text:
§ 3.4. Adoption and Influence
Celebrity Owners
Sometimes timing is everything.
Less than four years after Lawrence Braymer began producing and marketing his Questar telescope, humanity made its first leap into space. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, a 184-pound sphere not more than two feet in diameter that was the first artificial satellite to enter Earth orbit. For three weeks, its battery-powered radio transmitted pulses that were easily detected by amateur radio operators. Those who happened to step outside and look up as it passed overhead had no problem visually observing it with the naked eye. Although its success triggered a great deal of surprise and consternation in the West, Sputnik also marked the beginning of the Space Age. It brought about a new level of fascination with astronomy in the minds of countless individuals.[1]	Telescopes and other amateur astronomy gear began selling at a markedly increased rate. At least in an indirect way, the average person on the ground could participate in the era's mounting excitement.
Braymer found himself swept up in the exhilaration, too. He took the opportunity of his "Questar News" installment for March 1959 to reflect on what he had witnessed in recent months. First, he engaged in somewhat of a rambling discussion about possibilities in the exploration of Mars. He touched upon an aborted balloon ascent that was meant to photograph the planet, he speculated about whether a cactus could survive on its dry and dusty surface, and he commented about the mysteries that surrounded Mars and our other sister planets.[2]
Braymer then set aside his fascination with the most Earth-like planet in the solar system and reflected more generally upon the dawn of the Space Age:
All at once there is this rumbling and roaring, this taking off from launching pads. We were prepared, oh yes. No surprise to us, no sir! It had to happen—been following it for years. But you know, now that it is just around the corner, next month, next year, almost any time now—we just cannot cope with the idea. In theory, yes. But that soon one man may walk upon the moon while another paces Mars—this is too much, this is what we find really hard to comprehend, encompass mentally. We hope that you have better luck than we in adjusting to this new fantastic dawn of history.[3]
Although he never drew an explicit link between his thoughts and his product, the link was clear nonetheless. His Questar telescope could bring one closer to the new era of space exploration that had suddenly begun.
Photograph by Dorothy and Ralph Davis of the launch of Pioneer 3 on December 6, 1958. Ralph and Dorothy Davis/Questar Corporation
A month earlier, Braymer highlighted the experience of Dorothy and Ralph Davis, who became Questar's longtime photographic contributors, as they watched the launch of two Pioneer missions in late 1958. As residents of Sarasota, Florida, they were well positioned to see the launch which originated at Cape Canaveral on the other side of the Florida peninsula. On November 8, the Davises saw "the exhaust flare of Pioneer II as it cleared the horizon and appeared to climb slowly farther eastward and away from them." Inspired by what they observed visually, they decided to attempt photographing the next launch. Forty-five minutes after midnight on December 6, the Davises captured a long-exposure image of Pioneer 3 as it ascended into space, one that Braymer included with his advertisement.[4]
Dorothy and Ralph Davis photographed the launch of Ranger 8 with their Questar telescope on February 17, 1965. Questar Corporation
Years later, Dorothy and Ralph Davis were present near what had been renamed Cape Kennedy for the launch of Ranger 8 on February 17, 1965. Using his mastery of prose to draw the reader in to the suspense and excitement of the spectacle, Lawrence Braymer relayed their story:
They waited in the crowded public area behind sand dunes which cut off any view of rockets. Through terribly poor seeing they could make out only the tops of the largest gantries as they tried to guess from which pad Ranger 8 would ascend. Where to point their Questar? How to guess at the focal point through this awful boiling air in which nothing was clear? It was the worst seeing they had ever found near the ground.
As the announced moment of launching neared, Mr. Davis stood ready to swing the telescope through a wide arc. No use trying to avoid the slap of his modified Nikon's mirror by prereleasing it and working blind—he had to locate the bird, get it centered and in focus if possible. There would be no time, no time at all.
Over there! The roar, the rocket! It leaped upward at great speed, as fast as a pursuit plane. Davis barely glimpsed it as he shot the picture at 1/500 second on 35-mm. Tri-X film. This is what he got, enlarged about 10 times, with no retouching. "A miracle," says Mr. Davis. "We were astonished by its speed at what must have been an altitude of about 3000 feet, so far away. Everything happened at once. No time to think.
"We will take our Questar to the next Saturn shot, hoping that the big one will start more slowly, and hoping, too, to know where to point the 'scope. Nothing can compare with the thrill of these launchings. But just look how much our little old Questar managed to get under these really bad conditions."[5]
By the mid-1960s, Questar's profile had only increased. The company's telescope had gained enough recognition to have become admired not only by typical amateur astronomers but also an increasing number of celebrities and institutional clients. It played a leading role in the creation of a groundbreaking film, and it made a cameo appearance in a less distinguished one. It was on hand as persons on the ground gazed up into the sky to watch rockets launch into space, and it even went along as a passenger on some of those missions.
Although Questar ran a sophisticated and effective marketing campaign, sometimes personal word-of-mouth accounts were the most powerful. This may have been the case among a number of celebrities all of whom became Questar owners.
Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, and 2001: A Space Odyssey
Arthur C. Clarke at his desk with his Questar telescope. Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum via airandspace.si.edu
In his first "Questar News" installment of January 1959, Lawrence Braymer noted an October 1958 letter he received from science fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke. After commenting about photographs he captured of the lunar surface with his Exakta camera attached to his Questar telescope, Clarke suggested to Braymer that he might consider starting a newsletter "to deal with queries and to report new uses and achievements. What do you think?" In response, Braymer wrote, "Why, bless you, Mr. Clarke—we think it's a wonderful idea!" He gave his correspondent credit for his many accomplishments up to that point: he was Holiday magazine's science expert, his book Voices Across the Sea told the story of the first Atlantic cable, and he used his education in physics to inform his writing on numerous topics on space exploration.[6]
Born in 1917, Clarke acquired an interest in astronomy around the age of twelve. For several years thereafter, as New Yorker magazine writer Jeremy Bernstein wrote in his 1969 profile on Clarke, he reveled in "a feast of reading astronomy books, copying down astronomical tables, and constructing telescopes." Serving with the British Royal Air Force during World War II, Clarke worked as an electronics engineer on the secret project that developed radar technology. After the war, Clarke earned his bachelor's degree with honors in physics and mathematics, and he pursued advanced studies in astronomy. Having "worked as an abstracter for a major scientific journal," as Bernstein writes, "there is little doubt that Clarke could, if he felt like it, earn his living by doing science."[7]
Arthur C. Clarke on a beach in Sri Lanka with his Questar telescope. Arthur C Clarke Trust via 2001italia.it
Clarke was a highly engaged amateur astronomer. He served two terms as chairman of the British Interplanetary Society between 1946 and 1953. Three years later, Clarke relocated to Ceylon (currently Sri Lanka) and served as president of the Ceylon Astronomical Association. He largely remained on the island until his death in 2008.[8]
As an adult, Clarke indulged in fascinations from his early years. Bernstein wrote that he "is a firm believer in the Freudian dictum that adult happiness lies in the fulfillment of unfulfilled childhood aspirations." As a young boy, he could not afford to buy a telescope or any other scientific instrumentation that he could not make himself. "By way of compensation, he has now purchased a first-rate Questar telescope, which he sets up on his lawn in the evenings in order to watch the moon and planets and any satellites that happen to pass over Colombo."[9]
It was with this Questar telescope that Clarke observed the Moon on September 13, 1959. Although he hoped to witness the planned impact of the Soviet Luna 2 spacecraft, the first manmade object to reach the lunar surface and to make contact with a celestial body, Clarke later admitted he saw nothing.[10]
Along with his Questar, Clarke eventually accumulated other gadgets and sundry items that interested him. His collection included a large library of books, a small computer, numerous cameras, and a fully equipped darkroom. [11]
Clarke also found time to write, of course. In 1964, he published his novel Treasure of the Great Reef. In one passage, he allowed his sentiments for Questar telescopes to show through:
We waited, scanning the horizon for the first sight of the returning boat. I had brought with me, for just such a purpose, the finest small telescope ever built—the 3-1/2 inch Questar, a jewel of precision optics which has produced close-ups of the moon that could easily be mistaken for Mount Wilson photographs. Although the barrel is only eight inches long, a combination of lens and mirror makes the light traverse the tube three times, with the result that the instrument is equivalent to one yard in length. Various eyepieces give magnifications of up to 180, though it is easy to go higher than this on those rare occasions when the clarity of the atmosphere permits. There is an electric drive in the base that will keep the field of view centered on a star all night—no, I am not getting a penny from the Questar Corporation, but perhaps I had better stop here.[12]
Arthur C. Clarke later in life with his Questar telescope still at his side. Arthur C Clarke Trust via arthurcclarke.org
Clarke was an exceptionally well-networked individual. He was friends with science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and the famous rocket engineer and fellow a Questar owner Wernher von Braun—did Clarke learn about Questar through von Braun or the other way around? While on a trip to America beginning in April 1964, Clarke traveled to Washington, D.C., where he dined with top NASA officials including head administrator James Webb and Apollo project director George Mueller. And a few months later, Clarke visited with a young adjunct astronomy professor at Harvard University named Carl Sagan, with whom Clarke had corresponded since the early or mid-1960s.[13]
While Clarke attended to his writing career and hobnobbed with the elite of the American scientific community, the young film producer Stanley Kubrick was busy himself. The same year that Clarke published his Treasure of the Great Reef and traveled in the United States, Kubrick was hard at work looking for future projects after his film Dr. Strangelove premiered in theaters.[14]
Just weeks after the release, Kubrick met Columbia Pictures publicist Roger Caras for lunch in New York. While they ate, Caras asked him what he was planning to do next. Half-embarrassed, he responded, "I want to do a film about ETs." "Fantastic," Caras said, never even daring to laugh at him. Kubrick went on at length to describe how he had been reading everything he could on the topic. Caras interrupted him. "Why are you going through all that? Just hire the best and get going." He was referring to Arthur C. Clarke. But Kubrick looked at him with incredulity. "I understand he's some kind of a nut; a recluse that lives in a tree in India," he said. Caras was quick to clarify. "He lives in Ceylon, he's not a nut, and has a very nice house there and servants, and a good lifestyle, a driver, and everything else." Kubrick asked, "Do you know him?" "Extremely well," Caras answered. "Arthur and I have been friends for a number of years." Kubrick finally said, "Jesus, get in touch with him, will you?"[15]
Clarke first got wind of Kubrick's interest in working with him by way of a telegram he received from Caras on February 17, 1964. It read, "STANLEY KUBRICK—'DR STRANGELOVE,' 'PATHS OF GLORY,' ET CETERA, INTERESTED IN DOING FILM ON ET'S. INTERESTED IN YOU. ARE YOU INTERESTED? THOUGHT YOU WERE RECLUSE." Clarke responded immediately: "FRIGHTFULLY INTERESTED IN WORKING WITH ENFANT TERRIBLE STOP CONTACT MY AGENT STOP WHAT MAKES KUBRICK THINK I'M A RECLUSE?"[16]
After an exchange of letters with Caras, a frustrating lull set in for Clarke as word about Kubrick's intentions failed to arrive. Adding to Clarke's anxiety were the financial difficulties he had been experiencing due in large part to ongoing divorce proceedings. After weeks passed, Clarke almost gave up on hearing from Kubrick. Whatever mail he received invoked a mixture of feelings that included excitement and, because of the divorce, dread.[17]
Letter from Stanley Kubrick to Arthur C. Clarke, March 31, 1964. Stanley Kubrick via bfi.org.uk
Finally, Kubrick wrote a letter to Clarke on March 31, 1964. It was the first direct point of contact between the two men. "It's a very interesting coincidence that our mutual friend Caras mentioned you in a conversation we were having about a Questar telescope. I had been a great admirer of your books for quite a time and had always wanted to discuss with you the possibility of doing the proverbial 'really good' science-fiction movie."[18]
Wanting to make a "really good" science fiction film was no understatement on Kubrick's part. In the early 1960s, as Michael Benson writes, "science fiction was only a step or two above pornography on the social acceptability scale." It was "little green men stuff," Kubrick's wife Christiane remembered. Kubrick told friend and fellow science fiction enthusiast Artie Shaw that he wanted to make the first science fiction movie that was not trash. In response, Shaw suggested that Kubrick read some of Clarke's writing.[19]
In his March 31 letter, he asked Clarke, who was due to arrive in New York soon, whether he would have an opportunity to see him. "Incidentally," he concluded, Sky and Telescope advertises "a number of scopes. If one has the room for a medium size scope on a pedestal, say the size of a camera tripod, is there any particular model in a class by itself, as the Questar is for small portable scopes?"[20]
As an enthusiast of Kubrick's filmmaking pointed out, mentioning Questar telescopes was not at all a false pretext that the filmmaker used to draw Clarke's attention and favor. Kubrick himself was a keen gadget aficionado who owned a variety of items representing the latest technology of the time. In this respect, the movie seems almost to have been the excuse for Kubrick to ask Clarke about his Questar.[21]	At the same time, as Michael Benson adds, "Clarke loved being in the position of an expert, and to be consulted about telescopes by an internationally recognized director—a subject he could discuss all day—was an unexpected bonus to the main thrust of the letter." Besides, "he had been chafing for the chance to break into movies for a very long time. If not now, when—and who better than Kubrick?"[22]
On April 8, 1964, Clarke responded with immediate enthusiasm and expressed mutual admiration for Kubrick's work.[23]	In complete agreement that a "really good" science fiction movie was far overdue, he mentioned that he was scheduled to arrive in New York only ten days later—he was due at the Time-Life offices to edit his upcoming book Man and Space—and he thought his work there should not prevent him from meeting with Kubrick. Clarke added that the Questar telescope was indeed a fine instrument. Since he had already been planning on bringing it with him to get it serviced, he was happy to show his Questar to Kubrick.[24]
Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke with a Questar telescope on the patio of the former's New York City penthouse, 1964. Christiane Kubrick and Jan Harlan via space.com
Clarke arrived in New York on April 18, 1964, and met Kubrick in person for the first time four days later. On April 24, they met again, this time at the film producer's penthouse. As promised, Clarke had his Questar telescope with him. They donned their jackets, went up to the rooftop patio, and observed a nearly full Moon.[25]	Other astronomical targets may have been visible to them, too. Venus was high in the sky to the west. They may have also glimpsed Jupiter and Saturn, but both were low towards the horizon and would have presented more of a challenge to observers in the canyon of buildings in New York City.
Eight days later, Clarke visited Kubrick's home again, and he delved into a deeper primer on astronomy. He was like "the ultimate granduncle, who will absolutely tell you everything there is to know about science fiction, about science," Kubrick's wife Christiane recalled years later. "They went on the roof, and Arthur showed him how to look up certain planets and stars. It's a hard thing to actually focus on one, and very cold, and we learned a lot from Arthur. We were just like children."[26]
Not long after he first met Clarke and saw his telescope in April 1964, Kubrick bought his own Questar. For years he used it both visually and photographically. "On a night where there was a lunar eclipse," Kubrick's stepdaughter Katharina remembered, "he dragged us all out onto the balcony and we were able to see the moon like a big rubber ball. I don't think I've seen it as clearly since. He loved that thing. He looked at it all the time."[27]
At the filmmaker's penthouse on May 17, 1964, Kubrick and Clarke shook hands on an agreement to make a film together. They settled on using Clarke's short story entitled "The Sentinel" as the basis for a movie that eventually became 2001: A Space Odyssey.[28]
Kubrick looking through a Questar telescope. Christiane Kubrick and Jan Harlan via 2001italia.it
Later that night, they stepped outside onto Kubrick's patio to enjoy the remainder of what had been a beautiful spring day. The building's heating system had been switched off, and its chimney had mercifully ceased belching ash into the air. A lovely crescent Moon hung towards the south. Suddenly at around 9 pm, they spotted a very bright object in the sky, one that outshined the surrounding stars. It moved directly overhead and then simply stopped. They rushed back inside for Kubrick's new Questar and had a closer look at it. Clarke managed to get it in the telescope's field of view, but it appeared only as a featureless point of light even at high magnification. Knowing that artificial satellites had to move at high speed but seeing this object behave otherwise, Clarke's mind raced. Could it be a UFO? Remembering their agreement earlier that evening, he thought, "This is altogether too much of a coincidence. They are out to stop us from making this movie." Kubrick and Clarke continued to observe the object until it finally moved off. Shaken, Clarke said, "That's the most spectacular of the dozen UFOs I've observed in the last twenty years."[29]	Clarke later admitted that his experience that night was the only UFO sighting that ever made him lose any sleep.[30]
What was it? It could have been Echo 1, a satellite which Clarke had seen many times in Ceylon. But the New York Times transit time listings indicated that one was to occur around 11 pm and another at 1 am but not at the time they were outside. Besides, it was far brighter than Clarke remembered Echo 1 to look like. NASA had launched the larger Echo 2 earlier that year, but the Times listed no transits for it around the time they were out.[31]
A few days later, Clarke's contacts at the Hayden Planetarium said they were unaware of any satellite that would have passed over New York at that time. On June 16, Kubrick went so far as to fill out a UFO sighting form and submitted it to the U.S. Air Force—a bold move considering that the military was still chafed by Kubrick's satirical Dr. Strangelove.[32]
Ultimately, the Hayden Planetarium and the U.S. Air Force reported to Kubrick and Clarke that it had been Echo 1 all along. The New York Times transit listings had been incomplete.[33]
After pulling themselves together in the wake of their supposed encounter with a UFO, the pair spent the next four years writing and producing 2001: A Space Odyssey.[34]	If it were not for Clarke's Questar telescope, that landmark work of science fiction may have never been made.
After collaborating with Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke gained widespread recognition. He served as a commentator during CBS's coverage of the Apollo 9 mission alongside Walter Cronkite, who was a big fan of Clarke's writing. The two had already collaborated on a number of television broadcasts going back as far as 1953.[35] Clarke also continued his writing career.
Stanley Kubrick's Questar telescope as it appeared in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2014 at an exhibit featuring artifacts from the filmmaker's career. flickr.com
Meanwhile, Kubrick no doubt continued to use his Questar telescope while his own filmmaking career unfolded. After his death in 1999, Kubrick's Questar travelled in a lengthy worldwide exhibition that began in 2004 showcasing a variety of artifacts from Kubrick's film career. The telescope is currently in the possession of the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of Arts London.[36]
Artie Shaw
Like Arthur C. Clarke, Kubrick was exceptionally well networked. One of his friends, the American musician and writer Artie Shaw, had suggested that he read Clarke's work as he searched for a science fiction film project that ultimately led to 2001.[37]	As an amateur astronomer who knew Stanley Kubrick,[38]	it was perhaps natural that Shaw was also an owner of a Questar telescope. In 2008, a member of an online discussion group boasted that he owned the very same Questar that had been Shaw's.[39]
Peter Sellers
Another of Kubrick's associates was Peter Sellers, the film actor and comedian who starred in the title role of Dr. Strangelove and who also owned a Questar telescope. In an online forum discussion in 2005, one individual wrote that he had acquired the 1965 Questar that was originally owned by Sellers. His son Michael included a letter in which he wrote that his father bought the instrument while he filmed After the Fox, which released the following year. Sellers took his Questar everywhere with him and used it for terrestrial and astronomical observing. "When at home in London he would view the city with his Questar from the 13th floor of his flat. Michael said his father did some publicity shots for Questar with this very instrument."[40]
Way... Way Out
Still from the movie Way... Way Out (1966). 20th Century Fox via youtube.com
Questar telescopes were not just the property of numerous celebrities. One even had a cameo film role, albeit an inauspicious one. In Way... Way Out (1966), starring Jerry Lewis and Connie Stevens, a Questar telescope appeared in a movie filled with the typically awkward and ridiculous antics of a second-rate screwball comedy.[41]	It was not Questar's finest moment.
But in spite of the low-quality movie in which it appeared, that particular Questar telescope did touch the life of at least one person in a positive way. Years later, entrepreneur and writer Peter Black remembered his experience exploring the set of Way... Way Out as a young teenager. Black recalled that Malcolm Stuart, the film's producer and a friend of the Black family, actually bought a Questar as a prop for the movie. Having encountered countless magazine advertisements for it, Black wrote, "I begged him to bring it by our house so that I could see it." One night, Stuart finally did so. "He set it up, and I saw, touched, and felt that all of the promise of the ads was fulfilled. That one night left a permanent impression. Really fine products do exist. Not everything is crappy [and] designed to fall apart after a few years." Two decades later, Black finally acquired his own Questar during a visit to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with his family. "The Milky Way in the Grand Tetons, revealed by a Questar. Perfect."[42]
In real life, Questar telescopes actively participated in the Space Age. In May 1958, a custom-built Questar telescope ascended to the stratosphere and approached the threshold of space during a flight by astronomer Alfred Mikesell and high-altitude balloonist Malcolm Ross. Not long after, Questar continued its ascent into the heavens. It only took a few more years for it to join a number of space missions during the 1960s.
The Questar telescope proved that it had the right stuff when the U.S. Naval Observatory tested one in a centrifuge that was typically used to train pilots. In an effort to determine how much g-force it could take, operators went up to 36 g, the maximum the centrifuge could produce. The Questar was not damaged in any way.[43]
Mercury Program
In a profile of Questar appearing in the New Hope Gazette on March 14, 1985, journalist Charles Shaw writes that the Questar telescope was used in the sub-orbital Mercury flights, which ran from 1958 to 1963. "At first," Marguerite Braymer commented, "the Questar was a detachable part of the capsule and once the capsule re-entered the atmosphere, the telescope would be dropped by parachute, with planes set to capture the telescope in a net. They didn't capture many of them." She added that someone once said "the Pacific was paved with Questars."[44]
Gemini Program
Questar also played a role in Project Gemini, which ran from 1961 to 1966.[45]
Questar incorrectly featured its role in Gemini 3 in its advertisement appearing in the June 1965 issue of Sky and Telescope. Questar Corporation
In an advertisement that appeared in the June 1965 issue of Sky and Telescope, Questar claimed that one of its optical systems "became the first high-power telescope in a manned spacecraft when NASA, in its Gemini program, put the Molly Brown into orbit on March 23, 1965."[46]
But the company perhaps inadvertently misrepresented its involvement in Gemini 3, which lasted less than five hours.[47]	In January 1964, NASA formed a Manned Space Flight Experiments Board which decided on experiments that the agency would include on the Gemini and Apollo missions. The panel noted that the spacecraft for Gemini 3 "had already been built and that the shortness of the planned mission sharply limited any active participation by the crew." With this in mind, "the panel stressed the need to find experiments that would largely conduct themselves and were nearly complete in terms of planning, design, and hardware."[48]
The panel concluded "that two experiments left over from the proposed but never flown Mercury-Atlas 10 met these stringent criteria: one intended to explore the combined effects of radiation and low gravity on cells, the other to study cell growth at zero gravity. Both were approved by the Headquarters board when it met in Washington the following month."[49]	The titles for these experiments were "Sea Urchin Egg Growth" and "Radiation and Zero-G on Blood." Both experiments were mounted inside the spacecraft cabin and involved no crew interaction.[50]
A third experiment entitled "Reentry Communication" found its way into the Gemini 3 mission. But it too "was fully self-contained except for a starting switch inside the cabin to be thrown by the copilot when the spacecraft had fallen to about 90,000 meters."[51]
None of these three experiments would have involved any optical instrument like a Questar.
The company was more successful with Gemini 5, which flew on August 21-29, 1965.[52]
A NASA photograph taken August 20, 1965, shows optical and photographic equipment used onboard the Gemini 5 spacecraft. One of the items was a Questar telescope. science.ksc.nasa.gov
NASA included three experiments that involved Questar optics. Entitled "Basic Object Photography," "Nearby Object Photography," and "Surface Photography," all three involved a Zeiss Contarex camera, a 200mm Nikkor f/4 lens, and a Questar 1400mm lens. Mission engineers mounted the experiment's equipment at a hatch window inside the spacecraft.[53]
The flight encountered problems, however, and controllers had to scrub the "Nearby Object Photography" experiment. But the other two proceeded. In their history of Project Gemini, Barton Hacker and James Grimwood wrote that "Experiment D-1, Basic Object Photography, proved that the crew could acquire, track, and photograph celestial bodies. Weather conditions somewhat hampered D-6, Surface Photography, but Cooper and Conrad did obtain photographs of Merritt Island, Florida; Tampico, Mexico; Rocas Island, Brazil; and Love Field, Dallas, Texas."[54]
During the fight, Charles Conrad marveled at the performance of the Questar telescope he operated onboard the spacecraft. The air-to-ground transcript recorded him as saying, "I can just see clouds on the water beautifully on this Questar lens!" A bit later he added that "this Questar lens is fantastic!" But he also noted the challenges of working with an instrument with a long focal length and a narrow field of view.[55]
Back on Earth, the press covered the photography that came out of the Gemini 5 mission in a positive light at first. In its issue for September 10, 1965, Time magazine wrote in a light-hearted way that Cooper and Conrad, like most other world travelers, "took some pictures to show the folks at home." The first images that had been released a week prior "made a spectacular space travelogue, exceptionally clear and well-defined." Having specifically identified "a modified Questar telescopic lens" as one piece of the mission's instrumentation, Time concluded that the crew's work "demonstrated anew the potential of space photography for scientific and military applications."[56]
Questar highlighted its role in Gemini 5. Questar Corporation
For its own part, Questar did not miss the opportunity to boast about NASA's inclusion of the company's optics in Gemini 5. In an October 1965 advertisement, it declared that "a Questar optical system became the first high-power telescope in a manned spacecraft when NASA, in its Gemini program, put the GT 5 into orbit on August 21, 1965."[57]	The layout, illustrations, and most of the wording were identical to the earlier June 1965 advertisement that had mistakenly claimed involvement in the Gemini 3 mission.
But Questar did not boast about the role it played in a mission that contributed to a growing sense of anxiety Americans had over what effectively was high-altitude surveillance. In their issue for September 27, 1965, Newsweek reported on the matter in an article entitled "Looking Sharp." The piece began by praising the Questar telescope as "one of the finest pieces of optical equipment made." With its compact design and superior quality, the instrument was "theoretically capable of photographing an object as small as a motorcycle from 100 miles away. No wonder, then, that the U.S. spacemen, who have to spend so much on custom-made gear, were happy to buy one of the $995 telescopes off the shelf for tests of high-resolution photography on the flight of Gemini 5."[58]
Mission pilots Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad reported that "the Questar performed well" after photographing "Minutemen missiles, an aircraft carrier and cities, roads and harbors at the request of the Department of Defense." But to avoid political fallout, they did not capture images of sensitive areas in places such as China and Cuba.[59]
Although NASA quickly released the 237 photographs that Cooper and Conrad took with their Hasselblad camera, both the space agency and the Department of Defense stopped short of making immediately available the approximately 70 images that the mission pilots took for the Pentagon mostly with the Questar telescope onboard Gemini 5.[60]
On September 27, 1965, Newsweek published an image of Cape Kennedy taken with a Questar during the Gemini 5 mission. Newsweek
Eventually, two photographs became public. One image of Dallas was grainy, and it hardly showed Questar's abilities. But the other image of a NASA complex on Merritt Island at Cape Kennedy in Florida was not only much clearer but also more unsettling in the way that it demonstrated what was possible with orbital imagery. And since the photograph was not taken directly overhead but rather at an angle, the camera and telescope had to slice through more atmosphere to capture their subject on film. As a result, there was no way to determine based solely on the Merritt Island photograph whether the image could have been even better resolved or if the Questar had performed to its fullest ability.[61]
"It is easy enough to imagine what the Pentagon feels it must hide—not only the subject matter, but the effectiveness of the system," Newsweek wrote. "Whatever the motivations of the experiment, it qualifies as earth surveillance from space, and the Department of Defense long ago lowered the security lid on all such activities that it undertook." But while the Pentagon kept silent about its efforts, NASA was a public agency committed to the peaceful exploration of space. The emerging conflict of interest was obvious. Newsweek quoted one official who said, "It was a mistake to put in the experiment in the first place, and once we put it in, it was a mistake not to release the pictures."[62]
At the dawn of space-based surveillance in the 1960s, many were clearly uncomfortable with the prospect of peering eyes looking down from the heavens whether through Questar optics or other such means. Still, this episode made the capabilities of the company's instruments clear: if Questar telescopes were able to render detailed images of ground-based objects from space, imagine what they could do for the amateur astronomer or nature observer.
A Telescope Suitable for Rocket Borne Instrumentation
NASA also used Questar telescopes in unmanned missions to obtain images and measurements of the Sun using automated equipment aboard sounding rockets—and Questar was just as keen to highlight these missions in its advertising as it was in the wake of the earlier Gemini flights.
"A Telescope Suitable for Rocket-borne Instrumentation." Questar Corporation
Under the headline, "A Telescope Suitable for Rocket-borne Instrumentation," a June 1967 advertisement explained that "the descriptive quotation above is the title of a paper published by Patrick H. Verdone of Goddard Space Flight Center, regarding a special all-quartz Questar used in two rocket flights to photograph the sun in the near ultraviolet. Mr. Verdone's report on the equipment and its performance appears in the March 1967 issue of Applied Optics. The entire project is covered in a paper called 'Rocket Spectroheliograph for the MG II Line at 2802.7 A' by Kerstin Fredga."[63]
In his November 1966 paper, Verdone described the Questar telescope that NASA used to photograph the Sun at a near-ultraviolet wavelength. Rather than design and build a custom optical unit, the agency chose a commercially-available model instead. In particular, it selected a Questar Field Model with fused silica optics "because it combines a very compact, closed construction with high resolution, a long effective focal length and excellent imaging qualities."[64]
Verdone went on to discuss the mechanical, thermal, and vacuum considerations that went into the project. On the mechanical front, the telescope was subjected to a vibration test that simulated conditions upon launch on an Aerobee 150 sounding rocket. Although the focus knob had been locked in place and remained so after the test, the focus had changed. Inspection of the unit revealed that the primary mirror retaining yoke had become deformed. "This failure is understandable since the yoke was supported at only one point by attachment to the focusing rod." The test revealed that modifications to the support yoke, baffle tube attachment, focus rod, and back plate were necessary.[65]	Questar made no mention of these modifications in its advertisement that highlighted Verdone's paper.
As far as thermal considerations were concerned, the telescope would encounter a wide range of thermal conditions, but researchers would not have had a way to adjust focus during flight. Project designers solved this problem by replacing the aluminum telescope barrel with one made of Invar, a material that resisted the effects of temperature changes.[66]
And with regard to vacuum considerations, Verdone wrote that filter cell ventilation slots were enlarged to provide for quicker pressure equalization during flight. He also touched upon the 3M Scotch-brand tape that Questar used at several points around the corrector lens. In production models, the tape provided a firm mount that also prevented the optics from becoming pinched and distorted. The tape was tested for outgassing, but no difference in optical performance at the target wavelength was observed.[67]
In the end, Verdone wrote that, after a test flight and recovery, "the experiment package was checked for focus and alignment of the telescope, neither of which had changed." And upon actual use, "the same modified Questar telescope has performed exceptionally well for two Aerobee 150 flights and was recovered in a condition acceptable for immediate re-use."[68]
One such flight occurred on December 2, 1965, when NASA flew an Aerobee 150 sounding rocket equipped with a spectroheliograph that included a Questar telescope. The mission obtained images of the Sun at the magnesium II line at 2802.7 Angstroms, and it took measurements of solar flux at approximately 1700 and 2800 Angstroms.[69]
The American space program reached its peak during the Apollo missions, and Questar did not wait long to associate its telescope with them. "No need to go to the moon to enjoy its unearthly beauty," the company wrote in a November 1969 advertisement. "Our files are full of magnificent photographs, taken by Questar owners, that demonstrate the fascinating hours to be spent simply in watching its changing light and shadow from a comfortable chair, with your Questar on a table."[70]
Jermone Grever demonstrates using a Questar attached to an RCA television camera to render images of the Moon. Jerome L. Grever/RCA Corporation via americanradiohistory.com
A few years earlier, Jerome Grever, RCA's manager for television camera merchandizing, demonstrated what else was possible with a Questar telescope. In the March 1968 issue of RCA's promotional magazine Broadcast News, Grever described an experiment he conducted in his backyard one night in October 1967. He wrote, "Have you ever thought about televising the moon as an exciting visual aid to your news programs? The manned Apollo moon landing will be big news and deserves imaginative coverage. If you're an educator, would you be interested in televising the next eclipse of the moon?"[71]
After overcoming the challenges of maintaining resolution, preventing light loss that occurs with high-magnification telescopic lenses, and faithfully presenting the range of contrast between highlights and shadows, Grever attached what appears to have been a Questar Field Model in place of a standard zoom lens to an RCA TK-43 camera to render a near-full disk image of the Moon on a television screen. To achieve various focal lengths, Grever simply slid the telescope back and forth on a supporting rod. Because of the high magnification, following the Moon's motion without bounce was difficult. "Aesthetically the most pleasing method of panning was to position the moon at the left of the raster and let it drift to the right, re-position and let drift. This gave a very real sense of motion as well as bounce-free pictures." In all, Grever found the small Questar attached easily to the television camera.[72]
David Moore of National Geographic magazine aimed a Questar equipped with a Nikon F camera to produce high-resolution images of the Moon. National Geographic via tinyurl.gale.com
National Geographic also made use of a Questar telescope. In its February 1969 issue, Staff cartographer David W. Cook described how he and his team used images from the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft to produce its famous map of the Moon. One member of his team, David Moore, used a Nikon F camera mounted on a 3.5-inch standard Questar to make high-resolution exposures on fine-grain film. Moore used these images to produce eleven drawings that illustrated various phases of the Moon.[73]
In addition to its helpfulness on the ground, the Questar telescope accompanied the crew of Apollo 9, which tested the mission's full complement of spacecraft in low Earth orbit on March 3-13, 1969.[74]	At the studios of CBS, author and Questar owner Arthur C. Clarke offered commentary with Walter Cronkite during the unfolding of the mission.[75]
Under the headline "Visibility Surprised the Apollo 9 Crew," an Associated Press article that appeared in New York Times on March 17, 1969, described how astronauts gathered "new evidence of the clear visibility that exists in space—and of the marvelous acuity of the human eye." Upon their return, they described how they used their star-tracking Questar telescope to follow orbiting objects from as far as 1600 miles away. They also followed a 12.5-foot-long rocket stage to a distance of around 1000 miles.[76]
Plans for using a Questar telescope during Apollo 18 were also in the works before officials cancelled the mission due to the escalating cost of the Vietnam War.[77]	In a November 1969 report entitled "Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions (ALEM) Program and Mission Definition," NASA outlined "candidate lunar orbit experiments and supporting equipment together with tentative mission assignments." Included in an equipment list was a "Questar Contarex Camera" that was to assist in producing "high resolution photographs of specific lunar features" and "high resolution photography of potential landing sites."[78]	David Shayler notes that plans for the mission, which was scheduled for February or March 1972, also called for the use of a Questar telescope to collect seismic data on the Moon.[79]
At the end of the 1950s, Lawrence Braymer marveled at the possibilities of the Space Age, and he was undoubtedly proud of the small role his Questar telescope played with bringing the average person closer to it. He would have been still prouder to know that it was a direct participant in America's venture into space. But time was not on his side.
Next: § 3.5. Death of Lawrence Braymer
1 "Space Age," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Age, accessed January 18, 2021; "Sputnik 1," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sputnik_1, accessed January 18, 2021.
2 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, March 1959, 294.
4 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, February 1959, 217.
6 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, January 1959, 148.
7 Jeremy Bernstein, "Out of the Ego Chamber," New Yorker, August 9, 1969, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/08/09/ego-chamber, accessed December 25, 2019.
8 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 4, 15.
10 Arthur C. Clarke, Prelude to Space (New York: Ballantine Books, 1976), vii, https://archive.org/details/preludetospace00arth/page/n5/mode/2up, accessed November 21, 2021; Arthur C. Clarke, "Servant Problem—Oriental Style," in The View from Serendip (New York: Random House, 1977), 13, https://archive.org/details/viewfromserendipclar00clar/page/12/mode/2up, accessed November 21, 2021; "Luna 2," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2, accessed December 13, 2021.
11 Arthur C. Clarke, "Beneath the Indian Ocean," in 1984, Spring: A Future of Choices (London: Granada, 1984), 241, https://archive.org/details/1984springchoice0000clar_v5l8/page/240/mode/2up, accessed November 21, 2021.
12 Arthur C. Clarke, The Treasure of the Greek Reef, 1964, as quoted in "Arthur C. Clarke's Comments About His Questar 3-1/2," Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/library/questar/queacclarke.html, accessed September 20, 2019.
13 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 18, 23, 41, 49, 64.
14 Samuel Wigley, "The Letter from Stanley Kubrick that Started 2001: A Space Odyssey," British Film Institute, June 9, 2016, https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/letter-stanley-kubrick-started-2001-space-odyssey, accessed December 11, 2019.
15 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 39-41.
16 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 21-22, 39; Tyler Knudsen, "The Kubrick Files Episode 1: The Collaboration of Kubrick and Clarke," Cinematyler, April 22, 2016, http://cinematyler.com/archives/628, accessed December 11, 2019.
18 Stanley Kubrick to Arthur C. Clarke, March 31, 1964, https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/letter-stanley-kubrick-started-2001-space-odyssey, accessed September 29, 2019.
19 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 36, 38.
21 "50 Years Ago, Kubrick and Clarke Made Their First Contact," 2001Italia.it, March 31, 2014, http://www.2001italia.it/2014/03/50-years-ago-kubrick-and-clarke-made.html, accessed September 29, 2019.
24 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 17, 28-29.
25 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 41-43, 45
27 Jake Coyle, "The Moon Landing Was a Giant Leap for Movies, Too," Phys.org, July 12, 2019, https://phys.org/news/2019-07-moon-giant-movies.html, accessed July 13, 2019.
28 Tyler Knudsen, "The Kubrick Files Episode 1: The Collaboration of Kubrick and Clarke," Cinematyler, April 22, 2016, http://cinematyler.com/archives/628, accessed December 11, 2019.
30 Arthur C. Clarke, "Last (?) Words on UFOs," in The View from Serendip (New York: Random House, 1977), 176, https://archive.org/details/viewfromserendipclar00clar/page/176/mode/2up, accessed November 21, 2021.
32 "50 Years Ago: The Kubrick-Arthur Clarke UFO Incident," 2001Italia.it, May 20, 2014, http://www.2001italia.it/2014/05/50-years-ago-kubrick-arthur-clarke-ufo.html, accessed September 29, 2019; Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 57.
33 Michael Benson, Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), 57.
34 Josh Jones, "The Letter Between Stanley Kubrick & Arthur C. Clarke That Sparked the Greatest SciFi Film Ever Made," Open Culture, May 14, 2015, http://www.openculture.com/2015/05/the-letter-between-stanley-kubrick-arthur-c-clarke-that-sparked-the-greatest-scifi-film-ever-made-1964.html, accessed December 11, 2019.
35 Jeremy Bernstein, "Out of the Ego Chamber," New Yorker, August 9, 1969, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1969/08/09/ego-chamber, accessed December 25, 2019.
36 "On Tour: Stanley Kubrick," Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, n.d., https://www.dff.film/en/ausstellung/on-tour-stanley-kubrick, accessed December 22, 2019; Dunlap Observatory, Twitter post, December 22, 2014, 8:41 a.m., https://twitter.com/Dunlap_Obs/status/547069529541853184, accessed September 29, 2019; "Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition," Flickr, January 8, 2014, https://www.flickr.com/photos/37331193@N03/14507196094/in/photostream/, accessed December 25, 2019.
38 Steve Voce, "Artie Shaw," The Independent, January 1, 2005, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/artie-shaw-26697.html, accessed January 18, 2021.
39 Online forum posting, Questar Users Group, May 30, 2008, https://groups.io/g/Questar/message/16522, accessed July 8, 2020.
40 Online forum posting, Questar Users Group, June 19, 2005, https://groups.io/g/Questar/message/11552, accessed August 15, 2020.
41 Way... Way Out, directed by Gordon Douglas (1966).
42 Peter M. Black, Informatica 1.0: Access to the Best Tools for Mastering the Information Revolution (New York: Random House, 2000), 8, https://archive.org/details/informatica10acc00blac/page/n5/mode/1up, accessed December 7, 2021.
43 Rodger Gordon in discussion with the author, August 15, 2020.
44 Charles Shaw, "Larry Braymer: 'In Quest of the Stars,'" New Hope Gazette, March 14, 1985, 32, https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Questar/files/FAQ/, accessed October 15, 2019; "Project Mercury," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Mercury, accessed December 28, 2020.
45 "Project Gemini," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Gemini, accessed December 28, 2020.
46 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, June 1965, inside front cover.
47 "Gemini 3," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_3, accessed December 23, 2019.
48 P.W. Malik and G.A. Souris, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Project Gemini: A Technical Summary, Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, June 1968, 298, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680016105.pdf, accessed December 23, 2019.
49 Barton C. Hacker and James M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini, NASA Special Publication-4203 in the NASA History Series, 1977, https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4203/ch10-4.htm, accessed December 23, 2019.
52 "Gemini 5," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_5, accessed January 19, 2021.
53 P.W. Malik and G.A. Souris, McDonnell Douglas Corporation, Project Gemini: A Technical Summary, Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, June 1968, 297-301, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19680016105.pdf, accessed December 23, 2019.
54 Barton C. Hacker and James M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini, NASA Special Publication-4203 in the NASA History Series, 1977, https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4203/ch11-4.htm, accessed December 23, 2019.
55 "Gemini V Air-to-Ground Transcription," Houston, Texas: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, October 5, 1965, 205, 295, 296, 500, https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/mission_trans/GT05_TEC.PDF, accessed January 24, 2021.
56 Time, September 10, 1965, 64, https://archive.org/details/time-1965-10-22/Time%201965-09-10/page/64/mode/1up, accessed November 26, 2021.
57 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, October 1965, inside front cover; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Natural History, October 1965, 67; Questar Corporation, advertisement, Scientific American, October 1965, 122.
58 "Looking Sharp," Newsweek, September 27, 1965, 88.
63 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Sky and Telescope, June 1967, inside front cover; Kerstin Fredga, "Rocket Spectroheliograph for the Mg ii Line at 2802.7 �," Applied Optics 8, no. 2 (1969): 333-343..
64 Patrick H. Verdone, "A Telescope Suitable for Rocket Borne Instrumentation," Greenbelt, Maryland: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, November 1966, https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19670009591.pdf, accessed August 6, 2020.
69 Significant Achievements in Space Science 1966 (Washington, D.C.: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1967), 392, https://books.google.com/books?id=F7UjOdoDS9UC&pg=PA392#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed August 8, 2020.
70 Questar Corporation, advertisement, Scientific American, November 1969, 137.
71 Jerome L. Grever, "Want to Shoot the Moon?" RCA Broadcast News, March 1968, 19, https://www.americanradiohistory.com/ARCHIVE-RCA/RCA-Broadcast-News/RCA-138.pdf, accessed May 13, 2020.
72 Jerome L. Grever, "Want to Shoot the Moon?" RCA Broadcast News, March 1968, 19-23, https://www.americanradiohistory.com/ARCHIVE-RCA/RCA-Broadcast-News/RCA-138.pdf, accessed May 13, 2020.
73 David W. Cook, "How We Mapped the Moon," National Geographic, February 1969, 242.
74 "Apollo 9," Wikipedia, n.d., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_9, accessed January 19, 2021.
76 Associated Press, "Visibility Surprised the Apollo 9 Crew," New York Times, March 17, 1969, 30, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/03/17/issue.html, accessed December 20, 2019. Although this article does not explicitly identify the instrument on board the spacecraft, Rodger Gordon noted that it was indeed a Questar telescope (Rodger Gordon in discussion with the author, August 15, 2020). Company Seven also makes note of this ("Questar Long Distance Surveillance / Ultra Telephoto Lens Systems," Company Seven, n.d., http://www.company7.com/questar/surveillance.html, accessed August 12, 2019).
77 Robert C. Pettengill, "Why did NASA take a car and a movie camera to the moon, but not a telescope?," Quora, August 16, 2017, https://www.quora.com/Why-did-NASA-take-a-car-and-a-movie-camera-to-the-moon-but-not-a-telescope, accessed December 20, 2019.
78 National Aeronautics and Space Administration, "Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions (ALEM) Program and Mission Definition," Houston: Advanced Missions Program Office, Manned Spacecraft Center, November 1, 1969, 3-9, 3-11, 3-13, 3-14, https://repository.hou.usra.edu/handle/20.500.11753/588, accessed March 19, 2020.
79 David J. Shayler, Apollo: The Lost and Forgotten Missions (New York: Springer, 2002), 263, https://books.google.com/books?id=nL3lLGtc9mgC&pg=PA263#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed June 17, 2020.


text:
Russia's Nuclear Submarine Construction Reaches Post-Soviet High
By The Barents Observer
The crew of a nuclear submarine built at Sevmash shipyard. Lev Fedoseyev / TASS
Russia's Sevmash shipyard, the only one in the country that builds nuclear-powered submarines, saw a record year in 2021. Three subs were handed over to the Navy, two were put on water and construction started on another two.
Not since the late days of the Soviet Union have the workers at the building and repair yard Severodvinsk been busier than now. Moscow's modernization program for its Navy over the last decade stands in sharp contrast to considerable neglect in the years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
2022 marks 10 years since the Russian Navy's first fourth generation multi-purpose submarine, the Severodvinsk, successfully launched a Kalibr cruise missile from a submerged position in the White Sea. While it took nearly 20 years to complete construction of the Severodvinsk, later Yasen-M class vessels are being built faster.
Construction of the Novosibirsk, which was commissioned for the Navy in late December 2021, took 8 years.
Similar construction times are also being seen for the new ballistic missile submarines of the Borei-A class in the wake of the Yury Dolgoruky, which took 16 years from being laid down in 1996 to commissioning for the Northern Fleet in 2012. The Knyaz Oleg, handed over to the Pacific Fleet just before Christmas last year took 7 years to build.
Putin Unveils World's Longest Nuclear Submarine at Shipyard Ceremony
As of Jan. 1, 2022, 13 nuclear-powered submarines are at different stages of construction at the Sevmash yard and are all expected to be delivered to the navy before 2027.
While high-profile publicity is given to laying-down ceremonies, launching and commissioning of ballistic missile subs and multi-purpose subs, far less is known about special-purpose subs. The Barents Observer has on several occasions reported about the Belgord, the world's longest submarine built on a modified Oscar-II class hull. The submarine will be the carrier of the new Poseidon nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed drones and likely be based with the Pacific Fleet later this year.
Two other carriers of the Poseidon drone are currently under construction at the Sevmash yard, the Khabarovsk and Ulyanovsk.
Other unconfirmed submarines that might be in the pipeline for construction in years to come are two more Borei-A class vessels, two more Poseidon carriers and one or two special-purpose mini-submarine to sail for GUGI, the Defense Ministry's Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research.
Design work for fifth generation nuclear-powered submarines, referred to as the Husky class, is said to be underway, but so far no contracts have been signed.
In addition to new submarines, the Sevmash yard is busy working on repair and modernization of the large nuclear-powered battle cruiser Admiral Nakhimov. Originally commissioned into the Soviet Navy in 1988, the warship was rarely deployed to sea and has been in Severodvinsk for the last 23 years. If no further delays are announced, the battlecruiser will be re-commissioned for the Northern Fleet in 2023.
Read more about: Navy
blocked vessels
Ukraine Accuses Russia of Shutting Off Black Sea Access, Harassing Ships
Ukraine claims that Russia will close parts of the Black Sea toward the Kerch Strait, which connects southern Russia to annexed Crimea.
Post-Cold War Tensions
Russia Says Chased off U.S. Warship in Its Pacific Waters
A Russian anti-submarine destroyer threatened to "use a ramming maneuver to drive the intruder out of its territorial waters."
Russian Jailed for Sharing Military Secrets With CIA – TASS
The man is accused of trying to share information about advanced naval weapons systems.
unwelcome visit
Bear and Cub Shot Dead by Russian Submariners After Climbing On Vessel
Reports said the bears were shot because the mother "was very emaciated and wounded."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Reading unicode elements into numpy array Consider a text file called "new.txt" containing the following elements:
μm
∂r
∆λ

In Python 2.7, I can read the file by typing:
>>> import codecs
>>> f = codecs.open('new.txt', encoding='utf-8')
>>> lines = [line.strip() for line in f2.readlines()]
>>> lines
[u'\u03bcm', u'\u2202r', u'\u2206\u03bb']
>>> print lines[0]
μm

So far so good. I can easily convert this list to a numpy array via:
>>> import numpy as np
>>> arr = np.array(lines)
>>> arr
array([u'\u03bcm', u'\u2202r', u'\u2206\u03bb'],
      dtype='<U2')

The issue is, I can't read this file directly via numpy's loadtxt function:
>>> np.loadtxt('new.txt', dtype=np.unicode_)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/lib/npyio.py", line 805, in loadtxt
    X = np.array(X, dtype)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xce in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)

What is the correct way to read this file into numpy directly?
Thanks.

A: If you want to use loadtxt, you can either first load the raw byte array and then decode:
data = np.loadtxt('foo.txt', dtype='S8')
unicode_data = data.view(np.chararray).decode('utf-8')

or specify a converter for decoding:
data = np.loadtxt('foo.txt', converters={0: lambda x: unicode(x, 'utf-8')}, dtype='U2')

However, using fromiter as in Sven's answer is probably going to be more effective than loadtxt.

A: In memory, unicode strings are represented as UCS-2 or UCS-4, depending on how your Python interpreter was compiled.  Your file is encoded in UTF-8, so you need to recode it before you can map it to the NumPy array.  loadtxt() can't do the recoding for you -- after all NumPy is mainly targeted at numerical arrays.
Assuming every line has the same number of characters, you could also use the more efficient variant
s = codecs.open("new.txt", encoding="utf-8").read()
arr = numpy.frombuffer(s, dtype="<U3")

This will include the newline characters in the strings.  To not include them, use
arr = numpy.frombuffer(s.replace("\n", ""), dtype="<U2")

Edit: If the lines of your file have different lengths and you would like to avoid the intermediate list, you can use
arr = numpy.fromiter(codecs.open("new.txt", encoding="utf-8"), dtype="<U2")

I'm not sure if this will internally create some temporary list, though.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Universal human experiences. I have played my music around the world. Many times I have sung to audiences who did not speak the same language as me or understand the language I was singing in. But the tears would come. The hugs would be tighter and blessings would be uttered. This connection we all have, the suffering we are all able to feel, the happiness we can all share – inspire me.
Her story has inspired thousands of people across the world and has prompted just as many questions about her 'secret' to being so healthy at her age.
Singh desires to invest in the very community that provided him with the same opportunities which have contributed to his success as a community leader. "I desire to invest my time in Fishers – working towards collaborating with others as we address the fast-paced growth of our community and inspiring others to get involved with the community, as well," Singh continued.
Sarabjeet Singh Bobby or 'Vela' Bobby from Himachal Pradesh, who drives a hearse van to ferry corpses free of cost.


Available in Burgundy and Cream.
Beautiful, quality artificial silk flower candle ring, decorated with Rose, buds, pear and berry.
Special patterns printed on leaves and petals.
Great for wedding or home decoration.
Candles that may be shown in pictures with Candle Rings are not included unless this is explicitly indicated (e.g. with decorated votive candle holders). For the maximum size candle that can be used with a particular wreath or candle ring please check the inner diameter in the measurements (or email us if none is provided).
For example, a 1 inch inner diameter normally corresponds to dinner candles, while a 3 inch or larger wreath or candle ring diameter is intended for pillar candles.
For your and your guests' safety please remember that the fabric of the artificial flowers is flammable and care must be taken when burning candles in any sort of setting.


text:
Delitto e castigo è l'ottavo album di Cristiano Malgioglio prodotto dalla Nar International.

Il disco è anticipato dal singolo Delitto e castigo che sarà poi ripreso da Milva col titolo La notte dei miracoli nel suo album Uomini addosso del 1993, con testo riscritto dallo stesso Malgioglio.

Contiene la cover del brano Wonderful Life di Black e una versione in chiave moderna del celebre brano Anema e core portato al successo da Tito Schipa negli anni cinquanta. Curiosamente il brano è presente due volte nel disco, nel lato A col titolo Anema e core e nel lato B col titolo How wonderful to know, ma il brano è esattamente uguale.

Nel brano Lolita duetta con la corista Paola Folli, in seguito collaboratrice del gruppo Elio e le Storie Tese, e oggi vocal coach ad X-Factor.

Tracce

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Luke Seal started the year with 1p. His goal: to end up with something worth more than one penny by 2012.
Things went very well, very fast. He swapped the penny for some fish, some fish for a guitar, a guitar for a bike, the bike for £50, the cash for 10 square metres of Bulgaria and the land for a custom-made metal object.
And even though most of our guests know each other very well, our new shower needs a cubicle.
Jumping on the idea like a small child on a trampoline, we proposed a week at écovallée in exchange for the custom-made object and, turning down a valuable wedding cake at the very last minute, Luke said Yes! Our object will be made by corner-of-a-field-in-Bulgaria owner Darren of Darad Fabrications in Atherstone and, if all goes to plan, brought down by friends at the end of the summer.


text:
Q: Does the object stored/retrieved using jQuery .data() have any knowledge of the DOM element it is attached to? Consider the following example:
HTML:

JS/jQuery:
var ComplexObject = function() {

   this.Append = function(textToAppend) {
      //append text to the div that this is "attached" to
   };

};

var obj = new ComplexObject();
$("#cool-div").data("o", obj);

Is there a way for the ComplexObject() to know which DOM element it is "attached" to - in this case the DIV "#cool-div".  I would like to add text to "#cool-div" using just the ComplexObject() class ... but I don't think I can, or at least I haven't been able to tackle it.

A: The object doesn't know by default which element(s) it's attached to - the data can be anything, so jquery wouldn't know how to tell the object when it attaches it.
You can write a wapper around .data to make it comply with your requirement, for example:
$.fn.dataaware = function(key, value) {
    this.data(key, value);

    if (value instanceof ComplexObject)
        value.setContext(this);
}

You might also want to wrap .removeData as well.

A: I know this probably isn't the sexy, built-in type answer you're looking for, but you could always assign it explicitly with something like this:
var ComplexObject = function(domElt) {

   this.domElt = domElt;

   this.Append = function(textToAppend) {
      //append text to the div that this is "attached" to
   };

};

var obj = new ComplexObject($('#cool-div"));

Hopefully that can at least help!

A: No, ComplexObject does not know unless you tell it. You could do something like this:
var ComplexObject = function() {

  this.Append = function(textToAppend) {
      //append text to the div that this is "attached" to
  };

  this.elem = '';

};

var obj = new ComplexObject();

$("#cool-div").data("o", obj);
obj.elem = $("#cool-div"); // or obj.elem = $("#cool-div")[0]; if you want the node


Does Freddie Freeman Really Deserve the NL MVP?
Freddie Freeman deserves to be the National League MVP in 2018.
He just does, and, barring injury, he will win it.
Arizona Diamondbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt started off horribly; Nolan Arenado feels like a guy who will always belong in the conversation but will never feel like the most important player in the NL; Matt Kemp dropped a bunch of weight and is slashing 306/346/531 on a Los Angeles team that seems to be righting the ship; Brandon Belt has missed time, too, and you really can't make the case he's been better than Freeman this year; Bryce Harper isn't having his best season and has been overshadowed by 19-year-old phenom Juan Soto; Odubel Herrera, Lorenzo Cain and/or Christian Yelich deserve love, and Scooter Gennett just terrorized the Braves in the Reds' three-game series in Atlanta this week, but do any of these names feel like they deserve the NL MVP over the best player on the surprising, division-leading Braves?
This is why giving an AL and NL MVP award is so stupid. The NL is a mess, with over half of the league still having a realistic chance of qualifying for the playoffs this fall. There really are no great teams, just a lot of solid B+ or A- teams that have a plethora of talented guys, as mentioned above, but they just don't feel like they should ever win an MVP. If you look at the AL, you have Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Aaron Judge, J.D. Martinez, Jose Ramirez, George Springer, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, Manny Machado, Jose Altuve and I'm probably forgetting several others. Freeman belongs in this group, but it feels wrong that only one of those guys can the AL MVP while looking at the choices in the NL? Is there a GM out there that wouldn't take what Betts, Trout, Ramirez, Lindor and Judge are doing this season over Freeman? I doubt it.
Trout is having arguably the best season of his career -- and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are playing .500 baseball and Shohei Otani is on the shelf -- and he'll probably take home the AL MVP. He leads the majors in WAR (6.7), Offensive WAR (5.9), OBP (.460), tied with Betts in OPS (1.101), Runs Created (92), and Adjusted OPS+ (205). What you'll find when comparing Trout's insane season with other AL MVP candidates, like Betts and Altuve and Lindor, for instance, is how close they are to Trout in a variety of categories. Trout has been the best player in baseball, yes, but Betts, Altuve, Lindor, and Machado are having stellar seasons, too.
It can't happen, but I'd like to propose a change to this year's NL MVP voting: Let the AL stars not named Mike Trout compete. Everybody plays everybody now, anyway, so, really, what is the rationale behind still splitting the awards by league? When we look back years later, unless you're a Braves fan, you're not going to remember the season Freeman is having, no, you're going to remember how freaking stacked the top of the AL was and, even though Trout was the obvious choice for AL MVP, there were a bunch of other guys, who, in any other year, would have been deserving of MVP, too. Nobody is taking Freeman over Betts; Freeman over Judge; maybe even Freeman over Lindor or Ramirez or Machado. It's not too late, Rob Manfred, you can still drop the charade!
So let's give -- what used to be the NL MVP now known as the Not Mike Trout MVP -- to Betts. The Red Sox are going to win over 100 games, and Betts is a major reason why. He's the best player on a real, October contender. ( On a serious note: Won't it feel weird for both MVP winners to not play for team's without a chance of winning the World Series this year?) Yes, Martinez has been worth every penny, a bout with carpal tunnel is precisely what David Price needed to get back on track in Boston, and the only thing to complain about in Boston is Blake Swihart never putting it together. Betts has been worth a WAR of 4.6 -- Freeman a few spots behind in seventh overall among qualified hitters, per Fangraphs -- and, he only maintains a WRC+ of 193. For reference, only Trout is ahead of him with a 199 WRC+. Freeman has a WRC+ of 155, which is elite, too, but a WRC+ in the 190s, like only Betts and Trout own, is just ridiculous. Betts does it all -- he hits for average, doesn't strike out a lot, hits for power (20 HRs for Betts, 15 for Freeman), and plays above-average defense. Betts is the total package and then some -- he's just not Mike Trout.
You could sell me on Ramirez for the Not Mike Trout MVP award, or Lindor, or Judge, or Machado, or even Altuve but you can't sell me on it being Freeman. If the conversation is whether or not Freeman is a top-10 player, it's not a debate: Freddie Freeman is a top-10 player in MLB. If the conversation is whether or not Freeman winning an MVP but Betts and Lindor and Ramirez and Judge and Altuve doesn't seem like a crime, that is very much a debate. The answer is probably Mookie Betts, with Ramirez and Judge close behind, and then Freeman comes in with Machado and Lindor and Altuve. Freddie Freeman is a very good MLB, but that's not good enough to win the Not Mike Trout MVP -- no, that award belongs to the Red Sox superstar Mookie Betts. Make it happen, Manfred.


I had quite a lot of language problems when working in the UK as lots of little words came to mind, some of which I can`t put on this page.
This was no laughing matter but all the fynbos is growing very well now. At least most people have got rid of the large pines but it`s making the place look very strange and empty.
A UFO landed in Chatham.
I haven`t written a blog since coming back from the UK as things have been a bit hectic. I didn`t manage to get to Folkstone as I was reliant on my brother for transport. We did however get to Rye, where I took a few photos until my phone went dead. I wanted to photograph the cannons but at least I got the wind farm.
Since then my brother has decided to move to Beckley which is not too far from Rye. I googled it and found out that it is a great place to live. There are many things to investigate in the area, from Alfred the Great to the making of cannons. I is also connected to the slaying of Thomas A`Beckett and the Great Plague.


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Olfactory Notes. HEAD: petals of African freesia, peach and California gardenia. II HEART: coriander, damask rose and jasmine. II BASE: natural vanilla, patchouli and vetiver.
Identical to Gucci Rush!!!! Planning to buy 10 more to make sure I have a stock!!


As a member of our Operations team, you can have a role procuring raw materials, managing a production line, designing new packaging innovations, or delivering our products to the people who rely on them every day. Operations is the largest function in our business and it spans the globe. We have five manufacturing facilities and two distribution centers, and talented people who make sure our products help people live their lives to the fullest.


The Cuyahoga County Council introduced legislation calling for the banning of disposable plastic bags at Tuesday's meeting.
The measure is being co-sponsored by Dale Miller and Sunny Simon and is targeting the plastic bags that are provided by retail stores. Instead, stores would encourage customers to bring their own reusable bags when shopping.
These bags wind up in the waterways in the lake or the wind up in the landfills where they sit for 500 to 1,000 years potentially contaminating the land," says Simon.


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                Localisation et partage d'un lieu

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Échelle&nbsp:

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


For almost three years, we rented the Loft to CreativeMornings PKX and since last April our own Monte Bohanan has co-hosted the events alongside Raya Al-Hashmi of Raya On Assignment. Now the relationship is getting serious—The Music Hall has become a co-producer of the series, alongside Noelle Grattan (co-founder of the Portsmouth chapter) and the all-volunteer crew. These events now fall under our Innovation + Leadership series and remain awesome.
CreativeMornings PKX is a monthly breakfast lecture series where the guiding principle is that everyone is welcome and everyone is creative. Coffee and nibbles are provided before the event where folks can network and chat. There's also a 30-second pitch section, where anyone in attendance has the opportunity to share new ideas, plug their new gig, or do a little dance. Then, the main event: the locally sourced speaker takes the stage for a presentation around that month's global theme.
Monte Bohanan is the Director of Marketing & Communications at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH where he oversees daily operations of event and institutional marketing and PR. He is a twenty-two year veteran of performing arts administration. He has, through his work at The Music Hall, organized events like Fill The Hall Food Drive which collected over 14 tons of donated food by filling every seat in the Historic Theater. He is also one of the ghouls behind the Portsmouth Halloween Parade, a community-organized event, and sits on two non-profit boards, End 68 Hours of Hunger, and The Portsmouth Chamber Collaborative. He tries really hard not to Instagram his food. He also still finds it weird to talk about himself in the third person.


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Well, what a week it's been!
Scotland: if Brexit happens, we want independence from Britain.
America: if Britain knows what's good for it, Britain will vote in favour of its continued shackling by the European Union.
The Economist turns out to be economically illiterate.
Scotland: if Brexit happens, we want independence from Britain. Again. And this time, we'll get the right result. Honest.
On Sunday 13 March 2016, the Scotsman published the results of a poll conducted exclusively (!) for another newspaper, finding that 52% favoured holding a second referendum on the independence of Scotland if Britain votes in favour of Brexit on 23 June 2016. However, behind the headline, the Scotsman reveals quietly that the 52% was calculable only if the "don't knows" were excluded from the numbers.
In September 2014, the Scottish held a referendum in which 55% voted to stay in the British Union. Yet, less than one year later, in the British general election of May 2015, the same electorate returned all-but-three seats to Westminster with representatives of the Scottish National Party, a pro-independence party.
To me, this has always felt that Scotland wanted the freedom to waste English money as if it were water being poured down the drain. Ultimately, if the Scottish National Party really wanted Scottish independence, it would have called for a British referendum for September 2014, not just a Scottish referendum. Calling for a Scotland-only referendum was designed to just-about fail to bring about independence.
The parallels with Britain's (specifically, South East England's) economic relationship with the European Union are striking - especially in regards the democratic ability to define one's national strategy in the world - but with one major difference: both Scotland and European Union depend upon the hard cash paid out to them by London, the South East and the West Midlands of England.
And, according to the Independent, some Welsh might think a similar way to the Scottish independentists.
America: if Britain knows what's good for it, Britain will vote in favour of its continued shackling by the European Union. To be honest, us Americans can't risk too much more competition in the world, because Chinese interests are already killing us.
On Monday 14 March 2016, Mayor of London Boris "BoJo" Johnson criticised American President Barack Obama as "outrageous and exorbitant hypocrisy" according to various newspapers (for a pro-Remain slant, refer to the Guardian). Obama has said that Britain should remain within the European Union. Johnson's retort is that America would never suffer the shackles of anything like the European Union.
The day before, the same source cited Republican presidential runner Ted Cruz's comments that Obama's intervention would be more likely to make the British vote in favour of Brexit.
in the foreign policy community there is a strong consensus that UK membership benefits the US national interest.
Foreign policy community? You mean, all of those public-sector people whose incomes depend on doing foreign policy stuff, talking to foreign governments for the sake of talking? Well yes, of course I'd expect them to link their incomes with their own nation's interests...!
The Economist turns out to be economically illiterate. And illiterate in basic law and basic politics, it seems.
On 27 February 2016, the Economist opined a piece about how bad life would be after Brexit, carefully choosing sources of opinion (not evidence) originating from vested interests strongly in favour of the status quo.
Nearly every paragraph in the Economist's piece is flawed. It would take an entire blog just to point out its mistakes in basic logic, so here is just one example. The Economist is keen to use current trade patterns and current balance of payment numbers as a basis to claim that nothing can ever change, nothing should ever change, so we had better stick with a cowardly strategy of what we know, even if it under-achieves (and strategically is bound to under-achieve).
Article 50 provides that the EU will negotiate a new agreement with the withdrawing country over two years. That can be extended, but only by unanimous agreement. The article also specifies that, when agreeing a new deal, the EU acts without the involvement of the country that is leaving. To get a feel for the negotiating dynamic, imagine a divorce demanded unilaterally by one partner, the terms of which are fixed unilaterally by the other. It is a process that is likely to be neither harmonious nor quick — nor to yield a result that is favourable to Britain.
Indeed, the incentive for other EU countries is not to act with generosity. A decision to leave will be seen by many as a hostile and destabilising act for a union that is already in deep trouble. Voters across Europe are disillusioned with Brussels. Populist parties in France, the Netherlands, Italy and elsewhere are watching the Brexit debate closely. The EU will be desperate to show that a decision to leave does not have a painless outcome.
Whilst there is some merit in the Economist's negative forecast of how some European countries might behave vindictively - the state of France is the easiest case to imagine - it is objectively not in the interests of any European state to chop its own nose off to spite its face. No-where in the article does the Economist attempt to challenge its biased, negative stance. Generosity is not what Britain needs, but hard cash is what European exporters to Britain do need. The Economist seems to have deliberately ignored this inconvenient fact.
For me, therefore, like the Financial Times, the Economist has ceased to be a credible witness.
Certainly, you would not want the author of that Economist piece to manage your investments, or run your business.
On 13 March 2016, the Financial Times (not a credible witness) reported that Dublin is going to get ready for an influx of fund managers upon a vote for Brexit.
Odd. I thought the obvious choice for all financial services was Frankfurt.
On 16 March 2016, the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse agreed merger terms (reported by the Guardian).
On 17 March 2016, various news sources picked up a story about German comedians that poked fun at the British for - as the comedians perceive it - their "Little Englander Great Empire" attitude. One source that positively revelled in the story was the Russian-based RT.
What looks like a prima facie attack on the British is equally likely to be an attack on German politicians, i.e. "er... if the Brits can negotiate less political interference, then why do we still have to obey laws demanded by the French?"
A Spanish source Euroweekly sets out some advice for readers to prepare for the possible consequences of Brexit. In short, if Brexit happens, expect to be discriminated against, as France attempted to do before the European Union stopped them.
"Could you imagine a society that had no statutory rights for holiday pay or where employees didn't have the right to have a break? The air that we breathe, the water that we drink, the standard of food that we eat, employment rights, consumer rights, human rights, all of those protections Europe has brought to us that member states could not have brought to people on their own."
Funnily enough, all of the legislation cited above that applies to me is legislation of the UK parliament.
The European Union may direct national governments to legislate for particular requirements, to ensure some degree of harmonisation.
But the idea that only Europe can have useful ideas for law is deeply offensive.
To take two examples of British law. The British Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 started life as a bill in 1970, disconnected entirely from the European Union. It later accepted tertiary legislation to wire its operations into European requirements, without substantial amendment to the operation of the Act itself. And even decimalisation of the currency in 1971 had a long history of development, disconnected with the European Union.
Project Fear has clearly joined forces with Project Falsehood and Project Insult-The-Demos.
On 18 March 2016, the Daily Mail reported comments by both Alan Johnson and Andy Burnham, both Labour MPs who side with EurIn (pron "urine") (the opposite of Brexit).
Whilst Burnham acknowledged that Europe is "remote, arrogant and anti-democratic" (according to the Daily Mail), Burnham's solution is to propose a policy that makes Europe even more remote, arrogant and anti-democratic. Burnham calls this a "social Europe". If Europe were an elite capitalist club, Europe wouldn't have the beggar-thy-neighbour social policies that every nation now begins to realise it must curtail if they seek to have a chance to balance their budgets in the medium-term.
'Gordon's the man who kept us out of the single currency more than anyone else, so we want to deploy him somewhere in the UK rather than just in Scotland.
Erm... what? Eh? How does that work?!
The Financial Times - presumably its continuing hysterical contribution to Project Fear - has concocted a story that seeks to link Brexiteers with climate change denialism.
EU countries have collectively agreed to a range of climate policies that the UK has helped to shape, such as long-term emissions reduction targets and a carbon trading scheme that puts a price on greenhouse gas pollution.
But Lord Deben said it would be easier for UK critics to attack such policies if Britain left the EU.
"If you're outside, it's so much easier to say 'Oh well, we don't any longer have to think about things in that way and we're already doing X, Y and Z, so why should we do A, B and C?' " he said.
But the Paris agreement has nothing to do with the European Union.
So, more scaremongering by the FT. Project Fear in motion.
On 18 March 2016, Breitbart and Daily Telegraph reported some content of an interview with Peter Hargreaves, founded of listed financial advisors Hargreaves Lansdown.
The Daily Telegraph also cited a report by the Centre for Economic Performance which had magicked up some numbers to say that leaving the EU would result in a fall in ordinary people's standards of living. Very doubtful, because such numbers can only come from models and the Brexit issue offers no evidence for changes to economic or financial models.
"We believe the UK's EU referendum has probably opened up a can of worms, which will create persistent political and economic uncertainties even in the event that the UK votes to stay in," said Michael Saunders, chief UK economist at Citi.
Bingo. On this point, Michael Saunders and the above-cited German comedians have seen the same thing.


I mainly use Valley Sherwood as well, followed by either Silvi's or TheEvina's draghatch if I feel my babies aren't gaining enough views in time. In my experience I find Valley Sherwood good enough to even stick in brand new eggs, as they won't gain views too quickly and over time they'll earn just enough to hatch at the 4-day mark. I haven't fully tested if Valley is all that a newborn dragon will need until adulthood, although things do seem a little slow when they're babies.
I usually use 2 or 3. I usually put my eggs in AoND and Valley Sherwood around the 5-day mark. If they aren't getting enough views at around 4 days, I put them in Silvi's Lair.
I rely heavily on AOND and Hatching Club now that EATW is gone forever. Eggs take much longer to grow than when EATW was around and I do find it annoying having to use so many hatcheries for my dragons to grow and eggs to hatch in a reasonable amount of time.
I only really use one, unless my dragons are growing really slow. They normally seem to grow just fine under one hatchery.
Right now I'm using two; Sherwood and Evin's. So far it seems to be working. A nice, steady pace. Really good for ER hatching & growing.
Location: Down the rabbit hole, taking advantage of the free WiFi.
I've been starting with Valley Sherwood and maybe Evina's DragHatch simultaneously, and after a day or two I add them to others. I use those two, along with The Hatching Club, Silvi's Lair and Egg Drop Soup on a regular basis. It's probably very excessive, but... 😅 I suppose it's just personal preference.
My all-time faves are Allure of Neglected, Silvia's Lair, and Valley Sherwood.
Recently I've been also adding in Egg Drop Soup, Hatching Club, and Evina's Draghatch.
I usually wait till they 6 days and then just leave them. They only occasionally get sick.
I've been playing for 1.5 years and I still dump my growing creatures in 5-7 different hatcheries. I'm always impatient for my ER eggs to hatch and will enter them into every hatchery I know, and I forget to uncheck all the other eggs. So my eggs fall sick all the time. Still, almost never had an egg or hatchie die of sickness.
I used to wait until the very last minute (so, 4 Days) before I threw eggs in Hatcheries; and when I did, I would throw them into 6 different ones. Sometimes 7. Lately I've been trying to gradually enter them into Hatcheries so by the time they hit exactly 4 Days they'd just Hatch. It has been saving me precious minutes.
I've always used roughly three hatcheries--Allure of Neglected Dragons, Silvi's, and Valley Sherwood. When I first started, I just used the first 5 hatcheries listed in fansites (which included EATW ).


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text:
Q: Everytime I run this method my array is reset Everytime I call set() it resets all the values in the array to false except for what ever the int row int col is because i set that to true before the method ends. Why is this happening I thought I was making a copy of the array B and then setting the values that are in A to the values in B? Or am I mistaken here.
public void set(int row, int col) throws IndexOutOfBoundsException {
    if (row >capacityr) {
        boolean B[][] = new boolean[row+1][capacityc+1];
        for (int k = 0; k < capacityr; k++)
            for (int j = 0; j < capacityc; j++)
                B[k][j] = a[k][j];

        capacityr=row;
        a = B;
    }

    if (col >capacityc) {
        boolean C[][] = new boolean[capacityr+1][col+1];
        for (int k = 0; k <capacityr; k++)
            for (int j = 0; j < capacityc; j++)
                C[k][j] = a[k][j];

        capacityc=col;
        a = C;
    }

    a[row][col] = true;
    pT++;
}

A: It should be easier to use an ArrayList but I think this would fix your problem.
public void set(int row, int col) throws IndexOutOfBoundsException {
   if(row > capacityr) {
      if(col > capacityc) {
         //both row and col are too big
         boolean temp[][] = new boolean[row+1][col+1];

         //copy a
         for(int i = 0; i <= capacityr; i++) {
           for(int j = 0; j <= capacityc; j++) {
              temp[i][j] = a[i][j];
           }
         }

         //set all the new elements to false
         for(int i = capacityr+1; i <= row; i++) {
           for(int j = capacityc+1; j <= col; j++) {
              temp[i][j] = false;
           }
         }

         //set row and col and a to temp
         temp[row][col] = true;
         a = temp;

         //update capacity
         capacityr = row;
         capacityc = col;
      }
      else {
         //just row is too big
         boolean temp[][] = new boolean[row+1][capacityc+1];
         for(int i = 0; i <= capacityr; i++) {
           for(int j = 0; j <= capacityc; j++) {
              temp[i][j] = a[i][j];
           }
         }

         for(int i = capacityr+1; i <= row; i++) {
             temp[i][capacityc] = false;
         }
         temp[row][col] = true;
         a = temp;
         capacityr = row;
      }
  }
  else {
     if(col > capacityc) {
        //just col is too big
        boolean temp[][] = new boolean[capacityr+1][col+1];
        for(int i = 0; i <= capacityr; i++) {
           for(int j = 0; j <= capacityc; j++) {
               temp[i][j] = a[i][j];
           }
        }

        for(int j = capacityc+1; j <= col; j++) {
             temp[capacityr][j] = false;
        }
        temp[row][col] = true;
        a = temp;
        capacityc = col;
     }
     else {
        //neither are too big
        a[row][col] = true;
     }
  }
}


No, this is not about poaching salmon in the dishwasher. We have already done that one.
No, this is something quite different and, if I may say so, a lot more important.
They certainly are! What I would do while we wait for more elaborate solutions is simply to have two dishwashers, one to the left of the sink, one to the right. Dirty stuff goes into the left, clean comes out of the right. When the right one is nearly empty, clamp the left one shut and start it — and then start putting the dirty stuff in the right one and taking clean out of the left.
Of course, a real guy is not going to use a lot of dishes, let alone pots or pans. You will notice Friday's recipe for corn (Cooking Like a Guy™ #5) requires neither.
What really bugs me are people (naming no names) who turn this two-step process into a three-step process, and worse. First the dish — which may have nothing on it but a few crumbs, and could easily be wiped or rinsed clean and placed directly back on the shelf (it will dry! it doesn't need any help!) — is placed in the sink. This is to avoid the enormous effort of putting it in the dishwasher. Now it is in the sink, typically on top of a greasy pan or becrusted pot filled with soapy once-hot water.
Note what has happened here: The dish, which was crystal clean on the bottom and just a little crumby on the top — virtually ready for instant shelving or reuse — is now greasy and yechie all over, on both sides. As is the top to the pot. How did that get in there? All it had on it was a little condensation underneath, absolutely nothing on the top, let alone in the crevices of its handle. But no, it, too, is now filthy and disgusting. (And it can't go in the dishwasher. It's Calphalon™. La-dee-dah! One can get in big trouble putting that in the dishwasher.) So now the sink is more or less unusable; things that were all but clean are disgusting; the water it all sits in has grown cold and a little smelly; carving knives that could have been rinsed in a single motion are now greasy from handle to tip way at the bottom of the whole mess and totally inaccessible; and still the dishwasher waits to be loaded.
John Peterson is clearly on to something.


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