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Pictured holding a "Corporate Greed" sign during the Oct. 15, 2011 Occupy Augusta march is community activist Rev. Terence A. Dicks of Augusta, Georgia.
Rev. Dicks is the Southern Regional Organizer for the Progressive Democrats of America and its State of Georgia coordinator.
He also holds positions in the Richmond County Democratic Party.
OccupyAugusta did an impressive job on Sat., Oct. 15, 2011 as they marched on downtown Augusta protesting the evil greed that created the current economic crisis.
The bankers, Wall Street traders, insurance industry, politicians proved they cannot be trusted when left to their own devices when the Bush administration made oversight almost nonexistent.
And sure enough when the foxes were in charge of the hen-house it was a slaughter of American jobs, the evaporation of retirement funds, a flood of home foreclosures, sending the world economy into crisis.
See the photos at these links!
occupyaugusta.org/occupy/wp-content/lg-gallery/October%20...
occupyaugusta.org/occupy/gallery?file=October%2015%202011/
Occupy Augusta, GA: Occupy Wall Street Pages:
Occupy Augusta, GA on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/pages/OCCUPY-AUGUSTA/178325418914632
Occupy Augusta, GA on Twitter:
Occupy Augusta, GA on WordPress.org:
Occupy Augusta, GA on discussion page of WordPress.org (#OccupyAugusta ) in Solidarity with #OWS and #OccupyTogether:
occupyaugusta.org/discuss/index.php
Occupy Augusta, GA on MeetUp:
www.meetup.com/occupytogether/Augusta-GA/382952
Occupy Augusta, GA on Tumblr:
Occupy Wall Street Movement in other Georgia cities:
Check out this OccupyAugusta video by Jane Pietkivitch
She shot and edited video from the Occupy Augusta march on downtown on Saturday (10-15-11).
The OccupyAugusta movement is doing a fantastic job coordinating and the enthusiasm is no less that in New York
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
2012
---
Traffic is nonexistent during the height of Hurricane Sandy, near the on-ramp to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
OccupyAugusta did an impressive job on Sat., Oct. 15, 2011 as they marched on downtown Augusta protesting the evil greed that created the current economic crisis.
The bankers, Wall Street traders, insurance industry, politicians proved they cannot be trusted when left to their own devices when the Bush administration made oversight almost nonexistent.
And sure enough when the foxes were in charge of the hen-house it was a slaughter of American jobs, the evaporation of retirement funds, a flood of home foreclosures, sending the world economy into crisis.
See the photos at these links!
occupyaugusta.org/occupy/wp-content/lg-gallery/October%20...
occupyaugusta.org/occupy/gallery?file=October%2015%202011/
Occupy Augusta, GA: Occupy Wall Street Pages:
Occupy Augusta, GA on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/pages/OCCUPY-AUGUSTA/178325418914632
Occupy Augusta, GA on Twitter:
Occupy Augusta, GA on WordPress.org:
Occupy Augusta, GA on discussion page of WordPress.org (#OccupyAugusta ) in Solidarity with #OWS and #OccupyTogether:
occupyaugusta.org/discuss/index.php
Occupy Augusta, GA on MeetUp:
www.meetup.com/occupytogether/Augusta-GA/382952
Occupy Augusta, GA on Tumblr:
Occupy Wall Street Movement in other Georgia cities:
Check out this OccupyAugusta video by Jane Pietkivitch
She shot and edited video from the Occupy Augusta march on downtown on Saturday (10-15-11).
The OccupyAugusta movement is doing a fantastic job coordinating and the enthusiasm is no less that in New York
In late 1815 and early 1816, the Lafitte brothers agreed to act as spies for Spain, which was in the midst of the Mexican War of Independence. The brothers were collectively known as "Number thirteen". Pierre would keep the Spanish informed of happenings in New Orleans, and Jean was sent to Galveston Island, a part of Spanish Texas that served as the home base of privateer Louis-Michel Aury, who claimed to be a Mexican revolutionary.[57] By early 1817, other revolutionaries had begun to congregate at Galveston, hoping to make it their base to wrest Mexico from Spanish control. Lafitte visited in March 1817.[58] Two weeks into his stay, the two leaders of the revolutionaries left the island. The following day, Lafitte took command of the island and appointed his own officers. On April 18, he sailed for New Orleans to report his activities.[59] With Spanish permission, Lafitte returned to Galveston, promising to make weekly reports of the activities there.[60]
Lafitte's motives were not selfless; he essentially turned Galveston Island into a new Barataria. Like Barataria, Galveston was a seaward island that protected a large inland bay. It had the advantage of being outside the authority of the United States, and it was largely uninhabited, except by Karankawas.[61]
Lafitte quickly began improving his new colony. Existing houses were torn down, and 200 new, sturdier buildings were constructed.[62] Ships operating from Galveston flew the flag of Mexico, but they engaged in no revolutionary activities, as Lafitte worried about a potential Spanish invasion.[63] Aury returned to Galveston several months later, but left in July when he realized that the men were unwilling to revolt.[64]
In less than a year, Lafitte's colony grew to 100–200 men and several women.[65] All newcomers were personally interviewed by Lafitte and required to take an oath of loyalty to him. The headquarters of the operation was a two-story building facing the inland harbor, where landings were made. The building was surrounded by a moat and painted red; it became known as Maison Rouge. Most regular business was conducted aboard Lafitte's ship, The Pride, where he also lived.[66] Lafitte created letters of marque from a nonexistent nation for all of the ships sailing from Galveston. These letters gave the ships permission to attack ships from all nations.[67]
In April 1818, the United States passed a law prohibiting the import of slaves into any port in the United States. The law left several loopholes, however. It essentially gave permission to any ship to capture a slave ship, regardless of the country from which it originated. Furthermore, any newly imported slaves who were turned over to the customs office would be sold within the United States, with half the profits of the sale going to the people who turned them in. Lafitte worked with several smugglers, including Jim Bowie, to profit from the poorly written law. Lafitte's men would target ships that carried slaves. Smugglers would purchase the slaves for a discounted price, march them to Louisiana, and turn them in to customs officials. A representative of the smuggler would purchase the slaves at the ensuing auction, and the smuggler would be given half of the purchase price. The smuggler was then the lawful owner of the slaves and could transport them to sell in other parts of the United States.[68]
The colony experienced hardships in 1818. After a Karankawa woman was kidnapped, the Indian tribe attacked and killed five members of Lafitte's colony. The corsairs aimed the artillery at the Indians, killing most of the men in the tribe. A hurricane in September covered almost all of the island in water, killing several people and destroying four ships and most buildings. Only six homes were habitable afterwards.[69]
Around 1820, Lafitte reportedly married Madeline Regaud, possibly the widow or daughter of a French colonist who had died during an ill-fated expedition to Galveston. In 1821, the schooner USS Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte from the Gulf after one of the pirate's captains attacked an American merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship, the Pride, burning his fortress and settlements and reportedly taking immense amounts of treasure with him. All that remains of Maison Rouge is the foundation, located at 1417 Avenue A near the Galveston wharf.
-Wikipedia
cannibaliza: medievalpoc: medievalpoc: Peter Paul Rubens Drunken Silenus Netherlands (1616) Oil on wood, 212 x 214.5 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. I think we all need to take a moment to appreciate just how INCREDIBLY upset this painting and Ruben’s apparent love for it have made the curator at wga.hu: In Greek mythology Silenus is a rural god, one of the retinue of Bacchus, a gay, fat old drunkard who was yet wise and had the gift of prophecy. In Rubens’ painting he is shown drunkenly tottering, his belly swollen with meat and drink, and supported by a disparate collection of dotards, drunkards, blacks, children and young women. The careless inebriation of this bacchanal is expressed by a thicker touch that conveys the unwieldy weight of the drinkers’ gait. The composition was originally conceived with half-length figures, but was later enlarged by Rubens himself. The painting hung in Rubens’ house. Ha ha ha ha ha…my goodness. There is only a single Black man in this painting, but perhaps the incredible force with which he is pinching Silenus’s “gay, fat old drunk[ard]” ass* is enough to chagrin this curator into thinking there must be somehow more than one? Apparently the thought of Rubens staring at this piece and smiling every morning while eating his breakfast sausage was just too much for some people. As you may have noticed by now, Rubens adored drawing and painting Black people and included them in many, many of his paintings, as well as having done studies, portraits, sketches, and other works of art used for his workshop and apprentices. Many of his works he kept for himself in his personal collection. *The pinch is actually an important part of the original story: Silenus is awakened from a drunken stupor and bound with his own garlands by nymphs and satyrs and made to sing a song of creation and the forces of nature for an important ceremonial dance. I truly hope you understand how happy this painting makes me. I want one for my own (nonexistent) breakfast nook. This subject is also referred to as “The Triumph of Silenus”. Yeah the “curators” at wga.hu are a retired physicist and a researcher in computer science and information theory. They’re not art historians at all. DON’T BE SURPRISED THAT THEY SUCK AT ART HISTORY. the rest of you are right though. I find that incredibly ironic, personally. And to be fair, my point is that art history writing is full of bigoted opinions like the above, so “sucking at art history” is kind of perspective-contingent. After all, considering that what I do differs quite a bit from the way art history is usually conducted (which I of course think is a good thing), plenty of people have said that *I* suck at art history, too. I would, however, very much doubt that the curators of wga.hu have received anywhere near the quantity of hate mail I have.
i had a run in with this thrift store this past Christmas season when i went in with my backpack on, and the clerk insisted on checking it in...
Which, upon asking, i discovered that this entailed, just setting it down behind the counter.
What annoys me about this policy; is that none of the stores that i've been to that require large bags and such to be checked in, don't really have a procedure for it.
The correct way to handle this, would be to have shelves for this, and attaching a numbered tag to the bag, and give the patron a matching number.
This system is still flawed, but it's slightly better than the nonexistent one.
The perfectly honest problem that i see with it, is that the person taking my bag will leave for a moment, another clerk will take her place, and then a ner'er do well will come along and buy something, then say; 'Oh & could i get my bag back." and she will hand it to him.
Of course; The store has a very firm policy of NOT being responsible in any way for the lost bag...!
So i just never shop at these places again.
You don't trust me, and i don't trust you!
This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!
I took these photos in December 2019.
This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!
I took these photos in December 2019.
Mmm, I don't see where you'd even need to bother to wash this off the potatoes, it looks pretty good.
It's hard to buy corporate potatoes without inadvertently giving money to huge Republican Party donors but still. I do like the looks of that dirt.
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In southeastern Fremont County, Idaho, on May 25th, 2010, east of the nonexistent settlement of "Lamont, Idaho," a view from the south side of Idaho Highway 32.
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Library of Congress classification ideas:
S520 Farms—United States—Pictorial works.
S597.P68 Potatoes—Soils—Pictorial works.
HD9235.P82 Potato industry—United States—Pictorial works.
F767.T29 Teton Range (Wyo. and Idaho)—Pictorial works.
F752.F8 Fremont County (Idaho)—Pictorial works.
Winter (so far) has been weird. The cold and snow has been mostly nonexistent, and a week-long inversion has built in with little hope of it clearing out. On a foggy morning I visited the local reservoir with the vague hope of finding something to photograph.
Willard Bay is a fresh-water reservoir on the northern end of the Great Salt Lake.
One really can never get enough of Benedict Cumberbatch... most of the planet is still waiting for Sherlock Season 5 to finally be filmed. But in the mean time, there's of course his biggest money maker, Dr. Strange.
Strange was most recently seen headlining the first half of the Avengers Infinity Saga - Infinity War, while coming back for the climactic battle with Thanos in Endgame. Hot Toys and Marvel Legends did their versions of this character a while ago, and now it was time for Figuarts and Mafex, with the latter being out of my price range... for now.
I do get bored, after all.
As the fancy box indicates, this is Strange from the Battle on Titan, before he made that ultimate sacrifice and disappeared for a movie. It comes decently packed, though is missing two key items - the multi armed effect, and a FREAKING STAND TO LEVITATE HIM WITH.
Contents do, however, include the figure, an alternate eye closed sculpt, 14 posing hands, one additional Crimson Bands of Cytorek hand, two small and medium Time Stone hand effects coupled with one "large" effect, two small, medium, and large general orange effects, his mystic sword, interchangeable Eye of Agamoto and Time Stone chest effect, and finally, a giant ass portal effect.
Even from the prototype pictures, it's easy to see that Tamashii Nations improved the figure aesthetically. I say that because I only own components of the first figure. Two major areas of discussion, namely the sculpt and the cape.
The sculpt I'm pretty sure my photos speaks for itself. Like with most of the recent Avengers release.. again.. MOST, because their Loki is made of the stuff I laugh at. Tamashii Nations have done a damn fine job of capturing the essence of the actor. The first one really isn't that great., nailing maybe the hairstyle and general facial structure.
The cape isn't super fancy per se, but it IS a wired cloth cape, though sadly the section that drapes over the shoulder is rigid plastic. The work on the Mafex cape admittedly destroys this, as it really does look like a scaled down Hot Toys version. This cape, however, is far superior to the Wile E Coyote steam roller accident prop that came with the first one. It's truly a sight to behold, possibly being the worst toy cape I've ever seen on any toy, with the only redeeming value being that it's decently painted. Furthermore, this wired cape still allows for some pretty cool posing.
Having said that, we're now free to move on to this figure.
The outfit is multi layered, which does look nice. Unfortunately, those layers are made of some pliable, yet still pretty rigid plastic, which looks great but generally gets in the way of everything. There's even a warning about permanent deformation if you leave Strange in his crossed leg pose for too long.
The Eye of Agamoto is something you want to keep your eye on because there is a tendency for the piece to go flying should you move the figure too quickly. Also, the Eye is connected to two raised and painted lines that represent the necklace strap, rather than being on an actual strap.
The translucent plastics used for the effects are also somewhat concerning, given the fragility of them and all. Especially the sword, where you have to shove the handle into a fist. The larger mystic mandalas are printed on clear plastic, which are less fragile, but more susceptible to scratching. There's also lovely warnings in the manual about potential paint wear as you pose the figure and attach the various mystic effects.
From an articulation perspective, Strange is about the same as Bucky, except that Strange has pull down hips. Based on previous practices and general logic, I'm going to go ahead and guess that they probably reused the actual body. You get ankles, single jointed knees, hips with thigh twist, waist, mid torso, standard shoulders with butterfly joints for lateral movement, single jointed elbows, wrist, neck, and head.
I've mentioned the hips, so here's some other highlights. The ankle joints are terrible, probably due to the bulk of the boot. Basically they're nonexistent. The coattails predictably get in the way of leg movement, as does the solid shoulder piece on the cape. All-in-all, it's a functional body with decent posing options, but I can't help but feel it's an older body that they didn't want to spend money to bring up to Ant Man standards.
Paint is generally above average. Work on the head and body are very good. Even in the areas of finer detail you can make out the masking is pretty sharp. Things like the Eye of Agamoto I can give a pass on as it is hard to get the paint into every tiny crevice. Paint work appears smooth. But, it's the hands that knock it down a peg for me. For starters, paint application is a bit thick, but maybe that's a material thing.
What you might not be able to make out is that wrist at the wrist there's a very small layer of black to help it blend in with the wrist and sleeves. The masking here is horrible.. like, they didn't even try, and it's consistent across all the hands I looked at. I wish they hadn't bothered at all, and just kept them as all flesh coloured.
Build quality, however, is all good. The usual criteria of joints, materials used, QC, tolerances, finish - none of those register a true concern or complaint from me and are up to what I expect from a Figuarts release.
Overall, I'd say this Dr. Strange is pretty much what the WW 84 Figuarts was like, namely its what they should have done in the first place, though I guess I can say that at least WW was better than Dr. Strange. While from an overall perspective the Figuarts certainly looks more like Benedict Cumberbatch as compared to the Mafex photos, you are getting a better articulated body and an outfit that works with you as opposed to against you... and a 120 USD preorder price tag.
To me, it's fascinating that each of the two figures chose a different key moment to include accessories for. Maybe this was planned so they didn't compete with each other?
*Sigh* I guess I'll just have to eventually get the other one too.
Introducing new from The Magical Products:
Pixie Dust In a Can.
Want to add a bit of Sparkle to your life? Want to light up the room with magic in the air?
Then you need Pixie Dust In a Can!
Buy now for £10 and get a free packet of x-ray specs, guaranteed to see through everything!
.::FGR::Ads For Nonexistent Products::. quote from peter pan
In late 1815 and early 1816, the Lafitte brothers agreed to act as spies for Spain, which was in the midst of the Mexican War of Independence. The brothers were collectively known as "Number thirteen". Pierre would keep the Spanish informed of happenings in New Orleans, and Jean was sent to Galveston Island, a part of Spanish Texas that served as the home base of privateer Louis-Michel Aury, who claimed to be a Mexican revolutionary. By early 1817, other revolutionaries had begun to congregate at Galveston, hoping to make it their base to wrest Mexico from Spanish control. Lafitte visited in March 1817. Two weeks into his stay, the two leaders of the revolutionaries left the island. The following day, Lafitte took command of the island and appointed his own officers. On April 18, he sailed for New Orleans to report his activities. With Spanish permission, Lafitte returned to Galveston, promising to make weekly reports of the activities there.
Lafitte's motives were not selfless; he essentially turned Galveston Island into a new Barataria. Like Barataria, Galveston was a seaward island that protected a large inland bay. It had the advantage of being outside the authority of the United States, and it was largely uninhabited, except by Karankawas.
Lafitte quickly began improving his new colony. Existing houses were torn down, and 200 new, sturdier buildings were constructed. Ships operating from Galveston flew the flag of Mexico, but they engaged in no revolutionary activities, as Lafitte worried about a potential Spanish invasion. Aury returned to Galveston several months later, but left in July when he realized that the men were unwilling to revolt.
In less than a year, Lafitte's colony grew to 100–200 men and several women. All newcomers were personally interviewed by Lafitte and required to take an oath of loyalty to him. The headquarters of the operation was a two-story building facing the inland harbor, where landings were made. The building was surrounded by a moat and painted red; it became known as Maison Rouge. Most regular business was conducted aboard Lafitte's ship, The Pride, where he also lived. Lafitte created letters of marque from a nonexistent nation for all of the ships sailing from Galveston. These letters gave the ships permission to attack ships from all nations.
In April 1818, the United States passed a law prohibiting the import of slaves into any port in the United States. The law left several loopholes, however. It essentially gave permission to any ship to capture a slave ship, regardless of the country from which it originated. Furthermore, any newly imported slaves who were turned over to the customs office would be sold within the United States, with half the profits of the sale going to the people who turned them in. Lafitte worked with several smugglers, including Jim Bowie, to profit from the poorly written law. Lafitte's men would target ships that carried slaves. Smugglers would purchase the slaves for a discounted price, march them to Louisiana, and turn them in to customs officials. A representative of the smuggler would purchase the slaves at the ensuing auction, and the smuggler would be given half of the purchase price. The smuggler was then the lawful owner of the slaves and could transport them to sell in other parts of the United States.
The colony experienced hardships in 1818. After a Karankawa woman was kidnapped, the Indian tribe attacked and killed five members of Lafitte's colony. The corsairs aimed the artillery at the Indians, killing most of the men in the tribe. A hurricane in September covered almost all of the island in water, killing several people and destroying four ships and most buildings. Only six homes were habitable afterwards.
Around 1820, Lafitte reportedly married Madeline Regaud, possibly the widow or daughter of a French colonist who had died during an ill-fated expedition to Galveston. In 1821, the schooner USS Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte from the Gulf after one of the pirate's captains attacked an American merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship, the Pride, burning his fortress and settlements and reportedly taking immense amounts of treasure with him. All that remains of Maison Rouge is the foundation, located at 1417 Avenue A near the Galveston wharf.
-Wikipedia
Many of the tropical butterflies have distinctive seasonal forms. This phenomenon is termed seasonal polyphenism and the seasonal forms of the butterflies are called the dry-season and wet-season forms. How the season affects the genetic expression of patterns is still a subject of research. The dry-season forms are usually more cryptic and it has been suggested that the protection offered may be an adaptation. Some also show greater dark colours in the wet-season form which may have thermoregulatory advantages by increasing ability to absorb solar radiation.
The wet-season form has large, very apparent multiple eyespots whereas the dry-season forms have very reduced, oftentimes nonexistent, eyespots. Larvae that develop in hot, wet conditions develop into wet-season adults whereas those growing in the transition from the wet to the dry season, when the temperature is declining, develop into dry-season adults. This polyphenism probably has an adaptive role. In the dry-season it is disadvantageous to have conspicuous eyespots because they blend in with the brown vegetation better without eyespots. By not developing eyespots in the dry-season they can more easily camouflage themselves in the brown brush. This minimizes the risk of visually mediated predation. In the wet-season, these brown butterflies cannot as easily rely on cryptic coloration for protection because the background vegetation is green. Thus, eyespots, which may function to decrease predation, are beneficial for Satyrine butterflies like the Bushbrown to express.
Pu'er, Yunnan, China
see comments for wet season form......
This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!
I took these photos in December 2019.
This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!
I took these photos in December 2019.
1/100 Elyn Kshatriya
1/100 Elyn Gatling Guns x 4
Custom decals laid out by Dade W. Bell and printed by Samuel.
Custom mixed paint scheme with 12 layers of paint for both candy purple colors.
Paints are Gaia, Gunze, Vallejo, and Citadel.
This project took FOREVER and I frankly stopped keeping track of the hours once I hit 150. This is mainly due to all of the paint layers required to give the proper shading and depth I was after. Plus the fact that I'm a slow builder. lol Note that I also went with my concept of painting the frame in a lighter color than the armor. We often see MS frames painted in dark and/ or metallic colors, but I thought it would look much more interesting if the frame was a light color contrasted with the darker "candy purple" armor (kinda like my Ple Qubeley). Also note how I went farther with the idea of making the finish matte. I think this adds an interesting appearance to the candy surface and is actually more realistic and less toy-like than the usual gloss finish seen on candy colors (contrast with my Ple Qubeley...).
The pictures truly don't do the real thing justice and I'll try to take better photos (and a video) with my D5100 outside when it cools down in the fall... Until then, I think these pics will suffice.
With this project done, I'm done building Kshatriyas. Too much of my life has been taken up with these things and it's time to move on. Still, I'm the "Ple Guy" so I had to at least make this one. ;-) (Wink) As for how Ple could end up piloting the Kshatriya, below is the story file I created to go on the base when I have a custom label printed later...
An Alternate Timeline...
In the original events of ZZ Gundam, Elpeo Ple sacrificed herself to protect Judau Ashta from the Psycho Gundam Mk-II piloted by her clone, Ple Two. However, in this alternate timeline, Glemy Toto’s attempts to clone Ple failed... and as a result, Ple didn’t die at the hands of her now-nonexistent clone. Thus, the “butterfly effect” of the changed timeline allowed Ple to survive the First Neo-Zeon War.
With the First Neo Zeon War over, Ple headed to Jupiter with Judau and Roux, but eventually grew bored with her relatively peaceful life (not to mention her “third-wheel” status with her friends), and decided to return to the Earth Sphere. During the long voyage home, she was disappointed to find that she missed the events of the Second Neo-Zeon War (Char’s Counterattack), and vowed to never miss out on any further action.
So when Ple heard about Full Frontal’s group of Neo-Zeon remnants, The Sleeves, she joined them without hesitation (and received the customized purple Kshatriya for her personal MS). This was because of a longing for excitement more than any kind of belief in Neo-Zeon ideology, and the battlefield was once again filled with the giddy shout of, “Purupurupurupuru!”. However, she quickly switched sides when she discovered that Frontal was merely using her as a “test” against the Unicorn Gundam’s NT-D system (her ability to defeat her own NT-D-controlled funnels and fight the Unicorn to a standstill is a significant departure from the original timeline).
Being a natural Newtype and not subject to the side-effects of the Cyber-Newtype process (complicated by the horrible events of childhood), Ple was able to avoid most of the unfortunate, and ultimately fatal, events that befell her clone, Marida Cruz (Ple Twelve), in the original timeline. As a result, she and the Kshatriya were able to survive the Third Neo-Zeon war relatively unharmed... a feat for which she rewarded herself with a nice, long bubble bath.
One really can never get enough of Benedict Cumberbatch... most of the planet is still waiting for Sherlock Season 5 to finally be filmed. But in the mean time, there's of course his biggest money maker, Dr. Strange.
Strange was most recently seen headlining the first half of the Avengers Infinity Saga - Infinity War, while coming back for the climactic battle with Thanos in Endgame. Hot Toys and Marvel Legends did their versions of this character a while ago, and now it was time for Figuarts and Mafex, with the latter being out of my price range... for now.
I do get bored, after all.
As the fancy box indicates, this is Strange from the Battle on Titan, before he made that ultimate sacrifice and disappeared for a movie. It comes decently packed, though is missing two key items - the multi armed effect, and a FREAKING STAND TO LEVITATE HIM WITH.
Contents do, however, include the figure, an alternate eye closed sculpt, 14 posing hands, one additional Crimson Bands of Cytorek hand, two small and medium Time Stone hand effects coupled with one "large" effect, two small, medium, and large general orange effects, his mystic sword, interchangeable Eye of Agamoto and Time Stone chest effect, and finally, a giant ass portal effect.
Even from the prototype pictures, it's easy to see that Tamashii Nations improved the figure aesthetically. I say that because I only own components of the first figure. Two major areas of discussion, namely the sculpt and the cape.
The sculpt I'm pretty sure my photos speaks for itself. Like with most of the recent Avengers release.. again.. MOST, because their Loki is made of the stuff I laugh at. Tamashii Nations have done a damn fine job of capturing the essence of the actor. The first one really isn't that great., nailing maybe the hairstyle and general facial structure.
The cape isn't super fancy per se, but it IS a wired cloth cape, though sadly the section that drapes over the shoulder is rigid plastic. The work on the Mafex cape admittedly destroys this, as it really does look like a scaled down Hot Toys version. This cape, however, is far superior to the Wile E Coyote steam roller accident prop that came with the first one. It's truly a sight to behold, possibly being the worst toy cape I've ever seen on any toy, with the only redeeming value being that it's decently painted. Furthermore, this wired cape still allows for some pretty cool posing.
Having said that, we're now free to move on to this figure.
The outfit is multi layered, which does look nice. Unfortunately, those layers are made of some pliable, yet still pretty rigid plastic, which looks great but generally gets in the way of everything. There's even a warning about permanent deformation if you leave Strange in his crossed leg pose for too long.
The Eye of Agamoto is something you want to keep your eye on because there is a tendency for the piece to go flying should you move the figure too quickly. Also, the Eye is connected to two raised and painted lines that represent the necklace strap, rather than being on an actual strap.
The translucent plastics used for the effects are also somewhat concerning, given the fragility of them and all. Especially the sword, where you have to shove the handle into a fist. The larger mystic mandalas are printed on clear plastic, which are less fragile, but more susceptible to scratching. There's also lovely warnings in the manual about potential paint wear as you pose the figure and attach the various mystic effects.
From an articulation perspective, Strange is about the same as Bucky, except that Strange has pull down hips. Based on previous practices and general logic, I'm going to go ahead and guess that they probably reused the actual body. You get ankles, single jointed knees, hips with thigh twist, waist, mid torso, standard shoulders with butterfly joints for lateral movement, single jointed elbows, wrist, neck, and head.
I've mentioned the hips, so here's some other highlights. The ankle joints are terrible, probably due to the bulk of the boot. Basically they're nonexistent. The coattails predictably get in the way of leg movement, as does the solid shoulder piece on the cape. All-in-all, it's a functional body with decent posing options, but I can't help but feel it's an older body that they didn't want to spend money to bring up to Ant Man standards.
Paint is generally above average. Work on the head and body are very good. Even in the areas of finer detail you can make out the masking is pretty sharp. Things like the Eye of Agamoto I can give a pass on as it is hard to get the paint into every tiny crevice. Paint work appears smooth. But, it's the hands that knock it down a peg for me. For starters, paint application is a bit thick, but maybe that's a material thing.
What you might not be able to make out is that wrist at the wrist there's a very small layer of black to help it blend in with the wrist and sleeves. The masking here is horrible.. like, they didn't even try, and it's consistent across all the hands I looked at. I wish they hadn't bothered at all, and just kept them as all flesh coloured.
Build quality, however, is all good. The usual criteria of joints, materials used, QC, tolerances, finish - none of those register a true concern or complaint from me and are up to what I expect from a Figuarts release.
Overall, I'd say this Dr. Strange is pretty much what the WW 84 Figuarts was like, namely its what they should have done in the first place, though I guess I can say that at least WW was better than Dr. Strange. While from an overall perspective the Figuarts certainly looks more like Benedict Cumberbatch as compared to the Mafex photos, you are getting a better articulated body and an outfit that works with you as opposed to against you... and a 120 USD preorder price tag.
To me, it's fascinating that each of the two figures chose a different key moment to include accessories for. Maybe this was planned so they didn't compete with each other?
*Sigh* I guess I'll just have to eventually get the other one too.
One perceives that things manifest without existing. There naturally ceases to be any concept that these nonexistent
phenomena have been created by, or come from, anything. This is not perception based on some confused frame of reference. Since the nature of being is a timeless, unwavering radiance,
all phenomena are of one taste in equalness.
Photo by Oscar Leiva / Silverlight
Comasagua is located in southwestern El Salvador in the Balsamo coastal range between San Salvador and La Libertad departments. The Balsamo Range is a coffee producing area with 3,452 coffee farmers with 33,502 ha of coffee. These coffee-dominated watersheds on the south slopes of the Balsamo mountain range are the water sources and recharge areas for water sources for the towns and villages in the upper watershed plus numerous fast-growing tourist cities and towns in the coastal zone directly south of Comasagua, including the city of La Libertad. The high elevation coffee farms in Comasagua produce high quality coffee. Nevertheless, most farms have yields far below potential and investment continues to be limited. Coffee rust hit many of these farmers severely in 2012.
There has never been a significant water resource management program in this area; the water issues are serious and highly conflictive within these watersheds. Collaboration between municipalities, communities and coffee producers is considered weak to nonexistent. There is visible contamination and sedimentation of rivers and streams that reach the coast. Catholic Relief Services works here to teach ways of preserving water resources with coffee producers and processers in this area through its project Blue Harvest. It´s goal: sustainable management of water resources for people in coffee growing areas of Central America by promoting sustainable coffee production in ways that restore and protect water resource and promoting social and political processes for effective, sustainable, and local management of water resources.
One really can never get enough of Benedict Cumberbatch... most of the planet is still waiting for Sherlock Season 5 to finally be filmed. But in the mean time, there's of course his biggest money maker, Dr. Strange.
Strange was most recently seen headlining the first half of the Avengers Infinity Saga - Infinity War, while coming back for the climactic battle with Thanos in Endgame. Hot Toys and Marvel Legends did their versions of this character a while ago, and now it was time for Figuarts and Mafex, with the latter being out of my price range... for now.
I do get bored, after all.
As the fancy box indicates, this is Strange from the Battle on Titan, before he made that ultimate sacrifice and disappeared for a movie. It comes decently packed, though is missing two key items - the multi armed effect, and a FREAKING STAND TO LEVITATE HIM WITH.
Contents do, however, include the figure, an alternate eye closed sculpt, 14 posing hands, one additional Crimson Bands of Cytorek hand, two small and medium Time Stone hand effects coupled with one "large" effect, two small, medium, and large general orange effects, his mystic sword, interchangeable Eye of Agamoto and Time Stone chest effect, and finally, a giant ass portal effect.
Even from the prototype pictures, it's easy to see that Tamashii Nations improved the figure aesthetically. I say that because I only own components of the first figure. Two major areas of discussion, namely the sculpt and the cape.
The sculpt I'm pretty sure my photos speaks for itself. Like with most of the recent Avengers release.. again.. MOST, because their Loki is made of the stuff I laugh at. Tamashii Nations have done a damn fine job of capturing the essence of the actor. The first one really isn't that great., nailing maybe the hairstyle and general facial structure.
The cape isn't super fancy per se, but it IS a wired cloth cape, though sadly the section that drapes over the shoulder is rigid plastic. The work on the Mafex cape admittedly destroys this, as it really does look like a scaled down Hot Toys version. This cape, however, is far superior to the Wile E Coyote steam roller accident prop that came with the first one. It's truly a sight to behold, possibly being the worst toy cape I've ever seen on any toy, with the only redeeming value being that it's decently painted. Furthermore, this wired cape still allows for some pretty cool posing.
Having said that, we're now free to move on to this figure.
The outfit is multi layered, which does look nice. Unfortunately, those layers are made of some pliable, yet still pretty rigid plastic, which looks great but generally gets in the way of everything. There's even a warning about permanent deformation if you leave Strange in his crossed leg pose for too long.
The Eye of Agamoto is something you want to keep your eye on because there is a tendency for the piece to go flying should you move the figure too quickly. Also, the Eye is connected to two raised and painted lines that represent the necklace strap, rather than being on an actual strap.
The translucent plastics used for the effects are also somewhat concerning, given the fragility of them and all. Especially the sword, where you have to shove the handle into a fist. The larger mystic mandalas are printed on clear plastic, which are less fragile, but more susceptible to scratching. There's also lovely warnings in the manual about potential paint wear as you pose the figure and attach the various mystic effects.
From an articulation perspective, Strange is about the same as Bucky, except that Strange has pull down hips. Based on previous practices and general logic, I'm going to go ahead and guess that they probably reused the actual body. You get ankles, single jointed knees, hips with thigh twist, waist, mid torso, standard shoulders with butterfly joints for lateral movement, single jointed elbows, wrist, neck, and head.
I've mentioned the hips, so here's some other highlights. The ankle joints are terrible, probably due to the bulk of the boot. Basically they're nonexistent. The coattails predictably get in the way of leg movement, as does the solid shoulder piece on the cape. All-in-all, it's a functional body with decent posing options, but I can't help but feel it's an older body that they didn't want to spend money to bring up to Ant Man standards.
Paint is generally above average. Work on the head and body are very good. Even in the areas of finer detail you can make out the masking is pretty sharp. Things like the Eye of Agamoto I can give a pass on as it is hard to get the paint into every tiny crevice. Paint work appears smooth. But, it's the hands that knock it down a peg for me. For starters, paint application is a bit thick, but maybe that's a material thing.
What you might not be able to make out is that wrist at the wrist there's a very small layer of black to help it blend in with the wrist and sleeves. The masking here is horrible.. like, they didn't even try, and it's consistent across all the hands I looked at. I wish they hadn't bothered at all, and just kept them as all flesh coloured.
Build quality, however, is all good. The usual criteria of joints, materials used, QC, tolerances, finish - none of those register a true concern or complaint from me and are up to what I expect from a Figuarts release.
Overall, I'd say this Dr. Strange is pretty much what the WW 84 Figuarts was like, namely its what they should have done in the first place, though I guess I can say that at least WW was better than Dr. Strange. While from an overall perspective the Figuarts certainly looks more like Benedict Cumberbatch as compared to the Mafex photos, you are getting a better articulated body and an outfit that works with you as opposed to against you... and a 120 USD preorder price tag.
To me, it's fascinating that each of the two figures chose a different key moment to include accessories for. Maybe this was planned so they didn't compete with each other?
*Sigh* I guess I'll just have to eventually get the other one too.
(1 in a multiple picture set)
I zoomed in even more from the last photo and found this amazing example of plant adaptation, or maybe I should say 'plant tenacity.' I was amazed that these bristlecone pine trees could grow down in this canyon wear water is so scarce and good soil almost nonexistent.
By the way, these junipers were mistaken for cedars by the Mormon pioneers who named the canyon. They thought that these trees were cedars.
2 Arrival of Thor - Icelandic Coast Guard 2011-10-27 Reykjavik.jpg
ICGV Þór arriving at the port of Reykjavík on 27 October 2011
History
Iceland
Name:Þór
Namesake:Thor
Ordered:2006
Builder:ASMAR, Talcahuano, Chile
Laid down:2008
Launched:29 April 2009
Commissioned:23 September 2011
In service:2011–
Identification:
IMO number: 9426893
MMSI number: 251604000
Callsign: TFIA
General characteristics
Class and type:Rolls-Royce Marine AS "UT 512 L" type offshore patrol vessel
Displacement:3,920 t (4,321 st)
Length:93.80 m (307.7 ft)
Beam:16 m (52 ft)
Height:30 m (98 ft)
Draught:5.80 m (19.0 ft)
Installed power:2 × 4,500 kW Rolls Royce Bergen diesel
Propulsion:
2 × 450 kW bow tunnel thrusters and one in the aft
883 kW retractable azimuth thruster
Speed:20.1 knots (37.2 km/h; 23.1 mph)
Boats & landing
craft carried:2 MOB boats
Complement:48
Sensors and
processing systems:
1 × S-band radar, 2 × X-band radar
Synthetic aperture sonar
Armament:
1 × Bofors 40 mm gun
2 × 12.7 mm machine guns
Aviation facilities:Helicopter in-flight refuelling capabilities (HIFR).
Notes:Bollard pull: 120 t (132.3 st)
ICGV Þór (Thor) is an UT 512L type offshore patrol vessel designed by Rolls Royce for the Icelandic Coast Guard, built to replace the aging ICGV Óðinn. The construction of the ship was approved by the Icelandic government on 4 March 2005. Construction of the ship began at the ASMAR Naval Shipyard in Talcahuano, Chile on 16 October 2007. Construction was delayed by over a year due to the 2010 Chilean earthquake, but damage to the structure of the ship was not as detrimental as had been expected. After repairs, the ICGV Þór was delivered to ICG personnel on 23 September 2011 in Chile. She arrived in Reykjavík on 27 October 2011. Its main tasks are EEZ patrol, fishery inspection and search and rescue support. The ship is named after the Norse god Thor.
The origins of the ship date back to 4 March 2005, in a proposal drafted by then-Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs (which is now a nonexistent entity),[1] Björn Bjarnason, regarding the purchase of a new vessel, in order to replace the aging ICGV Óðinn, and aircraft for the Icelandic Coast Guard. The Althing decided that this was an exigent matter, and so a high priority was placed upon the proposal.[2] A needs analysis pertaining to the acquisition of a multi-purpose vessel and aircraft for the ICG was initiated on 31 September 2005. The main demands were that the vessel should be designed for rescue work and patrolling, pollution prevention, fuelling search and rescue helicopters, and meeting civil defence requirements anywhere around the country. In addition, it was to be equipped for response to, and prevention of, terrorist threats and be suitable for operations involving the police or customs authorities, and for all types of rescue and salvage work. The bollard pull of the vessel was to take account of the greatly increased volume of passenger and cargo shipping in Iceland's economic zone and coastal waters.[2]
HUGE pile of receipts I need to enter into my somewhat nonexistent budget chart. Oh and taxes. I need to get on that. As you can imagine, working as a freelance musician does not make me the most ORGANIZED at keeping track of finances. Time to get on the stick...
56/365.
Commentary: Foreign media is in love with Thaksin
By Veera Prateepchaikul, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Post Publishing Co Ltd
Like it or not, exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra still manages to manipulate the media for his own vested interests, at home and abroad.
At home in Thailand, the press conference held almost weekly - usually on weekends when there are few newsworthy events - by his faithful mouthpiece, Noppadon Pattama, attracts a big crowd of newshounds. They tend to unhesitatingly report whatever he says, mostly about his boss' good points, which are laughable to most seasoned observers.
Here are just two examples of the incredible statements coming from Noppadon's mouth: One, Thaksin wholeheartedly favours a free press in Thailand. This was in direct response to the threat to gag the media by the Council for National Security (CNS). And two, Thaksin fully supports the sufficiency economy advocated by His Majesty the King.
While in exile, the globetrotting ex-premier has often been in the news. The foreign media's love affair with Thaksin puzzles many Thais, me included. Especially in recent days, when a number of articles appeared in foreign publications such as The Economist, Asian Wall Street Journal and Newsweek praising the ex-premier and Thansinomics, while pouring scorn on the coup makers and the Surayud government. Not even the sufficiency economy was spared the foreign media's wrath. Their attacks cast doubt among many that their relationship with Thaksin is strictly professional.
The Economist, in its Jan 13 edition, criticises the sufficiency economy. In an article, it blames the Surayud government's support of the sufficiency economy for making foreign firms think Thailand is rejecting globalisation. It cited the imposition of capital controls in early January. It also chides the UNDP for poor judgement in backing the sufficiency economy while a debate of the merits of the philosophy is nonexistent.
Here is an excerpt of the article:
"Perhaps it makes sense for the new government to obscure its predecessor's achievements while stealing its best clothes. The question is why the UNDP thinks it should provide cover for this whitewash by puffing the sufficiency economy as a miracle-cure for the developing world's woes. The answer is that the UNDP is a sucker for this sort of new-age waffle, especially if it has royal patronage. It has also lauded the not entirely dissimilar 'Gross National Happiness' theory of Bhutan's King Jigme Singye Wangchuck.
"In publishing such an unbalanced report on a theory that is untried... the UNDP has abandoned all sense of objectivity. It is also lending legitimacy to a regime that took power by force."
I beg to differ with the writer's claim about Thaksin's achievements. Perhaps, if the writer had done a little homework he would have realised that the so-called achievements are just an illusion. Did he ever realise how much public debt had been incurred by Thaksin to fulfil his populist schemes that we, the taxpayers, will have to repay? About 150 billion baht in total.
The country would have gone belly up in debt if Thaksin was allowed to stay on a few more years. The ex-premier and his cronies could then be sunbathing on some faraway beach with all the wealth they accumulated during their years in power.
"Stealing its best clothes?" That is a preposterous statement. On the contrary, there may be no clothes left for any of us.
Thaksin's achievements? A walk through the Suvarnabhumi airport, his "mother of all achievements", is certainly an eye-opener.
Sufficiency economy is not an economic theory but a philosophy on how to live. Like Buddhism, it preaches moderation and sustainability. It definitely does not reject capitalism or globalisation. For an individual, it means living within his or her means. If someone earns 10,000 baht a month, they should not spend all their earnings or borrow against them by using credit cards.
The foreign media can write whatever it wants as there is press freedom here. But a little effort to do better homework is what makes the difference between a good article and a shoddy one.
(p.s. the picture is taken from www.planetbangkok.com/archives/2004/10/a_stillunanswer.html - you can read that article as well)
Pegaso was an established company noted for its trucks and motor coaches, but also produced sports cars for seven years. Pegaso chief technical manager by then was Wifredo Ricart, former designer of the Alfa Romeo 512, and fellow rival of Enzo Ferrari, who at the time had also worked for Alfa Romeo. 1956 Pegaso Z-102 Touring Panorámica Superleggera 86 cars built 6 1/2 years production line (3 built with wraparound windshield that is called a Panorámica for the wrap around windshield & 270 HP 4 Cams HEMI V8 3.2 LITER, 11 TO 1 COMPRESSION RATIO, All in a 2600 LBS. car.) Design.The Z-102 employed racing-car technology in its chassis and alloy body. Everything was produced in-house at Barcelona, where the Pegaso cars factory was, with the exception of the external coachwork, either by Carrozzeria Touring, Saoutchik or Serra (although early Z-102 units carry Pegaso-made bodies). A four-cam all-alloy V8 engine, dry-sump lubrication, and a 5-speed non-syncromesh gearbox mounted with the differential as a unit were within a pressed steel chassis.The Z-102 started life as two prototypes in 1951 as a coupe and a drophead. The coupe and convertible had dumpy steel bodies, and weight was an issue to the extent that Pegaso made the decision to revert to alloy for the coachwork. Coachbuilder Touring then 'beautified' the design, replacing the grille with a two-piece cross, lowering the car, repositioning the foglights, and simplifying various details to give it a clean profile, similar to the contemporary Aston Martin DB2 and the Lancia Aurelia, that was the most memorable and numerous of all Z-102 bodies.The Z102 entered production with a 2.5 (2472cc) litre engine as used in the prototypes, though later there were variants with 2.8 (2816cc), and 3.2 (3178cc) litre DOHC desmodromic 32-valve V8 360 hp (270 kW) engines with multiple carburetors or optional supercharger. Horsepower ranged from 175 to 360, and, transferred through a five-speed gearbox and gear-driven camshaft, the fastest could reach 155 miles per hour (249 km/h), exceeding Ferrari autos, thus making it the world's fastest production car at the time.The base model had an 120 mph (192 km/h) top speed. The main beams of the car's frame had large lightening holes, and the wheel wells under the body were used as stressed members.This rear-wheel-drive car had its transmission in the rear, connected to the differential (making it a transaxle). But it was unusually located behind the differential within a reverse A-frame whose apex was at the rear of the chassis. A fuel tank was situated on each side of the transmission.The rear suspension was of the De Dion type, with the unusual feature that, to restrain the tube from side-to-side movement, its tube had a small wheel at its midpoint that rolled in a vertical channel on the front of the differential (which in a De Dion system is bolted to the chassis) instead of using a Watts linkage or a Panhard rod.However, the cars were heavy and brutish to drive and competition success was virtually nonexistent. Because the cars were built on a cost-no-object basis, this caused financial difficulty in the company. A simplified and cheaper version, the Z-103 with 3.9, 4.5 and 4.7 litre engines, was put into production, but to no avail, and the Z-102 was discontinued after 1958. Just 86 cars were produced, and out of these, only 28 cabriolets were built.Racing and elegance contests.The Pegasos raced in several competitions, but with no real success. In the 1953 Le Mans trials, driver Juan Jover was seriously injured after crashing at more than 200 km/h. They competed also in the 1954 Carrera Panamericana, driven by Joaquin Palacio, with increasingly promising results in the first stages, but again an accident prevented an excellent final position. Furthermore, on September 25, 1953, in Jabbeke (Belgium), a Z-102 Touring BS/2.8 (the old Barchetta used at Le Mans, 2.8 litre single supercharger), driven by Celso Fernández, broke four official R.A.C.B. (Royal Automobile Club de Belgique) worldwide records (fastest of them, 243.079 km/h (= 151.042 mph) average in the flying-start kilometer), previously owned by a Jaguar XK120. The original Z-102 BSS/2.5 Bisiluro Especial Competición (2.5 litre twin supercharged) meant to take on the records couldn't be used because of a blown engine. Pegasos achieved much better results in several Concours d'Elegance contests. A Pegaso Z-102 coupé by Saoutchick, owned by Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza, was in this respect the epitome of coachwork sophistication, as it had seats upholstered with leopard skin and controls in gold, and in such a finish it won the 1953 Enghien-les-Bains (France) Grand Prix d'Elegance.
The nonexistent subway station and suburb Kymlinge seen from a hot air balloon in late summer 2003. Kymlinge was originally planned to lie between Kista and Solna but it was never built. However, the subway station was constructed "just in case" along the line and can be seen as the open field. Note the rectangle of rocks in the upper half, marking where the stairways would have exited.
This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!
I took these photos in December 2019.
This was my first time actually plane watching at Miami International Airport (MIA). I checked some spotter websites to find some good locations. They recommended The Holes as being an "official" site so we checked it out. I was pretty disappointed; there was a lot of construction going on and parking was nonexistent. My wife dropped me off. The area is totally exposed. Even though it was December it was pretty hot - no shade, no place to sit, no other people around. The holes are actually pretty small so it's hard to get a lens through the hole. Arrivals were almost impossible to shoot but you could see planes taxiing by for takeoff. After an hour I was cooking so we bagged it. We then went to the area close to the El Dorado furniture store. Much better. There were a bunch of spotters from around the world there. It was a great atmosphere. Nicely shaded, safe, close to some stores and a lot of good traffic to watch. I saw a bunch of planes from airlines I had not seen before, including some airlines I had not heard of. Some of the planes didn't show up on Flight Radar 24 so they were very pleasant surprises. All in all a very good day and I'd love to go back there!
I took these photos in December 2019.
Barnes & Noble #2369 (23,736 square feet)
1220 Carl D. Silver Parkway, Central Park, Fredericksburg, VA
Opened November 7th, 2012; originally Borders (1997-fall 2011)
The Fredericksburg Barnes & Noble served as a prototype location at the time of opening in 2012, presumably gutting the space of its' old Borders characteristics, though it's possible that they kept most of the department signage. Knowing that now the store does seem like a bridge between mid-late 2000s location such as Chesterfield, which were usually 25-30,000 square feet and mostly retained the look they'd had since the 90s, and the newest, even more minimalist 12,000 square foot prototype location that opened in Virgina Beach in November. The perimeter of the store has a drop tile ceiling, with a warehouse-style ceiling in the middle that'd end up being the entire ceiling style at Virginia Beach, and overall a more modern approach was taken with the décor instead of the more older fashioned stores. Of prominence is a department up front dedicated to their Nook tablets, though it's apparent that this area is given little attention anymore since a vinyl display was moved into it and the area wasn't staffed. I get the impression that the devices were pretty popular back in 2012, but since then the company doesn't really emphasize them anymore in the now much more completive tablet market, instead focusing more on physical book sales like the old days. Likewise the DVD/CD section was scaled down significantly compared to the physical media heydays of the 2000s, only utilizing a few shelves here instead of a whole separate department, and in the newer VA Beach store those products are completely nonexistent, understandably so. In a way the store serves as a time capsule of sorts showcasing how some things were about eight years ago in 2012, and while that might seem like a long amount of time to some people I for one was still in high school with a slide keyboard phone so that feels like the Neanderthal days to me!
1/100 Elyn Kshatriya
1/100 Elyn Gatling Guns x 4
Custom decals laid out by Dade W. Bell and printed by Samuel.
Custom mixed paint scheme with 12 layers of paint for both candy purple colors.
Paints are Gaia, Gunze, Vallejo, and Citadel.
This project took FOREVER and I frankly stopped keeping track of the hours once I hit 150. This is mainly due to all of the paint layers required to give the proper shading and depth I was after. Plus the fact that I'm a slow builder. lol Note that I also went with my concept of painting the frame in a lighter color than the armor. We often see MS frames painted in dark and/ or metallic colors, but I thought it would look much more interesting if the frame was a light color contrasted with the darker "candy purple" armor (kinda like my Ple Qubeley). Also note how I went farther with the idea of making the finish matte. I think this adds an interesting appearance to the candy surface and is actually more realistic and less toy-like than the usual gloss finish seen on candy colors (contrast with my Ple Qubeley...).
The pictures truly don't do the real thing justice and I'll try to take better photos (and a video) with my D5100 outside when it cools down in the fall... Until then, I think these pics will suffice.
With this project done, I'm done building Kshatriyas. Too much of my life has been taken up with these things and it's time to move on. Still, I'm the "Ple Guy" so I had to at least make this one. ;-) (Wink) As for how Ple could end up piloting the Kshatriya, below is the story file I created to go on the base when I have a custom label printed later...
An Alternate Timeline...
In the original events of ZZ Gundam, Elpeo Ple sacrificed herself to protect Judau Ashta from the Psycho Gundam Mk-II piloted by her clone, Ple Two. However, in this alternate timeline, Glemy Toto’s attempts to clone Ple failed... and as a result, Ple didn’t die at the hands of her now-nonexistent clone. Thus, the “butterfly effect” of the changed timeline allowed Ple to survive the First Neo-Zeon War.
With the First Neo Zeon War over, Ple headed to Jupiter with Judau and Roux, but eventually grew bored with her relatively peaceful life (not to mention her “third-wheel” status with her friends), and decided to return to the Earth Sphere. During the long voyage home, she was disappointed to find that she missed the events of the Second Neo-Zeon War (Char’s Counterattack), and vowed to never miss out on any further action.
So when Ple heard about Full Frontal’s group of Neo-Zeon remnants, The Sleeves, she joined them without hesitation (and received the customized purple Kshatriya for her personal MS). This was because of a longing for excitement more than any kind of belief in Neo-Zeon ideology, and the battlefield was once again filled with the giddy shout of, “Purupurupurupuru!”. However, she quickly switched sides when she discovered that Frontal was merely using her as a “test” against the Unicorn Gundam’s NT-D system (her ability to defeat her own NT-D-controlled funnels and fight the Unicorn to a standstill is a significant departure from the original timeline).
Being a natural Newtype and not subject to the side-effects of the Cyber-Newtype process (complicated by the horrible events of childhood), Ple was able to avoid most of the unfortunate, and ultimately fatal, events that befell her clone, Marida Cruz (Ple Twelve), in the original timeline. As a result, she and the Kshatriya were able to survive the Third Neo-Zeon war relatively unharmed... a feat for which she rewarded herself with a nice, long bubble bath.
The Duquesne Incline is one of those which follows very closely the tracks of an early coal hoist. Old newspapers indicate the existence of such a conveyance as early as 1854. Residents apparently referred to it as "Kirk Lewis' incline" and located it on the present site of The Duquesne Incline's Upper Station. Grandview Avenue was then the High Street, and the area was just beginning to be converted from farmland to homesites. This pleasantly-situated acreage was an excellent area to absorb some of the expanding population of the city, but the problem of easy access was still to be solved.
Although plans for a freight and passenger incline are known to have existed much earlier, financial backing was exceedingly hard to find--even the modest sum of $47,000--and actual construction was delayed. Eventually, of course, difficulties were overcome and the Incline was built. It was opened to the public May 20, 1877. The Duquesne Incline was the first Pittsburgh incline designed and built by Samuel Diescher, for Kirk Bigham and Associates. Mr. Diescher, an engineer, had become the country's foremost builder of inclines. He was also to design and build most of those that followed.
At the time of its public opening, it was one of four inclined planes serving the summit of Coal Hill, which later came to be known as Mount Washington. The Duquesne Incline was operated, from 1877 until 1962 by The Duquesne Inclined Plane Company. From 1964 until the present, the Incline has been operated by the Society for the Preservation of The Duquesne Heights Incline; it has been owned by the Port Authority of Allegheny County.
Background
When The Duquesne Incline was opened to the public in May of 1877, it was one of four such inclined planes climbing Mount Washington, carrying passengers and freight to the residential area that had spread along the top of the bluff. Originally known as Coal Hill, the mountain itself had supplied coal fuel to the early settlers at the Point, the garrisons at the fort, and eventually to the local industries that appeared along the riverbanks as the town grew. Pittsburgh's early glass industry was particularly prevalent, near the current site of The Duquesne Incline. The primitive coal hoists that carried coal cars from the mine mouths on the hillside were the forerunners of the more elaborate cars that served as the Rapid Transit of their era.
The industrial base of Pittsburgh started expanding rapidly in the 1860s. This growth created a huge demand for labor, which was partially satisfied by immigrants from Europe. This growth also led to a serious housing shortage.
At this time, public transit was practically nonexistent. People needed to live within walking distance of their place of employment. While industry occupied most flat lands near the rivers, only the steep, surrounding hillsides provided land for housing. Coal Hill, later known as Mount Washington, was close to industry with alot of land available for building homes; but, there was a lack of good roads.
Immigrants, predominantly from Germany, settled Mount Washington and worked in the plants adjacent to the Monongahela River. They became weary of climbing steep footpaths and steps to their homes, from the river valley, after work. They remembered the Steilbahns(inclines) of their former country, and proposals were advanced to construct one or more of them along Coal Hill. The Monongahela Incline was the first of these to be built in 1869-1870; The Duquesne Incline followed in 1877.
In the 25 years following the opening of the Monongahela Incline, on May 28, 1870, at least 17 of these inclined planes were built in the Pittsburgh area; and as the city grew and expanded over the hills that almost surround it, inclines enjoyed great popularity and steady patronage. Speaking of The Duquesne Incline in the Autumn of 1880, Scientific American magazine noted that "on Sundays during the summer, 6,000 passengers are carried during the day and evening, the cars ascending and descending as rapidly as filled and emptied."
As the hilltop communities were virtually inaccessible by any other means, many of Pittsburgh's inclines carried horses and wagons as well as foot passengers. All carried some light freight. The meager roads that wound up the steep slopes were barely passable to a team of horses pulling a loaded wagon.
An early fare schedule at The Duquesne Incline advises that packages weighing less than 100 pounds would be carried for five cents, but "no charge will be made for one ordinary market basket carried by a passenger." Some of the freight, carried by The Duquesne Incline, traveled in a separate compartment, below the passenger compartment.
The rates of fare for foot passengers varied from one cent to five cents among the different inclines, with special commuter rates for regular riders. Well within the memory of present-day riders of The Duquesne Incline was the rectangular yellow commutation ticket with 39 numbers arranged on it to be punched by the conductor, one for each ride. For the 40th ride, the passenger surrendered the ticket.
It was many years before improved road-building methods and the invention of the electric streetcar and the motorcar gradually lessened the dependence of Pittsburgh residents on the hill-climbing inclines. As late as the 1940s, a Yellow Ticket still sold for one dollar, netting The Duquesne Incline only two and one-half cents per ride. But in spite of these low fares, the inclines have gradually disappeared. As part of the general decline in public transportation, only the Duquesne and Monongahela Inclines still exist in Pittsburgh.
The last Pittsburgh-area incline to close was the Castle Shannon Incline, which closed in 1964. This incline also served Mount Washington, with a lower station at the corner of East Carson Street and Arlington Avenue, just east of the present Station Square Light Rail Subway Station. This incline was closed by its owner, the Pittsburgh Railways Company, just prior to all of their streetcar and bus routes being taken-over by the Port Authority of Allegheny County. The Second Class County Port Authority Act of 1959 empowered the Authority to run all mass transit routes and modes, in Allegheny County; due to this state law, the Duquesne and Monongahela Inclines were also purchased by the Port Authority.
To ensure safety for patrons crossing busy West Carson Street, a pedestrian bridge across the street was completed in February of 1932. Originally, this bridge included steps leading directly to both inbound and outbound streetcar islands, in the middle of West Carson Street, in addition to connecting the Incline car boarding platforms(located on the second floor of the station building) to the northern sidewalk of West Carson Street(adjacent to the current parking lot).
Left to right:: Adrianne Curry, Cindy Morgan, Clare Kramer, Jen Stuller, Gina Misiroglu, Marjorie Liu, J. Michael Straczynski
Katrina Hill (ActionFlickChick.com), Adrianne Curry (America's Next Top Model), Cindy Morgan (Tron), Clare Kramer (Buffy, Season 5), Jen Stuller (Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors), Gina Misiroglu (Encyclopedia of Women in Popular Culture), Marjorie Liu (Black Widow), and J. Michael Straczynski (Wonder Woman) discuss why comics, television, and movies do not depict more action heroines and look specifically at why movies starring traditional comic book superheroines are nearly nonexistent.
'Lost Plot' a group show by Jack Teagle, Liam Barrett, Rose Robbins & Simon Daly.
preview: Thursday 6th Sept 7-9pm
open: Fri 7th Sept - Sat 6th Oct
www.facebook.com/events/306289422802840/
A freak tidalwave has left the contents of a nonexistent attic washed up on the gallery walls...
Four artists based in the south west of England take over Here Gallery . Together they have created a parallel culture, fragments of stories and illustrated memorabilia that combine elements of the familiar and unfamiliar.
Jack Teagle is a freelance illustrator, comic artist and painter, his most recent comic "Fight 2!" was published by Nobrow Press. Jack joined forces with fellow illustrator Liam Barrett earlier this year, to exhibit as part of the Pick Me Up graphic arts fair held at Somerset House, London.
Rose Robbins self-publishes comics as one half of Often and Mistakes, she was recently awarded "Best New Blood" at D&AD 2012. Simon Daly has also self-published his comics, including fantastical tales of electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire. Simon's experience in a variety of filmmaking roles, from music videos to software development, has led to collaborations with several artists, most recently assisting Liam and Rose in animating their work.
1/100 Elyn Kshatriya
1/100 Elyn Gatling Guns x 4
Custom decals laid out by Dade W. Bell and printed by Samuel.
Custom mixed paint scheme with 12 layers of paint for both candy purple colors.
Paints are Gaia, Gunze, Vallejo, and Citadel.
This project took FOREVER and I frankly stopped keeping track of the hours once I hit 150. This is mainly due to all of the paint layers required to give the proper shading and depth I was after. Plus the fact that I'm a slow builder. lol Note that I also went with my concept of painting the frame in a lighter color than the armor. We often see MS frames painted in dark and/ or metallic colors, but I thought it would look much more interesting if the frame was a light color contrasted with the darker "candy purple" armor (kinda like my Ple Qubeley). Also note how I went farther with the idea of making the finish matte. I think this adds an interesting appearance to the candy surface and is actually more realistic and less toy-like than the usual gloss finish seen on candy colors (contrast with my Ple Qubeley...).
The pictures truly don't do the real thing justice and I'll try to take better photos (and a video) with my D5100 outside when it cools down in the fall... Until then, I think these pics will suffice.
With this project done, I'm done building Kshatriyas. Too much of my life has been taken up with these things and it's time to move on. Still, I'm the "Ple Guy" so I had to at least make this one. ;-) (Wink) As for how Ple could end up piloting the Kshatriya, below is the story file I created to go on the base when I have a custom label printed later...
An Alternate Timeline...
In the original events of ZZ Gundam, Elpeo Ple sacrificed herself to protect Judau Ashta from the Psycho Gundam Mk-II piloted by her clone, Ple Two. However, in this alternate timeline, Glemy Toto’s attempts to clone Ple failed... and as a result, Ple didn’t die at the hands of her now-nonexistent clone. Thus, the “butterfly effect” of the changed timeline allowed Ple to survive the First Neo-Zeon War.
With the First Neo Zeon War over, Ple headed to Jupiter with Judau and Roux, but eventually grew bored with her relatively peaceful life (not to mention her “third-wheel” status with her friends), and decided to return to the Earth Sphere. During the long voyage home, she was disappointed to find that she missed the events of the Second Neo-Zeon War (Char’s Counterattack), and vowed to never miss out on any further action.
So when Ple heard about Full Frontal’s group of Neo-Zeon remnants, The Sleeves, she joined them without hesitation (and received the customized purple Kshatriya for her personal MS). This was because of a longing for excitement more than any kind of belief in Neo-Zeon ideology, and the battlefield was once again filled with the giddy shout of, “Purupurupurupuru!”. However, she quickly switched sides when she discovered that Frontal was merely using her as a “test” against the Unicorn Gundam’s NT-D system (her ability to defeat her own NT-D-controlled funnels and fight the Unicorn to a standstill is a significant departure from the original timeline).
Being a natural Newtype and not subject to the side-effects of the Cyber-Newtype process (complicated by the horrible events of childhood), Ple was able to avoid most of the unfortunate, and ultimately fatal, events that befell her clone, Marida Cruz (Ple Twelve), in the original timeline. As a result, she and the Kshatriya were able to survive the Third Neo-Zeon war relatively unharmed... a feat for which she rewarded herself with a nice, long bubble bath.
Inbound train of Highliner MU's stop at Van Buren st, Chicago IL as outbound mu train 215 (Blue Island local) approaches 8-15-79.
In my opinion (and I may get into trouble here), the IC (Metra Electric) suburban service was one of the best planned suburban services in the United States.
1 It is completely seperate from the mainline freight and passenger operations (on the University Park line-and freight operations on the South Chicago and Blue Island lines are minimal to nonexistent). As a result CN, and Amtrak do not have to try to weave their operations around the "dinky" rush on the electric lines as the railroads do on the other Chicago suburban lines and the mainline tracks could be removed without affecting Metra's operations.
2 It uses high-level platforms exclusively (in Chicago, uniquely for a "steam" road), thereby speeding up loading and unloading. (yes, I know Metro-North and Long Island use high-level platforms only, but this dates only from the 1970's-IC predated them by almost 50 years.)
3 It was the only Chicago "steam" (not interurban or rapid transit) commuter operation to electrify. (Easterners may take electrifications for granted, but the IC stood out in Chicago.)