Rome/St. Peter´s.
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foreverafterandtoday.wixsite.com/mysite/post/summer-feelings
The Look:
Head: Lelutka - Erin with Glam Affair - Beatriz BOM
Body: Maitreya with Glam Affair applier
Hair: Magika - Sierra (included in the Magika 50% rebate sale)
Top and Thong: Beyond - Marina
Nail Applier: Rainbow Sundae - Rainy Days Nail Art
Earrings: Rainbow Sundae - Tropical Piercings
Tattoo: Letis - Nirvana
Pose: Reve Obscura - Perspective (Pose with mesh sunglasses)
The oldest part of the church is Anglo-Saxon, stone built in the 9th century, replacing an older wood and mud building. The nave was without aisles and two of its original windows are preserved in the Anglo-Saxon walling at the west end of the nave. These were unglazed and were closed in bad weather by wooden shutters wedged into a rebate cut into the outer edge of the window. High up in the north wall of the nave are three Anglo-Saxon circular windows, probably the upper storey. The ring of holes drilled round them held wattle rods used in the construction of the windows.
Aisles were first added in the 12th century. On each side of the nave two low arched openings pierced through the existing walls gave access to the aisles. These openings were swept away when the present arcade was put in in 1812, but the Norman angle-shafts to the responds can be seen in the wall at each end of the arcade. In the 15th century wider aisles were built, the Norman south doorway moved out to its present position and a porch was built. At the east end of each aisle is a squint giving a view of the altar. One of these is a very rare squint passage which, prior to the installation of choir pews, would have allowed access to the altar. In the North aisle the west wall contains a 13th century lancet window. The south wall of this aisle was at first the outside wall of the church and the rough area of plaster above the Anglo-Saxon window is the original exterior plaster of the Anglo-Saxon church. The wooden box chest is dated 1634. There are some medieval tiles (13th-14th century) on the floor near it and also a few in the south aisle.
The wooden balcony in the nave is the 15th century rood loft, one of the very few which have survived. When removed, probably early in the reign of Elizabeth I, it was carefully hidden behind a lath and plaster covering against the east wall of the nave, discovered there in 1812 and since repainted. The wooden screen below the loft is Victorian.
The tower is 15th century. On its floor stands the Norman font (early 12th century). The Font Figure has long been the subject of speculation and debate. However, recent research identifies the carving as being that of St Michael, on an original Saxon font, over-cut by Norman carvings and 16th century desecration. St Michael is also depicted on the font at Winterbourne Monkton, but the Avebury font carving is far earlier than that of Winterbourne Monkton and the saint is depicted as holding a crozier- not a symbol of Episcopal power but rather cosmic, supernatural power. The carvings show two serpents with twisted tails, their heads turned towards the figure of a bishop or Archangel Michael holding a crozier; popular pictures in the middle-ages showed Christ trampling on the dragons of evil and sin. It is also worth noting that the tree, carved in one piece, 12 pillars of wood/ tree trunks circling the font contains a wonderful array of birds.
Getting soaking wet, lots of things to do.........
Are you singing along by now on this very beautiful February morning. Not so difficult to look at a bleak rainy day when the sun is shining...
Showing Pete Spowage Art Gallery @ No 2 Byard Lane, Nottingam
Which has re located to Mansfield Road Nottingam..
This is as good a time to tell those who showed an interest in getting their own beautiful photography on a wall canvas or any type of print - that my two canvases arrived from Grange Print and are totally superb - well made with a deep rebate and superb colour rendition exactly as seen on my Dell monitor and I could not be more impressed and would highly recommend them.
They are a local Nottingam family firm that has suffered because of the pandemic and are going through a bad time because of Covid 19 but their prices very competitive and I’m pleased to say the canvases are faultless.....
Grangeprint.com
Abrera (Baix Llobregat, Catalonia)
A sculpture that represents an enormous steel "porró" four and a half meters high, a symbol of the history of the town.
In the 1950s, Abrera was known for the "porrons", given that the hostels on the old N-II highway offered free wine to the traveler who could and would like to lift with just one hand some heavy-leaved "porrons"..
The new rebate roundabout is a symbolic memory of the agricultural past and the tradition of the "porrons" for which the town was known.
Another Friday, another occasion to party all night long... will you come dance?
MANLY WEEKEND SALE PICK OF THE WEEK
FEATURED:
NAILS .:: StunnerOriginals ::. Bento Nails Mesh Male Pointed Metalic @store maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Stingray%20Bay/191/166/23
SUIT Bakaboo - Luke Suit - Manly Weekend Special @store maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Royal%20Blue/97/71/1200
JEWELS Devil Set by Madame Noir @store maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Zen%20Soul/196/37/26
group members rebate too on this one
POSE Serendipity: marcus... pose n°4 (5bento poses inc mirrors) @store maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Serena%20Pisces/173/124/24
BACKDROP Movelo Bebe - The Bearded Guy @store maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Lovers%20Heaven/143/28/2421
St. John the Baptist Church is a Mediaeval (11th century) Church in Edlingham, Alnwick, Northumberland, England, listed Grade I for special architectural or historic interest.
The church is mostly Norman, from two periods, the late 11th - early 12th Century and late 12th century. The defensible 3-stage west tower was built about 1300 and is described by Historic England as having a stepped chamfered plinth, band above plinth, and chamfered set-back below squat belfry. Lower stage has small rebated lancet on south only, the upper stages slatted chamfered loops except on east, which shows weathering of old high-pitched roof. Low pyramidal roof.
The church is adjacent to Edlingham Castle, a 13th-century castle with 16th-century battlements and defences.
The famous birch tree triangle in the winter garden. When I’ve captured it before it was in winter, when it’s packed with people, and difficult to get a clear shot. In spring, I was the only person there, so could take all the time in the world lining up the right tree.
Minolta Autocord, Kentmere 100, Caffenol CL-CS, 15C starting temperature, 60 minutes.
Mid 1990's. Sarah was studying photography and asked me to do a swap shoot with her. She shot me and I shot her.
Bronica ETRSi with 75mm lens on FP4. Testing digital camera scanning with my GFX100s and Tamron SP 90mm f2.8 macro lens. soft lines down each side are glare in scanning. The Lomography film holders leave the film rebate/edges in the frame for effect but, if you want sharp clear shots, that's not useful. Given this was a scan test, that was a learning and I now only use my film scanner holders for this.
The third in a trilogy of a particular tree during a small recent snowfall. I took a lot of shots of that tree because I try different focal lengths and compositions. The sun and shade kept altering too. I used to take a single shot and move on but nowadays enjoy 'working ' the scene. For the first time in 12 years I sent for a canvas yesterday of one of the tree in snow shots because I responded to a plea from a local print firm - the firm that printed a canvas for me about 12 years ago. A family firm that claimed it wouldn't survive the pandemic without more orders. The offer is similar to many 90% off blurb till Sunday so a 20x30 inch canvas with a mirror edge 40cm deep plus a fixing kit and with some finish on to protect the canvas came out at about £30 something plus delivery - free on orders of over £50 Now my previous canvas is exactly as delivered 12 years ago which is precisely as seen on my PC screen so hopefully it turns out as good. Its from Grange Print which delivers all over the country. They have no idea I will mention the name of course but I felt as it was local to me it wouldn't break the bank so I ordered a Cornish print too and got free delivery then :) £64 delivered for two 20x30ins canvases with a deep rebate plus fixings can't be bad. I will update on what they turn out like...didn't really need them but family firms are going to the wall due to the pandemic...
www.photo4me.com/profile/30148/all/canvas-prints?sortby=p...
Little Compton, Rhode Island
A revisit of a shot I took 2 years ago, this time with a full-frame sensor (and earlier in the morning). Enticed by a significant rebate and a free battery pack/grip, I traded in the D7100 for a D810.
I haven't had much time to use it (aside from a few shots of our cats, this is my first real go with it), but my initial impressions are positive. Not that is matters to me, but the mirror slap is much quieter than that of the D750; ergonomically, I love the dedicated AF-ON button; the built-in eyepiece shutter is much appreciated---no more searching my pockets for that elusive little plastic cover! The fact that my trusty wireless remote shutter release is not compatible with the D810 was a surprise, but I'm delighted with the build quality of the 10-pin connector on the front of the body---which is threaded so you can sturdily screw-in a cabled remote---and with the fact that the Nikon MC-36A cabled remote does not require a battery if you're not using it as a timer.
I have no quibbles at all with my D750, but my plan now is to convert it to IR. Really looking forward to that!
Filters: landscape polarizer, 1-stop hard-edge GND, 10-stop ND
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f/3.5 DS, Neewer 1/4 black mist filter, Kentmere 100 @ISO 50, 38 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
“I care to live, only to entice people to look at nature’s liveliness.” ~ John Muir
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Check out this BLOG I made last night. I thought it would be cool to share the deals I come across with and for you my friends to share the ones you find too. Right? I will try to update this blog everyday - whatever deals, coupons, etc. I find online. And yes, I got my DSLR at $300 below its Costco price - thanks to coupons and instant rebates :D.
http://photodeals.blogspot.com
Illinois Central SW14 1200 is the oldest unit on Canadian National's locomotive roster - or it was, until it was sold recently. It's sitting outside the Fond du Lac roundhouse with other switchers, also sold and off the CN roster. Stacks are capped with Menards five-gallon buckets, leading one to wonder if the buyer received an 11% rebate.
I bought this years ago at an antiques place, but never could think of a good arrangement, because I always had it face down. It looks much better like this, and I added steam from a steam cleaner. I've done this technique before with digital, where you can keep retaking until you nail it. On film I allowed myself only one frame, and amazingly it worked! A grid lights the iron from the side, and a snoot from behind to backlight the steam.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f3.5 DS @f/11, Ilford Pan F Plus @ISO25, 40 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
My first use of a slow film on medium format. I've used PAN F on 35mm before, but never found it that good, too contrasty and more grain than expected. However, this time I tried rating at ISO 25 and processed in more dilute Perceptol. This result is much better, smoother tonality and virtually no grain. It looks as though it could out-resolve my 24MP digital camera.
Also used the pixl-latr 120 rebate mask for the first time.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 180mm f4.5 Super @f5.6, Ilford Pan F Plus 50 @ISO25, 15 minutes in Perceptol 1+3 @20°C.
I love daffodils, and I think that their texture is still beautiful when they dry out.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f/3.5 DS, Kentmere 100 @ISO 50, 38 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
First trial film in my new toy, a Minolta Autocord, for use when the Mamiya is too heavy to cart around. Also first go at Caffenol CL cold start. Kentmere 100, Caffenol CL-CS, 15C starting temperature, 60 minutes.
Rebutia ist eine Pflanzengattung kleiner bis zwergiger Pflanzen in der Familie der Kakteengewächse (Cactaceae). Rebutien eignen sich als kleinwüchsige Gattung sehr gut zur Zimmerkultur. Zu den Rebutien gehören ca. 20 Arten, sie bilden vom späten Frühjahr bis zum zeitigen Sommer besonders hübsche, kräftig gefärbte Blüten.
Rebutia is a plant genus of small to dwarf plants in the family of cacti (Cactaceae). Rebates are suitable as a small-scale genus very well to room culture. To the Rebutia are about 20 species, they form from the late spring to the early summer particularly pretty, strongly colored flowers
today i bought this vase...
i dont know... i just saw Zen look on it!
i think i will bring this vase in a series...
perhaps on my selfie too :D
Saké is a traditional Japanese liquor made from rice and water. It is produced from a fermentation and filtration process. Known in the west as “Saké” but in Japan as "Nihonshu”, Saké is a general term for alcohol.
The fermented Saké is initially a milky colour but is filtered by pressing through a mesh to produce a clear liquid. The Japanese production of Saké is an ancient tradition with evidence as far back as the 3rd century B.C. As with so many Japanese traditional practices, Saké has its own specialised ceramics. The central shape being the Tokkuri or Saké bottle.
These containers were developed into a ceramic art form and many were produced by small family potteries. The majority were produced as earthenware specifically known to the Japanese as “stone textured”.
As today, when the customer returned the empty Tokkuri to the brewer, he received a rebate on the refill! The Tokkuri were constantly recycled and used for oil, lamp oil, vinegar and for a wide range of domestic uses. In keeping with this tradition, The Antique & Vintage Table Lamp Co have recycled the Tokkuri now seen on their site as table lamps, robust and full of character.
p.s: our recent articleThree 50mm lenses – Further photos for comparison
Shot for my current project, 100 Possibilities Project
p.s: our recent articleThree 50mm lenses – Further photos for comparison
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f/3.5 DS, Neewer 1/4 black mist filter, Kentmere 100 @ISO 50, 38 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f/3.5 DS, Kentmere 100 @ISO 50, 38 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
Oh happy day! I finally found a local source to buy these natural colored eggs. My local farm, Peterson Farms, has them and seriously what's not to love about these eggs?
Another couple of fun things I am excited about - taxes are done! Refund, refund, thanks to the rebate for converting to solar power. Also, we finally got the first electric bill after our solar was hooked up and it is about $9 a month. Hooray! Let that sun shine! Finally, I am going to get my new blog started, I'll update my profile as soon as it's live.
At first I was annoyed when the lady with the dog walked into the frame as I flaffed about putting the filter on and focusing. However, I thought it could make an interesting foreground interest, and seeing the result, I'm glad I didn't wait until she left.
Minolta Autocord, yellow filter, Kentmere 100, Caffenol CL-CS, 15°C. starting temperature, 45 minutes.
A deposit of copper bearing ore 14km southeast of Duchess at Trekelano was exploited by the Hampden Co for use at its Kuridala smelter. The ore body was one of the richer ones in the Cloncurry area, averaging around 13% copper and lesser amount of silver and gold. Trekelano ore was particularly valuable as a smelting aid.
The deposit was first worked in about 1906 in a small way, mostly for development work, and gradually increased its output of economical volumes by 1915. In time, the mine was equipped with a semi-marine type Babcock & Wilcox boiler, a Walker geared winding engine, Fraser & Chambers compressor, electric light from a 40hp Hornsby gas engine and wood producer, a picking plant, and ore bins. Narrow gauge tramways were used to move the ore to the dumps to the loading state and to fart firewood to the boiler house. Associated facilities were a change room, an engine room, a boiler shed, magazines, offices, stores, and staff quarters. At its peak, the mine employed 60 men. A school and post office were provided from 1918 and these remained viable until 1928.
When the railway was extended from Malbon to Duchess, the company began sending Trekelano ore to Duchess using a traction engine and wagons. This arrangement was not satisfactory in the long term so as soon as the railway was extended from Duchess to Dajarra, the company immediately took steps to lay a connecting tramway. The link was 12.3km in length.
The line was funded and built by the company under the Tramways Act. Engineering specifications were based on QR standards but were more economical in regard to the road bed and ballasting. The company sourced the rails and sleepers from QR and secured them on time payment based on a rebate from a premium placed on every ton carried. The company also paid the line maintenance fees.
Construction commenced on the 10th of September 1917 some 7.5km from Duchess at 553 miles and 21 chains, later known as Juenburra. Accommodation comprised a loop siding on the left from which was laid the branch proper which consisted of a curve to the southeast where another loop was placed on the right. From here the line continued southeast to the mine, which was 130 rail kilometres from Cloncurry.
A passenger service was offered but it was minimally supported because the Trekelano community had a road coach service to Duchess station. The coach departed Duchess at 7am on Monday and Friday for a same day return. Passenger rail journeys were around 200 per year to 1921 and then tailed off to virtually nothing, ceasing altogether soon after.
From 1941 the train day became a Monday and was worked by the Cloncurry-Dajarra-Cloncurry weekly mixed running on a Sunday-Monday overnight rest schedule. Ore loadings had dropped by half at this time to around 3500 tons due to shortages of labour and machinery spare parts. One train a week sufficed. Loadings diminished even further to less then 2000 tons by 1943. The mine closed that year and the train service ceased at this time. A small community remained until the end, and this included several school aged children who were driven to Duchess each day for their education.
The mine owners retired to the coast and after the war put the mine and tramway on the market. There were no takers for the assets as a going concern so the plant was sold for scrap. The rails were purchased by the North Eton Sugar Mill and were removed by 1947. The telephone pole line was dismantled at the same time. The sleepers had no value and were left in situ. The official closure of the tramway is the 14th of May 1947.
The original Trekelano mine produced 220 000 tons of ore over its lifetime to yield 20 000 tons of copper and 3000 oz of gold. In the 1990s the site was gone over by the drivers of Mineral Commodities NL to locate and estimated 400 000 tonnes of 2.2% copper and 0.6 grams/tonne of gold. The deposit was reopened in 2005 by Osborne Mines and worked as a massive pit, this development swallowing the remains of the original mine and tramway. The Trekelano ore was carted to a concentrating plant at Mount Osborne, south of Selwyn, and the treated ore despatched by rail through to Phosphate Hill.
The mine is no longer in use.
Source: Copper in the Curry by Norman Houghton.
long stories shortened... (discarded and abandoned and intertwined short stories) well..actually they are chunks and fragmets and notes of stories that never made it
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a young PhD math candidate writing his dissertation on an obscure arab mathematician from the middle ages who specialized in cycles and periods in infinite series and develops a process to determine prime number density in a large number space. (which is all and good) except this makes it an excellent tool to decrypting military grade encryption, which is based on the computational difficulty of factoring large numbers into their prime components
the arab mathematician was ultimately censured by the religious mullahs for developing tools to rationalize the infinite, which is of course the nature of Allah and for man to attempt to place Allah into a human scale is blasphemy
so the arab mathematician disappears and the young phd candidate finds that his dissertation has been suspended pending review but cant get any information on who is reviewing it
finally another young mathematician approaches him and starts a long discussion on math and the nature of numbers and the mathematicians love of the underlying structure of reality that math represents. the phd candidate is leary of this mathematician cause he wont answer what he does or where he went to school or how he knows so many cutting edge fields in math
eventually, the young mathematician offers the phd candidate a position with the NSA, National Security Agency, (where all the big crypto and high math goes on) but explains that if he accepts that he will essentially disappear from his current world. his work will be classified, he will not be able to publish in academic journals or speak in public, or talk about his work to his friends on the outside, but the compensation is that he
would be able to work unfettered with the greatest math minds in the country, totally funded, free to explore any field or fancy he thought. after a few moments of thought, the phd accepts.
then the story will go back to the arab mathematician who is also approached my a young beared mullah, who offers him a position within his group of thinkers who do ponder and explore the nature of nature reality and Allah through mathematics, but that by joining them he would need to disappear from the world, after a few minutes of thought, he too accepts...
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Daniel sipped his 6th coffee (colloidal suspension for caffeine transport) while his batch jobs on ramanet, the Indian supergrid, finished their checksum verification. His chin, a bit stubbly, itched. His eyes, a bit red, were sore. The goa trance shoutcast feed had mushed into a fast cadence drone. The flat screen monitor warped and bulged with the oscillating fan blowing on Daniel's face
'O' glamorous larval life of a PhD student...' he jotted and doodle-circled on his notepad.
Daniel cracked his neck and jutted his jaw, stretching out the accumulation of kinks, as RamaNet finished the final integrity check on his dataset. this two hour round of processing on the Indian supergrid would cost about $130 out of his precious grant fund, but you couldnt beat the bargain. 120 minutes times 150,000 PCs in the RamaNet processing collective = 1,080,000,000 seconds or 18,000,000 minutes or 300,000 hours or 12500 days or 34.25 years of processing time for the price of a video game. Calculation was commoditized now. You uploaded your pre-fromatted dataset to RamaNet. the data was packeted and sent to out to 150,000 Indians who lent a few percents of never-to-be missed CPU cycles off their systems for background processing. when their alotted package was completed it was sent back to RamaNet for re-assembly into something coherent for the buyer. in return the Indians got a rebate on their net access charges or access to premier bollywood galleries or credit towards their own processing charges. a good deal all the way around. Daniel's dataset, an anthology of complex proofs from a long-dead arab mathematician, was queued with amateur weather forecast modeling, home-brewed digital CGI for indie movies, chaos theory-based currency trading algorithms, etc. the really high end, confidential jobs, like protein folding analysis or big pharm drug trials were more likely handled by the huge western collectives of several million collaborative systems, usually high-performance machines in dedicated corporate server farms. the cost there was out of Daniel's range, but you got a faster return and better promises of encryption for your buck.
Daniel scratched his scalp and flexed his fingers. 'two months from today i will be a doctor of mathematics...and no job. damnit. i need to find something fast.' Daniel calculated in his mind how quickly the student loans repayments would kick in and completely wipe him out. RamaNet would have done it in nanoseconds, ha! he laughed to himself. Daniel had avoided the rounds of job interviews and recommendations that passed his way. he was too absorbed in his research to look ahead, and perhaps a bit intimidated by the idea of the job hunt flea market. flexing his CV, getting a monkey suit, trying to explain his research to recruiters, who were often the same finger-counting business majors in college that made his skin crawl. Daniel always felt a bit embarrassed when he announced he was math PhD candidate. folks would immediately glaze over,
tsk tsk out a 'that's interesting', and swiftly change the subject. something will come up, he mantra'd to himself over and over, something will come up. stick with ali, there is something real in there, just a bit deeper. the real problem was his thesis advisor. dr. fuentes was not returning his calls, his secretary was not taking appointments from Daniel. he had submitted his finished draft of his thesis two weeks ago, but hadnt heard back since, except for a cryptic email saying that the review committee was having some issues with his paper and that Daniel would be hearing from him shortly. Daniel was rerunning his calculations on RamaNet to assuage the gnawing doubt that he completely botched some component of his argument and that the review committee was debating some manner of telling him to redo the entire effort. no PhD and no job. that would ice the cake. Daniel started calculating his body mass and general aerodynamic resistance relative to the height of the school cathedral to figure out if he had time to reach a terminal velocity before impact...only a failed math PhD would attempt to determine at what speed his body would smack concrete, he morbidly thought to himself.
ali ja'far muhammed ibn abdullah al-farisi slipped meditatively on his cup of water, thinking about his proof. he dipped a finger in the cup and held up a droplet of water under his fingertip, watching the sunlight prisimatically splay out on the mouth of the cup. 'praise be Allah and his wonderous bounty' he mumured to himself.
the elders had been in conference all day over his proof. though the heavy doors to their chamber were closed, he would occasionally hear muffled but distinctly angry shouts. ali sat on a divan in the anteroom, served numerous cups of tea by an obviously nervous secretary. ali knew there was deep resistance to his research, but for the life of him he couldnt figure out why. he was a simple mathematician. he came up with some unique observations. he wanted to share them with his peers...
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Overview: biotech researcher discovers a new life-extension technology and is murdered. He is cryogenically frozen for 150 years. When he is
revived he must stop a dark corporate conspiracy – and find his murderer.
Summer 2015 - Hot genius free-lance biotech researcher unravels the key component of a radical life-extension gene therapy that will ensure 300 years of robust life to its recipients. The researcher is murdered shortly after he hides the critical component. His distraught friend has him cryogenically frozen. 150 years later, the researcher is revived by the same major bio-med corporation for which he had originally been working.
Quickly he realizes that their motives are less than altruistic: his modification of the gene therapy is needed to resolve an unforeseen debilitation now creeping up in the recipients of the life-extension process. The recipients, now nearing 125 years off added life, are decompensating into psychotics. The researcher at first tries to remember and reconstruct what he did with the hidden critical component, but stops in disgust when he learns that in the past 150 years the life-extension therapy has been reserved solely for the ultra-affluent and has created an extreme and cruel global gerontocratic elite. He voices his disgust to his corporate minders, who cease being beneficent and show their true colors as trying to gain control of this critical technology in order to control the elites.
In the process of dealing with the corporation, he learns about his murder and begins investigating.As he comes closer to the identity of his murderer, he uncovers a wider conspiracy and is the target of more murder attempts.
He was killed by a friend in 2015. The friend was the CEO of a small bio-gen firm that the researcher was doing the LET work for. The CEO, a biz-head with a genetics academic background, took the researcher’s work and exploited it as his own, in the process growing his small firm into a bio-med powerhouse and him into one of the world’s wealthiest individuals.
The CEO also was the first recipient of the LET and is now 190 years old, but doesn’t look a day over 45. Smart, urbane, ruthless, the CEO used his wealth and position to start the cabal of Ultras. It is a faction of the top 50 smartest and wealthiest people in the world who have ‘ascended from the world’ (faked their demise) and control the global economy with their vast coordinated wealth. Perhaps they will call themselves ‘The Ascended’. We need to decide how the cabal lives. Are they sequestered on a luxurious island compound, or do they live in the open, surgically re-sculpted after each faked death, or do they live in the open.
Also we need to figure out what the world will look and feel like in 150 years.
As the ultras decompensate into psychosis, the CEO orders the researcher to be revived in order to find a cure. The CEO had the researcher’s lab notes decrypted and figured that the he was close if not successful in finding the missing component to stabilize the LET.
Tiberius Syndrome: the decline into cruel psychosis experienced by the ultras, named after the roman emperor Tiberius’ degenerate behavior after he sequestered himself on Capri.
The ironic twist might be that there is no cure, no stabilization. The psychosis is not the result of the LET alone, but also due in part to the unfettered ego/wills of the ultras. Absolute power corrupts…
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a brazilian hacking syndicate was subcontracted by a st petersberg crew to run interference on a hit on SWIFT, the global currency clearinghouse notification network. The UniFavela clan was going to run a multi-flank raid. They specialized in fast propagating virii and had created a custom mail-in virus that exploited a few microsoft vulnerabilities that they had discovered and kept mum. Their target was a Latin American PR spokesman listed on the corporate web site for press queries. The PR flak would be just the sleepy guard on the wall for their virus to slip past. 30 minutes after opening an inocuous spoofed email from a French e-trade publication requesting clarification on the SWIFT-Indentrus partnership. the virus would port scan and map its entire site LAN, salmoning its way up the router paths till it found the deep waters of the main corporate campus network in Brussels. Shortly, the internal LAN at Brussels would be suffering switch and router buffer overflows and traffic would gasp, ack, and sputter. UniFavela would then towel whip out a vanilla DDOS on the main company web site, any INTERNIC-registered addresses, and any other system in the IP block reserved for SWIFT that had previously port scanned as interesting, or ,even, as nothing. Mongols charging the village gates and tossing flaming torches on thatched roofs. IT Operations would be running to and fro, trying to figure out the internal bandwidth crunch and if there was a bleedout causing the external net problems.
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The Post-Human Story of Minos:
the CEO of a powerful commercial combine is bore an illegitimate son by his indiscreet wife in retaliation for his own dalliances. the son has a hideous deformity but is fantastically brilliant - brilliant enough for the father overcome his own repulsion of the child - as a bastard and a freak. the father sequesters the child in an elaborate virtual domain. the child, a hacker savant, is used to breach competitor nets. but as his power in the digital realm expands, the child transforms into the tyrant-monster. using the nets, he lashes out at people who have caused him pain, then evolves into enjoying the taste of terror and fear. He becomes the Minotaur.
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'there was a mad scramble amongst all the big spook governments, dark side corporations, and the privacy maccabees once it was determined that quantum computation had left the tidal pool of academia, grown legs and air-breathing lungs, and was headed for the nat sec intel highlands. all previous encryption models were rendered obsolete, and worse, exposed. QC became an undefiable xray spotlight, laying bare any encrypted secret with a ease of opening a mathematical candy wrapper. And for a while it swung the advantage back to the state in the digital Boer War against the freecon partisans.'
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The Oort, to the Intras, looked as one people. Extra-stellar hillbillies, ekeing out a subsistance existence on extracted organics from the frozen crud comets and other planetesimals of the Oort Cloud that slung around the solar system in a 1K AU circuit. To the Oort there was no Oort. Each station, each kampong was distinct and seperate. Seperate dialects, traditions, norms, goals. Some were scientific collectives, some were tired mining operations, some were intense sectarian cults - they shared little between themselves beyond necessary trade links for scarce commodities.
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A young prince is disgraced in an internal court scandal and sent into a quasi-exile on a worthless mission. On his travels he builds the wisdom and learns the skills necessary to be a just and effective leader.
His exile was a gambit by his patriarch to remove Genji from the arena of pointless court intrigues and develop him as a real leader. The patriarch dispatched a team of loyal praetorians to discreetly follow and protect Genji on his odyssey.
Genji was sent as an emissary to the Oort system. He must pass through the Martian-Saturnine corridor, populated with industrial trading guilds and their private militias.
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Genealogy becomes paramount in a closed culture; hierarchy by heredity. Reference the roman patrician class’ death-grip obsession with lineage, or the medieval Japanese imperial court’s strict intra-elite caste system.
But in an era of extreme genetic engineering, how can bloodlines retain their importance? Perhaps this is the wrong question. Perhaps in an era of extreme genetic engineering, authentic bloodlines can only retain their importance. The longevity of an unchanged gene line demonstrates success in evolutionary competition. Over time however, the fitness of a rigidly enforced and ‘sequestered’ gene line will degrade. Consider the hemophilia of the European royal strata.
I would not want the imperial court of the inner system to be pure blue bloods, eschewing genetic manipulation. Rather I would have them take the opposite tack – and embrace genetic engineering in the pursuit of perfecting particular socially valued or distinctive attributes; a roman nose, elongated refined fingers, even the possession of certain ‘noble’ afflictions (for ex., the aforementioned hemophilia as a sign of noble lineage).
The elites should pursue genealogy with the same passion and gusto as horse breeders; studs and mares and percentages of bloodlines, enforced and suppressed gene expressions, surrogates, and gene modes des saisons.
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a bum finds a the wallet and keys of a man who jumped from a bridge
he goes to his townhouse to find something to eat or steal
is impressed and overwhelmed with the man's townhouse
showers, eats, gets cleaned up, finds some clothes
is ready to leave when he helps a woman wrestling with groceries at her door
she thanks him, but looks stunned.
‘are you the man in #560? umm..i have lived here for 3 years and have never actually seen you. you seem to leave so early in the morning and get
home so late and keep to yourself.’
they spend 30 minutes talking, having a generally warm friendly encounter.
‘well, I am so glad to have finally met you. Hope to see you soon.’ As she closes her door, the bum turns to leave but pauses and thinks for a moment, then goes back into the man's townhouse
he pours through the man's papers and keepsakes and learns that the man has no family that he speaks with, no friends, lives off a well-endowed trust fund
and
the bum moves in and takes over the mans identity
he brings warmth and sincerity to the man's identity
what makes a hermit tick? what lengths do they go to to remove themselves from society? does it become a game to avoid contact, trying to become a shadow, a phantom? does society dissolve away as a mental force in their thoughts, atrophy away or does it become an amputated impression?
what divsion line stands between a hermit and convict in solitary? the hermit, by and large, chooses their isolation, the convict has it enforced upon them. at what point does the human need for society or socialization collapse? is there anything left that we can inspect and evaluate? a hermit, however, is able to maintain walls against the Great Other, which would imply that they are seeking refuge from the world. a schizo or an autistic will be physically surrounded by others but unable or incapable of making contact.
when does the will to contact die? what is left over? do humans require contact to retain our humanity? can you love and sacrifice in a vacuum?
what defines humanity? oooh, a big question...
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genetic engineering will continue to deconstruct the human species
there will be catastrophic disasters: gene sequence specific viruses engineered to attack 'types' of people. Der Genkampf
petroleum will be replaced- hydrogen-powered locomotion and green power (in the wealthy states). the poor states will continue to be held hostage to oil politics
(cultures and civilizations do not move forward uneringly. they spasticly jerk forward and fro, in clumps andgrains, never ever as a lemming death drive.)
developed economies will be netized. a new state structure will be needed to manage and dsitribute resources. the corporate structure, the commercial backbone of the capitalist democracy, will replace the republic. it is flexible to markets and political forces, insistent on accountability, it provides a sufficient compromise between individual representation and republican government. they will begin their political evolution as projects in community development. assurances of an educated workforce by charter education. assurances of uninterrupted utilities by running their own power/water etc. net-based marketplaces create corporate agoras. employees are in fact de facto citizens of the corporation. citizenship, or regular employment, will be a reward for merit, stock shares will count towards suffrage.
great corporate collectives will arise. housing, education, security...all the needs of the middle class will be absorbed in the corporate state. the tradtional state will cede roles and responsibilities to the corporate state as their resources dwindle. a few isolated violent reactions (military or legal)by the republics against the corporate states, but they will fail over time. against, or more so, in conjunction with the homogenized corporatsists wil be the diasporae, non-corporates will glom to other modes of networked alignment, ethnic allegiance will become stronger over time - as the chinese, indian, and jewish disporaestrengthen as a formula for a successful competition against/with the corporates.
the american state, succored by its overwhelming techo-military supremancy, loses its mission, its vision - substitutes will to dominate for will to excel - and falls into the deep narcotic, insulated slumber of the unassailable. GE, nano, and the banknote net weaken the mythic cohesion of the american spirit. we are no longer united by common experience (mass-mediated or otherwise) the promise of science to make us stronger, smarter, near immortal is held like a manifest destiny or a divine IOU for services rendered to humanity.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f/3.5 DS, Kentmere 100 @ISO 50, 38 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
This is an old photo, to see what it is that I'm using today Click Here.
Old Desc: I got a care package today from B&H in NYC...
...if anyone wants the printer let me know, got it with a rebate offer. I'm selling it as I don't do much/any printing.
NOTE: This photo made it into Flickr's 'Explore" as one of the top five hundred most interesting photos on a particular day, which makes me somewhat sad as the actual resulting photos didn't make it, ha! You can see all of my photo's that have made it into the Flickr Explore pages here.
I went to Anglesey Abbey to finish off a test roll in the Autocord, and also to capture the main building with the wildflower meadow in the foreground. The meadow and weather were great for capturing it, but unfortunately it was clad in ugly scaffolding, typical! But still, there are other views and details to capture here, including the mill, and soon wished I’d brought some more rolls of film.
Minolta Autocord, Kentmere 100, Caffenol CL-CS, 15C starting temperature, 60 minutes.
Our good friend Amanda went out shopping with me yesterday. I was going out to pick up a like new in box Canon ST-E2 wireless transmitter from a local store, I was all happy because someone just came in and sold all of his Canon gear for a Leica M8 (nice camera) and so I got my ST-E2 for $170.
After the salesperson remarking the guy had dumped his whole kit, I asked half jokingly he didn't happen to sell a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L did he ( I knew Amanda loved my 24-70mm and wanted one of her own... )... he remarked "in fact he did, and it had basically never been used", Amanda asked how much... He said $950, but since the guy never submitted the rebate for the lens she could get $50 off the lens since she was buying it from an authorized Canon reseller... It took her only about 20 seconds to make up mind... he hadn't gotten a used 24-70mm in since I bought mine from him used well over a year ago.
...needless to say Amanda is a very, very happy girl. Quite an improvment over her 18-55mm kit lens.
Tech Details: Taken with a Canon 20D and Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L lens, shot to RAW and processed in Adobe Camera Raw/Photoshop CSIi.
Lighting Details: Two Photogenic 1250 strobes, at a 45 degree angle to the right with a Photogenic 4'x'3' softbox about 2.5 ft. away from the subject. The second Photogenic 1250 strobe 5' away to the left of the subject and powered down a bit to only provide fill lighting. Lighting triggered by Pocket Wizard plus units.
Sited next to Queens College, this wooden bridge over the River Cam was originally built in 1749, and was rebuilt in 1905 to the same design. It is an example of a voussoir arch bridge.
Minolta Autocord, yellow filter, Kentmere 100, Caffenol CL-CS, 15°C. starting temperature, 45 minutes.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f3.5 DS @f/11, Ilford Pan F Plus @ISO25, 40 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
I’m not actually happy with this arrangement, I feel it would be better without the silver cup on the right, as it makes an even number of objects, would be better balanced with an odd number. Also, I think the objects should be closer together, and I should have cropped in closer. Let me know what you think.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f3.5 DS @f/3.5, Ilford Pan F Plus @ISO25, 40 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
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Minolta Autocord, yellow filter, Kentmere 100, Caffenol CL-CS, 15C starting temperature, 60 minutes.
Similar to a still life I shot digitally a few years ago, I like the texture better of this version, although I don't think the square format suits it, the digital version fits better.
Mamiya C330, Mamiya Sekor 105mm f3.5 DS @f/11, Ilford Pan F Plus @ISO25, 40 minutes in Caffenol CL-CS @15-20°C, Zone Imaging Eco Zonefix.
You think I josh. We indeed did buy, or should that be order a new vehicle from a well known brand in early April 2022. With COVID related delays, and frustratingly bad communications, it finally arrived in the showroom on the first day we were away on holidays! We finally picked it up yesterday. Yes, of course then the wheels and promises to de-register the old car went west or just didn't happen at all so when we rocked up at the Transport and Main Roads office this morning to obtain our Senior's discount on the new car registration, the old one was still in our name 24 hours later despite promises that that little bit of admin would be done in one hour and even before we left the showroom the previous day.
So, to make my hair even whiter, another long winded episode, typically lacking clear and prompt communication then occurred. After much gnashing of teeth and brain, it was finally accomplished much later after which we returned to finalise said registration rebate! I am totally over this and I imagine the manager of the car sales company wished he had stayed in bed this morning. All I can say is "Oh what a feeling"! Sadly for them, the customer survey that was emailed to me twice while we were away (more perfect timing) finally got done later this morning. Bad timing for them! Not pleasant reading!
This shot kind of reminds me how my wife and I feel after 16+ months of this! It was taken in the little historic sapphire mining town of Emmaville which is just north west of Glen Innes in New South Wales and a bit off the beaten track. My sort of town.
Hopefully I will be back tomorrow to continue the journey, cool headed as always!