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Using his skiff, the Gee Golly Dandy Pierre takes his wares to town each week. His boat is perfect for sailing along the coast, but Pierre fears losing sight of land in his small craft.
Build for Brethren of the Brick Seas on Eurobricks.com
The cars on the lot are there for such a long time the tires begin to deflate and algae grow on them...
Use PC version of flickr to download full files. Credit www.instagram.com/waterbloggged -- photos are for athletes, parents, coaches, schools
I've used what is called 'Exposure Lock' in this shot. This is something I don't usually need in my general Landscape photography.
Usually, if you compose the above shot & press the shutter button, you will get a rounded sun & completely underexposed foreground. This is because when the camera does the average metering process, the foreground(camels) will be ignored because they occupy little part of the frame(maybe 15% only). So for this shot I pointed the camera for the foreground only and pressed the 'Exposure Lock' button on the cam. Kept pressing it while I re-Compose the shot and point the cam up to the sky, and finally press the shutter button down to take the shot.
You could find a Youtube tutorial explaining what I've just explained: The Second Most Important Button On Your DSLR
Technical Specs:
DSLR: Canon 600D
Lens: Tamron SP 10-24mm 1:3.5-4.5
Exposure: 1/160 seconds.
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 10 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Filters: Polarizer
All photos are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, manipulated or used in any way without my expressed, written permission.
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Press "L" for better view . . .
إضغط على "م" بلوحة المفاتيح لعرض أكبر للصوره.
The MV Renfrew Rose was built in 1984 and used to operate on the Renfrew to Yoker route, a very short crossing, on the river Clyde. Previous to that there was a small car ferry at Renfrew now used as an entertainment venue in Glasgow which used to haul itself backwards and forwards on permanently fixed chains the size of Nessie's neck. A similar concept to it's much larger sister ferry at Erskine.
After a stint in Ireland the MV Renfrew Rose was bought by the Highland Ferries Ltd in 2016 and moved back to Scotland operating on the summer sailings of the Cromarty to Nigg route, from the Black Isle to Easter Ross. The ferry normally operates from June to September. Originally a passenger ship but as can be seen she has a small ramp and enough space for a couple of vehicles, allegedly up to 3 cars. It also forms part of the National Cycle Network Route 1.
I haven't yet been on her, arriving too late in Nigg the last time I was in the area on our journey back to Inverness but one day.
A recent documentary on the BBC "The Riggs of Nigg, was a great insight into the oil related industry in the area. In the documentary although a predecessor of the Renfrew Rose it described how workers from the Black Isle and Beyond used to travel on the ferry to Nigg and back but with a very strong headwind a 5 - 10 minute crossing could allegedly extend to 40 minutes.
There is a certain majesty about this wee ferry and its cheery crew. One day.
I used to have friend pre-social media days who lived in Vancouver, Canada, but who had been born in Hartlepool. Ron Kenyon was his name and his family had a shop in the town's York Road until they decided to emigrate to Canada before WW2.
Ron was a fascinating character and I remember him contacting me early 1999 after I'd posted a note on a Hartlepool message board. At the time, the UK was looking forward to being able to view the first Solar Eclipse since 1927.
That year, the line of centrality for the eclipse (the point where the eclipse lasts the longest) ran from Merseyside on the west coast to Seaton Carew on the east coast. I was working on an article for a local newspaper and thought it would be great if I could find someone who remembered the eclipse so that I could get some personal recollections. Ron was the only person who got in touch and he said he remembered it well, standing on the beach at Seaton Carew with his aunty. He was aged nine at the time, which meant he would be in his 81st year.
I emailed a few questions back to Ron and enquired as to whether he would like to have his photograph taken on the beach at Seaton Carew.
Ron replied that he would love to except that living in Vancouver might be a bit problematic!
Ron had been an editor of a Vancouver newspaper and in his retirement, had become an author (he sent me one of his books). We kept in touch via email for the next year or two until my emails went unanswered. Sadly, I learned that Ron had passed away.
I was thinking of Ron today, while I was striking it lucky with the weather at Crimdon on the Durham Heritage Coast. In one of the emails Ron sent, which were always filled with memories of his life in Hartlepool, he described how the family used to have what he described as a wooden 'holiday shack' up the coast in the sand dunes at Hart (apparently back then, it wasn't called 'Crimdon').
Ron sent me a photograph of him at the shack and said he would be there most weekends during the Summer and that quite a few other families had similar shacks in the dunes.
Ron also vividly recalled how vibrant the colours of the wild flowers were and songs of skylarks on sunny days.
It was the song of the skylark that I heard today that brought memories of Ron flooding back.
He would have enjoyed being on this fine section of the Durham Coast today in the bright blue skies and Spring sunshine.
I can easily see why this place held such magical memories in Ron's twilight years.
Photographed using the Fujifilm Hi-Speed 1600 disposable camera.
Taken in Ferntree Gully, Victoria, Australia, near ALDI's.
Images used:
Image by Jerzy Górecki from Pixabay
pixabay.com/photos/girl-portrait-woman-sad-3023800/
pixabay.com/photos/mountain-nature-travel-exploration-681...
Thanks to Sergio Feldmann Pearce for the inspiration!
Using long exposure to turn water into mist! Same spot as in previous pic, but a little closer to the water.
2 min. 12 sec. exposure
File: Maui 2015-08-(Day 3)-20150819-238 (5D1_46510)
Dorothy Gill Barnes was known for her use of natural materials in woven and sculpted forms.
In the late 1960's, Barnes discovered the work of basket maker Dwight Stump. His work with white oak wood inspired her to take her art materials from nature. She began creating small, non-traditional baskets and proceeded to make larger and more complex pieces that used wire, stone, glass and wood. She collected wood from all over Ohio.
Barnes was known for gathering and using natural materials for her woven and sculpted forms, including techniques from woodworking, basketry and tapestry. She made dendroglyphs (also known as arborglyphs), markings on live tree bark, allowed to develop scarring for months or years before using that section of bark in a sculpture. In one case she waited 14 years to harvest the result of her tree sculpting. She credited Kay Sekimachi, Osma Gallinger Tod, and Ed Rossbach among her notable influences.
(Wikipedia)
The Nurly Tau Business Center is a mixed-use business and residential complex in the southeast of Almaty, Kazakhstan.
The Nurly Tau project was conceived in the early 2000s as one of the first large-scale multifunctional business complexes in Almaty. The project was developed by the KAZGOR Design Academy, with chief architects Serik Baimagambetov, T. Yeraliyev, and A. Valikhanov, together with engineers A. Tatygulov, M. Yerkenov, V. Okonechnikov, and M. Weinstein. The designers aimed to create a modern urban space with developed infrastructure, combining Asian and European cultural motifs while responding to the natural and climatic conditions of Almaty.
The architectural concept drew inspiration from the Zailiysky Alatau mountains, with the name nurly tau (radiant mountain in Kazakh) symbolizing this connection. The towers were designed with glass facades using low-emission coatings to reduce energy loss, and the complex was equipped with multi-level underground parking and adaptable interior spaces intended for offices, conference halls, and exhibitions. In 2005, Kazakhstan’s major construction company Bazis-A was commissioned to implement the project. During the design phase, specialists in earthquake safety were consulted, and simulations indicated that the structures would withstand seismic shocks of up to magnitude 8 on the Richter scale.
Construction began in 2004, with phased completion between 2008 and 2014.
The Nurly Tau complex occupies a site of approximately eight hectares in southeastern Almaty, designed as a "city within a city" integrating residential, commercial, and recreational components. Residential buildings around the central esplanade offer apartments ranging from 120 to 214 m², with a total residential area of 180,000 m². The complex includes above-ground guest parking and a two-level underground parking structure, providing one parking space for every 80 m² of area.
The office component is the largest in Almaty’s business hubs, comprising approximately 130,000 m², including a class A office segment of around 100,000 m². Office units range from 90 to 1,100 m², allowing for flexible tenancy and a high concentration of businesses in a single location.
The complex consists of four symmetrically arranged groups of buildings with varying heights, with a total area of roughly 300,000 m². Facilities are equipped with modern fire and security systems, uninterrupted power supply, climate control, air conditioning, ventilation, telecommunication systems, and high-speed Internet, in accordance with class A office standards.
The architectural concept reflects the surrounding Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, with glass facades using low-emission coatings to reduce energy loss. The tallest tower, Nurly Tau 1, rises to 109 metres with 28 floors, making it the second tallest building in Almaty.
The project was envisioned as a "city within a city", integrating offices, apartments, restaurants, retail space, and leisure facilities. Alongside numerous Kazakh firms, international companies have also established offices within the complex. Notable tenants have included Halyk Bank, ATF Bank, and Mitsubishi Corporation.
Public and professional evaluations of Nurly Tau have been mixed. On the one hand, the ensemble received architectural recognition, including the Grand Prize of the Union of Architects of Kazakhstan. On the other, residents often derided its appearance, with some likening the towers to a "glass chicken coop". Critics also highlighted functional shortcomings: the open areas between buildings were considered underdeveloped and lacking in greenery; transport accessibility proved insufficient, with the complex contributing to traffic congestion along Al-Farabi Avenue and surrounding arteries; and despite the inclusion of parking, demand frequently outstripped supply.
Despite its high-gloss marketing and architectural ambition, Nurly Tau ultimately struggled to establish itself as a premier business district in Almaty. Market analysts observed that demand gravitated toward business centers with better central locations, parking, and transport links that the Nurly Tau complex lacked.
As of early 2024, a municipal auction to sell five unfinished floors within the complex failed to attract a single buyer, even after the price was slashed from 2.4 to 0.723 billion tenge.
© This photograph is copyrighted. Under no circumstances can it be reproduced, distributed, modified, copied, posted to websites or printed or published in media or other medium or used for commercial or other uses without the prior written consent and permission of the photographer.
Démonstration technologique avec casque de réalité virtuelle et joystick aux côtés de Megan. 2e session de cette expérience (appelée Pilote, comment aurais-je pu refuser d’y participer 😊) cette semaine. L’intérêt de la réalité virtuelle dans l’espace, c’est de bloquer des sens qui pourraient nous perturber (et normalement pas de mal des transports qu’on peut avoir sur Terre avec un casque… parce qu’ici le conflit sensoriel est permanent, estomacs sensibles s’abstenir 😬). Ici l’objectif c’est de simuler des opérations de robotique à distance, pour qu’on mette au point les systèmes les plus pertinents possibles dont on aura besoin pour explorer la 🌑 ou Mars…
A session of the experiment Pilote with Megan, where we use a Virtual Reality headset to operate a robotic arm or fly spacecraft (simulated for the moment, this is a technology demonstration). VR headsets are an interesting addition to spaceflight as they can be used for experiments to block out other senses or as in this case to enhance our awareness and allow us to use our heads instead of hands to move the camera, freeing up our hands for actually moving the robotic arm. Many of the problems with VR on Earth are not a factor in space, we don't get motion sickness and as long as we float in the virtual world, the immersion is more believable!
Credits: ESA/NASA–T. Pesquet
607C5935
Shot in May 2023 using 3D-printed wotsits (see 1st comment below) that allow using 35 mm film in a medium format camera, turning it into a sprocket rocket. It's rather pointless but also fun.
The statue to the Heiner was erected in 1995 in front of the "Goldene Krone", the only building (?) in the old quarter that survived the September 1944 bombing raid near-intact. It was built in 1681 and was a posh place before the war but now houses a rather dingy disco. I was taken there once in 1988 as sort of initiation rite (I was new to Darmstadt back then). I never went inside that place again and don't feel that I missed much. That just isn't my scene.
A Heiner is someone who was born in Darmstadt, lived there all his life and speaks the dialect. I don't qualify on all three counts.
Camera: Pentacon Six TL
Lens: Schneider Kreuznach Xenotar 80 km f/2.8
Ilford XP2 400 black&white 135 negative film
Developed and scanned by www.meinfilmlab.de
USES: Sage has a strong flavour and should be used judiciously. It is traditionally used in stuffings for meats, especially pork and poultry, but is also used in a range of vegetable, fish and cheese dishes. It complements onion well. The plant has a long history of both cosmetic and medicinal use. Both the Ancient Egyptians and the Chinese believed it improved brain function. It has antiseptic properties.
I belong to this set - Herbal Essence.
© All rights reserved
(Used by Solve Oregon as their poster and brochure image for Fall 2015 Beach and River Clean-up event).
Using the canon 70-200 f4l lens, the moon had just risen and had a nice warm tint to it. A decent result, I think, for the handheld effort, the atmospheric conditions at the time and the amount of cropping required. A little sharpening and contrast adjustment in photoshop.
Frankreich / Elsass - Hohkönigsburg
The Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg (French: [ʃɑto dy o kœniɡsbuʁ]; German: Hohkönigsburg), sometimes also Haut-Kœnigsbourg, is a medieval castle located in the commune of Orschwiller in the Bas-Rhin département of Alsace, France. Located in the Vosges mountains just west of Sélestat, situated in a strategic area on a rocky spur overlooking the Upper Rhine Plain, it was used by successive powers from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years' War when it was abandoned. From 1900 to 1908 it was rebuilt at the behest of the German kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is a major tourist site, attracting more than 500,000 visitors a year.
History
The Buntsandstein cliff was first mentioned as Stofenberk (Staufenberg) in a 774 deed issued by the Frankish king Charlemagne. Again certified in 854, it was then a possession of the French Basilica of St Denis and the site of a monastery.
Middle Ages
It is not known when the first castle was built. However, a Burg Staufen (Castrum Estufin) is documented in 1147, when the monks complained to King Louis VII of France about its unlawful construction by the Hohenstaufen Duke Frederick II of Swabia. Frederick's younger brother Conrad III had been elected King of the Romans in 1138, to be succeeded by Frederick's son Frederick Barbarossa in 1152, and by 1192 the castle was called Kinzburg (Königsburg, "King's Castle").
In the early thirteenth century, the fortification passed from the Hohenstaufen family to the dukes of Lorraine, who entrusted it to the local Rathsamhausen knightly family and the Lords of Hohenstein, who held the castle until the fifteenth century. As the Hohensteins allowed some robber barons to use the castle as a hideout, and their behaviour began to exasperate the neighbouring rulers, in 1454 it was occupied by Elector Palatine Frederick I and in 1462 was set ablaze by the unified forces of the cities of Colmar, Strasbourg, and Basel.
In 1479, the Habsburg emperor Frederick III granted the castle ruins in fief to the Counts of Thierstein, who rebuilt them with a defensive system suited to the new artillery of the time. When in 1517 the last Thierstein died, the castle became a reverted fief and again came into the possession of the Habsburg emperor of the day, Maximilian I. In 1633, during the Thirty Years' War in which Catholics forces fought Protestants, the Imperial castle was besieged by Protestant Swedish forces. After a 52-day siege, the castle was burned and looted by the Swedish troops. For several hundred years it was left unused, and the ruins became overgrown by the forest. Various romantic poets and artists were inspired by the castle during this time.
19th century renovation
The ruins had been listed as a monument historique of the Second French Empire since 1862 and were purchased by the township of Sélestat (or Schlettstadt) three years later. After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to 1871 the region was incorporated into the German Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine, and in 1899 the citizens granted what was left of the castle to the German emperor Wilhelm II. Wilhelm wished to create a castle lauding the qualities of Alsace in the Middle Ages and more generally of German civilization stretching from Hohkönigsburg in the west to (likewise restored) Marienburg Castle in the east. He also hoped the restoration would reinforce the bond of Alsatians with Germany, as they had only recently been incorporated into the newly established German Empire. The management of the restoration of the fortifications was entrusted to the architect Bodo Ebhardt, a proven expert on the reconstruction of medieval castles. Work proceeded from 1900 to 1908. On May 13, 1908, the restored Hohkönigsburg was inaugurated in the presence of the Emperor. In an elaborate re-enactment ceremony, a historic cortege entered the castle, under a torrential downpour.
Ebhart's aim was to rebuild it, as near as possible, as it was on the eve of the Thirty Years' War. He relied heavily on historical accounts but, occasionally lacking information, he had to improvise some parts of the stronghold. For example, the Keep tower is now reckoned to be about 14 metres too tall. Wilhelm II, who regularly visited the construction site via a specially built train station in nearby Saint-Hippolyte, also encouraged certain modifications that emphasised a Romantic nostalgia for Germanic civilization. For example, the main dining hall has a higher roof than it did at the time, and links between the Hohenzollern family and the Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire are emphasized. The Emperor wanted to legitimise the House of Hohenzollern at the head of the Second Empire, and to assure himself as worthy heir of the Hohenstaufens and the Habsburgs.
The castle today
After World War I, the French state confiscated the castle in accordance with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
It has been listed since 1862 and classified since 1993 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. In 2007, ownership was transferred to the Bas-Rhin département. Today, it is one of the most famous tourist attractions in the region.
For many years it was considered fashionable in France to sneer at the castle because of its links to the German emperor. Many considered it to be nothing more than a fairy tale castle similar to Neuschwanstein. However, in recent years many historians have established that, although it is not a completely accurate reconstruction, it is at least interesting for what it shows about Wilhelm II's romantic nationalist ideas of the past and the architect's work. Indeed, Bodo Ebhardt restored the castle following a close study of the remaining walls, archives and other fortified castles built at the same period.
Parts of the 1937 film La Grande Illusion by Jean Renoir were shot at Haut-Koenigsbourg.
Château de l'Oedenbourg
Located just below Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg is the ruin of Château de l'Oedenbourg, which is also known as Petit-Koenigsbourg and is a historical monument in its own right. Construction of Château de l'Oedenbourg was started somewhere in the middle of the thirteenth century.
Copy in Malaysia
A copy of the castle has been built in the Berjaya Hills, 60 km north-east of Kuala Lumpur 3.404167°N 101.839155°E. A copy of the historic Alsatian city of Colmar is located next to it.
(Wikipedia)
Le château du Haut-Koenigsbourg — parfois Haut-Kœnigsbourg — est un château fort alsacien du XIIe siècle, profondément remanié au XVe siècle et restauré avant la Première Guerre mondiale sous le règne de Guillaume II. Le château se dresse sur le ban de la commune française d'Orschwiller, dans la circonscription administrative du Bas-Rhin et sur le territoire de la collectivité européenne d'Alsace.
Dénomination
Le nom actuel — le château du Haut-Koenigsbourg — est le résultat de l'adaptation du nom allemand Hohkönigsburg qui se traduit par « haut-château du roi ».
Situation géographique
Le château est situé dans le massif des Vosges à une altitude de 757 m à 12 km à l'ouest de Sélestat d'où il est visible. Il se trouve également à 26 km au nord de Colmar d'où il est également visible par temps clair et à 55 km au sud de Strasbourg.
Historique
Les Hohenstaufen
En 774, Charlemagne fait don du Stophanberch ou Staufenberg (nom du col où le Haut-Koenigsbourg a été construit) et des terres attenantes au prieuré de Lièpvre, dépendant de la basilique Saint-Denis.
En 1079, Frédéric Ier de Souabe — dit Frédéric l'Ancien — est nommé duc de Souabe par l'Empereur du Saint-Empire romain germanique Henri IV. Il fait construire le château Stauf sur le mont Hohenstaufen près de Göppingen, d'où le nom de la famille.
Afin de renforcer le pouvoir des Hohenstaufen en Alsace, Frédéric le Borgne crée une ligne de défense et pour cela, il fait construire de nombreux châteaux et certains d'entre eux sur des terres qui ne lui appartiennent pas. On dit de lui qu'il a constamment un château accroché à la queue de son cheval. Il aurait fait construire en toute illégalité le château du Haut-Koenigsbourg sur les terres confiées aux moines de l'abbaye de Lièpvre.
En 1147, Eudes de Deuil, moine de Saint-Denis, presse Louis VII d'intervenir auprès du roi Conrad III de Hohenstaufen afin de réparer cette injustice. C'est la première mention du château dans un document écrit. À cette date, le site comportait déjà deux tours permettant de surveiller la route d'Alsace du nord au sud, l'une appartenant à Conrad III de Hohenstaufen, l'autre à son neveu Frédéric Ier de Hohenstaufen, futur empereur du Saint-Empire romain germanique. Le nom de Königsburg (château du roi) apparaît dès 1157.
Les ducs de Lorraine
Dans la première moitié du XIIIe siècle, profitant de l'affaiblissement des Hohenstaufen, les ducs de Lorraine auraient pris possession du château. Celui-ci est confié aux sires de Rathsamhausen puis aux Hohenstein qui y règnent jusqu'au XVe siècle.
Devenu un repaire de chevaliers brigands, le château est conquis et incendié en 1462 par une coalition regroupant les villes de Colmar, Strasbourg et Bâle, fortes de 500 hommes et de pièces d'artillerie.
Les Thierstein
Les restes du Haut-Koenigsbourg sont alors confiés à la famille de Thierstein. Ils font bâtir, sur le côté ouest, un bastion formé de deux tours d'artillerie et d'un mur-bouclier, dotés de murs puissants. La basse cour est protégée par deux tours en fer à cheval et des courtines avec des murs épais. Le château est entouré d'un premier mur de protection afin de gêner la mise en batterie de l'artillerie ennemie.
En 1517, le dernier des Thierstein, croulant sous les dettes, s'éteint. La famille n'ayant pas de descendance, Maximilien Ier rachète le château. Ni l'empereur ni les propriétaires successifs ne feront face aux coûts d'entretien, d'autant que le premier ne finance pas les seconds pour ces réalisations.
Destruction
En 1633, durant la guerre de Trente Ans, qui a vu, entre autres, les Suédois opposés à l'Autriche, l'Alsace est ravagée. En juillet, les Suédois assiègent le Haut-Koenigsbourg qui n'est plus qu'une forteresse délabrée, est commandée par le capitaine Philippe de Liechtenau. Forts de canons et de mortiers, ils prennent le château après cinquante-deux jours de siège. Peu de temps après, la forteresse est détruite par un incendie. Le château est alors laissé à l'abandon.
Acquisition par la commune de Sélestat
Classé monument historique en 1862, le site et ses ruines sont rachetés trois ans plus tard à divers propriétaires par la commune de Sélestat.
Cadeau au Kaiser et reconstruction
Depuis 1871 et le traité de Francfort, l'Alsace est devenue allemande. Le 4 mai 1899, le château, alors en ruine, et les terres sommitales l'entourant sont offerts par la ville de Sélestat à l'empereur Guillaume II de Hohenzollern. Il souhaite y créer un musée promouvant la germanité de l'Alsace et, plus généralement, le monde germanique. La municipalité conserve la centaine d’hectares de forêt, économiquement rentables.
La direction de la restauration de ce château fort est confiée en 1900 à Bodo Ebhardt, architecte et archéologue berlinois âgé de 35 ans. Il commence par le déblaiement du site et les relevés des anciennes constructions. La restauration s'étalera de 1901 à 1908. L'objectif de Bodo Ebhardt est de le restaurer tel qu'il se présentait aux alentours de l'an 1500. En l’absence d’indices archéologiques, d’archives ou d’éléments de comparaison avec d’autres monuments contemporains, « la part d’interprétation, inévitable en pareille circonstance a été réduite au minimum et elle n’est en aucune façon l’objet d’un quelconque détournement ludique » (François Loyer, cf. bibliographie ci-dessous). Guillaume II vient régulièrement visiter le chantier, il est logé dans la gare de Saint-Hippolyte reconstruite spécialement pour l'accueillir en 1903.
Le nouvel édifice du Haut-Koenigsbourg est inauguré le 13 mai 1908, mais les finitions et achats de collections se poursuivirent jusqu'en 1918.
Pour le Kaiser, ce château marquait la limite occidentale de l'Empire allemand, comme le château de Marienbourg, aujourd'hui en Pologne, en marquait la limite oriental.
De nos jours
À l'issue de la Première Guerre mondiale en 1919, le château, bien privé de l'ancien empereur assimilé à une propriété de l'Empire allemand, entre en possession de l'État français lors de la restitution de l'Alsace-Lorraine, en application de l'article 56 du traité de Versailles.
Cependant, le blason de Guillaume II est toujours visible au sein du château. Il reste ainsi un des symboles en Alsace de la présence allemande entre 1871 et 1918, partagé entre la restauration majoritairement crédible de l'architecte et la vision romantique du Moyen Âge de Guillaume II.
Bâtiment civil - palais national en 1919, ses abords sont classés par arrêté du 16 février 1930. Mais alors que les ruines avaient été classées dès 1862, il faudra attendre le 10 septembre 1991 pour voir l’inscription de la station de pompage (ou pavillon de la source) construite en 1903, puis le 11 février 1993 pour qu’un arrêté ministériel procède au classement au titre des monuments historiques de l'intégralité du monument, y compris les parties restituées. Les ruines du château de l'Oedenbourg ou Petit-Koenigsbourg bénéficieront, elles aussi, d’une inscription puis du classement aux mêmes dates.
Dans le même temps, une attention particulière était portée à l’amélioration de l’accueil du public au château du Haut-Koenigsbourg, dont la priorité a été l’assainissement et l’alimentation en eau.
La propriété du château du Haut-Koenigsbourg est transférée de l'État au conseil général du Bas-Rhin en janvier 2007. Il s'agit du premier bien patrimonial transféré par l'État à une collectivité territoriale parmi une liste de 176 biens transférables arrêtée en 2004.
Le 16 décembre 2011, la toiture du château du Haut-Koenigsbourg subit des dommages lors du passage de la tempête Joachim.
Ce monument historique bénéficie d'une très forte fréquentation touristique, avec près de 550 000 visiteurs annuel.
Controverse sur une restauration
Cette cession historique à Guillaume II et les intentions de ce dernier — se légitimer comme successeur des Hohenstaufen et des Habsbourg et montrer la germanité de l'Alsace — sont sans doute, en partie, à l'origine des polémiques autour de cette restauration engagée sous la direction de Bodo Ebhardt.
Si aujourd'hui la reconstitution de Bodo Ebhardt est admise comme plausible, la rénovation du château était néanmoins sujette à polémique à l'époque. Les détracteurs de la reconstruction, préférant de loin le charme des ruines au château reconstruit, notèrent que certains éléments furent imaginés par l'architecte, car ils étaient complètement détruits. De nombreux ensembles étaient alors considérés comme fantaisistes :
le donjon carré. En effet dans une gravure ancienne, il est présenté comme rond mais les fondations prouvent bien que la vision de l'architecte était exacte ;
la salle du Kaiser et ses dimensions originelles non restituées. En effet, l'architecture en pierre et la présence du poêle et de la cheminée montrent qu'à l'origine cette pièce était composée de deux étages et plusieurs pièces. L'état actuel de cette pièce était une exigence de Guillaume II pour montrer la force et l'importance de l'État allemand ;
l'escalier d'honneur hexagonal — avec ses sculptures —, considéré comme trop décoré pour un élément du Moyen Âge ;
la porte d'honneur, entrée du château, et ses bas-reliefs. Lors de la restauration du château, cette porte était complètement détruite et absente ;
la présence du moulin à vent sur une tour d'artillerie et de la forge dans la cour basse.
Cependant, aujourd'hui, on considère que Bodo Ebhardt, au travers de cette restauration « est en tout cas resté dans les limites de la vraisemblance, ayant toujours eu le souci de s'inspirer des nombreux édifices qu'il avait étudiés avant d'élaborer son projet ».
Les caricaturistes de l'époque s'en donnèrent à cœur joie comme Henri Zislin ou Jean-Jacques Waltz qui réalisa plusieurs planches sur ce sujet. Elles sont actuellement visibles au musée de Hansi à Riquewihr.
Il y a cent ans, le restaurateur se permettait de traiter un monument comme une œuvre d’imagination, et il pouvait rêver d’un Moyen Âge idéal et d’une pureté de style tout à fait théorique. Dès lors s’affrontaient déjà deux conceptions. D’une part celle de Viollet-le-Duc, imprimant la marque de l’architecte-artiste à l’édifice, qui devait recevoir un fini parfait et « si nécessaire être corrigé et complété », quitte à être falsifié. D’autre part celle de Luca Beltrami, au château des Sforza à Milan, Bodo Ebhardt, au château impérial de Haut-Koenigsbourg, Conrad Steinbrecht, au château du grand-maître des chevaliers teutoniques à Malborg (Forteresse teutonique de Marienbourg). Cette seconde démarche constituait un pas décisif vers la restauration scientifique. Elle est plus proche des conceptions d’Arcisse de Caumont, qui demandait déjà au milieu du XIXe siècle que soit respecté le monument, que soit définie une doctrine scientifique. Si les nouveaux restaurateurs vers 1900 cherchent à intégrer toutes les époques, ils ne résistent pas à l’envie de remonter tous les murs même si certains de ceux-ci avaient été détruits anciennement lors de transformations intentionnelles.
Cependant, malgré ces critiques, on peut considérer, comme François Loyer que «… le souci archéologique est bien réel, la reconstitution crédible et les détails fondés. C’est même, probablement, la plus exacte des restitutions qui aient été jamais tentées ».
On regrette beaucoup de ne pas pouvoir distinguer plus aisément les parties reconstituées. Cependant, Bodo Ebhardt marque les parties restaurées par un signe distinctif ou travaille la pierre différemment. De plus, il faut louer ce restaurateur et ses contemporains d’avoir œuvré pour une très grande lisibilité et la plus exacte possible des plans généraux, de l’articulation des volumes et de la fonction des détails.
Visite
Le château a été construit sur un éperon rocheux orienté ouest-est. Les murailles, qui épousent les formes des rochers, ont une structure irrégulière. D'ouest en est, on trouve successivement :
les bastions - dont l'énorme grand bastion - destinés à protéger le château contre des tirs d'artillerie à partir d'emplacements plus à l'ouest sur l'éperon rocheux ;
le jardin supérieur, qui masque le logis plus à l'est de ces éventuels tirs d'artillerie ;
le logis avec les pièces d'habitation et le donjon ;
le bastion en étoile aux murs moins hauts protège le château seulement contre des tirs d'artillerie à partir d'emplacements plus à l'est, donc obligatoirement en contrebas de l'éperon rocheux.
Entrée
L'entrée est située en contrebas. La porte est surmontée d'un bas relief avec le blason de la famille Thierstein. Sur la droite se trouve un mur d'enceinte de faible épaisseur (XVe – XXe siècle) et, sur l'éperon rocheux à gauche, le logis sud (XIIe – XXe siècle).
Porte principale
On débouche sur une petite cour, où la porte principale équipée d'une herse donne accès au château. Au-dessus de la porte d'entrée, on trouve les armoiries des Hohenzollern et de Charles-Quint, rappelant que le château fut restauré par l'empereur Guillaume II. Sur le site avaient été retrouvés des restes d'armoiries originales dont il s'estimait l'héritier.
Cour basse
La cour basse est entourée de communs et de locaux de service (écurie). Un bâtiment attenant est surmonté d'un moulin à vent. Elle comprend en son milieu la copie d'une fontaine du XVe siècle conservée à Eguisheim, la forge et une maison alsacienne.
Un four à pain est attesté dans la basse-cour.
Entrée dans le logis et porte des Lions
Un escalier avec de grandes marches irrégulières permettent d'accéder au logis. Une dernière défense est constituée d'un pont-levis au niveau de la porte des Lions.
Cour intérieure et escalier hexagonal
Au sommet, une cour intérieure est surmontée de galeries en bois, ainsi qu'une citerne avec une margelle carrée et un toit surmonté d'une sculpture de sirène.
Un escalier hexagonal en hélice permet d'accéder aux étages supérieurs ; chaque étage a un balcon décoré de fresques de chevaliers donnant sur la cour.
Le puits, profond de 62,50 mètres, a été fortifié pour ne pas se trouver séparé du logis par une attaque d'artillerie.
Par la galerie, on accède aux cuisines et au cellier, dont la longueur indique la largeur de l'éperon rocheux sur lequel est construit le château.
Donjon
Le donjon repose sur une base carrée préexistante de 17 mètres. Il a été exhaussé d'autant lors de la restauration et protégé par une toiture.
Salle du Kaiser
La salle du Kaiser est la salle d'honneur du château. Pour disposer d'une grande hauteur de plafond, l'étage supérieur présent au Moyen Âge n'a pas été restauré afin d'en faire une salle de prestige pour son usage moderne. Il n'est visible que dans la mezzanine des musiciens. La principale décoration est une peinture d'aigle impériale au plafond, réalisée par Léo Schnug, avec la devise Gott mit uns (Dieu avec nous). Sur les ailes se trouvent les armoiries des électeurs du Saint-Empire romain germanique et sur son cœur celles des Hohenzollern. Sur le mur, de chaque côté de la cheminée, se trouve représentée une joute entre deux chevaliers. Les convives pouvaient prendre part à une réception autour d'une grande table surmontée de lustres décorés.
Chambre lorraine
Créée pour rappeler l'annexion de la Moselle, dénommée alors Lorraine, comme part de la région historique éponyme, elle présente une décoration et un mobilier typiquement lorrains : le plafond boisé et la cheminée de pierre rappellent l'architecture médiévale de la ville de Metz, reconstituée au musée de la Cour d'Or. Dans cette même idée, un Graoully, dragon du folklore de Metz, est suspendu au milieu de la pièce. Il est inspiré de celui présent dans la crypte de la cathédrale de Metz.
Jardin supérieur
Le jardin supérieur fait le lien entre le logis situé au centre et le Grand Bastion situé à l'ouest. Il est entouré par un chemin de ronde couvert et comporte un puits. C'est dans cette partie du château que se situaient les bains. La pièce était chauffée par un poêle.
L'existence d'un four à pain dans ce secteur est également attestée.
Grand bastion
Le grand bastion est la partie la plus fortifiée : il devait pouvoir s'opposer à de l'artillerie installée plus à l'ouest sur l'éperon rocheux et il est séparé du jardin par un pont-levis. Y sont conservés des copies de canons des XVIe et XVIIe siècles. Il était dépourvu de toit au XVIe siècle.
Dans la fiction
Roman et bande dessinée
En hommage au cinéma et par fascination pour le lieu, Jacques Martin a choisi d'installer le décor de la première série des aventures de Guy Lefranc autour du château. Cette bande-dessinée s'intitule : La Grande Menace, et aussi dans le 4e opus des voyages de Jhen avec Yves Plateau au dessin (ISBN 9782203066588)
L'illustrateur canadien John Howe s'est inspiré du château du Haut-Koenigsbourg pour illustrer la citadelle de Minas Tirith dans le livre Le Seigneur des anneaux écrit par Tolkien, plus tard adapté en film.
Philippe Matter, Mini-Loup et le château fort, Éditions Hachette Jeunesse, 2008 (ISBN 978-2-01-224411-5)
Jacques Fortier, Sherlock Holmes et le mystère du Haut-Koenigsbourg, Le Verger éditeur, 2009, 192 pages
Roger Seiter (scénariste) et Giuseppe Manunta (dessinateur), Sherlock Holmes et le mystère du Haut-Koenigsbourg, bande dessinée d'après le roman de Jacques Fortier, Le Verger éditeur, 2013, 54 planches
Cinéma et animation
Certaines scènes du film Le Petit Roi de Julien Duvivier ont été tournées au château du Haut-Koenigsbourg en 1933.
Le film La Grande Illusion de Jean Renoir a été tourné, pour les extérieurs, au château du Haut-Koenigsbourg en 1937.
Le château a également servi de décor au film Les Aventures d'Arsène Lupin de Jacques Becker (1956) et à Agent trouble de Jean-Pierre Mocky (1987).
Dix films ont été réalisés en 1991 à l’initiative du Conseil régional pour la promotion de l’Alsace. Ils portent sur la cathédrale de Strasbourg, le château du Haut-Koenigsbourg, les Ribeaupierre, les châteaux et les mines d’argent, le musée Unterlinden de Colmar ; mais ils abordent aussi des thèmes comme : les musées techniques de Mulhouse, la Décapole, les routes militaires, romanes, des châteaux et des orgues.
Le château du Haut-Koenigsbourg a également inspiré le réalisateur Hayao Miyazaki pour son film d'animation Le Château ambulant sorti en 2004.
(Wikipedia)
Die Hohkönigsburg (früher auch sowie umgangssprachlich Hochkönigsburg, französisch Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg – manchmal auch Haut-Kœnigsbourg – [okønɪgzˈbuʀ]) ist eine zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts rekonstruierte Burg bei Orschwiller (Orschweiler) im Elsass (Département Bas-Rhin), gut 10 km westlich von Sélestat (Schlettstadt). Sie ist mit jährlich etwa 500.000 Besuchern die meistbesuchte Burg der Region und einer der am häufigsten frequentierten Touristenorte ganz Frankreichs.
Lage
Die 260 m lange Anlage thront als Kammburg in 757 m Höhe am Ostrand der Vogesen auf einem mächtigen Buntsandsteinfelsen hoch über der Oberrheinischen Tiefebene und ist eine der höchstgelegenen Burgen im Elsass. Zusammen mit der am gegenüberliegenden Ende des Bergrückens gelegenen, etwa 200 m entfernten Ruine der Ödenburg (Petit-Kœnigsbourg) bildet sie eine Burgengruppe.
Der Ausblick reicht weit über die Rheinebene bis zum Kaiserstuhl und auf mehrere benachbarte Burgruinen (unter anderem Ortenberg, Ramstein, Frankenburg, Kintzheim, Hohrappoltstein). Bei günstigen Sichtverhältnissen sind im Süden die knapp 200 Kilometer entfernten und rund vier Kilometer hohen Berner Alpen zu sehen, deren Gipfel wegen der Erdkrümmung ungefähr auf dem geometrischen Horizont von Hohkönigsburg liegen.
Geschichte
Mittelalter
Der Stophanberch (Staufenberg), auf welchem die Burg liegt, wird bereits 774 (als Schenkung Karls des Großen) und 854 beurkundet und befand sich ursprünglich im Besitz der Abtei Saint Denis.
Die Burg wurde in der ersten Hälfte des 12. Jahrhunderts als staufische Reichsburg erbaut und 1147 als Castrum Estufin erstmals urkundlich erwähnt. Von der Burg aus konnten die Orte und Handelswege in diesem Teil des Oberrheingrabens beherrscht werden. 1147 tauchte erstmals der Name Burg Staufen auf, die von Herzog Friedrich, dem Vater des deutschen Königs Friedrich Barbarossa, gegründet sein soll. Aus staufischer Zeit sind unter anderem eine vermauerte Fensterarkade und ein Löwenrelief erhalten. Ab 1192 wurde der Name Kinzburg (Königsburg) verwendet.
Im 13. Jahrhundert wurde der Herzog von Lothringen Eigentümer der Burg, der sie als Lehen den Grafen von Werd gab. 1359 verkauften die Grafen von Oettingen die Burg an den Bischof von Straßburg. 1454 eroberte der pfälzische Kurfürst Friedrich der Siegreiche die Burg, 1462 wurde sie wegen Raubritterei zerstört. 1479 gab Kaiser Friedrich III. die Burg als Lehnsgut an den Schweizer Grafen Oswald von Thierstein († 1488) und dessen Bruder Wilhelm.
Niedergang in der Neuzeit
1517 starben die Grafen von Thierstein aus; deshalb fiel die Burg an Kaiser Maximilian I. und somit an die Habsburger zurück. Während des Dreißigjährigen Krieges wurde sie 52 Tage von den Schweden belagert, am 7. September 1633 erobert und in Brand gesetzt. Zwischen 1648 und 1865 hatte die Ruine verschiedene Eigentümer. 1865 wurde sie Eigentum der Stadt Schlettstadt. In der Romantik wurde die Ruine wiederentdeckt. Christian Moritz Engelhardt beschrieb sie in seinen Reiseskizzen durch die Vogesen (1821). Ludwig Adolf Spach, der Präsident der Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung der historischen Monumente des Elsass, schlug schon eine Restaurierung vor.
Neuaufbau 1901 bis 1908
Infolge des Deutsch-Französischen Krieges wurde das Elsass, das zwischenzeitlich zu Frankreich gehört hatte, 1871 an das Deutsche Reich abgetreten. Im Jahre 1899 schenkte die Stadt Schlettstadt die Burg Kaiser Wilhelm II., der sie in den Jahren 1901–1908 durch den Berliner Architekten und Burgenforscher Bodo Ebhardt restaurieren ließ. Der Bau kostete über zwei Millionen Mark, die zum großen Teil von Elsass-Lothringen bezahlt werden mussten. Der Kaiser selbst finanzierte die ersten Arbeiten mit 100.000 Mark aus seiner Privatschatulle. Die Arbeiten wurden mit modernsten Mitteln durchgeführt. Vom Steinbruch zur Ruine wurde die ca. 2 km lange Feldbahn der Hohkönigsburg gebaut, die Lokomotive musste mit Pferden den Berg empor gezogen werden. Eine Dampfmaschine trieb einen Generator an, der elektrischen Strom für die Beleuchtung und zwei elektrische Kräne erzeugte.
Am 13. Mai 1908 fand im Rahmen einer großen Feier mit festlicher Musik und historischen Kostümen bei Regenwetter die Einweihung statt. Viktoria Luise von Preußen, die Tochter Kaiser Wilhelms II., schilderte von dieser in ihren Lebenserinnerungen:
„Die Hohkönigsburg, an der zahlreiche Erinnerungen deutscher Geschichte haften, war meinem Vater bei einem Besuch von Schlettstadt vom Bürgermeister als Geschenk geboten worden. Er hatte es angenommen und eine umfassende Restaurierung in die Wege geleitet. Rund zehn Jahre danach standen wir dann an einem Maitag zur Einweihung an der mächtigen Burg. Unser Blick glitt über die weite Ebene des Rheintals, hinüber zu den langgestreckten Höhen des Schwarzwaldes und bis zu der in der Ferne schimmernden Alpenkette. In seiner Ansprache wies mein Vater auf die ereignisreiche Vergangenheit hin: ‚Die Geschichte nennt uns eine ganze Reihe von Namen aus erlauchten Fürstenhäusern und edlen Geschlechtern als Eigentümer, Pfandbesitzer und Lehensträger, zuvörderst die Kaiser aus dem Hause Hohenstaufen und dem Hause Habsburg, dann die Herzöge von Lothringen und Unterelsaß, die Landgrafen von Werd, die Herren von Rathsamhausen, von Oettingen und von Berckheim, die Grafen von Thierstein, deren großartiger Bau nun wieder erstanden ist, die Ritter von Sickingen, deren Einzug in die Burg uns heute so trefflich vorgeführt ist, und die Freiherren von Bollweiler und Fugger. Nun ist die Burg wieder Eigentum des Deutschen Kaisers geworden.‘ Dann sagte er: ‚Möge die Hohkönigsburg hier im Westen des Reiches, wie die Marienburg im Osten, als ein Wahrzeichen deutscher Kultur und Macht bis in die fernsten Zeiten erhalten bleiben.‘“
Zwei Jahre später wurden an der Grenze zu Polen das Residenzschloss Posen sowie im Norden Deutschlands, nahe der Grenze zu Dänemark, die nach dem symbolträchtigen Vorbild der Marienburg geschaffene Marineschule Mürwik, das sogenannte Rote Schloss am Meer, vom Kaiser eingeweiht.
Der elsässische Künstler Jean-Jacques Waltz, der als frankophiler Elsässer kein Freund der deutschen Vereinnahmung der elsässischen Geschichte war, veröffentlichte kurze Zeit nach der Einweihung der Hohkönigsburg eine Serie von Bildern Die Hohkönigsburg im Wasgenwald und ihre Einweihung, die sich über den deutschtümelnden Pomp lustig machte, die Texte dazu soll ein Prof. Dr. Knatsche (Waltz selbst), verfasst haben.
Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg bis heute
Seit 1919 ist die Hohkönigsburg Eigentum des französischen Staates, seit Januar 2007 des Départements Bas-Rhin. Heute gilt sie als die bedeutendste Burg der Region und ist das einzige im Elsass gelegene französische Nationaldenkmal (Monument national).
Anlage
Der Wiederaufbau durch Bodo Ebhardt ging mit der erhaltenen Bausubstanz für die damalige Zeit relativ rücksichtsvoll um, sodass sich die Burg immer noch als eine über die Jahrhunderte gewachsene Anlage zu erkennen gibt. Die verhältnismäßig kleine stauferzeitliche Kernburg mit unregelmäßigem Grundriss auf höchster Stelle des Felsplateaus hat einen durch Ebhardt wiederaufgemauerten quadratischen Bergfried (Donjon) mit südlich anschließendem Palas (Logis Seigneurial), an dem sich eine bereits im Spätmittelalter vermauerte Rundbogenarkade mit Würfelkapitellen erhalten hat. Nach 1479 wurde die Burg zu einer starken Festung ausgebaut. Westlich und östlich wurde die Kernburg gegen die aufkommende Artillerie durch mächtige Bollwerke verstärkt, die in Anlehnung an die stauferzeitliche Anlage in Buckelquadern ausgeführt wurden. Die von Ebhardt über alten Kragsteinen aufgemauerten Wehrgänge waren ursprünglich wahrscheinlich in Holz ausgeführt; nur an einem Turm im östlichen Burghof hat Ebhardt einen hölzernen Wehrgang rekonstruiert. Um die Hauptburg zieht sich eine Zwingermauer mit elf halbrunden Schalentürmen. An der Ostseite ist eine Vorburg (Tiergarten) mit zackenförmigem Abschluss vorgelagert. Von Ebhardt durch Weglassung einer Zwischendecke neu geschaffen wurde der repräsentative Festsaal, an dessen Kamingitter der Kommentar Wilhelms II. zum Ersten Weltkrieg zu lesen ist: „Ich habe es nicht gewollt!“ Ein eigens eingerichteter Saal zeigt kaiserliche Jagdtrophäen.
Hoch über dem Eingangsportal und unter dem Schutz des Adlers prangt das Wappen der letzten Herren der Burg.
Das eigentliche Schloss erreicht man über die Zugbrücke, der bewohnte Bereich kann durch das Löwentor betreten werden. Die Gemächer der Schlossherrin und der Ritter, die Schlosskapelle und der Rittersaal sind heute noch mit Möbeln aus dem 15–17. Jahrhundert ausgestattet und können besichtigt werden.
Etwa 200 m westlich liegt die Ruine der Ödenburg aus dem 13. Jahrhundert. Erhalten sind vor allem die Schildmauer aus Buckelquadern und die Fassade des Wohnbaues. Im Dreißigjährigen Krieg nahmen die Schweden von hier aus die Nachbarburg unter Artilleriebeschuss.
Rezeption
In Malaysia, 60 km nordöstlich von Kuala Lumpur, steht in den Berjaya Hills eine – sehr freie – Nachbildung der Burg als Luxushotel. Nicht weit entfernt wurde ein Teil der Colmarer Altstadt nachgebaut.
Bodo Ebhardts phantasiereiche Rekonstruktion der Burganlage inspirierte John Howe in seiner Arbeit als Illustrator der Werke J. R. R. Tolkiens.
(Wikipedia)
ENGLISH CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTOR IN CROMWELL ERA COSTUME TIE'S HIS SHOE LACES USING A MUNICIPAL PARK SEAT FOR SUPPORT. AT AN EAST LONDON BOROUGH SUBURB STREET PARK VENUE EVENT LONDON ENGLAND
Use this image without my permission is illegal. All Rights Reserved ste.t.©
In meteorologia una nuvola, nel linguaggio scientifico chiamata più comunemente nube, è un'idrometeora costituita da minute particelle d'acqua, cristalli di ghiaccio o entrambe le cose, sospese nell'atmosfera e solitamente non a contatto con il suolo. La branca della meteorologia che studia le nuvole e i fenomeni ad esse collegati è detta nefologia.
L'aspetto di una nube è determinata dalla natura, grandezza, numero e distribuzione nello spazio delle particelle che la costituiscono; dipende anche dall'intensità e dal colore della luce ricevuta dalla nuvola e dalla posizione relativa dell'osservatore e della sorgente di luce
Por favor, no use esta imagen en su web, blogs u otros medios sin mi permiso explícito. © Todos los derechos reservados.
© Alejandro Cárdaba Rubio/2015
Los múltiples y monumentales edificios de la explanada de Chichén Itzá están presididos por la Pirámide de Kukulcán, llamada por muchos "el Castillo", uno de los edificios paradigmáticos de la arquitectura maya. Es una pirámide de cuatro lados que culmina en un templo rectangular. Se asienta sobre una plataforma rectangular de 55,5 metros de ancho y tiene una altura de 24 metros. Cada lado de la pirámide tiene una gran escalinata, 91 escalones por lado y 1 más que conduce al templo superior, dando 365 escalones, uno por día del año. Balaustradas de piedra flanquean cada escalera, y en la base de la escalinata norte se asientan dos colosales cabezas de serpientes emplumadas, efigies del dios Kukulcán. Es en estas escalinatas y muy particularmente en sus pretiles o balaustradas, donde se proyectan durante el transcurso del día equinoccial, las sombras de las aristas de las plataformas o basamentos superpuestos, que integran el gran edificio, configurándose así la imagen del cuerpo de la serpiente-dios, que al paso de las horas parece moverse descendiendo y rematando en la mencionada cabeza pétrea situada en la base inferior de la escalinata.
Es en este juego de luz y sombra, que representa la "bajada" de Kukulcán a la tierra, como quisieron los mayas simbolizar el mandato superior de acudir a la labor agrícola, ante la inminencia de la llegada de las lluvias, al concluir el mes de marzo en que se inicia la temporada de siembra de la milpa en la región.
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The many monumental buildings and the Esplanade of Chichen Itza are chaired by the Pyramid of Kukulcan, called by many "the Castle", one of the paradigmatic buildings of Mayan architecture. It is a four-sided pyramid which culminates in a rectangular temple. It sits on a rectangular platform of 55.5 meters wide and has a height of 24 meters. Each side of the pyramid has a grand staircase, 91 steps per side and 1 more leads to the upper temple, giving 365 steps, one day of the year. Stone balustrades flanking each stairway, and at the base of the north staircase two colossal heads of feathered serpents, effigies of the god Kukulcan settle. It is in these steps and particularly in its parapets or balustrades, which projects over the course of equinoctial day, the shadows of the edges of platforms or bases overlapping, which make up the large building, thereby constituting the image of the body of the snake God, that the passing hours and topping seems to move down in the aforementioned head stone at the bottom base of the staircase.
It is in this play of light and shadow, which represents the "down" Kukulcan to land, as they wanted the Mayans symbolize the superior command to go to the farm work, given the imminent arrival of the rains, at the end of the month March when the planting season begins cornfield in the region.
Más Información / More Information: es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichén_Itzá
Used with permission, see album notes
LMK if anyone knows what ever happened to Gerry. Seems to have deleted account
I have used a circular cutter to make 180 degree cuts in 0.040 inch styrene sheet for a couple of tunnel portals that I will install on my N scale model railroad. The cutter is made by Olfa, and I purchased it at a local art supply store rather than a hobby shop that sells train stuff. Art supply stores sell lots of tools, paints, craft items, and materials useful to a model railroader. The circular cutter has a strong, sharp compass point that is mounted on a sturdy head which has an adjustment screw. By loosening the screw, a horizontal beam can slide in or out a variable distance from the center point and then be locked down at the desired distance. The replaceable cutting blade (held into place by another screw) is mounted on the horizontal beam.
Nobody makes an N scale tunnel portal the size and shape that I want, so I had to cut my own. The tunnel opening has a radius of 8 ½ scale feet from the track center line, so that is what I set on my circular cutter. The straight vertical dimension for each side is 20 scale feet above the top on the rails plus another 3 feet for the height of the rails, crossties, and roadbed. Both of the vertical sides have to be exactly tangent to the semicircle above, so determining where to position my straight edge for the first side was the trickiest part of the whole project. From that line, I used a steel drafting triangle (also purchased from the art supply store) to place the cutting point and center compass point. I swung a 180 degree arc to locate the position of the other vertical side. My N scale ruler (shown here) is 10 scale feet wide, so my first vertical cut was 10 scale feet from the edge of the styrene sheet. After the circular cut and both vertical cuts were completely through the plastic, I could easily remove the excess from each side.
Figuring the geometry of where to position my circular cutter and the straight edge to guide my razor blade required a lot of thought before doing any of the actual cutting. Once I began cutting, I had to be careful to keep my blades in the right places, but the cutting itself was very repetitive and time consuming. Each tunnel portal required an hour or two of MANY short, little cuts before I broke through the plastic sheet. Then there was sanding to smooth it out and trimming the overall piece to fit the future mountain that I haven’t built yet. This photo shows the positioning of the circular cutter, but I took the photo after the job was done (and my nails repainted). For all this cutting, I used my Dupli-Cutter to hold my work in place. The Dupli-Cutter has clamps that can be positioned in several places, an adjustable slide sheet held down by the clamps, and a frame whose jaws can be opened up to hold various thicknesses of plastic for making precise, square cuts.
Using an "ancient" railroad locomotive as a back-drop, our nation's 26th President launches into an animated campaign speech during a brief whistle stop in tiny Corinth, NY.
It has been many years since our nation had a President who could be described as "larger than life". Theodore Roosevelt (or "TR") was such a person. Although he lived only 60 years, "TR" grabbed life by the short hairs and lived it to its fullest. He was a scholar, an athlete, rancher, war hero, big game hunter, Governor of New York, Vice President and ultimately, President of the United States. He was a tough guy, too. His motto was "speak softly and carry a big stick" and he lived it. During the Spanish American War, he joined the service and helped form a military unit that became known as the "Rough Riders". He distinguished himself for bravery in the Battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba. When he later became President, his strong foreign policies kept other governments from questioning our national will. On one occasion, a would-be assassin actually shot him just before a campaign speech. TR dusted himself off, determined that he was not seriously hurt....and went on with the speech! TR even won a Noble Peace Prize in 1908. Long after his death, in 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery on San Juan Hill....the only US President ever to be so honored. Yeah, there's a reason why his likeness is carved into the side of Mt. Rushmore.
The gentleman portraying TR in my photo is Mr. Joe Wiegand, who has become rather famous as a TR "repriser". Mr. Wiegand spent a weekend at the Saratoga & North Creek Railroad helping to commemorate TR's connection with the line. Back in 1901, it was at North Creek Station that TR learned of the death of then-President William McKinley, and his own ascension to the office of the Presidency.
Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager, NASA JPL reacts to the first image to be seen from the Mars InSight lander shortly after confirmation of a successful touch down on the surface of Mars, Monday, Nov. 26, 2018 inside the Mission Support Area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Using Photoshop Layers Software here is a quick montage of the fireworks seen above my home yesterday evening. Hope you like it.
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At a crossroads – Needing to make an important decision
When you are at a crossroads, you are at a point in your life where you need to make a decision. The implication is that the decision you make will have big, life-altering consequences.
Bad apple – Bad person
You can use this idiom to describe someone who is not nice and maybe even criminal.
Barking up the wrong tree – Pursuing the wrong course
When you “bark up the wrong tree” you are pursuing the wrong solution to your problems.
Be closefisted – Stingy
If you are being “closefisted”, you don’t want to spend a lot of money.
Be cold-hearted – Uncaring
If you decide to be “cold-hearted”, you are making a deliberate decision not to care about someone or something.
Be on solid ground – Confident
When you are “on solid ground”, you are confident in your position or feel that you are safe.
Beat around the bush – Avoid saying
When you do this, you are taking a long time to say what you really need to say. You may be doing this because the “truth” is embarrassing or your unsure about how the listener will take it.
Behind you – Supportive
When you are “behind” someone, you are saying that they have your support.
Between a rock and a hard place – Facing difficulties
When you have to choose between two options, neither of which are ideal or “good”.
Blow off steam – Try to relax
When you are stressed or upset about something, sometimes you need to do something to keep you from thinking about it.
Born with a silver spoon in their mouth – Born wealthy
This idiomatic expression is used to describe someone who was born into a wealthy family.
Break the bank – Spend a lot
When you “break the bank”, you spend a lot of money on something. If something will “break the bank”, then it’s expensive.
Bright spark – Smart
A “bright spark” is someone who is smart and valuable to an organization.
Build a case – Argue your point
When you “build a case” for something, you are preparing to argue a point or convince someone that your opinion is the right one.
Build castles in the sky – Daydream
When you fantasize about something you hope to have or achieve.
Burn your bridges – End a relationship
When you “burn your bridges” you end a relationship permanently.
Butter up – Flatter
When you “butter” someone up, you are telling them nice things about themselves.
Bought a lemon – Bad bargain
If something you bought is a “lemon” it is a bad product. In a sense, you wasted your money on it.
Break the ice – Start a conversation
When you start a conversation strangers with the end goal of making new friends.
Calm before the storm – Peaceful
When you use this to describe your state of being or mind, you’re talking about a quiet period before anticipated trouble comes your way.
Chasing rainbows – Pursuing dreams
When you try to follow your dreams. The implication here, however, is that you might be better off forgetting your dreams.
Clear as mud – Hard to understand
When you are confused about something or a situation.
Cool as a cucumber – Calm
This idiomatic expression is meant to describe someone who is calm and relaxed.
Couch potato – Lazy
A couch potato is a lazy person. Specifically, someone who sprawls on their couch watching TV almost all day.
Cross that bridge when we get to it – Think about it later
When you say this, you are telling someone that you will think about something later. The implication is that it’s a problem or a decision that can be put off for now.
Chew it over – Think had about something
This idiom implies that you need to make an important decision and can’t afford to be hasty about it.
Come to light – Be revealed
When something “comes to light” something that was originally concealed from you is revealed.
Cut back on – Reduce
When you use this idiom, you are reducing something.
Cut to the chase – Speak concisely
When you tell someone to “cut to the chase”, you are expressing impatience. This is usually used when someone feels someone else is taking to long to deliver important news.
Crystal clear – Easy to understand
When you say that something is “crystal clear”, you are saying that it is understood.
Dead-end job – No more opportunities
When you are stuck in a “dead-end job”, you are in a career situation where there is no more room for advancement.
Dig deep – Strive
When you “dig deep” you put a lot of effort into a task.
Digging into – Looking closer
When you “dig into” something, you are looking for more information.
Don’t run before you can walk – Don’t assume something is easy
This is a descriptive idiom, it’s meant to make you think about how a baby needs to learn how to walk before they can run. It’s supposed to caution you about assuming you can just do something without learning the basics.
Down to earth – Practical
This describes someone who is known for being sensible and practical.
Eat like a bird – Small appetite
This is used to describe someone who doesn’t eat a lot.
Eat like a horse – Eat a lot
If you eat like a horse, you are eating a lot. You can “eat like a bird” most of the time but “eat like a horse” at a specific time because you are either very hungry or you really like the food.
Eat your words – Admit you were wrong
When you “eat your words” you are admitting that something you said earlier turned out to be wrong.
Every cloud has a silver lining – Things will get better
When you say this, you are telling yourself or someone else that you will get through your troubles.
Face the music – Face the consequences
When you “face the music”, you are owning up to a mistake and trying to make amends.
Find your feet – Adapt
When you are “finding your feet” you are learning how to adapt to a new situation, like a new job.
Follow in their footsteps – Imitate
This idiom is often used between children and their parents, but it can also refer to a mentor or someone you admire. If you “follow in someone’s footsteps”, you do the same thing that they did.
Food for thought – Something to think about
If you are given “food for thought” you have been given something to think about.
A frosty reception – To be unwelcome
If you received a “frosty reception”, you are not welcome.
Fly off the handle – Rages
You can use this idiom to describe someone who is visibly angry over a situation. Often this means that someone is shouting and maybe gesturing violently and even causing damage to property. It also implies that the angry reaction is disproportionate to the situation.
Get on with your life – Continue on after a setback
This is something you can say and should do after going through some problems.
Give them a run for their money – Compete
If you are competing with someone, you are giving them a “run for their money.”
Go Dutch – Split the bill
You can use this idiomatic expression when dining out with friends.
Go with the flow – Relax and get along
When you “go with the flow” you keep calm and just go along with whatever is happening around you.
Got off scot-free – Escaped
When you “get off scot-free”, you managed to escape any consequences for your actions.
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Hard to swallow – Unbelievable
If someone told you something that you just can’t believe, they told you something that is “hard to swallow”.
Have your whole life in front of you – Young
Someone who has their whole life in front of them is young and full of promise.
Hold out an olive branch – Apologize
When you do this, you try to make amends or peace with someone you’ve hurt or angered.
In hot water – In trouble
This idiomatic expression can be used to say that you are in a less than ideal situation.
Inching forward - Making slow progress
When you say this, you’re saying things are proceeding slowly.
Keep on the straight and narrow – Keep out of trouble
When you say this, you are implying that you are going to live in a morally correct way.
Keep your chin up – Stay positive
Even if you’re going through a hard time, you should keep thinking positive.
Kicked the bucket – Died
This is an irreverent phrase to say that someone has died. Be careful how you use it.
Let the cat out of the bag – Spoiled the secret
You “let the cat out of the bag” when you accidentally let someone in on a secret that they weren’t meant to know.
Look up to – Respect
When you “look up to” someone you are acknowledging that you respect them and value their opinion.
Loaded – Rich
When you call someone “loaded” you are saying that they are rich.
Lost at sea – Confused
If a situation is making you feel confused or lost, this is the idiom to use.
Making ends meet – Careful budgeting
If you. don’t have much money, you need to “make ends meet”. This means you carefully budget what you do have to meet your needs.
Make a mountain out of a molehill –Exaggerate
This idiom is used to say that someone is being over-dramatic with their complaints or concerns.
Make waves – Change things
When you “make waves”, you change a situation dramatically. This can also mean that you caused trouble.
Nip in the bud – Stop
When you do this, you take action to keep a situation from getting worse.
No sweat – Easy
When you say “no sweat” you are saying that a task was easy
Not your cup of tea – Not something you like
If you say that something is “not your cup of tea” you are saying it’s not something you particularly like or enjoy.
Once in a blue moon – Rare
This implies something that either won’t happen or rarely happens.
Out in the open – Public knowledge
When something is “out in the open”, it is a matter of public knowledge.
Over the moon – Very happy
You can use this to describe the feeling of getting something you’ve been looking forward to for a long time.
On cloud nine – Very happy
Similar to being over the moon.
Packed like sardines – Crowded
If people are “packed like sardines” in a venue, they are standing very close together in a small space.
Piece of cake –Easy
If you say something is a “piece of cake” you are saying that it is easy.
Pitch in - Contribute
When you “pitch-in”, you work with a group of people to reach a common goal.
Point of view – An opinion
Your “point of view” is what you think about someone or a situation.
Pony up – Pay
If you are paying back a debt, you are “ponying up” the money.
Pour oil on troubled waters – Calm things down
This basically means that you played peacemaker and kept an argument from developing into a physical fight.
Put your head in the sand – Deny something unpleasant
When you have your “head in the sand”, you are deliberately ignoring a bad situation.
Rags to riches – Became rich
Someone who went from “rags to riches” was born poor or underprivileged, but is now in a better social position.
Rain or shine – No matter what
This idiomatic expression is used to express the idea that nothing will stop you.
Reap the rewards – Received the benefits
When you “reap the rewards”, you are getting the benefits of your good work.
Rings a bell – Sounds familiar
When you think that you’ve heard a piece of information before but are not so sure.
Rule of thumb – General practice
A “rule of thumb” is an unwritten rule that is followed by the majority.
Separate the wheat from the chaff – Decide what is valuable
This picturesque idiom refers to how, when you harvest wheat, you need to separate it from the stalks and leaves. So, it means that you pick out or choose what is valuable to keep.
Shell out money – Pay
When you “shell out money”, you pay for an item.
Sitting on the fence – Neutral
When you “sit on the fence” you are avoiding making a decision. Often, this is a decision between two people with different opinions.
Smart cookie – Smart person
You can use this idiom to describe someone intelligent.
Spice things up – Make things interesting
When you “spice things up” you do something to break out of your normal routine.
Spill the beans – Tell
When you do this, you tell someone something they didn’t know. It may or not have been a secret previously.
Sticky fingers – Thief
If you accuse someone of having “sticky fingers” you are basically calling them a thief.
Take a side – Choose who to support
When you “take a side” in an argument, you are agreeing with one of those arguing.
Throw light on – Explain something
When you “throw light on” a situation, you help make sure that it is understood.
To move at a snail’s pace – Move slowly
This is another idiomatic phrase that’s meant to paint a picture. A snail moves slowly, so to move at its pace means things are going slowly.
Tread carefully – Be cautious
This implies that a situation is fraught and it might be easy to offend those involved.
Under the table – Secretive
When you do something “under the table”, you are trying to do something so that only a small amount of people are aware of it. It’s commonly used to describe something that is possibly unscrupulous. For example, bribes are given “under the table”.
Undermine your position – Act unconvincingly
When you behave in a way that makes you and your opinion seem untrustworthy.
Up in the air – Uncertain
When you say something is “up in the air”, you are saying that you are not sure that an event is happening.
Weather the storm – Survive
When you “weather the storm”, you endure a bad situation.
When it rains, it pours – Trouble comes
This refers to the fact that sometimes, many bad things happen to people at one time.
So there you have it, 10 idiomatic expressions and their meanings. These idioms are used by native English language speakers to add some color to their daily speech.
Google is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence,[9] and consumer electronics. It has been referred to as "the most powerful company in the world"[10] and one of the world's most valuable brands due to its market dominance, data collection, and technological advantages in the area of artificial intelligence.[11][12][13] Its parent company Alphabet is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
Google was founded on September 4, 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were PhD students at Stanford University in California. Together they own about 14% of its publicly listed shares and control 56% of the stockholder voting power through super-voting stock. The company went public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2004. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Google is Alphabet's largest subsidiary and is a holding company for Alphabet's Internet properties and interests. Sundar Pichai was appointed CEO of Google on October 24, 2015, replacing Larry Page, who became the CEO of Alphabet. On December 3, 2019, Pichai also became the CEO of Alphabet.[14]
The company has since rapidly grown to offer a multitude of products and services beyond Google Search, many of which hold dominant market positions. These products address a wide range of use cases, including email (Gmail), navigation (Waze & Maps), cloud computing (Cloud), web browsing (Chrome), video sharing (YouTube), productivity (Workspace), operating systems (Android), cloud storage (Drive), language translation (Translate), photo storage (Photos), video calling (Meet), smart home (Nest), smartphones (Pixel), wearable technology (Pixel Watch & Fitbit), music streaming (YouTube Music), video on demand (YouTube TV), artificial intelligence (Google Assistant), machine learning APIs (TensorFlow), AI chips (TPU), and more. Discontinued Google products include gaming (Stadia), Glass,[citation needed] Google+, Reader, Play Music, Nexus, Hangouts, and Inbox by Gmail.[15][16]
Google's other ventures outside of Internet services and consumer electronics include quantum computing (Sycamore), self-driving cars (Waymo, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project), smart cities (Sidewalk Labs), and transformer models (Google Brain).[17]
Google and YouTube are the two most visited websites worldwide followed by Facebook and Twitter. Google is also the largest search engine, mapping and navigation application, email provider, office suite, video sharing platform, photo and cloud storage provider, mobile operating system, web browser, ML framework, and AI virtual assistant provider in the world as measured by market share. On the list of most valuable brands, Google is ranked second by Forbes[18] and fourth by Interbrand.[19] It has received significant criticism involving issues such as privacy concerns, tax avoidance, censorship, search neutrality, antitrust and abuse of its monopoly position.
In March 1999, the company moved its offices to Palo Alto, California,[52] which is home to several prominent Silicon Valley technology start-ups.[53] The next year, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords against Page and Brin's initial opposition toward an advertising-funded search engine.[54][22] To maintain an uncluttered page design, advertisements were solely text-based.[55] In June 2000, it was announced that Google would become the default search engine provider for Yahoo!, one of the most popular websites at the time, replacing Inktomi.
In 2003, after outgrowing two other locations, the company leased an office complex from Silicon Graphics, at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway in Mountain View, California.[59] The complex became known as the Googleplex, a play on the word googolplex, the number one followed by a googol zeroes. Three years later, Google bought the property from SGI for $319 million.[60] By that time, the name "Google" had found its way into everyday language, causing the verb "google" to be added to the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, denoted as: "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet".[61][62] The first use of the verb on television appeared in an October 2002 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.[63]
Additionally, in 2001 Google's investors felt the need to have a strong internal management, and they agreed to hire Eric Schmidt as the chairman and CEO of Google.[49] Eric was proposed by John Doerr from Kleiner Perkins. He had been trying to find a CEO that Sergey and Larry would accept for several months, but they rejected several candidates because they wanted to retain control over the company. Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital at one point even menaced requesting Google to immediately pay back Sequoia's $12.5m investment if they did not fulfill their promise to hire a chief executive office, which had been made verbally during investment negotiations. Eric wasn't initially enthusiastic about joining Google either, as the company's full potential hadn't yet been widely recognized at the time, and as he was occupied with his responsibilities at Novell where he was CEO. As part of him joining, Eric agreed to buy $1 million of Google preferred stocks as a way to show his commitment and to provide funds Google needed.
Google generates most of its revenues from advertising. This includes sales of apps, purchases made in-app, digital content products on Google and YouTube, Android and licensing and service fees, including fees received for Google Cloud offerings. Forty-six percent of this profit was from clicks (cost per clicks), amounting to US$109,652 million in 2017. This includes three principal methods, namely AdMob, AdSense (such as AdSense for Content, AdSense for Search, etc.) and DoubleClick AdExchange.
In addition to its own algorithms for understanding search requests, Google uses technology its acquisition of DoubleClick, to project user interest and target advertising to the search context and the user history.
In 2007, Google launched "AdSense for Mobile", taking advantage of the emerging mobile advertising market.
Google Analytics allows website owners to track where and how people use their website, for example by examining click rates for all the links on a page. Google advertisements can be placed on third-party websites in a two-part program. Google Ads allows advertisers to display their advertisements in the Google content network, through a cost-per-click scheme.[138] The sister service, Google AdSense, allows website owners to display these advertisements on their website and earn money every time ads are clicked.[139] One of the criticisms of this program is the possibility of click fraud, which occurs when a person or automated script clicks on advertisements without being interested in the product, causing the advertiser to pay money to Google unduly. Industry reports in 2006 claimed that approximately 14 to 20 percent of clicks were fraudulent or invalid.[140] Google Search Console (rebranded from Google Webmaster Tools in May 2015) allows webmasters to check the sitemap, crawl rate, and for security issues of their websites, as well as optimize their website's visibility.
Consumer services
Web-based services
Google offers Gmail for email, Google Calendar for time-management and scheduling, Google Maps for mapping, navigation and satellite imagery, Google Drive for cloud storage of files, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides for productivity, Google Photos for photo storage and sharing, Google Keep for note-taking, Google Translate for language translation, YouTube for video viewing and sharing, Google My Business for managing public business information, and Duo for social interaction. In March 2019, Google unveiled a cloud gaming service named Stadia. A job search product has also existed since before 2017, Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and career sites.
Some Google services are not web-based. Google Earth, launched in 2005, allowed users to see high-definition satellite pictures from all over the world for free through a client software downloaded to their computers.
Software
Google develops the Android mobile operating system, as well as its smartwatch, television, car, and Internet of things-enabled smart devices variations.
It also develops the Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS, an operating system based on Chrome.
Hardware
In January 2010, Google released Nexus One, the first Android phone under its own brand. It spawned a number of phones and tablets under the "Nexus" branding until its eventual discontinuation in 2016, replaced by a new brand called Pixel.
In 2011, the Chromebook was introduced, which runs on Chrome OS.
In July 2013, Google introduced the Chromecast dongle, which allows users to stream content from their smartphones to televisions.
In June 2014, Google announced Google Cardboard, a simple cardboard viewer that lets user place their smartphone in a special front compartment to view virtual reality (VR) media.
Other hardware products include:
•Nest, a series of voice assistant smart speakers that can answer voice queries, play music, find information from apps (calendar, weather etc.), and control third-party smart home appliances (users can tell it to turn on the lights, for example). The Google Nest line includes the original Google Home (later succeeded by the Nest Audio), the Google Home Mini (later succeeded by the Nest Mini, the Google Home Max, the Google Home Hub (later rebranded as the Nest Hub), and the Nest Hub Max.
•Nest Wifi (originally Google Wifi), a connected set of Wi-Fi routers to simplify and extend coverage of home Wi-Fi.
Enterprise services
Google Workspace (formerly G Suite until October 2020) is a monthly subscription offering for organizations and businesses to get access to a collection of Google's services, including Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides, with additional administrative tools, unique domain names, and 24/7 support.
On September 24, 2012, Google launched Google for Entrepreneurs, a largely not-for-profit business incubator providing startups with co-working spaces known as Campuses, with assistance to startup founders that may include workshops, conferences, and mentorships. Presently, there are seven Campus locations: Berlin, London, Madrid, Seoul, São Paulo, Tel Aviv, and Warsaw.
On March 15, 2016, Google announced the introduction of Google Analytics 360 Suite, "a set of integrated data and marketing analytics products, designed specifically for the needs of enterprise-class marketers" which can be integrated with BigQuery on the Google Cloud Platform. Among other things, the suite is designed to help "enterprise class marketers" "see the complete customer journey", generate "useful insights", and "deliver engaging experiences to the right people". Jack Marshall of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the suite competes with existing marketing cloud offerings by companies including Adobe, Oracle, Salesforce, and IBM.
Internet services
In February 2010, Google announced the Google Fiber project, with experimental plans to build an ultra-high-speed broadband network for 50,000 to 500,000 customers in one or more American cities.[178][179] Following Google's corporate restructure to make Alphabet Inc. its parent company, Google Fiber was moved to Alphabet's Access division.[180][181]
In April 2015, Google announced Project Fi, a mobile virtual network operator, that combines Wi-Fi and cellular networks from different telecommunication providers in an effort to enable seamless connectivity and fast Internet signal.
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name comes from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities and, since 2006, anyone over 13 years old. As of July 2022, Facebook claimed 2.93 billion monthly active users,[6] and ranked third worldwide among the most visited websites as of July 2022.[7] It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.[8]
Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile revealing information about themselves. They can post text, photos and multimedia which are shared with any other users who have agreed to be their "friend" or, with different privacy settings, publicly. Users can also communicate directly with each other with Facebook Messenger, join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the activities of their Facebook friends and the pages they follow.
The subject of numerous controversies, Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance.[9] Posts originating from the Facebook page of Breitbart News, a media organization previously affiliated with Cambridge Analytica,[10] are currently among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.[11][12][13][14][15] Facebook has also been subject to criticism over psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and various controversies over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech.
Zuckerberg built a website called "Facemash" in 2003 while attending Harvard University. The site was comparable to Hot or Not and used "photos compiled from the online face books of nine Houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the "hotter" person". Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours. The site was sent to several campus group listservs, but was shut down a few days later by Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged with breaching security, violating copyrights and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped. Zuckerberg expanded on this project that semester by creating a social study tool. He uploaded art images, each accompanied by a comments section, to a website he shared with his classmates.
A "face book" is a student directory featuring photos and personal information. In 2003, Harvard had only a paper version[ along with private online directories. Zuckerberg told The Harvard Crimson, "Everyone's been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard. ... I think it's kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week."[29] In January 2004, Zuckerberg coded a new website, known as "TheFacebook", inspired by a Crimson editorial about Facemash, stating, "It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available ... the benefits are many." Zuckerberg met with Harvard student Eduardo Saverin, and each of them agreed to invest $1,000 ($1,435 in 2021 dollars[30]) in the site.[31] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "TheFacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.
Six days after the site launched, Harvard seniors Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing that he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. They claimed that he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product. The three complained to the Crimson and the newspaper began an investigation. They later sued Zuckerberg, settling in 2008 for 1.2 million shares (worth $300 million ($354 million in 2021 dollars[30]) at Facebook's IPO).
Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College. Within a month, more than half the undergraduates had registered.[36] Dustin Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Chris Hughes joined Zuckerberg to help manage the growth of the website.[37] In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Columbia, Stanford and Yale.[38] It then became available to all Ivy League colleges, Boston University, NYU, MIT, and successively most universities in the United States and Canada.
In mid-2004, Napster co-founder and entrepreneur Sean Parker—an informal advisor to Zuckerberg—became company president.[41] In June 2004, the company moved to Palo Alto, California.[42] It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. In 2005, the company dropped "the" from its name after purchasing the domain name Facebook.com for US$200,000 ($277,492 in 2021 dollars). The domain had belonged to AboutFace Corporation.
In May 2005, Accel Partners invested $12.7 million ($17.6 million in 2021 dollars) in Facebook, and Jim Breyer added $1 million ($1.39 million in 2021 dollars) of his own money. A high-school version of the site launched in September 2005. Eligibility expanded to include employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.
Facebook was sued by the Federal Trade Commission as well as a coalition of several states for illegal monopolization and antitrust. The FTC and states sought the courts to force Facebook to sell its subsidiaries WhatsApp and Instagram.[183][184] The suits were dismissed by a federal judge on June 28, 2021, who stated that there was not enough evidence brought in the suit to determine Facebook to be a monopoly at this point, though allowed the FTC to amend its case to include additional evidence. In its amended filings in August 2021, the FTC asserted that Facebook had been a monopoly in the area of personal social networks since 2011, distinguishing Facebook's activities from social media services like TikTok that broadcast content without necessarily l
At a crossroads – Needing to make an important decision
When you are at a crossroads, you are at a point in your life where you need to make a decision. The implication is that the decision you make will have big, life-altering consequences.
Bad apple – Bad person
You can use this idiom to describe someone who is not nice and maybe even criminal.
Barking up the wrong tree – Pursuing the wrong course
When you “bark up the wrong tree” you are pursuing the wrong solution to your problems.
Be closefisted – Stingy
If you are being “closefisted”, you don’t want to spend a lot of money.
Be cold-hearted – Uncaring
If you decide to be “cold-hearted”, you are making a deliberate decision not to care about someone or something.
Be on solid ground – Confident
When you are “on solid ground”, you are confident in your position
The GBRF class 69 used on the Bootle branch to assist the heavy biomass trains running from Liverpool Bulk Terminal to Drax Power Station is often referred to as the Bootle branch banker but in reality it hauls the train between Liverpool Docks and Tuebrook Sidings at Edge Hill while the booked train engine on the rear banks the service over the two gradients on the line. The uphill sections are from the site of Alexandra Dock Junction to Bootle Junction then Westminster Tunnel to the site of Anfield & Walton station both sections can cause freights to stall in poor weather conditions. The "banker on the front" is a much more effective method of operation and allows the class 69 to simply run light engine back from Tuebrook Sidings to the Docks after the train reverses and departs Tuebrook with the main train engine usually a class 60 now leading. Once back at the docks the class 69 then drop on the front of the next train over the branch rather than perform a complex move to gain access to the rear of the train. 69 003 is seen here at Strand Road Stop Board in the docks having worked 6E09 the 07.26 LBT to Drax as far as Tuebrook then returned light it is waiting to attach to 6E10 the 10.45 biomass to Drax which it will then take to Tuebrook with a class 60 pushing on the rear.
using heavy metal plated tanks carried on the back of the soldier, the highly radioactive fluid is projected through the actual weapon, reaching temperatures close that that of the surface of the sun. a reinforced radiation suit and appropriate googles must be worn.
Credit to Dskaar for the tubing and Travis for the radiation symbols
You burned me at the stake without a trial
Watching through the flames, I see you smile
It's your world we're living in
I could prove my innocence
But you'd still make me drown in your denial
And you say, "Don't dress like you're going out"
What's next? Can you write it down?
I'd talk less if you shut your mouth
Yeah, I bet you can hear me now
Guess I'm not who you thought
It's okay, it's okay
It's all good, you can hate me
Am I not what you want?
Use me, I don't mind
I'll be the bad guy
- Use Me, Charlotte Sands
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