View allAll Photos Tagged Destructive
Caption: The GOES-13 satellite saw Hurricane Irene on August 27, 2011 at 10:10 a.m. EDT after it made landfall at 8 a.m. in Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Irene's outer bands had already extended into New England. Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project
From 22,300 miles in space, Hurricane Irene looks serene and impressive. That's how NOAA's GOES satellite sees Irene today as it batters the eastern U.S. coastline, but it's quite a different story on the ground.
Irene made landfall in Cape Lookout, North Carolina at 8 a.m. EDT as a Category one hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 85 mph. The storm surge and rough waves it brought have been severely battering the coast. The GOES-13 satellite saw Hurricane Irene after landfall at 8 a.m. in Cape Lookout, North Carolina on August 25, 2011 at 10:10 a.m. EDT. At that time Irene's outer bands had already extended into New England.
In an animation created at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project, GOES-13 satellite imagery taken in 15 minute intervals from August 25 to August 27 at 9:40 a.m. EDT shows Hurricane Irene's massive reach. The animation shows Hurricane Irene moving through the Bahamas and making landfall at Cape Lookout, North Carolina at around 8 a.m. EDT on Aug. 27.
Winds, waves and water are the three threatening factors in a hurricane, and Irene has all three.
At 11 a.m. EDT, August 27, reporters from the Weather Channel were reporting sustained winds on the beach of Nags Head, N.C. near 60-65 mph as Irene continued battering eastern North Carolina and tropical storm conditions were spreading into the Delmarva (Delaware/Maryland/Virginia) coast. At that time, the first rainfall from Irene's outer bands reached the Washington, D.C. area bringing brief moderate to heavy rainfall.
Two tornadoes had been reported in Virginia Beach, Va. by the Weather Channel during the morning hours today (Aug. 27) and another tornado warning was in effect. Wind gusts were reported as high as 50 mph in Virginia Beach, while Irene's strongest winds still lay to the south-southwest of there.
So, if Irene's rains were already affecting Washington, D.C., where was Irene's center at 11 a.m. EDT? It was about 50 miles (80 km) west of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Cape Hatteras is 328 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. That's quite a reach!
Irene is expected to produce rainfall accumulations of 6 to 10 inches, and isolated amounts over a foot (to 15 inches) from eastern North Carolina northward through the Mid-Atlantic states into eastern New York and interior New England. The Pamlico River in eastern North Carolina was reported to be at the top of its levee, and flooding is becoming widespread.
Irene's maximum sustained winds were near 85 mph and she was moving to the north-northeast near 15 mph. At Cape Hatteras, N.C. a wind gust to 87 mph was reported, while further north at Norfolk Naval Air Station reported a wind gust to 63 mph.
NASA satellites have noticed Hurricane Irene grow over the week, from 200 miles to over 600 miles in diameter. By 11 a.m. EDT on Aug. 27, Irene's tropical-storm-force winds extend outward 260 miles making the extent 520 miles in diameter. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles or 180 miles in diameter.
The National Hurricane Center expects tropical-storm-force winds to spread northward along the Mid-Atlantic coast today with hurricane conditions expected in afternoon. Tropical storm conditions are expected to reach southern New England late this evening with hurricane conditions expected by Sunday morning.
Dangerous, large and destructive waves are expected in coastal areas. Storm surges near the North Carolina/Virginia border are expected to raise water levels by 4 to 8 feet above ground level in the hurricane warning area, northward to Cape Cod and southern portions of the Chesapeake Bay.
Irene is now forecast by the National Hurricane Center to take a more inland track and maintain hurricane force near coastal New York, western Connecticut and western and central Massachusetts.
For forecasts, visit NOAA's National Hurricane Center website at: www.nhc.noaa.gov. For more updates from NASA, visit NASA's Hurricane page: www.nasa.gov/hurricane, also on Facebook and Twitter as NASAHurricane.
Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project
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A week after the devastating storm damage of 21 May. 2022 wrecked and splintered up this large tall tree in the woods on Duffins trail in Discovery bay , Martin’s photographs , Ajax , Ontario , Canada , May 28. 2022
Splintered up large tall tree
Splintered up tree
American Larch trees with beautiful small cones
Tamarack trees with beautiful small cones
Cones
Blooming Dogwood
flowering white dead nettles
Looking down at the front end of my bicycle
Bicycle
Four days after the destructive storm of 21 May 2022
old apple trees with beautiful blossoms
old orchard on the waterfront trail of Lake Ontario
blue sky in Squires beach
May 2022
Blossoms
Flowering trees
apple trees with blossoms
old orchard on the waterfront trail
Old orchard
Trees with blossoms
tall grasses
the large stone block walls
system to keep the Carp from entering Duffins marsh and creek system
viewed from the bridge across the marsh in Squires beach
Having a nice walk with granny in the woods
Family
Sunset
Shrubs
Oak tree
Trees with blossoms
Trees
Stones
Reflections
Reflection
Dogwood
Duffins trail
blue sky
Maple tree
cloud cover
yellow Tamarack tree
Tamarack tree
Tamarac
American Larch tree
Beautiful Nettles and it’s flowers
Nettles
Waterfront trail on Lake Ontario
Waterfront trail of Lake Ontario
Autumn
Shadows
Reflections
Large mushroom
Bird houses
Autumn
Duffins creek
Discovery bay
closeup photograph
Martin’s photographs
Ajax
Ontario
Canada
Duffins creek
Favourites
IPhone XR
Mushroom
Large Mushroom
wildflowers
Trout lilies
Lake Ontario
Mouth of Duffins creek marsh
white Deadnetles
River
Dogwood
Woods
Granny
Favourites
White Trilliums
Duffins marsh
Duffins trail
Ferns
Trilliums
Large tree
Cabbage White Butterflies are an everyday sight here while the garden is in bloom.
Catch then in the sun just right and you can see the pastel colors on the underside of their wings. They are especially attracted to yellow flowers. In large numbers they can be destructive but a few here and there is a welcome summer sight.
© All Rights Reserved - Black Diamond Images
I had been interested to get down to Saltwater after the destructive Hillville Bushfire had ravaged the area because on the night the fire had arrived at Saltwater Point (November 9th 2019) I had been visiting a friend who is the National Park Ranger in charge of the National Park there. Just before dinner we were out on his balcony deck which has a panoramic view up the coast from Diamond Beach watching the Wallabi Point fire front when suddenly a large eruption of fire occurred leaping many metres in to the sky. He said at this point "There goes my boardwalk"
The fire had burned all the way from Wallabi Point along the coast taking out all the coastal vegetation, mainly Banksia integrifolia and Cupaniopsis anacardioides, before arriving at the Littoral Rainforest at Saltwater Point.
It was somewhat surprising then at my visit here to find that while the fire had burned part of the boardwalk it had fortunately not reached this part which is out on the point.
The fire did however burn on the margins of the littoral rainforest here and did do a lot of damage that has seriously degraded the edge of the rainforest. It will take many many years, if ever, given our drying climate, for this patch of rainforest to return to its former glory.
A little further to the north of Saltwater was a large home, isolated in heath country as far as I know and known locally as the 'Castle'. I need to have it confirmed but I now think what we saw that night was that home burning down.
Wallabi Point was very lucky more homes did not burn, testimony to the effectiveness of the RFS and all its resources which included retardant bombers and many brigades.
Please consider joining and adding your Handheld Panorama Photos to the Group - HANDHELD PANORAMAS
Show Must Go On
W x H (“): 70 x 60
Oil painting on Cotton (dock canvas)
Signed
Early Period
(1)Mechanism of Inspiration
From a title or period of painting’s execution it is believed that Jaisini was driven in its creation by an influence of a song with corresponding title and the death of its author and singer Freddie Mercury. The interpreting of emotions resulted and transferred by Jaisini in his painting is unexpected development of the theme of Show Must Go On painting rich in color combination, with dynamic composition, nerve and emotion urging to attempt read into it’s concept. At a first glace the picture’s space reminds of an outlandish or even sci-fi landscape with elements that may support the impression, a red sun against a silhouette that reminds a dinosaur. On the right upper side there is a depiction of what looks like a water tower. The color develops from the front ground’s almost black cobalt blue that changes gradually to the lighter value of blue enriched by additional colors and finally to fuse in a sun light spot in the upper left corner that holds a voluptuous female figure with bulging thighs. Her position is either gymnastic of erotic. Her figure is touched by some phallic finger and seems to carry little information except being a compositional space brake.
The figure’s configuration is light almost weightless as is she was a balloon navigating the space. In contrast to this image’s lightness there is another female figure, located below. Her image is independent but at the same time she delineates a right hand of a central man. This is a reclining female torso of intense transparent red color of stain-glass.
This color of transparent red is a highlighting color of the entire picture that is dominated by blue and yellow. The inclusion of such pure sound red fires up accents and add to Jaisini’s painting special power.
He is a great color master developing his composition with complimentary tonal highlights of pure colors and contrasting inclusions that always light up the paintings with additional dimension as multi faceted precious stone that casts color sparkles. His established rule is the inclusion of pure brisk color accents. To justify such pure and intense red in the predominately cobalt composition is a complex task Jaisini successfully accomplishes in SMGO.
The work as most paintings is painted in one go in detection of light and immediate lines that create the whole compositional swirl.
This mode of work in oil called a-la-prima painted without preliminary
sketch and sure is exhausting way of creation.
It will always remain puzzling how is it possible to paint monumental, finished version of a single painting without minimum preparation. In the interview Jaisini confirmed that it takes long time, months if not years to think about future painting. If he is not capable to construct a vision of his future work in his mind until this “vision” occurs, the artist is not ready to paint or if he would persist the result can’t satisfy the artist.
The notion of having direct influence of the music and events that inspired Jaisini to paint SMGO enter the analysis and to understand the immediate mechanics of Jaisini’s creativity is a challenging task.
What moves him in this particular work to bring out strange, unexplainable images to interpret the signer’s death and the musical tune and poetic meaning of the song with theatrical slogan that “show must go on”?
In the picture the central man is in the middle of composition and picture’s concept as a main figure. As in Forbidden Fruit same here the man’s figure is depicted in a rushing forward movement that could read symbolically and remain statuesque. Such duality of being dynamic and still at the same time is always found in the best works of art that can be looked at from different aesthetic points as Rodin’s Thinker, who seemed to be so lively but at a standstill.
In SMGO the central man’s body has an athletic anatomy but also a grotesque exaggerated body part that look like a blown out of proportions phallus, erected from the man’s lower body having no anatomical detailing.
The color serves to divide phallic element in two parts. It enters a figure of a bending down man of light yellow tone. The phallic part of a central man on the point of entering into the bending man’s backside becomes the painting’s red color inclusion with transparent effect of stain glass.
The central man seems to interact with the other in internal game that can be physical game of power. The central man opens his mouth in scream from the own pain that is caused to him by a double-jawed sward-fish who in turn enters his body from the back.
On the entering the swordfish’s nose is ultramarine and then red.
There is also an interesting image of a grieving profile that fills the space between the shark and reclining woman’s torso. The sward-fish is moving out of a dark space where scalaria fish of enlarged size demarcates the side of darkness and light.
Corrals in the front ground add more ambiguity to the space with the red color and rounded shaping.
In the right corner there is a third figure of a man who could fit the definition of submissiveness or weakness by the depiction.
Such personages are often found in Jaisini’s works where they find a place to contrast images of the masculine males.
To conclude the count in SMGO I should mention a profile with a grotesque dinosaur’s long bending neck. This profile is situated between spatial contrasts of almost black concave opening.
Inside the round enclosure of the neck the space is light but indicative of shaping by the reflexes of light.
The interest to understand the work, the birth of the above-described images and their relevance to the painting’s theme, why and how did they arrive in association with prime impulse of the artist, his favorite song and sorrow.
As a formulation of the artist’s reaction to the song he liked and death of its singer in the outcoming painting is most unusual. The painting’s formal quality is complete in its dynamical and color elaboration.
When you try to see the picture in its entirety you see a great contrast of spots, beautiful combination of colors enriched by unusual color choices.
The dynamic development of picture’s space divided endlessly to create vigorous effect of foliage washed by sunlight. The yellow color parts are offset by cold deep ultramarine and refined by bold inclusion of red.
Space of the painting can’t be defined as perspective.
As in most Gleitzeit works space is multi perspective with Cubist principle of space being observed from different angles but at the same time unified by Jaisini’s plastical line unlike cubism’s straight angles.
This painting has strong sense of spontaneity with little predictability of the images. The execution of the work holds perfectly an outburst of emotions into a formulation of unlikely response to the initial drive. Jaisini’s ability to work in a style of direct painting that is loaded with philosophical meaning is a unique gift. If abstract art is mathematical it is possible to formulate its principal’s production. In such works as of Jaisini the formula would be with all unknowns.
The artist expresses his deep understanding of social conflict in Show Must Go On uniting images of violence with concept of grief for the lost such as death of singer who inspired the artist to paint.
In this work Jaisini unites man’s violent act with the concept of “show must go on” that means aggression is a primary purveyor of rebellion and its revolutionary radicalism.
In SMGO the portrayal is of a cry that informs universe of raw demands of man desperate to know whom he is and where is he going.
The title of the song and painting is a dynamic addition to the concept.
The central man is shown vulnerable as the shark enters his body. It seems to freeze the effect of his outcry by physical threat. Jaisini reflects in this work the deep-seated fundamental concept. Men transform their fear of male violence into a metaphysical commitment to male aggression.
For Freud a criminal act-aggression and death, restrictions, and suppressed desire lay at the origins of human society. He establishes conflict between Eros and Thanatos as a primal, constant human condition.
Freud proclaims: “Every individual is virtually an enemy of civilization.”
Humans are unfit for civilization because their destructive urges are antagonistic to the fundamental demands of civilization.
The situation has become particularly dire in modern times, Freud argues for there are increasingly fewer outlets for these urges even as more and more restrictions are imposed. If during time of Surrealist art Andre Breton called the “crisis of consciousness” here is the “crisis of existence”.
The subject of absurdity and extinction of male purpose is not a gender-politicized theme in the Gleitzeit works of Jaisini.
It is an artistic questioning of the potential creativity that is hidden in every man but is restricted by rules and social responsibilities.
And still the artist calls for art to continue for show to go on even through death.
The portrayal of violence and victimization has the effect of the sacrificial ritual of ancient tradition that is echoed in the painting. Life will go on through death and sacrifice. There is recognition of life within death as well as death within life. In SMGO the concept of continuance is in the effort that could be described as violent, deviant, inherently shocking. The imagery of the picture focuses on the bonding between aged long that was and is necessary for creativity, agony and ecstasy, violence and sexuality, all inescapable and vitalizing forces of life emphasized in art tradition.
Struggle between instinct of life and instinct of destruction is the struggle that entire life essentially is about.
The picture seems to illustrate what was Freud’s view of the inclination to aggression to be an original, self-subsisting instinctual disposition in man while civilization is a process in the service of Eros and death, between the instinct of life and the instinct of destruction.
This struggle represents and portrays creation and life.
In SMGO Jaisini united the symbolic of fight with transgression of taboo subject of human rage having cruelty with social purpose to continue create.
New version of Austrosalomona sp. (Destructive Katydid)
The images and sound were recorded between 2016-11-22 and 2016-12-10 at two places in Cairns Australia
Indianapolis' most destructive fires
By: Michael Hartz
Posted at 6:00 AM, Oct 31, 2019
and last updated 6:00 AM, Oct 31, 2019
INDIANAPOLIS — One of the most extensive and costly fires in the history of Indianapolis broke out in the early afternoon hours of Nov. 5, 1973.
The W.T. Grant building was located at 25 East Washington Street in Downtown Indianapolis.
The five-story building was vacant and being prepared for demolition. Several propane tanks were stored on the fourth floor, to assist with leveling the building
Shortly after 1 p.m., the propane takes ignited, causing the fire to spread throughout the building quickly.
Several RTV6 journalists were dispatched to the scene.
Among them, Lowell Davis, who recently shared his memories of the fire.
Davis recalls being joined by photographers Dennis Malone, Vern Veal, and Ralph Grant.
Each photographer covered the fire from a different vantage point.
Davis set up in the front of the building on E. Washington. Vern Veal was behind the Grant building, and Dennis Malone was in SkyCam6. Ralph Grant went to the City-County Building, where the Indianapolis Fire Department had a spotter calling the shots.
Gusting winds helped push the fire into the neighboring Thomas building.
While Davis filmed the rapidly growing fire, he noticed an elderly man trapped in the Thomas building. Davis alerted firefighters to the man who was desperately waving a white handkerchief from an open window.
Thanks to Davis’ quick thinking, firefighters were able to rescue the man by climbing on the roof of a neighboring building.
It took more than 200 firefighters 1,333 hours to extinguish the fire. Crews used more than 19 thousand feet of hose to pump nearly 4 million gallons of water. Fifteen buildings housing 84 businesses were impacted by fire or water damage.
The Grant and Thomas buildings were destroyed.
Source: www.theindychannel.com/news/throwback/1973-the-grant-buil...
Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive.
When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again.
When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.
(Antoine de Saint Exupéry)
Not much to add to this, except maybe, why Saint Exupéry TODAY (tonight) and here!?!
EVERYBODY must know the book LE PETIT PRINCE... if you don't; let me know and I'll organise the library bus to bring you a copy!!!
I have read and re-read this little booklet in German, French, English and most likely even in Italian - it's easy to understand and it contains 'stuff' to re-think for ages.... it's subtly bringing facts of life to the point and it is so lovingly written that you can't hold anything against the writer - even if you sometimes might want to! It is - in short - probably the most lovable book anybody can find.
After having bought copies of a very beautiful CD, read by Will Quadflieg (in German) for my nearly blind mother, my little sister and the children of my bros-in-law, I got a copy of my gift sent back to me by little sis..... and after a very long time I have inserted it in the car CD player, where I listen to it on my way to .... somewhere! It made me aware once again how absolutely wonderful this aviator and writer is expressing himself in his work.
These four-leaf-clovers are my latest pride and joy. The make lovely red flowers and if you care to stroll down in the comments, you'll find more close-up shots of those little darlings. I wish all of you who still live through Thursday, A HAPPY GORGEOUS GREEN THURSDAY and to the rest of us a BEAUTIFUL GREEN FRIDAY!
For the shutter sisters: Hello..... (sunshine, morning, night, happiness, smiles!)
Good night, little princesses, little princes - sleep tight!
© All rights reserved
Kindly visit my Flickr DNA for more information on me and my work. Thanks!
PLEASE do NOT just add an icon - I delete those - I want your opinions, views, your participation! If you THEN wish to invite or fave, I am all the happier... ;-)
Ten days after the devastating storm damage of 21 May. 2022 wrecked , uprooted , splintered and broken up large tall tree with some Lichen on its bark in the woods on Duffins trail in Discovery bay , Martin’s photographs , Ajax , Ontario , Canada , May 31. 2022
Splintered up large tall tree
Lichen
Lichen on tree bark
Splintered up tree
American Larch trees with beautiful small cones
Tamarack trees with beautiful small cones
Cones
Blooming Dogwood
flowering white dead nettles
Looking down at the front end of my bicycle
Bicycle
Four days after the destructive storm of 21 May 2022
old apple trees with beautiful blossoms
old orchard on the waterfront trail of Lake Ontario
blue sky in Squires beach
May 2022
Blossoms
Flowering trees
apple trees with blossoms
old orchard on the waterfront trail
Old orchard
Trees with blossoms
tall grasses
the large stone block walls
system to keep the Carp from entering Duffins marsh and creek system
viewed from the bridge across the marsh in Squires beach
Having a nice walk with granny in the woods
Family
Sunset
Shrubs
Oak tree
Trees with blossoms
Trees
Stones
Reflections
Reflection
Dogwood
Duffins trail
blue sky
Maple tree
cloud cover
yellow Tamarack tree
Tamarack tree
Tamarac
American Larch tree
Beautiful Nettles and it’s flowers
Nettles
Waterfront trail on Lake Ontario
Waterfront trail of Lake Ontario
Autumn
Shadows
Reflections
Large mushroom
Bird houses
Autumn
Duffins creek
Discovery bay
closeup photograph
Martin’s photographs
Ajax
Ontario
Canada
Duffins creek
Favourites
IPhone XR
Mushroom
Large Mushroom
wildflowers
Trout lilies
Lake Ontario
Mouth of Duffins creek marsh
white Deadnetles
River
Dogwood
Woods
Granny
Favourites
White Trilliums
Duffins marsh
Duffins trail
Ferns
Trilliums
Large tree
"Once the member of Heavy Coalition squad, Olarokh shows his destructive arsenal for incoming opponents, those who dare to challenge his might. His squad positioned on the frontline many times, in those times if the battle turned into hellish storm. Olarokh was nicknamed as 'The Walking Arsenal', due to his unstoppable firepower he causes against opponents."
Largely hidden from most Americans, a highly destructive form of coal mining called mountaintop removal has devastated 1 million acres in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. People across America use electricity that is at least partially generated by mountaintop removal coal, but it is a small amount that could easily come from cleaner sources of energy.
Appalachian Voices flight courtesy of SouthWings. photo by Kent Kessinger
Click here to see more photos from Mountain near Rawl
This picture is part of the National Memorials for the Mountains photo stream, hosted by www.ilovemountains.org.
"In a fragile environment, we need to be aware of ourselves as members of a uniquely powerful species living among other species who are quite as interesting as we are but vulnerable to us because we are cleverer in more destructive ways."
Andrew Motion
February 8, 2016 - Risso Dolphins Slaughter – at Taiji, Japan
Another destructive and devastating day in Taiji for innocent Dolphins migrating past the coast. Killers show again their greed and bloodlust as they find and drive a pod of Risso to the infamous Cove.
At sunrise all 12 killing vessels left Taiji harbor to hunt for Dolphins. Just after 7am, Japan local time, Cove Guardians spotted 2 hunting vessels circling 3-4 miles outside the coast. Minutes later, more killing vessels joined in and formed a drive. At 7:30am, 8 of the banger boats started to drive a pod of Risso Dolphins towards the Cove. Killers fiercly drove the pod to the Cove and quickly netted the pod. The killers wasted no time and drove a majority of the pod under the tarps on the killing beach for slaughter. 12 members of the pod were slaughtered and their bodies taken to the butcher house. The remaining 4-6 family members were driven back out to sea. The drive out to sea for the 4-6 Risso was just as brutal as the drive in. These remaining pod members are now traumatized, weak, and searching for the rest of their family.
This was the 24th Risso family slaughtered in the Cove this season. The greed and bloodlust in Taiji is endless. The Captivity trade fuels this slaughter. If you support Captive Dolphin entertainment shows and swim with Dolphin programs, you support the slaughter in Taiji.
SAY NO TO CAPTIVITY !!!
Sites for more information :
Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians Page (official)
www.facebook.com/SeaShepherdCoveGuardiansOfficialPage
Cove Guardians
www.seashepherd.org/cove-guardians
Photo: Sea Shepherd
ᶠᵉᵉˡ ʸᵒᵘ ⁱⁿ ᵐʸ ʰᵘⁿᵍᵉʳ
ʸᵒᵘ'ʳᵉ ʰᵃᵘⁿᵗⁱⁿᵍ ᵐʸ ᵃᵐᵇⁱᵗⁱᵒⁿ
ᴮᵉᵃᵘᵗⁱᶠᵘˡˡʸ ᵈᵉˢᵗʳᵘᶜᵗⁱᵛᵉ ᵃᵗᵗʳᵃᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ
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Pyroclastic flows are the potentially most destructive and deadly volcanic phenomenon. A mixture of hot volcanic gas and fragments of volcanic rocks ranging in size from fine dust to house-sized boulders, such flows cascade down the flanks of a volcano at hurricane speed and at temperatures that can be up to hundreds of degrees Celsius. Any object, be this a tree or a house, will be mowed down, and any living creature will be killed either due to thermal shock, the mechanical impact of the flow, or by asphyxiation from inhaling ash.
Pyroclastic flows entered into volcanological and collective conscience nearly 110 years ago, when an until then poorly known volcano wiped out the town of Saint-Pierre on the Caribbean island of Martinique, killing all but two of the roughly 28,000 people who were present in the town at the moment. The deadly agent was a strange cloud, which rather than rising up into the sky like a "normal" volcanic eruption cloud, rushed down from the volcano as a ground-hugging avalanche, and covered the distance of 8 km separating the unfortunate town from the volcano in about 2 minutes.
Since that tragedy, generations of volcanologists have been haunted and intrigued by pyroclastic flows, a quite elusive phenomenon whose generation and products seem to be the result of incredibly complex processes. A few volcanoes are notorious for producing pyroclastic flows during nearly all of their eruptions, like Merapi in Indonesia, where nearly 400 people were killed during a large eruption in October-November 2010, and Mayon in the Philippines, last active in December 2009. The Soufrière Hills on the Caribbean island of Montserrat produced countless pyroclastic flows between 1996 and 2010, causing death and devastation, but also allowing more detailed observation and documentation of these flows than has been ever obtained elsewhere.
Although not many volcanologists and volcano aficionados would have the Sicilian volcano Etna in their minds when thinking of pyroclastic flows, Etna is actually one of the busier producers of pyroclastic flows worldwide, and it has proved more "inventive" when it comes to how to generate these flows, and - luckily - they are rather small and confined to the immediate summit area and the upper flanks of the mountain. So the only people at risk are volcanologists, mountain guides, mountain rescue service staff, and occasional onlookers who enter the off-limits area. Since 1986, pyroclastic flows have occurred on at least 12-13 occasions, though others have probably passed unobserved. The most notable cases are the pyroclastic flows of the Bocca Nuova of 25 October 1999 (which I had the chance to see from only about 1 km distance), at the Southeast Crater on 16 November 2006 (again, I could witness numerous small pyroclastic flows at very close range but luckily had left the scene when a much bigger one occurred), and during a paroxysm at the New Southeast Crater on 10 April 2011 (on the steep slope of the Valle del Bove). In a surprising number of cases, people were present at close distance, but none of them have ever been hit by any of these pyroclastic flows.
One of the most exciting moments during the latest paroxysmal eruptive episode from Etna's New Southeast Crater early on 5 January 2012 was when a black cloud appeared on the slope of the erupting cone, which swept downward toward the snow-covered terrain at the base of the cone. When the cloud hit the snow, countless small puffs of steam rose. This video shows these scenes, and you can even see how the impact of the pyroclastic flow on the snow generates a small "lahar" - a volcanic mudflow, a phenomenon rarely observed at Etna. Next to pyroclastic flows, lahars are globally the second most deadly volcanic phenomenon, but luckily only one larger lahar is known to have occurred at Etna in historical time, in 1755.
The full, 8:39-min long video showing footage recorded by myself during the 5 January 2012 paroxysmal episode from the New Southeast Crater is now available at YouTube. YOU DEFINITELY HAVE TO WATCH THIS.
Minolta MC Rokkor-PG 58mm f/1.2 converted to Minolta/Sony A-mount, in a non-destructive, completely reversible conversion. I am against any destructive, non-reversible conversion.
Picture taken with Minolta 100mm/2.8 Macro
ISO 400, 1/60 s, f/6.3
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Before you read the following, I have this update: I changed my mind after I tested the Sony NEX cameras. There is no need to convert MD/MC Rokkor lenses to digital mount. Just buy the fantastic Sony NEX camera. I am starting a new set about this.
www.flickr.com/photos/wwu124/sets/72157628038466027/
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Below is the discussion I had with mimomap regarding my conversion of the 58/1.2.
Mimomap: Nice set-up, can you tell me how you did your conversion on the 58mm rokkor. Thanks.
Reply 1:
Two issues, the first is to understand the structure of the 58/1.2, and then, to install the new mount to the lens. You need to purchase the new lens mount first, either chipped or not chipped. Chipped lens mount contains a semiconductor ROM chip like the one in your auto focus lens, and it provides the capability for focus confirmation. For example, these links show the chipped lens mount for Minolta/Sony DSLR. You need to buy the lens mount that fits your DSLR.
www.ebay.com/itm/M42-Lens-Minolta-SONY-Alpha- Mount-Adapte...
www.ebay.com/itm/AF-Confirm-M42-Lens-Minolta- SONY-Alpha-M...
www.ebay.com/itm/AF-Confirm-M42-Lens-SONY-MIN OLTA-MA-adap...
For a detailed description of the conversion process with pictures, please visit this link, or you may also search for other links
www.4photos.de/camera-diy/minolta-rokkor-58-t o-canon-eos-...
I do not know which lens mount you are planning to convert to. You will find this link about SLR register useful:
www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/mounts- by-register....
This register data is the distance from the lens mount to the film/sensor plane. For example, for Minolta MC and MD mount, this distance is 43.7mm. I use Minolta/Sony AF mount, which has a lens register distance of 44.6mm. Therefore, when I converted the MC 58/1.2 to the Minolta/Sony A-mount, I had to shorten the lens by 0.9 mm in order to gain the infinity focus.
How can this be achieved? In the link about the conversion, it is shown that when you remove the MC mount from the 58/1.2 lens, you see two main parts: one is the MC mount and the other is a washer ring. The MC 58/1.2 is very popular for conversion mainly because of two reasons. One is its legendary bokeh, large aperture, and color, and the other is that it is easier to convert compared to the MD 50/1.2 because of this washer. One can simply reduce the thickness of this washer (or add an additional washer to increase the total thickness) to achieve the desirable register distance. For example, I use Minolta/Sony A-mount. I need to reduce the thickness of the washer, so that the total thickness of the remaining washer plus the new A-mount is 0.9mm less than the total thickness of the un-altered washer plus the MC mount.
In the link about conversion, a file is used to reduce the thickness of the original washer. I personally do not like this approach because this process permanently altered the wonderful 58/1.2. I used another ring of a desirable thickness to replace the original washer, so that I can save the original washer and convert back to MC mount if I want to.
Reply 2:
Instead of using a file to reduce the thickness of the washer, you may use sandpaper. With sandpaper, you can apply force more evenly. A file is not that easy to control.
Reply 3:
One word of caution when you try to remove the MC mount from the 58/1.2. The back of the lens has eight screws. Four short ones fasten the MC mount to the washer ring, and the other four attached the whole thing to the rear of the lens barrel.
Between the MC mount and the washer ring, there are rods and ball bearings that are used as lubrication mechanism for controlling the aperture. These ball bearings can easily jump out and disappear. This is my suggestion for you to avoid loosing these small parts.
Lay a nice towel on the table and do these steps on the towel so that the ball bearings will not jump. Then, unscrew one of the eight screws to find out if it is the long one or short one. When you find one long screw, then the other three alternating screws must also be the long ones. Unscrew these four long ones completely and remove the MC mount together with the washer ring. Then, carefully unscrew the other four short screws to separate the MC mount from the washer ring with the MC mount facing up. Lift the MC mount up and you will see the rods and ball bearings. Collect they and save them in a secure container. You will need them if you want to convert back to the MC mount.
Reply 4:
Just want to add that my approach is completely reversible. I can use my 58/1.2 on Minolta/Sony A-mount. I can easily convert back to Minolta MC mount in ten minutes or so for use on my Minolta manual focus cameras. Almost all the Canon/Nikon users they do not care. They simply permanently change the washer ring. But my approach preserves the MC mount of the wonderful lens.
Reply 5:
Thank you for your nice comments about my pictures. One more comment about the conversion. Once you finish the conversion, you may re-assemble the MC mount, the original washer ring, and the ball bearings together and fasten this unit together using the four short screws. When you need to convert the lens back to the MC mount, simply swap this unit with the A-mount and attach to the rear of the lens barrel using the four long screws. This makes the conversion back and forth very simple and convenient. You will never have to unscrew the four short screws, and will not risk losing the small ball bearings.
Update 07/14/2012: On my Minolta 7D, this 58/1.2 shows a back focus issue. Interestingly, I have just found out that it does not have any back/front focus issue in my A77; it focuses quite precisely. What a pleasant surprise!
Skull Shredders are the destructive menace of the jungle. They are only seen when they attack, though they leave a large imprint on the land with their many scaly claws, so as to prove how dangerous they are.
Destructive as he may be, this little critter is all decked out in his red, white, and blue. patriotic colors. Spotted him in the branches of a small tree in our garden this evening
5D MkIII, 180 macro, @ f5.6, 16 shots stacked
Two days before the total destruction from the damaging storm of May 21 this old apple tree with blossoms still in tact in the old orchard on the waterfront trail of lake Ontario in Squires beach , Martin’s photographs , Ajax , Ontario , Canada , May 19. 2022
Four days after the destructive storm of 21 May 2022 that destroyed life and did damage to buildings and nature it wrecked this beautiful old apple tree with blossoms in the old orchard on the waterfront trail of lake Ontario with a blue sky in Squires beach , Martin’s photographs , Ajax , Ontario , Canada , May 24. 2022
Looking down at the front end of my bicycle
Bicycle
Four days after the destructive storm of 21 May 2022
old apple trees with beautiful blossoms
old orchard on the waterfront trail of Lake Ontario
blue sky in Squires beach
May 2022
Blossoms
Flowering trees
apple trees with blossoms
old orchard on the waterfront trail
Old orchard
Trees with blossoms
vista with colourful trees ,
bulrushes
tall grasses
the large stone block walls
system to keep the Carp from entering Duffins marsh and creek system
viewed from the bridge across the marsh in Squires beach
Having a nice walk with granny in the woods
Family
Sunset
May 2022
Shrubs
Oak tree
Trees
Stones
Reflections
Reflection
Dogwood
Orange yellow Tamarack tree
Duffins trail
blue sky
cloud cover
yellow Tamarack tree
Tamarack tree
Tamarac
American Larch tree
Beautiful Nettles and it’s flowers
Nettles
Waterfront trail on Lake Ontario
Waterfront trail of Lake Ontario
Black eye Susan’s
Colourful bird houses
Autumn
Shadows
Reflections
Garter snake
Large mushroom
Bird houses
Autumn
Duffins creek
Discovery bay
cropped photograph
closeup photograph
Martin’s photographs
Ajax
Ontario
Canada
Duffins creek
Favourites
IPhone XR
Mushroom
Large Mushroom
wildflowers
Trout lilies
Lake Ontario
Mouth of Duffins creek marsh
white Deadnetles
River
Dogwood
Woods
Favourites
White Trilliums
Duffins marsh
Duffins trail
Ferns
Trilliums
Large tree
After chasing a very destructive storm that caused millions of dollars in hail damage to the small town of Killdeer, North Dakota. Nature reminded us of the beauty that she really has. As the last hours of sunlight fade, an orange filled sky with mammatus clouds put on a breathtaking show. This display was probably the best display of mammatus I have ever seen in my 6 years of storm chasing!
Ever since its capital was bombed in a brutal and destructive raid that killed hundreds of innocent lives,the Nordic Union has been investing heavily in increasing its defenses as to not allow an even worse repeat of this outrageous affair.
While the nation already has a fairly formidable integrated air defense system, the development of supersonic high altitude nuclear-capable bombers that could simply fly over the majority of the Nordic Union's defenses has been greatly worrying. In response to this looming threat, High King Ysmir ordered the creation of a long-range weapon system able to shoot down even high altitude supersonic aircraft. The result? The Robotsystem 68.
Equipped with both booster rockets and ramjets, the missile can propel itself at mach 2.8 to reach altitudes of around 28km in the air.
The dichotomy: comfort in a wild land.
Life is a destructive pursuit—our position comes at the expense of so much. Yet so little of what we destroy is by our own hand. Seldom do we find ourselves behind the wrecking ball. Nowhere is this more true than in America. Opportunity—the payoff of so much destruction—abounds, but not all are worth what they cost: much has been sacrificed in our race for a cheaper and more plentiful material world.
The barbarians of development and commercialization are forever beating upon the gates of our last wild refuges. Yet much untouched wildness remains worth protecting and it is the commercial potential of these places that is our most valuable weapon in their defense.
Much about my wild experiences illustrates this central dichotomy of American wilderness. We made Seattle from California’s central coast in less than two hours and descended in comfort through the tumult of a building storm. We rented a car and sipped African coffee as sun-bloodied clouds broke like waves upon the great volcano. We entered the pitchest shadow of both Earth and old-growth forest ascending the southern limb of Tacoma to find a warm bed nestled along the Nisqually.
In the morning I woke and climbed a rain-soaked ribbon of slate. Winding through dense fog, I drove with no destination in mind. Here and there the curtain of pine opened to reveal a white and murky world beyond. Before the road reached the yawning scar of spring melts, I turned off at Christine Falls. Alone and cold, I made a few images of the falls. At moments like this, my gaze is cast back toward the hectic pace of daily life, back across the scar my own existence is bound to cut across the Earth. I wonder what life is like for a Douglas fir in the katabatic wind of the great mountain—bound for centuries to a small patch of rock where “nature red in tooth and claw” surely compares favorably with the sting of an eight-month winter. Is it paradise? Is it interminable? Privilege and immense opportunity aside, the singularity of life leaves so many questions behind.
Perhaps some romanticize a retreat to an anachronistic idea of what life should be. Perhaps some would abandon from modernity—but not I. The box is open and evils loosed. The central question now is, how can we ensure the persistence of conservation? How can we use what opportunity is given to better ourselves and others?
The itch to return just under my skin.
This is the question that faces parks today and it is asked not just from within: this weekend this topic sprung up in conversation online with friends. Industrial tourism both threatens and sustains the parks. I am loathe to wholly condemn it simply because I know I could not visit the parks without roads and without lodging—my days of backpacking are both behind and far in front of me. My hope is that park visitation is a positive experience for others as it is for me; that visiting the National Parks continues to build faith in its mission.
Landscape photography may have started for me as an attempt to collect a portfolio of beautiful images but it quickly turned into a method to lose myself somewhere beautiful. Words often fail when I try to express what it means to me to make a few photographs in some place as sublime as Mount Rainier National Park. Could I bottle and share an approximation of the feeling we would have seen our last box store built. Instead I can share only photographs and a few sentences.
I’m not after post-card images. The past two years of living in California, of exploring the coasts and the mountains I am left of sound opinion that a photograph’s power is in its ability to share a genuine moment. My younger self may have been disappointed with the fog that obscured whatever early morning color might have come from sunrise, but I was giddy. Fog means terrific, soft light. Fog means drama and the chance to focus on the world within a radius of some 100 feet.
The falls sent out a tongue of cold mist whose path was notable even above the fog and chill of night not yet shook loose from the fragrant trees. The irony of Rainier is that it is a volcano that flows everywhere with ice and water. Standing before the falls amongst centuries-old firs, one must remind himself that man and pine alike are just visitors to a perilous land.
Years ago, I had the pleasure of waiting for sunrise along the rain-kissed roadside cliffs of Tahoe and Glacier National Park. The world of rock and trees and fog are everywhere similar and are nowhere the same. Minarets of stone wring the very water from the air and wear the spoils. Vast armies of evergreens pour over the foothills and march onward into the permafrost until they can climb no more, twisted and stunted in the frigid breath of the mountain. Wherever I go, I hold the scent of falling water and pine resin in my mind and the itch to return just under my skin.
In the past 200 years we’ve transformed nearly all the wild places of the Earth. I fetishize wildness, I’ll admit it. I doubt, however, that my love for it is any deeper than the apathy that exists elsewhere towards its destruction; and, so, if there is any role for one amateur photographer and nature lover in the support of parks—I am only too happy to play my part. In these experiences, I constantly reflect on whether my coming to these places or my consumption of photography has done anything to contribute to their preservation. I never have an answer.
Destructive Agendas.
Accusatores polluerunt nomen ridicula daemonum condemnans sanctorum puris iudicia,
execrable insomnio horrendo pesadillas excesivas existencia desolada almas traicioneras criminales mentes,
Gärende Überlegungen Zauberer Blutspritzer Domänen Spitzmaus Gerichte Entrüstung Teufel barbarisch,
бесконечная тьма каверны плачевные фокусы горящими необъятности плодовые тела гниющие огромная плоть чудовищная,
مستعرة أفواه الأفاعي الألسن النيران الهائلة انتزاع أطرافه عويل مقترحات مبتسما الرباح واسعة,
χλευάζοντας τους νόμους Θρήνοι τραγούδια βρίζουν σύννεφα βροντερό στοιχεία ζηλεύει εμπόδια ορμητικά δεινοπαθεί,
zvârcolire planuri de locuitori fruitless muritori secrete morți pline de ură tractează capcane comori expansive ascuns,
批判された指導者厳しい危機的な危険性超越航海復讐詩人美味しい腐食夜.
Steve.D.Hammond.
Model: Figma archetype next: he - gray color ver.
Thank you so much for the visits, favs and comments :)
Davide Solurghi Photography - Facebook Fan Page - 500PX - DeviantArt - Instagram - Tumblr - Twitter - Pinterest
©Davide Solurghi All Rights Reserved
"Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn't motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn't enough, what is? And if you are tempted to put off these questions of conscience, to say not now, then when?"
— Jonathan Safran Foer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why vegan?:
Sou destrutiva, eu mastigo tudo que eu encontro ...
Eu tenho apenas 9 meses de idade ... mas eu sou muito carinhosa e adoro brincar ...
I'm destructive, I munch everything that I find ... I'm only 9 months ...
but I am very loving and I love to joke...
Ja sam destruktivna, ja žvačem sve što nađem ... Imam samo 9 mjeseci ...
ali sam jako mila i volim se igrati ...
Into the darkness You shine
Out of the ashes we rise
After she had realized all of her self-destructive patterns, she slowly rose and was able to face the day, with hope at her side.
//
I was originally thinking of digging a hole and doing a shot with me sort of climbing out of it, but after about thirty seconds of digging, I realized I cannot dig a hole to save my life. So I found this terrific mud and figured it would work just as well. I completely coated myself. Hopefully the shot is worth it.
I'm considering making a facebook page, but I can't decide for the life of me if it should only include my creative, Shattered Infinity work, or if I should merge it with my photography business, Spreading Wings Photography. Thoughts?
*Later*
My poor sister got in a domino affect hit and run with an eighteen wheeler this evening. She and three other cars were hit in some way, but everyone is okay, with the one exception of the little purple car she and I share. So frequently tell your family you love them, and always drive safely. <3
+1 in comments
THE EASTERN GRAY/EASTERN GREY SQUIRREL (SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS)
By Paul Williams
The Grey (or Gray) squirrel, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Cute and fluffy little funsters or destructive critters who ruin trees, kill bird chicks and trees and damage our homes... oh and it's their fault we lost our native Red squirrels as well!
OK
I get it and I see both sides of the story of course. For my part, I am a nature, wildlife and landscape photographer who prefers the company of animals and natural beauty to fellow humans who are systematically plundering Mother Earth's resources and killing off her beautiful creatures at an alarming rate! I believe there is a natural order of things, creatures kill other creatures to survive, they adapt to situations and when mankind encroaches on their territory to make a fast buck, those animals sometimes adapt to survive and the order changes.
That is the balance of nature which is ever changing and affected by us..... the dumbest of the great apes. Some species are driven out by others, some may be destined to become extinct, the fittest will survive, and sometime a species will need intervention and help from mankind in order to survive... usually as a direct consequence of mankind's own actions in destroying the animal kingdom's natural habitat of course.
I adore these little fellas and at almost sixty years old, I never grew up knowing red squirrels at all. I've seen reds in Scotland and black squirrels in Stanley Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, but in my beloved home country of England I have always known and loved the cute little Greys. They visit my garden and give me hours, days, weeks of happiness and wonderful photographic opportunities, and I see them in Parks and forests all around me, so it's time to offer up an insight into the Grey squirrel, much loved, much hated... a sort of Marmite rodent if you will.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A SQUIRREL?
The word 'Squirrel', was first recorded in 1327 and hails from the Anglo-Norman word 'Esquirel', from old French 'Escurel', which was a reflex for the Latin word 'Sciurus'.The Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is also known as the Eastern Grey squirrel or simply grey squirrel depending on the region of the world it is found. It is a tree squirrel, of the squirrel family Sciuridae including over one hundred arboreal species native to all continents of the world other than Antarctica and Oceania. Tree squirrels live mostly in trees, apart from the flying squirrel. The best known genus is Sciurus, containing most of the bushy tailed squirrels which are found in Europe, North America, temperate Asia as well as central and south America.
The scientific classification for the Eastern Grey is:
KINGDOM: ANIMALIA PHYLUM: CHORDATA CLASS: MAMMALIA ORDER: RODENTIA FAMILY: SCIURIDAE GENUS: SCIURUS SUBGENUS: SCIURUS SPECIES: SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS
They were first noted by German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist - Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788.
A mammal and rodent, predominantly herbivorous they are none the less an omnivore with a life span of between two and ten years. They can grow to 70cm in length and weigh up to 8kg. There are more than two hundred and sixty species of worldwide squirrel, the smallest being the African pygmy squirrel at just 10cm in length, whereas the Indian giant squirrel is three feet long! The oldest fossil of a squirrel, Hesperopetes, dates back to the late Eocene epoch period Chadronian period of 40-35 million years ago. The tree squirrels rotate their ankles by 180 degrees, so that the hind paws pointy backwards gripping tree bark which enables them to descend a tree headfirst.
Originally native to Eastern and Midwestern United States of America, they were first introduced into the United Kingdom in 1876 in Henbury Park, Macclesfield in Cheshire when Victorian banker Thomas V. Brocklehurst released a pair of Greys that he brought back from a business trip to America after their attraction as pets had waned. Victorians had a penchant for collecting exotic animals and birds of the world, but trends came and went and subsequently animals were simply discarded into the wilderness. There are early records of greys released near Denbighshire in north Wales from private collections. Later introduced to several regions in the UK, they quickly settled and spread, colonizing an area of three hundred miles in a quarter of a century between Argyll and Stirlingshire in Scotland.
Introductions of the Greys between 1902 and 1929 (the year of the last recorded introduction), included: Regent’s Park in London, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Hampshire. Grey Squirrels spread into Gloucestershire and eastern Wiltshire with animals coming directly from the United States or from Woburn. One hundred greys were released in Richmond Park in Surrey in 1902, Ninety one into Regent’s Park between 1905 and 1907 and a further ten New Jersey imported greys were introduced into Woburn Park in Bedfordshire.
Predators include hawks, weasels, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, domestic and feral cats, snakes, owls, and dogs, African harrier-hawks in Africa and... oh yes, Mankind pretty much everywhere who despise, mistreat, cull or eat it .
FACTS, MYTHS AND THAT POXY PARAPOX!
The massive decline in native red squirrels blamed upon the spread of the invasive greys has always been perhaps a little harsh as reds were already in a steep decline due to loss of habitat and disease and thus the greys simply took over the areas where the reds were dwindling. It's also a fact that reds were also seen as a plague, branded as pests who killed birds and damaged trees and the culling of reds almost brought them to the brink of extinction. Licenses to kill reds could still be obtained up until the seventies!
Reds suffered at the hands of mankind thanks to a combination of agricultural deforestation also linked with war and fuel needs which caused extinction in Southern Scotland and Ireland by the early eighteenth century, way before greys had been introduced. Harsh winters killed off the less hardy red population in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Greys are more adept at finding food and adapting to locations and environments, but also carry the squirrel poxvirus (SQPV) which although not particularly harmful to them, is a serious infection for the reds.
Parapox in red squirrels causes swollen lesions around the mouth, eyes, ears and nose also the front paws and sometimes genitals and skin ulcers and kills a red within fifteen days. There is no definitive correlation between the spread of the virus and the spread of the Greys, it actually arrived in several areas before the greys began to colonize there. An epidemic virus was observed in Red squirrels from at least 1900 with isolation attempts failing, and the first case of Parapox in the UK was in 1980 in the county of Norfolk. Greys cannot transmit the virus to reds via saliva or faeces, but reds can between each other from bodily secretions and at animal feeders in gardens. The transmission from greys to reds is though to come from parasites. Eight to ten per cent of reds survive the virus, and there is some evidence that reds are slowly building an evolved resistance.
Greys are seen as pests to forest land, stripping bark from trees during May and June, and are also capable of destroying household bins, water pipes, causing roof damage not to mention taking eggs and killing young chicks of ground nesting and songbird populations. They also take from bird feeders and there is a whole industry for creating squirrel proof feeders these days.
THE CULLING OF GREY SQUIRRELS
Grey squirrels have limited legal protection and can be legally controlled all year round by a variety of methods including shooting and trapping. Methods of trapping and killing include Drey poking and shooting, Tunnel trapping using spring traps set in accordance with BASC’s trapping pest mammals code of practice. They can also be shot using a shotgun or powerful air rifle or up until September 30th 2014 poisoned by Warfarin (Now outlawed).
Whilst professional trapping and extermination is hopefully done as humanely as possible, there have been cases, many of them where cost savings have been gained by battering the squirrels to death! Grey squirrels are trapped in ghastly metal contraptions for hours and hours, wearing themselves out frantically trying to escape by gnawing at the metals bars. They bite the floor and scratch at them with their claws and do not get a moments peace or rest through absolute fear. Once the traps are retrieved, each squirrel, terrified will be thrown into a sack and smacked on the head countless times with a blunt instrument. When a mother is slaughtered, her babies who are totally dependent on her, will die a slow death of thirst and starvation.
There is an argument for the control of Greys on many grounds but also a counter argument that Culling does not work, and has not on countless times where, once a population of greys have been culled, the nearest group will move back in and claim the land. The university of Bristol concluded that there was little evidence that culling greys to save red squirrels was effective, and that perhaps finding a way of boosting red squirrel immunity to the poxvirus or planting areas of yew trees where reds are known to thrive and spending money on research into positive moves might be a better option.
In Ireland, the re-introduction of the Pine marten, a species made extinct originally by the very same land owners who also wish to do the same to the grey squirrel, has seen the rapid demise of the grey and the reintroction of the native reds. Red squirrels are smaller and more nimble than their grey counterparts, and as such can get to the very ends of tree branches where neither the pine martins, nor more importantly the heavier greys can, thus surviving and thriving. As a result in Ireland, the grey squirrel population has crashed in approximately 9,000 km2 of its former range and the reds has become common once more after a thirty year absence... oh and Pine Martens are protected again!
In Scotland, Pine Martens exist in areas where Red squirrels thrive, and greys do not. So perhaps there is a lesson here, as in England where there are no pine martens, the greys are prolific breeders. So there is an argument against the barbarity of shooting and poisoning greys, and if, as so many believe, the greys MUST be controlled, how about a more humane and natural method that nature intended.. with re-introduction of predators. Just a thought!
So a few facts and figures on the greys and to wrap up, from a purely personal perspective I love these little guys, as I do almost every creature in nature other than those eight legged beasties that shall not be named and for which I have a deep and powerful phobia that borders on paranoia!
I could no more harm an animal deliberately than eat a McDonald's McRib (Once saw how they are made and let me just say... eeeuuuuuwwwww!!).
They are small, cute, cuddly, furry, they photograph beautifully, have great personality and make me smile. They trust me enough to take food from my hand in parks, and I can't bare the though of ugly, hairy land owners sticking a shotgun in their face and blowing them away! I appreciate they can be a pest, a problem, a menace, that their PR managers might have a bit of a problem winning you over when they flay small chicks alive on your lawn or decimate the songbird population by stealing their eggs.... and perhaps there is a need to keep the population under control and try and re-establish the red population.....
Yep I get that....
I just hope we can solve the problem more humanely to create a peaceful coexistence of the reds and greys in different areas. A man can dream can't he.
Paul Williams June 18th 2021
©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams).
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, at 14:00pm on Monday 20th January 2020, on a beautifully sunny afternoon off Birdcage Walk and Horse Guards Road in the grounds of St James's Park.
Situated in the City Of Westminster, the Park spans twenty three Hectares and is the oldest of the Royal Parks of London, with a variety of visiting and nesting birds that include Ducks, Canada Geese and Pelicans.
Here we see, Sciurus Carolinensis (Eastern Gray Squirrel or Grey Squirrel), a tree squirrel native to North America and first introduced to the UK in the 1870's.
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Nikon D850 Hand held with Sigma OS Optical Stabilization enabled on normal setting. Focal length 175mm Shutter speed: 1/400s Aperture f/8.0 ISO800 Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). NEF RAW L (14 bit uncompressed) Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. Auto ISO 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points.AF-Area mode single point & 73 point switchable. Exposure mode: Shutter priority mode. Matrix metering. White balance on: Auto1 (8510K). Colour space: RGB. Vignette control: Normal. Picture control: Auto (Sharpening A +1/Clarity A+1)
Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS. Lee SW150 MKI filter holder with MK2 light shield and custom made velcro fitting for the Sigma lens. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 29.35s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 0m 17.88s
ALTITUDE: 45.0m
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Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
This destructive insect was spotted by "me" and not Chris my "BFF" (bug finder forever).
Look how well it is camuflaged along the stalk it is on.
The Orion constellation is one of the most brilliant. In legend, it represents a mighty hunter brought down by his own pride.
He boasts he could slay all wild animals but he was killed by a scorpion. The constellation's most celebrated feature is the huge nebula 1,500 light years away that lies within the hunter's sword.
Amongst the hundreds of stars in the system are two super giants, Betelgeuse and Rigel, 430 and 770 light years away, respectively.
Germain, channeled by Lyssa Royal, tells us that Orions are 89% Vegan and 11% Lyran. Note that Vega is a star in the Lyra constellation of stars, whereas the Orions we are interested in are apparently from the Betelgeuse and Rigel star systems.
Of the Orions who are Vegan (89%) in nature, most are of the human type - a smaller percentage is nonhuman.
Of the Orions who are Lyran stock (11%), most are light-browned skin, and about 10% are Caucasian type with light hair. Although their bodies are water based like ours they have an oily, fatty content acting like a lubricant. Also, as we indicated earlier, the little Greys occupy a small percentage of the Orion population; their origin, Zeta Reticuli, is a neighbor of the Orion constellation.
Thus, overall, the genetic differences are quite marked.
Orions have a reputation for possessing an aggressive nature and have been involved in many destructive wars. Note that the masculine energy is associated with the evolution of beings from the star systems of Orion, which are related to Earth, whereas inhabitants of the Sirius star system, also very much involved with Earth, carry the feminine energy or polarity.
Although there is a symbiosis between consciousness and technology, the Orion races probably pushed this principle to the limit and developed advanced technology (of a type) while still war-waging. The typical scenario was the Light against the Dark; peace-loving Orions opposed by self-serving 'aggressive' Orions.
According to Light Network there are three major players in the galaxy:
the Intergalactic Confederation of different star systems throughout the galaxy
the Reptoid Federation, a conglomeration of many reptoid species
the Orion Empire, ruled by one leader
Now within the domain of the Orion Empire, three groups formed, the dominant Orion Empire, the Black League resistance (to the Empire), and the victims of both these groups.
Even though this pattern of behavior still operates it is less widespread and many individuals have been awakened since the incarnation in Orion of a great avatar.
The authoritarian trait, present on Earth, is not typical amongst ET civilizations and has been acquired from Orion.
Many Orions, including the Black League, went to Maldek and settled - this is the planet in our system that was inhabited by many of the so-called fallen angels, who were given the opportunity to reform.
As is well known, the civilization failed to turn to a more spiritual path and the planet was destroyed, leaving the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Some sources indicate it was struck (or disturbed) by the huge planet Nibiru as it entered our system in its counter-direction to the other planets. Many of these Dark forces are on Earth at this time; hence the authoritarian nature that pervades this planet, including an enforced reliance on authority.
On the positive side, however, the Orions have contributed their mental powers for the development of smoothly running systems on Earth. They beam the yellow ray frequency to earth for the stabilization of the intuitive powers within human consciousness.
They are the source for many organizational structures of government, business and industry. Nevertheless this energy is only relevant to Earthman's frequencies, which we shall outgrow and then receive other energies from more advanced races, such as the Lyrans.
Of the genetic percentages mentioned above, the smaller group of nonhuman Vegans would cover the Greys and reptilians and accompanying varieties.
It is not uncommon for abductees to refer to small aliens (Greys) directed by a single tall alien (reptilian type, or sometimes, Nordic). The Greys tend to be servants or mercenaries for the tall reptilians.
These Greys and Dracos are known as the Rigelians (from the Rigel star) and are extremely dangerous.
The Orions, who have Vegan characteristics, have particularly striking eyes. In fact their priests, who live twice as long as the general population - about a thousand years - have bright blue eyes, which change to that color as a result of strict spiritual training, involving diet and psychic experience. The common color for the eyes is brown. Their height is usually in the 7 foot- tall category.
The duties of these priests is the education in theory and practice of all aspects of relationships for both marital and premarital subjects, including procreation rituals, in which full intimacies occur during a 24-hour stay in the priest's temples as a normal custom. Appearance remains similar from young to old with no senility. Attraction is not physical; awareness of inner-consciousness dominates.
In spite of the spiritual implications, there appears still to remain within the Orion civilizations the never-ending conflict between the Orion Empire and the Black League resistance. The Empire appears to be run mainly by the Greys working with a Federation of Draconian Reptilians, with the aim of extending their domination to other planets.
These Greys are mainly the ones who negotiate treaties and secret deals with Earth governments.
The resistance group have apparently built cities in and within the mountains. The Empire enforces controlled procreation, numbers of children, etc. and also enforces by Orion law that it is 'forbidden to remember'. The resistance group, however, are free from this mental control. The priests would seemingly be either from this category or the victim group.
Their customs are bound to rituals; imagination is not very free and children are told of the myth of Earth: of the freedom to be anything.
A civilization, particularly expressing what we understand by Orion energy - more masculine - would be the race from planet Vivinau nearer towards the the centre of the galaxy.
This is the home of the Warrior League. The Warrior League brings order to their society, and is essentially divided into,
the 'amenable' - people who would not rule and are subsequently trained to be amenable (no resistance, or anarchy, terrorists, protestors)
the 'omnipotent' - those who would rule
The interaction of this race with humans was considered by the Orions to have the purpose of bringing a similarly designed order to us claiming this is a duty on their part given by the 'Creator'.
They notice now, however, they are ineffective; their last monitors having visited Earth in 1957 with decreasing influence to the present. They accept that the Creator no longer requires their assistance - their energy - on Earth any more, and that the Creator apparently has other plans.
These warriors wonder how we will cope. They apparently operate on the principle of destroying negativity, criminals, terrorists, to bring order, not seemingly recognizing that ultimately rehabilitation is the only way, or simply not reflecting these 'negativities' into the environment from one's own mind.
This latter, is clearly the path for humans, hence the Creator's removal of this Orion influence.
Zoltec of the warrior league answers questions via channeling in the Explorer Race books. He states that the average height of this race is over 7 feet tall. They have a similar body to humans but tougher skin. They consider humans weak, physically, mentally and emotionally - they utilize the power of passion.
Their form and means of help to Earth has been through the so-called men-in-black (MIB).
Much has been written about these mysterious 'emissaries'. From the Earth person's viewpoint more negativity seems to be associated with these MIB than positive.
But they insist that they have protected us from the negative Sirians and also (ironically) from all such races as the Pleiadians, who are,
'trying to get you to imitate them... they are chaotic.'
Also the MIB influence government decisions by advocating adherence to their successful societal model and that societies which have used that form of government on Earth have survived the longest.
Note that they praise and respect the Roman Empire.
The MIB are of human size and roughly similar appearance but contain the Orion soul essence. The bodies are cloned by the little Greys who are also in the Orion system. These clones with Orion souls are the MIB.
They are sent in small space capsules to Earth; a journey taking about seven years. On arrival they are trained for a year or so in Earth customs, etc., at an Orion station. They apparently cannot stand our weak energy.
Zoltec refers to the anarchy from the Black League, which he states originally brought down Atlantis, and he likens them to our terrorists. Prior to Atlantis they were chased from the Orion planets to Maldek, a small planet in our solar system with an ordered civilization according to Zoltec, destroyed by the Black League, now a cluster of asteroids between Jupiter and Mars.
According to Zoosh a propulsion fuel was developed to accelerate them beyond light speed for their escape.
The fuel, a 'hydrogen-oxygen combinant' was unstable but extremely powerful. It was manufactured in large quantities and was sufficient to destroy the planet. Many of these destructive beings then incarnated on Earth.
When asked how they communicate with the Creator, he describes visitations of the 'All-Powerful' in the form of a female warrior of golden light with armor and sword. She is described as the ultimate female; just to be touched with her sword was 'a wonderful thing.' The above Orion warrior material is taken from the Explorer Race books.
Clearly the only way the Creator could communicate to these warriors was in a form acceptable to them - virtually in their own making. They appear to be totally blocked of feminine energy or a world in which all problems can be solved harmoniously. In spite of their psychical abilities, their experience, intelligence and technology, they are stuck.
If they knew, however, what evolution had in store for them they would misunderstand it and reject it - simply because of the necessary feminine energy.
Hence it seems they must have more limited perception in this area than humans. When Zoltec was asked about the future of Orion (and they have advanced technologies for seeing future probabilities, etc.) he replied he didn't want to know. They didn't like what they saw; reminded them of humans - weak.
As a final piece of information about the Orions of some interest was the fact that they apparently created the huge cavern under Cape Good Hope. The Shining The Light books describe the size of this as of the order of magnitude as Rhode Island.
Following one of the many Atlantis disasters, in which the surface of Earth was not habitable, the Atlanteans, who survived, sent out signals for help.
The Orions apparently immediately responded and shortly arrived in a large ship. According to the Zoosh material their technology was such that they built the cavern about 150 miles under Cape Good Hope and did this in about 16 hours - primarily for the Atlanteans.
However, their motivations weren't without self-interest. Any opportunity to preserve a connection with Earth was taken advantage of in case they needed to utilize it in the future, such as for resources.
Thus they did in fact examine the probabilities for their future which showed they did need the connection with Earth for the next 100,000 years. They thus set up equipment in one 'corner' of the cavern, and protected it with fields, even of a nature to make Atlanteans sick if they came close.
After this they left for their home planet in Orion.
PIRATE ALIENS
It is not uncommon for extraterrestrial civilizations to spawn rebellious members which are ostracized from their native planet.
We mentioned in the first chapter a digressive strain from the reptilians race called the Drakon. Here we shall concentrate on small pirate groups, in particular, from the relatively advanced civilizations of,
Orion
Sirius
the Pleiades
These comprise not more than a handful of pirates who revel in plundering planets like Earth and exploring time travel in such linear 3D highly objective realities.
Different aliens seek different resources whether it is sea water, sand, quartz, minerals or genetic material, etc.
But they have apparently learned that generally it is to their benefit to exercise cooperation with our secret government and negotiate deals with them. Over the years the government has acquired advanced technologies from ETs as a result of these negotiations.
A particularly notorious renegade cabal are the Xpotaz. In the Shining The Light books they are referred to as particularly dangerous time travelers. They no longer have a home planet.
An example is given in which the Xpotaz, which had established itself by force as go-between for other alien pirate's deals with the secret government, would warn all other rebel parties approaching Earth with a view to acquiring resources.
They would threaten them with their 'time beam weapon'; a dreaded device with which few would argue - unless they were contacted first.
Nevertheless, along came the Zetas; their first mission to Earth, seeking genetic material. This took place in the 1920s. There were nine Zeta aliens in their spacecraft, which was a product of hundreds of thousands of years of advanced technology.
Their intention was to contact Earth's governments, which would be the secret government or One World Government and negotiate a deal for the acquisition of genetic material from humans. A combination of some degree of etiquette or ethics, and cooperation for cover-ups from the public made government contact logical and wise.
The Zeta ship's approach to Earth was intercepted by the Xpotaz pirates. These Zetas were given the standard warning that unless they cooperated and conducted negotiations with the government through, and to the benefit of, the Xpotaz they would be subject to the time-beam weapon.
It had never been necessary to use it as no aliens were foolish enough to defy the Xpotaz. Nevertheless the Xpotaz were quite ready to use it to set an example to others.
Needless to say the Zetas ignored them. One must keep in mind that the Zetas had developed unsurpassed intellect. Their ships were constructed of the same material as their cloned bodies (compressed light, which was a little like plastic), and could - as they did with their bodies - bilocate: appear in two places at once.
In addition, on entering their ships, one apprehended that the interior of the craft was greater than the outside dimensions permitted. They were exceedingly advanced, but highly specialized, resulting in an inordinate failure to understand others, combined with a certain naivety and arrogance.
Thus they rejected three warnings from the Xpotaz.
The time-beam device was directed at the Zeta spacecraft. The ship was transported back in time half-a-billion years at a location better described as the other side of the universe. Channel source Zoosh referred to this as a sad state of affairs. There was no hope of them finding their way home. To this day since the 1920s they are still lost and in fact are not expected even to be rescued within their lifetimes of another 200 years.
Underhand deals with the secret government were also negotiated by other pirate aliens such as ones from Orion and Sirius but the most treacherous are the Xpotaz.
According to the Shining The Light series of books the Orions contacted our secret government around 1910 and in return for a small laser device, obtained government agreement to turn a blind eye while they took over human bodies by force - this was as per the well-known 'walk-in' procedure, except that most walk-ins are benevolently arranged.
This means that the soul entering has agreement with the soul leaving.
Generally the departing soul is leaving a dying body and the exchange mechanics are quite complex. The new personality is rarely aware immediately that they have taken over a human body. They have the same memories, karma, ailments, etc. The Orion's purpose in controlling human bodies was of course negative.
Thus the government obtained laser technology from aliens. It took them about 30 years to understand and duplicate the laser, culminating in the development of a laser gun.
Regarding the Orion renegade's intention to take over (a few) human bodies, it amounted to nothing more than an attempt. The energy for humans was incompatible and the plot failed. Needless to say the government obtained their end of the deal.
Now regarding deals from the Sirians, the renegades originally from this planet were few in number, much less than Orion and Zeta Reticuli. Also remember that these pirate aliens in general are outcasts from their home planet - in particular Orion and Sirius but also even a number from the Pleiades (in the case of the Sirians though, these were probably the so-called negative Sirians).
The few negative Sirians apparently planned to set up conditions to harness the Earth's core. The government allowed them to utilize their technology involving a very small amount of the core, and in exchange the Sirian pirates gave them a medical chamber which was claimed to heal all ills.
The problem was, in using it discreetly in the underground bases, it required an antenna extending above ground level, directed at the sun. The extreme secrecy that the government required prohibited its application. As a result it was used very little.
The Zetas themselves did many deals. It is difficult to categorize them as negative or positive since as we have seen in the chapter on the extensive Zeta program there was a higher purpose.
The basic arrangement with the secret government was that the government turned a blind eye to the abductions to enable the Zetas to obtain genetic material. The Zetas were also given quartz, which is abundant on planet Earth, but scarce in Zeta Reticuli. In return, the Zetas were apparently almost naively generous.
The government would have accepted much less. Again this is an example of the Zeta's over specialization, resulting in a failure to evaluate relative importance and the nature of other beings.
The government were given a complete space drive.
The Zetas also gave the secret government a crystal technology that would give free energy. Free energy or over-unity energy means the device harnesses not mechanical and chemical energy, but energy from space, cosmic energy or sun light, etc. Every point in our space potentially contains an unlimited amount of energy and certain systems will extract this by resonance.
This Zeta system of free energy was achieved by internal reflection of the Sun's rays.
As is typical, however, the secret government did not make it available to the masses and kept it for themselves. The government gave them quartz and sand in exchange.
The government in fact utilized the device for nefarious purposes. The crystal technology could be used with the secret government time machines (see Montauk material) and genetic experiments to enable them to synthesize the DNA of the Zeta aliens.
This technique was successful, resulting in the creation of a slave race of cloned Zeta-type aliens.
A method was used to prevent 'normal souls' from entering the bodies - only degenerate beings and consciousness were attracted (note that as stated previously, 'normal souls' wouldn't enter clones anyway).
The most destructive Etnean eruption during the 20th century occurred in November 1928 and led to the destruction of the small town of Mascali (pronounced Màs-ca-li). This was actually the first time since 1669 that an entire population center was destroyed by an eruption of Etna, and no similar destruction has been caused by any eruption at this volcano since then (as of early 2002). While the course of the events was similar to that of other eruptions during this century (the progressive downslope propagation of eruptive fissures), the eruption was unusual because the most productive vents formed at low altitude (down to 1150 m elevation) in an area of infrequent eruptive activity.
The 1928 eruption produced about 40 million cubic meters of lava, much less than is written in many sources, and thus was not a particularly large eruption for Etna standards. The destructive potential came from two other important factors: the low elevation of the main eruptive vents (1150 m) and the high effusion rates during the first days of the activity, which may have exceeded 100 cubic meters per second. In comparison, the peak effusion rates during the July-August 2001 eruption were less than 20 cubic meters per second. For these reasons the lava flow that brought the destruction of Mascali advanced very fast along a narrow valley. The unfortunate town was located at the valley floor, which is probably the worst place for a town to lie near an active volcano.
Many sources attribute the death of up to 5 people to the 1928 eruption, including "an elderly couple" that was overwhelmed by the lava while sleeping. Recent research by Duncan et al. (1996) and Chester et al. (1999) shows that instead, the eruption did not cause any fatalities, because Mascali was completely and orderly evacuated in time and residents not only had the time to save their lives and their households, but movies filmed during the eruption show people removing the rooftiles from their homes before these were engulfed by the lava.
The most violent eruption of the first halves the century was in November 1928; such eruption gushed out by a long fissure that prolonged him up to the Ripe Della Naca, on November 6-7 it reached Màscali destroying it.
Link for the 1928 video on the occasion of the lava casting. My friend's assemblage TonyEtna .
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dwO1TMQH_8
“The Haunting of a Europe in Arms: Surprise Air Attack on a Big City.” [Accompanying caption]
World War II, the deadliest and most destructive war in history, began with Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. On that day, the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) began bombing Polish cities and the civilian population in an aerial bombardment campaign.
The Grey (or Gray) squirrel, you either love 'em or you hate 'em. Cute and fluffy little funsters or destructive critters who ruin trees, kill bird chicks and trees and damage our homes... oh and it's their fault we lost our native Red squirrels as well!
OK
I get it and I see both sides of the story of course. For my part, I am a nature, wildlife and landscape photographer who prefers the company of animals and natural beauty to fellow humans who are systematically plundering Mother Earth's resources and killing off her beautiful creatures at an alarming rate! I believe there is a natural order of things, creatures kill other creatures to survive, they adapt to situations and when mankind encroaches on their territory to make a fast buck, those animals sometimes adapt to survive and the order changes.
That is the balance of nature which is ever changing and affected by us..... the dumbest of the great apes. Some species are driven out by others, some may be destined to become extinct, the fittest will survive, and sometime a species will need intervention and help from mankind in order to survive... usually as a direct consequence of mankind's own actions in destroying the animal kingdom's natural habitat of course.
I adore these little fellas and at almost sixty years old, I never grew up knowing red squirrels at all. I've seen reds in Scotland and black squirrels in Stanley Park on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, but in my beloved home country of England I have always known and loved the cute little Greys.
They visit my garden and give me hours, days, weeks of happiness and wonderful photographic opportunities, and I see them in Parks and forests all around me, so it's time to offer up an insight into the Grey squirrel, much loved, much hated... a sort of Marmite rodent if you will.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A SQUIRREL?
The word 'Squirrel', was first recorded in 1327 and hails from the Anglo-Norman word 'Esquirel', from old French 'Escurel', which was a reflex for the Latin word 'Sciurus'.The Eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) is also known as the Eastern Grey squirrel or simply grey squirrel depending on the region of the world it is found.
It is a tree squirrel, of the squirrel family Sciuridae including over one hundred arboreal species native to all continents of the world other than Antarctica and Oceania. Tree squirrels live mostly in trees, apart from the flying squirrel. The best known genus is Sciurus, containing most of the bushy tailed squirrels which are found in Europe, North America, temperate Asia as well as central and south America.
The scientific classification for the Eastern Grey is:
KINGDOM: ANIMALIA PHYLUM: CHORDATA CLASS: MAMMALIA ORDER: RODENTIA FAMILY: SCIURIDAE GENUS: SCIURUS SUBGENUS: SCIURUS SPECIES: SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS
They were first noted by German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist, and malacologist - Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788.
A mammal and rodent, predominantly herbivorous they are none the less an omnivore with a life span of between two and ten years. They can grow to 70cm in length and weigh up to 8kg. There are more than two hundred and sixty species of worldwide squirrel, the smallest being the African pygmy squirrel at just 10cm in length, whereas the Indian giant squirrel is three feet long! The oldest fossil of a squirrel, Hesperopetes, dates back to the late Eocene epoch period Chadronian period of 40-35 million years ago. The tree squirrels rotate their ankles by 180 degrees, so that the hind paws pointy backwards gripping tree bark which enables them to descend a tree headfirst.
Originally native to Eastern and Midwestern United States of America, they were first introduced into the United Kingdom in 1876 in Henbury Park, Macclesfield in Cheshire when Victorian banker Thomas V. Brocklehurst released a pair of Greys that he brought back from a business trip to America after their attraction as pets had waned. Victorians had a penchant for collecting exotic animals and birds of the world, but trends came and went and subsequently animals were simply discarded into the wilderness.
There are early records of greys released near Denbighshire in north Wales from private collections. Later introduced to several regions in the UK, they quickly settled and spread, colonizing an area of three hundred miles in a quarter of a century between Argyll and Stirlingshire in Scotland.
Introductions of the Greys between 1902 and 1929 (the year of the last recorded introduction), included: Regent’s Park in London, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, Devon, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and Hampshire. Grey Squirrels spread into Gloucestershire and eastern Wiltshire with animals coming directly from the United States or from Woburn. One hundred greys were released in Richmond Park in Surrey in 1902, Ninety one into Regent’s Park between 1905 and 1907 and a further ten New Jersey imported greys were introduced into Woburn Park in Bedfordshire.
Predators include hawks, weasels, raccoons, bobcats, foxes, domestic and feral cats, snakes, owls, and dogs, African harrier-hawks in Africa and... oh yes, Mankind pretty much everywhere who despise, mistreat, cull or eat it .
FACTS, MYTHS AND THAT POXY PARAPOX!
The massive decline in native red squirrels blamed upon the spread of the invasive greys has always been perhaps a little harsh as reds were already in a steep decline due to loss of habitat and disease and thus the greys simply took over the areas where the reds were dwindling. It's also a fact that reds were also seen as a plague, branded as pests who killed birds and damaged trees and the culling of reds almost brought them to the brink of extinction. Licenses to kill reds could still be obtained up until the seventies!
Reds suffered at the hands of mankind thanks to a combination of agricultural deforestation also linked with war and fuel needs which caused extinction in Southern Scotland and Ireland by the early eighteenth century, way before greys had been introduced. Harsh winters killed off the less hardy red population in the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Greys are more adept at finding food and adapting to locations and environments, but also carry the squirrel poxvirus (SQPV) which although not particularly harmful to them, is a serious infection for the reds.
Parapox in red squirrels causes swollen lesions around the mouth, eyes, ears and nose also the front paws and sometimes genitals and skin ulcers and kills a red within fifteen days. There is no definitive correlation between the spread of the virus and the spread of the Greys, it actually arrived in several areas before the greys began to colonize there. An epidemic virus was observed in Red squirrels from at least 1900 with isolation attempts failing, and the first case of Parapox in the UK was in 1980 in the county of Norfolk.
Greys cannot transmit the virus to reds via saliva or faeces, but reds can between each other from bodily secretions and at animal feeders in gardens. The transmission from greys to reds is though to come from parasites. Eight to ten per cent of reds survive the virus, and there is some evidence that reds are slowly building an evolved resistance.
Greys are seen as pests to forest land, stripping bark from trees during May and June, and are also capable of destroying household bins, water pipes, causing roof damage not to mention taking eggs and killing young chicks of ground nesting and songbird populations. They also take from bird feeders and there is a whole industry for creating squirrel proof feeders these days.
THE CULLING OF GREY SQUIRRELS
Grey squirrels have limited legal protection and can be legally controlled all year round by a variety of methods including shooting and trapping. Methods of trapping and killing include Drey poking and shooting, Tunnel trapping using spring traps set in accordance with BASC’s trapping pest mammals code of practice. They can also be shot using a shotgun or powerful air rifle or up until September 30th 2014 poisoned by Warfarin (Now outlawed).
Whilst professional trapping and extermination is hopefully done as humanely as possible, there have been cases, many of them where cost savings have been gained by battering the squirrels to death! Grey squirrels are trapped in ghastly metal contraptions for hours and hours, wearing themselves out frantically trying to escape by gnawing at the metals bars.
They bite the floor and scratch at them with their claws and do not get a moments peace or rest through absolute fear. Once the traps are retrieved, each squirrel, terrified will be thrown into a sack and smacked on the head countless times with a blunt instrument. When a mother is slaughtered, her babies who are totally dependent on her, will die a slow death of thirst and starvation.
There is an argument for the control of Greys on many grounds but also a counter argument that Culling does not work, and has not on countless times where, once a population of greys have been culled, the nearest group will move back in and claim the land. The university of Bristol concluded that there was little evidence that culling greys to save red squirrels was effective, and that perhaps finding a way of boosting red squirrel immunity to the poxvirus or planting areas of yew trees where reds are known to thrive and spending money on research into positive moves might be a better option.
In Ireland, the re-introduction of the Pine marten, a species made extinct originally by the very same land owners who also wish to do the same to the grey squirrel, has seen the rapid demise of the grey and the reintroduction of the native reds. Red squirrels are smaller and more nimble than their grey counterparts, and as such can get to the very ends of tree branches where neither the pine martins, nor more importantly the heavier greys can, thus surviving and thriving.
As a result in Ireland, the grey squirrel population has crashed in approximately 9,000 km2 of its former range and the reds has become common once more after a thirty year absence... oh and Pine Martens are protected again!
In Scotland, Pine Martens exist in areas where Red squirrels thrive, and greys do not. So perhaps there is a lesson here, as in England where there are no pine martens, the greys are prolific breeders. So there is an argument against the barbarity of shooting and poisoning greys, and if, as so many believe, the greys MUST be controlled, how about a more humane and natural method that nature intended.. with re-introduction of predators. Just a thought!
So a few facts and figures on the greys and to wrap up, from a purely personal perspective I love these little guys, as I do almost every creature in nature other than those eight legged beasties that shall not be named and for which I have a deep and powerful phobia that borders on paranoia!
I could no more harm an animal deliberately than eat a McDonald's McRib (Once saw how they are made and let me just say... eeeuuuuuwwwww!!).
They are small, cute, cuddly, furry, they photograph beautifully, have great personality and make me smile. They trust me enough to take food from my hand in parks, and I can't bare the though of ugly, hairy land owners sticking a shotgun in their face and blowing them away! I appreciate they can be a pest, a problem, a menace, that their PR managers might have a bit of a problem winning you over when they flay small chicks alive on your lawn or decimate the songbird population by stealing their eggs.... and perhaps there is a need to keep the population under control and try and re-establish the red population.....
Yep I get that....
I just hope we can solve the problem more humanely to create a peaceful coexistence of the reds and greys in different areas. A man can dream can't he.
Paul Williams June 18th 2021
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Ten metres at 11:37am on Thursday May 12th 2022 off the Mall and Horse Guards Road within the grounds of St James's Park in Central London, one of the Royal parks of London situated in South West London.
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Nikon D850 Focal length 150mm Shutter speed: 1/500s Aperture f/6.3 ISO160 Hand held with Tamron VR Vibration reduction enabled on setting 1. Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (8256 x 5504). (14 bit uncompressed file) Focus mode AF-C focus. AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled AF-Area mode: 3D-Tracking Exposure mode: Manual mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1, 0, 0 (4770K). Colour space: RGB. High ISO NR: ON (Low) Active D-Lighting: Auto Vignette control: Normal Picture control: (SD) Standard with sharpening +3 and clarity +1.00
Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 30m 11.54s
LONGITUDE: W 0d 7m 59.64s
ALTITUDE: 10.0m
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Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
The forces of Justice and selflessness that are seldom ever found among us create heroes unlike any that have ever existed, the make them more then men, they make them gods among us. To stop all tyranny that plagues are planet and save the innocent from the destructive nature of evil.
Batman; one of the three original founders of the league, he is one of the most intelligent men on the planet and always has a few tricks up his sleeve, some that may surprise. He funds the league with the money he gains from Wayne Enterprises and uses it to build the Watchtower and keep it with all the advancements of modern day discoveries. The dark justice that lives in all of us is what created the Batman, a man who will not kill, the mortal who can take down gods and always knows what is going on. Batman is the brain of the league and often leads the league into battle and uses his well thought out plans to save countless lives.
Superman; another of the original founding three, Superman is the hero that the public knows all to well. He is said to embody all that is good to us and will seek what is right for the world that has adopted him, coming from a dying planet the son of Krypton defends his new home from any villainy among its people or those who seek to destroy from outside the world. Superman is the voice of the league and keeps the public from holding resentment to the heroes and does whatever he can to ease tension in an uneasy situation.
Wonder Woman; the last of the three founding members, Wonder Woman comes from an island hidden from the rest of the world known to few as Themyscira, home of the Amazons. Enhanced with the powers of her own race and the sacred armour she possess Wonder Woman enters man's world in hopes to better it and stop conflict from destroying it. Wonder Woman is the reasoning of the League, she often shows the true statement in times of need and keeps her head down and on the objective and though she is a little arrogant and new to the world around her she is a true hero at heart.
Green Lantern; the first human to possess the green ring of will, Hal Jordan keeps his home world safe as well as sector 28114 that he is assigned to by the Guardians. He was chosen to bear the ring from the dying alien Abin Sur and was propelled into the legendary Green Lantern corps, an intergalactic police force entrusted to uphold the law in all of the universe. Hal Jordan showed some of the greatest will in all of the Lanterns history, which gives him power among the corps, perhaps being a little brash and self absorbed, Hal Jordan has kept himself to the side of good and has saved the earth multiple times from oncoming danger. Hal is the Will of the League and is the one that keeps them going in times of need.
Flash; after a freak accident in a science lab Barry Allen was gifted with incredible speed becoming the Flash the fastest man alive and the Crimson Speedster, who protects Central City from evil talking Gorillas, living shadows, cold hearted villains and multiple fiends the Flash is light hearted and will do the right thing no matter what the cost. Flash is the spirit of the League, providing its hope when necessary and managing to give everyone a smile when it's most needed
Martian Manhunter; the last of his kind, the remaining Martian, after his brother destroyed his race with the White Martian war and the Fire Plague committing genocide which is right in his crazed mind. J'onn came to earth to stop the evil that occurred on his planet from happening to his new planet. Blending in with its people J'onn became detective John Jones in Gotham city, using the tips and leads he acquires using his telepathy. This was blown over when his brother arrived on earth attacking him and revealing himself to be a Martian to on lookers he ran in fear. He went into hiding and was found by Batman in hopes of restoring his status and using his powers to better mankind. He serves as the Leagues conscious and provides Intel when needed and acts to show the humane way to end a conflict.
Aquaman; King of the seas and of Atlantis, Arthur left the oceans to learn better of the surface dwellers and discover what they valued. Aquaman soon found the land was ridden with crime and evil, he became the hero among the oceans, Aquaman stopping those who would destroy the water and seas with his powers that he possess through Atlantian physiology and magic. Aquaman joined the league to fight along side the men of the earth and save more then just the ocean his family reside in. Aquaman is the Determination of the league and stays focused and on task, but will show flaws in plans and explains what he thinks would be a better plan of attack.
Green Arrow; Oliver Queen was inspired as a child to be a master archer as a child by Merlyn the Magician, the greatest archer who ever lived. After the man vanished Oliver trained to take his place and continue the legacy of archery. Becoming the hero of Starling City with his trick arrows and knowledge of the city he became the Green Arrow one of the greatest archers that ever lived, only second to the of a returned Merlyn, this time instead of a performer was a assassin. Green Arrow is the heart of the league, full of compassion the man would save as many lives as he can in times of worry and believes love shall keep evil at bay.
Black Canary; Dinah Lance the daughter of the original Black Canary, Dinah was inspired by her mothers stories to help those in need and began training to become the hero her mother was. Training with the likes of Wildcat and Lady Shiva, she became the Black Canary named after her mother, using the meta-gene found in neither of her parents giving her her "Canary Cry" and her expert in combat she fights alongside the league as a more human member. Black Canary is the inner mind, using her degree as a therapist she uses her knowledge of the mind to anticipate what someone of evil nature may do
Together they create the greatest team of good who shall ever exists fighting the never ending battle they are...
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The Justice League!
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So there's my next project complete, next I'm probably going to do scenes for each character fighting there nemesis and there may be a storyline in the works for the League and Legion.
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The Nature of Dreams
SIGMUD FREUD'S theory of dreams was part of his theory of man. He assumed that man in the course of his growth is forced to repress evil strivings - egocentricity, destructiveness, irrationality - in order to adapt himself to the requirements of social life. He does so, said Freud, partly by turning his asocial strivings into socially useful ones - a process which Freud interpreted as either "sublimation" or "reaction formation." Successful "sublimation" is exemplified by the surgeon who was turned his original sadistic strivings into a socially useful activity. An example of successful "reaction formation" is that of a humanitarian who has developed great kindness in combatting his destructive potentialities. The best in man, according to Freud, is rooted in his worst.
When we are asleep, Freud reasoned, we relax the effort that normally restraints the criminal we are at bottom. Our dream life is the refuge, as it were, where we recover from the heavy burden of our culture and are free to satisfy repressed infantile strivings. Yet even in sleep the internal censor's attention is only relaxed, not entirely dismissed. To deceive him, we dream in a kind of secret code. The real meaning of the dream can be understood only if the code is deciphered. This process of deciphering is what Freud called the interpretation of dreams.
Freud's theory of dream shocked psychologists and was denounced by many as unscientific. Most of his followers have denied it fanatically, though some accepting its heavy content of truth, came to consider it one-sided. Carl Custav Jung, who became the leader of his group, tended increasingly emphasize the 'higher' aspects of dreams just as one-sidedly as Freud has emphasized the 'lower'. Where Freud has found in dreams only irrational infantile strivings, Jung saw only expressions of moral or religious experiences, which he interpreted as outgrowth of racially inherited religious and metaphysical ideas.
If a man saw his dream a woman whose features were unknown to him, Freud would assume that this woman represented his mother, that the infantile sexual attachment to the mother, repressed in the conscious state, was satisfied in his dream. Freud argued that the dream she remained unknown to the dreamer in order to fool the censor. Relating this longing for the mother to the recent experiences of the dreamer, the analyst sought the hidden incestuous aspects in the dreamer's relationship to a woman which whom he may recently have fallen in love. Jung, on the other hand, tended to interpret the unknown woman as the image of the "unconscious", and also as a symbol of feminine aspects in the male dreamer's personality.
Had Jung been less concerned with the creating another school, and less fascinated by irrational racialism, his departure from Freud's dogmatism could have avoided the blind alley into which it ultimately led. As matters stand, a constructive revision of Freud's theory of dreams must pick up the thread where it was left before Jung's and other schools of psychoanalysis were formed.
WE MAY begin with Aristotle's definition of dreams, quoted but not accepted by Freud: Dreams are expressions of any kind of mental activity under the condition of sleep. The distinctive quality of dreams, the, is not a particular area of experience - neither Freud's "infantile wishes" nor Jung's "true picture of the subjective state" -but the effect of the condition of sleep upon our mode of experiencing.
Physiologically, sleep is a condition of chemical regeneration of the organism. Energy is restored while physical activity and even sensory perception are almost entirely discontinued. Sleep suspends the main function of waking life: reacting to reality by perception and action. This difference between the biological functions of waking and of sleeping is, in fact, a difference between two states of experience. In the waking state, thoughts or feelings responds primarily to challenge - the challenge of mastering our environment, changing it, defending ourselves against it. The primary task of waking man is survival; this means essentially, that he must think in terms of time and space, and that his thoughts are subject to the logical laws which are necessary for action.
During sleep the frame of reference changes radically. While we sleep we are not concerned with bending the outside world to our purposes. We are helpless - but we are also free. We are free from the burden of work, from the task of attack or defense, from the watching and mastering reality. We live in an inner world concerned exclusively with ourselves.
In sleep the realm of necessity has given way to the realm of freedom where "I" am the only system to which thoughts and feelings refer. In a dream the grief I experienced 10 years ago may be just as strong now, and I may hate a person on the other side of the globe as intensely as if he stood beside me. Sleep experience need not pay attention to qualities that are important in coping with reality. If I feel, for instance, that a person is a coward, I may dream that he has changed into a chicken. This change is illogical in terms of my orientation to outside reality, but logical in terms of what I feel about the person. Sleep experience, therefore, is not lacking in logic, but it is subject to a special logic of its own, which is entirely valid in that particular experiential state.
The "unconscious" is unconscious only in relation to the "normal" state of activity. When we call it "unconscious", we really say only that it is an experience alien to the frame of mind which exists while we act; it is then felt as a ghost-like, intrusive element, hard to get hold of and to remember. But the day world is an unconscious in our sleep experience as the night world is in our waking experience.
From what has been said so far it follows that the concepts "conscious" and "unconscious" are to be understood relative to the sleeping and waking states respectively. As and old Chinese poet put it: "I dreamed that I am a butterfly; now I do not know, am I a man who dreamed he was a butterfly or am I a butterfly who dreams it is a man." In the waking state of action those experiences which feel real in the dream are "unconscious." But when we are asleep and no longer preoccupied with action but with self-experience, the waking-experience is "unconscious" and sometimes it is a hard struggle to chase away the sleep world and to convince oneself of the reality of the waking world.
It is true that even in the waking state of existence, thinking and feeling are not entirely subject to the limitations of time and space. Our creative imagination permits us to think about past and future objects as if they were present, and of distant objects as if they were before our eyes. It could therefore be argued that the absence of the space-time system is not characteristic of sleep existence in contradiction to waking existence, but of thinking and feeling in contradiction to acting. Here it becomes necessarily to clarify an essential point.
We must distinguish between the contents of thought process and the logical categories employed in thinking. While it is true that the contents of our waking thoughts are not subject to limitations of space and time, the logical categories of thinking are those of the space-time logic. I can, for instance, think of my father, and state that his attitude in a certain situation is identical with mine; this statement is logically correct. If I state, on the other hand, "I am my father," the statement is "illogical" because it is not conceived in reference to the physical world. The sentence is logical, however, in a purely experiential realm: it expresses the experience of intense closeness to my father. When I have a feeling in the waking state with regard to a person whom I have not seen for 20 years, I remain aware of the fact that the person is not present. But if I dream about the person, my feelings deals with the person "as if he or she were present" is to express the feeling in logical waking-life concepts. In sleep existence there is no "as if"; the person is present. (It is true, however, that sleep is not completely free from action concepts, as proved by the fact that sometime we think in our dream that what we dream cannot really be so.)
The experiential mode of thought occurs in other forms of dissociation besides dreams - in the hypnotic trance, in psychoses, in early infantile experience, and possibly in primitive thinking. And there is, of course, the state of intense mystical contemplation, wherein attention is withdrawn completely from the outside world as a potential field of action, and is completely focused on self-experience although the person remains awake. The mystic, indeed, considers this state to be highest awareness. The language employed in such a state of contemplation follows the experiential logic of dream, not the action logic of "normal" thinking.
So the sleep existence, it seems, is only the extreme case of a purely contemplative experience, which can also be established by a waking person if he focuses on his inner experience. Symbolic language employing experimental logic is one mode of human expression - just as valid and rational as our "normal" logic, and different from it only as to the systems of reference. These systems, in turn, are determined by the total orientation of the culture. Cultures, in which the emphasis is on self-experience, such as those of the East, or some "primitive" cultures where mastery of nature is little developed, give great scope to this symbolic language. In modern Western culture, almost exclusively focused on activity in the sense of mastery over nature, the comprehension of symbolic language has atrophied. Dreams are remnants of a legitimate mode of human expression, one well known, now looked up as if they were undecipherable hieroglyphs.
IT is peculiarity of dreams that inner experiences are expressed as if they were sensory experiences, subjective states as if they were actions dealing with the external reality. This interchange between the two modes of experience is the very essence of symbols, and particularly of the dream symbol. While the body is inactive and the senses shut down, the inner experience makes use of the dormant faculties of sensory reaction.
A forceful illustration of the dream's symbolic language is the story of Jonah. God commanded the prophet to help the people of Nineveh to repent of their sin and so to save them. But Jonah is a man of stern justice rather than of mercy; he declines to feel responsible for sinners and attempts to escape from his mission. he boards a ship. A storm comes up. Jonah goes into hold of the ship and falls into a deep sleep. The sailors believe that God sent the storm because of jonah and throw him into sea. He is swallowed by a whale and stays inside the animal for several days.
The central theme of this symbolic, dreamlike story is Jonah's desire for complete seclusion and irresponsibility - a position which at first was meant to save him for mission, but eventually is turned into a unbearable, prisonlike existence. The ship, the sleep, the ocean, the whale's belly - all are different symbols of that state of existence. They follow each other in time and space, but they stand for growing intensity of a feeling - the feeling of seclusion and protection. Being inside the whale has brought this experience to such a final intensity that Jonah cannot stand it any longer; he turns to God again; he desires to be freed, to go on with his mission.
SO far we have been concerned with the mode of expression and the particular logic of dreams resulting from the peculiar condition of sleep. We must now turn to the question in what respect the state of sleep also determines the content of dreams. According to Freud it does so in a specific way. Culture, in his view, suppresses our primitive-bad-instincts and the sublimation and reaction formation springing from this suppression are very essence of civilized life. Quite logically, then, in his view, dreams must bring out our worst, since in our sleep we are free - from the cultural pressure.
There can be no doubt that many dreams express the fulfillment of irrational, asocial and immoral wishes which we repress successfully during the waking state. When we are asleep and incapable of action it becomes safe to indulge in hallucinatory satisfaction of our lowest impulses. But the influence of culture is by no means as one-sidedly beneficial as Freud assumed. We are often more intelligent, wiser and more moral in our sleep than in waking life. The reason for this is the ambiguous character of our social reality. In mastering this reality we develop our faculties of observation, intelligence and reason; but we are also stultified by incessant propaganda, threats, ideologies and cultural "noise" that paralyze some of our most precious intellectual and moral functions. In fact, so much of what we think and feel is in response to these hypnotic influences that one may well wonder to what extent our waking experience is "ours." In sleep, no longer exposed to the noise culture, we become awake to what we really feel and think. The genuine self can talk; it is often more intelligent and more decent than the pseudo self which seems to be "we" when we are awake.
My conclusion, then, is that we may expect to find true insights and important value judgments expressed in our dreams, as well as immoral, irrational wishes. We may even find in them reliable predictions based on a correct appreciation of the intensity and the direction of forces operating in ourselves and in others. Both Freud's emphasis on the "low" and Jung's emphasis on the "high" aspect of dream content are dogmatic restrictions. Only if it is recognized that dreams can express either side of a dreamers nature is the way cleared for a real understanding to them.
The following examples illustrate the alternative interpretations that can be given to the same dream. The dreamer sees himself naked in the presence of strangers and feels ashamed but powerless to alter the painful situation. Freud said that this dream represented an infantile exhibitionistic impulse still alive in the adult. During sleep this impulse comes to the fore and finds its fulfillment in the dream; the dreamer's mature personality, not entirely silenced, reacts with shame and fear to the very wishes of his infantile self.
No doubts many nakedness dreams are to be so understood. But others must be interpreted differently. Nakedness is not necessarily an expression of sexual exhibitionism; it can also symbolize the true self of a person, free from pretense and make-believe. A person who dreams of himself as being naked in a well-dressed group may give symbolic expression to his wish to be honest, to be more himself, not to be conformist who wants to please everybody. And his embarrassment in the dream is the same embarrassment he would feel in waking, too, whenever he tried to discard his dependence on other people's opinion.
According to the orthodox Freudian interpretation, the nakedness dream's essential impulse is an infantile sexual desire; in the alternative, it is a rational wish, rooted in the most mature part of the dreamer's personality. But if so, why should it be distinguished in dream symbolism? Why should we repress some of our very best impulses? The answer is that in our culture people are no less ashamed of their best strivings than of their worst. Generosity is suspected as "foolish", honesty as "naive", integrity as "not practical." While one tendency within our complex culture presents these qualities as virtues, another stigmatizes them as "idealistic dreams." Consequently wishes motivated by such virtues often live and underground existence together with wishes rooted in our vices. To mistake rational wishes of the dreamer for expressions of irrational strivings makes it impossible for him to recognize positive goals which he has set himself. Yet to see in every dream an ideal or profound religious symbol is just as fallacious. Whether a dream is to be understood as an expression of the rational or the irrational side in ourselves can be determined only by a full investigation of the individual case - by knowing the dreamer's character, his associations with the dream elements, the problems he was concerned with before he fell asleep.
The following dream is an example of unconscious insight and moral judgment: A man has visited X, a widely known figure whose kindness and wisdom are praised by everybody. He was properly impressed by the admirable man. The same night he dreams of X, who now has a cruel face and tries to swindle a poor old woman out of her last dollar. He remembers this dream the next day, is quite surprised and wonders why the dream picture of X differs so completely from the "real" picture of the day before. Suddenly he is struck by the recollection that his instinctive reaction to X had been one of intense antipathy - but so fleeting had this first reaction been that he was not aware of it at the time of the visit. Actually his antipathy was his real insight into X's character. it was silenced at once by the conventional picture of X: the "noise" had drowned the dreamer's real judgment, which awoke when he was asleep.
If this dream were understood in Freud's terms, the subject would accuse himself of unconscious hostility and, having discovered his own wickedness, would be all the more prone to accept the conventional picture of X. If, on the other hand, the interpreter assumed that dreams unerringly express the "real" judgment, the dreamer might accept his dream as evidence against X, and act accordingly, though it may indeed have expressed only the dreamer's own hostility. Which interpretation is correct can be found only in an appraisal of the dreamer's total situation.
One of the best known dreams of prediction is Joseph's dream, reported in the Bible. He dreamed that the sun, moon and stars were making obeisance to him. His brothers, hearing of the dream, did not need the help of an expert to understand that the dream expressed a feeling of superiority over his parents and brothers. It certainly can be argued that the infantile rivalry with father and brothers was the root of the dream (which would be Freud's interpretation). But what Joseph saw in the dream later came true; the dream indeed predicted future events. And Joseph was able to make such a prediction because he sensed his exceptional gifts, which made him actually superior to the other members of his family; but the conceited character of such insight made it impossible for him to be aware of his superiority - except under the condition of sleep.
WHEN we dream we speak a language which is also employed in some of the most significant documents of culture: in myths, in fairy tales and art, recently in novels like Franz Kafka's. This language is the only universal language common to all races and all times. It is the same language in the oldest myths as in the dreams every one of us has today. Moreover, it is a language which often expresses inner experiences, wishes, fears, judgments and insights which much greater precision and fullness than our ordinary language is capable of. Yet symbolic language is a forgotten language, considered by most as non-sensical or unimportant. This ignorance not only prevents us from understanding the wisdom expressed in myths but also from being in touch with a significant part of ourselves. "Dreams which are not understood are like letters which are not opened," says the Talmud, and this statement is undeniably true.
Why, then, do we not teach the understanding of this forgotten language as a subject in the curriculum of higher education?
True, there are dreams so difficult and complicated that it requires a psychologist of great knowledge and technical skill to understand them; and sometimes even the expert will fail. But is this so different from the study of languages, of mathematics, of physics? Liberal education, in genera, only lays the foundation for more specialized skills which the student later develops for himself. The analogy between teaching dream interpretation and teaching languages is particularly close, not only because dream language is a sort of "foreign" language but also because the results of teaching are similar. No student succeeds in mastering a foreign language without specialized study; but even an average undergraduate is capable of understanding syntax and grammar.
For a number of years I have been teaching dream interpretation not only to graduate students of psychoanalysis but also to undergraduates at Bennington College. The results, at least to my satisfaction, compare with the results of teaching any other subject matter to the same group of students. Remarkable achievements have been rare in this as in any other field; the minimum achievements have not been lower. The aim is to help the student to understand an unknown language in which he expresses important aspects of his own personality, and also to understand a mode of expression in which mankind has expressed some of its most significant ideas.
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The Nature of Dreams - Erich Fromm