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Asperula purpurea (L.) Ehrend, syn.: Galium purpureum L.
Purple Woodruff, DE: Purpur Meier, Purpur Meister
Slo.: škrlatna perla, škrlatna lakota
Dat.: July 30. 2016
Lat.: 46.35803Long.: 13.70286
Code: Bot_993/2016_DSC4167
Habitat: an opening in mixed Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies wood; clear cut under (local) power lines, almost flat terrain; calcareous, skeletal, colluvial ground; full sun, warm and dry place; elevation 545 m (1.790 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region.
Substratum: soil.
Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soča and Trenta, right bank of river Soča; near Matevž farmhouse, above regional road Bovec Vršič, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC
Comment: Few plants known to me are more difficult to be photographed in the field as Asperula purpurea. It is small, very tender and its flowers have not much more than 1 mm in diameter. Its leaves can be less than 1 cm long and only a fraction of mm wide. Apparently, when it grows on sunny places it is specially small and tender. So, it shakes restlessly even if there is no observable wind. At the same time only macro photography can show its details. Since it is widely branched in all directions one would need considerable depth of field for sharp pictures. This is of cause nonexistent with macro work. Also focus stacking technique cannot be used, because the plant is in motion all the time.
This South European plant growing also on Balkan Peninsula, Carpathians and Apennines originally belonged to Galium genus, but was later repositioned to Asperula genus. All Asperula species growing in Slovenia are beautiful; however this beauty requires to be admired with a hand lens.
Ref.:
(1) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 348.
(2) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 762.
(3) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora für Österreich, Liechtenstein und Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 702.
(4) A. Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007), p 521.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P-40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.
The Mustang was originally designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which, in its earlier variants, had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the RAF as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). Production of the P-51B/C began at North American's Inglewood California plant in June 1943 and P-51s started to become available to the 8th and 9th Air Forces in the winter of 1943–1944. The addition of the Rolls-Royce Merlin to the P-51B/C model transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters. Among the almost 4.000 Mustangs of this variant built a quarter was supplied under Lend-Lease to the RAF as the Mustang Mk III. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the two-speed, two-stage-supercharged Merlin 66, and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns.
The P-51 offered an excellent performance, but North American kept trying to improve, and developed a number of lightweight versions. The lightweight Mustangs had a new wing design and airfoils designed to give less drag than the previous NAA/NACA 45-100. In addition, the planform was a simple trapezoid, with no leading-edge extension at the root.
In 1943, North American submitted a proposal to redesign the P-51D as model NA-104, from an enquiry by the USAAF as to why British aircraft were lighter than American ones. NAA engineers had examined the various components and equipment fitted to Spitfires, and through thorough inspection of airframes and construction plans NAA found that British load factors were less than American ones, and working to the lower load factors helped the design team reduce structural weight wherever possible. Exploiting the structural potential and lightening or reducing other equipment, the NA-104’s revised design was in total some 1,600 lb (730 kg) lighter than the P-51D. Modifications to save weight and improve performance included a thinner laminar flow wing, streamlining changes to the cowling, a simplified undercarriage with smaller wheels and disc brakes (necessitated by the thinner wings), a different canopy, and an armament of only four 0.5” Brownings, even though the ammunition supply was changed to 400 rounds per gun.
The lightweight NA-104 was powered by the new V-1650-9 engine, a redesigned "slimline" version of the Merlin 100-series. The engine’s design was modified to decrease frontal area to a minimum and was the first Merlin series to use down-draught induction systems. The coolant pump was moved from the bottom of the engine to the starboard side, and the engine featured a two-speed, two-stage supercharger and an S.U. injection carburetor. The V-1650-9 not only delivered an increased constant output of 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), it also featured a water-methanol injection that could temporarily boost the engine’s emergency power to 2,218 hp (1.655 kW). The exhaust arrangement was revised, too, exploiting the engine’s residual thrust to gain even more speed. An “uncuffed” three-blade Aeroproducts propeller unit with deeper blades was fitted, to better cope with the higher power output and the higher blade speeds
.
Unlike later lightweight Mustang versions/prototypes the NA-104‘s ventral radiator fairing remained the same shape and size, just as the main landing gear and its covers, both were, despite improved designs on the prototyoe workbench, retained to promote a quick production introduction. The former V-1650-7’s carburetor chin intake was relocated into the right wing’s root, and the cowling was modified and streamlined. The modified nose section was slightly longer than on previous Mustang versions, and to compensate for a resulting slight center of gravity shift forward the rear fuselage was slightly extended with a plug in the rear fuselage, just front of the tail surfaces, what increased the NA-104’s overall length by ~10 inch. As a side effect the longitudinal stability improved, so that the NA-104 did not require the stabilizing fin fillet that had been introduced on the P-51D and some late production P-51B/Cs, too.
In test flights, the NA-104, with optimized fuel load and a highly polished finish, achieved 491 mph (790 km/h) at 21,000 ft (6,400 m). In September 1944 the NA-104 was accepted by the USAAF as a high-performance interceptor under the designation P-51E. 500 aircraft were ordered, primarily for operations in Europe, specifically for the 8th and 9th Air Force, to protect the Allied airfields in Great Britain and as long-range escort fighters for Allied bomber raids against Germany. An option for 1.000 more was signed, too, to be delivered from August 1945.
The first P-51Es arrived in Great Britain in January 1945. However, large-scale combat between 8th Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe interceptor force had become virtually nonexistent after 28 May 1944 but, in August, contact had been made for the first time with both rocket-propelled and jet-propelled interceptors. While themselves a harbinger of a tactical change by the Luftwaffe, the contacts also indicated that the Germans were husbanding their fighter aircraft for sporadic reaction against Allied bomber attacks.
Operational tasks for the USAAFs P-51Es included the support of bomber attacks against German ground transportation during the Allied counter-offensive in the Ardennes in early 1945, strafing ground targets daily. However, on 14 January, strategic bombing resumed with attacks on oil installations near Berlin, and Mustangs were frequently tasked with protecting B-17s, employing a variation of the escort tactic called the "Zemke Fan", designed to lure in interceptors.
The Luftwaffe’s Jagdverbände, severely depleted, turned to jet interceptions beginning 9 February 1945 in an attempt to stop the onslaught of Allied heavy bombers. The Allies countered by flying combat air patrol missions over German airfields, intercepting Me 262s and Ar 234s as they took off and landed, the moment when these fast aircraft were most vulnerable. The tactic resulted in increasing numbers of jets shot down and controlled the dangerous situation, particularly as the amount of German-controlled territory shrank daily.
Another threat was the V-1 flying bomb attacks that had begun in mid-June 1944. The only aircraft with the low-altitude speed to be effective against it was the Hawker Tempest, but by that time fewer than 30 Tempests were available, assigned to No. 150 Wing RAF. Early attempts to intercept and destroy V-1s often failed, but improved techniques soon emerged. These included using the airflow over an interceptor's wing to raise one wing of the V-1, by sliding the wingtip to within 6 in (15 cm) of the lower surface of the V-1's wing. If properly executed, this maneuver would tip the V-1's wing up, over-riding the gyro and sending the V-1 into an out-of-control dive. At least sixteen V-1s were destroyed this way, the first by a P-51 piloted by Major R. E. Turner of 356th Fighter Squadron on 18 June 1944. Once available, the USAAF’s P-51Es were frequently assigned to V-1 interception duties over the Channel and the southern coast of England, alleviating RAF units.
However, with the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945 the P-51E contract was cancelled, as well as the option for more aircraft. Altogether only 363 lightweight P-51Es were completed and reached frontline units, exclusively operating with the 8th and 9th Fighter Command.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 33 ft 3 in (10,15 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 0 in (11,28 m)
Height: 13 ft 4½ in (4,08 m)
Wing area: 234 sq ft (21,81 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 66(2)-215
Empty weight: 5,792 lb (2.630 kg)
Loaded weight: 7,268 lb (3.300 kg)
Max. take-off weight: 9,559 lb (4.340 kg)
Maximum fuel capacity: 419 US gal (349 imp gal; 1,590 l)
Powerplant:
1× Packard V-1650-9 liquid-cooled V-12 with 2-stage intercooled supercharger,
delivering 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), 2,218 hp (1,655 kW) WEP with Water methanol injection,
driving a Hamilton Standard constant-speed, variable-pitch three blade propeller with
a 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 472 mph (760 km/h; 410 kn) at 21,200 ft (6,500 m)
Cruise speed: 362 mph (315 kn, 580 km/h)
Stall speed: 100 mph (87 kn, 160 km/h)
Range: 1,650 mi (1,434 nmi, 2,755 km) with external tanks
Service ceiling: 41,900 ft (12,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,200 ft/min (16.3 m/s)
Wing loading: 39 lb/sqft (192 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.18 hp/lb (300 W/kg)
Lift-to-drag ratio: 14.6
Recommended Mach limit 0.8
Armament:
4× 0.50 caliber (12.7mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns with 400 RPG
A pair of underwing hardpoints for a pair of drop tanks
or bombs of 100 lb (45 kg), 250 lb (113 kg) or 500 lb (226 kg) caliber
The kit and its assembly:
A project that was more complex than obvious at first glance. The plan was to create a “missing link” between the WWII P-51D and its lightweight sibling P-51H, which came too late in WWII to take seriously part in any combat. There actually were some “interim” designs, which paved the way (the F, G and J models), with lightweight hulls or different engines. My plan was to adopt some details of these aircraft to create the fictional P-51E.
For a look that subtly differs from the well-known P-51D I decided light-headedly to bash two Academy models together: a P-51D hull, mixed with the wings and tail from a P-51B/C kit, plus some inter-kit and external donors. What sounds simple turned out to be a major surgery task, though, because both kits are totally different, produced with individual moulds and few interchangeable parts! Even details which you’d expect to me identical (e. g. wing tip and tail shape) differ markedly.
For the P-51E kitbash the fuselage with cockpit, engine and radiator bath was taken from the P-51D, while the tail and the wings were taken from the P-51B/C, because they were slightly bigger, “edgier”, lacked the fin fillet and featured only four machine guns in the wings. Mating these parts called for many adaptations and massive PSR, though. To change the look further I removed the small wing leading edge extensions, for a completely straight edge, and the cowling was changed to look like a mix of the P-51F and J prototypes. The carburetor intake disappeared and a part of the P-51D spinner was used to extend the fuselage a little. A completely new three-blade propeller was scratched, using a Yokosuka D4Y spinner, a piece from an ESCI Ka-34 Hokum main rotor, and clipped blades from a Hasegawa F5U. A styrene tube was added to hold the propeller’s new metal axis. To compensate for the longer nose the rear fuselage a 2mm section of the P-51D hull was retained in front of the transplanted P-51B/C tail (which is a separate hull section, the -D has an integral tail).
The original exhausts were replaced with resin aftermarket pieces for P-400 Airacobra from Quickboost - for which the nose extension paid out, because the V-1710 exhaust arrangement is longer than the Merlin's.
Painting and markings:
I wanted a typical, potentially colorful USAAF livery from early 1945 for this what-if aircraft model. This meant that the aircraft would have a NMF livery, and Invasion Stripes or other ID markings were already removed or not applied to new aircraft anymore. Camouflage had been omitted from 1945, too. As squadron markings I went for the 357th FG red-and-yellow nose markings; these came with Academy’s P-51B/C kit, but I replaced them with decals from a Mistercraft/Intech kit from The Stash™ because their shape was simpler and would (probably) better match the modified lower nose. Searching for later P-51Ds of this group revealed that the aircraft hardly carried any other colorful marking, though – just the tactical code, and maybe some personal markings.
To keep in style I adapted this basis, using a tone called “White Aluminum (RAL 9006)” from a Duplicolor rattle can as an overall basis, but added a thin red edge to the olive drab (Revell 46) anti-glare panel, created with generic decal stripes. The rudder as well as the wing tips were painted in red, an official 363rd FS ID marking, as a counterbalance to the prominent nose, too.
The propeller spinner was painted free-handedly, in an attempt to match the checker decal's colors. Some hull panels were painted in a darker shade of aluminum to make the model look mo0re lively, and some post-shading with Humbrol Matt Aluminum Metallizer was done to improve that effect, too. Cockpit and landing gear wells were painted in a bright green zinc chromate primer tone.
Decals and markings were puzzled together from various sources. Finding a suitable 'B6' code fpr the 363rd FS was tough, but I was eventually able to scratch it from 'P9' codes from two Academy P-47D kits/sheets! BTW, the horizontal bar above the aircraft's individual letter was a real world marking for a second aircraft that bore this tactical code within the unit. The nose art/tag was also donated from an Academy P-47, the yellow font matches the rest of the unit colors well.
The anti glare panel and the propeller blades received a matt varnish coat, while the rest of the hull was covered with a mix of matt and a little semi-gloss varnish - contemporary Mustang photos from 1945 suggest that, despite being bare metal, the aircraft were not polished or shiny at all, yet the aluminum would have some reflections. I think that the final overall finish looks quite good. As a final step I added some light soot stains behind the exhausts and the machine gun orifices, and dry-brushed some silver on edges/areas where paint could have flaked in real life. Not much, but it adds to the overall impression of a used aircraft.
A more demanding project than meets the eye. Bashing the two Mustang kits for a fictional new one might have been a smart idea, but it turned out to be a nightmare because the two 1:72 Mustand Academy kits are totally incompatible. Additionally, the mods I made are VERY subtle, it takes a keen eye to recognize the lengthened hull, the modfied cowling and the cleaner tail. The three-blade prop is the most obvious thing, and with it, from certain angles, the P-51E reminds somewhat of a Yak-9? Probably due to the intake-less cowling and the (for a Mustang) unusual prop? The livery looks plausible and colorful, though. :D
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
Leeville, Louisiana
on Bayou LaFourche
LaFourche Parish
Some of the greatest fishing is right here.
Leeville was settled by flood victims. On October 1, 1893, a hurricane wiped out the area's main settlement, Caminadaville, which sat on a spit of land bordered on three sides by the Gulf and on the fourth by swamp. Nearly half of Caminadaville's inhabitants perished in the storm, most by drowning, some when the buildings they had taken refuge in collapsed.
Survivors sailed up the bayou in their damaged canots and began buying land from an orange-grower named Peter Lee, who was selling plots for $12.50 each. For sixteen years, they fished, planted rice, and held fais do-do dancing parties in homes with covered verandas.
Then, in 1909, the Leeville Hurricane struck. (A contemporary newspaper account described survivors of that storm subsisting on drowned rabbit.) Six years later, a third hurricane forced residents to flee north once more. According to local legend, the storm surge carried one house from Leeville nine miles inland. The owner simply bought the plot underneath it and moved back in.
In the nineteen-thirties, Leeville rebounded briefly. Oil was discovered in the area, and by the end of the decade there were ninety-eight producing wells in town. The pay was good and regulation nonexistent. Blowouts routinely rained sulfur and brine onto the houses, into the cisterns, over the trees. Tin roofs corroded and vegetable gardens shrivelled up. When the wells ran dry, oil production moved offshore and Leeville was again deserted.
There were no more jobs, and the town itself had begun to wash away. Where once men in straw hats picked oranges and harvested rice, today there is mostly open water.
from: www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-15339115_ITM
SONY DSC, Original architectural drawings for renovations to the second floor of the Morgan house. Mistakenly titled as belonging to the nonexistent Alpha Chi Delta sorority. It is unclear if Julia Morgan or Thaddeus Joy drew the plans.
These drenched days have a way of bleeding together, touching shoulders through the mist and rattling raindrops. The wind has been almost nonexistent, which makes my life under an umbrella easier, everything tumbling straight down. Some of the old shingles escape being soaked, their bare wood spared in the relative stillness. These strong walls are the story of a long journey down. Like most barns of a certain age, they were made to be ignored for a while, then slapped back together when things got a little ragged. Eventually, almost all will start to ask what's next – if nostalgia can match the purpose of centuries past. There has to be both ends and means. Me, I feel inclined to justify existence alone. Not that I could afford it, but there are those who can. The past is a portal that opens to itself alone.
March 28, 2024
Waterford, Nova Scotia
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A visit to the Whitehall Mall, 6/18/15
Stairway to the offices, and a blocked off section which I assume would've lead to the now nonexistent Sears wing.
House of the Golden Well, sometimes called At the Red Chair, the house no. 175 in the Old Town of Prague on the corner of Seminary (no. 2) and Charles (no. 3), near Clementinum.
On the site today of Baroque building with Classicist elements became Romanesque building, whose walls are preserved vaulted cellar at the Seminary Street following the house čp.177 / I. The first written record of this house but it is up to the year 1354 when it cutler Vaclav Muldorfer bought from Nicholas Znojmo. The house was at the time and edited Gothic square around it was called cutlery commons (Latin Plateau cultellatorum). Also in the 15th century there were several cutlers and two Mecir. The house had already been a corner and stood against the church garden. Clement, which was about to southwest facade still nonexistent Klementinum. Its central location expressing house sign midst of the wheel.
In the early 17th century, the house was probably likely to radically rebuilt in the late Renaissance style (as evidenced by a few preserved Gothic elements). In the early 18th century, the house was connected (still recognizably) with the neighboring small Gothic house (in the 17th century, rebuilt in Baroque style) in the Seminary Street and after 1769, was rebuilt on the 3rd floor. In the 80s of the 20th century, the house was significantly modified from the original structure remained only part of the perimeter walls and interiors to the level of the first floor. In basements, ground floor and first floor are barrel vaults.
The facade is decorated with stucco reliefs Johann Ulrich Mayer from 1713. They are located in three levels. Amid under the associated window on the second floor, is in gilded medallion Palladium of Czech, ie. semifigures Stará Boleslav Virgin Mary with Jesus on the octagonal star-founded Circle. Above the star pair of angels bears the crown, under the star is on the sides of a pair of crowned Czech lion. Left stands St. Wenceslas, right there nesvatořečený John of Nepomuk. Around the windows on the first floor is dvojicemorových patrons (left St. Sebastian, right St. Roch) and the third floor of the Jesuit patrons (left about St. Ignatius and right St. Francis Xavier and Francis Borgia). Above the window on the third floor is a relief lying plague patron Saint Rosalia.
Today the building houses a hotel Aurus (www.aurushotel.cz).
cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%AFm_U_Zlat%C3%A9_studn%C4%9B_(Karlova)
Boone, NC gets it. They are getting less and less snowfall, making the outdoor winter sports season nearly nonexistent. With one ski resort recently closed, they are gathering in solidarity with skis on grass.
Photo credit: Crystal Simmons
Full Tour:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrH4AOjN23Y&t=28s
PDF Instructions: www.luxurybrickstore.com/
This is the ultimate home on wheels for your minifigure family. Not only are there two levels on this motorhome, but four separate slide outs that allow for maximum floor space possible. There’s even room for atvs, motorcycles, bicycles, and the family car in the enclosed stacker trailer to bring along as well. The original inspiration for this build was a prototype design I randomly came across on the internet. Double decker motorhomes with slide outs are pretty much nonexistent, but I figured why not put one together with Lego.
With education almost nonexistent in the refugee settlements, children are left vulnerable to child labour and trafficking, especially young girls. (Christian Ender/JRS)
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
I chose Silverton because it is my hometown. I have always wondered about the almost nonexistent black population in Silverton, so I was excited to research its history.
I started my research process by looking at the census documents from 1940, in which I found a grand total of zero nonwhite residents. I was unsuccessful in my search for earlier census records. I interviewed Karen Almquist, a longtime resident of Silverton with a long family history in the town. She had stories from her father-in-law, mainly about the incredibly large Scandinavian population in Silverton (Norway St. was named for the many Norwegian families living there). Lutheran church services were held in Norwegian until the 1960s.
There were histories of Silverton in the Silverton Country Library vertical files that answered a few of my questions. I knew that Silverton had been a big agricultural producer for a long time, and I wondered why no African-Americans were employed to work in the fields. One report stated that the field workers were mainly teenagers. My own great-grandmother told us how she worked in the hop fields to make enough money to have her teeth pulled out and replaced with dentures. Another report mentioned “Chinese coolies” doing farm labor. Another interesting tidbit was that Silverton had a very strong anti-slavery group during the Civil War. One resident was described as “an outstanding enemy of slavery.”
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
For Lauren, Bert.
One of 2 of my design that's video game based! I found a simple image on Google search and simplified it quite a bit more, in this one's case. It's more of an outline than anything - I couldn't seem to get the interior cuts to work very well, so his face/helmet differentiation is almost nonexistent. :\
This series of photos shows our cruise ship's journey along the Fiordland coast between Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, and then our looping route in one entrance to this enormous fiord and out another. The reaction of my fellow passengers to this magnificent New Zealand scenery was, in itself, wonderful to observe.
•Doubtful Sound is a very large and naturally imposing fiord in Fiordland, in the far south west of New Zealand. Doubtful Sound was named 'Doubtful Harbour' in 1770 by Captain Cook, who did not enter the inlet as he was uncertain whether it was navigable under sail. It was later renamed Doubtful Sound by whalers and sealers. There are three distinct arms to the sound, which is the site of several large waterfalls, notably Helena Falls at Deep Cove, and the Browne Falls which have a fall of over 600 metres. The steep hills are known for their hundreds of waterfalls during the rainy season. Access to the sound is either by sea, or by the Wilmot Pass road from the Manapouri Power Station. Most areas of the sound itself are only accessible by sea however, as the road network in this area of New Zealand is sparse or nonexistent, as is the human population. Doubtful Sound is unusual in that it contains two distinct layers of water that scarcely mix. The top few meters is fresh water, fed from the high inflows from the surrounding mountains, and stained brown with tannins from the forest. Below this is a layer of cold, heavy, saline water from the sea. The dark tannins in the fresh water layer makes it difficult for light to penetrate. Thus, many deep-sea species will grow in the comparatively shallow depths of the Sound.
He partido de una fijación por los gabinetes de curiosidades. Lo seductor en cada uno de ellos es que revelan una necesidad inherente por preservar, clasificar y aprisionar lo incomprensible y lo foráneo. Me dispongo a encasillar los monstruos que son, quizá, las criaturas más incomprensibles que haya podido encontrar.
Todo surge del amor, o al menos de una particular y única forma de amar; la única que tantos libros me dieron a conocer. Por largo tiempo discurrí en el intento de hallar un hilo conductor a mis planes y propuestas por un romance perfecto. Quizá tuve una idea falsa de la verdad, pero pienso que en algún momento estuve cerca de ser justamente quien quise ser. He terminado por renunciar al propósito y ahora puedo examinar los hechos serenamente.
Desde mis libros nacieron relaciones de a mentiras y estos son Jose María, Andrés y Juan: mis posibles amores, mis finales inciertos, mis amantes y amores inconclusos. Todos, finalmente inexistentes.
This project arose from a personal fixation on the cabinets of curiosities which came about during the 16th century explorations. What is appealing about each of these is that they unveil an inherent need for preservation, classification, and confinement of the rare and incomprehensible. As such, I have set out to assort and confine the creatures who appear to be the most incomprehensible beings I could have ever found.
Everything arises from love, or at least a particular and unique way of loving: the way which books have revealed to me. For a long time, I tried to plan a perfect romance. Maybe I had a misleading idea of the truth, but, just for a moment, I was close to being everything I wanted to be. I have come to renounce my failed intent; and now, I am able to examine the facts serenely.
My books gave rise to my fictitious relationships. These are Jose María, Andrés, and Juan. My possible lovers, my uncertain endings, and my unfinished loves. Each of them, alas, nonexistent.
Auf die Idee für dieses Projekt kam ich durch die „Wunderkammern“, die während der Entdeckungreisen des 16. Jahrhunderts entstanden. Mich faszinierte das Verlangen nach Bewahrung, Einteilung und Gefangenhalten des Seltenen und Unverständlichen, das sie aufzeigten. Jetzt fange ich die Monster, die unverständlichsten Geschöpfe, die ich jemals finden konnte, für mich ein.
Alles entsteht aus Liebe, oder immerhin aus einer einzigartigen und einmaligen Weise der Liebe: die einzige Art und Weise, die mich viele Bücher lehrten. Lange Zeit versuchte ich, perfekte Romanzen zu planen. Vielleicht hatte ich eine irreführende Vorstellung der Wahrheit; nur für einen Moment, war ich Allem nah, was ich mir vorstellte. Ich habe mein verfehltes Ziel aufgegeben, und kann nun die Gegebenheiten klar betrachten.
Aus diesen Büchern entstanden meine erdichteten Beziehungen. Jose María, Andrés, und Juan: meine eventuellen Geliebten, mein ungewisses Ende, meine unvollständigen Lieben und Geliebten. Jede letztendes, nicht existierend.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P-40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.
The Mustang was originally designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which, in its earlier variants, had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the RAF as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). Production of the P-51B/C began at North American's Inglewood California plant in June 1943 and P-51s started to become available to the 8th and 9th Air Forces in the winter of 1943–1944. The addition of the Rolls-Royce Merlin to the P-51B/C model transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters. Among the almost 4.000 Mustangs of this variant built a quarter was supplied under Lend-Lease to the RAF as the Mustang Mk III. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the two-speed, two-stage-supercharged Merlin 66, and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns.
The P-51 offered an excellent performance, but North American kept trying to improve, and developed a number of lightweight versions. The lightweight Mustangs had a new wing design and airfoils designed to give less drag than the previous NAA/NACA 45-100. In addition, the planform was a simple trapezoid, with no leading-edge extension at the root.
In 1943, North American submitted a proposal to redesign the P-51D as model NA-104, from an enquiry by the USAAF as to why British aircraft were lighter than American ones. NAA engineers had examined the various components and equipment fitted to Spitfires, and through thorough inspection of airframes and construction plans NAA found that British load factors were less than American ones, and working to the lower load factors helped the design team reduce structural weight wherever possible. Exploiting the structural potential and lightening or reducing other equipment, the NA-104’s revised design was in total some 1,600 lb (730 kg) lighter than the P-51D. Modifications to save weight and improve performance included a thinner laminar flow wing, streamlining changes to the cowling, a simplified undercarriage with smaller wheels and disc brakes (necessitated by the thinner wings), a different canopy, and an armament of only four 0.5” Brownings, even though the ammunition supply was changed to 400 rounds per gun.
The lightweight NA-104 was powered by the new V-1650-9 engine, a redesigned "slimline" version of the Merlin 100-series. The engine’s design was modified to decrease frontal area to a minimum and was the first Merlin series to use down-draught induction systems. The coolant pump was moved from the bottom of the engine to the starboard side, and the engine featured a two-speed, two-stage supercharger and an S.U. injection carburetor. The V-1650-9 not only delivered an increased constant output of 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), it also featured a water-methanol injection that could temporarily boost the engine’s emergency power to 2,218 hp (1.655 kW). The exhaust arrangement was revised, too, exploiting the engine’s residual thrust to gain even more speed. An “uncuffed” three-blade Aeroproducts propeller unit with deeper blades was fitted, to better cope with the higher power output and the higher blade speeds
.
Unlike later lightweight Mustang versions/prototypes the NA-104‘s ventral radiator fairing remained the same shape and size, just as the main landing gear and its covers, both were, despite improved designs on the prototyoe workbench, retained to promote a quick production introduction. The former V-1650-7’s carburetor chin intake was relocated into the right wing’s root, and the cowling was modified and streamlined. The modified nose section was slightly longer than on previous Mustang versions, and to compensate for a resulting slight center of gravity shift forward the rear fuselage was slightly extended with a plug in the rear fuselage, just front of the tail surfaces, what increased the NA-104’s overall length by ~10 inch. As a side effect the longitudinal stability improved, so that the NA-104 did not require the stabilizing fin fillet that had been introduced on the P-51D and some late production P-51B/Cs, too.
In test flights, the NA-104, with optimized fuel load and a highly polished finish, achieved 491 mph (790 km/h) at 21,000 ft (6,400 m). In September 1944 the NA-104 was accepted by the USAAF as a high-performance interceptor under the designation P-51E. 500 aircraft were ordered, primarily for operations in Europe, specifically for the 8th and 9th Air Force, to protect the Allied airfields in Great Britain and as long-range escort fighters for Allied bomber raids against Germany. An option for 1.000 more was signed, too, to be delivered from August 1945.
The first P-51Es arrived in Great Britain in January 1945. However, large-scale combat between 8th Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe interceptor force had become virtually nonexistent after 28 May 1944 but, in August, contact had been made for the first time with both rocket-propelled and jet-propelled interceptors. While themselves a harbinger of a tactical change by the Luftwaffe, the contacts also indicated that the Germans were husbanding their fighter aircraft for sporadic reaction against Allied bomber attacks.
Operational tasks for the USAAFs P-51Es included the support of bomber attacks against German ground transportation during the Allied counter-offensive in the Ardennes in early 1945, strafing ground targets daily. However, on 14 January, strategic bombing resumed with attacks on oil installations near Berlin, and Mustangs were frequently tasked with protecting B-17s, employing a variation of the escort tactic called the "Zemke Fan", designed to lure in interceptors.
The Luftwaffe’s Jagdverbände, severely depleted, turned to jet interceptions beginning 9 February 1945 in an attempt to stop the onslaught of Allied heavy bombers. The Allies countered by flying combat air patrol missions over German airfields, intercepting Me 262s and Ar 234s as they took off and landed, the moment when these fast aircraft were most vulnerable. The tactic resulted in increasing numbers of jets shot down and controlled the dangerous situation, particularly as the amount of German-controlled territory shrank daily.
Another threat was the V-1 flying bomb attacks that had begun in mid-June 1944. The only aircraft with the low-altitude speed to be effective against it was the Hawker Tempest, but by that time fewer than 30 Tempests were available, assigned to No. 150 Wing RAF. Early attempts to intercept and destroy V-1s often failed, but improved techniques soon emerged. These included using the airflow over an interceptor's wing to raise one wing of the V-1, by sliding the wingtip to within 6 in (15 cm) of the lower surface of the V-1's wing. If properly executed, this maneuver would tip the V-1's wing up, over-riding the gyro and sending the V-1 into an out-of-control dive. At least sixteen V-1s were destroyed this way, the first by a P-51 piloted by Major R. E. Turner of 356th Fighter Squadron on 18 June 1944. Once available, the USAAF’s P-51Es were frequently assigned to V-1 interception duties over the Channel and the southern coast of England, alleviating RAF units.
However, with the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945 the P-51E contract was cancelled, as well as the option for more aircraft. Altogether only 363 lightweight P-51Es were completed and reached frontline units, exclusively operating with the 8th and 9th Fighter Command.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 33 ft 3 in (10,15 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 0 in (11,28 m)
Height: 13 ft 4½ in (4,08 m)
Wing area: 234 sq ft (21,81 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 66(2)-215
Empty weight: 5,792 lb (2.630 kg)
Loaded weight: 7,268 lb (3.300 kg)
Max. take-off weight: 9,559 lb (4.340 kg)
Maximum fuel capacity: 419 US gal (349 imp gal; 1,590 l)
Powerplant:
1× Packard V-1650-9 liquid-cooled V-12 with 2-stage intercooled supercharger,
delivering 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), 2,218 hp (1,655 kW) WEP with Water methanol injection,
driving a Hamilton Standard constant-speed, variable-pitch three blade propeller with
a 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 472 mph (760 km/h; 410 kn) at 21,200 ft (6,500 m)
Cruise speed: 362 mph (315 kn, 580 km/h)
Stall speed: 100 mph (87 kn, 160 km/h)
Range: 1,650 mi (1,434 nmi, 2,755 km) with external tanks
Service ceiling: 41,900 ft (12,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,200 ft/min (16.3 m/s)
Wing loading: 39 lb/sqft (192 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.18 hp/lb (300 W/kg)
Lift-to-drag ratio: 14.6
Recommended Mach limit 0.8
Armament:
4× 0.50 caliber (12.7mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns with 400 RPG
A pair of underwing hardpoints for a pair of drop tanks
or bombs of 100 lb (45 kg), 250 lb (113 kg) or 500 lb (226 kg) caliber
The kit and its assembly:
A project that was more complex than obvious at first glance. The plan was to create a “missing link” between the WWII P-51D and its lightweight sibling P-51H, which came too late in WWII to take seriously part in any combat. There actually were some “interim” designs, which paved the way (the F, G and J models), with lightweight hulls or different engines. My plan was to adopt some details of these aircraft to create the fictional P-51E.
For a look that subtly differs from the well-known P-51D I decided light-headedly to bash two Academy models together: a P-51D hull, mixed with the wings and tail from a P-51B/C kit, plus some inter-kit and external donors. What sounds simple turned out to be a major surgery task, though, because both kits are totally different, produced with individual moulds and few interchangeable parts! Even details which you’d expect to me identical (e. g. wing tip and tail shape) differ markedly.
For the P-51E kitbash the fuselage with cockpit, engine and radiator bath was taken from the P-51D, while the tail and the wings were taken from the P-51B/C, because they were slightly bigger, “edgier”, lacked the fin fillet and featured only four machine guns in the wings. Mating these parts called for many adaptations and massive PSR, though. To change the look further I removed the small wing leading edge extensions, for a completely straight edge, and the cowling was changed to look like a mix of the P-51F and J prototypes. The carburetor intake disappeared and a part of the P-51D spinner was used to extend the fuselage a little. A completely new three-blade propeller was scratched, using a Yokosuka D4Y spinner, a piece from an ESCI Ka-34 Hokum main rotor, and clipped blades from a Hasegawa F5U. A styrene tube was added to hold the propeller’s new metal axis. To compensate for the longer nose the rear fuselage a 2mm section of the P-51D hull was retained in front of the transplanted P-51B/C tail (which is a separate hull section, the -D has an integral tail).
The original exhausts were replaced with resin aftermarket pieces for P-400 Airacobra from Quickboost - for which the nose extension paid out, because the V-1710 exhaust arrangement is longer than the Merlin's.
Painting and markings:
I wanted a typical, potentially colorful USAAF livery from early 1945 for this what-if aircraft model. This meant that the aircraft would have a NMF livery, and Invasion Stripes or other ID markings were already removed or not applied to new aircraft anymore. Camouflage had been omitted from 1945, too. As squadron markings I went for the 357th FG red-and-yellow nose markings; these came with Academy’s P-51B/C kit, but I replaced them with decals from a Mistercraft/Intech kit from The Stash™ because their shape was simpler and would (probably) better match the modified lower nose. Searching for later P-51Ds of this group revealed that the aircraft hardly carried any other colorful marking, though – just the tactical code, and maybe some personal markings.
To keep in style I adapted this basis, using a tone called “White Aluminum (RAL 9006)” from a Duplicolor rattle can as an overall basis, but added a thin red edge to the olive drab (Revell 46) anti-glare panel, created with generic decal stripes. The rudder as well as the wing tips were painted in red, an official 363rd FS ID marking, as a counterbalance to the prominent nose, too.
The propeller spinner was painted free-handedly, in an attempt to match the checker decal's colors. Some hull panels were painted in a darker shade of aluminum to make the model look mo0re lively, and some post-shading with Humbrol Matt Aluminum Metallizer was done to improve that effect, too. Cockpit and landing gear wells were painted in a bright green zinc chromate primer tone.
Decals and markings were puzzled together from various sources. Finding a suitable 'B6' code fpr the 363rd FS was tough, but I was eventually able to scratch it from 'P9' codes from two Academy P-47D kits/sheets! BTW, the horizontal bar above the aircraft's individual letter was a real world marking for a second aircraft that bore this tactical code within the unit. The nose art/tag was also donated from an Academy P-47, the yellow font matches the rest of the unit colors well.
The anti glare panel and the propeller blades received a matt varnish coat, while the rest of the hull was covered with a mix of matt and a little semi-gloss varnish - contemporary Mustang photos from 1945 suggest that, despite being bare metal, the aircraft were not polished or shiny at all, yet the aluminum would have some reflections. I think that the final overall finish looks quite good. As a final step I added some light soot stains behind the exhausts and the machine gun orifices, and dry-brushed some silver on edges/areas where paint could have flaked in real life. Not much, but it adds to the overall impression of a used aircraft.
A more demanding project than meets the eye. Bashing the two Mustang kits for a fictional new one might have been a smart idea, but it turned out to be a nightmare because the two 1:72 Mustand Academy kits are totally incompatible. Additionally, the mods I made are VERY subtle, it takes a keen eye to recognize the lengthened hull, the modfied cowling and the cleaner tail. The three-blade prop is the most obvious thing, and with it, from certain angles, the P-51E reminds somewhat of a Yak-9? Probably due to the intake-less cowling and the (for a Mustang) unusual prop? The livery looks plausible and colorful, though. :D
its function was likely "to shelter the bark of Isis at the eastern banks" of Philae island.
One of the main sites visited by almost every tour to Egypt is what is billed as Philae, but Philae is actually a nonexistent island now buried beneath Lake Nasser. The island was sometimes visible and sometimes not after the Old Aswan Dam was built, but was permanently submerged by the High Dam. Read more at www.touregypt.net/featurestories/Philae.htm
I'm down to my last strip of wool so I thought I'd take an in-progress pic! Nerd Girl Yarns Combed Top, 100% Colonial wool, 4 oz of custom colorway Purple Love. It has yet to be completed, re-skeined, and finished, so pardon the slightly messy ball, but it's still good. I also can't stop flashing around my drop spindle because it's just so pretty. I turned the fluff into the yarn via that and my hands! Nothing else! MAGIC!
Also - return of the book! This one is Zombie Blondes by Brian James. I found it...well, conflicting. I loved the concept, but the plot was kind of nonexistent. It mainly consisted of "are they actually zombies or aren't they" and as the title tells you right up front, yes yes they are actually zombies. The End. Worth a single read if you watch thriller movies for the suspense even when you can see the end coming from a mile away.
My wicked awesome core class. God, I love these kids so much.
I can't really tell you all of the kids in this picture, because the rows are nonexistent.
But I love these kids. I'm going to miss them to death over the Summer.
Flower Mound TX. (Photo rotated to horizontal for better viewing) Many weeks later we found our little friend in much better shape and with a longer tail, although as you can see the new tail is inferior with its coloring and distorted shape. Fortunately, we have many places for such critters to hide. I had to stand on my tip toe with my point and shoot and could not get very close because it kept running away. Note how parts of his body blends in with the screen. The Greater Roadrunners keep our toads, frogs and lizards almost nonexistent. I have noticed a change in coloring of these lizards over the years, as they are becoming paler and more yellowish. I found a sick one the other day that was really yellow, perhaps from liver problems. We do not use pesticide except for the fire ants that are taking over.
House of the Golden Well, sometimes called At the Red Chair, the house no. 175 in the Old Town of Prague on the corner of Seminary (no. 2) and Charles (no. 3), near Clementinum.
On the site today of Baroque building with Classicist elements became Romanesque building, whose walls are preserved vaulted cellar at the Seminary Street following the house čp.177 / I. The first written record of this house but it is up to the year 1354 when it cutler Vaclav Muldorfer bought from Nicholas Znojmo. The house was at the time and edited Gothic square around it was called cutlery commons (Latin Plateau cultellatorum). Also in the 15th century there were several cutlers and two Mecir. The house had already been a corner and stood against the church garden. Clement, which was about to southwest facade still nonexistent Klementinum. Its central location expressing house sign midst of the wheel.
In the early 17th century, the house was probably likely to radically rebuilt in the late Renaissance style (as evidenced by a few preserved Gothic elements). In the early 18th century, the house was connected (still recognizably) with the neighboring small Gothic house (in the 17th century, rebuilt in Baroque style) in the Seminary Street and after 1769, was rebuilt on the 3rd floor. In the 80s of the 20th century, the house was significantly modified from the original structure remained only part of the perimeter walls and interiors to the level of the first floor. In basements, ground floor and first floor are barrel vaults.
The facade is decorated with stucco reliefs Johann Ulrich Mayer from 1713. They are located in three levels. Amid under the associated window on the second floor, is in gilded medallion Palladium of Czech, ie. semifigures Stará Boleslav Virgin Mary with Jesus on the octagonal star-founded Circle. Above the star pair of angels bears the crown, under the star is on the sides of a pair of crowned Czech lion. Left stands St. Wenceslas, right there nesvatořečený John of Nepomuk. Around the windows on the first floor is dvojicemorových patrons (left St. Sebastian, right St. Roch) and the third floor of the Jesuit patrons (left about St. Ignatius and right St. Francis Xavier and Francis Borgia). Above the window on the third floor is a relief lying plague patron Saint Rosalia.
Today the building houses a hotel Aurus (www.aurushotel.cz).
cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%AFm_U_Zlat%C3%A9_studn%C4%9B_(Karlova)
Vice Principal Rattray at the Christiana High School takes great pride in his school and his students - making the most of virtually nonexistent resources to educate the next generation of Jamaicans.
Taken with the new, super-fast (f1.8) Sigma 18-35mm lens. There is some minor image ghosting on extraordinarily bright objects like the nearest streetlamp, but that's from a poor or nonexistent AR coating on a filter.
The Flips supporting Meredosia, Bad Catman, Bookmobile, and Looming at Black Sheep Cafe in Springfield, IL on January 17, 2014.
Words cannot describe how good it felt to be shooting another show at Black Sheep after so long. It doesn't have the greatest lighting and the photo pit is nonexistent, but I just feel so at home there because that community of people is just incredible. They all support each other so much and it's amazing to be a part of that and to get to photograph it every so often. And then getting to be the guest photographer for Harm House's "Record of the Night" was absolutely awesome. Honestly, when I look back, I can't even begin to describe how thankful I am to the Black Sheep venue and community for everything they've done for me. This was my training ground when I was really getting started, and these are the people who took me in and accepted me without question and without reservation. That, and they put on some kick-ass shows =)
Whereby the kachina becomes the consort bell to the dorje, peeling life through the morning sky, manifesting as lightning and giving animation to the soil.
An Authentic Portrait of the Middle Way
(A Vajra Song of the Lord of Yogis, Milarepa)
From the standpoint of the truth that’s genuine,
There are no ghosts, there are not even buddhas,
No meditator and no meditated,
No paths and levels traveled and no signs,
And no fruition bodies and no wisdoms,
And therefore there is no nirvana there,
Just designations using names and statements.
All animate, inanimate – the three realms,
Unborn and nonexistent from the outset,
No base to rest on, do not co-emerge.
There is no karmic act, no maturation,
So even the name "samsara" does not exist.
That’s the way these are in the final picture,
But oh, if sentient beings did not exist,
What would the buddhas of three times all come from?
Since fruition with no cause – impossible!
So the stand point of the truth that’s superficial,
Is samsara’s wheel, nirvana past all grief,
It all exists, that is the Sage’s teaching,
Then what exists appearing to be things,
And their non-existence, reality that’s empty,
Are essentially inseparable, one-taste;
And therefore there is neither self-awareness,
Nor awareness of what’s other anywhere.
All of this a union vast and spacious,
And all those skilled in realizing this,
Do not see consciousness, they see pure wisdom,
Do not see sentient beings, they see buddhas,
Don’t see phenomena, they see their essence,
And out of this compassion just emerges,
Retention, powers, fearlessness and all?
The qualities embodied by a Buddha
Just come as if you had a wishing jewel,
This is what I, the yogi, have realized....
Size 56. As this is an exhibition jersey, the wear is almost nonexistent. Includes an LOA and hologram from Hockeytown Authentics (run by the Red Wings).
024
Fortune Global Forum 2018
October 16th, 2018
Toronto, Canada
3:30 PM
THE NEW GLOBAL CONSUMER: DOING BUSINESS IN A DIGITAL ECONOMY
The digital economy is no longer part of the economy. It is the economy. How can traditional brick-and-mortar firms reinvent themselves, their supply chains, and their marketplaces to avoid the fate of brands once thought of as everlasting but which are now nonexistent? And how are new platforms – from e-commerce to shared services – rewriting the rules of the game? A conversation on how businesses can manage expectations for digitally empowered customers, and how technology is being used to enhance the customer experience.
Alain Bejjani, Chief Executive Officer, Majid al Futtaim
Andrea Stairs, General Manager, Canada and Latin America, eBay
Ning Tang, Founder and CEO, CreditEase
Moderator: Phil Wahba, Senior Writer, Fortune
Photograph by Stuart Isett/Fortune
artefacts from the Spanish presence in the Philippines (the Spanish East Indies) and engagement in trade with China.
Spanish interest in the (Spanish East Indies) region was primarily focused on its use as a base for trade with East Asia, and large parts of the territory were under loose or nonexistent Spanish control.
Museo Naval, Madrid
29 November 2012
camera Panasonic DMC ZS8
P1140793
I unfortunately didn't get many photos of the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish areas of New Orleans. We took a bus tour through these very hard hit areas. The glare on the bus windows made photos rather tough, but I wish I would have tried harder. This was actually across the street from the Nunez Community College that we visited. A SMALL example of the devastation of the area.
3 years after Katrina and Rita and it was really sad to see the level of destruction that still exists. Entire shopping centers and apartment complexes sitting empty. A patchwork of homes partially repaired, fully repaired, or nonexistent except for a cement foundation. Many people are still paying a mortgage on a home or business that no longer exists.
We were fortunate enough to have a college professor on our bus that lives in this neighborhood and gave us the first hand accounts of what happened and the aftermath. Very sad situation. Even more sad that three years later and people have forgotten about New Orleans and the incredible amount of assistance these folks still need. FEMA (a very bad word in N.O.) has pulled out and no longer offers assistance or trailers. Some people were living in trailers that are TINY for 3 years. Ridiculous amount of red tape to get financial assistance which ends up not being nearly enough to actually rebuild or move on with life. Actually made me really sad but also REALLY mad that this could happen in my country and that these people could just be forgotten.
Some of the other observations and comments by our guide that really struck me...
- Professor said they knew the storm was coming. He looked out the window and there was nothing. In 20 minutes the water was 19-20 feet high in the neighborhood.
- There were actually 4 disasters that hit this area in a few weeks time...Katrina, levee breaks, Rita, and oil spill...any one of which would have been devastating let alone all three together.
- There were 67,000 people in St. Bernard Parish area and now there is less than a third of that number living there
- everything was dead according to the professor...no bugs, no birds, no animals, just dead silence
- strange things in homes like perfectly intact crystal heirlooms, a book in the exact place it was left and perfectly dry, and water moccasins in closets. Can you imagine?
- Bodies are still being found in homes and buildings in the area
- The homes in this area were actually nice homes and in some cases REALLY nice homes and GONE
- Only ones really helping still in the area are the independent Christian groups...we saw a big group of teenagers there when we drove through gutting homes and helping with rebuilding.
- There was a brand new hospital in the area that is now gone. No one will rebuild a hospital there so a Christian group has sent up a tent hospital system to try and provide basic care...3 years later!
- The local government had just moved back into their office building the week I was there after working out of tents and trailers for the last 3 years.
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang was an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P-40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.
The Mustang was originally designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which, in its earlier variants, had limited high-altitude performance. It was first flown operationally by the RAF as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). Production of the P-51B/C began at North American's Inglewood California plant in June 1943 and P-51s started to become available to the 8th and 9th Air Forces in the winter of 1943–1944. The addition of the Rolls-Royce Merlin to the P-51B/C model transformed the Mustang's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft, allowing the aircraft to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters. Among the almost 4.000 Mustangs of this variant built a quarter was supplied under Lend-Lease to the RAF as the Mustang Mk III. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the two-speed, two-stage-supercharged Merlin 66, and was armed with six .50 caliber (12.7 mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns.
The P-51 offered an excellent performance, but North American kept trying to improve, and developed a number of lightweight versions. The lightweight Mustangs had a new wing design and airfoils designed to give less drag than the previous NAA/NACA 45-100. In addition, the planform was a simple trapezoid, with no leading-edge extension at the root.
In 1943, North American submitted a proposal to redesign the P-51D as model NA-104, from an enquiry by the USAAF as to why British aircraft were lighter than American ones. NAA engineers had examined the various components and equipment fitted to Spitfires, and through thorough inspection of airframes and construction plans NAA found that British load factors were less than American ones, and working to the lower load factors helped the design team reduce structural weight wherever possible. Exploiting the structural potential and lightening or reducing other equipment, the NA-104’s revised design was in total some 1,600 lb (730 kg) lighter than the P-51D. Modifications to save weight and improve performance included a thinner laminar flow wing, streamlining changes to the cowling, a simplified undercarriage with smaller wheels and disc brakes (necessitated by the thinner wings), a different canopy, and an armament of only four 0.5” Brownings, even though the ammunition supply was changed to 400 rounds per gun.
The lightweight NA-104 was powered by the new V-1650-9 engine, a redesigned "slimline" version of the Merlin 100-series. The engine’s design was modified to decrease frontal area to a minimum and was the first Merlin series to use down-draught induction systems. The coolant pump was moved from the bottom of the engine to the starboard side, and the engine featured a two-speed, two-stage supercharger and an S.U. injection carburetor. The V-1650-9 not only delivered an increased constant output of 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), it also featured a water-methanol injection that could temporarily boost the engine’s emergency power to 2,218 hp (1.655 kW). The exhaust arrangement was revised, too, exploiting the engine’s residual thrust to gain even more speed. An “uncuffed” three-blade Aeroproducts propeller unit with deeper blades was fitted, to better cope with the higher power output and the higher blade speeds
.
Unlike later lightweight Mustang versions/prototypes the NA-104‘s ventral radiator fairing remained the same shape and size, just as the main landing gear and its covers, both were, despite improved designs on the prototyoe workbench, retained to promote a quick production introduction. The former V-1650-7’s carburetor chin intake was relocated into the right wing’s root, and the cowling was modified and streamlined. The modified nose section was slightly longer than on previous Mustang versions, and to compensate for a resulting slight center of gravity shift forward the rear fuselage was slightly extended with a plug in the rear fuselage, just front of the tail surfaces, what increased the NA-104’s overall length by ~10 inch. As a side effect the longitudinal stability improved, so that the NA-104 did not require the stabilizing fin fillet that had been introduced on the P-51D and some late production P-51B/Cs, too.
In test flights, the NA-104, with optimized fuel load and a highly polished finish, achieved 491 mph (790 km/h) at 21,000 ft (6,400 m). In September 1944 the NA-104 was accepted by the USAAF as a high-performance interceptor under the designation P-51E. 500 aircraft were ordered, primarily for operations in Europe, specifically for the 8th and 9th Air Force, to protect the Allied airfields in Great Britain and as long-range escort fighters for Allied bomber raids against Germany. An option for 1.000 more was signed, too, to be delivered from August 1945.
The first P-51Es arrived in Great Britain in January 1945. However, large-scale combat between 8th Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe interceptor force had become virtually nonexistent after 28 May 1944 but, in August, contact had been made for the first time with both rocket-propelled and jet-propelled interceptors. While themselves a harbinger of a tactical change by the Luftwaffe, the contacts also indicated that the Germans were husbanding their fighter aircraft for sporadic reaction against Allied bomber attacks.
Operational tasks for the USAAFs P-51Es included the support of bomber attacks against German ground transportation during the Allied counter-offensive in the Ardennes in early 1945, strafing ground targets daily. However, on 14 January, strategic bombing resumed with attacks on oil installations near Berlin, and Mustangs were frequently tasked with protecting B-17s, employing a variation of the escort tactic called the "Zemke Fan", designed to lure in interceptors.
The Luftwaffe’s Jagdverbände, severely depleted, turned to jet interceptions beginning 9 February 1945 in an attempt to stop the onslaught of Allied heavy bombers. The Allies countered by flying combat air patrol missions over German airfields, intercepting Me 262s and Ar 234s as they took off and landed, the moment when these fast aircraft were most vulnerable. The tactic resulted in increasing numbers of jets shot down and controlled the dangerous situation, particularly as the amount of German-controlled territory shrank daily.
Another threat was the V-1 flying bomb attacks that had begun in mid-June 1944. The only aircraft with the low-altitude speed to be effective against it was the Hawker Tempest, but by that time fewer than 30 Tempests were available, assigned to No. 150 Wing RAF. Early attempts to intercept and destroy V-1s often failed, but improved techniques soon emerged. These included using the airflow over an interceptor's wing to raise one wing of the V-1, by sliding the wingtip to within 6 in (15 cm) of the lower surface of the V-1's wing. If properly executed, this maneuver would tip the V-1's wing up, over-riding the gyro and sending the V-1 into an out-of-control dive. At least sixteen V-1s were destroyed this way, the first by a P-51 piloted by Major R. E. Turner of 356th Fighter Squadron on 18 June 1944. Once available, the USAAF’s P-51Es were frequently assigned to V-1 interception duties over the Channel and the southern coast of England, alleviating RAF units.
However, with the end of hostilities in Europe in May 1945 the P-51E contract was cancelled, as well as the option for more aircraft. Altogether only 363 lightweight P-51Es were completed and reached frontline units, exclusively operating with the 8th and 9th Fighter Command.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 33 ft 3 in (10,15 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 0 in (11,28 m)
Height: 13 ft 4½ in (4,08 m)
Wing area: 234 sq ft (21,81 m²)
Airfoil: NACA 66(2)-215
Empty weight: 5,792 lb (2.630 kg)
Loaded weight: 7,268 lb (3.300 kg)
Max. take-off weight: 9,559 lb (4.340 kg)
Maximum fuel capacity: 419 US gal (349 imp gal; 1,590 l)
Powerplant:
1× Packard V-1650-9 liquid-cooled V-12 with 2-stage intercooled supercharger,
delivering 1,380 hp (1,030 kW), 2,218 hp (1,655 kW) WEP with Water methanol injection,
driving a Hamilton Standard constant-speed, variable-pitch three blade propeller with
a 11 ft 2 in (3.40 m) diameter
Performance:
Maximum speed: 472 mph (760 km/h; 410 kn) at 21,200 ft (6,500 m)
Cruise speed: 362 mph (315 kn, 580 km/h)
Stall speed: 100 mph (87 kn, 160 km/h)
Range: 1,650 mi (1,434 nmi, 2,755 km) with external tanks
Service ceiling: 41,900 ft (12,800 m)
Rate of climb: 3,200 ft/min (16.3 m/s)
Wing loading: 39 lb/sqft (192 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.18 hp/lb (300 W/kg)
Lift-to-drag ratio: 14.6
Recommended Mach limit 0.8
Armament:
4× 0.50 caliber (12.7mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns with 400 RPG
A pair of underwing hardpoints for a pair of drop tanks
or bombs of 100 lb (45 kg), 250 lb (113 kg) or 500 lb (226 kg) caliber
The kit and its assembly:
A project that was more complex than obvious at first glance. The plan was to create a “missing link” between the WWII P-51D and its lightweight sibling P-51H, which came too late in WWII to take seriously part in any combat. There actually were some “interim” designs, which paved the way (the F, G and J models), with lightweight hulls or different engines. My plan was to adopt some details of these aircraft to create the fictional P-51E.
For a look that subtly differs from the well-known P-51D I decided light-headedly to bash two Academy models together: a P-51D hull, mixed with the wings and tail from a P-51B/C kit, plus some inter-kit and external donors. What sounds simple turned out to be a major surgery task, though, because both kits are totally different, produced with individual moulds and few interchangeable parts! Even details which you’d expect to me identical (e. g. wing tip and tail shape) differ markedly.
For the P-51E kitbash the fuselage with cockpit, engine and radiator bath was taken from the P-51D, while the tail and the wings were taken from the P-51B/C, because they were slightly bigger, “edgier”, lacked the fin fillet and featured only four machine guns in the wings. Mating these parts called for many adaptations and massive PSR, though. To change the look further I removed the small wing leading edge extensions, for a completely straight edge, and the cowling was changed to look like a mix of the P-51F and J prototypes. The carburetor intake disappeared and a part of the P-51D spinner was used to extend the fuselage a little. A completely new three-blade propeller was scratched, using a Yokosuka D4Y spinner, a piece from an ESCI Ka-34 Hokum main rotor, and clipped blades from a Hasegawa F5U. A styrene tube was added to hold the propeller’s new metal axis. To compensate for the longer nose the rear fuselage a 2mm section of the P-51D hull was retained in front of the transplanted P-51B/C tail (which is a separate hull section, the -D has an integral tail).
The original exhausts were replaced with resin aftermarket pieces for P-400 Airacobra from Quickboost - for which the nose extension paid out, because the V-1710 exhaust arrangement is longer than the Merlin's.
Painting and markings:
I wanted a typical, potentially colorful USAAF livery from early 1945 for this what-if aircraft model. This meant that the aircraft would have a NMF livery, and Invasion Stripes or other ID markings were already removed or not applied to new aircraft anymore. Camouflage had been omitted from 1945, too. As squadron markings I went for the 357th FG red-and-yellow nose markings; these came with Academy’s P-51B/C kit, but I replaced them with decals from a Mistercraft/Intech kit from The Stash™ because their shape was simpler and would (probably) better match the modified lower nose. Searching for later P-51Ds of this group revealed that the aircraft hardly carried any other colorful marking, though – just the tactical code, and maybe some personal markings.
To keep in style I adapted this basis, using a tone called “White Aluminum (RAL 9006)” from a Duplicolor rattle can as an overall basis, but added a thin red edge to the olive drab (Revell 46) anti-glare panel, created with generic decal stripes. The rudder as well as the wing tips were painted in red, an official 363rd FS ID marking, as a counterbalance to the prominent nose, too.
The propeller spinner was painted free-handedly, in an attempt to match the checker decal's colors. Some hull panels were painted in a darker shade of aluminum to make the model look mo0re lively, and some post-shading with Humbrol Matt Aluminum Metallizer was done to improve that effect, too. Cockpit and landing gear wells were painted in a bright green zinc chromate primer tone.
Decals and markings were puzzled together from various sources. Finding a suitable 'B6' code fpr the 363rd FS was tough, but I was eventually able to scratch it from 'P9' codes from two Academy P-47D kits/sheets! BTW, the horizontal bar above the aircraft's individual letter was a real world marking for a second aircraft that bore this tactical code within the unit. The nose art/tag was also donated from an Academy P-47, the yellow font matches the rest of the unit colors well.
The anti glare panel and the propeller blades received a matt varnish coat, while the rest of the hull was covered with a mix of matt and a little semi-gloss varnish - contemporary Mustang photos from 1945 suggest that, despite being bare metal, the aircraft were not polished or shiny at all, yet the aluminum would have some reflections. I think that the final overall finish looks quite good. As a final step I added some light soot stains behind the exhausts and the machine gun orifices, and dry-brushed some silver on edges/areas where paint could have flaked in real life. Not much, but it adds to the overall impression of a used aircraft.
A more demanding project than meets the eye. Bashing the two Mustang kits for a fictional new one might have been a smart idea, but it turned out to be a nightmare because the two 1:72 Mustand Academy kits are totally incompatible. Additionally, the mods I made are VERY subtle, it takes a keen eye to recognize the lengthened hull, the modfied cowling and the cleaner tail. The three-blade prop is the most obvious thing, and with it, from certain angles, the P-51E reminds somewhat of a Yak-9? Probably due to the intake-less cowling and the (for a Mustang) unusual prop? The livery looks plausible and colorful, though. :D
A karesansui (枯山水), Japanese rock garden, or Zen garden is an enclosed shallow sandbox containing sand, gravel, rocks, and occasionally grass or other natural elements. The main elements of karesansui are rocks and sand, with the sea symbolized not by water but by sand raked in patterns that suggest rippling water. Plants are much less important (and sometimes nonexistent) in many karesansui gardens. .
Narrow or nonexistent shoulders make walking or bicycling a challenge. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2014 to widen the shoulder on the west side of the road.
Asperula purpurea (L.) Ehrend, syn.: Galium purpureum L.
Purple Woodruff, DE: Purpur Meier, Purpur Meister
Slo.: škrlatna perla, škrlatna lakota
Dat.: July 30. 2016
Lat.: 46.35803Long.: 13.70286
Code: Bot_993/2016_DSC4167
Habitat: an opening in mixed Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies wood; clear cut under (local) power lines, almost flat terrain; calcareous, skeletal, colluvial ground; full sun, warm and dry place; elevation 545 m (1.790 feet); average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region.
Substratum: soil.
Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soča and Trenta, right bank of river Soča; near Matevž farmhouse, above regional road Bovec Vršič, East Julian Alps, Posočje, Slovenia EC
Comment: Few plants known to me are more difficult to be photographed in the field as Asperula purpurea. It is small, very tender and its flowers have not much more than 1 mm in diameter. Its leaves can be less than 1 cm long and only a fraction of mm wide. Apparently, when it grows on sunny places it is specially small and tender. So, it shakes restlessly even if there is no observable wind. At the same time only macro photography can show its details. Since it is widely branched in all directions one would need considerable depth of field for sharp pictures. This is of cause nonexistent with macro work. Also focus stacking technique cannot be used, because the plant is in motion all the time.
This South European plant growing also on Balkan Peninsula, Carpathians and Apennines originally belonged to Galium genus, but was later repositioned to Asperula genus. All Asperula species growing in Slovenia are beautiful; however this beauty requires to be admired with a hand lens.
Ref.:
(1) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 2., Haupt (2004), p 348.
(2) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 762.
(3) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora für Österreich, Liechtenstein und Südtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 702.
(4) A. Martinči et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnična Založba Slovenije (2007), p 521.
Worcester MA
This triangular building was built in 1902 for the Worcester Women's Club, an organization that promoted education and leadership for women. It's not coincidental that this building was designed by a female architect (at a time when female architects were almost nonexistent), Josephine Wright Chapman. This is now used as function space. It's on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
Paraguay began the war with over 60,000 trained men—38,000 of whom were already under arms—400 cannons, a naval squadron of 23 steamboats (vapores), and five river-navigating ships (among them the Tacuarí gunboat). Still, there were many, many problems. Most infantry armaments consisted of inaccurate smooth-bore muskets and carbines, slow to reload, and short-ranged. The artillery was similarly poor. Military officers had no training or experience, and there was no command system, as all decisions were made personally by López. Food, ammunition, and armaments were scarce, with logistics and hospital care deficient or nonexistent.
"It is time for a walk on the dunes. There may not be many years left. I leave the road and walk out on the dunes, following the delicate footprints of a fox. Past the arrowweed on the salt flats, past the little bosks of mesquite in the foothills of the dunes, up the windward side along the crest where the sand is so firm my feet leave only a faint impression. On the sand are other tracks even more delicate than those of the fox—the imprints of mice, beetles, lizards, birds.
I trail my fox into the lifeless heart of Death Valley, wondering where he might be bound. The morning sun rises higher above the purple Grapevine Mountains on the east, illuminates with a rosy glow the Panamint Mountains on the west. The tracks go high, then descend, then climb still higher on the next and greater dune. In general, with all its wandering, the fox seems to be bearing toward the highest dune of them all, four hundred feet above the valley floor. That fox should be hungry; a fox in the wild lives mostly on the keen edge of starvation. Yet his course is leading him farther and farther from any likely source of food. The fox's prey live below, among the clumps of vegetation between the dunes; the tracks of rodents and lizards become scarce, then nonexistent, as we climb higher.
Maybe this fox is crazy. Or rabid. Or old and looking for a place to die. Or a sightseer like me. Why the summit of the sands? Yet that is where the trail finally leads me. To the high point of the highest dune. And there, as I can plainly read on the open page of the sand, the fox paused for a while, turning in one place, before plunging over the cornice and down, in great leaps, through the soft, unstable sand of the slip face, disappearing into the brush on the flats below.
What brought that fox up here? I don't know. A light wind is blowing now and all tracks, including my own, are beginning to soften, blur, fade out in a serried pattern of ripples in the sand. I lie belly down on the cornice of the dune, looking over the edge. Fine grains of sand, backlit by the sun, shining like particles of light, are swirling in the air. I can hear them tinkling and chiming as they fall on the sand below. Like crystals of quartz; like tiny fragments of broken glass. There is no other sound in this desert world.
I roll over on my back and gaze up at the cloudless, perfect, inhuman, unsheltering sky. The inevitable vulture soars there, a thousand feet above me, Black wings against the blue. I think I know that bird. He looks familiar. I think he's the one that's been following me, everywhere I go in the desert, for about thirty-five years. Looking after me. I follow the fox. The vulture follows me."
–Edward Abbey, Beyond the Wall
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📍 Timbisha Shoshone homeland
I went out with Matty to shoot some photos for an interview. We wanted to do something different, so we tried to incorporate Matty's love of the outdoors and his creativity into skating nonexistent "spots". We found this pile of concrete rubble and rigged up a super sketchy landing.
Pick your favorite angle. This is the one I ran in SLUG.
Today I was thinking about how amazing dirt is.
Typically, dirt is viewed negatively... if something is dirty, it is deemed nasty. But dirt is probably one of the most magnificent things on our planet. Our planet IS dirt. We live on dirt. Without dirt we would starve, all of the beautiful things that grow around us would be completely nonexistent. Actually without dirt all living things would die. Not just from starvation, but we'd have no source of oxygen from which to breathe either. Conclusion...we should all look around and appreciate dirt! :)