This photo was converted to black and white using calculations. A bit of burning on the outside of the photo and a little bit of noise added

 

© All Rights Reserved - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent the photographer Helen Green

Best appreciated LARGE on black

 

Two-dimensional numerical analyses were conducted and analyzed to simulate water splash produced by free falling object models starting from the resting position.

 

The surface tension force, the Froude number, and the Weber number were found in these calculations to play major roles in determining various types of splash shapes. Model size was found to influence splash phenomena, even if the Froude number remained the same. The dependencies on these two nondimensional numbers and the fundamental law of similarity on water splash with and without the surface tension effect were thoroughly investigated in this research. Several two-dimensional numerical simulations are presented in this article to describe the hydrodynamic behaviors of water splash with and without the surface tension effect.

 

Abstracted from: Department of Ocean and Space Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogawa-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan

 

SPLASH simulation on YouTube

P/S: Gosh! How I miss physics...

 

Gears: Nikon D50 and Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM APO lens

Location: Merang Beach, Merang, Setiu, Terengganu, Malaysia.

Processing: Tone mods, cropped for 16:9 aspect ratio

There's nothing quite like the cloud formations one can see from an airplane window.

 

Note: Has the EXPLORE algorithm been changed? I had a total of 517 pics that had been in Explore, and 50 were currently in. I had been at the number 50 since Oct 2010. Since then I've had many popular shots, but never got off of 50 permanent in Explore. With this photo getting in, now I have 51... Have the limits for how many permanent photos you can have in Explore changed? Could just be a coincidence, maybe Explore competition has gotten even tighter, but as a statistician I take note of these things...

 

UPDATE: Thanks for all the comments and faves... believe me, I gasped when I saw this, I knew it was an epic photo opp. Odd thing is I had literally just jolted out of a nap, and there it was.

 

I can tell from the comments that my bit about Explore may need more explanation. No gang, I don't care about getting in Explore except so much as it can get you a lot more exposure... no my interest is a statistician. To me, Explore is based on a mathematical algorithm, and all I can do is observe and guess what's in the black box. As I've mentioned earlier, one can start with Flickr's patents, which link to its "interestingness" calculation is made. I talk about the Explore algorithm here.

 

In sum, interestingness = f(views, comments, faves, notes, galleries, and groups), and

Explore ranking = f(interestingness, other stuff)

 

The question has been, what's that "other stuff"? One variable I think is the number of photos you currently (or "permanently") you have in Explore. My hypothesis is that there has been a limit of 50 photos you can have in Explore. And with this observation, I now hypothesize that limit has been raised.

 

Oh Explore gnomes, show me a sign, throw me a bone, am I right?

 

UPDATE:

As it turns out I am probably wrong in my reasoning above. A close contact who is in Explore all the time told me he thought Explore went to "sampling" users--that you can only get into Explore for a certain amount of time during each year. This makes sense, explains the evidence, and is actually a more elegant and fair solution.

You never know when it'll come in handy.

 

I have, and I'm glad I did. (I even gave up Querty and learned Colemak which I'm using right now as I type this, but that's another story). Quicker, easier, better.

 

I seriously think that most people should learn touch typing these days as we spend so much time on our computers. Hungary is especially funny, we have lots of IT professionals here, many of whom do hunt and peck. I wonder how they get employed even...

On board the dangerously unsteady airliner, a falsely triumphant zodiac hops about the plane taunting passengers as he kicks the bats in moving body. Bruce does not move a muscle in response to this but after making the correct calculations clings on to Jeremy’s swiftly moving leg as it swings back to deliver another pointless blow. He then pulls him to the ground sending a blow of his own into Jeremy’s face allowing a minor nosebleed to trickle down the zodiacs crooked nose

 

Jeremy: how...*spitt* is this possible. You bled batman....oh fake huh? That’s clever. That is very very clever. I will use that somewhere in the near future. Probably. But not now because right now. Right this moment, I have to kill you mr batman....again....now, how do y...

 

Before Jeremy finishes what might be his last of many many monologue, Bruce lands a blue to his stomach causing him to let yet more blood spurt violently from his flaming nostrils

 

He then begins to quickly tred backwards leading Bruce to the back door of the sky high airliner. With a few gunshots and a heavy kick, the door swings right open. Jeremy lifts yet another gun to Bruce’s face and as he straps himself into a parachute he says the words: damnit! You bought one too that’s cheating

 

He then jumps from the plane and Bruce follows, using his wings to glide slightly. For what seems like hours, they battle the wind staring each other in the eyes as they drop down side by side. Knowing what’s best for him, Jeremy gives in and pulls his parachute. It doesn’t work. He pulls it again

 

In seconds he will be dead if he can’t get it working. Bruce can’t let this happen so reluctantly takes hold of Jerry’s frantically swinging arm and after pulling the toggle of his own parachute takes them both down to the nearest plot of dry land, a small desolate island which lies in the river between Gotham and metropolis.

 

The minute they land Jerry sends an angered fist into the bats jaw and makes a run for it. Gun tightly held in his palms, he rolls carelessly to the bottom of a small but steep hillside and quickly, Bruce follows

 

They now stand roughly ten meters apart but on level ground

 

Jeremy lifts his gun to Bruce’s face, looks about them and then grins

 

Jeremy: oh I know where we are...how fitting. Do you? No didn’t think so. Roughly 50 odd years back these plagued grounds were home to a band of neo Nazi pagan cultists. Yeah crazy right. Here in Gotham. And y’see this was where they liked to perform what you or I might call sacrifice! And it was those who weren’t pure that...got it! They were wiped from the very face of the earth! Now I’m no Nazi, you know that...but I am here to wipe the impure from the face of the earth... and that’s why this a very very very fitting setting for your execution mr. batman

 

Bruce: Jeremy. This is where it ends. You failed. Drop the gun and turn yourself in.

 

Jeremy: mr batman! You disappoint me! I’m aware we’ve only known each other for the best of ten minutes, but I think that you should know by this point, that I’m not going to prison. That’s that amigo! and even if I do, I’ll soon leave. Wether it be in body bag or not!...now how about a fight to the death? Yeah? How’s that sound you dirty winged bastard...

 

———————————————————

Gotham airport

 

Jim Gordon arrives at the airport to find exactly what he expected but dreaded.

 

A dead cops body and a shivering middle aged man who he had once thought to be the culprit behind the airplane plot

 

The man trembles as he speaks: it...it wasn’t me...I swear

 

Jim Gordon: Jeremy....not so long ago you admitted to hijacking a plane...you were a hell of a lot different then. You’ve changed your tune to say the least

 

The man: I’m not Jeremy...I never was...but he did this! I swear he did!

 

Jim Gordon: what’s your name if not Jerry?

 

The man: Irving...Irving Norbert

 

Jim Gordon: you were under the name Jeremy Seinfeld on our database

 

Irving: he lied! Jeremy did. Messed with the birth certificates. Messed with me. My brain. I don’t know how but He did for something like 48 hours I wasn’t me. Completely gone. I became him, I was just here to waste your time and eventually-it makes me sick to my stomach- kill whoever I needed to and it was this man-In cold blood-and I don’t even know why? Or how? If I did, I’d say...

 

Gordon: I can’t say you won’t do time Irving, but there’s a chance it won’t be much if you can tell us everything you know about Jerry back at the station. You’ll get your head checked out too to be sure you’re yourself again and to see what Jerry did...if he did anything that is

 

Gordon takes out a pair of cuffs and chucks them into Irving’s quivering hands

 

Irving: you’ve got to be kidding?

 

Gordon: nah. I’m just being safe. Put em on.

 

———————————————————

A few hours later on the desolate island, Jeremy has made his escape from Bruce who scales every crack in the island to find him.

 

Diary of the zodiac master

 

“I’m writing this final entry as I’m living it. Hidden away in a mere crevice on the island with a bat on my back, i wonder wether anyone can save my soul now. Wether it’ll be the stars or some darker presence, I don’t know. But it doesn’t really matter because I don’t believe in any of that fairytale crap anyway. Never did, never will”

 

Bruce refusing to reveal himself, calls out from the shadows: Jeremy? You write at a time like this?

 

Jeremy: merely documenting this precious moment for the generations ahead. And a precious moment it is too mr.batman. Along side all the other deaths you’ve seen no doubt. Blackfire....punch...and Tensil. That’s everyone so far right? Yeah I’ve been following your career. Though I mean who hasn’t?! You’re the goddamn batman after all.

 

Bruce: Jeremy...

 

Jeremy: NO! Don’t Jeremy me... I have something important to say, let me say it. Got that?....Good...But that always was your problem mr.batman wasn’t it? You never were one for patience? Nah. No subtlety either. Especially what with that pointy eared fancy dress hat of yours. Not subtle at all. Now I know what you’re thinking, “what does this man, have against me, mr batman? I thought I was perfect?”...well you’re not perfect little batboy!! Are ya?! No you are not. Not one bit. Look...we both want the same thing...to cleanse the streets of...well...scum. Let’s be honest that’s what they are. The beggars, the thieves, prostitutes and the like. All of them scum. The hippies too and the greasers, the rockers, the mods and the goths. The punks, the emos, New Romantics?! Whatever they are. They’re scum. They dirty the streets with their fads and trends. Stupid clothes and stupid drugs. But the details don’t matter. All that matters is we both wanna rid the city of their leechy type. You just don’t know how to do it properly and that’s where we disagree!

 

Bruce: said it once, I’ll say it again

 

He then lurches from the shadows, disarming Jeremy and getting him in a headlock

 

Bruce: you talk too much

 

Jeremy: you don’t talk eno....argh!! Fine fine... I’m not gonna resist

 

Batman: what is this app for Jeremy. All this death for what? To clean up Gotham. There’s more

 

Jeremy: no mr bat there isn’t. There never really is. Well dig and dig to find a cause for somebodies problems. We act as though we care as if we worry. But it’s all just a simple lie. We do this for one reason batman, a selfish reason too, and that’s to hide from the truth. The hard, cold truth. It’s all our fault and the only solution is to stop hiding like the rats, or bats, that we all are when you peel away the flesh and find a solution. Years on years of gotham scum drove me outta town and what did I find? Just a different breed of scum. So what did I do? I took my own advice. I stopped hiding. I found a solution! A brutal one albeit. But what must be done, must be done...

 

Bruce then lifts him up, cuffing him and attempts to contact Alfred with his damaged comm

 

As he does this however, Jeremy strategically plucks a batarang from Bruce’s belt and kicks away from him

 

Bruce knows what he has planned and dashes towards Jeremy but it’s too late. Jeremy lifts the batarang to his own chest and....

 

Bruce: no Jeremy. You don’t want to do this. Just put it down and come with me

 

Jeremy: f*ck that...

 

...he thrusts it into his chest and allows himself to roll like a rag doll down past the rocks and into a nearby stream

 

Bruce, knowing the batarang is blunt enough for Jeremy to have a chance of life, jumps down to where Jeremy is and pulls him up from the cold stream, hurling him over his shoulder with the intention of carrying him all the way to Gotham general if that’s what he must do...

 

END

A computer-generated visualisation of the phase-space solution to a driven second-order dissipative, non-linear differential equation. Calculations use the Improved Euler method with very short time steps. Simulation written in Intel Pentium code by me. Took me half an afternoon!

Ancient astronomical sundials at Jantar Mantar observatory, Delhi, India, a world heritage site

A combination of fortune, patience and little calculation. I waited in the right place until the sun have pierced the tower bell like a star in the night sky, in front of the small dock on the lake.

 

Una combinazione di fortuna, pazienza e qualche calcolo. Ho atteso nel posto giusto fin quando il sole ha bucato il campanile come una stella nella notte, davanti al piccolo porticciolo sul lago di Garda.

In mathematics you can make that calculation, but when two trucks meet and try to pass in a one truck lane then you get scraped paint and frayed tempers. Here traffic controllers look on at the resulting mess after allowing the second truck to proceed past the parked one. Eventually, to the sound of torched metal, these two parted with the accompaniment of yelling and rude finger gestures.

All Rights Reserved.

“Stand down. Without your healing factor you have no advantage here.”

 

I close in on him and place the tip of my blade against his torso. He turns his head to look at me clearly weighing up his options at the moment. Come on, do the right calculations, you know you can’t win this.

 

“You can’t win this. Stand. Down.”

 

"Can't I?"

 

He quickly smirks before forcing his elbow into my chest knocking the wind of me. Before I can stagger back to regain my bearings he forces his blade forward and it pierces the armour of my suit. Almost instantly he follows up with a left to hook to my head and then kicks my torso, sending me flying to the end of the room. I manage to smash through one of the Mayor’s display cases he hit me that hard. Worst of all he made a point of ensuring his kicked me on the wound he just inflicted. I’ll give him one thing, he may be over confident in his abilities but he is a skilled combatant.

 

I take a moment to inspect the wound, at best the wound is two inches deep though I fear it’s far worse. Despite this I don’t have time to properly treat it, so I remove a painkiller from my belt and inject it close to the wound. Hopefully it will keep the pain at bay long enough for me to deal with this guy. I might be drawing blood from my wounds but so is he. All I need to do is ensure that for every wound I receive, I give two back.

 

“Come now Bruce. You know you can’t win this. Just stand down. Take that mask off, and accept your fate.”

 

Desperately, I search the room for my blade. Sadly he spots it before I do and kicks it away from me. Great. Just what I need.

 

He places his blade next to my chest before mocking me one more time.

 

“You gave it your all, but in the end the father must step aside and let the son take his place.”

 

“You’re….no son of mine.”

 

“Still rejecting that eh? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. First Mother. Now you.”

 

Talia rejected him too? How can that possibly be? If she rejected him then why would Ra’s have allowed him to live? He’s a man with few principles but he will do anything to protect his family. That’s part of the reason Ra’s didn’t kill me the moment I refused to go through with the final test, because Talia put herself between myself and his blade. Were it not for her intervention there would be no Batman. The mere concept that she would reject him seems remarkably out of character. The Talia I knew would never reject any child of her own.

 

Therefore he can’t be who he claims to be. If he was then there’s no way Talia would reject him. His claims of me being his final test is a lie. This is a matter of proving his worth to be made heir to the Demon by slaying the man who held that title before him.

 

“Fortunately I have no need for either of you anymore. Once I’m finished with you she’ll be next for all her interfering in my ascension.”

 

“Interference?”

 

“What a vial of lazarus suddenly turns up at your house and leads to a miraculous recovery by your body and you don’t thin you had help from within the league? I expected so much more from the world’s greatest detective."

 

Talia was the one who brought that vial into the cave that revived Jason? That means I’ve underestimated the amount of lazarus in his body. If Jason has had two exposures to lazarus then that means the amount of lazarus I calculated being present in this guys body is only half of the actual lazarus content. But more pressingly that means Talia is somewhere in Gotham, maybe she can shine some light on all this.

 

“Talia is in Gotham.”

 

“For the moment. Once I’m done with you, she’ll be the next to fall and I’ll return both your bodies to Nanda Parbat where they will serve as a warning to all.”

 

“Over my dead body.”

 

“That’s the idea Father. Now enough chit chat, let’s get this over with.”

 

He again raises his sword ready to deliver another slash no doubt intending it to be a killing blow. Before he can complete the swing though I force myself up off the ground and charge towards him narrowly managing to grab hold of hand before the blade connects with my cowl.

 

Come on then junior. If you are who you claim to be then prove it. Let’s see if there's a bit of Bruce Wayne in you…

Hendecagonal -faced Polyhedron

 

Created with Snapologia, that came up with Heinz Strobl. Calculation helped execute software Great Stella www.software3d.com/Stella.php

I have made a lot of progress since my last post. I know, it doesn't look much different, but all of the internal functions are done, the control surfaces are set, the dimensions have been finalized, and landing gear is set.

  

I am in the midst of acquiring all the dark green I need to finish the model. Thank goodness for 10226 and 21016. I'm happy I stuck with it. It's going to be epic.

 

Finished Spitfire

Another from the archives. When I saw this shot I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, which always helps and saves time faffing around and experimenting. It also reminded me of Steve McQueen in that classic scene. :)

The tax calculation

 

Karen (siehe auch unten)

Karen (below the same girl in a different mood)

 

Oberhausen 1993

By my calculations, we have now been friends for about 40 years.

The Queen does her monthly state finances calculation...

 

- Hey Squire!

- Yes Madame!

 

- Could you get the carriers to get the chests containing all the books on the state grain and the book containing the Lords debt and profits...

...I don´t understand it, when Henry did this once a month he had so much fun, I can´t get to pleasure in counting golden coins, gems, silver...

 

- Yes, Madame, well, he used a whole lot of wine, when doing these choirs, actually we had to recount everything after him, since, the first notes where quite ok, I mean order in the numbers a rows, and the math was rather ok... but in the end of the book keeping books, there were just scribbles and ink blots who looked like those so called: "abstract" paintings the mage tried to sell for gold claiming it was art, but nonfigurative!

 

- Oh I don´t think I will drink, this is the peoples money I owe it to my people to be sober when I calculate the state finances!

 

A drunk Price Albert stumbles and fumbles in to the room...

 

- Mein Wunderschöne sccchmucke, meein (hiccups) sccchatze is counting the treasure! You are so beautiful, could I have some money ze Wein is running dry!

 

- Guard, Escort my husband out of this room, I told you not to let anyone in and especially not him... Escort him to the Kings Arms they have a happy hour now, let him drink on my tab, until I am done with this boring choir!

I just need to get him out of my way... how did he get here by the way?

 

- Yes Madame. I will take him there, well how he got here, he sneaked past us, he was climbing the foliage clinging tho the castle wall...

 

- Oh Mein Liebling, The Kings arms, Hiccups! my favorite besil, kneipe, I just wunder why are that pub called after Henries arms, Why not his beard! I löve you mein Liebling!

 

- Yes I love you to Bertie (whispering to her self: when he is sober) see you tomorrow, have a good time down the pub!

 

- Madam, shall we really give him free access to all that wine, he is going to talk to the diplomats tomorrow...!

 

- Eh, well get him to drink some water when he passes out, that usually help...

Now where was I? Yes I was counting the revenue from the lords, 1200 Pounds, plus, 375 doubles and 39 shillings!

A Haiku Note:

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

The way of Wu Wei

are reflections on the Tao

try to understand

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

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmXkDbGdD4Q

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-:- ( 1 ) - ( 2 ) - ( 3 ) - ( 2X5 ) - ( 6 ) - ( 7 ) - ( 8 ) - ( 9 ) - (2X10) -:-

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Moehne lake (Germany) - Moehne dam

 

The Möhne Reservoir, or Moehne Reservoir, is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund, Germany. The lake is formed by the damming of two rivers, Möhne and Heve, and with its four basins stores as much as 135 million cubic metres of water.

 

In 1904 calculations about the future demand for water for people and industry in the growing Ruhr-area determined that the existing storage volume of 32.4 million m³ in dams of the Ruhr river system needed tripling. Thus, on 28 November 1904, the general assembly of the Ruhrtalsperreverein decided to construct additional dams. During 1908 to 1913 they built the Möhnetalsperre at a cost of 23.5 million marks.

 

When opened, the dam was the largest dam in Europe. 140 homesteads with 700 people had to move. It was built to help control floods, regulate water levels on the Ruhr river downstream, and generate hydropower. Today, the lake is also a tourist attraction.

 

The dam (51.489307°N 8.058772°E) was breached by RAF Lancaster Bombers ("The Dambusters") during Operation Chastise on the night of 16–17 May 1943, together with the Edersee dam in northern Hesse. Bouncing bombs had been constructed which were able to skip over the protective nets that hung in the water. A huge hole of 77 m by 22 m was blown into the dam. The resulting huge floodwave killed at least 1,579 people, 1,026 of them foreign forced labourers held in camps downriver. The small city of Neheim-Hüsten was particularly hard-hit with over 800 victims, among them at least 526 victims in a camp for Russian women held for forced labour.

 

Though the Organisation Todt quickly repaired the dams through the labor of 7,000 men taken from the construction of the Atlantic Wall, the impact of the raid on German industry in the Ruhr valley and on the civil population was significant. According to Albert Speer, "the power plant at the foot of the shattered dam looked as if it had been erased, along with its heavy turbines." "Industry was brought to a standstill", due to the "electrical installations being soaked and muddied."

 

Three other reservoirs were still intact, though the largest, the Sorpe Dam, had a hole above the water line. Another destroyed dam, the Edersee Dam, "had nothing to do with the supply of water to the Ruhr." The Mohne Dam was repaired by 23 September 1943, in time to collect water for needs the following summer, when the British failed to follow up with additional raids to hamper reconstruction.

 

(Wikipedia)

 

Der Möhnesee ist ein Stausee an der Möhne. Er liegt im Gemeindegebiet von Möhnesee im nordrhein-westfälischen Kreis Soest. Bei Stauziel hat die Hauptsperre 10,37 Quadratkilometer Wasseroberfläche und einen Speicherraum von 126,05 Millionen Kubikmetern; mit den zwei größten Vorsperren und einem Ausgleichsbecken sind es 134,5 Millionen Kubikmeter. Das Wasser wird durch eine 40,3 Meter hohe und 650 Meter lange Staumauer aufgestaut.

 

Der Möhnesee liegt am Nordwestrand des Naturparks Arnsberger Wald. Südlich entlang dem zur Westfälischen Bucht überleitenden Haarstrang zieht er sich in Ost-West-Richtung durch die nach ihm benannte Gemeinde Möhnesee und staut, neben kleineren Bächen, die Möhne und die Heve.

 

Die Aufstandsfläche der Talsperre befindet sich im oberen Bereich der Auflockerungszone der oberkarbonischen Arnsberg-Schichten, einer Wechsellagerung von intensiv gefalteten Sandsteinen, Grauwacken und Tonsteinen. Durch eine intensive tektonische Beanspruchung während der variszischen Gebirgsbildung sind die Gesteine intensiv gefaltet worden. Der Bereich des Möhnetals ist zudem durch das Vorhandensein von großen Störungszonen gekennzeichnet. Nördlich der Talsperre werden die gefalteten paläozoischen Schichten diskordant von Ablagerungen der Münsterländer Kreide überlagert. Die oberkreidezeitliche Abfolge fällt flach in nördliche Richtungen ein und beginnt mit einem glaukonithaltigem Grünsand der Essen-Grünsand-Formation aus dem Cenomanium und wird von Plänerkalken der Erwitte-Formation des Coniaciums und Turoniums und den Mergeln der Büren-Formation sowie der Pläner der Oerlinghausen-Formation des Turoniums überlagert. Die geologische Grenze zwischen paläozoischen und kreidezeitlichen Schichten bildet auch die geographische und naturräumliche Grenze zwischen Arnsberger Wald (Sauerland) und Haarstrang.

 

Die Möhnetalsperre dient der Niedrigwasseraufhöhung, dem Hochwasserschutz und der Stromerzeugung aus Wasserkraft. Vorrangiges Ziel ist die Niedrigwasseraufhöhung der Ruhr, in die das Wasser der Talsperre über den Unterlauf der Möhne und den Zusammenfluss im Arnsberger Stadtteil Neheim gelangt. Die Regulation des Wasserstands der Ruhr garantiert eine gleichmäßige Versorgung des Ruhrgebiets mit Roh- und Brauchwasser. Eigentümer und Betreiber der Talsperre ist der Ruhrverband.

 

Der Möhnesee, der nebst der Rurtalsperre und dem Biggesee zu den größten Stauseen in Nordrhein-Westfalen zählt, wie auch der angrenzende Arnsberger Wald sind vor allem für Menschen aus dem Ruhrgebiet bedeutende Naherholungsgebiete. Daher gibt es ein umfangreiches wassersportliches Angebot sowie jährlich einen großen Triathlonwettbewerb am Möhnesee. Möglich sind hier Grillen auf dem See, Segeln, Motorbootfahren mit Elektromotor und Tauchen bis zu Tiefen von 25 Metern. Entlang des Sees führt auf beiden Seiten der Möhnetalradweg von Brilon nach Neheim.

 

Hauptsperre

 

Der Stau- oder Speicherraum der Hauptsperre kann 126,05 Millionen m³ Wasser aufnehmen. Der Möhnesee ist mit seinen vier Abschnitten über zehn Kilometer lang und rund 10,37 km² groß. Bei Vollstau liegt seine tiefste Stelle mit 36 Metern beim Linkturm, der nach dem Erbauer Ernst Link benannt wurde.

 

Das Absperrbauwerk der Talsperre, das als Gewichtsstaumauer erbaut wurde, besteht aus Bruchsteinmauerwerk, ist nach dem Intze-Prinzip gebaut und hat eine Kronenlänge von 650 m.

 

Um bei Hochwasser einen Überlauf zu ermöglichen sind in der Mauerkrone, unterhalb der Fahrbahn, 105 Öffnungen eingelassen. Ein Teil der Energie des herabströmenden Wassers wird auf der Luftseite der Staumauer durch die hervorstehenden Bruchsteinquader bereits umgewandelt. Um die Mauer zu schonen und wegen der Energieerzeugung wird ein Überlaufen über die Öffnungen der Hochwasserentlastung möglichst vermieden. Zuletzt lief die Talsperre im August 2007 über, infolge extremer Niederschläge im Einzugsgebiet – zum Beispiel in Warstein am 9. August 2007 in drei Stunden 58,5 mm. Das vorletzte Überlauf-Ereignis war 1984.

 

Direkt unterhalb der Staumauer befindet sich ein Ausgleichsbecken (Ausgleichsweiher), das als Tosbecken dient. Der Stauraum ist 0,66 Millionen m³ groß und das Stauziel liegt auf 183,65 m ü. NHN.

 

Das Wasserkraftwerk hat eine Ausbauleistung von 7,04 MW; seine mittlere Gesamtjahresenergieerzeugung liegt bei 12,9 Millionen kWh.

 

Berechnungen des zukünftigen Bedarfs an Trink- und Brauchwasser für das wachsende Ruhrgebiet im Jahre 1904 hatten ergeben, dass zu den bereits vorhandenen Talsperren im Flusssystem der Ruhr mit einem Stauvolumen von 32,4 Millionen m³ die dreifache Menge erforderlich wäre, nämlich etwa 100 Millionen m³ Stauraum. Bis zum Jahr 1925 schätzte man sogar ein Anwachsen auf fast 200 Millionen m³. Daher wurde von der Generalversammlung des Ruhrtalsperrenvereins am 28. November 1904 eine Satzungsänderung zum Bau eigener Talsperren beschlossen. Am 22. Mai 1905 wurde zum ersten Mal über den Plan gesprochen, im Möhnetal eine große Talsperre zu bauen. Die Möhnetalsperre wurde daraufhin in den Jahren 1908 bis 1912 nach Plänen des Regierungsbaumeisters Ernst Link und nach einem Entwurf des Kölner Architekten Franz Brantzky für die Staumauer mit einem Kostenaufwand von 23,5 Millionen Mark erbaut und am 12. Juli 1913 vom Ruhrtalsperrenverein eingeweiht. Im Jahr der Einweihung war die Talsperre die größte Stauanlage in Europa. Der ehemalige Ort Kettlersteich versank vollkommen im Wasser. Das Dorf Delecke (Alt-Delecke) wurde ebenfalls zum größten Teil geflutet. Dem See mussten 140 Gehöfte mit 700 Menschen weichen.

 

Die Möhnetalsperre wurde im Zweiten Weltkrieg durch einen Operation Chastise (deutsch Züchtigung) genannten britischen Bombenangriff, geleitet durch Wing Commander Guy Gibson, in der Nacht vom 16. auf den 17. Mai 1943 stark beschädigt.

 

Um die Abwehranlagen am Stausee zu umgehen, wurden eigens zu diesem Zweck konstruierte über das Wasser hüpfende Rollbomben von nachtflugtauglichen Langstreckenbombern des Typs Avro Lancaster von der No. 617 Squadron abgeworfen. Diese Rollbomben hüpften bei flachem Auftrittswinkel aufgrund ihrer schnellen Eigendrehung über das Wasser und sprangen über die Torpedoabfangnetze hinweg. Anschließend prallten sie gegen die Staumauer, wobei ihr Drall dafür sorgte, dass sie rasch zum Mauersohlengrund sanken, wo sie dann in einer Tiefe von 10 bis 15 Metern explodierten. Eine von mehreren in kurzer Folge abgeworfenen Bomben erreichte ihr Ziel und führte zur Mauerbeschädigung. Der Stauraum war zum Zeitpunkt des Bombenangriffs Mai 1943 voll gefüllt. Es entstand so zunächst ein kleiner Riss, der sich durch den Druck der ausströmenden Wassermassen schnell erweiterte und zuletzt eine trapezförmige Lücke mit 77 m Breite und 22 m Tiefe ergab.

 

Aufgrund der hierdurch entstandenen Flutwelle, die sich über die Möhne bis weit ins Ruhrtal ergoss, kamen verschiedenen Angaben zufolge mindestens 1284 oder sogar über 1600 Menschen ums Leben. Der von der Abwurfstelle am weitesten entfernte Todesfall in Zusammenhang mit der Flutwelle ereignete sich in Essen-Steele, über 100 Kilometer jenseits der Staumauer. Ein Mahnmal am früheren Kloster Himmelpforten erinnert heute an die Toten der Katastrophe. Neheim, heute ein Stadtteil von Arnsberg, wurde besonders schwer getroffen; die Flutwelle war dort über 12 Meter hoch. Die meisten Menschen kamen im Neheimer Zwangsarbeiterlager Möhnewiesen ums Leben. In Neheim gibt es vor der St. Johannes-Kirche eine weitere Gedenkstätte.

 

Zweck dieses Angriffs, bei dem gleichzeitig auch die Edertalsperre und der Sorpesee angegriffen wurden, war mittelbar die Beeinträchtigung der Rüstungsindustrie im Ruhrgebiet; der Sorpedamm wurde aufgrund seiner speziellen Bauweise aus Beton mit Erd- und Steinüberschüttung kaum beschädigt.

 

Der Angriff auf die Staumauer wurde 1954 in dem britischen Spielfilm Mai '43 – Die Zerstörung der Talsperren (The Dam Busters) von Michael Anderson nachgezeichnet.

 

Der Wiederaufbau der Staumauer unter einem Aufgebot von mehreren tausend Arbeitskräften rund um die Uhr und unter Verwendung der ursprünglichen Baumaterialien wurde, trotz der damals sehr angespannten allgemeinen Material- und Kräftelage, unmittelbar nach der starken Beschädigung eingeleitet und konnte schon am 3. Oktober 1943 mit dem Auftragen der Fahrbahndecke auf der Dammkrone abgeschlossen werden. Der schnelle Fortgang der Arbeiten wurde schließlich auch durch die Nazi-Propaganda ausgenutzt, um der kriegsmüden Bevölkerung zumindest kleine Erfolge vorzuführen. Der Einfluss des Angriffes auf die Kriegswirtschaft des Ruhrgebietes war nicht so nachhaltig ausgefallen, wie von den Alliierten ursprünglich erhofft. Sie griffen die Großbaustelle bzw. die dann fertiggestellte Staumauer bis Kriegsende nicht mehr an.

 

Von 1972 bis 1979 fand eine umfassende Sanierung der Möhnetalsperre statt. Durch Sprengungen legte man entlang der Gründungssohle der Staumauer einen Kontrollgang an, von dem aus die Mauer verpresst und mit Drainagebohrungen versehen wurde.

 

Auch auf der freien Seite der Staumauer nagte am Mauerwerk der Zahn der Zeit. Durch die Risse drang Wasser ins Mauerwerk, einsetzender Frost beschädigte Steine. In den entstandenen Hohlräumen sammelten sich Samen an, keimten und bildeten Baum- und Strauchwerk aus, welches mit seinen Wurzeln die Mauer weiter schädigte. Von 1992 bis 2000 wurden umfassende Sanierungsarbeiten an der etwa 2,5 Hektar umfassenden Luftseite vorgenommen. Da Stein- und Fugensanierungen nur im Sommerhalbjahr durchgeführt werden konnten zog sich die Sanierung über acht Jahre.

 

Wie bei vielen anderen Stauseen finden sich unterhalb der Wasseroberfläche Relikte aus vergangenen Tagen. Im Spätsommer 2003 musste wegen Reparaturarbeiten an den Absperrschiebern des Hevevorbeckens der Wasserstand so weit abgesenkt werden, bis das Hevebecken vollständig entleert war. Zum Vorschein kam die alte Brücke mit der über ihr verlaufenden Straße.

 

Die Talsperrenmauer ist als Baudenkmal in die Denkmalliste der Gemeinde Möhnesee eingetragen.

 

Anlässlich des 100. Jahrestages der Vollendung der Talsperre im Jahre 1912 gab die Deutsche Post AG mit dem Erstausgabetag 4. April 2013 ein Sonderpostwertzeichen im Wert von 90 Eurocent mit Sonderstempeln und dem Text 100 Jahre Möhnetalsperre heraus. Der Entwurf stammt von den Grafikern Gerda M. und Horst F. Neumann aus Wuppertal.

 

2013 erscheint der Roman Nachtauge von Titus Müller, der die Geschichte des Ortes Neheim und die Flutkatastrophe aus der Perspektive historischer bzw. fiktiver Figuren realistisch, eindrucksvoll zum Leben erweckt und durch Lesungen vor Ort würdigt.

 

Unter dem Motto Jahrhundertleuchten wurden zum Jubiläum einen Monat lang rund um den Ausgleichsweiher eine Vielzahl von Lichtinstallationen ausgestellt. Zentrales Element war eine Videoinstallation, die auf 160 × 40 Meter der Bruchsteinoberfläche der Staumauer zwischen den Türmen mittels Dia- und Videoprojektoren 100 Jahre deutsche Geschichte mit dem Staudamm im Mittelpunkt zusammenfasste. Sie wurde von Britta und Wolfgang Flammersfeld erstellt.

 

(Wikipedia)

This afternoon we had to stop because the land bridge had a large gap too wide to jump over. After some hasty calculations I decided my rope would be long enough to span it so I lashed it to a rocky outcrop while Djiimi lassoed the other side. However, my rope was too thin to safely support either of us so I suggested we zipline across, to minimize the amount of time spent on the rope.

 

"Great idea," Djiimi said, "Now take off your pants."

 

I asked her if I had heard right and she repeated what she had said.

 

"Take off your pants so we can zipline across, we need something between our hands and the rope so we don't get rope burn."

 

"Can't we..."

 

"Your girlfriend's getting farther away, we have to hurry!"

 

"...use your pants?" I finished pathetically. It's a good thing Djiimi can't give looks, because the one she didn't shoot my way probably would have turned me to stone.

 

"Okay..." I muttered, shrugging my trousers off, "but don't look!"

 

I made for the zipline only to hear giggling from behind me. I turned around. Noises of merriment emanated from my companion's impassive face as she cracked up.

 

"Green..." she gasped, "Your underwear's green!"

 

I straddled my pants over the zipline, wound the legs around my arms, and slid down with all the dignity I could muster. I chanced a glance back to see Djiimi hastily lacing her fingers back over her eyes. When I got to the other side, I threw my pants over to her. She slid down with all the dignity she didn't deserve and was still giggling ten minutes later as we pressed on again. I smarted on the inside, but I have a mission.

 

I'm coming, Quane.

 

With a green friend and some green underpants. :D

Being a bounty-hunter can be a be hard work, it is not just shooting and hunting, bombing and tracking, not only fast speed flight through astroid-field and so on...

 

there is a lot of calculation needed, what size of speeder can I afford and how much soup does it drink and also calculations like is it worth going all the way to Andromeda for 100.000 kredits? you will have to make budgets and calculations, some hire an accountant but this is also an expense that will have to be calculated (hopefully not by another accountant)

 

Most Bounty-hunters call all this part of their work for "Paper-time" still most of their time is actually out on the field, most are syndicated some are freelancers and some are parts of guilds and unions...

 

Most B-H´s are free on Sat & Sun or have an extra taxation-rate when working on their normally free days, the B-H Unions have seen to this...

 

So on Fridays most B-H are happy to have a free weekend and often celebrate together with other B-H´s at small exclusive B-H Clubs or guild bars, in the Aganon B-sector it is Often the minor planet known as the hard Space-rock Café here they can drink while droids service their ships and speeders while their owners brag and gossip about old glories or what happened last week...

 

we have place a small spy-drone-fly on an un-CTV protected spot... Let´s hear some genuine B-H´s talk...

  

- So Screw-Boink I promise you this is the truth, and nothing but the truth and if I am lying may the B-H patron saint strike me down with a evaporator-laser smack in my eye-head...

 

- Hey Iball stop making a five day poem about the truthfulness of you claims and get to the point tell us the story an let us be the judge if there is any truth to the story...

 

- Ok, so I was looking for this lost star-pilot, the Pink one, the contract was about 100k Kreds! so I was really eager to find this lost dot... so I looked on a space-map on where she was last spotted... and it was close to a planet I once visited where a group of male-human cavemen lived, well human males that want to go back to the primitive way of life they think their ancestors the dinosaurs lived...

 

- Ok, so did you find her there?

 

- Yeah tell us, please!!!

 

- Yes, I found her crashed ship on this very planet, and I looked about, saw some smoke from some huts further away so I went there...

 

- Ok, What happened then??

 

- Was the human Pilot there?

 

- Well I went up to the largest hut and peeked inside, my jawless-face dropped my jaw, the most horrible sight I have ever seen reached my eye, they were all naked and connected inside, I don´t like the sight of humans fully clothed but this was so revolting I still feel noxious and ill...

 

- So You got the reward? for finding her???

 

- No I didn´t, well not yet, because when I was standing there peeping like an uncle what do you call it? Tom!!!

Yes Tom... well when I stood there all the sudden the female was missing, so I was gonna turn to see where she was, but then I found a gun pressed to my eye, she had gotten dressed and like a Ninja-turtle moved in the darkness and caught me by surprise!

 

- So what happened then, obviously she didn´t kill you??? or did she?

 

- Yes what did she do? what did she do???

 

- Well she said: I Know why you are here, but I am sorry dear Bh-Friend I am not ready to return yet, I kind of like this planet, they worship me here... I am gonna make a deal with you, Her is a personal Id-contactor, I will call you when I feel bored with these males and then you can have the money for finding me... if you agree I will let you live and if you don´t, yeah well you get it...

 

- Ok, so what did you do???

 

- Well I agreed off cause and now you guys think that I am stupid enough to tell you where I found her!!! ha, ha, ha but I am more clever than that, I have boobytrapped the only path to this planet... so I can assure you that anyone trying to steal my bounty is gonna die for certain...

then you ask, how??? well, I am not telling you... ha, ha, ha...

 

- I don´t even believe in this story, why would a single woman want to spend all that time with human dinosaurs...

 

- Yeah, they will only force her to lay eggs and sit on them until they hatch that is why human women don´t like to reproduce... I have heard that from a victim I kidnapped and she was half-human!!!

Als er 1 schaap over de dam is volgen er meer...

 

day 6

 

"Schaapje, schaapje, heb je witte wol,

ja baas, ja baas, drie zakken vol..."

A stop off at Lorentzsluizen on the Afsluitdijk in Holland.

 

The Lorentz locks are named after the physicist Hendrik Lorentz . His precision calculations were the location of the Afsluitdijk in Friesland near Zurich instead of Piaam , in order to limit the danger of the storm.

 

In the 1924 work plan for the Afsluitdijk the definitive place for the Lorentz locks was established, between the two bends in the Afsluitdijk, on the back of the Kornwerderzand. In total, two groups of sluices were constructed and two lock locks . From a hydrological point of view there was a slight preference for three groups of sluices at the Frisian coast, and two at Den Oever , but in the event of an invasion from the east, the defense wanted to keep the largest capacity in their own hands for as long as possible, and that is why the ratio is the other way around. become. Shipping traffic on the Frisian coast was quite intensive and two locks were built. The depth of the ships was a maximum of three meters and with a depth of four meters, even the largest ships could be shoveled even at very low water levels. The crossings of car traffic on the Afsluitdijk and shipping traffic made movable bridges necessary. In view of defense interests these were turning bridges , because high collection or bascule bridges would have been a clear target for the enemy artillery .

 

The lock complex had to be ready for use before the Zuiderzee was closed. During the work on the dike, the currents would become so strong due to the shrinking closing holes that safe shipping traffic could not be involved. The construction site for the Lorentz locks was completed in May 1928. The soil conditions at the site were less favorable than at the Stevin locks and wooden piles were driven under the concrete foundation slabs . The foundation was started in June 1928 and on July 15, 1931, the shelters could be used, although the official opening was only made on October 7, 1931. The sluice gates followed in May 1932.

  

A crank writes: when I was working, I used sometimes to tot up the retail value of the products that came to me in the warehouse from the associated factory. We were a food manufacturer. The products were packed in trays and sealed up in cases, which were then assembled on pallets. It was a simple calculation. To take a representative example: a pallet might carry 180 cases, each containing six trays, which sold for two quid each in the shops. The value of each pallet would therefore be about £2,160. This thought used to trouble me if, as occasionally happened, I accidentally tipped one over and broadcast its contents over the warehouse floor. A production line made such a pallet about every fifteen minutes and worked a 12-hour shift. The employees, about ten to a production line, worked four days on, four days off, so let's say they worked fifteen days a month. Each employee (they were mostly Polish or Lithuanian women) therefore produced about £155,000-worth of wealth each month, of which some £1,200 ended up in her bank account. Obviously there were other expenses, but the wages bill would have been the largest. By our labour, in short, we all produce a huge mountain of money, yet keep only a tiny proportion ...and I don't necessarily imply that we are robbed of our deserts by our employers.

So why should this be? Why, in the midst of wealth that we ourselves create, should we have only just enough to get by? And we're not exactly living very extravagantly ...right? Why do we work all our lives but stay just ahead of broke and end up with very little to pass on to our descendants? Where did it all go? Why does ownership of one of life's essentials, a house, deprive us of the greater part of our earnings for the greater part of our working lives? Why do the world's governments pour countless billions into projects that even their least sophisticated citizens can see are a colossal waste of money? Why are we required to accept a state ideology that we can all see is founded on insane falsehoods and behave as though it made perfect sense? Have you ever, somewhere in the back of your mind, had an idea that all this is somehow intended and co-ordinated ...but have never quite been able to understand why, or how it all fits together?

Money, or rather the means by which it is created and circulated, are the most colossal scams ever devised. It is a swindle on the most gigantic scale, perpetrated against every one of us and designed to rob every individual of all his wealth. The scam is a work of genius. The first thing to do is cast off any idea you may have had that public policy, "debate", or government, let alone "the democratic process" has any bearing at all on the matter. The book I am pretending to read in this fraudulent re-enactment, is The Creature From Jekyll Island by the American author G Edward Griffin. Why has a book, now in its fifth edition and something like its eighty-fifth printing since 1994, never been taken up by a mainstream publisher? Why must it continue to circulate in this samizdat version, with a naff cover made up in Word on someone's computer? You'll know when you've read it. I don't guarantee that you'll be happier afterwards.

Father's old mechanical calculation machine (he use to work in bank)

Taken with iPhone5

Additional content from Tangie Baxter and Teddi Rutschman/FoxeySquirrel.

Here's a picture I took on a foggy morning just after sunrise a few months back in the Village of Villa Park. I posted a different picture of that morning on the day I took it, and I meant to come back and post more but never did. So here's this one.

 

I post this one tonight because those calculations I did for the last space station post got me to thinking about math and the passage of time. I mentioned when we moved to Villa Park a month before I took this photo of a sunrise that we'd moved west, so sunrise would find us just a bit later. The question I always meant to answer but never did, though, was, how much later?

 

That's a relatively easy question to answer if you answer two other questions first: 1.) How much farther west are we? 2.) How fast is my particular patch of planet rotating? Or, what's my speed as the planet spins me toward sunrise?

 

That second question is the harder one to answer, because I have to track down my latitude and then do a bunch of trigonometry to figure out how fast the planet at this latitude is spinning. But I did that math for the last space station post and therefore know the answer. I live at 41.9°N latitude, and am therefore being spun east at a speed of 783 miles per hour.

 

That leaves the first question, which is easy. I just have to go measure the distance from the old place to the new place, and then do a little dance because of an oddly coincidental little quirk of geography and random real estate transactions that simplifies this entire thought experiment tremendously. When we moved from Oak Park to Villa Park, we moved a distance of 10.52 miles almost exactly due west. And when I say almost exactly due west, I mean that a line running exactly west from our old place misses our new place by about 600 feet. Draw a line due east from our new place, and you hit the house on the corner of our Oak Park street 600 feet from our apartment that I always called the "scary house."

 

This is the kind of thing that gets me excited.

 

The reason this is significant for this thought exercise, though, is that our position almost exactly due west of the old place means the seasonal changes that move the Sun's position in the sky don't affect how long it takes sunrise to get from there to here. Our house in Villa Park is always going to be 10.52 miles behind our apartment in Oak Park at 783 miles an hour. That works out to 48.4 seconds. Sunrise hits our big back window 48.4 seconds later than it hits the big front windows on the old apartment.

 

Want to complicate this up, though? We used to live near the corner of Fullerton and Maplewood in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. That's farther east than the Oak Park place. How much earlier does Maplewood see sunrise?

 

Unfortunately, our departure from Maplewood didn't take us due west. There was a southward component to that vector. The straight line distance from Maplewood to Oak Park was 5.52 miles, but the heading was 32.78° south of due west. So we moved 4.66 miles west, but 2.98 miles south. So that means calculations for sunrise timing are only easy on the equinoxes. On the mornings of March 22 and September 22, Maplewood will see the sun 21.4 seconds before Oak Park, and 69.8 seconds before Villa Park. But only on those two days. Any other day, the tilting of the Earth on its axis throws Maplewood either a little closer to the sunrise than Oak and Villa Parks, or a little farther away, and calculating how much involves an enormous amount of math that changes for every day.

 

I'm not entirely sure how you'd do that math ... but for fun, I'll try it for the summer solstice. I think what I need to do is shift the sunrise line to match the maximum tilt of the Earth on its axis, which is 23.5°. Then I just plug in some trigonometry, calculate an adjustment, and if my thinking's right I find that on June 22, sunrise hits Maplewood 52.9 seconds before it hits Oak Park, and a minute and 41.3 seconds before it hits Villa Park. And what about the winter solstice? On December 22, sunrise hits Maplewood only 16.9 seconds before it hits Villa Park, and it actually beats its way into Oak Park 10.1 seconds ahead of Maplewood, even though Maplewood is further east.

 

So ... did you make it all the way through all that? I'm not sure I did. That's enough math for tonight, I think. I might have cured my insomnia.

After three days of researches and calculations, I finally had managed to find out a place along the coastline in Corsica where the sun set exactly behind a lighthouse, at Cape Revellata. When I actually saw the scene forming in front of my eyes as expected so much in advance, I have truly smiled of joy inside of me and almost moved :D

 

Single shot, hand-held, canon EOS 550D + EF-S55-250IS @ 250mm, no post-processing, just a slight crop

 

Un vero "faro"

Dopo tre giorni di calcoli e ricerche, avevo finalmente localizzato un luogo lungo la costa della Corsica dal quale il sole fosse esattamente allineato con un faro al tramonto, Punta Revellata. Quando ho visto che la scena si stava componendo davvero come avevo previsto, ho veramente sorriso di gioia e mi sono quasi commosso :D

 

Scatto singolo, mano libera, canon EOS 550D + EF-S55-250IS @ 250mm, nessuna elaborazione, solo un ritaglio leggero

The Visionar lenses are high-speed lenses for the projection of 35mm cinema film designed in the late 50s at Carl Zeiss Jena (patent application was filed on 29th October 1958).

Most likely the calculation of these lenses was done on the first east german computer "OPREMA" (stands for "Optik-Rechen-Maschine", i.e. Computer for Optics), a relay computer consisting of 16626 relays, 500 kilometres of cable and using up 55 square metres of space, which was developed at Carl Zeiss Jena and put into operation in 1955.

They are of a modified Double-Gauss design of 6 elements in 6 groups (i.e. no cemented doublets), which was also featured in their yearly scientific publication "Jenaer Jahrbuch" in 1960.

Available focal lengths were 50mm, 55mm, 60mm, 65mm, 71mm, 77mm, 84mm, 92mm, 100mm, 109mm (all f1.6), and 119mm, 130mm, 141mm, 154mm, 168mm, 183mm, 200mm (all f1.9), roughly in increments of the focal length multiplied with the 8th root of 2.

They were sold under the brands of "Carl Zeiss Jena" and "Rathenower Optische Werke".

 

Like basically all projection lenses I am aware of they are optimised for wide open use, they don't have a aperture mechanism neither a focussing helicoid. Even though they are calculated for 35mm cinema film (roughly equivalent to APS-C), they cover 35mm full frame quite well. Typically for projection lenses they show a quite even illumination across the frame combined with very good contrast wide open which makes them particularily useful for stitching bokeh panoramas.

 

On the picture you can see my adaptations of the Visionar 109mm and 154mm lenses.

The adaptation of the 154mm is very simple, a reversal ring combined with several 55mm hoods (front left in the picture) that can be put into the long tube at the back of the 154mm lens (right in the picture).

The lens collar is a clamp from Schneider Kreuznach for their industrial telecentric lenses (someone sold this on ebay for less than EUR 10).

However, the 154mm is quite heavy (1.4 kilograms) and requires a lot of pictures for panoramic shots, so most of the time I end up using the 109mm (you will find more details of the 109mm adaption in my Flickr album).

Pi (commonly shortened as 3.14159, or π) is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Its value can be expressed as a mathematical series that produces an infinitely long number.

 

As such, Pi is 'irrational', which means that the digits never end or repeat in any known way. This mysterious mathematical quirk has been recognised by humans for millennia, and the symbol has now become well represented in popular culture.

 

The famed astrophysicist Carl Sagan's science fiction work 'Contact' proposed that radio transmissions carrying prime or transcendental numbers would be the best patterns to broadcast across interstellar distances in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

 

Certain astronomical objects like Pulsar Neutron Stars are known to send out precise and rhythmic radio signals, which at one time caused much premature excitement before they became better understood as natural phenomena. There is, however, no star which would emit radio pulses in a sequence as complex as Pi. Amid vast stellar expanses filled with spikes of static and confused electromagnetic noise, this elegant pattern could only come from an 'artificial' source.

 

As Sagan's character Ellie Arroway puts it , upon the Very Large Array's discovery of such a signal emanating from the Vega star system; "Mathematics is the only truly universal language. It's no coincidence that they’re primes - it may be a beacon. Some kind of announcement to get our attention."

 

Science fiction aside, Pi remains a source of fascination due to its ubiquitous presence throughout the world of physics. Among many other applications, it is crucial to the calculation of circular or elliptical planetary orbits; satellite speeds, geometries, path vectors and decay rates - the Newtonian clockwork of the universe.

  

****************************************************

Pedantic or curious readers with mathematic questions about the transcendentality of Pi can click here to see NASA's explanation, which covers the topic far more thoroughly than I ever could. Or, to see more mathematically inspired artwork, take a look at The Golden Ratio. Thanks for reading, folks :-)

Father's old mechanical calculation machine (he use to work in bank)

Calculation Table - Shilling and pence as decimals of 1 £ Sterling. On the back is another Calculation Table for Cwts., Qrs. and lbs. into decimals of 1 ton.

 

I received mine in 1967...

Cyber security is strongest when engineered into our systems versus designing cyber security protections later. That is why we design all aircraft, and their supporting systems, to operate in a cyber contested environment.

  

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The Lockheed Martin F-22 "Raptor" is a fifth-generation, single-seat, twin-engine, all-weather stealth tactical fighter aircraft developed for the United States Air Force (USAF). The result of the USAF's Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) program, the aircraft was designed primarily as an air superiority fighter, but also has ground attack, electronic warfare, and signal intelligence capabilities. The prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, built most of the F-22's airframe and weapons systems and conducted final assembly, while Boeing provided the wings, aft fuselage, avionics integration, and training systems.

 

The aircraft was variously designated F-22 and F/A-22 before it formally entered service in December 2005 as the F-22A. Despite its protracted development and various operational issues, USAF officials consider the F-22 a critical component of the service's tactical air power. Its combination of stealth, aerodynamic performance, and situational awareness enable unprecedented air combat capabilities.

 

Service officials had originally planned to buy a total of 750 ATFs. In 2009, the program was cut to 187 operational production aircraft due to high costs, a lack of clear air-to-air missions due to delays in Russian and Chinese fighter programs, a ban on exports, and development of the more versatile F-35. The last F-22 was delivered in 2012.

  

Development

 

Origins

 

In 1981, the U.S. Air Force identified a requirement for an Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) to replace the F-15 "Eagle" and F-16 "Fighting Falcon". Code named "Senior Sky", this air-superiority fighter program was influenced by emerging worldwide threats, including new developments in Soviet air defense systems and the proliferation of the Su-27 "Flanker"- and MiG-29 "Fulcrum"-class of fighter aircraft. It would take advantage of the new technologies in fighter design on the horizon, including composite materials, lightweight alloys, advanced flight control systems, more powerful propulsion systems, and most importantly, stealth technology. In 1983, the ATF concept development team became the System Program Office (SPO) and managed the program at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The demonstration and validation (Dem/Val) request for proposals (RFP) was issued in September 1985, with requirements placing strong emphasis on stealth and supercruise. Of the seven bidding companies, Lockheed and Northrop were selected on 31 October 1986. Lockheed teamed with Boeing and General Dynamics while Northrop teamed with McDonnell Douglas, and the two contractor teams undertook a 50-month Dem/Val phase, culminating in the flight test of two technology demonstrator prototypes, the YF-22 and the YF-23, respectively.

 

Dem/Val was focused on risk reduction and technology development plans over specific aircraft designs. Contractors made extensive use of analytical and empirical methods, including computational fluid dynamics, wind-tunnel testing, and radar cross-section calculations and pole testing; the Lockheed team would conduct nearly 18,000 hours of wind-tunnel testing. Avionics development was marked by extensive testing and prototyping and supported by ground and flying laboratories. During Dem/Val, the SPO used the results of performance and cost trade studies conducted by contractor teams to adjust ATF requirements and delete ones that were significant weight and cost drivers while having marginal value. The short takeoff and landing (STOL) requirement was relaxed in order to delete thrust-reversers, saving substantial weight. As avionics was a major cost driver, side-looking radars were deleted, and the dedicated infra-red search and track (IRST) system was downgraded from multi-color to single color and then deleted as well. However, space and cooling provisions were retained to allow for future addition of these components. The ejection seat requirement was downgraded from a fresh design to the existing McDonnell Douglas ACES II. Despite efforts by the contractor teams to rein in weight, the takeoff gross weight estimate was increased from 50,000 lb (22,700 kg) to 60,000 lb (27,200 kg), resulting in engine thrust requirement increasing from 30,000 lbf (133 kN) to 35,000 lbf (156 kN) class.

 

Each team produced two prototype air vehicles for Dem/Val, one for each of the two engine options. The YF-22 had its maiden flight on 29 September 1990 and in flight tests achieved up to Mach 1.58 in supercruise. After the Dem/Val flight test of the prototypes, on 23 April 1991, Secretary of the USAF Donald Rice announced the Lockheed team as the winner of the ATF competition. The YF-23 design was considered stealthier and faster, while the YF-22, with its thrust vectoring nozzles, was more maneuverable as well as less expensive and risky. The aviation press speculated that the Lockheed team's design was also more adaptable to the U.S. Navy's Navalized Advanced Tactical Fighter (NATF), but by 1992, the Navy had abandoned NATF.

  

Production and procurement

 

As the program moved to full-scale development, or the Engineering & Manufacturing Development (EMD) stage, the production version had notable differences from the YF-22, despite having a broadly similar shape. The swept-back angle of the leading edge was decreased from 48° to 42°, while the vertical stabilizers were shifted rearward and decreased in area by 20%. To improve pilot visibility, the canopy was moved forward 7 inches (18 cm), and the engine intakes moved rearward 14 inches (36 cm). The shapes of the wing and stabilator trailing edges were refined to improve aerodynamics, strength, and stealth characteristics. Increasing weight during development caused slight reductions in range and maneuver performance.

 

Prime contractor Lockheed Martin Aeronautics manufactured the majority of the airframe and performed final assembly at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia; program partner Boeing Defense, Space & Security provided additional airframe components as well as avionics integration and training systems. The first F-22, an EMD aircraft with tail number 4001, was unveiled at Marietta, Georgia, on 9 April 1997, and first flew on 7 September 1997. Production, with the first lot awarded in September 2000, supported over 1,000 subcontractors and suppliers from 46 states and up to 95,000 jobs, and spanned 15 years at a peak rate of roughly two airplanes per month. In 2006, the F-22 development team won the Collier Trophy, American aviation's most prestigious award. Due to the aircraft's advanced nature, contractors have been targeted by cyberattacks and technology theft.

 

The USAF originally envisioned ordering 750 ATFs at a total program cost of $44.3 billion and procurement cost of $26.2 billion in fiscal year (FY) 1985 dollars, with production beginning in 1994. The 1990 Major Aircraft Review led by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney reduced this to 648 aircraft beginning in 1996. By 1997, funding instability had further cut the total to 339, which was again reduced to 277 by 2003. In 2004, the Department of Defense (DoD) further reduced this to 183 operational aircraft, despite the USAF's preference for 381. A multi-year procurement plan was implemented in 2006 to save $15 billion, with total program cost projected to be $62 billion for 183 F-22s distributed to seven combat squadrons. In 2008, Congress passed a defense spending bill that raised the total orders for production aircraft to 187.

 

The first two F-22s built were EMD aircraft in the Block 1.0 configuration for initial flight testing, while the third was a Block 2.0 aircraft built to represent the internal structure of production airframes and enabled it to test full flight loads. Six more EMD aircraft were built in the Block 10 configuration for development and upgrade testing, with the last two considered essentially production quality jets. Production for operational squadrons consisted of 37 Block 20 training aircraft and 149 Block 30/35 combat aircraft; one of the Block 35 aircraft is dedicated to flight sciences at Edwards Air Force Base.

 

The numerous new technologies in the F-22 resulted in substantial cost overruns and delays. Many capabilities were deferred to post-service upgrades, reducing the initial cost but increasing total program cost. As production wound down in 2011, the total program cost is estimated to be about $67.3 billion, with $32.4 billion spent on Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) and $34.9 billion on procurement and military construction (MILCON) in then year dollars. The incremental cost for an additional F-22 was estimated at about $138 million in 2009.

 

Ban on exports

 

The F-22 cannot be exported under US federal law to protect its stealth technology and other high-tech features. Customers for U.S. fighters are acquiring earlier designs such as the F-15 "Eagle" and F-16 "Fighting Falcon" or the newer F-35 "Lightning II", which contains technology from the F-22 but was designed to be cheaper, more flexible, and available for export. In September 2006, Congress upheld the ban on foreign F-22 sales. Despite the ban, the 2010 defense authorization bill included provisions requiring the DoD to prepare a report on the costs and feasibility for an F-22 export variant, and another report on the effect of F-22 export sales on U.S. aerospace industry.

 

Some Australian politicians and defense commentators proposed that Australia should attempt to purchase F-22s instead of the planned F-35s, citing the F-22's known capabilities and F-35's delays and developmental uncertainties. However, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) determined that the F-22 was unable to perform the F-35's strike and close air support roles. The Japanese government also showed interest in the F-22 for its Replacement-Fighter program. The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) would reportedly require fewer fighters for its mission if it obtained the F-22, thus reducing engineering and staffing costs. However, in 2009 it was reported that acquiring the F-22 would require increases to the Japanese government's defense budget beyond the historical 1 percent of its GDP. With the end of F-22 production, Japan chose the F-35 in December 2011. Israel also expressed interest, but eventually chose the F-35 because of the F-22's price and unavailability.

 

Production termination

 

Throughout the 2000s, the need for F-22s was debated, due to rising costs and the lack of relevant adversaries. In 2006, Comptroller General of the United States David Walker found that "the DoD has not demonstrated the need" for more investment in the F-22, and further opposition to the program was expressed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England, Senator John McCain, and Chairman of U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services Senator John Warner. The F-22 program lost influential supporters in 2008 after the forced resignations of Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force General T. Michael Moseley.

 

In November 2008, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that the F-22 was not relevant in post-Cold War conflicts such as irregular warfare operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in April 2009, under the new Obama Administration, he called for ending production in FY2011, leaving the USAF with 187 production aircraft. In July, General James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated to the Senate Committee on Armed Services his reasons for supporting termination of F-22 production. They included shifting resources to the multirole F-35 to allow proliferation of fifth-generation fighters for three service branches and preserving the F/A-18 production line to maintain the military's electronic warfare (EW) capabilities in the Boeing EA-18G "Growler". Issues with the F-22's reliability and availability also raised concerns. After President Obama threatened to veto further production, the Senate voted in July 2009 in favor of ending production and the House subsequently agreed to abide by the 187 production aircraft cap. Gates stated that the decision was taken in light of the F-35's capabilities, and in 2010, he set the F-22 requirement to 187 aircraft by lowering the number of major regional conflict preparations from two to one.

 

In 2010, USAF initiated a study to determine the costs of retaining F-22 tooling for a future Service Life Extension Program (SLEP).[66] A RAND Corporation paper from this study estimated that restarting production and building an additional 75 F-22s would cost $17 billion, resulting in $227 million per aircraft, or $54 million higher than the flyaway cost. Lockheed Martin stated that restarting the production line itself would cost about $200 million. Production tooling and associated documentation were subsequently stored at the Sierra Army Depot, allowing the retained tooling to support the fleet life cycle. There were reports that attempts to retrieve this tooling found empty containers, but a subsequent audit found that the tooling was stored as expected.

 

Russian and Chinese fighter developments have fueled concern, and in 2009, General John Corley, head of Air Combat Command, stated that a fleet of 187 F-22s would be inadequate, but Secretary Gates dismissed General Corley's concern. In 2011, Gates explained that Chinese fifth-generation fighter developments had been accounted for when the number of F-22s was set, and that the U.S. would have a considerable advantage in stealth aircraft in 2025, even with F-35 delays. In December 2011, the 195th and final F-22 was completed out of 8 test EMD and 187 operational aircraft produced; the aircraft was delivered to the USAF on 2 May 2012.

 

In April 2016, the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Tactical Air and Land Forces Subcommittee proposed legislation that would direct the Air Force to conduct a cost study and assessment associated with resuming production of the F-22. Since the production halt directed in 2009 by then Defense Secretary Gates, lawmakers and the Pentagon noted that air warfare systems of Russia and China were catching up to those of the U.S. Lockheed Martin has proposed upgrading the Block 20 training aircraft into combat-coded Block 30/35 versions as a way to increase numbers available for deployment. On 9 June 2017, the Air Force submitted their report to Congress stating they had no plans to restart the F-22 production line due to economic and operational issues; it estimated it would cost approximately $50 billion to procure 194 additional F-22s at a cost of $206–$216 million per aircraft, including approximately $9.9 billion for non-recurring start-up costs and $40.4 billion for aircraft procurement costs.

 

Upgrades

 

The first aircraft with combat-capable Block 3.0 software flew in 2001. Increment 2, the first upgrade program, was implemented in 2005 for Block 20 aircraft onward and enabled the employment of Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM). Certification of the improved AN/APG-77(V)1 radar was completed in March 2007, and airframes from production Lot 5 onward are fitted with this radar, which incorporates air-to-ground modes. Increment 3.1 for Block 30 aircraft onward provided improved ground-attack capability through synthetic aperture radar mapping and radio emitter direction finding, electronic attack and Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) integration; testing began in 2009 and the first upgraded aircraft was delivered in 2011. To address oxygen deprivation issues, F-22s were fitted with an automatic backup oxygen system (ABOS) and modified life support system starting in 2012.

 

Increment 3.2 for Block 35 aircraft is a two-part upgrade process; 3.2A focuses on electronic warfare, communications and identification, while 3.2B includes geolocation improvements and a new stores management system to show the correct symbols for the AIM-9X and AIM-120D. To enable two-way communication with other platforms, the F-22 can use the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) as a gateway. The planned Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) integration was cut due to development delays and lack of proliferation among USAF platforms. The F-22 fleet is planned to start receiving Increment 3.2B as well as a software upgrade for cryptography capabilities and avionics stability in May 2019. A Multifunctional Information Distribution System-Joint (MIDS-J) radio that replaces the current Link-16 receive-only box is expected to be operational by 2020. Subsequent upgrades are also focusing on having an open architecture to enable faster future enhancements.

 

In 2024, funding is projected to begin for the F-22 mid-life upgrade (MLU), which is expected to include new sensors and antennas, hardware refresh, cockpit improvements, and a helmet mounted display and cuing system. Other enhancements being developed include IRST functionality for the AN/AAR-56 Missile Launch Detector (MLD) and more durable stealth coating based on the F-35's.

 

The F-22 was designed for a service life of 8,000 flight hours, with a $350 million "structures retrofit program". Investigations are being made for upgrades to extend their useful lives further. In the long term, the F-22 is expected to be superseded by a sixth-generation jet fighter to be fielded in the 2030s.

  

Design

 

Overview

 

The F-22 "Raptor" is a fifth-generation fighter that is considered fourth generation in stealth aircraft technology by the USAF.[91] It is the first operational aircraft to combine supercruise, supermaneuverability, stealth, and sensor fusion in a single weapons platform. The F-22 has four empennage surfaces, retractable tricycle landing gear, and clipped delta wings with reverse trailing edge sweep and leading edge extensions running to the upper outboard corner of the inlets. Flight control surfaces include leading-edge flaps, flaperons, ailerons, rudders on the canted vertical stabilizers, and all-moving horizontal tails (stabilators); for speed brake function, the ailerons deflect up, flaperons down, and rudders outwards to increase drag.

 

The aircraft's dual Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 augmented turbofan engines are closely spaced and incorporate pitch-axis thrust vectoring nozzles with a range of ±20 degrees; each engine has maximum thrust in the 35,000 lbf (156 kN) class. The F-22's thrust-to-weight ratio at typical combat weight is nearly at unity in maximum military power and 1.25 in full afterburner. Maximum speed without external stores is approximately Mach 1.8 at military power and greater than Mach 2 with afterburners.

 

The F-22's high cruise speed and operating altitude over prior fighters improve the effectiveness of its sensors and weapon systems, and increase survivability against ground defenses such as surface-to-air missiles. The aircraft is among only a few that can supercruise, or sustain supersonic flight without using fuel-inefficient afterburners; it can intercept targets which subsonic aircraft would lack the speed to pursue and an afterburner-dependent aircraft would lack the fuel to reach. The F-22's thrust and aerodynamics enable regular combat speeds of Mach 1.5 at 50,000 feet (15,000 m). The use of internal weapons bays permits the aircraft to maintain comparatively higher performance over most other combat-configured fighters due to a lack of aerodynamic drag from external stores. The aircraft's structure contains a significant amount of high-strength materials to withstand stress and heat of sustained supersonic flight. Respectively, titanium alloys and composites comprise 39% and 24% of the structural weight.

 

The F-22's aerodynamics, relaxed stability, and powerful thrust-vectoring engines give it excellent maneuverability and energy potential across its flight envelope. The airplane has excellent high alpha (angle of attack) characteristics, capable of flying at trimmed alpha of over 60° while maintaining roll control and performing maneuvers such as the Herbst maneuver (J-turn) and Pugachev's Cobra. The flight control system and full-authority digital engine control (FADEC) make the aircraft highly departure resistant and controllable, thus giving the pilot carefree handling.

  

Stealth

 

The F-22 was designed to be highly difficult to detect and track by radar. Measures to reduce radar cross-section (RCS) include airframe shaping such as alignment of edges, fixed-geometry serpentine inlets and curved vanes that prevent line-of-sight of the engine faces and turbines from any exterior view, use of radar-absorbent material (RAM), and attention to detail such as hinges and pilot helmets that could provide a radar return. The F-22 was also designed to have decreased radio emissions, infrared signature and acoustic signature as well as reduced visibility to the naked eye. The aircraft's flat thrust-vectoring nozzles reduce infrared emissions of the exhaust plume to mitigate the threat of infrared homing ("heat seeking") surface-to-air or air-to-air missiles. Additional measures to reduce the infrared signature include special topcoat and active cooling of leading edges to manage the heat buildup from supersonic flight.

 

Compared to previous stealth designs like the F-117, the F-22 is less reliant on RAM, which are maintenance-intensive and susceptible to adverse weather conditions. Unlike the B-2, which requires climate-controlled hangars, the F-22 can undergo repairs on the flight line or in a normal hangar. The F-22 has a Signature Assessment System which delivers warnings when the radar signature is degraded and necessitates repair. While the F-22's exact RCS is classified, in 2009 Lockheed Martin released information indicating that from certain angles the aircraft has an RCS of 0.0001 m² or −40 dBsm – equivalent to the radar reflection of a "steel marble". Effectively maintaining the stealth features can decrease the F-22's mission capable rate to 62–70%.

 

The effectiveness of the stealth characteristics is difficult to gauge. The RCS value is a restrictive measurement of the aircraft's frontal or side area from the perspective of a static radar. When an aircraft maneuvers it exposes a completely different set of angles and surface area, potentially increasing radar observability. Furthermore, the F-22's stealth contouring and radar absorbent materials are chiefly effective against high-frequency radars, usually found on other aircraft. The effects of Rayleigh scattering and resonance mean that low-frequency radars such as weather radars and early-warning radars are more likely to detect the F-22 due to its physical size. However, such radars are also conspicuous, susceptible to clutter, and have low precision. Additionally, while faint or fleeting radar contacts make defenders aware that a stealth aircraft is present, reliably vectoring interception to attack the aircraft is much more challenging. According to the USAF an F-22 surprised an Iranian F-4 "Phantom II" that was attempting to intercept an American UAV, despite Iran's assertion of having military VHF radar coverage over the Persian Gulf.

Kangchenjunga (Nepali: कञ्चनजङ्घा; Hindi: कंचनजंघा; Sikkimese: ཁང་ཅེན་ཛོཾག་), also spelled Kanchenjunga, is the third highest mountain in the world, and lies partly in Nepal and partly in Sikkim, India.[3] It rises with an elevation of 8,586 m (28,169 ft) in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal that is limited in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak Chu and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River.[1]

 

Mount Kangchenjunga lies about 125 km (78 mi) east-south-east of Mount Everest.[4] It is the second highest mountain of the Himalayas. Three of the five peaks – Main, Central and South – are on the border between North Sikkim and Nepal.[5] Two peaks are in Nepal's Taplejung District.[6]

 

Kangchenjunga Main is the highest mountain in India, and the easternmost of the mountains higher than 8,000 m (26,000 ft). It is called Five Treasures of Snow after its five high peaks, and has always been worshipped by the people of Darjeeling and Sikkim.[7]

 

Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 came to the conclusion that Mount Everest, known as Peak XV at the time, was the highest. Allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was officially announced in 1856 that Kangchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world.[8]

 

Kangchenjunga was first climbed on 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, who were part of a British expedition. They stopped short of the summit as per the promise given to the Chogyal that the top of the mountain would remain inviolate. Every climber or climbing group that has reached the summit has followed this tradition.[7] Other members of this expedition included John Angelo Jackson and Tom Mackinon.[9]

  

Manuscript title: Evronot ("Rules for Calculation of the Calendar")

 

Manuscript summary: This manuscript contains an Evronot ("Rules for Calculation of the Calendar"). Many so-called Sifre evoronot ("Books of calculation") emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries. They can be taken as a reaction to the Gregorian calendar, introduced in 1582. Such manuscripts often depict the biblical Issachar, one of Jacob’s sons, on or near a ladder; as an attribute, he holds an hourglass in his hand. This manuscript has two such miniatures; above the first of which there is also an illustration of a waning and a waxing moon with a human face and stars. The title page depicts an ornamental architectural arch. At the end of the book, there is the familiar motif of Moses seated at a table holding the Tablets of the Law.

 

Origin: Germany

 

Period: 17th century

 

Image source: Zürich, Braginsky Collection, B247: Evronot ("Rules for Calculation of the Calendar") (www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/bc/b-0247)

 

P7100329

 

Napier's bones is a manually-operated calculating device created by John Napier of Merchiston, Scotland for the calculation of products and quotients of numbers. The method was based on lattice multiplication, and also called 'rabdology', a word invented by Napier.

 

History / biography

> www.17centurymaths.com/contents/napier/jimsnewstuff/Napie...

> mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Napier/

> collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co60130/napi...

 

How it works:

> mathworld.wolfram.com/NapiersBones.html

> www.cut-the-knot.org/blue/Napier.shtml

 

(I made this shot with the Olympus Tough TG5 on the Underwater setting. Seriously. The underwater setting gave the best light in the make-shift studio set-up with daylight and with only a bit of sharpening in PS).

 

All recently inspired by:

www.flickr.com/photos/189866730@N08/52199576171/in/faves-...

 

The Impression Comes Over From The Calculation Outside !

Abrupt calculation found both of Woking's up platforms earlier today filled simultaneously after much delay at signals.

GBRf's 69004 and 66302 move forward 6Y48 Eastleigh-Hoo Jn departmental from recess through Woking Up Yard unusually incurring a 10min loss here.

Much fiddling it would seem on a day when attentions were also required for 1Z91 to Weymouth under steam 44871 occupying platform5 also simultaneously!

24th July 2024

On August 17, 2025, on the 16th anniversary of the start of my study of astronomy by self-education, I made calculations of the sky coordinates and requested shooting on remote telescopes (with parameters according to my calculations, for example, shutter speeds and number of images) to search for new astronomical objects. When I received and viewed one of the series of images, I found a star in them, which, upon checking in various information sources, turned out to be an already known supernova, but even such a find is unusual for me, because in several years of searching in images, I did not come across even a single known supernova.

 

When checking 5 photographs (of the sky region in the constellation Pisces) with exposures of 300 seconds taken on this date with another remote telescope, the 0.51-m f/6.8 reflector T59 of iTelescope.Net, which is located at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, at the very edge of the images (only 12 arcseconds from the edges of the frames!) I saw a relatively faint star (only about +20 mag), which was absent from the archival photographs: only the galaxy SDSS J004819.14+075856.8 was visible in them nearby. I assumed it was a supernova in this galaxy, and when I checked, this star was unknown, so I measured its position and brightness, then sent the information to the Transient Name Server (as of January 1, 2016 the Transient Name Server (TNS) is the official IAU mechanism for reporting new astronomical transients such as supernova candidates) with the status as a possible supernova, and it was published there: www.wis-tns.org/object/2025umq with temporary designation AT 2025umq, and as PSN J00481888+0759006 on the CBAT TOCP www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/unconf/followups/J00481888+07590...

 

On August 19 I made remote observations of this star with a two-metre-aperture robotic Liverpool Telescope (LT — on the Canary island of La Palma) to confirm the reality of the object, and it worked out, I also made new measurements of its position and brightness (to refine them): about +20.3 mag. On August 23 and 24 I additionally made photometric observations with the LT to get more such information about this star. I am attaching a photo (color) for August 24 (stacked 3x60 sec. with g’, r’ and i’ filters, 9 frames in total).

 

On August 20, according to my calculations and request, the spectrum of this star was obtained at the Liverpool Telescope, as a result of its analysis, this star was classified as a fading Type Ia supernova at redshift of 0.159 in the galaxy SDSS J004819.14+075856.8, with assignment it the designation SN 2025umq. On August 27, the corresponding ATel #17361 www.astronomerstelegram.org/?read=17361 was published on the website «The Astronomer's Telegram» about the discovery, photometry and classification of this supernova with my name as the first author.

 

I will add that later I saw in one of the scientific sources on the Internet that this supernova was previously detected by ZTF sky survey (the light curve shows a maximum brightness of about +20 mag around August 10, and the first detection was on July 25), but for some reason information about it was not sent to the TNS, so I am its official discoverer.

 

It is important that this is the first supernova discovered by me personally (in the images obtained - at my request - from a remote telescope), because earlier I discovered two supernovae SN 2022bsi and SN 2022jhn only in the images of the CRTS sky survey, participating in the supernova search project, so I am the first co-author of those discoveries. In addition, I consider it's luck that supernova SN 2025umq was not outside the boundaries of the images, because it was very close near the edges of the frames. Also note that those two supernovae were much closer (at redshifts of 0.0369 and 0.013) to our galaxy, while this supernova is distant enough: it has a redshift of 0.159, which means it is more than 2 billion light years away, so it was a big luck that I, an amateur astronomer, was able to discover so low brightness supernova! I should add that usually such faint supernovae are rarely classified using the Liverpool Telescope (because too long exposures are needed to obtain a good signal-to-noise ratio, so it is more practical to use larger telescopes, but I did not have the opportunity to use a larger telescope to study this supernova, so I tried to do it at the Liverpool Telescope), but in this case it was possible to do so with the LT - due to the sufficient distance of this supernova from the center of the host galaxy.

 

Now I am the discoverer (only on the basis of self-education) of 82 variable stars, 10 planetary nebula candidates (and co-author of discovery of 5), 3 supernovae (two co-authored and one personally), 4 probably physical binaries pairs of stars, 3 novae in M31; 3 transients (possible supernovae) and 8 asteroids; author of scientific papers in astronomy, which were published in scientific journals (including peer-reviewed) and co-author of the papers, for example, the most recent «GOTO065054+593624: An 8.5 mag amplitude dwarf nova identified in real time via Kilonova Seekers» was published doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202553823 in Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A). I have given online presentations during several international conferences in astronomy, for example, e-Poster during the XXXIst General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAUGA 2022), my paper "The contribution of the modern amateur astronomer to the science of astronomy" (based on this my e-Poster) was published arxiv.org/abs/2212.12543 in arXiv.

All Rights Reserved.

Ricardo sits with his head in his hands, watching from the back porch as Cliff fumbles about from within the structure of poles and sheets. After a few more moments, and a particularly alarming snapping sound, a shiny gold head pokes out of a fold in the sheets and looks over at Ricardo.

 

Cliff: And… we are all set to go.

 

Cliff emerges from the tangle of wires and bedsheets and stands next to Ricardo as he rises from the steps, gazing at his handiwork like a proud father.

 

Ricardo: Awesome.

 

They stand and stare at the machine for a moment in silence. Ricardo grins excitedly and looks over at Cliff.

 

Ricardo: So… all I gotta do is sit in there and I get superpowers?

 

Cliff: Uh…

 

Ricardo: You said I’d get superpowers. I do get superpowers, right?

 

Cliff: …Probably?

 

Ricardo: Cause it sure doesn’t look like I will, R-Man. And believe me, I could really do with superpowers to help my mother out around the store, y’know?

 

Cliff: It’ll work! Just trust me. Build it and they will come!

 

Ricardo: So I will get superpowers?

 

Cliff: Just stop sayin’ ‘superpowers’, alright?

 

Ricardo goes quiet and looks to the floor.

 

Cliff: Look, you might get somethin’, but I can’t promise…

 

Cliff reaches into the machine and pulls out a makeshift helmet covered in wires.

 

Cliff: Come here.

 

Ricardo wanders over and frowns.

 

Ricardo: What is that?

 

Cliff: You’ve gotta wear it… to, uh…. connect you to the… machine.

 

Ricardo eyes the helmet suspiciously and goes quiet. After a moment of observation, he grins and nods.

 

Ricardo: Ride on, R-Man.

 

Cliff: Uh, sure.

 

Ricardo presents his head and Cliff carefully lays the helmet on it as if it were it a priceless crown.

 

Ricardo: Mega.

 

Cliff: Did you just say: ‘mega’?

 

Ricardo: Huh?

 

Cliff: Nothin’.

 

Ricardo stands carefully as he balances the helmet on his head and grins excitedly.

 

Ricardo: Okay… now this is more like it. Yeah, real science-y and shit! How does it work man? It just looks like a strainer covered in bits of wire!

 

Cliff: That’s cause it is.

 

Ricardo: Oh.

 

Ricardo’s excitement begins to fade as Cliff enters the machine and turns on the battery. As it hums quietly into life Cliff pokes his head out and looks at Ricardo.

 

Cliff: How’d you feel?

 

Ricardo: Great!

 

Cliff: You can’t taste metal?

 

Ricardo: Nope.

 

Cliff: Or feel a buzzin’?

 

Ricardo: No. Should I?

 

Cliff: Great. Hang in there a sec.

 

He goes back into his machine and turns up a dial on the battery. The machine’s fragile frame creaks slightly and begins to vibrate. Ricardo, still proudly donning his helmet, watches Cliff with anticipation.

 

Cliff: Okay, come sit here.

 

Cliff beckons Ricardo over to a small fold out chair positioned in the middle of the contraption. Ricardo sits down gently, careful not to knock his helmet off.

 

Ricardo: I’m excited, R-Man! Are you excited?

 

Cliff ignores him and exits the machine. He pulls back the white sheet covering the contraptions entrance and clips it shut with a clothes peg. He goes outside and picks up a small box connected to one of the wires running from the house and into the battery inside the machine.

 

Cliff: Now, when this happened before, Morden was inside for at least a few minutes before anythin’ started to happen. So you might not feel anythin’ straight away, okay?

 

A voice pipes up from within the now quietly humming machine.

 

Ricardo: Okay!

 

Cliff: And you’ve gotta try stayin’ real still.

 

Ricardo: Gottcha!

 

Cliff: And if you feel anythin’ strange, or smell anythin’ you don’t think you should be smellin’, just shout, okay?

 

Ricardo: Okay!

 

Cliff: Now… you ready?

 

Ricardo: Yeah!

 

Cliff: I said are you ready?

 

Ricardo: Yeah!

 

Cliff: I can’t hear you!

 

Ricardo: YEAH!

 

Cliff: HELL YEAH!

 

Ricardo: HELL YEAH!

 

Cliff: Now let’s do some science motherfucker!

 

Cliff turns the dial on the box and the machine’s frame jolts awake. The battery inside hums louder now, growing in intensity as the poles holding the machine together begin to vibrate and shake violently. Cliff turns up the dial a little more, crosses his fingers, and presses a button.

 

Sparks fly from the box in Cliff’s hand, and from within the machine there comes a loud bang. It gives one final triumphant jolt of movement before smoke starts to fill the air and Ricardo comes running out, still clutching the strainer to his head.

 

Ricardo: Shit shit shit shit shit! Fire! It’s on fire!

 

He drops to the ground next to Cliff as the sheets covering the failed contraption burst into flames.

 

Cliff: Fuck! Fuck! No no no no!

 

Cliff runs over the burning wreck and gingerly tries to salvage the battery from inside. He reaches in, fumbles around for a moment, and gives up when his jacket sleeve catches alight.

 

Cliff: FUCK!

 

Cliff shakes his arm about wildly to extinguish the flames as Ricardo takes a seat on the back porch and watches him. He sighs and removes the strainer from his slightly singed head.

 

Cliff: FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK! MOTHERFUCKER! Stupid… fuckin’… FUCK!

 

Cliff extinguishes the flames dancing on his sleeve and kicks the air frustratedly. He angrily thrashes about for a few more minutes, kicking a shrub and stomping on the grass, before calling it a day and slumping over next to Ricardo on the back porch.

 

Cliff: Fuck.

 

The two of them share a moment in silence, watching the remnants of Cliff’s machine as they smoulder on the grass. Footsteps fill the air as Larry comes running through the kitchen and to the back door in a panic.

 

Larry: Cliff? The lawn’s on fire.

 

Cliff: Yeah.

 

Larry: You gonna do anything?

 

Cliff: No.

 

Larry: Fine. Whatever.

 

Larry turns to go back inside, but stops himself and looks back at the pair of them sat on the porch.

 

Larry: Sorry, who are you?

 

Ricardo: Ricardo.

 

Larry says nothing.

 

Ricardo: Oh, right. I deliver the groceries.

 

Larry shrugs and goes back inside.

 

Ricardo: Huh. D’you see that? Dude looked like a mummy. Rad.

 

Cliff: Your hair’s smokin’ man.

 

Ricardo: Oh.

 

Ricardo raises a hand to his scalp and pats out a smouldering patch of hair. Cliff continues to stare at the wreck of the machine, unmoving and defeated, and Ricardo sighs. He leans over the edge of the porch steps and reaches into his delivery box of groceries, the contents of which now starting to slowly go off in the humid late afternoon air. He feels around for a moment then produces two bottles of beer, which he promptly opens using his teeth. He places one next to Cliff and brings the other up to his mouth. Cliff looks down at the offering and says nothing. Ricardo, realising what he’s done, goes to grab the bottle and get it out of Cliff’s sight, but before he can Cliff grabs his wrist and, with his other hand, points to his mouth. Ricardo takes a second to understand, then lifts the bottle to Cliff’s mouth and pours a little in. Cliff turns away and begins once more to stare at the remains of his White Room, now gently smoking on the lawn.

 

Cliff: I tried.

 

Ricardo silently lays a hand on Cliff’s shoulder and takes another swig of beer. They both watch as the sun begins to set on the manor, the last wisps of smoke disappearing as they twist and curl into the air.

  

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

  

Another book goes flying through the air of Niles’ study and crashing into a cabinet as Rita angrily tosses it to one side and exhales exasperatedly. She’d been up there for hours now, trying, in vain, to look for anything that may give them some kind of hint as to how to get Niles back. She hasn’t found anything of use, however, during her time she has found:

 

-A stale waffle.

-An old notebook labelled ‘W.K’, completely blank save for a drawing of a horse on the back cover that erases itself once seen.

-A copy of Heathers on VHS.

-A whisk.

-Five copies of ‘Science Today’ from 1992, each curiously missing pages 4, 11 and 27 respectively.

-A compass that always points south-east.

-And a set of tea-stained tarot cards.

 

Rita slumps against a bookcase and drops to the floor with a sigh. She casts her eyes around the cluttered mess Niles calls an office and considers for a moment if there is anywhere else she hasn’t looked. She’d been in the filing cabinets, through the bookcases and rattled the handles of the two locked drawers in Niles’ desk for far too long before realising she wasn’t going to get into them and calling it a day. Resting her head back against the shelf, she stares up at the ceiling and lets her mind go blank. She thinks about the night Niles was lost – the Brain, the White Room, Morden – and suddenly remembers something that causes her to sit upright and to attention. With everything that had happened since, she’d completely forgotten what she’d been able to do. She casts her mind back to their imprisonment in Brain’s lair; to the dingy cell they’d been thrown so rudely into by that great stinking ape of a –

 

Rita: Get a grip.

 

She stands and begins to hum to herself in some kind of warm up routine, blowing air out through her lips and shaking out her limbs. She takes a deep breath in, forgetting about everything else, and focuses her mind on her arm, and how she would very much like to reach over and pick up a book situated on a shelf opposite. She pictures herself in melted, fleshy form and starts to feel her arm lose its integrity and droop slightly. She closes her eyes and continues to picture herself as that awful, horrible pool of flesh. Her arm drops to the ground with a wet squelch. She takes another breath and concentrates on reaching for the book.

 

Rita: Come on now. Focus.

 

She tries to replicate the feeling of desperate panic she remembered feeling from before, locked in that cell and listening to the sounds of the White Room, but finds the feeling hard to retrieve. She slaps herself with her good hand and squeezes her eyes shut tighter. She whispers aggressively to herself:

 

Rita: Stanislavski, Rita. What would Stanislavski do. Think now.

 

But no matter how hard she tries, her drooping puddle of an arm doesn’t budge. She opens her eyes angrily and kicks Niles’ desk a couple of times in frustration. She bends down and gathers her melted arm up as it starts to gradually re-form itself to its regular shape.

 

Rita: Give up, sweetheart. This isn’t happening.

 

She shakes out her arm and turns to leave, but stops when she notices something sticking out of the desk before her. It’s one of the drawers that had been previously locked. She frowns and realises her aggressive kicking must have loosened it. She goes over and pulls it open fully, gazing inside at pieces of paper scrawled with calculations and numbers and strange, unrecognisable symbols. She rifles round inside, pushing more pieces of scrap paper out the way and wondering what inside the drawer is so important that Niles feels the need to lock it. After a few more minutes of searching she finds nothing of worth, but as she goes to close it something catches her eye. She reaches in and pulls out an old, yellowed envelope with the seal folded neatly over on itself. She hesitates for a moment, and then carefully opens it and pulls out a single, black and white photograph. Staring back at her is the smiling face of a pretty young woman, with what Rita can only assume to be black curly hair and dark eyes. She gazes into the woman’s face for a moment, then turns the photograph over to find, written neatly in pen, the date:

 

1986

 

And beneath that:

 

Calcutta.

 

Rita frowns, but her attention is suddenly drawn away from the photograph and towards a thick cloud of smoke blowing up from the garden and past the study window.

 

Rita: Oh for god’s sake…

 

She slides the drawer shut and turns out the study light, closing the door behind her as she makes her way down to the garden. She doesn’t know why, but she keeps hold of the photograph.

 

Emerging from the water, unfortunately with no fish.

 

Last week I got to try the brand new Nikon D500. Vic (Vbuhay) was very kind to trust me and let me use it for a couple of hours at Bolsa Chica. :D

 

I've been drooling over the D500 ever since it was announced (we're talking budget calculations, considering putting spare organs up for sale, etc.) and really wanted to see what kind of images I'd be able to get out of it compared to my D750 and 300mm f/4D IF-ED AF-S with Nikon 1.4TCII.

 

Before I get to my opinions, I want to clarify that I don't think I spent enough time with it to be able to judge its full potential, because the excitement of holding it in my hands and suddenly having 1.5 times more reach (630mm vs my usual 420mm) can result in imperfect results. It takes me longer than that to get to know a new lens, not to mention a new body. With that said, here it goes;

 

- The AF - I mostly used AF-C D25, which in D750 terms equals to AF-C 9 point. It looks like the same 9 point layout, but there are invisible points between the usual 9 points which are also working their magic. That comes to 25 points total instead of just 9. My initial impression is that at least in AF-C D25 mode, the D500 tracks the subject about the same way that the D750 does. I did shoot a pigeon coming at me and at least one of the shots came out perfectly sharp on the head, but I can't say that the D750 would not have been able to do the same. I don't know. It 'could' be better, maybe it is better, but then maybe the D750 is also very good. The verdict is still out on that one, though Nikon marketing certainly does a good job convincing me that more points = better AF. Maybe it does!

 

I came home with a couple hundred shots. I expected to have a lot of keepers, because in the field when looking at the play-back screen, it seemed like I was getting nearly every shot in perfect focus. When I downloaded the images however, I was a bit disappointed. Some images were in good focus, but the noise even at ISO 400 was more than I am used to with the D750. Also the detail I expected to see in the feathers (thanks to the lack of an AA filter) wasn't quite as strong as with the D750. Could be my fault somehow since I was hand-holding the lens, so take that with a grain of salt.

 

For days I thought to myself "Well, I guess I don't really need a D500". Image quality is something I really value..... but... then I thought to myself "wait a minute,.... if I had taken the 1.4TCII off the lens, I'd be shooting at f/4 and 450mm, which would lead me to still have a little more reach with the D500 than the D750, and probaby better IQ. But, (setting 10FPS and 153 focus points aside for a moment) is it smart to pay $2,000.00 for 30mm more? Might as well spend $1,500 and get the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 for 80mm more instead!

 

- 10 Frames Per Second - Wow.... this thing is a machine gun! One press of the shutter button and you've got 10 to 20 shots in one go. That's a lot of photos! I suddenly realized I don't need or even want 10 FPS most of the time. It's too much for me. Of course you can set it to shoot less FPS, whatever you want, so it's nice to have in situations when you need it. Personally I think I can live without it because I prefer to time my shots, but I understand why someone might want it. It's nice.

 

- Image Quality - I'm 100% sure that one could create amazing images with this camera, but a high ISO beast it is not. It's the best crop sensor for high ISO, but it still lags behind full frame noticeably. The only time this is not clear is when in-camera noise reduction is applied, which hapens to smear too many details for my taste.

 

- Feel - For the most part it feels a lot like the D750. It is surprisingly light and the grip is about the same. The button layout is obviously a little different. That weird toggle toward the top to change the postion of the AF point,.... it's weird. It's small and weird. I'd probably get used to it, but that's a new feature for Nikon.

 

To conclude, I think the D500 really is an awesome, feature-packed camera that more than makes up for the long wait that many D300 folks had to go through. It's a great way to get extra reach without spending $12,000 on a super-telephoto lens, but if you're used to D610/D750 IQ, you might be a little bit disappointed. I'm tempted to pick one up in the future when prices fall, but I think I realized that what I really want is a D500 with a D750 sensor in it. :D

 

ksphoto.me

 

Rijeka, Croatia, on a day of beautiful clouds.

Mamiya RZ67 Pro II - M 65mm f/4L-A (CPL + #8 Yellow Filter)

Adox CMS 20 II @ ISO 6

Adotech III (1+16) @ 20°C 14 min

Scanner: CanoScan 9000F

Digitally processed some sharpening, contrast, dodge and burn.

 

I had 30ml (1+16) of Adotech III but needed 50ml for (1+9) so I did heavy calculation to get time for (1+16) minus 20% of time since I shot it at ISO 6 not 12 or 20.