View allAll Photos Tagged Probability
The somewhat unprepossessing small town of Coldstream in Scotland lies on the north bank of the River Tweed in Berwickshire, while Northumberland (and England) lies on the south bank. In all probability very few would have heard of this town were it not the home of the Coldstream Guards, which dates back to 1650 when it was founded by General George Monck. It is the oldest regiment in continuous active service in Britain's Regular Army.
For further details see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldstream_Guards
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.
I've been coveting the duffle coat with the Bay's iconic colours for years. I've never tried it on because its too expensive and there is a good probability that I will look like a large walking Bay blanket :) seen four years ago today on Granville Street.
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.
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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! :)
I really like this one.
See my main account for my photography, videos, fractal images and more here: www.flickr.com/photos/josh-rokman/
Made with 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.
- Josh
New book! Epic Landscape Photography: The Principles of Fine Art Nature Photography!
www.facebook.com/epiclandscapephotography/
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
facebook.com/mcgucken
Working on a couple photography books! 45EPIC GODDESS PHOTOGRAPHY: A classic guide to exalting the archetypal woman. And 45EPIC Fine Art Landscape Photography!
More on my golden ratio musings: facebook.com/goldennumberratio
instagram.com/goldennumberratio
Greetings all! I have been busy finishing a few books on photography, while traveling all over--to Zion and the Sierras--shooting fall colors. Please see some here: facebook.com/mcgucken
Let me know in the comments if you would like a free review copy of one of my photography books! :)
Titles include:
The Tao of Epic Landscape Photography: Exalt Fine Art with the Yin-Yang Wisdom of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching!
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography
facebook.com/goldennumberratio
And I am also working on a book on photographing the goddesses! :) More goddesses soon!
Best wishes on your epic hero's odyssey!:)
I love voyaging forth into nature 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 instagram!
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
The Nazca Lines, often also spelled Nasca Lines, are over 1500 huge scratches (geoglyphs) in the desert near Nazca and Palpa in Peru, only visible and recognizable from the air. The lines, the desert and the culture are named after the city of Nazca, which is not far from the plain. The Paracas culture and the Nazca culture are considered to be the originators of the lines. The Nazca plain shows dead straight lines, triangles and trapezoidal areas as well as figures with a size of about ten to several hundred meters, z. B. Images of people, monkeys, birds and whales. Often the figure-forming lines are only a few centimeters deep. Due to their enormous size, they can only be seen from a great distance, from the surrounding hills or from airplanes.
A systematic exploration and surveying together with archaeological excavations between 2004 and 2009 in the area and partly in the lines could clarify their origin and their purpose with high probability. BC and AD 600 and caused by periodic climatic fluctuations. Modern archeology assumes that the Nazca Lines were action areas for rituals related to water and fertility.
The pictures were created by removing the upper layer of rock, which is covered by desert varnish (negative relief). This desert varnish consists of a rust-red mixture of iron and manganese oxides. This brings out the lighter sediment mixture and forms beige-yellow lines.
The Nazca Lines became known worldwide through the passionate work of the German mathematician and physicist Maria Reiche. Until the end of her life in 1998 she worked tirelessly for the protection and preservation of these desert figures and tried to interpret them. Many of the figures were destroyed by footprints and car tracks. Through the initiative of the Reiche, the Peruvian government took measures to prevent further destruction. At Maria Reiches instigation, the geoglyphs were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994 as "Lines and floor drawings of Nasca and Pampa de Jumana".
So that was a little bit of prose now - more of it in many books or on the internet ... my experience with the Nazca geoglyphs was a little different ...
... we went to look for these figures in a small plane - it was wonderful weather, but the flight was anything but calm and was more like a rollercoaster ride - and it was good that I hadn't eaten much for breakfast ...
These figures are spread over a huge area and we all had to approach them twice from different directions so that everyone on the plane could see them - not that easy with some. To do this, the plane leaned sharply to one side so that you could also look down. I had the "couch" or a continuous bench at the very back of the plane ... that was ok, but I could just look out with my chin at the lower edge of the window. In addition, the windows were a little scratched and had green sun protection - I already knew that from a helicopter flight in the Grand Canyon - that means, without the appropriate white balance and color corrections, the images were unusable ... that was the photographic challenge. This was made more difficult by slight nausea in me and by the sometimes severe nausea in my fellow travelers ... :-) You can be amused by the photos of the corpse-pale passengers today ... not back then :-)
I have marked some figures in the photos (Astronaut, Lizard, tree and biddy...)
Die Nazca-Linien, oft auch Nasca-Linien geschrieben, sind über 1500 riesige, nur aus der Luft sicht- und erkennbare Scharrbilder (Geoglyphen) in der Wüste bei Nazca und Palpa in Peru. Benannt sind die Linien, die Wüste und die Kultur nach der unweit der Ebene liegenden Stadt Nazca. Als Urheber der Linien gelten die Paracas-Kultur und die Nazca-Kultur. Die Nazca-Ebene zeigt auf einer Fläche von 500 km² schnurgerade, bis zu 20 km lange Linien, Dreiecke und trapezförmige Flächen sowie Figuren mit einer Größe von etwa zehn bis mehreren hundert Metern, z. B. Abbilder von Menschen, Affen, Vögeln und Walen. Oft sind die figurbildenden Linien nur wenige Zentimeter tief. Durch die enorme Größe sind sie nur aus großer Entfernung zu erkennen, von den Hügeln in der Umgebung oder aus Flugzeugen.
Eine systematische Erkundung und Vermessung zusammen mit archäologischen Grabungen zwischen 2004 und 2009 im Umfeld und zum Teil in den Linien konnte ihre Entstehung und ihren Zweck mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit klären: Es handelt sich demnach um Gestaltungen im Rahmen von Fruchtbarkeitsritualen, die zwischen 800 v. Chr. und 600 n. Chr. angelegt und durch periodische Klimaschwankungen veranlasst wurden. Die moderne Archäologie geht davon aus, dass die Nazca-Linien Aktionsflächen für Rituale in Hinblick auf Wasser und Fruchtbarkeit gewesen sind.
Entstanden sind die Bilder durch Entfernung der oberen Gesteinsschicht, die von Wüstenlack überzogen ist (negatives Relief). Dieser Wüstenlack besteht aus einem rostroten Gemisch aus Eisen- und Manganoxiden. Dadurch kommt das hellere Sedimentgemisch zum Vorschein und bildet beigegelbe Linien.
Durch die leidenschaftliche Arbeit der deutschen Mathematikerin und Physikerin Maria Reiche wurden die Nazca-Linien weltweit bekannt. Sie setzte sich bis zu ihrem Lebensende 1998 unermüdlich für den Schutz und Erhalt dieser Wüstenfiguren ein und bemühte sich um deren Interpretation. Viele der Figuren wurden durch Fuß- und Autospuren zerstört. Durch die Initiative Reiches ergriff die peruanische Regierung Maßnahmen, um eine weitere Zerstörung zu verhindern. Auf Maria Reiches Betreiben hin wurden die Geoglyphen 1994 von der UNESCO als „Linien und Bodenzeichnungen von Nasca und Pampa de Jumana“ zum Weltkulturerbe erklärt.
So, das war jetzt ein wenig Prosa - mehr davon in vielen Büchern oder im Internet...meine Erfahrung mit den Nazca Geoglyphen war ein wenig anders...
...mit einem kleinen Flugzeug ging es auf die Suche nach diesen Figuren - es war ein herrliches Wetter, aber der Flug war alles andere als ruhig und glich eher einer Achterbahnfahrt - und gut, dass ich zum Frühstück nicht viel gegessen hatte...
Diese Figuren sind ja über eine riesige Fläche verteilt und wir mussten sie ja alle zweimal aus unterschiedlicher Richtung anfliegen, damit jeder im Flugzeug sie auch sehen konnte - bei manchen gar nicht so leicht. Dazu neigte sich der Flieger stark zur Seite, damit man dann auch nach unten sehen konnte. Ich hatte die "Couch" oder eine durchgängige Bank ganz hinten im Flieger...das war ok, ich konnte aber so gerade mit dem Kinn an der Unterkante des Fensters rausschauen. Dazu waren die Fenster ein wenig verkratzt und hatten einen grünen Sonnenschutz - das kannte ich schon von einem Helikopterflug im Grand Canyon - heißt, ohne entsprechenden Weißabgleich und Farbkorrekturen waren die Bilder unbrauchbar...das war die fotografische Herausforderung. Diese wurde dann noch durch leichte Übelkeit bei mir und durch zum Teil heftigste Übelkeit bei meinen Mitreisenden erschwert...:-) Über die Fotos der leichenblassen Passagiere kann man sich heute amüsieren...damals eher nicht :-)
Ich habe ein paar Figuren (Astronaut, Küken, Baum und Eidechse in den Fotos markiert...)
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/
Tangled probabilities, leaves of grass.
Langes Run Loop at Wetmore, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio.
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''...).
The Slate River Gorge is between the Elk Mountains and the Ruby Mountains in Colorado.
A winter with high precipitation in the mountains has produced lush meadows, a fine crop of wildflowers, lingering snowfields and a diminished probability of forest fires.
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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!
"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.
Author(s):
Yarden Livnat, Jim Agutter, Shaun Moon, Stefano Foresti
Institution:
University of Utah
Year:
2005
URL:
www.sci.utah.edu/publications/yarden05/VisAware.pdf
------------------ ---------------
Project Description:
Presented at the Infovis 2005 Conference in Minneapolis, MN (USA), VisAware reveals a novel visual correlation paradigm that takes advantage of human perceptive and cognitive facilities in order to enhance users' situational awareness and support decision-making.
The first image reflects VisAware used in a Biowatch scenario where its structure classifies agents in colored sections around a ring. It shows the different categories of biological agents and the different types of chemical agents (i.e. blistering and nerve agents). With the map in the middle, it is easy to correlate the presence of agents to the sensor that detected it. The correlating line has a variable width that shows the probability of the agent under analysis; the thicker the line the greater the probability of an actual attack.
The second image shows VisAlert, a visualization method for network intrusion detection. The authors based their approach on representing the network alerts as connections between two domains. These two domains are a one dimensional domain representing the node attribute, and a two-dimensional domain representing the time and type attributes. A network alert instance, in this scheme, is thus a straight line from a point in the type-time domain to a point in the node domain. They choose to separate the node attribute from the type and time as nodes provide a more or less static set of objects that can be used as visualization anchors for the transient alert instances.
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.
The photo is taken at Central Library, University of Otago.
A few days ago, I chose to toss a coin. Strangely, four tosses all landed on the side representing "no." At that moment, loyalty triumphed over everything, but more libido triumphed over temporary loyalty a few days later. I chose to "go the old way" and tossed the coin again. The poor $2 NZ coin—I tossed it five times, even switching the representation of heads and tails, but all five times landed on "no." My goodness! I have learned about binomial distribution. Out of curiosity, I calculated the probability of these nine outcomes: 0.5^9 = 0.001953125. A 0.19% chance? Ha! So, I definitely shouldn’t do that? Clearly, my original purpose was to use this loyalty. When I tossed heads, I could gain some consolation. Who would have thought EDEN wouldn’t give me a single chance?
Returning to today, a conversation with a missionary in February suddenly came to mind. I told him I believe in my own, subjectively idealistic "god." I don’t believe in the existence of an objective God. He retorted that in terms of willpower, believers and non-believers are equally devout.
I suddenly understood—the heads and tails of the coin don’t matter, because believing heads are heads and tails are tails, their willpower is the same. This willpower is determined the moment the coin is tossed. What it brings me is this willpower, not the "superstitious" result.
Suddenly enlightened, I decided to toss the coin once more, determining heads and tails. Again, I got tails.
A pure, untainted smile filled my face, not because of the result of 0.5^10 = 0.0009765625, but because I saw the resilient continuation of this willpower, its vitality. It was so vibrant that it reversed my feelings from the past nine results. The tenth coin toss reminded me of Dostoevsky’s sunset, transforming old sorrows into serene and moving joy due to life’s great mysteries...
Will I toss the eleventh coin? Yes, because happiness is never the final destination; it’s more like the scenery along the way. Therefore, I cannot stop, wasting my life. Perhaps, I have already tossed this eleventh coin, over and over, every minute, every second.
This is a view of Inis Gloire, a very small uninhabited island off the Erris penninsula, near Belmullet, County Mayo, in the West of Ireland. Inis Gloire is steeped in history, having been a major monastic settlement founded by Saint Brendan The Navigator. In all probability, this is where he started his journey across the Atlantic to discover the American continent long before Christopher Columbus. It has a major place too in Irish folklore as the place where the Children of Lir eventually regained their human form. They went there as Swans aftering hearing the bells ring out signifying the fact that Ireland had converted to Christianity.
Something reflective and appropriate for Good Friday.
Conceptual art image.
go off the rails (informal)
to start behaving strangely or in a way that is not acceptable to society He went off the rails in his twenties and started living on the streets. By the law of probabilities if you have five kids, one of them's going to go off the rails.
See also: off, rail
Everything you decide is the summary of probability.
What you dream can be or cannot be what you get.
80/365 -- When the Planets Line Up
Today, I was watching the re-run of Men in Black. Remember the story?? The Galaxy is on Orion's belt?
Have you ever wondered what's the probability of all the planets in our galaxy lining up??? Is there even a way to compute this...
Strobist info: 1x SB-800 with snoot behind subject. 1x bond paper folded in half right of subject for fill.
The plan was to shoot sunset from the top of Angel’s landing. But half a mile from the top of the peak, that plan seemed a little… ambitious? Dangerous? Reckless? If you’re not familiar with the Angel’s landing hike, the last piece of the hike requires a very steep, very narrow climb 500 vertical feet upwards with nothing but a series of chains and about 3 feet of sandstone on either side of you preventing you from dropping 1500 feet to the canyon floor. All this is compounded by a fairly serious fear of heights, and the fact that if I was going to shoot sunset I’d have to climb down in the dark.
But… I’m stubborn and an engineer and so I did the math and it turns out that only 9 people have died on the trail since 2004 and hundreds of people do this hike every day, so I have like a .000005% chance of falling off and ending my hike a bit earlier than expected. As long as you’re being careful, and it’s not dark and storming, you should be perfectly safe according to the trailhead signs.
So up I go, and upon making it to the top I have learned a couple of things. First, my tripod has a knack for getting caught in the chain on the way up, which has the unfortunate side effect of unexpectedly throwing off my balance. Second, 1500 feet is a very, very, very long way down when you accidently peak over the edge. And third, in the distance are a serious of ominous looking clouds moving quickly towards me, and sure enough, they’re bringing rain.
Now I have a major dilemma. The photographer in me is ecstatic about the conditions: great light, interesting sky, beautiful scenery. Photographer Sean wants to stay at the top of the landing, but engineer Sean is thinking about risk and probabilities and how the mix of conditions is removing a zero or two from the probability that I end up shattered at the bottom of the canyon. It’s a back and forth debate in my mind before Catholic Sean steps in to remind myself that it’s been a minute since I’ve been to confession and I might want to consider that implication if I were to die today. Mind made up, I leave the landing and head back down the trail to set up shop at the viewpoint you see here.
Oh, and if you were wondering, the clouds broke up and the rain stopped right before reaching the canyon, just as I had finished climbing down the chains.
Esmerelda / Come What May sailing in the Sound of Bute, Scotland. Inchmarnock and Arran in the distance
Log of the Dinghy Esmerelda or Come What May
Three seasons learning to sail (1998 - 2000)
May 1998
For years, it seems, it has been at the back of my mind that, when it was convenient, I would learn to sail my own boat. Life being such as it is, I have spent the last nine years living within ten minute's walk of the sea but have not been in a sailing boat in all that time. Last weekend, I answered an advert in the local paper. Now, I am the proud owner of a 14ft Lark sailing dinghy! Ian, the seller, kindly offered to teach me to sail her. She’s a modest little boat, but seems worth the price. Adam (my elder son) is delighted and is raring to have a go.
****
Yesterday evening was our first time out on the water, not on the tide, but on West Kirby marine lake in the Dee estuary. I felt very much an incompetent land-lubber. I have a whole new set of coordination skills to learn, certainly more than when learning to ride a motorcycle or drive a car, but this is part of the challenge. I think it helps to have the limbs and bodily plasticity of an octopus.
****
Ian took me out in the boat for the second time yesterday evening and it was beautiful! - sun sinking in the west, warm blue sky, a gentle breeze and the boat gliding effortlessly through the water. If I am not yet completely hooked, then I soon shall be. My aspirations are modest: I'd be thrilled simply to learn the necessary skills and gain the confidence to navigate the Wirral coast.
****
This sailing has really got a grip on me. I spent last Thursday night in Manchester so that I could start earlier on Friday in order to be home by 5 p.m. to take the boat out. It was wild! The wind was approaching force 4 and we managed to capsize twice, (although we were the last boat on the lake to do so). It is a wonderful activity which, like mountaineering, is completely absorbing both mentally and physically, and which, if you're not actually doing it, then you're thinking about doing it or pottering around with the equipment. I'm pleased, because it has restored a dimension to my life that has been sadly lacking for a few years. Alix and I have decided definitely to withdraw our house from sale and stay put here on the coast, at least for the foreseeable future.
Inanimate objects
I hesitate to consider my boat an inanimate object. She has several traits suggestive of animation, and female at that:
a nice shape,
moves gracefully,
behaves wilfully,
demands attention,
requires sensitive handling,
and on two occasions has been quite upset and ditched me.
Friday 12th June 1998
Stimulating, thrilling, absorbing and therapeutic.
We went out last Saturday and plan to again this Saturday. It is time I took it out on my own though, or rather with someone I can't rely on to take the initiative in a tricky situation. After all, the whole idea is to sail this boat myself. With this in mind, I persuaded my German colleage Tobias to come over on Sunday to join me. He has never sailed, so it'll be the blind leading the blind, but it has to be the quickest way to learn.
Sunday 14th June 1998
Achievement!
I took the boat out truly as 'skipper' this evening (with Tobias). The wind was northerly, gusting force 4, and slightly intimidating - I nearly called the whole thing off - but once we'd cast off it was magical!
Suddenly after all the flapping and palaver of rigging, all is quiet and smooth as we glide downwind. A slightly anxious moment ensues when I realize we'll have to gybe before we run out of lake, but this manoeuvre works smoothly and I realize with relief that I can actually tack back against the wind.
After an hour, despite some interesting moments, we have managed to avoid capsizing and are still relatively dry. We are rewarded by the sun peeping out from under the clouds just before it vanishes below the horizon.
Clynnog fawr, Lleyn Peninsula, north Wales, July 1998
Wonderful holiday! - the best I think for several years. Brothers Martin and Chris and our three families (15 of us in all) staying in a farm house together. Best of all was to see all the kids together (eight cousins and one half-sister) - how the older ones looked after and amused the younger ones, and also how the younger ones amused the adults, and how the adults are actually kids at heart and behave as such when they are all together. It was invaluable to have so many young cousins for Adam to play with, and to be able to let Ricky trot out into the large green spaces around the house and to play in the sand, knowing that there were nearly always three or four others keeping an eye on him.
The farm itself was in a beautiful location on a magnificent length of coast, north west facing, catching the best of the sunsets. The whole area is delightfully quiet and unspoilt (and only two hours drive from home, even towing the boat). The weather was not ideal, but we still managed to spend a large proportion of the time outside.
At the beginning of the week high winds, cloud and some rain made it quite unsuitable for sailing but we managed some hiking and some went horse riding. By Wednesday, the forecast was slightly better and we'd discovered relative shelter and what seemed to be a nice launching site at the northern end of Llanberis Lake, so we decided to sail come what may. [At this moment Come What May suggested itself as a name for my boat. Only later did I discern the name Esmerelda almost completely faded written on the hull.]
It turned out to be a delightful, sunny and warm afternoon, the shore had trees to climb, sticks and stones to splash in the water and soft grassy spots for picnics. We launched and I was able to take everyone out in turn. For Adam and Alix it was actually their first time, the complexities of child care being what they are. Adam was fairly excited but not a hundred percent confident, he finds it a little intimidating but hopefully that will change. It was the perfect day for him - gentle and warm.
The next day started fine with a light breeze. Majority interest however determined that we go riding again followed by a pub lunch, but in the afternoon I was determined to get the boat out. The tide was up and three of us succeeded in handling it down a steep track to the shore and then over small, slippery, seaweed-covered boulders to the water's edge.
I still find it miraculous how, once rigged, with a quick shove and hop in, we are gliding through the water as if by magic (hoping a freak gust doesn't turn us round before I grab hold of the tiller and get the centreplate down!)
Caernarfon Bay, and first time on the sea! The swell was a little daunting as we sailed into deeper water, especially with four adults aboard (not sailed with that many before), but I practised a few tacks, sailing up-wind and down-wind, and she seemed to handle alright without shipping water, albeit a bit heavy at the tiller, so I was happy. It was a delight with the rhythm of the waves and the late afternoon sun sparkling through the spray and sea to the open horizon; with our course set for the open Atlantic I just wanted to keep going. Fortunately, I didn't. All of a sudden there was no more resistance on the tiller and we swung round into the wind: the rudder had torn off its mounting! I was glad that I'd invested in some oars as a precaution with which we were able to turn about to face shoreward; then, by holding the rudder (fortunately still attached to the boat by the uphaul line) and leaning right into the water astern, we were able to hold a course back to the shore. I since realised that the reason the rudder felt so heavy in the first place was because it was not engaged in its fixed down position but trailing horizontally behind; the extra leverage combined with the weight in the boat must have sheared the two mounting bolts. I've now repaired it with four new reinforcing bolts. It was a learning experience and exciting at the time. The others all seemed to enjoy it and seemed to think it was all in a day's sailing adventures.
7th August 1998
Last weekend was wonderful. Summer finally seemed to have arrived: it was comfortable to spend dawn 'til dusk in shorts and T shirt and to sit out late in the garden for dinner with a bottle of wine after the kids were in bed. Adam and I went onto the beach on Sunday and spent a good hour just splashing in the sea and being crabs and sea-monsters wallowing in the deep soft sand. Simple happiness!
More exciting still, I took the boat out twice. First, on West Kirby marine lake completely on my own for the very first time. I was out on the water by 7.30 a.m., it was a gorgeous morning and I had the whole lake and, indeed it seemed, the whole estuary to myself. Second, again on my own, on the high tide for the first time. Two significant achievements which have given me such a thrill that I can't wait to do it again! In fact, I can now say that I have achieved my long held ambition of being able to sail my own boat on the sea, albeit in very easy conditions: a smooth surface and barely a breath of wind. I sailed for three hours on the high spring tide and was really chuffed to be out there on my own, but it would have been nice to have had some good company too. I feel this is only the beginning: my curiosity is already drawing me to peruse the second-hand yacht sections of the sailing magazines!
17th August 1998
I had my sailing abilities stretched this weekend when I took the boat out on the tide in a breeze that was slightly too strong for me (also my muscles and parts of the boat were well stretched). It was a humbling experience:
On the sea front, the breeze felt rather intimidating. The lifeguard on duty hailed me, having seen me with my boat the previous week,
"Going out today?"
I confided my reservations to him, but he replied, presumably intending to encourage me,
"Only way to learn, by experience!"
This was a challenge I felt bound to accept.
Having rigged and launched, all there was to do was push off and hop in. It was that moment of hesitation that reminded me of the feeling I had as a novice skier on the lip of my first black run: the point of no return. Hesitation over, the first few seconds I spent struggling to lower the rudder, which for some reason would not go down (because, I found out later, I'd hitched the uphaul too tight), while keeping an eye on other boats at their moorings skimming past me at an alarming rate even before I'd trimmed the sails. In the excitement, I forgot to lower the centreplate, which meant that having covered about half a mile in what seemed like about ten seconds I tried to come about into the wind but couldn't. Hemmed in by a sand bank on one side and an approaching groyne on the other, there seemed to be little room to manoeuvre and all I could do was gybe, but this didn't work properly either and I capsized. I realised the centreplate wasn't down when I tried to stand on it to pull the boat back upright, it then took me a few moments to lower it because first I had to untangle the anchor warp from the centreplate uphaul, the two having become intertwined. The boat then righted quite easily and I tacked back against the wind with the water gurgling reassuringly out through the self-bailers; I was determined not to be defeated.
Eventually though, the jib became wrapped around the forestay and I capsized again trying to unwind it. At this point I felt I was doing everything wrong and it was time to come in so I limped back to the slip still half full of water where by now a small group of spectators had gathered to watch me, including the lifeguard and two old sea-dogs who'd obviously been passing comment. Later, the lifeguard told me that the old sea-dogs were "impressed" that I'd got back without assistance. But really I don't suppose I impressed anyone much. I clearly have much to learn.
7th September 1998
I took Adam out in the boat on Saturday. There was almost no breeze: we seemed to spend long periods just playing with the sails trying to detect what little air movement there was. Adam had a go at the helm which quite thrilled him, and he even tacked. He was pretty good at holding a course when I told him to steer towards particular landmarks.
The dissipated remnants of hurricane Danielle have been lurking off the coast of Ireland these last few days and forecast to be moving across the British Isles; on Sunday the wind got up and there were gales forecast in the Irish Sea and I chickened out of going out on my own although several boats did sail on the high tide.
14th September 1998
Sunday was too windy for sailing. I'm going to have to experiment with techniques for reefing the sails, or sailing on the jib only.
18th September 1998
I saw a centre page pull-out guide in one of the yachting magazines this week entitled, "Your guide to crossing the Atlantic" - I dream.
9th October 1998
It's been cool and windy here but with a lot of bright sunshine interrupted by occasional showers. The leaves are starting to thin on the trees and most of the apples are in, except the late ripening ones. I was hoping there might have been a chance to take the boat out, but the weather really wasn't suitable. Most of the moored sailing boats are coming in onto dry land for the winter now.
I did get some useful clearing done in the garden and managed to build up our supply of fire-wood. Richard was following me behind the wheelbarrow and he managed to tumble into the pond!
It is simply beautiful being out in the garden. There is something very special about this time of year: the colours, the earthy smells and the sound of the wind in the trees.
20th October 1998
Autumn has set in a big way: chilly, grey and wet, and particularly dismal now that the nights are drawing in. Definitely time for the wood fire in doors. It was beautiful though in the garden on Sunday: I got a lot of clearing done and generated much material for bonfire night; also, I came across a hedgehog - not so rare in our garden but unusual in broad daylight and nice to see. Adam insisted I tell stories to him about hedgehogs for the rest of the day.
3rd November 1998
At 11 p.m. there was a 10 metre tide bursting on the sea wall with a strong northwesterly wind behind it and a full moon. I never saw such a high tide here. The sea was all over the road. I felt a strange, pleasant, almost terrified excitement because there is one recurring nightmare that I have occasionally had in adult life which involves standing on a foreshore and seeing the monster of all waves rising up and bearing towards me and the growing realisation that I won't escape it in time.
Our bonfire party is tomorrow. As usual, a huge pile of wood has appeared as though by magic in the night, the local contractors see it as an opportunity for free rubbish disposal and it will take four of us half the day to built it into burnable shape tomorrow, but this is all part of the fun. Adam is looking forward to it and so am I.
2nd December 1998
We like too much where we live: our wonderful garden, horses over the fence, lying in bed listening to the waves on a summers night, the crashing surf of a winter storm, opening the door to the tangy smell of sea air in the morning, sunrise in a crispy dawn sparkling on frost-covered sand, and the pink rays of setting sun over the water glowing off the distant Welsh hills. It's a clear, frosty night with a full moon. There's a thin, misty vapour over the water as the tide silently slides past the sea wall and the oyster catchers make their eerie call - I love it!
***
26th April 1999
Out sailing again - first launch this year. Saturday was a beautiful day and I took Adam out on the high tide in the evening while the sun was lowering in the west. It was neap and there was virtually no wind - very still, we moved like a whisper. It was so still that we went aground (neap tides don't leave much room to manoeuvre between sand banks) and didn't even notice that we were stuck for about a minute! It was good to be on the water again.
28th April 1999
The sun is a great red orb above the horizon. The boat is all set for launching at the next available opportunity - this weekend. It is a long weekend with the May Day holiday and there are high spring tides around midday - perfect!
14th May 1999
Sailing has been wonderful! Especially yesterday, when conditions were perfect and I spent three hours exploring some of the far reaches of the sand-banks several miles up and down the coast. I'm looking for the best route across the shallows that will allow me to circumnavigate the islands in the mouth of the Dee estuary on a single high tide. The timing is important in order to avoid being left high an dry.
18th May 1999
Sailing is good exercise: strong on the back and arms hauling the trailer along the road to and from the slipway, and then on the tummy muscles when leaning out to balance the boat when it's heeling over.
I had an embarrassing little incident two weeks ago in front of the lifeboat. It was a perfect day for sailing, sunny with a gentle breeze. I'd been out for about an hour and was starting to think about coming in for some lunch when I saw the Hoylake lifeboat coming past. This is a big, powerful, offshore boat with an experienced, sea-going crew. It pulled up close to our slipway, and the crew having passed some lines ashore set about some rescue exercises. Meanwhile, I thought I'd better make a good impression. I gave them a wide berth and tacked cleanly round to make my approach to the slipway in such a way as to avoid any risk of entanglement with their lines. Gliding in smoothly, I reached aft to raise the rudder to stop it grounding, but instead managed to pull the tiller off the rudder stock: the boat slewed round out of all control and, before I could do anything about it, heeled over wildly and capsized, right in front of the life-boat! What's more, a crewman was recording the whole incident on video! I righted the boat without assistance and then sailed out again to allow the self-bailers to empty the boat of water to avoid the embarrassment of having to do so ashore. Afterwards, our local lifeguard, who was also there on duty, remarked that I couldn't have chosen a better moment: the lifeboat only comes down here about once a year!
We've finally booked our holiday cottage for this summer: a house on the shores of Loch Torridon, way up in the north west of Scotland. I'm really looking forward to it. It is in one of the most beautiful parts of Scotland and a superb area for mountaineering. Everything is literally on the doorstep. There is access to the loch to launch the boat and the cottage lies at the very foot of one of the most spectacular mountains in Scotland, Liathach, the crest of which, soaring to 3,456ft directly above the sea, is considered to be one of the four classic ridge routes in the country. Of course, scope for serious mountaineering will be limited, but at least we will be four adults to share child minding. Unfortunately, the cottage was only available for one week and not two, but we plan to take the tent and tour for a few days after. I'm already really excited.
10th June 1999
Sailing, it is completely absorbing and I love it! This was my diary entry last weekend:
Onshore breeze, about force 3, which seems plenty strong enough for me single handed. The question arises how to launch at a right angle to the breeze with the sails up; hoisting the sails once afloat would be the better solution but with no means of holding the bow this could be awkward. I wheel the boat on the trolley half into the water then swing the trolley to head the boat into the wind, hoist the sails, rig the rudder, then manoeuvre the trolley so as to allow the boat to float, holding the bow. I'm glad Alix then turns up to retrieve the trolley. Which direction to cast off? Try to avoid the embarrassing and awkward situation of being blown back onto the sea wall before making way, but to make good way, must lower the plate and sheet-in immediately but can't lower the plate until in deeper water. Conundrum. Oh well, try it. Here goes. Shove, hop in and grab tiller. Impetus of shove already gone, drifting back on shore into small party launching rowing boat; sheet-in sheet-in: yes! now 45 degrees to wind and making way, miraculously avoid sea wall. Rudder down, plate down - no, not enough depth for plate, grounding on sand bank; half raise plate, can't tack, bear round with wind, avoid moored boats, must gybe - tricky in confined space, risk of capsize. Steady gybe by holding vang as boom swings across. Success! Now on course with clear water ahead.
It takes a few minutes of lively sailing to convince myself that I am really in control. The swell is slight but riding the waves is exciting as every other crest bursts on the bow, shooting spray up my bum leaning out over the windward gunwale. Shortly, the rhythmic plunge and rise through the waves works a very soothing effect, my senses become fully attuned to my immediate surroundings and all else seems a world away.
Hoylake Sailing Club Regatta, 15th June 1999
I actually took part in a race this weekend. The local sailing club held its annual regatta. While I was launching on Friday evening one of the officers of the club introduced himself and invited me to take part. It's quite an event locally, with a lot of visiting boats from the region and open to non-members.
So there I was on the water on Sunday morning with only the vaguest notion of what was expected. I was confused by the order of buoys and posts that marked out the course, which ones to pass on which side and in which order. Then there was the gun. There were meant to be six minute and three minute warning shots but I'm sure there was an extra one, and on which side of the line was I supposed to be? At the last moment but too late it suddenly became clear and the start gun found me on the wrong side of the line going the wrong way! The other boats were racing towards the first buoy whilst I having recrossed the line lagged hopelessly in their wake. For a while I was able to follow them, but as the wind got up and the sea became grey and choppy the field spread out and even some of the more experienced boats appeared to become confused and eventually I had to admit that I really didn't know where I was supposed to be heading! Oh well, I'll know what to expect another time.
I appreciated the opportunity to make contact with the sailing club. They seem to be a friendly and pleasantly informal lot and I may consider joining, partly for access to their rather nice clubhouse with bar overlooking the sea, but partly also because it represents a chance to get to know people whose company I might enjoy and who share an enthusiasm for sailing. It is not a sporty, highly competitive dinghy racing club, although they do organise racing on some Sundays. I have the impression that the competitive aspects are not taken too seriously. It is more a group of people who enjoy sailing in all its forms, which suits me. The attractive clubhouse is an added bonus.
It was not a competitive streak that induced me to participate in the race on Sunday, but an exploratory streak to see how I might enjoy it, and a sense of curiosity to see how my sailing matched up to others. I realised that racing is a good way to hone one's skills because I did a lot more manoeuvring and trying to maximise efficiency than when out on my own. I can see how racing could be enjoyable because it involves optimizing your performance, which can be thrilling and satisfying (and it would be nice to win sometimes too) but I can't yet see myself wanting to race regularly. Like skiing, I see sailing as a means of exploration rather than a competitive sport.
Tuesday 6th July 1999
We were sailing on Sunday, all of us together for a change. Rick was very excited before he got in, then once underway he kept saying, "Tip over!" and looking worried, but he got used to it for before long he was scrambling to the stern to grab the tiller saying, "Have it, Ricky do it!" Meanwhile Adam was intent that I tell him a story about some limpets who make friends with some ammonites. I am learning that taking the kids out demands additional skills to normal sailing competence.
We're soon away to Scotland for a fortnight. I actually bought myself a fishing rod and some tackle just in case the wind drops while out on the loch, as if I won't have enough to occupy myself with a boat and kids and magnificent nearby mountains. It telescopes down to 18 inches so it won't take up much space. I thought it might be fun for the kids too (good excuse, eh? Of course I'm just a big one.) I have fished exactly twice in my life and caught one trout about four inches long, so the family probably shouldn't rely on me for food.
Torridon and Kishorn, July 1999
[Monday 2nd August 1999, back home.] It is hard to be back after such a lovely break. Tragic actually. I suddenly see all the things that are wrong with my life here and what an effort it is to try to force myself to put up with them. Especially I see how drab, ugly and over-crowded are the areas where I live and work, even our little patch on the coast holds no magic compared with the northwest of Scotland.
While we were away it was wonderful to be able to spend so much time continually with Richard and Adam and coming back I realize how unnatural it is for a parent to see so little of his children as I normally do here. I have no illusions that we have a right to a perfect life - there is no reason why working for a living should be easy - but some things need to change.
The northwest of Scotland would certainly have limitations as a place to live, the principal of which would be an acceptable means to make a living, followed by the distance to secondary schooling for the boys. Also, family visits would be much less frequent, the midges bite terribly and the weather would not be as reliably good as we had it at least in the second week. But as for the rest of it - city life - I don't need it.
We spent the first week on the shores of Loch Torridon nestling at the foot of two of the principal mountains of the area. Torridon is rugged country - one of the last places in Britain to have glaciers as late as 9,000 BC - but like the whole west highland seaboard, sublimely beautiful. Other fjord-scape coastlines in the world are certainly more splendid, but Scotland has a special charm that appeals to me personally.
The peaks of Torridon rise straight out of the sea to over three thousand feet and are composed of thousand Myr old sandstone, which in the larger corries takes the form of sheer, dark grey precipices of giant masonry blocks, and on the tops, precariously placed boulders like part-melted stacks of huge dinner plates. Many of the peaks are capped with silver-grey quarzite which when wet glints and sparkles in the sun. The whole is founded on much older bed-rock (up to half the age of the earth) which shows itself in places as contorted swirls of intermingled shades of pink, orange and fiery red streaked with white. The region has remnants of the original Caledonian pine forest still undisturbed after eight thousand years. But the principal charms are the play of cloud and light on the hills and sea, and the unhurried style of life, where people still leave their house doors unlocked when they go out.
We had a fair bit of drizzle and overcast days in the first week, during the course of which ours was the only boat we saw afloat in the whole of Upper Loch Torridon. In fact, one afternoon, Martin and I were sitting in the boat in the middle of the loch, with the clouds low on the hills and the rain dribbling down the sails, awaiting any movement of air that might get us back to shore before tea, and I did start to wonder what it might take before I started to question my enjoyment!
Another day Martin and I thought we'd make the most of any time when the breeze died by trying my new fishing rod and three hundred piece fishing kit. Out on the water, the sails lolling impotenty, I gave Martin charge of the helm, should any light air arise to stir us, while I sorted hooks and fiddled, trying to remember how to tie them to the line. All of a sudden, there were ripples on the water, the sails filled, the boat heeled wildly and we were creating a creaming bow wave, covering the distance across the loch in a couple of minutes that it had taken us a whole afternoon the previous day, while I scrabbled to prevent fish hooks from littering the floor around our bare feet and at the same time tried to give instruction to Martin who'd never helmed a dinghy!
Come the weekend, the clouds evaporated and there followed six days of glorious hot weather when we were out everyday in T-shirts and shorts, even on the water and up at 3,000ft late into the evening - very unScottish! We found accommodation slightly farther south, with magnificent views from our living room window up into the majestic corries of Applecross and out to Skye, in a secluded bungalow just outside the small village of Achintraid on the shore of Loch Kishorn. Alix, Adam, Rick and I spent a couple of days of idyllic sailing when we were out for the whole day with picnic and cans of beer, mooring on uninhabited islands and remote beaches for long lunches, lounging in the sun, exploring the rock-pools for crabs and sea-anemones and swimming nude (there simply was no need for swimming costumes because no one was there!), although not for many minutes because the water was chilly. I love to abandon the trappings of civilization as much as possible on holiday - radio and television, swimming trunks, combing my hair, etc. I go happily for days washing and bathing only in salt-water with my hair gone wild, I like the feeling of it.
The Highlands can be extremely bleak and dreary ("driech" in the Scotch dialect) but only in some places and in certain weather. The atmosphere is often fresh and invigorating or imbued with a remarkable softness. Part of the beauty is this softness and the wonderful cloud-scapes. During our hot weather spell, although I wouldn't have wanted to change it, some of the distinctive charm was lost: it reminded me more of the Alps or the Sierra Nevada than Scotland.
I think we've all felt slightly down since returning, we had such a gorgeous few days. Sailing off the sea front here in Liverpool Bay has (at least temporarily) lost its appeal.
***
Sunday 19th March 2000
First launch of the year. It was wonderful to be on the water again! It is something very special to me. On the water, I am happy: life is as it should be and I don't want for anything. I was out at 8:30 a.m. for nearly three hours, and there was no one else.
28th March 2000
Summer time
We switched to British Summer Time this weekend and today the temperature has dropped to 3°C - it feels like January again! I did get out in the boat though, both on Saturday and Sunday. Good thing is, the kids have not adapted to the time change yet, so we get to sleep slightly later, but I wonder how long it'll take for them to catch on.
Sunday 2nd April 2000
Hoylake Sailing Club first dinghy race of the season.
It rained the whole weekend: a pretty much continuous light sea-drizzle which hardly let up even once. Alix took advantage of child-minding by parents and agreed to join me in the boat on Sunday (rare that we are ever in the boat together). At 9 a.m. there was a sea mist and hardly a breath of wind, and we really wondered whether we were silly, sitting bailing the rain out from where it collected from dribbling down the sails as fast as it came in, and feeling the wetness slowly creeping in down our necks. At the starter's gun, the few other boats all managed magically to coax some movement out of the still air, while it took a good two minutes before we managed first to point in the right direction then get underway, bringing up the rear. It was all quite amusing really, and in the end we were glad we'd made the effort to go out. Afterwards, all of us including the boys went into the clubhouse for a drink, then returned home for proper Sunday lunch of roast lamb, a good bottle of Rioja and an afternoon cozily by the living room fire. A near perfect Sunday.
Hoylake Sailing Club Regatta, Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th June 2000
There were around 70 boats racing offshore, so quite a spectacle. I didn't race. I'm not convinced that racing is where my interest lies, I simply like to be out on the water and go where the whim takes me rather than jostle with other craft around buoys. The lifeguard introduced me to Billy who offered to take me out in Magnetic, his Cygnet cruising yacht. We walked out over the sand to his mooring in the outer channel. The tide comes up here with a rush; it is impressive like a fast flowing river, one minute you're lying aground and the next you're bobbing around floating free. It was interesting for a change and novel to be able to brew tea en route in the cabin, but it struck me how sluggish and how restricted in manoeuvring over the sand banks is a boat like Magnetic compared to my dinghy, so on Sunday I was happy to be back under my own sail.
Alix took the boys to the Millennium Dome in Greenwich at the weekend. It has been billed as a festival of Britain to match the great ones of the past but has had bad press and accusations of waste of public money. Alix thought it was accurate in presenting an impression of the state of Britain today in that it was confused and didn't seem to know what it was trying to be, and it had an abundance of what this country is famous for abroad: its queues.
12th June 2000
I'm considering an over-night sailing and camping expedition to Hilbre. The tides were right this weekend but the winds were too fierce for me, force 4 - 5 the whole time, and I didn't get out in the boat at all (I feel deprived). Beautiful sunny weather for the garden though; however, I had to use some of it on afternoon naps as, first Adam, then Richard, were sick during the night and left us very short of sleep.
16th June 2000
I went out on Tuesday evening just after I got home and it was gorgeous in the late light, sailing into the sunset. There was a significant breeze and I was even surfing in on some waves. This weekend the weather looks set lovely and, wind permitting, tomorrow we will all go out and perhaps anchor somewhere for a picnic.
19th June 2000
We are enjoying a heat wave; that is, I am enjoying it, but many are not. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the inner cities reached 90°F this weekend. We have a south wind, but plenty of breeze on the coast to be bearable. We all sailed on Sunday, cruising out to the far edge of the sandbank (about a mile offshore) where we beached, ate picnic lunch and had a swim; it is good to have a break to provide variety for Adam and Richard, otherwise they get restless just having to sit. After we returned, we all went to the beach again (with swimming costumes this time) to cool off while the tide was still up to swim in. Adam and Richard loved it. Later Alix and I were eating dinner on the lawn until 10 p.m. I love weekends like this and count it a great privilege to have the wonderful sea on the doorstep. Being back at work is definitely dull by comparison, but it is what I am paid for.
Monday 26th June 2000
We are in the 70s today, warmer than at the weekend with its brisk northwesterly breeze - too windy for sailing, unfortunately, which we’d been looking forward to as Alix’ sister and family were here to visit. We were a bit downcast from sadness that our visitors had to leave. The kids were so excited the whole time to have each other as playmates and they were all devastated when they had to part. They all shared the same bedroom and around seven each morning we heard the "gentle" patter of feet as they trooped down stairs, trying to be quiet but not quite succeeding, to organize their own breakfast before any of the adults appeared. On Sunday morning they even let themselves out of the house to play in the garden and in the lane before we got up - two of them still half in their night-clothes! And Adam was revelling in showing them around his home territory.
Sunday 30th July 2000
It's been a good weekend for sailing. Thursday evening was looking gorgeous and Adam decided to come with me (partly I suspect as a means of delaying his bed-time); unfortunately shortly after we launched some grey clouds coalesced above and released persistent rain for an hour. Friday really was gorgeous though: what little rain there was had cleared during the course of the day leaving a few fantastic cloud shapes and sparkling sunshine. I was the only boat out and I sailed until just after sunset in only my shorts and T-shirt. The breeze was very light and at one point I let myself hang backwards over the side with my hair almost dabbling in the water becoming almost dizzy from the huge upside down vista of red orb sun and pink tinted clouds gliding passed at water's-eye view. It was very pleasurable.
This morning Richard and I went out together. First time I've taken Richard alone. He was very good (in doing what he was told when told) and seemed really to enjoy and remain interested for the whole of nearly two hours that we were out (in perfect summer weather). He caused some amusement upon landing when he insisted in helping me by pushing the boat from behind with all his might up the slipway!
Saturday 5th August 2000
We are leaving for the Isle of Bute next Saturday and I feel there is a lot to rush to do before we go. Preparations for holidays these days are no longer a simple matter of organizing a rucksack on my back, boots on my feet and money in my pocket. There's the boat trailer to load - do the lights work? - need a new registration number plate to match the new car, grease the wheel bearings, where are all the straps and cords I used last year? Adam, Rick, where have you hidden xyz since I last saw you playing with it? Where are all the tent pegs? Does the camping stove work? etc. Alix tends to organise food and kids' clothes, which is a relief. All I've done is had a case of wine sent to the friends we're staying with for the first week (definitely essential provisions). I try to tell myself that this is a holiday and we're supposed to enjoy it, but I know I've worn myself down because I've succumbed to respiratory infection and my back is playing up (doesn't help to have to lift the boat trailer). None of this stopped us all going out sailing today though. We pottered along the shore to Leasowe beach and landed for the kids to build sand castles for half an hour (they like the break), then headed home before the tide went out. We saw lots of birds and a couple of very brightly coloured jelly fish.
Wednesday 9th August 2000
The boat and equipment is now loaded for the road and ready to go as soon as we can get out on Saturday morning. I avoid the check-list syndrome as much as possible and usually get by with a single pencilled sheet of paper scribbled a week in advance; I do what I consider necessary to avoid wasting time when we are actually away. High tide is about an hour before sunset and there is light air movement: if I feel I've worked well by the end of the day I'd be tempted to go out, although I'm not sure I want to face all the unloading and reloading again!
Isle of Bute and Argyll, August 2000
Our holiday was really wonderful. August Scottish weather again proved remarkably fine. There were only two days in nearly a fortnight when rain deterred us from doing what we had planned, and we had several magnificent days. Of our eleven days spent actually in Scotland, we sailed on six of them.
We enjoyed our time on the Isle of Bute spent with a long-standing friend David in his parental house. His parents are now dead but his sister lives there still. David lives in Switzerland, but returns every couple of years to supervise (and pay for) necessary structural upkeep as it is a large, rambling Victorian property. He generally invites a house-full of friends for the duration, which makes for a lively week - ideal for the kids, because there are other kids to play with, and for the adults too, who have the stimulus of each other's company.
The island is relatively close to Glasgow but, on its western shore particularly, it is quiet and has much of the character of more remote Hebridean islands. We had some fine sailing off the beaches in magnificent scenery and crystal-clear water. I also took some of the other guests out - I enjoy sharing their pleasure in it.
For the second week we moved farther westward and found a delightful camp spot on the shore of Loch Sween. It was a perfect, level, grassy platform a few yards above the shore, facing the sunsets. We had words with the local farmer who let us stay there and gave us access to a water tap, and who also offered to launch our boat from their adjacent field, enabling us to keep it moored right below the tent. We actually used two tents on this trip, letting Adam and Richard share the small backpacking tent together, which they enjoyed, thus leaving us some peace and privacy in the larger dome tent. It was very close to idyllic: we were completely secluded, I was able to read The Hobbit to Adam snuggled up to the campfire for his bedtime story, and we were very little harassed by midges, which is unusual for the Scottish west coast in August.
Upon arrival, it had been a hectic day travelling in the car, the kids had been fractious and were finally in bed, it was a beautifully placid evening with perhaps half an hour left of sun before sinking behind the hills, and I took the boat out. Ghosting along the middle of the loch with barely a whisper, making myself comfortable with my head resting on the thwart staring backwards up at the sky, I was so absorbed that I turned with a start when I suddenly realized I'd nearly bumped into an island full of seals! About a dozen of them on a craggy rock, about twenty yards long and four wide, breaking the surface of the water by about three feet. The rock was actually marked on the 1:50,000 map as a small blip but I hadn'd noticed it. It lay only about 500yd offshore from where we were camped, so we all returned there together in the morning for a closer look. There were several pups among them looking very cute.
Our nearest shop was 4 miles away by boat up the loch at Tayvallich on the opposite shore, but a 20 mile trip around by car, so we experienced the novelty of a family grocery shopping expedition by sail, making a fine day trip, with a good sea-food pub dinner thrown in.
Kilmartin Glen, not far away, is a centre for some of the earliest known settlements in Scotland, so on non-sailing days there were five thousand year old stone circles, burial sites, iron age fortresses, and also near by, tiny ruined churches dating back to the early Roman missionaries of the 6thC AD, some with original 12thC stone carvings still intact, as well as Castle Sween to explore. But I must say that I loved the sailing most: exploring the little islands, anchorages and unfamiliar harbour entrances. It is completely absorbing, demanding a wonderful combination of attention to physical coordination and judgment. That is what I find immensely satisfying about mountaineering too: this combination of physical challenges together with the continual need for reassessment of the situation in the light of one's knowledge of one's own abilities and of the objective dangers.
Tuesday 29th August 2000
I picked up a book from the library recently about how to build a wood and canvas kayak. I am wondering whether I could sustain the motivation and determination for such a project. This came after casually browsing for some information on glass fibre boat repairs: the boat could benefit from a little attention this year. I would like to paint her name on the hull. The word Esmerelda is just discernible written large on the side but so faded as to be almost invisible except in certain light. I'm still in two minds as to whether to call her this or Come What May, which refers to a remark made in conjuction with a decision to sail one day. To me, Esmerelda is the name of an elderly lady, and as time goes by I realize that she deserves the according level of respect.
Brother Martin and family came over the bank holiday and we sailed. Then today Adam and I happened to get the perfect combination of clear sunshine, fine breeze and high spring tide that allowed us to cross the sandbank and circumnavigate Hilbre, a feat that has been my aim since the beginning of the season, but from which I had been deterred either by too much or too little wind or insufficient tide. We spotted a dozen seals on the way, a pair of which followed us at close quarters for up to half a mile (Adam was thrilled).
Wednesday 13th September 2000
This day I was at home working, ostensibly, but there was mild, balmy sunshine and sufficient breeze to tempt me out onto the tide at midday. It was gorgeous and I made good way into the gentle south westerly air, ploshing pleasantly through the wavelets. Out of the distance, suggesting itself as a destination, appeared the HE2 East cardinal buoy that marks the east side of the West Hoyle Bank, beckoning me like a siren to go farther offshore than I have ever been, two and half miles out from the mouth of the Dee estuary. I decided I ought to be able to round it and return with the breeze behind me in time to cross the bank before the tide receded.
It was eerie being alone and so far out, with the buoy and its apparently resident population of perched seagulls on its large scaffold superstructure behung with lights, bells and other navigational symbols; the boat seemed small and fragile compared to its robust iron bulk.
On the way back the breeze became lighter. A seal investigated me closely, surfacing and blowing noisily just off the stern and rolling tummy-up as if to get a better look. Shortly afterwards the wind died.
I tried with the oars to get as far as possible, and then towed and hauled on the painter as the ebbing tide left me with barely enough depth to cover my ankles, but eventually had to deploy the anchors, abandon my vessel and walk home, some fifteen minutes back to Hoylake promenade.
Next high tide was not until midnight so I would have to walk out and wait for the flood two hours before, then row back in the dark. My main concern was to locate the boat on the vast expanse of sand in darkness; I had taken a compass bearing and, fortunately, noticed that the iron railings on the promenade caused the needle to deviate by about 30°!
Come What May / Esmerelda finally appeared as a ghostly white shadow in the torch beam. Waiting on board for the tide was a quietly serene experience, reclining quite comfortably in my 8mm wet suit in a slight drizzle. It was rather beautiful: wet but warm in the dark, with the night full of the sounds of oyster catchers and imagining the gurgling trickle of advancing water becoming louder by the minute, and a hint of moonlight behind the clouds.
20th September 2000
The season is distinctly about to slide into autumn. The apples have reached full ripeness and are starting to drop, and there are widespread hints of leaves starting to turn colour. The sunshine is warm during the day, but last night the temperature dropped nearly to 50°F for the first time probably in months. With the shorter days, the number of high tides potentially suitable for sailing becomes restricted; that combined with the higher probability of poor weather means sailing will be sporadic (I've been out only twice this month). But I love this season.
22nd November 2000
I'm enthralled with a book at the moment. It is a description of three seasons spent sailing up the eastern seaboard of North America, from Florida to the St. Lawrence, in a 16ft Wayfarer dinghy by Frank Dye. It is about exploration by sail stripped to its bare essentials, the idea of which appeals to me enormously, and is exactly the sort of sailing I'd love to do on this coast, although without some of the author's more hairy adventures. Among other things, he has opened my eyes to what an enormous and varied coast North America has - like distances on the land, the size of the coastline is difficult to conceive compared to this country.
Day 130/365
As you can see, the sun is back today, so I took 5 minutes to enjoy it this AM. Who knows what the day will bring, so it is a distinct probability that I won't have another 5 minutes to sit later! LOL
As for the photo, I am not LOVING it, but it is pretty good sunflare. I think the interesting level is really low on it though. How many photos on Flickr can you find that are almost the same as this!?!? LOL See what I mean!?! No originality whatsoever. Oh well. It is what it is and if I get a moment later, I may just try something else to post. We'll see...
Alright, I am rambling when there are dishes to be done, floors to be vacuumed, and kids running amuck! Have a great day Flickr Friends!!
SOOC
Summer, 2009
Another shot by the campfire. I love photographing near campfires because I feel like they provide the absolute best light possible (depending on your angle and approach to the subject). It also sometimes produces amazing shadow effects. I don't normally get lucky with campfire shots, but the probability turns in our favor after so many shutter clicks. I like this one, so after looking at this from different distances (don't pretend like you don't do this... :-) ), I decided it was okay to share.
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
This "super-resolution” view of asteroid Bennu was created using eight images obtained by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft on Oct. 29, 2018, from a distance of about 205 miles (330 km). The spacecraft was moving as it captured the images with the PolyCam camera, and Bennu rotated 1.2 degrees during the nearly one minute that elapsed between the first and the last snapshot. The team used a super-resolution algorithm to combine the eight images and produce a higher resolution view of the asteroid. Bennu occupies about 100 pixels and is oriented with its north pole at the top of the image.
OSIRIS-REx seeks answers to the questions that are central to the human experience: Where did we come from? What is our destiny? Asteroids, the leftover debris from the solar system formation process, can answer these questions and teach us about the history of the Sun and planets.
The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is traveling to Bennu, a carbonaceous asteroid whose material may record the earliest history of our solar system. Bennu may contain the molecular precursors to the origin of life and the Earth’s oceans. Bennu is also one of the most potentially hazardous asteroids, as it has a relatively high probability of impacting Earth late in the 22nd century. OSIRIS-REx will determine Bennu’s physical and chemical properties, which will be critical to know in the event of an impact mitigation mission. Finally, asteroids like Bennu contain natural resources such as water, organics and precious metals. In the future, these asteroids may one day fuel the exploration of the solar system by robotic and manned spacecraft.
Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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Unusually for such a medium-sized carnivorous animal, the barn owl exhibits r-selection, producing large number of offspring with a high growth rate, many of which have a relatively low probability of surviving to adulthood. While wild barn owls are thus decidedly short-lived, the actual longevity of the species is much higher – captive individuals may reach twenty years of age or more. But occasionally, a wild bird reaches an advanced age. The American record age for a wild barn owl is eleven and a half years, while a Dutch bird was noted to have reached an age of seventeen years, ten months. Another captive barn owl, in England, lived to be over twenty-five years old. Taking into account such extremely long-lived individuals, the average lifespan of the barn owl is about four years, and statistically two-thirds to three-quarters of all adults survive from one year to the next. However, the mortality is not evenly distributed throughout the bird's life, and only one young in three manages to live to its first breeding attempt.
The most significant cause of death in temperate areas is likely to be starvation, particularly over the autumn and winter period when first year birds are still perfecting their hunting skills. In northern and upland areas, there is some correlation between mortality in older birds and adverse weather, deep-lying snow and prolonged low temperatures. Collision with road vehicles is another cause of mortality, and may result when birds forage on mown verges. Some of these birds are in poor condition and may have been less able to evade oncoming vehicles than fit individuals would have been. Historically, many deaths were caused by the use of pesticides, and this may still be the case in some parts of the world. Collisions with power-lines kill some birds and shooting accounts for others, especially in Mediterranean regions
Former Handyman Home Center located at 2230 Cleveland Ave. in Santa Rosa,CA. Circuit City took over the building along with many other former Handyman locations in the mid 1980's. The building went under some minor renovations at some point but not much compared to what others went through. The building was vacated by Circuit City Im guessing a year or two ago. New stores are being constructed very close to this abandoned building thus the probability of demolition taking place is quite high.
Role: Long Range Patrol, Attack & Defence Platform
Armament: sHV17 Goalkeeper 30x155mm CIWS (x2), Raytheon KP22[hm] Pilum Block V (x8), Lockheed Martin Peregrine MR Tactical Nuclear Missile (x2) (optional)
Despite smaller and more advanced defence platforms such as the Tursiops and Delphinapterus being developed, the decades old Orcinus gunboats remain the primary long range patrol and attack craft within IBN fleets.
Two pilots are able to go out on extended patrols for up to two weeks. The cramped accommodation within the rear cabin provide only the most basic amenities, and as a result, Orcinus pilots are colloquially referred to as "Gemini Jockeys". But the two pilots are able to rotate piloting shifts and when in battle, the secondary pilot can act as gunner and sensor officer from the rear terminal.
Most targeting, sensor and jamming systems have been upgraded over time leaving the exterior of most of the frontline units a hodge-podge of sensor blisters and radomes. So although most ships are a good decade older than their pilots, they are still highly capable to take on more advanced enemy craft.
Robust and reliable 2nd generation fusion reactors power the dual main engine nozzles and multiple reaction control thrusters. More efficient power and propulsion systems have since been developed, but the tried and tested technology allows for easy field maintainability in remote forward operating bases.
The dual sHV17 Goalkeepers function adequately in both anti-missile defence, as well as, close quarters ship-to-ship combat. Veteran pilots like nothing more than to hide close to abandoned station complexes when on anti-piracy patrol and surprising enemy ships while they are busy with docking procedures. The Pilum armament is a rudimentary kinetic penetrator, powered by a high maneuverability rocket engine. However, the Block V systems feature the added benefit of the 'Maelstrom' secondary attack function. If the projectile is estimated to miss the target, or there is a a high probability of intercept by CIWS it will take a more erratic flight path to confuse the targeting systems and then the outer shroud will detonate sending a barrage of high velocity small projectiles towards the target. It certainly does not do as much damage as the full penetrator, but it typically is enough to disrupt and disable sensor and defensive systems allowing for further Pilums to be launched in order to eliminate the target...also useful when only wanting to disable an enemy ship to allow for boarding. The Peregrine missile is typically only outfitted when units are likely to meet capital ships, or when operating in a station assault role.
Macro Mondays 21.06.2021 "Matchstick"
When it comes to history, we used to learn the dates of battles and victories, but it's often small details that truly bring a dry narrative to life.
These matches turned up only this year in a house in Lower Austria. The owner was complaining that it was difficult to get them to strike properly. How old they were, and where they had come from, she did not know, much less did she understand the double-meanings of the printed warnings.
These are matches that were issued to the US Armed Forces during the allied military occupation of Austria (1945-1955). "Fraternising" as they called it, was frowned on, but nonetheless a fact, and the health of the troops was of course of prime importance. The offer of a cigarette (American ones were sought after) was a usual opener, so what better place to print a word of caution than on a match-book!
The atmosphere of occupied Vienna in the immediate post-war years is well-captured in these videos:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=75tiRL_n-GU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBS-6CbnE9o
Just to add another note of (photographic) history, I used a lens that in all probability also came to Austria during the years of occupation - from the USSR. In my camera collection there are two beautiful Russian Leica copies: a Zorki C and a "Zorki Zorki" (the name is engraved both in cyrillic and roman lettering) - this is the lens of the latter, an Industar-22 1:3.5 F=5cm. It's a collapsible lens, so when mounted on extension tubes (here on original Leica tubes from the early 1930s), it becomes a rather versatile macro with a good focal-range and excellent image-quality. (Camera: Sony A7C)
With the lighting I tried to create an atmosphere appropriate to the subject.
Erklärung: "V.D." ist die geläufige Bezeichnung für Geschlechtskrankheiten.
P.S. If you would like to see an excellent film that truly captures the atmosphere of Vienna in the years of allied occupation, I can highly recommend "The Third Man" by Graham Greene, with Orson Welles , Joseph Cotton and Trevor Howard in the leading roles.
HMM - and don't get burned!
(Horizontal measurement less than 7cm)
How to identify
Sparrowhawks are small birds of prey. They're adapted for hunting birds in confined spaces like dense woodland, so gardens are ideal hunting grounds for them. Adult male Sparrowhawks have a bluish-grey back and wings and orangey-brown stripes on their chest and belly. Females and young birds have brown back and wings, and brown stripes underneath. Sparrowhawks have bright yellow or orangey eyes, yellow legs and talons. Females are larger than males, as with all birds of prey.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus), also known as the northern sparrowhawk or simply the sparrowhawk, is a small bird of prey in the family Accipitridae. Adult male Eurasian sparrowhawks have bluish grey upperparts and orange-barred underparts; females and juveniles are brown above with brown barring below. The female is up to 25% larger than the male – one of the greatest size differences between the sexes in any bird species. Though it is a predator which specialises in catching woodland birds, the Eurasian sparrowhawk can be found in any habitat and often hunts garden birds in towns and cities. Males tend to take smaller birds, including tits, finches, and sparrows; females catch primarily thrushes and starlings, but are capable of killing birds weighing 500 g (18 oz) or more.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk is found throughout the temperate and subtropical parts of the Old World; while birds from the northern parts of the range migrate south for winter, their southern counterparts remain resident or make dispersive movements. Eurasian sparrowhawks breed in suitable woodland of any type, with the nest, measuring up to 60 cm (24 in) across, built using twigs in a tree. Four or five pale blue, brown-spotted eggs are laid; the success of the breeding attempt is dependent on the female maintaining a high weight while the male brings her food. The chicks hatch after 33 days and fledge after 24 to 28 days.
The probability of a juvenile surviving its first year is 34%, with 69% of adults surviving from one year to the next. Mortality in young males is greater than that of young females and the typical lifespan is four years. This species is now one of the most common birds of prey in Europe, although the population crashed after the Second World War. Organochlorine insecticides used to treat seeds before sowing built up in the bird population, and the concentrations in Eurasian sparrowhawks were enough to kill some outright and incapacitate others; affected birds laid eggs with fragile shells which broke during incubation. However, its population recovered after the chemicals were banned, and it is now relatively common, classified as being of least concern by BirdLife International.
The Eurasian sparrowhawk's hunting behaviour has brought it into conflict with humans for hundreds of years, particularly racing pigeon owners and people rearing poultry and gamebirds. It has also been blamed for decreases in passerine populations. Studies of racing pigeon deaths found that Eurasian sparrowhawks were responsible for less than 1%. Falconers have utilised the Eurasian sparrowhawk since at least the 16th century; although the species has a reputation for being difficult to train, it is also praised for its courage. The species features in Teutonic mythology and is mentioned in works by writers including William Shakespeare, Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Ted Hughes.
Former Handyman Home Center located at 2230 Cleveland Ave. in Santa Rosa,CA. Circuit City took over the building along with many other former Handyman locations in the mid 1980's. The building went under some minor renovations at some point but not much compared to what others went through. The building was vacated by Circuit City Im guessing a year or two ago. New stores are being constructed very close to this abandoned building thus the probability of demolition taking place is quite high.
He had been an ordinary man in an ordinary chair when suddenly the world began to swell around him. He jumped up in terror as the spider on the carpet became a colossal machine of muscle and glassy eyes.
And still, he diminished.
Beyond molecules, atoms spread apart into wide solar systems of charge and probability. He wandered through a quantum wilderness where motion became suggestion and cause blurred into effect. He expected nothing beyond this frontier: the last limit science could conceive.
But there was more.
As he shrank past quarks, past the Planck veil, something astonishing revealed itself. Not void, not silence: immensity. A universe as vast as the one he had left, filled with galaxies that thrummed with their own physics, stars that sang in unfamiliar tones, worlds circling in cosmic geometries. It was not small at all, it was simply scaled to him now.
Still he shrank, trapped in a nightmare he could not control.
And then, to his surprise, he arrived in a room.
A modest room with a carpet and a wooden chair.
And in that chair sat a man.
Himself.
Staring, wide-eyed, at the world beginning to swell.
The age of the site has been significantly refined over the last century. From 1910 to 1945, Arthur Posnansky maintained that the site was 11,000–17,000 years old based on comparisons to geological eras and archaeoastronomy.
Beginning in the 1970s, Carlos Ponce Sanginés proposed the site was first occupied around 1580 BC, the site's oldest radiocarbon date. This date is still seen in some publications and museums in Bolivia.
Since the 1980s, researchers have recognized this date as unreliable, leading to the consensus that the site is no older than 200 or 300 BC. Most recently, a statistical assessment of reliable radiocarbon dates estimates that the site was founded around AD 110 (50–170, 68% probability), a date supported by the lack of ceramic styles from earlier periods.
The 2,880 m (9,449 ft) long bridge dramatically improves access to and from the Peloponnese, which could previously be reached only by ferry or via the isthmus of Corinth at its extreme east end. Its width is 28 m (92 ft) — it has two vehicle lanes per direction, an emergency lane and a pedestrian walkway. Its five-span four-pylon cable-stayed portion of length 2,252 m (7,388 ft) is the world's second longest cable-stayed deck; only the deck of the Millau Viaduct is longer at 2,460 m (8,071 ft). However, as the latter is also supported by bearings at the pylons apart from cable stays, the Rio-Antirrio bridge deck might be considered the longest cable-stayed "suspended" deck.
This bridge is widely considered to be an engineering masterpiece owing to several solutions applied to span the difficult site. These difficulties include deep water, insecure materials for foundations, seismic activity, the probability of tsunamis, and the expansion of the Gulf of Corinth due to plate tectonics.
Oliver's Mound: An oblong earthen mound, said to have been thrown up by Oliver Cromwell. This account of its origin has, however, been disproved, and from the fact of Roman remains having been found in it, it is in all probability Roman. Various accounts prove it to have been in existence before Cromwell's time, though it may have been used as a rampart to protect his artillery.
aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20000725-0
The Air France Concorde, registered F-BTSC, was to depart Paris-Charles de Gaulle for a flight (4590) to New York-JFK. Departure was delayed by about one hour because the crew had requested a replacement of the thrust reverser pneumatic motor of the no. 2 engine. Also, the rear bogie truck of the left hand main undercarriage was replaced. When all 100 passengers had boarded, the plane taxied to runway 26R (4217 m long). Takeoff weight was calculated to be 186,9 tons, including 95 tons of fuel, which was one tone over the maximum takeoff weight. At 14:42:17 the crew were cleared for takeoff.
At 14:42:31, the captain commenced takeoff. At 14:42:54.6, the co-pilot called one hundred knots, then V1 nine seconds later. A few seconds after that, tyre No 2 (right front) on the left main landing gear was destroyed after having run over a strip of metal lost by a Continental Airlines DC-10-30, registered N13067 which departed Paris as flight 055 to Newark five minutes before. The destruction of the tyre in all probability resulted in large pieces of rubber being thrown against the underside of the left wing and the rupture of a part of tank 5. A severe fire broke out under the left wing and around the same time engines 1 and 2 suffered a loss of thrust, severe for engine 2, slight for engine 1. By 14:43:13, as the captain commenced the rotation, the controller informed the crew the presence of flames behind the aircraft. The co-pilot acknowledged this transmission and the flight engineer announced the failure of engine no. 2. Nine seconds later the engine fire alarm sounded and the flight engineer announced "shut down engine 2" then the captain called for the "engine fire" procedure. A few seconds later, the engine 2 fire handle was pulled and the fire alarm stopped. The co-pilot drew the captain's attention to the airspeed, which was 200 kt. At 14:43:30, the captain called for landing gear retraction. The controller confirmed the presence of large flames behind the aircraft. Twelve seconds later the engine fire alarm sounded again for around 12 seconds. It sounded for the third time at about 14:43:58 and continued until the end of the flight. At 14:43:56, the co-pilot commented that the landing gear had not retracted and made several callouts in relation to the airspeed. Three seconds later, the GPWS alarm sounded several times. The co-pilot informed ATC that they were trying for Le Bourget aerodrome. Then the number 1 engine lost power as well. The aircraft entered a left turn until control was lost, crashing into hotel 'Hotellisimo' and bursting into flames.
Probable Cause:
- High-speed passage of a tyre over a part lost by an aircraft that had taken off five minutes earlier and the destruction of the tyre.
- The ripping out of a large piece of tank in a complex process of transmission of the energy produced by the impact of a piece of tyre at another point on the tank, this transmission associating deformation of the tank skin and the movement of the fuel, with perhaps the contributory effect of other more minor shocks and /or a hydrodynamic pressure surge.
- Ignition of the leaking fuel by an electric arc in the landing gear bay or through contact with the hot parts of the engine with forward propagation of the flame causing a very large fire under the aircraft's wing and severe loss of thrust on engine 2 then engine 1.
In addition, the impossibility of retracting the landing gear probably contributed to the retention and stabilisation of the flame throughout the flight.
New book! Epic Landscape Photography: The Principles of Fine Art Nature Photography!
www.facebook.com/epiclandscapephotography/
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
facebook.com/mcgucken
Working on a couple photography books! 45EPIC GODDESS PHOTOGRAPHY: A classic guide to exalting the archetypal woman. And 45EPIC Fine Art Landscape Photography!
More on my golden ratio musings: facebook.com/goldennumberratio
instagram.com/goldennumberratio
Greetings all! I have been busy finishing a few books on photography, while traveling all over--to Zion and the Sierras--shooting fall colors. Please see some here: facebook.com/mcgucken
Let me know in the comments if you would like a free review copy of one of my photography books! :)
Titles include:
The Tao of Epic Landscape Photography: Exalt Fine Art with the Yin-Yang Wisdom of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching!
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography
facebook.com/goldennumberratio
And I am also working on a book on photographing the goddesses! :) More goddesses soon!
Best wishes on your epic hero's odyssey!:)
I love voyaging forth into nature 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 instagram!
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
Egypto-Dutch Princesses Anna and Mieken Sobek-nakht have a relatively low probability value so that they were only able to exist briefly for a two day period in Paris in the Spring of 1932. After that they flickered out of existence, but not before this photo was captured of them in the living quarters of Pablo Picasso who wanted the two to model for him, which they never did.
Stable Diffusion | Photoshop
Visit my free gallery show in West Hollywood: facebook.com/mcgucken !!
Enjoy my new fine art landscapes & ballet video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3b1df46oKw
Let me know what you think! :)
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
facebook.com/mcgucken
Working on a couple photography books! 45EPIC GODDESS PHOTOGRAPHY: A classic guide to exalting the archetypal woman. And 45EPIC Fine Art Landscape Photography!
More on my golden ratio musings: facebook.com/goldennumberratio
instagram.com/goldennumberratio
Greetings all! I have been busy finishing a few books on photography, while traveling all over--to Zion and the Sierras--shooting fall colors. Please see some here: facebook.com/mcgucken
Let me know in the comments if you would like a free review copy of one of my photography books! :)
Titles include:
The Tao of Epic Landscape Photography: Exalt Fine Art with the Yin-Yang Wisdom of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching!
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography
facebook.com/goldennumberratio
And I am also working on a book on photographing the goddesses! :) More goddesses soon!
Best wishes on your epic hero's odyssey!:)
I love voyaging forth into nature 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 instagram!
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
Enjoy my new fine art landscapes & ballet video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3b1df46oKw
Let me know what you think! :)
Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography
Zion NP Fall Foliage, Autumn Colors, & Winter Snow! Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography!
Antelope Canyon! Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography!
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.
Iceland is seeing some of the worst winter storms in years these days with extreme wind speeds, rain and snow all mixed up under the cover of grey skies.
For a northern lights hunter and a photography guide like myself, that is a nightmare so I use every opportunity I get to go out, in hopes of catching a glimpse of the elusive lights.
Last night, after studying the weather forecast and the probability of seeing some northern lights, I decided to give it a shot. I went to the only place that had a remote possibility of getting an opening in the clouds which was Stafnes lighthouse on the Reykjanes peninsula.
It was very windy when I got there and the waves beating against the rocks sprayed a mist over everying, giving the beam from the lighthouse a foggy look. I positioned myself with my back to the wind, protecting the camera gear and the lens from the mist. Then I spread the tripod out wider than usual and weighed it down to make it sturdy enough to get rid of any camera shake.
By that time I could see the stars glowing faintly through the thinning clouds and then all of a sudden there came an opening and the starlit sky screamed at me with a faint but beautiful aurora dancing above the lighthouse.
I quickly shot 6 portrait shots of the landscape before me for making a panorama later and I knew that if I didn´t get anything else that night, I was content.
What do you think? =)
Thank you for viewing. Look me up on Facebook too... =)
If you are heading to Iceland and would like to get a photography tour, check out Arctic Shots... =)
What exactly is this monstrosity? Why, my attempt at a realistic starfighter, of course. I'll be taking more pictures, to include loadout and description shots soon. In the meantime, here's the unnecessarily long backstory:
“Good morning ladies and Gentlemen. You’re here because the Space Corps has determined you have a need to be read-in to the “HAVE SHIVER” program. I don’t need to remind you of the extreme sensitivity of this information.
“Project HAVE SHIVER was borne out of an operational need for a maneuverable, autonomous manned space fighter-interceptor to act as an additional line of defense to orbital installations and mobile cruisers. As you know, the Coalition has become adept at jamming our data link connections with long range defensive drones, all too often rendering our shorter range secondary defenses the only ones available. A manned fighter can operate 100% autonomous if need be.
“More than simply being autonomous, this fighter needs to be maneuverable. You know all too well the shortcomings of our only other attempt at a space “fighter,” the SF-7, which is enormously overweight, underpowered, and on the whole, not very adept at maneuvering. The coalition’s defenses are based heavily around kinetic weapons, which are highly effective against our current equipment. However, a lightweight fighter, so long as it detects the incoming projectile, could easily sidestep it.
“The primary weapon for Project HAVE SHIVER is a modified version of the MIM-21 Configurable Munitions Delivery Platform, colloquially known as the “Boom Box.” The most common loadouts for HAVE SHIVER intercept- or space-superiority missions are flash-expansion or radial flak configuration, employed under a shoot-look-shoot philosophy. These tend to offer the greatest probability of kill against the volleyed-saturation-style weaponry the Coalition prefers, while still maintaining a recommit capability.
“The potential for expansion of HAVE SHIVER’s mission was quickly realized, and fortunately provided for in its modularity of design. Testing is underway for employment of GKU-59 and -63 Guided Kinetic Units, and a modified T28u railgun. Additionally, last week’s raid on the Elger facility was HAVE SHIVER’s first operational delivery of a W-98 low-yield penetrator nuke. Not only was Elger a strategic Lunar observation point and launch facility, but intel had reported that a significant command-and-control node was housed somewhere in the same network of tunnels. We believe we’ve struck a very heavy blow to their command structure.
“We now have squadrons located at Boen, Killian, and Adams stations, and deployed with the 2nd Fleet. All major Earth- and Solar-orbital installations are projected to get their own HAVE SHIVER defenses within the next five years, and the new carrier under construction at L3 was designed with HAVE SHIVER in mind. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future.”
"SW side of 2nd St. at Commercial. Built around 1890.
One of the oldest wooden frame, false front buildings in town. It served as a livery stable in 1907. In c.1913 Greek immigrant E. Mike Demopoulous established Anacortes Junk Co." -City of Anacortes
Efthimios "Mike" Demopoulos lived what was, literally, a rags to riches story. He spoke no English when he came to the U.S. from Greece as a teenager, learning it as he worked at restaurants, railroads and shipyards in Portland and Seattle.
Born in Ballos, Greece, on July 24, 1889. He immigrated to the United States in 1907, traveling to Portland, Oregon, to live with his cousin. He wanted to be more than a dishwasher, so he moved north and worked at various jobs including digging the original Anacortes sewer lines. He also worked at the Seattle Shipyards of Robert Moran, who built Rosario Resort, in Tacoma, and in Vancouver, B. C. In 1913 he returned to Anacortes to make his permanent home. He borrowed $14 and gathered junk and scrap in a wheelbarrow, later using a horse and wagon, and finally trucks. Anacortes Junk Co. was later re-named Marine Supply and Hardware and moved to 1009 2nd Street.
Toil was second nature to a man who until age 90 showed up for work at six every morning.
Demopoulos bought property "every time he made a quarter extra," but never forgot to give back. His generosity is legendary. Much of his land he eventually gave to Anacortes because "the town helped me and I'm helping it." He donated property for the plywood mill and the schools. In 1956 he donated ten square city blocks of waterfront property to the Port of Anacortes, enabling them to establish the Cap Sante Boat Haven.
"The Port of Anacortes has decided to take down the historic Anacortes Junk Co. building behind the Marine Supply & Hardware store because a report found that the structure was unsafe.
A port-hired structural engineer wrote that the building was “unsafe and dangerous” for occupants and stated it had a “high probability of collapse under any high wind or seismic event” in a Oct. 25 letter to the port.
While the port is unable to save the building at this point, it hopes to be able to salvage its recognizable facade on Second Street and donate it to the Anacortes Museum, said Brenda Treadwell, port director of planning, properties and environmental." - Anacortes American
Former Handyman Home Center located at 2230 Cleveland Ave. in Santa Rosa,CA. Circuit City took over the building along with many other former Handyman locations in the mid 1980's. The building went under some minor renovations at some point but not much compared to what others went through. The building was vacated by Circuit City Im guessing a year or two ago. New stores are being constructed very close to this abandoned building thus the probability of demolition taking place is quite high.