History

Let The Spectacular Begin.

July 25, 2015 — 14 Comments

Radio City

F/6.3, 1/60, ISO 200.

Day 206 / 365

“Here in New York City they are converting telephone booths into Wi-Fi hot spots. Because we have very few phone booths left, Clark Kent — Superman — has to use the men’s room at Starbucks.” –David Letterman

Interesting Fact: Its originally planned name was International Music Hall.[3] The names “Radio City” and “Radio City Music Hall” derive from one of the complex’s first tenants, the Radio Corporation of America. Radio City Music Hall was a project of Rockefeller; Samuel Roxy Rothafel, who previously opened the Roxy Theatre in 1927; and RCA chairman David Sarnoff. RCA had developed numerous studios for NBC at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, just to the south of the Music Hall, and the radio-TV complex that lent the Music Hall its name is still known as the NBC Radio City Studios.  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_City_Music_Hall#History )

The Best Revenge Is Massive Success

July 24, 2015 — 6 Comments

pier a hoboken

F/9.0, 30.0, ISO 100.

Day 205 / 365

How can you go without sleep for seven days and not be tired?
 Sleep at night.

Interesting Fact:  The name “Hoboken” was decided upon by Colonel John Stevens when he purchased land, on a part of which the city still sits. The Lenape (later called Delaware Indian) tribe referred to the area as the “land of the tobacco pipe”, most likely to refer to the soapstone collected there to carve tobacco pipes, and used a phrase that became “Hopoghan Hackingh”.[24] Like Weehawken, its neighbor to the north, Communipaw and Harsimus to the south, Hoboken had many variations in the folks-tongue. Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff and likely referring to Castle Point, was used during the colonial era and later spelled as Hobuck,[25] Hobock,[26] Hobuk[27] and Hoboocken.[28]  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoboken,_New_Jersey )

That Was It, That Was The Last Straw.

July 22, 2015 — 16 Comments

straws

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Day 203 / 365

Who Gets the Short Straw?

Interesting Fact: The first known straws were made by the Sumerians, and were used for drinking beer,[1] probably to avoid the solid byproducts of fermentation that sink to the bottom.[citation needed] The oldest drinking straw in existence, found in a Sumerian tomb dated 3,000 B.C.E., was a gold tube inlaid with the precious blue stone lapis lazuli.[1] Argentines and their neighbors used a similar metallic device called a bombilla, that acts as both a straw and sieve for drinking mate tea for hundreds of years. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_straw )

I Have Made Fire!

July 20, 2015 — 6 Comments

stove

F/4.5, 13.0, ISO 100.

Day 201 / 365

Who invented fire?  Some bright spark!

Interesting Fact: A major improvement in fuel technology came with the advent of gas. The first gas stoves were developed as early as the 1820s, but these remained isolated experiments. James Sharp patented a gas stove in Northampton, England in 1826 and opened a gas stove factory in 1836. His invention was marketed by the firm Smith & Philips from 1828. An important figure in the early acceptance of this new technology, was Alexis Soyer, the renowned chef at the Reform Club in London. From 1841, he converted his kitchen to consume piped gas, arguing that gas was cheaper overall because the supply could be turned off when the stove was not in use. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_stove )

Photography Can Blow Your Mind

July 19, 2015 — 24 Comments

photography blow your mind

F/4.0, 1/60, ISO 560, Photoshop CS6.

Day 200 / 365

A photographer took a self portrait in a park.
Due to lighting conditions he used the built in flash on the camera.
He quickly got arrested for flashing and exposing himself in the park.

Interesting Fact: The first ever color photograph was shot in 1861 by a Scott physicist by the name of James Clark Maxwell. He used yellow, blue and red filters separately to photograph a tartan ribbon and then combined the three images to create the final color photograph. [National Geographic] ( http://factslegend.org/30-interesting-photography-facts/2/ )

Light Me Up!

July 18, 2015 — 2 Comments

candle

F/5.6, 1/60, ISO 720.

Day 199 / 365

How many Catholics does it take to change a light bulb?

None. They use candles.

Interesting Fact: The oldest candle manufacturers still in existence are Rathbornes Candles, founded in Dublin in 1488. ( http://www.supplycandle.com/Candle-Facts/ )

 

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beer Holder.

July 15, 2015 — 12 Comments

heineken star

F/4.0, 1/60, ISO 800.

Day 196 / 365

Beer doesn’t turn people into somebody they’re not.
It just makes them forget to hide that part of themselves.

Interesting Fact:  The Heineken company was founded in 1864 when the 22-year-old Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought a brewery known as De Hooiberg (the haystack) in Amsterdam. In 1869 Heineken switched to the use of bottom-fermenting yeast. In 1873 the brewery’s name changed to Heineken’s Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij (HBM), and opened a second brewery in Rotterdam in 1874. In 1886 Dr. H. Elion, a pupil of the French chemist Louis Pasteur, developed the “Heineken A-yeast” in the Heineken laboratory. This yeast is still the key ingredient of Heineken beer. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heineken_International )

 

Drink Responsibly!

Must Choose But Choose Wisely!

July 10, 2015 — 14 Comments

glass

F/22.0, 1/60, ISO 100.

Day 191 / 365

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

Interesting Fact: The ancient Roman historian Pliny suggested that Phoenician merchants had made the first glass in the region of Syria around 5000BC. But according to the archaeological evidence, the first man made glass was in Eastern Mesopotamia and Egypt around 3500BC and the first glass vessels were made about 1500BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia. For the next 300 years, the glass industry was increased rapidly and then declined. In Mesopotamia it was revived in the 700BC and in Egypt in the 500’s BC. For the next 500 years, Egypt, Syria and the other countries along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea were centers for glass manufacturing. ( http://www.historyofglass.com/ )

You Don’t Take A Photograph, You Make It.

July 5, 2015 — 19 Comments

photography

F/2.5, 1/60, ISO 100.

Day 186 / 365

We all have a photographic memory.  Just some of us are lacking the film.

Interesting Fact: Long before the first public announcements of photographic processes in 1839, Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a scientifically-minded gentleman living on his country estate near Chalon-sur-Saône, France, began experimenting with photography. Fascinated with the craze for the newly-invented art of lithography which swept over France in 1813, he began his initial experiments by 1816. Unable to draw well, Niépce first placed engravings, made transparent, onto stones coated with light-sensitive varnish of his own composition. These experiments, together with his application of the then-popular optical instrument, the camera obscura, would eventually lead him to the invention of the new medium. ( http://cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/abbey/an/an26/an26-3/an26-307.html )

Happy Birthday America!

July 4, 2015 — 10 Comments

statue of liberty 4th july

F/6.3, 1/640, ISO 200, Photoshop CS6.

Day 185 / 365

Why does the Statue of Liberty stand in New York and New Jersey Harbor?

Because she can’t sit down.

Interesting Fact: Congress declared July 4th as an official holiday in 1870 as part of a bill to officially recognize other holidays, Christmas being one of them. ( http://list25.com/25-fun-facts-about-4th-of-july-that-will-make-you-want-to-celebrate/2/ )