Biker, Happy Joan of Arc Day!

[petrochemicals]

Merry Christmas goatboy, hope things improve health wise in the new year, have a good one, suppose you'll see bob "vish hym vell too"

same goes for all

ribek
huon
clk
misquite
Jofna

edit.

Oh yeah, thanks goat boy

 

[Huon]

Merry Christmas
Hi fellow "Joan of Arc-ers" Just a wee post to say Merry Yule to my adopted family. My wishes for a peaceful time full of joy and good companionship to you all. Sorry I've not been about much, but that's the way Santa's cookie crumbles and I'll hopefully be back soon.
Warning lushy sentimental bit coming up - You folks have filled me with happiness in a tough time and your friendship and council is much appreciated. I just want to say thanks and I hope that your New Year is a good one and full of happiness.
Cheers to you all and see you about in the coming year.
Seasons greetings to you all,
GB.

​

I am too full of Christmas spirit to reply properly to this. I'll pen something respectable in the morning but please accept reciprocal feelings and seasons greetings in the meantime.

You are a geat crowd!

 

[Goatboy]

Biker! Happy First Christmas Day
Biker! Happy first Christmas Day according to Dionysus Exiguus calendar-maker who said the first one happened on 1AD.
Dionysius Exiguus (Dennis the Small, Dennis the Dwarf, Dennis the Little or Dennis the Short, meaning humble) (c. 470 – c. 544) was a 6th-century monk born in Scythia Minor, modern Dobruja shared by Romania and Bulgaria. He was a member of the Scythian monks community concentrated in Tomis, the major city of Scythia Minor. Dionysius is best known as the "inventor" of the Anno Domini (AD) era, which is used to number the years of both the Gregorian calendar and the (Christianized) Julian calendar.
From about 500 he lived in Rome, where, as a learned member of the Roman Curia, he translated from Greek into Latin 401 ecclesiastical canons, including the apostolical canons and the decrees of the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Chalcedon and Sardis, and also a collection of the decretals of the popes from Siricius to Anastasius II. These collections had great authority in the West and still guide church administrations. Dionysius also wrote a treatise on elementary mathematics.
The author of a continuation of Dionysius's Computus, writing in 616, described Dionysius as a "most learned abbot of the city of Rome", and the Venerable Bede accorded him the honorific abbas, which could be applied to any monk, especially a senior and respected monk, and does not necessarily imply that Dionysius ever headed a monastery; indeed, Dionysius's friend Cassiodorus stated in Institutiones that he was still a monk late in life.
​

 

[Goatboy]

Merry Christmas goatboy, hope things improve health wise in the new year, have a good one, suppose you'll see bob "vish hym vell too"

same goes for all

ribek
huon
clk
misquite
Jofna

edit.

Oh yeah, thanks goat boy

I'm @ Brother Bobs house as I type. He's looking after me this festive period and a day of turkey and grub loom large. He's in good form (though resting at the moment after a wee Gibson and a shandy).

Heading off to slumber land myself shortly so goodnight and speak soon.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Merry Christmas to you all, and a happy and healthy new year to you and yours.
I've just lit the fire and got the first pot of coffee going, just waiting for the daughter and wifey to emerge from their respective pits, to start the day.
Cheers all,
Colin.

 

[Biker]

Morning all. Showered, shaved and ready for the avalanche of presents to overwhelm me. (I have high hopes, I know) I just had to check on my second home from home (BCUK) before wandering downstairs to begin the day. Wishing you all a good one, thanks for being such top people and making a rather topsy turvy year for me much better than it might have been.

Enjoy your presents and special time with family and friends.

Aaron

"Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we diet"

 

[Goatboy]

Biker! Happy Countess Elizabeth Báthory Day!

Biker!, today in 1620 - Countess Elizabeth Báthory's crimes are uncovered to the general public.
Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak; 8 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary. She has been labelled the most prolific female serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess," though the precise number of victims is debated. The stories of her sadistic serial murders and brutality are verified by the testimony of more than 300 witnesses and survivors as well as physical evidence and the presence of horribly mutilated dead, dying and imprisoned girls found at the time of her arrest. She vowed that her soul would be resurrected and inhabit the next body to be born on the 8th day of August. Despite the evidence against her, however, Elizabeth herself was never put on trial because of her family's influence, being instead placed under house arrest. The stories about her vampire-like tendencies (being accused of bathing in blood to rejuvenate her skin etc.) are much less verifable than those of her sadism as unlike the easily verified deaths of servants and young girls, these were generally recorded some years after her death. It quickly became part of national folklore.
After her husband Ferenc Nádasdy's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls, with one witness attributing to them over 650 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was 80. Due to her rank, Elizabeth herself was neither tried nor convicted, but promptly imprisoned upon her arrest in December 1610 within Csejte Castle, Upper Hungary, now in Slovakia, where she remained immured in a set of rooms until her death four years later.
The case led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, and subsequently also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of The Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.



​

 

[crosslandkelly]

Pretty scary woman. She was also a highly educated woman, but that counts for nothing against, ignorance, superstition and rank.

 

[Goatboy]

Pretty scary woman. She was also a highly educated woman, but that counts for nothing against, ignorance, superstition and rank.

In some cases it makes folk all the more dangerous. How are you feeling today Mr Kelly? Fresh as a daisy or as jaded as a green Chinese statue.

 

[crosslandkelly]

How are you feeling today Mr Kelly? Fresh as a daisy or as jaded as a green Chinese statue.

Absolutely fine thanks. Slept in until 9.30. We had a very quiet day yesterday, just the three of us. How are you and how was your day with Bob?

 

[Goatboy]

Absolutely fine thanks. Slept in until 9.30. We had a very quiet day yesterday, just the three of us. How are you and how was your day with Bob?

Was a good relaxing day yesterday, ate some lovely grub relaxed, opened some prezzies and had a couple of drinks. Very nice day all round. Goin for a walk today - just a short one before tomorrows walk. You up to much yourself?

 

[crosslandkelly]

Was a good relaxing day yesterday, ate some lovely grub relaxed, opened some prezzies and had a couple of drinks. Very nice day all round. Goin for a walk today - just a short one before tomorrows walk. You up to much yourself?

I will probably spend a few hours in the workshop playing catch up with some cabinets I'm making. Enjoy your walk.

 

[Goatboy]

Biker! Happy Hagia Sophia Day!

Biker! Happy Hagia Sophia inauguration Day! As on this day in 537 - The Hagia Sophia is inaugurated by the Emperor Justinian.

One of my favourite places.
Hagia Sophia (from the Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom"; Latin: Sancta Sophia or Sancta Sapientia; Turkish: Ayasofya) is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica (church), later an imperial mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935.
The Church was dedicated to the Wisdom of God, the Logos, the second person of the Holy Trinity its patronal feast taking place on 25 December, the commemoration of the Birth of the incarnation of the Logos in Christ. Although sometimes referred to as Sancta Sophia (as though it were named after Saint Sophia), sophia being the phonetic spelling in Latin of the Greek word for wisdom, its full name in Greek is Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, "Shrine of the Holy Wisdom of God". Famous in particular for its massive dome, it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture." It remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. The current building was originally constructed as a church between 532 and 537 on the orders of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and was the third Church of the Holy Wisdom to occupy the site, the previous two having both been destroyed by rioters. It was designed by the Greek scientists Isidore of Miletus, a physicist, and Anthemius of Tralles, a mathematician.
The church contained a large collection of holy relics and featured, among other things, a 15-metre (49 ft) silver iconostasis. The focal point of the Eastern Orthodox Church for nearly one thousand years, the building witnessed the excommunication of Patriarch Michael I Cerularius on the part of Pope Leo IX in 1054, an act which is commonly considered the start of the Great Schism.
In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks under Sultan Mehmed II, who ordered this main church of the Orthodox Christianity converted into a mosque. By this point, the Church had fallen into a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, the Christian cathedral made a strong impression on the new Ottoman rulers and they decided to convert it into a mosque. The bells, altar, iconostasis, and sacrificial vessels and other relics were removed and the mosaics depicting Jesus, his Mother Mary, Christian saints and angels were also removed or plastered over. Islamic features – such as the mihrab, minbar, and four minarets – were added. It remained a mosque until 1931 when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum by the Republic of Turkey.
From its initial conversion until the construction of the nearby larger Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Blue Mosque of Istanbul) in 1616, it was the principal mosque of Istanbul. The Hagia Sophia served as inspiration for many other Ottoman mosques, such as the Blue Mosque, the Şehzade Mosque, the Süleymaniye Mosque, the Rüstem Pasha Mosque and the Kılıç Ali Paşa Mosque.


​

 

[crosslandkelly]

An impressive building. I visited Antoni Gaudís' Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona a few years ago, another amazing cathedral. It looks as if it were grown, rather than built.

View attachment 26959 View attachment 26960 View attachment 26961

 

[Goatboy]

An impressive building. I visited Antoni Gaudís' Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona a few years ago, another amazing cathedral. It looks as if it were grown, rather than built.

View attachment 26959 View attachment 26960 View attachment 26961

I've only ever seen photographs, but as you say it does look "organic!" Kind've reminds me of Kevin O'Neils artwork of Termite in the Nemesis The Warlock series.

 

[Goatboy]

Biker! Happy Tay Rail Bridge Disaster Day!

Biker! On this day in 1879 - North British Railway's train falls as the Tay Rail Bridge collapses.

The Tay Bridge disaster occurred during a violent storm on 28 December 1879 when the first Tay Rail Bridge collapsed while a train was passing over it from Wormit to Dundee, killing all aboard. The bridge – designed by Sir Thomas Bouch – used lattice girders supported by iron piers, with cast iron columns and wrought iron cross-bracing. The piers were narrower and their cross-bracing was less extensive and robust than on previous similar designs by Bouch.
Bouch had sought expert advice on "wind loading" when designing a proposed rail bridge over the Firth of Forth; as a result of that advice he had made no explicit allowance for wind loading in the design of the Tay Bridge. There were other flaws in detailed design, in maintenance, and in quality control of castings, all of which were, at least in part, Bouch's responsibility.
Bouch died within the year, with his reputation as an engineer ruined. Future British bridge designs had to allow for wind loadings of up to 56 pounds per square foot (2.7 kPa). Bouch's design for the Forth Rail Bridge was not used.

Construction began in 1871 of a bridge to be supported by brick piers resting on bedrock shown by trial borings to lie at no great depth under the river. At either end of the bridge the bridge girders were deck trusses, the tops of which were level with the pier tops, with the single track railway running on top. However, in the centre section of the bridge (the "high girders") the bridge girders ran as through trusses above the pier tops (with the railway inside them) in order to give the required clearance to allow passage of sailing ships to Perth.
Bedrock actually lay much deeper and Bouch had to redesign the bridge, with fewer piers and correspondingly longer span girders. The pier foundations were now constructed by sinking brick-lined wrought-iron caissons onto the riverbed, and filling these with concrete. To reduce the weight these had to support, Bouch used open lattice iron skeleton piers (each pier had multiple cast-iron columns taking the weight of the bridging girders, with wrought iron horizontal braces and diagonal tiebars linking the columns of the pier to give rigidity and stability). The basic concept was well known, but for the Tay Bridge, the pier dimensions were constrained by the caisson. There were 13 high girders spans; to accommodate thermal expansion, at only 3 of their 14 piers was there a fixed connection to the girders; there were therefore 3 divisions of linked high girder spans, the spans in each division being structurally connected to each other, but not to neighbouring spans in other divisions.[SUP][2][/SUP] The southern and central divisions were nearly level but the northern division descended towards Dundee at gradients of up to 1 in 73.
The bridge was built by Hopkin Gilkes and Company, a Middlesbrough company which had worked previously with Bouch on iron viaducts. Gilkes, having first intended to produce all ironwork on Teesside, used a foundry at Wormit to produce the cast-iron components, and to carry out limited post-casting machining. Gilkes were in some financial difficulty ; they ceased trading in 1880, but had begun liquidation in May 1879, before the disaster. Bouch's brother had been a director of Gilkes, and on his death in January 1876 Bouch had inherited Gilkes shares valued at £35,000 but also a guarantee of £100,000 of Gilkes borrowings and been unable to extricate himself.
The change in design increased cost and necessitated delay, intensified after two of the high girders fell when being lifted into place in February 1877, but the first engine crossed the bridge in September 1877. A Board of Trade inspection was conducted over three days of good weather in February 1878; the bridge was passed for use by passenger traffic subject to a 25 mph speed limit, but the inspection report noted:

'... When again visiting the spot I should wish, if possible, to have an opportunity of observing the effects of high wind when a train of carriages is running over the bridge ...'.
​

The bridge was opened for passenger services on 1 June 1878. Bouch was knighted in June 1879 soon after Queen Victoria had used the bridge.

On the evening of 28 December 1879, a violent storm (10 to 11 on the Beaufort Scale) was blowing virtually at right angles to the bridge. Witnesses said the storm was as bad as any they had seen in the 20–30 years they had lived in the area; one called it a hurricane, as bad as a typhoon he had seen in the China Sea. The wind speed was measured at Glasgow – 71 mph (114 km/h) (averaged over an hour) – and Aberdeen, but not at Dundee. Higher windspeeds were recorded over shorter intervals, but at the inquiry an expert witness warned of their unreliability, and declined to estimate conditions at Dundee from readings taken elsewhere. (One modern interpretation of available information suggests winds were gusting to 80 mph (129 km/h).)
Usage of the bridge was restricted to one train at a time by a signalling block system using a baton as a token. At 7:13 pm a train from the south slowed to pick up the baton from the signal cabin at the south end of the bridge, then headed out onto the bridge, picking up speed. The signalman turned away to log this and then tended the cabin fire but a friend present in the cabin watched the train: when it had got about 200 yards (183 m) from the cabin he saw sparks flying from the wheels on the east side , this continued for no more than three minutes, by then the train was in the high girders; then "there was a sudden bright flash of light, and in an instant there was total darkness, the tail lamps of the train, the sparks and the flash of light all ... disappearing at the same instant" The signalman saw (and when told believed) none of this but when the train didn't appear on the line off the bridge into Dundee he tried to talk to the signal cabin at the north end of the bridge, but found that all communication with it had been lost.
Not only was the train in the river, but so were the high girders, and much of the ironwork of their supporting piers. Divers exploring the wreckage later found the train still within the girders, with the engine in the fifth span of the southern 5-span division. 56 tickets for Dundee had been collected from passengers on the train before crossing the bridge; allowing for season ticket holders, tickets for other destinations, and for railway employees 74–75 people were believed to have been on the train. There were no survivors; there were 60 known victims, but only 46 bodies were recovered, two not until February 1880.

The locomotive was dropped during retrieval, but eventually recovered and returned to service.
A Court of Inquiry (a judicial enquiry under Section 7 of the Regulation of Railways Act 1871 'into the causes of, and circumstances attending' the accident) was immediately set up: Henry Cadogan Rothery, Commissioner of Wrecks, presided, supported by Colonel Yolland (Inspector of Railways) and William Henry Barlow, President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. By 3 January 1880, they were taking evidence in Dundee; they then appointed Henry Law (a qualified civil engineer) to undertake detailed investigations. Whilst awaiting his report they held further hearings in Dundee (26 February – 3 March); having got it they sat at Westminster (19 April – 8 May) to consider the engineering aspects of the collapse. By then railway, contractor and designer had separate legal representation, and the NBR had sought independent advice (from James Brunlees and John Cochrane, both engineers with extensive experience of major cast-iron structures). The terms of reference did not specify the underlying purpose of the inquiry – to prevent a repetition, to allocate blame, to apportion liability/culpability, or to establish what precisely had happened. This led to difficulties/clashes during the Westminster sessions and when the court reported their findings at the end of June, there was both an Inquiry Report signed by Barlow and Yolland and a minority report by Rothery.


McGonagall, Dundee's favourite adopted son and holder of the title as the worlds worst poet, penned a poem about the disaster.

The Tay Bridge Disaster Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay! Alas! I am very sorry to say That ninety lives have been taken away On the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will be remember’d for a very long time. ’Twas about seven o’clock at night, And the wind it blew with all its might, And the rain came pouring down, And the dark clouds seem’d to frown, And the Demon of the air seem’d to say- “I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay.” When the train left Edinburgh The passengers’ hearts were light and felt no sorrow, But Boreas blew a terrific gale, Which made their hearts for to quail, And many of the passengers with fear did say- “I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay.” But when the train came near to Wormit Bay, Boreas he did loud and angry bray, And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay On the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will be remember’d for a very long time. So the train sped on with all its might, And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight, And the passengers’ hearts felt light, Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year, With their friends at home they lov’d most dear, And wish them all a happy New Year. So the train mov’d slowly along the Bridge of Tay, Until it was about midway, Then the central girders with a crash gave way, And down went the train and passengers into the Tay! The Storm Fiend did loudly bray, Because ninety lives had been taken away, On the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will be remember’d for a very long time. As soon as the catastrophe came to be known The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown, And the cry rang out all o’er the town, Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down, And a passenger train from Edinburgh, Which fill’d all the peoples hearts with sorrow, And made them for to turn pale, Because none of the passengers were sav’d to tell the tale How the disaster happen’d on the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will be remember’d for a very long time. It must have been an awful sight, To witness in the dusky moonlight, While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray, Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay, Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay, I must now conclude my lay By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay, That your central girders would not have given way, At least many sensible men do say, Had they been supported on each side with buttresses, At least many sensible men confesses, For the stronger we our houses do build, The less chance we have of being killed.

​

 

[Huon]

I've only ever seen photographs, but as you say it does look "organic!" Kind've reminds me of Kevin O'Neils artwork of Termite in the Nemesis The Warlock series.

It is amazing. I prefer the inside to the outside though. I hope they never 'complete' the windows with stained glass. As it is now the daylight coming in creates a wonderful feeling of light and space.

If you ever visit Kew Gardens take a look at the Arboretum. I'm pretty sure the supporting columns are based on Gaudi's tree pilars.

 

[belzeebob23]

Well I think he had a good Christmas Petro and he did pass on your regards. He now back in his Goat pen at home. So back to the sparactic internet connect, for him. Wishing all a happy New year. Bob


Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

 

[petrochemicals]

Well I think he had a good Christmas Petro and he did pass on your regards. He now back in his Goat pen at home. So back to the sparactic internet connect, for him. Wishing all a happy New year. Bob


Sent from my KFSOWI using Tapatalk

cheers bob, and to you.

"Happy Tay Bridge Disaster Day" only a Scot.

He's gone home now? How bads the damage then bob ?

 

[belzeebob23]

Apart for the dribbling from the gag, no damage.
Bob