design

1. Grand Union Flag, 1775
(quote)
When, on 1 January 1776, Washington’s Continental Army was mustered formally on Prospect Hill (Mount Pisgah) in Somerville, Massachusetts, it was under this flag favoured by the American general during the previous year’s Siege of Boston. John Paul Jones, the first well-known American admiral raised the Grand Union Flag at sea in December 1775. The Grand Union Flag was an adaptation of the British Red Ensign, with six white stripes overlain on the red backdrop to create thirteen alternating red-and-white stripes symbolising the first states of the American union.

2. Liberty Tree flag, 1775
The lofty white pines of New England were much prized by the Royal Navy for the construction of its grandest warships. Dating from the Massachusetts Charter of 1691, prize specimens were marked with a broad arrow symbol denoting property of the Crown and shipped to England. This form of compulsory purchase led to the Pine Tree Riot of 1772, a precursor to the famous Boston Tea Party of 1774 and war with Great Britain a year later.

Flown from the masts of American warships, the Pine Tree flag was a powerful symbolic riposte to the Crown and its Royal Navy. A lone pine was shown on a white background with the inscription "An Appeal to Heaven" ("An Appeal to God" was a less common alternative). These words were taken from the British philosopher John Locke’s Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690), which refuted the notion of the Divine Right of Kings.

3. The Betsy Ross, 1776 (or not)  read more »

*NEW release*
Two Steps Wiser - World Culture Pictorial Online Journal Vol. 02
by Dean Goodluck
Available via Apple iBookstore/iTunes and Kobo eBooks.

Happy New Year!

*NEW release*
One Step Wiser - World Culture Pictorial Online Journal Vol. 01
by Dean Goodluck

Available via Apple iBookstore/iTunes and Kobo eBooks.

*NEW release*
Two Steps Wiser - World Culture Pictorial Online Journal Vol. 02
by Dean Goodluck
Available via Apple iBookstore/iTunes and Kobo eBooks.

From the publisher -
World Cultural Pictorial®'s online journey took its very first step on Earth Day, 2008. Cosmos is grand, mind cannot be narrow, neither can reading, therefore nor the journal collections - from poem to policy, from food to high tech, to the fate of world's first bio-diesel fiberglass speedboat champion, from rainforests to real life-and-death stories in oceans, from tiny mouse challenging mighty leopard to endless wrestle of global powers. Readers have left tons of comments on Journals stemming out of comprehensive reading, random thoughts, and humor.

To welcome the New Year, Volume 1 is free to download until end of January 2017. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays!

*NEW release*
One Step Wiser - World Culture Pictorial Online Journal Vol. 01
by Dean Goodluck
Available via Apple iBookstore/iTunes and Kobo eBooks.

(quote)  read more »

(quote)

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate strait, the one-mile-wide (1.6 km), three-mile-long (4.8 km) channel between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. It opened in 1937 and was, until 1964, the longest suspension bridge main span in the world, at 4,200 feet (1,300 m). It has been declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Construction began on January 5, 1933. The project was finished and opened May 27, 1937. The bridge-opening celebration began on May 27, 1937 and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200,000 people crossed either on foot or on roller skates.

CNN May 27, 2016 Nearly 60,000 bridges across the country are in desperate need of repair. One example is just down the street from the White House and Capitol Hill. In the nation's capital, 68,000 vehicles cross the Arlington Memorial Bridge between Washington and Virginia every day. CNN was granted rare access to go inside the crumbling bridge. "It's just eroding and concrete is falling off," said National Park Service spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles as she showed how the original support beams from 1932 are corroding. The beams have never been replaced, and the bridge could be closed to vehicle traffic within five years if it isn't fixed. It'll cost $250 million.  read more »