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Endangered Machinery: EWK
I
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II
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I - One of my personal all-time favourites: a hot rolling mill for stainless steel grades seen over the operator's shoulder. This is the kind of photo I'd like to take much more often: living industry right from the employee's perspective.
II - 130 tons electric arc furnace in full action, seen from the secondary control room. The sparks are from an oyxgen lance which, in order to improve product quality, blows pure oxygen into the melt (or pure oxygen plus gas or coal powder or coke powder plus/or aluminum, depending on the specific process). Shot taken without tripod, hence rather dark.
Edelstahl Witten Krefeld EWK, Witten plant, 2004
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Endangered Machinery: Thermometer
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Thermometer, gas precooler, Hansa Coke, Dortmund
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ITER kommt
Frohe Kunde aus der Plasmaphysik. Die 4,6 Milliarden Euro (9,6 Milliarden inclusive Betriebskosten) für ITER fließen nach Europa:
Die Entscheidung für den Bau der internationalen Fusionstestanlage ITER ist gefallen: Standort für die Forschungsanlage wird Cadarache in Südfrankreich.
Worum geht es?
Auf dem Weg zu einem Kraftwerk soll ITER zeigen, dass ein Energie lieferndes Fusionsfeuer möglich ist. Das Experiment soll damit die Voraussetzungen für eine Demonstrationsanlage DEMO schaffen, die alle Funktionen eines Kraftwerks erfüllt. Angesichts von je 30 Jahren Planungs-, Bau- und Betriebszeit für ITER und seinen Nachfolger DEMO könnte ein Fusionskraftwerk etwa in 50 Jahren wirtschaftlich nutzbare Energie liefern.
Auf dem Weg zum DEMO-Kraftwerk stellt ITER einen der entscheidenden Schritte dar:
Die Anlage soll zeigen, dass ein Energie lieferndes Fusionsfeuer möglich ist. Mit einer Fusionsleistung von 500 Megawatt soll ITER erstmals ein brennendes und Energie lieferndes Plasma erzeugen. Angestrebt wird ein Energiegewinnungsfaktor von mindestens 10.
Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik: Standort für die internationale Fusionsanlage ITER festgelegt >
Ganz klar, ob Kernfusion nun eine unerschöpfliche Energiequelle oder doch nur ein Fass ohne Boden ist, mit Imageproblem bei Zeitgenossen mit schwachem Vorstellungsvermögen für die gewaltigen zeitlichen und finanziellen Dimensionen von Grundlagenforschung obendrein, ist es freilich noch nicht. DIE ZEIT fasst in einem Artikel von Anfang Juni zusammen:
DIE ZEIT: Hickhack um Tokamak >
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It has happened
The most radical portion of the population with the most dangerous Islamic fundamentalist ideas are now in charge
Mr. Behri sums up the landslide victory of islamist hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Iranian presidential elections, Hossein Derakhshan gives an example of how the new government could affect him, and even serious German newspapers mention voices of fear of Taliban-like conditions to come. Time to keep an eye on this. Beside Hoder and Mr. Behri there are other free Iranian voices on the internet: Blogs by Iranians is "a directory of English blogs written by Iranians around the world", Iran Scan is a group blog at OpenDemocracy.net and stop.censoring.us is on internet censorship in Iran, to name but a few resources.
RELATED ON THIS WEBLOG
2005-04-20 Freedom of Expression blog awards
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Endangered Machinery: Staring at the Sun
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Tapping of 10 tons of ultra hard casting steel from an AOD converter in a speciality steel mill. The worker is looking straight into the heat to be able to distinguish slag which leaves the vessel first from steel which will follow second. In the very moment the slag flow ends, the tapping has to be interrupted so that the slag ladle can be removed and the steel ladle can be put into place. He is using a specially blackened glass to protect his eyes from the extremely bright liquids that reach temperatures of slightly above 1700 degrees Celsius or 3100 degress Fahrenheit at this point.
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Endangered Machinery: At the river Sambre (II)
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Several people asked for it, so here is the color version of yesterday's photo.
While this photo was conceived as a black and white shot from the beginning, is it a good thing that both color and b/w versions can be developed from the digital data at any time: the other one has the distinct atmosphere of nighttime b/w, this one is much closer to the original impression, and the longer I look at it, the more I like it.
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Endangered Machinery: At the river Sambre
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An evening at the river Sambre, Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium
Facility: CARSID Blast Furnace 4
Photo taken: June 2005
Status: obviously in service
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La Providence
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At the coke plant of Les Forges de la Providence in Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium. With adjacent facilities of Thy-Marcinelle, Industeel and Fabrique de Fer it forms the integrated steel mill of Charleroi, on the main industrial centers of Belgium.
Today this part is owned by Duferco from Italy and called Carsid, a name made up of "carolorégienne" (from "Charleroi") and "(usine) sidérurgique". Other names you are likely to encounter when investigating the past of this mill also include Usines Metallurgiques de Hainaut, Hainaut-Sambre, Cockerill-Ougree-Providence, Thy-Marcinelle et Providence, Industeel, Usinor and Arcelor, which sold its stake to Duferco - that already operates other mills in Belgium - in late 2004. Do not feel confused about all those names. Things look quite simple in this nice, but incomplete diagram. But don't worry. They are not. Continuous grouping, re-grouping, merging and de-merging during decades left complications only a few will really see through. Which does not really matter as it is a great place to take photos of - no matter how it is called currently.
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On assignment
Covering this weekend: Belgium's Charleroi area, another former center of heavy industries.
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Endangered Machinery: Stairs
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Resisting the urge to call it "Triangle to Heaven"... - Near blast furnace 6, Hoesch Phoenix, Dortmund, Germany. Partial demolition in progress.
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MT-Redland: An RDF Storage Backend for Movable Type
Interesting lecture:
Existing content management systems and weblogging tools are based on rigid database designs that suffer from a lack of flexibility in the face of an ever increasing need for new types of structured data and metadata. By modifying these systems to use RDF as the native storage format, they may be easily extended in ways unimagined by the original designers. I present just such a system, a combination of the Movable Type weblogging tool and the Redland RDF Application Framework, showing examples of how the system can more easily adapt to diverse semantic annotation needs.
Which also took me to the idea of modifying existing blooging user interfaces (the weak spot of most blogging tools) by injecting custom, datatype specific interfaces through Greasemonkey. User interputs could then transparently get translated into the markup the user would have to write manually without such a helper.
Gregory Todd Williams: MT-Redland (PDF file) >
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Endangered Machinery: A Cold Day In Hell
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Staircase in the very heart of a 1950ies blast furnace. The plethora of tubes you can see in the background once guided cooling water through so-called cooling boxes along the furnace's shell - without such cooling, it would have smelt: in the part of the furnace you can see here, temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Celsius were reached.
Hoesch Phoenix, Dortmund, Germany, June 2005
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Kein Scherz
So wird es als schwierig empfunden, mit der Maus exakt zu positionieren und sie meistens auf die linke Taste, manchmal aber auch auf die rechte Taste zu drücken, ohne sie dabei erneut zu bewegen. Erst recht bereitet es Probleme, die Maus bei gedrückter Taste zu bewegen, um z.B. die Größen von Fenstern oder deren Position zu verändern. Ganz unmöglich ist für viele der Doppelklick, ohne unbeabsichtigt zwischen den beiden Klicks die Maus zu bewegen. Derartige Bedienprobleme können das Internet sogar vollständig unbrauchbar machen.
Und wer kann's besser? BTX natürlich:
Bildschirmtext - ein tolles Netz! >
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Endangered Machinery: Elegance
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Cyclone air filter, Hoesch Phoenix, Dortmund, Germany. June 2005.
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Endangered Machinery: Still Life
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Still life, fresh style. Phoenix blast furnaces works, Hoesch Stahl AG, June 2005
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Holy Moly
The Semantic Web is here already, and it sneaks in as a Firefox extension called Piggy Bank. Author Stefano Mazzocchi of Longwell fame gives you an introduction. Also check out the other software projects of his SIMILE Project.
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Endangered Machinery: Sculpture Park
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It looks like a nice sculpture park, but it is nothing but scrap metal waiting for its removal - and the sure sign that it is time to say goodbye to the Phoenix blast furnaces plant. As dozens of hectares land around it have been cleared already, the wave of demolition now hits the mill's core itself. Some of the sceneries I like most are gone yet, others will follow soon. All other mills in this city are gone already. It is the summer of 2005 which we will recall as the time in which Dortmund finally lost its industrial face. So long, and thanks for all the fish.
(To give you an understanding of the dimensions in today's photo: the large pipes are 2.5 meters or 8.2 foot in diameter.)
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Konrad-Adenauer-Allee
Die Hochofenstraße in Dortmund heißt jetzt Konrad-Adenauer-Allee. So rottig wie diese Entscheidung können die Reste des Werkes, durch das diese Straße führt, gar nicht werden.
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Aralsee
Heute im A bis Z der Photographie: A wie Aralsee. Liebevolle Umschreibung für das Motiv oft ungeheuer aufwertende Pfützen, Lachen und Seen aus Benzinen, Benzolen, Ölen, Schwerölen und Teeren, die sich vorwiegend auf Kokereien finden. Durchrostung und Abriss von Tanks, Kesseln und Rohrleitungen machen oft die photographische Nutzung immer neuer Aralseen auch Jahrzehnte nach Stillegung einer Anlage möglich. Eng verwandt mit den vormals in Belgien anzufindenden Grachten des Todes, Entwässerungskanäle die direkt in die Nordsee führen und gleichzeitig als Öl- und Teer-Sammelleitung benutzt wurden.
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:: in category Das A bis Z der Photographie
Turnvater Veronica
Klick = groß
Briefbogen eines Edelstahlwerks aus dem Jahre 1960 - Heimatfilme waren groß in Mode, man merkt's. Dominal Werkzeugstähle gibt es nach wie vor, Veronica Schnelldrehstähle und die Krone der Namensgebung, Turnvater Steinbruchwerkzeuge, nicht mehr.
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Olympus Camera: Back
10 days was the announcement, and 10 working days (plus two weekends) it took to get my Olympus 8080 repaired and back. It suddenly started showing freaky colors and superimposing pictures on its viewfinder without any apparent cause. If you have ever mailed in a camera to a very big player with a C in its name, you know that 10 days is blazingly fast. You do not get a case ID, you do not get an online tracking number, you do not get very sensible information out of their hotline - but you do get your camera back in a manageable frame of time, which counts far more. The camera also received a firmware update. In this update: Autofocus speed improved: yes. Number of autofocus misses reduced: yes. Subject distance readout bug in focus lock and manual focus modes fixed: not at all. Well, you have to spare something for the next update, don't you? All in all, a good performance - nice.
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Endangered Machinery: At the Gate
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Gate with blast furnaces in the far background, Corus Ijmuiden, May 2005
One of several hundreds of shots taken while test driving a Konica Minolta Dynax D7 DSLR, and one that particulary well showes the camera's weaknesses. In the next installment more on what ambivalent impressions the D7 made on me and why I would not recommend it for my kind of photography.
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Nikon D2X reviewed
The D2X is a camera which grew on me the more I used it, its instant response and solid build instill a level of confidence unavailable in lesser cameras. You know that every time you press the shutter release the camera will respond instantly and you'll get the shot. As a photographic tool it's as close to perfection as I could imagine, there's really very little else you could want from a camera. - Phil Askey
With the release of the D2X though, Nikon has re-established itself as a leader at the high end of the pro SLR market. [The] Nikon D2X is [...] a superb shooter's camera, with an excellent "feel" in the hand and a fast and fluid user interface. - imaging-resource
Looks like there finally is a DSLR with both the proverbial Nikon usability (which out of my experience I still consider best of all SLR makes) and a decent sensor. Boy, this is tempting. But would I spend five grands on 35mm equipment? Certainly not. Still good to know that such machines exist.
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International Engine of the Year 2005
International Engine of the Year 2005: M5/M6 BMW 5-Litre V10
Best new Engine of 2005: M5/M6 BMW 5-Litre V10
Best Performance Engine 2005: M5/M6 BMW 5-Litre V10
Above 4-Litre 2005: M5/M6 BMW 5-Litre V10
This engine is sheer viewing pleasure (photos courtesy of BMW Press), and its sound is most breathtaking.
Other award-winning BMW engines: your Daddy's 535d 3-litre twin-turbo diesel in the 2.5-3 litre category and the fabulous M3 3.2-litre straight-six in the 3-4 litre category - the latter the fourth time in a row. Other winning German vendors? VW/Audi one with a rather small engine, no larger VW/Audi, no Merc, no Porsche.
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Exploring the Residual Landscape
Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work. I set course to intersect with a contemporary view of the great ages of man; from stone, to minerals, oil, transportation, silicon, and so on. To make these ideas visible I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale yet open in their meaning. Recycling yards, mine tailings, quarries and refineries are all places that are outside of our normal experience, yet we partake of their output on a daily basis.
The industrial photography of Edward Burtynsky, hands down the best I've seen in quite a while. Very large formats and bright, vivid colors - obviously the way to go. Do not miss the Oil, Urban Mines, Ships and Three Gorges series.
Edward Burtynsky Photographic Works >
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