Houston MetroRail's Red Line now ends beside the old dead Northline Mall. There are still some stores in the area but not a full shopping mall. Houston Community College has one of their many campuses behind me, and I am standing in the roadway leading into the campus in between packs of cars. This photo shows the passenger station and the actual end of the line. For a number of miles, the Red Line is built in the median of Fulton Street.

The Red Line 5 mile extension to Northline was presented as the Minimum Operable Segment of a Light Rail Transit line that would go all the way to Houston Intercontinental Airport by 2025. By itself, this segment essentially goes nowhere, as far most Houstonians are concerned. Sure, it serves the mostly poor people of the near Northside better than buses, and it is hoped that Light Rail will stimulate Transit Oriented Development, but it supposed to be the first phase of a line with an important endpoint destination.

The next phase will eventually extend about 8 miles further north to Greenspoint Mall and then another 8 miles east to Intercontinental Airport. The area between Northline and Greenspoint is also a rather poor area, and Greenspoint Mall is just another shopping Mall with the same old chain stores as all the other malls in the US. And like almost all malls over ten years old, it has lost shoppers to newer, bigger malls further out. Will Greenspoint last long enough to be connected by Light Rail or will it die beforehand like Northline? Sub-urban sprawl is much like slash-and-burn agriculture; a few early harvests followed by desolation.

(further pictures and informations you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Austrian State Archives (ÖStA)

Austrian authority

Oesterreichisches Staatsarchiv.svg

State level Federation

Position of the authority subordinated agency

Supervisor(s)/organs to the Federal Chancellery

Founded in 1749 as the Secret House Archive (Empress Maria Theresia)

Headquarters Vienna Highway (Landstraße, 3rd district of Vienna)

Board of Directors Univ. Doz Dr. Wolfgang Maderthaner

www.oesta.gv.at site

Central Archives building of the Austrian State Archives in Nottendorfergasse 2 in Vienna 3

The Austrian State Archives (ÖStA) in Vienna is the central archive of the Republic of Austria. It keeps on the basis of the Federal Records Act the archives of the Federation. The tasks of the Austrian State Archives are therein described as follows: capturing, taking over, keeping, obtaining, placing, organizing, making accessible, exploiting and utilisation of archived documents of the Federation for the exploration of the history and present, for other research and science, for the legislation, jurisdiction, administration as well as for legitimate concerns of people.

As far as in the public records monuments are concerned, the Austrian State Archives according to Monument Protection Act in place of the Federal Monuments Office is also responsible for the preservation.

History

The origin of the Austrian State Archives goes back to the year 1749 when Empress Maria Theresa in the course of an administrative reform installed a secret Hausarchiv. The establishment was related to the new, centralized administration, which required a separate archive. For other centers of administration such as Prague, Graz and Innsbruck documents were taken to Vienna.

In the historical analysis is important to note that there have been earlier archives and collections of documents, whose contents were incorporated into the new archive.

In the 19th Century the name House, Court and State Archives became then usual.

1951 there was a scandal because Heinz Grill, archivist in the House, Court and State Archives, had stolen gold and silver bulls over the years and sold to metal dealers ("affair Grill").

The archive departments

The modern Austrian State Archives is divided into several sections:

Archives of the Republic

The in 1983 founded archive of the Republic is the youngest archive department. It is the center of contemporary research in Austria and archival responsible for the evaluation, discarding, taking over and custody, safeguarding, maintenance and overhaul, accessing, compilation and exploitation of those written or typed material supply, which in the Austrian central authorities (all ministries, central federal departments and subordinated offices) have been produced since 1918.

Since the introduction of the electronic file (ELAKimBUND) in the Austrian federal administration (nationwide for all federal agencies since 2004), the Archives of the Republic is also responsible for the implementation of the digital archiving of this written material. Since 2007 it has been actively worked on an appropriate solution for long-term preservation of the "born digital" act. The startup of the digital archive Austria took place in 2012.

General Administration Archive

The General Administration Archives preserves the records of the central authorities responsible for internal administration of the Habsburg Monarchy from 16th Century, over 12,700 running meters, a significant collection of maps and plans, and about 5,000 documents. In its origins, the General Administration Archive goes back to the first-time centralisation of the old registries of the court chancelleries in founding the "Directorium in publicis et cameralibus" in 1749. The archive materials of the General Administrative archive were decimated by the Justice Palace fire in July 1927 considerably.

The public records which are kept in this division are divided into 10 thematic groups (= inventory groups), which for their part again contain files of various central services:

Inventory group Internal Affairs: Chancellery, Ministry of Interior, police authorities, Council of Ministers, rights of the Austrian State of Lower Austria, city expansion fund

Inventory group Justice: Supreme Justice office, Ministry of Justice, prosecutors, Linz Regional Court, Imperial Court, Administrative Court

Inventory group Instruction and Cultus: Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Ministry of Education, Old and New Cultus

Inventory group Commerce: Department of Commerce, Post Office, Ministry of Public Works, Navy Department, Patent Office

Inventory group Agriculture: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Operations, Forestry and Dömänendirektion (Domain Directorate) Vienna, Forest Institute Mariabrunn, teacher Audit Commission, Agricultural Society

Inventory group Transport: United Court Chancellery, General Court Chamber, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public buildings, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and National Economy, Department of Commerce, the General Inspectorate of the Austrian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Railway Construction Department, State railway administrations, private railway companies

Inventory group Family archives and Estates

Inventory group Nobility: imperial nobility files, Hofadelsakten (Court nobility records), pedigrees

Inventory group Audiovisual Collection: Politics and Public life since 1945, Austrian landscapes and buildings, customs, history, science, technology, medicine, business, art, culture and sport

Inventory group Plan and Posters collection: collection of plans comprised of the following funds: Hofbauamt (Court building authorities), chancellery, General Construction Authority, Lower Austrian Civil Construction Authority, Bausektion (construction section) of the Ministry of the Interior, Bausektion of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Public Works, State Baudirektionen (construction directorates), Waterway Construction Authority, Dikasterialgebäudeverwaltung (dicasterila building administration), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture and Teaching, Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Stiftungshofbuchhaltung (Foundation Court Bookkeeping), Ministry of Justice, city expansion fund

War Archive

The beginning of a proper Military Archives in the Habsburg monarchy is to fix in the year 1711, when Emperor Joseph I. ordered the creation of an archivist office with the Hofkriegsrat, the highest central authority for the Habsburg warfare. Already in the first half of the 18th Century, this hofkriegsrätliche (Court's warfare council) archives of the chancelleries has gradually evolved into a kind of military central archives, especially since 1776 through the merger of the hofkriegsrätlichen plan collection with the combat engineer the archives of the chancelleries in reference to cartographic material became to a central contact point. In addition, however, the aim was put on experiences in the past, lessons from former campaigns for the present and future. In view of the above, Emperor Joseph II in 1779 ordered the documentary revision of the campaigns since 1740. This access to the history of war intended Archduke Karl to continue, too, by 1801 disposing the creation of the Imperial War archive. This had according to its founding mission to collect documents and maps, but also scientifically and journalistically to evaluate.

The Imperial and Royal (from 1889 kuk) Kriegsarchiv (war archive) initially consisted of a department of scriptures, a card archive, library and a department of military history works. By the end of the 19th Century the war archive had the bulk of the until then elsewhere stored military documentary material taken on. During the First World War, the war archive had with the assumption of mass documentary material from the front considerably more tasks to carry out, for which the number of staff of the archives substantially had to be increased. After the end of war in 1918 the war archive became a civilian institution, to which after the fall of the monarchy have been given masses of new documentary material from previously independent departments and liquidated offices. During the Second World War, the war archive as Army Archives Vienna was a part of the German Army archive organization under the supreme command of the Wehrmacht. After considerable losses as a result of the war, the War Archives in 1945 became a department of the newly created Austrian State Archives. In the years 1991-1993 moved the since 1905 in the Stiftskaserne (barracks) in the 7th District of Vienna housed war archive to the Central Archives building in Vienna III.

The war archive contains about 180,000 document cartons and 60,000 account books on 50 shelf kilometers and is by far the most important military archives in Central Europe. Its map collection with over 600,000 maps and plans is the largest in Austria. There is also a collection of about 400,000 images. The former library of the war archive is one of the most extensive collections of older military historical literature .

The in 22 inventory groups aggregated inventories of the Kriegsarchiv, in their structure these two fundamentally different archiving traditions are reflected to this day, can be broadly divided into five major blocks:

Personnel files of officers, petty officers, crews and officials of the armed forces of about 1740 to 1918; reward acts (1789-1958), so documents on military awards, which the archives of the Military Maria Theresa Order is attached.

Feldakten (combat files) with material on the operations of the imperial or kk Field armies from 16th Century to 1882 (Old Field records and Army files) as well as on 1914-1918 (Army High Command, New field files - Neue Feldakten).

Most High command, main, subordinate and territorial authorities. This group brings together the recordings of major institutions in the entourage of the emperor (especially of the Military Chancellery, the Generaladjutantur (general adjutancy) and the General Staff), the central military services (Hofkriegsrat (Court War Council) 1557-1848, War Office 1848-1918, Ministry of National Defence from 1868 to 1918) and a number of other authorities, institutions and territorial command posts such as the disability Office, the Apostolic field Vicariate, the supreme combat engineer and artillery authorities, the military educational institutions, the military invalids houses and single General and Military command posts in the countries.

Navy and Luftfahrtruppe (air force troup (19th - 20th century)

Collections, which include in particular the maps and plan collection, image collection, the manuscripts and a very important collection of military scripture estates.

The war archive is now a "historical archive". The here kept official written or printed material essentially ends with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War (1918). The collections of the Kriegsarchiv (war archive) on the other hand constantly increase.

Financial and Hofkammerarchiv [ Edit]

The financial and Hofkammerarchiv (Court Chamber archive) arose when in 1945 the previously separately kept inventories of the Hofkammerarchiv and financial archives were merged. The Court Chamber, founded in 1527 was the central financial authority of the Habsburg monarchy. 1848 took over the newly founded Treasury its duties. The archive contains financial records that are especially important for historians. In historical Archive building in the Johannesgasse the Directorate room of Franz Grillparzer is still preserved, working there from 1832 to 1856 as director. With 1st December 2006, the Department of Finance and Court Chamber archive was incorporated into the General Administration Archive. The bulk of the archival material was moved into the central archive building in the Nottendorfergasse.

House, Court and State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives in Minoritenplatz

Board on State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives, Minoritenplatz 1, 1749 by Maria Theresa (1740-1780) was established as a central archive of the Habsburg dynasty. By creating a well-ordered document repository unifiying the hitherto over several sites scattered important House and state documents in Vienna, it should be ensured that the legal titles and rulers' rights of the dynasty in the future were quickly available when required.

Of the today in 11 inventory groups organised inventories of the House, Court and State Archives the following topics have been given priority:

the history of the Habsburg dynasty

the activities of the supreme Court offices and the Imperial Cabinet

Diplomacy and foreign policy of the Danube monarchy

highest Administration and Jurisdiction in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation whose imperial dignity the Habsburgs held for centuries almost without interruption until the dissolution of the National Association in 1806.

Worthy of mention furthermore in the House, Court and State Archives deposited ruler and family archives, estates, a manuscript collection, a collection of seal and stamp imprints as well as a plan and map collection.

Showpiece under the "Collections" of the archive department is but unquestionably the document collection formed from different provenances.

Overall, stores the in a 1899-1902 built landmarked Archive functional building at Vienna's Minoritenplatz housed House, Court and State Archives on 16,000 running meters, 130,000 accounting records and document cartons, 75,000 documents, 15,000 maps and plans, and about 3000 manuscripts.

The oldest piece is a document that Emperor Louis the Pious issued in the year 816. The chronological endpoint sets the year 1918. The House, Court and State Archives is among the "historical" departments of the Austrian State Archives, who do no longer grow by receiving documentary material deliveries from the Austrian federal ministries.

The great importance of the House, Court and State Archives for international research is based on the wide geographical catchment area and the variety of its collection. Due to the territorial expansion of the Habsburg rule from the 15th Century and the literally global relations of the dynasty, the here stored archival material encompasses practically all continents.

In addition to the "classical" access of diplomatic and political history, the archive also offers a social and cultural history oriented research rich material.

Restoration workshop

The restoration workshop of the ÖStA belongs alongside those of the National Library and the Federal Monuments Office to the most important restoration facilities for paper, parchment, sealing and bookbindery in Austria.

Significant archivists

Ludwig Bittner (1877-1945), archivist 1904-45

Anna Coreth (1915-2008), Director of the House, Court and State Archives

Walter Goldinger (1910-1990), Director-General in 1973

Lothar Gross (1887-1944), director of the House, Court and State Archives

Joseph Knechtl (1771-1838), archivist 1806-1834, 1834-1838 Director

Hanns Leo Mikoletzky (1907-1978), Director-General 1968-72

Lorenz Mikoletzky (* 1945), Director-General from 1994 to 2011

Rudolf Neck

Kurt Peball (1928-2009), Director-General 1983-89

Gebhard Rath (1902-1979), Director-General 1956-68

Leo Santifaller (1890-1974), Director-General 1945-54

Erika Weinzierl (* 1925), archivist at the House, Court and State Archives 1948-64

Publications

The Austrian State Archives publishes the periodical Communications of the Austrian State Archives (Mösta) appearing in annual volumes since 1948. In addition, archive inventories, supplementary volumes to the communications and exhibition catalogs are published.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterreichisches_Staatsarchiv

In the Lake Louise area, the hike to Devil's Thumb continues past the big beehive. Below is the Plain of 6 Glaciers surrounded by Mounts Lefroy (left) and Victoria.

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

As the plaque reads:

Victory Highway

Wast Wendover has established this Historic Interpretive Walking Trail in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management and The Nevada Commission on Tourism to help preserve and inform the public about this important era in U.S. history.

Dedicated July 1, 2009

As the first nearby sign reads:

Victory Highway

The Victory Highway monument is a representation of the earlier county bronze eagle markers of the 1920s. Original eagle markers were to be located at each county line with a plaque dedicated to the sons and daughters who served their country in World War I, sacrificing their lives for our freedom. Only five original bronze eagles are known to be in existence, two in Kansas and three in California. The Victory Highway is a near-forgotten relic of the early 20th century roadways, a path traversed by early auto-pioneers from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. The road you are standing on today was completed in 1925 and used until the 1940s. Highway U.S. 40 replaced the Victory Highway to the south, which is now known as Wendover Boulevard. The arch represents the Victory Highway sign, used at the only documented official ceremony opening the Victory Highway. The ceremony took place on June 25, 1925, just east of Wendover on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Officiating were Utah Governor George Dern, Nevada Governor James Scrugham, and Secretary of Agriculture William Jardine.

Association Incorporated

The Victory Highway Association incorporated in Topeka, Kansas, late in 1921 to locate and mark a transcontinental highway. Victory Highway, dedicated to American Forces who died in World War I, traversed the United States from New York City to San Francisco. In 1925, the transcontinental route offered a panorama of the mid-section of the country that epitomizes the western expansion of the Nation from Colonial days to the present time. For 3,205 miles, this great motorway follows the same course, or one closely parallel, as that of the earliest settlers of the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri valleys, crossing 14 states in all. Less than 14 per cent or 788 miles of the highway was unimproved.

From Salt Lake City, the Victory Highway skirts around Great Salt Lake over the famous Wendover Cutoff. The crossing of the salt flats between Salt Lake City and Wendover on the Utah/Nevada border was costly, involving five years of labor. The remarkable engineering feat bridged what was once a great obstacle to transcontinental motor travel, the Bonneville Salt Flats. This accomplishment blazed a new auto-route across northern Nevada to Reno, parallel to the Lincoln highway to the south. In the early to mid-twenties, only 81 miles of the 371 miles of the Victory Highway across Utah were paved, 107 miles consisted of gravel surfacing, and 183 miles were relatively unimproved. The Victory Highway was designated Route No. 40 by state and federal highway officials shortly after the Wendover Cutoff was completed, and the Victory Highway was used until it was replaced in the 1940s.

An original culvert to the east of this marker still exists today. When a newer portion of Highway 40 was constructed in the 1940s, this section of the Victory Highway, along with culverts, was left intact. Constructed of stone and galvanized steel, these culverts are a testament to the skills of road engineers and rock masons of the early 19th century.

Federal Highway

In 1921, the federal government passed the Federal Highway Act of 1921. A similar act, passed in 1916, provided matching funds to the states for highway construction. Unlike the 1916 act, the 1921 act required the states to identify seven percent of its total mileage as "primary"; only these roads would be eligible for federal funds. In the ten years prior to the 1921 act, the United States went from having one named highway to having an unorganized and confusing system of multiple-named highways. As a result, a numbered highway system was formed to organized the national highways across the United States. In most states, the Lincoln Highway was the obvious choice as a federal road, but there were a few exceptions, the greatest challenge being Utah. Despite numerous reports and heavy lobbying by the Lincoln Highway Association, the federal government selected the Wendover route or "Victory highway" (Route No. 40 as the federal road across Utah and Nevada.

The other nearby sign reads:

Lincoln Highway

In 1912, roads were dirt, bumpy and dusty in dry weather; impassable in wet weather. Asphalt and concrete roads were yet to come. To get from coast-to-coast, it was much easier to take the train. The Lincoln Highway Association conceived the first improved automobile road across the United States of America. Inspired by the Good Roads Movement, the Lincoln Highway ran from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, traversing 14 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. This paved the way for the development of a nationwide highway network that is now unsurpassed. As the first automobile road across America, the Lincoln Highway brought great prosperity to hundreds of cities, towns, and villages along the way. The first officially recorded mileage in 1913 was 3,389 miles; by 1924 the road was improved and realigned, covering only 3,142 miles. A road was "improved" if it was just graded; few even had gravel in the early years of the association. One of the hardest fought realignments took place in the deserts of Utah, west of Salt Lake City. A new route, the Goodyear Cutoff, was surveyed and prepared for construction by the Lincoln Highway Association. The Utah State government promoted a route directly west of Salt lake City to Wendover, Nevada, as the route to San Francisco. This course crossed miles of salt desert, which was often submerged under water. The Wendover road, favored by Utah, was part of another named highway, the Victory Highway. Like the Lincoln, it claimed New York and San Francisco as its endpoints. Northern Californians favored the Victory for economic reasons; travelers along the Victory would almost certainly end their trips in San Francisco.

Lincoln Highway Markers

The association ceased activity at the end of 1927. Its last major activity was to mark the highway not as a route from one destination to another, but as a memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, the road's namesake. On September 1, 1928, thousands of Boy Scouts fanned out along the highway. At an average of about one monument per mile, 3,000 concrete markers were installed with a small bust of Lincoln and the inscription, "This highway dedicated to Abraham Lincoln," were placed along the road from New York City to San Francisco.

Our endpoint today. I was with a slower group so we only got to this meadow before the pass.

North of Redding, the Sacramento River Rail Trail links with the Sacramento River Trail, forming an extensive paved trail network that offers stunning views of the river and nearby mountains throughout its length.

From the southern trailhead at Keswick Dam, the Sacramento River Rail Trail heads steeply northwest along Keswick Reservoir for nearly 3 miles through dense woodlands. At the trail junction near Spring Creek, continue right at the start of the much flatter rail-trail portion, which follows the old Central Pacific Railroad bed for more than 7 miles north. (A left turn instead leads to a small trailhead on Iron Mountain Road a short distance away.)

The remainder of the route continues to follow the former rail corridor on the western edge of Keswick Reservoir, offering beautiful views of the crystal-clear water. From the trail's northern endpoint on Coram Road, continue northeast on-road to reach Shasta Dam. The impressive dam—the eighth tallest in the United States—is responsible for the creation of Shasta Lake, a popular recreation destination for Northern Californians.

Back at the southern end of the trail at smaller Keswick Dam, pick up the Sacramento River Trail to continue south to Redding and its famous Sundial Bridge.

Photo by Jesse Pluim, BLM

North of Redding, the Sacramento River Rail Trail links with the Sacramento River Trail, forming an extensive paved trail network that offers stunning views of the river and nearby mountains throughout its length.

From the southern trailhead at Keswick Dam, the Sacramento River Rail Trail heads steeply northwest along Keswick Reservoir for nearly 3 miles through dense woodlands. At the trail junction near Spring Creek, continue right at the start of the much flatter rail-trail portion, which follows the old Central Pacific Railroad bed for more than 7 miles north. (A left turn instead leads to a small trailhead on Iron Mountain Road a short distance away.)

The remainder of the route continues to follow the former rail corridor on the western edge of Keswick Reservoir, offering beautiful views of the crystal-clear water. From the trail's northern endpoint on Coram Road, continue northeast on-road to reach Shasta Dam. The impressive dam—the eighth tallest in the United States—is responsible for the creation of Shasta Lake, a popular recreation destination for Northern Californians.

Back at the southern end of the trail at smaller Keswick Dam, pick up the Sacramento River Trail to continue south to Redding and its famous Sundial Bridge.

Photo by Jesse Pluim, BLM

(further pictures and informations you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Austrian State Archives (ÖStA)

Austrian authority

Oesterreichisches Staatsarchiv.svg

State level Federation

Position of the authority subordinated agency

Supervisor(s)/organs to the Federal Chancellery

Founded in 1749 as the Secret House Archive (Empress Maria Theresia)

Headquarters Vienna Highway (Landstraße, 3rd district of Vienna)

Board of Directors Univ. Doz Dr. Wolfgang Maderthaner

www.oesta.gv.at site

Central Archives building of the Austrian State Archives in Nottendorfergasse 2 in Vienna 3

The Austrian State Archives (ÖStA) in Vienna is the central archive of the Republic of Austria. It keeps on the basis of the Federal Records Act the archives of the Federation. The tasks of the Austrian State Archives are therein described as follows: capturing, taking over, keeping, obtaining, placing, organizing, making accessible, exploiting and utilisation of archived documents of the Federation for the exploration of the history and present, for other research and science, for the legislation, jurisdiction, administration as well as for legitimate concerns of people.

As far as in the public records monuments are concerned, the Austrian State Archives according to Monument Protection Act in place of the Federal Monuments Office is also responsible for the preservation.

History

The origin of the Austrian State Archives goes back to the year 1749 when Empress Maria Theresa in the course of an administrative reform installed a secret Hausarchiv. The establishment was related to the new, centralized administration, which required a separate archive. For other centers of administration such as Prague, Graz and Innsbruck documents were taken to Vienna.

In the historical analysis is important to note that there have been earlier archives and collections of documents, whose contents were incorporated into the new archive.

In the 19th Century the name House, Court and State Archives became then usual.

1951 there was a scandal because Heinz Grill, archivist in the House, Court and State Archives, had stolen gold and silver bulls over the years and sold to metal dealers ("affair Grill").

The archive departments

The modern Austrian State Archives is divided into several sections:

Archives of the Republic

The in 1983 founded archive of the Republic is the youngest archive department. It is the center of contemporary research in Austria and archival responsible for the evaluation, discarding, taking over and custody, safeguarding, maintenance and overhaul, accessing, compilation and exploitation of those written or typed material supply, which in the Austrian central authorities (all ministries, central federal departments and subordinated offices) have been produced since 1918.

Since the introduction of the electronic file (ELAKimBUND) in the Austrian federal administration (nationwide for all federal agencies since 2004), the Archives of the Republic is also responsible for the implementation of the digital archiving of this written material. Since 2007 it has been actively worked on an appropriate solution for long-term preservation of the "born digital" act. The startup of the digital archive Austria took place in 2012.

General Administration Archive

The General Administration Archives preserves the records of the central authorities responsible for internal administration of the Habsburg Monarchy from 16th Century, over 12,700 running meters, a significant collection of maps and plans, and about 5,000 documents. In its origins, the General Administration Archive goes back to the first-time centralisation of the old registries of the court chancelleries in founding the "Directorium in publicis et cameralibus" in 1749. The archive materials of the General Administrative archive were decimated by the Justice Palace fire in July 1927 considerably.

The public records which are kept in this division are divided into 10 thematic groups (= inventory groups), which for their part again contain files of various central services:

Inventory group Internal Affairs: Chancellery, Ministry of Interior, police authorities, Council of Ministers, rights of the Austrian State of Lower Austria, city expansion fund

Inventory group Justice: Supreme Justice office, Ministry of Justice, prosecutors, Linz Regional Court, Imperial Court, Administrative Court

Inventory group Instruction and Cultus: Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Ministry of Education, Old and New Cultus

Inventory group Commerce: Department of Commerce, Post Office, Ministry of Public Works, Navy Department, Patent Office

Inventory group Agriculture: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Operations, Forestry and Dömänendirektion (Domain Directorate) Vienna, Forest Institute Mariabrunn, teacher Audit Commission, Agricultural Society

Inventory group Transport: United Court Chancellery, General Court Chamber, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public buildings, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and National Economy, Department of Commerce, the General Inspectorate of the Austrian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Railway Construction Department, State railway administrations, private railway companies

Inventory group Family archives and Estates

Inventory group Nobility: imperial nobility files, Hofadelsakten (Court nobility records), pedigrees

Inventory group Audiovisual Collection: Politics and Public life since 1945, Austrian landscapes and buildings, customs, history, science, technology, medicine, business, art, culture and sport

Inventory group Plan and Posters collection: collection of plans comprised of the following funds: Hofbauamt (Court building authorities), chancellery, General Construction Authority, Lower Austrian Civil Construction Authority, Bausektion (construction section) of the Ministry of the Interior, Bausektion of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Public Works, State Baudirektionen (construction directorates), Waterway Construction Authority, Dikasterialgebäudeverwaltung (dicasterila building administration), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture and Teaching, Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Stiftungshofbuchhaltung (Foundation Court Bookkeeping), Ministry of Justice, city expansion fund

War Archive

The beginning of a proper Military Archives in the Habsburg monarchy is to fix in the year 1711, when Emperor Joseph I. ordered the creation of an archivist office with the Hofkriegsrat, the highest central authority for the Habsburg warfare. Already in the first half of the 18th Century, this hofkriegsrätliche (Court's warfare council) archives of the chancelleries has gradually evolved into a kind of military central archives, especially since 1776 through the merger of the hofkriegsrätlichen plan collection with the combat engineer the archives of the chancelleries in reference to cartographic material became to a central contact point. In addition, however, the aim was put on experiences in the past, lessons from former campaigns for the present and future. In view of the above, Emperor Joseph II in 1779 ordered the documentary revision of the campaigns since 1740. This access to the history of war intended Archduke Karl to continue, too, by 1801 disposing the creation of the Imperial War archive. This had according to its founding mission to collect documents and maps, but also scientifically and journalistically to evaluate.

The Imperial and Royal (from 1889 kuk) Kriegsarchiv (war archive) initially consisted of a department of scriptures, a card archive, library and a department of military history works. By the end of the 19th Century the war archive had the bulk of the until then elsewhere stored military documentary material taken on. During the First World War, the war archive had with the assumption of mass documentary material from the front considerably more tasks to carry out, for which the number of staff of the archives substantially had to be increased. After the end of war in 1918 the war archive became a civilian institution, to which after the fall of the monarchy have been given masses of new documentary material from previously independent departments and liquidated offices. During the Second World War, the war archive as Army Archives Vienna was a part of the German Army archive organization under the supreme command of the Wehrmacht. After considerable losses as a result of the war, the War Archives in 1945 became a department of the newly created Austrian State Archives. In the years 1991-1993 moved the since 1905 in the Stiftskaserne (barracks) in the 7th District of Vienna housed war archive to the Central Archives building in Vienna III.

The war archive contains about 180,000 document cartons and 60,000 account books on 50 shelf kilometers and is by far the most important military archives in Central Europe. Its map collection with over 600,000 maps and plans is the largest in Austria. There is also a collection of about 400,000 images. The former library of the war archive is one of the most extensive collections of older military historical literature .

The in 22 inventory groups aggregated inventories of the Kriegsarchiv, in their structure these two fundamentally different archiving traditions are reflected to this day, can be broadly divided into five major blocks:

Personnel files of officers, petty officers, crews and officials of the armed forces of about 1740 to 1918; reward acts (1789-1958), so documents on military awards, which the archives of the Military Maria Theresa Order is attached.

Feldakten (combat files) with material on the operations of the imperial or kk Field armies from 16th Century to 1882 (Old Field records and Army files) as well as on 1914-1918 (Army High Command, New field files - Neue Feldakten).

Most High command, main, subordinate and territorial authorities. This group brings together the recordings of major institutions in the entourage of the emperor (especially of the Military Chancellery, the Generaladjutantur (general adjutancy) and the General Staff), the central military services (Hofkriegsrat (Court War Council) 1557-1848, War Office 1848-1918, Ministry of National Defence from 1868 to 1918) and a number of other authorities, institutions and territorial command posts such as the disability Office, the Apostolic field Vicariate, the supreme combat engineer and artillery authorities, the military educational institutions, the military invalids houses and single General and Military command posts in the countries.

Navy and Luftfahrtruppe (air force troup (19th - 20th century)

Collections, which include in particular the maps and plan collection, image collection, the manuscripts and a very important collection of military scripture estates.

The war archive is now a "historical archive". The here kept official written or printed material essentially ends with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War (1918). The collections of the Kriegsarchiv (war archive) on the other hand constantly increase.

Financial and Hofkammerarchiv [ Edit]

The financial and Hofkammerarchiv (Court Chamber archive) arose when in 1945 the previously separately kept inventories of the Hofkammerarchiv and financial archives were merged. The Court Chamber, founded in 1527 was the central financial authority of the Habsburg monarchy. 1848 took over the newly founded Treasury its duties. The archive contains financial records that are especially important for historians. In historical Archive building in the Johannesgasse the Directorate room of Franz Grillparzer is still preserved, working there from 1832 to 1856 as director. With 1st December 2006, the Department of Finance and Court Chamber archive was incorporated into the General Administration Archive. The bulk of the archival material was moved into the central archive building in the Nottendorfergasse.

House, Court and State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives in Minoritenplatz

Board on State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives, Minoritenplatz 1, 1749 by Maria Theresa (1740-1780) was established as a central archive of the Habsburg dynasty. By creating a well-ordered document repository unifiying the hitherto over several sites scattered important House and state documents in Vienna, it should be ensured that the legal titles and rulers' rights of the dynasty in the future were quickly available when required.

Of the today in 11 inventory groups organised inventories of the House, Court and State Archives the following topics have been given priority:

the history of the Habsburg dynasty

the activities of the supreme Court offices and the Imperial Cabinet

Diplomacy and foreign policy of the Danube monarchy

highest Administration and Jurisdiction in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation whose imperial dignity the Habsburgs held for centuries almost without interruption until the dissolution of the National Association in 1806.

Worthy of mention furthermore in the House, Court and State Archives deposited ruler and family archives, estates, a manuscript collection, a collection of seal and stamp imprints as well as a plan and map collection.

Showpiece under the "Collections" of the archive department is but unquestionably the document collection formed from different provenances.

Overall, stores the in a 1899-1902 built landmarked Archive functional building at Vienna's Minoritenplatz housed House, Court and State Archives on 16,000 running meters, 130,000 accounting records and document cartons, 75,000 documents, 15,000 maps and plans, and about 3000 manuscripts.

The oldest piece is a document that Emperor Louis the Pious issued in the year 816. The chronological endpoint sets the year 1918. The House, Court and State Archives is among the "historical" departments of the Austrian State Archives, who do no longer grow by receiving documentary material deliveries from the Austrian federal ministries.

The great importance of the House, Court and State Archives for international research is based on the wide geographical catchment area and the variety of its collection. Due to the territorial expansion of the Habsburg rule from the 15th Century and the literally global relations of the dynasty, the here stored archival material encompasses practically all continents.

In addition to the "classical" access of diplomatic and political history, the archive also offers a social and cultural history oriented research rich material.

Restoration workshop

The restoration workshop of the ÖStA belongs alongside those of the National Library and the Federal Monuments Office to the most important restoration facilities for paper, parchment, sealing and bookbindery in Austria.

Significant archivists

Ludwig Bittner (1877-1945), archivist 1904-45

Anna Coreth (1915-2008), Director of the House, Court and State Archives

Walter Goldinger (1910-1990), Director-General in 1973

Lothar Gross (1887-1944), director of the House, Court and State Archives

Joseph Knechtl (1771-1838), archivist 1806-1834, 1834-1838 Director

Hanns Leo Mikoletzky (1907-1978), Director-General 1968-72

Lorenz Mikoletzky (* 1945), Director-General from 1994 to 2011

Rudolf Neck

Kurt Peball (1928-2009), Director-General 1983-89

Gebhard Rath (1902-1979), Director-General 1956-68

Leo Santifaller (1890-1974), Director-General 1945-54

Erika Weinzierl (* 1925), archivist at the House, Court and State Archives 1948-64

Publications

The Austrian State Archives publishes the periodical Communications of the Austrian State Archives (Mösta) appearing in annual volumes since 1948. In addition, archive inventories, supplementary volumes to the communications and exhibition catalogs are published.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterreichisches_Staatsarchiv

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The Orient Express was the name of a long-distance passenger train originally operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. Its route has changed many times, and several routes have in the past concurrently used the name, or slight variants thereof. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most intimately associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Istanbul, the original endpoints of the service.

Since 1977, the Orient Express has not served Istanbul. Its immediate successor, a through overnight service from Paris to Vienna, ran for the very last time from Paris on Friday, June 8, 2007. Since then, the route, still called the "Orient Express", has been shortened to start from Strasbourg instead, occasioned by the inauguration of the LGV Est which affords much faster travel times from Paris to Strasbourg. The new curtailed service left Strasbourg at 22.20 daily, shortly after the arrival of a TGV from Paris, and is attached at Karlsruhe to the overnight sleeper service from Amsterdam to Vienna.

On 14 December 2009, the Orient Express ceased to operate and the route disappeared from European railway timetables, reportedly a "victim of high-speed trains and cut-rate airlines."

De Oriënt-Express was een beroemde luxetrein van de Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) die van Parijs (met aansluiting vanuit Londen) naar Istanboel reed. Deze trein reed als lijndienst, met onderbrekingen en via verschillende routes, onder verschillende namen tussen 1883 en 1977. Tot 13 december 2009 reed de trein nog als een gewone internationale trein tussen Straatsburg en Wenen. Ook worden onder de naam Oriënt-Express speciale nostalgische ritten georganiseerd.

Fontana di Trevi

A seguir, um texto, em português, do Blog do Noblat:

Nenhuma semana sobre fontes poderia ser feita sem falar na Fontana di Trevi, a linda, a inteiramente diferente de todas as outras fontes. Numa pequena praça, formada pelo cruzamento de três vias, em italiano tre vie, e é daí que vem seu nome, a fonte marca o ponto final do aqueduto Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos de Roma.

Reza a lenda que em 19 a.C, uma virgem ajudou os Romanos a encontrar uma fonte de água pura. Essa nascente supriu Roma de água por mais de 400 anos, e isso só terminou entre 537 e 538, quando os visigodos sitiaram Roma e destruíram seus aquedutos.

A reconstrução do aqueduto só terminou em 1453, sob o papa Nicolau V que mandou fazer ali uma bacia em mármore para acolher a água.

Em 1629, o papa Urbano VII pediu a Bernini que embelezasse a fonte; o grande arquiteto começou por mudar o local da escultura: seu projeto a colocava do outro lado da praça e ela ficaria de frente para o Palácio Quirinal, de modo que o papa pudesse apreciar a vista. Mas o papa morreu, o projeto foi abandonado. Ainda assim muitos dos detalhes que Bernini criara foram respeitados pelo arquiteto Nicola Salvi, que assina a fonte.

Em 1730, Salvi recebeu do papa Clemente XII a incumbência de reiniciar a decoração da fonte. Os trabalhos começaram em 1732 e terminaram em 1762, depois da morte de Clemente. A estátua principal, do deus Oceano, só foi colocada após a morte do papa.

O pano de fundo da estrutura é o Palazzo Poli que, para compor o cenário perfeito, recebeu uma nova fachada com colunas gregas que unem os dois andares.

O tema principal é “O Domínio das Águas”. A biga de Oceano, em forma de concha, é puxada por cavalos alados dominados por Tritãos. O nicho do deus é um imenso arco do triunfo; nos laterais estão as estátuas da Abundância e da Salubridade.

No alto, em baixo relevo, a origem dos aquedutos romanos e, acima, as armas de Clemente XII. O conjunto mede 25.9m de altura x 19,8m de largura e é a maior fonte barroca dessa cidade com tantas fontes.

Reza a lenda que ao jogar uma moeda na fonte, está assegurada sua volta a Roma. Se jogar três moedas com a mão direita sobre o ombro esquerdo, você garante sua boa sorte. Parece brincadeira? Cerca de 3mil euros são jogados por dia na Fontana di Trevi!

Esse cenário deslumbrante serviu a Federico Fellini para uma das cenas mais famosas de sua obra-prima, o filme La Dolce Vita. Difìcil alguém que não conheça a cena interpretada por Anita Eckberg e Marcello Mastroianni. Pois bem, quando Mastroianni faleceu, desligaram a água e cobriram a fonte de panos negros. Foi o luto de Roma pelo grande ator.

Um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:

A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.

A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.

O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.

O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V determinou fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.

Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.

Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.

Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.

A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.

A text, in english, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.

The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.

In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti, one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.

Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.

Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".

The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.

The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.

The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming seahorses (hippocamps).

In the center is superimposed a robustly modelled triumphal arch. The center niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light-and-shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.

The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.

Approximately 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day and are collected at night. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

4 photo's corrected using DxO Pro 8 then stitched together using PSE11 to make this panoramic shot showing the view from the most popular stopping place.

The road up and out from Dalen climbs steeply up the side of the valley round a series of hairpin bends. It's easy to see why so many stop just here ;-)

Dalen is the administrative centre of Tokke municipality, Norway. It is located on and around the delta where the river Tokke flows into the west end of lake Bandak.

Dalen is the westernmost endpoint of the Telemark Canal which runs to Skien in the east, and became a tourist site with the canal traffic. Dalen Hotel, built in 1894, is among the largest wooden buildings in Norway.

Also in Dalen is the hydroelectric power station Tokke kraftverk which exploits the fall from the lake at Vinje. Statkraft's regional headquarters for eastern Norway are located in Dalen, and manages 38 power stations. Dalen's population increased as the power systems were constructed in the 1950s, but declined again in the 1960s.

God and human are all angry, Tyranny Carrie Lam go to hell

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

‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest

Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.

The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.

The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.

The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.

In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”

Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.

A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.

Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”

In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.

“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”

In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”

“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.

During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.

“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....

www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...

民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。

news.mingpao.com/ins/港聞/article/20200101/s00001/15778...

La Fontana di Trevi è la più grande ed una fra le più note Fontane di Roma, ed è considerata all'unanimità una delle più celebri fontane del mondo.

La settecentesca fontana, progettata da Nicolò Salvi, è un connubio di classicismo e barocco adagiato su un lato di Palazzo Poli.

La storia della fontana inizia, in un certo senso, ai tempi dell'imperatore Augusto, quando il genero Agrippa fece arrivare l'acqua corrente fino al Pantheon ed alle sue terme grazie alla costruzione dell'acquedotto Vergine (che si può ammirare anche a Piazza del Popolo). Leggendaria è l'origine del nome Vergine che, secondo Frontino, sarebbe stato dato dallo stesso Agrippa in ricordo di una fanciulla (in latino virgo) che indicò il luogo delle sorgenti ai soldati che ne andavano in cerca.

L'Acquedotto dell'acqua Vergine, benché compromesso e assai ridotto nella portata dall'assedio dei Goti di Vitige nel 537, rimase in uso per tutto il medioevo: fu restaurato già dall'VIII secolo, poi ancora dal Comune nel XII e da Niccolò V e Paolo IV a metà del XV secolo, quando l'acqua tornò a fluire abbondante in una grande vasca con tre bocche di notevole portata. Ma le sorgenti originarie furono riallacciate solo nel 1570 da Pio V, che collocò la vasca dal lato opposto di quello della fontana attuale.

Papa Urbano VIII (Barberini) (1623 - 1644) per primo ordina una "trasformazione" della piazza e della fontana a Giovan Lorenzo Bernini, in modo da creare un nuovo nucleo scenografico vicino al proprio palazzo famigliare, Palazzo Barberini, e ben visibile dal Palazzo del Quirinale, sua residenza. Bernini progetta una grande mostra d'acqua, ribaltando ortogonalmente la mostra dell'acquedotto, sino ad arrivare all'allineamento odierno. La mostra da lui progettata, nota da varia documentazione illustrata, era costituita da un'architettura traforata,incentrata sulla statua della vergine Trivia posta su un basamento sotto il livello dell'acqua, a sembrare sbucare dall'acqua stessa. La morte del Papa e il conseguente processo aperto contro la famiglia Barberini dal nuovo pontefice Innocenzo X Pamphilj con la decisione di affidare al Borromini il trasporto dell'acqua Vergine sino a Piazza Navona per realizzare una nuova mostra monumentale dinanzi al proprio palazzo (realizzata per altro sempre dal Bernini), porterà a interrompere lavori a livello della vasca e basamento.

Papa Innocenzo XIII (Conti) (1721- 1724) fa allargare le proprietà della propria famiglia fino alla piazza di Trevi, e il palazzo Poli (i componenti della famiglia erano i duchi di Poli) "ingloba" diversi edifici più piccoli, ed arriva ad affacciarsi dietro alla fontana rimasta incompiuta.

All'inizio del XVIII secolo quello della fontana di Trevi diventa un tema obbligato per i numerosi architetti di passaggio a Roma, e l'Accademia di san Luca ne fa il tema di diversi concorsi. Si conoscono disegni e pensieri di Nicola Michetti, Luigi Vanvitelli, Ferdinando Fuga ed altri architetti italiani e stranieri.

Tocca a Papa Clemente XII Corsini (1730 - 1740), nel 1731, il compito di riprendere in mano le sorti della piazza e della fontana: nell'ambito delle grandi commissioni del suo Pontificato che porteranno al completamento di grandi fabbriche rimaste incompiute, bandisce un importante concorso per la costruzione di una grande mostra d'acqua che occupi l'intera facciata del palazzo Poli, con grande disappunto dei duchi di Poli, ancora proprietari dell'edificio, che avrebbero visto la facciata del proprio palazzo diminuita di due interassi di finestre e ancor più coronata dallo stemma Corsini. Il bando viene vinto da Nicolò Salvi, e alcuni diranno a "riparazione" del concorso per la facciata di San Giovanni in Laterano. Salvi inizia la costruzione della fontana nel 1732, impostando l'opera secondo un progetto che raccorda influenze barocche e ancor più berniniane al nuovo monumentalismo classicista che caratterizzerà tutto il pontificato di Clemente XII. Egli riprende l'idea di fondo di Urbano VIII e di Bernini, l'idea di narrare, tramite architettura e scultura insieme, la storia dell'Acqua Vergine.

Papa Clemente XII inaugura la fontana nel 1735, con i lavori ancora in corso. Nel 1740, però, la costruzione viene ancora una volta interrotta, per riprendere solo due anni più tardi.

Papa Benedetto XIV (Lambertini) (1740 - 1758) pretende una seconda inaugurazione nel 1744. La prima fase dei lavori termina nel 1747, quando vengono completate le statue e le rocce posticce. Nonostante la morte di Niccolò Salvi (1751), la costruzione prosegue sotto la guida di Giuseppe Panini, che porta finalmente l'opera a compimento nel 1762, sotto Papa Clemente XIII (Rezzonico) (1758 - 1769). Al cantiere, andato avanti per circa un trentennio, hanno lavorato almeno dieci scultori, da Maini a Bracci, oltre al Salvi e al Panini stessi. Alla fine, però, la fontana di Trevi diventa una scenografia e simbolo fondamentale della Roma papale.

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A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.

A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.

O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.

O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V, determinou que fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.

Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.

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The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is a fountain in the Trevi rione in Rome, Italy. Standing 25.9 meters (85 feet) high and 19.8 meters (65 feet) wide,[citation needed] it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city, and it is one of the most famous fountains in the whole world.

The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revived Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years.The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.

The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival

Fontana di Trevi

A seguir, um texto, em português, do Blog do Noblat:

Nenhuma semana sobre fontes poderia ser feita sem falar na Fontana di Trevi, a linda, a inteiramente diferente de todas as outras fontes. Numa pequena praça, formada pelo cruzamento de três vias, em italiano tre vie, e é daí que vem seu nome, a fonte marca o ponto final do aqueduto Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos de Roma.

Reza a lenda que em 19 a.C, uma virgem ajudou os Romanos a encontrar uma fonte de água pura. Essa nascente supriu Roma de água por mais de 400 anos, e isso só terminou entre 537 e 538, quando os visigodos sitiaram Roma e destruíram seus aquedutos.

A reconstrução do aqueduto só terminou em 1453, sob o papa Nicolau V que mandou fazer ali uma bacia em mármore para acolher a água.

Em 1629, o papa Urbano VII pediu a Bernini que embelezasse a fonte; o grande arquiteto começou por mudar o local da escultura: seu projeto a colocava do outro lado da praça e ela ficaria de frente para o Palácio Quirinal, de modo que o papa pudesse apreciar a vista. Mas o papa morreu, o projeto foi abandonado. Ainda assim muitos dos detalhes que Bernini criara foram respeitados pelo arquiteto Nicola Salvi, que assina a fonte.

Em 1730, Salvi recebeu do papa Clemente XII a incumbência de reiniciar a decoração da fonte. Os trabalhos começaram em 1732 e terminaram em 1762, depois da morte de Clemente. A estátua principal, do deus Oceano, só foi colocada após a morte do papa.

O pano de fundo da estrutura é o Palazzo Poli que, para compor o cenário perfeito, recebeu uma nova fachada com colunas gregas que unem os dois andares.

O tema principal é “O Domínio das Águas”. A biga de Oceano, em forma de concha, é puxada por cavalos alados dominados por Tritãos. O nicho do deus é um imenso arco do triunfo; nos laterais estão as estátuas da Abundância e da Salubridade.

No alto, em baixo relevo, a origem dos aquedutos romanos e, acima, as armas de Clemente XII. O conjunto mede 25.9m de altura x 19,8m de largura e é a maior fonte barroca dessa cidade com tantas fontes.

Reza a lenda que ao jogar uma moeda na fonte, está assegurada sua volta a Roma. Se jogar três moedas com a mão direita sobre o ombro esquerdo, você garante sua boa sorte. Parece brincadeira? Cerca de 3mil euros são jogados por dia na Fontana di Trevi!

Esse cenário deslumbrante serviu a Federico Fellini para uma das cenas mais famosas de sua obra-prima, o filme La Dolce Vita. Difìcil alguém que não conheça a cena interpretada por Anita Eckberg e Marcello Mastroianni. Pois bem, quando Mastroianni faleceu, desligaram a água e cobriram a fonte de panos negros. Foi o luto de Roma pelo grande ator.

Um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:

A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.

A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.

O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.

O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V determinou fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.

Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.

Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.

Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.

A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.

A text, in english, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.

The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.

In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti, one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.

Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.

Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".

The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.

The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.

The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming seahorses (hippocamps).

In the center is superimposed a robustly modelled triumphal arch. The center niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light-and-shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.

The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.

Approximately 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day and are collected at night. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.

fun noisemaker at Gasworks Park, Seattle. Endpoint of the 2017 Fremont Solstice parade and naked bike ride.

Left: Stecknitz-Prahm

Right: Ilmenau Ewer

Those barges were used to ship salt to Lübeck via Stecknitz Canal

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OLD CRANE

The Old Crane is a historic harbour crane at the former Ilmenau-Harbour in Lüneburg. The 1797 built crane was at that time the most powerful crane in the northern part of Germany and is still one of the main-sights in Lüneburg.

A crane at this part of Lüneburg harbour is officially mentioned in the history of Lüneburg in the year 1330. At that time Lüneburg was already important, because of its saline. So the main use of this crane was to load the ships with salt from the salines. The ships had to ship the salt mainly to the Hanseatic Town of Lübeck, where the salt was stored in the historic - and still existing - Salt Warehouses (Lübecker Salzspeicher).

And also the huge amount of fire wood was landed from ships with this crane. This fire wood was necessary to boil out the salt from the brine.

TECHNIC

This crane is a typical medieval treadwheel crane. It is powered by a man-powered double-treadwheel with a diameter of the lower wheel of 5 meter.

Over the centuries that Lüneburg crane was reconstructed many times. In winter 1795 a flooding with ice caused many damage in Lüneburg. In summer 1797 the crane was repaired by carpenter G. P. Hintze. The present crane is untouched since 1797.

In August 1840 the crane raised his haviest load: a steam locomotive built by Englands George Forrester & Company and transported by sea to Germany. The estimated weight of that locomotive was 9,3 tons. To rotate the treadwheel of the crane they needed 38 men. To ensure the crane has enough power they tested it with the 10 tons of 80 railway rails.

In 1838 the crane already managed to raise a steam locomotive with 14.000 pounds.

With the building of the railroad track Hamburg-Hannover Lüneburg was attached to railroad in 1847. In short time the transport moved from the waterways to rail. So Lüneburg harbour and the crane lost its importance and in 1860 the crane had to stop the business - even it was still intact!

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HISTORY OF TREADWHEELS

A treadwheel, or treadmill, is a form of engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference (treadmill), or by a human or animal standing inside it (treadwheel). These devices are no longer used for power or punishment, and the term "treadmill" has come to mean an exercise machine for running or walking in place.

Uses of treadwheels included raising water, to power cranes, or grind grain. They were used extensively in the Greek and Roman world, such as in the reverse overshot water-wheel used for dewatering purposes. They were widely used in the Middle ages to lift the stones in the soaring Gothic cathedrals. There is a literary reference to one in 1225, and one treadwheel crane survives at Chesterfield, Derbyshire and is housed in the Museum. It has been dated to the early 14th century and was housed in the top of the church tower until its removal in 1947. They were used extensively in the Renaissance famously by Brunelleschi during the construction of Florence cathedral.Penal treadmills were used in prisons during the early-Victorian period in the UK as a form of punishment. According to The Times in 1827, and reprinted in William Hone's Table-Book in 1838, the amount prisoners walked per day on average varied, from the equivalent of 6,600 vertical feet at Lewes to as much as 17,000 vertical feet in ten hours during the summertime at Warwick gaol. In 1902, the British government banned the use of the treadwheel as a form of punishment.

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STECKNITZ CANAL

The Stecknitz Canal (German: Stecknitzfahrt) was an artificial waterway in northern Germany which connected Lauenburg and Lübeck on the Old Salt Route by linking the tiny rivers Stecknitz (a tributary of the Trave) and Delvenau (a tributary of the Elbe), thus establishing an inland water route across the drainage divide from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. Built between 1391 and 1398, the Stecknitz Canal was the first European summit-level canal and one of the earliest artificial waterways in Europe. In the 1890s the canal was replaced by an enlarged and straightened waterway called the Elbe–Lübeck Canal, which includes some of the Stecknitz Canal's watercourse.

The original artificial canal was 0.85 metres deep and 7.5 metres wide; the man-made segment ran for 11.5 kilometres, with a total length of 97 kilometres including the rivers it linked. The canal included seventeen wooden locks (of which the Palmschleuse at Lauenburg still exists) that managed the 13-metre elevation difference between its endpoints and the highest central part, the Delvenaugraben.

HISTORY

In the Middle Ages the trade between the North Sea and Baltic Sea grew dramatically, but the sea journey through Øresund, increasingly important to commercial shipping since the thirteenth century, was time-consuming and dangerous. Therefore, the emerging Hanseatic city of Lübeck and Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg agreed in 1390 to cooperate in the construction of an artificial canal between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea. Construction on the canal began in 1391; thirty barges carrying the first load of salt from Lüneburg reached Lübeck on 22 July 1398.

The Stecknitz Canal soon replaced the existing overland cart road as the main transport mode for Lüneburg salt on the Old Salt Route. In Lübeck the salt was stored in vast salt warehouses and then transferred to ocean-going vessels for export throughout the Baltic region. In the reverse direction the Stecknitz barges transported cereals, furs, herring, ash, timber and other goods from Lübeck, which were reloaded in Lauenburg and transported down the Elbe to Hamburg. Later coal, peat, brick, limestone and gravel were added to the cargo. The importance of the canal was greatest in years in which Øresund was closed to merchant ships because of disputes over the Sound Dues and foreign shipping.

In the fifteenth century traffic peaked, with more than 3,000 shipments of more than 30,000 tons of salt moving on the canal each year. This number declined by the seventeenth century to 400 to 600 shipments (5,000 to 7,000 tons). In 1789 there were still sixty-four shipments carrying approximately 680 tons of salt. Plans for a new Baltic–North Sea canal were proposed as early as the seventeenth century, but none was implemented until the end of the nineteenth century, when the new Elbe–Lübeck Canal was built using parts of the old route of the Stecknitz Canal. For five hundred years the canal was used to transport the "white gold" and other goods; today the Palmschleuse lock in Lauenburg is one of the last remaining parts of the former canal, preserved as an historical monument.

TECHNOLOGY

The Stecknitz Canal consisted of an 11.5-kilometre artificial waterway (the Delvenaugraben) linking two minor rivers, the north-flowing Stecknitz and south-flowing Delvenau. The man-made trench itself was about 85 centimetres deep and 7.5 metres wide, though it was enlarged between 1821 and 1823 to a depth of 144 centimetres and a width of 12 metres. Outside the artificial segment the canal followed the tortuous natural watercourses of the two rivers; as a result, the full journey from Lauenburg to Lübeck stretched to a distance of 97 kilometres, even though the straight-line separation between the two cities is only 55 kilometres. The journey along the canal often lasted two weeks or longer due to the number and primitive design of the locks and the difficulty of towing.

The canal's course originally included thirteen locks, which later renovations increased to seventeen. Initially most were one-gate flash locks built into weirs (usually set below the mouth of a tributary creek), where water was dammed until a barge was ready to pass downriver. In Lauenburg the initial course included one chamber lock (the Palmschleuse) because of a watermill whose operation would have been made impossible by a flash lock. Over the course of the canal's lifetime further flash locks were progressively converted to chamber locks until the 17th century.

The canal overcame the drainage divide between the North and Baltic Seas, with a summit height of 17 metres above sea level. In order to supply the top portion of the canal with water, flow was diverted from Hornbeker Mühlenbach. To the north the canal descended to the Ziegelsee by the town of Mölln and then connected to the Stecknitz by a series of eight locks. The southern end of the artificial canal descended to the Delvenau through a staircase of nine locks.

BARGES AND DRIVERS

The original salt barges measured roughly 12 metres by 2.5 metres, with a 40-centimetre draft when loaded to capacity with around 7.5 tons of salt, and required at least ten days to make the journey one way. When traveling uphill or through chamber locks the barges had to be hauled by laborers or animals walking the towpath on the banks of the channel. By the nineteenth century newer vessel designs included rigging that eliminated the need for towing (with sufficient wind).

In Lauenburg and Lübeck the barges were unloaded and their contents transferred to ships for export down the Elbe and Trave. Stecknitz barge drivers were only permitted to own one barge each, so they could not acquire great wealth in the trade; in the long run this ensured their dependence upon the Lübeck salt merchants, who were not bound by any such limitations and amassed great fortunes. The guild of the Stecknitzfahrer (Stecknitz barge drivers) still exists today in Lübeck and meets annually at the Kringelhöge to celebrate the guild's history.

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Der Alte Kran (Schreibweise früher auch Krahn) ist ein historischer Hafenkran am ehemaligen Ilmenau-Hafen in Lüneburg. Der 1797 erbaute Kran, der damals zu den leistungsfähigsten in ganz Norddeutschland gehörte, prägt bis heute das Bild des Wasserviertels und gilt als eines der Wahrzeichen der Stadt.

TECHNIK

Der Kran ist aus tragendem Holzfachwerk gebaut, welches als Wetterschutz mit einer Bretterverkleidung versehen wurde; die Dachflächen sind mit Kupferplatten gedeckt. Der Unterteil mit kreisförmigem Grundriss (Durchmesser: acht Meter) ist feststehend. Der Oberteil mit dem Kranausleger ist drehbar gelagert (ähnlich einer Holländerwindmühle). Vier Sandsteinblöcke von je etwa 200 kg dienen als Gegengewicht zur Last. Die Kettenwinde im Oberteil wird angetrieben über eine 9 m hohe Königswelle, diese wiederum durch ein doppeltes Tretrad mit 5 m Durchmesser im Unterteil.

In Stade wurde 1977 ein Nachbau am Hansehafen errichtet, der heute als Informationszentrum für Stader Stadtgeschichte dient; ein zweiter, funktionstüchtiger Nachbau befindet sich im Hebezeug-Museum in Witten in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

GESCHICHTE

Ein Kran am Standort des heutigen Kranes am Lüneburger Hafen wird erstmals 1330 urkundlich erwähnt. Er diente neben dem Heben anderer Waren vor allem dem Betrieb der Lüneburger Saline, nämlich einerseits zum Verschiffen des dort produzierten Salzes (insbesondere über den Stecknitzkanal nach Lübeck, aber auch in andere Städte) und andererseits zum Anlanden des Brennholzes, welches für den Betrieb der Sudhäuser benötigt wurde. Der Kran teile sich die Arbeit mit den kleineren Winden des benachbarten Lagerhauses (damals Heringshaus, heute Altes Kaufhaus genannt). In einer Verordnung des Lüneburger Stadtrates war festgelegt, welche Waren von welchem Kran zu heben waren und welche Gebühren („Krangeld“) dafür zu entrichten waren.

Der ursprüngliche Kran wurde über die Jahrhunderte immer wieder um- und ausgebaut. In seiner heutigen Form besteht der Kran fast unverändert seit 1797. Im Winter 1795 wurden viele Bauwerke im Hafen durch ein Hochwasser mit Eisgang stark beschädigt, darunter auch der Kran und die benachbarte Brücke. Der Kran wurde im Sommer 1797 vom Zimmermann G. P. Hintze unter der Leitung des Landbauverwalters Kruse in neuer Form wieder aufgebaut.

Am 13. August 1840 hob der Kran seine schwerste Last an Land: eine Dampflokomotive für die Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn, die in England von George Forrester & Company gebaut und auf dem Wasserweg nach Deutschland transportiert worden war. Das Gewicht der Lok wurde auf bis zu 60 Schiffspfund (ca. 9,3 Tonnen) geschätzt. Zum Drehen des Tretrades wurde dabei die Kraft von 38 Menschen benötigt. Als Belastungstest wurde vorher ein Paket mit 80 Eisenbahnschienen mit etwa 20.000 Pfund Gewicht angehoben. Zwei Jahre zuvor hatte der Kran bereits eine leichtere Lok mit etwa 14.000 Pfund gehoben.

Mit dem Bau der Eisenbahnlinie Hamburg-Hannover, die 1847 Lüneburg erreichte, verlagerte sich der Warentransport von und nach Lüneburg binnen kurzer Zeit vom Binnenwasserweg auf die Schiene. In der Folge verlor der Hafen und somit auch der Kran rapide an Bedeutung. Im Jahre 1860 stellte der Kran aus wirtschaftlichen Gründen seinen Betrieb ein (obwohl er technisch weiterhin intakt war).

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GESCHICHTE DER TRETMÜHLE

Eine Tretmühle (auch Tretrad oder Laufrad) ist ein seit dem Römischen Reich bis in die Moderne benutzter Antrieb für Mühlen und insbesondere für Hebe-Vorrichtungen (Krane). Sie arbeitet nach dem Prinzip des Wellrads und nutzt die Körperkraft von Menschen oder Tieren.

Heute wird das Wort Tretmühle im übertragenen Sinne für eine monotone Tätigkeit oder Tagesablauf benutzt.

KONSTRUKTION UND BETRIEB

Kernstück einer Tretmühle sind ein oder mehrere (meist zwei), übermannshohe hölzerne Treträder („Fabricae pedales“, Fußwerke, Laufräder, Durchmesser von 3 m bis 5 m) mit meist acht Holz-Speichen auf jeder Seite. Die Räder waren auf einer schweren, horizontalen Holzwelle angebracht, die bei mittelalterlichen Tretkränen mit Drehdach in einer quadratischen Holzkonstruktion als Rad-„Träger“ oder auf freistehenden Radlagern ruhte (bei römischen Kränen und als festmontierte Hebevorrichtung). Bei Mühlen (Kornmühlen, Pumpmühlen etc.) war die horizontale Antriebsachse mit dem Mahlwerk oder Pumpwerk verbunden, bei den Hebevorrichtungen saß eine Tretvorrichtung auf der Achse, entweder in deren Verlängerung oder auch zwischen den Treträdern. Im einfachsten Fall war die Tretvorrichtung ein Abschnitt auf der Achse mit Begrenzungsringen. Die Tretvorrichtung nahm Seil oder Kette auf. In den Treträdern, deren Innenfläche (Lauffläche) mit rutschmindernden Trittleisten versehen war, liefen die Radläufer, Tret- oder Windenknechte (auch Windenfahrer genannt, bei Kranen auch Kranenknechte) und setzten damit den Mechanismus in die gewünschte Richtung in Gang. Es gab auch Ausführungen ähnlich einem Wasserrad, bei dem die Menschen außen auf schaufelartigen Trittbrettern liefen. Auf mittelalterlichen Baustellen galten die Windenknechte (bis ins 18. Jahrhundert waren Tretradantriebe stark verbreitet) als hoch- bis höchstbezahlte Arbeitskräfte. Die Tätigkeit war mühsam, extrem anstrengend und in Hebevorrichtungen auch gefährlich. Das Halten der Lasten war schwierig, weil die Laufräder nicht gesichert werden konnten, um die Last während des Drehvorganges auf Höhe zu halten. Auch das Ablassen der Lasten barg Gefahr, weil sich die Last durch ihre Eigenmasse selbständig machen und die Männer in den Treträdern ins „Rotieren“ und „Schleudern“ (Redewendung) bringen konnte: es gab zum Teil schwere und tödliche Unfälle. Zum Heben einer Last auf eine Höhe von 4 m mussten die Windenknechte in den Laufrädern etwa 56 m an Laufstrecke zurücklegen (vom Achs- und Raddurchmesser abhängig: bei 4 m Raddurchmesser und 0,4 m Achsdurchmesser entspricht eine Radumdrehung 12,56 m Laufstrecke und 1,26 m Wickellänge (= Hubhöhe), das sind 50,24 m Laufstrecke und 5 m Hub). Das bedeutete für einen kompletten Hebe- und Senkvorgang eine Gesamtstrecke von etwa 132 bis 140 m. Bei solcher Tätigkeit musste jeder sich auf den anderen verlassen können. Viel Erfahrung und Kondition war vonnöten, um die harte Tätigkeit im Akkord (berechnet nach gelöschter Ladung gemäß einer Gebührenliste durch den Kranmeister) gewinnbringend zu schaffen. Zwischen 15 und mehr als 20 Mann arbeiteten in und an einem mittelalterlichen Ladekran. Sie waren zum Teil in der „Aufläder-Zunft“ organisiert, dem ursprünglichen Wort für die Ladetätigkeit am Kran.

EINSATZBEREICHE

In der Schifffahrt kamen beim Betrieb der seit dem Mittelalter verbreiteten Hafenkräne zwecks Zeitgewinn gewöhnlich Doppeltreträder zum Einsatz, die an beiden Seiten eines drehbaren Turms befestigt waren. Diese Turm-Tretkräne waren entweder aus Holz oder Stein gebaut und konnten beim Verladen eine Last von bis 2,5 Tonnen bewältigen. Es wird geschätzt, dass circa 80 Tretkräne an 32 Kranstandorten am Rhein mit Nebenflüssen im Einsatz waren, im gesamten deutschsprachigem Raum sogar ca. doppelt so viele.

Verbreitet war der Einsatz der Treträder auch beim Betrieb von Mühlen und beim Bau großer Gebäude, insbesondere der mittelalterlichen Kathedralen, wo Tretradkräne als Einzel- oder Doppelräder in die Dachkonstruktion integriert waren. Im Freiburger Münster, Gmünder Münster, Straßburger Münster, in St. Marien und St.Nikolai Stralsund sowie in der Abtei des Mont-Saint-Michel sind diese beispielsweise noch vorhanden. Bis 1868 befand sich auf dem bis dahin unvollendeten Südturm des Kölner Doms ein durch Treträder angetriebener Baukran aus dem 15. Jahrhundert.

Noch Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts mussten in den britischen Kolonien Sträflinge in den Tretmühlen arbeiten. Zwei solcher Mühlen, zynisch als „dancing academies“ bezeichnet, wurden ab 1823 in Sydney zum Antrieb von Getreidemühlen eingesetzt. Da diese Mühlen großen Profit abwarfen, wurden sechs weitere in Betrieb genommen. Die Arbeitszeit betrug bis zu zwölf Stunden täglich, die Leistung wurde mit der Dampfmaschine in Relation gesetzt und mit 70 Watt pro Arbeiter angegeben. Aus dem Jahr 1850 wird berichtet, dass 28 Sträflinge die Arbeit in der Tretmühle verweigerten und den Tod durch Erhängen vorzogen. Auch Frauen mussten in den Tretmühlen arbeiten, auf Schwangerschaft wurde keine Rücksicht genommen.

WIKIPEDIA

North of Redding, the Sacramento River Rail Trail links with the Sacramento River Trail, forming an extensive paved trail network that offers stunning views of the river and nearby mountains throughout its length.

From the southern trailhead at Keswick Dam, the Sacramento River Rail Trail heads steeply northwest along Keswick Reservoir for nearly 3 miles through dense woodlands. At the trail junction near Spring Creek, continue right at the start of the much flatter rail-trail portion, which follows the old Central Pacific Railroad bed for more than 7 miles north. (A left turn instead leads to a small trailhead on Iron Mountain Road a short distance away.)

The remainder of the route continues to follow the former rail corridor on the western edge of Keswick Reservoir, offering beautiful views of the crystal-clear water. From the trail's northern endpoint on Coram Road, continue northeast on-road to reach Shasta Dam. The impressive dam—the eighth tallest in the United States—is responsible for the creation of Shasta Lake, a popular recreation destination for Northern Californians.

Back at the southern end of the trail at smaller Keswick Dam, pick up the Sacramento River Trail to continue south to Redding and its famous Sundial Bridge.

Photo by Jesse Pluim, BLM

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 285 has always had an endpoint in Denver, Colorado, although the original US 285 went north from Denver (that segment is now a part of U.S. Route 287). Today the highway's northern terminus is in Denver, at exit 201 on Interstate 25.

US 285 is a secondary route of US 85, which it crosses in metro Denver, and historically crossed again in Santa Fe, New Mexico (today its parent route has been largely replaced by Interstate 25, and as a result US 85 is no longer signed in New Mexico). US 285 also intersects a sibling route, US 385, in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Trucking makes up a large portion of the route's traffic, but along much of its route the road is also used for local travel from one town to the next. The northern section of US 285, from Santa Fe to Denver, traverses mountainous and rocky terrain; with that in mind, anyone using the road should check weather conditions during the winter months.

Heading north from the Colorado border, US 285 passes through the main part of the San Luis Valley, eventually reaching Alamosa. As the highway heads north, it begins to ascend to the northern end of the valley and eventually climbs over Poncha Pass, elevation 9,012 feet (2,747 m), and drops sharply down the other side into the Arkansas River Valley.

The highway brushes Salida and follows the Arkansas River north up the valley, then takes a sharp eastward turn just before the small town of Buena Vista. 285 then climbs over Trout Creek Pass, elevation 9,346 feet (2,849 m), and enters the high-altitude South Park basin.

A few miles north, the highway passes through Fairplay and the historic South Park City site, then reaches its highest elevation: 10,051 feet (3,064 m), at the summit of Red Hill Pass. US 285 then leaves the South Park basin and climbs over Kenosha Pass, elevation 10,001 feet (3,048 m), and skirts the south side of the Mount Evans massif as it descends its way through the foothills range towards Denver.

As the highway leaves the Rocky Mountains and reaches Denver's southwest suburbs, it becomes Hampden Avenue, an important artery in the Denver metro area, then reaches its northern terminus at I-25.

On March 14, 2008 both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unanimous vote, named the section between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_285

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

This is how the user interface looks when you open the application

trying out a VPN tunnel from a recommended provider.

the download speed is quite impressive; it runs about as fast as my normal net connection but all traffic is encrypted by openvpn (on linux and the remote endpoint of the tunnel). its costs about $10/month (give or take) for the vpn service and since it does not look like it slows things down much, I may end up using this for all my network i/o.

you can choose which endpoint it dumps your traffic out, at (various countries). you can tell this is true by going to a site that 'senses' what geography you are coming in from and if it tries to greet you in that foreign language, you know your packets are exiting at that other country ;)

with the increased awareness of all the net.spying going on these days, more and more citizens should turn to encryption to preserve their privacy.

Cartoon by Rebelpepper, " 黑警還眼 " "black cop, return her eye!"

on 11 august 2019:

"a young woman outside Tsim Sha Tsui police station was appeared to have been shot by police with a bean bag round, causing her eye shield to crack.

She was hospitalised after emergency treatment on the scene. Ming Pao cited hospital sources as saying that her right eyeball was ruptured, and her right eyelid and maxilla were also broken. She received an emergency operation.

According to police rules, bean bag rounds should not be shot towards someone’s head – only at the body or limbs."

www.hongkongfp.com/2019/08/12/hong-kong-police-shoot-proj...

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‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest

Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.

The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.

The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.

The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.

In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”

Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.

A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.

Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”

In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.

“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”

In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”

“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.

During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.

“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....

www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...

民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。

news.mingpao.com/ins/港聞/article/20200101/s00001/15778...

Dad is 76 and developed a particularly cruel form of dementia called Progressive Aphasia (PA). Unlike Alzheimers, the damage is to the frontal lobe and impairs your ability to speak and read and write...as well as destroying your memory. Dad was a salesman and lived and worked and enjoyed life by talking and socializing. The Pandemic has left him more isolated and unable to access any care or in-home help for my mom. Mom has born the brunt of all this and has done a yeoman's job. But he declines mentally and she is unable to care for him. Physically he is very fit. Anyway I took him for a walk by the Hudson River, where we used to boat long ago.

The next day we took him into his second living facility (the first one clearly only wanted end-stage Alzheimers patients because you can park them in front of the TV and do little work caring for them...despite charging $11,000 a month.) The next day we put him into a new facility, but he has been so agitated, because he is lost and confused. He has been sent to a hospital several times (he can't speak but he can still swear fluently and carry on) and now he is in a psychiatric unit trying to stabilize him. He's been restrained and it is painful to see him in this state. I am hoping thry can stabilize him and calm him down. I hoped his final days would be eating lunch with the other old folks, watching golf, going for walks, listening to concerts etc...not strapped to a gurney.

This has brought up...possibly morbid thoughts about end-of-life issues. I remember Jack Kevorkian back in the 1980s and I always thought assisted suicide should be an option, just like we do with our pets. We had to put down our beloved dog a few years ago and while painful, it was merciful and more humane than letting him die from SIBO...which entails wasting away from diarrhea until your electrolites become so unbalanced that your heart stops or goes into arrhythmia. This should abdolutely be an option for humans.

I once heard a radio religious program in which the priest was dead against assisted suicide becsuse it denies us the crucible of suffering to bring us closer to Jesus or God. BALONEY BULLSHIT. This idea of God's unknowable plan is just such bunk. God has the power to make universes, floods and rainbows, raise a few dead and cure a select few people, then what purpose is there in making people go through the "crucible of suffering". None. I mean does it really bring you closer when your abused and neglected by a parent friend, spouse, whatever? Only a sociopathic megalomaniac would suggest that, when they have infinite power to change it. The truth is is God is wishful thinking to pacify our need to be more special in the universe, when we are emphatically not. In fact as a race humans are more despicable than not. I have to say none of this is new thought for me, just because dad is strapped to a gurney. It never made sense to me...that children get cancer, or down's syndrome, or starve, or get hit by shrapnel in the endless conflicts. There is either 1. A sick meddling god, like the ancient deities or 2. No god at all. The real truth is right in front of us....science. It has no reason, no higher purpose, no endpoint. We like the rest of the universe are inertia, particled following trajectories, but with limited ability to know what comes next. A relational universe where even separate observers can rightfully claim different outcomes of the same event. There is no truth or privileged frame of reference in the universe. Thus disease like PA is really a trajectory down an unpleasant path. A draw of the short straw if you will.

Dedpite this I feel life is worth living. I try to live it the best...more so than the devout religous, because there is nothing on the other side. The gift is to be here in the present. And why do it morally? No reason other than it feels good, and receiving the same morality and respect and care feels good. Isn't this the way we want to live. Additionally it is incumbent to know the universe. We are gunning for God. We know the largest and smallest rules of the universe and have wrought much good....and plenty of bad from it. However our knowledge base has created drugs, beaten back pathogens, sometimes cure diseases and cancers, facilitate travel and communication, etc etc.... how many heavenly miracles have saved generations of people like the Salk Vaccine did? How many prayers have stopped plagues and typhoid and cholera? None at last count. But people with microscopes and maps nailed these killers to the wall.

Anyway this has been heartbreaking for the whole family. Hopefully he can be stabilized and spend his last days watching golf and doing crafts. Etc...

(further pictures and informations you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Austrian State Archives (ÖStA)

Austrian authority

Oesterreichisches Staatsarchiv.svg

State level Federation

Position of the authority subordinated agency

Supervisor(s)/organs to the Federal Chancellery

Founded in 1749 as the Secret House Archive (Empress Maria Theresia)

Headquarters Vienna Highway (Landstraße, 3rd district of Vienna)

Board of Directors Univ. Doz Dr. Wolfgang Maderthaner

www.oesta.gv.at site

Central Archives building of the Austrian State Archives in Nottendorfergasse 2 in Vienna 3

The Austrian State Archives (ÖStA) in Vienna is the central archive of the Republic of Austria. It keeps on the basis of the Federal Records Act the archives of the Federation. The tasks of the Austrian State Archives are therein described as follows: capturing, taking over, keeping, obtaining, placing, organizing, making accessible, exploiting and utilisation of archived documents of the Federation for the exploration of the history and present, for other research and science, for the legislation, jurisdiction, administration as well as for legitimate concerns of people.

As far as in the public records monuments are concerned, the Austrian State Archives according to Monument Protection Act in place of the Federal Monuments Office is also responsible for the preservation.

History

The origin of the Austrian State Archives goes back to the year 1749 when Empress Maria Theresa in the course of an administrative reform installed a secret Hausarchiv. The establishment was related to the new, centralized administration, which required a separate archive. For other centers of administration such as Prague, Graz and Innsbruck documents were taken to Vienna.

In the historical analysis is important to note that there have been earlier archives and collections of documents, whose contents were incorporated into the new archive.

In the 19th Century the name House, Court and State Archives became then usual.

1951 there was a scandal because Heinz Grill, archivist in the House, Court and State Archives, had stolen gold and silver bulls over the years and sold to metal dealers ("affair Grill").

The archive departments

The modern Austrian State Archives is divided into several sections:

Archives of the Republic

The in 1983 founded archive of the Republic is the youngest archive department. It is the center of contemporary research in Austria and archival responsible for the evaluation, discarding, taking over and custody, safeguarding, maintenance and overhaul, accessing, compilation and exploitation of those written or typed material supply, which in the Austrian central authorities (all ministries, central federal departments and subordinated offices) have been produced since 1918.

Since the introduction of the electronic file (ELAKimBUND) in the Austrian federal administration (nationwide for all federal agencies since 2004), the Archives of the Republic is also responsible for the implementation of the digital archiving of this written material. Since 2007 it has been actively worked on an appropriate solution for long-term preservation of the "born digital" act. The startup of the digital archive Austria took place in 2012.

General Administration Archive

The General Administration Archives preserves the records of the central authorities responsible for internal administration of the Habsburg Monarchy from 16th Century, over 12,700 running meters, a significant collection of maps and plans, and about 5,000 documents. In its origins, the General Administration Archive goes back to the first-time centralisation of the old registries of the court chancelleries in founding the "Directorium in publicis et cameralibus" in 1749. The archive materials of the General Administrative archive were decimated by the Justice Palace fire in July 1927 considerably.

The public records which are kept in this division are divided into 10 thematic groups (= inventory groups), which for their part again contain files of various central services:

Inventory group Internal Affairs: Chancellery, Ministry of Interior, police authorities, Council of Ministers, rights of the Austrian State of Lower Austria, city expansion fund

Inventory group Justice: Supreme Justice office, Ministry of Justice, prosecutors, Linz Regional Court, Imperial Court, Administrative Court

Inventory group Instruction and Cultus: Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Ministry of Education, Old and New Cultus

Inventory group Commerce: Department of Commerce, Post Office, Ministry of Public Works, Navy Department, Patent Office

Inventory group Agriculture: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Operations, Forestry and Dömänendirektion (Domain Directorate) Vienna, Forest Institute Mariabrunn, teacher Audit Commission, Agricultural Society

Inventory group Transport: United Court Chancellery, General Court Chamber, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public buildings, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and National Economy, Department of Commerce, the General Inspectorate of the Austrian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Railway Construction Department, State railway administrations, private railway companies

Inventory group Family archives and Estates

Inventory group Nobility: imperial nobility files, Hofadelsakten (Court nobility records), pedigrees

Inventory group Audiovisual Collection: Politics and Public life since 1945, Austrian landscapes and buildings, customs, history, science, technology, medicine, business, art, culture and sport

Inventory group Plan and Posters collection: collection of plans comprised of the following funds: Hofbauamt (Court building authorities), chancellery, General Construction Authority, Lower Austrian Civil Construction Authority, Bausektion (construction section) of the Ministry of the Interior, Bausektion of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Public Works, State Baudirektionen (construction directorates), Waterway Construction Authority, Dikasterialgebäudeverwaltung (dicasterila building administration), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture and Teaching, Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Stiftungshofbuchhaltung (Foundation Court Bookkeeping), Ministry of Justice, city expansion fund

War Archive

The beginning of a proper Military Archives in the Habsburg monarchy is to fix in the year 1711, when Emperor Joseph I. ordered the creation of an archivist office with the Hofkriegsrat, the highest central authority for the Habsburg warfare. Already in the first half of the 18th Century, this hofkriegsrätliche (Court's warfare council) archives of the chancelleries has gradually evolved into a kind of military central archives, especially since 1776 through the merger of the hofkriegsrätlichen plan collection with the combat engineer the archives of the chancelleries in reference to cartographic material became to a central contact point. In addition, however, the aim was put on experiences in the past, lessons from former campaigns for the present and future. In view of the above, Emperor Joseph II in 1779 ordered the documentary revision of the campaigns since 1740. This access to the history of war intended Archduke Karl to continue, too, by 1801 disposing the creation of the Imperial War archive. This had according to its founding mission to collect documents and maps, but also scientifically and journalistically to evaluate.

The Imperial and Royal (from 1889 kuk) Kriegsarchiv (war archive) initially consisted of a department of scriptures, a card archive, library and a department of military history works. By the end of the 19th Century the war archive had the bulk of the until then elsewhere stored military documentary material taken on. During the First World War, the war archive had with the assumption of mass documentary material from the front considerably more tasks to carry out, for which the number of staff of the archives substantially had to be increased. After the end of war in 1918 the war archive became a civilian institution, to which after the fall of the monarchy have been given masses of new documentary material from previously independent departments and liquidated offices. During the Second World War, the war archive as Army Archives Vienna was a part of the German Army archive organization under the supreme command of the Wehrmacht. After considerable losses as a result of the war, the War Archives in 1945 became a department of the newly created Austrian State Archives. In the years 1991-1993 moved the since 1905 in the Stiftskaserne (barracks) in the 7th District of Vienna housed war archive to the Central Archives building in Vienna III.

The war archive contains about 180,000 document cartons and 60,000 account books on 50 shelf kilometers and is by far the most important military archives in Central Europe. Its map collection with over 600,000 maps and plans is the largest in Austria. There is also a collection of about 400,000 images. The former library of the war archive is one of the most extensive collections of older military historical literature .

The in 22 inventory groups aggregated inventories of the Kriegsarchiv, in their structure these two fundamentally different archiving traditions are reflected to this day, can be broadly divided into five major blocks:

Personnel files of officers, petty officers, crews and officials of the armed forces of about 1740 to 1918; reward acts (1789-1958), so documents on military awards, which the archives of the Military Maria Theresa Order is attached.

Feldakten (combat files) with material on the operations of the imperial or kk Field armies from 16th Century to 1882 (Old Field records and Army files) as well as on 1914-1918 (Army High Command, New field files - Neue Feldakten).

Most High command, main, subordinate and territorial authorities. This group brings together the recordings of major institutions in the entourage of the emperor (especially of the Military Chancellery, the Generaladjutantur (general adjutancy) and the General Staff), the central military services (Hofkriegsrat (Court War Council) 1557-1848, War Office 1848-1918, Ministry of National Defence from 1868 to 1918) and a number of other authorities, institutions and territorial command posts such as the disability Office, the Apostolic field Vicariate, the supreme combat engineer and artillery authorities, the military educational institutions, the military invalids houses and single General and Military command posts in the countries.

Navy and Luftfahrtruppe (air force troup (19th - 20th century)

Collections, which include in particular the maps and plan collection, image collection, the manuscripts and a very important collection of military scripture estates.

The war archive is now a "historical archive". The here kept official written or printed material essentially ends with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War (1918). The collections of the Kriegsarchiv (war archive) on the other hand constantly increase.

Financial and Hofkammerarchiv [ Edit]

The financial and Hofkammerarchiv (Court Chamber archive) arose when in 1945 the previously separately kept inventories of the Hofkammerarchiv and financial archives were merged. The Court Chamber, founded in 1527 was the central financial authority of the Habsburg monarchy. 1848 took over the newly founded Treasury its duties. The archive contains financial records that are especially important for historians. In historical Archive building in the Johannesgasse the Directorate room of Franz Grillparzer is still preserved, working there from 1832 to 1856 as director. With 1st December 2006, the Department of Finance and Court Chamber archive was incorporated into the General Administration Archive. The bulk of the archival material was moved into the central archive building in the Nottendorfergasse.

House, Court and State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives in Minoritenplatz

Board on State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives, Minoritenplatz 1, 1749 by Maria Theresa (1740-1780) was established as a central archive of the Habsburg dynasty. By creating a well-ordered document repository unifiying the hitherto over several sites scattered important House and state documents in Vienna, it should be ensured that the legal titles and rulers' rights of the dynasty in the future were quickly available when required.

Of the today in 11 inventory groups organised inventories of the House, Court and State Archives the following topics have been given priority:

the history of the Habsburg dynasty

the activities of the supreme Court offices and the Imperial Cabinet

Diplomacy and foreign policy of the Danube monarchy

highest Administration and Jurisdiction in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation whose imperial dignity the Habsburgs held for centuries almost without interruption until the dissolution of the National Association in 1806.

Worthy of mention furthermore in the House, Court and State Archives deposited ruler and family archives, estates, a manuscript collection, a collection of seal and stamp imprints as well as a plan and map collection.

Showpiece under the "Collections" of the archive department is but unquestionably the document collection formed from different provenances.

Overall, stores the in a 1899-1902 built landmarked Archive functional building at Vienna's Minoritenplatz housed House, Court and State Archives on 16,000 running meters, 130,000 accounting records and document cartons, 75,000 documents, 15,000 maps and plans, and about 3000 manuscripts.

The oldest piece is a document that Emperor Louis the Pious issued in the year 816. The chronological endpoint sets the year 1918. The House, Court and State Archives is among the "historical" departments of the Austrian State Archives, who do no longer grow by receiving documentary material deliveries from the Austrian federal ministries.

The great importance of the House, Court and State Archives for international research is based on the wide geographical catchment area and the variety of its collection. Due to the territorial expansion of the Habsburg rule from the 15th Century and the literally global relations of the dynasty, the here stored archival material encompasses practically all continents.

In addition to the "classical" access of diplomatic and political history, the archive also offers a social and cultural history oriented research rich material.

Restoration workshop

The restoration workshop of the ÖStA belongs alongside those of the National Library and the Federal Monuments Office to the most important restoration facilities for paper, parchment, sealing and bookbindery in Austria.

Significant archivists

Ludwig Bittner (1877-1945), archivist 1904-45

Anna Coreth (1915-2008), Director of the House, Court and State Archives

Walter Goldinger (1910-1990), Director-General in 1973

Lothar Gross (1887-1944), director of the House, Court and State Archives

Joseph Knechtl (1771-1838), archivist 1806-1834, 1834-1838 Director

Hanns Leo Mikoletzky (1907-1978), Director-General 1968-72

Lorenz Mikoletzky (* 1945), Director-General from 1994 to 2011

Rudolf Neck

Kurt Peball (1928-2009), Director-General 1983-89

Gebhard Rath (1902-1979), Director-General 1956-68

Leo Santifaller (1890-1974), Director-General 1945-54

Erika Weinzierl (* 1925), archivist at the House, Court and State Archives 1948-64

Publications

The Austrian State Archives publishes the periodical Communications of the Austrian State Archives (Mösta) appearing in annual volumes since 1948. In addition, archive inventories, supplementary volumes to the communications and exhibition catalogs are published.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterreichisches_Staatsarchiv

Buzzing with tourist.

Dam Square lies in the historical center of Amsterdam, approximately 750 meters south of the main transportation hub, Centraal Station. It is roughly rectangular in shape, stretching about 200 meters from west to east and about 100 meters from north to south. It links the streets Damrak and Rokin, which run along the original course of the Amstel River from Centraal Station to Muntplein (Mint Square) and Munttoren. The Dam also marks the endpoint of other well-traveled streets, Nieuwendijk, Kalverstraat and Damstraat. A short distance beyond the northeast corner lies the main red-light district, de Wallen.

On the west end of the square is the neoclassical Royal Palace, which served as the city hall from 1655 until its conversion to a royal residence in 1808. Beside it are the 15th-century Gothic Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) and the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. The National Monument, a white stone pillar designed by J.J.P. Oud and erected in 1956 to memorialize the victims of World War II, dominates the opposite side of the square. Also overlooking the plaza are the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky and the upscale department store De Bijenkorf. These various attractions have turned the Dam into a tourist zone. The square abounds with city pigeons, popular for bird feeding.

Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year.The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song and a television show in the 50s and 60s.

Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion. One realignment moved the western endpoint further west from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated "State Route 66", and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs and relevant historic information

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 285 has always had an endpoint in Denver, Colorado, although the original US 285 went north from Denver (that segment is now a part of U.S. Route 287). Today the highway's northern terminus is in Denver, at exit 201 on Interstate 25.

US 285 is a secondary route of US 85, which it crosses in metro Denver, and historically crossed again in Santa Fe, New Mexico (today its parent route has been largely replaced by Interstate 25, and as a result US 85 is no longer signed in New Mexico). US 285 also intersects a sibling route, US 385, in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Trucking makes up a large portion of the route's traffic, but along much of its route the road is also used for local travel from one town to the next. The northern section of US 285, from Santa Fe to Denver, traverses mountainous and rocky terrain; with that in mind, anyone using the road should check weather conditions during the winter months.

Heading north from the Colorado border, US 285 passes through the main part of the San Luis Valley, eventually reaching Alamosa. As the highway heads north, it begins to ascend to the northern end of the valley and eventually climbs over Poncha Pass, elevation 9,012 feet (2,747 m), and drops sharply down the other side into the Arkansas River Valley.

The highway brushes Salida and follows the Arkansas River north up the valley, then takes a sharp eastward turn just before the small town of Buena Vista. 285 then climbs over Trout Creek Pass, elevation 9,346 feet (2,849 m), and enters the high-altitude South Park basin.

A few miles north, the highway passes through Fairplay and the historic South Park City site, then reaches its highest elevation: 10,051 feet (3,064 m), at the summit of Red Hill Pass. US 285 then leaves the South Park basin and climbs over Kenosha Pass, elevation 10,001 feet (3,048 m), and skirts the south side of the Mount Evans massif as it descends its way through the foothills range towards Denver.

As the highway leaves the Rocky Mountains and reaches Denver's southwest suburbs, it becomes Hampden Avenue, an important artery in the Denver metro area, then reaches its northern terminus at I-25.

On March 14, 2008 both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unanimous vote, named the section between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_285

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

(further pictures and informations you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Austrian State Archives (ÖStA)

Austrian authority

Oesterreichisches Staatsarchiv.svg

State level Federation

Position of the authority subordinated agency

Supervisor(s)/organs to the Federal Chancellery

Founded in 1749 as the Secret House Archive (Empress Maria Theresia)

Headquarters Vienna Highway (Landstraße, 3rd district of Vienna)

Board of Directors Univ. Doz Dr. Wolfgang Maderthaner

www.oesta.gv.at site

Central Archives building of the Austrian State Archives in Nottendorfergasse 2 in Vienna 3

The Austrian State Archives (ÖStA) in Vienna is the central archive of the Republic of Austria. It keeps on the basis of the Federal Records Act the archives of the Federation. The tasks of the Austrian State Archives are therein described as follows: capturing, taking over, keeping, obtaining, placing, organizing, making accessible, exploiting and utilisation of archived documents of the Federation for the exploration of the history and present, for other research and science, for the legislation, jurisdiction, administration as well as for legitimate concerns of people.

As far as in the public records monuments are concerned, the Austrian State Archives according to Monument Protection Act in place of the Federal Monuments Office is also responsible for the preservation.

History

The origin of the Austrian State Archives goes back to the year 1749 when Empress Maria Theresa in the course of an administrative reform installed a secret Hausarchiv. The establishment was related to the new, centralized administration, which required a separate archive. For other centers of administration such as Prague, Graz and Innsbruck documents were taken to Vienna.

In the historical analysis is important to note that there have been earlier archives and collections of documents, whose contents were incorporated into the new archive.

In the 19th Century the name House, Court and State Archives became then usual.

1951 there was a scandal because Heinz Grill, archivist in the House, Court and State Archives, had stolen gold and silver bulls over the years and sold to metal dealers ("affair Grill").

The archive departments

The modern Austrian State Archives is divided into several sections:

Archives of the Republic

The in 1983 founded archive of the Republic is the youngest archive department. It is the center of contemporary research in Austria and archival responsible for the evaluation, discarding, taking over and custody, safeguarding, maintenance and overhaul, accessing, compilation and exploitation of those written or typed material supply, which in the Austrian central authorities (all ministries, central federal departments and subordinated offices) have been produced since 1918.

Since the introduction of the electronic file (ELAKimBUND) in the Austrian federal administration (nationwide for all federal agencies since 2004), the Archives of the Republic is also responsible for the implementation of the digital archiving of this written material. Since 2007 it has been actively worked on an appropriate solution for long-term preservation of the "born digital" act. The startup of the digital archive Austria took place in 2012.

General Administration Archive

The General Administration Archives preserves the records of the central authorities responsible for internal administration of the Habsburg Monarchy from 16th Century, over 12,700 running meters, a significant collection of maps and plans, and about 5,000 documents. In its origins, the General Administration Archive goes back to the first-time centralisation of the old registries of the court chancelleries in founding the "Directorium in publicis et cameralibus" in 1749. The archive materials of the General Administrative archive were decimated by the Justice Palace fire in July 1927 considerably.

The public records which are kept in this division are divided into 10 thematic groups (= inventory groups), which for their part again contain files of various central services:

Inventory group Internal Affairs: Chancellery, Ministry of Interior, police authorities, Council of Ministers, rights of the Austrian State of Lower Austria, city expansion fund

Inventory group Justice: Supreme Justice office, Ministry of Justice, prosecutors, Linz Regional Court, Imperial Court, Administrative Court

Inventory group Instruction and Cultus: Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Ministry of Education, Old and New Cultus

Inventory group Commerce: Department of Commerce, Post Office, Ministry of Public Works, Navy Department, Patent Office

Inventory group Agriculture: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Operations, Forestry and Dömänendirektion (Domain Directorate) Vienna, Forest Institute Mariabrunn, teacher Audit Commission, Agricultural Society

Inventory group Transport: United Court Chancellery, General Court Chamber, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public buildings, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and National Economy, Department of Commerce, the General Inspectorate of the Austrian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Railway Construction Department, State railway administrations, private railway companies

Inventory group Family archives and Estates

Inventory group Nobility: imperial nobility files, Hofadelsakten (Court nobility records), pedigrees

Inventory group Audiovisual Collection: Politics and Public life since 1945, Austrian landscapes and buildings, customs, history, science, technology, medicine, business, art, culture and sport

Inventory group Plan and Posters collection: collection of plans comprised of the following funds: Hofbauamt (Court building authorities), chancellery, General Construction Authority, Lower Austrian Civil Construction Authority, Bausektion (construction section) of the Ministry of the Interior, Bausektion of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Public Works, State Baudirektionen (construction directorates), Waterway Construction Authority, Dikasterialgebäudeverwaltung (dicasterila building administration), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture and Teaching, Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Stiftungshofbuchhaltung (Foundation Court Bookkeeping), Ministry of Justice, city expansion fund

War Archive

The beginning of a proper Military Archives in the Habsburg monarchy is to fix in the year 1711, when Emperor Joseph I. ordered the creation of an archivist office with the Hofkriegsrat, the highest central authority for the Habsburg warfare. Already in the first half of the 18th Century, this hofkriegsrätliche (Court's warfare council) archives of the chancelleries has gradually evolved into a kind of military central archives, especially since 1776 through the merger of the hofkriegsrätlichen plan collection with the combat engineer the archives of the chancelleries in reference to cartographic material became to a central contact point. In addition, however, the aim was put on experiences in the past, lessons from former campaigns for the present and future. In view of the above, Emperor Joseph II in 1779 ordered the documentary revision of the campaigns since 1740. This access to the history of war intended Archduke Karl to continue, too, by 1801 disposing the creation of the Imperial War archive. This had according to its founding mission to collect documents and maps, but also scientifically and journalistically to evaluate.

The Imperial and Royal (from 1889 kuk) Kriegsarchiv (war archive) initially consisted of a department of scriptures, a card archive, library and a department of military history works. By the end of the 19th Century the war archive had the bulk of the until then elsewhere stored military documentary material taken on. During the First World War, the war archive had with the assumption of mass documentary material from the front considerably more tasks to carry out, for which the number of staff of the archives substantially had to be increased. After the end of war in 1918 the war archive became a civilian institution, to which after the fall of the monarchy have been given masses of new documentary material from previously independent departments and liquidated offices. During the Second World War, the war archive as Army Archives Vienna was a part of the German Army archive organization under the supreme command of the Wehrmacht. After considerable losses as a result of the war, the War Archives in 1945 became a department of the newly created Austrian State Archives. In the years 1991-1993 moved the since 1905 in the Stiftskaserne (barracks) in the 7th District of Vienna housed war archive to the Central Archives building in Vienna III.

The war archive contains about 180,000 document cartons and 60,000 account books on 50 shelf kilometers and is by far the most important military archives in Central Europe. Its map collection with over 600,000 maps and plans is the largest in Austria. There is also a collection of about 400,000 images. The former library of the war archive is one of the most extensive collections of older military historical literature .

The in 22 inventory groups aggregated inventories of the Kriegsarchiv, in their structure these two fundamentally different archiving traditions are reflected to this day, can be broadly divided into five major blocks:

Personnel files of officers, petty officers, crews and officials of the armed forces of about 1740 to 1918; reward acts (1789-1958), so documents on military awards, which the archives of the Military Maria Theresa Order is attached.

Feldakten (combat files) with material on the operations of the imperial or kk Field armies from 16th Century to 1882 (Old Field records and Army files) as well as on 1914-1918 (Army High Command, New field files - Neue Feldakten).

Most High command, main, subordinate and territorial authorities. This group brings together the recordings of major institutions in the entourage of the emperor (especially of the Military Chancellery, the Generaladjutantur (general adjutancy) and the General Staff), the central military services (Hofkriegsrat (Court War Council) 1557-1848, War Office 1848-1918, Ministry of National Defence from 1868 to 1918) and a number of other authorities, institutions and territorial command posts such as the disability Office, the Apostolic field Vicariate, the supreme combat engineer and artillery authorities, the military educational institutions, the military invalids houses and single General and Military command posts in the countries.

Navy and Luftfahrtruppe (air force troup (19th - 20th century)

Collections, which include in particular the maps and plan collection, image collection, the manuscripts and a very important collection of military scripture estates.

The war archive is now a "historical archive". The here kept official written or printed material essentially ends with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War (1918). The collections of the Kriegsarchiv (war archive) on the other hand constantly increase.

Financial and Hofkammerarchiv [ Edit]

The financial and Hofkammerarchiv (Court Chamber archive) arose when in 1945 the previously separately kept inventories of the Hofkammerarchiv and financial archives were merged. The Court Chamber, founded in 1527 was the central financial authority of the Habsburg monarchy. 1848 took over the newly founded Treasury its duties. The archive contains financial records that are especially important for historians. In historical Archive building in the Johannesgasse the Directorate room of Franz Grillparzer is still preserved, working there from 1832 to 1856 as director. With 1st December 2006, the Department of Finance and Court Chamber archive was incorporated into the General Administration Archive. The bulk of the archival material was moved into the central archive building in the Nottendorfergasse.

House, Court and State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives in Minoritenplatz

Board on State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives, Minoritenplatz 1, 1749 by Maria Theresa (1740-1780) was established as a central archive of the Habsburg dynasty. By creating a well-ordered document repository unifiying the hitherto over several sites scattered important House and state documents in Vienna, it should be ensured that the legal titles and rulers' rights of the dynasty in the future were quickly available when required.

Of the today in 11 inventory groups organised inventories of the House, Court and State Archives the following topics have been given priority:

the history of the Habsburg dynasty

the activities of the supreme Court offices and the Imperial Cabinet

Diplomacy and foreign policy of the Danube monarchy

highest Administration and Jurisdiction in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation whose imperial dignity the Habsburgs held for centuries almost without interruption until the dissolution of the National Association in 1806.

Worthy of mention furthermore in the House, Court and State Archives deposited ruler and family archives, estates, a manuscript collection, a collection of seal and stamp imprints as well as a plan and map collection.

Showpiece under the "Collections" of the archive department is but unquestionably the document collection formed from different provenances.

Overall, stores the in a 1899-1902 built landmarked Archive functional building at Vienna's Minoritenplatz housed House, Court and State Archives on 16,000 running meters, 130,000 accounting records and document cartons, 75,000 documents, 15,000 maps and plans, and about 3000 manuscripts.

The oldest piece is a document that Emperor Louis the Pious issued in the year 816. The chronological endpoint sets the year 1918. The House, Court and State Archives is among the "historical" departments of the Austrian State Archives, who do no longer grow by receiving documentary material deliveries from the Austrian federal ministries.

The great importance of the House, Court and State Archives for international research is based on the wide geographical catchment area and the variety of its collection. Due to the territorial expansion of the Habsburg rule from the 15th Century and the literally global relations of the dynasty, the here stored archival material encompasses practically all continents.

In addition to the "classical" access of diplomatic and political history, the archive also offers a social and cultural history oriented research rich material.

Restoration workshop

The restoration workshop of the ÖStA belongs alongside those of the National Library and the Federal Monuments Office to the most important restoration facilities for paper, parchment, sealing and bookbindery in Austria.

Significant archivists

Ludwig Bittner (1877-1945), archivist 1904-45

Anna Coreth (1915-2008), Director of the House, Court and State Archives

Walter Goldinger (1910-1990), Director-General in 1973

Lothar Gross (1887-1944), director of the House, Court and State Archives

Joseph Knechtl (1771-1838), archivist 1806-1834, 1834-1838 Director

Hanns Leo Mikoletzky (1907-1978), Director-General 1968-72

Lorenz Mikoletzky (* 1945), Director-General from 1994 to 2011

Rudolf Neck

Kurt Peball (1928-2009), Director-General 1983-89

Gebhard Rath (1902-1979), Director-General 1956-68

Leo Santifaller (1890-1974), Director-General 1945-54

Erika Weinzierl (* 1925), archivist at the House, Court and State Archives 1948-64

Publications

The Austrian State Archives publishes the periodical Communications of the Austrian State Archives (Mösta) appearing in annual volumes since 1948. In addition, archive inventories, supplementary volumes to the communications and exhibition catalogs are published.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterreichisches_Staatsarchiv

Right: Stecknitz-Prahm

Left: Ilmenau Ewer

Those barges were used to ship salt to Lübeck via Stecknitz Canal

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OLD CRANE

The Old Crane is a historic harbour crane at the former Ilmenau-Harbour in Lüneburg. The 1797 built crane was at that time the most powerful crane in the northern part of Germany and is still one of the main-sights in Lüneburg.

A crane at this part of Lüneburg harbour is officially mentioned in the history of Lüneburg in the year 1330. At that time Lüneburg was already important, because of its saline. So the main use of this crane was to load the ships with salt from the salines. The ships had to ship the salt mainly to the Hanseatic Town of Lübeck, where the salt was stored in the historic - and still existing - Salt Warehouses (Lübecker Salzspeicher).

And also the huge amount of fire wood was landed from ships with this crane. This fire wood was necessary to boil out the salt from the brine.

TECHNIC

This crane is a typical medieval treadwheel crane. It is powered by a man-powered double-treadwheel with a diameter of the lower wheel of 5 meter.

Over the centuries that Lüneburg crane was reconstructed many times. In winter 1795 a flooding with ice caused many damage in Lüneburg. In summer 1797 the crane was repaired by carpenter G. P. Hintze. The present crane is untouched since 1797.

In August 1840 the crane raised his haviest load: a steam locomotive built by Englands George Forrester & Company and transported by sea to Germany. The estimated weight of that locomotive was 9,3 tons. To rotate the treadwheel of the crane they needed 38 men. To ensure the crane has enough power they tested it with the 10 tons of 80 railway rails.

In 1838 the crane already managed to raise a steam locomotive with 14.000 pounds.

With the building of the railroad track Hamburg-Hannover Lüneburg was attached to railroad in 1847. In short time the transport moved from the waterways to rail. So Lüneburg harbour and the crane lost its importance and in 1860 the crane had to stop the business - even it was still intact!

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HISTORY OF TREADWHEELS

A treadwheel, or treadmill, is a form of engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference (treadmill), or by a human or animal standing inside it (treadwheel). These devices are no longer used for power or punishment, and the term "treadmill" has come to mean an exercise machine for running or walking in place.

Uses of treadwheels included raising water, to power cranes, or grind grain. They were used extensively in the Greek and Roman world, such as in the reverse overshot water-wheel used for dewatering purposes. They were widely used in the Middle ages to lift the stones in the soaring Gothic cathedrals. There is a literary reference to one in 1225, and one treadwheel crane survives at Chesterfield, Derbyshire and is housed in the Museum. It has been dated to the early 14th century and was housed in the top of the church tower until its removal in 1947. They were used extensively in the Renaissance famously by Brunelleschi during the construction of Florence cathedral.Penal treadmills were used in prisons during the early-Victorian period in the UK as a form of punishment. According to The Times in 1827, and reprinted in William Hone's Table-Book in 1838, the amount prisoners walked per day on average varied, from the equivalent of 6,600 vertical feet at Lewes to as much as 17,000 vertical feet in ten hours during the summertime at Warwick gaol. In 1902, the British government banned the use of the treadwheel as a form of punishment.

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STECKNITZ CANAL

The Stecknitz Canal (German: Stecknitzfahrt) was an artificial waterway in northern Germany which connected Lauenburg and Lübeck on the Old Salt Route by linking the tiny rivers Stecknitz (a tributary of the Trave) and Delvenau (a tributary of the Elbe), thus establishing an inland water route across the drainage divide from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. Built between 1391 and 1398, the Stecknitz Canal was the first European summit-level canal and one of the earliest artificial waterways in Europe. In the 1890s the canal was replaced by an enlarged and straightened waterway called the Elbe–Lübeck Canal, which includes some of the Stecknitz Canal's watercourse.

The original artificial canal was 0.85 metres deep and 7.5 metres wide; the man-made segment ran for 11.5 kilometres, with a total length of 97 kilometres including the rivers it linked. The canal included seventeen wooden locks (of which the Palmschleuse at Lauenburg still exists) that managed the 13-metre elevation difference between its endpoints and the highest central part, the Delvenaugraben.

HISTORY

In the Middle Ages the trade between the North Sea and Baltic Sea grew dramatically, but the sea journey through Øresund, increasingly important to commercial shipping since the thirteenth century, was time-consuming and dangerous. Therefore, the emerging Hanseatic city of Lübeck and Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg agreed in 1390 to cooperate in the construction of an artificial canal between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea. Construction on the canal began in 1391; thirty barges carrying the first load of salt from Lüneburg reached Lübeck on 22 July 1398.

The Stecknitz Canal soon replaced the existing overland cart road as the main transport mode for Lüneburg salt on the Old Salt Route. In Lübeck the salt was stored in vast salt warehouses and then transferred to ocean-going vessels for export throughout the Baltic region. In the reverse direction the Stecknitz barges transported cereals, furs, herring, ash, timber and other goods from Lübeck, which were reloaded in Lauenburg and transported down the Elbe to Hamburg. Later coal, peat, brick, limestone and gravel were added to the cargo. The importance of the canal was greatest in years in which Øresund was closed to merchant ships because of disputes over the Sound Dues and foreign shipping.

In the fifteenth century traffic peaked, with more than 3,000 shipments of more than 30,000 tons of salt moving on the canal each year. This number declined by the seventeenth century to 400 to 600 shipments (5,000 to 7,000 tons). In 1789 there were still sixty-four shipments carrying approximately 680 tons of salt. Plans for a new Baltic–North Sea canal were proposed as early as the seventeenth century, but none was implemented until the end of the nineteenth century, when the new Elbe–Lübeck Canal was built using parts of the old route of the Stecknitz Canal. For five hundred years the canal was used to transport the "white gold" and other goods; today the Palmschleuse lock in Lauenburg is one of the last remaining parts of the former canal, preserved as an historical monument.

TECHNOLOGY

The Stecknitz Canal consisted of an 11.5-kilometre artificial waterway (the Delvenaugraben) linking two minor rivers, the north-flowing Stecknitz and south-flowing Delvenau. The man-made trench itself was about 85 centimetres deep and 7.5 metres wide, though it was enlarged between 1821 and 1823 to a depth of 144 centimetres and a width of 12 metres. Outside the artificial segment the canal followed the tortuous natural watercourses of the two rivers; as a result, the full journey from Lauenburg to Lübeck stretched to a distance of 97 kilometres, even though the straight-line separation between the two cities is only 55 kilometres. The journey along the canal often lasted two weeks or longer due to the number and primitive design of the locks and the difficulty of towing.

The canal's course originally included thirteen locks, which later renovations increased to seventeen. Initially most were one-gate flash locks built into weirs (usually set below the mouth of a tributary creek), where water was dammed until a barge was ready to pass downriver. In Lauenburg the initial course included one chamber lock (the Palmschleuse) because of a watermill whose operation would have been made impossible by a flash lock. Over the course of the canal's lifetime further flash locks were progressively converted to chamber locks until the 17th century.

The canal overcame the drainage divide between the North and Baltic Seas, with a summit height of 17 metres above sea level. In order to supply the top portion of the canal with water, flow was diverted from Hornbeker Mühlenbach. To the north the canal descended to the Ziegelsee by the town of Mölln and then connected to the Stecknitz by a series of eight locks. The southern end of the artificial canal descended to the Delvenau through a staircase of nine locks.

BARGES AND DRIVERS

The original salt barges measured roughly 12 metres by 2.5 metres, with a 40-centimetre draft when loaded to capacity with around 7.5 tons of salt, and required at least ten days to make the journey one way. When traveling uphill or through chamber locks the barges had to be hauled by laborers or animals walking the towpath on the banks of the channel. By the nineteenth century newer vessel designs included rigging that eliminated the need for towing (with sufficient wind).

In Lauenburg and Lübeck the barges were unloaded and their contents transferred to ships for export down the Elbe and Trave. Stecknitz barge drivers were only permitted to own one barge each, so they could not acquire great wealth in the trade; in the long run this ensured their dependence upon the Lübeck salt merchants, who were not bound by any such limitations and amassed great fortunes. The guild of the Stecknitzfahrer (Stecknitz barge drivers) still exists today in Lübeck and meets annually at the Kringelhöge to celebrate the guild's history.

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Der Alte Kran (Schreibweise früher auch Krahn) ist ein historischer Hafenkran am ehemaligen Ilmenau-Hafen in Lüneburg. Der 1797 erbaute Kran, der damals zu den leistungsfähigsten in ganz Norddeutschland gehörte, prägt bis heute das Bild des Wasserviertels und gilt als eines der Wahrzeichen der Stadt.

TECHNIK

Der Kran ist aus tragendem Holzfachwerk gebaut, welches als Wetterschutz mit einer Bretterverkleidung versehen wurde; die Dachflächen sind mit Kupferplatten gedeckt. Der Unterteil mit kreisförmigem Grundriss (Durchmesser: acht Meter) ist feststehend. Der Oberteil mit dem Kranausleger ist drehbar gelagert (ähnlich einer Holländerwindmühle). Vier Sandsteinblöcke von je etwa 200 kg dienen als Gegengewicht zur Last. Die Kettenwinde im Oberteil wird angetrieben über eine 9 m hohe Königswelle, diese wiederum durch ein doppeltes Tretrad mit 5 m Durchmesser im Unterteil.

In Stade wurde 1977 ein Nachbau am Hansehafen errichtet, der heute als Informationszentrum für Stader Stadtgeschichte dient; ein zweiter, funktionstüchtiger Nachbau befindet sich im Hebezeug-Museum in Witten in Nordrhein-Westfalen.

GESCHICHTE

Ein Kran am Standort des heutigen Kranes am Lüneburger Hafen wird erstmals 1330 urkundlich erwähnt. Er diente neben dem Heben anderer Waren vor allem dem Betrieb der Lüneburger Saline, nämlich einerseits zum Verschiffen des dort produzierten Salzes (insbesondere über den Stecknitzkanal nach Lübeck, aber auch in andere Städte) und andererseits zum Anlanden des Brennholzes, welches für den Betrieb der Sudhäuser benötigt wurde. Der Kran teile sich die Arbeit mit den kleineren Winden des benachbarten Lagerhauses (damals Heringshaus, heute Altes Kaufhaus genannt). In einer Verordnung des Lüneburger Stadtrates war festgelegt, welche Waren von welchem Kran zu heben waren und welche Gebühren („Krangeld“) dafür zu entrichten waren.

Der ursprüngliche Kran wurde über die Jahrhunderte immer wieder um- und ausgebaut. In seiner heutigen Form besteht der Kran fast unverändert seit 1797. Im Winter 1795 wurden viele Bauwerke im Hafen durch ein Hochwasser mit Eisgang stark beschädigt, darunter auch der Kran und die benachbarte Brücke. Der Kran wurde im Sommer 1797 vom Zimmermann G. P. Hintze unter der Leitung des Landbauverwalters Kruse in neuer Form wieder aufgebaut.

Am 13. August 1840 hob der Kran seine schwerste Last an Land: eine Dampflokomotive für die Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn, die in England von George Forrester & Company gebaut und auf dem Wasserweg nach Deutschland transportiert worden war. Das Gewicht der Lok wurde auf bis zu 60 Schiffspfund (ca. 9,3 Tonnen) geschätzt. Zum Drehen des Tretrades wurde dabei die Kraft von 38 Menschen benötigt. Als Belastungstest wurde vorher ein Paket mit 80 Eisenbahnschienen mit etwa 20.000 Pfund Gewicht angehoben. Zwei Jahre zuvor hatte der Kran bereits eine leichtere Lok mit etwa 14.000 Pfund gehoben.

Mit dem Bau der Eisenbahnlinie Hamburg-Hannover, die 1847 Lüneburg erreichte, verlagerte sich der Warentransport von und nach Lüneburg binnen kurzer Zeit vom Binnenwasserweg auf die Schiene. In der Folge verlor der Hafen und somit auch der Kran rapide an Bedeutung. Im Jahre 1860 stellte der Kran aus wirtschaftlichen Gründen seinen Betrieb ein (obwohl er technisch weiterhin intakt war).

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GESCHICHTE DER TRETMÜHLE

Eine Tretmühle (auch Tretrad oder Laufrad) ist ein seit dem Römischen Reich bis in die Moderne benutzter Antrieb für Mühlen und insbesondere für Hebe-Vorrichtungen (Krane). Sie arbeitet nach dem Prinzip des Wellrads und nutzt die Körperkraft von Menschen oder Tieren.

Heute wird das Wort Tretmühle im übertragenen Sinne für eine monotone Tätigkeit oder Tagesablauf benutzt.

KONSTRUKTION UND BETRIEB

Kernstück einer Tretmühle sind ein oder mehrere (meist zwei), übermannshohe hölzerne Treträder („Fabricae pedales“, Fußwerke, Laufräder, Durchmesser von 3 m bis 5 m) mit meist acht Holz-Speichen auf jeder Seite. Die Räder waren auf einer schweren, horizontalen Holzwelle angebracht, die bei mittelalterlichen Tretkränen mit Drehdach in einer quadratischen Holzkonstruktion als Rad-„Träger“ oder auf freistehenden Radlagern ruhte (bei römischen Kränen und als festmontierte Hebevorrichtung). Bei Mühlen (Kornmühlen, Pumpmühlen etc.) war die horizontale Antriebsachse mit dem Mahlwerk oder Pumpwerk verbunden, bei den Hebevorrichtungen saß eine Tretvorrichtung auf der Achse, entweder in deren Verlängerung oder auch zwischen den Treträdern. Im einfachsten Fall war die Tretvorrichtung ein Abschnitt auf der Achse mit Begrenzungsringen. Die Tretvorrichtung nahm Seil oder Kette auf. In den Treträdern, deren Innenfläche (Lauffläche) mit rutschmindernden Trittleisten versehen war, liefen die Radläufer, Tret- oder Windenknechte (auch Windenfahrer genannt, bei Kranen auch Kranenknechte) und setzten damit den Mechanismus in die gewünschte Richtung in Gang. Es gab auch Ausführungen ähnlich einem Wasserrad, bei dem die Menschen außen auf schaufelartigen Trittbrettern liefen. Auf mittelalterlichen Baustellen galten die Windenknechte (bis ins 18. Jahrhundert waren Tretradantriebe stark verbreitet) als hoch- bis höchstbezahlte Arbeitskräfte. Die Tätigkeit war mühsam, extrem anstrengend und in Hebevorrichtungen auch gefährlich. Das Halten der Lasten war schwierig, weil die Laufräder nicht gesichert werden konnten, um die Last während des Drehvorganges auf Höhe zu halten. Auch das Ablassen der Lasten barg Gefahr, weil sich die Last durch ihre Eigenmasse selbständig machen und die Männer in den Treträdern ins „Rotieren“ und „Schleudern“ (Redewendung) bringen konnte: es gab zum Teil schwere und tödliche Unfälle. Zum Heben einer Last auf eine Höhe von 4 m mussten die Windenknechte in den Laufrädern etwa 56 m an Laufstrecke zurücklegen (vom Achs- und Raddurchmesser abhängig: bei 4 m Raddurchmesser und 0,4 m Achsdurchmesser entspricht eine Radumdrehung 12,56 m Laufstrecke und 1,26 m Wickellänge (= Hubhöhe), das sind 50,24 m Laufstrecke und 5 m Hub). Das bedeutete für einen kompletten Hebe- und Senkvorgang eine Gesamtstrecke von etwa 132 bis 140 m. Bei solcher Tätigkeit musste jeder sich auf den anderen verlassen können. Viel Erfahrung und Kondition war vonnöten, um die harte Tätigkeit im Akkord (berechnet nach gelöschter Ladung gemäß einer Gebührenliste durch den Kranmeister) gewinnbringend zu schaffen. Zwischen 15 und mehr als 20 Mann arbeiteten in und an einem mittelalterlichen Ladekran. Sie waren zum Teil in der „Aufläder-Zunft“ organisiert, dem ursprünglichen Wort für die Ladetätigkeit am Kran.

EINSATZBEREICHE

In der Schifffahrt kamen beim Betrieb der seit dem Mittelalter verbreiteten Hafenkräne zwecks Zeitgewinn gewöhnlich Doppeltreträder zum Einsatz, die an beiden Seiten eines drehbaren Turms befestigt waren. Diese Turm-Tretkräne waren entweder aus Holz oder Stein gebaut und konnten beim Verladen eine Last von bis 2,5 Tonnen bewältigen. Es wird geschätzt, dass circa 80 Tretkräne an 32 Kranstandorten am Rhein mit Nebenflüssen im Einsatz waren, im gesamten deutschsprachigem Raum sogar ca. doppelt so viele.

Verbreitet war der Einsatz der Treträder auch beim Betrieb von Mühlen und beim Bau großer Gebäude, insbesondere der mittelalterlichen Kathedralen, wo Tretradkräne als Einzel- oder Doppelräder in die Dachkonstruktion integriert waren. Im Freiburger Münster, Gmünder Münster, Straßburger Münster, in St. Marien und St.Nikolai Stralsund sowie in der Abtei des Mont-Saint-Michel sind diese beispielsweise noch vorhanden. Bis 1868 befand sich auf dem bis dahin unvollendeten Südturm des Kölner Doms ein durch Treträder angetriebener Baukran aus dem 15. Jahrhundert.

Noch Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts mussten in den britischen Kolonien Sträflinge in den Tretmühlen arbeiten. Zwei solcher Mühlen, zynisch als „dancing academies“ bezeichnet, wurden ab 1823 in Sydney zum Antrieb von Getreidemühlen eingesetzt. Da diese Mühlen großen Profit abwarfen, wurden sechs weitere in Betrieb genommen. Die Arbeitszeit betrug bis zu zwölf Stunden täglich, die Leistung wurde mit der Dampfmaschine in Relation gesetzt und mit 70 Watt pro Arbeiter angegeben. Aus dem Jahr 1850 wird berichtet, dass 28 Sträflinge die Arbeit in der Tretmühle verweigerten und den Tod durch Erhängen vorzogen. Auch Frauen mussten in den Tretmühlen arbeiten, auf Schwangerschaft wurde keine Rücksicht genommen.

WIKIPEDIA

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

Alice's Breakfast on the Park is a gem within a gem. It's a quaint family restaurant on the lake in the beautiful and idiosyncratic Central park in Hunting Beach, California. Alice Gustafson, the proprietor of some 30 years, serves breakfast-themed comfort foods all day long, including enormous portions of blueberry pancakes (with blueberries both baked in and in the form of a warm compote), Outrageous Cinnamon Rolls, omelettes and home potatoes.

The interior of the restaurant looks and feels like a traditional English tea room, an antiques shop (shoppe, even), art gallery, and doll museum rolled into one. It's busy without being chaotic and colorful without descending into kitsch. Add the view of the lake, which you can take in both from the inside and the outdoor patio, and you will understand the sadness, with which I read that Alice will be hanging up her apron and closing the place down after Labor Day 2010. Her next endeavor — helping out her daughter get her own bakery off the ground.

Having lived within a 10 mile drive from it for 17 years, I only discovered Breakfast in the Park (as well as Central Park itself) this year. And already I feel like I will be losing something when it closes its doors. A thirty-year run may suddenly seem awfully short when viewed from its endpoint.

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 285 has always had an endpoint in Denver, Colorado, although the original US 285 went north from Denver (that segment is now a part of U.S. Route 287). Today the highway's northern terminus is in Denver, at exit 201 on Interstate 25.

US 285 is a secondary route of US 85, which it crosses in metro Denver, and historically crossed again in Santa Fe, New Mexico (today its parent route has been largely replaced by Interstate 25, and as a result US 85 is no longer signed in New Mexico). US 285 also intersects a sibling route, US 385, in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Trucking makes up a large portion of the route's traffic, but along much of its route the road is also used for local travel from one town to the next. The northern section of US 285, from Santa Fe to Denver, traverses mountainous and rocky terrain; with that in mind, anyone using the road should check weather conditions during the winter months.

Heading north from the Colorado border, US 285 passes through the main part of the San Luis Valley, eventually reaching Alamosa. As the highway heads north, it begins to ascend to the northern end of the valley and eventually climbs over Poncha Pass, elevation 9,012 feet (2,747 m), and drops sharply down the other side into the Arkansas River Valley.

The highway brushes Salida and follows the Arkansas River north up the valley, then takes a sharp eastward turn just before the small town of Buena Vista. 285 then climbs over Trout Creek Pass, elevation 9,346 feet (2,849 m), and enters the high-altitude South Park basin.

A few miles north, the highway passes through Fairplay and the historic South Park City site, then reaches its highest elevation: 10,051 feet (3,064 m), at the summit of Red Hill Pass. US 285 then leaves the South Park basin and climbs over Kenosha Pass, elevation 10,001 feet (3,048 m), and skirts the south side of the Mount Evans massif as it descends its way through the foothills range towards Denver.

As the highway leaves the Rocky Mountains and reaches Denver's southwest suburbs, it becomes Hampden Avenue, an important artery in the Denver metro area, then reaches its northern terminus at I-25.

On March 14, 2008 both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unanimous vote, named the section between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_285

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 285 has always had an endpoint in Denver, Colorado, although the original US 285 went north from Denver (that segment is now a part of U.S. Route 287). Today the highway's northern terminus is in Denver, at exit 201 on Interstate 25.

US 285 is a secondary route of US 85, which it crosses in metro Denver, and historically crossed again in Santa Fe, New Mexico (today its parent route has been largely replaced by Interstate 25, and as a result US 85 is no longer signed in New Mexico). US 285 also intersects a sibling route, US 385, in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Trucking makes up a large portion of the route's traffic, but along much of its route the road is also used for local travel from one town to the next. The northern section of US 285, from Santa Fe to Denver, traverses mountainous and rocky terrain; with that in mind, anyone using the road should check weather conditions during the winter months.

Heading north from the Colorado border, US 285 passes through the main part of the San Luis Valley, eventually reaching Alamosa. As the highway heads north, it begins to ascend to the northern end of the valley and eventually climbs over Poncha Pass, elevation 9,012 feet (2,747 m), and drops sharply down the other side into the Arkansas River Valley.

The highway brushes Salida and follows the Arkansas River north up the valley, then takes a sharp eastward turn just before the small town of Buena Vista. 285 then climbs over Trout Creek Pass, elevation 9,346 feet (2,849 m), and enters the high-altitude South Park basin.

A few miles north, the highway passes through Fairplay and the historic South Park City site, then reaches its highest elevation: 10,051 feet (3,064 m), at the summit of Red Hill Pass. US 285 then leaves the South Park basin and climbs over Kenosha Pass, elevation 10,001 feet (3,048 m), and skirts the south side of the Mount Evans massif as it descends its way through the foothills range towards Denver.

As the highway leaves the Rocky Mountains and reaches Denver's southwest suburbs, it becomes Hampden Avenue, an important artery in the Denver metro area, then reaches its northern terminus at I-25.

On March 14, 2008 both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unanimous vote, named the section between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_285

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

Fontana di Trevi

A seguir, um texto, em português, do Blog do Noblat:

Nenhuma semana sobre fontes poderia ser feita sem falar na Fontana di Trevi, a linda, a inteiramente diferente de todas as outras fontes. Numa pequena praça, formada pelo cruzamento de três vias, em italiano tre vie, e é daí que vem seu nome, a fonte marca o ponto final do aqueduto Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos de Roma.

Reza a lenda que em 19 a.C, uma virgem ajudou os Romanos a encontrar uma fonte de água pura. Essa nascente supriu Roma de água por mais de 400 anos, e isso só terminou entre 537 e 538, quando os visigodos sitiaram Roma e destruíram seus aquedutos.

A reconstrução do aqueduto só terminou em 1453, sob o papa Nicolau V que mandou fazer ali uma bacia em mármore para acolher a água.

Em 1629, o papa Urbano VII pediu a Bernini que embelezasse a fonte; o grande arquiteto começou por mudar o local da escultura: seu projeto a colocava do outro lado da praça e ela ficaria de frente para o Palácio Quirinal, de modo que o papa pudesse apreciar a vista. Mas o papa morreu, o projeto foi abandonado. Ainda assim muitos dos detalhes que Bernini criara foram respeitados pelo arquiteto Nicola Salvi, que assina a fonte.

Em 1730, Salvi recebeu do papa Clemente XII a incumbência de reiniciar a decoração da fonte. Os trabalhos começaram em 1732 e terminaram em 1762, depois da morte de Clemente. A estátua principal, do deus Oceano, só foi colocada após a morte do papa.

O pano de fundo da estrutura é o Palazzo Poli que, para compor o cenário perfeito, recebeu uma nova fachada com colunas gregas que unem os dois andares.

O tema principal é “O Domínio das Águas”. A biga de Oceano, em forma de concha, é puxada por cavalos alados dominados por Tritãos. O nicho do deus é um imenso arco do triunfo; nos laterais estão as estátuas da Abundância e da Salubridade.

No alto, em baixo relevo, a origem dos aquedutos romanos e, acima, as armas de Clemente XII. O conjunto mede 25.9m de altura x 19,8m de largura e é a maior fonte barroca dessa cidade com tantas fontes.

Reza a lenda que ao jogar uma moeda na fonte, está assegurada sua volta a Roma. Se jogar três moedas com a mão direita sobre o ombro esquerdo, você garante sua boa sorte. Parece brincadeira? Cerca de 3mil euros são jogados por dia na Fontana di Trevi!

Esse cenário deslumbrante serviu a Federico Fellini para uma das cenas mais famosas de sua obra-prima, o filme La Dolce Vita. Difìcil alguém que não conheça a cena interpretada por Anita Eckberg e Marcello Mastroianni. Pois bem, quando Mastroianni faleceu, desligaram a água e cobriram a fonte de panos negros. Foi o luto de Roma pelo grande ator.

Um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:

A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.

A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.

O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.

O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V determinou fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.

Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.

Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.

Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.

A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.

A text, in english, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.

The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.

In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti, one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.

Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.

Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".

The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.

The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.

The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming seahorses (hippocamps).

In the center is superimposed a robustly modelled triumphal arch. The center niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light-and-shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.

The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).

A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.

Approximately 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day and are collected at night. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.

(further pictures and informations you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)

Austrian State Archives (ÖStA)

Austrian authority

Oesterreichisches Staatsarchiv.svg

State level Federation

Position of the authority subordinated agency

Supervisor(s)/organs to the Federal Chancellery

Founded in 1749 as the Secret House Archive (Empress Maria Theresia)

Headquarters Vienna Highway (Landstraße, 3rd district of Vienna)

Board of Directors Univ. Doz Dr. Wolfgang Maderthaner

www.oesta.gv.at site

Central Archives building of the Austrian State Archives in Nottendorfergasse 2 in Vienna 3

The Austrian State Archives (ÖStA) in Vienna is the central archive of the Republic of Austria. It keeps on the basis of the Federal Records Act the archives of the Federation. The tasks of the Austrian State Archives are therein described as follows: capturing, taking over, keeping, obtaining, placing, organizing, making accessible, exploiting and utilisation of archived documents of the Federation for the exploration of the history and present, for other research and science, for the legislation, jurisdiction, administration as well as for legitimate concerns of people.

As far as in the public records monuments are concerned, the Austrian State Archives according to Monument Protection Act in place of the Federal Monuments Office is also responsible for the preservation.

History

The origin of the Austrian State Archives goes back to the year 1749 when Empress Maria Theresa in the course of an administrative reform installed a secret Hausarchiv. The establishment was related to the new, centralized administration, which required a separate archive. For other centers of administration such as Prague, Graz and Innsbruck documents were taken to Vienna.

In the historical analysis is important to note that there have been earlier archives and collections of documents, whose contents were incorporated into the new archive.

In the 19th Century the name House, Court and State Archives became then usual.

1951 there was a scandal because Heinz Grill, archivist in the House, Court and State Archives, had stolen gold and silver bulls over the years and sold to metal dealers ("affair Grill").

The archive departments

The modern Austrian State Archives is divided into several sections:

Archives of the Republic

The in 1983 founded archive of the Republic is the youngest archive department. It is the center of contemporary research in Austria and archival responsible for the evaluation, discarding, taking over and custody, safeguarding, maintenance and overhaul, accessing, compilation and exploitation of those written or typed material supply, which in the Austrian central authorities (all ministries, central federal departments and subordinated offices) have been produced since 1918.

Since the introduction of the electronic file (ELAKimBUND) in the Austrian federal administration (nationwide for all federal agencies since 2004), the Archives of the Republic is also responsible for the implementation of the digital archiving of this written material. Since 2007 it has been actively worked on an appropriate solution for long-term preservation of the "born digital" act. The startup of the digital archive Austria took place in 2012.

General Administration Archive

The General Administration Archives preserves the records of the central authorities responsible for internal administration of the Habsburg Monarchy from 16th Century, over 12,700 running meters, a significant collection of maps and plans, and about 5,000 documents. In its origins, the General Administration Archive goes back to the first-time centralisation of the old registries of the court chancelleries in founding the "Directorium in publicis et cameralibus" in 1749. The archive materials of the General Administrative archive were decimated by the Justice Palace fire in July 1927 considerably.

The public records which are kept in this division are divided into 10 thematic groups (= inventory groups), which for their part again contain files of various central services:

Inventory group Internal Affairs: Chancellery, Ministry of Interior, police authorities, Council of Ministers, rights of the Austrian State of Lower Austria, city expansion fund

Inventory group Justice: Supreme Justice office, Ministry of Justice, prosecutors, Linz Regional Court, Imperial Court, Administrative Court

Inventory group Instruction and Cultus: Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Ministry of Education, Old and New Cultus

Inventory group Commerce: Department of Commerce, Post Office, Ministry of Public Works, Navy Department, Patent Office

Inventory group Agriculture: Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Operations, Forestry and Dömänendirektion (Domain Directorate) Vienna, Forest Institute Mariabrunn, teacher Audit Commission, Agricultural Society

Inventory group Transport: United Court Chancellery, General Court Chamber, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Public buildings, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and National Economy, Department of Commerce, the General Inspectorate of the Austrian Railways, Ministry of Railways, Railway Construction Department, State railway administrations, private railway companies

Inventory group Family archives and Estates

Inventory group Nobility: imperial nobility files, Hofadelsakten (Court nobility records), pedigrees

Inventory group Audiovisual Collection: Politics and Public life since 1945, Austrian landscapes and buildings, customs, history, science, technology, medicine, business, art, culture and sport

Inventory group Plan and Posters collection: collection of plans comprised of the following funds: Hofbauamt (Court building authorities), chancellery, General Construction Authority, Lower Austrian Civil Construction Authority, Bausektion (construction section) of the Ministry of the Interior, Bausektion of the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Public Works, State Baudirektionen (construction directorates), Waterway Construction Authority, Dikasterialgebäudeverwaltung (dicasterila building administration), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Culture and Teaching, Studienhofkommission (Imperial Commission on Education), Stiftungshofbuchhaltung (Foundation Court Bookkeeping), Ministry of Justice, city expansion fund

War Archive

The beginning of a proper Military Archives in the Habsburg monarchy is to fix in the year 1711, when Emperor Joseph I. ordered the creation of an archivist office with the Hofkriegsrat, the highest central authority for the Habsburg warfare. Already in the first half of the 18th Century, this hofkriegsrätliche (Court's warfare council) archives of the chancelleries has gradually evolved into a kind of military central archives, especially since 1776 through the merger of the hofkriegsrätlichen plan collection with the combat engineer the archives of the chancelleries in reference to cartographic material became to a central contact point. In addition, however, the aim was put on experiences in the past, lessons from former campaigns for the present and future. In view of the above, Emperor Joseph II in 1779 ordered the documentary revision of the campaigns since 1740. This access to the history of war intended Archduke Karl to continue, too, by 1801 disposing the creation of the Imperial War archive. This had according to its founding mission to collect documents and maps, but also scientifically and journalistically to evaluate.

The Imperial and Royal (from 1889 kuk) Kriegsarchiv (war archive) initially consisted of a department of scriptures, a card archive, library and a department of military history works. By the end of the 19th Century the war archive had the bulk of the until then elsewhere stored military documentary material taken on. During the First World War, the war archive had with the assumption of mass documentary material from the front considerably more tasks to carry out, for which the number of staff of the archives substantially had to be increased. After the end of war in 1918 the war archive became a civilian institution, to which after the fall of the monarchy have been given masses of new documentary material from previously independent departments and liquidated offices. During the Second World War, the war archive as Army Archives Vienna was a part of the German Army archive organization under the supreme command of the Wehrmacht. After considerable losses as a result of the war, the War Archives in 1945 became a department of the newly created Austrian State Archives. In the years 1991-1993 moved the since 1905 in the Stiftskaserne (barracks) in the 7th District of Vienna housed war archive to the Central Archives building in Vienna III.

The war archive contains about 180,000 document cartons and 60,000 account books on 50 shelf kilometers and is by far the most important military archives in Central Europe. Its map collection with over 600,000 maps and plans is the largest in Austria. There is also a collection of about 400,000 images. The former library of the war archive is one of the most extensive collections of older military historical literature .

The in 22 inventory groups aggregated inventories of the Kriegsarchiv, in their structure these two fundamentally different archiving traditions are reflected to this day, can be broadly divided into five major blocks:

Personnel files of officers, petty officers, crews and officials of the armed forces of about 1740 to 1918; reward acts (1789-1958), so documents on military awards, which the archives of the Military Maria Theresa Order is attached.

Feldakten (combat files) with material on the operations of the imperial or kk Field armies from 16th Century to 1882 (Old Field records and Army files) as well as on 1914-1918 (Army High Command, New field files - Neue Feldakten).

Most High command, main, subordinate and territorial authorities. This group brings together the recordings of major institutions in the entourage of the emperor (especially of the Military Chancellery, the Generaladjutantur (general adjutancy) and the General Staff), the central military services (Hofkriegsrat (Court War Council) 1557-1848, War Office 1848-1918, Ministry of National Defence from 1868 to 1918) and a number of other authorities, institutions and territorial command posts such as the disability Office, the Apostolic field Vicariate, the supreme combat engineer and artillery authorities, the military educational institutions, the military invalids houses and single General and Military command posts in the countries.

Navy and Luftfahrtruppe (air force troup (19th - 20th century)

Collections, which include in particular the maps and plan collection, image collection, the manuscripts and a very important collection of military scripture estates.

The war archive is now a "historical archive". The here kept official written or printed material essentially ends with the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the First World War (1918). The collections of the Kriegsarchiv (war archive) on the other hand constantly increase.

Financial and Hofkammerarchiv [ Edit]

The financial and Hofkammerarchiv (Court Chamber archive) arose when in 1945 the previously separately kept inventories of the Hofkammerarchiv and financial archives were merged. The Court Chamber, founded in 1527 was the central financial authority of the Habsburg monarchy. 1848 took over the newly founded Treasury its duties. The archive contains financial records that are especially important for historians. In historical Archive building in the Johannesgasse the Directorate room of Franz Grillparzer is still preserved, working there from 1832 to 1856 as director. With 1st December 2006, the Department of Finance and Court Chamber archive was incorporated into the General Administration Archive. The bulk of the archival material was moved into the central archive building in the Nottendorfergasse.

House, Court and State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives in Minoritenplatz

Board on State Archives

The House, Court and State Archives, Minoritenplatz 1, 1749 by Maria Theresa (1740-1780) was established as a central archive of the Habsburg dynasty. By creating a well-ordered document repository unifiying the hitherto over several sites scattered important House and state documents in Vienna, it should be ensured that the legal titles and rulers' rights of the dynasty in the future were quickly available when required.

Of the today in 11 inventory groups organised inventories of the House, Court and State Archives the following topics have been given priority:

the history of the Habsburg dynasty

the activities of the supreme Court offices and the Imperial Cabinet

Diplomacy and foreign policy of the Danube monarchy

highest Administration and Jurisdiction in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation whose imperial dignity the Habsburgs held for centuries almost without interruption until the dissolution of the National Association in 1806.

Worthy of mention furthermore in the House, Court and State Archives deposited ruler and family archives, estates, a manuscript collection, a collection of seal and stamp imprints as well as a plan and map collection.

Showpiece under the "Collections" of the archive department is but unquestionably the document collection formed from different provenances.

Overall, stores the in a 1899-1902 built landmarked Archive functional building at Vienna's Minoritenplatz housed House, Court and State Archives on 16,000 running meters, 130,000 accounting records and document cartons, 75,000 documents, 15,000 maps and plans, and about 3000 manuscripts.

The oldest piece is a document that Emperor Louis the Pious issued in the year 816. The chronological endpoint sets the year 1918. The House, Court and State Archives is among the "historical" departments of the Austrian State Archives, who do no longer grow by receiving documentary material deliveries from the Austrian federal ministries.

The great importance of the House, Court and State Archives for international research is based on the wide geographical catchment area and the variety of its collection. Due to the territorial expansion of the Habsburg rule from the 15th Century and the literally global relations of the dynasty, the here stored archival material encompasses practically all continents.

In addition to the "classical" access of diplomatic and political history, the archive also offers a social and cultural history oriented research rich material.

Restoration workshop

The restoration workshop of the ÖStA belongs alongside those of the National Library and the Federal Monuments Office to the most important restoration facilities for paper, parchment, sealing and bookbindery in Austria.

Significant archivists

Ludwig Bittner (1877-1945), archivist 1904-45

Anna Coreth (1915-2008), Director of the House, Court and State Archives

Walter Goldinger (1910-1990), Director-General in 1973

Lothar Gross (1887-1944), director of the House, Court and State Archives

Joseph Knechtl (1771-1838), archivist 1806-1834, 1834-1838 Director

Hanns Leo Mikoletzky (1907-1978), Director-General 1968-72

Lorenz Mikoletzky (* 1945), Director-General from 1994 to 2011

Rudolf Neck

Kurt Peball (1928-2009), Director-General 1983-89

Gebhard Rath (1902-1979), Director-General 1956-68

Leo Santifaller (1890-1974), Director-General 1945-54

Erika Weinzierl (* 1925), archivist at the House, Court and State Archives 1948-64

Publications

The Austrian State Archives publishes the periodical Communications of the Austrian State Archives (Mösta) appearing in annual volumes since 1948. In addition, archive inventories, supplementary volumes to the communications and exhibition catalogs are published.

www.de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96sterreichisches_Staatsarchiv

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest

Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.

The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.

The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.

The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.

In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.

Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”

Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.

A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.

Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”

In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.

“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”

In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”

“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.

During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.

“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....

www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...

民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。

news.mingpao.com/ins/港聞/article/20200101/s00001/15778...

Still had a way to go to the first Galatea Lake, but time was running short so we made this our lunch stop and endpoint for today. We are about 7.5 Km in from the trailhead and 600 meters up.

The interfaces that lead us into cyberspace prove that one cannot detach technology from desire. Digital technologies promise to transcend familiar reality and to connect us to the paradise that reality has taken from us. Down with the detours and delays of reality: let us have instant gratification! What we cannot have in reality, we can have via the fantasy screen. As a “consensual hallucination” cyberspace would be the utopic, new ideal world.

Interface Fantasy: A Lananian Cyborg Ontology – Andre Nusselder

In the virtual world of Second Life, where status is often accrued by having the best collection of sexually appealing avatars, desire and its ultimate physical endpoint, sex (or in this case cybersex), prevails. Cybersex is “more than role play it is the creation of a shared fantasy.” Avatars are hollow – avatars are pure, avatars are clean, avatars have no orifices. They do not leak, shit, sweat, rot – there is no inconvenience to their bodies. And if an avatar has no orifices then sex in Second Life is safer than in real life – the user is “freed from the burden of the body.” Many criticisms have been levelled at Second Life for its high number of sex, porn and exotic dance Sims. Contemporary art critic and curator Domenico Quaranta said of in world existence, “life revolves around the banal repetition of real-life rituals (having sex, going dancing, and attending parties, openings and conferences) and the same principles: private property, wealth and consumption.” As the promotional video for dedicated cybersex virtual world “The Red Light Center” attests, “Be who you want to be…without the hassle”. Cybersex or ‘getting off online’, in Second Life is a form of immersive role play – a mixed reality happening in that it more often than not, one could imagine, elicits physical action in its users offline.

Whilst filming the “sex-scene” for this work my mind flickered between the ridiculousness of two digital bodies’ glitching against each other and the surreal feeling that behind that bunch of pixels a real person is operating and text chatting or, somewhat disturbingly, perhaps even masturbating. In the end I created two avatars – one my own and one an idealised male – and operated them both simultaneously using two computers to create the desired film output for projection. It was quite fitting as in the end, playing dolls, are we not just virtually fucking ourselves anyway? Can we really create intimacy in these new manufactured spaces?

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 285 has always had an endpoint in Denver, Colorado, although the original US 285 went north from Denver (that segment is now a part of U.S. Route 287). Today the highway's northern terminus is in Denver, at exit 201 on Interstate 25.

US 285 is a secondary route of US 85, which it crosses in metro Denver, and historically crossed again in Santa Fe, New Mexico (today its parent route has been largely replaced by Interstate 25, and as a result US 85 is no longer signed in New Mexico). US 285 also intersects a sibling route, US 385, in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Trucking makes up a large portion of the route's traffic, but along much of its route the road is also used for local travel from one town to the next. The northern section of US 285, from Santa Fe to Denver, traverses mountainous and rocky terrain; with that in mind, anyone using the road should check weather conditions during the winter months.

Heading north from the Colorado border, US 285 passes through the main part of the San Luis Valley, eventually reaching Alamosa. As the highway heads north, it begins to ascend to the northern end of the valley and eventually climbs over Poncha Pass, elevation 9,012 feet (2,747 m), and drops sharply down the other side into the Arkansas River Valley.

The highway brushes Salida and follows the Arkansas River north up the valley, then takes a sharp eastward turn just before the small town of Buena Vista. 285 then climbs over Trout Creek Pass, elevation 9,346 feet (2,849 m), and enters the high-altitude South Park basin.

A few miles north, the highway passes through Fairplay and the historic South Park City site, then reaches its highest elevation: 10,051 feet (3,064 m), at the summit of Red Hill Pass. US 285 then leaves the South Park basin and climbs over Kenosha Pass, elevation 10,001 feet (3,048 m), and skirts the south side of the Mount Evans massif as it descends its way through the foothills range towards Denver.

As the highway leaves the Rocky Mountains and reaches Denver's southwest suburbs, it becomes Hampden Avenue, an important artery in the Denver metro area, then reaches its northern terminus at I-25.

On March 14, 2008 both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unanimous vote, named the section between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_285

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. US 285 has always had an endpoint in Denver, Colorado, although the original US 285 went north from Denver (that segment is now a part of U.S. Route 287). Today the highway's northern terminus is in Denver, at exit 201 on Interstate 25.

US 285 is a secondary route of US 85, which it crosses in metro Denver, and historically crossed again in Santa Fe, New Mexico (today its parent route has been largely replaced by Interstate 25, and as a result US 85 is no longer signed in New Mexico). US 285 also intersects a sibling route, US 385, in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Trucking makes up a large portion of the route's traffic, but along much of its route the road is also used for local travel from one town to the next. The northern section of US 285, from Santa Fe to Denver, traverses mountainous and rocky terrain; with that in mind, anyone using the road should check weather conditions during the winter months.

Heading north from the Colorado border, US 285 passes through the main part of the San Luis Valley, eventually reaching Alamosa. As the highway heads north, it begins to ascend to the northern end of the valley and eventually climbs over Poncha Pass, elevation 9,012 feet (2,747 m), and drops sharply down the other side into the Arkansas River Valley.

The highway brushes Salida and follows the Arkansas River north up the valley, then takes a sharp eastward turn just before the small town of Buena Vista. 285 then climbs over Trout Creek Pass, elevation 9,346 feet (2,849 m), and enters the high-altitude South Park basin.

A few miles north, the highway passes through Fairplay and the historic South Park City site, then reaches its highest elevation: 10,051 feet (3,064 m), at the summit of Red Hill Pass. US 285 then leaves the South Park basin and climbs over Kenosha Pass, elevation 10,001 feet (3,048 m), and skirts the south side of the Mount Evans massif as it descends its way through the foothills range towards Denver.

As the highway leaves the Rocky Mountains and reaches Denver's southwest suburbs, it becomes Hampden Avenue, an important artery in the Denver metro area, then reaches its northern terminus at I-25.

On March 14, 2008 both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unanimous vote, named the section between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_285

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...

Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin (recitation: Eduard Doduel) and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he is completely away from the need to acquire a profession and gives himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.

In 1801, he traveled with Ionian islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he traveled to Central Greece with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) he created was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.

Being a prolific writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, consisting of a sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for his age. For the first time in his work, we witness the real discovery of a "place": While the phenomenon of walking becomes a form of discovering and recognizing (reading) the view, on the other hand, information based on monuments, history, contemporary people and documents all join together in this phenomenon.

The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and offers rich data in archeology and topography, constitutes a valuable treasure of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks before the rebellion (before 1821). Dodwell sets off from Venice by taking an intelligent and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he had met in Italy in late April 1801, as an interpreter. He crosses the Adriatic sea and arrives in Corfu under Russian-Ottoman occupation with his travel companions within a month. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Lefkada (Santa Mavra). Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to Greece with William Gell.

In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrived in Zakinthos (Zante) from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago.

After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's trip to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, he writes in an easy-to-understand manner both about the architectural order of the city ("The houses of the Greeks are lime and the houses of the Turks are painted in red") and its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring (blessed water source / fountain). He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Patra ' Noting that many black slaves were found in Dodwell, Dodwell also made efforts to obtain some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. On the Dodwell route, it documents scientifically its own knowledge as well as the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece and previous travel testimonies.

Due to an epidemic in Dodwell Peloponnese, he chose to go to Athens in another way, passing through Nafpaktos (Inebahtı), Galaksidi (watching the carnival shows here) and passing through Amfisa (here he is a guest at the house of a Kefalonian doctor and visits the voivodeship), climbs to Parnasos mountain, Hriso and stops in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through the villages of Arahova and Distomo and takes him to the ancient site of the Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there he continues to other Viotia (Boeotia) villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Passing through the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the relief of the Acropolis relief (relief) marbles.

Dodwell will stay here until September and visit almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and the Egina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he writes about the folk dances, music and games of the Greeks, even about baths, even insects and birds.

After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come and are highly affected by the high level of living, cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Viotia (Boeotia) and stops by Chalkida and Marathon.

He stays in Athens all summer. In December of 1805, we find him touring the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, Acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mikene and Atreus, The ruins of Tiryns and Nauplion, Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are the places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia.

In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavrita, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.

Dodwell (who has drafted about 400 places and monuments) has been aiming to combine the scientific look with art by adding the engravings to them after using the camera obscura technique and documenting the archaeological ruins he has visited recently. The four volumes of his work, published after Dodwell, are a basic handbook for all travelers traveling around Greece and are still considered a very useful resource for archaeological research today.

The work was published 2 years after Dodwell's death in 1834. Publishers received the material to create the book and detailed instructions about the publication from Dodwell himself. Paintings with stone prints and based on Dodwell's own drawings show magnificent relic images from Greece and Italy. These include, in particular, wall forms, acropolis (city hills or endpoints), fortifications, and domed tombs. Engravings showing monuments in Greece are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory texts; the same is not true for monuments in Italy, however, because Dodwell was unable to write his explanations about them. Publishers have not been able to fill this gap. The embroidery of the paintings on stone was made by the well-known engraver C. Hullmandel.

Despite the misrepresentation of naming and identification in some of the architectural remains, Dodwell's work remains a pioneer in terms of both its subject and less-known archaeological sites. The aim of the author was to add this book to his two volume volume "Classical and Topographical Tour in Greece", published in 1819.

Written By: İoli Vingopoulou

Italien / Toskana - Siena

Piazza del Campo

seen from Torre del Mangia

gesehen vom Torre del Mangia

Piazza del Campo is the main public space of the historic center of Siena, Tuscany, Italy and is regarded as one of Europe's greatest medieval squares. It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and architectural integrity. The Palazzo Pubblico and its Torre del Mangia, as well as various palazzi signorili surround the shell-shaped piazza. At the northwest edge is the Fonte Gaia.

The twice-a-year horse-race, Palio di Siena, is held around the edges of the piazza. The piazza is also the finish of the annual road cycling race Strade Bianche.

History

The open site was a marketplace established before the thirteenth century on a sloping site near the meeting point of the three hillside communities that coalesced to form Siena: the Castellare, the San Martino and the Camollia. Siena may have had earlier Etruscan settlements, but it was not a considerable Roman settlement, and the campo does not lie on the site of a Roman forum, as is sometimes suggested. It was paved in 1349 in fishbone-patterned red brick with 8 lines of travertine, which divide the piazza into 9 sections, radiating from the mouth of the gavinone (the central water drain) in front of the Palazzo Pubblico. The number of divisions is held to be symbolic of the rule of The Nine (Noveschi) who laid out the campo and governed Siena at the height of its mediaeval splendour between 1292-1355. The Campo was and remains the focal point of public life in the City. From the piazza, eleven narrow shaded streets radiate into the city.

The palazzi signorili that line the square, housing the families of the Sansedoni, the Piccolomini and the Saracini etc., have unified rooflines, in contrast to earlier tower houses — emblems of communal strife — such as may still be seen not far from Siena at San Gimignano. In the statutes of Siena, civic and architectural decorum was ordered :"...it responds to the beauty of the city of Siena and to the satisfaction of almost all people of the same city that any edifices that are to be made anew anywhere along the public thoroughfares...proceed in line with the existent buildings and one building not stand out beyond another, but they shall be disposed and arranged equally so as to be of the greatest beauty for the city."

The unity of these Late Gothic houses is affected in part by the uniformity of the bricks of which their walls are built: brick-making was a monopoly of the commune, which saw to it that standards were maintained.

At the foot of the Palazzo Pubblico's wall is the late Gothic Chapel of the Virgin built as an ex voto by the Sienese, after the terrible Black Death of 1348 had ended.

Fonte Gaia

The Fonte Gaia ("Joyous Fountain") was built in 1419 as an endpoint of the system of conduits bringing water to the city's centre, replacing an earlier fountain completed about 1342 when the water conduits were completed. Under the direction of the Committee of Nine, many miles of tunnels were constructed to bring water in aqueducts to fountains and thence to drain to the surrounding fields. The present fountain, a center of attraction for the many tourists, is in the shape of a rectangular basin that is adorned on three sides with many bas-reliefs with the Madonna surrounded by the Classical and the Christian Virtues, emblematic of Good Government under the patronage of the Madonna. The white marble Fonte Gaia was originally designed and built by Jacopo della Quercia, whose bas-reliefs from the basin's sides are conserved in the Ospedale di St. Maria della Scala in Piazza Duomo. The former sculptures were replaced in 1866 by free copies by Tito Sarrocchi, who omitted Jacopo della Quercia's two nude statues of Rhea Silvia and Acca Larentia, which the nineteenth-century city fathers found too pagan or too nude. When they were set up in 1419, Jacopo della Quercia's nude figures were the first two female nudes, who were neither Eve nor a repentant saint, to stand in a public place since Antiquity.

(Wikipedia)

Die Piazza del Campo ist der bedeutendste Platz der toskanischen Stadt Siena, deren Zentrum er bildet.

Der Platz ist bekannt durch seine beeindruckende Architektur und seine halbrunde Form sowie durch das hier normalerweise jährlich zweimal ausgetragene Pferderennen Palio di Siena.

Geschichte

Das Zentrum der bereits in der Etruskerzeit bedeutenden Stadt lag ursprünglich im Gebiet des heutigen Castelvecchio, während „der Campo“ lediglich ein Stück Land war, das dem Abfluss des Regenwassers diente. Da aber auch die an Siena vorbeiführende Fernstraße über dieses Feld verlief und sich hier mit einer anderen Straße kreuzte, entwickelte sich bald ein Marktplatz.

Der Name „Campo“ wird zum ersten Mal schriftlich 1169 erwähnt in einer Quelle, die sich mit der gesamten Talebene befasst, zu der auch die heutige Piazza del Mercato, heute auf der anderen Seite des Palazzo Comunale, gehörte. Damals erwarb die Stadt Siena das Gelände, das von der Piazza del Mercato bis zur heutigen Logge della Mercanzia reicht. Eine Unterteilung des Geländes in die heutigen zwei Plätze wird 1193 erwähnt, sodass man davon ausgehen kann, dass in der Zwischenzeit zumindest eine Mauer erbaut wurde, die den Platz in zwei Hälften teilte; möglicherweise geschah dies, um das Wasser besser ableiten zu können.

Bis ins Jahr 1270, als die Herrschaft der Vierundzwanzig (1236–1270) zu Ende ging, wurde dann der Platz für Messen und Märkte genutzt. Zwar hatte der Platz noch nicht das heutige Aussehen, er entwickelte sich aber allmählich zum zweiten Mittelpunkt der Stadt neben dem Dom; während dort religiöse Feste im Mittelpunkt standen, dominierten auf der Piazza del Campo der Handel und weltliche Feste. Da sich auch die städtische Obrigkeit immer unabhängiger vom Bischof (und später Erzbischof) machte, kam in der Zeit der Herrschaft der Neun (1289–1355) der Bedarf nach einem eigenen Rathaus auf.

Die Piazza del Campo ist einer der eindrucksvollsten kommunalen Plätze Italiens – im Gegensatz zum Markusplatz Venedigs und zur Piazza dei Miracoli Pisas ist dies ein Platz ohne Kirche, also ein rein politisches Zentrum – und das zeigt sich auch in der Kunst in den Innenräumen des Rathauses. Das Gelände ist leicht abschüssig und der Palazzo Pubblico, der öffentliche Palast, also das Rathaus steht an der tiefsten Stelle. Diese auffallend tief liegende Position im Gegensatz zu den Gepflogenheiten anderer Städte erklärt sich aus dem Bedürfnis, eine neutrale Lage zwischen den Hügeln von Siena zu wählen. Auch hier hat also das Konkurrenzdenken innerhalb der Stadt Konsequenzen gehabt. Das hatte zur Folge, dass der Turm sehr hoch werden musste, damit er trotz seiner niedrigen Lage die Stadt überragen konnte.

Mit dem Bau des Palazzo Comunale wurden dann auch die Impulse für eine architektonische Gestaltung des Platzes gegeben. In den Jahren 1327–1349 erhielt der Platz eine Pflasterung, wobei auch heute noch die Einteilung in neun Segmente an die damalige Herrschaft der Neun erinnert. Die „Skyline“ des Platzes ist allerdings nicht spontan in einem Stück entstanden. Erst mit den Jahren sorgte die Stadtverwaltung durch entsprechende Gesetze dafür, dass die Fassadengestaltung einheitlich gehandhabt wurde. So wurde etwa eine Peter- und Paul-Kirche abgerissen; heute erinnern die Gassen Vicoli di San Pietro e di San Paolo daran.

Nach 1861 wurden, wie auch an anderen Gebäuden in der Altstadt von Siena, Gebäude an der Piazza von ihren barocken Fassaden „befreit“, um dem ursprünglichen, d. h. mittelalterlichen Erscheinungsbild wieder zur Geltung zu verhelfen.

Seit ca. 2017 gehören 15 der 20 Gebäude, die den Platz begrenzen, Igor Bidilo, einem Investor aus Kasachstan.

Fonte Gaia

Auf der höheren Seite des Campo steht der Fonte Gaia, den Jacopo della Quercia von 1409 bis 1419 geschaffen hat. ‚Brunnen der Freude’ heißt er, weil es 1342 zum ersten Mal gelungen war, mithilfe einer 25 km langen Leitung Wasser in die Stadt fließen zu lassen. Der ewige Wassermangel war in der Bergstadt Siena ein großes Problem – besonders in den Sommermonaten. Stilistisch hat della Quercia in den Figuren dieses Brunnens etwas Ähnliches erreicht wie die Sieneser Malerei, nämlich einen Ausgleich zwischen der klassischen Tradition und gotischem Schwung.

Die Figuren des Brunnens sind zwar seit 1858 durch Nachbildungen von Tito Sarrocchi ersetzt, aber trotzdem haben wir hier ein wichtiges Dokument für die Entwicklung der frühen Renaissance-Plastik vor uns. Zur damaligen Zeit, 1409, hatte man angefangen, sich zunehmend für die antike Vergangenheit zu interessieren und dabei natürlich besonders für die Geschichte Roms. Jacopo della Quercia war von der Stadt Siena deshalb beauftragt worden, in diesem Brunnen die angebliche römische Abstammung der Stadt als Gründung der Söhne des Remus und ihre darauf beruhenden Tugenden zu dokumentieren. Die Originalteile des Brunnens sind heute im Museum von Santa Maria della Scala im Raum Fienile zu betrachten.

Gebäude

Blick auf die Piazza del Campo und die umliegenden Gebäude

Palazzo Comunale

Mit dem Bau des Gebäudes der Stadtverwaltung wurde 1297 begonnen. Ursprünglich hatte der Palazzo lediglich drei Stockwerke; später erfolgten weitere Anbauten. Vor allem aber kam im Laufe des 14. Jahrhunderts mit dem Torre del Mangia der 102 Meter hohe Turm hinzu, der das Stadtbild von Siena prägt. Der Name leitet sich von dem Spitznamen Mangiaguadagni (Gewinnfresser) des ersten Glöckners ab.

Cappella di Piazza

Vor dem Eingang zum Palazzo Pubblico wurde als Dank für die überstandene Pest 1352 – also noch in der Gotik – eine kleine Kapelle, die Cappella di Piazza, die Platzkapelle errichtet, die über 100 Jahre später (1463) mit einer Renaissance-Dekoration ihre heutige Gestalt erhielt. Beides passt aber so gut zusammen, als sei es gleichzeitig geschaffen worden. Die Dachkonstruktion stammt von Antonio Federighi und entstand in den 1460er Jahren. Die nordeuropäische Gotik wurde in Italien im 13. und besonders im 14. Jh. in stark veränderter und der italienischen Tradition angepassten Form übernommen. Und später konnte im 15. Jh. die Renaissance auf jahrhundertelange vorbereitende Phasen aufbauen. Beides widersprach sich hier in Italien nicht so wie in Frankreich oder Deutschland. Hier an dieser Kapelle ist in der Gotik also locker der alte Rundbogen verwandt worden und nicht der eigentlich typische gotische Spitzbogen. Und als in der Renaissance der Rundbogen wieder zur Norm wurde, musste hier auch gar nichts geändert werden.

Das Pferderennen

Auf dem Platz wird zweimal im Jahr, am 2. Juli und am 16. August, ein Pferderennen („Palio di Siena“) ausgetragen.

(Wikipedia)