View allAll Photos Tagged Probability
Monsoons are prime time for photographing landscapes. The thing is one cannot go out and shoot daily due to other responsibilities. I have a way of guessing the probability of having a glorious colorful sunset and it always works like a charm.
I keep an eye on the skies during late afternoons. If I see the small puffy Alto-Cumulus or thin wispy Cirrus clouds, I will surely pickup my camera kit and tripod and make a beeline for a picturesque water body. These clouds although might look white and gray during the daytime, glow a vibrant pink first, shift to fiery crimson and finally a blood red.
The key is patience. Sit tight for few minutes post sunset. The sky actually goes a disappointing dull gray for a while post sunset. Then the fireworks begin and lasts for just a few minutes.
Take various exposures. Thank the skies. Thank me too if you are a kind soul! 🙏😅
#incredibleindia #suratcity #suratblogger #travelblogger #gujarattourism #gujarattravel #cityscapes #bbctravel #goldenhourphotography #landscapeslovers
NASA's Kepler mission has verified 1,284 new planets – the single largest finding of planets to date.
“This announcement more than doubles the number of confirmed planets from Kepler,” said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This gives us hope that somewhere out there, around a star much like ours, we can eventually discover another Earth.”
Analysis was performed on the Kepler space telescope’s July 2015 planet candidate catalog, which identified 4,302 potential planets. For 1,284 of the candidates, the probability of being a planet is greater than 99 percent – the minimum required to earn the status of “planet.” An additional 1,327 candidates are more likely than not to be actual planets, but they do not meet the 99 percent threshold and will require additional study. The remaining 707 are more likely to be some other astrophysical phenomena. This analysis also validated 984 candidates previously verified by other techniques.
For more information, click here.
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights, click here.
See my albums list for some of my best work: www.flickr.com/photos/200044612@N04/albums/
See my main account for my photography, videos, fractal images and more here: www.flickr.com/photos/josh-rokman/
Made with Image Creator from Microsoft Designer, formerly known as the Bing Image Creator. Powered by DALL·E 3.
I think that AI image generation is similar in many ways to photography. The camera itself handles all the fine details, but the photographer is in charge of curating the types of images that will be created.
Ultimately, it is all about maximizing the probability that something good will be created.
This is very similar to AI image generation, in terms of the skills involved and what the human does vs. what the machine does.
You can't compare AI image generation to the process of actually making these images from scratch with 3D software or paint/pencils, where the human controls every detail.
However, I think the process really is very similar to that of photography, as I made the case for above. I think that DALL-E 3 is by far the most powerful AI image generation tool currently available.
- Josh
Brought on by the sun.
Today's a bit difficult. As usual however, I'd push on right through it like Domino's probability advantage. The unit that I am usually not assigned to is what I'm working right now. Not difficult; but not easy either. Stil a long way until shut eye. I just need to focus on getting the current situation handled, then it's time for the apocalypse.
1966 Corvette...
On Sunday I attended the the 14th Annual Cruisin' for A Cure Canada;
Something I have been a huge supporter of in the past. The Car Show That Saves Men's Lives, which is held annually at the Powerade center in Brampton.
This is a shot of a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette. It has been completely restored to factory and has 90% OEM original parts with a market value of 100K it is a little out of my price range, but it sure was fun to look at.
Please tell your husbands, fathers, uncles, grandfather brothers and any man you care about to get a PSA test it changes the odds from 5 % survivability to 93%.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind lung cancer. About 1 man in 41 will die of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer can be a fatal disease, but due to early detection most men diagnosed with prostate cancer will not die from it.
74% of prostate cancers are diagnosed early at Stage I and II. The probability of surviving prostate cancer at least five years after diagnosis is about 93% in Canada.
For more information check out the website for the car show.
www.cruisinforacurecanada.com/About.htm
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Hello everyone.
A new item has been added to ACON Plasma UNIT Gacha.
An extra version has been added as a 50,51 ultra-rare.
ULTRARARE 50 :::SOLE::: A-CON Backpack Extra (Black)
ULTRARARE 51 :::SOLE::: A-CON Backpack Extra (White)
And the probability of
ultra-rare has been increased accordingly.
Ultra is 6%.
The full comp package has been discounted by 30%.
This is the only ACON Gacha.
♦In addition, the new 50.51 is included in the full comp package.
It will end randomly for an undetermined period of time.
If you haven't tried it yet, you should give it a try.
The #MacroMondays #Timepieces theme
Physicist Sir Arthur Eddington introduced us to The Arrow of Time. As we look into the future we see a universe which is gradually descending into disorder, expanding and cooling, ultimately to become a scattered collection of particles so far separated within an unimaginably vast nothingness that the probability of them ever again combining to create anything is zilch. That is indeed a depressing forecast of our destiny, but as the process will take about 10 trillion years (around 50x the current age of The Universe) there's no need to cancel your pro subs just yet. Conversely if we look into our past we see greater order. Ultimately we could look back to The Big Bang when The Universe was simple and very highly ordered before its unimaginably rapid expansion an instant later.
HMM all - very deep for a Monday! Sir Arthur illustrates The Second Law of Thermodynamics which holds that entropy increases with time. The entropy of a system refers to the amount of order within it. Low entropy describes a high degree of order. For example, if we conceptually reduce your home, that pile of bricks or whatever, into its constituent atoms we can imagine that only a very few arrangements of those atoms would create your home, meaning that your home is a low entropy system. Similarly a pile of beach sand has a high level of disorder, representing high entropy. A pile of sand is a pile of sand - there are very many ways the grains of sand in a pile may be arranged to create any old pile and one pile of sand is pretty much the same as any other. However, if you put some in a bucket then threw it into the air, you would be very surprised if it landed in the form of a sand castle. But it could, proven by you instead flipping the bucket over in traditional seaside fashion, giving it a tap and carefully removing it, creating your sand castle. The grains therefore can make such a thing and could therefore land in just the right places even if you threw them into the air. But there are far many more configurations that they could take (most of which are unremarkable piles) so while a sand castle magically appearing from a load of airborne sand could theoretically happen, it is a vanishingly improbable event. Functionally speaking, the probability of such an event occurring is zero. If you left a formed sand castle alone, you'd see its entropy increase as it decays into an unremarkable high entropy pile of sand. Ultimately it will become just another part of the even higher entropy beach, demonstrating, during your hard earned summer holiday, a university level physics concept. I've never done a university physics course, he hastily clarifies, but I have done some reading on it.
I should say that it has been fairly pointed out to me that this interpretation does depend on one's world view. This is mine. It's a world view which led to the manufacture of transport options to get to beaches, buckets capable of creating sand castles, cameras, the internet and probes heading to the edges of The Solar System and ultimately beyond on precisely predetermined trajectories calculated using physics, so I think it has some evidence to support it. The background of the photo is the Christian creation story, Genesis 1. That's mine too.
In creating the image, I used a plain yellow background created in Photoshop over which I added a layer of a paving stone to provide texture, reducing its opacity to allow the yellow to colour it. Genesis followed, and finally a photo of a small pocket watch which I vandalised through the wonders of Photoshop, using much tiny deleting, moving and transforming, its parts disappearing into the future as it falls into disorder, following The Arrow of Time.
Using almost 7000 images captured by the Sentinel-2A satellite, this mosaic offers a cloud-free view of the African continent – about 20% of the total land area in the world. The majority of these separate images were taken between December 2015 and April 2016, totalling 32 TB of data. Thanks to Sentinel-2A’s 290 km-wide swath and 10-day revisit at the equator, the chance of imaging Earth’s surface when the skies are clear is relatively high. Nevertheless, being able to capture the Tropics cloud-free over the five months is remarkable.
Presented at the recent Living Planet Symposium in Prague, Czech Republic, this is the first mosaic of Africa generated through ESA’s Climate Change Initiative Land Cover project.
Launched in June 2015, Sentinel-2A carries a novel multispectral imager to provide information that is not only used to map changes in land cover, but is also used to improve agricultural practices, to monitor the world’s forests and to detect pollution in lakes and coastal waters.
Sentinel-2A’s identical twin, Sentinel-2B, is due to be launched in 2017. As a constellation, the two satellites will orbit 180° apart. Along with their wide swaths, this will allow Earth’s main land surfaces, large islands, as well as inland and coastal waters to be covered every five days. This will further improve the probability of gaining a cloud-free look at a particular location.
Credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by Brockmann Consult/ Université catholique de Louvain as part of ESA’s Climate Change Initiative Land Cover project
This is a little clay pipe that I found on the Thames foreshore at Blackfriars recently. The part shown here is about 1.5" long. I haven't been able to find out anything about it or date it, but I think the probability is that it is 19th century, but could be earlier. The face, particularly in profile looks African. The shore is often littered with remnants of clay pipes at low tide, but this is the first decorated one I have come across.
The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah. 31-5-1996.
The Narrows lies at the northern end of the Zion Canyon in Utah. The walls become quite close at certain points and one gets the feeling of a slot canyon. However, the color here is different than the sandstone we are used to seeing in the slots, and then there is the constant flow of the Virgin River. I hiked upstream for about 10 km before making this image. Wading the water in sandals was not always easy because one has to step on rocks and pebbles most of the time. The diagonal flow of the river leads the eye to the diffused light, which is reminiscent of what one hopes to see at the end of a dark tunnel. I bracketed just in case, and all exposures turned out fine. That big chunk of rock represents one of the dangers of being in a canyon, albeit one with an arbitrarily low probability of occurrence.
Please click here for a larger version with proper resizing.
Please click here for more from Zion Canyon.
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Based on a tipper from WR, the kiddos and I caught up with eastbound CSX train Q332 at Highland, IL. Initially, it was to have been a "one and done" based on the probability of UP power leading this train. However, CSX 3100 was too good to pass up and we beat the train to Vandalia for the "passing the tower" shot.
The tower is the former Pennsy "V" Tower, which used to guard the former crossing of the Illinois Central's original "mainline of mid-America." It continues to serve as headquarters for the Vandalia Railroad, owned by Pioneer Rail Corp..
To the left of the train is the former IC depot, which functioned as a restaurant for a time before being gutted by fire twice, in both 2007 and 2010.
I didn’t choose this quote. It was chosen by one of the two groups that featured my (above) image this week. That was a spot on on my feelings & views of life. Love #BrooklynBridge
Maybe it’s just me but after a certain age every little setback feels as a major failure. And then I figure that if we try 1000 times maybe at least once will get something right. The theory of probability just can’t be wrong !
Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus (m)
The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel. In Britain, where no other kestrel species occurs, it is generally just called "the kestrel".
This species occurs over a large range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.
Kestrels can hover in still air, even indoors in barns. Because they face towards any slight wind when hovering, the common kestrel is called a "windhover" in some areas.
Unusual for falcons, plumage often differs between male and female, although as is usual with monogamous raptors the female is slightly larger than the male. This allows a pair to fill different feeding niches over their home range. Kestrels are bold and have adapted well to human encroachment, nesting in buildings and hunting by major roads. Kestrels do not build their own nests, but use nests built by other species.
Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside; the remiges are also blackish. Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having fewer black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail. The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes. All common kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.
The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow; the toenails, bill and iris are dark. Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider; the yellow of their bare parts is paler. Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.
Data from Britain shows nesting pairs bringing up about 2–3 chicks on average, though this includes a considerable rate of total brood failures; actually, few pairs that do manage to fledge offspring raise less than 3 or 4. Compared to their siblings, first-hatched chicks have greater survival and recruitment probability, thought to be due to the first-hatched chicks obtaining a higher body condition when in the nest. Population cycles of prey, particularly voles, have a considerable influence on breeding success. Most common kestrels die before they reach 2 years of age; mortality up until the first birthday may be as high as 70%. At least females generally breed at one year of age; possibly, some males take a year longer to maturity as they do in related species. The biological lifespan to death from senescence can be 16 years or more, however; one was recorded to have lived almost 24 years.
Population:
UK breeding:
46,000 pairs
What if ? / Et si ? - by Daniel Knipper, one of the shows from the 14th edition of the Festival of Lights / Fête des Lumières - 2012 - Lyon, France.
Like a succession of probabilities, huge coloured drawings inspired notably by the works of Joan Miro, Picasso or Mondrian, pass across the majestic scene comprising (from up to down and left to right) the Fourvière basilica, the chevet of the Cathédrale Saint-Jean and the façade of the Palais de Justice.
What if the quays of the Saône became an art exhibition? And what if it featured fish? And what if the fish belonged to the era of our ancestors ? And what if the pictures were transformed into caves with cave paintings in the open air? And if the sky were full of stars?
The Grand Teton Meteor was an Earth-grazing fireball that passed within 57 kilometres (35 mi; 187,000 ft) of Earth's surface at 20:29 UTC on August 10, 1972. It entered Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 15 kilometres per second (9.3 mi/s) in daylight over Utah, United States (14:30 local time) and passed northwards leaving the atmosphere over Alberta, Canada. It was seen by many people and recorded on film and by space-borne sensors. An eyewitness to the event, located in Missoula, Montana, saw the object pass directly overhead and heard a double sonic boom. The smoke trail lingered in the atmosphere for several minutes. He was with his wife Mildred on the way to the County Auction.
The atmospheric pass modified the object's mass as well as its orbit around the Sun, but it is probably still in an Earth-crossing orbit and is thought to have passed close to Earth again in August 1997. However IAU's website states that these "suggestions have not been substantiated". The prediction of a close passage in 1997 was based on the suggestion by Zdeněk Ceplecha of a post-1972 orbital resonance of about 25 years. If true, the next encounter would be on or near August 14, 2022, albeit with "vanishingly small, but not zero" probability.
Flasks and escort coach to Devonport Royal Dockyard, for nuclear submarine servicing. At date of posting I don't think the flasks have come back, and if I knew the date I couldn't tell you! Escort coaches (ie armed guards) are only used when high grade nuclear material, eg spent fuel, is being carried. Though in all probability the flasks were empty on the run down and will be full on return.
after decades of watching the benford probabilities for sixes and nines slowly and almost imperceptively skew towards zero, agent affords had finally found the culprit.
a flower so dense that not a single six or nine could escape, which naturally and inevitably results in a numerical singularity of sorts. [ view large ]
I deleted a similar previous photo of these falls because I think this one is better.
Babcock Falls is a really special little waterfall. The hike from the parking lot is relatively easy, level and short. This is a pretty waterfall in the summer and you can take a dip in the pool on a hot day. In the winter, this is a favorite for the ice climbers.
There are two things I don't like about the hike in, though. This hike has one of the highest probabilities of meeting up with a grizzly bear. One time, my son and I walked over fresh, steaming, grizzly bear scat right on the path. What do you do when you are 1 km into a hike, with 500 m to the falls. Well, you continue and just make a lot of noise. The ants go marching and bottles of beer on the wall are two favorites for this hike.
The second thing I don't like about this hike is right at the end of the trail, to get to this viewpoint, you have to scramble over some rocks and squeeze through an opening between large boulders and the drop off on your left is rather frightening if you look. Most hikers would laugh but I don't like that spot.
A trip to West Bay this morning where until lunchtime it was rather cloudy. Time for some black and white photography.
Whilst walking along the sea front we bumped into John who coincidentally was spending a few days in Dorset.
It’s amazing how often these chance encounters occur and yet is it? Research suggests it depends upon how you think about the issue. Before the encounter, if you sat down and calculated the probability that you would see X Person on some random street in Y Town at some specific time, the odds would be extremely small. However, the odds that you will see someone you know, at some point, in some random city, are much larger. When you see X in Y, your brain naturally jumps to the former method and you think the chances are, say, 1:10,000,000. This is the wrong way of looking at it. The chance of seeing one particular person you know in a certain city may be 1:10,000,000, but if you know a lot of people, and you visit a lot of cities, then the probability that, at some point in your life, you see a friend in a random city is much higher than 1:10,000,000.
Intending to return to this spot this morning, I startled a grizzly bear about 40 feet in front of me. He bolted way at high speed, crashing through brush as he went. Standing still and making noise for a while, figuring that he had probably wandered off after the encounter, I suddenly noticed him staring at me looking very agitated, in about the same point that he had bolted from! This highly aggressive bahavior is in sharp contrast with what I've observed from black bears (even our bears in California are relatively laid back). The grizzly was clearly pissed off, making a loud huffing noise and made lunges into the bush in front of him, clawing at it with his giant paws. He probably thought as I moved downhill swiftly towards him that I was charging him, and although his "fight or flight" instinct initially told him to run, he had clearly chosen to come back for some "fight" once I started making noise and he figured out what I was.
I figured the bear could close the distance between us in 3 seconds or less. I could either retreat inmmediately or turn on my camera on (unfortunately with a wide angle lens on), get it out of 10 second timer mode, and capture a few frames (possibly the last of my life). Choices are rarely so easy. I assured the bear that yes, it was his huckleberry bush, backing up. I don't remember actually getting back up the hill, but I know that I was careful not to run, and an instant later I was most of the way back up. I warned the half dozen photographers at the top of the hill that they had an agitated bear 50 yards downhill.
When I reachded the Locan Pass ranger station I filed a bear encounter report. Several rangers told me over the next 24 hours that I was very lucky not to get attacked. I read a book "Bear Attacks" the following morning and the huffing noise is the second most common thing grizzlies do right before they attack. Growling is reported by slightly more survivors of grizzly attacks. Loud vocal noises by people are interpreted as highly aggressive behavior and can trigger an attack. My yelling up to the other photographers at the top of the hill to warn them about the bear and my whistling loudly may have been what brought him back (interpreted as a challenge). If I had happened upon a female and cubs (like the ones I saw this morning), there's a high probability that I would have been instantly charged and the females are much less likely to end a charge as a "bluff" attack.
Always wear bear bells in grizzly country!
Busy Worming!
Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus (m)
The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel. In Britain, where no other kestrel species occurs, it is generally just called "the kestrel".
This species occurs over a large range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.
Kestrels can hover in still air, even indoors in barns. Because they face towards any slight wind when hovering, the common kestrel is called a "windhover" in some areas.
Unusual for falcons, plumage often differs between male and female, although as is usual with monogamous raptors the female is slightly larger than the male. This allows a pair to fill different feeding niches over their home range. Kestrels are bold and have adapted well to human encroachment, nesting in buildings and hunting by major roads. Kestrels do not build their own nests, but use nests built by other species.
Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside; the remiges are also blackish. Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having fewer black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail. The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes. All common kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.
The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow; the toenails, bill and iris are dark. Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider; the yellow of their bare parts is paler. Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.
Data from Britain shows nesting pairs bringing up about 2–3 chicks on average, though this includes a considerable rate of total brood failures; actually, few pairs that do manage to fledge offspring raise less than 3 or 4. Compared to their siblings, first-hatched chicks have greater survival and recruitment probability, thought to be due to the first-hatched chicks obtaining a higher body condition when in the nest. Population cycles of prey, particularly voles, have a considerable influence on breeding success. Most common kestrels die before they reach 2 years of age; mortality up until the first birthday may be as high as 70%. At least females generally breed at one year of age; possibly, some males take a year longer to maturity as they do in related species. The biological lifespan to death from senescence can be 16 years or more, however; one was recorded to have lived almost 24 years.
Population:
UK breeding:
46,000 pairs
Family group, taken earlier this week at Ballinasloe horse fair. In all probability being there was keeping up a family tradition that could well go back several generations. Traditionally Irish traveller families have attended this fair, not only to buy and sell horses, but also, to socialise with fellow travellers from all over the country.
When animals are faced with extraordinary energy-consuming events, like hibernation, finding abundant, energy-rich food resources becomes particularly important. The profitability of food resources can vary spatially, depending on occurrence, quality, and local abundance. Here, we used the brown bear as a model species to quantify selective foraging on berries in different habitats during hyperphagia in autumn prior to hibernation. During the peak berry season in August and September, we sampled berry occurrence, abundance, and sugar content, a proxy for quality, at locations selected by bears for foraging and at random locations in the landscape. The factors determining selection of berries were species specific across the different habitats. Compared to random locations, bears selected locations with a higher probability of occurrence and higher abundance of bilberries and a higher probability of occurrence, but not abundance, of lingonberries. Crowberries were least available and least used. Sugar content affected the selection of lingonberries, but not of bilberries. Abundance of bilberries at random locations decreased and abundance of lingonberries increased during fall, but bears did not adjust their foraging strategy by increasing selection for lingonberries. Forestry practices had a large effect on berry occurrence and abundance, and brown bears responded by foraging most selectively in mature forests and on clear cuts. This study shows that bears are successful in navigating human-shaped forest landscapes by using areas of higher than average berry abundance in a period when abundant food intake is particularly important to increase body mass prior to hibernation.
12540 Lucknow-Yesvantpur Express skips Baiyyappanahalli with Howrah WAP-4 22291 which is in all probability an offlink, since the closest the train gets to Howrah is Allahabad!
Alien Art
Please zoom in to see details!
Some thoughts...
We have billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy (our galaxy), likely over 100 billions. In our solar system, there are eight planets and five dwarf planets. Each of them is very different. Saturn looks very beautiful with its rings so that we can expect some planets are very beautiful in our universe.
Some of them might harbour aliens. When we look at the elements of the periodic table, there are a limited number of elements. When we look at the number of planets in our universe, it will show almost an unlimited number. It is logical to conclude that the limited number of the elements can easily come together on some of the planets to create chemical reactions. Not all the elements of the periodic table take part to create a life form, participating just a few elements.
There is a very high probability that the needed elements (just a limited number) could come together to build a life form on some of the planets (almost an unlimited number). If the number of the needed elements were very high and the number of planets very low, we would say that it would be not possible these elements come together again to form a life form as they did before to create us.
The first 94 elements of the periodic table are found in the nature. There are 119 elements on the table. The building blocks of life are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur. These elements are common in the universe.
Well, there is a very high probability that the aliens exist. Why don’t we see them? One answer would be that we are not enough developed, we can't control our feelings and emotions and kill each other. If they can come to us, it might mean that they are very advanced in compare to us, and they should be smart enough not to land on earth.
If you want, you can look at the beautiful pictures in the group Very Arty. www.flickr.com/groups/14847479@N25/
Found myself yesterday playing that optical illusion game while riding in a pickup truck. The one where you look forward and it feels as if you're going 20 mph, then look directly out the side window and it looks like 200 mph. The landscape hurtles past in a dizzying bur. The effect is enhanced on narrow country roads where you can practically reach out and touch whatever it is your driving past. Moving a mile a minute, you can only take in your surroundings in broad strokes: building, tree, corn, etc. It's not possible to scrutinize and absorb details the way I'm accustomed to. I thought about what it would be like to create a freeze frame, to lockup not just the landscape, but how it looked at the exact moment of my passage, the light, the shadow, the way the wind was blowing the leaves, the shape of clouds...every single detail, not simply preserved, but all that nuance extracted from a fleeting glimpse. I pulled out the smartphone and began snapping photos expecting the same blur that was greeting my own eyes. Instead I captured a series of mostly sharply focused stills with an eerie sort of quality, fueled in part knowing how they were captured. In reality I saw this scene as I passed, but really didn't see it at all. There was a trail-camera feeling not really knowing what would turn up. How cool if I had captured a scarecrow, wild animal, or perhaps a figure lurking between the corn rows. I absolutely love the spontaneity of things like this. I tend to shoot rather deliberately at times, and I found it very exciting to leave the composition up to utter chance. Processing the image as a distressed texture felt to me like taking the idea one step further; I love the concept of lending a painterly quality to the image, as if an old master spent a hours capturing every detail when the underlying image was frozen in a micro second.
T-100 Ogre MBT
--------------------
A high tech medium-heavy tank.
A menacing, destructive heavy weapons platform.
It boasts twin AA 25mm autocannons, ATGM, and coaxial/turret-top machineguns. Seen from the front, the chassis looks like an Ogre, giving it the name it has.
The ATGM is able to target low flying air targets along with armour.
There are two variants: G and K. G employs a normal 125mm heavy tank cannon, while K is equipped with a lower range, high calibre 148mm gun. Both are capable of supermassive destruction.
As with most UT tanks, it features a three-tier protection system.
The first tier is the composite armour. It consists of basic armour shell with an insert of alternating layers of aluminum and plastics and a controlled deformation section.
The second tier is the Kontakt-5 ERA (explosive reactive armor). It severely reduces the blow from kinetic projectiles. They are in the form of blocks on the turret and body or as ERA plates underneath steel outer covering. It results in much better protection than simple steel armour as featured on many other non-UT tanks.
The third tier is a Shtora countermeasures suite. This system includes two IR "dazzlers" on the front of the turret in the shape of blocks, four Laser warning receivers, two 3D6 aerosol grenade discharging systems and a computerized control system. The Shtora-1 warns the tank's crew when the tank has been 'painted' by a weapon-guidance laser and automatically activates the aerosol grenade launchers, effectively jamming the incoming missile. The aerosol grenades are used to mask the tank from laser rangefinders and designators as well as the optics of other weapons systems.
For passive guidance rocket systems, IR dazzlers create a blinding field of infrared light, "blinding" the rocket as it's IR isn't visible anymore.
The Arena active countermeasures suite consist of a computer, incoming projectile warning sensors, and shrapnel launchers all around the tank hull. It detects an incoming projectile, and sends out a stream of shrapnel to meet the incoming projectile. It destroys the projectile while leaving the armour intact.
Powered by a hybrid diesel/electric engine. Fast, has good suspension, and is able to submerge completely into water without leaks. Employs an autoloader.
It has it's own air search radar, allowing it to use autocannons by themselves without external assistance. Range up to 3 kilometer radius.
The tanks are also fitted with nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) protection equipment. It includes a mine disabling kit. The EMT-7 electromagnetic-counter mine system is installed: the EMT-7 emits an electromagnetic pulse to disable magnetic mines and disrupt electronics before the tank reaches them. The Nakidka signature reduction suite is also equipped. Nakidka is designed to reduce the probabilities of an object to be detected by Infrared, Thermal, Radar-Thermal, and Radar bands.
A mineplow is attached to the front of the tank, making sure mines aren't a problem.
All tanks are installed with night vision and infrared cameras, with direct feed into screens inside the tank.
The tank fires anti-tank rounds with tungsten cores.
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Cost: 6,000 GC Credits (7,200 GC Credits - Tier 1)
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Inspiration from Endwar. Spetsnaz Brigade T-100 Ogre Main Battle Tank.
A hand painted memorial for people killed in motorcycle accidents. There are stickers on it that say Ride in Paradise. This would imply that there are motorcycles in the afterlife.
I come across death markers occasionally. This one is elaborate, most are simple. Flowers. Pictures. Crosses.
All involve vehicles which isn't surprising as I'm on the street.
It's a shitstorm of carnage on the street. I'm very wary of cars. There is a high probability I will be killed by a vehicle. The same probably applies to you.
IMGP9611
The Black Swan Theory or "Theory of Black Swan Events" was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain: 1) the disproportionate role of high-impact, hard to predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance and technology, 2) the non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to their very nature of small probabilities) and 3) the psychological biases that make people individually and collectively blind to uncertainty and unaware of the massive role of the rare event in historical affairs. Unlike the earlier philosophical "black swan problem", the "Black Swan Theory" (capitalized) refers only to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence and their dominant role in history. Such events, considered extreme outliers, collectively play vastly larger roles than regular occurrences.
This creation is a tribute to Julian Assange from Wikileaks. Activist, Fighter for the Truth, warrior against the establishment. He is the Black Swan.
Julian Assange has placed a small encrypted file entitled Insurance History on the Swedish Server of Pirate Bay (specialist in the illegal download of music and film music). On Twitter, he recommends that his followers download the file and await his instructions…
NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has returned the best color and the highest resolution images yet of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon – and these pictures show a surprisingly complex and violent history.
At half the diameter of Pluto, Charon is the largest satellite relative to its planet in the solar system. Many New Horizons scientists expected Charon to be a monotonous, crater-battered world; instead, they’re finding a landscape covered with mountains, canyons, landslides, surface-color variations and more.
“We thought the probability of seeing such interesting features on this satellite of a world at the far edge of our solar system was low,” said Ross Beyer, an affiliate of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team from the SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, “but I couldn't be more delighted with what we see."
High-resolution images of the Pluto-facing hemisphere of Charon, taken by New Horizons as the spacecraft sped through the Pluto system on July 14 and transmitted to Earth on Sept. 21, reveal details of a belt of fractures and canyons just north of the moon’s equator. This great canyon system stretches more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) across the entire face of Charon and likely around onto Charon’s far side. Four times as long as the Grand Canyon, and twice as deep in places, these faults and canyons indicate a titanic geological upheaval in Charon’s past.
“It looks like the entire crust of Charon has been split open,” said John Spencer, deputy lead for GGI at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “With respect to its size relative to Charon, this feature is much like the vast Valles Marineris canyon system on Mars.”
The team has also discovered that the plains south of the Charon’s canyon -- informally referred to as Vulcan Planum -- have fewer large craters than the regions to the north, indicating that they are noticeably younger. The smoothness of the plains, as well as their grooves and faint ridges, are clear signs of wide-scale resurfacing.
One possibility for the smooth surface is a kind of cold volcanic activity, called cryovolcanism. “The team is discussing the possibility that an internal water ocean could have frozen long ago, and the resulting volume change could have led to Charon cracking open, allowing water-based lavas to reach the surface at that time,” said Paul Schenk, a New Horizons team member from the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.
Image Credit: NASA
________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
PMP-PT - Bronnevaya Machina Pehoti - Protevo Tankaya (IFV-AT)
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A light tank with transport ability.
Designed to replace the very old, never used Zverh transport.
It is armed with a 50mm main cannon, twin side mounted 20mm AA/Anti-personnel autocannons, ATGM, and a coaxial MG. Also, it has it's own air search radar, so the tank can venture on it's own and still use it's autocannons accurately up to a 3 kilometer radius.
It's ATGM is effective up to 1 km, and is used on both enemy armoured vehicles and low flying targets such as helicopters.
As with most UT tanks, it features a three-tier protection system.
The first tier is the composite armour. It consists of basic armour shell with an insert of alternating layers of aluminum and plastics and a controlled deformation section.
The second tier is the Kontakt-5 ERA (explosive reactive armor). It severely reduces the blow from kinetic projectiles. They are in the form of blocks on the turret and body or as ERA plates underneath steel outer covering. It results in much better protection than simple steel armour as featured on many other non-UT tanks.
The third tier is a Shtora countermeasures suite. This system includes two IR "dazzlers" on the front of the turret in the shape of blocks, four Laser warning receivers, two 3D6 aerosol grenade discharging systems and a computerized control system. The Shtora-1 warns the tank's crew when the tank has been 'painted' by a weapon-guidance laser and automatically activates the aerosol grenade launchers, effectively jamming the incoming missile. The aerosol grenades are used to mask the tank from laser rangefinders and designators as well as the optics of other weapons systems.
For passive guidance rocket systems, IR dazzlers create a blinding field of infrared light, "blinding" the rocket as it's IR isn't visible anymore.
The Arena active countermeasures suite consist of a computer, incoming projectile warning sensors, and shrapnel launchers all around the tank hull. It detects an incoming projectile, and sends out a stream of shrapnel to meet the incoming projectile. It destroys the projectile while leaving the armour intact.
Powered by a hybrid diesel/electric engine. Fast, has good suspension, and is able to submerge completely into water without leaks.
The tanks are also fitted with nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) protection equipment. It includes a mine disabling kit. The EMT-7 electromagnetic-counter mine system is installed: the EMT-7 emits an electromagnetic pulse to disable magnetic mines and disrupt electronics before the tank reaches them. The Nakidka signature reduction suite is also equipped. Nakidka is designed to reduce the probabilities of an object to be detected by Infrared, Thermal, Radar-Thermal, and Radar bands.
All tanks are installed with night vision and infrared cameras, with direct feed into screens inside the tank.
--------------------
Cost: 4,000 GC Credits
As every intelligent person knows, Pop Art accounts for three distinct periods.
1. Starving Time. The interesting and fruitful period when a young but already genial artist makes his or her first paintings - the gratest masterpieces of all time. Everything is good but no money to buy some food.
2. Soup Era. This is when a young but already genial artist sells his first piece of great art, or robs a bank (I'm not sure which event has a greater mathematical probability), or just borrows some bucks from a mediocre and worthless person and buys some cans of soup. Of course, the artist documents such a great and rare event (of having canned soup). Many hungry artists follows the father-founder of Pop Art and document their food, drinks, whatever eatable, and personal effects too.
3. After The Lunch. A sated, full-bellied artist doesn't need soup cans for the time being, so he entertains himself right after the lunch, for instance, the way this photo shows. Finally the artist becomes, out of the blue, famous. He has a lot of social commitments now, so he has no free time to make good art. But he is rich now, and that is the Happy End of the story. I wonder if this photo can repeat the success of the artist? What do you think? Feel free to express your opinion in comments.
"I saw it first!"
Familiar words to pass across a child's lips when the gaze falls to some intriguing artifact discovered during one's meanderings.
Well, on Saturday morning I could say with some confidence I was one of possibly a handful of individuals to first view the sunrise from North American soil. I really want to say that I saw it first. but probability is against me.
However, the fact that I was standing at an elevation of approximately 175 feet at the most easterly point in North America, to say I was the first is not a great stretch.
I can say that on this particular morning this sight was shared with but a handful of individuals and at least two of those were looking for Snowy Owls.
Taken in Leicestershire, I was visiting because a ♂ Common Scoter was seen the day before, I knew it was a longshot has Scoters migrate at night so the probability of it still being there was quite small, but there was a long stay bird that I could spend my time with.
We didn't find the Scoter but the Ring-necked duck was very obliging and the closest that I had seen it.
The light was very variable as you can tell by the differences in the water colour, but a very enjoyable couple of hours.
It's an entrancing morning here in Portland. Pitch black, misty and cold, but crisp and beautiful. It's completely quiet downtown, with only the occasional car going by. I wonder what they're doing up at 4:30am.
As I went out to my car to grab my sweatshirt, I encountered the mist, grinned broadly and went upstairs to grab my tripod and camera. I'd never be able to get this shot during an un-outrageous hour of the morning. Standing on the MAX tracks at any hour with a long exposure just doesn't tend to be a good idea.
The outrageous hour is explained by me having been at work since 9:00am yesterday. With the probability of being here for at least another five hours, taking photos as a break sounded pretty fabulous. I really, really like how this turned out, and it's certainly brightened my morning. :-)
C5A2 "Chernobyl" Mk2 Heavy Tank
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"The Apocalypse Begins With ME!"
The C5A2 "Chernobyl" is a massive beast. It empolys twin heavy calibre cannons and twin AP/AT missile pods, along with a 20mm autocannon and twin ATGMs.
It is extremely heavy and employs a quad track configuration for rough terrain and absolute awesomeness.
It's known to be almost indestructible by ground forces, earning the nickname "Kaschei Besmertniy", a character from a Russian folk tale.
It employs the same armour as any other UT tank, it just has two times more of it.
The first tier is the composite armour. It consists of basic armour shell with an insert of alternating layers of aluminum and plastics and a controlled deformation section.
The second tier is the Kontakt-5 ERA (explosive reactive armor). It severely reduces the blow from kinetic projectiles. They are in the form of blocks on the turret and body or as ERA plates underneath steel outer covering. It results in much better protection than simple steel armour as featured on many other non-UT tanks.
The third tier is a Shtora countermeasures suite. This system includes two IR "dazzlers" on the front/top of the turret in the shape of blocks, four Laser warning receivers, two 3D6 aerosol grenade discharging systems and a computerized control system. The Shtora-1 warns the tank's crew when the tank has been 'painted' by a weapon-guidance laser and automatically activates the aerosol grenade launchers, effectively jamming the incoming missile. The aerosol grenades are used to mask the tank from laser rangefinders and designators as well as the optics of other weapons systems.
For passive guidance rocket systems, IR dazzlers create a blinding field of infrared light, "blinding" the rocket as it's IR isn't visible anymore.
The Arena active countermeasures suite consist of a computer, incoming projectile warning sensors, and shrapnel launchers all around the tank hull. It detects an incoming projectile, and sends out a stream of shrapnel to meet the incoming projectile. It destroys the projectile while leaving the armour intact.
Powered by a hybrid diesel/electric engine. Fast, has good suspension, and is able to submerge completely into water without leaks. Employs an autoloader.
It has it's own air search radar, allowing it to use SAMs standalone. 3 kilometer range.
The tanks are also fitted with nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) protection equipment. It includes a mine disabling kit. The EMT-7 electromagnetic-counter mine system is installed: the EMT-7 emits an electromagnetic pulse to disable magnetic mines and disrupt electronics before the tank reaches them. The Nakidka signature reduction suite is also equipped. Nakidka is designed to reduce the probabilities of an object to be detected by Infrared, Thermal, Radar-Thermal, and Radar bands.
All tanks are installed with night vision and infrared cameras, with direct feed into screens inside the tank.
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GC Cost: 9600 Credits (Tier 1)
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Inspiration from Command and Conquer 1 Mammoth Mk1 Heavy Tank
BTR-90 Bronnetransportyor "Ubiitsa" (Bronnetransportyor - Armoured Transporter) (Ubiitsa - Assassin)
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A heavy APC, with tank features.
It is armed with a 50mm main cannon, twin side mounted 20mm AA/Anti-personnel autocannons, ATGM, and a coaxial MG. Also, it has it's own air search radar, so the tank can venture on it's own and still use it's autocannons accurately up to a 3 kilometer radius.
It's ATGM is effective up to 1 km, and is used on both enemy armoured vehicles and low flying targets such as helicopters.
As with most UT tanks (and some APCs), it features a three-tier protection system.
The first tier is the composite armour. It consists of basic armour shell with an insert of alternating layers of aluminum and plastics and a controlled deformation section.
The second tier is the Kontakt-5 ERA (explosive reactive armor). It severely reduces the blow from kinetic projectiles. They are in the form of blocks on the turret and body or as ERA plates underneath steel outer covering. It results in much better protection than simple steel armour as featured on many other non-UT tanks.
The third tier is a Shtora countermeasures suite. This system includes two IR "dazzlers" on the front of the turret in the shape of blocks, four Laser warning receivers, two 3D6 aerosol grenade discharging systems and a computerized control system. The Shtora-1 warns the tank's crew when the tank has been 'painted' by a weapon-guidance laser and automatically activates the aerosol grenade launchers, effectively jamming the incoming missile. The aerosol grenades are used to mask the tank from laser rangefinders and designators as well as the optics of other weapons systems.
For passive guidance rocket systems, IR dazzlers create a blinding field of infrared light, "blinding" the rocket as it's IR isn't visible anymore.
Powered by a hybrid diesel/electric engine. Fast, has good suspension, and is amphibious. Total speed of 60 km/h on land, 10 km/h in water.
The APCs are also fitted with nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) protection equipment. It includes a mine disabling kit. The EMT-7 electromagnetic-counter mine system is installed: the EMT-7 emits an electromagnetic pulse to disable magnetic mines and disrupt electronics before the tank reaches them. The Nakidka signature reduction suite is also equipped. Nakidka is designed to reduce the probabilities of an object to be detected by Infrared, Thermal, Radar-Thermal, and Radar bands.
All APCs are installed with night vision and infrared cameras, with direct feed into screens inside the APC.
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Cost: 2,000 GC Credits
La Galassia di Andromeda, una grande galassia a spirale barrata che dista circa 2,54 milioni di anni luce dalla Terra, si trova nella costellazione di Andromeda, da cui prende il nome. È una galassia di grandi dimensioni ed è la più vicina alla nostra, la Via Lattea.
La Galassia di Andromeda, con la sua magnitudine apparente pari a +3,4 e la dimensione apparente pari a 190’ + 60’ è visibile anche a occhio nudo ed è tra gli oggetti più lontani visibili senza l'ausilio di strumenti.
Curiosità: La Galassia di Andromeda è in avvicinamento alla Via Lattea alla velocità di circa 400.000 km/h (100–140 km/s). Le due galassie potrebbero così collidere e in quel caso probabilmente si fonderanno dando origine ad una galassia ellittica di grandi proporzioni. Scontri di questo tipo sono frequenti nei gruppi di galassie.
La velocità tangenziale di M31 rispetto alla Via Lattea non è però ben conosciuta, creando così incertezza sul quando la collisione avverrà e sul come essa procederà. Uno studio del 2025 indica che la probabilità di collisione tra le due galassie nei prossimi 10 miliardi sia solo del 50%.
Dati di scatto:
Questa immagine è il risultato dell’integrazione di 25 frames 60" ripresi la notte del 23 Agosto durante l’osservazione pubblica presso il Santuario dedicato a Sant’Ignazio di Loyola situato nel comune di Pessinetto (TO), a 931 metri sul livello del mare. Da notare che non ho avuto modo di fare i Flat.
Telescopio newton GSO 154/600, Camera di ripresa ASI 294 MC Pro con filtro Optolong L-Pro
Telescopio guida 60/240, Camera ASI 120 mini
Montatura Skywatcher HEQ5 Synscan Pro
Acquisizione Asiair Pro, Elaborazione in RGB con Pixinsight.
The Andromeda Galaxy, a large barred spiral galaxy approximately 2.54 million light-years from Earth, is located in the constellation Andromeda, from which it takes its name. It is a large galaxy and the closest to our own, the Milky Way.
The Andromeda Galaxy, with its apparent magnitude of +3.4 and apparent size of 190' + 60', is visible to the naked eye and is among the most distant objects visible without the aid of instruments.
Interesting fact: The Andromeda Galaxy is approaching the Milky Way at a speed of approximately 400,000 km/h (100–140 km/s). The two galaxies could collide, and in that case they will likely merge, giving rise to a large elliptical galaxy. Collisions of this type are frequent in galaxy groups.
However, the tangential velocity of M31 with respect to the Milky Way is not well known, thus creating uncertainty about when the collision will occur and how it will proceed. A 2025 study indicates that the probability of a collision between the two galaxies in the next 10 billion years is only 50%. Shooting data:
This image is the result of integrating 25 60" frames taken on the night of August 23rd during the public observation at the Sanctuary dedicated to Saint Ignatius of Loyola, located in the municipality of Pessinetto (TO), 931 meters above sea level. Please note that I did not have the opportunity to take flat-field images.
GSO 154/600 Newtonian telescope, ASI 294 MC Pro camera with Optolong L-Pro filter
60/240 guide scope, ASI 120 mini camera
Skywatcher HEQ5 Synscan Pro mount
Asiair Pro acquisition, RGB processing with Pixinsight.
Greetings mate! I love voyaging forth to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park to contemplate poetry, physics, the golden ratio, and the Tao te Ching! What's your favorite epic poetry reflecting epic landscapes? I recently finished a book titled Epic Poetry for Epic Landscape Photographers:
www.facebook.com/Epic-Poetry-for-Epic-Landscape-Photograp...
Did you know that John Muir, Thoreau, and Emerson all loved epic poetry and poets including Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, and Robert Burns?
I recently finished my fourth book on Light Time Dimension Theory, much of which was inspired by an autumn trip to Zion!
www.facebook.com/lightimedimensiontheory/
Via its simple principle of a ofurth expanding dimension, LTD Theory provides a unifying, foundational *physical* model underlying relativity, quantum mechanics, time and all its arrows and asymmetries, and the second law of thermodynamics. The detailed diagrams demonstrate that the great mysteries of quantum mechanical nonlocality, entanglement, and probability naturally arise from the very same principle that fosters relativity alongside light's constant velocity, the equivalence of mass and energy, and time dilation.
Follow me on intsagram!
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
Fresh snow! More on my golden ratio musings: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography facebook.com/goldennumberratio
Best wishes on your epic hero's odyssey!:)
Bryce Canyon National Park Autumn Colors & Winter Snow Fine Art Photography 45EPIC Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography: Nikon D810
Love shooting with both the sony A7RII and the Nikon D810! :)
Taken in Leicestershire, I was visiting because a ♂ Common Scoter was seen the day before, I knew it was a longshot has Scoters migrate at night so the probability of it still being there was quite small, but there was a long stay bird that I could spend my time with.
We didn't find the Scoter but the Ring-necked duck was very obliging and the closest that I had seen it.
The light was very variable as you can tell by the differences in the water colour, but a very enjoyable couple of hours.
When the R-nD was diving this came into view.
A solitary Southern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome) comes hopping over a ridge as it makes its way from rookery to the sea. In all probability there was a change of the guard at this penguin's nest and now it is going out to sea to feed. Image taken on Pebble Island in the Falkland Islands.
Bryce Canyon National Park Winter Snow-Covered Hoodoos Fine Art Photography 45EPIC Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography! High Res Bryce Canyon NP Winter Snow Fine Art!
Greetings mate! I love voyaging forth to the likes of Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park to contemplate poetry, physics, the golden ratio, and the Tao te Ching! What's your favorite epic poetry reflecting epic landscapes? I recently finished a book titled Epic Poetry for Epic Landscape Photographers:
www.facebook.com/Epic-Poetry-for-Epic-Landscape-Photograp...
Did you know that John Muir, Thoreau, and Emerson all loved epic poetry and poets including Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, and Robert Burns?
I recently finished my fourth book on Light Time Dimension Theory, much of which was inspired by an autumn trip to Zion!
www.facebook.com/lightimedimensiontheory/
Via its simple principle of a fourth expanding dimension, LTD Theory provides a unifying, foundational *physical* model underlying relativity, quantum mechanics, time and all its arrows and asymmetries, and the second law of thermodynamics. The detailed diagrams demonstrate that the great mysteries of quantum mechanical nonlocality, entanglement, and probability naturally arise from the very same principle that fosters relativity alongside light's constant velocity, the equivalence of mass and energy, and time dilation.
Follow me on intsagram!
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
This is the way it goes when things are put in the way of moving water. It get splashy, water breaks into smallest droplets and keeps on moving, pressing into smallest spaces while carrying its load of salt and stickiness. Water may simply follows the rules of nature but the onus is on you to learn how it works to foresee what may happen next.
By the law of probabilities, somewhere out there is a rogue
wave coming your way.
Picture - outing in Marbella, Spain.
Less than five kilometers upstream from the important clapper bridge of Fariza (a granite bridge with an array of cups that can help provide a neolithic date) and on the outer flood pane of the same seasonal river known as the "Arroyo del Pisón", can be found a second monolith with a similar array of cups aside a make-do basin.
This up stream station of cups has a set of dramatic steps carved into its gradient and was obviously a loci of some local significance.
Cutting cups into a hard rock like granite is not done for fay whimsey and takes time, reason and determination. The above station is known by the name "Santuario de la Peña del Gato" just outside of Argañín in the Spanish Sayago and the village up river from Fariza.
Taking stock of data from related posts:
1/ A clapper bridge with a station of cups on the upper surface of a massive and uniform granite foundation stone.
2/ 222km to the south, the Los Barruecos site including similar sized cups in excellent condition within a site known to be of neolithic occupation.
3/ A station of similar cups just over 4km upstream of the clapper bridge on the summit of a carved monolith, discovered around 1995 and described as 'prehistoric'. To be clear - on the flood banks of the same river.
4/ An large array of cups in the "santuaro de Valdecadiella" 15-20km away and described as 'prehistoric' (I was unable to find this station).
5/ The cups appear to have been added to the foundation stone of the bridge after the bridge was constructed allowing it to be said that it looks as if the clapper bridge of Fariza in the Sayago region of Spain can be dated into the late ages of prehistory allowing it to be said that the clapper bridge as a form of architectural solution to a landscape problem has megalithic roots and that at least one of the forms of megalithic expression continued from prehistory into the ages of history.
6/ Understanding that innovations, styles, materials and cultural idioms inducted over vast distances during the prehistoric ages, the fact that one example of clapper bridge with a coherent prehistoric attribution exists may give people in other regions and nations the confidence to look at details of remaining clapper bridges to ascertain the probabilities of date range. Most will be medieval, some may be far younger and some rare examples may be megalithic.
For the record: ideas that a historical fisherman may have cut cups into the surface of a stone for stability are fanciful: granite often has surface grip and when it doesn't, a simply basket or rug would provide grip at far less cost - with the introduction of cups probably simply removing grip and adding permanent damp.
AJM 03.09.20
Niagara Falls' afternoon road switcher L035 performs an interplant move at Van De Mark Chemical in Lockport, NY shuffling the order of tank cars inside as requested by the customer.
Things are not the same as when I first started shooting this place four years ago. In this shot, the crew is swapping the order of cars to set themselves up for success on their next trip out. The car they are handling was spotted as a fresh load the previous week, and the car to the left has been in-plant for many weeks already, partially empty but not yet ready to pull. Making this move facilitates an easy pull for the crew once the outer car is finally released. Makes for good shots in and and around the plant, but that's about it. The two mile journey to switch the customer off of the mainline is otherwise light power both directions on days like these. It didn't used to be this way...
Van De Mark is arguably my most shot customer in Western New York. It's a place I simply never tire of shooting for whatever reason. Over the last four years, just when I think I've run out I find new angles to try, and get a little bit ballsier with each one. Thankfully the workers here are friendly people, they've certainly seen a lot of me in that time. Located on a switchback coming off of the now mostly abandoned Somerset Railroad, I consider this region the most scenic 2.6 miles of railroad this state has to offer. There's plenty of other overlooks in the state which would easily win that title, but for my money this area is it. With the shutdown of the coal-fired Kintigh Generating Station in Somerset, NY in 2019, the majority of the branch which starts in Lockport at CP PORT was filed for abandonment in 2020, finally ripped out privately in 2022 following a limited number of scrap runs up to Somerset on the part of CSX in 2021. The line now ends at QDK 2.6, four tenths of a mile north of the switchback switch, known as Mill St, at QDK 2.2. On the suggestion of one of my CSX friends, the private holding company who owns the right of way left in the extra stretch after the switch, in case of switching maneuvers requiring a gravity drop. The first couple miles of the Somerset features turned New York Central searchlights at PORT, an S curve, a road crossing in a valley, more curves, the Gulf Bridge above the valley floor, a downhill slope through the man-made rock cut where track was laid in the 1980s, and the switchback itself which climbs the hillside before descending back down grade to Mill St. The industry is merely the cherry on top, with its pseudo street running leading into the plant. Next door to Van De Mark another chemical customer Twin Lakes used to take cars, but has not been a CSX customer for what I've been told is a couple decades. Prior to the Somerset and switchback being installed on the west side of Mill St, Lowertown Lockport as it's referred to was accessed via real street running from the east side down Mill St, dating back into the New York Central and early Conrail days. This method was abandoned with the advent of Somerset. If any of this is hard to visualize, just go look at it on Google Maps, it'll make a lot more sense. Eventually I'll upload more shots of every nook and cranny I've shot. Until then, the rest of the story goes like this.
When I first started shooting here, my first daylight shots coming on April Fools Day 2021, activity was a lot more lively. Well, that's because the space inside Van De Mark was shared by a second customer, fittingly also starting with the same first three letters. A company by the name of Vanchlor down in the valley underneath the Gulf Bridge received their own tank cars in the plant on Mill St, either trucking it the short distance around the corner, or to my surprise even piping through the grade separations. Walking out to the Gulf Bridge once in 2022, I found pipes embedded within the hillside. I didn't put it together at the time that that's what those were for, but it makes sense knowing what I do now. With both customers sharing space, switching here was usually once a week, rarely twice but it did happen a handful of times. A third track inside the plant housed the Vanchlor cars all on the left side, while Van De Mark has always kept their own on the far right. In summer of 2024, Vanchlor decided to exit the rail business, opting to ship their chemical over from Germany which somehow some way is saving them on costs. Perhaps in the modern tariff state of the U.S. that might not be the case anymore, but they haven't expressed any interest in returning to rail otherwise. What I never realized was that it was Vanchlor carrying the bulk of the switching here rather than Van De Mark itself. As a result, the once a week/every other at its lowest I was used to was now dropping to once or twice a month. At times during the summer of 2025, it was indeed once a month this year. Standard procedure for the crew when they have cars to deliver is to tie the inbounds down at PORT, always on the rear of the train as hazardous cars, go drop their interchange train for the Falls Raod Railroad, then either bring their outbound train back to the PORT switch to have it in place already, or leave the yard light power and return back to the inbounds for Van De Mark after locking up the PORT switch. If they came back light power, any pulls from Van De Mark would be shoved back from Mill St to the Lockport Branch main before pulling back onto the Falls Road. If they brought their outbound train up to the PORT switch already, thelat either meant no pulls at Van De Mark, or the highly sought after but almost always after dark gravity drop move, which would make a for a more desirable westbound shot on the Gulf Bridge into the evening light. Any gravity drop move I witnessed always resulted in light running out before they could get back on the move towards PORT. Alternatively and lesser, the crew could drop their whole train at PORT and head up to Mill St light power in the case of pull only, which has now become the norm two out of three times the have work there. I even had a heads up or two over the radio that they were headed straight there back in 2021. Granted they were dealing with plenty more cars at that time. Now it's two at the most. Whereas before Vanchlor left the probability of playing and pulling cars, now it's only one or the other and not both. On the bright side, a day where they have a pull or are performing an interplant, they go up to Mill St first thing upon arriving in Lockport. This is great for lighting purposes, but one out of three moves are now guaranteed to be light power both directions on the Somerset, which isn't nearly as cool as having a car with them. Placing a car is now the worst thing to shoot since they do it after dropping in the Falls Road yard, usually a half hour to 45 minute move depending on how big the inbound train is. During peak summer daylight, that's fine, but once the sunset gets too short, the light power trip up is the best case scenario.
Van De Mark locally sources their cars out of the Olin Chlor-alkali Corp in Niagara Falls, so the only heads up for days they're going to be switched is listening to the EC-1 issued to the crew when they call to depart, since the Lockport Branch and Somerset are both dark territory. The switch or switches they wish to operate must be listed on the form, making things easy so long as you're able to hear their conversation and live within 40 minutes of Lockport since that's the exact travel time from CP 25 to PORT for L035. I shot as many of these moves as I could this summer, as the idea of Van De Mark leaving CSX, or CSX abandoning them rather, is not too far fetched. Having to maintain the Gulf Bridge especially for a once a month customer is not likely in CSX's long term plan financially, which is the only reason the little stub of the Somerset Railroad still exists. If Van De Mark quits, it's game over for this trackage. Not the fate I or anyone around here wants to see, but current trends suggest it may be their fate somewhere down the road. If the day when the final pull should arrive, you can count on me to be on scene day or night.
Hugh Mercer QC and Peter Webster, instructed by Exeme Avocats, Bordeaux, represented the City of Bordeaux in the successful recovery from London of four 14th and 15th century altar panels stolen in the 1980s. The Nottinghamshire alabaster panels had probably originally arrived in Bordeaux in the Middle Ages as payment for a shipment of wine.
The renowned theft of the panels from the basilica of St Michel in Bordeaux, a UNESCO world heritage site, was discovered in the 1990s. Though three of the missing pieces were quickly recovered, four proved harder to track down. An international investigation eventually located them in London, where they had been purchased after various intermediate sales in the USA. An agreement regarding their return was concluded late last year thereby avoiding litigation and a formal ceremony marking the return of the panels was held on 21 September in Bordeaux, under the aegis of the French Minister of Culture and presided over by the Mayor of Bordeaux. The matter is reported in The Times (25 September: www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/blessed-relief-for-plunde...) and in the French press: www.bordeaux.fr/p139144/les-albatres-de-saint-michel or www.aquitaineonline.com/actualites-en-aquitaine/bordeaux-...
essexcourt.com/recovery-of-artwork-stolen-from-world-heri...
The ninth medieval alabaster from the altarpiece of Saint-Michel de Bordeaux rediscovered?
Considerations about a St. John the Evangelist from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
The Basilica of Saint-Michel in Bordeaux is home to one of the largest and best preserved English alabaster altarpieces dedicated to the Joys of the Virgin. Seven of its nine panels were stolen in 1984. After almost forty years, in 2019, the last four panels were recovered, and the ensemble is once
again complete. However, it is not entirely complete The panel at the right end, probably depicting St. Joseph, is not a medieval work but a plaster pastiche executed certainly in the 19th century. The lost original may have found its way into a Parisian collection before 1882, before ending up in the
Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore at the beginning of the 20th century. The American museum in fact possesses an English alabaster panel depicting St. John the Evangelist, which in all probability originally belonged to the Bordeaux ensemble. In addition to the matching dimensions, the very characteristic stylistic treatment of the artwork and some iconographic arguments, detailed in the article, argue in favour of this presumed identification.
www.societe-archeologique-bordeaux.fr/publications/schlic...
Everything you decide is the summary of probability.
What you dream can be or cannot be what you get.
Named for Jacques Laramee, a leading French-Canadian fur trapper, explorer and mountain man in the early days of the white presence in the west.
It was originally built as a fur-trading depot, but was eventually bought by the U.S. Army to help protect and supply the wagon trains that began to pour along the nearby Oregon Trail as of the 1840's.
It was here that two major treaties, in 1851 and in 1868, were signed with the Plains Indian tribes of the region, acknowledging their ownership of hundreds of millions of acres of the surrounding land.
Neither held up, however - especially once gold was found in the Black Hills - leading to the court action that produced the Supreme Court's 1980 ruling in favor of the Sioux (which included the statement that ''A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never in all probability be found in our history''...).