Saturday, June 21, 2008

Tom Keating buried explosives in his fake paintings


Just now on 3sat!!  Austrian TV interviewed an art-restorer. She said that she will not try to restore Keating paintings because he buried explosives under the paint, he was a master chemist.
''Gernstl ... Zweiteiliger Film von [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Xaver_Gernstl Franz Xaver Gernstl] 1. in Wien  (first broadcast 1.1.2007 - part one, about 10 minutes in)''

3sat is the name of a public, advertising-free, television network in Central Europe. The programming is in German, and is broadcast primarily within Germany, Austria and Switzerland.3sat was established for cultural programming broadcasts, over satellite networks. The network was founded as a cooperative network by Germany's ZDF, Austria's ORF and Switzerland's SRG SSR idée suisse (formerly SRG). 3sat's broadcasting began on 1 December 1984. The ZDF network provides leadership within the cooperative, though decisions are made through a consensus of the cooperative's partners.In 1990, the former DFF (Deutscher Fernsehfunk - English: German Television Broadcasting) of the German Democratic Republic became a cooperative member of 3sat, and a name change to 4sat was considered. Eventually it was decided to keep the original 3sat name. DFF's membership was dissolved in 3sat on 31 December 1991 as the broadcaster itself ceased to exist per Germany's Unification Treaty.As of 1 December 1993, ARD joined 3sat as a cooperative member. This followed ARD's creation of their satellite channel "Eins Plus". 3sat today broadcasts programming 24/7. 3sat is available on the European satellite Astra 1, cable television, and in Austria and Germany on digital terrestrial television.

Thomas Keating art fake oil painting van gogh
Forger Thomas Keating

Thomas Keating

famous art forger

Tom Keating (March 1, 1917 - February 12, 1984) was an art restorer and famous art faker who claimed to have faked more than 2,000 paintings by over 100 different artists.

Keating was born in Lewisham, London, into a poor family. After World War II he began to restore paintings for a living, though he also worked as a house painter to make ends meet. He exhibited his own paintings, but he failed to break into the art market.

Forger with a cause

Keating perceived the gallery system to be rotten, dominated, he said, by American "avant-garde fashion, with critics and dealers often conniving to line their own pockets at the expense both of naive collectors and impoverished artists". Keating retaliated by creating forgeries to fool the experts, hoping to destabilize the system.

Keating planted 'time-bombs' in his products. He left clues of the paintings' true nature for fellow art restorers or conservators to find. For example, he might write text onto the canvas with lead white before he began the painting, knowing that x-rays would later reveal the text. He deliberately added flaws or anachronisms, or used materials peculiar to the twentieth century. Modern copyists of old masters use similar practices to guard against accusations of fraud.

Technique

Keating's own approach of choice in oil painting was a Venetian technique inspired by Titian's practice, though modified and fine-tuned along Dutch lines. The resultant paintings, though time-consuming to execute, have a richness and subtlety of colour and optical effect, variety of texture and depth of atmosphere unattainable in any other way. Unsurprisingly, his favourite artist was Rembrandt.

For a 'Rembrandt', Keating might make pigments by boiling nuts for ten hours and filtering the result through silk; such colouring would eventually fade while genuine earth pigments would not. As a restorer he knew about the chemistry of cleaning fluids; so, a layer of glycerine under the paint layer ensured that when any of his forged paintings needed to be cleaned (as all oil paintings need to be, eventually), the glycerine would dissolve, the paint layer would disintegrate, and the painting - now a ruin - would stand revealed as a fake.

Occasionally, as a restorer, he would come across frames with Christie's catalogue numbers still on them. To help in establishing false provenances for his forgeries he would call the auction house to ask whose paintings they had contained - and then painted the pictures according to the same artist's style.

Keating also produced a number of watercolors in the style of Samuel Palmer and oil paintings by various European masters including Francois Boucher, Edgar Degas, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Thomas Gainsborough, Amedeo Modigliani, Rembrandt, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Kees van Dongen.

Revealing the forger

In 1970, auctioneers noticed that there were thirteen watercolor paintings of Samuel Palmer for sale - all of them depicting the same theme, the town of Shoreham. When an article published in The Times discussed the auctioneer's suspicions about their provenance, Keating confessed that they were his. He also estimated that more than 2,000 of his forgeries were in circulation. He had created them, he declared, as a protest against those art traders who get rich at the artist's expense. He also refused to list the forgeries.

Aftermath

Keating was finally arrested in 1977 and accused of conspiracy to defraud. That same year, he published his autobiography with Geraldine and Frank Norman. The case was dropped on account of his bad health. Years of chain smoking and the effects of breathing in the fumes of chemicals used in art restoring including ammonia, turpentine and methyl alcohol, together with the stress induced by the court case, had taken their toll. Through 1982 and 1983 Keating rallied, however, and though in fragile health, he presented television programmes on the techniques of old masters for Channel 4 in the UK. These programmes are still available on video. Just a year before he died in Colchester at age 66, Keating claimed in a television interview that, in his opinion, he was not an especially good painter. His proponents would disagree.

Even when he was alive, many art collectors and celebrities, such as the ex-heavyweight boxer Henry Cooper, had begun to collect Keating's work. After his death his paintings became increasingly valuable collectibles. The same year as his death, Christie's auctioned 204 of his works. The amount raised from the auction was not announced but it is said to have been considerable. Even his known forgeries, described in catalogues as "after" Gainsborough or Cézanne, attain high prices.

tom keating art forger fake artist


Keating demonstrates how the masters painted.  Turner Titian Rembrandt Degas

KEATING planted  TIME BOMBS In his paintings.
Some technique that would over time give clues.
His favourite artist was REMBRANDT.
REMBRANDT and his famous work the NIGHTWATCH.

His fakes included ‘time-bombs’ – messages hidden in the work, which would eventually be discovered, to the collectors dismay. Keating has also become something of a hero –

StumbleUpon PLEASE give it a thumbs up Stumble It!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Mercedes Benz SMART electrique - London ELECTRIC VEHICLE

ecar electrisches auto batteriebetrieb


22. Februar 2008

Daimler übergibt smart for2 electric drive

Ab sofort verrichtet ein smart fortwo electric drive seinen Dienst im Fuhrpark des Energieversorgers RWE. Prof. Dr. Herbert Kohler, Leiter Fahrzeugaufbau und Antrieb Forschung und Vorentwicklung bei der Daimler AG, übergab heute das erste Erprobungsfahrzeug in Deutschland an Dr. Jürgen Großmann, Vorstandsvorsitzender der RWE AG.

ev under the bonnet tacho speedmeter
gangschaltung gear shift elektroauto steckdose tanken
electric vehicle motor smart electric


Im Einsatz wird der elektrisch betriebene smart wertvolle Erkenntnisse für die Weiterentwicklung und Effizienzsteigerung dieses Antriebskonzepts liefern. Nach dem im vorigen Jahr gestarteten Großversuch mit 100 smart fortwo electric drive in der englischen Metropole London geht damit jetzt das erste Erprobungsfahrzeug in Deutschland in den Alltagsbetrieb.
„Ich freue mich, dass uns dieses großartige Erprobungsfahrzeug von Daimler zur Verfügung gestellt worden ist. RWE-Ökostrom und smart passen gut zusammen. Wir werden unseren Beitrag dazu leisten, die Entwicklung umweltfreundlicher und innovativer Elektro-Autos weiter voran zu treiben. Elektro-Autos haben im Stadtverkehr ein hohes Potenzial, an dem RWE in der Zukunft partizipieren will - in der Forschung, aber später auch in einer möglichen breiteren Anwendung“, sagte RWE-Chef Jürgen Großmann.
Bei der Übergabe des zweitürigen 30 kW/41 PS starken smart verwies Prof. Dr. Herbert Kohler auf das hohe Entwicklungspotenzial, das der Elektroantrieb bietet: „Das emissionsfreie Fahren mit Batteriefahrzeugen ist ebenso ein fester Bestandteil unserer Antriebsstrategie wie Brennstoffzellen-Fahrzeuge. Vor allem in Kombination mit regenerativen Energien sind diese Fahrzeugkonzepte ein entscheidender Schritt zu einer nachhaltigen Mobilität der Zukunft. Dabei bauen wir in besonderem Maße auf die Unterstützung von Mineralölindustrie und Energieversorgern.“

ecological powered electric car oekostrom elektroauto

Der smart fortwo electric drive wird bei RWE täglich im Einsatz sein. Rund 115 Kilometer Reichweite lassen sich mit seiner umweltfreundlichen Natrium-Nickel-Chlorid Batterie erzielen. Diese kann in vier Stunden an jeder haushaltsüblichen 230-Volt-Steckdose wieder auf 80 Prozent ihrer Leistung aufgeladen werden. Die maximale Leistungsfähigkeit wird nach einer Ladezeit von acht Stunden erreicht.

Die unter dem Wagenboden eingebaute Hochtemperatur-Batterie verkraftet - wie bei Daimler in Labortests nachgewiesen wurde - mindestens 1000 Ladezyklen, was einer kalendarischen Lebensdauer von etwa zehn Jahren entspricht. Sie liefert die Energie für einen Elektromotor, der im Wagenheck statt des üblichen Dreizylinder-Verbrennungs­motors eingebaut ist. Damit erreicht der smart fortwo electric drive eine Höchstgeschwindigkeit von 112 km/h. Seine NEFZ-Verbrauchs­kosten liegen bei zirka 0,02 Euro je Kilometer. Damit hat er das Potenzial, wettbewerbsfähig zum Dieselantrieb zu sein.

daimle powered by green electricity rwe

Das Null-Emissions-Auto für die Stadt

 

Er hat alles an Bord, was einen smart zum smart macht - nur keinen Verbrennungsmotor. Unter dem Heck des smart fortwo electric drive arbeitet ein 30 kW/41 PS starker Magnetmotor, der durch eine dauerhaft leistungsstarke Hochtemperatur-Batterie aus umweltfreundlichem Natrium-Nickel-Chlorid angetrieben wird; sie findet im Unterboden Platz, sodass der Innenraum vollständig erhalten bleibt.

 

Mercedes Benz Electric CarMit einem NEFZ-Verbrauch von nur 12 Kilowattstunden je 100 Kilometer und null Gramm Kohlendioxidausstoß ist der smart fortwo electric drive die sparsamste und klimafreundlichste Alternative im Stadtverkehr. Einmal aufgeladen fährt der 30 kW/41 PS starke Zweitürer rund 115 Kilometer (EUDC) weit. Ist die Batterie leer, kann sie an jeder 230-Volt-Steckdose wieder aufgeladen werden – und das mindestens 1.000 Mal. Damit kann die Batterie eine Lebensdauer von zehn Jahren erreichen. Die Aufladezeit beträgt vier Stunden für bis zu 80 Prozent und acht Stunden für 100 Prozent volle Leistung.

Die NEFZ-Verbrauchskosten betragen lediglich rund 0,02 Euro pro Kilometer und liegen damit weit unter denen der Verbrennungsmotoren – bei annähernd gleicher Leistung. Die Beschleunigung von null auf 60 Stundenkilometer liegt auf dem Niveau der Benzinvariante, die Höchstgeschwindigkeit bei 112 Stundenkilometern. Hinzu kommt, dass der smart fortwo electric drive als Null-Emissions-Automobil in vielen Ländern steuerliche Vorteile genießt und von lokalen Restriktionen, wie der Congestion Charge in London, befreit ist. So bietet der elektrische Kleinwagen eine in dieser Fahrzeugklasse einzigartige Kombination aus Agilität, Wirtschaftlichkeit und Umweltverträglichkeit.

Die wichtigsten technischen Daten des smart fortwo electric drive auf einen Blick:

Nennleistung
30 kW/41 PS
0-60 km/h
5,7 s
Höchstgeschwindigkeit
ca. 112 km/h
Reichweite
ca. 115 km
Verbrauch*
12 kWh/100 km
CO2-Emissionen
0 g/km


London congestion charge maut

 
ELEKTRISCHE FAHRZEUGE SIND IN LONDON VON DER MAUT BEFREIT!

London

„Congestion Charge“ ist ein teures Vergnügen

Von Claudia Bröll

30. Juli 2007 Eine Autofahrt in die Innenstadt ist in London ein teures Vergnügen. Seit Sommer vergangenen Jahres müssen Autofahrer dafür acht Pfund (gut zwölf Euro) zahlen. Wer ein Auto mit besonders hohem Schadstoffausstoß wie die „Chelsea Tractors“ genannten SUV-Fahrzeuge sein Eigen nennt, den will Bürgermeister Ken Livingstone von 2009 an sogar mit 25 Pfund zur Kasse bitten.

„Wer sich so ein Auto leisten kann, der könnte sich auch jedes andere normale Auto kaufen, hat sich aber für ein besonders verschmutzendes Fahrzeug entschieden“, sagt Livingstone. Umweltfreundlicheren Autos will er im Gegenzug die Maut erlassen.

30 Prozent weniger Staus

Die Londoner „Congestion Charge“ wurde 2003 eingeführt. Sie gilt montags bis freitags von sieben bis 18.30 Uhr in markierten Gebieten. Anwohner bekommen 90 Prozent Rabatt. Bezahlt wird über das Internet, Mobiltelefon oder bei Einzelhändlern. Überwachungskameras nehmen jedes Fahrzeug auf, das die Grenzen der Mautzonen passiert. Wer „schwarz“ fährt, muss 100 Pfund Strafe zahlen, 50 Pfund, wenn der Betrag innerhalb von 14 Tagen überwiesen wird.

Laut der Verkehrsgesellschaft „Transport for London“ hat die Maut die Staus um 30 Prozent reduziert. Freie Fahrt hat man damit aber noch lange nicht. Morgens und abends sind die Straßen nach wie vor verstopft. Für die Stadt ist die Maut eine willkommene Geldquelle. In diesem Finanzjahr summierten sich die Zahlungen auf 122 Millionen Pfund. Das Geld wurde in Busse, Straßen, Fußgänger- und Radwege investiert.

Text: F.A.Z., 30.07.2007, Nr. 174 / Seite 7





StumbleUpon PLEASE give it a thumbs up Stumble It!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

New Zealand Educational Software

Click on the menu bars below to access the software programs on this DVD. Some of the menu bars take you immediately to software installation options, while others take you to sub-menus containing more programs. Programs in red text are new to this edition of the CANZ Resource DVD. Many of the existing programs have been updated and these are shown in blue text. Programs marked with have links to TKI Software for Learning website pages giving more information that may include teacher support material, screenshots, and examples of how students are using the software in their learning.

Notes about installing and using the software are at the bottom of this page.


Asynx Planetarium, Celestia, Home Planet, Orbiter, Stig's Sky Calendar, Solar Model, Star-Calc, Win-Stars.


Visual Assistant


Graphics editors & image viewers: AnkerCAD, Artrage, BlockCAD, CadStd Lite, Drawing for Children, FastStone, FastStone Capture, FastStone MaxView, FastStone PhotoResizer, Google SketchUp, HTML Slideshow, Irfan View, IrfanView plugins, Microsoft Photo Story 3, Paint.Net, Palette, Photofiltre, Picasa, Image Resizer powertool, Pixia, Shrink Pic, The Gimp, Tux Paint; Animation and video: 3D Canvas, 3D Screen Creator, Anim8tor, Array Animation, Pivot Stickfigure Animator, Sqirlz Lite, Sqirlz Morph, Sqirlz Water Reflections, Tales Animator; Sound editors and media players: Audacity sound editor, iTunes, Podcasting, Spider audio player, Winamp, Windows Media Player 11, Zoom Player


Alice, 2+2 Math for Kids, AC 1.0 algebra calculator, EggMath, Geogebra, Graph, Mathflash, Matrix Discovery, QuikGrid, StarLogo, Timez Attack, Tux Math, Z-Plot. (Elementary maths programs are also in the Adders and Riverdeep collections.)

button-music.gif (470 bytes)
ACID XPress, AWS Guitar Tuner, Best Practice, Breakdance Machine, Finale Notepad 2007, KoZong chord generator, Metronome, MidiNotate Player, Noteworthy Composer, Mr Drumstix Lite, Notecard, Power Tab Editor, Tiny Piano, vanBasco Karaoke, various programs from Metronimo and Happy Note.

button-office suites.gif (604 bytes)
Microsoft Office is effectively free to all schools, but alternatives on this DVD include AbiWord and OpenOffice.Org.


Crocodile Clips Elementary, Electric Field, Equilibrate, Funny Bones, Ideal Gas in 3D, Periodic Library, QuickField, Virtual Microscope, World Wind.


C-Evo, GameMaker

button-owl & mouse
Excellent collection of free educational software – especially maps.

Schoolhouse Technologies worksheets
(Formerly called Worksheet Factory). Maths and language worksheets.

button-adders.gif (801 bytes)
Clocks, dinosaurs, mazes, times tables, solar system and more. All free.

Riverdeep collection
Critical thinking, language, maths, science, social studies. (These programs were previously marketed by Edmark, which is now part of Riverdeep.) A wide range of newer pay-for programs are now on the website, but these oldies may still be worth investigating.

Miscellanous software
ABC Kid Genius, Ace Reader, Cmap Tools, Eclipse Crossword, ESB Calc, ESB Unit Conversions, Excel Calendar, Freemind, PDFs for printing out graphpaper, musical staves etc, Jigs@w Puzzle 2, Keyboard Pounder, Kiran's Typing Tutor, Powerpoint Search & Replace, Portable Apps Suite, Railendar, SimQuest, Roxie's ABC Fish, Stickies for Windows, Tux Typing, Vertex42 (Excel calendar), WordWeb.

button - utility programs.gif (696 bytes)
Acrobat Reader, AutoUnbreak, CC Cleaner, Childproof, Copernic Desktop Search, , Easycleaner, Email Stripper, Google Desktop, Network Notepad, PC Inspector File Recovery, Quicktime Alternative, Quicktime, Real Alternative, Realplayer, Graph and specialist papers, Maori language keyboard, Maori spellchecker, Sandra Lite, screen magnifiers; PDF writer alternatives to Acrobat: CutePDF Writer, PDF ReDirect, PrimoPDF; file compression programs: Stuffit Expander, TugZip, Zip Central, Winzip.

button-internet.gif (1082 bytes)
Email clients: Eudora, Pegasus & Thunderbird, Mailwasher; browsers: Firefox, Internet Explorer; instant messaging, phone: ICQ, Skype, Trillian, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger; anti-spyware: AdAware, Spybot, AVG Antispyware; anti-virus: AVG Antivirus, Avast Home edition; Firewall: Commodo, Online Armor; miscellaneous Internet programs: Hector Protector, Hot Potatoes, Yahoo Widget Engine.


USING THE SOFTWARE

After clicking on a software title, a message will appear giving you the option of running the installation program from this CD-ROM (click on 'Open'), or saving the program to a folder on your hard drive (click on 'Save').

A few of the files are actually zipped-up installation files – unzip into a temporarily folder on your hard drive and then install from that folder.

Note: some of the installation files, particularly for the 'office' suites, are fairly large and if you don't have a fast machine, there will be a delay before the message appears.

Most of the software is free, but some is shareware which you should pay for if you continue using it. Some is also 'demoware' which will run in full mode, but only for a specified period.

These programs are for Windows computers only – Windows 95 and newer. Many work well with lower powered computers, some need at least a Pentium III some are designed for Pentium IV. If you have slower computers, check the minimum requirements at the software makers' websites.

Most software is designed for Windows 2000 or XP (often specified as Service Pack 2). None of the programs have been checked for Vista compatibility, but many of the updates marked in blue above were stated to be Vista-compatible. If you have Vista or operating systems older than Windows 2000, please check their suitability at the software makers' websites.

There are some specialist subject areas, but also check in the software house sections such as Owl & Mouse, for programs which might otherwise have been put in these 'subject' categories.

Disclaimer: though this CD has been virus-tested before publication, CANZ cannot be held responsible for any damage to your system caused directly or indirectly by any of the software, corrupted files, faulty CD-ROM media or viruses (or similar programs such as 'Trojan horses' or 'worms'). Third-party freeware and shareware are supplied 'as-is'. CANZ does not have the resources to support these programs, and nor does it have the expertise to evaluate the programs for educational use in New Zealand. Any questions you have should be directed to the producers of these programs, via the web addresses given.

,

CANZ Logo
Code of practice | Acceptable use policy |
Activities & benefits | Case studies | Donors | FAQ | Products | Refurbishers | Trustees | Home


COMPUTER ACCESS NZ TRUST (CANZ)
Refurbishing office computers for schools and the community

Text processing class at Rutherford College(13122 bytes)

Students in a text processing class at Rutherford College, using networked refurbished CANZ computers.

Computers are now a vital part of our children's learning and a basic tool for most community organisations. Today it goes without saying that information and communications technology (ICT) is New Zealanders' ticket to the 21st Century.

It’s one thing to understand all this, but quite another to give all groups in our society access to the ICT revolution. Prices for new computers – even entry level models – can be a barrier for cash-strapped schools and not-for-profit community organisations.

To help solve the problem, the Computer Access New Zealand Trust (CANZ) was set up in 1999. It was an initiative of the 2020 Communications Trust, supported by the Ministry of Education.

CANZ accredits computer refurbishing companies, which use the CANZ quality brand. This means they share a code of practice and an acceptable use policy for branded machines. T

Accredited refurbishers sell used equipment donated by commercial and government organisations, usually about three years from brand new. This equipment, all quality ‘name’ brands, is refurbished, upgraded as necessary and sold with a warranty and after-sales service. Prices are considerably lower than for new computers. Schools which have bought CANZ machines in the past have consistently found them reliable and good for several years more service. When CANZ computers finally reach the end of their useful life, refurbishers take them back for environmental recycling.

For many schools, a mix of new and refurbished computers can be a sensible approach. CANZ computers are less expensive than new models, yet they are network and Internet capable and handle almost all software used in schools today. (Some high-level graphics and video applications work better on new equipment.) Click here to read case studies of schools using CANZ refurbished computers.

As well as being available for schools and community groups, CANZ refurbished machines are being used for the Computers in Homes project, which is reducing the digital divide problem in low income New Zealand communities by supplying families with computers, internet connections and training.

FAQ

Case studies of schools using CANZ computers – click below


E-waste

Not all older computers can be refurbished for continued use, and New Zealand has poor facilities for environmentally acceptable end-of-life disposal. Since 2005, CANZ has worked closely with the Ministry for the Environment and other stakeholders to help develop solutions to this problem. In 2005 and 2006 we published reports and recommendations, and in 2006 we partnered with Dell Computer to run New Zealand's first free pickup day for old computer gear. (Information and photos from this event are here. We were also the main driver behind the 2007 national eDay and we're working toward a similar event in 2008.

A table showing the environmental impacts of materials used in computer production is here.)


Contact CANZ:

Phone: 04-495 2334
Email us

Return to top of page

Last modified: 28/3/08


DONATE
Help close the digital divide by donating to the CANZ accredited recycling programme.

Click here to read about the donor programme.

E-WASTE

Click on the logo above to go the the national eDay website for information about how you can safely dispose of your unused home computer equipment.

CANZ has been helping develop national e-waste policy. In July 2006 we published a major government-funded action report. Click here to download a PDF version.

StumbleUpon PLEASE give it a thumbs up Stumble It!