View allAll Photos Tagged Probability
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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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.
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
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.
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.
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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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! :)
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.
Paris Airshow memories or
the beautiful smooth lines of the De Havilland Comet or maybe not!
XZ286 Royal Air Force British Aerospace Nimrod AEW.3 seen on a high speed fly-by at the Paris Airshow 1981 :)
Nimrod AEW.3 In the mid-1970s a modified Nimrod was proposed for the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) mission, as a replacement for the Lancaster-derived, piston-engined Shackleton AEW.2. Eleven redundant Nimrod MR.1 airframes were converted by British Aerospace at the former Avro plant at Woodford. GEC Marconi radars were housed in the distinctive bulbous nose and tail. The Nimrod AEW3 project was plagued by cost over-runs and problems with the GEC 4080M computer used and, eventually, the MoD recognised that the cost of developing the radar system to achieve the required level of performance was prohibitive, and the probability of success very uncertain, and in Dec 1986 the project was cancelled. All of the completed and partially completed airframes were broken up! The RAF eventually received seven Boeing E-3 Sentry aircraft instead. [Wiki]
Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera and 300mm lens. From an original slide, scanned and restored.
You can see a random selection of my aviation memories here: www.flickriver.com/photos/heathrowjunkie/random/l slide, scanned and restored.
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 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.
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
I'm back. I said I would be. Yes, I started writing this a day after the annual commemoration of the death of Magnus Erlandsen, St Magnus. No, I didn't miss it, nor did I forget to raise a dram distilled from Orcadian barley. What I did miss, do miss, is the magnificence of Orkney. I have my reasons for the distraction. Realistically they are other peoples' reasons because they were not my choice!
This bump in the landscape, Maeshowe, wasn't approached on my terms either. This chambered cairn, looking not dissimilar externally to Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey, is a remarkably different thing inside. You'll have to trust me. From some foible of exhuberant curation: photography forbidden!
The name is curious. Styled as M'eshoo in the 1850s the spelling has been standardised as Maeshowe with, presumably, an accompanying shift in pronunciation. Just what it was called in antiquity is a mystery. In all likelihood the etymology is from the Old Norse mað — meadow — compounded with haugr — a multipurpose word for some lump in the landscape. Vikings, it seems, got the naming rights and that places the name as quite modern given the probability that the original construction was about 5 millennia ago.
Despite the misty, mizzling blur I quite like this approach to an ancient structure through a cow paddock. It reminds me in many important ways of the archaeologist's instruction to turn left at the sheep's water trough below Stonehenge. Here on Orkney I'm approaching a raised platform of earth — bearing the mound — surrounded by a whopping ditch and with evidence of standing stones within and without that mound. There's a reminder here that all of these things are alike and the British Isles prototypes were up here in the north, not on Salisbury Plain.
Walking up this path is more satisfying than the minibus ride here from the Visitors Centre to the carpark at Tormiston Mill. Now, I'm all for inclusion so please don't misunderstand me. Tormiston Mill is on the wrong side of a busy road to the start of the path to Maeshowe. To safely guide the visitors across this road the Visitor Centre provides a monitor. The wisdom of selecting someone so profoundly deaf as to need a cochlear implant and then have them stand perpendicular to the road, and thus unable to detect traffic coming from one direction, is as enigmatic as Maeshowe itself.
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.
The Reformed Church in Baia Sprie was built between 1792-1809, the tower being completed in 1836.
But a number of essential information, such as the architect, the craftsman, details of the building history, etc. are not known.
Lately, the problem of identifying the architect with Mihály Péchy (1755-1819), the architect of the reformed church in Debrecen (1805-1821), has arisen. Even if no archive data are published in this respect, the circumstances do not deny the probability of this attribution. Mihály Péchy, considered one of the most important architects of early Hungarian Classicism, had died in Fersig, not far from Baia Sprie. It can be rightly assumed that he was born in Fersig, not in Álmosd (Hungary, Hajdú-Bihar County), as he had argued in earlier literature.
Péchy finished the military academy in Vienna, where he became a military architect, and the peak of his military career was the defense of the Győr fortress in 1809 in the Napoleonic wars. His career as an architect is known only in segments. Its first known ecclesiastical building is the reformed church of Dumbrăvioara (1784-1786), which, even though it is smaller, reminds the church of Baia Sprie, especially regarding the design of the façade and interior space.
I took these photos on a chance encounter, at Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park. We visited just to see the scenery, and were totally taken by surprise when the moose turned up. I think moose would have been one of the highest of my list of animals to see in Canada, but I thought it was pretty low down in terms of probability. I think we just got very lucky to stumble on them in such spectacular surroundings.
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 if the Scoter wasn't there.
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.
Really muddy face must have been grubbing around in the bottom. After a couple of further dives it had gone.
KOAN | When She Will Recognize Him
youtu.be/iBpPrbLGThI?si=EZVKo0Knf69G5xu6
Time does not pass.
It only lays down layers.
What once had form
dissolves,
returns as possibility.
Not as the same shape,
not with a name,
not with memory—
but as a recognition without knowing.
We do not meet again
because we were searching,
but because time remembers.
Perhaps reincarnation is nothing mystical.
Perhaps it is simply what happens
when time refuses
to let a possibility disappear.
And so we appear again—
not as ourselves,
but as nearness,
as echo,
as probability.
Not everything returns.
But some things remain
long enough in time
to become again.
by عربي (arabian)
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
Thank you for visiting - ❤ with gratitude! Fave if you like it, add comments below, get beautiful HDR prints at qualityHDR.com.
We spent 3+ days in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to attend Balls 24, a crazy rocket launch event with huge rockets. Some people call this event the Super Bowl of rocketry. Over 300 people attended, there were teams from as far as England and Egypt. Many rockets were built in the garage from scratch, including the solid propellant for the motors.
Quite a number of rockets came down ballistic, either with some problems with the electronics, structural problems at high g-forces and supersonic speed, parachute deployment problems, or simply by operator error. You gotta have balls to be there - the probability to get hit by a rocket is tiny but not zero.
I captured this desert dart shortly after sunset. I cloud positioned itself just to get this smoking gun, aka rocket.
I processed a balanced HDR photo from three RAW exposures, and carefully adjusted the color balance and curves. I welcome and appreciate constructive feedback.
-- ƒ/5.6, 89 mm, 1/800 sec, ISO 100, Sony NEX-6, SEL-55210, HDR, 3 RAW exposures, _DSC7815_6_7_hdr3bal1h.jpg
-- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, © Peter Thoeny, Quality HDR Photography
"Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that the mere fact of our existence should keep us all in a state of contented dazzlement"-Lewis Thomas (1913-1993) Physician, poet, etymologist, researcher.
As a meteorologist I new the probability of a rainbow was high as the Spring rains started to die down and the sun was breaking through to the west. So We quickly made our way over to the Blue Mesa viewpoint and were rewarded with this stunning view. I quickly grabbed the gear and manually focused the lens. The rainbow was fading fast. So I fired 3 quick sets of bracketed shots off in rapid succession hoping one would be a keeper. This photo came out far better than I ever expected. Side note...this is really an #hdr! Carefully created in #photomatics edited in #LR
Check out #tomlinsonphotoAZ2015 for more photos from my road trip through Arizona back in April.
#NationalParks #nationalpark #FindYourPark #EncuentraTuParque #Nature #canon6d #canon #travel #petrifiedforestnationalpark #earthporn #rainbow #itsamazingoutthere #arizona.
Can be purchased @
www.jasontomlinsonphoto.com/National-Parks/Petrified-Forest/
Maple Sugar...
The 1967 Pontiac Firebird Custom at the Mississauga Promenade Centers 15th Annual Cruisin' for A Cure Canada;
Something I have been a huge supporter of in the past. The Car Show That Saves Men's Lives, which is held annually at the Powerade center in Brampton.
that was the first one in three years as Coiid shut it down and this is the first one since 2019. the turn out was amazing with over 400 cars participating and a smaller than typical crowd of only 3000. hopefully this year will be better.
Please tell your husbands, fathers, uncles, grandfather brothers and any man you care about to get a PSA test it changes the odds from 5 % survivability to 93%.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind lung cancer. About 1 man in 41 will die of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer can be a fatal disease, but due to early detection most men diagnosed with prostate cancer will not die from it.
74% of prostate cancers are diagnosed early at Stage I and II. The probability of surviving prostate cancer at least five years after diagnosis is about 93% in Canada.
For more information check out the website for the car show.
www.cruisinforacurecanada.com/About.htm
Thank you for visiting for marking my photo as a favorite and for the kind comments,
Please do not copy my image or use it on websites, blogs or other media without my express permission.
© NICK MUNROE (MUNROE PHOTOGRAPHY)
You can contact me
by email @
karenick23@yahoo.ca
munroephotographic@gmail.com
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or on Facebook @
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With the opening of the ring gates and the ratcheting up of tensions throughout the solar system, the MCRN quickly determined that they needed a replacement for the Morrigan-class patrol destroyer with greater range/endurance and enhanced self-defense capabilities.
Classified as a scout destroyer, the Samar-class is 40 m long and has a crew of 9 on a standard 3 shift rotation with a pilot, engineer, and a weapon/electronic systems officer on duty at all times. Up to 2 additional specialists may be added to the crew for unique missions.
It is equipped with 6 Nariman Dynamics 40 mm point defense cannons, providing overlapping defense coverage across 4pi steradians, rectifying one of the key deficiencies of the Morrigan-class.
The standard Samar-class vessel carries a modest 8 torpedos, loaded into an 8-cell vertical launcher (VLS). Simulations have shown that firing all 8 torpedos in a single salvo generates a higher probability of hit against large combatants than firing each individually.
The ship’s propulsion system consists of a single Epstein drive and attitude control system (ACS) thrusters in banks at the fore and mid-body.
The class is named for the Battle Off Samar, a WWII naval engagement in which a small task force of US Navy destroyers, destroyer escorts, and escort carriers prevailed over a much larger Japanese armada in one of the greatest last stands in naval history.
Credit to Mark Gagliano for the clean engine section on his Rocinante model that I borrowed here.
The Rio-Antirrio bridge in Patra, Greece, formally named "Charilaos Trikoupis" bridge.
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. (wikipedia)
Megastructures Megabridges Greece Rio Antirio Bridge (National Geographic)
Taken at Eagleby Wetland Reserve.
The black swan is an Australian icon. The official emblem of Western Australia, depicted in the state flag and coat-of-arms, it decorates several public buildings. The bird is also the namesake for Perth’s Swan River, where the British established the Swan River Colony in 1829.
Native to Australia, the black swan or Cygnus atratus can be found across the mainland, and right now, the breeding season of the black swan is in full swing across southern Australia, having recently ended in the north.
The once mythical Black Swan has long been used to illustrate extreme contrast: e.g. In the first century CE, Roman satirist Juvenal referred to a good wife as a “rare bird in the earth, and very like a black swan”.
Casual misogyny aside, this shows it used as a figure of speech for something absurd or preposterous — like pigs flying, or getting blood from a stone.
The ballet Swan Lake was inspired by a long tradition of European fairy tales depicting Swan Maidens, but Tchaikovsky also played on the myth of identifying white with purity and black with corruption:
Prince Siegfried falls in love with Odette, the innocent and virtuous white swan. But he is tricked into promising himself to her double, the seductive and malevolent black swan Odile.
These days - the “black swan” metaphor, coined in the 2007 NYT bestseller ‘The Black Swan’ by Nassim Taleb - has become fashionable as a label for virtually all low probability/high impact events as ‘black swan events’!
(With help from articles in ‘The Conversation’.)
A calculated gamble that the return Saturday Dee Marsh to Margam steel would be light engine. Three out of the last four attempts to photograph this working have revealed a light engine move.
I'd taken my Dad to Craven Arms to fetch some shopping and casually mentioned a desire to photograph this working at Ludlow Station. Immediately south of the station lays the 192 yard tunnel, below Gravel Hill, and a light engine move would be perfect. He agreed to the diversion thankfully!
The probability that this was light engine was reinforced by the fact that I'd seen on RTT that the working had caught up 7 minutes between Dorrington and Marshbrook, a feat that surely couldn't be achieved even with an empty consist.
66017 was travelling swiftly and indeed was light engine, with 0V75 at Ludlow, Saturday, 31.8.19.
Sony A7RII Sony ILCE-7RM2 & FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS! Bridalveil Falls High Res Winter Sunset! Yosemite National Park Winter Snow Fine Art Photography 45EPIC Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography!
Greetings mate! I love voyaging forth to Yosemite 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!
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! :)
Epic Tunnel View Sunrise with El Capitan, Half Dome, the Merced River, and Bridal Veil Falls from Valley View too!
Greetings mate! I love voyaging forth to Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park to contemplate poetry, physics, the golden ratio, and the Tao te Ching! What's your favorite epic poetry reflecting epic landscapes? I recently finished a book titled Epic Poetry for Epic Landscape Photographers:
www.facebook.com/Epic-Poetry-for-Epic-Landscape-Photograp...
Did you know that John Muir, Thoreau, and Emerson all loved epic poetry and poets including Shakespeare, Milton, Homer, and Robert Burns?
I recently finished my fourth book on Light Time Dimension Theory, much of which was inspired by an autumn trip to Zion!
www.facebook.com/lightimedimensiontheory/
Via its simple principle of a ofurth expanding dimension, LTD Theory provides a unifying, foundational *physical* model underlying relativity, quantum mechanics, time and all its arrows and asymmetries, and the second law of thermodynamics. The detailed diagrams demonstrate that the great mysteries of quantum mechanical nonlocality, entanglement, and probability naturally arise from the very same principle that fosters relativity alongside light's constant velocity, the equivalence of mass and energy, and time dilation.
Follow me on intsagram!
Join my new 45EPIC fine art landscapes page on facebook!
Fresh snow! More on my golden ratio musings: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography facebook.com/goldennumberratio
Best wishes on your epic hero's odyssey!:)
Bryce Canyon National Park Autumn Colors & Winter Snow Fine Art Photography 45EPIC Dr. Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape and Nature Photography: Nikon D810
Love shooting with both the sony A7RII and the Nikon D810! :)
We stayed at Joyce’s cousin’s mountain house near Spruce Pine for a weekend at the end of October to winterize it for them… and it would give me one last chance to add to my fall photography. It’s also close to the Blue Ridge Parkway. For those who don’t know, the parkway follows many high mountain ridges, giving outstanding majestic views looking down. That’s great for sunrise/sunset views, though within that region, there are no overlooks with a direct east view… but there are ways around it.
Stepping out of the house around 5 AM on this morning was anything but a confidence builder. I could see Orion and the Pleiades in fine detail against an inky black sky. In fact, I could see stars in any direction I looked. It had stormed through the night, and the morning was predicted to be partly cloudy, but the sky was clean and clear, not exactly the best conditions for sunrise photography. To top it off, the incoming cold front brought frigid howling winds along with it. I cannot begin to explain the many permutations my mind went through concerning probabilities as I walked to the car… going back to bed was a high favorable. Seconds later, I eased out toward the parkway. The universe is under no obligation to make sense to me… yet, often, I just have to know.
The storm had made a wreck of the parkway with wet layers of evicted autumn leaves matting the entire road. Adding huge limbs from wind-driven trees smashing into each other, as well as other detritus into the mix made driving quite exhilarating. What few other folks I saw there that morning I was certain were lunatics… they were photographers, too, looking for ‘silk purses’ in the same conditions I was surveying. It appeared that they were guessing where to be as I took note of overlooks along my way. I had predetermined a destination that I hoped would work out better… Green Knob Overlook near Mount Mitchell.
Pulling in next to where I intended to shoot, I pointed the car into the wind and raised the hatch. After setting up my gear, I sat out of the wind under the hatch, sipping coffee, not knowing I would soon see heaven and earth collide. In all the sky evident to me there was but one cloud, though it was exactly where it needed to be for me. Before the Sun rose, it brushed saturated color across to pastels on that cloud canvas. That light echoed into the foreground and warmed the contours of the folded earth beyond. I had made a choice to commit to the mystery of doubtful circumstances… and it paid off.
Did you know Heaven and Earth collided on the first Christmas, too? All of Heaven and Earth was wrapped up in that manger, the Light of the world, born on a cold, dark night of the winter solstice when darkness begins to concede to light. Someone once told me that he didn’t believe in God because “there is too much evil in the world.” I told him that the responsibility for evil must therefore rest on his shoulders… he blinked. How do you measure darkness? You can’t… there is only light and less light. How do you measure cold? You can’t… there is only heat and less heat. How do you measure evil? We’re a long way from that manger. There’s a mystery to it… but it won’t lead you to doubtful circumstances. A line in a Christmas song always hits me hard, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, ‘til He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.” Perhaps, this Christmas season, it’s time to get back to that manger to let that Light expose our hearts. There’s a cost… hatred, anger, and despair will no longer be needed. Love, peace, and joy found in a relationship with Jesus are more than a fair exchange. Merry Christmas to all.
Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus (M)
(Double click)
The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel. In Britain, where no other kestrel species occurs, it is generally just called "the kestrel".
This species occurs over a large range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.
Kestrels can hover in still air, even indoors in barns. Because they face towards any slight wind when hovering, the common kestrel is called a "windhover" in some areas.
Unusual for falcons, plumage often differs between male and female, although as is usual with monogamous raptors the female is slightly larger than the male. This allows a pair to fill different feeding niches over their home range. Kestrels are bold and have adapted well to human encroachment, nesting in buildings and hunting by major roads. Kestrels do not build their own nests, but use nests built by other species.
Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside; the remiges are also blackish. Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having fewer black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail. The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes. All common kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.
The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow; the toenails, bill and iris are dark. Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider; the yellow of their bare parts is paler. Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.
Data from Britain shows nesting pairs bringing up about 2–3 chicks on average, though this includes a considerable rate of total brood failures; actually, few pairs that do manage to fledge offspring raise less than 3 or 4. Compared to their siblings, first-hatched chicks have greater survival and recruitment probability, thought to be due to the first-hatched chicks obtaining a higher body condition when in the nest. Population cycles of prey, particularly voles, have a considerable influence on breeding success. Most common kestrels die before they reach 2 years of age; mortality up until the first birthday may be as high as 70%. At least females generally breed at one year of age; possibly, some males take a year longer to maturity as they do in related species. The biological lifespan to death from senescence can be 16 years or more, however; one was recorded to have lived almost 24 years.
Population:
UK breeding:
46,000 pairs
USAF 01-1935 - Lockheed EC-130J Commando Solo III - US Air Force
at London International Airport (YXU)
during the 2018 London Air Show
c/n 5532 - built in 1999
The EC-130J Commando Solo, a specially-modified C-130J Hercules conducts Military Information Support Operations (MISO) and civil affairs broadcasts in FM radio, television and military communications bands. These missions are typically flown at night to reduce probability of detection in politically sensitive or hostile territories.
operated by193rd Special Operations Wing, Pennsylvania Air National Guard
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has established an extraordinary new benchmark: detecting the light of a star that existed within the first billion years after the universe’s birth in the big bang – the farthest individual star ever seen to date.
The find is a huge leap further back in time from the previous single-star record holder; detected by Hubble in 2018. That star existed when the universe was about 4 billion years old, or 30 percent of its current age, at a time that astronomers refer to as “redshift 1.5.” Scientists use the word “redshift” because as the universe expands, light from distant objects is stretched or “shifted” to longer, redder wavelengths as it travels toward us.
The newly detected star is so far away that its light has taken 12.9 billion years to reach Earth, appearing to us as it did when the universe was only 7 percent of its current age, at redshift 6.2. The smallest objects previously seen at such a great distance are clusters of stars, embedded inside early galaxies.
“We almost didn’t believe it at first, it was so much farther than the previous most-distant, highest redshift star,” said astronomer Brian Welch of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, lead author of the paper describing the discovery, which is published in the March 30 journal Nature. The discovery was made from data collected during Hubble’s RELICS (Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey) program, led by co-author Dan Coe at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), also in Baltimore.
“Normally at these distances, entire galaxies look like small smudges, with the light from millions of stars blending together,” said Welch. “The galaxy hosting this star has been magnified and distorted by gravitational lensing into a long crescent that we named the Sunrise Arc.”
After studying the galaxy in detail, Welch determined that one feature is an extremely magnified star that he called Earendel, which means “morning star” in Old English. The discovery holds promise for opening up an uncharted era of very early star formation.
Upper left galaxy cluster creates a gravitational lens. Faint red arc bisects image (upper right to lower left). 3 bright spots in the arc, center one is Earendel. The spots on either side are mirrored images of a star cluster.
This detailed view highlights the star Earendel's position along a ripple in space-time (dotted line) that magnifies it and makes it possible for the star to be detected over such a great distance—nearly 13 billion light-years. Also indicated is a cluster of stars that is mirrored on either side of the line of magnification. The distortion and magnification are created by the mass of a huge galaxy cluster located in between Hubble and Earendel. The mass of the galaxy cluster is so great that it warps the fabric of space, and looking through that space is like looking through a magnifying glass—along the edge of the glass or lens, the appearance of things on the other side are warped as well as magnified.
Credits: Science: NASA, ESA, Brian Welch (JHU), Dan Coe (STScI); Image processing: NASA, ESA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
“Earendel existed so long ago that it may not have had all the same raw materials as the stars around us today,” Welch explained. “Studying Earendel will be a window into an era of the universe that we are unfamiliar with, but that led to everything we do know. It’s like we’ve been reading a really interesting book, but we started with the second chapter, and now we will have a chance to see how it all got started,” Welch said.
When Stars Align
The research team estimates that Earendel is at least 50 times the mass of our Sun and millions of times as bright, rivaling the most massive stars known. But even such a brilliant, very high-mass star would be impossible to see at such a great distance without the aid of natural magnification by a huge galaxy cluster, WHL0137-08, sitting between us and Earendel. The mass of the galaxy cluster warps the fabric of space, creating a powerful natural magnifying glass that distorts and greatly amplifies the light from distant objects behind it.
Thanks to the rare alignment with the magnifying galaxy cluster, the star Earendel appears directly on, or extremely close to, a ripple in the fabric of space. This ripple, which is defined in optics as a “caustic,” provides maximum magnification and brightening. The effect is analogous to the rippled surface of a swimming pool creating patterns of bright light on the bottom of the pool on a sunny day. The ripples on the surface act as lenses and focus sunlight to maximum brightness on the pool floor.
This caustic causes the star Earendel to pop out from the general glow of its home galaxy. Its brightness is magnified a thousandfold or more. At this point, astronomers are not able to determine if Earendel is a binary star, though most massive stars have at least one smaller companion star.
Confirmation with Webb
Astronomers expect that Earendel will remain highly magnified for years to come. It will be observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb’s high sensitivity to infrared light is needed to learn more about Earendel, because its light is stretched (redshifted) to longer infrared wavelengths due to the universe’s expansion.
“With Webb we expect to confirm Earendel is indeed a star, as well as measure its brightness and temperature,” Coe said. These details will narrow down its type and stage in the stellar lifecycle. "We also expect to find the Sunrise Arc galaxy is lacking in heavy elements that form in subsequent generations of stars. This would suggest Earendel is a rare, massive metal-poor star,” Coe said.
Earendel’s composition will be of great interest for astronomers, because it formed before the universe was filled with the heavy elements produced by successive generations of massive stars. If follow-up studies find that Earendel is only made up of primordial hydrogen and helium, it would be the first evidence for the legendary Population III stars, which are hypothesized to be the very first stars born after the big bang. While the probability is small, Welch admits it is enticing all the same.
“With Webb, we may see stars even farther than Earendel, which would be incredibly exciting,” Welch said. “We’ll go as far back as we can. I would love to see Webb break Earendel’s distance record.”
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/record-broken-hubble-sp...
Zion NP Fine Art Photography! Archangel Falls on the Subway Hike Fall Foliage! High Res Zion National Park Fine Art Sony A7RII Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape & Nature Photography: Sharp Carl Zeiss Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens
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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
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography
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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!
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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.
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Zion NP Fine Art Photography! Archangel Falls on the Subway Hike Fall Foliage! High Res Zion National Park Fine Art Sunset Breaking Storm Elliot McGucken Fine Art Landscape & Nature Photography
With there being a reasonable probability these a/c won't be seen again in these parts, worth the wait.
Tierpark Hagenbeck, Hamburg, Germany
Mantelpavian***Sacred Baboon***Papio hamadryas
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Im Durchschnitt alle zwei Jahre bringt das Weibchen nach rund sechsmonatiger Tragzeit ein einzelnes Jungtier zur Welt. Dies wiegt rund ein Kilogramm und ist schwarz gefärbt. Vorwiegend die Weibchen kümmern sich um den Nachwuchs, nicht nur die Mutter, sondern auch andere Tiere aus der Gruppe. In gemischten Gruppen sorgen sich Männchen zeitweise um die Kinder „befreundeter“ Weibchen, bei denen die Wahrscheinlichkeit groß ist, dass es ihre Kinder sind; sie besorgen ihnen etwa Nahrung und spielen mit ihnen.
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On average every two years the female brings a single hatchling after around six months gestation to the world. This weighs about one kilogram and is colored black. Mainly the female take care of the young, not only the mother but also other animals from the group. In mixed groups males worry from time to time to the children "friendly" females, where the probability is great, that they are their children; they get some food to them and play with them.
Source Wikipedia
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! :)
Kestrel - Falco tinnunculus (Male)
The common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is a bird of prey species belonging to the kestrel group of the falcon family Falconidae. It is also known as the European kestrel, Eurasian kestrel, or Old World kestrel. In Britain, where no other kestrel species occurs, it is generally just called "the kestrel".
This species occurs over a large range. It is widespread in Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as occasionally reaching the east coast of North America.
Kestrels can hover in still air, even indoors in barns. Because they face towards any slight wind when hovering, the common kestrel is called a "windhover" in some areas.
Unusual for falcons, plumage often differs between male and female, although as is usual with monogamous raptors the female is slightly larger than the male. This allows a pair to fill different feeding niches over their home range. Kestrels are bold and have adapted well to human encroachment, nesting in buildings and hunting by major roads. Kestrels do not build their own nests, but use nests built by other species.
Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside; the remiges are also blackish. Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having fewer black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail. The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes. All common kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.
The cere, feet, and a narrow ring around the eye are bright yellow; the toenails, bill and iris are dark. Juveniles look like adult females, but the underside streaks are wider; the yellow of their bare parts is paler. Hatchlings are covered in white down feathers, changing to a buff-grey second down coat before they grow their first true plumage.
Data from Britain shows nesting pairs bringing up about 2–3 chicks on average, though this includes a considerable rate of total brood failures; actually, few pairs that do manage to fledge offspring raise less than 3 or 4. Compared to their siblings, first-hatched chicks have greater survival and recruitment probability, thought to be due to the first-hatched chicks obtaining a higher body condition when in the nest. Population cycles of prey, particularly voles, have a considerable influence on breeding success. Most common kestrels die before they reach 2 years of age; mortality up until the first birthday may be as high as 70%. At least females generally breed at one year of age; possibly, some males take a year longer to maturity as they do in related species. The biological lifespan to death from senescence can be 16 years or more, however; one was recorded to have lived almost 24 years.
Population:
UK breeding:
46,000 pairs