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Professor Akotiomga Michel heads up the service for treating women suffering the consequences of FGM/C at Suka Clinic in Burkina Faso.
“FGM has no benefits, only consequences,” he says. “Women who have been cut find it difficult to have sex or go to the toilet. The operation takes around 15 to 30 minutes depending on how bad the scarring is and it makes a huge difference to the women’s lives.”
The clinic provides reconstructive surgery to dozens of Burkinabé women every week – allowing them to have sex, give birth safely, and avoid a multitude of other health risks. All this costs just 6,000 Central African Francs, or $15, but changes lives beyond measure.
The UK government - via a UNICEF and UNFPA Joint Programme - provides the clinic where Professor Akotiomga works with medical kits to carry out the operation. The kits include needles, gloves, paracetamol, antiseptic, injectable antibodies and cotton bandages.
Take a stand. Pledge to end FGM, child marriage and forced marriage now: www.girlsummitpledge.com/
Picture: Jessica Lea/DFID.
Heres information about central florida broadcast stations
Broadcast Tower,WFTT-TV is the Telefutura affiliate for Tampa Bay, owned by Univision and operated by Entravision, owners of WVEA-TV. The station, which broadcasts on UHF channel 50, is based at WVEA's studios on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa, and transmits from Riverview. WFTT can be seen on cable throughout the Bay Area on Bright House channel 5, and on Comcast in Sarasota County on channel 23.
With the completion of the 442.550 repeater in Riverview at 805ft in January, the western pointing antenna on the 442.825 repeater caused a expected overlap that was unnecessary. Since 442.550 now blankets Hillsborough County, we have as of April 11th taken the antenna off the west leg of the Pebbledale tower site at 800ft and moved it to the east leg of the tower. What does mean for users? The tower has a 7 foot wide face, which creates a null that is created behind the antenna. This null used to face a huge portion of Polk County. By moving this antenna to the east, the null is now facing essentially Brandon/Riverview, where 442.550 is now located at 805ft. So far we have gotten incredible results from users in eastern Polk County. Some users in Sebring reporting almost full scale signal, and mobile users with hand helds on 27 at 5 watts can use 442.825 now. None of this was previously possible. So with this move, expect to hear more Polk, Osceola and I-4 corridor area users making it into the network.
A nother tower WVEA (channel 62) is Tampa Bay, Florida's first Spanish-language TV station, which had its start in the early-1980s as low-powered W50AC ch.50, which offered programming from the Spanish International Network (SIN), the forerunner of today's Univision. In 1988, to make way for new HSN flagship WBHS (now WFTT-TV), the station relocated to channel 61 and became W61BL. In the mid-1990s, the station was re-called "WVEA-LP". In 2000, WVEA's parent company, Entravision, acquired Sarasota English independent WBSV channel 62, with the intent of moving the transmitter from Venice to the antenna farm at Riverview. WBSV signed on May 3, 1991 as the Sarasota area's own independent station, designed to compete against WWSB and the other stations in the Tampa Bay and nearby Ft. Myers markets. Licensed to Venice, Florida the call letters stood for Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice, the three cities it primarily served. WBSV had a variety of syndicated and local programming, plus infomercials and home shopping programs. early on, they also had its own newscast. But, WBSV was eternally in red ink, and relied more on home shopping and infomercials to keep the station afloat....
And then,WTVT, channel 13, is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsdiary of the News Corporation. WTVT's studios are located in Tampa, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.
Overall the WUSF (89.7 FM) is an NPR-member radio station licensed to Tampa, Florida, USA. The station is currently owned by the University of South Florida. WUSF signed on in 1963, seven years after USF's founding in 1956.
WOPX channel 56 is a television station based in Orlando, Florida, USA. An affiliate of the ION Television network, it transmits its analog signal on UHF channel 56 and its digital signal on UHF channel 48, both from a transmitter located near Holopaw. The station signed on the air in 1986.
WIWA (1160 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish language Christian format. Licensed to St. Cloud, Florida, USA, it serves the greater Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Centro De La Familia Cristiana Inc.
WAFZ-FM (92.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Immokalee, Florida, USA, the station is currently owned by Glades Media Company LLC. WAFZ's programming is also heard on WAFZ AM 1490 in Immokalee.
WTVY or WTVY News 4 is a CBS-affiliated television station broadcasting on channel 4 in Dothan, Alabama, owned by Gray Television. The station's signal, originating from a transmitter in Holmes County, Florida, reaches large portions of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. WTVY is also the designated CBS affiliate for the Panama City, Florida market, where Gray also owns that city's NBC affiliate, WJHG-TV. In exchange, WJHG is available in Dothan on cable since Dothan does not have its own NBC affiliate. In fact, WTVY's transmitter is located within the Panama City market. WTVY-DT uses digital subchannels to operate MyNetworkTV affiliate My 4 and CW affiliate Dothan's CW.
WJED (91.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Dogwood Lakes Estate, Florida, USA. The station is currently owned by Bethany Bible College.
WTVJ, channel 6, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station for South Florida, licensed to Miami. Its analog transmitter is located in Redland. The station's digital transmitter is located near Dolphin Stadium in north Miami-Dade County. Owned by NBC Universal, the station is sister to South Florida's Telemundo owned-and-operated station, WSCV. The two share studios at Peacock Plaza in Miramar.
WOIR (1430 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish News/Talk format. Licensed to Homestead, Florida, USA, the station serves the Miami area. The station is currently owned by Amanecer Christian Network, Inc..
WTLH is a Fox television affiliate licensed to Bainbridge, Georgia and serves the Tallahassee, Florida television market. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 49 and its digital signal on UHF channel 50. The station began operations on November 25, 1989. Its transmitter is located in Metcalf, Georgia. The Station is owned by CP Media, LLC. The station runs a duopoly with WFXU, The CW station in Tallahassee. WTLH programming is also seen on a low-powered, Class-A repeater, WBVJ-LP channel 35 in Valdosta.
WTXL-TV is the ABC affiliate station for Tallahassee, Florida, Thomasville, Georgia, and Valdosta, Georgia, broadcasting on channel 27. The station is owned by Calkins Media, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based mass media company that owns several small newspapers in Pennsylvania and two other television stations: WWSB in Sarasota and WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama. It was previously owned by Media Ventures Management, and operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group pursuant to an outsourcing agreement (See: [1]), the first of its kind in the United States. This agreement merged virtually all of WTXL-TV's operations with that of Sinclair's NBC affiliate WTWC. Denis LeClair, General Manager of WTXL-TV and WBXT-TV at the time, was made General Manager for WTXL, WBXT and WTWC under this agreement. He would be followed by Chris Butterick and then Bob Franklin. Eventually, Kim Urbuteit (who was fired in May, 2007) would be named General Manager of WTXL only as Bob Franklin (now in Mobile, AL) oversaw WTWC. Gary Wordlaw is the current General Manager of WTXL-TV.
WFSU is the callsign (or variations thereon) for public radio stations operated by Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. WFSU also operates 3 radio stations that serve northern Florida: * WFSU-FM 88.9 FM: Tallahassee-based news/talk/public affairs station carrying several NPR programs and overnight BBC World Service programming. Also heard on these low-powered repeaters: * 97.1 - Carrabelle * 106.1 - Marianna * 96.7 - Apalachicola * 93.7 - Downtown Tallahassee (necessary because the main WFSU transmitter must conform its signal to protect WTSU in Troy, Alabama) * WFSQ-FM 91.5 FM: Tallahassee-based classical music station. Also heard on WFSL-FM 90.7 in Thomasville, Georgia, and on low-powered 92.7 FM in the northeast portion of the city of Tallahassee. * WFSW-FM 89.1 FM: Panama City-based news/talk/public affairs station. Offers many of the same programs as WFSU. Also heard on low-powered 91.1 FM in the Port St. Joe area along the Gulf of Mexico, as well as 94.5 FM in Fort Walton Beach.
WESH is the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida. It is licensed to Daytona Beach, with studio facilities in Winter Park. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 2 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11, when viewed over the air PSIP will display 2.1 for WESH DT and 2.2 for WESH Weather Plus. It is currently owned by Hearst-Argyle Television along with the area's CW affiliate, WKCF. WESH's transmitter is located in Orange City, Florida. The tower is the tallest man-made structure in Florida, at 1,740 feet (530 m). The station also serves as the default NBC affiliate for the Gainesville market, and can be seen on the fringes of the Tampa Bay and Jacksonville markets. WESH was the first station in Orlando to carry an on-site RADAR facility, SuperDoppler 2 as opposed to relying on National Weather Service RADARs. It is installed on top of the tower located at the Winter Park broadcast studio. Today it also promotes a VIPIR 3D RADAR system, taking advantage of the fact that the RADARs at Melbourne, Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami can all reach Orlando, in addition to SuperDoppler 2. The primary news anchors at WESH are Martha Sugalski and Jim Payne....
WOMX is a radio station located in the Orlando, Florida area and broadcasts at 105.1. WOMX 105.1 plays the "Best MIX of the 80s, 90s and Today," though the station programming focuses mostly on rock and modern rock music from the 90's and 2000's. Every Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., Mix 105.1 presents Friday Night 80's. The "Saturday Night Party MIX" airs every Saturday night from 7 p.m. to midnight. The "Saturday Night Party MIX" replaced the Orlando heritage show "Seventies Saturday Night" in 2005.
WOTF-TV Channel 43 is the TeleFutura station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by Univision and managed by Entravision which owns Univision affiliate WVEN-TV 26 and radio station WNUE 98.1 FM and offers a Spanish language entertainment format featuring movies, dramas, comedy shows, and kids shows. The studios are located in Altamonte Springs which is also shared by WVEN.
WOFL, "Fox 35", is the Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. It is licensed to Orlando, with studios located in Lake Mary. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 35, and its digital signal on UHF channel 22. Its transmitter is located in Bithlo, Florida. Its Digital TV transmitter has a power of 1,000 kW. Its Analog TV transmitter has a power of 2,570 kW. WOFL and sister station WTVT of the bordering Tampa market commonly share reporters and footage, as other station groups do.
WFTV channel 9 is a television station based in Orlando, Florida, affiliated with the ABC network. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter located in Bithlo, Florida, and its digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter located in Christmas, Florida. It is owned by Cox Enterprises along with independent station WRDQ TV 27. The primary news anchors at WFTV are Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt. They anchored the main afternoon newscasts from 1984 through 1994, when Ms. Salt transferred to WFTS, a TV station in Tampa (where she was known as "Martie Tucker"). She returned to anchor WFTV's news again with Opsahl in 2003. Opsahl is one of the longest-serving (at one station) local news anchors in Florida. Barbara West, a 20 year veteran at WFTV and the station's medical reporter is paired with Opsahl at 5:30. Marla Weech, a former anchor for WFTV, was paired up with Bob Opsahl during most of Salt's absence. Weech currently works for WKMG. Tom Terry is the "Chief Meteorologist". WFTV's Severe Weather Center 9 includes WFTV's own doppler weather radar station located at Joint Venture TV Tower Bithlo. Its radar has features that are...
WRBW-TV is the MyNetworkTV owned and operated station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations Group, along with Fox station WOFL Channel 35. Known on-air as "My65", the station offers sitcoms, cartoons, court shows, and talk/reality shows. Its transmitter is located in Christmas, Florida.
WNTF (1580 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Bithlo, Florida, USA, it serves the Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Rama Communications, Inc.
WBCC is an educational television station serving the Orlando television market. It broadcasts on UHF channel 68, with a digital signal on channel 30. It is one of the Orlando market's PBS member stations. WBCC's digital signal, on channel 30, offers programming from the University of Central Florida (channel 68.2) and BPS-TV from Brevard Public Schools (channel 68.3), in addition to WBCC's standard programming.
WRDQ, channel 27, is an independent television station in Orlando, Florida. Its analog transmitter is located in northeastern Osceola County. The station's digital transmitter is located in Christmas. Onwed by Cox Enterprises, WRDQ is sister to ABC affiliate WFTV. The two stations share studios on East South Street in downtown Orlando. WRDQ offers the Retro Television Network on its second digital subchannel. It can also be seen on Bright House digital channel 1028. Syndicated programming on WRDQ includes: South Park, Scrubs, Merv Griffin's Crosswords, Oprah, According to Jim, and George Lopez. The station can be considered an alternate ABC affiliate. As such, it may take on the responsibility of airing ABC programs whenever WFTV may not be able to do so as in a news-related emergency.
WXPX is a television station licensed to Bradenton, Florida. Operating on channel 66, it is an ION Television affiliate, owned and operated by ION Media Networks (formerly Paxson Communications), which has owned the station since its founding in 1994. Current programming on WXPX is virtually the same as other ION affiliates -- infomercials throughout the day and during the overnights, plus ION programming in the evenings. WXPX also shows Tampa Bay Lightning hockey, Orlando Magic basketball, some college football and Tampa Bay Rays baseball, though most of these games are in the evenings only, as WXPX tend to reserve non-prime-time hours for infomercials. Rays games air in high definition on WXPX in the 720p format, the same format as FSN Florida, the producers of the games (See: [1]). The only local programming on WXPX is i on Tampa (public affairs) and the aforementioned Rays and Magic games. The station once aired Miccosukee Magazine along with WPXM Miami and WPXP West Palm Beach, but no longer airs the program. (the latter two stations still do, along with WOPX Orlando) WXPX started in 1994 as WFCT, which featured infomercials at all hours under...
Wesh News Cast Bay News 9 Cast Weather Channel
Kristina
Abernathy
Stephanie
Abrams
Natalie
Allen
Tetiana
Anderson
Adam
Berg
Mike
Bettes
Vivian
Brown
Jim
Cantore
Jennifer
Carfagno
Kelly
Cass
Betty
Davis
Kristin
Dodd
Jorma
Duran
Dr Marcus
Eriksen
Paul
Goodloe
Ryan
Goswick
Rich
Johnson
Bill
Keneely
Danny
Lipford
Warren
Madden
Mark
Mancuso
Dr Anna
Marie
Julie
Martin
Jeff
Mielcarz
Jarod
Miller
Nicole
Mitchell
Samantha
Mohr
Jeff
Morrow
Carl
Parker
Kim
Perez
Sharon
Resultan
Kevin
Robinson
Marshall
Seese
Mike
Seidel
Alexandra
Steele
Heather
Tesch
Nick
Walker
Alex
Wallace
Dr Steve Lyons
Dr Greg Forbes
Dr Heidi Cullen
Stu Ostro
Aixa Diaz (NEWS ANCHORS
Jen Holloway
Al Ruechel
Leigh Moody
Erica Riggins
Rick Elmhorst
(METEOROLOGISTS)
Mike Clay
Juli Marquez
Josh Linker
Diane Kacmarik
Brian McClure
Alan Winfield
(NEWS REPORTERS
Jennifer Anderson
Dalia Dangerfield
Laurie Davison
Melissa Eichman
Samantha Hayes
Chuck Johnson
Troy Kinsey
Jason Lanning
Emily Maza
Carol Minn Vacca
Jonathan Petramala
Josh Rojas
Summer Smith
Kathryn Simmons
Melanie Snow
Melissa Sogegian
Anna Tataris
Ferdinand
Zogbaum
(EN ESPANOL
Lydia Guzmán
Roy De Jesús
Sandra Pinto
Jim Payne
Syan Rhodes
Martha Sugalski
Scott Walker
Eryka Washington
Weather:
Jason Brewer
Tony Mainolfi
Malachi Rodgers
Amy Sweezey
WESH.com Web Staff:
Jeff Cousins
Managing Editor
Jessica Seeley
Washington Reporters:
Sally Kidd
Nikole Killion
Laurie Kinney
Orlando Sentinel:
Roger Moore
Movie Critic
Sports:
Pat Clarke
Guy Rawlings
Reporters:
Danielle Bellini
Dan Billow
Greg Fox
Bob Kealing
Jeff Lennox
Craig Lucie
Dave McDaniel
Michelle Meredith
Claire Metz
Amanda Ober
Kendra Oestreich
Gail Paschall-Brown
Tim Trudell
Todd Wilson
Other Talent:
Jason Chepenik
Financial Analyst
Dr. Todd Husty
Dan McCarthy
Chopper 2 Pilot
Kimberly Williams
Traffic Reporter
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Vietnam was our original choice for a touring holiday back in 2015, mainly to see Halong Bay, but we got sidetracked by the gorgeous pictures of Myanmar in the brochures and ended up going there instead. Myanmar, and probably touring holidays in general, was hard work, we are both in our sixties and do not really travel that well after having a lot of pampered holidays in the Maldives, so after the final three hour wait in another airport lounge we said 'never again'. But three months later after sitting back and looking at the best set of holiday photo's we have ever taken, we realised what wonderful people we had met and amazing places we had seen and that you have to put up with airport lounges, train stations and car journeys to get that. So the next thing we knew we were booking another touring holiday to Vietnam with Mango Journeys based in Cambodia! Warren the owner of Mango, actually an Aussie guy, sorted out our itinerary, click to view, we booked a couple of flights and it was done. Vietnam has a lot of Buddhist tradition like Myanmar so we figured that the people would be similar to the lovely people of Myanmar we met last year. Plus the landscape and scenery looked so green and lush so it all boded well.
However when we arrived in Saigon, all the Vietnamese still call it Saigon, in mid December it turned out that it was still the rainy season. So it was quite cloudy, foggy and rainy.....and it stayed like that for most of the holiday actually. We hadn't quite bargained for that, Myanmar was dry and sunny at the same time last year so this was quite a dramatic change. We were also in their winter so no crops were growing, hence all the lovely green and golden paddy fields you see in the brochures were mostly brown and muddy. Vietnam is big and very busy, there were a huge amount of Chinese tourists here, especially at Ankor Wat in Cambodia. A lot of the local people traditionally come home from all over the world at this time of year to see their families, so the place is buzzing. The Vietnamese people are also a lot more 'tourist savvy' here compared with the totally charming Burmese people we met last year, they seem to have that air of indifference you get in developed western countries towards tourists.
It's all sounding a bit disappointing and I'm afraid that is how it felt quite a lot of the time. We were in Saigon for 2 days....way too busy for us. Then a boat trip to the Mekong Delta, sounds idyllic but actually just a big busy river, we never really got far enough into the smaller tributaries where it might be more like you imagine the Mekong Delta to look like. A flight to Siem Reap then a couple of days around Ankor Wat. This was undoubtedly the highlight of the holiday. The Angkor Archaeological Park is mind boggingly massive! It took us 45 minutes by car to reach the pink sandstone temple of Banteay Srei in one corner of the park! The distances involved when moving between the various temples are all the same.....huge! Ankor Wat itself covers an enormous area but hugely impressive. It shows the power of this place when you get to the entrance at 5:00am to watch the sunrise and there are already hundreds of people there! And it happens every day of the year apparently. Although hordes of people can bug you sometimes, the collective enjoyment factor seems to override that here, the place is just so awe inspiring.
We really enjoyed Cambodia, we wished we had spent more time there, we only met a few people but they all seemed to have more of that charm of the Burmese people. Cambodia has had an extremely troubled past, the war didn't end until 1998 and everybody appears to have been tainted by it. Our guide lost 15 of his immediate relatives to it, and a lot of people seem to have similar horrific tales to tell. The landmine museum we visited was a poignant reminder of those days and our guide was obviously quite emotional in his rendering of the museum's history and the people involved in it. As a result of the regime's slaughter of all the ruling elite including politicians, teachers, scholars and intellectuals Cambodia was left backward in the rapidly growing economy of south east Asia. They are moving in the right direction now, albeit slowly, and we both felt we should have spent more time there and given them more of the benefit of our tourist dollar.
Of all the other places we visited, Da Nang, Hoi An, Hue, Tam Coc, Mai Chau Valley, Hanoi and Halong Bay, Mai Chau Valley was like an oasis in a sea of traffic, busy people and tourists. When you look down at the valley from the main photo vantage point it has the look of the promised land, a lush green place nestling in the surrounding mountains.
We had a couple of lovely walks around here over two days enjoying the beatiful landscape and meeting a few of the local people. We realised afterwards that we should have stayed away from the cities and done more of this sort of stuff. We stopped and spoke to a lovely 68 year old lady in Mau Chau vilage, there was nothing to her she looked so thin and frail. She told us, interpreted by our guide, that her husband left when she was 36 years old and because of the culture she was never allowed to be with another man after that. Her only daughter was married at around the same time and again the culture dictates that she moved to the husband's village which was in south Vietnam. Her daughter is extremely poor and travel for local people is so expensive that it is extremely unlikely she will ever see her mother again. A small story but one that is probably played out a lot in this country. This amazing lady took us back to the one room brick built house with a small garden no bigger than your average shed that she now lives in. She managed to build it with help from the villagers who all seem to look after each other extremely well, so at least she now has somewhere dry to live. She was so welcoming though and showed us how she cooks, where she sleeps and the small garden she tends, it was without doubt the most touching moment of our holiday and one we will always remember.
If you like busy cities then Hanoi is probably a better option than Saigon, it has an old quarter that is strangely quaint for a big city, is a lot more photogenic and a nicer place to be. We were never taken to new Hanoi so I guess it's probably just like Saigon.
Halong Bay was the main inspiration to visit Vietnam in the first place. I saw photo's of this place back in 2014 when searching for more of the limestone karst scenery we had seen in Thailand's Phang Nga Bay on a previous holiday. The boat trip with an overnight stay was the holiday finale and supposed to be one of the highlights. I mistakenly thought we would be touring around Halong Bay the whole time....a foolish assumption! We sailed for about 30 minutes, during which time we had a briefing and some food, then we dropped anchor and that was it! It turned out to be more of a booze cruise, with kayaking, happy hour, games, karaoke and Tai Chi in the morning! Oh my God, what a waste! This place is massive and to just sail into it for half an hour seemed ridiculous to us. I know a lot of it looks the same but as a photographer you are looking for those subtle differences in composition and quality of light that make great photographs. You can't get that when you are sat in the same spot. I managed to get some reasonable photographs but overall, disappointing.....again!
As I write this back in the UK, I've just finshed post processing our holiday photo's after around four weeks work. Originally, because of the dull weather we had, I thought they were not going to be a patch on the photo's from Myanmar last year, but I have been pleasantly surprised. I am constantly amazed at what you can pull out of seemingly dull photographs with the help of Lightroom, Topaz Labs and Photomatix for HDR. Back in the days of film I used to love the punchy colours you could get on a sunny day with the help of a polarizing filter and Kodachrome 25! Nowadays with the help of modern software it's possible to get so much colour into photographs almost out of nowhere! I love making 'impression' type of pictures where the photo is transformed into a sort of painting....used judiciously they conjure up more of the feeling of a place than a straight photo. Those plus the power of HDR photography and Topaz Labs give our holiday snaps a warmth and colour that maybe isn't true to life but always makes them look amazing! No wonder we got suckered into doing another touring holiday.....the photo's just look so good!
A word about Mango Journeys, they were amazing. All the guides were there to greet us and look after us wherever we went and they all seemed to enjoy their work, which always helps. Everything on the itenerary worked out OK.....in the end! We had one hiccup where we missed our flight from Cambodia back into Vietnam but Warren stepped in at 9:00pm at night and got us on another flight and into a hotel without too much bother and no extra charge. As it was our first visit to Vietnam Mango tried to give us a bit of everything I guess, stuff that most tourists want to see. In hindsight and learning from our Burma trip last year we should have really studied the itinerary and made sure it included what WE wanted to do, especially staying away from big cities! We are quite new to touring so it's a learning process.
Our next holiday? As soon as we got home we knew we 'needed a holiday' it had been so busy with a lot of travelling. We booked a week on Veligandu in the Maldives at Easter! Back to our favourite place in the world! Not only that we decided to put touring on hold for a while and booked two weeks on Filitheyo for Christmas. Back to just sunbathing, snorkelling, scuba diving and chilling! Heaven!
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To view the rest of my Photography Collection click on Link below:
www.flickr.com/photos/nevillewootton/albums
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Photography & Equipment sponsored by my web business:
We are UK's leading Filter Specialists, selling online to the Plant, Agricultural, Commercial Vehicle and Marine Industries.
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PLEASE NOTE: I take Photographs purely as a hobby these days so am happy to share them with anyone who enjoys them or has a use for them. If you do use them an accreditation would be nice and if you benefit from them financially a donation to www.sightsavers.org would be really nice.
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Last year saw a special running day in Burton on Trent for Stephensons of Uttoxeter buses. At the end of the day the two Optare Spectra deckers that they bought new were pictured together in the market square in Burton. When new, they were L94 & 95 HBF, as to which is which here, I'm not quite sure; the one with Citylinx in the window is Arriva 4699, which I think my have been L95....
James Walker African American Fashion Show Charming Model in Lilac Top Posing for a Portrait Photoshoot at a Sports Hall in Philadelphia April 1997
Thank you, r/acting. via /r/acting t.co/LLDwmzHu0D (via Twitter twitter.com/ActingDaily/status/707974074572644353)
For Photoshop Talent Weekly Contests#41~
www.flickr.com/groups/1191989@N25/discuss/72157624260368381/
With Kind Thanks to~
Original Source~Buikschivers
www.flickr.com/photos/buikschuivers/785744354/
Bird Brushes ~Shadowhouse Creations~
shadowhousecreations.blogspot.com/
Background, Child& Kitty all Handrawn by Me:))
SWAVE SEVAH SHARES HIS SOLUTION FOR MONEY & SATURATION ISSUES “ALL THESE LEAGUES GOT TO GO”
battledomination.com/swave-sevah-shares-his-solution-for-...
Austria Kunsthistorisches Museum
Federal Museum
Logo KHM
Regulatory authority (ies)/organs to the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture
Founded 17 October 1891
Headquartered Castle Ring (Burgring), Vienna 1, Austria
Management Sabine Haag
www.khm.at website
Main building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum at Maria-Theresa-Square
The Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM abbreviated) is an art museum in Vienna. It is one of the largest and most important museums in the world. It was opened in 1891 and 2012 visited of 1.351.940 million people.
The museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is with its opposite sister building, the Natural History Museum (Naturhistorisches Museum), the most important historicist large buildings of the Ringstrasse time. Together they stand around the Maria Theresa square, on which also the Maria Theresa monument stands. This course spans the former glacis between today's ring road and 2-line, and is forming a historical landmark that also belongs to World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Vienna.
History
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery
The Museum came from the collections of the Habsburgs, especially from the portrait and armor collections of Ferdinand of Tyrol, the collection of Emperor Rudolf II (most of which, however scattered) and the art collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm into existence. Already In 1833 asked Joseph Arneth, curator (and later director) of the Imperial Coins and Antiquities Cabinet, bringing together all the imperial collections in a single building .
Architectural History
The contract to build the museum in the city had been given in 1858 by Emperor Franz Joseph. Subsequently, many designs were submitted for the ring road zone. Plans by August Sicard von Sicardsburg and Eduard van der Null planned to build two museum buildings in the immediate aftermath of the Imperial Palace on the left and right of the Heroes' Square (Heldenplatz). The architect Ludwig Förster planned museum buildings between the Schwarzenberg Square and the City Park, Martin Ritter von Kink favored buildings at the corner Währingerstraße/ Scots ring (Schottenring), Peter Joseph, the area Bellariastraße, Moritz von Loehr the south side of the opera ring, and Ludwig Zettl the southeast side of the grain market (Getreidemarkt).
From 1867, a competition was announced for the museums, and thereby set their current position - at the request of the Emperor, the museum should not be too close to the Imperial Palace, but arise beyond the ring road. The architect Carl von Hasenauer participated in this competition and was able the at that time in Zürich operating Gottfried Semper to encourage to work together. The two museum buildings should be built here in the sense of the style of the Italian Renaissance. The plans got the benevolence of the imperial family. In April 1869, there was an audience with of Joseph Semper at the Emperor Franz Joseph and an oral contract was concluded, in July 1870 was issued the written order to Semper and Hasenauer.
Crucial for the success of Semper and Hasenauer against the projects of other architects were among others Semper's vision of a large building complex called "Imperial Forum", in which the museums would have been a part of. Not least by the death of Semper in 1879 came the Imperial Forum not as planned for execution, the two museums were built, however.
Construction of the two museums began without ceremony on 27 November 1871 instead. Semper moved to Vienna in the sequence. From the beginning, there were considerable personal differences between him and Hasenauer, who finally in 1877 took over sole construction management. 1874, the scaffolds were placed up to the attic and the first floor completed, built in 1878, the first windows installed in 1879, the Attica and the balustrade from 1880 to 1881 and built the dome and the Tabernacle. The dome is topped with a bronze statue of Pallas Athena by Johannes Benk.
The lighting and air conditioning concept with double glazing of the ceilings made the renunciation of artificial light (especially at that time, as gas light) possible, but this resulted due to seasonal variations depending on daylight to different opening times .
Kuppelhalle
Entrance (by clicking the link at the end of the side you can see all the pictures here indicated!)
Grand staircase
Hall
Empire
The Kunsthistorisches Museum was on 17 October 1891 officially opened by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Since 22 October 1891 , the museum is accessible to the public. Two years earlier, on 3 November 1889, the collection of arms, Arms and Armour today, had their doors open. On 1 January 1890 the library service resumed its operations. The merger and listing of other collections of the Highest Imperial Family from the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the Hofburg Palace and Ambras in Tyrol will need another two years.
189, the farm museum was organized in seven collections with three directorates:
Directorate of coins, medals and antiquities collection
The Egyptian Collection
The Antique Collection
The coins and medals collection
Management of the collection of weapons, art and industrial objects
Weapons collection
Collection of industrial art objects
Directorate of Art Gallery and Restaurieranstalt (Restoration Office)
Collection of watercolors, drawings, sketches, etc.
Restoration Office
Library
Very soon the room the Court Museum (Hofmuseum) for the imperial collections was offering became too narrow. To provide temporary help, an exhibition of ancient artifacts from Ephesus in the Theseus Temple was designed. However, additional space had to be rented in the Lower Belvedere.
1914, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne, his " Estonian Forensic Collection " passed to the administration of the Court Museum. This collection, which emerged from the art collection of the house of d' Este and world travel collection of Franz Ferdinand, was placed in the New Imperial Palace since 1908. For these stocks, the present collection of old musical instruments and the Museum of Ethnology emerged.
The First World War went by, apart from the oppressive economic situation without loss. The farm museum remained during the five years of war regularly open to the public.
Until 1919 the K.K. Art Historical Court Museum was under the authority of the Oberstkämmereramt (head chamberlain office) and belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The officials and employees were part of the royal household.
First Republic
The transition from monarchy to republic, in the museum took place in complete tranquility. On 19 November 1918 the two imperial museums on Maria Theresa Square were placed under the state protection of the young Republic of German Austria. Threatening to the stocks of the museum were the claims raised in the following weeks and months of the "successor states" of the monarchy as well as Italy and Belgium on Austrian art collection. In fact, it came on 12th February 1919 to the violent removal of 62 paintings by armed Italian units. This "art theft" left a long time trauma among curators and art historians.
It was not until the Treaty of Saint-Germain of 10 September 1919, providing in Article 195 and 196 the settlement of rights in the cultural field by negotiations. The claims of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy again could mostly being averted in this way. Only Hungary, which presented the greatest demands by far, was met by more than ten years of negotiation in 147 cases.
On 3 April 1919 was the expropriation of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine by law and the acquisition of its property, including the "Collections of the Imperial House" , by the Republic. Of 18 June 1920 the then provisional administration of the former imperial museums and collections of Este and the secular and clergy treasury passed to the State Office of Internal Affairs and Education, since 10 November 1920, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Education. A few days later it was renamed the Art History Court Museum in the "Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna State", 1921 "Kunsthistorisches Museum" . Of 1st January 1921 the employees of the museum staff passed to the state of the Republic.
Through the acquisition of the former imperial collections owned by the state, the museum found itself in a complete new situation. In order to meet the changed circumstances in the museum area, designed Hans Tietze in 1919 the "Vienna Museum program". It provided a close cooperation between the individual museums to focus at different houses on main collections. So dominated exchange, sales and equalizing the acquisition policy in the interwar period. Thus resulting until today still valid collection trends. Also pointing the way was the relocation of the weapons collection from 1934 in its present premises in the New Castle, where since 1916 the collection of ancient musical instruments was placed.
With the change of the imperial collections in the ownership of the Republic the reorganization of the internal organization went hand in hand, too. Thus the museum was divided in 1919 into the
Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection (with the Oriental coins)
Collection of Classical Antiquities
Collection of ancient coins
Collection of modern coins and medals
Weapons collection
Collection of sculptures and crafts with the Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
Picture Gallery
The Museum 1938-1945
Count Philipp Ludwig Wenzel Sinzendorf according to Rigaud. Clarisse 1948 by Baroness de Rothschildt "dedicated" to the memory of Baron Alphonse de Rothschildt; restituted to the Rothschilds in 1999, and in 1999 donated by Bettina Looram Rothschild, the last Austrian heiress.
With the "Anschluss" of Austria to the German Reich all Jewish art collections such as the Rothschilds were forcibly "Aryanised". Collections were either "paid" or simply distributed by the Gestapo at the museums. This resulted in a significant increase in stocks. But the KHM was not the only museum that benefited from the linearization. Systematically looted Jewish property was sold to museums, collections or in pawnshops throughout the empire.
After the war, the museum struggled to reimburse the "Aryanised" art to the owners or their heirs. They forced the Rothschild family to leave the most important part of their own collection to the museum and called this "dedications", or "donations". As a reason, was the export law stated, which does not allow owners to perform certain works of art out of the country. Similar methods were used with other former owners. Only on the basis of international diplomatic and media pressure, to a large extent from the United States, the Austrian government decided to make a change in the law (Art Restitution Act of 1998, the so-called Lex Rothschild). The art objects were the Rothschild family refunded only in the 1990s.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum operates on the basis of the federal law on the restitution of art objects from the 4th December 1998 (Federal Law Gazette I, 181 /1998) extensive provenance research. Even before this decree was carried out in-house provenance research at the initiative of the then archive director Herbert Haupt. This was submitted in 1998 by him in collaboration with Lydia Grobl a comprehensive presentation of the facts about the changes in the inventory levels of the Kunsthistorisches Museum during the Nazi era and in the years leading up to the State Treaty of 1955, an important basis for further research provenance.
The two historians Susanne Hehenberger and Monika Löscher are since 1st April 2009 as provenance researchers at the Kunsthistorisches Museum on behalf of the Commission for Provenance Research operating and they deal with the investigation period from 1933 to the recent past.
The museum today
Today the museum is as a federal museum, with 1st January 1999 released to the full legal capacity - it was thus the first of the state museums of Austria, implementing the far-reaching self-financing. It is by far the most visited museum in Austria with 1.3 million visitors (2007).
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is under the name Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum with company number 182081t since 11 June 1999 as a research institution under public law of the Federal virtue of the Federal Museums Act, Federal Law Gazette I/115/1998 and the Museum of Procedure of the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Museum of Ethnology and the Austrian Theatre Museum, 3 January 2001, BGBl II 2/ 2001, in force since 1 January 2001, registered.
In fiscal 2008, the turnover was 37.185 million EUR and total assets amounted to EUR 22.204 million. In 2008 an average of 410 workers were employed.
Management
1919-1923: Gustav Glück as the first chairman of the College of science officials
1924-1933: Hermann Julius Hermann 1924-1925 as the first chairman of the College of the scientific officers in 1925 as first director
1933: Arpad Weixlgärtner first director
1934-1938: Alfred Stix first director
1938-1945: Fritz Dworschak 1938 as acting head, from 1938 as a chief in 1941 as first director
1945-1949: August von Loehr 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of the historical collections of the Federation
1945-1949: Alfred Stix 1945-1948 as executive director of the State Art Collections in 1949 as general director of art historical collections of the Federation
1949-1950: Hans Demel as administrative director
1950: Karl Wisoko-Meytsky as general director of art and historical collections of the Federation
1951-1952: Fritz Eichler as administrative director
1953-1954: Ernst H. Buschbeck as administrative director
1955-1966: Vincent Oberhammer 1955-1959 as administrative director, from 1959 as first director
1967: Edward Holzmair as managing director
1968-1972: Erwin Auer first director
1973-1981: Friderike Klauner first director
1982-1990: Hermann Fillitz first director
1990: George Kugler as interim first director
1990-2008: Wilfried Seipel as general director
Since 2009: Sabine Haag as general director
Collections
To the Kunsthistorisches Museum are also belonging the collections of the New Castle, the Austrian Theatre Museum in Palais Lobkowitz, the Museum of Ethnology and the Wagenburg (wagon fortress) in an outbuilding of Schönbrunn Palace. A branch office is also Ambras in Innsbruck.
Kunsthistorisches Museum (main building)
Picture Gallery
Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection
Collection of Classical Antiquities
Vienna Chamber of Art
Numismatic Collection
Library
New Castle
Ephesus Museum
Collection of Ancient Musical Instruments
Arms and Armour
Archive
Hofburg
The imperial crown in the Treasury
Imperial Treasury of Vienna
Insignia of the Austrian Hereditary Homage
Insignia of imperial Austria
Insignia of the Holy Roman Empire
Burgundian Inheritance and the Order of the Golden Fleece
Habsburg-Lorraine Household Treasure
Ecclesiastical Treasury
Schönbrunn Palace
Imperial Carriage Museum Vienna
Armory in Ambras Castle
Ambras Castle
Collections of Ambras Castle
Major exhibits
Among the most important exhibits of the Art Gallery rank inter alia:
Jan van Eyck: Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, 1438
Martin Schongauer: Holy Family, 1475-80
Albrecht Dürer : Trinity Altar, 1509-16
Portrait Johann Kleeberger, 1526
Parmigianino: Self Portrait in Convex Mirror, 1523/24
Giuseppe Arcimboldo: Summer 1563
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary 1606/ 07
Caravaggio: Madonna of the Rosary (1606-1607)
Titian: Nymph and Shepherd to 1570-75
Portrait of Jacopo de Strada, 1567/68
Raffaello Santi: Madonna of the Meadow, 1505 /06
Lorenzo Lotto: Portrait of a young man against white curtain, 1508
Peter Paul Rubens: The altar of St. Ildefonso, 1630-32
The Little Fur, about 1638
Jan Vermeer: The Art of Painting, 1665/66
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Fight between Carnival and Lent, 1559
Kids, 1560
Tower of Babel, 1563
Christ Carrying the Cross, 1564
Gloomy Day (Early Spring), 1565
Return of the Herd (Autumn), 1565
Hunters in the Snow (Winter) 1565
Bauer and bird thief, 1568
Peasant Wedding, 1568/69
Peasant Dance, 1568/69
Paul's conversion (Conversion of St Paul), 1567
Cabinet of Curiosities:
Saliera from Benvenuto Cellini 1539-1543
Egyptian-Oriental Collection:
Mastaba of Ka Ni Nisut
Collection of Classical Antiquities:
Gemma Augustea
Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós
Gallery: Major exhibits
Symbol for Asfaltor Oy, road constructors. Designer Martti A. Mykkänen. From Graphis Annual 60/61. (Finland). Blogged at Aqua-Velvet.
This is dedicated to Janet [Dark Spinner] for being such a good flickr friend. Thank you for always having such kind words and kindness!
For Tai Shan's 6th Birthday, and in his honor, the members of Pandas Unlimited raised the required funds to donate a new gym/climbing structure for him. The BFX Director provided the design.
Many thanks to Pandas International for providing these screen caps of Tai enjoying his new gym.
Dear Sir & Madam,
Greetings for you.!!!
Mapsko Launching......
This pre-launch project in sector 79 on NH. It has direct connectivity to Manesar, NH-8, Dwarka Expressway, NH-8, & Golf Course Ext Road and touches 10 residential sectors like sector-,76, 77, 78, 80, 81A, 82A, 83, etc.
Mapsko is launching a new residential project “Mount Ville” on 84mtr. Wide road with 6acre front in Sector- 79 at Gurgaon. It spread 16 acres apart of 22 acres and offers 3 Bedroom, 3-Bedroom-cum-SQ and 4Bedroom Apartments.
Over 1000 families will live here surrounded by everything they could possibly want: -
•Walking and Jogging Tracks across vast landscaped lawns
•Swimming Pool
•A clubhouse for social gatherings
•Tennis , basketball and volleyball courts a walk away
•Shopping centers
•Security
•Uninterrupted power back up and
•20 minute drive from Delhi Airport.
Specifications
•Split AC's in all Bedrooms & Living Room (Daikin or Equivalent)
•Italian Marble/ Imported Marble, Laminated wooden flooring in bedrooms
•Modular Kitchen
•Modular Wardrobes in all bedrooms
•Branded Sanitary fixtures (Grohe or Equivalent)
•Piped gas
•Project designed by Hafeez Contractor. (India's most successful architect)
•Landscaping done by U.S.A. Land scape architect
•3 High Speed Elevators in each tower
•Double Height (6 meters) Air Conditioned Entrance Lobby
Mount Ville Designed by Hafeez Contractor
Hafeez Contractor is no less than an icon in the Indian real estate industry. A scion of 21st century high rises. Hafeez's portfolio features some of the most significant architectural accomplishments of contemporary India. He has been credited with numerous accolades namely
• Top architect of the year 2007
• One man show
• Realty plus Award and more………
Projects delivered by Hafeez contractor in Gurgaon:
• DLF Aralias
• DLF Magnolias
• DLF Pinnacle
Price List
Note:- Effective BSP of 4760 psqft only on first 300 bookings
Size sqft.)*Type*Rate *Booking Amount
14903BHK+3T4760/-6 Lacs
15103BHK+3T4760/-6 Lacs
18153BHK+SR+3T4760/-7 Lacs
26504BHK+SR+4T4760/-10 Lacs
Note:- Effective BSP of 4960 psqft after 300 bookings
Size sqft.)*Type*Rate *Booking Amount
14903BHK+3T4960/-6 Lacs
15103BHK+3T4960/-6 Lacs
18153BHK+SR+3T4960/-7 Lacs
26504BHK+SR+4T4960/-10 Lacs
Discount is for Limited Time ………... SO Hurry UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cheque made in favor of “ Mapsko Builders Pvt. Ltd.”
Payment Plan:
PLCs:
Aravali View FacingRs. 100 psf
Green/ Landscape FacingRs. 100 psf
Pool facing till 15th FloorRs. 50 psf
Corner AptsRs. 50 psf
Sector Road FacingRs. 100 psf
First to 3rd FloorRs. 200 psf
Fourth to Sixth FloorRs. 150 psf
Seventh to NinthRs. 100 psf
21st onwardsRs. 100 psf
Other Charges (One Time)
External Development Charges (EDC)Rs. 390/- sq.ft.
Interest Free Maintenance Security (IFMS)Rs. 100/- sq.ft.
Covered Car Parking (one bay mandatory)Rs. 4, 00, 000/-
Club Membership ChargesRs. 1, 00, 000/-
Gas Installation ChargesRs. 50, 000/-
Power Back-up ChargesRs. 20, 000/- per kva
Note:
1. First transfer free till 31 March 2013
2. Two car parking mandatory for 2650 sq.ft.
3. Service tax as applicable
4. Price subject to revision at the sole discretion of the company
5. 20% of PDC (Less Booking Amount) of 45 days of booking + S.Tax.
6. In case any cheque (Booking + PDC) gets dishonored/ bounced, the booking stand cancelled.
Please make a call to undersigned for best discount, first come first serve basis / priority basis
If you have any query than feel free to call me.
@+91-9582922212
For my video; youtu.be/kouUtA8ZnYg
Mexican women with much darker skin than the photographers and better suited to the strong sun.
This piece of art, entitled "For the Love of God", was created by Damien Hirst and will be on display at White Cube Mason's Yard. It's a skull made out of platinum, diamonds, and human teeth. The total thing has 8,601 diamonds and comes in at 1,106.18 carats. It's the most expensive piece of art ever created, costing between $16 and $20 million to make, and $99 million to buy.
London’s White Cube gallery announced that British artist Damien Hirst diamond-encrusted skull sold for $100 million dollars, a record price for work sold by a living artist.
Sorry for the lack of updates in recent weeks this due to a busy work and ice hockey schedule. Advanced warning no photos of Hollie in the last week of the month due to being away.
However I have another day as Hollie next Saturday and I might have some new bits to show you ladies and gentlemen as well.
P.S looking for vintage Skirt Suits 80s and 90s preferably any help would be much appreciated. Ideally one knee length skirt and jacket and one maxi skirt and jacket and not black.
Anna, Elsa and Lauren Kyle fundraising for the Five Sisters Zoo to rescue and rehome four ex-circus lions
Yesterday's sky and temperature gave a hint to the coming season change. After a very short dry spell, the 215 ft waterfall just north of Ithaca is down to a trickle. Taken 8-28-19
This very pretty girl came up to me in Copley Square and asked if I'd like to take some pictures of her. She said she needed some photos to help her get a job as a model. (I think my camera -- a Minolta SRT-101 -- impressed her, as did the fact that I was changing lenses.) I said sure -- who wouldn't?
I forget how I was supposed to contact her after the shots (slides) were developed. In any case, I never did. (I think I lost whatever contact information she gave me.) But I wondered about her -- hanging around Copley Square by herself, very pretty, artfully made up, wearing an attractive dress, and approaching men she didn't know with an offer to pose for them. I hope things worked out for her.
Taken in July 1976.
Fjords
Norway is famous for its fjords, two of which, the Geirangerfjord and the Nærøyfjord, feature on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The Sognefjord, the longest of them all, and the Hardangerfjord, famed for its cherry and apple trees, are among the most visited.
Northern lights
The Northern lights are a common natural phenomenon in Northern Norway, and are most commonly observed above the Arctic Circle between late autumn and early spring.
Midnight sun
The sun does not set in summer over the Arctic Circle, meaning visitors to Northern Norway enjoy 24 hours of daylight this time of year.
Weather
The weather in Norway is much milder than one would expect. Because of the Gulf Stream, temperatures along the coast of Norway are 5-8°C higher than at comparable latitudes elsewhere.
Vikings
The Vikings have a bad reputation as raiders, but they were also traders, explorers and settlers, and the legacy from the Viking Age (AD 800-1050) lives on.
The Sami people
The Sami are the indigenous people of Norway. Known for their colourful clothes and the huge herds of reindeer they look after, the Sami have been living in northern Scandinavia for over 10,000 years, and today they have their own parliament in Karasjok.
Famous Norwegians
These include explorers Roald Amundsen, Fridtjof Nansen and Thor Heyerdahl, composer Edvard Grieg, violin virtuoso Ole Bull, artist Edvard Munch, playwright Henrik Ibsen, novelist Knut Hamsun, and politician Gro Harlem Brundtland, among many others.
The Royal Family
King Harald V, the King of Norway, and Queen Sonja have two children: a son, Crown Prince Haakon, who is married to Crown Princess Mette-Marit, with whom he has two children and a daughter, Princess Martha Louise, who is married to Ari Mikael Behn.
Trolls
Trolls are an important part of Norwegian folklore. They vary in size and appearance, but are invariably ugly and messy creatures, and always mischievous (if not downright nasty). They usually live in caves or deep in the forest, and only emerge from their hiding places after sunset - legend has it that they turn to stone upon contact with the sun. Several places in Western and Northern Norway have been named after them, such as Trollheimen, Trollstigen, Trollhatten and Trollveggen.
In Norway everyone has the right of access ("allemannsretten") in the countryside - including the national parks.
Marked trails
Several national parks have arrangements for outdoor activities with a network of marked paths and trails and overnight accommodation in either staffed lodges or self-service cabins.
In vulnerable areas where it is desirable to limit the impact of visitors, paths and accommodation are minimal. General regulations concerning free access and special regulations concerning preservation in the individual parks may limit what is allowed.
Wild reindeer
National parks are particularly important for species that need relatively large and undisturbed areas to survive, such as wild reindeer, predators and birds of prey. Many of these are at great risk from human intervention and some are even threatened with extinction. Norway has an international responsibility to look after endangered species and their habitats.
Nearly 85 per cent of Norway's national parks are mountains. The mountain landscape varies from endless gently rolling high plateaus to sharp peaks, ravines and glaciers.
in-camera multiple exposure with basic crop and color levels adjustment
Inspired by the caption, which is Chapter 6 Verse 30 of the Bhagavad Gita . We are One :)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Lockheed L300 was originally conceived as a military strategic airlifter that served under the designation C-141 Starlifter with the Military Air Transport Service (MATS), its successor organization the Military Airlift Command (MAC), and finally the Air Mobility Command (AMC) of the United States Air Force (USAF).
In the early 1960s, the United States Air Force's Military Air Transport Service (MATS) relied on a substantial number of propeller-driven aircraft for strategic airlift, such as the C-124 Globemaster II and C-133 Cargomaster. As these aircraft were mostly obsolescent designs and the Air Force needed the benefits of jet power, the USAF ordered 48 Boeing C-135 Stratolifters as an interim step. The C-135 was a useful stop-gap, but only had side-loading doors and much of the bulky and oversize equipment employed by the U.S. Army would not fit.
In the spring of 1960, the Air Force released Specific Operational Requirement 182, calling for a new aircraft that would be capable of performing both strategic and tactical airlift missions. The strategic role demanded that the aircraft be capable of missions with a radius of at least 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km) with a 60,000 pounds (27,000 kg) load. The tactical role required it to be able to perform low-altitude air drops of supplies, as well as carry and drop combat paratroops. Several companies responded to SOR 182, including Boeing, Lockheed, and General Dynamics.
Lockheed responded to the requirement with a unique design: the Lockheed Model 300, the first large jet designed from the start to carry freight. The Model 300 had a swept high-mounted wing with four 21,000 pounds-force (93 kN) thrust TF33 turbofan engines pod-mounted below the wings. An important aspect was the cabin's floor height of only 50 inches (130 cm) above the ground, allowing easy access to the cabin through the rear doors. The two rear side doors were designed to allow the aircraft to drop paratroops (in August 1965 the aircraft performed the first paratroop drop from a jet-powered aircraft). The rear cargo doors could be opened in flight for airborne cargo drops. The high-mounted wings gave internal clearance in the cargo compartment of 10 feet (3.0 m) wide, 9 ft (2.7 m) high and 70 ft (21 m) long. The size enabled the Starlifter to carry, for example, a complete LGM-30 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile in its container. The aircraft was capable of carrying a maximum of 70,847 pounds (32,136 kg) over short distances, and up to 92,000 pounds (42,000 kg) in the version configured to carry the Minuteman, which lacked other equipment. The aircraft could also carry up to 154 troops, 123 paratroops or 80 litter patients.
President John F. Kennedy's first official act after his inauguration was to order the development of the Lockheed 300 on 13 March 1961, with a contract for five aircraft for test and evaluation to be designated the C-141. One unusual aspect of the aircraft was that it was designed to meet both military and civil airworthiness standards, since Lockheed hoped to sell the aircraft, much like the C-130 Hercules, to airlines, too. The prototype C-141A (s/n 61-2775) was manufactured and assembled in record time. The prototype was rolled out of the Lockheed factory at Marietta, Georgia on 22 August 1963 and first flew on 17 December, the 60th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first flight. The company and the Air Force then started an operational testing program and the delivery of 284 C-141 aircraft.
The effort to sell the aircraft on the civilian market included some detail changes like a different yoke and cockpit equipment. Two versions were offered: the original aircraft (designated L300-100 StarLifter), based on the C-141’s hull, and a strongly stretched version, 37 feet (11 m) longer than the L300-100, and marketed as the L300-200 SuperstarLifter. Specialized versions like an aerial firefighting water bomber were proposed, too, and an initial L300-100 prototype made a global sales tour (which was later donated to NASA).
Response from the civil market was rather lukewarm, though, and resulted only in orders from Flying Tiger Line and Slick Airways for four aircraft each. Nevertheless, production of the civil StarLifter was launched in 1966, since the differences to the military aircraft were only minimal and Lockheed considered the financial risks to be acceptable. However, only twelve aircraft were initially ordered when production was greenlighted, but there was the expectation to attract more sales once the aircraft proved itself in daily business.
Despite a very good service record, this did not happen. To make matters worse, unexpected legal problems seriously threatened the newly introduced transport aircraft: In the early 1970s, strict noise limits for civil aircraft threatened operations, esp. in the USA. Several American L300 operators approached Lockheed for suitable noise reduction modifications, but the company did not react. However, third parties that had developed aftermarket hush kits for other airliners like the Boeing 707 or the Douglas DC-8 chimed in and saw their opportunity, and in 1975 General Electric began discussions with the major L300 operators with a view to fitting the new and considerably quieter Franco-American CFM56 engine to the transport aircraft. Lockheed still remained reluctant, but eventually came on board in the late 1970s and supported the conversion kit with new nacelles and pylons. This engine kit was unofficially baptized the “StarSilencer” program, which was offered as a retrofit kit and as an option for newly built aircraft, which were designated L300-1100 and -1200, respectively.
The kit was well received and all operational private L300s were upgraded with the fuel-efficient 22,000 lb (98.5 kN) CFM56-2 high-bypass turbofans until 1984, preventing a premature legal end of operations in wide parts of the world. The benefits of the upgrade were remarkable: The new engines were markedly quieter than the original Pratt & Whitney TF33-P-7 turbofans, and fuel efficiency was improved by 20%, resulting in a higher range. The CFM56s also offered 10% more thrust than the TF33-P-7s’ 20,250 lbf (90.1 kN each) output, and this extra thrust improved the aircraft’s take-off performance, too.
The USAF did not adopt the “StarSilencer” upgrade and rather focused on the fuselage extension program that converted all existing C-141As into C-141Bs from 1979 onwards, so that the aircraft’s payload potential could be better exploited. However, the new CFM56 engines made the L300 more attractive to civil operators, and, beyond the upgrade program for existing airframes, a second wave of orders was placed for both the L300-1100 and -1200: until 1981, when civil L300 production was stopped, eighteen more aircraft had been ordered, primarily for operators in North America and Canada, bringing total production to 40 machines, plus the initial demonstrator prototype.
One of these late buyers outside of the American continent was Air Greenland. Founded in 1960 as Grønlandsfly, the airline started its first services with Catalina water planes and within the decade expanded to include DHC-3 Otters as well as Sikorsky S-61 helicopters, some of which remain in active service. Grønlandsfly also picked up a Danish government contract to fly reconnaissance missions regarding the sea ice around Greenland.
During the 1970s, Grønlandsfly upgraded its airliner fleet, and mining in the Uummannaq Fjord opened new business opportunities beyond passenger services. To enter the bulk cargo business for mining companies with routes to Canada, North America and Europe as well as civil freight flights for the U.S. Army in Greenland (e. g. for the USAF’s Sondrestrom and Thule Air Bases), the purchase of a dedicated transport aircraft was considered. This eventually led to the procurement of a single, new L300-1100 StarLifter with CFM56-2 engines in 1980 – at the time, the biggest aircraft operated by Grønlandsfly. Domestic as well as international passenger service flourished, too: By the end of 1979, the number of Grønlandsfly passengers served annually exceeded 60,000 – this was more than the population of Greenland itself! However, the airline’s first true jet airliner, a Boeing 757-200, began operation in May 1998. Before, only propeller-driven aircraft like vintage Douglas DC-4 and DC-6 or the DHC Twin Otter and Dash 7 turboprop aircraft had been the main passenger types. In 1999, the airline already served 282,000 passengers, nearly triple the number at the end of the previous decade.
In 2002 the company rebranded itself, anglicizing its name to Air Greenland and adopting a new logo and livery. The L300-1100 was kept in service and remained, until the introduction of a single Airbus A330 in 2003 (purchased after SAS abandoned its Greenland service and Air Greenland took these over), Air Greenland’s biggest aircraft, with frequent cargo flights for the Maarmorilik zinc and iron mines.
StarLifters remained in military duty for over 40 years until the USAF withdrew the last C-141s from service in 2006, after replacing the airlifter with the C-17 Globemaster III. In civil service, however, the L300, despite its small production number, outlasted the C-141. After the military aircraft’s retirement, more than twenty StarLifters were still in private service, most of them operating under harsh climatic conditions and in remote parts of the world.
General characteristics:
Crew: 4 - 6 (2 pilots, 2 flight engineers, 1 navigator, 1 loadmaster)
Length: 145 ft (44.27 m)
Wingspan: 160 ft 0 in (48.8 m)
Height: 39 ft 3 in (12 m)
Wing area: 3,228 ft² (300 m²)
Empty weight: 136,900 lbs (62,153 kg)
Loaded weight: 323,100 lbs (146,688 kg)
Max Payload, 2.25g: 94,508 lb (42.906 kg)
Max Takeoff Weight, 2.25g: 343,000 lb (155,722 kg)
Powerplant:
4× CFM International CFM56-2 high-bypass turbofans, delivering 22,000 lb (98.5 kN) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 567 mph (493 kn, 912 km/h)
Cruise speed: 495 mph (430 kn, 800 km/h)
Range: 4,320 mi (2,350 nmi, 6,955 km)
Ferry range: 7,245 mi (6,305 nmi, 11,660 km)
Service ceiling: 41,000 ft (12,500 m)
Rate of climb: 2,600 ft/min (13.2 m/s)
Wing loading: 100.1 lb/ft2 (490 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 0.25
The kit and its assembly:
This is another project I had on my agenda for a long time, it was inspired by a picture of the civilian L300 demonstrator and the question what a StarLifter in civil service could look like? Such a type (like the C-130) would only make sense for bulk cargo transport business, and probably only for rather remote locations, so I went up North with my thoughts and initially considered Air Canada or Buffalo Airways as an operator, but then remembered Air Greenland – a very good fit, and the current livery would make the L300 a colorful bird, too.
The basis is Roden’s C-141B kit, AFAIK the only affordable IP kit of this aircraft when I had the idea for this build a while ago; A&A Models released in the meantime a C-141A in June 2021, but it is prohibitively expensive, and Anigrand does a C-141A resin kit. The Roden kit is a sound offering. The parts fit well, even though the seams along the long fuselage and the wing roots need attention and PSR, and at the small 1:144 scale the (engraved) surface details are just fine. It’s not a stellar model, but a sturdy representation with surprisingly massive parts, esp. the fuselage: its walls are almost 3mm thick!
However, I did not want to build the stretched USAF version. The original civil L300 had the same fuselage as the C-141A, and I found this option to be more plausible for the haul of singular heavy equipment than the stretched version, and the decision to shorten the C-141B also had logistic reasons, because I’d have to store the model somewhere once finished… And, finally, I think that the original, short C-141 is just looking good. ;-)
So, I simply “de-plugged” the fuselage. In real life, the C-141B had two extensions: a 160” plug in front and another 120” insert behind its wings. This translated into 2.8 and 2.1 cm long sections on the model that were simply sawed off from the completed fuselage. Thanks to the massive fuselage walls, gluing the parts back together was an easy task, resulting in a very stable connection. The seams were hidden under some PSR, as well as two windows. The C-141B’s fairing for the refueling receptive was also sanded away. The front plug was easily hidden, but the rear plug called for some body sculpting, because the fuselage has a subtle bulge around the cargo door and its ramp – the shapes in front and behind it don’t differ much, though.
Another change for a more fictional civil variant: the engines. This was a lucky coincidence, because I had a complete set of four CFM56 turbofan nacelles left over from my shortened Minicraft DC-8 build a while ago, and the StarLifter lent itself to take these different/more modern engines, esp. for the civilian market. The swap was not as easy as expected, though, because the C-141’s nacelles are much different, have longer pylons and their attachment points in the wings were OOB not compatible at all with the CFM56 pods. I eventually filled the attachment slots in the wings and glued the complete CFM56 nacelles with their short DC-8 pylons directly under the wings, blending these areas with PRS. The engines’ position is now markedly different (higher/closer to the wings and further forward), but the engines’ bigger diameter IMHO justifies this change – and it turned out well.
The rest of the Roden model was left OOB, I just added a ventral display adapter for the flight scenes.
Painting and markings:
As mentioned above, I was looking for a “bush pilot” operator of suitable size in the Northern hemisphere, and Greenland Air was chosen because of its exoticism and the airline’s distinctive and simple livery. Does anyone know this rather small airline at all? Potential freight for the US Army as well as for private mining companies with lots of heavy equipment made the StarLifter’s operation plausible.
To make the plan work I was lucky that Draw Decal does an 1:144 sheet for the airline‘s (sole) Boeing 757, and its simple post-2002 all-red paint scheme was easily adapted to the StarLifter. The fuselage and the nacelles were painted with brushes in Humbrol 19 (Gloss Red, it comes IMHO close to the rich real-world tone), while the wings and the engine pylons became Humbrol 40 (Glossy Light Gull Grey). For some variety I added a medium grey (Humbrol 126, FS 36270) Corroguard panel to the wings’ upper surface, later framed with OOB decals. The white door markings came from a generic PAS decals sheet. All decals were very thin, esp. the Draw Decals sheet, which had to be handled with much care, but they also dried up perfectly and the white print inks turned out to have very good opacity. Adapting the Boeing 757 decals to the very different C-141 hull was also easier than expected, even though the "Air Greenland" tag on the nose ended up quite far forward and the emblem on the fin lots its uppermost white circle.
The cockpit, which comes with no interior, was painted in black, while the landing gear wells and struts were painted in a very light grey (Humbrol 196, RAL 7035) with white rims.
Panel lines were emphasized with a little black ink, and the cockpit glazing turned out to be a bit foggy - which became only apparent after I added the red around it. In order to hide this flaw I just laid out the window panels with Tamiya "Smoke".
Finally the model finally received an overall coat of gloss acrylic varnish from a rattle can.
A colorful result, even though the bright red C-141 looks unusual, if not odd. The different engines work well; with the shorter fuselage, the new, wider nacelles change the StarLifter’s look considerably. It looks more modern (at least to me), like a juiced-up Bae 146 or a C-17 on a diet?
Gargoyle is a mouth for ejected words of sweeping Lucifer this took other angels that had the seed of desire planted within them, for it is selfish desires that fuel the ego. He was expelled from the higher regions because he no longer had the Christic virtues but had the ego crystallized instead. Since we assert that selfish desires and interests strengthen the egos hold on us, it is also true that altruistic, compassionate service vivify the Christic force within us that stirs us to self-sacrifice for humanity (The hanged man). Can 'Lucifer' be the Hanged Man #12 card ? Here are a few depictions of the card for reference first: The Hanged Man...also known as Perspective....now also known as "Lucifer"....here's why I think this is an awesome pictorial for the meaning. What is the central meaning for the Hanged Man?
Letting go...as in accepting God's Will (give me a chance to explain...just a little more)
Giving up control
Accepting what is
Putting others first
NOW WAIT A MINUTE, ERIC !! You said this would all make sense....Lucifer isn't this way!
...TRUE.....and that's my point. He is the card's "shadow side" (or Reversed). The shadow side of every card is the not-so-well known or publicized meanings that are just as much true as the upright meanings...just from a different 'perspective' (like how i tied that all in...LOL)
Lucifer...Satan....the Devil....whoever you may call him....he IS the Hanged Man's other half to complete the whole story.
Let's look at the original card again...upside down or Shadow side: This way what does the card suggest? The man is now grounded again, able to walk on his OWN TWO FEET, under his OWN power. What about his head? It's still a-glow with enlightenment ! But wait....I thought the man got his enlightenment while hanging upside and submitting? He did....but he also CAN on his own...
...just like Lucifer did !
Remember the first card above said "New Vision"? The figure was 'standing tall' with wings spread, leaving the corpse on the ground that was a slave to the 'old ways'. Keeping these images in mind lets see the meanings of the Hanged Man again...as it's 'True' other "Shadow"
Reversing...turning the world around...overturning old priorities
Seeing things from a new angle or perspective
Up-Ending the old order...doing an about-face
Living in the moment...for the NOW !
Defiance
Self-assertion
Sound more like the Lucifer you know? Let's look again: What we are witnessing is the moment Lucifer made his choice to rebel...and just BE HIMSELF ! On the left...heaven...his appointment there, where he was told what to do and had limited choice. On the right, FREEDOM as not a PLACE, but an IDEA....where he stretches his hand out in acceptance (notice the other is more closed with a "shackle of light" restricting it's movement).
Notice, also, the color of his wings: white on left from that of God's control, dark on right to show expansive freedom like that of space. In-between there is a struggle for control, for power, and for self-enlightenment. Both God and now Lucifer know this....the time for a new perspective has come...and Lucifer chose FREE WILL.
Whether I believe in Lucifer or not is unimportant...only the symbolism here to help see the relationship of the meanings of both Light and Shadow...neither one more important than the other....both necessary to the True meaning of the Hanged Man card.
Which side are you? Do you submit to what others tell you is right...or do you find you listen to what your heart tells you? You may have more in common with this card than you previously thought ! Cheers !
Eric "MoonLightTrucker"
“Esoterically, the Hanged Man is the human spirit which is suspended from heaven by a single thread. Wisdom, not death, is reward for this voluntary sacrifice during which the human soul, suspended above the world of illusion, and meditating upon its unreality, is rewarded by the achievement of self-realization.” – Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages.
In the Tarot with the twelfth (12th) card called ‘The Hanged Man”or in French, “Le Pendu.” The Hanged Man (XII) is the twelfth trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks.
This card portrays a young man hanging upside down by his left leg from a horizontal beam, the latter supported by two tree trunks from each of which six branches have been removed. The right leg of the youth is crossed in back of the left and his arms are folded behind his back in such a way as to form a cross surmounting a downward pointing triangle. According to Elphias Levi, the Hanged Man thus forms an inverted symbol of sulphur. Elphias Levi had stated in his book, Transcendental Magic; ” It is also implied fantastically that the Roman alphabet is related to Tarot cards, but whereas the Hebrew Mem answers to the card of Death the Roman M is referred to the Hanged Man, Resh to the Judgement card but R to the Blazing Star.” Levi likens the hanged man to the legend of Prometheus, the titan who gave fire to mankind and in turn suffered the wrath of Zeus by becoming the eternal sufferer, not just by being bound to a rock, but to also have his liver fed upon by an eagle each day. the Egyptian Tarot the hanged man is hung upside down between two palm trees, which is said to signify the Sun God who dies perennially for his world. In some Tarot decks, the figure in the 12th card carries under each arm a money bag from which coins are escaping. Some people have said that this latter card is that of Judas Iscariot who is said to have gone forth and hanged himself, the money bags representing the payment he received for his crime. The Hanged Man is a form of Pittura infamante;
(Italian for “defaming portrait”; plural pitture infamanti) is a genre of defamatory painting and relief, common in Renaissance Italy. It came to be regarded as a form of art rather than effigy; the power of the genre derived from a feudal-based code of honor, where shame was one of the most significant social punishments. Common themes of pittura infamante—which were meant to be humiliating—include depicting the subject as wearing a mitre or hanging upside down, being in the presence of unclean animals such as pigs or donkeys or those deemed evil like snakes; pittura infamante would also contain captions listing the offenses of the subject.Pittura infamante could originate as more favorable depictions, only to be transformed after the subject had fallen out of favor.
From its opening in 1907, the Adlon was as stately a grand hotel as any in Europe and a magnet for the glitterati of the day. Its fortunes rose and fell with those of Berlin but, remarkably, it almost survived the second world war unscathed until a fire gutted it at the end of the conflict.
The first Hotel Adlon was built in 1907 on the site of the Palais Redern, which had been designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The Adlon was one of the most famous hotels in Europe between the two World Wars and hosted celebrities including Louise Brooks, Charlie Chaplin, Herbert Hoover, Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich.
The hotel continued to operate throughout World War II, although parts were converted to a military field hospital during the final days of the Battle for Berlin. The hotel survived the war without any major damage, having avoided the bombs that had levelled the city. However, on the night of 2 May 1945 a fire started by carousing Soviet soldiers in the building's wine cellar left the main building of the hotel in ruins.
Following the war, the East German government reopened the surviving service wing under the Hotel Adlon name. The main building on Pariser Platz was demolished along with all the other buildings on the square, which was now in the no-man's-land between East and West Berlin.
In 1964, the building was renovated and the facade was redone. However, in the 1970s what remained of the original Hotel Adlon closed to guests and was converted to a lodging house for East German apprentices. Finally, in 1984 the building was demolished.
Adlon family signed the name and site over to the Kempinski chain in the hope it might one day be resurrected. After the wall came down, the hotel was rebuilt on its original site and reopened in 1997 in an event heavily symbolic of a city reborn.
film called The Glamorous World of the Adlon Hotel in 1996. It is available on video from the hotel giftshop.
Greta Garbo's 1932 film 'Grand Hotel' is set in a Berlin hotel inspired by the Adlon. In one of its rooms, she first utters her trademark line 'I vant to be alone'.
A fictional half-ruined pre-war luxury hotel in East Berlin (also inspired by the Adlon), is seen in Billy Wilder's film One, Two, Three.
The hotel features prominently in numerous fiction and non-fiction books about the Third Reich, including Joseph Kanon's novel The Good German, Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels, and William L. Shirer's memoir Berlin Diary.
Michael Jackson infamously dangled his son, "Blanket," out one of the hotel's windows during a visit to Berlin in November 2002. The third-floor window – the second longer balcony, is located on the Northwest side of the building overlooking Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate.
Many thanks for your visits, faves and comments. Cheers.
Australian Water Dragon
This is an The Eastern Water Dragon Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii, is a subspecies that occurs along the east coast of Australia from Cooktown in the north down to the New South Wales south coast (approximately at Kangaroo Valley) where it is replaced with the Gippsland Water Dragon Intellagama lesueurii howittii (there are a lot of young ones around Sandy Camp Rd Wetlands at the moment)
Scientific Name: Intellegama lesueurii
Identification: The genus Physignathus was described by George Cuvier (1769-1832) in 1829 based on the type specimen of the genus; the Green Water Dragon, Physignathus cocincinus of south-east Asia. The name Physignathus translates to "puff-cheek" and refers to the bulging appearance of the throat and lower jaw. Physignathus comprises two recognised species; Physignathus lesueurii and Physignathus concincinus. The specific name lesueurii honours the French naturalist Charles-Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846) who collected this species on the Baudin expedition of 1800. There are two recognised subspecies of Water Dragon; the Eastern Water Dragon, Physignathus lesueurii lesueurii and the Gippsland Water Dragon, Physignathus lesueurii howittii. A recent taxonomic review concluded that the Australian species of Physignathus shows enough differing characteristics to classify it in its own genus, since Physignathus was first assigned to P. cocincinus, a new genus hand to be created for the Australian Water Dragons. In 2012 the species was officially renamed Itellagama lesueurii.
The Water Dragon can be identified by a distinctively deep angular head and nuchal crest of spinose scales that joins the vertebral crest extending down the length of its body to the tail. Enlarged spinose scales are also present across the lateral surface, unevenly distributed amongst regular keeled scales. The jowls are large and ear is exposed and of almost equal size of the eye. The dorsal ridge and tail are laterally compressed and the limbs are strong and robust with particularly long toes on the hind legs. The tail is capable of regeneration when lost, furthermore, regenerated tails can also grow back when severed.
Colouration differs between the subspecies; the Eastern Water Dragon, Itellagama lesueurii lesueurii, has a grey to brownish-grey colour above with patterns of black stripes along the dorsal ridge as well as down the tail. There is also a dark stripe horizontally from the eye back over the tympanum and extending down the neck. The limbs are mostly black with spots and stripes of grey and the tail is patterned with grey and black stripes. The ventral surface is yellowish-brown, with the chest and upper belly becoming bright red in mature males.
The Gippsland Water Dragon, Itellagama lesueurii howittii, is identical in morphology apart from slightly smaller spinose scales but differs in colouration and patterning. Dorsally the body is olive-green to brown in colour with transverse black stripes. The dark stripe from the eye to ear is absent. Mature males have dark blue-green chests and streaks of yellow and blue around the neck and throat.
Size range: Total length of 80 to 90cm
Distribution: Water Dragons are found in eastern Australia as well as southern New Guinea. The Eastern subspecies, Itellagama lesueurii lesueurii, occurs along the east coast of Australia from Cooktown in the north down to the New South Wales south coast (approximately at Kangaroo Valley) where it is replaced with the Gippsland subspecies Itellagama lesueurii howittii, which is distributed as far south and into the Gippsland region of eastern Victoria. There are also at least one anthropologically introduced feral population found in the Mount Lofty Ranges near Adelaide in South Australia.
Habitat: The habitats available to this species differ greatly over its distribution, from tropical rainforest in the north to alpine streams in the south. Flowing water with ample tree cover and basking sites appear to be the key to habitat preference for this species. Water dragons will be found in built-up urban areas provided that the above conditions can be found and water quality is fair.
Feeding and Diet: Water Dragons are completely insectivorous as juveniles, however as they grow they become more omnivorous with vegetable matter gradually making up to almost half of the diet. In the wild Water Dragons have been observed ground feeding on insects such as ants as well as foraging amongst the branches of trees for arboreal invertebrates like cicadas. They may also consume molluscs and crustaceans such as yabbies, and individuals have been reported foraging for algae and crabs in intertidal zones of the Sydney region. Juvenile Water Dragons have also been observed feeding on mosquitoes which they will jump in the air to catch. Types of vegetation reportedly consumed include figs, lilly-pilly fruits, and other fruits and flowers. Water Dragons are believed to forage underwater, however this is based on one observation of diving Water Dragons returning to the surface and moving their jaws.
Other behaviours and adaptations: The Water Dragon is more often heard than seen as it dives into the water when disturbed. It can remain submerged for around one hour. This species has a much lower preferred body temperature than other large dragons and can remain in the water or in shade on hot days. They are often seen on overcast days or in the morning basking in the available heat.
Water Dragons have quite contrasting activity patterns that are dependent on the season and average daily temperature within its range. During spring and summer, Water Dragons of all ages and sizes can be seen in the various riparian environments they inhabit - basking on riverbanks and rocks, lounging in trees, swimming, as well as foraging for food on land. They can sometimes be hard to observe, and even animals accustomed to human attention will be quick to escape if approached too closely, by either dropping from rock ledges and branches into the water or running bipedally to the water or thick cover. Young Water Dragons prefer to be on the ground and appear to be more wary than the larger adults. Juveniles of I. l. lesueurii have been observed staying completely still when discovered in a grassed section metres from the water, relying heavily on their dull grey camouflage to blend in with the grass and fallen leaves.
Life cycle: Growth rate is fastest in the first year with hatchings from one mark-recapture project growing 2.25mm or 1.25g per month. One individual measured in its first season in March 1990 was 78mm from snout to vent and weighed 17g. The following year in January this same individual had a snout to vent length of 101mm and was 34g.
Mating and reproduction
The timing of breeding is determined by the onset of warmer weather in spring which occurs sooner in populations inhabiting northern Queensland and later in populations living in Gippsland. In the Sydney region, the breeding season begins in September, when courtship and mating begins, and concludes in January when the last clutches of eggs are laid.
Males are thought to be sexually mature at a snout-vent length of about 210 mm and a mass of 400 g. In the wild this occurs at approximately 5 years of age; in captivity however this can occur as early as 2 years. A single captive female was recorded reproducing from the age of 4 until it was 27 years of age. It is unclear how long males can remain reproductive.
Males of similar size will fight each other when confronted. A male will first attempt to deter his opponent through intimidation, e.g. by walking tall and puffing out the throat with the mouth open wide (see Image 18), and will try to appear as large as possible. If this does not deter the opponent, then ritual combat will result. Male combat includes both animals siding up to each other on the ground so that each animal has its head next to its opponentâs hip area. Both animals will circle each other while taking short bites at each others hip and neck regions. Then they may stop still before erupting into action and repeating this pattern over several more times. Before the end of the battle both opponents will have wounds from biting and scratching on their hips and necks. Fighting between wild males has been observed lasting for ten minutes.
Females can reproduce twice a season in captivity; however this has not been reported in mark-recapture studies of wild populations.
Females begin digging test holes in sandy soil from a week to three days prior to laying. Water Dragon clutch size ranges from 6 to 18. Mean mass of individual eggs varies from about 4.0 to 5.1g.
Predators, Parasites and Diseases
Small Water Dragons have been observed being taken by Brown Tree Snakes Boiga irregularis which hunt for them in the tree branches as they sleep. Other species of snakes known to prey on juvenile Water Dragons include Death Adders Acanthophis antarcticus, Copperheads Austrelaps superbus and Red-bellied Black Snakes Pseudechis porphyriacus. Hatchlings and young dragons are also known to be cannibalised by adult Water Dragons in some wild populations.
(Source: Australian Museum)
© Chris Burns 2017
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This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying and recording without my written consent.
12 Months for Dogs
&
#97 -- Sleeping animals -- 124 Pictures in 2024
It's not that easy to take a photo of Dart without rousing & waking her -- she's so very alert. I caught her at a tired moment---
(Lensbaby Velvet 85)
For more details about Ayodhya Hills check: weekenddestinations.info/2011/location/bankurapurulia/ayo...