The serried, shadowed rivets on this DC3 wing are very pleasing.

There’s great pleasure to be found in little things. Especially when the light hits them just so.

Travelling in a DC3 is a rich experience for all the senses.

Classic beauty makes it hard to stop looking.

Ho

Thereby.  And thereby hangs a tale… or, in this case, tail.  We can see it this time.  Last time it turned up, it was invisible.

 Im; thereby, by it.  Let’s have a closer look at the individual signs.  First, i:

 A simple sound, and a simple sign to draw.  I usually start at the top, making a little curve which turns into the downstroke, a bit like a walking stick.  Then I start at the walking stick handle and draw a slightly outward-sloping line which curves back in again to meet the bottom of the first downstroke, and closes off the bottom of the stalk.  And a stalk is what it is, as this symbol represents the flowering head of a reed, like these ethereal beauties:

It’s difficult to capture such fragile beauty in stone or ink, but the originals do retain their purity of line:

Now, we’ve had m before, but it was in brackets because the scribe hadn’t actually put it in to the inscription, as often happens with common symbols in formulae, when you’ve got umpteen to bang out in the workshop and most people can’t read anyway.  M was the invisible owl.  We can see him now:

 There, I told you he was gorgeous.  He’s tricky to draw, but he has four basic characteristics; if you emphasise them in your hieroglyphic hand, he will be recognisable.  They are:  a flat head; a front-facing face (unusual for the Egyptians, who were always presenting their best profile to the observer); a wing that folds right across his breast, as though he’s glaring at you over the top of his arm in his cape, like Zorro, and a square bottom to his tail.  Put them all together, and you’ve got yourself an ancient Egyptian owl.

Back to the drawing board.  I usually start left to right with the flat line of the head, then a sharp turn downwards and a little curve in for the side of the head and neck, and a long curve at about 45 degrees for his back.  Then I come back up to his shoulder and make the deep right to left curve of his wing, swoop it round and just make his wing tip meet the line of his back.  The I go back to my starting-point at the top left of his head and come straight down the side of his head and neck, slope down and in for his body (doing it this way means you get the line the right side of his wing.  If you do the outline first and the wing second, you sometimes don’t leave enough room.)  Do a sharp dogleg in under his belly and a couple of little vees for his feathery legs, then down again for his tail, squaring it off at the bottom.  Then you can draw him a couple of little stick feet emerging from his feathers, and a nice deep v with curly ends for his eyes and beak.  He’s a complicated sign to draw, but he’s worth it.  And look what they could do with him when they had time:

I am so glad we can see him this time.  He’s beautiful!

So there we are, Line 3 of the offering formula well and truly dissected:

khet nebet nefret wabet ankhet netjer im:  “every good and pure thing by which a god lives”.

Tomorrow lunch time we fly to Cambodia.

Such a short sentence but one which has lots of implications, hopes and dreams and lots of prayer behind it.

Who knows what tomorrow brings? people on OC have had medical surgery, visas rejection in their host countries and are thus detained in singapore until further notice….

Fly – Kasumi during this lunch time told me that fly means ‘Father Loves you’. i smiled back  at her child like faith.  At the moment they are singing songgs (rather loudly) and jumping on the bed that they had learnt  at kidzone, they really had a fun time and the kids helpers were kind with them and made them feel loved – which of course they are.

Yuko is taking a nap, we were planning  to go to the Botantical garden but it started raining, that’s a thing about singapore during our time at OC, when it rains it pours it down and is often accompanied with thunder and lightening. I read that the UK is expercing storms- in a way I feel like a bit like in a storm,  things are changing again, boxes to packed and trip to the airport, I think for people who are single it can be even harder.

It’s at times like this you had better be sure that the ‘call’ is valid! Even so the call ought not be the be all and end all – It is God who calls and He is perfectly entitled to give  a different call in time.

GoldSpun was visited by the best B-Boys from Korea, possibly the best in the world!

Wing and Differ competed in the RedBull BC One 09 competition

BBoy Hong 10 winnter of the BC One 06 came along, and so did Skim and Toy!

We blessed them into the GoldSpun family, check out the pics below

Special thanks to Alice H.!

Posted by Audiegrl

President Barack Obama bows as he is greeted by Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko as he arrives at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo

If they are going to attack him for bowing to foreign leaders, they really need to work on getting rid of all the photos and video of Republican President’s doing exactly what they are accusing President Obama of doing.

Ultra-right wing internet news outlet Newsmax had a screaming headline “No American President Ever Bowed to a Foreign Leader — Until Now”. TheFoxNation brays “Should a U.S. President Ever Bow to a Foreign Leader?” Fox News has been questioning bowing all day, with Fox and Friends anchor Steve Doocy, idiotically parroting right-wing blog Hot Air, that “in 230 years since the country was founded in 1776, that no other U.S. President has ever bowed to a foreign leader“.

Come on now! These right-wing folks are making it way too easy. My Google and Wikipedia are in for some fun. I’ll start chronologically, and leave President Bush for last.

A September 2, 1959 Associated Press photo shows President Dwight Eisenhower bowing his head while meeting French President Charles De Gaulle. The caption of the photograph read: “President Dwight Eisenhower bows as he acknowledges speech of greeting by French President Charles De Gaulle on his arrival at Le Bourget near Paris on Sept. 2, 1959. Between the two chief executives is Ludovic Chancel, French Chief of Protocol.”

We also have a photo of President Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie looking pretty chummy with Nikita Khrushchev and his wife Nina at a state dinner in September of 1959. Khrushchev’s US visit resulted in an informal agreement with President Eisenhower that there would be no firm deadline over Berlin, but that there would be a four-power summit to try to resolve the issue, and the premier left the US in general good feelings.

This February 1972 photo shows President Richard Nixon bowing to Japanese Emperor Hirohito. You know, the guy who ordered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor? Under his orders, on December 7, 1941, Japan struck the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor and began the invasion of Malaysia. At the end of the American occupation of Japan, Hirohito was prepared to apologize formally to U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur for Japan’s actions during World War II – including an apology for the attack on Pearl Harbor. MacArthur refused to admit him or even acknowledge him.

In February 1972, President and Mrs. Nixon traveled to China, where the president was to engage in direct talks with Communist Party Leader, Mao Tse-Tung. Yes, the same Mao who is Glenn Beck’s favorite boogy-man . Here is a photo of President Nixon shaking hands and grinning at Mao on February 29, 1972.

Last but not least, we have the hand-holding and cheek-kissing President George W. Bush. On a April 2005 visit to the President’s ranch, Saudi Prince Abdullah is greeted with a kiss on both cheeks and taken by the hand to the house. Jon Stewart did a segment about this on The Daily Show’s. Thanks to Jed Lewison of DKosTV, we have a mash-up video below.

Burrs are very interesting bits of wood. They are odd growths that occur on the surface of tree trunks. I’m fascinated by what causes them to occur, since they are basically a mass of knots. Wikipedia on burrs

Burrs typically have all sort of faults within the wood. But the wood is so dense both physically and visually in terms of grain patterns, that you can turn something quite beautiful, faults and all.

At the Hampshire woodturners meetings I go to, I’ve seen a number of examples of really great burr pieces. Of all shapes and sizes, which have often inspired me to consider trying myself. But I rarely justify buying myself more wood pieces when I have so much that I could do with what I already have.

However, recently Kat took a trip to turners retreat, and among the things she brought me back was a piece of burr. I have no idea what tree it’s from, there was no label to say, and I guess it doesn’t really matter.
It’s a fantastically odd looking thing:

My first reaction was ‘where do I start?’

I decided I wanted to make a bowl, but attempt to leave a cross section of the original exterior just beneath the rim of the bowl. I’ve seen examples of this approach, and I like the way you get a feel of the original burr exterior cross cut through the smooth sleek finished bowl.

To mount between centres I first used a forstner bit to drill a hole in the face side, roughly central, and just a little wider than my drive centre.

This was so the drive centre would be locked in place and there is now way this thing would fly off once the tailstock pinned it in position. I brought the tailstock up to try to have the bulk of the burr fairly central. Obviously I wanted the most material centred as possible to get the biggest bowl I could in the shape. Regardless there was a large growth off on side of the bottom that I just had to turn away.

I turned the rough shape of the bowl at the bottom, leaving enough left to be able to shape a little top ‘rim’ for the bowl and keep a sliced cross section. This was fairly tricky, To begin with the whole thing is quite out of balance, and once you are preserving the cross section your turning without constant contact to the wood, so it’s very difficult to get a good cut.

After quite a lot of time, and a few catches that could have been disastrous but were ok, I wound up with the outside profile done.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the most centred position for the bowl meant not such a central cross cut of the original exterior, and so it is rather one sided. I’ll kid myself that this is part of the natural effect I was going for.

You can just about see here that one side of the bowl wall is actually the original exterior, I could have tried to turn it away, but again most of the point of these shapes is to preserve the interesting faults.

Having shaped the outside I sanded and finished, before turning to re-chuck on the spigot that I turned on the base.

I didn’t take any pictures of the hollowing process. I used my spindle gouge to do most of the hollowing, but then used a small bowl gouge to get the final cuts on the inside. I also used a scraper to finish under the rim. This was a last minute decision, as I was hollowing I decided to leave the rim a little wide and give an undercut.
As I hollowed I found one of the faults ran from the outside to the centre, leaving me with a hole in the side. But I’m ok with that.

It’s not easy to see, but I tried to leave a downward curve on the cross section. It ended up being quite a subtle effect, mostly because it’s quite hard, and partly because as I did it I was aware that if I took away much more material I’d weaken some of the smaller sticking out bits too much, and either risk snapping them, or be forced to turn even further to remove them completely.

I spent quite a lot of time sanding down grades, and trying to get a good surface. The ‘wing’ on the cross section in particular I spent some time with a sanding arbour in my drill working down grades to smooth out the fairly rubbish surface I’d left with my not so great tool skills. Ultimately I did quite of lot of hand sanding to try to lose any scratches and avoid just rings left by sanding with the lathe on. I also spent a fair amount of time applying wood wax, and trying to get a streak free finish. This mostly involved giving it time to cure a little, and going around with my lamp shining to show off the surface, and using a buffing pad to work away to a smooth surface.

Having satisfied myself with that finish, I removed the bowl from the chuck and put it to one side. Whilst I turned a jam chuck to remount the bowl so that I could turn away the spigot.
At this point I have enough bits of scrap around that I happened to have an off-cut of oak with a spigot already on, that was just about right. I turned a domed end on it, and then put 4 or 5 layers of kitchen roll in the bowl to protect the surface as I remounted it. Again bringing the tailstock up to it’s original mark at the base of the spigot.

I was pretty pleased that it turned pretty much right back on centre. Which made life much easier as I very gentle turned away the spigot, being careful to take small cuts. I did cause the lathe to stop a couple of times, but mostly my cuts were light enough to not be a problem.

I turned the spigot down to a small pin of wood, then worked on finishing the base. I turned a slight recess curve to ensure the bowl will sit flat on it’s rim. I also refined the curve at the base of the bowl to turn into base a little, which I hope gives it a slightly ‘lifted’ effect when finished.

The last step was off the lathe, slicing the last pin of spigot away with a sharp chisel. I was very careful here, really didn’t want to slip and gouge finished surface.
Once it was pared down as much as possible with the chisel, I sanded by hand the bottom, from 120 grit in all steps down to 1200 grit. Then a very small amount of wax on the base.

And finally it’s finished!

Ultimately, despite the time I put into finish, I’m still not that happy with it. I obviously need to learn more about applying wax finishes. I suspect I need much more patience between stages for a start. But with limited time that can be difficult.

That said, I am pleased with how the overall process went. I didn’t have any real frustrating slips, and it came out as planned, without me having to adjust to cover up mistakes.

Kat took some better pictures of the bowl

Op-ed by Frank Rich

Frank Rich/The New York Times

New York Times/Frank Rich—The dead at Fort Hood had not even been laid to rest when their massacre became yet another political battle cry for the self-proclaimed patriots of the American right.

Their verdict was unambiguous: Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an American-born psychiatrist of Palestinian parentage who sent e-mail to a radical imam, was a terrorist. And he did not act alone. His co-conspirators included our military brass, the Defense Department, the F.B.I., the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and, of course, the liberal media and the Obama administration. All these institutions had failed to heed the warning signs raised by Hasan’s behavior and activities because they are blinded by political correctness toward Muslims, too eager to portray criminals as sympathetic victims of social injustice, and too cowardly to call out evil when it strikes 42 innocents in cold blood.

The invective aimed at these heinous P.C. pantywaists nearly matched that aimed at Hasan. Joe Lieberman announced hearings to investigate the Army for its dereliction of duty on homeland security. Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, vowed to unmask cover-ups in the White House and at the C.I.A. The Weekly Standard blog published a broadside damning the F.B.I. for neglecting the “broader terrorist plot” of which Hasan was only one of the connected dots. Jerome Corsi, the major-domo of the successful Swift-boating of John Kerry, unearthed what he said was proof that Hasan had advised President Obama during the transition.

William Bennett excoriated soft military leaders like Gen. George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, who had stood up for diversity and fretted openly about a backlash against Muslim soldiers in his ranks. “Blind diversity” that embraces Islam “equals death,” wrote Michelle Malkin. “There is a powerful case to be made that Islamic extremism is not some fringe phenomenon but part of the mainstream of Islamic life around the world,” wrote the columnist Jonah Goldberg. Islam is “not a religion,” declared the irrepressible Pat Robertson, but “a violent political system bent on the overthrow of the governments of the world.”

More @

Nascida em Hong Kong, Wing (como é popularmente conhecida) começou a cantar apenas como hobby após imigrar para a Nova Zelândia.

O espírito solidário de Wing falou mais alto e fez com que ela espalhasse alegria e felicidade através de sua bela voz em asilos e hospitais na cidade de Auckland.

Não demorou muito para que Wing lançasse o seu primeiro CD. O primeiro álbum, intitulado de Phantom of the Opera (O Fantasma da Ópera), foi um sucesso. Em poucas semanas, Wing estava nas paradas de sucesso de toda a Oceania.

Ao longo de sua carreira, Wing produziu 16 álbuns, isso mesmo DEZESSEIS álbuns musicais. Veja a lista:

• Phantom of the Opera
• I Could Have Danced All Night
• The Sound of Music and the Prayer
• Wing Sings The Carpenters
• Wing Sings All Your Favourites
• Everyone Sings Carols with Wing
• Wing Sings the Songs You Love
• Beatles Classics by Wing
• Dancing Queen by Wing
• Wing Sings AC/DC
• Wing Sings Elvis
• Breathe
• Wing Sings More AC/DC
• One Voice
• Too Much Heaven
• Beat It

Atualmente, Wing firma a sua carreira de sucesso fazendo participações em programas de TV (como no episódio em sua homenagem feito pela série South Park) e grandes festivais musicais. Confira abaixo, alguns dos vários sucessos interpretados pela grandiosa Wing:

Confira o site da cantora: http://wingtunes.com/

© Strictly All Rights Reserved. If you like my Photographs please respect me and remember that they are mine.

You can see a Slide show of all of my Northwood Photographs here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebfotos/sets/72157618909099414/show/

You can see all of my pictures on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sebfotos

Posted by Audiegrl

AP/Calvin Woodward—Sarah Palin’s new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven’t become any truer over time. Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer’s dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition.

Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. She criticizes President Barack Obama for pushing through a bailout package that actually was achieved by his Republican predecessor George W. Bush — a package she seemed to support at the time.

A look at some of her statements in “Going Rogue,” obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Tuesday:

PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking “only” for reasonably priced rooms and not “often” going for the “high-end, robe-and-slippers” hotels.

THE FACTS: Although travel records indicate she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) overlooking New York City’s Central Park for a five-hour women’s leadership conference in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000. Event organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter. The governor billed her state more than $20,000 for her children’s travel, including to events where they had not been invited, and in some cases later amended expense reports to specify that they had been on official business.

PALIN: Boasts that she ran her campaign for governor on small donations, mostly from first-time givers, and turned back large checks from big donors if her campaign perceived a conflict of interest.

THE FACTS: Of the roughly $1.3 million she raised for her primary and general election campaigns for governor, more than half came from people and political action committees giving at least $500, according to an AP analysis of her campaign finance reports. The maximum that individual donors could give was $1,000; $2,000 for a PAC. Of the rest, about $76,000 came from Republican Party committees. She accepted $1,000 each from a state senator and his wife and $30 from a state representative in the weeks after the two Republican lawmakers’ offices were raided by the FBI as part of an investigation into a powerful Alaska oilfield services company. After AP reported those donations during the presidential campaign, she gave a comparative sum to charity.

PALIN: Rails against taxpayer-financed bailouts, which she attributes to Obama. She recounts telling daughter Bristol that to succeed in business, “you’ll have to be brave enough to fail.“

THE FACTS: Palin is blurring the lines between Obama’s stimulus plan — a $787 billion package of tax cuts, state aid, social programs and government contracts — and the federal bailout that Republican presidential candidate John McCain voted for and President George W. Bush signed.

Palin’s views on bailouts appeared to evolve as McCain’s vice presidential running mate. In September 2008, she said “taxpayers cannot be looked to as the bailout, as the solution, to the problems on Wall Street.” A week later, she said “ultimately what the bailout does is help those who are concerned about the health care reform that is needed to help shore up our economy.”

During the vice presidential debate in October, Palin praised McCain for being “instrumental in bringing folks together” to pass the $700 billion bailout. After that, she said “it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in.”

PALIN: Writes about a city councilman in Wasilla, Alaska, who owned a garbage truck company and tried to push through an ordinance requiring residents of new subdivisions to pay for trash removal instead of taking it to the dump for free — this to illustrate conflicts of interest she stood against as a public servant.

THE FACTS: As Wasilla mayor, Palin pressed for a special zoning exception so she could sell her family’s $327,000 house, then did not keep a promise to remove a potential fire hazard on the property.

She asked the city council to loosen rules for snow machine races when she and her husband owned a snow machine store, and cast a tie-breaking vote to exempt taxes on aircraft when her father-in-law owned one. But she stepped away from the table in 1997 when the council considered a grant for the Iron Dog snow machine race in which her husband competes.

PALIN: Says she tried to talk about national security and energy independence in her interview with Vogue magazine but the interviewer wanted her to pivot from hydropower to high fashion.

THE FACTS are somewhat in dispute. Vogue contributing editor Rebecca Johnson said Palin did not go on about hydropower. “She just kept talking about drilling for oil.“

___

PALIN: “Was it ambition? I didn’t think so. Ambition drives; purpose beckons.” Throughout the book, Palin cites altruistic reasons for running for office, and for leaving early as Alaska governor.

THE FACTS: Few politicians own up to wanting high office for the power and prestige of it, and in this respect, Palin fits the conventional mold. But “Going Rogue” has all the characteristics of a pre-campaign manifesto, the requisite autobiography of the future candidate.

Go pop some popcorn folks, because there’s more…lots more @

of what we been doing in our free time at Singapore…

New image in the shoes photography contest

…
Wing Tip photography picture

A hardcore circuit spec nissan r35 gt-r from hong kong….take a look:

Agent Wing Defenders Final
Agent Wing Defenders Final

Agent Wing Defenders Final Game
Agent Wing Defenders Final Game Description : Agent Black is trying to destroy the world and its up to you and your fellow agents to save it.
How to Play Agent Wing Defenders Final Game? Arrow Keys / W, S, A, D – move.
S / J – Shoot.
A / H – Shield.

Agent Wing Defenders
Agent Wing Defenders

Agent Wing Defenders Game
Agent Wing Defenders Game Description : Retro space shooter with a twist.
How to Play Agent Wing Defenders Game? WASD to move.
J to shoot.
H to shield.
Enter to pause.

Today’s project has been a pair of 996 twin turbos – both of which have the dreaded “spoiler failure” warning light every time they hit the highway.  If you’ve spent any amount of time around the 996 generation turbo cars then you’ve most likely run across this.  It happens for a number of reasons as the spoiler system itself is quite delicate and finicky.  Over time dirt/debris works itself down the cylinders and causes too much friction, or the hydraulics start to seep and/or leak and allow air into the system, or the worm-gear itself which pushes the fluid strips or becomes loose and no longer pumps the hydraulics OR the microswitches on the passenger side cylinder go faulty and cause the system to have an error…. Lol, as you can see there are a number of things which can go bad.  None of these problems are usually too costly if you aren’t afraid of taking on the job, but they are all quite time-consuming in their own way. 

To get a good look at what’s going on with your wing it’s best to pull everything off the car and evaluate the system on the bench.  In this instance I had two of the four common problems going on, one car had leaked nearly ALL of its hydrulic fluid out and would need to be re-filled and the other car had bad microswitches.  While I had both systems apart I went ahead and tightened up all fittings, replaced crush seals where needed and topped off both systems.  I also made sure the fastening screw on each system’s worm-gear was as tight as possible as these have a tendency to work themselves loose over time.  There’s a circlip which holds each canister’s sleeve you’ll need to be weary of when taking the system apart as it can come off with a lot of force and you’ll also need a special tool for turning the mechanism which holds the wing in place on the car (it can be done without this wrench but you run the risk of scratching the deck without it), the tool is quite inexpensive and worth buying – Contact Nello at Maxspeed-motorsports as I believe he carries them under 20 dollars.

In the case of these two turbos we were able to save over $2,000 by repairing, instead of replacing the hydraulic systems.  Once you have a general understanding of what makes the wing work its a fairly simple, closed hydraulic circuit and can/should be serviced regularly.  If you’re getting that dreaded beep and warning light every time your spoiler attempts to go up stop by Rennen today and we’ll be happy to get it repaired.

Niisiis, tegime elukat edasi. Natuke mõnest kohast näppisin jooni, tegin natuke sinist üle ja lisasin roosa. Järgmisel korral veel roosa korra üle teha ja on valmis.
Nõel: 3round liner, 15Magnum2
Tint: K, A Pure Magenta, I Light Blue

So, continued with this creature. I touched some outlines, coloured with blue one more time and added the pink. Next time I’m gonna do the pink once more and then it’s done.
Needle: 3round liner,  15Magnum2
Ink: K, A Pure Magenta, I Light Blue