Gothic architecture was first used in cathedrals in France during the 12th and 13th century. The Cathedral Basilica of St.Denis is one of the most famous examples of a Gothic cathedral created during the medieval period. Abbot Suger (1081-1151) a French historian and Gothic architect, was the mind behind its creation. Suger's inspirations came from travels to the east where pointed arches, varying colours and detailed patterns were used.
Traditionally, monks were the architects that designed churches in France, and often their creations were basic and practical. However; as powers in France increased there was also an increased desire to create symbols of religion and authority that were grand and spacious. Out of this need emerged concepts in Gothic architecture and design.
One of the first changes Gothic architecture brought to cathedral design was a change in vaulting. Architects worked on how to substitute a stone vault for a wooden roof, while incorporating the use of intersecting stone ribs. That lead to the development of expanded of windows, the use of flying buttresses for support, and the use of slender piers.
Gothic windows covered almost the entire wall surface and had varied designs with delicate stone decorations.The thick and heavy walls traditionally used in Romanesque cathedrals to create stability were abandoned and walls were made thinner and used as an active skeleton that integrated arches, piers and buttresses.
During the medieval period cathedrals were built in two forms: Romanesque and Gothic. Romanesque cathedrals had a few distinctive features. Firstly, the buildings used rounded arches for structure support. The rounded top of these arches exuded an increased force onto the cathedral walls, and thus the walls had to be thick for support. Additionally, buttresses were added along the side of the outer walls as support. Due to the thickness of the walls around the base of arches and the obstruction of the buttresses, windows could only be placed near the top of the walls and were small in size. Only smaller windows could be places along the lower sides of the walls, if they were even placed at all. The overall structures in these cathedrals resembled that of a fortress.
Gothic cathedrals created structures that managed structure forces differently. Gothic architects used flying buttresses to support cathedral arches. Basically, this meant that rather than placing the buttress directly next to the arch wall for support, the buttress was attached to the wall with a smaller connecting arch arm, creating support for the walls and rounded arches. This displaced the force from the arch walls and buttress to the foundation. Because of the space the flying buttress created between the walls and the supporting buttresses, windows could be placed lower on walls where the sun could enter and could also be made larger.Additionally, pointed arches were used as opposed to rounded for increased roof support.
Gothic architecture in cathedrals became the art of erecting buildings with stone vaults and thin walls, whose ribs intersected (concentration of load) and whose thrusts were supported by flying buttresses (the grounding of the thrusts). The downward and outward thrust of the vaulting was met by an equivalent resistance in buttress and solid earth, resulting in an equilibrium from well-adjusted opposing forces.
Although many think Gothic architecture was mainly concerned with elaborate design and heavy ornamentation, in actuality Gothic architecture emerged as a response to structural need with sound engineering. All forms of decoration came as an after thought to the practical designs. Gothic masters of work often said "nothing which is inherently needed could be ugly." Gothic cathedrals sought to create larger buildings with increased support while doing away with blank walls and solid bland surfaces. Interestingly, modern copies of Gothic architecture tend to ignore the original engineering intent of the structures and often place a heavy emphasis on decoration.
You've Already Seen A Few Of Them In The Fellowship Of The Ring!
The Hobbit
Whether you’re in the group that loves or in the group that hates the Hobbitmovies, there’s no denying that these were pretty big films that made A LOT of money! Even though the movie was called The Hobbit, most of the attention was focused on the dwarves and their epic quest to retake the Lonely Mountain from the dragon, Smaug. We spent three movies watching these dwarves fight for what was rightfully theirs, so it’s hard not to get attached to some of them.
But have you ever wondered what happened to the dwarves after all was said and done? Dwarves live for a while, so where were these characters during The Lord of the Rings trilogy? The answers for some of them might not be exactly what you wanted to hear!
Let’s dig in!
The Fate Of The Dwarves
Oin
Forty-eight years after being settled in the Lonely Mountain, Oin made his way back to Moria to reclaim the realm for the Dwarves. It was five years later that the orcs attacked, and when he could not escape over the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, Oin tried to exit through the Hollin Gate. It was there he was killed by the Watcher in the Water, a creature that Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship would later encounter.
UNLEASH THE KRAKEN!
Gloin
Ah yes! Gimli’s father. His life was much longer and more peaceful than his brother’s. He remained at the kingdom under the mountain and was also sent at the Council of Elrond when the Fellowship was formed. He would later die naturally at the age of 253.
Dwalin
Dwalin was a smart one. He decided to stay at the Lonely Mountain where he lived out the rest of his life, dying at the ripe, old age of 340. He lived through the war of the ring, but it was never revealed if he or Gloin ever took part in it.
Balin
Good ol' Balin. In the Hobbitmovies he was always one of the most liked Dwarves. In fact, he ended up leading an expedition to Moria where he later became The Lord of Moria for some time – until the orcs attacked and he was killed by one of their archers. Remember that Tomb in Fellowship of the Ring? Yup. That was Balin’s tomb.
Poor, old Balin 🙁
Bifur & Bofur
Bifur has an axe in his skull, I think he’s had to deal with enough stuff in his life to be bothered with anymore violence. He also stayed back in the Lonely Mountain and lived out his life. His age at death is unknown. Ditto for Bofur. He also lived out his life in the mountain.
You know, for a place called the Lonely Mountain, it doesn’t seem quite so lonely there, does it?
Bombur
Bombur, like many of the others stay behind in the Lonely Mountain and enjoyed the rest of his life…a little too much. Bombur had grown SO FAT that it eventually took the strength of six dwarves to lift him to the dinner table.
Dori & Nori
Dori and Nori also stayed in the mountain where they grew their wealth and lived rich, and happy, for the rest of their lives.
Ori
Like Dori and Nori, Ori – the lovable idiot – also stayed in the mountain where he lived out his life peacefully with a wife and children.
EXCEPT THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN!
Ori actually joined the expedition to Moria and after burying Balin he was killed by the onslaught of orcs that attacked. Remember that morbid diary entry Gandalf read in the Fellowship of the ring? That was Ori’s diary.
And that’s Ori...
BONUS ROUND
Bard Bowman
NOT Will TurnerBard rebuilt his ancestral town of Dale at the foot of the Lonely Mountain. He eventually became its king, establishing and maintaining good relations with the dwarves, where he lived peacefully and his son Bain succeeded him after his death.
Tauriel
I should save this for when I do my Hobbit 'Based On' video eventually, but I need to vent it here. Kili never fell in love with an Elf, much less meet Tauriel because she wasn’t even a character in the book. Peter Jackson created her just for the movie so he could force in an awful dwarf/elf forbidden relationship to emotionally manipulate the audience (it didn't work). Evangeline Lily was great in her role, but her character felt unnecessary and only weakened the story in my opinion.
--
So there you have it, the fate of the dwarves! The adventures that happened inThe Hobbit definitely impacted what would eventually take place in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, mainly due to it being how Bilbo found the ring of power. While, at times, there were unnecessary moments in the films, there were also moments that captured the magic of Middle-Earth and made you want to be part of it!
After an early Broadway debut, the late great Vincent Price (1911-1993) toiled in Hollywood films for over 50 years and appeared on countless TV shows (including everything from The Carol Burnett Show to The Brady Bunch). But, of course, the actor will always be remembered for his horror and villainous roles by generations of monster kids (whose ranks include director Tim Burton, who cast Price in one of his last—and best—screen assignments, 1990’s Edward Scissorhands). Chiller’s latest edition of The Friday 13 salutes the career of this scream legend on the occasion of his upcoming birthday (May 27). Helping us celebrate: Price’s own daughter and official biographer, Victoria. (Titles arranged according to year of release.)
1. The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
The Invisible Man Returns Trailer
At age 28, stage-trained thespian Vincent Price joined Universal Studios’ classic monsters bullpen in this sequel to the James Whale/Claude Raines hit. Price stars as a man scheduled to hang for a murder he didn’t commit who takes an invisibility serum to apprehend the real killer. “The first ‘glimpse’ (!) of what Vincent Price could do with just his voice,” recalls daughter Victoria Price. The mellifluous actor disappeared into the role again with an amusing voiceover cameo for 1948’s hilarious Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein.
2. Dragonwyck (1946)
Dragonwyck scene
In one of the parts dearest to his heart, Price portrays Nicholas Van Ryn, drug-addicted/wife murdering aristocrat, who lords over a gloomy mansion. “This movie meant a great deal to my father,” Victoria recalls. “He was playing a portly priest in Keys to the Kingdom, and he approached [director] Joe Mankiewicz with his desire to play the lead in Dragonwyck. The director basically said that he was totally the wrong type for the role. So my dad lost a lot of weight and really prepared for the audition—and got the role. It was his first leading film role in a genre that would become so important to him.”
3. House of Wax (1953)
House of Wax (1953) -- Unmasked
As the hideously scarred sculptor Henry Jarrod, who uses real human bodies as his museum wax figures, the art-loving actor cemented his reputation as a monstrous screen villain in this 3-D smash. “House of Wax came at a very important juncture in my father’s life,” reveals Victoria. “He had just been cleared from one of [Red Scare instigator] Joe McCarthy’s lists and allowed to work again in Hollywood. He was offered two roles—one on Broadway and one for a film about an artist incorporating an interesting new technology [3-D]. The rest, as they say, is history!”
4. House on Haunted Hill (1958)
Vincent Price - House On Haunted Hill - Trailer
In this wickedly scary gimmick film from producer/director William Castle, Price stars as a sarcastic millionaire who offers five strangers $10,000 a piece if they survive the night in the titular ghost hangout. This hit film garnered Price even more fans in the genre he would call home. Says Victoria, “Who doesn’t love Vincent Price as the elegantly evil Frederick Loren in House on Haunted Hill?”
5. House of Usher (1960)
The House of Usher (1960). The family, explained
Price’s career continued to ascend in horror circles when he top-lined this classy Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, scripted by Richard (Twilight Zone) Matheson and directed with stylish efficiency by B-movie king Roger Corman. “Roderick Usher was one of my dad’s great roles, in my opinion,” says Victoria of the tragic, hypersensitive Usher, a man with, let’s say, family issues. “As the tortured aesthete, he was so handsome in that film!”
6. The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) - The Pendulum Swings
The popularity of House of Usher for independent studio American International Pictures spawned a whole series of Poe flicks, most starring Price as equally troubled characters and bad guys. In Corman’s Pit and the Pendulum, Price limns Nicholas Medina, beleaguered son of a notorious Spanish Inquisition torturer who dusts off Pop’s ancient playthings thanks to his scheming wife (Barbara Steele). Shudders Victoria, “Pit and the Pendulum scared me to death when we had to watch it in school!”
7. The Comedy of Terrors (1963)
The Comedy of Terrors - Vincent Price (1/1) Not Quite Dead Enough (1963) HD
The horror celebrity always enjoyed sending up his image in both film and television, and in this hoot, directed by Cat People’s Jacques Tourneau, he’s a boozy undertaker who’ll literally murder for customers. “My dad loved getting to work with his dear friend Boris Karloff and the legendary Peter Lorre, whose eulogy he gave just a few years later,” remembers Victoria. “And boy did they have fun!” And we can tell!
8. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Theatrical Trailer - The Masque of the Red Death (Vincent Price)
In this masterpiece of Corman/AIP’s Poe cycle, Price essays the diabolical Prince Prospero, who throws a decadent bash while plague decimates those outside his castle walls. “A few years ago,Masque of the Red Death was shown at three straight events I attended,” Victoria notes of Masque’s enduring appeal amongst cinema scholars. “The movie is so surreal and ’60s. And Nic Roeg’s saturated cinematography is iconic.”
9. The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The Last Man on Earth - Vincent Price (1/1) The Living Dead Attack (1964) HD
Tinseltown raided Richard Matheson’s excellent novel I Am Legend (about a vampire-plagued world) three times, beginning with this low-budget effort. Price’s version stands as the most faithful to Matheson, and the Rome-lensed movie also proved even more significant to Victoria. Sshe explains, “I owe my existence to Last Man on Earth! My parents moved to Italy for an extended period of time. Let’s just say that ‘La Dolce Vita’ worked its magic on 44-year-old Mary Grant Price and 50-year-old Vincent Price. When my mother started craving Chinese food in Europe, they had no idea I was the cause. But I ended up being a very happy surprise for them both…all because ofLast Man on Earth!”
10. The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)
The Tomb of Ligeia - Vincent Price (1/1) A Prophecy of Ligeia’s Return (1964) HD
With a literate script by future Chinatown scribe Robert Towne, Corman and Price ended their Poe run with a fiery finish. As the downcast Verden Fell, Price suffers at the hands—and possessed feline claws—of his jealous deceased wife, who stalks her man when he remarries. As the haunted husband, Price contributes a subdued and nuanced performance, never upstaged by the movie’s killer cat or impressive English locations. “Tomb of Ligeia was Vincent’s personal favorite Poe film,” his offspring reveals.
11. Witchfinder General (1968)
The Mark of Satan Is Upon Them - Witchfinder General (Vincent Price)
In this intense film (released in the U.S. as Conqueror Worm), St. Louis-born Price tackles real-life 17th century British witch hunter Matthew Hopkins, who traveled the English countryside persecuting innocent people for practicing witchcraft. As the despicable Hopkins, Price abandoned the flamboyance of some of his previous dastardly turns. “Working with [director] Michael Reeves was very, very difficult for my father,” admits Victoria. “He understood what Reeves wanted, but his methods and his youthful arrogance were difficult for my dad—who was about the nicest man on the planet. Ultimately, however, the malevolence which my father achieved made the part one of his most memorable.”
12. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
The flying unicorn Abominable Dr Phibes
In this art-deco tour de force, Price has a campy field day as the revenge-minded disfigured doctor who unleashes his own translation of the biblical plagues on the men who failed to save his wife’s life. Price returned as the noble madman in the equally entertaining Dr. Phibes Rises Again a year later. “Classic, stylistic and quirky, Dr. Phibes reteamed Vincent with his dear old friend of 40 years, Joseph Cotton,” says Victoria of the two actors who met while performing with Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre. “And I am still struck by how expressive he was in that film of few words.”
13. Theater of Blood (1973)
Theatre of Blood (1973): A pound of flesh
An even blacker comedic twist on the Phibes pictures, Theater of Blood rates as Price’s cinematic triumph, and one that encapsulates his entire oeuvre. This occasion he’s failed Shakespearean actor Edward Lionheart who, believed dead, elaborately murders the stuffy British reviewers responsible for his worst notices. Victoria catalogues how much Theater of Blood meant to dear Dad: “When you get to: a) fall in love with your future wife [Coral Browne] in a graveyard; b) electrocute her while playing a gay hairdresser; c) kill off all the critics; d) work with Diana Rigg and so many other great British actors; and e) recite Shakespearean verse while doing all of the above—how could it not be one of my father’s favorite films?”
We could easily list another 13 petrifying Price pictures on this list, so if you have the desire to learn more about the man and his movies, go to www.vincentprice.com, check out Shout Factory’s definitive two volume Vincent Price Collection on disc and pick up Victoria’s wonderful book Vincent Price: A Daughter’s Biography, as well as Lucy Chase Williams’ The Complete Films of Vincent Price.
Imgur user mattsawizard calculated the distances for each leg of Frodo and Sam’s epic journey around Middle-earth in The Lord of the Rings and made visual distance comparisons on maps of Britain, Europe, and the United States. He determined that the entire journey spanned a total of 1,350 miles walked (though he does note that part of their journey from Lorien to Amon Hen was in a boat), which is about the same distance from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas.
If London were Hobbiton, walking to Mount Doom would be like walking to Niš, Serbia.
From Hobbiton to Bree would be similar to going from London to Nottingham, which is 120 miles, or 40 hours walking.
From Bree to Rivendell would be like walking from Land’s End to London, which is 300 miles, or 90 hours walking.
From Rivendell to Moria would be 175 miles, or 60 hours walking, spanning the same distance as from Manchester to London.
” …immediately after spacecraft separation, a series of telemetry problems were detected… “
In recent weeks some at the Russian Federal Space Agency – Roscosmos(re-branded in 1992) have seriously started to doubt their ability to conduct even the simplest of tasks in the ever commercializing space
industry. The agency’s loss of Progress 44 in 2011, and now the same for Progress 59 in April of 2015 to a similar incident, have been costly.
This is added to the fact that Roscosmos has also lost six Proton
rockets in the last three and a half years at $55.5 million a piece (not counting contents/cargo). These setbacks have pushed some Russian physicists, engineers, and even program managers to question the very existence of their jobs.
“Almost immediately after spacecraft separation, a series of telemetry problems were detected with Progress 59,”
“After the rocket exploded all I could think was, not again.”
– Russian scientists told a NASA spokesman
The Russian Federation’s Proton-M rocket is the primary competitor of SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket. Both of these delivery systems can transport approx. four and a half tons into geostationary orbits and have the ability to dock with the ISS. These
are huge loads for today’s standards. The problem the Proton-M has repeatedly faced is its ability to successfully escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. This is key for space operations and a problem Russian scientists have battled for decades.
“Everything appears to be working correctly and then, bam, – it is a fireball!” – Systems control specialist Dimitri Matviyenko told one reporter.
In 2001 Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX traveled to the Russian capital of Moscow to discuss purchasing a couple of ICMB’s –
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (minus the ballistics hopefully). This is how SpaceX was really born. Before him there were others as well.
The general consensus of the InternationalSpaceCommunity has been overwhelmingly similar. When will Russia sell it’s space program? It wouldn’t be the first time the former communist
The totalitarian state sold its rockets to the highest bidders. It’s all simple economics. In the world of technology and transportation, it’s sink or swim. Russia had a good run and helped pave the
way as a pioneer in the industry of space exploration. Bankrupting yourself twice in half a century doesn’t seem like the best economical decision though.
A recent episode of the series Seeker Stories explains how photographer Christopher Michel was able to take a selfie at the age of space. While on assignment, Michel was given the opportunity to fly in a Lockheed U-2 spy plane that provided him some impressive views of the Earth.
If London were Hobbiton, walking to Mount Doom would be like walking to Niš, Serbia.
From Hobbiton to Bree would be similar to going from London to Nottingham, which is 120 miles, or 40 hours walking.
From Bree to Rivendell would be like walking from Land’s End to London, which is 300 miles, or 90 hours walking.
From Rivendell to Moria would be 175 miles, or 60 hours walking, spanning the same distance as from Manchester to London.
