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Lost Britain from above: Thousands of historic aerial photographs - which were almost lost forever - go online for the first time

• Rare pictures of St Paul's Cathedral and Blackpool Tower are included in treasured collection made freely available on new Britain from Above website

• Others show the 1935 FA Cup final, the Queen Mary's maiden voyage in 1936 and the 1947 Thames Flood

• More than 15,000 photographs taken between 1919 and 1953 have been uploaded on to the site

• Many were so old and fragile that they were close to being beyond repair

• Experts appeal to the public for information on pictures they can't identify

• Conservationists plan to put 95,000 images on the website by the end of 2014

By Rob Preece

PUBLISHED:00:13, 25 June 2012| UPDATED:11:53, 25 June 2012

Striking and evocative, they chart a dramatic period of British history - from the end of the World War One to the year of the Queen's Coronation.

But these treasured photographs of famous landmarks such as St Paul's Cathedral and Blackpool Tower could have been lost forever, were it not for a major conservation project which has made them freely available on the internet for the first time.

More than 15,000 pictures - many so old and fragile that they were close to becoming beyond repair - have been uploaded on to the Britain from Abovewebsite, which is launched today.

St Paul's Cathedra
Aerial view: More than 15,000 photographs, including this picture of St Paul's Cathedral in London from March 1921, have been made freely available on the internet for the first time

St Paul's Cathedral new
Back to the future: A much cleaner and white modern St Paul's Cathedral and colourful

Blackpool Tower
Landmarks: The instantly recognisable Blackpool Tower and the Winter Gardens, as they were in July 1920

Blackpool Tower in pictures taken last year
but seemingly less vibrant - Blackpool Tower in pictures taken last year
It is the first batch of some 95,000 images, taken between 1919 and 1953, that are due to be put online in the next two years, showing the changing face of modern Britain.

The pictures come from one of the earliest and most significant collections of aerial photography.

Many shots were said to have been taken during the early days of aviation by former war pilots flying at very low altitudes.

The collection includes rare photographs of some of Britain's most historic landmarks, such as a picture of St Paul's from 1921, a 1927 image of Brighton's West Pier, and a view of the Forth Rail Bridge from 1937

Wembley Stadium hosts the 1935
Full house: Wembley Stadium hosts the 1935 FA Cup final, which Sheffield Wednesday won by beating West Bromwich Albion 4-2. The Cierva autogyro in the foreground was flown by Scotland Yard, experimenting with air observation to monitor crowds

Revamped: The new Wembley
Revamped: The new Wembley Stadium (left), which opened on the site of the old one in 2007, and Centre Court beside the newer, spherical Court No 2 at Wimbledon

Centre Court Wimbledon old
Pastime: Fans watch the tennis at Centre Court Wimbledon in June 1921 amid much smaller grounds than exist today

Centre Court Wimbledon New

Brighton's West Pier old
Amusements and attractions: The collection includes an aerial view of Brighton's West Pier, taken in April 1927

Brighton Pier now has a theme park built on the end

Updated: Brighton Pier now has a theme park built on the end

Mersey water front in Liverpool
Mersey water front in Liverpool has undergone significant regeneration

George's Stage and the Three Graces in Liverpool
Heritage: A July 1920 photograph of George's Stage and the Three Graces in Liverpool is in the collection

But experts have asked the public to help them identify other photographs whose subjects remain a mystery.

The website has interactive features which visitors can use to add information, share personal memories, download images and customise their own themed photo galleries.

Today's launch is the latest stage of a major exercise in conservation and cataloguing.

The photographs come from the Aerofilms Collection, which was acquired for the nation in 2007 when the company faced financial difficulties.

They have been digitised with the help of the English Heritage and the Royal Commissions on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and Wales.

Tyne Bridge
Fog on the Tyne: The Tyne Bridge under construction in Newcastle in 1928 as coal ships and other vessels dock at the riverside

Tyne Bridge this week with Olympic rings
Changing faces: Newcastle's Tyne Bridge this week with Olympic rings added (but missing the industry)

Meadowfield Quay in Glasgow
an overhead view of Meadowfield Quay in Glasgow where ships are still being built - but far fewer than in its heyday

Meadowside Quay and Upper Clyde Shipbuilding
Age of industry: The extensive Meadowside Quay and Upper Clyde Shipbuilding Yard in Glasgow in 1931. The docks are surrounded by quadrangle tenements for the army of workers

Forth Rail Bridge
Bird's-eye view: This August 1937 photograph of the Forth Rail Bridge and Inch Garvie in Scotland is freely available online for the first time

The Forth Bridge,
Updated transport: The Forth Bridge, which is used by trains, was joined to its west by the Forth Road Bridge in 1964, while today Largs ferries are no longer paddle boats

Largs Harbour Pier on the west Scottish coast
Glorious holidays: Tourists wait at the Largs Harbour Pier on the west Scottish coast to catch a paddle boat steamer to one of the islands

Highlights include the first boxing match at Wembley Stadium in 1924, crowds on the banks of the River Clyde watching the first voyage of the newly-built RMS Queen Mary in 1936, and the Thames Flood of 1947.

Other photographs taken in Scotland include bird's-eye views of the Tay bridge, the Wallace Monument, Edinburgh's Princes Street, the Caledonian Canal, Glasgow Green and Hampden Park.

housing Kensal Rise

Home: A steam train chugs through densely-packed housing Kensal Rise, west London in March 1921

A cliff-top campsite in Crimdon Park
Away: A cliff-top campsite in Crimdon Park, County Durham, in 1946 shows how Britons with limited means after the Second World War enjoyed themselves in another age of austerity

Thames Flood of March 1947
Water, water everywhere: A dramatic picture of the Thames Flood of March 1947 can be viewed on the website

Durham Miners Gala
Crowds: This July 1948 photograph of Durham Miners Gala is among more than 15,000 images which have been put on the website

civic centre in Swansea
When was this taken? Visitors have been urged to share their thoughts on the pictures, such as this undated photograph of the civic centre in Swansea, south Wales

Civic Centre - now known as the Guildhall
Moving forward: Swansea's former Civic Centre - now known as the Guildhall - reveals many more cars than before the war

Hampden Park in Glasgow
Field of dreams: Hampden Park in Glasgow, where the Scotland football team plays its home matches, as it was in 1927

Hampden Park has been revamped

Windsor Castle, taken in August 1928

Majestic: The collection includes this aerial image of Windsor Castle, taken in August 1928
Also shown are the luxury hotel and golf resort at Gleneagles, which will host the 2014 Ryder Cup, as well as the seaside town of Oban, in Argyll, Balmoral Castle and the A8 road which runs through the central belt connecting Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Anna Eavis, head of archive at English Heritage, said that the Aerofilms Collection embodies all that is exciting about aerial photography.

Rebecca Bailey, head of education and outreach at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland said: 'We hope that people today will be able to immerse themselves in the past through the new website, adding their own thoughts and memories to this remarkable collection.'

The photographs can be viewed at www.britainfromabove.org.uk

River Clyde in Clydebank
All aboard: Crowds line the banks of the River Clyde in Clydebank to watch the first voyage of the newly-built Queen Mary in March 1936

the University of Oxford in May 1920
Dreaming spires: The towers, domes and quadrangles of the colleges at the University of Oxford in May 1920

King's College
University days: The magnificent surroundings of King's College, Cambridge, pictured in January 1920

Caledonian Canal
Black and white beauty: The stunning landscape surrounding the Caledonian Canal at Kilmallie in Scotland, pictured in 1950

Stiirling's Wallace Monument
Standing proud: Stiirling's Wallace Monument - commemorates the 13th century Scottish hero William Wallace - taken in 1928

Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder
Splendour: The grounds of the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, pictured in 1932

The Kinnaird Head lighthouse and Denmark Street
Shining light: The Kinnaird Head lighthouse and Denmark Street leading into the town centre of Fraserburgh, Scotland in 1939 at the outrbreak of WWII

Northampton cricket ground
Howzat! Northampton cricket ground surrounded by terraced houses and shoe-making factories in 1926

A DeHavilland DH9B G-EAVK,
Early days of flight: A DeHavilland DH9B G-EAVK, which captured many of the aerial photograps, at Hendon airfield, north-west London in 1921

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164074/Britain-Above-Thousands-historic-aerial-photographs-online-time-today.html#ixzz2EQRfPYTO
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A new monumental moment is approaching as the newest Martian rover closes in on its journey towards the Red Planet. Curiosity has been trekking through space since last November, and will be completing its 352-million-mile journey on August 5, 10:31 Pacific time. This Sunday, redOrbit will be bringing you live coverage of the event, nicknamed "seven minutes of terror," from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Bringing the Mars Science Laboratory safely into the Martian atmosphere, and landing Curiosity onto its surface is not a simple task. NASA has acknowledged the difficulty its engineers will be facing this Sunday, by making one of the most complicated landings in the space agency's history from over 300 million miles away.

MSL launched aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on November 26 at 10:02 a.m. eastern time from Cape Canaveral last year. Since then, it has been making its way through space at nearly 13,000 mph. During NASA's "seven minutes of terror" in trying to land the rover safely on Mars, engineers must bring the 13,000 mph spacecraft down to 1.7 mph before reaching the surface to ensure Curiosity lands in one piece. The car-sized rover will be landing beside a Martian mountain in Gale Crater to begin a two year mission of scientific work, helping to uncover whether the area has ever had a suitable environment to support life. In order to reach its landing spot, Curiosity will be flying like a wing in the upper atmosphere of Mars, instead of dropping down lie a rock and utilizing the airbag method.

At about seven miles above the surface of the planet, and at a velocity of 900 mph, MSL will deploy a parachute to slow down the descent even more. The spacecraft will be riding down towards the surface for about another six miles before reaching 180 mph. At this stage, curiosity will be released, and the "sky crane" method will be initiated. Mission engineers designed a "sky crane" method for the final several seconds of the flight. During this journey towards the surface, a backpack with retrorockets controlling the descent speed will lower the rover on three nylon cords just before touchdown. NASA said 76 pyrotechnic devices must fire on time during the descent to get Curiosity to the surface.

Rover Curiosity sends back first colour picture from the surface of the Mars, Aug 6, 2012
http://youtu.be/kbqgBNaCcfM

"Amazing find" hailed as scientists unearth 1,400-year-old skeleton of one of Britain's first Christians

"Amazing find" hailed as scientists unearth 1,400-year-old skeleton of one of Britain's first Christians
Scientists have discovered the remains of what is thought to be one of Britain's first ever Christians after unearthing an "excessively rare" 1,400 year old Anglo-Saxon burial site in Cambridgeshire.

Discovery: The skeleton

The amazing grave in Trumpington Meadows contains the skeletal remains of a 16-year-old female Catholic convert lying on an ornamental bed clutching a gold and garnet cross.

It is believed the girl, from the 7th century AD, was a member of nobility, persuaded to join the Christian faith after the Pope dispatched St Augustine to England in 597AD.

St Augustine was a benedictine monk, known as the ‘Apostle to the English’, whose job was to convert Anglo-Saxon pagan kings and their families.

Amazing find: The cross

Dr Sam Lewsey, an expert on the period, said: "This is an excessively rare discovery. It is the most amazing find I have ever encountered.

"Christian conversion began at the top and percolated down. To be buried in this elaborate way, with such a valuable artefact, tells us that this girl was probably nobility or even royalty.

"This cross is the kind of material culture that was in circulation at the highest sphere of society."

10 things to know about the world's first car

When Karl Benz built the first Patent-Motorwagen in 1885 (it was patented in 1886) he probably didn't realise quite the extent to which it would transform the world. So without further ado, here are ten things you might not have known about the progenitor of motoring.

It wasn't the first attempt at an automobile

Inventors were trying to put a 'car' on the road as early as the 18th century. However, all were attempts to automate the horse-drawn carriage, and were largely useless; the Patent-Motorwagen was the first automobile designed from the ground up to be powered by an internal combustion engine.

An American nearly got there first

American inventor George Selden was working on a horseless carriage at about the same time as Benz, filing a patent in 1879. Unfortunately it wasn't until 1895 that his patent for a 'safe, simple, and cheap road-locomotive light in weight, easy to control and possessed of sufficient power to overcome any ordinary inclination' was approved.

It took at least 12 years to develop

By 1873 Benz had developed a working two-stroke engine, and thereafter set about creating a useable carriage to put it in. The Patent-Motorwagen was complete by 1885 and officially unveiled to the public in Mannheim, Germany, on 3 July 1886.

It had a 0.9bhp engine

It was claimed that the first Motorwagen developed a heady 0.66bhp from its single-cylinder gas-powered engine. A later test showed that to be a conservative power figure, however - it actually had a mighty 0.9bhp. Let's put that into perspective: one of the cars on sale in the UK with the lowest power outputs today is the cdi version of the Smart Fortwo, with 54bhp, or 5,900 percent more than the Motorwagen!

The original prototype crashed

Difficult to control using a lever linked to the central front wheel, the 1885 prototype was crashed into a wall during a public demonstration. Fortunately camera phones hadn't been invented yet, so there was no hilarious footage to upload to YouTube.

It was rear-wheel drive

Drifting wasn't too easy with a horse and carriage, but the Patent-Motorwagen was the keen power slider's dream. Its engine powered the rear wheels via two chains linked to the back axle, good for some serious sideways action. Its tyres were solid rubber.

Karl Benz's wife stole one and went for a joyride

The story goes that Benz's wife, Bertha, took Motorwagen number three for a lengthy drive in August 1888 without his permission. With her two sons she drove the car 50-60 miles to her mother's house then returned three days later. The Bertha Benz memorial route between Frankfurt and Baden-Baden celebrates that historic journey.

Early versions couldn't climb hills

It was only after Bertha's trip that a second gear was added to the car, at her request; like an Austin Allegro, early versions couldn't handle even the mildest of inclines.

The first customers had to buy fuel from pharmacies

Of course, there was no network of fuel pumps in place when the Motorwagen first hit the cobblestones. Buyers had to fill up with small bottles of gasoline, at the time a substance used as cleaning fluid and available only from chemists.

Around 25 were sold

In a five-year period between 1888 and 1893, Benz sold 25 Patent-Motorwagens to wealthy pioneers. In 1893 the three-wheeler was replaced by an updated version with four wheels - the luxurious Benz Velo.

Mark Nichol

A long time ago a warrior of the Piegan Blackfoot dreamed about a lake far away where some large animals lived. A voice in the dream told him the animals were harmless, and that he could use them for dragging travois and carrying packs in the same way the Indians then used dogs. "Go to this lake," the dream voice told him, "and take a rope with you so that you can catch these animals."

When the Piegan awoke he took a long rope made from strips of a bull buffalo's hide and travelled many miles on foot to the shore of the lake. He dug a hole in the sandy beach and concealed himself there. While he watched, he saw many animals come down to the lake to drink. Deer, coyotes, elk and buffalo all came to quench their thirsts.

After a while the wind began to blow. Waves rose upon the lake and began to roll and hiss along the beach. At last a herd of large animals, unlike any the Piegan had ever seen before, suddenly appeared before him. They were as large as elks, and had small ears and long tails hanging to the ground. Some were white, and some black, and some red and spotted.

The young ones were smaller. When they reached the water's edge and bent their heads to drink, the voice the man had heard in his dream whispered to him: "Throw your rope and catch one."

And so the Piegan threw his rope and caught one of the largest of the animals. It struggled and pulled and dragged the man about, and he was not strong enough to hold the animal. Finally it pulled the rope out of his hands, and the whole herd ran into the lake and sank out of sight beneath the water.

Feeling very sad, the Piegan returned to camp. He went into his lodge and prayed for help to the voice he had heard in his dream. The voice answered him: "Four times you may try to catch these animals. If in four times trying you do not catch them, you will never see them again."

Before he went to sleep that night the Piegan asked Old Man to help him, and while he slept Old Man told him that he was not strong enough to catch one of the big animals. "Try to catch one of the young animals," Old Man said, "and then you can hold it."

Next morning the Piegan went again to the shores of the big lake, and again he dug a hole in the sand and lay hidden there while the deer, the coyotes, the elk and the buffalo came to drink. At last the wind began to rise and the waves rolled and hissed upon the beach. Then came the herd of strange animals to drink at the lake, and again the man threw his rope. This time he caught one of the young animals and was able to hold it.

One by one he caught all the young animals out of the herd and led them back to the Piegan camp. After they had been there a little while, the mares--the mothers of these colts--came trotting into the camp. Their udders were filled with milk for the colts to drink. Soon after the mares came, the stallions of the herd followed them into the camp.

At first the Piegans were afraid of these new animals and would not go near them, but the warrior who had caught them told everybody that they would not harm them. After a while the animals became so tame that they followed the people whenever they moved their camp from place to place. Then the Piegans began to put packs on them, and they called this animal po-no-kah- mita, or elk dog, because they were big and shaped like an elk and could carry a pack like a dog.

That is how the Piegan Blackfoot got their horses.

Receive criticism with the right attitude.

When you are criticized, take a moment to be honestly introspective. Ask yourself: Is this true? If it is, then work towards correcting yourself. If not, then still strive to become better.
This is called spiritual maturity. If you want Inner Peace, you must not be ruffled by what others say. Rather: embrace it, receive it, and be moved to change by it.
Criticism is a gift when you put it to good use.