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The Mark XIV bomb sight was developed by Royal Air Force Bomber Command during the Second World War. It was their standard bombsight for the second half of the War, replacing the First World War-era CSBS beginning in 1942. Essentially an automated version of the CSBS, it used a mechanical computer to update the sights in real-time. It required only 10 seconds of straight flight before a bomb drop, and automatically accounted for shallow climbs and dives. It contained a gyro stabilization platform that kept the sight pointed at the target as the bomber manoeuvred, dramatically increasing its accuracy and ease of sighting. It demonstrated accuracy roughly equal to the contemporary Norden bombsight, and was smaller, easier to use, faster-acting and better suited to night bombing. A post-war upgrade, the T-4, connected directly to the Navigation and Bombing System computers to automate the setting of wind speed and direction. (Full article...)
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Harvest is one of a series of paintings by Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh depicting country life. It is subtitled Harvest at La Crau, with Montmajour in the Background. A wheat field is shown in the foreground, with farmhouses, ricks, ladders, carts and activities associated with harvest, and in the distance, purple-blue mountains are set against a turquoise sky. The work was painted in oils on canvas in June 1888, with van Gogh writing that he found the landscape at La Crau in Provence to be as "beautiful and endless as the sea". The painting is held by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which houses the largest Van Gogh collection in the world, with around 200 paintings, 400 drawings and 700 letters by the artist. Painting credit: Vincent van Gogh
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