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Portuguese
A Praia do Gunga é uma das mais famosas de Alagoas. Fica no município de Roteiro e às margens da Lagoa do Roteiro que encontra-se como mar bem em frente às tendas e bares do Gunga.
Logo após passar pela ponte sobre a Lagoa do Roteiro tem-se uma bonita imagem. Às margens da rodovia AL-101 estão uma infinidade de coqueiros que estendem-se por muitos quilômetros.
A Praia do Gunga fica no interior de uma fazenda de coqueiros e para chegar até ela é necessário ingressar pelos portões da fazenda.
Ingressamos na fazenda e seguimos até a praia que conta com muitas barracas de praia. Aproveitamos para almoçar em uma delas.
Após 500mts da entrada da fazenda existe um mirante de onde é possível avistar a Praia do Gunga, a fazenda de coqueiros e a Barra de São Miguel.
http://turismoeaventura.blogspot.com.br/2009/01/praia-do-gunga-roteiroal.html
This is my first hdr attempt.............
France - Villecroze. Main street
Villecroze is a medieval charming village which attracts many visitors. In the magnificent decor of mountains of pines and oaks, this village has many sights to see. There's one main street running though the center of town, with shops along both sides. A side street off the main street is lined with terrace café-restaurants beneath large, shady plane trees. Beside this are petanque courts and a parking area.
Het schilderachtige, middeleeuwse dorp Villecroze ligt in de Provence Verte, het groene hart van de Var, tussen het Lac de Ste-Croix, met de Gorges du Verdon, en de Côte d'Azur. Villecroze is klein, rustig en gezellig. Het ligt nabij andere mooie plaatsjes als Cotignac, Tourtour, Flayosc, Entrecasteaux, Lorgues en Le Thoronet
Forgiveness is found only in a personal relationship with the risen Jesus Christ!!!
He died as your substitute, shedding His blood as your ultimate sacrifice...taking all the punishment and condemnation for your sin; and rising from the dead 3 days later... so that God can punish your sin, forgive you, and still remain a JUST God!!! But you must be willing to turn from your sinful lifestyle, and surrender by faith to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!! How could anyone reject, or not trust, a God who loves them that much??
The Walhalla is a hall of fame that honors laudable and distinguished people in German history – "politicians, sovereigns, scientists and artists of the German tongue"; thus the celebrities honored are drawn from Greater Germany, a wider area than today's Germany. The hall is a neo-classical building above the Danube River, east of Regensburg in Bavaria.
The Walhalla is named for the Valhalla of Norse mythology. It was conceived in 1807 by Crown Prince Ludwig in order to support the then-gathering momentum for the unification of the many German states. Following his accession to the throne of Bavaria, construction took place between 1830 and 1842 under the supervision of the architect Leo von Klenze. The memorial displays some 65 plaques and 130 busts covering 2,000 years of history, beginning with Arminius, victor at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. (source: Wikipedia)
You can find there also Sophie Scholl, member of the Anti-Nazi "White Rose", or Konrad Adenauer. All in all an interesting collection of "celebrities" and today more unknown men and women - the busts sometimes not of high quality.
I hope one day we will have a European Walhalla or European Pantheon, which unites a lot of men and women, who made great contributions to European history and spirit.
Anyhow, even this very German place shows some early European connections and roots - even in a time when nation building seemed so important. Some nationalists should think about it. And about a history, in which great parts of Europe were united in diversity.
This is a composite shot of 4 images to capture all the space of this majestic area in Yosemite. This was last night in Yosemite Valley during a Super Moon, where the Moon is full and at it's closest approach to the Earth during it's orbits. The hope was to capture a rainbow that occurs only a few times a year when all the elements come together. Unfortunately this year we got the moon and the clear skies but there was just not enough mist at the base of the upper falls to produce much of a rainbow. Hopefully next year!
It was a blast thought because there were several hundred photographers all over the valley trying to capture this special event...they definitely outnumbers all the other wildlife out there this night!!!!
Great to see ALL my Flickr friends that all defended in the valley for the show!
Sarah is a fantastic German photographer. She makes the most amazing pin up shots (she is NOT the model - she is the photographer).
On Flickr she is quite an "underdog" but I think her stream deserves way more attention.
For Wednesday Contact Showcase
1. phone, 2. Secret No.8, 3. La Femme No3, 4. Corset, 5. Jardin No:3"The garden is a mirror of the heart.", 6. play time No4, 7. living baroque No.1, 8. Welcome to Charlston No.5, 9. Welcome to Charlston no.2
“Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.”
― Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Spring is slowly but surely coming to Gosau too. It still snows a little on the mountain pasture and down in the village it rains and washes the snow off the paths and meadows.
The train to Gosau is already waiting for you maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Gosau%20Dachstein%20West/1...
We have activated a realistic 24 hour EEP day cycle that corresponds to the real weather and the time of day (GMT +1). To take full advantage of these settings, please use the Second Life Project EEP Channel, which you can download at releasenotes.secondlife.com/viewer/6.4.0.536347.html .
To follow our Activities and News join our Group www.flickr.com/groups/14679332@N21/ .
Alan is the youngest member of his large family. In the picture he is holding, Alan is the small boy sitting on the floor cross-legged. The photo was taken in 1932. All other members of his 14-member family have died.
Alan turned 97 in February, 2024.
This is a 2000 X 1250 digital image taken by myself.
The images in the various galleries come mostly from my photo collection, gathered over the past 40+ years. They are a combination of my own shots and others acquired over those years through trading, purchasing, and attending conventions.
This photostream was created in 2017 for the sole purpose of holding my photo collection as an archive, and has had over 10 million image views (to 2022)
REMARKS:
REG’N: N91158
MFR/TYPE/SERIES: Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
MSN: 208B-1295
OPERATOR: Air Saint Kitts (DHL)
LOCATION (if known): Sint Maarten SXM
DATE (if known): 08-Feb-2008
It is almost time for Smugmug to close down Flickr for maintenance so that they can perform the mammoth task of transferring every single thing on Flickr to a new server. Hard to imagine, and I'll keep my fingers crossed that the transfer all goes smoothly. There will probably be a few glitches to iron out afterwards, but these will no doubt eventually be fixed.
The day before yesterday, 19 May 2019, I was out for the day with my daughter, to celebrate Mother's Day and yet another birthday for me. I always look forward to a day like this - my favourite way to spend a day! I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and windy, especially when we went to Frank Lake after spending time at the Saskatoon Farm. We both still managed to get a few photos and, today, the colourful ones are most welcome, as we have yet another gloomy day. I think it must have rained again last night, as I can see there are puddles out there.
Our day started with a delicious breakfast at the Farm, after which we walked around the grounds. I always enjoy seeing the farm cats and dogs wandering about, inside and outside. Visitors are not allowed to bring dogs, which means that the farm animals can roam in peace.
The gardens have not yet been planted with flowers - just as well, as I noticed that there was a risk of frost on two recent nights. There are flowers blooming in the greenhouses, though.
Our next destination was Frank Lake, where we hoped to see at least a few birds. It was very quiet, with little to photograph - not the best time of the day. Two Eared Grebes were swimming near the blind, but what a challenge they were! Non stop swimming and constantly changing direction, fast. I think I ended up with a couple of photos that might be sharp enough to post - the rest have been deleted. A Yellow-headed Blackbird, perched on a cattail, was swaying in and out of the viewfinder.
It felt really good to get out, as I have been spending so much time going through all the images from our trip to South Texas. It did feel a little strange to be driving, as I have barely been out the last few weeks.
A hand fan is an instrument and a fashion accessory designed so that with a rhythmic and variable play of the wrist, air can be moved and cooling is facilitated when in a hot environment.
HISTORY: The umbel or parasol and the flabellum, a large fixed fan with a long handle, are considered precedents in Egypt —at least since the 19th dynasty— and in Asia of the modest and functional folding fan and its western variants.
Already in the tomb of Tutankhamun, two fans with precious metal handles were deposited as part of the pharaoh's trousseau.
An essential object in Chinese and Japanese cultures, both in ceremonies and in theater, which synthesizes the fantasy of these peoples in the different types of fans.
In China, the origin of the rigid fan dates back to 2697 BC. C., with the emperor Hsiem Yuan.
LANGUAGE AND SECRET CODES: Progressively a complicated language of codes was developed, according to the movement and position of the fans.
Thus, for example, quickly fanning oneself looking into your eyes translated as "I love you madly", but if it was done slowly, the message was very different: "I am married and you are indifferent to me".
Opening the fan and showing it was equivalent to: “you can wait for me”.
Holding it with both hands advised a cruel “you better forget me”.
If a woman dropped her fan in front of a man, the passionate message was "I belong to you".
If she supported him open on her chest at the level of the heart: "I love you."
If she covered her face with the open fan: "Follow me when I go."
If she rested it on her right cheek it was equivalent to a "yes", but if she rested it on her left it was a resounding and cruel "no". Source: Wikipedia.
Photo taken in Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain.
UNA HERRAMIENTA TRADICIONAL PARA AYUDAR CON EL CALOR DEL VERANO, 2023
Un abanico de mano es un instrumento y un complemento de moda ideado para que con un juego de muñeca rítmico y variable se pueda mover aire y facilitar la refrigeración cuando se está en un ambiente caluroso.
HISTORIA: La umbela o quitasol y el flabellum, gran abanico fijo de largo mango, se consideran precedentes en Egipto —al menos desde la dinastía XIX— y en Asia del modesto y funcional abanico plegable y sus variantes occidentales.
Ya en la tumba de Tutankamón se depositaron, como parte del ajuar del faraón, dos abanicos con mango de metales preciosos.
Objeto esencial en las culturas china y japonesa, tanto en ceremonias como en el teatro, que sintetiza la fantasía de estos pueblos en los diferentes tipos de abanico.
En China, el origen del abanico rígido se sitúa hacia 2697 a. C., con el emperador Hsiem Yuan.
LENGUAJE Y CÓDIGOS SECRETOS: Progresivamente se llegó a desarrollar un complicado lenguaje de códigos, según el movimiento y posición de los abanicos.
Así, por ejemplo, abanicarse rápidamente mirándote a los ojos se traducía como “te amo con locura”, pero si se hacía lentamente, el mensaje era muy distinto: “estoy casada y me eres indiferente”.
Abrir el abanico y mostrarlo equivalía a un: “puedes esperarme”.
Sujetarlo con las dos manos aconsejaba un cruel “es mejor que me olvides”.
Si una mujer dejaba caer su abanico delante de un hombre, el mensaje era apasionado "te pertenezco".
Si lo apoyaba abierto sobre el pecho a la altura del corazón: “te amo”.
Si se cubría la cara con el abanico abierto: “Sígueme cuando me vaya”.
Si lo apoyaba en la mejilla derecha equivalía a un “sí”, pero si lo apoyaba sobre la izquierda era un “no” rotundo y cruel. Fuente: Wikipedia.
Foto tomada en Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, España.
Sufi whirling (or Sufi spinning) is a form of Sama or physically active meditation which originated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a customary dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes (also called semazens) aim to reach the source of all perfection, or kemal. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, egos or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the sun.
In the symbolism of the Sema ritual, the semazen's camel's hair hat (sikke) represents the tombstone of the ego; his wide, white skirt (tennure) represents the ego's shroud. By removing his black cloak (hırka), he is spiritually reborn to the truth. At the beginning of the Sema, by holding his arms crosswise, the semazen appears to represent the number one, thus testifying to God's unity. While whirling, his arms are open: his right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive God's beneficence; his left hand, upon which his eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth. The semazen conveys God's spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, the semazen embraces all humanity with love. The human being has been created with love in order to love. Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!
NO PHOTOSHOP PHOTOGRAPHY
Volunteering at The Retreat is something that i feel very privileged to do, everyday these amazing animals never fail to fill me with awe and wonder in the fact that despite what terrible hardships some have endured they still find the inner strength to not only never give up but to love and trust again , we could all learn a great lesson from them.
I have a favorite saying that goes ~
Life is not measured by the breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away .
Today seeing these two awesome creatures sharing a "moment" certainly took my breath away...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please Sign Here to stop the Dog Cruelty and Tortures in China.
You can help the billions of animals across the world who suffer everyday, if you care enough ,
Please Sign Here And give them a Voice.
The Retreat Animal Rescue where i Volunteer ~
And on ~
Website~ Here
Facebook ~Here
Pinterest~Here,
Despite the tags, this is not an image of purple fountain grass, though we have some of that, too. Nay, this is zebra grass, or porcupine grass, which started small and is now large enough to climb high up into the sky, to the land of giants. Unfortunately, the giant sensed I was near, and he could smell my blood or something, calling me an Englishman, which is fine, really, no fault against the English, but I'm from Pennsylvania over here. But it all worked out in the end because I stole a magic chicken and a magic harp. They totally rule.
This is Andre, his friends call him Sable.
Andre is from Lithuania, and he is crazy! He said the reason he is crazy is because there are no mothers in Lithuania to worry about the children.
Andre climbed out along a ledge, down the cliff, and then back up to where he is standing. All this with a 2000 ft. vertical drop below him.
He did all this in tennis shoes and with his bare hands, without any ropes or other climbing equipment.
When a session is going well, I get greedy. I want everything to work, I want to take in all the light, evoke all the expressions, I can connect to the me of ten years ago in this image, I'm feeling it as I'm typing, past-me is wondering how far he can push, push until the light obscures Jutta's face completely.
Because if it works, it'll be fantastic, is the thinking. And if it doesn't work, well, try and try and try again.
I can tell I became so focused on getting the light right, I didn't ask more of Jutta in the moment, a more expressive look on her face could've rocketed this one into the stratosphere, but I got a bit of tunnel vision...ah, but the light IS just right...
Snape Castle is a semi-fortified manor house in the village of Snape, North Yorkshire, England. The castle is 3 miles (5 km) south of Bedale and 19 miles (31 km) north of Ripon. At the time of Henry VIII, John Leland described it as "...a goodly castel in a valley [be]longing to the Lorde Latimer.." The castle is now a private residence, and is a grade I listed building.
References throughout history have indicated that a manor house was built on the site by Ralph FitzRanulph of Middleham. His daughter, the Lady of Middleham married Robert Neville, Robert de Neville's son, and the building stayed in the Neville family until the 16th century. Snape Castle itself, which lies at the western edge of the village of Snape, was built sometime in the early 15th century, (between 1425 and 1430), when George Neville, inherited the land and buildings from his father, Ralph, the Earl of Westmorland. Although variously described as a manor house, or a hall, some thought was given over to defensive measures; the surrounding land, which was prone to flooding and so marshy, was kept in place. The original castle was planned around a courtyard measuring 140 feet (43 m) north to south, and 180 feet (55 m) west to east.
During the 15th century, both Cecily Neville and Queen Anne lived at the castle, providing a link to Richard III; Neville being his mother and Anne his wife.
In January 1537, a mob stormed the castle and took Katherine Parr and the two children hostage. The mob consisted of members of the Pilgrimage of Grace who were worried that John Neville (Third Baron Latimer, and Parr's then husband), would betray them to Henry VIII. Neville, who was trying to mediate between the King and the northern countrymen, hastened back to the castle where he was able to persuade the mob to leave and release his family. The cleric and antiquary, John Leland described the manor at Snape as "..'a goodly castel in a valley longing to the Lorde Latimer, and ii or iii parkes welle woddid abowt it."
In 1577, Sir Thomas Cecil inherited the Manor of Snape through his wife, Dorothy Neville, whom he had married in 1564. In 1577, Thomas set about rebuilding the castle, though he did not use it after 1578 when he inherited the Burghley estate near Stamford from his father. Cecil's renovation of the castle provided its towers, but these were for effect rather than defence, and has led to it being called a "sham castle". The west wall contains an Elizabethan chimney with the date of 1587, the assumed date of the completion of Cecil's efforts.
The estate was sold in 1798 to William Milbank of nearby Thorpe Perrow. Still partly inhabited, the castle retains its Perpendicular windows as built by Cecil. The building is now registered with Historic England as a Grade I listed structure.
"hAPPiNESS iS A WARM GUN
hAPPiNESS iS A WARM GUN
WhEN i hOLd YOU iN MY ARMS
ANd WhEN i fEEL MY fINGERS ON YOUR tRiGGER...
i kNOW NO bOdY CAN dO ME NO hARM, bECAUSE... hAPPiNESS iS A WARM GUN... YES it iS bAbY... "
jOhN LENNON
Short Meaning:
Be aware of beauty in the world around you.
Not So Short Meaning:
There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"
And If You Have 5 Minutes To Kill:
Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address By David Foster Wallace
- May 21, 2005
(If anybody feels like perspiring [cough], I'd advise you to go ahead, because I'm sure going to. In fact I'm gonna [mumbles while pulling up his gown and taking out a handkerchief from his pocket].) Greetings ["parents"?] and congratulations to Kenyon's graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"
This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story ["thing"] turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre, but if you're worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don't be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.
Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that I'm supposed to talk about your liberal arts education's meaning, to try to explain why the degree you are about to receive has actual human value instead of just a material payoff. So let's talk about the single most pervasive cliché in the commencement speech genre, which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about quote teaching you how to think. If you're like me as a student, you've never liked hearing this, and you tend to feel a bit insulted by the claim that you needed anybody to teach you how to think, since the fact that you even got admitted to a college this good seems like proof that you already know how to think. But I'm going to posit to you that the liberal arts cliché turns out not to be insulting at all, because the really significant education in thinking that we're supposed to get in a place like this isn't really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about. If your total freedom of choice regarding what to think about seems too obvious to waste time discussing, I'd ask you to think about fish and water, and to bracket for just a few minutes your skepticism about the value of the totally obvious.
Here's another didactic little story. There are these two guys sitting together in a bar in the remote Alaskan wilderness. One of the guys is religious, the other is an atheist, and the two are arguing about the existence of God with that special intensity that comes after about the fourth beer. And the atheist says: "Look, it's not like I don't have actual reasons for not believing in God. It's not like I haven't ever experimented with the whole God and prayer thing. Just last month I got caught away from the camp in that terrible blizzard, and I was totally lost and I couldn't see a thing, and it was fifty below, and so I tried it: I fell to my knees in the snow and cried out 'Oh, God, if there is a God, I'm lost in this blizzard, and I'm gonna die if you don't help me.'" And now, in the bar, the religious guy looks at the atheist all puzzled. "Well then you must believe now," he says, "After all, here you are, alive." The atheist just rolls his eyes. "No, man, all that was was a couple Eskimos happened to come wandering by and showed me the way back to camp."
It's easy to run this story through kind of a standard liberal arts analysis: the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people's two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience. Because we prize tolerance and diversity of belief, nowhere in our liberal arts analysis do we want to claim that one guy's interpretation is true and the other guy's is false or bad. Which is fine, except we also never end up talking about just where these individual templates and beliefs come from. Meaning, where they come from INSIDE the two guys. As if a person's most basic orientation toward the world, and the meaning of his experience were somehow just hard-wired, like height or shoe-size; or automatically absorbed from the culture, like language. As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice. Plus, there's the whole matter of arrogance. The nonreligious guy is so totally certain in his dismissal of the possibility that the passing Eskimos had anything to do with his prayer for help. True, there are plenty of religious people who seem arrogant and certain of their own interpretations, too. They're probably even more repulsive than atheists, at least to most of us. But religious dogmatists' problem is exactly the same as the story's unbeliever: blind certainty, a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn't even know he's locked up.
The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded. I have learned this the hard way, as I predict you graduates will, too.
Here is just one example of the total wrongness of something I tend to be automatically sure of: everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence. We rarely think about this sort of natural, basic self-centeredness because it's so socially repulsive. But it's pretty much the same for all of us. It is our default setting, hard-wired into our boards at birth. Think about it: there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.
Please don't worry that I'm getting ready to lecture you about compassion or other-directedness or all the so-called virtues. This is not a matter of virtue. It's a matter of my choosing to do the work of somehow altering or getting free of my natural, hard-wired default setting which is to be deeply and literally self-centered and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self. People who can adjust their natural default setting this way are often described as being "well-adjusted", which I suggest to you is not an accidental term.
Given the triumphant academic setting here, an obvious question is how much of this work of adjusting our default setting involves actual knowledge or intellect. This question gets very tricky. Probably the most dangerous thing about an academic education -- least in my own case -- is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract argument inside my head, instead of simply paying attention to what is going on right in front of me, paying attention to what is going on inside me.
As I'm sure you guys know by now, it is extremely difficult to stay alert and attentive, instead of getting hypnotized by the constant monologue inside your own head (may be happening right now). Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.
This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.
And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let's get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what "day in day out" really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I'm talking about.
By way of example, let's say it's an average adult day, and you get up in the morning, go to your challenging, white-collar, college-graduate job, and you work hard for eight or ten hours, and at the end of the day you're tired and somewhat stressed and all you want is to go home and have a good supper and maybe unwind for an hour, and then hit the sack early because, of course, you have to get up the next day and do it all again. But then you remember there's no food at home. You haven't had time to shop this week because of your challenging job, and so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket. It's the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be: very bad. So getting to the store takes way longer than it should, and when you finally get there, the supermarket is very crowded, because of course it's the time of day when all the other people with jobs also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping. And the store is hideously lit and infused with soul-killing muzak or corporate pop and it's pretty much the last place you want to be but you can't just get in and quickly out; you have to wander all over the huge, over-lit store's confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart through all these other tired, hurried people with carts (et cetera, et cetera, cutting stuff out because this is a long ceremony) and eventually you get all your supper supplies, except now it turns out there aren't enough check-out lanes open even though it's the end-of-the-day rush. So the checkout line is incredibly long, which is stupid and infuriating. But you can't take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register, who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college.
But anyway, you finally get to the checkout line's front, and you pay for your food, and you get told to "Have a nice day" in a voice that is the absolute voice of death. Then you have to take your creepy, flimsy, plastic bags of groceries in your cart with the one crazy wheel that pulls maddeningly to the left, all the way out through the crowded, bumpy, littery parking lot, and then you have to drive all the way home through slow, heavy, SUV-intensive, rush-hour traffic, et cetera et cetera.
Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn't yet been part of you graduates' actual life routine, day after week after month after year.
But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don't make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I'm gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it's going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way. And who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line. And look at how deeply and personally unfair this is.
Or, of course, if I'm in a more socially conscious liberal arts form of my default setting, I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV's and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, forty-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest [responding here to loud applause] (this is an example of how NOT to think, though) most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers. And I can think about how our children's children will despise us for wasting all the future's fuel, and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and selfish and disgusting we all are, and how modern consumer society just sucks, and so forth and so on.
You get the idea.
If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway, fine. Lots of us do. Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic that it doesn't have to be a choice. It is my natural default setting. It's the automatic way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I'm operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world's priorities.
The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations. In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, it's not impossible that some of these people in SUV's have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive. Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he's trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he's in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way.
Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket's checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.
Again, please don't think that I'm giving you moral advice, or that I'm saying you are supposed to think this way, or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it. Because it's hard. It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won't be able to do it, or you just flat out won't want to.
But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that's capital-T True is that you get to decide how you're gonna try to see it.
This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't. You get to decide what to worship.
Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.
Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.
They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing.
And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default settings, because the so-called real world of men and money and power hums merrily along in a pool of fear and anger and frustration and craving and worship of self. Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving and [unintelligible -- sounds like "displayal"]. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.
That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.
I know that this stuff probably doesn't sound fun and breezy or grandly inspirational the way a commencement speech is supposed to sound. What it is, as far as I can see, is the capital-T Truth, with a whole lot of rhetorical niceties stripped away. You are, of course, free to think of it whatever you wish. But please don't just dismiss it as just some finger-wagging Dr. Laura sermon. None of this stuff is really about morality or religion or dogma or big fancy questions of life after death.
The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death.
It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
"This is water."
"This is water."
It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.
I wish you way more than luck.
- David Foster Wallace
ABCs and 123s (group & album) T is for Tea
******************************************************************
The *soul and also a bit of story behind this one is I don't even drink tea. But my neighborhood frequently has free things; so I spent hours sorting hundreds of them, (tea bags, not neighbors) one evening, with the mindset of taking some cool photos of the colorful, and sometimes misprinted, tea bags. My thought was I would first take some unique photos, and then give the tea bags away to various people, appropriately placing the amount of tea bags, and flavor with various people who, in turn, might pass on some of what they took to others. By orchestrating the giveaway, I got some unique photo ops and other people got nice gifts of free tea.
Last year I did something similar with seeds (except people didn't eat them right out of the package; rather I hoped they grew them first). I get a fun opportunity to photograph interesting things, in huge amounts, that not everybody would ever get a chance to work with. Photography can occasionally be just so darn fun!
P. S. This photo only shows about 1% of all my tea bags.
(DSCN7758BIGyellowbckgrndLotsTeaBagsWacolFlickr060921)
that a dirty old conservative should agree with this? I hope not, turns out I don't hate anyone ... except for congresspersons, senators, presidents. I guess nobody is perfect.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson. The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca: On entering a temple we assume all signs of reverence. How much more reverent then should we be before the heavenly bodies, the stars, the very nature of God!
John Muir: All the wild world is beautiful, and it matters but little where we go, to highlands or lowlands, woods or plains, on the sea or land or down among the crystals of waves or high in a balloon in the sky; through all the climates, hot or cold, storms and calms, everywhere and always we are in God's eternal beauty and love. So universally true is this, the spot where we chance to be always seems the best.
"To me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
never to rebuke you again.
Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
[Isaiah 54:9-10 NIV]
5 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW:
1. Like it or not, we are ALL sinners: As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NLT)
2. The punishment for sin is death: When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. (Romans 5:12 NLT)
3. Jesus is our only hope: But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT) For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NLT)
4. SALVATION is by GRACE through FAITH in JESUS: God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT)
5. Accept Jesus and receive eternal life: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 NLT) But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12 NLT) And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. (1 John 5:11-12 NLT)
Read the Bible for yourself. Allow the Lord to speak to you through his Word. YOUR ETERNITY IS AT STAKE!
this photograph was taken while going through a hard time, and nearly killing myself along the way. upon waking up the next morning, after a visit to the hospital and an unholy taste of charcoal in my mouth, i realized how silly i was being. life isn't something to toy around with; its a gift. we should live it the the fullest, as cliche as the saying is. its truth. there IS hope.
Sunderland is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the historic county of Durham. The city is 10 miles (16 km) from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on the River Wear's mouth to the North Sea. The river also flows through Durham roughly 12 miles (19 km) south-west of Sunderland City Centre. It is the only other city in the county and the second largest settlement in the North East after Newcastle upon Tyne.
Locals from the city are sometimes known as Mackems. The term originated as recently as the early 1980s; its use and acceptance by residents, particularly among the older generations, is not universal. At one time, ships built on the Wear were called "Jamies", in contrast with those from the Tyne, which were known as "Geordies", although in the case of "Jamie" it is not known whether this was ever extended to people.
There were three original settlements by the River's mouth which are part of the modern-day city: Monkwearmouth, settled in 674 on the river's north bank with King Ecgfrith of Northumbria land granting to Benedict Biscop to found a monastery which, together with Jarrow monastery, later formed the dual Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey; Sunderland, settled in 685; and Bishopwearmouth, founded in 930. The later two are on the Wear's southern bank. The second settlement on the wear's mouth grew as a fishing settlement and later as a port, being granted a town charter in 1179.] The city started to trade coal and salt with ships starting to be built on the river in the 14th century. By the 19th century, with a population increase due to shipbuilding, port and docks, the town absorbed the other two settlements. Following decline of its traditional industries in the late 20th century, the area became an automotive building centre, science-and-technology and the service sector. In 1992, the borough of Sunderland was granted city status.
Here is Snow White's Scary Adventure. This attraction opened on Disneyland's opening day and was called at that time Snow White and her Adventures. Originally designed to put guests as the role of Snow White, it often confused the rider because Snow White was never featured (since you were Snow White). The redesign in 1983 added Snow White in the attraction. The picture was taken after closing, by this time the evil queen (as the old women) had stopped her cycle of opening the curtains up top as an attempt to frighten guests. The facade is made to resemble the Evil Queen's castle. No longer at WDW, this attraction still remains at Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland.
Someone said to me 'Less is More'. Is it true or is 'more' more fun? Wearing light makeup in this shot which I quite like. It takes willpower not to break out the false eye lashes and liquid eyeliner.
The Konik horse is a direct descendant of the now extinct European horse, the Tarpan. 250 Konik horses and an even larger herd of Highland cattle roam the National Park Lauwersmeer to keep the grass short and give plants, birds and insects the chance to settle. These animals are pretty wild and best watched from a respectful distance. Feeding and petting can interfere with their natural instincts.
Een konik is van oorsprong een in Polen en Wit-Rusland gehouden paardenras. Het konikpaard heeft geen verzorging nodig en kan het hele jaar vrij rondlopen. Om deze reden wordt het dier vaak ingezet voor begrazing in natuurgebieden in Nederland. De konik is nauw verwant aan de tarpan, een oorspronkelijk wild paard.
Gerben Poortinga introduceerde voor het eerst in 1981 de konik in het natuurbeheer. Poortinga eiste van de beheerders dat strikt natuurlijke kuddevorming, zonder "dierverzorgende" maatregelen, zou plaatsvinden en dat overbevolking uitsluitend aselect en op basis van ecologische ontwikkelingen van het gebied zouden plaatsvinden. Aan de kwaliteit van de konikspaarden op de Ennemaborg is dat nog steeds te zien. Naar aanleiding van het succes van de natuurontwikkeling op landgoed de Ennemaborg wordt het ras nu gebruikt in Europese natuurreservaten als de Oostvaardersplassen voor begrazingsdoeleinden. Hiermee functioneert de konik als een van de grote grazers van Europa. Ook in alle omringende landen is de beheersvisie nu op grote schaal overgenomen en toegepast. [Wikipedia]
11.04.2013 Iasi
This very, very rare type of garbage truck was roaming the streets of the industrial zone of the city Iasi. It is very rare because it has two rear axles, while most Romanian garbage trucks had only one, but, as fate would have it, most of them are scrapped nowadays, so with nothing else to be told, all I can say is, Enjoy !
The Iglesia de San Pedro Claver is a church located in Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia. This church and its convent are located in the Plaza de San Pedro Claver.
Jet has arrived!
She is our newest dolly guest and we are so thrilled to have her here for a few days.
Looks like some little guys are excited to greet her! She must love dogs and I hope she loves Tim Burton too! ;D
Thank you for letting me host this cutie for a few days Gina! She's so gorgeous!!! She didn't pack light. :P xo
Snow is very unusual here - this is the first since I arrived in December 2008. Yesterday an avalanche in the Pyrénées killed a skier, the risk of avalanches continues to be extremely high, rivers are likely to burst their banks, and the condition of the roads is such that at least one main road (Toulouse-Albi) has been closed.
Most ski stations in the Hautes-Pyrénées and Pyrénées-Atlantiques are closed, several thousand homes have no electricity, a hundred or so ducks died when the roof of their barn collapsed under the weight of snow, and Auch was blanketed with a record 110 mm of the white stuff.
Time for a cuppa next to a radiator.
This was the highlight and reason for my Southern Arizona Adventure 2024. This is stage 8 of 9.
I was lucky to secure permits for the once monthly photography tour of Kartchner Caverns. Kartchner Caverns State Park strictly forbids any cameras or cellphones in the Caverns. Except for one trip per month for 12 to 15 photographers currently $125. I planned a 4 day 3 night road trip around Southern Arizona anchored by my Kartchner Cavern permit.
I was expecting dark conditions. The State Park turned on all the lights in the Big Room. They don't like turning on all the lights since can cause an increase in algae. This is the reason they only have one photography tour a month.
I found myself adjusting my histograms to not clip the highlights. Adapt, Improvise, and Overcome. Next time I am going to bracket my shots. I almost wish I had brought a ND filter or tried a handheld GND filter.
I don't know speleothems so I won't even try to identify. If anyone can help me with the identification, I will appreciate it.
www.nps.gov/subjects/caves/speleothems.htm#:~:text=The%20...)%20when%20needed.
The features that arouse the greatest curiosity for most cave visitors are speleothems. These stone formations exhibit bizarre patterns and other-worldly forms, which give some caves a wonderland appearance. Caves vary widely in their displays of speleothems because of differences in temperature; overall wetness; and jointing, impurities, and structures in the rocks. In general, however, one thing caves do have in common is where speleothems form. Although the formation of caves typically takes place below the water table in the zone of saturation, the deposition of speleothems is not possible until caves are above the water table in the zone of aeration. As soon as the chamber is filled with air, the stage is set for the decoration phase of cave building to begin.
The term speleothem refers to the mode of occurrence of a mineral—i.e., its morphology or how it looks—in a cave, not its composition (Hill, 1997). For example, calcite, the most common cave mineral, is not a speleothem, but a calcite stalactite is a speleothem. A stalactite may be made of other minerals, such as halite or gypsum.
Classifying speleothems is tricky because no two speleothems are exactly alike. Nevertheless, speleologists have taken three basic approaches: classification by morphology, classification by origin, and classification by crystallography. All three of these approaches have their problems (Hill, 1997), so cavers often take a more practical approach that primarily uses morphology (e.g., cave pearls) but includes whatever is known about origin (e.g., geysermites) and crystallography (e.g., spar) when needed.
nocache.azcentral.com/travel/arizona/southern/articles/20...
The Kartchner Caverns, rated one of the world's 10 most beautiful caves, is an eerie wonderland of stalactites and stalagmites still growing beneath the Whetstone Mountains 40 miles southeast of Tucson.
The limestone cave has 13,000 feet of passages and hundreds of formations built over the past 200,000 years, including some that are unique and world-renowned. It's a "living cave," with intricate formations that continue to grow as water seeps, drips and flows from the walls and slowly deposits the mineral calcium carbonate.
The caverns were discovered by amateur spelunkers Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen in 1974 on land owned by the Kartchner family. They kept the cave a secret until 1988, when the Kartchners sold it to the state to become a state park.
The highlights of the Big Room tour are a stretch of strawberry flowstone, which has been colored red by iron oxide (rust) in the water, and a maternity ward for 1,800 female cave myotis bats, with black grime on the ceiling where the bats hang and piles of guano on the floor. Visitors who look closely will see a bat's body embedded in one of the cave's formations.
Though not all are available on the tours, the caverns' unique features include a 21-foot, 2-inch soda straw that's one the world's largest (Throne Room), the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk (Big Room), the first reported occurrence of "turnip" shields (Big Room), the first cave occurrence of "birdsnest" needle quartz formations (Big Room) and the remains of a Shasta ground sloth from the Pleistocene Age (Big Room).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kartchner_Caverns_State_Park
Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, United States, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages.[1] The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. Long hidden from view, the caverns were discovered in 1974 by local cavers, assisted by state biologist Erick Campbell who helped in its preservation.
The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains.
The caverns are carved out of limestone and filled with spectacular speleothems which have been growing for 50,000 years or longer, and are still growing. Careful and technical cave state park development and maintenance, initially established by founder Dr. Bruce Randall "Randy" Tufts, geologist, were designed to protect and preserve the cave system throughout the park's development, and for perpetuity.[3]
The two major features of the caverns accessible to the public are the Throne Room and the Big Room. The Throne Room contains one of the world's longest (21 ft 2 in (6.45 m))[5] soda straw stalactites and a 58-foot (18 m) high column called Kubla Khan, after the poem. The Big Room contains the world's most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk. Big Room cave tours are closed during the summer for several months (April 15 to October 15) each year because it is a nursery roost for cave bats, however the Throne Room tours remain open year-round.[8]
Other features publicly accessible within the caverns include Mud Flats, Rotunda Room, Strawberry Room, and Cul-de-sac Passage. Approximately 60% of the cave system is not open to the public.[9]
Many different cave formations can be found within the caves and the surrounding park. These include cave bacon, helictites, soda straws, stalactites, stalagmites and others.[12] Cave formations like the stalactites and stalagmites grow approximately a 16th of an inch every 100 years.[13]
Haiku thoughts:
Beneath earth's cool veil,
Stalactites in silence grow,
Whispers of stone deep.
Kartchner
Southern Arizona Adventure 2024
It is 1983 and KD 313 is at the northern extreme of the Dublin City Services network.At the time the bus was brand new, having been delivered to Summerhill Garage during 1983.
It is seen at the terminus of tne 33 in Balbriggan. This town in north County Dublin was the furthest north the buses of Dubiln City Services went. It is also still the furthest north Dublin Bus go, and by the end of the year the furthest north Go-Ahead will serve. The bus stop here is shared with the bus route between Drogheda and Dublin,providing a connection between the two services.
In 1983 the 33 terminus was outside the Bank of Ireland as seen here. Within a few years the bus terminated on the other side of the road. By the late-1990s/early-2000s the terminus had relocated further south along this road, outside Balbriggan Church where it still terminates today.
The Bank of Ireland is still in this location but has been completely rebuilt in the intervening years. 14/08/1983
"Love is like a butterfly
As soft and gentle as a sigh
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing"
Dolly Parton - Love Is Like A Butterfly
PLEASE NO GROUP INVITES OR AWARDS WITH FLASHY BADGES
The giant Inconnu, called Shee-fish by Americans, is widespread throughout Siberia (Russia), Alaska (USA), Yukon and the Northwest Territories (Canada). The commercial fisheries are somewhat localized but several stocks within Great Slave Lake have been decimated and then slowly recovered.
This fish is what keeps me alive. I eat it almost everyday. Beware to those who under-cook Inconnu, the meat is then mushy and very oily. Some say Inconnu is an acquired taste, others simply hate it but there are those who told me it is as addictive as crack cocaine.
Some interesting information concerning nutrient content:
Inconnu has 19 times more fat and 3 times the calories per 100g serving than Northern Pike.
Inconnu has same amount of Iron (0.23mg) per 100g serving as Arctic Char but this is 5 to 7 times less than Sturgeon or Carp.
Incoonu has twice the Cholesterol level per 100g serving of Northern Pike.
Cilla is half peregrine, quarter gyr and quarter saker falcon. She is quite possessive of her food and can be slightly more aggressive to the person luring her, hence her nickname “Cilla The Killer”. She is exceptionally fast and tactile, often flying into sunlight to blind the falconer swinging the lure.
A hybrid is a cross between different species. In captivity many species of falcon are hybridised to gain the characteristics of both species. A hybrid also exhibits 'hybrid vigour' which hopefully makes for a better hunting bird. Hybrids do occur in the wild but as they are not as perfect as pure species they usually do not survive and replicate themselves in the wild.
The peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 320 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high-speed dive), making it the fastest bird in the world, as well as the fastest member of the animal kingdom. According to a National Geographic TV program, the highest measured speed of a peregrine falcon is 389 km/h (242 mph).
The gyrfalcon is the largest of the falcon species. The abbreviation gyr is also used It breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra, and the islands of northern North America and the Eurosiberian region. It is mainly a resident there also, but some gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter. Individual vagrancy can take birds for long distances. Its plumage varies with location, with birds being coloured from all-white to dark brown. These colour variations are called morphs. Like other falcons, it shows sexual dimorphism, with the female much larger than the male. For centuries, the gyrfalcon has been valued as a hunting bird. Typical prey includes the ptarmigan and waterfowl, which it may take in flight; it also takes fish and mammals.
The saker falcon is a large hierofalcon, larger than the lanner falcon and almost as large as gyrfalcon at 45–57 cm (18–22 in) length with a wingspan of 97–126 cm (38–50 in). Males weigh between 730–990 g (26–35 oz) and females 970–1,300 g (34–46 oz). It resembles a larger but browner gyrfalcon. It is larger and more heavily built than the related lanner falcon.
Saker falcons tend to have variable plumage. Males and females are similar, except in size, as are young birds, although these tend to be darker and more heavily streaked. The call is a sharp kiy-ee or a repeated kyak-kyak-kyak.
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