The Navies of the Civil War

 

Navy Monument, Vicksburg (Photo credit: kinez)

 

As the Civil War raged on the land, the two national navies— Union and Confederate —created another war on the water. The naval war was one of sudden, spectacular lightning battles as well as continual and fatal vigilance on the coasts, rivers, and seas.

Take Point

In modern military parlance, to take point, walk point, be on point, or be a point man means to assume the first and most exposed position in a combat military formation, that is, the leading soldier/unit advancing through hostile or unsecured territory.

Desert Storm: The Naval War (2002)

In 1991, a coalition of nations, led by the United States, expelled hostile Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait. This documentary, part of the U.S Navy Heritage Mini-Series, tells the story. The series was produced by Empire Media Group, in conjunction with the Naval History and Heritage Command and the Naval Historical Foundation.

The First Smart Gun Has Come To America, And It Could Be The Start Of A Revolution

The future of gun control is quickly emerging.

In California, German gun manufacturer Armatix GmbH has begun selling a gun which can only fire when the owner wears an accompanying wristwatch.

Basically, the Armatix iP1 is the country’s first smart gun.

Michael S. Rosenwald of  The Washington Post reports:

Watched items (Photo credit: practicalowl)

The watch makes the gun think. Electronic chips inside the gun and the watch communicate with each other. If the watch is within close reach of the gun, a light on the grip turns green. Fire away. No watch means no green light. The gun becomes a paperweight.

Thy thousand slain 1775

“…The Whites of Their Eyes!” (Photo credit: The National Guard)

Shortly after the battle of Breed’s Hill, the following epigram appeared on a large handbill : 

The modern veni, vidi, vici. 

We came, we saw, but could not beat,
And so — sounded a retreat;
On Roxbury Hill again we saw ‘em,
And did, like devils, clapper-claw ‘em;
But warlike casuists can’t discuss,
If we beat them, or they beat us;
We swear we beat, they swear we lie„
We’ll tell you more on’t bye and bye.

GOOD MORNING!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

DON’T FORGET TO WEAR RED:

 REMEMBER EVERYONE DEPLOYED.

 HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND–BE SAFE, BE HAPPY.

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel

 

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For a collection of images, see Gallery of Sistine Chapel ceiling. 

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The ceiling is that of the large Papal Chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV after whom it is named, and was painted at the commission of Pope Julius II. The chapel is the location for Papal Conclaves and many important services.

The ceiling’s various painted elements form part of a larger scheme of decoration within the Chapel, which includes the large

fresco The Last Judgment on the sanctuary wall, also by Michelangelo, wall paintings by several leading painters of the late 15th century including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Pietro Perugino, and a set of large tapestries by

Raphael, the whole illustrating much of the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis of which The Creation of Adam is the best known, having an iconic standing equalled only by Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations. The complex design includes several sets of individual figures, both clothed and nude, which allowed Michelangelo to fully demonstrate his skill in creating a huge variety of poses for the human figure, and have provided an enormously influential pattern book of models for other artists ever since.

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To reach the chapel’s ceiling, Michelangelo designed his own scaffold, a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall near the top of the windows, rather than being built up from the floor. Mancinelli speculates that this was in order to cut the cost of timber.^[14] According to Michelangelo’s pupil and biographer Ascanio Condivi, the brackets and frame that supported the steps and flooring were all put in place at the beginning of the work and a lightweight screen, possibly cloth, was suspended beneath them to catch plaster drips, dust and splashes of paint. Only half the building was scaffolded at a time and the platform was moved as the painting was done in stages. The areas of the wall covered by the scaffolding still appear as unpainted areas across the bottom of the lunettes. The holes were re-used to hold scaffolding in the latest restoration.

Contrary to popular belief, he painted in a standing position, not lying on his back. According to Vasari, “The work was carried out in extremely uncomfortable conditions, from his having to work with his head tilted upwards”. Michelangelo described his physical discomfort in a humorous sonnet accompanied by a little sketch.

Here are the poem and sketch (2) by  Michelangelo. 

The image of God in the act of Creation was painted in a single day, and reflects Michelangelo himself in the act of creating the ceiling

Michelangelo’s illustration to his poem shows him painting God.

Michelangelo wrote a poem describing the arduous conditions under which he worked.

I’ve grown a goitre by dwelling in this den–

As cats from stagnant streams in Lombardy,

Or in what other land they hap to be–

Which drives the belly close beneath the chin:

My beard turns up to heaven; my nape falls in,

Fixed on my spine: my breast-bone visibly

Grows like a harp: a rich embroidery

Bedews my face from brush-drops thick and thin.

My loins into my paunch like levers grind:

My buttock like a crupper bears my weight;

My feet unguided wander to and fro;

In front my skin grows loose and long; behind,

By bending it becomes more taut and strait;

Crosswise I strain me like a Syrian bow:

Whence false and quaint, I know,

Must be the fruit of squinting brain and eye;

For ill can aim the gun that bends awry.

Come then, Giovanni, try

To succour my dead pictures and my fame;

Since foul I fare and painting is my shame.

For more on Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, click here.

Related articles

• The Cracking Story of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling
• Top Treasures of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel in Italy

Malcolm X assassinated: 1965

Malcolm X at Queens Court (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights.