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Blueberry juice feels rather decadent when you consider how many of the tiny fruits are required to produce just a glass or two of juice. Luckily, blueberry pulp is very easy to use. It becomes almost invisible when combined with chocolate or cocoa powder in baked goods, where it lends moisture and can even replace some of the oil or butter in your recipe.
www.foodthinkers.com/2010/05/blueberry-papaya-cucumber-ju...
BLUEBERRY PAPAYA CUCUMBER JUICE
Juice Ingredients
1¼ cup blueberries
1 medium papaya, peeled, and trimmed, seeds removed
1 large cucumber, peeled and seededjuice of 1 to 2 sweet limes or 1 Valencia orange
Juice Instructions
1. Process blueberries and cucumber in your juicer and reserve the pulp in one bag.
2. Juice papaya and reserve its pulp separately.
3. Add the sweet lime or orange juice to the mixture, stir, and enjoy.
Serves 3.
BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE AND TOASTED COCONUT
The above juice left me with about 4 ounces (½ cup) of cucumber-blueberry pulp and ¾ cup of papaya pulp. Using slightly more or less pulp in your recipe probably will not affect your finished product all that much.
Here I adapted my standard vegan chocolate cake recipe, with the pulp serving as a substitute for a large portion of the oil. As I mentioned above, the pulp in the batter is virtually undetectable and the cake came out incredibly moist and tender.
Cake Ingredients
1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
1½ cups all purpose flour
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
(I add a tablespoon or two of black onyx cocoa powder to my regular cocoa when I make chocolate cake — it gives a slightly richer product. Onyx cocoa powder can be ordered from the Savory Spice Shop.)
1½ cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup blueberry-cucumber pulp
½ cup vegetable oil
2 cups brewed black tea*, chilled
1 tablespoon vanilla
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
*Either coffee or tea works very well in this recipe — for best results be sure to use a strong brew.
Cake Instructions
1. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms of the pans with parchment paper and grease the parchment as well.
2. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) with a rack in the middle.
3. Sift flours, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the blueberry-cucumber pulp, vegetable oil, chilled tea, and vanilla.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine with a rubber spatula. Add the vinegar and mix in with as few strokes as possible (it’s okay if there are streaks in the batter).
6. Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, testing doneness with a wooden toothpick.
7. Let cakes cool in their pans for 5 to 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge of each pan and unmolding to cool completely.
While cakes are cooling, put the papaya pulp and a tablespoon or two or orange juice into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add a tablespoon of sugar and stir as the mixture simmers gently for about 5 minutes. Cook until you have a thick, spreadable paste. Cool.
Filling Instructions
When the cake has cooled you may want to even out the surface of your first layer by slicing off the dome to create a flat, even round. Spread the papaya filling over the bottom cake layer and top with second cake.
Ganache Ingredients
8 ounces chopped dark chocolate, or chocolate chips (about 60% cocoa)
⅔ cup soy milk
4 tablespoons maple syrup
topping: ½ cup toasted* unsweetened shredded coconut
(*spread coconut onto a sheet pan and toast at 325°F (163°C) in a toaster oven for about 10 minutes)
Ganache Instructions
1. Heat the soy milk in a small saucepan until it begins to boil. Remove from heat and immediately add the chocolate.
2. Stir until all the chocolate has melted, then stir in maple syrup until the mixture is completely smooth.
3. Let cool slightly before pouring over the cake. Top your cake with the toasted coconut, and chill in fridge to set the ganache.
This cake keeps beautifully for 3 to 4 days at room temperature when wrapped in plastic or stored inside a cake dome.
Day 2 of The Indy KA500 and After a Fantastic First Day of Racing and Celebrations now is where the Real Hard Work Begins as The Entire Field of 46 KA'S were in the Garages with Drivers Teams and Engineers at The Ready as they were about to tackle 8 Hours of the Indy Circuit.
With an 8 Hour Race anything can Happen and with such a Large Field of Cars a lot of Overtakes and Careful Navigation will be Required to Ensure Victory.
With The Start of The Race About to get underway Its Time to See Who will be able to Hold out the Longest and Take the Title of IndyKa500 Endurance Champion for 2021.
Hour 1 (11:04AM)
As The Field of 46 KA'S Completed the Formation Lap and Slowly made their way Towards the Start Finish Straight The Lights went Green and at Exactly 11:04AM the Race Had Begun.
Racing Down Towards Paddock Hill Bend it was The KA of Team (IP Racing's Adam Blair Scott Parkin Oliver Wilmot and Mark Witherington) Who took the Lead Followed Closely by Team (Octane Junkies Adam Smith Martyn Smith and Bazza Ward) in Second Place and Team (Alex Read Motorsport's Chris Reade Sam Luke's Carlito Miracco and Luke Read) in Third Place as they Thundered Up the Hill Towards The Tops of Druids and Back Down Again through Bottom Bend where Team (Ferguson Motorsport's Damon Astin Billy Ferguson Joe Ferguson and Daniel Ferguson) took the Lead from (Octane Junkies) before Flying Around The Track to Complete Lap 1 of 500.
As The Cars came Round Paddock for The Second Time The KA of (Ferguson Motorsport) Now Leads by a Heathy Margin While Further Back (IP Racing) and (Octane Junkies) Have A Fantastic Scrap over Second Place with The Two of Them Swapping The Lead Over and Over again. Car Number 55 of (Al Most Racers Alistair Hardie Alistair McDonald Lee Conway and Will Denny) was Seen Getting Air of The Inside Curb on the Exit of Paddock Hill Bend making for a Spectacular Sight.
Hour 2 (11:54AM)
Hour 2 and All 46 KA'S are Still Alive and Well with Each Driver Pushing Hard to Maintain their Advantage as the Tyres Begin to Warm Up and Start to Grip the Track More.
KA Number 56 Team (Hard And Enthusiastic Martyn Dilworth Mark Figes and Mike Hickey) are Locked in a Tight Battle at The Top of Paddock Hill Bend with KA Number 27 Team (Semprini Racing's Jeremy Evans James Hart Phil Hart and William Puttergill) as they Fight it Out Between the Two Cars for a Position.
Further Down the Field KA Number 23 Team (Kastrol's Michael Keegan Tim Keegan and David Murfitt) is Having its Own Battle with KA Number 4 of Team (Alex Read Motorsport) as The Two Teams Have a Go at One Another Thought the Course of The Lap trying Hard to Hold onto that Position they Worked so Hard for.
Another Battle at Paddock is the KA Number 3 of Team (Wingdat Racing's Andy Chapman Jonathan Barret and Wayne Jackson) Having to Fend off The KA Number 16 of Team (M and D Racing's Alex Martin Daniel Martin Tony Perfect and Mathew Rowling) as they Also were Looking to be in an Intense Battle Thought the Lap with Many Other Teams and Drivers Now Settling into a Rhythm. at The Endo f The Second Hour The KA't Mobile Number 49 of Team (LDR Performance Tuning's David Bywater Adrian Clarke Andy Grear Hardy and Sammy Bryan) is Seen Making its way Through Paddock Hill Bend and Through the Gravel Trap but Manages to Get Out Unaided and Safely.
At 12:12PM a Huge and Very Loud Crash is Heard at The Bottom of Paddock Hill Bend and Seen Rowling Through The Gravel Trap and Ending up on its Wheels is the KA Number 3 of Team (Windgat Racing) Bringing out the First Safety Car of The Endurance Race. Lucky The Driver was Fine and After a Few Minutes Due to The Recovery Taking Place they Are Back out in the Race But with a Lot of Catching Up to do.
Hour 3 (13:08PM)
With the Safety Car Now in the Race gets Back Underway and Already each Driver was Pushing Even Harder trying to either Create a Gap or Make Up for Lost Time Due to The Safety Car Intervention.
At The Top of Paddock Hill Bend a Fierce Battle is Taking Place Between the Two Teams of KA Number 13 and KA Number 155 Team (Deranged Motorsport's Jason Pelosi Josh Larkin and Alex Kelby) and Team (JRS's Nick Walker Alex Day and William Foster) as they Duel Thought the Whole of Paddock Hill Bend Starting at The Top and Still Keeping the Fight Going Right Up towards Druids in The End Deranged Motorsport Wins Out and Takes The Position Away from JRS.
At 13:24PM The Fighting Between each Team Continues at The Top of Paddock Hill Bend which is Proving to be the Best Overtaking Area as Each Car has Only 73 Break Horse Power so Carrying as Much Speed as Possible from the Main Straight Towards Paddock is Essential for a Successful Overtake.
Team (Piston Heads Peter Dignan Oliver Lewis Benjamin Lowden and Sam Sheehan) Battles it out with Team (LDR Performance Tuning's Laurence Davey Mike Paul James Parker and Glen Copeland) as The Two Cars Do Battle for All to See with Team LDR Taking The Position Away.
At 13:39PM A Set of 4 KA's are Seen Fighting Their Way up Towards Druids with All Four Teams not Giving up the Fight as they Swap Positions Relentlessly with not One Driver Willing to Give Up his Position.
The 98 55 53 and 13 All Really Having a Good Go at One Another Thought their Fight. As The Sun Starts its Slow Dissent Down Over The Hills and Valleys that Surround The Circuit Bottom Bend was Providing Some More Opportunities for Drivers to do Battle with One Another. A Four way Fight Between KA's Number 56 51 44 and 64 was Occurring with Number 56 Holding Strong at The Front of This Fight and Leading them on Towards Clearways.
Finally at 13:48PM An Epic Battle Between KA's Number 64 and 44 was Witnessed Through Bottom Bend with The Likes of The Number 64 Bouncing a Wheel Into The Air as The Car Took the Tight Racing Line making for an Amazing Picture and a Superb bit of Car Control To Keep that KA Pointing The Right Way.
Hour 4 (14:02PM)
The Fourth Hour and Pit Stops and Driver Changes were Imminent with Many Teams Choosing to Go into The Pits to Change Both Drivers and Top Up the Fuel as Well as Change Tyres if Necessary. Every Team was Running to a Different Strategy Depending Upon the Amount of Drivers they Had with Teams of Four Drivers Taking 2 Hours in the Car Each While Teams of Three or Less would Have to Take on Longer Stints of 3 To Maybe Even 4 Hours in the Car Hoping that Having to do Fewer Driver Changes would Mean they could make Up The Difference on Track.
Back on The Track at 14:02PM More Battles were Commencing Through Pilgrims Drop With KA's Number 81 Team (GM Performance's Gary Mitchell and Ian Mitchell) Going Head to Head with KA Number 46 Team (JDC Motorsport's Stu Neal Andy Gaugler and Simon Walker Hensell) with The KA of GM Performance Narrowly Taking The Place From JDC Motorsport on the Run towards Clearways.
At 14:20PM a Fantastic Battle Between KA Number's 18 100 127 3 55 and 115 was Seen as they Powered their Way onto Clearways with 155 Leading Followed by 55 and 3 127 100 and 18 All Slowly Gaining Ground to the Two Leading KA's at The Front of This Train.
Shortly After This Train of Cars Came Through Another Train of 5 KA's was not Far Behind this Time Being Lead by Number 13 Deranged Motorsport with 131 (Team Viking's Mark Holme Harry Nunn and Nick Nunn) Then came Number 4 Alex Read Motorsport with 98 Piston Heads and 41 (Rowe Rage Motorsport's Alex Butler Greg Caswell Jason Handcock and Sam Rowe) As they All Fought Hard to Catch One Another Thought their Fight.
KA's Number 98 4 and 64 were Also Seen at 14:48PM Having a Really Good Three Way Fight with 64 and 98 Side by Side down Pilgrims Drop with The Number 4 Car Closing Fast.
At 14:54PM A Final Battle was Seen on the Run Up Towards Clearways with The KA's of Number 60 (Powerflex's David Power Paul Cowland and Dom David) Battling Hard with KA's Number 7 (G and B Finch's Joe Bragg Lee Finch Steve Finch Benjamin Smith and Arthur Thurtle) and Number 127 (Fat Boys Racing's Charlie Jackson and Matt Pinny) with The Number 7 KA Leading The Trio On Towards Clearways as The Sun Began to Set.
Hour 5 (15:25PM)
The Fith Hour and a Swarm of KA's were Seen Storming Down the Main Straight towards Paddock Hill Bend with the Number 131 Car of (Team Viking) in the Lead by Some Distance Followed by Number 64 125 18 81 and 155 as they All Made their Way Towards Paddock for another Chance at an Overtake.
Another Battle Followed Closely Behind with KA Numbers 11 18 49 and 111 All Fighting as Well in order to Maintain or Improve their Positions as The Race Went on.
At 15:28PM The Safety Car was Out again While Another KA Somewhere on Track was Being Recovered and The Leading car Number 36 IP Racing's (Adam Blair Scott Parkin Oliver Wilmot and Mark Witherington's Lead Evaporates as the Field is Once again Bunched up.
Behind Them are KA's Number 44 (Mini Challenges Max Coates Dominic Wheatley Lewis Saunders and Dan Zelos) Looking to Make a More Once the Safety Car Period Ends The 14 of (Frugal Racing) and 51 of (Barwell Autosport's Taylor Norton Kamran Tunio Ryan Brinsted and Kester Cook) Also Looking to Take the Lead of This Endurance Race.
At 15:36PM The Car that Had Caused The Safety Car was Seen Being Recovered into the Outer Garage Area where cars are Held Before the Start of Each Race. KA Number 46 (JDC Motorsport) Had Made Contact Somewhere on the Circuit and Looked to Have a Broken Front Left Steering Arm with the Wheel Being Completely Bend Backwards into The Car with the Car Heading Back to the Garage for Repairs Before Rendering The Race Quite a Few Laps Down.
15:38PM and The Two KA's of Positive Motorsport's Andrew Rogerson Samuel Rendon and Ryan Frith Battle it Out with Number 13 Deranged Motorsport Through Westfield Towards Dingle dell with The Number 13 Beautifully Sweeping Around the Outside to Take The Position Away.
Another Battle was Seen at 15:38PM with (Alex Read Motorsport) Number 4 Battling Number 64 (Auto Teach Motorsport's Reece Kellow Andrew Howell Luca Ataccini Anzanello and Megan) through Westfields Side by Side on Towards Dingle dell.
Finally at 15:57PM Another KA Had Fallen Victim to an Issue with the Number 23 Car of (PSR's Carl Beresford Russel Danzey Tom Gilbert and Jack Wood) Being Taken on the Back of the Recovery Truck to The Garages for Repairs Before Going back Out into The Race as Night Began to Fall Upon The Indy Circuit.
Hour 6 (16:15PM)
As The Light Slowly began to Fade Away from the Indy Circuit Many Drivers were Now starting to use their Headlights as The Lighting Conditions got Darker and Darker as Time went by.
At 16:15PM A Massive Group of Cars came Flying Down Through Paddock Hill Bend with KA Number 55 Al Most Racers on the Inside Line 127 Fat Boys Racing on the Middle Line and 39 Kameleon Racing's Chris Bright Richard Cox Steve Goldsmith and Leigh Youles Michael on the Outside Line as they Fought their way Through the Bend and Up Towards Druids.
At 16:21PM Piston Heads Racing KA Number 98 was Seen Leading another Group of Cars Through Paddock Hill Bend with Numbers 41 52 33 and 2 All Fighting for Places as they Came Towards Paddock Hill Bend.
16:24PM and The Paddock Hill Bend Gravel Trap Claims Another Victim This Time the Number 131 KA of Team Viking Had Ended up Taking a Trip Through it Before a Half Spin Left Him Facing the Marshalls Post Opposite before Returning to the Track after Losing a Few Places. Recovery Teams set to work Once Again with The Safety Car Being Called into Action for The Third Time.
16:40PM and at The Top of Paddock Hill Bend a Three way Fight Becomes a Two Way Fight as The Number 127 KA of Fat Boys Racing Goes for a Spin after Trying to Get a Run on the Number 19 KA of LDR Performance Tuning with The Number 14 Car of Frugal Racing Just Narrowly Missing The Spinning Car.
16:42PM and a Final Intense Battle Between the Number 44 KA and The Number 1 KA of Burton Power Racing's Andy Burton Kyle Sagar Tom Valentine and Sammy Venables as They Fight Hard to try and Take that Position away from Mini Challenge to Round off The 6th Hour.
Hour 7 (16:50PM)
The Seventh Hour and at The Bottom of Surtees a Massive Crash is Heard as The KA's of Number 42 The K Teams (Paul Simmons Edward Simmons Glen Woodbridge Damo) is Seen Running off Track with Number 13 Deranged Motorsport Onto The Grass and Number 81 GM Performance Being Spun Out Trying to Avoid The Carnage in Front. All Drivers Okay and They Get back on Track and Continue on As Day Turns into Night.
17:02PM and a Top of Druids The Ka's of Number 72 Misty Racings (Adam Bonham and Simon Bonham) are Fighting Hard to Keep their Position from the Number 49 Car of LDR Performance Tuning as well as Number 7 of G and B Finch Trying to Find a Way Through on the Outside of Druids. The 98 of Piston Heads is also Closing in by This Stage with Headlights A Blaze.
17:05PM and Coming Towards Druids is a Sea of KA's All With Headlights A Blaze as they Fight for Positions Cars Number 60 3 19 and 39 All in Different Positions and Yet Still Fighting to try and Gain an Advantage that Could Swine this Endurance Race in Any of the Teams Favours. Further Back 127 and 140 Are Doing Battle on the Run Up Towards Druids.
17:09PM Once Again Another Battle at Druids This Time its The Trio of Number 127 36 and 60 That are All Trying to Better One Another in their Attempt to Gain a Place with Number 36 IP Racing Leading The Way.
17:14PM One Final Battle is Seen Coming Up towards Druids with The Number's 18 44 55 and 2 Fighting it Out Number 2 Kastrol's Has The Lead of This Group of Cars with Blazing Bright Headlights to Aid the Drivers Around The Circuit.
17:27PM and Now Darkness was Everywhere Making Visibility Very Difficult and Yet this did not Stop the Likes of Cars Number 128 JTR's Eliot Mason Nick Tandy David Mason and James Rhodes from Battling with Car Number 16 M and D Racing's Alex Martin Daniel Martin Tony Perfect and Mathew Rowling. In a Daring Move in the Pitch Black Darkness The Two Cars Go Side by Side Trying to Gain One over The Other Before JTR's Takes The Inside Line and The Position.
17:30PM Another Daring Battle is Captured Between The Number 180 Car of (Shine Auto motive's Colin French Mathew Eldridge and Wayne Clelland) and Number 44 (Mini Challenge's Max Coates Dominic Whitely Lewis Saunders and Dan Zelos) Defending The Outside Line as Best as they Can but Ultimately Shine Automotive Makes their way Through.
17:51PM A KA is Seen Flying Down Through The Bottom of Druids and into a Cloud of Dust Caused by Another KA Going off The KA is Just Barely Visible Showing The Dangers of what can Happen at Night When Visibility Becomes Low or Obstructed. Other KA's Soon Followed Through the Dust Cloud as Well with Many Backing off Slightly In case a Car was Stuck out on The Track but Thankfully All was Good as Hour 7 Ended.
Hour 8 (17:56PM) (THE FINAL HOUR)
The FINAL Hour of The 8 Hour Indy KA 500 and With Every Driver Now Getting into a Rhythm it was Up to Each Teams Last Driver to Strap in and Go for it to the Checkered Flag. However not All had gone to Plan for every Driver as The Number 29 KA of LDR Performance Tuning Found Out Slipping into the Gravel and Costing Them a Ridge Back to the Pits for Repairs with Less than 1 Hour to go.
18:00PM and The Number 2 KA of Kastrol's was Captured Racing Through Paddock Hill Bend During The Night Pushing Incredibly Hard to Ensure a Good Top 25 Finnish in the Points with Headlights Illuminating their way Around Paddock Hill Bend as The Car Flew Through The Bend.
18:30PM The Safety Car was Out for The Last Time During The Race and was Captured Leading a whole Train of KA's Through Pilgrims Drop and Onto Clearways with Each Driver Poised and Ready to Get Going Once the Safety Car Had Come In.
19:07PM An Amazing Sight to Behold with Just 15 Minutes Left on the Clock a Huge Rush of KA's Flooded their way Down The Main Straight and Past The Start Finnish Straight with Headlights on Full Beam to Aid in Visibility. The Number 8 KA Leads The way in This Group of Cars with The Number 18 CHR Hoonikan Car of Stratton MacKay Dave Mayer and Paul Robson Closing in Behind.
19:09PM And The Green Flag is Dropped for The Final Time as The Safety Car Comes into the Pitlane All 44 Remaining KA's Race Towards Druids with the Field so Bunched up this is Anyone's Race to both Win or Lose at This Stage.
The Number 42 KA of The K Teams Paul Simmons Edward Simmons and Glen Woodbridge Damo takes off Leading from Number 20 A Reeve's Motorsport Aron Reeve Stuart Lane and Andy Godfrey while The Number 127 of Fat Boys Racing Chases Them Down into a Nail Biting Finnish at The Centre of The Field.
19:13PM A Group of Six KA's are Captured Having an Intense Battle with Only 5 Minutes Left to Run The Likes of KA Number 127 36 and 128 All Putting Up One Hell of a Good Fight in The Closing Stages of The Endurance Race with Some Drives Having Driven for 4 Hours Straight.
19:21PM and after 8 Hours of Continuous Racing and 5 KA's Out of The Race The Checkered Flag was Ready and Waiting as The Number 81 KA of GM Performance's Gary Mitchell and Ian Mitchell Takes the Victory at The 2021 8 Hour Indy Car 500!!!! Followed Closely by The Number 72 Car Misty Racing's Adam Bonham and Simon Bonham in Second Place with KA Number 14 Frugal Racing's Jim McDougal Callum McDougal Mike Marais and Leon Bidgeway Taking Third Place.
A Huge Congratulations to The Overall Top Three Winners and to All of the other Teams and Competitors for Showing some Incredible Racing To End of The 2021 Motorsport Season. From
Historic Formula 1 to Classic Touring Cars To The Indy KA 500 This Season Has been One of The Best to Date.
See You All Again Next Year Where We Will do it All Over Again.
Could someone out there in the Flickr verse Identify this bird for me? I got a brief chance at long range .
Thanks in advance
This had been assembled but someone had more fun breaking it down .... here, I go again!!
Our Daily Challenge ~ Some Assembly Required ...
Stay Safe and Healthy Everyone!
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all!
Five car set 800024 climbs away from Swansea with the 1B20, 09.37 hrs London Paddington to Carmarthen Sundays only, usually made up of two 5 cars sets it's splits at Swansea with one 5 car set going west and connects back up at Swansea for the return to Paddington (Photo By Steve Powell)
Looking down and out after their first three games, India stormed into the final of the Coca-Cola Cup at a sun bathed Sinhalese Sports Club today after their best batting performance of the tournament to date.
Required to chase the highest target of the triangular so far, an imposing 265, after a sloppy performance in the field, India powered to a seven wicket victory over New Zealand, as Virender Shewag, opening the innings in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, thumped the seventh fastest century in the history of one-day cricket and the second fastest by an Indian.
Already famed for an uncanny likeness to Tendulkar, in both bowling and batting style, Shewag emerged from the shadow of India's star batsmen, with some exhilarating strokeplay in the opening 15 overs.
The Delhi batsmen made full use of the fielding restrictions, hitting Darryl Tuffey for 22 runs in his sixth over and 12 boundaries in all in his first fifty, which came from just 28 balls.
His second fifty was slower, as he focused his attention on a maiden one-day century, but he was still no slouch, reaching the landmark off just 69 balls. Only Shahid Alfridi (37), Brian Lara (45), Sanath Jayasuriya (48), Mohammad Azharuddin (62), Basit Ali (67) and Ijaz Ahmed (68) have reached three figures off lesser deliveries and not many of them would have been missed only once, like Shewag was by Parore when he had made 98.
This was not, however, just a one man show. When Shewag was bowled by McMillan's first ball, straight after his celebrations, Sourav Ganguly held the innings together with Rahul Dravid, who came to the wicket after the dismissal of VVS Laxman.
Ganguly, lucky to be playing at all after his verbal tirade last evening, for which he was let off by match referee Cammie Smith with just a fine and a slap on the wrists, added 33 with Rahul Dravid and scored 64 from 103 balls before paddling a tame catch to short fine leg.
With 86 runs required from 17.2 overs, India looked well in control having lost just three wickets, but those who have watched the team in the past would not have been totally convinced, especially with the out of touch Hemang Badani and normally slow scoring Dravid at the wicket.
Such fears were quickly soothed, as it became clear that Dravid was in a positive frame of mind and in fine form. He took the bowling by the scruff of the neck and shepherded his side home with an unbeaten 57 from 56 balls. Badani meanwhile chipped in with a fluent 36 from 38 balls that included two sixes.
Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket, which was being re-used. Aware that the new ball in the morning represented their greatest threat, they batted cautiously at the start, scoring just 55 runs in the opening 15 overs, which compares unfavourably to the 101 scored by India.
Steadily and professionally, however, Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle raised the tempo, as they added 138 for the second wicket, before the captain was stumped for 66 as he jumped down the track to Yuvraj Singh.
Astle went on to score 108, his second century of the series, and was well supported by Lou Vincent, who came back into the side today. Vincent scored 45 from 37 deliveries; his highest ever score in ODIs.
India now take on Sri Lanka at the Premadasa International Stadium on Sunday. Full of confidence after three successive victories, they probably even start as favourites.
© Cricinfo
Seen on a little lunchtime wander was this Wadham Stringer ? Range Rover Ambulance conversion RUS924R in a Black Country yard.
This photo requires a bit of explanation and description.
I have been active with the Gary, Keith and Ron Foundation ( www.pitchinforagoodcause.org/ ) for the past two years. The foundation is the creation of Lynn Cohen, the wife of Mets broadcaster Gary Cohen, and it raises funds for worthy causes (this year's charity is a women's shelter in Connecticut that does amazing work).
On Sunday was the GKR Foundation's big end of the year game and party (the end has come early for Mets fans this year, in many ways....). Lynn refers to the volunteers at these events as GKR Elves, and for the third consecutive year I was a Helium Elf - our family's niche has been blowing up balloons and decorating the area before the other guests arrive. My husband usually mans the helium tank, but with his broken arm I had to take over for him this year. Let me tell you - blowing up and tying hundreds of balloons in a short amount of time is NOT easy work! But it was well worth it - the Bullpen Plaza looked amazing during the event.
Lynn gave us this item as a thank you gift - a baseball-decorated Scrabble board with the words "Helium Elf" spelled out. It's a fabulous memento, and I love it :)
I included the little blue and orange ribbon in the photo in memory of Dana Brand ( www.flickr.com/photos/slgc/5764435113/in/set-721576255911... ). The last time I saw Dana was at a GKR event back in May - he loved these events, and it was always wonderful seeing him at them. Lynn arranged a memorial to Dana on July 16th - I was unable to attend because that was the day that I left on my cruise, but was thinking of everybody and was there in spirit. My friend Greg Prince (of Faith and Fear in Flushing fame - www.faithandfearinflushing.com/ ) was there, and gave me this ribbon from the memorial. Dana was the ultimate Mets Fan and GKR family member, and I will always be reminded of him at these events.
HISTORY
Blackburn Meadows electricity generating station was built by the Sheffield Corporation in 1921,mainly to support the steel industry in the Lower Don Valley. The station was expanded in the 1930s, requiring the construction of Cooling Towers 6 and 7 in 1937-8 to supplement earlier square cooling towers to the north east.
These new hyperbolic shaped towers were designed by LG Mouchell and Partners. This was the same partnership responsible for the first hyperbolic cooling towers in the country (built in Liverpool in 1925) and some 150 towers subsequently built across the United Kingdom. Blackburn Meadows was one of those power stations nationalised to form part of the National Grid after the Second World War. It was decommissioned and mainly demolished in the 1970s.
ASSESSMENT
The Blackburn Meadows cooling towers are nationally rare surviving remains of pre-nationalisation large scale electricity generation. They are thought to be the only pre-1950 hyperbolic cooling towers surviving nationally, with nearly all the other 500 or so towers in the country dating to 1960or later. In addition to their early date, the association with LG Mouchell, the design features such as the banding and the thinness of the shell all give the towers interest. The addition of the spray coating of concrete following the 1964 disaster at Ferrybridge adds further interest by showing a development in the industry.
Even without the clouds of steam that signify operational examples, the cooling towers are also very prominent landmark features, providing a visual indication of the former scale and importance of the Sheffield steel industry in the Lower Don Valley.
However the two hyperbolic cooling towers are just one component of an extensive complex that formerly existed. The plant at Blackburn Meadows generated electricity by using steam turbines to turn electric generators, with the steam produced using coal fired boilers, the coal supplied by rail.
The railway system, coal handling plant, boiler complex, turbine and generating halls, as well as the switchgear for connecting the plant to the electricity grid and the earlier square cooling towers have all been lost. Water used by the steam turbines would have been maintained within a closed system, the steam leaving the turbine then passing through a condenser to change it back to hot water before being reboiled to produce steam to turn the turbine.
The cooling towers were used to cool water circulating in a separate system that was used to cool the condensers other equipment.
With the demolition of the rest of the generating station, the surviving cooling towers have lost their context so it is difficult to see how they functioned as an integrated part of a much wider plant.
Functionally, cooling towers still in use consist of far more than just the shell of the tower that survives at Blackburn Meadows. In operation, water is piped into the lower portion of the cooling tower into a complex network of pipes or troughs ending with sprinklers.
A fine mist of water is then sprayed on to a timber or asbestos lattice of staging and screens filling the lower 4-5m of the tower, with the water being cooled via natural evaporation aided by air being drawn upwards by the tower above. Any water droplets carried by this updraft are intercepted by a layer of louvers positioned above the sprinklers. In addition, operational cooling towers have a network of maintenance access ways. All bar one pipe in one of the towers has been stripped out from the cooling towers at Blackburn Meadows, leaving very little indication of how the towers actually functioned.
The Blackburn Meadows cooling towers are thus not only a very partial survival of an electricity generating station, they are also only a very partial survival of a pair of cooling towers. Even given the national context of the highly fragmentary survival of the pre-nationalisation power generation industry, designation of the Blackburn Meadows cooling towers cannot be justified.
The rest of the generating station has been lost, depriving the towers of their functional context and the loss of pipe work, staging, screens and access ways means that a highly significant part of the interest of the towers as cooling towers has also been lost.
www.tinsley-towers.org.uk/pages/english_heritage.pdf
If you’ve ever driven into Sheffield from the M1, you’ll be familiar with the Tinsley Cooling Towers - a piece of industrial landscape that’s become one of the city’s most famous landmarks. For now at least.
Three quarters of the public want them saved
The BBC online poll established www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/image_galleries/tins… that three quarters of the public want them saved. This makes more than half a million supporters in Sheffield and Rotherham alone. E.ON’s own poll was flawed by a mix-up of criteria.
English Heritage wrote www.tinsley-towers.org.uk/pages/english_heritage.pdf that the Towers, built in 1938, are the oldest surviving hyperbolic Cooling Towers in the UK and that their prominence provides a visual indication of the former scale and importance of Sheffield’s steel industry.
Possibly the most famous fighter of the US Navy and Marine Corps in World War II, the F4U Corsair started as a response to a 1938 US Navy requirement for a carrier-based fighter that could achieve the most “maximum speed possible,” and yet still have a stall speed of 70 miles an hour or less for carrier landings. It was a design requirement thought nearly impossible, but Chance-Vought gave it a try, mating the most powerful engine then available—the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp—with an airframe designed around the enormous engine. This required a wide wing and high landing gear to allow the propeller to clear the ground or deck—too high for US Navy standards. To shorten the landing gear, Chance-Vought adopted an inverted-gull wing that bent the wing downwards from the fuselage and upwards away from the landing gear. This not only solved the landing gear problem, but also gave the XF4U design better performance.
When the first XF4U-1 Corsair flew in May 1940, it met the Navy’s desire for speed, becoming the first single-engined American fighter to break 400 mph, and setting a mark faster than that of the fastest US Army Air Corps fighter, the P-38 Lightning. By this time, World War II was in full swing, and reports from Europe led Grumman to switch to an all-.50 caliber machine gun armament, with provision for later installation of 20mm cannon if necessary.
While pilots loved the Corsair’s superb performance in the vertical, it was proving problematic as a carrier-based fighter. Since the R-2800 engine was so huge, the cockpit was set further back than normal, making it difficult to see over the nose on landing approach. Because of the torque of the aircraft, the Corsair also proved prone to stalls on missed carrier landings, and had a tendency to bounce on landing—which could cause the aircraft to bounce over the arresting cables and into parked aircraft forward on the deck. Visibility was also considered to be inadequate in the F4U-1’s “birdcage” canopy. Unable to solve these problems and desperately needing a replacement for the obsolescent F4F Wildcat then holding the line in the Pacific theater, the Navy turned to the simpler, easier-to-fly F6F Hellcat as its primary carrier fighter, relegating the Corsair to Marine land-based units.
It would be the Marines who would prove the worth of the Corsair, beginning in 1943. In combat, it was found to be far faster than any Japanese fighter then in service, and its engine power finally ended the A6M Zero’s dominance in climbs; the Corsair still could not match the Zero in slow manuevering fights (which the Hellcat could), but this proved not to be much of an obstacle for Marine pilots. Flying from bases in the Solomon Islands chain, units such as Gregory “Pappy” Boyington’s VMF-214 “Black Sheep,” and Robert “Butcher Bob” Hanson’s VMF-215 “Flying Corsairs,” joined by the land-based VF-17 “Jolly Rogers,” which included Tommy Blackburn and Ira Kepford, the Corsairs were to prove deadly to Japanese aircraft over the hard-fought Southwest Pacific. These squadrons racked up an impressive 11-to-1 kill ratio over Japanese opponents, which to this point in the war the US had been lucky to achieve parity. The derisive nicknames of “Hosenose” and “Hog” became affectionate, and the F4U acquired another nickname of the “Bent-Winged Bird.” The Japanese had a far more telling name for the Corsair, however: “Whistling Death,” caused by the sound of air rushing through the supercharger intakes in the wings.
While the Hellcat was proving itself as well, the Navy still wanted a way to put the Corsair back onto carriers. The British Fleet Air Arm, which had adopted the Corsair to replace its earlier Wildcats and supplement its Seafires, had found some solutions to the Corsair’s carrier landing problems—using a snakelike approach to the carrier, only turning into the final landing leg at the last moment, while adding a “Malcolm Hood” developed for the Spitfire to raise the pilot’s seat seven inches. This mitigated (if not entirely solved) much of the problems with the Corsair, while Chance-Vought itself solved the stall problem by a slight modification to the wings and the bouncing problem by a hydraulic pressure bleed system. Finally, the F4U was ready for carrier operations.
It was to prove itself once more. First deployed in numbers during the Okinawa campaign of 1945, the Corsair gained another moniker, the “Angel of Okinawa” for its support of Marines ashore and sailors afloat. Faced with mass kamikaze attacks from Japan itself, the Corsair’s speed meant that it could run down kamikazes on their final attack runs, and its range meant it could catch kamikazes far enough away from the fleet. Modification of late-war F4U-1A Corsairs into fighter-bombers, a program that was overseen by Charles Lindbergh, allowed them to put bombs and rockets onto ground targets for American troops on Okinawa itself.
I was lucky to find a 1/144 F4U-1A in Seattle in 2014, so I built it right out of the box. I wanted to do something a little different than the kit aircraft, so instead I built a postwar Corsair, in the colors of VF-82 aboard USS Randolph, circa 1946.
From the August 2016 return trip to Siem Reap and the Angkor complex:
I love the Angkor complex, Siem Reap, and the Cambodian people so much that I returned again for about a week to photograph as much of the “non-major” sites as I could. Some of them are slightly far from Angkor Wat (by that, I mean to say more than 10 kilometers away), and usually require a little more money to get to. Also, some of the sites (Beng Mealea, Phnom Kulen) are not included in the Angkor ticket price and have an additional admission fee.
I don’t know if there’s a set number of how many sites belong in the Angkor complex, though I’m sure it would vary. (Do you only count the major sites like Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm? Do you add the sites that aren’t included in the standard “Angkor Pass,” but are clearly of the same era? Do you include sites that aren’t even named (as are one of the sites in this series)? All in all, I’ll put a very rough number at…50 sites in the Siem Reap area, and that includes the sites that are about 100 km away. Of those, I would say I’ve been to all but 5-10 now. All are included here with the exception, obviously, of the sites that I didn’t visit. (Off the top of my head, I can say they include Koh Ker & that respective group, which is about 120 km ENE of Siem Reap; Phnom Krom, one of the three “mountains” with temples; Ta Prohm Kel; and Mangalartha.)
In practical terms, I’m afraid that with the volume of shooting (about 1,500 frames in the past 7 days), photos will start to look redundant to those who don’t have the same interest in ancient/historical architecture or Angkor as I do. That being said, there are a few things besides temples here. The Old Market area (now Night Market/Pub Street) is represented – a little – and Phnom Kulen has a pretty nice waterfall which is also in this series. Also, I tried to catch a few people in here, though didn’t get as many as I would’ve liked.
I had my friend Mao (tuktuk driver) take me around for 5 of these 7 days this time around. As I mentioned last time, he may cost a little more than what you can arrange through a hotel/guesthouse, but he’s well worth the money (and, in the grand scheme of things, not too expensive; I paid less than $200 for the five days, two of which were “long” trips). He loves his country and heritage, he knows what he’s showing you, he’s flexible, he gives you enough ice water to keep you hydrated, and he’s just a good guy. (He even bought me a birthday cake for cryin’ out loud…) Anyway, I highly recommend Mao. You can find him here: www.facebook.com/mao.khvan (or on Trip Advisor: www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297390-d10726821-R... )
Now that shameless plugs and other assorted rhetoric are out of the way, it’s time to get on to the temples, ruins, and other miscellany.
Today is really the excuse that I used to come back to Siem Reap for a week. Mao was nice enough not to schedule any other customers for today since it’s my 43rd birthday, and also for Saturday. (Another reason, I think, is that I wanted to see all of the non-major sites and most everyone else is only interested in the major ones. So…thanks to Mao for giving up a few bucks from others just to make sure I got to see all that I wanted these two days.)
Mao came to pick me up around 10:00 in the morning with his wife and adorable daughter. Today, we pretty much followed the small loop tour that we did yesterday (and that most tourists do). However, we skipped every spot from yesterday (Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm’s main temple, Ta Keo, Thommanon, Chao Say Tevoda, Bayon) and opted for the others along the same route.
The first stop of the morning was Prasat Kravan. This is a particularly interesting – and small – temple that consists mainly of one building with a central tower, but five chambers lined up in a row. Prasat Kravan was built in the early 10th century (consecrated in 921) and is built of brick. It was built during the short reign of Harshavarman I. The name is the modern name (though I don’t know the original name) and means “cardamom sanctuary,” for a tree that once stood here. From an architectural standpoint, what is most interesting – and what caught my attention – is the brick bas-reliefs here. They are the only known representation of these in Khmer art and are reason alone to visit here. The central tower has a statue of Vishnu and the northernmost has a statue of his consort, Lakshmi.
After 15-20 minutes at Prasat Kravan, Mao took me to Bat Chum, which was quite near. (It wasn’t on my list, so kudos to Mao for adding a few stops that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen; as I said, the man knows the territory, and I highly recommend him to anyone who comes here.) Bat Chum is a very, very small site (under restoration, though it looks like even the restoration has been forgotten) a few hundred meters due south of Sra Srang, and a few hundred meters east of the road from Angkor Wat to Banteay Kdei. When Bat Chum was built in 960, there were houses and a Buddhist monastery nearby, which have long since vanished. This temple was built by the lone Khmer architect whose name we know: Kavindrarimathana. He also built the palace of the East Mebon and Sra Srang. This is a temple with three brick towers. There are stone lions and interesting inscriptions here as well.
From Bat Chum, we returned to the main road, skirted along the eastern and northern sides of Banteay Kdei’s outer wall, then along the southern and western sides of Ta Prohm’s outer wall. Most people enter Ta Prohm from the western gate (as evidenced by the massive throng of tuktuks here) or the eastern gate (where you will find a slew of souvenir vendors). As far as I can tell, there is no southern gate – as I imagine you’d see it flying by on the road. (Banteay Kdei does have a northern gate, though people don’t seem to stop here.) Ta Prohm does have a rather charming and rarely visited northern gate that I was unaware of. Again…thanks, Mao. Just stop on the road at the northwest corner of Ta Prohm’s outer wall and walk east along the north wall for about five minutes to find the northern gate, surrounded by jungle.
Next up on today’s tour is a very small site that, from what I know, doesn’t even have a name. (Mao didn’t even know the name of the place, so it’s just titled ‘Unnamed Site’ here.) It’s very small, almost an afterthought, but still worth a look. It’s on the road heading due north from Ta Prohm’s west gate about 100-200 meters south of where it heads to the west to Ta Keo. It’s barely 50 meters off the road, so is very easy to visit in 10 minutes or so.
Right at the point where the road takes a 90 degree turn to head west to Ta Keo, you have the option of going straight (down a fairly bumpy dirt road) to Ta Nei. This is actually a larger temple, but unlike the others nearby, it hasn’t gone under extensive restoration yet, so it isn’t visited very often. It’s 800 meters north of Ta Keo, set back in the woods, and is 200 meters west of the Eastern Baray’s western border. It was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. The highlights of coming here are simply the setting, the pediments, and the overall lack of visitors.
After half an hour or so at Ta Nei, Mao and I hopped back in the tuktuk and returned to the main road, heading west past Ta Keo before veering north and making a very quick stop at the Hospital Chapel that is 150 meters due west of Ta Keo (slightly north). This is a very quick – 5 minute – stop that interested me simply because it was/is part of a hospital that’s close to a thousand years old now. It was built by Jayavarman VII (like so many of the Angkor sites) in the late 12th century. This sandstone monument is one of four that were on site here (and, from what I’m reading, one of 102 that were found throughout the empire). Honestly, seeing this just makes me wonder about 12th century medicine. What would a Khmer hospital at the turn of the 13th century have been like?
Moving north from the Hospital Chapel, the road takes another 90 degree turn to the west. Before entering the Victory Gate of Angkor Thom, you pass Thommanon and Chao Say Tevoda (bypassed, as already mentioned), and then Spean Thma, near a bridge that crosses the Siem Reap River. (The Siem Reap River, today, is more like a gentle stream, though it was used to transport the quarried rock from Phnom Kulen to Angkor to build these massive temples a thousand years ago.) That aside, I decided to bypass Spean Thma for now.
Once inside the Victory Gate, which I mistakenly called the East Gate in May (it is on the eastern wall), we turned south on a dirt path about 100-200 meters inside Angkor Thom and traveled south, parallel to the wall. After less than 5 minutes, you arrive at the road that runs directly east from Bayon to the East Gate, otherwise known as the Slaves’ Gate or Gate of the Dead. (From the names, obviously, if anyone who didn’t belong to the royal family saw this gate…bad news for them.) According to Mao, the slaves were marched out this gate on the way to their execution. Grim history aside, it’s a rather nice gate, well-restored, with some good angles for shooting. It’s certainly worth a visit, especially since it’s so easily accessible – and there are rarely many people around.
After this quick stop, we took the road due west to the heart of Angkor Thom – Bayon – then headed up the road towards the North Gate, where the majority of Angkor Thom sites are located (just north of Bayon). Passing by Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Elephant Terrace, Terrace of the Leper Kings (all on the west side of the main road), and the Kleangs and Suor Prat Towers (east side of the main road, with the towers being bisected by the road heading east through the Victory Gate), we turned off just north of the Terrace of the Leper Kings to the west to see Tep Pranam – very briefly – and Preah Pilalay.
Tep Pranam is simply a statue of a giant seated sandstone Buddha, still in use for worship today, that was built around the 16th century. If this were in an out-of-the-way place, it may not be worth the time. However, it’s in the heart of Angkor Thom and it’s impossible to go to Preah Pilalay without seeing it if you come by tuktuk. (This isn’t a complaint by any means; it’s rather nice.) Preah Pilalay is in the northwest section of Angkor Thom and is fairly remote (given the amount of tourists that the other nearby sites see). Its main features are a tall chimney-like structure, a few nagas, and its setting in the forest. It was built in either the 13th or 14th century, possibly by Jayavarman VIII or, perhaps, by Jayavarman VII. It’s about 200 meters north of the royal enclosure (Phimeanakas). Some of the larger trees that used to tower over the temple have been hewn resulting in a very different feel. However, it was a pleasant side trip.
Hopping back in the tuktuk and going directly across the road, the last stop for the day inside Angkor Thom was the Preah Pithu group. This is a collection of five temples/ruins in the northeastern section of Angkor Thom that is in a delightful wooded setting. If you can see them in early morning or late afternoon, you should get some wonderful lighting. You can spend as little as 15 minutes here or as much as an hour or two. They probably weren’t designed to be one cohesive group, though it’s not possible to say with certainty. They were built in the 13th century. (Though I mention this as the last stop, I’ve also included the North Kleang and Northern Suor Prat Towers here. Though I didn’t explore those in depth, I am giving them their own set here – Kleangs and Suor Prat Towers.)
On the way out of Angkor Thom, via the South Gate, we stopped outside the moat for a few pictures. Directly south of Angkor Thom are a few temples that I wanted to see: Thma Bay Kaek, Prasat Bei, and Baksei Chamkrong.
We visited them in that order. Thma Bay Kaek is nearest the road about 50 meters southwest of the bridge over the southern moat. All that remains here are the ruins of a square brick tower. It’s probably the remains of one of many temples that were here in the Bakheng area. It was built in the 10th century by Yasovarman I.
About a five minute walk - -if that – due west of Thma Bay Kaek is Prasat Bei (“Three Towers”). Unlike Thma Bay Kaek, these towers are still standing, so obviously, slightly more photogenic. They would probably be best photographed in early morning. The trees block it from the west in late afternoon. It, too, was built by Yasovarman I in the 10th century.
The last of the three temples in this area, Baksei Chamkrong, is the most impressive of the three. It’s from the early and middle 10th century (rededicated in 948) and was built by Harshavarman. This is a pyramid temple at the foot of Phnom Bakheng. The name means “the bird with sheltering wings,” though – like most temples here – this is a modern appellation that the builders wouldn’t have recognized. This tower is a single brick tower on a pyramidal base.
Finally, to finish up the day, Mao dropped me at Phnom Bakheng. It’s about a 20 minute walk up the hill around a winding path. This is considered to be one of the best places to watch sunset over Angkor Wat because of its panoramic view from the peak of the hill. However, everyone knows this, and this is the only place all day that was too crowded for my liking. In addition to its being under restoration to the point of making it a bit of an eyesore (for the time being), it was easily my least favorite place of the entire day. After waiting in line for 20 minutes and barely moving an inch, I decided to call it a day, taking 1-2 pictures (that you see here), and heading back down the hill.
Mao had disappeared into the throngs of people eating at restaurants. Fortunately for me, he spotted me. On the way back to the guesthouse, he stopped and picked up a birthday cake which we shared with the folks who happened to be at the guesthouse. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday. Tomorrow, too, would be just me and would include the lesser-visited sites on the Grand Tour Loop, in addition to 1-2 others.
As always, I hope you enjoy this set. I appreciate you taking time to look. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message or leave it via comment.
www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/confusing-information-l...
Confusing information leaves pandemic-weary Americans on their own as omicron rages into holidays
Christmas was supposed to feel a lot more normal this year for D.L. Anderson, 42, of Taylors Falls, Minn. She’s vaccinated and boosted. She had hoped the pandemic wouldn’t disrupt another holiday season. Then came omicron, a blizzard of it, requiring a recalculation of risk. So she won’t go to church after all. And hugs are no longer on the agenda.
But she’s sticking to her plan to have a holiday meal with her family. There are limits to the concessions she will make to the coronavirus.
“There’s an emotional cost to this too: We can’t keep living in isolation,” Anderson said in a phone interview this week after she’d written to The Washington Post seeking guidance on how to navigate the holidays.
This is not the worst moment of America’s viral emergency, but it’s one of the most disappointing, as the omicron variant spreads explosively and the pandemic barrels mercilessly into its third year. Americans now have pandemic fatigue fatigue.
As of Wednesday, the seven-day average count of coronavirus cases in the United States — 168,981 — exceeded the summertime peak average of 165,187 on Sept. 1 as the delta variant was surging, according to Washington Post data.
As national leaders ponder their options, few of which are likely to be both popular and effective, individuals are once again forced to make complex risk calculations based on fuzzy official guidance, confusing information and a changing virological landscape in which, almost overnight, everyone knows someone with the coronavirus — and it might be the person in the mirror.
It’s amateur epidemiology hour once again. So many personal decisions pivot on scientific questions not clearly answered at this point. How dangerous is omicron if you’re vaccinated and boosted? How dangerous if you’re not? How long is an omicron-infected person contagious?
How worrisome is a sore throat, a dry cough, feeling a little flushed? Are rapid tests truly accurate? (And where do you find one?)
President Joe Biden has vowed to weather the omicron maelstrom with booster shots and expanded testing, not lockdowns. This is not March 2020, he said. That means the blunt tool of a national shutdown, which “crushed the curve” in a matter of weeks at tremendous economic and social cost, is not on the table.
But the sheer velocity of this new coronavirus variant’s spread is poised to create a grassroots national shutdown of sorts. Many institutions are not waiting for government edicts before deciding to cancel events or go all-remote again. That trend is likely to intensify in coming days as schools, restaurants and grocery stores struggle to find workers — or, in the case of the National Football League, players — who haven’t tested positive for the virus.
The one virtue of the extraordinarily rapid spread of omicron — infections from which are doubling every 2.1 days, according to data from the Houston Methodist hospital system — is that this winter surge may end quickly as well.
Exactly why omicron is so transmissible isn’t fully established, but immune evasion is clearly a factor. Omicron has 30 mutations in the spike protein, the target of antibodies, whether generated through vaccination or prior infection. That makes omicron hard to neutralize with the front-line immune system defenses.
Other elements of the immune system can still prevent severe illness for most people with some level of immunity. New data from the United Kingdom and South Africa point to lower hospitalization rates from omicron infections compared to those caused by earlier variants.
Prior exposure to the virus may explain much of that decline in virulence. And two doses of vaccine still provide protection against hospitalization “even if protection against infection has been largely lost” against omicron, according to a report released Wednesday from the researchers at Imperial College London.
The presumption that omicron is gentler may be one reason many people in America are making minimal adjustments to their holiday plans. The omicron explosion has put only a small dent in airline travel. Just under 2 million airline travelers went through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints Tuesday, more than double the number from a comparable Tuesday a year ago and almost exactly the same number as in pre-pandemic 2019.
There is some fatalism in the air. People know that omicron has the upper hand and cannot be controlled in the near term. Some are buckling up but not isolating — especially if they have had their shots.
“With omicron I suddenly feel like we aren’t going to escape it,” said Paola Kindred, 59, who lives in Minnesota and also contacted The Post seeking guidance.
“Even with delta, I felt like we could escape it because we were cautious. But now with omicron doubling every day: How can anyone escape that? … We are going to have to learn how to live with this, and I think the omicron in a way is bringing that home to everyone.”
That happens to be what some professionals are saying, too.
“We all have a date with omicron,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease physician and senior scholar with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “The goal is to make sure that date occurs when you’re vaccinated.”
The virus is spreading in a changed immunological landscape — most people’s immune systems have some inkling that there’s a coronavirus on the loose. Vaccinated and boosted people may have minimal or no discernible symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, even if they are infected. But this is the most transmissible variant yet. It appears to function like a breakthrough infection bulldozer as it spreads.
The coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is inevitably going to be an endemic virus, one that, like four other coronaviruses, circulates in the human population and causes respiratory infections. The other four coronaviruses cause colds. SARS-CoV-2 is not yet a cold virus — certainly not for the millions of people who have not been vaccinated, or who are immunocompromised and remain vulnerable to a severe outcome.
“This is not a transient threat. SARS-CoV-2 will be with us 20 years from now,” Adalja said. “That’s what omicron represents — it’s the speeding up of what was inevitably going to happen.”
John D’Angelo, who oversees operations and emergency medicine at Northwell Health, New York’s largest hospital network, said the system does not project a catastrophic winter surge even with the omicron variant. Hospital officials have been basing their models in part on the overseas data that suggests omicron is less likely to result in hospitalization than other variants.
But while an explosion in mild omicron cases may not fill up hospital beds, it could render hospital employees unable to staff them.
“We have to watch very closely sick calls,” D’Angelo said. “Given the magnitude of people that could become infected, we probably still will see some rise in hospitalizations and we need to keep our hospitals running and operating for all emergencies and all needs.”
The decision within the past week by the NFL to reduce testing of vaccinated players, focusing only on those displaying symptoms, reflects a desperation to keep the football season from disintegrating right as the playoffs near. And it may prefigure what might happen at the national level if leaders decide to go the way of “harm reduction,” a policy that tries to limit the impact of the virus rather than eliminate it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has guidelines for people known to be infected: They are supposed to go into isolation, staying home, and away from other vulnerable household members, for 10 full days after they test positive and/or develop symptoms. There are additional guidelines for quarantine, which covers people exposed to someone with the virus.
But those guidelines were written before the CDC analyzed modeling data showing that omicron cases, in the agency’s words, “are likely to lead to a national surge in the coming weeks with peak daily numbers of new infections that could exceed previous peaks.”
The CDC could update its guidance to give institutions greater flexibility in bringing back workers, said William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He said such an adjustment would likely have to be done without the typically desirable compendium of rigorous scientific research.
“The protocols that we have in place are going to lead to real societal disruption,” Hanage said.
Many local jurisdictions are bringing back NPIs — non-pharmaceutical interventions. Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Dan McKee, for example, reimposed a mask mandate for large indoor venues, while instructing smaller venues and businesses to require masks or proof of vaccines. Washington, D.C. Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser reinstated an indoor mask mandate Tuesday through the end of January just one month after lifting the requirement.
The mayors of D.C., Boston and Chicago in recent days also announced they would mandate proof of vaccination to enter public establishments such as restaurants, gyms, theaters and sports venues. New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the state would give localities up to $65 million to support vaccination and testing drives.
Smaller communities are also bringing back mask mandates, including Keene, N.H., where infections are raging and hospitals postponed elective surgeries.
Pima, Ariz., reinstated an indoor mask mandate this week, drawing criticism from Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who has opposed mask mandates after winning plaudits early in the pandemic for a mask requirement credited for quelling an outbreak.
A host of schools have also been closing early or shifting virtual for the holiday break as cases rise, according to tracking by the firm Burbio, including Hamtramck, Mich.; Estancia Municipal School District in New Mexico; Oswego City School District in New York; St. Louis Park, Minn.; and Prince George’s County schools in Maryland.
Some institutions are now expanding their vaccine mandates to include booster doses, including the University of Oregon and the District of Columbia government workforce.
The viral landscape is changing by the hour as omicron spreads. That’s another feature of this pandemic moment: One’s feelings about the virus may be just one test result away.
Along those lines, there’s a postscript from Kindred, the Minnesota woman who told The Post on Monday she didn’t see how omicron could be avoided after a vaccinated child home from college had tested positive. On Tuesday, she tested positive too — as did her husband.
So the family can dine together, and roam the house freely without worrying about infecting one another, even though they’ll have to skip the movies and sledding. Feeling only mild symptoms so far, they are banking on their vaccines to keep their illnesses from getting worse.
“We were almost celebratory at dinner together — we could eat together! — even giddy,” she said in a text message. “Except that my husband was starting to feel sick so that wasn’t great….. I never thought I would feel relief when I learned I had COVID. That is how Omicron has changed the pandemic for us. It’s utterly bizarre.”
This story was originally published at www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/23/omicron-covid-pa...
This image requires you to look up into the top left corner, or you'll miss it :)
Dads face can be seen there, watching over the fawns.
The second fawn is feelin' frisky, and beginning to jump up..
Early one overcast morning..
On Monday, July 23, 2017, LAFD Chief Ralph Terrazas joined local hospital officials and LAFD Medical Director Dr. Marc Eckstein to launch the expansion of the successful Advanced Provider Response Unit (APRU) program.
Two and a half years after establishing the first APRU pilot program, the LAFD added three new APRUs to its fleet, offering an innovative solution that provides direct, advanced on-scene medical care to patients who may not require immediate transportation to the emergency room.
Thanks to the support and public-private funding from Cedars Sinai, Kaiser Permanente, Providence Health & Services Southern California, and the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, the three new APRUs began serving the communities of Arleta, Hollywood and Pico-Robertson/Mid-City. Later this year, two additional APRUs will begin covering Downtown and Woodland Hills. The new units join an APRU already operating in a large area of Central and South Los Angeles.
Photo Use Permitted via Creative Commons - Credit: LAFD Photo | Alex Gillman
Connect with us: LAFD.ORG | News | Facebook | Instagram | Reddit | Twitter: @LAFD @LAFDtalk
A zoom shot was required to take the vegetation out of shot as Dutch Transrail Grid 56049 arrives with a load of Potash from Boulby for export through Tees Dock. The entrance to Tees Dk can just be seen to the left of the Loco
Identification required.Can anyone identify the operator? Presumably a city or corporation transport.
Rolleiflex 2.8F
A great tool for my toolbox. As much of a pleasure to use as it is to look at. I'm a user not a collector.
Testing out some expired Ilford FP4 film.
Nikon F100
50/1.4D
Kodak HC110 1+31
Unlike typical counterbalanced trucks that require an 11- to 13-foot aisle to operate, the Crown SX 3000-40 allows managers to use six- to seven-foot aisles so they can stack more product in the same size room. With the pallets stacked vertically on an organized rack system, operators are able to quickly locate and select the desired product without having to move numerous loads. Learn more at news.crown.com.
I have taken these photos in order to use them for 3D modeling. I like mapping images onto surfaces, and putting decals onto them. These photos are raw JPEGs which haven't undergone any treatment at all - no reduction, no re-sizing, no auto contrast or auto levels or anything. Please feel free to grab anything you like and use it for your projects. Some may require cropping and sharpening, colour calibration, etc., but you surely know all that. Best of luck with your projects.
F8X- specific wheels required for brake clearance: www.apexraceparts.com/store/wheels/arc-8-wheels/18x10-et2...
Front: 18x9.5" ET22 with 275/35-18 Nitto NT01
Rear: 18x11" ET44 with 305/35-18 Nitto NT01
Factory M4 Competition Package Alignment Specs
Lowered on Macht Schnell Competition Springs w/ Factory EDC
Owner:
F8X- specific wheels required for brake clearance: www.apexraceparts.com/store/wheels/arc-8-wheels/18x10-et2...
Front: 18x9.5" ET22 with 275/35-18 tires
Rear: 18x11" ET44 with 305/35-18 tires
F8X- specific wheels required for brake clearance: www.apexraceparts.com/store/wheels/arc-8-wheels/18x10-et2...
Front: 18x9.5" ET22 with 275/35-18 tires
Rear: 18x11" ET44 with 305/35-18 tires
Possibly the most famous fighter of the US Navy and Marine Corps in World War II, the F4U Corsair started as a response to a 1938 US Navy requirement for a carrier-based fighter that could achieve the most “maximum speed possible,” and yet still have a stall speed of 70 miles an hour or less for carrier landings. It was a design requirement thought nearly impossible, but Chance-Vought gave it a try, mating the most powerful engine then available—the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp—with an airframe designed around the enormous engine. This required a wide wing and high landing gear to allow the propeller to clear the ground or deck—too high for US Navy standards. To shorten the landing gear, Chance-Vought adopted an inverted-gull wing that bent the wing downwards from the fuselage and upwards away from the landing gear. This not only solved the landing gear problem, but also gave the XF4U design better performance.
When the first XF4U-1 Corsair flew in May 1940, it met the Navy’s desire for speed, becoming the first single-engined American fighter to break 400 mph, and setting a mark faster than that of the fastest US Army Air Corps fighter, the P-38 Lightning. By this time, World War II was in full swing, and reports from Europe led Grumman to switch to an all-.50 caliber machine gun armament, with provision for later installation of 20mm cannon if necessary.
While pilots loved the Corsair’s superb performance in the vertical, it was proving problematic as a carrier-based fighter. Since the R-2800 engine was so huge and the fuel tanks placed in the fuselage to keep the aircraft’s center of balance stable, the cockpit was set further back than normal, making it difficult to see over the nose on landing approach. Because of the torque of the aircraft, the Corsair also proved prone to stalls on missed carrier landings, and had a tendency to bounce on landing—which could cause the aircraft to bounce over the arresting cables and into parked aircraft forward on the deck. Visibility was also considered to be inadequate in the F4U-1’s “birdcage” canopy. Unable to solve these problems, the Navy turned to the simpler, easier-to-fly F6F Hellcat as its primary carrier fighter, relegating the Corsair to Marine land-based units.
It would be the Marines who would prove the worth of the Corsair, beginning in 1943. In combat, it was found to be far faster than any Japanese fighter then in service, and its engine power finally ended the A6M Zero’s dominance in climbs; the Corsair still could not match the Zero in slow maneuvering fights, but this proved not to be much of an obstacle for Marine pilots. Flying from bases in the Solomon Islands chain, units such as Gregory “Pappy” Boyington’s VMF-214 “Black Sheep,” and Robert “Butcher Bob” Hanson’s VMF-215 “Flying Corsairs,” joined by the land-based VF-17 “Jolly Rogers,” which included Tommy Blackburn and Ira Kepford, the Corsairs were to prove deadly to Japanese aircraft over the hard-fought Southwest Pacific. These squadrons racked up an impressive 11-to-1 kill ratio over Japanese opponents, which to this point in the war the US had been lucky to achieve parity. The derisive nicknames of “Hosenose” and “Hog” became affectionate, and the F4U acquired another nickname of the “Bent-Winged Bird.” The Japanese had a far more telling name for the Corsair, however: “Whistling Death,” caused by the sound of air rushing through the supercharger intakes in the wings.
While the Hellcat was proving itself as well, the Navy still wanted a way to put the Corsair back onto carriers. The British Fleet Air Arm, which also adopted the Corsair, had found some solutions to the Corsair’s carrier landing problems—using a snakelike approach to the carrier, only turning into the final landing leg at the last moment, while adding a “Malcolm Hood” developed for the Spitfire to raise the pilot’s seat seven inches. This mitigated much of the problems with the Corsair, while Chance-Vought itself solved the stall problem by a slight modification to the wings and the bouncing problem by a hydraulic pressure bleed system. Finally, the F4U was ready for carrier operations.
It was to prove itself once more. First deployed in numbers during the Okinawa campaign of 1945, the Corsair gained another moniker, the “Angel of Okinawa” for its support of Marines ashore and sailors afloat. Faced with mass kamikaze attacks from Japan itself, the Corsair’s speed meant that it could run down kamikazes on their final attack runs, and its range meant it could catch kamikazes far enough away from the fleet. Modification of late-war F4U-1A Corsairs into fighter-bombers allowed them to put bombs and rockets onto ground targets for American troops on Okinawa itself.
The Corsair was the only wartime US Navy propeller-driven fighter to remain in service after World War II, and successive marks improved the fighter still further, namely replacing the machine guns with 20mm cannon. Navy and Marine Corsairs would see extensive service over Korea (Guy Bordelon would become the Navy's only Korean War ace in a F4U-5N). They would also see action under other flags: the French used Corsairs in Indochina and North Africa, and El Salvador and Honduras both flew Corsairs in the infamous "Soccer War" of 1969, the last time piston-engined fighters engaged each other. Almost 100 Corsairs remain today, many in flyable condition.
Built as Bureau Number 17799, this F4U-1A joined the Navy in 1943, but its wartime service is a little confusing: either it remained with the Navy, or was reassigned to the Marines in the Southwest Pacific for a time, flying with no less than seven USMC squadrons, including VMF-214, the famous "Black Sheep." 17799 either remained with the Marines and finished the war in summer 1944 with VMF-441 ("Blackjacks"), or returned to the Navy and flew with VBF-14 and VBF-98 before World War II ended. Either way, 17799 is a combat veteran.
After the war, 17799, as an older F4U-1A, was withdrawn from service and eventually sold. It was acquired by MGM Studios for a movie, but the movie was never made, and 17799 languished in MGM's back lot until 1970, slowly falling apart. That year, it was bought by Planes of Fame, and by 1975, 17799 returned to the air. That was just in time to be one of the aircraft used in the TV series "Baa Baa Black Sheep," which--while wildly inaccurate--rekindled interest in the Corsair. It was briefly flown as a racer from 1978 to 1980, but since then, 17799 has been a regular on the airshow circuit.
Normally, 17799 is painted in midwar tricolor camouflage, but it was one of four Corsairs assembled for filming the movie "Devotion" in 2019-2020. As "Devotion" takes place during Korea--it's the story of Thomas Hudner and Jesse Brown--17799 was repainted as a F4U-4B of VF-32 ("Swordsmen") off the USS Leyte (CV-32). More than likely, as filming has wrapped on the movie as of this writing, 17799 will be repainted back in the tricolor scheme--but a Corsair tends to look good in any colors. As someone who has been following the filming of "Devotion" on Facebook, seeing one of the aircraft actually used in the film--not to mention seeing one of the Corsairs from my favorite show as a kid--was really a treat. We saw 17799 in May 2021.
EDIT (September 2021): And again in September, a long way from home at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho!
"Jay is for Justice: From Slaveholders to Abolitionists, the Jay Family and Racial Justice”
At the Jay Heritage Center (JHC) 210 Boston Post Road, Rye, NY
The Annual John Jay Lecture is Co-sponsored by Pace University School of Law, the Jay Heritage Center and the NY City Bar Association. This year's honored guest speaker is noted scholar, Professor Paul Finkelman.
Pre-registration is required for CLE credit Contact Linda Maccarrone at Pace Center for Continuing Legal Education -- lmaccarrone@law.pace.edu or 914.422.4062.
The lecture will be held at JHC in the 1907 Van Norden Carriage House followed by a wine and cheese reception at the 1838 Jay Mansion with tours of the current Civil War exhibit "The Jay Family and the Abolition of Slavery -From Manumission to Emancipation"
Paul Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School. He received his BA from Syracuse University, his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and was a Fellow in Law and Humanities at Harvard Law School. He is an expert on slavery, freedom of expression, and constitutional law and history. He is the author or editor of more than 25 books and 150 scholarly articles. His scholarship on religious liberty and on firearms regulation has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the chief expert witness in the successful challenge to the Alabama Ten Commandments monument and in the law suit over the ownership of Barry Bonds 73rd home run ball.
The Annual John Jay Lecture honors the legacy of our country's first Chief Justice. John Jay (1745-1829), statesman and diplomat, was the first Chief Justice of the United States. Principal negotiator for the Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the War of Independence and establishing the United States, John Jay was also negotiator of the 1794 Jay Treaty that enabled the young nation to survive. A graduate of King's College, now Columbia University, John Jay was a delegate from New York to the First and Second Continental Congresses, and became President of the Congress in 1778. He not only helped to ratify the Declaration of Independence, but also provided the guiding hand that drafted the Constitution for New York State. As Secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1784-89, Jay negotiated treaties of commerce with Morocco and Prussia and joined James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in the writing of the Federalist Papers. In his extraordinary career of public service, Jay served in every branch of government and held more high offices than any other Founding Father.
John Jay grew up in Rye, New York, and was buried there upon his death in 1829. That farm, which stretches from the Boston Post Road to the waters of the Long Island Sound, is now the home of the Jay Heritage Center (JHC), a non-profit corporation chartered by the New York State Board of Regents as an educational center. The Jay site is also listed on Westchester County’s African American Heritage Trail. John Jay is well known for advocating emancipation, serving as President of the Manumission Society (1785-90 -Alexander Hamilton was the second President of the Society) and establishing the first African Free School with 12 students in 1787. His son Peter Augustus was also President of the Manumission Society and a vocal advocate of voting suffrage for free blacks at the 1821 New York Convention. JHC aims to make Jay’s mentoring and his family’s inter-generational legacy a present consideration in public discourse and not merely an historical record.
The Center owns the Greek Revival house built at the site of Jay's childhood home by his son, Peter Augustus Jay, in 1838. It also owns a later Carriage House on the property built in Classical Revival style to complement the Jay mansion. The surrounding lands are New York State and Westchester County parkland, and the one-time farm is the centerpiece of the Boston Post Road Historic District, a National Historic Landmark. The Jay Heritage Center is restoring the Jay family home for public use with programs and performances in American History,Architecture, Social Justice and Environmental Stewardship.
Jay Heritage Center
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, NY 10580
(914) 698-9275
Email: jayheritagecenter@gmail.com
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Twitter @jayheritage
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A National Historic Landmark since 1993
Member of the African American Heritage Trail of Westchester County since 2004
Member of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area since 2009
On NY State's Path Through History (2013)
In trying to determine if I had any more shots of Sherrins machines, I found what I reckon must be a pretty rare combination of a Seddon Pennine with this style of Duple bodywork.
On a bleak day in December 1981 KUK502K was captured at Taunton Bus Station with Sherrins fleetnames and I wondered if anybody knew any details of its history.....the usual resources don't currently list it.
Waiting with baited breath for someone out there to utter 'Elementary, my dear pwgb'.......
As a part of my A Level Unit 3 coursework I am required to complete an A5 concertina sketchbook. This book is only for illustration, whereas the previous sketchbook is used for annotations, research and ideas. The first image is a Biro and pencil study of one of James Nachtwey's haunting, yet striking photographs. In this book I am encouraged to depict smooth transitions from one image to the next; in the center I have used the perspective of the previous derelict scene to draw shattered glass radiating from the vanishing point. This shattered glass then increases in colour and vibrancy, slightly losing form, to dissolve into the next colour image. The last acrylic study is of a British Challenger tank. The painting follows on from the previous page as a solid object, which contrasts with the free-flowing lines, shapes and colours of the page before.