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Flickr Sets

A collection of my photos on Flickr - to which I've uploaded far too many pictures. Enjoy!

Obscura Day 2012

Obscura Day 2012

Last updated: Saturday April 28 2012

(We interrupt you from our Hawaiian escapades to give you this brief Seattle interlude. Don't worry, there's still antiquated stuff.)

So, Atlas Obscura was holding its annual Obscura Day festival of access to weird and wonderful places across the world. Seattle had a tour of the former Immigration and Naturalization Services building. To steal from the official description:

Between 1932 and 2004, the hulking brick building on Seattle Boulevard South processed thousands of nervous immigrants hoping for a better life in America. While some had their papers stamped within a matter of hours, others were detained, deported, or caught in a legal limbo that saw them jailed in the building for years.

The building is currently being transformed into artist studios, but traces of the original dormitories, offices, recreation yards, and solitary confinement cells remain. This Obscura Day, Inscape project Sam Farrazaino will lead a tour that takes us from the ground floor (with its handprints showing immigrants where to be frisked) to the "spooky attic" full of the building's original fixtures.

Sadly we didn't get to see inside the attic (the landlord had gone missing, and only he had the keys) but there was plenty of other evidence of authoritarian architecture and bureaucracy...

(Other attendees' photos I've located, the traces of governmental bureaucracy are encouraging me to catalogue everything: adameros.)
Big Island II - Derelict Wind Farm

Big Island II - Derelict Wind Farm

Last updated: Thursday April 26 2012

Someone noticed an post-apocalyptically collapsed wind farm near the southern tip of the island. Cue exchanging of GPS coordinates, firing up the chauffeur and the Canyonero, and a whistle-stop tour which most definitely didn't involve trespassing onto private land. As you can see, all photos were taken from the side of the public road, through gaps in the barbed wire fences.

(Apparently it was built around the 1980s, and was no longer viable - so was being taken down to make way for newer, bigger and more efficient turbines.)
Big Island I - Mauna Kea Trip

Big Island I - Mauna Kea Trip

Last updated: Tuesday April 24 2012

An impromptu jaunt up a staggeringly large volcano, breaking my previous land-based altitude record by over 1.2km. Altitude sickness at 4.2km elevation is quite interesting - as were the instantaneous headaches we all suffered on returning to the comparatively oxygen-rich 3km level.

(Having seen the majestic SCIENCE inside the Keck observatory, there was the option of waiting for sunset at the top of the mountain - but we craved oxygen too much, and retired to a more sensible altitude. And got to see the sunset at the top of a deeply primeval, tree-covered cinder-cone surrounded by drifting clouds and lava fields. Not a bad exchange.)

Coming soon: lava tubes, petroglyphs, volcanoes, a collapsed wind farm and assorted other oddments!
International Space Station

International Space Station

Last updated: Sunday April 15 2012

Thanks to Universe Today I discovered that the ISS would be nicely visible from the USA. The weather here in Seattle was prett cloudy most of the week, then cleared up on Friday - heading back from work fairly late, I stopped off in a conveniently dark park, waited a few minutes and saw a bright star moving across the sky. It was quite strange to realise it was 450 tonnes of space hardware and six astronauts travelling at 7.7km/s, hundreds of kilometres up in the sky, reflecting back the fading sunlight, seemingly unnoticed by anyone except me. Walking back home, I resolved to try to take a photo of it the following night, when a particularly good sighting was possible.

Of course, just after the sun set on a beautifully clear Saturday, the clouds rolled in - only to part enough for the Space Station's arrival. Here are the two photos I managed to take. Future ambition: to capture the International Space Station flying past the Space Needle...
Space and Aviation

Space and Aviation

Last updated: Thursday March 22 2012

I realised I'd never got round to uploading these, from last year. Courtesy of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinville, Oregon, have some miscellaneous aeronautics and astronautics!

May include the occasional glimpse of a Spruce Goose. I was mainly aiming for more abstract views of planes and things - while I'd seen that part of the museum before, I hadn't seen the space section.

SPAAAAACE!
ETAOIN SHRDLU

ETAOIN SHRDLU

Last updated: Thursday March 15 2012

A few weeks ago I was reading all of Wikipedia and got to the bit about Linotype machines - gloriously complex binary-mechanical devices formerly used in typesetting for casting lines of metal type. (Hence Line-o'-type!)

One thing led to another and I discovered a film about the things had just been made - and was showing in Seattle.

Unfortunately, I missed it.

Good news though, in a related event - people's hero Andy Keck was showing off his lovingly restored 1922 Intertype Model C - a functionally identical, contemporary competitor to the Linotype - along with the Kluge Automatic he'd inadvertently acquired.

I'm currently thinking about replacing the overly powerful PC I have at work with one of these magnificent beasts.

(Note: I've cheekily tagged these with 'Linotype' as well - hopefully triggering an argument about which is the superior brand!)
Secret Nuclear Bunker

Secret Nuclear Bunker

Last updated: Tuesday February 21 2012

Somewhere under a nondescript hill in Essex lies a peculiar relic of the Cold War. While I'm not entirely convinced of the authenticity of the exhibits currently in there, the place is genuinely creepy. The absence of staff and the vaguely aggressive signs only help with that; the demands to pay £5 for the right to take photos (to be placed into an honesty box) went unheeded.
Winter Miscellany 2011-2012

Winter Miscellany 2011-2012

Last updated: Tuesday February 21 2012

Many many wintry photos from either side of the Atlantic - and no chance to upload them yet. Still waiting: a nuclear bunker.
Bletchley Park

Bletchley Park

Last updated: Saturday January 7 2012

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Photos of 2011

Photos of 2011

Last updated: Thursday December 29 2011

This year's selection! May include far too much asparagus.

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