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Photograph taken at 06:57am on July 26th 2011 within the skateboard arena on London's South Bank, located underneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall, near the Festival Pier and very much a part of the central London scene.
Home to world championships and freedom of expression that is both artistic and refreshing, this vibrant and energetic location has fallen victim sadly to red tape and beaurocratic stupidity which will likely see the arena closed for good in the near future.
Nikon D700 95mm 1/160s f/4.5 iso1600
Nikkor AF 75-300mm f/4.5-5.6 1989 35mm film lens. UV filter.
“Non è vero che la ripetizione è un errore. Non è per niente vero che “sta male”, che si possono trovare sinonimi, che ci sono mille modi per dire alcune parole. No. Credo che certe cose vadano dette sempre nello stesso modo e ripetute. In un certo senso è come se le stessi scrivendo. “
GreCeres
Before Starting this Write up for the Days Events I want to say a Huge Thank You to all of the Marshals at Brands Hatch for the work that you do as without you We would not be able to Witness the Amazing Racing that takes Place Here Every Year.
During the Events of Saturday A Marshal Was Tragically Killed in an Accident on the Circuit. My Thoughts and Prayers are with The Family of the Marshal as well as Everyone Involved in the Incident.
Lets Keep Working Hard to Make Racing Exciting but also to work on the Safety Aspect of Both Spectators and Marshals at Each Event.
It was Time for the BARC To make a Very Special Return to Brands Hatch for the Annual BARC Club Car Championship Races. The Grids were looking to be Full up with lots of Action across both the Saturday and Sunday with Qualifying and Racing.
Lets See who's up First and Who can Take their Vehicles around the very Fast and Highly Paced Indy Circuit.
Brit Car Endurance Championship/Endurance And Praga Categories (Qualifying)
First Up was the Brit Car Endurance Championship Featuring a whole range of different cars from the Ferrari 488 to the Praga R1T. Thease two Classes of cars ran together during Qualifying so lets see who managed to take Pole Position for the Race on Sunday.
In First Place was (Tim Gray Motorsport and the Pairing of Richard Wells and Alex Kapadia) In their Praga R1T with a Lap Time of 44.675 and a Top Speed of 97.33mph. An Amazing Effort by Richard and Alex to claim Pole Position and start on the Front Row for Tomorrow's Race.
In Second Place was (CW Performance and the Pairing of Christopher Wesemael and Richard Morris) in their Praga R1 with a Lap Time of 45.128 and a Top Speed of 96.36mph. Another Incredible Drive from The Pairing of Christopher and Richard Claiming Second Position and Being Very Close to First in that Qualifying Battle. Fantastic Work.
In Third Place was (Team Praga Three Lions and The Pairing of Ash Dibden and Angus Fender) in their Praga R1 with a Lap Time of 45.365 and A Top Speed of 95.85mph. Very Close to Second Place Indeed with First, Second and Third place being a very hard Fought Battle for Positions. Fantastic work Ash and Angus.
A Very Exciting start to the Weekend with a Thrilling Qualifying Session and no doubt a Race to look forward to on the Sunday. Who will prevail and take the Checkered Flag? Only Time will tell.
CTCRC Edmundson Electrical Classic/Historic Thunder Saloons (Qualifying)
Next Up was the Edmundson Electrical Classics and The Historic Thunder Saloons as they Headed out for their Qualifying Session and with a Vast Grid of Historic Cars Such as Vauxhalls Fords and BMW'S this looks to be Another Spectacular Qualifying Session for the History Books.
Lets take a look and see who managed to get Pole Position and How Quickly they Managed to do it in.
In First Place was (Jason West) in his BMW E46 M3 3200 with a Lap Time of 50.576 and A Top Speed of 85.98mph. Very Fast Driving from Jason and a Fantastic Effort to achieve Pole Position for the Start of The Race.
In Second Place was (Mike Saunders) in his Ford MK1 Escort Mexico 4700 with a Lap Time of 51.100 and A Top Speed of 85.09mph. Another Fast and Well Controlled Lap from Mike to put himself into Second Place after a very Quick and Brave Drive.
In Third Place was (Andrew Wilson) in his Holden Monaro 7000 with a Lap Time of 51.282 and A Top Speed of 84.79mph. Fantastic Driving from Andrew to Achieve Third Place.
A Very Wonderful Qualifying Session for the CTCRC Edmundson Electrical Classic/Historic Thunder Saloons with Three Very Quick and Eager Drivers all wanting to be First but at the End of the Day their can only be One Winner. Who will it be? Only time will tell.
CTCRC JEC Saloon & GT Championship & Burton Power BOSS (Qualifying)
Next Up The Saloon and GT Championships and with More Escorts and Jaguars Heading onto the Circuit it was time to see what This set of Drivers could do and who would be able to claim Pole Position.
In First Place was (Malcom Harding) in his Ford Escort MK2 Zakspeed 2500 with a Lap Time of 53.705 and A Top Speed of 80.97mph. A Beautifully Prepared Machine Combined with a Fantastically Brave Drivers makes for a Perfect Paring. Amazing Work Malcom for Getting Pole Position.
In Second Place was (Steven Goldsmith) in his Ford Anglia 105e 2600 with a Lap Time of 54.237 and A Top Speed of 80.17mph. Another Amazing Driver pushing His Machinery Hard and Coming Very Close to Malcom's Time. Amazing Work Steven.
In Third Place was (Colin Philpott) in his Jaguar XJS 4000 with a Lap Time of 55.165 and A Top Speed of 79.27mph. Still Keeping very Close to Steven in Second Place and Rightfully Defending that Third Spot on the Grid. Amazing Drive from Colin.
Another Set of Amazing Drivers all showing the Love and Passion they have For Motorsport and Racing. But who will be Brave enough to push to the limits and Defend their Position for the Race. We will Have to Wait and Find Out.
CTCRC JEC Saloon & GT Championship & Burton Power BOSS (Race 1)
Its Time for The First Race of the Day and its for the JEC Saloons and GT Championship. After a Thrilling Qualifying Session Earlier its time to see who can Take Victory in the First Race.
In First Place and Taking the First Win of the Weekend was (MALCOLM HARDING) in his Ford Escort MK2 Zakspeed 2500 with a Lap Time of 54.028 and a Top Speed of 80.48mph. Amazing Drive There Malcolm and Congratulations on Your First Victory.
In Second Place was (STEVEN GOLDSMITH) in his Ford Anglia 105e 2600 with a Lap Time of 54.645 and A Top Speed of 79.57mph. Incredible Drive there Steve with a lot of Determination and a Very Brave Nerve to take Second Place.
In Third Place was (COLIN PHILPOT) in his Jaguar XJS 4000 with a Lap Time of 55.295 and a Top Speed of 78.64mph. Well Done Colin A Well Deserved Third Place and an Amazing Drive for Third Place.
What A Race from the Saloon and GT Championship and with Another Race to Come on Sunday More High Speed Action can be expected then.
CTCRC Laser Tools Pre 93 & Simply Serviced Pre 03 Touring Cars (Qualifying)
Next Up onto the Circuit was the Pre 03 and Pre 93 Touring Cars for their Qualifying Session and with some Fantastic Cars on the Gird it will be Interesting to see who Can take Pole Position and become the Victor of this Qualifying Session.
In First Place was (Gary Prebble) in his Honda Civic EG 2000 with a Lap Time of 52.971 and A Top Speed of 82.09mph. Fast and Committed rom Gary and a Beautifully Prepared Honda too. Well Done.
In Second Place was (AJ Owen) in his Honda Civic Type R 2000 with a Lap Time of 53.153 and A Top Speed of 81.81mph. Another Fantastic Drive from AJ Showing the Power of the Honda Engine and what it can do in the right hands.
In Third Place was (Don Hughes) in his Peugeot 306 XSI 2000 with a Lap Time of 54.013 and A Top Speed of 80.51mph. Another Super Lap from a Super Driver to Put himself into Third Place Behind the Two Hondas Awesome Work there Don.
A Brilliant Qualifying Session for the Pre 93 and Pre 03 Touring Cars. Well Done to the Top Three Drivers and Good Luck to all other Drivers Competing.
CTCRC Poultec Classic Race Engines Pre 66 Touring Cars (Qualifying)
Pre 66 Touring Cars are Next Up and usually a Fan Favourite at Brands Hatch Amongst Spectators and Race Enthusiasts and Who Can blame them. From the Mini Cooper S to The Ford Anglia and Lotus Cortina they are truly something Special to witness Racing around the Track.
Lets See who came where and how this will Impact the Race Ahead.
In First Place was (Alan Greenhalgh) in his Ford Falcon 4727 with a Lap Time of 58.396 and a Top Speed of 74.46mph. Fantastic Driving Alan and a well Deserved Pole Position.
In Second Place was (Robyn Slater) in his Ford Anglia 1550 with a Lap Time of 59.353 and A Top Speed of 73.26mph. Very Well Done to Robyn and an Amazing Drive to Achieve Second Place.
In Third Place was (Barry Sime) in his Morris Mini Cooper S with A Lap Time of 59.627 and A Top Speed of 72.93mph. Showing the Power of The Mini there Barry that's for sure What an Awesome Drive for Third Place.
What A Qualifying Session for the Pre 66 Touring Cars Showing some Awesome Machinery and Cars that Have Been Designed for One Thing Speed. Well Done to Alan Robyn and Barry Here's Hoping to see a Fantastic Battle Between all Three of you Come Race Day.
CTCRC Shell Oils Pre 83 Touring Cars (Qualifying)
Finally was the Turn of the Shell Oils Pre 83 Touring Cars to take to the Circuit. With More Fords and Jags ready to take on the Track and see who can take that Final Pole Position of The Day.
Lets see how things Turned out on the Track
In First Place was (Mike Luck) in his BMW E21 320 with a Lap Time of 56.575 and a Top Speed of 76.86mph. A Very Fast Time and enough to take Pole Position Amazing work there Mike.
In Second Place was (Mark Osbourne) in his Triumph Dolomite Sprint 1998 with a Lap Time of 56.839 and A Top Speed of 76.5mph. Amazing Drive from Mark to put his Triumph right up there in Second Place and not too far Behind Mike in the BMW.
In Third Place was (Stephen Primett) in his Ford Escort MK1 2037 with a Lap Time of 56.867mph and a Top Speed of 76.46mph. Another Incredible Drive for Third Place and The Final Spot in the Top Three for Qualifying. Very Well Done Stephen.
A Thrilling Qualifying Session for the Pre 83 Touring Cars to round of a Very Busy and Long First Day of Qualifying. Lets see what Each Driver can do come Race Day and who will be able to Dominate and Take Home The Trophy for Their Classes.
Best Luck To Everybody and See You All Tomorrow.
Sometimes a single image can change one's understanding of a person, place or thing.
Here, seeing a photo of Joe Knowles standing next to his car, one of the most advanced vehicles of the era, transformed my view of the pioneering reality star who was known in his day as The Nature Man from coast to coast.
Yes, Americans are notorious for living beyond their means, and that may have been the case here. Or perhaps Joe Knowles was just enjoying the rewards of his hard work.
As newspapers of the era liked to point out, Joe Knowles became famous for his ability to abandon the trappings of civilization and survive in the wilderness, but he was equally well adapted to the comforts and luxuries of city living.
Proving a point about humankind's ingenuity under primitive conditions was Knowles' passion, but he was also a hard-working entrepreneur and promoter. This photo suggests that Knowles not only made good money but was able to hang onto it.
As soon as Knowles returned from the forests of the Siskiyous in 1914, he began making personal appearances in Oregon and California to demonstrate his survival skills. In time he added a tame bear to his act. Then he landed a movie deal that took him back to the Siskiyous, There, his encounters with a cougar and perilous rapids put him back in the headlines.
Turning up In New York, Knowles announced the next chapter in his wilderness adventures: he would mentor two intrepid women in his woodcraft! To prove he was serious, Knowles sat for a publicity photo with the two "Eves" that graced the pages of many a publication.
This twist was hardly surprising. By then, several women had already made their own bids for the limelight by publicly professing their intention to emulate The Nature Man on their own. Almost from the outset, the press had evinced a coy preoccupation over how Knowles's female imitators might be attired on Day One. Victorian prudishness had receded far enough by the teens of the 1900s that reporters could write that Knowles planned to enter the forest nude, though not far enough that they could publish photos of Knowles in the altogether. Today, some might call that state of affairs titillating.
The story behind Joe Knowles' announcement that Elaine Hammerstein (a cousin of the hugely famous Oscar Hammerstein II) would be joining him in the Adirondacks for a reprise of his earlier exploits in the woods is surely worthy of a movie. Nothing in Elaine's basic biography even hints that such a feat might have interested her. Nothing more appeared about the project in the New York press after the splash of the announcement. An item in a Western newspaper reported that an early winter had forced the two of them to call off their plans. Joe himself said that Elaine found her grass skirt not up to the challenge of keeping her warm.
When America's entry into the Great War in 1917 muted the public's enthusiasm for Joe Knowles' nature act, he reinvented himself as the West's leading instructor on woodlore at scout gatherings.
It was his first such event that brought him to the North Beach Peninsula for the first time around 1916. By 1917 Joe Knowles had settled in the village of Seaview, where was immediately hailed as a regional celebrity and accomplished artist. In other words, he was the classic local character. Knowles was famous for being famous, making him a celebrity, but unlike many of that ilk, he had solid accomplishments to his name. By then, "Knowles" had entered the American lexicon as a metaphor for nudity or a penchant for roughing it.
His stature led him to secure numerous commissions, including a series of murals in 1924 for the newest theater in Astoria, Oregon, which was just then rebuilding its downtown after a devastating fire. That year he also painted portraits of the chief justices of the Supreme Courts of Oregon and Washington. The former was received with great fanfare in the press and in real life.
It's at that juncture that we catch up with Joe Knowles standing next to his flashy new car in Portland. This was as much a publicity shot for Knowles as it was for the auto dealership.
© Alan Davey 2024 All rights reserved.
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About the Rickenbacker Vertical Eight Superfine
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By
David Conwill
Updated
August 27, 2024
in Classics, Hemmings Classic Car, Magazine
Too Much, Too Soon – 1925 Rickenbacker Vertical Eight Superfine
The creative genius of car enthusiasts and the cold calculations of businessmen are the age-old yin and yang of the automobile industry. Think of the car enthusiast as an artist, driven to create the purest expression of his or her vision in steel, glass, and rubber–regardless of expense. The businessmen are there to make sure that the unfettered vision doesn’t bankrupt the company. Both the artist and his or her fans may decry the artificial limitation on mechanical genius, but the graveyard of the car business is littered with nameplates that went too far, too fast, and were unable to sustain themselves.
By the time he was approached to append his appellation to the eponymous company in 1921, Eddie Rickenbacker’s car-enthusiast credentials were already well-established: He first rose to prominence as a race-car driver in the 1911-’17 era, having appeared in every Indianapolis 500 race before World War I, and as a driver for the factory teams of Peugeot and Maxwell.
During the war, he was the United States’ “Ace of Aces,” having shot down a confirmed 26 enemy aircraft at the controls of his Nieuport and SPAD biplanes. He was promoted to the rank of major at the end of his service, but throughout his life preferred the rank he felt he had earned, that of captain. By 1918, “Captain Eddie” was already a household name in America.
Rickenbacker wasn’t merely a good driver and pilot. Before his skill at the wheel was recognized, Rickenbacker had seen to his education via a correspondence course in engineering. An early internal-combustion enthusiast, he had also worked for the Columbia Buggy Company selling its Firestone-Columbus automobiles.
Further, Rickenbacker was already associated with General Motors founder Billy Durant, thanks to a marketing arrangement wherein Rickenbacker promoted GM’s Sheridan division. In 1922, he would actually marry Durant’s ex-daughter-in-law. So when Barney Everitt, William Metzger, and Walter Flanders– three men with enormous experience in the auto industry– joined with Rickenbacker, they were getting far more than just a famous name.
Everitt, Metzger, and Flanders are best remembered for the E-M-F Company, which was eventually folded into Studebaker– though that was far from their only accomplishment. They were, respectively, a body man, a salesman, and a production man. All three had good reputations as auto executives, though their companies usually did not survive long after their personal leadership had departed. Rickenbacker was, sadly, not to be an exception.
Captain Eddie himself had initially wished to stay in aviation after the war. Unfortunately, the postwar recession, combined with a glut of surplus aircraft, meant that the fledgling aircraft industry was struggling. Instead, he reverted to his prewar enthusiasm for the automobile. In the 1920s, the line between automotive technology and aviation was far thinner than today, and the disciplines cross-pollinated liberally.
What Rickenbacker wanted in his own new car was to bring the high-performance technology of military aircraft and racing cars to the street. He was not alone in this, with the Chevrolet brothers (who had previously sold their family name to Durant) making similar plans at the same time to turn their Frontenac racing team into a producer of road cars. Rickenbacker got further, however, and while Frontenac was forced to produce speed parts for the Ford Model T, Rickenbacker really did produce what the company termed “a car worthy of its name.”
The biggest technical triumph of the original Rickenbacker Six was its “tandem flywheel.” Captain Eddie had been impressed by the smoothness of the liquid-cooled inline engines of his German opponents in the skies over France. When he was able to inspect the inner workings of crashed or captured airplanes, he discovered that their crankshafts had flywheels at both ends, greatly reducing the vibration transmitted outside of the engine.
What most people remember about Rickenbacker, however, was its pioneering use of four-wheel brakes in the medium-price field. Even the prototype chassis, displayed at the 1922 New York Auto Show, had front-wheel brakes present, a major departure for the time. In June of 1923, both Duesenberg and Rickenbacker announced that four-wheel braking would now be standard. For Duesenberg, a race-bred, high-performance, luxury car, this was not much of a surprise. For a less-expensive car like Rickenbacker, it was remarkable in the extreme.
Other companies soon followed suit, though Studebaker actually launched a smear campaign attempting to paint front brakes as unsafe, and Rickenbacker felt the pressure to continue to update its product line. For 1925, the year of our feature car, the original 58-horsepower, 218-cu.in. straight-six was upgraded to a 236-cu.in. engine with seven main bearings, producing 68 horsepower. The six-cylinder engine was also joined by an L-head, 80-horsepower, 268-cu.in. straight-eight with nine main bearings. The six retained the traditional 117-inch wheelbase, but the eight received a lengthened 121.5-inch wheelbase. The lines were otherwise quite similar.
This “Vertical Eight Superfine,” as the new-for-1925 eight was called, was an excellent car–smooth and powerful. The details are outstanding for a car at its price point, right down to the “hat-in-the-ring” logo, borrowed from the United States Army Air Service’s 94th Pursuit Squadron, Rickenbacker’s own unit, cast into the rear axle housing where only someone crawling underneath the car could see it. In bringing luxury-car features to the mid-price field, it was arguably five years ahead of the competition.
Unfortunately, just as the company seemed to be finding its footing, Flanders–a crack production specialist who had helped Ford Motor Company on its way to the moving assembly line– was killed in a car accident. At the same time, dealers began fleeing the fold, possibly due to Studebaker’s hatchet job (though it wouldn’t stop newcomer Chrysler from adopting four-wheel hydraulic brakes that year) or possibly due to word of the kind of executive infighting that had brought down other efforts by the founders of E-M-F.
It was in this environment that Captain Eddie left the automotive firm bearing his name in 1926. Soon after, he would buy the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which he would own until 1945, and embark on a career as an aviation executive that would keep his name in the public eye until his death in 1973.
Rickenbacker, the company, kept trying, promoting its Super Sport boat-tailed coupe as the fastest four-passenger automobile for sale (faster models from the likes of Duesenberg seated only two) and introducing dual-carburetor engines for 1927. But it was not enough, and the firm did not survive to sell 1928 models.
It is said that after the company folded, Captain Eddie personally repaid all debts he had guaranteed for the company, despite a bankruptcy discharge, burnishing his reputation as an ethical businessman. Everitt went on to help found the Verville Aircraft Company in the same Detroit factory building that had housed Rickenbacker. Metzger also got into aviation, helping form Stinson Aircraft in 1926.
As an interesting aside, the tooling for both the six-cylinder and eight-cylinder 1927 Rickenbackers was sold to a Danish businessman in Germany named Jørgen Skafte Rasmussen who had planned to produce the engines for sale to European automakers. When no orders were forthcoming, Rasmussen instead shopped his designs to Audi, in which he was the majority shareholder. This resulted in the Rickenbacker 6-70 becoming the Audi Type-T “Dresden” and the eight-cylinder Rickenbackers becoming the Audi Type-SS “Zwickau.” Both were produced until 1932.
That makes the four-passenger coupe on these pages a rarity to begin with. In fact, it is believed by the Rickenbacker Club of America to be the only surviving 1925 eight-cylinder coupe. It should come as no surprise, then, that for the past 48 years it has been a part of the Automobile Gallery of the Heritage Museums & Gardens, in Sandwich, Massachusetts. The Automobile Gallery has as its nucleus the collection of pharmaceutical heir J.K. Lilly III, and the Rickenbacker was acquired by Lilly in 1966.
We spoke with Director of Collections and Exhibits Jennifer Madden, and she told us that Lilly acquired the car from a Dearborn, Michigan, collector named J. Walter Heater. We don’t know if there is a connection, but Heater was an executive with a Detroit firm called Fleet Supply Corp. (“parts and supplies for trucks, trailers, and cars”). The address for Fleet Supply, 2896 Central Avenue, was less than a mile from the still-extant former Rickenbacker factory at 4815 Cabot Street–could that have sparked Heater’s interest in finding a Rickenbacker?
Heater found the car in 1960 in what the Detroit Free Press described as “an abandoned garage on Ferry Park Avenue near the Lodge Freeway.” The previous owner, a man named Gauss, was a retired Army engineer. According to a letter in the car’s file at the Heritage Museums, Gauss had sold his home and actually lived in the car in his garage for 15 years!
Heater restored the Rickenbacker, completing the job in 1962. The coupe was immediately recognized as Grand Champion at the Henry Ford Museum’s Old Car Festival in the division for cars built between 1917 and 1925. While it was in his care, it was reunited with Captain Eddie for a television show apparently called On the Street.
Sometime around 1966, Heater and Lilly happened to encounter one another, and Heater told Lilly about his Rickenbacker. The two men corresponded that summer regarding the car, and eventually it was settled that Lilly would purchase it for $5,000 (a little more than $37,500 adjusted for inflation).
Heater even offered to drive the Rickenbacker from Dearborn to Boston for Lilly to take delivery. In a letter, he noted “it runs very well at 55-60 mph, which means two days on the road from here.” Eventually, it was settled that Heater would meet a representative of Lilly’s in Syracuse, New York, about half way between the two men. Heater apparently took the Greyhound home.
It’s not recorded why the Rickenbacker caught Lilly’s fancy. Perhaps it was just the excellent restoration that the car still wears today–having been museum-kept since 1969 and undriven since sometime in the 1970s, although the museum intends to get it driving again soon. It is worth noting that the Lilly family’s roots are not in Boston, or Cape Cod, but rather in Indianapolis, Indiana, where the Rickenbacker name and the speedway are icons. It’s not impossible that Lilly, who was six when this car was built, recalled the excitement associated with Captain Eddie and his airplane-inspired car way back when.
Though it survived only a brief six model years, and only an estimated two dozen examples remain, the Rickenbacker is well remembered today, thanks to its technical sophistication and its association with one of America’s greatest aviation heroes. If you are lucky enough to see or experience one, linger awhile and soak in the details, quality construction, mechanical elegance, and handsome styling. You will be glad you did.
www.hemmings.com/stories/too-much-too-soon-1925-rickenbac...
litquake.org/events/new-writers
Moderated by Scott James
www.baycitizen.org/profiles/scott-james/
who writes fiction as
Ethan Nosowsky is Editor-at-Large for Graywolf Pres
He is Stephen Elliott's editor & they talked about how he has promoted The Adderall Diaries & the new iPhone/iPad app
therumpus.net/2010/10/why-i-created-an-app-for-my-book/
Literary agent Amy Rennert amyrennert.com
Eileen Gittins blurb.com
She showed the paperback of the book by Pat Tillman's mother & former LA Times & Chron editor Narda Zacchino which they published
www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/indust...
Jay A. Hartman held up the Rocket Reader he bought 12 years ago this week. He said the Sony Reader is the most popular ebook device in Europe.
His ebook company
Brenda Knight
She said Wordcatcher sold 1000 copies after this interview
www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201007201000
Litquake continues through Oct 9, 2010
Photos from Litquake's opening awards
Chandramita Bora writes:
Comfrey has been considered a healing herb since ancient times. The ancient Greeks and Romans, used this wonder herb for alleviating a number of ailments including bronchial problems, wounds, heavy bleeding and broken bones. Its popularity grew during the middle ages, mainly for healing fractures.
The main active ingredient of comfrey is allantoin, which has the ability of stimulating cell proliferation. So, it can be effective in replacing the damaged cells of the body. Besides allantoin, another important compound found in comfrey is mucilage. Both allantoin and mucilage have anti-inflammatory properties. So, they are used in alleviating the pain and inflammation associated with broken bones, sprains, arthritis, wounds, etc. Mucilage is also effective in intestinal disorders, while allantoin augments the immune system to fight against infectious diseases.
The roots and leaves of comfrey can be applied as a wash, ointment and poultice. Comfrey is an expectorant and a mild sedative. It can induce blood clotting and heal ulcers, both external and internal ulcers. Many use comfrey as a herbal remedy for diarrhea, bleeding gums and gangrene. It can also be used to enhance skin and alleviate skin problems like acne, boils and abscesses. It is widely used in homeopathic treatment for several diseases.
According to some studies, comfrey can be beneficial in diabetes and reducing the level of cholesterol. Roots of this plant have been used for a long time in relieving lung problems. In Ireland, it is mainly used for treating problems associated with the circulatory system.
It is abundant in protein and vitamins. Vitamin A and C are abundantly found in comfrey. Vitamin C is an antioxidant, that protects the body from the damaging effects of free radicals and also reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases. On the other hand, vitamin A is required for improving vision and proper growth and development of bones. Comfrey is one of the rare plants that contains the vitamin B12, essential for the formation of red blood cells, cell division and proper development of nerve cells.
Besides, these essential vitamins, comfrey is also rich in minerals such as calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, zinc, selenium and germanium. Germanium is a powerful antioxidant, while calcium and phosphorus are required for healthy teeth and bones. Potassium is essential for maintaining the electrolyte balance in the body. In addition, it assists in regulating the blood pressure level and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. Zinc facilitates energy metabolism and strengthens the immune system, while magnesium is important for a healthy heart, teeth and bones.
Though comfrey has been used internally to relieve a number of disorders like indigestion, stomach and bowel problems, thyroid disorders, hernia, coughs, lung problems, hemorrhage and even cancer, recent studies have shown that the consumption of comfrey can be dangerous. Studies conducted in this regard has revealed that it contains a compound, known as pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA), which is hepatotoxic and carcinogenic. Accumulation of pyrrolizidine in the body, may block the hepatic vein and cause liver failure. These findings induced the United States Food and Drug Administration to issue a warning in 2001, against the internal usage of herbal products containing comfrey. However, it can be applied externally, as no known side effect of external application has been discovered so far.
This comfrey was a gift from my friend Kat.
While not the best advice to give an alcoholic, the spirit of the phrase is a great way to defeat writer's block.
Not all of your prose will magically flow onto the page in perfect order. So just write something, the crappier and more senseless the better. You'll find it self-correcting, starting to flow. Go with it until it seems like you're forcing things. Then stop.
You can always cut and paste later, move it around. Read it out loud and say to yourself, "wow, what was I drinking?"
Just show up at the page.
film (Minolta XG-M)
Per a/Para/To: Click&Go
Tema/Topic: Escriptura/Escritura/Writing
És un joc de paper i sobre, amb la meva inicial, que em va regalar la meva sogra d'un lloc anomenat "Il Papiro" d'Itàlia
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Es un juego de papel y sobre, con mi inicial, que me regaló mi suegra de un lugar llamado "Il Papiro" de Italia
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It's a set of paper and envelope, with my initial, from the place called "Il Papiro", in Italy