Robert Pence

Great idea! Work like that can help prevent spaces from inviting taggers.

Beautiful photos! Here's my contribution - a December evening shot by the river, with rain spots on my UV filter:

:clap: One of your best, yet. Black and white emphasizes composition and structure, and all your photos are strong in that respect. I think a lot of downtown Cleveland is well suited to that medium, too. And the scaffolding is almost gone from Terminal Tower; I'm delighted to see that.

Nice job! In numerous trips to visit friends in San Francisco, I've never been to Alcatraz Island. These are better photos than most I've seen.

The "T" is for trky. :-)

Asbestos exposure... that's kind of a scary thought given all the people that have been walking around in that place... In way, though, it's gratifying to think that the scrappers and vandals by the nature of their activities have gotten the worst of it.

the remains of those who cross him.... Uh-oh! Busted! I was gonna say, I ran out of ex-boyfriends halfway through the summer. Now, I just leave an old bike on the patio. Every now and then, in the middle of the night I hear a stifled yelp. In the morning, sometimes the bike is knocked over and I find the mutilated remains of a sneaker or two. Shortly afterward, the zinnias, salvia, and coleus show a growth spurt. I think it's nice that they share. :-) Edit: Seriously, I started them from seeds in potting mix (no dirt, just composted organic material, plus composted cow manure). After they were about six inches tall, I gave them a dose of Miracle-Gro, and another dose in mid-July. Powdery mildew is a major problem with zinnias, so a couple of times during the summer I sprayed them with Immunox fungicide (late in the evening and trying to avoid the blooms so as not to affect the goldfinches, bees, and butterflies that like them). I use no pesticides, for the benefit of the critters. The potting mix is important, because at full growth these plants suck up at least a gallon of water a day. Dirt won't hold enough water to keep them going. The seed variety is California Giant, from Olds. There are seven plants per 22-inch pot. The seed packet says they'll grow to 24-36 inches tall, so I'm thinking of taking a few of these to the place where I bought the seeds to see if I can demand my money back. :-D

I thought a demo order already had been issued or was pending. Are you sure they're not just doing the prerequisite asbestos mitigation?

Wow! Do they have condos? I wanna' live there! :roll:

Urban railyard scene. Foamers will think he's one of them and try to adopt him, and they're an unsavory bunch. (Foamers are rabid raiflans, slobbering, drooling, foaming at the mouth at the sight of trains. In any conversation, even if they're only eavesdropping bystanders, if they overhear anything remotely related to railroads they jump in and take over, making the whole thing all about their too-fabulous-to-believe railroad experiences. Interactions between/among foamers are always games of can-you-top-this.)

Speaking of which ... Same technology; porcelain-enameled steel. So long as the coating doesn't get damaged, it'll last forever through any kind of environmental assault. I think I'd like living in a Lustron home; use furniture appropriate to the time period (chrome tubing & vinyl), and Spring cleaning could be accomplished with a garden hose. No allergens, no Chinese drywall. :-D

Finally got around to this. Sunday was a nice day, so I took camera and map in hand and set out for an afternoon of tracking these down: Lustron Homes in Fort Wayne, Indiana September 29, 2007 All photos Copyright © 2009 by Robert E Pence 4127 Rosewood Drive Demolition of this home is imminent to make way for Rosewood Professional Park. Arrangements are being made to preserve some components for historical record. 415 W Maple Grove Avenue 316 W Fleming Avenue 4105 Webster Street 1928 Glenwood Avenue This is very unusual, definitely not a catalog item. I'm guessing an owner used components salvaged from one or more additional homes to add the breezeway, garage, and storage area. 3214 Parnell Avenue 1133 Somerset Lane 2510 Oakridge Road Given Fort Wayne's relatively flat topography, this home has a rather dramatic setting. Windows have been changed and the entry porch has been enclosed.

To me, Nashville has a lot of visual appeal. There appears to be a good blend of historic with contemporary architecture, and the downtown looks pleasingly dense. I can't vouch for the vibe, because it's been more than twenty years since I visited, and that was just passing through on a Sunday en route to Murfreesboro for a work assignment. Looks like your partner blew his cover with this one. He should realize that once you post a photo like this on the internet, it's too late to try to call it back: :wink:

Interesting point. I suppose that would be a major issue in many houses built in the 20th century. The only two I've redone were built in 1880s and 1919, and both have 2x8 floor joists on 16-inch centers; the joists in the older one are full-dimension, rough-sawed native timber, supported by 8x8 oak sills. They'd probably support anything you could put there. When the house was built there was a large commercial sawmill about a quarter-mile away, so the wood probably came from local forests where oak and ash trees were plentiful.

A small aperture will enhance the starburst effect in night shots. A piece of window screen right up close to the lens makes a decent star filter, too.

It's sad when so much history falls by the wayside, victim to changing lifestyles and the tendency of younger generations to migrate far from their ancestral roots. The old parishes were created and sustained by so much devotion, and they were anchors in their communities. The Cambria City area of Johnstown, PA, has been hit particularly hard, with an edict that five parishes be consolidated into one. Some of the buildings affected are significant historic landmarks and imposing in scale and design.

The "Cleveland's Downtown Architecture" one was authored by Shawn Patrick Hoefler, AKA MayDay. If you're nice and respectful to him, you might even be able to persuade him to sign your copy. :-)

According to sources linked by Google: http://news.google.com/news?q=markland+lock+and+dam&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&ei=0RDAStbsHNOe8Absx6ilAQ&sa=X&oi=news_group&ct=title&resnum=5 One of the miter gates (the gates that allow boats and barges to enter and leave the locks) came unhinged due to mechanical malfunction. It came completely off, and is thought to be somewhere on the bottom of the Ohio River. The gates were known to be in poor condition due to wear, corrosion, and cracking, and money had been appropriated for their overhaul. The work was planned to start in 2011. Army Corps of Engineers inspectors had cited the danger of interruption to river traffic due to unreliability of the gates. Edit: From the description, it must have been a gate at the downstream end of the main lock that came off. There are two locks so traffic isn't entirely stopped, but the auxiliary lock is smaller, and will present quite a bottleneck.

... and then there are all those f...ing hills! Give me my Hoosier Flatlands, any day. And that narrow, noisy suspension bridge! Any progressive city would have replaced it with a six-lane, double-decker without sidewalks by now! :wink:

The bridge is a nice piece of design, especially for a smaller city. I look forward to LED lighting becoming more widespread in outdoor applications. Locally the public library's outdoor plaza is lit with LEDs that give a really nice effect, especially on snowy nights. For the most part, though, we have a hodge-podge of standard industrial-type lighting with color casts ranging from yucky yellow to ghastly green. It makes decent night photography really difficult because it's impossible to simultaneously color-balance for all the different lighting sources in a scene. Excellent work with HDR on the final pic.

Great shots! Looks like I'll have to break my 25-year absence from the Willis Tower.

I get a flu shot every year - already got mine for this season, two weeks ago. I'll get the swine flu vaccine when it's available. I used to get a reaction a couple of days after a flu shot that would make me feel like crap for a day, but it was never as bad as getting the flu. I figure that's why they always gave flu shots on Thursdays at work; anyone who was going to get sick from the shot would get sick on the weekend. I got the Asian Flu in 1957; I woke up on a Sunday morning with pins-and-needles throughout my body, and couldn't get out of bed. I spent most of a week quarantined in the campus infirmary during semester finals, and then had to go around and arrange to take the exams individually over the next couple of days. It took at least a couple of weeks after that episode for my body to start feeling normal, and some folks say I ain't quite right, yet. :|

Fauci's "cautious optimism" expresses it clearly. HIV's ability to mutate has, over time, reduced the effectiveness of various treatments and may do the same with a vaccine. Any benefit at all, though, could have huge public health and economic benefits in populations where the disease is widespread.

"Denying overtime" doesn't necessarily mean denying time-and-a-half compensation for hours worked over forty. More often, it means not scheduling employees to work more than forty hours in a week. Some businesses hire temps or part-timers to fill in schedules to avoid working permanent full-time-employees past a normal 40-hour schedule. Sometimes that's done to accomodate seasonal peaks.