessionists.

 

In 1898 Wright built a new Studio wing with funds secured through a commission with the Luxfer Prism Company. The Studio faced Chicago Avenue and was connected to his residence by a corridor. Clad in wood shingles and brick, the Studio exterior is consistent with the earlier home. However, the long, horizontal profile, a key feature of Wright’s mature Prairie buildings, sets it apart. Adjacent to the entrance, a stone plaque announces to the world, “Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect.” Decorative embellishments and figural sculptures set off the building’s artistic character and impressed arriving clients.

 

The reception hall serves as the entrance to the Studio. A waiting room for clients and a place for Wright to review architectural plans with contractors, this low-ceilinged space connects the main areas of the Studio—a library, a small office, and the dramatic two-story drafting room, the creative heart of the building.

 

The studio staff worked on drafting tables and stools designed by Wright in rooms decorated with eclectic displays of artwork and objects. Japanese prints, casts of classical sculptures, as well as models and drawings executed in the drafting room, filled the interiors of the Studio. In Wright’s home the integration of art and architecture served to nurture and intellectually sustain his family. In the Studio, these same elements served a further purpose, the marketing of Wright’s artistic identity to his clients and the public at large.

 

In September of 1909, Wright left America for Europe to work on the publication of a substantial monograph of his buildings and projects, the majority of which had been designed in his Oak Park Studio. The result was the Wasmuth Portfolio (Berlin, 1910), which introduced Wright's work to Europe and influenced a generation of international architects. Wright remained abroad for a year, returning to Oak Park in the fall of 1910. He immediately began plans for a new home and studio, Taliesin, which he would build in the verdant hills of Spring Green, Wisconsin. Wright’s Oak Park Studio closed in 1910, though Wright himself returned occasionally to meet with his wife Catherine who remained with the couple's youngest children at the Oak Park Home and Studio until 1918. The Home and Studio was the birthplace of Wright's vision for a new American architecture. Wright designed over 150 projects in his Oak Park Studio, establishing his legacy as a great and visionary architect.

 

Previous text from the following website: flwright.org/researchexplore/homeandstudio

RocksInMyHead™ is the World’s Greatest Rock, Prospecting & Outdoor Education Company. For gold prospecting, refining, rockhounding, jewelry making & lapidary tools, supplies, equipment, books, maps, and more, plus lots of great rocks, minerals, fossils, & meteorites, go to our website RocksInMyHead.com. Check out our blog “Adventures With Rocks” at JedidiahFree.Blogspot.com. Like Us on Facebook at Facebook.com/RocksInMyHead.

Fossil Fuels are bad for your boobs.

 

That’s pretty much it. It turns out that the chemicals produced during the extraction, refining, and use of fossil fuels; high levels of benzene, toluene, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a few other bad guys are known carcinogens. That’s why Honor the Earth is introducing the pipeline free breast campaign, as a part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, just to be clear, we’re not the only ones on this. Last year, Baker Hughes, who makes the enormous drill bits for the fracking industry introduced some pink drill bits for breast cancer awareness month, and donated $l00,000 for the second year in a row to Susan G. Komen, the best-funded breast cancer organization in the U.S. In return, apparently Baker Hughes got to use the specific shade of pink Susan G. Komen has trademarked. (Who knew they could trademark a shade of pink?)

  

Let’s get real: Pipelines, Fracking and the Tar Sands are Bad for your Boobs; they are bad for your health:

  

Researchers have known for years that the fossil fuel industry creates and releases carcinogens into the environment. Back in the 80’s researchers at Lawrence Livermore Labs in California, found that breast cells growing in culture exposed to benzopyrene had altered genetic make-up. Benzopyrene is the most common carcinogen in the environment that results from burning fossil fuels.

  

Benzene, a major chemical associated with the fossil fuel industry, is recognized as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Benzene is known to influence the development of leukemia, breast and urinary tract cancers. Benzene has also been linked to reduced red and white blood cell production, decreased auto-immune system, deformed spermatozoa and chromosomal mutations.

Benzene itself is known carcinogen.

  

Radon, an odorless radioactive gas which is found existing in bedrock has also been linked to cancer and the fossil fuel industry. Exposure to radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the US, and new studies have linked fracking to increased radon exposure. Radon can be released into groundwater and the air by the fracking process. Radon also travels with the fracked oil and gas through the pipelines to refineries and to the point of use, exposing communities along the way.

  

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are persistent chemicals that are also known carcinogens and genetic mutagens. PAHs can also affect childhood development, including; asthma, low birth weight, heart malformations, and behavior disorders.

  

Communities around the Alberta tar sands fields have been suffering from dangerously high levels of PAHs in the environment and have been reporting subsequently high rates of rare cancers and other diseases.

“More women in the community are contracting lupus. Infant asthma rates have also increased. During the summer months, it is not uncommon to find mysterious lesions and sores after swimming in Lake Athabasca. “When you look at what is happening in the area, it can’t not be related to development,” says Eriel Deranger, a spokesperson for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. ‘Too many times, we see things in the animals and health that the elders have never seen before.’”

  

Spills and accidents can also expose communities to PAHs. After the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon spill, scientists found PAH levels to be 40 times higher than background levels. Fisherman also reported mutations and tumors on local shrimp and crabs. Scientists from several disciplines and universities cite PAHs as most likely cause.

  

The effects of these chemicals on humans and the environment should be a major concern of American lawmakers. Will we begin to see a sharp rise in rare cancers in oil producing and refining communities? Transportation corridor communities are also at risk. North Dakota had over 300 oil spills reported as of 2012, but the self reporting of oil and pipeline companies, including Enbridge ( with 800 spills in a decade) is in fact a risk to your breasts, and your health.. For sure, the l7,000 miles of pipeline in North Dakota as well as nearly l0,000 miles of pipeline in Minnesota, pose some risks.

  

The EPA is finally taking notice of the vast amount of toxins being emitted by the oil refining process, recently passing tough new restrictions on emissions.

  

In 2012, Marathon Oil completed a $2.2 billion upgrade on their 8l year old Detroit facility to process tar sands oil. Marathon’s expansion promises to create 135 jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenues. Even more important, Marathon says, it will help ensure that Michigan's only oil refinery will operate well into the future.

  

“…A reporter asked me what tar sands smell like, and it smells like death. And that’s what it is…”

Emma Lockridge

  

The Marathon oil refinery is in Boynton, Michigan; zip code 48217. It is known as Michigan’s most polluted zip code.

  

“ … We have a tar sands refinery in our community and it is just horrific. We are sick community.” Emma Lockridge explains. We have tried to get them to buy us out. They keep poisoning us. And we cannot get them to buy our houses. “ I can’t hardly breathe here. I have had kidney failure. Neighbor died on dialysis, Neighbor next door with dialysis. Neighbor across the street has kidney failure. The chemicals in our pipelines and are in our water will be the same chemicals that come through your land and can break and contaminate. We have cancer, we have autoimmune illnesses, we have MS, we have chemicals that have come up into our homes through the sewer. Those are from the companies, they end up in the public water and sewer system...They are poisoning us.”

  

Join Honor the Earth for this campaign. Fossil Fuels are bad for your breasts. And, a fossil fuel free future is healthy for all women, children, men and Mother Earth.

  

Models for the campaign continue to come forward. Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska, a lead organization fighting the Keystone XL Pipeline joined for a picture, noting” I’m standing up against Keystone XL because of the risks to our water and our health. The oil and gas industry denies the link of their risky product and cancer, just like the tobacco companies did years ago. Today, we stand up for women’s health."

 

Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network posed with two logos; Mossett is from the Ft. Berthold reservation, where radioactive and salt spills, as well as radioactive fracking socks litter sections of the reservation. Supporting groups include VDay, Indigenous Women’s Network, and Babes Against Biotech. Other women are encouraged to join, and the materials can be downloaded off the Honor the Earth web site.

  

Sources: www.alternet.org/story/155022/the_human_cancer_risks_pose...

  

america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/10/8/pink-dri...

  

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19830105&...

  

planetsave.com/2013/12/07/pollution-air-pollution-water-p...

 

While naval doctrine has never evolved in a vacuum, the simmering conflict between the first and second Accord Wars provided an idea opportunity for both the Empire and Accord to refine and test their doctrines in relatively low-risk engagements. The extended time period also allowed for numerous ship classes to be requested, designed, procured, and deployed on both sides, often specifically to counter a new strategy, tactic, or element of naval hardware.

 

Given the smaller size of the Accord Republican Navy, it was unsurprising that they adopted strategies relying heavily on fast carrier strike packages that could conduct attacks on relatively poorly defended Imperial assets, despite the Accord carriers often being little more than converted freighters. After a time, more and more Imperial picket corvettes and frigates were produced and utilized, massively increasing Accord losses and protecting Imperial interests at a relatively affordable price. At the same time, the constant reconnaissance struggle continued to escalate as well; the standard sensor drone swarms augmented by heavy strike fighters and even modified corvettes, deployed to both protect the sensor drones and also to intercept hostile scouts. The Assault Reconnaissance Corvette was conceived as an attempt by the Accord to solve both of these problems, though the eventual proliferation of Accord heavy fleets saw the Empire adopt its own variants.

 

The ARN-27 was not the first Assault Reconnaissance Corvette deployed by the Accord, but it was the first designed specifically for the purpose, learning lessons from previous conversions that had not filled the role as well as had been hoped. At the core of its mission brief was to locate the hostile fleet, destroy hostile anti-recon forces, and then destroy hostile picket forces. While the first two tasks could be performed relatively well by most corvettes or frigates, the latter task had proven far more difficult. Generally, any ship large enough to engage a hostile picket frigate was also going to be vulnerable to the capital grade weapons from the fleet that the picket frigate was protecting. Combat experience showed that even a corvette needed to be relatively fast and agile to be immune to capital grade weapons, leaving naval designers with precious few options.

 

Among the five bids placed on the contract, only Eclipse Industries and Siugniedrev Industrial Works designs made it past initial testing. While the SIW design was in effect a very large stealth bomber, and would go on to see further development in another program, the EI design utilized four mass plasma drivers in a mostly fixed configuration. Even most frigates did not mount weapons of such size, and the extensive cooling arrays and power generation required for the weapons made the ARN-27 more expensive than most other options. However, due to the relatively few hulls required and the economic boom in the Accord at the time, the higher cost was deemed a worthwhile investment.

 

Initial development, like with any military project, was not without teething issues. During high stress atmospheric maneuvers, the weight of the plasma drivers caused warping in the cooling arrays they were mounted on, leading to further strengthening. The lower sensor arrays were removed to add four light missile tubes for better defense against light craft and missiles when it was determined that the four twin laser turrets were not sufficient. The largest change was to the top of the hull however, where both an external access airlock and an enlarged deployable sensor dish was added. Given the crew capacity of six and the provision of both a cargo hold and full living quarters aboard the vessel for extended recon operations, the inability to dock outside of a hangar bay was deemed unacceptable by operational commanders. Other features, such as the enlarged rear comms array were present from the start, specifically designed to provide a datalink back to the fleet in the face of heavy hostile jamming.

 

Though undeniably effective against Imperial forces when it was first deployed, the same economic boom that allowed such an expensive and specialized corvette to be developed was also the ultimate reason it was sidelined. The increased military budget of the Accord saw proper battleline ships built and deployed, first battlecruisers to escort the carriers then proper battleships, making the role of punching through pickets far less important than it had been previously. Still, as one of the largest ships to have the commander and pilot be the same person and a combat profile much more akin to a giant heavy fighter than a traditional corvette, it remains a popular posting for certain officers among the Accord.

 

Manufacturer: Eclipse Industries

Crew: 6 - 1 Pilot/Commander, 1 Weapons Officer, 1 Communications/Sensors Officer, 2 Engineering Officers, 1 Marine.

Length: 89 meters

Maximum Speed: 1185 m/s

FTL Capability: 14335 AU/h

Engines: 4x FierthXP-3000 Ion Drives

Armament: 4x License Built SIW FlameSpike Mass Plasma Drivers, 4x twin GS Gneiss Laser Cannons in turrets, 4x various Accord missile systems depending on mission profile.

 

Made for my Graviton setting.

 

Designers Note: I worked on this one off and on for over a year and it is the largest design I have done yet. It was supposed to be something I could afford to build out of physical bricks, but I clearly got carried away.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

  

The Supermarine Spitfire was a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, using several wing configurations, and it was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft. It was also the only British fighter produced continuously throughout the war.

 

The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works, which operated as a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong from 1928. Mitchell pushed the Spitfire's distinctive elliptical wing designed by Beverley Shenstone to have the thinnest possible cross-section, helping give the aircraft a higher top speed than several contemporary fighters, including the Hawker Hurricane. Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith took over as chief designer, overseeing the Spitfire's development through its multitude of variants and many sub-variants. These covered the Spitfire in development from the Merlin to Griffon water-cooled inline engines, the high-speed photo-reconnaissance variants and the different wing configurations.

 

One exception was the Spitfire Mk. X: it was the only variant powered by a radial engine, and it looked quite different from its sleek Merlin-powered brethren. Early in its development, the Merlin engine's lack of fuel injection meant that Spitfires and Hurricanes, unlike the Bf 109E, were unable to simply nose down into a steep dive. This meant a Luftwaffe fighter could simply "bunt" into a high-power dive to escape an attack, leaving the Spitfire behind, as its fuel was forced out of the carburetor by negative "g". An alternative engine was to solve this issue. Another factor that suggested an air-cooled engine were theatres of operations in the Far East, primarily India: the hot and humid climate was expected to be a severe operational problem for the liquid-cooled Merlin. As a further side effect a radial engine was expected to be easier to maintain under these conditions than the Merlin.

 

The project of a radial-powered Spitfire variant was eventually launched in late 1940. The choice for the power unit fell on a Bristol Taurus II 14-Cylinder engine, which had an appreciable small diameter, was available in ample numbers and had about the same power output as the early Merlin variants used in the Spitfire Mk. I and II (1.030 hp/740kW). In order to save time and keep the radial engine variant as close as possible to the Spitfire V design, the production type of that era. The new type’s structure and fuselage were only adapted to a minimum to allow the bulkier power unit and its periphery to be taken. The fuselage was widened in front of the cockpit section, a new engine mount was integrated and the Merlin’s radiator bath and respective piping were removed. The oil cooler under the port wing was retained, though, and the Taurus engine was from the start outfitted with dust filters, so that all resulting Spitfire Mk. Xs left the factory tropicalized. Like the Spitfire Mk. V, different wing armaments were available, e.g. an “A” wing with eight .303 in machine guns and a “B” wing with two 20 mm cannon and four machine guns.

 

The first Spitfire Mk. Xs, finally outfitted with a more powerful Taurus VI engine, were delivered to homeland RAF units for evaluation from May 1941 onwards. From the start, the radial-powered Spitfire proved to be inferior to the Merlin-powered variants - even to the early Mk. Is – and they were no match to the modern German fighters, especially at high altitude. As a consequence many Mk. Xs received clipped wing tips for better roll characteristics at low altitude (receiving an additional “L.F.” designation), but this did not significantly improve the type’s overall mediocre performance. Only a few Mk. Xs were actually employed by front line units, most were quickly relegated to training units. Later production aircraft were immediately shipped to the Far East or to units in Northern Africa, where they could be used more effectively.

A few machines were also delivered to Egypt (30), the Netherlands (12 for the East Indies NL-KNIL, which eventually ended up in RAAF service) and Turkey (24). In 1942, many machines still based in Great Britain were handed over to the USAAF, being either used for USAAF pilot and conversion training, or they were allocated to the Northern Africa invasion force during Operation Torch.

 

Since the Taurus-powered Spitfire turned out to be quite ineffective (it was no good either in the fighter or in an alternative ground attack role and 20 mph slower than the comparable Mk. V), production was already stopped in late 1942 after 353 aircraft. At the same time, the Spitfire Mk. IX with a much more powerful Merlin engine entered service, and all resources were immediately allocated to this more potent fighter variant and the idea of the Spitfire with a radial engine was ultimately dropped. Since the Taurus-powered type was quickly phased out of frontline service, the designation was later re-used for a pressurized high-altitude photo reconnaissance variant of the Spitfire, the PR.X, of which only 16 machines were built.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: one pilot

Length: 29 ft 6 in (9.00 m)

Wingspan: 32 ft 2 in (9.80 m)

Height: 11 ft 5 in (3.86 m)

Wing area: 242.1 ft2 (22.48 m²)

Airfoil: NACA 2213 (root)

NACA 2209.4 (tip)

Empty weight: 5,065 lb (2,297 kg)

Loaded weight: 6,622 lb (3,000 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 6,700 lb (3,039 kg)

 

Powerplant:

1× Bristol Taurus VI 14-Cylinder sleeve valve radial engine, 1.130 hp (830 kW)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 350 mph (312 kn, 565 km/h)

Combat radius: 410 nmi (470 mi/756 km)

Ferry range: 991 nmi (1,135 mi/1,827 km)

Service ceiling: 36,500 ft (11,125 m)

Rate of climb: 2,535 ft/min (12.9 m/s)

Wing loading: 27.35 lb/ft2 (133.5 kg/m²)

Power/mass: 0.22 hp/lb (0.36 kW/kg)

 

Armament:

2× 20 mm Hispano Mk II with 60 RPG

4× .303 in Browning Mk II machine guns with 350 RPG

  

The kit and its assembly:

My third contribution to the “RAF Centenary” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and the next one in chronological order. This one was spawned by the simple thought of “What would a Spitfire with a radial engine look like…?”. I have seen this stunt done in the form of a Fw190/Spitfire kitbash – nice result, but it did IMHO just not look like a “real” Spitfire with a radial engine, rather like an Fw 190 with elliptical wings. And the fact that I had already successfully transplanted a Centaurus engine onto a P-51 airframe made me feel positive that the stunt could be done!

 

Consequently, the conversion was pretty straightforward. The basis is a Revell 1:72 Spitfire VB (1996 mold), which was – except for the nose section – taken OOB. A simple, nice kit, even though it comes with some flaws, like a depression at the rear of the wing/fuselage intersection and the general need for PSR – not much, but I expected a better fit for such a relatively young mold?

 

For the engine, I used a personal replacement favorite, the cowling and the engine block from a Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” (Hasegawa). The Nakajima Sakae radial engine has a relatively small diameter, so that it serves well as a dummy for the compact Bristol Taurus engine – a replacement I have already used for a radial-powered Westland Whirlwind. The other benefit of the small diameter is that it is relatively easy to blend the round front end into the oval and very slender fuselage of the early Spitfire airframe. This was realized through massive body sculpting from scratch with 2C putty, widening the area in front of the cockpit and expanding its width to match the cowling – I guess that real life engineers would have followed a similar, simple path.

 

Since the radial engine would not need a radiator, I simple omitted this piece (cut out from the single piece lower wing half) and faired the respective underwing area over with a piece of styrene sheet and PSR. The asymmetrical oil cooler was retained, though. The propeller is a replacement from the scrap box, with a smaller diameter spinner and more slender blades which better suit the open cowling.

 

Since the Taurus had its best performance at low altitudes, I used the Revell kit’s OOB option of clipped wing tips – a move that makes the aircraft look much faster, esp. with the new, deeper nose section.

  

Painting and markings:

I did not want classic RAF markings, but still keep the model well within the Centenary GB confines. The original plan had been a classic Dark Green/Ocean Grey livery, which all Spitfire’s in USAAF service and based in the UK received. But I rather wanted to create a frontline aircraft, operated during Operation Torch in late 1942/early 1943 with American roundels – and the grey/green look would not look plausible on a machine taking part in the North African campaign. In fact, any Spitfire with American roundels I found that was used in North Africa carried the RAF Tropical Scheme in Dark Earth/Middle Stone. And, AFAIK, during Operation 'Torch' all British aircraft received American markings in the hope that the Vichy French, who were anti-British due to them bombing their ships in 1940, would switch to the allied cause. They were supposed to think that the Americans would be invading, not British troops as well. So I eventually switched to the classic Tropical Scheme (using Humbrol 29 and Modelmaster 2052 as basic tones), and it does not look bad at all - even though the yellow trim around the roundels does not stand out as much as on a Grey/Green aircraft.

 

Typically, the RAF codes were retained, as well as – at least during the early phases of Operation Torch – the RAF fin flash. A little personal twist is the pale blue (Humbrol 23, Duck Egg Blue) underside of the aircraft, instead of the typical Azure Blue. The rationale behind is that the Tropical Scheme was originally designed with Sky undersides, and the blue shades were later modifications after initial field experience.

The red spinner is a typical Northern Africa marking, and found on many 5th FS aircraft.

 

The interior (cockpit, landing gear wells) was painted with RAF Cockpit Green (Modelmaster), while wheels and struts became light grey.

 

As a standard procedure, the kit received a light black ink wash and a post shading treatment.

 

The decals were puzzled together from various sheets and sources, the design benchmark was a real USAAF Spitfire Vb from Operation Torch, though. The code letters were taken from an Xtradecal sheet, the roundels come from a Carpena Spitfire sheet, even though I placed American markings in all six positions – the roundels without yellow trim under the wings were taken from a Hobby Boss F6F sheet.

The serial number comes from the Revell kit’s OOB sheet, because it fits perfectly into the kit’s intended time frame. The nose art comes from a P-38 sheet (PrintScale) – not a typical feature for an RAF Spitfire, but a frequent personal decoration among USAAF machines during Operation Torch (e.g. on P-40s).

The Allied yellow ID markings on the wings’ leading edges, which were typically carried by Operation Torch Spitfires, too, were created with generic yellow decal sheet (TL Modellbau), while the maroon machine gun nozzle covers are part of Revell’s OOB sheet.

 

Finally, the kit received some soot stains around gun and exhaust nozzles, and was finally sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

  

A bold experiment, and it turned out well. The Zero’s cowling has the perfect diameter for this transplant, and the scratch-sculpted new front fuselage section blends well with the new engine – the whole thing really looks intentional! I am just not certain if the resulting aircraft still deserves the “Spitfire” designation? Even though only the engine was changed, the aircraft looks really different and has a Ki-43ish aura? I guess that a dark green livery and some hinomaru would also look great and pretty plausible?

 

blogged

Constructors number P50/46 was built as a Percival P.50 Prince 3E (short nose version) at Luton, and was the third from last civil Prince to be built. The last of an order for 5 placed by Shell Refining and Marketing Ltd (G-AMKK & G-AMLW to 'LZ). Although registered G-AMLZ on 23.11.51, the first Certificate of Airworthiness was not issued until 14th November 1952, with delivery the same month. At this time Douglas Bader was one of Shell's corporate pilots, so it is almost certain that he flew G-AMLZ during the year and half of Shell's ownership.

 

In July 1954 it was sold to Winston F. Martin (of the Martin family, as in Martin Baker Ltd) and based at Tollerton and Leicester East. After just under two years the aircraft was sold again in May 1956. Also during 1956 the aircraft's engines were modified, the aircraft becoming a Prince 4E and at some stage the aircraft was allocated the registration VR-TBN in Tanganyika, East Africa - but was never taken up. (VR-TBN was actually used on another Prince 3E, C/no P.48 ex G-AMPR of Standard Motors, cancelled from the UK register 11.55), so it is possible that the allocation of the serial to P.46 G-AMLZ was a bureaucratic mix-up in the paper work.

 

In May 1956 G-AMLZ was sold and purchased by Stewart, Smith & Co. Ltd. (alternatively Stewart Smith & Co Ltd) and initially based at Blackbushe, later moving to Heathrow. In December 1958 the engines were uprated again, the aircraft becoming a Prince 6E in the process. Engineering maintenance was contracted to British Eagle and undertaken initially at Heathrow and later at Liverpool in No.1 hangar.

 

Traced visits to Liverpool during this period include:

2nd March 1957 from & to Blackbushe

2nd March 1964 from Heathrow, at Liverpool until 26th March '64

27th March 1965 from & to Heathrow

11th April 1967 from Heathrow for a C of A Check, returned to Heathrow 1st August 1967

24th May 1968 again from & to Heathrow

and a visit into Hawarden for Chester Races 8th May 1962.

 

After 12 years with Stewart, Smith & Co, she was sold in September 1968 to Timothy M. Clutterbuck and based at Leavesden. His use of the aircraft ended March 1971 and it was flown to Coventry, presumably awaiting sale. The C of A expired 18.6.71 and the registration subsequently cancelled by the CAA 18.1.73. With many second-hand, modern twins available, the future looked bleak for a dated twenty year old radial old lady, at a time before 'heritage' types could earn their keep on the air show circuit.

 

However, G-AMLZ was purchased by Coventry based John F. Coggins who operated a number of aviation concerns. The initial plan was to return 'LZ to the air as part of his City Airways pleasure flying operation, joining his Percival Prentice. G-AMLZ was restored to the Register on 23.10.73. However this plan never came to fruition, so G-AMLZ became an external exhibit with the Aircraft Radio Museum - another John Coggins Coventry operation. As an aside to this tale, MSAE members may recall the large box radio (from Proctor G-AIAA) that did sterling service in the Hangar 50 clubroom in the days before transistor sets - this also became an exhibit with the Radio Museum. On 9.10.84 the registration was cancelled by the CAA as 'permanently withdrawn from use'. The aircraft sat at Coventry throughout the '80s.

 

After over 20 years of standing out in the open at Coventry, during 1994 the aircraft was purchased by the Coventry based Air Atlantique Group and surveyed with an eye to restoration to airworthy condition. Perhaps not too suprisingly the rebuild was not proceeded with, and with the help of 29(F) Sqdn ATC, she was dismantled early in 1995 to save space.

 

In February 1997 fortunes apparently changed as 'LZ was transported to Caernarfon Airfield and re-assembled soon after for display with Caernarfon Air World Museum. A 1998 repaint replaced the Stewart, Smith & Co dark blue and white scheme with a simplified scheme in a lighter shade of blue. However, for the next 10 years she was effectively abandoned in a compound beside the Museum, as the Prince did not fit any of the themes inside. Salt laden seaside air and winter Irish Sea storms began to take their toll. The wheels were filled with concrete in an attempt to prevent further storm damage.

 

Although offered for sale, the price was high considering the deteriorating condition she was in. In September 2007, with the compound she was in designated for new hangars, a process of cutting her up for a move indoors began. Horrified that the last remaining civil Prince was being cut-up (as against dismantled), in an eleventh hour rescue the Jetstream Club stepped in and dismantled her properly and transported her by road for indoor storage with the RAF Millom Museum in Cumbria on 5th October 2007. After initial work at Millom, G-AMLZ was on the move again a year later, being transported to Liverpool by road on 23rd November 2008 and delivered onto the former airport apron behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Work has progressed during the winter with anti-corrosion paint applied, cockpit window replaced and much surface preparation, until in mid March the wings and engines were re-attached and she once again stands on her own undercarriage.

 

References:

Air Britain Historians information service website for full Prince/Sea Prince/Pembroke/President production lists compiled by Derek King and Bernard Martin.

www.forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1326867

Back issue of MSAE/MAS Flypast mags and Phil Butler's airport logs.

  

via Instagram ift.tt/2womRwk

Fossil Fuels are bad for your boobs.

 

That’s pretty much it. It turns out that the chemicals produced during the extraction, refining, and use of fossil fuels; high levels of benzene, toluene, and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and a few other bad guys are known carcinogens. That’s why Honor the Earth is introducing the pipeline free breast campaign, as a part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Now, just to be clear, we’re not the only ones on this. Last year, Baker Hughes, who makes the enormous drill bits for the fracking industry introduced some pink drill bits for breast cancer awareness month, and donated $l00,000 for the second year in a row to Susan G. Komen, the best-funded breast cancer organization in the U.S. In return, apparently Baker Hughes got to use the specific shade of pink Susan G. Komen has trademarked. (Who knew they could trademark a shade of pink?)

  

Let’s get real: Pipelines, Fracking and the Tar Sands are Bad for your Boobs; they are bad for your health:

  

Researchers have known for years that the fossil fuel industry creates and releases carcinogens into the environment. Back in the 80’s researchers at Lawrence Livermore Labs in California, found that breast cells growing in culture exposed to benzopyrene had altered genetic make-up. Benzopyrene is the most common carcinogen in the environment that results from burning fossil fuels.

  

Benzene, a major chemical associated with the fossil fuel industry, is recognized as a carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Benzene is known to influence the development of leukemia, breast and urinary tract cancers. Benzene has also been linked to reduced red and white blood cell production, decreased auto-immune system, deformed spermatozoa and chromosomal mutations.

Benzene itself is known carcinogen.

  

Radon, an odorless radioactive gas which is found existing in bedrock has also been linked to cancer and the fossil fuel industry. Exposure to radon is the second largest cause of lung cancer in the US, and new studies have linked fracking to increased radon exposure. Radon can be released into groundwater and the air by the fracking process. Radon also travels with the fracked oil and gas through the pipelines to refineries and to the point of use, exposing communities along the way.

  

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are persistent chemicals that are also known carcinogens and genetic mutagens. PAHs can also affect childhood development, including; asthma, low birth weight, heart malformations, and behavior disorders.

  

Communities around the Alberta tar sands fields have been suffering from dangerously high levels of PAHs in the environment and have been reporting subsequently high rates of rare cancers and other diseases.

“More women in the community are contracting lupus. Infant asthma rates have also increased. During the summer months, it is not uncommon to find mysterious lesions and sores after swimming in Lake Athabasca. “When you look at what is happening in the area, it can’t not be related to development,” says Eriel Deranger, a spokesperson for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. ‘Too many times, we see things in the animals and health that the elders have never seen before.’”

  

Spills and accidents can also expose communities to PAHs. After the 2010 BP/Deepwater Horizon spill, scientists found PAH levels to be 40 times higher than background levels. Fisherman also reported mutations and tumors on local shrimp and crabs. Scientists from several disciplines and universities cite PAHs as most likely cause.

  

The effects of these chemicals on humans and the environment should be a major concern of American lawmakers. Will we begin to see a sharp rise in rare cancers in oil producing and refining communities? Transportation corridor communities are also at risk. North Dakota had over 300 oil spills reported as of 2012, but the self reporting of oil and pipeline companies, including Enbridge ( with 800 spills in a decade) is in fact a risk to your breasts, and your health.. For sure, the l7,000 miles of pipeline in North Dakota as well as nearly l0,000 miles of pipeline in Minnesota, pose some risks.

  

The EPA is finally taking notice of the vast amount of toxins being emitted by the oil refining process, recently passing tough new restrictions on emissions.

  

In 2012, Marathon Oil completed a $2.2 billion upgrade on their 8l year old Detroit facility to process tar sands oil. Marathon’s expansion promises to create 135 jobs and generate millions of dollars in tax revenues. Even more important, Marathon says, it will help ensure that Michigan's only oil refinery will operate well into the future.

  

“…A reporter asked me what tar sands smell like, and it smells like death. And that’s what it is…”

Emma Lockridge

  

The Marathon oil refinery is in Boynton, Michigan; zip code 48217. It is known as Michigan’s most polluted zip code.

  

“ … We have a tar sands refinery in our community and it is just horrific. We are sick community.” Emma Lockridge explains. We have tried to get them to buy us out. They keep poisoning us. And we cannot get them to buy our houses. “ I can’t hardly breathe here. I have had kidney failure. Neighbor died on dialysis, Neighbor next door with dialysis. Neighbor across the street has kidney failure. The chemicals in our pipelines and are in our water will be the same chemicals that come through your land and can break and contaminate. We have cancer, we have autoimmune illnesses, we have MS, we have chemicals that have come up into our homes through the sewer. Those are from the companies, they end up in the public water and sewer system...They are poisoning us.”

  

Join Honor the Earth for this campaign. Fossil Fuels are bad for your breasts. And, a fossil fuel free future is healthy for all women, children, men and Mother Earth.

  

Models for the campaign continue to come forward. Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska, a lead organization fighting the Keystone XL Pipeline joined for a picture, noting” I’m standing up against Keystone XL because of the risks to our water and our health. The oil and gas industry denies the link of their risky product and cancer, just like the tobacco companies did years ago. Today, we stand up for women’s health."

 

Kandi Mossett, of the Indigenous Environmental Network posed with two logos; Mossett is from the Ft. Berthold reservation, where radioactive and salt spills, as well as radioactive fracking socks litter sections of the reservation. Supporting groups include VDay, Indigenous Women’s Network, and Babes Against Biotech. Other women are encouraged to join, and the materials can be downloaded off the Honor the Earth web site.

  

Sources: www.alternet.org/story/155022/the_human_cancer_risks_pose...

  

america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/10/8/pink-dri...

  

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19830105&...

  

planetsave.com/2013/12/07/pollution-air-pollution-water-p...

 

Canon 60D

Nikkor 28mm f3.5

 

I did some refining to my black and white processing and I think I like it? What do you think?

 

This week I've been thinking a a lot about balance. We all need it to get through life. But do we ever forget why we're balancing? Do we ever start to fall asleep on the beam and then suddenly awake and overcompensate for our falling? I know I do...

 

Another thing about balance is this. What must I give up to get what I want? For instance, if I want to be a great photographer, what must I give up or suck at to become one? I don't know yet. Hopefully this photostream will get a lot more awesome when I figure that out though! ;D

 

I hope you and all your friends, family, and generally loved strangers are having a great weekend.