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Eurasian kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)-8164 by George Vittman

13 7

The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), also known as the Eurasian kingfisher and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter.

This sparrow-sized bird has the typical short-tailed, large-headed kingfisher profile; it has blue upperparts, orange underparts and a long bill. It feeds mainly on fish, caught by diving, and has special visual adaptations to enable it to see prey under water. The glossy white eggs are laid in a nest at the end of a burrow in a riverbank.

This species has the typical short-tailed, dumpy-bodied, large-headed, and long-billed kingfisher shape. The adult male of the western European subspecies, A. a. ispida has green-blue upperparts with pale azure-blue back and rump, a rufous patch by the bill base, and a rufous ear-patch. It has a green-blue neck stripe, white neck blaze and throat, rufous underparts, and a black bill with some red at the base. The legs and feet are bright red. It is about 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long with a wingspan of 25 cm (9.8 in), and weighs 34–46 grams (1.2–1.6 oz). The female is identical in appearance to the male except that her lower mandible is orange-red with a black tip. The juvenile is similar to the adult, but with duller and greener upperparts and paler underparts. Its bill is black, and the legs are also initially black. Feathers are moulted gradually between July and November with the main flight feathers taking 90–100 days to moult and regrow. Some that moult late may suspend their moult during cold winter weather.

The flight of the kingfisher is fast, direct and usually low over water. The short, rounded wings whirr rapidly, and a bird flying away shows an electric-blue "flash" down its back.

In North Africa, Europe and Asia north of the Himalayas, this is the only small blue kingfisher. In south and southeast Asia, it can be confused with six other small blue-and-rufous kingfishers, but the rufous ear patches distinguish it from all but juvenile blue-eared kingfishers; details of the head pattern may be necessary to differentiate the two species where both occur.

The common kingfisher has no song. The flight call is a short, sharp whistle chee repeated two or three times. Anxious birds emit a harsh, shrit-it-it and nestlings call for food with a churring noise.

The common kingfisher is widely distributed over Europe, Asia, and North Africa, mainly south of 60°N. It is a common breeding species over much of its vast Eurasian range, but in North Africa it is mainly a winter visitor, although it is a scarce breeding resident in coastal Morocco and Tunisia. In temperate regions, this kingfisher inhabits clear, slow-flowing streams and rivers, and lakes with well-vegetated banks. It frequents scrubs and bushes with overhanging branches close to shallow open water in which it hunts. In winter it is more coastal, often feeding in estuaries or harbors and along rocky seashores. Tropical populations are found by slow-flowing rivers, in mangrove creeks and in swamps.

Common kingfishers are important members of ecosystems and good indicators of freshwater community health. The highest densities of breeding birds are found in habitats with clear water, which permits optimal prey visibility, and trees or shrubs on the banks. These habitats have also the highest quality of water, so the presence of this bird confirms the standard of the water. Measures to improve water flow can disrupt this habitat, and in particular, the replacement of natural banks by artificial confinement greatly reduces the populations of fish, amphibians and aquatic reptiles, and waterside birds are lost. It can tolerate a certain degree of urbanization, provided the water remains clean.

This species is resident in areas where the climate is mild year-round, but must migrate after breeding from regions with prolonged freezing conditions in winter. Most birds winter within the southern parts of the breeding range, but smaller numbers cross the Mediterranean into Africa or travel over the mountains of Malaysia into Southeast Asia. Kingfishers migrate mainly at night, and some Siberian breeders must travel at least 3,000 km (1,900 mi) between the breeding sites and the wintering areas.

The common kingfisher hunts from a perch 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) above the water, on a branch, post or riverbank, bill pointing down as it searches for prey. It bobs its head when food is detected to gauge the distance and plunges steeply down to seize its prey usually no deeper than 25 cm (9.8 in) below the surface. The wings are opened underwater and the open eyes are protected by the transparent third eyelid. The bird rises beak-first from the surface and flies back to its perch. At the perch the fish is adjusted until it is held near its tail and beaten against the perch several times. Once dead, the fish is positioned lengthways and swallowed head-first. A few times each day, a small greyish pellet of fish bones and other indigestible remains is regurgitated.

The food is mainly fish up to 12.5 cm (4.9 in) long, but the average size is 2.3 cm (0.91 in). In Central Europe, 97% of the diet was found to be composed of fish ranging in size from 2 to 10 cm with an average of 6.5 cm (body mass range from 10 g, average 3 g). Minnows, sticklebacks, small roach and trout are typical prey. About 60% of food items are fish, but this kingfisher also catches aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae and water beetles, and, in winter, crustaceans including freshwater shrimps. In Central Europe, however, fish represented 99.9% of the diet (data from rivers, streams, and reservoirs from years 1999 to 2013). Common kingfishers have also been observed to catch lamprey. One study found that food provisioning rate increased with brood size, from 1498 g (505 fishes for four nestlings) to 2968 g (894 fishes for eight nestlings). During the fledging period each chick consumed on average 334 g of fish, which resulted in an estimated daily food intake of 37% of the chick's body mass (average over the entire nestling period). The average daily energy intake was 73.5 kJ per chick (i.e., 1837 kJ per 25 days of the fledging period).

A challenge for any diving bird is the change in refraction between air and water. The eyes of many birds have two foveae (the fovea is the area of the retina with the greatest density of light receptors), and a kingfisher can switch from the main central fovea to the auxiliary fovea when it enters water; a retinal streak of high receptor density which connects the two foveae allows the image to swing temporally as the bird drops onto the prey. The egg-shaped lens of the eye points towards the auxiliary fovea, enabling the bird to maintain visual acuity underwater. Because of the positions of the foveae, the kingfisher has monocular vision in air, and binocular vision in water. The underwater vision is not as a sharp as in air, but the ability to judge the distance of moving prey is more important than the sharpness of the image.

Each cone cell of a bird's retina contains an oil droplet that may contain carotenoid pigments. These droplets enhance color vision and reduce glare. Aquatic kingfishers have high numbers of red pigments in their oil droplets; the reason red droplets predominate is not understood, but the droplets may help with the glare or the dispersion of light from particulate matter in the water.

For more information, please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_kingfisher

Recognize any of these faces? by Vanessa Privett

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;)

Left to Right:

Legend, Legacy, Iris, Levi, Athena, Nyx, Hecate, Aphrodite

Photograph Taken January 21, 2012

Recognizing reality is definitely subjective in todays America. by Jim Wentz

8 1

Sword-billed Hummingbird (7115L) by Bob Walker

25 11

The instantly recognizable Sword-billed Hummingbird is the only hummingbird whose bill is longer than its body. Its very long bill is clearly an adaption that allows it to feed on the deepest tubular flowers, although it was quite agreeable to feed on smaller flowers and nectar feeders.

These acrobatic birds are also good photographic subjects, because they tend to hover in the vicinity of the feeder or flower they are interested in. They are found in the higher elevations of the Andes, from Venezuela to the north to Bolivia to the south.

Recognizer by The Hydromancer

Lego Recognizers sized for MFZ:RA

China 2012. Xitang (Zhejiang) at daylight. by Jean-Paul Margnac

17 5

This waterfornt village is recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage.

"Xitang Town

Xitang is located in the north of Jiashan County, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province and at the juncture of the provinces and municipality of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. A village started to grow here during the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty, and it developed into a town in the Song Dynasty. The long-standing South China waterfront landscapes are the rich natural landscape resources of Xitang, which has been boasting of numerous bridges, narrow lanes and canopy corridors since the ancient time. Covering an area of 24 hectares, there are continuous patches of traditional architecture clusters in the ancient town, with the floor space amounting to 110,000 square meters, accounting for 63% of the town's total floor space. It is rare in China that ancient buildings are of such a big scale and have been so well preserved. Buildings in the ancient town of Xitang are mainly from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The locals give special emphasis to pursue buildings on river banks, facing street in the front and backing on rivers at the rear. The dimension and scale of single buildings are not big, the layout seems to be random but delicate, the modelling is simple, neat and pithy, the color is light, elegant and pleasant, and the outline is mild and beautiful."

Source : World Heritage Convention.

Eurasian kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)-5033 by George Vittman

39 11

The common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) also known as the Eurasian kingfisher, and river kingfisher, is a small kingfisher with seven subspecies recognized within its wide distribution across Eurasia and North Africa. It is resident in much of its range, but migrates from areas where rivers freeze in winter.

This species has the typical short-tailed, dumpy-bodied large-headed and long-billed kingfisher shape. The adult male of the western European subspecies, A. a. ispida has green-blue upperparts with pale azure-blue back and rump, a rufous patch by the bill base, and a rufous ear-patch. It has a green-blue neck stripe, white neck blaze and throat, rufous underparts, and a black bill with some red at the base. The legs and feet are bright red. It is about 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long with a wingspan of 25 cm (9.8 in), and weighs 34–46 grams (1.2–1.6 oz). The female is identical in appearance to the male except that her lower mandible is orange-red with a black tip. The juvenile is similar to the adult, but with duller and greener upperparts and paler underparts. Its bill is black, and the legs are also initially black. Feathers are moulted gradually between July and November with the main flight feathers taking 90–100 days to moult and regrow. Some that moult late may suspend their moult during cold winter weather.

The flight of the kingfisher is fast, direct and usually low over water. The short rounded wings whirr rapidly, and a bird flying away shows an electric-blue "flash" down its back.

In North Africa, Europe and Asia north of the Himalayas this is the only small blue kingfisher. In south and southeast Asia it can be confused with six other small blue-and-rufous kingfishers, but the rufous ear patches distinguish it from all but juvenile blue-eared kingfisher; details of the head pattern may be necessary to differentiate the two species where both occur.

The common kingfisher has no song. The flight call is a short sharp whistle, chee, repeated two or three times. Anxious birds emit a harsh, shrit-it-it and nestlings call for food with a churring noise.

Like all kingfishers, the common kingfisher is highly territorial; since it must eat around 60% of its body weight each day, it is essential to have control of a suitable stretch of river. It is solitary for most of the year, roosting alone in heavy cover. If another kingfisher enters its territory, both birds display from perches, and fights may occur, in which a bird will grab the other's beak and try to hold it under water. Pairs form in the autumn but each bird retains a separate territory, generally at least 1 km (0.62 mi) long, but up to 3.5 km (2.2 mi) and territories are not merged until the spring.

The courtship is initiated by the male chasing the female while calling continually, and later by ritual feeding, with copulation usually following.

The nest is in a burrow excavated by both birds of the pair in a low vertical riverbank, or sometimes a quarry or other cutting. The straight, gently inclining burrow is normally 60–90 cm (24–35 in) long and ends in an enlarged chamber. The nest cavity is unlined but soon accumulates a litter of fish remains and cast pellets.

The common kingfisher typically lays two to ten glossy white eggs, which average 1.9 cm (0.75 in) in breadth, 2.2 cm (0.87 in) in length, and weigh about 4.3 g (0.15 oz), of which 5% is shell. One or two eggs in most clutches fail to hatch because the parent cannot cover them. Both sexes incubate by day, but only the female at night. An incubating bird sits trance-like, facing the tunnel; it invariably casts a pellet, breaking it up with the bill. The eggs hatch in 19–20 days, and the altricial young are in the nest for a further 24–25 days, often more. Once large enough, young birds will come to the burrow entrance to be fed. Two broods, sometimes three, may be reared in a season.

The common kingfisher hunts from a perch 1–2 m (3.3–6.6 ft) above the water, on a branch, post or riverbank, bill pointing down as it searches for prey. It bobs its head when food is detected to gauge the distance, and plunges steeply down to seize its prey usually no deeper than 25 cm (9.8 in) below the surface. The wings are opened under water and the open eyes are protected by the transparent third eyelid. The bird rises beak-first from the surface and flies back to its perch. At the perch the fish is adjusted until it is held near its tail and beaten against the perch several times. Once dead, the fish is positioned lengthways and swallowed head-first. A few times each day, a small greyish pellet of fish bones and other indigestible remains is regurgitated.

The food is mainly fish up to 12.5 cm (4.9 in) long, but the average size is 2.3 cm (0.91 in). In Central Europe, 97% of the diet was found to be composed of fish ranging in size from 2 to 10 cm with an average of 6.5 cm (body mass range from 10 g, average 3 g).[18][19] Minnows, sticklebacks, small roach and trout are typical prey. About 60% of food items are fish, but this kingfisher also catches aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae and water beetles, and, in winter, crustaceans including freshwater shrimps. In Central Europe, however, fish represented 99.9% of the diet (data from rivers, streams and reservoirs from years 1999-2013). Common kingfishers have also been observed to catch lamprey. One study found that food provisioning rate increased with brood size, from 1498 g (505 fishes for four nestlings) to 2968 g (894 fishes for eight nestlings). During the fledging period each chick consumed on average 334 g of fish, which resulted in an estimated daily food intake of 37% of the chick's body mass (average over the entire nestling period). The average daily energy intake was 73.5 kJ per chick (i.e. 1837 kJ per 25 days of the fledging period).

A challenge for any diving bird is the change in refraction between air and water. The eyes of many birds have two foveae (the fovea is the area of the retina the greatest density of light receptors), and a kingfisher is able to switch from the main central fovea to the auxiliary fovea when it enters water; a retinal streak of high receptor density which connects the two foveae allows the image to swing temporally as the bird drops onto the prey. The egg-shaped lens of the eye points towards the auxiliary fovea, enabling the bird to maintain visual acuity underwater. Because of the positions of the foveae, the kingfisher has monocular vision in air, and binocular vision in water. The underwater vision is not as a sharp as in air, but the ability to judge the distance of moving prey is more important than the sharpness of the image.

Each cone cell of a bird's retina contains an oil droplet which may contain carotenoid pigments. These droplets enhance colour vision and reduce glare. Aquatic kingfishers have high numbers of red pigments in their oil droplets; the reason red droplets predominate is not understood, but the droplets may help with the glare or the dispersion of light from particulate matter in the water.

For more information, please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_kingfisher

serpentine eyes by I G

7 4

Recognize her eyes? I was inspired by my day of the dead custom flower eye chips :)

Monarch Butterfly Chrysalis by Thomas King

41 32

Brilliant orange-and-black monarchs are among the most easily recognizable of the butterfly species that call the Americas home. Their migration takes them as far north as Canada and, during the winter months, as far south as Mexico City. A single monarch can travel hundreds to thousands of miles. The monarch migration is one of the greatest natural phenomena in the insect world. Monarchs are truly spectacular migrants because the butterflies know the correct direction to migrate, even though they have never made the journey before. They follow an internal "compass" that points them in the right direction each spring and fall.

Over-wintering monarch butterflies in Mexico begin to make the journey north to the United States in early spring. Soon after they leave Mexico, pairs of monarchs mate. As they reach the southern United States, females will look for available milkweed plants to lay eggs. The eggs hatch after approximately four days. The caterpillars feed on the available milkweed plant. When they get big enough, each caterpillar forms a chrysalis and goes through metamorphosis. After another two-week period, an adult butterfly will emerge from the chrysalis.

The adult monarchs continue the journey north that was left unfinished by their parents. Each year, about three to five generations will be born to continue migrating north. Most monarch butterflies do not live more than a few weeks. It is only the last generation, born in late summer that will live for several months and migrate back to Mexico to start the cycle over again.

The last generation of each year is the over-wintering generation. Rather than breeding immediately, the over-wintering monarchs stay in Mexico until the following spring. In the early spring, they fly north to the southern United States and breed. Over-wintering monarch butterflies can live upwards of eight months. (National Wildlife Federation)

Nikon D7100

Tokina 100mm f/2.8 AT-X AF Pro D Macro

100mm - f7.1- 1/250 - ISO 100

St. Mary Basilica Interior 1 by Dave Reasons

12 2

Recognized as an architectural masterpiece among Catholic churches in the south, it is today the spiritual home of a vibrant Catholic community who welcomes visitors from near and far away. The construction of this place of worship was begun in 1842 as a Cathedral in the newly established Diocese of Natchez, and St. Mary retained this status until 1977

Yosemite_2017 05 05_0557 by Harvey Barrison

Tunnel View is a scenic overlook on State Route 41; the iconic and expansive view of Yosemite Valley from the Overlook have been documented by visitors since the Park opened in 1933. / Yosemite National Park is one of the 59 national parks, spanning portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in Northern California. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of nearly 1.2 million square miles reaching across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, glaciers, and biological diversity.

Recognize That Clock by Blick Calle

46 4

57th Street and 5th Avenue

New York City

Chicken with rice, anyone? by Toni Ahvenainen

32 5

If you live in Europe or Nordic countries you will probably recognize this already an iconic red toy oven by BRIO. In Finland many generations of us have played with them and I remember them too from my childhood. There are of course modernized versions of toy ovens in the market with all the flashy lights, sounds and whatever, but I feel that a simple one gets the job done best. It was one of our most wanted Christmas present and we have already had couple of fresh meals done with it.

I'm pretty satisfied with this picture, even if I missed focus a bit. As much as I'm trying to develop my own approach to photography, I find these kind of shots most important. I could get all the recognition in the world, Flickr-favourites and photography awards (hah, like I actually could get any of those), but it can't touch the simple fact that photographing Auras first years is most important and long-lasting photographic catalog I'm going to make in my life. Documenting and constructing an imagery of her childhood is, I think, an important mission which will be stratified into her identity later on. Of course there is a whole culture of social relations involved too, but visual sources are also important part of that. While these photographs will become windows to her forgotten past, it makes me ask, how should I approach this mission, which is undeniably too challenging to any photographer? I guess the answer is same as with parenthood in general: as good as I can with all the values, knowledge and discernment I have available today. Trying to photograph everything that feels important. And what could be more important than Aura playing for the first time with her soon precious to become toy oven.

Year of the Alpha – 365 Days of Sony Alpha Photography: www.yearofthealpha.com

-The Dark Knight Returns- by Stan Building

November 7, 2042

29 years have passed since Bruce Wayne retired as Batman. He and Selina Kyle moved to Corto Maltese, a country where the ‘’Caped Crusader of Gotham’’ is nothing more than an urban myth, and have led a safe life there. After changing their identities to Matches Malone and Irena Dubrovna respectively to avoid them getting recognized, the two married a few decades earlier and got a daughter named Helena together roughly 17 years ago. Although Bruce sometimes misses the life he lived before this, he wouldn’t trade his current one for anything.

It is a quiet night when Bruce gets awoken by some noise coming from the kitchen. He tries to get back to sleep, but hears something isn’t right when he hears something clattering on the ground. Bruce gets out of bed, puts on a dark red bathrobe and walks downstairs to investigate. Making sure to walk as silently as possible in order to remain unnoticed, he takes a peek around the corner but doesn’t find anything out of the ordinary there. Everything is just as he left it the day before, without any signs of a break-in. He prepares to head back to bed as he notices some sound coming from upstairs now. He hears a window opening in another room, but as he slams open the door he finds another empty room. He takes a look outside the window he heard getting opened which has a view over the wide garden of their house, but he fails to spot anything there either. Bruce decides to leave it be for now and to contact the authorities the next morning as he returns to bed. However, as he enters the bedroom, he is met with a gruesome sight.

Before him he sees his wife Selina reaching for her throat, struggling to breathe as blood spills everywhere. He rushes to help her and notices that her throat has been slit open by a sharp object. Knowing that he can’t do anything to help her himself Bruce grabs the phone on the nightstand and dials 911 hoping that he can save her life that way. He gets connected to an emergency medical dispatcher and gives the necessary information to call an ambulance. After this, he lifts her up out of bed and carries her downstairs to make it easier for the paramedics to get her in the ambulance, trying everything to comfort her as he does so. He lays her on the couch as he hears the sirens of the ambulance approaching in the distance. The paramedics rush inside the house, putting her on a brancard and bringing her into the ambulance as Bruce can only watch. He stands next to the brancard in the ambulance, holding her hand as he hears the heartbeat monitor flatlining.

A week has passed since the murder on Selena. Both Bruce and Helena are still processing the event. Despite the best work from the local police force they did not manage to find any clues as to who did it, leaving them without a single idea as to why it happened. After not having slept for almost a week and refusing to enter the place where his wife got her throat slit, Bruce decides to finally go in there to clean the mess from that night. As he takes the blood-stained sheets off the bed, he sees something weird under the sheets; a playing card with a bloody, golden knife pierced through it. He takes the knife out of it and takes a look at the card, noting a short message written on there in a messy handwriting.

“Why the long face, Bruce? I know this truly puts a smile on my own face.”

He turns over the card, almost losing his balance in shock as he sees the trademark design Joker always used on the front of the card. Despite him finding out his identity years ago and ruining his life shortly after, Bruce hoped that he would leave him alone now that he is retired. He looks up what he has been up to for the past years, and finds out Joker has supposedly been in the highest security wing of Arkham for the past 25 years. Despite his instincts telling him to leave it be and just continue to make the most of his retirement, he can't seem to shake off the urge to return to Gotham to get to the bottom of this.

A couple of days later, Helena gets awoken by her dad early in the morning. She puts on some clothes and steps outside her room as her dad prompts her to follow him to the attic. As they are making their way there, Bruce asks her if she ever heard of the Batman. Although she has read the rumors online of a vigilante dressed as a bat fighting crime in Gotham for several years, she never really believed them to be real. Despite all of the evidence, from pictures in newspapers to blurry videos of somebody in a bat costume flying over Gotham, something about it just seemed weird to her. Knowing that her parents lived in that city for some time she did ask them about it once, but her dad said all the stories were just hoaxes made up by the police force in order to scare off criminals.

After walking up the stairs Bruce turns on a light to illuminate the messy attic. He makes his way over to a wooden closet in the back with a big padlock around the door. As he looks around for something, Helena notices a lot of little trinkets filling up the attic; some kind of jester hat, a glass dome with an old handgun in it, a cane with a weird question mark on it along with a bunch of other items. Bruce finds the key and opens the closet, revealing a suit hanging upside down in it. Helena notices a bat symbol on the chest of the suit as she begins to put together the pieces; her dad was Batman. She picks up a bat-shaped weapon from the ground as Bruce takes the suit out of the closet.

“Pack up your stuff.” Bruce says. “We’re going to Gotham.”

---------------------------

A few days later, after getting on the next flight to Gotham City and after telling Helena of his suspicions, the two arrive in the city. Although Bruce didn’t expect Gotham to look exactly like how it did when he left with Selina almost 30 years ago, he’s still shocked to see how much it changed. As he looks at the skyline of the city through the window of the airport, he sees that the dark and mundane buildings of the city he used to know have all been replaced with tall, futuristic skyscrapers. All personnel on the airport have also been replaced with androids and computer systems. While Bruce struggles to get used to this new and completely different Gotham, Helena guides them to a metro line leading right into the center of the city.

Another hour passes before the two find their way to the center of Gotham, making their way towards the newly rebuilt Wayne Enterprises building; a gigantic black structure, contrasting sharply with the clean lightly colored buildings surrounding it and with a big neon-lit sign on top of the roof. Knowing he left most of the gadgets he used as Batman in one of the floors of the building, Bruce hopes that he can still find and use them. He tries to enter, but he gets halted by a security guard asking him why he wants to enter the building. Bruce directs the guards attention towards the sign on the structure as he pulls out his ID-card, making sure to point out the fact that the name plastered on the building belongs to him. The guard nods and lets the two in, turning on his earpiece and muttering something to the person on the other end as he does so.

As they find themselves in the lobby, a well-dressed young man approaches Bruce and Helena. He introduces himself as Lucius Fox Jr, current CEO of Wayne Enterprises and son of the late Fox Sr, who he used to know back during his prime as a vigilante. He talks about the stories his father used to tell about him before getting to the reason he is here. Fox guides them to one of the elevators in the building and touches in a specific code into the panel after they enter. A fingerprint scanner flips open from the wall as he asks Bruce to put his thumb on it. He does so and feels the elevator descending downwards right after, despite there officially not being any levels below ground in this building. The elevator stops going down after a short while, giving way to a dimly lit storage area filled with items hidden under big pieces of cloth when the doors open. Bruce walks over to one of the bigger items and takes the cloth of it, seeing that someone put the Batmobile under there. He walks around the place and takes a look at more of the items, seeing that most of what he stored in the Batcave when he retired has been put in here. He sees that one of his batarangs, an old prototype for a suit for Robin and even the old Batsignal were brought to this place. As Bruce shows Helena some of the objects, reminiscing about when he was still in his prime, he suddenly hears a female voice behind him.

He turns around and sees Barbara Gordon sitting in a wheelchair behind him. She and him haven’t seen each other since the Joker paralyzed her from the waist down almost thirty years ago, with Barbara cutting off all contact with him shortly after the incident. She begins talking about how after Bruce left Gotham nobody was left to look after Wayne Manor. Roughly 15 years ago, when plans were announced to tear down the vacant house, Lucius Fox took it upon himself to get all of the items left in the Batcave out of there before someone would stumble on them during the demolition. Out of the faint hope that the Dark Knight would one day return to Gotham, he decided to store all of his items right under the Wayne Enterprises building instead of destroying them.

During this time, Barbara had moved back to Gotham and got a position within the GCPD again. She got assigned to lead the investigation behind the addicting, strength-enhancing drug known as Venom which had been becoming more and more popular in Gotham over the past years. Due to it becoming more and more difficult to keep track of all the Venom-related incidents within the city, she reached out to Wayne Enterprises for help. Fox Jr. showed her the storage space and asked her to help him look after the Dark Knight's gadgets. Although she refused at first, wanting nothing to do with Bruce and the Batman after the incident at Wayne Manor, she eventually agreed in case he would ever return to Gotham.

Barbara then shows Bruce something she has been working on in the past years. After the company abandoned their contract to make military equipment years ago, many projects which were still a work in progress got scrapped and left behind in the Applied Science division. One of these projects was a prototype for an exosuit which would give more strength to older or wounded soldiers, allowing them to be more effective in battle despite their handicaps. Seeing how Bruce isn’t as strong as he was in his prime almost 30 years ago, she modified and prepared the prototype for him to use as a new suit. He walks over to the suit, seeing a gun-metal gray suit with a black cowl and purple gloves outfit on display. He contemplates his decision for a moment, doubting if adopting his Dark Knight-persona again is the right choice, but the thought of figuring out who was behind the murder on his wife finally convinces him to do it. Right next to his outfit is an old, red and green-colored suit originally intended for Duke Thomas to which Helena takes a liking. Bruce tries to talk her out of it at first, remembering the guilt he felt after letting the first Robin getting killed, but her insisting on helping solve the murder on her mother persuades him to let his daughter help him out.

A few days have passed when a young man walks down Park Row, now more commonly known as Crime Alley after the murder on the Waynes took place there almost 50 years ago. After finishing his 10-hour shift at LexCorp all he wants to do is go home, but his way gets blocked by a figure emerging from the shadows. He tries to turn around, but two other people are blocking the way there as well. He notices they are all holding some kind of weapon in their hands as one of them asks him to hand over his valuable possessions. The man, paralyzed with fear, finds himself too scared to do anything. Seeing that the man isn’t complying with them, the criminal commands the other two people to beat the man up and to take whatever valuable he has from him after that. They approach the young man, but the two stop in their tracks as the streetlights illuminating the alley suddenly all burst apart. All of the criminals get their phones out of their pockets and turn on the flashlights to investigate as they find a weird, bat-shaped weapon on the ground. Before any of them can react, a shadowy figure drops from the rooftop and lands on top of one of the criminals, knocking him out instantly. The young man drops to the ground in fear while the remaining criminals aim their flashlights at the figure. Before them stands a person with most of his figure hidden behind a completely black cape, wearing a cowl with spikes on top of it. While they can't see the face of the person, the white eyes of his cowl suddenly light up as he looks the two right in the face.

In their youth, every kid in Gotham heard the ghost stories of the Batman from their parents, who would come after them if they ever commit a crime. Most kids always thought this was just a myth told to keep their kids from doing anything stupid, but the two criminals are doubting the legitness of these stories as they lay their eyes upon the figure in front of them.

One of the criminals clenches his fist around the wooden baseball bat he’s holding and charges at the Batman. He swings the weapon at full force in an attempt to hit him, but Batman grabs the bat right before it strikes him and tests out the power of his new suit by breaking it in half with his hands. After throwing away the one half, he uses the other half to beat up the perpetrator. Once he’s done with him, Batman redirects his attention to the other criminal as he slowly approaches him. Out of fear he pulls out a gun from his back pocket, bringing Bruce back to what happened 50 years prior in this exact alley for a short moment. He fires the gun several times, but finds that the Batman is unphased by the bullets as he continues to steadily walk towards him. Before he’s able to run away, the Bat grabs him by the coat and lifts him in the air. He grabs the gun out of his hand and tosses him against the wall, breaking the gun in two and dropping it on the ground.

Then he turns to the young man who is still cowering in fear. He walks towards him as the man tries to get away too, scared that he is going to beat him up too, but stops once he sees that he is just offering him a hand to get up. For the first time since the start of the fight, Batman begins talking and warns him to not go through this alley again as he won't always be there to protect him. He unbuckles the grappling gun from his utility belt, but right before he goes away the man asks him who he is.

‘’Me?’’ He asks. ‘’I’m Batman.’’

Upon returning to the Wayne Enterprises building not too long after, Batman starts the engine of the Batmobile up for the first time in thirty years. Using Barbara’s connections with the Arkham Asylum, she was able to get him and Helena into the high-security wing of the prison in order to meet up with the Joker. After parking the vehicle in front of the gate, the two head inside to investigate the Clown Prince of Crime’s involvement with the murder on Selina. They register themselves at the front desk and have to follow a security guard in order to get to the proper wing. While they are walking through the lower-security wings of the prison Batman notices a lot of people, both inmates and employees of the facility, staring at him in disbelief. As they descend into the higher security levels Batman begins to see some more familiar faces like Edward Nigma, who is scribbling dozens of tiny question marks on the wall of his cell and even the Condiment King who tries to greet him like an old friend.

After making their way through the complex, the guard unlocks the big door leading to the high-security wing. As the gate opens in front of them, Batman and Robin see a long hallway with cells on each side. Despite almost every single cell having their lights on, the one at the end of the wall is completely dark. While Batman avoids any contact with the inmates in this wing, only focused

on the cell at the end of the hall, Helena takes her time to see who is in which cell. Although most of them are empty, she sees one with plants covering every inch of the cell belonging to Pamela Isley and another right next to the one Batman is walking towards containing Mr. Freeze, now not much more than a corpse being kept alive by his own suit. Batman stands in front of the dark room, only being able to make out a vague silhouette in the darkness. He orders the guard to turn on the light, and sees the Joker staring right into his eyes on the other side of the glass when the lights flicker on.

He has changed a lot since their final confrontation which led to the death of Duke Thomas; he abandoned his long tousled, spiked up hairstyle in favor of a shorter swept back one, his permanent white make-up almost seems to have faded from his skin, and his smile has disappeared from his face. While Joker does his best to strike a conversation with him, acting like he’s an old friend of his who he hasn’t seen in years and asking what made him come out of retirement, Batman only responds by taking the playing card out of his pocket and holding it in front of his face. Batman explains his suspicions, showing him the message on the back of the card. Joker becomes genuinely confused, stating that he hasn't used those cards in decades because he lost his motivation to commit crime after he drove the Dark Knight out of Gotham. Along with that he has been on constant supervision within this prison, locked behind bulletproof glass walls 24/7, so someone would’ve noticed if he got out of his cell to deliver the card somehow.

“Listen Bats, I know you don't trust me at all, but for once I'm not making some sick joke. I swear i was not involved with the murder on your wife.”

After this, Joker asks to see it for himself stating that he might be able to figure out some more clues. He manages to slip his fingers through one of the openings in the glass wall, insisting him to hand over the card. Batman hesitates for a moment, but agrees to give it to him in a moment of desperation. He attentively looks at it from all angles, noting how the handwriting is just slightly off from how he actually writes and how the design of the card doesn’t quite match up to what he used as well. As he asks Bruce if he even bothered to check the item for any traces of DNA on it before coming up with this plan, he notices some low beeping coming from the inside of the card. He tears it open without a second thought, discovering that a strange flat device with a blinking light has been sitting in the card this whole time. Joker tosses the torn pieces of the card away to examine the thing, seeing the symbol of an owl embedded on the back of it. Before Joker can comment on it, the device begins beeping louder and louder while the light begins blinking faster as well. Batman realizes he unknowingly gave the Joker an explosive and tries everything he can to prevent it from going off, but it's too late. Joker looks him in the eye for one last time, putting a big smile on his face right before he gets engulfed in a sea of flames.

Batman and Robin manage to get out of the blast zone just in time. After the dust settles, he sees that the entire back of the prison wing has been obliterated. Nothing’s left of Joker and his cell along with the ones holding Freeze and Ivy next to it. Only some smoldering pieces of the playing card remain, floating through the air and burning up before they can be salvaged. Alarms start going off as a group of guards rushes into the wing, forcing Batman and Robin out of the wing. As they get guided out of the building, moving past the chaos which has erupted in the other parts of the facility, Batman is struggling to comprehend what he just witnessed. His head’s filled with burning questions; Why did someone pretend that the Joker was behind the murder? Why was there an explosive hidden in the card? Why was there an owl printed on said explosive? And most importantly, why was it detonated at that exact moment?

The sun has begun to rise when Bruce and Helena return from their trip to Arkham. As they use a hidden entrance to get inside the Wayne Enterprises building, stories about the explosion in the prison start flooding every news station. Almost all of them point towards the Batman having brought an bomb into the facility on purpose in order to finally get rid of his arch nemesis, despite there not being a lot of actual evidence to support this. Bruce parks the Batmobile in the storage facility and steps out, looking around to see if Barbara is around here anywhere. He calls out for her, but as his voice echoes through the place without a response he begins to think something is not right. Bruce spots three figures standing in the distance, but before he can identify them the lights suddenly turn off. A voice echoes through the space, saying something about the ‘’Court of Owls’’ wanting to see the Dynamic Duo. He tries to approach them, but suddenly feels a small dart piercing through his cowl and hitting him in the neck. He falls to the ground, feeling himself getting dragged away towards the Court as his vision turns black.

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SM7_8630a Northern Lights Wtrmk by Manly's Mix

For the second night in a row, the heavens opened up. This time, I am beginning to recognize a pattern. I love auroras that are well-defined with brilliant curtains, and I have seen enough now to recognize that they typically come strong in these times out of times of soft, diffuse bands of lights across the sky. I saw it some last night, and tonight, I was just about to turn in when I saw this and decided to look for another location to shoot from. So glad I did. I found a pigeon barn on the outskirts of town on the side of the road. I set up my camera, and started getting shots of the auroras with the barn in the foreground. Soon, the heavens opened up, just as I predicted. WELL worth the extra time out tonight.

PRIENE Ancient City, The Temple of Athena (Söke/ Turkey) by Feridun F. Alkaya

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Digital Painting

T e m p l e o f A t h e n a P o l i a s

a t P r i e n e - The Temple of Athena

www.goddess-athena.org/Museum/Temples/Priene/index.htm

The Sanctuary of Athena Polias at Priene

The Temple of Athena

This Temple, located on the culminating point of the city, rose over a wide terrace of rocks and the defense walls, and was the oldest, the most important, the largest and the must magnificent building in Priene. It was oriented on an east-west axis in conformity with the city plan and faced east.

Map of Priene, the Acropolis, the Temples and the village.

It is believed that the construction of the Temple was begun at the same time as the founding of Priene (4th century BCE). The architect of the building was Pythius, who also constructed the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, counted as one of the seven wonders of the world. The Temple is accepted as being a classical example of the Anatolian-Ionian architectural style.

The building was destroyed completely in an earthquake in ancient times and the pieces were scattered over a large area. It also suffered great destruction in a later fire. However, the construction of the plan and the reconstruction of the building have been possible through the fragments found in the excavations.

Large-grained grey-blue local marble brought from Mycale was used as construction material.

The Temple, constructed in the Ionic style, consists of a pronaos (an entrance-hall), a naos (the sacred chamber where the statue of the cult was kept) and an opisthodomus (a porch at the rear). The pronaos is larger than in earlier examples. There was no opisthodomus in previous Temples; it is first seen here. Pythius has taken this characteristic from the Doric style and applied it to his plan, and has thus set a model for later Temples. The building, a combination of the Ionic and Doric architectural styles, emerges as a different architectural example.

Priene, ancient city of Ionia about 6 miles (10 km) north of the Menderes (Maeander) River and 10 miles (16 km) inland from the Aegean Sea, in southwestern Turkey. Its well-preserved remains are a major source of information about ancient Greek town.

By the 8th century bc Priene was a member of the Ionian League, whose central shrine, the Panionion, lay within the city’s territory. Priene was sacked by Ardys of Lydia in the 7th century bc but regained its prosperity in the 8th. Captured by the generals of the Persian king Cyrus (c. 540), the city took part in several revolts against the Persians (499–494). Priene originally lay along the Maeander River’s mouth, but about 350 bc the citizens built a new city farther inland, on the present site. The new city’s main temple, of Athena Polias, was dedicated by Alexander the Great in 334. The little city grew slowly over the next two centuries and led a quiet existence; it prospered under the Romans and Byzantines but gradually declined, and after passing into Turkish hands in the 13th century ad, it was abandoned. Excavations of the site, which is occupied by the modern town of Samsun Kale, began in the 19th century.

Modern excavations have revealed one of the most beautiful examples of Greek town planning. The city’s remains lie on successive terraces that rise from a plain to a steep hill upon which stands the Temple of Athena Polias. Built by Pythius, probable architect of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the temple was recognized in ancient times as the classic example of the pure Ionic style. Priene is laid out on a grid plan, with 6 main streets running east-west and 15 streets crossing at right angles, all being evenly spaced. The town was thereby divided into about 80 blocks, or insulae, each averaging 150 by 110 feet (46 by 34 m). About 50 insulae are devoted to private houses; the better-class insulae had four houses apiece, but most were far more subdivided. In the centre of the town stand not only the Temple of Athena but an agora, a stoa, an assembly hall, and a theatre with well-preserved stage buildings. A gymnasium and stadium are in the lowest section. The private houses typically consisted of a rectangular courtyard enclosed by living quarters and storerooms and opening to the south onto the street by way of a small vestibule. planning.

www.britannica.com/place/Priene

Persian Lessons .... by Qi Bo (Ezio Famà)

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Motta Camastra 05/10/2019: waiting for the "unveiled" of the installation "Against Exodus" by Antonio Presti.

Motta Camastra 05/10/2019: in attesa della "svelata" della installazione "Contro Esodo" di Antonio Presti.

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Qi Bo's photos on Fluidr

Qi Bo's photos on Flickriver

www.worldphoto.org/sony-world-photography-awards/winners-...

www.fotografidigitali.it/gallery/2726/opere-italiane-segn...

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A contemporary history of Sicily (with an appendix story).

With the story I am posting, with words and photographs, I try to describe the truly singular figure of a contemporary "Sicilian", whom I have known personally, his name is Antonio Presti. As a young man he studied construction engineering at the University of Palermo, studies which he then abandoned due to the death of his father, the paternal construction company needed a guide, Antonio thus took on the responsibility of managing the company, but at the age of 29 years old, he perceives the urgency of having to change his life path, throwing himself body and soul into what he feels to be his vocation, art and ethics, which will be his two poles of reference from this moment on. , towards which he will always direct his choices. In memory of his father, he creates an artistic path that represents the continuity between life and death, idealizing the preservation of memory through contemporary art: this is how the sculptural park of Fiumara d 'Arte was born.

The works are carried out along a path that involves many municipalities, Antonio Presti obtains the consent of mayors and administrators, despite this he is forced to undergo a criminal trial for illegal building, from which he is acquitted after 23 years, as the Cassation recognizes " the exceptional nature of the case ", thus saving the Works from demolition. In Pettineo (one of the municipalities of "Fiumara") organizes the event "a kilometer of canvas", it is an impromptu painting event with hundreds of artists, who create their works on a very long canvas that crosses the streets of the town, therefore each single work is then cut, all of these are finally given to the inhabitants, in whose houses they are thus exhibited, becoming the "Domestic Museum" (the event gets numerous replicas in various centers of Sicily). In 1990 he bought a 40-room hotel in Castel di Tusa: each room is then furnished by an artist, the aim is that art is fully experienced with all five senses, not just with the satisfaction of the sight. In 2002 "Third eye - Meridians of Light" comes to life, a project that involves important photographers and directors from around the world who are asked to "photograph the soul of the Librino district, that is, the people" (the "Librino" is a district of outskirts of Catania). These that I have mentioned are just some of the numerous initiatives undertaken by Antonio Presti around Sicily, I could mention many others, all interesting and singular, but among these I would like to mention two of his "ideas" (also because in one of these , despite myself, I was involved); the first conception involves the hospital of Taormina, which has become, thanks to his initiative, a real "art installation" that welcomes "with amazement and admiration", before one can reach the ward, the various patients, relatives, doctors, nurses, the various figures that gravitate within a hospital, in fact the walls of the various corridors located on the various floors that lead to the wards, have been covered with gigantic canvases, on which the children of various schools and different age groups worked, to use a term very dear to Presti, leaving on them "a sign of beauty and hope"; the second initiative of Antonio Presti takes the name of "Against Exodus”, which involved seven Sicilian municipalities, whose streets were covered with giant photographic prints accompanied by the verses of San Francesco, whose goal is to focus attention on the risk of abandonment of the territory due to possible mass migration, and it is here that I mention that "appendix story" of the title, and which sees me involved. In July 2019 I participate in the photo contest "Motta Camastra, his identity" (I learn that the commission that will examine the various participating photographs will be composed of five experts, including Antonio Presti, and the famous photographic critic Giuseppe Pappalardo), in short, two of my photographs arrive first ex aequo, but my amazement is great when I see that both will be set as blow-ups (the only ones in black and white) together with the other blow-ups of "Against Exodus", placed on a large wall located at the entrance to the picturesque village of Motta Camastra. Of the photographs that I post, they were in part taken on the day "of the unveiling" of the blow-ups of the installation by Motta Camastra "Against Exodus”, guest of honor Antonio Presti, which took place on October 05, 2019; the other Gigantographies that I publish are those found in the Sicilian towns of Castiglione di Sicilia and Gaggi; the photos of the painted canvases, hung on the walls, were taken in the hospital of Taormina. I have inserted two photos of the feast of San Biagio in Motta Camastra of 03/02/2020, with the kids who throw the launch of the Saint as they pass in front of the blow-up that was made on the same occasion, only a few years earlier.

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Una storia contemporanea di Sicilia (con racconto d’appendice).

Col racconto che sto postando, con parole e fotografie, tento di descrivere la figura davvero singolare di un “siciliano” contemporaneo, che ho conosciuto personalmente, il suo nome è Antonio Presti. Da giovane egli studia ingegneria edile all’Università di Palermo, studi che poi abbandona a causa della scomparsa del padre, l’azienda edile paterna ha bisogno di una guida, Antonio si carica così della responsabilità di gestire l’azienda, però all’età di 29 anni matura percepisce l’urgenza di dover cambiare percorso di vita, gettandosi anima e corpo in quella che lui sente essere la sua vocazione, l’arte e l’etica, che saranno da questo momento in poi i suoi due poli di riferimento, verso i quali indirizzerà sempre le sue scelte. In ricordo del padre, realizza un percorso artistico che rappresenti la continuità tra la vita e la morte, idealizzando la conservazione della memoria attraverso l’arte contemporanea: nasce così il Parco scultoreo di Fiumara d’Arte.

Le Opere vengono realizzate lungo un percorso che coinvolge molti comuni, Antonio Presti ottiene il consenso di sindaci ed amministratori, nonostante ciò è costretto a subire un processo penale per abusivismo edilizio, dal quale viene prosciolto dopo 23 anni, in quanto la Cassazione ne riconosce “l’eccezionalità del caso”, salvando così le Opere dalla demolizione. A Pettineo (uno dei comuni della “Fiumara”) organizza la manifestazione “un chilometro di tela”, è una manifestazione estemporanea di pittura con centinaia di artisti, che realizzano le loro opere su di una lunghissima tela che attraversa le strade del paese, quindi ogni singola opera viene poi tagliata, tutte queste infine vengono regalate agli abitanti, nelle cui case vengono così esposte, divenendo “Museo Domestico” (la manifestazione ottiene numerose repliche in vari centri della Sicilia). Nel 1990 acquista a Castel di Tusa un albergo di 40 stanze: ogni stanza viene quindi arredata da un artista, lo scopo è quello che l’arte sia vissuta appieno con tutti i cinque sensi, non solo con l’appagamento della vista. Nel 2002 prende vita “Terzocchio-Meridiani di Luce”, un progetto che vede coinvolti importanti fotografi e registi del mondo ai quali si chiede di “fotografare l’anima del quartiere Librino, cioè le persone” (il “Librino” è un quartiere della periferia di Catania). Queste che ho menzionato sono solo alcune delle numerose iniziative intraprese da Antonio Presti in giro per la Sicilia, ne potrei citare tantissime altre, tutte interessanti e singolari, ma tra queste ci tengo a menzionare due sue “ideazioni” (anche perché in una di queste, sono stato mio malgrado, coinvolto); la prima ideazione vede coinvolto l’ospedale di Taormina, il quale è diventato, grazie alla sua iniziativa, una vera e propria “installazione d’arte” che accoglie “con stupore ed ammirazione”, prima che si possa giungere in reparto, i vari pazienti, parenti, medici, infermieri, le varie figure che gravitano in seno ad un ospedale, infatti le pareti dei vari corridoi situati sui vari piani che conducono ai reparti, sono stati tappezzati con gigantesche tele, sulle quali i ragazzi di varie scuole e di diverse fasce d’età, hanno lavorato, per usare un termine molto caro a Presti, lasciando su di esse “un segno di bellezza e di speranza”; la seconda iniziativa di Antonio Presti prende il nome di “Controesodo”, che ha coinvolto sette comuni siciliani, le cui vie sono state tappezzate da giganti stampe fotografiche accompagnate dai versi di San Francesco, il cui obiettivo è focalizzare l’attenzione sul rischio dell’abbandono del territorio a causa della possibile migrazione di massa, ed è qui che accenno a quel “racconto d’appendice” del titolo, e che mi vede coinvolto. Nel luglio 2019 partecipo al concorso fotografico “Motta Camastra, la sua identità” (vengo a sapere che la commissione che esaminerà le varie fotografie partecipanti, sarà composta da cinque esperti, tra questi Antonio Presti, ed il famoso critico fotografico Giuseppe Pappalardo), in breve, due mie fotografie arrivano prime ex aequo, ma il mio stupore è grande quando vedo che entrambe verranno incastonate come gigantografie (le uniche in bianco e nero) insieme alle altre gigantografie di “Controesodo”, poste su di una grande parete situata all’ingresso del pittoresco paesino di Motta Camastra. Delle fotografie che posto, in parte sono state realizzate il giorno “della svelata” delle gigantografie dell’installazione di Motta Camastra “Controesodo”, ospite d’onore Antonio Presti, avvenuta il 05 ottobre, 2019; le altre Gigantografie che pubblico, sono quelle che si trovano nei paesi siciliani di Castiglione di Sicilia, e di Gaggi; le foto delle tele dipinte, appese alle pareti, sono state realizzate nel presidio ospedaliero di Taormina. Ho inserito due foto della festa di San Biagio di Motta Camastra del 03/02/2020, coi ragazzini che tirano la vara del Santo mentre passano davanti la gigantografia che fu fatta nella stessa occasione, solo qualche anno prima.

A Vaguely Recognizable Shrubbery by Xavier J. Peg

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Hommes à bord d'une barque by Thierry LARERE

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Si vous vous reconnaissez et que vous désirez que je retire la photo, vous pouvez me le demander à l'adresse mail mentionnée sur mon profil et je le ferai. Merci

If you recognize yourself and want me to remove this photo, please ask me using my email address indicated on my profile and I will proceed accordingly. Thank you

إذا كنت تعرفت على نفسك وتريد مني إزالة الصورة، يمكنك أن تسألني على عنوان البريد الإلكتروني الموجود في ملفي الشخصي وسأفعل ذلك. شكراً لك الإلكتروني الموجود في ملفي الشخصي وسأفعل

Crabs with beach trash homes- Okinawa by Okinawa Nature Photography

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Meet Edison

A hermit crab using a incandescent light bulb screw end as a protective home. I find many light bulbs washed ashore. This is a good example of adaptive behavior. I found five crabs with beach trash homes tonight.

* All Coenobita species in Okinawa are recognized as a Living Natural Monument.

Photography by Shawn M Miller

Crabs with beach trash homes by Shawn Miller

TEDX OIST talk on this subject by Shawn Miller www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6FWCyVQcNA

Read more at www.wildonline.blog

Pisa Panorama by Wojciech Lelek

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The Leaning Tower, Cathedral and Baptistery of Pisa - the most recognizable monuments of Pisa, and one of the famouns landmarks.

Pisa Cathedral - a medieval Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Piazza dei Miracoli.

Pisa Baptistery - a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building. It became the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the Duomo di Pisa and the cathedral's free-standing campanile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Leaning Tower of Pisa - the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral, known worldwide for its unintended tilt.

| 500px | Instagram |

M-84 Uskok by Dr. Spontaneous

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Universally recognized as one of the ugliest fighting vehicles in Europe and perhaps the world at large, the Uskok was designed to take a beating and deliver one too. Loaded down with reactive armor, standard applique, hard-kill APS devices, integrated soft-kill APS devices, as well as a multitude of other defensive features, the -84 is capable of delivering its internal payload of usually six dismounts to any combat scenario whilst additionally protecting its crew of three (sometimes four depending on the necessity for a combat network officer in large-scale maneuvers). And just by looking at the AFV, one can see that it packs a hefty wallop in the way of firepower. Although the M-84 has yet to see combat due to the intervention of coalition forces in the Balkans, it is believed to be one of the most capable heavy IFVs to date given its unprecedented firepower, armor, and agility (the latter deriving from the fact it is built on a modified version of the Klepht chassis with a ramped up powerhouse).

I've been feeling a bit antsy these past few days, so I figured I'd complete a project that's been sitting around on my PC for awhile now and post it before my flight out to the Old World. Naturally it's a horrendous lumpy thing, but so is the source material--the recently unveiled Russian T-15. I'll see about taking photos of that MRAP, too.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" by Michael Kight

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You may recognize that line from the Wizard of Oz. Now, if you were in Dorothy's ruby slippers, the Wizard of Oz would sound not just magical, but also high and mighty. Who is this grand Wizard of Oz? He must be amazing, right?

It turns out the wonderful Wizard of Oz is anything but. Having completed the task he had set for them, Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow confront the Wizard. All they get for their trouble is a voice booming with godlike authority all around them, telling them to come back another time.

Toto, Dorothy's little dog with the big dog heart, discovers that the Wizard is no god. He's just an ordinary guy operating a bunch of controls behind a green curtain. When Toto pulls the curtain back, the Wizard of Oz realizes he's been exposed, and tries to cover it up by shouting over his loudspeaker, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" There was much more to be said for their heroic character than that of the great and powerful Wizard. “Heroic,” you ask? Let’s see how you stand up to a horde of flying monkeys!

It was predicted to be a rain-out yesterday in our mountains. Yet, it had been on our agenda to go to the Red Barn Tree Farm in Linville Falls for our Christmas tree… and we got a pretty fir with perfect size and shape, as well as the great fragrance you expect at Christmas. It rained greatly early on, but by late morning, clouds were clearing leaving a crystal blue sky overhead. Mission complete, we decided to take the Blue Ridge Parkway from Highway 221 to Highway 421 as our route home. I thought perhaps clouds moving through the high places there might justify having the camera along.

It's the end of November and the glory of autumn has passed in the mountains. There are few oaks still holding leaves, brown and dry, refusing to let go. The rest is sleepy woods. Someone remarked earlier that day about the dreariness of the rain. I answered her: “Even so, beauty can be found in it, if you know where to look.” Here, just north of the Linn Cove Viaduct, I found such a place. As the curtain of clouds parted for an instant, the beauty of seemingly lifeless woods shined through, revealing a ridge along Grandfather Mountain behind it. It reminded me of the Wizard of Oz, though this bit of God’s handiwork is every bit grand and wonderful. Knowing the camera was a little heavier with some great shots, the drive back to Durham was quite satisfying, even on the crowded interstate. I hope everyone made it home safe after dosing on tryptophan at Thanksgiving.

Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art by ktmqi

Helen Phillips

American, 1938-2013

He Seemed to Recognize Me, 1993 (detail)

clay and copper leaf

Alex Houston House circa. 1909 (Houston Trail - Derby Reach Park) by Peterson Ph♡tography

Langley, BC Canada

Derby Reach is recognized as the site of the first contact between people of the Stó:lõ First Nation and Europeans working for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

The Hudson Bay Company built a fort here. One of BC’s first townsites was laid out in the park and later, a pioneer named Alex Houston built his house

on land that is now part of the regional park. Houston is credited with starting the Cariboo Gold Rush and is suspected of claiming the fortune of Billy Miner, BC’s most infamous train robber.

DESCRIPTION OF HISTORIC PLACE

The Alex Houston Residence consists of a modest 1 1/2 storey wood-frame house on a country lot. It is within view of the Fraser River and is located in the Greater Vancouver Regional District's Derby Reach Park in NW Langley, British Columbia.

HERITAGE VALUE

Built in 1909 by Alexander Houston, the Houston Residence is important for its historic significance in terms of its association with the Houston family, its location, and the period in which it was built. It is also an important example of a community-led restoration that combined the resources of the Langley Heritage Society and the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

The Houstons were an important family in British Columbia's history. Alex's father, James, is credited for being the first European to discover gold along the Fraser River, the first independent farmer in the Fraser Valley, one of 33 men to petition the government for an incorporation of the district, and one of the first councillors when Langley was incorporated as a District in 1873.

Alex took over the family cattle and dairy farming business in 1902 (after the death of his father). He was the only son of James and was himself an important pioneer in the Derby area. His family was very active in the community until the 1950's, having established and hosted the community May Day celebrations and donating land for a commemorative cairn across the street from his house, marking the site of the first Fort Langley.

The farm site stands on what was originally land occupied by the first Hudson's Bay Company Fort (1827) and later by the Townsite of Derby (1859). It is a focal point for Derby historical interpretations.

Sources: Derby/Edgewater Bar Guide; Langley Centennial Museum Heritage Files; HistoricPlaces.ca

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Thank-you for your visit, and please know that any faves or comments are always greatly appreciated!

Sonja

Bodie Ghost Town, Mono County, California, USA. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

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Bodie is a ghost town in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States. It is about 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Lake Tahoe, and 12 mi (19 km) east-southeast of Bridgeport, at an elevation of 8,379 feet (2554 m). Bodie became a boom town in 1876 (146 years ago) after the discovery of a profitable line of gold; by 1879 it had a population of 7,000–10,000.

The town went into decline in the subsequent decades and came to be described as a ghost town by 1915 (107 years ago). The U.S. Department of the Interior recognizes the designated Bodie Historic District as a National Historic Landmark.

Also registered as a California Historical Landmark, the ghost town officially was established as Bodie State Historic Park in 1962. It receives about 200,000 visitors yearly. Bodie State Historic Park is partly supported by the Bodie Foundation.

Bodie began as a mining camp of little note following the discovery of gold in 1859 by a group of prospectors, including W. S. Bodey. Bodey died in a blizzard the following November while making a supply trip to Monoville (near present-day Mono City), never getting to see the rise of the town that was named after him. According to area pioneer Judge J. G. McClinton, the district's name was changed from "Bodey," "Body," and a few other phonetic variations, to "Bodie," after a painter in the nearby boomtown of Aurora, lettered a sign "Bodie Stables".

Gold discovered at Bodie coincided with the discovery of silver at nearby Aurora (thought to be in California, later found to be Nevada), and the distant Comstock Lode beneath Virginia City, Nevada. But while these two towns boomed, interest in Bodie remained lackluster. By 1868 only two companies had built stamp mills at Bodie, and both had failed.

In 1876, the Standard Company discovered a profitable deposit of gold-bearing ore, which transformed Bodie from an isolated mining camp comprising a few prospectors and company employees to a Wild West boomtown. Rich discoveries in the adjacent Bodie Mine during 1878 attracted even more hopeful people. By 1879, Bodie had a population of approximately 7,000–10,000 people and around 2,000 buildings. One legend says that in 1880, Bodie was California's second or third largest city. but the U.S. Census of that year disproves this. Over the years 1860-1941 Bodie's mines produced gold and silver valued at an estimated US$34 million (in 1986 dollars, or $85 million in 2021).

Bodie boomed from late 1877 through mid– to late 1880. The first newspaper, The Standard Pioneer Journal of Mono County, published its first edition on October 10, 1877. Starting as a weekly, it soon expanded publication to three times a week. It was also during this time that a telegraph line was built which connected Bodie with Bridgeport and Genoa, Nevada. California and Nevada newspapers predicted Bodie would become the next Comstock Lode. Men from both states were lured to Bodie by the prospect of another bonanza.

Gold bullion from the town's nine stamp mills was shipped to Carson City, Nevada, by way of Aurora, Wellington and Gardnerville. Most shipments were accompanied by armed guards. After the bullion reached Carson City, it was delivered to the mint there, or sent by rail to the mint in San Francisco.

As a bustling gold mining center, Bodie had the amenities of larger towns, including a Wells Fargo Bank, four volunteer fire companies, a brass band, railroad, miners' and mechanics' union, several daily newspapers, and a jail. At its peak, 65 saloons lined Main Street, which was a mile long. Murders, shootouts, barroom brawls, and stagecoach holdups were regular occurrences.

As with other remote mining towns, Bodie had a popular, though clandestine, red light district on the north end of town. There is an unsubstantiated story of Rosa May, a prostitute who, in the style of Florence Nightingale, came to the aid of the town menfolk when a serious epidemic struck the town at the height of its boom. She is credited with giving life-saving care to many, but after she died, was buried outside the cemetery fence.

Bodie had a Chinatown, the main street of which ran at a right angle to Bodie's Main Street. At one point it had several hundred Chinese residents and a Taoist temple. Opium dens were plentiful in this area.

Bodie also had a cemetery on the outskirts of town and a nearby mortuary. It is the only building in the town built of red brick three courses thick, most likely for insulation to keep the air temperature steady during the cold winters and hot summers. The cemetery includes a Miners Union section, and a cenotaph erected to honor President James A. Garfield. The Bodie Boot Hill was located outside of the official city cemetery.

On Main Street stands the Miners Union Hall, which was the meeting place for labor unions. It also served as an entertainment center that hosted dances, concerts, plays, and school recitals. It now serves as a museum.

The first signs of decline appeared in 1880 and became obvious toward the end of the year. Promising mining booms in Butte, Montana; Tombstone, Arizona; and Utah lured men away from Bodie. The get-rich-quick, single miners who came to the town in the 1870s moved on to these other booms, and Bodie developed into a family-oriented community. In 1882 residents built the Methodist Church (which still stands) and the Roman Catholic Church (burned 1928). Despite the population decline, the mines were flourishing, and in 1881 Bodie's ore production was recorded at a high of $3.1 million. Also in 1881, a narrow-gauge railroad was built called the Bodie Railway & Lumber Company, bringing lumber, cordwood, and mine timbers to the mining district from Mono Mills south of Mono Lake.

During the early 1890s, Bodie enjoyed a short revival from technological advancements in the mines that continued to support the town. In 1890, the recently invented cyanide process promised to recover gold and silver from discarded mill tailings and from low-grade ore bodies that had been passed over. In 1892, the Standard Company built its own hydroelectric plant approximately 13 miles (20.9 km) away at Dynamo Pond. The plant developed a maximum of 130 horsepower (97 kW) and 3,530 volts alternating current (AC) to power the company's 20-stamp mill. This pioneering installation marked the country's first transmissions of electricity over a long distance.

In 1910, the population was recorded at 698 people, which were predominantly families who decided to stay in Bodie instead of moving on to other prosperous strikes.

The first signs of an official decline occurred in 1912 with the printing of the last Bodie newspaper, The Bodie Miner. In a 1913 book titled California Tourist Guide and Handbook: Authentic Description of Routes of Travel and Points of Interest in California, the authors, Wells and Aubrey Drury, described Bodie as a "mining town, which is the center of a large mineral region". They referred to two hotels and a railroad operating there. In 1913, the Standard Consolidated Mine closed.

Mining profits in 1914 were at a low of $6,821. James S. Cain bought everything from the town lots to the mining claims, and reopened the Standard mill to former employees, which resulted in an over $100,000 profit in 1915. However, this financial growth was not in time to stop the town's decline. In 1917, the Bodie Railway was abandoned and its iron tracks were scrapped.

The last mine closed in 1942, due to War Production Board order L-208, shutting down all non-essential gold mines in the United States during World War II. Mining never resumed after the war.

Bodie was first described as a "ghost town" in 1915. In a time when auto travel was on the rise, many travelers reached Bodie via automobiles. The San Francisco Chronicle published an article in 1919 to dispute the "ghost town" label.

By 1920, Bodie's population was recorded by the US Federal Census at a total of 120 people. Despite the decline and a severe fire in the business district in 1932, Bodie had permanent residents through nearly half of the 20th century. A post office operated at Bodie from 1877 to 1942

In the 1940s, the threat of vandalism faced the ghost town. The Cain family, who owned much of the land, hired caretakers to protect and to maintain the town's structures. Martin Gianettoni, one of the last three people living in Bodie in 1943, was a caretaker.

Bodie is now an authentic Wild West ghost town.

The town was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and in 1962 the state legislature authorized creation of Bodie State Historic Park. A total of 170 buildings remained. Bodie has been named as California's official state gold rush ghost town.

Visitors arrive mainly via SR 270, which runs from US 395 near Bridgeport to the west; the last three miles of it is a dirt road. There is also a road to SR 167 near Mono Lake in the south, but this road is extremely rough, with more than 10 miles of dirt track in a bad state of repair. Due to heavy snowfall, the roads to Bodie are usually closed in winter .

Today, Bodie is preserved in a state of arrested decay. Only a small part of the town survived, with about 110 structures still standing, including one of many once operational gold mills. Visitors can walk the deserted streets of a town that once was a bustling area of activity. Interiors remain as they were left and stocked with goods. Littered throughout the park, one can find small shards of china dishes, square nails and an occasional bottle, but removing these items is against the rules of the park.

The California State Parks' ranger station is located in one of the original homes on Green Street.

In 2009 and again in 2010, Bodie was scheduled to be closed. The California state legislature worked out a budget compromise that enabled the state's Parks Closure Commission to keep it open. As of 2022, the park is still operating, now administered by the Bodie Foundation.

California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7 million residents and the latter having over 9.6 million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.

The economy of the state of California is the largest in the United States, with a $3.4 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022. It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy as of 2022, behind Germany and ahead of India, as well as the 37th most populous. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies ($1.0 trillion and $0.5 trillion respectively as of 2020). The San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area had the nation's highest gross domestic product per capita ($106,757) among large primary statistical areas in 2018, and is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people.

Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America and contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire. In 1804, it was included in Alta California province within the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and led to dramatic social and demographic changes, including large-scale immigration into California, a worldwide economic boom, and the California genocide of indigenous people. The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, following the Compromise of 1850.

Notable contributions to popular culture, for example in entertainment and sports, have their origins in California. The state also has made noteworthy contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, environmentalism, economics, and politics. It is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world, which has had a profound influence upon global entertainment. It is considered the origin of the hippie counterculture, beach and car culture, and the personal computer, among other innovations. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as the centers of the global technology and film industries, respectively. California's economy is very diverse: 58% of it is based on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific, and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. California's ports and harbors handle about a third of all U.S. imports, most originating in Pacific Rim international trade.

The state's extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. California is well known for its warm Mediterranean climate and monsoon seasonal weather. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains.

Settled by successive waves of arrivals during at least the last 13,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population have ranged from 100,000 to 300,000. The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups, inhabiting environments from mountains and deserts to islands and redwood forests. These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups.

The first Europeans to explore the coast of California were the members of a Spanish maritime expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to lead an expedition up the Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island. Privateer and explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain, putting ashore in Monterey. Despite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century.

The Portolá expedition of 1769-70 was a pivotal event in the Spanish colonization of California, resulting in the establishment of numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos. The military and civil contingent of the expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá, who traveled over land from Sonora into California, while the religious component was headed by Junípero Serra, who came by sea from Baja California. In 1769, Portolá and Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá and the Presidio of San Diego, the first religious and military settlements founded by the Spanish in California. By the end of the expedition in 1770, they would establish the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo on Monterey Bay.

After the Portolà expedition, Spanish missionaries led by Father-President Serra set out to establish 21 Spanish missions of California along El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") and along the Californian coast, 16 sites of which having been chosen during the Portolá expedition. Numerous major cities in California grew out of missions, including San Francisco (Mission San Francisco de Asís), San Diego (Mission San Diego de Alcalá), Ventura (Mission San Buenaventura), or Santa Barbara (Mission Santa Barbara), among others.

Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in 1775–76, which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by settlers. Gabriel Moraga, a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's prominent rivers with their names in 1775–1776, such as the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. After the expedition, Gabriel's son, José Joaquín Moraga, would found the pueblo of San Jose in 1777, making it the first civilian-established city in California.

The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions.

During this same period, sailors from the Russian Empire explored along the northern coast of California. In 1812, the Russian-American Company established a trading post and small fortification at Fort Ross on the North Coast. Fort Ross was primarily used to supply Russia's Alaskan colonies with food supplies. The settlement did not meet much success, failing to attract settlers or establish long term trade viability, and was abandoned by 1841.

During the War of Mexican Independence, Alta California was largely unaffected and uninvolved in the revolution, though many Californios supported independence from Spain, which many believed had neglected California and limited its development. Spain's trade monopoly on California had limited the trade prospects of Californians. Following Mexican independence, Californian ports were freely able to trade with foreign merchants. Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá presided over the transition from Spanish colonial rule to independent.

In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave the Mexican Empire (which included California) independence from Spain. For the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico, which shortly after independence became a republic. The missions, which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government. The governor granted many square leagues of land to others with political influence. These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Hispanics native of California) who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants. Beef did not become a commodity until the 1849 California Gold Rush.

From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California. The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, California also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government. During this tumultuous political period Juan Bautista Alvarado was able to secure the governorship during 1836–1842. The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared California to be an independent state, and had been aided by Anglo-American residents of California, including Isaac Graham. In 1840, one hundred of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham Affair, which was resolved in part with the intercession of Royal Navy officials.

One of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, the soil, and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route". His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.

After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh became involved in a military battle between the much-hated Mexican general, Manuel Micheltorena and the California governor he had replaced, Juan Bautista Alvarado. The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Angeles. Marsh had been forced against his will to join Micheltorena's army. Ignoring his superiors, during the battle, he signaled the other side for a parley. There were many settlers from the United States fighting on both sides. He convinced these men that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result of Marsh's actions, they abandoned the fight, Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship. This paved the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States.

In 1846, a group of American settlers in and around Sonoma rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterward, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide,[65] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. This revolt by American settlers served as a prelude to the later American military invasion of California and was closely coordinated with nearby American military commanders.

The California Republic was short-lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–48).

Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay in 1846 and began the U.S. military invasion of California, with Northern California capitulating in less than a month to the United States forces. In Southern California, Californios continued to resist American forces. Notable military engagements of the conquest include the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Dominguez Rancho in Southern California, as well as the Battle of Olómpali and the Battle of Santa Clara in Northern California. After a series of defensive battles in the south, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing a censure and establishing de facto American control in California.

Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848) that ended the war, the westernmost portion of the annexed Mexican territory of Alta California soon became the American state of California, and the remainder of the old territory was then subdivided into the new American Territories of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The even more lightly populated and arid lower region of old Baja California remained as a part of Mexico. In 1846, the total settler population of the western part of the old Alta California had been estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans, down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769.

In 1848, only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances. Soon afterward, a massive influx of immigration into the area resulted, as prospectors and miners arrived by the thousands. The population burgeoned with United States citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By the time of California's application for statehood in 1850, the settler population of California had multiplied to 100,000. By 1854, more than 300,000 settlers had come. Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000.

The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule had been located in Monterey from 1777 until 1845. Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, had briefly moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate had also been located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin.

In 1849, a state Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the first tasks of the convention was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first full legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1862 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento. Once the state's Constitutional Convention had finalized its state constitution, it applied to the U.S. Congress for admission to statehood. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California became a free state and September 9 a state holiday.

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), California sent gold shipments eastward to Washington in support of the Union. However, due to the existence of a large contingent of pro-South sympathizers within the state, the state was not able to muster any full military regiments to send eastwards to officially serve in the Union war effort. Still, several smaller military units within the Union army were unofficially associated with the state of California, such as the "California 100 Company", due to a majority of their members being from California.

At the time of California's admission into the Union, travel between California and the rest of the continental United States had been a time-consuming and dangerous feat. Nineteen years later, and seven years after it was greenlighted by President Lincoln, the First transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time.

Much of the state was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.

In the nineteenth century, a large number of migrants from China traveled to the state as part of the Gold Rush or to seek work. Even though the Chinese proved indispensable in building the transcontinental railroad from California to Utah, perceived job competition with the Chinese led to anti-Chinese riots in the state, and eventually the US ended migration from China partially as a response to pressure from California with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.

Under earlier Spanish and Mexican rule, California's original native population had precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which the indigenous people of California had not yet developed a natural immunity. Under its new American administration, California's harsh governmental policies towards its own indigenous people did not improve. As in other American states, many of the native inhabitants were soon forcibly removed from their lands by incoming American settlers such as miners, ranchers, and farmers. Although California had entered the American union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned Indians" were de facto enslaved by their new Anglo-American masters under the 1853 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. There were also massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed.

Between 1850 and 1860, the California state government paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government) to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them. As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide.

In the twentieth century, thousands of Japanese people migrated to the US and California specifically to attempt to purchase and own land in the state. However, the state in 1913 passed the Alien Land Act, excluding Asian immigrants from owning land. During World War II, Japanese Americans in California were interned in concentration camps such as at Tule Lake and Manzanar. In 2020, California officially apologized for this internment.

Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to the greatest in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white.

To meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.

Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states. California however easily ranked first in production of military ships during the war (transport, cargo, [merchant ships] such as Liberty ships, Victory ships, and warships) at drydock facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries, whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War. Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the United States center of agricultural production. Just before the Dot Com Bust, California had the fifth-largest economy in the world among nations.

In the mid and late twentieth century, a number of race-related incidents occurred in the state. Tensions between police and African Americans, combined with unemployment and poverty in inner cities, led to violent riots, such as the 1965 Watts riots and 1992 Rodney King riots. California was also the hub of the Black Panther Party, a group known for arming African Americans to defend against racial injustice and for organizing free breakfast programs for schoolchildren. Additionally, Mexican, Filipino, and other migrant farm workers rallied in the state around Cesar Chavez for better pay in the 1960s and 1970s.

During the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S. history.

Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze known as "smog" has been substantially abated after the passage of federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.

An energy crisis in 2001 led to rolling blackouts, soaring power rates, and the importation of electricity from neighboring states. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company came under heavy criticism.

Housing prices in urban areas continued to increase; a modest home which in the 1960s cost $25,000 would cost half a million dollars or more in urban areas by 2005. More people commuted longer hours to afford a home in more rural areas while earning larger salaries in the urban areas. Speculators bought houses they never intended to live in, expecting to make a huge profit in a matter of months, then rolling it over by buying more properties. Mortgage companies were compliant, as everyone assumed the prices would keep rising. The bubble burst in 2007–8 as housing prices began to crash and the boom years ended. Hundreds of billions in property values vanished and foreclosures soared as many financial institutions and investors were badly hurt.

In the twenty-first century, droughts and frequent wildfires attributed to climate change have occurred in the state. From 2011 to 2017, a persistent drought was the worst in its recorded history. The 2018 wildfire season was the state's deadliest and most destructive, most notably Camp Fire.

Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze that is known as "smog" has been substantially abated thanks to federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.

One of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States that occurred in California was first of which was confirmed on January 26, 2020. Meaning, all of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China in Asia, as testing was restricted to this group. On this January 29, 2020, as disease containment protocols were still being developed, the U.S. Department of State evacuated 195 persons from Wuhan, China aboard a chartered flight to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, and in this process, it may have granted and conferred to escalated within the land and the US at cosmic. On February 5, 2020, the U.S. evacuated 345 more citizens from Hubei Province to two military bases in California, Travis Air Force Base in Solano County and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, where they were quarantined for 14 days. A state of emergency was largely declared in this state of the nation on March 4, 2020, and as of February 24, 2021, remains in effect. A mandatory statewide stay-at-home order was issued on March 19, 2020, due to increase, which was ended on January 25, 2021, allowing citizens to return to normal life. On April 6, 2021, the state announced plans to fully reopen the economy by June 15, 2021.

Urbaner Kunstraum Wuppertal - Openair Museum for Urban Art. by wwwuppertal

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Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 340. Das Wandgemälde „Aphrodite“, gestaltet vom Künstlerduo „PichiAvo“ (Pichi, *1977 und Avo, *1985) aus Valencia / Spanien. Auf ihrer Homepage (www.pichiavo.com/)

schreiben die Künstler zu dieser Arbeit: „Aphrodite-Wandbild in Wuppertal“. Das neueste für den 'Urbanen Kunstraum Wuppertal' (UKW) geschaffene Wandgemälde befindet sich in diesem Freilichtmuseum, das sich der Umgestaltung öffentlicher Räume durch eine Reihe temporärer internationaler Interventionen widmet. Von 2023 bis 2025 möchte UKW ein wiedererkennbares und einzigartiges Stadtbild schaffen, in dem lokale Umgebungen in internationale Wandkunst verwandelt werden. Dieses Wandgemälde ist vom Mythos der Aphrodite und dem Urteil des Paris inspiriert. Die Integration klassischer Themen mit urbanem Ausdruck bereichert die Wuppertaler Kulturlandschaft.“

www.urbaner-kunstraum.de/

English translation:

Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Friedrich-Ebert-Straße 340. The mural "Aphrodite" was created by the street art Duo "PichiAvo" (Pichi, *1977 and Avo, *1985) from Valencia / Spain. On their homepage (www.pichiavo.com/)

the artists write about this work: "Aphrodite mural in Wuppertal. The latest mural created for Urbaner Kunstraum Wuppertal (UKW) is located within this open-air museum dedicated to transforming public spaces through a series of temporary international interventions. From 2023 to 2025, UKW aims to establish a recognizable and unique cityscape, where local environments are transformed into international wall art. This mural draws inspiration from the myth of Aphrodite and the Judgement of Paris, integrating classical themes with urban expression to enrich Wuppertal’s cultural landscape."

www.urbaner-kunstraum.de/

♥ The 5 Puppies of Lena ♥ by Xena*best friend* (Vera)

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Lena gave birth to 5 wonderful puppies on July 27th 2012.

There are 3 females and 2 males. They are all doing very well.

They are Lagotto Romagnolo dogs. This is the only breed of dog that is officially recognized as specialized in truffle hunting.

animal.discovery.com/videos/dogs-101-lagotto-romagnolo.html

+ photos underneath

♰ update: Lena crossed the Rainbow Bridge on March 6th, 2019

Recognize this mural? It's on the @openstreets704 route! by #weloveclt

via Instagram ift.tt/2eoxZhQ

Eugene Whitney Thayer (1838-1889), American organist by Green Valley Boys

Widely recognized as one the finest organists of his day, but sadly more often remembered for having taken his own life.

Mr. Thayer was also the dedicatee of one of Dudley Buck's (1839-1909) most famous compositions for the organ: Concert Variations on "The Star-Spangled Banner", Op. 23, which you can listen to here (www.contrebombarde.com/concerthall/music/56492) in a courageous performance (considering his current struggles with health and hearing) by David Lamb using the Hereford Cathedral Willis organ (via Hauptwerk).

Given the precarious state of American politics and the unrestrained epidemic of gun violence that threatens every citizen's pursuit of happiness, it's difficult to muster much unalloyed patriotic feeling on this our nation's birthday. Still, the national anthem does have a great tune and it is delightfully transformed in this set of variations. About 45 years ago I learned this work and presented it in a Fourth of July concert -- I'll have to see later today, how much of it I can still creditably play--this will be our musical fireworks celebration of the holiday, since it is far too hot to attend outdoor pyrotechnics displays, not to mention the risk of initiating wild fires.

Crabs with trash caps -Okinawa, Japan by Okinawa Nature Photography

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Meet button-

A small Land hermit crab using plastic as a protective home

(Coenobita cavipes)

* All Coenobita species in Okinawa are recognized as a Living Natural Monument.

"Crabs with beach trash homes"

Found by Dave Orr on a local beach in Onna village ,Okinawa.

TEDX OIST talk on subject by Shawn Miller www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6FWCyVQcNA

My series has been featured on-

www.businessinsider.com/hermit-crabs-using-trash-as-homes...www.nationalgeographic.nl/galerij/10x-krabben-in-huisjes-...

petapixel.com/2016/08/30/photos-hermit-crabs-beach-trash-...