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Hadley really does not want to go to France, so I don’t expect a trip to the Eiffel Tower is in the cards for me. So a Texas cell tower, and a Photoshop overlay will have to suffice! But my sister and I did book,a cruise for September from Galveston. I have qualms, but we will see.
ODC: inspired by the Eiffel Tower
As the festive season arrives, the city is transforming into a realm of magic, and tradition. In the center of the city a grand Christmas tree stands as the centerpiece of celebration, framed by a glittering gate that feels like a portal into another world.
As we celebrate Eid-ul-Adha here in Bangladesh (on Nov 7) let me take this opportunity of extending warm Eid greetings to all my Flickr ♥♥♥ Friends.
With this wild and unknown grass flower bouquet I am wishing you peace and happiness to you and your loved ones!
As seen from the Promenade Plantée.
The first disused railway transformed into an elevated walkway park of greenery in 1993.
Abellio ScotRail Class 170, 170401 arriving into Gorebridge, working 2T74 1051 to Tweedbank, service had started at Edinburgh Waverley, taken 13th March 2019
Educated as a biologist and natural scientist, herman de vries has been working for more than sixty years on an uncommonly versatile oeuvre in which art, science and philosophy are juxtaposed with the reality of the world. His focus stems from natural processes and phenomena, presented by him as the primary, physical reality in which human existence is rooted. de vries gathers, orders, isolates and displays objects from nature, directing our attention to both the oneness and the diversity of the world surrounding us. The strength and richness of de vries’ oeuvre stems from the biotope that he has developed in his hometown of Eschenau (Germany)and the places he visited during his travels, including Venice.
The open, transparent and spatially poetic character of the Dutch pavilion in the Giardini in Venice built by Rietveld in 1954 symbolizes the rational and optimistically progressive way of thinking that prevailed during the first half of the Twentieth Century. The work of herman de vries, made from organic and natural materials counters this notion and attests to the idea that processes and phenomena in nature are too complex to explain in a rational manner.
The title of the exhibition to be all ways to be, expresses the idea that the experience of and reflection on human existence takes many divergent paths, none of which is superior or inferior to the other. Experienced through the eye, ear, body and nose, the works within the pavilion, the Giardini and at different locations within the Venetian Lagoon, will question existing definitions and positions with regard to nature and culture.
As Cubans head out to the beach to escape the summer heat of crowded cities, many are making the drive in relics from another era.
Tens of thousands of vintage American cars remain scattered throughout the country, manufactured before the revolution and subsequent US embargo in 1960. In the summers and at classic car shows, the old American models end up on display.
With no automobile imports coming in, the cars are preserved by Cuban mechanics and improvised fixes by the owners themselves.
As we set off for our first trek on the boundary of the Daroji Bear Sanctuary, we came across this juvenile Shikra feeding on a lizard. What more could I have asked for?
A slightly challenging shot due to the bird's perch (quite a few twigs in the foreground) and the fact that the bird itself was moving quite vigorously while swallowing the lizard.
I've blogged about this trip here. Please let me know your comments.
Changing Images of Man is a 1974 report (revised in 1982) by the Stanford Research Institute (SRI International). This report can be summed up like this:
You have two options: your future can either be 1984 or the Brave New World.
“We have met the enemy and he is us!” We must reform the way we conceptualize the nature of mankind. Indeed, the mind (and body) is a human biocomputer, with programs and coding that can be analyzed, hacked, and altered. Our concepts of free will, freedom, and consciousness must be cast off for man to attain a peaceful, rational, and humane society in the future.
Changing images of man has a double meaning: man’s image has changed throughout history, and man’s image can be changed (manipulated). If we apply this idea to the present, what would be man’s image? Today, man’s image is one of transition. Since we are in the digital age, man’s image would reflect the digital world. Man looks into his screen, and his screen reflects back his digital world. Man’s image is being tokenized into the digital world. His image is becoming digitalized. His image is going to transition into transhumanism (merging man with the digital world). So man’s future image will be one of transhumanism. He will be a techno-slave. Indeed, the image of man is currently being manipulated toward the goals of the elite.
This report warns that our society is heading towards friendly fascism. This form of fascism “will come under the slogans of democracy.” It will be a “techno-urban fascism,” a “friendly sort of totalitarianism.” This is what this friendly fascism will look like: they will use military surveillance technologies to aid the police; they will use behavior-changing drugs and indoctrination in schools; they will attempt to manage the news; they will use personality screening and maintain files on pre-delinquent children, via coordination with school administrations and local, state, and federal authorities; they will use interconnected computer systems to collect peoples personal data like: employment records, criminal records, tax status, credit, insurance, and information about education.
What is their solution to this friendly fascism? They want, instead, to introduce a friendly fascism that has a shiny spiritual veneer. They want man to “evolve” to a higher consciousness, a super consciousness, which lies at the boundary between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. This evolution of consciousness will be a personal, spiritual, social, and cultural evolution. They want people to tap into this consciousness through their dream states. They want them to evolve into a hivemind, where they can telepathically communicate with one another. This could possibly be achieved through mystical experiences, psychic phenomena, esoteric ideas, occult practices, hypnotism, self-hypnotism, meditation, yoga, psychotherapy, psychology, psychochemical drugs, electrocranial stimulation, and cybernetics. “I think that cybernetics is the biggest bite out of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that mankind has taken in the last 2000 years.”
This evolved man will see the inequality of the poorer nations. He will willingly give up his comfortable lifestyle. He will lower his living standards. He will share his wealth with the rest of the world. Men will collectively work together to accomplish equality (communism). And if they refuse to give up their wealth, they will be forced to give it up. This evolution is Gnostic in nature; it reminds me of Karl Marx, with his idea of man evolving into the socialist man/communist man. Out of this evolution will come a new system, a “new socialism,” which will be influenced by Freemasonry. “In ‘true Freemasonry’ there is one lodge, the universe-and one brotherhood, everything that exists. Each person has the ‘privilege of labor,’ of joining with the ‘Great Architect’ in building more noble structures and thus serving in the divine plan.”
The architects of this scheme must convince the masses that the earth has limited resources, which they term the “new scarcity.” They must convince the people that the earth is being overpopulated (today, climate change is the big scare they are pushing). With these supposed problems, man must be convinced that he needs to collectively band together. The architects of this scam must bring in a new economic and ecological system (known today as stakeholder capitalism and the green economy). To introduce this alternative way of life, they will introduce “behavior controls that would deprive the individual of freedoms” (which is known today as a social credit score system).
“Thanks to this initiative (the Green Economy Initiative) and the work of other agencies, ‘green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication’ was placed on the 2012 Rio+20 agenda and was acknowledged as a tool for achieving sustainable development.” – United Nations
“A crisis is often the catalyst for the redrawing of one’s preferred map.” A “crisis-oriented transformation” is likely to transform a culture rapidly. We saw some of this during COVID, which greatly affected our society and economy. People accepted a soft form of authoritarianism and the loss of freedoms. During COVID, they pushed vaccine passports. This mimicked Digital IDs. The unvaccinated could not go to certain places, because they didn’t have vaccine passports. The Canadian truckers had their bank accounts frozen. Those with alternative views were censored. These things mimicked a social credit score system with rewards and punishments. Society failed to think critically, thus proving that it was ready for the next step of the plan. Therefore, politicians touted the start of the Great Reset—a plan to build back better. So now we are in a transition period, a transition into a new economic order. As a result, we are being steered towards a major economic crisis. This “crisis-oriented transformation” will bring us into their new system. This system will use digital biometric IDs, CBDCs, and social credit scores.
The elites see multinational corporations as the “most effective mechanisms for husbanding the earth’s resources and optimizing their use for human benefit.” Giving multinational corporations the earth’s resources will supposedly lead to an “equitable sharing of the earth’s resources.” They will pressure corporations to help with the social engineering of society. The methods they will use to get corporations on board resemble those of a corporate social credit score system like ESGs. They will prod corporations, particularly multinational corporations, to shift their goals to line up with those of the (hijacked) public institutions. Indeed, the public institutions will be tools of indoctrination (today, these institutions promote things like DEI). They plan to use “corporations, foundations, political agencies, and voluntary associations” to help with the implementation of their plans. Today, this is called public–private partnerships. They will use networks at the local, regional, national, and world levels. This way, it will be quicker and easier for them to implement their new world order goals. They expect rapid social change, economic decline, and social disruption as they implement their new technocratic socialist order.
“We would thus hope not for a handful, but for a thousand heroes, ten thousand heroes-who will create a future image of what humankind can be.” They need an army of social(ist) justice warriors to bring about change. “The needed transformation cannot occur without both personal and institutional change.” This correlates with the left’s “long march through the institutions.”
They also want to experiment with a variety of family structures. They want to turn the family into “an extended unit,” which will provide “a larger source of meaning and significance.” So basically, the collective (government, schools, neighbors, and society) will raise your children in this new collectivist utopia. This extended family will be a “source of education,” and “a unit for work.” They want to “foster a period of experimentation and tolerance for diverse alternatives, both in life styles and in social institutions.” They also want to use “new experimental curricula.” Today, we have new experimental curricula such as critical race theory and queer theory.
They want the world’s population to embrace this new order. Their end goal is the Brave New World. In reality, those who refuse this new order will live out 1984, and those who accept it will live out the Brave New World. Though, as they admit, no transition will go smoothly. Everyone is going to feel some pain, and in a worst-case scenario, a lot of pain.
The Bible warns us about the Antichrist. Those who refuse the Mark of the Beast won’t be able to buy or sell, and they will be tracked down by the authorities. These people will experience the hell of 1984. But those who take the Mark of the Beast will evolve into transhumans, and they will experience the bliss of the Brave New World. They will be on a high, stimulated by soma frequencies. Thus, they will blissfully worship the Beast. They will evolve to a super consciousness; they will become one with the Beast.
God created man with a soul and free will. Those who accept the Mark of the Beast will lose their free will, because technology will control their allegiance and love for the Beast. Their free will is gonna be controlled by the Beast system. Never again will they have the free will to repent and turn to Jesus Christ. They will give up their free will; they will forfeit their own souls.
Revelation 14:9-11 “A third angel followed the first two, declaring in a loud voice: ‘If anyone worships the Beast and his Image, and takes the Mark on his forehead or his hand, that person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of His wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb. And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the Beast and his Image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the Mark of his name.’”
Mark 8:36 “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
"As I look straight into the eye of hell,"....at least that is what I was thinking when I shot this.
Sony A7R
Sony Sonnar T* FE 35mm f/2.8 ZA
Read my first impressions of the Sony A7R here - aperturepriority.co.nz/2014/01/21/the-reluctant-tourist/
As indicated by the settings this was an unintended capture but I liked the Goldfinch's hop from one wild Gorse spike to another :0)
as made by Linda using my Giant Hexie Quilt Pattern. I absolutely love it! Read more about Linda here... www.lindalitchfield.co.uk/
As Alfie hits her pensioning years she still know how to get up on the fence, but i had to help her get down as it had been a while
XA-MIO- Fairchild Swearingen SA-227AC Metro 3 - Aeronaves T.S.M.
at Hamilton International Airport (YHM)
c/n AC-693B - built in 1987 for Air Midwest -
operated by Aeronaves T.S.M as freighter since 2005
“As time goes on, you’ll understand. What lasts, lasts; what doesn’t, doesn’t. Time solves most things. And what time can’t solve, you have to solve yourself. Is that too much to ask?”
— Haruki Murakami from Dance Dance Dance
As rua estreitas e charmosos de nosso centro histórico.
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Tenham um belo dia.
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Historical Downtown
The charming narrow streets of old Downotown.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Have a greatday!
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Buy my photos at / Compre minhas fotos na Getty Images
To direct contact me / Para me contactar diretamente: lmsmartins@msn.com
So today Brad was asking when do you put down the books and stop buying gear and just go shoot. I replied, everyday now that I am doing this 366 project. Some people say a project like this isn't good for your photography, since most of the time you are rushed to get your shot for the day.
Take this shot for example. Nothing special really. But it is a style of photo I have never taken. So even though I might have been rushed, I learned a lot doing this. Shot with my 50, f/1.8, 1/10sec exposure. Speedlight set manually to 1/64 power, with built in diffuser.
Random Fact: It was cold out. So cold that you can even see a little bit of snot on my nose...HA!
Told ya it was SOOC ;-)
I love trying to take photos as we fly down the highway...this was one such instance, not long ago. This was actually a country road, not the highway, but still, same idea. ;)
Osuris alba known as Osyris , is a very common wild plant of Cretan flora. It is xerophilous species lives in arid and semidesert areas, in sunny areas at altitudes between sea level 1,110 m (3,640 ft) above. In favorable climates, it can also push up to 1,800 m (5,900 ft).
is a semiparasitic (hemiparasitic) broom-like shrub reaching 30–150 cm (12–59 in) in height.[1] The stem is woody, brown or dark green, sometimes creeping on the ground. This plant has numerous longitudinally striated branches, green when young. The leaves are linear, lanceolate, coriaceous, and persistent, although sometimes deciduous. They are about 15–35 mm (0.59–1.38 in) long and 1–5 mm (0.039–0.197 in) wide.[1] They are produced during the winter, while in summer they are almost totally absent.[1] The flowers are hermaphroditic or unisexual; in the latter case, the male and female flowers show differences associated with the timing of pollination. They are very small (1 or 2 mm), with four yellow-green tepals and four stamens. Flowering period extends from March to June.[1] The fruits are small, red, fleshy drupes, 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) in diameter. Their roots form haustoria that tap into the roots of nearby plants and extract their sap. (Source: Wikipedia)
Cinderella stepsister Sophie McShera as Drisella in an OOAK Fashion by Barb's Delightful Doll Fashions by Barbara G. Smith of www.barbsdelightfuldollfashions.com.
All repainted and restyled for www.myfarrah.com by Noel Cruz of www.ncruz.com. Photographed in the Regent Miniatures Mansion by Ken Haseltine.
Farrah is on facebook www.facebook.com/FLFawcett. On Tumblr at; farrahlenifawcett.tumblr.com. Join Farrah on Instagram at www.instagram.com/farrahlfawcett. On pinterest at www.pinterest.com/myfarrah/
Photo/Graphic Layout & web sites ncruz.com & myfarrah.com by www.stevemckinnis.com.
Una Coccinella al decollo , *è uno scatto reale* , non c'è copia-incolla, la coccinella è decollata davvero dal fiore ed ovviamente ho il raw autentico che lo dimostra; scatto effettuato con una mano sola, con l'altra tenevo fermo il fiore altrimenti scosso dal vento, Nikon D90 & Micro Nikkor 85mm. ED VR II che continuo a reputare una Lente di qualità eccezionale. 1/250sec. - Bias 320, f/16 , pre-set on camera per esaltare i toni verdi e azzurri , selezione del punto di grigio 3x3 in PP , correzione croma e alte luci con lieve contrast-increase . Buona Visione .
As part of their engagement shoot, they wanted to include Alicia's daughter, Presley. Cutest thing alive.
As the picnic crowds grow, we have to go higher with the picnic tables! Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada
Here are two girls sitting on the side, waiting for their friends to arrive for the cosplay in Harajuku. I think they're sick because they're wearing face masks, though I didn't see them cough at all.
These teens will arrive in the morning and truly get into their groove in the afternoon. So the afternoon is the best time to see them in their full costumed glory.
As a teenager, I had been earning some money here. And it was neither cooking meth or creating snuff movies - as one would imagine in a place like this.
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Alcatraz
Early Years as a Military Prison
In 1775, Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala (1745-97) mapped and named rugged Alcatraz Island, christening it La Isla de los Alcatraces, or Island of the Pelicans, due to its large population of sea birds. Seventy-five years later, in 1850, President Millard Fillmore (1800-74) signed an order reserving the island for military use. During the 1850s, a fortress was constructed on Alcatraz and some 100 cannons were installed around the island to protect San Francisco Bay. Also during this time, Alcatraz became home to the West Coast’s first operational lighthouse.
By the late 1850s, the U.S. Army had begun holding military prisoners at Alcatraz. Isolated from the mainland by the cold, strong waters of San Francisco Bay, the island was deemed an ideal location for a prison. It was assumed no Alcatraz inmate could attempt to escape by swimming and survive.
During its years as a military prison, the inmates at Alcatraz included Confederate sympathizers and citizens accused of treason during the American Civil War (1861-65). Alcatraz also housed a number of “rebellious” American Indians, including 19 Hopis from the Arizona Territory who were sent to the prison in 1895 following land disagreements with the federal government. The inmate population at Alcatraz continued to rise during the Spanish-American War (1898).
During the early 20th century, inmate labor fueled the construction of a new cellhouse (the 600-cell structure still stands today) on Alcatraz, along with a hospital, mess hall and other prison buildings. According to the National Park Service, when this new complex was finished in 1912 it was the world’s largest reinforced concrete building.
Doing Time as a Federal Prison: 1934-63
In 1933, the Army relinquished Alcatraz to the U.S. Justice Department, which wanted a federal prison that could house a criminal population too difficult or dangerous to be handled by other U.S. penitentiaries. Following construction to make the existing complex at Alcatraz more secure, the maximum-security facility officially opened on July 1, 1934. The first warden, James A. Johnston (1874-1954), hired approximately one guard for every three prisoners. Each prisoner had his own cell.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) viewed Alcatraz as “the prison system’s prison,” a place where the most disruptive inmates could be sent to live under sparse conditions with few privileges in order to learn how to follow rules (at which point, they could be transferred to other federal prisons to complete their sentences). According to the BOP, Alcatraz typically held some 260 to 275 prisoners, which represented less than 1 percent of the entire federal inmate population.
The federal prison on Alcatraz Island in the chilly waters of California’s San Francisco Bay housed some of America’s most difficult and dangerous felons during its years of operation from 1934 to 1963. Among those who served time at the maximum-security facility were the notorious gangster Al “Scarface” Capone (1899-1947) and murderer Robert “Birdman of Alcatraz” Stroud (1890-1963). No inmate ever successfully escaped The Rock, as the prison was nicknamed, although more than a dozen known attempts were made over the years. After the prison was shut down due to high operating costs, the island was occupied for almost two years, starting in 1969, by a group of Native-American activists. Today, historic Alcatraz Island, which was also the site of a U.S. military prison from the late 1850s to 1933, is a popular tourist destination.
Source: www.history.com/topics/alcatraz