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Monday, April 1st, 2013
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11:58 am - Careless driver, or careless rider?
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From the Toronto Star:The little red hand was flashing, but Lara Bastien thought she still had enough time to pedal across the busy downtown intersection.
At the same time, a tractor trailer started to turn left and its 18 wheels met Bastien’s two in the middle of the street with gory results. As a cyclist, the status of the 'little red hand' shouldn't matter, as a bicycle is considered a vehicle. Which leads me to wonder if she was riding on the sidewalk and crossing in the pedestrian crosswalk area. And an 18-wheeler is pretty damn big and doesn't move very quickly on turns, so why didn't she see it?
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| Sunday, March 31st, 2013
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7:40 pm - Grotto Canyon X
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Via Flickr:
Grotto Canyon is a unique hike that offers opportunities year round; in summer time it boasts a hike up a river bed passing an amazing number of climbing slabs and ultimately leading you to the hidden Grotto Falls. On your way you will pass one of the most exciting additions to this hike, the old Hopi pictographs created by native visitors from the Arizona region. There is not much left of their drawings on the canyon walls but enough is visible to have fun trying to distinguish what they could possibly be.
This panorama was stitched from 57 bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 7457 × 19453 (145.1 MP; 195.81 MB).
Location: Exshaw, Alberta, Canada
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| Saturday, March 30th, 2013
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2:30 pm - Stupa Sunset VI (B)
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I've recently added over a dozen philospheres that have sat on my hard drive for far too long. Enjoy.
Via Flickr:
We'd headed out after dinner to photograph the sunset. This was my first choice for location: a good all-around view and I could get reasonably close to the edge. Not too close, though, as I didn't want to slip and fall.
The bold colours might look enhanced, but you'll have to trust that I haven't boosted saturation a bit!
This High Dynamic Range 360° panorama was stitched from 69 bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 18233 × 9216 (168.0 MP; 170.99 MB).
Location: Tsagaan Suvarga, Dundgovǐ, Mongolia
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| Sunday, March 24th, 2013
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10:01 pm - Linux Inflight System
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Via Flickr:
It's not a critical system, but I was amused to notice that the in-flight entertainment system on the airplane apparently runs on Linux. It certainly beats relying on Windows…
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| Friday, March 15th, 2013
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10:24 pm - Nathan Phillips Square III (tunnel)
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Via Flickr:
The ornate building on the left is the old city hall, now a courthouse. Behind it are the towers of Bay Street, while in the foreground is a public skating rink (which is a fountain in the summer). At the top you can see the distinctive curving double towers of the new city hall.
From the official web site:
Nathan Phillips Square is a lively public gathering place located immediately in front of Toronto City Hall, on the northwest corner of Queen and Bay Streets.
The Square is named for Nathan Phillips, who was Mayor of Toronto from 1955 to 1962.
Mayor Phillips was an early supporter of the new City Hall and of the international design competition that was ultimately won by Finnish architect Viljo Revell.
Nathan Phillips Square is the site of many civic activities and special events. It is worth noting that a number of special events are also held at Yonge-Dundas Square, just a few short blocks away.
A raised walkway leads from Nathan Phillips Square to City Hall's podium roof, where the Green Roofs Demonstration Project is located and flag raising ceremonies are held.
British sculptor Henry Moore's masterpiece Three-Way Piece No. 2 (usually called The Archer) has been installed in a place of honour right in front of City Hall.
In the middle of the Square, the Peace Garden honours the commitment of Torontonians to the principle of world peace.
In summer, tourists and locals alike congregate around the reflecting pool. In winter, the pool is transformed into a popular outdoor skating rink.
Visitors can rent skates, use indoor change rooms, and enjoy a snack at the concession stand.
Outdoor chess tables are available for public use on the southeast corner of the Square, at Bay and Queen Streets.
The arches over the reflecting pond/ice rink were officially named "Freedom Arches" in 1989.
A piece of the Berlin Wall lays flat at the base of the centre freedom arch on the south side. There is a plaque embedded in the piece that reads:
"Freedom Arches"
The Citizens of Toronto dedicate these arches to the millions who struggled including Canadians, to gain and defend freedom and to the tens of millions who suffered and died for the lack of it. May all that we do be worthy of them.
Only in freedom can the Human Spirit soar.
Against the Human drive for freedom nothing can long succeed. This plaque is mounted on a slab of the Berlin Wall.
On the southwest corner, Oscar Nemon's statue of Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of Great Britain is located.
The plaque beneath Nemon's statue reads:
"Winston Churchill 1874-1965
His faith and leadership inspired free men to fight in every quarter of the globe for the triumph of Justice and Liberty.
Presented to the City of Toronto by the Churchill Memorial Committee aided by the generosity of Henry R. Jackman, O.C., K.St.U., Q.C., October 23, 1977, David Crombie, Mayor, David P. Smith, President of City Council."
A speakers corner podium is located at the south west corner of Nathan Phillips Square, just east of the Winston Churchill statue (moved in 2004 from it's original location in front of the statue).
It was founded in 1988 as an attempt to promote free speech in Toronto proposed by metro Councillor Richard Gilbert (Davenport), who was inspired by a similar Speakers' Corner in London England.
Beneath Nathan Phillips Square is one of the world's largest underground parking garages, with space for 2,400 cars.
This 360° High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 36 hand-held bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture. This is a stereographic projection, like the more common "little planet" projection but pointing up instead of down.
Original size: 13000 × 13000 (169.0 MP; 671.80 MB).
Location: Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, Ontario
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| Saturday, March 2nd, 2013
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10:07 pm - View of Sechelt and Vancouver Island
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Via Flickr:
To the right you can see the beach leading to Sechelt. Sechelt proper is visible just past the barge being loaded with gravel at the Deep Sea Berth and Shiploader. Across Georgia Strait is Vancouver Island, with Nanaimo visible if you zoom in. (At least, it's visible on the full-sized version.)
This High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 159 hand-held bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 63291 × 3000 (189.9 MP; 221.40 MB).
Location: Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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| Saturday, January 26th, 2013
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7:10 pm - Round doorway II
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Via Flickr:
A doorway in the Hall of Abstinence at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.
This composite image was tone-mapped from nine bracketed photographs with Photomatix and processed with Color Efex to look like an old photograph.
Location: Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China
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| Sunday, January 20th, 2013
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7:51 pm - Toronto Casino
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| Thursday, December 6th, 2012
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8:54 pm - Nomad Camp
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Via Flickr:
I loved this terrain: green hills with enough contour to be interesting but low enough to be easily hike-able. I could happily camp here for a few weeks — and after that long I'd probably be used to the flies!
This panorama was stitched from 20 hand-held photographs with PTGUI Pro and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 14990 × 5119 (76.7 MP; 72.72 MB).
Location: South Khangay, Mongolia
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| Sunday, December 2nd, 2012
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4:47 pm - Ger Camp
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Via Flickr:
First day in Mongolia, we stopped at a small patch of dunes with camel rides for the tourists from Ulaan Baator. I was fascinated by the gers, camped in small clusters, and took this panorama. It conveys the sense of a bowl of blue sky suspended ove a green plate of ground rather well, I think.
This panorama was titched from seven hand-held photographs with PTGUI Pro and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 26004 × 7280 (189.3 MP; 166.75 MB).
Location: South Khangay Aimag, Mongolia
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| Sunday, November 18th, 2012
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10:10 pm - Thomas Foster Memorial
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Via Flickr:
From the Foster Memorial website:
Situated on a hill in rolling countryside, five to six kilometers north of Uxbridge, the Thomas Foster Memorial is easily visible from the west, south and east. Both its position and unique design command one's attention. Its structure was inspired by the Taj Mahal which is just outside of Agra, India. The Emperor Shah Jehen built the latter temple in 1650 as a burial place for his favorite wife. It is the greatest masterpiece of Indian architecture.
Thomas Foster went to the Toronto architectural firm of Craig and Madill with the proposal to build a similar structure for the resting place of his wife, his daughter Ruby, and himself. At the same time, it was to be used by the community for burials. A removable slab in the floor would allow for coffins to be lowered to crypts below for storage. This structure was to cost $100,000, and was to be placed next to the small cemetery where his ancestors were buried. By the time the building was completed, it had cost Foster twice as much as the original estimate of the architects.
The Eastern architecture—and the worship of pagan gods—did not lend itself to this area, so the early Christian Church of the Byzantine influence was chosen instead. The dome, resting on four pendentives or supports between arches, and this period displayed more embellishments. Thus, the Foster Memorial is a totally unique and original structure.
The broad, octagonal, terraced base on which the building rests, is 87 feet in width and 92 feet in length. (The structure itself is 55 feet in width and 60 feet in length.) It builds up by stages of vertical wall, semi-dome drum, and a great central dome to the gilded finial. The perfect form of architecture, that of the pyramid, was the fundamental motif for the design. From the ground below the terrace to top of the finial on the central dome is a height of sixty feet, and the inside diameter of the dome is twenty-three feet.
The masonry of variegated Indiana limestone is enriched with carving at the windows and cornice lines. The design builds up with just enough emphasis from wall to roof to mark the change in materials. The thrust of the four great internal arches below the central dome is carried on piers at the four corners. These piers are weighted by carved stone finials surmounted with brass caps. The transepts and apse are three-sided without and semi-circular within.
Facing the west, and providing the entrance motif, the portico, resting upon three arches, supported by monolithic columns, is enriched with incised carving.
Weighted buttresses capped with bronze reinforce the flanks of the portico. The roof surfaces are of copper tile, chemically treated to produce a permanent green surface. The entrance doors, window tracery, and all metal parts are of bronze
The windows, the work of Yvonne Williams, are of hand-painted, fired and leaded glass, the colours and designs are harmonious, and are distributed so as to flood the interior with soft, colourful light.
The floors are of rich-coloured terrazzo and marble mosaics, wrought in symbolic designs. On entering, one crosses the River of Death, on which floats water lilies and lily pads. The motion that underlies the work of the Creator is suggested in the general design of the floor beneath the great dome. This motion, typifying life, radiates from the Greek letters, "Alpha and Omega", which in turn flank the "Chi Rho" monogram in its early Byzantine form. The laurel wreath of victory over death encircles the central motif.
Under each of the four great arches, a marble screen with balustrades separates the crossing from transepts, apse and nave. Sixteen marble columns, four to each screen supporting three arches with pierced marble tympanum above, are features of the interior. The columns are in varicoloured Italian marbles with carved Devon stone capitals and desserets. Each capital differs from its neighbours and is carved with the heraldic symbol of one of the saints or apostles. The marble altar in the east is approached from the raised apse by three travertine steps. The high marble reredos emblazoned with gold cross and I.H.S. monograms, is a departure from the canopied altar of the early church, but more in keeping with the scale of this structure and the present day form of Christian service. The pulpit is of Rocherons marble with an incised carved frieze and inlay of gold mosaic.
The southern transept contains three family sarcophagi. Above each sarcophagus is a memorial window bearing a modest memorial shield. The crypt contains six compartments for winter burials.
A dado of Bois-Jourdain gray marble shot with red, and inlaid with gold mosaic surrounds the interior. The same marble is used in window reveals and surrounds. The pedantries under the dome, the soffits and returns of the great arches, are in glass mosaics, in conventional floral and geometric designs in harmonious and brilliant colours. The acoustical ceiling is of azure blue.
Above, the drum of the dome is pierced with twelve stained glass, leaded windows, that in the east being in the form of a gold cross on a rich blue ground. Circling the lower part of the dome, above the great arches in gold lettering on a field of graded blue mosaic, is the inscription: "Take this my body for it is done and I have gained a new life, glorious and eternal".
The Foster Memorial Mausoleum is open to the public on the first and third Sunday from June to September, in the afternoon.
Location: Thomas Foster Memorial, Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada
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| Tuesday, November 13th, 2012
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7:49 pm - nutfree
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6:23 pm - Right-wing democracy in action…
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From an article in the Star:PHOENIX- An Arizona woman, in despair at the re-election of Democratic President Barack Obama, ran down her husband with the family car in suburban Phoenix on Saturday because he failed to vote in the election, police said on Monday.
Holly Solomon, 28, was arrested after running over husband Daniel Solomon following a wild chase that left him pinned underneath the vehicle.
Daniel Solomon, 36, was in critical condition at a local hospital, but is expected to survive, Gilbert police spokesman Sergeant Jesse Sanger said.
Police said Daniel Solomon told them his wife became angry over his “lack of voter participation” in last Tuesday’s presidential election and believed her family would face hardship as a result of Obama winning another term. I don't remember hearing about similar events when Bush won.
Or about calls to secede, either. As reported by the BBC:Currently, the most popular petition is from Texas, which voted for Mr Romney by some 15 percentage points more than it did for the Democratic incumbent.
The text complains of "blatant abuses" of Americans' rights.
It cites the Transportation Security Administration, whose staff have been accused of intrusive screening at airports. Because clearly the TSA is a Democrat invention — the Republicans would never create organizations or laws that so infringed people's rights…
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| Monday, November 12th, 2012
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5:01 pm - Gorkhi-Terelj Valley I
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Via Flickr:
This was my first glimpse of the real park, and touristy or not I had to stop and shoot a panorama to try to capture the sense of openness I felt in the broad, grass-covered valley — so unlike the sharper valleys of Banff or tree-filled valleys of Jasper.
This panorama was stitched from 29 hand-held photographs with PTGUI Pro and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 42000 × 10639 (446.8 MP; 389.88 MB).
Location:Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, Töv Aimag, Mongolia
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| Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
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9:10 pm - What has the union movement done for us?
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| Monday, November 5th, 2012
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12:50 pm - Forbidden City VII
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Via Flickr:
After the thunderstorms of the weekend it was a beautiful day. (I wish I'd gotten up earlier, but my flight was delayed and I was exhausted at sunrise). The Forbidden City was still closed, so I decided to walk around it to get photographs of the outside. I'm glad I did.
This High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from ten hand-held bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 10467 × 4738 (49.6 MP; 56.47 MB).
Location: Forbidden City, Beijing, China
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| Sunday, November 4th, 2012
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9:22 am - Swiftboating Obama?
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Got an email today from a "Larry Bailey, Captain (SEAL), USN (Retired)", sending address "SOS@politicalmediagroup.com". Title was "Obama's High Crimes and Misdemeanors in Benghazigate".
Letting them speak in their own words:
"It remains uncertain if the tragedy in Benghazi was caused or compounded by Obama's reckless inaction, gross negligence, or incompetent leadership," said Joe Stringham, BG, USA (Ret), Special Forces/Ranger and Chairman of Special Operations Speaks PAC. "What is clear is that the deaths of Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty are on Obama's bloody hands," said Chairman Stringham.
"The President and his administration told outrageous lie after outrageous lie to the American people and at the United Nations for weeks after the 9-11-12 attacks. He will never be trusted again to speak the truth. That is why it is essential to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the scope of Obama and his administration's culpability and total incompetence if not complicity with regard to these grave losses," said Dick Brauer, Col, USAF (Ret), Air Commando.
"We're tired of watching as President Obama authorizes his Executive Branch to bypass Congress, such as the EPA's destructive regulatory actions which have neutered US domestic energy production. We're tired of watching as they put guns into the hands of drug cartels in Mexico, resulting directly in the death of border agent Brian Terry. We're tired of watching as they leak proprietary military information to Hollywood, endangering our future Special Operations missions as well as the lives of our troops and their families." said Larry Bailey, CAPT, USN, (Ret) SEAL
Not much time before the election for this to be rebutted, or even to determine if these are real chaps. But enough time to motivate people to turn out and vote for the other guy.
Many of the other articles on the host's website are about delivering targeted messages to voters and/or consumers. Given my politics (not to mention citizenship), I'd say they aren't as good at that as they claim, and that this is probably just a plain old-fashioned mass-email smear campaign.
current mood: cynical
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| Saturday, November 3rd, 2012
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8:04 pm - Forbidden City VI
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Via Flickr:
After the thunderstorms of the weekend it was a beautiful day. (I wish I'd gotten up earlier, but my flight was delayed and I was exhausted at sunrise). The Forbidden City was still closed, so I decided to walk around it to get photographs of the outside. I'm glad I did.
This High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 75 hand-held bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 32186 × 10000 (321.9 MP; 400.02 MB).
Location: Forbidden City, Beijing, China
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| Friday, November 2nd, 2012
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11:35 pm - Forbidden City IV
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Via Flickr:
It was a wonderful blue morning (and I wish I'd gotten moving earlier). The Forbidden City wasn't open yet, so I decided to walk around it and get pictures. I love dthe bright colours glowing in the early morning sun.
This High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 18 hand-held bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 15238 × 8111 (123.6 MP; 112.41 MB).
Location: Forbidden City, Beijing, China
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| Thursday, November 1st, 2012
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9:50 pm - Jingshan XII
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Via Flickr:
It turned out to be a beautiful morning, so after an unfortunately late start I headed to the Forbidden City. Rather than wait for the gates to open, I walked to Jingshan Park to see the view — and rather wished I'd come here first!
Dodging the pensioners doing their morning exercises (frequently in the best viewpoints, while ignoring the views), I decided to be Chinese and just pushed in to get what I wanted; in this case, a view of the Forbidden City under blue skies. You can already see the clouds beginning to return, but for a while at least I had what I wanted!
This High Dynamic Range 360° panorama was stitched from 78 bracketed photographs with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.
Original size: 18248 × 9124 (166.5 MP; 173.95 MB).
Location: Jingshan Park, Beijing, China
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robertprior
