This striking, high-resolution image of the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, was captured by Planet SkySat – a fleet of satellites that have just joined ESA’s Third Party Mission Programme in April 2022. The Arc de Triomphe, or in full Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, is an iconic symbol of France and one of the world’s best-known commemorative monuments. The triumphal arch was commissioned by Napoleon I in 1806 to celebrate the military achievements of the French armies. Construction of the arch began the following year, on 15 August (Napoleon’s birthday).
The arch stands at the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, the meeting point of 12 grand avenues which form a star (or étoile), which is why it is also referred to as the Arch of Triumph of the Star. The arch is 50 m high and 45 m wide.
The names of all French victories and generals are inscribed on the arch’s inner and outer surfaces, while the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I lies beneath its vault. The tomb’s flame is rekindled every evening as a symbol of the enduring nature of the commemoration and respect shown to those who have fallen in the name of France.
The Arc de Triomphe’s location at the Place Charles de Gaulle places it at the heart of the capital and the western terminus of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées (visible in the bottom-right of the image). Often referred to as the ‘most beautiful avenue in the world’, the Champs-Élysées is known for its theatres, cafés and luxury shops, as the finish of the Tour de France cycling race, as well as for its annual Bastille Day military parade.
This image, captured on 9 April 2022, was provided by Planet SkySat – a fleet of 21 very high-resolution satellites capable of collecting images multiple times during the day. SkySat’s satellite imagery, with 50 cm spatial resolution, is high enough to focus on areas of great interest, identifying objects such as vehicles and shipping containers.
SkySat data, along with PlanetScope (both owned and operated by Planet Labs), serve numerous commercial and governmental applications. These data are now available through ESA’s Third Party Mission programme – enabling researchers, scientists and companies from around the world the ability to access Planet’s high-frequency, high-resolution satellite data for non-commercial use.
Within this programme, Planet joins more than 50 other missions to add near-daily PlanetScope imagery, 50 cm SkySat imagery, and RapidEye archive data to this global network.
Peggy Fischer, Mission Manager for ESA’s Third Party Missions, commented, “We are very pleased to welcome PlanetScope and SkySat to ESA’s Third Party Missions portfolio and to begin the distribution of the Planet data through the ESA Earthnet Programme.
“The high-resolution and high-frequency imagery from these satellite constellations will provide an invaluable resource for the European R&D and applications community, greatly benefiting research and business opportunities across a wide range of sectors.”
To find out more on how to apply to the Earthnet Programme and get started with Planet data, click here.
As first official online dealer of Escada watches we are proud to offer a beautiful line of watches. Each Escada watch stands for pure class and elegance. All Escada watches are Swiss made and therefore reflect quality. The collection contains different models, colors and materials. Each Escada watch comes in a luxury watch box with manual and two years warranty.
“’Out Of The Past' was the name of the store, and its products consisted of memories: what was prosaic and even vulgar to one generation had been transmuted by the mere passing of years to a status at once magical and also camp.”
This wonderful time-travel film, written and directed by Woody Allen was a virtual who’s who. Not only in the actors, but also in the artistic characters of the past. Gil Pender (Owen Wilson) is engaged to Inez (Rachel McAdams). This is the third time-travel story I have blogged about staring Rachel McAdams, but the first time this adorable actress was not a likable character
Gil was a failed Hollywood scriptwriter who was working on his novel. He was a dreamer and found inspiration in Paris, especially in the rain. Inez did not relate to this and would never let herself get wet or live in the French city. Gil believed in soulmates. Inez thought it was a ridiculous notion. She did not respect anything Gil liked. In fact, she was more taken with her friend, Paul (Michael Sheen), who is also visiting along with his wife Carol (Nina Arianda). Paul is a pretentious snob, know-it-all. One night, Gil decides he’s had enough of hanging around with Inez’s friends and decides to walk back to his hotel. He gets lost on the streets of Paris and sits down on some steps. The bells of a clock ring out midnight. Suddenly a vintage 1920’s Peugeot taxi pulls up and the people inside beckon him to go with them to a party.
He ends up at a party in 1920’s Paris where he meets notable American novelists, Zelda (Alison Pill) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Tom Hiddleston). The Fitzgeralds are friendly and partiers, especially Zelda.
Gil is also taken by the piano player/singer who he comes to find out is none other than Cole Porter (Yves Heck) doing his famous song, Let’s Do it.
“Birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it Let's do it, let's fall in love”
“Romantic sponges, they say, do it Oysters, down in oyster bay, do it Let's do it, let's fall in love”
To make a long, great story short, Gil ends up meeting many famous people who found it vogue to hone their crafts in the Parisian city in the Roaring Twenties. He asks Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) to review his book, which is refused, so Hemingway offers to bring it to Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) who reads it and likes it. There, Gil meets Pablo Picasso (Marcial Di Fonzo Bo) and his mistress, Adriana (Marion Cotillard). Gil starts to fall for Adriana and continues to travel back to the ‘20s to date her.
Meanwhile, Gil is still engaged to Inez in the present day, who is more and more infatuated with Paul. In one scene she shushes Gil so that Paul can speak. Hemingway makes Gil wonder why he is even still engaged to Inez. Another aspect of Gil’s life Inez could not relate to was his love of antiques and nostalgia. On one trip with Inez and her friends, Gil walks over to a French female vendor playing Cole Porter on an antique Gramophone. Her name was Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) He was impressed with her knowledge of things and music of the past.
Gil continues his Midnight strolls to the 1920s and dating Adriana. Gil believes this is the Golden Era, but Adriana, who lives in it believes the 1890s was the Golden Era. This film has time-travel within time-travel as a horse-drawn buggy comes along and transports them to the Gay Nineties. They go to the Moulin Rouge where they meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and Edgar Degas. (Vincent Menjou Cortes, Olivier Rabourdin, and François Rostain) However, these three believe the Renaissance era was the Golden Age. Gil ends up having an epiphany and realizes that despite the allure of nostalgia, any time can eventually become a dull "present", so it's best to embrace your actual present. Adriana however, elects to stay in the 1890s, and they part ways.
Other notable people Gil meets:
Josephine Baker (Sonia Rolland) Salvador Dalí (Adrien Brody) T. S. Eliot (David Lowe) Henri Matisse (Yves-Antoine Spoto) Leo Stein (Laurent Claret)
Spoiler:
Back in the present day, Inez admits to Gil that she slept with Paul, but dismisses it as meaningless. Gil leaves her and stays in Paris.
One night as Gil is walking around, he runs into Gabrielle, the antique vendor. She tells Gil she was thinking about him when a new set of Cole Porter records came in. It starts to rain and Gil acts concerned for her. But she tells him, it’s ok, she likes the rain. He asks to walk her home. It appeared Gabrielle was Gil’s true soulmate.
This is a wonderful film for those who love time-travel, France, classic literary figures, and artists. The casting was brilliant, especially of the historical figures.
Midnight in Paris is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter and aspiring novelist, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialistic fiancée (Rachel McAdams) and their divergent goals, which become increasingly exaggerated as he travels back in time to the 1920s each night at midnight.[3]
In 2010, disillusioned screenwriter Gil Pender and his fiancée, Inez, vacation in Paris with Inez's wealthy parents. Gil, struggling to finish his debut novel about a man who works in a nostalgia shop, finds himself drawn to the artistic history of Paris, especially the Lost Generation of the 1920s, and has ambitions to move there, which Inez dismisses. By chance, they meet Inez's friend, Paul, and his wife, Carol. Paul speaks with great authority but questionable accuracy on French history, annoying Gil but impressing Inez.
Intoxicated after a night of wine tasting, Gil decides to walk back to their hotel, while Inez goes with Paul and Carol by taxi. At midnight, a 1920s car pulls up beside Gil and delivers him to a party for Jean Cocteau, attended by other people of the 1920s Paris art scene. Zelda Fitzgerald, bored, encourages her husband Scott and Gil to leave with her. They head to a cafe where they run into Ernest Hemingway and Juan Belmonte. After Zelda and Scott leave, Gil and Hemingway discuss writing, and Hemingway offers to show Gil's novel to Gertrude Stein. As Gil leaves to fetch his manuscript, he returns to 2010; the cafe is now a laundromat.
The next night, Gil tries to repeat the experience with Inez, but she leaves before midnight. Returning to the 1920s, Gil accompanies Hemingway to visit Gertrude Stein, who critiques Pablo Picasso's new painting of his lover Adriana. Gil becomes drawn to Adriana, a costume designer who also had affairs with Amedeo Modigliani and Georges Braque. Having heard the first line of Gil's novel, Adriana praises it and admits she has always longed for the past.
Gil continues to time travel the following nights. Inez grows jaded with Paris and Gil's constant disappearing, while her father grows suspicious and hires a private detective to follow him. Adriana leaves Picasso and continues to bond with Gil, who is conflicted by his attraction to her. Gil explains his situation to Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and Luis Buñuel; as surrealists, they do not question his claim of coming from the future. Gil later suggests the plot of "The Exterminating Angel" to Buñuel.
While Inez and her parents travel to Mont Saint Michel, Gil meets Gabrielle, an antique dealer and fellow admirer of the Lost Generation. He later finds Adriana's diary at a book stall, which reveals that she was in love with Gil and dreamed of being gifted earrings before making love to him. To seduce Adriana, Gil tries to steal a pair of Inez's earrings but is thwarted by her early return to the hotel room.
Gil buys new earrings and returns to the past. After he gives Adriana the earrings, a horse-drawn carriage arrives, transporting them to the Belle Époque, an era Adriana considers Paris's Golden Age, they go to the Moulin Rouge where they meet Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and Edgar Degas, who all agree that Paris's best era was the Renaissance. Adriana is offered a job designing ballet costumes; thrilled, she proposes to Gil that they stay, but he, observing the unhappiness of Adriana and the other artists, realizes that chasing nostalgia is fruitless because the present is always "a little unsatisfying." Adriana decides to stay, and they part ways.
Gil rewrites the first two chapters of his novel. He retrieves his draft from Stein, who praises his rewrite. Still, he says that on reading the new chapters, Hemingway does not believe that the protagonist does not realize that his fiancée, based on Inez, is having an affair with the character based on Paul. Gil returns to 2010 and confronts Inez, who admits to sleeping with Paul but disregards it as a meaningless fling. Gil breaks up with her and decides to move to Paris. The detective following him takes a "wrong turn" and ends up being chased by the palace guards of Louis XVI just before a revolution breaks out. While walking by the Seine at midnight, Gil encounters Gabrielle. As it begins to rain, he offers to walk her home and learns that they share a love for Paris in the rain.
We've rounded-up the best sci-fi action adventures, comedies, and romances so you can grapple with the big question: Would you change the past if you could?
1/12
VIA IMDB.COM
Looper
This action film melds time travel with a crime thriller to make audiences ask all the big questions. If you had the chance to stop a tyrant, would you? And what if you are the bad guy? Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star as the same hit man at different ages. The movie gets good when the two unexpectedly meet up after they crash the same timeline. Emily Blunt rounds out the cast in this intriguing look at how trauma in the past can have devastating consequences on the future. These are the most iconic movies set in every state.
This charming time travel movie follows Domhnall Gleeson as he learns about the talent he’s inherited from the men in his family—the ability to time travel. But there’s a catch: He can only go back to a time he has been to before. This skill makes for gleeful living as he romances love interest Rachel McAdams, but things get harder when he has to face the rules and consequences of seriously altering timelines. He can only go back so far or face desperate loss. Tear-jerking, sweet and thought-provoking, this is one of those time travel movies that has everything you need to contemplate life. Check out the best tearjerkers to watch when life gets emotional.
This Bruce Willis action film is based on the famous French art film, La Jetee, a film composed only of still photographs. Time travel can be powerful, but it’s also bittersweet. Both time travel movies look at how to alter time, especially to avoid epic tragedy. Willis is trying to prevent a major health epidemic with dire consequences. All his zipping through time has allowed him to witness his desperate future. But if you see violence happen in advance, are you still able to prevent it? Especially if you’re the victim?
This science-fiction classic made Arnold Schwarzenegger a star, but it was also a time travel epic about the villain trying to alter future outcomes. Schwarzenegger plays the cruel robot assassin sent back to prevent the young hero of a future rebellion from even being born. The timeline gets loopy since the future kid’s dad also travels back in time to save that kid’s mom, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). And they fall in love, with the Terminator on their trail, and things get even more tangled! Want some more Terminator, check out these movies with famous one-liners.
Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour moved audiences in this romance about an actress and a playwright brought together in a hotel that seems to offer a portal through time. Reeve plays the modern man who feels a sense of déjà vu when he gazes on Seymour’s photo—she’s the actress from a bygone era. He finds himself obsessed with meeting her and gets the chance after researching time travel via hypnosis. Watch out for your heartstrings when the two meet up in the past (and present) in ways that you won’t expect no matter how many times you watch this romantic story.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man on a train who relives a desperate accident over and over. He’s trying to figure out the source of the terrible event before it can happen again. But he keeps running out of time. Another passenger, Michelle Monaghan, becomes part of this plan. Soon mysterious off-screen voices seem to be conducting an experiment of the event with alternate timelines. Watch out for the unexpected twist at the end. How do the experiments work and how is Gyllenhaal able to travel back in time? The revelation is a dark surprise. Here are some more suspenseful movies with great twist endings.
Denzel Washington stars as New Orleans detective investigating a terrorist attack through new satellite technology that allows a look at past events. But it also unleashes some kind of time travel portal. Meanwhile, Paula Patton, a woman who died in the attack, catches his eye as he watches her still alive in the past. The timeline gets twisty when Washington heads to the past and tries to alter history, prevent the attack, and save the girl.
This beautiful time travel movie involves a magic mailbox where two homeowners can communicate with each other beyond time and space. Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock shine as the lost souls desperate to find each other. They each live in the same lovely lake house, but during different time periods. This is a beautiful time travel movie with the two leads turning in great performances that capture the mystery at the heart of this film. These are the funniest movies of all time.
This complicated time travel movie is famous for being hard to understand. But you’ll enjoy giving it a try as it layers on the different realities with space ships, portals for time travel, wormholes and a cool tunnel thing where you can peer into rooms and try to send messages. The twists and turns are anchored by the father-daughter relationship between Matthew McConaughey and Jessica Chastain who communicate (despite huge barriers in time and space) about a technology that can save the planet.
This ’80s classic is one of the most beloved and watchable time travel movies. Everyone has fun watching Marty McFly (played by the ever-charming Michael J. Fox) come face-to-face with his parents back when they were in high school. Because that idea sounds both intriguing and scary to all of us! Things get awkward when his own mom (Lea Thompson) starts to fall for him. This trip back to the ’50s offered nostalgic fun and Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown plays up crazy scientist antics perfectly. Here are some more of the best ’80s movies.
This funny time travel movie stars Mark Duplass and Audrey Plaza as two hipsters who get caught up in an unlikely romance over a time travel machine. Duplass’ oddball character places a personal ad looking for someone to accompany him on a time travel mission where they have to bring their own weapons, and “safety not guaranteed.” Plaza plays the journalist who answers his ad, looking to write up a good story. Instead, she discovers that he just might be on to something—and she has her own reasons for wanting to change to the past.
This nostalgic time travel movie stars Owen Wilson as a writer who idealizes the past. Wilson walks around Paris, all depressed because modern life is so bland compared to the movers and shakers of the past. Soon, he’s transported to Paris in the 1920s and finds himself hobnobbing with great artistic minds. He meets Gertrude Stein, Salvador Dali and hangs out with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. This is a charming and melancholy look at always longing for a place and time beyond the one you’re in. Wilson has some hard lessons on learning to live happy right where you are.
Timeline: June 18-24: Gov. Sanford missing/crying in Argentina June 21: 'Impact' Part 1 on ABC; Prince William birthday June 22: DC Metro Red Line trains in collision June 23: US Moon probes (LRO/LCROSS) reach Moon June 24: Gov. Sanford reveals Argentine affair June 25: Death of Michael Jackson & Farahh Fawcett
'Metro' means 'meter' in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc. The meter is historically defined as 1/10,000,000 of the distance between the North Pole and the equator through Paris, or in other words the Paris Meridian between the North Pole and the equator. The Paris Meridian is also the 'Rose Line' (an esoteric concept popularized by The Da Vinci Code) i.e. a 'Red Line'...
DC Metro Red Line = French/Columbian Rose Line
...traditionally implying the Blood Royal/Sangraal or the Marian/Columbian Bloodline of the Holy Grail.
In Bloodline of the Holy Grail Laurence Gardner writes of the House of Stuart, the royal bloodline to which Princess Diana and her children belong (pp. 344-5):
Of the the famous Seven Wonders of the Ancient World the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) at Giza is the only one still standing. Even for modern men it is amazing how this man-made structure lasted so long.
The Giza pyramids must have made an incredible visual impact - at the edge of the desert three abstract geometrical symbols were rising, huge luminous white triangles reflecting the blinding light of the sun!
The pyramids on the Giza plateau are with 146.59m (Khufu / Cheops) and 143.87m (Khafre / Chefren) respectively the largest, however there are over 30 major pyramids and a myriad of smaller pyramids in Egypt.
Cheops-Pyramid 1. Entrance 2. Entrance cut by grave robbers 3. Subterranean chamber 4. Grand Gallery 5. King's chamber, relieving chambers, granite portcullis slabs 6. Queen's chamber 7. Shaft 8. Limestone plugging the air shaft A= "Air shafts"
Khufu (Chuefui-Chnum or Khnum-Khuf, Cheops in Greek) during the 4th dynasty of the old kingdom
Time to build
Probably max. 23 years (Khufu reigned from2551 to 2528 before Christ *). Herodotus writes about 10 years of preparation and 20 years of building (details of the text)
Per day
With 2'500'000 stones 342 stones have to be moved daily (working during 365 days a year) or 431 stones daily (working during 290 days a year).
Per minute
10-hour day: every 2 minutes a stone (34 to 43 per hour) 8-hour day: nearly a stone every minute (42 to 53 stones per hour)
Rule of thumb
While construction the pyramid the rate of delivery was 1 stone weighting 2.5 tons every minute.
For our calculations we assume 500 stones a day. This is a rough estimate, assuming a 8-hour day, during 290 days a year, with 20 years to build the pyramid. Also assuming, that more time had to be used for the huge granite blocks for the King's chamber and for the more difficult upper part of the pyramid, where work went slower than in the lower parts. There probably were also other factors delaying the building of the pyramid such as the weather or a temporary shortage of certain building materials.
Building materials for the Cheops-pyramid
The Khufu-pyramid (Cheops) probably originally had 210 stone layers. At 50m height already 82% of the entire pyramid was built [3].
Originally probably 210 stone layers, now only 201 layers [2]
Stone size
The stone blocks usually are larger in the lower layers (1.5m = 3 cubit) and smaller in the upper layers. Most are between 1.5 and 2 cubit large (average of 127 x 127 x 71cm). 1 cubit = 0.524m - Details
Weight of the stone blocks
With an average density of 2,6 - 2,9 t/m³ the large limestone blocks weighted 6.5 - 10 tons and the smaller ones about 1.3 tons. For all calculations on this website an average weight of 2.5 tons was used.
Special blocks
For the King's chamber granite blocks weighting 40 to 50 tons were used
Total weight
6'500'000 tons (average weight of a block was about 2.5 tons)
Pyramidion
The final stone on the top was a large block in the shape of a pyramid. It was perhaps around 1.5m by 1.5m wide and 1.3m high (about 3 cubits). It was made from white Tura limestone (Turah), granite or perhaps diorite and perhaps gold plated. More information
Building materials
Pyramid: Nummulite limestone from quarries about 200-400m south of the pyramid were used for the core stones. Casing: light white limestone, so called Tura-limestone from quarries from the eastern shores of the Nile King's chamber: Rose granite from Aswan 900km away Further materials: Graywacke from the Wadi Hammamat (Eastern desert), basalt from the northern Faiyum Map of quarries in Egypt
Dimensions of the pyramid of Khufu
Length (a) -------------------
The average length of the edge is ~ 230.360m (230,12m = 440 cubits). Northern edge 230.328m - eastern edge 230.369m - southern edge 230.372m - western edge 230.372m. Largest difference is only 4.4cm. [3]
Height (h)
Originally 146.59m high (= 280 cubits), the pyramid is now only 138.75m high [7]
Diagonal (d)
325.77m
Ridge (g)
219m
Height of the lateral surface
186.42m
Pyramid angle α
51° 50' 40' = inclination of the lateral surface (= 52° rounded off) [3] which corresponds to a seked of 5½ palms
Pyramid angle β
58.3° = the two angles of the triangular lateral surface (62° = angle of the apex or tip of the pyramid) - nearly forming an equilateral triangle!
Pyramid angle γ
41.9° = angle of the ridge
Corner angle
Right angle base with angles from 89° 59' to 90°
Base area
53'065.73m²
Superficies surface
85'890.69m²
Pyramid volume
2'592'968.43m³ including the rock core. This would be a cube with a length of 137.38m. Probable volume of stones used: 2'583'283m³ [1] or 2'326'501m³ [2].
Alignment
Exactly to the north (deviation only 2' 28')
Latitude and longitude
N 29° 58’ 44.3830” latitude and E 31° 07’ 57.0194” longitude [5]
Altitude
The base of the pyramid of Khufu lies about 60m above sea level, so the tip of the pyramid used to be on 206m above sea level [6].
Dimensions of the pyramid of Khufu in Egyptian Royal Cubits
Length (a)
440 Royal Cubits
Height (h)
280 Royal Cubits
Height of the lateral surface (c)
356 Royal Cubits (356.09)
Diagonal (d)
622.25 Royal Cubits
Ridge (g)
418.56 Royal Cubits
Pyramid angle α
51.843°
Pyramid angle β
58.3°
Pyramid angle γ
41.9°
Corner angle
90°
It is suggested, that the Egyptians used a right angled triangle to determinate the angle of inclination of the pyramid, using the numbers a=11 and b=14 with c=17.8 (or a=22 - b=28 - c= 35.6). This determines a so called seked of 5½ palms. Alignment of the pyramids and controlling the shape of the pyramid (seked)
Sources
[1] M. Lehner The Complete Pyramids of Egypt [2] G. Goyon Die Cheops-Pyramide [3] R. Stadelmann Die grossen Pyramiden von Giza [4] F. Abitz Der Bau der grossen Pyramide mit einem Schrägaufzug [5] GPS-coordinates of a brass disk on top of the pyramid of Khufu, Giza Plateau Mapping Project (GPMP) [6] Maps of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project show the altitude as 60m [7] D. Arnold Building in Egypt
* Dates according to conventional Egyptian chronology are used in this website. These are based on several list of the dynasties of pharaohs, for example the Aegyptiaca of Manetho of Sebennytos.
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