xxxminamikazexxx.blogspot.com/2018/07/180714.html

🎾Wimbledon tennis

world cup⚽

Japan is at the turn of the season, new TV programs start .🇹🇻

I love TV.😊😊😊

That is why the Net time is shortened.((´∀｀*))

The Horace Mann Educators Headquarters Building, is an office building located in downtown Springfield. It was designed by Minoru Yamaski (1912-1986) as the headquarters of Horace Mann Educators Corporation and opened in 1972.

Yamaski is best known for his design of the the World Trade Center in New York City, the main terminal at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, Rainer Tower in Seattle, and the Torre Picasso building in Madrid. Minoru's design of the Twin Towers preceded his design of the Horace Mann headquarters, although the Horace Mann Building was completed in 1972, a year earlier than the Twin Towers.

The architectural style of the structure is new or neo formalism. The structure was part of a massive urban renewal project on the northeast edge of downtown. The building, in its park-like setting, encompasses two city blocks.

After nearly 40 years after its opening, a major restoration-and-repair program started in the summer of 2011. It is the first major update since the building opened. The majority of the work was repairing entrance plazas, pond renovation and restoration of the marble exterior. Making the building more energy-efficient, including the heating and air conditioning system was included.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation was founded in Springfield in 1945. It is an insurance and financial services company that primarily works with educators and their families. The company has approximately 1,400 employees, including about 1,100 at this headquarters in downtown Springfield.

Sources:

Horace Mann Educators Headquarters, Wikipedia

Horace Mann Educators Corporation,Wikipedia

Shelby machte einen Handel mit Hertz Autovermietung, um eine spezielle Serie von GT350s zur Vermietung herzustellen. Das von Hertz gestartete Programm nannte sich „Rent-A-Racer“. Diese GT350H sind sehr selten und heute sehr gesucht. Shelby fertigte 936 Stück dieser Wagen .. ungefähr 800 in Schwarz .. 😎👍

Shelby made a deal with Hertz Rental Cars to make a special line of GT350s for rental. The program started by Hertz was called "Rent-A-Racer". These GT350H are very rare and much sought after today. Shelby made 936 of these cars.. about 800 in black.. 😎👍

Artist: Joel Bergner

Bergner had been working with several local children from the Hope Center for Arts and Technology to complete this project. It’s part of the Adding Color To Lives initiative, which is a program started by the Park Inn by Radisson to help children in difficult situations learn to express themselves through art.

The CV-22B Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft.

The CV-22B originated from the United States Department of Defense Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) aircraft program started in 1981. The team of Bell Helicopter and Boeing Helicopters was awarded a development contract in 1983 for the tiltrotor aircraft. The Bell Boeing team jointly produce the aircraft.

The CV-22B first flew in 1989, and began flight testing and design alterations; the complexity and difficulties of being the first tiltrotor intended for military service in the world led to many years of development.

Artist: Joel Bergner

Bergner had been working with several local children from the Hope Center for Arts and Technology to complete this project. It’s part of the Adding Color To Lives initiative, which is a program started by the Park Inn by Radisson to help children in difficult situations learn to express themselves through art.

The Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia

6:57 AM Daylight Savings Time

The CCC, Civilian Conservation Corps, was a relief program started by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Depression. It consisted of healthy men with families aged 18 to 23 who focused on soil conservation and reforestation within the Park. The men were given food, shelter, and clothing, plus $30 a month, twenty-five of which was sent directly to their families.

The 105 mile long Skyline Drive was built by the Army Corp of Engineers, but the low fieldstone walls were the accomplishment of the CCC. The Civilian Conservation Corps constructed numerous overlooks measuring 2.5 miles in total, picnic areas, campgrounds, graded slopes, planted trees and grass, and cleared acres of chestnut trees that had suffered from blight in the 1920s.

The walls were refurbished in 2024.

The info came from various sources.

Kansas City is so proud of “The Plaza”! It’s a beautiful area, especially around Christmas time when all the buildings are lit up with amazing colors. It’s magical!

“Constructed in 1967, The Giralda Tower is one of the most iconic structures on the Country Club Plaza. Standing at 138 feet tall and including a bell tower and weathervane, it is a nearly half-scaled model of The Giralda in Seville, Spain. After visiting Seville in 1922, Country Club Plaza developer J. C. Nichols had plans for an iconic tower but a location was never decided. Years later, Miller Nichols, son of J. C., brought the idea to life when a local landscaping company moved out of the corner of 47th and Nichols Road (now Mill Creek Parkway). The Giralda Tower was dedicated on October 12, 1967, as guests from both Kansas City and Seville attended, including Seville’s mayor Felix Morena de la Cova, who flipped the switch. This also marked the start of the relationship between Kansas City and Seville as Sister Cities, an international program started by President Eisenhower to promote peace.” By Bill Worley.

White-tailed sea eagle ((Haliaeetus albicilla), County Cork Ireland

Irish name: Iolar mara

Near extinction and recovery in Europe

I was on a boat in Glengarriff, County Cork and took this image of this White-tailed sea eagle (WTSE) on Garnish Island. Great to see and capture an image of this majestic bird of prey and also great that I did not fall into the sea while trying to balance the telephoto lens on a moving boat (I am not great on boats)!

An adult WTSE is brown with a pale head and a distinctive white tail. It is the largest bird of prey in Ireland with a wingspan of up to 2.4m. Females are about a third larger than the males, weighing around 6kgs compared to an average male of around 4kgs. Juveniles are darker brown than the adults and do not develop a white tail until 3-4 years. White tailed sea eagles can live up to twenty years.

The Eagles name is Brendan and is named after the retired wildlife ranger Brendan O’Shea and is a second generation eagle born in the wild in Ireland.

Brendan the eagle is four years old and is part of the White Tailed Eagle reintroduction programme and was born in Ireland. His girlfriend disappeared last year but he now has a new mate so we hope for chicks next year. Amazing to see and capture the image during these difficult times

The Irish White-tailed Sea Eagle Reintroduction Programme is a long-term initiative to re-establish a population of this extinct species in the Republic of Ireland managed by the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS)

Releases of birds (Phase 1) saw 100 young eagles release over five years (2007-2011) in Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry.

The released eagles subsequently dispersed widely throughout Ireland with the first successful breeding occurring in 2012 on Lough Derg, County Clare. By July 2020, a small breeding population of eight to ten pairs had successfully fledged 31 chicks across counties Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway and Tipperary.

During the period 1800-1970 WTSE in most of Europe underwent dramatic decline and became extinct in many regions of western, central and southern Europe. Norway, Germany, Poland and Iceland harboured the largest surviving population while small pockets of reproducing pairs remained in several other countries.

Intense conservation actions throughout much of the remaining European distribution range led to a recovery of many local populations. Since the 1980s, the European White-tailed Sea Eagle population has recovered steadily, and is spreading back westward. It has today recolonised several traditional breeding areas in Europe and the recovery is still on-going, assisted in Ireland and the United Kingdom by reintroduction schemes.

The program started in the summer of 2007. Fifteen to twenty young eagles from Norway were released in spring into the Killarney National Park in the south-west of Ireland. This comprehensive project will last a number of years with many more eagles being released. The species has a rich history on the island but became extinct in Ireland in the 1900’s due to persecution from landowners. The last pair bred on the coast of Mayo in 1912.

The first White-tailed Sea Eagle breeding pair since 1912 nested 100 years later on Lough Derg (Loch Deirgeirt). Marking a great success for the Irish reintroduction programme. In early May 2013, the first eaglets were born in Ireland since the re-introduction programme began; one in the Killarney National Park and two in County Clare.

The new phase of the reintroduction programme (2020-2022) involves the release of young eagles at several sites, In early June 2020, the project began with the collection of ten chicks from nests in Norway (under licence by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research).

Wonderful to see such a majestic eagle back in Ireland.

Oelwein was nicknamed Hub City from the Chicago Great Western, which came to town in 1892. Around 1900 the railroad built major car and locomotive shops in Oelwein. Over 1,000 people were employed in its heyday. In 1968 the Chicago Northwestern merged with the CGW, and the shops became in limbo. By 1979 the shops were employee-owned and finally closed in 1994. Till 1994,

Oelwein did the majority of the CNW's repairs and overhauls. One program started in 1971 and went till 1981, rebuilding 74 GP7s and 55 GP9s at Oelwein. Units with 1,500 horsepower and EMD 567BC engines were "GP7Rs," and units with 1,750 horsepower and 567C engines were "GP9Rs." The 74 GP7Rs and 55 GP9Rs that went through came from C&NW's own 125-unit fleet. Some units also received chopped noses.

The CNW kept connected with the shops via the Marshalltown line until the 380 "Avenue of the Saints" project in Waterloo needed downtown land for the highway in 1986. The CNW, the Iowa Northern, and the state of Iowa came up with a deal that traffic would move over the IANR to Manly or Cedar Rapids from Waterloo. The CNW would be landlocked by the Iowa Northern going forward.

The huge yard in Oelwein became a storage yard for the CNW in the late 80s. Tons of retired and wrecked locomotives came there for disposition. Once the units were retired, solid unit trains ran over the Iowa Northern from Waterloo to Cedar Rapids.

14 GP15s are on their way back off lease. Units # 4411-4424 were retired on 1-10-92. They were moved from Oelwein to VMV at Paducah, KY, for GMAC Leasing. Behind the 4439 and 7032 for power, the train made a rare daylight trip on the south end of the IANR. The 14 units were stenciled "GMAC." Note the 7032 has new trucks under it, as that was some of the last programs Oelwein did.

Scanned negative from April 1992.

BN's engine replacement program started in 1988. GP20Cs #2000 was completed in September using the ex-CB&Q #2059 as the prototype. The unit received a Caterpillar

3516 2075-hp engine with a Kato alternator. 4 rebuilds followed in 1989, with the last done in early 1990. These GP20Cs only lasted 3 years on the roster and many of them ended up at the TCW. While the BN had them, you could see many of them on Expediters working between St. Paul and Chicago. Here 2006 leads a hotshot thru Savanna.

Scanned negative from October 1991.

For those of you that live in Ohio or close by, Lake Hope State Park Nature Center has a hand feeding program that is open to the public.

The program starts June 20th and runs through September 2, 2007.

The days are every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 pm.

It is a very special experience to hand feed a hummer, myself I call it a RUSH, to feel there little wings brush your hand is amazing.

Hope to see some of you there it is well worth it.

There is quite a difference in winter versus the warm months in observing the eating habits of pheasants. In the summer time unless you are out very early in the mornings or happen to catch them searching for bits of gravel to serve as grit to help their digestion, pheasants often are more hidden as they seek things to eat. They normally have a menu with more entries on it than they do during the winter.

The phrase “scratching out a living” goes all the way back to the 14th-15th centuries when in the older farming communities the farmers “scratched” the land using more primitive tools.

By the 18th-19th centuries, the use of the phrase gained uses beyond that of farming to include anyone who was barely making ends meet in their day to day struggle.

Jump ahead until today and the phrase applies to a broad spectrum of normally physically hard, low paying jobs or an unstable work life.

I grew up in an era when there were only a few government help agencies and can well remember my folks talking about people around them during the Depression and beyond who spent many years on community “poor farms”.

Poor farms were quite prevalent at one time in the US and folks who were unable to work due to age, disability or other factors were housed and fed in exchange for helping to produce food and maintain a farm. Local governments ran the farms as they were considered a cost-effective way to care for the needy rather than simply doling out monies to individuals.

It carried negative connotations for participants, particularly because they were labeled “inmates.”

Poor farms gradually petered out by the middle of last century with many in Minnesota closing in the 1930s due to government programs starting up such as Social Security in 1935 and the growing prevalence of nursing homes.

(Photographed near Cambridge, MN)

-Hình dạng này đã hết date rồi , Phải đổi mới thôi -

-Sẽ gặp lại vào ngày 24-12

-Với 1 hình tượng mới

-Có lẽ là sẽ rất sock

-Toàn bộ quá trình đổi mới sẽ đc King ghi hình đầy đủ :D

-Gặp lại sau .

BN's engine replacement program started in 1988. GP20Cs #2000 was completed in September using the ex-CB&Q #2059 as the prototype. The unit received a Caterpillar 3516 2075-hp engine with a Kato alternator. 4 rebuilds followed in 1989, with the last done in early 1990. These GP20Cs only lasted 3 years on the roster, and many of them ended up at the TCW. While the BN had them, you could see many of them on Expediters working between St. Paul and Chicago. Here a pair lead probably #42 through East Dubuque.

Scanned negative from 7-04-92.

In later years the Huron Alco's acquired a coat of grime like not much else seen on the CNW, until the fleet was spruced up in late 1980. Not long after the repaints started the older 244 Alco's were retired and the more modern power was moved to Green Bay/Escanaba to work out there final years. Not long before the repainting program started I caught up to 401, BU40, 404 and 4251 on the service track at Waseca. June 7, 1980.

Excerpt from torontoed.com:

The Water Wall mural, on the east side of the underpass, is inspired by the work of Josephine Mandamin, an Anishabaabewe grandmother who has walked almost 18,000 kilometres around each of the Great Lakes in order to bring attention to the physical plight of the planet’s greatest resource, water.

A modified variant of the Ajax utilized by Titan's ARGO project: the first colonization program started by a none earthbound nation. This project made Titan the first colony to start founding other colonies of its own.

Empty rack train 11J rolls under the signal bridge in Cove, PA with an SD90MAC leader. Norfolk Southern has been modifying some of the ex-Union Pacific EMDs with Pennsylvania Railroad/Conrail cab signal equipment ahead of their eventual rebuilds in Altoona, allowing them to lead on the old Middle Division. With the SD70ACU program started, I've been trying to grab these Yellow Macs leading before they end up black and white.

LARGE View

Here is one of the shot I did during Paul's (Panorama_Paul) visit in Dubai. The program started very well in the late morning with a 30 minutes helicopter flight! Unfortunately the weather was too hazy, all my shots are basically ruined. Paul might have some better shots (when I checked on his camera's LCD). I also got some nasty reflections because of shooting through the glass. But it's quite amazing to see Dubai from a bird's eyes point of view! I hope Paul can post some of his aerial shots, they really looked better than mine. Also I decided to use my 17-50mm in case I wanted to zoom in, it was a bad choice. I should have gone for the 11-16mm (Paul used his 10-20mm).

After the helicopter trip, we headed to the small town of Hatta near the Oman border (150 kms from Dubai), to see some water pools carved in rocks. The water level was quite low because it didn't rain much, but sadly it was a place full of garbage floating around and graffitis on the rocks.... Not a very appealing place, because of human stupidity.

Then we headed back to Dubai and stopped before sunset in the desert where I took this shot. Again, because of the haze, the light was low and the sun was barely visible, total lack of colors and contrasts.

So basically, you will not get our best shots from this trip because of the weather conditions! Nevertheless, I had a great time seeing and chatting with Paul again since my last visit to South Africa in August last year.

For this shot, I had to process it a lot to get some colors, contrast and blue sky, because the original looks terribly dull. The sky is real though, I just used Adobe Camera Raw to change the white balance to fluorescent, increased the blacks, boosted a lot the clarity, vibrance and saturation. No Digital Blending used here, it is a vertorama made with two single exposures. I wanted to post the original exposure but then I was worried that you might think I am cheating too much with Photoshop! ;-)

I am lagging behind visiting your streams. My apologies but I have been quite busy at work since I came back from Istanbul.

Excerpt from muralroutes.ca:

Through the collaborative efforts of City of Toronto staff, local arts organization Mural Routes and local artist DeAnne Lamirande, the mural now stands as a visual history of Scarborough occupying both the east and west wall, along with the centre columns of the underpass on Warden Avenue south of Danforth Road. The west wall shows the iconic Bluffs and Elizabeth Simcoe– the woman who gave Scarborough its name. The east wall depicts the historic Bell Estate. Birch trees fill the south centre column and oak trees fill the north centre column–a symbolic joining of Ward 36′s Birch Cliff neighbourhood and Ward 35′s Oakridge community.

Top: The West Wall

Bottom: The East Wall

District de Manakara (Madagascar) – Il y a quelques années, cette parcelle de forêt était vierge de toute végétation. Elle démontre qu’avec de la méthode, beaucoup d’acharnement et de la patience, une véritable politique de reboisement est possible.

La reforestation a de nombreuses vertus, notamment un effet bénéfique sur les incendies dont le nombre a diminué dans ce secteur. Cet effet sur les feux s'explique en partie par l'humidité retenue par les « forêts ». C'est aussi la raison pour laquelle le programme de végétalisation a débuté il y a quelques années, à proximité des rizières afin de les protéger.

Les villageois sur la photo participent depuis quelques années au reboisement de leurs terres. Ils affirment n’avoir connu l’an dernier que deux feux de brousse, contre sept dans un village éloigné qui ne participe pas au programme de reboisement.

Les pratiques agricoles reprennent à proximité des parcelles forestières grâce à la reminéralisation des sols qui retrouvent une certaine fertilité.

Deux essences sont les reines de ces collines désolées. L’acacia et le palissandre. Leur rusticité les rend peu sujets aux maladies et permet leur développement dans des sols particulièrement pauvres. L’acacia, un arbre invasif, est adapté pour des zones à reboiser rapidement.

Le palissandre est également réintroduit dans de nombreuses parcelles. C’est avec cet arbre que l’ONG Inter Aide a convaincu les villageois de participer au programme. Ces derniers voient dans le palissandre un potentiel matériau de construction, car les structures des habitations traditionnelles sont faites en bois. Une opportunité de retrouver un matériau naturel et traditionnel pour les futures générations.

Eric, ingénieur agronome malgache, responsable du projet, estime ce n'est pas un problème si la population coupe quelques arbres. Elle doit cependant intégrer dans ses pratiques que ces coupes ne peuvent se faire que dans le cadre d'une gestion rigoureuse de ces forêts reconstituées. Mais Eric est confiant. Avec la disparition des forêts de Madagascar, les villageois ont bien compris que cette ressource n’est pas éternelle et nécessite toute leur attention.

Manakara District (Madagascar) – A few years ago, this patch of forest was devoid of any vegetation. It demonstrates that with method and a lot of determination, a real reforestation policy is possible.

Reforestation has a beneficial effect on fires, the frequency of which has decreased in this sector. This effect on fires is partly explained by the moisture retained by “forests”. This is also the reason why the program started a few years ago near the rice fields in order to protect them.

The villagers in the photo have been participating in the reforestation of their land for several years. They say they only experienced two bush fires last year, compared to seven in a remote village which does not participate in the reforestation program.

Agricultural practices are resuming near forest plots thanks to the remineralization of the soil which regains a certain fertility.

Two species are the queens of these desolate hills. Their hardiness allows their development in particularly poor soils. Acacia, an invasive tree, suitable for areas to be quickly reforested.

Palisander is also reintroduced in many plots. It was with this tree that the NGO Inter Aide convinced the villagers to participate in the program. The latter see palisander as a potential construction material, because the structures of traditional homes are made of wood. A way to have a natural and traditional material for future generations.

For Eric, a Malagasy agricultural engineer responsible for the project, it is not a problem if the population cuts down a few trees, if they understand that these cuts can only be done within the framework of rigorous management of these reconstituted forests.

Hello Flickr Friends!

Get your weekend off to a great start this Saturday, May 19th and tune into Ross Porter's "Music to Listen to Jazz by" on JazzFM which will feature a rebroadcast of the Sound of Jazz Concert Series appearance of "Generations" (Andrew Scott - guitar, Dave Young - bass and Gene DiNovi on piano). Ross Porter's program starts at 9am on Saturday, the concert should be on the air from about 11am - noon. Don't miss it!

That's 91.1 FM on your radio if you're in the Toronto area or you can listen online at www.jazz.fm/ from ANYWHERE in the word!

I hope you can take a listen, I'd love to know what you think!

misstraceynolan.com/

The first “Shay It Forward” event in honor of the late Jim Wrinn, railroad preservationist and TRAINS magazine editor who passed away in 2022, was held at the Illinois Railway Museum on June 24, 2023. The Shay It Forward program, started by Jim’s wife Cate, supports museums and tourist operations, especially those that care for Shay locomotives (which Jim loved). IRM fired up 3-truck Shay No. 5 for the festivities, which included “Take the Throttle” engineer experiences; lunch and dinner train rides aboard the Nebraska Zephyr; and a night photo session – “Get Busy Photographin’” - with lighting by Rob Schreiner, Steve Smedley, and several others. It was a great event and a great way to say a final Goodbye to Jim.

Saint Paul's Catholic Church, Oatlands

According to the brass plaque on the gate pillar, "St. Paul's Catholic Church was designed in 1843 by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, who was England's greatest early-Victorian architect and designer, who was a close friend of the first Bishop of Hobart Town, Robert William Willson. Pugin is best known for having designed the exterior and interior detail of the British Houses of Parliament . . . The construction of St. Paul's was supervised by the Hobart aechitect Frederick Thomas and it was opened on 26 February 1851. St. Paul's is a perfect example of Pugin's ideal for the revival of a small medieval village church."

hobart.catholic.org.au/church/st-pauls-oatlands

www.puginfoundation.org/assets/Oatlands_Essay.pdf

Processing Notes: This photo is a combination of two . . . One vertical and one horizontal. Initially, converted each from Raw to TIF removing any sharpening and making some EV adjustment, in Capture NX2. Merged in Photoshop. Used a haze reduction plug-in, slightly and Adjusted Shadows and Highlights to allow the detail in the trees to emerge, then to Lightroom to do some tweaking that Lightroom does best. Sharpening was done, whilst viewing at 300%, initially. I actually added a small amount of Gaussian Blur and Noise Reduction saving as a Copy and merging in Photoshop, overlaying the Sharp image onto the Softened image, viewing at 200 and 300% looking to remove any halo from the furthest crucifix. Then, finishing up back in Capture NX2.

Often photographers will ask about a workflow used. It is not exactly step-by-step, but it provides a method to my madness.

What I find is processing a digital photograph is more involved and often more time-consuming than processing the same image if it was made on film. More often than not, I and I am emphasising the word "I" cannot just get away with using one program start-to-finish. After I convert to TIF, I will do all of my adjustments to the TIF, before a final save and conversion to JPEG. So, I will save the NEF (Raw), the TIF (final) and the JPEG.

Others' experience may differ and may be able to do it all with one program, every time. Personally, I find there is not one software program that will do everything the way I want to do it, some get close, though. Close enough is not good enough.

Another point . . . I set my in-camera sharpness to Zero, Only when shooting NEF (Raw) and 99.99% of my photos are taken in NEF and 14-bit depth.

Nature reacts to jet trails with a dramatic fusion forming a mixture of nature's clouds and manmade ones.

All the clouds in this picture are manmade fake clouds in one or more stages of dispersion from the rear of a MILITARY JET spewing toxins out the chemical weapons port.

CHEMTRAILS are NOT contrails, they are a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY.

Contrails are ordinary jet fuel exhaust but does NOT linger, it disappears as the jet moves.

CHEMTRAILS are a toxic mix of unknown chemicals being sprayed on us probably through the chemical weapons port of the jet.

I have documented this weather & climate control manmade cloud process with tens of thousands of photos and many videos.

Search my photos for "chemtrails," for greater detailed postings. PUT YOUR PENCILS DOWN & THINK ABOUT THIS.

CLIMATE CHANGE HYPOTHESIS IS A FRAUD INTENDED TO CREATE A FAKE CRISIS THROUGH WHICH TO GRAB POLITICAL POWER BY CLAIMING TO SAVE YOU.

The global response to Climate Change hypothesis is to 'white-out' earth's surface and lower ambient temperature by 2.3 degrees, a program started in the early 1970s.

Whiting out the earth lowers crop yield because plants cannot get the amount of sun they need to produce fruit, your food!

Food stock like chickens, cows, and others cannot thrive without plant food.

The scientists who invented ChemTrails as a solution to the fake crisis now called "climate change" admit that it will cause the starvation of millions worldwide.

Actually, it will cause the starvation of Billions worldwide.

These evil Marxists want to reduce the global population from over eight billion to about 500,000 (five-hundred THOUSAND) WHICH IS ONE-HALF OF ONE MILLION.

This is a crime against humanity.

Nature recognizes ChemTrails by a fusion process, merging trails with atmospheric water vapor, creating clouds so thick they can turn a meteorologically clear day into a cloudy one.

This is the global governments' decades-long response to climate change hypothesis, proving the USA and other Governments are doing something they want you to think will alleviate the equation of climate change hypothesis.

In fact, it is a Marxist fascist program calculated to make you a slave of the politicians, a power grab, a fake crisis invented by the elite globalist oligarchs so they can grab more power to save you from the fake crisis they fictionalized.

PHOTOGRAPHY 'RULE OF THIRDS'

This photo also demonstrates a balance of the 'rule of thirds,' with the left and right sides of the frames positioning their respective subjects in appropriate third-sectors.

Today's story and sketch "by me" we are reporting on the extremely

successful adopt a pothole highway program started by Dave's Tiki's

last year. Dave's Tiki program is a direct approach to fix the

hazardous pot holes in Americas highways. Dave's program is very

simple, you buy a beautifully hand carved, (by Dave) Adopt a

Pothole Tiki, for one time fee of a two thousand dollars,

(The price had a slight increase this month), plus a low monthly

maintenance fee, then Dave personally fills a pothole with a bag

of his own "DGPP" Dave's Genuine Pothole Patch, then a hand carved

Tiki with your name is placed securely at that roadside location.

You surly have been a victim of poor highway maintenance, and know

the pain and suffering caused by potholes to vehicles and sometimes

to ourselves, like when you were just looking away from the road a

few seconds to enjoy a sip of that steaming hot coffee, and bam you

hit a monster twelve inch deep pothole sending the steaming brew

down onto the moon pie you just unwrapped on your lap, which is now

a steamy mess on your crotch. Now you can help by adopting a pothole,

and maybe we can fill the really bad ones.

Until next time taa ta the Rod Blog

Having been fortified the town withstood several sieges, specially during the wars of freedom waged by the Dutch against Spain, the most celebrated fight under its walls being the Battle of Zutphen in September 1586 when Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded. Taken by the Spanish in 1587 by the treachery of the English commander Rowland York, Zutphen was recovered by Maurice, prince of Orange, in 1591, and except for two short periods, one in 1672 and the other during the French Revolutionary Wars, it has since then remained a part of the Netherlands. Its fortifications were dismantled in 1874. In World War II the town was bombed several times by the allied forces because the bridge over the IJssel was vital to support the German troops at Arnhem after the Operation Market Garden. After two weeks of battle the town was liberated on the 14th of April 1945. After the war a renovation program started. Nowadays Zutphen has one of the best preserved medieval town centres of North-Western Europe, including the remains of the medieval town wall and a few hundred buildings dating from the 13th - 15th century.

Two of the newest locomotives on the Norfolk Southern roster face off on the Rockville Bridge. On the left is an SD70ACU, a rebuilt Union Pacific SD90MAC that was one first to roll out of Juniata since the program started. On the right is a ET44AC, one of GE's Tier 4 GEVO's which NS put into service this summer.

13/100

Although our school program started only at 8, David and I went up at 7 a.m. for this photo. Yesterday I managed to reserve the school's assembly hall with the help of my form master... so big thanks to him. Of course the light wasn't the way I imagined, still I think the photo came out even better than I thought.

"I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."

These storks always return in Spring to this nest along the river IJssel near Zutphen, the Netherlands.

Around 1980 was a low point in the stork stand in Western Europe by loss of suitable habitat through land consolidation and hunting along migration routes, including France.

In 1969, from stork village "Liesvelt" (Great Ammers) a successful breeding program started in the Netherlands. Young were released in outstations. In 2003 pre-war numbers of storks flew around again in Holland.

© www.tomjutte.tk

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Southern Pacific Railroad GP35 6590 at Phoenix, Arizona on an unknown day in October 1979, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. Built in June 1964 as road number 7478 ( c/n 29564 ) on EMD Order 5669, it was renumbered to 6590 in 1965, retired February 1, 1991. The SP had a couple of rebuilding programs starting in 1977, and locomotives that did not already have the SP five light package at both ends had them installed during rebuilding. However, I can find no evidence that this particular locomotive was ever rebuilt.

Excerpt from Toronto Star, March 19, 2015:

A turtle, representing the area’s First Nations history, and a ship crossing the high seas carrying Irish settlers give revellers an idea of the community’s history.

Hiking: The paved trail in McMullen Island Day Use Area connects the Town of Drumhell's trail with the Badlands Interpretive Trail. The Badlands Interpretive Trail, which is used extensively by the Royal Tyrrell Museum for public and school programs, starts just east of the Museum. Retrace the footsteps of miners on the Midland Coal Interpretive Trail at Midland Coal Mine Day Use Area. This trail has numerous interpretive signs and real-life artifacts, and a small gazebo rest stop at the mid-way point.

History: Midland Provincial Park was established in 1979 to conserve a significant chapter in Alberta's coal mining history. Explore local mining history at Midland Coal Mine Day Use Area with the old mining company office and the Midland Coal Interpretive Trail.

Palaeontology: Visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, situated in the west end of the park. Note: The Royal Tyrrell Museum and Midland Provincial Park are located just outside the Town of Drumheller. Dinosaur Provincial Park is NOT located near Drumheller; it's at least a two-hour drive away.

Wildlife safety: Cougars frequent the badlands and river valley at Midland Provincial Park. Download Preventing Conflict With Wildlife–Cougars for tips.

Hiking: The paved trail in McMullen Island Day Use Area connects the Town of Drumhell's trail with the Badlands Interpretive Trail. The Badlands Interpretive Trail, which is used extensively by the Royal Tyrrell Museum for public and school programs, starts just east of the Museum. Retrace the footsteps of miners on the Midland Coal Interpretive Trail at Midland Coal Mine Day Use Area. This trail has numerous interpretive signs and real-life artifacts, and a small gazebo rest stop at the mid-way point.

History: Midland Provincial Park was established in 1979 to conserve a significant chapter in Alberta's coal mining history. Explore local mining history at Midland Coal Mine Day Use Area with the old mining company office and the Midland Coal Interpretive Trail.

Palaeontology: Visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, situated in the west end of the park. Note: The Royal Tyrrell Museum and Midland Provincial Park are located just outside the Town of Drumheller. Dinosaur Provincial Park is NOT located near Drumheller; it's at least a two-hour drive away.

Wildlife safety: Cougars frequent the badlands and river valley at Midland Provincial Park. Download Preventing Conflict With Wildlife–Cougars for tips. 285

Rose Parade 2017 in Pasadena, California

From The Mercury News: "Northwestern Mutual – “Waves of Hope”: In this playful animated entry, a day at the beach represents more than just catching a wave. Northwestern Mutual Foundation’s Childhood Cancer Program started a wave of giving in 2012, with the help of the company’s employees and financial representatives nationwide, by raising millions of dollars to fund childhood cancer research and family support. Through a partnership with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, the program’s wave helped support the research of Dr. Yael Mossé from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Mossé developed a breakthrough treatment for neuroblastoma which eventually helped Edie Gilger and her family, who are riding on the float. Edie was six months when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, and is now 7 and in remission. The wave of giving continues with Steve Guinan, a Northwestern Mutual managing partner from Philadelphia, and cancer survivor, whose office recently directed $100,000 through the Northwestern Mutual Foundation to Dr. Mossé to continue her work to find cures for more children."

Red-crown cranes (Grus japonensis) on a snowy early morning seen through the mists on the Setsuri River. Taken from the Otowa Bridge. The cranes spend the night on the river and at sunrise they take off and fly to the local fields to feed. They are an endangered species that are making a bit of a come back these days, thanks to a winter feeding program started by local farmers.

Happy New Year! 31/12/15 www.allenfotowild.com

We saw "To Kill a Mockingbird". The program started with the great organ rising from the pit, very impressive. The organ was restored by another The Garden State Theatre Organ Society. www.gstos.org.

www.loewsjersey.org

The Liederkranz Club is devoted to cultural and social exchange as well as the sponsorship of musical in New York City. Its objective once was to enhance German-American relations. On January 9, 1847, twenty-five men of German heritage founded the Deutscher Liederkranz der Stadt New York, a male singing society that provided a musical and social outlet for German-American men and also sought to perpetuate the tradition of German music, in both the folk and classical traditions. The organization was officially renamed to "The Liederkranz of the City of New York" in 1919. Despite purchasing thousands of dollars of bonds during World War II, membership shrunk significantly, and the club moved from larger quarters to the Henry Phipps House on the Upper East Side in 1948.

In 1901 Henry Phipps purchased two five-story flats at 7 and 9 E. 87th Street, most likely to do away with the buildings that abutted his rising white marble mansion at the corner of 5th Avenue and E. 87th Street. A year later Phipps commissioned architect Grosvenor Atterbury to design a home directly across the street at 6 East 87th St. The lot was wide enough to include a narrow garden to the side, eliminating the necessity for a separate service entrance at the front of the house and also providing additional windows. The family sold the building in 1916 and eventually leased it to the Soviet Union in 1941 for use as a school for consulate children. After a dispute over an unpaid water bill, the Russians vacated the building in 1948, the Liederkranz Club moved into the space. The German-American School, an after-school program started in 1898, also uses the space.

For those of you in the UK that are children of the 70's, you will be familiar with the BBC "Test Card"

Shown on screen before programming started for the day, it was usually displayed before Children's TV (Play School !!) or Programmes for Schools..

So why on earth did they choose to put that hideous looking clown on it..??!! As a young kid that damn thing scared the crap out of me..!! No wonder so many kids grew up scared of clowns!! Why the hell did the BBC not use a pink fluffy bunny or Teddy bear..??

Anyway the dear old BBC celebrated 100 years of service recently, so in celebration of that and to face up to my childhood demons, here is my edit to that Test Card..!!

What do you think of this colorful paint scheme? As you can see, The scheme honors 50 years of the program Operation Lifesaver. The program started in 1972 and continues to operate to promote safety around railroad tracks to this day. This unit was unveiled by Amtrak in January 2022.

©2023 ColoradoRailfan.com

Manufacturer: Cascade Engineering Model: 64 Gallon Universal

The new recycling carts have arrived in Saint Paul. The city is currently distributing approximately 78,000 new blue recycling carts to the various eligible residences that currently receive curbside recycling services. Each cart is sealed with a tape note as the cart recycling program will not start until January 16th, 2017. Once the program starts Eureka! Recycling will begin collecting the carts in alleyways or at the curb depending on the area.

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Please do not use this photo or any part of this photo without first asking for permission, thank you.

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TheTransitCamera on Blogger and YouTube

Modern residential architecture along Suzhou Creek in Shanghai's Putuo District.

Suzhou Creek (aka Wusong River) has once been Shanghai's most polluted river, it's shores littered with sunken barges, abandoned warehouses and defunct factories. A massive 12-year redevelopment program started in 1998 and lasted until 2010. During this program the river and the surrounding areas were successfully cleaned up.

Stitched panorama from 5 shots in portrait format. Nikon D100 with a Sigma 12-24/4.5-5.6 EX HSM DG lens attached, at 12mm focal length. Horizontal field of view is roughly 190°. View large on a black background or go for the XXL view. EXIF data is from the first shot.

Shot from the Guangfu Road riverside promenade.

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

OBVIOUSLY I'm obsessed with snow lately....

I wish this was in better focus, but it was so last minute.

I love it anyways. Such a pretty, soft, delicate, snow fall today.

Just thought I would tell you all that I had my doubts about how 2013 was going to go. But now, I realize that it is probably one of the BEST years of my life so far. Without a doubt.

I got accepted to Fanshawe College! I will be studying photography in their 2 year program starting this September. And there are many other AMAZING things going on. But too much for one description.

I'll keep you updated!

Thank you so much to everyone for all of your love and support! I could never have made it this far without you. ♥

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Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest. It was first completed in 1265, but the massive Baroque palace today occupying most of the site was built between 1749 and 1769. The complex in the past was referred to as either the Royal Palace (Hungarian: Királyi-palota) or the Royal Castle (Hungarian: Királyi Vár, German: Königliche Burg). The castle now houses the Hungarian National Gallery and The Budapest History Museum.

Buda Castle sits on the southern tip of Castle Hill, surrounded by the touristic area known as Várnegyed (Castle Quarter), which is famous for medieval, Baroque and Neoclassical houses, churches, public buildings, and monuments. The hill is linked to Clark Ádám Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge by the Castle Hill Funicular. The castle is a part of the Budapest World Heritage Site, so declared in 1987. The original Royal Palace was ruined during WWII, it was rebuilt in a simplified Stalin Baroque style during the Kádár era.

The first royal residence on the Castle Hill was built by King Béla IV of Hungary between 1247 and 1265. It is uncertain whether it was situated on the southern tip of the hill or on the northern elevation, near the Kammerhof.

The oldest part of the present-day palace was built in the 14th century by Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, who was the younger brother of King Louis I of Hungary. Only the foundations remain of the castle keep, which was known as Stephen's Tower. The Gothic palace of King Louis I was arranged around a narrow courtyard next to the keep.

King Sigismund significantly enlarged the palace and strengthened its fortifications. Sigismund, as a Holy Roman Emperor, needed a magnificent royal residence to express his prominence among the rulers of Europe. He chose Buda Castle as his main residence, and during his long reign it became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. Buda was an important artistic centre of the International Gothic style.

Construction began in the 1410s and was largely finished in the 1420s, although some minor works continued until the death of the king in 1437. The palace was first mentioned in 1437, under the name "fricz palotha".

The most important part of Sigismund's palace was the northern wing, known as the Fresh Palace (Hun: Friss-palota). On the top floor was a large hall called the Roman Hall (70 × 20 m or 230 × 66 ft) with a carved wooden ceiling. Great windows and balconies faced toward the city of Buda. The façade of the palace was decorated with statues, a and coat-of-arms. In front stood the bronze equestrian statue of Sigismund, later repaired by King Matthias Corvinus.

The southern part of the royal residency was surrounded with narrow zwingers. Two parallel walls, the so-called "cortina walls", run down from the palace to the River Danube across the steep hillside. The most imposing structure, the Broken Tower, on the western side of the cour d'honneur, remained unfinished. The basement of the tower was used as a dungeon; the top floors were probably the treasury of the royal jewels.

The last phase of large-scale building activity took place under King Matthias Corvinus. During the first decades of his reign the king finished the work on the Gothic palace. The Royal Chapel, with the surviving Lower Church, was likely built at that time.

After the marriage of Matthias and Beatrice of Naples in 1476, Italian humanists, artists and craftsmen arrived at Buda. The Hungarian capital became the first centre of Renaissance north of the Alps. The king rebuilt the palace in an early Renaissance style. The cour d'honneur was modernised and an Italian loggia was added. Inside the palace were two rooms with golden ceilings: the Bibliotheca Corviniana and a passage with the frescoes of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The façade of the palace was decorated with statues of John Hunyadi, László Hunyadi and King Matthias. In the middle of the court there was a fountain with a statue of Pallas Athene.

In the last years of his reign Matthias Corvinus started construction of a new Renaissance palace on the eastern side of the Sigismund Courtyard, next to the Fresh Palace. The Matthias Palace remained unfinished because of the king's early death. The palace had a monumental red marble stairway in front of the façade. Matthias Corvinus was usually identified with Hercules by the humanists of his court; the bronze gates were decorated with panels depicting the deeds of Hercules, and a great bronze statue of the Greek hero welcomed the guests in the forecourt of the palace complex, where jousts were held.

The walled gardens of the palace were laid out on the western slopes of the Castle Hill. In the middle of the enclosure, a Renaissance villa was built by Matthias. Only one column survives of this so-called Aula Marmorea.

After the death of Matthias Corvinus, his successor, King Vladislaus II, carried on the works of the Matthias Palace, especially after his marriage with Anna of Foix-Candale in 1502.

Under the reign of King John Zápolya (the last national ruler of Hungary) the palace was repaired. On the southern tip of the Castle Hill, the Great Rondella was built by Italian military engineers. The circular bastion is one of the main surviving structure of the old palace.

After the Battle of Mohács, the medieval Kingdom of Hungary collapsed. The Ottoman Turks occupied the evacuated town on 11 September 1526. Although Buda was sacked and burned, the Royal Palace was not damaged. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent carried away all the bronze statues (the Hunyadis, Pallas Athene and Hercules) with him to Constantinople. The statues were destroyed there in a rebellion a few years later. The Sultan also took many volumes from the Corvina library.

In 1529 the Ottoman army besieged and occupied Buda again, and the palace was badly damaged. On 29 August 1541 Buda was occupied again by the Ottomans, without any resistance. Buda became part of Ottoman Empire and the seat of the Eyalet of Budin. The original German and Hungarian population left the city, immigrants from Ottoman Empire and the Balkan peninsula came to their place.

Although Turkish travel writers wrote enthusiastically about the beauty of the palace of the Hungarian kings, the new Ottoman government let the palace decay. It was partially used as barracks a storage place and stables, and otherwise it stood empty.

The palace was called Iç Kala ("Inner Castle") and Hisar Peçe ("Citadel") by the Turks. The name of the cour d'honneur was "Seray meydani". The favourite nickname of the complex was "Palace of the Golden Apples".

The economic decline of Buda the capital city during the Ottoman conquest characterised by the stagnation of population, the population of Buda was not larger in 1686, than the population of the city two centuries earlier in the 15th century. The Ottomans allowed the Hungarian royal place to fall into ruins. The amortised palace was later transformed into a gunpowder storage and magazine by the Ottomans, which caused its detonation during the siege in 1686. The original Christian Hungarian population didn't feel secure during the Ottoman conquest, their numbers significantly shrank in the next decades, due to their fleeing to the Habsburg ruled Royal Hungary. The proportion of the population who were of Jews and Gypsy families increased during the Ottoman rule in Buda.

In the era between 1541 and 1686, the Habsburgs tried to re-capture Buda several times. Unsuccessful sieges in 1542, 1598, 1603 and 1684 caused serious damage. The Ottoman authorities repaired only the fortifications. According to 17th-century sources, many buildings of the former Royal Palace were roofless and their vaults collapsed. Nonetheless the medieval palace mostly survived until the great siege of 1686.

The medieval palace was destroyed in the great siege of 1686 when Buda was captured by allied Christian forces.

In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful siege of Buda, a renewed Western European Christian campaign was started to take the city. This time the Holy League's army was much larger, consisting of 65,000–100,000 men, including German, Hungarian, Croat, Dutch, English, Spanish, Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers and other Europeans as volunteers, artillerymen and officers. The Turkish defenders consisted of 7,000 men.

In a heavy artillery bombardment, many buildings burned and collapsed. The Stephen's Tower, used as a gunpowder store by the Ottomans, exploded when hit by a single cannon, said to have been fired by a friar called Gábor, also referred as Tüzes Gábor ("Gabriel Fiery"). According to contemporary sources, the explosion killed as many as 1,500 Turkish soldiers and caused a wave on the Danube that washed away artillery batteries and guards standing on the opposite shore.

Habsburg military engineers made several plans and drawings of the buildings in subsequent decades. Although the walls mainly survived, the burned-out shell rapidly decayed from a lack of maintenance. Between 1702 and 1715, Stephen's Tower disappeared completely, and the palace was beyond repair. In 1715, King Charles III ordered the demolition of the ruins. Johann Hölbling surveyed the still-existing structures. The king ordered the surviving marble statues, antiquities, inscriptions and coins should be spared (there is no evidence about the realization of the royal decree). The main part of the palace and the Broken Tower were totally demolished, the hollows and moats were filled and a new flat terrace was established. The southern fortifications, zwingers and rooms were buried under tons of rubbish and earth.

In 1715 a small Baroque palace was built according to the plans of Johann Hölbling. It was a simple rectangular building, with an inner court and a shorter side wing, which was later demolished. The Hölbling palace is identical with the core of the present-day palace, where the Baroque Court of the Budapest Historical Museum is now located.

The interior of the palace was left unfinished when work stopped in 1719. The Hofkriegsrat commissioned Fortunato di Prati to make several plans for the palace, but lack of money hindered their implementation.

In 1723 the palace was accidentally burned down and the windows were walled up in order to stop further deterioration. Several drawings from the 1730s and 1740s show the unfinished decaying shell of the simple two-storey blockhouse. Some engravings show an idealised finished version which never existed. Sometime around 1730 the roof was repaired.

In 1748 Count Antal Grassalkovich, President of the Hungarian Chamber, appealed to the public to finish the derelict palace by means of public subscription. Palatine János Pálffy called upon the counties and cities to award grants for the project. The moment was favourable because relations between the Hungarian nobility and the Habsburgs were exceptionally good. The Hungarians supported Queen Maria Theresa in the dire need of the War of the Austrian Succession. The queen was grateful for this, and the new Royal Palace became the symbol of peace and friendship between the dynasty and the nation.

The plans of the splendid, U-shaped Baroque palace with a cour d'honneur were drawn by Jean Nicolas Jadot, chief architect of the Viennese court. After 1753 the plans were modified by his successor, Nicolaus Pacassi. Ignác Oraschek, master builder, who guided the works, and modified the plans according to his own ideas. The foundation stone of the palace was laid on 13 May 1749, which was the Queen's birthday. The work continued at a good pace until 1758, when financial difficulties caused a seven-year break. By that time only the interiors were left unfinished.

According to surviving historical documents, the layout of the palace followed Jadot's signed plans of 1749. The façades, some interior elements and the St. Sigismund Chapel are the works of Nicolò Pacassi, while the special double false domes were probably planned by Oraschek, formerly the master builder of Count Grassalkovich. Double false domes were typical features of the so-called Grassalkovich-type Baroque castles like Gödöllő. However, this feature was later removed from the palace.

In 1764 the Queen visited the palace and allotted 20,000 thalers a year for the work, which recommenced in 1765 according to the plans of Franz Anton Hillebrandt. Hillebrand altered the cour d'honneur façade of the central wing in Rococo style. In 1769 the St. Sigismund Chapel was consecrated and the palace was finished the same year. According to the aggregate statement of Grassalkovich, the costs were 402,679 forints.

The palace was rebuilt between 1850 and 1856 by Josef Weiss and Carl Neuwirth. The 13-axis central wing was raised with a third storey and a squat attic-tower. The central risalit was decorated with a balcony of six colossal columns. With these changes, the former Viennese Baroque palace of Maria Theresa became considered a more austere Neoclassical Baroque building.

The ballroom was redecorated with marbles and stuccoes. After 1853 stately rooms were designed in a French Rococo style, with white-gold stuccoes and furniture from the Hofburg. The palace was already too small for the needs of the royal court, so the kitchens and service rooms were housed in the neighbouring Zeughaus. The palace was connected with the Zeughaus by a glassed passageway.

On the western side of the cour d'honneur two smaller buildings were erected, using plans by Weiss and Neuwirth in 1854. The two-storey Stöckl housed the apartments of the archdukes and imperial officials, whereas the Wachlokal was built for the royal guards.

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria visited Buda Castle in 1856 and 1857. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Franz Joseph was crowned king of Hungary. The palace played an important part in the lavish ceremony and was a symbol of peace between the dynasty and the nation.

In the last decades of the 19th century Budapest experienced rapid economic development. Ambitious urban planning projects were carried out to express the growing wealth and higher status of the Hungarian capital, with special attention being paid to the rebuilding of Buda Castle. The autonomous Hungarian government intended to create a royal palace to match any famous European royal residence (especially their old rival, Vienna's Hofburg). The rebuilding spanned forty years, between 1875 and 1912, and caused sweeping changes in topography of the entire area.

First the Várkert-bazár (Royal Garden Pavilion) was built on the embankment of the Danube, at the foot of the Castle Hill, between 1875 and 1882. This Neo-Renaissance gateway was designed by a Hungarian architect named Miklós Ybl. The structure was an open arcade, with pavilions, stairways and ramps, and two blocks of flats. Ybl also built a new waterworks pumping station, named Várkert-kioszk (Royal Garden Kiosk), and two stair towers against the medieval cortina walls. The southern stair tower followed French Renaissance style, resembling a small turreted castle, while the northern stair tower was similar to a Gothic brick donjon (a fortified main tower from a castle, also called a keep). Only Várkert-bazár and Várkert-kioszk survive currently.

In 1882 Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza charged Ybl with drawing a master plan for rebuilding the palace. In his 1885 plan, Ybl preserved the old Baroque palace, but mirrored it on the western side of the cour d'honneur, which doubled the size of the residence. He also planned a new carriageway on the western hillside, demolishing the medieval walls and towers of the Újvilág-kert terrace. The narrowness of the natural plateau of the Castle Hill meant there was not enough space for the new Krisztinaváros wing, which Ybl solved by erecting a substructure down to the foot of the hill. The monumental western façade sits on this windowless, three-storey high substructure. The whole block covered almost the entire hill, but the main façade on the cour d'honneur had the same modest height as the Baroque palace. The façade was clad with stone slabs, while the old parts are stuccoed; hence, the difference between the original Baroque and the Neo-Renaissance wings is obvious. The formerly open cour d'honneur became a closed court with an arched gateway, guarded by the four lions of the sculptor, János Fadrusz. The court is called Lions Court (or Oroszlános udvar).

The work began on 1 May 1890, but Ybl died on 22 January 1891. His successor, Alajos Hauszmann, slightly modified the plans of the Krisztinaváros wing. In 1896 the building reached the level of the court, and King Franz Joseph ceremoniously laid down the foundation stone of the palace, which was soon completed.

In 1893, the 25th anniversary of King Franz Joseph's coronation was celebrated in the Royal Palace. However, the old banqueting hall proved to be too small, so Hauszmann enlarged the room by knocking down and reconstructing the wall towards the cour d'honneur (which additionally had the Hillebrandt façade).

In spite of this expansion and Ybl's new wing, the palace was still deemed insufficient for great royal celebrations, so another round of construction began. The north wing, standing on the site of the old Zeughaus, was completely designed by Hauszmann. The architect doubled the Baroque palace on the Danube side, generally imitating its traditional architectural style. At the meeting point of the old and the new wings, a colonnaded portico was erected, with a lavishly-decorated tympanum (with allegorical statues by Károly Sennyey) and a flight of stairs called the Habsburg Stairs. The whole palace was crowned with a dome with a copy of the Crown of St. Stephen at its apex. The dome, like other details of the north wing, shows German Jugendstil influences, as does the rear façade towards the western forecourt. This forecourt also contains the Matthias Fountain (Hungarian: Mátyás kútja) by sculptor Alajos Stróbl. Above the main gate, towards Szent György tér, stood a statue of the Goddess Hungaria. This side was the main façade of the complex, but it was much shorter and less characteristic than the long Danube façade. The old Chapel of the Holy Right was demolished to make room for a carriageway.

Hauszmann designed a new riding school in the former Újvilág terrace, which was now named the Csikós court, after the Csikós statue of György Vastagh (now in the western forecourt). In front of the long Danube façade, an equestrian statue was erected in honour of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the victorious leader of the Habsburg army in the Battle of Zenta. The eastern forecourt was closed off with a lavish wrought-iron rail, which ended in a pillar crowned by a statue of the legendary Turul, the sacred bird of the Magyars, spreading its wings above Budapest. Two flights of stairs led up to the Szent György tér, which was on much higher ground.

In the western forecourt, Hauszmann designed a new neo-Baroque guardhouse and rebuilt the old Royal Stables. The Royal Gardens on the southern hillside were famous for their precious plants, glass houses and picturesque terraces. In the middle of the gardens stood the Swiss House of Queen Elisabeth, furnished with Hungarian folk art objects. The house was built above the ruins of the medieval gatehouse, partially making use of them.

The interior of the palace was decorated and furnished exclusively with works of the leading Hungarian artists of the age. The Royal Palace was officially inaugurated in 1912. Contemporary critics praised it as the most outstanding Hungarian building of the turn of the 20th century.

The Hauszmann palace existed for around three decades: on 30 December 1916, the building played a part in the coronation ceremony of the last Hungarian king, Charles IV of Hungary. After the 1918 revolution and the removal of the Habsburg dynasty, the Royal Palace became the seat of the new regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, Miklós Horthy. Horthy lived in the Krisztinaváros wing with his family between the years of 1920 and 1944. In this era the palace was the centre of Hungarian political and social life. Famous guests entertained by Horthy in the palace included King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy in 1937 and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) in 1938.

On 16 October 1944 a Nazi German commando unit, led by Otto Skorzeny, occupied the Royal Palace and forced the regent to abdicate. Buda Castle was the last major stronghold of Budapest held by Axis forces during the siege of Budapest between 29 December 1944 and 13 February 1945. The German and Hungarian forces defending the castle attempted to break the Soviet blockade on 11 February 1945, but failed. Allegedly the Soviet Red Army knew about their plans and had aimed heavy weapons at the possible escape routes hours earlier. This is considered one of the biggest disasters of Hungarian military history.

Heavy fights and artillery fire rendered the palace into ruins. The furniture vanished, roofs and vaults collapsed and the southern and western wings were burned out. The destruction was comparable to that of the great siege of 1686.

Immediately after the war, archeological research was begun in order to unearth the remains of the medieval castle. The research, led by László Gerő (1946–1966) and László Zolnay (1967–1979), was likely the biggest castle excavation in Europe. The former Royal Gardens stairways, pavilions and glass houses, which dated from the turn of the 20th century, had to be sacrificed. Important parts of the former Sigismund and Matthias Palace had survived under the thick earth fill.

The first reconstruction plan of the medieval remains was written by László Gerő in 1950 and finalised in 1952. The reconstruction work was finished in 1966. Contrary to the generally accepted principles of historic reconstruction, the medieval fortification system was rebuilt in its entirety. Important elements like the 16th century Great Rondella and the medieval Gatehouse, the Mace Tower, the walls and the zwingers were reconstructed according to the results of the archaeological research and contemporary pictorial evidence. The low-lying southern wing of the Gothic palace was also reconstructed, together with the vaulted Gothic Hall and the Lower Church of the former Royal Chapel. Medieval-style gardens were planted in the zwingers. The foundation of the Stephen's Tower was unearthed, but as archaeological evidence was lacking, the tower was not reconstructed. The remains of the Broken Tower were covered again.

The large-scale reconstruction of the medieval fortifications substantially changed the cityscape of Budapest. At the time it was considered a highly successful project, reconciling historical authenticity with urban-planning demands.

In the 1970s, archeological research continued on the northern and western side of the palace, led by László Zolnay. It produced many important achievements, including the Late Gothic Buda Castle Statues. The Karakash Pasha Tower, in the Újvilág Garden, was a Turkish-era tower demolished at the end of the 19th century. Photographic evidence enabled its reconstruction, but the new tower was only a copy of the original, and the details are not considered authentic.

The government made a decision about reconstruction only in 1948. According to contemporary photos, all the important interiors were in a damaged state, but their reconstruction was technically possible. The new communist government of Hungary considered the Royal Palace a symbol of the former regime. Therefore, Hungarian leaders chose to thoroughly modernise the interior and exterior of the palace. Architectural trends played a part in the decision, as modernist architects had condemned the Hauszmann style as "too ornate".

The first modernist reconstruction plan was made by architect István Janáky in 1950. His controversial concept was later modified. In 1952 the Hungarian government asked for help from Poland, because they had successfully rebuilt Warsaw and, indeed, other cities. A delegation of Polish experts, led by the architectural historian Jan Zachwatowicz, proposed the rebuilding of the Hauszmann palace.

During the 1950s the palace was gutted and all the remaining interior, including the rooms and halls that were undamaged, were destroyed. Important exterior details, such as the main entrance, the Habsburg Steps, the dome, the Royal Stables, the guardhouse and the riding school were demolished, and the remaining façades were simplified. In Lions Court the ornate gates of King's Stairs and Diplomat's Stairs were demolished. The doorway of the castle church disappeared, as did the chapel. The detailed Neo-Baroque roofs were simplified and plain new windows were installed. The allegorical sculpture group of the tympanum was destroyed.

At the same time however, medieval elements that were uncovered were reconstructed in what was thought their appearance was. No precise drawings existed of the medieval elements, therefore an approximate reconstruction of their appearance was done.

The modernist dome was designed by Lajos Hidasi in 1961 after Italian Baroque models. The palace was rebuilt by 1966, but the interior spaces were ready only in the 1980s. Buda Castle became a cultural centre, home to three museums and the National Széchényi Library.

In March 2006 the National Office of Cultural Heritage finalised the long-term development plan of Buda Castle. Asserting that the modernisation in 1952–66 caused irreversible damage, they proposed the partial reconstruction of the façades, including the dome and the Habsburg Steps. No decision has been reached about the realization of the development plan.

On 25 July 2007 Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány chose the medieval King's Cellar in Buda Castle as the place to announce the list of the "most important public works projects", which was financed by European Union funds between 2007 and 2013.

In 2008 an international consortium began to build an underground garage for 700 cars under the former Csikós Court. The developer was granted permission to demolish a 4.5-metre-long (15 ft) section of the 15th-century castle wall. The demolition was carried out in spite of criticism from archeologists and the public. The area had been previously excavated by archeologists, who discovered many important finds, including medieval children's toys and a tooth from the pet leopard of King Matthias Corvinus. Additionally, the area outside the inner walls was used as a garbage dump during the 15th–17th centuries. However, financial difficulties interrupted the construction of the garage in 2009; work resumed for a short time in November 2011 but stopped again after the completion of the concrete basement slab. The government granted 1.3 billion forint for the completion of the project in 2015 after the half-built garage was bought by the state. The castle courtyard was also used as the setting for Katy Perry's 2010 music video, "Firework", part of her Teenage Dream album.

The government formulated the "National Hauszmann Program" to revitalize and restore the castle in the period of 2019−2030. The program is named in honour of Alajos Hauszmann, the last major architect of the castle. The first phase of the program started in 2016. By 2019, the reconstruction of the Royal Riding hall, Stöckl Staircase and the Castle Guards' Barrack had been completed and the rebuilding of the Ybl Slope next to the barrack started. In the same year, further reconstructions are announced, namely Joseph Archduke's Palace, former Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense, and the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs' building.

In 2019, the prime minister's residence was relocated to the Buda Castle from the Hungarian Parliament Building. The move was first planned in 2002 during the first Fidesz government, but was never carried out.

The first “Shay It Forward” event in honor of the late Jim Wrinn, railroad preservationist and TRAINS magazine editor who passed away in 2022, was held at the Illinois Railway Museum on June 24, 2023. The Shay It Forward program, started by Jim’s wife Cate, supports museums and tourist operations, especially those that care for Shay locomotives (which Jim loved). IRM fired up 3-truck Shay No. 5 for the festivities, which included “Take the Throttle” engineer experiences; lunch and dinner train rides aboard the Nebraska Zephyr; and a night photo session – “Get Busy Photographin’” - with lighting by Rob Schreiner, Steve Smedley, and several others. It was a great event and a great way to say a final Goodbye to Jim.

The first “Shay It Forward” event in honor of the late Jim Wrinn, railroad preservationist and TRAINS magazine editor who passed away in 2022, was held at the Illinois Railway Museum on June 24, 2023. The Shay It Forward program, started by Jim’s wife Cate, supports museums and tourist operations, especially those that care for Shay locomotives (which Jim loved). IRM fired up 3-truck Shay No. 5 for the festivities, which included “Take the Throttle” engineer experiences; lunch and dinner train rides aboard the Nebraska Zephyr; and a night photo session – “Get Busy Photographin’” - with lighting by Rob Schreiner, Steve Smedley, and several others. It was a great event and a great way to say a final Goodbye to Jim.

La Historia de la ciudad de New york incluyendo la participación de su inmigración.

Fue llamada colonia en Nueva York, logrando que la colonia de "Nueva Amsterdam" surgiese oficialmente en 1626"

con la compra por parte de Pierre Minuit. Entre los siglos XVII y XVIII, la rivalidad marítima entre neerlandeses e ingleses llegó a su fin con la victoria de estos últimos en América del Norte. El rey de Inglaterra Carlos II donó a su hermano, el Duque de York, esta tierra fue inmediatamente rebautizada como «Nueva York» en honor del Duque de York. En 1785,

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historia_de_Nueva_York

Today 8-2- 2017

Trump is pushing for a 'merit-based' immigration system that "Slashes the number of Legal Immigrants"

At the same time, Trump during his campaign called for returning the level of foreign-born Americans to their historic norm. The level is currently higher than at most periods in U.S. history. Immigration experts said at the time that Trump's goal could only be achieved by sharply reducing legal immigration levels.

("Trump has also been reluctant to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, started by President Obama, which provides work authorizations to immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Trump called the program "unconstitutional" during the presidential campaign, but also has expressed sympathy toward people who are in this country illegally through no fault of their own and were raised here").

"We want a merit-based system, one that protects our workers, our taxpayers, and one that protects our economy. We want it merit-based," Trump said.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ella miraba a EUROPA

EL NUEVO COLOSO

No como el mítico gigante griego de bronce,

De miembros conquistadores a horcajadas de tierra a tierra;

Aquí en nuestras puertas del ocaso bañadas por el mar se erguirá.

Una poderosa mujer con una antorcha cuya llama

Es el relámpago aprisionado, y su nombre.

Madre de los Desterrados. Desde el faro de su mano

Brilla la bienvenida para todo el mundo; sus templados ojos dominan

Las ciudades gemelas que enmarcan el puerto de aéreos puentes

"¡Guardaos, tierras antiguas, vuestra pompa legendaria!" grita ella.

"¡Dadme a vuestros rendidos, a vuestros pobres

Vuestras masas hacinadas anhelando respirar en libertad

El desamparado desecho de vuestras rebosantes playas

Enviadme a estos, los desamparados, sacudidos por las tempestades a mí

¡Yo elevo mi faro detrás de la puerta dorada!"

es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estatua_de_la_Libertad

EN UN TIEMPO PASADO FUE REALMENTE UN FARO

Desde que se inauguró hasta 1902 fue un faro que iluminaba a 39 kilómetros de distancia.

Desde su inauguración en 1886, la estatua fue lo primero que cualquier inmigrante veía al llegar a Estados Unidos , tras su viaje desde Europa.

Cuando Bartholdi buscó ubicación para la estatua se planteó ubicarla en Central Park.

Al colocarla en la Liberty Island (anteriormente llamada Bedloe Island), la idea de faro empezó a tomar sentido.

LA ESTATUA DE LA LIBERTAD TIENE OTRO NOMBRE

Aunque es mundialmente conocida como Estatua de la Libertad, lo cierto es que su nombre real es La libertad iluminando el mundo. En inglés Liberty Enlightening the World y en francés La Liberté éclairant le monde.Como regalo de Francia a Estados Unidos, la Estatua de la Libertad mira en dirección a Europa. Para representar es hermandad entre los dos continentes y afianzar lazos.

Aunque parece ser, que Hoy 8-2-2017; todo eso se borró de su pedestal

"Tanto es así, que ya hemos comentado que durante décadas Miss Liberty era la primer que daba la bienvenida a los inmigrantes europeos que llegaban a la tierra de las oportunidades".

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

"Dame tus cansados, tus pobres,

Tu hacinadas multitudes anhelantes de respirar en libertad,

El desamparado desecho de vuestras rebosantes playas.

Enviar estos, los desamparados, sacudidos por las tempestades a mí,

Levanto mi lámpara junto a la puerta dorada!”

Para aquellos que sueñan, un mundo donde la luz de la justicia brille sobre nosotros siempre !!!!!!!!!!!!! Para los que soñamos, con un mundo; Donde la luz de la justicia siempre nos ilumine !!!!!!

Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest. It was first completed in 1265, but the massive Baroque palace today occupying most of the site was built between 1749 and 1769. The complex in the past was referred to as either the Royal Palace (Hungarian: Királyi-palota) or the Royal Castle (Hungarian: Királyi Vár, German: Königliche Burg). The castle now houses the Hungarian National Gallery and The Budapest History Museum.

Buda Castle sits on the southern tip of Castle Hill, surrounded by the touristic area known as Várnegyed (Castle Quarter), which is famous for medieval, Baroque and Neoclassical houses, churches, public buildings, and monuments. The hill is linked to Clark Ádám Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge by the Castle Hill Funicular. The castle is a part of the Budapest World Heritage Site, so declared in 1987. The original Royal Palace was ruined during WWII, it was rebuilt in a simplified Stalin Baroque style during the Kádár era.

The first royal residence on the Castle Hill was built by King Béla IV of Hungary between 1247 and 1265. It is uncertain whether it was situated on the southern tip of the hill or on the northern elevation, near the Kammerhof.

The oldest part of the present-day palace was built in the 14th century by Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, who was the younger brother of King Louis I of Hungary. Only the foundations remain of the castle keep, which was known as Stephen's Tower. The Gothic palace of King Louis I was arranged around a narrow courtyard next to the keep.

King Sigismund significantly enlarged the palace and strengthened its fortifications. Sigismund, as a Holy Roman Emperor, needed a magnificent royal residence to express his prominence among the rulers of Europe. He chose Buda Castle as his main residence, and during his long reign it became probably the largest Gothic palace of the late Middle Ages. Buda was an important artistic centre of the International Gothic style.

Construction began in the 1410s and was largely finished in the 1420s, although some minor works continued until the death of the king in 1437. The palace was first mentioned in 1437, under the name "fricz palotha".

The most important part of Sigismund's palace was the northern wing, known as the Fresh Palace (Hun: Friss-palota). On the top floor was a large hall called the Roman Hall (70 × 20 m or 230 × 66 ft) with a carved wooden ceiling. Great windows and balconies faced toward the city of Buda. The façade of the palace was decorated with statues, a and coat-of-arms. In front stood the bronze equestrian statue of Sigismund, later repaired by King Matthias Corvinus.

The southern part of the royal residency was surrounded with narrow zwingers. Two parallel walls, the so-called "cortina walls", run down from the palace to the River Danube across the steep hillside. The most imposing structure, the Broken Tower, on the western side of the cour d'honneur, remained unfinished. The basement of the tower was used as a dungeon; the top floors were probably the treasury of the royal jewels.

The last phase of large-scale building activity took place under King Matthias Corvinus. During the first decades of his reign the king finished the work on the Gothic palace. The Royal Chapel, with the surviving Lower Church, was likely built at that time.

After the marriage of Matthias and Beatrice of Naples in 1476, Italian humanists, artists and craftsmen arrived at Buda. The Hungarian capital became the first centre of Renaissance north of the Alps. The king rebuilt the palace in an early Renaissance style. The cour d'honneur was modernised and an Italian loggia was added. Inside the palace were two rooms with golden ceilings: the Bibliotheca Corviniana and a passage with the frescoes of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. The façade of the palace was decorated with statues of John Hunyadi, László Hunyadi and King Matthias. In the middle of the court there was a fountain with a statue of Pallas Athene.

In the last years of his reign Matthias Corvinus started construction of a new Renaissance palace on the eastern side of the Sigismund Courtyard, next to the Fresh Palace. The Matthias Palace remained unfinished because of the king's early death. The palace had a monumental red marble stairway in front of the façade. Matthias Corvinus was usually identified with Hercules by the humanists of his court; the bronze gates were decorated with panels depicting the deeds of Hercules, and a great bronze statue of the Greek hero welcomed the guests in the forecourt of the palace complex, where jousts were held.

The walled gardens of the palace were laid out on the western slopes of the Castle Hill. In the middle of the enclosure, a Renaissance villa was built by Matthias. Only one column survives of this so-called Aula Marmorea.

After the death of Matthias Corvinus, his successor, King Vladislaus II, carried on the works of the Matthias Palace, especially after his marriage with Anna of Foix-Candale in 1502.

Under the reign of King John Zápolya (the last national ruler of Hungary) the palace was repaired. On the southern tip of the Castle Hill, the Great Rondella was built by Italian military engineers. The circular bastion is one of the main surviving structure of the old palace.

After the Battle of Mohács, the medieval Kingdom of Hungary collapsed. The Ottoman Turks occupied the evacuated town on 11 September 1526. Although Buda was sacked and burned, the Royal Palace was not damaged. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent carried away all the bronze statues (the Hunyadis, Pallas Athene and Hercules) with him to Constantinople. The statues were destroyed there in a rebellion a few years later. The Sultan also took many volumes from the Corvina library.

In 1529 the Ottoman army besieged and occupied Buda again, and the palace was badly damaged. On 29 August 1541 Buda was occupied again by the Ottomans, without any resistance. Buda became part of Ottoman Empire and the seat of the Eyalet of Budin. The original German and Hungarian population left the city, immigrants from Ottoman Empire and the Balkan peninsula came to their place.

Although Turkish travel writers wrote enthusiastically about the beauty of the palace of the Hungarian kings, the new Ottoman government let the palace decay. It was partially used as barracks a storage place and stables, and otherwise it stood empty.

The palace was called Iç Kala ("Inner Castle") and Hisar Peçe ("Citadel") by the Turks. The name of the cour d'honneur was "Seray meydani". The favourite nickname of the complex was "Palace of the Golden Apples".

The economic decline of Buda the capital city during the Ottoman conquest characterised by the stagnation of population, the population of Buda was not larger in 1686, than the population of the city two centuries earlier in the 15th century. The Ottomans allowed the Hungarian royal place to fall into ruins. The amortised palace was later transformed into a gunpowder storage and magazine by the Ottomans, which caused its detonation during the siege in 1686. The original Christian Hungarian population didn't feel secure during the Ottoman conquest, their numbers significantly shrank in the next decades, due to their fleeing to the Habsburg ruled Royal Hungary. The proportion of the population who were of Jews and Gypsy families increased during the Ottoman rule in Buda.

In the era between 1541 and 1686, the Habsburgs tried to re-capture Buda several times. Unsuccessful sieges in 1542, 1598, 1603 and 1684 caused serious damage. The Ottoman authorities repaired only the fortifications. According to 17th-century sources, many buildings of the former Royal Palace were roofless and their vaults collapsed. Nonetheless the medieval palace mostly survived until the great siege of 1686.

The medieval palace was destroyed in the great siege of 1686 when Buda was captured by allied Christian forces.

In 1686, two years after the unsuccessful siege of Buda, a renewed Western European Christian campaign was started to take the city. This time the Holy League's army was much larger, consisting of 65,000–100,000 men, including German, Hungarian, Croat, Dutch, English, Spanish, Czech, Italian, French, Burgundian, Danish and Swedish soldiers and other Europeans as volunteers, artillerymen and officers. The Turkish defenders consisted of 7,000 men.

In a heavy artillery bombardment, many buildings burned and collapsed. The Stephen's Tower, used as a gunpowder store by the Ottomans, exploded when hit by a single cannon, said to have been fired by a friar called Gábor, also referred as Tüzes Gábor ("Gabriel Fiery"). According to contemporary sources, the explosion killed as many as 1,500 Turkish soldiers and caused a wave on the Danube that washed away artillery batteries and guards standing on the opposite shore.

Habsburg military engineers made several plans and drawings of the buildings in subsequent decades. Although the walls mainly survived, the burned-out shell rapidly decayed from a lack of maintenance. Between 1702 and 1715, Stephen's Tower disappeared completely, and the palace was beyond repair. In 1715, King Charles III ordered the demolition of the ruins. Johann Hölbling surveyed the still-existing structures. The king ordered the surviving marble statues, antiquities, inscriptions and coins should be spared (there is no evidence about the realization of the royal decree). The main part of the palace and the Broken Tower were totally demolished, the hollows and moats were filled and a new flat terrace was established. The southern fortifications, zwingers and rooms were buried under tons of rubbish and earth.

In 1715 a small Baroque palace was built according to the plans of Johann Hölbling. It was a simple rectangular building, with an inner court and a shorter side wing, which was later demolished. The Hölbling palace is identical with the core of the present-day palace, where the Baroque Court of the Budapest Historical Museum is now located.

The interior of the palace was left unfinished when work stopped in 1719. The Hofkriegsrat commissioned Fortunato di Prati to make several plans for the palace, but lack of money hindered their implementation.

In 1723 the palace was accidentally burned down and the windows were walled up in order to stop further deterioration. Several drawings from the 1730s and 1740s show the unfinished decaying shell of the simple two-storey blockhouse. Some engravings show an idealised finished version which never existed. Sometime around 1730 the roof was repaired.

In 1748 Count Antal Grassalkovich, President of the Hungarian Chamber, appealed to the public to finish the derelict palace by means of public subscription. Palatine János Pálffy called upon the counties and cities to award grants for the project. The moment was favourable because relations between the Hungarian nobility and the Habsburgs were exceptionally good. The Hungarians supported Queen Maria Theresa in the dire need of the War of the Austrian Succession. The queen was grateful for this, and the new Royal Palace became the symbol of peace and friendship between the dynasty and the nation.

The plans of the splendid, U-shaped Baroque palace with a cour d'honneur were drawn by Jean Nicolas Jadot, chief architect of the Viennese court. After 1753 the plans were modified by his successor, Nicolaus Pacassi. Ignác Oraschek, master builder, who guided the works, and modified the plans according to his own ideas. The foundation stone of the palace was laid on 13 May 1749, which was the Queen's birthday. The work continued at a good pace until 1758, when financial difficulties caused a seven-year break. By that time only the interiors were left unfinished.

According to surviving historical documents, the layout of the palace followed Jadot's signed plans of 1749. The façades, some interior elements and the St. Sigismund Chapel are the works of Nicolò Pacassi, while the special double false domes were probably planned by Oraschek, formerly the master builder of Count Grassalkovich. Double false domes were typical features of the so-called Grassalkovich-type Baroque castles like Gödöllő. However, this feature was later removed from the palace.

In 1764 the Queen visited the palace and allotted 20,000 thalers a year for the work, which recommenced in 1765 according to the plans of Franz Anton Hillebrandt. Hillebrand altered the cour d'honneur façade of the central wing in Rococo style. In 1769 the St. Sigismund Chapel was consecrated and the palace was finished the same year. According to the aggregate statement of Grassalkovich, the costs were 402,679 forints.

The palace was rebuilt between 1850 and 1856 by Josef Weiss and Carl Neuwirth. The 13-axis central wing was raised with a third storey and a squat attic-tower. The central risalit was decorated with a balcony of six colossal columns. With these changes, the former Viennese Baroque palace of Maria Theresa became considered a more austere Neoclassical Baroque building.

The ballroom was redecorated with marbles and stuccoes. After 1853 stately rooms were designed in a French Rococo style, with white-gold stuccoes and furniture from the Hofburg. The palace was already too small for the needs of the royal court, so the kitchens and service rooms were housed in the neighbouring Zeughaus. The palace was connected with the Zeughaus by a glassed passageway.

On the western side of the cour d'honneur two smaller buildings were erected, using plans by Weiss and Neuwirth in 1854. The two-storey Stöckl housed the apartments of the archdukes and imperial officials, whereas the Wachlokal was built for the royal guards.

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria visited Buda Castle in 1856 and 1857. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Franz Joseph was crowned king of Hungary. The palace played an important part in the lavish ceremony and was a symbol of peace between the dynasty and the nation.

In the last decades of the 19th century Budapest experienced rapid economic development. Ambitious urban planning projects were carried out to express the growing wealth and higher status of the Hungarian capital, with special attention being paid to the rebuilding of Buda Castle. The autonomous Hungarian government intended to create a royal palace to match any famous European royal residence (especially their old rival, Vienna's Hofburg). The rebuilding spanned forty years, between 1875 and 1912, and caused sweeping changes in topography of the entire area.

First the Várkert-bazár (Royal Garden Pavilion) was built on the embankment of the Danube, at the foot of the Castle Hill, between 1875 and 1882. This Neo-Renaissance gateway was designed by a Hungarian architect named Miklós Ybl. The structure was an open arcade, with pavilions, stairways and ramps, and two blocks of flats. Ybl also built a new waterworks pumping station, named Várkert-kioszk (Royal Garden Kiosk), and two stair towers against the medieval cortina walls. The southern stair tower followed French Renaissance style, resembling a small turreted castle, while the northern stair tower was similar to a Gothic brick donjon (a fortified main tower from a castle, also called a keep). Only Várkert-bazár and Várkert-kioszk survive currently.

In 1882 Prime Minister Kálmán Tisza charged Ybl with drawing a master plan for rebuilding the palace. In his 1885 plan, Ybl preserved the old Baroque palace, but mirrored it on the western side of the cour d'honneur, which doubled the size of the residence. He also planned a new carriageway on the western hillside, demolishing the medieval walls and towers of the Újvilág-kert terrace. The narrowness of the natural plateau of the Castle Hill meant there was not enough space for the new Krisztinaváros wing, which Ybl solved by erecting a substructure down to the foot of the hill. The monumental western façade sits on this windowless, three-storey high substructure. The whole block covered almost the entire hill, but the main façade on the cour d'honneur had the same modest height as the Baroque palace. The façade was clad with stone slabs, while the old parts are stuccoed; hence, the difference between the original Baroque and the Neo-Renaissance wings is obvious. The formerly open cour d'honneur became a closed court with an arched gateway, guarded by the four lions of the sculptor, János Fadrusz. The court is called Lions Court (or Oroszlános udvar).

The work began on 1 May 1890, but Ybl died on 22 January 1891. His successor, Alajos Hauszmann, slightly modified the plans of the Krisztinaváros wing. In 1896 the building reached the level of the court, and King Franz Joseph ceremoniously laid down the foundation stone of the palace, which was soon completed.

In 1893, the 25th anniversary of King Franz Joseph's coronation was celebrated in the Royal Palace. However, the old banqueting hall proved to be too small, so Hauszmann enlarged the room by knocking down and reconstructing the wall towards the cour d'honneur (which additionally had the Hillebrandt façade).

In spite of this expansion and Ybl's new wing, the palace was still deemed insufficient for great royal celebrations, so another round of construction began. The north wing, standing on the site of the old Zeughaus, was completely designed by Hauszmann. The architect doubled the Baroque palace on the Danube side, generally imitating its traditional architectural style. At the meeting point of the old and the new wings, a colonnaded portico was erected, with a lavishly-decorated tympanum (with allegorical statues by Károly Sennyey) and a flight of stairs called the Habsburg Stairs. The whole palace was crowned with a dome with a copy of the Crown of St. Stephen at its apex. The dome, like other details of the north wing, shows German Jugendstil influences, as does the rear façade towards the western forecourt. This forecourt also contains the Matthias Fountain (Hungarian: Mátyás kútja) by sculptor Alajos Stróbl. Above the main gate, towards Szent György tér, stood a statue of the Goddess Hungaria. This side was the main façade of the complex, but it was much shorter and less characteristic than the long Danube façade. The old Chapel of the Holy Right was demolished to make room for a carriageway.

Hauszmann designed a new riding school in the former Újvilág terrace, which was now named the Csikós court, after the Csikós statue of György Vastagh (now in the western forecourt). In front of the long Danube façade, an equestrian statue was erected in honour of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the victorious leader of the Habsburg army in the Battle of Zenta. The eastern forecourt was closed off with a lavish wrought-iron rail, which ended in a pillar crowned by a statue of the legendary Turul, the sacred bird of the Magyars, spreading its wings above Budapest. Two flights of stairs led up to the Szent György tér, which was on much higher ground.

In the western forecourt, Hauszmann designed a new neo-Baroque guardhouse and rebuilt the old Royal Stables. The Royal Gardens on the southern hillside were famous for their precious plants, glass houses and picturesque terraces. In the middle of the gardens stood the Swiss House of Queen Elisabeth, furnished with Hungarian folk art objects. The house was built above the ruins of the medieval gatehouse, partially making use of them.

The interior of the palace was decorated and furnished exclusively with works of the leading Hungarian artists of the age. The Royal Palace was officially inaugurated in 1912. Contemporary critics praised it as the most outstanding Hungarian building of the turn of the 20th century.

The Hauszmann palace existed for around three decades: on 30 December 1916, the building played a part in the coronation ceremony of the last Hungarian king, Charles IV of Hungary. After the 1918 revolution and the removal of the Habsburg dynasty, the Royal Palace became the seat of the new regent of the Kingdom of Hungary, Miklós Horthy. Horthy lived in the Krisztinaváros wing with his family between the years of 1920 and 1944. In this era the palace was the centre of Hungarian political and social life. Famous guests entertained by Horthy in the palace included King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy in 1937 and Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) in 1938.

On 16 October 1944 a Nazi German commando unit, led by Otto Skorzeny, occupied the Royal Palace and forced the regent to abdicate. Buda Castle was the last major stronghold of Budapest held by Axis forces during the siege of Budapest between 29 December 1944 and 13 February 1945. The German and Hungarian forces defending the castle attempted to break the Soviet blockade on 11 February 1945, but failed. Allegedly the Soviet Red Army knew about their plans and had aimed heavy weapons at the possible escape routes hours earlier. This is considered one of the biggest disasters of Hungarian military history.

Heavy fights and artillery fire rendered the palace into ruins. The furniture vanished, roofs and vaults collapsed and the southern and western wings were burned out. The destruction was comparable to that of the great siege of 1686.

Immediately after the war, archeological research was begun in order to unearth the remains of the medieval castle. The research, led by László Gerő (1946–1966) and László Zolnay (1967–1979), was likely the biggest castle excavation in Europe. The former Royal Gardens stairways, pavilions and glass houses, which dated from the turn of the 20th century, had to be sacrificed. Important parts of the former Sigismund and Matthias Palace had survived under the thick earth fill.

The first reconstruction plan of the medieval remains was written by László Gerő in 1950 and finalised in 1952. The reconstruction work was finished in 1966. Contrary to the generally accepted principles of historic reconstruction, the medieval fortification system was rebuilt in its entirety. Important elements like the 16th century Great Rondella and the medieval Gatehouse, the Mace Tower, the walls and the zwingers were reconstructed according to the results of the archaeological research and contemporary pictorial evidence. The low-lying southern wing of the Gothic palace was also reconstructed, together with the vaulted Gothic Hall and the Lower Church of the former Royal Chapel. Medieval-style gardens were planted in the zwingers. The foundation of the Stephen's Tower was unearthed, but as archaeological evidence was lacking, the tower was not reconstructed. The remains of the Broken Tower were covered again.

The large-scale reconstruction of the medieval fortifications substantially changed the cityscape of Budapest. At the time it was considered a highly successful project, reconciling historical authenticity with urban-planning demands.

In the 1970s, archeological research continued on the northern and western side of the palace, led by László Zolnay. It produced many important achievements, including the Late Gothic Buda Castle Statues. The Karakash Pasha Tower, in the Újvilág Garden, was a Turkish-era tower demolished at the end of the 19th century. Photographic evidence enabled its reconstruction, but the new tower was only a copy of the original, and the details are not considered authentic.

The government made a decision about reconstruction only in 1948. According to contemporary photos, all the important interiors were in a damaged state, but their reconstruction was technically possible. The new communist government of Hungary considered the Royal Palace a symbol of the former regime. Therefore, Hungarian leaders chose to thoroughly modernise the interior and exterior of the palace. Architectural trends played a part in the decision, as modernist architects had condemned the Hauszmann style as "too ornate".

The first modernist reconstruction plan was made by architect István Janáky in 1950. His controversial concept was later modified. In 1952 the Hungarian government asked for help from Poland, because they had successfully rebuilt Warsaw and, indeed, other cities. A delegation of Polish experts, led by the architectural historian Jan Zachwatowicz, proposed the rebuilding of the Hauszmann palace.

During the 1950s the palace was gutted and all the remaining interior, including the rooms and halls that were undamaged, were destroyed. Important exterior details, such as the main entrance, the Habsburg Steps, the dome, the Royal Stables, the guardhouse and the riding school were demolished, and the remaining façades were simplified. In Lions Court the ornate gates of King's Stairs and Diplomat's Stairs were demolished. The doorway of the castle church disappeared, as did the chapel. The detailed Neo-Baroque roofs were simplified and plain new windows were installed. The allegorical sculpture group of the tympanum was destroyed.

At the same time however, medieval elements that were uncovered were reconstructed in what was thought their appearance was. No precise drawings existed of the medieval elements, therefore an approximate reconstruction of their appearance was done.

The modernist dome was designed by Lajos Hidasi in 1961 after Italian Baroque models. The palace was rebuilt by 1966, but the interior spaces were ready only in the 1980s. Buda Castle became a cultural centre, home to three museums and the National Széchényi Library.

In March 2006 the National Office of Cultural Heritage finalised the long-term development plan of Buda Castle. Asserting that the modernisation in 1952–66 caused irreversible damage, they proposed the partial reconstruction of the façades, including the dome and the Habsburg Steps. No decision has been reached about the realization of the development plan.

On 25 July 2007 Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány chose the medieval King's Cellar in Buda Castle as the place to announce the list of the "most important public works projects", which was financed by European Union funds between 2007 and 2013.

In 2008 an international consortium began to build an underground garage for 700 cars under the former Csikós Court. The developer was granted permission to demolish a 4.5-metre-long (15 ft) section of the 15th-century castle wall. The demolition was carried out in spite of criticism from archeologists and the public. The area had been previously excavated by archeologists, who discovered many important finds, including medieval children's toys and a tooth from the pet leopard of King Matthias Corvinus. Additionally, the area outside the inner walls was used as a garbage dump during the 15th–17th centuries. However, financial difficulties interrupted the construction of the garage in 2009; work resumed for a short time in November 2011 but stopped again after the completion of the concrete basement slab. The government granted 1.3 billion forint for the completion of the project in 2015 after the half-built garage was bought by the state. The castle courtyard was also used as the setting for Katy Perry's 2010 music video, "Firework", part of her Teenage Dream album.

The government formulated the "National Hauszmann Program" to revitalize and restore the castle in the period of 2019−2030. The program is named in honour of Alajos Hauszmann, the last major architect of the castle. The first phase of the program started in 2016. By 2019, the reconstruction of the Royal Riding hall, Stöckl Staircase and the Castle Guards' Barrack had been completed and the rebuilding of the Ybl Slope next to the barrack started. In the same year, further reconstructions are announced, namely Joseph Archduke's Palace, former Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense, and the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs' building.

In 2019, the prime minister's residence was relocated to the Buda Castle from the Hungarian Parliament Building. The move was first planned in 2002 during the first Fidesz government, but was never carried out.