Fidalgo Bay. General Construction Company's 700 ton capacity crane barge D.B. General. Here to lift the 90ft Northern Marine Yacht Bäden out of the water after it capsized during its launch on sunday night.

NTSB Final Accident Report:

"The newly built yacht Baaden was being launched stern first down the Fidalgo Marina boat ramp in Anacortes, Washington, with eight shipyard personnel on board when it capsized

after entering the water at 2050 on Sunday, May 18, 2014. The yacht was salvaged but was declared a total constructive loss, estimated at $10 million. Three shipyard personnel who were

trapped below decks for up to half an hour were treated for minor cuts and injuries at local hospitals. No pollution was reported.

New World Yacht Builders began construction of the Baaden in December 2011, working from an existing 80-foot-hull mold built in 2002 by Northern Marine. Like other large Northern

Marine yachts, the vessel was custom designed. The 80-foot mold was lengthened in the midsection and stem, the bow was given more flare, and a swim platform was added. The

resulting 85-foot vessel was designated Northern Marine model 8501 and was the first of its kind. New World described the Baaden as having commercial fishing vessel roots in an 85-foot

European-style, luxury, long-range, oceangoing expedition yacht. The builder, the buyer’s representative, and an interior design firm collaborated on the vessel design and styling. Several sister vessels built to the 80-foot-hull design were completed and are in operation.

Due to water damage to interior woodwork, machinery, and electrical systems and expenses associated with repairing the vessel, at the time of this report the Baaden was considered a total constructive loss with an estimated value of $10 million.

Launch team members inspected the launch cradles, dollies, and equipment after the incident and noted that one of the tires on the forward dolly was flat, and witnesses said they saw

bubbles coming from the forward dolly at the time of the launch. The tire likely was damaged during the initial port roll at 2037.

Probable Cause:

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the capsizing of the yacht Baaden during its initial launch was the vessel’s low margin of stability due to the combined effects of a recording error during the final vessel weigh, which resulted in an incorrect assessment of the vessel’s center of gravity, and an overestimation of the weight of installed ballast."

www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/MAB1514...

Designer Jasmine has been fully deboxed, and is posed standing, supported by the custom doll stand. Her overskirt, freed from the factory restraints, is now wider than the doll stand, and is allowed to drape over the edges of the base. The sunlight was fading as I was taking these photos, so some of the closeups used flash.

First look at the Disney Princess Designer Collection Jasmine Doll. She was released in October 2011, and I got her from eBay shortly afterwards, so It's been more than a year and a half since I got this doll. But I have not yet deboxed her, and this the first time I am doing a full photoshoot of her. I will photograph her boxed, during her deboxing, and fully deboxed.

My Designer Jasmine doll is a limited edition doll that was produced and sold exclusively by the Disney Store, and is numbered 5645 of 6000. She is based on the heroine from the Disney animated feature Aladdin (1992). She comes in an acrylic case with a built-in doll stand, with a base that has a golden filigree design, and a golden metallic nameplate. There is also a cardboard cover for the case that I have not photographed here.

She is 11 1/2'' tall, and has the same body as the other Designer Princess dolls, with jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips and knees (internal). She has rubber legs and fixed ankles, with feet angled for high heels.

She has jet black, 12'' long hair tied into a floor length pony tail. There are two golden elastic hairties in the upper and middle part of the ponytail, and the lower portion of her hair has loose curls. It is very soft and shiny. There were a few stray hairs, but I left them alone and did not comb it, as I thought her hair was neat enough as it was out of the box. She has light brown skin, and a unique face sculpt that is very pretty and movie accurate. She has large dark brown almond shaped eyes that are glancing towards her right. She has light blue-green eye shadow, and thick black eyebrows. She has rooted eyelashes, that are tapered in length from short to long, then at the ends there are very long curved antenna like lashes. She has a small straight nose, full dark purple lips in with a closed mouth smile. She has very pale red rouge on her cheeks.

Her three piece gown is made of bright blue-green satin and light blue organza. Her bodice is cropped short to reveal her midsection (including her belly button), and consists of light blue organza embedded with golden gems, draped over her upper arms, and gemmed blue-green satin lower and back sections. Her blue-green satin skirt is floor length and is figure hugging, flairing out at the bottom. It is hemmed and there is a light blue polyester lining. There is a very wide overskirt of the double layered light blue satin. I is open in front, but can be wrapped around to completely cover her inner skirt, or can be folded to reveal her inner skirt.

She is wearing light blue-green high heeled shoes, which match the color of her skirt.

Her accessories include earrings, a chain belt with pendant and Aladdin's lamp. The earrings are large golden triangles with gold colored gems. Her belt is made of fine gold chain, with a large round jeweled pendant just below her waist that gathers the strands of the chain together, the remainder of which fall almost to the floor. In her right hand is a golden lamp that is bejeweled with yellow gems. The top of the lamp is removable (it is held in place with rubber bands, which I left in place).

There were no real surprises revealed by deboxing her, although it was nice to see the full extent of her overskirt. I was also glad to take her out of her awkward head pose, which was a common problem among the Designer Princesses. One thing I didn't like was that her top was a little too short, and revealed her waist joint (that enables her to spin her upper body around 360 degrees). Tugging on her top didn't move it enough to hide the joint in the front. As a consequence, her waist joint moved very freely, and her upper body tended to turn whenever she was handled, aided by her long hair. Also her long luxurious hair is very heavy, so tends to pull her backwards slightly when she is posed on the display stand. Designer Rapunzel has a similar problem. Her very wide floor length overskirt and floor length hair make it difficult to rebox her neatly, which is a common problem with the Designer dolls with very wide floor length skirts.

INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE FOR VARIETY OF BODYSTYLES OF THIS MODEL

The Peugeot 304 is a small family car which was produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1969 to 1980.

The 304 was introduced to the public at the Paris Motor Show in September 1969. Production of the saloon/sedan on the Sochaux assembly lines was discontinued during the summer of 1979, while the "Break" (estate) was produced until the spring of 1980. Coupé and cabriolet versions replaced their 204 forerunners in March 1970.

Peugeot, which had always been a financially prudent company, saw a gap in the midsize car market in France, Italy and the rest of Western Europe. By using the smaller 204's midsection, development costs were minimized resulting in a higher profit margin because of the higher pricing structure in the larger, better equipped market. The 304's main competitors on its home market came from Renault and Simca, with Citroen noticeably absent from this sector at the launch.

The car was moderately advanced for its time, having fully independent suspension, and a four-speed gearbox located directly below the engine, sharing the same oil as the engine.

The 304 was designed to slot between the popular 204 and the recently introduced Peugeot 504. Since the 204 had an exceptionally spacious passenger cabin for its class, the 304 body used the central portion of the 204: engine and running gear components were mostly interchangeable between the two cars. However, the 304 had a restyled front grill and headlights, designed consciously to emulate the 504.

Designer Jasmine has been fully deboxed, and is posed standing, supported by the custom doll stand. Her overskirt, freed from the factory restraints, is now wider than the doll stand, and is allowed to drape over the edges of the base. The sunlight was fading as I was taking these photos, so some of the closeups used flash.

First look at the Disney Princess Designer Collection Jasmine Doll. She was released in October 2011, and I got her from eBay shortly afterwards, so It's been more than a year and a half since I got this doll. But I have not yet deboxed her, and this the first time I am doing a full photoshoot of her. I will photograph her boxed, during her deboxing, and fully deboxed.

My Designer Jasmine doll is a limited edition doll that was produced and sold exclusively by the Disney Store, and is numbered 5645 of 6000. She is based on the heroine from the Disney animated feature Aladdin (1992). She comes in an acrylic case with a built-in doll stand, with a base that has a golden filigree design, and a golden metallic nameplate. There is also a cardboard cover for the case that I have not photographed here.

She is 11 1/2'' tall, and has the same body as the other Designer Princess dolls, with jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips and knees (internal). She has rubber legs and fixed ankles, with feet angled for high heels.

She has jet black, 12'' long hair tied into a floor length pony tail. There are two golden elastic hairties in the upper and middle part of the ponytail, and the lower portion of her hair has loose curls. It is very soft and shiny. There were a few stray hairs, but I left them alone and did not comb it, as I thought her hair was neat enough as it was out of the box. She has light brown skin, and a unique face sculpt that is very pretty and movie accurate. She has large dark brown almond shaped eyes that are glancing towards her right. She has light blue-green eye shadow, and thick black eyebrows. She has rooted eyelashes, that are tapered in length from short to long, then at the ends there are very long curved antenna like lashes. She has a small straight nose, full dark purple lips in with a closed mouth smile. She has very pale red rouge on her cheeks.

Her three piece gown is made of bright blue-green satin and light blue organza. Her bodice is cropped short to reveal her midsection (including her belly button), and consists of light blue organza embedded with golden gems, draped over her upper arms, and gemmed blue-green satin lower and back sections. Her blue-green satin skirt is floor length and is figure hugging, flairing out at the bottom. It is hemmed and there is a light blue polyester lining. There is a very wide overskirt of the double layered light blue satin. I is open in front, but can be wrapped around to completely cover her inner skirt, or can be folded to reveal her inner skirt.

She is wearing light blue-green high heeled shoes, which match the color of her skirt.

Her accessories include earrings, a chain belt with pendant and Aladdin's lamp. The earrings are large golden triangles with gold colored gems. Her belt is made of fine gold chain, with a large round jeweled pendant just below her waist that gathers the strands of the chain together, the remainder of which fall almost to the floor. In her right hand is a golden lamp that is bejeweled with yellow gems. The top of the lamp is removable (it is held in place with rubber bands, which I left in place).

There were no real surprises revealed by deboxing her, although it was nice to see the full extent of her overskirt. I was also glad to take her out of her awkward head pose, which was a common problem among the Designer Princesses. One thing I didn't like was that her top was a little too short, and revealed her waist joint (that enables her to spin her upper body around 360 degrees). Tugging on her top didn't move it enough to hide the joint in the front. As a consequence, her waist joint moved very freely, and her upper body tended to turn whenever she was handled, aided by her long hair. Also her long luxurious hair is very heavy, so tends to pull her backwards slightly when she is posed on the display stand. Designer Rapunzel has a similar problem. Her very wide floor length overskirt and floor length hair make it difficult to rebox her neatly, which is a common problem with the Designer dolls with very wide floor length skirts.

1933 black and white photograph of the midsection of the sidewheeler "Mayflower." The "Mayflower" was originally known as the "Nahant" and later the "General Lincoln," the "Indian Head," and finally the "Mayflower."

Written on the back by the photographer, in pencil: "This boat was originally "Nahant," later "Gen Lincoln," later "Indian Head," and/ finally "Mayflower" - is not the same/ boat which is preserved landlocked near/ Nantasket Beach. /I took 3 other views - prints not on hand." "At Norfolk, Va in 1933" is circled in middle left.

Gift of R. Loren Graham.

In the collection of the Hingham Historical Society [PH53].

Your fashion prowess is evident when you wear this savvy dress. The racer back design features a lined, lifting bust with an open midsection gathered by a metallic ring. A shining foil zig zag pattern covers the style with eye-catching, with matching g-string.Savvy Fashion Mini Dress from www.dear-lover.com.

GUNDAM BZ DEFENDER

This is my fourth Gundam MOC, however this one is not from any Gundam continuity this is a custom Gundam based on my new double jointed mech frame design. If you made it to Brickfete you saw this before my internet audience did! Thanks to all the other mech builders for their suggestions and criticisms which resulted in a more poseable Lego Mobile suit frame for this MOC. This Gundam MOC stands tall at 15 inches – 3 inches taller than my usual mech / leader class transformer size and is equipped with a midsection cockpit for its pilot. He is very poseable! Enjoy rate and comment!

Pls also check out my YouTube video for more details on this MOC:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlYfjRMjUk

Birdy struggles to get the midsection on the snowman, whilst Sissy labours at giving the snowman a head.

This is Martin.

For well over a year, I have watched this very frail gentleman sitting in a couple different locations near our home. He arrives whenever it is not raining or not too cold. I have seen him walking with the aid of a seat walker. He is very thin and is nearly doubled over at the waist.

Yesterday, I decided to go meet him and hear his story. He has such a well lived face, one that I thought has had experiences in this little thing called life.

When I first introduced myself, asked him if I could take his portrait. Right away he said, "no". Then he followed up with the fact that he did not have any "warrants out with the law, or anything like that". I assured Martin, that I wasn't a reporter or affiliated with any law enforcement agencies.

He then relaxed and we began talking.

Martin was born in early 1937. He was proud of the fact that although his body was "old and bent all the hell", that he still had a keen mind, "one that still worked". Martin has lived a very interesting life. He was the youngest child in a family of 18 (including him mom and dad). They were farmers in North Dakota. Martin mentioned, "that everyone that farmed back in those days had big families, people needed to tend to things".

Times were tough for Martin and his family and they headed further west to find a different kind of work. I'm not certain what his dad did out this way. Martin did say that his dad kept everyone in order with a razor strap. If you did not eat what was on your plate or talked back or were lazy, then you were asked to go to the basement. "He would lay that strap on all of us to all parts of the body---it hurt like hell".

These were tough times. Young people grew up tough. When Martin wasn't getting into trouble with his dad, he was roughhousing with his older brothers. Getting into fist fights was not uncommon and it "seasoned him". After saying this, he reached into his heavy down jacket and took a belt of whiskey from his pint. Somehow, this did not surprise me.

Martin mentioned that he served for a time in the army and that he was in Korea for a short spell. He said that he had seen "plenty of men die in his life". I'm not too sure about this in truth, because he would have been only 16 years of age---but who knows, it was his story.

Later on, he married and had five children and drove 18 wheelers for a career. Part of his physical problems today stem from a logging accident. He and one of his older brothers had a mishap with a huge madrone tree. "It splintered and kicked back into my midsection. I was laid me up for some time and had around 180 stitches holding me together".

Well, Martin and I spoke for about 30 minutes and he was pretty easy to talk to. He was eager to share some of his stories on this day. I liked this photograph the best, because it shows his features so well. And my oh my, what a full head of hair!

We hit it off just fine and I am glad that I took the time to speak with this very interesting gentleman :)

That is my story for today!

Part Number: DEPS4902

Part Number: DEPT4218

The Tug " Point Valour" assisiting the The "John D Lietch" loading Potash backing into Thunder Bay Terminals.

This unique Great Lakes self-unloading bulk carrier was built by Port Weller Dry Docks, St. Catharines, Ont., as Hull #41. She was christened Canadian Century for Upper Lakes Group, Inc., Toronto, Ont., on April 15, 1967 by Mrs. G. E. Gathercole, wife of the Chairman of the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario. The name paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of Canada’s confederation.

At the time of her launch, the vessel was the largest capacity self-unloading vessel on the Great Lakes. Her squared hull design reduced wasted space thus increasing her tonnage, however her very tall wheelhouse and forward accommodation block gave her the distinction of being known as the “little bank building that floats.”

The Canadian Century’s original self-unloading system consisted of a single, center line conveyor belt gravity system with a 300-ton reclaimer feeding a bucket/hopper elevator system leading to a forward-mounted 250 foot discharge boom. The reclaimer consisted of 2 auger screws, each 26 feet long and 7 feet high. As they would turn, the cargo would be forced forward to the bucket elevator system. It could discharge at a rate of up to 4,000 tons per hour. Due to the technological advances in self-unloading systems, the Canadian Century’s bucket elevator system was replaced in 1975/76 with a modern loop belt elevator system capable of discharging cargo at a rate of up to 4,572 tons per hour. The discharge boom can be swung 95 degrees to port or starboard.

The vessel is powered by a Burmeister & Wain type 574 VT2F 160 diesel engine rated at 7,394 b.h.p. at 115 r.p.m. burning intermediate grade 180 fuel driving a controllable pitch propeller, giving the vessel a service speed of 14.5 knots. She is equipped with a 1,000 horsepower bowthruster. Her enormous single hold is fed by 22 hatches. She can carry 25,700 tons at maximum Seaway draft of 26 feet and is capable of carrying 31,600 tons at her maximum mid-summer draft of 29 feet 4 inches. Other capacities include 465 tons of fuel oil, 75 tons of diesel oil, 186 tons of potable water, and 17,348 tons of water ballast.

In December 2001, Canadian Century entered Port Weller Dry Docks for a mid-life refit. The $25-million (C) refit was similar to the work that the shipyard completed on Canada Steamship Lines’ CSL Tadoussac the winter before. The bow and stern sections remained intact, along with most of the main deck. The cargo hold and the rest of the midsection were replaced with a new, larger cargo hold and a one-belt self-unloading system with a flat tank top. When it returned to service in May of 2002, it not only carried more cargo, but could operate more efficiently through the increased use of technology.

The Century was built specifically to accommodate Upper Lakes Group’s first contract to carry coal for Ontario Hydro. During her first season of operation, she made 63 trips delivering coal totaling 1.7 million tons. On Dec. 8, 1967, she set a Welland Canal coal record by carrying 28,283 tons from Conneaut, Ohio, to Dofasco at Hamilton, Ont. June 18, 1969 saw the Canadian Century load a Conneaut, Ohio, record of 31,081 tons of coal for Ontario Hydro’s Lambton Generating Station at Courtright, Ont. In her early years, she would sail to Sept Isles, Que., to rendezvous with her former fleet mate Ontario Power to transfer coal loaded aboard the latter vessel at Sydney, Nova Scotia, for delivery to Nanticoke, Ont. The Canadian Century carried her first load of taconite ore pellets in 1986 when she loaded 25,427 tons at Pointe Noire, Que., for Hamilton, Ont. The vessel has carried cargoes of salt from ports such as Goderich, Ont., and Fairport, Ohio. She has also carried the odd cargo of grain products.

In her later years, the Canadian Century sailed under the management of Seaway Marine Transport, St. Catharines, Ont., a partnership of Algoma Central and Upper Lakes Group.

On March 23, 2001, the vessel was honored in the traditional Top Hat ceremony recognizing the passing of the first upbound vessel through the Welland Canal for the 2001 navigation season.

In 2002, the vessel was renamed John D. Leitch, honoring the chairman of the Upper Lakes Group. On February 25, 2011, a formal statement was issued announcing the sale of the privately owned Upper Lakes fleet and their associated interest in Seaway Marine Transport to the Algoma Central Corporation. On April 15, 2011, Algoma announced that the John D. Leitch would retain her name.

Written by George Wharton.

Who ran to help me when I fell,

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss the place to make it well?

My mother.

- Ann Taylor

© 2012 Holly E Clark, All Rights Reserved

View from the walls of Angelokastro to Paleokastritsa village, and the western coast of Corfu.

Angelokastro (Αγγελόκαστρο, "Castle of Angels" or "Angelos' castle") is one of the most important fortified complexes on Corfu. It is situated at the rocky shores on the north-west coast of Corfu. The fortress was built on a natural promontory which gave an excellent defensive position, due to the sheer inclines to the north, west and south, and provided a view of almost entire south Adriatic.

The origin of its name is not completely clear, with some historians mentioning that in 1214 Michael I Komnenos Doukas, Despot of Epirus, sometimes called Michael Angelos, annexed Corfu to Epirus and following his death, Michael II Komnenos Doukas, often called Michael Angelos in narrative sources, further fortified the area and named it after himself and his father: Angelokastro. The Despots were related to the Komnenoi dynasty of Byzantine emperors.

It can be reasonably assumed that since Byzantium lost its dominion over southern Italy in 1071 AD, the Komnenoi must have paid a lot of attention to the castle since Corfu by default became the frontier to the west of the Byzantine Empire between the 11th and 12th centuries, serving to separate and defend Byzantium from its dangerous foes to the west. After the Crusaders took Constantinople in 1204, Corfu fell into the hands of a variety of invaders until 1267 when it was occupied by the Angevins of Naples. Shortly thereafter the Angevins took over Angelokastro. The takeover is documented in a rare manuscript of the time confirming the change of ownership of the castle. The manuscript is the oldest written reference to the castle.

In 1386, the castle came under the ownership of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. Throughout the period of the Venetian rule the castle enjoyed great prominence because it offered protection to the locals from foes such as the Genoan pirates to the west as well as the Turks to the east.

The Venetians, being the prominent maritime power of the era, used it to monitor the shipping lanes in the southern Adriatic and the Ionian sea. The Castellan of the castle was appointed by the city of Corfu and was a nobleman whose family name was included in the Venetian originated Libro d'oro or Golden book, a list of the aristocratic families of Corfu.

In 1403, a Genoese pirate fleet made an attempt to occupy Angelokastro. The Genoan pirates burned and pillaged the surrounding area. Then they attempted to occupy the castle. After furious battles with the Corfiot garrison, they were ultimately repulsed.

In August of 1571, the Turks made another of many attempts at conquering Corfu. Having seized Parga and Mourtos from the Greek mainland side they attacked the Paxos island, killing, looting and burning. Subsequently they landed on Corfu's southeast shore and established a large beachhead all the way from the southern tip of the island at Lefkimi to Ipsos in Corfu's midsection of the eastern part of the island. These areas were thoroughly pillaged and burnt as in past encounters.

The Turks also attacked Angelokastro at that time trying to establish a beachhead at the northwestern part of the island, but the garrison at Angelokastro stood firm. These Turkish defeats both at the city castle in the east and Angelokastro in the west proved decisive and the Turks abandoned their attempt at conquering Corfu.

With the advent of modern warfare the castle's importance declined and gradually it fell into a state of disrepair. The passage of time did to the castle what no aspiring conqueror could.

Got a new bra to exercise in, need to lose some weight mostly in the midsection.

One of the newest in my collection; a birthday gift to myself.

The Berlin S-Bahn [ɛs.baːn] is a rapid transit railway system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It has been in operation under this name since December 1930, having been previously called the special tariff area Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahnen (Berlin city, orbital, and suburban railways). It complements the Berlin U-Bahn and is the link to many outer-Berlin areas, such as Berlin Schönefeld Airport.

While in the first decades of this tariff zone the trains were steam-drawn, and even after the electrification of large parts of the network, a number of lines remained under steam, today the term S-Bahn is used in Berlin only for those lines and trains with third-rail electrical power transmission and the special Berlin S-Bahn loading gauge. The third unique technical feature of the Berlin S-Bahn, the automated mechanical train control, is being phased out and replaced by a communications-based train control system, but which again is specific to the Berlin S-Bahn.

In other parts of Germany and other German-speaking countries, other trains are designated S-Bahn without those Berlin specific features. The Hamburg S-Bahn is the only other system using third-rail electrification.

Today, the Berlin S-Bahn is no longer defined as this special tariff area of the national railway company, but is instead just one specific means of transportation, defined by its special technical characteristics, in an area-wide tariff administered by a public transport authority. The Berlin S-Bahn is now an integral part of the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg, the regional tariff zone for all kinds of public transit in and around Berlin and the federal state (Bundesland) of Brandenburg.

INTRODUCTION

The brand name "S-Bahn" chosen in 1930 mirrored U-Bahn, which had become the official brand name for the Berlin city-owned rapid transit lines begun under the name of Berliner Hoch- und Untergrundbahnen (Berlin elevated and underground lines), where the word of mouth had abbreviated "Untergrundbahn" to "U-Bahn", in parallel to "U-Boot" formed from "Unterseeboot" ("undersea boat" – submarine).

Services on the Berlin S-Bahn have been provided by the Prussian or German national railway company of the respective time, which means the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft after the First World War, the Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR (in both East and West Berlin) until 1993 (except West Berlin from 1984 to 1994, the BVG period) and Deutsche Bahn after its incorporation in 1994.

The Berlin S-Bahn consists today of 15 lines serving 166 stations, and runs over a total route length of 332 kilometres. The S-Bahn carried 395 million passengers in 2012. It is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system. Unlike the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn crosses Berlin city limits into the surrounding state of Brandenburg, e.g. to Potsdam.

Although the S- and U-Bahn are part of a unified fare system, they have different operators. The S-Bahn is operated by S-Bahn Berlin GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, whereas the U-Bahn is run by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), the main public transit company for the city of Berlin.

OPERATION

NETWORK

The S-Bahn routes all feed into one of three core lines: a central, elevated east-west line (the Stadtbahn), a central, mostly underground north-south line (the Nord-Süd Tunnel), and a circular line (the Ringbahn). Outside the Ringbahn, suburban routes radiate in all directions.

Lines S1, S2, S25 and S26 are north-south lines that use the North-South tunnel as their midsection. They were equally distributed into Oranienburg, Bernau and Hennigsdorf in the north, and Teltow Stadt, Lichtenrade and Wannsee.

Lines S3, S5, S7, S9 and S75 are east-west lines using the Stadtbahn cross-city railway. The western termini are located at Potsdam and Spandau, although the S5 only runs as far as Westkreuz and the S75 to Ostkreuz. The eastern termini are Erkner, Strausberg Nord, Ahrensfelde and Wartenberg. The S9 uses a connector curve (Südkurve) at Ostkreuz to change from Stadtbahn to the South-eastern leg of the Ringbahn. Another curve, the Nordkurve to the North-eastern Ringbahn, was originally served by the S86 line, but it was demolished in preparation of the rebuilding of Ostkreuz station and was not rebuilt afterwards. Both connector curves were heavily used in the time of the Berlin Wall, as trains coming from the North-Eastern routes couldn't use the West Berlin North-South route and the Southern leg of the pre- and post-Wall Ringbahn was in West Berlin.

Lines S41 and S42 continuously circle around the Ringbahn, the former clockwise, the latter anti-clockwise. Lines S45, S46 and S47 link destinations in the southeast with the southern section of the Ringbahn via the tangential link from the Görlitzer Bahn to the Ring via Köllnische Heide.

Lines S8 and S85 are north-south lines using the eastern section of the Ringbahn between Bornholmer Straße and Treptower Park via Ostkreuz, using the Görlitzer Bahn in the South.

SERVICE HOURS

The S-Bahn generally operates between 4am and 1am Monday to Friday, between 5am and 1am on Saturdays and between 6:30am and 1am on Sundays during normal daytime service. However, there is a comprehensive night-time service on most lines between 1am and 5am on Saturdays and 01:00 and 06:30 on Sundays, which means that most stations enjoy a continuous service between Friday morning and Sunday evening. One exception to this is the section of the S 8 between Blankenburg and Hohen Neuendorf which sees no service in these hours. Most other lines operate without route changes, but some are curtailed or extended during nighttime. Particularly, the S 1, S 2, S 25, S 3, S 41, S 42, S 5, S 7 are unchanged, and the S 45 and S 85 have no nighttime service. Westbound lines S 46, S 47, S 75, and northbound S 9 terminate at stations Südkreuz, Schöneweide, Lichtenberg and Treptower Park, respectively.

HISTORY

FROM THE BEGINNINGS TILL END OF WORLD WAR II

With individual sections dating from the 1870s, the S-Bahn was formed in time as the network of suburban commuter railways running into Berlin, then interconnected by the circular railway connecting the various terminal railway stations, and in 1882 enhanced by the east-west cross-city line (called the "Stadtbahn", "city railway"). The forming of a distinct identity for this network began with the establishment of a special tariff for the area which was then called the "Berliner Stadt-, Ring- und Vorortbahnen", and which differed from the normal railway tariff. While the regular railway tariff was based on multiplying the distance covered with a fixed price per kilometer, the special tariff for this Berlin tariff zone was based on a graduated tariff based on the number of stations touched during the travel.

The core of this network, that is the cross-city ("Stadtbahn") East-West line and the circular Ringbahn, and several suburban branches were converted from steam operation to a third-rail electric railway in the latter half of the 1920s. The Wannsee railway, the suburban line with the highest number of passengers, was electrified in 1932/33. A number of suburban trains remained steam-hauled, even after the Second World War.

After building the East-West cross-city line connecting western suburban lines, which until then terminated at Charlottenburg station with eastern suburban lines which had terminated at Frankfurter Bahnhof (later Schlesischer Bahnhof), the logical next step was a North-South cross-city line connecting the northern suburban lines terminating at Stettiner Bahnhof with the southern suburban lines terminating at the subsidiary stations of the Berlin Potsdamer Bahnhof. The first ideas for this project emerged only 10 years after the completion of the East-West cross-city line, with several concrete proposals resulting from a 1909 competition held by the Berlin city administration. Another concrete proposal, already very close to the final realisation, was put forward in 1926 by Professor Jenicke of Breslau university. Many sections of the S-Bahn were closed during the war, both through enemy action and flooding of the Nord-Süd-Bahn tunnel on 2 May 1945 during the final Battle of Berlin. The exact number of casualties is not known, but up to 200 people are presumed to have perished, since the tunnel was used as a public shelter and also served to house military wounded in trains on underground sidings. Service through the tunnel commenced again in 1947.

THE TIME OF EXPANSION

BEFORE THE CONSTR'UCTION OF BERLIN WALL

After hostilities ceased in 1945, Berlin was given special status as a "Four-Sector City," surrounded by the Soviet Occupation Zone, which later became the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The Allies had decided that S-Bahn service in the western sectors of Berlin should continue to be provided by the Reichsbahn (DR), which was by now the provider of railway services in East Germany. (Rail services in West Germany proper were provided by the new Deutsche Bundesbahn.)

Before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Berlin S-Bahn had grown to about 335 kilometres. On the 13 August 1961, it was the biggest turning point in the operation and network for the S-Bahn.

As relations between East and West began to sour with the coming of the Cold War, it had become the victim of the hostilities. Although services continued operating through all occupation sectors, checkpoints were constructed on the borders with East Berlin and on-board "customs checks" were carried out on trains. From 1958 onward, some S-Bahn trains ran non-stop through the western sectors from stations in East Berlin to stations on outlying sections in East Germany so as to avoid the need for such controls. East German government employees were then forbidden to use the S-Bahn since it travelled through West Berlin.

AFTER THE CONSTRUCTION OF BERLIN WALL

The S-Bahn has also been operated in two separate subnets of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. In East Berlin, the S-Bahn retained a transport share of approximately 35 percent, the mode of transport with the highest passenger share. In the 1970s and 1980s the route network continued to grow. In particular, the new housing estates were connected to the grid in the northeast of the city (Marzahn and Hohenschönhausen).

The construction of the Berlin Wall led to West Berlin calling for the unions and politicians to boycott the S-Bahn. Subsequently, passenger numbers fell.

However, the Berlin S-Bahn strike brought the S-Bahn to the attention of the public, and aroused the desire to for West Berlin to manage its section of the S-Bahn itself. In 1983 negotiations of representatives of the Senate, the SNB and the Deutsche Reichsbahn took place. In December 1983, these were concluded with Allied consent to the agreement between the Deutsche Reichsbahn and the Berlin Senate for the transfer of operating rights of the S-Bahn in the area of West Berlin. The BVG received the oldest carriages from the DR; but the BVG was eager to quickly get to modern standards for a subway. Therefore, soon new S-Bahn trains were purchased on their behalf, which are still in use on the Berlin S-Bahn network as the 480 series.

Even before the Wall fell, there were efforts to substantial re-commissioning of the S-Bahn network in West Berlin.

REUNIFICATION

After the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, the first broken links were re-established, with Friedrichstraße on 1 July 1990, as the first. The BVG and DR jointly marketed the services soon after the reunification. Administratively, the divided S-Bahn networks remained separate in this time of momentous changes, encompassing German reunification and reunification of Berlin into a single city, although the dividing line was no longer the former Berlin Wall. DR and BVG (of the whole of reunified Berlin from 1 January 1992, after absorbing BVB of East Berlin) operated individual lines end to end, both into the other party's territories. For example, S2 was all BVG even after it was extended northward and southward into Brandenburg/former East German territory. The main east-west route (Stadtbahn) was a joint operation. Individual trains were operated by either BVG or DR end-to-end on the same tracks. This arrangement ended on 1 January 1994, with the creation of Deutsche Bahn due to the merger between DR and the former West Germany's Deutsche Bundesbahn. All S-Bahn operations in Berlin were transferred to the newly formed S-Bahn Berlin GmbH as a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, and the BVG withdrew from running S-Bahn services.

Technically, a number of projects followed in the steps of re-establishing broken links in order to restore the former S-Bahn network to its 1961 status after 1990,

especially the Ringbahn. In December 1997 the connection between Neukölln and Treptower Park via Sonnenallee was reopened, enabling S4 trains to run 75% of the whole ring between Schönhauser Allee and Jungfernheide. On 16 June 2002, the section Gesundbrunnen – Westhafen also reopened, re-establishing the Ringbahn operations.

EXPANSION

REDEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

OSTKREUZ

In 1988, Deutsche Reichsbahn presented plans for the transformation of Ostkreuz station. The long postponed renovation of the station began in 2007.

With nine lines (four on the Stadtbahn and five on the Ringbahn), Ostkreuz is one of the busiest stations on the network. Since the reconstruction is taking place during full operations. Work under the current plans was original projected to be completed by 2016, but it has been delayed and it is now expected to be completed in 2018.

With the progress of construction work on 31 August 2009, the southern connection and platform A were decommissioned. This route had to be realigned as a result. The construction plans envisaged that the connection would be restored by 2014. After its completion, traffic will again be able to be run from the southern Ringbahn onto the Stadtbahn.

In October 2009, the new Regionalbahn station on the Ringbahn was sufficiently complete for S-Bahn trains on the Ringbahn to use it temporarily. Demolition of the Ringbahn platform could then start and the new platform, including a concourse, could be built. This was put into operation on 16 April 2012, after a 16-day possession.

WIKIPEDIA

My favorite photo from the set. Just love the way the lighting draws out the definition of the midsection and lovely bokeh brings attention to Sakura.

Read more at www.ultima-i.com/post/2222/dd-sakura-idle-time/

This photo was Explored on July 7th, 2011. Ranked #316

businessman adjusting tie - Cropped image of a businessman adjusting tie, MUA: Thao Nguyen, Clothing Stylist: Tanya Rudolpho. To Download this image without watermarks for Free, visit: www.sourcepics.com/free-stock-photography/24723869-busine...

Deboxing Designer Jasmine. The clear acrylic cover of the case has been removed, so she is now in the open. She is still attached to the cardboard backing and plastic spacer by wires, rubber bands and plastic tacks. She is also supported by the built-in doll stand.

First look at the Disney Princess Designer Collection Jasmine Doll. She was released in October 2011, and I got her from eBay shortly afterwards, so It's been more than a year and a half since I got this doll. But I have not yet deboxed her, and this the first time I am doing a full photoshoot of her. I will photograph her boxed, during her deboxing, and fully deboxed.

My Designer Jasmine doll is a limited edition doll that was produced and sold exclusively by the Disney Store, and is numbered 5645 of 6000. She is based on the heroine from the Disney animated feature Aladdin (1992). She comes in an acrylic case with a built-in doll stand, with a base that has a golden filigree design, and a golden metallic nameplate. There is also a cardboard cover for the case that I have not photographed here.

She is 11 1/2'' tall, and has the same body as the other Designer Princess dolls, with jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips and knees (internal). She has rubber legs and fixed ankles, with feet angled for high heels.

She has jet black, 12'' long hair tied into a floor length pony tail. There are two golden elastic hairties in the upper and middle part of the ponytail, and the lower portion of her hair has loose curls. It is very soft and shiny. There were a few stray hairs, but I left them alone and did not comb it, as I thought her hair was neat enough as it was out of the box. She has light brown skin, and a unique face sculpt that is very pretty and movie accurate. She has large dark brown almond shaped eyes that are glancing towards her right. She has light blue-green eye shadow, and thick black eyebrows. She has rooted eyelashes, that are tapered in length from short to long, then at the ends there are very long curved antenna like lashes. She has a small straight nose, full dark purple lips in with a closed mouth smile. She has very pale red rouge on her cheeks.

Her three piece gown is made of bright blue-green satin and light blue organza. Her bodice is cropped short to reveal her midsection (including her belly button), and consists of light blue organza embedded with golden gems, draped over her upper arms, and gemmed blue-green satin lower and back sections. Her blue-green satin skirt is floor length and is figure hugging, flairing out at the bottom. It is hemmed and there is a light blue polyester lining. There is a very wide overskirt of the double layered light blue satin. I is open in front, but can be wrapped around to completely cover her inner skirt, or can be folded to reveal her inner skirt.

She is wearing light blue-green high heeled shoes, which match the color of her skirt.

Her accessories include earrings, a chain belt with pendant and Aladdin's lamp. The earrings are large golden triangles with gold colored gems. Her belt is made of fine gold chain, with a large round jeweled pendant just below her waist that gathers the strands of the chain together, the remainder of which fall almost to the floor. In her right hand is a golden lamp that is bejeweled with yellow gems. The top of the lamp is removable (it is held in place with rubber bands, which I left in place).

There were no real surprises revealed by deboxing her, although it was nice to see the full extent of her overskirt. I was also glad to take her out of her awkward head pose, which was a common problem among the Designer Princesses. One thing I didn't like was that her top was a little too short, and revealed her waist joint (that enables her to spin her upper body around 360 degrees). Tugging on her top didn't move it enough to hide the joint in the front. As a consequence, her waist joint moved very freely, and her upper body tended to turn whenever she was handled, aided by her long hair. Also her long luxurious hair is very heavy, so tends to pull her backwards slightly when she is posed on the display stand. Designer Rapunzel has a similar problem. Her very wide floor length overskirt and floor length hair make it difficult to rebox her neatly, which is a common problem with the Designer dolls with very wide floor length skirts.

The Mexican Tiger Rat Snake is one of the longest snakes of the Americas. Since the snake lives in areas with tall trees and vegetation, their special color patterns of yellow and black help them blend in perfectly with the speckled sunlight shining down through the trees.

This particular species of snake is usually very docile when left alone, but when provoked they will shake their tails (despite not having a rattle) and hiss very loudly. They can also inflate their necks dramatically. If this does not warn off the intruder, then the Mexican Tiger Rat Snake will strike repeatedly.

Mexican tiger rat snakes are oviparous and the hatched young resemble their parents. The colors of young snakes may become either a little darker or paler as they age, depending on subspecies or population, but there is no dramatic change in pattern. Some juvenile Tiger Rat Snakes have deeper golden or orange banding around the midsection; only the Mexican subspecies retains the deeper color as the adult.

Designer Jasmine has been fully deboxed, and is posed standing, supported by the custom doll stand. Her overskirt, freed from the factory restraints, is now wider than the doll stand, and is allowed to drape over the edges of the base. The sunlight was fading as I was taking these photos, so some of the closeups used flash.

First look at the Disney Princess Designer Collection Jasmine Doll. She was released in October 2011, and I got her from eBay shortly afterwards, so It's been more than a year and a half since I got this doll. But I have not yet deboxed her, and this the first time I am doing a full photoshoot of her. I will photograph her boxed, during her deboxing, and fully deboxed.

My Designer Jasmine doll is a limited edition doll that was produced and sold exclusively by the Disney Store, and is numbered 5645 of 6000. She is based on the heroine from the Disney animated feature Aladdin (1992). She comes in an acrylic case with a built-in doll stand, with a base that has a golden filigree design, and a golden metallic nameplate. There is also a cardboard cover for the case that I have not photographed here.

She is 11 1/2'' tall, and has the same body as the other Designer Princess dolls, with jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips and knees (internal). She has rubber legs and fixed ankles, with feet angled for high heels.

She has jet black, 12'' long hair tied into a floor length pony tail. There are two golden elastic hairties in the upper and middle part of the ponytail, and the lower portion of her hair has loose curls. It is very soft and shiny. There were a few stray hairs, but I left them alone and did not comb it, as I thought her hair was neat enough as it was out of the box. She has light brown skin, and a unique face sculpt that is very pretty and movie accurate. She has large dark brown almond shaped eyes that are glancing towards her right. She has light blue-green eye shadow, and thick black eyebrows. She has rooted eyelashes, that are tapered in length from short to long, then at the ends there are very long curved antenna like lashes. She has a small straight nose, full dark purple lips in with a closed mouth smile. She has very pale red rouge on her cheeks.

Her three piece gown is made of bright blue-green satin and light blue organza. Her bodice is cropped short to reveal her midsection (including her belly button), and consists of light blue organza embedded with golden gems, draped over her upper arms, and gemmed blue-green satin lower and back sections. Her blue-green satin skirt is floor length and is figure hugging, flairing out at the bottom. It is hemmed and there is a light blue polyester lining. There is a very wide overskirt of the double layered light blue satin. I is open in front, but can be wrapped around to completely cover her inner skirt, or can be folded to reveal her inner skirt.

She is wearing light blue-green high heeled shoes, which match the color of her skirt.

Her accessories include earrings, a chain belt with pendant and Aladdin's lamp. The earrings are large golden triangles with gold colored gems. Her belt is made of fine gold chain, with a large round jeweled pendant just below her waist that gathers the strands of the chain together, the remainder of which fall almost to the floor. In her right hand is a golden lamp that is bejeweled with yellow gems. The top of the lamp is removable (it is held in place with rubber bands, which I left in place).

There were no real surprises revealed by deboxing her, although it was nice to see the full extent of her overskirt. I was also glad to take her out of her awkward head pose, which was a common problem among the Designer Princesses. One thing I didn't like was that her top was a little too short, and revealed her waist joint (that enables her to spin her upper body around 360 degrees). Tugging on her top didn't move it enough to hide the joint in the front. As a consequence, her waist joint moved very freely, and her upper body tended to turn whenever she was handled, aided by her long hair. Also her long luxurious hair is very heavy, so tends to pull her backwards slightly when she is posed on the display stand. Designer Rapunzel has a similar problem. Her very wide floor length overskirt and floor length hair make it difficult to rebox her neatly, which is a common problem with the Designer dolls with very wide floor length skirts.

In Union Square Park in Manhattan, we just sort of stopped and rested and people-watched, and Louise's midsection here was just covered in cool patterns. Thus, picture.

The Peugeot 304 is a small family car which was produced by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1969 to 1980.

The 304 was introduced to the public at the Paris Motor Show in September 1969. Production of the saloon/sedan on the Sochaux assembly lines was discontinued during the summer of 1979, while the "Break" (estate) was produced until the spring of 1980.

Peugeot, which had always been a financially prudent company, saw a gap in the midsize car market in France, Italy and the rest of Western Europe. By using the smaller 204's midsection, development costs were minimized resulting in a higher profit margin because of the higher pricing structure in the larger, better equipped market. The 304's main competitors on its home market came from Renault and Simca, with Citroen noticeably absent from this sector at the launch.

The car was moderately advanced for its time, having fully independent suspension, and a four-speed gearbox located directly below the engine, sharing the same oil as the engine.

The 304 was designed to slot between the popular 204 and the recently introduced Peugeot 504. Since the 204 had an exceptionally spacious passenger cabin for its class, the 304 body used the central portion of the 204: engine and running gear components were mostly interchangeable between the two cars. However, the 304 had a restyled front grill and headlights, designed consciously to emulate the 504.

Great Hall

Visit England’s last and greatest medieval hall. The Great Hall is also one of Britain's oldest theatres.

Henry VIII’s Great Hall

The room is spanned by a large and sumptuously decorated hammer-beam roof and its walls are hung with Henry VIII’s most splendid tapestries, The Story of Abraham.

William Shakespeare’s company—the “King’s Men’”—performed for King James I over Christmas and New Year in 1603-4.

In the 21st Century the Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, chaired an informal meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the European Union in the Great Hall on the October 27, 2005, following in a noble tradition of royal and political entertainment.

Historic Tourists to the Great Hall

“Going up into the left wing of the palace one comes to an enormous hall with an arched roof made from some Irish wood which, so they say, has the natural property of keeping free of cobwebs.”

—Baron Waldstein, tourist (1600)

“Hampton Court is as noble and uniform a pile, and as capacious as any Gothic architecture can have made it …The great hall is a most magnificent room…”

—John Evelyn, diarist (1662)

In the 16th century, Hampton Court was a palace, a hotel, a theater, and a vast entertainment complex. The Great Hall was, by itself, all of these things. It was used, every day, as the staff canteen for the lower ranks of Henry’s court. Up to 600 people ate here in two sittings, twice a day. On special occasions, however, the tapestries rolled out over the walls, candelabra were strung across the ceiling on wires, and the lights from hundreds of candles transformed the hall into a magical setting for a fantastical court masque.

The Great Hall is the largest room in the palace, 32 m (106 feet) long, 12 m (40 feet) wide, and over 18 m (60 feet) high. A vast team of masons, carpenters, bricklayers, and laborers began to build it for Henry VIII in the 1532, and it was finished in 1535, becoming the last medieval Great Hall built for any English monarch. The walls are still hung with the best tapestries in Henry VIII’s vast collection depicting the Story of Abraham—faded through the years but still beautiful. The tapestries under the gallery depict the Story of Hercules and the Triumph of Fate. Most characteristic about this large hall is the large wooden hammer-beam ceiling—the initials of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are still a part of the decoration. The ceiling was designed by the King’s Master Carpenter James Nedeham, was painted blue, red, and gold.

The Abraham tapestries which line the walls today were commissioned by Henry himself, and probably first hung here for the visit of a large French Embassy in 1546. This was just one of the magnificent state occasions when all the great rooms of Hampton Court were filled with the “swaggering theater” of court life. The Great Hall played host to dance and drama, with Henry himself earlier in his reign playing a starring role in specially written chivalric inventions, rescuing helpless maidens from dangerous castles.

When Henry VIII reigned, this was the most important room of the entire castle—seen through a courtier’s eyes. This is where the King would dine on a dais overlooking his court—in fact Henry was so impatient with this particular room that he made the masons work at night by candlelight as well as all through the day! Shakespeare performed a play of his in front of James I on New Year’s-day 1603—the same year that Elizabeth I died.

A History of the Great Hall

The center of life for most of the more-ranking members of the court was the Great Hall, where in Tudor times they dined in two shifts in the middle of the day.

The St. Valery family, who owned the Palace land from 1086, had built a chamber block and Great Hall. It remains exists beneath the existing Great Hall. In 1495, a list was made recording that the Great Hall of the house when it belonged to Lord Giles Daubeney contained two fixed tables, two long trestle tables, four benches, a cupboard, and a railing around the central hearth.

A visitor of high rank in Tudor times would expect to pass through the Great Hall into the more exclusive rooms beyond.

In 1532, Henry VIII rebuilt the Great Hall, the first in the sequence of rooms leading towards his private lodgings. It seems that Wolsey himself had begun rebuilding Lord Giles Daubeney’s hall; the oriel window, for example, is almost identical to that constructed by Wolsey’s masons at his Oxford College, Christ Church. It is not quite clear how far Wolsey’s work had advanced, but this oriel window now became part of a dramatically improved Great Hall.

Henry’s designers, Christopher Dickenson and James Nedeham, sat down to work in their tracing houses. The roof of the Great Hall is of hammerbeam construction. This design traditionally allowed carpenters to span halls of a greater width than the longest available timbers. However, timbers twelve meters (forty feet) in length, the width of the hall at Hampton Court, were readily available. The hammerbeam design, echoing the roof of Westminster Hall, was deliberately chosen to symbolize royalty, antiquity, and chivalry. A stone hearth lay in the center of the hall, and smoke was intended to escape through a shuttered louver above it in the medieval fashion. Yet the absence of any sort on the timbers of the louver itself throws doubt upon whether this archaic feature was ever used. The roof was decorated with carved and painted heads, and badges celebrating the King and Queen. The carved screen that remains today was erected across the “lower” or entrance end of the Hall, supporting a gallery for musicians above, while a dais was constructed at the other, “higher” end. Anne Boleyn’s badges and initials appear next to Henry VIII’s beneath the royal coats of arms decorating the Hall’s roof.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Great Hall was used as a “masking house” or indoor theater at Christmas and New Year. The painted canvas backdrops included representations of “seven cities, one village, and one country house”.

In the time of James I, a new dais was built in the Great Hall to accommodate the King and Queen and the ambassadors from foreign courts who would be invited to watch the spectacles of the season. One of these was Samuel Daniels’s masque The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses. His stage directions record how the Queen herself took “the part of Pallas, in a blue mantel, with a silver embroidery of all weapons and engines of war, with a helmet-dressing on her head”. She descended by a winding stair from a “paradisical mountain” constructed at the lower end of the hall to perform a dance before the King seated beneath his Cloth of Estate. All the ambassadors and courtiers joined in the dancing, and young Prince Henry was thrown between them “like a tennis ball”. The celebrations in the Great Hall for the New Year in 1604 included performances by the King’s Men, whose resident dramatist was William Shakespeare.

The Great Hall was repaired in 1614.

Some of the wooden stags’ heads mounted with antlers that remain in the Great Hall and Horn Room date from Stuart times. The Palace’s collection of horns, later described by John Evelyn as “vast beams of stags, elks, antelopes etc.” also came to include the fossilized horns of an Irish elk, excavated from a bog in County Clare and presented to Charles II in 1684.

When William III and Mary II started considering rebuilding the palace, one design featured Henry VIII’s Great Hall at the center of a grand Baroque entrance facing North. Double avenues marching south across Bushy Park would have culminated in a vast semicircular courtyard built around the Great Hall.

In 1718, under George I, the Great Hall was converted into a theater (fulfilling the intentions of William III, who had begun to fit it out for the purpose). This work was probably undertaken by gentleman architect Sir John Vanbrugh, who was himself a playwright and theater impresario. Curtains covered the large windows, boxes and seats were installed, and the assembled audience faced west towards the stage erected in front of the screens passage. The canvas scenery was painted by Sir James Thornhill. Sir Richard Steele’s company from Drury Lane performed seven plays before the assembled court, including Hamlet and Henry VIII by Shakespeare, both appropriate to the setting.

On the orders of King George III in 1800, architect James Wyatt removed the theater from the great Hall, revealing the Tudor interior that had not been seen for a century. In this work, Wyatt began the process of making the great Hall even more tutored than it had ever been, by opening a new doorway from the dais into the Great Watching Chamber in an exemplary copy of the arched doorway in the adjacent Horn Room. This replaced a historically inaccurate doorway added in the 18th century. In addition, new flagstones were laid on the floor, and the walls were plastered to look like ancient stonework.

A.C. Pugin’s Specimens of Gothic Architecture (1821-1823) contained the first detailed measured drawings of the Great Hall and its roof.

With a deep romanticism and affection for Gothic styles and picturesque irregularity—and with an equally deep distaste for Sir Christopher Wren and the Baroque—Edward Jesse, Itinerant Deputy Surveyor in the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, supervised a series of restorations and re-presentations. The most notable was that of the Great Hall itself. Left clear and relatively bare by Wyatt, it was transformed between 1840 and 1846 into a state that Jesse believed Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII would have recognized instantly. The great series of Abraham tapestries, one of the glories to have survived Henry VIII’s reign, was returned there from the King’s State Apartments. They hammer beam ceiling was repainted and the windows of both the Great Hall and the Great Watching Chamber were filled with stained glass to the designs of Thomas Willement. Heraldic badges and figures in the glass evoked the genealogy of Henry VIII’s wives, of the King and his family, and of his chancellor, Thomas Wolsey. Willement incorporated the dissent of each of Henry VIII’s wives in the windows on the north and south sides of the Hall, interspersed with the King’s badges. The stained-glass was but one element in the redecoration of the Tudor Hall. Artful arrangements of arms and armor were placed around the walls on specially constructed corbels, and deer antlers (all from the parks) were added for further effect. The impressive displays included St. George slaying the dragon, although there is no evidence that armor had ever been previously hung in the Hall. Some was newly made; the rest was lent by the Tower of London. This arrangement survived until 1925. When Jesse had finished, it was “probably the finest and most brilliantly embellished building in Europe”, in the words of the correspondent of the Gentlemen’s Magazine.

In the late 19th century, many events were held in the Great Hall, including fund-raising evenings of entertainment held by Princess Frederica of Hanover, a descendant of George II.

The Great Hall was the object of the most thorough program of works, after dry rot and beetle infestation were found in the roof in 1922. Decayed timbers were replaced, and a steel truss system was inserted into the hammerbeam roof structure. The painted decoration on the timber was stripped away, as were many of the corbels, armor, and other novelties that Jesse had introduced in 1844.

Thirteen Fragments of Armorial Tapestry Borders

Thirteen fragments of detached borders of tapestries made from 1500 to 1547 from the collections of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey. One is woven with repeating motifs of the royal arms and a crowned portcullis, separated by balusters, against a diapered ground. Others are woven with various armorials, including the arms of the See of York, of Cardinal Wolsey as archbishop of York, and of the two Sees of York and Canterbury. During the late nineteenth-century re-presentation of the Tudor apartments at Hampton Court Palace these borders were hung against the gallery of the Great Hall and around the walls of the Great Watching Chamber. It is not known which tapestries they were originally intended to surround. Tapestries played a fundamental role in the decoration of Henry VIII’s palaces. At his death in 1547 his collection contained over two thousand pieces. These were hung for short periods wherever the court was in residence and were carried about the country as it progressed between palaces. From the late seventeenth century, the disposition of tapestries in the royal palaces became more permanent, but there were none the less periodic rearrangements involving reduction or enlargement, either by detaching the borders or, more drastically, by cutting the pictorial field itself. These borders were probably woven in the Netherlands, but it is also possible that the royal “arras maker” responsible for the upkeep of the royal tapestries had workmen capable of producing tapestry of this quality. Because the royal Tudor arms remained unchanged after the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, the borders may conceivably date from the reign of his father, Henry VII. Catalogue entry from Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London 2002.

•Provenance: Probably made for Henry VIII. Recorded in the "Withdrawing Room" in 1659, from 1849 a selection has been hung in the Great Hall.

•People Involved:

oCreator(s): Netherlands (nationality); English (nationality)

oAcquirer(s): Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547)

oSubject(s): Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547); House of Tudor

•Physical Properties:

oMedium and Techniques: Woven wool tapestry

wool

tapestry; woven

oMeasurements: 66.0 × 226.0 cm (whole object)

•References:

oAlternative Title(s): Armorial panel

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White Sands Missile Range Museum

Redstone Lightweight Launcher No. 1003

Watertown Arsenal

Launch platform in action:

www.wsmr-history.org/RedstoneFirst2.htm

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Redstone was the Army's largest surface-to-surface ballistic missile. Modified Redstone rockets launched America's first satellite and first human into space. Developed by Wernher Von Braun, Redstone is a direct descendant of the German V-2 rocket.

As a field artillery missile, Redstone was designed to extend the firepower and range of conventional artillery cannon against ground targets. It could deliver a nuclear or high-explosive warhead to targets 200 miles away. In 1951, a nuclear warhead meant a 3-ton package. Since Redstone was a ballistic missile, its initial trajectory and guidance was provided by the launcher. Great care was taken to level the missile and to orient the stabilized platform accurately in the direction of the target.

Redstone's liquid-fueled engine burned alcohol and liquid oxygen, producing about 75,000 pounds of thrust. At burnout, or when the propellant was exhausted, it had a speed of 3,800 miles per hour (6,116 kilometers per hour). For guidance, Redstone had a totally new pure-inertial guidance system using air-bearing gyros. Beyond the earth's atmosphere the inertial guidance system directed it toward the target. After reaching the proper speed, the rocket engine cut out and dropped off, along with the fuel tanks. Then the guidance system and warhead coasted to the target.

As a field artillery missile, Redstone was mobile and transportable by plane, truck or train. However, when on the move, it needed a convoy eighteen miles long, with 200 vehicles carrying approximately 10,000 individual pieces of equipment and more than 600 men. The Redstone itself was carried on three trucks-its nose section (warhead) midsection (power plant and fuel tanks) and tail section- to be assembled in the field.

Named after Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, where it was developed and built, Redstone's development was triggered by outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 to counter Soviet Cold War threats. The first Redstone missile was launched on August 20, 1953 from the Army's missile test range at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and traveled 8,000 yards (7,315 meters). Thirty-six more were launched rough 1958, testing structure, engine performance, guidance and control, tracking and telemetry. On May 16, 1958, combat-ready soldiers fired their first Redstone rocket. It was put into U.S. Army service in Germany that June.

Redstone has been called the Model-T of the Free World's space program. A solid-fuel fourth stage was added to it and Redstone became the Jupiter-C rocket. On January 31, 1958, a Jupiter-C lifted America's first orbiting satellite, Explorer I, into space.

Starting in 1959, warhead some Redstone rockets were modified for NASA's Mercury program. Propellant tanks were elongated by 96 inches, adding 20 seconds of burn time. The section was replaced by the Mercury capsule and escape tower. The first of these Mercury Redstone rockets was tested at Cape Canaveral on December 19, 1960. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space when he was launched on a suborbital flight in a Mercury capsule by a Redstone rocket engine.

Between 1958 and 1962, eighteen Redstone missiles were fired at White Sands Missile Range. Pershing replaced Redstone beginning in 1960.

Length: 69 ft

Diameter: 70 in

Weight: 30 tons

Propellant: Liquid

Range: 200 miles

First Fired: 1958

HMS Cavalier is a retired C-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at East Cowes on 28 March 1943, launched on 7 April 1944, and commissioned on 22 November 1944. She served in World War II and in various commissions in the Far East until she was decommissioned in 1972. After decommissioning she was preserved as a museum ship and currently resides at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

Construction

Cavalier was one of 96 War Emergency Programme destroyers ordered between 1940 and 1942. She was one of the first ships to be built with the forward and aft portions of her hull welded, with the midsection riveted to ensure strength. The new process gave the ship additional speed. In 1970 a 64-mile race was arranged between Cavalier and the frigate Rapid, which had the same hull form and machinery. Cavalier beat Rapid by 30 yards (27 m) after Rapid lifted a safety valve, reaching an average speed of 31.8 knots (58.9 km/h).

Service history

Cavalier returning to Portsmouth in 1946

After commissioning she joined the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, part of the Home Fleet, and took part in a number of operations off Norway. Most notably in February 1945 she was despatched with the destroyers Myngs and Scorpion[5] to reinforce a convoy from the Kola Inlet in Russia, which had suffered attacks from enemy aircraft and U-boats, and had subsequently been scattered by a violent storm. She and the other escorts reformed the convoy, and returned to Britain with the loss of only three of the thirty-four ships. This action earned Cavalier a battle honour.

Later in 1945 Cavalier was despatched to the Far East, where she provided naval gunfire support during the Battle of Surabaya. In February 1946 she went to Bombay to help quell the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. After some time in the British Pacific Fleet she was paid off in May 1946 and was placed in reserve at Portsmouth.

Cavalier returned to service in 1957 after a modernisation, which included removing some of her torpedo tubes in favour of Squid anti-submarine mortars. She was again sent to the Far East, and joined the 8th Destroyer Squadron in Singapore. In December 1962 she transported 180 troops from Singapore to Brunei to help suppress a rebellion that became part of the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation. After disembarking the troops she remained in Brunei as a communications centre for several days until other Royal Navy ships arrived to relieve her.

Cavalier was decommissioned in 1972 along with HMS Wellington (moored in London), and is the last surviving British destroyer of World War 2 still in the UK.

After decommissioning[edit]

After decommissioning at Chatham Dockyard, she was laid up in Portsmouth. As a unique survivor, after a five-year campaign led by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the ship was purchased by the Cavalier Trust for £65,000 and handed over on Trafalgar Day 1977 in Portsmouth. By selling the ship to the Trust, the UK Government and the Royal Navy severed all formal connection and responsibility for the ship. A special warrant was issued that allows her to retain the prefix "HMS" (Her Majesty's Ship) and fly the White Ensign, a privilege normally only enjoyed by commissioned ships of the Royal Navy. A similar privilege is enjoyed by another museum ship, the cruiser Belfast.

Moved to Southampton, Cavalier opened as a museum and memorial ship in August 1982. This was not commercially successful, and in October 1983 the ship was moved to Brighton, where she formed the centrepiece of a newly built yacht marina.

In 1987, the ship was brought to the River Tyne to form the centrepiece of a national shipbuilding exhibition centre planned by South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council in the former shipyard of Hawthorn Leslie and Company, builders of many similar destroyers. The plans for the museum came to nothing, and the borough council, faced with annual maintenance costs of £30,000 and a hardening of public opinion against unnecessary expenditure, resolved to sell the ship and wind up the venture in 1996. The ship sat in a dry dock (owing to a previous list) in a rusting condition, awaiting a buyer or scrapping in situ.

After the reforming of the Cavalier Trust, and a debate in Parliament, in 1998 Cavalier was bought by Chatham Historic Dockyard for display as a museum ship. Arriving on 23 May 1998, Cavalier now resides in No. 2 dry-dock.

On 14 November 2007, Cavalier was officially designated as a war memorial to the 142 Royal Navy destroyers sunk during World War II and the 11,000 men killed on those ships. The unveiling of a bronze monument created by the artist Kenneth Potts was conducted by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The monument is adjacent to the ship at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent.

In the summer of 2009 the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust made available accommodation on board the ship for youth groups who wish to stay on board and experience life on board a Royal Naval Destroyer.

In September 2010, Cavalier fired the first full broadside from a ship flying the White Ensign since a firing by the destroyer London in December 1981. This was due to the work of the heritage naval gun crew who restored all three 4.5-in guns back to working condition in conjunction with the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.

In April 2014 Cavalier was added to Google Maps Business View (formerly Google Business Photos) by CInsideMedia Ltd, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of her launch. The tour, which includes Cavalier's engine and gear room, was enhanced with interactive audio hotspots to enable visitors with accessibility issues to explore the ship.

wikipedia

via

Plastic surgery is a touchy subject; some swear they will never undergo any treatment while others dream of the perkier breasts and tight skin that modern cosmetic surgery can offer. Although there are hundreds of cosmetic treatments one can choose from there less than 10 plastic surgeries that are extremely common in the united states and many of them have been perfected by surgeons for decades.

When it comes down to taking action and actually going in for a consultation, the thing that holds most people back is not safety or morals, but cost.

Does health insurance cover plastic surgery in Michigan?

Before we get into the prices of different surgeries, we must first discuss how you will pay for your surgery. For those wondering if their health insurance will cover some of the costs related to their procedure, the answer is unfortunately no for most. Most plastic surgeries fall under the category of elective surgery, meaning they are for cosmetic purposes and not out of medical necessity. With that in mind, there are circumstances where health insurance may cover plastic surgery. One of the most common scenarios is a rhinoplasty for deviated septum repair.

A deviated septum is a condition in which the nasal septum between the nostrils is displaced to one side making one of the passages smaller and causing a slight breathing impediment. For people who are looking to get rhinoplasty and are suffering from a deviated septum, your health insurance may assist with your surgery. If you visit a Michigan plastic surgery clinic, make sure to speak with your insurance company as well if you suffer from this condition.

For the rest of us, we will have to pay for our treatment out of pocket. Fortunately, you may be able to finance your procedure if you don’t have the cash to spend. Some clinics and even 3rd party institutions offer payment plans specifically for cosmetic surgery in which you can pay off the total of your procedure over the course of 6 months to a year. If cash is tight, you could also ask your surgeon if there are any special offers available.

Although, we would like to remind you that you will rarely find the best plastic surgery in Michigan for the cheapest price. Many of the most experienced and highly trained surgeons charge a premium for their work and for good reason. Plastic surgery is very difficult and it takes years for surgeons to master popular techniques. Clinics that offer plastic surgery for significantly less than the market standard should be a red flag to anyone looking for high quality and professional medical care.

Average prices for the top plastic surgeries in Michigan

Plastic surgery can range anywhere from $500 to $12,000 depending on the procedure and your specific case. Every single patient is different and for this reason, clinics rarely advertise prices. Another factor that can affect price is the technique your surgeon uses. Cosmetic medicine is a very fast evolving field of medicine and most treatments offer many different techniques, some of them costing significantly more, some of them worth the extra cost, and some of them not.

For example, with hair transplants, FUE is the newest and most advanced form of hair transplantation. Although it costs slightly more, FUE is superior to FUT and strip harvesting as far as graft survival, recovery, and aesthetics go, and is definitely worth the extra cost for most.

Hair Transplantation

Hair transplantation is a procedure designed to restore hair loss due to age and male as well as female, pattern baldness. During follicular unit extraction, a tool is used to remove hair grafts from the back and sides of the head, which are more resistant to balding, and implant them into a balding area. FUE can be performed manually or automatically using NeoGraft and other mechanical systems depending on the preference of your surgeon.

A hair transplant Michigan procedure costs $5,400 for the average patient, with treatments ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 or more depending on the number of hair grafts that are transplanted. Patients who need to cover a small bald spot will spend significantly less than men who need to restore an entire hairline or cover the top of their entire head with new hairs. This is because the more hair that needs to be grafted, the longer the procedure will take and the more resources your hair transplants Michigan surgeon will need to employ to restore your natural hairline.

Rhinoplasty and Nose Reshaping

Rhinoplasty is a procedure designed to reshape the nose and correct unappealing features such as droopiness, large or wide tip, a nasal bridge hump, and many more. Surgeons remove, add, and reshape cartilage in order to reshape the nasal structure and create a symmetrical and aesthetic nose that looks both natural and subtle.

Rhinoplasty Michigan costs $6,200 for the average patient, with procedures ranging from $3,000 to $9,000 for more complicated cases. The more changes that need to be made to the nose, the more expensive the procedure will cost. Some patients need to flatten a nasal hump while others may want to make their wide nose skinnier and more subtle. Each every change is unique and requires time and attention to do right. As usual, if you want to work with the best rhinoplasty surgeon in Michigan, which many do, expect to pay a premium for your treatment.

Liposuction and Fat Removal

Liposuction, also known as lipo, is a plastic surgery conducted to thin out and reconfigure upsetting areas of the body such as the upper arms, abdomen, or thighs where fat often accumulates in excess. During liposuction, a plastic surgeon extracts concentrated deposits of fat cells from underneath the skin, enhancing a patients body contours and bodily dimensions. The surgeon also acts to sculpt the region of focus in order to form a proportionate and aesthetically pleasing appearance.

Liposuction Michigan costs patients approximately $3,500 on average. Liposuction prices can fluctuate greatly from case to case as it is most definitely not a “one size fits all” procedure. The exact price your liposuction procedure will depend greatly on how much fat you want to remove, what areas you want to treat, and how many different areas you want to treat in a single procedure as these all affect the time and resources necessary to complete your case. A surgeon’s exact cost of liposuction in Michigan will be determined according to their personal experience, the surgical method performed, and the post-operative attention that may be required for your specific case.

Breast Augmentation and Breast Implants

Breast Augmentation, also known as breast enlargement or breast implants, involves utilizing artificial shells or a fat transfer to expand the breasts and create a rounder, perkier and more natural appearance. Patients also undergo breast augmentation in order to restore lost breast volume after major weight loss, sickness, pregnancy, or a mastectomy.

Breast augmentation Michigan costs patients an average of $5,718 according to a 2017 investigation by the highly credible American Association of Plastic Surgeons. Breast Implants, comparable to most plastic and cosmetic procedure do not have an established price, as there are several factors that determine the price of treatment. There are multiple types of implants available such as saline and silicone and each type of implant is available in multiple sizes.

Other features such as textured and teardrop shaped implants can add to the price of your procedure as well. Every patient is unique and entails a distinct amount of time and resources to attain full satisfaction. There is only one way to determine precisely how much breast implants Michigan will cost you is to request a consultation and speak a local specialist to address your goals one on one.

Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty)

Abdominoplasty, or a tummy tuck as it is more regularly recognized as, reduces excess skin, as well as some fat tissue from the abdominal. A tummy tuck will also tighten and repair weak muscle fibers in the area in order to craft a tight and firm midsection that is aesthetically appealing. A tummy tuck Michigan can benefit people who have sought relentlessly to achieve a tight and lean midsection through diet and exercise but are struggling to see their abdominal muscles because there is too much skin and a bulge that seems impossible to lose.

Excess skin around the abs is most common among individuals who used to be obese or overweight and have lost a lot of weight. This can be frustrating because you may lose a lot of fat naturally but the excess and loose skin from your “larger self” may hide the results of your hard work in the gym.

A Tummy tuck in Michigan costs $5,900 for the ordinary patient. The precise cost a tummy tuck for you will be defined during your consultation with a surgeon. Your quote for liposuction replies on exactly how much skin must be eliminated and muscle needs to be repaired. Similar to the other cosmetic surgeries discussed, the cost varies because the tummy tuck is not a “one size fits all” treatment.

When you consult with your surgeon you will discuss the different costs related to tummy tuck surgery and any options that affect prices such as the no-drain tummy tuck and any other advanced techniques you may choose to have performed. Ensure that you speak with the clinic about exclusive offers and cosmetic surgery financing opportunities they may have available.

Conclusion

Whenever you are considering a cosmetic procedure, it is vital that your Michigan plastic surgeon is deeply experienced and concentrates in the specific procedure you are looking for. An amateur surgeon can leave you feeling troubled with your results or even desiring an additional treatment to correct any mistakes. Performing any cosmetic or plastic surgery entails both the experience of a surgeon and the talent of an artist, something that demands decades to truly perfect.

If you are looking for a professional in your area, request a consultation via SurgeonGate today, and a specialist will reach out to you as soon as possible to schedule a consultation between you and an experienced surgeon in your area. Check out our blog for more information about plastic surgery and cosmetic medicine.

The post How much does plastic surgery cost in Michigan? appeared first on SurgeonGate.

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Great Hall

Visit England’s last and greatest medieval hall. The Great Hall is also one of Britain's oldest theatres.

Henry VIII’s Great Hall

The room is spanned by a large and sumptuously decorated hammer-beam roof and its walls are hung with Henry VIII’s most splendid tapestries, The Story of Abraham.

William Shakespeare’s company—the “King’s Men’”—performed for King James I over Christmas and New Year in 1603-4.

In the 21st Century the Prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, chaired an informal meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the European Union in the Great Hall on the October 27, 2005, following in a noble tradition of royal and political entertainment.

Historic Tourists to the Great Hall

“Going up into the left wing of the palace one comes to an enormous hall with an arched roof made from some Irish wood which, so they say, has the natural property of keeping free of cobwebs.”

—Baron Waldstein, tourist (1600)

“Hampton Court is as noble and uniform a pile, and as capacious as any Gothic architecture can have made it …The great hall is a most magnificent room…”

—John Evelyn, diarist (1662)

In the 16th century, Hampton Court was a palace, a hotel, a theater, and a vast entertainment complex. The Great Hall was, by itself, all of these things. It was used, every day, as the staff canteen for the lower ranks of Henry’s court. Up to 600 people ate here in two sittings, twice a day. On special occasions, however, the tapestries rolled out over the walls, candelabra were strung across the ceiling on wires, and the lights from hundreds of candles transformed the hall into a magical setting for a fantastical court masque.

The Great Hall is the largest room in the palace, 32 m (106 feet) long, 12 m (40 feet) wide, and over 18 m (60 feet) high. A vast team of masons, carpenters, bricklayers, and laborers began to build it for Henry VIII in the 1532, and it was finished in 1535, becoming the last medieval Great Hall built for any English monarch. The walls are still hung with the best tapestries in Henry VIII’s vast collection depicting the Story of Abraham—faded through the years but still beautiful. The tapestries under the gallery depict the Story of Hercules and the Triumph of Fate. Most characteristic about this large hall is the large wooden hammer-beam ceiling—the initials of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are still a part of the decoration. The ceiling was designed by the King’s Master Carpenter James Nedeham, was painted blue, red, and gold.

The Abraham tapestries which line the walls today were commissioned by Henry himself, and probably first hung here for the visit of a large French Embassy in 1546. This was just one of the magnificent state occasions when all the great rooms of Hampton Court were filled with the “swaggering theater” of court life. The Great Hall played host to dance and drama, with Henry himself earlier in his reign playing a starring role in specially written chivalric inventions, rescuing helpless maidens from dangerous castles.

When Henry VIII reigned, this was the most important room of the entire castle—seen through a courtier’s eyes. This is where the King would dine on a dais overlooking his court—in fact Henry was so impatient with this particular room that he made the masons work at night by candlelight as well as all through the day! Shakespeare performed a play of his in front of James I on New Year’s-day 1603—the same year that Elizabeth I died.

A History of the Great Hall

The center of life for most of the more-ranking members of the court was the Great Hall, where in Tudor times they dined in two shifts in the middle of the day.

The St. Valery family, who owned the Palace land from 1086, had built a chamber block and Great Hall. It remains exists beneath the existing Great Hall. In 1495, a list was made recording that the Great Hall of the house when it belonged to Lord Giles Daubeney contained two fixed tables, two long trestle tables, four benches, a cupboard, and a railing around the central hearth.

A visitor of high rank in Tudor times would expect to pass through the Great Hall into the more exclusive rooms beyond.

In 1532, Henry VIII rebuilt the Great Hall, the first in the sequence of rooms leading towards his private lodgings. It seems that Wolsey himself had begun rebuilding Lord Giles Daubeney’s hall; the oriel window, for example, is almost identical to that constructed by Wolsey’s masons at his Oxford College, Christ Church. It is not quite clear how far Wolsey’s work had advanced, but this oriel window now became part of a dramatically improved Great Hall.

Henry’s designers, Christopher Dickenson and James Nedeham, sat down to work in their tracing houses. The roof of the Great Hall is of hammerbeam construction. This design traditionally allowed carpenters to span halls of a greater width than the longest available timbers. However, timbers twelve meters (forty feet) in length, the width of the hall at Hampton Court, were readily available. The hammerbeam design, echoing the roof of Westminster Hall, was deliberately chosen to symbolize royalty, antiquity, and chivalry. A stone hearth lay in the center of the hall, and smoke was intended to escape through a shuttered louver above it in the medieval fashion. Yet the absence of any sort on the timbers of the louver itself throws doubt upon whether this archaic feature was ever used. The roof was decorated with carved and painted heads, and badges celebrating the King and Queen. The carved screen that remains today was erected across the “lower” or entrance end of the Hall, supporting a gallery for musicians above, while a dais was constructed at the other, “higher” end. Anne Boleyn’s badges and initials appear next to Henry VIII’s beneath the royal coats of arms decorating the Hall’s roof.

In the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Great Hall was used as a “masking house” or indoor theater at Christmas and New Year. The painted canvas backdrops included representations of “seven cities, one village, and one country house”.

In the time of James I, a new dais was built in the Great Hall to accommodate the King and Queen and the ambassadors from foreign courts who would be invited to watch the spectacles of the season. One of these was Samuel Daniels’s masque The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses. His stage directions record how the Queen herself took “the part of Pallas, in a blue mantel, with a silver embroidery of all weapons and engines of war, with a helmet-dressing on her head”. She descended by a winding stair from a “paradisical mountain” constructed at the lower end of the hall to perform a dance before the King seated beneath his Cloth of Estate. All the ambassadors and courtiers joined in the dancing, and young Prince Henry was thrown between them “like a tennis ball”. The celebrations in the Great Hall for the New Year in 1604 included performances by the King’s Men, whose resident dramatist was William Shakespeare.

The Great Hall was repaired in 1614.

Some of the wooden stags’ heads mounted with antlers that remain in the Great Hall and Horn Room date from Stuart times. The Palace’s collection of horns, later described by John Evelyn as “vast beams of stags, elks, antelopes etc.” also came to include the fossilized horns of an Irish elk, excavated from a bog in County Clare and presented to Charles II in 1684.

When William III and Mary II started considering rebuilding the palace, one design featured Henry VIII’s Great Hall at the center of a grand Baroque entrance facing North. Double avenues marching south across Bushy Park would have culminated in a vast semicircular courtyard built around the Great Hall.

In 1718, under George I, the Great Hall was converted into a theater (fulfilling the intentions of William III, who had begun to fit it out for the purpose). This work was probably undertaken by gentleman architect Sir John Vanbrugh, who was himself a playwright and theater impresario. Curtains covered the large windows, boxes and seats were installed, and the assembled audience faced west towards the stage erected in front of the screens passage. The canvas scenery was painted by Sir James Thornhill. Sir Richard Steele’s company from Drury Lane performed seven plays before the assembled court, including Hamlet and Henry VIII by Shakespeare, both appropriate to the setting.

On the orders of King George III in 1800, architect James Wyatt removed the theater from the great Hall, revealing the Tudor interior that had not been seen for a century. In this work, Wyatt began the process of making the great Hall even more tutored than it had ever been, by opening a new doorway from the dais into the Great Watching Chamber in an exemplary copy of the arched doorway in the adjacent Horn Room. This replaced a historically inaccurate doorway added in the 18th century. In addition, new flagstones were laid on the floor, and the walls were plastered to look like ancient stonework.

A.C. Pugin’s Specimens of Gothic Architecture (1821-1823) contained the first detailed measured drawings of the Great Hall and its roof.

With a deep romanticism and affection for Gothic styles and picturesque irregularity—and with an equally deep distaste for Sir Christopher Wren and the Baroque—Edward Jesse, Itinerant Deputy Surveyor in the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, supervised a series of restorations and re-presentations. The most notable was that of the Great Hall itself. Left clear and relatively bare by Wyatt, it was transformed between 1840 and 1846 into a state that Jesse believed Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII would have recognized instantly. The great series of Abraham tapestries, one of the glories to have survived Henry VIII’s reign, was returned there from the King’s State Apartments. They hammer beam ceiling was repainted and the windows of both the Great Hall and the Great Watching Chamber were filled with stained glass to the designs of Thomas Willement. Heraldic badges and figures in the glass evoked the genealogy of Henry VIII’s wives, of the King and his family, and of his chancellor, Thomas Wolsey. Willement incorporated the dissent of each of Henry VIII’s wives in the windows on the north and south sides of the Hall, interspersed with the King’s badges. The stained-glass was but one element in the redecoration of the Tudor Hall. Artful arrangements of arms and armor were placed around the walls on specially constructed corbels, and deer antlers (all from the parks) were added for further effect. The impressive displays included St. George slaying the dragon, although there is no evidence that armor had ever been previously hung in the Hall. Some was newly made; the rest was lent by the Tower of London. This arrangement survived until 1925. When Jesse had finished, it was “probably the finest and most brilliantly embellished building in Europe”, in the words of the correspondent of the Gentlemen’s Magazine.

In the late 19th century, many events were held in the Great Hall, including fund-raising evenings of entertainment held by Princess Frederica of Hanover, a descendant of George II.

The Great Hall was the object of the most thorough program of works, after dry rot and beetle infestation were found in the roof in 1922. Decayed timbers were replaced, and a steel truss system was inserted into the hammerbeam roof structure. The painted decoration on the timber was stripped away, as were many of the corbels, armor, and other novelties that Jesse had introduced in 1844.

Thirteen Fragments of Armorial Tapestry Borders

Thirteen fragments of detached borders of tapestries made from 1500 to 1547 from the collections of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey. One is woven with repeating motifs of the royal arms and a crowned portcullis, separated by balusters, against a diapered ground. Others are woven with various armorials, including the arms of the See of York, of Cardinal Wolsey as archbishop of York, and of the two Sees of York and Canterbury. During the late nineteenth-century re-presentation of the Tudor apartments at Hampton Court Palace these borders were hung against the gallery of the Great Hall and around the walls of the Great Watching Chamber. It is not known which tapestries they were originally intended to surround. Tapestries played a fundamental role in the decoration of Henry VIII’s palaces. At his death in 1547 his collection contained over two thousand pieces. These were hung for short periods wherever the court was in residence and were carried about the country as it progressed between palaces. From the late seventeenth century, the disposition of tapestries in the royal palaces became more permanent, but there were none the less periodic rearrangements involving reduction or enlargement, either by detaching the borders or, more drastically, by cutting the pictorial field itself. These borders were probably woven in the Netherlands, but it is also possible that the royal “arras maker” responsible for the upkeep of the royal tapestries had workmen capable of producing tapestry of this quality. Because the royal Tudor arms remained unchanged after the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, the borders may conceivably date from the reign of his father, Henry VII. Catalogue entry from Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London 2002.

•Provenance: Probably made for Henry VIII. Recorded in the "Withdrawing Room" in 1659, from 1849 a selection has been hung in the Great Hall.

•People Involved:

oCreator(s): Netherlands (nationality); English (nationality)

oAcquirer(s): Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547)

oSubject(s): Henry VIII, King of England (1491-1547); House of Tudor

•Physical Properties:

oMedium and Techniques: Woven wool tapestry

wool

tapestry; woven

oMeasurements: 66.0 × 226.0 cm (whole object)

•References:

oAlternative Title(s): Armorial panel

via

Plastic surgery is a touchy subject; some swear they will never undergo any treatment while others dream of the perkier breasts and tight skin that modern cosmetic surgery can offer. Although there are hundreds of cosmetic treatments one can choose from there less than 10 plastic surgeries that are extremely common in the united states and many of them have been perfected by surgeons for decades.

When it comes down to taking action and actually going in for a consultation, the thing that holds most people back is not safety or morals, but cost.

Does health insurance cover plastic surgery in Michigan?

Before we get into the prices of different surgeries, we must first discuss how you will pay for your surgery. For those wondering if their health insurance will cover some of the costs related to their procedure, the answer is unfortunately no for most. Most plastic surgeries fall under the category of elective surgery, meaning they are for cosmetic purposes and not out of medical necessity. With that in mind, there are circumstances where health insurance may cover plastic surgery. One of the most common scenarios is a rhinoplasty for deviated septum repair.

A deviated septum is a condition in which the nasal septum between the nostrils is displaced to one side making one of the passages smaller and causing a slight breathing impediment. For people who are looking to get rhinoplasty and are suffering from a deviated septum, your health insurance may assist with your surgery. If you visit a Michigan plastic surgery clinic, make sure to speak with your insurance company as well if you suffer from this condition.

For the rest of us, we will have to pay for our treatment out of pocket. Fortunately, you may be able to finance your procedure if you don’t have the cash to spend. Some clinics and even 3rd party institutions offer payment plans specifically for cosmetic surgery in which you can pay off the total of your procedure over the course of 6 months to a year. If cash is tight, you could also ask your surgeon if there are any special offers available.

Although, we would like to remind you that you will rarely find the best plastic surgery in Michigan for the cheapest price. Many of the most experienced and highly trained surgeons charge a premium for their work and for good reason. Plastic surgery is very difficult and it takes years for surgeons to master popular techniques. Clinics that offer plastic surgery for significantly less than the market standard should be a red flag to anyone looking for high quality and professional medical care.

Average prices for the top plastic surgeries in Michigan

Plastic surgery can range anywhere from $500 to $12,000 depending on the procedure and your specific case. Every single patient is different and for this reason, clinics rarely advertise prices. Another factor that can affect price is the technique your surgeon uses. Cosmetic medicine is a very fast evolving field of medicine and most treatments offer many different techniques, some of them costing significantly more, some of them worth the extra cost, and some of them not.

For example, with hair transplants, FUE is the newest and most advanced form of hair transplantation. Although it costs slightly more, FUE is superior to FUT and strip harvesting as far as graft survival, recovery, and aesthetics go, and is definitely worth the extra cost for most.

Hair Transplantation

Hair transplantation is a procedure designed to restore hair loss due to age and male as well as female, pattern baldness. During follicular unit extraction, a tool is used to remove hair grafts from the back and sides of the head, which are more resistant to balding, and implant them into a balding area. FUE can be performed manually or automatically using NeoGraft and other mechanical systems depending on the preference of your surgeon.

A hair transplant Michigan procedure costs $5,400 for the average patient, with treatments ranging from $3,000 to $10,000 or more depending on the number of hair grafts that are transplanted. Patients who need to cover a small bald spot will spend significantly less than men who need to restore an entire hairline or cover the top of their entire head with new hairs. This is because the more hair that needs to be grafted, the longer the procedure will take and the more resources your hair transplants Michigan surgeon will need to employ to restore your natural hairline.

Rhinoplasty and Nose Reshaping

Rhinoplasty is a procedure designed to reshape the nose and correct unappealing features such as droopiness, large or wide tip, a nasal bridge hump, and many more. Surgeons remove, add, and reshape cartilage in order to reshape the nasal structure and create a symmetrical and aesthetic nose that looks both natural and subtle.

Rhinoplasty Michigan costs $6,200 for the average patient, with procedures ranging from $3,000 to $9,000 for more complicated cases. The more changes that need to be made to the nose, the more expensive the procedure will cost. Some patients need to flatten a nasal hump while others may want to make their wide nose skinnier and more subtle. Each every change is unique and requires time and attention to do right. As usual, if you want to work with the best rhinoplasty surgeon in Michigan, which many do, expect to pay a premium for your treatment.

Liposuction and Fat Removal

Liposuction, also known as lipo, is a plastic surgery conducted to thin out and reconfigure upsetting areas of the body such as the upper arms, abdomen, or thighs where fat often accumulates in excess. During liposuction, a plastic surgeon extracts concentrated deposits of fat cells from underneath the skin, enhancing a patients body contours and bodily dimensions. The surgeon also acts to sculpt the region of focus in order to form a proportionate and aesthetically pleasing appearance.

Liposuction Michigan costs patients approximately $3,500 on average. Liposuction prices can fluctuate greatly from case to case as it is most definitely not a “one size fits all” procedure. The exact price your liposuction procedure will depend greatly on how much fat you want to remove, what areas you want to treat, and how many different areas you want to treat in a single procedure as these all affect the time and resources necessary to complete your case. A surgeon’s exact cost of liposuction in Michigan will be determined according to their personal experience, the surgical method performed, and the post-operative attention that may be required for your specific case.

Breast Augmentation and Breast Implants

Breast Augmentation, also known as breast enlargement or breast implants, involves utilizing artificial shells or a fat transfer to expand the breasts and create a rounder, perkier and more natural appearance. Patients also undergo breast augmentation in order to restore lost breast volume after major weight loss, sickness, pregnancy, or a mastectomy.

Breast augmentation Michigan costs patients an average of $5,718 according to a 2017 investigation by the highly credible American Association of Plastic Surgeons. Breast Implants, comparable to most plastic and cosmetic procedure do not have an established price, as there are several factors that determine the price of treatment. There are multiple types of implants available such as saline and silicone and each type of implant is available in multiple sizes.

Other features such as textured and teardrop shaped implants can add to the price of your procedure as well. Every patient is unique and entails a distinct amount of time and resources to attain full satisfaction. There is only one way to determine precisely how much breast implants Michigan will cost you is to request a consultation and speak a local specialist to address your goals one on one.

Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty)

Abdominoplasty, or a tummy tuck as it is more regularly recognized as, reduces excess skin, as well as some fat tissue from the abdominal. A tummy tuck will also tighten and repair weak muscle fibers in the area in order to craft a tight and firm midsection that is aesthetically appealing. A tummy tuck Michigan can benefit people who have sought relentlessly to achieve a tight and lean midsection through diet and exercise but are struggling to see their abdominal muscles because there is too much skin and a bulge that seems impossible to lose.

Excess skin around the abs is most common among individuals who used to be obese or overweight and have lost a lot of weight. This can be frustrating because you may lose a lot of fat naturally but the excess and loose skin from your “larger self” may hide the results of your hard work in the gym.

A Tummy tuck in Michigan costs $5,900 for the ordinary patient. The precise cost a tummy tuck for you will be defined during your consultation with a surgeon. Your quote for liposuction replies on exactly how much skin must be eliminated and muscle needs to be repaired. Similar to the other cosmetic surgeries discussed, the cost varies because the tummy tuck is not a “one size fits all” treatment.

When you consult with your surgeon you will discuss the different costs related to tummy tuck surgery and any options that affect prices such as the no-drain tummy tuck and any other advanced techniques you may choose to have performed. Ensure that you speak with the clinic about exclusive offers and cosmetic surgery financing opportunities they may have available.

Conclusion

Whenever you are considering a cosmetic procedure, it is vital that your Michigan plastic surgeon is deeply experienced and concentrates in the specific procedure you are looking for. An amateur surgeon can leave you feeling troubled with your results or even desiring an additional treatment to correct any mistakes. Performing any cosmetic or plastic surgery entails both the experience of a surgeon and the talent of an artist, something that demands decades to truly perfect.

If you are looking for a professional in your area, request a consultation via SurgeonGate today, and a specialist will reach out to you as soon as possible to schedule a consultation between you and an experienced surgeon in your area. Check out our blog for more information about plastic surgery and cosmetic medicine.

The post How much does plastic surgery cost in Michigan? appeared first on SurgeonGate.

1-florida-health-insurance.com/how-much-does-plastic-surg...

St. Louis, Missouri, USA --- Caucasian woman holding cup of coffee --- Image by © John Fedele/Blend Images/Corbis

This is one of the first released Jeannie dolls, but was in rough shape when I found her. During the first part of season 1, Barbara Eden was pregnant, so they hid her growing midsection with extra veils. This doll mimics that look to hide the rough costume underneath.

White Sands Missile Range Museum

Redstone Lightweight Launcher No. 1003

Watertown Arsenal

Launch platform in action:

www.wsmr-history.org/RedstoneFirst2.htm

-------------------------

Redstone was the Army's largest surface-to-surface ballistic missile. Modified Redstone rockets launched America's first satellite and first human into space. Developed by Wernher Von Braun, Redstone is a direct descendant of the German V-2 rocket.

As a field artillery missile, Redstone was designed to extend the firepower and range of conventional artillery cannon against ground targets. It could deliver a nuclear or high-explosive warhead to targets 200 miles away. In 1951, a nuclear warhead meant a 3-ton package. Since Redstone was a ballistic missile, its initial trajectory and guidance was provided by the launcher. Great care was taken to level the missile and to orient the stabilized platform accurately in the direction of the target.

Redstone's liquid-fueled engine burned alcohol and liquid oxygen, producing about 75,000 pounds of thrust. At burnout, or when the propellant was exhausted, it had a speed of 3,800 miles per hour (6,116 kilometers per hour). For guidance, Redstone had a totally new pure-inertial guidance system using air-bearing gyros. Beyond the earth's atmosphere the inertial guidance system directed it toward the target. After reaching the proper speed, the rocket engine cut out and dropped off, along with the fuel tanks. Then the guidance system and warhead coasted to the target.

As a field artillery missile, Redstone was mobile and transportable by plane, truck or train. However, when on the move, it needed a convoy eighteen miles long, with 200 vehicles carrying approximately 10,000 individual pieces of equipment and more than 600 men. The Redstone itself was carried on three trucks-its nose section (warhead) midsection (power plant and fuel tanks) and tail section- to be assembled in the field.

Named after Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, where it was developed and built, Redstone's development was triggered by outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 to counter Soviet Cold War threats. The first Redstone missile was launched on August 20, 1953 from the Army's missile test range at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and traveled 8,000 yards (7,315 meters). Thirty-six more were launched rough 1958, testing structure, engine performance, guidance and control, tracking and telemetry. On May 16, 1958, combat-ready soldiers fired their first Redstone rocket. It was put into U.S. Army service in Germany that June.

Redstone has been called the Model-T of the Free World's space program. A solid-fuel fourth stage was added to it and Redstone became the Jupiter-C rocket. On January 31, 1958, a Jupiter-C lifted America's first orbiting satellite, Explorer I, into space.

Starting in 1959, warhead some Redstone rockets were modified for NASA's Mercury program. Propellant tanks were elongated by 96 inches, adding 20 seconds of burn time. The section was replaced by the Mercury capsule and escape tower. The first of these Mercury Redstone rockets was tested at Cape Canaveral on December 19, 1960. On May 5, 1961, astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space when he was launched on a suborbital flight in a Mercury capsule by a Redstone rocket engine.

Between 1958 and 1962, eighteen Redstone missiles were fired at White Sands Missile Range. Pershing replaced Redstone beginning in 1960.

Length: 69 ft

Diameter: 70 in

Weight: 30 tons

Propellant: Liquid

Range: 200 miles

First Fired: 1958

At Athabasca Glacier, the Brewster Company runs a fleet of 22 Foremost Terra Buses to bring visitors to the midsection of the glacier. Cost per person for a one-hour trip to the glacier and back is fairly steep, CAD $50 plus GST, but the experience is nevertheless worth it due to its uniqueness.

Actual time spent on the glacier itself is about 20 minutes. The bus driver narrates various items of interest and gives safety briefings. For my bus (this one - No. 44), my driver for the day (in green baseball cap) was a retired Japanese accountant named Masami Okada; called "Sami" by his coworkers, Okada-san was very memorable thanks to his Japanese accent and sense of dry humor.

(The Brewster Company does use many foreign seasonal workers - the concept of a "working holiday," unheard of in the US due to the immigration policy mess, is far more commonplace in Canada, similar to Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. They are supplemented by a healthy contingent of Canadian domestic seasonal workers, and they are all housed at a building near the glacier visitor center.)

The Peugeot 304 is a small family car introduced to the public at the Paris Motor Show in September 1969 by the French car manufacturer Peugeot. Peugeot, which had always been a financially prudent company, saw a gap in the midsize car market in France, Italy and the rest of Western Europe. By using the smaller 204's midsection, development costs were minimized resulting in a higher profit margin because of the higher pricing structure in the larger, better equipped market. The 304's main competitors on its home market came from Renault and Simca, with Citroen noticeably absent from this sector at the launch. The 304 was a success for Peugeot and was noted for several advanced features under its sombre Pininfarina styled exterior. With its independent suspended front-wheel-drive drivetrain and disc brakes, it rode and handled better than most of its contemporaries, including some cars in higher price brackets. The chassis served Peugeot well and lasted for approximately 24 years adapted to derivative models. There was a distinct upmarket feel to the 304, its handsome lines were well suited to postwar Europe's newly affluent middle classes who desired roomy, advanced and stylish cars to park in their driveways. At about this time the Autoroutes were opening up France and car manufacturers around Europe knew that any car launched hence, would need to add an ability to travel at high speeds, in relative comfort with surefooted handling to its lineup in order to compete. The 304 fulfilled this brief and became one of the best-selling cars in its market segment.

(Wikipedia)

- - -

Der Peugeot 304 war ein Personenkraftwagen der Firma Peugeot. Er wurde im Oktober 1969 auf dem Pariser Automobilsalon in der Version als Limousine vorgestellt. Das Design der Karosserie für dieses Fahrzeug stammt aus dem Hause Pininfarina in Turin (Italien).

Wie beim 204 gab es auch vom 304 vier Karosserieversionen:

Limousine (Oktober 1969 bis Oktober 1979)

Coupé (März 1970 bis April 1975)

Cabriolet (März 1970 bis Juli 1976)

Kombi „Break“ (September 1970 bis Oktober 1980)

Der 304 verfügt über einen querverbauten Leichtmetallmotor, der im Gegensatz zur rostanfälligen Karosserie als innovativ und verlässlich galt. Die Motorpresse kritisierte die Schaltung, die insbesondere beim Runterschalten vom dritten in den zweiten Gang Probleme bereitete. Technisch gesehen war er eine Weiterentwicklung des Peugeot 204, die Karosserie war bis auf das eckigere „Gesicht“ der Front („Löwenmäulchen“), mit diesem fast identisch.

Im März 1972 kam der Peugeot 304 S auf den Markt, der – anders als sein Vorgänger – über Rundinstrumente, Rückfahrscheinwerfer, Sicherheitsgurte und Kopfstützen verfügte, sonst aber fast baugleich war.

Bis zur Einstellung der Produktion im Herbst 1980 verließen weit über 1 Million Fahrzeuge dieses Typs die Werkshallen.

Nachfolger wurde der bereits im November 1977 eingeführte Peugeot 305.

(Wikipedia)

-----Part 2-----

Stan looked at his watch: 6:50 pm; ten minutes until the end of his shift. He glanced casually around as he snagged his coat from his locker and headed toward the back of the stockroom. Moving along the side wall, he came to the door leading outside to the area where the propane tanks that powered the company’s forklifts were stored. With one final quick look to make sure no managers were in sight, he slipped out the door into the alley that separated the store where he worked with the business beside it. Scanning the alley for any co-workers, his small dark eyes peered out from beneath a thick brow. His features lent him an almost Neanderthal like appearance that made people underestimate his intelligence. Convinced that he was alone, he let the door close and lock behind him.

Normally the workers propped the door open when making a run for a fresh tank of propane . Forgetting to prop the door meant that they would have to walk around to the front of the store to get back in. Stan planned to use being locked out as an excuse, if he were ever caught sneaking out early.

Convinced that he had made a clean get away, he shrugged on his coat against the light snow fall and headed toward the front of the store. He could see his car in the end parking spot just beyond the mouth of the alley. In the rush of holiday shoppers, he would hardly be noticed, and by the time his car left the lot, his shift would officially be over.

He was in a good mood despite the throng of rude, pushy people that invaded his workplace every year. He planned on calling Stacey tonight, and if Jim was working, maybe offer to bring over a DVD and hang out. Stacey had not yet said ‘yes’ to going to the theater with him for a Christmas present, but she had not said ‘no’ either. She loved the play that was being shown in town, and he knew that her current boyfriend, Jim, could not afford tickets.

His only worry now was actually coming up with the tickets once she did agree to go. He did not have the money to spend on something like this, but he was determined to get another shot with her. Jim knew what he was up to, and had warned him to stay away a couple of times before. Stan thought that Jim was mostly talk, and he really had nothing to fear from the guy. Besides, he thought that the holidays were a perfect time to make his move. She would be disappointed in what trivial things Jim could provide her this year, and he could swoop in to save Christmas.

He suddenly got the feeling of being watched and looked up toward the mouth of the alley. He then noticed a tall figure wearing a long coat walking toward him, hands buried deep in his pockets. At first he thought it was a customer. He was about to tell the guy that customers were not allowed in the area behind the store, but hesitated as the man came closer.

Piercing grey eyes bored into him from below a shaggy mop of light brown hair. His nose was narrow and pointed, almost like the muzzle of a fox. It was slightly crooked, as if once broken but not set correctly. Although the man in the trench coat had grown a beard, Stan recognized his face from the new set of pictures on Stacey’s MyBlog.com page.

Jim looked furious as he stalked down the alley. Trying to cover his nervousness, Stan smiled as if the meeting were a happy accident. He had certainly not expected to see Jim here, and he had no doubts why he was here.

“Well Hi, Jim.”

Jim’s only response was a murderous glare, his grey eyes as cold and hard as granite. Stan hesitated, realizing his earlier assessment of the other man may have been wrong.

In one quick motion that seemed born of practice, Jim grabbed Stan by the front of his jacket and, in a whirl of billowing trench coat, slammed him back against the wall of the store. Before Stan had time to react, Jim brought his fist up into Stan’s gut, knocking the wind out of him, causing him to double over. Stan began to crumple and slide down the wall. Jim grabbed Stan around the front of his collar and hauled him to his feet, pinning him against the side of the building. Stan shrank away from him as best he could, as if trying to steel himself against the next blow. While Stan was still trying to catch his breath, Jim roughly gripped Stan’s face in his hand, forcing him to look into the face that was mere inches from his own.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re trying to pull, Stanley?” Jim growled, punctuating each sentence by shaking Stan roughly with the fist holding onto his jacket . “Did not I tell you to stay away from her? I’ve tolerated your bullshit this long because I thought you were a fairly harmless pest. Now you’ve gone too far.”

Stan had finally recovered from the sudden attack and started trying to fight Jim off of him. Jim delivered a swift knee to the groin. With a strangled cry of agony, Stan stopped struggling.

“Now you listen to me” Jim hissed. “This is your last warning. You stay the hell away from Stacey. Move on. Find someone new. It’s over. Understand?”

Stan glared defiantly from over top of Jim’s splayed fingers digging into his cheek but said nothing. He got a hook to his ribs for his troubles.

“I said… Do. You. Under-Stand?!”

Stan nodded and Jim loosened his grip slightly before delivering a couple quick, powerful blows to Stan’s midsection. Jim let go of Stan with the air of a man dropping something distasteful before it soiled his hands too badly. Stan slid down the wall but refused to drop to the ground. He braced himself against the wall with his knees shaking and his arms wrapped protectively around his torso.

Jim straightened his coat and said “Good. Because if you don’t, you’re going to get far worse than what you got here tonight.”

Walking back toward the light of the parking lot, Jim paused and looked back at the crumpled figure.

“Oh… and Stanley? I wouldn’t mention our little ‘talk’ with anyone if I were you. If anyone asks, you fell down the fucking stairs.”

Jim walked back toward his car, past the charity worker enthusiastically ringing her little brass bell. Each tinny metallic clink of the cheap noise maker made Jim cringe. Before he gave in to the urge to grab the bell from the woman’s hand and stomp it flat, hegot into his car and drove away. He made it a block from the retail outlet where he had confronted Stan before pulling into the parking lot of a closed shoe store.

Bing Crosby’s rendition of “I’ll be home for Christmas” oozed from the car radio. It was a song that he had always associated with the sadness that was the dark underbelly of this time of year. He closed his eyes and tried to get control of the shaking that wracked his body. Gripping the steering wheel tightly, he couldn’t help but to flash back on the dark moments of a buried past. He thought he was a different person now. It scared him to think how quickly he had turned into the same old Jim.

He pulled out his cell phone and called his brother.

“Hey. Meet me at the bar, ok?” he said. His brother agreed and he hung up. He needed time to sort things out and get some advice.

-----END OF PART 2-----

This is the very final photo from my visits to the Tate Britain's New Sculpture exhibition. Appropriately enough... the end.

Large, black background | Full size, full screen

(Cape Perpetua, Orgeon) Dusk waters seem calm in this 30 second exposure of the quite volatile waves on this very part on the Oregon coast.

We were out to capture a place called Thor's Well--more on that in a later post--and this is a shot I got at a whim as the light was fading away and we had to make our way back up the dark path to a warm car.

We've been studying the masters at Flickr the last days and trying to learn a bit about landscape photography. In short we've been soaked top to bottom repeatedly, our cameras have stretched their weather resistance capabilities to a maximum, lens cloths have been brown with sand and tripods have needed nightly cleaning. And that is the PG-13 version of the at times rather perilious positions we have placed ourselves in to get to the shots.

A few good shots are at my hard drive, but they deserve and require further work (incredible how many droplets a small wave can create), so I give you this rather unassuming but still hopefully moody photo.

Second attempt at light painting, this time with a blue LED flashlight. Too much light on the foreground rocks compared to the midsection, but it will have to do for now, as we've been shooting since dawn and are in desperate need for sleep.

Learning points:

You will get wet no matter what, so be prepared. And don't do reckless things.

A 5D II can handle more water sprays than an equipment-nervous photographer thinks. Although you probably want a hood to avoid buttons jamming up from salt and such, the joystick button on mine did not work for half a day and I will get my camera serviced when I return home to see if it needs cleaning.

A 17-40 L lens does not like being submerged in water (this was Tor two weeks ago, we now avoid tipping our tripods into streams) - and a front filter is required for weather sealing.

A 580 EX II flash does indeed survive being submerged for a second. They are supposed to have the same protection as the 1-series camera bodies, a notch up from the 5D.

Have a lens cloth ready in your pocket to clean front filter/element after getting hit by waves.

As always when in a new location, scout in advance and arrive early. Tides make a difference (also if you scout hours before) when shooting oceans so check them along with sunset times.

To get action in the water, stay around 1 second exposures.

Most over 4 seconds look the same so then you might as well go for 30.

GND filters are a hassle. Perhaps a filter in Lightroom is just as good. They do however provide cheap extra protection to the front of lenses.

6 stop Neutral Densities go off the camera the moment the sun sets.

30,0 sec at f/8,0 | 200 ISO | Aperture priority mode | 0 EV | EF17-40mm f/4L USM at 40mm

HMS Cavalier is a retired C-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at East Cowes on 28 March 1943, launched on 7 April 1944, and commissioned on 22 November 1944. She served in World War II and in various commissions in the Far East until she was decommissioned in 1972. After decommissioning she was preserved as a museum ship and currently resides at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

Construction

Cavalier was one of 96 War Emergency Programme destroyers ordered between 1940 and 1942. She was one of the first ships to be built with the forward and aft portions of her hull welded, with the midsection riveted to ensure strength. The new process gave the ship additional speed. In 1970 a 64-mile race was arranged between Cavalier and the frigate Rapid, which had the same hull form and machinery. Cavalier beat Rapid by 30 yards (27 m) after Rapid lifted a safety valve, reaching an average speed of 31.8 knots (58.9 km/h).

Service history

Cavalier returning to Portsmouth in 1946

After commissioning she joined the 6th Destroyer Flotilla, part of the Home Fleet, and took part in a number of operations off Norway. Most notably in February 1945 she was despatched with the destroyers Myngs and Scorpion[5] to reinforce a convoy from the Kola Inlet in Russia, which had suffered attacks from enemy aircraft and U-boats, and had subsequently been scattered by a violent storm. She and the other escorts reformed the convoy, and returned to Britain with the loss of only three of the thirty-four ships. This action earned Cavalier a battle honour.

Later in 1945 Cavalier was despatched to the Far East, where she provided naval gunfire support during the Battle of Surabaya. In February 1946 she went to Bombay to help quell the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny. After some time in the British Pacific Fleet she was paid off in May 1946 and was placed in reserve at Portsmouth.

Cavalier returned to service in 1957 after a modernisation, which included removing some of her torpedo tubes in favour of Squid anti-submarine mortars. She was again sent to the Far East, and joined the 8th Destroyer Squadron in Singapore. In December 1962 she transported 180 troops from Singapore to Brunei to help suppress a rebellion that became part of the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation. After disembarking the troops she remained in Brunei as a communications centre for several days until other Royal Navy ships arrived to relieve her.

Cavalier was decommissioned in 1972 along with HMS Wellington (moored in London), and is the last surviving British destroyer of World War 2 still in the UK.

After decommissioning[edit]

After decommissioning at Chatham Dockyard, she was laid up in Portsmouth. As a unique survivor, after a five-year campaign led by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the ship was purchased by the Cavalier Trust for £65,000 and handed over on Trafalgar Day 1977 in Portsmouth. By selling the ship to the Trust, the UK Government and the Royal Navy severed all formal connection and responsibility for the ship. A special warrant was issued that allows her to retain the prefix "HMS" (Her Majesty's Ship) and fly the White Ensign, a privilege normally only enjoyed by commissioned ships of the Royal Navy. A similar privilege is enjoyed by another museum ship, the cruiser Belfast.

Moved to Southampton, Cavalier opened as a museum and memorial ship in August 1982. This was not commercially successful, and in October 1983 the ship was moved to Brighton, where she formed the centrepiece of a newly built yacht marina.

In 1987, the ship was brought to the River Tyne to form the centrepiece of a national shipbuilding exhibition centre planned by South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council in the former shipyard of Hawthorn Leslie and Company, builders of many similar destroyers. The plans for the museum came to nothing, and the borough council, faced with annual maintenance costs of £30,000 and a hardening of public opinion against unnecessary expenditure, resolved to sell the ship and wind up the venture in 1996. The ship sat in a dry dock (owing to a previous list) in a rusting condition, awaiting a buyer or scrapping in situ.

After the reforming of the Cavalier Trust, and a debate in Parliament, in 1998 Cavalier was bought by Chatham Historic Dockyard for display as a museum ship. Arriving on 23 May 1998, Cavalier now resides in No. 2 dry-dock.

On 14 November 2007, Cavalier was officially designated as a war memorial to the 142 Royal Navy destroyers sunk during World War II and the 11,000 men killed on those ships. The unveiling of a bronze monument created by the artist Kenneth Potts was conducted by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The monument is adjacent to the ship at the Historic Dockyard in Chatham, Kent.

In the summer of 2009 the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust made available accommodation on board the ship for youth groups who wish to stay on board and experience life on board a Royal Naval Destroyer.

In September 2010, Cavalier fired the first full broadside from a ship flying the White Ensign since a firing by the destroyer London in December 1981. This was due to the work of the heritage naval gun crew who restored all three 4.5-in guns back to working condition in conjunction with the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust.

In April 2014 Cavalier was added to Google Maps Business View (formerly Google Business Photos) by CInsideMedia Ltd, in celebration of the 70th anniversary of her launch. The tour, which includes Cavalier's engine and gear room, was enhanced with interactive audio hotspots to enable visitors with accessibility issues to explore the ship.

wikipedia

A line of severe thunderstorms, known as a derecho, made an appearance once again this spring—this time, through the lens of GOES-East as it looked over the mid-Mississippi Valley.

Severe thunderstorms with destructive winds and heavy downpours pushed through several states on May 4, 2020. This widespread, long-lived squall line with straight-line winds—or derecho— produced hundreds of reports of large hail and high winds, along with uprooted trees and damaged homes.

Derechos, Spanish for “straight ahead,” are usually quite large, with a damage swath that extends more than 240 miles and spans at least 50 miles in width. Most common during the spring and summer months, derechos can occur in many different types of conditions and locations. They usually are preceded by “ominous-looking "shelf" clouds that form in the zone of rapidly rising air on the leading edge of the storm system's outflow winds,” according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center.

The GOES-East geostationary satellite, also known as GOES-16, keeps watch over most of North America, including the continental United States and Mexico, as well as Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa. The satellite’s high-resolution imagery provides optimal viewing of severe weather events, including thunderstorms, tropical storms, and hurricanes.

go.usa.gov/xvvB2

The rubber torso completely covers the midsection, but the material is flexible enough that it doesn't restrict articulation in any way I can tell.

The Peugeot 304 is a small family car introduced to the public at the Paris Motor Show in September 1969 by the French car manufacturer Peugeot. Peugeot, which had always been a financially prudent company, saw a gap in the midsize car market in France, Italy and the rest of Western Europe. By using the smaller 204's midsection, development costs were minimized resulting in a higher profit margin because of the higher pricing structure in the larger, better equipped market. The 304's main competitors on its home market came from Renault and Simca, with Citroen noticeably absent from this sector at the launch. The 304 was a success for Peugeot and was noted for several advanced features under its sombre Pininfarina styled exterior. With its independent suspended front-wheel-drive drivetrain and disc brakes, it rode and handled better than most of its contemporaries, including some cars in higher price brackets. The chassis served Peugeot well and lasted for approximately 24 years adapted to derivative models. There was a distinct upmarket feel to the 304, its handsome lines were well suited to postwar Europe's newly affluent middle classes who desired roomy, advanced and stylish cars to park in their driveways. At about this time the Autoroutes were opening up France and car manufacturers around Europe knew that any car launched hence, would need to add an ability to travel at high speeds, in relative comfort with surefooted handling to its lineup in order to compete. The 304 fulfilled this brief and became one of the best-selling cars in its market segment.

(Wikipedia)

- - -

Der Peugeot 304 war ein Personenkraftwagen der Firma Peugeot. Er wurde im Oktober 1969 auf dem Pariser Automobilsalon in der Version als Limousine vorgestellt. Das Design der Karosserie für dieses Fahrzeug stammt aus dem Hause Pininfarina in Turin (Italien).

Wie beim 204 gab es auch vom 304 vier Karosserieversionen:

Limousine (Oktober 1969 bis Oktober 1979)

Coupé (März 1970 bis April 1975)

Cabriolet (März 1970 bis Juli 1976)

Kombi „Break“ (September 1970 bis Oktober 1980)

Der 304 verfügt über einen querverbauten Leichtmetallmotor, der im Gegensatz zur rostanfälligen Karosserie als innovativ und verlässlich galt. Die Motorpresse kritisierte die Schaltung, die insbesondere beim Runterschalten vom dritten in den zweiten Gang Probleme bereitete. Technisch gesehen war er eine Weiterentwicklung des Peugeot 204, die Karosserie war bis auf das eckigere „Gesicht“ der Front („Löwenmäulchen“), mit diesem fast identisch.

Im März 1972 kam der Peugeot 304 S auf den Markt, der – anders als sein Vorgänger – über Rundinstrumente, Rückfahrscheinwerfer, Sicherheitsgurte und Kopfstützen verfügte, sonst aber fast baugleich war.

Bis zur Einstellung der Produktion im Herbst 1980 verließen weit über 1 Million Fahrzeuge dieses Typs die Werkshallen.

Nachfolger wurde der bereits im November 1977 eingeführte Peugeot 305.

(Wikipedia)

1.No of Discs: 13

2.Brand New and Sealed

3.English Interactive Menu

4.Audio: Original English

5.Audio Format: Dolby Digital 5

6.Subtitles: English / Chinese / Off /

7.Region Code: All Region

8.Guaranteed to Play on DVD Players Worldwide

P90X Extreme Fitness Training System

No GUIDES BOOK INSIDE

01."How to Bring It" video for a quick overview of the complete P90X Extreme Home Fitness training system.

02. Chest & Back

The first P90X workout is all about pushing and pulling during an intense resistance routine made to strengthen, tighten,

tone, and build the major muscles of the upper torso.

03. Plyometrics

Plyometrics this dynamic cardio workout (some call it "The Beast") has over 30 explosive jumping moves. You won't be spending

much time on the ground during this P90X workout.

04. Shoulders & Arms

This P90X workout incorporates a potent combination of pressing, curling, and fly movements that will do wonders for the

development of the deltoid muscles, biceps and triceps.

05. Yoga X

If you think this will be the day to relax forget it! The P90X yoga workout will challenge you like never before. You'll

sweat, twist, stretch to feel energized—maybe even enlightened,

06. Legs & Back

Get ready to squat, lunge, and pull during this unique series of P90X workouts for both the lower and upper body. Strengthen

and develop your glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves.

07. Kenpo X

Kenpo means "law of the fist", and that's exactly what you'll be throwing during this cardio-intense workout, that and a

whole bunch of kicks, elbows, knees, and forearms!

08. X Stretch

Keeping limber and loose is vital to the success of any fitness program, especially for the P90X. This 57-minute stretching

routine will minimize the potential for injury and keep you at the top of your game.

09. Core Synergistics

This total-body workout incorporates cardio, stretching, and resistance to strengthen the core muscles. By strengthening your

core, you’ll be better equipped to handle P90X workouts.

10. Chest, Shoulders

& Triceps

You'll want to hit the beach and show off your lean, ripped muscles after finishing this super charged P90X upper-body

workout of push-ups, dips, flys, and tricep kickbacks.

11. Back & Biceps

With a boatload of curls and pull-ups you'll add some real ammo to your guns. Don't worry ladies— by using lighter weights,

you can focus on toning and tightening.

12. Cardio X

With this P90X workout you’re really going to sweat! As your body pumps oxygenated blood through your system, flushing out

lactic acid, you’ll actually increase your number of capillaries!

13. Ab Ripper

This is the quickest P90X workout only 16 minutes to complete yet it hits all the areas of the midsection to burn the fat and tone the muscles using sit-ups to Pilates moves.

Designer Jasmine has been fully deboxed, and is posed standing, supported by the custom doll stand. Her overskirt, freed from the factory restraints, is now wider than the doll stand, and is allowed to drape over the edges of the base. The sunlight was fading as I was taking these photos, so some of the closeups used flash.

First look at the Disney Princess Designer Collection Jasmine Doll. She was released in October 2011, and I got her from eBay shortly afterwards, so It's been more than a year and a half since I got this doll. But I have not yet deboxed her, and this the first time I am doing a full photoshoot of her. I will photograph her boxed, during her deboxing, and fully deboxed.

My Designer Jasmine doll is a limited edition doll that was produced and sold exclusively by the Disney Store, and is numbered 5645 of 6000. She is based on the heroine from the Disney animated feature Aladdin (1992). She comes in an acrylic case with a built-in doll stand, with a base that has a golden filigree design, and a golden metallic nameplate. There is also a cardboard cover for the case that I have not photographed here.

She is 11 1/2'' tall, and has the same body as the other Designer Princess dolls, with jointed neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips and knees (internal). She has rubber legs and fixed ankles, with feet angled for high heels.

She has jet black, 12'' long hair tied into a floor length pony tail. There are two golden elastic hairties in the upper and middle part of the ponytail, and the lower portion of her hair has loose curls. It is very soft and shiny. There were a few stray hairs, but I left them alone and did not comb it, as I thought her hair was neat enough as it was out of the box. She has light brown skin, and a unique face sculpt that is very pretty and movie accurate. She has large dark brown almond shaped eyes that are glancing towards her right. She has light blue-green eye shadow, and thick black eyebrows. She has rooted eyelashes, that are tapered in length from short to long, then at the ends there are very long curved antenna like lashes. She has a small straight nose, full dark purple lips in with a closed mouth smile. She has very pale red rouge on her cheeks.

Her three piece gown is made of bright blue-green satin and light blue organza. Her bodice is cropped short to reveal her midsection (including her belly button), and consists of light blue organza embedded with golden gems, draped over her upper arms, and gemmed blue-green satin lower and back sections. Her blue-green satin skirt is floor length and is figure hugging, flairing out at the bottom. It is hemmed and there is a light blue polyester lining. There is a very wide overskirt of the double layered light blue satin. I is open in front, but can be wrapped around to completely cover her inner skirt, or can be folded to reveal her inner skirt.

She is wearing light blue-green high heeled shoes, which match the color of her skirt.

Her accessories include earrings, a chain belt with pendant and Aladdin's lamp. The earrings are large golden triangles with gold colored gems. Her belt is made of fine gold chain, with a large round jeweled pendant just below her waist that gathers the strands of the chain together, the remainder of which fall almost to the floor. In her right hand is a golden lamp that is bejeweled with yellow gems. The top of the lamp is removable (it is held in place with rubber bands, which I left in place).

There were no real surprises revealed by deboxing her, although it was nice to see the full extent of her overskirt. I was also glad to take her out of her awkward head pose, which was a common problem among the Designer Princesses. One thing I didn't like was that her top was a little too short, and revealed her waist joint (that enables her to spin her upper body around 360 degrees). Tugging on her top didn't move it enough to hide the joint in the front. As a consequence, her waist joint moved very freely, and her upper body tended to turn whenever she was handled, aided by her long hair. Also her long luxurious hair is very heavy, so tends to pull her backwards slightly when she is posed on the display stand. Designer Rapunzel has a similar problem. Her very wide floor length overskirt and floor length hair make it difficult to rebox her neatly, which is a common problem with the Designer dolls with very wide floor length skirts.

The "John D Lietch" loading Potash or coal backing into Thunder Bay Terminals.

This unique Great Lakes self-unloading bulk carrier was built by Port Weller Dry Docks, St. Catharines, Ont., as Hull #41. She was christened Canadian Century for Upper Lakes Group, Inc., Toronto, Ont., on April 15, 1967 by Mrs. G. E. Gathercole, wife of the Chairman of the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario. The name paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of Canada’s confederation.

At the time of her launch, the vessel was the largest capacity self-unloading vessel on the Great Lakes. Her squared hull design reduced wasted space thus increasing her tonnage, however her very tall wheelhouse and forward accommodation block gave her the distinction of being known as the “little bank building that floats.”

The Canadian Century’s original self-unloading system consisted of a single, center line conveyor belt gravity system with a 300-ton reclaimer feeding a bucket/hopper elevator system leading to a forward-mounted 250 foot discharge boom. The reclaimer consisted of 2 auger screws, each 26 feet long and 7 feet high. As they would turn, the cargo would be forced forward to the bucket elevator system. It could discharge at a rate of up to 4,000 tons per hour. Due to the technological advances in self-unloading systems, the Canadian Century’s bucket elevator system was replaced in 1975/76 with a modern loop belt elevator system capable of discharging cargo at a rate of up to 4,572 tons per hour. The discharge boom can be swung 95 degrees to port or starboard.

The vessel is powered by a Burmeister & Wain type 574 VT2F 160 diesel engine rated at 7,394 b.h.p. at 115 r.p.m. burning intermediate grade 180 fuel driving a controllable pitch propeller, giving the vessel a service speed of 14.5 knots. She is equipped with a 1,000 horsepower bowthruster. Her enormous single hold is fed by 22 hatches. She can carry 25,700 tons at maximum Seaway draft of 26 feet and is capable of carrying 31,600 tons at her maximum mid-summer draft of 29 feet 4 inches. Other capacities include 465 tons of fuel oil, 75 tons of diesel oil, 186 tons of potable water, and 17,348 tons of water ballast.

In December 2001, Canadian Century entered Port Weller Dry Docks for a mid-life refit. The $25-million (C) refit was similar to the work that the shipyard completed on Canada Steamship Lines’ CSL Tadoussac the winter before. The bow and stern sections remained intact, along with most of the main deck. The cargo hold and the rest of the midsection were replaced with a new, larger cargo hold and a one-belt self-unloading system with a flat tank top. When it returned to service in May of 2002, it not only carried more cargo, but could operate more efficiently through the increased use of technology.

The Century was built specifically to accommodate Upper Lakes Group’s first contract to carry coal for Ontario Hydro. During her first season of operation, she made 63 trips delivering coal totaling 1.7 million tons. On Dec. 8, 1967, she set a Welland Canal coal record by carrying 28,283 tons from Conneaut, Ohio, to Dofasco at Hamilton, Ont. June 18, 1969 saw the Canadian Century load a Conneaut, Ohio, record of 31,081 tons of coal for Ontario Hydro’s Lambton Generating Station at Courtright, Ont. In her early years, she would sail to Sept Isles, Que., to rendezvous with her former fleet mate Ontario Power to transfer coal loaded aboard the latter vessel at Sydney, Nova Scotia, for delivery to Nanticoke, Ont. The Canadian Century carried her first load of taconite ore pellets in 1986 when she loaded 25,427 tons at Pointe Noire, Que., for Hamilton, Ont. The vessel has carried cargoes of salt from ports such as Goderich, Ont., and Fairport, Ohio. She has also carried the odd cargo of grain products.

In her later years, the Canadian Century sailed under the management of Seaway Marine Transport, St. Catharines, Ont., a partnership of Algoma Central and Upper Lakes Group.

On March 23, 2001, the vessel was honored in the traditional Top Hat ceremony recognizing the passing of the first upbound vessel through the Welland Canal for the 2001 navigation season.

In 2002, the vessel was renamed John D. Leitch, honoring the chairman of the Upper Lakes Group. On February 25, 2011, a formal statement was issued announcing the sale of the privately owned Upper Lakes fleet and their associated interest in Seaway Marine Transport to the Algoma Central Corporation. On April 15, 2011, Algoma announced that the John D. Leitch would retain her name.

Written by George Wharton.