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a mosaic in the Cathedral of San Marco in Venice
Christ’s Baptism: Theophany
Can you recall any paintings of naked kings? Artists went to great lengths to show how richly a ruler was dressed, for nothing revealed wealth and power more vividly than opulent clothing. In some versions of the icon of Christ’s baptism, the king of kings is without even so much as a loin cloth. His startling nakedness underscores the theme of self-emptying love shown in many icons of Christ — for the sake of the world and the salvation of the human race, he stripped himself of everything, of every privilege and comfort. In the nakedness of Christ we see not another emperor, but a new Adam.
We see the Savior is surrounded by water. Like the people of Israel crossing the Red Sea, this is an image of a new beginning, a second birth.
On the left side of the icon stands the last of the prophets, John the Forerunner, in a garment as rugged as the land surrounding the River Jordan, while on the right angels worship the Savior, their hands covered as a token of reverence.
Though overcome with the realization that he is unworthy even to touch the strap of Jesus’s sandal, nonetheless John is baptizing the Messiah. It is an act of obedience. John had begged to exchange places and himself be baptized, but Jesus insisted that John do to him as he had done to others. “Leave it like this for the present; it is fitting that we should in this way do all that righteousness demands.”
The humility of Christ in asking John to baptize him underscores the Gospel message that the Son of Man has come not to rule but to serve and to take upon himself all the sins of the world. “Being himself the fullness,” comments Father Lev Gillet, “he wished to take into himself all that was incomplete and unfinished.”
There is significance in John the Baptist’s hand resting on Christ’s head, a sacramental gesture that remains to this day is an integral element of the baptismal service.
In many versions of the icon, two strange small figures are found in the water on either side of Christ’s feet among the fish. One has turned his back on Christ, the other is seen riding a fish or running away. The figure on the left is an allusion to Elisha turning the river Jordan backward in its course, making it a dry pathway while the figure on the left is an allusion to the parting of the Red Sea to provide a safe passage to the people of Israel fleeing Egypt, an event the Church came to recognize as prefiguring baptism.
What will become the rite of entrance into the Church, baptism, has its origin in this event in the Jordan. The water is at once both grave and womb; the old, unredeemed self is drowned and a new self is born, made one with Christ. While Christ himself had no need for the purification implied by baptism, he not only provided a pattern for the sacrament, but in his baptism we see his crucifixion and resurrection prefigured.
Yet the event this icon connects us to is more mysterious than baptism. The word Theophany, another word used for the Feast of Christ’s baptism, comes from the Greek and means the showing or manifestation of God. What is of primary importance in Christ’s baptism is that occasioned a revelation of the Holy Trinity. It is for this reason, in the hierarchy of festivals, Theophany is third in importance, after Pascha and Pentecost.
On the banks of the Jordan, John and all who witnessed the event heard the voice of God the Father, “This is my beloved Son,” while they saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and resting on the head of Christ. Still more than John’s action, it is this mystical event that is the real baptism of Christ.
As also in the Nativity icon, the presence of God the Father is represented with a circle partially visible at the top of the icon. This mirrors the text in Mark’s Gospel: “the heavens opened.” We find the Holy Spirit, having become visible in the form of a dove, in the smaller circle within the ray of divine energy reaching toward the figure of Christ. (The image of God the Father as an elderly man with a white beard violates Orthodox canons of iconography. Iconographers suggest the Father through such devices as an empty throne or a hand reaching out from a heavenly cloud. )
The angels on the right also underscore the Holy Trinity. When there are three — as in this example, a fifteenth century icon from Novgorod — the person at prayer before the icon is reminded of the three angels who appeared to Abraham and Sarah at the oak of Mamre, the Bible’s first vivid hint of the Trinity.
Theophany is also the celebration of the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. Few had been called to worship in the stable of his birth, and for three decades afterward almost nothing is known of Jesus’s activities. In coming to John for baptism, Jesus reveals himself to those whom he is saving. He who was hidden, whose true identity had been known only to Mary and Joseph, now stands revealed as Messiah in the view of all.
The Orthodox Church’s celebration of the feast on January 6 includes a solemn blessing of water. In Russia, I’ve seen an entire parish troop off in bitter weather and falling snow to do this at the nearest river. After the ice is broken, the priest repeatedly traces the sign of the cross in the frigid water while the choir sings the hymns of the day: “You have descended into the waters and have given light to all things.... Where indeed should your light have shone except upon those who dwell in darkness?.... The nature of water is sanctified .... Let us then draw water in gladness, O brethren, for upon those who draw with faith, the grace of the Spirit is invisibly bestowed by Christ the God and Savior of our souls.”
Just as the Son of God became a man of flesh and blood through Mary, he used the material things of our world as means of salvation: water, wine, oil and bread. The water we bathe in, the water we drink, the water that is the main component of our bodies — every drop of water connects us with the water in which Jesus was baptized.
In Jesus’s baptism all water has forever been blessed. In a sense the annual blessing at Theophany is not needed. In blessing what is already blessed, the Church is simply revealing the true nature and destiny of water, and therefore the sacramental nature of all creation. “By being restored through the blessing to its proper function,” wrote Father Alexander Schmemann, “‘holy water’ is revealed as the true, full, adequate water, and matter becomes again a means of communion with and knowledge of God.”
I recall a story about water that I heard over lunch one day at the Monastery of the Protection of the Mother of God in Kiev. At the request of a Jewish neighbor with an eye disease, a woman had walked to a distant monastery to fetch water from a famous spring associated with miracles. “It was a hot day,” said Father Timothy, the monastery’s chaplain. “On the way back the woman became so thirsty she drank all the water she was carrying. When she returned home, she filled the empty bottle from the tap and gave this to her sick neighbor. It was just ordinary tap water, but the neighbor’s eyes were healed. Why? Because she had faith that this was holy water. You see, all water is holy. All water comes from the River Jordan.”
text from "Praying With Icons" by Jim Forest (Orbis)
* * *
Spaceflight (or space flight) is ballistic flight into or through outer space. Spaceflight can occur with spacecraft with or without humans on board. Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union was the first human to conduct a spaceflight. Examples of human spaceflight include the U.S. Apollo Moon landing and Space Shuttle programs and the Russian Soyuz program, as well as the ongoing International Space Station. Examples of unmanned spaceflight include space probes that leave Earth orbit, as well as satellites in orbit around Earth, such as communications satellites. These operate either by telerobotic control or are fully autonomous.
Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and satellite telecommunications. Additional non-commercial uses of spaceflight include space observatories, reconnaissance satellites and other Earth observation satellites.
A spaceflight typically begins with a rocket launch, which provides the initial thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propels the spacecraft from the surface of the Earth. Once in space, the motion of a spacecraft – both when unpropelled and when under propulsion – is covered by the area of study called astrodynamics. Some spacecraft remain in space indefinitely, some disintegrate during atmospheric reentry, and others reach a planetary or lunar surface for landing or impact.
History
Main articles: History of spaceflight and Timeline of spaceflight
Tsiolkovsky, early space theorist
The first theoretical proposal of space travel using rockets was published by Scottish astronomer and mathematician William Leitch, in an 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space".[1] More well-known (though not widely outside Russia) is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's work, "Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами" (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices), published in 1903.
Spaceflight became an engineering possibility with the work of Robert H. Goddard's publication in 1919 of his paper A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. His application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid fuel rockets improved efficiency enough for interplanetary travel to become possible. He also proved in the laboratory that rockets would work in the vacuum of space;[specify] nonetheless, his work was not taken seriously by the public. His attempt to secure an Army contract for a rocket-propelled weapon in the first World War was defeated by the November 11, 1918 armistice with Germany. Working with private financial support, he was the first to launch a liquid-fueled rocket in 1926. Goddard's paper was highly influential on Hermann Oberth, who in turn influenced Wernher von Braun. Von Braun became the first to produce modern rockets as guided weapons, employed by Adolf Hitler. Von Braun's V-2 was the first rocket to reach space, at an altitude of 189 kilometers (102 nautical miles) on a June 1944 test flight.[2]
Tsiolkovsky's rocketry work was not fully appreciated in his lifetime, but he influenced Sergey Korolev, who became the Soviet Union's chief rocket designer under Joseph Stalin, to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles to carry nuclear weapons as a counter measure to United States bomber planes. Derivatives of Korolev's R-7 Semyorka missiles were used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, and later the first human to orbit the Earth, Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1, on April 12, 1961.[3]
At the end of World War II, von Braun and most of his rocket team surrendered to the United States, and were expatriated to work on American missiles at what became the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. This work on missiles such as Juno I and Atlas enabled launch of the first US satellite Explorer 1 on February 1, 1958, and the first American in orbit, John Glenn in Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. As director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, Von Braun oversaw development of a larger class of rocket called Saturn, which allowed the US to send the first two humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to the Moon and back on Apollo 11 in July 1969. Over the same period, the Soviet Union secretly tried but failed to develop the N1 rocket to give them the capability to land one person on the Moon.
Phases
Launch
Main article: Rocket launch
See also: List of space launch system designs
Rockets are the only means currently capable of reaching orbit or beyond. Other non-rocket spacelaunch technologies have yet to be built, or remain short of orbital speeds. A rocket launch for a spaceflight usually starts from a spaceport (cosmodrome), which may be equipped with launch complexes and launch pads for vertical rocket launches, and runways for takeoff and landing of carrier airplanes and winged spacecraft. Spaceports are situated well away from human habitation for noise and safety reasons. ICBMs have various special launching facilities.
A launch is often restricted to certain launch windows. These windows depend upon the position of celestial bodies and orbits relative to the launch site. The biggest influence is often the rotation of the Earth itself. Once launched, orbits are normally located within relatively constant flat planes at a fixed angle to the axis of the Earth, and the Earth rotates within this orbit.
A launch pad is a fixed structure designed to dispatch airborne vehicles. It generally consists of a launch tower and flame trench. It is surrounded by equipment used to erect, fuel, and maintain launch vehicles. Before launch, the rocket can weigh many hundreds of tonnes. The Space Shuttle Columbia, on STS-1, weighed 2,030 tonnes (4,480,000 lb) at take off.
Reaching space
The most commonly used definition of outer space is everything beyond the Kármán line, which is 100 kilometers (62 mi) above the Earth's surface. The United States sometimes defines outer space as everything beyond 50 miles (80 km) in altitude.
Rockets are the only currently practical means of reaching space. Conventional airplane engines cannot reach space due to the lack of oxygen. Rocket engines expel propellant to provide forward thrust that generates enough delta-v (change in velocity) to reach orbit.
For manned launch systems launch escape systems are frequently fitted to allow astronauts to escape in the case of emergency.
Alternatives
Main article: Non-rocket spacelaunch
Many ways to reach space other than rockets have been proposed. Ideas such as the space elevator, and momentum exchange tethers like rotovators or skyhooks require new materials much stronger than any currently known. Electromagnetic launchers such as launch loops might be feasible with current technology. Other ideas include rocket assisted aircraft/spaceplanes such as Reaction Engines Skylon (currently in early stage development), scramjet powered spaceplanes, and RBCC powered spaceplanes. Gun launch has been proposed for cargo.
Leaving orbit
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Main articles: Escape velocity and Parking orbit
Launched in 1959, Luna 1 was the first known man-made object to achieve escape velocity from the Earth.[4] (replica pictured)
Achieving a closed orbit is not essential to lunar and interplanetary voyages. Early Russian space vehicles successfully achieved very high altitudes without going into orbit. NASA considered launching Apollo missions directly into lunar trajectories but adopted the strategy of first entering a temporary parking orbit and then performing a separate burn several orbits later onto a lunar trajectory. This costs additional propellant because the parking orbit perigee must be high enough to prevent reentry while direct injection can have an arbitrarily low perigee because it will never be reached.
However, the parking orbit approach greatly simplified Apollo mission planning in several important ways. It substantially widened the allowable launch windows, increasing the chance of a successful launch despite minor technical problems during the countdown. The parking orbit was a stable "mission plateau" that gave the crew and controllers several hours to thoroughly check out the spacecraft after the stresses of launch before committing it to a long lunar flight; the crew could quickly return to Earth, if necessary, or an alternate Earth-orbital mission could be conducted. The parking orbit also enabled translunar trajectories that avoided the densest parts of the Van Allen radiation belts.
Apollo missions minimized the performance penalty of the parking orbit by keeping its altitude as low as possible. For example, Apollo 15 used an unusually low parking orbit (even for Apollo) of 92.5 nmi by 91.5 nmi (171 km by 169 km) where there was significant atmospheric drag. But it was partially overcome by continuous venting of hydrogen from the third stage of the Saturn V, and was in any event tolerable for the short stay.
Robotic missions do not require an abort capability or radiation minimization, and because modern launchers routinely meet "instantaneous" launch windows, space probes to the Moon and other planets generally use direct injection to maximize performance. Although some might coast briefly during the launch sequence, they do not complete one or more full parking orbits before the burn that injects them onto an Earth escape trajectory.
Note that the escape velocity from a celestial body decreases with altitude above that body. However, it is more fuel-efficient for a craft to burn its fuel as close to the ground as possible; see Oberth effect and reference.[5] This is another way to explain the performance penalty associated with establishing the safe perigee of a parking orbit.
Plans for future crewed interplanetary spaceflight missions often include final vehicle assembly in Earth orbit, such as NASA's Project Orion and Russia's Kliper/Parom tandem.
Astrodynamics
Main article: Orbital mechanics
Astrodynamics is the study of spacecraft trajectories, particularly as they relate to gravitational and propulsion effects. Astrodynamics allows for a spacecraft to arrive at its destination at the correct time without excessive propellant use. An orbital maneuvering system may be needed to maintain or change orbits.
Non-rocket orbital propulsion methods include solar sails, magnetic sails, plasma-bubble magnetic systems, and using gravitational slingshot effects.
Ionized gas trail from Shuttle reentry
Recovery of Discoverer 14 return capsule by a C-119 airplane
Transfer energy
The term "transfer energy" means the total amount of energy imparted by a rocket stage to its payload. This can be the energy imparted by a first stage of a launch vehicle to an upper stage plus payload, or by an upper stage or spacecraft kick motor to a spacecraft.[6][7]
Reentry
Main article: Atmospheric reentry
Vehicles in orbit have large amounts of kinetic energy. This energy must be discarded if the vehicle is to land safely without vaporizing in the atmosphere. Typically this process requires special methods to protect against aerodynamic heating. The theory behind reentry was developed by Harry Julian Allen. Based on this theory, reentry vehicles present blunt shapes to the atmosphere for reentry. Blunt shapes mean that less than 1% of the kinetic energy ends up as heat that reaches the vehicle, and the remainder heats up the atmosphere.
Landing
The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules all splashed down in the sea. These capsules were designed to land at relatively low speeds with the help of a parachute. Russian capsules for Soyuz make use of a big parachute and braking rockets to touch down on land. The Space Shuttle glided to a touchdown like a plane.
Recovery
After a successful landing the spacecraft, its occupants and cargo can be recovered. In some cases, recovery has occurred before landing: while a spacecraft is still descending on its parachute, it can be snagged by a specially designed aircraft. This mid-air retrieval technique was used to recover the film canisters from the Corona spy satellites.
Types
Uncrewed
See also: Uncrewed spacecraft and robotic spacecraft
Sojourner takes its Alpha particle X-ray spectrometer measurement of Yogi Rock on Mars
The MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury (artist's interpretation)
Uncrewed spaceflight (or unmanned) is all spaceflight activity without a necessary human presence in space. This includes all space probes, satellites and robotic spacecraft and missions. Uncrewed spaceflight is the opposite of manned spaceflight, which is usually called human spaceflight. Subcategories of uncrewed spaceflight are "robotic spacecraft" (objects) and "robotic space missions" (activities). A robotic spacecraft is an uncrewed spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe.
Uncrewed space missions use remote-controlled spacecraft. The first uncrewed space mission was Sputnik I, launched October 4, 1957 to orbit the Earth. Space missions where other animals but no humans are on-board are considered uncrewed missions.
Benefits
Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and lower risk factors. In addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or the vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival, given current technology. Outer planets such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, so telerobotic probes are the only way to explore them. Telerobotics also allows exploration of regions that are vulnerable to contamination by Earth micro-organisms since spacecraft can be sterilized. Humans can not be sterilized in the same way as a spaceship, as they coexist with numerous micro-organisms, and these micro-organisms are also hard to contain within a spaceship or spacesuit.
Telepresence
Telerobotics becomes telepresence when the time delay is short enough to permit control of the spacecraft in close to real time by humans. Even the two seconds light speed delay for the Moon is too far away for telepresence exploration from Earth. The L1 and L2 positions permit 400-millisecond round trip delays, which is just close enough for telepresence operation. Telepresence has also been suggested as a way to repair satellites in Earth orbit from Earth. The Exploration Telerobotics Symposium in 2012 explored this and other topics.[8]
Human
Main article: Human spaceflight
ISS crew member stores samples
The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, on which cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin of the USSR made one orbit around the Earth. In official Soviet documents, there is no mention of the fact that Gagarin parachuted the final seven miles.[9] Currently, the only spacecraft regularly used for human spaceflight are the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft. The U.S. Space Shuttle fleet operated from April 1981 until July 2011. SpaceShipOne has conducted two human suborbital spaceflights.
Sub-orbital
Main article: Sub-orbital spaceflight
The International Space Station in Earth orbit after a visit from the crew of STS-119
On a sub-orbital spaceflight the spacecraft reaches space and then returns to the atmosphere after following a (primarily) ballistic trajectory. This is usually because of insufficient specific orbital energy, in which case a suborbital flight will last only a few minutes, but it is also possible for an object with enough energy for an orbit to have a trajectory that intersects the Earth's atmosphere, sometimes after many hours. Pioneer 1 was NASA's first space probe intended to reach the Moon. A partial failure caused it to instead follow a suborbital trajectory to an altitude of 113,854 kilometers (70,746 mi) before reentering the Earth's atmosphere 43 hours after launch.
The most generally recognized boundary of space is the Kármán line 100 km above sea level. (NASA alternatively defines an astronaut as someone who has flown more than 50 miles (80 km) above sea level.) It is not generally recognized by the public that the increase in potential energy required to pass the Kármán line is only about 3% of the orbital energy (potential plus kinetic energy) required by the lowest possible Earth orbit (a circular orbit just above the Kármán line.) In other words, it is far easier to reach space than to stay there. On May 17, 2004, Civilian Space eXploration Team launched the GoFast Rocket on a suborbital flight, the first amateur spaceflight. On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne was used for the first privately funded human spaceflight.
Point-to-point
Point-to-point is a category of sub-orbital spaceflight in which a spacecraft provides rapid transport between two terrestrial locations. Consider a conventional airline route between London and Sydney, a flight that normally lasts over twenty hours. With point-to-point suborbital travel the same route could be traversed in less than one hour.[10] While no company offers this type of transportation today, SpaceX has revealed plans to do so as early as the 2020s using its BFR vehicle.[11] Suborbital spaceflight over an intercontinental distance requires a vehicle velocity that is only a little lower than the velocity required to reach low Earth orbit.[12] If rockets are used, the size of the rocket relative to the payload is similar to an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Any intercontinental spaceflight has to surmount problems of heating during atmosphere re-entry that are nearly as large as those faced by orbital spaceflight.
Orbital
Main article: Orbital spaceflight
Apollo 6 heads into orbit
A minimal orbital spaceflight requires much higher velocities than a minimal sub-orbital flight, and so it is technologically much more challenging to achieve. To achieve orbital spaceflight, the tangential velocity around the Earth is as important as altitude. In order to perform a stable and lasting flight in space, the spacecraft must reach the minimal orbital speed required for a closed orbit.
Interplanetary
Main article: Interplanetary spaceflight
Interplanetary travel is travel between planets within a single planetary system. In practice, the use of the term is confined to travel between the planets of our Solar System.
Interstellar
Main article: Interstellar travel
Five spacecraft are currently leaving the Solar System on escape trajectories, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and New Horizons. The one farthest from the Sun is Voyager 1, which is more than 100 AU distant and is moving at 3.6 AU per year.[13] In comparison, Proxima Centauri, the closest star other than the Sun, is 267,000 AU distant. It will take Voyager 1 over 74,000 years to reach this distance. Vehicle designs using other techniques, such as nuclear pulse propulsion are likely to be able to reach the nearest star significantly faster. Another possibility that could allow for human interstellar spaceflight is to make use of time dilation, as this would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to travel further into the future while aging very little, in that their great speed slows down the rate of passage of on-board time. However, attaining such high speeds would still require the use of some new, advanced method of propulsion.
Intergalactic
Main article: Intergalactic travel
Intergalactic travel involves spaceflight between galaxies, and is considered much more technologically demanding than even interstellar travel and, by current engineering terms, is considered science fiction.
Spacecraft
Main article: Spacecraft
An Apollo Lunar Module on the lunar surface
Spacecraft are vehicles capable of controlling their trajectory through space.
The first 'true spacecraft' is sometimes said to be Apollo Lunar Module,[14] since this was the only manned vehicle to have been designed for, and operated only in space; and is notable for its non aerodynamic shape.
Propulsion
Main article: Spacecraft propulsion
Spacecraft today predominantly use rockets for propulsion, but other propulsion techniques such as ion drives are becoming more common, particularly for unmanned vehicles, and this can significantly reduce the vehicle's mass and increase its delta-v.
Launch systems
Main article: Launch vehicle
Launch systems are used to carry a payload from Earth's surface into outer space.
Expendable
Main article: Expendable launch system
Most current spaceflight uses multi-stage expendable launch systems to reach space.
Reusable
Main article: Reusable launch system
Ambox current red.svg
This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2019)
The first reusable spacecraft, the X-15, was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on July 19, 1963. The first partially reusable orbital spacecraft, the Space Shuttle, was launched by the USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, on April 12, 1981. During the Shuttle era, six orbiters were built, all of which have flown in the atmosphere and five of which have flown in space. The Enterprise was used only for approach and landing tests, launching from the back of a Boeing 747 and gliding to deadstick landings at Edwards AFB, California. The first Space Shuttle to fly into space was the Columbia, followed by the Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. The Endeavour was built to replace the Challenger, which was lost in January 1986. The Columbia broke up during reentry in February 2003.
The Space Shuttle Columbia seconds after engine ignition on mission STS-1
Columbia landing, concluding the STS-1 mission
Columbia launches again on STS-2
The first automatic partially reusable spacecraft was the Buran (Snowstorm), launched by the USSR on November 15, 1988, although it made only one flight. This spaceplane was designed for a crew and strongly resembled the US Space Shuttle, although its drop-off boosters used liquid propellants and its main engines were located at the base of what would be the external tank in the American Shuttle. Lack of funding, complicated by the dissolution of the USSR, prevented any further flights of Buran.
Per the Vision for Space Exploration, the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011 due mainly to its old age and high cost of the program reaching over a billion dollars per flight. The Shuttle's human transport role is to be replaced by the partially reusable Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) no later than 2021. The Shuttle's heavy cargo transport role is to be replaced by expendable rockets such as the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) or a Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicle.
Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne was a reusable suborbital spaceplane that carried pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie on consecutive flights in 2004 to win the Ansari X Prize. The Spaceship Company has built its successor SpaceShipTwo. A fleet of SpaceShipTwos operated by Virgin Galactic planned to begin reusable private spaceflight carrying paying passengers (space tourists) in 2008, but this was delayed due to an accident in the propulsion development.[15]
Challenges
Main article: Effect of spaceflight on the human body
Space disasters
Main article: Space accidents and incidents
All launch vehicles contain a huge amount of energy that is needed for some part of it to reach orbit. There is therefore some risk that this energy can be released prematurely and suddenly, with significant effects. When a Delta II rocket exploded 13 seconds after launch on January 17, 1997, there were reports of store windows 10 miles (16 km) away being broken by the blast.[16]
Space is a fairly predictable environment, but there are still risks of accidental depressurization and the potential failure of equipment, some of which may be very newly developed.
In 2004 the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety was established in the Netherlands to further international cooperation and scientific advancement in space systems safety.[17]
Weightlessness
Main article: Weightlessness
Astronauts on the ISS in weightless conditions. Michael Foale can be seen exercising in the foreground.
In a microgravity environment such as that provided by a spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, humans experience a sense of "weightlessness." Short-term exposure to microgravity causes space adaptation syndrome, a self-limiting nausea caused by derangement of the vestibular system. Long-term exposure causes multiple health issues. The most significant is bone loss, some of which is permanent, but microgravity also leads to significant deconditioning of muscular and cardiovascular tissues.
Radiation
Once above the atmosphere, radiation due to the Van Allen belts, solar radiation and cosmic radiation issues occur and increase. Further away from the Earth, solar flares can give a fatal radiation dose in minutes, and the health threat from cosmic radiation significantly increases the chances of cancer over a decade exposure or more.[18]
Life support
Main article: Life support system
In human spaceflight, the life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in outer space. NASA often uses the phrase Environmental Control and Life Support System or the acronym ECLSS when describing these systems for its human spaceflight missions.[19] The life support system may supply: air, water and food. It must also maintain the correct body temperature, an acceptable pressure on the body and deal with the body's waste products. Shielding against harmful external influences such as radiation and micro-meteorites may also be necessary. Components of the life support system are life-critical, and are designed and constructed using safety engineering techniques.
Space weather
Main article: Space weather
Aurora australis and Discovery, May 1991.
Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in outer space. It is distinct from the concept of weather within a planetary atmosphere, and deals with phenomena involving ambient plasma, magnetic fields, radiation and other matter in space (generally close to Earth but also in interplanetary, and occasionally interstellar medium). "Space weather describes the conditions in space that affect Earth and its technological systems. Our space weather is a consequence of the behavior of the Sun, the nature of Earth's magnetic field, and our location in the Solar System."[20]
Space weather exerts a profound influence in several areas related to space exploration and development. Changing geomagnetic conditions can induce changes in atmospheric density causing the rapid degradation of spacecraft altitude in Low Earth orbit. Geomagnetic storms due to increased solar activity can potentially blind sensors aboard spacecraft, or interfere with on-board electronics. An understanding of space environmental conditions is also important in designing shielding and life support systems for manned spacecraft.
Environmental considerations
Rockets as a class are not inherently grossly polluting. However, some rockets use toxic propellants, and most vehicles use propellants that are not carbon neutral. Many solid rockets have chlorine in the form of perchlorate or other chemicals, and this can cause temporary local holes in the ozone layer. Re-entering spacecraft generate nitrates which also can temporarily impact the ozone layer. Most rockets are made of metals that can have an environmental impact during their construction.
In addition to the atmospheric effects there are effects on the near-Earth space environment. There is the possibility that orbit could become inaccessible for generations due to exponentially increasing space debris caused by spalling of satellites and vehicles (Kessler syndrome). Many launched vehicles today are therefore designed to be re-entered after use.
Spaceflight (or space flight) is ballistic flight into or through outer space. Spaceflight can occur with spacecraft with or without humans on board. Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union was the first human to conduct a spaceflight. Examples of human spaceflight include the U.S. Apollo Moon landing and Space Shuttle programs and the Russian Soyuz program, as well as the ongoing International Space Station. Examples of unmanned spaceflight include space probes that leave Earth orbit, as well as satellites in orbit around Earth, such as communications satellites. These operate either by telerobotic control or are fully autonomous.
Spaceflight is used in space exploration, and also in commercial activities like space tourism and satellite telecommunications. Additional non-commercial uses of spaceflight include space observatories, reconnaissance satellites and other Earth observation satellites.
A spaceflight typically begins with a rocket launch, which provides the initial thrust to overcome the force of gravity and propels the spacecraft from the surface of the Earth. Once in space, the motion of a spacecraft – both when unpropelled and when under propulsion – is covered by the area of study called astrodynamics. Some spacecraft remain in space indefinitely, some disintegrate during atmospheric reentry, and others reach a planetary or lunar surface for landing or impact.
History
Main articles: History of spaceflight and Timeline of spaceflight
Tsiolkovsky, early space theorist
The first theoretical proposal of space travel using rockets was published by Scottish astronomer and mathematician William Leitch, in an 1861 essay "A Journey Through Space".[1] More well-known (though not widely outside Russia) is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's work, "Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами" (The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices), published in 1903.
Spaceflight became an engineering possibility with the work of Robert H. Goddard's publication in 1919 of his paper A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. His application of the de Laval nozzle to liquid fuel rockets improved efficiency enough for interplanetary travel to become possible. He also proved in the laboratory that rockets would work in the vacuum of space;[specify] nonetheless, his work was not taken seriously by the public. His attempt to secure an Army contract for a rocket-propelled weapon in the first World War was defeated by the November 11, 1918 armistice with Germany. Working with private financial support, he was the first to launch a liquid-fueled rocket in 1926. Goddard's paper was highly influential on Hermann Oberth, who in turn influenced Wernher von Braun. Von Braun became the first to produce modern rockets as guided weapons, employed by Adolf Hitler. Von Braun's V-2 was the first rocket to reach space, at an altitude of 189 kilometers (102 nautical miles) on a June 1944 test flight.[2]
Tsiolkovsky's rocketry work was not fully appreciated in his lifetime, but he influenced Sergey Korolev, who became the Soviet Union's chief rocket designer under Joseph Stalin, to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles to carry nuclear weapons as a counter measure to United States bomber planes. Derivatives of Korolev's R-7 Semyorka missiles were used to launch the world's first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, on October 4, 1957, and later the first human to orbit the Earth, Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1, on April 12, 1961.[3]
At the end of World War II, von Braun and most of his rocket team surrendered to the United States, and were expatriated to work on American missiles at what became the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. This work on missiles such as Juno I and Atlas enabled launch of the first US satellite Explorer 1 on February 1, 1958, and the first American in orbit, John Glenn in Friendship 7 on February 20, 1962. As director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, Von Braun oversaw development of a larger class of rocket called Saturn, which allowed the US to send the first two humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to the Moon and back on Apollo 11 in July 1969. Over the same period, the Soviet Union secretly tried but failed to develop the N1 rocket to give them the capability to land one person on the Moon.
Phases
Launch
Main article: Rocket launch
See also: List of space launch system designs
Rockets are the only means currently capable of reaching orbit or beyond. Other non-rocket spacelaunch technologies have yet to be built, or remain short of orbital speeds. A rocket launch for a spaceflight usually starts from a spaceport (cosmodrome), which may be equipped with launch complexes and launch pads for vertical rocket launches, and runways for takeoff and landing of carrier airplanes and winged spacecraft. Spaceports are situated well away from human habitation for noise and safety reasons. ICBMs have various special launching facilities.
A launch is often restricted to certain launch windows. These windows depend upon the position of celestial bodies and orbits relative to the launch site. The biggest influence is often the rotation of the Earth itself. Once launched, orbits are normally located within relatively constant flat planes at a fixed angle to the axis of the Earth, and the Earth rotates within this orbit.
A launch pad is a fixed structure designed to dispatch airborne vehicles. It generally consists of a launch tower and flame trench. It is surrounded by equipment used to erect, fuel, and maintain launch vehicles. Before launch, the rocket can weigh many hundreds of tonnes. The Space Shuttle Columbia, on STS-1, weighed 2,030 tonnes (4,480,000 lb) at take off.
Reaching space
The most commonly used definition of outer space is everything beyond the Kármán line, which is 100 kilometers (62 mi) above the Earth's surface. The United States sometimes defines outer space as everything beyond 50 miles (80 km) in altitude.
Rockets are the only currently practical means of reaching space. Conventional airplane engines cannot reach space due to the lack of oxygen. Rocket engines expel propellant to provide forward thrust that generates enough delta-v (change in velocity) to reach orbit.
For manned launch systems launch escape systems are frequently fitted to allow astronauts to escape in the case of emergency.
Alternatives
Main article: Non-rocket spacelaunch
Many ways to reach space other than rockets have been proposed. Ideas such as the space elevator, and momentum exchange tethers like rotovators or skyhooks require new materials much stronger than any currently known. Electromagnetic launchers such as launch loops might be feasible with current technology. Other ideas include rocket assisted aircraft/spaceplanes such as Reaction Engines Skylon (currently in early stage development), scramjet powered spaceplanes, and RBCC powered spaceplanes. Gun launch has been proposed for cargo.
Leaving orbit
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Main articles: Escape velocity and Parking orbit
Launched in 1959, Luna 1 was the first known man-made object to achieve escape velocity from the Earth.[4] (replica pictured)
Achieving a closed orbit is not essential to lunar and interplanetary voyages. Early Russian space vehicles successfully achieved very high altitudes without going into orbit. NASA considered launching Apollo missions directly into lunar trajectories but adopted the strategy of first entering a temporary parking orbit and then performing a separate burn several orbits later onto a lunar trajectory. This costs additional propellant because the parking orbit perigee must be high enough to prevent reentry while direct injection can have an arbitrarily low perigee because it will never be reached.
However, the parking orbit approach greatly simplified Apollo mission planning in several important ways. It substantially widened the allowable launch windows, increasing the chance of a successful launch despite minor technical problems during the countdown. The parking orbit was a stable "mission plateau" that gave the crew and controllers several hours to thoroughly check out the spacecraft after the stresses of launch before committing it to a long lunar flight; the crew could quickly return to Earth, if necessary, or an alternate Earth-orbital mission could be conducted. The parking orbit also enabled translunar trajectories that avoided the densest parts of the Van Allen radiation belts.
Apollo missions minimized the performance penalty of the parking orbit by keeping its altitude as low as possible. For example, Apollo 15 used an unusually low parking orbit (even for Apollo) of 92.5 nmi by 91.5 nmi (171 km by 169 km) where there was significant atmospheric drag. But it was partially overcome by continuous venting of hydrogen from the third stage of the Saturn V, and was in any event tolerable for the short stay.
Robotic missions do not require an abort capability or radiation minimization, and because modern launchers routinely meet "instantaneous" launch windows, space probes to the Moon and other planets generally use direct injection to maximize performance. Although some might coast briefly during the launch sequence, they do not complete one or more full parking orbits before the burn that injects them onto an Earth escape trajectory.
Note that the escape velocity from a celestial body decreases with altitude above that body. However, it is more fuel-efficient for a craft to burn its fuel as close to the ground as possible; see Oberth effect and reference.[5] This is another way to explain the performance penalty associated with establishing the safe perigee of a parking orbit.
Plans for future crewed interplanetary spaceflight missions often include final vehicle assembly in Earth orbit, such as NASA's Project Orion and Russia's Kliper/Parom tandem.
Astrodynamics
Main article: Orbital mechanics
Astrodynamics is the study of spacecraft trajectories, particularly as they relate to gravitational and propulsion effects. Astrodynamics allows for a spacecraft to arrive at its destination at the correct time without excessive propellant use. An orbital maneuvering system may be needed to maintain or change orbits.
Non-rocket orbital propulsion methods include solar sails, magnetic sails, plasma-bubble magnetic systems, and using gravitational slingshot effects.
Ionized gas trail from Shuttle reentry
Recovery of Discoverer 14 return capsule by a C-119 airplane
Transfer energy
The term "transfer energy" means the total amount of energy imparted by a rocket stage to its payload. This can be the energy imparted by a first stage of a launch vehicle to an upper stage plus payload, or by an upper stage or spacecraft kick motor to a spacecraft.[6][7]
Reentry
Main article: Atmospheric reentry
Vehicles in orbit have large amounts of kinetic energy. This energy must be discarded if the vehicle is to land safely without vaporizing in the atmosphere. Typically this process requires special methods to protect against aerodynamic heating. The theory behind reentry was developed by Harry Julian Allen. Based on this theory, reentry vehicles present blunt shapes to the atmosphere for reentry. Blunt shapes mean that less than 1% of the kinetic energy ends up as heat that reaches the vehicle, and the remainder heats up the atmosphere.
Landing
The Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules all splashed down in the sea. These capsules were designed to land at relatively low speeds with the help of a parachute. Russian capsules for Soyuz make use of a big parachute and braking rockets to touch down on land. The Space Shuttle glided to a touchdown like a plane.
Recovery
After a successful landing the spacecraft, its occupants and cargo can be recovered. In some cases, recovery has occurred before landing: while a spacecraft is still descending on its parachute, it can be snagged by a specially designed aircraft. This mid-air retrieval technique was used to recover the film canisters from the Corona spy satellites.
Types
Uncrewed
See also: Uncrewed spacecraft and robotic spacecraft
Sojourner takes its Alpha particle X-ray spectrometer measurement of Yogi Rock on Mars
The MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury (artist's interpretation)
Uncrewed spaceflight (or unmanned) is all spaceflight activity without a necessary human presence in space. This includes all space probes, satellites and robotic spacecraft and missions. Uncrewed spaceflight is the opposite of manned spaceflight, which is usually called human spaceflight. Subcategories of uncrewed spaceflight are "robotic spacecraft" (objects) and "robotic space missions" (activities). A robotic spacecraft is an uncrewed spacecraft with no humans on board, that is usually under telerobotic control. A robotic spacecraft designed to make scientific research measurements is often called a space probe.
Uncrewed space missions use remote-controlled spacecraft. The first uncrewed space mission was Sputnik I, launched October 4, 1957 to orbit the Earth. Space missions where other animals but no humans are on-board are considered uncrewed missions.
Benefits
Many space missions are more suited to telerobotic rather than crewed operation, due to lower cost and lower risk factors. In addition, some planetary destinations such as Venus or the vicinity of Jupiter are too hostile for human survival, given current technology. Outer planets such as Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are too distant to reach with current crewed spaceflight technology, so telerobotic probes are the only way to explore them. Telerobotics also allows exploration of regions that are vulnerable to contamination by Earth micro-organisms since spacecraft can be sterilized. Humans can not be sterilized in the same way as a spaceship, as they coexist with numerous micro-organisms, and these micro-organisms are also hard to contain within a spaceship or spacesuit.
Telepresence
Telerobotics becomes telepresence when the time delay is short enough to permit control of the spacecraft in close to real time by humans. Even the two seconds light speed delay for the Moon is too far away for telepresence exploration from Earth. The L1 and L2 positions permit 400-millisecond round trip delays, which is just close enough for telepresence operation. Telepresence has also been suggested as a way to repair satellites in Earth orbit from Earth. The Exploration Telerobotics Symposium in 2012 explored this and other topics.[8]
Human
Main article: Human spaceflight
ISS crew member stores samples
The first human spaceflight was Vostok 1 on April 12, 1961, on which cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin of the USSR made one orbit around the Earth. In official Soviet documents, there is no mention of the fact that Gagarin parachuted the final seven miles.[9] Currently, the only spacecraft regularly used for human spaceflight are the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft. The U.S. Space Shuttle fleet operated from April 1981 until July 2011. SpaceShipOne has conducted two human suborbital spaceflights.
Sub-orbital
Main article: Sub-orbital spaceflight
The International Space Station in Earth orbit after a visit from the crew of STS-119
On a sub-orbital spaceflight the spacecraft reaches space and then returns to the atmosphere after following a (primarily) ballistic trajectory. This is usually because of insufficient specific orbital energy, in which case a suborbital flight will last only a few minutes, but it is also possible for an object with enough energy for an orbit to have a trajectory that intersects the Earth's atmosphere, sometimes after many hours. Pioneer 1 was NASA's first space probe intended to reach the Moon. A partial failure caused it to instead follow a suborbital trajectory to an altitude of 113,854 kilometers (70,746 mi) before reentering the Earth's atmosphere 43 hours after launch.
The most generally recognized boundary of space is the Kármán line 100 km above sea level. (NASA alternatively defines an astronaut as someone who has flown more than 50 miles (80 km) above sea level.) It is not generally recognized by the public that the increase in potential energy required to pass the Kármán line is only about 3% of the orbital energy (potential plus kinetic energy) required by the lowest possible Earth orbit (a circular orbit just above the Kármán line.) In other words, it is far easier to reach space than to stay there. On May 17, 2004, Civilian Space eXploration Team launched the GoFast Rocket on a suborbital flight, the first amateur spaceflight. On June 21, 2004, SpaceShipOne was used for the first privately funded human spaceflight.
Point-to-point
Point-to-point is a category of sub-orbital spaceflight in which a spacecraft provides rapid transport between two terrestrial locations. Consider a conventional airline route between London and Sydney, a flight that normally lasts over twenty hours. With point-to-point suborbital travel the same route could be traversed in less than one hour.[10] While no company offers this type of transportation today, SpaceX has revealed plans to do so as early as the 2020s using its BFR vehicle.[11] Suborbital spaceflight over an intercontinental distance requires a vehicle velocity that is only a little lower than the velocity required to reach low Earth orbit.[12] If rockets are used, the size of the rocket relative to the payload is similar to an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). Any intercontinental spaceflight has to surmount problems of heating during atmosphere re-entry that are nearly as large as those faced by orbital spaceflight.
Orbital
Main article: Orbital spaceflight
Apollo 6 heads into orbit
A minimal orbital spaceflight requires much higher velocities than a minimal sub-orbital flight, and so it is technologically much more challenging to achieve. To achieve orbital spaceflight, the tangential velocity around the Earth is as important as altitude. In order to perform a stable and lasting flight in space, the spacecraft must reach the minimal orbital speed required for a closed orbit.
Interplanetary
Main article: Interplanetary spaceflight
Interplanetary travel is travel between planets within a single planetary system. In practice, the use of the term is confined to travel between the planets of our Solar System.
Interstellar
Main article: Interstellar travel
Five spacecraft are currently leaving the Solar System on escape trajectories, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, and New Horizons. The one farthest from the Sun is Voyager 1, which is more than 100 AU distant and is moving at 3.6 AU per year.[13] In comparison, Proxima Centauri, the closest star other than the Sun, is 267,000 AU distant. It will take Voyager 1 over 74,000 years to reach this distance. Vehicle designs using other techniques, such as nuclear pulse propulsion are likely to be able to reach the nearest star significantly faster. Another possibility that could allow for human interstellar spaceflight is to make use of time dilation, as this would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to travel further into the future while aging very little, in that their great speed slows down the rate of passage of on-board time. However, attaining such high speeds would still require the use of some new, advanced method of propulsion.
Intergalactic
Main article: Intergalactic travel
Intergalactic travel involves spaceflight between galaxies, and is considered much more technologically demanding than even interstellar travel and, by current engineering terms, is considered science fiction.
Spacecraft
Main article: Spacecraft
An Apollo Lunar Module on the lunar surface
Spacecraft are vehicles capable of controlling their trajectory through space.
The first 'true spacecraft' is sometimes said to be Apollo Lunar Module,[14] since this was the only manned vehicle to have been designed for, and operated only in space; and is notable for its non aerodynamic shape.
Propulsion
Main article: Spacecraft propulsion
Spacecraft today predominantly use rockets for propulsion, but other propulsion techniques such as ion drives are becoming more common, particularly for unmanned vehicles, and this can significantly reduce the vehicle's mass and increase its delta-v.
Launch systems
Main article: Launch vehicle
Launch systems are used to carry a payload from Earth's surface into outer space.
Expendable
Main article: Expendable launch system
Most current spaceflight uses multi-stage expendable launch systems to reach space.
Reusable
Main article: Reusable launch system
Ambox current red.svg
This section needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2019)
The first reusable spacecraft, the X-15, was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on July 19, 1963. The first partially reusable orbital spacecraft, the Space Shuttle, was launched by the USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight, on April 12, 1981. During the Shuttle era, six orbiters were built, all of which have flown in the atmosphere and five of which have flown in space. The Enterprise was used only for approach and landing tests, launching from the back of a Boeing 747 and gliding to deadstick landings at Edwards AFB, California. The first Space Shuttle to fly into space was the Columbia, followed by the Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour. The Endeavour was built to replace the Challenger, which was lost in January 1986. The Columbia broke up during reentry in February 2003.
The Space Shuttle Columbia seconds after engine ignition on mission STS-1
Columbia landing, concluding the STS-1 mission
Columbia launches again on STS-2
The first automatic partially reusable spacecraft was the Buran (Snowstorm), launched by the USSR on November 15, 1988, although it made only one flight. This spaceplane was designed for a crew and strongly resembled the US Space Shuttle, although its drop-off boosters used liquid propellants and its main engines were located at the base of what would be the external tank in the American Shuttle. Lack of funding, complicated by the dissolution of the USSR, prevented any further flights of Buran.
Per the Vision for Space Exploration, the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011 due mainly to its old age and high cost of the program reaching over a billion dollars per flight. The Shuttle's human transport role is to be replaced by the partially reusable Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) no later than 2021. The Shuttle's heavy cargo transport role is to be replaced by expendable rockets such as the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) or a Shuttle Derived Launch Vehicle.
Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne was a reusable suborbital spaceplane that carried pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie on consecutive flights in 2004 to win the Ansari X Prize. The Spaceship Company has built its successor SpaceShipTwo. A fleet of SpaceShipTwos operated by Virgin Galactic planned to begin reusable private spaceflight carrying paying passengers (space tourists) in 2008, but this was delayed due to an accident in the propulsion development.[15]
Challenges
Main article: Effect of spaceflight on the human body
Space disasters
Main article: Space accidents and incidents
All launch vehicles contain a huge amount of energy that is needed for some part of it to reach orbit. There is therefore some risk that this energy can be released prematurely and suddenly, with significant effects. When a Delta II rocket exploded 13 seconds after launch on January 17, 1997, there were reports of store windows 10 miles (16 km) away being broken by the blast.[16]
Space is a fairly predictable environment, but there are still risks of accidental depressurization and the potential failure of equipment, some of which may be very newly developed.
In 2004 the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety was established in the Netherlands to further international cooperation and scientific advancement in space systems safety.[17]
Weightlessness
Main article: Weightlessness
Astronauts on the ISS in weightless conditions. Michael Foale can be seen exercising in the foreground.
In a microgravity environment such as that provided by a spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, humans experience a sense of "weightlessness." Short-term exposure to microgravity causes space adaptation syndrome, a self-limiting nausea caused by derangement of the vestibular system. Long-term exposure causes multiple health issues. The most significant is bone loss, some of which is permanent, but microgravity also leads to significant deconditioning of muscular and cardiovascular tissues.
Radiation
Once above the atmosphere, radiation due to the Van Allen belts, solar radiation and cosmic radiation issues occur and increase. Further away from the Earth, solar flares can give a fatal radiation dose in minutes, and the health threat from cosmic radiation significantly increases the chances of cancer over a decade exposure or more.[18]
Life support
Main article: Life support system
In human spaceflight, the life support system is a group of devices that allow a human being to survive in outer space. NASA often uses the phrase Environmental Control and Life Support System or the acronym ECLSS when describing these systems for its human spaceflight missions.[19] The life support system may supply: air, water and food. It must also maintain the correct body temperature, an acceptable pressure on the body and deal with the body's waste products. Shielding against harmful external influences such as radiation and micro-meteorites may also be necessary. Components of the life support system are life-critical, and are designed and constructed using safety engineering techniques.
Space weather
Main article: Space weather
Aurora australis and Discovery, May 1991.
Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in outer space. It is distinct from the concept of weather within a planetary atmosphere, and deals with phenomena involving ambient plasma, magnetic fields, radiation and other matter in space (generally close to Earth but also in interplanetary, and occasionally interstellar medium). "Space weather describes the conditions in space that affect Earth and its technological systems. Our space weather is a consequence of the behavior of the Sun, the nature of Earth's magnetic field, and our location in the Solar System."[20]
Space weather exerts a profound influence in several areas related to space exploration and development. Changing geomagnetic conditions can induce changes in atmospheric density causing the rapid degradation of spacecraft altitude in Low Earth orbit. Geomagnetic storms due to increased solar activity can potentially blind sensors aboard spacecraft, or interfere with on-board electronics. An understanding of space environmental conditions is also important in designing shielding and life support systems for manned spacecraft.
Environmental considerations
Rockets as a class are not inherently grossly polluting. However, some rockets use toxic propellants, and most vehicles use propellants that are not carbon neutral. Many solid rockets have chlorine in the form of perchlorate or other chemicals, and this can cause temporary local holes in the ozone layer. Re-entering spacecraft generate nitrates which also can temporarily impact the ozone layer. Most rockets are made of metals that can have an environmental impact during their construction.
In addition to the atmospheric effects there are effects on the near-Earth space environment. There is the possibility that orbit could become inaccessible for generations due to exponentially increasing space debris caused by spalling of satellites and vehicles (Kessler syndrome). Many launched vehicles today are therefore designed to be re-entered after use.
"Serendipity"
Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières
April 1 through April 27 at BiddingForGood.com/DWB-MSF
In Indian art, a surasundari (literally "celestial beauty") is a young maiden characterizing feminine beauty and graceful sensuality.
Buddhist and Jain shrines have featured sensual figures in form of yakshis and other spirits since 2nd century BCE. However, the surasundari motif gained prominence in Indian temple architecture only around the beginning of the 9th century CE. Shilpa-Prakasha, a 9th-century Tantric architectural treatise, declares a monument without a surasundari as inferior and fruitless. The 15th century text Kshirarnava states that the surasundaris should be depicted looking down (adho-drishti), not looking at someone.
In temple sculptures, the surasundaris are often depicted as attendants of gods and goddesses. They also manifest as dancing apsaras. A salabhanjika or tree nymph is another variation of a surasundari. Other forms of a surasundari include:
Darpani (mirror holder)
Torana (door leaner)
Dalamalika (branch holder)
Padmagandha (smelling like a lotus)
Ketakibharana (with a ketaki flower)
Matrika (mother)
Chamari (fly whisk bearer)
Nartaki (dancer)
Shukasarika (one who plays with a parrot)
Nupurapadika (one who ties anklets)
Mardala (drummer)
Alasyakanya (lazy)
Shubhagamini (thorn remover)
The presence of surasundaris in religious shrines is interpreted in several ways. A spiritual interpretation is that they represent shakti (the feminine cosmic energy), and can be considered as both auspicious and empowering. A secular interpretation is that they represent the prosperity of the king who commissioned the temple.
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City Palace, Udaipur, is a palace complex in Udaipur, in the Indian state Rajasthan. It was built over a period of nearly 400 years being contributed by several kings of the dynasty, starting by the Maharana Udai Singh as the capital of the Sisodia Rajput clan in 1559, after he moved from Chittor. It is located on the east bank of the Lake Pichola and has several palaces built within its complex. Udaipur was the historic capital of the former kingdom of Mewar in the Rajputana Agency and its last capital.
The City Palace in Udaipur was built in a flamboyant style and is considered the largest of its type in Rajasthan, a fusion of the Rajasthani and Mughal architectural styles, and was built on a hill top that gives a panoramic view of the city and its surrounding, including several historic monuments such as the Lake Palace in Lake Pichola, the Jag Mandir on another island in the lake, the Jagdish Temple close to the palace, the Monsoon Palace on top of an overlooking hillock nearby and the Neemach Mata temple. These structures are linked to the filming of the James Bond movie Octopussy, which features the Lake Palace and the Monsoon Palace. The subsequent publicity has resulted in the epithet of Udaipur as "Venice of the East". In 2009, Udaipur was rated the top city in the World's Best Awards by Travel + Leisure.
HISTORY
The city Palace was built concurrently with establishment of the Udaipur city by Maharana Udai Singh, in 1559 and his successor Maharanas over a period of the next 300 years. It is considered the largest royal complex in Rajasthan and is replete with history. Founding of the city and building of the palace complex can not be looked in isolation as the Maharanas lived and administered their kingdom from this palace.
Prior to moving their capital from Udaipur to Chittor≤≥, the Mewar kingdom had flourished initially in Nagda (30 kilometres to the north of Udaipur), established in 568 AD by Guhil, the first Mewar Maharana. In the 8th century, the capital was moved to Chittor, a hill top fort from where the Sisodias ruled for 80 years. Maharana Udai Singh II inherited the Mewar kingdom at Chittor in 1537 but by that time there were signs of losing control of the fort in wars with the Mughals. Udai Singh II, therefore, chose the site near Lake Pichola for his new kingdom because the location was well protected on all sides by forests, lakes and the Aravalli hills. He had chosen this site for his new capital, much before the sacking of Chittor by Emperor Akbar, on the advice of a hermit he had met during one of his hunting expeditions.
At his capital Udaipur, Maharana Udai Singh soon faced defeat at the hands of Mughal Emperor Akbar. He soon moved to Udaipur to the chosen location to establish his new capital. The earliest royal structure he built here was the Royal courtyard or 'Rai Angan', which was the beginning of the building of the City Palace complex, at the place where the hermit had advised Maharana to build his Capital.
After Udai Singh’s death in 1572, his son Maharana Pratap took the reins of power at Udaipur. He was successful in defeating Akbar at the battle of Haldighati in 1576 and thereafter Udaipur was peaceful for quite some years. With this, prosperity of Udaipur ensued, palaces were built on the shore and in the midst of the Pichola lake. Concurrently art, particularly miniature painting, also flourished.
But in 1736, the marauding Marathas attacked Udaipur and by the end of the century the Mewar state was in dire straits and in ruins. However, the British came to Mewar’s rescue in the 19th century and soon the State of Mewar got re-established and prospered under British protection, under a treaty signed with the British. However, the British were not allowed to replace them. Once India got independence in 1947, the Mewar Kingdom, along with other princely states of Rajasthan, merged with the Democratic India, in 1949. The Mewar Kings subsequently also lost their special royal privileges and titles. However, the successor Maharanas have enjoyed the trust of their people and also retained their ownership of the palaces in Udaipur. They are now running the palaces by creating a trust, called the Mewar Trust, with the income generated from tourism and the heritage hotels that they have established in some of their palaces. With the fund so generated they are running charitable hospitals, educational institutions and promoting the cause of environmental preservation.
LEGEND
Historical legend narrated to the selection of the site for the palace is about a hermit meeting Maharana Udai Singh when he was on a hunting trail in the Udaipur hills. The Maharana met the hermit who was meditating on top of a hill above the Pichola Lake and sought the hermit’s blessings. The hermit advised the Maharana to build his palace at that very spot and that is where the palace complex came to be established at Udaipur.
GEOGRAPHY
The city palace located in Udaipur city at 24.576°N 73.68°E, which is set with an average elevation of 598 metres.
CLIMATE
The climate of Udaipur reflects the climate at the city palace. It is tropical, with the mercury recording between a maximum of 38.3 °C and a minimum of 28.8 °C during summers. Winter is cold with the maximum temperature rising to 28 °C and the minimum dipping to 11.6 °C. The average annual rainfall is 64 cm.
STRUCTURES
The series of palaces packed in the city palace complex, facing east (as customarily appropriate for the Maharana dynasty – the Sun dynasty), behind an exquisite facade of 244 metres length and 30.4 metres height, were built on a ridge on the east of lake Pichola. They were built over a long period, from 1559 onwards, by 76 generations of Sisodia Rajputs or Suryavanshi Rajputs (worshippers of Sun god). Several Maharanas (the title Maharana is distinctly different from Maharajah, as the former connotes a warrior and the latter a ruler or a king) starting with Udai Mirza Singh II, have richly contributed to this edifice, which comprises an agglomeration of structures, including 11 small separate palaces. The unique aspect of this conglomeration is that the architectural design (a rich blend of Rajasthani, Mughal, Medieval, European and Chinese Architecture) is distinctly homogeneous and eye catching. The palace complex has been built entirely in granite and marble. The interiors of the palace complex with its balconies, towers and cupolas exhibit delicate mirror-work, marble-work, murals, wall paintings, silver-work, inlay-work and leftover of colored glass. The complex provides a fine view of the lake and the Udaipur city from its upper terraces.
Located with the picturesque backdrop of rugged mountains, beside the Pichola lake on its shore, the city palace complex painted in gleaming white color has been compared to the Greek islands, such as the Mykonos.
The famous structures or palaces viewed from the Lake Palace appear like a fort. They are interlinked inside the complex through a number of chowks or quadrangles with zigzag corridors (planned in this fashion to avoid surprise attacks by enemies). Erected in the complex, after entering through the main Tripolia (triple) gate, are the Suraj Gokhda (public address facade), the Mor-chowk (Peacock courtyard), the Dilkhush Mahal (heart’s delight), the Surya Chopar, the Sheesh Mahal (Palace of glass and mirrors), the Moti Mahal (Palace of Pearls), the Krishna Vilas (named after Lord Krishna), Shambu Niwas (royal residence now), the Bhim Vilas, the Amar Vilas (with a raised garden) that faces the Badi Mahal (the big palace), the Fateprakash Palace and the Shiv Niwas Palace (the latest addition to the complex); the last two have been converted into heritage hotels. Details of all these structures are elaborated. The vast collection of structures are termed to form ‘a city within a city’ set with facilities of post office, bank, travel agency, numerous craft shops and also an Indian boutique belonging to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for Nature. The entire complex is the property of the Mewar royal family and a number of trusts take care of the running and maintenance of the structures. The earliest royal structure built in the complex was the Royal courtyard or Rai Angan.
GATEWAYS
Gateways, colloquially called Pols, are set to the east of Udaipur city that was established by Maharana Udai Singh II, concurrently with the City Palace. A number of impressive gateways provide access to the palace complex.
The main entry from the city is through the 'Bara Pol' (Great Gate), which leads to the first courtyard. Bara Pol (built in 1600) leads to the ‘Tripolia Pol', a triple arched gate built in 1725, which provides the northern entry. The road between this gate and the palace is lined with shops and kiosks owned by craftsmen, book-binders, miniature painters, textile dealers and antique shops. Between these two gates, eight marble arches or Toranas are erected. It is said that the Maharanas used to be weighed here with gold and silver, which was then distributed among the local people. Following the Tripolia gate is an arena in front of the Toran Pol and the facade palace, where elephant fights were staged in the past to test their prowess before starting on war campaigns.
The main block of the city palace at Udaipur is approached through a modest door from the Ganesha Deodhi terrace. The door is flanked by whitewashed walls vibrantly painted with martial animals in the traditional Rajput style.
AMAR VILAS
Amar Vilas is the uppermost court inside the complex, which is a raised garden. It provides entry to the Badi Mahal. It is a pleasure pavilion built in Mughal style. It has cussed arcades enclosing a square marble tub. Amar Vilas' is the highest point of the City palace and has wonderful hanging gardens with fountains, towers and terraces.
BADI MAHAL
Badi Mahal (Great Palace) also known as Garden Palace and is the exotic central garden palace that is situated on a 27 metres high natural rock formation bis-a-bis the rest of the palace. The rooms on the ground floor appear to be at the level of the fourth floor in view of the height difference to its surrounding buildings. There is a swimming pool here, which was then used for Holi festival (festival of colors) celebration. In an adjoining hall, miniature paintings of 18th and 19th centuries are displayed. In addition, wall paintings of Jag Mandir (as it appeared in the 18th century), Vishnu of Jagdish temple, the very courtyard and an elephant fight scene are depicted.
The elephant fight depicted in a painting on the wall was a representation of the real elephant fights, which used to be organized by the Maharanas. It is mentioned that the elephants used to be fed hashish (opium) before arranging the fights. An interesting observation is that the word ‘assassin’ is a derivative of the word ‘hashish’. The last such fight was reported in 1995.
BHIM VILAS
Bhim Vilas has a gallery of a remarkable collection of miniature paintings that depict the real life stories of Radha-Krishna.
CHINI CHITRASHALA
Chini Chitrashala (Chinese art place) depicts Chinese and Dutch ornamental tiles.
CHOTI CHITRASHALI
Choti Chitrashali or 'Residence of Little Pictures', built in early 19th century, has pictures of peacocks.
DILKHUSHA MAHAL
Dilkhusha Mahal or ‘Palace of Joy’ was built in 1620.
DURBAR HALL
Durbar Hall was built in 1909 within the Fatepraksh Palace (now a heritage hotel) Official functions such as State banquets and meetings were held here. The gallery of the hall was used by the Royal ladies to observe the Durbar proceedings. This hall has luxuriant interior with some unusually large chandeliers. Weapons of the maharanas and also some of their unique portraits are also depicted here. The foundation stone for this hall was laid by Lord Minto, the Viceroy of India, in 1909, during the rule of Maharana Fateh Singh and was then called Minto Hall.
FATEPRAKASH PALCE
Fateprakash Palace, which is now run as a luxury hotel, has a crystal gallery that consists of crystal chairs, dressing tables, sofas, tables, chairs and beds, crockery, table fountains which were never used. There is also a unique jewel studded carpet here. Maharaja Sajjan Singh had ordered these rare items in 1877 from F& C Osler & Co of London but he died before they arrived here. It is said that the packages containing these crystals remained unopened for 110 years.
JAGDISH MANDIR
Jagdish Mandir, located 150 metres north of the city palace, was built in 1652 in Indo-Aryan architectural style. It is a large and aesthetically elegant temple where an idol of Lord Jagannath, a form of Lord Vishnu made in black stone is deified in the sanctum. The temple walls and the sikhara or tower are decorated with carvings of Vishnu, scenes from Lord Krishna’s life and figurines of nymphs or apsaras. A brass image of Garuda (half-bird, half-man image, which is Lord Vishnu’s vehicle), is placed in a separate shrine in front of the temple. Flanking the steps up the temple decoration of statues of elephants are seen. The street square, where the temple is located, is also known as Jagdish Chowk from where several roads radiate in different directions.
KRISHNA VILAS
Krishna Vilas is another chamber, which has rich collection of miniature paintings that portray royal processions, festivals and games of the Maharanas. However, there is tragic story linked to this wing of the City Palace. In the 19th century, a royal princess was unable to choose from two suitors seeking her hand in marriage, one from the royal family of Jaipur and another from Jodhpur, and hence in a state of dilemma, she poisoned herself to death.
LAXMI VILAS CHOWK
Laxmi Vilas Chowk is an art gallery with a distinctive collection of Mewar paintings.
MANAK MAHAL
The Manek mahal approached from the Manak Chowk is an enclosure for formal audience for the Udaipur rulers. It has a raised alcove inlaid completely in mirror glass. Sun-face emblems, in gleaming brass, religious insignia of the Sisodia dynasty are a recurring display at several locations in the City Palace; one of these prominent emblems is depicted on the façade of the Manak Chowk, which can also be seen from the outermost court below. The largest of such an emblem is also seen on the wall of the Surya Chopar, a reception centre at the lower level. Surya or Sun emblem of the Mewar dynasty depicts a Bhil, the Sun, Chittor Fort and a Rajput with an inscription in Sanskrit of a quotation from the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu holy scripture), which means “God Helps those who do their duty". It was customary for the Maharanas to offer obeisance to the Sun facing east, every morning before taking breakfast.
MOR CHOK
Mor Chok or Peacock square is integral to the inner courts of the palace. The elaborate design of this chamber consists of three peacocks (representing the three seasons of summer, winter and monsoon) modeled in high relief and faced with coloured glass mosaic, built into successive niches in the wall area or jharoka, These were built during Maharana Sajjan Singh’s reign, 200 years after the palace was established. The peacocks have been crafted with 5000 pieces of glass, which shine in green, gold and blue colours. The apartments in front of the Chowk are picturesquely depicted with scenes of Hindu god Lord Krishna’s legends. At the upper level, there is a projecting balcony, which is flanked by inserts of coloured glass. In an adjoining chamber, called the Kanch-ki-Burj, mosaic of mirrors adorn the walls. The Badi Charur Chowk within this chowk is a smaller court for private use. Its screen wall has painted and inlaid compositions depicting European men and Indian women. Proceeding further from the Mor-Chowk, in the Zenana Mahal or women’s quarters exquisitely designed alcoves, balconies, colored windows, tiled walls and floors are seen.
MUSEUM
n 1974, a part of the city palace and the 'Zenana Mahal' (Ladies Chamber) were converted into a museum. The museum is open for public. There is an interesting exhibit of a freaky monkey holding a lamp and also portraits of maharajas displaying a spectacular array of mustaches. ‘Lakshmi Chowk' is an elegant white pavilion in the same precinct.
RANG BHAWAN
Rang Bhawan is the palace that used to contain royal treasure. There are temples of Lord Krishna, Meera Bai and Shiva, located here.
SHEESH MAHAL
Sheess Mahal or Palace of Mirrors and glasses was built in 1716.
A shrine of Dhuni Mata is also located in the complex. This location is considered as the oldest part of the Palace, where a sage spent his entire life meditating.
THE PALACE IN FILM & TELEVISION
The palace was used as a hotel in the 1985 James Bond film Octopussy, where Bond (played by Roger Moore) stayed as he began his quest to apprehend the villainous Kamal Khan (Louis Jordan).
A 1991 documentary film directed for television by Werner Herzog is called Jag Mandir and consists of footage of an elaborate theatrical performance for the Maharana Arvind Singh Mewar at the City Palace staged by André Heller.
The palace was used for filming part of Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (English: A Play of Bullets: Ram-Leela) 2013 directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
WIKIPEDIA
Photograph by: Ryan Nyenhuis
Sunday June 15th 2008, Fathers Day. Ryan and I woke with a plan. The plan being to sneak into the abandon R.L. Hearn Thermal Generation Power Plant which is located in the south east area of downtown Toronto. We wanted to photograph the beauty of decay.
We had made a trip over to the power plant a week prior to scout out the area, to see where guards were located and to find easy access inside.
Sneaking past the guard house located at the front of the property and making our way along the north west section of property towards the back of the plant where the barbed wire fence was weakest.
We then smoked three quarters of a joint together before working up the nerve to hop the fence. Ryan went first, watching him hop the fence and dart out into the yard and hiding behind scrap metal for cover then finally making it to the back of the building. Then it was my turn. What excitement that was, knowing your breaking the law to do something adventurous.
After getting onto the property we were standing at the back of the Hearn and looking for our way inside. To do so we had to hop up onto a metal fence post and from there had to reach up and grab a hold of plywood that covered up the tall entrance area. A good 15 foot climb up, over and in.
Once inside the first photo that was taken was the one of Ryan and I standing together, titled "final hours".
This place was like no other we had ever explored together. The shear size of it all was breathtaking and mind blowing at the same time. The beauty of destruction.
After the first photo was taken we started exploring the plant. Taking the necessary precautions we had come prepared with asbestos masks and flashlights.
We had made our way around on the ground floor, through locker rooms, showers, storage rooms. Then we started making our way up stairs to the 2nd and 3rd level offices, had the remainder of our joint together.
From the office levels we went back onto the factory area and started climbing the metal stairs up further still. Some photos show how high up we were in that building.
We then made ourselves up onto the roof. What a view from there looking out over the city core. Looking out over Lake Ontario we saw really dark storm clouds. Ryan pulled out a cigarette and had a smoke.
We were up on the roof for about a half hour before Ryan asked me "what do you want to do now man?". "Do you want to go home now or stay a bit longer and explore?". My camera battery had died at this point and being there any longer served no purpose for me. I was hesitant on a response because at the same time I wanted to keep exploring because the plan was to keep coming back weekend after weekend to explore and document the old structure.
I then agreed to keep exploring. We came in off the roof, coming down a level, walked through a doorway into a long looking dark room. All across the top level of The Hearn runs conveyor belts that run coal from one end to the other. Walking together along the metal grating flooring. Ryan was 2 feet in front of me.
I then ended up tripping over a small extruded piece of metal on the floor, and from that second on I pointed my flashlight directly onto the floor to see where I was walking.
Very shortly after this happens, in mid sentence Ryan just falls into blackness. All I see is from his waist up as he plunges into complete blackness and followed by about 4-5 seconds before hearing a sick crash far below.
I then look 2 feet in front of me and see there is no more floor. My imediant thought is that he is dead. Then my brain clicks "I have to get my best friend out of here".
I then tried my best to back track to get out of the building, taking a route that he and I had not taken to get to this point. All I knew is I had to get out of The Hearn and find someone that could help.
I don't even know how I got out of that place. When I did I came out on the back side of the building, ran around to the guard house screaming for help.
I screamed to the guard that my best friend just fell in there and is hurt really bad, he asked what we were doing in there and I told him we were just taking photos.
The guard then called like every paramedic, fire and police officer in the city. About 10 minutes after the call was made all I could hear were the sirens. Scared and relived at the same time I was.
Once they all showed up I told them Ryan was in there, that we were up high in the building and he fell. All the cops were telling me to retrace my steps, they wanted to see where we came in from. I screamed at them "we don't have time for that right now, my best friend is dying in there". I then started leading them to the front of the Hearn because I knew it was the closet way inside. We get to the front and all entrances were boarded up. One cops said to me "Ian there is no way in through this way, you have to show us where you came in from". I then demanded to the fire fighters that they bust this plywood down to get inside.
Once inside the cops started fucking with my mind, me being in total shock at the time they started asking me where we had explored, they wanted me to take them on what would have been a few hours of exploration, which we didn't have time for.
Then an officer finds his asbestos mask and glasses. My first thought is he was okay, that he somehow managed to crawl out under his own power. I was wrong. His mask and glasses had bounced off of objects on the fall and Ryan was nowhere to be found.
The police tried getting a hold of Rogers Communication to see if they could pin point his location with the cell phone he had on him. They ended up using thermal vision to locate him. He was trapped in a coal hopper located high up in the building.
I was escorted out at this point in time because I was too "hysterical" for the cops liking.
Two and a half hours went by, a fierce thunderstorm was passing through.
While they were working on getting Ryan out I was giving my statement to the police. Never gave one of those in my life. I told them everything that I am writing here right now, everything, even the joint smoking. I had Nothing to hide.
We went in undetected but I didn't care if the whole world was watching at this point, I was doing what any best friend would do. I was trying to save him. City Pulse News was there and I was trying to hide from them. I was scared that this is how his family would find out and how my family would find out, being Fathers days and all.
After two and a half hours of hell they finally got Ryan out. I watched them carry him out on a backboard and I yelled to him that I loved him.
Ryan was rushed to St. Micheal's Hospital, the best in all the city for trauma.
I followed about an hour after him, being escorted in a police car. On the drive one officer said to me "this is going to cost you and your buddy about a hundred thousand dollars for all that had to be done here today". What a jackass thing to say. I responded by saying "I don't give a fuck about money, take all I have from me I don't care, I'm loosing the most important person in my life right now".
We get to the hospital, I enter the trauma wing of St. Micheal's. They told me that I was going to be the one to call the home of the Nyenhuis'. I thought that was insane, and told them I could not make that call, that they would have to.
I then went into the waiting room, sat down. I remember the NBA finals were on the televisions in there and I ended up falling asleep somehow.
Waking to Stevie and Tammy's faces hours later (Stevie being Ryan's room mate and Tammy being Ryan's girlfriend).
Stevie told me that John and Cheryl were on their way and that we could go up stairs to the trauma ward to see Ryan.
The trauma centre, located on the 9th floor of St. Micheal's Hospital.
Hours passed by, as the night went on the news kept getting worse and worse about his condition.
I ended up leaving to come back to my apartment at 6am the following morning, I had to talk to my parents and try and shovel some food into my system. Still being in shock and never got treatment for shock when it happened.
I returned to the hospital at 3pm that day. Only to find nothing had changed with his condition.
Then came the worst words I ever had to hear, Ryan's father coming in the room and telling me it was time to say goodbye to Ryan.
We made our way into where he was being cared for. To see my best friend in the state he was in broke my heart. Blood coming out the back of his head, body black and blue bruised from head to toe, internal damage that could not be repaired, feeling his forehead and it being ice cold. He was laying there in front of us, dead. Machines were the only thing keeping him "alive".
I said my goodbyes to him, telling him that he can't leave me here, he can't leave the creation of Studies In Comfort behind, something that is so brilliant, that we were supposed to take over the world together and do all that was planned. I told him to haunt me.
I then looked at his eyes and saw tears. He may have been brain dead but I know he heard every word I said. Doctors did not give an explanation to what was coming out of his eyes.
If only I had said to Ryan "hey man watch your step" he might still be alive today. I have been told over and over again that I can not blame myself for what happened that day. I sometimes still do.
Ryan and I once had a conversation that if something ever happened to one of us that Studies In Comfort would stop, without a core creator there is no sense to continue it. Well I am going against those wishes. I can't lose what he and I created even before it took off the ground.
I now know my purpose in life. To carry on Studies In Comfort. I must continue on for him, finish off the 3 studio albums we had in the works and continue on with this art form.
Ryan died at the wheel and I have moved his lifeless body to the passengers seat and now a fucking insane madman is driving.
Ryan Nyenhuis, whos favourite artist was Nine Inch Nails, who lived on floor number 9, who wore a roman numeral 9 on his right arm, who died on the 9th floor at St. Micheal's Hospital, Toronto.
Thank you to 55 Division and all the paramedics and fire fighters who helped get Ryan out of that terrible dark place.
Ryan Nyenhuis is survived by his father, John, mother Cheryl, sisters, Jennifer and Leah, their beautiful children, myself and Studies In Comfort.
Ryan John Nyenhuis
July 28th 1981 - June 15th 2008
We love and miss you.
___________________________
All photographs were taken by Ryan Nyenhuis & Ian Levack with a Casio EX-Z1050 camera.
Pic Taken Of Rebel T3.
Finally not another 2 weeks without working on something in the MOC itself instead of just planning something out. So this past week I received my latest Bricklink order and I was pretty satisfied with it. In that order contained the parts I needed to complete an early BFII Map concept for Yavin IV which I think a lot of us can appreciate.
Update Link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XShujId6Ucs
Yavin IV MOC Progress: 63%
__________________
New MOC Workspace Table Setup
More Path Parts From Lego Store Trip
Latest Pathway BL Order Arrived
Finished Surrounding Sniper Towers
Awaiting Team To Start With Building
Only 1 BL Orders Till Landscape Is Done
Tile Surface Detail Order Placed Soon
One Team Member Coming In On Sat.
Over 2/3 Of MOC Parts Acquired
MOC BL Orders Organization Tabs
Republic Customs Sponsored MOC
CAC Weapons Order for Clones & Droids
W.I.P 41st Elite Troopers Coming Later
BL Order For More Clones Placed Last
Might Have Outside Source For Clones
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Rishi Canyon Zombie Outbreak Escape MOC Progress: 25%
__________________
Awaiting Team To Start Build & Plans
MOC BL Orders Organization Tabs
Over Roughly 10-12 BL Order Till Done
Going with Commander Fox for MOC
Xero Fett Customs Sponsored MOC
Planning Out Huge CitizenBrick Order
Another CAC Clones Weapons Order
Shock Trooper BL Order Placed Last
New BL Order Payments Might Be Split
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Battle Of Felucia / Order 66: Felucia Collab MOC Progress: 5%
_________________
Working With 1popcornproductions
Deciding Overall Size of MOC
Still Debating On Felucia or Jedi Temple
Flickr Group Created For Battle MOC
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Custom Minifig Display Stand (Xero Fett/Fineclonier,
Minifigs4U, & Republic Customs) Progress: 75%
__________________
RC Customs First Row Now Filled Up
1 More New RC Custom Coming In New Possible SCPC Custom For Stand Xero Fett Customs Replacing FDC No New Minifigs4U SCPCs Yet Stand Back Hasnt Been Extended Yet Still Dont Have YouTube & Flickr Labels No Business Cards of Vendors Yet Figs for back row for 2 sections. (Und) -------------------------------
WC Brick Convention Team: 100%
_________________
Official Team Members: Jeff W. & Mckenzie M.
Down To 8 Possible Backup Members Most Possible Team Members:
Dara & Darin R. + Nicole & Brittany T.
Additional Family Transportion Help
Still Currently Planning Team Schedule
Work Schedule Planned Out Monthly
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Without question this is one of my favorite bridges. There is something about the beauty of the geometric design that fascinates me.
Barcelona's old city is, without doubt, one of the nicest and most romantic of Europe. Its small streets, shops, the air you breathe, everything invites you to wander around, getting to know every place of this charming area. Even if we propose you a route, our best tip is to walk haphazardly around, without rushing, guided by what you see.
The RAMBLA is, of course, the best known landmark of Barcelona, and deservedly so. Meandering down from the Pl. de Catalunya to the Columbus statue, filled with newspaper kiosks, flower and animal stalls, and all sorts of artists, it is undoubtedly the place where everyone comes together, both tourists and locals, from the most inconspicuous to the most exaggerated representative of all sorts of urban tribes.
Of interest is the Miró Mosaic, the Liceu (Opera house), the Mercat de la Boqueria or exhibition centres such as the Palau de la Virreina and the Centre d'Art Santa Mònica.
When you feel tired, have a drink at one of the many terraces, try your luck at the Café de la Ópera. Strolling down the Rambla, on your right is the Barri del Raval, formerly known as the "barrio chino", the red-light district of the city. This area no longer has a bad reputation. In the Raval you will find many small restaurants and night bars where you can spend a very pleasant evening. In Calle Montalegre you'll find the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, which houses various exhibitions and the restored Museu d'Art Contemporani. Further down the Ramblas, in Calle Nou de la Rambla, is the Palau Güell, by Gaudí. You should not miss Pl. Reial, on your left, with its archway and palm trees (some say the tallest of Europe). It used to have a bad reputation, but has now become one of the safest places in the city. From this square go to Calle Ferran, which leads to Pl. Sant Jaume, where the Palau de la Generalitat and the Town Hall can be found. Once in the Barri Gòtic, the best thing to do is to wander round the small streets, exploring them for yourself. But don't miss the Pl. de Sant Josep Oriol, with its afternoon concerts. Pl. de Sant Felip Neri, the most romantic of the city, the Cathedral with its fine cloister, the Calle del Bisbe and the Pl. del Rei. If you're not too tired, it's time to go shopping around Portaferrissa and Portal de l'Àngel. You're not through with Ciutat Vella yet: you still have to visit the Barri de la Ribera, which is down to the right of Via Laietana, and where, among many others, you can find the Museu Picasso and the church of Santa Maria del Mar, the most representative example of the austere Catalan gothic style. This area, and that of the Pg. del Born, are rich in restaurants and bars where you can have a drink late at night.
In Wordpress In Blogger photo.net/photos/Reinante/ In Onexposure
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Un breve aggiornamento sulla mastodontica impresa in cui ci siamo infilati io e mio marito: la realizzazione di una Country House nelle Marche.
I lavori procedono, c'è ancora tanto da fare ma finalmente abbiamo raggiunto un importante traguardo, ossia la realizzazione di due piccole unità abitative che ci permetteranno finalmente di "sentirci più a casa" e "toccare con mano i progressi"
NON ANCORA APERTO AL PUBBLICO
____________
A brief update on the mammoth work in which we squeezed: the creation of a Country House in The Marche.
The work is progressing, there is still much to do but finally we reached an important milestone, we got two small units ready that will finally allow us to "feel more at home" and "first-hand the progress."
NOT YET OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
This was the best I could do without trespassing and was taken through a fence next to their depot, and also present out of shot next to N166XVO was their G788URY, and Harbour Bus & Coach S518TCF and NIJ5040/P889BCT.
However these 3 shots were the only shots I could do here, due to the ilegial Irish Traveler Gypsy Camp that had sprung up in Ceasers Way outside the Crosskeys Coaches Depot, and is STILL there!, Come on Brexit so we can get rid of them!
And be sure to check by my other acount: www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939%40..., to see what else I saw Very Recently!!
Yes I'm back again.
However due to my main computer on which I edit my work being struck down with a big bad virus, this picture and all the others I am uploading, were Unedited but have now been replaced with Edited versions. So enjoy and Thanks for your patience and understanding.
I do still hate everything about this shit that is new Flickr and always will, but an inability to find another outlet for my work that is as easy for me to use as the Old BETTER Flickr was, has forced me back to Flickr, even though it goes against everything I believe in.
I don't generally have an opinion on my own work, I prefer to leave that to other people and so based on the positive responses to my work from the various friends I had made on Flickr prior to the changes I have decided to upload some more of my work as an experiment and to see what happens.
So make the most of me before they delete my acount: www.flickr.com/photos/69558134@N05/?details=1, to stop me complaining!!
Panasonic DMC-G10
OLYMPUS M.45mm F1.8
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"My love she speaks like silence
Without ideals or violence
She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful
Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire
People carry roses
Make promises by the hours
My love she laughs like the flowers
Valentines can’t buy her
In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall
Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all
The cloak and dagger dangles
Madams light the candles
In ceremonies of the horsemen
Even the pawn must hold a grudge
Statues made of matchsticks
Crumble into one another
My love winks, she does not bother
She knows too much to argue or to judge
The bridge at midnight trembles
The country doctor rambles
Bankers’ nieces seek perfection
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring
The wind howls like a hammer
The night blows cold and rainy
My love she’s like some raven
At my window with a broken wing"
Bob Dylan
Copyright © 2014 Ruggero Poggianella Photostream
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Please note that the fact that "this photo is public" doesn't mean it's public domain or a free stock image. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. If you wish to use any of my images for any reason/purpose please contact me for written permission. Tous droits reservés. Défense d'utilisation de cette image sans ma permission. Todos derechos reservados. No usar sin mi consentimiento.
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Disegnata da Pininfarina, debutta in versione definitiva al Salone dell'automobile di Francoforte edizione 2003 per entrare in produzione nello stesso anno. Progettata su di un nuovo telaio a trazione posteriore utilizza una meccanica raffinata con schema transaxle e sospensioni anteriori e posteriori a quadrilateri deformabili. I motori adottati sono i nuovi 4.2 e 4.7 V8 prodotti a Maranello dalla Ferrari con basamento in alluminio e silicio e lubrificazione a carter umido; il cambio per le prime versioni prodotte era un robotizzato DuoSelect ma venne introdotto in seguito una trasmissione automatica sequenziale sviluppata dalla ZF con sei rapporti. La Quattroporte V è stata la versione più apprezzata e venduta della serie, con 24.000 esemplari prodotti in nove anni.
La quinta serie di Maserati Quattroporte viene prodotta dal 2003 al 2012 dalla casa automobilistica italiana Maserati; la vettura ha subito nel 2008 un aggiornamento estetico. È stata prodotta in circa 24 mila esemplari complessivi[1] e l'ultimo esemplare è uscito dalle linee di produzione dello stabilimento di Modena il 20 dicembre del 2012. La nuova generazione di Quattroporte viene progettata sotto la stretta osservazione della Ferrari in seguito ad una fusione tra quest'ultima e la Maserati grazie ad una riorganizzazione voluta dai vertici del gruppo Fiat (proprietario dei due marchi). La quarta serie ebbe un discreto successo nelle vendite ma non riuscì a risollevare l'immagine della casa del tridente, offuscata dalla produzione di auto derivate dalla serie Biturbo che non sono state mai elogiate da parte del pubblico per i contenuti tecnici; con la nuova generazione bisognava rendere competitivo il marchio ed incrementare le vendite sui principali mercati quali gli Stati Uniti e il Medio Oriente. Una delle caratteristiche strategiche per l'affermazione del modello erano il ritorno al lusso e all'eleganza di un tempo che hanno reso esclusivo il modello Quattroporte, senza però trascurare le prestazioni e la sportività. Bisognava creare una vera granturismo piacevole da guidare ma comoda per cinque passeggeri. La progettazione del modello è stata più volte discussa dai vertici che furono inizialmente contrari alla reintroduzione del modello, questo a causa degli eccessivi costi di industrializzazione e di produzione, ma erano in ballo le sorti del marchio che vide inizialmente anche uno scarso successo commerciale delle neonate sportive 3200GT e Coupé. Un nuovo prodotto era indispensabile e venne ufficialmente approvato nei primi anni 2000 affidando lo stile dell'autovettura alla Pininfarina, già autrice dei modelli più famosi prodotti dalla casa Ferrari. Il concetto era di reintrodurre lo stile della prima serie di Quattroporte in chiave moderna, un design che all'epoca piacque molto agli appassionati e indirizzò la casa del tridente verso la produzione di auto di lusso. La nuova serie, come la prima, ebbe lo stesso compito: introdurre il nuovo corso stilistico della casa e andare maggiormente incontro alle esigenze del pubblico. I primi bozzetti e alcuni prototipi in scala ridotta vennero esposti il 27 aprile 2002 al Museo d'arte contemporanea di Tokyo durante l'evento Artedinamica.
L'11 settembre del 2002 Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, presidente della Maserati, dichiara ufficialmente che gli sviluppi della nuova Quattroporte sono quasi terminati e che il modello definitivo sarà presentato in anteprima mondiale al Salone dell'automobile di Francoforte nell'autunno del 2003. Esteticamente la carrozzeria lunga oltre 5,0 metri è stata modellata in modo da garantire delle ottime prestazioni, grazie al design molto aerodinamico, muscoloso e sportivo, il frontale viene caratterizzato dalla presenza della nuova calandra in rilievo con i bordi cromati che ingloba il marchio del tridente; le versioni più esclusive vengono caratterizzate dalla presenze della griglia a quindici bande cromate che attraversa tutta la calandra, mentre le Quattroporte più sportive possiedono una griglia di colore scuro per sottolineare la vocazione da granturismo dell'automobile. La fanaleria anteriore di piccole dimensioni è stata integrata ai paraurti inferiori in modo da creare l'effetto di un cofano motore immenso solcato da profonde nervature. La fiancata esprime un concetto di sportività grazie ai passaruota in rilievo e alle classiche tre prese d'aria con bordi cromate applicate sui parafanghi anteriori; nella parte bassa della fiancata troviamo il classico fregio Pininfarina mentre sul montante posteriore, accanto alla sottile vetratura, troviamo il marchio Maserati cromato che dona un tocco di eleganza, insieme alle cornici dei finestrini (anch'esse cromate). La coda dispone di fanaleria che sfrutta la tecnologia a diodi luminosi a LED, i paraurti bombati incorporano i doppi terminali di scarico mentre il cofano del bagagliaio è stata impreziosito da una fascia cromata che si estende per tutta la sua larghezza. Il bagagliaio possiede un volume di 450 litri ed ospita le sacche da golf o il set di valigie appositamente disegnato e realizzato dalla Maserati; la mancanza della ruota di scorta ha portato all'utilizzo di un kit di gonfiaggio con compressore ma tra gli optional è disponibile anche il ruotino di scorta da 17". Gli interni della nuova Maserati Quattroporte seguono il design esterno, ovvero una plancia sinuosa che nella zona centrale presenta il grande schermo a cristalli liquidi del navigatore satellitare posizionato tra le bocchette d'aerazione del climatizzatore e i comandi del climatizzatore automatico bizona. Caratteristico è l'orologio al quarzo di forma circolare posizionato nella zona superiore della plancia. I principali comandi che governano la dinamica dell'autovettura sono stati ravvicinati al guidatore in modo da rendere più facile la gestione mentre sul tunnel centrale sono stati sistemati i pulsanti del freno a mano elettronico che si attiva automaticamente a motore spento. Gran parte della plancia e delle portiere viene realizzata in legni pregiati come lo Starwood, il Vavona ed il Wengè Polished, ma sono disponibili anche i laccati Black Piano e Blu Laque che conferiscono modernità all'abitacolo. Accanto al legno sono disponibili anche gli inserti per la plancia in Poltrona Frau e pelle con rifiniture specifiche su richiesta del cliente, il tutto montato artigianalmente. Con la Quattroporte è stato introdotto anche il Maserati Multimedia System, sviluppato dalla Magneti Marelli, integra il computer di bordo al navigatore satellitare, autoradio CD con Mp3 e hard disk da 30 GB, ingresso USB con bluetooth e comandi vocali. L'impianto audio viene gestito tramite i comandi principali applicati sul volante multifunzione con altoparlanti Bose Surround Sound System. Per i passeggeri posteriori è disponibile anche un pacchetto multimediale comprensivo di schermi LCD integrati nei poggiatesta con lettore DVD e climatizzatore posteriore. Tra i dispositivi di serie troviamo i sedili anteriori regolabili elettricamente in quattordici posizioni, cruise control, sensore crepuscolare e di pioggia, antifurto, bloccaggio automatico delle porte con spegnimento dei fari. Tra gli accessori sono disponibili anche i sedili riscaldati e massaggianti e il vano refrigerato integrato nel bracciolo centrale. La Quattroporte quinta serie viene realizzata su un telaio di base a trazione posteriore completamente inedito sviluppato appositamente per i modelli di casa Maserati; in seguito questa piattaforma sarà utilizzata dalle Maserati GranTurismo e GranCabrio e, in una versione a passo accorciato, anche le sportive Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione e 8C Spider (queste ultime prodotte dalla casa del tridente a Modena). Grazie all'elevata rigidità torsionale di questo telaio è stato possibile offrire alla Quattroporte delle prestazioni elevate abbinate ad una guida sportiva. Le sospensioni anteriori e posteriori utilizzano lo schema a quattro ruote indipendenti con quadrilateri alti deformabili realizzati con bracci in alluminio; queste raffinate sospensioni sono state studiate per migliorare l'handling della vettura e grazie alla geometria Antidrive e Antisquat il telaio non subisce brusche variazioni di altezza nelle fasi di accelerazione e di frenata. Il motore in posizione anteriore è stato arretrato verso l'abitacolo per ottenere una distribuzione dei pesi carica al 49% sull'asse anteriore e 51% sull'asse posteriore.
L’impianto frenante sfrutta sia per l'avantreno che per il retrotreno quattro dischi auto ventilanti dal diametro di 330 mm. Di serie per tutte le versioni il Maserati Stability Programm che integra l'ESP all'ABS ripartito dall'EBD. Inoltre è possibile variare la risposta dell'assetto a seconda del fondo stradale, infatti su percorsi ricchi di curve la Quattroporte si comporta come un'autentica sportiva grazie all'assetto irrigidito in configurazione Sport ma è disponibile anche la configurazione Normal per garantire una maggiore comodità agli occupanti. La sicurezza automobilistica viene garantita dalla presenza di serie degli airbag frontali a doppio stadio, laterali e per la testa oltre agli attacchi isofix per i sedili posteriori e ai vetri laminati. A cinque anni dal debutto la Quattroporte si rinnova sia in termini di estetica che di contenuti; dal 2003 fino al giugno del 2008 oltre 15.000 esemplari sono stati venduti e per rafforzare l'immagine del modello la casa è intervenuta modificando alcuni dettagli del frontale e della coda: sono stati ridisegnati i gruppi ottici che ora adottano la tecnologia a LED, la calandra dispone di nuove alette verticali mentre gli specchi retrovisori sono stati ridisegnati per donare maggiore slancio alla linea dell'auto. Complessivamente la nuova versione è lunga 5,10 metri, circa 5,0 centimetri in più rispetto alla precedente. Internamente invece la casa ha allargato la gamma di personalizzazioni introducendo nuove colorazioni per la selleria e per le rifiniture della plancia. Modificato anche il telaio, infatti la casa ha messo a disposizione un assetto ancor più sportivo e debuttano anche le nuove motorizzazioni da 4,7 litri V8 omologate Euro 5, abbinate ad una trasmissione robotizzata DuoSelect a sei rapporti oppure ad un classico automatico sequenziale, sempre a sei rapporti, realizzato in collaborazione con la ZF. Questa serie di Quattroporte è stata e continua tutt'oggi ad essere uno dei modelli più apprezzati della casa del Tridente, infatti ha riscontrato numerosi consensi soprattutto da parte del pubblico estero: fino al 2009 nella sola Gran Bretagna sono stati consegnati 1.000 esemplari. L'auto venne offerta nei primi anni di produzione in un unico allestimento base privo di denominazione e caratterizzato dalla presenza di serie di numerosi accessori per la sicurezza e per il comfort; la casa mise a disposizione anche numerosi optional proposti a pagamento come l'impianto di televisione integrato al navigatore e il telefono GSM oppure i pacchetti di accessori Comfort, Executive e Sport che arricchivano la dotazione di serie. Per gli interni erano disponibili anche particolari rivestimenti realizzati su richiesta del cliente. Nel settembre 2005 al Salone dell'automobile di Francoforte la gamma si arricchì delle versioni Executive GT e Sport GT: le Executive GT riprendevano gli accessori del precedente pacchetto Executive ed in più aggiungevano gli interni in legno con inserti della plancia in tessuto color crema e tonalità bicolore per tutto l'abitacolo, oltre alla presenza dei vari inserti cromati lungo la carrozzeria e la calandra con cerchi in lega specifici da 19" a nove razze. La Quattroporte Sport GT invece veniva caratterizzata dalle sospensioni irrigidite, il cambio robotizzato con tempi di cambiata ridotti del 35%, rifiniture interne in carbonio e scarichi modificati. Nel novembre 2007 Maserati presenta la Quattroporte Sport GT S versione che si posiziona al top della gamma; invariato il motore 4,2 litri, la Sport GT S presenta il cambio automatico sei rapporti, assetto irrigidito racing ribassato di 10 mm all'anteriore e di 25 mm al posteriore, impianto frenante a disco co-fusi in ghisa e alluminio realizzati dalla Brembo, cerchi imbruniti a sette razze da 20" e calandra sportiva. Internamente presenta i rivestimenti in Poltrona Frau abbinati agli inserti in alcantara. La Sport GT S è stata prodotta fino al restyling del 2008, anno dal quale sono entrate in listino le nuove versioni equipaggiate con motori più performanti. La Quattroporte S, introdotta con il restyling, non è altro che una versione potenziata della classica versione base che dispone del nuovo motore 4.7 V8 da 430 cavalli. Invariate le dotazioni di serie mentre i benefici riguardano le prestazioni. Al salone dell'auto di Detroit 2009 invece è stata presentata la nuova versione della Quattroporte Sport GT S equipaggiata con il nuovo motore 4.7 V8 da 439 cavalli: migliorate le prestazioni rispetto alla versione del 2007, gli interni sono stati orientati verso la sportività introducendo inserti in carbonio, modificato l'impianto di scarico. Il cambio automatico è stato rivisto per ridurre i tempi di cambiata. Non sono mancate versioni speciali prodotte in edizione limitata: verso la fine del 2004 è stata realizzata la Quattroporte Neiman Marcus distribuita nel catalogo dell'omonima azienda e prodotta in soli 60 esemplari per il mercato americano. Curiosamente tutta la produzione è stata esaurita tra le 12.00 e le 12.03 del 14 ottobre 2004. Caratterizzata dal colore bordeaux Pontevecchio e dai cerchi in lega da 19" dal disegno esclusivo, questa Maserati disponeva di numerose cromature esterne e degli interni in pelle con plancia in mogano. La Quattroporte Collezione Cento presentata nel gennaio 2008 è stata prodotta in soli cento esemplari destinati in prevalenza al pubblico americano, l'auto verniciata in color avorio era equipaggiata con dei cerchi in lega da 20" lucidi, la calandra possedeva uno sfondo grigio satinato mentre internamente si è preferito indirizzarla verso il lusso: speciale selleria in Poltrona Frau con impunture a forma di rombo e bottone a vista rifinita a mano, sistema Maserati Multimedia Entertainment con schermi a cristalli liquidi applicati negli schienali posteriori con ingresso USB e per SIM card, lettore CD e DVD con climatizzatore posteriore. Il motore era il classico otto cilindri 4,2 litri.
Nel marzo del 2009 la Maserati presenta per il solo mercato inglese la Centurion Edition, versione speciale realizzata per i soli possessori della carta American Express nera. Questa Quattroporte presenta la verniciatura nera e un raffinato abitacolo rivestito in Poltrona Frau color ghiaccio con il logo Centurion applicato sui poggiatesta e sulla plancia. I motori a disposizione sono i classici 4.2 e 4.7 V8. Al Salone di Ginevra 2010 la Maserati ha presentato la Quattroporte Sport GT S Awards Edition, versione in edizione limitata realizzata per celebrare i 65 riconoscimenti ricevuti dal modello negli oltre sei anni di commercializzazione; ciò ha dimostrato come la nuova Quatroporte sia stata un vero modello di successo per la Maserati sia in termini di immagine che di vendite. La meccanica deriva dalla Sport GT S con medesimo propulsore 4.7 V8 da 439 cavalli e stesso assetto sportivo mentre le novità sono tutte concentrate nell'abitacolo dove debuttano i nuovi rivestimenti per la selleria Awards Edition con tessuti in Poltrona Frau ed Alcantara abbinati alle rifiniture imbrunite e alle modanature satinate in legno Piano Black. Esternamente si notano i grandi cerchi in lega satinati da 20" con pinze dei freni in metallo lucidato a specchio prodotte dalla Brembo.
Inizialmente la Quattroporte venne offerta con il solo motore benzina da 4,2 litri aspirato con otto cilindri a V di 90° realizzato a Maranello dai tecnici Ferrari. Questo V8 con basamento e testa dei cilindri in alluminio e silicio possiede una distribuzione a quattro valvole per cilindro (per un totale di 32 valvole) con due alberi a camme in testa per bancata dotati di variatore di fase continuo e azionati da catena. La lubrificazione è a carter umido. Dotato di iniezione elettronica eroga la potenza massima di 400 cavalli (294 kw) a 7.000 giri/min per una coppia motrice massima di 451 N•m a 4.500 giri al minuto. Le emissioni registrate sono pari a 345 grammi di anidride carbonica emessa per chilometro nel ciclo combinato. Lo scatto da 0 a 100 km/h viene registrato in 5,2 secondi per una velocità di punta pari a 275 km/h. Il consumo medio dichiarato è di 5,2 km/l. Questo 4.2 viene omologato secondo i parametri della normativa Euro 4 ed era abbinato ad un cambio robotizzato DuoSelect a sei rapporti utilizzabili nella modalità sequenziale. Il DuoSelect, sviluppato dalla Ferrari basandosi su una evoluzione del precedente CambioCorsa, era caratterizzato dai tempi di cambiata molto rapidi e per questo venne criticato soprattutto dal pubblico americano i quali hanno richiesto una trasmissione automatica tradizionale; dal 2007 la casa ha messo a disposizione anche il cambio automatico sequenziale a sei rapporti sviluppato in collaborazione con la ZF caratterizzato dai tempi di cambiata addolciti. Con il cambio automatico ZF le prestazioni della Quattroporte vengono peggiorate: lo scatto da 0 a 100 km/h viene registrato in 5,6 secondi mentre la velocità di punta scende a 270 km/h, il tutto a favore dei consumi con l'auto che è in grado di percorrere 6,8 km/l. La coppia massima con l'automatico sale a 460 N•m erogati a 4.250 giri al minuto.
Nel 2008 venne introdotta una seconda motorizzazione benzina: si tratta del nuovo 4,7 litri sempre otto cilindri a V di 90° derivato dall'unità 4.2. Anche questo 4.7 viene prodotto a Maranello, possiede la lubrificazione umida e sfrutta l'iniezione elettronica con la fasatura variabile. Il 4.7 è riconoscibile per i coperchi delle teste di colore rosso, eroga 430 cavalli a 7.000 giri al minuto per una coppia massima di 490 N•m a 4.750 giri al minuto. Grazie alla maggiore potenza è in grado di prestazioni migliori infatti lo scatto da 0 a 100 km/h viene registrato in 5,4 secondi con una velocità massima dichiarata di 280 km/h. Ovviamente i consumi risultano sensibilmente superiori rispetto al 4.2 infatti la Quattroporte 4.7 è capace di percorrere 6,6 chilometri con un litro di carburante, le emissioni di anidride carbonica salgono a 365 grammi emessi al chilometro mentre l'omologazione anti inquinamento rispetta gli standard Euro 5. Il 4.7 è abbinato al cambio automatico sequenziale ZF sei rapporti.
Dal 2009 la Quattroporte è disponibile anche con il 4.7 V8 potenziato a 439 cavalli, incremento ottenuto intervenendo sulla centralina e sullo scarico; si tratta della più potente e veloce berlina prodotta da casa Maserati grazi alla velocità massima di 285 km/h con scatto da 0 a 100 km/h registrato in 5,1 secondi. Questa versione di punta eroga la coppia massima di 490 N•m a 4.750 giri/min ed è in grado di percorrere 6,4 km/l con emissioni di 365 g/km di anidride carboica ed omologazione Euro 5. Il cambio è una versione rivista dell'automatico sequenziale a 6 rapporti con software MC-Auto Shift: in posizione Manual Mode si ottiene una guida più personale e sportiva perché è il guidatore a decidere i passaggi di marchia (sequenziali) che possono avvenire fino ad alto numero di giri mentre in modalità Auto Sport i passaggi di marcia vengono gestiti dal software. Il 4.7 V8 da 439 cavalli è disponibile solo per la versione Quattroporte Sport GT S.
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La Porsche 911 è un'autovettura sportiva prodotta dalla Porsche a partire dal 1963. È tuttora in produzione, e nel corso degli anni ha avuto molti cambiamenti. Si possono, tuttavia, distinguere due serie fondamentali: le 911 con motore raffreddato ad aria (1963-1997) e le 911 "moderne" (dal 1998 ad oggi). Nella seconda metà degli anni cinquanta la Porsche 356 iniziava a sentire il peso degli anni. Il motore 4 cilindri boxer raffreddato ad aria era nato nel 1948 con cilindrata di 1.131 cm³ e 40 CV di potenza, ed era derivato, come altre componenti dell'auto, dalla Volkswagen Maggiolino. Il vecchio 4 cilindri aveva raggiunto il massimo del suo potenziale di sviluppo con la versione 2.0 Carrera GS da 130 CV. Per la progettazione della nuova vettura Ferry Porsche si occupò della parte tecnica, affidando l'innovazione stilistica al figlio Ferdinand Alexander Porsche soprannominato dai suoi familiari "Butzi". Le linee guida decise a priori comportavano il mantenimento dell'impostazione tecnico-stilistica della "356", con il motore boxer raffreddato ad aria e montato posteriormente, ma con un'abitabilità sufficiente a ospitare 4 persone. La costruzione in serie di una tale vettura, avrebbe consentito alla Porsche di entrare nel mercato delle Gran turismo "due litri", con un prezzo concorrenziale rispetto ai modelli costruiti artigianalmente da molti carrozzieri italiani, su meccaniche Alfa Romeo, Fiat e Lancia. Lo sviluppo tecnico non diede gravi difficoltà e la nuova meccanica, incluso l'inedito 6 cilindri boxer, era pronta già nel 1961. Problemi maggiori derivarono dalla definizione della carrozzeria. La soluzione trovata da Butzi alla fine del 1959, il prototipo "T7" (in seguito anche denominato "754"), non convinceva e le varie modifiche non riuscirono a trovare la giusta soluzione tra l'eleganza dell'aspetto e la necessità di ottenere il richiesto spazio per passeggeri dei sedili posteriori.
Un lungo lavoro di affinamento portò alle soluzioni più disparate e bizzarre, finché Butzi si vide costretto ad abbandonare l'iniziale punto programmatico dei 4 posti e ripiegare sulla configurazione 2+2, che consentiva di mantenere la linea di cintura iniziale, raccordando il padiglione con il cofano motore in una sola curva.
L'aspetto estetico risultò subito molto equilibrato e, ancor più la parentela stilistica con il modello "356". Per la nuova vettura venne scelta la sigla commerciale "901" e il primo esemplare costruito, di colore giallo, fu presentato al Salone dell'Automobile di Francoforte del 1963, ottenendo buoni apprezzamenti dal pubblico e dalla stampa specializzata. La commercializzazione della nuova "901", avviata all'inizio del 1964, fu subito ostacolata dalla diffida della Peugeot ad usare quella sigla, poiché depositaria di tutti i numeri a tre cifre con lo zero al centro da utilizzare per i suoi modelli. La Porsche fu quindi costretta a modificare la sigla in "911" a partire dal 10 novembre 1964. Marchiati "901" furono soltanto i primi 82 esemplari già venduti, quasi tutti allestiti in maniera artigianale, dato che la produzione di serie ebbe inizio il 14 settembre di quell'anno. Pur immediatamente ottenendo un buon successo di vendite, la "911" fu inizialmente investita da forti polemiche e contestazioni, soprattutto rivolte all'eccessivo prezzo di listino e alla problematica tenuta di strada. La questione del prezzo, provocò un vero e putiferio di rimostranze da parte della clientela Porsche, dato che il nuovo modello era proposto all'astronomica cifra di 23.900 DM, con un aumento di oltre 7.000 DM, rispetto alla "356". A seguito delle proteste, l'azienda decise di ridurre il prezzo della "911" a 22.400 DM. Inoltre propose una versione con finiture modeste e motore a 4 cilindri derivato dalla "356", al contenuto prezzo di 17.500 DM, poi divenuta "912" dall'aprile 1965. Di soluzione non altrettanto facile furono le carenze tecniche lamentate dalla clientela che si tramutarono, nel 1966, in un dimezzamento delle vendite, passando alle 1.709 vetture consegnate, contro le 3.389 dell'anno precedente. Venivano lamentate la scarsa ventilazione e l'eccessiva rumorosità nell'abitacolo, il comportamento nervoso della vettura e, soprattutto, l'instabilità direzionale oltre i 130 km/h e il notevole effetto sottosterzante. La 911 era una coupé 2+2 (gli affinamenti avevano ridotto lo spazio posteriore), con motore posteriore a sbalzo, trazione posteriore, sospensioni a 4 ruote indipendenti con barre di torsione, 4 freni a disco e cambio meccanico a 5 rapporti (spesso 4 per gli USA). Il 6 cilindri boxer raffreddato ad aria e alimentato da 2 carburatori Solex triplo corpo che la muoveva aveva una cilindrata di 1991 cm³ e una potenza massima di 130 CV. Nel 1966 venne lanciata anche la 911 S che, grazie ad una serie di modifiche all'albero motore, profilo dei pistoni, valvole maggiorate, raggiungeva una potenza di 160 CV. Su tutti i modelli si passò a carburatori Weber. Esternamente la S si riconosceva per i cerchi in lega Fuchs.
Sempre nel 1966 le coupé (standard e S) vennero affiancate dalle versioni Targa, con tetto rigido asportabile. Era la 911 T, con alimentazione a carburatori e motore meno prestante (110 CV); la 911 L manteneva il motore a carburatori da 130 CV ed aveva finiture di maggior pregio; la 911 S, ancora dotata di carburatori Weber, offriva 160 CV. Tutti i modelli erano disponibili sia in versione coupé che Targa.
Nel 1968, per rendere meno "nervoso" il comportamento stradale, venne allungato il passo di 6 cm (da 221 a 227 cm): il modello base era ancora la 911 T, con alimentazione a carburatori e motore da 110 CV; i modelli 911 E (140 CV) e 911 S (170 CV) erano dotati di iniezione meccanica Bosch. Nel 1969 fu cambiata la griglia posteriore e la cilindrata del motore: da 1991 a 2195 cm³. Le potenze salirono a 125 CV per la serie T (a carburatori), a 155 CV per la serie E (a iniezione) e a 180 CV per la serie S (pure a iniezione). Una serie S come si direbbe oggi "full optional" fu acquistata dalla Solar Film (casa produttrice statunitense che faceva capo a Steve McQueen) e usata nel film Le 24 Ore di Le Mans, con lo stesso Steve McQueen protagonista, che arriva sul circuito al volante proprio della 911 S grigia. Recentemente quest'auto, venduta dall'attore pochi anni dopo il film, e passata varie volte di mano, è stata battuta ad un'asta statunitense di auto d'epoca. Nel 1971 la cilindrata del boxer venne aumentata ulteriormente da 2195 cm³ a 2341 cm³ e le potenze crebbero a 130 CV (T), 165 CV (E) e 190 CV (S). La più potente 911 S ottenne anche uno spoiler anteriore per stabilizzare l'avantreno alle alte velocità. Nel 1972 fu proposta la 911 Carrera RS (RennSport), mossa da una versione di 2687 cm³ (210 CV) a iniezione meccanica del classico 6 cilindri boxer e carrozzeria alleggerita, con cofani e portiere in alluminio e lamiere non strutturali assottigliate. La Carrera RS era disponibile in una versione Touring con interno simile a quello delle 911 S e Sport, con allestimento interno semplificato per contenere ulteriormente il peso. Era riconoscibile per il celebre alettone posteriore "a coda d'anatra" (ducktail), le strip adesive sulla fiancata ed i cerchi (in lega) in tinta con le strip. Era disponibile nella sola versione coupé. Nel 1973 ne vennero creati otto esemplari da competizione denominati Carrera RSR. Utilizzando come base la RS, vennero montati nuovi freni ventilati a disco con quattro pistoncini e nuove sospensioni sportive irrigidite. I passaruota erano stati allargati per permettere il montaggio di pneumatici da competizione, più grandi rispetto a quelli di serie. Nella parte anteriore venne sistemato un nuovo radiatore dell'olio, mentre il propulsore impiegato era una versione 2.8 da 308 cv del motore della RS stradale. La sua gestione era affidata ad un cambio manuale a 5 rapporti. Questi modelli vennero affidati ai team Brumos e Penske per competere in alcune prove del Campionato Mondiale per vetture sport.
La prima prova fu alla 24 Ore di Daytona, dove i piloti Peter Gregg e Hurley Haywood del team Brumos ottennero la vittoria. Altre pregevoli conquiste furono La Targa Florio e la 12 Ore di Sebring. Nel 1974 le nuove norme USA sulla sicurezza e sull'inquinamento costrinsero i tecnici Porsche a rivedere la 911. Furono cambiati i paraurti, resi più grandi e ad assorbimento d'urto (i cosiddetti "impact bumpers"), con due pistoni idraulici al posto delle barre metalliche usate sul mercato europeo. I gruppi ottici posteriori vennero uniti da una fascia trasparente rossa inglobante i catarifrangenti. Dal punto di vista tecnico, invece, la cilindrata venne portata per tutte le versioni a 2687 cm³. Tutte adottarono l'alimentazione a iniezione meccanica, ma l'adozione di dispositivi antinquinamento ridusse la potenza utile. Anche gli interni furono aggiornati per migliorare comfort e sicurezza. La nuova gamma comprendeva la 911 standard (150 CV), la 911 S (177 CV) e la 911 Carrera (210 CV). Quest'ultima aveva la carrozzeria delle altre 911, senza alleggerimenti e variazioni estetiche, ed era disponibile anche in versione Targa (come pure la standard e la S), mentre il motore era lo stesso della Carrera RS della serie precedente: fu venduta solo sul mercato europeo ed in Sudafrica, ma non negli Stati Uniti. Nel 1975 venne introdotta la 911 Turbo, con motore portato a 2994 cm³ e sovralimentato con turbocompressore . La potenza cresceva così a 260 CV.
La 911 Turbo, disponibile solo in versione coupé, era facilmente riconoscibile per la carrozzeria allargata, l'ampio alettone posteriore (che incorporava l'intercooler), i cerchi sportivi con pneumatici maggiorati sui posteriori, lo spoiler anteriore più pronunciato e la verniciatura in nero opaco di tutte le parti cromate. Minime le modifiche all'interno. Lo stesso anno, data l'esigenza di proporla anche sul mercato statunitense, la cilindrata della Carrera crebbe a 2994 cm³, ma a causa dei dispositivi antinquinamento la potenza scese da 210 a 200 CV. Nel 1977 fu lanciata la 911 SC (SuperCarrera), che sostituiva tutte le altre versioni "non turbo" (standard, S e Carrera); aveva una cilindrata di 2994 cm³ e una potenza ridotta a 180 CV. Esteticamente le uniche modifiche riguardavano la verniciatura in nero opaco dei particolari prima cromati.
La SC, disponibile sia in versione coupé che Targa, venne lanciata in un momento in cui il management della Casa tedesca riteneva che la 911 fosse un modello superato, destinato ad essere gradualmente rimpiazzato dalla Porsche 928, lanciata proprio quell'anno e dotata di un nuovo motore V8 raffreddato ad acqua e meccanica transaxle. La 928 ebbe un buon successo di mercato, soprattutto negli USA, ma non riuscì mai a sostituire nel cuore degli appassionati la 911, che rimase sempre il modello Porsche più popolare. Nel 1978 la cilindrata della 911 Turbo crebbe da 2994 a 3299 cm³ e la potenza, grazie anche all'adozione dell'alimentazione a iniezione elettronica (anziché meccanica), raggiunse i 300 CV. Nel 1981 la potenza delle SC venne incrementata a 204 CV. Nel 1983 le versioni coupé e Targa vennero affiancate dalla 3.0 SC Cabriolet. Nel 1984 le 911 SC lasciarono il posto alle 911 Carrera 3.2, pressoché invariate esteticamente (a parte i piccoli fendinebbia rettangolari, ora integrati nello spoiler anteriore e non più solo opzionali, e il richiamo degli indicatori di posizione in posizione laterale), ma con importanti novità tecniche: cilindrata portata a 3164 cm³, alimentazione a iniezione elettronica anziché meccanica e potenza di 231 CV.
Fu realizzata anche in versione cabriolet. Nel 1987 venne proposta la nuova migliorata trasmissione G50 e la frizione idraulica. La fascia posteriore rossa ora comprende anche i retronebbia. Sono state prodotte due versioni commemorative della 3.2, chiamate comunemente, ma erroneamente, entrambe Giubileo.
Una del 1988 in occasione della 250.000ª 911 prodotta aveva un colore specifico (Diamantblau met cod. 697), la firma Ferry Porsche ricamata sugli appoggiatesta ed i cerchi ruota forgiati Fuchs con i "petali" nello stesso colore della carrozzeria anziché neri. Venne prodotta in tutte le varianti di carrozzeria, con motore catalizzato e non. Nell'anno seguente è stata realizzata una nuova versione commemorativa per i 25 anni di inizio di produzione della 911: in realtà erano 3 modelli con equipaggiamento molto completo e piuttosto rari, contraddistinti dai codici M097, M098 e M099. Rappresentavano una serie limitata di fine produzione del modello 3.2: M097 modello Anniversario 1989 25 anni 911 versione Germania, vernice blu profondo metallizzata, interni pelle totale colore grigio perla, tappetini in velluto effetto seta colore grigio perla, consolle centrale speciale, cerchi Fuchs in tinta, cruscotto in radica; prodotta principalmente con carrozzeria coupé, ha avuto anche versioni Targa e Cabrio, molto rare; M098 modello Anniversario 1989 25 anni 911 versione USA vernice argento metallizzata, interni in pelle totale colore grigio effetto seta, tappetini in velluto colore grigio, consolle centrale speciale, cerchi Fuchs in tinta; M099 modello Anniversario 1989 25 anni 911 versione Resto del mondo vernice blu metallizzata, pelle totale colore blu, tappetini in velluto colore argento-blu, consolle centrale speciale, cerchi Fuchs in tinta. Il Model Year 1989 rappresenta l'ultimo anno di produzione della 3.2 con la tipica carrozzeria Bumper e le "sospensioni a lame". Le vetture di quest'anno presentano tutta una serie di piccole evoluzioni tecniche e di dotazioni poi riprese dalla imminente 964. Sempre nel 1989 venne realizzata una piccola serie di 911 Speedster.
Si trattava di una cabriolet alleggerita con parabrezza più piccolo, calotta aerodinamica in plastica al posto dei sedili posteriori, carrozzeria slim o allargata "Turbo Look" e meccanica della normale derivata dalla Carrera 3.2. Nel giugno 1989 venne lanciata la 911 Carrera 4 (serie 964), con tantissime novità tecniche ed estetiche. Da punto di vista tecnico la novità principale era l'adozione della trazione integrale permanente e di un motore a cilindrata maggiorata da 3600 cm³ con doppia accensione e 250 CV. I freni ottennero l'ABS di serie, mentre lo sterzo era servoassistito. Esteticamente venivano adottati nuovi paraurti, diversi cerchi, inedito alettone posteriore retrattile e interni rivisti. Le versioni disponibili erano coupé, Targa e cabriolet.
Nel 1990 anche le versioni a trazione posteriore adottarono motore, freni e allestimento della Carrera 4. Il nome commerciale era 911 Carrera 2. Le versioni disponibili erano coupé, Targa e cabriolet. Anche le 964 Turbo (talvolta impropriamente indicate come 965) vennero aggiornate, prendendo i paraurti e gli interni delle Carrera 2/4. La potenza del motore 3,3 litri saliva a 320 CV. Lo stesso anno debuttò anche la Carrera 2 3.6 RS, alleggerita grazie ad un allestimento semplificato e potenziata a 260 CV. Nel 1987 per la prima volta venne proposta la 911 Turbo Cabriolet, e nel 1993 arrivarono la Carrera 2 Speedster e la Carrera 2 3.8 RS (con motore di 3,8 litri da 300 CV). La cilindrata della Turbo venne accresciuta a 3,6 litri con un conseguente aumento della potenza massima a 360 CV. I fari anteriori più inclinati ed il diverso taglio dei gruppi ottici posteriori costrinsero la Porsche a ridisegnare i parafanghi anteriori e alcune lamiere posteriori. Nuovi anche i paraurti e parte degli interni. Rilevanti anche le novità tecniche: nuova sospensione posteriore, denominata "LSA", acronimo che sta per "leggero, stabile, agile" (con traliccio che ingabbiava il motore) e 6 cilindri boxer con condotti di aspirazione a lunghezza variabile "Variocam" introdotta dal Model Year 1996 con conseguente aumento della potenza a 286 CV. Ulteriore novità tecnica fu l'adozione, per la prima volta su un'auto di serie, del fondo piatto, soluzione che migliorò l'aerodinamica e la stabilità della vettura.
La nuova sospensione garantiva un'eccellente tenuta di strada anche al cospetto dei 272 CV erogati dal 6 cilindri di 3,6 litri. Nuova anche la trazione integrale della Carrera 4. Sia le Carrera (a 2 ruote motrici) che le Carrera 4 erano disponibili in versione coupé o cabriolet. La versione Targa non venne inizialmente prodotta. La 911 Turbo della serie 993 venne potenziata con trazione integrale e sovralimentazione con 2 turbocompressori più intercooler, per un totale di 408 CV. Nel 1995, con il Model Year 1996, venne riproposta una versione denominata Targa: si trattava di una Carrera 2 con tetto apribile panoramico in cristallo azionato elettronicamente. Lo stesso anno vennero lanciate le Carrera S e Carrera 4 S, con carrozzeria "Turbo look". Nel 1996 entrarono in gamma la RS (motore di 3,8 litri da 300 CV, trazione posteriore e carrozzeria alleggerita di 100 kg) e la Turbo GT2 (trazione posteriore e motore biturbo da 450 CV). La serie delle 911 con motore raffreddato ad aria si chiuse nel 1997. Bisognava progettare un modello completamente nuovo, ma che mantenesse l'identità estetica e meccanica (motore 6 cilindri boxer posteriore a sbalzo) della 911, evitando gli errori commessi con le varie Porsche 944 e Porsche 968: evolute tecnicamente, ma fallimenti commerciali. Fu così che alla fine del 1997 nacque la 911 serie 996. Un modello completamente nuovo, sia tecnicamente che esteticamente, ma indubbiamente legato alla tradizione, in pratica una riedizione dei modelli tradizionali. Dal punto di vista tecnico le novità riguardarono soprattutto le sospensioni anteriori (comuni alla Porsche Boxster) a quadrilateri ed il motore, sempre sei cilindri boxer, ma con raffreddamento ad acqua e testata a 4 valvole per cilindro. Posteriormente venne riproposta una riedizione della sofisticata sospensione posteriore "LSA". L'ESP integrava il lavoro delle sospensioni ed erano disponibili due tipi di trazione: posteriore o integrale permanente a gestione elettronica.
Grazie alla distribuzione a 24 valvole con fasatura variabile il boxer, nonostante la cilindrata ridotta a 3387 cm³, era in grado di fornire 296 CV. Anche gli interni erano completamente nuovi. La gamma era composta dalle versioni coupé e cabriolet alle quali s'aggiunse successivamente la versione Targa con tetto in cristallo, come sulla 993. Nel 1999 arrivò la GT3, con motore aspirato di 3,6 litri da 360 CV e carrozzeria alleggerita.
Nel 2000 entrò in produzione la 911 Turbo con motore biturbo (420 CV) e trazione integrale che spinge la vettura da 0 a 100 km/h in soli 4,2 secondi. La carrozzeria, inizialmente solo coupé poi anche in versione cabrio, venne allargata rispetto alle "normali", ma era meno estrema rispetto alle edizioni precedenti. Nel frontale debuttarono fari diversi che anticiparono il restyling su tutta la gamma, e sono state introdotte due grosse prese d'aria laterali e feritoie sul paraurti posteriore più alettone (sdoppiato superati i 120 km/h) che ne aumentarono l'aggressività rispetto alla 911 standard, oltre che le prestazioni aerodinamiche. Nel 2002 è stato inoltre rilasciato il modello potenziato "Turbo S", una versione elaborata della 996 turbo che spinge il motore da 420 cv a 450 cv limando il 0-100 a 4,1 secondi, grazie alla rimappatura della centralina, e all'impiego di turbocompressori di maggiori dimensioni. Il tutto firmato Porsche. La carrozzeria è rimasta invariata, ad eccezione della S posteriore affiancata alla scritta turbo. Per i già possessori del turbo standard, la casa produttrice di Stoccarda ha rilasciato anche il KIT S, per poter rimanere al passo senza che i più esigenti abbiano dovuto rivendere il veicolo appositamente per avere la S. Infine, sempre nel 2002 venne lanciata la versione GT2, derivata dalla Turbo, ma potenziata a 462 CV, alleggerita e convertita in trazione posteriore. Quest'auto, particolarmente nervosa ed impegnativa da guidare, era priva di qualsiasi controllo di trazione e stabilità, proprio in nome della filosofia racing che Porsche adotta per le proprie versioni GT. Nel 2004 la GT2 venne leggermente aggiornata nella versione cosiddetta "Mark2", potenziata a 483 CV e modificata in alcuni particolari. Nel 2005 un restyling di fari anteriori, paraurti e interni ha dato vita alla serie 997. Rispetto alla precedente 996, la nuova versione oltre al ritorno dei fari anteriori circolari (oblunghi sulla serie precedente), riportava alcune novità tecniche, soprattutto riguardanti il motore con cilindrata di 3600 cm³ (325 CV) per le 911 Carrera standard e di 3800 cm³ (355 CV) per le 911 Carrera S.
Venne mantenuta disponibile la trazione integrale accanto a quella posteriore, sia per le versioni standard che S. Tutte sono disponibili con carrozzeria coupé, Targa o cabriolet. Nel 2006 hanno debuttato le versioni Turbo (3,6 litri biturbo, trazione integrale, turbine a geometria variabile e 480 CV), GT3 (3,6 litri aspirata da 415 CV), GT3 RS (con la stessa meccanica della GT3 standard, carrozzeria alleggerita e assetto ancora più esasperato) e Carrera 4 Targa (con tetto panoramico in cristallo ad azionamento elettrico e trazione integrale). Alla fine dell'autunno 2006 viene proposta la 911 997 Targa. Nella primavera del 2009 la Porsche annuncia una versione commemorativa che si chiama Sport Classic e si rifà alle 911 classiche: in primis la 2.7 Carrera RS, di cui riprende l'alettone a coda d'anatra e i cerchi "Fuchs style" da 19". La meccanica è quella della Carrera S potenziata a 408 CV, il tetto ha la doppia gobba; ne verranno prodotti solo 250 esemplari.Nel 2010 viene lanciata la GT2 RS: in pratica un'auto da corsa targata. L'abitacolo presenta un roll-bar, e il motore è biturbo con 620 CV, scaricati solo sull'assale posteriore: la più potente Porsche omologata per circolare per strada. Inoltre è stata creata la versione Speedster della 997: a livello meccanico e stilistico è uguale alla Sport Classic, la differenza è naturalmente il tetto ripiegabile nella calotta aerodinamica in plastica. Ne verranno prodotti solo 365 esemplari.
~Vincent van Gogh
That Vincent--what a way with words. And with the brush. For my money, no one created more emotional impact using small strokes, impasto swirls, and vivid colors in the post-impressionist era. Of course, the quote in no way suggests that the above photo has any of those same qualities. But I must admit to giving serious consideration to lobbing off part of my ear after I saw it. Is that bad? Right, keep the ears.
Happy Gorgeous Green Thursday!
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© Steven Brisson. Do not use without permission.
Without 49ers in SB 56, there's no reason to watch Super Bowl game on TV, flower photography is fun !
“It is time for our people to live in freedom, without walls and checkpoints”, urged President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas in his address to MEPs on Thursday. He conveyed his people’s gratitude to the European Parliament for recognising a State of Palestine and criticised Israel for pursuing its occupation of Palestinian territories.
The “Palestinian nation wants to live in full sovereignty [...] and the EU, being a major player, is helping to create an embryo Palestinian State”, said President Abbas. He asked MEPs for more help to find a fair and just two-state solution based on the 1967 borders. Mr Abbas also welcomed the recent French initiative to revive the Middle East peace talks, but advocated for setting a deadline for these talks to end.
President Abbas also condemned the use of violence and terrorist attacks as a means to build a state, warning that terrorism could be eradicated from the region only if Israel puts an end to its occupation of Palestinian territories. “Israel has turned our country into an open prison”, he said.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that helping to ensure the stability and proper functioning of Palestine is a moral duty for EU. “Your presence here today, the day after President Rivlin delivered his address, sends a strong signal that the will to achieve a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine is still alive”, he added.
Read more:
www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/top-stories/20160617TST326...
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Cristina D'Avena & Gem Boy
Carroponte - Sesto San Giovanni - Milano
11 Luglio 2013
© Mairo Cinquetti
© All rights reserved. Do not use my photos without my written permission. If you would like to buy or use this photo PLEASE message me or email me at mairo.cinquetti@gmail.com
Cristina D'Avena nasce a Bologna lunedì 6 luglio 1964 da Alfredo, medico, e da Ornella, casalinga. All'età di 3 anni e mezzo esordisce cantando "Il valzer del moscerino" alla decima edizione della rassegna canora per bambini Zecchino d'Oro; il brano si aggiudica il 3º posto. Dopo l'esperienza allo Zecchino d'Oro, rimane all'Antoniano come componente del Piccolo Coro fino al 1976, ma continuerà a frequentarlo per altri 5 anni accompagnando la sorella Clarissa, nata 10 anni dopo di lei e anche lei diventata nel frattempo componente del coro.
Nel 1981 Cristina è una diciassettenne studentessa di Liceo Classico che vede il canto solo come un hobby. In quel periodo, Alessandra Valeri Manera, l'allora responsabile della tv dei ragazzi della neonata Canale 5, era alla ricerca di una voce femminile che potesse interpretare la sigla della serie animata giapponese "Pinocchio": per questo motivo interpellò Augusto Martelli, direttore artistico-musicale della rete nonché figlio del maestro Giordano Bruno Martelli. Fu proprio Martelli padre, tramite il figlio, a segnalare a Valeri Manera il nome di Cristina D'Avena, avendo egli avuto modo di frequentarla fino a poco tempo prima presso il Piccolo Coro dell'Antoniano. Dopo essere stata sottoposta ad un provino discografico, Cristina, ancora minorenne, firma un contratto di esclusiva (a cui è legata ancora oggi) con l'etichetta discografica di Canale 5, la Five Record (in seguito ridenominata RTI Music, oggi inglobata in RTI s.p.a.), e diviene così l'interprete della canzone "Bambino Pinocchio" composta da Martelli figlio che di lei all'epoca disse: « Diventerà una grande cantante ». Il successo commerciale del relativo 45 giri diede effettivamente inizio alla carriera di Cristina: da allora non ha mai smesso di incidere e, grazie alla quantità di sigle da lei registrate, è l'unico personaggio dello spettacolo la cui voce è presente sulla tv italiana ininterrottamente dai primi anni '80 almeno una volta al giorno, 7 giorni su 7, 365 giorni l'anno.
Sempre da questo periodo inizia a pubblicare numerosi singoli ed album, che complessivamente venderanno un totale di circa 6 milioni di copie: nel 1983, infatti, Five Record dà vita a "Fivelandia", il primo volume di quella che diventerà una longeva collana destinata a contenere le sigle dei cartoni animati in onda sulle reti del biscione; un appuntamento fisso dell'autunno a cadenza annuale, a cui si aggiungerà, a partire dal febbraio 1987, la sua versione primaverile anch'essa a cadenza annuale dal titolo "Cristina D'Avena con i tuoi amici in tv". Tra le canzoni di maggior successo dei primi anni, particolare menzione per "Canzone dei Puffi" del 1982 (grazie alla quale verrà premiata con il suo primo Disco d'Oro per le oltre 500.000 copie vendute) e "Kiss me Licia" del 1985 (Disco di Platino per le oltre 100.000 copie vendute del relativo album): quest'ultima è la sigla a cui la cantante dichiarerà più volte di essere maggiormente legata.
A partire dal settembre 1986 raggiunge, tuttavia, una popolarità ulteriore a quella già acquisita in 5 anni con la sola interpretazione delle sigle, nonché una notevole visibilità, quando interpreta il ruolo di Licia nella prima di 4 serie di telefilm per ragazzi intitolata "Love me Licia": la serie è basata sulla protagonista e sui personaggi del cartone animato giapponese "Kiss me Licia" (che aveva fatto il suo debutto 12 mesi prima), del quale questa produzione italiana con attori in carne e ossa prosegue idealmente le vicende. È così che quella che fino a questo momento era quasi soltanto una voce (quel timbro così particolare che milioni di bambini italiani avevano già imparato a riconoscere) diventa di fatto un volto, il volto di una ragazza dall'aspetto più giovane dei suoi 22 anni che l'intero pubblico, anche quello più adulto, ora conosce e apprezza già. A "Love me Licia" seguiranno "Licia dolce Licia" nella primavera 1987, "Teneramente Licia" nell'autunno 1987 e "Balliamo e cantiamo con Licia" nella primavera 1988; le serie vengono trasmesse il lunedì, il mercoledì e il venerdì alle ore 20:00 su Italia Uno in diretta concorrenza coi telegiornali Rai e raggiungono insperati ascolti record.
Nel 1987, mentre i brani da lei incisi ammontano già ad un centinaio, Cristina registra un brano in lingua francese: si tratta della versione francofona della sigla italiana "Lovely Sara" (da lei già interpretata pochi mesi prima), destinata ad accompagnare la messa in onda di "Princesse Sarah" che sarà il primo cartone animato ad essere trasmesso su La Cinq, rete televisiva francese di proprietà di Silvio Berlusconi costruita sul modello di Canale 5. Grazie a questa sua incisione la cantante, che per la prima volta vide apparire il proprio nome sulla copertina di un disco pubblicato e distribuito esclusivamente all'estero, è conosciuta e ricordata ancora oggi dai bambini francesi degli anni '80.
Conclusasi la saga di Licia nella primavera 1988, dall'autunno Italia Uno decide di mettere in scena proprio Cristina e la sua realtà quotidiana, costantemente impegnata tra gli studi universitari alla Facoltà di Medicina e il lavoro di cantante. Non a caso, durante l'ultima puntata dei telefilm di Licia, Cristina D'Avena compare nel ruolo di se stessa annunciando la sua intenzione di metter su una band musicale. Pochi mesi dopo viene infatti trasmessa su Italia Uno "Arriva Cristina", a cui seguiranno "Cristina" nell'autunno 1989, "Cri Cri" nell'autunno 1990 e "Cristina, l'Europa siamo noi" nell'autunno 1991. "Cri Cri" si compone di due serie da 36 episodi l'una, mentre "Cristina, l'Europa siamo noi" viene trasmessa da Retequattro anziché da Italia Uno e alle ore 19:00 anziché al consueto orario delle 20:00. Come già avvenuto per le 4 serie di Licia, per ognuno di questi telefilm Five Record pubblica un disco contenente la sigla e tutti i brani cantati all'interno degli episodi: i primi tre album diventano Dischi di Platino.
Tra i suoi concerti più riusciti quelli realizzati nel novembre 1989 e 1990 al PalaTrussardi di Milano, a cui assistettero un totale di circa 20.000 spettatori, e quello del 1992 al FilaForum di Assago (13.000 persone in sala e 3.000 all'esterno) i cui incassi sono stati interamente devoluti alla Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro.
Con alle spalle la stessa autrice-produttrice degli esordi ed una casa discografica che, grazie solamente alle sue canzoni, nel 1991 ottiene un fatturato di oltre 9 miliardi di lire, negli anni '90 la cantante prosegue, regolarmente e senza interruzioni, ad incidere nuove sigle e a pubblicare CD; numeri, i suoi, che tanti artisti blasonati, ancora oggi, le invidiano. Persino la cantante Mina, nel 1994, inciderà ed inserirà in uno dei suoi album una cover di una canzone di Cristina del 1988 dal titolo "Sempre attento al regolamento"; per l'occasione, testo e titolo furono modificati e la canzone divenne "Tu dimmi che città".
All'attività musicale e discografica si aggiunge l'attività di conduttrice e co-conduttrice televisiva (nonché radiofonica) iniziata già nel 1989 col varietà del sabato sera di Canale 5 "Sabato al circo", esperienza grazie alla quale Cristina, insieme a tutto il cast del programma, si aggiudicherà il Telegatto nella categoria "Programmi per ragazzi". Il programma andrà avanti per quattro anni, fino al 1992, quando cambia titolo, rete e giorno di programmazione e diventa "Il Grande Circo di Retequattro", in onda per 16 settimane da mercoledì 7 ottobre. Assieme a Gerry Scotti presenta per due anni lo speciale di Capodanno di Canale 5, in onda il 31 dicembre 1989 con il titolo "L'allegria fa 90" e il 31 dicembre 1990 con il titolo "Evviva l'allegria". Dall'8 novembre 1992 conduce su Italia Uno "Cantiamo con Cristina", la versione per bambini del "Karaoke" di Fiorello che va in onda alle ore 20:00 della domenica: in ogni puntata si affrontano due squadre che si sfidano sulle note delle sigle di Cristina. Nella stagione 1993/94 farà parte del cast della sesta edizione di "Buona Domenica", al fianco di Gerry Scotti e Gabriella Carlucci: qui, tra le altre cose, conduce la rubrica "Radio Cristina" dove commenta lettere e fax inviati dai più piccini e si esibisce in alcuni numeri musicali e di danza (in questi spazi avrà anche modo di eseguire le canzoni dell'album "Cristina canta Disney" fresco di pubblicazione). Avrà poi il ruolo di inviata speciale in giro per l'Italia nella quinta edizione di "La sai l'ultima?", in onda su Canale 5 nella stagione televisiva 1995/96 e condotta da Gerry Scotti assieme a Paola Barale. A partire dal 15 settembre 1996, invece, conduce per due anni di seguito, alternandosi settimanalmente col doppiatore ed amico Pietro Ubaldi, il contenitore di cartoni animati e giochi telefonici "Game Boat", in onda tutti i giorni nel preserale di Retequattro; in questo periodo, tra l'altro, viene pubblicato il quattordicesimo capitolo di "Fivelandia", premiato con il Disco di Platino per le oltre 100.000 copie vendute. Nel 1998, nel 1999 e nel 2000 ritorna allo Zecchino d'Oro in qualità di co-conduttrice al fianco di Cino Tortorella e Milly Carlucci. Nell'autunno 1998 è chiamata da Fabio Fazio per condurre con Andrea Pezzi il varietà del venerdì sera di Rai Due "Serenate", ideato dallo stesso Fazio che inizialmente doveva esserne il conduttore. Su Rai Uno, invece, condurrà il tradizionale "Concerto di Primavera", sia ad aprile 1999 che ad aprile 2000, oltre che lo special natalizio "Buon Natale a tutto il mondo" di cui sarà la presentatrice sia nell'edizione del 1999 che in quella del 2000.
Nel 1998 debutta anche al cinema, seppur con un cameo: interpreta infatti se stessa in una scena del film "Cucciolo" di Neri Parenti accanto a Massimo Boldi, con il quale aveva già lavorato ai tempi di "Sabato al circo".
Nel dicembre 2002 Cristina festeggia ufficialmente 20 anni di carriera (sebbene l'incisione di "Bambino Pinocchio", la sua prima sigla per un cartone animato, risalga al secondo semestre del 1981) con la pubblicazione di un doppio CD dal titolo "Cristina D'Avena: Greatest Hits" (ma il titolo inizialmente previsto è "Cristina D'Avena: Vent'anni"), che raccoglie i più grandi successi della cantante (il CD 1 è relativo agli anni 1981-1990, il CD 2 agli anni 1991-2002) e include una nuova versione, riarrangiata e reinterpretata per l'occasione, della sua prima sigla. Proprio nel giorno d'uscita del disco, il 6 dicembre, dall'auditorium di Cologno Monzese la rete televisiva satellitare Video Italia le dedica, in prima serata e in diretta contemporanea su Radio Italia, una puntata di oltre 2 ore della sua trasmissione "Serata con...", durante la quale la cantante esegue dal vivo gran parte dei brani dell'album, in quella che si rivela essere una vera e propria festa-concerto a cui prendono parte fan storici, amici e collaboratori di vecchia data.
Il suo nome per oltre 20 anni è stato professionalmente associato in modo indissolubile a quello di Alessandra Valeri Manera: responsabile dei programmi per ragazzi delle tv del biscione dal 1980 al 2001 e a conti fatti talent scout e creatrice del personaggio "Cristina D'Avena", Valeri Manera è stata anche ideatrice, autrice, direttrice artistica e produttrice di tutti i lavori della cantante alla quale è legata da una sincera amicizia, sebbene dal 2001 la sua attività si sia ridotta ad una composizione saltuaria dei testi di sigle. In coppia con Valeri Manera, nel 2002 Cristina firma per la prima volta come autrice una sua canzone dal titolo "I colori del cuore". Nel 2007 firma da sola il testo di una sua sigla per un cartone animato (il titolo del brano, e della serie, è "Dolce piccola Remì") e da allora, di tanto in tanto, alcune delle sigle da lei interpretate portano il suo nome come unica autrice delle parole.
Il 14 aprile 2007, al Roxy Bar di Bologna, Cristina celebra 25 anni di successi con un grande concerto, accompagnata dall'irriverente gruppo dei Gem Boy con il quale inaugura una collaborazione che dura ancora oggi. In questa occasione riceve da Red Ronnie il prestigioso riconoscimento "Gandhi 9.11", un totem luminoso creato dall'artista Marco Lodola e destinato a quei personaggi che si sono maggiormente distinti come portatori di pace. Nello stesso anno, poi, si verifica un vero e proprio record per la cantante: alla cifra di 1.210 euro si chiude l'asta online del CD del 1989 "Cristina D'Avena e... i tuoi amici in TV 3", venduto sul portale eBay il 10 settembre. La vendita viene resa nota e definita dalla divisione italiana del sito come « il primato mai raggiunto online da un CD in Italia »; non a caso, la versione CD dell'album è considerata uno tra i pezzi più rari nella produzione discografica della cantante, non tanto per le 14 sigle in esso contenute (reperibili comunque su altre pubblicazioni successive) ma poiché, nella sua versione digitale, venne stampato in un numero limitatissimo di copie rispetto ai classici formati utilizzati all'epoca (sebbene per ancora pochi anni), vale a dire l'LP e l'MC. Il record è stato addirittura superato il 10 novembre del 2011, quattro anni dopo, quando un'altra copia messa all'asta è stata venduta alla cifra di 3.010,00 euro.
In questa fase della sua carriera, nonostante da tempo non abbia più un programma tutto suo, la cantante continua a farsi vedere dal pubblico televisivo accettando l'invito di numerose trasmissioni Rai o Mediaset che la chiamano per intervistarla o per vederla esibirsi; nella puntata del 16 febbraio 2008 del programma di prima serata di Rai Uno "I Migliori Anni" si registrerà un picco di ascolti pari a 7.618.000 telespettatori proprio nel momento della sua partecipazione al programma in cui dal vivo canta la sigla di "Kiss me Licia". Nello stesso anno pubblica due libri per bambini, di cui la cantante è autrice e narratrice, dal titolo "Le fiabe di Fata Cri: Fata Cri e i draghetti pasticcioni" e "Le fiabe di Fata Cri: Fata Cri e il ballo degli scoiattoli": quest'ultimo venderà 37.500 copie.
Dopo aver scritto e interpretato la sigla della serie animata "Twin Princess - Principesse Gemelle" che diverrà il suo primo singolo ad essere commercializzato come download digitale, nel 2009 realizza un disco che si distacca dalle sigle tv per le quali è da sempre conosciuta: per la prima volta infatti si rivolge al grande pubblico, non solo a quello dell'infanzia, e lo fa con un album dal titolo "Magia di Natale", in cui reinterpreta 12 brani della tradizione natalizia, classici e moderni, tutti arrangiati dal maestro Valeriano Chiaravalle. Il disco è anche l'occasione, per la cantante, di incidere per la prima volta in lingua inglese. Nell'album figura anche una cover di "Childhood", brano di Michael Jackson con il quale l'artista ha voluto rendere omaggio al Re del Pop.
Da giovedì 21 gennaio 2010 torna a lavorare in tv: è nel cast della seconda edizione del programma di prima serata di Italia Uno "Matricole & Meteore". Nello show, composto da 8 puntate e condotto da Nicola Savino e Juliana Moreira, ha il doppio ruolo di ospite fisso e inviata speciale nei panni di una principessa alla ricerca del Principe Azzurro; nelle varie puntate si esibisce anche in alcuni medley di sigle fra le tante incise nel corso della sua carriera. Dal 28 febbraio dello stesso anno è testimonial di Intervita ONLUS, organizzazione umanitaria internazionale impegnata in progetti di sviluppo nel Terzo Mondo attraverso il sostegno a distanza, per la quale registrerà 15 messaggi promozionali trasmessi da Canale 5. A partire dal periodo autunnale, le serie di telefilm che la videro protagonista tra l'86 e il '91 riacquistano visibilità nonché rinnovata fortuna grazie alla loro riproposizione da parte del canale Hiro di Mediaset Premium e, poco tempo dopo, anche per mano di La5 che le trasmette, tutte le sere, allo stesso orario della prima messa in onda, vale a dire alle 20. Visto il grande successo riscosso (la fascia oraria in cui vengono trasmessi risulta essere la più seguita per la rete), la casa discografica della cantante decide di ristampare, per la prima volta su CD e dopo oltre due decadi di assenza dal mercato discografico, le colonne sonore di ciascuna delle 8 serie, raccogliendole in due box multidisco intitolati "Licia e i Bee Hive Story" e "Arriva Cristina Story", che appassionati vecchi e nuovi accoglieranno con straordinario entusiasmo.
Anche nel nuovo millennio la cantante ha continuato e continua a tenere concerti in tutta Italia, sia da sola che accompagnata dal gruppo dei Gem Boy; uno dei suoi ultimi concerti più fortunati è sicuramente quello tenuto ad Avellino nel maggio del 2010 dove, tra bambini e adulti, ha raccolto oltre 15.000 spettatori.
Nel gennaio 2011 incide una sigla per la prima volta in duetto con una voce femminile: quella di Alessia Volpicelli, piccola paziente del C.R.O. (Centro di Riferimento Oncologico) di Aviano; il brano, di cui la D'Avena è anche autrice, si intitola "Emily della Luna Nuova". Nello stesso periodo firma anche il testo di una canzone per uno dei concorrenti del programma televisivo "Io Canto": si tratta del brano "Tutto quello che ho" incluso nell'album d'esordio di Simone Frulio dal titolo "Tredici".
L'anno successivo la cantante torna in tv e approda su Super!: per tutta l'estate è infatti la conduttrice di "Karaoke Super Show!", la prima produzione del canale televisivo per ragazzi edito da De Agostini. In onda nel week-end dalle più belle piazze della riviera romagnola, il programma prevede la partecipazione di due squadre composte da bambini, genitori e nonni che si sfidano interpretando i grandi tormentoni estivi, le canzoni dello Zecchino d'Oro più amate e naturalmente le più famose sigle dei cartoni animati di Cristina. Ma il 2012 è anche l'anno del 30º anniversario del debutto artistico di Cristina D'Avena: per festeggiare questa ricorrenza viene messa in atto una serie di celebrazioni a partire già dal dicembre 2011, quando apre il fanclub ufficiale della cantante che gli ammiratori chiedevano insistentemente da tempo. Ad aprile del 2012 i festeggiamenti proseguono con l'inaugurazione del suo negozio online, all'interno del quale è possibile trovare gran parte della sua sempre più abbondante produzione discografica oltre a tanti prodotti e gadget esclusivi, scelti e ideati direttamente da Cristina in persona. Le celebrazioni di questo importante traguardo si materializzano anche a livello discografico con la nascita di un grande progetto in due parti dal titolo "30 e poi...", che debutta nei negozi di dischi il 27 novembre 2012 con l'uscita del triplo CD "30 e poi... Parte Prima". L'album è composto da 3 CD che racchiudono un totale di ben 70 sigle originali dei cartoni animati più famosi degli anni '80, '90 e 2000; la scaletta è impreziosita dalla presenza di tre sigle inedite (una risalente al '95, una al '99 e un'altra ancora al 2009) qui pubblicate per la prima volta in assoluto e di una ora disponibile per la prima volta su CD, da una reinterpretazione di Cristina del classico natalizio "O Holy Night", da un megamix dei suoi storici successi anni '80 e infine da una cover del brano "L'anno che verrà" di Lucio Dalla, con la quale l'artista vuole rendere omaggio al cantautore suo concittadino. Il progetto "30 e poi..." prosegue quindi nel 2013 con una serie di iniziative a tema e si concluderà nell'autunno dello stesso anno con l'uscita di "30 e poi... Parte Seconda".
#OnceUponATime
In spring 2013 I organized #SpaceBembel, a #SpaceSocial where a group of #SpaceTweeps got together again to share some space fun in Frankfurt.
As one of my mottos is "no #SpaceTweetup without a proper badge" I designed one and distributed it to all participants.
What I had started back then became kind of a tradition in the meantime:
Inspired by several #Space- and #ScienceTweetups I painted logos for every event I attended,
got them printed on badges for all, as well as thank-you posters, t-shirts, etc. as memento of our shared adventures.
And 2013 has been quite a ride :-)
#SpaceBembel *
#ASE26 *
#BuraMooN 1 & 2 * #SpaceKoelschX * #CERNTweetup * #ItIsStonehengeReunionOClock * #ScienceTweetup
And 2014 is also amazing already:
I already created designs for #SpaceFestVI and #AlexTweetup taking place in May
and @SpaceUpUK in July 2014.
I am very much looking forward to sharing these events with so many friends from all over the world.
More to come ;-)
www.flickr.com/photos/spaceholix/collections/721576354819...
So #AlexTweetup is about our trip to Baikonur shared by 16 dedicated #SpaceTweeps and two #SpaceMascots named #PinkLittleDragon and @CamillaSpace.
All of us will share this unique adventure of witnessing the Soyuz launch of our German astronaut Alexander Gerst ( #FF @Astro_Alex ) to #ISS on 28. May 2014 via Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels.
Here is the collection of my brainstorming and the design process as well as many pictures of the past 5 years, from the day at #TdLR09, where we "met" Alexander Gerst and the other #shenanigans for the very first (but not the last) time, shortly after their assignments for a trip to #ISS.
Oh yes, there was a time before twitter and other social media ;-)
www.flickr.com/photos/spaceholix/sets/72157644182872632/
My latest design features the #NebraSkydisk - one of the most beautiful and most fascinating archeological and astronomical artefacts ever found - until today.
This is the oldest-known illustration of our cosmos so far, with an estimated age of 3600 years (!!!), the earliest known diagram of the heavens, which makes it one or may be THE most important archaeological discovery of the twenty-first century.
It was discovered by treasure hunters on July 4th 1999 near the city of Nebra in Germany and since then fascinates not only the experts as its history is really exciting from then till now.
www.dailymotion.com/video/x1a45jq_the-nebra-sky-disc-anci...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebra_sky_disk
www.bibliotecapleyades.net/arqueologia/nebra_disk.htm
I fell in love with this beauty as soon as I saw it the very first time several years ago.
And I always wanted to paint it one day!
So what better match could there be than combining this masterpiece -created by stargazers thousands of years ago, who loved observing (and already started understanding) our night sky- with two fantastic #SpaceEvents in May 2014.
#SpaceFestVI in Pasadena ( www.spacefest.info/VI/brochure.html ), THE #SpaceEvent of the year, where many astronauts of the dawning of space exploration did reunite and inspire all of us
and then -end of May- our #AlexTweetup - where we celebrate the launch of @esa astronaut Alexander Gerst, whose mission name is #TheBlueDot (!!!).
Both events bring people together (again), who travel all around the world to share their love of space and our beautiful blue marble …
And I am really honored that sharing my badges and designs with so many #SpaceTweeps AND astronauts of the very first era of space exploration until today made so many people smile again. And these smiles seem to be contagious ;-D
I cannot really explain it, there simply is this very special close link between us.
NOTE:
#NebraSkyDisk is under the copyright of the Landesamt für Denkmalpflege und Archäologie Sachsen-Anhalt
- Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte -
www.lda-lsa.de/en/nebra_sky_disc/
As my design project is an artistic realization for two private travel groups, I was kindly given official permission to integrate the #NebraSkydisk in my artworks here.
Hence I have to emphasize that my artwork may ONLY be shared as per following license:
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DE
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/de/
I herewith explicitly send my thanks to the
STATE OFFICE FOR HERITAGE MANAGEMENT AND ARCHAEOLOGY
- THE STATE MUSEUM OF PREHISTORY IN HALLE / GERMANY -
and - as asked for - I will gladly send pictures of my design as well as badges and photos of #SpaceFestVI in Pasadena and #AlexTweetup in Baikonur to the Museum for its collection / exhibition.
It is my pleasure to share the #NebraSkydisk far beyond the borders of Germany - especially during events, which only can take place, because some people started documenting their night-sky-observations thousands of years ago.
#SpaceholixThenAndNow ;-)
Covered below is an overview of all the details embodied in my #AlexTweetup mission logo
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#AlexTweetup
- Facebook group for all #SpaceTweeps interested in the trip to the launch of Alexander Gerst on 28. May 2014
www.facebook.com/groups/AlexanderTweetup/
Baikonur * May 26th - 30th 2014
- Travel period for #AlexTweetup in Baikonur
www.dlr.de/dlr/presse/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10308/471...
BLUE DOT
- Mission name of Alexander Gerst
blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/
XL
- Mission no. 40 - in roman numerals
THEN + NOW
- Connection between space exploration THEN #NebraSkydisk (dated about 3.600 years ago in Germany) and NOW (#BlueDot mission of German astronaut Alexander Gerst)
WISEMAN * GERST * SURAJEW
- names of the international crew of mission no. 40
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedition_40
SHAPING THE FUTURE ...
Mission theme of Alexander Gerst's mission #BlueDot
www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight/Astronauts/A...
... IN LEO
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Earth_orbit
- Abbreviation LEO #LowEarthOrbit - the home of #ISS
CONSTELLATIONS:
LEO
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_(constellation)
- reflecting LowEarthOrbit - the orbit of #ISS
DRACO
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(constellation)
- representing #DRAGON - the partially reusable spacecraft developed by @SpaceX, which has docked to #ISS already several times and will deliver cargo regularly.
We enjoyed seeing the capsule used during the maiden flight in Florida at SpaceX Launch Control Center during an event before the #NASATweetup for #STS135
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draco_(rocket_engine)
- also representing #PinkLittleDragon - the travel buddy of #The2AndAHalfSpaceTweeps @LightspeedLeo @4tuneQkie and @travelholic ( avoving @Spaceholix ) and our #SpaceMascot.
This #VIP #VeryInspiringPinkLittleDragon is traveling all around the world with us and he already has attended several great #SpaceTweetup and #ScienceTweetup events organized by @NASA @DLR_de @ESA @CERN @Helmholtz_de as well as #ASE26 #SpaceFestV and #SpaceFestVI
and he has already met many of the most inspiring #SpaceExplorers and #Astronauts from the #Mercury and #Apollo era - till today, as well as #scientists @MeteoriteMen #CometHunters ...
SWAN
- representing the footprint / autograph of our dear friend and great #SpaceMascot and #VIP #VeryIntelligentPoultry:
@CamillaSpace is encouraging not only children of all ages to ask questions about the Sun and space and she was planned to be part of this mission accompanying NASA astronaut @astro_reid on his trip to #ISS.
Her footprint is heading from the Swiss flag (home country of Camilla's "executive secretary" Romeo Durscher ( about.me/romeoch ) to the US flag via #ISS
www.wired.com/2012/11/camilla-nasa-rubber-chicken/
XXVIII
V
MMXIV
- 28. 05. 2014 = launch date of mission 40 in roman numerals stylised in shape of ISS
* “ @ “ AND “ # “
- reflecting the tools of the peer-to-peer connection of astronauts @Astro_Alex and @astro_reid and many others with #SpaceTweeps and future space enthusiasts, who will further spread news about the adventures all around the world via social media channels, e.g. @twitter, Facebook, Google+ and others.
16 FLAGS
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/par...
- representing all current international partners and participants cooperating on #ISS – the most ambitious international collaboration ever
which -in my eyes- really would be worthy of the nobel peace prize www.spacesafetymagazine.com/iss-nobel-peace-prize/
Between the flags I left additional room for more countries to join that global project in the near future.
Especially in difficult political times like today this cooperation hopefully will enable our world to grow together more closely step by step.
Now we are looking forward to this trip and are curious how everything will work out.
This definitely is a very adventurous trip and if someone had told me 5 years ago, when we met that guy in blue for the very first time that we would be going to KAZAKHSTAN half a decade later to see HIS launch, I would NEVER EVER have believed it.
It seems our lives as #Spaceholix have many surprises in store for us ;-)
If YOU want to know more about all this, just follow the hashtag of our group:
#AlexTweetup
;-)
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
so since I was tagged by like 7 people for this I figured I should probably actually do it xD
1:From all the dolls you own,who is your favorite and why.
without any doubt, Lena.
Lena is my oldest and most significant character.
I'd say that I definitely have days where I favor other dolls as far as who I want to play with, but Lena will always be my favorite.
2:Explain how you managed to get into BJD collecting.
one of my best friends went to an anime convention where junkyspot was vending, and she decided that she wanted one.
when she was waiting for her first doll and after she got him she was sending me tons of pictures and I thought they were really neat and that I'd like to have one but didn't really know what I wanted.
then I realized that I could sort of use them as a way to make my roleplay characters real, so I started to look for a doll that I thought could work for what I wanted and ended up ordering my dollzone aimi in december of '09.
3:Name the very first doll you ever bought.
Like I said above, that was my dollzone aimi.
at the time I had intended her to be Lena, but in the end she just really didn't quite ever fit for me; so I decided to reshell Lena as a minifee ryeon and developed a new character, Livi, for the aimi 'cause I love her to bits even if she didn't work out quite as I'd originally planned.
4:Which doll do you plan to buy next?
well it may sort of depend on a couple of things, but right now I'm planning to try and get my second minifee next.
I'm still not sure exactly what face sculpt I think will work best for the character though 'cause I was thinking karsh, but I'm super indecisive and probably won't actually settle on one until I can actually afford her xD
I'm also lusting hardcore for realpuki pupu, so if he were to become available when I have the money I'm not sure I'd be able to pass him up.
5:Are you currently waiting on any dolls?
nope.
I'm currently pretty broke after purchasing my new camera, so no new dollies for me right now xD
6:How many dolls do you currently have?
I currently have 2 minis, 1 pukifee, 1 pukipuki, 1 floating multihead, and sort of 2 floating yosd size heads that I don't actually have in my possession right now (but I wouldn't say that I'm waiting on them 'cause they weren't purchases)
7:Name the very last doll you bought.
Lena, my minifee ryeon.
and Nomi, my juri multihead came along with her as a free event gift.
8:What is the worst thing about this hobby?
drama.
but I think that's really an issue in any hobby.
9:What is the best thing about this hobby?
the friends that I've made for sure, some of my best friends are people who I've either met or grown closer to through the doll hobby.
also all of the offshoot hobbies that have come from bjd collecting.
I've always sewn, but not as seriously as I do now that I sew for dolls 'cause I guess I've kind of finally found the type of sewing I'm best at, and I've gotten much more into photography of both dolls and other things since I started collecting.
10:Which is your best dolly photo (of yours)
I really don't know.
it kind of changes all the time.
like, currently I'm quite fond of "forever yours.", the photo that I took of Lena and Erin together on saturday.
actually though, I'd be curious to see what you all think my best photo is?
11:Which is your favourite BJD company?
fairyland, as if that wasn't abundantly obvious xD
but I'm also quite fond of pipos and alchemic labo
12:Who are on your wish list?
like I said before, minifee girl of undetermined sculpt to be izzy. realpuki pupu. possibly souldoll lester to be michael, but I'm still holding out hope for more options in that size range. bodies for my floating heads. and I'd really love to have a lusis/minifee hybrid, but I don't know who she'd be so she's not on the priority list xD
13: Are there any dolls you wished you had never purchased?
nope.
I buy dolls because I want them, and even if that want doesn't last and I end up selling them I did still want them at one point so what is there to regret.
14: Who's your favourite face up artists?
well currently I have dolls painted by mendokusai and tsuminaki, so obviously I'm very fond of their work.
I also really love xhanthi's work and would love to have a doll painted by her at some point.
15:What is a must when considering a purchase/pose ability/faceup/age/etc?
pose ability is pretty important to me 'cause I have pretty high standards since both dollzone minis and all fairyland dolls are fantastic posers; but in the end, whether or not the sculpt is what will work best for the character is most important since most of the dolls I have plans for are pre-existing characters of mine that I already have clear pictures of in my head.
and I'm not actually tagging anyone, I'm just tagging the people who tagged me so they actually see my answers.
if you haven't already been tagged by someone to do this and you want to do it then have at it!
Dressed up for another meal in Sydney.
Cardigan from Target
Top from a bargain rack somewhere
Trousers from Next
Gold pumps from K-Mart
Necklace from Medieval Disco
Bangles from Dorothy Perkins and Something For Doris
Selena Gomez
Alcatraz - Milano
16 Settembre 2013
ph © Mairo Cinquetti
© All rights reserved. Do not use my photos without my written permission. If you would like to buy or use this photo PLEASE message me or email me at mairo.cinquetti@gmail.com
What do you do after striking gold with your first solo album, wrapping your third season starring in a hit series and earning raves for your movie debut? If you're Selena Gomez, you dance. At least, you get the world on its feet with "A Year Without Rain." A follow-up to "Kiss & Tell," Selena’s gold-certified Hollywood Records debut CD, "A Year Without Rain" shows Selena and her band, The Scene, in a whole new light, this one pulsating, multicolored and ready for the mirrored ball.
"I really wanted something that felt good to perform, but had a techno/dance vibe," Selena says. "I wanted something that had meaning and melody, and more empowering lyrics." That’s exactly what she delivers in "A Year Without Rain." Working with top producer/songwriters like Tim James & Antonina Armato, Kevin Rudolf, Toby Gad and Jonas Jeberg, Selena kept to a more quickened tempo, exploring themes of love, freedom and the joy of living for the moment.
Selena credits the album’s neo-techno leanings to her 2010 platinum-certified single, ‘Naturally," which pointed the way for her. That track "really helped me figure out where I want to be," she says. "There’s a feeling when I perform that song that I love, so when I was going back in the studio, I had a better understanding of where I wanted to be musically."
She gets right to it with the opening track, "Round & Round," an upbeat synth-driven song about reaching the limits of indecision in love. The plaintive "A Year Without Rain" may be more subdued, but its beauty impressed Selena enough to make it the title track. "When I got the song, I went through the roof," she recalls. "Everybody has that one person they can’t live without. It was exactly what I wanted to say." That goes double for the Spanish version of the song, Selena’s first recording in that language.
Having turned 18 this year, Selena has matured since making her professional debut at age 7, but girls still wanna have fun, which is what songs like "Spotlight" "Off the Chain" and "Summer’s Not Hot" are all about. "Rock God" features none other than Katy Perry on backing vocals, while "Intuition" boasts a duet between Selena and rapper Eric Bellinger in a tricked-out double-time salute to a positive attitude.
Selena slows things down on "Ghost of You," a ravishing ballad about a breakup so rough, no amount of "living crazy loud" can crush the memory. "It’s very beautiful, very raw," Selena says of the song. "Shelly Peiken co-wrote it. She knows me, knows about everything I go through, and knows how to express it in a beautiful way."
On the flip side, Selena comes back strong with "Sick of You," a Matt Squire-written and produced track about losing a loser ("You know fairy tales don’t come true/ Not when it comes to you"). The album ends with "Live Like There’s No Tomorrow," an epic power ballad expressing the creed by which Selena has built her life and career.
A Dallas native, Selena Gomez started acting at age seven when she landed a role in the popular television series "Barney & Friends," on which was a regular for two seasons. She landed her first film role in the 2003 sci-fi action adventure film "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over." She made her mark as an actress playing girl wizard Alex Russo in the hit Disney Channel series "Wizards of Waverly Place," which premiered in 2007 and has now completed three seasons. Selena and her cast mates won a 2009 Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program.
Selena then made an indelible impression with her starring role in 2010 comedy "Ramona and Beezus." Says Selena, "I wanted something completely different from my show. All these incredible actors, being able to learn from them and get my feet wet in the film world. It was the perfect way to get into it." Next up, a starring role in "Monte Carlo," in which she plays a teen on vacation in the romantic European principality. And of course, Selena is gearing up for the fourth season of "Wizards of Waverly Place."
Selena has branched out into fashion with the premiere of her new clothing line, Dream Out Loud, sold exclusively at K-Mart. But her instinct for charity remains strong. She is a proud UNICEF ambassador, and will appear for a third year at UNICEF's Trick or Treat bash, this time to kick off UNICEF's 60th anniversary. And with the new album comes a new tour with her band.
Having her own band has been a comfort for Selena as she hits the road with "A Year Without Rain." Scene members; Ethan Roberts (Guitar), Joey Clement (Bass), Greg Garman (Drums) and Dane Forrest (Keyboard) back her on tour and help shape her emerging sound. "On my TV show we have an ensemble cast that’s like a family," she says. "If anyone’s missing, you feel it. I wanted that family feel in my music, and we definitely have that with the Scene."
That family feeling had grown to include fans around the world, each of them all in when it comes to following Selena Gomez on her amazing artistic journey. Where’s she headed? She’ll let you know when she gets there. "I’m still figuring out who I am," she says. "I love expressing that through music, and through film. I feel at this moment in my life I couldn’t be happier."
The Cirneco dell'Etna is a small breed of dog originally from Sicily. This hound was historically used to hunt rabbits and can work for hours without food or water.The breed also has a keen sense of smell and is primarily built for endurance over harsh terrain such as that of Mount Etna. It is the smallest of the Mediterranean island hunting hounds, the others being the Pharaoh Hounds and Ibizan Hounds.Today they are increasingly kept for the sport of conformation showing and as pets, due to their low coat maintenance and friendly nature, although as an active hound they do need regular exercise. A Cirneco should measure from 43-51 cm (17-20in) and weigh between 10–12 kg (22-26lb). As with other breeds, those from hunting stock can lie outside these ranges.
The Cirneco dell'Etna is a small hound-type dog used in Sicily for rabbit hunting. It is found all over the Italian island and particularly in the area surrounding the active volcano, Mount Etna,where the dogs hunt on terrain formed by volcanic lava. Its presence in Sicily is noteworthy as one of the few ancient breeds that have undergone very little manipulation by man. Instead, the breed has been rigorously selected by nature for its ability to work for hours. The dog we have today is an extremely hardy breed. Affectionate and friendly, it is considered easier to train than some of its sighthound cousins. The Cirneco has been in Sicily for thousands of years. Most authors agree that the origins of the hound-type dog lie among ancient Egyptian prick-eared dogs. Bas-reliefs discovered along the Nile and dated around 4000 B.C. depict what could be the Cirneco today. Most probably, the Phoenicians spread these prick-eared, hound-type dogs as they sailed along their trade routes between Northern Africa and the Mediterranean coasts. Ancient records of hounds with upright ears and a pointed muzzle are found in many countries in that part of the world. The most vivid proof of the presence of the Cirneco dell’Etna in Sicily for at least the past 2500 years is the many coins minted between the 5th and 3rd centuries B.C. depicting exemplars of the breed. In particular, the Cirneco dell’Etna is used on coins minted at Segesta, with about 150 variations. In 400 B.C., Dionysus was said to have built a temple dedicated to the God Adranos on the south-western slope of the volcano, just outside the city of Adrano. Many dogs were bred there and legend claims that a thousand Cirnechi guarded the temple.The Cirneco was rarely seen and little known outside Sicily until 1932. Now Cirnechi have also been exported to many European countries where their elegant conformation has helped make them a success in the show ring and many have become FCI International Show Champions. The dog's affectionate temperament and adaptability make it an excellent family companion.
El cirneco del Etna es una raza de perro oriunda de Sicilia. Este tipo de lebrel de pequeño tamaño forma parte de un conjunto de razas caninas del Mediterráneo cuyo origen se encuentra en Egipto, y entre las que se encuentra el podenco Ibicenco. Se trata de un perro adaptado a terrenos difíciles, apto para la caza de conejos y liebres.Los machos miden entre 46 y 50 cm, y pesan de 10 a 12 kg, y las hembras miden entre 42 y 46 cm, pesando de 8 a 10 kg. La cabeza es alargada y estrecha y el hocico afilado y puntiagudo, con un stop muy poco pronunciado. La trufa es de color marrón claro, y los ojos, pequeños, pueden ser ocre claro, ámbar o grises. Las orejas, erguidas, son triangulares y puntiagudas, y están implantadas altas. El lomo es recto y largo, y el pecho no demasiado amplio, con la musculatura pectoral poco desarrollada, al contrario que las patas, fuertes y con una musculatura bien desarrollada. La cola, implantada baja, es gruesa y de diámetro uniforme. El manto, de color tostado o tostado y blanco, tiene un pelaje corto y espeso en la cabeza, orejas y patas y liso y semilargo en el tronco y la cola.Su nombre puede proceder del de la antigua ciudad de Cirene, donde Aristóteles, en De natura animalium, dice haber visto un perro cuya descripción coincide con la de este.Aunque parece claro que la raza es autóctona de Sicilia, es posible que fuese anterior a la civilización egipcia, y que hubiese sido llevado al norte de África por los fenicios. Esta hipótesis se vería confirmada por la existencia de una estatuilla hallada cerca de Siracusa, datada alrededor del 4000 a.c.Se encuentran representaciones del cirneco en monedas sicilianas del siglo Vl al siglo III a.c., y parece que se le tenía en gran consideración, como demuestra el hecho de que en una de las monedas halladas en la antigua ciudad siciliana de Segesta se le represente junto a una divinidad fenicia con facciones humanas. Desde entonces las características de la raza han permanecido prácticamente inalteradas, gracias en gran medida a los campesinos, que conservaron su pureza criándolo por su utilidad para cazar en las pendientes del Etna, de lava solidificada y difícilmente accesibles.
Der Cirneco dell’ Etna ist eine von der FCI anerkannte italienische Hunderasse, die von der Insel Sizilien stammt (FCI-Gruppe 5, Sektion 7, Standard Nr. 199).Frühere Studien gingen davon aus, dass der Cirneco dell'Etna von Jagdhunden abstammt, die zur Pharaonenzeit im Niltal gezüchtet wurden. Der Cirneco dell'Etna sei dann mit den Phöniziern nach Sizilien gekommen. Neueste Untersuchungen unterstützen allerdings eine andere Theorie: Der Cineco dell'Etna stammt ursprünglich aus Sizilien und lebte an den Abhängen des Ätna. Münzen und Gravuren aus der römischen Epoche belegen, dass Hunde dieses Typs bereits vor Christi Geburt auf Sizilien vorkamen.
Der Cirneco dell'Etna ist mittelgroß (bis zu 50 cm und bis zu 12 kg schwer), quadratisch gebaut, schlank, aber dennoch widerstandsfähig und robust. Das Fell ist kurz, sehr glatt und fest. Dabei ist das Fell auf dem Rumpf und der Rute ungefähr 3 cm lang. Die Fellfarbe ist falbfarben, von intensiv bis verwaschen, wie isabell-sandfarben. Weiße oder gescheckte Exemplare können vorkommen; in der Regel weist der Cirneco dell'Etna jedoch nur geringe weiße Abzeichen auf.Die Ohren sind auffällig groß und stehend typisch wie auch bei den Podencos.Der Cirneco dell'Etna wird zur Jagd auf Wildkaninchen verwendet. Sein Verbreitungsgebiet umfasst vor allem die Region um den Ätna, an dessen Abhängen er die Kaninchen im Gebüsch und Geröll aufstöbert. Er treibt die Kaninchen aus ihren Verstecken hervor, so dass die Jäger zum Schuss kommen können.
Le Cirneco de l'Etna (Cirneco dell’Etna) est un chien originaire de Sicile. La Fédération cynologique internationale l'a répertorié dans le groupe 5, section 7, standard n° 199.
Cirneco de l'Etna.....Chien de type lévrier bien qu'il soit classé dans le groupe 5. Chien adapté aux terrains difficiles qui chasse le lapin sauvage.Chien de nationalité italienne primitif qui descendrait des chiens de l’époque des Pharaons. Mais il pourrait s’agir d’une race autochtone d’origine sicilienne.
O cirneco do Etna (em italiano: Cirneco dell’Etna) é uma raça quase desconhecida fora da Itália, já que permaneceu isolada na Sicília por praticamente 2 000 anos. Em 1939 foi reconhecida como raça. Comum aos cães de raças antigas, estes têm dificuldade de adaptação ao mundo urbano, pois precisam de constante atividade e são difíceis de adestrar, embora sejam vistos como animais muito fiéis. Podendo pesar até 12 kg, tem como peculiaridade as grandes orelhas largas e eretas, o longo pescoço e a cabeça estreita.
Сицилийская борзая или Чирнеко дель Этна — порода собак. Происходит с Сицилии. Изначально выращивалась для охоты на зайца. Классические исследования собачьих пород, распространенных в Средиземноморском регионе, пришли к заключению, что Чирнеко Дель Этна происходят от античных охотничьих собак, выведенных в долине Нила в эпоху фараонов, собак, получивших достигших Сицилии благодаря Финикийцам. Но согласно последним исследованиям получила одобрения теория, согласно которой эта порода имеет непосредственно сицилийское происхождение, зародившись в окрестностях Этны. Монеты и гравюры доказывают, что Чирнеки существовали в этом регионе за много веков до нашей эр Собака примитивного типа, элегантного и утонченного сложения, среднего размера, не громоздкая, сильная и крепкая. По морфологическому сложению — собака удлиненных линий, легкого сложения; квадратного формата; шерсть тонкая.
Охотничья собака, выведенная для охоты на кролика по сложной местности; обладает большим темпераментом, но в то же время мягкая и привязчивая.
Cirneco dell’etna on italialainen koirarotu. Se on vinttikoiran tyyppinen pystykorvainen, alkukantainen ja harvinainen rotu. Cirneco dell’etnan tarkka alkuperä jää hämärän peittoon, mutta se on hyvin vanha rotu ja muuttunut vuosisatojen saatossa vain vähän. Rotu on saanut olla melko rauhassa, ja vasta viime vuosina sen jalostukseen on puututtu.Rotu on nykyisin lähinnä seura- ja harrastekoira. Italiassa sitä käytetään yhä villikaniinien metsästykseen. Cirneco on nopea koira, ja ketteränä se pystyy vaihtamaan suuntaa nopeasti esimerkiksi metsästyksen aikana. Cirneco käyttää metsästäessään kuuloaan, näköään ja hajuaistiaan.Cirneco dell’etna on luonteeltaan temperamenttinen, eloisa, ystävällinen, iloinen ja leikkisä koira. Cirnecon leikkisyys säilyy yleensä vanhoihin päiviin asti. Cirneco on myös hyvin läheisyyttä rakastava koira, ja sen lempipaikka onkin yleensä kainalossa sohvalla tai peiton alla omistajansa vieressä. Cirneco kiintyy voimakkaasti perheeseensä ja tulee yleensä hyvin toimeen ystävällisenä ja lempeänä koirana kaikenikäisten ihmisten kanssa. Miellyttämisenhalua cirnecolla ei ole kovin paljon, joten ilman hyvää motivointikeinoa se ei välttämättä aina tottele ainakaan ensimmäisellä käskyllä. Cirnecolla on kuitenkin miellyttämisenhalua enemmän kuin yleensä vinttikoirilla. Cirneco tarvitsee johdonmukaisen ja määrätietoisen peruskasvatuksen.
Cirneco dell’etna on ikivanha rotu, jonka juuret johtavat 1000-luvulle ennen ajanlaskun alkua. Joidenkin mielestä se polveutuu Egyptin viimeisten dynastioiden faaraoiden koirista ja niistä koirista, joita foinikialaiset kauppiaat toivat Italiaan. Tutkimukset antavat aiheen olettaa, että se olisi Sisilian alkuperäisrotu. Cirneconnäköisiä korkokuvia on löydetty faaraoiden haudoista, mm. Luxorista ja Ben-Hassanista. Sisiliasta on myös löydetty 45 cm korkea luuranko, joka muistuttaa cirnecoa suuresti. Luuranko on paikallistettu vuoteen 1400 eaa. Nykyisin kyseinen luuranko on nähtävissä Pigorini-museossa Roomassa. Myös vanhoista Sisiliasta löytyneistä kolikoista on löydetty cirnecoa esittäviä koiran kuvia.
Il cirneco dell'Etna è un cane appartenente ad una razza molto antica, che ha subito poche manipolazioni nel corso dei secoli.Le origini del cirneco risalgono al 1000 a.C. Si dice che questa razza derivi dai cani dei Faraoni egiziani delle ultime dinastie e da cani importati in Sicilia dai commercianti fenici. Successivi studi hanno indicato che molto probabilmente il Cirneco è una razza autoctona siciliana.Il cirneco dell'Etna appartiene alla classe dei cani da caccia di tipo primitivo; è un animale molto veloce e per questo viene utilizzato soprattutto nella caccia al coniglio selvatico e alla lepre.Si presenta con una figura molto snella, con gambe lunghe, orecchie dritte e con un corpo muscoloso ma nello stesso tempo molto elegante. Ha un fiuto eccezionale ed è agilissimo nel cambiare direzione durante l'inseguimento della preda. Da notare che, sebbene l'aspetto del cirneco ricordi quello dei levrieri, non caccia a vista ma usa l'olfatto, come un cane da cerca; secondo la classificazione della Federazione Cinologica Internazionale (F.C.I.), tutti i cani appartenenti alla razza dei "levrieri" appartengono al 10º gruppo, mentre il cirneco è inserito nel 5º Gruppo, quello delle razze di tipo primitivo.Generalmente raggiunge l'altezza di 46-50 cm al garrese negli esemplari maschi, mentre le femmine misurano dai 42 ai 46. Il peso del maschio si aggira intorno ai 10-12 kg, mentre le femmine raggiungono gli 8-10. La lunghezza del tronco è in media uguale all'altezza al garrese: il cirneco ha dunque una costruzione quadrata. È strutturato da una massa muscolare che comprende l'80% del corpo. Si presenta snello e, se nutrito in modo adeguato, mantiene una linea elegante e slanciata.Cane velocissimo e molto agile, è capace di raggiungere persino i 40/45 km/h nella corsa.I colori del mantello del cirneco dell'Etna vanno dal sabbia dorato al cervo scuro; non necessariamente devono essere presenti macchie bianche, ma possono essercene su tutto il corpo; sebbene molto rari, ne esistono colorati di bianco arancio (come nel setter inglese) e di bianco puro (pur non essendo propriamente albino). Il colore riconosciuto dagli standard di razza è il fulvo più o meno intenso, isabella e sabbia, con lista bianca in fronte, al petto, piedi bianchi, punta della coda bianca e ventre bianco.Dotato di grande intelligenza, è generalmente indipendente e solitario. Generalmente diffidente con gli estranei, si affeziona ad un solo padrone. Si può dire che abbia le sue simpatie e antipatie a pelle: con alcuni individui non socializza e alla loro vista abbaia; con altri inizialmente si mostra aggressivo ma poi socializza e con altri ancora prova un feeling immediato e socializza subito. È un cane che per il padrone darebbe tutto se stesso.Se correttamente socializzato da cucciolo, evidenzia un carattere molto disponibile e gioioso e privo di diffidenze anche verso le persone appena conosciute.Se cresce in un ambiente familiare, dove ha ricevuto tutti gli stimoli nei confronti dell'ambiente esterno, ama essere portato a spasso e incontrare altri cani e persone, anche se sconosciuti. Se lasciato libero, soprattutto in luoghi di campagna, cambia visibilmente espressione; tutti i muscoli si tendono, ama ispezionare l'ambiente circostante e, anche se all'inizio sembra indipendente, in realtà sa sempre dove si trova il suo padrone e puntualmente ritorna sotto la sua attenzione. Prima di liberare un cirneco in un luogo aperto occorre aver rafforzato un rapporto sereno e di fiducia. Il cirneco è un cane primitivo e rispetto ad altri animali domestici, molto spesso è un soggetto che porta rancore se trattato male, non dimentica facilmente uno sgarbo subito, non sopporta di essere rimproverato con eccessiva durezza.La vita media di questo cane è molto elevata, quindici anni circa, ma esistono esemplari che vivono anche venti anni.
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Shaggy
Alcatraz - Milano
16 Ottobre 2013
ph © Mairo Cinquetti
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With a commanding presence, a distinctive voice that is recognizable throughout the world and titles such as artist, businessman, philanthropist and Grammy Award winner, Shaggy is and has been a forced to be reckoned with. A son of the brambly streets of Kingston, Jamaica, his discipline-which he credits to his military background-has been the foundation of his success.
In 1993, Shaggy exploded on the music scene with his debut album “Pure Pleasure.” His remix of the Ska classic Oh Carolina from that album was an instant hit in England and other countries. Shaggy followed up with his sophomore album “Boombastic” in 1995. “Boombastic” went certified platinum, won a Grammy Award in 1996 for Best Reggae Album and topped an impressive chart list that included the Top 40 Rhythmic charts, Hot 100, Billboard 200, among others.
Wanting to take a more hands on approach with his career, Shaggy, along with his manager Robert Livingston and legendary producer Sting International formed Big Yard Music Group in 1996. With its state-of-the-art equipment and highly trained staff, Big Yard set out to “create a central space filled with opportunities” and has been instrumental in the careers of artists such as Brian & Tony Gold, Kiprich, Rayvon, Rik Rok and Voicemail. Today, the label is responsible for the careers of Richie Loop, Christopher Martin and D-Major.
With the formation of Big Yard Music Group and the success of “Boombastic,” Shaggy forged ahead and recorded his third installment “Midnight Lover” in 1997. Fast forward to 2000, Shaggy released his fourth album “Hotshot” on MCA Records label. “Hotshot” went Diamond worldwide and Platinum 6 times in the United States. Notable singles from that album included It Wasn’t Me and Angel. It Wasn’t Me received a Grammy nomination. Single Luv Me, Luv Me featuring Janet Jackson was released on the Soundtrack for the movie “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” The album also won best selling album at the 2002 Juno Awards.
In 2002 and 2005 Shaggy released “Lucky Day” and “Clothes Drop” respectively. “Lucky Day” went certified Gold while single Strength Of A Woman made the Top 40 mainstream charts. “Clothes Drop” received a Grammy Nomination for Best Reggae Album. Thereafter, Shaggy busied himself in the studio recording his next album entitled “Intoxication.”
“Intoxication” was released in 2007 and debuted at number 1 on Billboard’s Top Reggae Albums chart, was nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 51st Grammy Awards in 2008 and was the number 1 download on UK iTunes Reggae chart. The first single, Church Heathen, from the album received rave reviews. The song peaked at number 1 on various music charts and won the Best Music Video at the International Reggae and World Music Awards in 2008. The second single Bonafide Girl also made its way to number 1 on music charts. That same year, Shaggy recorded and released single Feel The Rush which was used as the original anthem for the UEFA Euro Cup. The single was featured on various charts throughout Europe and India.
Undaunted by the success of his business ventures and his music, Shaggy has always lived on the premise that “to whom much is giving, much is required.” With this belief, Shaggy took on the role of philanthropist. What began as donations of medical equipment and visits to the Bustamante Hospital For Children to distribute gifts during the holidays, paint rooms, donate beds and creation of a garden, gave birth to the Shaggy Foundation. Developed in 2008, Shaggy recruited business associates, fellow recording artists and sponsors to assist in hosting an annual charity event in which all proceeds are donated to the hospital to help defray the cost of medical equipment. To date, the Shaggy Foundation has been instrumental in raising over $85 million (JMD = $1 million USD) for the hospital.
Shaggy sought other avenues to raise funds. For example, he co-wrote a book and CD set entitled “Shaggy Parrot and the Reggae Band.” Sales from the book and CD set benefits the Bustamante Hospital in Jamaica and Tatiana McIntosh Scholarship Fund in Florida. The book was also donated to basic schools in Jamaica to be used as part of their curriculum. Additionally, the artist partnered with Pan Caribbean Financial planners for their 11th annual SIGMA Corporate Run. With a 5k course that attracted 9500 runners, walker and wheelchair participants, the event raised $14 million (JMD)/$165,000 (USD) for the Bustamante Hospital.
Now at the peak of his career, Shaggy has been approached with various endorsement deals. This gave him the opportunity to flex his boardroom muscles, adding “businessman” to his repertoire. In 2009, he recorded single Fly High which was used in a television commercial for Ferrero Rocher’s Ice Cream Bar, Maxi King. Not only did he record the single to be used in the commercial, Shaggy also appeared in the 30 second advertisement. Fly High, which is available on iTunes and in rotation on MTV, was used for Ferrero’s trailer campaign on VIVA (a television network in Germany co-owned by Viacom). Shaggy also acted as the international icon for Ultimate Ear products for brand Logitech. In summer 2008, Shaggy contributed a song, which was a remake of the 1974 classic Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas, for Pepsi Cola, He appeared in the television commercial alongside T-Pain and Tami Chynn.
An exemplary career that has spanned well over a decade, Shaggy has enjoyed cross-over success. But getting to the top hasn’t been easy, “everything changes when you are a reggae artist that falls under the American gaze. The recognition in Jamaica, while paramount, does not measure to the US’s validation of an artist.” This validation has catapulted Shaggy’s career – he is the only certified Diamond-selling Dancehall Reggae artist. However, Shaggy has remained humble, taking his career in strides. He has defied the odds, succeeded on his own terms and continues to break down barriers for those who dare to follow in his footsteps.
On May 18th, 10 top European street artists competed to create their own masterpiece on a 2 x 2m canvas in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, using ‘space’ as inspiration. A three-member jury will decide, together with the online audience, which artist created the very best artwork within the deadline of one day. For the winning artist awaits a very special prize: he or she will become the first street artist to make a piece of art weightless. By means of a parabolic flight, this artist becomes the first street artist in space. Graffiti without gravity!
Credits: ESA-G.Porter
Phillip fully deboxed, both with and without his cape. He doesn't have any stamping on his back. He can free stand fairly stably, but I used his stand when I put his cape on. He has a false shirt that is hidden unless you take off his cape.
I received the Platinum Aurora and Phillip Doll Set today, March 11, 2019. I bought it from the Disney Store UK on its release date, February 26, 2019. It shipped on March 1, 2019. The cost was 500 GBP + 28 GBP shipping, through PayPal, which came out to be $724 US. This is about $100 less than buying it from the US Disney Store when it is released on March 16 ($750 + 9.5% tax = $821).
It came double boxed. The outer shipping box was rather flimsy, and one end of it was crushed. But the inner shipper was undamaged, being protected by a crumpled layer of heavy wrapping paper. It had Cart #69 of 300 written on the shipper, which equates to edition number 269 of 650, as apparently Europe gets numbers 201 through 500.
The doll box has a unique design. The front lid has two flaps that have a magnetic closure, and a large orange four leaf design attached to the left flap. The dolls are dimly seen through frosted plastic windows in cutouts of the lids. There are rose gold foil trim in the plastic window and cardboard lid. The full title of the set is 60th Anniversary Disney Sleeping Beauty: The Aurora and Prince Phillip Collector Doll Set. It is a limited edition of 650. It contains a Certificate of Authenticity and individual doll stands. The description of the set in the back of the box states that this is a wedding doll set.
Aurora is in a primarily rose gold colored wedding gown, with white satin bodice, rose gold two tiered veil with lace trim, rose gold crown and necklace with white gems. There is gems and gold and rose gold embroidery in the outer skirt, and embossed detail in the inner white skirt. I will describe further detail after I fully debox the dolls.
Prince Phillip is in a silver faux leather tunic, with puff upper sleeves in silver and red, and silver lower sleeves with embroidery on the cuffs. He is wearing black pants and boots. He has a full length red velvet cape with red satin lining. He has a black belt with a false buckle that slides along the belt (I had to center it on his waist after opening the box). He has dark brown rooted hair. His expression is rather bland.
Aurora is clearly the star of this set, and it's too bad that Phillip doesn't match her in elegance and detail.
The set is still available on the UK Disney Store site.
Disney Store Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip Limited Edition Doll Set
UK Disney Store
Released 2019-02-26
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La quinta edizione del festival organizzato da Wired Italia. Due lunghi fine settimana in cui vivere l’innovazione nell’economia, nella scienza, nella politica, nell’intrattenimento, nella cultura. Milano e Firenze si trasformano per un fine settimana nel luna park della scienza e della tecnologia. Oltre 150 relatori, performance artistiche, laboratori di stampa 3D, droni in volo, videogame, film, documentari, speed date sul lavoro, maratone di coding e workshop per tutte le età. A Milano da venerdì 26 a domenica 28 maggio ai Giardini Indro Montanelli.
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ore 10:00
Come si combatte l’Isis (sui social)
Speaker
Abdalaziz Alhamza - Fondatore Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently
Abdalaziz Alhamza, nato a Raqqa nel 1991, è un giornalista e attivista siriano, che oggi vive a Berlino. È fondatore e portavoce del progetto Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), gruppo di citizen journalism fondato dall’esilio in Turchia, che informa sulle violenze compiute da Isis in Siria, grazie alle informazioni passate da cittadini rimasti all’interno della città. Nel gennaio 2016 l’International Business Times ha descritto RBSS come “la più credibile fonte di informazioni dall’interno di Raqqa”.
Alhamza è laureato in biologia e da studente ha organizzato numerose proteste contro il governo siriano. È stato arrestato varie volte dal regime e più volte ha ricevuto minacce per la sua attività da Isis. RBSS ha vinto nel 2015 l’International Press Freedom Award dal Committee to Protect Journalists e il premio del Foreign Policy Global Thinkers Award.
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ore 10:30
Tra calcio e futuro
Speaker
Diletta Leotta - Conduttrice Sky Sport
Giulia Diletta Leotta, 1991, è conduttrice a Sky Sport. Si è laureata in Giurisprudenza alla LUISS di Roma con una tesi dal titolo Il contratto di lavoro sportivo. Ha iniziato la sua carriera televisiva nel 2010, a diciannove anni, sulla rete locale Antenna Sicilia, affiancando Salvo La Rosa nella conduzione dell’11º Festival della nuova canzone siciliana e nel programma di intrattenimento Insieme. L’anno successivo è passata a Mediaset dove ha condotto la trasmissione Il Compleanno di La5 sull’omonima rete digitale. Nel 2012 diventa una delle conduttrici di Sky Meteo 24.
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ore 12:30
Serie internazionale
Speaker
Salvatore Esposito - Attore
Salvatore Esposito nasce a Napoli il 2 febbraio 1986. Sin da bambino nutre la passione per la recitazione. Raggiunta la maggiore età inizia i suoi studi di recitazione presso la Scuola di cinema di Napoli per poi trasferirsi a Roma dove studia con l’acting trainer Beatrice Bracco.
Ha fatto il suo esordio televisivo nel 2013 con Il clan dei camorristi, interpretando il ruolo di Domenico Ruggiero. Nel 2014 arriva il successo al grande pubblico con Gomorra – la serie, Salvatore interpreta Genny Savastano.
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ore 13:00
Lavoro e ricchezza nell’epoca dell’ Intelligenza Artificiale
Speaker
Jerry Kaplan - Esperto di Intelligenza Artificiale e Imprenditore
Jerry Kaplan è un esperto di Intelligenza Artificiale noto in tutto il mondo, un innovatore, seriael entrepreneur, educatore, futurista e autore di best sellers. Ha fondato quattro startup della Silicon Valley, due delle quali sono divenute società di fama, e insegnato alla Stanford University. Hanno parlato di lui tutti i principali quotidiani in lingua inglese e le riviste specializzate di tutto il mondo
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ore 14:00
La strada della musica
Speaker
Michele Bravi - Cantante
Michele Bravi esordisce nel 2013 con la vittoria di XFactor Italia.
Portato alla vittoria da Morgan e presentato al grande pubblico con un pezzo scritto per lui da Tiziano Ferro e Zibba, Michele pubblica il suo EP di debutto “La Vita e la Felicità”. A Gennaio 2014 il primo singolo “La Vita e la Felicità” viene certificato disco d’oro.
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ore 14:30
Il tocco vincente
Speaker
Mara Maionchi - Produttrice discografica
Mara Maionchi (Bologna, 22 aprile 1941) è una produttrice discografica e personaggio televisivo italiano.
Attualmente considerata la figura femminile di maggiore spicco nella discografia italiana, producendo sia per conto di major come Sony e Warner che come produttrice indipendente attraverso la sua etichetta, sostenendo tuttavia in numerose dichiarazioni che la vera scena musicale – intensa e multisfaccettata – è all’estero e che in Italia “si fa quel che si può”.
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ore 15:00
Maniaca di SerieTV
Speaker
Miriam Leone - Attrice
Nasce a Catania. Ha frequentato il Liceo Classico Gulli e Pennisi ad Acireale e la Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università degli Studi di Catania. Studia contemporaneamente recitazione. Nel 2008 partecipa e vince sia la fascia di Miss Italia che quella di Miss Cinema.
Nel 2010 debutta come attrice sia sul grande schermo con il film Genitori & figli – Agitare bene prima dell’uso, di Giovanni Veronesi, con Silvia Orlando e Margherita Buy, sia sul piccolo schermo con il film TV Il ritmo della vita, diretto da Rossella Izzo e trasmesso su Canale 5.
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ore 15:30
Indie a chi?
Speaker
Lo Stato Sociale - Musicisti
Nel 2012 esce il loro primo album, Turisti della democrazia, al quale fa seguito un tour di 200 concerti in Italia ed in Europa. Nel 2013, ad un anno dalla prima pubblicazione, Turisti della democrazia viene ripubblicato in edizione deluxe, in formato doppio CD. Il primo CD presenta la tracklist originale mentre il secondo CD comprende tutti gli 11 brani del disco originale coverizzati da 11 artisti, oltre a tanti remix e inediti. Alla ripubblicazione dell’album, segue un lungo tour dello spettacolo di teatro-canzone Tronisti della democrazia, nel quale le canzoni dell’album d’esordio sono alternate a monologhi e sketch a formare “un minicorso in 5 atti di buone maniere”. Con Turisti della democrazia, tra i più discussi album usciti in ambito indie rock in Italia, la band bolognese ha ricevuto la Targa Giovani Mei e il Premio SIAE “Miglior Giovane Talento dell’Anno” e altri riconoscimenti.
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ore 16:00
L’uomo che ha dato forma al pc
Speaker
Mario Bellini - Architetto
Mario Bellini è un architetto e designer noto in tutto il mondo. Ha ricevuto il Premio Compasso d’Oro otto volte e 25 delle sue opere sono nella collezione permanente del MoMA di New York, che gli ha dedicato una retrospettiva nel 1987. È stato direttore della rivista Domus (1985-1991). Ha progettato numerose mostre d’arte e di architettura sia in Italia, sia all’estero, l’ultima a Palazzo Reale con i capolavori di Giotto (2015).
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ore 16:00
C’è risata e risata
Speaker
Saverio Raimondo - Stand Up Comedian e conduttore CCN
Saverio Raimondo, 33 anni, comico satirico, è stato definito sulle pagine di Repubblica “l’unico stand up comedian italiano che sembra vero” e “il comico più bravo in circolazione” da Aldo Grasso del Corriere della Sera. È il comico di punta di Comedy Central Italia (canale 124 di Sky) per il suo show CCN – Comedy Central News, striscia satirica di grande successo di pubblico e critica, giunta alla terza stagione – attualmente in corso, in onda tutti i mercoledì alle 22 – e per la quale ha vinto il Premio Satira Politica per la Tv Forte Dei Marmi.
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ore 16:30
Il suono dal caos
Speaker
Levante - Musicista
Levante nasce a Caltagirone e cresce a Palagonia (Catania) in una famiglia affollata da menti creative. A nove anni scrive le prime canzoni e soltanto ad undici inizia a suonare la chitarra, rubandola al fratello, per la pura esigenza di musicare i propri testi. Dopo la morte del padre, lei e la madre si trasferiscono nella magica città di Torino. Qui tante sono le collaborazioni, i contratti andati male, i dischi mai usciti e gli anni di manifestazioni musicali, provini e gavetta.
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ore 17:00
Non è bello ciò che è bello, ma che bello che bello che bello
Speaker
Maccio Capatonda - Attore e Regista
Nino Frassica - Comico e Presentatore
Maccio Capatonda, pseudonimo di Marcello Macchia, è un attore, regista e comico italiano. Ha partecipato ai programmi televisivi Mai dire Lunedì e Mai dire Martedì. Precedentemente aveva fondato a Milano la Shortcut Productions, insieme a Enrico Venti, suo storico amico, anche lui di Chieti. Ha lavorato per AllMusic e lavora stabilmente sul web, affianco all’attività televisiva. Nel 2013 è ideatore, regista e interprete principale della serie televisiva Mario. In un primo tempo si è dedicato (accompagnato dal suo inseparabile gruppo) alla produzione di finti reality televisivi, come il Divano Scomodo e il Gabinetto.
Nel 1985 Arbore coinvolge Nino Frassica nel varietà “Quelli della notte” nei panni di frate Antonino da Scasazza, organizzatore di un improbabile concorso a premi. Seguono “Indietro tutta” dove veste i panni del bravo presentatore e mette in scena una spassosa parodia del tipico conduttore televisivo. Partecipa successivamente a “Fantastico”, “Domenica In”, “Scommettiamo che…?”, “I Cervelloni”, “Acqua calda”, “Colorado Cafè” e “Markette” condotto da Piero Chiambretti. Nel 1999 inizia l’avventura della fiction televisiva “Don Matteo” con Terence Hill, Flavio Insinna e successivamente Simone Montedoro, giunta ormai alla decima serie. Nino interpreta il ruolo del maresciallo dei Carabinieri Nino Cecchini.
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ore 17:30
Comicità all’italiana
Speaker
Herbert Ballerina - Attore e Comico
Maccio Capatonda - Attore e Regista
Herbert Ballerina, pseudonimo di Luigi Luciano, nato a Campobasso il 7 marzo 1980, è un attore, comico, conduttore radiofonico e produttore cinematografico italiano. Dopo essersi laureato al DAMS di Bologna si trasferisce a Milano entrando a far parte della Shortcut Productions di Marcello Macchia ed Enrico Venti (in arte Maccio Capatonda e Ivo Avido), inizialmente come assistente e poi come attore e autore. Con Marcello Macchia è protagonista, con lo pseudonimo di Herbert Ballerina, di numerosi trailer umoristici trasmessi all’interno dei programmi televisivi Mai dire Lunedì e Mai dire Martedì.
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ore 18:00
La democrazia della rete
Speaker
Luigi Di Maio - Vicepresidente della Camera
Nato a Avellino il 6 luglio 1986, ha conseguito il diploma di liceo classico ed è giornalista pubblicista. Eletto nella circoscrizione XIX (CAMPANIA 1) nel 2013 alla Camera dei Deputati con il Movimento Cinque Stelle, diventa il più giovane Vicepresidente della Camera. È uno dei volti di punta del Movimento Cinque Stelle, per molti naturale candidato alle prossime elezioni.
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ore 18:30
Non smetto più
Speaker
Sydney Sibilia - Regista, Sceneggiatore e Produttore cinematografico
Luigi Di Capua - Regista, sceneggiatore e attore
Francesca Manieri - Sceneggiatrice
Sydney Sibilia, nato a Salerno nel 1981, è un regista, sceneggiatore e produttore cinematografico italiano. Sydney Sibilia inizia a realizzare cortometraggi insieme all’amico Fabio Ferro nella loro natìa Salerno. Nel 2007 si trasferisce a Roma e successivamente realizza un cortometraggio che ottiene numerosi riconoscimenti, Oggi gira così (2010), prodotto dalla Ascent Film e scritto insieme a Valerio Attanasio.
Sempre con Valerio Attanasio, scrive la sceneggiatura della sua opera prima Smetto quando voglio. Il film, prodotto dalla Fandango di Domenico Procacci, dalla Ascent FIlm di Matteo Rovere e da Rai Cinema, viene distribuito nelle sale cinematografiche nel febbraio 2014, riscuotendo un successo sorprendente e ottenendo 12 candidature ai David di Donatello 2014. Nel 2017 è nelle sale il seguito, Smetto quando voglio – Masterclass, in attesa del terzo episodio.
Regista, sceneggiatore e attore. Insieme a Matteo Corradini e Luca Vecchi è il fondatore del collettivo The Pills, nato nell’estate del 2011. Il collettivo è diventato celebre grazie alla web serie omonima che ha debuttato su YouTube nello stesso anno, diventando immediatamente fenomeno del web. Dopo il successo ottenuto anche con la seconda stagione, nel 2014 la serie approda su Italia 1. Nello stesso anno, The Pills sono autori insieme a Matteo Rovere, Luca Ravenna, Sydney Sibilia e Daniele Grassetti della serie tv Zio Gianni in onda su Rai2. Il 21 gennaio 2016 esce nelle sale il loro primo film, The Pills – Sempre meglio che lavorare.
Sceneggiatrice tra le più apprezzate in Italia, è laureata in filosofia.
Tra i suoi lavori: Zanzibar. Una storia daAmore, di cui ha curato anche la regia, Passione sinistra, Il rosso e il blu, La foresta di ghiaccio, Vergine giurata, Veloce come il vento, Nemiche per la pelle, il corto Era ieri, Come fai sbagli e il successo Smetto quando voglio.
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ore 19:00
L’identità della bellezza
Speaker
Samuel - Cantante e Musicista
Samuel Umberto Romano, conosciuto semplicemente come Samuel (Torino, 7 marzo 1972), è un cantautore e chitarrista italiano. È il frontman del gruppo dei Subsonica, in cui è anche compositore e autore dei testi delle canzoni insieme a Max Casacci e Davide Dileo, meglio conosciuto come Boosta.
Nel 2016 ha annunciato attraverso le proprie pagine Facebook e Instagram di essere al lavoro sul suo primo album da solista, anticipato il 9 settembre 2016 dal suo primo singolo da solista, La risposta, seguito tre mesi dopo da Rabbia.
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"SAO LUIS DO MARANHAO - 400 ANOS" / Sao Luis - Maranhao - 400 years!
## Ligado a diversos episódios da história do Maranhão, sendo o mais importante ocorrido em 1643, quando serviu de abrigo aos portugueses durante a expulsão dos holandeses.
##Foi um antigo convento dos frades Carmelitas e hoje é habitada pelos Franciscanos Capuchinhos.
Portuguese
São Luís é um município brasileiro, capital do estado do Maranhão localizado ao norte do estado, fundada por franceses no dia 8 de setembro de 1612 posteriormente, foi invadida por holandeses mas terminou por ser colonizada por portugueses. Localiza-se em uma ilha Upaon-Açu, no Atlântico Sul, entre as baías de São Marcos e São José de Ribamar. Quando em 1621 o Brasil foi dividido em duas unidades administrativas - Estado do Maranhão e Estado do Brasil - São Luís foi a capital da primeira unidade administrativa.
A capital maranhense tem um desenvolvido setor industrial por conta de grandes corporações e empresas de diversos áreas que se instalaram na cidade pela sua privilegiada posição geográfica entre as regiões Norte e Nordeste do país, seu litoral estrategicamente localizado bem mais próximo de grandes centros importadores de produtos brasileiras como Europa e EUA que permite economia de combustíveis e redução no prazo de entrega de mercadorias provenientes do Brasil pelo Porto de Itaqui que é o 2º mais profundo do mundo e um dos mais movimentados, sofisticados e bem estruturados para o comércio exterior no Brasil. Tudo isso aliado a ligação por linha férrea da capital São Luís ao interior do estado, e aos estados vizinhos do Pará, Tocantins e Piauí o que facilita e barateia a escoação agrícola vinda do interior do país para o porto de Itaqui, sendo que com a conclusão de Ferrovia Norte-Sul a cidade vai estar interligada a todas as regiões brasileiras (NO, NE, CO, SE e S) por ferrovias, por rodovia a ilha já é servida pela BR-135 que a liga ao continente, e por ar conta com o Aeroporto Internacional Marechal Cunha Machado com capacidade de atender mais de um milhão de passageiros por ano, e que já opera com demanda quase saturada pelo movimento intenso de passageiros não somente da cidade de São Luís mais também por servir como porta de entrada por ser o maior e mais movimentado aeroporto próximo ao Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses.
O clima em São Luís é geralmente quente e abafado, tropical e semi-úmido. Isso se deve ao fato da cidade esta localizada proxima a Zona de Convergência Intertropical (ZCIT). A cidade apresenta grande quantidade de coqueiros e muita vegetação litorânea. A também pedaços da Floresta Amazônica na cidade protegidas por Parques Ambientais. Pequenos rios nascem na cidade, o Rio Bacanga é um dos mais importantes pois é muito util para a pesca.
Em 2010 o Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) contou a população em 1,027,098 o que a torna o décimo-quinto município mais populoso do Brasil entre os 5 565 municípios brasileiros, 13° entre as capitais, 4º da região Nordeste e 1° do Maranhão. Sua área é de 831,7 Km², e desse total 157,5656 Km² estão em perímetro urbano. O município faz parte da Mesorregião do Norte Maranhense e Microrregião da Aglomeração Urbana de São Luís localizada a norte do estado do Maranhão. O Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano do municipio é de 0.778, alto comparado ao IDH do Maranhão.
English
São Luís (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̃w luˈis], Saint Louis) is the capital of the Brazilian state of Maranhão. The city is located on São Luís island in the Baía de São Marcos (St Marcus Bay), an extension of the Atlantic Ocean which forms the estuary of Pindaré, Mearim, Itapecuru and other rivers. Its coordinates are 2.53° south, 44.30° west. The city proper has a population of some 986,826 people (2008 IBGE estimate). The metropolitan area totals 1,227,659 (ranked as the 16th largest in Brazil).
São Luís is the only Brazilian state capital founded by France (see France Équinoxiale) and it is one of the three Brazilian state capitals located on islands (the others are Vitória and Florianópolis).
The city has two major sea ports: Ponta da Madeira and Porto do Itaqui, through which a substantial part of Brazil's iron ore, originating from the (pre)-Amazon region, is exported. The city's main industries are metallurgical with Alumar, and Vale do Rio Doce. São Luís is home of the Federal University of Maranhão.
São Luís was the home town of famous Brazilian samba singer Alcione, Brazilian writers Aluísio Azevedo, Ferreira Gullar and Josué Montello, Belgian-naturalised soccer player Luís Oliveira, the musician João do Vale and Zeca Baleiro, a Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) singer.
Originally the town was a large village of the Tupinambá tribe. The first Europeans to see it were the French, in 1612, who intended to make it the centre of a French colony named Equinoctial France. They built a fort named Saint Louis after St Louis, King of France, as a compliment to his successor King Louis XIII. The settlement was conquered for Portugal by Jerônimo de Albuquerque in 1615, when it was renamed São Luís. There had been little time for the French to build a city. This has led to some controversy as to the actual date of the founding of the city, whether by the French or the Portuguese. In 1641, the city was invaded by the Dutch. They stayed until 1645 and did not manage to influence the city's architecture or to leave any sign of their invasion, mainly because they were kept too busy with the challenges to their occupation. In 1677, the city was made the seat of the new Roman Catholic Diocese of São Luís do Maranhão.
Only when those invasions ceased permanently did the colonial government decide to create the state of Grão-Pará e Maranhão, independent from the rest of the country. By that time, the economy was based on agriculture, particularly the exportation of sugar cane, cacao and tobacco. Conflicts amongst the local elites would lead to the Beckman's Revolt.
Soon after the outbreak of the American Civil War, the region started to provide cotton to Great Britain. The wealth generated by this activity was used to modernize the city; to bring religious men to come and teach in its schools; and supplement the water supply. The city came to be the third most populous city in the country. By the end of the 19th century, agriculture was in decay and since then the city's population has been searching for other ways to make a living.
Nowadays, São Luís has the largest and best preserved heritage of colonial Portuguese architecture of all Latin America. The island is known as the "Island of Love" and as "the Brazilian Athens", due to its many poets and writers, such as Sotero dos Reis, Aluísio Azevedo, Graça Aranha, Gonçalves Dias (the most famous), Ferreira Gullar, among others.
The ancestral composition of São Luís, according to an autosomal DNA study, is 42% European, 39% Native American and 19% African.
Portuguese is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. But English and Spanish are part of the official high school curriculum.
Wikipedia