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4 Steps to Good Health After Menopause
A woman's risk for osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain cancers go up post-menopause. These smart lifestyle steps can help you protect your health.
American women are living long lives — there’s a good chance you have more than a third of your life ahead of you after menopause. And it’s more important than ever to take an active role in protecting your health post-menopause, especially since some conditions, like cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis, are more likely to occur during this time.
A drop in levels of estrogen and other hormones during menopause, unhealthy lifestyle habits, and mid-life stress can all add up to an increased risk of disease in women post-menopause. And since menopause is a life transition, it’s an excellent time to take stock of your overall health. Making smart lifestyle decisions can help prevent or delay the onset of many of these problems, including complications due to cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis.
Preventing Cardiovascular Disease
It’s believed that estrogen provides some protection against heart disease in young women. But menopause changes the game. After age 55, more than half of all deaths among American women are caused by cardiovascular disease. Some risk factors are out of your control — others you can manage.
Here’s what you can do to lower your risk:
- Control your blood pressure. Keeping your blood pressure below 120/80 mm Hg is ideal. Even slight elevations can double the risk of stroke or heart attack. Almost half of women over age 55 have high blood pressure (a reading equal to or greater than 140/90 mm Hg). High blood pressure, or hypertension, has been dubbed a silent killer because it usually doesn’t cause any symptoms early on. After years of living with high blood pressure, however, your risk of stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure increase significantly. Cutting back on salt, limiting alcohol, losing weight, and getting regular exercise are important ways to keep the lid on hypertension. If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, your doctor can prescribe medication to lower your blood pressure.
- Control your cholesterol. A national study found that menopause can cause "bad" cholesterol (LDL) to increase rapidly — by as much as 9 percent within two years of a woman's final period. Make a point to visit your doctor and get your cholesterol numbers checked. According to the National Cholesterol Education Program, LDL cholesterol levels should be less than 110mg/dL, total cholesterol less than 200 mg/dL, and "good" cholesterol (HDL) 60 mg/dL and above. Keeping your LDL cholesterol and triglycerides low is key, along with trying to keep your HDL number high since HDL cholesterol can actually protect you from developing cardiovascular disease. Regular exercise, eating a low-fat diet, and avoiding hydrogenated oils and trans-fatty acids can help you achieve these goals. Talk to your doctor about specific diet and exercise strategies to manage your cholesterol. If necessary, your doctor may suggest medication to lower your cholesterol.
- Quit smoking. This is perhaps the biggest gift you can give yourself. Smokers are much more likely to have a stroke or heart attack than non-smokers. Here’s a reason to put down the cigarettes today: When a woman stops smoking — regardless of how long she has smoked — her risk of cardiovascular disease begins to decrease considerably. Talk to your doctor about the best ways to stop smoking.
Preventing Osteoporosis and Other Conditions After Menopause
Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and brittle. Since estrogen helps contribute to bone strength in younger women, the risk of developing osteoporosis increases post-menopause. The hips, spine, and wrists are most at risk of fracture due to osteoporosis. A bone mineral density test can help evaluate your bone strength. Ask your doctor if this test is right for you.
Here’s what else you can do to keep your bones strong:
- Eat a bone-building diet. Foods rich in calcium and vitamin D will help strengthen your bones. Milk, canned fish such as salmon, eggs, and dark green, leafy vegetables are great choices. Ask your doctor if you also need to take supplements. Drink alcohol only in moderation and, if you smoke, quit — protecting yourself from osteoporosis is just another reason to stop.
- Get some sun. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. Spending 5 to 30 minutes in the sun a few times a week can help your body produce vitamin D and soak up calcium more readily.
- Exercise some muscle. Exercising at least three times a week helps keep bones strong. Weight-bearing exercises such as walking and using weights are good choices. In addition, exercises that improve strength and balance can help protect you from falling, further protecting your bones.
- Consider medication. There are many drugs that prevent or treat osteoporosis. Talk to your doctor about which might work best for you.
Defending Against Diabetes
The risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases with age, so menopause is a good time to make sure that you’re doing your best to control your blood sugar. When your body is unable to process glucose effectively due to diabetes, sugar builds up in the blood, creating a host of health issues, including vision and kidney problems. This can also contribute to cardiovascular disease.
Here’s how you can manage or prevent diabetes:
- Maintain a healthy weight. Obesity is the No. 1 risk factor for type 2 diabetes. Ask your doctor if you’re at your ideal weight and, if not, discuss ways you can drop pounds safely.
- Keep an eye on your numbers. If you have diabetes, make sure your blood sugar levels are in the healthy range, eat a high-fiber low-carbohydrate diet, and stay active. Be sure to take your medications as prescribed.
Thwarting Other Health Challenges After Menopause
Certain cancers, like breast cancer, are more likely to strike women in their post-menopause years. Be vigilant about getting mammograms and any other cancer screenings your doctor recommends. Urinary problems such as bladder infections or urine leakage often plague older women. Don’t suffer in silence — your doctor can figure out what’s causing your problems and put together an effective treatment plan.
Menopause is a time of new beginnings. Making sure your health is at its best can help make the transition an exciting and fulfilling one.

domain: medical


Manage episode 291424873 series 2920850
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a discussion about the long-term challenges for transportation infrastructure presented by a volatile climate.
First, Hugh McDiarmid Jr., director of communications at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, joins to talk about the High Water Action Team convened earlier this year by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Wednesday, Gov. Whitmer signed Executive Order 2020-182 and Executive Directive 2020-10 to create the MI Healthy Climate Plan. The governor’s comprehensive plan will protect Michiganders’ public health and the environment and help develop new clean energy jobs by putting Michigan on a path toward becoming fully carbon-neutral by 2050.
"The science is clear, and message urgent: the earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization, and human activities are largely responsible for this change,” says the executive directive.
McDiarmid explains that Michigan’s water levels are at their highest in more than two decades, causing millions of dollars in damage to private property and public infrastructure, like roads and bridges.
Traffic has been disrupted across the state as flooding and high water flowed over roads and bridges. The problem is particularly acute on the Lake Michigan shore, where roads have been under water in Benton Harbor, Montague, Whitehall, Pentwater, and Elberta in Benzie County. Inland areas have also suffered damage as well as roads near Lake Huron.
Erosion severely damaged the popular Little Traverse Wheelway between Charlevoix and Petoskey and a study indicated restoration could cost millions.
Matt Chynoweth, MDOT’s chief bridge engineer and director of the department’s Bureau of Bridges and Structures, joins the podcast to talk about the perils high water presents for bridge supports, and MDOT’s intensive inspection procedures.
Chynoweth explains that the issue is not so much the annual precipitation totals but more about the increased frequency of extreme events. Given the median age of bridges in the state, he details how MDOT inspectors monitor bridges and structures around the state during these more frequent and higher intensity flooding events.
He also explains the concept of bridge scour and why the sustained high water is of particular concern.


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As if running with the bulls at the annual San Fermin festival in Pamplona, northeast Spain, wasn’t dangerous enough...
NFL player Josh Norman kicked up the risk level on Thursday morning when he decided to jump over the bulls too.
Check out video here:
The Washington cornerback shared photographs of the stunt on Instagram:
Spanish news agency EFE also released footage of Norman preparing for the run, which had been on the 31-year-old’s bucket list for several years.
Some 29 people have been hospitalized at this year’s festival, which sees six bulls chase hundreds of runners through the city’s streets at 8 a.m. local time each day. San Francisco public defender Jaime Alvarez was gored in the neck last weekend while filming a video selfie.
The annual event is regularly protested by animal rights activists. The final run for 2019 takes place on Sunday morning.

domain: news


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A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 6. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1911.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
Hocton, 1204; Hoghton, 1290 and usual; Hoghtone, 1306.
The River Darwen, flowing north and west, forms part of the eastern boundary of this township. Near the centre of the northern portion of the area is the steep hill on which is perched Hoghton Tower, 556 ft. above sea level. To the north-cast is the hamlet called Hoghton Bottoms, being on the lower ground by the riverside, and to the south-west is Riley Green; Brimmicroft lies to the south. Further south again the surface rises in one place to 600 ft. The area is 2,232 acres. (fn. 1) In 1901 the population numbered 940.
The principal road is that on the westerly side of the township, from Bolton-le-Moors to Preston, and is joined at Riley Green by the road coming westward from Blackburn. The Lancashire and Yorkshire Company's railway from Preston to Blackburn crosses the northern part of the township, and has a station called Hoghton about a mile west of the Tower. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal passes through Brimmicroft.
The most notable event in the history of the township appears to be the visit of James I to Hoghton Tower in 1617. He stayed there three days, 15–18 August, hunting and feasting, and is said there to have resolved upon the proclamation as to Sunday sports which gave so much offence to the Puritans. The mock knighting of 'Sir Loin' is also associated with the visit. (fn. 2) In February 1642–3 the Parliamentarians sent 300 men to take Hoghton Tower, which was 'fortified with three great pieces of ordnance, and some say with betwixt thirty and forty musqueteers and some say more.' After half an hour's consideration the place was surrendered upon quarter, but on Captain Starkie of Blackburn searching the place for powder and arms an explosion took place, by which he and a number of his company were killed and others maimed. The explosion was due to the carelessness of one of his men, but at the time was attributed to the malice of the defenders. (fn. 3)
Hoghton Tower had twenty-two out of the seventyseven hearths in the township taxed in 1666; the residence nearest in size was that of Mrs. Lathom, with five hearths. (fn. 4) The soil is clayey and sandy; wheat, oats and potatoes are grown. The township is mainly agricultural, but a cotton factory has long been established. There is also a large quarry. Formerly alum was mined. (fn. 5)
There is a parish council.
Joseph Knight, a botanist, was born at Hoghton in 1781. He died in 1855. (fn. 6)
In the 12th century HOGHTON seems to have been considered a part of Gunolfsmoors, (fn. 7) a name which survived until about 1600 (fn. 8) and is perpetuated in the 'Moor quarter' of the parish. (fn. 9) The whole was within the barony or fee of Penwortham, and it is on record that Richard Bussel gave to Alan son of Swain, in marriage with his sister, 4½ plough-lands in Gunolfsmoors. (fn. 10) It is probable that the grant was made by Richard's father, Warine Bussel, (fn. 11) for about 1160 Richard Bussel, with the assent of his brothers Albert and Geoffrey, gave to Richard Fitton eight plough-lands, viz. Elswick, Clayton-le-Woods, Whittle-le-Woods, Wheelton, Withnell, Hoghton, and Roddlesworth, with all appurtenances, to be held by the fourth part of a knight's fee; but when Richard should gain possession of the land held by William son of Alan the service to be rendered should be doubled. (fn. 12) According to an ancient statement of the descent William son of Alan's lands were parted between three daughters and coheirs, (fn. 13) but, as Hoghton is not expressly named in the partition, it may have been for the most part outside the 4½ plough-lands granted to Alan. In later times, as will be seen, the Hoghton manors were said to be held by the third or the fourth part of a knight's fee. (fn. 14) Richard Fitton, perhaps the same or his successor, was the tenant in 1212, holding Gunolfsmoors of the barony of Penwortham by knights' service. (fn. 15) Later, perhaps about 1280, Edmund Fitton granted his lordship to Sir Henry de Lea, (fn. 16) from whom, some forty years later, it descended by marriage to the Hoghton family, the immediate lords of the manor. (fn. 17)
The early connexion of this family with Hoghton is obscure. The earliest ancestor known is one Hamon or Hamlet le Boteler, to whom Warine Bussel gave two plough-lands in Heaton in Lonsdale and Elston, in free marriage with his daughter. (fn. 18) Hamlet had two sons, Richard and William, (fn. 19) and Richard's son Adam had some land or lordship in Hoghton, for in 1203 he was known as Adam de Hoghton. (fn. 20) He did not hold directly of the Fittons, for it is clear from what follows that Hoghton was parted between two mesne lords, one surnamed Hoghton and the other Ollerton. Adam had successors of the same name, (fn. 21) and in the latter part of the century a Sir Adam de Hoghton becomes prominent. (fn. 22) He extended the family possessions and in particular acquired the lordship of a fourth part of the manor. It appears that Henry son of Henry de Hoghton, one of the mesne lords above mentioned, held three-fourths of the manor in his own right and the other fourth part of Richard de Ollerton by the service of 3s. yearly. Adam, who was Henry's tenant for the other three parts, holding by a rent of 6s. 9d., purchased the service of the fourth part from Ollerton; so that he then held three-fourths of Henry by a rent of 6s. 9d., and Henry held the other fourth of him by a rent of 3s. It was consequently agreed that for the future Adam should pay 3s. 9d. only and Henry nothing. (fn. 23) The descendants of Henry can be traced for some time later, but appear to have sold their possessions to Adam's descendants, (fn. 24) the latter thus becoming sole lords of the manor.
Sir Adam, who died about 1290, had several children, including sons Adam, Thomas, Geoffrey and Master Richard. (fn. 25) Adam seems to have died soon after his father, and Master Richard, sheriff of the county in 1298, (fn. 26) succeeded. (fn. 27) In 1311 it was found that Richard de Hoghton held Gunolfsmoors and Whittle-le-Woods by the service of half a knight's fee, rendering 2s. for sake fee and doing suit to the court of Penwortham. (fn. 28) A number of his charters are extant; by one he settled his manor of Hoghton upon his son Richard. (fn. 29) It appears to be this son who married Sibyl, the sister and heir of Sir Henry de Lea, and so acquired Lea and many other manors in this county and in Cheshire. (fn. 30) The family was often called Hoghton of Lea, the chief manor-house having been there at one time.
Sir Richard in 1337, shortly before his death, procured the king's charter for himself and his son Adam to have free warren in their demesne lands of Hoghton and Withnell and to inclose 500 acres of land for a park. (fn. 31) Sir Adam, the son, succeeded, and held the manors for about fifty years. (fn. 32) He was several times knight of the shire, (fn. 33) and dying in 1385 (fn. 34) was succeeded by his son Sir Richard de Hoghton, one of whose first acts was to obtain the royal licence for an extension of the park. (fn. 35) In 1383 and 1402 he was knight of the shire. (fn. 36) He died in 1415 (fn. 37) holding the manor of Hoghton with its members, viz. Clayton, Wheelton, Heapey, Roddlesworth and Gunolfsmoors, of the king (as Duke of Lancaster, Earl of Lincoln, and lord of Penwortham) by knights' service and the payment of 2s. 0½d. yearly. He also held a moiety of the manor of Whittle-le-Woods, and a great number of other manors (including the above-named moiety of the manor of Heaton in Lonsdale), with messuages, lands, &c. His son Sir William having predeceased him the heir was his grandson Richard son of Sir William, of the age of twenty-four or more. (fn. 38)
The heir, Sir Richard Hoghton, was in 1431 found to be holding the manor of Hoghton by the fifth part of a knight's fee, (fn. 39) and in 1445–6 it was found that he held the third part of a knight's fee in Hoghton, Clayton, Wheelton-with-Heapey, Withnell-with-Roddlesworth, and the moiety of Eccleshill. (fn. 40) He died in or before 1468, being succeeded by his son Sir Henry, (fn. 41) who in 1470 and 1475 obtained papal indulgences for himself, his wife Ellen and his children. (fn. 42) Dying in 1479, (fn. 43) Sir Henry was followed by his sons Sir Alexander, who died in 1498, (fn. 44) leaving an only daughter, and William, who died three years afterwards, (fn. 45) holding Hoghton and being succeeded by his son Richard, a minor. (fn. 46)
Sir Richard received an unfavourable character from Thomas Benalt, the herald who visited the county in 1533. (fn. 47) He was sheriff in 1540 (fn. 48) and knight of the shire in 1553. (fn. 49) He died on 5 August 1559, (fn. 50) and was succeeded by his son Thomas, (fn. 51) who had a moiety of the manor of Ashton-under-Lyne in right of his mother. Thomas Hoghton it was who about 1564 erected Hoghton Tower. (fn. 52) About the same time he entertained William Allen, afterwards cardinal, who was visiting Lancashire in order to animate Roman Catholics in their resistance to the new ecclesiastical laws, and he became a resolute opponent of Protestantism. Consequently at the beginning of the Elizabethan persecution in Lancashire he was required to conform, and finding that he could not do so with a good conscience he fled to the Continent, taking refuge in Antwerp. On his failing to make peace with the queen, his estates were seized, (fn. 53) and he died in exile at Liege in 1580. His body was afterwards buried at Douay, he having been a liberal benefactor to the English seminary there. (fn. 54) At Hoghton he was succeeded by his brother Alexander, (fn. 55) who was followed by a half-brother Thomas, (fn. 56) killed in a family feud at Lea in November 1589. (fn. 57)
Thomas's son Richard, twenty years of age, (fn. 58) was given as ward to Sir Gilbert Gerard, whose daughter he married, and he conformed to the Church of England. He was made a knight in 1600 and a baronet in 1611 at the first creation. (fn. 59) He was sheriff of the county in 1599, (fn. 60) and afterwards knight of the shire. (fn. 61) He entertained James I at Hoghton Tower in 1617 on the king's return from Scotland, (fn. 62) and died in 1630, (fn. 63) being succeeded by his son Sir Gilbert, (fn. 64) a zealous Royalist in the Civil War. (fn. 65) At the end of November 1642 he fired his beacon on the top of Hoghton Tower, and thus assembled all 'the papists and malignants of the Fylde and in Leyland Hundred'; he led them to an attack on Blackburn, which seems to have been as useless as it was timid. (fn. 66) He fortified Preston, and on the storming of the town in 1643 escaped to Wigan. (fn. 67) His estates were sequestered by the Parliament, but he died in or before 1646, (fn. 68) and as his son and heir Sir Richard had taken the Parliament's side they were restored. (fn. 69)
Sir Richard was knight of the shire (fn. 70) and sheriff (fn. 71) during the Commonwealth period. A pedigree was recorded at Sir W. Dugdale's Visitation in 1664, (fn. 72) and in 1678 Sir Richard was succeeded by his son Sir Charles, who represented the county as a Whig between 1679 and 1690. (fn. 73) Sir Henry son of Charles, a Nonconformist, opposed the Jacobite rising at Preston in 1715 and was made one of the commissioners of forfeited estates. (fn. 74) Dying in 1768 he was followed by his nephew Sir Henry son of Philip Hoghton, who represented Preston as a Whig from 1768 till his death in 1795. (fn. 75) He was the acknowledged Parliamentary leader of the Nonconformists. His son and successor, also a Whig and Nonconformist, was Sir Henry Philip Hoghton (fn. 76); his brother, MajorGeneral Daniel Hoghton, was killed at the battle of Albuera in 1811, and has a monument in St. Paul's Cathedral. (fn. 77) Sir Henry, at his death in 1835, was followed by his son Sir Henry, who took the surname of Bold before Hoghton, having married the heiress of the Bold family. (fn. 78) In 1862 their son Sir Henry succeeded; having sold his mother's estates, he adopted one of the old forms of the surname, becoming de Hoghton; the other children of his father took the same course. His only son Cecil having died unmarried in 1874, Sir Henry was followed in 1876 by his brother Sir Charles, and the latter in 1893 by his half-brother Sir James de Hoghton, eleventh baronet, the present lord of the manor of Hoghton. (fn. 79)
Hoghton Tower is strikingly situated near the summit of a bold eminence about half-way between Blackburn and Preston. The position is a commanding one, and the prospect from the top of the entrance tower is very extensive, ranging from the mountains of the Lake District to those of North Wales, with the great plain of south-west Lancashire stretching to the Irish Sea below. On its north and east sides the hill, which is the highest ground in the neighbourhood and a conspicuous object in the landscape for miles around, is precipitous, and at its base on the east side the River Darwen passes through a deep wooded ravine. On the west it slopes gradually, and on the higher part of the sloping side, but some little distance from the summit, the building is situated. The site of the house is about 560 ft. above the sea level and some 360 ft. above the general level of the surrounding country, but the building follows very largely the slope of the hillside, the gardens at the east end being at a considerably higher level than the outer, or west, courtyard.
The house is an admirable specimen of the large stone-built mansion of the middle 16th century, erected round two courtyards, with the great hall and living rooms generally grouped round the upper court. The offices and servants' quarters are built westward north and south of the lower courtyard, the west end of which is inclosed by an embattled gateway, with low flanking towers joined to it by curtain walls.
The buildings appear to be of two main dates, the greater part of the house, including probably most of the buildings round the upper court as well as the western entrance gateway and towers, belonging to the early years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, while at a later time, towards the middle or end of the 17th century, the buildings were extended westward north and south of the lower courtyard, which had before been apparently inclosed only by walls. Only two definite dates, however, can be assigned to the building, the older parts of which have been erected at different times, as is evidenced by the absence of any bond at nearly all the inside angles of the courtyards, and by other internal evidence in the walls. The assigning of dates to many parts of the house is therefore rendered extremely difficult, and the more so by reason of the general uniformity of style which prevails throughout the building. Over the archway in the upper courtyard is the date 1565, (fn. 80) with the arms and initials of Thomas Hoghton, which probably gives the year of the completion of the middle range of buildings between the two courts, and probably those on the north of the upper court, as well as other parts of the house since altered or destroyed. The west gateway, together with the flanking towers, would seem also to belong to this first building, as it bears the same arms and initials. The only other date on the house proper is the year 1700, which together with the initials of Sir Charles Hoghton is on the western range of buildings on the south side of the lower court. The great barn to the northwest of the house is dated 1692.
Dr. Kuerden, writing in the middle of the 17th century, is responsible for the statement, often since repeated, that Hoghton Tower was 'built in Queen Elizabeth's reign by one Thomas Hoghton, who translated this manor-house, formerly placed below the hill near unto the water side.' It has been questioned, however, whether the house built by Thomas Hoghton was a new building 'translated' to the top of the hill from a former site near the river, the theory being put forward that the manor-house of the Hoghtons always stood on its present site and was merely rebuilt by Thomas Hoghton in 1565. (fn. 81) There seems, however, to be no substantial reason for doubting Dr. Kuerden's statement, though no records or remains of an older building at the bottom of the hill are known to exist. The evidence of the present building, however, though showing it to have been erected at different times, does not support the view that an older house was rebuilt in Elizabeth's reign, the detail in no part of the structure suggesting an earlier date than the middle or end of the 16th century. Dr. Kuerden's statement seems, too, to warrant acceptance from the fact that in a petition of Thomas Hoghton to the Chancellor of the Duchy as plaintiff in a suit against Barnard Townley, a waller and hewer of stone, and Ralph Holden in 1562–3 (5 Eliz.), it is maintained that 'he hath enterprised and begun' to build a house in his demesne of Hoghton. (fn. 82)
The extreme length of the buildings from west to east is about 270 ft. and the width 160 ft. The house is of two stories throughout except in the south-east wing and on the south side of the lower courtyard, where it is three stories in height, a difference little marked in the latter instance, however, the drop of the ground making the first floor of the later buildings level with the ground floor of the older parts further east. The walls are of local gritstone, and the roofs, which are covered with stone slates, are picturesquely broken up with gables and chimneys, the gables being ornamented with balls.
In what year the house was finally abandoned as a residence is not certain, but the addition of a new wing in 1700 seems to imply that the family continued to live there till well into the 18th century. Walton Hall, however, became the chief residence of the Hoghtons before the century was very far advanced, and in 1807 Britton describes Hoghton Tower as falling fast to decay. (fn. 83) At that time the later buildings south of the lower courtyard were inhabited by 'a few families of the lower class,' (fn. 84) mostly weavers, and the house continued in this dismantled and dilapidated state throughout the first half of the 19th century. Harrison Ainsworth introduces Hoghton Tower into The Lancashire Witches, (fn. 85) and Charles Dickens, who visited the building in 1854, made use of it as the background for one of his short tales. (fn. 86) There was a scheme for its restoration about the year 1830 from designs by Webster of Kendal, a well-known architect of his day, who did a good deal of work in north Lancashire, but it was happily never carried out, (fn. 87) and it was not till after the succession of Sir Henry de Hoghton to the estates in 1862 that the restoration was begun. The picture of the ruin and decay of the building seems, however, to have been overstated, as the writer of a description of the building as it was in 1857 states that, although the ground floor had been seriously dismantled, 'the whole place might, however, be repaired at a small expense, the account of its dilapidation and rapid decay in Baines being almost wholly erroneous,' the walls apparently being 'still good' throughout. (fn. 88) The restoration begun by Sir Henry de Hoghton was continued by Sir Charles and completed in 1901 by Sir James de Hoghton, the architect of the later work being Mr. R. D. Oliver of London. The restoration as now completed is an extremely successful one, all the old features having been retained and the new work following most admirably the spirit of the original builders.
The house is approached from the west by a long drive up the hillside leading from the high road, now open on each side, but formerly lined with trees, the woods extending to within 400 ft. of the front of the west gateway to a point marked by a low stone wall and tall gate piers, now standing isolated and apparently meaningless and inclosing a kind of grass forecourt. The west front, which is the outer wall of the lower courtyard, consists as before stated of a gatehouse and two low embattled towers connected by a curtain wall. The gatehouse, which is 42 ft. long by 18 ft. 6 in., has a lofty central embattled tower over the archway flanked by two lower wings of the same height as the detached corner towers, with a room on each side of the gateway, three rooms on the first floor, and another in the upper part of the tower. The western front now forms the only part of the building where the walls are finished with battlements, though originally no doubt the great tower over the inner archway between the two courtyards would be so built. It is questionable, however, whether the present castellated and even military appearance of the west front is the original design as first built, or intended to be built, as the roofs of the lower portions of the gatehouse are gabled behind the embattled parapet, and a straight joint on each side of the tower seems to show that the parapet was a later addition or afterthought. The north-west angle tower has a similar gabled roof behind the battlements, and there is also the weathering of a gable on all four sides, the building having apparently been originally finished with four stone gables. The south-east tower, which, like its companion, has a room on each floor, has been modernized inside and a lead flat substituted for the old roof. The angle towers measure 19 ft. by 18 ft. externally, and are now used in connexion with the stables and offices. The gateway tower has a lead flat, and the first floor rooms are approached by an internal stone staircase on the south side. The entrance to the courtyard is under a pointed archway 12 ft. wide, with middle gateway, the arch springing from moulded imposts. Above, facing west, is a panel with good Renaissance ornament, under a label, carved with the representation of a man struggling with a beast, a possible reference to Samson slaying the lion, together with the initials of Thomas Hoghton. Over this again is a threelight mullioned window and another to the tower room above. There are two-light windows also to the first floor rooms in the flanking lower parts, and the angle towers have each a two-light window facing west on each floor.
The lower courtyard measures 145 ft. from west to east and about 120 ft. in width, and is divided into two portions, a kind of lower and upper ward, the lower being paved with stone setts. The ground here falls so steeply that at the east or upper end a wall has been built inclosing a grass plot with a flight of steps at either end, raising this portion of the quadrangle nearly to the level of the upper court. The effect of the inclosing low stone wall with its tall gate piers and flight of semicircular stone steps is very picturesque, and gives architectural distinction to what might otherwise, since the destruction of the great tower, have been a rather featureless open space. On the south side is the three-storied block of buildings erected in 1700 by Sir Charles Hoghton, 74 ft. in length, originally detached from the main structure and separated from it by a space of 14 ft. On the front is a panel with the inscription 'C.H., M.H. 1700. 2 Pet. Ch. iii, 11, Seein then, etc.,' the initials being those of Sir Charles and Mary Hoghton his wife. (fn. 89) The elevation preserves all the characteristics of the older part of the house, and, now that it is joined up to it by the erection of modern buildings over the intervening space, there is little or nothing to indicate that it is not part of the original design. Internally a corridor on the south side of the ground floor of the older buildings is now continued at the same level along the first floor of the later structure. The north side of the courtyard has been largely rebuilt, but original work remains in the outer walls of the servants' hall, though the windows and internal arrangements are modern. All the old buildings on the north side of the house between the servants' hall and the kitchen have now given place to new work, though the old well-house still remains in the northeast corner of the courtyard. This is a small onestory structure 15 ft. by 13 ft. inside attached to the main building on its east side, inclosing a draw well of great depth. The buildings on the north of the courtyard are of two stories, but the upper rooms being really attics lit from stone gables in the roof, the height to the caves is only about 16 ft. The buildings stop short some 50 ft. of the west side of the courtyard, which is inclosed at that point by a high fence wall and gateway to the stable yard. The stable, which is 51 ft. long by 20 ft. wide and of 17th-century date, is 13 ft. to the north of the north-west tower, standing well in advance of the main west front of the building. The east side of the courtyard now suffers architecturally by the loss of the gateway tower. The wall has been raised about 2 ft. by the addition of two courses of stone above the windows, and the roof is now carried through from end to end, the original appearance of the middle wing being thus completely lost. The windows are small, without transoms, and, with the exception of the central archway, the corbelled chimney stacks at each end alone give any distinction to the elevation. The archway is very similar in detail to that in the west entrance, springing from moulded imposts, and over it, facing west, is a panel with the initials of Thomas Hoghton and a shield of arms, Hoghton quartering Assheton, with supporters, helm, crest, and mantling. (fn. 90) Over the arch facing east to the upper court the arms are repeated, without crest, mantling or supporters, but with the date 1565 below.
The upper courtyard is about 70 ft. square, and has the great hall and kitchen on its north side, with the state rooms on the east and the living rooms on the south and west. Originally the chapel occupied a position at the north-east corner leading from the east end of the great hall, but it had fallen into complete ruin before the time of the restoration, and all that was left of it was then removed and a new entrance to the house constructed on part of its site. The chapel was slightly swung round from the line of the house so as to orientate correctly, the line of the entrance hall still indicating its position.
The west and north sides of the upper courtyard appear to have been erected first, and were probably followed by the buildings on the south side, the east wing, containing the state rooms, being most likely the last to be completed. No definite conclusions, however, can be arrived at concerning the order of erection of the different parts of the earlier structure, but absence of any bonding in the south-west, southeast and north-east corners of the quadrangle indicates that the buildings were not originally erected on any premeditated plan. As originally built the extreme south-west corner was open on the west, the south wing of the lower court being afterwards built against it, probably in the middle of the 17th century. This is proved by the discovery during the restoration of a large window in the upper floor facing west, and by the existing straight joint in the walling on the south front to the garden marking the former external south-west angle of the building at that point. The east wing again appears to be of two periods, there being a straight joint in the walling towards the court about half-way in its length, and the north end of the King's Hall shows an older wall on the west side for some portion of its length, making the total width of the outside wall at this point 4 ft. 6 in. This would seem to indicate the existence of an older and slightly narrower wing whose west side has at a later date been brought forward to the line of the newer buildings to the south of it. There was probably a good deal of reconstruction carried out immediately prior to King James's visit in 1617, and most likely the east wing would assume more or less of its present aspect at that time.
There has also been a great deal of change at the south-east end of the house, where a long narrow wing 52 ft. in length by 13 ft. wide externally runs southward at right angles to the main building. This wing, locally known as Hanging End, forms a very picturesque feature from the garden, but its original purpose is hard to determine. Additions have been made to it at its north end on both sides, reducing its apparent length externally by about onethird, and an external flight of stone steps leading to an entrance on the first floor has been erected on the east side. The first floor forms a kind of long gallery 50 ft. by 9 ft. 6 in., lit on the west by three windows, and by a single one in the end wall. The east wall has a single window of four lights, but during the restoration a continuation of this window northward was discovered showing it to have been originally a long window of twelve lights occupying the whole of the middle part of that side of the room.
The great hall occupies the whole of the north side of the upper courtyard, from which, with its long range of windows, great gabled bay, and flight of semicircular steps, it forms a very charming feature. It goes up the full height of both stories, and breaks the monotony of the otherwise almost too uniformly regular design of the house. On the three other sides of the courtyard the eaves run round at the same level, giving little distinction to the roof. A lead statue of King William III on a stone pedestal, brought from Walton Hall when that house was abandoned early in the 19th century, greatly adds to the picturesqueness of the upper courtyard, being placed immediately opposite the entrance archway slightly to the north of the centre of the quadrangle.
Owing, no doubt, to the irregularity of the site the usual disposition of the kitchen in relation to the great hall and screens does not strictly obtain in Hoghton Tower. The fall of the ground has been taken advantage of architecturally to raise the floor of the hall some 5 ft. above that of the lowest point of the courtyard, while the floor of the kitchen, which is immediately to the west of the hall, is some 2 ft. below. The usual doors to the kitchen and offices from the screens are therefore not possible, the way to the kitchen from the hall being from the south end of the screens by a descent of seven steps to a lobby opening from the courtyard from which the kitchen is entered. There is another descent of three steps within the kitchen itself. There is nothing to indicate that this arrangement is not part of the original plan, though it is possible that the hall was rebuilt in its present form in the beginning of the 17th century in anticipation of the king's visit. Architecturally, however, as viewed from the courtyard, the effect of the hall floor being thus raised above the level of the rest of the house is extremely good, being responsible for the emphasis of the great sweep of the stone steps in the north-west corner.
The great hall is 52 ft. 6 in. in length, including the passage behind the screen at the west end, and 26 ft. in width. It has a flat panelled wood ceiling 18 ft. high, and at the east end, north and south of the high table, are two fine semi-octagonal bay windows 12 ft. wide and 10 ft. 6 in. deep, the full height of the room, divided by three transoms, the sills 3 ft. 6 in. from the floor. The hall is further lit on the south side by a range of mullioned and double transomed windows, consisting of fourteen lights placed high in the wall, the sills being 7 ft. from the floor, and there is a similar window of eight lights at the east end. The floor is flagged and the walls are of stone, but panelled in oak to the height of 7 ft. All the panelling, however, and the woodwork to the ceiling belong to the modern restoration, but otherwise the hall has been very little altered and retains all its essential features. The screen and gallery at the west end are good examples of late 17th-century woodwork with turned Jacobean balusters, the lower part having open panels closed by shutters to the passage. (fn. 91) Over the fireplace is a lofty stone arch, now filled in, but probably marking the opening of an original ingle, the fireplace itself being a later insertion of stone with square moulded opening and carved spandrels. There is a good cast-iron grate and fire-back, the grate bearing the initials of Sir Charles Hoghton and the date 1702. There is a good 18th-century brass chandelier, and the original high table remains, though now on the south side of the room. There is no raised dais.
The doorway at the north end of the screens, which has moulded stone jambs and a four-centred stone arched head with carved spandrels, was originally an outer opening, but at some later date a large porch with room above, 16 ft. 6 in. by 19 ft., appears to have been added, having two semicircular-headed openings in the north side and a doorway of similar design in the south-east corner. Externally this north porch, now made into a private dining-room, exhibits some of the rare architectural ornament to be found at Hoghton Tower, the elevations on the ground floor having a series of pilasters on corbelled pedestals carrying a small entablature and cornice. The pilasters are carved with good Renaissance ornament. In the restoration the original exterior appearance of the porch has of course been lost, the openings being filled in with modern wooden windows and the doorway built up. The room above is gained from the minstrels' gallery and has an opening in the wall overlooking the great hall. Externally its gable and chimney form a rather picturesque feature taken in conjunction with the bay and chimney of the hall.
From the east end of the great hall a door leads by way of what is now the entrance hall to the east wing, which contains the state apartments, and originally to the chapel. The state rooms, sometimes called the King's Rooms, from the fact that they were occupied by King James I in 1617, consist on the ground floor of the King's Hall, a large apartment 38 ft. long by 20 ft. wide, with a staircase at its south end, and beyond it again to the south another room of the same width and 41 ft. in length, now used as a billiard room and library. The staircase is the original 17th-century one restored, but otherwise, like most of the other rooms in the house, these two pieces contain little that is ancient except their walls and windows. They extend, as is the case with most of the rooms in Hoghton Tower, across the full width of the wing, and are lit on both sides by windows to the courtyard and to the garden. On the upper floor the staircase, which is centrally placed, gives access to the King's Room on the north and the drawing-room on the south. From the King's Room a door leads to another large room, now Lady de Hoghton's private room, over the entrance hall and new porch. The fittings of the drawing-room, which is the same size as the billiard room and library below, belong to the latest period of the restoration, and are a fine piece of modern Renaissance work, but the panelling of the King's Room and the room beyond is apparently the original late 17th-century wainscot restored.
Round both courtyards the walls are faced with wide courses of squared masonry, irrespective of the different periods of building, the only exception being the well-house, where the walls are of rough stone. Round the upper courtyard all the first floor windows and those to the great hall have moulded jambs and mullions, and the ground floor windows hollow chamfers. Other parts of the building show great difference in detail in this respect, some of the windows having hollow and some rounded chamfers, while others are moulded. Most of the ground floor rooms are entered direct from the courtyards, the upper court having at present seven doorways in use, while two have been built up. There was originally a doorway on the south side of the entrance archway to what was probably a porter's room, but this also has been built up and a staircase erected in the room probably in the latter half of the 17th century after the destruction of the tower. To the south of this in the middle wing is an interesting room with panelled wainscot called the Oak Room, 18 ft. by 20 ft., lit by two windows on each side to either courtyard.
The modern overhanging eaves gutter now hides the original moulded stone eaves course, which, however, is seen running across the bottom of the hall gable on the north side of the upper court as a string course, and similarly in the gable of the southeast three-story wing. The gables throughout have plain copings with ball terminations, and with one or two exceptions are curiously ornamented in the apex by a very small carved human face.
The other rooms on the ground floor are for the most part unimportant, very little original detail having been preserved, though some of the furniture is made from timber belonging to the old house. Much the same may be said of the first floor, where, however, more structural alterations have perhaps been found necessary, many of the bedrooms having originally opened one from another, though the number of staircases in the house rendered this feature of 16th-century planning less objectionable than is usually the case. The bedrooms in the middle wing between the courts, however, have been curtailed in size by the introduction of a corridor the full length of the east side facing the upper court, and the curious room, south of these, known as the Guinea Room, by reason of the character of its panel decoration, has been mutilated and cut in two. (fn. 92)
The gardens lie on the south and east sides of the house, that to the east, which extends to the highest point of the hill, having formerly been known as the Wilderness. It is about 200 ft. long by 160 ft. wide, and is inclosed by embattled stone walls. These walls have been rebuilt, but in conformity with those which previously existed. On the north side, parallel with the wall, is a raised terrace walk. (fn. 93) On the south side of the house are two flower gardens at different levels inclosed by stone walls, from the upper one of which the picturesquely broken up south front of the house is best seen. In this garden is a well-designed 18thcentury lead vase, now in decay, and the lead figure of a boy on a new pedestal in the centre of one of the flower beds. There is also an old stone sundial shaft, but the plate is missing.
On the grass opposite the west front to the south of the entrance is a sundial shaft mounted on a high circular stone base, the plate of which is also missing; it bore the inscription 'Mea Gloria Fides.' (fn. 94)
The great barn, built by Sir Charles Hoghton in 1692, stands about 120 ft. to the north-west of the lower courtyard, partly inclosing the north side of the grass forecourt. It is 139 ft. in length, with a central projecting gable 34 ft. wide on the south side. The east end remains much the same as when erected, with its narrow slit openings; but at the west it has been converted into stables, and modern windows have been inserted on both sides. Later buildings have been added at the east end on the north side. (fn. 95)
The Hoghton family having long been practically sole landowners, few other names occur as holding land in the township. (fn. 98) Sir Henry Hoghton in 1786 paid about a fourth part of the land tax. (fn. 99)
Brimmicroft, now in Hoghton, is the 'Broomicroft in Withnell' which was in 1293 given by Richard son of Sir Adam de Hoghton to his son Richard. (fn. 100)
The Anglican church of the Holy Trinity was opened in 1824. A district was assigned in 1842. (fn. 101) This is a vicarage in the gift of the vicar of Leyland.
There is a Wesleyan chapel, founded as early as 1794.
For over a century after 1662 there was a nonconforming congregation at Hoghton Tower, the banqueting room being used as a place of worship. (fn. 102)

domain: geography


Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan Resume Nile Dam Talks
The construction of Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam has spooked its downstream neighbors, who worry that their access to the Blue Nile’s waters could soon dry up.
Here is today’s Foreign Policy brief: Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan meet for talks on the Blue Nile dam project, a deal for a Microsoft purchase of Chinese-owned TikTok moves forward, and the world this week.
If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.
Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan Meet Over Dam Dispute
Ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan resume talks today aimed at resolving a simmering dispute over Ethiopia’s $4.6 billion dollar Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
The GERD sits on the Blue Nile, the river that eventually becomes the River Nile in Sudan as it winds on toward Egypt. Both Egypt and Sudan, concerned that Ethiopia will use the dam to constrict the Blue Nile’s flow, want a binding agreement that will guarantee that a certain amount of water will still flow downstream.
Tensions have been rising since June when Ethiopian Foreign Minister Gedu Andargachew posted a tweet that included the phrase “the Nile is ours!” following record rains that began filling the dam’s reservoir. Andargachew’s comments were received angrily in Egypt, which accuses Ethiopia of deliberately holding back water to strengthen its negotiating position.
When fully completed, the GERD will be the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa and the Ethiopian government sees it as key to achieving economic stability and for raising citizens out of poverty.
#ItsMyDam. The dam has become a point of pride, too. On Sunday, citizens in the capital Addis Ababa took to the streets to celebrate the dam’s construction progress and hashtags such as #ItsMyDam, #EthiopiaNileRights, and #GERD have been trending on Ethiopian social media.
Dam diplomacy. The United States, a backer of today’s talks along with the African Union and the World Bank, is divided on how best to incentivize cooperation between the three countries. As Addisu Lashitew argued in Foreign Policy in March, the United States’ “success in mediating the dispute will depend on its ability to find a middle ground acceptable to both Ethiopia and Egypt,” rather than appearing to take Egypt’s side.
FP’s Robbie Gramer reported on July 22 that “there’s growing concern that the Trump administration is putting its thumb on the scales to favor Egypt at the expense of Ethiopia—even as new signs of progress emerge in negotiations.” U.S. officials suggest that if this week’s talks don’t progress, then U.S. aid to Ethiopia could soon dry up.
The World This Week
Tuesday August, 4 is the deadline for Argentina’s creditors to accept a proposal on restructuring the country’s approximately $65 billion debt. Minister for Economy Martín Guzmán has hinted that the deadline may be pushed to later in the month.
On Wednesday, August 5, Sri Lanka will host parliamentary elections. Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, a new party led by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa—the brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa—is expected to win the most seats.
On Friday, August 7, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its monthly report on the U.S. employment situation, covering the month of July. It remains to be seen whether the jobless rate will follow the trend of June’s report, when unemployment fell to 11.1 percent.
On Sunday, August 9, Belarus holds its presidential election. President Alexander Lukashenko, who has held power since 1994, faces an unexpectedly close election against Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old English translator whose husband has been jailed under Lukashenko. If elected, Tikhanovskaya has promised to hold new elections with the participation of all opposition candidates.
What We’re Following Today
TikTok deal back on. Microsoft has said it will conduct a “complete security review” in its quest to purchase the Chinese-owned TikTok app in the United States and welcomed U.S. President Trump’s “personal involvement.” The company made the remark on Sunday in a statement following a discussion between Trump and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The statement suggests the way is now clear for Microsoft to attempt its acquisition of the app, even after Trump threatened to ban it last Friday.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration “will take action in the coming days with respect to a broad array of national security risks that are presented by software connected to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Brazil envoy denies helping Trump reelection. Reports in Brazilian media outlets claim U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Todd Chapman asked members of President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to lower ethanol tariffs to help with President Trump’s reelection. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel has sent a letter to Chapman demanding an explanation of his behavior, saying it could be in violation of the Hatch Act—a law which prohibits federal employees from conducting political activities while in office.
“Allegations suggesting that Ambassador Chapman has asked Brazilians to support a specific U.S. candidate are false,” a State Department statement said. “The United States has long been focused on reducing tariff barriers and will continue to do so.”
Indian Interior Minister tests positive for COVID-19. Indian Interior Minister Amit Shah has been admitted to hospital after being diagnosed with the coronavirus—the most senior Indian official to contract the virus so far. Shah, known as a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, joins the more than 1.8 million Indians who have been diagnosed with the virus.
Keep an Eye On
Israel protests. Protests against the leadership of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the largest the country has seen since 2011, continued over the weekend. Around 10,000 protesters gathered outside Netanyahu’s official residence on Saturday to voice their dissatisfaction with the country’s handling of its coronavirus epidemic and the prime minister remaining in office while facing trial on corruption charges.
Afghan prisoner releases The Afghan government released 317 Taliban prisoners during the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. It now means there are only 83 more prisoners left to release before the government meets its obligation to release 5,000 Taliban detained fighters ahead of intra-Afghan peace talks. Taliban leaders claim they have released 1,000 detained government forces, fulfilling their end of the deal.
UAE goes nuclear. The United Arab Emirates opened its first nuclear power plant on Saturday, making it only the third country in the Middle East with a nuclear power program. The move is the first of many among nations in the region: Saudi Arabia is currently building a nuclear reactor, and Egypt has plans to build a power plant. In March, Qatar condemned the UAE plant in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, calling it “a serious threat to the stability of the region and its environment.”
Odds and Ends
As the South African government struggles to maintain public trust amid a worsening coronavirus epidemic, the country’s environment minister was able to offer some good news. The number of South African rhinos killed by poachers in the first half of 2020 has dropped significantly compared to the previous year, a 53 percent decline overall. Environment Minister Barbara Creecy attributed the drop to both government policies and the web of travel restrictions imposed by countries that may have disrupted the trade in rhino horn. Creecy warned that poaching cases were gradually increasing as lockdowns began to be lifted.
That’s it for today.
Colm Quinn is the newsletter writer at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @colmfquinn


text:
At Starbucks Investor Day, Schultz said brick-and-mortar is dying—and announced plans to open 12,000 more stores.
Quoted from Starbucks CEO: America is ‘over-retailed’ on Yahoo News – Latest News & Headlines
Starbucks is in hot water after CEO Howard Schultz announced plans to hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says his successor Kevin Johnson “deserves all the credit in the world” for the coffee giant’s recent success. The former CEO of coffee chain has said he "seriously considering" running for president. Howard Schultz, who stepped down as the firm's boss last year, says he considering running Tags: howard, schultz, starbucks, considers, Starbucks CEO Calls Himself ‘an WASHINGTON, 4 August 2006 — It started out as an Internet parody of CEO Howard Schultz thanking customers for supporting and rael. You cannot inspire unless you’re inspired yourself. Passion everything and, as a leader, you must share that passion at every opportunity. I owe chairman and CEO Howard Schultz a

domain: economics


text:
Vilnius is holding a Road of Memory march from Rudninku Square to Paneriai to pay tribute to the victims of the Holocaust.
The march is to be attended by Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, the speaker of the parliament, Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte and other members of the Cabinet, foreign ambassadors residing in Lithuania, MPs and members of the Lithuanian Jewish communities.
More than 150 schools across Lithuania will also hold Road of Memory marches, the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi
and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania has said.
A commemorative event will also take place at the Kaunas Ninth Fort memorial complex in Lithuania's second-biggest city.
This year marks 80 years since the genocide of Jews started in Lithuania. Also, the country is marking the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of Lithuanian Jews on September 23 to commemorate the liquidation of the Vilnius ghetto on September 23, 1943.
Some 195,000 Jews were killed in Lithuania during World War Two. The country had a Jewish population of around 208,000 before the war, according to the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania.

domain: sociology


WesTrac in Western Australia was receiving thousands of samples per day that arrived inside a secondary plastic bottle to keep them secure during transportation. These postage bottles needed to be opened so the sample bottles inside could be removed and registered in their Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS). Operators were suffering from frequent wrist and hand injuries from unscrewing thousands of bottles per day.
WesTrac wanted to automate this process ergonomically to protect their staff from injuries and ensure a safer working environment. The automated system needed to open postage bottles faster than the lab operators could process them, to ensure it was never a bottleneck in the registration process. WesTrac had two existing machines from HF and knew that we were the right partner to develop and deliver a fast, safe, and reliable machine that was the first of its kind.
This robust and reliable modular design allows simple expansion and interfacing with HF’s full range of industrial-grade laboratory automation in the future. It is easily customisable to include other analytical methods and sample preparation steps.
It is also available in a single or double-lane option for smaller labs.


Top Five SIEM Use Cases For Active Threat Detection
Abstract: A critical tool that an IT department and their SOC needs to rely on is their Security and Information Event Management (SIEM) tool. This collects, stores, and analyzes log data from the entire IT infrastructure to detect suspicious activities and respond to threats. But to work effectively, it needs use cases to provide data and context for the event, to cut down on false alerts over legitimate activity, or to highlight events that are trying to hide under the radar.
Within the variety of tools that an IT department and their SOC need to rely on is their Security and Information Event Management (SIEM) tool. This software platform collects, stores, and analyzes log data from the entire IT infrastructure to detect suspicious activities and suggest a response to threats. Much like a security solution that relies on an AI or Machine Learning to provide anomaly detection, the SIEM filters through all the data, looking for specific criteria of data. Similarly, there are perfectly legitimate activities that result in false positives.
Generally, an organization will purchase SIEM tools expecting quick implementation and reliable security threat alerts, but the reality is more complex. To cut down on false positives over perfectly legitimate actions, an organization needs to develop strong SEIM use cases; developed from libraries of proven rules and scenarios from historical data and industry-wide knowledge. An organization needs to write the rules and define its baselines and thresholds based on its knowledge of its own IT department, threat landscape, and bad actor behavior. On top of that, new use cases and correlation rules should always be in the pipeline to address the ever-evolving threat scenarios.
In this blog, we’ll be looking at the top 5 examples of use cases that will focus on the active and incredibly malicious use cases seen in security threat management and negation.
- Unusual Behavior on Privileged Accounts
This is easily the most straightforward and common example. Privileged accounts are used for some of the most critical parts of any business, such as managing infrastructure or accessing sensitive data for day-to-day activities. Since they offer unlimited access and permissions to systems, endpoints, or data, anyone with access to this account effectively has the keys to your entire organization.
Hence, as an example, the SOC should have a use case and workflow in place that can flag any activity that deviates from the norm, such as detecting any attempt to compromise user credentials, accessing confidential files, or logging in outside of working hours. Keep in mind, however, that there are also legitimate occasions for unexpected behavior on privileged accounts, so the use case should be as detailed as possible.
- Defense Evasion
A hack or breach is rarely a straightforward intrusion with one or two suspicious activities in the logs. Instead, bad actors rely on techniques such as brute force attacks, uninstalling security software, or altering or circumventing a challenge-response authentication protocol, then hide their tracks behind them. Any unauthorized action that seeks to disable protection controls, obfuscate scripts, change configurations, or delete audit trails is an example of defense evasion.
The intent is to avoid detection during the compromise, so the use case requires specific correlation rules and data points to flag it as an attempt at a cyber attack - for example, unauthorized program deletions, intentional misspellings, and unexpected log changes.
The DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, is a broad class of cyberattack that disrupts online services and resources by overwhelming them with traffic. The most common attribute of the DDoS is that the suspicious traffic comes from distributed sources, with odd traffic patterns, which generally originate from compromised machines from all over the globe. The online service is rendered useless during the attack due to the overwhelming traffic.
Given the importance of ensuring that an organization’s machines are available, DDoS protections are paramount. The use cases should include awareness of a sudden increase in simultaneous queries and traffic and be mindful that some web-facing systems may need to be accessed simultaneously by customers and partners. The use case should serve as the first line of defense, with your security protocols to monitor and detect early signs of DDoS attacks before they get out of hand. This way, SOC analysts can begin to remediate and verify the attack and return traffic loads to normal levels before it gets out of hand.
- Traffic to Malicious Domains
In recent times, malicious and newly registered domains (NRDs) have become a fundamental way for bad actors to commit credential theft and data extraction. Given that domain names are meant to be out signposts on the information superhighway, domain names are inherently trusted and a key brand asset for any organization. Bad actors generally create slight variations of legitimate brand domains in the hopes that users will be fooled. They only exist for a certain amount of time, are used in attacks, then cease to exist, usually focusing on phishing attacks, data exfiltration, and malware distribution.
A detection system should be programmed with use cases that can flag malicious and newly registered domains so that it can intelligently predict if the intent is genuine or malicious. Then, the system would either automatically block the domain or flag an analyst who can investigate further and determine the path forward.
- Data Exfiltration
Generally, data exfiltration is one of the key objectives of the other use cases listed above. Done either manually or automatically, this is the illegal transfer of sensitive data to unauthorized parties and is the most important objective of any cyberattack. The data can then be sold on the Dark Web or ‘ransomed’ back to the organization. In some cases, it’s even just released publicly.
What makes data exfiltration challenging to detect is that regardless of whether it’s an internal or external attack, it involves moving data within and outside a company’s network - which is normal daily operations in most companies. The challenge is differentiating it from normal traffic, such as transferring files to an FTP for processing or troubleshooting.
Any use case applied to this event should include a comprehensive inventory of all the endpoints where the data lives and monitor any anomalies in user and entity behavior and suspicious traffic at the endpoints.
SIEM Needs AI-Assisted Cybersecurity
There are a lot of gray areas when it comes to accurately detecting a malicious cyber-attack, as evidenced by the use cases shown above. There is a fine line between normal traffic/daily activities and suspicious traffic, and, sometimes, it’s difficult for a machine to figure it out. This will then lead to an excess of alerts and false positives. Hence, to truly execute your SIEM to its potential, you need to adopt an AI-Assisted Cybersecurity (AICS) platform as a hybrid model with analysts. A robust and secure SOC can emerge by combining an AI capable of deep learning via use cases and anomaly detection with the extra input of human creativity, common sense, and knowledge from analysts.
False positives occur when the detection methods flag a specific example that’s been programmed from rules, previous attacks, and other data points. If the activity checks all the boxes, an alert is triggered, regardless if it’s accurate or not. The software won’t always know that. But an analyst will.
When an alert is triggered by an AI-Assisted Cybersecurity system such as Arcanna.ai, the system analyzes it and determines a course of action, creates a ticket, adds threat intel, and an analyst reviews the outcome, and feedback is given. The system then adds this learning into its processes, continuing the cycle, and further deepening its understanding and database of use cases.
The best tool an organization can use to mitigate threats is to adopt a supervised anomaly detection model continuously trained by SOC analysts. Their institutionalized knowledge and historical data are continually integrated with the AICS to get the most out of the algorithm.
Contact us today to learn more about how Arcanna.ai can help fine-tune your SIEM processes.


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Favorite Places & Spaces
Favorite Places & Spaces
- 97 Pins
Swimming Pools, Buckets Lists, Santorini Greece, Dreams, Caves, Natural Pools, Travel, Places, Nature Pools
There would be swimming pools in caves (Natural Pool, Santorini, Greece)
A whole new reason to own a cave. Natural Pool, Santorini, Greece. #relaxation #travel
I don't know these just may have to fight for first place on my bucket list! Natural Pool - Santorini, Greece - 31 Most Beautiful Places You Must Visit Before You Die!
Natural Pool, Santorini, Greece. This looks breathtaking. Adding this to the dream list of places I'd like to go someday.
Gateway Arch, St. Louis
National Expansion, Louis Gateway, Gateway Arches St, Louise I, Shorts Riding, Dorm, Favorite Cities, Louise Go Cards, Louis Arches Check
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial aka The Gateway Arch
Gateway Arch, St. Louis I have this poster in my dorm room! :)
St. Louis Gateway Arch
Gateway Arch, St. Louis - If you visit St. Louis, then the arch is an absolute must. Take a short ride on the tram to see for miles in each direction.
Gateway Arch, St. Louis. This is one of my favorite cities so far.
Home of the St. Louis Cardinals
Favorite Places, Buschstadium, Saint Louis, St Louis Cardinals, Stl Cardinals, Cardinals Baseball, Baseball Season, Busch Stadium, Cards Games
Saint Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium
Cardinals baseball favorite place
#BuschStadium #STL #Cardinals #Baseball #Missouri #MO
St Louis Cardinals - Busch Stadium
Baseball season! Love Busch stadium :-)
st. louis cardinals baseball - st. louis, mo Nothing better than a Cards game in the summer time!
Busch Stadium - Hotels near Busch Stadium St Louis
Backroads, Pickup Trucks, Country Roads, Back Roads, Old Trucks, Country Girls, Southern Girls, Dirt Roads, Summer Romance
riding the back of an old truck
"makes me wanna take a back road"
5/18/14. Let's ride in the back of a pickup truck, watch the road turn into a cloud of country dust.
Southern Girl's World
♫ La-la-la Bonne vie ♪
Doors, Grand Turk Island, The Ocean, Back Yards, Front Yards, Places, Beach Gates, Backyards, The Sea
Front Street Gate on Grand Turk Island, Turks and Caicos, Caribbean .... Oh..... look at the sea! Grand Turk is beautiful. I love it there!! Will be back in July ♡
This needs to be my front yard!
A blue backyard with matching turquoise door is definitely on my wish list.
Pierce Stocking Covered Bridge - Michigan
Stockings Covers, Covers Bridges Michigan, Covers Bridge'S Michigan, Travel Michigan, Covered Bridges Michigan, Piercing Stockings, Wooden Bridges, Barns Bridges, Bridges Cov
Pierce Stocking Covered Bridge, Michigan
A quiet mid-day nap.
Dreams, Hammocks, The Ocean, Naps Time, Beach, Places, Lazy Summer Day, Heavens, The Sea
A hammock in the water! Any girl's dream | Beach | Relax | Calm | ponder | Appreciation of beauty of water | Taking a step back to realize his her life
hammock over the ocean, could be an awesome place to take a nap..
★I don't know where to put this in my pin boards, but I wish this were a photo of me (not the beach bikini body, though that would be nice, but the in a hammock in the ocean part)
Lazy Summer Days... i want to lay on this hammock
Beach hammock in the sea. #heaven
A hammock in the water, this is what I'm talking about. Nap time!
Clam Bake & Bonfire!
Beach Bonfires, Beach Bonfire Ideas, Rehearsal Dinner, Beach Parties, Beach Party, Beach Bonfire Party Ideas, Beach Bonfire Wedding, Bonfire Beach Wedding, Fire Pit
Rehearsal Dinner Decor
tables, fire pit
Beach Bonfire Wedding
Perfect place for a picnic
Private Island, Dreams, Richard Branson, British Virgin Islands, Honeymoons, Travel, Places, Caribbean, Necker Islands
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands #Caribbean #honeymoon
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands. travel, voyage, adventure, viajes, road trip, reizen, place, reise, beautiful places, travels, viaggi, trips, podróż, places, viagem, world, การเดินทาง, earth, подорож, visit, tour, du lịch, missions, planet earth, resor, nature, 旅行, wild, risk, 여행, courage, vacations, destinations, matkailu, traveling #travel #vacations #places
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands. In my dreams, Richard Branson.
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands; private island, but a girl can dream :)
Necker Island, British Virgin Islands #caribbean #bvi #travel
Riccardo Caffé, Puglia, Italy
Buckets Lists, Favorite Places, Caves Restaurants, Romantic Places, Travel, Cave Palazzese, Puglia Italy, Romantic Dinner, Hotels
Cave restaurant is located underneath the Grotta Palazzese hotel in a small town of Polignano a Mare, Italy. #travel #vacation #holiday #fun
This is a perfect place for a #romantic #dinner in #Italy: Hotel Restaurant Grotta Palazzese For more romantic places all over the world check out Le Collectionist website: http://clni.st/XPlsLH
An amazing restaurant inside a cave offers breathtaking views of the Adriatic Sea. This Cave restaurant is located underneath the Grotta Palazzese hotel in a small town of Polignano a Mare, Italy. This Cave restaurant is located underneath the Grotta Palazzese hotel in a small town of Polignano a Mare, Italy. bucket list
The Summer Cave Restaurant HOTEL RISTORANTE GROTTA PALAZZESE Via Narciso, 59 - Polignano a Mare (Bari) Puglia Italy
Loutro Crete, Beautiful Crete, Buckets Lists, Favorite Places, Gift Cards, Crete Islands, Greek Islands, Adventure Travel, Crete Greece
Loutro, a small, tiny jewel in south Crete. The only way to reach it is by boat. -- Find articles on #Adventure #Travel , #Outdoor Pursuits, and #Extreme Sports at http://adventurebods.com or find us on http://facebook.com/adventurebods
Loutro, Crete, Greece. We had a "boat in and hike out" visit to this town.
Dinner for Two
Romantic Getaways, Romantic Sets, Buckets Lists, At The Beach, Romantic Home, Dinner Dates, Romantic Dates, Candlelight Dinner, Romantic Dinner
Romantic Dinner- yes please
Your dinner date | Do people still do romantic dates?
Romantic Setting <3
Dinner for Two at the beach
take me there.
Dinner, Ideas, Wedding Receptions, Beach Scenery, Dreams, Beach Parties, Picnics, Places, Beach Wedding Setup
Perfect picnic place
Beach Scenery. PERFECT BEACH WEDDING SETUP.
Dream wedding reception
Idea for champagne and appetizers after wedding and before dinner
Hotel Cipriani, Venice, Italy
Luxury Life, Dinner Dates, Venice Italy, Places, Travel, Romantic Vacations, Vacations Planners, Hotels Cipriani, Romantic Dinner
Hotel Cipriani, Venice, Italy #dinner #date #italy #luxury #stoneandstrand #loves
This is definitely the luxury life, Venice
Hotel Cipriani, Venice, Italy -love this place!
Romantic dinner with this lovely view from the bedroom of Hotel Cipriani, Venice, Italy
Situated along the Grand Canal views of St. Mark's Square and resting on the grounds of lush gardens is the Hotel Cipriani & Palazzo Vendramin, a long-lasting Venetian treasure. Having been the host of prestigious guests and public figures for centuries, this hotel excels in providing unparalleled luxury. Venture into Venice on the hotel's private boat, unwind in the wellness center, and dine on fine cuisine with wonderful views. Contact one of our expert vacation planners for exclusive offers.
Hotel Cipriani, Venice, Italy - very romantic.ASPEN CREEK TRAVEL - firstname.lastname@example.org
Burjal, Buckets Lists, United Arabic Emirates, Burj Al Arabic, Favorite Places, Dubai, Beautiful Places, Travel, Romantic Dinner
Dubai Romantic dinner with a majestic view of Burj Al Arab Majlis Al Bahar restaurant on the beach. Amazing view! Photo Courtesy of Jumeirah International.
One of my favorite places I have ever visited
Bucket List image...Dubai
Burj Al Arab, Dubai via the TOP 10 Most Luxurious Hotels in The World - Some may say that blowing thousands on a place to sleep and shower is a total nonsense, a definition of senseless overspending . But the crazy and classy stuff we do are the ones that stay remembered. In fact, luxury does not mean only sleeping and showing in a place, its a total relaxpleasure system, an opportunity to spoil yourself (even maybe for just a day or two). #travel #burj
Burj Al Arab, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Twinkle Lights, Burgundy France, Romantic Dinners, Dinner Dates, Fairy Lights, Lights Dinner, Date Nights, Dates Night, Romantic Dates
date night. All you need is imagination and fairy lights.
romantic date night
Riverside Dining, Burgundy, France. I'd love to have a romantic dinner here!
This looks like the makings of the best date night ever. Love the twilight hurricanes on the deck and dangling from the trees; and especially the White twinkle lights on the tree trunks and branches. love
candle light dinner date night idea
romantic dinners by the water... Date night one day!
i want it all.
Polka Dots, Beach House, Dreams, Breakfast, The Ocean, Sea, Places, Mornings, Beachhouse
Breakfast on the ocean
Breakfast by the sea.
For that future beach house I dream of owning : )
Polka dots and the ocean
Perfect place for morning breakfast!
Romantic Sets, Favorite Places, Company Picnics, Summer Picnics, Fall Autumn, Fall Dinner, Fall Trees, Fall Picnics, Romantic Dinner
romantic setting | Tumblr
Fall picnic #outside #fall #trees #candles #table #meal
What a wonder stop for a romantic dinner
Fall dinner next to a water fall!
Fall picnic by #company picnic #summer picnic #prepare for picnic| http://company-picnic.blogspot.com
Romantic Getaways, Cancun Mexico, Romantic Sets, Romantic Dinners, Favorite Places, Dreams, Romances, At The Beach, Ritz Carlton
The Ritz Carlton, Cancun. Luxury and Romance at its best. Wow!
Romantic getaway, the candlelight dinner reminds me of the Ritz Carlton dinner we had a few years ago.
Romantic Dinner at the Beach
Dinner at Ritz Carlton Cancun Mexico
Dreams, Outdoor Dinner Parties, Decks, Tree Houses, Outdoor Parties, Trees House, Porches, Summer Night, Romantic Dinner
What a nice spot for a romantic dinner on the deck.
a dream back porch
Tree house deck
pretty outdoor party... just gotta get a deck like that...
One of my life dreams is to have a tree house, and i would incite my friends over to mori themed tea parties on sunny bright days and dark mori dinner parties in the evening
an outdoor dinner party on the deck with lanterns...no bugs allowed
outdoor deck on a summer night :)
Seaside Cafe, Menorca, Spain amazing!
Buckets Lists, Favorite Places, Seaside Cafes, Beautiful Places, Visit, Travel, Beach Bar, Menorca Spain, Destination
One of my favorite places!!! Menorca, Spain
Seaside Cafe, Menorca, Spain amazing! Bucket list places to visit before I turn 50 ;)
Seaside Cafe, Menorca, Spain. | Travel to beautiful places
TOP 10 Beach bar #travel guide #travel tips| http://sportcarcollections457.blogspot.com
Seaside Cafe - Menorca, Spain. Visit Fort Bragg Leisure Travel Services for information.
Seaside Cafe - Menorca, Spain #Destination42 #Spain #Europe #honeymoon #wedding #destinationwedding #travel #summer #views #beautiful #destination #ocean #romantic
ABOVE AND BEYOND at Above Blue Suites • Santorini, GREECE • Mediterranean • Romantic and beautiful with a view that's to die for. The restaurant can only be booked by guests staying in the Aqua Vista hotels group on the island. This makes the restaurant more exclusive, as it only has 3 tables! The attentive service may be the closest you come to having a private waiter. Divine. • 30 22860-28866 • http://www.abovebluesuites.com/#!fine-dining


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It gets harder to fall in love as you get older. It's taken me more time and more intention to open my heart. This song is one of the absolute happiest, most joyful songs ever written. Maybe it's the horns, but it makes me remember that even though being in love isn't simple, the choice to try is. Choose yes.
(listen) Jackie Wilson - Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher (photo) morning light and more snow

domain: artistic


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Victory and defeat are each of the same priceThomas Jefferson
1st May 1945
On 1st of May 1945 three Royal Navy aircraft carriers, HMShips Queen, Trumpeter and Searcher escorted by the heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk, the light cruiser HMS Diadem and seven escorting destroyers sailed from Scapa Flow towards the coast of Norway on what would be the Royal Navy’s final offensive action against the Germans.
Their target was Kilbotn U-Boat harbour in the Lofoten Islands where they expected to find a U-Boat depot ship the “Black Watch“, a torpedo support ship the “Senja”, both protected by an ex Norwegian cruiser “Harald Haarflager” now converted to a flak ship and renamed “Thetis“.
The task force knew well that the target area was well defended, in addition to Thetis, there were at least two other flak barges moored in the harbour, and multiple anti-aircraft gun emplacements in the harbour’s surrounding hills.
Their offensive force totalled forty four aircraft and was comprised of Grumman Avengers and Wildcats from three squadrons, RNAS 846 off Trumpeter contributing eight Avengers and four Wildcats, 853 Squadron off Queen with another eight Avengers and four Wildcats, and 882 Squadron flying off Searcher contributing twenty Wildcats.
To counter the expected resistance the plan of attack tasked four of the Wildcats to maintain a CAP whose job it was to protect the attacking aircraft against enemy fighters based in Bardufoss, 80km to the east. Meanwhile, the remaining Wildcats, all of which were armed with 250lb bombs would arrive at the target area ahead of the Avengers and once there were to bomb the the Haarfarge. They were then to maintain a continuous strafing attack on it and the flak barges moored in the harbour to eliminate or suppress their fire as much as possible. The Avengers would arrive soon after the Wildcats, each would be armed with four 500lb bombs for glide bombing attacks on the two target ships. Number 846 squadron was to attack the Black Watch and 853 Squadron the Senja.
4th May 1945
The weather was perfect on the late afternoon of 4th May over Kilbotn. Although still cool, the sun was shining and spring was beginning its melt of the late season snow. Although the task force didn’t launch until 1600hrs the sun wouldn’t set until 2204hrs and conditions were perfect when the airborne force arrived from the west at 1700hrs and began their attack.
It began badly however. An 882 Squadron Wildcat piloted by a New Zealander, Lieutenant Hugh ‘Hughie’ Morrison was almost immediately hit by flak and crashed into the water. Local fishermen managed to bring him ashore alive but he died soon afterwards. After this poor start though, the attack went to exactly to plan.
As the Wildcats strafed the flak on land and water the Avengers peeled off in rapid succession to bomb the Black Watch and Senja. 853’s attack on the Senja was so effective that the target was rapidly obscured by smoke and spray. One of its aircraft, Q-F piloted by S/Lieutenant Gall suffered an electrical fault preventing it from releasing its bombs properly. One bomb overshot the target landing near a fisherman’s homestead; fortunately none of the occupants were injured when it exploded in the soft ground. The last of 853’s Avengers was unable to see Senja but saw Black Watch through the smoke and attacked it instead, scoring a direct hit.
846 Squadron’s attack on the Black Watch was equally successful with hits scored in successive attacks by its aircraft. However, one of 846’s Avengers (JZ217 “C”) was hit by ground fire and crashed in a field, all three crew members were killed. After the action the local population recovered the bodies of Lt. Francis John Gahan (22), S/Lt. Alasdair Donald Hay Elder(20) and L/A Peter Bernard Mansfield (22.) and buried them at Sørvik Church yard where they remain.
Photos taken from the last Avenger to leave the scene (the photos above) showed the Senja and Black Watch on fire with the latter down by the stern. Reconnaissance later showed both had eventually sunk. It was learned later still that a U-Boat, U-711 had been moored between the two depot ships at the time of the attack and had also been sunk.
The entire action lasted seven minutes from the arrival at 1700hrs of the first Wildcats to the final Avenger departing at 1707hrs. In those seven minutes three German vessels were damaged so severely they had, or were about to sink and approximately 150 German servicemen were either killed or wounded; two of the attacking aircraft were shot down with the loss of their four crew members.
Elsewhere in Europe in that late afternoon of 4th May 1945 – and well known by Operation Judgement’s planners – the German forces in northwest Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark had already surrendered to the British at Lüneburg Heath. The Battle of Berlin had ended two days earlier; Hitler had been dead for almost a week, and only sporadic fighting continued in Berlin, the Reichstag, the Chancellery and even the Bunker having already been taken by the Russians. To the south, the US Seventh Army coming from Austria, and US Fifth Army coming from Italy met at Vipiteno on Italian side of Brenner Pass in the Alps and thereby completed the southwestern link of the Allied armies’ encirclement of the now defeated Third Reich.
There is nothing glamorous or romantic about war. It’s mostly about random pointless death and misery.John Krakeuer
Hobby Boss 1/48 Scale Fleet Air Arm Avenger Mk.1
There are two conversions required to properly represent an FAA Avenger, the Observer’s station behind the pilot and the round windows in the lower fuselage. I began with the round windows.
To start, I needed to make the windows themselves. I did this by smash-moulding some packaging plastic over a suitable shape and then trimming and sanding to size. Next, I made a mistake (as it turned out…). What I did was make a round hole in the fuselage and use some stretched sprue to make a flange that the window would sit on. What I should have done is left the opening as a rounded rectangle and placed the round window directly over it as was the case on the real aircraft.
To correct my error, I rebuilt some internal structure to create a rounded rectangle again. This wasn’t a perfect solution of course, but it created sufficient visual misdirection of the real thing.
The other conversion required a little more work, that of creating the observer’s station behind the pilot. I needed to remove the radio gear that occupied that area on the US versions and had been moulded in the kit. With that done, I rummaged through the spares to come up with a seat and some bits and pieces to busy the area up. There aren’t a lot of references for this so I used some educated guesswork in putting the station together.
With the conversions done, I set to on the rest of the interior. As I had decided to build a Grumman-built Avenger the interior colours were Bronze Green for the Pilot and Observer stations, and Interior Green for the remainder. I painted and installed the instrument panel and made a small one for the observer’s station (but in the end did not use it).
Some detail painting and dry brushing picked out some of the black boxes.
The final additions were some spare PE seatbelts for both the Pilot and Observer seats. I weathered with the usual mix of wash and dry brushing.
The turret itself was a small kit-within-a-kit…
The remainder of the assembly went without issue. The fit and engineering of this kit is user friendly and I only used a wipe or two of Vallejo’s Plastic Putty on the horizontal stabiliser joins.
I decided to leave the bomb bay closed (though in hindsight I regret that now) and pose the port wing folded. Some of the tasks required to complete the airframe were to drill holes in the wing framing around the fold, insert the wing fold itself, fill the holes for the rocket launch posts as this aircraft didn’t carry them, and check my seams with a bit of random paint (green, in this case). A little filler was required around the port side of the windscreen. After next attaching the greenhouse and masking it, the model was ready for the next step.
Having checked the fit and finding it to be clean enough, I decided to paint the wings and fuselage separately.
As is now my standard practice I began with a pre-shade, though this time I used green instead of dark grey or black in an attempt at making the tonal shift less stark.
My subject aircraft is a Fleet Air Arm Avenger belonging to No. 846 NAS off H.M.S. Trumpeter. Originally painted in Temperate Sea Scheme (TSS) they wore a camouflage of Dark Slate Grey and Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky Type S as shown to nice advantage in the photo below.
By late 1944 and into 1945 however the North Sea squadrons had made a couple of changes, most notably to overpaint the Sky with White, in a similar manner to that of the North Atlantic squadrons, which extended up the fuselage sides (to varying degrees, there was little consistency across different squadrons). The other change made was to paint much of the forward fuselage and wing leading edges black as an anti-glare measure. This scheme is well displayed in the photo below of an 846 NAS Avenger in 1945.
I decided to continue with my use of artists’ acrylic paints on this project. I began with the undersides, being careful leave sufficient pre-shade visible base the weathering on without going too far either side of that. Once I was happy with the wings and my colour density I completed the base white by painting the fuselage. Pictured below is the base white completed, and the paint I used.
After mixing the paints to match the TSS colours I was able to start work on the uppers, starting with the wings. I freehanded the camouflage pattern more for aesthetic reasons than accuracy – there’s some debate on whether the original paint was hard of soft edged. It largely depended on the factory the airframe came out of and anyway, the photos of my subject are inconclusive.
The wings “proved” the TSS colours to my eye so I then moved on to the fuselage. I used blutack to mask the white to get a tight but slightly soft edge.
Finally, I painted the black anti-glare.
When the paint was nicely dry (which with these paints is only 10 minutes or so) I applied a light sealing coat of clear gloss in preparation for the markings.
The photo below is a close up of my chosen aircraft during the attack. The markings are quite clear in terms of its fuselage codes being J-P, a C1 roundel on the fuselage and standard fin flash. What I didn’t know was whether the codes on the port side were J-P or P-J.
Several internet image searches finally revealed the photo below, purportedly taken in 1944 and showing the J-P’s starboard side, and with more clarity than the first picture. So, now I had the correct placement of the code letters for both sides, and a clear view of the font, too.
There are however several things quite interesting about this photo. It was taken at RNAS Hatston in the Orkney Islands. The shadows indicate that sun is high in the sky, so around midday and also, crucially, mid-year. The Orkneys are so far north that at any other time of year the sun is quite low in the sky, even at midday.
The aircraft at the left is wearing a Type C roundel which wasn’t introduced on the upper wing until after the war in Europe was over, in 1945. Still thinking the photo was a 1944 picture I wondered whether these roundels were introduced early for 846 Squadron. A subsequent search on the IWM photo archives however dug up a series of photos taken of 846’s departure from Hatston in June 1945 and I came to believe the photo above was taken at the same time.
So, my markings were clear; standard Type C1 on the fuselage, Type B on the upper wing, no roundels on the lower wing, letter code J-P on both sides. As I didn’t have the required letters in decals I [finally, having considered it for some time] purchased a Silhouette Portrait cutter to make my own masks.
I found the included software fairly intuitive and an evening’s work had the above design completed. The machine was similarly simple to set up and use and from start to finish I had the masks designed and printed in around 90 minutes. With the masks in hand, I set to on painting them
I was very happy with how they turned out. None of them bled through, and they all worked very well. While the serial number was painted, the only mask that failed was the ROYAL NAVY on the tail fillet. As a consequence I had to use a decal for that. Painted markings are so much more realistic that I’m sure I’ll use decals only in the rarest cases and of course for the stencils. Speaking of stencils, after applying a sealing clear coat I used the kit decals for the stencils.
Keen eyed readers will also note that I changed the anti-glare to sweep it up to the rear of the pilot’s station – I couldn’t find a single photo that showed it any other way.
The Wing Fold Mechanism
Having found a bunch of photos of Avenger wing folds through Google I set to in one of my rare forays into scratch building. It’s not something I am very comfortable with but nonetheless the kit part which was absolutely bereft of any detail needed something.
I used some random wire, plastic, and brass rod and tube. In the end, I was really pleased with what I produced. It’s not in the same class as far more accomplished modellers but I think it does the job in representing the the real thing if not replicating it
I masked up and painted , sealed and weathered (including a little overspray from when the white undersides were painted). I subsequently changed the colour as can be seen in later images below but a this point I was satisfied with the wing fold and moved on to the finishing stages.
The Finishing Stages
There were a few tasks remaining, and instead of boring you with a longwinded description, perhaps a photo gallery in its place? The tasks covered here are;
- Painting the walkways
- Fabricating and weathering the wing where the fold would make it visible
- Assembly, paint, weather and install the undercarriage
- Final weathering with a panel wash to access panels and control surfaces
- Remove masking, clean and install the canopy parts
- Repaint and re-weather the wing fold mechanism as I wasn’t happy with it
- Fit the exhausts, the radar and the other small bits and pieces including the propeller
- Install the wings – this was quite easy as I’d ensured the fit prior to painting. There was a little filler required in the folded wing where the bulkhead didn’t quite meet the wing structure.
- Install the antenna wire
I left weathering to an absolute minimum on this one as these aircraft were well looked after by this stage in the war. I applied some minor staining with my airbrush but on’t enough to represent the airframe as I might have looked following its “Judgement” sortie.
And then, as is the way of these things, the model was finished.
I very much enjoyed this one and found the kit to be very user-friendly. Would I build another? Yes, I have one in the stash to build as another FAA Avenger in action on 4th May 1945, on the other side of the world in the Pacific Theatre.
- A Brief History of 853 Squadron
- IWM Search Function
- Wikipedia Operation Judgment (1945)
This article, its text, and photos of the model(s) is my original work and is protected by copyright in its entirety, except where noted. All research sources are listed in the References and Credits section above, including photos from official sources. All other images were sourced from the internet and are used here under protection of fair-use. Any copyrighted images will be removed or credited forthwith upon request by its rightful owner.
You gotta love an Avenger in FAA colours. Great build. One wonders at the folly- you could almost call it vindictiveness – of launching a raid in the final days of the war, knowing it would serve no real purpose .
If you have not already read it, may I suggest “The Kamikaze Hunters” by Will Iredale, an FAA Corsair pilot.
A highly readable and very poignant book about the BPF air campaign to attack the kamikaze airfields. A forgotten campaign that Im sure you could immortalise with a couple of models!!
Thanks Bruce. I’ve thought about that raid and despite everything I’ve read I cannot come up with a justification for it.
I’ll definitely check out that book, sounds like an important story.

domain: history