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Using Atmosfear 3 in combination with Absolute Texture, enhanced grass draw distance, console controlled FOV, 'GOTZ' for enemy-, weather- and location-spawn, ingame console commands (fov, tilt), user.ltx tweaks (r2_lumscale etc.), CheatEngine (slomo, fake 'timestop' by setting timescale to 0.0 - no camera movement possible though), ReShade 2.x.
Nestled around the Vltava River, Prague survived virtually intact, while other European cities were flattened during WWII. This is a view of part of Prague Castle and the spires of St. Vitus Cathedral, taken within the world’s largest ancient castle complex and still the seat of political power. The castle was built during the 9th Century and has evolved architecturally as a blend of Romanesque, Gothic, and even Spanish styles.
A la mi-octobre, la situation de l’armée belge, qui tente de se maintenir sur le front de l’Yser, est critique. L’état-major va arrêter l’avance allemande en reprenant une tactique utilisée à plusieurs reprises dans la région : l’inondation de la plaine de l’Yser à partir de la "Patte d’oie" à Nieuport.
Située dans l’arrière-port, au début du chenal de l’Yser, et baptisée ainsi du fait de sa forme particulière, la "Patte d’oie" est un complexe d’écluses et de vannes qui régule la gestion de l’eau dans le bassin de l’Yser. Six voies d’eau convergent à cet endroit : trois canaux surélevés et endigués - dont l’Yser canalisé – fermés par des écluses et trois "vaartjes" (collecteurs non canalisés, situés au niveau des terres avoisinantes pour recevoir les eaux de ruissellement et drainer les terres basses des polders) commandés par des barrages et des vannes. La portion de terrain située entre deux canaux forme un wateringue dont le drainage est assuré par un collecteur.
Pour inonder la zone entre l’Yser et le talus de la ligne de chemin de fer Nieuport-Dixmude derrière lequel ils ont pris position, les Belges ont utilisé les écluses et les vannes de la "Patte d’oie" en inversant leur fonctionnement normal. L’histoire a retenu les noms de Karel Cogge, employé de la wateringue de Furnes, et d’Hendrik Geeraert, un batelier de Nieuport : grâce aux indications de l’un et la connaissance du système hydraulique de l’autre, les écluses et vannes sont ouvertes à la marée montantes pour laisser l’eau envahir les polders et fermées à la marée descendante pour empêcher son évacuation. Après une première tentative décevante dans la nuit du 26 au 27 octobre, la seconde, en ouvrant le déversoir du Noordvaart du 29 au 30, permettra de faire pénétrer une énorme quantité d’eau dans l’arrière-pays, ce qui oblige les Allemands à se retirer sur la rive droite de l’Yser.
Début novembre 1914, la bataille de l’Yser est terminée et le front stabilisé jusqu’en septembre 1918 par une zone inondée s’étendant de Nieuport à Dixmude. Entre le talus du chemin de fer et la rive gauche de l’Yser, le terrain est devenu un immense marécage parsemé d’îlots sur lesquels les deux camps ont installés des postes avancés.
Le seul point de contact direct se situe à Dixmude où les lignes ne sont séparées que par l’Yser et où les Allemands parviennent à se maintenir sur la rive gauche du fleuve à hauteur du "Boyau de la mort". Au sud de Dixmude, l’inondation s’étend jusqu’à Steenstraat.
In mid-October, the situation of the Belgian army, which is trying to maintain itself on the Yser front, is critical. The general staff will stop the German advance by resuming a tactic used several times in the region: the flooding of the Yser plain from the "Crow's foot" in Nieuport.
Located in the inner harbor, at the beginning of the Yser channel, and so named because of its particular shape, the "Patte d'oie" is a complex of locks and gates which regulates the management of the water in the Yser basin. Six waterways converge at this point: three raised and dyked canals - including the channeled Yser - closed by locks and three "vaartjes" (unchanneled collectors, located at the level of the neighboring lands to receive runoff and drain. the lowlands of the polders) controlled by dams and sluices. The portion of land located between two canals forms a watering whose drainage is provided by a collector.
To flood the area between the Yser and the embankment of the Nieuport-Dixmude railway line behind which they took up position, the Belgians used the locks and gates of the "Patte d'oie" by reversing their normal operation. . History has retained the names of Karel Cogge, employee of the wateringue de Veurne, and Hendrik Geeraert, a boatman from Nieuwpoort: thanks to the indications of one and the knowledge of the hydraulic system of the other, the locks and Valves are opened to the rising tide to let water flow into the polders and closed to the ebbing tide to prevent its evacuation. After a disappointing first attempt on the night of October 26 to 27, the second, by opening the Noordvaart spillway from 29 to 30, will allow a huge amount of water to penetrate into the hinterland, forcing the Germans to to retire to the right bank of the Yser.
In early November 1914, the Battle of the Yser was over and the front stabilized until September 1918 by a flooded area stretching from Nieuport to Diksmuide. Between the railroad embankment and the left bank of the Yser, the land has become a huge swamp dotted with islets on which the two camps have set up outposts.
The only direct contact point is at Dixmude where the lines are only separated by the Yser and where the Germans manage to maintain their position on the left bank of the river at the height of the "Trench of Death". South of Diksmuide, the flood extends to Steenstraat.
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Yesterday afternoon down in Bernardo, NM
For Sliders Sunday, and the original is in the first comment box below.
In Lightroom, things like curves adjustments and cropping and leveling of horizon. In Photoshop more of those adjustments and cloning out stuff that was distracting.
"The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 meters south-east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, the poet Foscolo, the philosopher Gentile and the composer Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories (Tempio dell'Itale Glorie).
The Basilica is the largest Franciscan church in the world. Its most notable features are its sixteen chapels, many of them decorated with frescoes by Giotto and his pupils,[a] and its tombs and cenotaphs. Legend says that Santa Croce was founded by St Francis himself. The construction of the current church, to replace an older building, was begun on 12 May 1294, possibly by Arnolfo di Cambio, and paid for by some of the city's wealthiest families. It was consecrated in 1442 by Pope Eugene IV. The building's design reflects the austere approach of the Franciscans. The floorplan is an Egyptian or Tau cross (a symbol of St Francis), 115 metres in length with a nave and two aisles separated by lines of octagonal columns. To the south of the church was a convent, some of whose buildings remain.
The Primo Chiostro, the main cloister, houses the Cappella dei Pazzi, built as the chapter house, completed in the 1470s. Filippo Brunelleschi (who had designed and executed the dome of the Duomo) was involved in its design which has remained rigorously simple and unadorned.
In 1560, the choir screen was removed as part of changes arising from the Counter-Reformation and the interior rebuilt by Giorgio Vasari. As a result, there was damage to the church's decoration and most of the altars previously located on the screen were lost. At the behest of Cosimo I, Vasari plastered over Giotto's frescoes and placed some new altars.
The bell tower was built in 1842, replacing an earlier one damaged by lightning. The neo-Gothic marble façade dates from 1857-1863. The Jewish architect Niccolo Matas from Ancona, designed the church's façade, working a prominent Star of David into the composition. Matas had wanted to be buried with his peers but because he was Jewish, he was buried under the threshold and honored with an inscription.
In 1866, the complex became public property, as a part of government suppression of most religious houses, following the wars that gained Italian independence and unity.
The Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce is housed mainly in the refectory, also off the cloister. A monument to Florence Nightingale stands in the cloister, in the city in which she was born and after which she was named. Brunelleschi also built the inner cloister, completed in 1453.
In 1940, during the safe hiding of various works during World War II, Ugo Procacci noticed the Badia Polyptych being carried out of the church. He reasoned that this had been removed from the Badia Fiorentina during the Napoleonic occupation and accidentally re-installed in Santa Croce. Between 1958 and 1961, Leonetto Tintori removed layers of whitewash and overpaint from Giotto's Peruzzi Chapel scenes to reveal his original work.
In 1966, the Arno River flooded much of Florence, including Santa Croce. The water entered the church bringing mud, pollution and heating oil. The damage to buildings and art treasures was severe, taking several decades to repair.
Today the former dormitory of the Franciscan friars houses the Scuola del Cuoio (Leather School). Visitors can watch as artisans craft purses, wallets, and other leather goods which are sold in the adjacent shop.
Florence (/ˈflɔːrəns/ FLORR-ənss; Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse]) is a city in central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,084 inhabitants in 2013, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.
Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy (established in 1861). The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini.
The city attracts millions of tourists each year, and UNESCO declared the Historic Centre of Florence a World Heritage Site in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, Forbes has ranked it as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Florence plays an important role in Italian fashion, and is ranked in the top 15 fashion capitals of the world by Global Language Monitor; furthermore, it is a major national economic centre, as well as a tourist and industrial hub. In 2008 the city had the 17th-highest average income in Italy." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
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Étude sur la mutation du paysage urbain de l'ancien faubourg Saint-Laurent.
Des bâtiments-témoins de l'ancien faubourg, construits au milieu du XIXe siècle et ici maquillés de réclames commerciales, meublaient encore ce coin de rue où on trouve aujourd'hui un grand hôtel annexé au Complexe Desjardins / Coeur de l'actuel Quartier des Spectacles.
La maison de brique rouge (à gauche) avec son toit pointu percé de lucarnes et d'une souche de cheminée, son mur coupe feu et sa corniche moulurée figure probablement parmi les premières construites dans ce secteur vers 1850.
Source photo: Archives de la Ville de Montréal.
Placed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 2000, a look at the Henry Weinhard's Brewery Complex located along W. Burnside in downtown Portland.
My Asian Elephant folded out of one 48x48 cm square of Elephant Hide. Hopefully the diagrams will be released within a year's time.
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© All Rights Reserved. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my prior permission.
The Binnenhof (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈbɪnə(n)ɦɔf]; English: Inner Court) is a complex of buildings in the city centre of The Hague, Netherlands, next to the Hofvijver. It houses the meeting place of both houses of the States General of the Netherlands, as well as the Ministry of General Affairs and the office of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Built primarily in the 13th century, the Gothic castle originally functioned as residence of the counts of Holland and became the political centre of the Dutch Republic in 1584. It is counted among the Top 100 Dutch heritage sites. The Binnenhof is the oldest House of Parliament in the world still in use.
This is the complex of nebulosity that has become known recently as the Cosmic Question Mark, a good name as its official designations are confusing.
The top arc is usually labelled as NGC 7822, and the middle region as Cederblad (Ced) 214. However, some charts and references label Ced214 as NGC 7822, as it is brighter and might have been the object William Herschel saw when amassing observations in the 18th century for his General Catalogue, in which he describes NGC 7822 as "eeF! and eeL!," meaning really really faint and large! The little "dot" of the question mark is the faint and photographic-only nebula Sharpless 2-170, surrounding a little cluster Stock 18 .
The field is embedded in dust, indicated by the brownish-yellow tint of the background sky at centre, contrasting with the dust-free bluish starfields at top and bottom. Even the star clusters are yellowed, notably King 11 at top right and NGC 7762 embedded in the nebula at right above the bright star. The loose and sparse cluster Berkeley 59 lies embedded in Ced 214..
Most of the field lies in Cepheus but the lower bits of Ced214 and Sharpless 2-170 lie across the border in Cassiopeia.
This is a blend of filtered and unfiltered stacks: 10 x 8-minutes at ISO 3200 through the IDAS NB1 dual narrowband filter, and 10 x 4-minutes at ISO 1600 with no filter, all through the SharpStar 61 EDPHII apo refractor at f/4.6 with its reducer/flattener, and with the red-sensitive Canon Ra, all on the Star Adventurer GTi mount/tracker, autoguided with the Lacerta MGENIII autoguider, taken as part of testing the mount. No darks or LENR applied here, but the autoguider applied some dithering offset between each frame, to largely cancel out thermal noise hot pixels when the sub-frames were aligned and stacked. Taken Sept. 21/22, 2022 from home in Alberta on a very clear cool night.
Shooting and then blending filtered with unfiltered shots provides the best of both worlds: lots of reddish nebulosity set in a sky with natural coloured stars and background tints. I applied a slight level of star reduction with a "starless" layer created with RCAstro Star XTerminator, but with only 25% opacity to just reduce but not eliminate stars. In fact, StarX did a poor job eliminating all the stars in this image. But Noise XTerminator did a great on reducing fine-scale noise. Nebulosity was brought out with DM1, DM2 and colour-range luminosity masks created with Lumenzia plug-in panel for Photoshop. Finishing touches with a High Pass Sharpen layer and a Paint Contrast layer (the latter added with TK Actions panel) boosted fine-scale contrast to the nebulosity.
All stacking, aligning and blending done in Adobe Photoshop/
The Abandoned Pennhurst Asylum
May 25th, 2014
Some info on this historic location:
“Pennhurst is the scariest place I have ever seen. Period. I have traveled all over the country visiting haunted places and attractions and nothing compares to this incredible, dilapidated campus. Last October, I was approached by the owners of Pennhurst Associates, and asked if I would like to be a partner in their haunted attraction. At first I was skeptical because everyone thinks this industry is easy, with a “get rich quick” attitude, and we all know how much work is involved and how hard it is to be successful. I was really skeptical…until I visited Pennhurst. The day I drove into this huge complex of brick structures, I was hooked. I knew this place had the potential to be the greatest haunted attraction ever. With a ton of money, corporate sponsors, the right build crew, and a great plan, Pennhurst Asylum could come to life and entertain the hard core haunters. Not only does this place have an incredible ambiance, a built in cult following, and a treasure trove of unique props, it has a history; a history riddled with accusations of torture, abuse and neglect. A history of mental patients chained to the walls in dark tunnels, children left for years in cribs, sexual abuse by the staff and even murder. All this happened behind the walls of Pennhurst State School, Spring City, Pennsylvania.
Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff and two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction.
As I research the history of this place, I begin to realize the potential of Pennhurst as an intriguing location for a haunted attraction. This place is really haunted. Several reputable Ghost Hunter groups have documented audible recordings, temperature changes, and unexplained movement of objects in the buildings of Pennhurst. This is the kind of environment I want to build the next generation of haunted house; a proven haunted location.
My team, headed by John Brady, Shawn Sieger, Jim Souflous, Todd Beringer, Rob Sieger and others search the complex for valuable props. We wander deep into the tunnels that stitch the complex. We move into the basements of maintenance buildings, storage areas, dormitories and dietary in search of unique items that will set this haunt apart from all other. We find a huge electro-mechanical device that has to be the control for the electrotherapy department. It is so old that it used electrical tube circuits developed in the 30’s. Insulators and other unrecognizable devices are strewn about the room. This is a huge find. As we cruise through the old abandoned hospital, we harvest giant 48” surgical lights that are suspended from the rotting ceilings. They are mounted on tracks that allow the lights to be moved to focus on the unsuspecting patients. These will be perfect in the rooms for our haunt. We find medical cabinets, drawers, storage lockers, operating tables are everywhere. This is a veritable treasure trove of props for our attraction. As we move through the dark corridors, with flashlights moving side to side, I can’t keep the feelings of growing anticipation from my mind. I know there is something out there but can’t put my finger on it. I come around the corner and enter a small room to the right, and there it is; the morgue. I recognize it because it has two drawer slides and a refrigeration unit on top. This is what we came here to find. This will be one of the most unique features of our attraction; a real morgue scene. Stainless steel tables with large drains, stainless steel cabinets, lab equipment and a real, 1930’s autopsy table! I am blown away by this scene. I can picture the thousands of customers coming through our attraction knowing that everything in here is REAL. My arms have gooseflesh!
Back at the Administration building, construction is moving forward. All the asbestos has been abated, the floors have been repaired, roof repaired, windows replaced, and structural inspections have been completed. The building is safe for use as an amusement building. Now the hard work of turning this into one of the most complex haunted houses is under way. A full electrical upgrade needs to be completed. Smart lighting, imbedded audio systems and fiber optical controls will be installed. Pneumatic infrastructure will be run throughout the building so props can be installed in any room. A lot of work must be completed in a few short months in preparation for the 2010 season.
We want this attraction to be a full experience of Pennhurst, but we need to work the audience up slowly so they won’t chicken out right away. This place is so creepy, that we need to get the ticket sales completed before they see the complex. A state of the art POS system will be installed by Interactive Ticketing, and can handle the thousands of expected customers. This system will track every ticket sold, and with the aid of digital scanners that are integrated with the internet, and keep track of each customer. Once the customer has bought their ticket, they will be guided to the walkway that surrounds the complex. This walkway will act as a huge queue line to the main entrance of the haunt, but will take them on a tour around several other buildings before entering the Administration building. As the customers walk the 800’ long walkway, they will experience the vastness of Pennhurst. With over 10 buildings in view, most in bad condition, they will be able to witness the downfall of this once beautiful campus. The once beautiful courtyards are now overgrown and the children’s playground equipment lay rotting all around. As the people approach the Admin building, they will be diverted to the side and then around to the front and into the main entrance. A large stone portico greets the crowd as they are ushered into the attraction. A unique feature of Pennhurst will be the museum. Many local residents have a strong feeling that the memories of the atrocities that occurred here should be preserved in some way so that they will not re-occur in the future. With this in mind, we felt that the construction of a Pennhurst Museum was in order. We have reconstructed four rooms on the first floor that will act as an indoor queue line and, at the same time, teach the public about the history of this magnificent place. With high tech videos, historical photos and artifacts from the past, the customers will be able to go back in time and witness the rise and fall of Pennhurst, as it happened. As they move slowly through the museum, they will notice that the rooms are beginning to decay. By the time they enter the great corridor the building has fallen into disrepair. This is when they will enter the scariest haunted house imaginable.
With an asylum theme in mind, and real, antique hospital equipment on hand, we began to build our attraction. We painted the entire interior with a special barrier sealant that encapsulates any lead paint and is also 100% flameproof. Rotted flooring has been replaced, and roof leaks have been plugged. We install MDF board as a wainscote and paint it to look like the marble that was part of the original building, but stolen long ago. We want an old time feeling to envelope the customers; a feeling of going back in time. The first room you enter is the intake office, complete with a psychiatrist giving you the Rorschach test, otherwise known as the ink blot test. As the Dr. engages the crowd, slides flip by on a large screen. After the intake, you enter the de-lousing showers, where shower heads spew out a combination of fog, air and CO2, giving it a cold feel. Other rooms include the dietary unit with copious use of existing cafeteria items like tray holders, rolling carts, plastic ware, cups, plates, tables and ovens. Pneumatic and actor scares abound in this haunt as there are a large number of great setups and hiding spots throughout the building. Moving upstairs, we have a large room with the ceiling removed. It shows the expansive architecture of the building, and the roofline looms over 35’ above your head. The focus in this room is the old, female actor in the corner, who is sitting in a vintage wheelchair. She is spot lighted with down lighting that also shows beds, furniture and other belongings. As she distracts the crowd, a switch is flipped and flood lights reveal the height of the ceiling, filled with another animatronic surprise.
Another part of the building is an area that has suffered a moderate fire. Door frames and headers are charred, and the smell of burnt wood is still perceptible. The area that was burned housed two sound proof cells; small rooms where patients could be locked away and their screams could be totally muffled. The floors, walls and ceilings are 6” thick with heavy insulation stuffed between the studs. The interiors are lined with sound proof tiles, and the exterior is sheathed in another layer of sound proofing. Even the doors are 8” thick and insulated. As you walk into these rooms, you can feel the air get heavy, the sounds deaden and you can imagine how the patients felt being locked up in the pitch dark with no one hearing your screams.
As you can imagine, the really cool rooms are left for last. With tons of great, original props, we build out sets that appear to be real operating rooms. One room is set up to be themed as a lobotomy operating room. Steel tables, medical cabinets and surgical equipment are everywhere. Actors bring off the scare and make this scene believable. The next room is our autopsy chamber. This room is decorated with the original equipment we found in the old hospital. The cabinets mounted to the walls are stainless steel, and look brand new, even after 50 or more years. The large sink structure, with an industrial size in-sinkerator, and long overflow drain, is up against the far wall. On the right is the original two drawer morgue unit, moved here from the hospital basement, and restored to its original form. The drawers roll out as easily as they did when first installed, and the refrigeration unit above the drawers adds to the realism of the scene. To top it off, an antique autopsy table stands in the center of the room. I bought the table at a funeral home auction 15 years ago and it has now found a new home. Overhead is a huge surgical style lamp, measuring over 40” across, and fitted with a friction gear that allows one to direct the light in any direction.
Another great room design we are using is the shock therapy room. This room has tile walls and floor, large overhead lights (harvested from the depths of building c) and the original electroconvulsive shock therapy machine retrieved from the hospital. Most modern ECT machines deliver a brief-pulse current, which is thought to cause fewer cognitive effects than the sine-wave currents which were originally used in ECT. Our machine is of the sine wave type, and caused unconsciousness and convulsions for 15 to 30 seconds. It is a large stainless steel console with dials and meters, and long electrode leads still attached. Our shock table is hinged in the center, and can tilt down for easy loading and unloading of the patient. The table has a latch where the actor can drop the foot of the table and attack the audience. This coupled with bang sticks, strobe lights, fog machines and a blistering 400 watt soundtrack make this one of the premier rooms at Pennhurst. In all, Pennhurst Asylum will have 18 complete rooms, not including the 4 room used in the museum. All of these rooms are highly detailed to be realistic in every way.
We have really strived to mix fact with fiction, folklore with fear, to come up with some of our unique room designs. There have been accounts of an old dentist chair that was located in the deep recesses of Mayflower, one of the more notorious dorms at Pennhurst. This chair is a little different than the ones you and I are used too; it has restraining straps attached to the arms, legs and headrest. This chair was reportedly used to remove the teeth of patients that were prone to biting the staff here. Imagine yourself being strapped into this device and having all your teeth ripped out without any kind of medication. This is just one more example of how unique this location is.
The most intriguing part of Pennhurst is their tunnel complex. All of the buildings on the campus are connected by above ground walkways with tunnels under them. These tunnels are 10 feet high, 8 feet wide and thousands of feet long. Concrete floors, tile walls and concrete ceilings create an incredible echo effect at certain intersections. In fact, I have looked behind myself several times to see if there is someone following me a few feet back. The echoes are so distinct you can hear whispers from hundreds of feet away.
As the guests are scared out of the last room in the Asylum, they find themselves in a large foyer with paintings and photographs on the walls. This is the queue line for the tunnels. Once through the lines, the guests are ushered down a long set of stairs and into the basement. Once there, with a temperature drop of at least 20 degrees, they are let through the double doors that lead to the exit…900 feet away. Scenes and actors appear at intersections along the way. Glass jars with cages around them contain the only lighting down here, and they are all connected to commercial lighting controls that are programmed to flicker, dim and occasionally go completely dark. We also added several subsonic bass tubes that cannot be heard, only felt. This will induce an uneasy feeling in all who enter the tunnels. Special chicken exits have been designed into the tunnel system and I’m sure will be used many times. This will be the scariest part of this attraction. The best part of the tunnel system is that it will contain our guests on their way back to the main entrance. People coming into the show along the walkways above will hear the screams emanating from the tunnels below them. They will hear the reactions to our show before they even enter the walkways leading to our haunt. What better way to elevate the anticipation and fear level than to hear, first hand, how scary this place is. If this place is scary to seasoned haunters, imagine how the general public will feel.
Another unique feature of Pennhurst is that it is really haunted. Featured on the Travel Channel, the Ghost Adventures crew have recorded many strange voices, noises and unexplained movement and documented this in their shows. The Pennhurst Ghost Tours, open to professional and amateur ghost hunters, has been a huge success, with recordings, photos and accounts of physical contact throughout the Pennhurst complex. So, if you want to get scared, come to Pennhurst Asylum. You may even witness the supernatural… whether you want to or not.”
Visited some marvellous cave systems in Sardinia. Wow! Truly underground wonderlands! One of these cave systems was “La Grotta di Su Marmuri” (the Marble Cave) near the town of Ulassai, in Ogliastra on the eastern side of Sardinia. Su Marmuri is a mammoth cave complex festooned with curiously shaped and marble-like cave phenomenons. The cave’s name refers this particular marble-like colouration and aspect of the calcareous rock. The cavity of the cave is carved into the “Tacco di Ulassai” (the Heel of Ulassai), the limestone massif that dominates the island and overlooks the village. Su Marmuri is an alive cave, which means that concretions still continue to take shape. The cave system is considered among the most impressive in Europe thanks to its length and average height of 35 meters.
The cave’s entrance opens at 880 meter above sea level onto a steep scree slope, traversable thanks to a flight of 200 steps. The part of the cave system that can be visited stretches for some 850 metres. After descending, the cave tour takes you along an easy, though sometimes slippery, walkway that passes along small underground ponds fed by the incessant dripping, spectacular small basins, groups of stalactites, enormous stalagmites and columns, beautiful draperies hanging from the wall, and other spectacular concretions. The cave system consists of several impressive chambers with high ceilings. Among these chambers is the rectangular shaped ‘Great Hall’ (72x30 meters, the largest chamber), the ‘Organ Chamber’, whose concretions look like the pipes of the musical instrument, the ‘Cactus Chamber’ with two tall stalagmites similar to cactus plants, the ‘Bats’ Chamber’, the ‘Tunnel of the Small Basins’ (drip trays) and the ‘Terminal Chamber’. The temperature within the cave is constantly around 10°C.
original upload: 05/8/2009
Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex
(from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is a large former industrial site in the city of Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It has been inscribed into the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites since December 14, 2001 and is one of the anchor points of the European Route of Industrial Heritage.
The first coal mine on the premises was founded in 1847, mining activities took place from 1851 until December 23, 1986. For decades starting in the late 1950s, the two parts of the site, Zollverein Coal Mine and Zollverein Coking Plant (erected 1957-1961, closed on June 30, 1993), ranked among the largest of their kinds in Europe. Shaft 12, built in Bauhaus style, was opened in 1932 and is considered an architectural and technical masterpiece, earning it a reputation as the "most beautiful coal mine in the world".
for more information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zollverein_Coal_Mine_Industrial_Com...
A wider view of the space station and multiple smoke stacks.
'Industrial Complex' best viewed large on black.
Some bodywork parts on an F1 car can get very complicated to the point that you need to be very careful on how you store it when it's not on the car ! It's a beautiful piece of carbon fibre, expecially with the green livery of the 2004 Jaguar R5
A simple impression of the Sprinkenhof in Hamburg - have a great week everyone. ;o)
Check out my new art gallery: Click here
On the west side of Dataran Putrajaya (Putrajaya Square) is the Putrajaya Corporation Complex which includes an archway leading into Kiblat Walk and the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin Mosque.
Putrajaya; October 2022