View allAll Photos Tagged Cataclysm
Character Creation
Harvey Bullock (/ˈbʊlək/) is a fictional detective appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Batman.
The character first appeared in Detective Comics #441 (June 1974) and was created by Archie Goodwin and Howard Chaykin.
In animation, he appeared throughout the DC Animated Universe, voiced by Robert Costanzo. He debuted in live-action in 2014 on Fox's television series Gotham, portrayed by Donal Logue.
Publication history
There is some ambiguity concerning the character's origins. Writer Doug Moench and artist Don Newton introduced Harvey Bullock in Batman #361 (July 1983) as a device to resolve the ongoing plotline with Gotham City's corrupt mayor Hamilton Hill, and subsequent Who's Who in the DC Universe entries acknowledged this as the new Bullock's first appearance.
However, in later years Batman fans began pointing out that a "Lt. Bullock" appeared in three panels of Detective Comics #441 (1974), written by Archie Goodwin, pencilled by Howard Chaykin, and published almost a decade before.
Moench admitted that he must have read this comic because he is an Archie Goodwin fan, but denied that Harvey Bullock is the same character. He argued that it is unlikely that he drew on Goodwin's Lt. Bullock even unconsciously, since there are discrepancies of both personality and continuity between his character and Goodwin's, and he distinctly remembers taking the name "Bullock" from guitarist Hiram Bullock.
Archie Goodwin is legally Harvey Bullock's sole creator; Moench said he decided not to contest this because he did not want to make a case against Goodwin's widow Anne Goodwin, whom he considers a friend.
Following the conclusion of the Hamilton Hill storyline, Moench decided he enjoyed writing Harvey Bullock enough to keep him on as a supporting character, which necessitated some softening of his original characterization as a corrupt cop.
Bullock was one of several Batman supporting cast members swept out of the Batman family of titles when Denny O'Neil became the Batman editor in 1986, but in 1987 writer Paul Kupperberg brought him into the Vigilante cast. Kupperberg recalled, "Harvey Bullock was a character very much in my wheelhouse, a wise-cracking loudmouth with a Brooklyn accent and a problem with authority, although he wasn't originally intended to be a permanent member of the Vigilante cast.
He was brought in for a guest-shot, as a character to help Vigilante's handler, Harry Stein, grease the wheels in Gotham City for them on whatever case they were on. I had fun writing him, and the interaction between Harvey and Harry Stein, another slob with his own way of doing things, clicked. I don't think they were using him much, if at all, in the Batman books by then, so we got permission from the Bat-office to have the character on semi-permanent loan for Vigilante and its successor title, Checkmate."
Fictional Character History
Harvey Bullock was named after a real-life television writer. Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths story line, Bullock was originally a corrupted detective. He was ordered by Mayor Hamilton Hill to sabotage Commissioner James Gordon’s career.
He would do so by pretending to be clumsy and ruining their plans on a stake. When Bullock accidentally gave Gordon a heart-attack, it changed Bullock. He turned over a new leaf and tried his best to make up for what he did.
Bullock later became a Bishop in the Checkmate Organization.
Origin – Post-Crisis
After Crisis on Infinite Earths, Harvey Bullock once again became a corrupt cop. He gained a reputation for taking bribes, police brutality, and ties to organized crimes, though his co-workers still believed him to be a good cop.
However, Bullock was very loyal to Commissioner Gordon from the very beginning, and helped Gordon foil the plans of many well-known criminals in Gotham City. Whenever Batman was not around, Bullock would take the role of bad cop to intimidate and threaten those he needed information from. His previous partner on the Gotham Police Department was Renee Montoya.
Later, after Commissioner Gordon is shot three times in the back, it is discovered that Gordon's shooter was formerly in the Chicago mob and had a grudge against Gordon. However, the GCPD lack the evidence to convict Gordon's shooter. Bullock gives up the location of Commissioner Gordon's shooter to the mafia, leading to the shooter's murder. After this event, Bullock resigned from the GCPD and occasionally worked as a private detective.
Batman: Cataclysm
In the Batman: Cataclysm story line, Bullock is confronting Anarky when an earthquake strikes. Both men survive but Harvey is severely injured, having had his arm impaled by a metal tube.
Despite this he is able to make it back to Gotham's police headquarters and rescue James Gordon from the rubble of his own office. Gotham city is later shut down.
During No Man's Land Bullock, along with Renee Montoya, decide to stay behind to assist Gordon.
One Year Later
After Infinite Crisis' part of the One Year Later story line, Bullock was allowed to rejoin the GCPD police force under the condition that he is not to make one mistake this time. Batman and Bullock have made peace and they both agreed to give each other a second chance.
Batman Beyond
In the future, Bullock's legacy lives on through his grandson.
⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
Secret Identity: N/A
Publisher: DC
First appearance: As Lieutenant Bullock: Detective Comics #441 (June 1974)
As Detective Harvey Bullock: Batman #361 (July 1983)
Created by:
As Lieutenant Bullock:
Archie Goodwin (writer)
Howard Chaykin (artist)
As Detective Harvey Bullock:
Doug Moench (writer)
Don Newton (artist)
I came across an interesting article today on the New York Times about the pursuit of happiness. Its last few lines encapsulate its essence perfectly:
"I suspect there is something inherently misguided and self-defeating and hopeless about any deliberate campaign to achieve happiness. Perhaps the reason we so often experience happiness only in hindsight, and that chasing it is such a fool’s errand, is that happiness isn’t a goal in itself but is only an aftereffect. It’s the consequence of having lived in the way that we’re supposed to — by which I don’t mean ethically correctly so much as just consciously, fully engaged in the business of living. In this respect it resembles averted vision, a phenomena familiar to backyard astronomers whereby, in order to pick out a very faint star, you have to let your gaze drift casually to the space just next to it; if you look directly at it, it vanishes. And it’s also true, come to think of it, that the only stars we ever see are not the “real” stars, those cataclysms taking place in the present, but always only the light of the untouchable past."
Read the rest of the article here.
At this point near the Watchman Overlook, the weather was about to unload. The squalls along the rim of Crater Lake were pushing the cold rain sideways. The storm and the geology created by the cataclysmic eruption evoked a sense of real power.
Even though the eruption ended thousands of years ago, the caldera and the cinder cone,Wizard Island, quickly remind you of the forces which created this special place in Oregon.
Batur Mountain (Kintamani is the most favorite tourist destinations in Bali with the active volcano of mount Batur and beautiful lake.)
Gunung Batur is a small stratovolcano in north-central Bali. It has several craters, and is 1,717 m in height. Batur lies within a large caldera, the remains of a cataclysmic prehistoric eruption of a volcano that was once over 4,000 m in height. Batur remains active to this day and has erupted over 20 times in the last two centuries. Major eruptions have occurred in 1917, 1926 and 1963 (the same year as Agung's major eruption), making Batur Bali's most active volcano. Batur is a popular trekking mountain among tourists, as its peak is free from forest cover, offers spectacular views and is easily accessible. The term "Batur" often refers to the entire caldera, including Gunung Abang, Bali's third-highest peak, which is situated along the rim.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The impressive Eldhraun lava field is the biggest lava flow in the world. It occurred during the Laki eruption of the late 1700s. The enormous site, which is 565 square kilometres (218 sq mi), is where the Apollo 11 crew trained for their moonwalk.
The Laki eruption lasted from 1783 to 1784, and Icelanders know it as the “Skaftareldar”. Scientists consider it the most poisonous eruption occurring during historical times. It is fair to say that this was a cataclysmic event, not only for Iceland but also for Europe. In Iceland, it caused disease, crop failure, and famine. As a result, between 53% and 82% of domestic animals and 20% of the human population perished.
The cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines was the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century, and by far the largest eruption to affect a densely populated area. It occurred on June 15, 1991. I was part of the evacuation and relief effort. It was the last action of any significance I would perform in the US Navy.
The eruption produced high-speed avalanches of hot ash and gas, giant mudflows, and a cloud of volcanic ash hundreds of miles across that ushered in climate change across the globe. The resulting damage to US assets in the Philippines was pivotal in the decision to close the massive strategic US military bases there. Many US servicemen lost friends and family in the ordeal never to be heard from again. The impacts of the eruption continue to this day.
Stay Tuned--2021 Palouse Workshop dates will be announced next week!
The rolling hills of the Palouse were formed after the last Ice Age. When the ice dam broke on the ancient Lake Missoula, silt was deposited by cataclysmic floods as they washed through the area. The prevailing winds then created dune-like hills with the silt.
PRO TIP: This shot was taken as a vertical pano of 5 shots at 250mm. Doing it this way allowed me to capture the sweeping foreground light that created such a nice leading element into the distant farm. Wouldn't you love to live here surrounded by waves of rolling hills?
How on earth did I ever get by before investing in a proper telephoto lens?
I can't imagine how many photo ops I've missed over the years by not having the big guns at the ready.
For years I just refused to carry around a 1Kg piece of glass on the off-chance of ever needing it.
What an idiot.
Thankfully I came to my senses in time to capture this cataclysmic event two winters ago and I'm STILL pulling out nuggets from the archives.
Hopefully I'll have some new adventures for you to watch very soon and maybe some new characters ;)
Thanks for looking
Gavin Hardcastle
Santa Fe northbound freight from Tulsa - combination of two trains due to washout delays - with 152 cars, headed by two GP30, U23b, two GP20. The secondary main from Ottawa, Kansas, on what is now labelled "the Transcon", to Tulsa was protected by ABS and of course "blades." Those blades had protected a pair of passenger trains between Tulsa and Kansas City until the beginning of Amtrak. The speed limit was 75 and a friend had given chase once; he told me that he was doing 80 just to keep up. This train came along before the light engines shown in the previous post. The freights generally ran at night on this line and were hard to find unless an event like cataclysmic flooding made these recovery moves necessary. A friend had come down from Toronto and we were making the best of it!
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies roughly 215 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While it looks like NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into a collision with a neighbouring galaxy, this is just the result of the chance alignment of the two objects in the night sky. NGC 105’s elongated neighbour is actually far more distant and remains relatively unknown to astronomers. These misleading conjunctions occur frequently in astronomy — for example, the stars in constellations are at vastly different distances from Earth, and only appear to form patterns thanks to the chance alignment of their component stars.
The Wide Field Camera 3 observations in this image are from a vast collection of Hubble measurements examining nearby galaxies which contain two fascinating astronomical phenomena — Cepheid variables and cataclysmic supernova explosions. Whilst these two phenomena may appear to be unrelated — one is a peculiar class of pulsating stars and the other is the explosion caused by the catastrophic final throes of a massive star’s life — they are both used by astronomers for a very particular purpose: measuring the vast distances to astronomical objects. Both Cepheids and supernovae have very predictable luminosities, meaning that astronomers can tell precisely how bright they are. By measuring how bright they appear when observed from Earth, these “standard candles” can provide reliable distance measurements. NGC 105 contains both supernovae and Cepheid variables, giving astronomers a valuable opportunity to calibrate the two distance measurement techniques against one another.
Astronomers recently carefully analysed the distances to a sample of galaxies including NGC 105 to measure how fast the Universe is expanding — a value known as the Hubble constant. Their results don’t agree with the predictions of the most widely-accepted cosmological model, and their analysis shows that there is only a 1-in-a-million chance that this discrepancy was caused by measurement errors. This discrepancy between galaxy measurements and cosmological predictions has been a long-standing source of consternation for astronomers, and these recent findings provide persuasive new evidence that something is either wrong or lacking in our standard model of cosmology.
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al.; CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: R. Colombari
回來啦~
不過有點偷懶的是
這星期幾乎都在玩World of Warcraft : Cataclysm
攝影的第二年快結束囉
接下來準備邁向第三年(好快)!
今年我打算在後製上少花點力
多花點心在照片的本質上
希望能拍出有內容的影像囉( 我希望 @@ )
the moment when sun goes down the whole new world is rising
..like cockroaches for the example, did you know that cockroach compared to us is a superior being, survived millions of years all the cataclysms which many other life forms did not.
Cockroach has the third light sensitive eye on their back of their body, thats reason you cant catch them so easily.
They eat junk food just like us but do not get obese and their digestive system will keep sicknesses and toxins outside which will protect them to be eaten and stay healthy.
They can hear with their joints so they hear with their knees and elbows, tho I do not know if thats something special, often talking with the people gives me feeling they behave as the cockroaches, not listening with their ears :).
And last but not least they got two brains one in the head and other close to it's genitals, I guess that would come as something very handy for lot of humans.
Enjoy your day.
B
The cataclysmic 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines was the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century, and by far the largest eruption to affect a densely populated area. It occurred on June 15, 1991. I was part of the evacuation and relief effort. It was the last action of any significance I would perform in the US Navy.
The eruption produced high-speed avalanches of hot ash and gas, giant mudflows, and a cloud of volcanic ash hundreds of miles across that ushered in climate change across the globe. The resulting damage to US assets in the Philippines was pivotal in the decision to close the massive strategic US military bases there. Many US servicemen lost friends and family in the ordeal never to be heard from again. The impacts of the eruption continue to this day.
SH2-91, or Sharpless 2-91, is a remnant from a supernova explosion that occurred in the past. It is located in the constellation Cygnus. Supernova remnants are the aftermath of massive stars that have reached the end of their lives and exploded in a cataclysmic event.
The explosion releases an enormous amount of energy, ejecting stellar material into space at high velocities. The shockwave generated by the explosion sweeps up surrounding interstellar material, creating a distinct shell-like structure that we observe as a supernova remnant.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLYiIBCN9ec
When you were standing in the wake of devastation
When you were waiting on the edge of the unknown
And with the cataclysm raining down
Insides crying, "Save me now"
You were there, impossibly alone
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure's all you've known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go, let it go
And in a burst of light that blinded every angel
As if the sky had blown the heavens into stars
You felt the gravity of tempered grace
Falling into empty space
No one there to catch you in their arms
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure's all you've known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go, let it go
Let it go
Let it go
Let it go
Let it go
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure's all you've known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go, let it go
You think you can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. The Earth is ancient—four and a half billion years old. Life has persisted here for nearly as long, through cataclysms you can scarcely imagine: continents drifting, mountains rising and falling, comets slamming into oceans, entire species rising and vanishing in the blink of a geological eye. And yet, life endures. You fret over radiation, thinning ozone, or rising temperatures, but even if we poisoned every corner of this world, life would survive—deep underground, frozen in ice, waiting for its time to flourish again.
We see ourselves as gods, wielding the power to shape or destroy, yet we’ve been here for the briefest moment, blind to the Earth’s slow, relentless rhythms. A hundred years? A million? It means nothing to the planet. You say the Earth is in jeopardy? No—it is humanity that’s in jeopardy. The Earth does not need us, and it will not miss us if we’re gone. Our challenge is not to save the Earth—it is to save ourselves.
(Paraphrased from Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton)
In the Age of Calamity, in the face of cataclysm and catastrophe, a small group of idealists has risen up to follow the path of Ka'a Rashket. With an unshaken resolve they challenge a world where all hope seems lost, hoping to tip the scales of fate even ever so slightly...
Kenra the Diligent
Tarmet the Brave
Fasus the Patient
Drantei the Kind
Serkem the Just
---
Fantasy figbarf time! The description above seems to be missing a lot of context, but that's intentional. I'll leave the rest up to imagination ;) Enjoy!
Big Branch River, Vermont. The river makes a deep cut in the mountain, with steep hillsides leading upward on either side. Its hard to imagine what kind of cataclysmic flood caused these boulders to be lifted and carried down stream, leaving a trail of destruction. I rock hop until I'm standing above the hiss of whitewater under my feet, and do a balancing act to take in the drama up and down the waterway. Drama, I think to myself...I've created too much, gotten too much. Nature's storms take it out on landscapes while human storms take it out on our souls. In the end, all the words, the rage, the hurt, and sadness fades, and the truth is that what we knew hasn't changed, but we did. So why am I drawn here instead of some idyllic meadow full of flowers, when I have enough turmoil of my own? Places like this have their own drama, where timeless forces are locked against one another. There are no motives, no illusion, no judgement... it is as real as it says. I'll stay awhile longer, and toss a stone in the river.
« Cataclysme, ruine : une esthétique »
conférence de Xavier Martel, Historien de l'art
Dimanche 1er mai à 11h
dans le cadre des Rencontres :
JAPON : REPRÉSENTER LA CATASTROPHE
Du 30 avril au 01 mai 2011
au bénéfice de la Croix Rouge Japonaise
Le Bal, 6, Impasse de la Défense 75018 PARIS
(métro Place de Clichy)
www.le-bal.fr/fr/mh/japon-representer-la-catastrophe/
Photographie by maruteru : 2011 04 16 kyoshikoujin mae
006 ซูมเอ้าท์ 007 ซูมอิน 008 หมุนซ้าย 009 ซูมอิน 010 ซูมอิน 011 เลื่อนขวา 012 ซูมเอ้าท์ 013 ซูมอิน 014 เลื่อน 015ฟิล์มเก่า สลับเอฟเฟคไปเรื่อย อย่างเร็วจนถึงภาพสุดท้าย เฟดเอ้าท์ จบอินโทร ต่อไปยังเนื้อหาเรื่องราว
Font : Dok champa ความสุข ความสำเร็จ ความทรงจำ
Intro : ใช้จังหวะดนตรีที่ค่อนข้างตื่นเต้นรวดเร็ว เพลง Cataclysmic_Molten_Core
Ten times the size of Niagara, Dry Falls is thought to be the greatest known waterfall that ever existed. Geologists speculate that during the last ice age catastrophic flooding channeled water at 65 miles per hour through the Upper Grand Coulee and over this 400-foot (120 m) rock face. At this time, it is estimated that the flow of the falls was ten times the current flow of all the rivers in the world combined.
Nearly twenty thousand years ago, as glaciers moved south, one ice sheet plugged the Clark Fork of the Columbia River, which kept water from being drained from Montana. Consequently, a significant portion of western Montana flooded, forming the gigantic Lake Missoula. Eventually, enough pressure accumulated on the ice dam that it gave way. It is generally accepted that this process of ice-damming of the Clark Fork, refilling of Lake Missoula and subsequent cataclysmic flooding happened dozens of times over the years of the last Ice Age.
This sudden release put parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon under hundreds of feet of water in just a few days. These extraordinary floods created the Grand Coulee and Dry Falls in a short period. Similar glacial flooding on a smaller scale kept the falls flowing off and on for several thousand years.
Once the ice sheets that obstructed the Columbia melted, the river returned to its normal course leaving the Grand Coulee and the falls desiccated
Grant County, Washington.
"When you were standing in the wake of devastation
When you were waiting on the edge of the unknown
And with the cataclysm raining down
Insides crying, "Save me now!"
You were there, impossibly alone
Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?
You build up hope, but failure’s all you’ve known
Remember all the sadness and frustration
And let it go. Let it go..."
another rockstar that leaves us so soon. this is for Chester Bennington
Linkin Park: youtu.be/4tLOdpC9dKc
Terre de deserts et de beauté où la vie parait insensée.Sensation de sentir naître notre planète ou de découvrir la renaissance de la vie après un cataclysme...Etranges impressions
The Giants Of Acadhya - Arkhoot by Daniel Arrhakis (2023/ 2025)
Thalybur, a Nebular System with several planets enveloped in gases, asteroids and dust resulting from an ancient planetary collision.
The dramatic event caused the near extinction of a civilization that had thrived for millennia on Acadhya, the third moon of the giant Antalassus, an emerald green gaseous planet.
Thanks to its size, many of the planetary debris, dust and gases resulting from the event were attracted by its enormous gravity.
The survivors created large robots to help them explore the planet and survive the post cataclysmic conditions, replacing their Acadhyan creators on their surface. However, with the passage of time, the radiations coming from space became deadly and in a few dozen Dhyans (a Dhyan is a time period equivalent to 10 Earth years) even those who lived underground ended up dying.
Their huge robots thrived however thanks to the energy of Anaturk the giant golden star surrounded by its circular rings of laser-like luminous incandescent gases, a rare phenomenon also a consequence of the dramatic event.
Over time, they evolved into an entirely robotic civilization that still worships its creators as if they were ancient gods.
In recent times new explorers have just arrived and new ancient outer dialogues evoke a new Odyssey between strange civilizations!
Arkhoot It is a gigantic bionic machine that excavates and extracts the planet's minerals.
Poem.
A myriad of lochans and pools
interspersed with drumlins, roche moutonée, erratic boulders,
islets and peaty bog.
This vast, wet, boggy expanse indicates cataclysmic change.
Not by humans.
Not by animals.
Not even by glaciers.
(though several will have merged here, many times).
No, it was by that thing that we are conditioned to think
started in the 19th. century and still exists today…..
Climate change.
A very wet period drowned the native Scots Pine and this steaming bog is all that remains of a once vast forest.
Here at sunrise, the mist rises, as the sun’s rays catch the peaks.
A mystical, ancient, primeval, ethereal feeling catches one’s imagination.
Rannoch Moor rarely fails to amaze and entrance!
We participated in a hike in the Palouse River Canyon sponsored by the Ice Age Floods Institute. Rain was heavy during the early part of the hike. The group sought shelter in Porcupine Cave. Lloyd Stoess and Gene Kiver are seen here lecturing us about the geology and archeologic significance of this cave and the surrounding area. The cave is thought to have been primarily used for food storage by early humans. Radiocarbon dating of artifacts from nearby Marmes Rock Shelter reveal human occupation of the area 10,000 years ago.
Caves in the canyon walls were formed by the wave action of cataclysmic ice age floods 12 to 15,000 years ago.
I never envisioned this image. It came to a life (or death) of its own when I began experimenting with filters and blending options in Photoshop. This image was taken inside a shopping mall in Calgary, Canada, and became something futuristic and cataclysmic.
Wizard Island was created after Mount Mazama, a large stratovolcano, erupted violently approximately 7,700 years ago, forming the caldera which now contains Crater Lake. Following the cataclysmic caldera-forming eruption, which left a hole about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) deep where the mountain had once stood, a series of smaller eruptions over the next several hundred years formed several cinder cones on the caldera floor. The highest of these cones, and the only one to rise above the current lake level, is that of Wizard Island, which rises over 2,700 feet (820 m) above the lowest point on the caldera floor and the deepest point in the lake.
Ha Long Bay Viet Nam at the start of the Wuhan shutdowns in February 2020. A normally bustling touring scene became deserted. Vietnam was one of the very first to shut the border with China and other countries (especially China!) and perhaps the one country that came out best in terms of infection and deaths, given its population of close to 90 mio people.
The Vietnamese have learned to deal with this this from long hard experience. They do, after all, share a border with China. Despite both having Communist regimes, there is no love lost between the two countries.
I felt very sorry for all the people whose livelihoods were affected by the cataclysmic drop in tourism. The poor became even poorer and more desperate.
Kodak Retina IIIC, Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon 50mm f/2
Kodak Tri-X @ EI 800
XTOL 1+0, 8 mins @ 20C (6th use of 1L)
Epson V800
Supernova SN 2020 jfo
SN 2020jfo was discovered (not by me!) on 6th May 2020 and is a core collapse Type II supernova. In a few months it will probably be too dim to see.
Apart from the Big Bang, supernova explosions are the most cataclysmic events in the Universe, often leading to the formation of a black hole.
The galaxy M61 and supernova SN 2020 jfo are 52 million light years distant.
Every other star in the image is right back here, in our own Milky Way galaxy.
110 minutes exposure
18 frames @ 367 sec.
2020-05-24
Sharjah soil and landscape.
The Rub' al Khali is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometres including parts of Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It is part of the larger Arabian Desert. One very large pile of sand!!!
The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide. Its surface elevation varies from 800 metres (2,600 ft) in the southwest to around sea level in the northeast. The terrain is covered with sand dunes with heights up to 250 metres (820 ft), interspersed with gravel and gypsum plains. The sand is of a reddish-orange color due to the presence of feldspar. There are also brackish salt flats in some areas, such as the Umm al Samim area on the desert's eastern edge. Along the middle length of the desert there are a number of raised, hardened areas of calcium carbonate, gypsum, marl, or clay that were once the site of shallow lakes.
These lakes existed during periods from 6,000 to 5,000 years ago and 3,000 to 2,000 years ago. The lakes are thought to have formed as a result of "cataclysmic rainfall" similar to present-day monsoon rains and most probably lasted for only a few years. Evidence suggests that the lakes were home to a variety of flora and fauna. Fossil remains indicate the presence of several animal species, such as hippopotamus, water buffalo, and long-horned cattle. The lakes also contained small snails, ostracods, and when conditions were suitable, freshwater clams. Deposits of calcium carbonate and opal phytoliths indicate the presence of plants and algae.
There is also evidence of human activity dating from 3,000 to 2,000 years ago, including chipped flint tools, but no actual human remains have been found. The region is classified as "hyper-arid", with typical annual rainfall of less than 3 centimetres (1.2 in). Daily maximum temperatures average at 47 °C (117 °F) and can reach as high as 51 °C (124 °F). Fauna includes arachnids (e.g. scorpions) and rodents, while plants live throughout the Empty Quarter. As an ecoregion, the Rub' al Khali falls within the Arabian Desert and East Saharo-Arabian xeric shrublands. The Asiatic cheetahs, once widespread in Saudi Arabia, are regionally extinct from the desert.
Geologically, the Empty Quarter is one of the most oil-rich sites in the world. Vast oil reserves have been discovered underneath the sand dunes.[citation needed] Sheyba, at the northeastern edge of the Rub' al Khali, is a major light crude oil-producing site in Saudi Arabia. Ghawar, the largest oil field in the world, extends southward into the northernmost parts of the Empty Quarter.
For more photos related to soils and landscapes visit:
The lazily winding spiral arms of the spectacular galaxy NGC 976 fill the frame of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies around 150 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Aries. Despite its tranquil appearance, NGC 976 has played host to one of the most violent astronomical phenomena known – a supernova explosion. These cataclysmically violent events take place at the end of the lives of massive stars and can outshine entire galaxies for a short period. While supernovae mark the deaths of massive stars, they are also responsible for the creation of heavy elements that are incorporated into later generations of stars and planets.
Supernovae are also a useful aid for astronomers who measure the distances to faraway galaxies. The amount of energy thrown out into space by some types of supernova explosions is very uniform, allowing astronomers to estimate their distances from how bright they appear to be when viewed from Earth. This image – which was created using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 – comes from a large collection of Hubble observations of nearby galaxies which host supernovae as well as a pulsating class of stars known as Cepheid variables. Both Cepheids and supernovae are used to measure astronomical distances, and galaxies containing both objects provide useful natural laboratories where the two methods can be calibrated against one another.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-views-a-tr...
On bulgarian "Smradlivo" meaning smelly/stinky.
The largest alpine lake on the Balkan Peninsula – with area of 212 dca and depth of 24m.
The legend of the name of the lake - many years ago there was a cataclysm that had made much of the fish from the lake got discarded on the shore. After days the fish on the shore began to decompose and thats where the name came from.
The San Francisco Peaks are actually the remains of an extinct volcano. Millions of years ago this great mountain was shattered by an explosion similar to the one that devastated Washington's Mt. Saint Helens in 1980. Inside the now quiet caldera a lush alpine environment has blurred evidence of that cataclysmic event.
(text taken from the Coconino National Forest website)
So I go to Wal-Mart yesterday to do some shopping. I got a basket full of stuff and went to check out. There were only TWO check-out ladies working on a Saturday morning and about 15 of those self check-outs. I went to the self check-out with the shortest line. It turned out to be the 25 items or less line, but the lady in front of me had about 100. That didn't bother me because I too was over the limit.
If you haven't used these things, let me just tell you, they suck. It's a huge inconvenience. I mean, hell, they pay people to do this, they should give me a 10% discount for doing it myself, I think. And I always have problems. "Skip Bagging" is a message I get after every other item. If you don't drop your item into the bag from an elevation of about 3 feet, the little weigher doesn't register it. After 3 "skip bagging" messages, it locks up the machine and the lady, who looks after four of these self-check outs, has to enter a launch code or something to get it unlocked. And 75% of the time, she's assisting the other people, so you have to stand there and wait. Once again, it's a HUGE pain in the ass.
So after her 5th trip over to assist me, she has the gall to snidely say, "Next time remember this is 25 items or less line."
To which I respond, "Next time, make sure there are more check-out people working." I really wanted to follow that with the word, 'Bitch', but I think my tone expressed it very well. EVERY person at her four stations had well over 25 items, yet she singled me out. To me, that's like a cop seeing 10 cars speeding and only ticketing the one in the middle of the pack.
It really pissed me off, and for those of you that don't know me personally, it usually takes quite a bit to put me over the edge. I'm very mellow and easy going 99% of the time. My stress levels run WAY below normal. But this lady really said the wrong thing. I thought seriously about dumping my cart over and leaving.
The Cottonwood Wal-Mart has seen the last of my business. Hopefully this isn't a trend for Wal-Marts everywhere, because it really sucks ass.
The Burg Hohenzollern in south-eastern Germany is the ancestral seat of the Prussian royal house and Hohenzollern princes, its history intimately bound up with that of Germany’s 19th and 20th century past. It is hard not to gaze upon the statues of the Kaisers without thinking of the two cataclysmic world wars, the division of Germany into East and West, and the bleak divisions of the Cold War. Impressive as it is - an almost fairy-tale castle, from a distance, set like a crown upon its hill - there is an air of melancholy about it, too. Perhaps this was because of the grey, overcast weather, the day we visited, but it was also, in my mind at least, because of the history, the weight of the past.
Terre de deserts et de beauté où la vie parait insensée.Sensation de sentir naître notre planète ou de découvrir la renaissance de la vie après un cataclysme...Etranges impressions
Year 3320 of the Second Age—“Founding of Minas Ithil”
During the cataclysmic destruction of Númenor, a small group called the “Faithful” led by Elendil and his two sons, Anárion and Isildur, escaped the island in ships and sailed to old Númenórean settlements on the western coast of Middle-Earth. They soon established the twin kingdoms of Gondor in the south and Arnor in the north, inhabited by the Faithful and other men allied with their cause from Middle-Earth. The city of Minas Ithil was established at the foothills of the Ephel Dúath, or Mountains of Shadow, forming the western border of Mordor, to defend Gondor from Sauron. In its prime, Minas Ithil was said to be filled with silver light from moonlight causing its walls to gleam silver and white, truly a magnificent sight to behold and a beacon of hope harkening back to the glory of the bygone cities of Númenor. This city was later captured by Sauron, marking the beginning of the War of the Last Alliance, was recaptured afterwards, and was retaken by the Nazgûl in the latter half of the Third Age.
Be sure to follow all the builders tagged and stay tuned for the next episode by Roanoke Handybuck on Flickr coming out next Wednesday! We would also like to sincerely thank Blaine’s World @blaines_world_lego for sponsoring our collaboration!
This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope revisits the Veil Nebula, which was featured in a previous Hubble image release. In this image, new processing techniques have been applied, bringing out fine details of the nebula’s delicate threads and filaments of ionized gas.
To create this colorful image, observations were taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 instrument using five different filters. The new post-processing methods have further enhanced details of emissions from doubly ionized oxygen (seen here in blues), ionized hydrogen, and ionized nitrogen (seen here in reds).
The Veil Nebula lies around 2,100 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), making it a relatively close neighbor in astronomical terms. Only a small portion of the nebula was captured in this image.
The Veil Nebula is the visible portion of the nearby Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant formed roughly 10,000 years ago by the death of a massive star. That star – which was 20 times the mass of the Sun – lived fast and died young, ending its life in a cataclysmic release of energy. Despite this stellar violence, the shockwaves and debris from the supernova sculpted the Veil Nebula’s delicate tracery of ionized gas – creating a scene of surprising astronomical beauty.
The Veil Nebula is also featured in Hubble’s Caldwell Catalog, a collection of astronomical objects that have been imaged by Hubble and are visible to amateur astronomers in the night sky.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Z. Levay
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
Follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Find us on Instagram
Wizard Island is one of the most interesting features on the lake itself. This classic volcanic cinder cone was formed some time after the cataclysmic eruption of Mt. Mazama which formed the caldera. It was formed by the buildup of hot cinders which were ejected from the floor of the caldera some time after Mt. Mazama collapsed. The oldest trees on the island are about 800 years old, so it probably did not rise above the surface of the lake before that time.
This is a view of Wizard Island, the gorgeous blue waters of the caldera lake and the surrounding caldera walls as taken from a great vantage point on the scenic Crater Lake's Rim Drive. Oregon, USA..
Crater Lake is a caldera lake located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and famous for its deep blue color and water clarity. The lake partly fills a nearly 1,958 foot (597 m) deep caldera[1] that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago[2] by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. [...].
The Klamath tribe of Native Americans, who may have witnessed the collapse of Mount Mazama and the formation of Crater Lake, have long regarded the lake as a sacred site. Their legends tell of a battle between the sky god Skell and Llao, the god of the underworld. Mount Mazama was destroyed in the battle, creating Crater Lake. The Klamath people used Crater Lake in vision quests, which often involved climbing the caldera walls and other dangerous tasks. Those who were successful in such quests were often regarded as having more spiritual powers. The tribe still holds Crater Lake in high regard as a spiritual site.[15][16]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake
[...]. After Mt. Mazama blew up its summit in a cataclysmic eruption 7700 years ago, the old lava flow was left as the Watchman (as featured in my previous image www.flickr.com/photos/artsylens/4024564572/in/set-7215760... ), a crest on the gaping caldera's rim. Since then the caldera has sprouted a cinder cone (Wizard Island) and gradually filled with water.
www.oregon.com/Hike_Watchman_View_Point
Captured with my Samsung SmartPhone. No PP.
Have a great week and thanks for visiting. HMB!
PHOTO OF THE PRINT BY HAMID:
Bahram Gur in the Turquoise Pavilion, from Khamsa of Nizami; Ink, colors, silver and gold on paper.
1524-25, Present day Afghanistan. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N. Y. USA
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī (Persian: جلال الدین محمد بلخى), also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (Persian: جلالالدین محمد رومی), and popularly known as Mowlānā (Persian: مولانا) but known to the English-speaking world simply as Rumi[1] (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century Persian[2][3][4][5] poet, jurist, theologian, and sufi mystic.[6] Rūmī is a descriptive name meaning "the Roman" since he lived most of his life in an area called Rūm because it was once ruled by the Byzantine Empire.[7]
It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed Rumi's life. Shams had traveled throughout the Middle East searching and praying for someone who could "endure my company". A voice said to him, "What will you give in return?" Shams replied, "My head!" The voice then said, "The one you seek is Jalal ud-Din of Konya." On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. It is rumored that Shams was murdered with the connivance of Rumi's son, 'Ala' ud-Din; if so, Shams indeed gave his head for the privilege of mystical friendship.[4]
Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of music, dance, and lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus. There, he realized:
Why should I seek? I am the same as
He. His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself![23]
For more than ten years after meeting Shams, Mawlana had been spontaneously composing ghazals (Persian poems), and these had been collected in the Divan-i Kabir or Diwan Shams Tabrizi. Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favorite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. One day, the two of them were wandering through the Meram vineyards outside Konya when Hussam described to Rumi an idea he had had: "If you were to write a book like the Ilāhīnāma of Sanai or the Mantiq ut-Tayr of 'Attar, it would become the companion of many troubadours. They would fill their hearts from your work and compose music to accompany it." Rumi smiled and took out a piece of paper on which were written the opening eighteen lines of his Masnavi, beginning with:
Listen to the reed and the tale it tells,
How it sings of separation...[24]
Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next twelve years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill; he predicted his own death and composed the well-known ghazal, which begins with the verse:
How doest thou know what sort of king I have within me as companion?
Do not cast thy glance upon my golden face, for I have iron legs.[25]
Rumi died on 17 December 1273 in Konya; his body was interred beside that of his father, and a splendid shrine, the Yeşil Türbe (Green Tomb, قبه الخضراء; today the Mevlana Museum), was erected over his place of burial. His epitaph reads:
When we are dead, seek not our tomb in the earth, but find it in the hearts of men.[26]
Rumi was born in the Iranian north eastern province of Khorasan in the city of Balkh (now in Afghanistan), the hometown of his father's family. Some scholars, however, argue that he may have been born in Wakhsh,[8] a small town located at the river Wakhsh in what is now Tajikistan. Wakhsh belonged to the larger province of Balkh, and in the year Rumi was born, his father was an appointed scholar there.[8] Both these cities were at the time included in the Greater Persian cultural sphere of Khorasan, the easternmost province of historical Persia,[9] and were part of the Khwarezmian Empire.
His birthplace[9] and native language[10] both indicate a Persian heritage. Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorasan, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by Bahā ud-Dīn Walad (Rumi's father)[11] or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm,[12] his father decided to migrate westwards. Rumi's family traveled west, first performing the Hajj and eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya (capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, now located in Turkey). This was where he lived most of his life, and here he composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature which profoundly affected the culture of the area.[13]