The truth will set you free... We've all heard it, even if you don't read the scriptures. It was always such a difficult concept for a man who always thought he had something to hide. Even when I got busted, I only told enough truth to sound believable. With so many (what should be) wake up calls, I should have figured out a long time ago how far my life was off track. With age comes wisdom along with painful memories that make you feel like your head is about to explode like an atom bomb.

 

A year ago today, I man knocked on my door in the middle of the night with a driving intent to expose me as liar and a fraud. The man was highly successful in doing so. As I lied on the couch that night, to distraught to sleep, I knew that this was officially the end of my life as I knew it. My wife gave me many second chances in the past and I have broken her #1 commandment and what little trust she had left in me at that point.

 

The next day, I spilt the beans and dropped a truth bomb bigger than the aforementioned atom bomb with a nothing left to lose mind-frame. After all, I have just lost my wife and kids and I was ready for death. That day changed my life, which obviously wasn't over yet.

 

I had made poor choices and had to accept the consequences. There was very little glimmer of hope left in my marriage, but hey, I just dumped a huge burden off my back when I came clean. I actually had a good feeling in my core and a sense of rebirth. It was comforting, amongst the chaos around me.

 

This was a time of praying like I've never prayed before and crying till I was almost dehydrated. I've seen my family in a new light and refused to give up. I showed her and the world that I will never give up on her and she never gave up on me. Every question I received from her was answered in truth no matter the pain it would cause.

 

On February 14, 2015, we renewed our vows and she finally accepted her rings again. Life has turned around for me in the past year. It certainly hasn't been easy, but we'll worth the trip. I haven't always been 100% up front, but I never let my convictions go unnoticed.

 

I've lost relationships that I thought mattered, and gained new ones that really do. I've opened up to people I don't even know, and people I don't even trust. I am 27 lbs lighter and at 32, I am in the best shape of my life. I am no longer pre-hypertension. This year I've run a 10k and a half marathon and ran +200 miles and biked +500 miles so far. I've been addiction free and am committed to bettering myself and my relationships, especially with my family.

 

People can change, as I have. Never count someone out, or more importantly, yourself. People may be out to destroy you, but that will provide the motivation to not only survive but thrive. Love your friends, love and pray for your adversaries, and above all, be true to yourself and to others.

 

God bless.

The other Europe with Tsipras -L' altra europa con Tsipras- η άλλη Ευρώπη με τον Τσίπρα

............................................................................................................................

done for Working Towards a Better World ❤️ WTBW ❤️

 

Angela Merkel said:

The willingness to learn new skills is very high

 

Politicians have to be committed to people in equal measures

 

When it comes to human dignity, we cannot make compromises

......................................................................................................................

  

Notional sun of justice

and you glorifying myrtle

don’t please don’t

forget my homeland! (poetry by Odysseas Elytis)

 

Της δικαιοσύνης ήλιε νοητέ

και μυρσίνη εσύ δοξαστική

μη παρακαλώ σας μη

λησμονάτε τη χώρα μου (ποίηση : Οδυσσέας Ελύτης)

......................................................................................................................

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrjP1VDeY

Committed to the drop.

NEW JERSEY’S BALD EAGLE POPULATION CONTINUES TO SOAR

January 14th, 2016

 

CONSERVE WILDLIFE FOUNDATION OF NEW JERSEY RELEASES RESULTS OF 2015 STATE BALD EAGLE REPORT

 

by Lindsay McNamara, Communications Manager

 

Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey today released the 2015 Bald Eagle Report, highlighting the number of nesting pairs, active nests and nest productivity for the raptors throughout New Jersey with data collected by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of Fish and Wildlife biologists, CWF biologists and committed volunteers.

 

“With 161 pairs of bald eagles this past year — up from just a single nest in the early 1980’s — the dramatic ongoing recovery of bald eagles across the northeast continues to inspire so many of us,” said David Wheeler, Conserve Wildlife Foundation Executive Director. “The thrill of seeing a bald eagle fly across the sky is unparalleled. This report captures how these eagles are continuing their All-American return.”

 

The report notes that thirteen new eagle pairs were found this season, nine in the south, two in Central Jersey and two in Northern New Jersey.

 

For more info: www.conservewildlifenj.org/blog/2016/01/14/new-jerseys-ba...

This lone bird has committed to join flock feeding on the flattened corn is this field. Lots of flight action occurs in the early morning and late evening hours. The birds here are in continual movement between their feeding grounds and roost areas. Many flights are singles like with this bird, but they also often travel on short hops in small groups. The larger gatherings are generally for the intended longer flights or, perhaps when the entire feeding flock is spooked by something like a coyote attack.

 

IMG_9094; Sandhill Crane

Zofiówka Sanatorium is a defunct mental health facility in the town of Otwock in Poland, built at the beginning of the 20th century. In the Second Polish Republic, the sanatorium complex was expanded with more buildings and staff. Zofiówka initially had 95 beds, but this number had increased to 275 by 1935. The Jewish history of Zofiówka has come to its tragic end in the course of the Holocaust following the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany.

 

Construction

 

The history of the old Jewish sanatorium starts at the beginning of the 20th century. Back then, the institutionalized treatment of mental disorders was in its infancy. In 1906, Polish-Jewish neurologists Adam Wizel, Samuel Goldflam, Ludwik Bregman and Adolf Weisblat formed the "Society for Poor Jews with Nervous and Mental Illnesses" (Polish: Towarzystwo Opieki nad Ubogimi, Nerwowo i Umysłowo Chorymi Żydami). The sanatorium's director was Dr. Stefan Miller.A year later, a donation by the philanthropist Sophia Endelman enabled the purchase of 17 hectares of land and in 1908 the first building of a new sanatorium was built by the association there. An important part of the treatment was restoring patients to society by enabling them to practice employment. In its isolation ward (part of the hospital reserved for the most difficult patients), the mother of famous Polish poet, Julian Tuwim, Adela Tuwim was placed before World War II.

 

Holocaust history

 

In late 1940, the asylum fell within the so-called ‘medical zone’ formed by the Germans in the newly established Jewish ghetto of Otwock. The institution was still working during the early stages of the occupation of Poland, but the conditions dramatically worsened. Almost 400 patients were sentenced to a slow and torturous death by starvation as part of the Nazi extermination Aktionen. Zofiówka ended its existence at the same time as ghetto in Otwock.

  

On the morning of 19 August 1942, the Ukrainian Trawnikis supervised by the Germans, gathered the patients and the hospital crew in the first pavilion. Some 100-140 victims were shot on the spot, the rest were put on the Holocaust train to Treblinka along with Otwock’s Jewish population of 7,000.[2] Only a few doctors, who managed to escape to Warsaw by ambulance, survived. Some of the staff people committed suicide. In 1943 Zofiówka served Germans as Lebensborn, the institution of charity care. The facility also dealt with the Germanization of Polish children, and bringing them up for adoption to families in Germany.

 

After World War II

 

Zofiówka returned to its original medical purposes after the Soviet takeover, but patients were mainly children and young people. Between 1985 and mid 90’s, the facility was used in treating neuropsychiatric disorders associated with drug addiction. This continued on until the decision was made to finally close it.

 

In 2015, the Internet viral video called 11B-X-1371 was found to have been filmed at the abandoned facility, though by whom and when, exactly, are not known.

Well I tried to do some Portraits of this group this year, and I did them in B&W as it fits their motif. This is my first time doing a portrait session like this, so I am grateful for the chance to do this.

 

Strobist info:

ISO 200

f 4

Shutter 1/10th

Ambient light to the right, a Canon 480 EXII flash to the left with a Firefly Softbox fired using a Hahnel Trigger.

BASICS: Nevada Youth Training Center, Elko, NV. Rated at 110 beds. At time of visit there were 91 kids there, all male. NYTC is a rural facility, with 30-25 acres next to the highway. Average length of stay is 6.5 months. Levels are defined by uniforms. The kids are taken out to clear trails in Lemoille canyon. The director, Joe Payne, says they love it.

 

PICTURED: youths lining up to go to lunch in a cafeteria. The orange jumpsuits designate flight risks.

I was committed to taking members of my family to Weymouth today but did warn that I may want to go out to do some rail images beforehand. RTT's description of this intrigued me enough to venture out after my daytime sleep. I was initially disappointed by this but then thought it not a normal sight for this location.

Stagecoach have committed 50 buses to the Open Championship at Muirfield. Large fields are used as car parks and Stagecoach provide the shuttle service to Muirfield . In addition Drem Station car park becomes a bus station for the week of the event. The operation seems to run very smoothly with all the Stagecoach staff in good spirits and even the odd barbecue set up for lunch ( a few of the drivers had singed eyebrows) Stagecoach seem to rise to these occasions and the old Olympians sounded great even the scruffy ones. Well done Stagecoach .

The wooden bangle like ornament worn on the feet of the Indian tribal lady or Lambadi. It symbolizes the woman is taken or committed.

Committed to expired Fujifilm Superia 100 using a Leica M6 and 28 mm Summicron ASPH lens. Developed using a C-41 kit from Ars-Imago and scanned using an Epson V850 using Silverfast. Positive conversion, colour and levels done with Negative Lab Pro.

This was never up for debate. Colleen and I knew as soon as I committed to buying Wild About Babysitting Fernessa, that we HAD to get the entire line. It's an unofficial line, you could say. Only Emberly and Roaralai are advertised with each other. But as they are all branded "Wild About," I would say it's fair to consider them a set. Tella could also be paired with the sleepover themed dolls, despite the fact that they are named something entirely different. I'm not sure if there is a version of her truly called "Stellar Sleepover," as I've seen stock images labeled as such online. But stock photos can be wrong, and my doll was labeled Wild About. Anyways, the concept of these gals being marketed with mini playsets and loads of accessories is so up my alley. Fernessa is the very reason I even got into collecting Cave Club dolls in the first place. Up until the day I laid eyes on her at Target after Christmas 2020, I always overlooked these dolls. She was my "gateway" dolly in that way, and she is responsible for the entire line (and all my other Cave Club friends) becoming part of the family. I would say she's my favorite from this set...but boy does she have steep competition. Both Colleen and I agree that Emberly has the coolest accessories. We both have a strangely strong affinity towards doll food. Likewise, Colleen has a pull towards sleepover dolls (as do I, but more so her), and I was always into the pet related ones. Thus why Wild About Cats and Wild About Sleepovers were so appealing. These four sets merge my major loves when it comes to dolls: food, babies, pets, and sleepovers. All they need now is to make a beach themed set and a school themed one, and my life will be complete! The quality and design elements of these sets are spot on. In fact, for their retail prices of $20 to $25, they were a better deal than their Monster High predecessors. Monster High dolls that retailed in the same range came with what, a pet and a bag....way lame compared to ALL these goodies. I also managed to snag all my gals, minus Tella, via the Amazon Warehouse for closer to $15 each. Banged up packaging = discounts for Shelly = more dollies!!! These dolls will forever be some of my favorites from the Cave Club line. They are perfection. I guess you could say I'm wild about the Wild About dolls!

 

Dolls in photo, from left to right:

-2019 Wild About Cats Roaralai

-2019 Wild About Babysitting Fernessa & Furrah

-2019 Wild About BBQs Emberly

-2020 Wild About Sleepovers! Tella

A mountain goat kid makes a daring leap across a divide in Badlands National Park. He made it but just barely. He landed on the small outcropping I noted, lost his grip and almost didn't make it. A collective gasp was let out by the dozen or so photographers that saw it. But he regained his footing and jumped to where the other kid is walking.

Family Church is on mission to make disciples of Jesus in the places where we live, work and play. We are continuing a legacy of people committed to taking the gospel—the good news that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and raised from the dead—to the ends of the earth.

 

We were founded as the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach in 1901 when there were fewer than 1,000 people living in the city. A small group met first in a home, then in the city’s reading room and then in a donated building on Clematis Street. As the church grew, we changed location and acquired buildings and property to accommodate the growth. Our current downtown worship center was built in the year 1965. Over the years, buildings have come and gone but our church has reinvented herself to continue spreading the gospel in South Florida.

 

This mission is more important now than ever before. There are an estimated 1.4 million people in Palm Beach County and 96% of them remain unconnected to God and His church. When Pastor Jimmy Scroggins came as our Lead Pastor in 2008, he brought to us a vision to plant 100 neighborhood churches. We want to more effectively go out to reach people rather than expecting them to come to us.

 

We are growing as a multicultural, multigenerational and multisite church. The name “Family Church” incorporates this vision and has allowed us to plant campuses across Palm Beach County and beyond. Our church planting residency program trains bi-vocational campus pastors as well as other pastors and ministry leaders in areas such as worship, assimilation, adults, students, kids and operations. These men and women are planting churches all over South Florida—turning a vision into a reality.

 

Each Family Church campus has been launched by a group of courageous individuals who are willing to go and make disciples. God raised up our first church plant, Family Church Abacoa in October 2010, out of a partnership between Family Church Downtown and Central Baptist Church. Our first Spanish-speaking campus, Iglesia Familiar Downtown, was launched in January 2011 and expanded in April 2014 when we partnered with Centro Familiar Cristiano to form Iglesia Familiar Greenacres. We are intentionally reaching out to the fastest-growing demographic in our area — those whose heart language is Spanish.

 

Family Church West was launched in October 2013 to reach our western communities, and Family Church Sherbrooke joined them to the south in October 2014. Then in March 2015, believing they would be better together, Family Church Abacoa partnered with Palm Beach Community Church to become Family Church Gardens. Continuing to pursue the vision of planting 100 neighborhood churches, Family Church Gardens launched the first Family Church “grandbaby,” Family Church Jupiter, in October 2015. We all partnered with the Church in The Farms and Harvest Bible Chapel in October 2016 to launch Family Church in The Farms.

 

God is still writing our story. There is no master plan other than His. We constantly challenge each other to be His ambassadors, joining God in the work He is doing to reconcile broken people to Himself. At each campus, we are committed to teach the Bible, build families and love our neighbors. We are on mission to be the church OUT THERE, helping people discover and pursue God’s design.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

gofamilychurch.org/story/

Committed to expired Kodak Ektachrome 100 using a Hasselblad 503CX and 100 mm f3.5 lens. Developed using an E6 kit from Ars-Imago and scanned using an Epson V850 using Silverfast.

. . viewed over the Temple of Apollo, as the first large group of the day (students from France) arrives. Delphi was excavated by French archaeologists, and is still popular with groups from that country.

 

The cliffs are formed from a dark Jurassic limestone which catches the light of the midday sun in a particular way - hence their name.

 

It is said that those who committed sacrilege against the sanctuary were flung from these cliffs.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaedriades

 

committed in the shed over the past week have resulted in much shuffling and much painting :)

 

rambled

Since 9/11 the number of crimes committed daily by America's corporations & politicians has increased so dramatically that no one - & no single agency - is able to feel adequately informed. During this era of runaway mob scheming & proliferation I've read 25 & usually more serious news articles daily, which is the minimum number that must be examined & absorbed to enable more than a glimmer of the magnitude & scope of the criminality.

 

In the early months of George W. Bush's institutionalization of Federal Government as Mob Operation it was apparent that the people of the nation were under the spell of a psychopathic cult leader who, unlike the usual religious con men - say, Jim Jones, David Koresh, L. Ron Hubbard, Ayn Rand or the convicted felon, Joseph Smith - had at his disposal & command the whole vast apparatus of the empire's instruments for social control, including the police, army, legal system, churches, news press & television media. And of course the oligarchs & their executives (Bush's peers by birthright) were anxious to steal all that they could while the taking was easy ... & very easy it became, & very easy it still is.

 

Habeas corpus was taken away from us, as was posse comitatus. The Watergate criminal, ex-Admiral John Poindexter, was appointed to create Total Information Awareness, a DARPA program designed to spy on all citizens at all hours, which when public outcries arose against it was disbanded but instantly replaced here & there in various other government agencies, such as the CIA & NSA, in which agencies it grew like flies multiplying in a dung heap, as indeed it continues to do, most recently with drones supplied to local police forces, able to identify & track a milk carton from 60,000 feet above the earth. Again, under Mob Boss Bush, the capitalists joined in, & we became & are still spied upon by our telephone & internet servers, & banks, which collect & dispense the history of our once private individual activities & behaviors from birth to our death. Cameras serving police record our passage from Starbuck's to Sears. Like all people caught up in cults, we came to believe that all of this is as it must & should be, & we silently conform to it, as do trained dogs to their masters.

 

The deep function of what has happened is this: The wages we receive & the taxes we pay must all be instantly given up to the superrich. Our physical health is a commodity owned by the superrich, not us. Likewise, our welfare is owned by the aristocrats, not by us. In a few short years, for instance, student debt was made to exceed the nation's credit card debt - our children, in other words, were sold into debt peonage, & this is enforced by new law that says the children must pay it even after filing bankruptcy, & even in old age by garnishment from Social Security income. And of course there has been & will be no let up in the quest of the superrich to own Social Security, which surely they will in the near future unless a people's government is somehow - repeat, somehow - created.

 

As Thomas Frank has explained, a college graduate can no longer pursue his or her intellectual dream, such as becoming a teacher, artist or journalist committed to discovering & telling the truth, because student debt & laws enforcing payment compel immediate entrance into the empire's mainstream occupations, where the objectives to be pursued are the properties of others, not of oneself. Thus our children are now born into bonded servitude, for which on the whole wages are pitiful & increasingly buy little more than necessities.

 

All great institutions in the empire assure us that all of this criminality is necessary for two reasons: One, immensely determined evil external & internal personages are out to destroy our country, & we must surrender all of our civil rights & wealth in order to survive; & Two, alas alas, our nation has no money, & so must sell all of the people's assets & public services to the superrich. Well ... please, the first reason does not survive the briefest review of its merit, & let me not bother anyone with further words about it. And the second reason is equally preposterous, because the United States prints its own money, & under Obama did so to the tune of two trillion dollars given by the Federal Reserve to its clients, the big banks (which naturally did not, have not & will not do anything socially responsible with it). No economist who is committed to an understanding not of capitalist dogma, but rather to the truth of what was very well learned during & consequent to previous severe economic demand crises, such as the one we are now in, believes that 'shrinking government' is anything other than a vicious, irresponsible policy devised by & for the sole benefit of aristocrat thieves & their sociopathic politicians. Economics, after all, is a science, & as such its method & conclusions are dependent upon the collection & interpretation of empirical data, not any of which does in fact or in the least support shrinking government during a demand crisis. Indeed, the only agency known to be capable of or potentially possessed of the will to end such crises is a nation's government.

 

But all good sense is lost upon cultists, who will do anything to secure life in death, a clear clear E-meter reading, a galaxy to be an eternal god of with one's dead wife, morality in selfishness, up in down, straight in crooked, or - now - an American in Washington, DC (or in Dallas or Tombstone or any other city or town).

 

-----------

 

Hope Burning

 

Posted on May 30, 2012

 

By Robert Scheer

 

EXCERPTS: Obama as the cool triggerman is an image useful to White House operatives as they buff the president’s persona for the coming election. But what it reveals is the mindset of a political cynic whose seductive words cloak the moral indifference of a methodical executioner. Forget Harry Truman, who obliterated the civilian populations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or Lyndon Johnson, who carpet-bombed millions in Vietnam. The Democrats have got themselves another killer, one whose techniques are as devastatingly effective, but brilliantly refined.

The story obviously was planted in The New York Times to benefit the Obama political campaign.

 

.... Pfc. Bradley Manning was held for many months in solitary confinement for allegedly disclosing information of far lower security classification. The difference is that the top secrets in the news article are ones the president wants leaked in the expectation they will burnish his “tough on terrorism” credentials. This is clearly not the Obama whom many voted for in the hope that he would stick by his word, including the pledge he made on his second day in office to ban brutal interrogation and close the prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. “What the new president did not say was that the orders contained a few subtle loopholes,” the Times now reports concerning the early promises by Obama. “They reflected a still unfamiliar Barack Obama, a realist who, unlike some of his fervent supporters, was never carried away by his own rhetoric.”

Parse that sentence carefully to learn much of what is morally decrepit in our journalism as well as politics. The word “realist” is now identical to “hypocrite,” and the condemnation of immoral behavior addresses nothing more than “rhetoric” that only the “fervent” would take seriously. The Times writers all but thrill to the lying, as in recounting the new president’s response to advisers who warned him against sticking to his campaign promises on Guantanamo prisoners: “The deft insertion of some wiggle words in the president’s order showed that the advice was followed.”

 

Please Continue to Full Text: www.truthdig.com/report/item/hope_burning_20120531/

 

###

  

Committed to expired Fujifilm Provia 100 using a Konica Autoreflex T3 and 50 mm f1.4 lens. Developed using an E6 kit from Ars-Imago and scanned using an Epson V850 using Silverfast.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on authentic facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The Austrian Air Force in its current form was created in May 1955 by the victorious Allied powers, subject to restrictions on its use of guided missiles. The Austrian State Treaty of 1955 committed Austria to permanent neutrality. Pilot training started out with a four Yak-11 Moose and four Yak-18 Max aircraft donated by the Soviet Union, and Austria purchased further light trainer types under the Military Assistance Program. Until 1960 Austria purchased training and support aircraft under the MAP, but no modern fighter aircraft; the role of a fighter was rather inadequately filled by thirty already outdated Saab 29 Tunnan, bought second-hand from the Swedish Air Force in the early 1960s which equipped two fighter bomber squadrons.

 

To expand its capabilities and modernize the fleet, Austria purchased from 1970 on a total of 40 Saab 105 lightweight multi-role aircraft from Sweden with the intention to deploy them in trainer, reconnaissance, ground attack and even interception roles. As it became clear in the 1980s that the light sub-sonic aircraft were inadequate for air combat and airspace interdiction, Austria started looking for a more capable aircraft. In 1984, Austria had devised a two-phase solution to its problem: buying 30 interim aircrafts cheaply as a stopgap and then trading them back for a new generation aircraft in the early or mid-Nineties.

 

International response was quick and manifold: Bristol Aerospace offered initially ex RAF Jaguars to be replaced by Tornado F.3 or even Eurofighters; Saab-Scania offered between 24 and 30 former Royal Swedish Air Force J 35D Draken, followed by Saab J 39 Gripen as future substitutes; General-Electric suggested downgraded F-16/79 or F-16A for phase one and an option for the same aircraft in a more modern variant for phase two; Northrop’s numberF-5E was another alternative for phase one. Dassault was also present with refurbished Mirage III initially, followed by Mirage 2000.

 

Finding the most suitable option in this mass was not easy, and eventually a surprising deal materialized: In 1985 the contract for the sale of twenty-four Lightning F.56 fighters plus four T.55 trainers was signed by the SPÖ/FPÖ government under Fred Sinowatz. The background: Saudi Arabia had been operating thirty-four F.53 single-seaters and six T.55 trainers since 1967 and was about to retire its fleet, which was still in very good condition and with a reasonable number of flying hours left on many airframes. The aircraft would be refurbished directly at BAe in Great Britain with the option to switch to the Tornado ADV or its successor, the Eurofighter Typhoon, later.

 

The Lightning F.53 was an export version of the RAF’s F.6, but with a multi-role mission profile in mind that included, beyond the primary interceptor mission with guided missiles or internal guns, the capability to carry out interdiction/ground attacks and reconnaissance missions. To carry a suitable ordnance load, the F.53 featured additional underwing pylons for bombs or unguided rocket pods. Instead of the standard Firestreak/Red Top AAM missile station in the lower front fuselage, two retractable panniers with a total of forty-four unguided 50 mm rockets, which were effective against both ground and aerial targets, could be installed, or, alternatively, two camera packs (one with five cameras and another with a rotating camera mount) was available for tactical photo reconnaissance missions. Overwing hardpoints, adapted from the Lightning F.6, allowed to carry auxiliary fuel tanks to increase range/endurance, additional rocket pods or even retarded bombs.

The Lightning T.55 was also an export variant, a two-seat side-by-side training aircraft, and virtually identical to the T.5, which itself was based on the older F.3 fighter variant, and fully combat-capable.

 

The Saudi Arabian multi-role F.53s had served in the ground-attack and reconnaissance roles as well as an air defense fighter, with Lightnings of No. 6 Squadron RSAF carrying out ground-attack missions using rockets and bombs during a border dispute with South Yemen between December 1969 and May 1970. Saudi Arabia received Northrop F-5E fighters from 1971, which resulted in the Lightnings relinquishing the ground-attack mission, concentrating on air defense, and to a lesser extent, reconnaissance. Until 1982, Saudi Arabia's Lightnings were mainly operated by 2 and 6 Squadron RSAF (although a few were also used by 13 Squadron RSAF), but when 6 Squadron re-equipped with the F-15 Eagle from 1978 on, all the remaining aircraft were concentrated and operated by 2 Squadron at Tabuk. In 1985, as part of the agreement to sell the Panavia Tornado (both IDS and ADV versions) to the RSAF, the Lightnings were traded in to British Aerospace, returned to Warton for refurbishment and re-sold to Austria.

 

While the Saudi Arabian Lightnings’ hardware was in very good shape, the Austrian Bundesluftwaffe requested some modifications, including a different missile armament: instead of the maintenance-heavy British Firestreak/Red Top AAMs, the Lightnings were to be armed with simpler, lighter and more economical IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs which were already in the Austrian Air Force’s inventory. Two of these missiles were carried on single launch rails on the lower forward fuselage; an additional pair of Sidewinders could also be carried on the outer underwing stations, for a total of four. The F.53s’ optional retractable unguided rocket panniers were dropped altogether in favor of a permanent avionics bay for the Sidewinders in its place. However, to carry out tactical reconnaissance tasks (formerly executed by J 29Fs with a removable camera pod instead of the portside gun bay), four Austrian Lightnings frequently had one of the optional camera compartments installed, thereby losing the capability to deploy Sidewinders, though.

 

Among other things, the machines were furthermore upgraded with new bird strike-proof cockpit glazing, avionics were modernized, and several other minor customer requests were adopted, like a 0.6-megacandela night identification light. This spotlight is mounted in the former portside gun bay in front of the cockpit, and an anti-glare panel was added under the windscreen.

The fixed in-flight refueling probe was deleted, as this was not deemed necessary anymore since the Lightnings would exclusively operate within neutral Austria’s borders. The probes could, however, be re-installed, even though the Austrian pilots would not receive on-flight refueling training. The Lightnings' optional 260 imp gal overwing tanks were retained since they were considered to be sufficient for extended subsonic air patrols or eventual ferry flights.

 

The refurbished Lightnings were re-designated F.56 and delivered in batches of four between 1987 and 1989 to the Austrian Air Force’s 1st and then 2nd Fighter Squadrons, carrying a grey air superiority paint scheme. At that time, the airframes had between 1,550 and 2,800 flight hours and all had a general overhaul behind them. In 1991, the Lightings were joined by eighteen German ex-NVA-LSK MiG-23s, which were transferred to Austrian Air Force's ‘Fliegerwerft B’ at Nittner Air Base, where they'd be overhauled and updated with NATO-compatible equipment. As MiG-23Ö they were exclusively used as interceptors, too.

 

Shortly after their introduction, the Austrian Lightnings saw their first major use in airspace interdiction starting 1991 during the Yugoslav Wars, when Yugoslav MiG-21 fighters frequently crossed the Austrian border without permission. In one incident on 28 June a MiG-21 penetrated as far as Graz, causing widespread demands for action. Following repeated border crossings by armed aircraft of the Yugoslav People's Army, changes were suggested to the standing orders for aircraft armament.

 

With more and more practice and frequent interceptions one of the Lightning's basic flaws became apparent: its low range. Even though the Lightning had a phenomenal acceleration and rate of climb, this was only achieved in a relatively clean configuration - intercepting intruders was one thing but escorting them back to the Austrian border or an assigned airfield, as well as standing air patrols, were a different thing. With more tactical experience, the overwing tanks were taken back into service, even though they were so draggy that their range benefit was ultimately zero when the aircraft would use its afterburners during a typical interception mission. Therefore, the Austrian QRA Lightnings were typically operated in pairs: one clean and only lightly armed (typically with the guns and a pair of AIM-9s), to make a quick approach for visual intruder identification and contact, while a second aircraft with extra fuel would follow at high subsonic speed and eventually take over and escort the intruder. Airspace patrol was primarily executed with the MiG-23Ö, because it had a much better endurance, thanks to its VG wings, even though the Floggers had a poor service record, and their maintenance became ever more complicated.

 

After more experience, the Austrian Lightnings received in 1992 new ALR-45 radar detectors in a fairing on the fin top as well as chaff and flare dispenser systems, and the communication systems were upgraded, too. In 2004 the installation of Garmin 295 moving map navigation devices followed, even though this turned out to be a negligible update: on December 22, 2005, the active service life and thus military use of the Lightnings in general ended, and Austria was the last country to decommission the type, more than 50 years after the first flight of the prototype on August 4, 1954.

The Austrian Lightnings’ planned service period of 10 years was almost doubled, though, due to massive delays with the Eurofighter’s development: In 2002, Austria had already selected the Typhoon as its new “Phase II” air defense aircraft, having beaten the F-16 and the Saab Gripen in competition, and its introduction had been expected to occur from early 2005 on, so that the Lightnings could be gradually phased out. The purchase of 18 Typhoons was agreed on 1 July 2003, but it would take until 12 July 2007 that the first Typhoon would eventually be delivered to Zeltweg Air Base and formally enter service with the Austrian Air Force. This operational gap had to be bridged with twelve F-5E leased from Switzerland for EUR 75 mio., so that Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) duties for the Austrian airspace could be continued.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 1

Length: 55 ft 3 in (16.84 m)

Wingspan: 34 ft 10 in (10.62 m)

Height: 19 ft 7 in (5.97 m)

Wing area: 474.5 sq ft (44.08 m²)

Empty weight: 31,068 lb (14,092 kg) with armament and no fuel

Gross weight: 41,076 lb (18,632 kg) with two AIM-9B, cannon, ammunition, and internal fuel

Max takeoff weight: 45,750 lb (20,752 kg)

 

Powerplant:

2× Rolls-Royce Avon 301R afterburning turbojet engines,

12,690 lbf (56.4 kN) thrust each dry, 16,360 lbf (72.8 kN) with afterburner

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: Mach 2.27 (1,500 mph+ at 40,000 ft)

Range: 738 nmi (849 mi, 1,367 km)

Combat range: 135 nmi (155 mi, 250 km) supersonic intercept radius

Range: 800 nmi (920 mi, 1,500 km) with internal fuel

1,100 nmi (1,300 mi; 2,000 km) with external overwing tanks

Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)

Zoom ceiling: 70,000 ft (21,000 m)

Rate of climb: 20,000 ft/min (100 m/s) sustained to 30,000 ft (9,100 m)

Zoom climb: 50,000 ft/min

Time to altitude: 2.8 min to 36,000 ft (11,000 m)

Wing loading: 76 lb/sq ft (370 kg/m²) with two AIM-9 and 1/2 fuel

Thrust/weight: 0.78 (1.03 empty)

 

Armament:

2× 30 mm (1.181 in) ADEN cannon with 120 RPG in the lower fuselage

2× forward fuselage hardpoints for a single AIM-9 Sidewinder AAM each

2× underwing hardpoints for 1.000 lb (454 kg) each

2× overwing pylon stations for 2.000 lb (907 kg each),

typically occupied with 260 imp gal (310 US gal; 1,200 l) ferry tanks

  

The kit and its assembly:

This was another submission to the “Hunter, Lightning and Canberra” group build at whatifmodellers.com in 2022 and intended as a rather simple build since it was based on an alternate reality plot: the weird story that Austria was offered a revamped fleet of ex-Saudi Arabian Lightnings is true(!), but the decision eventually fell in favor of revamped Saab J 35Ds from Sweden. For this what-if build I used the real historic timeline, replaced the aircraft, and built both story and model around this – and the result became the BAC Lightning F.56 in Austrian Air Force service.

 

Initially I wanted to use an Airfix BAC Lightning in The Stash™, a really nice model kit and a relatively new mold, but it turned out to be the kit’s F.2A variant. While very similar to the F.6, changing it into a F.53 analogue with the OOB parts turned out to be too complex for my taste. For instance, the F.2A kit lacks the ventral gun bay (it just comes with the auxiliary tank option since the guns are already located in front of the cockpit) and the cable conduits on the lower flanks. Procuring a suitable and priceworthy Airfix F.6 turned out to be impossible, but then I remembered a Hasegawa Lightning F.6 in The Stash™ that I had shot at ev!lbay many moons ago for a laughable price and without a concrete plan. However, this kit is pretty old: it has raised (yet quite fine, less robust than the Matchbox kit) panel lines and even comes with a pilot figure, but also many weak spots like the air intake and the jet exhausts that end in flat walls after some millimeters depth and a very basic cockpit. But for this rather simple what-if project the kit appeared to be a suitable basis, and it would eventually find a good use.

 

The Hasegawa Lightning was basically built OOB, even though I made some cosmetic amendments like a better seat for the pilot, hydraulic fluid lines on the landing gear made from wire or opening the flat walls inside of the air intake opening and the jet nozzles. Behind the radome, a simple splitter plate was added as well as a recessed bulkhead in front of an implanted Me 262 cockpit tub (the Hasegawa kit just offers a bare floor panel, nothing else!), the afterburners were extended inwards with parts from a Matchbox A.W. Meteor night fighter.

 

The Red Top AAMs and the in-flight refueling probe were omitted. Instead, I added extra F.53-style forward-swept pylons under the outer wings, scratched from 1.5 mm styrene sheet due to their odd, raked shape, and I added Sidewinder launch rails plus suitable missiles from a Hasegawa air-to-air weapons set to all four stations. After long consideration I also retained the ‘overburger’ tanks, partly because of the unique layout on the Lightning, and also because of operational considerations.

Chaff dispensers were scratched from styrene profiles and placed at the fin’s base. A fairing for the retrofitted radar warning sensor was added to the fin tip, created from 1.5 mm styrene sheet.

  

Painting and markings:

To reflect the “alternate reality” role of the Lightning I gave the model a livery similar to the Saab J 35Ö that were actually procured: an adaptation of the USAF “Egypt One” scheme, carried primarily by the USAF F-16s. Adapting this simple three-tone camouflage from the flat F-16 to the Draken was easy and straightforward, but applying it to a Lightning with its many vertical surfaces turned out to be a tough challenge. I eventually came up with a paint scheme that reminds of the late RAF low-viz Lightning liveries, which existed in a wide range of patterns and graduations of grey.

 

The colors were authentic, FS 36118, 36270 and 36375 (using Humbrol 125, 126 and 127), and I decided to emphasize the camouflage of the flanks against the horizon, so that the vertical surfaces and the fin became FS 36270. The undersides of wings, stabilizers and fuselage became FS 36375. The dark FS 36118 was only applied to the upper sides of the wings and the stabilizer, and to a high dorsal section, starting at the wing roots. As a small contrast, the tank area on the spine was painted in light grey, simulating unpainted fiber glass. The radome was painted with a streaky mix of Humbrol 155 and 56.

 

As usual, the model received a light black ink washing, some post-panel-shading in lighter tones, and, due to the raised panel lines, was very lightly rubbed with graphite. The cockpit interior was painted in medium grey (Revell 47) with an olive drab fabric fairing behind the black pilot seat, which received ejection handles made from thin wire as eye candy. The landing gear and the respective wells were painted in Humbrol 56 (Aluminum Dope).

 

The decals are a wild mix: The fuselage roundels are actually wing markings from a Hasegawa J 35OE, as well as the huge orange "06" on the wings (I could not resist; they will later be partly obscured by the overwing tanks, but the heck with it!). The roundels on the wings come from a generic TL Modellbau sheet - I found that I needed larger markings than those on the Draken.

Both unit and individual aircraft identifiers are single black DIN font digits, also from TL Modellbau. The unit badges on the fin are authentic, even though from an earlier era: they came from an Austrian J 29 of Fliegerregiment 2 from a PrintScale sheet, and all stencils were taken from the OOB low-viz RAF markings sheet, plus four small warning triangles for the underwing pylons.

  

A ‘what-if’ model in the purest sense, since this model depicts what could really have been: ex Saudi-Arabian export BAC Lightnings over the Austrian Alps! However, refurbished Saab J 35D Draken made the race (and later followed by the Eurofighter Typhoon at ‘Stage 2’), so that this Lightning remains fictional. It does not look bad in the ‘Egypt One’ paint scheme, though, better than expected!

Ah! The infamous, Zipper! Meet California's most notorious criminal; one who goes above and beyond to fulfill his filthy duties, ranging from physical violence to downright thievery and, in many cases, murder! The thug-for-hire with direct connections to Eric Raymond and the Misfits. If you're not speaking green cha-ching, then you're not speaking his language. A complete louse when it comes to most criminal activity, Zipper always has one foot out the door and, when he fails a mission, two revved up and ready to dash. This snake constantly shows his love for dirty cash and also acts as the handler for Eric's underhanded affairs - examining, counting and stacking the figures all without a lick of common sense rattling around in his empty head. Zipper is a typical guttersnipe who craves danger, and he does not mind demonstrating such action as he did, when he crashed his way onto the scene, in 1985, during “The Beginning.” Ole' Zip committed his first crime against Jem and the Holograms one night by breaking into the Starlight Foster House with the intent to spook the Holograms, but the assignment ended in the fiery destruction of their home! As the smoke grew out of control, Zipper ran off avoiding charges for arson. His next attack went tick, tick, BOOM, in “Disaster”...um, need I say more?! Howard E. Sands gave Jerrica and the Holograms the greenlight to move into Starlight Mansion after the tragic loss of their foster house, and they explored every inch of the luxurious manor, alongside Rio who reminded them that the photographers for their special magazine layout on new Rock groups were waiting outside. A few seconds after the photogs arrival, the remaining members of their styling team had just walked through the security gates...and that's when Zipper made his move by appearing from inside the bushes, creeping along the steel gate, and slithering directly behind Jem's dream team with only his duffel bag and a pair of rad Ray-Ban shades to disguise his bloodshot eyes. The venomous cobra moved fast into the servants quarters where he unwrapped a 2-pack of dynamite and stashed them under the cushions of the couch, all while Jem and the Holograms were out front posing for their photoshoot. After destroying Howard's property, and not to mention endangering the lives of the Starlight girls who were still inside, Zipper waited for Eric to distract the news reporters by lying about the blast, and then he peeled out of there on foot. Life was beginning to look up for the pink-haired entertainer, during “Kimber's Rebellion”, and she had finally experienced her first taste of international fame. It's somewhat true that adventure equals danger, and trouble was carved in granite as Zipper worked side by side with Eric on a plan to follow the women to Paris to decimate their video shoot for “Twilight in Paris!” The second he arrived, he went HARD at trying to kill the Pop stars, first by striking out with his failed attempt to kidnap Kimber, and then batting a home run by dropping a statue of stone from 20 stories above down to the ground where the musicians were acting out a scene for video pioneer, Anthony Julian! When the menace of mayhem realized he had been spotted from below, he made a break for the airport and escaped Paris unscathed and unfazed. He had the hook-up in “Frame Up”, and left no room for mistakes. Following the direction of Eric, and with the help of the Misfits, he planted a safe full of money from both bands' Las Vegas concert inside Jem's tour bag. He then transferred the operation over to the Misfits who sent in the police to search her dressing room! Even though he's strictly a one-man show, Zipper works real well with two or more players as was the deal, in “Battle of the Bands”, when he teamed up with Eric's goons to hold Jem and the Holograms hostage at the old Starlight Drive-In, leaving the girls no choice but to forfeit the Battle of the Bands competition to the Misfits who swore that they were “Takin' it All!” Time was winding down and Jem's back was against the wall, but she wasn't going to allow those undeserving rockers to win by default, so she made a break for the exit and escaped. Primed for some good ole' rock 'em sock 'em action, Zipper chased her down on his motorcycle and dragged her back to the abandoned hideout! Then Jem did what came naturally; she held her star earring between her fingers and conjured up holographic illusions of wild tigers, exit doors, and an entire field full of police cars to psych him out. The illusions worked for a second, but once he realized they were false images, he proceeded to snatch Kimber by the arm and pull her back as she and the others tried to run away. Eventually, sirens and lights went off in the distance, and this time, there were NO holographic illusions to see as a REAL army of police cars arrived to the scene and arrested Zipper and his twisted cohorts. Los Angeles' infamous convict switched things up, in “The World Hunger Shindig”, after finally fleeing from the hard-knock life of mugshots, mushy food and cold jail cells, and deciding to dye his hair black to blend in with his surroundings. Now, with a darker, more mysterious appearance, he accepted his first assignment: to get rid of Jem and the Holograms! The next day of the Shindig, Jerrica felt that Jem deserved a break, so she joined her girls in an hour of outdoor activities with Sean Harrison, and spent a few minutes of relaxation in preparation for the big concert. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Sean was contacted over the phone to handle business, so he hopped on his horse and waved goodbye. Shortly after waving him off, the Pop superstars were ambushed by Zipper and his band of cowboys who appeared from the woods with scarves around their mouths, cowboy hats, and shotguns, and forced them to walk the trail of a ravine! Jerrica knew she needed to act promptly, so she and Kimber cooked up a topper that was sure to foil Zips plan. As they continued down the rocky path to their doom, Kimber suddenly fell to the ground and faked a foot injury, while Jerrica called on Synergy to project a flash flood that frightened the s**t out of Zipper and his pals, sending them running in the opposite direction with their tails between their legs. It pained him to call Eric on the phone and admit defeat, but he managed with a promise to take care of everything the night of the concert, at the Astrodome. Fans came pouring in from different countries and tumbled over to the ticket booth where the money-hungry maniac sat while skimming the booth off the books as fans paid him face to face for their tickets. He wanted to keep the cash close by, so he placed it all inside a suitcase and stored it deep within the vent in Eric's room. Well, it just so happened that Jem and the Holograms had escaped from a storage room that they were locked in by climbing out through the vent and crawling along the open shaft to safety. Eventually, they made their way past Eric's office where they overheard the two crooks discussing their part in stealing the proceeds and their plan to sabotage the Pop stars' performance. Jem wasted no time apprehending the suitcase of cash and followed the path all the way up to a trapdoor at the top of the stage where she and the Holograms stood awaiting their introduction from Synergy. Though heights weren't exactly his cup of tea (mixed with rum lol), Zipper didn't allow the situation to slow him down from getting what was due, so he moved as quick as a rat in pursuit of the doe and arrived at the same spot situated above the audience. As he peeked out from inside the vent, he actually tried to steal the money back from Jem by reaching over and grabbing the suitcase, but she used her foot to slide it over to where she stood. He wasn't concerned about being recognized until a spotlight from the stage shined on his face, proving that what you do in the dark will eventually come to light! Moving forward, Zipper was skating on thin ice, in “Last Resorts”, when Eric paid him to climb the tower of a ski lift to unhinge the bolts on the walking beam that supports the sheave wheels, at Rick Franklin's resort, just minutes before Jem and her band hopped aboard! The incident left Shana and Jem suspended from their seat and in fear for their lives! Then, on the day of the ski race, which was a competition Eric suggested to Rick pitting the Misfits against Jem and the Holograms, Zipper decided to decorate the top of a pine tree with HIMSELF so that he could send out one last signal below to his three troops, all of whom arranged a maze of accidents to prevent the girls from winning the race. You would think this time he'd have better luck escaping the avalanche of penalties or that maybe it missed him by a hair, but that would be simplicity at its finest, and he's not fortunate enough to afforded that luxury. As usual, the entire operation failed with Eric losing his resort to Rick, the silver he hid in a cave, and his pride! As for Zipper, he was wrangled up along with his three allies and then turned over to the boys in blue. With all his past troubles haunting him in California, it was now time for a change of scenery, so he traveled to Venice, Italy, free of charge...but it wasn't to take a vacation. Eric and the Misfits were already on their way over to compete in a Rock fashion contest and needed extra help to liberate the superstars of their prizewinning outfits. So Zipper packed his blue jumpsuit and combat boots to complete his work, but he didn't need them for his first attack, anyway, just a few extra bucks to pick up a disguise as an oarsmen and to rent a gondola, the same gondola that was expected to escort Shana across the water with her designs. He kept his eyes on the prize as the purple-haired percussionist entered the boat to take a seat. Then he swiped the long capsule that housed her work and bounced out of the boat and onto the next like a frog out of water, finally landing in the Misfits' speedboat where the capsule hit the clutch and sent all four offenders coasting on top of the water and back around to Shana's gondola, almost taking her out of more than just the competition! Eager for a breather, Zipper and the Misfits arrived at the hotel room and were pumped up from their heist. Zipper handed Pizzazz the cylindrical capsule with confidence that he achieved his goal of grand theft, but when she opened it, she discovered a few doodles that belonged to Starlight teen, Ashley, who later admitted to Shana and the others that she brought along her artwork to commingle with the star designer's portfolio of fashions. Eric huffed and puffed and blew his top, while Pizzazz quipped that he'd been duped. The situation didn't sit right with Zipper. Was he having an off day?! Was he not at the top of his game?! Whatever problem he had, he made sure not to dwell on it for too long because his second attempt was moments away and it required his lengthy rope and duffel bag, both of which he carefully packed. The goof then hoofed over to Countess Danielle du Voisin's palazzo, where Shana was staying, to burglarize her estate by hoisting himself to the top of the building, shimmying down through the skylight to grab all four outfits, then pulling himself back up again to the top of the roof. On his way back to the hotel, he covered a wide stretch of ground while grimacing madly with an ego the size of Alcatraz. The thought of getting away with such a pricey task of smash-n-grab was almost too exciting for his heart to handle. So one can only imaging how he felt when he realized that all of his hard work put forth was for nothing, and it was all on account of the Misfits who, in the end, lost the contest to Jem and her fab sisters. However, the excursion didn't turn out so bad for Eric whose trip to Italy was actually considered an overdue vacation. And with the large bonus Zipper received from his boss, he used half the money for tickets to Huey Lewis & the News' ‘86 concert tour. I do believe that's what you call a win-win lol! Barely a month had gone by “In Search of the Stolen Album”, and he was overcome with a strong desire to commit a crime. The timing couldn't have been better, either, because Eric needed assistance with gaining possession of Jem and the Holograms' master tape for their chart-topping smash hit, “There's a Melody Playing”, so that the Misfits could dub their own lyrics over the melody and bump them off the charts. Since his recent court case was still pending, Zipper was forced to operate incognito. So, once again, he threw on his hooded sweatsuit and sprinted over to Eric's low rent shack where he climbed through the window while ducking under a set of trashy blinds to find the self-proclaimed record producer sleeping on a flee-infested sofa! After Eric awoke from a deep slumber, he explained the lowdown on what he needed, and added that there would be a generous bonus cash reward for stealing the tape. Zipper's eyes circled swiftly like two slot machines, and with his lucky lasso wrapped around his body, he rolled like dice across town to Starlight Music Studios where he leaped through the back window, clicked on his flashlight, rustled the master tape, along with a pile of sheet music, dumped everything in his satchel, then vamoosed! Big, bad Pizzazz thought she covered her tracks, but Jem sure hit her where it hurt the most by driving to Flash Recording Studios and switching their master tapes. Shortly after, four major record companies were in line to hear the Misfits' so-called new album at a press conference inside Gabor Mansion, but the tape Jem replaced earlier that day was with a recording for French lessons instead. The false feeling of confidence was high and heavy in that room, but, after several interviews with the media, and posing for the cameras, the Misfits were left standing in disgrace lol! The cash bonus was enough to boast about to his fellow thugs, but to avoid additional charges and the slammer, Zipper quickly zipped out of sight. Another crime that he so proudly brags about occurred during “Hot Time in Hawaii”, when he trained the Misfits in the art of cheating for the Battle of the Music Stars competition, in Honolulu. Zipper promised the Misfits that they wouldn't have to do anything LEGAL to prepare for the contest. And that was the precise moment when he unveiled the special equipment he rigged for each Misfit, beginning with his first secret weapon: an electromagnetic switch on the handlebar of Roxy's bike that controlled a sharp drill from inside the spokes of her tires! He then supplied Pizzazz with a flexible, spring-poppin' pole that would catapult her as high as a palm tree for her pole vault competition. And Stormer was provided a pair of track shoes with booster springs attached to the outsoles. His dirtiest trick, however, went down during Kimber's swim practice in the ocean, when he attacked her with a fake metal shark that he controlled from the beach. He needed to keep her from competing in the freestyle and backstroke events, which she was sure to win, but he preferred wiping her clean out of the competition all together. So he cranked up the power on his controller and chased the talented keyboardist through the water, almost devouring her with his dangerous contraption! When she survived his test, he then turned to his usual hands-on approach by kidnapping her and placing her inside a live volcano! Back on the field, the crowd was treated to the Misfits' performance of prolific achievements in each event, but the entertainers slowly lost their grip during the tug of war competition, when Jem, Kimber and Shana gained leverage of the rope and sent them belly-flopping into the mud where they surfaced looking like three mini Chewbaccas lol! Zipper sensed trouble and began to haul a**, but before he knew it, he was tackled by the Holograms' training coach, Steve, and suffered a one-two straight to the face before taking a header into the mud bath with his three glamazons. More trouble awaited the four bamboozlers at the athletics office, where the Misfits were disqualified for cheating, and Zipper was apprehended and carted off to jail for kidnapping! Why Rio never snatched him by the throat early in the series beats the hell out of me. What I find most shocking, though, is the fact that he never appeared on America's Most Wanted, along with Clash lol! The most treacherous incidental character in Jem, bar none! However, it's a well-known fact that the incidental characters in the show are all very important to the story, each equipped with personality, emotion, and an overall purpose for existing. And when it comes to every incidental character who has EVER appeared in Jem, this monster here stands heads above the crowd, and that's no compliment! But again, every character is special in his/her own way and have all etched their mark in Jem history. Unfortunately, in this case, my sentiment does not exclude careered criminals. Having said that, I will go on record and admit that Zipper is absolutely essential to Jem! Not only was he present during the first season, but he was the sole reason for Jem's jump from small estate to the luxurious, mega Starlight Mansion. Now, while it's safe to say that he will not receive any accolades for his vile behavior anytime soon, there's one reasonable question that remains: Could he be considered the inner core of the show? After all, Zipper represents three important elements to Jem: action, adventure, and death-defying danger! He sure seems to cover the action-packed aspect all on his own, and his resumé (hit list) speaks for itself.

 

Zipper was never planned during the heyday of Jem, so it's real nice to have him now! Even though he has a limited bio and only appeared in a handful of episodes, I still feel that Integrity could have chosen a few dangerous items that he carries in the show and incorporated them with this set. That's my only problem with this doll and his set, there's not enough to go by, and it feels rather bland! On the other side of the token, I'm floored at the sight of him. Give me flocked black hair any day! It worked for Anthony Julian, and it works for Zipper as well. Initially, I was excited about his new face sculpt, so excited, in fact, that I keep lifting him up near my eyes to closely examine the details. His outfit surprised me from day one: black leather moto jacket with his trademark logo on the back, which is a great surprise! For myself, I'd say that the style of the pockets and the zipper (both wrists included) are my favorite features! Hell, just the fact that he actually has a black leather jacket excites me! Add his tight, white “grease lightning” Hanes teeshirt and blue Levi 501 denim jeans to the mix and you have a cross between Danny and Kenickie from Rydell High lol! Zipper's second outfit is a dark blue sweatsuit used for more suitable occasions, like ducking, diving, running, rolling, or rope-climbing up and down the glass structure of Starlight Music. And to do this successfully, he tightens the laces on his shiny black combat boots, provided inside, and wraps them three times around the boot itself in double knots. Integrity added a pair of dark socks with slippery material to make it easier when squeezing his feet inside his rugged footwear, because it's no easy task—believe that! Everything's perfect with this set. Having said that, I'm still in shock at the absence of his accessories! Sorry, but one item is bogus for a doll like this. Sure, the black rope was a nice addition, but a rather typical choice. Integrity's Design Team would have been better off throwing all caution to the wind and going BIG with his accessories, say, a set of binoculars, ransom note, floor plans and escape plans, or a flashlight, grappling hook, spiked bat, 2X4 of wood, gasoline can...oops, did I hint at too many bright ideas?!

 

In all honesty, I am extremely happy to see this man in doll form. No more pondering what he'd look like as a fashion doll because the real deal is here and he's fire! Zipper was one out of a few dolls on my wish list that I considered crucial to the entire doll line and, after the debut of Graphix, I was confident that he'd see the light of day. Besides, within the world of Jem, the villains are just as important as their rivals. So, despite his shortcomings, and record-breaking rap sheet, I'm honored to welcome this felon into my Jem and the Holograms/Misfits doll collection! ☠

July 16th. It's such a shame you're not allowed to do this to stroppy teenagers these days.

Stagecoach have committed 50 buses to the Open Championship at Muirfield. Large fields are used as car parks and Stagecoach provide the shuttle service to Muirfield . In addition Drem Station car park becomes a bus station for the week of the event. The operation seems to run very smoothly with all the Stagecoach staff in good spirits and even the odd barbecue set up for lunch ( a few of the drivers had singed eyebrows) Stagecoach seem to rise to these occasions and the old Olympians sounded great even the scruffy ones. Well done Stagecoach .

Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

 

The common starling (Sturnus vulgaris), also known as the European starling, or in the British Isles just the starling, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. It is about 20 cm (8 in) long and has glossy black plumage with a metallic sheen, which is speckled with white at some times of year. The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer; young birds have browner plumage than the adults. It is a noisy bird, especially in communal roosts and other gregarious situations, with an unmusical but varied song. Its gift for mimicry has been noted in literature including the Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare.

 

The common starling has about a dozen subspecies breeding in open habitats across its native range in temperate Europe and western Asia, and it has been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United States, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, the Falkland Islands, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, South Africa and Fiji. This bird is resident in southern and western Europe and southwestern Asia, while northeastern populations migrate south and west in winter within the breeding range and also further south to Iberia and North Africa. The common starling builds an untidy nest in a natural or artificial cavity in which four or five glossy, pale blue eggs are laid. These take two weeks to hatch and the young remain in the nest for another three weeks. There are normally one or two breeding attempts each year. This species is omnivorous, taking a wide range of invertebrates, as well as seeds and fruit. It is hunted by various mammals and birds of prey, and is host to a range of external and internal parasites.

 

Large flocks typical of this species can be beneficial to agriculture by controlling invertebrate pests; however, starlings can also be pests themselves when they feed on fruit and sprouting crops. Common starlings may also be a nuisance through the noise and mess caused by their large urban roosts. Introduced populations in particular have been subjected to a range of controls, including culling, but these have had limited success except in preventing the colonisation of Western Australia.

 

The species has declined in numbers in parts of northern and western Europe since the 1980s due to fewer grassland invertebrates being available as food for growing chicks. Despite this, its huge global population is not thought to be declining significantly, so the common starling is classified as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

  

Taxonomy and systematics

 

The common starling was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae in 1758 under its current binomial name. Sturnus and vulgaris are derived from the Latin for "starling" and "common" respectively. The Old English staer, later stare, and the Latin sturnus are both derived from an unknown Indo-European root dating back to the second millennium BC. "Starling" was first recorded in the 11th century, when it referred to the juvenile of the species, but by the 16th century it had already largely supplanted "stare" to refer to birds of all ages. The older name is referenced in William Butler Yeats' poem "The Stare's Nest by My Window". The International Ornithological Congress' preferred English vernacular name is common starling.

 

The starling family, Sturnidae, is an entirely Old World group apart from introductions elsewhere, with the greatest numbers of species in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The genus Sturnus is polyphyletic and relationships between its members are not fully resolved. The closest relation of the common starling is the spotless starling. The non-migratory spotless starling may be descended from a population of ancestral S. vulgaris that survived in an Iberian refugium during an ice age retreat, and mitochondrial gene studies suggest that it could be considered as a subspecies of the common starling. There is more genetic variation between common starling populations than between the nominate common starling and the spotless starling. Although common starling remains are known from the Middle Pleistocene, part of the problem in resolving relationships in the Sturnidae is the paucity of the fossil record for the family as a whole.

  

Subspecies

 

There are several subspecies of the common starling, which vary clinally in size and the colour tone of the adult plumage. The gradual variation over geographic range and extensive intergradation means that acceptance of the various subspecies varies between authorities.

 

Birds from Fair Isle, St Kilda and the Outer Hebrides are intermediate in size between S. v. zetlandicus and the nominate form, and their subspecies placement varies according to the authority. The dark juveniles typical of these island forms are occasionally found in mainland Scotland and elsewhere, indicating some gene flow from faroensis or zetlandicus, subspecies formerly considered to be isolated.

 

Several other subspecies have been named, but are generally no longer considered valid. Most are intergrades that occur where the ranges of various subspecies meet. These include: S. v. ruthenus Menzbier, 1891 and S. v. jitkowi Buturlin, 1904, which are intergrades between vulgaris and poltaratskyi from western Russia; S. v. graecus Tschusi, 1905 and S. v. balcanicus Buturlin and Harms, 1909, intergrades between vulgaris and tauricus from the southern Balkans to central Ukraine and throughout Greece to the Bosporus; and S. v. heinrichi Stresemann, 1928, an intergrade between caucasicus and nobilior in northern Iran. S. v. persepolis Ticehurst, 1928 from southern Iran's (Fars Province) is very similar to S. v. vulgaris, and it is not clear whether it is a distinct resident population or simply migrants from southeastern Europe.

  

Description

 

The common starling is 19–23 cm (7.5–9.1 in) long, with a wingspan of 31–44 cm (12–17 in) and a weight of 58–101 g (2.0–3.6 oz).[15] Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 11.8 to 13.8 cm (4.6 to 5.4 in), the tail is 5.8 to 6.8 cm (2.3 to 2.7 in), the culmen is 2.5 to 3.2 cm (0.98 to 1.26 in) and the tarsus is 2.7 to 3.2 cm (1.1 to 1.3 in).

 

The plumage is iridescent black, glossed purple or green, and spangled with white, especially in winter. The underparts of adult male common starlings are less spotted than those of adult females at a given time of year. The throat feathers of males are long and loose and are used in display while those of females are smaller and more pointed. The legs are stout and pinkish- or greyish-red. The bill is narrow and conical with a sharp tip; in the winter it is brownish-black but in summer, females have lemon yellow beaks while males have yellow bills with blue-grey bases. Moulting occurs once a year- in late summer after the breeding season has finished; the fresh feathers are prominently tipped white (breast feathers) or buff (wing and back feathers), which gives the bird a speckled appearance. The reduction in the spotting in the breeding season is achieved through the white feather tips largely wearing off. Juveniles are grey-brown and by their first winter resemble adults though often retaining some brown juvenile feathering, especially on the head. They can usually be sexed by the colour of the irises, rich brown in males, mouse-brown or grey in females. Estimating the contrast between an iris and the central always-dark pupil is 97% accurate in determining sex, rising to 98% if the length of the throat feathers is also considered.

 

The common starling is mid-sized by both starling standards and passerine standards. It is readily distinguished from other mid-sized passerines, such as thrushes, icterids or small corvids, by its relatively short tail, sharp, blade-like bill, round-bellied shape and strong, sizeable (and rufous-coloured) legs. In flight, its strongly pointed wings and dark colouration are distinctive, while on the ground its strange, somewhat waddling gait is also characteristic. The colouring and build usually distinguish this bird from other starlings, although the closely related spotless starling may be physically distinguished by the lack of iridescent spots in adult breeding plumage.

 

Like most terrestrial starlings the common starling moves by walking or running, rather than hopping. Their flight is quite strong and direct; their triangular-shaped wings beat very rapidly, and periodically the birds glide for a short way without losing much height before resuming powered flight. When in a flock, the birds take off almost simultaneously, wheel and turn in unison, form a compact mass or trail off into a wispy stream, bunch up again and land in a coordinated fashion. Common starling on migration can fly at 60–80 km/h (37–50 mph) and cover up to 1,000–1,500 km (620–930 mi).

 

Several terrestrial starlings, including those in the genus Sturnus, have adaptations of the skull and muscles that help with feeding by probing. This adaptation is most strongly developed in the common starling (along with the spotless and white-cheeked starlings), where the protractor muscles responsible for opening the jaw are enlarged and the skull is narrow, allowing the eye to be moved forward to peer down the length of the bill. This technique involves inserting the bill into the ground and opening it as a way of searching for hidden food items. Common starlings have the physical traits that enable them to use this feeding technique, which has undoubtedly helped the species spread far and wide.

 

In Iberia, the western Mediterranean and northwest Africa, the common starling may be confused with the closely related spotless starling, the plumage of which, as its name implies, has a more uniform colour. At close range it can be seen that the latter has longer throat feathers, a fact particularly noticeable when it sings.

  

Vocalization

 

The common starling is a noisy bird. Its song consists of a wide variety of both melodic and mechanical-sounding noises as part of a ritual succession of sounds. The male is the main songster and engages in bouts of song lasting for a minute or more. Each of these typically includes four varieties of song type, which follow each other in a regular order without pause. The bout starts with a series of pure-tone whistles and these are followed by the main part of the song, a number of variable sequences that often incorporate snatches of song mimicked from other species of bird and various naturally occurring or man-made noises. The structure and simplicity of the sound mimicked is of greater importance than the frequency with which it occurs. In some instances, a wild starling has been observed to mimic a sound it has heard only once. Each sound clip is repeated several times before the bird moves on to the next. After this variable section comes a number of types of repeated clicks followed by a final burst of high-frequency song, again formed of several types. Each bird has its own repertoire with more proficient birds having a range of up to 35 variable song types and as many as 14 types of clicks.

 

Males sing constantly as the breeding period approaches and perform less often once pairs have bonded. In the presence of a female, a male sometimes flies to his nest and sings from the entrance, apparently attempting to entice the female in. Older birds tend to have a wider repertoire than younger ones. Those males that engage in longer bouts of singing and that have wider repertoires attract mates earlier and have greater reproductive success than others. Females appear to prefer mates with more complex songs, perhaps because this indicates greater experience or longevity. Having a complex song is also useful in defending a territory and deterring less experienced males from encroaching.

 

Singing also occurs outside the breeding season, taking place throughout the year apart from the moulting period. The songsters are more commonly male although females also sing on occasion. The function of such out-of-season song is poorly understood. Eleven other types of call have been described including a flock call, threat call, attack call, snarl call and copulation call.[29] The alarm call is a harsh scream, and while foraging together common starlings squabble incessantly. They chatter while roosting and bathing, making a great deal of noise that can cause irritation to people living nearby. When a flock of common starlings is flying together, the synchronised movements of the birds' wings make a distinctive whooshing sound that can be heard hundreds of metres (yards) away.

  

Behaviour and ecology

 

The common starling is a highly gregarious species, especially in autumn and winter. Although flock size is highly variable, huge, noisy flocks - murmurations - may form near roosts. These dense concentrations of birds are thought to be a defence against attacks by birds of prey such as peregrine falcons or Eurasian sparrowhawks. Flocks form a tight sphere-like formation in flight, frequently expanding and contracting and changing shape, seemingly without any sort of leader. Each common starling changes its course and speed as a result of the movement of its closest neighbours.

 

Very large roosts, exceptionally up to 1.5 million birds, can form in city centres, woodlands or reedbeds, causing problems with their droppings. These may accumulate up to 30 cm (12 in) deep, killing trees by their concentration of chemicals. In smaller amounts, the droppings act as a fertiliser, and therefore woodland managers may try to move roosts from one area of a wood to another to benefit from the soil enhancement and avoid large toxic deposits.

 

Huge flocks of more than a million common starlings may be observed just before sunset in spring in southwestern Jutland, Denmark over the seaward marshlands of Tønder and Esbjerg municipalities between Tønder and Ribe. They gather in March until northern Scandinavian birds leave for their breeding ranges by mid-April. Their swarm behaviour creates complex shapes silhouetted against the sky, a phenomenon known locally as sort sol ("black sun"). Flocks of anything from five to fifty thousand common starlings form in areas of the UK just before sundown during mid-winter. These flocks are commonly called murmurations.

 

Feeding

 

The common starling is largely insectivorous and feeds on both pest and other arthropods. The food range includes spiders, crane flies, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, damsel flies, grasshoppers, earwigs, lacewings, caddisflies, flies, beetles, sawflies, bees, wasps and ants. Prey are consumed in both adult and larvae stages of development, and common starlings will also feed on earthworms, snails, small amphibians and lizards. While the consumption of invertebrates is necessary for successful breeding, common starlings are omnivorous and can also eat grains, seeds, fruits, nectar and food waste if the opportunity arises. The Sturnidae differ from most birds in that they cannot easily metabolise foods containing high levels of sucrose, although they can cope with other fruits such as grapes and cherries. The isolated Azores subspecies of the common starling eats the eggs of the endangered roseate tern. Measures are being introduced to reduce common starling populations by culling before the terns return to their breeding colonies in spring.

 

There are several methods by which common starlings obtain their food but for the most part, they forage close to the ground, taking insects from the surface or just underneath. Generally, common starlings prefer foraging amongst short-cropped grasses and are often found among grazing animals or perched on their backs, where they will also feed on the mammal's external parasites. Large flocks may engage in a practice known as "roller-feeding", where the birds at the back of the flock continually fly to the front where the feeding opportunities are best. The larger the flock, the nearer individuals are to one another while foraging. Flocks often feed in one place for some time, and return to previous successfully foraged sites.

 

There are three types of foraging behaviour observed in the common starling. "Probing" involves the bird plunging its beak into the ground randomly and repetitively until an insect has been found, and is often accompanied by bill gaping where the bird opens its beak in the soil to enlarge a hole. This behaviour, first described by Konrad Lorenz and given the German term zirkeln, is also used to create and widen holes in plastic garbage bags. It takes time for young common starlings to perfect this technique, and because of this the diet of young birds will often contain fewer insects. "Hawking" is the capture of flying insects directly from the air, and "lunging" is the less common technique of striking forward to catch a moving invertebrate on the ground. Earthworms are caught by pulling from soil. Common starlings that have periods without access to food, or have a reduction in the hours of light available for feeding, compensate by increasing their body mass by the deposition of fat.

 

Nesting

 

Unpaired males find a suitable cavity and begin to build nests in order to attract single females, often decorating the nest with ornaments such as flowers and fresh green material, which the female later disassembles upon accepting him as a mate. The amount of green material is not important, as long as some is present, but the presence of herbs in the decorative material appears to be significant in attracting a mate. The scent of plants such as yarrow acts as an olfactory attractant to females.

 

The males sing throughout much of the construction and even more so when a female approaches his nest. Following copulation, the male and female continue to build the nest. Nests may be in any type of hole, common locations include inside hollowed trees, buildings, tree stumps and man-made nest-boxes. S. v. zetlandicus typically breeds in crevices and holes in cliffs, a habitat only rarely used by the nominate form. Nests are typically made out of straw, dry grass and twigs with an inner lining made up of feathers, wool and soft leaves. Construction usually takes four or five days and may continue through incubation.

 

Common starlings are both monogamous and polygamous; although broods are generally brought up by one male and one female, occasionally the pair may have an extra helper. Pairs may be part of a colony, in which case several other nests may occupy the same or nearby trees. Males may mate with a second female while the first is still on the nest. The reproductive success of the bird is poorer in the second nest than it is in the primary nest and is better when the male remains monogamous.

 

Breeding

 

Breeding takes place during the spring and summer. Following copulation, the female lays eggs on a daily basis over a period of several days. If an egg is lost during this time, she will lay another to replace it. There are normally four or five eggs that are ovoid in shape and pale blue or occasionally white, and they commonly have a glossy appearance. The colour of the eggs seems to have evolved through the relatively good visibility of blue at low light levels. The egg size is 26.5–34.5 mm (1.04–1.36 in) in length and 20.0–22.5 mm (0.79–0.89 in) in maximum diameter.

 

Incubation lasts thirteen days, although the last egg laid may take 24 hours longer than the first to hatch. Both parents share the responsibility of brooding the eggs, but the female spends more time incubating them than does the male, and is the only parent to do so at night when the male returns to the communal roost. The young are born blind and naked. They develop light fluffy down within seven days of hatching and can see within nine days. Once the chicks are able to regulate their body temperature, about six days after hatching, the adults largely cease removing droppings from the nest. Prior to that, the fouling would wet both the chicks' plumage and the nest material, thereby reducing their effectiveness as insulation and increasing the risk of chilling the hatchlings. Nestlings remain in the nest for three weeks, where they are fed continuously by both parents. Fledglings continue to be fed by their parents for another one or two weeks. A pair can raise up to three broods per year, frequently reusing and relining the same nest, although two broods is typical, or just one north of 48°N. Within two months, most juveniles will have moulted and gained their first basic plumage. They acquire their adult plumage the following year. As with other passerines, the nest is kept clean and the chicks' faecal sacs are removed by the adults.

 

Intraspecific brood parasites are common in common starling nests. Female "floaters" (unpaired females during the breeding season) present in colonies often lay eggs in another pair's nest. Fledglings have also been reported to invade their own or neighbouring nests and evict a new brood.[29] Common starling nests have a 48% to 79% rate of successful fledging, although only 20% of nestlings survive to breeding age; the adult survival rate is closer to 60%. The average life span is about 2–3 years, with a longevity record of 22 yr 11 m.

 

Predators and parasites

 

A majority of starling predators are avian. The typical response of starling groups is to take flight, with a common sight being undulating flocks of starling flying high in quick and agile patterns. Their abilities in flight are seldom matched by birds of prey. Adult common starlings are hunted by hawks such as the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) and Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), and falcons including the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo) and common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). Slower raptors like black and red kites (Milvus migrans & milvus), eastern imperial eagle (Aquila heliaca), common buzzard (Buteo buteo) and Australasian harrier (Circus approximans) tend to take the more easily caught fledglings or juveniles. While perched in groups by night, they can be vulnerable to owls, including the little owl (Athene noctua), long-eared owl (Asio otus), short-eared owl (Asio flammeus), barn owl (Tyto alba), tawny owl (Strix aluco) and Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo).

 

More than twenty species of hawk, owl and falcon are known to occasionally predate feral starlings in North America, though the most regular predators of adults are likely to be urban-living peregrine falcons or merlins (Falco columbarius). Common mynas (Acridotheres tristis) sometimes evict eggs, nestlings and adult common starlings from their nests, and the lesser honeyguide (Indicator minor), a brood parasite, uses the common starling as a host. Starlings are more commonly the culprits rather than victims of nest eviction however, especially towards other starlings and woodpeckers. Nests can be raided by mammals capable of climbing to them, such as stoats (Mustela erminea), raccoons (Procyon lotor) and squirrels (Sciurus spp.), and cats may catch the unwary.

 

Common starlings are hosts to a wide range of parasites. A survey of three hundred common starlings from six US states found that all had at least one type of parasite; 99% had external fleas, mites or ticks, and 95% carried internal parasites, mostly various types of worm. Blood-sucking species leave their host when it dies, but other external parasites stay on the corpse. A bird with a deformed bill was heavily infested with Mallophaga lice, presumably due to its inability to remove vermin.

 

The hen flea (Ceratophyllus gallinae) is the most common flea in their nests. The small, pale house-sparrow flea C. fringillae, is also occasionally found there and probably arises from the habit of its main host of taking over the nests of other species. This flea does not occur in the US, even on house sparrows. Lice include Menacanthus eurystemus, Brueelia nebulosa and Stumidoecus sturni. Other arthropod parasites include Ixodes ticks and mites such as Analgopsis passerinus, Boydaia stumi, Dermanyssus gallinae, Ornithonyssus bursa, O. sylviarum, Proctophyllodes species, Pteronyssoides truncatus and Trouessartia rosteri. The hen mite D. gallinae is itself preyed upon by the predatory mite Androlaelaps casalis. The presence of this control on numbers of the parasitic species may explain why birds are prepared to reuse old nests.

 

Flying insects that parasitise common starlings include the louse-fly Omithomya nigricornis and the saprophagous fly Camus hemapterus. The latter species breaks off the feathers of its host and lives on the fats produced by growing plumage. Larvae of the moth Hofmannophila pseudospretella are nest scavengers, which feed on animal material such as faeces or dead nestlings. Protozoan blood parasites of the genus Haemoproteus have been found in common starlings, but a better known pest is the brilliant scarlet nematode Syngamus trachea. This worm moves from the lungs to the trachea and may cause its host to suffocate. In Britain, the rook and the common starling are the most infested wild birds. Other recorded internal parasites include the spiny-headed worm Prosthorhynchus transverses.

 

Common starlings may contract avian tuberculosis, avian malaria and retrovirus-induced lymphomas. Captive starlings often accumulate excess iron in the liver, a condition that can be prevented by adding black tea-leaves to the food.

  

Distribution and habitat

 

The global population of common starlings was estimated to be 310 million individuals in 2004, occupying a total area of 8,870,000 km2 (3,420,000 sq mi). Widespread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the bird is native to Eurasia and is found throughout Europe, northern Africa (from Morocco to Egypt), India (mainly in the north but regularly extending further south and extending into the Maldives) Nepal, the Middle East including Syria, Iran, and Iraq and north-western China.

 

Common starlings in the south and west of Europe and south of latitude 40°N are mainly resident, although other populations migrate from regions where the winter is harsh, the ground frozen and food scarce. Large numbers of birds from northern Europe, Russia and Ukraine migrate south westwards or south eastwards. In the autumn, when immigrants are arriving from eastern Europe, many of Britain's common starlings are setting off for Iberia and North Africa. Other groups of birds are in passage across the country and the pathways of these different streams of bird may cross. Of the 15,000 birds ringed as nestlings in Merseyside, England, individuals have been recovered at various times of year as far afield as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany and the Low Countries. Small numbers of common starling have sporadically been observed in Japan and Hong Kong but it is unclear from where these birds originated. In North America, northern populations have developed a migration pattern, vacating much of Canada in winter. Birds in the east of the country move southwards, and those from further west winter in the southwest of the US.

 

Common starlings prefer urban or suburban areas where artificial structures and trees provide adequate nesting and roosting sites. Reedbeds are also favoured for roosting and the birds commonly feed in grassy areas such as farmland, grazing pastures, playing fields, golf courses and airfields where short grass makes foraging easy. They occasionally inhabit open forests and woodlands and are sometimes found in shrubby areas such as Australian heathland. Common starlings rarely inhabit dense, wet forests (i.e. rainforests or wet sclerophyll forests) but are found in coastal areas, where they nest and roost on cliffs and forage amongst seaweed. Their ability to adapt to a large variety of habitats has allowed them to disperse and establish themselves in diverse locations around the world resulting in a habitat range from coastal wetlands to alpine forests, from sea cliffs to mountain ranges 1,900 m (6,200 ft) above sea level.

 

Introduced populations

 

The common starling has been introduced to and has successfully established itself in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, North America, Fiji and several Caribbean islands. As a result, it has also been able to migrate to Thailand, Southeast Asia and New Guinea.

 

South America

 

Five individuals conveyed on a ship from England alighted near Lago de Maracaibo in Venezuela in November 1949, but subsequently vanished. In 1987, a small population of common starlings was observed nesting in gardens in the city of Buenos Aires. Since then, despite some initial attempts at eradication, the bird has been expanding its breeding range at an average rate of 7.5 km (4.7 mi) per year, keeping within 30 km (19 mi) of the Atlantic coast. In Argentina, the species makes use of a variety of natural and man-made nesting sites, particularly woodpecker holes.

 

Australia

 

The common starling was introduced to Australia to consume insect pests of farm crops. Early settlers looked forward to their arrival, believing that common starlings were also important for the pollination of flax, a major agricultural product. Nest-boxes for the newly released birds were placed on farms and near crops. The common starling was introduced to Melbourne in 1857 and Sydney two decades later. By the 1880s, established populations were present in the southeast of the country thanks to the work of acclimatisation committees. By the 1920s, common starlings were widespread throughout Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, but by then they were considered to be pests. Although common starlings were first sighted in Albany, Western Australia in 1917, they have been largely prevented from spreading to the state. The wide and arid Nullarbor Plain provides a natural barrier and control measures have been adopted that have killed 55,000 birds over three decades. The common starling has also colonised Kangaroo Island, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and Tasmania.

 

New Zealand

 

The early settlers in New Zealand cleared the bush and found their newly planted crops were invaded by hordes of caterpillars and other insects deprived of their previous food sources. Native birds were not habituated to living in close proximity to man so the common starling was introduced from Europe along with the House Sparrow to control the pests. It was first brought over in 1862 by the Nelson Acclimatisation Society and other introductions followed. The birds soon became established and are now found all over the country including the subtropical Kermadec Islands to the north and the equally distant Macquarie Island far to the south.

 

North America

 

After two failed attempts, about 60 common starlings were released in 1890 into New York's Central Park by Eugene Schieffelin. He was president of the American Acclimatization Society, which reportedly tried to introduce every bird species mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare into North America, although this has been disputed. About the same date, the Portland Song Bird Club released 35 pairs of common starlings in Portland, Oregon. These birds became established but disappeared around 1902. Common starlings reappeared in the Pacific Northwest in the mid-1940s and these birds were probably descendants of the 1890 Central Park introduction. The original 60 birds have since swelled in number to 150 million, occupying an area extending from southern Canada and Alaska to Central America.

 

Polynesia

 

The common starling appears to have arrived in Fiji in 1925 on Ono-i-lau and Vatoa islands. It may have colonised from New Zealand via Raoul in the Kermadec Islands where it is abundant, that group being roughly equidistant between New Zealand and Fiji. Its spread in Fiji has been limited, and there are doubts about the population's viability. Tonga was colonised at about the same date and the birds there have been slowly spreading north through the group.

 

South Africa

 

In South Africa, the common starling was introduced in 1897 by Cecil Rhodes. It spread slowly, and by 1954, had reached Clanwilliam and Port Elizabeth. It is now common in the southern Cape region, thinning out northwards to the Johannesburg area. It is present in the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape and the Free State provinces of South Africa and lowland Lesotho, with occasional sightings in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and around the town of Oranjemund in Namibia. In Southern Africa populations appear to be resident and the bird is strongly associated with man and anthropogenic habitats. It favours irrigated land and is absent from regions where the ground is baked so dry that it cannot probe for insects. It may compete with native birds for crevice nesting sites but the indigenous species are probably more disadvantaged by destruction of their natural habitat than they are by inter-specific competition. It breeds from September to December and outside the breeding season may congregate in large flocks, often roosting in reedbeds. It is the most common bird species in urban and agricultural areas.

 

West Indies

 

The inhabitants of Saint Kitts petitioned the Colonial Secretary for a ″ ... government grant of starlings to exterminate ... ″ an outbreak of grasshoppers with was causing enormous damage to their crops in 1901. The common starling was introduced to Jamaica in 1903, and the Bahamas and Cuba were colonised naturally from the US. This bird is fairly common but local in Jamaica, Grand Bahama and Bimini, and is rare in the rest of the Bahamas, eastern Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico and St. Croix.

  

Status

 

The global population of the common starling is estimated to be more than 310 million individuals and its numbers are not thought to be declining significantly, so the bird is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of least concern. It had shown a marked increase in numbers throughout Europe from the 19th century to around the 1950s and 60s. In about 1830, S. v. vulgaris expanded its range in the British Isles, spreading into Ireland and areas of Scotland where it had formerly been absent, although S. v. zetlandicus was already present in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides. The common starling has bred in northern Sweden from 1850 and in Iceland from 1935. The breeding range spread through southern France to northeastern Spain, and there were other range expansions particularly in Italy, Austria and Finland. It started breeding in Iberia in 1960, while the spotless starling's range had been expanding northward since the 1950s. The low rate of advance, about 4.7 km (2.9 mi) per year for both species, is due to the suboptimal mountain and woodland terrain. Expansion has since slowed even further due to direct competition between the two similar species where they overlap in southwestern France and northwestern Spain.

 

Major declines in populations have been observed from 1980 onward in Sweden, Finland, northern Russia (Karelia) and the Baltic States, and smaller declines in much of the rest of northern and central Europe. The bird has been adversely affected in these areas by intensive agriculture, and in several countries it has been red-listed due to population declines of more than 50%. Numbers dwindled in the United Kingdom by more than 80% between 1966 and 2004; although populations in some areas such as Northern Ireland were stable or even increased, those in other areas, mainly England, declined even more sharply. The overall decline seems to be due to the low survival rate of young birds, which may be caused by changes in agricultural practices. The intensive farming methods used in northern Europe mean there is less pasture and meadow habitat available, and the supply of grassland invertebrates needed for the nestlings to thrive is correspondingly reduced.

  

Relationship with humans

 

Benefits and problems

 

Since common starlings eat insect pests such as wireworms, they are considered beneficial in northern Eurasia, and this was one of the reasons given for introducing the birds elsewhere. Around 25 million nest boxes were erected for this species in the former Soviet Union, and common starlings were found to be effective in controlling the grass grub Costelytra zelandica in New Zealand. The original Australian introduction was facilitated by the provision of nest boxes to help this mainly insectivorous bird to breed successfully, and even in the US, where this is a pest species, the Department of Agriculture acknowledges that vast numbers of insects are consumed by common starlings.

 

Common starlings introduced to areas such as Australia or North America, where other members of the genus are absent, may affect native species through competition for nest holes. In North America, chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, purple martins and other swallows may be affected. In Australia, competitors for nesting sites include the crimson and eastern rosellas. For its role in the decline of local native species and the damages to agriculture, the common starling has been included in the IUCN List of the world's 100 worst invasive species.

 

Common starlings can eat and damage fruit in orchards such as grapes, peaches, olives, currants and tomatoes or dig up newly sown grain and sprouting crops. They may also eat animal feed and distribute seeds through their droppings. In eastern Australia, weeds like bridal creeper, blackberry and boneseed are thought to have been spread by common starlings. Agricultural damage in the US is estimated as costing about US$800 million annually. This bird is not considered to be as damaging to agriculture in South Africa as it is in the United States.

 

The large size of flocks can also cause problems. Common starlings may be sucked into aircraft jet engines, one of the worst instances of this being an incident in Boston in 1960, when sixty-two people died after a turboprop airliner flew into a flock and plummeted into the sea at Winthrop Harbor.

 

Starlings' droppings can contain the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, the cause of histoplasmosis in humans. At roosting sites this fungus can thrive in accumulated droppings. There are a number of other infectious diseases that can potentially be transmitted by common starlings to humans, although the potential for the birds to spread infections may have been exaggerated.

 

Control

 

Because of the damage they do, there have been attempts to control the numbers of both native and introduced populations of common starlings. Within the natural breeding range, this may be affected by legislation. For example, in Spain, this is a species hunted commercially as a food item, and has a closed season, whereas in France, it is classed as a pest, and the season in which it may be killed covers the greater part of the year. In Great Britain, Starlings are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which makes it "illegal to intentionally kill, injure or take a starling, or to take, damage or destroy an active nest or its contents". The Wildlife Order in Northern Ireland allows, with a general licence, "an authorised person to control starlings to prevent serious damage to agriculture or preserve public health and safety". This species is migratory, so birds involved in control measures may have come from a wide area and breeding populations may not be greatly affected. In Europe, the varying legislation and mobile populations mean that control attempts may have limited long-term results. Non-lethal techniques such as scaring with visual or auditory devices have only a temporary effect in any case.

 

Huge urban roosts in cities can create problems due to the noise and mess made and the smell of the droppings. In 1949, so many birds landed on the clock hands of London's Big Ben that it stopped, leading to unsuccessful attempts to disrupt the roosts with netting, repellent chemical on the ledges and broadcasts of common starling alarm calls. An entire episode of The Goon Show in 1954 was a parody of the futile efforts to disrupt the large common starling roosts in central London.

 

Where it is introduced, the common starling is unprotected by legislation, and extensive control plans may be initiated. Common starlings can be prevented from using nest boxes by ensuring that the access holes are smaller than the 1.5 in (38 mm) diameter they need, and the removal of perches discourages them from visiting bird feeders.

 

Western Australia banned the import of common starlings in 1895. New flocks arriving from the east are routinely shot, while the less cautious juveniles are trapped and netted. New methods are being developed, such as tagging one bird and tracking it back to establish where other members of the flock roost. Another technique is to analyse the DNA of Australian common starling populations to track where the migration from eastern to western Australia is occurring so that better preventive strategies can be used. By 2009, only 300 common starlings were left in Western Australia, and the state committed a further A$400,000 in that year to continue the eradication programme.

 

In the United States, common starlings are exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits the taking or killing of migratory birds. No permit is required to remove nests and eggs or kill juveniles or adults. Research was undertaken in 1966 to identify a suitable avicide that would both kill common starlings and would readily be eaten by them. It also needed to be of low toxicity to mammals and not likely to cause the death of pets that ate dead birds. The chemical that best fitted these criteria was DRC-1339, now marketed as Starlicide. In 2008, the United States government poisoned, shot or trapped 1.7 million birds, the largest number of any nuisance species to be destroyed. In 2005, the population in the United States was estimated at 140 million birds, around 45% of the global total of 310 million.

  

In science and culture

 

Common starlings may be kept as pets or as laboratory animals. Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote of them in his book King Solomon's Ring as "the poor man's dog" and "something to love", because nestlings are easily obtained from the wild and after careful hand rearing they are straightforward to look after. They adapt well to captivity, and thrive on a diet of standard bird feed and mealworms. Several birds may be kept in the same cage, and their inquisitiveness makes them easy to train or study. The only disadvantages are their messy and indiscriminate defecation habits and the need to take precautions against diseases that may be transmitted to humans. As a laboratory bird, the common starling is second in numbers only to the domestic pigeon.

 

The common starling's gift for mimicry has long been recognised. In the medieval Welsh Mabinogion, Branwen tamed a common starling, "taught it words", and sent it across the Irish Sea with a message to her brothers, Bran and Manawydan, who then sailed from Wales to Ireland to rescue her. Pliny the Elder claimed that these birds could be taught to speak whole sentences in Latin and Greek, and in Henry IV, William Shakespeare had Hotspur declare "The king forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer. But I will find him when he is asleep, and in his ear I'll holler 'Mortimer!' Nay I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer, and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion."

 

Mozart had a pet common starling which could sing part of his Piano Concerto in G Major (KV. 453). He had bought it from a shop after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks previously, which had not yet been performed in public. He became very attached to the bird and arranged an elaborate funeral for it when it died three years later. It has been suggested that his A Musical Joke (K. 522) might be written in the comical, inconsequential style of a starling's vocalisation.[35] Other people who have owned common starlings report how adept they are at picking up phrases and expressions. The words have no meaning for the starling, so they often mix them up or use them on what to humans are inappropriate occasions in their songs. Their ability at mimicry is so great that strangers have looked in vain for the human they think they have just heard speak.

 

Common starlings are trapped for food in some Mediterranean countries. The meat is tough and of low quality, so it is casseroled or made into pâté. One recipe said it should be stewed "until tender, however long that may be". Even when correctly prepared, it may still be seen as an acquired taste.

 

The introduction of European starlings to the United States in 1890 by New York pharmaceutical manufacturer Eugene Schieffelin was featured in the plotline of the Netflix original series, Ozark in season 1, episode 7, "Nest Box."

  

[Credit: en.wikipedia.org/]

Accused would stand up when addressing the judges, except for Slobodan Milosevic who did not. Most importantly, accused would rise when the judges were about to pronounce their sentences.

 

This is the view from the same seat as in the previous photograph, but standing up. This is what an accused person would see upon being sentenced, possibly up to the remainder of his or her life. They might of course also be declared not guilty. ICTY convicted 90 persons and acquitted 19.

 

This is also the view that Slobodan Praljak, a Bosnian Croat general, saw as he drank a vial of poison during the sentencing proceedings in the Prlic et al case. He had just been given a prison sentence of 20 years for his role in the massive crimes committed by Croat and Bosnian Croat forces against Bosniaks in the break-out region of Herceg-Bosna.

  

From my project The Tribunal, which I made during my last years at the ICTY to show the great diversity of this amazing institution. The full project can be accessed on my site below.

 

___________________

philipus.com

 

Instagram

@philipdygeus ◦◦◦ @philipdygeus.too

The Hasselblad Film Gallery ◦◦◦ Leica & Film Friends

 

Twitter

@_philipus

  

#120film #Mediumformat #Individualcriminalresponsibility #Genocide #Crimesagainsthumanity #Warcrimes #HasselbladFlextightX1 #40DistagonCFE #Hasselblad #Hasselblad203FE #KodakEktar100 #Balkans #FormerYugoslavia #ICTY #TheHague #TheNetherlands #DenHaag #Nederland #Ukraine #internationalcriminallaw #internationalhumanrightslaw #internationalhumanitarianlaw #lawofarmedconflict #loac #ihl #icl #ihr

This morning was the wettest, windiest and foggiest day you could imagine, saturated, but happy to see the Mighty steam locomotive 6029 pass. Assisted by C502 and S311.

First of all (1 & 2) down and through the Goondah Sweeper then (3) entering Binalong.

It is on its way to do shuttles at Dubbo over the weekend. - www.canberrarailwaymuseum.org/dubboshuttles

New South Wales, Australia

- if it wasn't snow, it was only a minor technicality in the difference!!!

Rear Window project.

 

This projector arises after two weeks of confinement by Covid-19. After finishing that to-do list I never find the time to finish. As I spent more time looking out the window wondering how long this new state I find myself in would last. One of those days I thought that I was in a similar situation to Jeff, the main character of ’Rear Window’ a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Jeff is a photographer confined to a wheelchair after an accident he spend his time spying on the neighbors with a telephoto lens and monocles and begins to believe that one of them has committed murder.

 

Dennistoun, Glasgow, Scotland.

SO I finally committed to digitising this, one of my first MOCs completed just out of my darkage, and one of my first ever mechs.

 

Updates to LDD have made it a really great tool for turning MOC's into "digital backups" - I tweaked this during the process, adding parts I didn't have originally, but most techniques are the same and are actually legal.

 

I must say that where LDD sucks, is the instruction view - it's really haphazard about which elements are constructed before others, making a simple build seem unduly difficult.

 

What's really great about LDD is the scope to test colour schemes. I've been looking at this for too long now and I'm still not sure I like it. I prefer the plain white variation with the red accents just on it's artistic merits, but it's not really a suitable colour scheme for a giant mech...

 

LDD reconstruction -poster002

Stagecoach have committed 50 buses to the Open Championship at Muirfield. Large fields are used as car parks and Stagecoach provide the shuttle service to Muirfield . In addition Drem Station car park becomes a bus station for the week of the event. The operation seems to run very smoothly with all the Stagecoach staff in good spirits and even the odd barbecue set up for lunch ( a few of the drivers had singed eyebrows) Stagecoach seem to rise to these occasions and the old Olympians sounded great even the scruffy ones. Well done Stagecoach .

These birds haves committed to the drop down to the pond in a steep descent... more a free fall drop (i.e., parachute) than a glide-in. This shot against a cloudy western sunset sky results in a silhouette view of the crane against the clouds... but if you're familiar with these birds such shots offer no difficulty regarding their ID. The sky colors change so rapidly and the bird groups continually arrive... you need to be constantly shooting to capture the ever changing spectacle! All of the subsequent shots this evening will be of silhouettes of the Cranes against the sky.

 

IMG_8253; Sandhill Cranes

Osprey in full dive to catch a fish. Newcastle Maine

Committed.

Construction, Week 59

 

You've likely been wondering, as I know I have (!), how Kroger managed to remove the hand-painted schoolchildren's tiles from the Committed to Excellence wall: well, now you know! You may have even seen a glimpse of this in the background of the last pic, too. Looks like they carefully removed some, then just got tired of it and ripped the entire wall out, haha! That's one way to ensure they'd all get down in one piece, anyway :P

 

(c) 2016 Retail Retell

These places are public so these photos are too, but just as I tell where they came from, I'd appreciate if you'd say who :)

Dr. Tonmoy Sharma speaks with Dr. Judy Ho about brain wellness after alcohol and drug addiction. He offers the hopeful message that there is neuroplasticity at every age and there are certain things you can do to help that along. He note4s that whether or not someone got that brain injury through substance use or a traumatic brain injury there is a solution. During a series of conversation held recently between Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health and Dr. July Ho, PhD they discussed cognitive function, proper diagnosis and treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. Often during assessment it is found that there are significant cognitive impairments however there are programs that can be started right away during treatment that can help with cognitive remediation. Activities offered include work within the online Neurobic program. Often there is a younger population in the Sovereign Health Group facilities who have led chaotic lives. It is important to teach them about the effects that nutrition and sleep have on brain function. Classes help them to go back to a health lifestyle with good nutrition and a more organized and structured life. With work the damage to the brain can be reversed. While in the past there was a belief that only the liver or skin could regenerate today we know that neurons can regenerate themselves. It’s okay, people make mistakes but it is possible to reverse the damage that was caused whether by substance abuse or traumatic brain injury.

 

About Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO, Sovereign Health Group. Over a career spanning 30 years Dr. Sharma has served primarily as an acclaimed researcher having led countless international mental health clinical research trials, taught and trained students as a neuro-scientist and served as author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed published articles and five books on schizophrenia and mental illness. His entire career has been dedicated to putting his vast knowledge to further the mental health field with insights into pharmacology and cognitive impairment treatment. Dr Sharma recognizes that the substance abuse treatment community is heading towards an inevitable next step in its evolution to ensure it continues to improve the quality of patients’ treatment. Today Dr. Sharma is committed to tirelessly promote and call for measurement-based care (MBC) in the diagnosis and treatment of addiction and mental health cognitive impairments so that a national standard measurement scale for level of addiction, and normalcy symptoms can be identified to standardize care and standardize treatment. For more on Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health Group go to LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tonmoysharmaceo

 

A licensed and board certified clinical psychologist, Dr Judy Ho, Ph. D. offers her expertise on a variety of national television shows. Based in Los Angeles, she provides professional services in psychological testing and forensic expert work.

 

For more detailed information on Dr. Tonmoy Sharma, CEO of Sovereign Health Group go to LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/tonmoysharmaceo

Trabajamos de manera responsable en nuestras operaciones y contamos con un proceso de gestión de riesgos que cubre todos los aspectos del proceso.

 

Descubre nuestra apuesta en upstream:

 

www.repsol.com/es_es/corporacion/conocer-repsol/nuestra-a...

 

We work responsibly in our operations and we have a risk management process that covers all aspects of the process.

 

Discover our commitment in upstream :

 

www.repsol.com/es_es/corporacion/conocer-repsol/nuestra-a ...

You and Your Health

Tell Me the Truth, Doctor

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm MDT on Monday, July 1, 2013

(Tickets Required) Recognizing the astonishing amount of misinformation that many important health decisions are based upon, Dr. Richard Besser is committed to delivering the truth. He isn't afraid to challenge the status quo or the interests within the health care industry to provide the knowledge you need to take control of your health.

Richard Besser Ezekiel Emanuel

Limelight Hotel

The Wall Street bombing occurred at 12:01 pm on September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. The blast killed 30 people immediately, and another eight died later of wounds sustained in the blast. There were 143 seriously injured, and the total number of injured was in the hundreds. The bombing was never solved.

 

At noon, a horse-drawn wagon passed by lunchtime crowds on Wall Street and stopped across the street from the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street, on the Financial District's busiest corner. Inside the wagon, 100 pounds of dynamite with 500 pounds of heavy, cast-iron sash weights exploded in a timer-set detonation, sending the weights tearing through the air. The horse and wagon were blasted into small fragments, but the driver was believed to have left the vehicle and escaped.

 

The bomb caused more than $2 million in property damage ($23.7 million today) and destroyed most of the interior spaces of the Morgan building.

 

The building received heavy damage, with shrapnel entering the building through its large wide windows. To this day, the damage to the limestone façade is visible on the outside of the building, as the company said it would never repair the damage in defiance to those who committed the crime.

  

Hard working busker

“Be the Light for the Wild” (Ample Projects)

 

“Vivid’s wildest precinct will light up with an illuminated trail comprised of giant animal multimedia light sculptures at Taronga Zoo, which is also celebrating its Centenary in 2016.

 

“‘Be the Light for the Wild’ will feature ten critical species from Australia and Sumatra, ranging from the magnificent Asian elephant to the brightly coloured Corroboree frogs, species that Taronga is committed to protecting.

 

“Created by Ample Projects, with interactive lighting, sound effects and moving parts, these giant light sculptures will be among the largest and most technologically advanced lanterns ever to feature in Vivid.

 

“Taronga’s 10 Legacy Species light sculptures will be augmented by a supporting cast of creatures including an echidna, chameleon, crocodile, cicadas and even a funnel-web spider, along with thousands of smaller lanterns made by NSW school students as part of the Zoo’s Centenary celebrations.

 

“Vivid Sydney at Taronga Zoo is part of an exciting Centenary Program presented by ANZ, which will celebrate Taronga’s first 100 years and launch a legacy for the future of wildlife conservation.”

Events on the stage of Shonan area of Japan, aimed at the development of the Hawaiian culture. Dancers of about 1,000 people gathered from Kanagawa prefecture, I committed showcase technology of hula daily, polished.

Above all, she is beautiful, smile was a very nice lady at all times.

;-) Texto en castellano mas abajo ;-)

 

Excuse me the many mistakes that sure I have committed in the translation, I hope that it is understood regardless!

 

Introduction to the trilogy blog-pride-persons

I am going to dedicate this trilogy of photos to explain, and to explain myself too, because I use the captions (feet) of my photos as if they were my personal blog. To explain it I have to develop before the bases on which it is sustained. And the principal base consists of the vision that I have of the others and in my concept of person.

 

What do you see when you look at the others? You see women, fat men, disabled persons, children, bald men, gays, nice girls, blacks, foreigners, unfaithful, millionaires, old people … an infinite variety of adjectives. These adjectives are very useful for us, essential of fact, allow us to represent, to understand and to handle our reality. But this great skill leads us with excessive frequency to big mistakes, in fact, for me it is the cause of almost all (to not say all) the misfortunes caused by the man. We forget the obvious thing, the basic, forget that the adjectives are … adjectives. We replace the noun, what we are really, our common base, our essence, the substantive, to an alone specific adjective. This noun that defines us is … person, we are persons. I will put an example of what I want to say, when you see a woman, what do you see?, you see a woman who is a person, or you see like I do it, a person who is a woman. In the second case the noun is person, the essence and the main, and as characteristic note the adjective says to us that this person is woman, which awards some differentiated characteristics. In this second example I relate to a person and the adjective only is bear in mind when it is pertinent. Nevertheless in the first case, the noun is woman, to whom I give the person's category, and there is when the problems come. In this case, if I am a man the relation is totally different, we are different and share the characteristic of which both are persons. And as the adjectives are relative, we can do that some weigh more than other; we can do that they have different intensities, in this case, might be more or less person, we might apply the whole scale; and also they can change, today you are blond and tomorrow dark-haired, today you are person and tomorrow not. In this case it would produce machismo, even with our better intentions. And like with this adjective with all, and already you know the multiple discriminations that it produce: feminism, racism, homophobia, etc … all with the same evil of base. It is possible even in positive tone, like with the handsome ones, one does not see any more than the beauty and it annuls any other characteristic of the multiple ones that define a person. In fact not only annul them, but that in addition we invent ourselves. If she is handsome then implies that she is silly, is presumed, serves only as object of desire, that is … This one is another evil that is frequent, and with all the adjectives, for me, for example, to be a woman only means it, does not imply any other associate adjective, more clever to be a woman?, or more silly? The reality clarifies us it, the intelligence is another different and independent characteristic, in general the adjectives are not related a priori between themselves, for much that we insists in the contrary to simplify the world (sometimes yes, but the less). An adjective only means … what it means (it seems to be easy, but at the moment of the truth …). All of us make these mistakes, in a degree or other, but we must try to avoid it and to have very clear what we are and what are the others … we are persons!

 

Explanatory note: For these big brains, always there is someone, which instead of catching the message, has realized that woman is not an adjective, morphologically speaking, but a noun, to say to them that I have done it to conscience, I have used it for the example, not only because it concerns the half of the population, but because as noun subordinated to the principal noun, it should expand the concept that I want to express on any type of not conceptual barrier that should intervene, or this it is my intention (wooow!, this is a phrase!;-D).

Si veis que está mal traducido, echarme una manita y decírmelo, please! ;-D

 

Introducción a la trilogía blog-orgullo-personas.

Voy a dedicar esta trilogía de fotos a explicar, y a explicarme a mi misma de paso, el porque utilizo los pies de fotos como si fueran mi blog personal. Para explicarlo he de desarrollar antes las bases sobre las que se sustenta. Y la base principal consiste en la visión que tengo de los demás y en mi concepto de persona.

 

¿Qué veis cuando miráis a los demás? Veis mujeres, gordos, discapacitados, niños, calvos, mariquitas, listos, tontos, negros, ricos, extranjeros, poderosos, infieles, viejos… una infinita variedad de adjetivos. Esos adjetivos nos son muy útiles, esenciales de hecho, nos permiten representar, entender y manejar nuestra realidad. Pero esta gran habilidad nos lleva con excesiva frecuencia a grandes errores, de hecho, para mi es el causante de casi todas (por no decir todas) las desgracias causadas por el hombre. Olvidamos lo obvio, lo mas básico, olvidamos que los adjetivos son… adjetivos. Sustituimos el sustantivo, lo que somos realmente, nuestra base común, nuestra esencia, por un solo adjetivo en concreto. Ese sustantivo que nos define es… persona, somos personas. Pondré un ejemplo de lo que quiero decir, cuando veis a una mujer, ¿que veis?, veis a una mujer que es una persona, o veis como yo lo hago, a una persona que es mujer. En el segundo caso el sustantivo es persona, la esencia y lo principal, y como nota característica el adjetivo nos dice que esa persona es mujer, lo cual le confiere determinadas características diferenciadoras. En este segundo ejemplo yo me relaciono con una persona y el calificativo solo se tiene en cuenta cuando es pertinente. Sin embargo en el primer caso el sustantivo es mujer, a la que le doy la categoría de persona, y ahí vienen los problemas. En este caso, si soy hombre la relación es totalmente diferente, somos distintos y compartimos la característica de que ambos somos personas. Y como los adjetivos son relativos, podemos hacer que unos pesen más que otros; podemos hacer que tengan diferentes intensidades, en este caso, podría ser más o menos persona, podríamos aplicar toda una escala; y también pueden cambiar, hoy eres rubia y mañana morena, hoy persona y mañana no. En este caso produciría machismo, incluso con nuestras mejores intenciones. E igual que con este adjetivo con todos, y ya sabéis las múltiples discriminaciones que producen: feminismo, racismo, homofobia, etc… todas con el mismo mal de base. Se puede producir incluso en tono positivo, como con las guapas, no se ve más que la belleza y eso anula cualquier otra característica de las múltiples que definen a una persona. De hecho no solo las anulan, sino que además nos las inventamos. Si es guapa conlleva que es tonta, es presumida, solo sirve como objeto de deseo, es… Este es otro mal que se da frecuentemente, y con todos los adjetivos, para mi, por ejemplo, el ser mujer solo significa eso, no implica ningún otro adjetivo asociado, ¿se es mas lista por ser mujer?, ¿o mas tonta? La realidad nos lo deja muy claro, la inteligencia es otra característica distinta e independiente, en general los adjetivos no están relacionados a priori entre si, por mucho que nos empeñemos en lo contrario para simplificar el mundo (a veces si, claro, pero las menos). Un adjetivo solo significa… lo que significa (parece fácil, pero a la hora de la verdad…). Todos caemos en estos errores, en un grado u otro, pero debemos intentar evitarlo y tener muy claro que somos y que son los demás… ¡Somos personas!

 

Nota aclaratoria: Para esas grandes inteligencias, siempre hay alguna, que en vez de captar el mensaje, se haya dado cuenta de que mujer no es un adjetivo, morfológicamente hablando, sino un sustantivo, decirles que lo he hecho a conciencia, lo he utilizado para el ejemplo, no solo porque afecta a la mitad de la población, sino porque como sustantivo supeditado al sustantivo principal, debería expandir el concepto que quiero expresar sobre cualquier tipo de barrera no conceptual que pudiera interponerse, o esa es mi intención (¡¡hala!!,¡¡vaya frase me he marcado!! ;-D).

 

PS: Si quieres ver un video con este look (If you want see a video with this look):

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_uECwjsm1M

An image from streets .

The boy is a street cobbler and was so dedicated to his work with a big smile on his face.

Beauty and dignity of his character personified. .

Once you've committed yourself to a particular wave, it's too late to take advantage of the bigger one behind it ...

 

*********************************

 

I'm spending the winter months of 2014-2015 in a warm spot on the beach in Indialantic, FL (if I have Internet access, it doesn't matter too much where I'm physically located).

 

In addition to my sunrise walks along the beach, I’m also shooting various other afternoon scenes that look interesting — especially during the “golden hour” that extends from roughly an hour before sunset to an hour afterwards. The view in all of these shots is basically eastwards (sometimes northeast or southeast), so the sun is always setting behind me in the west. Thus, I’ll sometimes see some pink skies, or some interesting mixtures of late-afternoon sunlight and blue/purple colors — but not the fiery red/yellow/pink skies that accompany the sunsets in the west ...

 

These are some of the shots that I thought were somewhat interesting ...

A special constable of Greater Manchester Police.

 

Special constables work alongside regular officers and have the same powers and responsibilities.

 

The role of special constable is part-time and voluntary. The history of the office can be traced back to the Middle Ages.

 

The Force's Special Constabulary is an integral part of the wider Policing family, providing a flexible, visible, responsive and committed resource, which assists us in providing the service, we deliver to the people of Greater Manchester.

 

To find out more about the Special Constabulary or apply to join, please visit our website.

www.gmp.police.uk

  

You should call 101, the national non-emergency number, to report crime and other concerns that do not require an emergency response.

 

Always call 999 in an emergency, such as when a crime is in progress, violence is being used or threatened or where there is danger to life.

 

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

 

Crimestoppers is an independent charity who will not want your name, just your information. Your call will not be traced or recorded and you do not have to go to court or give a statement.