View allAll Photos Tagged midsection
I made this tea towel using the new SS patterns --- it was a lot of fun creating something with "real" women, although I did slim their midsections just a wee bit. I gave the blonde a tattoo as well :-)
Right side heavily covered with lichens, left side less heavily covered, and midsection bare. Right side has been clear of soil cover for some hundreds of years. The left side for considerably less time. The middle section is completely bare. What happened? See adjacent image for my theory.
Hitting the hard part of making the shell for the cannon so i might just focus on the other side and work on the front end and midsection tomorrow
Brief synthesis
Bryggen is a historic harbour district in Bergen, one of North Europe’s oldest port cities on the west coast of Norway which was established as a centre for trade by the 12th century. In 1350 the Hanseatic League established a “Hanseatic Office” in Bergen. They gradually acquired ownership of Bryggen and controlled the trade in stockfish from Northern Norway through privileges granted by the Crown. The Hanseatic League established a total of four overseas Hanseatic Offices, Bryggen being the only one preserved today.
Bryggen has been damaged by a number of fires through the centuries and has been rebuilt after every fire, closely following the previous property structure and plan as well as building techniques.
Bryggen’s appearance today stems from the time after the fire in 1702. The buildings are made of wood in keeping with vernacular building traditions. The original compact medieval urban structure is preserved with its long narrow rows of buildings facing the harbour, separated by narrow wooden passages.
Today, some 62 buildings remain of this former townscape and these contain sufficient elements to demonstrate how this colony of bachelor German merchants lived and worked, and illustrate the use of space in the district.
It is characterized by the construction of buildings along the narrow passages running parallel to the docks. The urban units are rows of two- to three-storey buildings signified by the medieval name “gård”. They have gabled facades towards the harbour and lie on either one or both sides of the narrow passages that have the functions of a private courtyard.
The houses are built in a combination of traditional timber log construction, and galleries with column and beam construction with horizontal wooden panel cladding.
The roofs have original brick tiling or sheets, a result of fast repairs after an explosion during World War II. Towards the back of the gård, there are small fireproof warehouses or storerooms (kjellere) built of stone, for protection of special goods and valuables against fire.
This repetitive structure was adapted to the living conditions of the Hanseatic trading post. The German merchants took up winter residence in the small individual wooden houses and the storerooms were used as individual or collective warehouses.
A true colony, Bryggen enjoyed quasi-extraterritoriality which continued beyond the departure of the Hanseatic merchants until the creation of a Norwegian trading post in 1754, on the impetus of fishermen and ship owners of German origin. Today, Bryggen is a significant part of the historic wooden city of Bergen.
Criterion (iii): Bryggen bears the traces of social organization and illustrates the use of space in a quarter of Hanseatic merchants that dates back to the 14th century. It is a type of northern “fondaco”, unequalled in the world, where the structures have remained within the cityscape and perpetuate the memory of one of the oldest large trading ports of Northern Europe.
Integrity
Only around a quarter of the original buildings that existed in Bryggen remained after demolitions at the turn of the 19th century and several fires in the 1950s; the property is comprised of these remaining buildings.
Notwithstanding, the medieval urban structure is maintained and the buildings include all elements necessary to demonstrate how Bryggen functioned: offices and dwellings at the front, warehouses in the midsection and assembly rooms (“Schøtstuer”), kitchen facilities and fireproof stone cellars at the back.
Bryggen can be experienced as an entity within a larger harmonious urban landscape. It is connected more closely to the areas of small wooden dwellings beyond Bryggen and in the medieval city centre than to the larger 20th century buildings in its close proximity.
The risk of fire, excessive numbers of visitors as well as global climate changes with more extreme weather and possibly higher sea levels are some of the potential risks Bryggen faces today.
Authenticity
The Hanseatic period at Bryggen ended long ago, but the Hanseatic heritage is documented through buildings, archives and artefacts which are well preserved for posterity. There are also series of architectural surveys of the buildings from 1900 onwards.
The preservation of the buildings commenced on a larger scale in the 1960s and had made major progress by 1979, the year of inscription on the World Heritage List.
Some buildings at the back were moved in 1965 to create an open area for fire emergencies, but no further changes have been made to the urban structure since.
The solutions and methods chosen have been well documented, and limiting the replacement of original materials has been an objective. Bryggen is built of wood, which is subject to rot, insect attack and ageing. Since 2000, there has been an increased focus on maintaining original methods and building materials in the restoration, with careful consideration given to the choice of material, paint, plugs,nails, etc. and the use of original tools as far as possible.
As the activity at Bryggen decreased after 1900, the buildings became derelict. However, from the 1960s the former trading in stockfish and commodities was gradually replaced by small arts and crafts businesses. An increase in the number of visitors has led to the establishment of restaurants and tourist businesses. This has resulted in inevitable changes in the spirit of the place, particularly along the front facades, whereas the atmosphere of the Hanseatic period can still be sensed in the more secluded area further back.
Protection and management requirements
Bryggen, including its cultural deposits, is listed pursuant to the Norwegian Cultural Heritage Act and is also protected through the Norwegian Planning and Building Act. The adopted protection plan includes an extensive area that functions as a buffer zone.
Bryggen is privately owned and the majority of the buildings are owned by the Bryggen Foundation, which was established in 1962 with the objective of preserving Bryggen. The remaining owners have established a separate association to secure their interests. The stakeholders at Bryggen collaborate in different constellations of owners and authorities.
"The Bryggen Project" was established formally in 2000. This is an extensive and long-term project for monitoring, safeguarding and restoring Bryggen, including both archaeological deposits and standing buildings.
Bryggen is managed according to a management plan that is revised regularly. A fire protection system with detection and suppression has been installed and is continually being improved. Climate conditions are a key issue and measures have been taken to prepare for future changes. Possible impacts resulting from tourism are monitored.
There is ongoing pressure for urban development in the vicinity of Bryggen. Any development which may have visual impact on the World Heritage property is monitored closely by the cultural heritage authorities.
The extended-range C-130E model entered service in 1962 after it was developed as an interim long-range transport for the Military Air Transport Service. Essentially a B-model, the new designation was the result of the installation of 1,360 US gal (5,150 L) Sargent Fletcher external fuel tanks under each wing's midsection and more powerful Allison T56-A-7A turboprops. The hydraulic boost pressure to the ailerons was reduced back to 2,050 psi (14.1 MPa) as a consequence of the external tanks' weight in the middle of the wingspan. The E model also featured structural improvements, avionics upgrades and a higher gross weight. Australia took delivery of 12 C130E Hercules during 1966–67 to supplement the 12 C-130A models already in service with the RAAF. Sweden and Spain fly the TP-84T version of the C-130E fitted for aerial refueling capability.
Photo: Thomas Ohlsson Photography
www.thomasohlsson.com | 500px | Facebook | Flickr | Instagram
The planet Ozidar was once home to a technologically advanced civilization, until a solar cataclysm rendered most of the planet's surface uninhabitable. A small fraction of the population survived in underground factories built before the calamity. From these havens they now only venture onto the surface in purpose-built machines - "Ozids" - built to survive the harsh conditions.
The SP1N3 is one such machine from the Barakis colony. Modelled on the megafauna that used to roam the surface, its fin serves as a solar collector that stores much-needed energy in giant batteries in its midsection, to help keep the colony alive. The fin also mounts a rotary cannon in case of encounters with hostile Ozids.
Erik's new rocket, the first in 6 years! All fiberglass. 15 lbs. I happened to have the perfect gold midsection to lengthen her and make more room for a proper parachute. She had two great flights. Launch videos
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
There have been twelve other ships in recorded Imperial history to have received the name of the Athelonian God of War. The first was a war galley launched by the city-state of Athelon some time in 980 BA (Before Aesar). At this ceremony the pagan priests of the time appealed to their deity of the wilder aspect of war opposed to their patron goddess. The only text recording this event, which hints at the presence of a notable storm, claims that the terrible figure of the God of War appeared before them in storm cloud banks. The text claims that Ares mocked the people for their arrogance, and that no ship of war would ever be worth his name, but he bestowed a blessing any way. A "blessing" upon all ships to bear the name promising the greatest of battle fortune, but the harshest of the dregs of warfare. Furthermore, in their quest to create the ships to be worthy of such a name their builders would know many failures in their quest for perfection. Little is known what happened thereafter other than the simple fact that the ship perished with all hands after excellent performance in battle. This became an odd pattern, as the double-edged blade of a blessing turned into both fortune and curse, although the modern church would assure you that it is all superstition and misfortune. Easterners would point out bad karma for trying to rise above mortal means, but most agree that it was due to human failure. Every once in a while a commander would develop the gall to test the old forsaken legend or brand his ship with the legendary title, often with mixed results as men continued to test fate in what's that only men can.
The whole ordeal was a major source of concern within the Church as the Pope and his cardinals struggled to argue against such a Pagan, and ill-fated name. Unfortunately due to the rapid modernization of the Empire and the growth of "common sense" this was easily avoided by the general public and the Admiralty. It was a truly impressive name after all.
An ironclad battleship bearing the name from the Bolish War in 1865 was reported to have sunk two Aritannian warships in the Battle of Gragów Bay, only to sink as her ram detached itself upon striking the ship's second victim. This clear failure was ignored, and the odd circumstances that allowed the Lorraini ship Gloiréan to ironically become the source of attention the world over for the next half-century. Needless to say that the loss of life was catastrophic. When the Church took over all religious matters before the Third Troytonian Empire fell, and all things pagan literally vanished, no ship rceived the name for three hundred years until in 1735 a fifth rate frigate received the title. This very ship went on to have a respectable and famed fifty-year service as a pirate hunter, traveling across the world. It is speculated today that her own high casualties were owed to the inferior South Emmerian wood (obtained in the old Imperial colony on the continent) utilized in her construction that caused excessive splintering upon cannonball impact.
In 1922 a naval enthusiast named Georges Tyrell proposed a large cruiser design that could field aircraft, but match the firepower of the largest cruisers afloat. The Admiralty accepted his concept design with readiness, building and launching the Cervantes-class heavy cruisers with a spar deck between funnel and rear mast, allowing for the service of two naval aircraft. Appalled that the Marina Imperiale had not opted for his own (ambitious) design and unsatisfied with the Cervantes, Tyrell launched a political campaign, making extensive use of lobbying, against the Admiralty. After he won public and Senate support, the Admiralty conceded, and the large experimental heavy cruiser was ordered in mid-1923, and also winning the right to naming it (as well as direct the project) Tyrell had the ship infamously branded Ares in its original document, an act that received much criticism over the next few years, mostly referring to the renowned arrogance of the man who insisted upon its construction. Whether or not he knew of the name's unfortunate history is unknown. Although a section of the Admiralty scrambled to change the name to "Argus", the appeal was firmly squashed by the Imperial Senate. This was born the thirteenth ship of that unfortunate name, and the controversial story of a navy's most dreaded warship began.
The more watered down design called for a large cruiser that could field a squadron of naval scout, fighter or even attack planes but with the same firepower as the preceding Cervantes class, with five 9.2in guns forward of the superstructure. The Admiralty knew full well the required size of such a ship was truly great, and expressed their concerns, but the majority of the Senate had faith in Tyrell and his posse of designers, and they were looking for a response to the particularly large cruiser designs revealed in the the four massive Kūn class "battlecruisers" constructed by the Qin Imperium, and then later the Order of Achatius' Holmfirth (the famous "flagcruiser" designed to hunt and sink the Whispering Mare).The plan was to construct the prototype, then, depending on its success, order three other ships with the (if necessary) alterations. Tyrell upset this orderly process by making several interjections, calling for last-minute additions to the design. Among these were six quad torpedo launchers in turrets to be stored beneath the vessel's aircraft deck, and thus utilizing the "empty space". Later during actual construction he called for a new fast-firing 11in gun instead of the battle-tested 9.2in rifles used on the Cervantes. He argued that if they were going to make a powerful cruiser they should at least give it powerful armament. It is commonly believed that this action was an attempt to size-up the Achatian Holmfirth with her own six 10in guns. The proposed 11in guns were an entirely new concept to a navy focused on larger caliber and heavier rifles, and only after consulting Emmerian engineers about their own 11in guns did the long process of gun design begin, which denied the constructors to install and test the weapons on the ship until after launch.
The initial challenge was a great surprise. Perceptan dockyards pride themselves on their thoroughly modern facilities and world-class quality, and although using different engineers, the successfully designs of the previous Cervantes-class, were on hand for the construction of the experimental "aviation cruiser" and provided the perfect base design for Tyrell. Some claim it is because of the sheer size of the project and the requirements it was supposed to meet, the more limited dockyards of Valsyrion, the inexperienced designers that Tyrell had roped in, or (according to the ship's masterminds) the shoddy workmanship was to blame on the projects eventual outcome.
Work began in earnest, with the ambitious design quickly being passed through the multiple inspections without incident before being laid down, and oddly being recommend as "a fine display of naval engineering" by on of the inspectors. Despite this, several members of the Admiralty who inspected the plans expressed deep concerns stating that the design had not been altered enough from the Cervantes to account for the vast extra tonnage of the ship. Tyrell and the designing committee successfully suppressed this, assuring the Admiralty that the ship would not cause issues, but would instead completely outclass the Cervantes. Tyrell publicly boasted that he would "show them a thing or two about ship building". The general public loved him for daring to challenge the Imperial Navy. But the initial confidence of her designers dissipated almost immediately, as concerns presented themselves when the workers encountered extreme difficulty in working with the hull. A multitude of completely unexplainable accidents claimed the hands, limbs and lives of several men as the project slowed down, until renewed pressure from the Admiralty sped it up again. The working class of Valsyrion rose in a general strike after a section of the hull literally fell off, and claimed the lives of two men and the leg of a third. The strike called for more extensive safety measures, which the Navy was fast to accept. From there on construction continued more slowly and carefully, but half-way through construction the entire forward section of the long hull came close to buckling in on itself. After the fault was discovered and attributed to worker's fault rather than design deficiency, the plans were edited, calling for stronger reinforcement. When first tested in a water-filled drydock the hull rolled dangerously in the ocean winds blowing inland. This severe instability was completely unacceptable, so the hull was made deeper, with increased torpedo bulges.
Despite the growing concern of Admiralty and Senate officials, Tyrell used his political influence to ensure the project received the extra funding it needed. Several senior Navy engineers voiced concerns that the completed ship might not even be able to sustain an artillery or torpedo hit without capsizing, a warning ridiculed by Tyrell, but quietly heeded nonetheless.
After this revelation the designers realized, with great alarm, that the increasingly demanding requirements to stay afloat placed more and more pressure on the hull integrity. Imperial standards dictated structural integrity to be good, but even though keeping the same strong design of the Cervantes the pressure being placed on the hull by armour and newly-planned armament was disproportionate, delaying construction by an extra month as the engineers increased the strength of almost every aspect of the ship they could lay their hands on, as well as raising the armour belt and enlarging the hull so that the vessel's protection would not become submerged once the rest of the ship was added.
The enormous (and gradually increasing) weight of the ship necessitated more boilers than the previous Cervantes to retain the same required speed of 35 knots. As the rear of the ship was occupied by the spar (aircraft) deck much of the unused space just below decks was utilized for the increased engine block. A design oversight was that the schematics did not factor in another set of funnels to disperse the smoke generated from the extra engines. A large, elaborate (and heavy) series of complex trunks spanning the ships middle interior were required to issue the excess smoke through the same two fused funnels of the Cervantes. As a result, the entire midsection of the ship was evenly heated to uncomfortable levels, and extreme pressure was forced on the funnels and smoke trunks. The Perceptan doctrine for crew comfort called for an air conditioning system to help offset the issue. This massive system, however, put strain on the ships electric generators, which could only allow the unreliable air conditioning to be activated when the ship was well out of battle space.
Tyrell found the single four 5.5in mounts on the Cervantes unfavorable for his ships secondary armament. He had the plans augmented by seven more of the dual-purpose weapons, including four in the middle of the artillery deck. After much debate the number was decreased by two, and the extra guns in the forward part of the ship were sunken into the deck in odd casemates that allowed their ~80 degrees of gun elevation, and stay out of the way of the main battery, but in rough seas these guns would be near useless, and their crews only saved from period by the standardized turrets of the Marina Imperiale's smaller armaments.
Another problem was armour. The ship's basic design parameters required that it be able to exchange fire with other large cruisers, and some exceptional cases: ships armed with 9.2 and 10 inch guns. It would also be required to operate with the other cruisers of the fleet. Being bigger and possibly slower than the other heavy cruisers in the fleet, as well as distinctly recognizable, meant that Ares would draw focused enemy attention in battle. Therefore the armour needed to be thick enough to survive under heavy fire, and the ship be ready to receive the shots that penetrated. Once again, Tyrell resolved the issue by decreeing a minimum armour belt of six inches thick. The Treasury, which had been forced into the ruinously expensive and (God forbid) budget-exceeding project, baulked, and the Admiralty displayed new alarm, but Tyrell's Senate partners squashed the arguments of both.
When still incomplete, the ship was finally launched, and having gone over its original budget by leaps and bounds, the Admiralty was desperate to extract good results from their investment. Her heavy armament of five 11in guns was finally installed, as well as a sizable secondary armament and the empty torpedo tubes beneath the spar deck, both products of a paranoid chief engineer. The tests ensued slowly and cautiously, as fault after fault was revealed. But after the crew began moaning about the heat, Tyrell (who was on board) ordered the tests be sped up, combining several activities together, perhaps in the hope that the might of his ship would out-shadow the crew's concerns in the test captain's report. Despite the strong build of the cruiser her main guns in their well-armoured turrets rotated appallingly slowly despite their well-mechanized mounts, and when she fired her first test salvo the ship rocked violently in the calm sea, and analysis revealed that her structure had not dealt with the stress well. Half the light bulbs in the forward section had been obliterated, and the screaming of metal haunts her test crewmen to this day. It is commonly acknowledged that too many of the powerful 11in rifles had been shoved into too small a space, and the design simply did not cater for the larger guns. In fact, the schematics for the turret section had hardly changed at all from the first design draft. Despite all the effort of his builders (ships of the name inherited the dubious title of masculinity by suspicious seamen), the Ares was not strong enough to handle the recoil of a full salvo of his own main guns, but by then it was far too late to turn back, and the ever-asserting Georges Tyrell refused to allow "his" ship to be made any weaker. Too much money had been invested in the design of the guns them she's, then the ammunition produced to supply them. Even after considerable refit, the guns are preferred to be fired in succession and not all at once as to not risk stressing the structure, or break things. But the worst of the issues was yet to follow. The new and massive number of boilers (30!) was deemed adequate to propel the sleek-hulled ship to speeds in excess of 35 knots, record speeds for a cruiser, especially one of her size. But as soon as the captain, under the influence of Tyrell, tried to push to 35 knots the engines started to make strange noises that baffled their engineers, and the immense pressure placed on the smoke trunks worsened audibly. At 36 the ungodly wail of tortured steel was heard throughout the ship, deafening and disorientating their servicers. Before they could shut the engines down, it reached 37 knots. Something must have caught fire or burst, just as the ships smoke trunks did, flooding the the engine room with smoke and fire. The ship's core became an inferno, the funnels roared flame as the explosion rocked the ship. Once returning to his feet, the acting captain ordered the engines cut. A minute later, the engines screeched to a halt. Dead. The dispersion of the smoke had already been a problem, flooding the rear mast and the gun director, but now it, and exposed sailors, had been burnt by the flame.
When dragged back into port, the elderly captain immediately resigned, and the full investigation began. All the men in the boiler rooms had been roasted alive, and the few who escaped bore horrid burns. Several other men sustained more minor injuries, the result of the ships violent pitches as he struggled to remain afloat.
At this point the Admiralty took matters into their own hands. A committee, to which Tyrell was not invited, was held to determine the ships fate. The intensive debate concluded with the obvious fact: the ship was too great an investment to scrap, especially since she was still-theoretically- in serviceable order, and would have been the first Imperial ship ever launched to not receive the honours of commission. Furthermore, Tyrell had applied to the general public for far too many loans to be just let slip, and the shadow of an unhappy Emperor loomed behind them all. Many of the ships original designers successfully washed their hands of the mess when the Navy's elite designers entered in an attempt to save the cruiser, but Tyrell continued to lobby in favour of having the project returned to him.
The final length of her construction resulted in further internal strengthening to absurd levels as every part of the ship received extra reinforcement, often in terms of thin armour. Extreme new safety measure that insisted upon the water-tightening and fireproofing of every single one of the hundreds of compartments on board to battleship levels of damage control. Her crew was increased in number to better enable damage control ability during battle, with total disregard for the already cramped conditions on board. Her rear mast was tilted back even further than it was before in an attempt to avoid the pillar of smoke generated by the funnels, and thus preserve the rear gun director, requiring extra reinforcement so that it didn't topple over, and it now rests on a new rear structure. The stresses of the design and limited room saw little space for lifeboats. The standard number was forced upon the ship, resulting in some of the boats getting in the way of deck teams. The shear expense of the warship and harsher Admiralty budgeting left very little funds donated to crew comfortability. The hull was deepened and the fuel storage cells enlarged in a bid to increase stability and torpedo protection, and his keels were increased in size. The boilers were separated into fifteen compartments, each separated by a bulkhead, and each with two boilers. In the event of flooding, fire, or some other disaster, the watertight bulkheads would keep the rest of the ships powerplant safe from harm.
Months later and the now world-infamous ship left drydock, complete at last. Many deficiencies of the original design have been dealt with, including the complete replacement of the vessel's powerplant and protection. But many more problems with the ship remain unsolved. Holes in the deck armour were discovered where spaces made for hatches were simply planked over by the deck. These had to have steel squares welded into place, instead of replacing the whole deck armour. And the unreasonably thick (6in) armour belt that became submerged when fully loaded had to be replaced with a much lighter belt. The electric generators were of an inferior model supplied by a personal friend of one of the designers, and was replaced by the standard kinetic model used by the navy. Extravagant gilding and art work was found around the ship's officer quarters, and an expensive main admiral's suite, while the facility for the general crew were found lacking. Needless to say, the unfortunate ship was mercilessly stripped bare. With the budget being far exceeded, the lavish attire of the central rooms was sold to help cover the cost, while the ship was equipped with cheap new internal furnishing that barely relieves the stress of living on board the monster. The ammunition rooms had never been altered from the Cervantes design, so that while the Admiralty completely remodeled the interior of the forward hull, improved interior protection was added around the magazines. The ship still suffers unpleasant roll whenever struck by torpedo or larger shells, and remains immensely uncomfortable, difficult and expensive to operate. The crew was selected from the worst, and the roughest of the navy's roster, often as punishment, but all Imperial sailors fear his name when the rosters change. In addition, the thin aircraft deck was replaced by an armoured one, and a hangar beneath that was contemplated with mechanical lifts to the deck. The plan was abandoned to help cut costs, and to avoid the risk of further weight. Besides, the spar deck housed the ships formidable torpedo armament, now reduced to four quad launchers. The aircraft deck has proven awkward to operate with the full complement of six aircraft, but the two extra cranes and catapults were added to deal with the issue. The only way to increase the size of the deck by then was an expensive modification to the hull, hardly an option.
Such a difficult ship was entrusted to Captain Junius Pearson, who displayed his ability when commanding the armoured cruisers Achilles and Kalexa against the Whispering Mare. It is hoped that the presence of such a skilled and determined commander could tame such a ship and crew. He continues to valiantly attempts to control the monster, often spending his own money in an attempt to improve the lives of his crew.
The extra weight resulted in the reduction of the top "safe" speed, lowering it from 34/35 to just 33 knots despite the very large number of new boilers.
Eventually though, one naval inspector had this to say about the ship:
"But for all his evils and faults, the blasted tub does have its saving graces. The first and foremost being that it is without doubt the strongest-built cruiser in the world, and one of the toughest warships ever launched. I believe that this is because of the constant attention the ship has warranted, and the vast amount of tonnage devoted to armour that has always seemed to be increasing. It has certainly ensured that the ship has received the best of everything the navy had to supply in order to increase the usefulness of the vessel. Second is that this cruiser remains a notably powerful warship. A heavier main battery than any other cruiser afloat, as well as six aircraft for scout and strike purposes makes for a highly impressive, if unusual, loadout. The massive fuel cells and storage space supplied by the equally large torpedo bulges allows for impressive range and endurance. And despite everything thrown at it in the more extensive than usual combat tests, the ship steadfastly refuses to take significant damage, or sink, no matter how much it throws the crew around. But don't get me wrong; once a potato, always a potato"
The meaning of that final phrase has long since been lost to time, but Ares would still cause a lot of pain during the remainder of his career, and destined for a special mention in the history books.
Original Displacement: 13,300 tons standard, 15,700 tons full load
Final Displacement: 16,500 tons standard, 19,500 tons full load
Propulsion: 30 oil boilers, geared steam turbines, 4 shafts
Top Speed: 33 knots (unless you have a death wish)
Range: (using 20/30 boilers) 18,500 kilometers at 14 knots
Armament: 5 x 11in guns, 9 x 5.5in guns, 6 x dual 37mm turrets, 20 x 25mm autocannons, 4 x quad 24in torpedo turrets
Armour: 4-5in belt, 1.5in deck, 3in aircraft deck, 3in (over vital compartments), 4in barbettes and magazine protection, 3in on turrets, 3-4in bulkheads, 6in conning tower, 0.5-2in internal strengthening.
Aircraft: 6
-
Pros:
-Structural integrity is of legend
-Heavy armament
-Long range endurance
-Excellent armour for a cruiser
-Large complement of aircraft
-Excellent damage control
Cons:
-Many technical issues
-Main battery stresses
-Uncomfortable to operate
-Stability issues
-Cramped
-Too slow to operate with fast cruisers
-Slow turret traverse speed
-Deathtrap is unsafe
-Large turning circle
-Crew hates the ship
-Ship hates the crew
-
Builder's Comments:
Forgive me for adding you all, but this build is a personal favourite of mine and I'd like to have some input on it. I love how the build itself turned out, and I'm not sure when I'll bring myself to dismantle it. The concept arose when I felt like doing something interesting- make an aviation cruiser like IJN Tone. Of course, things got a bit carrier away. What started off as a ship planned to have four 9.2" guns evolved when I couldn't find a black technic beam intermediate between the froward piece on this ship and that on Cervantes. I had the extra space, so I went ahead. Soon the shear promise of the fun to be had outran the test project of mine, creating a truly horrifying vessel.
I ended up making this ghoul of a ship. Powerful, without a doubt, but with so many issues it's hardly the worth the firepower. The story was inspired by the sorry tale of the HMS Captain. Thanks goes to Awe to sharing the pdf "World's Worst Warships" with me.
It was some time before Soundwave came across another civilian. Although he considered himself fortunate that he also did not come across and more Vehicons as well, his own fuel supply was past the point of painfully low. Soundwave suddenly found himself automatically transforming back into his warrior mode, lacking the energon reserve that it took to even sustain his alternate mode. He painfully staggered onward, his painful movements echoing the chassis limitations of the derelict that he had passed not so long ago.
Soundwave continued, one agonizing step after the next, holding his metal arm over his midsection not only to cover his wound but also out of the need to support his body while he moved. The Decepticon was literally doubled over in agony while he walked. His optics frantically surveyed the area, desperately searching for anything that the starving Decepticon could possibly convert into a usable fuel to no avail. The lack of fuel led to Soundwave losing his footing as he stumbled. He came crashing to the ground and lay there for a moment, trying to collect his senses. Soundwave looked upwards, losing focus in the hues of coloured ripples that were created as the atmosphere melted into the cosmos above. Then... blackness.
Lexus RC-F (1st Gen pre-facelift) RC300h (2014-on) Engine 2500cc S4 petrol hybrid
Registration Number BD 16 LVP Dealers Display Plate, now re-registered, plate Birmingham)
LEXUS SET
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623895335901...
The Lexus RC is a compact executive two door Coupe designed by Pansoo Kwon and approved by supervising designers Yasuo Kajino and Tatsuya Takei. . The RC was unveiled at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show and has shorter wheelbase than the Lexus IS (XE30) though it is longer overall and shares a platform with the Lexus GS (L10), midsection from the Lexus IS (XE20) convertible, while the rear componentry is from the XE30 series IS The RC has three LED lamps in the triangular headlights and 18-inch five-spoke alloy wheels as standard, or 19-inch ten-spoke wheels as option
Initially, the RC was available with a choice of three engines; the RC 300h with the 2.5-liter 2AR-FSE inline-four engine mated to a continuously variable transmission, the RC 350 with the 3.5-liter 2GR-FSE V6 (which was later replaced with the 2GR-FKS), and the RC F with 5.0-liter 2UR-GSE V8. The RC 200t (now called RC 300), featuring a 2.0-liter 8AR-FTS I4 turbocharged petrol engine, was added to the range in late 2015. All-wheel drive is offered for the RC 300h and RC 350.
The RC received its first facelift in August 2018, ahead of the Paris Motorshow he corporate 'L' shaped DRLs and the triple eye LED's are merged, and have a simular appearance of the larger LC coupe along with a reworked cabin and rear tail lamp design.
The Lexus RC F is a high performance version of the RC. The vehicle was unveiled in the 2014 North American International Auto Show. for the 2015 model year The RC F features a 5.0 L (4,969 cc) 2UR-GSE V8 engine with Atkinson cycle at cruising speeds, developing a maximum output of 467bhp The RC F is equipped with vertical G-sensor for VDIM, Torque Vectoring Differential (TVD) with three operating modes, Standard, Slalom, or Track, front and rear coil-spring independent suspension, monotube gas-filled shock absorbers and ball-jointed stabilizer bars, three new 19-inch diameter forged aluminum wheels, spindle grille with F-mesh pattern on the lower half, unique front hood which raises the peak of the vehicle, hood air vent from the LFA, front cooling ducts, front fender ducts in the L shape, exclusive combination meters from LFA The aerodynamic package includes an active rear spoiler, tuning of the underbody, the intakes in the grille and the front fender vents and aero stabilizing fins.
The carbon fiber optional package, or known in Japan as Carbon Exterior Package, includes a clear coated carbon fiber roof, active rear spoiler, and the carbon fiber engine hood.
The RC received a mid-cycle facelift for in August 2018 ahead of its 2018 Paris Motor Show debut, The corporate 'L' shaped DRLs and the triple eye LED's are merged, making their placements look simular to the larger LC Coupe along with a reworked cabin and rear tail lamp
Thankyou for a massive 54,894,808 views
Shot 03.07.2016 at Cars in the Park, Beacon Park, Lichfield REF 121-205
Fidalgo Bay.
NTSB Final Accident Report, Date Adopted: July 23, 2015
"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."
"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.
"Investigators reviewed photographs of the load cells from the second weight test. The photograph of the aft starboard load cell showed a value of 60,550 pounds. Additionally, the
investigation determined the load cell values were written in grease pencil on the cradle above the cell from which they were taken. An aft starboard pencil value of 60,350, nearly similar to
the value shown in the cell photograph, was found written on the cradle. However, the investigation determined that New World supplied the stability naval architect a value of 68,500 pounds for this cell―indicating a transcription error at New World―and the naval architect used this incorrect weight in his spreadsheet to determine total vessel weight and estimate launch stability. As the aft port load cell reading was 68,700 pounds, an actual aft starboard side reading of 60,550 was more than 8,000 pounds less than the aft port side. The stability naval architect said this 8,000-pound difference indicated a transverse weight differential and would produce a heeling moment to the heavier port side. This meant the vessel’s center of gravity was further to port than had been estimated." - NTSB
www.ntsb.gov/investigations/accidentreports/pages/MAB1514...
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.
To deploy large groups of soldiers and machinery to the surface at once, the Junos were outfitted with a cargo elevator in the ship's midsection. Though the Navy expressed concerns regarding the vulnerability of a single system to deploy vehicles, it was eventually agreed that the extra weight of another loading system would compromise the ship's already limited maneuvering budget.
FINALLY RPing at a Game of Thrones sim. I've wanted to for so long but it just never happened. But lemme say, today was my first day RPing here, and I already love it. This is my character Alysandria (Alys) Baratheon, daughter to Lord Alexander Baratheon. The RP below is my first RP on this sim and I'm putting it here more to log it than anything else since I really enjoyed it. I've bolded the part of the RP that I was trying to show here, so if you read just those, you'll get the gist of it. But I didn't want to delete the rest of the RP because honestly, everyone I've come across here is an AMAZING Rper. So, here goes~
P.S. If you decide to RP here, JOIN THE DAMN BARATHEON HOUSE. Right now it's only me and Alexander l o l~
slurl.com/secondlife/Wishes/130/139/24/
______________________________________________________________________
Alexander Baratheon The hedge knight walloped him into the next dimension with his final onslaught, the shaft sent him flying a couple feet backwards off his horse, the shield did little to mitigate it, and, he'd fall flat on the ground, even somehow, a bit of the wooded splinter had pierced into his plating. It was like being hit by a mack truck, and, he'd definitely have bruises to prove it in the morning. Thankfully, the splinter didnt pierce him. And, in a stagger, he lifted as a defiance to his own pain and waddle over to the hedge knight to pat him on the thigh and exclaim "Good on ya! This young Ser takes it! I dare say I yield before he breaks me!" he'd snicker heartily and let his squire take care of his shield for now, and, he'd toss off his helmet and shield, yet, proudly mount his horse once more, and, steer him once more down the field to the side of the hedge knight as a show of good will and wave to the crowd, "Plenty of fair ladies in the crowd for ya, Ser! Pick a good one!"
Lady Alys Baratheon couldn't help but pout when her father hadn't won the match. He was a good sport about it though, as always, which left her feeling better about the whole ordeal than worse. Alys pushed herself from the railing, twirling in a graceful manner as she made her way down to the stands with the rest of the spectators, curious as to who the hedge knight would choose.
Max Eternal watched the final round, ignoring the hum of the crowd behind him as he focosed on the riders charging towards eachother for the last pass and once Lord Baratheon fell the crowd screamed and gasped until he righted himself, fit to see another match though he would not walk away with the gold. Ser Max the Red shouted out for all to hear . "YOUR WINNER IS SER LEOFRIC, THE HEDGE KNIGHT! He wins 100 gold pieces from the kings own hand and the right to name any lady here the queen of love and beauty! So step up Ser! Recieve your winnings and make your choice! What jewel of the seven kingdoms should bear that title tonight?" He beckoned the knight up to his dais with a smile and welcoming gesture
Josselyn Arryn (riikka.aviatik) is more then a little surprised at the victor, but smiles all the same. "Well, good for him," she murmurs. Gathering up her skirts, she inclines her head to the ladies. "Shall we? Your brother is likely to be waiting for us." And with that, she turns and heads back to the manse.
Ser Leofric throws the broken lance aside at the end of the run.. coming to a halt.. as the announcer claims a third bout.. he stays still and, waits for Alexander to recover himself.. mighty strong man who'd taken such blows successively and still gets up.. "I think one hit from your lance." he exposes the mail under his shield.. "We'd be on opposite footing." he smiles faintly and lifts up his visor.. watching the Baratheon mount up and then follows.. at his side.. patting his horses neck.. "Good on you, Ser rupert.." clearly he thanked his horse more than anything else.. and now he had a truely daunting task.. He pulls of his helm and tucks it under his arm.. looking at the all women and loudly declares.. "But my lord!" he exclaims "I know not which of these ladies are married or posess suitors.. I would not wish to offend another.. Would the ladies not bound by wedlock step forwards!" he looks at the crowd and kindly nods his head to Max for his announcement.. and then moves over to accept the crown from him..
Kaylin Mormont could not any other way than to actually laugh after her cheer at the last blow that connected. Now that the victor was known, and the one not wearing any plate at all as well. That was a victory to certainly be valued. Once more she was ringing her plates with her fist for them two, and for the victorious man. And now, in her mind something has changed, and as she yesterday planned to spend her won dragons on a full plate, she now felt that it does not matter how fancy the armor, if there is a true heart beating under it. Perhaps she would find better use for the gold. Now that the knight went so closed, she however better stepped back, not wishing to steal his thunder, like if she could.
Magdalene Arryn smiles and leans away from her sister and sister in law. Bowing her head to Sarraya. "It's been a lovely day. So much bravery." her shyness being overpowered. She did not like to see a lady alone, she knew all too well how it felt. So she would of course engage in small talk with the woman. "I know nothing of either man..but both have been most impressive. She would clap her hands together as the winner was announced. She was truly impressed. She would look to Joss as she seemed ready to head off. She would turn as well, giving a smile to both the jousters and a courteous bow of her head to the Martell woman. "A pleasure to see you again. I hope we have a chance to meet again."
Sarraya Nymeros Martell was one of the many that held their breath when he was knocked from his horse but sh could not heplp but applaud the winner. "Goodness what a strong blow. These men were vicious on the list toda!" And she loved it. Watching the hedge knight she wondered to herself if he was sworn yet to another house, Martells could certainly use a man like him in King's Landing. At his call for the eligible women to step forward she laughed "I think we are stopped by these rails good ser to move any closer."
Winnifred Arryn was eager to see who the queen of love and beauty would be, blue eyes darting excitedly from the winner to the gathered ladies. Unfortunately she heard Joss' voice then and nodded "Of course" she agreed and followed, best not keep their brother waiting, especially since they'd gone out without him.Quickly she hurried after her sister and sister in law, though she could not help but to glance back once or twice.
Sarraya Nymeros Martell smiled sweetly to Magdelene, so far the only Arryn who talked to her. But then the Arrysn were leaving "But wait, surely you should stay so that he could choose one of you two" Having heard the otehr day that one of them at least was not married.
Lady Alys Baratheon was surprised to see the amount of spectators left. Did those women really need such a lengthy amount of time to prepare themselves for the ball? But, she digressed, prepared to be on her way as well until the knight spoke. Alys seemed to stop in her tracks, unsure of what to do, especially with her father's watchful eye ever present. Though, since she was already at the railing and could not move any closer, she'd remain there. Her attention turned to the woman who spoke, chuckling lightly at her words. She went to look at the other two who had been present only to find that they were departing as well. This made Alys all the more nervous, and her eyes would go wide in reaction to such.
Kaylin Mormont was considering a moment, after what she heard from the man, but seeing she was not dressed for beauty, she felt it would be a good joke, so the step she took back, she took it ahead again, just grinning a bit stupid. Still the whole victory of the unplated man was working its charm on her, making her almost laugh.
Alexander Baratheon had noticed his daughter had been spectating throughout the event, he hadnt missed a beat as a stern and meticulous man he was. And, he'd watch he line up on the rafters standing fairly amongst the other women, a good choice for any man. And, he'd press his plated hand to his palm and blow her a kiss for good luck "I will see you at the ball, Sweetling! Dont worry, your father wont keel over just from a couple of bumps." he'd saunter backwards and pivot in place, before winking at the hedge knight "The most beautiful flower in all of Westeros, my fair daughter, would be most certainly a worthy woman to sit on the dias with you!" he'd tease the lot of them before charging off the field to let the man have his day and choice unhindered, "And Lady Martell! Come now! Dont dissuade the man! Its his day, learn to love flattery!"
Max Eternal couldn't wait for a cup of five of ale to be in h is belly and a wench to be in his lap so he watched, crossing his arms as the unarmored hedge knight looked to crown a maiden before the nights festivities began. and he sauntered towards him, pressing a sachel filled with a hundred gold crowns from the kings own hand .."Who cares bout the squeen of love and beauty when there's a whorehouse and gold in your hand eh friend!" This was said so that any ladies present might not hear but surely some might..
Magdalene Arryn wrinkles her nose as she was spoken to again, turning back with a laugh. "Oh..I do not wish to be picked..nor keep my brother waiting. Good luck.." she would laugh and start to head off, stopping briefly to smile to Lord Lannister. "Lord Lannister, a pleasure to see you again.." spoken as Joss started to wave her off, she was trailing behind her sister in law by quite a few feet at this point, she was definitely going to be in a bit of trouble.
Auron Hill nods at his fathers words, knowing he was right. Afterall he had become a knight to try climb from his status as the Lannister bastard. But still the stigma followed him, if only in his own head at times. He was more taken back by the victor of the tournament though than his father's kind word. The winner wore no crest or sigil of a house. He was a hedge knight as his father pointed out. "Thinking he'd look good in red, father?" he asks with a grin before looking to the stands where the hedgeknight was to choose the 'Queen of beauty and love.' It was a tough decision for the hedge knight no doubt, though Auron found his eyes lingering on the woman in black longer than the others.
Sarraya Nymeros Martell Stuck out liek a sore thumb in her blazing orange sari and dark skin. Lips purse as she looked around, yup everyone had that beautiful milky skin. As teh arryn escorte herself away she frowned, it seems the Arryns ladies were very skittish with angering the Lord. "Lord Alexander you know how much I love flattery, I would never wish for it to end" She called to him with a tease as he turned to leave, now realizing the beautiful young lady beside her was his daughter. "Truer words never spoken" Seaking to Max with a grin and off to teh side since she had heard what he said.
Ser Leofric looks at all the women and leans back in his saddle.. as basically they all stood still ."Clearly! Many men are happily married." he looks down at his horse.. "Ser rupert, pick for me." he horses ears twitch and swivel around.. seemingly looking at the women.. and his horse casually trots over to the Baratheon.. he wouldn't touch Sarraya, he'd seen how Aeric had looked at her.. and he had more honour than that. "Lady.. If you would accept." he holds up the crown of roses.. and smils faintly, clutching at his helm..
Kaylin Mormont heard the Games master as she was relatively near and his announcement to the Hedge knight made her snort. Obviously the man knew how to enjoy life and that was something to value, at least for this one northerner. She however just remained listening to the chatter around her, quite entertained. Which was not her usual, at times there And when Ser Rupert picked, Kaylin sticked out her tongue at the horse, though in the end she was happy to not be the horse's choice of love. That in itself as much as good joke it was could imply something about her already big nose. And she would have none of that!
Thaniel Lannister smiles a bit as Magdalene walks by, "My lady of Arryn..." Thaniel bows to the woman, "I do hope you will save a dance for an old man of Lannister." He's not that old. Plus, the blond totally covers up the grey hairs. "The hedge knight may name any woman, but obviously he is wrong if he chooses anyone other than you." Flattery, it rolls of Thaniel's tongue like honey, effortlessly, but all the moreso when he at least means it a little. Thaniel nods at Auron, "I had exactly that thing in mind." Thaniel lifts his chin and calls, "Ser Leofric. I was very impressed by your performance. Come soon to the Lannister house here in King's Landing. I would very much like to discuss your unusually exceptional skills with the lance...and the lute."
Max Eternal chuckled and nodded his approval as the hedge knight offered the crown to the young Baratheon woman, giving both women a dashing smile before fading off, leaving the squires to clean up the field...."I wish y ou all well. See you at the ball soon!!" He runs off in preparation
Lady Alys Baratheon nodded her head to her father at his words of his health. She rather enjoyed these events, but always feared he would be gravely injured one day. But she knew what a strong man he was, and that nothing of today's caliber could take him down. She lifted a hand in a wave as he rode off, now even more aware of her current position. She hadn't even intended to be part of the contest, but she now felt stuck in place, as if sinking in to quick sand. Her throat felt dry and she gulped deeply, eyes trailing over to the brightly dressed woman that exchanged words with her father. She smiled warmly, though at her words, a soft tint of red plagued her cheeks, giving away her current embarrassment. She seemed more confused than anything though when the knight ordered his horse to choose. Maybe she was safe? And... maybe not. As the horse came trotting over towards her, Alys' eyes went wide, drifting from the horse to the knight himself. She seemed to stay silent for a moment, her young age leaving her at a loss for words, so she would settle for what came first. "It would be my honor, Ser." she announced. Though whether she actually felt that way or not was hard to tell. Either way, she'd dip forward, moving so the crown of roses was placed delicately upon her head.
Magdalene Arryn turns back, her cheeks blushing just a bit towards Thaniel. "I would be honored to save a dance in your name." she grins at his compliments. Bending at the midsection into a rather formal curtsey, fingers laced into her skirt as she straightens back up. "Enjoy the rest of the festivities." she would turn, starting to walk off, her cheeks ablaze with redness. Making hasty footwork to catch up with the others.
Sarraya Nymeros Martell When Ser Leofric trotted towards the Baratheon girl she smiled brightly. The young lady was very beautiful, who could fault him? Besides, the crown might have been nice but it would not feel like those that sat on her head thanks to Aeric throughout their history. "A brilliant pick good knight, no Lady more beautiful then her." Her words ere sweet and backed with smiling eyes as she moved to place a warm hand along the girls arm if she could "Congratulations.. and to you as well Ser Knight. You tilted wonderfully and deserve that prize in your hand. I do hope you will be at the ball, would love to talk with you some." Oh she woudl certainly keep an eye out for him. "If you all would excuse me though, I better hurry to get dress"
Ser Leofric "The honour is all mine, Lady Baratheon." he bows from the saddle.. as she dons the crown.. "You are my queen of love and beauty." he leans back up with a pleasant and joyous smile on his face.. he was just that Leofric the Joyous.. he glances at the Princess.. "I may there in some fashion.. I've been asked to play." he wheels round.. clicking his tongue and smiles at the momront who'd cheer on all the knights with such gusto and for that he was greatful.. He caught the Lannisters offer as well.. "All these houses.. clearly i'll be well dined.." he laughs jovially and heads off.. quite sore.. hey he took impacts as well... collecting his prize money on the way.. as he whistles some random tune.. he also had some bounty to collect from the Tyrell he un-horsed...
Kaylin Mormont returned the smile to the hedge knight when he noticed her, which was nice for the young girl, even when the man's queen was someone else, chosen right here in front of her eyes. And so, in the warrior manner, she twice hits her chestplate cheerfully for the knight and the horse. "Well played, Sers.", she tells them with a blink of her eyes. She had a lot going through her head right that moment, but she felt it will have to stick with her for the day, for she had a meeting with some abandoned kegs when everyone will move for the ball.
Lady Alys Baratheon couldn't believe she had actually won the title she hadn't sought from the beginning. Though she couldn't deny it raised her self esteem by quite a stretch. As she felt the woman's hand on her arm, she smiled brightly towards him, giving a bow of her head. "Thank you." she said sheepishly, then bowing deeply towards the Knight, at a loss for words officially this time. Though at the mention of the ball, she seems to startle, her eyes going wide. "I had completely forgotten!" she exclaims, glancing down to her attire. "I must go prepare myself for the festivities as well." She bowed quickly, once more, before hiking her dress up in a very unladylike fashion and booking it to the Baratheon house
Tutorial for a complete remake of my first car posted here on flicker years ago. redesigned from the bottom up but using the same idea of a 5 wide midsection.
Also availible on youtube
Designed with Lego Digital Designer (LDD)
Music
JR Tundra - Bar Crawl
It starts with a twist of the head, continues seamlessly as it shimmies thru the midsection, then finishes with a flourish of the tail that lifts his hind legs off the ground. It makes me smile every time :-)
I have tried this shot hundreds of times:
Literally, hundreds. One thing I have found with this shot is that I have to point the camera into the light source (in this case the sun) to be able to pick up all the flying water drops. I also found it helpful to shoot this early or late in the day when the sun is much lower. Having a dark green bokeh background doesn't hurt either.
Just the Facts Ma'am:
ISO 100
1/1000th
f/2.8
135mm
High Speed Continuos Shutter (The 50d ROCKS at this)
1 large lake
1 very wet stinky dog
The Chrysler 300 'letter series' were high-performance personal luxury cars built by Chrysler from 1955-65, a sub-model of the Chrysler New Yorker. After the initial year, which was named C-300 for its standard 300 hp 331 cu in FirePower V8, the 1956 cars were designated 300B. Successive model years were given the next letter of the alphabet, reaching the 300L by 1965.
The original C-300 was developed to homologate a Chrysler for the NASCAR circuits. The front clip, including the grille, was taken from the Imperial of the same year, the midsection was from a New Yorker hardtop, with a Windsor rear quarter. The 1956 update was the 300B, with new tailfins and a larger engine. Two companions of the 300B were introduced; the DeSoto Adventurer and the Dodge D-500, less luxurious, but sharing much of the mechanicals.
Engine; 354 cu in Hemi V8 with either 340 or 355 hp. Only 1,102 300 Bs were sold
The Chrysler 300 "letter series" are high-performance personal luxury cars that were built by Chrysler in the U.S. from 1955 to 1965. After the initial year, which was named 300-C, the 1956 cars were designated 300B. Successive model years given the next letter of the alphabet as a suffix (skipping "i"), reaching the 300L by 1965, after which the model was dropped.
The 300 "letter series" cars were among the vehicles that focused on performance built by domestic U.S. manufacturers after World War II, and thus can be considered one of the muscle car's ancestors, though full-sized and more expensive.
The automaker began using the 300 designations again for performance-luxury sedans, using the 300M nameplate from 1999 to 2004, and expanding the 300 series with a new V8-powered 300C, the top model of a relaunched Chrysler 300 line, a new rear-wheel drive car launched in 2004 for the 2005 model year. Unlike the first "letter series" series, the successive variants do not feature standard engines producing at least 300 hp (220 kW), except for Chrysler's current top-line 300C models.
1955 C-300
This first of the letter series cars did not bear a letter, but can retroactively be considered the '300A'. The 'C-' designation was applied to all Chrysler models; however for marketing purposes the numerical series skipped more than 225 numbers forward in sequence in order to further reinforce the 300's bhp rating. The 300 originally stood for the 300 hp (220 kW) engine. The C-300 was really a racecar aimed at the NASCAR circuits that was sold for the road for homologation purposes, with Chrysler's most powerful engine, the 331 cu in (5.4 L) FirePower "Hemi" V8, due to the hemisperic shape of the combustion chambers, fitted with twin 4-barrel carburetors, a race-profiled camshaft setup, solid valve lifters, stiffer suspension, and a performance exhaust system. By 1956 this would be the first American production car to top 355 hp (265 kW), and the letter series was for many years the most powerful car produced in the United States.
The car's "Forward Look" styling can be attributed as much to the Chrysler parts bin as designer Virgil Exner. The front clip, including the grille, was taken from the Imperial of the same year, but the rest of the car did not look like an Imperial. The midsection was from a New Yorker hardtop, with a Windsor rear quarter. Exner also included base-model Chrysler bumpers and removed many exterior elements such as back-up lights, hood ornament, side trim, and exterior mirrors. An electric clock and two-speed windshield wipers were standard. There were few options available including selection of three exterior colors (red, white and black) and only one color of tan leather interior. Power windows and power seat were available but air conditioning was not available in 1955.
Measured at 127.58 mph (205.32 km/h) in the Flying Mile, and doing well in NASCAR, the C-300 aroused interest that was not reflected in its modest sales figure of 1,725.
When the C300 competed in NASCAR, it was painted to advertise that it was the "world's fastest stock car".
[Text from Wikipedia]
Maize (/meɪz/ MAYZ; Zea mays subsp. mays, from Spanish: maíz after Taino: mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The leafy stalk of the plant produces pollen inflorescences and separate ovuliferous inflorescences called ears that yield kernels or seeds, which are fruits.
Maize has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat or rice. In addition to being consumed directly by humans (often in the form of masa), maize is also used for corn ethanol, animal feed and other maize products, such as corn starch and corn syrup. The six major types of maize are dent corn, flint corn, pod corn, popcorn, flour corn, and sweet corn.[5] Sugar-rich varieties called sweet corn are usually grown for human consumption as kernels, while field corn varieties are used for animal feed, various corn-based human food uses (including grinding into cornmeal or masa, pressing into corn oil, and fermentation and distillation into alcoholic beverages like bourbon whiskey), and as chemical feedstocks. Maize is also used in making ethanol and other biofuels.
Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2014, total world production was 1.04 billion tonnes. Maize is the most widely grown grain crop throughout the Americas, with 361 million metric tons grown in the United States alone in 2014. Genetically modified maize made up 85% of the maize planted in the United States in 2009. Subsidies in the United States help to account for its high level of cultivation of maize and its position as the largest producer in the world.
HISTORY
PRE-COLUMBIAN DEVELOPMENT
Maize is a cultigen; human intervention is required for it to propagate. Whether or not the kernels fall off the cob on their own is a key piece of evidence used in archaeology to distinguish domesticated maize from its naturally-propagating teosinte ancestor. Genetic evidence can also be used to determine when various lineages split.
Most historians believe maize was domesticated in the Tehuacán Valley of Mexico. Recent research in the early 21st century has modified this view somewhat; scholars now indicate the adjacent Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico as the center of domestication.
An influential 2002 study by Matsuoka et al. has demonstrated that, rather than the multiple independent domestications model, all maize arose from a single domestication in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The study also demonstrated that the oldest surviving maize types are those of the Mexican highlands. Later, maize spread from this region over the Americas along two major paths. This is consistent with a model based on the archaeological record suggesting that maize diversified in the highlands of Mexico before spreading to the lowlands.
Archaeologist Dolores Piperno has said:
A large corpus of data indicates that [maize] was dispersed into lower Central America by 7600 BP [5600 BC] and had moved into the inter-Andean valleys of Colombia between 7000 and 6000 BP [5000–4000 BC].
— Dolores Piperno, The Origins of Plant Cultivation and Domestication in the New World Tropics: Patterns, Process, and New Developments
Since then, even earlier dates have been published.
According to a genetic study by Embrapa, corn cultivation was introduced in South America from Mexico, in two great waves: the first, more than 6000 years ago, spread through the Andes. Evidence of cultivation in Peru has been found dating to about 6700 years ago. The second wave, about 2000 years ago, through the lowlands of South America.
The earliest maize plants grew only small, 25-millimetre-long (1 in) corn cobs, and only one per plant. In Jackson Spielvogel's view, many centuries of artificial selection (rather than the current view that maize was exploited by interplanting with teosinte) by the indigenous people of the Americas resulted in the development of maize plants capable of growing several cobs per plant, which were usually several centimetres/inches long each. The Olmec and Maya cultivated maize in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica; they cooked, ground and processed it through nixtamalization. It was believed that beginning about 2500 BC, the crop spread through much of the Americas. Research of the 21st century has established even earlier dates. The region developed a trade network based on surplus and varieties of maize crops.
Mapuches of south-central Chile cultivated maize along with quinoa and potatoes in pre-Hispanic times; however, potato was the staple food of most Mapuches, "specially in the southern and coastal [Mapuche] territories where maize did not reach maturity". Before the expansion of the Inca Empire maize was traded and transported as far south as 40°19' S in Melinquina, Lácar Department. In that location maize remains were found inside pottery dated to 730 ± 80 BP and 920 ± 60 BP. Probably this maize was brought across the Andes from Chile. The presence of maize in Guaitecas Archipelago (43°55' S), the southernmost outpost of pre-Hispanic agriculture, is reported by early Spanish explorers. However the Spanish may have misidentified the plant.
COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
After the arrival of Europeans in 1492, Spanish settlers consumed maize, and explorers and traders carried it back to Europe and introduced it to other countries. Spanish settlers far preferred wheat bread to maize, cassava, or potatoes. Maize flour could not be substituted for wheat for communion bread, since in Christian belief only wheat could undergo transubstantiation and be transformed into the body of Christ. Some Spaniards worried that by eating indigenous foods, which they did not consider nutritious, they would weaken and risk turning into Indians. "In the view of Europeans, it was the food they ate, even more than the environment in which they lived, that gave Amerindians and Spaniards both their distinctive physical characteristics and their characteristic personalities." Despite these worries, Spaniards did consume maize. Archeological evidence from Florida sites indicate they cultivated it as well.
Maize spread to the rest of the world because of its ability to grow in diverse climates. It was cultivated in Spain just a few decades after Columbus's voyages and then spread to Italy, West Africa and elsewhere. Widespread cultivation most likely began in southern Spain in 1525, after which it quickly spread to the rest of the Spanish Empire including its territories in Italy (and, from there, to other Italian states). Maize had many advantages over wheat and barley; it yielded two and a half times the food energy per unit cultivated area, could be harvested in successive years from the same plot of land, and grew in wildly varying altitudes and climates, from relatively dry regions with only 250 mm (10 in) of annual rainfall to damp regions with over 5,000 mm (200 in). By the 17th century it was a common peasant food in Southwestern Europe, including Portugal, Spain, southern France, and Italy. By the 18th century, it was the chief food of the southern French and Italian peasantry, especially in the form of polenta in Italy.
Names
The word maize derives from the Spanish form of the indigenous Taíno word for the plant, mahiz. It is known by other names around the world.
The word "corn" outside the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand refers to any cereal crop, its meaning understood to vary geographically to refer to the local staple. In the United States,[30] Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn primarily means maize; this usage started as a shortening of "Indian corn". "Indian corn" primarily means maize (the staple grain of indigenous Americans), but can refer more specifically to multicolored "flint corn" used for decoration.
In places outside the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, corn often refers to maize in culinary contexts. The narrower meaning is usually indicated by some additional word, as in sweet corn, sweetcorn, corn on the cob, baby corn, the puffed confection known as popcorn and the breakfast cereal known as corn flakes.
In Southern Africa, maize is commonly called mielie (Afrikaans) or mealie (English), words derived from the Portuguese word for maize, milho.
Maize is preferred in formal, scientific, and international usage because it refers specifically to this one grain, unlike corn, which has a complex variety of meanings that vary by context and geographic region. Maize is used by agricultural bodies and research institutes such as the FAO and CSIRO. National agricultural and industry associations often include the word maize in their name even in English-speaking countries where the local, informal word is something other than maize; for example, the Maize Association of Australia, the Indian Maize Development Association, the Kenya Maize Consortium and Maize Breeders Network, the National Maize Association of Nigeria, the Zimbabwe Seed Maize Association.
STRUCTURE AND PHYSIOLOGY
The maize plant is often 3 m (10 ft) in height, though some natural strains can grow 13 m (43 ft). The stem is commonly composed of 20 internodes of 18 cm (7 in) length. The leaves arise from the nodes, alternately on opposite sides on the stalk. A leaf, which grows from each node, is generally 9 cm (3+1⁄2 in) in width and 120 cm (3 ft 11 in) in length.
Ears develop above a few of the leaves in the midsection of the plant, between the stem and leaf sheath, elongating by around 3 mm (1⁄8 in) per day, to a length of 18 cm (7 in) with 60 cm (24 in) being the maximum alleged in the subspecies. They are female inflorescences, tightly enveloped by several layers of ear leaves commonly called husks. Certain varieties of maize have been bred to produce many additional developed ears. These are the source of the "baby corn" used as a vegetable in Asian cuisine.
The apex of the stem ends in the tassel, an inflorescence of male flowers. When the tassel is mature and conditions are suitably warm and dry, anthers on the tassel dehisce and release pollen. Maize pollen is anemophilous (dispersed by wind), and because of its large settling velocity, most pollen falls within a few meters of the tassel.
Elongated stigmas, called silks, emerge from the whorl of husk leaves at the end of the ear. They are often pale yellow and 18 cm (7 in) in length, like tufts of hair in appearance. At the end of each is a carpel, which may develop into a "kernel" if fertilized by a pollen grain. The pericarp of the fruit is fused with the seed coat referred to as "caryopsis", typical of the grasses, and the entire kernel is often referred to as the "seed". The cob is close to a multiple fruit in structure, except that the individual fruits (the kernels) never fuse into a single mass. The grains are about the size of peas, and adhere in regular rows around a white, pithy substance, which forms the ear. The maximum size of kernels is reputedly 2.5 cm (1 in). An ear commonly holds 600 kernels. They are of various colors: blackish, bluish-gray, purple, green, red, white and yellow. When ground into flour, maize yields more flour with much less bran than wheat does. It lacks the protein gluten of wheat and, therefore, makes baked goods with poor rising capability. A genetic variant that accumulates more sugar and less starch in the ear is consumed as a vegetable and is called sweet corn. Young ears can be consumed raw, with the cob and silk, but as the plant matures (usually during the summer months), the cob becomes tougher and the silk dries to inedibility. By the end of the growing season, the kernels dry out and become difficult to chew without cooking them tender first in boiling water.
Planting density affects multiple aspects of maize. Modern farming techniques in developed countries usually rely on dense planting, which produces one ear per stalk. Stands of silage maize are yet denser,[citation needed] and achieve a lower percentage of ears and more plant matter.
Maize is a facultative short-day plant and flowers in a certain number of growing degree days > 10 °C (50 °F) in the environment to which it is adapted. The magnitude of the influence that long nights have on the number of days that must pass before maize flowers is genetically prescribed and regulated by the phytochrome system.
Photoperiodicity can be eccentric in tropical cultivars such that the long days characteristic of higher latitudes allow the plants to grow so tall that they do not have enough time to produce seed before being killed by frost. These attributes, however, may prove useful in using tropical maize for biofuels.
Immature maize shoots accumulate a powerful antibiotic substance, 2,4-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-1,4-benzoxazin-3-one (DIMBOA). DIMBOA is a member of a group of hydroxamic acids (also known as benzoxazinoids) that serve as a natural defense against a wide range of pests, including insects, pathogenic fungi and bacteria. DIMBOA is also found in related grasses, particularly wheat. A maize mutant (bx) lacking DIMBOA is highly susceptible to attack by aphids and fungi. DIMBOA is also responsible for the relative resistance of immature maize to the European corn borer (family Crambidae). As maize matures, DIMBOA levels and resistance to the corn borer decline.
Because of its shallow roots, maize is susceptible to droughts, intolerant of nutrient-deficient soils, and prone to be uprooted by severe winds.
While yellow maizes derive their color from lutein and zeaxanthin, in red-colored maizes, the kernel coloration is due to anthocyanins and phlobaphenes. These latter substances are synthesized in the flavonoids synthetic pathway from polymerization of flavan-4-ols by the expression of maize pericarp color1 (p1) gene which encodes an R2R3 myb-like transcriptional activator of the A1 gene encoding for the dihydroflavonol 4-reductase (reducing dihydroflavonols into flavan-4-ols) while another gene (Suppressor of Pericarp Pigmentation 1 or SPP1) acts as a suppressor. The p1 gene encodes an Myb-homologous transcriptional activator of genes required for biosynthesis of red phlobaphene pigments, while the P1-wr allele specifies colorless kernel pericarp and red cobs, and unstable factor for orange1 (Ufo1) modifies P1-wr expression to confer pigmentation in kernel pericarp, as well as vegetative tissues, which normally do not accumulate significant amounts of phlobaphene pigments. The maize P gene encodes a Myb homolog that recognizes the sequence CCT/AACC, in sharp contrast with the C/TAACGG bound by vertebrate Myb proteins.
The ear leaf is the leaf most closely associated with a particular developing ear. This leaf and above contribute 70%[57] to 75% to 90% of grain fill. Therefore fungicide application is most important in that region in most disease environments.
ABNORMAL FLOWERS
Maize flowers may sometimes exhibit mutations that lead to the formation of female flowers in the tassel. These mutations, ts4 and Ts6, prohibit the development of the stamen while simultaneously promoting pistil development. This may cause inflorescences containing both male and female flowers, or hermaphrodite flowers.
GENETICS
Maize is an annual grass in the family Gramineae, which includes such plants as wheat, rye, barley, rice, sorghum, and sugarcane. There are two major species of the genus Zea (out of six total): Zea mays (maize) and Zea diploperennis, which is a perennial type of teosinte. The annual teosinte variety called Zea mays mexicana is the closest botanical relative to maize. It still grows in the wild as an annual in Mexico and Guatemala.
Many forms of maize are used for food, sometimes classified as various subspecies related to the amount of starch each has:
Flour corn: Zea mays var. amylacea
Popcorn: Zea mays var. everta
Dent corn : Zea mays var. indentata
Flint corn: Zea mays var. indurata
Sweet corn: Zea mays var. saccharata and Zea mays var. rugosa
Waxy corn: Zea mays var. ceratina
Amylomaize: Zea mays
Pod corn: Zea mays var. tunicata Larrañaga ex A. St. Hil.
Striped maize: Zea mays var. japonica
This system has been replaced (though not entirely displaced) over the last 60 years by multivariable classifications based on ever more data. Agronomic data were supplemented by botanical traits for a robust initial classification, then genetic, cytological, protein and DNA evidence was added. Now, the categories are forms (little used), races, racial complexes, and recently branches.
Maize is a diploid with 20 chromosomes (n=10). The combined length of the chromosomes is 1500 cM. Some of the maize chromosomes have what are known as "chromosomal knobs": highly repetitive heterochromatic domains that stain darkly. Individual knobs are polymorphic among strains of both maize and teosinte.
Barbara McClintock used these knob markers to validate her transposon theory of "jumping genes", for which she won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Maize is still an important model organism for genetics and developmental biology today.
The centromeres have two types of structural components, both of which are found only in the centromeres: Large arrays of CentC, a short satellite DNA; and a few of a family of retrotransposons. The B chromosome, unlike the others, contains an additional repeat which extends into neighboring areas of the chromosome. Centromeres can accidentally shrink during division and still function, although it is thought this will fail if it shrinks below a few hundred kilobase. Kinetochores contain RNA originating from centromeres. Centromere regions can become inactive, and can continue in that state if the chromosome still has another active one.
The Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center, funded by the USDA Agricultural Research Service and located in the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a stock center of maize mutants. The total collection has nearly 80,000 samples. The bulk of the collection consists of several hundred named genes, plus additional gene combinations and other heritable variants. There are about 1000 chromosomal aberrations (e.g., translocations and inversions) and stocks with abnormal chromosome numbers (e.g., tetraploids). Genetic data describing the maize mutant stocks as well as myriad other data about maize genetics can be accessed at MaizeGDB, the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database.
In 2005, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) formed a consortium to sequence the B73 maize genome. The resulting DNA sequence data was deposited immediately into GenBank, a public repository for genome-sequence data. Sequences and genome annotations have also been made available throughout the project's lifetime at the project's official site.
Primary sequencing of the maize genome was completed in 2008. On November 20, 2009, the consortium published results of its sequencing effort in Science. The genome, 85% of which is composed of transposons, was found to contain 32,540 genes (By comparison, the human genome contains about 2.9 billion bases and 26,000 genes). Much of the maize genome has been duplicated and reshuffled by helitrons—group of rolling circle transposons.
In Z. mays and various other angiosperms the MADS-box motif is involved in floral development. Early study in several angiosperm models including Z. mays was the beginning of research into the molecular evolution of floral structure in general, as well as their role in nonflowering plants.
EVOLUTION
As with many plants and animals, Z. mays has a positive correlation between effective population size and the magnitude of selection pressure. Z. m. having an EPS of ~650,000, it clusters with others of about the same EPS, and has 79% of its amino acid sites under selection.
Recombination is a significant source of diversity in Z. mays. (Note that this finding supersedes previous studies which showed no such correlation.)
This recombination/diversity effect is seen throughout plants but is also found to not occur – or not as strongly – in regions of high gene density. This is likely the reason that domesticated Z. mays has not seen as much of an increase in diversity within areas of higher density as in regions of lower density, although there is more evidence in other plants.
Some lines of maize have undergone ancient polyploidy events, starting 11m years ago. Over that time ~72% of polyploid duplicated genes have been retained, which is higher than other plants with older polyploidy events. Thus maize may be due to lose more duplicate genes as time goes along, similar to the course followed by the genomes of other plants. If so - if gene loss has merely not occurred yet - that could explain the lack of observed positive selection and lower negative selection which are observed in otherwise similar plants, i.e. also naturally outcrossing and with similar effective population sizes.
Ploidy does not appear to influence EPS or magnitude of selection effect in maize.
BREEDING
Maize reproduces sexually each year. This randomly selects half the genes from a given plant to propagate to the next generation, meaning that desirable traits found in the crop (like high yield or good nutrition) can be lost in subsequent generations unless certain techniques are used.
Maize breeding in prehistory resulted in large plants producing large ears. Modern breeding began with individuals who selected highly productive varieties in their fields and then sold seed to other farmers. James L. Reid was one of the earliest and most successful developing Reid's Yellow Dent in the 1860s. These early efforts were based on mass selection. Later breeding efforts included ear to row selection (C. G. Hopkins c. 1896), hybrids made from selected inbred lines (G. H. Shull, 1909), and the highly successful double cross hybrids using four inbred lines (D. F. Jones c. 1918, 1922). University supported breeding programs were especially important in developing and introducing modern hybrids. By the 1930s, companies such as Pioneer devoted to production of hybrid maize had begun to influence long-term development. Internationally important seed banks such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the US bank at the Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign maintain germplasm important for future crop development.
Since the 1940s the best strains of maize have been first-generation hybrids made from inbred strains that have been optimized for specific traits, such as yield, nutrition, drought, pest and disease tolerance. Both conventional cross-breeding and genetic modification have succeeded in increasing output and reducing the need for cropland, pesticides, water and fertilizer. There is conflicting evidence to support the hypothesis that maize yield potential has increased over the past few decades. This suggests that changes in yield potential are associated with leaf angle, lodging resistance, tolerance of high plant density, disease/pest tolerance, and other agronomic traits rather than increase of yield potential per individual plant.
Tropical landraces remain an important and underutilized source of resistance alleles for for disease and for herbivores. Notable discoveries of rare alleles for this purpose were made by Dao et al 2014 and Sood et al 2014.
GLOBAL PROGRAM
CIMMYT operates a conventional breeding program to provide optimized strains. The program began in the 1980s. Hybrid seeds are distributed in Africa by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project.
GENETIC MODIFICATION
Genetically modified (GM) maize was one of the 26 GM crops grown commercially in 2016. The vast majority of this is Bt maize. Grown since 1997 in the United States and Canada, 92% of the US maize crop was genetically modified in 2016 and 33% of the worldwide maize crop was GM in 2016. As of 2011, Herbicide-tolerant maize varieties were grown in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, El Salvador, the European Union, Honduras, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States. Insect-resistant maize was grown in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, the European Union, Honduras, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United States, and Uruguay.
In September 2000, up to $50 million worth of food products were recalled due to the presence of Starlink genetically modified corn, which had been approved only for animal consumption and had not been approved for human consumption, and was subsequently withdrawn from the market.
ORIGIN
Maize is the domesticated variant of teosinte. The two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and teosinte being a short, bushy plant. The difference between the two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes, called grassy tillers-1 (gt1, A0A317YEZ1) and teosinte branched-1 (tb1, Q93WI2).
Several theories had been proposed about the specific origin of maize in Mesoamerica:
It is a direct domestication of a Mexican annual teosinte, Zea mays ssp. parviglumis, native to the Balsas River valley in south-eastern Mexico, with up to 12% of its genetic material obtained from Zea mays ssp. mexicana through introgression.
It has been derived from hybridization between a small domesticated maize (a slightly changed form of a wild maize) and a teosinte of section Luxuriantes, either Z. luxurians or Z. diploperennis.
It has undergone two or more domestications either of a wild maize or of a teosinte. (The term "teosinte" describes all species and subspecies in the genus Zea, excluding Zea mays ssp. mays.)
It has evolved from a hybridization of Z. diploperennis by Tripsacum dactyloides.
In the late 1930s, Paul Mangelsdorf suggested that domesticated maize was the result of a hybridization event between an unknown wild maize and a species of Tripsacum, a related genus. This theory about the origin of maize has been refuted by modern genetic testing, which refutes Mangelsdorf's model and the fourth listed above.
The teosinte origin theory was proposed by the Russian botanist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov in 1931 and the later American Nobel Prize-winner George Beadle in 1932.: 10 It is supported experimentally and by recent studies of the plants' genomes. Teosinte and maize can cross-breed and produce fertile offspring. A number of questions remain concerning the species, among them:
how the immense diversity of the species of sect. Zea originated,
how the tiny archaeological specimens of 3500–2700 BC could have been selected from a teosinte, and
how domestication could have proceeded without leaving remains of teosinte or maize with teosintoid traits earlier than the earliest known until recently, dating from ca. 1100 BC.
The domestication of maize is of particular interest to researchers—archaeologists, geneticists, ethnobotanists, geographers, etc. The process is thought by some to have started 7,500 to 12,000 years ago. Research from the 1950s to 1970s originally focused on the hypothesis that maize domestication occurred in the highlands between the states of Oaxaca and Jalisco, because the oldest archaeological remains of maize known at the time were found there.
Connection with 'parviglumis' subspecies
Genetic studies, published in 2004 by John Doebley, identified Zea mays ssp. parviglumis, native to the Balsas River valley in Mexico's southwestern highlands, and also known as Balsas teosinte, as being the crop wild relative that is genetically most similar to modern maize. This was confirmed by further studies, which refined this hypothesis somewhat. Archaeobotanical studies, published in 2009, point to the middle part of the Balsas River valley as the likely location of early domestication; this river is not very long, so these locations are not very distant. Stone milling tools with maize residue have been found in an 8,700 year old layer of deposits in a cave not far from Iguala, Guerrero.
Doebley was part of the team that first published, in 2002, that maize had been domesticated only once, about 9,000 years ago, and then spread throughout the Americas.
A primitive corn was being grown in southern Mexico, Central America, and northern South America 7,000 years ago. Archaeological remains of early maize ears, found at Guila Naquitz Cave in the Oaxaca Valley, date back roughly 6,250 years; the oldest ears from caves near Tehuacan, Puebla, 5,450 B.P.
Maize pollen dated to 7,300 B.P. from San Andres, Tabasco, on the Caribbean coast has also been recovered.
As maize was introduced to new cultures, new uses were developed and new varieties selected to better serve in those preparations. Maize was the staple food, or a major staple – along with squash, Andean region potato, quinoa, beans, and amaranth – of most pre-Columbian North American, Mesoamerican, South American, and Caribbean cultures. The Mesoamerican civilization, in particular, was deeply interrelated with maize. Its traditions and rituals involved all aspects of maize cultivation – from the planting to the food preparation. Maize formed the Mesoamerican people's identity.
It is unknown what precipitated its domestication, because the edible portion of the wild variety is too small, and hard to obtain, to be eaten directly, as each kernel is enclosed in a very hard bivalve shell.
In 1939, George Beadle demonstrated that the kernels of teosinte are readily "popped" for human consumption, like modern popcorn.[91] Some have argued it would have taken too many generations of selective breeding to produce large, compressed ears for efficient cultivation. However, studies of the hybrids readily made by intercrossing teosinte and modern maize suggest this objection is not well founded.
SPREADING TO THE NORTH
Around 4,500 ago, maize began to spread to the north; it was first cultivated in what is now the United States at several sites in New Mexico and Arizona, about 4,100 ago.
During the first millennium AD, maize cultivation spread more widely in the areas north. In particular, the large-scale adoption of maize agriculture and consumption in eastern North America took place about A.D. 900. Native Americans cleared large forest and grassland areas for the new crop.
In 2005, research by the USDA Forest Service suggested that the rise in maize cultivation 500 to 1,000 years ago in what is now the southeastern United States corresponded with a decline of freshwater mussels, which are very sensitive to environmental changes.
CULTIVATION
PLANTING
Because it is cold-intolerant, in the temperate zones maize must be planted in the spring. Its root system is generally shallow, so the plant is dependent on soil moisture. As a plant that uses C4 carbon fixation, maize is a considerably more water-efficient crop than plants that use C3 carbon fixation such as alfalfa and soybeans. Maize is most sensitive to drought at the time of silk emergence, when the flowers are ready for pollination. In the United States, a good harvest was traditionally predicted if the maize was "knee-high by the Fourth of July", although modern hybrids generally exceed this growth rate. Maize used for silage is harvested while the plant is green and the fruit immature. Sweet corn is harvested in the "milk stage", after pollination but before starch has formed, between late summer and early to mid-autumn. Field maize is left in the field until very late in the autumn to thoroughly dry the grain, and may, in fact, sometimes not be harvested until winter or even early spring. The importance of sufficient soil moisture is shown in many parts of Africa, where periodic drought regularly causes maize crop failure and consequent famine. Although it is grown mainly in wet, hot climates, it has been said to thrive in cold, hot, dry or wet conditions, meaning that it is an extremely versatile crop.
Maize was planted by the Native Americans in hills, in a complex system known to some as the Three Sisters. Maize provided support for beans, and the beans provided nitrogen derived from nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria which live on the roots of beans and other legumes; and squashes provided ground cover to stop weeds and inhibit evaporation by providing shade over the soil. This method was replaced by single species hill planting where each hill 60–120 cm (2 ft 0 in–3 ft 11 in) apart was planted with three or four seeds, a method still used by home gardeners. A later technique was "checked maize", where hills were placed
1 m (40 in) apart in each direction, allowing cultivators to run through the field in two directions. In more arid lands, this was altered and seeds were planted in the bottom of 10–12 cm (4–4+1⁄2 in) deep furrows to collect water. Modern technique plants maize in rows which allows for cultivation while the plant is young, although the hill technique is still used in the maize fields of some Native American reservations. When maize is planted in rows, it also allows for planting of other crops between these rows to make more efficient use of land space.
In most regions today, maize grown in residential gardens is still often planted manually with a hoe, whereas maize grown commercially is no longer planted manually but rather is planted with a planter. In North America, fields are often planted in a two-crop rotation with a nitrogen-fixing crop, often alfalfa in cooler climates and soybeans in regions with longer summers. Sometimes a third crop, winter wheat, is added to the rotation.
Many of the maize varieties grown in the United States and Canada are hybrids. Often the varieties have been genetically modified to tolerate glyphosate or to provide protection against natural pests. Glyphosate is an herbicide which kills all plants except those with genetic tolerance. This genetic tolerance is very rarely found in nature.
In the midwestern United States, low-till or no-till farming techniques are usually used. In low-till, fields are covered once, maybe twice, with a tillage implement either ahead of crop planting or after the previous harvest. The fields are planted and fertilized. Weeds are controlled through the use of herbicides, and no cultivation tillage is done during the growing season. This technique reduces moisture evaporation from the soil, and thus provides more moisture for the crop. The technologies mentioned in the previous paragraph enable low-till and no-till farming. Weeds compete with the crop for moisture and nutrients, making them undesirable.
HARVESTING
Before the 20th century, all maize harvesting was by manual labour, by grazing, or by some combination of those. Whether the ears were hand-picked and the stover was grazed, or the whole plant was cut, gathered, and shocked, people and livestock did all the work. Between the 1890s and the 1970s, the technology of maize harvesting expanded greatly. Today, all such technologies, from entirely manual harvesting to entirely mechanized, are still in use to some degree, as appropriate to each farm's needs, although the thoroughly mechanized versions predominate, as they offer the lowest unit costs when scaled to large farm operations. For small farms, their unit cost can be too high, as their higher fixed cost cannot be amortized over as many units.[citation needed]
Before World War II, most maize in North America was harvested by hand. This involved a large number of workers and associated social events (husking or shucking bees). From the 1890s onward, some machinery became available to partially mechanize the processes, such as one- and two-row mechanical pickers (picking the ear, leaving the stover) and corn binders, which are reaper-binders designed specifically for maize (for example, Video on YouTube). The latter produce sheaves that can be shocked. By hand or mechanical picker, the entire ear is harvested, which then requires a separate operation of a maize sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of maize were often stored in corn cribs, and these whole ears are a sufficient form for some livestock feeding use. Today corn cribs with whole ears, and corn binders, are less common because most modern farms harvest the grain from the field with a combine and store it in bins. The combine with a corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) does not cut the stalk; it simply pulls the stalk down. The stalk continues downward and is crumpled into a mangled pile on the ground, where it usually is left to become organic matter for the soil. The ear of maize is too large to pass between slots in a plate as the snap rolls pull the stalk away, leaving only the ear and husk to enter the machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels.
When maize is a silage crop, the entire plant is usually chopped at once with a forage harvester (chopper) and ensiled in silos or polymer wrappers. Ensiling of sheaves cut by a corn binder was formerly common in some regions but has become uncommon. For storing grain in bins, the moisture of the grain must be sufficiently low to avoid spoiling. If the moisture content of the harvested grain is too high, grain dryers are used to reduce the moisture content by blowing heated air through the grain. This can require large amounts of energy in the form of combustible gases (propane or natural gas) and electricity to power the blowers.
PRODUCTION
Maize is widely cultivated throughout the world, and a greater weight of maize is produced each year than any other grain. In 2018, total world production was 1.15 billion tonnes, led by the United States with 34.2% of the total (table). China produced 22.4% of the global total.
UNITED STATES
In 2016, maize production was forecast to be over 380 million metric tons (15 billion bushels), an increase of 11% over 2014 American production. Based on conditions as of August 2016, the expected yield would be the highest ever for the United States. The area of harvested maize was forecast to be 35 million hectares (87 million acres), an increase of 7% over 2015. Maize is especially popular in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois; in the latter, it was named the state's official grain in 2017.
STORAGE
Drying is vital to prevent or at least reduce mycotoxin contamination. Aspergillus and Fusarium spp. are the most common mycotoxin sources, but there are others. Altogether maize contaminants are so common, and this crop is so economically important, that maize mycotoxins are among the most important in agriculture in general.
USES
HUMAN FOOD
Maize and cornmeal (ground dried maize) constitute a staple food in many regions of the world. Maize is used to produce cornstarch, a common ingredient in home cooking and many industrialized food products. Maize starch can be hydrolyzed and enzymatically treated to produce syrups, particularly high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener; and also fermented and distilled to produce grain alcohol. Grain alcohol from maize is traditionally the source of Bourbon whiskey. Corn flour is used to make cornbread and other baked products.
In prehistoric times Mesoamerican women used a metate to process maize into ground cornmeal, allowing the preparation of foods that were more calorie dense than popcorn. After ceramic vessels were invented the Olmec people began to cook maize together with beans, improving the nutritional value of the staple meal. Although maize naturally contains niacin, an important nutrient, it was not bioavailable without the process of nixtamalization. The Maya used nixtamal meal to make varieties of porridges and tamales. The process was later used in the cuisine of the American South to prepare corn for grits and hominy.
Maize is a staple of Mexican cuisine. Masa (cornmeal treated with limewater) is the main ingredient for tortillas, atole and many other dishes of Central American food. It is the main ingredient of corn tortilla, tamales, pozole, atole and all the dishes based on them, like tacos, quesadillas, chilaquiles, enchiladas, tostadas and many more. In Mexico the fungus of maize, known as huitlacoche, is considered a delicacy.
Coarse maize meal is made into a thick porridge in many cultures: from the polenta of Italy, the angu of Brazil, the mămăligă of Romania, to cornmeal mush in the US (or hominy grits in the South) or the food called mieliepap in South Africa and sadza, nshima, ugali and other names in other parts of Africa. Introduced into Africa by the Portuguese in the 16th century, maize has become Africa's most important staple food crop. These are commonly eaten in the Southeastern United States, foods handed down from Native Americans, who called the dish sagamite.
Maize can also be harvested and consumed in the unripe state, when the kernels are fully grown but still soft. Unripe maize must usually be cooked to become palatable; this may be done by simply boiling or roasting the whole ears and eating the kernels right off the cob. Sweet corn, a genetic variety that is high in sugars and low in starch, is usually consumed in the unripe state. Such corn on the cob is a common dish in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Cyprus, some parts of South America, and the Balkans, but virtually unheard of in some European countries. Corn on the cob was hawked on the streets of early 19th-century New York City by poor, barefoot "Hot Corn Girls", who were thus the precursors of hot dog carts, churro wagons, and fruit stands seen on the streets of big cities today.
Within the United States, the usage of maize for human consumption constitutes only around 1/40th of the amount grown in the country. In the United States and Canada, maize is mostly grown to feed livestock, as forage, silage (made by fermentation of chopped green cornstalks), or grain. Maize meal is also a significant ingredient of some commercial animal food products.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE
Raw, yellow, sweet maize kernels are composed of 76% water, 19% carbohydrates, 3% protein, and 1% fat (table). In a 100-gram serving, maize kernels provide 86 calories and are a good source (10–19% of the Daily Value) of the B vitamins, thiamin, niacin (but see Pellagra warning below), pantothenic acid (B5) and folate (right table for raw, uncooked kernels, USDA Nutrient Database). In moderate amounts, they also supply dietary fiber and the essential minerals, magnesium and phosphorus whereas other nutrients are in low amounts (table).
Maize has suboptimal amounts of the essential amino acids tryptophan and lysine, which accounts for its lower status as a protein source. However, the proteins of beans and legumes complement those of maize.
FEED AND FODDER FOR LIVESTOCK
Maize is a major source of both grain feed and fodder for livestock. It is fed to the livestock in various ways. When it is used as a grain crop, the dried kernels are used as feed. They are often kept on the cob for storage in a corn crib, or they may be shelled off for storage in a grain bin. The farm that consumes the feed may produce it, purchase it on the market, or some of both. When the grain is used for feed, the rest of the plant (the corn stover) can be used later as fodder, bedding (litter), or soil amendment. When the whole maize plant (grain plus stalks and leaves) is used for fodder, it is usually chopped all at once and ensilaged, as digestibility and palatability are higher in the ensilaged form than in the dried form. Maize silage is one of the most valuable forages for ruminants. Before the advent of widespread ensilaging, it was traditional to gather the corn into shocks after harvesting, where it dried further. With or without a subsequent move to the cover of a barn, it was then stored for weeks to several months until fed to the livestock. Today ensilaging can occur not only in siloes but also in silage wrappers. However, in the tropics, maize can be harvested year-round and fed as green forage to the animals.
CHEMICALS
Starch from maize can also be made into plastics, fabrics, adhesives, and many other chemical products.
The corn steep liquor, a plentiful watery byproduct of maize wet milling process, is widely used in the biochemical industry and research as a culture medium to grow many kinds of microorganisms.
Chrysanthemin is found in purple corn and is used as a food coloring.
BIO-FUEL
"Feed maize" is being used increasingly for heating; specialized corn stoves (similar to wood stoves) are available and use either feed maize or wood pellets to generate heat. Maize cobs are also used as a biomass fuel source. Maize is relatively cheap and home-heating furnaces have been developed which use maize kernels as a fuel. They feature a large hopper that feeds the uniformly sized maize kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the fire.[citation needed]
Maize is increasingly used as a feedstock for the production of ethanol fuel.[120] When considering where to construct an ethanol plant, one of the site selection criteria is to ensure there is locally available feedstock. Ethanol is mixed with gasoline to decrease the amount of pollutants emitted when used to fuel motor vehicles. High fuel prices in mid-2007 led to higher demand for ethanol, which in turn led to higher prices paid to farmers for maize. This led to the 2007 harvest being one of the most profitable maize crops in modern history for farmers. Because of the relationship between fuel and maize, prices paid for the crop now tend to track the price of oil.
The price of food is affected to a certain degree by the use of maize for biofuel production. The cost of transportation, production, and marketing are a large portion (80%) of the price of food in the United States. Higher energy costs affect these costs, especially transportation. The increase in food prices the consumer has been seeing is mainly due to the higher energy cost. The effect of biofuel production on other food crop prices is indirect. Use of maize for biofuel production increases the demand, and therefore price of maize. This, in turn, results in farm acreage being diverted from other food crops to maize production. This reduces the supply of the other food crops and increases their prices.
Maize is widely used in Germany as a feedstock for biogas plants. Here the maize is harvested, shredded then placed in silage clamps from which it is fed into the biogas plants. This process makes use of the whole plant rather than simply using the kernels as in the production of fuel ethanol.
A biomass gasification power plant in Strem near Güssing, Burgenland, Austria, began in 2005. Research is being done to make diesel out of the biogas by the Fischer Tropsch method.
Increasingly, ethanol is being used at low concentrations (10% or less) as an additive in gasoline (gasohol) for motor fuels to increase the octane rating, lower pollutants, and reduce petroleum use (what is nowadays also known as "biofuels" and has been generating an intense debate regarding the human beings' necessity of new sources of energy, on the one hand, and the need to maintain, in regions such as Latin America, the food habits and culture which has been the essence of civilizations such as the one originated in Mesoamerica; the entry, January 2008, of maize among the commercial agreements of NAFTA has increased this debate, considering the bad labor conditions of workers in the fields, and mainly the fact that NAFTA "opened the doors to the import of maize from the United States, where the farmers who grow it receive multimillion-dollar subsidies and other government supports. ... According to OXFAM UK, after NAFTA went into effect, the price of maize in Mexico fell 70% between 1994 and 2001. The number of farm jobs dropped as well: from 8.1 million in 1993 to 6.8 million in 2002. Many of those who found themselves without work were small-scale maize growers."). However, introduction in the northern latitudes of the US of tropical maize for biofuels, and not for human or animal consumption, may potentially alleviate this.
COMMODITY
Maize is bought and sold by investors and price speculators as a tradable commodity using corn futures contracts. These "futures" are traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) under ticker symbol C. They are delivered every year in March, May, July, September, and December.
Ornamental and other uses
Some forms of the plant are occasionally grown for ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated and colored leaf forms as well as those with colorful ears are used.
Corncobs can be hollowed out and treated to make inexpensive smoking pipes, first manufactured in the United States in 1869.
An unusual use for maize is to create a "corn maze" (or "maize maze") as a tourist attraction. The idea of a maize maze was introduced by the American Maze Company who created a maze in Pennsylvania in 1993. Traditional mazes are most commonly grown using yew hedges, but these take several years to mature. The rapid growth of a field of maize allows a maze to be laid out using GPS at the start of a growing season and for the maize to grow tall enough to obstruct a visitor's line of sight by the start of the summer. In Canada and the US, these are popular in many farming communities.
Maize kernels can be used in place of sand in a sandboxlike enclosure for children's play.
Stigmas from female maize flowers, popularly called corn silk, are sold as herbal supplements.
Maize is used as a fish bait, called "dough balls". It is particularly popular in Europe for coarse fishing.
Additionally, feed corn is sometimes used by hunters to bait animals such as deer or wild hogs.
UNITED STATES USAGE BREAKDOWN
The breakdown of usage of the 12.1-billion-bushel (307-million-tonne) 2008 US maize crop was as follows, according to the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report by the USDA.In the US since 2009/2010, maize feedstock use for ethanol production has somewhat exceeded direct use for livestock feed; maize use for fuel ethanol was 5,130 million bushels (130 million tonnes) in the 2013/2014 marketing year.A fraction of the maize feedstock dry matter used for ethanol production is usefully recovered as DDGS (dried distillers grains with solubles). In the 2010/2011 marketing year, about 29.1 million tonnes of DDGS were fed to US livestock and poultry. Because starch utilization in fermentation for ethanol production leaves other grain constituents more concentrated in the residue, the feed value per kg of DDGS, with regard to ruminant-metabolizable energy and protein, exceeds that of the grain. Feed value for monogastric animals, such as swine and poultry, is somewhat lower than for ruminants.
HAZARDS
PELLAGRA
When maize was first introduced into farming systems other than those used by traditional native-American peoples, it was generally welcomed with enthusiasm for its productivity. However, a widespread problem of malnutrition soon arose wherever maize was introduced as a staple food. This was a mystery, since these types of malnutrition were not normally seen among the indigenous Americans, for whom maize was the principal staple food.
It was eventually discovered that the indigenous Americans had learned to soak maize in alkali — water (the process now known as nixtamalization) — made with ashes and lime (calcium oxide) since at least 1200–1500 BC by Mesoamericans. They did this to liberate the corn hulls, but (unbeknownst to natives or colonists) it coincidentally liberates the B-vitamin niacin, the lack of which was the underlying cause of the condition known as pellagra.
Maize was introduced into the diet of non-indigenous Americans without the necessary cultural knowledge acquired over thousands of years in the Americas. In the late 19th century, pellagra reached epidemic proportions in parts of the southern US, as medical researchers debated two theories for its origin: the deficiency theory (which was eventually shown to be true) said that pellagra was due to a deficiency of some nutrient, and the germ theory said that pellagra was caused by a germ transmitted by stable flies. A third theory, promoted by the eugenicist Charles Davenport, held that people only contracted pellagra if they were susceptible to it due to certain "constitutional, inheritable" traits of the affected individual.
Once alkali processing and dietary variety were understood and applied, pellagra disappeared in the developed world. The development of high lysine maize and the promotion of a more balanced diet have also contributed to its demise. Pellagra still exists today in food-poor areas and refugee camps where people survive on donated maize.
ALLERGY
Maize contains lipid transfer protein, an indigestible protein that survives cooking. This protein has been linked to a rare and understudied allergy to maize in humans. The allergic reaction can cause skin rash, swelling or itching of mucous membranes, diarrhea, vomiting, asthma and, in severe cases, anaphylaxis. It is unclear how common this allergy is in the general population.
MYCOTOXINS
Fungicide application does not reduce fungal growth or mycotoxin dramatically, although it can be a part of a successful reduction strategy. Among the most common toxins are those produced by Aspergillus and Fusarium spp. The most common toxins are aflatoxins, fumonisins, zearalenone, and ochratoxin A. Bt maize discourages insect vectors and by so doing it dramatically reduces concentrations of fumonisins, significantly reduces aflatoxins, but only mildly reduces others.
ART
Maize has been an essential crop in the Andes since the pre-Columbian era. The Moche culture from Northern Peru made ceramics from earth, water, and fire. This pottery was a sacred substance, formed in significant shapes and used to represent important themes. Maize was represented anthropomorphically as well as naturally.
In the United States, maize ears along with tobacco leaves are carved into the capitals of columns in the United States Capitol building. Maize itself is sometimes used for temporary architectural detailing when the intent is to celebrate the fall season, local agricultural productivity and culture. Bundles of dried maize stalks are often displayed along with pumpkins, gourds and straw in autumnal displays outside homes and businesses. A well-known example of architectural use is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, which uses cobs and ears of colored maize to implement a mural design that is recycled annually. Another well-known example is the Field of Corn sculpture in Dublin, Ohio, where hundreds of concrete ears of corn stand in a grassy field.
A maize stalk with two ripe ears is depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 1 lipa coin, minted since 1993.
WIKIPEDIA
Reports are the barn's roof finally gave in after our latest heavy snow. Here it is on New Year's Eve 2013 showing obvious stress in its midsection. I'm glad I took a close shot of it when I did. With the loss of the Askov feed mill and now this barn the northern half of the Hinckley Sub has lost some character.
Pinstriped vest, H&M. Green satin blouse, Express. Gray bubble skirt, Moda International. Gray peeptoe pumps, Bitten ($8.98!) Faux pearl necklace with medallion, Newport News. Black boy’s belt. Gold watch, Raymond Weil.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Despite appearances, I am not a bit Irish. I’m English, German, and Polish. My red hair is courtesy of L’Oreal, not O’Sullivan. I can do an Irish accent for you, but a native would probably find it laughable.
For a while this past fall, I was putting items from my wardrobe on trial to get my readers’ opinions on whether I should keep it, alter it, swap it, or give it to charity. One commenter one had the gall to suggest I put this necklace on trial. Never! I adore it. I’ve found it to be the finishing touch to many outfits, despite Mike’s description of it as “grandma.”
And finally, a word on today’s belt. (No, it isn’t another belt week.) Over the course of the day, I found myself vacillating between liking and not liking the belt. Liked: visually raised waist, highlighted the slimmest part of my midsection, tidied up of the open vest (otherwise it flapped around), and added interest. Didn’t like: fussy look, two waistlines (belt and skirt waist), the way it creaked when I took a deep breath. I don’t regret the choice, I just don’t know if I’d repeat it in exactly this manner.
The Chrysler 300 'letter series' were high-performance personal luxury cars built by Chrysler from 1955-65, a sub-model of the Chrysler New Yorker. After the initial year, which was named C-300 for its standard 300 hp 331 cu in FirePower V8, the 1956 cars were designated 300B. Successive model years were given the next letter of the alphabet, reaching the 300L by 1965.
The original C-300 was developed to homologate a Chrysler for the NASCAR circuits. The front clip, including the grille, was taken from the Imperial of the same year, the midsection was from a New Yorker hardtop, with a Windsor rear quarter
1958 saw a very mild facelift, the 300D now with 'CHRYSLER' on the front edge of the hood, again available in 2 door Hardtop or Convertible. A 300D was driven to 156mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats that year. 618 Hardtops and 191 Convertibles built.
300D engine; 380hp 392 cu in Fire Power Hemi V8 (last year for the Hemi in the Letter Series cars)
The extended-range C-130E model entered service in 1962 after it was developed as an interim long-range transport for the Military Air Transport Service. Essentially a B-model, the new designation was the result of the installation of 1,360 US gal (5,150 L) Sargent Fletcher external fuel tanks under each wing's midsection and more powerful Allison T56-A-7A turboprops. The hydraulic boost pressure to the ailerons was reduced back to 2,050 psi (14.1 MPa) as a consequence of the external tanks' weight in the middle of the wingspan. The E model also featured structural improvements, avionics upgrades and a higher gross weight. Australia took delivery of 12 C130E Hercules during 1966–67 to supplement the 12 C-130A models already in service with the RAAF. Sweden and Spain fly the TP-84T version of the C-130E fitted for aerial refueling capability.
Photo: Thomas Ohlsson Photography
www.thomasohlsson.com | 500px | Facebook | Flickr | Instagram
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.
Here is where the sculpting begins to differ from the Slim body. Her midsection is remarkably toned. I would have liked to see a little more ab detail in a body like this, but what we have is very sexy and feminine. The small waist and birthing hips also serve to emphasize the female form. Actually, a lean and fit body doesn't tend to have such round curvy hips. It's beautiful, but maybe a tad bit exaggerated.
The 2012 through 2014 Classic Ariel dolls are posed standing side by side, so they can be compared. Also included, between the 2012 and the 2013 dolls, is the Ariel from The Little Mermaid Deluxe Doll Gift Set (2013), who is a mixture between the 2012 and 2013 dolls. I have previous compared the 2012 and 2013 Ariel dolls, so I just review the 2013 and 2014 Classic Ariel below.
The 2014 doll and her outfit are very similar to the 2013 model, but with some significant changes. The biggest change is in her tail, with is now a greener color, and made from a knit cloth that has imbedded tinsel instead of glued on glitter. Now you can hold her by her tail without glitter shedding all over your hands, which is a big improvement. The tail is a litter shorter, so shows a bit more of her midsection. Her tail fins, made of light blue tulle, are unchanged except now they are without glitter. Her waist fins are much smaller, and are pointing up and sewn to the inside of her tail, instead of the outside. They look much more movie accurate now. Her purple glittery bra is now made of two pieces, with the outer layer crimped to resemble two sea shells. The glitter is well glued to the bra, and doesn't much, if at all.
The new doll has the same head and body as the 2013 doll. She has fully articulated arms and rubbery legs with internal knee joints and fixed angled feet. They both stand 11 1/2 inches tall to the tops of their heads.
Their faces are very similar, but have several subtle differences. The 2014 doll has larger and darker blue-green eyes, and her pink eyeshadow is a little darker. Her brows and eyelashes are the same. She had pale pink rouge that is the same as before, but now her lips are a brighter pink color. I'm not sure which face I like better. I think they are both beautiful and accurate renditions of the movie character.
Her bright red hair is now a little longer and fuller, and has looser curls. Her distinctive curved bang is higher, showing more of her forehead. Her hair is still parted on the wrong side of her head. Last year's hairdo was neater, but I like the new doll's more open face.
The box is a big improvement over last years, solely because of the large photo of the doll in the back of the box. Even a deboxer like me would want to keep the cardboard backing with big beautiful image of Ariel in the back, even if the front plastic part of the box is thrown away.
The overall winner in this comparison is the 2014 doll, because of her glitter free tail and the box art.
2014 Ariel Classic Doll - 12''
US Disney Store
Released Online 2014-06-09
Purchased online 2014-06-09
Received 2014-06-17
$14.95
Item No. 6070040901025P
2013 Classic Disney Princess Ariel Doll - 12''
US Disney Store
Released online June 10, 2013.
Purchased online June 13, 2013.
Received June 24, 2013.
$14.95 (was on sale for $10 at time of purchase).
The Little Mermaid Deluxe Doll Gift Set
US Disney Store
Released in select stores June 20, 2013
Purchased in store June 21, 2013.
Released online July 8, 2013
$79.95 for 5 dolls plus 3 figurines
Item No. 6070040900879P
Contains exclusive versions of Vanessa, Ursula, Ariel as Mermaid, Prince Eric, and King Triton. Also included are small figures of Ariel's friends Scuttle, Flounder and Sebastian.
2012 Classic Disney Princess Ariel Doll -- 12'' H
US Disney Store
Released June 25, 2012, Online (US site)
Purchased June 30, 2012, In Store
$14.50
2 for $22
Item No. 6070040908156P
Animated Maxine enjoys a nice swing.
Easily my favorite picture I ever drew of Maxine. It's cute, it's free and for once she doesn't have a long torso. (I used to have difficulty with my art and Maxine used to get stuck with a really Loooooong midsection)
It's funny looking at it now, I see all the little mistakes I've made.
San Rafael Arcangel / Saint Raphael the Archangel
Santa Cruz or Binondo, Manila second quarter of the
nineteenth century (1825–50)
ivory, gold, silver, baticuling wood, silk velvet, silvergilt threads
head to toe: 12" (30 cm)
left to right arm to arm: 6" (16 cm)
chest to back: 2" (5 cm)
base: H: 9 1/2" (24 cm) D: 10 1/2" (26 cm)
Opening bid: PHP 800,000
Provenance: An old Cavite family
ABOUT THE WORK
EXQUISITE ICONOGRAPHY: Loaves, Fish, Coronets and Catmon Flowers
by AUGUSTO MARCELINO REYES GONZALEZ III
This compelling ivory statuette of “San Rafael Arcangel” comes from the cherished altar of an old Cavite trading, shipping, and logistics family and was likely acquired originally from a “taller” workshop of religious images in Binondo or Santa Cruz in Manila. The young Archangel is depicted wearing an exquisite coronet of flowers and leaves executed in chased 14 karat gold and filigree wirework; an unusual blonde wig of Victorian sausage curls; silvergilt repousse wings; vestments embroidered with “catmon” flowers, buds, and leaves in silvergilt threads, along with appliquees of cherubs and leaves in “dorado de fuego” fire–gilded solid silver; a lavishly embroidered center stole with vase, tree–of–life, “boteh” paisley form, and large flower motifs one on top of the other, the top vase/cartouche with the unmistakable Carmelite crest featuring Mount Carmel in Palestine and the three stars symbolizing the three periods of the history of the Order; San Rafael’s attributes of a basket with loaves (an opulent chased and repousse 14 karat gold basket with “catmon” floral and “lubi–lubi” foliar details with ivory loaves) on the left hand and a simple silvergilt staff with a fish on the right hand; and gilded feet to simulate shoes/slippers. The gilded “peana” base is also exceedingly elegant: four separately–carved acanthus leaves emanate from the midsection of the urn and act as bracket supports for the upper section of the peana. It is a feast for a devotee’s, a connoisseur’s, and a collector’s discriminating eyes.
This exquisite San Rafael Arcangel is outstanding because despite its being a “de vestir” (dressed) image with the expected ivory head, hands, and perhaps feet, the entire statuette is actually made of ivory. It is thought that it was probably created at a transitional time from 1800–1850 when solid ivory tabletop images, which were in entirely different styles (baroque, rococo, and neoclassical) and consumed more of the luxurious and expensive elephant tusk, were for economic reasons finally being overlooked in favor of the more sustainable albeit baroque “de vestir” ones with only the heads, hands, and occasionally even the feet of ivory. However, one must be reminded that all kinds of classical Roman Catholic religious images --- the life–sized hardwood statues for the “retablo” altars, the smaller wooden statues for domestic veneration, the luxurious solid ivory statuettes intended for the affluent religious orders in Intramuros and for export to Madre Espana, Mexico, and the Latin American colonies, the life–sized processional as well as tabletop ivory “de vestir” images --- were already being produced simultaneously by the Sangley artisans and their indio assistants since the formalization of the Spanish conquest of these islands in 1571: the establishment of the settlements of Cebu (1565) and Manila (1571).
There are tabletop ivory “de vestir” images at the Museo Oriental in Valladolid, Spain that are documented to have come from Manila in the late 1500s. The famous “de vestir” processional image of the “Nuestra Senora del Santisimo Rosario”/ “La Naval de Manila”/Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary at the Santo Domingo church dates from 1587–93. Three extant examples from the late–1700s to the mid– 1800s illustrating the collective transition in preference from solid ivory to “de vestir” come to mind: 1) An unbelievable “Calvario” tableau of 12” inches/30.48 cm tall solid ivory figures (Cristo Expirante, Mater Dolorosa, San Juan Evangelista, and Santa Maria Magdalena), late eighteenth century (1775–1800), Ex Coll: Maximino Molo Agustin Paterno family, Santa Cruz, Manila, currently in the Paulino and Hetty Que Collection; 2) A tabletop “Nuestra Senora del Pilar” with ivory head and hands, Nino Jesus with ivory head and hands, the linear body painted off–white and embellished with painted scrollwork (in gold leaf) to mimic a solid ivory piece from the eighteenth century, mid–nineteenth century (1850s), Ex Coll: Maximino Molo Agustin Paterno family, Santa Cruz, Manila; 3) A relatively big “de vestir” statuette of a kneeling “Santa Maria Magdalena Penitente,” 1860s–70s, in its high quality and singular style thought to have come from the taller of escultor Leoncio Asuncion y Molo, sold years ago at a major Leon Gallery auction, currently in an important Cavite collection.
The opulent overall concept, excellent craftsmanship, prodigal use of ivory, and exquisite quality of the goldwork point to the distinct possibility of this “San Rafael Arcangel” piece originating from the “taller” workshop of the early maestro Leoncio Asuncion y Molo in Santa Cruz, Manila (1813–1888). The preeminent sculptor was known to have produced magnificent and memorable religious figures life–sized and tabletop in ivory and wood (“marfil y madera”) with singular expressions, full gestures, and perfect, lean anatomies (almost ballet dancer–like) which set them apart from the undistinguished work of other sculptors of religious images. Considered as Leoncio Asuncion’s magnum opus was a spectacular, life–sized, processional tableau of “La Tercera Caida”/The Third Fall of Jesus Christ --- featuring a burdened “Jesus Nazareno” collapsing from a heavy cross, a helpful Simon of Cyrene, three angry Jews, a trumpeteer, two Roman foot soldiers, including another Roman soldier astride a horse --- which was brought out in procession during the “Semana Santa”/Holy Week rites in Santa Cruz, Manila from the 1860s until World War II, when it was assumed destroyed during the Liberation of Manila in February 1945. Leoncio Asuncion y Molo came from an artistic family with affluent origins in the Molo de San Agustin clan of Santa Cruz, Manila --- descended from a migrant Chinese apothecary in the late 1700s --- and were closely related to the Molo Agustin Paterno family, one of the richest, most highly–educated, and most cultured in 1800s Manila.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, “San Rafael Arcangel” Saint Raphael the Archangel is one of The Three Archangels who are specifically named in the Bible. In the larger Christian traditions, The Seven Archangels stand before the Throne of God: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Barrachiel, Judiel, Uriel, and Sealtiel. Raphael is the “Divine Healer.” In the Deuterocanonical (“Second Canon”) books of the Roman Catholic Bible (called Apocrypha by the Protestants), in the books of Tobit and 1 Enoch, is the story of the Archangel Raphael and how he guided and assisted Tobias the righteous father and Tobias the righteous son who were exiled to Persia during the Assyrian conquest, 800 years before Christ. Tobias the father sent Tobias the son to Ragues, a distant city, to retrieve substantial money lent to a relative, with Azarias (the Archangel Raphael) as his companion. The trip was dangerous at every turn. At the Tigris river, a huge fish tried to devour Tobias the son but Azarias prevented it. At the city of Rages, at the house of his relative Raguel, Tobias the son was engaged to the former’s beautiful daughter Sara. Seven suitors had died before him; Azarias assured him that he alone would be spared. Tobias the son married the beautiful Sara, daughter of his relative Raguel. The journey back home ended up happily with Tobias the son and his wife Sara, and companion Azarias, returning to Tobias the father, who had become blind from pigeon droppings. Azarias instructed Tobias the son to cure his father’s blindness with the gall of the huge fish which tried to devour him; Tobias the father was promptly healed of his blindness. Thus, the iconography of Saint Raphael the Archangel with the staff, the fish, loaves of bread, and the young Tobias.
The most famous image of San Rafael Arcangel in the islands is the patron saint of Calaca city, Batangas: It is dark–colored --- the only exposed wooden parts are the head and hands --- whether from dark wood or from the patina of nearly two centuries, it is not known; stands about 12” inches/30.48 cm high (without its pedestal); wears a repousse silver coronet; is dressed entirely in 80 % Mexican solid silver repousse with floral and foliar motifs in the style of the 1860s–70s; depicts the saint with his attributes of a basket of loaves set on cloth on his left hand and a staff with a fish with his right hand; wears silver boots. The image dates stylistically from the 1830s.
Aside from Calaca city, Batangas, other parishes with San Rafael Arcangel as the titular patron are in Linmansangan, Binalonan, Pangasinan; San Rafael, Tarlac city; Mabiga, Mabalacat, Pampanga; San Rafael, Lubao, Pampanga; San Rafael, Macabebe, Pampanga; Park avenue, Pasay city; Balut island, Tondo, Manila; San Rafael, Rodriguez, Rizal province; Lucena City, Quezon province; and Real, Quezon province. This exquisite ivory San Rafael Arcangel, a magnificent example of Philippine religious art, is on par with the renowned holdings of the National Museum, the Intramuros Administration, as well as the AERA Collection at the Villa Escudero, the Paulino and Hetty Que Collection, and the Mario and Mimi Que Collection.
Lot 142 of the Leon Gallery auction on June 17, 2023. Please see leon-gallery.com/auctions/The-Spectacular-Mid-Year-Auctio... for more information.
Central Pier, Blackpool
Central Pier is one of three piers in the town of Blackpool, England.
The pier is central in that it is located between the other two, but it was close to the site of the now-defunct Blackpool Central railway station about 500 metres south of Blackpool Tower. Since the coastline is very straight and flat, the pier simply extends at right angles to the sea front, roughly level with the promenade.
History: The success of the North Pier prompted the formation of the Blackpool South Jetty Company one year later in 1864. The pier now known as South Pier was built 30 years later. Impressed with the construction of Blackpool Pier (North Pier), the company hired the same contractor, Richard Laidlaw and Son of Glasgow for the project. This time, however, the company used the designs of Lieutenant-Colonel John Isaac Mawson rather than those of Eugenius Birch. When the pier was opened on 30 May 1868, it was 460 metres in length, 120 metres of which was a landing jetty for use at low tide. The first manager of the pier was Robert Bickerstaffe, coxswain of the first Blackpool lifeboat. Blackpool's lifeboat station is located next to Central Pier.
From the start, the new pier's emphasis was on fun rather than the genteel relaxation provided at North Pier. In the early days fun was provided mainly by dancing facilities, but in the 20th century, roller skating was introduced along with fairground rides and amusement machines. Steamboat excursions departed from the landing jetty as they did from North Pier. The dance halls became less popular after the Second World War and the facilities were adapted into a theatre, bars and amusement arcades by the 1970s.
The pierhead theatre was modernised in 1986 and became known as "Peggy Sue's Showboat". A striking addition came in 1990 when a 33 metre high ferris wheel was erected, a half-scale reference to the Victorian attraction that had been part of the Winter Gardens complex a century earlier.
Construction: Central Pier is constructed mostly of cast iron with wooden decking. The piles on which the structure rests were driven using the screw pile method pioneered by Eugenius Birch. This involved twisting screw-tipped cast iron piles down through the sand until they hit bedrock. The materials and building techniques were similar to those used for North Pier but the structure of Central is a little more delicate in appearance.
The pier has suffered relatively little damage save for fires in 1964 and 1973 which gutted the theatre buildings. The main structural alterations have been the removal of the obsolete 120-metre low tide jetty in 1975 and the construction of the ferris wheel in 1990. The addition of the wheel required the midsection of the pier to be strengthened to cope with the extra weight. [Wikipedia]
This model built by Mark Springfellow is of the first new build for the newly formed Virginia Ferry Corporation (VFC) formed in 1930. Designed by Naval Architect George Sharp, the DEL-MAR-VA was built by Pusey and Jones Shipyard in Wilmington, DE and dubbed a "Passenger & Automobile Transport". Delivered to the VFC in early January 1934. She measured LOA 260' x 59' with six lanes for motor vehicles. A steam vessel powered by two quadruple Skinner Uniflow engines, 1400 SHP each. On builders sea trials she made close to 16 knots. She ran the route between Cape Charles, VA and Little Creek in Princess Anne County until 1950 when the ferry terminal was moved from Cape Charles to Kiptopeke Beach lessening the run by five miles.
In 1955 at Baltimore Shipyard she was cut in two and a 90' midsection added bringing her LOA to 350'. Also her single stack was removed and two riverboat style stacks added. This added a knot to her speed and by this time could make close to 18 knots. However operational speed was 14 knots.
With the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Tunnel, ferry operations seized. The Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) purchased her for a new ferry service between Lewes, DE and N. Cape May, NJ. She was renamed the Cape May and sailed with them into the early 1970's when sold to a failed ferry venture between Greenport, NY and New London, CT. She lay idle for approximately nine years and was sold for scrap in 1982. She was towed from Rhode Island back to the Delaware Bay and up to the old New York Shipyard in Camden, NJ where she was scraped in 1983.
This model was built for the Cape Charles Historical Society where it is on display at their museum in Cape Charles, VA.
Sheep (pl.: sheep) or domestic sheep (Ovis aries) are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term sheep can apply to other species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sheep. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female is referred to as a ewe (/juː/ yoo), an intact male as a ram, occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a wether, and a young sheep as a lamb.
Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and Asia, with Iran being a geographic envelope of the domestication center. One of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleeces, meat (lamb, hogget or mutton) and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is usually harvested by shearing. In Commonwealth countries, ovine meat is called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older ones; in the United States, meat from both older and younger animals is usually called lamb. Sheep continue to be important for wool and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as dairy animals, or as model organisms for science.
Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the inhabited world, and has been fundamental to many civilizations. In the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely associated with sheep production.
There is a large lexicon of unique terms for sheep husbandry which vary considerably by region and dialect. Use of the word sheep began in Middle English as a derivation of the Old English word scēap. A group of sheep is called a flock. Many other specific terms for the various life stages of sheep exist, generally related to lambing, shearing, and age.
Being a key animal in the history of farming, sheep have a deeply entrenched place in human culture, and are represented in much modern language and symbolism. As livestock, sheep are most often associated with pastoral, Arcadian imagery. Sheep figure in many mythologies—such as the Golden Fleece—and major religions, especially the Abrahamic traditions. In both ancient and modern religious ritual, sheep are used as sacrificial animals.
History
Main article: History of the domestic sheep
The exact line of descent from wild ancestors to domestic sheep is unclear. The most common hypothesis states that Ovis aries is descended from the Asiatic (O. gmelini) species of mouflon; the European mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) is a direct descendant of this population. Sheep were among the first animals to be domesticated by humankind (although the domestication of dogs probably took place 10 to 20 thousand years earlier); the domestication date is estimated to fall between 11,000 and 9000 B.C in Mesopotamia and possibly around 7000 BC in Mehrgarh in the Indus Valley. The rearing of sheep for secondary products, and the resulting breed development, began in either southwest Asia or western Europe. Initially, sheep were kept solely for meat, milk and skins. Archaeological evidence from statuary found at sites in Iran suggests that selection for woolly sheep may have begun around 6000 BC, and the earliest woven wool garments have been dated to two to three thousand years later.
Sheep husbandry spread quickly in Europe. Excavations show that in about 6000 BC, during the Neolithic period of prehistory, the Castelnovien people, living around Châteauneuf-les-Martigues near present-day Marseille in the south of France, were among the first in Europe to keep domestic sheep. Practically from its inception, ancient Greek civilization relied on sheep as primary livestock, and were even said to name individual animals. Ancient Romans kept sheep on a wide scale, and were an important agent in the spread of sheep raising. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (Naturalis Historia), speaks at length about sheep and wool. European colonists spread the practice to the New World from 1493 onwards.
Characteristics
Domestic sheep are relatively small ruminants, usually with a crimped hair called wool and often with horns forming a lateral spiral. They differ from their wild relatives and ancestors in several respects, having become uniquely neotenic as a result of selective breeding by humans. A few primitive breeds of sheep retain some of the characteristics of their wild cousins, such as short tails. Depending on breed, domestic sheep may have no horns at all (i.e. polled), or horns in both sexes, or in males only. Most horned breeds have a single pair, but a few breeds may have several.
Sheep in Turkmenistan
Another trait unique to domestic sheep as compared to wild ovines is their wide variation in color. Wild sheep are largely variations of brown hues, and variation within species is extremely limited. Colors of domestic sheep range from pure white to dark chocolate brown, and even spotted or piebald. Sheep keepers also sometimes artificially paint "smit marks" onto their sheep in any pattern or color for identification. Selection for easily dyeable white fleeces began early in sheep domestication, and as white wool is a dominant trait it spread quickly. However, colored sheep do appear in many modern breeds, and may even appear as a recessive trait in white flocks. While white wool is desirable for large commercial markets, there is a niche market for colored fleeces, mostly for handspinning. The nature of the fleece varies widely among the breeds, from dense and highly crimped, to long and hairlike. There is variation of wool type and quality even among members of the same flock, so wool classing is a step in the commercial processing of the fibre.
Suffolks are a medium wool, black-faced breed of meat sheep that make up 60% of the sheep population in the U.S.
Depending on breed, sheep show a range of heights and weights. Their rate of growth and mature weight is a heritable trait that is often selected for in breeding. Ewes typically weigh between 45 and 100 kilograms (100 and 220 lb), and rams between 45 and 160 kilograms (100 and 350 lb). When all deciduous teeth have erupted, the sheep has 20 teeth. Mature sheep have 32 teeth. As with other ruminants, the front teeth in the lower jaw bite against a hard, toothless pad in the upper jaw. These are used to pick off vegetation, then the rear teeth grind it before it is swallowed. There are eight lower front teeth in ruminants, but there is some disagreement as to whether these are eight incisors, or six incisors and two incisor-shaped canines. This means that the dental formula for sheep is either
0.0.3.3
4.0.3.3
or
0.0.3.3
3.1.3.3
There is a large diastema between the incisors and the molars.
In the first few years of life one can calculate the age of sheep from their front teeth, as a pair of milk teeth is replaced by larger adult teeth each year, the full set of eight adult front teeth being complete at about four years of age. The front teeth are then gradually lost as sheep age, making it harder for them to feed and hindering the health and productivity of the animal. For this reason, domestic sheep on normal pasture begin to slowly decline from four years on, and the life expectancy of a sheep is 10 to 12 years, though some sheep may live as long as 20 years.
Skull
Sheep have good hearing, and are sensitive to noise when being handled. Sheep have horizontal slit-shaped pupils, with excellent peripheral vision; with visual fields of about 270° to 320°, sheep can see behind themselves without turning their heads. Many breeds have only short hair on the face, and some have facial wool (if any) confined to the poll and or the area of the mandibular angle; the wide angles of peripheral vision apply to these breeds. A few breeds tend to have considerable wool on the face; for some individuals of these breeds, peripheral vision may be greatly reduced by "wool blindness", unless recently shorn about the face. Sheep have poor depth perception; shadows and dips in the ground may cause sheep to baulk. In general, sheep have a tendency to move out of the dark and into well-lit areas, and prefer to move uphill when disturbed. Sheep also have an excellent sense of smell, and, like all species of their genus, have scent glands just in front of the eyes, and interdigitally on the feet. The purpose of these glands is uncertain, but those on the face may be used in breeding behaviors. The foot glands might also be related to reproduction, but alternative functions, such as secretion of a waste product or a scent marker to help lost sheep find their flock, have also been proposed.
Comparison with goats
Sheep and goats are closely related: both are in the subfamily Caprinae. However, they are separate species, so hybrids rarely occur and are always infertile. A hybrid of a ewe and a buck (a male goat) is called a sheep-goat hybrid, known as geep. Visual differences between sheep and goats include the beard of goats and divided upper lip of sheep. Sheep tails also hang down, even when short or docked, while the short tails of goats are held upwards. Also, sheep breeds are often naturally polled (either in both sexes or just in the female), while naturally polled goats are rare (though many are polled artificially). Males of the two species differ in that buck goats acquire a unique and strong odor during the rut, whereas rams do not.
Breeds
The domestic sheep is a multi-purpose animal, and the more than 200 breeds now in existence were created to serve these diverse purposes. Some sources give a count of a thousand or more breeds, but these numbers cannot be verified, according to some sources. However, several hundred breeds of sheep have been identified by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), with the estimated number varying somewhat from time to time: e.g. 863 breeds as of 1993, 1314 breeds as of 1995 and 1229 breeds as of 2006. (These numbers exclude extinct breeds, which are also tallied by the FAO.) For the purpose of such tallies, the FAO definition of a breed is "either a subspecific group of domestic livestock with definable and identifiable external characteristics that enable it to be separated by visual appraisal from other similarly defined groups within the same species or a group for which geographical and/or cultural separation from phenotypically similar groups has led to acceptance of its separate identity." Almost all sheep are classified as being best suited to furnishing a certain product: wool, meat, milk, hides, or a combination in a dual-purpose breed. Other features used when classifying sheep include face color (generally white or black), tail length, presence or lack of horns, and the topography for which the breed has been developed. This last point is especially stressed in the UK, where breeds are described as either upland (hill or mountain) or lowland breeds. A sheep may also be of a fat-tailed type, which is a dual-purpose sheep common in Africa and Asia with larger deposits of fat within and around its tail.
Breeds are often categorized by the type of their wool. Fine wool breeds are those that have wool of great crimp and density, which are preferred for textiles. Most of these were derived from Merino sheep, and the breed continues to dominate the world sheep industry. Downs breeds have wool between the extremes, and are typically fast-growing meat and ram breeds with dark faces. Some major medium wool breeds, such as the Corriedale, are dual-purpose crosses of long and fine-wooled breeds and were created for high-production commercial flocks. Long wool breeds are the largest of sheep, with long wool and a slow rate of growth. Long wool sheep are most valued for crossbreeding to improve the attributes of other sheep types. For example: the American Columbia breed was developed by crossing Lincoln rams (a long wool breed) with fine-wooled Rambouillet ewes.
Coarse or carpet wool sheep are those with a medium to long length wool of characteristic coarseness. Breeds traditionally used for carpet wool show great variability, but the chief requirement is a wool that will not break down under heavy use (as would that of the finer breeds). As the demand for carpet-quality wool declines, some breeders of this type of sheep are attempting to use a few of these traditional breeds for alternative purposes. Others have always been primarily meat-class sheep.
A minor class of sheep are the dairy breeds. Dual-purpose breeds that may primarily be meat or wool sheep are often used secondarily as milking animals, but there are a few breeds that are predominantly used for milking. These sheep produce a higher quantity of milk and have slightly longer lactation curves. In the quality of their milk, the fat and protein content percentages of dairy sheep vary from non-dairy breeds, but lactose content does not.
A last group of sheep breeds is that of fur or hair sheep, which do not grow wool at all. Hair sheep are similar to the early domesticated sheep kept before woolly breeds were developed, and are raised for meat and pelts. Some modern breeds of hair sheep, such as the Dorper, result from crosses between wool and hair breeds. For meat and hide producers, hair sheep are cheaper to keep, as they do not need shearing. Hair sheep are also more resistant to parasites and hot weather.
With the modern rise of corporate agribusiness and the decline of localized family farms, many breeds of sheep are in danger of extinction. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust of the UK lists 22 native breeds as having only 3,000 registered animals (each), and The Livestock Conservancy lists 14 as either "critical" or "threatened". Preferences for breeds with uniform characteristics and fast growth have pushed heritage (or heirloom) breeds to the margins of the sheep industry. Those that remain are maintained through the efforts of conservation organizations, breed registries, and individual farmers dedicated to their preservation.
Diet
Sheep are herbivorous mammals. Most breeds prefer to graze on grass and other short roughage, avoiding the taller woody parts of plants that goats readily consume. Both sheep and goats use their lips and tongues to select parts of the plant that are easier to digest or higher in nutrition. Sheep, however, graze well in monoculture pastures where most goats fare poorly.
Ruminant system of a sheep
Like all ruminants, sheep have a complex digestive system composed of four chambers, allowing them to break down cellulose from stems, leaves, and seed hulls into simpler carbohydrates. When sheep graze, vegetation is chewed into a mass called a bolus, which is then passed into the rumen, via the reticulum. The rumen is a 19- to 38-liter (5 to 10 gallon) organ in which feed is fermented. The fermenting organisms include bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. (Other important rumen organisms include some archaea, which produce methane from carbon dioxide.) The bolus is periodically regurgitated back to the mouth as cud for additional chewing and salivation. After fermentation in the rumen, feed passes into the reticulum and the omasum; special feeds such as grains may bypass the rumen altogether. After the first three chambers, food moves into the abomasum for final digestion before processing by the intestines. The abomasum is the only one of the four chambers analogous to the human stomach, and is sometimes called the "true stomach".
Other than forage, the other staple feed for sheep is hay, often during the winter months. The ability to thrive solely on pasture (even without hay) varies with breed, but all sheep can survive on this diet. Also included in some sheep's diets are minerals, either in a trace mix or in licks. Feed provided to sheep must be specially formulated, as most cattle, poultry, pig, and even some goat feeds contain levels of copper that are lethal to sheep. The same danger applies to mineral supplements such as salt licks.
Grazing behavior
Sheep follow a diurnal pattern of activity, feeding from dawn to dusk, stopping sporadically to rest and chew their cud. Ideal pasture for sheep is not lawnlike grass, but an array of grasses, legumes and forbs. Types of land where sheep are raised vary widely, from pastures that are seeded and improved intentionally to rough, native lands. Common plants toxic to sheep are present in most of the world, and include (but are not limited to) cherry, some oaks and acorns, tomato, yew, rhubarb, potato, and rhododendron.
Effects on pasture
Sheep are largely grazing herbivores, unlike browsing animals such as goats and deer that prefer taller foliage. With a much narrower face, sheep crop plants very close to the ground and can overgraze a pasture much faster than cattle. For this reason, many shepherds use managed intensive rotational grazing, where a flock is rotated through multiple pastures, giving plants time to recover. Paradoxically, sheep can both cause and solve the spread of invasive plant species. By disturbing the natural state of pasture, sheep and other livestock can pave the way for invasive plants. However, sheep also prefer to eat invasives such as cheatgrass, leafy spurge, kudzu and spotted knapweed over native species such as sagebrush, making grazing sheep effective for conservation grazing. Research conducted in Imperial County, California compared lamb grazing with herbicides for weed control in seedling alfalfa fields. Three trials demonstrated that grazing lambs were just as effective as herbicides in controlling winter weeds. Entomologists also compared grazing lambs to insecticides for insect control in winter alfalfa. In this trial, lambs provided insect control as effectively as insecticides.
Behavior
Sheep are flock animals and strongly gregarious; much sheep behavior can be understood on the basis of these tendencies. The dominance hierarchy of sheep and their natural inclination to follow a leader to new pastures were the pivotal factors in sheep being one of the first domesticated livestock species. Furthermore, in contrast to the red deer and gazelle (two other ungulates of primary importance to meat production in prehistoric times), sheep do not defend territories although they do form home ranges. All sheep have a tendency to congregate close to other members of a flock, although this behavior varies with breed, and sheep can become stressed when separated from their flock members. During flocking, sheep have a strong tendency to follow, and a leader may simply be the first individual to move. Relationships in flocks tend to be closest among related sheep: in mixed-breed flocks, subgroups of the same breed tend to form, and a ewe and her direct descendants often move as a unit within large flocks. Sheep can become hefted to one particular local pasture (heft) so they do not roam freely in unfenced landscapes. Lambs learn the heft from ewes and if whole flocks are culled it must be retaught to the replacement animals.
Flock behaviour in sheep is generally only exhibited in groups of four or more sheep; fewer sheep may not react as expected when alone or with few other sheep. Being a prey species, the primary defense mechanism of sheep is to flee from danger when their flight zone is entered. Cornered sheep may charge and butt, or threaten by hoof stamping and adopting an aggressive posture. This is particularly true for ewes with newborn lambs.
In regions where sheep have no natural predators, none of the native breeds of sheep exhibit a strong flocking behavior.
Herding
Farmers exploit flocking behavior to keep sheep together on unfenced pastures such as hill farming, and to move them more easily. For this purpose shepherds may use herding dogs in this effort, with a highly bred herding ability. Sheep are food-oriented, and association of humans with regular feeding often results in sheep soliciting people for food. Those who are moving sheep may exploit this behavior by leading sheep with buckets of feed.
Dominance hierarchy
Sheep establish a dominance hierarchy through fighting, threats and competitiveness. Dominant animals are inclined to be more aggressive with other sheep, and usually feed first at troughs. Primarily among rams, horn size is a factor in the flock hierarchy. Rams with different size horns may be less inclined to fight to establish the dominance order, while rams with similarly sized horns are more so. Merinos have an almost linear hierarchy whereas there is a less rigid structure in Border Leicesters when a competitive feeding situation arises.
In sheep, position in a moving flock is highly correlated with social dominance, but there is no definitive study to show consistent voluntary leadership by an individual sheep.
Intelligence and learning ability
Sheep are frequently thought of as unintelligent animals. Their flocking behavior and quickness to flee and panic can make shepherding a difficult endeavor for the uninitiated. Despite these perceptions, a University of Illinois monograph on sheep reported their intelligence to be just below that of pigs and on par with that of cattle. Sheep can recognize individual human and ovine faces and remember them for years; they can remember 50 other different sheep faces for over two years; they can recognize and are attracted to individual sheep and humans by their faces, as they possess similar specialized neural systems in the temporal and frontal lobes of their brains to humans and have a greater involvement of the right brain hemisphere. In addition to long-term facial recognition of individuals, sheep can also differentiate emotional states through facial characteristics.[68][69] If worked with patiently, sheep may learn their names, and many sheep are trained to be led by halter for showing and other purposes. Sheep have also responded well to clicker training. Sheep have been used as pack animals; Tibetan nomads distribute baggage equally throughout a flock as it is herded between living sites.
It has been reported that some sheep have apparently shown problem-solving abilities; a flock in West Yorkshire, England allegedly found a way to get over cattle grids by rolling on their backs, although documentation of this has relied on anecdotal accounts.
Vocalisations
Sounds made by domestic sheep include bleats, grunts, rumbles and snorts. Bleating ("baaing") is used mostly for contact communication, especially between dam and lambs, but also at times between other flock members. The bleats of individual sheep are distinctive, enabling the ewe and her lambs to recognize each other's vocalizations. Vocal communication between lambs and their dam declines to a very low level within several weeks after parturition. A variety of bleats may be heard, depending on sheep age and circumstances. Apart from contact communication, bleating may signal distress, frustration or impatience; however, sheep are usually silent when in pain. Isolation commonly prompts bleating by sheep. Pregnant ewes may grunt when in labor. Rumbling sounds are made by the ram during courting; somewhat similar rumbling sounds may be made by the ewe, especially when with her neonate lambs. A snort (explosive exhalation through the nostrils) may signal aggression or a warning, and is often elicited from startled sheep.
Lamb
In sheep breeds lacking facial wool, the visual field is wide. In 10 sheep (Cambridge, Lleyn and Welsh Mountain breeds, which lack facial wool), the visual field ranged from 298° to 325°, averaging 313.1°, with binocular overlap ranging from 44.5° to 74°, averaging 61.7°. In some breeds, unshorn facial wool can limit the visual field; in some individuals, this may be enough to cause "wool blindness". In 60 Merinos, visual fields ranged from 219.1° to 303.0°, averaging 269.9°, and the binocular field ranged from 8.9° to 77.7°, averaging 47.5°; 36% of the measurements were limited by wool, although photographs of the experiments indicate that only limited facial wool regrowth had occurred since shearing. In addition to facial wool (in some breeds), visual field limitations can include ears and (in some breeds) horns, so the visual field can be extended by tilting the head. Sheep eyes exhibit very low hyperopia and little astigmatism. Such visual characteristics are likely to produce a well-focused retinal image of objects in both the middle and long distance. Because sheep eyes have no accommodation, one might expect the image of very near objects to be blurred, but a rather clear near image could be provided by the tapetum and large retinal image of the sheep's eye, and adequate close vision may occur at muzzle length. Good depth perception, inferred from the sheep's sure-footedness, was confirmed in "visual cliff" experiments; behavioral responses indicating depth perception are seen in lambs at one day old. Sheep are thought to have colour vision, and can distinguish between a variety of colours: black, red, brown, green, yellow and white. Sight is a vital part of sheep communication, and when grazing, they maintain visual contact with each other. Each sheep lifts its head upwards to check the position of other sheep in the flock. This constant monitoring is probably what keeps the sheep in a flock as they move along grazing. Sheep become stressed when isolated; this stress is reduced if they are provided with a mirror, indicating that the sight of other sheep reduces stress.
Taste is the most important sense in sheep, establishing forage preferences, with sweet and sour plants being preferred and bitter plants being more commonly rejected. Touch and sight are also important in relation to specific plant characteristics, such as succulence and growth form.
The ram uses his vomeronasal organ (sometimes called the Jacobson's organ) to sense the pheromones of ewes and detect when they are in estrus. The ewe uses her vomeronasal organ for early recognition of her neonate lamb.
Reproduction
Sheep follow a similar reproductive strategy to other herd animals. A group of ewes is generally mated by a single ram, who has either been chosen by a breeder or (in feral populations) has established dominance through physical contest with other rams. Most sheep are seasonal breeders, although some are able to breed year-round. Ewes generally reach sexual maturity at six to eight months old, and rams generally at four to six months. However, there are exceptions. For example, Finnsheep ewe lambs may reach puberty as early as 3 to 4 months, and Merino ewes sometimes reach puberty at 18 to 20 months. Ewes have estrus cycles about every 17 days, during which they emit a scent and indicate readiness through physical displays towards rams.
In feral sheep, rams may fight during the rut to determine which individuals may mate with ewes. Rams, especially unfamiliar ones, will also fight outside the breeding period to establish dominance; rams can kill one another if allowed to mix freely. During the rut, even usually friendly rams may become aggressive towards humans due to increases in their hormone levels.
After mating, sheep have a gestation period of about five months, and normal labor takes one to three hours. Although some breeds regularly throw larger litters of lambs, most produce single or twin lambs. During or soon after labor, ewes and lambs may be confined to small lambing jugs, small pens designed to aid both careful observation of ewes and to cement the bond between them and their lambs.
A lamb's first steps
Ovine obstetrics can be problematic. By selectively breeding ewes that produce multiple offspring with higher birth weights for generations, sheep producers have inadvertently caused some domestic sheep to have difficulty lambing; balancing ease of lambing with high productivity is one of the dilemmas of sheep breeding. In the case of any such problems, those present at lambing may assist the ewe by extracting or repositioning lambs. After the birth, ewes ideally break the amniotic sac (if it is not broken during labor), and begin licking clean the lamb. Most lambs will begin standing within an hour of birth. In normal situations, lambs nurse after standing, receiving vital colostrum milk. Lambs that either fail to nurse or are rejected by the ewe require help to survive, such as bottle-feeding or fostering by another ewe.
Most lambs begin life being born outdoors. After lambs are several weeks old, lamb marking (ear tagging, docking, mulesing, and castrating) is carried out. Vaccinations are usually carried out at this point as well. Ear tags with numbers are attached, or ear marks are applied, for ease of later identification of sheep. Docking and castration are commonly done after 24 hours (to avoid interference with maternal bonding and consumption of colostrum) and are often done not later than one week after birth, to minimize pain, stress, recovery time and complications. The first course of vaccinations (commonly anti-clostridial) is commonly given at an age of about 10 to 12 weeks; i.e. when the concentration of maternal antibodies passively acquired via colostrum is expected to have fallen low enough to permit development of active immunity. Ewes are often revaccinated annually about 3 weeks before lambing, to provide high antibody concentrations in colostrum during the first several hours after lambing. Ram lambs that will either be slaughtered or separated from ewes before sexual maturity are not usually castrated. Objections to all these procedures have been raised by animal rights groups, but farmers defend them by saying they save money, and inflict only temporary pain.
Homosexuality
Sheep are the only species of mammal except for humans which exhibits exclusive homosexual behavior. About 10% of rams refuse to mate with ewes but readily mate with other rams, and thirty percent of all rams demonstrate at least some homosexual behavior. Additionally, a small number of females that were accompanied by a male fetus in utero (i.e. as fraternal twins) are freemartins (female animals that are behaviorally masculine and lack functioning ovaries).
Health
Sheep may fall victim to poisons, infectious diseases, and physical injuries. As a prey species, a sheep's system is adapted to hide the obvious signs of illness, to prevent being targeted by predators. However, some signs of ill health are obvious, with sick sheep eating little, vocalizing excessively, and being generally listless. Throughout history, much of the money and labor of sheep husbandry has aimed to prevent sheep ailments. Historically, shepherds often created remedies by experimentation on the farm. In some developed countries, including the United States, sheep lack the economic importance for drug companies to perform expensive clinical trials required to approve more than a relatively limited number of drugs for ovine use. However, extra-label drug use in sheep production is permitted in many jurisdictions, subject to certain restrictions. In the US, for example, regulations governing extra-label drug use in animals are found in 21 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 530. In the 20th and 21st centuries, a minority of sheep owners have turned to alternative treatments such as homeopathy, herbalism and even traditional Chinese medicine to treat sheep veterinary problems. Despite some favorable anecdotal evidence, the effectiveness of alternative veterinary medicine has been met with skepticism in scientific journals. The need for traditional anti-parasite drugs and antibiotics is widespread, and is the main impediment to certified organic farming with sheep.
Many breeders take a variety of preventive measures to ward off problems. The first is to ensure all sheep are healthy when purchased. Many buyers avoid outlets known to be clearing houses for animals culled from healthy flocks as either sick or simply inferior. This can also mean maintaining a closed flock, and quarantining new sheep for a month. Two fundamental preventive programs are maintaining good nutrition and reducing stress in the sheep. Restraint, isolation, loud noises, novel situations, pain, heat, extreme cold, fatigue and other stressors can lead to secretion of cortisol, a stress hormone, in amounts that may indicate welfare problems. Excessive stress can compromise the immune system. "Shipping fever" (pneumonic mannheimiosis, formerly called pasteurellosis) is a disease of particular concern, that can occur as a result of stress, notably during transport and (or) handling. Pain, fear and several other stressors can cause secretion of epinephrine (adrenaline). Considerable epinephrine secretion in the final days before slaughter can adversely affect meat quality (by causing glycogenolysis, removing the substrate for normal post-slaughter acidification of meat) and result in meat becoming more susceptible to colonization by spoilage bacteria. Because of such issues, low-stress handling is essential in sheep management. Avoiding poisoning is also important; common poisons are pesticide sprays, inorganic fertilizer, motor oil, as well as radiator coolant containing ethylene glycol.
Common forms of preventive medication for sheep are vaccinations and treatments for parasites. Both external and internal parasites are the most prevalent malady in sheep, and are either fatal, or reduce the productivity of flocks. Worms are the most common internal parasites. They are ingested during grazing, incubate within the sheep, and are expelled through the digestive system (beginning the cycle again). Oral anti-parasitic medicines, known as drenches, are given to a flock to treat worms, sometimes after worm eggs in the feces has been counted to assess infestation levels. Afterwards, sheep may be moved to a new pasture to avoid ingesting the same parasites. External sheep parasites include: lice (for different parts of the body), sheep keds, nose bots, sheep itch mites, and maggots. Keds are blood-sucking parasites that cause general malnutrition and decreased productivity, but are not fatal. Maggots are those of the bot fly and the blow-fly, commonly Lucilia sericata or its relative L. cuprina. Fly maggots cause the extremely destructive condition of flystrike. Flies lay their eggs in wounds or wet, manure-soiled wool; when the maggots hatch they burrow into a sheep's flesh, eventually causing death if untreated. In addition to other treatments, crutching (shearing wool from a sheep's rump) is a common preventive method. Some countries allow mulesing, a practice that involves stripping away the skin on the rump to prevent fly-strike, normally performed when the sheep is a lamb. Nose bots are fly larvae that inhabit a sheep's sinuses, causing breathing difficulties and discomfort. Common signs are a discharge from the nasal passage, sneezing, and frantic movement such as head shaking. External parasites may be controlled through the use of backliners, sprays or immersive sheep dips.
A wide array of bacterial and viral diseases affect sheep. Diseases of the hoof, such as foot rot and foot scald may occur, and are treated with footbaths and other remedies. Foot rot is present in over 97% of flocks in the UK. These painful conditions cause lameness and hinder feeding. Ovine Johne's disease is a wasting disease that affects young sheep. Bluetongue disease is an insect-borne illness causing fever and inflammation of the mucous membranes. Ovine rinderpest (or peste des petits ruminants) is a highly contagious and often fatal viral disease affecting sheep and goats. Sheep may also be affected by primary or secondary photosensitization. Tetanus can also afflict sheep through wounds from shearing, docking, castration, or vaccination. The organism also can be introduced into the reproductive tract by unsanitary humans who assist ewes during lambing.
A few sheep conditions are transmissible to humans. Orf (also known as scabby mouth, contagious ecthyma or soremouth) is a skin disease leaving lesions that is transmitted through skin-to-skin contact. Cutaneous anthrax is also called woolsorter's disease, as the spores can be transmitted in unwashed wool. More seriously, the organisms that can cause spontaneous enzootic abortion in sheep are easily transmitted to pregnant women. Also of concern are the prion disease scrapie and the virus that causes foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), as both can devastate flocks. The latter poses a slight risk to humans. During the 2001 FMD pandemic in the UK, hundreds of sheep were culled and some rare British breeds were at risk of extinction due to this.
Of the 600,300 sheep lost to the US economy in 2004, 37.3% were lost to predators, while 26.5% were lost to some form of disease. Poisoning accounted for 1.7% of non-productive deaths.
Predators
A lamb being attacked by coyotes with a bite to the throat
Other than parasites and disease, predation is a threat to sheep and the profitability of sheep raising. Sheep have little ability to defend themselves, compared with other species kept as livestock. Even if sheep survive an attack, they may die from their injuries or simply from panic. However, the impact of predation varies dramatically with region. In Africa, Australia, the Americas, and parts of Europe and Asia predators are a serious problem. In the United States, for instance, over one third of sheep deaths in 2004 were caused by predation. In contrast, other nations are virtually devoid of sheep predators, particularly islands known for extensive sheep husbandry. Worldwide, canids—including the domestic dog—are responsible for most sheep deaths. Other animals that occasionally prey on sheep include: felines, bears, birds of prey, ravens and feral hogs.
Sheep producers have used a wide variety of measures to combat predation. Pre-modern shepherds used their own presence, livestock guardian dogs, and protective structures such as barns and fencing. Fencing (both regular and electric), penning sheep at night and lambing indoors all continue to be widely used. More modern shepherds used guns, traps, and poisons to kill predators, causing significant decreases in predator populations. In the wake of the environmental and conservation movements, the use of these methods now usually falls under the purview of specially designated government agencies in most developed countries.
The 1970s saw a resurgence in the use of livestock guardian dogs and the development of new methods of predator control by sheep producers, many of them non-lethal. Donkeys and guard llamas have been used since the 1980s in sheep operations, using the same basic principle as livestock guardian dogs. Interspecific pasturing, usually with larger livestock such as cattle or horses, may help to deter predators, even if such species do not actively guard sheep. In addition to animal guardians, contemporary sheep operations may use non-lethal predator deterrents such as motion-activated lights and noisy alarms.
Economic importance
Main article: Agricultural economics
Global sheep stock
in 2019
Number in millions
1. China163.5 (13.19%)
2. India74.3 (5.99%)
3. Australia65.8 (5.31%)
4. Nigeria46.9 (3.78%)
5. Iran41.3 (3.33%)
6. Sudan40.9 (3.3%)
7. Chad35.9 (2.9%)
8. Turkey35.2 (2.84%)
9. United Kingdom33.6 (2.71%)
10. Mongolia32.3 (2.61%)
World total1,239.8
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Sheep are an important part of the global agricultural economy. However, their once vital status has been largely replaced by other livestock species, especially the pig, chicken, and cow. China, Australia, India, and Iran have the largest modern flocks, and serve both local and exportation needs for wool and mutton. Other countries such as New Zealand have smaller flocks but retain a large international economic impact due to their export of sheep products. Sheep also play a major role in many local economies, which may be niche markets focused on organic or sustainable agriculture and local food customers. Especially in developing countries, such flocks may be a part of subsistence agriculture rather than a system of trade. Sheep themselves may be a medium of trade in barter economies.
Domestic sheep provide a wide array of raw materials. Wool was one of the first textiles, although in the late 20th century wool prices began to fall dramatically as the result of the popularity and cheap prices for synthetic fabrics. For many sheep owners, the cost of shearing is greater than the possible profit from the fleece, making subsisting on wool production alone practically impossible without farm subsidies. Fleeces are used as material in making alternative products such as wool insulation. In the 21st century, the sale of meat is the most profitable enterprise in the sheep industry, even though far less sheep meat is consumed than chicken, pork or beef.
Sheepskin is likewise used for making clothes, footwear, rugs, and other products. Byproducts from the slaughter of sheep are also of value: sheep tallow can be used in candle and soap making, sheep bone and cartilage has been used to furnish carved items such as dice and buttons as well as rendered glue and gelatin. Sheep intestine can be formed into sausage casings, and lamb intestine has been formed into surgical sutures, as well as strings for musical instruments and tennis rackets. Sheep droppings, which are high in cellulose, have even been sterilized and mixed with traditional pulp materials to make paper. Of all sheep byproducts, perhaps the most valuable is lanolin: the waterproof, fatty substance found naturally in sheep's wool and used as a base for innumerable cosmetics and other products.
Some farmers who keep sheep also make a profit from live sheep. Providing lambs for youth programs such as 4-H and competition at agricultural shows is often a dependable avenue for the sale of sheep. Farmers may also choose to focus on a particular breed of sheep in order to sell registered purebred animals, as well as provide a ram rental service for breeding. A new option for deriving profit from live sheep is the rental of flocks for grazing; these "mowing services" are hired in order to keep unwanted vegetation down in public spaces and to lessen fire hazard.
Despite the falling demand and price for sheep products in many markets, sheep have distinct economic advantages when compared with other livestock. They do not require expensive housing, such as that used in the intensive farming of chickens or pigs. They are an efficient use of land; roughly six sheep can be kept on the amount that would suffice for a single cow or horse. Sheep can also consume plants, such as noxious weeds, that most other animals will not touch, and produce more young at a faster rate. Also, in contrast to most livestock species, the cost of raising sheep is not necessarily tied to the price of feed crops such as grain, soybeans and corn. Combined with the lower cost of quality sheep, all these factors combine to equal a lower overhead for sheep producers, thus entailing a higher profitability potential for the small farmer. Sheep are especially beneficial for independent producers, including family farms with limited resources, as the sheep industry is one of the few types of animal agriculture that has not been vertically integrated by agribusiness. However, small flocks, from 10 to 50 ewes, often are not profitable because they tend to be poorly managed. The primary reason is that mechanization is not feasible, so return per hour of labor is not maximized. Small farm flocks generally are used simply to control weeds on irrigation ditches or maintained as a hobby.
Shoulder of lamb
Sheep meat and milk were one of the earliest staple proteins consumed by human civilization after the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Sheep meat prepared for food is known as either mutton or lamb, and approximately 540 million sheep are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. "Mutton" is derived from the Old French moton, which was the word for sheep used by the Anglo-Norman rulers of much of the British Isles in the Middle Ages. This became the name for sheep meat in English, while the Old English word sceap was kept for the live animal. Throughout modern history, "mutton" has been limited to the meat of mature sheep usually at least two years of age; "lamb" is used for that of immature sheep less than a year.
In the 21st century, the nations with the highest consumption of sheep meat are the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, New Zealand, Australia, Greece, Uruguay, the United Kingdom and Ireland. These countries eat 14–40 lbs (3–18 kg) of sheep meat per capita, per annum. Sheep meat is also popular in France, Africa (especially the Arab world), the Caribbean, the rest of the Middle East, India, and parts of China. This often reflects a history of sheep production. In these countries in particular, dishes comprising alternative cuts and offal may be popular or traditional. Sheep testicles—called animelles or lamb fries—are considered a delicacy in many parts of the world. Perhaps the most unusual dish of sheep meat is the Scottish haggis, composed of various sheep innards cooked along with oatmeal and chopped onions inside its stomach. In comparison, countries such as the U.S. consume only a pound or less (under 0.5 kg), with Americans eating 50 pounds (22 kg) of pork and 65 pounds (29 kg) of beef. In addition, such countries rarely eat mutton, and may favor the more expensive cuts of lamb: mostly lamb chops and leg of lamb.
Though sheep's milk may be drunk rarely in fresh form, today it is used predominantly in cheese and yogurt making. Sheep have only two teats, and produce a far smaller volume of milk than cows. However, as sheep's milk contains far more fat, solids, and minerals than cow's milk, it is ideal for the cheese-making process. It also resists contamination during cooling better because of its much higher calcium content. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the feta of Bulgaria and Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the pecorino romano (the Italian word for "sheep" is pecore) and ricotta of Italy. Yogurts, especially some forms of strained yogurt, may also be made from sheep milk. Many of these products are now often made with cow's milk, especially when produced outside their country of origin. Sheep milk contains 4.8% lactose, which may affect those who are intolerant.
As with other domestic animals, the meat of uncastrated males is inferior in quality, especially as they grow. A "bucky" lamb is a lamb which was not castrated early enough, or which was castrated improperly (resulting in one testicle being retained). These lambs are worth less at market.
In science
Sheep are generally too large and reproduce too slowly to make ideal research subjects, and thus are not a common model organism. They have, however, played an influential role in some fields of science. In particular, the Roslin Institute of Edinburgh, Scotland used sheep for genetics research that produced groundbreaking results. In 1995, two ewes named Megan and Morag were the first mammals cloned from differentiated cells, also referred to as gynomerogony. A year later, a Finnish Dorset sheep named Dolly, dubbed "the world's most famous sheep" in Scientific American, was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell. Following this, Polly and Molly were the first mammals to be simultaneously cloned and transgenic.
As of 2008, the sheep genome has not been fully sequenced, although a detailed genetic map has been published, and a draft version of the complete genome produced by assembling sheep DNA sequences using information given by the genomes of other mammals. In 2012, a transgenic sheep named "Peng Peng" was cloned by Chinese scientists, who spliced his genes with that of a roundworm (C. elegans) in order to increase production of fats healthier for human consumption.
In the study of natural selection, the population of Soay sheep that remain on the island of Hirta have been used to explore the relation of body size and coloration to reproductive success. Soay sheep come in several colors, and researchers investigated why the larger, darker sheep were in decline; this occurrence contradicted the rule of thumb that larger members of a population tend to be more successful reproductively. The feral Soays on Hirta are especially useful subjects because they are isolated.
Domestic sheep are sometimes used in medical research, particularly for researching cardiovascular physiology, in areas such as hypertension and heart failure. Pregnant sheep are also a useful model for human pregnancy, and have been used to investigate the effects on fetal development of malnutrition and hypoxia. In behavioral sciences, sheep have been used in isolated cases for the study of facial recognition, as their mental process of recognition is qualitatively similar to humans.
Cultural impact
Sheep have had a strong presence in many cultures, especially in areas where they form the most common type of livestock. In the English language, to call someone a sheep or ovine may allude that they are timid and easily led. In contradiction to this image, male sheep are often used as symbols of virility and power; the logos of the Los Angeles Rams football team and the Dodge Ram pickup truck allude to males of the bighorn sheep, Ovis canadensis.
Counting sheep is popularly said to be an aid to sleep, and some ancient systems of counting sheep persist today. Sheep also enter in colloquial sayings and idiom frequently with such phrases as "black sheep". To call an individual a black sheep implies that they are an odd or disreputable member of a group. This usage derives from the recessive trait that causes an occasional black lamb to be born into an entirely white flock. These black sheep were considered undesirable by shepherds, as black wool is not as commercially viable as white wool. Citizens who accept overbearing governments have been referred to by the Portmanteau neologism of sheeple. Somewhat differently, the adjective "sheepish" is also used to describe embarrassment.
In heraldry
In British heraldry, sheep appear in the form of rams, sheep proper and lambs. These are distinguished by the ram being depicted with horns and a tail, the sheep with neither and the lamb with its tail only. A further variant of the lamb, termed the Paschal lamb, is depicted as carrying a Christian cross and with a halo over its head. Rams' heads, portrayed without a neck and facing the viewer, are also found in British armories. The fleece, depicted as an entire sheepskin carried by a ring around its midsection, originally became known through its use in the arms of the Order of the Golden Fleece and was later adopted by towns and individuals with connections to the wool industry. A sheep on a blue field is depicted on the greater/royal arms of the king of Denmark to represent the Faroe Islands. In 2004 a modernized arms has been adopted by the Faroe Islands, which based on a 15th century coat of arms.
Religion and folklore
In antiquity, symbolism involving sheep cropped up in religions in the ancient Near East, the Mideast, and the Mediterranean area: Çatalhöyük, ancient Egyptian religion, the Cana'anite and Phoenician tradition, Judaism, Greek religion, and others. Religious symbolism and ritual involving sheep began with some of the first known faiths: Skulls of rams (along with bulls) occupied central placement in shrines at the Çatalhöyük settlement in 8,000 BCE. In Ancient Egyptian religion, the ram was the symbol of several gods: Khnum, Heryshaf and Amun (in his incarnation as a god of fertility). Other deities occasionally shown with ram features include the goddess Ishtar, the Phoenician god Baal-Hamon, and the Babylonian god Ea-Oannes. In Madagascar, sheep were not eaten as they were believed to be incarnations of the souls of ancestors.
There are many ancient Greek references to sheep: that of Chrysomallos, the golden-fleeced ram, continuing to be told through into the modern era. Astrologically, Aries, the ram, is the first sign of the classical Greek zodiac, and the sheep is the eighth of the twelve animals associated with the 12-year cycle of in the Chinese zodiac, related to the Chinese calendar. It is said in Chinese traditions that Hou ji sacrificed sheep. Mongolia, shagai are an ancient form of dice made from the cuboid bones of sheep that are often used for fortunetelling purposes.
Sheep play an important role in all the Abrahamic faiths; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and King David were all shepherds. According to the Biblical story of the Binding of Isaac, a ram is sacrificed as a substitute for Isaac after an angel stays Abraham's hand (in the Islamic tradition, Abraham was about to sacrifice Ishmael). Eid al-Adha is a major annual festival in Islam in which sheep (or other animals) are sacrificed in remembrance of this act. Sheep are occasionally sacrificed to commemorate important secular events in Islamic cultures. Greeks and Romans sacrificed sheep regularly in religious practice, and Judaism once sacrificed sheep as a Korban (sacrifice), such as the Passover lamb. Ovine symbols—such as the ceremonial blowing of a shofar—still find a presence in modern Judaic traditions.
Collectively, followers of Christianity are often referred to as a flock, with Christ as the Good Shepherd, and sheep are an element in the Christian iconography of the birth of Jesus. Some Christian saints are considered patrons of shepherds, and even of sheep themselves. Christ is also portrayed as the Sacrificial lamb of God (Agnus Dei) and Easter celebrations in Greece and Romania traditionally feature a meal of Paschal lamb. A church leader is often called the pastor, which is derived from the Latin word for shepherd. In many western Christian traditions bishops carry a staff, which also serves as a symbol of the episcopal office, known as a crosier, which is modeled on the shepherd's crook.
Sheep are key symbols in fables and nursery rhymes like The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Little Bo Peep, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep, and Mary Had a Little Lamb; novels such as George Orwell's Animal Farm and Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase; songs such as Bach's Sheep may safely graze (Schafe können sicher weiden) and Pink Floyd's "Sheep", and poems like William Blake's "The Lamb".
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.
The extended-range C-130E model entered service in 1962 after it was developed as an interim long-range transport for the Military Air Transport Service. Essentially a B-model, the new designation was the result of the installation of 1,360 US gal (5,150 L) Sargent Fletcher external fuel tanks under each wing's midsection and more powerful Allison T56-A-7A turboprops. The hydraulic boost pressure to the ailerons was reduced back to 2,050 psi (14.1 MPa) as a consequence of the external tanks' weight in the middle of the wingspan. The E model also featured structural improvements, avionics upgrades and a higher gross weight. Australia took delivery of 12 C130E Hercules during 1966–67 to supplement the 12 C-130A models already in service with the RAAF. Sweden and Spain fly the TP-84T version of the C-130E fitted for aerial refueling capability.
Photo: Thomas Ohlsson Photography
www.thomasohlsson.com | 500px | Facebook | Flickr | Instagram
This is a portrait of my father (top) with his parents. My father lived from September 8, 1923 to May 2, 2009. I never knew either of these adults, my grandparents, since both died before I was born.
___
Photo was taken by "The Maitland Studio", Stratford, Ontario, Canada around 1928. I scanned the original, did some cloning and healing to clean it up a bit, and tweaked lighting and contrast.
The photo itself was 4x6 inches, and sepia. I left something of the presentation, which I think is very nicely done. It is printed on very thick paper, the border of which is "roughed up" to show the white that you see -- sort of the "fuzzy border" decor of its time. The photo is mounted on a thick cardboard backing, with the decorative corners shown here. That in turn is mounted on a larger folding cardboard "stand".
A few things I find interesting about this portrait:
* the very dark background ensures that nothing but the people is shown; I am guessing that in studio there was a dark sheet behind them.
* The main (sole?) source of lighting seems to be above and slightly to the right of the photographer, unlike modern studio practice.
* There is vignetting bottom and top (but not sides). This is strongly applied at bottom, interesting because it blocks the adults' midsections. Is this just to focus attention up to the faces, or is there an element of modesty, perhaps?
* They are smiling -- the mother clearly so and the other two somewhat so. There is a clear attempt to show them all as "pleasant" -- common practice now, but very different from the "severe" portraits of the era before this photo. Perhaps by the 1920s exposures could be short enough to allow for a more "natural" look than earlier, when the subject had to sit as if frozen in stone through a longer exposure.
Later edit (after most of the comments below): I forgot to mention the most important thing that I like here: the placement of the child above the parents. I don't know if that has ever been standard practice -- it certainly isn't now -- but I think it is brilliant.
And I think the photographer did an excellent job.
The Chrysler 300 "letter series" are high-performance personal luxury cars that were built by Chrysler in the U.S. from 1955 to 1965. After the initial year, which was named 300-C, the 1956 cars were designated 300B. Successive model years given the next letter of the alphabet as a suffix (skipping "i"), reaching the 300L by 1965, after which the model was dropped.
The 300 "letter series" cars were among the vehicles that focused on performance built by domestic U.S. manufacturers after World War II, and thus can be considered one of the muscle car's ancestors, though full-sized and more expensive.
The automaker began using the 300 designations again for performance-luxury sedans, using the 300M nameplate from 1999 to 2004, and expanding the 300 series with a new V8-powered 300C, the top model of a relaunched Chrysler 300 line, a new rear-wheel drive car launched in 2004 for the 2005 model year. Unlike the first "letter series" series, the successive variants do not feature standard engines producing at least 300 hp (220 kW), except for Chrysler's current top-line 300C models.
1955 C-300
This first of the letter series cars did not bear a letter, but can retroactively be considered the '300A'. The 'C-' designation was applied to all Chrysler models; however for marketing purposes the numerical series skipped more than 225 numbers forward in sequence in order to further reinforce the 300's bhp rating. The 300 originally stood for the 300 hp (220 kW) engine. The C-300 was really a racecar aimed at the NASCAR circuits that was sold for the road for homologation purposes, with Chrysler's most powerful engine, the 331 cu in (5.4 L) FirePower "Hemi" V8, due to the hemisperic shape of the combustion chambers, fitted with twin 4-barrel carburetors, a race-profiled camshaft setup, solid valve lifters, stiffer suspension, and a performance exhaust system. By 1956 this would be the first American production car to top 355 hp (265 kW), and the letter series was for many years the most powerful car produced in the United States.
The car's "Forward Look" styling can be attributed as much to the Chrysler parts bin as designer Virgil Exner. The front clip, including the grille, was taken from the Imperial of the same year, but the rest of the car did not look like an Imperial. The midsection was from a New Yorker hardtop, with a Windsor rear quarter. Exner also included base-model Chrysler bumpers and removed many exterior elements such as back-up lights, hood ornament, side trim, and exterior mirrors. An electric clock and two-speed windshield wipers were standard. There were few options available including selection of three exterior colors (red, white and black) and only one color of tan leather interior. Power windows and power seat were available but air conditioning was not available in 1955.
Measured at 127.58 mph (205.32 km/h) in the Flying Mile, and doing well in NASCAR, the C-300 aroused interest that was not reflected in its modest sales figure of 1,725.
When the C300 competed in NASCAR, it was painted to advertise that it was the "world's fastest stock car".
[Text from Wikipedia]
The extended-range C-130E model entered service in 1962 after it was developed as an interim long-range transport for the Military Air Transport Service. Essentially a B-model, the new designation was the result of the installation of 1,360 US gal (5,150 L) Sargent Fletcher external fuel tanks under each wing's midsection and more powerful Allison T56-A-7A turboprops. The hydraulic boost pressure to the ailerons was reduced back to 2,050 psi (14.1 MPa) as a consequence of the external tanks' weight in the middle of the wingspan. The E model also featured structural improvements, avionics upgrades and a higher gross weight. Australia took delivery of 12 C130E Hercules during 1966–67 to supplement the 12 C-130A models already in service with the RAAF. Sweden and Spain fly the TP-84T version of the C-130E fitted for aerial refueling capability.
Photo: Thomas Ohlsson Photography
www.thomasohlsson.com | 500px | Facebook | Flickr | Instagram
New enamel and clear gloss coat added. New gold belt midsection and leg coverings made from gift paper.
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.
This morning the Triumph arrived in the port of Rotterdam with the oil rig Maesrk Resolve on deck. The Triumph is a heavy transport ship from the dutch company Dockwise.
The semi-submersible heavy lift vessel Triumph now joins the fleet of Dockwise. The Triumph is one of six single-hull tankers converted into heavy lift vessels at the Cosco Guangdong Shipyard. The vessel was delivered on December 16, 2008 and left for Singapore to load its first cargo on December 17, 2008.
The heavy transport vessel is designed to transport complex, high-value cargo and has a carrying capacity in excess of 35,000 tons. With an unobstructed deck area measuring 44.5 m x 130 m, the vessel is well suited for carrying semi-submersible and jack-up drilling units, as well as offshore structures. During the conversion, the entire midsection was newly constructed and fitted to the bow and aft part of the single-hull tanker. As a result, the classification authorities consider the vessel to have an economic life of around ten years, resulting in a remaining economic life of 20 years.
To ensure the most effective way of operating the vessel, Dockwise has appointed Anglo-Eastern Ship Management to provide technical and crew management. As such, the new vessels will operate under the same management systems as the existing Dockwise vessels. Crews, superintendents and other personnel will therefore be completely familiar with all operating procedures, ensuring safe operations.
Width overall 45.00 m
Length overall 217.00 m
Deck space overall 5,785 sqm