100%reliability photos on Flickr

2019 Mercedes-Benz A180 AMG-Line executive hatchback by Graham Woodward

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In 2021 The A-Class was the fourth best selling car in Britain, but was also in the top ten of least reliable cars. That's what comes from putting Renault/Nissan 1300cc engines in premium cars. The odd thing about the reliability stats is that very few of the most reliable cars appear in the top ten best selling list. So it may be just down to percentages. Sell only one car and it doesn't go wrong and you have 100% reliability; sell hundreds of thousands and some go wrong and it looks like they are of poorer quality.

As an aside, this picture shows a problem I keep having with car photos. Despite using f5.6 aperture the back wheels are not in focus as the depth of field is too shallow. I think it's a trait of wide-angle zoom lenses (24mm-70mm) and bloody annoying.

Herichthys carpintis var. Short Body - Texas Short Body (Jordan & Snyder, 1899) by Oscar Neto

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Under Dew is Life

Description: Picture taken in a pet shop. No product nor the fish were acquired or bought, and the picture I took was merely for educational purposes in benefit of the species depicted.

They are also known as lowland cichlid, pearlscale cichlid, Texas blue or green Texas cichlid.

This is a Herichthys carpintis of the variation "Short Body" commonly known as Texas Short Body and belongs in the superclass Osteichthyes, class Actinopterygii, subclass Neopterygii, superorder Acanthopterygii, order Perciformes (Cichliformes?), suborder Labroidei, family Cichlidae, subfamily Cichlasomatinae and tribe Heroini. Bear in mind that this taxonomy was very confusing and there may be mistakes, not to mention that I skipped plenty of subdivisions within Neopterygii to make this shorter. If you saw any mistakes, please warn me so I can change this text accordingly. All I ask is for you to provide a reliable source to your correction of my mistake. "Guesses" or speculations won't make me immediately change the text, but are welcome.

Apparently, the subject portrayed is a male but through a picture it's hard to tell with 100% precision. Some females look a lot like the males, with many being mistaken for each other. The differentiation is more reliable by annalyzing the behaviour or through the observation of the sexual and excretory organs through a process called "venting" after the subject reaches sexual maturity. In general, the males are larger than the females and display a characteristic black spot on the center of the dorsal fin, but this can't be used to differentiate the sex of these fishes with 100% reliability.

Herichthys carpintis can be found in harder waters with a pH of 7,5 to 9 and temperatures between 18ºC and 28ºC, which varies with the seasons. They can also inhabit transparent waters with visibility inferior to 1 meter.

Sexual maturity is reached after the fish reaches around 10cm. They will try to reproduce as soon as the sexual maturity is achieved and will search for a smooth surface to lay the eggs. More than 800 eggs can be laid. The offspring are transferred between sites in crevices multiple times by the female to fend off predators. Both the males and the females will guard the offsprings for around 8 weeks.

This species is somewhat aggressive and are known to provoke problems with other creatures even when they are bigger than them, which may result in the death of the Herichthys carpintis, although this behaviour is more often seen when they are under captivity.

They are omnivorous and feed on debris, vegetable matter (they are diggers and will uproot vegetation), other fishes, small insects, gastropods, and so on.

This species is polymorphic, meaning they can present various patterns depending on their zone of distribution, which includes the Eastern coast of Mexico, until the Rio Soto La Marina to the North, and to the South until the Panuco's River Bay, Laguna de Tamiahua. They have been introduced in many places.

They live around 8 years under captivity. This expectancy is usually halved in nature. The individual portrayed measured approximately 13 or 14cm in length and approximately 9cm in height.

Sources:

www.ciclideos.com/herichthys-carpintis-f195.html

www.aquarismopaulista.com/texas-blue-herichthys-carpintis/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymorphism_(biology)

www.seriouslyfish.com/species/herichthys-carpintis/

PROJECT NOAH (Português): www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1400149398

Celtic Travel, Llanidloes BX05FFC by Martha R Hogwash

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It very quickly found a new home with Celtic Travel in Llanidloes, Powys, as a back-up for the three Volvo B7RLE/Wrights that they had recently acquired for new local service contracts. However, 100% reliability for the Volvos on the day of my visit meant that it didn't leave the yard at all, not even on a school run.

Poverty Wizard antenna mod 1 by Darron Birgenheier

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I bought a radio flash trigger set from Deal Extreme. Range, maximum sync speed and reliability using only the antenna trace on the transmitter's PCB was OK, but I knew it could be better. So I added the telescoping antenna shown here.

The antenna was salvaged from an old and no longer legal wideband AristoCraft R/C transmitter. The R/C radio operated on 75MHz, so the antenna is quite long. The flash trigger set operates on 433MHz, necessitating a much shorter wavelength antenna. With the telescoping feature of this antenna, tuning is a snap (or a yank?).

I quickly found that extending about two inches from the fully collapsed condition shown here gave awesome range and reliability. I was able to get 100% reliability at about 600 feet! And maximum sync speed can go as high as 1/800 sec., with marginal reliability at that speed. 100% reliable maximum sync is still at 1/400th.

See the next photo in the set for more info.

Herichthys carpintis var. Short Body - Texas Short Body (Jordan & Snyder, 1899) by Oscar Neto

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Life Stream