View allAll Photos Tagged System

They're printable. They can be made into lots of things. They're fun.

 

My mom is all excited about how she can use these with the kids' school work...

The largest planet in our solar system. The Sun's job is to supply sun light to all the planets.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

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

  

Some background:

Immediately after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, the Czech president Václav Havel declared a de-mobilization of the Czech defense industry. Nevertheless, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Czech company Aero Vodochody continued developing the basic L-39 Albatros design with a view toward greater export. The resulting L-39MS, later re-designed as L-59 Super Albatros, featured a more powerful turbofan engine, advanced avionics, and has been bought in quantity by Egypt and Tunisia. In 1993, a group of Czech military experts launched a project of production of a modern domestic fighter to replace the obsolete Soviet aircraft. Since the proposed Aero L-X supersonic fighter development proved to be financially demanding (up to US$2 billion), the less costly L-159 subsonic attack aircraft was approved for procurement instead.

 

Conducted between the years 1994 and 1997, the technical development of L-159 ALCA (Advanced Light Combat Aircraft) in Aero Vodochody consisted primarily of building one L-159 two-seat prototype based on the L-59 airframe, utilizing western engine, avionics and weapon systems, with Rockwell Collins (eventually Boeing) as the avionics integrator.

 

The L-159 ALCA was designed for the principal role of light combat aircraft (single-seat L-159A variant) or light attack jet and advanced/lead-in fighter trainer (two-seat L-159B and T variants). The design of the L-159 was derived from the L-39/59 in terms of aerodynamic configuration, but a number of changes were made to improve its combat capabilities. These included strengthening of the airframe, reinforcing of the cockpit with composite and ceramic ballistic armor and enlargement of the aircraft's nose to accommodate a radar. Compared to the L-59, number of underwing pylons was increased from four to six, and a new hardpoint under the fuselage was added instead of a fixed GSh-23L cannon in an external fairing. The aircraft was capable of carrying external loads up to 2,340 kg, ranging from unguided bombs and rocket pods to air-to-ground and air-to-air guided missiles or special devices to conduct aerial reconnaissance or electronic warfare. Guided precision ordnance like laser-guided glide bombs could be carried, too, thanks to the aircraft’s ability to carry respective targeting equipment, for example the AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING pod.

 

The L-159 was powered by the non-afterburning Honeywell/ITEC F124-GA-100 turbofan engine with a maximum thrust of 28 kN. Almost 2,000 litres of fuel was stored in eight internal tanks (six in the fuselage, two at the wingtips) with up to four external drop tanks (two 500 L and two 350 L tanks) carried under the inner wings.

The lightly armored cockpit was equipped with a VS-2B ejection seat, capable of catapulting the pilot at a zero flight level and at zero speed. The aircraft's avionics based on the MIL-STD-1553 databus include a Selex Navigation and Attack Suite, Ring Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS). Flight data was displayed both at the FV-3000 head-up display (HUD) and on two multi-function displays (MFD). Communications were provided by a pair of Collins ARC-182 transceivers. Self-protection of the L-159 was ensured by a Sky Guardian 200 radar warning receiver (RWR) and Vinten Vicon 78 Series 455 chaff and flare dispensers. L-159A and T2 variants were equipped with the lightweight Italian FIAR Grifo L multi-mode Doppler radar for all-weather, day and night operations.

The maiden flight of the first L-159 prototype occurred on 2 August 1997 with a two-seat version. On 18 August 1998, the single-seat L-159A prototype first flew; it was completed to Czech customer specifications. 10 April 2000 marked the first delivery of L-159A to the Czech Air Force and the type was marketed for export.

 

One of the type’s foreign operators became the young Republic of Catalonia, which had declared independence from Spain in 2017. The Catalan independence movement already began in 1922, when Francesc Macià founded the political party Estat Català (Catalan State), but the modern independence movement began and gained serious momentum in 2010, when the Constitutional Court of Spain ruled that some of the articles of the 2006 Statute of Autonomy - which had been agreed with the Spanish government and passed by a referendum in Catalonia - were unconstitutional, and others were to be interpreted restrictively. Popular protest against this decision quickly turned into demands for independence. Starting with the town of Arenys de Munt, over 550 municipalities in Catalonia held symbolic referendums on independence between 2009 and 2011. All of the towns returned a high "yes" vote, with a turnout of around 30% of those eligible to vote. A 2010 protest demonstration against the court's decision, organized by the cultural organization Òmnium Cultural, was attended by over a million people. The popular movement fed upwards to the politicians; a second mass protest on 11 September 2012 (the National Day of Catalonia) explicitly called on the Catalan government to begin the process towards independence. Catalan president Artur Mas called a snap general election, which resulted in a pro-independence majority for the first time in the region's history. The new parliament adopted the Catalan Sovereignty Declaration in early 2013, asserting that the Catalan people had the right to decide their own political future.

 

After three more troublesome years and constant strife for independence from Spain, the Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont eventually announced a binding referendum on the topic. Although deemed illegal by the Spanish government and the Constitutional Court, the referendum was held on 1 October 2017. In a vote where the anti-independence parties called for non-participation, results showed a 90% vote in favor of independence, with a turnout of 43%. Based on this result, on 27 October 2017 the Parliament of Catalonia approved a resolution unilaterally creating an independent Republic.

 

This event was also the rather sudden birth of the Catalonian armed forces. Esp. the nascent air force, called Guàrdies Aèries de la República Catalana (GARC, Republic of Catalonia Air Guard), faced serious trouble, since Spain refused any assistance. Furthermore, there were no former Spanish military air bases in the region that could be taken, and any equipment and infrastructure had to be procured from scratch and on short notice.

 

In the wake of this hasted start, the L-159s became part of the GARC’s initial mixed bag of flying low-budget equipment. They were 2nd hand machines, bought from EADS-CASA of Spain and mothballed since 2012 after a barter deal with the Czech Republic: In 2009, EADS had exchanged with the CzAF four CASA C-295 transporters for three L-159As, two L-159T1s and 130 million Euros. These aircraft were still in EADS inventory in late 2017, even though grounded and taken out of service since 2012, because the operations of this small fleet as chasing aircraft were expensive and no buyer could be found in the meantime.

 

However, in 2018 the company sold them, under indirect pressure from NATO, to the Catalonian government at a “symbolic”, yet unspecified, price. This small fleet was soon augmented by five more L-159As and ten L-159T1s which were directly procured from the Czech Republic in 2019. These aircraft formed the initial, small backbone of the young country’s air defense, armed with AIM-9 Sidewinders (AIM-120 AMRAAM was possible, to, but not procured due to severe budget restraints) and Mauser BK-27 cannon in conformal pods. Since no military airfields with a suitable infrastructure for jet aircraft were available for the GARC at the time of their purchase and introduction, the L-159s were initially based at two public regional airports: at Reus, in the proximity of Tarragona at the Mediterranean coast, and at Girona in the country’s north, where airfield sections were separated of the military operations.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: one

Length: 12.72 m (41 ft 8¾ in)

Wingspan: 9.54 m (31 ft 3½ in)

Height: 4.87 m (16 ft)

Wing area: 18.80 m² (202.4 ft²)

Airfoil: NACA 64A-012

Aspect ratio: 4.8:1

Empty weight: 4,350 kg (9,590 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 8,000 kg (17,637 lb)

 

Powerplant:

1× Honeywell F124-GA-100 turbofan, delivering 28.2 kN (6,330 lbf) thrust

 

Performance:

Never exceed speed: 960 km/h (518 knots, 596 mph)

Maximum speed: 936 km/h (505 knots, 581 mph) at sea level, clean

Stall speed: 185 km/h (100 knots, 115 mph)

Range: 1,570 km (848 nmi, 975 mi) max internal fuel

Combat radius: 565 km (305 nmi, 351 mi) lo-lo-lo, with a gun pod, 2× Mark 82 bombs, 2× AIM-9

Sidewinder and 2× 500 L drop tanks

Service ceiling: 13,200 m (43,300 ft)

Rate of climb: 62 m/s (12,220 ft/min)

 

Armament:

7Í hardpoints in total, 3 under each wing (outer pylons only for AAMs) and 1 under the fuselage,

holding up to 2,340 kg (5,159 lb) of ordnance

  

The kit and its assembly:

This model was spawned by a grain of truth: as mentioned in the background, EADS Spain had actually bought a few L-159s in 2009 from the CzAF in exchange for transporters, and together with the ongoing plans of an independent Catalonia I merged both into this ALCA single seater for the fictional Republic of Catalonia Air Guard.

 

The kit is the relatively new KP L-159. This is basically a nice model, but the kit has some severe flaws (see below). The model was basically built OOB, I just added AIM-9L Sidewinders and their respective launch rails as external ordnance on the outermost underwing hardpoints. Since I did not find the standard gun pod (a ZVI PL-20 Plamen pod with 2×20 mm guns) suitable, I decided to give the GARC aircraft a heavier, Western weapon in the form of a Mauser BK-27 (the same weapon used onboard of the Panavia Tornado or the Saab Gripen) in a conformal cannon pod under the fuselage. This piece was taken and adapted from a Heller Alpha Jet. Its shape perfectly fitted between the two ventral air brakes.

 

Concerning the kit itself, the build turned out to be a medium nightmare. The kit looked promising in the box, with fine engravings, but nothing fits well. There are no locator pins, you have (massive) ejection marks almost everywhere, and the parts’ attachment points to the sprues protrude into the parts themselves, so there’s a lot to clean up. At least there are no sinkholes.

Upon assembly, the cockpit tub – nicely detailed – would not fit into the fuselage at all and ended up in an oblique position (hidden through a pilot figure from the scrap box and a re-mounted avionics fairing in the rear cockpit). The air intakes left me guessing, too: while the edges are crisp and thin, the overall fit with the fuselage and the orientation of the parts had to be guesstimated, plus a mediocre fit, too. The instructions are not very helpful, either. I am quite disappointed and tried to make the best of the situation.

  

Painting and markings:

Much more thought was put into the model’s looks. What camouflage should such an aircraft carry? And I had to invent roundels/markings for a Catalonian air force aircraft, too.

 

Since the Catalonian L-159s were multi-purpose aircraft, yet primarily tasked with air space defense, I opted for an subdued air superiority scheme instead of a tactical low-level camouflage. Furthermore, the camouflage was supposed to be suited for a mountainous landscape (Pyrenees), relatively flat and dry land and also to open sea. This was a good opportunity to give a model the Greek “Ghost” scheme: a three-tone wraparound scheme consisting of FS 36307 (Light Sea Grey), 36251 (Aggressor Grey) and 35237 (Medium Grey, but actually a rather greyish blue). The pattern was adapted from Hellenic F-16s. I think it’s a good compromise, and it suits the ALCA well.

 

The national markings caused more headaches. I was looking for something that would not look like the Spanish roundel, but still reflect the Catalonian indpendence flag and – most important – I wanted to be able to create it from stock material (not printing them at home), with the option to replicate it on potential future builds.

In the end and after long safaris through my spare decal repository, I came up with a round marking. It consists of an Ukrainian roundel with a relatively thin outer yellow ring (from a Begemot MiG-29 sheet), placed on top of a Hinomaru, so that a thin, red outer ring was added. Onto the central, blue disc a white star (from a TL Modellbau sheet with US Army markings) was added. I think that this looks original enough?

There was a problem, though… In my first attempt to apply this construction, the roundels turned out to be VERY large overall. While the design itself looked O.K. (despite reminding of Captain America somehow), this looked ridiculous, esp. on an aircraft with a wraparound low-viz paint scheme. I was not satisfied, so I heavy-heartedly ripped the decals off again (using adhesive tape, works like a charm) and tried it again, in a smaller version.

Hinomaru became the basis once more, even though smaller, and then die-punched discs in yellow and blue (from generic decal sheet) were added, and finally small white stars again, one size smaller than during the first attempt. While this is still colorful and stands out from the grey background, the second attempt looked much more balanced now, and I stuck with it.

 

In order to add more flavor, I added Catalonian fin flashes and squadron emblems on the nose, depicting the “burro”, the Catalonian donkey which has become a kind of unofficial regional symbol as a kind of anti-mascot to the Spanish bull. These markings/decals were printed at home on white sheet.

 

The tactical codes were based on the Spanish system. The Spanish Air Force has its own alphanumeric system for identifying aircraft: This forms a prefix to the airframe serial number, usually marked on the tail. C means cazabombardero (fighter bomber); A, ataque (attack); P, patrulla (patrol); T, transporte (transport); E, enseñanza (training); D, search and rescue; H, helicopter; K, tanker; V, Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL); and U, utility. An example would be that the F-18 with "C.15-08" on the tail is the fifteenth type of fighter that arrived in the Spanish Air Force (the Eurofighter is the C.16) and is the eighth example of this type to enter the SAF. On the nose or fuselage, the aircraft has a numeral specific to the unit in which it is based.

 

Variants of planes in service, for example two-seater versions or tanker versions of transports planes, add another letter to differentiate their function, and have their own sequence of serial numbers separate from the primary versions. Example: "CE.15-02" will be the second F-18 two-seater (Fighter Trainer) delivered to the SAF. In addition, the aircraft used by the Spanish Air Force usually carry a code consisting of one or two digits followed by a dash and two numbers, painted on the nose or fuselage. The first number corresponds to the unit to which they belong, and the second the order in which they entered service. Example: the fourth F-18 arriving at Ala 12 will have on the nose the code "12-04". Those codes do change when the aircraft is re-allocated to a different unit. Quite complicated…

 

This led to the tactical code “2-03”, for the 3rd aircraft allocated to the 2nd fighter squadron, and “C.1-03” as individual registration as the 3rd aircraft of the 1st fighter type in Catalonian service. All codes were puzzled together with single black letters and numbers from TL Modellbau in 3 and 5mm size.

 

Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.

I've written about this before. In practice it seems some lens/body combinations can be a little laggy at stopping down the aperture, but it was a noble concept. I notice that eBay sellers often do not realize what they're selling is a TX lens; and so there can be bargains if the mount type is unclear or some oddball one like Miranda.

The Bell System (aka Ma Bell) refers to popular names used to described a group of companies that operated initial telephone services in the US. In 1877, the American Bell Telephone Company, named after Alexander Graham Bell, opened the first telephone exchange in New Haven, CT. Within a few years local exchange companies were established in every major city in the US. Use of the Bell System name initially referred to those early telephone franchises.

 

In 1899, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) acquired the assets of the American Bell Telephone Company. Originally AT&T was created to make long distance calls between New York and Chicago and beyond. AT&T became the parent of American Bell because regulatory and tax rules were leaner in New York then in Boston where American Bell was headquartered. Later, the Bell System and its moniker "Ma Bell" became a term that referred generally to all AT&T companies of which there were four major divisions;

 

• AT&T Long Lines providing long lines to interconnect local exchanges and

    long distance calling services.

• Western Electric Company Bell's equipment manufacturing arm,

• Bell Labs conducting research and development for AT&T.

• Bell operating companies providing local exchange telephone services.

 

In 1913, under AT&T ownership the Bell System became a government sanctioned monopoly regulated by the US Federal Communications Commission. Proliferation of the telephone allowed the company to become the largest corporation in the world until its divestment by the US Department of Justice in 1984, at which time the Bell System ceased to exist.

 

Source Wikipedia article: Bell System

 

20090326_0013a2_800x800

A hand drawn sketch by Dr. Christensen from the University of Michigan Medical School for the laboratory sessions he conducted in the Medical Histology Course for first year medical students. The drawings were done with felt markers on a white board in the lab during the morning of the day a particular topic was being studied in the course. When the laboratory session began, the drawings were briefly discussed, and they could be seen by the students throughout the laboratory period.

 

Download the entire collection by visiting openmi.ch/HistologyDrawings.

 

Learn more about Dr. Christensen by visiting www-personal.umich.edu/~akc/

 

Image courtesy of Dr. A. Kent Christensen under a Creative Commons license: BY-SA

painted for amuk,sketch by amuk

www.flickr.com/photos/25013464@N08/3654990967/

as most of you may already know graffiti artist amuk was recently sentence to 18 months in prison for painting over the last 7 years,this is yet another infuriating and disgusting act by a backward system that thinks it can make examples out of perfectly good people!its completely unjust!

 

my thoughts go out to his family and close ones.

 

everyone can show their support on

www.flickr.com/groups/freeamuk/

i will hopefully post details on his adress for people to contact him.

see you soon brother

shouts to deps!

     

Where words fail to describe permaculture, a picture is work 10,000 words!

 

This diagram will continue to evolve.

 

Download the PDF here:

abundantsuccession.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/AS-D...

Unmanned Aircraft System Border Security. photo by James Tourtellotte

As seen stuck to a video conferencing monitor in Palo Alto...

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

A refreshing shower will take the day off into the smart start and it will make your morning routines even more refreshing with each passing day. There are different kinds of shower faucets, shower systems and shower heads that you can look for you and what may appear best inside your bathroom.

 

Reference:

quintessentialplumbing.com.au/choosing-a-shower-head-or-s...

I visited the premier UK solo show by famous Barcelona-based urban artist Zosen.

 

For more info, visit www.urbanartcore.eu/zosen-system-collapse-london/

Island Style Roadside Fruit Stand.

Show us who you are.

Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Celestron CPC 1100

Canon EOS 60Da

Moon Poser System V1 INFORMATION

By MoCap Studios & EXPRESSIONS

 

INCLUDES:

Moon Prop

Professional Menu System

16 Custom Poses (8 Plus Mirrors)

LOW Land Impact 2 Prims

 

MENU DRIVEN

~ Security & Access

~ Pose Adjustment & Saving

~ Up to 100 Custom Pose Adjust Saves

~ Outside Control (Great for Photographers)

 

Marketplace:

marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Moon-Poser-System-V1-16-Pose...

 

Store:

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wild%20Ocean/128/116/22

An orangutan and baby make their way between trees in Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre, Sabah, Borneo

Exploring the l-system. Tryin' a bunch of axiom & replacement rules.

 

Made with Processing.

 

Basic Code:

openprocessing.org/visuals/?visualID=49814

at Stumptown Coffee on Division

Test New Leica T

Summicron T 1:2 23mm ASPH - (35 mm equiv.)

"The GS M9-55 Atmospheric Patrol Craft, commonly known as the 'Glory Snow,' was initially hailed as revolutionary for its 'Shield Trigger' system, by which the deflector shields deployed only after the craft's data systems detected imminent enemy fire. However, flaws in the system resulted in the majority of shield deployments occurring too late to protect the craft from the ubiquitous laser weaponry. Following this embarrassing discovery, the project was quickly scuttled. The few units which remain still see some use by private citizens, where the delayed shield system provides adequate protection from non-laser weaponry while remaining power efficient."

 

Continuing experiments with System, SNOT, and some shapes I wanted to try out. Also, I found a good background to use when photographing white!

Support the exhaust system in the middle before dropping it. Who the hell puts a toolbox under a car to support an exhaust system? Me.

The Vienna flak towers are six large, of reinforced concrete erected defensive and protective structures in Vienna, which were built in the years 1942-1945 as giant bomb shelters with fitted anti-aircraft guns and fire control. The architect of the flak towers was Friedrich Tamms (1904-1980).

Flakturm, Arenbergpark

Image: Terrace of the flak tower in Arenbergpark

 

The system of the Vienna flak towers consists as a whole of six buildings, three turrets, each with a Feuerleitturm (fire-control tower). The three bunker pairs are arranged in a triangle in the approximate middle of which the Stephansdom is situated. The towers are of different heights, but their upper platforms are in exactly the same altitude, so that an overall coordination of air defense was possible. The maximum operating radius of the four main guns (12.8 cm twin) of each tower was under ideal conditions 20 km. The smaller platforms of combat and fire-control towers were provided for 2 cm anti-aircraft guns, but they were never used in Vienna. In addition to its military crew the flak towers in Vienna served as makeshift hospitals, housed radio stations and partly war-relevant technical companies and offered on a large scale air raid shelters for the population.

 

Flakturm Augarten

Picture: Flakturm, Augarten

 

After the war, the Red Army undertook blasting tests in Gefechtsturm (flak tower with battle platform) Augarten, but a removal of the towers failed because of the proximity to residential areas. Nowadays, a removal of the towers would be possible, but now existing only an official decision as to the two anti-aircraft towers in Augarten from 5 April 2000 (GZ 39.086/2/2000) because all six buildings ex lege have been put under monument protection. Today, the towers are partially owned by the City of Vienna and partly owned by the Republic of Austria. There were repeatedly attempts to rebuild the flak towers and make it usable. The ideas range from depot for important backup data to a café or hotel.

 

Planning

Flakturm, Arenbergpark

Picture: Flakturm, Arenbergpark - Notstiege (Emergency flight of stairs)

Flakturm, Arenbergpark

Picture: Flakturm, Arenbergpark

Elevator shaft to the left, original instructions for lift usage right

 

After the battles of World War II also spread more and more to Vienna, Adolf Hitler ordered on 9 September 1942 the construction of flak towers in Vienna. The Air Force leadership provided for this purpose as building sites the Schmelz (Vienna), the Prater and Floridsdorf but Hitler rejected these places since the city center would not have been adequately protected because of the large distances. After discussions with Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) Baldur von Schirach, the final locations were determined. Instead of the Augarten, however, was initially the Roßauer barracks under discussion. The decisive factor for the choice of the places were on the one hand, the easy availability of the building ground and on the other hand the possibility to establish railway connections. The plan provided after the victorious end of the war to disguise the flak towers with marble and devote them as monuments to the fallen German soldiers. As with all the flak towers Friedrich Tamms was responsible for the planning, he was represented in Vienna by Anton Ruschitzka, construction management held Franz Fuhrmann from Vienna's city building department. The military leadership rested with Major Wimberger, which, however, had no mission staff. The material procurement was carried out by the Organisation Todt.

 

Construction

Flakturm, Arenbergpark

Picture: Flakturm, Arenbergpark

Emergency Exit Photo: Flakturm, Arenbergpark

 

With the construction of the flak towers the companies Philipp Holzmann and Gottlieb Tesch were commissioned, smaller firms being integrated via joint ventures. Since the availability of local workers due to conscription declined steadily, more and more prisoners of war, foreign and forced laborers were used in the course of the war. Cement was delivered primarily from Mannersdorf at Leithagebirge, to a lesser extent from Rodaun (situated in the outskirts of Vienna). The gravel stemmed from the gravel pits Padlesak in Felixdorf and Gustav Haager at Heidfeld at the Bratislava railway (Pressburger Bahn), about in the area of ​​today's airport Wien-Schwechat. Sand was delivered in ships over the Danube Canal, which is why in the area of Weißgerberlände sand silos of the United Baustoffwerke AG were built. In this area was already in 1918 a feeder track of the tram through the Drorygasse. Although this was already in 1925 shut down it was restored in 1941 and enlarged in the following year after the construction of a new silo to two tracks. For the then due to the excavation of the foundations coming up overburden, at the Kratochwijlestraße (then Weissenbachstraße) in 22 District was created a landfill, which also got a tram connection.

 

This report is based on an article in the

WIKIPEDIA - The Free Encyclopedia

and is licensed under the GNU license

Free Documentation Creative Commons CC -BY- SA 3.0 Unported.

On Wikipedia there is List of the authors Available .

de.wikipedia.org

 

The monstrous remnants of the "Third Reich"

District II (Leopoldstadt), anti-aircraft towers in the Augarten, tram line 31 from metro station Scots ring/Schottenring (U2, U4).

 

On 15 March 1938 gathered some 200 000 Wiener (Viennese people) on Heldenplatz in order to celebrate the "Anschluss" of Austria to the so-called fatherland Germany, something, since the end of the first World War I many had been longing for. Adolf Hitler himself appeared on the balcony of the Neue Burg and announced: "As leader and Chancellor of the German nation and the Reich I report before story now the entry of my home in the German Reich". Then he boarded a plane back to Germany, the rest, as they say, is history. A few years later the magnificent Heroes Square (Heldenplatz) was dug up to plant vegetables there, they needed food for the distraught people who suffered the privations in Hitler's zusammenbrechendem (breaking down) "millennial Reich".

 

Right: Gefechtsturm in the Augarten

In Leopoldstadt

Below: The Leitturm (control tower) in Arenbergpark

In III. District highway (Landstraße).

 

The already existing and sometimes bombastic Viennese architecture the occupiers seems to have pleased, no major buildings were added during their reign. On 9 September 1942, however, Hitler decreed that the city center of Vienna like in Berlin and Hamburg should be protected by some huge flak towers, three pairs should form a defensive triangle, St. Stephen's Cathedral was the center. 1943/44, the German troops began the construction of two flak towers in the Augarten and defaced in this way Austria's oldest still existing and in 1712 laid out baroque garden. Another pair of flak towers emerged in Arenberg Park in III. District (Landstraße), a third near the Mariahilferstraße (in Esterházypark and in the courtyard of the barracks Stiftskaserne) in the VI. resp. VII. District (Mariahilf/Neubau). The towers have been made of almost indestructible, 2.5 to 3.5 meters thick reinforced concrete and were self-sufficient, and they possessed their own water and power supply, first aid station and air filters if it should come to a gas attack. Each pair of flak towers contained a big, provided with a heavy gun flak tower and a smaller control tower for communication. The first is either a square tower in the style of a fortress, like the one in the Arenbergpark (neunstöckig - nine storeys), 41.6 meters high, 57 meters in diameter) or a round tower, in fact, sixteen -sided, as in the Augarten Park and the yard of the Stiftskaserne Barracks (zwölfstöckig - twelve storeys, 50.6 meters high, 43 meters in diameter). The heaviest artillery gun (105-128 mm) was standing on the roof, on the projecting balconies below there were lighter guns (20 to 30 millimeters). The Leittürme, from which the air defense was coordinated, were all rectangular (neunstöckig - nine storeys, 39 to 51.4 meters high, 24 to 39 feet long) and equipped with a lighter gun, they possessed communication devices and searchlights on the roof. Toward the of the war the towers only just were functional. They also served as air-raid shelter for the people in the area and each tower had space for 30 000 people. In the event that the war ended with a victory, the architect, the builder of the Reichsautobahn Friedrich Tamms, already had prepared designs to dress up the towers with black marble plates in which the names of the dead German soldiers should be engraved in gold letters. So the towers would also have been victory and war memorials (and thus in a strange way similar to the Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna or the Castel de Monte in Apulia).

In the bureau of an architect of Berlin were even found plans to demolish the Jewish Quarter in the Leopoldstadt and to build a huge Nazi forum. Today, however, there is in Leopoldstadt again a thriving Jewish life and the flak towers are frozen monuments to the darkest times of Viennese history (in fact, the Russians tried to destroy the tower in Augarten with dynamite, which later on was mistaken for the vandalism of a few schoolboys, by mistake a forgotten weapon depot setting on fire).

In a famous quote Hitler Vienna compared with a pearl, which he wanted to give a socket. Towards the end of war, however, this socket only consisted of bombed-out buildings and abandoned flak towers, silent witnesses of the delusion of their builder. As a result, only the Leitturm was used in Esterhazy Park, and today in it the house of the sea (Zoo - Haus des Meeres) is accommodated. Outside there is a climbing wall with 25 different routes, and the vertical wall and the projecting balconies give a perfect imitation of an overhanging cliff of 34 meters of height. A conservatory (or biotope) with a miniature rain forest along with monkeys and birds has been added on one side; it is entered through a door that only with difficulty could be broken in the two and a half meters thick reinforced concrete, but this also ensures a uniform temperature for aquariums and vivariums in the tower.

The stable temperatures also have the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) brought to take advantage of the flak tower in Arenberg Park as a magazine and occasional exhibition space; in the meantime it is known as Contemporary Art Tower (CAT).

A former air-raid shelter at the base of the Leitturm in Esterhazy Park now contains the Museum of Medieval legal history: the history of torture

 

Excerpts from

Duncan J. D. Smith; Only in Vienna

A travelling guide to strange places, secret places and hidden attractions

Translated from English by Brigitte Hilzensauer

Photographs by Duncan JD Smith

 

"The streets of Vienna are paved with culture, the streets of other cities with asphalt". Karl Kraus (1874-1936)

Vienna is certainly one of the greatest and also the most homogeneous capitals in Europe. And it is one of the most fascinating. The overabundance of travel guides that are out there to buy, presents the not too demanding visitor a magical (and easily accessible) abundance of museums, churches, palaces and culinary venues, and they recount the history of the city since the times of the Romans over those of the Habsburg Empire to the present.

 

Courtesy

Christian Brandstätter Verlag mbH

The publishing service for museums, businesses and public authorities

www.brandstaetter - verlag.at

Total, totalitarian, dead

Picture: Flak tower in 1943 /44, Augarten

 

At the zero point of the knowledge about the progress of the world stands since 11 September 2001 "Ground Zero". The debris field of the World Trade Center was used as a metaphor, which for its part marks a zero point. "Ground Zero" is called the area that lies in the center of a nuclear explosion. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki this area has been explored, the experiments that began with Albert Einstein's warning of a nuclear policy of Nazi Germany, were successful beyond measure. The name for the nuclear program, "Manhattan Project". With the beginning of the new millennium "Ground Zero" is real returned to where it had once taken its nominal starting point. The skyscraper obviously is able to stimulate the imagination of physicists, ballistics and aeronauts. In the skyscraper the obsessions of the 20th century are concentrated, self-sufficiency and utopia become one in the sky billowing tower. It is the exalted and the sublime. It provides a beacon, of the construction as well as of the destruction.

As the World Trade Center each of the Viennese "flak towers" come along as pairs: One serves as control tower, the other as a flak tower. The central component is the platform, it was needed in high altitudes in order to have a clear field of fire over the city. The tower architecture, which thereby became necessary, one used for bunker systems, no fewer than 40,000 people should here find shelter. For other facilities there was also space: the Gaupropagandaleitung (Regional propaganda direction) for example, the radio station, a munitions factory. At three locations in the city - the triangle that they abzirkelten (encircled), took in Vienna's historic center - in the years 1943/44 had established an own self-contained world, with it corresponded an outside, the world of total war. The flak towers gave this world the architectural icon.

On 14 February 1943, the British Air Force had carpet bombings on German cities announced after it adversary those commitments to civility, just in war of some validity, namely to protect non- military targets, long ago had abandoned. It was a strategy that should give World War II a decisive turn. The Germans had their production concentrated on weapons with immediate penetrating power, especially on fighter planes and tanks. The Allies, however, swore on sustainability, on long-range bombers that now more and more were used. Against such so-called "flying fortresses" should prepare the city's flak towers.

On 18 February 1943 already, the Nazi regime had reacted propagandistically. Joseph Goebbels delivered in the Sportpalast (Sports Palace) those infamous speech in which an unleashed crowd at the top of its voice loud the hysterical question "Do you want total war?" applauded. From then on, the action would no longer overridingly occur on the fronts. Now, as Goebbels put it, the "phalanx of the homeland" was at stake. The war would be carried to the cities. In their midst, in the urban milieu that would now lose all nonchalance and any worth of life. Also, and just that is what the flak towers stand for: their comfort is the security wing, their promise the ammunition depot. They guarantee offensive and defensive in one. In this hard as reinforced concrete alignment, imagined the regime each of every Volksgenossen (member of the German nation).

The flak towers are the architecture of total war par excellence: monumental exclamation marks for military preparedness, towering icons of the resistiveness, uniform archetypes of a technical, an instrumental progress, to which the Nazi state with due atavism was always committed. Furthermore, comes to some extent the domestic political effect: The flak towers are citadels against the own population, reduits in the face of a psychological and social situation, which solely by forced violence, by martial law and concentration camps could be overmastered.

The prototype of the flak towers built up in Berlin, as well as their principle was conceived in the capital, especially by Albert Speer, the Minister for the war economy. But as a kind of urban identification mark they stand in Vienna, and also for this the logic of total war can be used. It is the logic of destruction, the so-called "Nero-command", which after Hitler's disposal would have provided the destruction of all remaining infrastructure in the German Reich. It is the logic of a perverted Darwinism, which would have applied the dictum of unworthy life in the moment of defeat on the own population.

In one of his table talks in May 1942, Hitler blustered about the "huge task to break ... the supremacy of Vienna in the cultural field ...". The hatred toward the city of his youth was notorious, and one may assume that the flak towers, whose placement the "Führer" personally ordered, the enemy, in a manner of speaking, definitely should stake out a target area. Because naturally, the towers would increasingly attract attacks on themselves. But they have the war unscathed as hardly another building survived. That they are standing for the long shot, the totalitarism this very day is clear. To eliminate them, would mean to turn the city with them in rubble.

www.wien-vienna.at/index.php?ID=1236

 

Interstellar bureaucracy is a MESS. It's not like some pencil-pusher on the capital world is going to have eyes-on clearance, he's just spitting out designations for everything that crosses his desk.

 

-

 

Fairly sure this is the first 100-stud-plus model I've finished (antennae count, right?)

 

.LXF

I am not sure if 'ancient' is the correct term for describing the irrigation system found at this historic mission in San Antonio, Texas. I find the engineering of the system to be incredibly interesting. Which mission is this? Correct, Glenn Stuart! This is located at Mission San Jose.

You can't travel in the solar system!

Here, grab my beer! 😁

I was lucky enough to visit 6 planets on 21th of December. It all started by chance when I spotted Venus from the yard and quickly unpacked my equipment. It was a great joy when I finally managed to capture Uranus and Neptune for the first time. I didn't plan this adventure, but it turned out very well.

The list is opened by the planet Venus. Its namesake became the figure of the goddess in the 3rd century BC, whose name means desire and charm. We look at it as a star at dusk and dawn, because it illuminates the dawn or early evening hours with its wonderful brightness. Being a planet closer to the Sun, it has phases like the Moon. It is shown in the picture in its last phase.

The planet Mars is the second. From a few lines of poetry that survived, it is clear that it was the patron saint of agriculture. Agriculture led to the symbol of protective masculinity and from there it was only a step to the image of the protective warrior man. Thus he became the god of war and battle. In the picture, if I correctly identified the Arabia terra and Utopia platinum areas, the upper part is the ice cap of the north pole of Mars. Mars has two moons: Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror).

Thirdly, the mighty planet Jupiter. Iuppiter is one of the most ancient Italian deities, originally the god of the sun and atmospheric phenomena, lightning and thunder, and also the source of all life. In the beginning, he played the role of a war god, and later became the patron of the Roman state and the most revered god. The mass of Jupiter is two and a half times the mass of all other planets combined. Its gravitational force protects the Earth from comets that stray into the solar system. It was visited by the New Horizons spacecraft and is being observed as an orbiter by the Juno spacecraft. It boasts 79 moons, of which the 4 Galilean moons can be observed with a small telescope.

Next in line is the planet Uranus. Uranus is the god of the sky, conceived and given birth to by Gaia without a father, and then became his wife. One of his children was Cronus, who rebelled against him at the instigation of his mother. He cut off his father's reproductive organ with a sickle, deprived him of his power, and took over the world from him. The upper part of the planet's atmosphere absorbs red light, which gives it a pale blue-green color. Its axial tilt is very close to 90°, so one pole is facing the Sun for a significant part of its orbital period. The large axial tilt may have been created by a collision with an early planet-sized object billions of years ago.

Finally, there is the planet Neptune. It was named after the Roman god of the seas because of its color. An ancient Italian deity who was the god of fresh water springs and rivers. His July festival has been celebrated since ancient times, and he had a sanctuary between the Palatine and Aventine hills, along an ancient stream, but little is known about his cult. Unfortunately, Neptune has only been visited by the Voyager-2 spacecraft. Under the atmosphere of hydrogen and helium, there is a mantle rich in water, ammonia and methane. The temperature is between 2000 and 5000 Kelvin. The pressure is tens of millions of times that of the surface of the Earth. Under such conditions, molecules break into atoms and carbon combines into diamonds.

Tech details:

🔭: SkyWatcher 200/1000 modified + 2x barlow

📷: ASI 120 MC

: SkyWatcher HEQ5 Pro GoTo

Expo details: 1200 images using the best 10 and 20%, ASI original stackert + PS

Eger, 2024.12.21

Surprisingly, hoisting that baby up on to the cake board and riser went well. I only had a mild heart attack when I realized one of my wheel wells had collapsed a bit. Now on to make the tires.

Proof-of-concept status: sturdy. Probably not going to Bricklink it for a few months though.

This detail of a bronze wheel is part of an open-work frame belonging to a ritual object. It is dated to c.1500 BC. The thin lines represent a number system. Read more about the object.

 

Persistent Item URL: http://kulturarvsdata.se/shm/object/html/96948 (in Swedish)

 

Photo: Gabriel Hildebrand/ SHMM

  

Photo by: Gabriel Hildebrand / SHMM

Week 6 presentations for Systems, Scales and Consequences

1 2 ••• 11 12 14 16 17 ••• 79 80