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Chuck- Hey, where's Crane?
Two-Face- Busy.
*The meeting took place at Elliot Heights, per Chuck's suggestion. The attendees- three of the four heads of Penguin's new Pact, and each of their lieutenants, arrived later then Brown expected, with none of them the wiser regarding the whereabouts of Deacon Blackfire. The last to arrive, Black Mask and his allies knocked on the door with an air of impatience*
Sionis- The elevator's busted.
Chuck- We know.
*Sionis grumbles, but sits down, waiting for Chuck to start talking*
Freeze- So. Talk. You said you had information.
Chuck- Yes, um, first of all I'm glad you all came. But before we start, do we know where Blackfire-
Two-Face- Get on with it.
Chuck- Right. We've identified the sniper. It was Black Spider.
*The assembly is silent. Then Roman groans*
Sionis- Oh, of course it is... What's the bastard even doing in Arkham?
Two-Face- It's not rocket science Sionis. He's probably a prisoner like the rest of us.
Sionis- No, I don't buy it. Didn't he get a pardon for that Society crap?
*Li, who has been staring at the uncharacteristically quiet Penguin, leans over and mutters to Sionis, gesturing at Firebug*
Li- Yes sir, he did. But, so did Mr Rigger. Clearly, the government cares little about their promises.
Sionis- Yeah. Suppose I shouldn't be surprised...
Freeze- Answer this, Kite-Man isn't it?
Chuck- Just call me Chuck...
Freeze- How on earth did you find this information?
Chuck- Ah, well this is Mitch.
*At this, Mayo, still wearing the bloodied vest from last night, and far from looking his best, stands in front of this audience of hardened killers and gangsters, and they can barely contain their laughter*
Sionis- Is this a joke?
*It didn't take long. Despite their initial... "apprehension," they all listened to Mayo's story in full. When he was done, they set out in search of Needham. Dent went to the old GCPD building, in search of Needham's arrest reports, anything that would give them any insight to his whereabouts. Sionis returned to his factory, alerting his men of the news. Cobblepot sent his assistant, Lark, away, as he talked with Zebra Man as they made their way back to the Iceberg Lounge*
Zebra- So. What are you going to do? Kill them?
*Cobblepot sighed, handing him his top hat, Zebra peers inside, and takes out a note taped inside*
Penguin- Nothing so brash. You've spent far too much time with Kobra... They'll start hunting soon enough, and they'll want you with them, for the extra manpower of course. When they find him, however long that takes, you will do whatever you can to stop him talking.
That note, is all I have on him, his family, friends, past relationships and pain. Use it, and eliminate him. You'll be the hero.
Zebra- All that talk of loyalty.
Penguin- I meant it all. Do you understand how hard I've worked to keep this hellhole together? If the Monarch had to die, so be it. If Needham must join him, very well. You of all people should understand that...
=====
*Philip lost his hands, his sight, to this man. Mr Camera. His time in Blackgate, away from photos had driven the man mad, or maybe it was Meister's voice in his ear. No matter the reason, Harry Simms severed Ten's hand over a single photograph. Now Reardon relied on mechanical limbs to hold the very gun in his hand he was pointing at his head. The same gun Blackfire offered him. "Was it even Simms?" he wondered. Without his sight, he couldn't know for sure that it *wasn't* some other captive of Blackfire, an innocent man who's life now rested in his hands. All he knew was that there was something dark creeping around inside his body, a voice telling him that the vengeance he craved was finally here. All he had to do, was pull the trigger. The worst part? He didn't know if it was Blackfire's toxins, or his own anger*
Blackfire- Christ died for *our* sins, but what of theirs? Those who commit atrocities far worse than God can forgive? That is our duty my children! Our time is now. We will slay first these common mongrels, then we will make our way to the top. Divine justice comes to all!
Simms- I didn't do anything!
Blackfire- Enough! Harold Simms, you threaten and extort innocents, you collect incriminating evidence that you lust over like a man possessed. No more!
*They cheered. They all cheered for Blackfire. Yet, while Philip was coerced by drugs, these people needed only the spoken word to jeer at Simms*
Ten- Then... it's true, you've been using the tunnels to hunt people down. Kill them.
...
Blackfire- My boy, I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about.
=======
*Cobblepot returned to the Iceberg Lounge three hours ago, just thinking in his office. Eventually, he left his sanctuary and sat down at the bar. With a flick of his wrist, the two people previously sitting there, got up and left*
Penguin- Long day Leonard?
Len- It is what it is. Those two tried to trade their socks for some beer. Socks I tell you.
Penguin- Ah, well, it can't be helped.
Len- Well what are they meant to tip? Their knickers?
*Penguin laughed in a manner not dissimilar to his namesake, producing a noise that sounded something like a "Waugh." Behind them, Magpie tapped on the microphone, on top of the stage*
Magpie- I'd like to sing a song. Perhaps you know it.
*Len muttered something under his breath that unfortunately, David Wist, Magpie's husband, happened to hear*
Len- Urgh, Moon River. It's always Moon River.
Wist- Hey, she sings it very well!
Penguin- Oh it's lovely, David, absolutely lovely, but you have to understand it gets repetitive.
Wist- Of course Mr Cobblepot, I didn't mean, I-
Len- I'm just asking, why's it always Moon River...
*Roman takes another seat up at the bar beside Oswald*
Penguin- Roman! My friend!
Sionis- If, when we get out, and I hear that song, that damn song, on the radio... Someone's dying. I hate it.
Wist- Look, the moon is really shiny. She likes it
*And with that, Wist brushes past Li, offering a comforting smile to Mags as he heads off towards the stage*
Sionis- You. I'll have a Vodka Martini, Li here will have a, rum and coke was it?
Li- Just the Cola please. I don't drink.
Sionis- Throw in the rum anyway. I might drink it. We've got him.
Oswald- You can't have found him already surely?
Len- What's this?
*Sionis glances at Len and back at Oswald*
Sionis- Is he good?
Oswald- Certainly.
Sionis- The guy that shot this place up, your pal identified him as Black Spider.
Len- Shit...
Sionis- Exactly. Dent went to get some files from the GCPD database, the computers there are still connected to the server. Don't know what he found, but he said best bet, he's at the cemetery. Got Freeze, Zsasz and your guy down there already.
Oswald- Then, it's just a matter of waiting.
====
*The Gotham Cemetery is sprawling. One of the biggest controversies behind Arkham, was separating loved ones from those buried there. Of course, with Strange's connections, it didn't take the government long to overrule the City Council. With all of Gotham's tragedies- the breakouts, the earthquake, the crises, the Signal Man incident and the City of Fear, there's no bigger graveyard in the entire state. It's a labyrinth of headstones and crypts. It takes a lot of manpower to cover the area. The glow from Freeze's goggles, are about the only thing lighting up the area*
Freeze- Spread out. Firebug, take the east. Zsasz, cover the west. I will search the South Quadrant, leaving you, Zebra Man, with-
Zebra- The North. Da.
*Rigger lit a match so he could see. Doing so caused a flock of birds to burst out from the nearest crypt. He cursed himself as he sucked the blood from his scratch marks. Owls. Zsasz wandered around the headstones, and grinned. So many bodies... So many put there because of him. And Freeze saw the graves of those husbands and wives buried together, and his blood boiled. He would find his Nora. It was Zsasz that found him first, a bouquet in his hand. He fired a shot, startling Needham*
Zsasz- I prefer the knife Mr Needham. More personal... Guns end it quickly, and, I don't want to end this quickly after all... you know the blade too, don't you?
*He fired again, but this time Needham was quick, and he disappeared into the trees*
Zsasz- Two-Face was right. He's here.
*Freeze was the next to see him, a blast of ice firing from his gun*
Freeze- I made a promise to my wife Needham. I don't break my promises, not to her.
*The ice stream follows Spider all the way into Rigger's quarter*
Rigger- You don't have to do this Spider. You can come quietly.
Needham- I go and I'm as good as dead.
*He shoots at him, knocking Rigger off balance, and then- Blam! The shot sends him down the hill. Landing with a thud, Zebra Man follows him*
Needham- I know your kind... I know you won't stop but *Urgh* My girlfriend and my son were buried in two unmarked graves here. Her family didn't want me visiting them, her brother especially, blamed me for what happened. They overdosed you see... But I knew the truth. It was the drug business that got them killed, and I wasn't gonna rest until every last one of them was gone. When I was sent to kill Sionis... Couldn't wait. *Cough* I didn't want Penguin's money, you hear me? What's the use in this place? Nah. I just wanted to know where my family was buried. I just wanted to lay some flowers on my kid's grave.
*Pinned against a gravestone, Needham coughs up blood, placing a hand over his wound. He ought to be dead. He can't move. *
Needham- So... Go ahead. Do it. But you take these, and you put them there.
Zebra- Your family were junkies. Weak. They deserve nothing. Neither do you.
*And yet, just behind him, Zebra hears the quiet chink of a piece of metal, and as he turns back-
Blam. Blam. Two bullets to the head bring Zebra Man's life to an end. A hand grabs Needham and carries him up to the waiting group- Freeze, Zsasz and Rigger*
See also my album: portraits when passing by and... you are welcome to visit my profile You should have a look on my Faves too.
34. In the Bible it says, “this same Jesus … shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.” When the Lord returns, it shall be with Him riding on a white cloud, why would He become flesh? (Gospel Music Videos)
www.holyspiritspeaks.org/how-can-he-be-incarnated-again/
The Answer from God’s Word:
Since Jesus departed, the disciples who followed Him, and all of the saints who were saved thanks to His name, have been desperately pining for Him and awaiting Him. All those who were saved by the grace of Jesus Christ during the Age of Grace have been longing for that joyful day during the last days, when Jesus the Savior arrives on a white cloud and appears among man. Of course, this is also the collective wish of all those who accept the name of Jesus the Savior today. Throughout the universe, all those who know of the salvation of Jesus the Savior have been desperately yearning for the sudden arrival of Jesus Christ, to fulfill the words of Jesus when on earth: “I shall arrive just as I departed.” Man believes that, following the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went back to heaven upon a white cloud, and took His place at the Most High’s right hand. Similarly, man conceives that Jesus shall descend, again upon a white cloud (this cloud refers to the cloud that Jesus rode upon when He returned to heaven), among those who have desperately yearned for Him for thousands of years, and that He shall bear the image and clothes of the Jews. After appearing to man, He shall bestow food upon them, and cause living water to gush forth for them, and shall live among man, full of grace and love, living and real. And so on. Yet Jesus the Savior did not do this; He did the opposite of what man conceived. He did not arrive among those who had yearned for His return, and did not appear to all men while riding upon the white cloud. He has already arrived, but man does not know Him, and remains ignorant of His arrival. Man is only aimlessly awaiting Him, unaware that He has already descended upon a white cloud (the cloud which is His Spirit, His words, and His entire disposition and all that He is), and is now among a group of overcomers that He will make during the last days.
from “The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
(....)
… Many people may not care what I say, but I still want to tell every so-called saint who follows Jesus that, when you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you, yet you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven is also the time when you go down to hell to be punished. It will herald the end of God’s management plan, and will be when God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have returned before the throne of God and entered the Creator’s embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that “The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false Christ” shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who exhibits signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who proclaims severe judgment and releases the true way of life. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud.
from “When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
(Signs of the End Times | Christian Short Film "The Days of Noah Have Come") (Eastern Lightning）
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I confess I was not born female; however, I choose to present myself in a manner whenever I can.
Imprecise, to be sure; but I do the best I can :)
This striking image captures three well-dressed men, each sporting top hats and tailored suits, posed before a painted seaside backdrop that includes the grand Cliff Hotel. The image itself is a tintype, popular from the mid-19th century into the early 20th century, recognized by its slightly dark, metallic surface and the informal, yet often theatrical, studio settings.
The Cliff Hotel, looming in the background of the painted scene, was once a magnificent seaside landmark, famous for its commanding views and elegant architecture. Its castle-like design, complete with turrets and steep gables, became an icon of coastal leisure and prosperity during its era. For many visitors, a portrait in front of such a backdrop was as much a statement of aspiration as it was a memento.
The three men in this portrait present a strong sense of camaraderie and status. Their attire and posture reflect not only the fashion of the time but also the desire to be remembered in a dignified, almost celebratory manner. Tintypes like this were often made quickly and affordably, yet they remain enduring testaments to moments of leisure, friendship, and self-presentation at a time when photography itself was still novel.
This particular scene, with the Cliff Hotel as its chosen backdrop, speaks to the cultural importance of seaside resorts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It embodies both the grandeur of the hotel and the personal pride of those who sought to preserve their likeness with it forever at their side.
This second version of the Cliff Hotel was from 1896-1907, which aligns with the gentlemens attire.
This lioness spied a herd of Impala and watched them intently for several minutes, before apparently deciding they were not worth the bother and wandering off in a leisurely manner. Taken near the Linyati Swamp, northern Botswana.
Last week marked a milestone for ESA’s Proba-2 satellite: 10 years of operation in orbit around the Earth. Since its launch on 2 November 2009, Proba-2 (PRoject for OnBoard Autonomy) has probed the intricacies of the Sun and its connection to our planet, imaging and observing our star and investigating how it drives all manner of complex cosmic phenomena: from solar eruptions and flares to closer-to-home space weather effects.
This image shows 10 different views of the Sun captured throughout Proba-2’s lifetime, processed to highlight the extended solar atmosphere – the part of the atmosphere that is visible around the main circular disc of the star.
Characterising this part of the Sun is a key element of Proba-2’s solar science observations. Solar activity is closely tied to the space weather we experience closer to Earth. Understanding more about how the Sun behaves – and how this behaviour changes over time, including whether it may be predictable – is crucial in our efforts to prepare for space weather events capable of damaging both space-based and terrestrial communications systems.
The Sun’s activity has a cycle of about 11 years, with the presence and strength of phenomena such as flares, coronal mass ejections, dark ‘coronal holes’ and bright ‘active regions’ fluctuating accordingly. These images were taken by Proba-2’s extreme-ultraviolet SWAP (Sun watcher using APS detectors and image processing) instrument, and show a snapshot of the Sun in January or February of each year from 2010 to 2019 (with the oldest frame on the top left, and the most recent to the bottom right). This mosaic thus neatly shows the variability in the solar atmosphere in beautiful detail, demonstrating how this cycle affects the Sun. The Sun begins in a phase of low activity (solar minimum: top left) in 2010; enters a phase of increasing activity and then shows highest activity in 2014 (solar maximum: top right). It slowly calms down again to enter a low-activity phase in 2019 (another minimum: bottom right).
As its name suggests, Proba-2 is the second satellite launched under ESA’s ‘Project for Onboard Autonomy’ umbrella: a series of small, low-cost missions that are testing a wide array of advanced technologies in space. These missions are helping us understand and develop everything from solar monitoring to vegetation mapping to autonomous Earth observation. Future members of the Proba family will also be equipped to create artificial eclipses by flying two satellites together in formation to block the bright disc of the Sun for hours at a time, so that scientists can better observe fainter regions that are usually outshone.
For now, Proba-2 will continue to monitor the Sun, including an upcoming celestial event: the satellite’s SWAP camera will observe Mercury today as it transits across the face of the Sun, an event that only takes place around 13 times per century and will not occur again until 2032.
The individual frames of the image shown here were captured on (top row, left to right): 20 February 2010, 1 February 2011, 20 January 2020, 5 February 2013, 28 January 2014, and (bottom row, left to right) 19 January 2015, 5 February 2016, 22 January 2017, 2 February 2018, and 1 February 2019.
Credits: ESA/Royal Observatory of Belgium
The young Earth and Moon suffered periods of extreme bombardment by asteroids, meteors and comets in the first two billion years of their existence. This was a time when all manner of sub-planetary-sized bodies were scattered throughout the solar system in great numbers. Frequently the movements of the planets jostled the smaller bodies into orbits that crossed those of the inner rocky planets. They frequently collided with the inner planets. The record of these collisions is preserved in the battered surface of the Moon, for the moon lacks the geologic mechanisms, such as erosion and tectonic “recycling”, that continuously refresh the Earth’s face. Still, the process of meteor bombardment is itself a process which churns and alters the Moon’s face. The Moon’s long history of meteor impacts has obscured much of the record of its earliest history.
This photo illustrates how that hidden record can be sussed. First, let’s find some landmarks. The most striking crater in this photo is the extremely elongated crater Schiller. In the top left corner, the trio of Wargentin, Nasmyth and Phocylides is seen. Occupying the bottom right corner is a medium-sized crater with a wide inner wall on its northwest and a central peak. This is Bettinus. Its floor is flooded, and Its rampart cratered. Nearby, to the northwest is the slightly smaller Zucchius. a young crater, possessed of a symmetrical crater rim, a terraced inner wall terraced, and a group of small central peakr. Viewed under direct sunlight, Zucchius even sports a ray system. Below Zucchius and Bettinus in this photo, the vast crater Bailly is caught along the lunar terminator. We can see little of this crater other than its enormity. This is the largest crater on the visible side of the Moon, fully 303 km in diameter. That is big. Further, it is estimated to be more than 3 billion years old, part of the Nectarian system of craters. That is old. Now let’s put these landmarks to work.
There is, in the center of this photo, an impact crater that is both bigger and older than Bailly. One might think it easily seen. It is not. All we see now are traces of it. Once you know the traces, your mind can “reconstruct” the whole. Look hard, you will see it too. Start with Schiller: look at the points that define its major axis, its longest diameter. Starting with the rightmost of these two points and then extend the line of the major axis about one “half-Schiller” to the right and a little down. There is a pair of craters near the right photo margin. Passing between them, a line of ridges can be detected. Below the crater pair the ridges become a wide scarp. It arcs around toward the left, where it first glances the northern (upper) rim of Bettinus and then intersects Zucchius. Beyond Zucchius, the track is harder to follow. If you allow your mind to “connect the dots” a broken arc of hills and ridges extend the track to Phocylides, where it merges with this crater’s southeastern rim. Beyond Phocylides, it is easier to see the ridge that reconnects Phocylides with Schiller near the northern point of Schiller’s major axis.
So, take a moment and behold the Schiller-Zucchius Basin. At 335 km diameter, it exceeds that of Bailly. The interior of its ring is pretty much indistinguishable from the rest of the lunar surface. It has lava plains, craters, crater chains, hills and ridges. The scars of its life are its camouflage.
Now use your skills of tracking the remains of circles and see if you can detect another ring, concentric with and interior to the outer ring. This is best seen in the southeastern side, interior to the arc connecting Schiller and Zucchius craters. There is even one more ring (Confession: I do not yet see it) which forms a bullseye at the center. Beneath this, a mass concentration has been detected by lunar orbiting spacecraft. This makes the Schiller-Zucchius Basin one of the Moon’s multi-ring basins, in the company of the Imbrium, the Occidentale and the Nectarian Basins, as well as several others. These multi-ringed basins are the products of the most colossal collisions between heavenly bodies.
I mentioned the Nectaris Basin and stated that Bailly crater dated to the Nectarian Period of the Moon’s history. The creation of that basin marks the second of the recognized periods in the geological history of the Moon. This seventy-million-year long period spanned a time from 3.92 to 3.85 billion years ago. The Schiller-Zucchius Basin is recognized as a relic from the PRE-Nectarian Period, the first era in the life of the Moon. That makes the Schiller-Zucchius Basin a relic of the Moon’s most ancient history, perhaps half a billion years or more older than Bailly Crater.
Instrumentation:
Celestron EdgeHD 8 telescope, ZWO ASI290MM monochrome camera, Celestron Advanced VX mount.
Processing:
Video data captured with Firecapture software as a .ser file. Pre-processing of 4919 frame .ser file with PIPP. Best 10% of those video frames stacked with AutoStakkert!3, wavelets processing with Registax 6, and final processing in Photoshop CC 2020.
museumPASSmusees 2023 - Mima - Local Heroes
Local Heroes combines, in the manner of the ancient Greek gymnasium, exercises of the body and the mind. For 4 months, MIMA is a temple of boxing and arts interacting with the visitor.
Local Heroes is a reinterpretation of the ancient Greek gymnasium: a place dedicated to the education of youth in the values of the city through sport and the arts. In this logic, the spaces in the exhibition are reserved either for the practice of boxing or for the celebration of local athletes. The whole is enhanced by artistic interventions born from the meeting between creators and boxers. Posters, photographs, videos and wall paintings are the favourite mediums in the aesthetics of boxing.
The choice of boxing is based on a historical, social and cultural reason. Firstly, the ancestor of boxing, pugilism, was widely practiced in gymnasiums throughout antiquity. Secondly, the boxing community sociologically reflects the youth of the Brussels city centre. Finally, compared to other sports, it is a major source of inspiration for the arts.
Check the daily sports program at the museum throughout the exhibition.
And exceptional events and nocturnes.
Sports club partners:
Brussels Boxing Academy, Idrissi Boxing Pro and the Vlaams Boksliga
Artists : ?
Rocio Alvarez, Dave Decat, Yannick Jacquet & Antoine Bertin, Edouard Valette, Christopher de Bethune, Kenza Vandeput
Curators :
Raphael Cruyt, Alice van den Abeele
Creative partners : ?
MAD, Cours Florent Brussel and D'BROEJ
( 1 pass, plus de 220 musees
Le pass musees est l'abonnement le plus genereux aux musees belges. Il vous donne acces a l'ensemble des musees participants de notre pays, pendant toute une annee. Quand vous voulez et aussi souvent que vous le souhaitez. Au programme :
Decouverte des collections permanentes.
Avec votre pass musees, vous pouvez visiter librement les collections permanentes de plus de 220 musees.
Acces aux expositions temporaires.
Vous pouvez egalement visiter les expositions temporaires gratuitement ou avec une jolie reduction.
Vous beneficiez de billets de train a moitie prix, de reductions dans les boutiques des musees et de nombreux autres cadeaux reserves exclusivement aux abonnes du pass musees.
Les meilleurs conseils en matiere de musees.
Tous les quinze jours, vous recevez dans votre boite mail des informations sur les expositions a ne pas manquer et les plus belles decouvertes a faire dans les musees.
See also my album: portraits when passing by and... you are welcome to visit my profile You should have a look on my Faves too.
Hutsulian wedding in Bukovina.
Chernivtsi, Ukraine.
A long time ago, before giving the bride to the reliable hands of her future husband, she would have been dressed in a strict appropriate manner.
How long does it take? For example, Hutsuls(Carpathian Mountain natives) could spend three hours dressing the bride. Sure you will say that modern brides may take as much time with their preparations, with all those hairstyles and manicures. But understand that Hutsuls are not accustomed to elaborate cosmetic use, as they prefer a more natural look.
When dressing their brides, Hutsuls would beautify her with colorful embroidered shirts, a wide woven belt, hankerchieves, a sheepskin coat, an embroidered necklace, and special shoes – red sandals. The bride's hair would be beautifully braided and decorated with different flowers, ribbons and various small, red trinkets in which coins and cloves of garlic are hidden inside as a preventative measure against bad energies. The bride's mother would also put a wreath on the head of her daughter, in which the bride cannot take off until the end of a wedding. This is performed as a blessing of good luck for the couple's future.
Nowadays, the wreath is often replaced with bread given from the godparents. The bread will be decorated with a little wreath on top. It is customary for the bride to kiss the bread while kneeling.
While closest relatives are dressing the bride, she is sitting anxiously on a chair with a pillow. When the bride stands up and goes out to the groom, the bridesmaids compete against each other to be the first to fall on the pillow. The bridesmaid that falls on that pillow first – will be the first to become marrried herself.
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SLR Camera: Nikon F5
Lens: AF Zoom-Nikkor 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5D
Film: Kodak Ektar 100
Filter: Promaster Spectrum 7 UV
Flash: Nikon Speedlight SB-28 (fill flash)
----------------------------------------------------------------
-- focal length - 50 mm
-- aperture - 11
Film was processed and scanned by "Mark" Studio Lab. in Chernivtsi. I am happy with the results.
To see the pictures taken with this camera click here.
Thank you for your comments and Fav's.
The boxfishes are a family, Ostraciidae, of squared, bony fish belonging to the order Tetraodontiformes, closely related to the pufferfishes and filefishes. They come in a variety of different colors, and are notable for the hexagonal or "honeycomb" patterns in their skin and skeletons. They swim in a rowing manner. Fish in the family are known variously as boxfishes, cofferfishes, cowfishes and trunkfishes.
[Wikipedia]
Canon 5D with EF 24-105/4 L IS USM @105mm
1/30s f/5 ISO 1250
handheld through glass, no flash
See also my album: portraits when passing by and... you are welcome to visit my profile You should have a look on my Faves too.
*** *** ***
I'm stampolina and I love to take photos of stamps. Thanks for visiting this pages on flickr.
I'm neither a typical collector of stamps, nor a stamp dealer. I'm only a stamp photograph. I'm fascinated of the fine close-up structures which are hidden in this small stamp-pictures. Please don't ask of the worth of these stamps - the most ones have a worth of a few cents or still less.
By the way, I wanna say thank you to all flickr users who have sent me stamps! Great! Thank you! Someone sent me 3 or 5 stamps, another one sent me more than 20 stamps in a letter. It's everytime a great surprise for me and I'm everytime happy to get letters with stamps inside from you!
thx, stampolina
For the case you wanna send also stamps - it is possible. (...I'm pretty sure you'll see these stamps on this photostream on flickr :) thx!
stampolina68
Mühlenweg 3/2
3244 Ruprechtshofen
Austria - Europe
* * * * * * * * *
great stamp Austria € 55c postage retro look Manner Neapolitaner (cookie, biscuit, bickie) timbre Autriche selo sello francobollo Austria postzegel Oostenrijk طوابع النمسا frimærker østrig markica Austrija टिकटों ऑस्ट्रिया francobollo Austria スタンプ オーストリア bélyegek Ausztria แสตมป์ ออสเตรีย frimerker østerrike perangko Austria razítka Rakousko 우표 오스트리아 pulları Avusturya בולים אוסטריה markas Austrija 邮票 奥地利 Briefmarken Österreich € 55c stamp
See also my album: portraits when passing by and... you are welcome to visit my profile You should have a look on my Faves too.
Männer-Vierer ohne Stm. A
Gold: Der Hamburger und Germania RC
Silber: RC Favorite Hammonia Hamburg
Bronze: RC Allemannia Hamburg
German postcard, no. 44 (of 64). Photo: Constantin. Elke Sommer and Mila Baloh in Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964). Caption: At the last moment Annie intervenes. In front of everyone, she reports that the "preacher" is really the vulture Weller and a murderer. Her firm and determined manner makes even Judge Leader doubt Martin's guilt.
In the late 1950s, blonde, German Elke Sommer (1940) was a European sex symbol before conquering Hollywood in the early 1960s. With her trademark pouty lips, high cheekbones, and sky-high bouffant hair-dos, Sommer made 99 film and television appearances between 1959 and 2005. The gorgeous film star was also one of the most popular pin-up girls of the sixties and posed twice for Playboy magazine.
Elke Sommer was born Elke Schletz in 1940 in Berlin to a Lutheran Minister, Baron Peter von Schletz, and his wife, Renata, nee Topp. In 1942, the family was forced to evacuate to Niederndorf, a village near Erlangen, a small university town in the southern region of Germany. Her father's death in 1955, when she was only 14, interrupted her education at the local Gymnasium (high school). In 1957, she graduated from high school and moved to England. There she worked as an au-pair girl in Chigwell and Hampstead, two expensive residential areas of London. She entertained plans to become a diplomatic translator for the United Nations but instead decided to try modeling. After winning the title Miss Viareggio Turistica in 1958 while on vacation in Italy with her mother, she caught the attention of renowned film actor/director Vittorio De Sica and began performing on screen. Her debut film was in the Italian feature Uomini e nobiluomini/Men and Noblemen (Giorgio Bianchi, 1959), which starred De Sica. Elke changed her surname from 'Schletz' to 'Sommer' which was easier to pronounce for a non-German audience. A few more Italian pictures followed, including her first starring role in Femmine di lusso/Love, the Italian Way (Giorgio Bianchi, 1960) with Ugo Tognazzi and Walter Chiari. Within two years Elke made five films in Italy and also two in Germany, the adventure Das Totenschiff/Ship of the Dead (Georg Tressler, 1959) with Horst Buchholz, and the interesting Film Noir Am Tag, als der Regen kam/The Day It Rained (Gerd Oswald, 1959) starring Mario Adorf. She gradually upgraded her status to European sex symbol, and appeared in such films as the sexy De quoi tu te mêles Daniela!/Daniella by Night (Max Pécas, 1961) with Ivan Desny, Douce violence/Sweet Ecstasy (Max Pécas, 1962) opposite Pierre Brice, and the drama Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt/The Girl and the Prosecutor (Jürgen Goslar, 1962). Her first English-speaking picture was Don't Bother to Knock (Cyril Frankel, 1961) with Richard Todd and Nicole Maurey. Most of the publicity photographs for Don't Bother to Knock showed her in a bikini and revealed that although she was nothing like as buxom as Sophia Loren or Jayne Mansfield, Elke had a flat stomach and superb legs. Sommer moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s to try and tap into the foreign-born market. Her sexy innocence made a vivid impression in the all-star, war-themed drama The Victors (Carl Foreman, 1963) with Vince Edwards and Albert Finney. She received considerable publicity when it was reported that she filmed her scenes twice, with a sexier version made for the European market. Elke played a German girl who sexually gratifies her American boyfriend (George Hamilton) with the full knowledge of her parents because he brings chocolate to the family home. In 1964 she won the Golden Globe as Most Promising Female Newcomer for The Prize (Mark Robson, 1963), an espionage thriller with Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson. In the classic, bumbling comedy A Shot in the Dark (Blake Edwards, 1964), the second entry in the hilarious Pink Panther series, she proved a shady and sexy foil to Peter Sellers's Inspector Clouseau. A scene with Sellers and Elke in a nudist camp received enormous publicity, and the film was a huge hit. Besides becoming one of the top film stars of the mid-1960s, Sommer also was one of the most popular pin-up girls of the time. She posed for two spreads in Playboy, in the September 1964 issue and in the December 1967 issue.
Elke Sommer was the leading lady opposite hunky sixties stars like James Garner, Robert Vaughn, and Dean Martin in such Hollywood productions as the crime melodrama The Art of Love (Norman Jewison, 1965), The Money Trap (Burt Kennedy, 1965), The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966), The Venetian Affair (Jerry Thorpe, 1967), and the Matt Helm spy spoof The Wrecking Crew (Phil Karlson, 1969). The blonde and beautiful Sommer proved irresistible to American audiences whether adorned in lace or leather or donning lingerie or lederhosen. She continued to make films in Europe as well as in Hollywood. The Euro-Western Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964) was based on one of the Winnetou novels by Karl May. Her co-stars were Stewart Granger as Old Surehand, Götz George, and Pierre Brice as Winnetou. In 1966, she returned to England to work on the Bulldog Drummond extravaganza Deadlier Than the Male (Ralph Thomas, 1968), a film that has minor cult status, mainly because Richard Johnson gives a superb James Bond-like performance, but also because Elke and Sylva Koscina were so eye-catching as two sexually-charged assassins. Always a diverting attraction in spy intrigue or breezy comedy, she was too often misused and setbacks began to occur when the quality of her films began to deteriorate. Examples are the tacky Hollywood entry, The Oscar (Russell Rouse, 1966) with Stephen Boyd, and the Bob Hope misfire, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966). Her title role in the tasteless Cold War comedy The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (George Marshall, 1968) proved her undoing. Elke Sommer benefitted from speaking seven languages fluently and her career took her to scores of different countries over time. Her films during the 1970s included the British World War I action-drama Zeppelin (Étienne Périer, 1971) in which she co-starred with Michael York and Anton Diffring, and a remake of Agatha Christie's oft-filmed murder mystery Ten Little Indians called And Then There Were None (Peter Collinson, 1974) with Richard Attenborough and Oliver Reed. In 1972, she starred in two low-budget Italian horror films directed by Mario Bava, which have both become cult classics. Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga/Baron Blood (Mario Bava, 1972) with Joseph Cotten, turned out to be an international box office success, particularly in the U.S. Producer Alfredo Leone offered Bava a contract for another film Lisa e il diavolo/Lisa and the Devil (Mario Bava, 1973) with Telly Savalas, and granted Bava total artistic control on it. The latter film was later re-edited to a very different film called Casa dell'esorcismo/House of Exorcism, a rip-off of The Exorcist. In 1975, Elke went back to Italy to appear in additional scenes inserted by the producer, against the wishes of the director. In those scenes a demonic Elke swears obscenities at her exorcist, and in typical Linda Blair style spits out pea soup and actually vomits live frogs and insects. In England, she good-naturedly appeared in the ‘comedy’ films Percy (Ralph Thomas, 1971) and its equally cheeky sequel Percy's Progress (Ralph Thomas, 1974), which starred Hywel Bennett (later Leigh Lawson) as the first man to have a penis transplant. She also showed up in one of the later ‘Carry On’ farces entitled Carry on Behind (Gerald Thomas, 1975) as the Russian Professor Anna Vrooshka. In Germany she appeared in Edgar Reitz’s Die Reise nach Wien/The Trip To Vienna (1973) with Hannelore Elsner, and in Wolfgang Petersen’s thriller Einer von uns beiden/One or the Other (1974) opposite Klaus Schwarzkopf and Jürgen Prochnow.
From the mid-1970s, Elke Sommer worked more and more for TV. She appeared as a guest star in such popular series as The Six Million Dollar Man (1976), Fantasy Island (1981) and The Love Boat (1981, 1984). She played in the mini-series Inside the Third Reich (Marvin J. Chomsky, 1982), Jenny's War (Steve Gethers, 1985), Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (Marvin J. Chomsky, 1986) and Peter the Great (Marvin J. Chomsky, Lawrence Schiller, 1986). Elke Sommer had a long-running feud with Zsa Zsa Gabor that began in 1984 when both appeared on Circus of the Stars and escalated into a multi-million dollar libel suit by 1993 when Gabor and her husband made disparaging remarks about Sommer to several German publications. The jury ruled in favour of Sommer, and Gabor and her husband were sentenced to pay $2 million. Sommer also made appearances as a cabaret singer and in time put out several albums. She found a creative outlet on stage too with such vehicles as Irma la Douce and Born Yesterday, eventually becoming a director. Sadly, while performing in Chicago, she lost twins in her sixth month of pregnancy. Since the 1990s, she has concentrated more on book writing and painting than on acting. Her artwork shows a strong influence from Marc Chagall. She even hosted a TV-series on painting. Nevertheless, on occasion, she tackles an acting role. Out of the blue, she was cast in a Fangoria magazine production, the horror picture Severed Ties (1992). In her native Germany, she played in the TV film Ewig rauschen die Gelder/Eternally rustling funds (Rene Heinersdorff, 2005) and the comedy Das Leben ist zu lang (Dani Levy, 2010) with Markus Hering and Meret Becker. Divorced from writer and journalist Joe Hyams, she has been married since 1993 to hotelier Wolf Walther. In a 2014 interview, Sommer described how she met him: "I was in New York City starring in Tamara and had to stay there for four months. So, I had to find an apartment but they were excruciatingly expensive, tiny, and loud. As I knew the managing director of the Essex House, I wanted to talk to him about renting a room but the hotel had a new managing director, a man by the name of Wolf Walther. So we met. For him, it was love at first sight. For me, it took a little longer, but not much longer. As you may know, Tamara is a play in which the audience follows the actor of their choice, and as you may also know, my husband is 6'5" and hard to miss. I saw him every night in the audience, following me. Every night. And that was the beginning of the greatest love story of my life, still unfolding and getting better by the day." Elke Sommer lives in Los Angeles, California. Last year, she gave her voice to the short animation film A Thousand Kisses (Richard Goldgewicht, 2017).
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Cult Sirens, Brian’s Drive-in Theater, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
(for English scroll down)
Ab Ostern gilt in Berlin Alarmstufe Rot, jedenfalls im Bikini. Die schicke Mall ist Schauplatz für eine Ausstellung, wie sie die Stadt noch nicht gesehen hat. Der Londoner Fotograf Thomas Knights hat die heißesten rothaarigen Männer der ganzen Welt fotografiert. Und wer jetzt darüber stolpert, die Worte heiß und rothaarig in einem Zusammenhang zu finden, der kennt Knights‘ Bilder noch nicht.
Für die Ausstellung, die bereits in London, New York und Sydney für großes Aufsehen sorgte und nun in Berlins schickster Mall, dem Bikini, gezeigt wird, hat Thomas Knights nicht einfach nur Models porträtiert. Wie er im Herbst dem Magazin MÄNNER sagte, wurde er als Kind und Jugendlicher wegen seiner roten Haare gemobbt – ein Schicksal, das viele Leidensgenossen teilen. „Rote Haare wurden als etwas Schlimmes angesehen. Kinder picken sich ja immer den heraus, der anders ist. Und Rothaarige haben keine Community, auf deren Unterstützung sie zurückgreifen können.“ Darum wollte Knights etwas schaffen, worauf Ginger Men, wie sie in England heißen, stolz sein können. „Aus roten Haaren eine coole Marke machen - das war der Anstoß für die Ausstellung.“ Das hat er binnen kürzester Zeit erreicht.
Das Buch „RED HOT 100“ erschien im September 2014 (Bruno Gmünder) und hat wegen des großen Erfolgs bereits die 3. Auflage erreicht. Die gleichnamige Ausstellung kommt nun endlich nach Berlin. Auf einer 400 qm großen Ausstellungsfläche werden über 100 faszinierende Bilder gezeigt.
Das Grand Opening findet Ostersamstag, 04. April 2015, von 16 Uhr bis 20 Uhr, in der Bikini Concept Mall statt.
Für Musik sorgen Brodanse. Die berühmten DJ-Brüder, natürlich rothaarig, bespielen Clubs und Festivals in Europa und Asien.
Außerdem haben sich angesagt: die RED HOT-Models Ken Beck, der auf dem Cover provokant seine Zunge zeigt, sowie Jake Hold und natürlich der Fotograf selber, Thomas Knights.
„Die attraktivsten Rothaarigen, die wir je gesehen haben“, jubelte die australische ELLE über seine Fotos. Und SPIEGEL ONLINE schwärmte: „Wir brauchen einen rothaarigen James Bond.“
Die Ausstellung RED HOT : BERLIN dauert vom 04. April 2015 bis zum 03. Mai 2015.
____________________________________________________
OPENING RED HOT:BERLIN - A city sees red, 2015
From Easter, Berlin will be on red alert, at least at Bikini. The chic mall is the setting for an exhibition the likes of which the city has never seen before. London photographer Thomas Knights has photographed the hottest red-haired men in the world. And anyone who stumbles across the words hot and ginger in the same context has not yet seen Knights' pictures.
For the exhibition, which has already caused a sensation in London, New York and Sydney and is now being shown in Berlin's chicest mall, the Bikini, Thomas Knights has not just taken portraits of models. As he told MÄNNER magazine in autumn, he was bullied as a child and teenager because of his red hair - a fate shared by many of his fellow sufferers. ‘Red hair was seen as something bad. Children always pick out those who are different. And redheads don't have a community to fall back on for support.’ That's why Knights wanted to create something that ginger men, as they are known in England, could be proud of. ‘Turning red hair into a cool brand - that was the impetus for the exhibition.’ He achieved this in a very short space of time.
The book ‘RED HOT 100’ was published in September 2014 (Bruno Gmünder) and has already reached its 3rd edition due to its great success. The exhibition of the same name is now finally coming to Berlin. Over 100 fascinating pictures will be shown on a 400 square metre exhibition space.
The Grand Opening will take place on Easter Saturday, April 4, 2015, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., in the Bikini Concept Mall.
Music will be provided by Brodanse. The famous DJ brothers, redheaded of course, play clubs and festivals in Europe and Asia.
Also in attendance: the RED HOT models Ken Beck, who provocatively shows his tongue on the cover, as well as Jake Hold and of course the photographer himself, Thomas Knights.
“The most attractive redheads we've ever seen,” exclaimed Australia's ELLE about his photos. And SPIEGEL ONLINE raved: “We need a red-headed James Bond.”
The exhibition RED HOT: BERLIN lasts from April 4th, 2015 to May 3rd, 2015.
See also my album: portraits when passing by and... you are welcome to visit my profile You should have a look on my Faves too.
museumPASSmusees 2023 - Mima - Local Heroes
Local Heroes combines, in the manner of the ancient Greek gymnasium, exercises of the body and the mind. For 4 months, MIMA is a temple of boxing and arts interacting with the visitor.
Local Heroes is a reinterpretation of the ancient Greek gymnasium: a place dedicated to the education of youth in the values of the city through sport and the arts. In this logic, the spaces in the exhibition are reserved either for the practice of boxing or for the celebration of local athletes. The whole is enhanced by artistic interventions born from the meeting between creators and boxers. Posters, photographs, videos and wall paintings are the favourite mediums in the aesthetics of boxing.
The choice of boxing is based on a historical, social and cultural reason. Firstly, the ancestor of boxing, pugilism, was widely practiced in gymnasiums throughout antiquity. Secondly, the boxing community sociologically reflects the youth of the Brussels city centre. Finally, compared to other sports, it is a major source of inspiration for the arts.
Check the daily sports program at the museum throughout the exhibition.
And exceptional events and nocturnes.
Sports club partners:
Brussels Boxing Academy, Idrissi Boxing Pro and the Vlaams Boksliga
Artists : ?
Rocio Alvarez, Dave Decat, Yannick Jacquet & Antoine Bertin, Edouard Valette, Christopher de Bethune, Kenza Vandeput
Curators :
Raphael Cruyt, Alice van den Abeele
Creative partners : ?
MAD, Cours Florent Brussel and D'BROEJ
( 1 pass, plus de 220 musees
Le pass musees est l'abonnement le plus genereux aux musees belges. Il vous donne acces a l'ensemble des musees participants de notre pays, pendant toute une annee. Quand vous voulez et aussi souvent que vous le souhaitez. Au programme :
Decouverte des collections permanentes.
Avec votre pass musees, vous pouvez visiter librement les collections permanentes de plus de 220 musees.
Acces aux expositions temporaires.
Vous pouvez egalement visiter les expositions temporaires gratuitement ou avec une jolie reduction.
Vous beneficiez de billets de train a moitie prix, de reductions dans les boutiques des musees et de nombreux autres cadeaux reserves exclusivement aux abonnes du pass musees.
Les meilleurs conseils en matiere de musees.
Tous les quinze jours, vous recevez dans votre boite mail des informations sur les expositions a ne pas manquer et les plus belles decouvertes a faire dans les musees.
"But to all these duties, more especially to that fruitful Consecration which was in a manner confirmed by the sacred solemnity of Christ the King, something else must needs be added, and it is concerning this that it is our pleasure to speak with you more at length, Venerable Brethren, on the present occasion: we mean that duty of honorable satisfaction or reparation which must be rendered to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For if the first and foremost thing in Consecration is this, that the creature's love should be given in return for the love of the Creator, another thing follows from this at once, namely that to the same uncreated Love, if so be it has been neglected by forgetfulness or violated by offense, some sort of compensation must be rendered for the injury, and this debt is commonly called by the name of reparation...
Wherefore, even as consecration proclaims and confirms this union with Christ, so does expiation begin that same union by washing away faults, and perfect it by participating in the sufferings of Christ, and consummate it by offering victims for the brethren. And this indeed was the purpose of the merciful Jesus, when He showed His Heart to us bearing about it the symbols of the passion and displaying the flames of love, that from the one we might know the infinite malice of sin, and in the other we might admire the infinite charity of Our Redeemer, and so might have a more vehement hatred of sin, and make a more ardent return of love for His love.
And truly the spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus... In order that these faults might be washed away, He then recommended several things to be done, and in particular the following as most pleasing to Himself, namely that men should approach the Altar with this purpose of expiating sin, making what is called a Communion of Reparation,--and that they should likewise make expiatory supplications and prayers, prolonged for a whole hour,--which is rightly called the "Holy Hour." These pious exercises have been approved by the Church and have also been enriched with copious indulgences."
– from Pope Pius XI, 'Miserentissimus Redemptor' (On Reparation to the Sacred Heart).
This statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus stands in the esplanade in front of the Basilica of the Holy Rosary in Fatima. The monument was installed during the pontificate of Pope Pius XI whose heraldic arms are just beneath the statue.
June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Gurung Village in Nepal, 1973-74
Black and White Photos
Field Work for - Tod Ragsdale. 1989. Once a Hermit Kingdom: Ethnicity, Education and National Integration in Nepal. Delhi: Manohar
ⓒTod Anthony Ragsdale ... All Rights Reserved. Please do not copy or reproduce, in any manner, without prior permission
Vision conceived as "transparency" is the Buddhist ideal: "as one sees through clear water, the sand, the gravel, and the color of the pebbles, simply by reason of its transparency, so one who
seeks the path of liberation must have just such a clear mind."
The image that illustrates the manner in which an ascetic apprehends the four truths of the Ariya is this: "If at the edge of an alpine lake of clear, transparent and pure water there were to stand a man with keen sight looking at the shells and shellfish, the gravel and the sand and the fish, watching how they swim and how they rest; this thought would come to him: 'This alpine lake is clear, transparent, and pure; I see the shells and shellfish, the gravel, the sand and the fish, how they swim and rest'”.
In this same manner an ascetic apprehends "in conformity with truth" the supreme object of the doctrine. The formula "in conformity with truth" or "with reality" is a recurrent theme in the texts, like the attributes, "eye of the world", or "become eye", or "become knowledge", of the Awakened Ones.
This is naturally an achievement only through a gradual process. "As an ocean deepens gradually, declines gradually, shelves gradually without sudden precipices, so in this law and discipline there is a gradual training, a gradual action, a gradual unfolding, and no sudden apprehension of supreme knowledge."
Again: "One cannot, I say, attain supreme knowledge all at once; only by a gradual training, a gradual action, a gradual unfolding, does one attain perfect knowledge. In what manner? A man comes, moved by confidence; having come, he joins (the order of the Ariya); having joined, he listens; listening, he receives the doctrine; having received the doctrine, he remembers it; he examines the sense of the things remembered; from examining the sense, the things are approved of; having approved, desire is born; he ponders; pondering, he eagerly trains himself; and eagerly training himself, he mentally realizes the highest truth itself and, penetrating it by means of wisdom, he sees." These are the milestones of the development.
It is hardly worth saying that the placing of "confidence" at the beginning of the series does not signify a falling back into "belief": in the first place, the texts always consider that confidence is prompted by the inspiring stature and the example of a master; in the second place, as we can see clearly from the development of the series, it is a matter of a provisional admission only; the real adherence comes when, with examination and practice, the faculty of direct apprehension, of intellectual intuition, absolutely independent of its antecedents, has become possible.
Therefore it is said: "He who cannot strenuously train himself, cannot achieve truth; through strenuous training (an ascetic) achieves truth: therefore strenuous training is the most important thing for the achieving of truth."
Naturally, there is here an implicit assumption, which we shall discuss before long in detail, an assumption, that is to say, that the men to whom the doctrine was directed were not entirely in the state of brute beasts: that they recognised, not as an intellectual opinion, but through a natural and innate sense, the existence of a reality superior to that of the senses. For the "common man," one who thinks in his heart: "There is no giving, no offering, no alms, there is no result of good and bad actions, there is no this world, there, is no other world, there is no spiritual rebirth, there are not in the world ascetics or Brāhmans who are perfect and fulfilled and who, having with their own understanding comprehended, and realised this world and the other world, make known their
knowledge" - for such the doctrine was not considered to have been expounded, since they lack the elementary quality of "confidence" that defines the "noble son" and that is the first member of the series we have mentioned.
Such men, according to an apt textual illustration, are as "arrows shot by night”.
As for the preeminence accorded (in a pragmatic and anti-intellectualistic spirit) to action in the Doctrine of Awakening, we quote another Buddhist simile. A man struck by a poisoned arrow, for whom his friends and companions wish to fetch a surgeon, refuses to have the arrow extracted before learning who struck him, what his name might he, who his people are, what his appearance, if his bow was great or small, of what wood it was made, with what it was strung, and so on. This man would not succeed in learning enough to satisfy him before he died. Just so (says the text) would a man behave who followed the Sublime One only on the condition that the latter gave him answers to various speculative problems, telling him if the world was eternal or not, if body and the life-principle are distinct or not, what happens to the Accomplished One after death, and so on. None of this—says the Buddha—has been explained by me. "And why has it not been explained by me? Because this is not salutary, it is not truly ascetic, it does not lead to disgust, it does not lead to detachment, it does not lead to dispassion, it does not lead to calmness, it does not lead to contemplation, it does not lead to awakening, it does not lead to extinction: therefore has this not been explained by me”.
In the opposing theories regarding the world and regarding man, characteristically reminiscent of the Kantian antinomies, either one opposite or the other might he true. One thing is certain, however: the state in which man actually finds himself, and the possibility of his training himself, during his lifetime, to achieve the destruction of this state.
----
Julius Evola: The Doctrine of Awakening - Part I., Chapter 4. - Destruction of the Demon of Dialectics (excerpt)
Twenty years later life was still largely similar for Richard. His children grew up and we’re out of the house participating in their own manner of business. However, he still lived in the same house with his wife Elizabeth who admittedly was beginning to look older than her husband. During this time Richard Swift kept the Shade, his nickname for his powers, relatively hidden and under control. Although he had heard tales of heroic gunslingers with powers in America going by the name of Cowboy and Cowgirl which tempted him to use his powers. Though out of fear he kept them hidden from his family. Richard kept on the same career path as well. In fact, he was currently on a boat heading back to England from Africa with his associate who found him in his warehouse all those years ago.
Richard looked about the ship and watched his hired hands work similarly to ants. He then looked forward to the bow of the ship and noticed his associate holding his daughter in his arms. Seeing his long-time friend with a family of his own made him miss his. Yes, he still, of course, had Elizabeth but he would never forget his years with them. He walked over to the bow and stood behind him. “How’s your family doing?” he asked. His associate turned around to face his long-time boss wearing a black coat with his hand perched upon his ebony cane.
“Ah well...my wife’s relatives back in Spain...aren’t doing so hot. You know the political climate as well as I do. My parents back home are good though but my father is getting on in his age...why do you ask?”
“Seeing you with your daughter reminds me of better times. Just reminiscing made me curious I suppose.” His associate laughed in response.
“Are these not better times?” he asked gesturing to the empty ocean surrounding them. He then looked back to Richard and noticed the fatigue in his eyes. “You look tired Swift.”
“Nonsense...just my old age catching up with me is all,” Richard replied with a chuckle
“You look no older than you did when I met you years ago.”
“You’re too kind.”
“Well then ‘old man’. Why don’t you get some rest? I assure you we’ll make it back to port by tomorrow morning.”
“I’ll be holding you to that,” Richard said as he went below deck to his cabin. As he walked to his bed his jacket and cane floated off of his body. He laid down and slowly drifted off into sleep.
He woke hours later into the night with the sound of a crash. He jumped out of his bed and outstretched his hand which caused his cane to fly into his hand. He rushed out into the hall just as a crewmember tumbled down the stairs. He ran to their aid but to no avail. They were dead with a large wound on their chest. Their clothing increasingly getting more red around the entrance of the wound. Richard ran up to the main deck to see several corpses in pools of blood. The only men he saw were pale with hair color varying from black to pure red. They stood holding various rifles, pistols, and rapiers. They paid no attention to Richard as they looked to be what seemed their leader holding the daughter of his associate. The leader raised the girl and bit into her neck finally satisfying their bitter hunger. “No!” Richard yelled with an outstretched hand. The figures turned in response, blood dripping from their mouths. Some hissed and exposed fangs. A tendril shot out from Richard’s hand and penetrated the leader’s torso. The tendril caught the girl and Richard pulled her back towards him holding her tight. He hid her face against the men hoping she would not see the onslaught he was about to occur. He began to tremble with rage and his pupils became fully dilated overtaking his grey irises almost fully. The starry night sky became pitch black and the ocean turned purple. His appearance shifted to an almost demonic state and when he spoke his voice was shrill.
“Hello, gentleman...welcome to The Shadowlands,” he spoke instinctively. “You are all going to pay for what you have done tonight.” They only hissed in response and before they could even fully respond black skeletal beings erupt from below deck with piercing lime green eyes. They began to tear the men apart. The sounds of screams, gunshots, and the tearing of flesh took over the deck. Once the carnage had stopped and the shadow creatures had dragged their victims into the purple water, Richard once again instinctively held out his hand and a vortex opened. The ship sailed through leaving a large red stain in the purple ocean and is transported to a port in London. The very port he had set sail from months ago. His body stopped trembling as the stars replaced the darkness and the water returned to its original coloring. He looked down at the girl in his arms. Her once brunette hair was now crimson red and she was extremely pale. “I am so sorry for what has happened...I am...so sorry,” he managed to say as the little girl began to sob.
*
Nostalgia City. Here is a scan of a 110 negative of me in the tender year of 1986 courtesy of lifelong friend Hans Manner-Jakobsen, behind the wheel of my cool 1966 Dodge Coronet (not a Rambler Classic, as previously reported) heading North on the 101 from Pasadena to Santa Barbara (driving had to be done with windows rolled down as exhaust leaked through the manifold).
Made inspired by this story by Ernie Pyle-
We ran to the wrecked British plane, lying there upside down, and dropped on our hands and knees and peeked through a tiny hole in the side.
A man lay on his back in the small space of the upside-down cockpit. His feet disappeared somewhere in the jumble of dials and rubber pedals above him. His shirt was open and his chest was bare to the waist. He was smoking a cigarette.
He turned his eyes toward me when I peeked in, and he said in a typical British manner of offhand friendliness, “Oh, hello.”
“Are you all right,” I asked stupidly.
He answered, “Yes, quite. Now that you chaps are here.”
I asked him long he had been trapped in the wrecked plane. He said he didn’t know for sure as he had got mixed up about the passage of time. But he did know the date of the month he was shot down. He told me the date. And I said out loud, “Good God!”
For, wounded and trapped, he had been lying there for eight days!
His left leg was broken and punctured by an ack-ack burst. His back was terribly burned by raw gasoline that had spilled. The foot of his injured leg was pinned rigidly under the rudder bar.
His space was so small he couldn’t squirm around to relieve his own weight from his paining back. He couldn’t straighten out his legs, which were bent above him. He couldn’t see out of his little prison. He had not had a bite to eat or a drop of water. All this for eight days and nights.
Yet when we found him, his physical condition was strong, and his mind was as calm and rational as though he were sitting in a London club. He was in agony, yet in his correct Oxford accent he even apologized for taking up our time to get him out.
The American soldiers of our rescue party cussed as they worked, cussed with open admiration for this British flier’s greatness of heart which had kept him alive and sane through his lonely and gradually hope-dimming ordeal. One of them said, “These Limies have got guts!”
It took us almost an hour to get him out. We don’t know whether he will live or not, but he has a chance. During the hour we were ripping the plane open to make a hole, he talked to us. And here, in the best nutshell I can devise from the conversation of a brave man whom you didn’t want to badger with trivial questions, is what happened—
He was an RAF flight lieutenant, piloting a night fighter. Over a certain area the Germans began letting him have it from the ground with machine-gun fire.
The first hit knocked out his motor. He was too low to jump, so—foolishly, he said—he turned on his lights to try a crash landing. Then they really poured it on him. The second hit got him in the leg. And a third bullet cut right across the balls of his right-hand forefingers, clipping every one of them to the bone.
He left his wheels up, and the plane’s belly hit the ground going uphill on a slight slope. We could see the groove it had dug for about 50 yards. Then it flopped, tail over nose, onto its back. The pilot was absolutely sealed into the upside-down cockpit.
“That’s all I remember for a while,” he told us. “When I came to, they were shelling all around me.”
Thus began the eight days. He had crashed right between the Germans and Americans in a sort of pastoral no man’s land.
For days afterwards the field in which he lay surged back and forth between German hands and ours.
His pasture was pocked with hundreds of shell craters. Many of them were only yards away. One was right at the end of his wing. The metal sides of the plane were speckled with hundreds of shrapnel holes.
He lay there, trapped in the midst of this inferno of explosions. The fields around him gradually became littered with dead. At last American strength pushed the Germans back, and silence came. But no help. Because, you see, it was in that vacuum behind the battle, and only a few people were left.
The days passed. He thirsted terribly. He slept some; part of the time he was unconscious; part of the time he undoubtedly was delirious. But he never gave up hope.
After we had finally got him out, he said as he lay on the stretcher under a wing, “Is it possible that I’ve been out of this plane since I crashed?”
Everybody chuckled. The doctor who had arrived said, “Not the remotest possibility. You were sealed in there and it took men with tools half an hour to make an opening. And your leg was broken and your foot was pinned there. No, you haven’t been out.”
“I didn’t think it was possible,” the pilot said, “and yet it seems in my mind that I was out once and back in again.”
That little memory of delirium was the only word said by that remarkable man in the whole hour of his rescue that wasn’t as dispassionate and matter-of-fact as though he had been sitting comfortably at the end of the day in front of his own fireplace.