Sparkle (Post 1- Comment 3)
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The horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus. It is an odd-toed ungulate mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved from a small multi-toed creature, Eohippus, into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BC, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC.
Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated, such as the endangered Przewalski's horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse.
There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior.
Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, possessing an excellent sense of balance and a strong fight-or-flight response. Related to this need to flee from predators in the wild is an unusual trait: horses are able to sleep both standing up and lying down, with younger horses tending to sleep significantly more than adults. Female horses, called mares, carry their young for approximately 11 months, and a young horse, called a foal, can stand and run shortly following birth. Most domesticated horses begin training under a saddle or in a harness between the ages of two and four. They reach full adult development by age five, and have an average lifespan of between 25 and 30 years.
Horse breeds are loosely divided into three categories based on general temperament: spirited "hot bloods" with speed and endurance; "cold bloods", such as draft horses and some ponies, suitable for slow, heavy work; and "warmbloods", developed from crosses between hot bloods and cold bloods, often focusing on creating breeds for specific riding purposes, particularly in Europe. There are more than 300 breeds of horse in the world today, developed for many different uses.
Horses and humans interact in a wide variety of sport competitions and non-competitive recreational pursuits, as well as in working activities such as police work, agriculture, entertainment, and therapy. Horses were historically used in warfare, from which a wide variety of riding and driving techniques developed, using many different styles of equipment and methods of control. Many products are derived from horses, including meat, milk, hide, hair, bone, and pharmaceuticals extracted from the urine of pregnant mares. Humans provide domesticated horses with food, water, and shelter, as well as attention from specialists such as veterinarians and farriers.
For further information please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse
Macro Mondays theme: Board game pieces.
When Covid first started and we were in lockdown we played some board games to pass the time. With two teenagers in the house Monopoly was the most preferred game to play and it did get quite competitive at times. I always loose at this game and that is ok I never make a big deal about it. When I was a kid and I used to play this with my brother, he always wanted to be "the car". It seems to be the most liked game piece. I usually like to switch things up and use a different piece every time, except the iron. I hate being the iron, maybe it's because I hate ironing. :D
Thanks for your visit! Happy MM to all!
Bike: 777 Motors - Kage bike lite
Pose: Seduction Poses - Milkcrate Challenge available @ the Cheeky WOW! event room until 25th Sept maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Goldspring/234/237/4001
Amidst the autumn season, two competitive Fallow Deer bucks test their strength, power and courage in a rutting duel to establish dominance and the right to mate a harem of does.
A small alligator trying to hide in the weeds along Horsepen Bayou!!! He's on his own in a very competitive area of the bayou where he could become a meal for one of his relatives in very short order!!!
DSL_5094uls
Now that Lake Meyer is frozen solid, these competitive Canada geese are having their first ice skating race of the season. I'll be ice fishing out there once the ice gets a little thicker😊.
A lazy, competitive afternoon playing hopscotch in the beautiful Seogyeoshire sim and being applauded by Mr Squirrel.
Spend Saturday on a non-competitive chartiy ride. TSV Kochertürn (www.tsv-kochertuern.de) hosts its annual Kastanienfest (chestnut festival) and organizes a charity bike ride. Starting fees go to DKMS (www.dkms.de) a charity that organizes bone marrow for leukemia patients.
The group ride was super-fun. Saturday is a team event, Sunday a single event. Only thing that didn't go entirely right was I had no competitive riders on my team. And those two guy who in the end proved the best for fast riding were not really interested in being cooperative in sharing the work load. But anyway. Fun plus a good cause make for an excellent day, right? And so it was.
The Big Nasty Hillclimb is a competitive event that takes place over several days. The climb, by my estimation is appx 300 ft elevation gain on a fairly steep grade. (Big Nasty Hillclimb DSC_0362.jpg)
A shot of 82nd St and 5th Avenue that was taken on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.The food at the museum cafeteria can be a little pricey,getting a bite to eat from one the food carts is more economical.
If viewed larger you can see names on the food carts.The vendors appear to be honoring men who served in the military.Perhaps the vendors themselves are veterans.
The corner building on the right side is called the Dukes House.The Beaux Arts mansion was built 1899-1901 with no in mind.Shortly after its completion the mansion was bought by Benjamin Duke,a millionaire in textile,tobacco,and energy industrialism.The Dukes House most recent owner was Mexican telecom magnate and billionaire Carlos Slim,who bought the building for $44 million in 2010.Slim sold it for $80 million,almost twice the amount he paid!You're a billionaire Carlos,for crying out loud!There are many poor millionaires out there who can't afford to pay that much:-)
1951 Cunningham C2R (race), one of three that Briggs built to compete in that year's LeMans.
Very few privateers have been as successful in sportscar racing than Briggs Swift Cunnigham. Born as a rich banker's son in 1907, Cunningham got actively involved in motor racing rather late at the age of 41. He had previously backed others, but he did not drive himself until after his mother died, who very opposed to him racing. His first race was at Watkins Glen and the car was a Buick / Mercedes-Benz hybrid, known as the 'Bumerc', the construction of which Cunningham had backed in 1939. This race really spiked his interest in road racing, in which he actively participated for two decades.
More than anything, Cunnigham was interested in long distance racing and he set his sights on the most legendary of all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He did not just want to win the event, but he wanted to be the first to do so with an all-American team. After the Duesenbergs and Millers of the 1920s, very few American successes were scored in Europe. Prepared by Phil Walters and Frick and with the help of 1949 winner Luigi Chinetti, two Cadillacs were entered in the 1950 Le Mans race. One of these was fitted with a stock body, but the second was fitted with a custom built, supremely ugly body, which for obvious reasons was nick-named 'Le Monstre' by the French.
Although the cars were not on the pace, the 10th and 11th place finishes ensured that Cunningham's entries for the 1951 race would be accepted by the picky Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO), which organized the legendary race. To take on the strong competition Cunnigham bought Walters' and Frick's shop to form B.S. Cunningham Co, which was based out of West Palm Beach, Florida. Over the winter of 1950/51 a prototype racer was constructed, the C-1, powered by a Cadillac engine. Cunningham quickly abandoned the Cadillac engine, because of a complete lack of support from the company. He turned to Chrysler, who were willing to support the development and offer their HEMI engines at a 40% discount.
Dubbed the C-2R, the HEMI powered Cunningham was a sophisticated and well constructed affair. A simple, but effective steel tubular frame chassis formed the basis of the C-2. It was suspended at the front by unequal A-arms and at the rear by an exotic DeDion rear axle. The only gearbox available strong enough to cope with the Chrysler Firepower's enormous torque was a Cadillac three speed 'box. The package was clothed in a simple aluminium barchetta style body. Being very well built and very large, the Cunningham was rather overweight, which made the car very hard on the brakes. This was made even worse by the lack of engine braking by going down the gears compared to other cars fitted with four or five speed 'boxes.
Chrysler modified the Firepower engine to produce around 250 bhp, from the 180 bhp available in stock form. Despite the enormous weight of the car, the C-2Rs proved surprisingly competitive. Three cars were entered livered in white with two blue stripes, the first use of racing stripes ever. Two crashed out, including this car, but the third car held 2nd position when a bearing and valve failure threw it back considerably. It eventually finished in 18th position. Back in North America, Cunningham started to rack up victories with his racers. At the West Palm Beach factory work was started on a new racer for 1952 and a road car, of which the ACO required 25 to be produced to make Cunningham eligible to run as a separate manufacturer.
(thanks to help from Ultimatecarpage)
AS ALWAYS....COMMENTS & INVITATIONS with AWARD BANNERS will be respectfully DELETED!
One of the Trek-Segafredo riders coming into the finishing straight of the Stage 21 Individual Time Trial at this year's Giro d'Italia.
Winter is here ... for the next day at least .. We had a cracker of a sunrise and sunset today. With a dramatic drop in temperature and a very gusty Sou Westerly change it sure made life interesting. A new lens arrived today, the Pentax DA 14/f2.8 - what a great bit of light to try it out in - if this is any indicator it's going to be on my KP as often as the HD FA 15-30/2.8 is on the K1.
These two Big Boys were not competitive at all, actually they put on quite a display of friendship.
Please view on black!
Harlequin Ladybird, Harmonia axyridis.
Size ranges from 5.5mm to 8.5mm.
Widespread in England and Wales and spreading into Scotland.
The Harlequin Ladybird can be difficult to identify because of its variations in colour, spot size, and spot count. The easiest way to identify is to look at the pronotum and see whether the black markings look like a W or M. and the head has an obvious white triangle in the centre. It is a typical Ladybird beetle in shape and structure, being domed and having a smooth transition between its wing coverings, pronotum and head. The common colour form is orange or red with 0–22 black spots of variable size. The other usual forms are uniformly black with two or four red markings. The underside is dark with a wide reddish-brown border. However, numerous other forms have also been recorded. Extreme forms may be entirely black, or feature complex patterns of black, orange and red.
When identification is difficult, the underside pattern usually enables a reliable conclusion. Identification is most simple for the common forms, while less common varieties may take longer to identify. They always have reddish-brown legs and are obviously brown on the underside of the abdomen.
Originally from Asia, this species is widely considered to be one of the world’s most invasive insects. In Europe it is currently increasing to the detriment of indigenous species, its voracious appetite enabling it to outcompete and even consume other ladybirds. The harlequin ladybird is also highly resistant to diseases that affect other ladybird species, and carries a microsporidian, single-celled fungi, parasite, to which it is immune, but that can infect and kill other species. Native ladybird species have experienced dramatic declines in abundance in areas invaded by the Harlequin. In 2015, it was declared the fastest invading species in the UK, spreading throughout the country after the first sighting was confirmed in 2004. It can have multiple broods throughout the spring, summer and autumn, which also gives it a competitive edge.
They often congregate in sunlit areas because of the heat available, so even on fairly cold winter days some of the hibernating beetles will "wake up" because of solar heating. Large populations can be problematic because they can form swarms and linger in an area for a long time.
This species became established in North America as the result of introductions into the United States in an attempt to control the spread of aphids, but he Harlequin itself has also been reported to be a minor agricultural pest that is inadvertently harvested with crops. This can cause visible and sensory contamination and contamination of grapes by this beetle has been found to alter the taste of wine.
Two trumpeter swans are very excited about taking off! While this appears to be part of a ballet, often it appears as intense competition. It is not uncommon to see the one in the rear squawking loudly at the one in front.
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It is well known that different warblers can inhabit the same ecological niche, and sometimes the same tree. Spend some time in the forest this time of year and even if you never leave one locale, you are likely to encounter more than one species of warbler. This, however, would seem to be an exception to what is known as the “ecological rule of exclusion.” In essence, any two species which inhabit the same ecological niche should not be able to coexist because one will always, eventually, out-compete the other. Close comparative study, however, has demonstrated that although these birds inhabit the same locale, and sometimes even the same tree, they will feed at different portions of the tree. Some birds will feed higher, others will hunt on the interior vs the outer portions of the tree (like this Black-throated Blue feeding at the buds of the tips of branches) and still, others will more commonly hawk insects on the wing. So, by hunting in different areas of the same tree these birds expose themselves to different kinds of food. In essence, the rules of ecology do apply, and perhaps one single tree can represent more than one single biome. #BlackThroatedBlueWarblers
It is late September, spring in NZ and the Pied Stilts are competing strongly, doing leaps in the air often exceeding 5 metres - it seems a competitive action triggered by sex hormones.
Sometimes collisions occur as here when a descending bird landing on top of a competitor that had not leapt as high.
Nikon Z7 with Nikon PF 300mm lens plus 1.4 x TC
Ever want to know more about the horses boarded at Evergarden Equestrian? Well now you'll be able to learn about these equine residents!
-Meet Gritty-
When I interviewed Gritty's owner, she had this to say about this one-of-a-kind horse - "Gritty is a three strikes horse originally from Oregon state. He has a super grouchy disposition as a gelding and prefers the company of mares and younger horses. I do a lot of hacks and flatwork with him generally as it tends to be what he enjoys the most. He also loves competitive endurance rides, and has enjoyed dressage work at an advanced level these days."
She continued on to say, "Western pursuits in the past have been enjoyable with him, but he 100% dislikes jumping. It's part of why I rarely compete in any jumping classes with him" she said with a laugh.
"He's also named after the mascot of the Philadelphia Flyers, my fav hockey team, and Philly is where we originally come from."
Gritty has been boarded at Evergarden Equestrian for a long time, and we're so glad to have him at the facility!
Sabi Sabi Game Reserve
South Africa
A hyena is more physically like a cat than a dog. Unknown to many people, the hyena spends 95% of its time hunting and not scavenging.
The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), also known as the laughing hyena, is a species of hyena, currently classed as the sole member of the genus Crocuta, native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN on account of its widespread range and large numbers estimated between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals. The species is, however, experiencing declines outside of protected areas due to habitat loss and poaching.
The spotted hyena is the most social of the Carnivora in that it has the largest group sizes and most complex social behaviors. Its social organization is unlike that of any other carnivore, bearing closer resemblance to that of cercopithecine primates (baboons and macaques) with respect to group-size, hierarchical structure, and frequency of social interaction among both kin and unrelated group mates.
However, the social system of the spotted hyena is openly competitive rather than cooperative, with access to kills, mating opportunities and the time of dispersal for males depending on the ability to dominate other clan-members. Females provide only for their own cubs rather than assist each other, and males display no paternal care. Spotted hyena society is matriarchal; females are larger than males and dominate them. - Wikipedia.
Autumn is here, winter is coming... It's time to put down the smartphone and start lifting weights. Let's start with 2.8 kg.
Pentax K1 II, HD PENTAX-D FA★ 70-200mm F2.8ED DC AW
Competitive Champion Bodybuilder Damiano from Canada in a dramatically lit pose, captured by Adrian of www.luminouslight.com
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Great tits are also stalwart songsters in February, singing throughout the day and more persistently and competitively than in January. Great Tit
Parus major
Over the years, the Brainerd Sub has been treated as the red-headed stepchild of railfanning. The reasons are understandable: Low and unpredictable train counts, generic power, and basic Northwoods scenery that is easily replicated by other, busier mainlines across the state. However, with Minnesota Power stating its intentions to stop burning coal at the Cohasset plant, and with coal shipments by boat to Michigan in imminent danger, it is likely that, in the not too distant future, road traffic on the Brainerd Sub will be a thing of the past. With other railfan attractions across Minnesota going away, my next objective has become shooting the Brainerd Sub while it still sees daily road traffic. Here is a Cohasset coal train, which is likely to be the last road customer for the Brainerd Sub in a year or two.
As I see plenty of former rail lines across the state having been turned into bike trails, it makes me wonder what the western half of the Brainerd Sub will look like in 15-20 years. Hopefully it's not that.
Aitkin, MN; BNSF Brainerd Sub; 9/27/2025
One of the London Buses 'units' set up to prepare for privatisation. It folded up shortly after I took these pictures in November 1991. The cause of its demise was the loss of most or all the work at Walthamstow Garage under competitive tendering. Adjoining units took over what was left.
London Central took over London Forest's share of route 35 (which they had run out of Ash Grove Garage). This T is seen at Camberwell Green.
THE RISE OF CYBORG CULTURE OR THE BOMB WAS A CYBORG
Bruce Sterling's science fiction novels portray the cyborg future of humanity. There, centuries from now, humans have divided themselves into competitive factions based on two opposing philosophies: "Mechanism" and "Shaping." The former have designed their own ontogenetic evolution through the cultivation of various technologies, including the prosthetic, mechanical, and especially cybernetic ones. The Shapers rely only on biology, biochemistry, and especially molecular biology (genetics) to "shape" themselves and their own futures, primarily by extending life, sexual potency, and certain biological talents. From back here in their past, we can perceive a certain irony (out of which Sterling makes some nice satiric hay): the two human factions are really twins, seeking a shared posthuman future, though through different means. Both evolve towards artificially constructed beings who rely merely on two different arrangements of cyborg techniques to distinguish themselves from each other. The Shapers may well pride themselves on their eugencially-selected intelligence and despise the artificial computer implants and enhancements of their Mechanist doppelgangers. Yet, as one of the Mechanist spokesmen notes, "[The Shapers] might properly be defined as industrial artifacts."[1] The Mechanists may well use software implants and direct linking to computers to enhance their faculties, and abhor the messy fecundity and (what they view as "corruption") of Shaper life, but there is no denying that their mechanical prostheses change biological facts.
In one particular epoch of Sterling's future history (which he plays out over several works of fiction), this galaxial civilization is in its decadence, verging on the apocalyptic, dangerously close to achieving a critical mass or catastrophic fluctuation that will force it to "leap to a new order of complexity" (in terms Sterling borrows from chaos theory).[2] This new order will be the Post/pp. 5-6/ human. The speeches of many characters refer to this yearned-for future; they chide each other with gibes like, "Oh, show a little Posthuman fluidity." Sterling's hero in "The Cicada Queen" foresees the shape of the posthuman in "The Lobsters," humans who have already gone over to the far side of this utopian vision. The Lobsters have "shucked their humanity like a caul," combining some Shaper bioengineering with Mechanist tech to encase themselves in completely cyberneticized shells, after altering their biology to ensure they can survive.
The Lobsters hooked into fluidic computers or sheltered themselves from solar storms and ring-system electrofluxes.
They never ate. They never drank. Sex involved a clever cyber-stimulation through cranial plugs. Every five years or so they `molted' and had their skins scraped clean of the stinking accumulation of mutated bacteria that scummed them over in the stagnant warmth [of their suits].
They knew no fear… They were self-contained and anarchical. Their greatest pleasure was to sit along a girder [on a space station] and open their amplified senses to the depths of space, watching stars past the limits of ultraviolet and infrared…
There was nothing evil about them, but they were not human. As distant and icy as comets, they were creatures of the vacuum, bored with the outmoded paradigms of blood and bone. I saw within them the first stirrings of the Fifth Prigoginic Leap… as far beyond intel-/pp. 6-7/ ligence as intelligence is from amoebic life or life from inert matter. ("Cicada Queen" 77)
I find this description of one of humanity's possible futures compelling, not so much because it is attractive (which it is in some zoned-out fashion) but simply because it seems plausible. This image of the cyborg and others, also more or less plausible, have now come to dominate our postmodern landscape, expressed in literature, film, and the arts, giving rise to rich expressions too broad and numerous to catalog here.
Today, from a vantage point after the Cold War is purportedly over, it is easier to see the outline of cyborg epistemology as it grows out of seeds engineered in World War II and blossoms in Cold War culture. - From this advantageous perspective in 1993, the contest among nations and ideologies that was World War II masked an even more important war between opposing cognitive faiths, with a definite victory for cybernetic fundamentalism. In short, to understand how and why the cyborg has achieved such predominance in the 1990s, such mythological force, we must re-read World War II and the Cold War. In this paper, I hope to show how the Mechanists, the Shapers, and the Lobsters of Sterling's imagination came to be thinkable -- if not inevitable -- versions of the posthuman because of the technologies and epistemologies that won World War II.
The "Atomic Age" vs. the "Cybernetic Age": The Bomb was a Cyborg
What would happen if you asked most contemporary commentators of the period of the late 1940s and the early 1950s: What is the single most important feature of your cultural and political landscape? or, What is the largest threat to civilization? They would undoubtedly reply to both questions, "The Bomb." It is a cliché to say that what determined the politics, much of the imaginative culture, some of the nihilistic philosophy, and certainly the Byzantine dance between the superpowers USSR and /pp. 7-8/ USA, was the threat of detonating the apocalyptic, doomsday device known first as the Atomic Bomb and later as the Nuclear Bomb. This was so true that it is also a cliché to call the Cold War Era the Atomic Age, sometimes striking an upbeat note, ringing within it the gleaming promise of a utopian future, but more often echoing something bleak and foreboding. Certainly, the popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s reflected darker images in hundreds of novels and movies about atomic bombs, monsters created by nuclear fallout, like Godzilla, and parables about post-Nuclear apocalyptic worlds like "On the Beach" and "FailSafe."
I would argue, however, that the politics of the atomic bomb and nuclear weaponry is really a small subset of a much more profound and important movement, one that is now beginning to express itself in its full-blooded manifestation. Furthermore, this movement was at its core an epistemological revolution. Why does the atomic bomb fade as an icon in the 1980s and 1990s, even while nuclear weapons stockpiles increase and proliferate, to be replaced by the computer, the AI, the robot, the cyborg as the most important icon of our generation? The answer, again, is epistemological: the Atomic Bomb was a very explosive technological device, but as such was merely a symptom or manifestation of the very same epistemology that is more fundamentally represented by the cyborg.
David Porush
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
from : pum.umontreal.ca