Saturday Scenes

On the 12th of May in 1941, Konrad Zuse presented the Z3 machine in Berlin. His Z1 machine was a mechanical computer without using gears; the program was stored on punched tape. It was able to do basic arithmetic and was probably the first floating-point machine in the world but only worked for a few minutes at a time. The Z2 was a desktop concept for the Z3. The Z3 was an electromechanical relay machine, similar to the Z1 but using different technology. It was the world’s first programmable, fully automatic computing machine.

Computer Resurrection Issue 37: The Zuse Computers

It was about 2 meters by 2 meters, and was built inside the apartment of Zuse’s parents. After it was built nobody could get it out. That’s why it stayed in that apartment until 1943 or so when the machine was destroyed in the bombing. In a street in that part of Berlin there’s a plaque identifying where the machine was built.

But the Z3 was not reliable. Zuse could build a machine with relays to show some operations working, but the machine would never work for long: the mechanics would get stuck.

Zuse considered non-mechanical options and proposed a machine built using vacuum tubes; however he estimated he would need around 1,200 tubes which was dismissed as impossible. A few years later, the first general-purpose electronic computer was designed in the United States. ENIAC contained 17,468 vacuum tubes and around 5 million hand-soldered joints.

On the 12th of May in 2012, we had more Saturday Scenes than ever before! A total of 46 scenes of Saturdays around the world were submitted! And they are truly wonderful! See for yourself:

These are the spectacular people who took the photographs:

• Pewari
• ClareRevell
• carocat
• max1018
• craftychai
• icklemouse
• oxonlady
• JeannieKelly
• CallumDG
• T_Northernbloke
• maidbloke
• embee
• RAFairman
• IfonicSue
• robdavies
• CarolineBignell
• AlistairRae
• UKMelia
• annemnicholas
• Korwhai
• akrabat
• SockYarnShop
• DaughterofLir
• raumsinn
• fembat
• ernmander
• michrueg
• sahfenn
• B_Tahnlenes
• HeideSpruck
• Denrael
• drewbenn
• mousewords
• thermalhound
• kyleorchid
• Dianitaborda85
• tonystanford
• jamesnnb
• kittendew
• noirem
• evilrooster
• akaSylvia
• rnout
• CliffStanford
• dudleypj
• timewind

We’d love to see MORE photographs of more places! Simply tweet the location of your photograph (taken on a Saturday) to @SatScenes to be included.

Follow SatScenes for more details and you’ll never miss another edition.

On the 5th of May in 1830, John Batterson Stetson was born in New Jersey. He contracted tuberculosis as a young man and left his father’s hat-making business in order to explore the American West as he was not expected to live for long. Although it was common for men to wear hats in 1860s, the cowboys wore whatever they had: commonly old hats from previous work, including sea captain hats, straw hats, wood derbies or “flea-infested coonskin caps”. John Stetson designed a hat for himself, inspired by the Mexican sombrero, out of waterproof felt which he fashioned from the fur of beavers, rabbits and wild hares. He decided to market a hat specifically for those settling in the west.

It cost $100 for tools and fur in order to set up a hatmaking business in Philadelphia, where he launched his new design, called Boss of the Plains. The hat had a four-inch crown and a broad rim with a plain strap used for the band. The Boss of the Plains sold for $5 and quickly became a symbol of the American West. It has since been recognised as the first cowboy hat.

John Batterson Stetson – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“It kept the sun out of your eyes and off your neck. It was an umbrella. It gave you a bucket (the crown) to water your horse and a cup (the brim) to water yourself. It made a hell of a fan, which you need sometimes for a fire but more often to shunt cows this direction or that.”
Dictionary of the American West by Winfred Blevins

The Boss of the Plains and his later design, the Carlsbad, became known as Stetsons, because John B. Stetson Company was embossed on the hatband.

The John B. Stetson Company became one of the largest hat firms in the world. In 1915, the company produced 3.3 million hats. That’s a lot of cowboys.

And on the 5th of May in 2012 there was a bit of a shoot-up but don’t worry! No guns: we were just quick on the draw with our cameras! Take a look:

And say a big howdy to these people who rustled up a scene on Saturday:

• CarolineBignell
• raumsinn
• ClareRevell
• JanetIsserlis
• UKMelia
• akrabat
• kyleorchid
• oxonlady
• sahfenn
• tonystanford
• Pewari
• RAFairman
• ernmander
• Korwhai
• evilrooster
• robdavies
• icklemouse
• embee
• max1018
• HarryMyhre
• dudleypj
• AlistairRae
• jamesnnb
• HeideSpruck
• knball
• mousewords
• drewbenn
• akaSylvia
• noirem
• thermalhound
• annemnicholas

If you’d like to see all of the people who took part in Saturday Scenes this year, take a look at our Saturday Scenes 2012 list on Twitter.

Would you like to add your photo? It’s just three simple steps to join in:

ONE: Take a photograph on a Saturday
TWO: Upload the photograph
THREE: Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the location

I’m looking forward to seeing your photograph in the next edition!

On the 28th of April in 1952, the Treaty of San Francisco came into effect. The treaty offered recognition by the Allied Powers of the Japanese people’s full sovereignity over Japan. Japan renounced claims on various territories including Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Antarctica.

The treaty also stated that Japan would indemnify members of the armed forces who suffered undue hardships while prisoners of war. Japan paid £4,500,000 to the Red Cross.

This document is considered to have officially ended World War II. But not everyone was a fan.

The Treaty of San Francisco

After the signing statement was read by President Truman hailing the reborn nation as a valiant ally in the struggle against “communist imperialism and aggression in the Pacific,” the Soviet Union immediately denounced the two treaties as “treaties for the preparation of a new war in the Far East” and an “illegal separate peace treaty with Japan.”

The treaty was signed by 48 nations, quite a few of which have been represented on Saturday Scenes!

And on the 28th of April in 2012, the following photographs were taken all over the world:

If you are looking for interesting people to follow, take advantage of this list of people who submitted photographs on Saturday:

• CarolineBignell
• icklemouse
• JeannieKelly
• arcticpixie
• raumsinn
• evilrooster
• RAFairman
• oxonlady
• Eriena_S
• SockYarnShop
• Pewari
• akrabat
• pytey
• HeideSpruck
• ernmander
• Korwhai
• HarryMyhre
• robdavies
• jamesnnb
• thermalhound
• dudleypj
• mousewords
• timewind
• max1018
• rnout
• noirem
• akaSylvia

Saturday Scenes is a great way to see the world from someone else’s point of view! Taking part is easy:

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Send it to @SatScenes on Twitter
3. Wait for the webpage to get updated
4. Oooh and aah over all the great submissions from all over the world!

So take a photograph this weekend and send it to @SatScenes!

On the 21st of April in 1966, Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopa visited Jamaica.

A prophecy by Marcus Garvey told Rastafarians to “look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be the Redeemer” shortly before Haile Selassie became Emperor of Ethiopia. Thus Selassie was recognised as the only true god and Ethiopia the spiritual homeland.

Some one hundred thousand Rastafarians came to Kingston airport in order to be present for the arrival of Selassie, acknowledged as the second coming of Jah.

A Special Gleaner Feature on Pieces of the Past – All Hail The State Visit of Emperor Haile Selassie I -The first 500 years in Jamaica

THE HEAT that rose from the tarmac of Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport was nothing compared to the level of expectation that was seeping through the thousands gathered on the tarmac that 21st day of April, 1966. The day was declared a public holiday in honour of the Emperor and people had started arriving from Wednesday night from places near and far, to form the largest crowd to have ever assembled at the Norman Manley International Airport. They came to the airport any way they could ­ by car, by truck, by bus, by bicycle, by foot. Drum beats and chants were heard almost non-stop, providing an almost hypnotic rhythm. The smell of ganja wafted through the air completing a welcome unprecedented in size and expectation for the Emperor on his first state visit to Jamaica.

Since then, the date has been celebrated as Grounation Day, the second most important holy day on the Rastafarian religious calendar. Grounation Day is celebrated with music, chanting and prayer.

And on the 21st of April in 2012, the day was celebrated on Twitter with beautiful photographs taken all over the world:

And here are the wonderful people who took them:

• elibrody
• oxonlady
• noirem
• RAFairman
• CarolineBignell
• CallumDG
• ernmander
• maidbloke
• SockYarnShop
• Korwhai
• icklemouse
• dudleypj
• Pewari
• akrabat
• HarryMyhre
• raumsinn
• robdavies
• akaSylvia
• jamesnnb
• mousewords
• timewind
• mickpound
• hurricane1947
• thermalhound
• evenstar84
• rnout
• tradingnothing
• HeideSpruck
• kittendew
• pixelesh
• CliffStanford
• JanetIsserlis

Have you got a camera or a smart phone?

You should take a photograph on Saturday. It’s easy to join us!

Simply send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url and the location and all the rest happens automatically!

I’m looking forward to seeing your Saturday Scene in the next edition!

The 14th of February has become a well-known holiday around the world: Valentines Day. Imported by Hallmark in order to sell cards and eagerly grasped onto by local flower sellers and chocolate manufacturers, the romantic holiday has quickly spread. But in Korea, it is just one of a series of holidays all occurring on the 14th. On the 14th of February, women give gifts to the men. The 14th of March is White Day, when the men give gifts to the women.

And the 14th of April is Black Day, a day for those people who did not receive any gifts in the previous months. A day for those who are unabashedly single.

black day | Tumblr

So, at this point I guess you know the drill for Black Day – it’s held every April 14th. How Black Day works is that for all the guys who didn’t receive chocolate and the girls who didn’t receive candy on the appropriate days, they eat this specific type of noodle called 자장면 (ja-jang-myun – noodles with black bean sauce) on Black Day to “celebrate” the “single” life. It’s really hard to explain everything in English because the context just isn’t the same … but yeah. It’s all a marketing gimmick by companies and/or restaurants in Korea really, but nobody cares too much about that.

Apparently, there’s also a Green Day on the 14th of August, a day for drinking cheap booze that comes in green bottles. Around here, we call that “pub night”.

Meanwhile, on the 14th of April in 2012, It may have been Black Day but the photographs submitted are anything but dark:

And here are the excellent photographers that took them:

• JeannieKelly
• RAFairman
• rnout
• raumsinn
• annemnicholas
• oxonlady
• CarolineBignell
• evilrooster
• JanetIsserlis
• SockYarnShop
• icklemouse
• maidbloke
• carocat
• AlistairRae
• KennPFC
• jamesnnb
• ernmander
• ClareRevell
• kittendew
• Pewari
• HarryMyhre
• mousewords
• robdavies
• akrabat
• UKMelia
• fembat
• drewbenn
• pendrift
• Korwhai
• timewind
• dudleypj
• hurricane1947

Saturday Scenes is not a romantic endeavour. We don’t care if you are single or going steady: Take a photograph on Saturday!

To be included in Saturday Scenes, just send an @reply to SatScenes with a link to the photo and the location. We’d love to see your corner of the world!

On the 7th of April in 1652 Johan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck, known as Jan van Riebeeck, became the 1st Commander of the Cape.

The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (the Dutch East India Company), the first multinational corporation in the world, had a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. Van Riebeeck joined them in 1639. In 1651 he volunteered to establish a resupply camp near the southern tip of Africa in order to re-supply ships travelling from the Netherlands to the East Indies. He landed three ships at the location now known as Cape Town on the 6th of April and built the Fort de Goede Hoop (‘Fort of Good Hope’) using mud, clay and timber. Van Riebeeck stayed on as Commander of the Cape for ten years, at which point he moved to Malacca. The outpost was known as “The Tavern of the Seas” and grew to become the Cape Colony as the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie encouraged more settlers.

Old cape Colony : a chronicle of her men and houses from 1952 to 1806

For seventeen years after van Riebeeck’s departure, the Cape was at a standstill... But the efforts of the Governors were confined to the building of a castle which was to replace van Riebeeck’s wooden fort, now dilapidated and considered inefficient. Wouter Schouten says in 1658 that the fort had a “church where the word of God was preached,” but according to Theal, the large hall decorated with skins was the only church. It had a stuffed zebra at the entrance, and the attractive beast was removed before the service began, lest the attention of the congregation should be diverted.

The wild almond hedge that van Riebeeck had planted around the original fort still survives over 350 years later.

And on the 7th of April in 2012, these wonderful photographs were taken and sent to @SatScenes from diverse locations all over the world:

And here are the photographers who took them:

• JeannieKelly
• CarolineBignell
• craftychai
• JanetIsserlis
• akrabat
• Pewari
• carocat
• annemnicholas
• akaSylvia
• robdavies
• DaughterofLir
• ernmander
• UKMelia
• HeideSpruck
• arcticpixie
• Korwhai
• raumsinn
• maidbloke
• oxonlady
• mousewords
• jamesnnb
• HarryMyhre
• icklemouse
• riggersmark
• dudleypj
• AlistairRae
• noirem
• sahfenn

Did you know there’s a list for everyone who submitted a Saturday scene? Saturday Scenes 2012 now has 72 members, all of whom submitted a photograph from a Saturday this year.

If you’d like to join in, just take a picture on Saturday and send the link to @SatScenes with the location! It’s easy and fun and we all love seeing new sights.

On the 31st of March in 1985, the first Wrestlemania was held in Madison Square Garden, heralding the start of the World Wrestling Federation. The main event was a tag-team match between the WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Mr. T. The event was a major success, which catapulted the World Wrestling Federation above competitive wrestling associations in the US. The WWF continued to hold larger and larger events, culminating with WrestleMania III.

Basil V. Devito Jr. wrote about Vince McMahon’s planning for the event in his 2001 book WrestleMania: The Official Insider’s Story, with the main event of Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant.

WrestleMania III remembered – part 1

“We’re going all the way,” he said. “Find out what the record is for the largest indoor crowd in history – for any event. Then make sure we can put enough seats in the Silverdome to break it.”

Then he paused and smiled.

“What do you think?”

I swallowed hard. “Well, Vince, to be honest… I’m scared to death.”

With that, Hulk stopped, put down his bags, and turned to face us. He walked right up to me, not in a menacing way, but in a very serious way. He leaned down, put his nose a few inches from mine, and said in that sandpaper voice of his, “Ain’t you heard who the main event is, brother?”

The WWF excluded the state of Michigan from pay-per-view access to the event, so fans in Michigan could only see the competition if they attended. WrestleMania III set the world indoor attendance record of 93,173 fans and was also the largest paying attendance in the history of professional wrestling for its time.

Meanwhile, twenty-seven years later (ouch!) on the 31st of March in 2012, the following knock-down awesome photographs were taken:

And these are the photographers who took them:

• JanetIsserlis
• oxonlady
• sahfenn
• henrypsmum
• Pewari
• Korwhai
• ernmander
• UKMelia
• robdavies
• dudleypj
• raumsinn
• icklemouse
• RAFairman
• JeannieKelly
• tradingnothing
• AlistairRae
• akrabat
• noirem
• carocat
• pixelesh
• drewbenn
• jamesnnb
• HeideSpruck
• mousewords
• fembat
• timewind

Why don’t you join us? It’s easy:

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Upload the photograph to a friendly photo-hosting site
3. Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url and location

I’m looking forward to seeing your Saturday Scene in the next edition!

On the night of the 24th of March in 1943, seventy-six prisoners from Stalag Luft III escaped. Squadron Leader Roger Bushell RAF conceived the plan to dig three long tunnels 9 metres (30 feet) below the surface to allow them to escape, wearing civilian clothes and carrying maps and forged papers. Six hundred men helped to create the tunnels, even though only some 200 would be able to escape. One of the tunnels was discovered only a short time before completion. The prisoners bided their time and then finished “Harry” and planned the escape for the 24th of March: the next moonless night.

One of the escapees was Pilot Officer Jimmy James, who told the BBC his story as a part of the WAr Behind the Wire series.

Pilot Officer Jimmy James

Not long before 10pm we were all in there and the doors were shut and they started to get out, but there were four things which held up the breakout. One was icing on the trap. The trap got iced up and it took them an hour and a half to break out of it. When they got out they found that the exit hole was about 20 or 30 feet short of the woods, which meant that coming out in the snow you were quite near the guard on the wire and there was a flashlight with a guard box and all that and you would have stood out like a sore thumb if the sentry had seen you. So Roger said, “Put a man behind the bush.” A ferret bush [aka. Ferret Fence] they would call it, where the ferret used to lie and watch with a rope, and hang the rope down the exit hole and just signal to people when they can come up. The chap would give a tug on the rope, and if it was okay to go he would give one tug and if it was not he would give two tugs.

Despite numerous set-backs, 76 men crawled through the tunnel that night. The 77th was spotted by the guards. Of the escapees, 73 were re-captured.

The events were dramatised in 1950 in the blockbuster film The Great Escape although, contrary to the film, there were no Americans involved in the escape, no motorcycle chases and no exciting aircraft scenes.

James’ story of being a Prisoner of War, including a later escape attempt, is fascinating story in itself and well worth a read.

Meanwhile, on the 24th of March in 2012, thirty-eight great scenes were recorded and submitted for posterity:

Take a moment and follow those people who submitted them:

• icklemouse
• oxonlady
• CarolineBignell
• JanetIsserlis
• sahfenn
• dlewis1701
• JeannieKelly
• RAFairman
• elibrody
• raumsinn
• AlistairRae
• gwenthing
• robdavies
• SockYarnShop
• Korwhai
• Pewari
• evilrooster
• max1018
• akrabat
• tradingnothing
• sweeneyjf
• CliffStanford
• ernmander
• UKMelia
• pixelesh
• mousewords
• dudleypj
• maidbloke
• jamesnnb
• HeideSpruck
• drewbenn
• carocat
• timewind
• noirem
• fembat
• RealCainMosni
• hurricane1947
• akaSylvia

Shouldn’t you save a photograph of your day-to-day life for posterity? It’s easy!

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Upload the photograph
3. Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url and the location
4. Bookmark http://twitter.blog.me.uk/ for future descendants to find

I’m looking forward to seeing your photograph on Saturday!

On the 17th of March in 1973, Colonel Robert L Stirm and twenty other POWs returned to the U.S. after over 5 years at a prisoner of war camp in North Vietnam. Stirm endured starvation, torture and a total of 281 days in solitary confinement. For part of his imprisonment he shared a cell with future politician John McCain. On the 14th of March, Stirm was released and given a “Dear John letter” from his wife. Three days later, he arrived at Travis Air Force Base in California, where family and press were waiting for the POWs.

The homecoming was a huge press event and Stirm gave a speech about Operation Homecoming, as the event was called. Finally, he was finished and able to greet his family.

Coming Home | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

Associated Press photographer Slava “Sal” Veder, who’d been standing in a crowded bullpen with dozens of other journalists, noticed the sprinting family and started taking pictures. “You could feel the energy and the raw emotion in the air,” says Veder, then 46, who had spent much of the Vietnam era covering antiwar demonstrations in San Francisco and Berkeley. The day was overcast, meaning no shadows and near-perfect light. He rushed to a makeshift darkroom in a ladies’ bathroom on the base (United Press International had commandeered the men’s). In less than half an hour, Veder and his AP colleague Walt Zeboski had developed six remarkable images of that singular moment. Veder’s pick, which he instantly titled Burst of Joy, was sent out over the news-service wires, published in newspapers around the nation and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1974.

Sadly, the marriage dissolved within a year and Stirm stated to a reporter that he didn’t keep a copy of the photograph as it was just too painful. It’s a beautiful image of the time, even if the long-term reality didn’t carry through on the promise.

Meanwhile, on the 17th of March in 2012, the following photographs were taken and shared with the online community as a part of Saturday scenes:

Here are the talented photographers who took them:

• icklemouse
• evilrooster
• JeannieKelly
• CarolineBignell
• RAFairman
• JanetIsserlis
• raumsinn
• HeideSpruck
• Pewari
• akrabat
• CallumDG
• noirem
• waleedalzuhair
• jamesnnb
• robdavies
• AlistairRae
• sahfenn
• ernmander
• Korwhai
• UKMelia
• mousewords
• dudleypj
• tradingnothing
• carocat
• drewbenn
• RealCainMosni

Shouldn’t you save a photograph of your day-to-day life for posterity? It’s easy!

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Upload the photograph
3. Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url and the location
4. Bookmark http://twitter.blog.me.uk/ for future descendants to find

I’m looking forward to seeing your photograph in the next edition!

On the 10th of March in 1977, astronomers discovered rings around Uranus. The planet Uranus was discovered centuries earlier by William Herschel in 1781 while searching for double-stars. Funnily enough, he mentioned a ring.

Herschel was the King’s Astronomer and he called the new planet the “Georgian star” in honour of King George III. French astronomers were not in favour of this reference to the British King and called the planet “Herschel” instead. The name Uranus (after Ouranos, the Greek god of the sky) was universally adopted in 1850.

Twenty years later, Herschel said he stated that he saw a ring around the planet and even drew a sketch; however astronomers did not find evidence of the rings for almost two hundred years. Herschel’s claim was dismissed as a mistake.

After the rings were confirmed in 1977, Herschel’s sighting continued to be dismissed as he did not have the equipment necessary: the rings were too faint to see.

However, Dr Stuart Eves, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, thinks Herschel may have seen something after all.

Did William Herschel Discover The Rings Of Uranus In The 18th Century?

“Herschel got a lot of things right”, notes Dr Eves, “He has a ring of roughly the correct size relative to the planet, and he also has the orientation of this ring in the right direction. In addition, he accurately describes the way the appearance of the ring changes as Uranus moves around the Sun, and he even gets its colour right. Uranus’s Epsilon ring is somewhat red in colour, a fact only recently confirmed by the Keck telescope, and Herschel mentions this in his paper.”

Meanwhile, on the 10th of March in 2011, many photographers looked to the skies for inspiration and then took these astronomically amazing examples of Saturday Scenes:

And here are the super stars that took them:

• raumsinn
• fluttabyz
• timewind
• CallumDG
• JanetIsserlis
• Korwhai
• sahfenn
• carocat
• ladyauntiecathy
• oxonlady
• UKMelia
• rOcKeTmAn_76
• twasntme
• RAFairman
• ernmander
• tradingnothing
• icklemouse
• Pewari
• akrabat
• AlistairRae
• fcw
• robdavies
• HeideSpruck
• jamesnnb
• dudleypj
• mousewords
• CliffStanford
• drewbenn

Would you like to share their fame and fortune? Join us on Saturday: it’s easy!

1. Take a photograph (on Saturday!)
2. Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url and the location

I’m looking forward to seeing your photograph in the next edition!