View allAll Photos Tagged Quirks
BB18¼ N° 1088 trundles under Ellenborough St Overbridge with a short spoil train on 28th February 1969
In a curious quirk of evolution, the Deinopidae or net casting spiders which branched early on from the araneids combine web building with a more active hunting strategy. They build a small rectangular web, stretch it between their front two pairs of legs and dangling motionlessly above their prey, ambush them. Unlike in araneids, the capture silk is replaced with cribellate silk (which gives it a wooly appearance), however it remains just as efficient at trapping prey. Deinopid webs remain similar to the aforementioned orbweaver template with several variations important for prey capture. Dangling as it does, how does a deinopid drop fast enough to ensnare its prey? The answer lies in two modifications to web design. First, a vertical safety thread tethers the web and gives it a slight conical shape while construction is in progress. When the web is completed, the spider holds this high tension safety thread with its second pair of hind legs. When prey passes by, it releases the safety line catapulting the spider forward at great speed. Another difference is the use of a bridge line, built slightly above the capture web. This line is held with with the first pair of hind legs and allows the spider a surface to pull down on to generate a downward force.
Hanging pendulously from their her, she remains still, her camouflaged form allowing her to blend in seamlessly with the branches overhead. She waits until nightfall when her huge anterior median eyes provide an unrivalled night vision, their lenses with an f/0.58 (f=aperture size, smaller number being large diameter) mean they are able to concentrate light more efficiently than a cat (f/0.9) or an owl (f/1.1). She owes this sensitivity to the light activated molecule rhodopsin, tightly packed into a microvillar membrane (which dramatically increases the surface area). Amazingly, 1500 times as many photons reach the light receptors in her eyes than the rods in our own eyes. She even accomplished this without the presence of a tapetum, a reflective membrane used to concentrate available light in many other nocturnal animals. Her preparation is impressive, she has staked out an ambush location, first having inspected it for loose debris and anything that might entangle her web, next she builds her web tentatively prodding the ground with her foot, ensuring it is set at the proper height. She may have even gone so far as to drop several faecal spots to guide her aim. In this manner she hangs, and patiently waits … An insect passes below, oblivious to the danger above. In a fraction of a second, the safety line has been cut, the web has been stretched 4 times its former size and before the insect even recognizes the danger, it finds itself helplessly trapped, venom coursing through its body. She feeds. However her work is not done. The rhodopsin which enables her unparalleled night vision is so sensitive to light that daytime exposure would actually destroy it. Thus, at dawn, the spider spends the first 2 hours dismantling the light sensitive microvillar membrane and rhodopsin molecules. The latter subsequently migrate behind a protective pigment layer, effectively rendering them less sensitive to light. When dusk falls, the light sensitive membrane is once again renewed, web building is resumed and the hunt can begin anew.
Yesterday the tire flew off my minibus, I cut the head off a pit viper and I was banned from a commercial flight by associating with a narco-trafficker. Today I am bushwhacking through the jungle in the remote trail-less backwaters of Guyana, waist deep in water and praying to make it through the rest of the day alive. What will tomorrow bring? God only knows. The adventure starts here- pbertner.wordpress.com/.
Wooloongabba Main Street 340 & 743 181Dn – 22.9.67 A young boy watches intently from his seat in the shelter as PB15s N° 340 and N° 743 steam across Main Street with 181Down goods at 4.10pm on 22nd September 1967. Meanwhile a trolley bus waits in the traffic queue until the train clears Stanley Street. The train is worked with a KKB van. Although intended for use on livestock trains, these vans were often commandeered for suburban goods trains when no other type was available. Wooloongabba Locomotive Depot closed that day and both engines departed to their new home at Mayne as attached light engines at 6.10pm that evening.
As you know already images can be a valuable search asset. We pay special attention to how we use our clients image assets, and we've seen great results. We manage South African Tourism's ( www.flickr.com/photos/south-african-tourism ) flickr account and see great results, while 27% of Yachting Partners International's referals are via image search.
Now we'll tell you about Quirk's Agency structure.
Quirk eMarketing is a full service digital marketing agency specialising in performance driven web development and a creative approach to online marketing. Through 10 years in the game we have seen various eMarketing tactics emerge and evolve. As an agency we have developed our services to enable us to offer holistic online marketing strategy to our clients. We believe that no online action happens in isolation. You can build links by building your brand. You can use PPC to identify long term organic optimisation goals. You should be monitoring conversations you never initiated and then harnessing them. In short, we believe you cannot market your brand optimally using online silos.
We are passionate about Innovation and Education. These focus areas allow us to stay ahead and continue to grow as an agency. We pride ourselves on being thought leaders and believe it’s our role to guide our clients into rewarding new territory. If a marketing need exists and we can’t find an existing solution, we develop one. Responding to market needs has lead to some of our most noteworthy Innovation examples:
Search Status: With over 500 000 downloads, it’s regarded as a leading SEO diagnostic tool and an industry standard.
BrandsEye: Our world class Online Reputation Management tool is an essential component of monitoring any online conversation about your brand. BrandsEye also acts as a central tool for many of our SEO and Social Media activities.
Idea Bounty: We are presently blazing a trail into the crowdsourcing realm and brands like Levi’s®, BMW and Red Bull have followed.
Finally, we cannot innovate unless we are constantly at the cutting edge. Quirk is fixated with preaching the online marketing gospel and is heavily invested in education as a member of the Open Education Initiative. Our most recent contribution includes the authoring of the definitive textbook on online marketing, available for free on a Creative Commons licence.
Please view the next image (on your right) to learn about our approach to account handling
Here are some installation shots Quirk Gallery (Richmond, VA) e-mailed me of my work up at their gallery this month.
Toogoolawah – C17s N°994 & N°705 – 28.11.69 C17s N°994 & N°705 stand at Toogoolawah with 359Down goods train in the late afternoon of Friday 28th November 1969. Toogoolawah trainmen have just relieved their Yarraman counterparts and the SM and guard walk towards the fireman standing on the platform while three enginemen are crouched beside the leading engine having a chat. No doubt this discussion was tinged with nostalgia and some apprehension of the future as it was the last time such an exchange would take place as trainmen were withdrawn from both places with dieselization of the branch in two days time. The event has historical significance also because this train was the first of only two on the Brisbane Valley Branch to be worked with attached C17 engines. Previously only a PB15 engine was permitted to run attached to a C17on this line. Firemen’s shovels lean against the wall of the cream shed which had long been the accustomed place for enginemen to leave their equipment.
DD17 Nº 1046 climbs away from Grovely on 15th December 1968. The speed board on the right has been obscured due to a speed restriction being in place.
Jack Quirk of Huntingdon Valley Country Club (l) launches a tee shot as father John oversees on No. 16 at Blue Bell Country Club in the Father-Son (Younger).
PB15 N° 750 stands at N° 2 Platform Roma Street with an excursion train on 8th February 1969. The framework for the new SGIO building is in the background