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Sometimes having a long lens is not a good thing

Priming rudder cheeks

SOLID MTB Maraton - Sława / Stare Strącze (03/04/2022)

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This is one of the Second Edition Dragon Storm RPG player cards.

The Dragon Storm RPG is designed and © 1996, 2011 by Susan Van Camp.

 

For more information visit www.dragonstorm.com

 

This work are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

This is a brochure (in French) of the original KW Praktica IV model 1959. On cover page there is a sticker of the retailer in Geneva : "Photo des Nations" - Robert Fehlmann, Place Longemalle, Genève.

 

The brochure was offered to me by the seller of my Praktica IV body at a set of related KDH Leipzig accessories.

 

February 17, 2024

69004 Lyon

France

 

About the Praktica IV camera :

 

The Praktica IV was designed by the prestigious KW (Kamera Werk Niedersedlitz) German company in Dresden on the basis of their previous Praktica FX SLR camera's. The camera was produced first under the KW name starting from June 1959 then in the Kombinat VEB Pentacon after the merge of the company in 1960.

 

166.800 Praktica IV and V (6 models) were produced until January 1966. Praktica IV essentially incorporates a condenser focusing screen plus a pentaprism. Due to the Praktica FX architecture the Pentaprism looks protruding from the camera body with an unusual style. It fits lenses with M42x1 mount and the mirror has no automatic return. The shutter is made of two horizontal curtains of rubberized fabric giving 1/500s to 1/2s plus B in two registers of slow speeds (1/2s to 1/10s) and high speeds (1/25s to 1/500s). The film is advanced coupled to the shutter cocking using either the right upper button or the rapid lever underneath the body.

 

The Praktica IV handles the "Auto" M42 lenses with the lever for automatic iris closing upon the release. Sequentially, when pressing the shutter release button, the diaphragm closes to the indicated value, the mirror is lift-off and finally the shutter is erased at the given value. If a non-auto (manual closing) M42 is used the pushing lever could be cancelled (declutched) moving a small red button to the right in the mirror chamber.

 

The camera camera came without lens but with a body cap and the original ever-ready leather bag with et "Ernermann tower" Pentacon logo. This model is likely the second Praktica IV essentially the same as the initial KW one with a different front plate. The camera was likely art of a collection and is completely preserved without use marks.

 

The KDH Leipzig (Kurt-Dieter Huffziger Foto- und Kinozubehör) accessories set included:

 

-A panoramic tripod head

-A set of three extension tubes M42x1)

- A big aluminum shade hood (screw-on 49mm) for wide-angle lens.

- A M42x1 metal body cap in its original box.

- An accessory shoe fitting the the Praktica IV eye piece.

  

Dance is Cringe, Seattle, WA, by LED Boise, www.ledboise.com

The Revelation is a sculpture created by Angela Conner for her friend the 11th Duke of Devonshire and can be seen in the Jack Pond at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

It is powered by a combination of gravity and the weight of water. To someone such as me, I liken it to a toilet cistern that when it fills to a certain level of water, it then automatically pulls the handle to flush away the water. (G)

 

The Dalmatian pelican is a massive member of the pelican family. It breeds from southeastern Europe to India and China, so how come one has been in Cornwall since 7th May. Well, at first it was thought to be an escapee. However it is now believed to be a wild bird that has been a wandering individual previously seen in Germany and Poland.

 

www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=5667

 

It has been seen in various estuaries around Cornwall and is currently on Helston Loo. As I planned a trip to the Lizard I thought it was worth taking a look. The Loo is large body of water and the map shows a track around the edge, so I popped the bike in the car. I was disappointed on arrival as the track is mostly in woods and getting views of the water was not easy, I cycled all the way to sea end, without seeing the Pelican, turned around and suddenly saw the bird through the trees. What a great photo opportunity. The water was calm and the light excellent. A very impressive bird and well worth seeing

is nineteen too young to have so many memories?

 

nahh. not really.

 

this is an old picture. from the end of last summer.

 

me and two people that mean lots to me (: i can always count on them no matter what.

 

i have learned how important it is to really, really hold onto good friendships and keep the ones that are good for you. i have also learned how hard it is to cut off the bad ones.

 

it seemed like summer today. in a beautiful cool, non-humid way. the weather was beyond perfect. i cant even describe it.

 

nothing went wrong. nothing at all.

 

math final in the morning :/

 

Passau is een stad en Kreisfreie Stadt in de Duitse deelstaat Beieren. De stad telt 49.952 inwoners[1].

 

Passau ligt langs de Duitse Bundesautobahn 3, niet ver voor de Oostenrijkse grens.

 

In de oude binnenstad komen drie rivieren bijeen: de Donau, de Inn en de Ilz, waardoor de stad ook wel Dreiflüssestadt wordt genoemd. Hoewel de Inn de breedste van de drie rivieren is, wordt het vervolg van deze drie stromen toch Donau genoemd, omdat de Donau de langste van de drie is.

 

De stad heeft het Keltische oppidum Boiodurum en de Romeinse castra Boiotro als oorsprong. De Bataafse huursoldaten die in het Romeinse kamp gelegerd waren gaven de stad haar naam (uit Batavis werd Passau).

 

In de oude binnenstad bevinden zich nog:

 

Kathedraal Dom St. Stephan deels in barokstijl; de bouwperiode is de 15e eeuw tot en met de 17e eeuw. In de kerk staat een orgel, dat bekendstaat als een van de grootste kerkorgels ter wereld. Het heeft 17.794 pijpen.

Twee voormalige paleizen: het oude paleis (1680) en het nieuwe paleis uit de jaren 1712-1730.

Raadhuis uit de 14e eeuw

Twee burchten, namelijk Oberhaus (13e eeuw) en Niederhaus uit de 14e eeuw.

Observatorium uit de 17e eeuw.

Speelgoedmuseum

Donaupromenade

Klooster Niedernburg

 

Fish, any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals (phylum Chordata) found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. Living species range from the primitive jawless lampreys and hagfishes through the cartilaginous sharks, skates, and rays to the abundant and diverse bony fishes. Most fish species are cold-blooded; however, one species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-blooded.

 

The term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines. It describes a life-form rather than a taxonomic group. As members of the phylum Chordata, fish share certain features with other vertebrates. These features are gill slits at some point in the life cycle, a notochord, or skeletal supporting rod, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, and a tail. Living fishes represent some five classes, which are as distinct from one another as are the four classes of familiar air-breathing animals—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. For example, the jawless fishes (Agnatha) have gills in pouches and lack limb girdles. Extant agnathans are the lampreys and the hagfishes. As the name implies, the skeletons of fishes of the class Chondrichthyes (from chondr, “cartilage,” and ichthyes, “fish”) are made entirely of cartilage. Modern fish of this class lack a swim bladder, and their scales and teeth are made up of the same placoid material. Sharks, skates, and rays are examples of cartilaginous fishes. The bony fishes are by far the largest class. Examples range from the tiny seahorse to the 450-kg (1,000-pound) blue marlin, from the flattened soles and flounders to the boxy puffers and ocean sunfishes. Unlike the scales of the cartilaginous fishes, those of bony fishes, when present, grow throughout life and are made up of thin overlapping plates of bone. Bony fishes also have an operculum that covers the gill slits.

 

The study of fishes, the science of ichthyology, is of broad importance. Fishes are of interest to humans for many reasons, the most important being their relationship with and dependence on the environment. A more obvious reason for interest in fishes is their role as a moderate but important part of the world’s food supply. This resource, once thought unlimited, is now realized to be finite and in delicate balance with the biological, chemical, and physical factors of the aquatic environment. Overfishing, pollution, and alteration of the environment are the chief enemies of proper fisheries management, both in fresh waters and in the ocean. (For a detailed discussion of the technology and economics of fisheries, see commercial fishing.) Another practical reason for studying fishes is their use in disease control. As predators on mosquito larvae, they help curb malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

 

Fishes are valuable laboratory animals in many aspects of medical and biological research. For example, the readiness of many fishes to acclimate to captivity has allowed biologists to study behaviour, physiology, and even ecology under relatively natural conditions. Fishes have been especially important in the study of animal behaviour, where research on fishes has provided a broad base for the understanding of the more flexible behaviour of the higher vertebrates. The zebra fish is used as a model in studies of gene expression.

 

There are aesthetic and recreational reasons for an interest in fishes. Millions of people keep live fishes in home aquariums for the simple pleasure of observing the beauty and behaviour of animals otherwise unfamiliar to them. Aquarium fishes provide a personal challenge to many aquarists, allowing them to test their ability to keep a small section of the natural environment in their homes. Sportfishing is another way of enjoying the natural environment, also indulged in by millions of people every year. Interest in aquarium fishes and sportfishing supports multimillion-dollar industries throughout the world.

 

Fishes have been in existence for more than 450 million years, during which time they have evolved repeatedly to fit into almost every conceivable type of aquatic habitat. In a sense, land vertebrates are simply highly modified fishes: when fishes colonized the land habitat, they became tetrapod (four-legged) land vertebrates. The popular conception of a fish as a slippery, streamlined aquatic animal that possesses fins and breathes by gills applies to many fishes, but far more fishes deviate from that conception than conform to it. For example, the body is elongate in many forms and greatly shortened in others; the body is flattened in some (principally in bottom-dwelling fishes) and laterally compressed in many others; the fins may be elaborately extended, forming intricate shapes, or they may be reduced or even lost; and the positions of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and gill openings vary widely. Air breathers have appeared in several evolutionary lines.

 

Many fishes are cryptically coloured and shaped, closely matching their respective environments; others are among the most brilliantly coloured of all organisms, with a wide range of hues, often of striking intensity, on a single individual. The brilliance of pigments may be enhanced by the surface structure of the fish, so that it almost seems to glow. A number of unrelated fishes have actual light-producing organs. Many fishes are able to alter their coloration—some for the purpose of camouflage, others for the enhancement of behavioral signals.

 

Fishes range in adult length from less than 10 mm (0.4 inch) to more than 20 metres (60 feet) and in weight from about 1.5 grams (less than 0.06 ounce) to many thousands of kilograms. Some live in shallow thermal springs at temperatures slightly above 42 °C (100 °F), others in cold Arctic seas a few degrees below 0 °C (32 °F) or in cold deep waters more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) beneath the ocean surface. The structural and, especially, the physiological adaptations for life at such extremes are relatively poorly known and provide the scientifically curious with great incentive for study.

 

Almost all natural bodies of water bear fish life, the exceptions being very hot thermal ponds and extremely salt-alkaline lakes, such as the Dead Sea in Asia and the Great Salt Lake in North America. The present distribution of fishes is a result of the geological history and development of Earth as well as the ability of fishes to undergo evolutionary change and to adapt to the available habitats. Fishes may be seen to be distributed according to habitat and according to geographical area. Major habitat differences are marine and freshwater. For the most part, the fishes in a marine habitat differ from those in a freshwater habitat, even in adjacent areas, but some, such as the salmon, migrate from one to the other. The freshwater habitats may be seen to be of many kinds. Fishes found in mountain torrents, Arctic lakes, tropical lakes, temperate streams, and tropical rivers will all differ from each other, both in obvious gross structure and in physiological attributes. Even in closely adjacent habitats where, for example, a tropical mountain torrent enters a lowland stream, the fish fauna will differ. The marine habitats can be divided into deep ocean floors (benthic), mid-water oceanic (bathypelagic), surface oceanic (pelagic), rocky coast, sandy coast, muddy shores, bays, estuaries, and others. Also, for example, rocky coastal shores in tropical and temperate regions will have different fish faunas, even when such habitats occur along the same coastline.

 

Although much is known about the present geographical distribution of fishes, far less is known about how that distribution came about. Many parts of the fish fauna of the fresh waters of North America and Eurasia are related and undoubtedly have a common origin. The faunas of Africa and South America are related, extremely old, and probably an expression of the drifting apart of the two continents. The fauna of southern Asia is related to that of Central Asia, and some of it appears to have entered Africa. The extremely large shore-fish faunas of the Indian and tropical Pacific oceans comprise a related complex, but the tropical shore fauna of the Atlantic, although containing Indo-Pacific components, is relatively limited and probably younger. The Arctic and Antarctic marine faunas are quite different from each other. The shore fauna of the North Pacific is quite distinct, and that of the North Atlantic more limited and probably younger. Pelagic oceanic fishes, especially those in deep waters, are similar the world over, showing little geographical isolation in terms of family groups. The deep oceanic habitat is very much the same throughout the world, but species differences do exist, showing geographical areas determined by oceanic currents and water masses.

 

All aspects of the life of a fish are closely correlated with adaptation to the total environment, physical, chemical, and biological. In studies, all the interdependent aspects of fish, such as behaviour, locomotion, reproduction, and physical and physiological characteristics, must be taken into account.

 

Correlated with their adaptation to an extremely wide variety of habitats is the extremely wide variety of life cycles that fishes display. The great majority hatch from relatively small eggs a few days to several weeks or more after the eggs are scattered in the water. Newly hatched young are still partially undeveloped and are called larvae until body structures such as fins, skeleton, and some organs are fully formed. Larval life is often very short, usually less than a few weeks, but it can be very long, some lampreys continuing as larvae for at least five years. Young and larval fishes, before reaching sexual maturity, must grow considerably, and their small size and other factors often dictate that they live in a habitat different than that of the adults. For example, most tropical marine shore fishes have pelagic larvae. Larval food also is different, and larval fishes often live in shallow waters, where they may be less exposed to predators.

 

After a fish reaches adult size, the length of its life is subject to many factors, such as innate rates of aging, predation pressure, and the nature of the local climate. The longevity of a species in the protected environment of an aquarium may have nothing to do with how long members of that species live in the wild. Many small fishes live only one to three years at the most. In some species, however, individuals may live as long as 10 or 20 or even 100 years.

 

Fish behaviour is a complicated and varied subject. As in almost all animals with a central nervous system, the nature of a response of an individual fish to stimuli from its environment depends upon the inherited characteristics of its nervous system, on what it has learned from past experience, and on the nature of the stimuli. Compared with the variety of human responses, however, that of a fish is stereotyped, not subject to much modification by “thought” or learning, and investigators must guard against anthropomorphic interpretations of fish behaviour.

 

Fishes perceive the world around them by the usual senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste and by special lateral line water-current detectors. In the few fishes that generate electric fields, a process that might best be called electrolocation aids in perception. One or another of these senses often is emphasized at the expense of others, depending upon the fish’s other adaptations. In fishes with large eyes, the sense of smell may be reduced; others, with small eyes, hunt and feed primarily by smell (such as some eels).

 

Specialized behaviour is primarily concerned with the three most important activities in the fish’s life: feeding, reproduction, and escape from enemies. Schooling behaviour of sardines on the high seas, for instance, is largely a protective device to avoid enemies, but it is also associated with and modified by their breeding and feeding requirements. Predatory fishes are often solitary, lying in wait to dart suddenly after their prey, a kind of locomotion impossible for beaked parrot fishes, which feed on coral, swimming in small groups from one coral head to the next. In addition, some predatory fishes that inhabit pelagic environments, such as tunas, often school.

 

Sleep in fishes, all of which lack true eyelids, consists of a seemingly listless state in which the fish maintains its balance but moves slowly. If attacked or disturbed, most can dart away. A few kinds of fishes lie on the bottom to sleep. Most catfishes, some loaches, and some eels and electric fishes are strictly nocturnal, being active and hunting for food during the night and retiring during the day to holes, thick vegetation, or other protective parts of the environment.

 

Communication between members of a species or between members of two or more species often is extremely important, especially in breeding behaviour (see below Reproduction). The mode of communication may be visual, as between the small so-called cleaner fish and a large fish of a very different species. The larger fish often allows the cleaner to enter its mouth to remove gill parasites. The cleaner is recognized by its distinctive colour and actions and therefore is not eaten, even if the larger fish is normally a predator. Communication is often chemical, signals being sent by specific chemicals called pheromones.

 

Many fishes have a streamlined body and swim freely in open water. Fish locomotion is closely correlated with habitat and ecological niche (the general position of the animal to its environment).

 

Many fishes in both marine and fresh waters swim at the surface and have mouths adapted to feed best (and sometimes only) at the surface. Often such fishes are long and slender, able to dart at surface insects or at other surface fishes and in turn to dart away from predators; needlefishes, halfbeaks, and topminnows (such as killifish and mosquito fish) are good examples. Oceanic flying fishes escape their predators by gathering speed above the water surface, with the lower lobe of the tail providing thrust in the water. They then glide hundreds of yards on enlarged, winglike pectoral and pelvic fins. South American freshwater flying fishes escape their enemies by jumping and propelling their strongly keeled bodies out of the water.

 

So-called mid-water swimmers, the most common type of fish, are of many kinds and live in many habitats. The powerful fusiform tunas and the trouts, for example, are adapted for strong, fast swimming, the tunas to capture prey speedily in the open ocean and the trouts to cope with the swift currents of streams and rivers. The trout body form is well adapted to many habitats. Fishes that live in relatively quiet waters such as bays or lake shores or slow rivers usually are not strong, fast swimmers but are capable of short, quick bursts of speed to escape a predator. Many of these fishes have their sides flattened, examples being the sunfish and the freshwater angelfish of aquarists. Fish associated with the bottom or substrate usually are slow swimmers. Open-water plankton-feeding fishes almost always remain fusiform and are capable of rapid, strong movement (for example, sardines and herrings of the open ocean and also many small minnows of streams and lakes).

 

Bottom-living fishes are of many kinds and have undergone many types of modification of their body shape and swimming habits. Rays, which evolved from strong-swimming mid-water sharks, usually stay close to the bottom and move by undulating their large pectoral fins. Flounders live in a similar habitat and move over the bottom by undulating the entire body. Many bottom fishes dart from place to place, resting on the bottom between movements, a motion common in gobies. One goby relative, the mudskipper, has taken to living at the edge of pools along the shore of muddy mangrove swamps. It escapes its enemies by flipping rapidly over the mud, out of the water. Some catfishes, synbranchid eels, the so-called climbing perch, and a few other fishes venture out over damp ground to find more promising waters than those that they left. They move by wriggling their bodies, sometimes using strong pectoral fins; most have accessory air-breathing organs. Many bottom-dwelling fishes live in mud holes or rocky crevices. Marine eels and gobies commonly are found in such habitats and for the most part venture far beyond their cavelike homes. Some bottom dwellers, such as the clingfishes (Gobiesocidae), have developed powerful adhesive disks that enable them to remain in place on the substrate in areas such as rocky coasts, where the action of the waves is great.

 

The methods of reproduction in fishes are varied, but most fishes lay a large number of small eggs, fertilized and scattered outside of the body. The eggs of pelagic fishes usually remain suspended in the open water. Many shore and freshwater fishes lay eggs on the bottom or among plants. Some have adhesive eggs. The mortality of the young and especially of the eggs is very high, and often only a few individuals grow to maturity out of hundreds, thousands, and in some cases millions of eggs laid.

 

Males produce sperm, usually as a milky white substance called milt, in two (sometimes one) testes within the body cavity. In bony fishes a sperm duct leads from each testis to a urogenital opening behind the vent or anus. In sharks and rays and in cyclostomes the duct leads to a cloaca. Sometimes the pelvic fins are modified to help transmit the milt to the eggs at the female’s vent or on the substrate where the female has placed them. Sometimes accessory organs are used to fertilize females internally—for example, the claspers of many sharks and rays.

 

In the females the eggs are formed in two ovaries (sometimes only one) and pass through the ovaries to the urogenital opening and to the outside. In some fishes the eggs are fertilized internally but are shed before development takes place. Members of about a dozen families each of bony fishes (teleosts) and sharks bear live young. Many skates and rays also bear live young. In some bony fishes the eggs simply develop within the female, the young emerging when the eggs hatch (ovoviviparous). Others develop within the ovary and are nourished by ovarian tissues after hatching (viviparous). There are also other methods utilized by fishes to nourish young within the female. In all live-bearers the young are born at a relatively large size and are few in number. In one family of primarily marine fishes, the surfperches from the Pacific coast of North America, Japan, and Korea, the males of at least one species are born sexually mature, although they are not fully grown.

 

Some fishes are hermaphroditic—an individual producing both sperm and eggs, usually at different stages of its life. Self-fertilization, however, is probably rare.

 

Successful reproduction and, in many cases, defense of the eggs and the young are assured by rather stereotypical but often elaborate courtship and parental behaviour, either by the male or the female or both. Some fishes prepare nests by hollowing out depressions in the sand bottom (cichlids, for example), build nests with plant materials and sticky threads excreted by the kidneys (sticklebacks), or blow a cluster of mucus-covered bubbles at the water surface (gouramis). The eggs are laid in these structures. Some varieties of cichlids and catfishes incubate eggs in their mouths.

 

Some fishes, such as salmon, undergo long migrations from the ocean and up large rivers to spawn in the gravel beds where they themselves hatched (anadromous fishes). Some, such as the freshwater eels (family Anguillidae), live and grow to maturity in fresh water and migrate to the sea to spawn (catadromous fishes). Other fishes undertake shorter migrations from lakes into streams, within the ocean, or enter spawning habitats that they do not ordinarily occupy in other ways.

 

The basic structure and function of the fish body are similar to those of all other vertebrates. The usual four types of tissues are present: surface or epithelial, connective (bone, cartilage, and fibrous tissues, as well as their derivative, blood), nerve, and muscle tissues. In addition, the fish’s organs and organ systems parallel those of other vertebrates.

 

The typical fish body is streamlined and spindle-shaped, with an anterior head, a gill apparatus, and a heart, the latter lying in the midline just below the gill chamber. The body cavity, containing the vital organs, is situated behind the head in the lower anterior part of the body. The anus usually marks the posterior termination of the body cavity and most often occurs just in front of the base of the anal fin. The spinal cord and vertebral column continue from the posterior part of the head to the base of the tail fin, passing dorsal to the body cavity and through the caudal (tail) region behind the body cavity. Most of the body is of muscular tissue, a high proportion of which is necessitated by swimming. In the course of evolution this basic body plan has been modified repeatedly into the many varieties of fish shapes that exist today.

 

The skeleton forms an integral part of the fish’s locomotion system, as well as serving to protect vital parts. The internal skeleton consists of the skull bones (except for the roofing bones of the head, which are really part of the external skeleton), the vertebral column, and the fin supports (fin rays). The fin supports are derived from the external skeleton but will be treated here because of their close functional relationship to the internal skeleton. The internal skeleton of cyclostomes, sharks, and rays is of cartilage; that of many fossil groups and some primitive living fishes is mostly of cartilage but may include some bone. In place of the vertebral column, the earliest vertebrates had a fully developed notochord, a flexible stiff rod of viscous cells surrounded by a strong fibrous sheath. During the evolution of modern fishes the rod was replaced in part by cartilage and then by ossified cartilage. Sharks and rays retain a cartilaginous vertebral column; bony fishes have spool-shaped vertebrae that in the more primitive living forms only partially replace the notochord. The skull, including the gill arches and jaws of bony fishes, is fully, or at least partially, ossified. That of sharks and rays remains cartilaginous, at times partially replaced by calcium deposits but never by true bone.

 

The supportive elements of the fins (basal or radial bones or both) have changed greatly during fish evolution. Some of these changes are described in the section below (Evolution and paleontology). Most fishes possess a single dorsal fin on the midline of the back. Many have two and a few have three dorsal fins. The other fins are the single tail and anal fins and paired pelvic and pectoral fins. A small fin, the adipose fin, with hairlike fin rays, occurs in many of the relatively primitive teleosts (such as trout) on the back near the base of the caudal fin.

 

The skin of a fish must serve many functions. It aids in maintaining the osmotic balance, provides physical protection for the body, is the site of coloration, contains sensory receptors, and, in some fishes, functions in respiration. Mucous glands, which aid in maintaining the water balance and offer protection from bacteria, are extremely numerous in fish skin, especially in cyclostomes and teleosts. Since mucous glands are present in the modern lampreys, it is reasonable to assume that they were present in primitive fishes, such as the ancient Silurian and Devonian agnathans. Protection from abrasion and predation is another function of the fish skin, and dermal (skin) bone arose early in fish evolution in response to this need. It is thought that bone first evolved in skin and only later invaded the cartilaginous areas of the fish’s body, to provide additional support and protection. There is some argument as to which came first, cartilage or bone, and fossil evidence does not settle the question. In any event, dermal bone has played an important part in fish evolution and has different characteristics in different groups of fishes. Several groups are characterized at least in part by the kind of bony scales they possess.

 

Scales have played an important part in the evolution of fishes. Primitive fishes usually had thick bony plates or thick scales in several layers of bone, enamel, and related substances. Modern teleost fishes have scales of bone, which, while still protective, allow much more freedom of motion in the body. A few modern teleosts (some catfishes, sticklebacks, and others) have secondarily acquired bony plates in the skin. Modern and early sharks possessed placoid scales, a relatively primitive type of scale with a toothlike structure, consisting of an outside layer of enamel-like substance (vitrodentine), an inner layer of dentine, and a pulp cavity containing nerves and blood vessels. Primitive bony fishes had thick scales of either the ganoid or the cosmoid type. Cosmoid scales have a hard, enamel-like outer layer, an inner layer of cosmine (a form of dentine), and then a layer of vascular bone (isopedine). In ganoid scales the hard outer layer is different chemically and is called ganoin. Under this is a cosminelike layer and then a vascular bony layer. The thin, translucent bony scales of modern fishes, called cycloid and ctenoid (the latter distinguished by serrations at the edges), lack enameloid and dentine layers.

 

Skin has several other functions in fishes. It is well supplied with nerve endings and presumably receives tactile, thermal, and pain stimuli. Skin is also well supplied with blood vessels. Some fishes breathe in part through the skin, by the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the surrounding water and numerous small blood vessels near the skin surface.

 

Skin serves as protection through the control of coloration. Fishes exhibit an almost limitless range of colours. The colours often blend closely with the surroundings, effectively hiding the animal. Many fishes use bright colours for territorial advertisement or as recognition marks for other members of their own species, or sometimes for members of other species. Many fishes can change their colour to a greater or lesser degree, by movement of pigment within the pigment cells (chromatophores). Black pigment cells (melanophores), of almost universal occurrence in fishes, are often juxtaposed with other pigment cells. When placed beneath iridocytes or leucophores (bearing the silvery or white pigment guanine), melanophores produce structural colours of blue and green. These colours are often extremely intense, because they are formed by refraction of light through the needlelike crystals of guanine. The blue and green refracted colours are often relatively pure, lacking the red and yellow rays, which have been absorbed by the black pigment (melanin) of the melanophores. Yellow, orange, and red colours are produced by erythrophores, cells containing the appropriate carotenoid pigments. Other colours are produced by combinations of melanophores, erythrophores, and iridocytes.

 

The major portion of the body of most fishes consists of muscles. Most of the mass is trunk musculature, the fin muscles usually being relatively small. The caudal fin is usually the most powerful fin, being moved by the trunk musculature. The body musculature is usually arranged in rows of chevron-shaped segments on each side. Contractions of these segments, each attached to adjacent vertebrae and vertebral processes, bends the body on the vertebral joint, producing successive undulations of the body, passing from the head to the tail, and producing driving strokes of the tail. It is the latter that provides the strong forward movement for most fishes.

 

The digestive system, in a functional sense, starts at the mouth, with the teeth used to capture prey or collect plant foods. Mouth shape and tooth structure vary greatly in fishes, depending on the kind of food normally eaten. Most fishes are predacious, feeding on small invertebrates or other fishes and have simple conical teeth on the jaws, on at least some of the bones of the roof of the mouth, and on special gill arch structures just in front of the esophagus. The latter are throat teeth. Most predacious fishes swallow their prey whole, and the teeth are used for grasping and holding prey, for orienting prey to be swallowed (head first) and for working the prey toward the esophagus. There are a variety of tooth types in fishes. Some fishes, such as sharks and piranhas, have cutting teeth for biting chunks out of their victims. A shark’s tooth, although superficially like that of a piranha, appears in many respects to be a modified scale, while that of the piranha is like that of other bony fishes, consisting of dentine and enamel. Parrot fishes have beaklike mouths with short incisor-like teeth for breaking off coral and have heavy pavementlike throat teeth for crushing the coral. Some catfishes have small brushlike teeth, arranged in rows on the jaws, for scraping plant and animal growth from rocks. Many fishes (such as the Cyprinidae or minnows) have no jaw teeth at all but have very strong throat teeth.

 

Some fishes gather planktonic food by straining it from their gill cavities with numerous elongate stiff rods (gill rakers) anchored by one end to the gill bars. The food collected on these rods is passed to the throat, where it is swallowed. Most fishes have only short gill rakers that help keep food particles from escaping out the mouth cavity into the gill chamber.

 

Once reaching the throat, food enters a short, often greatly distensible esophagus, a simple tube with a muscular wall leading into a stomach. The stomach varies greatly in fishes, depending upon the diet. In most predacious fishes it is a simple straight or curved tube or pouch with a muscular wall and a glandular lining. Food is largely digested there and leaves the stomach in liquid form.

 

Between the stomach and the intestine, ducts enter the digestive tube from the liver and pancreas. The liver is a large, clearly defined organ. The pancreas may be embedded in it, diffused through it, or broken into small parts spread along some of the intestine. The junction between the stomach and the intestine is marked by a muscular valve. Pyloric ceca (blind sacs) occur in some fishes at this junction and have a digestive or absorptive function or both.

 

The intestine itself is quite variable in length, depending upon the fish’s diet. It is short in predacious forms, sometimes no longer than the body cavity, but long in herbivorous forms, being coiled and several times longer than the entire length of the fish in some species of South American catfishes. The intestine is primarily an organ for absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. The larger its internal surface, the greater its absorptive efficiency, and a spiral valve is one method of increasing its absorption surface.

 

Sharks, rays, chimaeras, lungfishes, surviving chondrosteans, holosteans, and even a few of the more primitive teleosts have a spiral valve or at least traces of it in the intestine. Most modern teleosts have increased the area of the intestinal walls by having numerous folds and villi (fingerlike projections) somewhat like those in humans. Undigested substances are passed to the exterior through the anus in most teleost fishes. In lungfishes, sharks, and rays, it is first passed through the cloaca, a common cavity receiving the intestinal opening and the ducts from the urogenital system.

 

Oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve in water, and most fishes exchange dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in water by means of the gills. The gills lie behind and to the side of the mouth cavity and consist of fleshy filaments supported by the gill arches and filled with blood vessels, which give gills a bright red colour. Water taken in continuously through the mouth passes backward between the gill bars and over the gill filaments, where the exchange of gases takes place. The gills are protected by a gill cover in teleosts and many other fishes but by flaps of skin in sharks, rays, and some of the older fossil fish groups. The blood capillaries in the gill filaments are close to the gill surface to take up oxygen from the water and to give up excess carbon dioxide to the water.

 

Most modern fishes have a hydrostatic (ballast) organ, called the swim bladder, that lies in the body cavity just below the kidney and above the stomach and intestine. It originated as a diverticulum of the digestive canal. In advanced teleosts, especially the acanthopterygians, the bladder has lost its connection with the digestive tract, a condition called physoclistic. The connection has been retained (physostomous) by many relatively primitive teleosts. In several unrelated lines of fishes, the bladder has become specialized as a lung or, at least, as a highly vascularized accessory breathing organ. Some fishes with such accessory organs are obligate air breathers and will drown if denied access to the surface, even in well-oxygenated water. Fishes with a hydrostatic form of swim bladder can control their depth by regulating the amount of gas in the bladder. The gas, mostly oxygen, is secreted into the bladder by special glands, rendering the fish more buoyant; the gas is absorbed into the bloodstream by another special organ, reducing the overall buoyancy and allowing the fish to sink. Some deep-sea fishes may have oils, rather than gas, in the bladder. Other deep-sea and some bottom-living forms have much-reduced swim bladders or have lost the organ entirely.

 

The swim bladder of fishes follows the same developmental pattern as the lungs of land vertebrates. There is no doubt that the two structures have the same historical origin in primitive fishes. More or less intermediate forms still survive among the more primitive types of fishes, such as the lungfishes Lepidosiren and Protopterus.

 

The circulatory, or blood vascular, system consists of the heart, the arteries, the capillaries, and the veins. It is in the capillaries that the interchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and other substances such as hormones and waste products takes place. The capillaries lead to the veins, which return the venous blood with its waste products to the heart, kidneys, and gills. There are two kinds of capillary beds: those in the gills and those in the rest of the body. The heart, a folded continuous muscular tube with three or four saclike enlargements, undergoes rhythmic contractions and receives venous blood in a sinus venosus. It passes the blood to an auricle and then into a thick muscular pump, the ventricle. From the ventricle the blood goes to a bulbous structure at the base of a ventral aorta just below the gills. The blood passes to the afferent (receiving) arteries of the gill arches and then to the gill capillaries. There waste gases are given off to the environment, and oxygen is absorbed. The oxygenated blood enters efferent (exuant) arteries of the gill arches and then flows into the dorsal aorta. From there blood is distributed to the tissues and organs of the body. One-way valves prevent backflow. The circulation of fishes thus differs from that of the reptiles, birds, and mammals in that oxygenated blood is not returned to the heart prior to distribution to the other parts of the body.

 

The primary excretory organ in fishes, as in other vertebrates, is the kidney. In fishes some excretion also takes place in the digestive tract, skin, and especially the gills (where ammonia is given off). Compared with land vertebrates, fishes have a special problem in maintaining their internal environment at a constant concentration of water and dissolved substances, such as salts. Proper balance of the internal environment (homeostasis) of a fish is in a great part maintained by the excretory system, especially the kidney.

 

The kidney, gills, and skin play an important role in maintaining a fish’s internal environment and checking the effects of osmosis. Marine fishes live in an environment in which the water around them has a greater concentration of salts than they can have inside their body and still maintain life. Freshwater fishes, on the other hand, live in water with a much lower concentration of salts than they require inside their bodies. Osmosis tends to promote the loss of water from the body of a marine fish and absorption of water by that of a freshwater fish. Mucus in the skin tends to slow the process but is not a sufficient barrier to prevent the movement of fluids through the permeable skin. When solutions on two sides of a permeable membrane have different concentrations of dissolved substances, water will pass through the membrane into the more concentrated solution, while the dissolved chemicals move into the area of lower concentration (diffusion).

 

The kidney of freshwater fishes is often larger in relation to body weight than that of marine fishes. In both groups the kidney excretes wastes from the body, but the kidney of freshwater fishes also excretes large amounts of water, counteracting the water absorbed through the skin. Freshwater fishes tend to lose salt to the environment and must replace it. They get some salt from their food, but the gills and skin inside the mouth actively absorb salt from water passed through the mouth. This absorption is performed by special cells capable of moving salts against the diffusion gradient. Freshwater fishes drink very little water and take in little water with their food.

 

Marine fishes must conserve water, and therefore their kidneys excrete little water. To maintain their water balance, marine fishes drink large quantities of seawater, retaining most of the water and excreting the salt. Most nitrogenous waste in marine fishes appears to be secreted by the gills as ammonia. Marine fishes can excrete salt by clusters of special cells (chloride cells) in the gills.

 

There are several teleosts—for example, the salmon—that travel between fresh water and seawater and must adjust to the reversal of osmotic gradients. They adjust their physiological processes by spending time (often surprisingly little time) in the intermediate brackish environment.

 

Marine hagfishes, sharks, and rays have osmotic concentrations in their blood about equal to that of seawater and so do not have to drink water nor perform much physiological work to maintain their osmotic balance. In sharks and rays the osmotic concentration is kept high by retention of urea in the blood. Freshwater sharks have a lowered concentration of urea in the blood.

 

Endocrine glands secrete their products into the bloodstream and body tissues and, along with the central nervous system, control and regulate many kinds of body functions. Cyclostomes have a well-developed endocrine system, and presumably it was well developed in the early Agnatha, ancestral to modern fishes. Although the endocrine system in fishes is similar to that of higher vertebrates, there are numerous differences in detail. The pituitary, the thyroid, the suprarenals, the adrenals, the pancreatic islets, the sex glands (ovaries and testes), the inner wall of the intestine, and the bodies of the ultimobranchial gland make up the endocrine system in fishes. There are some others whose function is not well understood. These organs regulate sexual activity and reproduction, growth, osmotic pressure, general metabolic activities such as the storage of fat and the utilization of foodstuffs, blood pressure, and certain aspects of skin colour. Many of these activities are also controlled in part by the central nervous system, which works with the endocrine system in maintaining the life of a fish. Some parts of the endocrine system are developmentally, and undoubtedly evolutionarily, derived from the nervous system.

 

As in all vertebrates, the nervous system of fishes is the primary mechanism coordinating body activities, as well as integrating these activities in the appropriate manner with stimuli from the environment. The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is the primary integrating mechanism. The peripheral nervous system, consisting of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to various body organs, carries sensory information from special receptor organs such as the eyes, internal ears, nares (sense of smell), taste glands, and others to the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system also carries information via different nerve cells from the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. This coded information is carried to the various organs and body systems, such as the skeletal muscular system, for appropriate action in response to the original external or internal stimulus. Another branch of the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, helps to coordinate the activities of many glands and organs and is itself closely connected to the integrating centres of the brain.

 

The brain of the fish is divided into several anatomical and functional parts, all closely interconnected but each serving as the primary centre of integrating particular kinds of responses and activities. Several of these centres or parts are primarily associated with one type of sensory perception, such as sight, hearing, or smell (olfaction).

 

The sense of smell is important in almost all fishes. Certain eels with tiny eyes depend mostly on smell for location of food. The olfactory, or nasal, organ of fishes is located on the dorsal surface of the snout. The lining of the nasal organ has special sensory cells that perceive chemicals dissolved in the water, such as substances from food material, and send sensory information to the brain by way of the first cranial nerve. Odour also serves as an alarm system. Many fishes, especially various species of freshwater minnows, react with alarm to a chemical released from the skin of an injured member of their own species.

 

Many fishes have a well-developed sense of taste, and tiny pitlike taste buds or organs are located not only within their mouth cavities but also over their heads and parts of their body. Catfishes, which often have poor vision, have barbels (“whiskers”) that serve as supplementary taste organs, those around the mouth being actively used to search out food on the bottom. Some species of naturally blind cave fishes are especially well supplied with taste buds, which often cover most of their body surface.

 

Sight is extremely important in most fishes. The eye of a fish is basically like that of all other vertebrates, but the eyes of fishes are extremely varied in structure and adaptation. In general, fishes living in dark and dim water habitats have large eyes, unless they have specialized in some compensatory way so that another sense (such as smell) is dominant, in which case the eyes will often be reduced. Fishes living in brightly lighted shallow waters often will have relatively small but efficient eyes. Cyclostomes have somewhat less elaborate eyes than other fishes, with skin stretched over the eyeball perhaps making their vision somewhat less effective. Most fishes have a spherical lens and accommodate their vision to far or near subjects by moving the lens within the eyeball. A few sharks accommodate by changing the shape of the lens, as in land vertebrates. Those fishes that are heavily dependent upon the eyes have especially strong muscles for accommodation. Most fishes see well, despite the restrictions imposed by frequent turbidity of the water and by light refraction.

 

Fossil evidence suggests that colour vision evolved in fishes more than 300 million years ago, but not all living fishes have retained this ability. Experimental evidence indicates that many shallow-water fishes, if not all, have colour vision and see some colours especially well, but some bottom-dwelling shore fishes live in areas where the water is sufficiently deep to filter out most if not all colours, and these fishes apparently never see colours. When tested in shallow water, they apparently are unable to respond to colour differences.

 

Sound perception and balance are intimately associated senses in a fish. The organs of hearing are entirely internal, located within the skull, on each side of the brain and somewhat behind the eyes. Sound waves, especially those of low frequencies, travel readily through water and impinge directly upon the bones and fluids of the head and body, to be transmitted to the hearing organs. Fishes readily respond to sound; for example, a trout conditioned to escape by the approach of fishermen will take flight upon perceiving footsteps on a stream bank even if it cannot see a fisherman. Compared with humans, however, the range of sound frequencies heard by fishes is greatly restricted. Many fishes communicate with each other by producing sounds in their swim bladders, in their throats by rasping their teeth, and in other ways.

 

A fish or other vertebrate seldom has to rely on a single type of sensory information to determine the nature of the environment around it. A catfish uses taste and touch when examining a food object with its oral barbels. Like most other animals, fishes have many touch receptors over their body surface. Pain and temperature receptors also are present in fishes and presumably produce the same kind of information to a fish as to humans. Fishes react in a negative fashion to stimuli that would be painful to human beings, suggesting that they feel a sensation of pain.

 

An important sensory system in fishes that is absent in other vertebrates (except some amphibians) is the lateral line system. This consists of a series of heavily innervated small canals located in the skin and bone around the eyes, along the lower jaw, over the head, and down the mid-side of the body, where it is associated with the scales. Intermittently along these canals are located tiny sensory organs (pit organs) that apparently detect changes in pressure. The system allows a fish to sense changes in water currents and pressure, thereby helping the fish to orient itself to the various changes that occur in the physical environment.

  

Lola is preparing a fast breakfast. The plan is to eat breakfast in Öregund 15 km south

this is the view we had every morning when we left our backpackers. i could get used to that.

 

i really like how the holga shots turned out. it's still among the lines of embracing the unexpected, but even with a lot of accidental bulb mode shots, i still like them. and there was only one shot where i forgot to take the lens cap off. not to mention the maybe ten others where i thought i'd forgotten to take it off. i think i shot seven or eight different kinds of holga film in sydney :)

Betelhem is a former code runner who developed the Nano Tera script. She was then named the reigning CyPhron CyPher Guardian because of its strategic importance. She became a renegade through her refusal to make the code public. Fuzzy Funk became her personal guardian and led her to become the sole guardian of the Remnant. Betelhem is a living angel dearly loved among the masses of CyPhrons.

 

The dawn of a new saga about the future is here... It is now! Is it you?

See it at CyPhrons.blogspot.com

 

Created and Written by R L Dunbar

Copyright ©, All Rights Reserved

TABITHA is a gorgeous Australian Shepherd/Border Collie who’s about 3 years old. She’s very energetic, very smart and attentive, picks up new things very quickly, and must have a job to do!! She loves to chase a ball, enjoys a good game of “tug” and is great with other dogs. She already knows “sit”, “down”, “drop” and more.

Tabitha needs a home with previous experience of Aussies and a willingness to make sure she has both physical and mental exercise. She would very likely be a wonderful dog for agility, Frisbee or Flyball. (If you’re looking for an easy-going, low-key dog that likes to just hang out, Tabitha is NOT the girl for you!!)

 

Tabitha lives in Kennel 26.

For more information contact doginfo@apsofdurham.org.

Love is...Photo Shoot Party

Valentines Day 2011

 

www.simscollection.com

. . . this is a photo - no KI

 

Ko Chang (Thai: เกาะช้าง, pronounced [kɔ̀ʔ tɕʰáːŋ], also Koh Chang) is an amphoe (district) in Trat Province, Thailand. It is on the Gulf of Thailand's eastern seaboard, 310 km from Bangkok, near the border with Cambodia.

 

It is the country's third largest island, after Phuket and Ko Samui, and the largest island in the Mu Ko Chang National Park archipelago.

 

The name means "Elephant Island", and comes from its elephant-shaped headland. Despite the presence of elephants on the island, they are not indigenous. At present, there are nine villages on the island.

 

HISTORY

Prior to World War II, Ko Chang was little known. During this period, the few families there made a living growing coconuts and fruit.

 

During World War II, when Thailand was occupied by Japanese forces, Ko Chang was the scene of the 1941 Battle of Ko Chang between the Royal Thai Navy and a Vichy French naval squadron, in which the French won a decisive victory.

 

GEOGRAPHY

Ko Chang is part of an archipelago of 51 islands, and is approximately 30 km long by 14 km, wide with a total area of 217 km². It is part of the Mu Ko Chang National Park, which covers an area of 650 km², of which 70% is offshore.

 

It is a mountainous island, with Khao Salak Phet being the highest peak at 743 metres. The island is known for several waterfalls, thriving coral reefs, and rainforests.

 

The main settlements on the west coast are around Sai Khao, Hat Kai Mook, and Hat Ta Nam, with the village of Bang Bao on the south coast.

 

WILDLIFE

Ko Chang is home to populations of the stump-tailed macaque, the small Indian civet, the small Asian mongoose, 61 bird species, and a number of snakes and deer.

 

The Koh Chang frog (Limnonectes kohchangae) was originally thought to be an endemic species, but has also been found on the mainland.

 

ADMINISTRATION

The island forms a district (amphoe) in the province of Trat. It was formed on 30 April 1994, when it was split off from Laem Ngop District, at first being classed as a minor district (king amphoe).

 

Following a decision of the Thai government on 15 May 2007, all of the 81 minor districts were upgraded to full districts. With its publication in the Royal Gazette on 24 August, the upgrade became official.

 

The district is subdivided into the two subdistricts (tambon) of Ko Chang (Thai: เกาะช้าง), consisting of four villages and with a total population of 3,010, and Ko Chang Tai (Thai: เกาะช้างใต้), five villages with 2,346 inhabitants.[citation needed]

 

The district contains the following nine villages (muban):

 

Ban Salak Phet

Ban Salak Phet Nuea

Ban Salak Khok

Ban Chek Bae

Ban Dan Mai

Bang Bao

Ban Khlong Son

Ban Khlong Phrao

Ban Khlong Nonsi

 

TRANSPORT

AIR

Ko Chang has no airport. The nearest airport is Trat Airport[5] located 17km from the Ao Thammachat Koh Chang ferry terminal on the mainland. A minibus service runs from the airport to hotels on Ko Chang.

 

ROAD

There are two main roads on Ko Chang, running the length of the east and west coasts. Both roads start at Ao Sapparot in the north, near the ferry piers. Shorter roads branch out to Ploytalay Resort and Keereephet, Khlong Nueng, and Klong Phu waterfalls.

 

Songthaew operate on the two main roads, providing both public transport and taxi services.

 

Motorbike rental and motorbike-taxis are available.

 

The nearest long distance road transport is at Trat town, from where the 310 km journey to Bangkok takes five hours by bus.

 

BOAT

There are two ferry companies that run services from the mainland to Ko Chang. Both take vehicles and passengers. There are now no passenger-only boats to the island. Ferries run from around 06:30 until 19:30.

 

During high season, from November to May, there are passenger-only boat services from Ko Chang to the outlying islands of Ko Wai, Ko Mak, and Ko Kood.

 

ECONOMY

Ko Chang's income derives largely from tourism, but some traditional livelihoods still exist. Many of Ko Chang's villages rely on fishing, with Ban Salak Phet (Thai: บ้านสลักเพชร) being the largest and oldest community on Ko Chang, in a sheltered location in the south of the island. Other fishing villages include Bang Bao (Thai: หมู่บ้านประมงบางเบ้า), at Bang Bao Beach, which consists of houses on stilts built into the sea, and Ban Khlong Son, which also partly relies on rubber plantations.

 

Ban Dan Mai and Ban Khlong Non Si also have coconut plantations, and orchards of lychee trees. The variety of lychee grown, Silaman 200 years, is believed to be found only on Ko Chang.

 

TOURISM

The first foreign backpackers started arriving on Ko Chang in the mid-1970s, using local fishing boats, when the island was still undeveloped.

 

In 1982, Ko Chang along with the surrounding area became part of the protected Mu Ko Chang National Park, with approximately 85% of the island, together with nearby coral reefs, falling within the park.

 

It has since become a major tourist destination, both for foreigners and Thais, with a number of tourist resorts being developed.

 

Despite this, tourism on Ko Chang remains considerably less developed than on Ko Samui or Phuket.

 

ATTRACTIONS

The hilly nature of the island provides it with a number of popular waterfalls, including Klong Plu (น้ำตกคลองพลู). It is the only one on the west side of the island, and has an entrance three kilometres from Ao Khlong Phrao. Waterfalls on the east side of the island include Klong Nonsi, Klong Nueng, Khiri Petch which is about three kilometres from Salak Petch village, the five waterfalls of Kongoi near Bang Bao, and the Thanmayom waterfall near Thanmayom pier.

 

Ban Salak Phet village has a temple, Wat Salak Phet, built in the reign of King Rama V on his visit to the island. The original temple is now used as a museum commemorating the king's visits to the area. A new temple was completed nearby in 2014.

 

Bays include Ao Salak Phet, the largest on the island, and Ao Bai Lan (Thai: อ่าวใบลาน).

  

Ko Chang's beaches include Hat Kai Bae (Thai: หาดไก่แบ้) beach, and Hat Khlong Phrao-Laem Chaiyachet (Thai: หาดคลองพร้าว-แหลมไชยเชษฐ์) beach. By far the busiest is the first beach visitors reach when they arrive on the island, White Sand Beach (Hat Sai Kao). Backpackers will opt to head a couple of kilometres south of Kai Bae Beach to Lonely Beach, which is known for cheap accommodation and almost nightly parties in high season. A quieter alternative is Klong Kloi Beach on the south coast of Ko Chang. This was deserted until 2006 but is now home to a community of beach bars, restaurants, and accommodation.

 

EVENTS & FESTIVALS

KO CHANG YUTTHANAVI DAY

Ko Chang Yutthanavi Day, which occurs in late January at the Ko Chang Yutthanavi Memorial on Laem Ngop, commemorates the Royal Thai Navy's engagement against the French at the Battle of Ko Chang on 17 January 1941. There is an exhibition by the Royal Thai Navy, and merit-making and tribute rites are performed.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Nelumbo is a genus of aquatic plants with large, showy, water lily-like flowers commonly known as lotus or sacred lotus. The generic name is derived from the Sinhalese word Nelum. There are two species in the genus, the better known of which, N. nucifera, or "Sacred Lotus," is the well-known national flower of India and Vietnam.

 

La Nelumbo nucifera è una specie rustica originaria dell'Asia e dell'Australia, nota volgarmente col nome di Fior di loto asiatico. È una pianta acquatica a crescita rapidissima, tipica di stagni e invasi con acque stagnanti o quasi prive di corrente, profondi 5-50 cm ed oltre.Il Nelumbo nucifera viene considerato un fiore sacro per l'Induismo e il Buddismo, mentre in India è uno dei simboli nazionali e appare nelle bandiere di alcuni principati indiani

 

Fonte : Wikipedia

SOLID MTB Maraton - Wschowa (11/06/2023)

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Zdjęcie dostępne do pobrania za darmo i udostępnienia ze wskazaniem autora/źródła.

 

Podoba Ci się to zdjęcie?

Możesz odwdzięczyć się kupując mi wirtualną kawę ;)

buycoffee.to/k_wawrzyniak

This is a collection of photographs from the 33rd running of the Dublin City Marathon - on Monday October 29th 2012 at 09:00. The event had over 14,000 participants which started in three separate wave starts. These photographs are of the three way starts and of the finish of the marathon - from a position on Nassau Street - from the winner until about the 3:40 finish time. The weather was very cold with a slight breeze in Dublin. The city of Dublin looked great, the support was amazing - this lived up to it's billing as 'The Friendly Marathon'. Congratulations to everyone who took part. This is an amazing event. Well done to everyone from the last person home to the first steward on the course.

 

There are some gaps in photographs. We may not have captured everyone in this time bracket.

 

THESE ARE COMPLETELY UNOFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPHS These are not linked in any way to the official race photography of the Dublin Marathon. We are in no way affiliated to the official photographers or their companies who offer photography services for the Dublin Marathon or Dublin Race Series. You will need to refer to the website of the Race Series or the Dublin Marathon for official photography.

 

Overall this is a very nice race - with a testing course. There was a really nice spread of refreshments afterwards provided by the GAA and the local community.

 

How can I get a full resolution copy of these photographs?

 

All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available, free, at no cost, at full resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. We do not know of any other photographers who operate such a policy. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also means the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a wall post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

If you want to contribute something for these images?

We do not charge for these images. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that they are good enough that you would ordinarily pay for their purchase we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible.

 

Please note: that we cannot be responsible for the content of any external links (outside of our Flickr account) as we have no control over them. Links are provided for your information only. Responsibility lies solely with the operators of these websites.

  

Steam venting behind Hellisheidi Power Station.

Rockport is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,952 at the 2010 census.[2] Rockport is located approximately 40 miles (64 km) northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula. It is directly east of Gloucester and is surrounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean. Rockport had consisted primarily of large estates, summer homes, and a small fishing village while Gloucester was becoming increasingly urbanized. Rockport was set off as a separate town in 1840 as its residents desired a separate enclave with an identity of its own, and was incorporated in 1840. "In 1856, a gang of 200 women led by Hannah Jumper swept through the town and destroyed anything containing alcohol in what is called "Rockport's revolt against rum" and banned alcohol from the town. Today Rockport is primarily a suburban residential and tourist town, but it is still home to a number of lobster fishermen and artists. Its rocky beaches and seaside parks are a favorite place for tourists from the Greater Boston Area and Rhode Island among other places.

 

Wikipedia

Here is my graphical response to Obama's inappropriate joke about sending Predator drones after the Jonas Brothers. Such arrogance reveals the rotten inner character of the Gang of Thieves we call the US government.

 

I'm reminded of Bush's appalling "No weapons of mass destruction here! None here! They must be somewhere!" Dubya-MDs indeed.

 

Obama, like Bush and the presidents before him, is nothing more than a Predator drone himself: a remotely piloted precision weapon aimed at destroying our economy and freedom.

This is a photograph from the 2nd Annual Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon which was held in Dublin, Ireland on Monday 4th August 2014 at 08:30. The Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon also incorporated the Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) National Half Marathon Championships which was open to all eligible runners registered with an AAI affiliated athletics club. The race started in Dublin City center at North Wall Quay and Castleforbes Road on the Liffey. The route then went West out of the city bringing runners along the famous South Quays to Inchicore and then taking a slight northerly direction into the Phoenix Park. The race finished in the Phoenix Park with runners following over half of the course within the grounds of the famous park. Over 7,000 people took part. The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon series is one of the largest running series in the world with events primarily taking place in North American Cities. However, recently the franchise has spread to Europe. One of the unique aspects of the race is that every course features live bands along the course along with cheering teams of supporters at water stations. In the Phoenix Park today there was a large entertainment area at the Finish line for competitors, families and friends to enjoy.

 

Reading on a Smartphone or tablet? Don't forget to scroll down further to read more about this race and see important Internet links to other information about the race! You can also find out how to access and download these photographs.

 

Please Note: The photographs are completely unofficial photographs of the 2nd Annual Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon. We have absolutely no affiliation with the organisers of this event. We have no commercial links to the event in anyway way. We advise you to consult the official website of the Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon (link below) to find information about the official event photography, video and other commericial multi-media.

 

There is an extensive set of photographs from this event on our Flickr photostream. The complete set is available at www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/14640001580/

 

Some useful Internet Links

2014 Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon | Course Tour on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJmraLd6r5I and Course Profile Map ie.competitor.com/dublin/course

 

2014 Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon Results: ie.competitor.com/dublin/results

 

2014 Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RnRDublin

 

MarathonPhoto on Facebook; www.facebook.com/marathonfoto

 

2014 Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon on TWITTER: twitter.com/RnRDublinHalf

 

2014 Rock 'n' Roll Dublin Half Marathon Discussion Thread on Boards.ie: www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057103891

 

Can I use these photographs directly from Flickr on my social media account(s)?

 

Yes - of course you can! Flickr provides several ways to share this and other photographs in this Flickr set. You can share to: email, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, LiveJournal, and Wordpress and Blogger blog sites. Your mobile, tablet, or desktop device will also offer you several different options for sharing this photo page on your social media outlets.

 

We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, blogs, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you must provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us.

 

This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.

 

I want to download these pictures to my computer or device?

 

You can download the photographic image here direct to your computer or device. This version is the low resolution web-quality image. How to download will vary slight from device to device and from browser to browser. However - look for a symbol with three dots 'ooo' or the link to 'View/Download' all sizes. When you click on either of these you will be presented with the option to download the image. Remember just doing a right-click and "save target as" will not work on Flickr.

 

I want get full resolution, print-quality, copies of these photographs?

 

If you just need these photographs for online usage then they can be used directly once you respect their Creative Commons license and provide a link back to our Flickr set if you use them. For offline usage and printing all of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available free, at no cost, at full image resolution.

 

Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.

 

In summary please remember when requesting photographs from us - If you are using the photographs online all we ask is for you to provide a link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. You will find the link above clearly outlined in the description text which accompanies this photograph. Taking these photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort and time. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc. If you are using the photographs in newspapers or magazines we ask that you mention where the original photograph came from.

 

I would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?

Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers or in other circumstances we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.

 

We use Creative Commons Licensing for these photographs

We use the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License for all our photographs here in this photograph set. What does this mean in reality?

The explaination is very simple.

Attribution- anyone using our photographs gives us an appropriate credit for it. This ensures that people aren't taking our photographs and passing them off as their own. This usually just mean putting a link to our photographs somewhere on your website, blog, or Facebook where other people can see it.

ShareAlike – anyone can use these photographs, and make changes if they like, or incorporate them into a bigger project, but they must make those changes available back to the community under the same terms.

 

Creative Commons aims to encourage creative sharing. See some examples of Creative Commons photographs on Flickr: www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

 

I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?

 

As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:

 

     ►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera

     ►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set

     ►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone

     ►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!

  

You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.

 

Don't like your photograph here?

That's OK! We understand!

 

If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.

 

I want to tell people about these great photographs!

Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably http://www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets

--

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Anbandegi is a village located at an altitude of 1,100m above sea level. This is a mountain field(farms) that has been slash and burn by slash-and-burn farmers since 1965, and it is currently the largest highland vegetable cultivation complex in Korea.

 

Anbandegi is famous for its scenery as well as sunrise, sunset, sea of clouds, and the Milky Way for those who love photography. It is also a place that provides enough rest for travelers who want to take a quiet day off.

Is that a Dish or Direct TV antenna? One thing is for sure. They are not watching the free nature show outside.

The Hassan II Mosque is a mosque in Casablanca, Morocco. It is the largest mosque in Africa, and the 5th largest in the world. Its minaret is the world's tallest minaret at 210 metres. Completed in 1993, it was designed by Michel Pinseau and built by Bouygues. The minaret is 60 stories high topped by a laser, the light from which is directed towards Mecca.[4] The mosque stands on a promontory looking out to the Atlantic Ocean; worshippers can pray over the sea but there is no glass floor looking into the sea. The walls are of hand-crafted marble and the roof is retractable. A maximum of 105,000 worshippers can gather together for prayer: 25,000 inside the mosque hall and another 80,000 on the mosque's outside ground

 

Address: Boulevard de la Corniche, Casablanca 20000, Morocco

 

Height: 689′ CTBUH

Construction cost: $400–$700 million

 

Architectural style: Moorish architecture

 

Architect: Michel Pinseau

Custom Le Bimbe di Laura

username : "bitznbitez ( was lucias_clay )",

title : "Is The Bark Worse Than The Bite ?",

content url : "https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucias_clay/2819339847/"

 

The mocking of Jesus occurred several times, after his trial and before his crucifixion according to the canonical gospels of the New Testament. It is considered part of Jesus' passion.

 

According to the gospel narratives, Jesus had predicted that he would be mocked (Matthew 20:19, Mark 10:34, and Luke 18:32). The mocking of Christ took place in three stages: immediately following his trial, immediately following his condemnation by Pontius Pilate, and when he was being crucified.

 

The New Testament narratives of Jesus being mocked are filled with irony, while the mockery focuses on Jesus' prophetic and kingly roles.

 

First stage

 

After Jesus' condemnation by the Sanhedrin, some spat on him (Mark 14:65). He was blindfolded and beaten, and then mocked: "Prophesy! Who hit you?" (Luke 22:63). This was done by those men who "held Jesus" (Luke 22:63, King James Version). The New International Version translates this as "the men who were guarding Jesus", but Joel B. Green takes the phrase to refer to the "Chief priests, the officers of the temple police, and the elders" mentioned in verse 52.

 

Green suggests that Jesus suffers the mockery that is typical of prophets, and that his suffering suggests his "solidarity with God's agents who speak on God's behalf and are rejected." Susan R. Garrett sees Mark's inclusion of the mockery as an example of irony, since Jesus is indeed a prophet, at the very moment his prophecy that Peter would deny him was being fulfilled. The prophetic assignment is not always portrayed as positive in the Bible, and prophets were often the target of persecution and opposition.

 

Second stage

 

After his condemnation by Pontius Pilate, Jesus was flogged and mocked by Roman soldiers. They clothed him with a "purple" (Mark 15:17) or "scarlet" (Matthew 27:28) robe symbolizing a royal gown since purple was a royal color, put a crown of thorns on his head symbolizing a royal crown, and put a staff in his hand symbolizing a scepter. They knelt before him and said, "Hail, king of the Jews!" (Matthew 27:29). This was done as a mockery of Jesus' kingship. After this, they spat on him, and struck him on the head with the staff repeatedly.

 

Peter Leithart notes that at the end of the scene, the soldiers "reverse the whole coronation with an anti-coronation. They spit in contempt instead of kneeling in reverence, pull the scepter from Jesus’ hand and beat His crowned head with it, strip off the scarlet robe and replace it with Jesus’ own robe." Leithart goes on to suggest that, at this point, the Romans "remove the veil of irony and reveal what they really think" about the Jews and their God.

 

Robert J. Miller suggests that the gospel account is deeply ironic since Jesus is exercising his kingship through submission and suffering: "the Roman legionnaires have unwittingly furthered God's secret purposes by dressing Jesus up as a king." In fact, the irony operates on two levels. James L. Resseguie points out that there is verbal irony in the way the soldiers "mock Jesus as a dismal failure and a pretend king" (that is, the soldiers are themselves being ironic) as well as dramatic irony in that the readers "know that the acclamation rings true in ways that the soldiers could not possibly understand."

 

Luke 23:11 also mentions that "Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him" (New Revised Standard Version).

 

Third stage

 

Jesus was also mocked while he was on the cross. According to Mark 15:29-30, this was done by those who passed by and hurled insults at him and told him to come down from the cross. Mark 15:31-32 points out that "the chief priests and the teachers of the law" also mocked him among themselves, saying: "He saved others, but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Finally, those crucified with Jesus also heaped insults at him (Mark 15:32).

 

Luke 23:36-37 mentions mocking by Roman soldiers: "The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, 'If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!'" (New Revised Standard Version). In Matthew 27:42 people, priest and the elders mock Jesus, and shout at him while he is hanging on the cross: "He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God."

 

According to Luke 23:39, one criminal on his left who hung there together with Jesus on the cross, hurled insults at Jesus: "Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!"

 

Thus, whereas the first stage involves mockery by Jews, and the second stage mockery by gentiles, the third stage has both together. Leithart notes that at this point "Jews and Gentiles, governors and criminals, scribes and commoners, all humanity joins in a single chorus of blasphemy."

 

Timothy C. Gray notes that in the Gospel of Mark, the mocking of Jesus on the cross "takes up the two charges leveled against Jesus at his trial": firstly, that Jesus "threatened the temple with destruction" (14:58 and 15:29); secondly, that Jesus "claimed to be the Messiah" (14:61-62 and 15:31-32).

Pristina city and quarantine!

Each day is filled with an unavoidable array of choice. For many there is an abundance of food, clothing, shelter, media, communications, and relationships. We select, consume and reconstitute evidence of our hunger for these things. The detritus of our consumption illustrates a personal and public record of desire, loss, hope and fear.

 

The photographs in this exhibition present objects that are juxtaposed to blur the line between what we might own alone with that which is shared. The work suggests that the process of consumption produces a rubric of emboldened objects. Overt or oblique, an order of meaning may be found in what is commonly viewed as chaotic. It is a meditation on the investment of consumption.

 

I'd like to acknowledge Trash Worship artist, Rolando Politi, and his Winter Flowers Ongoing Waste Reduction, installed on the garden fence at La Plaza Cultural in the Lower East Side of New York City.

London is such a great walking city - and with a hikers body (long legs, strong back, weak mind) I can walk there all day - but I sure feel it at night any more. I was in London for a few days in January 2013 and it was like coming home to an old friend since I've been there so many times but there is always something new to see. On this trip I just bopped from place to place without any real plan as to what to see - and it turned out fine!

Voronezh is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects western Russia with the Urals and Siberia, the Caucasus and Ukraine, and the M4 highway (Moscow–Voronezh–Rostov-on-Don–Novorossiysk). In recent years the city has experienced rapid population growth, rising in 2021 to 1,057,681, up from 889,680 recorded in the 2010 Census, making it the 14th-most populous city in the country.

 

The first chronicle references to the word "Voronezh" are dated 1177, when the Ryazan prince Yaropolk, having lost the battle, fled "to Voronozh" and there was moving "from town to town". Modern data of archeology and history interpret Voronezh as a geographical region, which included the Voronezh river (tributary of the Don) and a number of settlements. In the lower reaches of the river, a unique Slavic town-planning complex of the 8th – early 11th century was discovered, which covered the territory of the present city of Voronezh and its environs (about 42 km long, about 13 forts and many unfortified villages). By the 12th – 13th centuries, most of the old towns were desolate, but new settlements appeared upstream, closer to Ryazan.

 

For many years, the hypothesis of the Soviet historian Vladimir Zagorovsky dominated: he produced the toponym "Voronezh" from the hypothetical Slavic personal name Voroneg. This man allegedly gave the name of a small town in the Chernigov Principality (now the village of Voronizh in Ukraine). Later, in the 11th or 12th century, the settlers were able to "transfer" this name to the Don region, where they named the second city Voronezh, and the river got its name from the city. However, now many researchers criticize the hypothesis, since in reality neither the name of Voroneg nor the second city was revealed, and usually the names of Russian cities repeated the names of the rivers, but not vice versa.

 

The linguistic comparative analysis of the name "Voronezh" was carried out by the Khovansky Foundation in 2009. There is an indication of the place names of many countries in Eurasia, which may partly be not only similar in sound, but also united by common Indo-European languages: Varanasi, Varna, Verona, Brno, etc.

 

A comprehensive scientific analysis was conducted in 2015–2016 by the historian Pavel Popov. His conclusion: "Voronezh" is a probable Slavic macrotoponym associated with outstanding signs of nature, has a root voron- (from the proto-Slavic vorn) in the meaning of "black, dark" and the suffix -ezh (-azh, -ozh). It was not “transferred” and in the 8th - 9th centuries it marked a vast territory covered with black forests (oak forests) - from the mouth of the Voronezh river to the Voronozhsky annalistic forests in the middle and upper reaches of the river, and in the west to the Don (many forests were cut down). The historian believes that the main "city" of the early town-planning complex could repeat the name of the region – Voronezh. Now the hillfort is located in the administrative part of the modern city, in the Voronezh upland oak forest. This is one of Europe's largest ancient Slavic hillforts, the area of which – more than 9 hectares – 13 times the area of the main settlement in Kyiv before the baptism of Rus.

 

In it is assumed that the word "Voronezh" means bluing - a technique to increase the corrosion resistance of iron products. This explanation fits well with the proximity to the ancient city of Voronezh of a large iron deposit and the city of Stary Oskol. As well as the name of Voroneț Monastery known for its blue shade.

 

Folk etymology claims the name comes from combining the Russian words for raven (ворон) and hedgehog (еж) into Воронеж. According to this explanation two Slavic tribes named after the animals used this combination to name the river which later in turn provided the name for a settlement. There is not believed to be any scientific support for this explanation.

 

In the 16th century, the Middle Don basin, including the Voronezh river, was gradually conquered by Muscovy from the Nogai Horde (a successor state of the Golden Horde), and the current city of Voronezh was established in 1585 by Feodor I as a fort protecting the Muravsky Trail trade route against the slave raids of the Nogai and Crimean Tatars. The city was named after the river.

 

17th to 19th centuries

In the 17th century, Voronezh gradually evolved into a sizable town. Weronecz is shown on the Worona river in Resania in Joan Blaeu's map of 1645. Peter the Great built a dockyard in Voronezh where the Azov Flotilla was constructed for the Azov campaigns in 1695 and 1696. This fleet, the first ever built in Russia, included the first Russian ship of the line, Goto Predestinatsia. The Orthodox diocese of Voronezh was instituted in 1682 and its first bishop, Mitrofan of Voronezh, was later proclaimed the town's patron saint.

 

Owing to the Voronezh Admiralty Wharf, for a short time, Voronezh became the largest city of South Russia and the economic center of a large and fertile region. In 1711, it was made the seat of the Azov Governorate, which eventually morphed into the Voronezh Governorate.

 

In the 19th century, Voronezh was a center of the Central Black Earth Region. Manufacturing industry (mills, tallow-melting, butter-making, soap, leather, and other works) as well as bread, cattle, suet, and the hair trade developed in the town. A railway connected Voronezh with Moscow in 1868 and Rostov-on-Don in 1871.

 

20th century

During World War II, Voronezh was the scene of fierce fighting between Soviet and combined Axis troops. The Germans used it as a staging area for their attack on Stalingrad, and made it a key crossing point on the Don River. In June 1941, two BM-13 (Fighting machine #13 Katyusha) artillery installations were built at the Voronezh excavator factory. In July, the construction of Katyushas was rationalized so that their manufacture became easier and the time of volley repetition was shortened from five minutes to fifteen seconds. More than 300 BM-13 units manufactured in Voronezh were used in a counterattack near Moscow in December 1941. In October 22, 1941, the advance of the German troops prompted the establishment of a defense committee in the city. On November 7, 1941, there was a troop parade, devoted to the anniversary of the October Revolution. Only three such parades were organized that year: in Moscow, Kuybyshev, and Voronezh. In late June 1942, the city was attacked by German and Hungarian forces. In response, Soviet forces formed the Voronezh Front. By July 6, the German army occupied the western river-bank suburbs before being subjected to a fierce Soviet counter-attack. By July 24 the frontline had stabilised along the Voronezh River as the German forces continued southeast into the Great Bend of the Don. The attack on Voronezh represented the first phase of the German Army's 1942 campaign in the Soviet Union, codenamed Case Blue.

 

Until January 25, 1943, parts of the Second German Army and the Second Hungarian Army occupied the western part of Voronezh. During Operation Little Saturn, the Ostrogozhsk–Rossosh Offensive, and the Voronezhsko-Kastornenskoy Offensive, the Voronezh Front exacted heavy casualties on Axis forces. On January 25, 1943, Voronezh was liberated after ten days of combat. During the war the city was almost completely ruined, with 92% of all buildings destroyed.

 

Post-war

By 1950, Voronezh had been rebuilt. Most buildings and historical monuments were repaired. It was also the location of a prestigious Suvorov Military School, a boarding school for young boys who were considered to be prospective military officers, many of whom had been orphaned by war.

 

In 1950–1960, new factories were established: a tire factory, a machine-tool factory, a factory of heavy mechanical pressing, and others. In 1968, Serial production of the Tupolev Tu-144 supersonic plane was established at the Voronezh Aviation factory. In October 1977, the first Soviet domestic wide-body plane, Ilyushin Il-86, was built there.

 

In 1989, TASS published details of an alleged UFO landing in the city's park and purported encounters with extraterrestrial beings reported by a number of children. A Russian scientist that was cited in initial TASS reports later told the Associated Press that he was misquoted, cautioning, "Don't believe all you hear from TASS," and "We never gave them part of what they published", and a TASS correspondent admitted the possibility that some "make-believe" had been added to the TASS story, saying, "I think there is a certain portion of truth, but it is not excluded that there is also fantasizing".

 

21st century

From 10 to 17 September 2011, Voronezh celebrated its 425th anniversary. The anniversary of the city was given the status of a federal scale celebration that helped attract large investments from the federal and regional budgets for development.

 

On December 17, 2012, Voronezh became the fifteenth city in Russia with a population of over one million people.

 

Today Voronezh is the economic, industrial, cultural, and scientific center of the Central Black Earth Region. As part of the annual tradition in the Russian city of Voronezh, every winter the main city square is thematically drawn around a classic literature. In 2020, the city was decorated using the motifs from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. In the year of 2021, the architects drew inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Snow Queen as well as the animation classic The Snow Queen from the Soviet Union. The fairy tale replica city will feature the houses of Kai and Gerda, the palace of the snow queen, an ice rink, and illumination.

This is the only stave church remaining in Vestfold and built in two phases. The first part was built around 1150, in the Roman style, with the second phase following approximately 100 years later and built in the Gothic style.

It is is one of only three preserved stave churches having a stave or pillar in the middle of the church.

 

The church has 12 different staves symbolising the apostles, in addition to the one in the middle, which symbolises Christ, all of which serve to support the building. Each stave is unique among the others. Along the walls one can see 8-10 crosses which were dedicated at the time the church was first used.

 

Originally, the church had an earthen floor, with benches along the walls where old and weak people might sit. Others had to remain standing during the mass.

The altar dates from around 1630.

 

The church was restored in 1948. Under the floor, 5 well preserved skeletons were found without coffins and just a thin layer of dirt over them. A man, two women and two children. They were left in place. It is believed they were victims of the Black death around 1349.

 

Les mer i norsk her.

More about Stave churches and their construction here.

 

See where this picture was taken. [?]

This is a story that has needs to be told! After years of dedicated service to Albuquerque and the great state of New Mexico, Clyde & Carrie Tingley slipped into obscurity. Clyde Tingley, is perhaps the most important politician in the history of modern New Mexico. His tenure from 1917 to 1954 was equal to Chicago's Richard Daley and Boston's James Michael Curley. Tingley is responsible for bringing New Mexico into the 20th Century after after years of tireless effort. He is most well known for bringing the benefits of New Deal programs to Albuquerque and the rest of New Mexico. Told for the first time, this is a poignant story of a couple whose great love for New Mexico knew no equal!

 

WATCH: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULe3Z8LZRKY

 

OWN: www.knme.org/ecommerce/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/21/...

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