www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zTyfulQJuo

 

"Beyond the Mini, the Land Rover Defender and even the Aston Martin Vanquish the Renault Avantime is the coolest car money can buy."

- Jeremy Clarkson, TopGear 2002 Season 1 (Episode 6)

 

The Cool Wall has nothing to do with how a car looks like or drives, but rather how "cool" the car is.

 

Jeremy Clarkson shows off his "Cool Wall." It's divided into four sections:

"Seriously Uncool," where the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Volkswagen Beetle reside;

"Uncool," where various Vauxhall/Opel and Ford cars reside;

"Cool," where the Range Rover and Citröen C3 reside; and

"Sub-Zero," Mini, Land Rover Defender, Aston Martin Vanquish and Renault Avantime.

 

Clarkson places the Renault Avantime on the very edge of the Sub-Zero section!

 

The Avantime was introduced for 2001. Supposedly combining the styling of a 2+2 coupe with the space of minivan, the Avantime concept was conceived by former Renault co-operative Matra, who dabbled in Formula 1 racing while building computers, bicycles, missles, and the Espace van. Matra intended the coupe-van-thing to cater to a younger generation of buyers who, as they saw it, grew up with the Espace and didn't want to grow too far apart from it.

 

Le Quement handled the styling and came up with a large-butted one-box shape with a pillarless daylight opening, a massive retractable glass roof, and huge doors. It was something that was truly unlike anything ever built before by an automaker, a huge two-door van that was guaranteed to leave onlookers with the most confused look on their faces. No one could figure out if they were looking at a car, a small land-fairing cruise liner, or something sculpted by Picasso turned into a parade float.

 

Though the design wasn’t without its engineering issues, Renault bested the better part of them with some interesting solutions. For example, the Avantime used a space frame made of strengthened aluminum to retain structural integrity in a side impact collision in spite of the fact there weren’t b-pillars. The huge doors used a clever double-hinged design to keep them manageable in tight parking situations. To keep weight down, the lower body panels were all composite.

 

Aside from the neat engineering details, the best part of the Avantime was it’s so called “grand air” mode in which all of the windows and the big sunroof were retracted for a very convertible-like experience. The feature was activated with the simple push of a button on the headliner. It was this particular experience that Avantime owners would come to treasure most in their cars.

 

Sales of the Avantime totaled up to just 8,557 cars in May 2003, at which point the plug was pulled due to Matra’s decision to leave the automotive market partially due to the money lost developing and building the Avantime.

 

The Avantime’s extraordinary styling and concept coupled with its very costly but clever engineering and exclusivity definitely make this one a good classic car investment (= vehicle that is predicted to rise and become “future classic“, i.e. low value now but high value future).

The idea of a stand mixer was formulated by Herbert Johnson, an engineer working at the Hobart Corporation. He had been inspired after seeing a baker mix dough, and thought that there must be a better way of doing the task. Development began, in 1914, the model "H" mixer was launched for industrial work. The U.S. Navy ordered mixers for two new Tennessee-class battleships, the California and the Tennessee, as well as the U.S. Navy's first dreadnought battleship, the South Carolina. In 1917, Hobart stand mixers became standard equipment on all U.S. Navy ships, prompting development to begin on the first home models.

The first machine to carry the KitchenAid name was the 10 quart C-10 model, introduced in 1918 and built at Hobart's Troy Metal Products subsidiary in Springfield, OH.[2] Prototype models were given to the wives of factory executives, and the product was named when one stated "I don't care what you call it, but I know it's the best kitchen aid I've ever had!" They were initially marketed at the farmhouse kitchen and were available in hardware stores.[3] But owing to the difficulty in convincing retailers to take up the product, the company recruited a mostly female sales force, which sold the mixers door-to-door.[1] The C-10 machine was also marketed heavily towards soda fountains and small commercial kitchens, and was also sold under the FountainAid and BakersAid model names.[4]

 

In 1922, KitchenAid introduced the H-5 mixer as its new home-use offering.[5] The H-5 mixer was smaller and lighter than the C-10, and had a more manageable five quart bowl. The model "G" mixer, about half the weight of the "H-5", was released in August 1928.[6] In the 1920s several other companies introduced similar mixers, with the Sunbeam Mixmaster becoming the most popular among consumers until the 1950s.

 

KitchenAid mixers remained popular, with the factory selling out of products each Christmas in the late 1930s. Having shut down production for the duration of the Second World War, the factory started up again in 1946 with production moving to Greenville, Ohio, to expand capacity.

 

The product range expanded beyond stand mixers for the first time in 1949, with dishwashers being introduced.[3]

 

In 1985, the company purchased the Chambers Company to incorporate its range of cookers into the KitchenAid brand.[1] After being cleared by a Federal appeals court in January 1986, Whirlpool Corporation were cleared to purchase KitchenAid after initial complaints regarding competition from dishwasher manufacturers White Consolidated Industries and Magic Chef were dismissed.[8] Refrigerators were added to the product line later in 1986.[1] The company used the popularity of celebrity chefs during the late 1980s to seize the chance to expand its customer range. In 1988, retailer Williams-Sonoma was opening new stores across the United States and released a cobalt blue stand mixer for the company. Although the retailer had been carrying KitchenAid products since 1959, the new stores introduced the mixers to a wider range of home cooks. This combined with a change in marketing strategy for KitchenAid, which resulted in a doubling of brand awareness over the course of the following three years.

 

KitchenAid began manufacturing blenders and other small appliances in the mid-1990s. The brand was further promoted by sponsoring the PBS show Home Cooking, and by introducing the mixers to television chefs such as Julia Child and Martha Stewart. Following the success with William-Sonoma, specific point of purchases were set up in department stores such as Kohl's and Macy's. Specific color mixers were released for specific retailers or to benefit charities, such as a pink mixer released to raise funds for breast cancer research or mixers sold at Target stores being available in that company's signature shade of red. The ProLine range of appliances was launched in 2003 with an initial six month exclusivity agreement with Williams-Sonoma

 

Flowers from a superhero

 

Gary was just like you and me until the day he accidentally wandered through a field of genetically modified flowers and became ‘Nosegay’ with the ability to grow the most amazing alien-looking bouquets of flowers right from his fingertips. Now, whilst this wasn’t very helpful when it came to fighting supervillains it did give him a certain celebrity appeal. Which he revelled in. His client list was quite something to behold.

 

Despite this, his newfound wealth, and his access to jaw droppingly beautiful women he had repeatedly failed to impress any of them into going on a date with him. He imagined it was because he was ‘vertically challenged’ but in reality it was because he was arrogant and boring. Sadly he’d never have the insight to realise it…

 

This piece is based on an old sketch and is on a big bit of reclaimed canvas that was originally about 5 metres wide but had to be cut down into a slightly more manageable size. Which wasn’t really manageable at all. It’s now been rolled up so long that it’s no longer really viable as an actual canvas. Why I did it so large in the first place I'm not quite sure.

 

Perhaps I'll go and grab a smaller canvas and paint it again. That would mean that I have to take myself to the art shop though which is never an action to take lightly as who knows what I’ll come back with.

 

Cheers

 

id-iom

I don't know what "ok" is. Ok is only a thing in comparison to other things. Insurmountable or manageable. It's all about your perspective.

 

I got a bit of shocking news the last week or so. First I had a very small part of my skin cut and biopsied. Something new for me. New with finally having health insurance (and a doctor and ability to assauge your fears about how you're aging and finally feel like an adult and that certain complications that come with your age is ever closer "expiration" date to what is your body), except my fears weren't tempered or soothed, only flared.

 

I got a call this morning that it is "pre cancerous" — which I can only assume is the hors d'œuvre of the cancer meal. I've been attempting to convince myself that that is a good thing — and it is. That I'll be fine — and I will be. But yet ....

 

I feel those stitches in my back. And I feel them burn. And I feel them slowly seething into my skin. I imagine this small army of pain devouring whatever is around it and finding paths and avenues into places they're uninvited; ready to make mischief and havoc and damage and hurt. I feel my skin swelter in spots I imagine are slowly being broken down, eaten away and turned into the thing that I don't want to face. Cancer.

 

But I'm convincing myself it'll be ok. It'll be ok. Everything can always be worse. Maybe not comforting, but true. What's comforting is friends. My wife. My kids and their smiles. A sunny day. A good song. A fulfilling meal. A long nights sleep. Who knows how long ANY of us have in this life — healthy or not. Belaboring what isn't possible to change or foresee is pointless.

 

It'll be ok.

The challenge:

 

This week we’re going to use macro photography to emphasize the texture of the subject. One of the best parts about macro photography is that it allows you to see an object in far greater detail than you would normally see. Subjects that might look mundane to the naked eye can look far more interesting when we can zoom in, where we can appreciate the interesting detail in their texture. You can pick most any subject that you want, as long as you get close enough to show the detail of the subject’s surface.

 

My process:

 

When I read the challenge, I thought I knew what I was going to photograph this week. Then I woke up Sunday morning to a thin sheet of ice over everything outside and a light snowfall. It was cold enough that I wanted to try freezing bubbles on some branches on my deck. Unfortunately there was a slight breeze which made it difficult. But while I was attempting the frozen bubbles, I noticed that there was a thin covering of ice on the pine needles and it was cold enough that the snowflakes were hanging out on the icy needles for a while. Hmm…

 

I have never been particularly successful with snowflake photography, so this seemed like a good project for the morning. One of the things about photographing snowflakes is that it’s tough to get the entire snowflake in focus if the snowflake is at an angle to the camera. I tried a small aperture to give me a larger DOF, but it didn’t work because (1) the low light on a very cloudy day meant a slower shutter speed and (2) the wind caused the branch to move slightly while the shutter was open making for blurry images.

 

Not to be deterred, I ran inside to get my CamRanger so that I could use its Focus Stacking feature to take a series of images automatically. I took a few different compositions with 40 focus-stacked images each. That turned out to be way too much for Photoshop to handle – not because of the number of photos, but because of the number of overlapping elements (snowflakes as well as pine needles) in different focal planes. The automatic result was really awful. I tried three different compositions and they all had the same problem.

 

I thought I would try combining the images manually, but after a couple of hours working on one photo I was pulling my hair out. There were so many details in each of the 40 frames!

 

Finally, I decided to simplify the task by severely cropping to a manageable section of the image and only use 10 photos in the focus stack. Photoshop did a reasonable job with the automatic blending of the focus stack and it only took me a couple of hours to fix the areas where it had issues.

 

Once the focus stacking was complete, I finished the processing by bringing the saturation down and adding a bit of blue to the color temperature to make the image feel cold. I love the delicate texture of the snowflakes, but an added bonus of the severe crop is that the detail in the pine needles stood out more too. You can see the ice covering the one on the left and in the others you can see lines of tiny dots which I never knew existed on pine needles! I’m going to have to take a closer look in better light.

 

Lessons learned:

 

- The camera must be set to Auto Focus in order for the focus stacking feature to work on the CamRanger.

- Having multiple overlapping items in different focal planes make it very difficult for Photoshop to do a good job stacking the images. That results in potentially hours of manual tweaking to the layer masks to get a good image.

- If I ever try manually focus stacking a series of images again, my process will be to first Auto Align all of the layers in PS, then make sure that the image with the focal plane the farthest away from the camera is at the bottom of the stack. All of the other images should then be masked on top of that bottom (unmasked) image.

 

Canon 5Diii, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro lens, 1/50 sec, f/2.8, ISO 100. Post-processing in LR, then 10 photos stacked and blended in PS. Final processing done in PS.

 

CC appreciated.

Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 78.

 

Was Austrian-born Erich von Stroheim (1885-1957) a Hollywood movie star or a European film star? (Who cares!) As the sadistic, monocled Prussian officer in both American and French films, he became ‘The Man You Love to Hate’. But maybe he is best known as one of the greatest and influential directors of the silent era, known for his extravaganza and the uncompromising accuracy of detail in his monumental films.

 

Erich von Stroheim's most recent biographers, such as Richard Koszarski, say that he was born in Austria-Hungary (now Austria) in 1885 as Erich Oswald Stroheim. He was the son of Benno Stroheim, a middle-class hat-maker, and Johanna Bondy, both of whom were practicing Jews. Stroheim emigrated to America at the end of 1909. On arrival at Ellis Island, he claimed to be Count Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim und Nordenwall, the son of Austrian nobility like the characters he later played in his films. However, both Billy Wilder and Stroheim's agent Paul Kohner claimed that he spoke with a decidedly lower-class Austrian accent. In 1912 while working at a tavern he met his first wife, Margaret Knox, and moved in with her. Knox acted as a sort of mentor to von Stroheim, teaching him language and literature and encouraging him to write. Under Knox's tutelage, he wrote a novella entitled In the Morning, with themes that anticipated his films: corrupt aristocracy and innocence debased. The couple married in 1913, but money woes drove von Stroheim to deep depressions and terrible temper tantrums, and in 1914 Knox filed for divorce. By then he was working in Hollywood. He began his cinema career in bit-parts and as a consultant on German culture and fashion. His first film was The Country Boy (Frederick A. Thomson, 1915) in which he was an uncredited diner in a restaurant. His first credited role came in Old Heidelberg (John Emerson, 1915) starring Wallace Reed and Dorothy Gish. He began working with D. W. Griffith, taking uncredited roles in Intolerance (1916). Additionally, Von Stroheim acted as one of the many assistant directors on Intolerance, a film remembered in part for its huge cast of extras. Later, he played the sneering German with the short Prussian military hairstyle in such films as Sylvia of the Secret Service (George Fitzmaurice, 1917) and The Hun Within (Chester Whitey, 1918) with Dorothy Gish. In the war drama The Heart of Humanity (Allen Holuba, 1918), he tore the buttons from a nurse's uniform with his teeth, and when disturbed by a crying baby, threw it out of a window. Following the end of World War I, Von Stroheim turned to writing.

 

In 1919, Erich von Stroheim directed his own script for Blind Husbands (1919), and also starred in the film. As a director, Stroheim was known to be dictatorial and demanding, often antagonizing his actors. He is considered one of the greatest directors of the silent era, with both cynical and romantic views of human nature. His next directorial efforts were the lost film The Devil's Pass Key (1919) and Foolish Wives (1922), in which he also starred. Studio publicity for Foolish Wives claimed that it was the first film to cost one million dollars. ‘Von’ translated sexual subjects in a witty and ostentatious manner, and his first films for Universal are among the most acclaimed sophisticated films of the silent era. In 1923, Stroheim began work on Merry-Go-Round. He cast the American actor Norman Kerry in a part written for himself 'Count Franz Maximilian Von Hohenegg' and newcomer Mary Philbin in the lead actress role. However, studio executive Irving Thalberg fired Von Stroheim during filming and replaced him with director Rupert Julian. He left Universal for Goldwyn Films to make Greed (1924). This monumental film is now one of Stroheim's best-remembered works as a director. It is a detailed film of Frank Norris’ novel McTeague, about the power of money to corrupt. The original print ran for an astonishing 10 hours. Knowing this version was far too long, Stroheim cut out almost half the footage, reducing it to a six-hour version to be shown over two nights. It was still deemed too long, so Stroheim and director Rex Ingram edited it into a four-hour version that could be shown in two parts. However, in the midst of filming, Goldwyn was bought by Marcus Loew and merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. After rejecting Stroheim's attempts to cut it to less than three hours, MGM removed Greed from his control and gave it to head scriptwriter June Mathis, with orders to cut it down to a manageable length. Mathis gave the print to a routine cutter, who reduced it to 2.5 hours. In what is considered one of the greatest losses in cinema history, a janitor destroyed the cut footage. The shortened release version was a box-office failure and was angrily disowned by Von Stroheim. He followed with his most commercially successful film The Merry Widow (1925), the more personal The Wedding March (1928) and the now-lost The Honeymoon. Stroheim's unwillingness or inability to modify his artistic principles for the commercial cinema, his extreme attention to detail, his insistence on near-total artistic freedom, and the resulting costs of his films led to fights with the studios. As time went on he received fewer directing opportunities. In 1929, Stroheim was dismissed as the director of the film Queen Kelly after disagreements with star Gloria Swanson and producer and financier Joseph P. Kennedy over the mounting costs of the film and Stroheim's introduction of indecent subject matter into the film's scenario. It was followed by Walking Down Broadway, another project from which Stroheim was dismissed.

 

After the introduction of sound film, Erich von Stroheim returned to working principally as an actor, in both American and French films. One of his most famous roles is the prison-camp commandant Von Rauffenstein in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion/Grand Illusion (1937) with Jean Gabin. It is a classic anti-war film about friendship, comradeship, and human relations. Working in France on the eve of World War II, Stroheim was prepared to direct the film La dame blanche from his own story and screenplay. Jean Renoir wrote the dialogue, Jacques Becker was to be assistant director, and Stroheim himself, Louis Jouvet, and Jean-Louis Barrault were to be the featured actors. The production was prevented by the outbreak of the war on 1 September 1939, and Stroheim returned to the United States. There he appeared in Five Graves to Cairo (Billy Wilder, 1943). He is perhaps best known as an actor for his role as Max von Mayerling in Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950), co-starring Gloria Swanson. For this role, Von Stroheim was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His character states in the film that he used to be one of the three great directors of the silent era, along with D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille, and he and Swanson watch excerpts from Queen Kelly in the film. Their characters in Sunset Boulevard thus had an autobiographical basis and reflected the humiliations Von Stroheim suffered through his career. Erich von Stroheim was married three times. His second wife was Mae Jones. Their son Erich Jr. became an assistant director. With his third wife, actress Valerie Germonprez, he had another son, Joseph Erich von Stroheim, who eventually became a sound editor. From 1939 until his death, he lived with actress Denise Vernac. She had worked for him as his secretary since 1938 and starred with him in several films. Von Stroheim spent the last part of his life in France where his silent film work was much admired by artists in the French film industry. In France, he acted in films, wrote several novels that were published in French, and worked on various unrealized film projects. Erich von Stroheim was awarded the French Légion d'honneur shortly before his death in 1957 in Maurepas, France at the age of 71.

 

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica, AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

For the love of wood, and the pleasure of sailing

family from generation to generation

For the love of wood, and the pleasure of sailing

with the family from generation to generation

Por el place de navegar en familia de generación

in generation

1960

Jack Laurent Giles designed Tumbelina in 1959, his

design n°371, on behalf of W.F.Cartwright and

D.L.Campbell racing-cruising enthusiasts.

Born under the rules of the RORC, this class II of 38

feet registered with Lloyd's, of a generous width

for the time and maximum authorized draft

by the gauge, offers the usual characteristics

by Laurent Giles: moderate twinges, light

large sheer and freeboard. In contrary

as usual, the architect chose a rigging of

7/8th sloop

with backstays. The small front triangle and

the large mainsail made maneuvering easier

with a reduced crew.

Tumbelina was built by Prior &

His, still in business at Burnham on Crouch on

the Thames and launched in 1960. It is a robust

classic construction, keel and frames in oak

with larch planks and metal floors. the

deck, original, is in pitchpin and the ballast of 5 tons

in lead. The facilities are planned for 5 to

6 crew members with a fairly large and very pleasant cockpit

at the sea.

Tumbelina appears in the book on Laurent Giles

prefaced by Olin Stephens: “An Evolution of

Yacht Design”. Laurent Giles had become famous

with Maid of Malham, Myth of Malham, Lutine,

Stormwogel which have achieved many successes

in the race (see YCC Review 2019).

At the time Tumbelina took part in most of the

major races: the Fastnet, with a final

participation in the 90s, the Morgan Cup,

Cowes-Dinard… alongside many of his friends from

YCC: Rocket, Danycan, Kraken II. Then it will be

charter between Spain and Ireland, where Tumbelina has

been based in Dun Looghaire for a few years, before

to return to Plymouth where we discovered it

in February 2008.

Until then we had been sailing since our childhood on

a small Houari family cutter, the Hippocampe builds

in the harbor of Brest at the Belbeoc’h du Fret shipyard.

On board we criss-crossed the coasts of Brittany

from Belle Ile to Guernsey, in a rather spartan way.

No electronics or electricity, an old motor

Quite restive couach and a fairly humid atmosphere,

seawater and freshwater with a high propensity

to seep into our brave hull.

As we grew older, we aspired (especially Madam)

to navigate more comfortably, a little more

quickly upwind. But the whole family was

OK to stay true to wood.

February 2008, we discover Tumbelina at

pontoon, dismasted and covered under waterspouts

of water and an icy wind. In the square reigned a

happy shambles and two co-owners. The

conversation begins in a very reserved way: all

two, unlike the third who had passed

announcement, seem reluctant to separate from

their boat. Having spotted on enamel plates

that they had regularly participated in the Fêtes de

Brest, I am referring to our Breton origins and our

navigation on the Hippocampus. The climate relaxes

quickly until becoming friendly and friendly and

two weeks later, the deal was done.

May 2008, we rediscover Tumbelina at the same

pontoon, rigged and in immaculate condition, tea

smoking in the saloon. That same evening, Dimpsey

Girl - it's only two years later that we

we find by chance its original name engraved in

the planking, hidden under the coating and the paint - cast off

from Plymouth to Camaret. Nice classic crossing

dead reckoning without VHF or electronics, only in

the euphoria we did not think to start.

If we had taken part in cutter regattas, we

were not sailors but we were seduced

by the atmosphere of La Belle Plaisance de Bénodet.

Having joined the YCC and its regatta circuit, we

let's have a lot of fun. Our level in regatta

remains fairly approximate but Tumbelina saves us

setting. During a prologue regatta at the Coupe

of the two headlights, aided by a long upwind edge and a

wind which had risen well, we managed to

rise to third place. What a pleasure to sail

in the middle of beautiful boats with nice sailors

and welcoming.

Apart from the engine and the sails, nothing has changed since

60 years on Tumbelina. Winches, fittings…

everything is original. After the Hippocampe we had

the impression of sailing on a very modern boat

with winches, starting engine, bridge

waterproof (or almost), a depth sounder, a GPS… This

does not prevent Tumbelina with its 10 tons of

displacement to remain a fairly physical boat,

but which can easily be led to two by

manageable time.

After the small works undertaken over the years,

we decided to offer a good refit to Tumbelina

in order to allow him to leave for 60 years, and

offer to the 4th

and 5th

following generations the pleasure of

navigate on board. About time, the standing rigging

is well over 25 years old, the original mast is

well corroded and about fifteen frames had

gave up the soul.

Over time, we pricked ourselves

game and with Tumbelina and we intend to

continue to participate in the wonderful program

offered to us by the Yacht Club Classique.

Peter B

Using a 420 mm focal length, 65 mm aperture apochromatic refracting telescope.

 

The giant star Aldebaran and the Moon in close conjunction on 29. October 2015, a few minutes before Aldebaran will actually disappear behind the Moon.

 

It is difficult to photograph a star so close to as bright an object as the Moon, but with a bright star like Aldebaran, it is possible without having to crank up the exposure time so high that the Moon becomes a white, featureless blob.

 

In fact, the longer your focal distance the easier it becomes because the brightness from the Moon will be distruted over more pixels on your camera sensor, each pixel thus receiving less light. Conversely, the star, being a point object, will still be projected only onto a very limited number of pixels. As a consequence, the amount of light received by each pixel illuminated by the Moon will thus get closer to the amount of light of each pixel illuminated by the star, reducing the contrast to a more manageable level.

Not an invading army nor even a few foreign special ops guys in sight !!

Hunkered down in the hedgerow brambles maybe ?

  

Yet this area has never been given back to those who lived here prior to the Second World War....

 

" In 1943 (the same year Imber ( Wiltshire ) was requisitioned, the 250-odd inhabitants of the Tyneham valley were given one month to vacate their homes.

Just like the people of Imber, they were compensated only to the value of the vegetables in their gardens (most of them were tenants), and told they'd be allowed back when the war was over.

And just like the people of Imber, they never were !!

For many years Tyneham looked like suffering the same fate as its Wiltshire cousin, and it slowly crumbled through neglect as the army played war games in the surrounding countryside.

 

In the 1970s, though, Tyneham and Imber's paths diverged.

After various campaigns and government committee reports, in 1975 a fairly liberal amount of public access was restored to the village and to the coastal walking routes nearby on the Lulworth Range. (Lulworth Cove to Tyneham and back is a pretty manageable six-mile stroll on a nice day.)

 

The village church and school have both been restored as museums, with lots of archive materials from the pre-war days. "

 

The Purbeck Isle - or hills plus the Heritage Coastline is one of my favourite areas to spend time.... some of the best land around depending on desired usage.... Certainly fantastic as a place of peace and beautiful scenery from the Cliffs, to the Heathland, and through pasture land in the valley.......

 

Maybe if I contacted the right government department and said I wished to commandeer a reasonable portion of this fabulous land because I wished to practice firing blanks and driving my personal tank around viewing the scenery from the turret they just might let me ? .......

What do you think. ?

If " The Crown " does not own the best land around you can bet your life that the MOD do.......

The area behind me in this photo is the open heathland, tank course and firing range ..... but a wonderful winding narrow tarmacked lane winds around the hills giving a fabulous view also.....

 

One for Fence Friday I guess --- never have posted one before ...

It was pouring rain when I wandered around this beautiful, lush, moss garden. The water was full of rain splashes so I smoothed it out in Photoshop. I had to shoot handheld, so boosted the ISO quite a bit to get a manageable shutter speed.

In terms of luxury, there's not much than can top the last of the mighty Maybachs, the stylish and structurally unsound 57 and the even larger 62 being what all car manufacturers aspire to build. Now, while many consider these cars for being failures in their own right of not being able to appeal to a market outside of business executives and company vehicles, I wouldn't consider them pseudonyms for bad cars, if anything they're incredibly well built, and the attention to every single detail is astounding, even giving the well established Rolls Royce and Bentley a run for their money!

 

The Maybach company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach, one of the founding fathers of the original motor car back in the late 1800's. For a period the company created a selection of admirable but often forgotten creations that were meant to rival the luxury and premise of their Anglican rivals, Rolls Royce and Bentley. The first Maybach to be built was in 1921, this being the W3. Not much is known about these early pre-war Maybachs, but for the few that have managed to survive the years in museums or private collections have been noted for their esteemed luxury. However, World War II dealt a bitter blow to the Maybach brand, which although had been able to produce engines for the German Army's Panzer II and Panzer III tanks, the company never restarted production and for the next 20 years lay dormant until it was bought up by Daimler-Benz in 1960, with the engine division being renamed MTU.

 

However, in the mid to late 1990s a sudden interest in large luxury cars such as contemporary Rolls Royces and Bentleys gave parent company Daimler AG (parent company of Mercedes-Benz) the incentive to create their own superluxury car, only this one was going to be so lavish and chocked full of so many luxury items that it would simply blow the British builders out of the water. The first concept cars for their new luxury brand were unveiled in 1997 at the Tokyo Motor Show, being dubbed the 57 and the 62, a representation of the car's length in decimetres. At the time Rolls Royce and Bentley were still the same company, and competed with the brand new Rolls Royce Silver Seraph/Bentley Arnage, though it wouldn't be before 2002 until the first of the Maybach models were introduced to the public market.

 

The launch of Maybach was ideal in terms of timing as in 2002, the five year contract between BMW and Volkswagen over the ownership of Rolls Royce/Bentley ceased, and the company was split. Rolls Royce was taken over by BMW and promptly ceased production of the Silver Seraph and Corniche V whilst their new range of BMW models were developed, and Bentley remained with Volkswagen, continuing to build the Arnage, the Continental of the early 1990's and the Azure of 1995. Indeed it looked like Maybach's new investment into the luxury car market was well placed, seeing as their closest competition was in utter dismay!

 

The Maybach 57 & 62's design is derived from the Mercedes S-Class, and cars are powered by 5.5L and 6.0L V12 engines, providing the cars with 518hp in the 57 and 570hp in the 62. Performance wise it's very impressive, with the 57 accelerating from 0-60 in 5.1 seconds, and the 62 in 4.8 seconds, not bad, considering these cars weight 6,000lbs! The asking prices for such incredible pieces of kit ranged from $366,000 for the Maybach 57 to $492,000 for the 62 S (Special), as well as the jaw-dropping $1,350,000 cost of the rare and ambiguous Landaulet convertible!

 

Of course when you pay for these things, you are paying for a hell of a lot of car! I remember attending an overview of the Maybach 62 a couple of years back at a car show and was actually very impressed with the number of gadgets and features the owner were lucky enough to have bestowed upon them.

 

Sitting inside it was like being in the first class cabin of a British Airways Boeing 747, crossed with the promenade deck of a luxury yacht! There are TV screens in the backs of the seat complete with DVD player and a hugely complicated radio/stereo system, there's wood veneer on all the surfaces, the seats you sank into with lovely thick head cushions (in fact I nearly fell asleep they were so comfy!), a Champagne bar with silver glasses and a fridge in the centre console for the bottle of Bubbly, as well as housing a mobile phone! The door panels were a maze of buttons for seat alignments and reclining options, including also heating, cooling, massaging, tumble drying, etc. In fact the seats recline so far back that they almost turn into beds!

 

And just so you're all tucked up warm at night, there's a blind that comes across the rear window!

 

These weren't cars, they were Beverley Hills Mansions on wheels! It was like driving around in Blenheim Palace, and performed just as well, seeing as they are very long and will probably mount the curb a few times on sharp city bends! For a short while Maybach had absolutely cornered the market, but in 2003 Rolls Royce got its act back in gear and launched the Phantom, an equally as outrageous car in terms of luxuries provided and raw power, but not as much as the Maybach. Although I'm an avid Rolls Royce man, I will not hesitate to say that the Maybach delivers luxury in spades and contemporary Rollers don't hold a candle to it. But I will defend the Spirit of Ecstasy by saying that these cars are by no means 'Driver's Cars'. In order to truly appreciate the Maybach you have to be a passenger, otherwise it's just like driving any other car, but with the addition of it being very heavy, which makes pulling away from traffic lights a bit stunted and cornering a bit cautious because of how long these things are. A Rolls Royce on the other hand, especially the Ghost, is a more manageable car, something you can drive but at the same time still enjoy the luxuries of.

 

Because the Rolls Royce is a driver's car, and the Bentley Continental and Continental GT that were launched the same year are much more agile and sporty, the Maybach began to suffer, and that's even before we get down to the name. Probably the biggest advantage Rolls Royce and Bentley had were brand recognition, seeing as both these names have become bywords for wealth, affluence and gratuitous luxury. Maybach on the other hand had been a dormant brand since 1945, so anyone under the age of 80 had probably never heard of them and therefore didn't know what they were getting themselves in for. In the end the Maybach's primary market was the chauffeur driven business executive, luxury hotel transfer or company car market, and if you take a walk around London, you'll probably find a majority of the Maybach's you come across will be in this employment. No one could really own such a massive car for individual purposes. Indeed word-of-mouth about the Maybach's luxury performance, as well as a few features on Top Gear, may have helped it along, but Maybach simply weren't able to shift enough of these cars to justify the costs that went into making them, exacerbated by the 2008 economic recession.

 

With Maybach making a loss of 330,000 Euros on every car they sold, parent company Daimler AG decided to review the situation. Finding that the idea of buying such overly exuberant and massively expensive cars was no longer viable for the new-money, Daimler announced that they would bring an end to the Maybach brand in 2013. In the end only 2,110 cars were produced in it's 11 year production life, a sad end to such an endearing machine, but unfortunately a misguided one. Replaced by the Mercedes S-Class Pullman, the company has now once again become dormant, with hindsight reviews of the car being mixed.

 

Some say that the Maybach is probably the greatest luxury car ever made, and was ranked the #1 Luxury Car in 2008 over Rolls Royce and Bentley. Others such as Top Gear, who had lauded the car upon its launch in 2002, went on to rank it as 2nd on their Top 13 worst cars of the past 20 years countdown, pointing out the fact that the car's brand was unrecognisable for the new money, and due to it being such a large car specifically for chauffeur driven executives, it wasn't able to rake in the market for oligarchs and celebrities who desired a 'Driver's Car'. The biggest problem however for the Maybach was indeed its name. Whilst Rolls Royce and Bentley both have distinguished and long lasting histories that can be traced across the last century, and have become bywords for exclusivity and luxury as well as the fact that they're built in their own factories away from their parent companies, the Maybach had little to no recognisable history, had a name that no one outside of Germany or born since 1950 knew about, and was built on the same production lines as other Mercedes products, which made it seem a bit more run-of-the-mill.

 

But in any case, the Maybach 57 and 62 did show us how far luxury cars of such unbelievable variety, size and outrageous gadgetry can go, pushing the boundaries of what is technically possible for such massive luxury machines. Announcements however have been made in late 2014 to revive the Maybach brand, which means we could have more titanic luxury motors coming our way soon!

 

Watch this space...

Snow and lights in the East Village during winter storm Nemo in lower Manhattan.

 

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Camera: Sony a99 | Lens: 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

 

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I live for snowstorms in New York City. So you can just imagine how bummed I was last winter season when we barely got any snow. Growing up in New York City, I remember quite a few blizzards and its with fond nostalgia that I always wish for at least one great snowstorm during the winter. New York City is extra beautiful when covered in a blanket of freshly fallen snow.

 

When I heard that winter storm Nemo (also known as the Blizzard of 2013, February snowstorm and other terms) was going to deliver some gorgeous white flakes from the sky I was more than ready for it. The photos in this set are not edited the way I would normally edit them. I just basically imported them into Lightroom and adjusted some contrast in a few cases from the RAW files. I will most likely go through the photos here plus others that I am not posting and give them the Vivienne treatment at some point. I am just floored at how incredible it was to shoot the snow with the Sony a99. I did go out of my way to protect it despite it being weather-sealed since it isn't technically my camera and since my lenses also needed protection. I must have been quite a sight in my ski-mask, enormous scarf, giant winter boots and a camera covered in plastic. :) It seemed like I had an easier time shooting in this snowstorm than in the two blizzards that I took photos in back in 2010 and 2011. I think it's because the wind was far more manageable and because I was out before the blizzard hit with full force. While the snow was heavy, the winds were easy to deal with in some respects since the gusts were few and far between.

 

I decided to walk from where I live on the Lower East Side all the way to Times Square since I do this particular walk frequently and know all of the spots I have always wanted to capture in the snow. I had a blast! The wind did get stronger and stronger as I got closer to Times Square and by the time I made my way home it was full-on blizzard conditions so I think I went at the optimal time. I somehow managed to take photos in the East Village, around Union Square, Chelsea (in truth, I had really hoped that the Empire State Building would be visible but it was completely hidden by the snow and lack of visibility), 5th Avenue, Midtown, the New York Public Library on 42nd Street and 5th Avenue, Bryant Park (which was absolutely ethereal in the snow) and finally Times Square.

 

And so, the photos here are pretty much almost straight out of the camera save for a few tweaks to levels, no fancy tinkering (but I can't wait to do so!).

  

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View more of my New York City photography at my website NY Through The Lens.

 

View my photography profile on Google Plus: New York City photography by Vivienne Gucwa

 

To purchase any of my work view my site gallery for info here.

  

To use any of my photos commercially, simply click the link which reads "Request to license Vivienne Gucwa's photos via Getty Images". This link can be found on the bottom right corner of the page of the photo you are interested in using.

Assignment: pca 109

Date: June 14th - 20th, 2010

Image tag: pca109

From: Davidk36

 

Take this as an abstract concept or quite literally. Create an image that represents fluidity or shows the unique properties of any given fluid.

 

WIT: My first ideas for this assignment were to go with water or fabric. I went with fabric. While sitting at a stop light I noticed a series of flags flying over a auto parts store. The light was about right and the wind just strong enough to make manageable ripples in the fabric. I ended up cropping in quite a bit to fill the image with flag. Someday a longer lens will allow me to zoom in and frame this in camera. For post processing I upped the contrast somewhat and created a separate layer to which I added a chrome effect. Blended the two layers to just add a touch of the chrome.

Day 299 [10-25-2016]

 

Happy birthday Victoria! Today is my beautiful girlfriend's birthday. She has been so supportive of me and has always put a smile on my face. I love her so much and I wish to her a good day and lots of happiness. Today, work was productive but long. My projects are going well and my stress levels are manageable. I took a quiet drive around town earlier just to get outside. My alone time outside is very important to me. It is getting very cold and windy though. I love it.

 

I can't wait to see what the next day brings!

Art of Photography - Photo Assignment: One Lens Challenge. Day Three:

 

I recently bought the Viltrox 23mm f1.4 and feel quite conflicted with it. It feels almost not wide enough, but also not zoomed in enough. So I thought this would be a great challenge for me to use this lens for a month every day to get a better feel for it.

 

For this photo, the 23mm was a little tight. But it was still manageable

 

I took a walk out of my village last night. Growing up in Tsing Yi I never really paid much attention to this particular temple. I knew of how the 水上人 (on-water people) worshiped the deity Chun Kwan and their long history to the island of Tsing Yi, but that was about it. I never gave the temple much thought.

 

Well, last night I decided to head out with my dog and take some photos. I wanted to capture the ambience. The caretaker of the temple recently passed, I knew him.

 

水上人 no longer live on the water with their boats. They no longer fish for a living. They have no reason to fear pirates. Where will this temple go when no one is left to worship the deity?

Was I a good moc? No you were a pain in the arse.

 

So this moc started out as a test of my limited engineering skills one Christmas, when I came home from university. Since then I've graduated, found myself a partner and live in our own flat.

This tower however, has sat in my former room, then been moved into another room and collected dust for and been in the way of my sibling for 4 years.

Because of lockdown I've been able to sort out a space in my new home for Lego, so when I visited my family I packed it down.

 

Long story short, I'm alive and hopefully coming out of my dark age. I'd love to rebuild this... But at a much more manageable size. I've uploaded photos of the deconstruction process, so check them out... If anyone's still here?

What is an Aboriginal quarry?

 

Aboriginal quarries are places where Aboriginal people took stone from rocky outcrops to make chipped or ground stone tools for many different purposes.

 

Not all types of stone were suitable for making tools, so an outcrop of good stone that could be easily quarried was a valuable resource.

 

Aboriginal people quarried different types of stone, each with its own special value and use. Stone tools were made from greenstone, silcrete, quartz, quartzite, basalt and chert. Pigments were made from quarried ochre, and grinding tools were made from sandstone.

 

Some quarries are small, consisting of just a single protruding boulder. Other quarries incorporate many outcrops and areas of broken stone that cover thousands of square metres.

 

What to do if you find an Aboriginal quarry...

 

do not disturb the place or remove any material

check whether the place has the typical characteristics of an Aboriginal quarry

if it does, record its location and write a brief description of its condition

note whether it is under threat of disturbance

please help to preserve Aboriginal cultural places by reporting their presence to First Peoples - State Relations.

 

Where are quarries found?

 

Aboriginal quarries are generally found on slopes where erosion has exposed the stone, for example, the slopes above creeks and rivers, on the sides of old volcanoes and on ridges.

 

How did Aboriginal people quarry stone?

Aboriginal people used at least two methods of stone quarrying. One method was to strike the surface of the outcrop at an angle with a hammerstone. Manageable pieces of stone broke off with minimum effort. This method scarred the rock face and left scattered broken fragments around the outcrop. The hammerstone was sometimes left at the quarry site.

 

The other method involved digging around and under outcrops to find buried stone. The purpose was to find manageable chunks of stone that were unweathered. Such digging created pits and trenches.

 

The early stages of stone tool making often occurred at the quarry. Tool manufacture added to the debris produced by quarrying. Aboriginal people used hammerstones, anvils and grinding stones, which were often left at the quarry because they were heavy. Sometimes, unfinished tools such as ‘axe blanks’ were also left behind.

 

What else looks like Aboriginal quarrying?

 

Natural weathering can create outcrops that appear similar to Aboriginal quarries. Uneven fractures and splintering on the outcrop face can resemble flaking scars. Weathering also produces large quantities of angular pieces of stone that look like stone tools. First Peoples - State Relations can provide an expert assessment of your discovery.

 

Why are Aboriginal quarries important?

 

Aboriginal quarries tell us a lot about Aboriginal stone tools, such as the types of stone used, how stone was obtained, and how the tools were made.

 

Aboriginal quarries also provide a rare glimpse into the fabric of past Aboriginal society. Quarried stone was often traded. Stone axes from one of the most important quarries in Victoria, at Mount William near Lancefield, have been found right across south east Australia.

 

Knowing where stone was quarried, we can learn more about the networks that existed between different groups of Aboriginal people. Most importantly, quarries are an important link for Aboriginal people today with their culture and their past.

 

Are Aboriginal quarries under threat?

 

Human activities such as mining, road building, damming, clearing and construction can disturb or destroy Aboriginal quarries. Natural processes such as weathering and erosion can also cause the gradual breakdown of stone outcrops.

 

First Peoples - State Relations records the location, dimensions and condition of Aboriginal quarries. The aim is to have a permanent record of this important part of the heritage of all Australians.

 

Management works around Aboriginal quarries, such as stock and erosion control, help preserve the sites for future generations.

 

Are Aboriginal quarries protected?

 

All Aboriginal cultural places in Victoria are protected by law. Aboriginal artefacts are also protected.

 

It is illegal to disturb or destroy an Aboriginal place. Artefacts should not be removed from the site.

 

Source: First Peoples Relations, Victorian Government: Fact sheet: Aboriginal quarries (www.firstpeoplesrelations.vic.gov.au/fact-sheet-aborigina...)

Experimental archaeology

 

A platform is lifted over an obstacle.

 

A long cord may link the clan into a concept. Holding issues of safety, good humour, identity, and shelter inside the idea of 'role play', tradition and even processional etiquette.

 

In this hypothesis, each 'dragon' is as different as its clan, with the above model simply offering a direction for thought and a seed for future amelioration and modeling.

 

A 'reverse historian' may choose to look at the poorest person from the medieval epoch and compare him with prehistory - factoring down an imaginary degenerate ladder for good measure : a poor medieval peasant may have one set of cloths and shoes with holes, so therefore a prehistoric man 'must' have had half a set of cloths and no shoes - 'common sense' inductive logic. In truth, medieval history is from 'history' and there are no comparisons to be made. Once power could hide behind the walls of the 'urban', a leadership class kept individuals in poverty, extracting money and skills away from regular situations. The beads and tools left behind from the Paleolithic show that leather was worked and ornementation was high. Animals were caught and there were the same 24 hours a day to make things that might improve the reliability and quality of a clan's experience. For many clans, hunting cloths, evening cloths and even ceremonial cloths may have been capped only by a weight limit rather than resource or know-how. Bandits exist in all cultures and epochs as do people who are lost or excluded, so poor cloths and conditions may have been experienced by some. Alone, one man will find it difficult to catch a medium sized wild animal - turn it into leather and then sew it into a comfortable and efficient costume. A well run clan would find the same task to be hard work, but within reason. A song for every dragon and a conversation when two dragons happen to pass as the legs of each dragon talk of spec', repairs needed, potential improvements and admiration of overall line and effect. Some modern traits of seemingly banale conversation built on continuums from a deep past?

 

A second "reverse historian' may point to religious parades with anonymous figures hiding behind a klux of pointed masks. Prehistoric clans were small family teams but probably had the chance to adjust, mix and recombine during seasonal meetings - the equinox included. A good 'dragon' might need a couple of stocky men to drive the heart of its weight, an attentive obsessive to look over the fire, an observant 'proto teacher' and her young students looking out for potential berries and roots and so on. The success of a clan being based on its capacity to observe, remember, measure and react. Different roles have different needs and personality becomes necessarily varied as hominid man becomes an alchemy of group capacity. My own feeling is that individual differences will have been cherished and expressed and that the generic uniforms of some processions are a manifestation of the differing demands from history. That is not to say that some of the deep traditions we see today are not from continuums that delve even deeper through the epochs of prehistory.

 

Questions about the inclusion of a thick rope as part of the second platform's luggage : the reasoning is that hair plates are visible in Gravettien statues and certainly predate. The deep ice age had large amounts of thick hair - mammoth, rhino included, and that after 'cropping' this resource from hunted or fallen animals, brades of woolly rope would be the simplest transformation - perhaps more manageable than stuffed bags. As a starting idea, imagine a 10 meter long and 70cm diameter rope of 'wool' to keep and use as fast draft exclusion, for bed 'walls' or, for between a hut armature - ideal for both temporary and permanent camps. Everyone can gain, or add to a lengths. Modern seals and reindeer do not have long fur so a reliance on comparative archaeology may be wanting.

  

My job as Print Services Supervisor at an office supply chain store has just been way too stressful.

 

After looking around for a while for something a little more laid back and better for my blood pressure, I landed this new job as Fishing Gear Display Man. The stress level for this position is much more manageable.

Text "1917 The beginning of a new era. all power to the Soviets." Designed by Sachkov 1989. From what I understand, this was a three panel set that created a very large visual to be displayed but was still manageable when moved from one place to another.

During our travels I have seen many bees including bumble bees and have taken lots of photos and cropped them, but I am really missing my macro lens. Next trip I am going to bring it with me even if I have to leave all other lenses at home LOL.

 

We are having a lovely time and for everyone who has been asking - my hand is still sore, but still manageable at this stage.

Can a compact point&shoot be used in low light, high contrast situations, such as night photography?

 

That's what I want to find out, using an old (2007) Fujifilm F31fd. I can tell you right now that the answer is yes, provided you know what you are doing and don't simply select the fully automatic program. That won't work, obviously.

 

Granted, the F31fd with its SuperCCD sensor has been praised for its high ISO performance. But that was 10 years ago. Frankly, I don't think it's a good idea to go beyond ISO 800 with that camera. So I set the limit there.

 

At the tele end of the zoom range, the widest aperture is f/5.0. For the given scene , with ISO 800 and f/5.0. Setting EV compensation to -1.67, the required exposure time is 1/18s, if I want the Moon behind the clouds to be visible (including some detail on the lunar surface) without blowing out the highlights on the statue and the column.

 

That's rather too long for comfort (this old camera does not offer image stabilisation), but with a steady hand, manageable. The advantage of the compact camera is that it has a leaf shutter and doesn't have a mirror. The disadvantage is that it is very light. A heavy camera is easier to hold steady.

 

There was some noise in the dark portions, but a bit of very limited post-processing got rid of most of that. The sky looks black, as it should. Not speckled with tiny dots of noise.

 

The outcome: There is some blur because of the long exposure time, In general the image is lacking sharpness, but given the limitations of the elderly camera, this is about as good as it gets without a tripod.

 

Also, keep in mind that this kind of camera isn't designed for pixel peepers who scrutinize their pictures 1:1 on a large screen. It's for amateurs who make prints no larger than 10x15cm or show their photos around on small, mobile devices. In that case, the appearance would likely be like that in the small inset, where most of the picture's flaws are no longer visible.

Technical Manual: Chromolithographic Production of a Decorative Trunk-Lid Print (c. 1880s)

 

This decorative trunk-lid image was created by chromolithography, the leading high-quality color printing process of the late 19th century. It combined freehand artistry for pictorial elements with precise mechanical drawing for borders and geometric motifs. The process was entirely manual in this period—no photographic separations were used—and required exacting craftsmanship to produce a richly layered, perfectly registered color image.

 

I. Detailed Process Description

 

1. The Key Stone

 

The process began with the “key” or outline stone.

 

The lithographer drew the full design, in reverse, on a smooth, polished slab of Bavarian limestone using greasy lithographic crayon or tusche (greasy ink).

 

This stone carried all outlines, contour lines, and key shading cues.

 

Registration marks—crosses or pinholes in the margins—were incorporated so that every later color impression could be matched precisely to it.

 

For geometric elements such as borders, frames, corner ornaments, or medallion arcs, the lithographer employed rulers, straightedges, compasses, and French curves. This ensured perfect parallelism, uniform line width, and symmetry. Repeating motifs in borders were often laid out with dividers or spacing marks before being finished by hand.

 

The key drawing integrated these mechanically precise elements seamlessly with freehand rendering of organic forms such as the woman’s portrait, foliage, and landscape details.

 

After completion, the stone surface was chemically treated with gum arabic and dilute nitric acid so that greasy image areas would accept oil-based ink while the blank areas repelled it.

 

2. Creating the Faint Guide Transfers

 

The key stone was inked in a neutral tone—commonly light grey, sepia, or pale ochre.

 

Impressions were pulled onto specially prepared transfer paper coated with a thin layer of adhesive such as gelatin.

 

These impressions, called “transfers” or “pulls”, were strong enough to be visible but pale enough not to interfere with later color drawing.

 

Each transfer sheet was placed face down on a blank polished stone and run through the press under pressure. The greasy ink transferred into the pores of the new stone’s surface, producing a pale, precise replica of the entire design.

 

One transfer was made for each color stone planned—often 8–15 for a richly shaded piece like this.

 

3. Drawing Each Color Stone by Hand

 

On each transferred stone, the lithographer worked only on the areas to be printed in that stone’s specific color.

 

Pictorial areas (faces, floral elements, landscape features) were rendered freehand using stipple dots, hatching, and textured crayon marks to create tonal gradations.

 

Geometric areas (borders, lines, decorative panels) in that color were drawn using rulers, compasses, and templates to maintain straightness, curvature, and even spacing.

 

The lithographer had to anticipate how transparent inks would overlap with others to form new colors. This required leaving certain areas open, or creating deliberate overlaps to produce secondary hues (e.g., printing blue over yellow to make green).

 

No photographic separation was used—color interpretation was entirely a matter of artistic judgment.

 

4. Judgement and Artistry

 

Transparent inks meant the lithographer had to visualize the cumulative result of multiple layers before printing began.

 

Overlaps were planned to achieve desired hues without muddying.

 

In complex areas like the sitter’s complexion, effects were built up by combining a base tone (e.g., pale yellow) with flesh pink and then adding subtle shading through stippling or fine hatching in a darker tint.

 

5. Proofing and Adjustments

 

After each stone was drawn, a proof print was pulled.

 

Registration was checked against the key, and tonal balance was evaluated.

 

Corrections could be made by grinding down areas of the stone with pumice or adding new greasy drawing where needed.

 

Proofing and correction cycles continued until every stone printed cleanly and registered perfectly with the others.

 

6. Sequential Printing

 

Printing typically began with the lightest colors and progressed to the darkest.

 

Each sheet of paper was dampened, aligned to the registration marks, and printed one color at a time.

 

After each pass, the sheet was dried (or re-dampened if needed) before receiving the next color.

 

Transparent inks allowed optical blending—yellow printed first, blue later, producing green in overlapping areas.

 

Borders and other critical alignment points were checked with each pass to maintain precision.

 

II. Probable Color Sequence for This Print

 

Based on late-19th-century practice and the observed palette of your trunk-lid image:

 

Light Yellow – Base tone for foliage highlights, ribbon accents, and underpainting for skin tones.

 

Light Pink / Flesh Tint – Applied over yellow in portrait areas; also in floral details.

 

Sky Blue – Ribbon background, water, and cool shadows; provides base for greens when overprinted with yellow.

 

Light Green – Foliage tints achieved by printing over yellow and/or blue.

 

Warm Ochre / Buff – Mid-tone background fills and ornamental elements.

 

Mid-Red / Rose – Floral accents, ribbon details, lips and cheeks.

 

Dark Green – Deep foliage shadows and ornamental border accents.

 

Dark Blue – Shading in ribbon folds, water, and certain border areas.

 

Brown – Hair, tree trunks, warm shadow areas.

 

Black (Key Plate) – Final pass, reinforcing outlines, details, and definition.

 

Note: Some printers reversed steps 9 and 10, but decorative trunk-lid work typically saved the black for last to achieve maximum crispness in outlines.

 

III. Size

 

\Commercial chromolithography in the 19th century had a surprisingly wide size range, and by the 1880s there were presses and stones capable of printing very large sheets—but “routine” sizes were smaller than the record-breakers.

 

Here’s what the sources indicate:

Typical Commercial Sizes

 

Most advertising chromos and decorative prints (trade cards, cigar labels, trunk-lid liners, calendars) were under 18 × 24 inches (45 × 60 cm).

 

This size range kept stone weight manageable (under ~40–50 lbs) and allowed fast presswork without excessive paper costs.

 

Large-Format Work in Regular Use

 

By the 1870s–1890s, firms in the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany routinely printed posters, maps, and wall charts up to about 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91 cm) in a single sheet.

 

Large railroad and theater posters were sometimes printed as multiple sheets to be joined after printing—each sheet a separate lithographic run.

 

Stones for these larger single sheets could weigh 200–300 lbs, which was about the upper limit for regular commercial handling.

 

Extra-Large (Occasional, Not Routine)

 

A few specialized presses and workshops produced single-sheet chromolithographs up to 30 × 40 inches (76 × 102 cm) or even 40 × 60 inches (102 × 152 cm).

 

These were not everyday jobs—they required special heavy presses and crews to handle the stones. Examples include:

 

French art publishers like Lemercier producing oversize posters for exhibitions in the 1870s–1880s.

 

American billboard chromos in the 1890s printed for product advertising; often pasted in sections, but sometimes one monumental sheet if the client paid the premium.

 

Why “Routine” Stopped Around 24 × 36 inches

 

Larger stones became exponentially heavier and harder to keep in register.

 

The risk of breaking a costly Bavarian limestone during handling increased with size.

 

Press speeds dropped as sheet size increased, making large runs slower and more expensive.

 

Bottom line:

 

Routine large commercial chromolithographs: up to about 24 × 36 inches (61 × 91 cm) in a single sheet.

 

Specialized/occasional work: up to about 40 × 60 inches (102 × 152 cm), but rare and costly.

 

Anything bigger was usually produced as multiple sheets to be assembled on site.

 

IV. Estimated Production Time for Initial Creation

 

Based on period trade manuals and documented work rates in late-19th-century lithographic shops:

 

Drawing the Key Stone: 2–4 days (18–30 hours)

 

Printing Key Transfers to Color Stones: 0.5–1 day

 

Drawing All Color Stones:

 

Simple stones (flat color fills): ~1 day each

 

Complex stones (shaded or detailed): 1.5–2 days each

 

For a 10-color job: ~14–18 days total

 

Proofing and Corrections: 3–5 days

 

Total Working Time: ≈ 20–28 working days

Elapsed Time: ≈ 4–6 weeks for one lithographer/artist, supported by press operators.

 

Large firms with multiple artists could reduce elapsed time, but decorative trunk-lid work was often done at an artisanal pace rather than mass-production speed.

 

Total direct chromolithographic employment in U.S. ca. 1890–1900: ~10,000–12,000 workers.

(This excludes related trades like engravers, photographers, and bindery workers who might work with litho output.)

 

V. Estimated 1880s Production Cost

 

Using data from American and British lithographic trade catalogs, printers’ journals, and jobbing price lists from the 1870s–1890s:

 

Artist’s Fee (design and stone drawing): $25–$40

 

Stone Preparation & Etching: $5–$8

 

Presswork per Color: $1.50–$3 per 1,000 impressions, per color stone

 

Materials:

 

Bavarian limestones (reusable): $3–$5 each (capital cost)

 

Inks and gum/acid solutions: $2–$4 per job

 

Transfer paper: ~$1 per job

 

Overhead (shop labor, utilities, depreciation): $5–$10 per job

 

For a 10-color image at a run of 500–1,000 prints:

 

Total Cost to Client (1880s): ≈ $50–$75

 

Higher runs reduced per-unit cost sharply, but initial image creation (especially artist’s labor) was a fixed, front-loaded expense.

 

VI Occupational Hazards in 19th-Century Chromolithography

 

While the 1880s chromolithographic process produced vivid, durable images, it also exposed workers to toxic pigments, solvents, and dusts. These materials posed significant health risks, and historical evidence from trade journals, factory inspection reports, and medical literature of the period confirms that occupational disease was common in the printing trades, including lithography.

 

1. Pigments

 

Many of the brilliant, permanent colors relied on heavy-metal compounds. Examples include:

 

Chrome Yellow – Lead chromate (PbCrO₄). Bright, opaque yellow used for ornaments and underlayers. Risks: lead poisoning (anemia, colic, neurological damage) and chromium-induced skin and respiratory irritation.

 

Emerald Green / Paris Green – Copper acetoarsenite. Vivid green for foliage and decorative borders. Risks: arsenic poisoning (skin lesions, respiratory illness, systemic toxicity).

 

Vermilion – Mercuric sulfide (HgS). Rich red for accents. Risks: mercury poisoning (tremors, mood disorders, cognitive decline).

 

White highlights – Lead carbonate (PbCO₃). Risks: lead poisoning.

 

Red lead (Pb₃O₄) – Used for some warm red tones. Risks: lead poisoning.

 

Cobalt pigments – Blues; less toxic than lead or arsenic but hazardous in dust form.

 

Prussian Blue – Ferric ferrocyanide; relatively low toxicity, but dust inhalation was still discouraged.

 

Exposure pathways: Pigment dust during grinding/mixing; skin contact; ingestion via contaminated hands or food.

 

2. Inks and Solvents

 

Oil-based inks were ground with linseed oil and diluted with turpentine or benzene-type solvents.

 

Benzene, not yet recognized as a carcinogen, was associated with dizziness, headaches, and chronic neurological symptoms in exposed workers.

 

Turpentine caused skin irritation and, in high vapor concentrations, respiratory distress.

 

3. Etching and Stone Preparation

 

Etching solution: Gum arabic mixed with dilute nitric acid. Nitric acid vapors could irritate eyes, throat, and lungs.

 

Stone graining/polishing: Pumice and sand were used to prepare stones, generating silica dust, a cause of silicosis with chronic inhalation.

 

4. Documented Health Effects

 

Contemporary medical and trade sources document:

 

Lead poisoning (“painter’s colic,” tremors, muscle weakness, abdominal pain, memory loss).

 

Arsenic toxicity (skin eruptions, sore throat, chronic cough, systemic symptoms).

 

Mercury poisoning (tremor, mood instability, cognitive changes).

 

Chronic bronchitis and eye irritation from acid fumes.

 

Silicosis in long-serving stone preparers and press workers exposed to fine dust.

 

5. Workplace Practices

 

Little or no protective equipment was used.

 

Workers frequently ate, drank, or smoked at their benches.

 

Ventilation was often inadequate, especially in winter when windows stayed closed.

 

Mechanical pigment mixers and enclosed presses, which reduced dust and vapor exposure, only began to appear in larger firms in the late 19th century.

 

Conclusion:

 

The production of chromolithographs in the 1880s was not only an artistic and technical achievement but also a process with significant hidden costs to the health of the workers who produced them. The durability and brilliance of these prints often came at the expense of prolonged exposure to lead, arsenic, mercury, acid vapors, and fine dust—a reality rarely acknowledged in decorative trade literature of the period.

 

VII. Summary

 

This 1880s trunk-lid chromolithograph was the product of 20–28 working days of skilled labor by a lithographer, supported by a press crew, and costing the client the equivalent of several thousand dollars in today’s money.

 

It required:

 

Freehand artistry for portraits, landscapes, and organic elements.

 

Ruler-and-compass precision for ornamental borders and geometric motifs.

 

Stone-by-stone planning of transparent color overlaps.

 

Exact registration across 10 separate printings.

 

The result was a brilliantly colored, durable image, perfectly suited to enliven the interior of a travel trunk—and to survive for well over a century.

 

Supplement

 

i. The development of chromolithography in the Europe and the US.

 

Europe: Development

 

Early 19th century – Foundations in Bavaria and France

Senefelder himself experimented with multi-color printing almost from the start (he wrote about “polyautography” in his 1818 treatise), but the technical and economic obstacles kept most lithography single-color for decades.

 

1830s – Practical multi-color experiments in France

The first systematic attempts to produce full-color lithographs by using separate stones for each color occurred in France. The printer Godefroy Engelmann of Mulhouse and Paris is widely credited with perfecting the process and securing a patent for “chromolithographie” in 1837.

 

Engelmann’s innovation was to work out methods for precise registration of multiple stones, using transparent inks to blend colors and produce painterly effects.

 

1840s – Refinement in Paris and Munich

French and Bavarian firms refined techniques for preparing multiple stones, planning color separations, and printing in sequence. Early chromolithographs were often high-art reproductions—costly, with limited runs.

 

Europe: Commercialization

 

1850s – Popularization in France, Germany, and Britain

 

Advances in presses, inks, and stone preparation allowed larger runs at lower cost. In Paris, firms like Lemercier mass-produced decorative prints, maps, and reproductions. In Munich, firms like Strixner & Cie became known for rich color art plates. In Britain, the process was adopted for book illustration and advertising.

 

1850s–1860s – Introduction to the United States

 

Chromolithography reached the U.S. in the early 1840s, but true commercial-scale production took off after the Boston lithographer Louis Prang began producing high-quality, multi-color prints in the 1860s.

 

Prang’s work—especially his Christmas cards and art reproductions—made chromolithography a household term in America.

 

1870s–1890s – Peak commercial use

 

By this period, chromolithography had become the dominant method for high-quality color printing in advertising (trade cards, posters, packaging), decorative art prints, maps, and ephemera such as the trunk-lid prints you’re studying. The combination of improved stone-handling, faster presses, and cheaper inks made it possible to produce vivid, durable color images for a mass market.

 

Timeline: Chromolithography in the United States

 

1820s – First lithographic presses appear in major U.S. cities; work is monochrome, with color added by hand.

 

1840s – Small-scale multi-color experiments begin in American shops. Imported European chromolithographs are sold to wealthy buyers but domestic production is limited.

 

1850s – Chromolithography begins to be practiced in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, often by immigrant printers trained in Europe. Still mainly used for maps, sheet music covers, and decorative prints.

 

1860s – Louis Prang of Boston pioneers high-quality American chromolithography. His “Prang’s Chromos” (art reproductions and greeting cards) become nationally known. Multi-stone, transparent-ink printing becomes more common in U.S. advertising and fine-art work.

 

1870s – Rapid expansion of chromolithography in commercial advertising. Used for trade cards, cigar box labels, and posters. Printing technology improves, allowing finer registration and larger press runs.

 

1880s–1890s – Chromolithography reaches industrial scale in the U.S. Bright, durable color images appear on everything from product packaging to educational charts and decorative items such as trunk-lid liners. Multi-stone printing (8–12 colors) is standard for high-quality work, with both freehand and ruler-based drafting techniques used in the same design.

 

ii The End of Commercial Chromolithography

 

How Rapidly Chromolithography Was Abandoned

 

1890s: Chromolithography still dominant for posters, packaging, and decorative prints, but halftone work begins to capture advertising and magazine illustration.

 

1900–1910: Offset lithography and letterpress with color halftones begin to outcompete chromolithography for most commercial uses.

 

1910s–1920s: The shift accelerates — offset can print faster, at lower cost, with acceptable color fidelity.

 

Chromolithography survives mainly in high-art reproductions and specialty decorative work.

 

1930s: In the U.S. and Europe, chromolithography is effectively obsolete for mass-market commercial jobs. The skill of hand-drawing multi-stone separations becomes rare.

 

Post-1930s: Only a few fine-art printers and specialty houses continue using chromolithography, often as a deliberate artisanal choice rather than a commercial necessity.

  

This text is a collaboration with Chat GPT.

Gibsons

G7210

'The Art File' JIGX01

card

1,000 pieces

69 x 48 cm

27 x 19 in

 

I fell in love with this puzzle when I first saw it, but when I got it home I started to regret my decision; the dark, busy image made me think I'd have trouble putting it together. But I was mistaken: after studying the included poster I realised that it was possible to divide up the areas into manageable portions.

For example, the berries were in one area only, and the birds and animals were pretty easy to place too. So I worked out from those sections and it came together in no time.

It also helped that the pieces were of a decent thickness and fit together well.

    

From Allens Creek/Corbett's Glen Preservation Group web site (www.corbettsglen.org): Nestled just southeast of Rochester City limits are 73 acres of land of Unsurpassed natural beauty and Environmental sensitivity, often referred to as the Allens Creek Valley. Carved by glaciers, the valley has been safeguarded from development due to steep slopes that surround and protect it. The secluded valley offers an oasis of sight, sound, and remarkable natural features in an otherwise densely developed suburban area. These features include the following:

 

- A series of waterfalls cascading over limestone outcroppings.

-The clear, pebble-bottomed waters of Allens Creek, home to rainbow trout, spawning salmon, and a variety of reptiles and amphibians.

-A diverse mix of meadows, old-growth forests, and wetlands.

Unusual glacial features: eskers, alluvial fans, and moraines.

-Owls, raptors, migratory songbirds, waterfowl, and more than 100 other bird species.

-Red fox, deer, opossum, mink, and wild turkey.

-Wildflowers and other protected plants, including round-lobed hepatica, cardinal flowers, and bittersweet.

 

The Allens Creek valley is of historical significance both to the Native Americans who first lived there and to the earliest European traders. A major foot trail of the Iroquois people traversed the valley, and a sacred burial site was documented in the 1800s. Sixteenth-century traders established ties with local natives at nearby Indian Landing long before Rochester was founded. In the 19th century, European settlers farmed the fertile valley lands and constructed mills to harness the manageable power of Allens Creek.

I went out a bit this morning with the new lens (Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3) before heading to work. Not great light - it was cloudy. No herons/egrets were to be found. Looking around a little, this Mockingbird was the first bird I spotted and took a shot of.

 

I'm pretty happy with the lens. That's really sharp. The autofocus on the thing is really fast, and almost never has to go hunting. The weight is a bit high, but manageable. Not something for a long hike without some way to offload the heft, though.

Comparing the three most recently released mermaid Ariel 12'' dolls by the Disney Store. From left to right they are the 2012 Classic Ariel, the 2013 Ariel from the Little Mermaid Deluxe Doll Gift Set, and the 2013 Classic Ariel. They are standing side by side, supported by Kaiser doll stands (not included with the dolls).

 

The Gift Set Ariel has the head and face of the 2013 doll, and similar hair (straighter and without ending in gelled curls), but the rest of her is almost identical to the 2012 doll. So it is appropriate that she is in the middle of the trio.

 

The 2013 Classic Ariel mermaid doll has many differences from the 2012 model, and is a greatly improved doll. She is both more attractive and more movie accurate. The major changes are to her head and face, her hair, her tail and her legs. There is a minor change to her shell bra. The only features that haven't changed are her torso and arms. I think that overall, she is the best doll in the new class of Classic Princess dolls from the Disney Store. That is fitting, as this is the year of the Diamond Edition release of her movie, The Little Mermaid.

 

Her head has been redesigned to be rounder than the previous models, thus more accurate by the shape alone. Her forehead is lower, her cheeks are fuller and her cheekbones are more prominent. Her cute button nose, open mouth smile and small angular chin seem to be same as the previous model. So her head is not as long, and her face is not as flat.

 

Her face is similar to last years, but with many small changes. Her eye molds appears to be the same shape, but the corners of her eyes are more rounded, so overall the eyes are slightly smaller but rounder. Her big round blue green eyes are wide open, and glancing to her right. They are darker, the pupils are significantly larger, and the glance is more severe than the 2012 doll. It makes for a more lively and adorable expression. She has four short thick curving black lashes over each eye, in the same pattern as last year, and black eyeliner under them that is thicker and darker than before. She has silver eyeshadow as before, but the thick eyeliner partially obscures the eyeshadow. Her rust colored eyebrows a little thicker and darker than last year, and are closer to her eyes. The rouge on her cheeks are much darker than last year, when it was barely visible, if it was there at all. Her mouth is the same, but her lips are a dark pink (as opposed to last year's pastel pink), and her upper lip is painted thinner, and her lower lip is painted fuller. Her face is very beautiful, youthful, lively and much more movie accurate than before.

 

Her waist length red hair is mostly straight and soft, but it ends in large stiff curls. The area around her face is also stiffened with gel to keep it off her face, which works very well to make her face much more open than the 2012 doll. Her volume of hair is much less than before. Her hair is much more manageable, neater, and movie accurate than before. But her part is still on the wrong side of her head, and the large curving front bangs of the movie character are still missing from this doll.

 

Her tail is a dark blue green color, with green glitter forming a scale pattern that is fetching. However her upper and lower fins are made of light blue green tulle that looks much less realistic and movie accurate than the 2012 model. It is based on the tail and fins of the 2011 Classic Ariel, but with the glitter in a scale pattern, rather than being sprayed on. Her purple shell bra is very similar to the 2012 model, but is a little darker and a little more accurate than before. It also seems to fit better.

 

Her body is fully articulated in the arms, but now has the rubber legs of 2011 and earlier dolls, which has internal knee joints and fixed angled feet. Her hip joints allow her to sit down with her legs together and her back straight up, unlike the 2012 doll with the fully articulated but defective legs. Her angled rubber feet also make her about 1/4 inch shorter than the 2012 doll. I'd say that the rubber legs are definitely a big improvement for Ariel over the fully articulated hard plastic legs of 2012.

 

The packaging for the dolls is much improved. The box art has been completely redesigned, with beautiful decorations unique to each Princess (actually for each movie), and a cameo of the animated movie character. The boxes are the same height and width, but are 1/2'' flatter, making them smaller and lighter.

 

The 2013 Disney Princess Classic Doll Collection, released on June 10, 2013. They consist of 11-12'' articulated dolls of the 11 official Disney Princesses, from Snow White to Merida, as well as Princes, Villains and Sidekicks. I now have all 11 Princesses, Queen Elinor, Charlotte and Gaston. I will photograph them boxed, during deboxing and fully deboxed. I will also post reviews and comparative photos.

 

Classic Disney Princess Ariel Doll - 12''

US Disney Store

Released online June 10, 2013.

Purchased online June 13, 2013.

Received June 24, 2013.

$14.95 (was on sale for $10 at time of purchase).

 

The Little Mermaid Deluxe Doll Gift

Contains exclusive versions of Vanessa, Ursula, Ariel as Mermaid, Prince Eric, and King Triton. Also included are small figures of Ariel's friends Scuttle, Flounder and Sebastian.

US Disney Store

Released in selected stores June 20, 2013.

Purchased in store June 21, 2013.

$79.95

 

The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel. In the United Kingdom, where no other kestrel species commonly occurs, it is generally just called "kestrel".[2]

 

This species occurs over a large range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.[3] It has colonized a few oceanic islands, but vagrant individuals are generally rare; in the whole of Micronesia for example, the species was only recorded twice each on Guam and Saipan in the Marianas.[4][5][6]

 

Description

Common kestrels measure 32–39 cm (12+1⁄2–15+1⁄2 in) from head to tail, with a wingspan of 65–82 cm (25+1⁄2–32+1⁄2 in). Females are noticeably larger, with the adult male weighing 136–252 g (4+3⁄4–8+7⁄8 oz), around 155 g (5+1⁄2 oz) on average; the adult female weighs 154–314 g (5+3⁄8–11+1⁄8 oz), around 184 g (6+1⁄2 oz) on average. They are thus small compared with other birds of prey, but larger than most songbirds. Like the other Falco species, they have long wings as well as a distinctive long tail.[4]

 

Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside; the remiges are also blackish. Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having fewer black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail. The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes. All common kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.[4]

 

The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow; the toenails, bill and iris are dark. Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider; the yellow of their bare parts is paler. Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.[4]

 

Adult male F. t. tinnunculus landing

Adult male F. t. tinnunculus landing

 

Young male F. t. tinnunculus during ringing

Young male F. t. tinnunculus during ringing

 

Female F. t. tinnunculus

Female F. t. tinnunculus

 

F. t. tinnunculus at lake Neusiedl

F. t. tinnunculus at lake Neusiedl

 

F. t. tinnunculus Male in the wild

F. t. tinnunculus

Male in the wild

 

F. t. tinnunculus Female in the wild

F. t. tinnunculus

Female in the wild

 

Perched near the nest of a common blackbird (Turdus merula), with a male blackbird attempting to distract it

Perched near the nest of a common blackbird (Turdus merula), with a male blackbird attempting to distract it

 

Hovering tail feathers closed

Hovering

tail feathers closed

 

Hovering tail feathers spread

Hovering

tail feathers spread

 

Hovering

Hovering

 

Skull

Skull

Behaviour and ecology

In the cool-temperate parts of its range, the common kestrel migrates south in winter; otherwise it is sedentary, though juveniles may wander around in search for a good place to settle down as they become mature. It is a diurnal animal of the lowlands and prefers open habitat such as fields, heaths, shrubland and marshland. It does not require woodland to be present as long as there are alternative perching and nesting sites like rocks or buildings. It will thrive in treeless steppe where there are abundant herbaceous plants and shrubs to support a population of prey animals. The common kestrel readily adapts to human settlement, as long as sufficient swathes of vegetation are available, and may even be found in wetlands, moorlands and arid savanna. It is found from the sea to the lower mountain ranges, reaching elevations up to 4,500 m (14,800 ft) ASL in the hottest tropical parts of its range but only to about 1,750 m (5,740 ft) in the subtropical climate of the Himalayan foothills.[4][7]

 

Globally, this species is not considered threatened by the IUCN.[1] Its stocks were affected by the indiscriminate use of organochlorines and other pesticides in the mid-20th century, but being something of an r-strategist able to multiply quickly under good conditions it was less affected than other birds of prey. The global population has been fluctuating considerably over the years but remains generally stable; it is roughly estimated at 1–2 million pairs or so, about 20% of which are found in Europe. There has been a recent decline in parts of Western Europe such as Ireland. Subspecies dacotiae is quite rare, numbering less than 1000 adult birds in 1990, when the ancient western Canarian subspecies canariensis numbered about ten times as many birds.[4]

 

Food and feeding

  

When hunting, the common kestrel characteristically hovers about 10–20 m (35–65 ft) above the ground, searching for prey, either by flying into the wind or by soaring using ridge lift. Like most birds of prey, common kestrels have keen eyesight enabling them to spot small prey from a distance. Once prey is sighted, the bird makes a short, steep dive toward the target, unlike the peregrine which relies on longer, higher dives to reach full speed when targeting prey. Kestrels can often be found hunting along the sides of roads and motorways, where the road verges support large numbers of prey. This species is able to see near ultraviolet light, allowing the birds to detect the urine trails around rodent burrows as they shine in an ultraviolet colour in the sunlight.[8] Another favourite (but less conspicuous) hunting technique is to perch a bit above the ground cover, surveying the area. When the bird spots prey animals moving by, it will pounce on them. They also prowl a patch of hunting ground in a ground-hugging flight, ambushing prey as they happen across it.[4]

  

European pine vole (Microtus subterraneus), a typical common kestrel prey since prehistoric times

 

Common kestrels eat almost exclusively mouse-sized mammals. Voles, shrews and true mice supply up to three-quarters or more of the biomass most individuals ingest. On oceanic islands (where mammals are often scarce), small birds (mainly passerines) may make up the bulk of its diet.[6] Elsewhere, birds are only an important food during a few weeks each summer when inexperienced fledglings abound. Other suitably sized vertebrates like bats, swifts,[9] frogs[citation needed] and lizards are eaten only on rare occasions. However, kestrels are more likely to prey on lizards in southern latitudes. In northern latitudes, the kestrel is found more often to deliver lizards to their nestlings during midday and also with increasing ambient temperature.[10] Seasonally, arthropods may be a main prey item. Generally, invertebrates like camel spiders and even earthworms, but mainly sizeable insects such as beetles, orthopterans and winged termites will be eaten.[4]

 

F. tinnunculus requires the equivalent of 4–8 voles a day, depending on energy expenditure (time of the year, amount of hovering, etc.). They have been known to catch several voles in succession and cache some for later consumption. An individual nestling consumes on average 4.2 g/h, equivalent to 67.8 g/d (3–4 voles per day).[11]

 

Reproduction

 

Young kestrels, not yet able to fly, waiting for food

The common kestrel starts breeding in spring (or the start of the dry season in the tropics), i.e. April or May in temperate Eurasia and some time between August and December in the tropics and southern Africa. It is a cavity nester, preferring holes in cliffs, trees or buildings; in built-up areas, common kestrels will often nest on buildings, and will reuse the old nests of corvids. The diminutive subspecies dacotiae, the sarnicolo of the eastern Canary Islands is peculiar for nesting occasionally in the dried fronds below the top of palm trees, apparently coexisting with small songbirds which also make their home there.[12] In general, common kestrels will usually tolerate conspecifics nesting nearby, and sometimes a few dozen pairs may be found nesting in a loose colony.[4]

  

Male F. t. tinnunculus bringing food to nest

The clutch is normally 3–7 eggs; more eggs may be laid in total but some will be removed during the laying time. This lasts about 2 days per egg laid. The eggs are abundantly patterned with brown spots, from a wash that tinges the entire surface buffish white to large almost-black blotches. Incubation lasts from 4 weeks to one month, both male and female will take shifts incubating the eggs. After the eggs have hatched, the parents share brooding and hunting duties. Only the female feeds the chicks, by tearing apart prey into manageable chunks. The young fledge after 4–5 weeks. The family stays close together for a few weeks, during which time the young learn how to fend for themselves and hunt prey. The young become sexually mature the next breeding season.[4] Female kestrel chicks with blacker plumage have been found to have bolder personalities, indicating that even in juvenile birds plumage coloration can act as a status signal.[13]

 

Data from Britain shows nesting pairs bringing up about 2–3 chicks on average, though this includes a considerable rate of total brood failures; actually, few pairs that do manage to fledge offspring raise less than 3 or 4. Compared to their siblings, first-hatched chicks have greater survival and recruitment probability, thought to be due to the first-hatched chicks obtaining a higher body condition when in the nest.[14] Population cycles of prey, particularly voles, have a considerable influence on breeding success. Most common kestrels die before they reach 2 years of age; mortality up until the first birthday may be as high as 70%. At least females generally breed at one year of age;[15] possibly, some males take a year longer to maturity as they do in related species. The biological lifespan to death from senescence can be 16 years or more, however; one was recorded to have lived almost 24 years.[15]

 

Egg of common kestrel

Egg of common kestrel

 

Falco tinnunculus alexandri - MHNT

Falco tinnunculus alexandri - MHNT

 

Hatchling of common kestrel (note white down)

Hatchling of common kestrel (note white down)

 

Fledglings in nest cavity

Fledglings in nest cavity

 

Immature after fledging

Immature after fledging

 

Common kestrel nest

Common kestrel nest

Evolution and systematics

This species is part of a clade that contains the kestrel species with black malar stripes, a feature which apparently was not present in the most ancestral kestrels. They seem to have radiated in the Gelasian (Late Pliocene,[16] roughly 2.5–2 mya, probably starting in tropical East Africa, as indicated by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data analysis and considerations of biogeography. The common kestrel's closest living relative is apparently the nankeen or Australian kestrel (F. cenchroides), which probably derived from ancestral common kestrels settling in Australia and adapting to local conditions less than one million years ago, during the Middle Pleistocene.[17]

 

The rock kestrel (F. rupicolus), previously considered a subspecies, is now treated as a distinct species.

 

The lesser kestrel (F. naumanni), which much resembles a small common kestrel with no black on the upperside except wing and tail tips, is probably not very closely related to the present species, and the American kestrel (F. sparverius) is apparently not a true kestrel at all.[17] Both species have much grey in their wings in males, which does not occur in the common kestrel or its close living relatives but does in almost all other falcons.

 

Subspecies

 

Female wintering in Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary (Andhra Pradesh, India)

 

F. t. canariensis on Gran Canaria

 

F. t. rupicolaeformis from Hurghada, Egypt

A number of subspecies of the common kestrel are known, though some are hardly distinct and may be invalid. Most of them differ little, and mainly in accordance with Bergmann's and Gloger's rules. Tropical African forms have less grey in the male plumage.[4]

 

Falco tinnunculus tinnunculus Linnaeus, 1758

Temperate areas of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia north of the Hindu Kush-Himalaya mountain ranges to the NW Sea of Okhotsk region. Northern Asian populations migrate south in winter, apparently not crossing the Himalayas but diverting to the west.

F. t. rufescens Swainson, 1837

Sahel east to Ethiopia, southwards around Congo basin to S Tanzania and NE Angola.

F. t. interstinctus McClelland, 1840

Has dark heavily marked birds and has a foxed red phase but not reliably identified in the field. Breeds East Asia from Tibet to Korea and Japan, south into Indochina. Winters to the south of its breeding range, from northeastern India to the Philippines (where it is localized, e.g. from Mindanao only two records exist).[18][19]

F. t. rupicolaeformis (C. L. Brehm, 1855)

Arabian Peninsula except in the desert and across the Red Sea into Africa.

F. t. neglectus Schlegel, 1873

Northern Cape Verde Islands.

F. t. canariensis (Koenig, 1890)

Madeira and western Canary Islands. The more ancient Canaries subspecies.

F. t. dacotiae Hartert, 1913 – Local name: cernícalo

Eastern Canary Islands: Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Chinijo Archipelago. A more recently evolved subspecies than canariensis.

F. t. objurgatus (Baker, 1929)

Western, Nilgiris and Eastern Ghats of India; Sri Lanka. Heavily marked, has rufous thighs with dark grey head in males.[19][20]

F. t. archerii (Hartert & Neumann, 1932)

Somalia, coastal Kenya, and Socotra

F. t. alexandri Bourne, 1955

Southwestern Cape Verde Islands.

 

Falco tinnunculus alexandri - MHNT

The common kestrels of Europe living during cold periods of the Quaternary glaciation differed slightly in size from the current population; they are sometimes referred to as the paleosubspecies F. t. atavus (see also Bergmann's rule). The remains of these birds, which presumably were the direct ancestors of the living F. t. tinnunculus (and perhaps other subspecies), are found throughout the then-unglaciated parts of Europe, from the Late Pliocene (ELMA Villanyian/ICS Piacenzian, MN16) about 3 million years ago to the Middle Pleistocene Saalian glaciation which ended about 130,000 years ago, when they finally gave way to birds indistinguishable from those living today. Some of the voles the Ice Age common kestrels ate—such as European pine voles (Microtus subterraneus)—were indistinguishable from those alive today. Other prey species of that time evolved more rapidly (like M. malei, the presumed ancestor of today's tundra vole M. oeconomus), while yet again others seem to have gone entirely extinct without leaving any living descendants—for example Pliomys lenki, which apparently fell victim to the Weichselian glaciation about 100,000 years ago.[21][22]

 

In culture

 

Wooden common kestrel sculpture

The kestrel is sometimes seen, like other birds of prey, as a symbol of the power and vitality of nature. In "Into Battle" (1915), the war poet Julian Grenfell invokes the superhuman characteristics of the kestrel among several birds, when hoping for prowess in battle:

 

The kestrel hovering by day,

And the little owl that call at night,

Bid him be swift and keen as they,

As keen of ear, as swift of sight.

 

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889) writes on the kestrel in his poem "The Windhover", exalting in their mastery of flight and their majesty in the sky.

 

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-

dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

 

A kestrel is also one of the main characters in The Animals of Farthing Wood.

 

Barry Hines’ novel A Kestrel for a Knave - together with the 1969 film based on it, Ken Loach's Kes - is about a working-class boy in England who befriends a kestrel.

 

The Pathan name for the kestrel, Bād Khurak, means "wind hover" and in Punjab it is called Larzānak or "little hoverer". It was once used as a decoy to capture other birds of prey in Persia and Arabia. It was also used to train greyhounds meant for hunting gazelles in parts of Arabia. Young greyhounds would be set after jerboa-rats which would also be distracted and forced to make twists and turns by the dives of a kestrel.[23]

 

Etymology

The name "kestrel" is derived from the French crécerelle which is diminutive for crécelle, which also referred to a bell used by lepers. The word is earlier spelt 'c/kastrel', and is evidenced from the 15th century.[24] The kestrel was once used to drive and keep away pigeons.[25] Archaic names for the kestrel include windhover and windfucker, due to its habit of beating the wind (hovering in air).[24]

 

The Late Latin falco derives from falx, falcis, a sickle, referencing the claws of the bird.[26] The species name tinnunculus is Latin for "kestrel" from "tinnulus", "shrill".

My son, Dylan, and I just finished building a classifier system for him to use next week at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. This system consists of three sizes of screening and one large bucket with a screened hole in the bottom. We had to order stainless steel ($$$) screen to ensure that we would have screening that would not wear out over the years. The buckets were purchased at Home Depot.

 

Sections of three buckets were cut so that they would stack onto each other as well as secure the screen. We used pop-rivets to make sure the screen would stay in place.

 

Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only diamond hunting site in the U.S. that is open to the public. You get to keep what you find. The classifier system is used to separate the larger rocks from the smaller stuff and make it manageable to locate the diamonds.

 

Here is a link to the YouTube video we viewed to direct us in the construction of this classifier system:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8ny7fhFkn8

 

He is a high school shop teacher somewhere in Canada. Watching this video saved us a lot of time and made the job much easier.

Code your robot puppy to help Nancy Drew solve the mystery!

 

As a member of Nancy Drew’s de-TECH-tive crew, choose disguises, find clues, and program your robot puppy to solve the mystery of a missing project at the Tech Fair. The mystery unfolds in a full narrative story spanning six chapters, as Nancy and friends encounter students who may have taken the missing project. Help Nancy track down suspects and discover what happened to the project before the Tech Fair competition begins!

 

Throughout the game players develop and use their growing de-TECH-tive skills. Players find clues in hidden object games and apply basic coding concepts to code their puppy and help Nancy out of tight spots at the end of every chapter. It’s the ultimate introduction to computer programming as the coding challenges increase as the story progresses and leads to a super coder award.

 

FEATURES:

 

LEARN

Kids will learn two of the three basic logic structures in computer programming:

• Sequences

• Loops

 

DEVELOP

Super de-TECH-tives will develop critical thinking skills:

• Pattern recognition

• Spatial visualization

• Problem solving

• Algorithmic thinking

• Attention to detail

 

PLAY

Kids will follow the story and have fun while narrowing down their list of suspects:

• Read along with story dialogue!

• Find clues within 20+ hidden object games!

• Review clues, evidence, and possible suspects in the player’s Clue Book!

• Select undercover disguises for Nancy, Bess and George!

• Investigate a new location in each chapter!

• Play bonus coding levels in Obstacle Course mode!

• Collect in-game charms!

• Listen to the “Codes & Clues” theme song composed by Berklee College of Music contest winner, Ana Tish, performed by Sofia Mazursky and produced by Grammy Award winner Tena Clark.

 

Kids will love this new Nancy Drew mobile mystery just as many generations have loved the books. Come join Nancy, Bess and George on an adventure that entertains and educates with equal measure. This is going to be fun!

 

*** NO IN-APP PURCHASES, ADS OR PUSH NOTIFICATIONS***

 

“Just as in the mystery novels, students decompose a complex story into smaller, more manageable tasks in order to build a case based upon sequential logic, just like a computer programmer would construct an algorithm. As an instructional technology teacher, Codes & Clues gets my kids excited about coding and puts those skills in a fun and familiar context. Who could want more than that?” - -- Lindsey Dunn, K-3 Instructional Technology Teacher

 

Hi Kids™

Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues is the first initiative under Her Interactive’s new division, Hi Kids, which will focus on mobile games and apps geared to early learners. Her Interactive was a pioneer in 1998 when it began developing and publishing Nancy Drew interactive games for females. From the beginning, the company’s videogames encouraged STEM education and careers. Since then, Her Interactive has released 32 games, won 30 Parents’ Choice awards and has sold more than 9 million copies of its games. Parents and teachers will be using Nancy Drew: Codes & Clues to introduce their children and students, respectively, to coding and computer science. Parents and teachers can sign-up for our newsletter or follow-us on any one of our social media channels.

 

***WE RESPECT YOUR PRIVACY AND DO NOT SHARE EMAIL ADDRESSES PROVIDED BY PARENTS***

 

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today, i hurt.

 

walking to the subway took a little longer than usual.

i took the escalator down to the platform. normally, i take the stairs.

but tonight, my hips hurt.

the train is waiting for me. a welcome sign.

but there are no seats available.

and i am too timid and embarrassed to ask for a seat marked "disabled."

the next stop comes. someone gets up.

but a nurse is standing close to the free seat and i don't make a move.

how can i take away a seat from someone who has likely been on her feet all day?

the next stop comes. another seat opens.

but a woman a bit older than me is closer.

how can i ask someone for their seat when they look at me and see a young woman (who looks a few years younger than she actually is)?

so i stand and hold on to the pole.

my hips hurting, my heel burning.

so i hold the pole tighter.

and my fingers start to ache.

my face scrunched up in pain.

willing one of the men nearby to offer his seat.

but no one does.

my stop finally comes.

i hobble up the stairs (feeling 50 years older than i really am),

and over to the escalator.

a slow walk home.

tired, sad, fed up . . .

but i have to start the laundry.

an elderly neighbor is in the elevator when it stops on my floor.

he offers to ride to the basement to hold the door for me.

my knight in shining armor.

 

and he doesn't even know that i'm sick.

  

explore # 474

I could run a 365 based on what Millie likes to eat I am constantly amazed that she does not turn her nose up at anything even foods that are normally a turn off for dogs like lemon/orange, ginger, garlic etc. today I thought I had found the first “no” she had a piece of raw potatoe and quickly spat it out only to break it up into manageable smaller pieces. I’ll rename her Dustbin.

 

Not such a good photo as I still have to distract Dustbin to take her photo, but as I’m working on that I can’t concentrate on taking the shot

 

The 2012 and 2013 Disney Store Princess Belle Classic 12'' Dolls are compared by posing them side by side. They are standing, supported by Kaiser doll stands.

 

The 2013 Classic Belle doll has many differences from the 2012 model, but looks very similar, and is a somewhat improved doll. The only major change is to her legs, from fully articulated hard plastic legs to rubber legs with internal knee joints and fixed angled feet. There are a minor changes to her hair, face, dress and shoes. She is also missing her gloves. The features that haven't changed are her head mold, torso and arms.

 

Her head mold is identical to last year's doll. Her face is almost identical, with some subtle changes. Her green eyes have gotten darker, with the elimination of the ring of light green around her pupils, leaving just dark green around her pupils. Her pupils a touch larger. She has three short thick lashes over each eye, and silver eyeshadow, as before. Her eyebrows are a darker shade of brown, but the same thickness and length. A small be very significant change is the smoothing of the arch in her eyebrows, so they no longer have an ''evil'' wiggle. She has a short straight nose. She has gentle open mouthed smile, with a thin upper lip and full lower lip, painted in bright pink. Both her nose and mouth are unchanged from last year. Finally she has heavier application of pink rouge on her cheeks. Her face is just a beautiful as last year's doll, but is now friendlier looking with the changes in her eyebrows and eyes.

 

Her brown hair is medium length, but is shorter and much less voluminous than before. Gone are the two curls dropping down the sides of her face. There is a small bun at the top, as before. There is a small ponytail coming out of the back of the bun, whereas last year the ponytail was longer and lower down her the back of her head. The bulk of her hair is gently curving, and is gathered up in a large curl at the end, which is gelled to keep it in shape and in place. Other than the curl, her hair is soft and smooth. Rather than reaching her waist and spreading out beyond both her shoulders, her hair is now reaches the middle of her back, and is contained within the width her shoulders. It is much neater looking and manageable, as long as the curl at the end is not disturbed.

 

Her golden yellow satin dress is similar in design to the 2012 version, but there are some significant differences. The gold organza shoulder straps are very similar, but now they are wrapped lower down her shoulders, thus being more movie accurate. I had to adjust her left strap to make it lower, to match the right strap. Her bodice is now glitter free, but has the same design, with a V-shaped waist. The skirt is now much less voluminous, and has a pattern of glittering gold roses, instead of the gold glitter being sprayed in a random pattern. The gold organza decoration around the middle of the skirt is now only in the front, whereas the 2012 doll had the decoration go completely around the skirt. But as with last year's doll, the ruching is only in the front. At least the golden rose pattern continues to the back of the skirt. The skirt is about the length as before, but since the 2013 doll is on her tippy toes rather than her feet flat on the floor, the skirt doesn't quite reach the floor. The new dress holds its shape much better, due to the glitter giving the skirt more stiffness. The old dress is more movie accurate, and its volume is very impressive, but it requires a petticoat (which is not included) to keep its shape.

 

Her shoes are flats as in the old doll, but they are a little shorter, and a paler shade of yellow. With her fixed angled feet, she should have gotten high heels, as the 2011 and earlier dolls had.

 

She no longer has any accessories, as her full length gold satin gloves are gone.

 

Her body is fully articulated in the arms, but now has the rubber legs of 2011 and earlier dolls, which has internal knee joints and fixed angled feet. Her hip joints allow her to sit down with her legs together and her back straight up, unlike the 2012 doll with the fully articulated but defective legs. But her knees can only bend about 40 degrees, so her legs stick out when she is sitting. The leg joints are also much stiffer, so she is in a much more natural position when placed standing in a Kaiser doll stand. Her angled rubber feet also make her about 1/4 inch taller than the 2012 doll, who had flat feet.

 

The packaging for the dolls is much improved. The box art has been completely redesigned, with beautiful decorations unique to each Princess (actually for each movie), and a cameo of the animated movie character. The boxes are the same height and width, but are 1/2'' flatter, making them smaller and lighter. The packaging restraints are simplified, especially with a reduced use of T-tags, so the deboxing is quicker and easier, and there is less damage to the doll. Belle's box has rose and Cogsworth images with a yellow background.

 

The 2013 Disney Princess Classic Doll Collection, released on June 10, 2013. They consist of 11-12'' articulated dolls of the 11 official Disney Princesses, from Snow White to Merida, as well as Princes, Villains and Sidekicks. I now have all 11 Princesses, Queen Elinor, Charlotte and Gaston. I will photograph them boxed, during deboxing and fully deboxed. I will also post reviews and comparative photos.

 

Classic Disney Princess Belle Doll - 12''

US Disney Store.

Released online June 10, 2013.

Purchased online June 13, 2013.

Received June 24, 2013.

$14.95 (was on sale for $10 at time of purchase).

 

The 2012 and 2013 Disney Store Princess Belle Classic 12'' Dolls are compared by posing them side by side. They are standing, supported by Kaiser doll stands.

 

The 2013 Classic Belle doll has many differences from the 2012 model, but looks very similar, and is a somewhat improved doll. The only major change is to her legs, from fully articulated hard plastic legs to rubber legs with internal knee joints and fixed angled feet. There are a minor changes to her hair, face, dress and shoes. She is also missing her gloves. The features that haven't changed are her head mold, torso and arms.

 

Her head mold is identical to last year's doll. Her face is almost identical, with some subtle changes. Her green eyes have gotten darker, with the elimination of the ring of light green around her pupils, leaving just dark green around her pupils. Her pupils a touch larger. She has three short thick lashes over each eye, and silver eyeshadow, as before. Her eyebrows are a darker shade of brown, but the same thickness and length. A small be very significant change is the smoothing of the arch in her eyebrows, so they no longer have an ''evil'' wiggle. She has a short straight nose. She has gentle open mouthed smile, with a thin upper lip and full lower lip, painted in bright pink. Both her nose and mouth are unchanged from last year. Finally she has heavier application of pink rouge on her cheeks. Her face is just a beautiful as last year's doll, but is now friendlier looking with the changes in her eyebrows and eyes.

 

Her brown hair is medium length, but is shorter and much less voluminous than before. Gone are the two curls dropping down the sides of her face. There is a small bun at the top, as before. There is a small ponytail coming out of the back of the bun, whereas last year the ponytail was longer and lower down her the back of her head. The bulk of her hair is gently curving, and is gathered up in a large curl at the end, which is gelled to keep it in shape and in place. Other than the curl, her hair is soft and smooth. Rather than reaching her waist and spreading out beyond both her shoulders, her hair is now reaches the middle of her back, and is contained within the width her shoulders. It is much neater looking and manageable, as long as the curl at the end is not disturbed.

 

Her golden yellow satin dress is similar in design to the 2012 version, but there are some significant differences. The gold organza shoulder straps are very similar, but now they are wrapped lower down her shoulders, thus being more movie accurate. I had to adjust her left strap to make it lower, to match the right strap. Her bodice is now glitter free, but has the same design, with a V-shaped waist. The skirt is now much less voluminous, and has a pattern of glittering gold roses, instead of the gold glitter being sprayed in a random pattern. The gold organza decoration around the middle of the skirt is now only in the front, whereas the 2012 doll had the decoration go completely around the skirt. But as with last year's doll, the ruching is only in the front. At least the golden rose pattern continues to the back of the skirt. The skirt is about the length as before, but since the 2013 doll is on her tippy toes rather than her feet flat on the floor, the skirt doesn't quite reach the floor. The new dress holds its shape much better, due to the glitter giving the skirt more stiffness. The old dress is more movie accurate, and its volume is very impressive, but it requires a petticoat (which is not included) to keep its shape.

 

Her shoes are flats as in the old doll, but they are a little shorter, and a paler shade of yellow. With her fixed angled feet, she should have gotten high heels, as the 2011 and earlier dolls had.

 

She no longer has any accessories, as her full length gold satin gloves are gone.

 

Her body is fully articulated in the arms, but now has the rubber legs of 2011 and earlier dolls, which has internal knee joints and fixed angled feet. Her hip joints allow her to sit down with her legs together and her back straight up, unlike the 2012 doll with the fully articulated but defective legs. But her knees can only bend about 40 degrees, so her legs stick out when she is sitting. The leg joints are also much stiffer, so she is in a much more natural position when placed standing in a Kaiser doll stand. Her angled rubber feet also make her about 1/4 inch taller than the 2012 doll, who had flat feet.

 

The packaging for the dolls is much improved. The box art has been completely redesigned, with beautiful decorations unique to each Princess (actually for each movie), and a cameo of the animated movie character. The boxes are the same height and width, but are 1/2'' flatter, making them smaller and lighter. The packaging restraints are simplified, especially with a reduced use of T-tags, so the deboxing is quicker and easier, and there is less damage to the doll. Belle's box has rose and Cogsworth images with a yellow background.

 

The 2013 Disney Princess Classic Doll Collection, released on June 10, 2013. They consist of 11-12'' articulated dolls of the 11 official Disney Princesses, from Snow White to Merida, as well as Princes, Villains and Sidekicks. I now have all 11 Princesses, Queen Elinor, Charlotte and Gaston. I will photograph them boxed, during deboxing and fully deboxed. I will also post reviews and comparative photos.

 

Classic Disney Princess Belle Doll - 12''

US Disney Store.

Released online June 10, 2013.

Purchased online June 13, 2013.

Received June 24, 2013.

$14.95 (was on sale for $10 at time of purchase).

 

Visit this location at Dun Roamin - 10, Volpert region in Second Life

The Story:

 

Vibrant as ever, Parisian socialite Elyse Jolie makes a glamorous entrance at her favorite 5-star restaurant, absolutely looking forward to a delicious three-martini lunch with her friends Adèle and Véronique! While these three stunning beauties are busy solving the world's problems, curious onlookers get deeply invested in trying to figure out the answer to the age-old question; "just who are they wearing and where can I buy those looks?" Let's not deny it, Elyse is always deeply amused by this and she wouldn't have it any other way! Cheers!

 

This Elyse is the 5th doll from the "La Maison FR Paris" Collection, after Eugenia, Véronique, Korinne and Natalia from last year ...

 

She plays the hard to get game as she is a lottery doll only available to the W Club with a LE of 1500 ...

 

Her screening is the famous Dark Swan screening that appeared on Engaging, Flawless, Market Montaigne, Séduisante and Bijou ... and I've been waiting for a long time to be able to get an Elyse like this as the first ones are just grails impossible to find ...

 

She has the same hairstyle as Obsession Convention Vendetta Agnès ... now I'm not so sure I will be able to let her go as I like to have dolls that can be displayed together and I'm still wondering if that Vendetta was really a doll for this military theme ... with her "Bar Suit" inspired look this Agnès would have been perfect for the "La Maison FR Paris" Collection too ...

 

Her eclectic outfit is perfect to use as mix and match pieces and will be great with A Doll's Life Vanessa outfits ... So much play in perspective ...

 

In my wildest dreams I wish I was able to get two of her to be able to restyle the second one with a more manageable hairstyle ... Will know next month if I'm lucky enough, one would be so cool I'm must say ...

While looking for somewhere scenic to take any passing steam trains (none running on this day, I'm not sure if there are ever any that run through here), I took one of the many freights that traverse the Brenner Pass.

 

The railway forms a horseshoe through St Jodok, built like this to make the very steep gradient manageable as it continues towards Brenner. The train here is just emerging from the tunnel that is on the apex of the horseshoe.

 

At this time of year, as I found, the sun appears between the mountains for a short time in the morning to throw some light on this section of railway.

 

Happy Christmas and Happy New Year!

When things go wrong in a steel mill melt shop, molten steel ends up on the ground...huge puddles of it sometimes.

 

Here a heavy duty loader lifts a large block of solidifying steel in order to drop it and break it into manageable pieces.

 

Olympus OM-D E-M5 and 12-50mm kit lens.

 

Please visit the Entropic Remnants website or my Entropic Remnants blog -- THANKS!

Railways of Great Britain

This start of another one of my collections, although I have posted a few in the past.

I have taken quite a few images over the years of Old Steam, Diesel and Electric engines and after sorting out probably 3,000 plus, I’ve now got it down to a more manageable number.

I’m starting with English Engines. Some of these images could be 25 years old. Many were transferred from negatives via a scanner so the quality will not be as good I would like. I have put them all through Photoshop to get rid of the most glaring issues

Apologies to those enthusiasts if I don’t get the right engine with the right Railway, they were taken a long time ago, some of them have moved on and my memory is not as good as it was.

Happy viewing.

 

The Voyager space probe has travelled further from Earth than anything ever built so it was a no-brainer to build this for the AWESOME show!

The first thing to tackle in designing this model was the scale. In reality, Voyager’s Dish is around 3.5m across and the long structure to support the Magnetometer is close to 15m long! As much as I would love to have made this to actual size, it just wasn’t something we could do.

I based our scale off the size of the final dish which we have made about 50cm across. Even at this scale the magnetometer support would have been nearly 2.2m long which is still huge, so to keep the model into manageable sized pieces for transport, it is brought down to just 1.5m long.

The Voyager probe was designed and built by Mitchell Kruik over 44 hours and uses 5,202 pieces.

Chocolate Mud cupcakes with German Chocolate Glaze and caramelised hazelnuts.

 

Cupcake recipe from Exclusively Food.

The glaze came out a bit thin as I used a small egg laid by one of our little hens. I think I'll just have to drink the glaze instead!

 

I tried to be super-efficient by making the caramelised hazelnuts last night but little did I know that the tendrils would melt over night. They're a third of the length they were last night but are much more manageable for the little people. :)

 

I've also discovered that hot caramel is so much fun to play with! You can make a lot of interesting shapes and pretty flourishes. I'm definitely going to play some more.

 

German Chocolate Glaze

 

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1/4 cup caster sugar

50g dark chocolate, chopped

25g unsalted butter

 

Place all ingredients in a heatproof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk continuously until chocolate and butter have melted and the mixture has slightly thickened. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

 

ABC delicious Magazine, April 2011.

 

Should I feel the need to visit the Product Development Centres based at Ford's Melbourne Headquarters, from Geelong, the traffic is either Sunday-afternoon light or terrible.

 

One saving grace of terrible traffic, is that it gives me more time to look longingly at the lovely white-and-lime tractors and harvesters at the local CLAAS distribution centre, next to the highway. (Incidentally, the distribution centre nestles just besides the highway overpass used in 'Mad Max' where the message is phoned in that the hell-razing, post-apocalyptic bikies are heading in to town - but that is another story.)

 

In an earlier LUGNuts challenge that focused on food-related and on farm vehicles - Challenge 37 'The Food We Eat', I took delight in building various model s from the CLASS Tractor range, in miniland scale. This resulted in some nice (and very large), lime tractors. An absence of time, large wheels & tires, and lime Lego, left a few model untried, including the magnificent CLASS XERION, a double steering axle, giant wheeled behemoth, with a swiveling cab so it can go forwards, backwards, AND sideways - AWESOME.

 

The XERION will have to wait for another challenge somewhere down the line.

 

The other CLAAS with which I was captivated appears periodically in the distribution yard, and is equally magnificent. This model is the equally enormous CLAAS JAGUAR Harvester. I am a little bit sad that it can only go forward, but it makes up for this in being able to carry all sorts of crazy cutting, slicing and dicing tools on the front end. I have modeled only two here the Maize Cob Silage (MCS), designed to harvest corn/maize type plants, and the more traditional spinning long blade harvester type tool. There are more cool tools too, so they may be modeled for adaptation to the MotorCity-scale JAGUAR shown here.

 

One key difference from the Challenge 37 tractors, and the JAGUAR Harvester shown here is the scale. The sheer size of the real JAGUAR - 6.6 metres long (20 ft), and 3.8 metres tall (10.5 ft), not including any tool attachments, make it a seriously big entity. Maybe I will get to a Miniland-scale JAGUAR someday, but for now, I display the model in a more manageable 1:28 (MotorCity scale).

 

Incidentally, the Lego Group have also released a Harvester in the past few years under the 'City' line. One of the images shows this model (Nr. 7636). My JAGUAR was loosely based on this model for size and tool compatibility, and also as an example of the customisation of original Lego models that can add a dose of individual creativity to Lego modeling.

 

The point of this?

 

This CLAAS JAGUAR model has been created for Flickr LUGNuts 68th Build Challenge - 'A Baker's Dozen', to the sub-theme Nr. 11. 'Any tractor or combine harvester'.

  

MOSCOW. THE MUSEUM OF ARMED FORCES. MARCH 2010

   

The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks were a series of Soviet heavy tanks, named after the Soviet defense commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov. The KV series were known for their extremely heavy armour protection, which was capable of resisting all German anti-tank weapons up to 75 mm and 88 mm calibre, both of which were comparatively rare at the time of the initial German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. Prior to the invasion, about 500 of the over 22,000 tanks in Soviet service at the time were of the KV-1 type.

 

fter disappointing results with the multi-turreted T-35 heavy tank, Soviet tank designers started drawing up replacements. The T-35 conformed to the 1920s notion of a 'breakthrough tank' with very heavy firepower and armour protection, but poor mobility. The Spanish Civil War demonstrated the need for much heavier armor on tanks, and was the main influence on Soviet tank design just prior to World War II.

 

Several competing designs were offered, and even more were drawn up prior to reaching prototype stage. All had heavy armour, torsion-bar suspension, wide tracks, and were of welded and cast construction. One of the main competing designs was the SMK, which lowered the number of turrets from the T-35's five to two, mounting the same combination of 76.2 mm and 45 mm weapons. When two prototypes were ordered though, it was decided to create one with only a single turret, but more armour. This new single-turret tank was the KV. The smaller hull and single turret enabled the designer to install heavy frontal and turret armour while keeping the weight within manageable limits.

  

When the Soviets entered the Winter War, the SMK, KV and a third design, the T-100, were sent to be tested in combat conditions. The heavy armour of the KV proved highly resistant to Finnish anti-tank weapons, making it more effective than the other designs. It was soon put into production, both as the original 76-mm-armed KV-1 Heavy Tank and the 152 mm howitzer-mounting assault gun, the KV-2 Heavy Artillery Tank.

 

The 45-ton KV outweighed most other tanks of the era, being about twice as heavy as the heaviest contemporary German tanks. The KV's strengths included armor that was impenetrable by any tank-mounted weapon then in service except at point-blank range, good firepower, and good traction on soft ground. It also had serious flaws: it was very slow and difficult to steer, the transmission was unreliable, and the ergonomics were poor, with limited visibility and no turret basket. Furthermore its weight tended to strain smaller Russian bridges. As more armor and other improvements were made without increasing engine power, later models were less capable of keeping up with medium tanks and had more trouble with difficult terrain.

 

Further development

 

By 1942, when the Germans were fielding large numbers of long-barrelled 50 mm and 75 mm guns, the KV's armor was no longer invincible. The KV-1's side, top, and turret armor could also be penetrated by the high-velocity MK 101 carried by German ground attack aircraft such as the Henschel Hs 129, requiring the installation of additional field-expedient appliqué armour. The KV-1's 76.2 mm gun also came in for criticism. While adequate against lighter German tanks, it was the same gun as carried by smaller, faster, and cheaper T-34 medium tanks, and could no longer penetrate the frontal armour of German heavy tanks it faced in battle. The KV-1 was also much more difficult to manufacture and thus more expensive than the T-34. In short, its advantages no longer outweighed its drawbacks.

 

Nonetheless, because of its initial superior performance, the KV-1 was chosen as one of the few tanks to continue being built following the Soviet reorganization of tank production. Due to the new standardization, it shared the similar engine (the KV used a 600hp V-2K modification of the T-34's V-2 diesel engine) and gun (the KV had a ZiS-5 main gun, while the T-34 had a similar F-34 main gun) as the T-34, was built in large quantities, and received frequent upgrades.

 

When production shifted to the Ural Mountains 'Tankograd' complex, the KV-2 was dropped. While impressive on paper, it had been designed as a slow-moving bunker-buster. It was less useful in highly mobile, fluid warfare that developed in World War II. The turret was so heavy it was difficult to traverse on non-level terrain, and it was expensive to produce. Only about 250 KV-2s were made, all in 1940-41, making it one of the rarer Soviet tanks.

KV-1 produced in 1942, displayed in Finnish Tank Museum in Parola.

 

As the war continued, the KV-1 continued to get more armour to compensate for the increasing effectiveness of German weapons. This culminated in the KV-1 model 1942 (German designation KV-1C), which had very heavy armour, but lacked a corresponding improvement to the engine. Tankers complained that although they were well-protected, their mobility was poor and they had no firepower advantage over the T-34 medium tank.

 

In response to criticisms, the lighter KV-1S (Russian language: КВ-1С) was released, with thinner armour and a smaller, lower turret in order to reclaim some speed. Importantly, the KV-1S also had a commander's cupola with all-around vision blocks, a first for a Soviet heavy tank. However, the thinning-out of the armor called into question why the tank was being produced at all, when the T-34 could seemingly do everything the KV could do and much more cheaply. The Soviet heavy tank program was close to cancellation in mid-1943.

 

The appearance of the German Panther tank in the summer of 1943 convinced the Red Army to make a serious upgrade of its tank force for the first time since 1941. Soviet tanks needed bigger guns to take on the growing numbers of Panthers and the few Tigers.

 

A stopgap upgrade to the KV series was the short-lived KV-85 or Object 239. This was a KV-1S with a new turret designed for the IS-85, mounting the same 85 mm D-5T gun as the SU-85 and early versions of the T-34-85. Already-high demand for the gun slowed production of the KV-85 tremendously, and only 148 were built before the KV design was replaced. The KV-85 was produced in the fall and winter of 1943-44; they were sent to the front as of September 1943, and production of the KV-85 was stopped by the spring of 1944 once the IS-2 entered full scale production.

 

Successor

 

A new heavy tank design entered production late in 1943 based on the work done on the KV-13. Because Kliment Voroshilov had fallen out of political favour, the new heavy tank series was named the Iosif Stalin tank, after Iosif (Joseph) Stalin. The KV-13 program's IS-85 prototype was accepted for production as the IS-1 (or IS-85, Object 237) heavy tank. After testing with both 100 mm and 122 mm guns, the D-25T 122 mm gun was selected as the main armament of the new tank, primarily because of its ready availability and the effect of its large high-explosive shell when attacking German fortifications. The 122mm D-25T used a separate shell and powder charge, resulting in a lower rate of fire and reduced ammunition capacity. While the 122mm armour piercing shell had a lower muzzle velocity than similar late German 7.5 cm and 8.8 cm guns, proving-ground tests showed that the 122mm AP shell could defeat the frontal armour of the German Panther tank, and the HE shell would easily blow off the drive sprocket and tread of the heaviest German tank or self-propelled gun. The IS-122 replaced the IS-85, and began mass production as the IS-2. The 85 mm gun saw service in the lighter SU-85 and T-34-85.

A destroyed Soviet KV-1 in Olonets, September 1941, during the Continuation War

 

Some KVs remained in service right up to the end of the war, although in greatly diminishing numbers as they wore out or were knocked out. The 260th Guards Heavy Breakthrough Tank Regiment, based on the Leningrad front, operated a number of 1941-vintage KV-1s at least as late as the summer of 1944 before re-equipping with IS-2s. A regiment of KVs saw service in Manchuria in August 1945, and a few KV-85s were used in the Crimea in the summer of 1944. The Finnish forces had two KVs, nicknamed Klimi, a Model 1940 and Model 1941, both of which received minor upgrades in their service, and both of which survived the war. A single captured KV-2 was used by German forces in 1945 against US forces in the Ruhr.

 

Combat history

 

Raseiniai

   

When Operation Barbarossa began, the Red Army was equipped with 508 new KV tanks (Zaloga & Grandsen 1984:125). So effective was its armour that the Germans were incapable of destroying it with their tanks or anti-tank weapons and had to rely on air support and anti-aircraft artillery (flak) or 105 mm howitzers to knock them out. Most of these tanks and the effective T-34s were parcelled out to units in small numbers and poorly supplied, but at the Battle of Raseiniai they were used to good effect. On 23–24 June, a single KV-2 effectively pinned down elements of the German 6th Panzer Division for a full day at the bridgeheads of the Dubysa River below Raseiniai, Lithuania, playing a prominent role in delaying the advance of Panzergruppe 4 on Leningrad [2] until it ran out of ammunition and the crew was forced to abandon the tank and withdraw.

 

Krasnogvardeysk

 

On August 14, 1941, the vanguard of the German 8th Panzer Division approached Krasnogvardeysk (Gatchina) near Leningrad (St Petersburg), and the only Soviet force available at the time to attempt to stop the German advance consisted of five well-hidden KV-1 tanks, dug in within a grove at the edge of a swamp. KV-1 tank no. 864 was commanded by the leader of this small force, Lieutenant Zinoviy Kolobanov.

German tank vanguard attack plan and positions of three soviet KV-1 tanks

Soviet newspaper article of 1941

 

German forces attacked Krasnogvardeysk from three directions. Near Noviy Uchkhoz settlement the geography favoured the Soviet defenders as the only road in the region passed the swamp, and the defenders commanded this choke point from their hidden position. Lieutenant Kolobanov had carefully studied the situation and readied his detachment the day before. Each KV-1 tank carried twice the normal amount of ammunition, two-thirds being armour-piercing rounds. Kolobanov ordered his other commanders to hold their fire and await orders. He did not want to reveal the total force, so only one exposed tank at a time would engage the enemy.

 

On August 14, the German 8th Panzer Division's vanguard ventured directly into the well-prepared Soviet ambush, with Kolobanov's tank knocking out the lead German tank with its first shot. The Germans falsely assumed that their lead tank had hit an anti-tank mine, and failed to realize that they had been ambushed. The German column stopped, giving Kolobanov the opportunity to destroy the second tank. Only then did the Germans realize they were under attack, but they failed to find the source of the shots. While the German tanks were firing blindly, Kolobanov knocked out the trailing German tank, thus boxing in the entire column.

 

Although the Germans correctly guessed the direction of fire, they could only spot Lieutenant Kolobanov's tank, and now attempted to engage an unseen enemy. German tanks moving off the road bogged down in the surrounding soft ground, becoming easy targets. 22 German tanks and 2 towed artillery pieces fell victim to Kolobanov's No. 864 before it ran out of ammunition. Kolobanov ordered in another KV-1, and 21 more German tanks were destroyed before the half-hour battle ended. A total of 43 German tanks were destroyed by just five Soviet KV-1s (two more remained in reserve).

 

After the battle, the crew of No. 864 counted a total of 135 hits on their tank, none of which had penetrated the KV-1's armour. Lieutenant Kolobanov was awarded the Order of Lenin, while his driver Usov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Later on, former Captain Zinoviy Kolobanov was again decorated by Soviet authorities, despite having been convicted and downgraded after the Winter War for "fraternizing with the enemy." After the end of World War II, Lieutenant Kolobanov served in the Soviet occupation zone in East Germany, where he was convicted again when a subordinate escaped to the British occupation zone, and was transferred to the reserves.

 

The battle for Krasnogvardeysk was covered up by Soviet propaganda. A monument dedicated to this battle was installed in the village of Noviy Uchkhoz in 1980, at the place where Kolobanov's KV-1 was dug in, due solely to the demands of the villagers. Unfortunately it was impossible to find a KV-1 tank, so an IS-2 heavy tank was installed there instead.[4]

 

The Soviet victory was the result of a well-planned ambush in advantageous ground and of technical superiority. Most of the German tanks in this battle were Panzer IIs, armed with 20 mm guns, and a few Panzer IIIs armed with 37 mm KwK 36 L/46.5 guns. The German tank guns had neither the range nor the power of the 76 mm main gun of a KV-1, and the narrower track width of the German tanks caused them to become trapped in the swampy ground.

According to Panzer Operations, however, the tank (said to be a KV-1) after destroying several antitank guns, their crews, and an 88 mm flak gun, was hit repeatedly with rounds from another 88 mm cannon. The crew was knocked unconscious, and recovered only to be killed by an exploding grenade. They were buried with full honors, uncommon for other troops. The English version indicates that Erhard Raus, the author, may have mistaken similar events and people, so this may be an error

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brit 70007 Couer-de-Lion at Perth shed in Aug 1964-less than 12 months later it had been reduced to manageable pieces,the first of class to go.

The red belly of a red-bellied woodpecker.

Rondeau Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, Mar 4, 2022.

Usually see the red strip on the head but the reddish blush on the belly is harder to see.

 

Melanerpes carolinus

You may sometimes see Red-bellied Woodpeckers wedge large nuts into bark crevices, then whack them into manageable pieces using their beaks. They also use cracks in trees and fence posts to store food for later in the year, a habit it shares with other woodpeckers in its genus.

Source - Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

head is from a fairytale magic barbie, had a lipcolor change and rerooted to a more manageable hair. ready to compete in the next Miss Barbie Universe 2013!

 

(more details later, as time permits)

 

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

 

Our apartment is on the 21st floor, looking south from Broadway and 96th Street on Manhattan's Upper West Side.

 

We did not live here in 2001, and I don't know if we would have been able to see the World Trade Center at the time.

 

But we can see the shaft of blue light stealing upward from the Freedom Tower each year, on the eve of September 11th.

 

These were all handheld, taken from the terrace of my apartment. I experimented with different iSO's and different apertures, to try to keep the noise and sharpness within limits, while also keeping the shutter speed at a manageable level while I braced myself against the railing on the terrace.

 

I've only had a chance to do a tiny bit of post-processing -- but thought I would put them up here while they were fresh...

The Story:

 

Vibrant as ever, Parisian socialite Elyse Jolie makes a glamorous entrance at her favorite 5-star restaurant, absolutely looking forward to a delicious three-martini lunch with her friends Adèle and Véronique! While these three stunning beauties are busy solving the world's problems, curious onlookers get deeply invested in trying to figure out the answer to the age-old question; "just who are they wearing and where can I buy those looks?" Let's not deny it, Elyse is always deeply amused by this and she wouldn't have it any other way! Cheers!

 

This Elyse is the 5th doll from the "La Maison FR Paris" Collection, after Eugenia, Véronique, Korinne and Natalia from last year ...

 

She plays the hard to get game as she is a lottery doll only available to the W Club with a LE of 1500 ...

 

Her screening is the famous Dark Swan screening that appeared on Engaging, Flawless, Market Montaigne, Séduisante and Bijou ... and I've been waiting for a long time to be able to get an Elyse like this as the first ones are just grails impossible to find ...

 

She has the same hairstyle as Obsession Convention Vendetta Agnès ... now I'm not so sure I will be able to let her go as I like to have dolls that can be displayed together and I'm still wondering if that Vendetta was really a doll for this military theme ... with her "Bar Suit" inspired look this Agnès would have been perfect for the "La Maison FR Paris" Collection too ...

 

Her eclectic outfit is perfect to use as mix and match pieces and will be great with A Doll's Life Vanessa outfits ... So much play in perspective ...

 

In my wildest dreams I wish I was able to get two of her to be able to restyle the second one with a more manageable hairstyle ... Will know next month if I'm lucky enough, one would be so cool I'm must say ...