Poem.

 

Deep-blue dawn sky breaks five days before Christmas.

Steep, snow-laden Castle-Ramparts.

Variegated Holly bush, and trees, are white-tinted.

Roofs shrouded in white by the winter snow-fall.

River runs dark and fast beneath three bridges.

River-bank, bridge and street-lights beam off the gushing water and glow in spears of warm, orange iridescent light.

Ben Wyvis stands imperious 25 miles north-west

under a blanket of snow and cloud.

Majestic conditions for this latitude, at this time of year.

Anticipation pulsates.

Not just Christmas.

A “White Christmas.”

 

The sunset that occurred last night while waiting for the forecasted storms to arrive was nothing short of spectacular. As the sun dipped below the horizon the light hit the back of the rain and created an incredible glowing pink, that almost seemed to pulsate as the suns light hit different parts of the clouds.

It only last for about 2 minutes, but to witness it was amazing! I only wish that I time-lapsed it!

 

Not the strongest composition ever, but I could not go past capturing what I thought to be a special moment.

 

www.jordancantelo.com

Etna's New Southeast Crater returned to eruptive life on 12 May 2015, after almost three months and a half of total quiescence. Its new activity is not very strong, but rather nice and harmless. On the afternoon of 13 May 2015, it almost looked like the activity was dying after little more than a day, but at sunset it resumed with new vigor. I took this photograph at sunset from near the town of Fiumefreddo on Etna's lower northeast flank. It shows pulsating ash emissions from a vent at the summit of the New Southeast Crater, and lava emission from a small eruptive fissure lying low on the northeast (near) side of the cone. Three vents along this fissure produced sporadic bursts of incandescent lava. Later in the evening, the activity increased further, though remaining still on a modest level compared to the huge, violent paroxysms of the years 2011-2013 from the same crater.

This country, India, pulsates with a spectacular mix of people & landscapes. No matter how many lifetimes I give to travelling the length & breadth of this country, there will still be places left unexplored. I have travelled quite a bit and, at times, I start thinking I am perhaps on the verge of unravelling some deeply rooted mysteries that this beautiful country has to offer, but the moment I think that way, India has an uncanny way of showing me how wrong I am! And this is probably one of the reasons why I am so addicted to her.

 

During my travel to the beautiful South India, I kept on driving and soaking in the views, sights & sounds as much as I could. Over 3 days, I explored the beautiful South-India countryside where I saw barely enough vehicles to count on my fingers. The route passed through some lush green fields & deep jungles on both sides and it rained on and off, but when it rained it poured, and it looked like those who were on the road during that time had the time of their lives. It was absolutely amazing. As I was driving by, no matter how rural a landscape, I could see people; villagers picking crops, washing and some even waving back at me as I waved at them. The views were extraordinarily rich, full of colour and filled with life.

Jellyfish, also known sea jellies, are the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria.

 

Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being mobile. The bell can pulsate to provide propulsion for highly efficient locomotion. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey and defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle. The medusa is normally the sexual phase, which produces planula larvae; these then disperse widely and enter a sedentary polyp phase, before reaching sexual maturity.

 

Jellyfish are found all over the world, from surface waters to the deep sea. Scyphozoans (the "true jellyfish") are exclusively marine, but some hydrozoans with a similar appearance live in freshwater. Large, often colorful, jellyfish are common in coastal zones worldwide. The medusae of most species are fast-growing, and mature within a few months then die soon after breeding, but the polyp stage, attached to the seabed, may be much more long-lived. Jellyfish have been in existence for at least 500 million years, and possibly 700 million years or more, making them the oldest multi-organ animal group.

 

Jellyfish are eaten by humans in certain cultures. They are considered a delicacy in some Asian countries, where species in the Rhizostomeae order are pressed and salted to remove excess water. Australian researchers have described them as a "perfect food": sustainable and protein-rich but relatively low in food energy.

 

They are also used in research, where the green fluorescent protein used by some species to cause bioluminescence has been adapted as a fluorescent marker for genes inserted into other cells or organisms.

 

The stinging cells used by jellyfish to subdue their prey can injure humans. Thousands of swimmers worldwide are stung every year, with effects ranging from mild discomfort to serious injury or even death. When conditions are favourable, jellyfish can form vast swarms, which can be responsible for damage to fishing gear by filling fishing nets, and sometimes clog the cooling systems of power and desalination plants which draw their water from the sea.

  

Names

The name jellyfish, in use since 1796, has traditionally been applied to medusae and all similar animals including the comb jellies (ctenophores, another phylum). The term jellies or sea jellies is more recent, having been introduced by public aquaria in an effort to avoid use of the word "fish" with its modern connotation of an animal with a backbone, though shellfish, cuttlefish and starfish are not vertebrates either. In scientific literature, "jelly" and "jellyfish" have been used interchangeably. Many sources refer to only scyphozoans as "true jellyfish".

 

A group of jellyfish is called a "smack" or a "smuck".

 

Definition

The term jellyfish broadly corresponds to medusae, that is, a life-cycle stage in the Medusozoa. The American evolutionary biologist Paulyn Cartwright gives the following general definition:

 

Typically, medusozoan cnidarians have a pelagic, predatory jellyfish stage in their life cycle; staurozoans are the exceptions [as they are stalked].

 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines jellyfish as follows:

 

A free-swimming marine coelenterate that is the sexually reproducing form of a hydrozoan or scyphozoan and has a nearly transparent saucer-shaped body and extensible marginal tentacles studded with stinging cells.

 

Given that jellyfish is a common name, its mapping to biological groups is inexact. Some authorities have called the comb jellies and certain salps jellyfish, though other authorities state that neither of these are jellyfish, which they consider should be limited to certain groups within the medusozoa.

 

The non-medusozoan clades called jellyfish by some but not all authorities (both agreeing and disagreeing citations are given in each case) are indicated with on the following cladogram of the animal kingdom:

 

Jellyfish are not a clade, as they include most of the Medusozoa, barring some of the Hydrozoa. The medusozoan groups included by authorities are indicated on the following phylogenetic tree by the presence of citations. Names of included jellyfish, in English where possible, are shown in boldface; the presence of a named and cited example indicates that at least that species within its group has been called a jellyfish.

 

Taxonomy

The subphylum Medusozoa includes all cnidarians with a medusa stage in their life cycle. The basic cycle is egg, planula larva, polyp, medusa, with the medusa being the sexual stage. The polyp stage is sometimes secondarily lost. The subphylum include the major taxa, Scyphozoa (large jellyfish), Cubozoa (box jellyfish) and Hydrozoa (small jellyfish), and excludes Anthozoa (corals and sea anemones). This suggests that the medusa form evolved after the polyps. Medusozoans have tetramerous symmetry, with parts in fours or multiples of four.

 

The four major classes of medusozoan Cnidaria are:

Scyphozoa are sometimes called true jellyfish, though they are no more truly jellyfish than the others listed here. They have tetra-radial symmetry. Most have tentacles around the outer margin of the bowl-shaped bell, and long, oral arms around the mouth in the center of the subumbrella.

Cubozoa (box jellyfish) have a (rounded) box-shaped bell, and their velarium assists them to swim more quickly. Box jellyfish may be related more closely to scyphozoan jellyfish than either are to the Hydrozoa.

Hydrozoa medusae also have tetra-radial symmetry, nearly always have a velum (diaphragm used in swimming) attached just inside the bell margin, do not have oral arms, but a much smaller central stalk-like structure, the manubrium, with terminal mouth opening, and are distinguished by the absence of cells in the mesoglea. Hydrozoa show great diversity of lifestyle; some species maintain the polyp form for their entire life and do not form medusae at all (such as Hydra, which is hence not considered a jellyfish), and a few are entirely medusal and have no polyp form.

Staurozoa (stalked jellyfish) are characterized by a medusa form that is generally sessile, oriented upside down and with a stalk emerging from the apex of the "calyx" (bell), which attaches to the substrate. At least some Staurozoa also have a polyp form that alternates with the medusoid portion of the life cycle. Until recently, Staurozoa were classified within the Scyphozoa.

There are over 200 species of Scyphozoa, about 50 species of Staurozoa, about 50 species of Cubozoa, and the Hydrozoa includes about 1000–1500 species that produce medusae, but many more species that do not.

 

Fossil history

Since jellyfish have no hard parts, fossils are rare. The oldest unambiguous fossil of a free-swimming medusa is Burgessomedusa from the mid Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada, which is likely either a stem group of box jellyfish (Cubozoa) or Acraspeda (the clade including Staurozoa, Cubozoa, and Scyphozoa). Other claimed records from the Cambrian of China and Utah in the United States are uncertain, and possibly represent ctenophores instead.

 

Anatomy

The main feature of a true jellyfish is the umbrella-shaped bell. This is a hollow structure consisting of a mass of transparent jelly-like matter known as mesoglea, which forms the hydrostatic skeleton of the animal. 95% or more of the mesogloea consists of water, but it also contains collagen and other fibrous proteins, as well as wandering amoebocytes which can engulf debris and bacteria. The mesogloea is bordered by the epidermis on the outside and the gastrodermis on the inside. The edge of the bell is often divided into rounded lobes known as lappets, which allow the bell to flex. In the gaps or niches between the lappets are dangling rudimentary sense organs known as rhopalia, and the margin of the bell often bears tentacles.

  

Anatomy of a scyphozoan jellyfish

On the underside of the bell is the manubrium, a stalk-like structure hanging down from the centre, with the mouth, which also functions as the anus, at its tip. There are often four oral arms connected to the manubrium, streaming away into the water below. The mouth opens into the gastrovascular cavity, where digestion takes place and nutrients are absorbed. This is subdivided by four thick septa into a central stomach and four gastric pockets. The four pairs of gonads are attached to the septa, and close to them four septal funnels open to the exterior, perhaps supplying good oxygenation to the gonads. Near the free edges of the septa, gastric filaments extend into the gastric cavity; these are armed with nematocysts and enzyme-producing cells and play a role in subduing and digesting the prey. In some scyphozoans, the gastric cavity is joined to radial canals which branch extensively and may join a marginal ring canal. Cilia in these canals circulate the fluid in a regular direction.

  

Discharge mechanism of a nematocyst

The box jellyfish is largely similar in structure. It has a squarish, box-like bell. A short pedalium or stalk hangs from each of the four lower corners. One or more long, slender tentacles are attached to each pedalium. The rim of the bell is folded inwards to form a shelf known as a velarium which restricts the bell's aperture and creates a powerful jet when the bell pulsates, allowing box jellyfish to swim faster than true jellyfish. Hydrozoans are also similar, usually with just four tentacles at the edge of the bell, although many hydrozoans are colonial and may not have a free-living medusal stage. In some species, a non-detachable bud known as a gonophore is formed that contains a gonad but is missing many other medusal features such as tentacles and rhopalia. Stalked jellyfish are attached to a solid surface by a basal disk, and resemble a polyp, the oral end of which has partially developed into a medusa with tentacle-bearing lobes and a central manubrium with four-sided mouth.

 

Most jellyfish do not have specialized systems for osmoregulation, respiration and circulation, and do not have a central nervous system. Nematocysts, which deliver the sting, are located mostly on the tentacles; true jellyfish also have them around the mouth and stomach. Jellyfish do not need a respiratory system because sufficient oxygen diffuses through the epidermis. They have limited control over their movement, but can navigate with the pulsations of the bell-like body; some species are active swimmers most of the time, while others largely drift. The rhopalia contain rudimentary sense organs which are able to detect light, water-borne vibrations, odour and orientation. A loose network of nerves called a "nerve net" is located in the epidermis. Although traditionally thought not to have a central nervous system, nerve net concentration and ganglion-like structures could be considered to constitute one in most species. A jellyfish detects stimuli, and transmits impulses both throughout the nerve net and around a circular nerve ring, to other nerve cells. The rhopalial ganglia contain pacemaker neurones which control swimming rate and direction.

 

In many species of jellyfish, the rhopalia include ocelli, light-sensitive organs able to tell light from dark. These are generally pigment spot ocelli, which have some of their cells pigmented. The rhopalia are suspended on stalks with heavy crystals at one end, acting like gyroscopes to orient the eyes skyward. Certain jellyfish look upward at the mangrove canopy while making a daily migration from mangrove swamps into the open lagoon, where they feed, and back again.

 

Box jellyfish have more advanced vision than the other groups. Each individual has 24 eyes, two of which are capable of seeing colour, and four parallel information processing areas that act in competition, supposedly making them one of the few kinds of animal to have a 360-degree view of its environment.

 

Box jellyfish eye

The study of jellyfish eye evolution is an intermediary to a better understanding of how visual systems evolved on Earth. Jellyfish exhibit immense variation in visual systems ranging from photoreceptive cell patches seen in simple photoreceptive systems to more derived complex eyes seen in box jellyfish. Major topics of jellyfish visual system research (with an emphasis on box jellyfish) include: the evolution of jellyfish vision from simple to complex visual systems), the eye morphology and molecular structures of box jellyfish (including comparisons to vertebrate eyes), and various uses of vision including task-guided behaviors and niche specialization.

 

Evolution

Experimental evidence for photosensitivity and photoreception in cnidarians antecedes the mid 1900s, and a rich body of research has since covered evolution of visual systems in jellyfish. Jellyfish visual systems range from simple photoreceptive cells to complex image-forming eyes. More ancestral visual systems incorporate extraocular vision (vision without eyes) that encompass numerous receptors dedicated to single-function behaviors. More derived visual systems comprise perception that is capable of multiple task-guided behaviors.

 

Although they lack a true brain, cnidarian jellyfish have a "ring" nervous system that plays a significant role in motor and sensory activity. This net of nerves is responsible for muscle contraction and movement and culminates the emergence of photosensitive structures. Across Cnidaria, there is large variation in the systems that underlie photosensitivity. Photosensitive structures range from non-specialized groups of cells, to more "conventional" eyes similar to those of vertebrates. The general evolutionary steps to develop complex vision include (from more ancestral to more derived states): non-directional photoreception, directional photoreception, low-resolution vision, and high-resolution vision. Increased habitat and task complexity has favored the high-resolution visual systems common in derived cnidarians such as box jellyfish.

 

Basal visual systems observed in various cnidarians exhibit photosensitivity representative of a single task or behavior. Extraocular photoreception (a form of non-directional photoreception), is the most basic form of light sensitivity and guides a variety of behaviors among cnidarians. It can function to regulate circadian rhythm (as seen in eyeless hydrozoans) and other light-guided behaviors responsive to the intensity and spectrum of light. Extraocular photoreception can function additionally in positive phototaxis (in planula larvae of hydrozoans), as well as in avoiding harmful amounts of UV radiation via negative phototaxis. Directional photoreception (the ability to perceive direction of incoming light) allows for more complex phototactic responses to light, and likely evolved by means of membrane stacking. The resulting behavioral responses can range from guided spawning events timed by moonlight to shadow responses for potential predator avoidance. Light-guided behaviors are observed in numerous scyphozoans including the common moon jelly, Aurelia aurita, which migrates in response to changes in ambient light and solar position even though they lack proper eyes.

 

The low-resolution visual system of box jellyfish is more derived than directional photoreception, and thus box jellyfish vision represents the most basic form of true vision in which multiple directional photoreceptors combine to create the first imaging and spatial resolution. This is different from the high-resolution vision that is observed in camera or compound eyes of vertebrates and cephalopods that rely on focusing optics. Critically, the visual systems of box jellyfish are responsible for guiding multiple tasks or behaviors in contrast to less derived visual systems in other jellyfish that guide single behavioral functions. These behaviors include phototaxis based on sunlight (positive) or shadows (negative), obstacle avoidance, and control of swim-pulse rate.

 

Box jellyfish possess "proper eyes" (similar to vertebrates) that allow them to inhabit environments that lesser derived medusae cannot. In fact, they are considered the only class in the clade Medusozoa that have behaviors necessitating spatial resolution and genuine vision. However, the lens in their eyes are more functionally similar to cup-eyes exhibited in low-resolution organisms, and have very little to no focusing capability. The lack of the ability to focus is due to the focal length exceeding the distance to the retina, thus generating unfocused images and limiting spatial resolution. The visual system is still sufficient for box jellyfish to produce an image to help with tasks such as object avoidance.

 

Utility as a model organism

Box jellyfish eyes are a visual system that is sophisticated in numerous ways. These intricacies include the considerable variation within the morphology of box jellyfishes' eyes (including their task/behavior specification), and the molecular makeup of their eyes including: photoreceptors, opsins, lenses, and synapses. The comparison of these attributes to more derived visual systems can allow for a further understanding of how the evolution of more derived visual systems may have occurred, and puts into perspective how box jellyfish can play the role as an evolutionary/developmental model for all visual systems.

 

Characteristics

Box jellyfish visual systems are both diverse and complex, comprising multiple photosystems. There is likely considerable variation in visual properties between species of box jellyfish given the significant inter-species morphological and physiological variation. Eyes tend to differ in size and shape, along with number of receptors (including opsins), and physiology across species of box jellyfish.

 

Box jellyfish have a series of intricate lensed eyes that are similar to those of more derived multicellular organisms such as vertebrates. Their 24 eyes fit into four different morphological categories. These categories consist of two large, morphologically different medial eyes (a lower and upper lensed eye) containing spherical lenses, a lateral pair of pigment slit eyes, and a lateral pair of pigment pit eyes. The eyes are situated on rhopalia (small sensory structures) which serve sensory functions of the box jellyfish and arise from the cavities of the exumbrella (the surface of the body) on the side of the bells of the jellyfish. The two large eyes are located on the mid-line of the club and are considered complex because they contain lenses. The four remaining eyes lie laterally on either side of each rhopalia and are considered simple. The simple eyes are observed as small invaginated cups of epithelium that have developed pigmentation. The larger of the complex eyes contains a cellular cornea created by a mono ciliated epithelium, cellular lens, homogenous capsule to the lens, vitreous body with prismatic elements, and a retina of pigmented cells. The smaller of the complex eyes is said to be slightly less complex given that it lacks a capsule but otherwise contains the same structure as the larger eye.

 

Box jellyfish have multiple photosystems that comprise different sets of eyes. Evidence includes immunocytochemical and molecular data that show photopigment differences among the different morphological eye types, and physiological experiments done on box jellyfish to suggest behavioral differences among photosystems. Each individual eye type constitutes photosystems that work collectively to control visually guided behaviors.

 

Box jellyfish eyes primarily use c-PRCs (ciliary photoreceptor cells) similar to that of vertebrate eyes. These cells undergo phototransduction cascades (process of light absorption by photoreceptors) that are triggered by c-opsins. Available opsin sequences suggest that there are two types of opsins possessed by all cnidarians including an ancient phylogenetic opsin, and a sister ciliary opsin to the c-opsins group. Box jellyfish could have both ciliary and cnidops (cnidarian opsins), which is something not previously believed to appear in the same retina. Nevertheless, it is not entirely evident whether cnidarians possess multiple opsins that are capable of having distinctive spectral sensitivities.

 

Comparison with other organisms

Comparative research on genetic and molecular makeup of box jellyfishes' eyes versus more derived eyes seen in vertebrates and cephalopods focuses on: lenses and crystallin composition, synapses, and Pax genes and their implied evidence for shared primordial (ancestral) genes in eye evolution.

 

Box jellyfish eyes are said to be an evolutionary/developmental model of all eyes based on their evolutionary recruitment of crystallins and Pax genes. Research done on box jellyfish including Tripedalia cystophora has suggested that they possess a single Pax gene, PaxB. PaxB functions by binding to crystallin promoters and activating them. PaxB in situ hybridization resulted in PaxB expression in the lens, retina, and statocysts. These results and the rejection of the prior hypothesis that Pax6 was an ancestral Pax gene in eyes has led to the conclusion that PaxB was a primordial gene in eye evolution, and that the eyes of all organisms likely share a common ancestor.

 

The lens structure of box jellyfish appears very similar to those of other organisms, but the crystallins are distinct in both function and appearance. Weak reactions were seen within the sera and there were very weak sequence similarities within the crystallins among vertebrate and invertebrate lenses. This is likely due to differences in lower molecular weight proteins and the subsequent lack of immunological reactions with antisera that other organisms' lenses exhibit.

 

All four of the visual systems of box jellyfish species investigated with detail (Carybdea marsupialis, Chiropsalmus quadrumanus, Tamoya haplonema and Tripedalia cystophora) have invaginated synapses, but only in the upper and lower lensed eyes. Different densities were found between the upper and lower lenses, and between species. Four types of chemical synapses have been discovered within the rhopalia which could help in understanding neural organization including: clear unidirectional, dense-core unidirectional, clear bidirectional, and clear and dense-core bidirectional. The synapses of the lensed eyes could be useful as markers to learn more about the neural circuit in box jellyfish retinal areas.

 

Evolution as a response to natural stimuli

The primary adaptive responses to environmental variation observed in box jellyfish eyes include pupillary constriction speeds in response to light environments, as well as photoreceptor tuning and lens adaptations to better respond to shifts between light environments and darkness. Interestingly, some box jellyfish species' eyes appear to have evolved more focused vision in response to their habitat.

 

Pupillary contraction appears to have evolved in response to variation in the light environment across ecological niches across three species of box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri, Chiropsella bronzie, and Carukia barnesi). Behavioral studies suggest that faster pupil contraction rates allow for greater object avoidance, and in fact, species with more complex habitats exhibit faster rates. Ch. bronzie inhabit shallow beach fronts that have low visibility and very few obstacles, thus, faster pupil contraction in response to objects in their environment is not important. Ca. barnesi and Ch. fleckeri are found in more three-dimensionally complex environments like mangroves with an abundance of natural obstacles, where faster pupil contraction is more adaptive. Behavioral studies support the idea that faster pupillary contraction rates assist with obstacle avoidance as well as depth adjustments in response to differing light intensities.

 

Light/dark adaptation via pupillary light reflexes is an additional form of an evolutionary response to the light environment. This relates to the pupil's response to shifts between light intensity (generally from sunlight to darkness). In the process of light/dark adaptation, the upper and lower lens eyes of different box jellyfish species vary in specific function. The lower lens-eyes contain pigmented photoreceptors and long pigment cells with dark pigments that migrate on light/dark adaptation, while the upper-lens eyes play a concentrated role in light direction and phototaxis given that they face upward towards the water surface (towards the sun or moon). The upper lens of Ch. bronzie does not exhibit any considerable optical power while Tr. cystophora (a box jellyfish species that tends to live in mangroves) does. The ability to use light to visually guide behavior is not of as much importance to Ch. bronzie as it is to species in more obstacle-filled environments. Differences in visually guided behavior serve as evidence that species that share the same number and structure of eyes can exhibit differences in how they control behavior.

 

Largest and smallest

Jellyfish range from about one millimeter in bell height and diameter, to nearly 2 metres (6+1⁄2 ft) in bell height and diameter; the tentacles and mouth parts usually extend beyond this bell dimension.

 

The smallest jellyfish are the peculiar creeping jellyfish in the genera Staurocladia and Eleutheria, which have bell disks from 0.5 millimetres (1⁄32 in) to a few millimeters in diameter, with short tentacles that extend out beyond this, which these jellyfish use to move across the surface of seaweed or the bottoms of rocky pools; many of these tiny creeping jellyfish cannot be seen in the field without a hand lens or microscope. They can reproduce asexually by fission (splitting in half). Other very small jellyfish, which have bells about one millimeter, are the hydromedusae of many species that have just been released from their parent polyps; some of these live only a few minutes before shedding their gametes in the plankton and then dying, while others will grow in the plankton for weeks or months. The hydromedusae Cladonema radiatum and Cladonema californicum are also very small, living for months, yet never growing beyond a few mm in bell height and diameter.

 

The lion's mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, was long-cited as the largest jellyfish, and arguably the longest animal in the world, with fine, thread-like tentacles that may extend up to 36.5 m (119 ft 9 in) long (though most are nowhere near that large). They have a moderately painful, but rarely fatal, sting. The increasingly common giant Nomura's jellyfish, Nemopilema nomurai, found in some, but not all years in the waters of Japan, Korea and China in summer and autumn is another candidate for "largest jellyfish", in terms of diameter and weight, since the largest Nomura's jellyfish in late autumn can reach 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in bell (body) diameter and about 200 kg (440 lb) in weight, with average specimens frequently reaching 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) in bell diameter and about 150 kg (330 lb) in weight. The large bell mass of the giant Nomura's jellyfish can dwarf a diver and is nearly always much greater than the Lion's Mane, whose bell diameter can reach 1 m (3 ft 3 in).

 

The rarely encountered deep-sea jellyfish Stygiomedusa gigantea is another candidate for "largest jellyfish", with its thick, massive bell up to 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) wide, and four thick, "strap-like" oral arms extending up to 6 m (19+1⁄2 ft) in length, very different from the typical fine, threadlike tentacles that rim the umbrella of more-typical-looking jellyfish, including the Lion's Mane.

 

Desmonema glaciale, which lives in the Antarctic region, can reach a very large size (several meters). Purple-striped jelly (Chrysaora colorata) can also be extremely long (up to 15 feet).

 

Life history and behavior

Life cycle

Jellyfish have a complex life cycle which includes both sexual and asexual phases, with the medusa being the sexual stage in most instances. Sperm fertilize eggs, which develop into larval planulae, become polyps, bud into ephyrae and then transform into adult medusae. In some species certain stages may be skipped.

 

Upon reaching adult size, jellyfish spawn regularly if there is a sufficient supply of food. In most species, spawning is controlled by light, with all individuals spawning at about the same time of day; in many instances this is at dawn or dusk. Jellyfish are usually either male or female (with occasional hermaphrodites). In most cases, adults release sperm and eggs into the surrounding water, where the unprotected eggs are fertilized and develop into larvae. In a few species, the sperm swim into the female's mouth, fertilizing the eggs within her body, where they remain during early development stages. In moon jellies, the eggs lodge in pits on the oral arms, which form a temporary brood chamber for the developing planula larvae.

 

The planula is a small larva covered with cilia. When sufficiently developed, it settles onto a firm surface and develops into a polyp. The polyp generally consists of a small stalk topped by a mouth that is ringed by upward-facing tentacles. The polyps resemble those of closely related anthozoans, such as sea anemones and corals. The jellyfish polyp may be sessile, living on the bottom, boat hulls or other substrates, or it may be free-floating or attached to tiny bits of free-living plankton or rarely, fish or other invertebrates. Polyps may be solitary or colonial. Most polyps are only millimetres in diameter and feed continuously. The polyp stage may last for years.

 

After an interval and stimulated by seasonal or hormonal changes, the polyp may begin reproducing asexually by budding and, in the Scyphozoa, is called a segmenting polyp, or a scyphistoma. Budding produces more scyphistomae and also ephyrae. Budding sites vary by species; from the tentacle bulbs, the manubrium (above the mouth), or the gonads of hydromedusae. In a process known as strobilation, the polyp's tentacles are reabsorbed and the body starts to narrow, forming transverse constrictions, in several places near the upper extremity of the polyp. These deepen as the constriction sites migrate down the body, and separate segments known as ephyra detach. These are free-swimming precursors of the adult medusa stage, which is the life stage that is typically identified as a jellyfish. The ephyrae, usually only a millimeter or two across initially, swim away from the polyp and grow. Limnomedusae polyps can asexually produce a creeping frustule larval form, which crawls away before developing into another polyp. A few species can produce new medusae by budding directly from the medusan stage. Some hydromedusae reproduce by fission.

 

Lifespan

Little is known of the life histories of many jellyfish as the places on the seabed where the benthic forms of those species live have not been found. However, an asexually reproducing strobila form can sometimes live for several years, producing new medusae (ephyra larvae) each year.

 

An unusual species, Turritopsis dohrnii, formerly classified as Turritopsis nutricula, might be effectively immortal because of its ability under certain circumstances to transform from medusa back to the polyp stage, thereby escaping the death that typically awaits medusae post-reproduction if they have not otherwise been eaten by some other organism. So far this reversal has been observed only in the laboratory.

 

Locomotion

Jellyfish locomotion is highly efficient. Muscles in the jellylike bell contract, setting up a start vortex and propelling the animal. When the contraction ends, the bell recoils elastically, creating a stop vortex with no extra energy input.

Using the moon jelly Aurelia aurita as an example, jellyfish have been shown to be the most energy-efficient swimmers of all animals. They move through the water by radially expanding and contracting their bell-shaped bodies to push water behind them. They pause between the contraction and expansion phases to create two vortex rings. Muscles are used for the contraction of the body, which creates the first vortex and pushes the animal forward, but the mesoglea is so elastic that the expansion is powered exclusively by relaxing the bell, which releases the energy stored from the contraction. Meanwhile, the second vortex ring starts to spin faster, sucking water into the bell and pushing against the centre of the body, giving a secondary and "free" boost forward. The mechanism, called passive energy recapture, only works in relatively small jellyfish moving at low speeds, allowing the animal to travel 30 percent farther on each swimming cycle. Jellyfish achieved a 48 percent lower cost of transport (food and oxygen intake versus energy spent in movement) than other animals in similar studies. One reason for this is that most of the gelatinous tissue of the bell is inactive, using no energy during swimming.

 

Ecology

Diet

Jellyfish are, like other cnidarians, generally carnivorous (or parasitic), feeding on planktonic organisms, crustaceans, small fish, fish eggs and larvae, and other jellyfish, ingesting food and voiding undigested waste through the mouth. They hunt passively using their tentacles as drift lines, or sink through the water with their tentacles spread widely; the tentacles, which contain nematocysts to stun or kill the prey, may then flex to help bring it to the mouth. Their swimming technique also helps them to capture prey; when their bell expands it sucks in water which brings more potential prey within reach of the tentacles.

 

A few species such as Aglaura hemistoma are omnivorous, feeding on microplankton which is a mixture of zooplankton and phytoplankton (microscopic plants) such as dinoflagellates. Others harbour mutualistic algae (Zooxanthellae) in their tissues; the spotted jellyfish (Mastigias papua) is typical of these, deriving part of its nutrition from the products of photosynthesis, and part from captured zooplankton. The upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda) also has a symbiotic relationship with microalgae, but captures tiny animals to supplement their diet. This is done by releasing tiny balls of living cells composed of mesoglea. These use cilia to drive them through water and stinging cells which stun the prey. The blobs also seems to have digestive capabilities.

 

Predation

Other species of jellyfish are among the most common and important jellyfish predators. Sea anemones may eat jellyfish that drift into their range. Other predators include tunas, sharks, swordfish, sea turtles and penguins. Jellyfish washed up on the beach are consumed by foxes, other terrestrial mammals and birds. In general however, few animals prey on jellyfish; they can broadly be considered to be top predators in the food chain. Once jellyfish have become dominant in an ecosystem, for example through overfishing which removes predators of jellyfish larvae, there may be no obvious way for the previous balance to be restored: they eat fish eggs and juvenile fish, and compete with fish for food, preventing fish stocks from recovering.

 

Symbiosis

Some small fish are immune to the stings of the jellyfish and live among the tentacles, serving as bait in a fish trap; they are safe from potential predators and are able to share the fish caught by the jellyfish. The cannonball jellyfish has a symbiotic relationship with ten different species of fish, and with the longnose spider crab, which lives inside the bell, sharing the jellyfish's food and nibbling its tissues.

 

Main article: Jellyfish bloom

Jellyfish form large masses or blooms in certain environmental conditions of ocean currents, nutrients, sunshine, temperature, season, prey availability, reduced predation and oxygen concentration. Currents collect jellyfish together, especially in years with unusually high populations. Jellyfish can detect marine currents and swim against the current to congregate in blooms. Jellyfish are better able to survive in nutrient-rich, oxygen-poor water than competitors, and thus can feast on plankton without competition. Jellyfish may also benefit from saltier waters, as saltier waters contain more iodine, which is necessary for polyps to turn into jellyfish. Rising sea temperatures caused by climate change may also contribute to jellyfish blooms, because many species of jellyfish are able to survive in warmer waters. Increased nutrients from agricultural or urban runoff with nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus compounds increase the growth of phytoplankton, causing eutrophication and algal blooms. When the phytoplankton die, they may create dead zones, so-called because they are hypoxic (low in oxygen). This in turn kills fish and other animals, but not jellyfish, allowing them to bloom. Jellyfish populations may be expanding globally as a result of land runoff and overfishing of their natural predators. Jellyfish are well placed to benefit from disturbance of marine ecosystems. They reproduce rapidly; they prey upon many species, while few species prey on them; and they feed via touch rather than visually, so they can feed effectively at night and in turbid waters. It may be difficult for fish stocks to re-establish themselves in marine ecosystems once they have become dominated by jellyfish, because jellyfish feed on plankton, which includes fish eggs and larvae.

 

As suspected at the turn of this century, jellyfish blooms are increasing in frequency. Between 2013 and 2020 the Mediterranean Science Commission monitored on a weekly basis the frequency of such outbreaks in coastal waters from Morocco to the Black Sea, revealing a relatively high frequency of these blooms nearly all year round, with peaks observed from March to July and often again in the autumn. The blooms are caused by different jellyfish species, depending on their localisation within the Basin: one observes a clear dominance of Pelagia noctiluca and Velella velella outbreaks in the western Mediterranean, of Rhizostoma pulmo and Rhopilema nomadica outbreaks in the eastern Mediterranean, and of Aurelia aurita and Mnemiopsis leidyi outbreaks in the Black Sea.

 

Some jellyfish populations that have shown clear increases in the past few decades are invasive species, newly arrived from other habitats: examples include the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Baltic Sea, central and eastern Mediterranean, Hawaii, and tropical and subtropical parts of the West Atlantic (including the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Brazil).

 

Jellyfish blooms can have significant impact on community structure. Some carnivorous jellyfish species prey on zooplankton while others graze on primary producers. Reductions in zooplankton and ichthyoplankton due to a jellyfish bloom can ripple through the trophic levels. High-density jellyfish populations can outcompete other predators and reduce fish recruitment. Increased grazing on primary producers by jellyfish can also interrupt energy transfer to higher trophic levels.

 

During blooms, jellyfish significantly alter the nutrient availability in their environment. Blooms require large amounts of available organic nutrients in the water column to grow, limiting availability for other organisms. Some jellyfish have a symbiotic relationship with single-celled dinoflagellates, allowing them to assimilate inorganic carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen creating competition for phytoplankton. Their large biomass makes them an important source of dissolved and particulate organic matter for microbial communities through excretion, mucus production, and decomposition. The microbes break down the organic matter into inorganic ammonium and phosphate. However, the low carbon availability shifts the process from production to respiration creating low oxygen areas making the dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus largely unavailable for primary production.

 

These blooms have very real impacts on industries. Jellyfish can outcompete fish by utilizing open niches in over-fished fisheries. Catch of jellyfish can strain fishing gear and lead to expenses relating to damaged gear. Power plants have been shut down due to jellyfish blocking the flow of cooling water. Blooms have also been harmful for tourism, causing a rise in stings and sometimes the closure of beaches.

 

Jellyfish form a component of jelly-falls, events where gelatinous zooplankton fall to the seafloor, providing food for the benthic organisms there. In temperate and subpolar regions, jelly-falls usually follow immediately after a bloom.

 

Habitats

Most jellyfish are marine animals, although a few hydromedusae inhabit freshwater. The best known freshwater example is the cosmopolitan hydrozoan jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii. It is less than an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, colorless and does not sting. Some jellyfish populations have become restricted to coastal saltwater lakes, such as Jellyfish Lake in Palau. Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake where millions of golden jellyfish (Mastigias spp.) migrate horizontally across the lake daily.

 

Although most jellyfish live well off the ocean floor and form part of the plankton, a few species are closely associated with the bottom for much of their lives and can be considered benthic. The upside-down jellyfish in the genus Cassiopea typically lie on the bottom of shallow lagoons where they sometimes pulsate gently with their umbrella top facing down. Even some deep-sea species of hydromedusae and scyphomedusae are usually collected on or near the bottom. All of the stauromedusae are found attached to either seaweed or rocky or other firm material on the bottom.

 

Some species explicitly adapt to tidal flux. In Roscoe Bay, jellyfish ride the current at ebb tide until they hit a gravel bar, and then descend below the current. They remain in still waters until the tide rises, ascending and allowing it to sweep them back into the bay. They also actively avoid fresh water from mountain snowmelt, diving until they find enough salt.

  

Parasites

Jellyfish are hosts to a wide variety of parasitic organisms. They act as intermediate hosts of endoparasitic helminths, with the infection being transferred to the definitive host fish after predation. Some digenean trematodes, especially species in the family Lepocreadiidae, use jellyfish as their second intermediate hosts. Fish become infected by the trematodes when they feed on infected jellyfish.

 

Relation to humans

Jellyfish have long been eaten in some parts of the world. Fisheries have begun harvesting the American cannonball jellyfish, Stomolophus meleagris, along the southern Atlantic coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico for export to Asia.

 

Jellyfish are also harvested for their collagen, which is being investigated for use in a variety of applications including the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

 

Aquaculture and fisheries of other species often suffer severe losses – and so losses of productivity – due to jellyfish.

 

Products

Main article: Jellyfish as food

In some countries, including China, Japan, and Korea, jellyfish are a delicacy. The jellyfish is dried to prevent spoiling. Only some 12 species of scyphozoan jellyfish belonging to the order Rhizostomeae are harvested for food, mostly in southeast Asia. Rhizostomes, especially Rhopilema esculentum in China (海蜇 hǎizhé, 'sea stingers') and Stomolophus meleagris (cannonball jellyfish) in the United States, are favored because of their larger and more rigid bodies and because their toxins are harmless to humans.

 

Traditional processing methods, carried out by a jellyfish master, involve a 20- to 40-day multi-phase procedure in which, after removing the gonads and mucous membranes, the umbrella and oral arms are treated with a mixture of table salt and alum, and compressed. Processing makes the jellyfish drier and more acidic, producing a crisp texture. Jellyfish prepared this way retain 7–10% of their original weight, and the processed product consists of approximately 94% water and 6% protein. Freshly processed jellyfish has a white, creamy color and turns yellow or brown during prolonged storage.

 

In China, processed jellyfish are desalted by soaking in water overnight and eaten cooked or raw. The dish is often served shredded with a dressing of oil, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, or as a salad with vegetables. In Japan, cured jellyfish are rinsed, cut into strips and served with vinegar as an appetizer. Desalted, ready-to-eat products are also available.

 

Biotechnology

The hydromedusa Aequorea victoria was the source of green fluorescent protein, studied for its role in bioluminescence and later for use as a marker in genetic engineering.

Pliny the Elder reported in his Natural History that the slime of the jellyfish "Pulmo marinus" produced light when rubbed on a walking stick.

 

In 1961, Osamu Shimomura extracted green fluorescent protein (GFP) and another bioluminescent protein, called aequorin, from the large and abundant hydromedusa Aequorea victoria, while studying photoproteins that cause bioluminescence in this species. Three decades later, Douglas Prasher sequenced and cloned the gene for GFP. Martin Chalfie figured out how to use GFP as a fluorescent marker of genes inserted into other cells or organisms. Roger Tsien later chemically manipulated GFP to produce other fluorescent colors to use as markers. In 2008, Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work with GFP. Man-made GFP became widely used as a fluorescent tag to show which cells or tissues express specific genes. The genetic engineering technique fuses the gene of interest to the GFP gene. The fused DNA is then put into a cell, to generate either a cell line or (via IVF techniques) an entire animal bearing the gene. In the cell or animal, the artificial gene turns on in the same tissues and the same time as the normal gene, making a fusion of the normal protein with GFP attached to the end, illuminating the animal or cell reveals what tissues express that protein—or at what stage of development. The fluorescence shows where the gene is expressed.

 

Aquarium display

Jellyfish are displayed in many public aquariums. Often the tank's background is blue and the animals are illuminated by side light, increasing the contrast between the animal and the background. In natural conditions, many jellies are so transparent that they are nearly invisible. Jellyfish are not adapted to closed spaces. They depend on currents to transport them from place to place. Professional exhibits as in the Monterey Bay Aquarium feature precise water flows, typically in circular tanks to avoid trapping specimens in corners. The outflow is spread out over a large surface area and the inflow enters as a sheet of water in front of the outflow, so the jellyfish do not get sucked into it. As of 2009, jellyfish were becoming popular in home aquariums, where they require similar equipment.

 

Stings

Jellyfish are armed with nematocysts, a type of specialized stinging cell. Contact with a jellyfish tentacle can trigger millions of nematocysts to pierce the skin and inject venom, but only some species' venom causes an adverse reaction in humans. In a study published in Communications Biology, researchers found a jellyfish species called Cassiopea xamachana which when triggered will release tiny balls of cells that swim around the jellyfish stinging everything in their path. Researchers described these as "self-propelling microscopic grenades" and named them cassiosomes.

 

The effects of stings range from mild discomfort to extreme pain and death. Most jellyfish stings are not deadly, but stings of some box jellyfish (Irukandji jellyfish), such as the sea wasp, can be deadly. Stings may cause anaphylaxis (a form of shock), which can be fatal. Jellyfish kill 20 to 40 people a year in the Philippines alone. In 2006 the Spanish Red Cross treated 19,000 stung swimmers along the Costa Brava.

 

Vinegar (3–10% aqueous acetic acid) may help with box jellyfish stings but not the stings of the Portuguese man o' war. Clearing the area of jelly and tentacles reduces nematocyst firing. Scraping the affected skin, such as with the edge of a credit card, may remove remaining nematocysts. Once the skin has been cleaned of nematocysts, hydrocortisone cream applied locally reduces pain and inflammation. Antihistamines may help to control itching. Immunobased antivenins are used for serious box jellyfish stings.

 

In Elba Island and Corsica dittrichia viscosa is now used by residents and tourists to heal stings from jellyfish, bees and wasps pressing fresh leaves on the skin with quick results.

 

Mechanical issues

Jellyfish in large quantities can fill and split fishing nets and crush captured fish. They can clog cooling equipment, having disabled power stations in several countries; jellyfish caused a cascading blackout in the Philippines in 1999, as well as damaging the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California in 2008. They can also stop desalination plants and ships' engines.

@ chinatown, NYC, USA

 

View On Black

Me in a Rabbit Head

 

Photo By: Cate Infinity

 

Step into the Lynchian wonderland of the "Rabbits" event at Lynchland, where Myrdin Sommer, the wizard of interior recreation, meticulously resurrected the living room from David Lynch's eerie masterpiece. Picture this: you find yourself sinking into a magenta retro leather sofa, a portal to an alternate reality where the bizarre is the norm. Myrdin Sommer's attention to detail didn't stop at furniture; she orchestrated a symphony of Lights FX that transformed the venue into a dreamscape. It was as if the very essence of Lynch's uncanny vision had materialized, with every flicker and glow sending shivers down your spine. The auditory voyage was equally enchanting, courtesy of the musical conjurers – DJ Frank Atisso, DJ Khaos, DJ Seventh, and DJ Snowkat. Their sets weren't just music; they were spells, weaving an ethereal tapestry that transported the audience to dimensions unknown. The energy pulsating through the room was nothing short of electrifying, making it impossible to resist the gravitational pull of the dance floor. Now, let's address the Rabbitea head, the controversial mandatory accessory that added a peculiar twist to the night. Brilliant and refreshing, it became a symbol of the event's commitment to embracing the strange. Sporting the Rabbitea head wasn't just a choice; it was a statement, a plunge into the surrealistic depths of Lynch's imagination. In the end, the Rabbits event was an unmitigated success. It wasn't merely a gathering; it was an immersive journey into the quirky universe of David Lynch. Lynchland, under Myrdin Sommer's enchantment, became a haven for those seeking an escape from the mundane. If you missed it, you missed stepping through the looking glass into a night where reality and surrealism waltzed hand in hand. An eccentric triumph, indeed! - Cate Infinity

 

***More***

 

Visit the nostalgia and get your free "Rabbits" head by Jay Pockets here: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Pearl%20Coast/188/33/3053

 

Presented to you by Infinite Productions and The Freakout Group

 

***NOTE***

 

"Welcome to LynchLand, where the magic never sleeps! Our enchanting locations are open 24/7, inviting everyone to indulge in their splendor. Feel free to meander through picturesque landscapes, capturing moments with your camera, or discovering the perfect nook to relax, embrace, dance, or simply bask in the soothing and eccentric melodies of our land radio. For an even more unforgettable experience, I extend a warm invitation to stay in our exquisitely adorned cabins and motel. Unleash laughter and camaraderie with friends in our vibrant Fun&Games Hall. Let's unite to infuse life and boundless joy into the heart of LynchLand!"

 

“I don’t think that people accept the fact that life doesn’t make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable.”

― David Lynch

Not kidding; the damn thing moves! It pulsates with your throbbing temples. Not for the feint....(fade to black)

 

Larry Beat recommends the following soundtrack. I affirm the recommendation because the music hastens the nausea caused by the confrontation of your conscious being with the inanimate thing, the image. If you try to ignore your nausea, you are in a state of bad faith of the type mentioned by Jean Paul Sarte: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOK98q_ILA

A free Spirit

Mirit Ben-Nun was born in Beer- Sheva in 1966. Over the years she has presented in solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in Israel and around the world.

When she was six, her father was killed in a car accident, leaving behind his wife and two daughters, Mirit and Dana.

Ben-Nun had difficulty concentrating on studies, which caused behavioral problems, and at the age of fourteen she dropped out of the education system and went to work. The colors and writing tools gave her a quiet private space and her own way of surviving. Creativity eased her tumultuous soul.

Until her early 30’s she worked as a telemarketer and for the next fourteen years she doodled and doodled. While talking to customers she filled thousands of pages with lines and dots that resembled hundreds of compressed eggs and seeds which she threw away.

In a large portion of each page she would pick a random word and would write it down over and over while concentrating on her hand movements.

Even then she noticed the rising of her need and obsession as she practiced the endless doodling and writing.

Ben-Nun testifies that the lack of artistic training to paint "correctly" freed her from adhering to the rules of painting and allowed her freedom and spirit of rebellion.

In 1998, she received a bunch of canvases and acrylic paints as a gift from her sister.

She brought the acrylic into her world of lines and dots; she went back to painting women and masks that appeared in her childhood paintings and flooded them with lines and dots without separating body and background.

This is also the moment when Ben-Nun began to refer to herself as a painter.

and when art became the center of her life.

The intense colors in Ben-Nun's paintings sweep the viewer into a sensual experience. The viewer traces the surge of dots and lines formed in packed layers of paint. The movement leads to a kind of female-male hormonal dance within the human body and to a communion with an artistic experience of instinct, passion, conceiving and birth.

Contributing to this experience is the wealth of characteristics reminiscent of tribal art. Ben-Nun merges these with a humorous and kicking contemporary Western Pop art. In the language of unique art, Ben-Nun creates an unconventional conversation between past and present cultures.

It is evident that the paintings emerge from a regenerated need and desire, a force that erupts from her soul, a subconscious survival instinct to which she cannot or does not want to resist.

Ben-Nun places women at the center stage where they are her work focus. The paintings obsessively deal with the existential experience of being a woman in the world. A few of the women's paintings carry feminist slogans stressing the women's struggle in society, a critique for being held to perfection and being required to perform as a model of "beauty, purity and motherhood". Feminism pulsates in Ben-Nun's psyche, through her diverse female images and the play between beauty and unsightliness; Ben-Nun assimilates the consciousness of feminine possibility, of not being "perfect", of being powerful, influential, and outside social norms. This mandates a departure from acceptable limitations where Ben-Nun creates a new world of free spirit for women.

Mirit Ben-Nun is a mother of three and the grandmother of three grandchildren.

 

Mirela Tal

 

It's been a while since I really went out and did a star trail. This one's a relatively short (10 minute-ish) trail for me, but think it's just right for the scene, too much longer and I've totally blown out the sky thanks to the light pollution around.

 

The horizontal streak you can faintly see above the mountains is a pesky airplane :(

 

Listen

 

Please view large, on black

  

Abraham "Bram" Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel, Dracula. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, which Irving owned.

 

Arise! Awake! A mist descends upon the city streets. Sounds pulsate beneath our feet. The sky shudders as Macnas spirits are unleashed by Twilight.

 

Come out and celebrate with Danu, Goddess of the Divine and Dark: brutal and beautiful, warrior and mother, hallowed and holy, she protects and provokes, takes flight and goes underground.

 

Mummers and drummers follow and seek. Demons and angels love and loathe, the dead dance and the living transform. Men become gods, fools become Kings, souls are sanctified, reptiles are rarefied and the city streets transform as the journey unfolds.

 

Bram Stoker Festival are delighted to once again welcome Macnas to Dublin for a city-wide procession to launch the city into Samhain [Halloween].

I make no apologies for what most would consider a negative review of eclosion. It was my opinion that the effort fell short of its potential, even though it sold deliriously worldwide. It is only mentioned here because this new album by The Dolls, in comparison, is a slaughterhouse five on a scale of four! From the moment the stylus hits the first grooves on the vinyl, the barn does not stop burning, with the blazing inferno raging higher and nastier, hell raising and lambasting everything and all in its path. By the time the soothing tones of their dreamy remake of Hendrix’s classic reach your ears, you lie breathless and dazed.

 

After a media campaign that saw walls of art erected in various platforms, i.e., social media, outdoor advertising and even a thirty-second Super Bowl LIII commercial, the first single, wAll st. was released worldwide (only twelve hours before the entire album). Katrina’s anguished cry, ”You buy and sell human souls, then lunch at eleven Madison!” is only matched with intensity by Tatuanna’s defiant stance ”I ain’t got time to cut it down!”. As has been until now, they do not shy away from hard subjects; mental disease, religion, gun violence. Classes that Kill being a prime example: ”No talking! No talking!”. From one song to the next, the lyrics enthrall and the music pulsates. The production is topnotch and the cast of musicians enlisted are reflective of the quality of this recording. Of note: Hallmark Heathens (a Valentine’s Day massacre, btw) features the Japanese performer t.yu she. ‘She’ met The Dolls during the recording of Atlas. Enamoured with them, she has stylized herself in their footsteps and in turn, has blossomed into a huge success in her home country.

 

As a famous man once said, you won’t feel ”…like the good Lord gypped” you if you go to your local music emporium and purchase this fourth release of t.A. dOlls. t.yu… it will be worth every shekel you fork out. And whilst your there, get yourself a good sarsaparilla… you’ll need something to cool the fire! – J.T. Scotsman

 

The Odic force is maintained by small spirits of the fire element which place this force prismatically within crystals to assist in the telepathic communication between all the organizational stacks of nature spirits. The radiance of the crystals create a short wave psychometric receiver which emits pulsating beams.

I once found a blue tentacled thing

tumbled onto the sand by the turning tide,

half evicted from its spiked translucent shell.

I picked it up, but its body’s weight,

too much in air, broke it in two.

Its front end now lay pulsating

like a tiny heart. I took away its shell

leaving the broken creature

to be shredded by gulls. After all

it was only a mollusc.

 

Its close together yellow disc eyes

had looked up at me as I robbed it.

I missing my chance to scoop it up

and watch it swim as countless

millions had swum unknown

to a conscious eye.

 

It had lived the weightless

water-fingering life of a nautilus,

an ammonite, a creature

delicate and terrible outclassed

in this evolving world.

The immensity of its history

is cast in mountains.

 

April, 2016

 

©Brightasafig

One of the things I love about Paris is how you can take random turns on any of the radial streets and avenues and find yourself facing one of the many beautiful historic landmarks which the city of lights is famous for. Late at night the streets can seem almost abandoned but the city is very much alive. There is no sense of trepidation or concern even walking down streets and alleys with no one seemingly around. The lights and shadows merge into an intoxicating blend of taboo desires to be openly wantonly embraced by lovers without fear or shame, in a society that celebrates every twist and turn of passionate lovers and forbidden pleasures, of pure love and unbridled lust, of bright ideas and dark desires, of experiencing life to the fullest meting out little deaths to bold beloveds and strong submissives. The strong tower throbbing in its golden glow penetrating the dark night releasing short intense pulsating flashes of light. Yes, my beloved, this too is a spot where we shall consummate the night and leave our mark. Right here. Right now. Are you ready? Then, come, my love, in the open shadows of the city of lights. ❤️💙

 

© 2018 IMRAN™

 

#travelphotography #travelblogger #travelogue #lifestyle #lifestyleblogger #blessings #blessed # #Paris #France #erotica #prose #literature #lust #love #romance

This “tree” sculpture stands on a roundabout just west of Canary Wharf, and pulsates slowly, confusing unwary drivers.

 

[Update - this is my "Most Views" submission for Cream of the Crop.]

 

Where is this photograph taken from?

Timelapse of a Phalaenopsis (Moth) Orchid.

 

One frame at 25fps is equivalent to One shot a minute for just under 24 hours.

(i.e. one second = 25 minutes).

 

One battery of the 40D was able to last just over 12 hours on a full charge, which was quite good! Mounting the camera backwards on my tripod allowed me to (very carefully) change the battery during the timelapse period. All images were shot as large JPEG, rather than RAW, to ensure I could get them (1435 images) on a single 8Gb card. Using a desk lamp I was able to continue shoot throughout the night for the whole period.

 

In the same time the Earth rotated once, travelling 1,608,000 miles through the solar system. 357,055 people were born. The Athabasca glacier in Canada moved about 2-3cm. A humming bird beat its wings about 2,160,000 times and there were 50 Million Tweets on Twitter. The Universe barely even registered a change.

 

The music was created using 'Pulsate' by Andre Michelle, which is an mathematical, abstract, visual music creation tool - highly recommended for a play...!!

A friend commented on the eroticness of pics like this - from 40 (or more) years ago - and how the nature of the pics back then were sexual because they were not calculated , but seem innocent and unplanned. Today everyting is shoved right in your face, "XXX" & pulsating and erect; those secretly desired private views calculated exposure to produce immediate arousal. I guess they all have their place and are desired by different individuals for different purposes. What do you think? What makes a picture erotic & sexy? Care to comment?

Em's eyes have been really low-res for a loooong time and I've wanted to make new one's ofr a while but never got around to it because I had better things to do.

 

The new eyes still do the glowing/pulsating thing (example: i.imgur.com/hbv3XpC.jpg) but there's also a cubemap on them now so there's nice and shiny. And the obvious new higher-resolution textures.

What a sad picture...like someone is waiting forever for something. A loved one has passed and the sorrow of the survivor(s) is depicted in this abstract. Grief is also displayed...maybe a grief that can never be released until one has joined the loved one on the other side of hope.

 

Is there ever closure in grief?

-rc

/******************************************************************************

Absent Sophia

 

Poetry ceases without you

Ache embraces a pounding heart

Caged behind a glass door

 

A grieving liturgy waits

Silence roars on empty ears

Confined a passion thrashes

 

Lyrics fail to chant in your absence

Throbbing veins pulsate against flesh

Imprisoned by white bones

-rc

/****************************************************/

Inspired by the Swedish Wasteland. Come enjoy some time off from the pulsating life, enjoy the lake activities like fishing, boat , pedalo or canoe; go for a walk by the river, or relax and listen to the frogs singing :) Turn the sounds on!

 

Visit this location at Luanes Spring World -Romantic sim & :LW: Poses main store in Second Life

View Large On Black

 

Alredy often the end of this city was drawn in pictures of apocalyptic dimensions. It looks like that every moment it could come. But all just going on as usual. The noise, the dirt, the chaotic seeming bustle, the misery, but also the beauty, the joy of life, the laughter, the wit.........in spite of all. And no one who has given up himself. Although the circumstances they living in may seem to our eyes overwhelming miserable and chaotic. A city filled with pulsating life, a panopticum of strange charm. Many of its inbabitants even proud of the city of the cruelsome goddess Kali from that derives its name.

 

Date & Time: November 25, 2024

Time: 12:00 PM SLT

Location: ARTSVILLE SL

maps.secondlife.com/.../Caribbean%20Ocean/87/63/1801

 

🌟 Join us for the Orange the World kick-off event as we stand together to raise awareness for gender-based violence and show our support for the global campaign to end violence against women and girls. 🌟

 

🎶 Music Lineup 🎶

DJ Frank Atisso will start the party with his electrifying beats and pulsating rhythms to get everyone in the mood for a great time.

 

Then, get ready for Max Kleene, who will take the stage for an awesome live music performance! Max's amazing tunes will fill the air and have you dancing and singing along.

 

🔥 It's going to be 3 hours full of music, unity, and awareness, so don’t miss out on this incredible event! 🔥

 

Come for the music, stay for the cause – let's Orange the World together!

 

🔶 Dress Code: Wear your best orange outfit to show your support!

 

🔶 Raffle Prizes from our wonderful sponsors!

 

We can’t wait to see you there at 12:00 PM SLT! ✨

Inspired by the words of a friend.

 

In the shadow of a shattered moon, a team of interstellar explorers uncovers an ancient, slumbering giant — a colossal humanoid being fused into the alien mountainside, its molten eyes flickering back to life after millennia. Etched with forgotten glyphs and pulsating with celestial circuitry, this sentient monolith looms like a god reborn. The landscape is scorched and sublime, glowing with volcanic veins and echoing with the whispers of a civilization long lost to time. As lightning dances across the sky and the colossus stirs, the explorers realize they've awakened something not meant to be disturbed.

Large: View On Black

 

For Maggie, in China... Maggies_World www.flickr.com/photos/maggiesworld/

 

Please go see her work!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nature Prays....

... a prayer that is a breath, expanding and contracting,

a part of the living and dying... a stillness within the busy-ness of life...

... a prayer that becomes flesh and blood, becomes the creation and the creator... becomes the blueprint of life in all things...

... a prayer that weaves the tapestry of life into a beautiful design of oneness and infinity.... never ending or beginning but always there, like the air that we breathe, the air that pulsates with the prayer of life and the dreams of the creator....

... a prayer that is a gift of healing and light... and for you I pray for healing as you bring light to others!

 

...ahhh, and you have reminded me to start breathing my prayer!!!!!!! Thank you so much my dear friend... somehow with your view of the world and the words you so wisely choose to share with the images, you touch a place in the center of being, causing all to come to a halt in the rollercoaster busy merry go round of life,

a scene that could be passed by as just another pretty picture becomes something far more...

and then,

for a moment...

as I breathe...

I am the stillness and fire in the heart. I remember who I am, a child of God, a breath of nature, an eternal moment.

Thank you with all my heart!!!! I am overcome!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*

 

You have inspired so many, lifted hearts and chased away the darkness, and now I wish that for you!

IMG_1609_4

fuhgehtaboutit.

 

You can take the girl out of brooklyn, but you can NEVER take the brooklyn out of the girl.

 

Spent the day walking the boardwalk in brighton beach. Where I spent the summers of my childhood. Where my mother met my father when she was 15 and he was 20 and she asked him to sit on her beach blanket. Where my grandparents lived, and where I still hoped I'd see my grandpa waiting for me on his stoop. How tears came to my eyes knowing he'd never be there again.

 

I grew up on some mean streets, and when a couple of years ago I brought my kids to see my old neighborhood, my oldest wouldn't even get out of the car, and the other two just kept saying, "you LIVED here?", "you lived HERE?". Yes, indeed I did.

 

And I love it.

The streets pulsate. The trains rattle. There is a rhythm to that city like no other place I've ever been.

 

I've lived many places, and that's all they are, just places where I live.

 

But brooklyn is home. And man, was it great to be home.

 

HCS!!!!

I have decided to develop the project “Through the light” to show how is living in Palermo. The city despite the diverse mixture of cultures has retained most of its original identity. Art and history are some important elements of daily palermitan life. Walking in the evening in our historical centre, which is the heart of the city, you can see many areas that are colored by typical corner markets such as Ballarò, il Capo and Vucciria that represent the ancient city’s pulsating core, tied to the scents and traditions of this city. Past and present exist together and give a unique scenery in many interesting places. I tried to “open a window” on some degraded areas to redeem the image of a city, which needs to look for a way back into the sun.

 

The great aurora of May 31/June 1, 2025, here looking north following a substorm outburst that lit up the sky. This is a wide view covering much of the northern half of the sky, with the aurora in a post-storm recovery phase and showing pulsating and flickering curtains, blurred here in a single long exposure. Cassiopeia is below centre low in the north; the Big Dipper is at upper left. Polaris is left of centre.

 

Technical:

A single 10-second exposure with the TTArtisan 11mm full-frame fish-eye lens at f/2.8 on the Canon Ra at ISO 800.

Cours Saleya market in Nice is at the heart of the Old Town and it’s always pulsating with life. Striped awnings cover its centre and shelter the products on offer in the daily market. Crowds of locals and tourists come here to do their shopping or sometimes just to look and snap photos of the colourful displays. The scents of fresh produce and flowers seem to put everyone in a good mood and the atmosphere is friendly.*

 

*https://www.thegoodlifefrance.com/cours-saleya-market-in-nice-france/

These Hubble Space Telescope images showcase 2 of the 19 galaxies analyzed in a project to improve the precision of the universe's expansion rate, a value known as the Hubble constant.

 

The color-composite images show NGC 3972 (left) and NGC 1015 (right), located 65 million light-years and 118 million light-years, respectively, from Earth. The yellow circles in each galaxy represent the locations of pulsating stars called Cepheid variables. These stars blink at a rate matched closely by their intrinsic brightness, making them ideal cosmic lighthouses for measuring accurate distances to relatively nearby galaxies.

 

Another reliable milepost marker is a special class of exploding star called a Type Ia supernova. All of these supernovae peak at the same brightness and are brilliant enough to be seen over relatively longer distances. The small cross-shaped feature in each galaxy denotes the location of a Type Ia supernova.

 

Astronomers search for Cepheid variables in nearby galaxies containing a Type Ia supernova so they can compare the true brightness of both types of stars. That brightness information is used to calibrate the luminosity of Type Ia supernovae in far-flung galaxies so that astronomers can calculate the galaxies' distances from Earth. Once astronomers know accurate distances to galaxies near and far, they can determine and refine the universe's expansion rate.

 

The observations for NGC 3972 were taken in 2015; for NGC 1015 in 2013. Both galaxies were observed by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3.

 

For more information, please visit:

www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/improved-hubble-yardsti...

 

Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI/JHU)

Another shot from the 8th/9th October 2013, taken during the break up phase of the display, with pulsating rays and patches. Taken with my Samyang 14mm lens, f2.8, ISO 1600, 15 second exposure.

Attention, Earthlings!

 

Join us on June 1st, Saturday, at 12:00 PM SLT+, as we embark on an interstellar journey through a cosmic rave!

 

Our stellar lineup of DJs will guide us through the cosmos:

12:00 PM - 1:30 PM SLT+: DJ Muse

1:30 PM - 3:00 PM SLT+: DJ Drugan

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM SLT+: DJ Seven

 

Prepare to transcend the confines of time and space with pulsating rhythms and ethereal melodies into the depths of the unknown! Remember, dress code is space chic - think metallics, neon, and futuristic flair.

 

We shall traverse the cosmos and dance among the constellations.

 

SONANCE

 

SONANCE Team

James, you astonished me with the first comment - it's exactly what you guessed!

 

The replacement for the 128 is... a 1987 Toyota Corona 2.0 VX Coupe. Most of you will look at this and go 'That's a Celica' and essentially, yes it is. However, in the Japanese Domestic Market (a vast and often unfathomable entity) Toyota decided to sell the liftback and convertible as the Celica, and this notchback version - known as the Celica Coupe in all other markets - as the Corona coupe, as there had always been a Corona coupe available alongside the Celica and it appears for this generation Toyota just decided to cut costs and use one of the Celica bodystyles. The only ways to differentiate these from the Celica are that they have fixed headlights rather than the pop-up lights all export Celicas had, as well as more luxurious trim and different, wider taillights - the Corona coupe was seen as a personal luxury coupe as opposed to the Celica's outright sports car status.

 

My car was imported from Japan in 1994 and first registered in Timaru on the 16th of November of that year. It has the biggest 2.0 3S-FE engine (1.6 and 1.8s were also available) and the 4-speed automatic transmission. It's only had 3 owners before me (bar dealers) and has only travelled 196,000 kilometres from new.

 

One hell of a car I think, and it goes extremely well with the only faults being clicking CV joints and slightly juddery rear brakes, and the brake pedal can pulsate quite noticeably under reasonable braking. What do you guys reckon??

9.4.09

The flight arrived on time; and the twelve hours while on board passed quickly and without incident. To be sure, the quality of the Cathay Pacific service was exemplary once again.

 

Heathrow reminds me of Newark International. The décor comes straight out of the sterile 80's and is less an eyesore than an insipid background to the rhythm of human activity, such hustle and bustle, at the fore. There certainly are faces from all races present, creating a rich mosaic of humanity which is refreshing if not completely revitalizing after swimming for so long in a sea of Chinese faces in Hong Kong.

 

Internet access is sealed in England, it seems. Nothing is free; everything is egregiously monetized from the wireless hotspots down to the desktop terminals. I guess Hong Kong has spoiled me with its abundant, free access to the information superhighway.

  

11.4.09

Despite staying in a room with five other backpackers, I have been sleeping well. The mattress and pillow are firm; my earplugs keep the noise out; and the sleeping quarters are as dark as a cave when the lights are out, and only as bright as, perhaps, a dreary rainy day when on. All in all, St. Paul's is a excellent place to stay for the gregarious, adventurous, and penurious city explorer - couchsurfing may be a tenable alternative; I'll test for next time.

 

Yesterday Connie and I gorged ourselves at the borough market where there were all sorts of delectable, savory victuals. There was definitely a European flavor to the food fair: simmering sausages were to be found everywhere; and much as the meat was plentiful, and genuine, so were the dairy delicacies, in the form of myriad rounds of cheese, stacked high behind checkered tabletops. Of course, we washed these tasty morsels down with copious amounts of alcohol that flowed from cups as though amber waterfalls. For the first time I tried mulled wine, which tasted like warm, rancid fruit punch - the ideal tonic for a drizzling London day, I suppose. We later killed the afternoon at the pub, shooting the breeze while imbibing several diminutive half-pints in the process. Getting smashed at four in the afternoon doesn't seem like such a bad thing anymore, especially when you are having fun in the company of friends; I can more appreciate why the English do it so much!

 

Earlier in the day, we visited the Tate Modern. Its turbine room lived up to its prominent billing what with a giant spider, complete with bulbous egg sac, anchoring the retrospective exhibit. The permanent galleries, too, were a delight upon which to feast one's eyes. Picasso, Warhol and Pollock ruled the chambers of the upper floors with the products of their lithe wrists; and I ended up becoming a huge fan of cubism, while developing a disdain for abstract art and its vacuous images, which, I feel, are devoid of both motivation and emotion.

 

My first trip yesterday morning was to Emirates Stadium, home of the Arsenal Gunners. It towers imperiously over the surrounding neighborhood; yet for all its majesty, the place sure was quiet! Business did pick up later, however, once the armory shop opened, and dozens of fans descended on it like bees to a hive. I, too, swooped in on a gift-buying mission, and wound up purchasing a book for Godfrey, a scarf for a student, and a jersey - on sale, of course - for good measure.

 

I'm sitting in the Westminster Abbey Museum now, resting my weary legs and burdened back. So far, I've been verily impressed with what I've seen, such a confluence of splendor and history before me that it would require days to absorb it all, when regretfully I can spare only a few hours. My favorite part of the abbey is the poets corner where no less a literary luminary than Samuel Johnson rests in peace - his bust confirms his homely presence, which was so vividly captured in his biography.

 

For lunch I had a steak and ale pie, served with mash, taken alongside a Guinness, extra cold - 2 degrees centigrade colder, the bartender explained. It went down well, like all the other delicious meals I've had in England; and no doubt by now I have grown accustomed to inebriation at half past two. Besides, Liverpool were playing inspired football against Blackburn; and my lunch was complete.

 

Having had my fill of football, I decided to skip my ticket scalping endeavor at Stamford Bridge and instead wandered over to the British Museum to inspect their extensive collections. Along the way, my eye caught a theater, its doors wide open and admitting customers. With much rapidity, I subsequently checked the show times, saw that a performance was set to begin, and at last rushed to the box office to purchase a discounted ticket - if you call a 40 pound ticket a deal, that is. That's how I grabbed a seat to watch Hairspray in the West End.

 

The show was worth forty pounds. The music was addictive; and the stage design and effects were not so much kitschy as delightfully stimulating - the pulsating background lights were at once scintillating and penetrating. The actors as well were vivacious, oozing charisma while they danced and delivered lines dripping in humor. Hairspray is a quality production and most definitely recommended.

  

12.4.09

At breakfast I sat across from a man who asked me to which country Hong Kong had been returned - China or Japan. That was pretty funny. Then he started spitting on my food as he spoke, completely oblivious to my breakfast becoming the receptacle in which the fruit of his inner churl was being placed. I guess I understand the convention nowadays of covering one's mouth whilst speaking and masticating at the same time!

 

We actually conversed on London life in general, and I praised London for its racial integration, the act of which is a prodigious leap of faith for any society, trying to be inclusive, accepting all sorts of people. It wasn't as though the Brits were trying in vain to be all things to all men, using Spanish with the visitors from Spain, German with the Germans and, even, Hindi with the Indians, regardless of whether or not Hindi was their native language; not even considering the absurd idea of encouraging the international adoption of their language; thereby completely keeping English in English hands and allowing its proud polyglots to "practice" their languages. Indeed, the attempt of the Londoners to avail themselves of the rich mosaic of ethnic knowledge, and to seek a common understanding with a ubiquitous English accent is an exemplar, and the bedrock for any world city.

 

I celebrated Jesus' resurrection at the St. Andrew's Street Church in Cambridge. The parishioners of this Baptist church were warm and affable, and I met several of them, including one visiting (Halliday) linguistics scholar from Zhongshan university in Guangzhou, who in fact had visited my tiny City University of Hong Kong in 2003. The service itself was more traditional and the believers fewer in number than the "progressive" services at any of the charismatic, evangelical churches in HK; yet that's what makes this part of the body of Christ unique; besides, the message was as brief as a powerpoint slide, and informative no less; the power word which spoke into my life being a question from John 21:22 - what is that to you?

 

Big trees; exquisite lawns; and old, pointy colleges; that's Cambridge in a nutshell. Sitting here, sipping on a half-pint of Woodforde's Wherry, I've had a leisurely, if not languorous, day so far; my sole duty consisting of walking around while absorbing the verdant environment as though a sponge, camera in tow.

 

I am back at the sublime beer, savoring a pint of Sharp's DoomBar before my fish and chips arrive; the drinking age is 18, but anyone whose visage even hints of youthful brilliance is likely to get carded these days, the bartender told me. The youth drinking culture here is almost as twisted as the university drinking culture in America.

 

My stay in Cambridge, relaxing and desultory as it may be, is about to end after this late lunch. I an not sure if there is anything left to see, save for the American graveyard which rests an impossible two miles away. I have had a wonderful time in this town; and am thankful for the access into its living history - the residents here must demonstrate remarkable patience and tolerance what with so many tourists ambling on the streets, peering - and photographing - into every nook and cranny.

 

13.4.09

There are no rubbish bins, yet I've seen on the streets many mixed race couples in which the men tend to be white - the women also belonging to a light colored ethnicity, usually some sort of Asian; as well saw some black dudes and Indian dudes with white chicks.

 

People here hold doors, even at the entrance to the toilet. Sometimes it appears as though they are going out on a limb, just waiting for the one who will take the responsibility for the door from them, at which point I rush out to relieve them of such a fortuitous burden.

 

I visited the British Museum this morning. The two hours I spent there did neither myself nor the exhibits any justice because there really is too much to survey, enough captivating stuff to last an entire day, I think. The bottomless well of artifacts from antiquity, drawing from sources as diverse as Korea, and Mesopotamia, is a credit to the British empire, without whose looting most of this amazing booty would be unavailable for our purview; better, I think, for these priceless treasures to be open to all in the grandest supermarket of history than away from human eyes, and worst yet, in the hands of unscrupulous collectors or in the rubbish bin, possibly.

 

Irene and I took in the ballet Giselle at The Royal Opera House in the afternoon. The building is a plush marvel, and a testament to this city's love for the arts. The ballet itself was satisfying, the first half being superior to the second, in which the nimble dancers demonstrated their phenomenal dexterity in, of all places, a graveyard covered in a cloak of smoke and darkness. I admit, their dance of the dead, in such a gloomy necropolis, did strike me as, strange.

 

Two amicable ladies from Kent convinced me to visit their hometown tomorrow, where, they told me, the authentic, "working" Leeds Castle and the mighty interesting home of Charles Darwin await.

 

I'm nursing a pint of Green King Ruddles and wondering about the profusion of British ales and lagers; the British have done a great deed for the world by creating an interminable line of low-alcohol session beers that can be enjoyed at breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner; and their disservice is this: besides this inexhaustible supply of cheap beer ensnaring my inner alcoholic, I feel myself putting on my freshman fifteen, almost ten years after the fact; I am going to have to run a bit harder back in Hong Kong if I want to burn all this malty fuel off.

 

Irene suggested I stop by the National Art Gallery since we were in the area; and it was an hour well spent. The gallery currently presents a special exhibit on Picasso, the non-ticketed section of which features several seductive renderings, including David spying on Bathsheba - repeated in clever variants - and parodies of other masters' works. Furthermore, the main gallery houses two fabulous portraits by Joshua Reynolds, who happens to be favorite of mine, he in life being a close friend of Samuel Johnson - I passed by Boswells, where its namesake first met Johnson, on my way to the opera house.

 

14.4.09

I prayed last night, and went through my list, lifting everyone on it up to the Lord. That felt good; that God is alive now, and ever present in my life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters.

 

Doubtless, then, I have felt quite wistful, as though a specter in the land of the living, being in a place where religious fervor, it seems, is a thing of the past, a trifling for many, to be hidden away in the opaque corners of centuries-old cathedrals that are more expensive tourist destinations than liberating homes of worship these days. Indeed, I have yet to see anyone pray, outside of the Easter service which I attended in Cambridge - for such an ecstatic moment in verily a grand church, would you believe that it was only attended by at most three dozen spirited ones. The people of England, and Europe in general, have, it is my hope, only locked away the Word, relegating it to the quiet vault of their hearts. May it be taken out in the sudden pause before mealtimes and in the still crisp mornings and cool, silent nights. There is still hope for a revival in this place, for faith to rise like that splendid sun every morning. God would love to rescue them, to deliver them in this day, it is certain.

 

I wonder what Londoners think, if anything at all, about their police state which, like a vine in the shadows, has taken root in all corners of daily life, from the terrorist notifications in the underground, which implore Londoners to report all things suspicious, to the pair of dogs which eagerly stroll through Euston. What makes this all the more incredible is the fact that even the United States, the indomitable nemesis of the fledgling, rebel order, doesn't dare bombard its citizens with such fear mongering these days, especially with Obama in office; maybe we've grown wise in these past few years to the dubious returns of surrendering civil liberties to the state, of having our bags checked everywhere - London Eye; Hairspray; and The Royal Opera House check bags in London while the museums do not; somehow, that doesn't add up for me.

 

I'm in a majestic bookshop on New Street in Birmingham, and certainly to confirm my suspicions, there are just as many books on the death of Christianity in Britain as there are books which attempt to murder Christianity everywhere. I did find, however, a nice biography on John Wesley by Roy Hattersley and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I may pick up the former.

 

Lunch with Sally was pleasant and mirthful. We dined at a French restaurant nearby New Street - yes, Birmingham is a cultural capitol! Sally and I both tried their omelette, while her boyfriend had the fish, without chips. Conversation was light, the levity was there and so was our reminiscing about those fleeting moments during our first year in Hong Kong; it is amazing how friendships can resume so suddenly with a smile. On their recommendation, I am on my way to Warwick Castle - they also suggested that I visit Cadbury World, but they cannot take on additional visitors at the moment, the tourist office staff informed me, much to my disappointment!

 

Visiting Warwick Castle really made for a great day out. The castle, parts of which were established by William the Conquerer in 1068, is as much a kitschy tourist trap as a meticulous preservation of history, at times a sillier version of Ocean Park while at others a dignified dedication to a most glorious, inexorably English past. The castle caters to all visitors; and not surprisingly, that which delighted all audiences was a giant trebuchet siege engine, which for the five p.m. performance hurled a fireball high and far into the air - fantastic! Taliban beware!

 

15.4.09

I'm leaving on a jet plane this evening; don't know when I'll be back in England again. I'll miss this quirky, yet endearing place; and that I shall miss Irene and Tom who so generously welcomed me into their home, fed me, and suffered my use of their toilet and shower goes without saying. I'm grateful for God's many blessings on this trip.

 

On the itinerary today is a trip to John Wesley's home, followed by a visit to the Imperial War Museum. Already this morning I picked up a tube of Oilatum, a week late perhaps, which Teri recommended I use to treat this obstinate, dermal weakness of mine - I'm happy to report that my skin has stopped crying.

 

John Wesley's home is alive and well. Services are still held in the chapel everyday; and its crypt, so far from being a cellar for the dead, is a bright, spacious museum in which all things Wesley are on display - I never realized how much of an iconic figure he became in England; at the height of this idol frenzy, ironic in itself, he must have been as popular as the Beatles were at their apex. The house itself is a multi-story edifice with narrow, precipitous staircases and spacious rooms decorated in an 18th century fashion.

 

I found Samuel Johnson's house within a maze of red brick hidden alongside Fleet Street. To be in the home of the man who wrote the English dictionary, and whose indefatigable love for obscure words became the inspiration for my own lexical obsession, this, by far, is the climax of my visit to England! The best certainly has been saved for last.

 

There are a multitude of portraits hanging around the house like ornaments on a tree. Every likeness has its own story, meticulously retold on the crib sheets in each room. Celebrities abound, including David Garrick and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted several of the finer images in the house. I have developed a particular affinity for Oliver Goldsmith, of whom Boswell writes, "His person was short, his countenance coarse and vulgar, his deportment that of a scholar awkwardly affecting the easy gentleman. It appears as though I, too, could use a more flattering description of myself!

 

I regretfully couldn't stop to try the curry in England; I guess the CityU canteen's take on the dish will have to do. I did, however, have the opportune task of flirting with the cute Cathay Pacific counter staff who checked me in. She was gorgeous in red, light powder on her cheeks, with real diamond earrings, she said; and her small, delicate face, commanded by a posh British accent rendered her positively irresistible, electrifying. Not only did she grant me an aisle seat but she had the gumption to return my fawning with zest; she must be a pro at this by now.

 

I saw her again as she was pulling double-duty, collecting tickets prior to boarding. She remembered my quest for curry; and in the fog of infatuation, where nary a man has been made, I fumbled my words like the sloppy kid who has had too much punch. I am just an amateur, alas, an "Oliver Goldsmith" with the ladies - I got no game - booyah!

 

Some final, consequential bits: because of the chavs, Burberry no longer sells those fashionable baseball caps; because of the IRA, rubbish bins are no longer a commodity on the streets of London, and as a result, the streets and the Underground of the city are a soiled mess; and because of other terrorists from distant, more arid lands, going through a Western airport has taken on the tedium of perfunctory procedure that doesn't make me feel any safer from my invisible enemies.

 

At last, I saw so many Indians working at Heathrow that I could have easily mistaken the place for Mumbai. Their presence surprised me because their portion of the general population surely must be less than their portion of Heathrow staff, indicating some mysterious hiring bias. Regardless, they do a superb job with cursory airport checks, and in general are absurdly funny and witty when not tactless.

 

That's all for England!

This pulsating sprinkler brings back childhood memories when we would play near them

 

With special thanks to Belial for allowing me use his picture "You spin me right round, baby right round" (but I decided against stealing his title as well;o)

 

Maybe b&w is a little better.. also to stick to the actual series... :)

 

On black

A short 30 second (high ISO) wide field exposure of the Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57).

 

M57 or NGC 6720). M57 is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra. In this photo, M57 is the elongated rainbow colored bubble.

 

What is a Planetary Nebula?

A planetary nebula is formed when a shell of ionized gas is expelled into the surrounding interstellar medium by a red giant star of about the same mass of the Sun, which is passing through the last stage in its evolution before becoming a white dwarf. The gas absorbs Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the star, and re-emits it as visible light via the process of fluorescence. The fate of a star is determined by its mass.

 

This will be the fate of the Sun in about 5 billion years from now, after its nuclear fusion process converted all the Hydrogen nuclei into Helium. The Hydrogen Atom is the simplest and most abundant element in the Universe (with only 1 Proton and 1 Electron). Through the process of fusion, more complex elements are made at different stages of a star's life and death cycle.

 

Carl Sagan Quotes from Cosmos that describe what we see:

"In its final agonies, the sun will slowly pulsate. By then, its core will have become so hot that it temporarily converts helium into carbon. The ash from today's nuclear fusion will become the fuel to power the sun near the end of its life in its red giant stage. Then the sun will lose great shells of its outer atmosphere to space filling the solar system with eerily glowing gas. The ghost of a star, outward bound.

Perhaps half the mass of the sun will be lost in this way. Viewed from elsewhere, our system will then resemble the Ring Nebula in Lyra the atmosphere of the sun expanding outward like a soap bubble. And at the very center will be a white dwarf. The hot exposed core of the sun its nuclear fuel now exhausted, slowly cooling to become a cold, dead star. Such is the life of an ordinary star. Born in a gas cloud, maturing as a yellow sun decaying as a red giant and dying as a white dwarf enveloped in its shroud of gas." - Carl Sagan - Cosmos - The Lives of the Stars.

 

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” - Carl Sagan, Cosmos.

 

"Nothing lasts forever, even the stars die." - Carl Sagan, Cosmos.

 

Gear:

GSO 6" f/4 Imaging Newtonian Reflector Telescope.

Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector.

Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter.

Celestron AVX Mount.

Canon 60Da DSLR.

 

Astrometry Info:

nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1156718#annotated

RA, Dec center: 283.712048584, 33.1403593896 degrees

Orientation: 0.863002833867 deg E of N

Pixel scale: 3.98708876272 arcsec/pixel

 

Martin

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This dandelion siphonophore was found at approximately 2,530 meters (8,300 feet) while exploring a seamount within the Johnston Atoll Unit of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. We were able to see the feeding tentacles extended around the animal like a spider web as well as the pulsating “float” which helped to keep the central body suspended.

 

Learn more about siphonophores here: oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1706/logs/j...

 

Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2017 Laulima O Ka Moana.

Uploaded on 06-30-2020 / Arden-Arcade, Sacramento, CA

 

eternal gratitude to The Ramones for making music so fucking cool and for making it cool to have fun!

  

Hey ho, let's go

Hey ho, let's go

 

They're forming in a straight line

They're going through a tight wind

The kids are losing their minds

The Blitzkrieg Bop

 

They're piling in the back seat

They're generating steam heat

Pulsating to the back beat

The Blitzkrieg Bop.

 

Hey ho, let's go

Shoot'em in the back now

What they want, I don't know

They're all reved up and ready to go

 

by Tommy + Dee Dee Ramone

I think I took about 20 photos of this beached jellyfish on Seabrook, SC, I was just enthralled with it's colors and it's gloss the way it pulsated-still alive.

We Are FSTVL 2016

28 - 29 May 2016

Upminster, United Kingdom

 

Winner of Best New Festival, Best Medium Sized Festival and Best International Festival, We Are FSTVL 2016 returns once more this summer after another record breaking sell-out success in 2015!

 

For one huge weekend in May our beloved Airfield Of Dreams at Damyn’s Hall, Upminster, combines some of the world’s biggest names in electronic dance music with some of the world’s leading club brands and labels for 50,000 FSTVL fans.

Taking place on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29 May, We Are FSTVL features over 200 artists across 16 bespoke stages.

Not content with hosting our best ever line-up to date, our biggest and most elaborate production to date, We Are FSTVL 2016 will go up another level with a brand new set of stylised arenas and structures.

  

We Are FSVTL is the UK's newest and brightest dance music festival. 8 stages, covering the entire electronic spectrum from drum & bass to mainstream dance, welcome huge names to the aptly named Airfield of Dreams, east of London.

 

Beyond their spectacular and one-of-a-kind main stage, We Are FSTVL join forces with the legendary Cocoon to create a pulsating Techno Warehouse – led in 2015 by the likes of Tale Of Us, Dixon, Sven Väth and Ricardo Villalobos.

 

Headline performances from Steve Angello and Carl Cox confirmed the growing prestige of We Are FSTVL – and we can't wait to see what 2016's edition has in store.

We Are FSTVL 2016 Line Up

28 May 2016

Fatboy Slim, DJ Fresh, Sigma [DJ set], Amine Edge & Dance, Claptone, Danny Howard, DJ S.K.T, GW Harrison, Philip George, Theo Kottis, Loco Dice, Caleb Calloway, Chris Liebing, Enzo Siragusa, Tale of Us, Henrik Schwarz [live], MK, Hannah Wants, Catz 'N' Dogz, Oliver Dollar, Ben Pearce, Camelphat, Shy FX, Redlight, Cause & Affect, Dimension, Flava D, Friction, Melé, Monki, My Nu Leng, Plastician, Preditah, Guy Gerber, Apollonia, Dan Ghenacia, Dyed Soundorom, Shonky, Cassy, Eats Everything, Robin Ordell, Greg Brockmann, Hold Youth, Sam Bangura, Todd Terry, Joey Negro, Roger Sanchez, Norman Jay, Simon Dunmore, For the Love of House, Barbara Tucker [live], Shovell, DJ Charlesy, Michael Green, Carbon Copy, Steve Taylor, Mark Ingham, Brad James, Skyhigh, Jack Cavanagh, Ollie Brittan, Bongo Ben, Paolo Francesco, Melanie Ribbe, Kate Elsworth, So: Serious, Jolyon, Nimbla, Will Turner, Josh Parkinson, Jesse Burgess

29 May 2016

Steve Angello, DJ Snake, Tchami, Craig David presents TS5, Disciples, General Levy, Mistajam, Kurupt FM, Billy Kenny, Son of 8, Sven Väth, Richie Hawtin, The Martinez Brothers, Âme [live], Ilario Alicante, Carola Pisaturo, Armand van Helden, ShadowChild, Andrea Oliva, Sam Divine, Sonny Fodera, Riva Starr, Simon Dunmore, Franky Rizardo, Purple Disco Machine, Camo & Krooked, Sub Focus, Fred V & Grafix, S.P.Y., Etherwood, Metrik, Maduk, Logistics, Krakota, Ownglow, Jamie Jones, Marco Carola, Solomun, Maya Jane Coles, Hot Since 82, Matthias Tanzmann, Richy Ahmed, Patrick Topping, wAFF, Nathan Barato, Darius Syrossian, Santé, Sidney Charles, Kydus, Bones, GW Harrison, Will Taylor, Jimmy Switch, Taylor, Artikal, Ellie Cocks, The Mistaa, Jack Swift, Devstar, Jarmo, Seb Fontaine, Brandon Block, Alex P, John Kelly, Andy Manston, Danny Clockwork, Keith Mac, James Parker, Tristan Ingram, Geddes, Max Chapman, Juliet Fox, Headspace, Anthony Lowther, Ollie Mundy, Adam Cotier, Secondself, Melvo Baptiste, Russ Jay, Paolo Francesco, Jedd Barry, Shane Macauley, Jnr Windross, George Mensah, Michael Green, Sam Lashmar, Darrell Privett, Brad James, Jack Cavanagh, Nana B, Michael Younger, Craig Martin, CJ Sax [live], Bongo Ben, Iam Lim & William

 

We Are FSTVL 2016 Venue

The Airfield Of Dreams

Damyns Hall

Upminster RM14 2TN

United Kingdom

 

East of London city centre and with great transport links to and from the UK capital, Upminster is the perfect out-of-town summer festival location. The Airfield of Dreams was opened in 1969 and has been home to We Are FSTVL since its first edition in 2013.

We Are FSTVL 2016 Tickets and Accommodation Packages.

  

// dancegeo.com/event/we-are-fstvl-2016/

I had just finished drawing the dwarf galaxy “Leo 1”. It had taken time since it was very faint and capturing it to paper had been hard on the eyes. The sky was still so unusually clear that I could not stop observing just yet. Before calling it a night I decided to nudged the telescope four degrees to the west of Regulus/Leo 1 to the colorful stars 18 Leonis (yellow-orange) and 19 Leonis (light-blue) to see if Leo’s famous Pulsating Red Giant (R Leonis) was bright enough to warrant a drawing. Once again, the night was kind to me. R Leonis was as bright as 18 Leonis (magnitude 5.6) and brighter than 19 Leonis (magnitude 6.3). If R Leonis had been at minimum brightness it would be as dim as the faintest stars in the drawing, so I was in luck.

 

A pleasing triplet of bright colorful stars met my over-worked eyes. The contrasting red, blue and yellow-orange stars were a fitting end to a wonderful night of observing.

 

To see Leo1 and Regulus go to: www.flickr.com/photos/dragonflyhunter/49338691371/in/date...

 

To see additional astronomy drawings visit: www.orrastrodrawing.com

The Mursi people of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley have been called “one of the most fascinating tribes in Africa.”

 

We’d only been in the village just over two hours, and it was still mid-morning. But the sun was high: pulsating light and radiating heat. Following the men to the cattle pens made for a nice diversion, even though I felt anticipatory dread over what was to come...

 

For the story, please visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/culture/men-of-the-mursi-mor...

I’m always fascinated with the stream of Consciousness that happens during these ArtQuests. Images shift, sometimes disappear making room for new ideas to arise, nothing is fixed, it is a dance… an expansion with new insights… It started with the second image… a memory of a movie scene flashes…

 

#2

In the true story movie “Patch Adams”, Robin Williams character finds himself in a psychiatric ward during an existential crisis. His life is turned around when a fellow patient, once known to be a genius tells him to hold up his hand and tell him how many fingers he sees. Ater many attempts, Patch finally understands that the answer is not always in what you see before you but in what is possible to be seen before you. Patch Adams goes on to revolutionalize medical care for thousands of people by seeing in this way. I was reflecting on this while sketching the moving hand in my notebook. Out of one hand became two…

 

#1

We live in such a beautiful world, such magnificent wonders and yet there is so much isolation and disconnection, so much pain and confusion, lack of fulfillment…

 

#3

Another world appears and now thought reaches between worlds…through the power of observation…Who is the Observer? Where does one world begin and the other end?

 

#4

“Slaves of the Information Age”… “Perception, organized, identified”… separated from the actual experiences by windows… Hands extend holding a fragile butterfly …a breakthrough…like seeing a new number of fingers… wings…

 

#5

The inner theater appears…the birthing, the mountaintop moments, the song arising from the unknown, no walls …there is a breakthrough …breaking away from the masses…a recognition… delight…

 

#6

The realization of the glorious inner life as a part of the outer life… a place that vibrates with the living direct experience…that is the breakaway…the reintegration of the opulent emotional well of Being…I Am everything and every thing is I… It is beyond the realm of the mind … Life pulsates the reminder again and again…

Danau Segara Anak is a volcanic lake formed in the caldera of Mount Rinjani on over 2,000 meters above sea level. The lake spans across an area of 11 square kilometers, and reaches depths up to 230 meters. Danau Segara Anak is located on the west side of Mount Rinjani in the village of Lawang Sembalun in Lombok, East Indonesia. The mystifyingly blue colour of the lake gives Segara Anak its name: Small Ocean.

 

The trek from the Senaru Village, and through the crater to Danau Segara Anak takes two days and a night. It begins with a hike through a lush, tropical rainforest, and up the mountain to the rim of the crater. The trek to the Senaru rim is a challenging climb up steep terrain and high cliffs, but the exhaustion is well rewarded by the breathtaking panoramic view of the sun setting over Mount Rinjani, Bali and the Gili Isles on the horizon, and the dazzling blue waters of Segara Anak glistening hundreds of meters below. The top of the crater is a popular camp site for both foreign and domestic tourists on this journey to spend the night. It is advisable to set a morning alarm so as not to miss the magnificence of dawn from atop Rinjani.From the crater’s rim, it is a sharp descent of about 600 meters to Danau Segara Anak.

 

Part of Segara Anak flows down a steep ravine forming one large waterfall and several smaller ones. There are also four natural hot springs in the lake which are said to hold magical healing powers, and many make the climb solely for medicinal purposes.

 

Despite its high altitudes, taking a dip in the lake is not as cold as one might imagine. 2,010 meters above sea level, the surface water of the lake is unusually warm for such heights, at about 20-22 degrees Celsius—well above the mountain’s “room temperature,” which is about 14-15 degrees Celsius.

 

Between 2008 and 2009, researchers of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation as well as UniversiteLibre de Bruxells conducted a geochemical and thermodynamic study on Segara Anak. The tests showed several leaks in the volcanic system of Gunung Baru; the cone in the center of the lake. These leaks from the magma chamber seep a large supply of hot water into Segara Anak, indicating a direct relationship between volcanic activity and the lake’s high temperature. The geochemical composition of the hot water showed a number of elements such as chloride, sodium, potassium, and sulphate. Although rich in elements, rainwater that enters the lake assists in thinning its chemical content. Segara Anak also maintains excellent circulation, and is therefore not harmful to life.

 

Lake water circulation takes place when the density of the water is higher at the surface than at the base. Rainwater has a higher density than the hydrothermal water, and therefore moves downward, while waters from the hydrothermal vent move up. This is an on-going process providing well-mixed water and bringing the acid level of the lake to neutral—suitable for breeding fish.

 

In 1969, volcanologists from the Directorate of Geology, (London,) examined the lake and recommended the cultivation of fish. At that time, there were no fish in Segara Anak. In 1985, the Nusa Tenggara Barat provincial government finally began breeding fish in the lake. The fish bred rapidly and the lake is now home to millions of tilapia and carp, making Segara Anak not only a popular spot for fishing, but some locals of the area even make a living from this.

 

In the 1980’s, the areas surrounding Segara Anak pulsated with wildlife. Grouse, hornbill, and barking deer thrived around the lake. Several species of monkey could be found in the forests, including the rare black ebony leaf monkey, and the black crested macaque, indigenous to Indonesia. But human intervention has changed the ecology of the lake. With more and more people climbing up the mountain and into the lake, more and more species have begun to disappear. Initially, people only caught fish, but then grouse, which soon led to deer hunting as well. Now few grouse remain, and the deer are no longer found along the route. It is estimated that only a hundred or so remain.

 

In 1998, Danau Segara Anak was immortalized in paper money on the ten thousand rupiah bill.

 

Like other crater lakes around the world, Danau Segara Anak was born of a violent past, celebrates a brilliant present, and has the potential to lead to a catastrophic future. Yet we remain fascinated by its origin, splendour and unique existence.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement,

not a hope, not a wish,

but a keen pulsating desire,

which transcends everything.

 

(Napoleon Hill)

 

The Mursi people of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley have been called “one of the most fascinating tribes in Africa.”

 

We’d only been in the village just over two hours, and it was still mid-morning. But the sun was high: pulsating light and radiating heat. Following the men to the cattle pens made for a nice diversion, even though I felt anticipatory dread over what was to come.

 

First, a cow who hasn’t been bled recently must be caught and restrained. Then the bowman palpates an artery on the cows neck for piercing. The spurting fresh blood is caught in a gourd before the hole in the neck is plugged and the blood is drunk by the participants.

 

The cattle must be used to this treatment – once let loose, they are unfazed.

 

For the story, please visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/culture/men-of-the-mursi-mor...

Poem.

 

Beautiful Affric.

As if the Caledonian Forest breathes out,

the mist slowly rises

like a spirit rising to the ethereal heavens.

Just visible, the River Affric surges down the valley,

two hundred feet below, just east of Dog Falls.

Life here is so abundant,

from Golden Eagle to Wood Ants,

from Red Deer Stag to Pine-Marten.

In the dawn, a slow pulse of life gathers pace.

Life begins to pulsate, quietly but tangibly.

The carpet of life is mesmerising.

Stately, dignified Scots Pine sweep up and down

these slopes for over thirty miles.

Early golden gorse contrasts with still burnished bracken.

“Lambs-tail” catkins quivering in the slightest breeze

confirm that spring has arrived.

Delicate silver-birch branches hang, bare of leaves,

but laden with tiny buds.

The sun is rising fast and soon the mist will burn away.

The promise of a glorious new day creates a

quiet excitement and anticipation.

This place is very special.

It has a spirit that absorbs my own

and softly whispers its reassuring but unassuming reality.

It beckons the senses to see, hear and feel

its stupendous splendour,

again and again!