Without Philips, Eindhoven would probably still be a collection of a couple of tiny villages. Because of the great employment that the company created, Philips turned the small village of Eindhoven into a city. But precisely when Philips left for Amsterdam and many other places around the world, the multinational made it possible for former industrial area Strijp-S to flourish again.

 

From 1928, Philips developed the Strijp-S rapidly. The Clock Building (a Philite factory) raised from the dust, followed by device factories on the Hoge Rug. An engine room and a boiler house were built. Even during the Second World War a new building was constructed: the Veemgebouw with its typical rounded corners, intended for the storage of electronic parts. With the industrial area Strijp-S, Philips became completely self-sufficient. From raw materials to finished products in a cardboard box, transport to the consumer included: the company had everything in its own hand. No wonder some people joked that their slogan was ‘From sand to customer's hand'.

 

Every time after a great invention, Philips grew tremendously. The radio came first, followed by the TV after the war. The expansion required new industrial areas: Strijp-R and Strijp-T on the other side of the ring road. The 27 hectares of Strijp-S were not nearly enough. In the 70s, Philips reached its peak at Strijp: about 10,000 people work in this area on a daily basis. The area got its nickname ‘Forbidden City', because it used to be surrounded by fences and barriers. One could only enter with a valid pass.

 

The first ideas for redeveloping the area came up in 2000, when Philips left the City of Light. Philips sold Strijp-S to Park Strijp Beheer in 2004. The buildings that were still in use by Philips were hired back. Since 2006, the redevelopment of Strijp-S became a very serious plan. The first buildings had been demolished and new activities came to the area, particularly the creative industries and the annual Dutch Design Week. These ‘quartermasters' shape the area more and more every year. But in the years to come, there is still a lot to be done!

 

(Source: strijp-s.nl)

Worm March Moon Rising

I knew what time and place the moon was to rise but it seemed to take FOREVER for the March 9th rising Supermoon. It was precisely this color. The same phenomena effects the sun. “Golden Hour” and better, the red light passing to the pink/red “Belt of Venus” alpenglow. That projected filtered to red light on the ice in the sky opposite of the sun. Same effect here but on the moon. This just the atmospheric gauntlet of dust, moisture of all phase states, pollution etc block out all but the red light. Lots less yellow in this.

So the “Worm Moon A.K.A. Lenten Moon, Crow Moon, Sugar Moon, Sap Moon, Chaste Moon or just the March Full Moon lol.

Of course when the moon OR the sun is apparently this low, you actually seeing the celestial object below the line of sight to the horizon. The image is actually bent around the horizon. The atmospheric lens literally guides the image around the surface to my camera/eye. Getting topography/ hills and a celestial object to cooperate the same time can be challenging. …I know the topography I work pretty well after ‘working it’ for decades. Knowing the direction the moon is going to set is a matter of looking it up on google. Get a map, (in my head by now) and figure out “what two or three things” can line up.

I decide where to go early on but am flexible enough to change mid stream because I’m very mobile. Getting around in the snowy hills is a requirement for this job lolol. I never know WHAT the show is going to be when I go out with cameras. I do usually know WHERE an alignment will occur. 😄

This moon didn’t sneak up on me by any means. Getting up on the high ridges is of course the place to be for such a shot. The backcountry high in the hills provide all the topography and perspective that any photographer could need. Having free access to many square miles of backcountry WY/MT is always a good thing with a camera. Both States in this Photo.. I was lucky the weather cooperated with me as it disappeared into a cloud deck 20 minutes later not to reappear for over a day.

Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana).

Title: Worm March Moon Rising

  

blissphotographics.com/worm-march-moon-rising/

"Longuich ([ ˈlɔŋɡɪç ]) is a local community in the Trier-Saarburg district in Rhineland-Palatinate. It belongs to the municipality of Schweich on the Roman Wine Route. The place is on the right bank of the Moselle in the Moselle-Franconian language area.

 

Longuich is a Gallo-Roman (more precisely: Mosel-Roman) place name (pronounced: Long_gich), which is derived from a 1st-century foundation called Longus Vicus (long village, long district). The place has been inhabited since at least Roman times, as various finds indicate, in particular the Villa Urbana, whose reconstructed bathing wing can be visited.

 

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Prussian mayor's office of Longuich emerged from the French Mairie Longuich.

 

Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.

 

The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.

 

In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

Thursday morning, and all I had to do was get back to Kent. Hopefully before five so I could hand the hire car back, but getting back safe and sound would do, really.

 

I woke at six so I could be dressed for breakfast at half six when it started, and as usual when in a hotel, I had fruit followed by sausage and bacon sarnies. And lots of coffee.

 

Outside it had snowed. OK, it might only be an inch of the stuff, but that's more than an inch needed to cause chaos on the roads.

 

Back to the room to pack, one last look round and back to reception to check out, then out into the dawn to find that about a quarter of the cars were having snow and ice cleared off them before being able to be driven.

 

I joined them, scraping the soft snow then the ice. Bracing stuff at seven in the morning.

 

Now able to see out, I inched out of the car park and out to the exit and onto the untreated roads.

 

It was a picturesque scene, but not one I wanted to stop to snap. My first road south had only been gritted on one side, thankfully the side I was travelling down, but was still just compacted snow.

 

After negotiating two roundabouts, I was on the on ramp to the M6, and a 60 mile or so drive south. The motorway was clear of snow, but huge amounts of spray was thrown up, and the traffic was only doing 45mph, or the inside lane was, and that was quite fast and safe enough for me.

 

More snow fell as I neared Stoke, just to add to the danger of the journey, and then the rising sun glinted off the road, something which I had most of the drive home.

 

I went down the toll road, it costs eight quid, but is quick and easy. And safe too with so little traffic on it. I think for the first time, I didn't stop at the services, as it was only about half nine, and only three hours since breakfast.

 

And by the time I was on the old M6, there was just about no snow on the ground, and the road was beginning to dry out.

 

My phone played the tunes from my apple music store. Loudly. So the miles slipped by.

 

After posting some shots from Fotheringhay online, a friend, Simon, suggested others nearby that were worth a visit, and I also realised that I hadn't taken wide angle shots looking east and west, so I could drop in there, then go to the others suggested.

 

And stopping here was about the half way point in the journey so was a good break in the drive, and by then the clouds had thinned and a weak sin shone down.

 

Fotheringhay is as wonderful as always, it really is a fine church, easy to stop there first, where I had it to myself, and this time even climbed into the richly decorated pulpit to snap the details.

 

A short drive away was Apethorpe, where there was no monkey business. The village was built of all the same buttery yellow sandstone, looking fine in the weak sunshine.

 

Churches in this part of Northamptonshire are always open, Simon said.

 

Not at Apethorpe. So I made do with snapping the church and the village stocks and whipping post opposite.

 

A short drive up the hill was King's Cliffe. Another buttery yellow village and a fine church, which I guessed would be open.

 

Though it took some finding, as driving up the narrow high street I failed to find the church. I checked the sat nav and I had driven right past it, but being down a short lane it was partially hidden behind a row of houses.

 

The church was open, and was surrounded by hundreds of fine stone gravestones, some of designs I have not seen before, but it was the huge numbers of them that was impressive.

 

Inside the church was fine, if cold. I record what I could, but my compact camera's batter had died the day before, and I had no charger, so just with the nifty fifty and the wide angle, still did a good job of recording it.

 

There was time for one more church. Just.

 

For those of us who remember the seventies, Warmington means Dad's Army, or rather Warmington on Sea did. THat there is a real Warmington was a surprise to me, and it lay just a couple of miles the other side of Fotheringhay.

 

The church is large, mostly Victorian after it fell out of use and became derelict, if the leaflet I read inside was accurate. But the renovation was excellent, none more so than the wooden vaulted roof with bosses dating to either the 15th or 16th centuries.

 

Another stunning item was the pulpit, which looks as though it is decorated with panels taken from the Rood Screen. Very effective.

 

Back to the car, I program the sat nav for home, and set off back to Fotheringhay and the A14 beyond.

 

No messing around now, just press on trying to make good time so to be home before dark, and time to go home, drop my bags, feed the cats before returning the car.

 

No real pleasure, but I made good time, despite encountering several bad drivers, who were clearly out only to ruin my mood.

 

Even the M25 was clear, I raced to the bridge, over the river and into Kent.

 

Nearly home.

 

I drive back down the A2, stopping at Medway services for a sandwich and a huge coffee on the company's credit card.

 

And that was that, just a blast down to Faversham, round onto the A2 and past Canterbury and to home, getting back at just after three, time to fill up the bird feeders, feed the cats, unpack and have a brew before going out at just gone four to return the car.

 

Jools would rescue me from the White Horse on her way home, so after being told the car was fine, walked to the pub and ordered two pints of Harvey's Best.

 

There was a guy from Essex and his American girlfriend, who were asking about all sorts of questions about Dover's history, and I was the right person to answer them.

 

I was told by a guide from the Castle I did a good job.

 

Yay me.

 

Jools arrived, so I went out and she took me home. Where the cats insisted they had not been fed.

 

Lies, all lies.

 

Dinner was teriyaki coated salmon, roasted sprouts and back, defrosted from before Christmas, and noodles.

 

Yummy.

 

Not much else to tell, just lighting the fire, so Scully and I would be toast warm watch the exciting Citeh v Spurs game, where Spurs were very Spursy indeed.

 

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I was exploring the churches of north-east Northamptonshire, and on my way back to Peterborough station how could I resist a visit to lovely Warmington church? The village is rather a suburban one but, the solid little entirely Early English church sits at its heart. Entirely a Huntingdonshire church in style, with a stubby spire and big dormer-style lucarnes.

   

I had previously visited almost exactly a year ago, and as before I left my bike in the Early English porch, which is vaulted in blocks of stone, handsome yet familiar. I remembered in 2015 stepping into what turned out to be then the most interesting interior of the day, although rather overshadowed by Apethorpe and Blatherwycke on my current trip. The most striking feature, and rather a surprising one, is that the roof of the nave is vaulted in wood. This was done in the 13th Century, and the bosses survive from that time - even more surprising, they all depict green men, nine of them. Why was this not done elsewhere?

   

The rood screen is one of the best in the area, and the medieval pulpit appears to be constructed of rood screen panels (can that be right? Did they come from the rood loft? Surely it is pre-Reformation, in which case perhaps they came from somewhere else). Lots to think about. A good church, it would be considered so in any county.

   

So I got back on my bike and headed on towards Peterborough, but not without a memory of the last time I had done the same thing, because in 2015, as I was about to leave the church, three young women came in. They were walking the Nene Way, and were attired as you might expect attractive young women to be on such a sunny day. I didn't want them to be made nervous by the presence of a middle-aged man with a camera, so I nodded a greeting as I left, but in the event they engaged me in conversation, asking me where I'd come from, telling me what they were doing, where they were going, and so on.

   

In the end I had to make my apologies and leave as they didn't seem to want to let me go, not an experience I have very often these days, I can tell you. It rather put me in mind of the Sirens episode in the Odyssey.

   

And so I headed on, wary now of any wandering rocks and one-eyed giants.

 

www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/27033140016/in/photo...

 

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St Michael’s Parish Church, Warmington

 

Warmington was already an established farming community when its assets were recorded in Domesday Book. Shortly afterwards, its Norman owner, the Earl of Warwick, gave the manor of Warmington to the Benedictine Abbey which his father had endowed in Normandy, St.Peter’s at Preaux. Warmington was to remain in monastic hands, with one short break, for about 450 years. Monks were sent over from Preaux who built a small Priory. Its foundations were discovered when houses were built in Court Close in the 1950s. The Priory has disappeared, but the splendid church built under the monks’ supervision, mainly in the early medieval period, remains.

 

The church stands high above the village, close to the summit of Warmington Hill. Tradition tells us that the stone for building it was dug close by, in the area known as Catpits, or Churchpits. The stone for the tower was brought from a field known as Turpits, or Towerpits, a quarter of a mile away along the Hornton road. The churchyard is entered either by the lych-gate from the main road, or from the village by two long flights of steps. A diagonal line of pine trees marks the former boundary of the churchyard which was extended in the 1850s. In the older part, and especially near the south porch, are gravestones of exceptionally fine workmanship dating from the 17th and 18th centuries. About eighty of these are ‘listed’ by the Department of the Environment. All the inscribed memorials were recorded in 1981.

 

An admirable and detailed architectural description of the church is available in the Victoria County History. These notes are intended rather as a ‘layman’s conducted tour’. The church was purpose-built and used for the first half of its long life for forms of worship very different from our own. It was also the village meeting place for many secular purposes The church comprises north and south porches, nave with north and south aisles, a west tower and chancel with two-storey vestry adjoining.

 

As you enter the church by the south porch you walk forward into the nave. This area, with the first three pillars on each side, is where Warmington people have met and worshipped since the twelfth century. The area was extended by the addition of the aisles a century later. Today the overwhelming impression is a sense of simplicity, of space and of strength. Imagine the scene in the medieval period: no pews but white-washed walls covered with paintings, images of the saints in stone, on wood and painted cloths, the whole lit by the sunlight through stained glass and by candles and lamps burning before every image. On Sundays before Mass, at special festivals and for some fifty saints’ days in the year, a procession would form, with banners and hand bells, winding its way around the church and churchyard, and stopping at various points for particular acts of worship. The north and west doors, so rarely used today, had significance in these processions.

 

Before leaving this area of the church, notice the variety of windows, almost all of early date, but now mostly with clear glass. The ones at the east ends of the aisles, where the stone plate is pierced with roundels and a five-pointed star, are unusual. Considerable work has been undertaken in recent years in renewing the stone mullions, worn by the weather over time. The early Norman tub font of simple design is large enough for infant immersion. The aisles both taper by a foot, one to the east, and one to the west. The nave and chancel are slightly out of alignment, perhaps symbolic of Christ’s drooping head on the cross.

 

Before stepping down into the chancel, run your hand along the wooden screen under the chancel arch. This is all that remains of the great rood-screen which would have dominated the medieval church. The screen was hacked through quite roughly when the church was stripped of its ‘idolatrous’ treasures at the Reformation. Just to the right of the chancel arch is the doorway and stair which used to lead to the rood-screen loft.

 

The stained glass and memorial tablets in the chancel all commemorate the family of the Victorian rector during whose incumbency the church was restored. On the south wall are a richly decorated triple sedilia and piscina, dating from the fifteenth century when Warmington manor had newly passed to the Carthusian monks of Wytham in Somerset.

 

A door from the chancel leads into the vestry, built about 1340. The lower room was a chapel, dedicated to St Thomas. The stone altar shows four of its five original crosses cut in the top. An altar would have a piscina nearby for washing the vessels used at Mass. The piscina here has a trefoiled ogee-head and quartrefoil basin. On the opposite wall is a blocked fireplace.

 

The oak doors and stairway are delightful and a testament to the skills of local carpenters, smiths and masons. The upper room was the priest’s home complete with windows, commanding extensive views, fireplace, lavatory and a shuttered opening for keeping watch over the main alter. The exterior walls of the vestry are extraordinarily thick. One Warmington tradition was that it was used as a prison for recalcitrant monks!

 

A more credible and interesting suggestion is that the walls were so constructed to carry the weight of a tower. If this was indeed the plan, it was quickly abandoned, for soon after the vestry was built work started on the tower in the usual Warwickshire position at the west end of the nave.

 

The slightly different stonework on the exterior indicates the stages of its building. The tower is recessed slightly into the nave, presumably to accommodate it in the very limited land there was available for extending the church at the west end. A stair within the thickness of the wall gives access to the bell chamber and the roof. The flight is steep and the treads are worn down to the bottom of the risers. The present bells are dated 1602, 1613 and 1811.

 

There are many interesting gravestones in the churchyard, which were recorded by members of Warmington WI in a 1981 survey.

 

VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY

 

WARMINGTON

 

This extract from the Victoria County History gives a very detailed description of the parish church.

 

The church stands directly on the east side of the main road from Banbury to Warwick at the top of a steep gradient and the village lies mostly to the northeast of it at a lower level. The parish church of ST. MICHAEL, or ST. NICHOLAS, consists of a chancel, north chapel with a priest’s chamber above it, nave, north and south aisles and porches and a west tower.

 

The nave dates from the 12th century; no detail is left to indicate its original date but it was of the proportion of two squares, common in the early 12th century. A north aisle was added first, about the middle of the 12th century, with an arcade of three bays; a south aisle followed, near the end of the 12th century, also with a three-bay arcade. After about a century a considerable enlargement was begun and continued over a period of half a century or more; the nave was lengthened eastwards about 10 ft. and a new chancel built. The extra length of the side walls added to the nave perhaps remained unpierced at first.

 

Although there is a general sameness in the Hornton stone ashlar walling throughout, all the various parts—chancel, chapel, aisles, and tower—have different plinths, &c., and there is a great variation in the elevations and details of the windows, showing constant changes from the 14th century, when there was much activity, onwards, probably because of decay and need for repair caused by the church’s exposed position on the brow of a hill.

 

The south aisle was widened to its present limits about 1290, on the evidence of the wide splays and other details of its windows; but an early-13th-century doorway was re-used. It is possible that the east part of the north aisle followed soon afterwards, c. 1300, as a kind of transeptal chapel, on the evidence of its east window, which differs from the other aisle windows. From c. 1330–40 much was done. The chancel arch was widened, new bays to match were inserted in the east lengths of the nave walls, making both arcades now of four bays, the widening of the whole of the north aisle was completed with the addition of the north porch. The 12th-century north arcade, which seems to have lost its inner order, was probably rebuilt. There is a curious distortion about both aisles, perhaps only explained by the widenings being made in more than one period; the north aisle tapers from west to east and the south aisle tapers from east to west, about a foot each, as compared with the lines of the arcades. The south porch was probably added about 1330.

 

About 1340 came also the addition of the chapel with the priest’s chamber above it. The north wall of the chancel, probably of the 13th century and thinner than any of the other walls, was kept to form the south wall of the chapel, but the other walls were made unusually thick, as though it was at first intended to raise a higher superstructure than was actually carried out, perhaps even a tower. If such was the intention it was quickly abandoned and the west tower was begun about 1340–5 and carried up to some two-thirds of its present height. There was not much room above the road-side and it had to encroach 2 or 3 ft. into the west end of the nave. The top stage was added or completed in the 15th century.

 

With the addition of the chapel, alterations were made to the chancel windows, but its south wall had to be rebuilt in the 15th century, when new and larger windows were inserted and the piscina and sedilia constructed.

 

There have been many repairs and renovations, notably in 1867 to the chancel and 1871 for the rest of the church, and others since then. The roofs have been entirely renewed, though probably more or less of the original forms of the 14th or 15th centuries.

 

The chancel (about 30½ft. by 16½ft.) has an east window of four trefoiled pointed lights and modern tracery of 14th-century character in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having head-stops. The jambs and arch, of two moulded orders, and the hood-mould are early-14th-century. In the north wall is a 14th-century doorway into the chapel with jambs and ogee head of three moulded orders and a hoodmould with head-stops, the eastern a cowled man’s, the western a woman’s. It contains an ancient oak door, with stout diagonal framing at the back and hung with plain strap-hinges. At the west end of the wall are two windows close together; the eastern, of c. 1340, of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and cusped piercings in a square head with an external label having decayed head-stops. It has a shouldered internal lintel which is carved with grotesque faces. The western is a narrower and earlier 14th-century window of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil, &c., in a square head with an external label.

 

The window at the west end of the south wall is similar. The other two are 15th-century insertions, each of two wide cinquefoiled three-centred lights under a square head with head-stops, one a cowled human head, the other beast-heads. The jambs and lintel of two sunk-chamfered orders are old, the rest restored. The rear lintel is also sunk-chamfered and is supported in the middle by a shaped stone bracket from the mullion.

 

The 14th-century priest’s doorway has jambs and two-centred ogee head of two ovolo-moulded orders and a cambered internal lintel; it has no hood-mould.

 

Below the south-east window is a 15th-century piscina with small side pilasters that have embattled heads, and a trefoiled ogee head enriched with crockets. The sill, which projects partly as a moulded corbel, has a round basin. West of it are three sedilia of the same character with cinquefoiled ogee heads also crocketed and with finials. At the springing level are carved human-head corbels: the cusp-points are variously carved, an acorn, a snake’s head, a skull, and foliage. The two outer are surmounted by crocketed and finialled gables and all are flanked and divided by pilasters with embattled heads and crocketed pinnacles.

 

The east wall is built of yellow-grey ashlar with a projecting splayed plinth; the gable-head has been rebuilt. At the south-east angle is a pair of square buttresses of two stages, probably later additions, as the plinth is not carried round them. Another at the former north-east angle has been restored. The south wall is of yellow ashlar but has a moulded plinth of the 15th century. The eaves have a hollow-moulded course with which the uprights of the 15th-century window-labels are mitred.

 

The 14th-century chancel arch has responds and pointed head of two ovolo-moulded orders interrupted at the springing line by the abacus.

 

The roof with arched trusses is modern and is covered with tiles.

 

The north chapel (about 12 ft. east to west by 17 ft. deep) is now used as the vestry, and dates from c. 1340. In its south wall, the thin north wall of the chancel, is a straight joint 3¼ft. from the east wall probably marking the east jamb of a former 13th-century window, and below it is the remnant of an early stringcourse that is chamfered on its upper edge. The east wall is 3 ft. 10 in. thick and the north wall 4 ft. 6 in. In the middle of each is a rectangular one-light window with moulded jambs and head of two orders and an external label; the internal reveals are half splayed and part squared at the inner edges and have a flat stone lintel. The lights were probably cusped originally. In the west wall is a filled-in square-headed fire-place, perhaps original. Partly in the recess of the east window and partly projecting is an ancient thick stone altarslab showing four of the original five crosses cut in the top. It has a hollow-chamfered lower edge and is supported by moulded stone corbels. South of it in the east wall is a piscina with a trefoiled ogee-head and hood-mould and a quatrefoil basin.

 

The stair-vice that leads up to the story above is in the south-west angle, its doorway being splayed westwards to avoid the doorway to the chancel. In it is an ancient oak door with one-way diagonal framing on the back. The turret projects externally to the west in the angle with the chancel wall; it is square in the lower part but higher is broadened northwards with a splay that is corbelled out below in three courses, the lowest corbel having a trefoiled ogee or blind arch cut in it. The top is tabled back up to the eaves of the chapel west wall. A moulded string-course passes round the projection and there is another half-way up the tabling. The doorway at the top of the spiral stair leading into the upper chamber has an ancient oak door hung with three strap-hinges.

 

The upper priest’s chamber has an east window of two plain square-headed lights, probably altered. In the north wall is a rectangular window that was of two lights but has lost its mullion. Outside it has a false pointed head of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and leaf tracery, all of it blank, and a hood-mould with human-head stops, one cowled. Apparently this treatment was purely for decorative purposes, like the square-headed windows at Shotteswell and elsewhere. The south wall is pierced by a watching-hole into the chancel, which is fitted with an iron grill and oak shutter: it has been reduced from a larger opening that had an ogee head and hood-mould. There is a square-headed fire-place in the west wall and in the splayed north-west angle is the entrance to a garderobe or latrine, which is lighted by a north loop.

 

The walls are of yellow ashlar and have a plinth of two courses, the upper moulded, a moulded stringcourse at first-floor level, and moulded eaves-courses at the sides. The north wall is gabled and has a parapet with string-course and coping. At the angles are diagonal buttresses of two stages; the lower stage is 2½ft. broad up to the first-floor level, above this the upper stage is reduced to about half the breadth. They support square diagonal pinnacles with restored crocketed finials. The west wall is unpierced but above it is a plain square chimney-shaft with an open-side hood on top. Internally the walls are faced with whitish-brown ashlar. The gabled roof is modern and of two bays.

 

The nave (about 41½ft. by 16½ft.) has north and south arcades of four bays. The easternmost bay on each side, with the first pillar, is of the same detail and date as the chancel arch. They vary in span, the north being about 9 ft. and the south about 10 ft., and in both cases the span is less than those of the older bays. Those on the north side are of 11–12 ft. span and date from the middle of the 12th century. The pillars are circular, the west respond a half-circle, with scalloped capitals, 6 in. high and square in the deep-browed upper part and with a 4½in. grooved and hollowchamfered abacus. The bases are chamfered and stand on square sub-bases. The arches are pointed and of one square order with a plain square hood-mould, The voussoirs are small. The middle parts of the soffits are plastered between the flush inner ends of the voussoirs, suggesting a former inner order, abolished perhaps in a rebuilding of the heads.

 

The same three bays of the south side are of 11 ft. span and of late-12th-century date. The round pillars are rather more slender than the northern, and the capitals are taller, 12 in. high, with long and shallow scallops, and have 4 in. abaci like the northern. The bases are taller and moulded in forms approaching those of the 13th century, on chamfered square sub-bases.

 

The pointed arches are of one chamfered order and their hood-moulds are now flush with the plastered wall-faces above.

 

The half-round west responds of both arcades have been overlapped on the nave side by the east wall of the tower.

 

High above the 14th-century south-east respond is a 15th-century four-centred doorway to the former rood-loft. The stair-vice leading up to it is entered by a four-centred doorway in the east wall of the south aisle.

 

The north aisle (11½ft. wide at the east end and 12½ft. at the west) has an uncommon east window of c. 1300. It is of three plain-pointed rather narrow lights; above the middle light, which has a shorter pointed head than the others, is a circle enclosing a pierced five-pointed star, all in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having defaced head-stops, and with a chamfered rear-arch.

 

Set fairly close together at the east end of the north wall are two tall windows of c. 1340, each of two trefoiled round-headed lights and foiled leaf-tracery below a segmental-pointed head with an ogee apex, the tracery coming well below the arch. The jambs are of two orders, the outer sunk-chamfered. The lights are wider and the splays of ashlar are more acute than those of the east window.

 

The third window near the west end is narrower and shorter and of two plain-pointed lights and an uncusped spandrel in a two-centred head: it is of much the same date as the east window. The jambs and head are of two hollow-chamfered orders and the fairly obtuse plastered splays have old angle-dressings. The segmental-pointed rear-arch is chamfered.

 

The north doorway, also of c. 1340, has jambs and two-centred head without a hood-mould; the segmental rear-arch is of square section. In it is an 18th-century oak door.

 

The three-light window in the west wall has jambs and splays like those of the north-west but its head has been altered; it is now of three trefoiled ogee-headed lights below a four-centred arch. The chamfered reararch is elliptical.

 

The walls are yellow ashlar with a chamfered plinth and parapets with moulded string-courses and copings that are continued over the east and west gables. Below the sills of the two north-east windows is a plain stringcourse. At the east angle is a pair of shallow square buttresses and a diagonal buttress at the west, all ancient. White ashlar facing is exposed inside between the two north-east windows only, the remainder being plastered. The gabled roof of trussed-rafter type is modern and covered with tiles.

 

The south aisle (13 ft. wide at the east end and 12 ft. at the west) has an east window of three plain-pointed lights, and three plain circles in plate tracery form, in a two-centred head with an external hood-mould having mask stops. The yellow stone jambs and head of two chamfered orders and the wide ashlar splays are probably of the late 13th century; the grey stone mullions and tracery are apparently old restorations but are probably reproductions of the original forms.

 

There are two south windows: the eastern is of two wide cinquefoiled elliptical-headed lights under a square main head with an external label with return stops. The jambs are of two moulded orders, the inner (and the mullion) with small roll-moulds, probably of the 13th century re-used when the window was refashioned in the 15th century. The wide splays are of rubble-work and there is a chamfered segmental reararch. The western is a narrower opening of two trefoiled-pointed lights, with the early form of soffit cusping, and early-14th-century tracery in a twocentred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders and the wide splays are plastered, with ashlar dressings: the chamfered rear-arch is segmental pointed.

 

The reset south doorway has jambs and pointed head of two moulded orders with filleted rolls and undercut hollows of the early 13th century, divided by a three-quarter hollow more typical of a later period, and all are stopped on a single splayed base. The hoodmould has defaced shield-shaped head-stops. There are four steps down into the church through this doorway.

 

The window in the west wall is like that in the east but the three lights are trefoiled and the three circles in the two-centred head are quatrefoiled: the head is all restored work. The jambs are ancient and precisely like those of the square-headed south window, and the wide splays are of rubble-work.

 

The walls are of yellow fine-jointed ashlar and have plinths of two splayed courses, the upper projecting like that of the east chancel-wall, and plain parapets with restored copings. At the angles are old and rather shallow diagonal buttresses. There are three scratched sundials on the south wall, one, a complete circle, being on a west jambstone of the south-east window.

 

The gabled roof is modern like that of the north aisle.

 

The south porch is built of ashlar like that of the aisle but the courses do not tally and it has a different plinth, a plain hollow-chamfer. The gabled south wall has a parapet with a restored coping. The pointed entrance is of two orders, the inner ovolo-moulded, the outer hollow-chamfered, and has a hood-mould of 13thcentury form. There are side benches. The roof is modern but on the wall of the aisle are cemented lines marking the position of an earlier high-pitched roof at a lower level than the present one.

 

The north porch is of shallower projection. It has a gabled front with diagonal buttresses and coped parapet and a pointed entrance with jambs and head of two chamfered orders, the inner hollow, and a hood-mould with head-stops.

 

The west tower (about 9½ft. square) is of three stages divided by projecting splayed string-courses: it has a high plinth, with a moulded upper member and chamfered lower course, and a plain parapet. The walls are of yellow ashlar, that of the two upper stages being of rather rougher facing and in smaller courses than the lowest stage. At the west angles are diagonal buttresses reaching to the top of the second stage. There are no east buttresses but in the angle of the north wall with the end of the nave is a shallow buttress against the nave-wall. In the south-west angle, but not projecting, is a stair-vice with a pointed doorway in a splay, and lighted by a west loop. The archway to the nave has a two-centred head of two chamfered orders, the inner dying on the reveals, the outer mitring with the single chamfered order of the responds. It has large voussoirs. The wall on either side of the archway is of squared rough-tooled ashlar.

 

The 14th-century west doorway has jambs and pointed head of two wave-moulded orders divided by a three-quarter hollow, and a hood-mould with return stops. The head of the tall and narrow 14th-century west window is carried up into the second stage, its hood-mould springing from the string-course. It is of two trefoiled ogee-headed lights and a quatrefoil in a two-centred head: the jambs are of two chamfered orders.

 

There are no piercings in the second stage, but on the north side is a modern clock face.

 

The bell-chamber has 15th-century windows, each of two lights with depressed trefoiled ogee heads and uncusped tracery in which the mullion line is continued up to the apex of the two-centred head. The jambs are of two chamfered orders and there is no hood-mould.

 

The font is circular and dates probably from the 13th century. It has a plain tapering bowl, a short stem with a comparatively large 13th-century moulding at the top: a short base is also moulded.

 

In the vestry is an ancient iron-bound chest.

 

There are three bells, the first of 1811, the second of 1616, and the tenor of 1602 by Edward Newcombe.

 

The registers begin in 1636.

 

Advowson

 

The church was valued at £8 6s. 8d. in 1291, and at £16 3s. 10d., in addition to a pension of 13s. 4d. payable to Witham Priory, in 1535. The advowson passed with the manor until 1602, when the patron was Richard Cooper. In 1628 William Hall and Edward Wotton, by concession of — Hill, the patron, presented Richard Wotton, who at the time of his wife’s death in 1637 was ‘rector and patron, of the church’. In 1681 and 1694 presentations were made by Thomas Farrer, and from 1726 till his death in 1764 the patronage was held by his son Thomas Farrer. His widow Alice held it in 1766, but by 1773 it had been divided between their two daughters, Mary wife of John Adams, and Elizabeth Farrer (1782) who afterwards married Hamlyn Harris. In 1802 Henry Bagshaw Harrison was patron and rector. He died in 1830, and by 1850 the advowson had been acquired by Hulme’s Trustees, in whose hands it has continued, so that they now present on two out of three turns to the combined living of Warmington and Shotteswell, which was annexed to it in 1927.

 

For a list of rectors and clergy of Warmington see the ‘trades and occupations’ section of the site.

 

www.warmingtonheritage.com/village-history/significant-bu....

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin

 

Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.

 

There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.

 

Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Guinness

 

Arthur Guinness (24 September 1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family. He was also an entrepreneur and philanthropist.

 

At 27, in 1752, Guinness's godfather Arthur Price, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel, bequeathed him £100 in his will. Guinness invested the money and in 1755 had a brewery at Leixlip, just 17 km from Dublin. In 1759, Guinness went to the city and set up his own business. He took a 9,000-year lease on the 4-acre (16,000 m2) brewery at St. James's Gate from the descendants of Sir Mark Rainsford for an annual rent of £45.

 

Guinness's flowery red signature is still copied on every label of bottled Guinness.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Storehouse

 

Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Since opening in 2000, it has received over four million visitors.

 

The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. The ground floor introduces the beer's four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking. The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar with views of Dublin and where visitors may drink a pint of Guinness included in the price of admission, which was €18.50 on 15 October 2018 with discounts depending on dates and times, described as "overpriced" by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present-day brewing process.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Brewery

 

St. James's Gate Brewery (Irish: Grúdlann Gheata Naomh Séamuis) is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a British company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught.

 

Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at IR£45 (Irish pounds) per year for 9,000 years, the St. James's Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it remains as the largest brewer of stout. The company has since bought out the originally leased property, and during the 19th and early 20th centuries the brewery owned most of the buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets of housing for brewery employees, and offices associated with the brewery. The brewery also made all of its own power using its own power plant.

 

There is an attached exhibition on the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness Storehouse.

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness

 

Guinness is a dark Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850 million litres (220,000,000 US gal). It is popular with the Irish, both in Ireland and abroad. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth annually.

 

Guinness' burnt flavour derives from malted barley and roasted unmalted barley, a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years, a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic acid flavour. Although Guinness's palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The draught beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.[6]

 

The company moved its headquarters to London at the beginning of the Anglo-Irish Trade War in 1932. In 1997, Guinness Plc merged with Grand Metropolitan to form the multinational alcoholic-drinks producer Diageo plc, based out of London.

Horned Treehopper (Membracidae)

 

Treehoppers (more precisely typical treehoppers to distinguish them from the Aetalionidae) and thorn bugs are members of the family Membracidae, a group of insects related to the cicadas and the leafhoppers. About 3,200 species of treehoppers in over 400 genera are known. They are found on all continents except Antarctica; only three species are known from Europe. Individual treehoppers usually live for only a few months.

  

Morphology

 

Thorn bugs, due to their unusual appearance, have long interested naturalists. They are best known for their enlarged and ornate pronotum, which most often resembles thorns, apparently to aid camouflage. In some species, the pronotum is a horn-like extension, but can form more bizarre shapes. The specialised pronotum (or helmet) may not be simply an expansion of the prothoracic sclerite, but a fused pair of dorsal appendages of the first thoracic segment.

 

These may be serial homologues of insect wings, which are dorsal appendages of the second and/or third thoracic segments. Evidence for this theory includes the development of the helmet, which arises as a pair of appendages attached to each side of the dorsal prothorax by an articulation with muscles and a flexible membrane that allow it to be mobile. Also, the same genes are involved in development of the helmet and the wings. Distinguishing males from females is accomplished only by looking at the genitalia.

  

Ecology

 

Treehoppers pierce plant stems with their beaks, and feed upon sap. The immatures can frequently be found on herbaceous shrubs and grasses, whereas the adults more often frequent hardwood tree species. Excess sap becomes concentrated as honeydew, which often attracts ants. Some species have a well-developed ant mutualism, and these species are normally gregarious, as well, which attracts more ants. The ants provide protection from predators. Treehoppers mimic thorns to prevent predators from spotting them.

 

Others have formed mutualisms with wasps, such as Parachartergus apicalis. Even geckos form mutualistic relations with treehoppers, with whom they communicate by small vibrations of the abdomen.

 

Eggs are laid by the female with her saw-like ovipositor in slits cut into the cambium or live tissue of stems, though some species lay eggs on top of leaves or stems. The eggs may be parasitised by wasps, such as the tiny fairyflies (Mymaridae) and Trichogrammatidae. The females of some membracid species sit over their eggs to protect them from predators and parasites, and may buzz their wings at intruders. The females of some gregarious species work together to protect each other's eggs. In at least one species, Publilia modesta, mothers serve to attract ants when nymphs are too small to produce much honeydew. Some other species make feeding slits for the nymphs.

 

Like the adults, the nymphs also feed upon sap, and unlike adults, have an extensible anal tube that appears designed to deposit honeydew away from their bodies. The tube appears to be longer in solitary species rarely attended by ants. It is important for sap-feeding bugs to dispose of honeydew, as otherwise it can become infected with sooty moulds. Indeed, one of the evident benefits of ants for Publilia concava nymphs is that the ants remove the honeydew and reduce such fungal growth.

 

Most species are innocuous to humans, although a few are considered minor pests, such as Umbonia crassicornis (a thorn bug), the three-cornered alfalfa hopper (Spissistilus festinus), and the buffalo treehopper (Stictocephala bisonia), which has been introduced to Europe. The cowbug Oxyrachis tarandus has been recorded as a pest of Withania somnifera in India.

  

Systematics

 

The diversity of treehoppers has been little researched, and their systematic arrangement is tentative. It seems three main lineages can be distinguished; the Endoiastinae are the most ancient treehoppers, still somewhat resembling cicadas. Centrotinae form the second group; they are somewhat more advanced but the pronotum still does not cover the scutellum in almost all of these. The Darninae, Heteronotinae, Membracinae and Smiliinae contain the most apomorphic treehoppers.

 

Several proposed subfamilies seem to be paraphyletic. Centronodinae and Nicomiinae might need to be merged into the Centrotinae to result in a monophyletic group.

 

[Credit: en.wikipedia.org]

A view along The Sunken Lane looking towards Hawthorn Ridge, where the mine was detonated prior to the advance on 1st July 1916, with a still from the Geoffrey Malins film superimposed, showing the men of 1st Battalion The Lancashire Fusiliers.

 

I do not claim that the position is precisely matched, rather I have just tried to put some faces back into the location, and wonder what they must have been thinking and feeling in the moments before the attack, almost certainly none of these men would have survived for more than a few moments as soon as they emerged from the Lane.

RIP

  

Location and background information:-

The Sunken Lane is a lane running in a north-south direction situated in what was No Mans Land, roughly halfway between the opposing Front Lines west of Beaumont Hamel village until the fighting moved beyond the village in November 1916. From September 1914 the French Army occupied the Allied Front Line here. From August 1915 the British Army took over the Front Line sector here.A little further along the road from Beaumont Hamel to Auchonvillers, on the right, is the position where Geoffrey Malins famously filmed the mine explosion on Hawthorn Ridge on the 1st of July 1916. A track leading up from this point runs to the position which was known during the war as 'White City'; where there were stores and also dugouts used in the Somme offensives.

 

Lancashire Fusilier's War Diary for July 1st. It makes chilling reading:-

A transcription of part of the material in the Lancashire Fusilier's War Diary for July 1st. It was written by Lieutenant Colonel Magniac.

 

86th Brigade

1st Battalion The Lancashire Fusiliers

Summary of Events and Information

Account of action 1st July 1916.The Battalion was badly cut up by enemy’s Machine Gun fire suffering 508 casualties and 21 officer casualties. At dusk we returned to the trenches but held and consolidated Sunken Road. The Battalion fought nobly but had no chance of success against enemy’s Machine Gun fire.

Attack of 1st Lancashire Fusiliers on BEAUMONT HAMEL

At 7 am Battalion Headquarters moved from White City to Sunken Road, and at the same time the enemy began to shell the Sunken Road with 77cm guns, and inflicted about 20 casualties. They had probably spotted the communication trench leading from the end of the tunnel into the road.

07.20

The mine under HAWTHORNE REDOUBT was fired, and though it was not visible from the road, all felt the ground shake. ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies were now lining up in position for the assault. ‘D’ Company had to be careful not to expose themselves as the Northern end of Sunken Road is shallow, and ‘B’ Company had to carefully select their exits, as the bank is overhung and lined with trees at the Southern end. 86th Stokes Gun battery speed hurricane bombardment on German front line.

0730

The leading sections of ‘B’ and ‘D’ and bombing company dashed forward in extended order, ’D’ Company being led by 2/Lieutenants CRAIG, GORFUNKLE and SPENCER, ‘B’ Company by 2/Lieutenants PRESCOTT, EDWARDS, and KERSHAW. At the same moment 1 platoon ‘B’ Company under Lieutenant WHITTAM and 2 platoons bombers left our trenches South of BEAUMONT road. ‘A’ Company began to leave front line trenches in support of ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies.

The leading 2 lines of ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies had a few moments [grace] and then the Enemy Machine Gun opened and a storm of bullets met the attack. The third and fourth lines of ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies were practically wiped out within a few yards of Sunken Road and only some wounded, including Captains NUNAELLY and WELLS the two Company Commanders managed to crawl back. ‘A’ Company had also suffered in their advance to Sunken Road, the three Subalterns all being hit and many men. Captain [MATHEY] reached the road and dashed in with the men who entered over Northern end.

‘C’ Company caught the Machine Gun fire as soon as they left the trenches. Captain DAWSON and Colour Sergeant Major NELSON being hit on the parapet when giving orders to Company to advance. 2/Lieutenant CASEBY and about 60 Other Ranks reached the Sunken Road, but one platoon under 2/Lieutenant JONES got blocked in the communication trench by wounded.

The bank into the Sunken Road is a steep drop of about 15 feet, and men encumbered with coils of wire mounts etc. rolled down this to the bottom.

This now ensured some delay whilst ‘C’ Company and remainder of ‘A’ Company who had entered down steep bank were collected and sorted from 100 wounded who had by now collected in Sunken Road, preparatory to further advance.

Sergeant CAULFIELD, a Lewis Gunner, had located a Machine Gun behind some debris in the village, and he pointed this out to the Commanding Officer. Two Lewis Guns were established toward [Left] Flank to put it out of action, but the German Artillery observation was very quick and they were immediately shelled by 77cm guns and 1 gun hit, still the Machine Gun ceased firing from that position.

0815

It took nearly half an hour to organise the further advance, and at 0815 the Commanding Officer ordered the Stokes Guns to open a rapid burst under cover of which 2/Lieutenant CASEBY led forward about 75 Other Ranks who had been collected. This reinforcement was launched from the [Left] end of the road to try and gain a footing toward Northern end of village, where the ground is higher.

All ranks dashed forward bravely, but on tipping the crest, just 10 yards from the Sunken Road they were met by the same heavy Machine Gun fire and only 2/Lieutenant CASEBY and about 10 Other Ranks reached the German wire.

It was now 0830, and no reports had come from the front, and it was not possible to see from Sunken Road what was happening on the flanks, so Commanding Officer returned to our trenches and got news there.

Major UTTERSON reported that besides the 10% reinforcements, who were holding front line system there was about 30 men, who had not gone over the top owing to being blocked by wounded. These were collected.

Very little movement could be seen in the German lines, and the village was certainly not occupied by our troops, and fire had died down. Around HAWTHORN REDOUBT about 25 Germans under an officer could be seen working toward the crater. One of our Machine Guns opened on them, but had to cease almost at once as enemy Artillery blew in the parapet by them in under 3 minutes.

0945

Returning to the Sunken Road there was nothing to be done, as we had no reinforcements. At about 0945 there was a sudden retirement on our Right or Southern flank, presumably Royal Fusiliers and Middlesexs’. Everyone thought for the moment the Germans were counter attacking [original must be re-examined as half a sentence is missing]. We had over 100 wounded in the Sunken Road and they tried to make [rush] for the tunnel. This was soon cancelled and about [50 fit] men were made to [line] the bank at either end. 25 under Sergeant GREEN began digging at the Southern end and making a barricade and about 35 did the same at the Northern end.

1145

Time passed and at 11.45 GS 43 from General Officer Commanding 86th Brigade was received. GM 17/1 sent in reply - (copies attached).

There was no time to receive an answer to GM 17/1 and orders were given to Major UTTERSON that at 12.30 he was to advance with his 25 men viz. all that was available - our front Trenches exclusive - exclusive of 10% who were left under our orders.

The remaining men in Sunken Road were got ready to advance, if Major UTTERSON’S reinforcements reached the road.

Although there was no chance of achieving anything on our own front, there were about 700 men in the trenches opposite the Hawthorne Redoubt and to help them it seemed necessary to attract as much Machine Gun fire as possible on ourselves.

Unfortunately only Major UTTERSON and 4 Other Ranks reached the road, and the troops on our right never moved, so our sacrifice was in vain. Still it showed us that the Enemy still held the village and that his Machine Guns were intact.

There was nothing now to be done except to hold on to Sunken Road.

Further steps were taken to improve entrenchments already begun, and the wounded who could move by themselves were allowed to crawl back to White City via the Tunnel.

1 pm.

Received BM 1. Copy attached - and reply CM 15/1.

1.50 pm

CM 16/1 dispatched.

2.10 pm

Captain FULTON (attached to Brigade Staff) arrived and talked over situation, and informed me that Sunken Road must be held at all costs.

Nothing else changed the situation for the remainder of the day, except the German shells which dropped into Sunken Road caused a few more casualties and the Germans sniped [and] killed a good many of our wounded, whenever they moved or tried to put on their field dressings.

At 6 pm remainder of men except 1 officer and 25 withdrew from Sunken Road, and at night all available stretcher bearers and men searched the field for wounded.

The day had cost the Battalion many valuable lives. Casualties were 7 officers killed, 14 wounded and 500 Other Ranks. The Battalion fought well, but the enemy was ready for us and had plenty of Machine Guns and against them no troops with a strength of only 1½ men per yard can hope for success.

 

A link to the footage shot by Geoffrey Malins:-

 

youtu.be/3Sb7urnjEaE

those pictures shows more precisely the asymmetry

Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:31am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

  

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Nikon D800 116mm 1/500s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.80s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

  

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PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 24.56MB

  

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HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Zero metres, at 06:44am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 24mm 4 Seconds long exposure f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 17.28s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 23.01s

ALTITUDE: 0.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.77MB

  

Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:35am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

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Nikon D800 185mm 1/320s f/4.5 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.76s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.88s

ALTITUDE: 9.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 13.08MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and eight metres, in the Golden Hour around Sunset ( which was at precisely 19:38pm), at 19:40pm on Saturday 14th September 2013 Just before Aberfeldy On the shoreline of Loch Tay, nestled in the Tay Forest Park near Kenmore off the A827.

  

Kenmore (Cheannmhor) is a small village in Perthshire in the Highlands of Scotland where Loch Tay drains into the River Tay.

  

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Nikon D800 43mm 1/30s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit). AF-S Single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries.Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap. Sandisc 32GB Ultra Class 10 30MB/s SDHC. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 56d 34m 52.62s

LONGITUDE: W 4d 1m 14.83s

ALTITUDE: 108.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 19.42MB

  

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Seen from from ~590 m asl, on the side of White Fell Head, from precisely the same viewpoint as this photo of the Horse of Busha, behind the camera in this instance.

 

The Grade II* Listed Lune Viaduct (details in this earlier caption), on the Ingleton Branch of the disused North Western Railway, is 5¼ km away; the blue haze of distance means this is better as a monochrome image.

 

Note the Black Horse farmhouse/ex-inn in the background – which means, to answer my own question, that it is theoretically possible to see the Horse of Busha from there. From the back of the building. In good weather. If there aren't too many leaves on the trees. Maybe.

On reflection, the suggestion that the house is named for the view of the Horse is... tenuous.

 

Better On Black?

Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty eight metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:13am on Thursday 19th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane as a thin veil of morning mist rolled across Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

  

This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.

  

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Nikon D800 20mm 1/6s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. AF-S auto mode. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 6.72s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 12m 11.11s

ALTITUDE: 48.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 33.64MB

  

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

   

The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Erected in 1889 as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair, it has become both a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tower is the tallest structure in Paris and the most-visited paid monument in the world; 7.1 million people ascended it in 2011. The third level observatory's upper platform is at 279.11 m the highest accessible to public in the European Union and the highest in Europe as long as the platform of the Ostankino Tower, at 360 m, remains closed as a result of the fire of August 2000. The tower received its 250 millionth visitor in 2010.

The tower stands 320 metres (1,050 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to assume the title of the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. However, because of the addition, in 1957, of the antenna atop the Eiffel Tower, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, after the Millau Viaduct.

The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift (elevator), to the first and second levels. The walk from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by lift - stairs exist but they are not usually open for public use. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.

The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.

 

History

 

Origin

  

First drawing of the Eiffel Tower by Maurice Koechlin

The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers who worked for the Compagnie des Establissments Eiffel after discussion about a suitable centrepiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair which would celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. In May 1884 Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of their scheme, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Initially Eiffel himself showed little enthusiasm, but he did sanction further study of the project, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first level and other embellishments. This enhanced version gained Eiffel's support, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885 Eiffel read a paper on the project to the Société des Ingiénieurs Civils: after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying that the tower would symbolise "not only the art of the modern engineer, but also the century of Industry and Science in which we are living, and for which the way was prepared by the great scientific movement of the eighteenth century and by the Revolution of 1789, to which this monument will be built as an expression of France's gratitude."

Little happened until the beginning of 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as President and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as Minister for Trade. A budget for the Exposition was passed and on 1 May Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition which was being held for a centerpiece for the exposition, which effectively made the choice of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion: all entries had to include a study for a 300 m (980 ft) four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. On 12 May a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals and on 12 June it presented its decision, which was that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or insufficiently worked out. After some debate about the exact site for the tower, a contract was finally signed on 8 January 1887. This was signed by Eiffel acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, and granted him one and a half million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated cost of six and a half million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the following twenty years. Eiffel later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.

 

The "Artists Protest"

 

Caricature of Gustave Eiffel comparing the Eiffel tower to the Pyramids.

The projected tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe that it was feasible and also from those who objected on artistic grounds. Their objections were an expression of a longstanding debate about relationship between architecture and engineering. This came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: A "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the French arts establishment, including Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet: a petition was sent to Charles Alphand, the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, and was published by Le Temps.

"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"

Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian Pyramids : "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way ? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris ?" These criticisms were also masterfully dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, ironically saying "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell that …this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and going on to point out that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before and was already under construction. Indeed, Garnier had been a member of the Tower Commission that had assessed the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the Tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"

Some of the protestors were to change their minds when the tower was built: others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant[20] supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. Today, the Tower is widely considered to be a striking piece of structural art.

  

Construction

 

Foundations of the Eiffel Tower

  

Eiffel Tower under construction between 1887 and 1889

Work on the foundations started in January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, each leg resting on four 2 m (6.6 ft) concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg but the other two, being closer to the river Seine were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons 15 m (49 ft) long and 6 m (20 ft) in diameter driven to a depth of 22 m (72 ft)[21] to support the concrete slabs, which were 6 m (20 ft) thick. Each of these slabs supported a block built of limestone each with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork. Each shoe was anchored into the stonework by a pair of bolts 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and 7.5 m (25 ft) long. The foundations were complete by 30 June and the erection of the ironwork began. The very visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that was entailed: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed:

The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within 0.1 mm (0.04 in) and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from the factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, the bolts being replaced by rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all there were 18,038 pieces of puddle iron using two and a half million rivets.

At first the legs were constructed as cantilevers but about halfway to the first level construction was paused in order to construct a substantial timber scaffold. This caused a renewal of the concerns about the structural soundness of the project, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel has gone mad: he has been confined in an Asylum" appeared in the popular press. At this stage a small "creeper" crane was installed in each leg, designed to move up the tower as construction progressed and making use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in each leg. The critical stage of joining the four legs at the first level was complete by March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost precision, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments in order to precisely align the legs: hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, each capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and in addition the legs had been intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold.

No more than three hundred workers were employed on site, and because Eiffel took safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died during construction.

  

Inauguration and the 1889 Exposition

 

The 1889 Exposition Universelle for which the Eiffel Tower was built

The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and on the 31st Eiffel celebrated this by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. Since the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, Eiffel frequently stopping to make explanations of various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including Nouguier, Compagnon, the President of the City Council and reporters from Le Figaro and Le Monde Illustré completed the climb. At 2.35 Eiffel hoisted a large tricolore, to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired from the lower level. There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and the fitting out of the facilities for visitors, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the Exposition on 6 May, and even then the lifts had not been completed.

The tower was an immediate success with the public, and lengthy queues formed to make the ascent. Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been nearly two million visitors.

Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit. In the opening weeks of the First World War the powerful radio transmitters using the tower were used to jam German communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne.

 

Subsequent events

 

10 September 1889 Thomas Edison visited the tower. He signed the guestbook with the following message— To M Eiffel the Engineer the brave builder of so gigantic and original specimen of modern Engineering from one who has the greatest respect and admiration for all Engineers including the Great Engineer the Bon Dieu, Thomas Edison.

 

19 October 1901 Alberto Santos-Dumont in his Dirigible No.6 won a 10,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St Cloud to the Eiffel tower and back in less than half an hour.

 

1910 Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are today known as cosmic rays.[28]

 

4 February 1912 Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping 60 metres from the first deck of Eiffel tower with his home-made parachute.

 

1914 A radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications during the lead-up to the First Battle of the Marne.

 

1925 The con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal on two separate, but related occasions.

 

1930 The tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York City.

 

1925 to 1934 Illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's four sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time.

 

1940–1944 Upon the German occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps to the summit. The parts to repair them were allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war. In 1940 German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika[citation needed], but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and was replaced by a smaller one. When visiting Paris, Hitler chose to stay on the ground. It was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower. A Frenchman scaled the tower during the German occupation to hang the French flag. In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler ordered General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city. Von Choltitz disobeyed the order. Some say Hitler was later persuaded to keep the tower intact so it could later be used for communications. The lifts of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.

 

3 January 1956 A fire damaged the top of the tower.

 

1957 The present radio antenna was added to the top.

 

1980s A restaurant and its supporting iron scaffolding midway up the tower was dismantled; it was purchased and reconstructed on St. Charles Avenue and Josephine Street in the Garden District of New Orleans, Louisiana, by entrepreneurs John Onorio and Daniel Bonnot, originally as the Tour Eiffel Restaurant, later as the Red Room and now as the Cricket Club (owned by the New Orleans Culinary Institute). The restaurant was re-assembled from 11,000 pieces that crossed the Atlantic in a 40-foot (12 m) cargo container.

 

31 March 1984 Robert Moriarty flew a Beechcraft Bonanza through the arches of the tower.

 

1987 A.J. Hackett made one of his first bungee jumps from the top of the Eiffel Tower, using a special cord he had helped develop. Hackett was arrested by the Paris police upon reaching the ground.

 

27 October 1991 Thierry Devaux, along with mountain guide Hervé Calvayrac, performed a series of acrobatic figures of bungee jumping (not allowed) from the second floor of the Tower. Facing the Champ de Mars, Thierry Devaux was using an electric winch between each figure to go back up. When firemen arrived, he stopped after the sixth bungee jump.

 

New Year's Eve 1999 The Eiffel Tower played host to Paris's Millennium Celebration. On this occasion, flashing lights and four high-power searchlights were installed on the tower, and fireworks were set off all over it. An exhibition above a cafeteria on the first floor commemorates this event. Since then, the light show has become a nightly event. The searchlights on top of the tower make it a beacon in Paris's night sky, and the 20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour.

 

28 November 2002 The tower received its 200,000,000th guest.

 

2004 The Eiffel Tower began hosting an ice skating rink on the first floor each winter.

 

Design of the tower

 

Material

  

The Eiffel Tower from below

 

The puddle iron structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes, while the entire structure, including non-metal components, is approximately 10,000 tonnes. As a demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7,300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125-metre-square base to a depth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming the density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic metre. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun.

 

Wind considerations

 

At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, however, as experienced bridge builders, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind. In an interview reported in the newspaper Le Temps, Eiffel said:

Now to what phenomenon did I give primary concern in designing the Tower? It was wind resistance. Well then! I hold that the curvature of the monument's four outer edges, which is as mathematical calculation dictated it should be […] will give a great impression of strength and beauty, for it will reveal to the eyes of the observer the boldness of the design as a whole.[37]

Researchers have found that Eiffel used empirical and graphical methods accounting for the effects of wind rather than a specific mathematical formula. Careful examination of the tower shows a basically exponential shape; actually two different exponentials, the lower section overdesigned to ensure resistance to wind forces. Several mathematical explanations have been proposed over the years for the success of the design; the most recent is described as a nonlinear integral equation based on counterbalancing the wind pressure on any point on the tower with the tension between the construction elements at that point. As a demonstration of the tower's effectiveness in wind resistance, it sways only 6–7 cm (2–3 in) in the wind.

 

Accommodation

 

When built, the first level contained two restaurants: an "Anglo-American Bar", and a 250 seat theatre. A 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) promenade ran around the outside.

On the second level, the French newspaper Le Figaro had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, Le Figaro de la Tour, was produced. There was also a pâtisserie.

On the third level were laboratories for various experiments and a small apartment reserved for Gustave Eiffel to entertain guests. This is now open to the public, complete with period decorations and lifelike models of Gustave and some guests.

 

Engraved names

 

Gustave Eiffel engraved on the tower seventy-two names of French scientists, engineers and other notable people. This engraving was painted over at the beginning of the twentieth century but restored in 1986–1987 by the Société Nouvelle d'exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, a company contracted to operate business related to the Tower.

 

Maintenance

 

Maintenance of the tower includes applying 50 to 60 tonnes of paint every seven years to protect it from rust. The height of the Eiffel Tower varies by 15 cm due to temperature.

 

Aesthetic considerations

 

In order to enhance the impression of height, three separate colours of paint are used on the tower, with the darkest on the bottom and the lightest at the top. On occasion the colour of the paint is changed; the tower is currently painted a shade of bronze. On the first floor there are interactive consoles hosting a poll for the colour to use for a future session of painting.

The only non-structural elements are the four decorative grillwork arches, added in Stephen Sauvestre's sketches, which served to reassure visitors that the structure was safe, and to frame views of other nearby architecture.

One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the tower. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 storeys, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.

 

Popularity

 

More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 1889, including 6,719,200 in 2006. The tower is the most-visited paid monument in the world.

 

Passenger lifts

 

Ground to the second level

The original lifts (elevators) to the first and second floors were provided by two companies. Both companies had to overcome many technical obstacles as neither company (or indeed any company) had experience with installing lifts climbing to such heights with large loads. The slanting tracks with changing angles further complicated the problems. The East and West lifts were supplied by the French company Roux Combaluzier Lepape, using hydraulically powered chains and rollers. The North and South lifts were provided by the American company Otis using car designs similar to the original installation but using an improved hydraulic and cable scheme. The French lifts had a very poor performance and were replaced with the current installations in 1897 (West Pillar) and 1899 (East Pillar) by Fives-Lille using an improved hydraulic and rope scheme. Both of the original installations operated broadly on the principle of the Fives-Lille lifts.

The Fives-Lille lifts from ground level to the first and second levels are operated by cables and pulleys driven by massive water-powered pistons. The hydraulic scheme was somewhat unusual for the time in that it included three large counterweights of 200 tonnes each sitting on top of hydraulic rams which doubled up as accumulators for the water. As the lifts ascend the inclined arc of the pillars, the angle of ascent changes. The two lift cabs are kept more or less level and indeed are level at the landings. The cab floors do take on a slight angle at times between landings.

The principle behind the lifts is similar to the operation of a block and tackle but in reverse. Two large hydraulic rams (over 1 metre diameter) with a 16 metre travel are mounted horizontally in the base of the pillar which pushes a carriage (the French word for it translates as chariot and this term will be used henceforth to distinguish it from the lift carriage) with 16 large triple sheaves mounted on it. There are 14 similar sheaves mounted statically. Six wire ropes are rove back and forth between the sheaves such that each rope passes between the 2 sets of sheaves 7 times. The ropes then leave the final sheaves on the chariot and pass up through a series of guiding sheaves to above the second floor and then through a pair of triple sheaves back down to the lift carriage again passing guiding sheaves.

This arrangement means that the lift carriage, complete with its cars and passengers, travels 8 times the distance that the rams move the chariot, the 128 metres from the ground to the second floor. The force exerted by the rams also has to be 8 times the total weight of the lift carriage, cars and passengers, plus extra to account for various losses such as friction. The hydraulic fluid was water, normally stored in three accumulators, complete with counterbalance weights. To make the lift ascend, water was pumped using an electrically driven pump from the accumulators to the two rams. Since the counterbalance weights provided much of the pressure required, the pump only had to provide the extra effort. For the descent, it was only necessary to allow the water to flow back to the accumulators using a control valve. The lifts were operated by an operator perched precariously underneath the lift cars. His position (with a dummy operator) can still be seen on the lifts today.

The Fives-Lille lifts were completely upgraded in 1986 to meet modern safety requirements and to make the lifts easier to operate. A new computer-controlled system was installed which completely automated the operation. One of the three counterbalances was taken out of use, and the cars were replaced with a more modern and lighter structure. Most importantly, the main driving force was removed from the original water pump such that the water hydraulic system provided only a counterbalancing function. The main driving force was transferred to a 320 kW electrically driven oil hydraulic pump which drives a pair of hydraulic motors on the chariot itself, thus providing the motive power. The new lift cars complete with their carriage and a full 92 passenger load weigh 22 tonnes.

Owing to elasticity in the ropes and the time taken to get the cars level with the landings, each lift in normal service takes an average of 8 minutes and 50 seconds to do the round trip, spending an average of 1 minute and 15 seconds at each floor. The average journey time between floors is just 1 minute.

The original Otis lifts in the North and South pillars in their turn proved to be inferior to the new (in 1899) French lifts and were scrapped from the South pillar in 1900 and from the North pillar in 1913 after failed attempts to repower them with an electric motor. The North and South pillars were to remain without lifts until 1965 when increasing visitor numbers persuaded the operators to install a relatively standard and modern cable hoisted system in the north pillar using a cable-hauled counterbalance weight, but hoisted by a block and tackle system to reduce its travel to one third of the lift travel. The counterbalance is clearly visible within the structure of the North pillar. This latter lift was upgraded in 1995 with new cars and computer controls.

The South pillar acquired a completely new fairly standard electrically driven lift in 1983 to serve the Jules Verne restaurant. This was also supplied by Otis. A further four-ton service lift was added to the South pillar in 1989 by Otis to relieve the main lifts when moving relatively small loads or even just maintenance personnel.

The East and West hydraulic (water) lift works are on display and, at least in theory, are open to the public in a small museum located in base of the East and West tower, which is somewhat hidden from public view. Because the massive mechanism requires frequent lubrication and attention, public access is often restricted. However, when open, the wait times are much less than the other, more popular, attractions. The rope mechanism of the North tower is visible to visitors as they exit from the lift.

 

Second to the third level

 

The original spiral stairs to the third floor which were only 80 centimetres wide. Note also the small service lift in the background.

The original lifts from the second to the third floor were also of a water-powered hydraulic design supplied by Léon Edoux. Instead of using a separate counterbalance, the two lift cars counterbalanced each other. A pair of 81-metre-long hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. A lift car was mounted on top of the rams. Ropes ran from the top of this car up to a sheave on the third level and back down to a second car. The result of this arrangement was that each car only travelled half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway walking between the cars along a narrow gangway with a very impressive and relatively unobstructed downward view. The ten-ton cars held 65 passengers each or up to four tons.

One interesting feature of the original installation was that the hoisting rope ran through guides to retain it on windy days to prevent it flapping and becoming damaged. The guides were mechanically moved out of the way of the ascending car by the movement of the car itself. In spite of some antifreeze being added to the water that operated this system, it nevertheless had to close to the public from November to March each year.

The original lifts complete with their hydraulic mechanism were completely scrapped in 1982 after 97 years of service. They were replaced with two pairs of relatively standard rope hoisted cars which were able to operate all the year round. The cars operate in pairs with one providing the counterbalance for the other. Neither car can move unless both sets of doors are closed and both operators have given a start command. The commands from the cars to the hoisting mechanism are by radio obviating the necessity of a control cable. The replacement installation also has the advantage that the ascent can be made without changing cars and has reduced the ascent time from 8 minutes (including change) to 1 minute and 40 seconds. This installation also has guides for the hoisting ropes but they are electrically operated. The guide once it has moved out of the way as the car ascends automatically reverses when the car has passed to prevent the mechanism becoming snagged on the car on the downward journey in the event it has failed to completely clear the car. Unfortunately these lifts do not have the capacity to move as many people as the three public lower lifts and long lines to ascend to the third level are common. Most of the intermediate level structure present on the tower today was installed when the lifts were replaced and allows maintenance workers to take the lift halfway.

The replacement of these lifts allowed the restructuring of the criss-cross beams in upper part of the tower and further allowed the installation of two emergency staircases. These replaced the dangerous winding stairs that were installed when the tower was constructed.

Restaurants

The tower has two restaurants: Le 58 tour Eiffel, on the first floor 311 ft (95 m) above sea level; and the Le Jules Verne, a gastronomical restaurant on the second floor, with a private lift. This restaurant has one star in the Michelin Red Guide. In January 2007, the multi-Michelin star chef Alain Ducasse was brought in to run Jules Verne.

 

Attempted relocation

 

According to interviews given in the early 1980s, Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau negotiated a secret agreement with French President Charles de Gaulle for the tower to be dismantled and temporarily relocated to Montreal to serve as a landmark and tourist attraction during Expo 67. The plan was allegedly vetoed by the company which operated the tower out of fear that the French government could refuse permission for the tower to be restored to its original location.

 

Economics

 

The American TV show Pricing the Priceless speculates that in 2011 the tower would cost about $480,000,000 to build, that the land under the tower is worth $350,000,000, and that the scrap value of the tower is worth $3,500,000. The TV show estimates the tower makes a profit of about $29,000,000 per year, though it is unlikely that the Eiffel Tower is managed so as to maximize profit.

It costs $5,300,000 to repaint the tower, which is done once every seven years. The electric bill is $400,000 per year for 7.5 million kilowatt-hours.

The Tokyo Tower in Japan is a very similar structure of very similar size. It was finished in 1958 at a final cost of ¥2.8 billion ($8.4 million in 1958).

 

Source Wikipedia

   

This photograph was taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of eight metres, at 06:58am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 32mm 1/1.3s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 16.96s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 26.26s

ALTITUDE: 8.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 10.15MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

 

Flagging and lagging behind.

Where does the time go eh?

A week ago we came back from our holiday and I feel like I have done precisely nothing!

This report is from Friday night and was a fantastic haul on a very warm and humid night and included several new species for the garden.

It was lovely to get two Tree-lichen Beauties (2nd and 3rd garden records respectively) and garden firsts of Six-striped Rustic, Olive and 2 White-points.

Svensson's Copper Underwing was noted after checking every single Copper Underwing last year to no avail, I was lucky to find one so quickly this year.

And that was just the Macro's....on the Micro front there was also plenty of interest.

Ypsolopha alpella was new for the garden and not a very frequent moth with me.

 

All in all a cracking night and just a shame that the weather has now turned very unsettled for this coming week, still it might be worth sticking out the trap just incase of something very special turning up!

 

Catch Report - 21/08/15 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap

 

Macro Moths

 

1x Six-striped Rustic [NFG]

1x Olive [NFG]

2x White-point [NFG]

1x Knot Grass [NFY]

2x Tree-lichen Beauty [NFY]

1x Old Lady [NFY]

2x Dusky Thorn [NFY]

1x Svensson's Copper Underwing [NFY]

18x Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

3x Copper Underwing

4x Square-spotted Clay

1x Iron Prominent

1x Yellow-barred Brindle

3x Garden Carpet

1x Yellow Shell 2x Mouse Moth

1x Angle Shades 5x Orange Swift

2x Straw Dot

2x Flounced Rustic

1x Double-striped Pug

15x Square-spot Rustic

1x Cabbage Moth

3x Dark Arches

3x Pale Mottled Willow

1x Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

8x Large Yellow Underwing

2x Lesser Yellow Underwing

3x Shuttle-shaped Dart

1x Silver Y

2x Small Square-spot

3x Common Rustic

4x Straw Underwing

8x Setaceous Hebrew Character

4x Flame Shoulder-

1x Spectacle

2x Brimstone Moth

2x Dun-bar

2x Marbled Beauty

4x Riband Wave

1x Maple Pug

5x Vine's Rustic

38x Willow Beauty

1x Maiden's Blush

 

Micro Moths

 

1x Ypsolopha alpella [NFG]

1x Argyresthia albistria [NFY]

1x Ypsolopha dentella [NFY]

3x Caloptilia alchimiella [NFY]

5x Cameraria ohridella [NFY]

2x Cydia splendana [NFY]

1x Bucculatrix thoracella [NFY]

1x Parornix sp

1x Argyresthia goedartella

1x Cydia pomonella

1x Plutella xylostella

1x Hofmannophila pseudospretella

12x Agriphila tristella

2x Argyrotaenia ljungiana

1x Bucculatrix ulmella

1x Lyonetia clerkella

5x Epiphyas postvittana

1x Acentria ephemerella

1x Acrobasis advenella

1x Oegoconia sp

1x Celypha striana

1x Carcina quercana

1x Ditula angustiorana

10x Blastobasis adustella

2x Blastobasis lacticolella

5x Pandemis corylana

10x Pleuroptya ruralis

4x Agriphila straminella

3x Spilonota ocellana

12x Evergestis forficalis

3x Eudonia mercurella

1x Bryotropha terrella

2x Emmelina monodactyla

Photograph taken prior to the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise at 03:15am, (Sunrise was at precisely 05:15am), at an altitude of seven metres on Sunday July 7th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/30S f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip pack.Two Nikon EN-EL 15 batteries.Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Manfrotto 327RC2 Grip action ball head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft viewfinder eyecup.Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 20.52s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.38s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.62MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

   

Tsukemen

- pork broth, fish powder, menma, chāshū, thick tsukemen noodles

 

I made it to Tokyo station after a 14-hour flight from New York, and Rokurinsha ramen ( more precisely - their legendary tsukemen) was just too much of a temptation to resist.

 

Rokurinsha is widely believed to be one of Tokyo's best ramenayas, and I must admit - my meal reflected that notion. The line was fairly long, but after a reasonable wait - I would say may be 20 minutes, or so - I somehow chose the right button on the ticket vending machine and was seated at a communal table for two; my youthful dining companion spoke no English, but I just followed his lead in proper tsukemen manners. The biggest difference between Rokurinsha tsukemen were the noodles - as thick as traditional udon, and much thicker and wider than any ramen or tsukemen I have had before. Noodles were exceptionally well made and cooked, but served cold - to prevent additional cooking, I might guess.

 

The biggest attraction was definitely the broth - unmistakeable tonkotsu consistency and taste were complimented by slightly darker color one might expect from a typical milky-white tonkotsu soup (actually, it has been a bit of an issue in my own kitchen - my tonkotsu always turns out darker than I would like it to be; I tend to use more bones and natural skin gelatin than necessary). I think Rokurinsha broth color comes from a generous amount of bones used in the broth, but also from an addition of dried mackerel and, to a lesser degree, seaweed. The key player in the soup was the ground fish powder, no doubt ( the latter can be seen at the 6 o'clock position in the picture). Fish powder added an assertive, if not aggressive, umami component - I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first, but when the thick noodles found their new cradle in the broth all my concerns were laid to rest - I was simply hooked and just couldn't stop eating. Phenomenal bowl of noodles.

 

There is a lot to be said about Rokurinsha ramen, but it hardly can add anything to what two local Tokyo and independent from each other food writers have written about this gem of a restaurant in the past:

 

- first, exceptional in many ways, Japan Times and Tokyo Food File writer Robbie Swinnerton;

 

- second, extremely interesting and engaging Tokyo Cuisine Guide with Tokyo Joe at the helm;

 

Please refer to post by those exceptional bloggers for a different, and perhaps, a bit more comprehensive opinion of Rokurinsha ramen and tsukemen. All I can say - my $9.- meal at Rokurinsha was beyond exceptional - if only I could have those noodles again.

      

This photograph was taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Two metres, at 07:38am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England. Here we look towards Kingsgate Bay and Kingsgate Castle.

  

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 18mm 1/60s f/3.5 iso100 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 15.49s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 31.25s

ALTITUDE: 2.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 16.43MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

   

Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, during the first vestiges of ambient light prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (which was at precisely 04:51am), at 03:15am on Monday 7th July 2014, off Botany Road and the Viking Coastal Trail on the shoreline of Botany Bay, the Northern most of seven bays in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

Here, I am standing knee deep in the warm and rapidly returning tidal water after a one hour drive to the coast that had me in the shower at 01:30am.The seven bays are (from south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

This frame looks out towards the Thanet offshore windfarm, which was officially opened on September 23rd 2010 and was for a time, the largest offshore windfarm project in the world. The eight lines of turbines, one hundred of them in total, run north-west to south-east, covering a total area of 35sq km off Foreness Point near Margate. Each turbine is 115 metres high with 44-metre blades, and the project cost between £780-900million

    

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Nikon D800 160mm 1/30s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 20.54s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.41s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 19.75MB

 

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

via Blogger ift.tt/29Y8dT6

Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Zero metres, at 08:01am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 14mm 1/800S f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 19.64s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.71s

ALTITUDE: 0.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.82MB

  

Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Four metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 06:58am), at 07:02am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

  

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Nikon D800 110mm 1/800s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 54.81s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.70s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 10.27MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:31am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

  

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Nikon D800 116mm 1/500s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.80s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s

ALTITUDE: 7.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 18.02MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

 

Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty eight metres, during the first vestiges of dawn light around Twilight, (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 02:49am on Thursday 3rd July 2014 off Lullingstone Lane close to the Lullingstone Roman Villa looking back across the field close to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

  

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Nikon D800 70mm One seconds long exposure f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 21m 52.15s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 48.47s

ALTITUDE: 48.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 12.54MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

   

Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 07:00am), at 06:56am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

  

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Nikon D800 140mm 1/250s f/5.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 54.87s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.69s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.32MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Horned Treehopper (Membracidae)

 

Treehoppers (more precisely typical treehoppers to distinguish them from the Aetalionidae) and thorn bugs are members of the family Membracidae, a group of insects related to the cicadas and the leafhoppers. About 3,200 species of treehoppers in over 400 genera are known. They are found on all continents except Antarctica; only three species are known from Europe. Individual treehoppers usually live for only a few months.

  

Morphology

 

Thorn bugs, due to their unusual appearance, have long interested naturalists. They are best known for their enlarged and ornate pronotum, which most often resembles thorns, apparently to aid camouflage. In some species, the pronotum is a horn-like extension, but can form more bizarre shapes. The specialised pronotum (or helmet) may not be simply an expansion of the prothoracic sclerite, but a fused pair of dorsal appendages of the first thoracic segment.

 

These may be serial homologues of insect wings, which are dorsal appendages of the second and/or third thoracic segments. Evidence for this theory includes the development of the helmet, which arises as a pair of appendages attached to each side of the dorsal prothorax by an articulation with muscles and a flexible membrane that allow it to be mobile. Also, the same genes are involved in development of the helmet and the wings. Distinguishing males from females is accomplished only by looking at the genitalia.

  

Ecology

 

Treehoppers pierce plant stems with their beaks, and feed upon sap. The immatures can frequently be found on herbaceous shrubs and grasses, whereas the adults more often frequent hardwood tree species. Excess sap becomes concentrated as honeydew, which often attracts ants. Some species have a well-developed ant mutualism, and these species are normally gregarious, as well, which attracts more ants. The ants provide protection from predators. Treehoppers mimic thorns to prevent predators from spotting them.

 

Others have formed mutualisms with wasps, such as Parachartergus apicalis. Even geckos form mutualistic relations with treehoppers, with whom they communicate by small vibrations of the abdomen.

 

Eggs are laid by the female with her saw-like ovipositor in slits cut into the cambium or live tissue of stems, though some species lay eggs on top of leaves or stems. The eggs may be parasitised by wasps, such as the tiny fairyflies (Mymaridae) and Trichogrammatidae. The females of some membracid species sit over their eggs to protect them from predators and parasites, and may buzz their wings at intruders. The females of some gregarious species work together to protect each other's eggs. In at least one species, Publilia modesta, mothers serve to attract ants when nymphs are too small to produce much honeydew. Some other species make feeding slits for the nymphs.

 

Like the adults, the nymphs also feed upon sap, and unlike adults, have an extensible anal tube that appears designed to deposit honeydew away from their bodies. The tube appears to be longer in solitary species rarely attended by ants. It is important for sap-feeding bugs to dispose of honeydew, as otherwise it can become infected with sooty moulds. Indeed, one of the evident benefits of ants for Publilia concava nymphs is that the ants remove the honeydew and reduce such fungal growth.

 

Most species are innocuous to humans, although a few are considered minor pests, such as Umbonia crassicornis (a thorn bug), the three-cornered alfalfa hopper (Spissistilus festinus), and the buffalo treehopper (Stictocephala bisonia), which has been introduced to Europe. The cowbug Oxyrachis tarandus has been recorded as a pest of Withania somnifera in India.

  

Systematics

 

The diversity of treehoppers has been little researched, and their systematic arrangement is tentative. It seems three main lineages can be distinguished; the Endoiastinae are the most ancient treehoppers, still somewhat resembling cicadas. Centrotinae form the second group; they are somewhat more advanced but the pronotum still does not cover the scutellum in almost all of these. The Darninae, Heteronotinae, Membracinae and Smiliinae contain the most apomorphic treehoppers.

 

Several proposed subfamilies seem to be paraphyletic. Centronodinae and Nicomiinae might need to be merged into the Centrotinae to result in a monophyletic group.

 

[Credit: en.wikipedia.org]

Photograph taken in the magic of the Golden Hour at 20:52pm (Sunset was at precisely 21:06pm), on Wednesday 5th June 2013 off the Viking Coastal trail beside the ruins of Reculver Abbey, about three miles east of Herne Bay in south-east England, in a ward of the same name, in the City of Canterbury, district of Kent.

  

This frame looks out towards the Thanet offshore windfarm was officially opened on September 23rd 2010 and was for a time, the largest offshore windfarm project in the world. The eight lines of turbines, one hundred of them in total, run north-west to south-east, covering a total area of 35sq km off Foreness Point near Margate. Each turbine is 115 metres high with 44-metre blades, and the project cost between £780-900million

     

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Nikon D800 200mm 1/1600s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit)

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Manfrotto 327RC2 Grip action ball head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap. Sandisc 32GB Ultra Class 10 30MB/s SDHC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 gps unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 5.03s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.24s

ALTITUDE: 62.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 12.91MB

 

Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:59am), at an altitude of One metre, at 07:33am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 21mm 1/60S f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14Bit) Hand held AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. .Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 18.51s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 16.91s

ALTITUDE: 1.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.91MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 06:50am), at 07:08am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.

  

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Nikon D800 122mm 1/1250s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 54.87s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.72s

ALTITUDE: 6.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.70MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

The Postcard

 

A postcard that was printed and published by Ingram Clark & Co. Ltd. of Ilfracombe. The Candar Hotel caught fire and was subsequently demolished. The fire started at 2:30am on the night of 2nd. September 1983 in the shopping arcade under the Candar hotel. In this fire one life was lost.

 

The Candar Arcade site became the Candar sheltered residential apartments. The opening of Candar apartments was the last public engagement performed by Charles and Diana, as the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1992.

 

The card was posted in Barnes, London S.W.13 on Monday the 9th. June 1924 to:

 

Miss G. Jones,

Scarth Lodge,

Scarth Road,

Barnes,

London S.W.

Local.

 

The pencilled message on the divided back was as follows:

 

"So sorry we were out.

Shall be in on Tuesday

evening if you are out

for an hour. Shall be

very pleased to see you.

Love Adam."

 

Ilfracombe

 

The novelist Frances Burney stayed in Ilfracombe in 1817. Her diary entries record early 19th.-century life in Ilfracombe: a captured Spanish ship; two ships in distress in a storm; the visit of Thomas Bowdler; and her lucky escape after being cut off by the tide.

 

A few years later in the 1820's, a set of four tunnels were hand-carved by Welsh miners to permit access to the beaches by horse-drawn carriage as well as on foot. Previously access was gained by climbing the cliffs, rounding the point by boat, swimming or at the lowest tides clambering around the rocks of the point.

 

These tunnels led to a pair of tidal pools, which in accordance with Victorian morals, were used for segregated male and female bathing. Whereas women were constrained to a strict dress code covering up the whole body, men generally swam naked. The tunnels are still viewable, and are signposted as Tunnels Beaches.

 

In 1856 writer Mary Ann Evans (pen-name George Eliot) accompanied George Henry Lewes to Ilfracombe to gather materials for his work Seaside Studies published in 1858.

 

In more recent times actor Peter Sellers lived in the town when his parents managed the Gaiety Theatre. He first stepped on the stage there, and reputedly played the drums. Another actor Terry Thomas visited the town frequently to stay with his sister, and in the same period, Joan and Jackie Collins were schooled here and boarded in the town.

 

In the last two decades, the town has been home to many artists including Damien Hirst, and George Shaw, a runner up for the Turner Prize.

 

There is an annual art festival when local artists open their homes for visitors to see their work, and up to 10 permanent art galleries.

 

The town's first lifeboat was bought in 1828, but a permanent service was not available until the Royal National Lifeboat Institution built a lifeboat station at the bottom of Lantern Hill near the pier in 1866. The present station at Broad Street dates from 1996.

 

In 1911, the Irish nationalist Anna Catherine Parnell (sister of Charles Stewart Parnell) drowned at Ilfracombe, and is buried in the churchyard at Holy Trinity.

 

Miss Alice Frances Louisa Phillips (born on the 26th. January 1891 at 85 High Street, Ilfracombe) and her father Mr Escott Robert Phillips (born in 1869 in Cardiff) held 2nd. Class Ticket No. 2 on the Titanic, and set sail from Southampton on the 10th. April 1912 heading for New Brighton, Pennsylvania. Alice was rescued in boat 12, but her father was lost in the disaster.

 

-- The Great Fire of Ilfracombe

 

The Great Fire of Ilfracombe started on the night of the 28th. July 1896 in the basement of Mr. William Cole's ironmongery and furniture shop on the corner of Fore Street and Portland Street.

 

In total 35 houses and business premises were destroyed. Later that year the local volunteer firemen who attended the fire were presented with medals and £2 each at a dinner in their honour at the Royal Clarence Hotel.

 

Since 1896 there have been at least 10 other major fires in Ilfracombe, the most recent occurring in April 2008.

 

George Mallory

 

So what else happened on the day that Adam posted the card?

 

Well, the 9th. June 1924 (or possibly the 8th. June 1924) marked the death of George Mallory.

 

George Herbert Leigh Mallory, who was born in Cheshire on the 18th. June 1886, was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920's.

 

Mallory was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering as a student at Winchester College. After graduating from Magdalene College, Cambridge, he taught at Charterhouse School whilst climbing in the Alps and the English Lake District.

 

George served in the British Army during the Great War, and fought at the Somme.

 

After the war, Mallory returned to Charterhouse before resigning to take part in the 1921 British Mount Everest reconnaissance expedition.

 

In 1922, he took part in a second expedition to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain, in which his team achieved a record altitude of 26,980 ft (8,225 m) without supplemental oxygen.

 

During the 1924 expedition, Mallory and his climbing partner, Andrew "Sandy" Irvine, disappeared on the northeast ridge of Everest. The pair were last seen when they were about 800 vertical feet (245 m) from the summit.

 

Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was discovered on the 1st. May 1999 by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers' remains.

 

Whether Mallory and Irvine reached the summit before they died remains a subject of debate, of various theories, and of continuing research.

 

George Mallory - The Early Years

 

George Mallory was born in Mobberley, Cheshire, the son of Herbert Leigh-Mallory (1856–1943), a clergyman who changed his surname from Mallory to Leigh-Mallory in 1914.

 

His mother was Annie Beridge (1863–1946), the daughter of a clergyman in Walton, Derbyshire. George had two sisters and a younger brother, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, the World War II Royal Air Force commander. George was raised in a ten-bedroom house on Hobcroft Lane in Mobberley.

 

In 1896, Mallory attended Glengorse, a boarding school in Eastbourne. At the age of 13, he won a mathematics scholarship to Winchester College. In his final year there, he was introduced to rock climbing and mountaineering by a master, R. L. G. Irving, who took a few people climbing in the Alps each year.

 

In October 1905, Mallory entered Magdalene College, Cambridge, to study history. He was a keen oarsman, and rowed for his college.

 

While at Cambridge University, he became good friends with future members of the Bloomsbury Group, including Rupert Brooke, John Maynard Keynes, James Strachey, Lytton Strachey, and Duncan Grant.

 

Among these friends, particularly Lytton Strachey, his letters attest a flirtatious, homoerotic and "explicitly gay" friendship. In 1909, Lytton Strachey wrote of Mallory:

 

"Mon Dieu!—George Mallory! … He's six-foot high,

with the body of an athlete by Praxiteles, and a

face - oh incredible - the mystery of Botticelli, the

refinement and delicacy of a Chinese print, the

youth and piquancy of an unimaginable English

boy."

 

After gaining his degree, Mallory stayed in Cambridge for a year writing an essay he published as Boswell the Biographer. George lived briefly in France before he began teaching at Charterhouse School in 1910, where he met the poet Robert Graves, then a pupil.

 

In his autobiography, 'Goodbye to All That', Graves remembered Mallory fondly, both for the encouragement of his interest in literature and poetry, and his instruction in climbing. Graves recalled:

 

"Mallory was wasted as a teacher

at Charterhouse. He tried to treat

his class in a friendly way, which

puzzled and offended them."

 

While at Charterhouse, Mallory met his wife, Ruth Turner (1892–1942), who lived in Godalming, Surrey, and they were married in 1914, six days before Britain entered the Great War.

 

George and Ruth had two daughters and a son: Frances Clare (1915–2001), Beridge Ruth, known as "Berry" (1917–1953), and John (b. 1920).

 

During the Great War, in December 1915, Mallory was commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery as a second lieutenant and was promoted to lieutenant on the 1st. July 1917. Mallory relinquished his commission on the 21st. February 1920, retaining the rank of lieutenant.

 

After the war, Mallory returned to Charterhouse, but resigned in 1921 to join the first British expedition to Mount Everest. Between expeditions, he attempted to make a living from writing and lecturing, with only partial success. In 1923, he took a job as a lecturer with the Cambridge University Extramural Studies Department.  He was given temporary leave so that he could join the 1924 Everest attempt.

 

Climbing in Europe

 

In 1910, in a party led by Irving, George and a friend attempted to climb Mont Vélan in the Alps, but turned back shortly before the summit due to Mallory's altitude sickness. In 1911, Mallory climbed Mont Blanc, and made the third ascent of the Frontier ridge of Mont Maudit in a party again led by Irving.

 

According to Helmut Dumler:

 

"Mallory was apparently prompted by a

friend on the Western Front in 1916 to write

a highly emotional article of his ascent of

this great climb."

 

This article was published as 'Mont Blanc from the Col du Géant by the Eastern Buttress of Mont Maudit' in the Alpine Journal.

 

The article contained George's question, "Have we vanquished an enemy?" [i.e., the mountain] to which he responded, "None but ourselves."

 

By 1913, Mallory had ascended Pillar Rock in the English Lake District, with no assistance, by what is now known as "Mallory's Route" - currently graded Hard Very Severe 5a (Yosemite Decimal Rating 5.9).

 

One of Mallory's closest friends and climbing companions was a young woman named Cottie Sanders, who became a novelist with the pseudonym of Ann Bridge. The nature of their relationship is elusive; Sanders was either a "climbing friend" or a "casual sweetheart".

 

After Mallory died, Cottie wrote a memoir of him, which was never published, but provided much of the material used by later biographers such as David Pye and David Robertson in the novel 'Everest Dream.'

 

Climbing in Asia

 

-- The First Expedition

 

Mallory participated in the initial 1921 Mount Everest expedition that explored routes up to Everest's North Col. The expedition produced the first accurate maps of the region around the mountain, as Mallory, his climbing partner Guy Bullock, and E. O. Wheeler of the Survey of India explored in depth several approaches to its peak.

 

Under Mallory's leadership, and with the assistance of around a dozen Sherpas, the group climbed several lower peaks near Everest. George and his party were almost certainly the first Westerners to view the Western Cwm at the foot of the Lhotse face, as well as charting the course of the Rongbuk Glacier up to the base of the North Face.

 

After circling the mountain from the south side, his party finally discovered the East Rongbuk Glacier - the highway to the summit now used by nearly all climbers on the Tibetan side of the mountain.

 

By climbing up to the saddle of the North Ridge (the 23,030 ft (7,020 m) North Col), they identified a route to the summit via the North-East Ridge over the obstacle of the Second Step.

 

-- The Second Expedition

 

In 1922, Mallory returned to the Himalayas as part of the party led by Brigadier General Charles Bruce and climbing leader Edward Strutt, with a view to making a serious attempt on the summit.

 

Eschewing their bottled oxygen, which was at the time seen as going against the spirit of mountaineering, Mallory, along with Howard Somervell and Edward Norton, almost reached the crest of the North-East Ridge.

 

Despite being hampered and slowed by the thin air, they achieved a record altitude of 26,980 ft (8,225 m) before weather conditions and the late hour forced them to retreat.

 

A second party led by George Finch reached an elevation of around 27,300 ft (8,321 m) using bottled oxygen both for climbing and - a first - for sleeping.  The party climbed at record speeds, a fact that Mallory seized upon during the next expedition.

 

-- The Third Expedition

 

Mallory organised a third unsuccessful attempt on the summit, departing as the monsoon season arrived. On the 7th. June 1922, while he was leading a group of porters down the lower slopes of the North Col of Everest in fresh, waist-deep snow, an avalanche swept over the group, killing seven Sherpas.

 

The attempt was immediately abandoned, and Mallory was subsequently accused of poor judgement, including by expedition participants such as Dr. Longstaff.

 

'Because It's There' 

 

Mallory is famously quoted as having replied to the question, "Why did you want to climb Mount Everest?" with the retort, "Because it's there." George's reply has been called "the most famous three words in mountaineering".

 

Questions have arisen over the authenticity of the quote, and whether Mallory actually said it. Some have suggested that it was a paraphrase by a newspaper reporter, but scrutiny of the original Times report leaves this unresolved.

 

The phrase was certainly consistent with the direct quotes cited in the report, so it appears not to misrepresent Mallory's attitude.

 

Mallory's Last Climb

 

Mallory joined the 1924 Everest expedition, led, as in 1922, by Gen. Charles Bruce. Mallory, who was 37 at the time of the expedition, believed his age would make this his last opportunity to climb the mountain, and when touring the US proclaimed that the expedition would successfully reach the summit.

 

Mallory and Bruce made the first attempt, which was inexplicably aborted by Mallory at Camp 5. Norton and Somervell then set off from Camp 6, and in perfect weather, Norton managed, without oxygen, to reach 28,120 ft (8,570 m), a new record height.

 

On the 4th. June 1924, Mallory and Andrew Irvine set off from Advanced Base Camp (ABC) at 21,330 ft (6,500 m) and had already begun using oxygen from the base of the North Col, which they climbed in 2+1⁄2 hours.

 

Mallory had been converted from his original scepticism about oxygen usage by his failure on his initial assault, and the very rapid ascent of Finch in 1922.

 

At 08:40 on the 6th. June, they set off, climbing to Camp 5. On the 7th. June, they reached Camp 6. Mallory wrote that he had used only 3⁄4 of one bottle of oxygen for the two days, which suggests a climb rate of some 856 vertical feet per hour.

 

On the 8th. June, expedition member Noel Odell was moving up behind the pair in a "support role". Around 26,000 ft (7,925 m), he spotted the two climbing a prominent rock step, either the First or Second Step, about 13:00, although Odell might, conceivably, have been viewing the higher, then-unknown, "Third Step". Odell later reported:

 

"At 12.50, just after I had emerged from a state of

jubilation at finding the first definite fossils on Everest,

there was a sudden clearing of the atmosphere, and

the entire summit ridge and final peak of Everest were

unveiled.

My eyes became fixed on one tiny black spot silhouetted

on a small snow crest beneath a rock step in the ridge;

the black spot moved. Another black spot became

apparent, and moved up the snow to join the other on

the crest.

The first then approached the great rock step and shortly

emerged at the top; the second did likewise. Then the whole

fascinating vision vanished, enveloped in cloud once more".

 

At the time, Odell observed that one of the men surmounted the Second Step of the northeast ridge. Apart from his testimony, though, no evidence has been found that Mallory and Irvine climbed higher than the First Step; one of their spent oxygen cylinders was found shortly below the First Step, and Irvine's ice axe was found nearby in 1933. They never returned to their camp.

 

Presumably, Mallory and Irvine died either late the same evening or on the 9th. June. The news of Mallory and Irvine's disappearance was widely mourned in Britain, and the two were hailed as national heroes.

 

A memorial service was held in London at St Paul's Cathedral on the 17th. October. It was attended by a great assembly of family, friends, and dignitaries including King George V and members of the royal family, Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and his entire Cabinet.

 

Mallory's will was proven in London on the 17th. December; he bequeathed his estate of £1706 17s. 6d. (roughly equivalent to £103,517 in 2021) to his wife.

 

Lost on Everest for 75 Years

 

After their disappearance, several expeditions tried to find their remains, and perhaps, determine if they had reached the summit. Frank Smythe, when on a 1936 expedition, believed he had spotted a body below the place where Irvine's ice axe had been found three years earlier:

 

"I was scanning the face from base camp through a

high-powered telescope when I saw something queer

in a gully below the scree shelf. Of course, it was a long

way away and very small, but I've a six/six eyesight and

do not believe it was a rock.

This object was at precisely the point where Mallory and

Irvine would have fallen had they rolled on over the scree

slopes."

 

Smythe wrote this in a letter to Edward Felix Norton. He kept the discovery quiet as he feared press sensationalism, and it was not revealed until 2013, after the letter was found by his son when preparing his biography.

 

In late 1986, Tom Holzel launched a search expedition based on reports from Chinese climber Zhang Junyan that his tent-mate, Wang Hungbao, had stumbled across "an English dead" at 26,570 ft (8,100 m) in 1975.

 

On the last day of the expedition, Holzel met with Zhang Junyan, who reiterated that, despite official denials from the Chinese Mountaineering Association, Wang had come back from a short excursion and described finding "a foreign mountaineer" at "8,100 m." Wang was killed in an avalanche the day after delivering his verbal report, so the location was never more precisely fixed.

 

In 1999, the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition arrived at Everest to search for the lost pair. Within hours of beginning the search on the 1st. May, Conrad Anker found a frozen body at 26,760 ft (8,157 m) on the north face of the mountain.

 

As the body was found below where Irvine's axe had been found in 1933 at 27,760 ft (8,461.25 m), the team expected it to be Irvine's, and were hoping to recover the camera that he had reportedly carried with him.

 

They were surprised to find that name tags on the body's clothing bore the name of "G. Leigh Mallory." The body was well preserved, due to the freezing conditions. A brass altimeter, a stag-handled lambsfoot pocket knife with leather slip-case, and an unbroken pair of snow-goggles were recovered from the pockets of the clothing.

 

Personal effects, including a letter and a bill from a London supplier of climbing equipment, confirmed the identity of the body. The team could not, however, locate the camera that the two climbers took to document their final summit attempt.

 

Experts from Kodak have said that if a camera is ever found, some chance exists that its film could be developed to produce printable images, if extraordinary measures are taken. Kodak have provided guidance as to the handling of such a camera and the film inside, in the event that it is found.

 

Before leaving the site of Mallory's death, the expedition conducted an Anglican service for the climber, and covered his remains with a cairn on the mountain.

 

Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay is credited with reaching the Everest summit first, welcomed news of the discovery of Mallory's body, and described as "very appropriate" the possibility that Mallory might turn out to have summited decades earlier. Hillary said:

 

"He was really the initial pioneer of the

whole idea of climbing Mount Everest."

 

The 1999 research team returned to the mountain in 2001 to conduct further research. They discovered Mallory and Irvine's last camp, but failed to find either Irvine or a camera. Another initiative in 2004 also proved fruitless.

 

Reaching the Summit

 

Whether Mallory and Irvine reached Everest's summit is unknown. The question remains open to speculation, and is the topic of much debate and research.

 

Mallory's Body

 

When found, George's body was sun-bleached, frozen, and mummified.

 

Judging by a serious rope-jerk injury around Mallory's waist, which was encircled by the remnants of a climbing rope, he and Irvine were apparently roped together when one of them slipped.

 

Mallory's body lay 300 metres (1000 ft) below and about 100 metres (300 ft) horizontal to the location of the ice axe found in 1933, which is generally accepted from three characteristic marks on the shaft as belonging to Irvine.

 

That the body was relatively unbroken, apart from fractures to the right leg (the tibia and fibula were broken just above the boot), as compared to other bodies in the same location that were known to have fallen from the North-East Ridge, strongly suggests that Mallory could not have fallen from the ice axe site, but must have fallen from much lower down.

 

The other significant find on Mallory's body was a severe, golf ball-sized puncture wound in his forehead, the likely cause of his death.

 

The unusual puncture wound is consistent with one inflicted by an ice axe, leading some to conclude that, while Mallory was descending in a self-arrest "glissade", sliding down a slope while dragging his ice axe in the snow to control the speed of his descent, his ice axe may have struck a rock and bounced off, striking him fatally.

 

Two items of circumstantial evidence from the body suggest that he attempted, or reached, the summit:

 

-- Mallory's daughter said he carried a photograph of his wife on his person with the intention of leaving it on the summit. The photograph was not found on Mallory's body. Given the excellent preservation of the body, its garments, and other items including documents in his wallet, this points to the possibility that he reached the summit and left the photo there.

 

On the other hand, Wang (who is known to have taken Mallory's ice axe) might also have taken the photograph for identification purposes, and no one who has subsequently reached the summit has reported seeing any evidence of the photograph or any other trace of their presence there.

 

-- Mallory's unbroken snow goggles were found in his pocket, suggesting that Irvine and he had made a push for the summit and were descending after sunset. On his attempt a few days earlier, Norton had suffered serious snow blindness because he did not wear his goggles, so Mallory would be unlikely to have dispensed with them in daylight, and given their known departure time and movements, it is unlikely that they would have still been out by nightfall had they not attempted the summit pyramid.

 

An alternative scenario is that Mallory carried an extra pair, and the pair he was wearing was torn off in his fall.

 

The Difficult "Second Step"

 

Experienced modern climbers have mixed views on whether Mallory was capable of climbing the Second Step on the North Ridge. This is now surmounted by a 15 ft (4.6 m) aluminium ladder fixed in place by Chinese climbers in 1975 to bridge this very difficult pitch.

 

Austrian Theo Fritsche repeated the free climb solo in 2001 under conditions that resembled those encountered during the 1924 Everest expedition, and assessed the climb as having a grade of 5.6–5.7. Fritsche completed the climb without supplementary oxygen, and believes that Mallory could, weather permitting, have reached the summit.

 

In June 2007, as part of the 2007 Altitude Everest expedition, Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding free-climbed the Second Step, having first removed the Chinese ladder (which was later replaced).

 

Houlding rated the climb at 5.9, just within Mallory's estimated capabilities. The climb was part of an expedition which tried to recreate the 1924 climb. Eight years earlier, Anker had climbed the Second Step as part of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, but had used one point of aid by stepping on a rung of the ladder, which blocked the only available foothold.

 

At that time, Anker had rated the climb at 5.10, which he considered to be beyond Mallory's capabilities, but after the June 2007 climb, he changed his view and said that Mallory "could have climbed it".

 

Noel Odell believed that he had seen Mallory and Irvine ascend the Second Step, but eventually changed his story to say it was the First Step. Towards the end of his life, however, he reaffirmed his original view. Recent observations taken from Odell's vantage point by other climbers suggest that Odell would have probably seen the men at the Second Step as he had initially reported.

 

Theories

 

A number of different outcomes have been proposed, and new theories continue to be put forward. Most views have the two carrying two cylinders of oxygen each, reaching and climbing either the First or Second Step, where they are seen by Odell.

 

At this point, two main alternatives remain: either Mallory takes Irvine's oxygen and goes on alone (and may or may not reach the summit); or both go on together until they turn back (having used up their oxygen, or realising that they will do so before the summit).

 

In either case, Mallory slips and falls to his death while descending, perhaps caught in the fierce snow squall that sent Odell to take shelter in their tent.

 

Irvine either falls with him, or in the first scenario, dies alone of exhaustion and hypothermia high up on the ridge.

 

The hypothesis advanced by Tom Holzel in February 2008 is that Odell sighted Mallory and Irvine climbing the First Step for a final look around while they were actually descending from a failed summit bid.

 

Assessments by Other Climbers

 

-- Ang Tsering

 

Ang Tsering, a Sherpa member of the 1924 British Everest Expedition, was interviewed in 2000 by Jonathan Neale. Ang recounted:

 

"What I liked about George Mallory

was that he was so friendly."

 

-- Harry Tyndale

 

Harry Tyndale, one of Mallory's climbing partners, said of Mallory:

 

"In watching George at work, one was conscious

not so much of physical strength as of suppleness

and balance; so rhythmical and harmonious was

his progress in any steep place that his movements

appeared almost serpentine in their smoothness."

 

-- Geoffrey Winthrop Young

 

Geoffrey Winthrop Young, an accomplished mountain climber, held Mallory's ability in awe:

 

"His movement in climbing was entirely his own.

It contradicted all theory. He would set his foot

high against any angle of smooth surface, fold

his shoulder to his knee, and flow upward and

upright again on an impetuous curve.

Whatever may have happened unseen the while

between him and the cliff… the look, and indeed

the result, were always the same - a continuous

undulating movement so rapid and so powerful

that one felt the rock must yield, or disintegrate."

 

The First "Real" ascent, or Just to the Summit?

 

If evidence were found that showed that Mallory or Irvine had reached the summit of Everest in 1924, advocates of Hillary and Norgay's first ascent maintain that the historical record should not be changed to state that Mallory and Irvine made the first ascent.

 

-- 1965 Mount Everest summiteer H. P. S. Ahluwalia claims that without photographic proof, no evidence shows that Mallory reached the summit and:

 

"It would be unfair to say that the

first man to scale Mount Everest

was George Mallory".

 

-- Mallory's son John Mallory, who was three years old when his father died, said:

 

"To me, the only way you achieve a summit

is to come back alive. The job is only half

done if you don't get down again".

 

-- Edmund Hillary echoed John Mallory's opinion, asking:

 

"If you climb a mountain for the first time and die on the

descent, is it really a complete first ascent of the mountain?

I am rather inclined to think personally that maybe it is quite

important, the getting down, and the complete climb of a

mountain is reaching the summit and getting safely to the

bottom again."

 

-- Hillary's daughter, Sarah, when asked about her father's take on the debate, said:

 

"His view was that he had got 50 good years

out of being conqueror of Everest, and, whatever

happened, he wasn't particularly worried. That's

my feeling as well."

 

-- Chris Bonington, the British mountaineer, argued:

 

"If we accept the fact that they were above the

Second Step, they would have seemed to be

incredibly close to the summit of Everest, and I

think at that stage something takes hold of most

climbers… And I think therefore taking all those

circumstances in view… I think it is quite conceivable

that they did go for the summit… I certainly would

love to think that they actually reached the summit

of Everest. I think it is a lovely thought and I think it is

something, you know, gut emotion, yes I would love

them to have got there. Whether they did or not,

I think that is something one just cannot know."

 

-- Conrad Anker, who found Mallory's body in 1999, free-climbed the Second Step in 2007 and who has worn replica 1924 climbing gear on Everest, said:

 

"I believe it is possible, but highly

improbable, that they made it to

the top."

 

Anker cited the difficulty of the Second Step and the position of Mallory's body. He said that, in his opinion:

 

"I don't believe they made it… the climbing up there

is so difficult, and I think that Mallory was a very good

climber, and part of being a good climber is knowing

when you're at too much of a risk, and it's time to turn

back.

I think he saw that, and he turned back and it was

either he or Irvine as they were descending the

Yellow Band slipped and pulled the other one off, the

rope snapped and he came to his rest."

 

-- Robert Graves, who climbed with Mallory, in his autobiography recounts the story, at the time famous in climbing circles, about an ascent that Mallory made as a young man in 1908:

 

"My friend George Mallory once did an inexplicable

climb on Snowdon. He had left his pipe on a ledge,

half-way down one of the Liwedd precipices, and

scrambled back by a short cut to retrieve it, then up

again by the same route.

No one saw what route he took, but when they came to

examine it the next day for official record, they found an

overhang nearly all the way.

By a rule of the Climbers' Club, climbs are never named

in honour of their inventors, but only describe natural

features.

An exception was made here. The climb was recorded

as follows:

'Mallory's Pipe, a variation on route 2; see adjoining map.

This climb is totally impossible. It has been performed

once, in failing light, by Mr G. H. L. Mallory.'"

 

The route is now called "Mallory's Slab", a hard V Diff on Y Lliwedd.

 

The Legacy of George Mallory

 

Mallory was honoured by having a court named after him at his alma mater, Magdalene College, Cambridge, with an inscribed stone commemorating his death set above the doorway to one of the buildings.

 

The Friends of Magdalene Boat Club was renamed the Mallory Club in recognition of his achievements in exploration and rowing at the college.

 

Two high peaks in California's Sierra Nevada, Mount Mallory and Mount Irvine, located a few miles southeast of Mount Whitney, were named after them.

 

The Times obituary of George Finch called Mallory and Finch "The two best alpinists of their time".

 

Mallory was captured on film by expedition cameraman John Noel, who released his film of the 1924 expedition, 'The Epic of Everest.' Some of his footage was also used in George Lowe's 1953 documentary 'The Conquest of Everest'.

 

A documentary on the 2001 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition, 'Found on Everest', was produced by Riley Morton.

 

Mallory was played by Brian Blessed in the 1991 re-creation of his last climb, 'Galahad of Everest'.

 

In Anthony Geffen's 2010 documentary film about Mallory's life and final expedition, 'The Wildest Dream', Conrad Anker and Leo Houlding attempted to reconstruct the climb, dressed and equipped like Mallory and Irvine.

 

'Everest', a proposed Hollywood version of the 1924 attempt, adapted from Jeffrey Archer's 2009 novel 'Paths of Glory', had first Tom Hardy and then Benedict Cumberbatch slated to play Mallory, by 2014 it was evident that the film was no longer in production. As of late 2021, it is in production again, with Ewan McGregor starring as Mallory.

 

In April 2015, it was announced that Michael Sheen would play Mallory in a biopic titled 'In High Places', to be written and directed by James McEachen, but as of 2020, McEachen's website stated that it had not been funded.

 

Tragedy in the mountains has proved a recurring theme in the Mallory line. Mallory's younger brother, Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, met his death on a mountain range when the Avro York carrying him to his new appointment as Air Commander-in-Chief of South East Asia Command crashed in the French Alps in 1944, killing all on board.

 

A memorial window to George Mallory along with a memorial plaque to Trafford can be found at St. Wilfrid's Church, Mobberley.

 

Mallory's daughter, Frances Clare, married physiologist Glenn Allan Millikan, who was killed in a climbing accident in Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tennessee.

 

Frances Mallory's son, Richard Millikan, became a respected climber during the 1960's and '70's. Mallory's grandson, also named George Mallory, reached the summit of Everest in 1995 via the North Ridge with six other climbers as part of the American Everest Expedition of 1995. He left a picture of his grandparents at the summit, citing "unfinished business".

 

Belgian rock band Girls in Hawaii's song "Mallory's Height" on their 2013 album 'Everest' is a homage to Mallory.

Protected by Full Copyright: Please do not use this image without my written permission in anyway, doing so is a violation of federal law.

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I added a selective texture on the white background and when I worked on this I was amazed at how precisely straight this very old building is. (It is roughly circa 1850). I think I kind of lucked out in this case when the sky blanched out. I think it works for this photo.

 

btw, This photo has so much texture in photoshop but it all kind of flopped here on Flickr, bummer

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Better on Large:

View On Black

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I had an interesting experience when I was photographing this area. A woman clutching a plastic shopping bag that appeared to be a homeless person due to the way she seemed to be wandering with no real direction started chatting away to me. At first, she didn't make much sense and it sounded like she was just rambling. She was pointing at debris in front of a building I was photographing and was telling me, "There is money in there; one time I found twenty dollars in there". Of course, I didn't know how to respond.

 

I crossed a road between buildings of blight and started to photograph the building above in this photo. After I took a few photos, I started to walk back toward the direction I came from. As I walked away, the woman called out to me. She was facing this clock pointing at it. She started to ramble again, or so I thought. At first, I could only make out that she was emphatic about me going back to the clock as she eagerly continued to point at it. Then she said, "Look, look! You can see the numbers on the clock. Take more photos of it, See? You can see the numbers on the clock"

 

I felt pretty awkward but I didn't want to treat this woman disrespectfully. So, I went back to take this shot. When I uploaded the photo, I thought about how this woman was right that this clock did still have the detail of the numbers still on it and how I had even missed this as it is camoflauged by the rust.

 

The woman spoke rapidly, and also in somewhat of a nonsensical way so all of what she said to me only sunk in later. When she was chattering about the clock detail she had told me that she used to be a photographer in New York. When I looked back at this set of photos I reflected back on what this woman said. I thought how interesting it was that this woman did indeed notice the detail on this clock, when I had thought she seemed to not even notice where she was going. I have thought since then how incredible this experience was that this woman very likely was once a very successful pro photographer in NYC and who would ever dream in a million years that a woman who had experienced this kind of success would now be a vagrant wandering the streets.

 

I imagine that most people would have typically done what they could to avoid her and believe that whatever the woman was saying it wouldn't be anything they were interested in. This experience taught me a lesson indeed about how we can be so very shallow and judgmental and ignore someone like this. Had I done this I would have missed out on having an opportunity for potentially someone much more skilled then me to encourage me to go back and take more shots to get the detail on this clock, as this very wise rambling homeless woman had advised me :-)

The Burgtheater on the Dr.-Karl -Lueger-Ring (from now on, Universitätsring) in Vienna is an Austrian Federal Theatre. It is one of the most important stages in Europe and after the Comédie-Française, the second oldest European, as well as the largest German speaking theater. The original 'old' Burgtheater on Michaelerplatz was recorded from 1748 until the opening of the new building at the ring in October, 1888. The new house was completely on fire in 1945 as a result of bomb attacks, until the re-opening on 14 October 1955 was the Ronacher as temporary quarters. The Burgtheater is considered Austrian National Theatre.

Throughout its history, the theater was wearing different names, first kk Theater next to the castle, then to 1918 K.K. Court-Burgtheater and since then Burgtheater. Especially in Vienna it is often referred to as "The Castle (Die Burg)" , the ensemble members are known as Castle actors (Burgschauspieler). Director of the House since 2009, Matthias Hartmann.

History

St. Michael's Square with the old K.K. Theatre beside the castle (right) and the Winter Riding School of the Hofburg (left)

The interior of the Old Burgtheater, painted by Gustav Klimt. The people are represented in such detail that the identification is possible.

The 'old' Burgtheater at St. Michael's Square

The original castle theater was set up in a ball house that was built in the lower pleasure gardens of the Imperial Palace of the Roman-German King and later Emperor Ferdinand I in 1540, after the old house 1525 fell victim to a fire. Until the beginning of the 18th Century was played there the Jeu de Paume, a precursor of tennis. On 14 March 1741 finally gave the Empress Maria Theresa, who after the death of her father ruled a general theater lock order, the "Entrepreneur of the Royal Court Opera" and lessees of 1708 built theater at Kärntnertor, Joseph Karl Selliers, permission to change the ballroom into a theater. Simultaneously, a new ball house was built in the immediate vicinity, which todays Ballhausplatz is bearing its name.

In 1748, the newly designed "theater next to the castle" was opened. 1756 major renovations were made, inter alia, a new rear wall was built. The Auditorium of the Old Burgtheater was still a solid timber construction and took about 1200 guests. The imperial family could reach her ​​royal box directly from the imperial quarters with them the Burgtheater was structurally connected. At the old venue at Michael's place were, inter alia, several works of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as well as Franz Grillparzer were premiered .

On 17 February 1776, Emperor Joseph II declared the theater to the German National Theatre (Teutsches Nationaltheater). It was he who ordered by decree that the pieces should not treat sad events to bring the imperial audience in a bad mood. Many pieces had changed and therefore a Vienna Final (Happy End) is provided, such as Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet. From 1794, the theater was bearing the name K.K. Court Theatre next to the castle.

1798 the poet August von Kotzebue was appointed as head of the Burgtheater, but after discussions with the actors he left Vienna in 1799. Under German director Joseph Schreyvogel was introduced German instead of French and Italian as a new stage language.

On 12 In October 1888 the last performance in the old house took place. The Burgtheater ensemble moved to the new venue on the ring. The Old Burgtheater had to give way to the completion of Michael's tract of Hofburg. The plans to this end had been drawn almost 200 years before the demolition of the old Burgtheater by Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach.

The "new" K.K. Court Theatre (as the inscription reads today) on the ring opposite the Town Hall, opened on 14th in October 1888 with Esther of Grillparzer and Schiller's Wallenstein's Camp, it was designed in neo-Baroque style by Gottfried Semper (plan) and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer (facade), who had already designed the Imperial Forum in Vienna together. Construction began on 16 December 1874 and followed through 14 years, in which the architects quarreled. Already in 1876 Semper withdrew due to health problems to Rome and had Hasenauer realized his ideas alone, who in the dispute of the architects stood up for a mainly splendid designed grand lodges theater.

However, created the famous Viennese painter Gustav Klimt and his brother Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch 1886-1888 the ceiling paintings in the two stairwells of the new theater. The three took over this task order for similar work in the city of Fiume theaters and Karlovy Vary and in the Bucharest National Theatre. In the grand staircase at the café Landtmann side facing the Burgtheater (Archduke stairs) reproduced ​​Gustav Klimt the artists of ancient theater in Taormina in Sicily, in the stairwell on the "People's Garden"-side (Kaiserstiege, because it was reserved for the emperor), the London Globe Theatre and the final scene from William Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet" . Above the entrance to the auditorium is Molière's The Imaginary Invalid to discover. In the background the painter immortalized in the company of his two colleagues. Emperor Franz Joseph I liked the ceiling paintings so much that he gave the members of the company of artists of Klimt the Golden Cross of Merit.

The new building resembles externally the Dresden Semper Opera, but even more, due to the for the two theaters absolutely atypical cross wing with the ceremonial stairs, Semper Munich project from the years 1865/1866 for a Richard Wagner Festspielhaus on the Isar. Above the middle section, a loggia, which is framed by two side wings, and is divided from a stage house with a gable roof and auditorium with a tent roof. Across the center house is decorated with a statue of Apollo, the facade, the towers between the Muses of drama and tragedy. Over the main entrances are located friezes with Bacchus and Ariadne. On the exterior round busts can be seen the poet Calderon, Shakespeare, Moliere, Schiller, Goethe, Lessing, Halm, Grillparzer, and Hebbel. The masks are also to be seen here, indicating the ancient theater, also adorn the side wings allegories: love, hate, humility, lust, selfishness, and heroism. Although since 1919, the theater was named the Burgtheater, the old saying KK Hofburgtheater over the main entrance still exists. Some pictures of the old gallery of portraits having been hung in the new building are still visible today - but these images were originally small, they had to be "extended" to make them work better in high space. The locations of these "supplements" are visible as fine lines on the canvas.

The Burgtheater was initially well received due to its magnificent appearance and technical innovations such as electric lighting of the Viennese, but soon criticism of the poor acoustics was loud. Finally, in 1897 the auditorium was rebuilt to reduce the acoustic problems. The new theater was an important meeting place of social life and soon counted among the "sanctuaries" of the Viennese. In November 1918, the supervision on the theater was transferred from the High Steward of the emperor to the new state of German Austria.

1922/1923 the Academy Theatre was opened as a chamber play stage of the Burgtheater. 8th May 1925 was the Burgtheater in Austria's criminal history, as here Mentscha Karnitschewa perpetrated a revolver assassination on Todor Panitza .

The Burgtheater in time of National Socialism

The National Socialist ideas also left traces in the history of the Burgtheater. Appeared in 1939 in Adolf Luser Verlag the strongly anti-Semitic embossed book of theater scientist Heinz Kindermann "The Burgtheater. Heritage and mission of a national theater", in which he, among other things, analyzed the "Jewish influence "on the Burgtheater. On 14 October 1938 was the 50th anniversary of the opening of Burgtheater a production of Don Carlos of Karl-Heinz Stroux shown that served the Hitler's ideology. The role of the Marquis of Posa played the same Ewald Balser, who 'railed in a different Don Carlos production a year earlier (by Heinz Hilpert) at the Deutsches Theater in the same role with the set direction of Joseph Goebbels box: "Enter the freedom of thought". The actor and director Lothar Müthel, who was director of the Burgtheater between 1939 and 1945, staged 1943 Merchant of Venice, in which Werner Kraus Shylock the Jew clearlyanti-Semitic represented. The same director staged after the war Lessing 's parable Nathan the Wise. Adolf Hitler himself visited during the Nazi regime the Burgtheater only once (1938), and later he refused out of fear of an assassination.

For actors and theater staff who were classified according to the Reich Citizenship Law of 1935 as "Jewis ", were quickly imposed banned from performing, they were on leave, fired or arrested within days. The Burgtheater ensemble made ​​between 1938 and 1945 no significant resistance against the Nazi ideology, the game plan was heavily censored, actively just joined the Resistance, as Judith Holzmeister (then also at the National Theatre committed ) or the actor Fritz Lehmann. Although Jewish members of the ensemble indeed have been helped to emigrate, was still an actor, Fritz Strassny, taken to a concentration camp and murdered there.

The Burgtheater end of the war and after the Second World War

In summer 1944, the Burgtheater had to be closed because of the general arranged theater lock. From 1 April 1945 as the Red Army approached Vienna, outsourced a military unit in the house, a portion was used as an arsenal. In a bomb attack the house at the Ring was damaged and burned on 12th April 1945 it burned completely. Auditorium and stage were useless, only the steel structure remained. The ceiling paintings and part of the lobby were almost undamaged.

The Soviet occupying power expected from Viennese City Councillor Viktor Matejka to bring Vienna 's cultural life as soon as possible again. The council called for 23 April (a state government did not yet exist), a meeting of all Viennese cultural workers into the town hall. Result of the discussions was that in late April 1945 eight cinemas and four theaters took up the operation again, including the Burgtheater. The house took over the Ronacher Theater, which was understood by many castle actors as "exile" as a temporary home (and remained there to 1955). This Venue chose the newly appointed director Raoul Aslan, who championed particularly active.

The first performance after the Second World War was on 30 April 1945 by Franz Grillparzer, Sappho, directed by Adolf Rott from 1943 with Maria Eis in the title role. Other productions from the Nazi era were resumed. With Paul Hoerbiger, a Nazi prisoner a few days ago still in mortal danger, was shown the piece of Nestroy Mädl (Girlie) from the suburbs. The Academy Theatre was recorded (the first performance was on 19 April 1945 Hedda Gabler, a production of Rott in 1941) and also in the ball room (Redoutensaal) at the Imperial Palace took performances place. Aslan had the Ronacher rebuilt in the summer because the stage was too small for classical performances. On 25 September 1945, Schiller's Maid of Orleans could be played on the larger stage.

The first new productions are associated with the name of Lothar Müthel: Anyone and Nathan the Wise, in both Raoul Aslan played the main role. The staging of The Merchant of Venice by Müthel to Nazi times seemed to be forgotten.

Great pleasure gave the public the return of the in 1938 from the ensemble expelled Else Wohlgemuth on stage. She performaed after seven years of exile in December 1945 in Clare Biharys The other mother in the Academy Theater. 1951 opened the Burgtheater its doors for the first time, but only the left wing, where the celebrations of the 175th anniversary of the theater took place.

1948, a competition was announced for the reconstruction: Josef Gielen, who was then director, first tended to support the design of ex aequo-ranked Otto Niedermoser, after which the house into a modern theater rank should be rebuilt. Finally, he agreed but then for the project by Michael Engelhardt, whose plan was conservative, but also cost effective. The character of the lodges theater was largely taken into account and maintaining the central royal box has been replaced by two ranks, and with a new slanted ceiling construction in the audience was the acoustics, the weakness of the home, improved significantly.

On 14 October 1955 was happening under Adolf Rott the reopening of the restored house on the Ring. For this occasion Mozart's A Little Night Music was played. On 15 and on 16 In October it was followed by the first performance (for reasons of space as a double premiere) in the restored theater: King Ottokar's Fortune and End of Franz Grillparzer, staged by Adolf Rott. A few months after the signing of the Austrian State Treaty was the choice of this piece, which explores the beginning of Habsburg rule in Austria and Ottokar of Hornecks eulogy on Austria (... it's a good country / Well worth that a prince among thread! / where have you already seen the same?... ) contains highly symbolic. Rott and under his successors Ernst Haeusserman and Gerhard Klingenberg the classic Burgtheater style and the Burgtheater German for German theaters were finally pointing the way .

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Burgtheater participated (with other well-known theaters in Vienna) on the so-called Brecht boycott.

Gerhard Klingenberg internationalized the Burgtheater, he invited renowned stage directors such as Dieter Dorn, Peter Hall, Luca Ronconi, Giorgio Strehler, Roberto Guicciardini and Otomar Krejča. Klingenberg also enabled the castle debuts by Claus Peymann and Thomas Bernhard (1974 world premiere of The Hunting Party). Bernhard Klingenberg's successor was talking, but eventually was appointed Achim Benning, whereupon the writer with the text "The theatrical shack on the ring (how I should become the director of the Burgtheater)" answered.

Benning, the first ensemble representative of the Burgtheater, was appointed Director, continued Klingenberg's way of Europeanization by other means, brought directors such as Adolf Dresen, Manfred Wekwerth or Thomas Langhoff to Vienna, looked with performances of plays of Vaclav Havel in the then politically separated East and took more account of the public taste .

Directorate Claus Peymann 1986-1999

Under the from short-term Minister of Education Helmut Zilk to Vienna fetched Claus Peymann, director from 1986 to 1999, there was further modernization of the match schedule and staging styles. Moreover Peymann was never at a loss for words for critical messages to the public, a hitherto unusual attitude for Burgtheater directors. Therefore, he and his program met with sections of the audience's rejection. The largest theater in Vienna scandal since 1945, this when in 1988 conservative politicians and zealots fiercely fought the premiere of Thomas Bernhard's Heldenplatz (Place of the Heroes) drama. The play deals with the past and illuminates the present management in Austria - with attacks on the then ruling Social Democratic Party - critically. Together with Claus Peymann Bernhard raised after the premiere to a challenge on the stage to applause and boos .

Bernard, to his home country bound in love-hate relationship, prohibited the performance of his plays in Austria before his death in 1989 by will. Peymann , to Bernhard bound in a difficult friendship (see Bernhard's play Claus Peymann buys a pair of pants and goes eating with me) feared harm for the author's work, should his pieces precisely in his home not being shown. First, it was through permission of the executor Peter Fabjan - Bernhard's half-brother - after all, possible the already in the Schedule of the Burgtheater included productions to continue. Finally, shortly before the tenth anniversary of the death of Bernard it came to the revival of the Bernhard piece Before retirement by the opening night director Peymann. The pieces by Bernhard are since continued on the board of the Burgtheater and they are regularly re-released.

In 1993, the sample stage of the castle theater was opened in the arsenal (architect Gustav Peichl) . Since 1999, the castle theater has been run as a limited liability.

Directorate Klaus Bachler 1999-2009

On Peymann followed in 1999 as director Klaus Bachler. He is a trained actor, but was mostly as a cultural manager (director of the Vienna Festival) active. Bachler moved the theater as a cultural event in the foreground and he engaged for this purpose directors such as Luc Bondy, Andrea Breth, Peter Zadek and Martin Kušej.

Were among the unusual "events" of the Directorate Bachler

* The Theatre of Orgies and Mysteries by Hermann Nitsch with the performance of 122 Action (2005 )

* The recording of the MTV Unplugged concert with Die Toten Hosen for the music channel MTV (2005, under the title available only to visit )

* John Irving's reading from his book at the Burgtheater Until I find you (2006)

* The 431 animatographische (animatographical) Expedition by Christoph Schlingensief and a big event of it under the title of Area 7 - Matthew Sadochrist - An expedition by Christoph Schlingensief (2006).

* Daniel Hoevels cut in Schiller's Mary Stuart accidentally his throat ( December 2008). Outpatient care is enough.

Jubilee Year 2005

In October 2005, the Burgtheater celebrated the 50th Anniversary of its reopening with a gala evening and the performance of Grillparzer King Ottokar's Fortune and End, directed by Martin Kušej that had been performed in August 2005 at the Salzburg Festival as a great success. Michael Maertens (in the role of Rudolf of Habsburg ) received the Nestroy Theatre Award for Best Actor for his role in this piece. Actor Tobias Moretti was awarded in 2006 for this role with the Gertrude Eysoldt Ring.

Furthermore, there were on 16th October 2005 the open day on which the 82-minute film "burg/private. 82 miniatures" of Sepp Dreissinger was shown for the first time. The film contains one-minute film "Stand portraits" of Castle actors and guest actors who, without saying a word, try to present themselves as a natural expression. Klaus Dermutz wrote a work on the history of the Burgtheater. As a motto this season was a quotation from Lessing's Minna von Barn-helm: "It's so sad to be happy alone."

The Burgtheater to the Mozart Year 2006

Also the Mozart Year 2006 was thought at the Burgtheater. As Mozart's Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail in 1782 in the courtyard of Castle Theatre was premiered came in cooperation with the Vienna State Opera, the Vienna Festival in May 2006, a new production (directed by Karin Beier ) of this opera to the stage.

Directorate Matthias Hartmann since 2009

Since September 2009, Matthias Hartmann is Artistic Director of the Burgtheater. A native of Osnabrück, he directed the playhouses of Bochum and Zurich. With his directors like Alvis Hermanis, Roland Schimmelpfennig, David Boesch, Stefan Bachmann, Stefan Pucher, Michael Thalheimer and actresses like Dorte Lyssweski, Katharina Lorenz, Sarah Viktoria Frick, Mavie Hoerbiger, Lucas Gregorowicz and Martin Wuttke came firmly to the castle. Matthias Hartmann himself staged around three premieres per season, about once a year, he staged at the major opera houses. For more internationality and "cross-over ", he won the Belgian artist Jan Lauwers and his Need Company as "Artists in Residence" for the castle, the New York group Nature Theater of Oklahoma show their great episode drama live and Times of an annual continuation. For the new look - the Burgtheater presents itself without a solid logo with word games around the BURG - the Burgtheater in 2011 was awarded the Cultural Brand of the Year .

www.mariachiproductions.org/basel2012/index.php/tournamen...

This Six second long exposure was taken at an altitude of Fifty one metres, in the magic of Twilight, prior to Sunrise which was at precisely 04:47am, at 02:27am on Thursday 3rd July 2014 off Lullingstone Lane next to the Lullingstone Roman Villa and overlooking the field adjacent to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

  

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Nikon D800 70mm 6 Second exposure f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. AF-S Single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 21m 52.08s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 48.55s

ALTITUDE: 51.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 14.55MB

  

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

   

Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Nine metres, at 07:59am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.

  

A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

  

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Nikon D800 22mm 1/100S f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) Hand held AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 18.47s

LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 16.85s

ALTITUDE: 9.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 18.40MB

  

Processing power:

HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

  

Basically an all-new car, meant to do pretty much precisely what the very familiar previous one did. It’s a huge family hatch and property. Because the market has diversified, it will be joined towards the top of Ford’s range by a huge crossover-SUV called the Borders, plus of course some sort of...

i0.wp.com/www.autocars.asia/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Fo...

www.autocars.asia/ford-mondeo/

Turtle Bay, Manhattan

 

Designed by Philip C. Johnson in 1948 and built in 1949-50, the former Rockefeller Guest House is one of the earliest buildings in New York City to reflect the influence of the modem movement in architecture and the celebrated German-American architect Mies van der Rohe. The house, which was described by the noted architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable as "sophisticated . . . handsome, unconventional," is remarkably intact.

 

Johnson's subtle and elegant design incorporates features borrowed from two earlier projects by Mies: his unbuilt "court houses" of the 1930s, and the elevations he designed for various buildings at the Illinois Institute of Technology (hereafter, IIT). Built without the use of traditional ornament, the striking two-story street facade is articulated with precisely arranged structural elements, including a symmetrical first story consisting of a handsome wood door and flanking polished reddish brown ironspot brick walls laid in Flemish bond, surmounted by a grid of six fixed translucent windows faced with four steel H-sections.

 

The house was commissioned by Blanchette Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller 3rd and a major patron of the Museum of Modem Art (hereafter, MoMA), to display her collection of modem painting and sculpture and to entertain guests. The Rockefellers donated the house to the museum in 1955, and in the years that followed it had a succession of owners, many of whom were associated with the international art community, including Johnson who lived in the house from 1971 -79. A significant early work by one of the country's leading architects and his only private residential building in New York City, in May 1989 the Rockefeller Guest House became the first work of architecture in the city to be sold by a leading art auction house.

 

Design and Construction

 

In June 1948, the Empire Mortgage Company, acting on behalf of the Rockefeller family acquired a 25 by 100 foot lot on East 52nd Street, west of Second Avenue. It was an ideal location - midway between her home in Turtle Bay on Beekman Place and the museum. On the site were two vacant structures, both dating from circa 1870. Johnson later described them as "completely nondescript, [a] small house, wedged between brick walls, a gap and a weed patch, with a dumpy coach house."17 This sequence of spaces -closed, open, and closed-would shape Johnson's plan. Whereas most urban townhouses have gardens at the rear of the lot, the "gap" and "weed patch" would become an internal courtyard, filled with water and partly open to the sky.

 

An associate in Johnson's office, Frederick C. Genz, filed plans for the guest house in late 1948.18 Since the existing brick walls were retained, it was classified as an alteration, consisting of mainly plastering, plumbing, carpentry, and masonry work. The project's estimated cost was $64,000.19 Construction began in 1949, and the house was ready for use in 1950.

 

The Rockefeller Guest House was one the first buildings in New York City to reflect the influence of the modem movement in architecture and the celebrated German-American architect Mies van der Rohe. It would also be Johnson's first and only private residential building in the city. Located on the south side of 52nd Street, the simple two-story brick and glass facade stood in sharp contrast to the late nineteenth century buildings adjoining it, a tenement and schoolhouse.

 

Johnson's spartan design reflects two projects by Mies: the unbuilt "court houses" of the 1930s, where he explored the "flow of space . . . confined within a single rectangle formed by the outside walls of court and house conjoined," and the architect's elevations for the various buildings at HT which were notable for their "subtleties of detailing."20 In describing these facades, Johnson wrote in 1947:

 

Structural elements are revealed as are those of a Gothic cathedral . . . And whereas the medieval architect relied on the collaboration of the sculptor and painter for his ultimate effect, Mies, so to speak, had to perform the functions of all three professions. He joins steel to steel or steel to glass or brick, with the taste and skill that formerly went into the chiseling of a stone capital or the painting of a fresco.

 

Johnson followed Mies's example; rather than embellishing the guest house facade with traditional ornament, he articulated the street facade with precisely arranged structural elements. He divided the two-story facade into two visually-distinct sections. The lower portion of the first floor facade, which projects slightly in front of the windows, consists of a wood door at center flanked by polished reddish brown brick walls laid in Flemish bond. The brick, which resembled that used on the cylinder that enclosed the bathroom in Johnson's New Canaan residence of the previous year, was chosen to compliment the facade of the adjacent schoolhouse.

 

Above the solid base of the first story is a grid of six "unpolished plate glass" windows.22 The mullions that divide the fixed translucent windows are faced with two decorative steel H-sections that rest atop the brick sill. Whereas the second story has vertical floor-to-ceiling windows, the lower horizontal panes act as clerestories, enclosing the upper portion of the first floor facade. These two sets of windows have been traditionally hung with identical white draperies, giving the impression of a single floor above the brick base.

 

The first floor interior (not part of this designation) was designed as a single flowing space. In front was a large living area with a fireplace and a compact kitchen hidden by folding doors, and in the rear, a bedroom with bath and dressing area. Between the rooms was an interior court with a pool that extends the full width of the building. A grid of floor-to-ceiling windows face the courtyard, similar in effect to the courtyard Mies designed for the Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy Building (1945-46) at 13T. Uninterrupted brick walls painted white extended from the living area through the courtyard, providing a neutral backdrop for the owner's art collection; which included pieces by Alberto Giacometti, Hans Arp, Robert Motherwell, Elie Nadelman, Jacques Lipchitz, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.

 

Above the living area on the second floor (not part of this designation) were two unheated bedrooms and a bathroom. These rooms served two purposes; providing additional space for guests, but also giving the guest house a stronger presence on the street. Johnson later claimed that he designed the second story mainly to "give the facade height" and because a one-story house "would look all wrong."24 These second-floor bedrooms face the interior courtyard.

 

Critical Reception

 

The Rockefeller Guest House received considerable attention, with articles and photographic spreads in The New York Times, Interiors, and the Architectural Review. House & Home admired the simplicity of the living areas, suggesting that such "restraint" could "help make a cheap house look more expensive."25 In a 1961 guide to modem architecture in New York City, published by MoMA and the Municipal Art Society, the noted critic Ada Louise Huxtable described the house as "sophisticated . . . handsome, unconventional."

 

While many writers noted Johnson's long-standing debt to Mies and the intricate detailing on the facade, his friend and ally, the critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Jr., highlighted the building's "classical leanings" and how the arrangement with a central courtyard resembled "Pompeiian domestic planning."

 

Several critics detected a subtle Asian influence in Johnson's design.28 In August 1950, a writer for Architectural Forum described the "inward-directed plan" and the emphasis on the "restful" courtyard:

 

The idea of a quietly serene and empty space at the very core of the house and its busy life is one that might have appealed to Lao Tse the philosopher.

  

Modern architecture's minimalist character is also likely to have appealed to the owners who made frequent trips to Asia and were avid collectors of Asian and particularly Japanese art. White and black predominated throughout the sparsely-furnished interiors, and the pool in the courtyard was traversed by three raised travertine stepping stones that MoMA historian Russell Lynes later speculated were a "concession" to the Rockefeller's fondness toward "things Japanese." Furthermore, round wood pegs, set flush into the outer section of the dooijamb, suggest the hand-crafted quality of traditional Japanese woodwork.

 

Subsequent History

 

During the early 1950s, the Rockefeller Guest House became "an informal arm" of MoMA.

 

It was presided over by a butler named Charles, who could and frequently did run up luncheons for a small number of trustees and donors to the Museum, for Important Persons and those being wooed. There, too, were cocktail parties and small dinners and the ever present hazard of someone accidently backing into the shallow pool...

 

In 1954 the house was the site of an exhibition to benefit the activities of the Junior Council. Curated by Barr, Dorothy C. Miller and William Lieberman, it displayed paintings, sculptures and prints owned by various council members. Although The New York Times critic Aline Saarinen was disappointed by the cautious character of the artworks displayed, the exhibition offered the public a rare opportunity to view the elegantly minimal interiors.

 

Despite his antipathy to modern art, John 3rd attended functions at the house and on one occasion he and their children stayed overnight. He regretted the amount of time his wife devoted to running the guest house and eventually convinced her to donate the building to MoMA in the summer of 1955.32 Until the museum's East Wing (designed by Philip Johnson) was completed in 1964, the near-by guest house was used for a various museum events and functions, including receptions, conferences, and special exhibitions.

 

The guest house was purchased by Robert C. Leonhardt, a Manhattan business consultant, in 1964 for $100,000.

 

At the time of the sale, The New York Times described the house as "one of Mr. Johnson's most striking designs."33 With the death of Mr. Leonhardt in 1971, his widow, Lee Sherrod, sought a suitable tenant, inviting Johnson and his partner, the former art dealer and exhibition designer, David C. Whitney, to lease the house. Johnson, who described their previous residence as a "ratty old two-room walk-up," made few changes, repainting the interiors white and hanging paintings by such celebrated contemporary artists as Roy Lichtenstein, John Chamberlain and Frank Stella. Andy Warhol, who occasionally visited Johnson, admired the openness of the plan, calling it "a prototype of loft living in New York."

 

Robin Symes, a London antiquities dealer, acquired the house in 1979. Ten years later, in May 1989, he consigned it to the Sotheby's auction house. Sold to Ronald S. Lauder, a MoMA trustee since 1973, the building was described by The New York Times as "the first ever offered at a New York art auction — and the first piece of real estate auctioned anywhere in the world by Sotheby's." Anthony d'Offay, a London gallery owner specializing in modem art, purchased the guest house in the mid-1990s. In May 2000, Christie's auctioned the Rockefeller Guest House. Six bidders competed, and the final price was $11.16 million.

 

Description

 

The Rockefeller Guest House is located on the south side of East 52nd Street, between Second and Third Avenues. The street facade is symmetrical and two stories high. The lower section of the first story projects forward and is faced with reddish-brown Flemish bond brick with tan mortar, similar to that used on the adjoining school building.36 To the east, the brick facade recedes to metal extending the full height of the building, to brick that extends south and is visible from both the front and the side until it intersects with west wall of the adjoining school building. To the west, the brick facade recedes to metal extending the full height of the building, to brick that extends south to the adjoining tenement building.

 

The entrance is at the center of the first story, marked by a wood door that is divided by vertical lines into seven sections. The historic door, which rises as high as the brick walls, is opened with a brass handle located to the east. At approximately eye level is a peephole, and centered below, a brass mail slot.

 

The historic doorframe is made of identical wood. Round wood pegs, set flush into the outer frame, are visible. The east side of the door jamb incorporates (from top to bottom) a non-historic brass security camera, a brass speaker/microphone, and brass lock. The historic brass saddle, screwed to the threshold, is scored with incised lines. The door head incorporates a flush rectangular lighting fixture. To the west of the door is the building's address "2 4 2" in historic raised brass letters. Below these numbers, close to the ground, is a circular black metal vent. To the far right, near the west edge of the facade, aligned with the vent, is a small non-historic plastic apparatus. To the west of the door, set into the sidewalk, is a non-historic metal grate.

 

Six fixed historic translucent windows rise above the brick facade. Four projecting steel H-sections are welded to the columns that divide and frame the windows. The two outer beams extend the full height of the building, from the roof to the ground, framing the east and west edges of the brick facade and windows. The two center beams rest on the brick facade. A continuous horizontal metal panel, set behind the H-sections, divides the upper and lower windows, creating horizontal clerestory windows that illuminate the first story, and the larger, vertical, floor-to-ceiling, second-story windows.

 

An unadorned metal fence, set back several feet from the front of the building, extends across the roof from east to west. Behind the fence, pipes are visible to the west and east, as well as an irregularly shaped ventilation unit. All of these elements are painted black. At the rear of the building, adjoining the tenement, rises a black chimney.

 

- From the 2000 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India.

 

The Patwon Ji ki Haveli is the most important among the havelis in Jaisalmer. This is precisely because of two things, first that it was the first haveli erected in Jaisalmer and second, that it is not a single haveli but a cluster of 5 small havelis. The first among these havelis was commissioned and constructed in the year 1805 by Guman Chand Patwa and is the biggest and the most ostentatious. It is believed that Patwa was a rich man and was a renowned trader of his time. He ordered the construction of separate stories for each of his 5 sons. These were completed in the span of 50 years. All five houses were constructed in the first 60 years of the 19th century.

The havelis are also known as the 'mansion of brocade merchants'. This name has been given probably because the family dealt in threads of gold and silver used in embroidering dresses. However, there are theories, which claim that these traders made considerable amount of money in Opium smuggling and Money-lending. - extracts from www.jaisalmer.org.uk/

Olympus EM1 MKII with Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO.

 

In this third test shot of my new EM1 MKII along with the new Olympus 300mm f/4 Pro, I was impressed not only by the quality and resolution of the picture, by also by the ability of the tracking function of this camera.

 

Once you lock the focus bracket on the part of the bird you want (I chose the head), it keeps track of it very precisely. It is an important feature that makes a difference in the ultimate picture where you want to have the eye sharply focused, and not the wing of the bird - as it often happens with most cameras I have owned.

On another shot of a blue heron, I locked the trackinf AF bracket on the feet of the bird, and the EM1 MKII tracked the bird on its feet as it walked away from me: amazing!

Olympus has really pulled all the stops in the design of this camera AF system.

I can say already that I had reservations paying $2000 for a MFT camera but the AF-C/Tracking performance evidenced by the first few shots I captured reassured me that I had invested in the ultimate wildlife camera system.

 

Therefore I believe that the Olympus EM1 MKII and the Olympus 300mm f/4 IS Pro is a better system for wildlife photography.

it was a long comment on lenses when the initial test was about tracking functionality of the camera. But this experience of the D500 and the Olympus made me realize that the tracking performance of the camera means nothing by itself: it requires the use of a bright telephoto with fast focusing speed to produce the image that the camera claims to be capable of doing.

Buying the EM1 MKII for shooting BIF would be a frustration and a waste of money if the only lens you can afford is the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II Lens: you would not capture many images in focus and you might actually have missed the bird by the time it locked the focus on it.

Let me mention finally the overwhelming advantage of having 6.5 Stops of stabilization when combining the 5 stops of the in body image stabilization (IBIS) of the EM1 MKII and the 1.5 stop IS of the Olympus 300mm f/4 IS Pro. Both worked combined and become additive. This will not work with Panasonic lenses and even other Olympus lenses except the last two launched:

- the 300mm f/4 IS Pro

- the 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro

 

This opens up a whole new world of photography in low light without having to crank up the ISO, the key known weakness of the MFT format as soon as you reach above ISO 1600,

 

You notice my use of the word system. The camera alone will be challenged by the similarly priced Nikon D500 which I own as well but the equivalent lens I would have to use to get similar quality and focal length (equivalent of 600mm f/4 in Full Frame) would be a 400mm in DX format. Unfortunately the 400mm f/4 AF-S does not exist and I could not afford the 400mm f/2.8, nor am I interested in a f/5.6 aperture using a 300mm f/4 with a teleconverter 1.4 which degrades the image quality and would be quite inferior to the exceptional Olympus prime.

 

The Nikon AF-S 500mm f/4 would outdo the Olympus in FL equivalent on the D500 but I would not be able to afford a $6,500 lens which would not be optically superior to the Olympus wide open anyway. I do not dwell on the weight of 8.5lbs (3,9kg) of the nikon lens vs the 52oz (1.4kg) of the Olympus lens. One is not hand-holdable and requires a tripod/monopod, the other frees you completely from one.

 

This leaves the budget conscious Nikon owners with the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 lens which I happen to own with the D500.

After a few minutes, I still cannot hand hold the heavy nikon zoom at 4.6lbs (2.0kg). Although it provides more flexibility than the Fixed FL Olympus prime lens, the Nikon is 50% heavier, is one stop slower which impacts the speed and accuracy of the AF tracking function. And it is optically in a different class (inferior) wide open - especially in the soft corners. I would need to close to f/8 to have a sharp photo across the frame which becomes a problem in low light nature photography where high speed capture is a must for Bird in flight for example.

Brimming with genuine character, the new Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class is set to take the world of compact SUVs by storm. Yet it is not just the distinctive all-rounder's practical and appealingly compact body form that sets it apart from the competition. It also brings together what were previously seen as entirely contradictory attributes. The Agility Control suspension serves up a unique blend of outstanding handling dynamics, exceptional driving safety and superlative ride comfort. Meanwhile the sophisticated, variable 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system joins forces with the latest electronic control systems to deliver consummate on-road performance and superb off-road suitability. It is precisely this kind of combination that lends the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class such immense appeal. The GLK-Class may be one of the more road-oriented Mercedes-Benz SUVs, but the "G" - alluding to the archetypal Mercedes off-roader - still has a rightful place in the model name.

 

Superlative performance comes courtesy of the powerful yet economical and eco-friendly four and six-cylinder engines. The BlueEFFICIENCY version of the GLK 220 CDI features the new entry-level four-cylinder diesel engine from Mercedes-Benz, which develops 125 kW/170 hp yet only consumes 6.9 litres of diesel per hundred kilometres. And the unshakeable foundations of the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class are similarly impressive. The highly robust body is key to the pioneering passive-safety setup, the extremely low noise levels, the exceptional degree of interior comfort - to produce that typical Mercedes feeling of wellbeing - and the high value retention. Furthermore, exemplary appointments and attractive equipment packages make the GLK stand out from the compact-SUV masses. Plus state-of-the-art systems such as the leading-edge PRE-SAFE safety concept and the Intelligent Light System (ILS) are available in this market segment for the very first time.

 

With its poised, confident presence, the mere look of the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class leaves one in no doubt about its intent to conquer the compact premium SUV segment. It is arguably the most sophisticated of all takes on this particular theme. And it displays echoes of the G-Class, the founding father of the Mercedes-Benz SUV family. Design chief Prof. Peter Pfeiffer takes up the story: "With the G-Class we created a style icon that has been a benchmark in SUV design for the past 30 years. Combining this bold concept with the latest Mercedes-Benz design idiom makes the GLK a vehicle of genuine character."

 

No other model in the compact-SUV segment, past or present, comes close to matching the GLK's distinctively expressive appearance. The body is beautifully proportioned (length 4528 mm, width 1840 mm, height 1689 mm), while there is a special allure in the interplay between the classic angular shape and the typical design features found in all contemporary Mercedes-Benz passenger cars. Here the unmistakable design idiom, consisting of taut lines and large, expansive surfaces, is combined with the typical body features of a practical off-road vehicle, such as short overhangs, an upright front end, slim roof pillars, a steeply raked windscreen and taut roof lines. Rather than being a stylistic end in itself, however, the body design allows the typical advantages of an off-road vehicle to be introduced to the more road-oriented compact-SUV category for the first time. Large angles of approach and departure plus good ground clearance make off-road ventures a sheer joy. The outstandingly clear layout of the body and good allround visibility, combined with the raised seating position, enhance everyday practicality and ensure relaxed driving, even in dense city traffic.

 

Superlative ride comfort, outstanding handling dynamics and excellent offroad performance

 

The AGILITY CONTROL suspension on which the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class is founded displays a high level of flexibility and resolves a conflict of aims that particularly affects the SUV class, where chassis engineers want to create a vehicle that is both sportily agile and comfortably smooth yet one which can also cope with off-road terrain. If the focus is on sporty, active handling, the suspension and, above all, the shock absorbers need to display a certain firmness, which precludes access to the brand's typical suspension comfort and limits the off-road options. If the vehicle is set up with softer dampers to ensure suspension comfort and off-road capability, dynamic handling naturally suffers. The solution is "amplitude-dependent damping". In this system, the damping forces of the shock absorbers are configured to respond flexibly rather than lineally. In normal driving mode on moderately contoured roads or during slow off-road manoeuvres, the system responds softly, enhancing both the occupants' comfort and the vehicle's off-road capability. To ensure that this level of comfort is maintained when driving hard or performing abrupt evasive manoeuvres, in these situations the dampers deliver a harder performance, ensuring optimum handling stability. At the same time, the driver of the GLK is supported by speed-sensitive power steering, specified as standard for the V6 models, which provides the optimum level of steering assistance for the situation in hand. Parking and off-road manoeuvring are made much easier because maximum power assistance is available. At higher speeds, the assistance is reduced in favour of greater handling stability.

 

All the base models in the GLK series are fitted with 17-inch, size 235/60 R 17 light-alloy wheels. In conjunction with the exterior sports package, which is included as standard when the car first comes onto the market, or the off-road styling package, all models are shod with mixed-size tyres which, together with the AGILITY CONTROL suspension and the asymmetric power distribution between the front and rear axle, form the basis for a even better transfer of power between the wheels and the road. And the more effective this power transfer, the less frequently the electronic control systems need to intervene. The road-oriented exterior sports package features size 7.5 J x 19 light-alloy wheels with 235/50 R 19 tyres at the front and size 8.5 J x 19 wheels with 255/45 R 19 tyres at the rear. If the GLK is ordered with the off-road styling package, the front axle has size 7.5 J x 17 light-alloy wheels with 235/60 R 17 tyres, while the rear axle features size 8.0 J x 17 wheels with 255/55 R 17 tyres. All models are equipped with a TIREFIT system for repairing tyre damage. A compact spare wheel, which can be used on the front or rear axle, is available as an optional extra.

 

4MATIC: high-performance all-wheel-drive system with sophisticated control systems

 

The 4MATIC powertrain at the heart of the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class is one of the most capable all-wheel-drive systems on the market. The driving dynamics systems ESP®, ASR and 4ETS are superbly harmonised with each other; when they go into action their quality of control is so good that top-notch longitudinal and lateral dynamism coupled with superb handling stability are ensured under all conditions, both on and off-road. Thanks to the compact, lightweight and frictionoptimised concept, with a longitudinally installed engine and block-design main transmission and transfer case, the system offers various advantages over its counterparts equipped with a transversely installed drive unit. Fuel consumption, for example, is about on a par with that of a comparable conventionally powered vehicle, while the minimal vibration and noise levels rival those of today's luxuryclass models.

 

The 45:55 percent basic distribution of the drive torque between the front and rear axle - along with the ESP®, ASR and 4ETS dynamic handling control systems - ensures effortless and predictable performance in all conditions. Optimum traction, maximum driving stability and superlative handling are assured at all times. When tuning the control systems, the engineers at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center (MTC) made neutral self-steering behaviour a top priority. Only when the physical limits of driving are neared is there a slight oversteer tendency. All GLK models display these characteristics, even if road conditions vary widely. Whether it be dry or wet. On snow, ice or unsurfaced roads. If drivers never know whether to expect understeer or oversteer, they become unsure. This problem - a frequent occurrence in the SUV category - is solved once and for all by the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class. The newly developed multi-disc clutch in the centre differential supports the system if the friction between the tyres and the road surface is particularly low, for example on snow or ice. A basic partial locking torque of 50 newton metres between the front and rear axle produces a significant increase in traction whilst the high level of directional stability is maintained.

 

The "G" button on the centre console makes the GLK with off-road engineering package even more assertive on rough terrain. Pressing the button activates a special driving program which varies the shift points of the 7G-TRONIC transmission, "softens" the accelerator pedal characteristics and activates the ESP® off-road function. In this mode the system is designed to operate with a higher degree of wheel slip while retaining directional stability. This control strategy improves traction off-road, particularly on low-friction surfaces such as sand, gravel or stone chippings. There is also a manual transmission mode, in which the shift paddles on the steering wheel can be used to change between the gears. A further switch activates the Downhill Speed Regulation (DSR) system, which automatically maintains a pre-programmed speed on steep downhill inclines. The off-road-specific body dimensions are equally impressive. The large ground clearance of 201 millimetres (GLK 280 4MATIC) and the short body overhangs (front 816 mm, rear 957 mm) make for favourable angles of approach and departure - 23 degrees and a maximum of 25 degrees, respectively. Meanwhile the relatively short wheelbase length of 2755 millimetres and the vehicle weight of 1830 kilograms, which is remarkably low for an SUV, allow the GLK to make good headway on even the most topographically demanding of terrain.

 

As well as a tyre pressure loss warning system, the tried-and-tested Electronic Stability Program (ESP®) for the GLK incorporates a vehicle/trailer stabilisation function, which defuses critical driving situations involving a trailer before they become dangerous by applying the individual wheel brakes as and when required. The towing capacity is 2000 kilograms.

 

Effortlessly superior: new four-cylinder diesel engine and proven V6 powerplants

 

State-of-the-art powerplants ensure an exceptionally high level of ride comfort and impressive performance right across the GLK range. Plus fuel-consumption figures are low, as is the emission count. Customers have a choice of four model variants: diesel aficionados can opt for the GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY or GLK 320 CDI, while those with a preference for petrol can select the GLK 280 or GLK 350, both of which feature a V6 powerplant.

 

In the GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY, the all-new diesel engine generation posts an excellent set of figures. Like the V6 unit in the GLK 320 CDI, the four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 2.2 litres and an output of 125 kW/170 hp reflects the dynamism of the GLK concept as a whole and produces impressive performance coupled with lower fuel consumption and reduced emissions. Torque is equally impressive, with some 400 newton metres available across a broad engine speed range of 1400 to 2800 rpm. Technical highlights of the exceptionally compact and smooth-running CDI powerplant with rear camshaft drive include fourth-generation common-rail direct injection with an injection pressure of 2000 bar and a two-stage turbocharger system. The state-of-the-art powerplant propels the GLK from 0 to 100 km/h in just 8.8 seconds and on to a top speed of 205 km/h. The compression-ignition engine with extremely low untreated emissions delivers exceptional environmental performance and, like all diesel engines for Mercedes passenger cars, features exhaust gas recirculation, an oxidising catalytic converter and a maintenance-free diesel particulate filter as standard. In addition, the engine developers have succeeded in reducing untreated emissions by a decisive margin. The smooth-running four-cylinder unit consumes a mere 6.9 litres of diesel per hundred kilometres, emits just 183 grams of CO2 per kilometre and already meets the requirements of the EU5 emission standard. The diesel line-up is augmented by the proven V6 powerplant in the GLK 320 CDI, which develops 165 kW/224 hp and achieves a peak torque of 540 newton metres, enabling the GLK to perform even more admirably: here the top speed is 220 km/h whilst acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h takes just 7.5 seconds. The V6 engine also features exhaust gas recirculation, an oxidising catalytic converter and a maintenance-free diesel particulate filter. Diesel consumption is a mere 7.9 litres per hundred kilometres. Plus the engine complies with the Euro 4 standard.

 

The two smooth-running V6 petrol models - the GLK 280 and the GLK 350 - develop 170 kW/231 hp and 200 KW/272 hp respectively, all of which makes for rapid performance. Yet fuel consumption is only moderate. The 3.5-litre V6 in the GLK 350 4MATIC stands out in particular, achieving figures similar to those of a sports car. It has a top speed of 230 km/h and races from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds. Both engines also comply with the Euro 5 standard, consuming 10.2 litres and 10.4 litres per hundred kilometres respectively.

 

All of the engine variants for the GLK are matched with the 7G-TRONIC 7-speed automatic transmission as standard. But the exceptional performance and low fuel consumption are not just down to the perfect combination of the highly sophisticated engines with the 7G-TRONIC and the friction-optimised powertrain. Further key factors include the relatively low overall weight (GLK 280: 1830 kg) and the exceptional aerodynamics for a vehicle of this design (cd figure 0.35).

 

Complete safety package for maximum occupant protection

 

In combination with the front and rear deformation zones, the GLK's highstrength passenger cell provides a highly efficient foundation for the occupant protection systems. These include:

 

Adaptive, two-stage airbags for the driver and front passenger

Kneebag for the driver

Front sidebags and, as an option, sidebags for the rear seats

Windowbags across both seat rows from the A-pillar to the C-pillar

NECK-PRO crash-responsive head restraints for the driver and front passenger

Crash-optimised pedal system

3-point seat belts for all five seats

Belt tensioner and adaptive belt-force limiter for the driver and front passenger, belt tensioner and single-stage belt-force limiter for the outer rear seats

ISOFIX child seat attachments

Belt height adjuster for the driver and front passenger

Belt status indicator for the rear passengers in the instrument cluster

The optionally available PRE-SAFE anticipatory occupant protection system, made available in the compact-SUV market segment for the very first time, sees Mercedes-Benz taking safety to a new, high level in this segment. The highlight of the concept is the networking between the active and passive safety systems. PRE-SAFE uses the sensors of the dynamic handling control systems - for example, Brake Assist (BAS) and ESP - and optimises the protective functions of the passive safety components in potential accident situations. The standard-fit adaptive brake lights, which flash to warn the traffic behind when the brakes are applied abruptly, help to prevent accidents.

 

This is precisely why i love shooting with other flickr photographers. Unexpected and awesome things come out of your lenses. Me and Captain Suresh Sharma shot the entire passing out parade at the OTA (Officers Training Academy) at Chennai.

 

The touching story of the indian army and the reality of what their lives are will follow suit in the following weeks to come. This is a warm up of what you will get to see. I promise every one of you, the images you see will be inspiring and will make you feel INDIAN like you never felt before.

 

While we were shooting on the drill, i removed my camera from the tripod to check on my histogram when suresh walked down the alley. I found this to be a good profile image and went snap! Suresh responded with his.

 

Dilip on the Canon EOS 400D with the Tamron 70 - 300 MM F/4-5.6 Ultrazoom lens. Captain Suresh Sharma on the Canon EOS 20D with the Canon 70 - 200 MM F/4 L IS USM Ultrazoom Lens.

This photograph was taken on the banks of the River Cray at an altitude of Seventeen metres at 04:33am on Thursday 22nd April 2018, in the golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 05:58am),off Rectory Lane in the grounds of Foots Cray Meadows, over the River Cray in Bexley, Kent, England.

  

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Nikon D850 24mm 1/6s (Electronic front curtain) f/4.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.Manfrotto 055Xprob Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections. Manfrotto 327RC2 Magnesium Ball Head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.

  

Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 25m 33.50s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 7m 41.40s

ALTITUDE: 17.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB (NEF 89.3mb)

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 41.70MB

  

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PROCESSING POWER:

 

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)

 

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

   

Photograph taken at an altitude of Seventy metres, in the magic prior to the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:35am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking the Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

  

This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.

  

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Nikon D800 42mm 1/25s f/5.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 4.31s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 52.28s

ALTITUDE: 70.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

PROCESSED FILE: 16.37MB

  

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

 

Photograph taken at an altitude of Eight metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:41am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

  

Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.

  

These Canada Geese, along with many other small groups (known as a Skein of geese), fly across the lake from East to West every morning and back again every evening at Sunset, and I love to watch the classic Vee formations and listen to the honking as they pass me by.

  

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Nikon D800 70mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.

  

Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.78s

LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s

ALTITUDE: 8.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB

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HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit

   

street shot, Porto, Portugal.

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In quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle, also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, is any of a variety of mathematical inequalities asserting a fundamental limit to the precision with which certain pairs of physical properties of a particle, known as complementary variables, such as position x and momentum p, can be known.

 

Introduced first in 1927, by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg, it states that the more precisely the position of some particle is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be known, and vice versa. The formal inequality relating the standard deviation of position σx and the standard deviation of momentum σp was derived by Earle Hesse Kennard later that year and by Hermann Weyl in 1928:

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncertainty_principle

  

Walter Hartwell White Sr. (also known by his clandestine alias Heisenberg) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Breaking Bad, portrayed by Bryan Cranston.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_White_(Breaking_Bad)

  

At 1.36 pm, precisely when the Amtrak Silver Meteor train was scheduled to arrive at Winter Haven station, this featherweight CSX freight rolled through. Haulage for the two freight cars was EMD GP-38-3 rebuild #2046. Sometime later, passengers were advised on the electronic notice board that their train wasn’t due until 3.17 pm.

White Marsh wandering

Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty five metres, during the first vestiges of dawn light prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:54am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights in the poppy field beside the Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.

  

This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.

  

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Nikon D800 38mm 1/160s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.

  

Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.

  

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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 4.54s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.89s

ALTITUDE: 65.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB

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Processing power:

HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit