I am regularly on the road at this time of the year with work and as a result don't get to respond to my Flickr friends postings as much as I would like.

Part of my extremely busy workload from late July through to late October involves the Adelaide Royal Show. My role involves reporting, advertising, publishing, stewarding etc primarily in the sheep showing shed - one of the best pavilions in the world. It involves long days and then long nights processing, so little sleep (2 to 4 hours per night for the 12 days). However it is not all bad as you can see from this shot. After one of the 2 days of Merino and Poll Merino judging they hold a fashion parade, showing off fashions made from wool and designed by the fashion design students at the Adelaide Regency TAFE. If you have followed my previous year's posts, last year I posted one of the models (the one third left in this shot) in a long red dress - that went on to win several major awards, so these students have serious talent. This is this year's student designs with the models (who are stunning) and co-operative enough to have this shot taken afterwards with the champion March shorn Merino or Poll Merino ram held by its owner.

1.4.11

My Christmas tree is still up, well it's actually on record time of being up for 3 years ha ha. Woke up early today and felt like playing with some makeup before I got started on today's workload.

f. 4

s.s. 1/90

ISO 400

34 mm

Pentax K10D

copyright © Mim Eisenberg/mimbrava studio. All rights reserved.

Mountain laurel is the state flower of Connecticut, where I grew up, so I'm happy to have purchased a bush for my garden. In 10 years, it has bloomed sparsely twice, but this year it is putting on a grand show. This image is just part of the profusion of blossoms.

Thank you for visiting. I'll do my best to return the favor today, but my ridiculous workload is still calling me away from Flickr. This will be the case for at least two months. I think that's good.

See my shots on flickriver:

www.flickrriver.com/photos/mimbrava/

Please join us on Super Eco and enter our May photo contest, “Macro May”. The contest ends May 31st.

An increased workload moving repossessed and untaxed vehicles has prompted Quicksilver Recovery Services to purchase a third MAN L2000 crane lorry, again finished in anonymous white and red. All are slightly different, the main visual difference on this one being the lack of an air deflector. One hopes the Austin Cambridge on the back is not destined to meet its end on a banger track!

www.freemoviescinema.com/science-fiction/video/latest/con... Full Feature

See more photos in set.

Starring Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield, William Hopper, Benson Fong, Ross Martin, Vito Scotti. Directed by Byron Haskin. Producer George Pal gave us the sci-fi landmark Destination Moon in 1950. He then gave us the timeless classic War of the Worlds in '53. This, his third epic, was a grand effort, but fell shy of his earlier triumphs. On paper, it should have been another mega-classic. The team members from the earlier hits were reassembled. Pal as producer, Haskin directing, Lydon on screenplay, O'Hanlon writing. Conquest was also based on a popular book. Yet, despite all this pedigree, something fell short. Conquest would not go on to be remembered as one of the 50s mega-classics. Some of this obscurity may be due to Conquest being in the "serious" science fiction sub-genre, like Destination Moon and Riders to the Stars which tried to depict a plausible space-traveling future. Audiences were becoming much more entranced with saucers and weird aliens.

In some ways,Conquest is a remake of the basic story line from Destination Moon -- a crew are the first to land on a celestial body. They struggle to survive and yet courageously return. This time, instead of the moon, it's Mars. As a remake goes, however, it's worthy. The Technicolor is rich and the sets well done. This is an A-level production which at its release was the 2001: A Space Odyssey of its day. All the melodrama, however, starts to get in the way of the techno-gee-whiz.

Synopsis

Based aboard a rotating wheel space station, workmen prepare a big flying wing of a rocket ship. A group of potential crewmen train for what they think will be a moon landing mission. As the work nears completion, they find out that the real mission will be a landing on Mars instead. While aboard "The Wheel", we're introduced to the phenomenon of "space sickness" -- a mental breakdown due to workload and confinement for long periods. One of the crew candidates is scrubbed because of one such breakdown. Nonetheless, the multinational crew are chosen and embark for the long journey to Mars. After departure, it's found that General Merritt's old friend, Sergeant Mahoney, stowed away. On the way to Mars, a communications antenna is damaged and must be fixed via spacewalking crewmen. Just as the repairs are completed, the customary meteor arrives, threatening to hit the ship. General Merritt manages to fly the ship out of the way, but one of the crewmen on EVA is hit with micrometeoroids (like bullets) and killed. The General is also starting to show odd behavior, doubting whether their mission is proper or is an affront to God. Their evasive action puts them behind schedule, but they arrive at Mars. While attempting to land on Mars, the General has another bout of delusion and tries to abort the landing. His son, Captain Merritt, manages to take control and brings in the flying-wing lander to a rough but successful landing. The others go out to explore, but the General, now fully delusional, is venting rocket fuel in an attempt to blow up the ship. His son discovers this and the two struggle. The General's pistol discharges, killing him. Mahoney comes on the scene just then and accuses Captain Merritt of murdering the General. The rest explore a bit more, but pronounce Mars a dead planet. Despite this, Imoto discovers that his earth flower seed sprouted in martian soil. Earthquakes cause the escape rocket to shift off of perpendicular. They get it righted and blast off. On the way home, Mahoney and Captain Merritt make up and declare that the dead General was a hero, the man who conquered space. The End.

The color, the sets, models and background paintings are very visually rich. The whole image is a great snapshot of the future as people in the mid-50s imagined it would be. More tidbits in the Notes section below.

There is actually a subtle anti-war tone to the movie. No overt talk of nuclear dangers or menacing enemies. It is notable, however, that among the conspicuously international crew candidates, there is no Russian. Americans would "conquer" space with a few other nationals along for the ride, but NO Russians. There is also a poorly explained urgency to the mission. What's the hurry? Back in the Cold War, it was pretty common that WE had to get something before THEY did.

In 1949, Willy Ley wrote the book "The Conquest of Space," which speculated about how mankind might travel to other planets. This book was illustrated by space artist Chesley Bonestell. This book would become the inspiration for the movie.

From 1952 to 1954, Collier's magazine ran a series of stories about mankind conquering space. These were repeats by Ley and Bonestell of their 1949 book, but this time Collier's added material from "rocket scientist" Werner von Braun. Bonestell's new illustrations were clearly the prototype for the look of Conquest. People felt that mankind was on the verge of taking to the stars. The Collier's series expressed that giddy optimism.

The screenplay for Conquest added weak human interest sub-plots which almost negate the gee-whiz optimism that the visuals convey. The screenwriters were all experienced in their craft, so it's puzzling why such amateurish characterizations are so prominent. The comic relief moments are almost cartoonish. The whole leader-gone-mad sub-plot seems out of place.

A possible "message" to Conquest is that man is a fragile creature who may not be ready for the rigors of space travel. Certainly, people wondered about this, and other movies touched on the theme too, such as Riders to the Stars ('54). Our not being mentally ready yet was cited by the aliens in It Came From Outer Space ('53). General Merritt's dementia was foreshadowed in the breakdown of Roy early in the movie.

One thing that strikes the viewer is how much life aboard the space station is presumed to duplicate life aboard a navy ship. It's not overtly stated that the military should (or will) be the agency which "conquers" space, but from the ranks and uniforms and the navy-life scenes, that message comes through. Space ships will be like earthly ships.

On the surface, it seems like Conquest is blasting Christians as dangerous religious fanatics. This notion, that anyone who believes in God simply MUST be wacko, would be much more popular in later decades, but it was uncommon in the 50s. For that reason, the General's dementia deserves a closer look.

Actually, General Merritt was not the stereotypic religious fanatic. His son comments that he had never seen him carrying around and reading the Bible before. Instead of headaches or paralysis, the General's "space sickness" took a paranoid turn. He had rational misgivings about the Mars mission from the start, pre-dementia. His repressed misgivings are expressed in Bible verses dealing with sinners being punished by God. He once quotes from Psalm 38, then later from Psalm 62.

Throughout all this, God is not mocked. Indeed, only the "religious" man had the courage to go outside and give the dead Fodor a proper burial. The other non-relgious crewmen were at a loss for what to do.

The notion of impudent mankind trying to meddle in God's domain, is treated as a credible issue. In this, the pattern of the Tower of Babel is drawn. Prideful mankind thinks they can build their way into God's realm. God foils that plan. General Merritt's dementia seems motivated by a fear that this divine retribution could be coming again.

The writers of Conquest imagine a multinationalism in space. Most notable are two former enemy nations: Imoto is from Japan and Fodor is a German-accented Austrian, (as a stand-in for Germany). Imoto gets to make a little speech about why Japan went to war (lack of resources). Fodor gets to be seen as the cherished son of a classic "mama". By 1955, it was starting to become okay to look beyond World War 2.

At one point, the crew of The Wheel are watching a movie with many scantily clad dancing girls (much like sailors aboard a ship). The movie is a lavish musical number with many gold bikini clad pseudo-harem girls dancing while Rosemary Clooney sings about love "...in the desert sand." This clip is total non-sequetor to the high-tech space environment. What's interesting, is that it's NOT stock footage recycled. Clooney had not done any such movie. This dance number must have been staged and shot just for this scene in Conquest. Random act of musical. Gotta love 'em.

Bottom line? Conquest is an almost-epic. It's definitely an A-grade sci-fi movie, so it's well worth watching. The human story part gets in the way sometimes, but the visuals more than make up for it.

Last shoot upload of 2023, getting it in before the end of 2024! My oh my how much backlog I have! This is not like me at all, but since the passing of my mother in July I have taken a backwards step when it comes to my workload - taking more time out for myself to stop and unwind from the stresses of life that come when you live with autism and disabilities. As always, I hope you enjoy the images. If you do, feel free to leave me a testimony on my profile, thanks.

Belgian postcard by Pmagazine in the series 'De 50 mooiste vrouwen van de eeuw!' (the 50 most beautiful women of the century!), no. 3. Photo: Terry Doyle / Outline.

Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones (1969) was typecast as the token pretty girl in British films and therefore relocated to Los Angeles. She established herself in Hollywood with sexy action roles in The Mask of Zorro (1998), Entrapment (1999) and the black comedy Intolerable Cruelty (2003).

Catherine Zeta-Jones was born in Swansea in 1969. Her parents were David Jones, the owner of a candy factory, and his wife Patricia (née Fair), a seamstress. In the 1980s, her parents won £100.000 at the game of Bingo and moved to St. Andrews Drive in Mayals, uptown Swansea. Because Zeta-Jones was a hyperactive child, her mother sent her to the Hazel Johnson School of Dance when she was four years old. Zeta-Jones participated in school stage shows from a young age and gained local media attention when her rendition of a Shirley Bassey song won a Junior Star Trail talent competition. As a child, she played roles in the West End productions of the musicals Annie and Bugsy Malone. When she was 15, Zeta-Jones dropped out of school and decided to live in London to pursue a full-time acting career. She studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London. When she was 17 years old, she made her stage breakthrough with a leading role in a 1987 production of 42nd Street. Her next stage appearance was with the English National Opera at the London Coliseum in 1989 where she played Mae Jones in Kurt Weill's Street Scene. Her screen debut came in the unsuccessful French-Italian film 1001 Nights (Philippe de Broca, 1990), as Sheherezade opposite Thierry Lhermitte. She had greater success as a regular in the British television series The Darling Buds of May (1991–1993). Following a brief appearance as Beatriz Enríquez de Arana in the unsuccessful adventure film Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (John Glen, 1992), Zeta-Jones featured as a belly dancer in disguise in an episode of George Lucas' television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992). She next took on the part of an aspiring duchess in the farcical period drama Splitting Heirs (Robert Young, 1993), about two children (Eric Idle and Rick Moranis) who are separated at birth. She then starred as the pragmatic girlfriend of Sean Pertwee's character in the surf film Blue Juice (Carl Prechezer, 1995). Dismayed at being typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, Zeta-Jones relocated to Los Angeles.

Catherine Zeta-Jones initially established herself in Hollywood with roles that highlighted her sex appeal such as in the action film The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 1998) opposite Antonio Banderas, and the heist film Entrapment (Jon Amiel, 1999), in which she starred opposite Sean Connery as a seductive insurance agent on the lookout for an art thief. Critics praised her portrayal of a vengeful pregnant woman in Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) and a murderous singer in the musical Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002). For the first, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. The latter won her Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actress, among other accolades. In 2003, Zeta-Jones played alongside George Clooney in the Coen Brothers' black comedy Intolerable Cruelty. It was a commercial success. She starred in high-profile films for much of the decade, including the heist film Ocean's Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, 2004), the comedy The Terminal (Steven Spielberg, 2004), and the romantic comedy No Reservations (Scott Hicks, 2007). Parts in smaller-scale features were followed by a decrease in workload, during which she returned to the stage and portrayed an ageing actress in A Little Night Music (2009), winning a Tony Award. Zeta-Jones continued to work intermittently in the 2010s, starring in the psychological thriller Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) and the action film Red 2 (Dean Parisot, 2013). Zeta-Jones is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Tony Award, and in 2010 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her film and humanitarian endeavours. She supports various charities and causes, and is a prominent celebrity endorser of brands. Her struggle with depression and bipolar II disorder has been well documented by the media. She was married to American actor Michael Douglas with whom she has two children. Catherine Zeta-Jones was last seen in the cinemas with Toby Jones and Michael Gambon in the British comedy Dad's Army (Oliver Parker, 2016), based on the legendary TV series.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

Stumbled upon this bunch of 'projects' in Livinhac-le-Haut. Some pictures from years ago can be found of some of these cars in a better shape. It seems the workload has grown over the owner's head.

Massive changes to the workload and allocated work and coaches on Friday meant for me a change of job and Long day but a enjoyable one.Due to Buzzlines going bust on Tuesday and the fact they do work all over the UK meant for us picking up some of the work at Last minute. Including a three peaks challenge job . BV19LLU over the course of three days with started at 06.30 hrs Friday and finishes at 01.00hrs on Monday Morning will have had three different drivers for this job. I did the first bit from Wolverhampton pickup it The Lake District via Snowdon . BV19LLU is seen at Pen-y-pass on The Llanberis pass Off loading the walkers fro the first Challenge. Photo taken 05/07/19

The first of four French AWACS aircraft is being upgraded by Boeing subcontractor Air France Industries at its Le Bourget facility near Paris. The $354 million program will provide the fleet a fuller picture of the battle space and more actionable information while reducing aircrew workload. Boeing is providing on-site engineering and quality assurance support, software and hardware.

Boeing provides this photo for the public to share. Media interested in high-resolution images for publication should email boeingmedia@boeing.com or visit boeing.mediaroom.com. Users may not manipulate or use this photo in commercial materials, advertisements, emails, products, or promotions without licensed permission from Boeing. If you are interested in using Boeing imagery for commercial purposes, email imagelicensing@boeing.com or visit www.boeingimages.com.

Processed with VSCOcam with x6 preset

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Single Raw File. Flash fired.

Pretty much as shot, not much processing required.

We traveled to those non-tourist places to get a closer feel of the lifestyle the locals are having. And we was greeted with smiles from these kids. Maybe they knew we're gonna give them sweets & candies. =)

I'm sorry as i wouldn't be able to reply to your photostreams as i wish i could. My recent workload had me working for over 2mths without a day off!!! I'll try to visit your streams whenever i have internet access onsite, my friends!

Oh i even work on NYE, missing the fireworks....... Sigh.......

Happy holidays! Take Care!

Telluride Vacation Homes It’s easy to forget that feeling as a working adult when heavy workloads and stress threaten to eat into our precious vacation days. Everyone dreams of taking a vacation. The idea of travel can get anyone excited when thinking of the sights you can see–the smells, the food, the freedom. A vacation doesn’t need to be costly or long to have benefits. An affordable weekend getaway is far better than none at all. The key is to fully unplug from work and the regular mundane activities of your life. This gives you an opportunity to recharge your body and mind which delivers exponential benefits, both short- and long-term. Vacation Telluride offers the best telluride vacation homes that is suitable for your great vacation. Being a happy recharged individual has many benefits, seen and unseen, to your personal and professional life. Take your vacation now! Call us today at 866-754-8772 for the most suitable Telluride Vacation Homes for your vacation! You can visit us online to view the full services we offer. ift.tt/2hUc2cs Vacation Rentals Telluride Telluride Vacation Rentals Telluride Vacation Condos Vacation Homes Telluride Vacation Homes in Telluride

Goliath shipbuilding gantry crane, Harland & Wolff shipyard.

The cranes are situated in the shipyard of Harland & Wolff and were constructed by the German engineering firm Krupp, with Goliath being completed in 1969 and Samson, slightly further inland, in 1974. Goliath stands 96 metres (315 ft) tall, while Samson is taller at 106 metres (348 ft). At the time Harland & Wolff was one of the largest shipbuilders in the world.

Samson and Goliath are the twin shipbuilding gantry cranes situated at Queen's Island. The cranes, which were named after the Biblical figures Samson and Goliath, dominate the Belfast skyline and are landmark structures of the city.

Each crane has a span of 140 metres (459 ft) and can lift loads of up to 840 tonnes to a height of 70 metres (230 ft), making a combined lifting capacity of over 1,600 tonnes, one of the largest in the world. Prior to commissioning, the cranes were tested up to 1,000 tonnes, which bent the gantry downwards by over 30 centimetres (12 in). The dry dock at the base of the cranes is the largest in the world measuring 556m x 93m.

At its height Harland & Wolff boasted 35,000 employees and a healthy order book, but in the years following the cranes' construction the workforce and business declined. The last ship to be launched at the yard to date was a roll-on/roll-off ferry in March 2003. Since then the yard has restructured itself to focus less on shipbuilding and more on design and structural engineering, as well as ship repair, offshore construction projects and competing for other projects to do with metal engineering and construction. Initially there was concern that the now largely redundant cranes would be demolished. However later in the year they were scheduled as historic monuments under Article 3 of the Historic Monuments and Archaeological Objects (Northern Ireland) Order 1995.

Northern Ireland Office Minister of the time Angela Smith stated: "These cranes are an essential part of our city, our roots and our culture."

The cranes are to be retained as part of the existing dry dock facility within the restructured shipyard, situated adjacent to the Titanic Quarter, a business, light industrial, leisure and residential development on land now surplus to the heavy industrial requirements of the shipyard on Queen's Island. They will continue to be used on ship repair projects as well as potential shipbuilding activities in the future.

On 4 April 2007, Goliath crashed into the long jib of smaller rail-mounted "Henson" tower crane, sending the smaller crane tumbling to the ground. The smaller crane weighed 95 tonnes and stood at a height of 25 m, compared to Samson's 70 m. Three industrial painters working on another rail-mounted crane were close to the jib as it fell, eventually crashing onto the ground. Information about the incident was not released until mobile-phone footage of the event was published on YouTube. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=05_ahAulMSE)

In October 2007, Goliath re-entered service after five years, an occurrence described by a company spokesperson as underlining the yard's growing workload.

Bien que ce camion est doté d'une cabine Mack modèle MR, c'est un camion de la marque ''TOR'' (TOR Truck Corporation). Il est équippé avec un unité de pompage de béton de la cie Pompage Mega. Pierrefonds Québec, juillet 2014. Photo et info. de Murray Markanen.

Despite the fact that this truck is equipped with a Mack MR cab, this truck was manufactured by ''TOR'' (TOR Truck Corporation). It appears here with a concrete pump workload body. This unit is operated by ''Pompage Mega''. Pierrefonds Quebec, July 2014. Photo and info. Murray Markanen.

Porsche 917-001

Chassis 001, assembled in early March 1969, was the first of the twenty-five 917s completed for homologation. This chassis was used for a multitude of events, though never raced. Its workload consisted of testing at the Nürburgring and display duty in places such as the Geneva Motor Show in 1969 or Frankfurt International Auto Show in 1970.

By October 1970, 917-001 was part of the Press Department of Porsche and painted in the now famous Salzburg paint scheme of the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans winner.

Festival Automobile International 2017, Paris

THE HAZZARD RANGE HERALD

In their monthly meeting the Hazzard Range county commission heard public comments from many members of the community on a few topics on and off the commission agenda .

Clerk Julia Azzarello reported that the Clerk's Office is getting ready for the 2022 election and early voting started on Oct 11th and goes through Sat Nov 5th .

County Public Works Dept Superintendent Sherry Diff reported that crews are busy with normal duties and flooding has just added to workload. That has led to many miles of remote roads being washed out and for now impassable.

Hazzard Range Community Health center CEO Dan Reast gave an update on the Center.

After reports

The commission unanimously voted to approve 12 contracts. Unanimously voted, approved to appoint people to 4 advisory boards . Unanimously voted to revise 6 county codes.

Sheriff Try Forbes.Community Health center CEO Dan Reast County Manager Monica Ski District 1 Commissioner Jeb Cox , District 2 Commissioner /Vice chair Jake Harpe, District 3 Commissioner Fred Taller ,District 4 Commission/ Chair George Dallas ( G. D ) and District 5 Commission Frank Padilla , Clerk Julia Azzarello

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background (including material from fellow modeler Devilfish at whatifmodelers.com):

The SEPECAT Cheetah was a more sophisticated variable geometry wing derivative of the Anglo-French Jaguar attack aircraft, similar to the Su-7 and later Su-17/2022 evolution.

The RAF Cheetahs served together with the Jaguar Force until 2007, when both types were retired. Following their retirement from flying service, some Cheetahs continue to serve as ground instructional airframes, most notably at RAF Cosford, used in the training of RAF fitters.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 16.83 m (55 ft 2½ in)

Wingspan: 13.97 m (45 ft 10 in) spread 16°, XXX swept 72°

Height: 4.89 m (16 ft 0½ in)

Wing area: 37.35 m² spread, 34.16 m² swept (402.05 ft² / 367.71 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,848 kg (17,286 lb)

Loaded weight: 12,200 kg (26,872 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,700 kg (34,612 lb)

Powerplant:

2 × Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour Mk 105 turbofans

with 24.50 kN (5,508 lbf) dry thrust each and 35.5 kN (7,979 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 (1,870 km/h, 1,161 mph) at 11,000 m (36,000 ft)

Mach 1.1 (1,350 km/h, 839 mph) at sea level

Combat radius: 908 km (490 nmi, 564 mi) (lo-lo-lo, external fuel)

Ferry range: 3,524 km (1,902 nmi, 2,190 mi)

Service ceiling: 14,000 m (45,900 ft)

Rate of climb: 200 m/s (39,400 ft/min)

Climb to 9,145 m (30,000 ft): 1 min 30 sec

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA cannons in the lower front fuselage, 150 RPG

7 hardpoints; 1× center-line pylon stations Fore & Aft plus a pair of pylons in front of the main landing gear wells; twin inner pylon (Fore & Aft) plus launch rails for AAMs, and single Outer Pylon pair under the wings, non-moveable. Total capacity of 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) for a wide range of guided and unguided ordnance, including:

- Matra rocket pods with 18× SNEB 68 mm rockets each (up to seven at once)

- AS.37 Martel anti-radar missiles

- AS-30L laser guided air-to-ground missiles

- Various unguided or laser-guided bombs of up to 2.000 lb (907 kg) caliber

- 2× WE177A nuclear bombs

- 1× AN-52 nuclear bomb

- ECM protection pods

- Reconnaissance pods

- ATLIS laser/electro-optical targeting pod

- External drop tanks for extended range/loitering time

The kit and its assembly:

The final contribution to the “Cold War” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and another realization of a plan from the long agenda – and triggered by a similar build at the board from fellow modeler Devilfish who built a naval VG Jaguar with Tornado wings in 1:48. I took the opportunity and inspiration to build my interpretation of that theme, lending the Cheetah designation from Devilfish’s build, though, and some of the naval version’s background.

Anyway, my conversion plan had been different. I wanted to create an RAF aircraft, true to the Jaguar’s strike/recce role, and the VG mechanism and wings would come from a MiG-23 – inspired by a similar transplant with a Mirage F.1C I saw many moons ago (and a beautiful result, I want to try that stunt, too!).

I also had the donation kits stashed away: a Heller SEPECAT Jaguar A (actually, I had already piled up four kits for this task…) and an Academy MiG-23S.

Wing transplantation went straightforward and with surprisingly little difficulties. The MiG’s wings were cut out together with the spinal section and the lower wing gloves, so that the VG geometry remained unchanged. On the other side, this package went into a shallow gap that I carved out from the Jag’s ventral section. Some putty and body sculpting merged the parts, easier than expected.

The rest saw only minor modifications. A radome was implanted (from an Italeri F-18 Hornet), which needed some body sculpting around the nose and the MiG-23’s stabilizers were used, too, in order to form a clean wing shape. I tailored their trailing edges a bit, so that the shape would not remind too much of the MiG heritage.

An RAF style radar warning receiver, scratched from 1.5mm styrene, was installed into the French version’ fin. Under the wing roots a pair of pylons from a Matchbox F-14 were added, together with Sidewinder launch rails from a Tornado ADV (Italeri). The jet exhausts were drilled open for more depth, and some sensors/pitots added to the nose, made from wire. Cockpit and landing gear were taken OOB, even though I used a different ejection seat and faired the original dashboard over with a piece of styrene.

The BL 755 bombs and their twin racks come OOB from the Heller kit, the Sidewinders from an ESCI kit, IIRC.

Painting and markings:

The RAF was settled as an operator, but for a whiffy twist I applied the all-green scheme that the RAF’s Harrier GR.5 carried in the late Eighties – exclusively, AFAIK. While the all NATO Green upper side appears a bit dull, the Lichen Green underside and the very low waterline look rather psychedelic and unique. Anyway, it works well on the Cheetah, and I can imagine that other RAF aircraft would also look cool in this simple scheme?

The basic colors I used are Humbrol 105 (Army Green) and 120 (Light Green, FS 34227), both are pretty approximates. The basic paintwork was later panel-shaded with lighter mixes of these two tones – actually brightened up with RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78). In fact, the Heller Jaguar is almost totally devoid of any surface detail... A light black ink wash was also used to emphasize edges and deepen the contrast. The wings’ leading edges were painted in a very dark green (Humbrol 91) and the cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (FS 36076 from Model Master). The landing gear struts were painted light grey, while the wells and covers became Zinc Chromate Yellow.

The decals are a mix of the OOB Heller sheet and aftermarket sheets for RAF Jaguars, an Italeri Tornado and a Harrier GR.5. A coat of matt acrylic varnish finally sealed everything and the ordnance was mounted.

An interesting conversion, and the result looks very plausible! I am certain that this thing would make people seriously wonder and think when displayed on a convention. The VG Jag looks very natural – but not much sexier than the original? Anyway, the transplantation does not look out of place, because the Jaguar’s layout is very similar to the Panavia Tornado, so that the VG wing does not appear like the total fake it actually is. ^^

The EJ200 is a twin shaft reheated turbofan, with three low pressure (LP) and five high pressure (HP) compressor stages, powered by two single-stage turbines (LP and HP). The combustor is annular with airspray injectors. The engine reheat system features a 3-stage manifold system and a convergent/divergent nozzle. Engine control is by an integrated application of blisks, wide-chord aerofoils, single crystal blades, an airspray combustion system, and an integral Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) providing low pilot workload and comprehensive fleet management capability.

Specification EJ200

20,000 lbf Thrust reheated

13,500 dry reheated

Bypass ratio 0.4

Pressure ratio 26

Length in (m) 157 (4)

Diameter in (m) 29 (0.74)

Basic weight lb (Kg) 2,180 (989)

Compressor 3LP, 5HP

Turbine 1HP, 1LP

Applications Eurofighter Typhoon

This semesters work load. I dont think it will be that hard. Signing and Social Intelligence were brought on by myself. The rest is for school

Note to the readers: This is a continuation of “Darkness Rising”. In order to understand what is going on, I recommend reading that chapter before reading this one.

After a great deal of struggle (for neither Andared, nor the Lenfel Ranger were men of the sea), they finally set sail. Within a few hours, they had begun weaving their way through the great Aines River, making their way eastward. During that time, hardly a word had been spoken between Andared and his mysterious rescuer. With only two men to run a ship meant to be crewed by no fewer than five, there was little time for talk. However, now that they were in the more docile river water, instead of the coastal sea, their workload had greatly diminished. Now Andared wanted answers.

”Alright,” he began, walking to the stern of the boat. ”Before we go any further, I want to know what’s going on. Who were those men at the docks?”

“Those were the first scouts of an Outlaw army, hailing from the Magic Isle,” the ranger replied with a sigh. ”It’s seems that everything I feared is coming to pass. I wonder if anyone in Garheim or Loreos even knows…”

“Knows what? What happened at the coronation?”

”The coronation and banquet were a trap, set up by our ‘beloved’ queen,” the malice in the ranger's tone steadily grew. ”I watched from the top of a nearby tree as the fools blindly walked into that banquet hall, completely unarmed. But even that wasn’t enough for the cowardly outlaws. They waited until the whole lot of them were drunk as fiends and stuffed to their stomachs. Then the outlaws descended. They slaughtered the few guards that were posted outside (most of whom had put away a drink or two themselves) and bashed through the banquet doors, led by a powerful wizard.”

The ranger shook his head and smashed his fist against the wheel, making no attempt to hide his frustration.

”I could only watch, while the whole crowd of ‘Roawia’s finest’ were led away like common criminals. The next morning, the outlaws sent out scout ships. Their destinations ranged from the northern peaks of Garheim to the southern plains of Loreos. I managed to slip aboard this ship before its departure, then spent two days hidden in the cargo hold. I had intended to wait for the outlaws to leave the ship, then do my best to obtain a horse. However, thanks to your timely distraction, we were able to kill them all and acquire their ship in the process.”

Andared groaned and looked across the sea, envisioning the leaders of Roawia sitting in shackles. But in spite of the despair which loomed over them, his resolve grew ever stronger.

”If what you say is true, then we must make haste. During Triphian’s absence, he will have a steward reigning in his place. We must speak to him in Stonewald, so that he can muster Lenfald’s armies. After we crush their army, we can assault the King’s Island and rescue our leaders.”

To this, the ranger shook his head. ”That is exactly what we cannot do,” he replied. ”This is no mere army that the outlaws are sending. It is an invasion, meant to occupy all of Roawia’s greatest strongholds and cities. The force they are sending will easily rival anything that we can muster in so short a time. To make matters worse, almost all of our greatest commanders and warriors were captured at the feast, leaving us leaderless.”

“I suppose you would have us surrender instead? Andared countered. "I think you underestimate Lenfel courage!”

”I do not doubt the hearts of Lenfald,” the ranger shot back. “But it cannot be denied that we are weary. The war against Loreos, despite our victory, was taxing. Outposts are in need of repair, men have fallen and can never be replaced, and our supplies are low. These facts alone would be normally be a death knell. But that is not the end of our troubles. That witch of a woman we call Galainir has declared that any resistance by our countries will result in the torture and execution of her captives. How many Lenfels do you think will fight when they know that their actions will be the death of their loved ones?”

Andared frowned, but said no more. The man was right. Even if a few Lenfels were willing to resist, despite Galainir’s threat, the number would be so few that they would be surely defeated. But that didn’t make surrendering his country to outlaws any easier.

”One more thing,” Andared finally broke the silence. ”Who are you?”

”My name is of no concern to you, right now. But I am an agent of an order meant to protect and defend Lenfald and her interests. We call ourselves the Dragon Clan…”

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background (including material from fellow modeler Devilfish at whatifmodelers.com):

The SEPECAT Cheetah was a more sophisticated variable geometry wing derivative of the Anglo-French Jaguar attack aircraft, similar to the Su-7 and later Su-17/2022 evolution.

The RAF Cheetahs served together with the Jaguar Force until 2007, when both types were retired. Following their retirement from flying service, some Cheetahs continue to serve as ground instructional airframes, most notably at RAF Cosford, used in the training of RAF fitters.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 16.83 m (55 ft 2½ in)

Wingspan: 13.97 m (45 ft 10 in) spread 16°, XXX swept 72°

Height: 4.89 m (16 ft 0½ in)

Wing area: 37.35 m² spread, 34.16 m² swept (402.05 ft² / 367.71 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,848 kg (17,286 lb)

Loaded weight: 12,200 kg (26,872 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,700 kg (34,612 lb)

Powerplant:

2 × Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour Mk 105 turbofans

with 24.50 kN (5,508 lbf) dry thrust each and 35.5 kN (7,979 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 (1,870 km/h, 1,161 mph) at 11,000 m (36,000 ft)

Mach 1.1 (1,350 km/h, 839 mph) at sea level

Combat radius: 908 km (490 nmi, 564 mi) (lo-lo-lo, external fuel)

Ferry range: 3,524 km (1,902 nmi, 2,190 mi)

Service ceiling: 14,000 m (45,900 ft)

Rate of climb: 200 m/s (39,400 ft/min)

Climb to 9,145 m (30,000 ft): 1 min 30 sec

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA cannons in the lower front fuselage, 150 RPG

7 hardpoints; 1× center-line pylon stations Fore & Aft plus a pair of pylons in front of the main landing gear wells; twin inner pylon (Fore & Aft) plus launch rails for AAMs, and single Outer Pylon pair under the wings, non-moveable. Total capacity of 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) for a wide range of guided and unguided ordnance, including:

- Matra rocket pods with 18× SNEB 68 mm rockets each (up to seven at once)

- AS.37 Martel anti-radar missiles

- AS-30L laser guided air-to-ground missiles

- Various unguided or laser-guided bombs of up to 2.000 lb (907 kg) caliber

- 2× WE177A nuclear bombs

- 1× AN-52 nuclear bomb

- ECM protection pods

- Reconnaissance pods

- ATLIS laser/electro-optical targeting pod

- External drop tanks for extended range/loitering time

The kit and its assembly:

The final contribution to the “Cold War” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and another realization of a plan from the long agenda – and triggered by a similar build at the board from fellow modeler Devilfish who built a naval VG Jaguar with Tornado wings in 1:48. I took the opportunity and inspiration to build my interpretation of that theme, lending the Cheetah designation from Devilfish’s build, though, and some of the naval version’s background.

Anyway, my conversion plan had been different. I wanted to create an RAF aircraft, true to the Jaguar’s strike/recce role, and the VG mechanism and wings would come from a MiG-23 – inspired by a similar transplant with a Mirage F.1C I saw many moons ago (and a beautiful result, I want to try that stunt, too!).

I also had the donation kits stashed away: a Heller SEPECAT Jaguar A (actually, I had already piled up four kits for this task…) and an Academy MiG-23S.

Wing transplantation went straightforward and with surprisingly little difficulties. The MiG’s wings were cut out together with the spinal section and the lower wing gloves, so that the VG geometry remained unchanged. On the other side, this package went into a shallow gap that I carved out from the Jag’s ventral section. Some putty and body sculpting merged the parts, easier than expected.

The rest saw only minor modifications. A radome was implanted (from an Italeri F-18 Hornet), which needed some body sculpting around the nose and the MiG-23’s stabilizers were used, too, in order to form a clean wing shape. I tailored their trailing edges a bit, so that the shape would not remind too much of the MiG heritage.

An RAF style radar warning receiver, scratched from 1.5mm styrene, was installed into the French version’ fin. Under the wing roots a pair of pylons from a Matchbox F-14 were added, together with Sidewinder launch rails from a Tornado ADV (Italeri). The jet exhausts were drilled open for more depth, and some sensors/pitots added to the nose, made from wire. Cockpit and landing gear were taken OOB, even though I used a different ejection seat and faired the original dashboard over with a piece of styrene.

The BL 755 bombs and their twin racks come OOB from the Heller kit, the Sidewinders from an ESCI kit, IIRC.

Painting and markings:

The RAF was settled as an operator, but for a whiffy twist I applied the all-green scheme that the RAF’s Harrier GR.5 carried in the late Eighties – exclusively, AFAIK. While the all NATO Green upper side appears a bit dull, the Lichen Green underside and the very low waterline look rather psychedelic and unique. Anyway, it works well on the Cheetah, and I can imagine that other RAF aircraft would also look cool in this simple scheme?

The basic colors I used are Humbrol 105 (Army Green) and 120 (Light Green, FS 34227), both are pretty approximates. The basic paintwork was later panel-shaded with lighter mixes of these two tones – actually brightened up with RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78). In fact, the Heller Jaguar is almost totally devoid of any surface detail... A light black ink wash was also used to emphasize edges and deepen the contrast. The wings’ leading edges were painted in a very dark green (Humbrol 91) and the cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (FS 36076 from Model Master). The landing gear struts were painted light grey, while the wells and covers became Zinc Chromate Yellow.

The decals are a mix of the OOB Heller sheet and aftermarket sheets for RAF Jaguars, an Italeri Tornado and a Harrier GR.5. A coat of matt acrylic varnish finally sealed everything and the ordnance was mounted.

An interesting conversion, and the result looks very plausible! I am certain that this thing would make people seriously wonder and think when displayed on a convention. The VG Jag looks very natural – but not much sexier than the original? Anyway, the transplantation does not look out of place, because the Jaguar’s layout is very similar to the Panavia Tornado, so that the VG wing does not appear like the total fake it actually is. ^^

Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A 438.

Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones (1969) was typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, and therefore relocated to Los Angeles. She established herself in Hollywood with sexy action roles in The Mask of Zorro (1998), Entrapment (1999) and the black comedy Intolerable Cruelty (2003).

Catherine Zeta-Jones was born in Swansea in 1969. Herr parents were David Jones, the owner of a candy factory, and his wife Patricia (née Fair), a seamstress. In the 1980s, her parents won £100.000 at the game of Bingo and moved to St. Andrews Drive in Mayals, uptown Swansea. Because Zeta-Jones was a hyperactive child, her mother sent her to the Hazel Johnson School of Dance when she was four years old. Zeta-Jones participated in school stage shows from a young age and gained local media attention when her rendition of a Shirley Bassey song won a Junior Star Trail talent competition. As a child, she played roles in the West End productions of the musicals Annie and Bugsy Malone. When she was 15, Zeta-Jones dropped out of school and decided to live in London to pursue a full-time acting career. She studied musical theatre at the Arts Educational Schools, London. When she was 17 years old, she made her stage breakthrough with a leading role in a 1987 production of 42nd Street. Her next stage appearance was with the English National Opera at the London Coliseum in 1989 where she played Mae Jones in Kurt Weill's Street Scene. Her screen debut came in the unsuccessful French-Italian film 1001 Nights (Philippe de Broca, 1990), as Sheherezade opposite Thierry Lhermitte. She had greater success as a regular in the British television series The Darling Buds of May (1991–1993). Following a brief appearance as Beatriz Enríquez de Arana in the unsuccessful adventure film Christopher Columbus: The Discovery (John Glen, 1992), Zeta-Jones featured as a belly dancer in disguise in an episode of George Lucas' television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992). She next took on the part of an aspiring duchess in the farcical period drama Splitting Heirs (Robert Young, 1993), about two children (Eric Idle and Rick Moranis) who are separated at birth. She then starred as the pragmatic girlfriend of Sean Pertwee's character in the surf film Blue Juice (Carl Prechezer, 1995). Dismayed at being typecast as the token pretty girl in British films, Zeta-Jones relocated to Los Angeles.

Catherine Zeta-Jones initially established herself in Hollywood with roles that highlighted her sex appeal such as in the action film The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 1998) opposite Antonio Banderas, and the heist film Entrapment (Jon Amiel, 1999), in which she starred opposite Sean Connery as a seductive insurance agent on the lookout for an art thief. Critics praised her portrayal of a vengeful pregnant woman in Traffic (Steven Soderbergh, 2000) and a murderous singer in the musical Chicago (Rob Marshall, 2002). For the first she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. The latter won her Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Supporting Actress, among other accolades. In 2003, Zeta-Jones played alongside George Clooney in the Coen Brothers' black comedy Intolerable Cruelty. It was a commercial success. She starred in high-profile films for much of the decade, including the heist film Ocean's Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, 2004), the comedy The Terminal (Steven Spielberg, 2004), and the romantic comedy No Reservations (Scott Hicks, 2007). Parts in smaller-scale features were followed by a decrease in workload, during which she returned to stage and portrayed an ageing actress in A Little Night Music (2009), winning a Tony Award. Zeta-Jones continued to work intermittently in the 2010s, starring in the psychological thriller Side Effects (Steven Soderbergh, 2013) and the action film Red 2 (Dean Parisot, 2013). Zeta-Jones is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a Tony Award, and in 2010 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for her film and humanitarian endeavours. She supports various charities and causes, and is a prominent celebrity endorser of brands. Her struggle with depression and bipolar II disorder has been well documented by the media. She was married to American actor Michael Douglas with whom she has two children. Catherine Zeta-Jones was last seen in the cinemas with Toby Jones and Michael Gambon in the British comedy Dad's Army (Oliver Parker, 2016), based on the legendary TV series.

Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background (including material from fellow modeler Devilfish at whatifmodelers.com):

The SEPECAT Cheetah was a more sophisticated variable geometry wing derivative of the Anglo-French Jaguar attack aircraft, similar to the Su-7 and later Su-17/2022 evolution.

The RAF Cheetahs served together with the Jaguar Force until 2007, when both types were retired. Following their retirement from flying service, some Cheetahs continue to serve as ground instructional airframes, most notably at RAF Cosford, used in the training of RAF fitters.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length: 16.83 m (55 ft 2½ in)

Wingspan: 13.97 m (45 ft 10 in) spread 16°, XXX swept 72°

Height: 4.89 m (16 ft 0½ in)

Wing area: 37.35 m² spread, 34.16 m² swept (402.05 ft² / 367.71 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,848 kg (17,286 lb)

Loaded weight: 12,200 kg (26,872 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 15,700 kg (34,612 lb)

Powerplant:

2 × Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour Mk 105 turbofans

with 24.50 kN (5,508 lbf) dry thrust each and 35.5 kN (7,979 lbf) with afterburner

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 (1,870 km/h, 1,161 mph) at 11,000 m (36,000 ft)

Mach 1.1 (1,350 km/h, 839 mph) at sea level

Combat radius: 908 km (490 nmi, 564 mi) (lo-lo-lo, external fuel)

Ferry range: 3,524 km (1,902 nmi, 2,190 mi)

Service ceiling: 14,000 m (45,900 ft)

Rate of climb: 200 m/s (39,400 ft/min)

Climb to 9,145 m (30,000 ft): 1 min 30 sec

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA cannons in the lower front fuselage, 150 RPG

7 hardpoints; 1× center-line pylon stations Fore & Aft plus a pair of pylons in front of the main landing gear wells; twin inner pylon (Fore & Aft) plus launch rails for AAMs, and single Outer Pylon pair under the wings, non-moveable. Total capacity of 10,000 lb (4,500 kg) for a wide range of guided and unguided ordnance, including:

- Matra rocket pods with 18× SNEB 68 mm rockets each (up to seven at once)

- AS.37 Martel anti-radar missiles

- AS-30L laser guided air-to-ground missiles

- Various unguided or laser-guided bombs of up to 2.000 lb (907 kg) caliber

- 2× WE177A nuclear bombs

- 1× AN-52 nuclear bomb

- ECM protection pods

- Reconnaissance pods

- ATLIS laser/electro-optical targeting pod

- External drop tanks for extended range/loitering time

The kit and its assembly:

The final contribution to the “Cold War” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com, and another realization of a plan from the long agenda – and triggered by a similar build at the board from fellow modeler Devilfish who built a naval VG Jaguar with Tornado wings in 1:48. I took the opportunity and inspiration to build my interpretation of that theme, lending the Cheetah designation from Devilfish’s build, though, and some of the naval version’s background.

Anyway, my conversion plan had been different. I wanted to create an RAF aircraft, true to the Jaguar’s strike/recce role, and the VG mechanism and wings would come from a MiG-23 – inspired by a similar transplant with a Mirage F.1C I saw many moons ago (and a beautiful result, I want to try that stunt, too!).

I also had the donation kits stashed away: a Heller SEPECAT Jaguar A (actually, I had already piled up four kits for this task…) and an Academy MiG-23S.

Wing transplantation went straightforward and with surprisingly little difficulties. The MiG’s wings were cut out together with the spinal section and the lower wing gloves, so that the VG geometry remained unchanged. On the other side, this package went into a shallow gap that I carved out from the Jag’s ventral section. Some putty and body sculpting merged the parts, easier than expected.

The rest saw only minor modifications. A radome was implanted (from an Italeri F-18 Hornet), which needed some body sculpting around the nose and the MiG-23’s stabilizers were used, too, in order to form a clean wing shape. I tailored their trailing edges a bit, so that the shape would not remind too much of the MiG heritage.

An RAF style radar warning receiver, scratched from 1.5mm styrene, was installed into the French version’ fin. Under the wing roots a pair of pylons from a Matchbox F-14 were added, together with Sidewinder launch rails from a Tornado ADV (Italeri). The jet exhausts were drilled open for more depth, and some sensors/pitots added to the nose, made from wire. Cockpit and landing gear were taken OOB, even though I used a different ejection seat and faired the original dashboard over with a piece of styrene.

The BL 755 bombs and their twin racks come OOB from the Heller kit, the Sidewinders from an ESCI kit, IIRC.

Painting and markings:

The RAF was settled as an operator, but for a whiffy twist I applied the all-green scheme that the RAF’s Harrier GR.5 carried in the late Eighties – exclusively, AFAIK. While the all NATO Green upper side appears a bit dull, the Lichen Green underside and the very low waterline look rather psychedelic and unique. Anyway, it works well on the Cheetah, and I can imagine that other RAF aircraft would also look cool in this simple scheme?

The basic colors I used are Humbrol 105 (Army Green) and 120 (Light Green, FS 34227), both are pretty approximates. The basic paintwork was later panel-shaded with lighter mixes of these two tones – actually brightened up with RAF Cockpit Green (Humbrol 78). In fact, the Heller Jaguar is almost totally devoid of any surface detail... A light black ink wash was also used to emphasize edges and deepen the contrast. The wings’ leading edges were painted in a very dark green (Humbrol 91) and the cockpit interior was painted in dark grey (FS 36076 from Model Master). The landing gear struts were painted light grey, while the wells and covers became Zinc Chromate Yellow.

The decals are a mix of the OOB Heller sheet and aftermarket sheets for RAF Jaguars, an Italeri Tornado and a Harrier GR.5. A coat of matt acrylic varnish finally sealed everything and the ordnance was mounted.

An interesting conversion, and the result looks very plausible! I am certain that this thing would make people seriously wonder and think when displayed on a convention. The VG Jag looks very natural – but not much sexier than the original? Anyway, the transplantation does not look out of place, because the Jaguar’s layout is very similar to the Panavia Tornado, so that the VG wing does not appear like the total fake it actually is. ^^

My friends rinku and binish making some unusual photos……!!!

Stood on display at Swanwick Junction is preserved LMS Princess Royal Class 4-6-2 46203 "Princess Margaret Rose", one of only two of these locomotives to be preserved, and both of which were sat in the same shed.

The Princess Royal class were a set of 13 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives designed by William Stanier and built at Crewe Works between 1933 and 1935 to be the prime motive power on the West Coast Mainline between London Euston, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, including the famous Royal Scot premier express service. At first, two prototypical locomotives were built in 1933, followed by 11 production locomotives in 1935. These were later complimented by a fleet of 38 Coronation Pacific locomotives built between 1937 and 1948, which later went on to be arguably the most power steam locomotives ever built for the British Railway network.

One of the original prototypes however was retained for use as a testbed for a new Turbine Locomotive project to help improve the efficiency of the engines, later being unofficially dubbed 'Turbomotive'. The engine was fitted with turbines instead of cylinders, with the forward turbine containing 18 rows of blading, resulting in an output of 2,400hp, corresponding to running at 62 mph (100 km/h). The turbine was designed to operate into a maximum back-pressure of 2 psi, allowing a conventional double blast-pipe to provide the boiler draught, and eliminating draught fans, which always seemed to give a disproportionate amount of trouble.

The reverse turbine had 4 rows of blades. It was engaged by a dog clutch, activated when the reverser lever being set to "0". This was originally steam-operated by a small piston and cylinder. This locomotive was later rebuilt as a conventional classmate in 1952, using new mainframes and a spare set of cylinders from one of the Coronation Pacifics, and was numbered 46202, later to be named 'Princess Anne'.

6201, LMS lot number 99, was built at Crewe for the sum of £11,675 (£685,000 today) and named Princess Elizabeth, after the then Duke of York’s eldest daughter, currently our Queen Elizabeth II, leaving the works on 3rd November 1933.

Throughout the years the Princess Royal's continued to ply their trade on the West Coast services, but the years of World War II took their toll on the fleet. The beautiful Crimson Lake was replaced by Wartime Black, and the prestige manner that these locomotives had been accustomed to was stripped away as the railways were rationalised as part of the war effort. Work hours increased, and maintenance turns reduced, meaning these engines were being forced to the very limit of their design to keep Britain moving.

With the end of the war in 1945 the workload began to decrease, but the railways had paid the price. The beauty and lavish luxury of the pre-war companies had been stripped and would never return, with all of Britain's main railway companies now almost bankrupt and working a fleet of very tired engines on a poorly maintained railway network. In 1948 the Labour Government nationalised these companies to create British Railways, hoping to modernise the network and rebuild the overworked system.

The Princess Royals and their more powerful sisters the Coronation Pacifics continued to work hard as the implementation of diesels gathered pace. Early diesels however were underpowered and suffered heavily from reliability issues, meaning on many occasions the steam locomotives that they intended to replace actually came to their rescue!

It was not all plain sailing though for the Princess Royals in the 1950's, as this decade was littered with many fatal accidents. On 21 September 1951, locomotive No.46207 Princess Arthur of Connaught was hauling an express passenger train that was derailed at Weedon, Northamptonshire due to a defective front bogie on the locomotive, resulting in the deaths of 15 people and the injury of 35.

This was followed a year later by what would turn out to be the worst rail accident in the whole of British history. On 8 October 1952, an express passenger train hauled by Coronation Class, 46242 'City of Glasgow' overran signals on a train from Perth to London Euston, striking the rear of a stopped Tring to Euston commuter train at Harrow and Wealdstone station in North London. The ensuing wreckage was then struck by a northbound Liverpool express, hauled by Jubilee Class 45637 'Windward Islands', and recently rebuilt ex-Turbomotive Princess Royal 46202 'Princess Anne', which had only entered service two months earlier. In the chaos that followed, a total of 112 people were killed and 340 were injured, with 46202 obliterated in the accident, the first and only member of the class to be lost in an accident.

The late 50's however began to see the end of these engines as good, reliable diesels began to be introduced to replace them, followed closely by electric traction on the West Coast Mainline out of Euston. In 1961 the first members of the class were withdrawn from service, including 6201, which was placed in store in March 1961, but returned to service in May of that year due to poor diesel reliability.

As more diesels were delivered, in October of the same year 6201 was again placed into storage at Carlisle Kingmoor. However, again in January 1962 6201 was returned to traffic to cover for diesel failures and continued to work until September 1962 where it was once again placed into storage. It was subsequently withdrawn by BR in October 1962 and purchased by Roger Bell. The last of the locomotives to be withdrawn was class premier and original prototype number 62000 'The Princess Royal', which was withdrawn in November 1962 and subsequently scrapped. In all, only two locomotives were preserved, number 6203 'Princess Margaret Rose' and 6201 'Princess Elizabeth'.

Dr Alia Crum arrived in the soft brightness that comes after a storm. The air outside Stanford’s Psychology Building was cool and clear, the kind of light that makes everything feel freshly washed. She settled into a comfortable chair in her office with an easy calm, as if the morning’s weather had cleared a little space around her too.

Crum is a psychologist who studies something deceptively simple. She examines how beliefs shape physiology. Not in the loose mystical way that phrase sometimes gets tossed around. Her work cuts closer to the bone. The body is not a passive machine. It responds to expectation. It listens to mindset. She has built a career showing that what we think about stress, food, exercise, illness and treatment can tilt the body’s response in measurable ways.

Her early work came out of a moment most of us would ignore. While studying stress at Yale she realized that stress itself was not always the enemy. The fear of stress could be worse. The belief that stress is damaging primes the body to show more harmful patterns. The belief that stress can sharpen performance nudges the system toward resilience. Not wishful thinking. Observable biology. Shifts in cortisol. Changes in blood vessel constriction. A different hormonal conversation between mind and body.

One of her most famous studies grew from that instinct to question the obvious. The milkshake experiment has been told and retold because of how blunt and beautiful it is. Crum and her team gave participants a milkshake. Same ingredients. Same calories. Same everything. But the label was switched. For one group it was described as a rich decadent indulgence. For the other it appeared as a restrained sensible shake. People drank it while their hunger hormones were measured. Ghrelin the hormone that pushes hunger up or down behaved as if the labels were real. The decadent shake triggered a steep drop in ghrelin as though the body believed satisfaction had arrived. The restrained shake left ghrelin high as though the body had been shortchanged. The stomach listened not just to what was swallowed but to the story around it.

Crum leans into these contradictions. The world is overflowing with advice about how to treat your body. She keeps asking how the body treats belief. Her research at the Mind and Body Lab explores placebos, treatment expectations, the power of framing and how subtle shifts in context can rewrite physiology. People heal faster when they think a treatment is potent even if the medication is identical. Housekeepers who were told their daily work counted as exercise showed improvements in weight and blood pressure without any change in actual workload. Mindset became part of the treatment itself.

Talking with her you sense someone who has not grown cynical despite years of studying human perception. She seems fascinated by how easily the mind can box itself in and how quickly it can step out again with the right nudge. During the shoot she often rested her hand on a notebook the way some people hold a compass. These experiments begin as questions scribbled on a page before they grow into protocols, measurements and data sets that surprise the field again and again.

There is a warmth to the way she listens. She gives every idea a moment to breathe before responding. It makes sense. Her whole scientific life is built on the idea that thoughts matter. Beliefs matter. Not in a magical way. In a biological way. You walk out of her lab with the unsettling and oddly hopeful sense that the stories we tell ourselves are not just background noise. They seep inward. They shape the body. They set the terms for how we cope with stress, how we move through illness and how we meet our own expectations.

Photographing her on that quiet afternoon at Stanford felt like brushing up against the edge of a much larger truth. The mind is not sealed off from the body. Crum has spent her career proving it. And she is only getting started.

www.freemoviescinema.com/science-fiction/video/latest/con... Full Feature

See more photos in set.

Starring Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield, William Hopper, Benson Fong, Ross Martin, Vito Scotti. Directed by Byron Haskin. Producer George Pal gave us the sci-fi landmark Destination Moon in 1950. He then gave us the timeless classic War of the Worlds in '53. This, his third epic, was a grand effort, but fell shy of his earlier triumphs. On paper, it should have been another mega-classic. The team members from the earlier hits were reassembled. Pal as producer, Haskin directing, Lydon on screenplay, O'Hanlon writing. Conquest was also based on a popular book. Yet, despite all this pedigree, something fell short. Conquest would not go on to be remembered as one of the 50s mega-classics. Some of this obscurity may be due to Conquest being in the "serious" science fiction sub-genre, like Destination Moon and Riders to the Stars which tried to depict a plausible space-traveling future. Audiences were becoming much more entranced with saucers and weird aliens.

In some ways,Conquest is a remake of the basic story line from Destination Moon -- a crew are the first to land on a celestial body. They struggle to survive and yet courageously return. This time, instead of the moon, it's Mars. As a remake goes, however, it's worthy. The Technicolor is rich and the sets well done. This is an A-level production which at its release was the 2001: A Space Odyssey of its day. All the melodrama, however, starts to get in the way of the techno-gee-whiz.

Synopsis

Based aboard a rotating wheel space station, workmen prepare a big flying wing of a rocket ship. A group of potential crewmen train for what they think will be a moon landing mission. As the work nears completion, they find out that the real mission will be a landing on Mars instead. While aboard "The Wheel", we're introduced to the phenomenon of "space sickness" -- a mental breakdown due to workload and confinement for long periods. One of the crew candidates is scrubbed because of one such breakdown. Nonetheless, the multinational crew are chosen and embark for the long journey to Mars. After departure, it's found that General Merritt's old friend, Sergeant Mahoney, stowed away. On the way to Mars, a communications antenna is damaged and must be fixed via spacewalking crewmen. Just as the repairs are completed, the customary meteor arrives, threatening to hit the ship. General Merritt manages to fly the ship out of the way, but one of the crewmen on EVA is hit with micrometeoroids (like bullets) and killed. The General is also starting to show odd behavior, doubting whether their mission is proper or is an affront to God. Their evasive action puts them behind schedule, but they arrive at Mars. While attempting to land on Mars, the General has another bout of delusion and tries to abort the landing. His son, Captain Merritt, manages to take control and brings in the flying-wing lander to a rough but successful landing. The others go out to explore, but the General, now fully delusional, is venting rocket fuel in an attempt to blow up the ship. His son discovers this and the two struggle. The General's pistol discharges, killing him. Mahoney comes on the scene just then and accuses Captain Merritt of murdering the General. The rest explore a bit more, but pronounce Mars a dead planet. Despite this, Imoto discovers that his earth flower seed sprouted in martian soil. Earthquakes cause the escape rocket to shift off of perpendicular. They get it righted and blast off. On the way home, Mahoney and Captain Merritt make up and declare that the dead General was a hero, the man who conquered space. The End.

The color, the sets, models and background paintings are very visually rich. The whole image is a great snapshot of the future as people in the mid-50s imagined it would be. More tidbits in the Notes section below.

There is actually a subtle anti-war tone to the movie. No overt talk of nuclear dangers or menacing enemies. It is notable, however, that among the conspicuously international crew candidates, there is no Russian. Americans would "conquer" space with a few other nationals along for the ride, but NO Russians. There is also a poorly explained urgency to the mission. What's the hurry? Back in the Cold War, it was pretty common that WE had to get something before THEY did.

In 1949, Willy Ley wrote the book "The Conquest of Space," which speculated about how mankind might travel to other planets. This book was illustrated by space artist Chesley Bonestell. This book would become the inspiration for the movie.

From 1952 to 1954, Collier's magazine ran a series of stories about mankind conquering space. These were repeats by Ley and Bonestell of their 1949 book, but this time Collier's added material from "rocket scientist" Werner von Braun. Bonestell's new illustrations were clearly the prototype for the look of Conquest. People felt that mankind was on the verge of taking to the stars. The Collier's series expressed that giddy optimism.

The screenplay for Conquest added weak human interest sub-plots which almost negate the gee-whiz optimism that the visuals convey. The screenwriters were all experienced in their craft, so it's puzzling why such amateurish characterizations are so prominent. The comic relief moments are almost cartoonish. The whole leader-gone-mad sub-plot seems out of place.

A possible "message" to Conquest is that man is a fragile creature who may not be ready for the rigors of space travel. Certainly, people wondered about this, and other movies touched on the theme too, such as Riders to the Stars ('54). Our not being mentally ready yet was cited by the aliens in It Came From Outer Space ('53). General Merritt's dementia was foreshadowed in the breakdown of Roy early in the movie.

One thing that strikes the viewer is how much life aboard the space station is presumed to duplicate life aboard a navy ship. It's not overtly stated that the military should (or will) be the agency which "conquers" space, but from the ranks and uniforms and the navy-life scenes, that message comes through. Space ships will be like earthly ships.

On the surface, it seems like Conquest is blasting Christians as dangerous religious fanatics. This notion, that anyone who believes in God simply MUST be wacko, would be much more popular in later decades, but it was uncommon in the 50s. For that reason, the General's dementia deserves a closer look.

Actually, General Merritt was not the stereotypic religious fanatic. His son comments that he had never seen him carrying around and reading the Bible before. Instead of headaches or paralysis, the General's "space sickness" took a paranoid turn. He had rational misgivings about the Mars mission from the start, pre-dementia. His repressed misgivings are expressed in Bible verses dealing with sinners being punished by God. He once quotes from Psalm 38, then later from Psalm 62.

Throughout all this, God is not mocked. Indeed, only the "religious" man had the courage to go outside and give the dead Fodor a proper burial. The other non-relgious crewmen were at a loss for what to do.

The notion of impudent mankind trying to meddle in God's domain, is treated as a credible issue. In this, the pattern of the Tower of Babel is drawn. Prideful mankind thinks they can build their way into God's realm. God foils that plan. General Merritt's dementia seems motivated by a fear that this divine retribution could be coming again.

The writers of Conquest imagine a multinationalism in space. Most notable are two former enemy nations: Imoto is from Japan and Fodor is a German-accented Austrian, (as a stand-in for Germany). Imoto gets to make a little speech about why Japan went to war (lack of resources). Fodor gets to be seen as the cherished son of a classic "mama". By 1955, it was starting to become okay to look beyond World War 2.

At one point, the crew of The Wheel are watching a movie with many scantily clad dancing girls (much like sailors aboard a ship). The movie is a lavish musical number with many gold bikini clad pseudo-harem girls dancing while Rosemary Clooney sings about love "...in the desert sand." This clip is total non-sequetor to the high-tech space environment. What's interesting, is that it's NOT stock footage recycled. Clooney had not done any such movie. This dance number must have been staged and shot just for this scene in Conquest. Random act of musical. Gotta love 'em.

Bottom line? Conquest is an almost-epic. It's definitely an A-grade sci-fi movie, so it's well worth watching. The human story part gets in the way sometimes, but the visuals more than make up for it.

Explore: #154. November 08, 2007

This photo was created for two very special reasons.

1. To make Lucy smile. She's a bit stressed out with her workload at the minute and is a tad frazzled. Hopefully this photo of 'your dag' dancing very badly will make you laugh and smile, even if just for a minute.

Update: According to a text message. I succeeded in making her smile. Mission accomplished.

2. It's also a Happy Birthday dance for Rosie! Happy Birthday!

Second Valley Forest Reserve

South Australia

Rains occurred heavily across the state yesterday, so the destination today after heavy workload was Ingalalla Falls off Hay Flays Road near Yankalilla. The streams were flowing, the day overcast and quite a few groups enjoying a winter's picnic there. The falls were flowing very nicely and along the way, some streams like this formed with small whirlpools of foam.

Single image taken with 2 stop soft GND.

Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Exposure 30

Aperture f/16.0

Focal Length 16 mm

ISO Speed 50

View On Black

Dreamy requested a "pretty" selfie to compensate for the creepy nature of yesterday's. And since I'm in such a good mood today, I figured why not? :) So here you go, Dreamy!

I went with my boss today to meet some of his biggest clients so that he could introduce me since I'm going to be handling a lot of work for them. We prepped the president of one of the companies for his deposition that I'm handling this Thursday. I've got another dep on Friday too. Busy week for me, at least in terms of how my summer's been. I actually really love how light my work is during the summer. Especially since I made more than enough working up that trial this spring to cover the lighter workload. I could get used to this. And of course, now that it's nearing the end of summer, my workload is starting to amp back up. Perfect timing.

As soon as I post this, I'm heading out the door to meet up with my friend Steve and his buddy Tyson to do some gambling in Detroit. Steve was my partner in crime during law school. Absolutely one of my best friends in the world. We spent most of our time at the Greektown blackjack tables when we should have been in class. It was fabulous. Can't wait to hang tonight and make some cash money! Hope you guys are all having a good evening!

totw: elegance

Private secretary to Lord Stanhope who dedicated her life to Chevening, the house that he gave to the nation

NORAH SHOTTER, who has died aged 93, was for almost 40 years private secretary to the 7th and last Earl Stanhope, a Conservative Minister in the 1930s and the owner - and later donor to the nation - of Chevening House, the Stanhope family seat in Kent.

A impressive 17th- and 18th-century house, with an extensive park, a 3,000-acre estate and a fine collection of Old Master paintings, Chevening had been acquired by the Stanhopes in 1717. It was originally built, possibly to a plan of Inigo Jones, by the 13th Lord Dacre, who died in 1630.

Norah Shotter arrived there in 1928, having been engaged as Lady Stanhope's private secretary. Her skill in helping to run the large household, and the determined way in which she set about cataloguing Chevening's huge library, quickly made an excellent impression.

Consequently, by the early 1930s Norah Shotter was acting as Lord Stanhope's private secretary, at Chevening and at the family's London house in Eaton Square. As the decade progressed, and with it Lord Stanhope's political career, his private secretary's efficiency became more valued than ever.

During the early part of the war, Lord Stanhope was Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords. His heavy workload, combined with wartime staff shortages, meant that Norah Shotter's qualities were severely tested during this period, and she came through with flying colours.

By the time Stanhope left full-time politics, and became a widower, in 1940, Norah Shotter was indispensable. She found herself shouldering much of the responsibility for the running of the Chevening estate, for the upkeep of the gardens and the house - and also for her employer's welfare.

She recalled that after his wife's death Lord Stanhope was "inundated with proposals from all sorts of unsuitable women". She confessed:"I got a reputation for being a dragon. I certainly had to be quite fierce.

"I didn't have any designs on him myself, but we often sat up into the early hours doing the Telegraph's quick crossword."

Having no heir, Lord Stanhope resolved that on his death Chevening and its contents should pass to the nation (under an Act of Parliament) for use by "a descendant of King George VI or a Cabinet Minister". Norah Shotter continued to work tirelessly to ensure that the house and estate would be handed over in good order - as they were, with an endowment fund of £250,000, when Lord Stanhope died in 1967.

Olive Norah Shotter was born on August 13 1907 and grew up at Kew. She obtained her position with Lady Stanhope not long after leaving Godolphin and Latymer school in London.

Eighteen months after Lord Stanhope's death in 1967, Norah Shotter left Chevening House and retired to live at nearby Bessels Green. She continued, though, to lead an extremely active life, and over the next 20 years gave hundreds of talks and slide lectures on Chevening and its history.

Having, during her time at Chevening, helped to receive the Queen and Prince Charles on visits there, she welcomed the proposal in the 1970s that Chevening might become the country residence of the Prince of Wales. But when it was decided instead to make the house an official residence of the Foreign Secretary, she was delighted that it would retain its place in the nation's life.

Away from work, Norah Shotter was for many years a stalwart of the Women's Institute. She was a founder member, and later president, of Chipstead WI, and she belonged to the Chevening and Brasted branches of the organisation. She was also a keen life member of the Association of Country Women of the World, an organisation affiliated to the WI.

A woman of immense energy and strength of character, Norah Shotter brought enthusiasm and commitment to everything she undertook. The standards she set for herself and others were exacting, but she had the gift of making everything she embarked upon seem worthwhile to all.

While she never married, she greatly enjoyed the company of children, setting up and for a long time running the Children's Church at Chevening. She was also a knowledgable gardener, raising funds for charity by the sale of plants she grew from cuttings.

Nor did Norah Shotter ever lose sight of the lighter side of life. After Lord Stanhope had had a wooden leg fitted in 1957, she remembered, "I used to take him shooting in a Bath chair. He once nearly took my head off, swinging round to catch a low pheasant."

Khewra Salt Mines is a salt mine located in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab in Pakistan, about 160 kilometres from Islamabad and 260 kilometres from Lahore. It attracts up to 40,000 visitors per year and is the second largest salt mine in the world. Situated in the foothills of the Salt Range, the Khewra Salt Mines are the oldest in the sub-continent.

Salt has been mined at Khewra since 320 BC, in an underground area of about 110 sq. km. Khewra salt mine has estimated total of 220 million tones of rock salt deposits. The current production from the mine is 325,000 tons salt per annum.

The mine-head buildings have 17 stories, with 11 below ground. The salt-mine is 945 feet above sea level and extends around 2,400 feet inside the earth from the mine-mouth. There are 17 working levels and the cumulative length of all tunnels is more than 40 km.

Salt occurs in the form of an irregular dome like structure. There are seven thick salt seams with a cumulative thickness of about 150 meters. At places the rock salt is 99% pure. Salt is transparent, white, pink, reddish to beef-color red. There are beautiful alternate bands of red and white color salt.

Discovery of the mine

It is said that when Alexander the Great visited sub-continent, coming across the Jhelum and Mianwali region, Khewra Salt Mines were discovered. The discovery of the mines was however was not made by Alexander nor his "allies", but by his horse. It is stated that when Alexander's army stopped here for rest, the horses started licking the stones. One of his soldiers took notice of it and when he tasted the rock stone, it was salty thus leading to the discovery of the mines.

Afterwards this mine was wholly purchased by a local Raja and from that era to Independence of Pakistan this mine remained property of locally living Janjua Raja's who were sons of Raja Mal.

They are linked to the nearest place called Malot Fort constructed by Raja Mal Janjua.

Miners Resistence to the British

In March 1849, the British captured the salt mines and a resistence movement began against the poor conditions and prices imposed upon the miners.

From 1849 - 62 there were strikes which were heavily suppressed and in 1872, new methods of measurement and pricing were introduced which increased workload. Mines were locked so miners couldn't leave without fulfilling their quotas. Men, women and children all worked in the mines and some children were even born in the mines due to the conditions imposed.

Further strikes were carried out by the workers from 1872 - 76. This time, the Chief mine engineer Dr. Warth got Delhi Head Office Collecter H.Wright to bring in British soldiers. 12 of the workers representatives were shot at the front of the mines. Their names were:

Their graves are outside the middle gates of the mines.

Day 19 of the run up to Christmas and Today we are joined by Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker

"You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"

―Obi-Wan Kenobi, to the fallen Anakin Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker was a Human from the planet Tatooine. As a young boy, Skywalker was thoughtful and intelligent. He was friendly and easily got along with others despite his status as a slave. He also had a special place in his heart for his mother, whom he constantly built inventions to sell or to use to lighten her workload. At the coming of the Jedi, he was both helpful and generous; doing all that he could to help them off-planet, risking his life at the podrace as well as giving them the sizable reward money which he and his mother would have had use for. Though lovable, he also was one to carry grudges and was vengeful, but he commonly held these two traits in check. He also hated being treated unjustly or being wrongly accused. He was fiercely loyal, doing anything to keep those he was close to from harm, at any cost. His only price for this dedication was loyalty in return.

His separation from his mother was the hardest thing he'd ever done, and it still hurt him for years. Because of his fear of losing even more friends in such a manner, he kept to himself, fiddling around with his only friends, the Temple droids. During this, however, he grew especially close to Kenobi, considering him a father and a role model. Due to his sudden escalation from slave to being known as the "Chosen One" and the rising star of the Jedi Order, pride and arrogance set in. He grew cocky, self-appreciating, and he grew to hate being reprimanded or lectured.

He was naturally honest and despised lying and deception, and especially hated politics, correctly considering most politicians to be greedy and self-conceited. Kenobi's continual self-consciousness when it came to Skywalker hurt the boy, who at times wasn't sure whether Kenobi liked him, something his heart craved. Therefore, he turned to a more complimenting, comforting source: Palpatine.

His yearning to be loved, as well as appreciated, came out in his devotion and secret marriage to Amidala, one of the only three people he ever thought appreciated or cared for him. As his fame grew, he became more and more arrogant, and he knew that he was one of the best Jedi of the Order, believing that he could easily best any Jedi blindfolded with his lightsaber tied behind his back. This coupled with his frustration at his perceived injustice at being kept at the rank of Jedi Knight made him more and more bitter and distrustful of the Jedi Council. His belief in them was shattered more and more as Skywalker's closest friend, Palpatine, swayed him from trusting them. Slowly, his bond with everyone except the Chancellor was completely shaken and broken, even that of his wife when he assumed her betrayal of him. Born out of this conflict was the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader.

After becoming Vader, Skywalker's personality changed completely. He was now a rattled man, shaken by the perceived betrayal of his dearest friend, his former comrades-in-arms, and his wife. Upon donning the armor that kept him alive, Vader initially remained uncertain, but regained his self-confidence following his killing of Roan Shryne on Kashyyyk. Vader had an extremely low tolerance of failure, and did not get on well at all with many of the higher-ups in the Imperial military, nearly choking Admiral Conan Antonio Motti to death when he challenged the power of the Force, though Admiral Motti survived due to the intervention of Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin. Both Admiral Kendal Ozzel and Captain Lorth Needa were not so fortunate, as Vader telekinetically strangled both men to death following blunders they had committed. For their part, many higher-ranking Imperial officials despised the Dark Lord and his "sorcerer's ways." He also retained his former identity's distaste for dishonesty and deception, having once gone into a massive rage that resulted in the destruction of a large part of the Jedi Council chamber upon learning that the Jedi Council, including Obi-Wan Kenobi, had hid the location of the Ghost Prison from him as well as Palpatine. However, he did develop some capability of crafting some falsehoods, or at the very least half-truths. This was especially evident when he told Lieutenant Tohm that he actually killed Anakin Skywalker, when he was in fact Anakin Skywalker (though he may have been speaking ironically).

Despite his rather rocky relationship with higher-ranking officers in the military, Vader got along quite well with the clone troopers, once remarking, "I was rather fond of Commander Appo," following the latter's death at the hands of Roan Shryne. One reason Vader was popular with the troops that served under him was his willingness to fight in the front line, and not expect of anyone anything he was not willing to do himself. One officer who looked up to Vader because of this was Erv Lekauf, who often spoke highly of Vader to his grandson Jori Lekauf. Another military officer to be taken under Vader's wing was Firmus Piett, who succeeded Ozzel as Admiral of Death Squadron, and notably survived being under the Sith Lord's command having erred not once, but twice during his tenure under Vader. However, both of these failures were caused by unforeseeable factors, not errors in judgment.

Despite his actions, Vader apparently believed he was doing what was good for the galaxy. He also appeared to have had a high sense of self-loathing as a result of his actions, so much so that he nearly committed suicide during his mission to Atoa. He expressed the belief that the Empire was the only way the galaxy could attain peace, justifying his actions and those of the Empire as necessary to accomplish this. In addition, he also makes it clear to Dengar at one point that, while he does kill when it is what needs to be done, he does not take amusement at it.

In the end of his life, however, Skywalker broke away from the dark side, becoming whole once again. Redeemed by his son's love, father and son made peace before Skywalker became one with the Force and was reunited with his loved ones.

Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea

It's been really, really long time didn't do post processing of usual my chores back then, I am fully guilty about it. Life besides tied up with heavy workload, it becomes training real hard on saddle every weekends. I am not forgotten that tons of photos awaits me to process, just gradually become not so priority task to work on.

When I flipped through the album(s) we have taken during the our trip, those memories become crystal clear to me again. Decided to choose a photo that meaningful enough to represent your big day of the year. Hence this is one of the unique shot that I believe it has the meaning hidden in it.

Just about when the Lightroom application launched, I almost stuck and not sure where to start. Skills has definitely rusty at the beginning, eventually all my knowledge came back fresh in mind when I brought the editing skill into the next level at the Photoshop. Indeed, personally I felt that would great if I could spend some extra hours just to brush up and working on more potential shots just like old times.

It's been a great journey since we met, we fell in love till we get married. On this special day, I'd like to wish you happy birhtday and fruitful everyday, most importantly stay health and pretty as always.

----

You must see this on large View On White and View On Black

These days' workload is a little bit too heavy

wanna take a rest...

© Igor Borisenko Photography. All Rights Reserved.

This panorama was captured on a gorgeous summer day somewhere on highway U.S. 19 in West Virginia. The view was fantastic here. I had to pull over here since it was a gorgeous summer day with low humidity. Adobe CS5 did fantastic job stitching handheld sloppy captures. This was captured going to SC coming back was worthless for taking any images since it was very hot 100 degrees and very hazy conditions so basically everything looked like crap there was no sky everything was gray and boring. The original size of this image came out to be 26 megapixels.

I came back from my South Carolina vacation and this is what I brought as my postcard from our trip. I haven't had any time for photography so this may be only one image from out trip. I have been processing various images and the workload is pretty tremendous right now.

NOTE: Due to Flickr's recent changes in the website user interface I I am forced to slap giant watermark and uploading low resolution images to prevent theft that is basically encouraged with the new changes. Don't even get me started on this... I am upset how they are treating us photographers with no tools to protect our work. This is very unfortunate after being a member of this wonderful community for many years. I do love all the changes they did except lack of protection of our art.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Cheers.

~ Happy Thursday to all! ~

~ This is one from the other weekend at Stowe gardens.

Workload: Converted to B&W with selective toning, dodged & burned, added red (copper) tone, applied Florabella Cosmopolitan and then a texture.

Hope to be round soon to your wonderful photos. If I get some time I also need to write a few testimonials...

Coachwork by Pinin Farina

Chassis n° 1823GT

First owned by HRH Prince Charles of Belgium, Count of Flandres

Bonhams : the Zoute Sale

Estimated : 550.000 - 750.000

Unsold

Zoute Grand Prix 2019

Knokke - Zoute

België - Belgium

October 2019

By the early 1960s, road car production had ceased to be a sideline for Ferrari and was seen as vitally important to the company's future stability. Thus the 250, Ferrari's first volume-produced model, can be seen as critically important, though production of the first of the line - the 250 Europa, built from 1953 to '54 - amounted to fewer than 20. Before the advent of the Europa, Ferrari had built road-going coupés and convertibles in small numbers, usually to special customer order using a sports-racing chassis as the basis. Ghia and Vignale of Turin and Touring of Milan were responsible for bodying many of these but there was no attempt at standardisation for series production and no two cars were alike.

The introduction of the 250 Europa heralded a significant change in Ferrari's preferred coachbuilder; whereas previously Vignale had been the most popular carrozzeria among Maranello's customers, from now on Pinin Farina (later 'Pininfarina') would be Ferrari's number one choice, bodying no fewer than 48 out of the 53 Europa/Europa GTs built. Pinin Farina's experiments eventually crystallised in a new Ferrari 250 GT road car that was first displayed publicly at the Geneva Salon in March 1956. However, the Torinese carrozzeria was not yet in a position to cope with the increased workload, resulting in production being entrusted to Carrozzeria Boano after Pinin Farina had completed a handful of prototypes.

True series production began with the arrival of Pininfarina's 'notchback' Coupé on the 250 GT chassis, some 353 of which were built between 1958 and 1960 within the sequence '0841' to '2081'. However, the relatively small scale of production meant that cars could still be ordered with subtle variations according to customer choice, as well as enabling a handful of show cars and 'specials' to be constructed on the 250 GT chassis.

A number of important developments occurred during 250 GT production: the original 128C 3.0-litre engine being superseded by the twin-distributor 128D, which in turn was supplanted in 1960 by the outside-plug 128F engine which did away with its predecessor's Siamesed inlets in favour of six separate ports. On the chassis side, four-wheel disc brakes arrived late in 1959 and a four-speeds-plus-overdrive gearbox the following year, the former at last providing the 250 GT with stopping power to match its speed. More refined and practical than any previous road-going Ferrari, yet retaining the sporting heritage of its predecessors, the 250 GT is a landmark model of immense historical significance. Despite this, original survivors are relatively few, as many have been modified and converted into replicas of more exotic Ferraris such as the 250 GTO, Testarossa, etc.

According to the accompanying Massini Report, chassis number '1823' is the 305th of the 353 units built, and as a 'Series II' car has the added advantage of disc brakes all round. '1823' was built to the special order of its first owner, HRH Prince Charles of Belgium (Karel, Count of Flanders, aka General du Boc during WW2), brother of Belgium's King Leopold III and Regent from 1944 to 1950. The chassis entered Carrozzeria Pinin Farina's plant in Turin on 24th February 1960 and was finally completed back at the Ferrari factory on 22nd April 1960. Later in 1960 the Ferrari was despatched to Jacques Swaters' Garage Francorchamps in Brussels, Belgium for delivery to Prince Charles. (The first owner shown on the factory paperwork, Carlo Scaglietti, was a surrogate acting for the actual owner). The Ferrari's original colour scheme was the somewhat unusual combination of Marrone Testa di Moro with natural interior. Special features specified by Prince Charles included a handle in the dashboard, flag holder in the bumper, black headlining, and the natural leather trim.

In 1981, the Ferrari was exported to the UK where it was owned by a Mr Peter Aston, remaining there until 2000 when it was imported into France to Françoise Courtois. In 2013, the car was inspected by Ferrari Monaco, and later that same year was sold to Jacqueline Nicolas in France. Since its acquisition by the vendor, '1823' has been fully restored (bills and photographs available). Presented in effectively 'as new' condition, this historic Ferrari 250 GT is offered with copies of the original factory build sheets and the all-important Certificate of Authenticity, issued by Ferrari Classiche on 12th July 2017. It should be noted that the engine is a new factory block to original specifications for the model.

The Mikoyan MiG-31 (Russian: МиГ-31) (NATO reporting name: Foxhound) is a supersonic interceptor aircraft developed to replace the MiG-25 'Foxbat'. The MiG-31 was designed by the Mikoyan design bureau based on the MiG-25.

Like the MiG-25, the Foxhound is a large twin-engine aircraft with side-mounted air intakes, a shoulder-mounted wing with an aspect ratio of 2.94, and twin vertical tailfins. Unlike the Foxbat, it has two seats, with the rear occupied by a dedicated weapon systems officer.

The wings and airframe of the MiG-31 are stronger than those of the MiG-25, permitting supersonic flight at low altitudes. Its Aviadvigatel D30-F6 turbofans, rated at 152 kN thrust, (also described as "bypass turbojets" due to the low bypass ratio) allow a maximum speed of Mach 1.23 at low altitude. High-altitude speed is temperature-redlined to Mach 2.83—the thrust-to-drag ratio is sufficient for speeds in excess of Mach 3, but such speeds pose unacceptable hazards to engine and airframe life in routine use.

Given the MiG-31's role as Mach 2.8+ interceptor and the sustained afterburning this requires, its fuel consumption is higher when compared to other aircraft serving in different roles, such as the Su-27. As a result, the aircraft's fuel fraction has been increased to more than 0.40—16,350 kg (36,050 lb) of high-density T-6 jet fuel. The outer wing pylons are also plumbed for drop tanks, allowing an extra 5,000 l (1,320 US gal) of external fuel. Late-production aircraft have aerial refueling probes.

Despite the stronger airframe, the Foxhound is limited to a maximum of 5 g at supersonic speeds. At combat weight, its wing loading is marginal and its thrust to weight ratio is favorable. However, it is not designed for close combat or rapid turning.

The MiG-31 was the world's first operational fighter with a passive electronically scanned array radar (PESA), the Zaslon S-800. Its maximum range against fighter-sized targets is approximately 200 km (125 mi), and it can track up to 10 targets and simultaneously attack four of them with its AA-9 'Amos' missiles. It is claimed to have limited astern coverage (perhaps the reason for the radome-like protuberance above and between the engines). The radar is matched with an infrared search and tracking (IRST) system in a retractable undernose fairing. Up to four MiG-31s, spaced up to 200 km (125 mi) apart to cover a wide swath of territory, can coordinate via datalink.

The MiG-31M-, MiG-31D-, and MiG-31BS-standard aircraft have an upgraded Zaslon-M radar, with larger antenna and greater detection range (said to be 400 km (250 mi) against AWACS-size targets) and the ability to attack multiple targets - air and ground - simultaneously. The back-seater's controls are replaced with modern multi-function displays. Its electronic countermeasures capabilities have also been upgraded, with new ECM pods on the wingtips.

The aircraft is a two-seater with the rear seat occupant controlling the radar. Although cockpit controls are duplicated across cockpits, it is normal for the aircraft to be flown only from the front seat. The pilot flies the aircraft by means of a centre stick and left hand throttles. The rear cockpit has only two small vision ports on the sides of the canopy. It is argued that the presence of the WSO (Weapon Systems Operator) in the rear cockpit improves aircraft effectiveness since he is entirely dedicated to radar operations and weapons deployment. This decreases the workload of the pilot and increases efficiency.

Both cockpits are fitted with zero/zero ejection seats which allow the crew to eject at any altitude and airspeed.

Some upgrade programmes have found their way to the MiG-31 fleet, for example the MiG-31BM multi-role version which includes upgraded avionics. In the cockpit this upgrade provides for the use of new weapons, a new multimode radar, HOTAS controls and liquid-crystal (LCD) colour multi-function displays (MFDs). Only a small part of the fleet, however, has been upgraded to this standard.

It has been claimed by Russian Federation Defence Ministry chief Colonel Yuri Balyko, that the upgrade will increase the combat effectiveness of the aircraft several times over.

The MiG-31's main armament is four R-33 air-to-air missiles (NATO codename AA-9 'Amos') carried under the belly. The R-33 is the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Navy's AIM-54 Phoenix. It can be guided in semi-active radar homing (SARH) mode, or launched in inertial guidance mode with the option of mid-course updates from the launch aircraft and switching to SARH for terminal guidance. A more advanced version of the weapon, the AA-X-13 'Arrow', which is the replacement for the older R-33, features folding stabilizers to reduce its stored size.

Other weapons include the old AA-6 'Acrid', originally deployed on the MiG-25, and the AA-8 'Aphid' or AA-11 'Archer' short-range IR missiles, carried on wing pylons. Currently the entire MiG-31 fleet is being refitted to carry the newer AA-12 'Adder' on the wing pylons.

Unlike the MiG-25, the MiG-31 has an internal cannon, a six-barrel, 23 mm GSh-6-23 with 800 rounds of ammunition, mounted above the starboard main landing gear bay. The GSh-6-23 has a claimed rate of fire of over 10,000 rounds per minute. However, after two Su-24 were lost because of premature shell detonation in 1983, plus some different problems with gun usage (system failures, etc.), usage of the GSh-6-23 was stopped by a decision of the Soviet AF Command. For now (17 Jan 2009) all aircraft in the Russian AF are flying with fully operational guns, but without ammunition.

General characteristics

* Crew: Two (pilot and weapons system officer)

* Length: 22.69 m (74 ft 5 in)

* Wingspan: 13.46 m (44 ft 2 in)

* Height: 6.15 m (20 ft 2 in)

* Wing area: 61.6 m² (663 ft²)

* Empty weight: 21,820 kg (48,100 lb)

* Loaded weight: 41,000 kg (90,400 lb)

* Max takeoff weight: 46,200 kg (101,900 lb)

* Powerplant: 2× Soloviev D-30F6 afterburning turbofans

o Dry thrust: 93 kN (20,900 lbf) each

o Thrust with afterburner: 152 kN (34,172 lbf) each

Performance

* Maximum speed:

o High altitude: Mach 2.83 (3,000 km/h, 1,860 mph)

o Low altitude: Mach 1.2 (1,500 km/h, 930 mph)

* Combat radius: 720 km (450 mi) at Mach 2.35

* Ferry range: 3,300 km (2,050 mi)

* Service ceiling: 20,600 m (67,600 ft)

* Rate of climb: 208 m/s (41,000 ft/min)

* Wing loading: 665 kg/m² (136 lb/ft²)

* Thrust/weight: 0.85

* Maximum g-load: 5 g

Armament

* 1× GSh-6-23 23 mm cannon with 260 rounds.

* Fuselage recesses for 4× R-33 (AA-9 'Amos') or (for MiG-31M/BM only) ×6 R-37 (AA-X-13 'Arrow') long-range air-to-air missiles.

* Four underwing pylons for a combination of:

* two R-40TD1 (AA-6 'Acrid') medium-range missiles, and

* 4× R-60 (AA-8 'Aphid') or

* 4× R-73 (AA-11 'Archer') short-range IR missiles, or

* 4× R-77 (AA-12 'Adder') long-range missiles.

* Some aircraft are equipped to launch the Kh-31P (AS-17 'Krypton') and Kh-58 (AS-11 'Kilter') anti-radiation missiles in the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) role.

Core position and some workloads.

full video on youtube: youtu.be/aTYIT2_KEQE

Dr Alia Crum arrived in the soft brightness that comes after a storm. The air outside Stanford’s Psychology Building was cool and clear, the kind of light that makes everything feel freshly washed. She settled into a comfortable chair in her office with an easy calm, as if the morning’s weather had cleared a little space around her too.

Crum is a psychologist who studies something deceptively simple. She examines how beliefs shape physiology. Not in the loose mystical way that phrase sometimes gets tossed around. Her work cuts closer to the bone. The body is not a passive machine. It responds to expectation. It listens to mindset. She has built a career showing that what we think about stress, food, exercise, illness and treatment can tilt the body’s response in measurable ways.

Her early work came out of a moment most of us would ignore. While studying stress at Yale she realized that stress itself was not always the enemy. The fear of stress could be worse. The belief that stress is damaging primes the body to show more harmful patterns. The belief that stress can sharpen performance nudges the system toward resilience. Not wishful thinking. Observable biology. Shifts in cortisol. Changes in blood vessel constriction. A different hormonal conversation between mind and body.

One of her most famous studies grew from that instinct to question the obvious. The milkshake experiment has been told and retold because of how blunt and beautiful it is. Crum and her team gave participants a milkshake. Same ingredients. Same calories. Same everything. But the label was switched. For one group it was described as a rich decadent indulgence. For the other it appeared as a restrained sensible shake. People drank it while their hunger hormones were measured. Ghrelin the hormone that pushes hunger up or down behaved as if the labels were real. The decadent shake triggered a steep drop in ghrelin as though the body believed satisfaction had arrived. The restrained shake left ghrelin high as though the body had been shortchanged. The stomach listened not just to what was swallowed but to the story around it.

Crum leans into these contradictions. The world is overflowing with advice about how to treat your body. She keeps asking how the body treats belief. Her research at the Mind and Body Lab explores placebos, treatment expectations, the power of framing and how subtle shifts in context can rewrite physiology. People heal faster when they think a treatment is potent even if the medication is identical. Housekeepers who were told their daily work counted as exercise showed improvements in weight and blood pressure without any change in actual workload. Mindset became part of the treatment itself.

Talking with her you sense someone who has not grown cynical despite years of studying human perception. She seems fascinated by how easily the mind can box itself in and how quickly it can step out again with the right nudge. During the shoot she often rested her hand on a notebook the way some people hold a compass. These experiments begin as questions scribbled on a page before they grow into protocols, measurements and data sets that surprise the field again and again.

There is a warmth to the way she listens. She gives every idea a moment to breathe before responding. It makes sense. Her whole scientific life is built on the idea that thoughts matter. Beliefs matter. Not in a magical way. In a biological way. You walk out of her lab with the unsettling and oddly hopeful sense that the stories we tell ourselves are not just background noise. They seep inward. They shape the body. They set the terms for how we cope with stress, how we move through illness and how we meet our own expectations.

Photographing her on that quiet afternoon at Stanford felt like brushing up against the edge of a much larger truth. The mind is not sealed off from the body. Crum has spent her career proving it. And she is only getting started.

One of the last and most powerful steam locomotives ever built, the British Rail Standard Class 7 was BR's top express locomotive, and could have been utilised far better in its short lifespan, but ended up only serving the railways for 15 years, a blink of an eye compared to other mainline Pacifics of the time that had operated under the pre-nationalisation companies.

Designed by Robert Riddles, who had previously coined the design for the War Department Austerity 2-10-0 and 2-8-0 freight locomotives, the BR Standard Class 7's were conceived of as a result of the 1948 locomotive exchanges, which were done to test the best and worst aspects of locomotive design within the Big Four railway companies that had existed before nationalisation. The research gained from operating the best designs of the GWR, LMS, LNER and Southern railways on different areas of the British Railways network paved the way for several new classes of standardised locomotives to be constructed, largely to replace many of the ageing Victorian era engines that even in the late 1940's continued to ply their merry trade.

The first design requested by the Railway Executive was for a new express passenger Pacific locomotive, designed specifically to reduce maintenance and using the latest available innovations in steam technology from home and abroad. Various labour-saving devices were utilised to produce a simple, standard and effective design, able to produce equivalent power to some of the Pacifics that were still available as legacies of the Big Four.

The basic design of the Standard 7's can be traced to LMS construction practices, largely owed to Riddles' previous career with that company, but complimented this with the boiler and trailing wheel design of the Southern Railway's Merchant Navy Pacifics so as to follow the best design practice. The firebox was also similar in having a rocking grate, which allowed the fire to be rebuilt without stopping the locomotive, removing both ash and clinker on the move. A self-cleaning smokebox was used, which enabled ash to flow into the atmosphere, reducing the workload of the engine cleaner at the end of a working day. A single chimney was placed on top of the smokebox, which was unusual for a Pacific type of locomotive.

The Standard 7's were fitted with 6 ft 2 in driving wheels, allowing these engines greater capacity for use in mixed-traffic working, which made them available for both sustained fast running with heavy passenger trains, yet small enough to allow them to undertake more mundane tasks such as freight haulage.

55 of these engines were constructed between 1951 and 1954, with 70000 'Britannia' being the first and flagship of the fleet, with residual locomotives of the class being dubbed 'Britannia-Class'. Three batches were constructed at Crewe Works, before the publication of the 1955 Modernisation Plan.

Britannia was built at Crewe, completed on 2 January 1951. She was the first British Railways standard locomotive to be built and the first of 55 locomotives of the Britannia class. The locomotive was named at a ceremony at Marylebone Station by the then Minister for Transport Alfred Barnes on 30 January 1951. The BR Locomotive Naming Committee were determined not to use names already in use on other locomotives. They tried to observe this by not selecting the name Britannia for use on 70000 because it was already in use on one of the ex-LMS Jubilee Class locomotives, but Robert Riddles overruled them and the Jubilee had to be renamed.

The Britannias took their names from great Britons, former Star Class locomotives, and Scottish firths, although one locomotive, 70047, was never named. The success of these first Standard Pacifics gave birth to two other Pacific classes over the BR years, including the unique BR Standard Class 8, number 71000 'Duke of Gloucester', which was built in 1954 to replace the destroyed Princess Royal Class locomotive number 46202 Princess Anne, lost in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail disaster of 1952, and the fleet of 10 BR Standard Class 6 'Clan' Pacifics that were employed on services in the west of Scotland, but failed to gain a stellar reputation due to their employment on timetables for the more powerful Standard 7's they couldn't keep up to.

The class gained a warm response from locomotive crews across all British Railway Regions, with especially glowing reports from those operating them from Stratford depot on the Eastern Region, where its lower weight and high power transformed motive power over the restricted East Anglian lines. However, negative feedback was received from various operating departments, most notably on the Western Region. The criticism was primarily out of partisan preference for GWR-designed locomotive stock among Western Region staff; in particular, the class was 'left-hand drive' in contrast to 'right-hand drive' GWR locomotive and signalling practice, a factor in the Milton rail crash of 1955.

For this reason, the Western Region locomotive depots at Old Oak Common and Plymouth Laira declared that the class was surplus to requirements. However Cardiff Canton depot displayed its liking for the class (despite being part of the former GWR empire) and managed to obtain good results on South Wales passenger traffic.

The Midland Region also had favourable reports, but a marked consistency in losing time on the longer runs between Holyhead and Euston was recorded, although all complaints were down to the individual techniques of the operating crews. This was compounded by the irregular allocation of the class to depots all over the network, meaning that few crews ever had a great deal of experience in driving them. The Southern Region also had an allocation of seven in May 1953, when all Merchant Navy Class locomotives were temporarily withdrawn for inspection after 35020 "Bibby Line" sheared a crank axle on the central driving wheel.

Repairs to the class were undertaken at Crewe, Swindon and Doncaster Works until the financial constraints of the British Railways Modernisation Plan in terms of expenditure on steam began to preclude the regular overhaul of locomotives. During the mid-1960s overhauls were carried out exclusively at Crewe Works.

Britannia was initially based at Stratford in order to work East Anglian expresses to Norwich and Great Yarmouth, but was also particularly associated with the Hook Continental boat train to Harwich. Subsequently, the loco was based at Norwich Thorpe in January and March 1959 before spending the remainder of her career on the London Midland Region based at Willesden, Crewe North, Crewe South and finally Newton Heath.

The locomotive also had the distinction of hauling the funeral train for King George VI from King's Lynn, Norfolk to London following his death in February 1952 at Sandringham House, Norfolk. For this task, Britannia had her cab roof painted white, as was the custom with royal locomotives. Britannia has also worn the white roof in preservation.

However, as the locomotives entered the 1960's, the modernisation plan continued to gather pace, and diesel locomotives started to replace steam on most parts of the network. Very soon the Standard 7's placement on Top-Line expresses were demoted to the on-again-off-again work of freight and parcels, and cosmetic maintenance was reduced as their final years loomed. The lavish BR Brunswick Green soon faded to grey, and in some cases BR Lined Black was adopted for ease.

The first locomotive to be withdrawn from service was number 70007 Coeur-de-Lion in 1965, and the entire class was gradually transferred to Carlisle Kingmoor and Glasgow Polmadie depots. Britannia was withdrawn in May 1966, after 15 years of service.

A succession of bulk withdrawals began in 1967, culminating in the very last steam operation in British Railways service on August 11th, 1968, where Standard 7 number 70013 Oliver Cromwell, was chosen to assist in hauling the Fifteen Guinea Special, the last steam hauled British Railways passenger service from Liverpool to Carlisle via the S&C. 70013 was chosen as it was the last the last BR-owned steam locomotive to undergo routine heavy overhaul at Crewe Works, being out-shopped after a special ceremony in February 1967. The engine hauled the Manchester to Carlisle leg of the service via the Settle and Carlisle line, with LMS Class 5 45110, and LMS Stanier Class 5 locomotives, 44781 and 44871 double-heading the return working back to Manchester.

Upon withdrawal, 70000 was initially planned for preservation with the National Railway Museum due to it's cultural significance, but because of its prototypical nature, 70013 was instead chosen and bought up for preservation. 70000 would later be preserved by Britannia Locomotive Company Ltd.

After moving from one home to another, the engine wound up on the Severn Valley Railway, where she remained for a number of years in operational but non-mainline condition. With the society wishing to make more use of the locomotive, she was moved to the European gauge Nene Valley Railway in Peterborough, where she was also fitted with an air-brake compressor. Britannia made her return to the main line on 27 July 1991, successfully working enthusiast trips until 1997.

With an expired mainline boiler certificate, due to the high cost of refurbishment, the locomotive was sold to Pete Waterman in 2000. Stored at Waterman's workshops at the Crewe Heritage Centre, after initial assessment the amount of work resulted in Waterman selling her to Jeremy Hosking. The locomotive underwent restoration at Crewe which involved a newly refurbished cab, a new smoke box and major work on the boiler; replacement steel sides, new crown stays, new front section barrel section, new steel and copper tubeplate, repairs and patches to door plate and major work to copper firebox.

Transferred to the Royal Scot Locomotive and General Trust, the locomotive was returned to main line operational condition in 2011, initially out shopped in its prototype black British Railways livery. After a running-in period, in 2012 the locomotive was repainted in British Railways Brunswick Green, but with an early BR crest. On 24 January 2012, the loco hauled the Royal Train with Prince Charles on board to Wakefield Kirkgate, where he rededicated the locomotive. For the trip the loco again had a painted white cab roof, removed after the engine's appearance at the West Somerset Railway's Spring Gala.

Snowy view of Ratcliffe Upon Soar Power Station

Not uploaded many shots recently. A combination of workload at work, personal workload and the fact that Google is closing down my main editing software (Picnik) has left me with little time and no enthusiasm for my hobby.

Things can only get better right?.. ;)

Be aware of the disadvantages of cloud software or to put it another way don’t put all your eggs in one basket!

Edited in Picasa.

The Information Technology Senior Leadership Team held a face-to-face meeting, Feb. 25-27, at The Spillway House at Hoover Dam in Boulder City, Nevada.

At the meeting the team discussed WAPA’s Cloud strategy, workload management tools and workforce planning for the Office of the Chief Information Officer.

While there, the ITSLT took a tour of Hoover Dam, led by Bureau of Reclamation Hoover Dam Manager Mark Cook.

Foreman II Electrician Randy Strand hosted the group for a tour of Mead Substation.

The ITSLT also had the opportunity to meet with the Desert Southwest Regional Executive Team—who was also meeting in Henderson, Nevada—to learn about issues affecting their respective lines of business, both now and on the horizon, and identify opportunities to leverage technology solutions.

(Photos provided by Leah Shapiro.)

Philip Ramond Regan (b. April 6, 1937) is a former Major League Baseball player and manager. During the 1966 season, when he was Walter Alston's favorite arm out of the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen, teammate Sandy Koufax nicknamed him "The Vulture" due to his knack for earning wins in late-inning relief situations.

After one year at Western Michigan University, he signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1956. He compiled a 61-42 record and 3.76 earned run average as a starting pitcher in the Tigers' farm system before earning a call up to the majors midway through the 1960 season. Over six seasons, Regan went 42-44 with a 4.50 ERA for the Detroit Tigers. He was 0-4 with a 4.99 ERA in 1965 when he was demoted to triple A Syracuse. He earned a call up that September, and made two appearances, but it was while he was with Syracuse that Regan learned of interest in him from the Dodgers organization.

Regan called Tigers General Manager Jim Campbell asking to be traded, and on December 15, 1965, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for infielder Dick Tracewski. With Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Claude Osteen and Don Sutton in the starting rotation, Regan was used strictly as a reliever with the Dodgers. He responded by going 14-1 with a 1.62 ERA, 88 strikeouts in 116 innings pitched and a National League leading 21 saves to help the Dodgers capture the NL pennant by a game and a half over the San Francisco Giants.

The Sporting News named him the NL Reliever of the Year and NL Comeback Player of the Year in 1966. He also earned the only All-Star nod in his career, but did not appear in the game. He appeared in two games of the 1966 World Series, allowing just one base runner via walk, and retiring the other five he faced.

On April 23, 1968 he was traded with Jim Hickman to the Chicago Cubs for Jim Ellis and Ted Savage.

During the twilight of his career, Regan found his workload diminishing rapidly. Through May 1972, Regan had pitched just four innings for the Cubs. He asked to be traded or released, and on June 2, his wish was granted. Regan's contract was sold to the crosstown Chicago White Sox.

In 1995, he received his only major league managerial stint, managing the Baltimore Orioles to a 71-73 record. After just one season at the helm, he was fired, and replaced by Davey Johnson.

MLB statistics:

Win–loss record - 96–81

ERA - 3.84

Strikeouts - 743

Saves - 92

Link to all of his issued baseball cards - www.tradingcarddb.com/Person.cfm/pid/4855/col/1/yea/0/Phi...

Spanish card by La Novela Semanal Cinematográfica, no. 76.

Tullio Carminati (1895-1971) was an Italian stage and film actor with a longstanding career from the 1910s to the 1960s. He played in Italian, German, American, British, and French films and on Italian, American, and British stages.

Tullio Carminati was born as Count Tullio Carminati de Brambilla in Zara, Austrian-Hungarian Empire (now Zadar, Croatia) in 1892 (1894, according to IMDb and Wikipedia). He ran away from school and joined a theatre company which soon ran into financial trouble. Disinherited and chased from the house by his father, he had to start working as an actor. He managed to get employed by Alfredo de Sanctis in 1907, during a Dalmatian tour by the latter. In 1909 Carminati arrived in Rome. By mediation of actor Gustavo Serena, Carminati met Ferruccio Garavaglia, first actor of the Compagnia stabile romana, which resided at the Teatro Argentina and which accepted him as an extra. The company director, Ettore Paladini, was not convinced of Carminati’s talent and restricted him to modest parts. In 1910 actress Emma Grammatica discovered him, while giving guest performances at the Argentina. She admired his elegance and spontaneity and convinced the management to give him jeune premier parts. Under this flag, star actor and director Ermete Novelli noticed him in La fiamma and hired him in 1912 for his own company. Novelli became his teacher who learned him to give a balanced and natural performance and the taste for simple and touching solutions. Under the aegis of Novelli, Carminati transformed in a modern, refined and sensible actor, free of affectations. Soon, Marco Praga hired Carminati for his Compagnia stabile of the Teatro Manzoni in Milan and let him play in various modern plays by Gabriele D’Annunzio, Dario Niccodemi, Praga himself, and others. During a tour in South America and back in Milan the focus was more on the lighter repertory.

In 1914 Tullio Carminati made his début in the Italian silent cinema. His first film appearance was in La mia vita per la tua/My life for yours (1914), starring Maria Carmi and directed by Emilio Ghione. When the Manzoni company stopped in 1915, Carminati signed a contract with the Ambrosio company of Turin, playing in the propaganda film Romanticismo/Romanticism (Carlo Campogalliani, Arrigo Frusta, 1915), in which he was the Italian aristocrat fighting the Austrians during the Risorgimento. His co-actress was Elena Makowska who had her breakthrough in this film. Carminati would be paired with Makowska in several other Ambrosio films, as in Val d’Olivi/Val of Olives (Eleuterio Rodolfi, 1916), again set at the Risorgimento. Carminati also did a few films with actress Madeleine Céliat, such as Davanti alla legge/In front of the law (Carlo Campogalliani, 1916). In 1916 Carminati joined the theatre company of Lyda Borelli and Ugo Piperno. He played in Nozze dei Centauri (Wedding of the Centaurs), La donna nuda (The naked woman) and Amanti (Lovers). But soon Carminati left again and focused on film acting, with titles like Tramonto triste/Sad Tramonte (Giuseppe Pinto, 1916) and L’articolo IV/The article IV (Gennaro Righelli, 1917). At the company Tiber Film, he played in a series of films directed by Augusto Genina in 1916-1918: Kalidaa – la storia una mummia/Kalidaa - the history of a mummy (1917), Il trono e la seggiola/The throne and the chair (1918) and in particular the successful films Il presagio/The premonition (1916) and La menzogna/The lie (1916), both with Vera Vergani. By now Carminati had become a real film star, his face and shape endlessly reproduced on postcards, posters and photos, in particular his kiss from Il presagio. Between 1917 and 1922 Carminati acted in twelve star vehicles with the Italian diva Hesperia, such as L’aigrette/The Egret (1917), La donna dei cuori/The woman of the hearts (1917) and La donna abbandonata/The Abandoned Woman (1917), all directed by her husband Baldassarre Negroni. In the late 1910s, Carminati also played with Maria Jacobini in La via più lunga/The longest street (Mario Caserini, 1918) and he made a few films with Gemma and Bianca Stagno Bellincioni. In 1919 Carminati founded his own film company, Carminati-Film. He produced five films with it in 1919-1920, all directed by Enrico Roma, but in the end he was forced to dissolve the company. All in all Carminati played in some 37 Italian silent films between 1914 and 1924. After some failures in the cinema Carminati was forced to return to the stage. There he became extremely successful with his own company, together with Alda Borelli, Lyda's sister, in 1920 and 1921. Carminati’s plays were known for their eye for detail, realism and style and their lack of frivolous overdoing. He played elegant and refined characters, full of spirit and wit. However, his part as Armand in Alexandre Dumas’ La dame aux camélias (Camille) was considered as too cold. When Borelli left the company in 1921, Carminati became director and first actor of Eleonora Duse’s company. Here he directed three dramas of which he played only in one, Cosí sia (Such is) by T. Gallarati Scotti. United Artists producer Joseph Schenck spotted him and offered him to come to Hollywood to play in a series of films, but after the failure of Carminati-Film and because of his workload at the theatre, Carminati had his doubts. When Duse went on tour to the US, Carminati joined the theatre company of Lucio d’Ambra and Mario Fumagalli, appearing in plays by Luigi Pirandello, Roberto Bracco and Sem Benelli. Carminati did only a few films in those years including Mensch gegen Mensch/Person against person (Hans Steinhoff, 1923), shot in Germany with Alfred Abel in the lead. Between 1924 and 1925 Carminati did a series of plays with Italia Almirante Manzini and Lina Tricerri, including the very successful comedy Le nozze di Leporello (The wedding of Leporello) by Luigi Almirante.

Fed up with the decline of the Italian film world and deluded by the collaboration with Italia Almirante Manzini and Lina Tricerri, Tullio Carminati went to the US in 1925, without any clear prospects and without speaking the language properly. After some time, he managed to get a contract with United Artists and played a detective in his first American film: The Bat (Roland West, 1926), with Jack Pickford and Louise Fazenda. This was followed by parts as the 'lover' in The Duchess of Buffalo (Sydney Franklin, 1926) with Constance Talmadge, and Stage Madness (Victor Schertzinger, 1927) with Virginia Valli. He then switched to Paramount where he reached fame with his part in Honeymoon Hate (Luther Reed, 1927) with Florence Vidor. He also acted in the Pola Negri vehicle Three Sinners (Rowland V. Lee, 1928). With the advent of sound cinema, Carminati moved to New York and joined the company of Basil Rathbone. Critics liked his elegance, openness and sobriety, while audiences loved his foreign accent and Latin lover image. His American stage career was confirmed with Strictly Dishonorable by Preston Sturges, which ran for two years in 1930-1931 in some 725 shows. The continuous success of this play reopened the doors of Hollywood for Carminati. Until 1940, he continued to play in various films, like Gallant Lady (Gregory LaCava, 1933), Moulin Rouge (Sydney Lanfield, 1934) with Constance Bennett, and One Night of Love (Victor Schertzinger, 1934) with Grace Moore. In Europe he played the male lead in the Franco-Italian production Marcia nuziale/The Wedding March (Mario Bonnard, 1935), starring Kiki Palmer. After another Broadway show, he acted in the romantic comedies Let’s Live Tonight (Victor Schertzinger, 1934) with Lilian Harvey, and Paris in Spring (Lewis Milestone, 1935) with Mary Ellis, establishing him as the mature Don Giovanni. In 1936 he acted in two British films by Herbert Wilcox: London Melody (1936) and The Three Maxims (1936), both starring Anna Neagle. In 1938, after a stay in Italy, he played again on Broadway in By Candle Light, and in 1939 in the comedy Stephen Jumel. In 1940 he played in Hollywood in Sunset in Vienna (Norman Walker, 1940), with Lilli Palmer, and in Safari (Edward H. Griffith, 1940), with Douglas Fairbanks jr. and Madeleine Carroll. In December 1941, a few days after the US declared war to Italy, Carminati was imprisoned. He was sent back to Italy in May 1942, because of anti-American activities. In the following year he made his Italian cinema come-back in La via torna/The Street Turns (Pier Luigi Faraldo, 1943) and he joined the company of Elsa de Giorgi and Elena Zareschi, performing in various plays before and after the liberation there. In 1946 he joined the company Morelli-Stoppa, for which he played in Antigone (Jean Anouilh), directed by Luchino Visconti. In 1953, after a stage absence of several years, Carminati returned in such plays as Il Ferro (The Iron) by Gabriele D’Annunzio. From the late 1940s until 1963, Carminati acted in various films in Italy, Spain, France and the US. Memorable titles are La Chartreuse de Parme/The Charterhouse of Parme (Christian Jaque, 1948) starring Gérard Philipe, La madonnina d’oro/The Golden Madonna (Ladislao Vajda, 1949) with Phyllis Calvert, La Beauté du diable/Beauty and the Devil (René Clair, 1950), the box office hit Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953) with Audrey Hepburn, Giovanna d’Arco al rogo/Joan of Arc at the Stake (Roberto Rossellini, 1954) with Ingrid Bergman, War and Peace (King Vidor, 1956), the epic El Cid (Anthony Mann, 1961) featuring Charlton Heston. His final film was The Cardinal (Otto Preminger, 1963). Tullio Carminati died in 1971 in Rome because of a brain haemorrhage. He was 78.

Sources: Roberta Ascarelli (Italian - Treccani), Vittorio Martinelli (Italian - Il cinema muto italiano), Wikipedia (Italian and English), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Student Workload:

With the pressure of Global Warming, the everchanging Earth, advancing technologies and higher education.. what else are the next generations in for?

In Ontario Canada high school education, the Academic grade 13 came to an end on June of 2003.

Like other jurisdictions across North America, Ontario decided to abolish the grade13 level. Ontario's last grade 13 class graduated along with an almost equal number of grade 12 students and students, since then, have had an increase workload on their shoulders.

The rising value of the Canadian against the American dollar will help open the doors for Canadian students wishing to enroll in any of several accredited American University online programs.

Several Canadian Universities, including a few in Ontario, are also beginning to offer online accredited degree programs. The University of Athabasca in Alberta and Royal Roads University in British Columbia offer exclusively online degree programs.

However, Ontario government officials may initiate policy action to discourage Ontario's Colleges and Universities from accepting online "home schooled" students from Ontario, even discouraging them from proctoring outside examinations for such students, increasing the pressures they will face in the real World.

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