Serge Nsombo follows a precise feeding schedule for his fish. The fish feed is mainly a mixture of maize meal and soya beans.

Want sharp optics, a precise German shutter and ability to take instant photos on a 3x4" film? Based on a standard Polaroid 420 Automatic Land Camera, this camera has been extensively modified to be able to shoot at professional standards.

The original f8.8 lens and automatic shutter have been replaced with a 1960's, Industar, multi-coated 110mm, f4.5 lens (based on a Zeiss Ikon design), which is mounted in a Pronto size 0 shutter. The shutter features full X-sync for flash, cable release socket, bulb mode and self timer, making it perfect for shooting in all scenarios. The mechanical nature of the shutter also means that the camera does not require batteries.

The new 110mm lens is not only faster than the original lens, but also much sharper, and delivers results on par with a Polaroid 180. It features a beautifully shallow depth of field when wide open, with lovely bokeh. Coverage is 100% full frame, with no vignetting. This makes the camera the perfect choice for anyone wanting manual control over their shots, on a totally unique camera.

Features:

- Industar, 110mm, f4.5 coated glass lens (based on a Zeiss Ikon design)

- Pronto size 0 shutter, with bulb mode, cable release and X-sync for flash, range from 1/200th to bulb mode. The shutter also features a countdown timer for timed shots.

- Aperture range from f4.5 to above f22

- Lens adapter to accept any 43mm filters

- Twin window rangefinder/viewfinder with projected framelines and automatic parallax compensation rangefinder/viewfinder

- Cold shoe mount for flash and other accessories

- Removable front cover

- Folding bellows design

- Neck strap

- Storage area at the back of the camera, for cleaning cloths etc

- Custom black accents

- Compatible with ALL Type 100 films, such as Fuji FP-100C and FP-3000B, as well as expired Polaroid brand films.

The 110mm Industar lens has been re-calibrated and mounted to focus optimally with the original 114mm rangefinder, with sharp portraits the number one priority. Infinity distance is also nice and sharp.

Lastly, the camera has had it's original light grey panels and doors replaced with some nice sleak black ones, giving the camera a stealthy look. The rear door also features a count-down timer, which counts down the seconds required for the film to develop.

Precise Next Generation Design and Stout Construction

The Swell Surf System utilizes high-speed rams to adjust 5/16-inch stainless steel blades laser cut and bent to control water turbulence off the rear of the boat's running surface. The specially designed trailing edge of these blades, or flaps as these types of elements are referred to in a fluid dynamics, create a vortex-effect behind the boat resulting in specific wave shapes. Different angels of deployment of the blades create custom effects in the water turbulence to swell-up Skim and Barrel waves. Swell blades benefit from a shot peen finish, a strengthening process commonly utilized in aeronautical construction, to increase the fatigue life of the piece. The Swell System is mounted and held together by a series of stainless steel through-bolts and stainless brackets for an extremely stable platform for wave making. The Swell Surf System is available on 2014 Supra SA and SC wake boat models only.

Pilot Precise Grip

This new ultimate wake boat combines amazing wakes, precise handling, aggressive looks and a shockingly refined interior. The view from overhead is elegance, while the water-level vantage point is complete intimidation. The SA350, SA450 and SA550 have Indmar power behind their names. These models protect and project with Supra's new Barrage Front End while the Battle Prep Transom prepares you for action. Specific hull design and perfectly matched underwater gear take wake boat handling beyond better. Elevate even further with Supra Ride System (SRS) components like 900 pounds of hard sub-floor Liquid Lead Ballast and the new loaded Roswell Pro Edge Tower. Opt for 1,300-pounds of additional Flex Ballast from the factory and swamp the competition. The epitome of convenience and customization the SA has snap-out carpet with a fiberglass floor. The intricate upholstery design is only matched by the plush feel and durability of the NANO Block Technology (NBT) Vinyl surrounding multiple densities of foam. Hand-covered accents finish the performance look and the luxurious feel. Experience SA350, SA450 and SA550 shock and awe in person at a Supra Boats dealer near you.

Overall Length w/o Platform: 22' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform: 24' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform & Trailer: 27' 2"

Width (Beam): 100"

Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

Weight - Boat only: 4,300 lbs

Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

Capacity - Passenger: 10

Capacity - Weight: 1,400 lbs

Capacity - Fuel: 50 gals

Capacity - Ballast: 900 lbs (S) 1,300 lbs (O) = 2,200 lbs available from factory.

Engine - Electronic Fuel Injection: 345 HP-SA350, 450 HP-SA450, 550HP-SA550

With issue #3 we continued with the full size format and doubled the number of pages. The covered featured Beastie Boys.

Inside featured works by Acrow, Ades, Aeros, Aezer, Aiomoa, Airow, AM7, Anok, Apel, Apok, Asa, Asia, Auph, Base, Blood, Bom 5, Bruin, Bsie, Cameo, Ceb, Ced, Cen, Cero, Ces, Chief, Cinge, Clear, Close, Codeak, Comic, Cue, Daim, Delta, Demo, Demon, Digit, Denser, Desk, Dev, Dome, Dork, Drone, Dymer, Enamel, Esac, Exist, Fanta, Furious, FX, Fyter, Gen, Ges, Givr, GK, God One, Goul, Hash, Hate, Heinz, Hero, Hiky, Hoka, Huge, Hype, Jear, Jeks, Jelous, Jes, Jest, Joe, Jose, Josh, Jury, Just, Kaput, Kasino, Kazm, Ked, Kedz, Kep, Kers, Kerze, Kev, Kib, Kim, King Size, Kirs, Knees, KRS, Krull, Lady Blue, Learn, Loomit, Luate, Pose 2, Per One, Precise, Puma, Punch, Pupher, Push, Raju, Random, Razer, Rebus, Red, Reksa, Reminisce, Rens, Rust, Toast, Twist (Barry McGee), Vendr, and many others.

Some of the articles included:

Editorial

Not Your Typical Gap Girl

Darwin Award Finalists

Phony Sweatshop Reform

Procter & Gamble Kills Animals

Banned Books in Public Schools

The top 50 Greatest MCs Ever

Fan Mail

Movie Reviews

2022-02-11 -- Students practice techniques for precise drafting with pencil, paper, and measuring tools.

Fitment Specifications

Wheels: Chevy Precise

Finish: Hand Brushed

24" w/ 9" Outer Lips

This new ultimate wake boat combines amazing wakes, precise handling, aggressive looks and a shockingly refined interior. The view from overhead is elegance, while the water-level vantage point is complete intimidation. The SA350, SA450 and SA550 have Indmar power behind their names. These models protect and project with Supra's new Barrage Front End while the Battle Prep Transom prepares you for action. Specific hull design and perfectly matched underwater gear take wake boat handling beyond better. Elevate even further with Supra Ride System (SRS) components like 900 pounds of hard sub-floor Liquid Lead Ballast and the new loaded Roswell Pro Edge Tower. Opt for 1,300-pounds of additional Flex Ballast from the factory and swamp the competition. The epitome of convenience and customization the SA has snap-out carpet with a fiberglass floor. The intricate upholstery design is only matched by the plush feel and durability of the NANO Block Technology (NBT) Vinyl surrounding multiple densities of foam. Hand-covered accents finish the performance look and the luxurious feel. Experience SA350, SA450 and SA550 shock and awe in person at a Supra Boats dealer near you.

Overall Length w/o Platform: 22' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform: 24' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform & Trailer: 27' 2"

Width (Beam): 100"

Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

Weight - Boat only: 4,300 lbs

Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

Capacity - Passenger: 10

Capacity - Weight: 1,400 lbs

Capacity - Fuel: 50 gals

Capacity - Ballast: 900 lbs (S) 1,300 lbs (O) = 2,200 lbs available from factory.

Engine - Electronic Fuel Injection: 345 HP-SA350, 450 HP-SA450, 550HP-SA550

Nice precise fit of an original old Stronglight chainring nut in the counter-bore of the new chainring.

For more info or to purchase this or another low gearing chainring, browse the website: www.redclovercomponents.com/

The first Ford Capri to bear that precise name was introduced in January 1969 at the Brussels Motor Show, with sales starting the following month. The intention was to reproduce in Europe the success Ford had had with the North American Ford Mustang; to produce a European pony car. It was mechanically based on the Cortina and built in Europe at the Dagenham and Halewood plants in the United Kingdom, the Genk plant in Belgium, and the Saarlouis and Cologne plants in Germany. The car was named Colt during development stage, but Ford were unable to use the name, as it was trademarked by Mitsubishi.

(Wikipedia)

- - -

Der Capri wurde im Januar 1969 auf dem Brüsseler Autosalon offiziell präsentiert, der Verkauf begann im Februar. Mit dem Capri wollte Ford den Erfolg, den das Unternehmen mit dem Ford Mustang in den USA erzielt hatte, in Europa wiederholen und eine Art europäisches „Pony Car“ anbieten. Das Fahrwerk wurde vom englischen Ford Cortina übernommen, die Motoren zum Teil vom deutschen Ford Taunus. Hergestellt wurde er in den britischen Werken Dagenham und Halewood, im belgischen Genk und in den deutschen Ford-Fabriken Saarlouis und Köln. Der Entwicklungsname des Capri lautete Colt; da der Name aber rechtlich von Mitsubishi geschützt war, konnte Ford ihn für sein Serienmodell nicht verwenden.

(Wikipedia)

“A Little Tale”…

He was not of this earthly plane. To be precise, he was trapped here…unable to find the portal or open it, on those occasions when it became visible to him, between this earthly plane and his home on the Other side deep down in the fiery dark hot smelly bowels of hell.

He had been trapped on this side for so long, at least 250-300 earthly years, which to him was far too long. He hungered for his dark hot smelly cesspool of a home. Each new day he didn’t think he could endure even for one more second the singing of those creatures called birds, the bright colors of the flowers, the intensity of the sun, and oh, all that horrible lush green foliage, as well as the sound of human laughter, especially the young ones.

So, to avoid all that horror, he slept during the time of the light and was awake when darkness fell and that hot bright sun set. He was a denizen of the night. A creature of darkness.

He kept completely to himself, for the most part, when it came to interacting with those “in body” beings called humans. Although he was forced on occasion to interact with these humans, he found them repulsive. Well, truth be told, not all were repulsive to him. Being a creature from the Other side, he possessed many abilities that these repulsive humans did not. Their bodies and minds limited them and they, unaware or uncaring, didn’t know or attempt to find out that they could have at least some of the same abilities he possessed if they just opened their minds. But, they were content to be thick blocks of cement going through their pathetic daily rituals as if they were something of importance.

One of his abilities, and the one that alerted him to the humans that were not repulsive to him, was that he could see inside of each and every one of them… right to their very souls. He could weed through them and find the ones with the black evil hearts. Now, those were his kind of beings for he knew when they left their clumsy earthly bodies and passed through that elusive portal, separating this world from the next, they would reside in the bowels of hell, where he belonged and should be, and be like him.

Now, with these humans, he developed a false relationship with them. Evil as he was, he wanted no relationships, attachments or the like. No, he did this because he needed them and wanted to use them or rather their souls, when their human hearts stopped beating, indicating the body had died and their souls were released, as a means to either push their souls aside and leave them stranded and earthbound and slip through the portal to reach his home or to attach himself to their black souls as they passed through the portal to hell.

For two years he tried to “tag along” on the black hearts souls’ passage from his world through the portal to hell, but each time his efforts failed. When he was with them when they died, their death being a result of his actions, he saw the portal, which appeared at each black hearted human’s death, but he could not pass through it with them. Their souls, screaming in horror and terror, passed through the portal and left this world for their new residence in hell, and he remained behind.

When he first got trapped on this side 250-300 human years ago due to a stupid mistake on his part, he spent the first 50-100 of these human earth rotation years looking for the portal to home, but to no avail. Then, he became aware of these humans and realized he could see into them and find those with black hearts. That is when the idea came to him to either tag along or push their dark souls aside after their human hearts stopped beating and pass through the portal to home, leaving them behind.

But, waiting years for them to die was excruciating on top of the fact that when they did die, he was still left behind. He had to wait for their death and then he remained here…still trapped. So, he became obsessed to find a quicker way to get back to his hell. Using all his black magic and spells, as well as any tool or instrument at hand, he began to kill black hearted humans…one after another. He would go to prisons where the crop of evil hearts was more than plentiful and kill and kill and kill, tagging along or trying to push their screaming horror filled black souls aside. But, he failed each and every time. He could not understand why.

When he saw the portal to hell, he would get a glimpse of his home… all fiery, hot, dank, and dark and he could hear the screams of those damned to live there for eternity. His hunger to get there increased even more.

He held back some black hearted souls, who were grateful not to be damned and allowed to remain on this earthly plane, as his slaves to do his bidding. He would command them to kill human after human along with him and help him try to use any way possible as a means to get through that portal, but he could not. For….The Angel of Death would not let him pass through and return home to hell. He was trapped here. Trapped.

Each day when he slept, his mind relived the day he made that stupid blunder which caused him to remain on this side. He tried to figure out how to reverse what he had done. Day after day, earth rotation after earth rotation, he thought while he slept, but nothing came to him. No idea, no discovery, no answer, no sign…nothing.

But, what did come to him was the realization that because he enjoyed, no reveled, in his damnation and loved the smelly fiery bowels of hell with all the screaming and crying black hearted souls, it was deemed that was not punishment for his evil. The punishment of damnation meant he should suffer, not enjoy his fate. So, he was tricked into making that stupid error and lost access to the portal to hell, thus preventing him from going home forever. He was now, truly damned and punished.”

~ Marsha J West, Author*

* The “A Little Tale” is my original idea and story. I am the author of that story and it is my property. Thus, it cannot be copied, reproduced, reprinted or used in any way or any medium. Also, this hutch is my original idea, creation and design. It is also my creative property. It is not to be copied, resold or reproduced.

“A Little Tale”…

He was not of this earthly plane. To be precise, he was trapped here…unable to find the portal or open it, on those occasions when it became visible to him, between this earthly plane and his home on the Other side deep down in the fiery dark hot smelly bowels of hell.

He had been trapped on this side for so long, at least 250-300 earthly years, which to him was far too long. He hungered for his dark hot smelly cesspool of a home. Each new day he didn’t think he could endure even for one more second the singing of those creatures called birds, the bright colors of the flowers, the intensity of the sun, and oh, all that horrible lush green foliage, as well as the sound of human laughter, especially the young ones.

So, to avoid all that horror, he slept during the time of the light and was awake when darkness fell and that hot bright sun set. He was a denizen of the night. A creature of darkness.

He kept completely to himself, for the most part, when it came to interacting with those “in body” beings called humans. Although he was forced on occasion to interact with these humans, he found them repulsive. Well, truth be told, not all were repulsive to him. Being a creature from the Other side, he possessed many abilities that these repulsive humans did not. Their bodies and minds limited them and they, unaware or uncaring, didn’t know or attempt to find out that they could have at least some of the same abilities he possessed if they just opened their minds. But, they were content to be thick blocks of cement going through their pathetic daily rituals as if they were something of importance.

One of his abilities, and the one that alerted him to the humans that were not repulsive to him, was that he could see inside of each and every one of them… right to their very souls. He could weed through them and find the ones with the black evil hearts. Now, those were his kind of beings for he knew when they left their clumsy earthly bodies and passed through that elusive portal, separating this world from the next, they would reside in the bowels of hell, where he belonged and should be, and be like him.

Now, with these humans, he developed a false relationship with them. Evil as he was, he wanted no relationships, attachments or the like. No, he did this because he needed them and wanted to use them or rather their souls, when their human hearts stopped beating, indicating the body had died and their souls were released, as a means to either push their souls aside and leave them stranded and earthbound and slip through the portal to reach his home or to attach himself to their black souls as they passed through the portal to hell.

For two years he tried to “tag along” on the black hearts souls’ passage from his world through the portal to hell, but each time his efforts failed. When he was with them when they died, their death being a result of his actions, he saw the portal, which appeared at each black hearted human’s death, but he could not pass through it with them. Their souls, screaming in horror and terror, passed through the portal and left this world for their new residence in hell, and he remained behind.

When he first got trapped on this side 250-300 human years ago due to a stupid mistake on his part, he spent the first 50-100 of these human earth rotation years looking for the portal to home, but to no avail. Then, he became aware of these humans and realized he could see into them and find those with black hearts. That is when the idea came to him to either tag along or push their dark souls aside after their human hearts stopped beating and pass through the portal to home, leaving them behind.

But, waiting years for them to die was excruciating on top of the fact that when they did die, he was still left behind. He had to wait for their death and then he remained here…still trapped. So, he became obsessed to find a quicker way to get back to his hell. Using all his black magic and spells, as well as any tool or instrument at hand, he began to kill black hearted humans…one after another. He would go to prisons where the crop of evil hearts was more than plentiful and kill and kill and kill, tagging along or trying to push their screaming horror filled black souls aside. But, he failed each and every time. He could not understand why.

When he saw the portal to hell, he would get a glimpse of his home… all fiery, hot, dank, and dark and he could hear the screams of those damned to live there for eternity. His hunger to get there increased even more.

He held back some black hearted souls, who were grateful not to be damned and allowed to remain on this earthly plane, as his slaves to do his bidding. He would command them to kill human after human along with him and help him try to use any way possible as a means to get through that portal, but he could not. For….The Angel of Death would not let him pass through and return home to hell. He was trapped here. Trapped.

Each day when he slept, his mind relived the day he made that stupid blunder which caused him to remain on this side. He tried to figure out how to reverse what he had done. Day after day, earth rotation after earth rotation, he thought while he slept, but nothing came to him. No idea, no discovery, no answer, no sign…nothing.

But, what did come to him was the realization that because he enjoyed, no reveled, in his damnation and loved the smelly fiery bowels of hell with all the screaming and crying black hearted souls, it was deemed that was not punishment for his evil. The punishment of damnation meant he should suffer, not enjoy his fate. So, he was tricked into making that stupid error and lost access to the portal to hell, thus preventing him from going home forever. He was now, truly damned and punished.”

~ Marsha J West, Author*

* The “A Little Tale” is my original idea and story. I am the author of that story and it is my property. Thus, it cannot be copied, reproduced, reprinted or used in any way or any medium. Also, this hutch is my original idea, creation and design. It is also my creative property. It is not to be copied, resold or reproduced.

Chaturbhuj temple (Devanagri: चतुर्भुज मंदिर) is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The name Chaturbhuj (Devanagri: चतुर्भुज) is a derived from Sanskrit words चतु: = four and भुजा = arms, which literally means One who has four arms; and refers to Lord Vishnu.

The temple is Date-able to CIRCA 1100 A.D. This temple is also known as Jatakari (Devanagri:जटकारी) Temple on the name of the village Jatakari (Devanagri:जटकारी), where it is located.

This temple is located near a village Jatakara at Khajuraho. This temple is also known as Jatakari Temple on the name of the village.

It is grouped under southern group of temples, due to is location in southern area of Khajuraho.

This is the only temple in Khajuraho which lacks erotic sculptures.

The temple consists of a sanctum without ambulatory, vestibule, mandapa and an entrance porch. The temple stands on a Modest (chabutara).

Around the wall, there are three bands of sculptures.

The main idol in the temple is of four-armed Lord Vishnu. It is 2.7 meters in height.

______________________________________________

The Khajuraho Group of Monuments in Khajuraho, a town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, located in Chhatarpur District, about 620 kilometres southeast of New Delhi, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. Khajuraho has the largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples, famous for their erotic sculptures.

Between 950 and 1150, the Chandela monarchs built these temples when the Tantric tradition may have been accepted. In the days before the Mughal conquests, when boys lived in hermitages, following brahmacharya until they became men, they could learn about the world and prepare themselves to become householders through examining these sculptures and the worldly desires they depicted.

The name Khajuraho, ancient "Kharjuravāhaka", is derived from the Sanskrit words kharjura = date palm and vāhaka = "one who carries". Locals living in the Khajuraho village always knew about and kept up the temples as best as they could. They were pointed out to the English in the late 19th century when the jungles had taken a toll on the monuments. In the 19th century, British engineer T.S. Burt arrived in the area, followed by General Alexander Cunningham. Cunningham put Khajuraho on the world map when he explored the site on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India and described what he found in glowing terms. The Khajuraho Group of Monuments has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is considered to be one of the "seven wonders" of India.

HISTORY

In the 27th Century of Kali Yuga the Mlechcha invaders started attacking Northern India, some Bargujar moved eastward to central India; they ruled over the Northeastern region of Rajasthan, called Dhundhar, and were referred to as Dhundhel or Dhundhela in ancient times, for the region they governed. Later on they called themselves Chandelas; those who were in the ruling class having gotra Kashyap were definitely all Bargujars; they were vassals of Gurjara – Pratihara empire of North India, which lasted from 500 CE to 1300 CE and at its peak the major monuments were built. The Bargujars also built the Kalinjar fort and Neelkanth Mahadev temple, similar to one at Sariska National Park, and Baroli, being Shiva

The city was the cultural capital of Chandel Rajputs, a Hindu dynasty that ruled this part of India from the 10 to 12th centuries. The political capital of the Chandelas was Kalinjar. The Khajuraho temples were built over a span of 200 years, from 950 to 1150. The Chandela capital was moved to Mahoba after this time, but Khajuraho continued to flourish for some time. Khajuraho has no forts because the Chandel Kings never lived in their cultural capital.

The whole area was enclosed by a wall with eight originates, each flanked by two golden palm trees. There were originally over 85 Hindu temples, of which only 25 now stand in a reasonable state of preservation, scattered over an area of about 20 square kilometres. The erotic sculptures were crafted by Chandella artisans. The temples, maintained by the locals, were pointed out to the English in the late 19th century when the jungles had taken a toll on the monuments. Today, the temples serve as fine examples of Indian architectural styles that have gained popularity due to their explicit depiction of sexual life during medieval times.You can see the erotic sculptures on Kandariya Mahadev Temple.

ARCHITECTURE

The temples are grouped into three geographical divisions: western, eastern and southern.

The Khajuraho temples are made of sandstone. The builders didn't use mortar: the stones were put together with mortise and tenon joints and they were held in place by gravity. This form of construction requires very precise joints. The columns and architraves were built with megaliths that weighed up to 20 tons.

The Saraswati temple on the campus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India, is modeled after the Khajuraho temples.

STATUES AND CARVINGS

The Khajuraho temples contain sexual or erotic art outside the temple or near the deities. Some of the temples that have two layers of walls have small erotic carvings on the outside of the inner wall. It has been suggested that these suggest tantric sexual practices. Some 10% of the carvings contain sexual themes and those reportedly do not depict deities but rather sexual activities between people. The rest depict the everyday life. For example, those depictions show women putting on makeup, musicians, potters, farmers, and other folk. The mundane scenes are all at some distance from the temple deities. A common misconception is that, since the old structures with carvings in Khajuraho are temples, the carvings depict sex between deities.

Another perspective of these carvings is presented by James McConnachie. In his history of the Kamasutra, McConnachie describes the zesty 10% of the Khajuraho sculptures as "the apogee of erotic art":

"Twisting, broad-hipped and high breasted nymphs display their generously contoured and bejewelled bodies on exquisitely worked exterior wall panels. These fleshy apsaras run riot across the surface of the stone, putting on make-up, washing their hair, playing games, dancing, and endlessly knotting and unknotting their girdles....Beside the heavenly nymphs are serried ranks of griffins, guardian deities and, most notoriously, extravagantly interlocked maithunas, or lovemaking couples."

While the sexual nature of these carvings have caused the site to be referred to as the Kamasutra temple, they do not illustrate the meticulously described positions. Neither do they express the philosophy of Vatsyayana's famous sutra. As "a strange union of Tantrism and fertility motifs, with a heavy dose of magic" they belief a document which focuses on pleasure rather than procreation. That is, fertility is moot.

The strategically placed sculptures are "symbolical-magical diagrams, or yantras" designed to appease malevolent spirits. This alamkara (ornamentation) expresses sophisticated artistic transcendence over the natural; sexual images imply a virile, thus powerful, ruler.

Between 950 and 1150, the Chandela monarchs built these temples when the Tantric tradition may have been accepted. In the days before the Mughal conquests, when boys lived in hermitages, following brahmacharya until they became men, they could learn about the world and prepare themselves to become householders through examining these sculptures and the worldly desires they depicted.

While recording the television show Lost Worlds (History Channel) at Khajuraho, Alex Evans, a contemporary stonemason and sculptor gave his expert opinion and forensically examined the tool marks and construction techniques involved in creating the stunning stonework at the sites. He also recreated a stone sculpture under 4 feet that took about 60 days to carve in an attempt to develop a rough idea how much work must have been involved. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone. These temples would have required hundreds of highly trained sculptors.

___________________________________________________________________

Der Tempelbezirk von Khajuraho umfasst eine Gruppe von etwa 20 Tempeln im Zentrum und in der näheren Umgebung der Stadt Khajuraho im indischen Bundesstaat Madhya Pradesh. Sie zählen zum UNESCO-Welterbe.

GESCHICHTE

Nahezu alle Tempel Khajurahos wurde von den Herrschern der Chandella-Dynastie zwischen 950 und 1120 erbaut. Die Chandellas waren ein zwischen dem 10. und 16. Jahrhundert regierender Rajputen-Klan, welcher sich um 950 in Gwalior festsetzte. Im 10. und 11. Jahrhundert waren die Chandellas die führende Macht in Nordindien, wenngleich sie formell noch bis 1018 Vasallen der Pratihara waren.

Nach dem Niedergang der Dynastie im 12. Jahrhundert wurden die Tempel kaum noch oder gar nicht mehr benutzt und blieben dem Wuchs des Dschungels überlassen. Der politisch, militärisch und wirtschaftlich bedeutungslos gewordene Ort lag abseits aller Wege und blieb somit auch in der Zeit des islamischen Vordringens in Nordindien von Zerstörungen verschont. Im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert zählte die einstmals bedeutsame Stadt nur noch etwa 300 Einwohner. Im 19. Jahrhundert wurden die Tempel von den Briten 'wiederentdeckt'. Zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts begannen systematische Sicherungs- und Restaurierungsarbeiten, die schließlich zur Wiederherstellung dieses einzigartigen Architektur-Ensembles führten.

TEMPEL

Ursprünglich gab es in Khajuraho etwa 80 Tempelbauten verstreut auf einer Gesamtfläche von ca. 21 Quadratkilometer, heutzutage sind davon nur noch etwa 20 erhalten, von denen die meisten in zwei Gruppen stehen. Die Mehrzahl der Tempel ist den hinduistischen Hauptgöttern geweiht, einige den Jaina-Tirthankaras. Buddhistische Bauten gab es wohl nicht, jedenfalls wurden keine buddhistischen Skulpturen entdeckt.

Alle Tempel stehen auf 1,50 bis 3 Meter hohen Plattformen (jagatis), die das Bauwerk vor Witterungseinflüssen (Monsunregen) und freilaufenden Tieren schützten. Hinzu kommt eine Sockelzone, die bei den späteren Tempeln (ab ca. 950) mehrfach gestuft ist und durchaus nochmals 3 Meter hoch sein kann. Plattform und Sockel tragen natürlich auch zu einer 'Erhöhung' des aufstehenden Bauwerks im übertragenen Sinn bei.

Die Mehrzahl der Tempeleingänge sind nach Osten, also in Richtung der aufgehenden Sonne ausgerichtet, d. h. die Cella (garbhagriha) liegt im Westen. Bei zwei Tempeln ist es umgekehrt: sie orientieren sich nach Westen, d. h. in Richtung der untergehenden Sonne (Lalguan-Mahadeva-Tempel und Chaturbuja-Tempel). Beide Ausrichtungen sind bei indischen Tempeln seit Jahrhunderten möglich und üblich. Die vorderen zwei Begleitschreine des Lakshmana-Tempels liegen einander gegenüber und sind nach Süden bzw. Norden ausgerichtet.

WESTGRUPPE (Hindu-Tempel)

- Matangeshvara-Tempel (ca. 950)

- Varaha-Tempel (ca. 950)

- Lakshmana-Tempel (ca. 950)

- Devi-Tempel

- Vishvanatha-Tempel (ca. 1000)

- Nandi-Schrein

- Parvati-Schrein

- Jagadambi-Tempel

- Chitragupta-Tempel

- Kandariya-Mahadeva-Tempel (1. Hälfte 11. Jh.)

OSTGRUPPE (Jain-Tempel)

- Parsvanatha-Tempel (ca. 960)

- Adinatha-Tempel (ca. 1050)

- Shantinatha-Tempel

- Ghantai-Tempel (ca. 990)

EINZELTEMPEL (Hindu-Tempel)

- Chausath-Yogini-Tempel (ca. 875)

- Lalguan-Mahadeva-Tempel (ca. 920)

- Brahma-Tempel (ca. 930)

- Khakra-Math-Tempel (ca. 980)

- Vamana-Tempel (ca. 1050)

- Javari-Tempel (ca. 1100)

- Chaturbuja-Tempel (ca. 1120)

- Duladeo-Tempel (ca. 1120)

ARCHITEKTUR

Die Tempel von Khajuraho bieten die Möglichkeit, auf engstem Raum die Entwicklung der indischen Baukunst in einer Zeitspanne von etwa 200 Jahren zu verfolgen − von kleinen (wenig gegliederten, einräumigen und geschlossenen) Tempeln hin zu großen (stark gegliederten, mehrräumigen und offenen) Bauten. Auch die Höhe der Bauten erfährt während dieser Zeit eine enorme Steigerung. Gemeinsam ist nahezu allen Bauten (Ausnahme: Chausath-Yogini-Tempel), dass sie über Dachaufbauten (Shikhara-Türme oder Pyramidendächer) verfügen, die von gerippten amalaka-Steinen und kalasha-Krügen bekrönt werden.

FRÜHZEIT

Abgesehen vom Chausath-Yogini-Tempel, dem ältesten und vollkommen anderen baulichen Traditionen verpflichteten Tempelbau in Khajuraho, bestehen die frühen Tempel nur aus einer − von einem gestuften Pyramidendach bedeckten − Cella (garbhagriha), der im Fall des Brahma-Tempels noch ein Portalvorbau (antarala), im Fall des Varaha-Tempels und des Matangesvara-Tempels jeweils ein kleiner offener Vorraum (mandapa) vorgesetzt ist. Die Außenwände sind nur geringfügig gegliedert und überwiegend steinsichtig.

BLÜHTZEIT

Die Blütezeit der Tempelarchitektur in Khajuraho beginnt mit dem Lakshmana-Tempel (ca. 930−950), der wahrscheinlich vom Maladevi-Tempel in Gyaraspur und von früheren Tempelbauten in Rajasthan beeinflusst ist, die ihrerseits wiederum allesamt auf die beim Bau des Kalika-Mata-Tempels in Chittorgarh (ca. 700) erstmals entwickelten baulichen Innovationen zurückgeführt werden können. Diese sind im Wesentlichen: mehrere hintereinander liegende, aber harmonisch miteinander verbundenen Bauteile (mandapas, antarala und garbhagriha); gleiche Grundfläche von großer Vorhalle (mahamandapa) und Sanktumsbereich; Cella als eigenständiger Baukörper im Innern; Pfeiler − und nicht mehr Wände − als tragende Stützelemente für die Dachaufbauten − dadurch wurde es möglich, die Räume nach außen hin durch balkonähnliche Vorbauten zu öffnen; mehrfache Abstufung und Gliederung der verbliebenen Wandteile außen wie innen − dadurch treten sie gar nicht mehr als 'Wand' in Erscheinung; Fortsetzung der Außenwandgliederung im Dachaufbau.

Beim Lakshmana-Tempel ist die Cella als eigener, innenliegender Baukörper gestaltet und von einem Umgang (pradakshinapatha) umgeben. Der gesamte Sanktumsbereich sowie seine vier Nebenschreine werden − erstmals in Khajuraho − von steil und hoch aufragenden Shikhara-Türmen überhöht; die weniger wichtigen Vorhallen werden auch weiterhin von den insgesamt flacheren, pyramidenförmigen Dächern bedeckt, so dass eine architektonische Steigerung der Tempel − einem Gebirge durchaus vergleichbar − hin zur Cella erreicht wird.

Die wichtigsten Nachfolgebauten des Lakshmana-Tempels sind der Vishvanatha-Tempel (ca. 1000) und der Kandariya-Mahadeva-Tempel (ca. 1050), bei denen wegen der vielfältigen architektonischen Gliederungen und des dichten Skulpturenprogramms eine Stein- bzw. Wandsichtigkeit nicht mehr wahrzunehmen ist.

SKULPTUREN

Auch im Hinblick auf die Entwicklung der indischen Skulptur bieten die Tempel von Khajuraho einen Überblick über ca. 200 Jahre indischer Kunstgeschichte − von den in Architekturelemente eingebundenen und eher unbewegt und statisch erscheinenden Reliefdarstellungen der Frühzeit bis hin zu den beinahe freiplastisch gearbeiteten und durch ihre Posenvielfalt nahezu lebendig wirkenden Figuren.

FRÜHZEITLICHE SKULPTUREN

Die nur wenig gegliederten Außenwände der frühen Tempel von Khajuraho zeigen kaum figürlichen oder ornamentalen Schmuck. Dieser ist, noch stark reliefgebunden, auf die Portale (Lalguan-Mahadeva-Tempel, Brahma-Tempel) sowie auf einige Fensternischen (Matangeshvara-Tempel) beschränkt. Erotische Skulpturen sind in den frühen Tempeln noch nicht zu finden.

SKULPTUREN DER BLÜHTEZEIT

Auch hier ist es der Lakshmana-Tempel, der für Khajuraho neue Zeichen setzt: Während die Außenwände der Vorhallen nur wenig figürliche Reliefs zeigen, sind die Wände des Sanktums überreich mit Skulpturen geschmückt. Darunter finden sich Götterfiguren (devas oder devis), „schöne Mädchen“ (surasundaris) und Liebespaare (mithunas); auch die ersten erotischen Skulpturen sind in den unteren (erdnahen) Feldern der Mittelregister sowie im Figurenfries der Plattform zu sehen. Die mittleren Felder zeigen dagegen zärtliche Liebespaare mit kleineren Begleitfiguren, die oberen Götterfiguren. Eine Hierarchie der Figurenanordnung ist also deutlich wahrnehmbar. Bei den unmittelbaren Nachfolgebauten (Vishvanatha-Tempel, Jagadambi-Tempel und Kandariya-Mahadeva-Tempel) nimmt die Anzahl der Figuren und somit auch der erotischen Darstellungen zu.

Bei den Jain-Tempeln und den späteren Hindu-Tempeln sind kaum noch erotisch-sexuelle Darstellungen zu finden; hier überwiegt die Anzahl der Götterfiguren manchmal sogar die der „schönen Mädchen“.

ARCHÄOLOGISCHES MUSEUM

Zu den Sehenswürdigkeiten im Bereich des Tempelbezirks von Khajuraho gehört auch das im Ortskern gelegene Archäologische Museum (auch Rani Durgavati-Museum genannt). Es beherbergt einige sehr schöne Skulpturen, die im Rahmen der Ausgrabungs- und Restaurierungsarbeiten gefunden und hierher verbracht wurden, weil sie keinem der erhaltenen Tempelbauten direkt zuzuordnen waren.

WIKIPEDIA

(Erithacus rubecula)

Le mâle et la femelle sont presque identiques, avec une couronne, des ailes, le dessus et la queue de couleur brune, une bande grise sur les côtés de la gorge, un ventre blanc et la fameuse « gorge rouge », plus précisément de couleur orange foncé tirant vers le rouge. L'identification des jeunes peut se révéler difficile, car il leur manque la tache rouge et ils présentent un plumage brun tacheté ressemblant fortement à celui du jeune d'un membre de la même famille, le rossignol philomèle. Le rouge-gorge est légèrement plus petit qu'un moineau avec une taille de 14 cm et un poids de 16 à 22 grammes, il est rondelet et haut sur pattes, ses yeux noirs sont également caractéristiques. L'âge maximal d'un rouge-gorge est de 12 ans.

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The adult European Robin is 12.5–14.0 cm (5.0–5.5 in) long and weighs 16–22 g (9/16–13/16 oz), with a wingspan of 20–22 cm (8–9 in). The male and female bear similar plumage; an orange breast and face (more strongly coloured in the otherwise similar British subspecies E. r. mesophilus), lined by a bluish grey on the sides of the neck and chest. The upperparts are brownish, or olive-tinged in British birds, and the belly whitish, while the legs and feet are brown. The bill and eyes are black. Juveniles are a spotted brown and white in colouration, with patches of orange gradually appearing.

Because of high mortality in the first year of life, a Robin has an average life expectancy of 11 years; however, once past its first year it can expect to live longer and one Robin has been recorded as reaching 12 years of age. A spell of very low temperatures in winter may also result in significant mortality. This species is parasitised by the moorhen flea, Dasypsyllus gallinulae.

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The X-24B aircraft showed that a “lifting body” could glide through the atmosphere and make a precise landing on a runway like an airplane. A lifting body is a fixed-wing air or spacecraft in which the body itself produces lift. X-24 studies supported space shuttle development in the early 1970s. The U.S. Air Force, NASA and Martin Aircraft (now Lockheed Martin) heavily modified the X-24A to make a higher-performing vehicle, the X-24B.

The X-24B’s flat bottom and long nose added surface area to improve gliding qualities, increasing range and maneuverability. It flew 36 times between 1973 and 1975, making 12 gliding-only flights and 24 powered flights with gliding landings. In all its flights, a NASA modified B-52 “mothership” launched the X-24B at 45,000 feet.

In powered flights, a rocket engine accelerated the X-24B to more than 1,000 mph as it climbed to altitudes around 60,000-70,000 feet. The X-24B then made steep unpowered gliding landings like the future space shuttle. Highlights of the X-24B research program included two precise landings made on a concrete runway at Edwards AFB, Calif. (other flights landed on nearby dry lake beds). This ability to glide to a landing at a specific spot was an important step toward later space shuttle operations. The X-24B was the last joint USAF/NASA rocket-powered air-launched research aircraft.

These two Pilot pens have different brand names. But I think they are in the same category.

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.

These two flats (currently owned by Willow Park, the housing trust that owns most houses in Benchill, Brownley Green, Peel Hall and Woodhouse Park) are abandoned and are currently in the process of being demolished.

As you may of guessed already, this was taken from the top of a bus (43 to Manchester to be precise - on one of those futuristic looking buses by Stagecoach).

The precise location of that first church has been lost. The present building dates from the time of Pope Sixtus III (432 - 440) and contains many ancient mosaics from this period. Its form so exactly follows the conventions of an imperial basilica it has at times been taken for one.[9] The Athenian marble columns supporting the nave are even older, and either come from the first basilica, or from another antique Roman building; thirty-six are marble and four granite, pared down, or shortened to make them identical by Ferdinando Fuga, who provided them with identical gilt-bronze capitals.[10] The 14th century campanile, or bell tower, is the highest in Rome, at 240 feet, (about 75 m.). The basilica's 16th-century coffered ceiling, to a design by Giuliano da Sangallo, is said to be gilded with Inca gold presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish pope, initially brought by Christopher Columbus[citation needed], Alexander VI (something which factually is erroneous, since the Inca empire was conquered during the reign of Charles V). The apse mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is from 1295, signed by the Franciscan friar, Jacopo Torriti. The Basilica also contains frescoes by Giovanni Baglione, in the Cappella Borghese.

The Piazza dell'Esquilino with the apse area of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The Borghese (or Pauline) Chapel

The 12th-century façade has been masked by a reconstruction, with a screening loggia, that were added by Pope Benedict XIV in 1743, to designs by Ferdinando Fuga that did not damage the mosaics of the façade. The wing of the canonica (sacristy to its left and a matching wing to the right (designed by Flaminio Ponzio) give the basilica's front the aspect of a palace facing Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore. To the right of the Basilica's façade is a memorial representing a column in the form of an up-ended cannon barrel topped with a cross: it was erected by Pope Clement VIII immediately after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Protestants, though today it is reputed to celebrate the end of the French Wars of Religion [1].

The Marian column erected in 1614, to designs of Carlo Maderno is the model for numerous Marian columns erected in Catholic countries in thanksgiving for remission of the plague during the Baroque era. (An example is the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc, the Czech Republic). The column itself is the sole remaining from Constantine's Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in Campo Vaccino, as the Roman Forum was called until the 18th century [2]; Maderno's fountain at the base combines the armorial eagles and dragons of Paul V.

Tank Infantry Mark III, Valentine IX (E2000.577)

The precise identity of this tank is not clear, all identification marks having been removed many years ago. It stood outside the Army Base at Long Kesh in Northern Ireland for many years, subsequently moving to the Maze Prison and Lisanelly Camp, Omagh.

It was subsequently acquired by Vickers Defence Systems and restored to running order in Newcastle using the engine from our Valentine Archer (E1969.43). In due course it was offered to the Tank Museum on loan and ultimately, in March 2002 was gifted to the Museum.

The Valentine Mark IX was upgunned to fit a 57mm (six-pounder) gun into the turret although this did not leave enough room for a co-axial machine gun and in any case, with just a two-man turret crew the tank was very difficult to fight.

Our tank carried the number T123358 on the turret which is correct for the type but not necessarily for this actual vehicle. Mark IX Valentines saw service in North Africa and some may have been suppplied to Russia but by 1943 the Valentine had been replaced in front line service by more modern vehicles and was either being relegated to secondary roles or supplied to other countries such as Portugal.

The Valentine development started without a specification from the War Office (hence the absence of an army designation), as a private design by Sir John Carden, and was submitted on February, 10, 1938, to the authorities. By then, the Matilda II had been chosen for production, but the Valentine was something different.

Vickers engineers basically tried to enhance their A10 Cruiser tank design, with a dramatic increase in protection (up to 60 mm/2.36 in). This choice allowed the use most components and parts of the already produced Cruiser I and II, therefore creating an efficient and cheap solution to the need of new infantry tank models. By then, the Matilda II was found to be far costlier than the Matilda I, and not suitable for mass-production. Comparatively, the Valentine seemed a good compromise. The name itself still is a mystery. It could have originated either from Sir John Carden’s middle name, or the date of its first submission (St. Valentine day), or a composed Vickers factory codename, though most historians agree that Valentine was just a simple codename during development.

The Mark I set the tone for the entire series of eleven main variants, with many sub-variants, and a staggering total of 8300 units. The main armament and turret design, as well as the engine and protection, were continuously improved while keeping roughly the same general appearance until 1945. The Mk.I was recognizable by its original two-man turret and 2-pdr (40 mm/1.575 in) gun. From the start, a coaxial Besa machine-gun constitued the secondary armament. The crew consisted of only three men due to the cramped interior, and the commander was also busy as gun loader, machine-gunner and radio operator. The production was rushed to such point that many problems were later detected and fixed with the next Mk.II. The main engine was the AEG A189 petrol delivering only 135 hp, and the hull was riveted. 350 were delivered in all, most seeing action in Libya, while others stayed at home for training.

Tankfest by World of Tanks - 24.-25.6.2016

The Tank Museum - Bovington, UK

Worlds biggest and best live display of historic armour, living history, and much more at the Home of the Tank - The Tank Museum, Bovington, United Kingdom.

More from Tankfest:

www.flickr.com/photos/jukkaokauppinen2/albums/72157670621...

More from me:

www.flickr.com/photos/jukkaokauppinen

Tankfest videos:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIGRHBJyGQb3PpXwFlOKve2OUJ...

My Imgur galleries:

grendelb.imgur.com/

Buddhist teachings contain very precise descriptions on the process of dying, death and the stages between death and rebirth.

During his lecture in New York, Lama Ole explained the foundations of the "Tibetan Book of Death" and the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa). Through the meditation on “conscious dying” you get the opportunity to work intensively with the process of your own death.

Lama Ole Nydahl received the transmission of the Phowa teachings from different Tibetan Lamas and is today the most significant teacher of this practice in the Western world. More than 80,000 people learned the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa) through him.

More about his work: www.lama-ole-nydahl.org/his-work/

The precise location of that first church has been lost. The present building dates from the time of Pope Sixtus III (432 - 440) and contains many ancient mosaics from this period. Its form so exactly follows the conventions of an imperial basilica it has at times been taken for one.[9] The Athenian marble columns supporting the nave are even older, and either come from the first basilica, or from another antique Roman building; thirty-six are marble and four granite, pared down, or shortened to make them identical by Ferdinando Fuga, who provided them with identical gilt-bronze capitals.[10] The 14th century campanile, or bell tower, is the highest in Rome, at 240 feet, (about 75 m.). The basilica's 16th-century coffered ceiling, to a design by Giuliano da Sangallo, is said to be gilded with Inca gold presented by Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish pope, initially brought by Christopher Columbus[citation needed], Alexander VI (something which factually is erroneous, since the Inca empire was conquered during the reign of Charles V). The apse mosaic, the Coronation of the Virgin, is from 1295, signed by the Franciscan friar, Jacopo Torriti. The Basilica also contains frescoes by Giovanni Baglione, in the Cappella Borghese.

The Piazza dell'Esquilino with the apse area of Santa Maria Maggiore.

The Borghese (or Pauline) Chapel

The 12th-century façade has been masked by a reconstruction, with a screening loggia, that were added by Pope Benedict XIV in 1743, to designs by Ferdinando Fuga that did not damage the mosaics of the façade. The wing of the canonica (sacristy to its left and a matching wing to the right (designed by Flaminio Ponzio) give the basilica's front the aspect of a palace facing Piazza Santa Maria Maggiore. To the right of the Basilica's façade is a memorial representing a column in the form of an up-ended cannon barrel topped with a cross: it was erected by Pope Clement VIII immediately after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Protestants, though today it is reputed to celebrate the end of the French Wars of Religion [1].

The Marian column erected in 1614, to designs of Carlo Maderno is the model for numerous Marian columns erected in Catholic countries in thanksgiving for remission of the plague during the Baroque era. (An example is the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc, the Czech Republic). The column itself is the sole remaining from Constantine's Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine in Campo Vaccino, as the Roman Forum was called until the 18th century [2]; Maderno's fountain at the base combines the armorial eagles and dragons of Paul V.

Exercise PRECISE RESPONSE, is an annual chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) exercise hosted by Defence Research and Development Canada at Canadian Forces Base Suffield where the Canadian Armed Forces along with NATO allies and partner Nations can practice essential CBRN defence skills in a multinational training environment.

A staircase in the moated castle of Bad Rappenau in Germany

Some info (in german language) may be found here.

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Hendrick Ter Brugghen (1588-1629), actif à Utrecht

Joueuse de luth, 1626

Personnes en faisant de la musique, individuellement ou en groupes, sont populaires dès les premières représentations du sujet de Caravage, en particulier chez ses successeurs néerlandais. C'est précisément dans la musique néerlandais que musique souvent est pourvu de l'importance emblématique: peut-être le peintre voulait ainsi que son modèle, qui commence tout juste à faire de la musique et se mit à chanter et à jouer quelques notes de musiqe sur son instrument, soit compris comme une allégorie de l'ouïe.

Hendrick Terbrugghen (1588-1629), tätig in Utrecht

Lautenspielerin, um 1626

Musizierende, einzeln oder in Gruppen, sind seit Caravaggios frühen Darstellungen des Themas vor allem bei seinen holländischen Nachfolgern beliebt. Gerade in der niederländischen Malerei wird Musik gerne mit sinnbildhafter Bedeutung versehen: möglicherweise wollte der Maler also sein Modell, das gerade zu musizierend beginnt, sich und die Laute einstimmt, als Allegorie des Gehörsins verstanden wissen.

Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum

Federal Museum

Logo KHM

Regulatory authority (ies)/organs to the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture

Founded 17 October 1891

Headquartered Castle Ring (Burgring), Vienna 1, Austria

Management Sabine Haag

www.khm.at website

Main building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Maria-Theresa-Square

The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM abbreviated) is an art museum in Vienna. It is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It was opened in 1891 and 2012 visited of 1.351.940 million people.

The museum

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is with its opposite sister building, the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), the most important historicist large buildings of the Ringstrasse time. Together they stand around the Maria Theresa square, on which also the Maria Theresa monument stands. This course spans the former glacis between today's ring road and 2-line, and is forming a historical landmark that also belongs to World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.

History

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery

The Museum came from the collections of the Habsburgs, especially from the portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (most of which, however scattered) and the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm into existence. Already In 1833 asked Joseph Arneth, curator (and later director) of the Imperial Coins and Antiquities Cabinet, bringing together all the imperial collections in a single building .

Architectural History

The contract to build the museum in the city had been given in 1858 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Subsequently, many designs were submitted for the ring road zone. Plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null planned to build two museum buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Imperial Palace on the left and right of the Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz). The architect Ludwig Förster planned museum buildings between the Schwarzenberg Square and the City Park, Martin Ritter von Kink favored buildings at the corner Währingerstraße/ Scots ring (Schottenring), Peter Joseph, the area Bellariastraße, Moritz von Loehr the south side of the opera ring, and Ludwig Zettl the southeast side of the grain market (Getreidemarkt).

From 1867, a competition was announced for the museums, and thereby set their current position - at the request of the Emperor, the museum should not be too close to the Imperial Palace, but arise beyond the ring road. The architect Carl von Hasenauer participated in this competition and was able the at that time in Zürich operating Gottfried Semper to encourage to work together. The two museum buildings should be built here in the sense of the style of the Italian Renaissance. The plans got the benevolence of the imperial family. In April 1869, there was an audience with of Joseph Semper at the Emperor Franz Joseph and an oral contract was concluded, in July 1870 was issued the written order to Semper and Hasenauer.

Crucial for the success of Semper and Hasenauer against the projects of other architects were among others Semper's vision of a large building complex called "Imperial Forum", in which the museums would have been a part of. Not least by the death of Semper in 1879 came the Imperial Forum not as planned for execution, the two museums were built, however.

Construction of the two museums began without ceremony on 27 November 1871 instead. Semper moved to Vienna in the sequence. From the beginning, there were considerable personal differences between him and Hasenauer, who finally in 1877 took over sole construction management. 1874, the scaffolds were placed up to the attic and the first floor completed, built in 1878, the first windows installed in 1879, the Attica and the balustrade from 1880 to 1881 and built the dome and the Tabernacle. The dome is topped with a bronze statue of Pallas Athena by Johannes Benk.

The lighting and air conditioning concept with double glazing of the ceilings made ​​the renunciation of artificial light (especially at that time, as gas light) possible, but this resulted due to seasonal variations depending on daylight to different opening times .

Kuppelhalle

Entrance (by clicking the link at the end of the side you can see all the pictures here indicated!)

Grand staircase

Hall

Empire

The Kunsthistorisches Museum was on 17 October 1891 officially opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Since 22 October 1891 , the museum is accessible to the public. Two years earlier, on 3 November 1889, the collection of arms, Arms and Armour today, had their doors open. On 1 January 1890 the library service resumed its operations. The merger and listing of other collections of the Highest Imperial Family from the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace and Ambras in Tyrol will need another two years.

189, the farm museum was organized in seven collections with three directorates:

Directorate of coins, medals and antiquities collection

The Egyptian Collection

The Antique Collection

The coins and medals collection

Management of the collection of weapons, art and industrial objects

Weapons collection

Collection of industrial art objects

Directorate of Art Gallery and Restaurieranstalt (Restoration Office)

Collection of watercolors, drawings, sketches, etc.

Restoration Office

Library

Very soon the room the Court Museum (Hofmuseum) for the imperial collections was offering became too narrow. To provide temporary help, an exhibition of ancient artifacts from Ephesus in the Theseus Temple was designed. However, additional space had to be rented in the Lower Belvedere.

1914, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, his " Estonian Forensic Collection " passed to the administration of the Court Museum. This collection, which emerged from the art collection of the house of d' Este and world travel collection of Franz Ferdinand, was placed in the New Imperial Palace since 1908. For these stocks, the present collection of old musical instruments and the Museum of Ethnology emerged.

The First World War went by, apart from the oppressive economic situation without loss. The farm museum remained during the five years of war regularly open to the public.

Until 1919 the K.K. Art Historical Court Museum was under the authority of the Oberstkämmereramt (head chamberlain office) and belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The officials and employees were part of the royal household.

First Republic

The transition from monarchy to republic, in the museum took place in complete tranquility. On 19 November 1918 the two imperial museums on Maria Theresa Square were placed under the state protection of the young Republic of German Austria. Threatening to the stocks of the museum were the claims raised in the following weeks and months of the "successor states" of the monarchy as well as Italy and Belgium on Austrian art collection. In fact, it came on 12th February 1919 to the violent removal of 62 paintings by armed Italian units. This "art theft" left a long time trauma among curators and art historians.

It was not until the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 10 September 1919, providing in Article 195 and 196 the settlement of rights in the cultural field by negotiations. The claims of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy again could mostly being averted in this way. Only Hungary, which presented the greatest demands by far, was met by more than ten years of negotiation in 147 cases.

On 3 April 1919 was the expropriation of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine by law and the acquisition of its property, including the "Collections of the Imperial House" , by the Republic. Of 18 June 1920 the then provisional administration of the former imperial museums and collections of Este and the secular and clergy treasury passed to the State Office of Internal Affairs and Education, since 10 November 1920, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Education. A few days later it was renamed the Art History Court Museum in the "Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna State", 1921 "Kunsthistorisches Museum" . Of 1st January 1921 the employees of the museum staff passed to the state of the Republic.

Through the acquisition of the former imperial collections owned by the state, the museum found itself in a complete new situation. In order to meet the changed circumstances in the museum area, designed Hans Tietze in 1919 the "Vienna Museum program". It provided a close cooperation between the individual museums to focus at different houses on main collections. So dominated exchange, sales and equalizing the acquisition policy in the interwar period. Thus resulting until today still valid collection trends. Also pointing the way was the relocation of the weapons collection from 1934 in its present premises in the New Castle, where since 1916 the collection of ancient musical instruments was placed.

With the change of the imperial collections in the ownership of the Republic the reorganization of the internal organization went hand in hand, too. Thus the museum was divided in 1919 into the

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection (with the Oriental coins)

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Collection of ancient coins

Collection of modern coins and medals

Weapons collection

Collection of sculptures and crafts with the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Picture Gallery

The Museum 1938-1945

Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel Sinzendorf according to Rigaud. Clarisse 1948 by Baroness de Rothschildt "dedicated" to the memory of Baron Alphonse de Rothschildt; restituted to the Rothschilds in 1999, and in 1999 donated by Bettina Looram Rothschild, the last Austrian heiress.

With the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich all Jewish art collections such as the Rothschilds were forcibly "Aryanised". Collections were either "paid" or simply distributed by the Gestapo at the museums. This resulted in a significant increase in stocks. But the KHM was not the only museum that benefited from the linearization. Systematically looted Jewish property was sold to museums, collections or in pawnshops throughout the empire.

After the war, the museum struggled to reimburse the "Aryanised" art to the owners or their heirs. They forced the Rothschild family to leave the most important part of their own collection to the museum and called this "dedications", or "donations". As a reason, was the export law stated, which does not allow owners to perform certain works of art out of the country. Similar methods were used with other former owners. Only on the basis of international diplomatic and media pressure, to a large extent from the United States, the Austrian government decided to make a change in the law (Art Restitution Act of 1998, the so-called Lex Rothschild). The art objects were the Rothschild family refunded only in the 1990s.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum operates on the basis of the federal law on the restitution of art objects from the 4th December 1998 (Federal Law Gazette I, 181 /1998) extensive provenance research. Even before this decree was carried out in-house provenance research at the initiative of the then archive director Herbert Haupt. This was submitted in 1998 by him in collaboration with Lydia Grobl a comprehensive presentation of the facts about the changes in the inventory levels of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the Nazi era and in the years leading up to the State Treaty of 1955, an important basis for further research provenance.

The two historians Susanne Hehenberger and Monika Löscher are since 1st April 2009 as provenance researchers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research operating and they deal with the investigation period from 1933 to the recent past.

The museum today

Today the museum is as a federal museum, with 1st January 1999 released to the full legal capacity - it was thus the first of the state museums of Austria, implementing the far-reaching self-financing. It is by far the most visited museum in Austria with 1.3 million visitors (2007).

The Kunsthistorisches Museum is under the name Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum with company number 182081t since 11 June 1999 as a research institution under public law of the Federal virtue of the Federal Museums Act, Federal Law Gazette I/115/1998 and the Museum of Procedure of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum, 3 January 2001, BGBl II 2/ 2001, in force since 1 January 2001, registered.

In fiscal 2008, the turnover was 37.185 million EUR and total assets amounted to EUR 22.204 million. In 2008 an average of 410 workers were employed.

Management

1919-1923: Gustav Glück as the first chairman of the College of science officials

1924-1933: Hermann Julius Hermann 1924-1925 as the first chairman of the College of the scientific officers in 1925 as first director

1933: Arpad Weixlgärtner first director

1934-1938: Alfred Stix first director

1938-1945: Fritz Dworschak 1938 as acting head, from 1938 as a chief in 1941 as first director

1945-1949: August von Loehr 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of the historical collections of the Federation

1945-1949: Alfred Stix 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of art historical collections of the Federation

1949-1950: Hans Demel as administrative director

1950: Karl Wisoko-Meytsky as general director of art and historical collections of the Federation

1951-1952: Fritz Eichler as administrative director

1953-1954: Ernst H. Buschbeck as administrative director

1955-1966: Vincent Oberhammer 1955-1959 as administrative director, from 1959 as first director

1967: Edward Holzmair as managing director

1968-1972: Erwin Auer first director

1973-1981: Friderike Klauner first director

1982-1990: Hermann Fillitz first director

1990: George Kugler as interim first director

1990-2008: Wilfried Seipel as general director

Since 2009: Sabine Haag as general director

Collections

To the Kunsthistorisches Museum are also belonging the collections of the New Castle, the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz, the Museum of Ethnology and the Wagenburg (wagon fortress) in an outbuilding of Schönbrunn Palace. A branch office is also Ambras in Innsbruck.

Kunsthistorisches Museum (main building)

Picture Gallery

Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection

Collection of Classical Antiquities

Vienna Chamber of Art

Numismatic Collection

Library

New Castle

Ephesus Museum

Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments

Arms and Armour

Archive

Hofburg

The imperial crown in the Treasury

Imperial Treasury of Vienna

Insignia of the Austrian Hereditary Homage

Insignia of imperial Austria

Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire

Burgundian Inheritance and the Order of the Golden Fleece

Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure

Ecclesiastical Treasury

Schönbrunn Palace

Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna

Armory in Ambras Castle

Ambras Castle

Collections of Ambras Castle

Major exhibits

Among the most important exhibits of the Art Gallery rank inter alia:

Jan van Eyck: Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, 1438

Martin Schongauer: Holy Family, 1475-80

Albrecht Dürer : Trinity Altar, 1509-16

Portrait Johann Kleeberger, 1526

Parmigianino: Self Portrait in Convex Mirror, 1523/24

Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer 1563

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary 1606/ 07

Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary (1606-1607)

Titian: Nymph and Shepherd to 1570-75

Portrait of Jacopo de Strada, 1567/68

Raffaello Santi: Madonna of the Meadow, 1505 /06

Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a young man against white curtain, 1508

Peter Paul Rubens: The altar of St. Ildefonso, 1630-32

The Little Fur, about 1638

Jan Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1665/66

Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Fight between Carnival and Lent, 1559

Kids, 1560

Tower of Babel, 1563

Christ Carrying the Cross, 1564

Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565

Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565

Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565

Bauer and bird thief, 1568

Peasant Wedding, 1568/69

Peasant Dance, 1568/69

Paul's conversion (Conversion of St Paul), 1567

Cabinet of Curiosities:

Saliera from Benvenuto Cellini 1539-1543

Egyptian-Oriental Collection:

Mastaba of Ka Ni Nisut

Collection of Classical Antiquities:

Gemma Augustea

Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós

Gallery: Major exhibits

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunsthistorisches_Museum

This new ultimate wake boat combines amazing wakes, precise handling, aggressive looks and a shockingly refined interior. The view from overhead is elegance, while the water-level vantage point is complete intimidation. The SA350, SA450 and SA550 have Indmar power behind their names. These models protect and project with Supra's new Barrage Front End while the Battle Prep Transom prepares you for action. Specific hull design and perfectly matched underwater gear take wake boat handling beyond better. Elevate even further with Supra Ride System (SRS) components like 900 pounds of hard sub-floor Liquid Lead Ballast and the new loaded Roswell Pro Edge Tower. Opt for 1,300-pounds of additional Flex Ballast from the factory and swamp the competition. The epitome of convenience and customization the SA has snap-out carpet with a fiberglass floor. The intricate upholstery design is only matched by the plush feel and durability of the NANO Block Technology (NBT) Vinyl surrounding multiple densities of foam. Hand-covered accents finish the performance look and the luxurious feel. Experience SA350, SA450 and SA550 shock and awe in person at a Supra Boats dealer near you.

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Overall Length w/ Platform: 24' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform & Trailer: 27' 2"

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Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

Weight - Boat only: 4,300 lbs

Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

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Overall Length w/o Platform: 22' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform: 24' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform & Trailer: 27' 2"

Width (Beam): 100"

Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

Weight - Boat only: 4,300 lbs

Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

Capacity - Passenger: 10

Capacity - Weight: 1,400 lbs

Capacity - Fuel: 50 gals

Capacity - Ballast: 900 lbs (S) 1,300 lbs (O) = 2,200 lbs available from factory.

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3899. We don't have the precise date, but for some reason HMAS AUSTRALIA [II] only carried one camouflage pattern during WWII, applied, from memory, during her serviuce in British/North Atlantic waters at the end of 1940. In his 1982 book 'The Royal Australia Navy: Historic Naval Events Year by Year,' from which this pic is taken, the late Lew Lind says camouflage was dispensed with in 1943.*

The camouflage seen here is the same pattern, but much faded from that shown in the next image, taken in Scotland the year before.

One can see that the photograph above was before the outbreak of the Pacific War, and AUSTRALIA does not yet have the AA basins located on the top of 'B' and 'X' turrets. In any event, on June 8, 1943, AUSTRALIA was wearing A US Navy dark blue scheme when photographed by an RAAF 7th Squadron aircraft at Palm Island, off Townsville. We had a great photo of her there at pic NO. 165, which can be seen here:

www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/3850881649/

*We're not sure how broadly Lew Lind's comment about camouflage being dispensed with in 1943 was intended, perhaps just HMAS AUSTRALIA. As we've seen. HMAS SHROPSHIRE arrived in Australia with a heavy Admiralty camouflage pattern in September 1943, and HMAS ADELAIDE had camouflage from 1941 to the end of her WWII service. It could still be seen as she was being broken up at Port Kembla in 1949.

Photo: Department of Information, it is held in the Naval Historical Collection, Australian War Memorial image ID NO. 007066, listed as copyright expired, public domain.It appears in the late Lew Lind's book 'The Royal Australian Navy: Historic Naval Events Year By Year' Reed Books, Sydney 1982] p94.

A three-part COMPENDIUM of links to more than 200 HMAS AUSTRALIA [II] images on this Photostream begins at Pic Entry NO 5412, here:

www.flickr.com/photos/41311545@N05/6627997309/in/photostream

The precise conditions inside a white dwarf star in the hours leading up to its explosive end as a Type Ia supernova are one of the mysteries confronting astrophysicists studying these massive stellar explosions. But now, a team of researchers, composed of three applied mathematicians at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and two astrophysicists, has created the first full-star simulation of the hours preceding the largest thermonuclear explosions in the universe. www.lbl.gov/cs/Archive/news091509.html

On 13 januari 1942 during the invasion of Tarakan on Borneo, Bombers of the KNIL-ML , or to be more precise the( unit) 1-Vl.G.1, flew multiple missions. These had to stop the Imperial Japanees Navy with its amfibian operations on Tarakan that day. The missions where flown by a mix of Glenn Martins WH3 and WH3A’s. The Japanees Navy flew missions from Jolo in the form of Mitsubishi Zero’s from the Tainan Kokutai. To protect the fleet, they had a fighter permanece above there fleet of 3 Zero’s at any time. Six Glenn Martins where lost that day. One of the survivors Lt. Lukkien lost nearly his life and crew that day. Arriving above the Japanees fleet the’re patrouille of 3 Glenn Martins where attacked by 6 Zero’s . His plane took hits in the Left wing tank and the left engine, fuel was leaking in to the crews positions, also the cockpit was hit and he suffered wounds on his head and a leg. Because he lost a lot of blood and therefor lost his consciousness. Sergeant Vermey toke over the plane from the aft position, trying to reach the base. Because the plane had also a demaged rudder and stabilator he had difficulties to reach the base. Just in time Lt.Luttkien was abel to take over the controls again and landed save the cripled plane on Mangar. Just in time because from the emergengy stearing position you can only make a belly landing! Lt. Lukkien survived his wounds and the war. Tragically 24 man of the KNIL-ML lost there life that day. The Japanees had only a demaged Zero and a few demaged ships. Also Tarakan was lost.

Painting by Thijs Postma .

13 januari 1942

Tijdens de invasie van Tarakan op Borneo werden die dag mederer missies gevlogen tegen de amfibische landingen van de Japanse Imperiale strijdkrachten. Deze missies werden uitgevoerd met WH3 en WH3A’s van 1-Vl.G.1 vanaf Samarinda II. Vanaf Jolo werd die dag een Fighter permanence gevlogen door de Tainan Kokutai boven de Japanse landingsvloot om deze te beschermen . Op dit schilderij zien we een van de 6 vliegtuigen die deze dag verloren gingen . Zo ook bijna het vliegtuig van Lt. Lukkien. Zijn vliegtuig werd door een Mitsubishi Zero getroffen in de linker benzine tank. Hierna moest de linkermotor afgezet en de propeler in vaanstand worden gezet omdat deze motor beschadigd was . De benzine droop tot in de romp. De vlieger Lt. Lukkien werd hierbij gewond aan zijn hoofd en been, waarbij hij veel bloed verloor. Sergeant Vermey nam de besturing gedurende de retourvlucht over. Dit ging lastig en zwaar omdat het richtingsroer gedeeltelijk kapot was geschoten. Ook was een hoogteroer beschadigd geraakt in dit luchtgevecht. Het vliegtuig kon echter zwaar beschadigd op Mangar veilig aan de grond gezet worden. Lt. Lukkien herstelde van zijn verwondingen. Die dag verloor de KNIL -ML 6 bemanningen (24man) de Japanners leden ook verliezen deze dag deze bestonden uit een beschadigde Zero die naar zijn basis kon terugkeren . Tevens werden een aantal schepen licht beschadigd.

Schilderij door Thijs Postma.

The Roman Forum (Latin: Forum Romanum, Italian: Foro Romano), sometimes known by its original Latin name, is located between the Palatine hill and the Capitoline hill of the city of Rome, Italy. It is the central area around which the ancient Roman civilization developed. Citizens referred to the location as the "Forum Magnum" or just the "Forum".

The oldest and most important structures of the ancient city were located in the forum, including its ancient former royal residency, the Regia which burned and was rebuilt in the Imperial age in a slightly different location, and the surrounding complex of the Vestal virgins, also rebuilt after the fall of the Republic. The Old Republic had its formal Comitium there where the senate, as well as Republican government began. The forum served as a city square and central hub where the people of Rome gathered for justice, and faith. The forum was also the economic hub of the city and considered to be the center of the Republic and Empire.

History

The area of the forum was originally a grassy wetland. It was drained in the 7th century BC by building the Cloaca Maxima, a large covered sewer system that drained into the Tiber River, as more people began to settle between the two hills.

According to tradition, the forum's beginnings are connected with the alliance between Romulus, the first king of Rome controlling the Palatine hill, and his rival, Titus Tatius who occupied the Capitoline hill. Accordingly, an alliance formed after combat had been halted by the prayers and cries of the Sabine Women. Because the valley lay between the two settlements it was the designated place for the two peoples to meet. Since the early forum area was mostly pools of stagnant water the only accessible area was the northern part of the valley which was designated as the comitium. It was here that the two parties laid down their weapons and formed an alliance.[1]

The forum was outside the walls of the original Sabine fortress, which was entered through the Porta Saturni. These walls were mostly destroyed when the two hills were joined.[2]

The second king, Numa Pompilius, is said to have begun the cult of Vesta, building its house and temple as well as the Regia as the city's first royal palace. Later Tullus Hostilius erected the Curia and enclosed the Comitium. In 600 BC Tarquinius Priscus had the area paved for the first time.

Over time the Comitium was lost to the ever-growing Curia and Julius Caesar's rearranging of the forum before his assassination in 44 BC. After Caesar's death Octavius finished the work.

Many of the forum's temples are from either the kingdom or the Republican era. Many have been destroyed and rebuilt several times

Structures within the Forum

The ruins within the forum clearly show how urban spaces were utilized during the Roman Age. The Roman Forum includes a modern statue of Julius Caesar and the following major monuments, buildings, and ancient ruins:

Temples

•Temple of Castor and Pollux

•Temple of Saturn

•Temple of Vesta

•Temple of Venus and Roma

•Temple of Antoninus and Faustina

•Temple of Caesar

•Temple of Vespasian and Titus

•Temple of Concord

•Temple of Romulus

•Shrine of Venus Cloacina

Basilicas

•Basilica Aemilia

•Basilica Julia

•Basilica of Maxentius and Constantine

Arches

•Arch of Septimius Severus

•Arch of Titus

•Arch of Tiberius

•Arch of Augustus

Other structures

•Regia, originally the residence of the kings of Rome or at least their main headquarters, and later the office of the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of Roman religion.

•Rostra, from where politicians made their speeches to the Roman citizens.

•Curia Hostilia (later rebuilt as the Curia Julia), the site of the Roman Senate.

•Tabularium, the records office of Rome.

•Gemonian stairssteps situated in the central part of Rome, leading from the Arx of the Capitoline Hill down to the Roman Forum.

•Clivus Capitolinus was the street that started at the Arch of Tiberius, wound around the Temple of Saturn, and ended at Capitoline Hill.

•Umbilicus Urbi, the designated centre of the city from which and to which all distances in Rome and the Roman Empire were measured.

•Milliarium Aureum After Augustus erected this monument, all roads were considered to begin here and all distances in the Roman Empire were measured relative to that point.

•Lapis Niger, a shrine also known as the Black Stone.

•Atrium Vestae, the house of the Vestal Virgins.

•A processional street, the Via Sacra, linked the Atrium Vestae with the Colosseum. By the end of the Empire, it had lost its everyday use but remained a sacred place.

•Column of Phocas, the last monument built within the Forum.

•Tullianum, the prison used to hold various foreign leaders and generals.

•The Lacus Curtius, the site of a mysterious pool venerated by Romans even after they'd forgotten what it signified.

Excavation and preservation

An anonymous 8th century traveler from Einsiedeln (now in Switzerland) reported that the Forum was already falling apart in his time. During the Middle Ages, though the memory of the Forum Romanum persisted, its monuments were for the most part buried under debris, and its location was designated the "Campo Vaccino" or "cattle field," located between the Capitoline Hill and the Colosseum. The return of Pope Urban V from Avignon in 1367 led to an increased interest in ancient monuments, partly for their moral lesson and partly as a quarry for new buildings being undertaken in Rome after a long lapse. Artists from the late 15th century drew the ruins in the Forum, antiquaries copied inscriptions in the 16th century, and a tentative excavation was begun in the late 18th century.

Sequences of remains of paving show that sediment eroded from the surrounding hills was already raising the level of the forum in early Republican times. Originally it had been marshy ground, which was drained by the Tarquins with the Cloaca Maxima. Its final travertine paving, still visible, dates from the reign of Augustus.

A cardinal took measures to drain it again and built the Alessandrine neighborhood over it. But the excavation by Carlo Fea, who began clearing the debris from the Arch of Septimius Severus in 1803, and archaeologists under the Napoleonic regime marked the beginning of clearing the Forum, which was only fully excavated in the early 20th century.

Remains from several centuries are shown together, due to the Roman practice of building over earlier ruins.

Other fora existed in other areas of the city; remains of most of them, sometimes substantial, still exist. The most important of these are a number of large imperial fora forming a complex with the Forum Romanum: the Forum Iulium, Forum Augustum, the Forum Transitorium (also: Forum Nervae), and Trajan's Forum. The planners of the Mussolini era removed most of the Medieval and Baroque strata and built the Via dei Fori Imperiali road between the Imperial Fora and the Forum. There is also:

•The Forum Boarium, dedicated to the commerce of cattle, between the Palatine Hill and the river Tiber,

•The Forum Holitorium, dedicated to the commerce of herbs and vegetables, between the Capitoline Hill and the Servian walls,

•The Forum Piscarium, dedicated to the commerce of fish, between the Capitoline hill and the Tiber, in the area of the current Roman Ghetto,

•The Forum Suarium, dedicated to the commerce of pork, near the barracks of the cohortes urbanae in the northern part of the campus Martius,

•The Forum Vinarium, dedicated to the commerce of wine, in the area now of the "quartiere" Testaccio, between Aventine Hill and the Tiber.

Other markets were known but remain unidentifiable due to a lack of precise information on the function of the sites. Among these, the Forum cuppedinis, was known as a general market for many goods.

This new ultimate wake boat combines amazing wakes, precise handling, aggressive looks and a shockingly refined interior. The view from overhead is elegance, while the water-level vantage point is complete intimidation. The SA350, SA450 and SA550 have Indmar power behind their names. These models protect and project with Supra's new Barrage Front End while the Battle Prep Transom prepares you for action. Specific hull design and perfectly matched underwater gear take wake boat handling beyond better. Elevate even further with Supra Ride System (SRS) components like 900 pounds of hard sub-floor Liquid Lead Ballast and the new loaded Roswell Pro Edge Tower. Opt for 1,300-pounds of additional Flex Ballast from the factory and swamp the competition. The epitome of convenience and customization the SA has snap-out carpet with a fiberglass floor. The intricate upholstery design is only matched by the plush feel and durability of the NANO Block Technology (NBT) Vinyl surrounding multiple densities of foam. Hand-covered accents finish the performance look and the luxurious feel. Experience SA350, SA450 and SA550 shock and awe in person at a Supra Boats dealer near you.

Overall Length w/o Platform: 22' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform: 24' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform & Trailer: 27' 2"

Width (Beam): 100"

Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

Weight - Boat only: 4,300 lbs

Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

Capacity - Passenger: 10

Capacity - Weight: 1,400 lbs

Capacity - Fuel: 50 gals

Capacity - Ballast: 900 lbs (S) 1,300 lbs (O) = 2,200 lbs available from factory.

Engine - Electronic Fuel Injection: 345 HP-SA350, 450 HP-SA450, 550HP-SA550

When was the world's first railway laid? No one is quite confident on a precise date but simple rails have been used to guide vehicles for centuries, definitely as far back as the middle ages and possibly even in ancient Greece.

What is certain is that in the early 1600s a Nottinghamshire businessman called Huntingdon Beaumont came to Northumberland and laid rails from collieries near Blyth to a shipping point on the coast.

His waggonway used horses hauling wooden waggons on wooden wheels on wooden rails, however this was not a financial success. It did though provide the spark of progression from primitive wooden rails over short distances, to a railway network which would change Britain and the world forever.

Tyneside Roads

From the mid 1600 onwards waggonways and the Tyneside coal industry became linked so closely that they were known throughout the rest of Britain as 'Tyneside Roads'. A network of lines linked collieries on both sides of the Tyne to the river.

It is no coincidence that the North East was the area where waggonways took greatest hold, because canal building was impossible due to deep valleys and steep hills. What set the rail systems of Tyneside apart from all others was its use of the flanged wheel - a key element of the modern railway as we know it.

A revelation

When the Tanfield Railway - or waggonway as it was known at the time - was built in 1725, it was a revelation. Its massive engineering was unlike anything else in its era, or even since the Roman Empire. It was a triumph of engineering over nature, a clear signal that a new industrial age was upon the world, and that railways would play a massive part.

First laid down more than a quarter of a century before the first railway officially sanctioned by government, over 75 years before the first steam locomotive and a whole 100 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the Tanfield Railway is the world's oldest railway. We will be the first railway to celebrate our tricentenary in 2025.

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.

Want sharp optics, a precise German shutter and ability to take instant photos on a 3x4" film? Based on a standard Polaroid 420 Automatic Land Camera, this camera has been extensively modified to be able to shoot at professional standards.

The original f8.8 lens and automatic shutter have been replaced with a 1960's, Industar, multi-coated 110mm, f4.5 lens (based on a Zeiss Ikon design), which is mounted in a Pronto size 0 shutter. The shutter features full X-sync for flash, cable release socket, bulb mode and self timer, making it perfect for shooting in all scenarios. The mechanical nature of the shutter also means that the camera does not require batteries.

The new 110mm lens is not only faster than the original lens, but also much sharper, and delivers results on par with a Polaroid 180. It features a beautifully shallow depth of field when wide open, with lovely bokeh. Coverage is 100% full frame, with no vignetting. This makes the camera the perfect choice for anyone wanting manual control over their shots, on a totally unique camera.

Features:

- Industar, 110mm, f4.5 coated glass lens (based on a Zeiss Ikon design)

- Pronto size 0 shutter, with bulb mode, cable release and X-sync for flash, range from 1/200th to bulb mode. The shutter also features a countdown timer for timed shots.

- Aperture range from f4.5 to above f22

- Lens adapter to accept any 43mm filters

- Twin window rangefinder/viewfinder with projected framelines and automatic parallax compensation rangefinder/viewfinder

- Cold shoe mount for flash and other accessories

- Removable front cover

- Folding bellows design

- Neck strap

- Storage area at the back of the camera, for cleaning cloths etc

- Custom black accents

- Compatible with ALL Type 100 films, such as Fuji FP-100C and FP-3000B, as well as expired Polaroid brand films.

The 110mm Industar lens has been re-calibrated and mounted to focus optimally with the original 114mm rangefinder, with sharp portraits the number one priority. Infinity distance is also nice and sharp.

Lastly, the camera has had it's original light grey panels and doors replaced with some nice sleak black ones, giving the camera a stealthy look. The rear door also features a count-down timer, which counts down the seconds required for the film to develop.

No precise measurements - I just tossed in:

- limeaid

- non-fat vanilla yogurt

- two spoonfuls of full-fat strawberry yogurt (what was left and that had to get eaten)

- half of an avocado

- frozen blueberries

- frozen strawberries

- 2 small squeezes of honey

The avocado tones down the tartness of the fruit and adds a lovely velvety texture, but is otherwise not distinguishable.

A more precise location can be found by comparing the position of the "Swan" advertisement on the left with this photo which I took later in the year:

www.flickr.com/photos/allhails/3066004476

Apologies for the camera focusing fault, corrected before the later photo was taken.

Tank Infantry Mark III, Valentine IX (E2000.577)

The precise identity of this tank is not clear, all identification marks having been removed many years ago. It stood outside the Army Base at Long Kesh in Northern Ireland for many years, subsequently moving to the Maze Prison and Lisanelly Camp, Omagh.

It was subsequently acquired by Vickers Defence Systems and restored to running order in Newcastle using the engine from our Valentine Archer (E1969.43). In due course it was offered to the Tank Museum on loan and ultimately, in March 2002 was gifted to the Museum.

The Valentine Mark IX was upgunned to fit a 57mm (six-pounder) gun into the turret although this did not leave enough room for a co-axial machine gun and in any case, with just a two-man turret crew the tank was very difficult to fight.

Our tank carried the number T123358 on the turret which is correct for the type but not necessarily for this actual vehicle. Mark IX Valentines saw service in North Africa and some may have been suppplied to Russia but by 1943 the Valentine had been replaced in front line service by more modern vehicles and was either being relegated to secondary roles or supplied to other countries such as Portugal.

The Valentine development started without a specification from the War Office (hence the absence of an army designation), as a private design by Sir John Carden, and was submitted on February, 10, 1938, to the authorities. By then, the Matilda II had been chosen for production, but the Valentine was something different.

Vickers engineers basically tried to enhance their A10 Cruiser tank design, with a dramatic increase in protection (up to 60 mm/2.36 in). This choice allowed the use most components and parts of the already produced Cruiser I and II, therefore creating an efficient and cheap solution to the need of new infantry tank models. By then, the Matilda II was found to be far costlier than the Matilda I, and not suitable for mass-production. Comparatively, the Valentine seemed a good compromise. The name itself still is a mystery. It could have originated either from Sir John Carden’s middle name, or the date of its first submission (St. Valentine day), or a composed Vickers factory codename, though most historians agree that Valentine was just a simple codename during development.

The Mark I set the tone for the entire series of eleven main variants, with many sub-variants, and a staggering total of 8300 units. The main armament and turret design, as well as the engine and protection, were continuously improved while keeping roughly the same general appearance until 1945. The Mk.I was recognizable by its original two-man turret and 2-pdr (40 mm/1.575 in) gun. From the start, a coaxial Besa machine-gun constitued the secondary armament. The crew consisted of only three men due to the cramped interior, and the commander was also busy as gun loader, machine-gunner and radio operator. The production was rushed to such point that many problems were later detected and fixed with the next Mk.II. The main engine was the AEG A189 petrol delivering only 135 hp, and the hull was riveted. 350 were delivered in all, most seeing action in Libya, while others stayed at home for training.

Tankfest by World of Tanks - 24.-25.6.2016

The Tank Museum - Bovington, UK

Worlds biggest and best live display of historic armour, living history, and much more at the Home of the Tank - The Tank Museum, Bovington, United Kingdom.

More from Tankfest:

www.flickr.com/photos/jukkaokauppinen2/albums/72157670621...

More from me:

www.flickr.com/photos/jukkaokauppinen

Tankfest videos:

www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIGRHBJyGQb3PpXwFlOKve2OUJ...

My Imgur galleries:

grendelb.imgur.com/

This official Minnesota State Capitol Restoration Project photo is being made available for educational, scholarly, news or personal purposes (not advertising or any other commercial use). When any of these images are used, the photographic credit line should read “Courtesy: MN Dept. of Admin. Cathy Klima.” These images may not be used in any way that would imply endorsement by the Minnesota State Capitol Restoration Project or the State of Minnesota of a product, service or point of view.

Buddhist teachings contain very precise descriptions on the process of dying, death and the stages between death and rebirth.

During his lecture at the Berlin University of Arts, Lama Ole explained the foundations of the "Tibetan Book of Death" and the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa). Through the meditation on “conscious dying” you get the opportunity to work intensively with the process of your own death.

Lama Ole Nydahl received the transmission of the Phowa teachings from different Tibetan Lamas and is today the most significant teacher of this practice in the Western world. More than 80,000 people learned the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa) through him. More about his work: www.lama-ole-nydahl.org/his-work/

So...... hello everyone. It's been a long time - three years to be precise - since I last uploaded here. I was barely sixteen then. Now I'm almost twenty. School's over and I'm in college. So much has happened. I'm an entirely different person. But even though I had entirely neglected dolls and photography altogether for various reasons I always remembered and kinda wished back the good times I had when I was involved in this hobby. It had always been some kind of creative outlet for me. Mostly for the part of this community. You all have always been so supportive and kind to me, which I had really needed at that time and would've needed in my absence. I don't even know what I'm trying to say I'm kinda emotional. Anyway. Since I'm in a more stable place now I have decided that I wanted to give this hobby another try. This is my first attempt at dolly photography in three years. So bear with this simple unedited shot of my little Kokoro. It's merely a photo to tell you guys I'm 'back' and would LOVE to catch up with all my old friends from back then or get to know new members of this community. Basically if you wanna get to know the new me, hit me up. So long...

Laura x

Buddhist teachings contain very precise descriptions on the process of dying, death and the stages between death and rebirth.

During his lecture in New York, Lama Ole explained the foundations of the "Tibetan Book of Death" and the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa). Through the meditation on “conscious dying” you get the opportunity to work intensively with the process of your own death.

Lama Ole Nydahl received the transmission of the Phowa teachings from different Tibetan Lamas and is today the most significant teacher of this practice in the Western world. More than 80,000 people learned the "Meditation on Conscious Dying" (tib. Phowa) through him.

More about his work: www.lama-ole-nydahl.org/his-work/

This new ultimate wake boat combines amazing wakes, precise handling, aggressive looks and a shockingly refined interior. The view from overhead is elegance, while the water-level vantage point is complete intimidation. The SA350, SA450 and SA550 have Indmar power behind their names. These models protect and project with Supra's new Barrage Front End while the Battle Prep Transom prepares you for action. Specific hull design and perfectly matched underwater gear take wake boat handling beyond better. Elevate even further with Supra Ride System (SRS) components like 900 pounds of hard sub-floor Liquid Lead Ballast and the new loaded Roswell Pro Edge Tower. Opt for 1,300-pounds of additional Flex Ballast from the factory and swamp the competition. The epitome of convenience and customization the SA has snap-out carpet with a fiberglass floor. The intricate upholstery design is only matched by the plush feel and durability of the NANO Block Technology (NBT) Vinyl surrounding multiple densities of foam. Hand-covered accents finish the performance look and the luxurious feel. Experience SA350, SA450 and SA550 shock and awe in person at a Supra Boats dealer near you.

Overall Length w/o Platform: 22' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform: 24' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform & Trailer: 27' 2"

Width (Beam): 100"

Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

Weight - Boat only: 4,300 lbs

Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

Capacity - Passenger: 10

Capacity - Weight: 1,400 lbs

Capacity - Fuel: 50 gals

Capacity - Ballast: 900 lbs (S) 1,300 lbs (O) = 2,200 lbs available from factory.

Engine - Electronic Fuel Injection: 345 HP-SA350, 450 HP-SA450, 550HP-SA550

This new ultimate wake boat combines amazing wakes, precise handling, aggressive looks and a shockingly refined interior. The view from overhead is elegance, while the water-level vantage point is complete intimidation. The SA350, SA450 and SA550 have Indmar power behind their names. These models protect and project with Supra's new Barrage Front End while the Battle Prep Transom prepares you for action. Specific hull design and perfectly matched underwater gear take wake boat handling beyond better. Elevate even further with Supra Ride System (SRS) components like 900 pounds of hard sub-floor Liquid Lead Ballast and the new loaded Roswell Pro Edge Tower. Opt for 1,300-pounds of additional Flex Ballast from the factory and swamp the competition. The epitome of convenience and customization the SA has snap-out carpet with a fiberglass floor. The intricate upholstery design is only matched by the plush feel and durability of the NANO Block Technology (NBT) Vinyl surrounding multiple densities of foam. Hand-covered accents finish the performance look and the luxurious feel. Experience SA350, SA450 and SA550 shock and awe in person at a Supra Boats dealer near you.

Overall Length w/o Platform: 22' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform: 24' 6"

Overall Length w/ Platform & Trailer: 27' 2"

Width (Beam): 100"

Overall Width w/ Trailer: 102"

Draft: 26"

Weight - Boat only: 4,300 lbs

Weight - Boat and Trailer: 5,600 lbs

Capacity - Passenger: 10

Capacity - Weight: 1,400 lbs

Capacity - Fuel: 50 gals

Capacity - Ballast: 900 lbs (S) 1,300 lbs (O) = 2,200 lbs available from factory.

Engine - Electronic Fuel Injection: 345 HP-SA350, 450 HP-SA450, 550HP-SA550

Want sharp optics, a precise German shutter and ability to take instant photos on a 3x4" film? Based on a standard Polaroid 420 Automatic Land Camera, this camera has been extensively modified to be able to shoot at professional standards.

The original f8.8 lens and automatic shutter have been replaced with a 1960's, Industar, multi-coated 110mm, f4.5 lens (based on a Zeiss Ikon design), which is mounted in a Pronto size 0 shutter. The shutter features full X-sync for flash, cable release socket, bulb mode and self timer, making it perfect for shooting in all scenarios. The mechanical nature of the shutter also means that the camera does not require batteries.

The new 110mm lens is not only faster than the original lens, but also much sharper, and delivers results on par with a Polaroid 180. It features a beautifully shallow depth of field when wide open, with lovely bokeh. Coverage is 100% full frame, with no vignetting. This makes the camera the perfect choice for anyone wanting manual control over their shots, on a totally unique camera.

Features:

- Industar, 110mm, f4.5 coated glass lens (based on a Zeiss Ikon design)

- Pronto size 0 shutter, with bulb mode, cable release and X-sync for flash, range from 1/200th to bulb mode. The shutter also features a countdown timer for timed shots.

- Aperture range from f4.5 to above f22

- Lens adapter to accept any 43mm filters

- Twin window rangefinder/viewfinder with projected framelines and automatic parallax compensation rangefinder/viewfinder

- Cold shoe mount for flash and other accessories

- Removable front cover

- Folding bellows design

- Neck strap

- Storage area at the back of the camera, for cleaning cloths etc

- Custom black accents

- Compatible with ALL Type 100 films, such as Fuji FP-100C and FP-3000B, as well as expired Polaroid brand films.

The 110mm Industar lens has been re-calibrated and mounted to focus optimally with the original 114mm rangefinder, with sharp portraits the number one priority. Infinity distance is also nice and sharp.

Lastly, the camera has had it's original light grey panels and doors replaced with some nice sleak black ones, giving the camera a stealthy look. The rear door also features a count-down timer, which counts down the seconds required for the film to develop.

The kit and its assembly:

This is a what-if model, but, as usual, it is rooted in reality – to be precise in the German late-war plans to mate the Ta 152(H) with the mighty Jumo 222 engine. I do not know what the official service designation would have been, but this combo would have resulted in a powerful fighter – AFAIK, German engineers’ calculations indicated a performance that would have been comparable with the post-WWII F4U-5!

Creating a model of such this paper aircraft called for some serious conversion work and ended almost in a kitbashing. The starting point became a (cheap) Mistercraft Fw 190D-9 kit, and I originally planned this model to be a Fw 190 variant, but eventually this turned into a Ta 152, since it would better match up with the late war time frame.

The Mastercraft/Mistercraft kit appears to be an indigenous mold and not a re-issue of a vintage kit. At first glance the parts look pretty crisp, but the kit has some serious fit and flash issues. Another selling point is the detailed decal set, which comes in three sheets and encompasses a lot of stencils – even though the instructions where to place them are not consistent, and there are even 1:48 scale(!) markings included. But that’s a Mastercraft/Mistercraft standard, anyway…

Well, the basis was sound and the kit would, in any event, be thoroughly modified. From the OOB kit, fuselage, wings and stabilizers were taken, as well as the landing gear and some other bits.

The wings were extended, in order to keep overall proportions with the new, much more massive engine cowling balanced (see below). Not an easy stunt, but I was lucky to have recently bought a set of resin Doppelreiter tanks from Airmodel which were just perfect to cover the cuts and seams on the upper wing surfaces. Inside of the wings, a styrene strip secured stability while the lower wing surface was sculpted with putty and the trailing edge of the outer wing panels was cut down by 1 mm, so that the wings’ outlines match again. Some further PSR work was necessary to blend the slipper tanks into the wings, forming the upper side of the modifications, but in the end the whole thing looks quite good.

The fuselage lost both its original engine and the tail. The latter is a donor part from a Frog Ta 152H (Revell re-boxing), but mating it with the Mistercraft Fw 190D was not easy because the fuselage shapes of the two kits are totally different! I also used the Mistercraft stabilizers because they were markedly bigger than the same parts from the Ta 152 kit!

The Jumo 222 front end was simulated with parts from the spares box, and it is a bit exaggerated. Actually, the Jumo 222 was hardly bigger (in both length and diameter) than the Fw 190D’s Jumo 213 V12 engine! The cowling and the radiator for my conversion came from a Frog He 219 engine nacelle (Revell re-boxing, too) which is utterly dubious. The nacelle parts were turned upside down and integrated into the slender Fw 190 front fuselage with several layers of putty.

Inside of the cowling, a radiator plate from an Italeri Fw 190D was mounted, together with a styrene tube adapter for the new propeller. The latter was scratched, using a drop tank as spinner and single propeller blades from the Mistercraft Fw 190D, plus one donor blade from the Frog Ta 152H kit, which had to be trimmed in order to match the other blades. But with some paint, no one will tell the small differences…

Once the bigger engine was integrated into the fuselage, the exhaust system had to be added. In real life, the Jumo 222 would have featured three clusters with two rows of four exhaust stubs, distributed evenly around the cowling. Using a drawing of this arrangement as benchmark, I started with square cuts for the cluster openings. From the back side, styrene sheet closed the gaps and offered a basis for the exhaust stubs. These were improvised with H0 scale roofing shingles – each of the 24 exhaust stubs was cut individually into shape and size and then glued into the respective openings on the upper flanks and under the engine. Finally, styrene sheet was used to create small spoilers and heat shields. The result is certainly not perfect, but comes close to what the real world arrangement would basically have looked like. In a final step, two air intakes for the two-stage supercharger, scratched from sprue material, were added to the flanks.

The cockpit remained OOB, simple as it is, as well as the landing gear, but the canopy was modified in order to allow a presentation in open position. This meant that the OOB canopy had to be cut in two parts and that the model’s spine had to be cut away, making place for a donor canopy (the late, bulged variant, IIRC from an Italeri Fw 190D-9). Internally the fuselage gap was filled with putty and the headrest had to be modified, too, but the conversion turned out to look better than expected.

As a small cosmetic improvement, the molded gun barrel stumps in the wing roots were replaced with hollow steel needles, and the outer guns were completely removed.