The two kilometers of immediately recognizable pebbles that make up Budleigh Salterton’s beach mark the western start of Devon’s Jurassic Coast. Part of this ancient World Heritage Coastline, Budleigh Salterton is popular with families due to its calm, clean waters which are perfect for bathing, although the water has been known to occasionally suffer from algal blooms.

 

Beachgoers also have access to not one, but three beach cafes, beach huts which are available for hire and all the amenities in the nearby, pleasant little town of Budleigh Salterton.

 

On the quieter, Western end of the beach, large red cliffs rise up from the shoreline. These sandstone formations date back to the Triassic period, about 240 million years ago. Frequent erosion and falling rock is common here, so visitors are asked to take care when exploring this area of the beach, especially when with dogs or children.

 

The more popular, Eastern end of Budleigh Salterton is home to the Otter Estuary and its nature reserve. A well-presented visitor’s centre as well as two viewing platforms allow visitors to explore a variety of saltmarsh vegetation as well as a large wintering wildfowl population.

 

www.thebeachguide.co.uk/south-west-england/devon/budleigh...

They are recognized by their distinctive long snout and geniculate antennae with small clubs; beyond that, curculionids have considerable diversity of form and size, with adult lengths ranging from 1 to 40 millimetres (0.04 to 1.57 in).

 

Weevils are almost entirely plant feeders, and most species are associated with a narrow range of hosts, in many cases only living on a single species. With so many species to classify and over 400 genera, the taxonomy of this family is quite complicated, and authors disagree on the number and placement of various subfamilies, tribes and subtribes.

 

This image is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC).

One of the most recognizable buildings in Texas is the Alamo in downtown San Antonio Texas. It is known worldwide by its characteristic shape. The Alamo began as the Mission San Antonio de Valero, a Spanish Mission, in the early 1700's, one of the first in Texas. The establishment of this mission played a crucial role in the settlement of San Antonio, Texas and the Southwest. "Mission San Antonio de Valero" has not always been at this location. The original mission was founded near the headwaters of San Pedro Creek in 1718. In 1719 the mission was relocated a short distance to the south of where it sits today. A 1724 storm destroyed structures at the new site, prompting Spanish officials to relocate the mission to its present spot. It was the mission compound constructed here at the 1724 location that later gained fame as the Alamo. While this is the third spot for Mission San Antonio de Valero, it is the only place the "Alamo" has ever been.The San Antonio de Valero Mission was built to provide local indigenous people, or Indians, with protection from hostile tribes and conversion to the Catholic faith, the state religion of Spain at that time. Accordingly, the first residents of San Antonio de Valero were members of Native American tribes like the Payaya, Sama, Pachaque and other Coahuiltecan Indian tribes. Spanish missionaries provided religious services and directed the work of those residing inside the Mission. Those residents who died in the mission were often buried in front of the Church, according to Spanish tradition. Consequently, the area in front of the Alamo Shrine represented with a patch of green grass, the Campo Santo, is considered hallowed burial ground.

 

It's difficult to pinpoint when the Valero mission was first called "Alamo." In 1803 a company of Spanish soldiers arrived in San Antonio de Valero or Bejar, now simply known as San Antonio. They were housed in and around the mission, which became known as the Presidio de Bejar. Over time the presidio/mission became know as The Alamo and its garrison as The Alamo Company presumably because of a row of Cottonwood Trees nearby the Mission. Alamo means cottonwood tree in Spanish.

 

San Antonio de Bexar had long been an important place in Texas. Not only was it home to a military garrison, it was a crossroads and center of commerce. By the early 1830s, the town's population had grown to nearly 2,500. With the outbreak of revolt in Coahuila y Tejas, San Antonio even resumed its old role as the capital of Texas. San Antonio experienced two sieges and battles during the Texas Revolution. The first, the Siege and Battle of Bexar, began in late October 1835 after the incident in Gonzales when angry colonists and Tejanos followed the retreating Alamo Company back to San Antonio in the early stage of the revolution. When the Texian siege of the town stalled, soldier and empresario Ben Milam rallied a force on December 5 that fought its way into the center of San Antonio. After a bloody five-day, house-to-house fight, the Texians took control of the town and Mexican General Martin Perfecto de Cos surrendered the town and the public property it held. Thus, the rebels gained control of San Antonio and the Alamo.

 

The second battle occurred when the Mexican forces marched north to squash the rebellion and take back San Antonio de Bexar. On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught the rebels by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. Eventually the rebels retreated to the inside of the Alamo compound and the siege of the Alamo began. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over — all except one did.

As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.

 

The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound.

 

Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey the scene of his victory.

 

While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against impossible odds; a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.

 

The Alamo was designated a National Historical Landmark on December 19, 1960. National Historic Landmarks are on the National Register of Historic Places and have high historical significance. Out of more than 80,000 places on the National Register of Historic Places only about 2,430 are NHLs.

My wife's horse recognizes my wife car and my wife when she arrives at the barn. This day, she arrived in her business attire and needed to change. When my wife disappeared into the barn without Charity, she tried her pacing and expectant look ploy for attention. This horse has so much personality. On the eve of her purchase and presentation to my wife as a Christmas Present (see attached photo for more details), it is fun to watch them interact and see how the relationship has grown in the 10 yrs that we have owned her. She was a priceless find and has been so good for my wife.

This is my LEGO® design of a "RECOGNIZER" as seen in the movie TRON:Legacy. Here you can see it arriving at TRON City (also designed by me).

 

The Model consists of 4087 Bricks and took about 48 hours to design. I used LEGO's own LDD (Lego Digital Designer) Software during the design phase. Preparation and conversion for rendering with POVRAY was done in "Bricksmith".

 

I'm using a iMac (6 core i7, with 4GB of RAM) to render the images in POVRAY 3.7 64bit.

 

I rendered a 3540 frame long animation where I show off the mechanical design of my creation. Check it out on Youtube: youtu.be/vpS_5QYYulQ?hd=1

They are recognized by their distinctive long snout and geniculate antennae with small clubs; beyond that, curculionids have considerable diversity of form and size, with adult lengths ranging from 1 to 40 millimetres (0.04 to 1.57 in). Weevils are almost entirely plant feeders, and most species are associated with a narrow range of hosts, in many cases only living on a single species. With so many species to classify and over 400 genera, the taxonomy of this family is quite complicated, and authors disagree on the number and placement of various subfamilies, tribes and subtribes. The word "weevil" has been made famous by the boll weevil, which lays its eggs and feeds inside cotton bolls, ruining the crop.

 

This image is Straight Out Of Camera (SOOC).

 

más fotos en:

facebook.com/POS420

Rectify or Games?

The Recognizer sorts rogue programs entering ElecTRONica, a awesome light, music and dance show playing nightly at DCA

 

About that sky...

Welcome to California Summers at The Disneyland Resort where a phenomenon known as June Gloom, or May Gray, or a Coastal Inversion Layer, or simply FOG shows up mornings and evenings to thwart the white balance, exposures, and beautiful skies for Disneyland photographers...

I usually do something about the brown or orange yuckiness, but it makes a nice contrast with all the blue, so THIS TIME it can stay, haha...

 

This was taken on an excellent evening at Disneyland Resort with my son Justin and our pals Ryan Pastorino, Melyna Martinez, Bill McIntosh, Cory Disbrow, and Cory's girlfriend Sam...

 

HDR from 3 images

Taken at Stourhead Garden, England. If you've seen (and are obsessed with, as I am) the latest version of Pride & Prejudice, with Keira Knightly and Matthew Macfadyen, this is the famous scene where passion and loathing are unleashed by the two characters. *sigh*

Carte de visite of Philip Joseph Sanger by Washburn of New Orleans, La. Sanger, left, a second assistant engineer on the sloop-of-war “Monongahela,” was present at the Battle of Mobile Bay, Ala., on August 5, 1864. According to a note in his obituary, “He was thrown to the deck and covered with debris by a shell which demolished the bridge upon which he had been standing, but at once he resumed his post of duty and was applauded by [Rear Adm. David] Farragut for his conspicuous bravery.” He survived the war, became a physician in Philadelphia, Pa., and died in 1887.

 

Researching the life and military service of this sailor is currently in progress. If you have any information to share, including letters, journals, and other personal and public documents, please contact me.

 

I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.

The Piazza del Duomo ("Cathedral Square") is a wide, walled area at the heart of the city of Pisa, Tuscany, Italy, recognized as one of the main centers for medieval art in the world. Partly paved and partly grassed, it is dominated by four great religious edifices: the Duomo (cathedral), the Campanile (the cathedral's free standing bell tower), the Baptistry and the Camposanto.

It is otherwise known as Piazza dei Miracoli ("Square of Miracles"). This name was created by the Italian writer and poet Gabriele d'Annunzio who, in his novel Forse che si forse che no (1910) described the square in this way: L’Ardea roteò nel cielo di Cristo, sul prato dei Miracoli.

which means: "The Ardea rotated over the sky of Christ, over the meadow of Miracles."

Often people tend to mistake the term with Campo dei Miracoli ("Field of Miracles"). This one is a fictional magical field in the book Pinocchio, where a gold coin seed will grow a money tree.

In 1987 the whole square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Duomo

The heart of the Piazza del Duomo is the Duomo, the medieval cathedral, entitled to Santa Maria Assunta (St. Mary of the Assumption). This is a five-naved cathedral with a three-naved transept. The church is known also as the Primatial, the archbishop of Pisa being a Primate since 1092.

Construction was begun in 1064 by the architect Buscheto, and set the model for the distinctive Pisan Romanesque style of architecture. The mosaics of the interior, as well as the pointed arches, show a strong Byzantine influence.

The façade, of grey marble and white stone set with discs of coloured marble, was built by a master named Rainaldo, as indicated by an inscription above the middle door: Rainaldus prudens operator.

The massive bronze main doors were made in the workshops of Giambologna, replacing the original doors destroyed in a fire in 1595. The central door was in bronze and made around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano, while the other two were probably in wood. However worshippers never used the façade doors to enter, instead entering by way of the Porta di San Ranieri (St. Ranieri's Door), in front of the Leaning Tower, made in around 1180 by Bonanno Pisano.

 

Above the doors there are four rows of open galleries with, on top, statues of Madonna with Child and, on the corners, the Four evangelists.

 

Also in the façade we can find the tomb of Busketo (on the left side) and an inscription about the foundation of the Cathedral and the victorious battle against Saracens.

 

At the east end of the exterior, high on a column rising from the gable is a modern replica of the Pisa Griffin, the largest Islamic metal sculpture known, the original of which was placed there probably in the 11th or 12th century, and is now in the Cathedral Museum.

 

The interior is faced with black and white marble and has a gilded ceiling and a frescoed dome. It was largely redecorated after a fire in 1595, which destroyed most of the medieval art works.

 

Fortunately, the impressive mosaic, in the apse, of Christ in Majesty, flanked by the Blessed Virgin and St. John the Evangelist, survived the fire. It evokes the mosaics in the church of Monreale, Sicily. Although it is said that the mosaic was done by Cimabue, only the head of St. John was done by the artist in 1302 and was his last work, since he died in Pisa in the same year. The cupola, at the intersection of the nave and the transept, was decorated by Riminaldi showing the ascension of the Blessed Virgin.

 

Galileo is believed to have formulated his theory about the movement of a pendulum by watching the swinging of the incense lamp (not the present one) hanging from the ceiling of the nave. That lamp, smaller and simpler than the present one, it is now kept in the Camposanto, in the Aulla chapel.

 

The impressive granite Corinthian columns between the nave and the aisle came originally from the mosque of Palermo, captured by the Pisans in 1063.

 

The coffer ceiling of the nave was replaced after the fire of 1595. The present gold-decorated ceiling carries the coat of arms of the Medici.

 

The elaborately carved pulpit (1302–1310), which also survived the fire, was made by Giovanni Pisano and is one the masterworks of medieval sculpture. It was packed away during the redecoration and was not rediscovered and re-erected until 1926. The pulpit is supported by plain columns (two of which mounted on lions sculptures) on one side and by caryatids and a telamon on the other: the latter represent St. Michael, the Evangelists, the four cardinal virtues flanking the Church, and a bold, naturalistic depiction of a naked Hercules. A central plinth with the liberal arts supports the four theological virtues.

 

The present day reconstruction of the pulpit is not the correct one. Now it lies not in the same original position, that was nearer the main altar, and the disposition of the columns and the panels are not the original ones. Also the original stairs (maybe in marble) were lost.

 

The upper part has nine panels dramatic showing scenes from the New Testament, carved in white marble with a chiaroscuro effect and separated by figures of prophets: Annunciation, Massacre of the Innocents, Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, Flight into Egypt, Crucifixion, and two panels of the Last Judgement.

 

The church also contains the bones of St Ranieri, Pisa's patron saint, and the tomb of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, carved by Tino da Camaino in 1315. That tomb, originally in the apse just behind the main altar, was disassembled and changed position many times during the years for political reasons. At last the sarcophagus is still in the Cathedral, but some of the statues were put in the Camposanto or in the top of the façade of the church. The original statues now are in the Museum of the Opera del Duomo.

 

Pope Gregory VIII was also buried in the cathedral. The fire in 1595 destroyed his tomb.

 

The Cathedral has a prominent role in determining the beginning of the Pisan New Year. Between the tenth century and 1749, when the Tuscan calendar was reformed, Pisa used its own calendar, in which the first day of the year on March 25, which is the day of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. The Pisan New Year begins 9 months before the ordinary one. The exact moment is determined by a ray of sun that, through a window on the left side, hit a shelf egg-shaped on the right side, just above the pulpit by Giovanni Pisano. This occurs at noon.

 

In the Cathedral also can be found some relics brought during the Crusades: the remains of three Saints (Abibo, Gamaliel and Nicodemus) and a vase that it is said to be one of the jars of Cana.

 

The building, as have several in Pisa, has tilted slightly since its construction.

 

The Bell Tower (Leaning Tower of Pisa)

 

The campanile (bell tower) is located behind the cathedral. The last of the three major buildings on the piazza to be built, construction of the bell tower began in 1173 and took place in three stages over the course of 177 years, with the bell-chamber only added in 1372. Five years after construction began, when the building had reached the third floor level, the weak subsoil and poor foundation led to the building sinking on its south side. The building was left for a century, which allowed the subsoil to stabilise itself and prevented the building from collapsing. In 1272, to adjust the lean of the building, when construction resumed, the upper floors were built with one side taller than the other. The seventh and final floor was added in 1319. By the time the building was completed, the lean was approximately 1 degree, or 2.5 feet (80 cm) from vertical. At its greatest, measured prior to 1990, the lean measured approximately 5.5 degrees. As of 2010, this has been reduced to approximately 4 degrees.

 

The tower stands approximately 60m high, and was built to accommodate a total of seven main bells, cast to the musical scale:

1st bell (clockwise): L'Assunta, cast in 1654 by Giovanni Pietro Orlandi, weight 3,620 kg (7,981 lb)

2nd bell: Il Crocifisso, cast in 1572 by Vincenzo Possenti, weight 2,462 kg (5,428 lb)

3rd bell: San Ranieri, cast in 1719-1721 by Giovanni Andrea Moreni, weight 1,448 kg (3,192 lb)

4th bell: La Terza (1st small one), cast in 1473, weight 300 kg (661 lb)

5th bell: La Pasquereccia or La Giustizia, cast in 1262 by Lotteringo, weight 1,014 kg (2,235 lb)

6th bell: Il Vespruccio (2nd small one), cast in the 14th century and again in 1501 by Nicola di Jacopo, weight 1,000 kg (2,205 lb)

7th bell: Dal Pozzo, cast in 1606 and again in 2004, weight 652 kg (1,437 lb)[4]

Number of steps to the top: 296

   

The Full Moon Skinny Dip is a flyer easily recognizable flyer around campus. Many think, very few participate. Naturally Tallahassee invites college students every full moon, of every month to indulge in some nude recreation. As a fashion enthusiast, I consume myself with the latest trends, textiles, and designers. Obviously, I love clothes.

.

 

........*****All images are copyrighted by their respective authors .......

.

 

... message header for item 2... Common sense, planning make a safer campus

 

Incoming students should be aware of the emergency blue light system, which functions as a means of contacting FSUPD for immediate assistance. There are over 400 of these blue light telephones throughout campus, so noting their locations is a way to be ready in case of an emergency.

.

 

... message header for item 1. Leftover rice makes a last-minute meal

 

I love fried rice not only for its taste and versatility, but also because it’s so easy to make at the last minute. I almost always have most of the core ingredients stocked in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. If a carton of leftover take-out restaurant rice suddenly appears on a shelf next to the milk, I’m good to go.

.

 

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

.

.....item 1).... Leftover rice makes a last-minute meal ...

 

.... The Miami Herald ... www.miamiherald.com/ ...

 

The Miami Herald > Living > Food ... FRIED RICE ...

 

BY SARA MOULTON

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/25/3360267/leftover-rice-make...

 

Starchy, crunchy and flavorful, fried rice is a deeply satisfying dish no matter what you add to it. And you can add just about any vegetable or protein you care to name, fresh or left over.

 

I love fried rice not only for its taste and versatility, but also because it’s so easy to make at the last minute. I almost always have most of the core ingredients stocked in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. If a carton of leftover take-out restaurant rice suddenly appears on a shelf next to the milk, I’m good to go.

.

..........................

 

img code photo ... Shrimp fried rice

 

media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2013/04/23/16/00/OnksA.Em.56...

 

Shrimp fried rice with pickled radishes MATTHEW MEAD / AP

 

Main dish

 

--- Shrimp Fried Rice with Pickled Radishes

 

... 2 eggs

... Kosher salt and ground pepper

... 2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil, divided

... 1 cup finely chopped yellow onion

... 1/2 pound peeled and deveined raw shrimp

... 2 garlic cloves, minced

... 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

... 3 cups cooked brown rice

... 2 cups coarsely shredded radishes (about 10 large radishes)

... 2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

... 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

... 2 tablespoons sake or dry sherry

... 2 teaspoons sesame oil

... 1 cup blanched fresh or thawed frozen peas

... 1 cup blanched sugar snap peas, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

 

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high. Coat the pan with cooking spray.

 

In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add a pinch of salt and some pepper to the eggs, then add them to the pan. Tilt the pan to spread the egg all around to make a flat pancake. Cook for 30 to 45 seconds, or until almost set. Turn over the egg (you can cut it in a few pieces to make it easier, using the side of a nonstick pan-safe spatula) and cook for another 10 seconds. Transfer the egg to a cutting board.

 

Add 1/2 tablespoon of the oil to the pan. Once the oil is hot, add the onion. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is lightly golden, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring, until almost cooked through, about another 3 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and return the skillet to the heat.

 

Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of oil to the skillet, then add the rice, pressing it flat with the back of the spatula. Cook until the rice is slightly crispy, turning it over with the spatula, about 8 to 10 minutes.

 

While the rice is cooking, in a small bowl combine the radishes, vinegar and salt to taste. In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, sake and sesame oil. Chop the egg and add it along with the peas and sugar snap peas to the bowl with the shrimp.

 

When the rice is nicely crisped, add the contents of the shrimp bowl and the soy sauce mixture to the skillet and cook, stirring, until the mixture is heated through. Transfer the fried rice to 4 bowls and top each portion with some of the radishes. Makes 4 servings.

 

Per serving: 440 calories; 120 calories from fat (27 percent of total calories); 14 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 175 mg cholesterol; 50 g carbohydrate; 7 g fiber; 9 g sugar; 22 g protein; 670 mg sodium.

 

..........................

.

 

I’ve never been all that great at cooking rice. I just can’t seem to get the ratio and timing right, and I always forget when you’re supposed to leave it alone and when you’re supposed to stir it. I finesse this handicap by leaning on a little trick I learned during my restaurant days: boiling the rice in a big pot of salted water as if it was pasta. That way there’s no rice-to-water ratio to worry about. For brown rice, 45 minutes does the trick.

 

And if you’re in a particular rush, you can swap in instant brown rice, which is almost as nutritious as regular brown rice and cooks up quicker, as advertised.

 

This being spring, I made sure that the stars of the recipe were seasonal ingredients, starting with peas. Fresh peas are heavenly, of course, but they start turning to starch as soon as they’re harvested, so be sure to cook them right away. I also incorporated two other spring vegetables— sugar snap peas and radishes, though I left the radishes raw. Saute a radish and this spicy, crispy root vegetable becomes sweet and tender.

 

But I like the kick of a raw radish, so I simply shredded them, then tossed them with a little seasoned rice vinegar. Sprinkled on top of the finished dish, these raw radishes are similar to a pickle.

 

Protein-wise, this recipe calls for shrimp, but you can use any protein you choose, or toss in mushrooms instead and call it a vegetarian’s delight.

 

As is typical in Chinese cuisine, this dish requires little cooking time. But you must have all the ingredients measured and chopped before you toss them in the pan. If you want to streamline the process even further, you can leave out the sauce, simply serving the finished dish with soy sauce and hot sauce on the side. For that matter, you could lose the radish garnish, though even suggesting such a thing makes me sad.

 

In the end, I can pretty much guarantee that if you try this recipe even once, you’ll be inspired to make it again and again, changing it slightly every time to make room for whichever delicious seasonal ingredients happen to be at hand or whichever leftovers are crying out to be used up.

  

READ MORE FOOD STORIES FROM THE MIAMI HERALD

 

.

.

.............................................................................................................................................................................................

.

.....item 2).... Common sense, planning make a safer campus ...

 

... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...

 

Be in the know with FSU Guardian, the Night Nole and more protection from FSUPD

.

..........................

 

img code photo ... The Blue Light Trail

 

cmsimg.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CD&D...

 

The Blue Light Trail is one of the numerous precautions Florida State has implemented to increase campus safety. / Zachary Goldstein / FSView

 

..........................

.

  

May 22, 2013

 

Written by

Brittany Lyons

Staff Writer @Bhl11Lyons

 

FILED UNDER

FSU News

FSU News Life

 

www.fsunews.com/article/20130523/FSVIEW0101/130522030/Com...

 

With so much else to focus on when students move in and get settled for the school year, safety may be the last thing that Seminoles are thinking about. The good news is that FSU already has several measures in place that maintain safety on campus.

 

Incoming students should be aware of the emergency blue light system, which functions as a means of contacting FSUPD for immediate assistance. There are over 400 of these blue light telephones throughout campus, so noting their locations is a way to be ready in case of an emergency. In addition, students that provide their cell phone numbers will be able to receive emergency notifications through FSU Alert, and university police offer a free new service called FSU Guardian—if you sign up, an emergency call from your cell phone would allow FSUPD to have quick access to your information as well as GPS coordinates of your location in order to help them respond more quickly.

 

FSUPD also allows students to register their personal and valuable property online in case of theft or loss. Lieutenant Hank Jacob of FSUPD’s Support Services Division advises students to record the serial numbers of their valuables. According to Jacob, this information is especially valuable if property ends up at a pawn shop or advertised on Craigslist. Of course, taking caution with your belongings is important as well.

 

“A lot of it is common sense,” Jacob said. “One of the biggest things we get is people leaving their stuff around. You can’t expect it to be there when you get back. You can’t leave your residence hall unlocked or your car unlocked. You have to do the most you can to secure and safeguard your property.”

 

Common sense also applies to keeping safe at night. Students have several night-time transportation options. The S.A.F.E. Connection—a project by the Student Government Association in affiliation with FSUPD—offers free transportation to any location on-campus and several off-campus locations as well. It is available from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. nearly every night during the fall, spring, and summer semesters.

 

During the fall and spring, the Night Nole also provides transportation to even more off-campus locations but does not operate on Sunday or Monday nights. It is designed to transport students from the Tennessee Strip to over 32 apartment complexes.

 

For those students living in residence halls on campus, University Housing provides Night Staff for safety concerns that may arise between the hours of 10:30 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. In addition, female students can take a Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) program that is free if not taken for credit.

 

There are many ways to prevent crime and maintain safety while at FSU, but students who are conscious of their habits and their surroundings will be able to decrease their risk even further. Common sense knowledge like letting a friend know your whereabouts and not walking alone at night is essential to abide by at college because of the unique and riskier environment. It is essential for incoming students to exercise caution as they adjust to college life.

 

Finally, Jacob offered advice on how to stay safe and be responsible at FSU.

“Don’t break the law,” Jacob said. “Don’t drink. Don’t do pot. Don’t be so trusting or naïve.”

 

Important Phone Numbers:

 

FSUPD Emergency Situation: 911

FSUPD Urgent Situation: 311

S.A.F.E. Connection: 644-7233

 

.

.

.

.............................................................................................................................................................................................

.

.....item 3).... Get the skinny on Tallahassee Naturally

 

... FSU News ... www.fsunews.com/ ...

 

Jun. 26, 2013 7:56 PM |

.

...........................

 

img code photo ... Taking minimalism to the extreme

 

cmsimg.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=CD&D...

 

Taking minimalism to the extreme, Custom Content Editor Tammy Noel throws fashion, and her clothes, to the wind in favor of nude naturism. / Tammy Noel and Katie Dolciato / FSView

 

...........................

.

 

Written by

Tammy L. Noel

Custom Content Editor

 

FILED UNDER

FSU News

FSU News Campus

 

www.fsunews.com/article/20130627/FSVIEW1/130626026/Get-sk...

 

So we’re supposed to just take our clothes off now? Cool.

 

My comrades and I jumped out of my Jetta and walked on the dirt beaten path toward the lake. Our first sight: Chuck from Pensacola, standing in bare flesh with a brewski waving hey.

 

The Full Moon Skinny Dip is a flyer easily recognizable flyer around campus. Many think, very few participate. Naturally Tallahassee invites college students every full moon, of every month to indulge in some nude recreation. As a fashion enthusiast, I consume myself with the latest trends, textiles, and designers. Obviously, I love clothes.

 

What I appreciate most about clothing is the actual textile. My favorite is leather. Whether its pebbled, saffiano, or patent leather, authentic animal hide maintains a caliber that is unmatched to the over popularized poly-cotton blends, most college students are accustomed to it. It’s tough. It’s durable. Yet, it’s restrictive. And no matter how much I enjoy my leather trousers, what’s even better than putting it on, is taking it off.

 

Clothing dictates opinions. They do. That blonde who sits in the front row with her Tory Brunch flats and Michael Kors tote, what do you really know of her? Or that hipster that wears tight skinnies with a graphic tee, what do you really know of him? Nothing. You actually think you know more than you do. Clothing protects us, but always restricts our frame of judgment. Shedding free of that restrictive material may allow us to witness a clarity that we wouldn’t normally see. Well, I needed some clarity.

 

But wait—the closest thing to being “natural” is the Nature Valley bars I snag from the vending machine. I hate the outdoors so much my dream home resides in the heart of metropolitan city with the rooftop garden.

 

I was predictably nervous. Was I going to be hit on? I mean how could they possibly resist themselves. Or at least I’d like to believe that to be the case. But, quite possibly, this wasn’t about me, maybe it was something deeper than the stereotypical notions we all cling to. “Now you start asking people why and everybody will give you a different reason, high on most peoples’ list is the freedom of it,” LeValley said. “To me, it’s a way of getting in touch with ancestral roots. This is the way people were for thousands and thousands of years—connected with all of history.”

 

A frequent guest lecturer at FSU and FAMU, over a warm fire and s’mores, LeValley, amongst others, dissected the reason why. However, in order to understand why, I needed to understand how. “Back in the early 80s a whole lot of students got to skinny dipping at [Sam Allen Lake] off Springhill Road. There might have been 100 students there,” LeValley shared. “Then one day the police did a very stupid thing. They raided the place and arrested seven people. One of them demanded a jury trial, went to court and won.”

 

Seriousness overcame everyone standing around the fire. Like a Kanye interview, LeValley had our attention. All that could be heard was the crunch of graham crackers and the crackle of the fire. “The jury said, ‘well everyone knows that’s a skinny dipping place. Why are you surprised?’ It became totally unenforceable.”

After being displaced, the unclad crusaders decided to find another lake. Yet again, the police raided that pond and left the nudists…well, naked.

 

“Then finally three of us got to together and developed a strategy of finding so many lakes and sinkholes, and rivers that we could meet in the parking lot Sunday morning and decided then and there which one we were going to. We didn’t have to worry about the police stalking the place out,” said LeValley. “So we did that for 4 years. Rob had just joined us and he started looking for some places in this area and he went to a lake. There was an old man fishing and Rob decided to be honest and tell him what he was looking for.”

 

Luck struck. That old man fishing had a brother with a lake and for a small rental fee the unclad crusaders had a haven to call their own—equipped with trees, a lake, a hiking trail and campfire. Perseverance created the retreat that I was sitting in the heart of smacking on s’mores and sharing stories.

 

To my left, stood Monty. A decorated retired pilot, who chose to not reveal his last name, but his reason for becoming a nudist was simple—he wanted freedom from judgment.

 

“That’s one of the things that I’ve always thought was really beautiful about nudism. It destroys the textile classes that our society sets up because I’m not wearing K-Mart and you’re not wearing Gucci,” Monty said. “We’re wearing nothing.”

 

As the night aged, in the midst of the rainy weather, I bonded with complete strangers. We swam together in the lake and talk about everything: Blackboard, tattoos, and careers—normal topics. The water was perfect, as if the temperature was set to stimulate conversation. Though it was pitch black, the full moon illuminated their faces. When the mosquitoes decided it was feeding time, I witness the grimaces—a normal expression. I observed as the vets coyly smiled at the rookies’ pain—a normal expression. Around the campfire, in between light rain showers, we discussed politics, music and sports. Well, I didn’t really participate in the latter.

 

During the NBA finals, I caught up on Project Runway. Anyhow, I had normal conversation, about normal topics, with normal people.

 

It made me wonder why, though, isn’t this considered normal? “I find it interesting that everyone laughs and pokes fun at nudists’ resorts, which is not a sexually thing, yet sex with a lot of different people is so accepted in our society,” Monty said.

 

“You’re just sitting around with friends nude and just enjoying the elements. I didn’t feel like it was a brilliant brainchild that I came up with. I just felt like it’s a question that begs to be asked, since I’ve become a nudist.”

 

Nudity may be subculture, though it’s a factor that connects humans. Clothing is a necessity. Hell, I would be without a passion without them but at times clothing is somewhat of a necessary evil.

 

“When a girl is in clothes, whether she’s dressed provocatively or just in business clothes, there are people that are always looking at your attire to see how you present yourself,” Naturally FSU chapter president Nina Vallad said. “Here you are completely nude, so you don’t have to worry about ‘is this popping out or makes me look fat.’ You’re just here and you’re experiencing what it feels like to be completely beautiful. Everyone is basically accepted at face value.”

 

Now, did I look? Yes, at times maybe too long. Bodies are different shapes, shades and sizes. Many of those shapes I’ve never seen prior to that night. Yet the hippie weirdo scene I thought I was getting myself into wasn’t so weird after all.

 

Am I now a self-proclaimed nudist? No and I have the bug bites to prove why.

 

However, at the end of the night, it suddenly dawned on me that I was just like them—bare; stripped of clothes and judgment, yet undoubtedly myself.

 

My new friend Monty agrees: “You find that when you’re down to absolutely nothing but just your body than you get to know people for who they really are.”

 

.

.

.

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

.

.

recognize anything ?

The Mallard, or Wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos[1]), probably the best-known and most recognizable of all ducks, is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and sub-tropical Americas, Europe, Asia, New Zealand (where it is currently the most common duck species), and Australia.

 

The male birds have a bright green head, while the female's is light brown. The Mallard lives in wetlands, eats water plants, and is gregarious. It is also migratory. The Mallard is the ancestor of all domestic ducks, and can interbreed with other species of genus Anas.[2] This interbreeding is causing rarer species of ducks to become genetically diluted.

 

The Mallard is 56–65 centimetres (22–26 in) long, has a wingspan of 81–98 centimetres (32–39 in), and weighs 0.9–1.2 kilograms (32–42 oz). The breeding male is unmistakable, with a bright green head, black rear end and a yellowish orange (can also contain some red) bill tipped with black (as opposed to the dark brown bill in females), and is also nature's most feared duck. The female Mallard is light brown, like most female dabbling ducks. However, both the female and male Mallards have distinct purple speculum edged with white, prominent in flight or at rest (though temporarily shed during the annual summer moult). In non-breeding (eclipse) plumage the drake becomes drab, looking more like the female, but still distinguishable by its yellow bill and reddish breast.

 

In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours. Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic Mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc., where they are rare but increasing in availability.

 

A noisy species, the male has a nasal call, the female has a "quack" stereotypically associated with ducks.[3]

 

The Mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds. Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds. Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimize heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall. Examples of this rule in birds are rare, as they lack external ears. However, the bill of ducks is very well supplied with blood vessels and is vulnerable to cold.

  

The GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City

 

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and the issues that affect their lives.

 

GLAAD, the world's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, honored Robert De Niro, Mariah Carey, and the best in film, television, and journalism at the 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards at the Waldorf Astoria New York on Saturday May 14th 2016. Jennifer Lawrence, Aziz Ansari, Connie Britton, Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, Tamron Hall, Noah Galvin, Andrew Rannells, Andreja Pejić, and Jason Biggs were among the special guests. Recording artists Alex Newell and Bebe Rexha, as well as the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Fun Home performed at the event hosted by Emmy Award-winning actress Laverne Cox. The 27th Annual GLAAD Media Awards were presented by Delta Air Lines, Hilton, Ketel One Vodka, and Wells Fargo.

 

GLAAD Media Award recipients announced Saturday in New York. Additional awards were presented in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on April 2.

 

Excellence in Media Award: Robert De Niro (presented by Jennifer Lawrence)

 

Ally Award: Mariah Carey (presented by Lee Daniels)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: “Bruce Jenner: The Interview" 20/20 (ABC) [accepted by: Diane Sawyer, Caitlyn Jenner, and David Sloan, senior executive producer]

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Interview with Jim Obergefell" Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN) [accepted by: U.S. Supreme Court plaintiff Jim Obergefell]

 

· Outstanding Magazine Overall Coverage: Cosmopolitan [accepted by: Laura Brounstein, special projects director]

 

· Outstanding Film – Limited Release: Tangerine (Magnolia Pictures)

 

· Outstanding Individual Episode: "The Prince of Nucleotides" Royal Pains (USA Network)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Stopping HIV? The Truvada Revolution" Vice Reports (Vice.com)

 

· Outstanding Newspaper Article: "Cold Case: The Murders of Cosby and Jackson" by Dianna Wray (Houston Press)

 

· Outstanding Magazine Article: "Behind Brazil's Gay Pride Parades, a Struggle with Homophobic Violence" by Oscar Lopez (Newsweek)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism Article: "This Is What It’s Like To Be An LGBT Syrian Fleeing For Your Life" by J. Lester Feder (Buzzfeed.com)

 

SPANISH-LANGUAGE NOMINEES

· Outstanding Daytime Program Episode: "¿El marido de mi padre o yo?" Caso Cerrado (Telemundo)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism – Newsmagazine: TIE: "Amor que rompe barreras" Un Nuevo Día (Telemundo) and "En cuerpo ajeno" Aquí y Ahora (Univision)

 

· Outstanding TV Journalism Segment: "Víctimas de abusos" Noticiero Univision (Univision)

 

· Outstanding Digital Journalism – Multimedia: "Campeones de la igualdad" (Univision.com)

   

GLAAD (formerly the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is a U.S. non-governmental media monitoring organization founded by LGBT people in the media.

 

Motto - to promote understanding, increase acceptance, and advance equality.

 

Founded - 1985

 

Founder

Vito Russo

Jewelle Gomez

Lauren Hinds

 

GLAAD 2016 President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis

 

GLAAD

104 W 29th St #4,

New York, NY 10001

USA

(212) 629-3322

 

Waldorf Astoria Hotel

301 Park Ave,

New York, NY 10022

USA

(212) 355-3000

  

Hashtag metadata tag

#GMA @glaad ‪#‎glaadawards #GLAAD #GLAADMediaAwards #GLAADMedia #GLAADAwards #LGBT #GLBT #LGBTQ #GLBTQ #Lesbian #gay #gays #gaymen #gaywomen #bi #Bisexual #Trans #Transman #TransWoman #Transidentity #Transgender #Gender #GenderFluid #GenderIdentity #Queer #Media #TV #Television #Press #WaldorfAstoria #WaldorfAstoriaHotel #NY #NYC #NYS #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkState #USA #Equality #Pride #celebrity #fashion #famous #style #RedCarpet #RedCarpetEvent

  

Photo

New York City, Manhattan Island, New York State, USA The United States of America country, North America continent

May 14th 2016‬

I recognize this story from having seen its counterpart at colonial churches in Peru.

 

To modern eyes, it might seem that the angels around the periphery are holding microphones on booms.

 

That's not the case: they're holding two of the Arma Christi, or Instruments of the Passion.

 

On our left, an angel holds a vinegar-soaked sponge on a reed. The angel on the left appears to be holding the torch.

 

The second angel on the right holds Veronica's veil.

 

The crown of thorns is in the hands of the angel floating to the right of God's left shoulder.

 

However, this leaves a long list of Instruments of Passion unaccounted for. Maybe they're beyond the bottom of the frame. They are:

 

The pillar or column where Jesus was whipped in the Flagellation of Christ.

 

The whip(s), in Germany often birches, used for the 39 lashes.

 

The Holy Lance with which a Roman soldier inflicted the final of the Five Wounds in his side.

 

The Nails, inflicting four wounds on the hands and feet.

 

The reed which was placed in Jesus' hand as a sceptre in mockery.

 

The purple robe of mockery.

 

The Titulus Crucis, attached to the Cross. It may be inscribed in Latin (INRI, Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum), Greek, Hebrew, or some other language.

 

The Holy Grail, the chalice used by Jesus at The Last Supper, and which some traditions say Joseph of Arimathea used to catch his blood at the crucifixion.

 

The Seamless robe of Jesus

The dice with which the soldiers cast lots for Christ's seamless robe.

 

The rooster (cock) that crowed after Peter's third denial of Jesus.

 

The vessel used to hold the gall and vinegar.

 

The ladder used for the Deposition, i.e. the removal of Christ's body from the cross for burial.

 

The hammer used to drive the nails into Jesus' hands and feet.

 

The pincers used to remove the nails.

 

The vessel of myrrh, used to anoint the body of Jesus, either by Joseph of Arimathea or by the Myrrhbearers.

 

The shroud used to wrap the body of Jesus before burial.

 

The sun and moon, representing the eclipse which occurred during the Passion.

 

Thirty pieces of silver (or a money bag), the price of Judas' betrayal.

 

A spitting face, indicating the mockery of Jesus.

 

The hand which slapped Jesus' face.

 

The chains or cords which bound Jesus overnight in prison.

 

The lantern or torches used by the arresting soldiers at the time of the betrayal, as well as their swords and staves.

 

The sword used by Peter to cut off the ear of the High Priest's servant.

 

Sometimes a human ear is also represented.

Sometimes the heads or hands of figures from the Passion are shown, including Judas, Caiaphas, or the man who mocked Christ spitting in Christ's face.

The washing hands of Pontius Pilate may be shown.

 

The trumpet played for mocking Christ on the Way to Calvary.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arma_Christi

 

Another difference between the Arma Christi I have seen in Peruvian churches and this Northern European example is that in Peru the Instruments are depicted as a static ensemble (or, in archaeological terms, an assemblage) of objects. There are no beings in the scene.

 

Here, however, the evidence of the Crucifixion have been seized by the heavenly hosts. (Is that what happens in Scripture?) While I'm not a believer, I am not without empathy. For that reason, I prefer this scene to the evidence-locker approach to depicting the Instruments. It no doubt served and may still serve a purpose in furthering the role of religious art under the dictates of the Council of Trent.

 

The difference is that this sculpture clearly depicts the passage of time. It is no longer the day of the Crucifixion but Easter Morning. The instruments have lost their sting.

========================================================

 

The Church of St. Francis of Assisi at Vilnius, Lithuania.

 

From signage in the church:

 

Between 1764 and 1781 the church was fitted with an ensemble of late Baroque fixtures: the pulpit, confessionals, pews and eleven altars. The ensemble displayed stylistic harmony, as well as a singleness of purpose-drawing attention to the main altar.

 

[The main altar] now contains the Crucifix that had previously hung above the altar of the Holy Cross. The cross was known to bestow special grace, and it was at this time that the fresco depicting this Crucifix was painted on the façade of the church. The identity of the person who designed the new interior furnishings is not now known. The interior was executed by several joiners (Giotto, Holtzas, Valteris and others are mentioned). Paintings for the altars were done by . . . a person with the surname Motiejus.

 

Between 1764 and 1768 Mikaloju Jansonas, a renowned organ builder of the day, restored the church organ and moved it from the side nave to a platform constructed at the back of the presbytery (choir). (At the end of the 19th century the organ was reconstructed once again and moved to the old balcony of the Bernardines.)

 

From the middle of the 18th century until the end of the 20th century the architecture and furnishings of the church remained largely unchanged. When the church was closed during the Soviet years, the painting over the altar, the liturgical vessels and other fixtures were scattered among museum collections or given to other churches.

 

The altar ensemble, which was disassembled for reconstruction has only been partially restored. In response to present-day liturgical requirements, a new altar created by Rimas Skakalauakas was constructed in 1998 and placed in the central nave of the church. The altar echoes the lines and shapes of the old Gothic belfry.

========================================================

From Wikipedia:

 

The Church of St. Francis and St. Bernard (also known as Bernardine Church) is a Roman Catholic church in the Old Town of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is located next to St. Anne's Church. Dedicated to Saints Francis of Assisi and Bernardino of Siena, it is an important example of Gothic architecture in Lithuania.

 

History

After their arrival in Vilnius, Bernardine monks built a wooden church in the second half of the 15th century, and at the end of the same century - a brick one.

 

In the early 16th century it was reconstructed, apparently with the participation of a master from Gdansk (Danzig) Michael Enkinger.

 

In the beginning of the 16th century the church was incorporated into the construction of Vilnius defensive wall, so there are shooting openings in its walls.

 

Afterwards it was renewed many times, particularly after the 1655-61 war with Moscow, when the Cossacks ravaged the church killing the monks and citizens who had taken shelter there.

 

In the times of the Soviet occupation it was closed down and handed over to the Art institute.

 

In 1994, the brethren of St. Francis returned to the church.

 

Church and Monastery are some of the largest sacral buildings in Vilnius, although in the 17th and 18th centuries they acquired the Renaissance and Baroque features.

 

Being much larger and more archaic than the St. Anne's Church, it forms and interesting and unique ensemble with the latter.

 

Gothic pointed-arch windows and buttresses stand out on the façade. Above them rises a pediment with twin octagonal towers on the sides and a fresco depicting the Crucifix in the middle niche.

 

A Gothic presbytery is the oldest part of the church. Eight high pillars divide the church interior into 3 naves.

 

There are many valuable 16th-century wall paintings in Bernardine church and the oldest known artistic Lithuanian crucifix sculpture from the 15th century. [2]

 

The walls of the naves are decorated with Gothic polychrome frescoes, partly uncovered in 1981 - dynamic, colourful figural compositions on biblical and hagiographic themes, with occasional inscriptions in Gothic characters, floral ornaments, heraldic insignia etc.

 

These mural paintings date from the early 16th century and are considered unique in the world: their composition and type of presentation of the subject matter belongs to Renaissance, and the stylistics - to the Gothic style. [3]

 

The Bernardine monastery north of the church, built simultaneously with the church, was renovated and reconstructed several times. Since its founding, a novitiate and a seminary operated at the monastery, a rich library had been accumulated, and a scriptorium operated. There [were] artists, craftsmen and organists among the monks. The monastery was closed in 1864, and the building housed soldiers' barracks. In 1919 it was given to the art faculty of the university, later - to the Art Institute (now the Art Academy).

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St._Francis_and_St._Berna...

 

Recognize these characters? They brought back memories of my youth and Saturday mornings at "the pictures." Laurel and Hardy figurines for sale at a flea market in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia.

Instantly recognizable when you've seen it once. Yosemite National Park, California.

As a kid I could recognize Orion's belt as the most prominent feature of the fall and winter skies over New York. I had also seen pictures of the Horsehead Nebula without thinking about where it was, since I wasn't going to see it anyway except on telescope boxes or in a book. Now with a couple of tricks applying everyday technology to backyard astronomy, I can see the two spectacular color structures -- the Flame and the Horsehead -- flanking the first star in the belt, Alnitak. I'm very pleased with my new Borg optics which enabled me to get this sharp colorful image on my laptop within a few minutes of setting up my scope last night.

Tech stuff: Borg 71FL lens on Starlight Xpress SX-694C camera with Astronomik CLS filter. Ioptron CubePro Mount in EQ configuration guided with SBIG ST-i Guider and PHD2. 12 X 5 minute exposures stacked in real time using AstroToaster interface with Deep Sky Stacker. Image finished in PixInsight. Imaged from my yard 10 miles north of New York City.

April 2015

What all do you recognize?

*** Oh dear, you all are very good at this... but the few not identified are ones that I will have to look up to provide the correct names. So, I will have to do some HOMEWORK :-)

1st Row: Caryopteris clandonensis 'Summer Sorbet', Nepeta (Catmint) (probably Walker's Low), Sunjoy® Gold Pillar Barberry Berberis thunbergii

2nd Row: Euonymus japonicus Silver Princess 'Moness. (maybe) and the Big photo is Orange Rocket Barberry Berberis thunbergii 'Orange Rocket'

3rd Row: Peony (unknown variety), jump across the big lime foliage and the grass on the 3rd row, right side is a big tall beautiful ornamental grass: Miscanthus sinensis 'Cosmopolitan

www.gardenality.com/Plants/1170/Ornamental-Grasses/Cosmop...

4th Row: Northern Sea Oats 'River Mist www.flickr.com/photos/55344233@N00/14936380720/,

jump across the big lime foliage and the lime foliage in the bottom right is Beauty Bush Kolkwitzia 'Dream Catcher'

www.transatlanticplantsman.com/transatlantic_plantsman/20... and last but not least the Big photo on the bottom, with the lime/gold foliage is: Tiger Eyes Golden Sumac. This site shows the Fall foliage.

www.seasonsgardendesign.com/Images/FallPlanting-1.jpg

And this is the reason I may dig it up and plant it in a BIG planter :-)

www.examiner.com/article/use-caution-when-planting-tiger-...

Some of you may recognize this barn and the area - near the Jesuit Retreat Center between Oshkosh and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. My daughter and I were wandering the grounds and loved the stone fence posts.

 

To read more about my adventures at The Jesuit Retreat Home, please read my WheretogoWisconsin blog:

 

wheretogowisconsin.blogspot.com/2016/11/jesuit-retreat-center-fahrnwald-farml

 

If you are interested in purchasing a print, please shop at my Fine Art America page or Pixels.com

 

fineartamerica.com/featured/fahrnwald-farm-historic-barn-dawn-braun.html?newartwork=true

 

pixels.com/featured/fahrnwald-farm-historic-barn-dawn-braun.html

 

Thank you for visiting!

   

Unmistakably recognizable with the brightly lit Christmas market stands, the Schöner Brunnen fountain and, of course, Frauenkirche. It was fun to throw it all out of focus and draw attention to the Hauptmarkt sign~!

 

© LMGFotography 2016; please do not use without permission.

Simca publicity photo of the 1956 Week-End, recognizable by its simplified wheel covers and grille.

This cabriolet reappeared after three years of absence and retained the discreet elegance of its predecessor.

 

Simca had its golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. Shortly after the war the idea of an own sports car appeared in the head office of Simca. In october 1947 head of the Simca company Henri Pigozzi (1898-1964) visited the Milan Car Show. There he was impressed by the Fiat 1100 Cabriolet Élaboré prototype designed by the young Giovanni Michelotti at Studio Pininfarina, which very much remembered him to the fluid silhouette of the Cisitalia 202 Berlinette. Pigozzi obtained the license to build such a sports car. The first prototype was shown at the Paris Salon de l'Automobile in October 1948.

During 1949, the Simca 8 sports car continued to be developed in collaboration with Facel-Métallon, who actually finished the design and built the car.

Finally in October 1949 production could start.

 

The Simca 9 Sport was the successor of the 8 Sport.

At the 1952 Paris Motor Show (Oct. 1952) both 9 Sport cabriolet and coupé were on display. But the cabriolet version never came in production. This also applies to model year 1954.

 

1290 cc L4 Flash Spécial engine.

Ca. 920 kg.

Production Simca Aronde Series: May 1951-1959 (Berline).

Production Simca 9 Sport/Sport Series: April 1952-Sept. 1957.

Production Simca Week-End this version: Summer 1956-Sept. 1957.

 

Source: Bruno Poirier, Guide Simca, Tous les Modelles de 1934 a 1964, Éditions Presse Audiovisuel, 1994.

Original photographer, place and date unknown.

 

Halfweg, July 29, 2023.

 

© 1994/2023 EPA/Sander Toonen Halfweg | All Rights Reserved

Bold: Peter Quill

Italic: Peter Quill's thoughts

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

Xandar, 2015 18:45

 

"Hey Quill!"

Peter Quill turned around.

Oh. Did you need me for something or...

"You don't recognize me?"

Nope.

"Well... I uh, I work with you."

Peter Quill looked surprised. He had never seen the man in his life.

Sorry. Don't know ya. Well I got to go, but.... I'll see you at work?

"Yes. Sure."

Adam Warlock walked away, feeling like this was the start to getting Peter Quill to join Nova Core.

Peter Quill walked away feeling a little strange. He had heard his voice before, but never fully seen him. He walked away eating an apple.

__

Peter went home and took a coffee mug off of the table. He took a sip. He thought of his father. He had never knew him. His father did contact him saying he needed help. Peter thought of what he could do. Then, he heard a knock.

"Peter Quill?" He heard as he went towards his apartment door.

I don't know you. Um, stranger danger?

"Nova Core Master. Please, let me in."

Nova Core? What did I do this time?

Quill reached for his gun. Just in case.

"You can put the gun down sir."

The man hadn't even gotten in the room.

How did you?

"It's fairly easy. If you are with Nova Core."

Well, I'm not so, I guess I'll have to do without that training. Now, why are you here exactly?

"Peter Quill, your father had requested help from you. He sent one of his men to contact you and us."

Was that...?

Peter thought back to the man on the street.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you are talking about."

Peter finally got a good look at the man. He had a Nova Core uniform on. Wonder if he knew Nova.

Nothing. Are you saying that, you want me, to...

He laughed.

Save my father? The one man who left me?

"No. I'm giving you a choice."

The man held out an envelope.

"You can come with us or not. Your choice."

The man left. Peter closed the door, and looked at the envelope. He got out an old knife, and tore it open.

___

Peter woke up early. He had to get ready. He put on some old work clothes (from his other jobs) and left for Nova Core. He hauled a cab over to give him a lift. The man in the cab said 600 units or out. Peter had to walk. When he reached Nova Core, he saw there were steps.

Anything but steps!

He had just walked 30 blocks.

When he got to the top, a man greeted him.

"Welcome to..."

Nova Core. Get on with it.

"... ok, so I guess you have been here before?"

Nope.

The man looked irritated.

"Ok, then I'll give you the tour, and you can do it yourself."

He handed him a holographic transmitter.

Um. Thanks. But I'm here for the job.

"Envelope?"

He handed him the opened envelope.

"Went all out on this did we?"

Well I only had a butter knife. I'm freaking poor.

"And you came here for a job? HA! Good LUCK."

Then the man said to press 2 on the screen. He did so and a holographic man appeared.

"Hello, new cadet. Please, follow the dot on your screen to be reviewed."

Alright.

"Um. Helloooo?"

Peter turned around. The man had his hand held out.

Sorry I'm poor. But if I need anything, I can call you right? Um..... Eric?

The man looked furious. But he simply said,

"Yes. SIR."

Eric turned and walked away.

What a stuck up.

___

"Ah! Peter."

The man Peter had met was at the room, where He was to go.

Hey. It's you. Wooopppe.

"Sarcastic. We could use that."

So, what do I do?

"It's already done. Welcome to the Nova Core Peter."

Wait. What?

"You were willing to help a person in need. That's all it takes to be a real hero."

"Yeah, but he's not going to be an officer."

Peter turned and saw Eric in the room.

Oh. No.

"It seems you two know each other?"

"All too well."

I really don't want to be with him.

"Oh, you wont. You are being put on a 'Special' team."

"Eric. Please. Out of my discussion."

Yeah Eric. Go play with your guns.

Eric left the room looking upset.

"Don't mind Eric. He's just. Well, lets say not thrilled you are on the team."

I'm sorry I still don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do.

"You will be apart of operation: Guardians."

Operation who what?

"Guardians. See, you will be an elite team of individuals. Some of which will be Nova Core, other... well. Not Nova Core."

What will we be doing? Computer work?

"No. You will be a team. A team that will stop anything from happening to the galaxy. Before it happens."

Sounds like time travel.

"No. You will find anyone who wants to destroy the galaxy. Then, you will stop them. Nova Core will handle the rest."

Sounds like a plan.

"Good."

Well that was easy. What's next.

"Assembling a team."

I cant go out like this!

"You wont."

Peter walked with the man. He pressed a button and a suit appeared from the floor.

"Your suit. Equipped with dual hand pistols, a rifle, and jetpack. With of course a helm for protection in space."

Interesting.

"You will also need a codename. Have one in mind?"

Peter thought of what his only true love had told him.

Star-Lord.

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

And that's my app for GOTG! Of course this only has Peter Quill in it for now, but if I get the app, then I will introduce the characters like #1.2. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy!

   

The Irem Temple Mosque is one of the most recognizable buildings in Wilkes-Barre, even as the old performing arts building has been vacant for years. But now, it’s one of the main parts of the city that local leaders want to revitalize.

 

“It is just a focal point of the downtown -- the architectural history of it,” said Joseph Boylan Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce, adding the chamber is planning the next stages for the building as part of a revitalization plan for the city's downtown.

As a group of local business people and community leaders works to preserve the architectural treasure commonly referred to as the Irem Temple building on North Franklin Street, conversation is focused on the opportunities a refurbished structure of such grandeur could bring to the downtown area.

  

Construction on the building, which has also been referred to as the Irem Mosque, began in 1907. It took $230,000 to build, and its dedication took place in December of 1908.

 

“An extraordinary amount of money at the time,” said Wilkes-Barre city councilman Tony Brooks.

 

Brooks is former executive director of the Luzerne County Historical Society and current chairman of the board of the Wilkes-Barre Preservation Society, and he is known for his knowledge of local history.

 

Brooks said the example of Moorish-style architecture, which is among the buildings in the River Street Historic District, is unlike any other Shrine auditorium in the country.

The Laughing Kookaburra is instantly recognizable in both plumage and voice. It is generally off-white below, faintly barred with dark brown, and brown on the back and wings. The tail is more rufous, broadly barred with black. There is a conspicuous dark brown eye-stripe through the face. It is one of the larger members of the kingfisher family.

 

Laughing Kookaburras are found throughout eastern Australia. They have been introduced to Tasmania, the extreme south-west of Western Australia, and New Zealand. Replaced by the Blue-winged Kookaburra in central northern and north-western Australia, with some overlap in Queensland, although this species is more coastal.

 

Laughing Kookaburras feed mostly on insects, worms and crustaceans, although small snakes, mammals, frogs and birds may also be eaten. Prey is seized by pouncing from a suitable perch. Small prey is eaten whole, but larger prey is killed by bashing it against the ground or tree branch.

 

Laughing Kookaburras are believed to pair for life. The nest is a bare chamber in a naturally occurring tree hollow or in a burrow excavated in an arboreal (tree-dwelling) termite mound. Both sexes share the incubation duties and both care for the young. Other Laughing Kookaburras, usually offspring of the previous one to two years, act as 'helpers' during the breeding season. Every bird in the group shares all parenting duties.

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  

It is recognized and listed by the Malaysian Book of Records as the largest bookstore chain in Malaysia, with over 600,000 square feet of retail space.

 

Established in 1984, POPULAR Book Company (M) Sdn Bhd has become a household name in Malaysia and has now grown to 68 stores nationwide.

  

Gurney Plaza is strategically located in the famous Gurney Drive promenade in Penang and approximately three kilometres to the north-west of city centre of Georgetown, Penang’s capital. It is Penang’s premier lifestyle shopping mall and a one-stop shopping and entertainment destination catering to both family and tourists arriving in Penang.

 

Gurney Plaza is a nine storey shopping complex with two levels of basements comprising nine floors of retail space from basement 1 to the 7th floor and car park spaces at the two basement levels, the 4th to 8th floor and on the rooftop. As Penang’s premier shopping mall, it houses various well-known brands for shopping, dining and entertainment.

 

A few years after Daphne Du Maurier had written The Birds and before Alfred Hitchcock decided to relocate the Cornish story's setting to Bodega Bay, California I was being tutored in avian lore via the adventures of Chicken Licken a Grimm story about disillusion, propaganda and the monarchy.

"The smaller birds were at the window now. He recognized the light tap-tapping of their beaks and the soft brush of their wings. The hawks ignored the windows. They concentrated their attack upon the door. Nat listened to the tearing sound of splintering wood and wondered how many million years of memory were stored in those little brains, behind the stabbing beaks, the

piercing eyes, now giving them this instinct to destroy mankind with all the deft precision of machines".

I remember seeing Gannets flying level beside us, on my way home to Scilly from the rarely accessible bridge of the ferry The Scillonian, the sea was lively and the ship carried just a few of us, the Gannets looked so dramatic as they fearlessly plunged into the sea like darts of gold and white, so utterly apart from us humans, they lived on the distant edge of ordinary life even ordinary life in the far west.

 

Gannet's would very occasionally be washed up on the beach at Porthcressa, a drawing by Lucien Freud of a dead Puffin was made on Scilly during the war years when he was seeking somewhere to practice within British territory, I don't know whereabouts he stayed on the islands but he didn't stay long. Lucien Freuds "view" of animals seemed daringly kindly, remotely humane, he posed several dead birds and animals in his formative stages, employing a meticulous observation and a concise linear articulation, Two of Freuds best works in the early period were the Dead Puffin and the Dead Heron (1945), they please me aesthetically and partly because I know intuitively, exactly where he found the Puffin, he made another drawing (rather more of a painting) titled Scillonian Beachscape (1945-6) it describes a pithalo blue sea with a more cerulean foreshore and an ochre beach with a puffin, sea holly and what I and every Scillonian kid would know as the Great Wrasse Rock, even though its highly stylised I just know thats where he found a dead puffin.(Rotted Puffin 1944) because the Wrasse rock was visible from my bedroom window at Parsons Field on the Little-Porth Bank.

 

The Dead Heron painting with its distinctive black tuft of plumage and squamous matrix of glittering organisation is distinguished by Bruce Bernard in Thinking About Lucian Freud in ISBN 0-679-45254-0 Lucian Freud ; "This phase was perhaps a provoking sop to his sophisticated admirers (and himself) while his eyes raked the streets and hedgerows for the right turning, which, though anticipated a few times, might be said to have been found in 1945 when he painted the beautiful Dead Heron (plate 51) . His ever deepening power of concentration turned the heron into something like a tragic phoenix. I find it the first seriously beautiful painting that Freud achieved - a miracle of care in the organisation of its complex pattern, and also in his ability to let it breathe, despite its lifeless subject and strict definition. Freud could never paint or draw an animal, how ever long dead, without conveying a sense of its once personal life."

 

Black capped birds and black headed plumage is a characteristic form with birds, there are many such variations in species I'm particularly in awe of Gavia Immer The Great Northern Diver, but Im sure its possible to think of dozens more, once you've heard "The Loon" at night the stars become like causeway stepping stones.

 

Magpies, Canada Geese,Black Caps,Arctic Terns sooo many, Do these birds have any other shared commonality apart from this distinction?, I hope to find out more. A judge in a court of law drapes his head with a black square of cloth to pronounce the barbaric sentence of death on a fellow being, does the black cap separate his or her decision from their humanity?

 

Ὄρνιθες The Birds by Aristophanes Hear us, you who are no more than leaves always falling, you mortals benighted by nature,

You enfeebled and powerless creatures of earth always haunting a world of mere shadows,

Entities without wings, insubstantial as dreams, you ephemeral things, you human beings:

Turn your minds to our words, our etherial words, for the words of the birds last forever!

 

Lastnight I went along the beach at Marazion, the Red River flowed beneath the granite bridge where a union flag hung at half mast for the funeral of the queen, the stream water springs over to where the tide had pushed a slick of ore weed back up the beach, now dry, dark and spattered with the remains and feathers of dead Gannets, plastic bottles and petrochemical tar.

Rainbow patterns on the water surface spreading a layer of ancient tree sap and hydrophobic dragons blood, those dead Gannets that evolved from a group of meat-eating-dinosaurs called theropods, their dawn chorus would have been far deeper than the hard-rock-mining Cornish Voice Choirs that dug their way down to the minerals, coal and crude oil seams towards which the Dinosaurs uniquely contributed, they now rise and return as flotsam and oil spill, microbeads, herbicide, pesticide, particles and machine made medicines.

The avian influenza hemagglutinin binds alpha 2-3 sialic acid receptors, while human influenza hemagglutinins bind alpha 2-6 sialic acid receptors. This means when the H5N1 strain infects humans, it will replicate in the lower respiratory tract, and consequently causes viral pneumonia. There is as yet no human form of H5N1, so all humans who have caught it so far have caught avian H5N1.

Longevity is no longer a shared concern, the grounded flocks, the beached shoals, the massive cars, it is the sell by date of the big me, the brand, the surviving competitor with a wind turbine blocking their view, the shareholders equity among a community of inequality.

 

El Cant dels Ocells - Pablo Casals

 

En veure despuntar el major lluminar, en la nit més joiosa

Els ocellts cantant a festjar-lo van amb sa veu melidrosa.

Els ocellets cantant a festjar-lo van amb sa veu melidrosa.

L'ocell rei de l'espai va pels aires volant cantant amb melodia

Dient Jesús és nat per treure'ns del pecat i dar-nos alegria.

Dient Jesús és nat per treure'ns del pecat i dar-nos alegria.

Cantava la perdiu. Me'n vaig a fer el niu dins d'aquesta establida

Per veure l'Infant com està tremolant en braços de Maria.

Per veure l'Infant com està tremolant en braços de Maria.

 

The Birds Aristophanes, meanwhile...Pisthetaerus and Euelpides emerge from the Hoopoe's bower laughing at each other's unconvincing resemblance to a bird. After discussion, they name the city-in-the-sky Nephelokokkygia, or literally "cloud-cuckoo-land" (Νεφελοκοκκυγία), and then Pisthetaerus begins to take charge of things, ordering his friend to oversee the building of the city walls while he organizes and leads a religious service in honour of birds as the new gods. During this service, he is pestered by visitors, including a young versifier out to hire himself to the new city as its official poet, Pisthetaerus chases off all these intruders and then goes offstage to finish the rituals. The birds of the Chorus step forward for another aside with the audience (parabasis). They make known laws forbidding crimes against their kind (such as catching, caging, stuffing, or eating them), and they end by advising the festival judges to award them first place or risk getting shat on. Avoid cruelty!!

Duchess Kate having a lot of fun in the soft snow!

 

She is a Lagotto Romagnolo dog.

This is the only breed of dog that is officially recognized as specialized in truffle hunting.

 

+ in comments

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.

 

Inex Film

Carte de visite by an anonymous photographer. Perhaps one of the most recognizable faces to students of the Civil War is not a famous general, but a sergeant. Alfred A. Stratton's (1845-1874) story is well-known and often told. This version, by correspondent Berry Craig for Orthotics and Prosthetics News, provides a solid overview of the man, husband and soldier:

 

Civil War Amputee Ended Up a Minister, Husband and Father

 

Though he lived only to age 29, Alfred A. Stratton led a full life.

 

Stratton was a 19-year-old private in Company G of the 147th New York Infantry, when “both arms [were] carried away by a solid cannon shot from the defences in front of Petersburg [Va.] on June 18, 1864,” according to an old document in the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

 

The facility was founded during the Civil War as the Army Medical Museum. Stratton, according to the old document, “called at the… [museum], in good health, on Dec. 24, 1869, to have his photograph taken.”

 

The photos were used for medical purposes. They also were displayed at the museum and exhibited in other cities.

 

In addition, amputees such as Stratton had their photos reprinted as carte-de-visites – mass-produced photo cards – and sold the pictures to help raise money to support themselves. Perhaps no image was more heart-rending than Stratton’s.

 

There are reportedly at least seven photos of him. In one he is stripped to the waist, clearly showing his residual limbs. Both arms were missing from just below the shoulders.

 

Other records in the National Museum of Health and Medicine show that Stratton joined the 147th New York Infantry in August 1863, after the regiment helped the Union army win the battle of Gettysburg. Stratton had been a blacksmith in Jamestown, N.Y.

 

In June, 1864, Union forces under Gen. Ulysses S. Grant besieged Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army at Petersburg, near Richmond, the Confederate capital. Fighting was fierce.

 

Lee knew if Grant won at Petersburg, Richmond could not be defended. But not until April 1865, was Grant able to capture Richmond and Petersburg and force Lee to surrender at Appomattox, Va., effectively ending the Civil War. By then, Stratton was a civilian again, “pensioned at twenty-five dollars per month and supplied with artificial limbs of Grinnell’s make,” the old document says.

 

“The projectile struck both limbs about the elbow, tearing off the forearms, and greatly lacerating the soft parts above the elbow,” the document says. “Cordials [liqueurs] were given, and immediate amputation of both arms was performed by surgeon A.S. Coe, 147th New York Volunteers.”

 

Afterwards, Stratton was transferred to City Point (now Hopewell), Va., the main supply base for Grant’s campaign against Petersburg and Richmond.

 

“On June 28, he was sent to the Second Division Alexandria [Va.] Hospital, both wounds progressing very favorably,” according to the document. “The stumps rapidly cicatrized [formed scars], and on Oct. 3, 1864, he was discharged from the service.”

 

Stratton also was photographed in New York, where he married in 1865 and became the father of a son and a daughter. He was pastor of Washington Street Episcopal Church in Brooklyn before being named rector of the Epiphany Episcopal Church in Washington. He died in 1874.

 

Berry Craig is a correspondent for O&P Business News: www.healio.com/orthotics-prosthetics/news/print/o-and-p-n...

 

I encourage you to use this image for educational purposes only. However, please ask for permission.

Curtain hotel Soi Rangnam, Bangkok.

 

Short time hotels (rates by the hour) are recognizable by their parking spots, though most people have no car. The curtain is pulled when the room is occupied. You can't even see a license plate, which is the idea -- privacy.

 

The Thai word for this kind of hotel is "rongraem monroot" (= hotel draw-curtain).

 

Visit my website: Southeast Asia Images

 

Follow me on 500px

 

Link to Thailand’s premier image gallery: Thailand Showcase Gallery

 

.................................................................................

 

“pain and love have no borders,

even if we raise walls not to see the pain

and we put boundaries to not recognize love.”

 

(Enzo Bianchi)

 

“il dolore e l'amore non hanno frontiere,

anche se noi alziamo muri per non vedere il dolore

e mettiamo confini per non riconoscere l'amore.”

 

(Enzo Bianchi)

  

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

 

Mozart - Lacrimosa

 

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

 

click to activate the small icon of slideshow: the small triangle inscribed in the small rectangle, at the top right, in the photostream (it means the monitor);

or…. Press the “L” button to zoom in the image;

 

clicca sulla piccola icona per attivare lo slideshow: sulla facciata principale del photostream, in alto a destra c'è un piccolo rettangolo (rappresenta il monitor) con dentro un piccolo triangolo nero;

oppure…. premi il tasto “L” per ingrandire l'immagine;

 

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...

 

………………………………………………………………………

 

Questo è un racconto fotografico, realizzato in due giornate nel maggio di quest'anno 2023, nel paese di Limina, in provincia di Messina (lo stesso Santo è celebrato nel paese di Calatabiano, in provincia di Catania, con una spettacolare corsa in discesa !), si realizzano così due tipiche feste religiose tradizionali siciliane che hanno in comune la devozione verso questo santo, San Filippo: egli viene raffigurato di colore “nero” poiché una leggenda lo vede protagonista di una lotta negli Inferi contro Lucifero, dalla cui lotta ne viene fuori ricoperto di fuliggine. San Filippo è un santo molto festeggiato non solo in Sicilia, ma lo è anche nel Salernitano, in Calabria (questi culti si realizzano seguendo il suo percorso fatto in vita) fino ad arrivare al suo culto nell’isola di Malta. La vicinanza con Taormina (paese nel quale abito e lavoro) dei paesi di Calatabiano e Limina, mi facilita certamente il compito di realizzare fotografie di queste feste tradizionali, compatibilmente coi miei turni lavorativi; in entrambi i paesi le feste si svolgono in due giornate; in quel di Limina durante la prima giornata il Santo viene portato in spalla da una chiesa posta in lieve periferia nel paese di Limina fino “al borgo Murazzo”, che dista circa 8 chilometri, sono così 8 Km che vengono percorsi correndo ininterrottamente (tranne una breve sosta di raccoglimento in località “Durbi”); poi ad otto giorni di distanza (la cosiddetta “ottava”) il Santo esce portato in spalla con una corsa “sfrenata-indiavolata” che inizia da un’altra chiesa nel centro di Limina, giungendo poi dopo una ripidissima e faticosissima salita in cima al “Monte Calvario”, poi ridiscende e girovaga tra i quartieri del paese, (ed oltre, fino alla contrada "Durbi", per poi ritornare in paese): non si tratta di un semplice girovagare, in momenti ben stabiliti, il Santo viene “fatto ballare” con uno sfrenato andirivieni su percorsi rettilinei alternato ad un movimento rotatorio vorticoso su se stesso: questa è una differenza sostanziale con la vara di Calatabiano (quest’ultima è pesantissima, circa 12 quintali, percorre un percorso impervio, molto ripido e scosceso in discesa, con “gradoni” in pietra molto alti in parte mancanti , questo è un antico percorso realizzato per giungere al castello Normanno), sicché in Calatabiano la “parodia” con gli esorcismi compiuti dal Santo Nero, consiste nella relativa velocità impressa al Santo durante il percorso, invece a Limina, la vara essendo più leggera, consente ai devoti andature rapide, rettilinee e vorticose, moviemnti anch’essi che rievocano i movimenti convulsi compiuti dagli indemoniati sottoposti agli esorcismi del Santo (un certo rischio di capovolgimento è insito in entrambe le vare). Nel paese di Calatabiano San Filippo acquista l’appellativo di “Siriaco”, cioè proveniente dalla Siria, mentre nel paese di Limina Egli acquista l’appellativo “d’Agira”, dal nome del paese, in provincia di Enna, dove egli morirà: è sempre lo stesso santo (cambia un pochino la fisionomia del volto), in entrambe le statue la mano destra è alzata ad inviare una benedizione, oppure ad effettuare un esorcismo, la mano sinistra stringe un libro (è il documento “apotropaico” che gli diede San Pietro, per consentirgli di vincere le forze del Male). Aggiungo qualche breve cenno sulla vita di questo santo, anche per cercare di capire come nasce il suo culto in Sicilia, come anche in altri paesi al di fuori dell'isola. Le fonti che parlano di San Filippo sono due, chiamate “le Cronache di Eusebio d’Agira” e “le Cronache di Atanasio”, queste cronache tra loro sono in buona parte discordanti, tranne le descrizioni sulle sue caratteristiche di sacerdote e di taumaturgo, sulle sue capacità di compiere esorcismi scacciando i demoni dagli impossessati. Egli nacque probabilmente in Tracia (regione sud-orientale della penisola balcanica nel 40 d.C. (?), all’epoca era una provincia romana, ai tempi d’Arcadio, imperatore romano d’Oriente, nato da padre siriano e da madre romana, nella sua infanzia fu educato ai principi del Cristianesimo che andava propagandosi anche in quelle terre. Egli giunge dalla Tracia a Roma, viene ordinato sacerdote da Pietro, ed è proprio da Lui che viene mandato in Sicilia (terra pagana sotto il dominio Romano), col compito di evangelizzare quei luoghi e compiere esorcismi; sbarca a Capo Faro a Messina iniziando fin da subito il suo mandato, poi percorre la fascia orientale della Sicilia dirigendosi a sud verso l’Etna (ecco che Limina e Calatabiano, interessati dal suo passaggio, grazie alle sue capacità di guaritore ed esorcista, gli divengono devote); giunge così al paese di Agira (Enna), dove lì muore dopo quarant’anni di Apostolato nell’isola.

 

.................................................................................

 

This is a photographic story, taken over two days in May of this year 2023, in the town of Limina, in the province of Messina (the Saint himself is celebrated in the town of Calatabiano, in the province of Catania, with a spectacular downhill race! ), two typical traditional Sicilian religious festivals are thus held which have in common the devotion towards this saint, San Filippo: he is depicted as "black" in color since a legend sees him as the protagonist of a fight in the Underworld against Lucifer, from whose fight he it comes out covered in soot. San Filippo is a much celebrated saint not only in Sicily, but also in the Salerno area, in Calabria (these cults are carried out following the path he followed in life) up to the cult of him on the island of Malta. The proximity of the towns of Calatabiano and Limina to Taormina (the town where I live and work) certainly facilitates the task of taking photographs of these traditional festivals, compatibly with my work shifts; in both countries the celebrations take place over two days; in Limina, during the first day, the Saint is carried on his shoulders from a church located on the outskirts of the town of Limina to "the village of Murazzo", which is about 8 kilometers away, thus 8 km which are covered by running continuously (except for one short rest stop in the “Durbi” area); then eight days later (the so-called "octave") the Saint comes out carried on his shoulder with a "wild-desperate" run that starts from another church in the center of Limina, arriving after a very steep and tiring climb to the top of the “mountain Calvario”, then descends again and wanders through the districts of the town (and beyond, up to the "Durbi" district, to then return to the town): it is not a simple wandering, at well-established moments, the Saint comes " made to dance" with an unbridled coming and going on straight paths alternating with a swirling rotary movement on itself: this is a substantial difference with the Calatabiano launch (the float is very heavy, around 12 quintals, and travels along an impervious, very steep and steep path downhill, with very high stone "steps" partly missing, this is an ancient route built to reach the Norman castle), so that in Calatabiano the "parody" with the exorcisms performed by the Black Saint consists in the relative speed given to the Saint during the journey, however, in Limina, the launch being lighter, allows the devotees rapid, straight and whirling gaits, movements which also recall the convulsive movements performed by the demoniacs subjected to the Saint's exorcisms (a certain risk of capsizing is inherent in both floats). In the town of Calatabiano San Filippo acquires the name of "Siriaco", that is, coming from Syria, while in the town of Limina he acquires the name "from Agira", from the name of the town, in the province of Enna (Sicily), where he died: it is always the same saint (the physiognomy of the face changes a little), in both statues the right hand is raised to send a blessing, or to carry out an exorcism, the left hand holds a book (it is the "apotropaic" document that gave Saint Peter, to allow him to defeat the forces of Evil). I add some brief information on the life of this saint, also to try to understand how the cult of him was born in Sicily, as well as in other countries outside the island. There are two sources that speak of Saint Philip, called "the Chronicles of Eusebius of Agira" and "the Chronicles of Athanasius", these chronicles are largely discordant with each other, except for the descriptions of his characteristics as a priest and a miracle worker, on his ability to perform exorcisms by expelling demons from those possessed. He was probably born in Thrace (south-eastern region of the Balkan peninsula in 40 AD (?), at the time it was a Roman province, at the time of Arcadius, Eastern Roman emperor, born to a Syrian father and a Roman mother, in In his childhood he was educated in the principles of Christianity which was also spreading in those lands. He came from Thrace to Rome, was ordained a priest by Peter, and it was by him that he was sent to Sicily (a pagan land under Roman rule), with the task to evangelize those places and carry out exorcisms; he lands at Capo Faro in Messina, starting his mandate immediately, then travels along the eastern strip of Sicily heading south towards Etna (here Limina and Calatabiano, affected by his passage, thanks to the his abilities as a healer and exorcist become devoted to him); he thus reaches the town of Agira (Enna), where he dies after forty years of apostolate on the island.

 

.................................................. ..................................

  

Limina, S. Filippo torna a correre dopo due anni di pandemia. E’ la rievocazione dei miracoli

  

Limina. San Filippo d'Agira, il film della festa 2022

  

Festeggiamenti di San Filippo d’Agira - Limina 11 maggio parte 1

  

PROMO San Filippo D'Agira - Limina (ME) 2022

  

Festeggiamenti in onore di San Filippo d’Agira - Limina 21 maggio 2022 parte 2

  

Festeggiamenti in onore di San Filippo d’Agira - Limina 21 maggio 2022 parte 3

 

…………………………………………………

 

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

 

The Other Son | Official US Trailer

  

The Other Son | "Joseph meets with his Rabbi" | Official Clip

 

Mehdi Dehbi in The Other Son

  

Mehdi Dehbi in The Other Son

  

Mehdi Dehbi in the Making of The Other Son

  

Tuđi sin / The Other Son

 

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 7

  

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 2

  

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 5

  

Il figlio dell'altra - Trailer

 

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 6

 

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 9

 

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 4

  

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 3

 

IL FIGLIO DELL'ALTRA, trailer italiano, regia di Lorraine Lévy

 

Lorraine Lévy ''Le Fils de L'autre''

 

IL FIGLIO DELL' ALTRA - Clip 8

   

Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, is a basidiomycete of the genus Amanita. It is a large white-gilled, white-spotted, and usually red mushroom.

 

Despite its easily distinguishable features, A. muscaria is a fungus with several known variations, or subspecies. These subspecies are slightly different, some having yellow or white caps, but are all usually called fly agarics, most often recognizable by their notable white spots. Recent DNA fungi research, however, has shown that some mushrooms called 'fly agaric' are in fact unique species, such as A. persicina (the peach-colored fly agaric).

 

Native throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, A. muscaria has been unintentionally introduced to many countries in the Southern Hemisphere, generally as a symbiont with pine and birch plantations, and is now a true cosmopolitan species. It associates with various deciduous and coniferous trees.

 

Although poisonous, death due to poisoning from A. muscaria ingestion is quite rare. Parboiling twice with water draining weakens its toxicity and breaks down the mushroom's psychoactive substances; it is eaten in parts of Europe, Asia, and North America. All A. muscaria varieties, but in particular A. muscaria var. muscaria, are noted for their hallucinogenic properties, with the main psychoactive constituents being muscimol and its neurotoxic precursor ibotenic acid. A local variety of the mushroom was used as an intoxicant and entheogen by the indigenous peoples of Siberia.

 

Arguably the most iconic toadstool species, the fly agaric is one of the most recognizable and widely encountered in popular culture, including in video games—for example, the frequent use of a recognizable A. muscaria in the Mario franchise (e.g. its Super Mushroom power-up)—and television—for example, the houses in The Smurfs franchise. There have been cases of children admitted to hospitals after consuming this poisonous mushroom; the children may have been attracted to it because of its pop-culture associations.

 

Taxonomy

The name of the mushroom in many European languages is thought to derive from its use as an insecticide when sprinkled in milk. This practice has been recorded from Germanic- and Slavic-speaking parts of Europe, as well as the Vosges region and pockets elsewhere in France, and Romania. Albertus Magnus was the first to record it in his work De vegetabilibus some time before 1256, commenting vocatur fungus muscarum, eo quod in lacte pulverizatus interficit muscas, "it is called the fly mushroom because it is powdered in milk to kill flies."

 

The 16th-century Flemish botanist Carolus Clusius traced the practice of sprinkling it into milk to Frankfurt in Germany, while Carl Linnaeus, the "father of taxonomy", reported it from Småland in southern Sweden, where he had lived as a child. He described it in volume two of his Species Plantarum in 1753, giving it the name Agaricus muscarius, the specific epithet deriving from Latin musca meaning "fly". It gained its current name in 1783, when placed in the genus Amanita by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a name sanctioned in 1821 by the "father of mycology", Swedish naturalist Elias Magnus Fries. The starting date for all the mycota had been set by general agreement as January 1, 1821, the date of Fries's work, and so the full name was then Amanita muscaria (L.:Fr.) Hook. The 1987 edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature changed the rules on the starting date and primary work for names of fungi, and names can now be considered valid as far back as May 1, 1753, the date of publication of Linnaeus's work. Hence, Linnaeus and Lamarck are now taken as the namers of Amanita muscaria (L.) Lam..

 

The English mycologist John Ramsbottom reported that Amanita muscaria was used for getting rid of bugs in England and Sweden, and bug agaric was an old alternative name for the species. French mycologist Pierre Bulliard reported having tried without success to replicate its fly-killing properties in his work Histoire des plantes vénéneuses et suspectes de la France (1784), and proposed a new binomial name Agaricus pseudo-aurantiacus because of this. One compound isolated from the fungus is 1,3-diolein (1,3-di(cis-9-octadecenoyl)glycerol), which attracts insects. It has been hypothesised that the flies intentionally seek out the fly agaric for its intoxicating properties. An alternative derivation proposes that the term fly- refers not to insects as such but rather the delirium resulting from consumption of the fungus. This is based on the medieval belief that flies could enter a person's head and cause mental illness. Several regional names appear to be linked with this connotation, meaning the "mad" or "fool's" version of the highly regarded edible mushroom Amanita caesarea. Hence there is oriol foll "mad oriol" in Catalan, mujolo folo from Toulouse, concourlo fouolo from the Aveyron department in Southern France, ovolo matto from Trentino in Italy. A local dialect name in Fribourg in Switzerland is tsapi de diablhou, which translates as "Devil's hat".

 

Classification

Amanita muscaria is the type species of the genus. By extension, it is also the type species of Amanita subgenus Amanita, as well as section Amanita within this subgenus. Amanita subgenus Amanita includes all Amanita with inamyloid spores. Amanita section Amanita includes the species with patchy universal veil remnants, including a volva that is reduced to a series of concentric rings, and the veil remnants on the cap to a series of patches or warts. Most species in this group also have a bulbous base. Amanita section Amanita consists of A. muscaria and its close relatives, including A. pantherina (the panther cap), A. gemmata, A. farinosa, and A. xanthocephala. Modern fungal taxonomists have classified Amanita muscaria and its allies this way based on gross morphology and spore inamyloidy. Two recent molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed this classification as natural.

 

Description

A large, conspicuous mushroom, Amanita muscaria is generally common and numerous where it grows, and is often found in groups with basidiocarps in all stages of development. Fly agaric fruiting bodies emerge from the soil looking like white eggs. After emerging from the ground, the cap is covered with numerous small white to yellow pyramid-shaped warts. These are remnants of the universal veil, a membrane that encloses the entire mushroom when it is still very young. Dissecting the mushroom at this stage reveals a characteristic yellowish layer of skin under the veil, which helps identification. As the fungus grows, the red colour appears through the broken veil and the warts become less prominent; they do not change in size, but are reduced relative to the expanding skin area. The cap changes from globose to hemispherical, and finally to plate-like and flat in mature specimens. Fully grown, the bright red cap is usually around 8–20 centimetres (3–8 inches) in diameter, although larger specimens have been found. The red colour may fade after rain and in older mushrooms.

 

The free gills are white, as is the spore print. The oval spores measure 9–13 by 6.5–9 μm; they do not turn blue with the application of iodine. The stipe is white, 5–20 cm (2–8 in) high by 1–2 cm (1⁄2–1 in) wide, and has the slightly brittle, fibrous texture typical of many large mushrooms. At the base is a bulb that bears universal veil remnants in the form of two to four distinct rings or ruffs. Between the basal universal veil remnants and gills are remnants of the partial veil (which covers the gills during development) in the form of a white ring. It can be quite wide and flaccid with age. There is generally no associated smell other than a mild earthiness.

 

Although very distinctive in appearance, the fly agaric has been mistaken for other yellow to red mushroom species in the Americas, such as Armillaria cf. mellea and the edible A. basii—a Mexican species similar to A. caesarea of Europe. Poison control centres in the U.S. and Canada have become aware that amarill (Spanish for 'yellow') is a common name for the A. caesarea-like species in Mexico. A. caesarea is distinguished by its entirely orange to red cap, which lacks the numerous white warty spots of the fly agaric (though these sometimes wash away during heavy rain). Furthermore, the stem, gills and ring of A. caesarea are bright yellow, not white. The volva is a distinct white bag, not broken into scales. In Australia, the introduced fly agaric may be confused with the native vermilion grisette (Amanita xanthocephala), which grows in association with eucalypts. The latter species generally lacks the white warts of A. muscaria and bears no ring. Additionally, immature button forms resemble puffballs.

 

Controversy

Amanita muscaria var. formosa is now a synonym for Amanita muscaria var. guessowii.

Amanita muscaria varies considerably in its morphology, and many authorities recognize several subspecies or varieties within the species. In The Agaricales in Modern Taxonomy, German mycologist Rolf Singer listed three subspecies, though without description: A. muscaria ssp. muscaria, A. muscaria ssp. americana, and A. muscaria ssp. flavivolvata.

 

However, a 2006 molecular phylogenetic study of different regional populations of A. muscaria by mycologist József Geml and colleagues found three distinct clades within this species representing, roughly, Eurasian, Eurasian "subalpine", and North American populations. Specimens belonging to all three clades have been found in Alaska; this has led to the hypothesis that this was the centre of diversification for this species. The study also looked at four named varieties of the species: var. alba, var. flavivolvata, var. formosa (including var. guessowii), and var. regalis from both areas. All four varieties were found within both the Eurasian and North American clades, evidence that these morphological forms are polymorphisms rather than distinct subspecies or varieties. Further molecular study by Geml and colleagues published in 2008 show that these three genetic groups, plus a fourth associated with oak–hickory–pine forest in the southeastern United States and two more on Santa Cruz Island in California, are delineated from each other enough genetically to be considered separate species. Thus A. muscaria as it stands currently is, evidently, a species complex. The complex also includes at least three other closely related taxa that are currently regarded as species: A. breckonii is a buff-capped mushroom associated with conifers from the Pacific Northwest, and the brown-capped A. gioiosa and A. heterochroma from the Mediterranean Basin and from Sardinia respectively. Both of these last two are found with Eucalyptus and Cistus trees, and it is unclear whether they are native or introduced from Australia.

 

Distribution and habitat

A. muscaria is a cosmopolitan mushroom, native to conifer and deciduous woodlands throughout the temperate and boreal regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including higher elevations of warmer latitudes in regions such as Hindu Kush, the Mediterranean and also Central America. A recent molecular study proposes that it had an ancestral origin in the Siberian–Beringian region in the Tertiary period, before radiating outwards across Asia, Europe and North America. The season for fruiting varies in different climates: fruiting occurs in summer and autumn across most of North America, but later in autumn and early winter on the Pacific coast. This species is often found in similar locations to Boletus edulis, and may appear in fairy rings. Conveyed with pine seedlings, it has been widely transported into the southern hemisphere, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America, where it can be found in the Brazilian states of Paraná, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul.

 

Ectomycorrhizal, A. muscaria forms symbiotic relationships with many trees, including pine, oak, spruce, fir, birch, and cedar. Commonly seen under introduced trees, A. muscaria is the fungal equivalent of a weed in New Zealand, Tasmania and Victoria, forming new associations with southern beech (Nothofagus). The species is also invading a rainforest in Australia, where it may be displacing the native species. It appears to be spreading northwards, with recent reports placing it near Port Macquarie on the New South Wales north coast. It was recorded under silver birch (Betula pendula) in Manjimup, Western Australia in 2010. Although it has apparently not spread to eucalypts in Australia, it has been recorded associating with them in Portugal. Commonly found throughout the great Southern region of western Australia, it is regularly found growing on Pinus radiata.

 

Toxicity

a tall red mushroom with a few white spots on the cap

Mature. The white spots may wash off with heavy rainfall.

A. muscaria poisoning has occurred in young children and in people who ingested the mushrooms for a hallucinogenic experience, or who confused it with an edible species.

 

A. muscaria contains several biologically active agents, at least one of which, muscimol, is known to be psychoactive. Ibotenic acid, a neurotoxin, serves as a prodrug to muscimol, with a small amount likely converting to muscimol after ingestion. An active dose in adults is approximately 6 mg muscimol or 30 to 60 mg ibotenic acid; this is typically about the amount found in one cap of Amanita muscaria. The amount and ratio of chemical compounds per mushroom varies widely from region to region and season to season, which can further confuse the issue. Spring and summer mushrooms have been reported to contain up to 10 times more ibotenic acid and muscimol than autumn fruitings.

 

Deaths from A. muscaria have been reported in historical journal articles and newspaper reports, but with modern medical treatment, fatal poisoning from ingesting this mushroom is extremely rare. Many books list A. muscaria as deadly, but according to David Arora, this is an error that implies the mushroom is far more toxic than it is. Furthermore, The North American Mycological Association has stated that there were "no reliably documented cases of death from toxins in these mushrooms in the past 100 years".

 

The active constituents of this species are water-soluble, and boiling and then discarding the cooking water at least partly detoxifies A. muscaria. Drying may increase potency, as the process facilitates the conversion of ibotenic acid to the more potent muscimol. According to some sources, once detoxified, the mushroom becomes edible. Patrick Harding describes the Sami custom of processing the fly agaric through reindeer.

 

Pharmacology

Ibotenic acid, a prodrug to muscimol found in A. muscaria

Muscarine, discovered in 1869, was long thought to be the active hallucinogenic agent in A. muscaria. Muscarine binds with muscarinic acetylcholine receptors leading to the excitation of neurons bearing these receptors. The levels of muscarine in Amanita muscaria are minute when compared with other poisonous fungi such as Inosperma erubescens, the small white Clitocybe species C. dealbata and C. rivulosa. The level of muscarine in A. muscaria is too low to play a role in the symptoms of poisoning.

 

The major toxins involved in A. muscaria poisoning are muscimol (3-hydroxy-5-aminomethyl-1-isoxazole, an unsaturated cyclic hydroxamic acid) and the related amino acid ibotenic acid. Muscimol is the product of the decarboxylation (usually by drying) of ibotenic acid. Muscimol and ibotenic acid were discovered in the mid-20th century. Researchers in England, Japan, and Switzerland showed that the effects produced were due mainly to ibotenic acid and muscimol, not muscarine. These toxins are not distributed uniformly in the mushroom. Most are detected in the cap of the fruit, a moderate amount in the base, with the smallest amount in the stalk. Quite rapidly, between 20 and 90 minutes after ingestion, a substantial fraction of ibotenic acid is excreted unmetabolised in the urine of the consumer. Almost no muscimol is excreted when pure ibotenic acid is eaten, but muscimol is detectable in the urine after eating A. muscaria, which contains both ibotenic acid and muscimol.

 

Ibotenic acid and muscimol are structurally related to each other and to two major neurotransmitters of the central nervous system: glutamic acid and GABA respectively. Ibotenic acid and muscimol act like these neurotransmitters, muscimol being a potent GABAA agonist, while ibotenic acid is an agonist of NMDA glutamate receptors and certain metabotropic glutamate receptors which are involved in the control of neuronal activity. It is these interactions which are thought to cause the psychoactive effects found in intoxication.

 

Muscazone is another compound that has more recently been isolated from European specimens of the fly agaric. It is a product of the breakdown of ibotenic acid by ultra-violet radiation. Muscazone is of minor pharmacological activity compared with the other agents. Amanita muscaria and related species are known as effective bioaccumulators of vanadium; some species concentrate vanadium to levels of up to 400 times those typically found in plants. Vanadium is present in fruit-bodies as an organometallic compound called amavadine. The biological importance of the accumulation process is unknown.

 

Symptoms

Fly agarics are best known for the unpredictability of their effects. Depending on habitat and the amount ingested per body weight, effects can range from mild nausea and twitching to drowsiness, cholinergic crisis-like effects (low blood pressure, sweating and salivation), auditory and visual distortions, mood changes, euphoria, relaxation, ataxia, and loss of equilibrium (like with tetanus.)

 

In cases of serious poisoning the mushroom causes delirium, somewhat similar in effect to anticholinergic poisoning (such as that caused by Datura stramonium), characterised by bouts of marked agitation with confusion, hallucinations, and irritability followed by periods of central nervous system depression. Seizures and coma may also occur in severe poisonings. Symptoms typically appear after around 30 to 90 minutes and peak within three hours, but certain effects can last for several days. In the majority of cases recovery is complete within 12 to 24 hours. The effect is highly variable between individuals, with similar doses potentially causing quite different reactions. Some people suffering intoxication have exhibited headaches up to ten hours afterwards.[56] Retrograde amnesia and somnolence can result following recovery.

 

Treatment

Medical attention should be sought in cases of suspected poisoning. If the delay between ingestion and treatment is less than four hours, activated charcoal is given. Gastric lavage can be considered if the patient presents within one hour of ingestion. Inducing vomiting with syrup of ipecac is no longer recommended in any poisoning situation.

 

There is no antidote, and supportive care is the mainstay of further treatment for intoxication. Though sometimes referred to as a deliriant and while muscarine was first isolated from A. muscaria and as such is its namesake, muscimol does not have action, either as an agonist or antagonist, at the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor site, and therefore atropine or physostigmine as an antidote is not recommended. If a patient is delirious or agitated, this can usually be treated by reassurance and, if necessary, physical restraints. A benzodiazepine such as diazepam or lorazepam can be used to control combativeness, agitation, muscular overactivity, and seizures. Only small doses should be used, as they may worsen the respiratory depressant effects of muscimol. Recurrent vomiting is rare, but if present may lead to fluid and electrolyte imbalances; intravenous rehydration or electrolyte replacement may be required. Serious cases may develop loss of consciousness or coma, and may need intubation and artificial ventilation. Hemodialysis can remove the toxins, although this intervention is generally considered unnecessary. With modern medical treatment the prognosis is typically good following supportive treatment.

 

Uses

The wide range of psychoactive effects have been variously described as depressant, sedative-hypnotic, psychedelic, dissociative, or deliriant; paradoxical effects such as stimulation may occur however. Perceptual phenomena such as synesthesia, macropsia, and micropsia may occur; the latter two effects may occur either simultaneously or alternatingly, as part of Alice in Wonderland syndrome, collectively known as dysmetropsia, along with related distortions pelopsia and teleopsia. Some users report lucid dreaming under the influence of its hypnotic effects. Unlike Psilocybe cubensis, A. muscaria cannot be commercially cultivated, due to its mycorrhizal relationship with the roots of pine trees. However, following the outlawing of psilocybin mushrooms in the United Kingdom in 2006, the sale of the still legal A. muscaria began increasing.

 

Marija Gimbutas reported to R. Gordon Wasson that in remote areas of Lithuania, A. muscaria has been consumed at wedding feasts, in which mushrooms were mixed with vodka. She also reported that the Lithuanians used to export A. muscaria to the Sami in the Far North for use in shamanic rituals. The Lithuanian festivities are the only report that Wasson received of ingestion of fly agaric for religious use in Eastern Europe.

 

Siberia

A. muscaria was widely used as an entheogen by many of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. Its use was known among almost all of the Uralic-speaking peoples of western Siberia and the Paleosiberian-speaking peoples of the Russian Far East. There are only isolated reports of A. muscaria use among the Tungusic and Turkic peoples of central Siberia and it is believed that on the whole entheogenic use of A. muscaria was not practised by these peoples. In western Siberia, the use of A. muscaria was restricted to shamans, who used it as an alternative method of achieving a trance state. (Normally, Siberian shamans achieve trance by prolonged drumming and dancing.) In eastern Siberia, A. muscaria was used by both shamans and laypeople alike, and was used recreationally as well as religiously. In eastern Siberia, the shaman would take the mushrooms, and others would drink his urine. This urine, still containing psychoactive elements, may be more potent than the A. muscaria mushrooms with fewer negative effects such as sweating and twitching, suggesting that the initial user may act as a screening filter for other components in the mushroom.

 

The Koryak of eastern Siberia have a story about the fly agaric (wapaq) which enabled Big Raven to carry a whale to its home. In the story, the deity Vahiyinin ("Existence") spat onto earth, and his spittle became the wapaq, and his saliva becomes the warts. After experiencing the power of the wapaq, Raven was so exhilarated that he told it to grow forever on earth so his children, the people, could learn from it. Among the Koryaks, one report said that the poor would consume the urine of the wealthy, who could afford to buy the mushrooms. It was reported that the local reindeer would often follow an individual intoxicated by the muscimol mushroom, and if said individual were to urinate in snow the reindeer would become similarly intoxicated and the Koryak people's would use the drunken state of the reindeer to more easily rope and hunt them.

 

Other reports and theories

The Finnish historian T. I. Itkonen mentions that A. muscaria was once used among the Sámi peoples. Sorcerers in Inari would consume fly agarics with seven spots. In 1979, Said Gholam Mochtar and Hartmut Geerken published an article in which they claimed to have discovered a tradition of medicinal and recreational use of this mushroom among a Parachi-speaking group in Afghanistan. There are also unconfirmed reports of religious use of A. muscaria among two Subarctic Native American tribes. Ojibwa ethnobotanist Keewaydinoquay Peschel reported its use among her people, where it was known as miskwedo (an abbreviation of the name oshtimisk wajashkwedo (= "red-top mushroom"). This information was enthusiastically received by Wasson, although evidence from other sources was lacking. There is also one account of a Euro-American who claims to have been initiated into traditional Tlicho use of Amanita muscaria. The flying reindeer of Santa Claus, who is called Joulupukki in Finland, could symbolize the use of A. muscaria by Sámi shamans. However, Sámi scholars and the Sámi peoples themselves refute any connection between Santa Claus and Sámi history or culture.

 

"The story of Santa emerging from a Sámi shamanic tradition has a critical number of flaws," asserts Tim Frandy, assistant professor of Nordic Studies at the University of British Columbia and a member of the Sámi descendent community in North America. "The theory has been widely criticized by Sámi people as a stereotypical and problematic romanticized misreading of actual Sámi culture."

 

Vikings

The notion that Vikings used A. muscaria to produce their berserker rages was first suggested by the Swedish professor Samuel Ödmann in 1784. Ödmann based his theories on reports about the use of fly agaric among Siberian shamans. The notion has become widespread since the 19th century, but no contemporary sources mention this use or anything similar in their description of berserkers. Muscimol is generally a mild relaxant, but it can create a range of different reactions within a group of people. It is possible that it could make a person angry, or cause them to be "very jolly or sad, jump about, dance, sing or give way to great fright". Comparative analysis of symptoms have, however, since shown Hyoscyamus niger to be a better fit to the state that characterises the berserker rage.

 

Soma

See also: Botanical identity of Soma-Haoma

In 1968, R. Gordon Wasson proposed that A. muscaria was the soma talked about in the Rigveda of India, a claim which received widespread publicity and popular support at the time. He noted that descriptions of Soma omitted any description of roots, stems or seeds, which suggested a mushroom, and used the adjective hári "dazzling" or "flaming" which the author interprets as meaning red. One line described men urinating Soma; this recalled the practice of recycling urine in Siberia. Soma is mentioned as coming "from the mountains", which Wasson interpreted as the mushroom having been brought in with the Aryan migrants from the north. Indian scholars Santosh Kumar Dash and Sachinanda Padhy pointed out that both eating of mushrooms and drinking of urine were proscribed, using as a source the Manusmṛti. In 1971, Vedic scholar John Brough from Cambridge University rejected Wasson's theory and noted that the language was too vague to determine a description of Soma. In his 1976 survey, Hallucinogens and Culture, anthropologist Peter T. Furst evaluated the evidence for and against the identification of the fly agaric mushroom as the Vedic Soma, concluding cautiously in its favour. Kevin Feeney and Trent Austin compared the references in the Vedas with the filtering mechanisms in the preparation of Amanita muscaria and published findings supporting the proposal that fly-agaric mushrooms could be a likely candidate for the sacrament. Other proposed candidates include Psilocybe cubensis, Peganum harmala, and Ephedra.

 

Christianity

Philologist, archaeologist, and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar John Marco Allegro postulated that early Christian theology was derived from a fertility cult revolving around the entheogenic consumption of A. muscaria in his 1970 book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross. This theory has found little support by scholars outside the field of ethnomycology. The book was widely criticized by academics and theologians, including Sir Godfrey Driver, emeritus Professor of Semitic Philology at Oxford University and Henry Chadwick, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Christian author John C. King wrote a detailed rebuttal of Allegro's theory in the 1970 book A Christian View of the Mushroom Myth; he notes that neither fly agarics nor their host trees are found in the Middle East, even though cedars and pines are found there, and highlights the tenuous nature of the links between biblical and Sumerian names coined by Allegro. He concludes that if the theory were true, the use of the mushroom must have been "the best kept secret in the world" as it was so well concealed for two thousand years.

 

Fly trap

Amanita muscaria is traditionally used for catching flies possibly due to its content of ibotenic acid and muscimol, which lead to its common name "fly agaric". Recently, an analysis of nine different methods for preparing A. muscaria for catching flies in Slovenia have shown that the release of ibotenic acid and muscimol did not depend on the solvent (milk or water) and that thermal and mechanical processing led to faster extraction of ibotenic acid and muscimol.

 

Culinary

The toxins in A. muscaria are water-soluble: parboiling A. muscaria fruit bodies can detoxify them and render them edible, although consumption of the mushroom as a food has never been widespread. The consumption of detoxified A. muscaria has been practiced in some parts of Europe (notably by Russian settlers in Siberia) since at least the 19th century, and likely earlier. The German physician and naturalist Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff wrote the earliest published account on how to detoxify this mushroom in 1823. In the late 19th century, the French physician Félix Archimède Pouchet was a populariser and advocate of A. muscaria consumption, comparing it to manioc, an important food source in tropical South America that must also be detoxified before consumption.

 

Use of this mushroom as a food source also seems to have existed in North America. A classic description of this use of A. muscaria by an African-American mushroom seller in Washington, D.C., in the late 19th century is described by American botanist Frederick Vernon Coville. In this case, the mushroom, after parboiling, and soaking in vinegar, is made into a mushroom sauce for steak. It is also consumed as a food in parts of Japan. The most well-known current use as an edible mushroom is in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. There, it is primarily salted and pickled.

 

A 2008 paper by food historian William Rubel and mycologist David Arora gives a history of consumption of A. muscaria as a food and describes detoxification methods. They advocate that Amanita muscaria be described in field guides as an edible mushroom, though accompanied by a description on how to detoxify it. The authors state that the widespread descriptions in field guides of this mushroom as poisonous is a reflection of cultural bias, as several other popular edible species, notably morels, are also toxic unless properly cooked.

 

In culture

The red-and-white spotted toadstool is a common image in many aspects of popular culture. Garden ornaments and children's picture books depicting gnomes and fairies, such as the Smurfs, often show fly agarics used as seats, or homes. Fly agarics have been featured in paintings since the Renaissance, albeit in a subtle manner. For instance, in Hieronymus Bosch's painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights, the mushroom can be seen on the left-hand panel of the work. In the Victorian era they became more visible, becoming the main topic of some fairy paintings. Two of the most famous uses of the mushroom are in the Mario franchise (specifically two of the Super Mushroom power-up items and the platforms in several stages which are based on a fly agaric), and the dancing mushroom sequence in the 1940 Disney film Fantasia.

 

An account of the journeys of Philip von Strahlenberg to Siberia and his descriptions of the use of the mukhomor there was published in English in 1736. The drinking of urine of those who had consumed the mushroom was commented on by Anglo-Irish writer Oliver Goldsmith in his widely read 1762 novel, Citizen of the World. The mushroom had been identified as the fly agaric by this time. Other authors recorded the distortions of the size of perceived objects while intoxicated by the fungus, including naturalist Mordecai Cubitt Cooke in his books The Seven Sisters of Sleep and A Plain and Easy Account of British Fungi. This observation is thought to have formed the basis of the effects of eating the mushroom in the 1865 popular story Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A hallucinogenic "scarlet toadstool" from Lappland is featured as a plot element in Charles Kingsley's 1866 novel Hereward the Wake based on the medieval figure of the same name. Thomas Pynchon's 1973 novel Gravity's Rainbow describes the fungus as a "relative of the poisonous Destroying angel" and presents a detailed description of a character preparing a cookie bake mixture from harvested Amanita muscaria. Fly agaric shamanism is also explored in the 2003 novel Thursbitch by Alan Garner.

You may recognize them? Yes I have shown a few photos of this school class. This is my favourite one. Hope you don't mind meeting them again.

 

I like them for the happiness they spread, for their unreflecting charm and for their generous acceptance of people they never ever met before... not caring about age or race. I also like to see boys and girls play together on equal terms. I believe this photo shows that exactly. And I love how all the ties go astray :-)

 

Photo was taken in southern Sri Lanka, on their school excursion to a folk museum, not far from Galle.

recognize anyone?

Photo of Beaver Creek captured via Minolta MD Zoom Rokkor-X 24-50mm F/4 lens. Olympic National Forest. Coast Range. Olympic Peninsula. Clallam County, Washington. Late December 2016.

 

Exposure Time: 1/6 sec. * ISO Speed: ISO-100 * Aperture: F/11 * Bracketing: None * Color Temperature: 7100 K * Film Plug-In: Kodak Portra 160 VC

 

*Truly have a passion for unique landscape and thought provoking shots?? Please be sure to check out my partner Slick 406's work at: www.flickr.com/photos/156943980@N03

One of the most recognizable buildings in Texas is the Alamo in downtown San Antonio Texas. It is known worldwide by its characteristic shape. The Alamo began as the Mission San Antonio de Valero, a Spanish Mission, in the early 1700's, one of the first in Texas. The establishment of this mission played a crucial role in the settlement of San Antonio, Texas and the Southwest. "Mission San Antonio de Valero" has not always been at this location. The original mission was founded near the headwaters of San Pedro Creek in 1718. In 1719 the mission was relocated a short distance to the south of where it sits today. A 1724 storm destroyed structures at the new site, prompting Spanish officials to relocate the mission to its present spot. It was the mission compound constructed here at the 1724 location that later gained fame as the Alamo. While this is the third spot for Mission San Antonio de Valero, it is the only place the "Alamo" has ever been. The San Antonio de Valero Mission was built to provide local indigenous people, or Indians, with protection from hostile tribes and conversion to the Catholic faith, the state religion of Spain at that time. Accordingly, the first residents of San Antonio de Valero were members of Native American tribes like the Payaya, Sama, Pachaque and other Coahuiltecan Indian tribes. Spanish missionaries provided religious services and directed the work of those residing inside the Mission. Those residents who died in the mission were often buried in front of the Church, according to Spanish tradition. Consequently, the area in front of the Alamo Shrine represented with a patch of green grass, the Campo Santo, is considered hallowed burial ground.

 

It's difficult to pinpoint when the Valero mission was first called "Alamo." In 1803 a company of Spanish soldiers arrived in San Antonio de Valero or Bejar, now simply known as San Antonio. They were housed in and around the mission, which became known as the Presidio de Bejar. Over time the presidio/mission became know as The Alamo and its garrison as The Alamo Company presumably because of a row of Cottonwood Trees nearby the Mission. Alamo means cottonwood tree in Spanish.

 

San Antonio de Bexar had long been an important place in Texas. Not only was it home to a military garrison, it was a crossroads and center of commerce. By the early 1830s, the town's population had grown to nearly 2,500. With the outbreak of revolt in Coahuila y Tejas, San Antonio even resumed its old role as the capital of Texas. San Antonio experienced two sieges and battles during the Texas Revolution. The first, the Siege and Battle of Bexar, began in late October 1835 after the incident in Gonzales when angry colonists and Tejanos followed the retreating Alamo Company back to San Antonio in the early stage of the revolution. When the Texian siege of the town stalled, soldier and empresario Ben Milam rallied a force on December 5 that fought its way into the center of San Antonio. After a bloody five-day, house-to-house fight, the Texians took control of the town and Mexican General Martin Perfecto de Cos surrendered the town and the public property it held. Thus, the rebels gained control of San Antonio and the Alamo.

 

The second battle occurred when the Mexican forces marched north to squash the rebellion and take back San Antonio de Bexar. On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught the rebels by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. Eventually the rebels retreated to the inside of the Alamo compound and the siege of the Alamo began. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over — all except one did.

As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.

 

The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound.

 

Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey the scene of his victory.

 

While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against impossible odds; a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.

 

The sign reading "Crockett' on the right hand side of the photograph is not on the Alamo but on the Historic Crockett Hotel. The landmark Hotel was built in 1909 and is reportedly haunted by past guests who died but never checked out. At this angle, the hotel, named for the famous frontiersman and Alamo defender Davy Crockett, is behind the right side of the Alamo Complex.

A third sculpture from Leonora Carrington in San Miguel.

 

Leonora Carrington was born the 6th of April, 1917 in Lancashire, England to a wealthy family and was forced to attend convents at a young age. By 1926 she had been expelled from two convents and deemed unteachable.

 

In 1935 she would be presented to the court of George V at the Ritz hotel. She began her education as an artist in 1936 at the Amedee Ozenfants' academy in London. In 1937 she meets Max Ernst and decides to live with him.

 

In 1938 she participated in the Exposition internationale du surrealisme, Galerie Beaux Arts, Paris. In 1941 after Max Ernst is imprisoned, Leonora escapes to Spain where she recognizes Renato Leduc, from a presentation by Pablo Picasso in Paris and manages to avoid her father's guard and escapes to the Mexican embassy.

 

In 1942 she establishes herself in Mexico and regroups with some refugee surrealists that included Benjamin Peret, Rmedios Varo and Kati Horna.

 

Throughout her long career she published a series of novels, short stories and drama. She was involved in theatre, movies, she painted, she did sculpture and tapestries. Overall she was an artist who dedicated her life to the love of creation.

recognize anyone?

Berlin Charlottenburg, Messehallen

Yosemite National Park is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 759,620 acres (1,187 sq mi; 3,074 km2) and sits in four counties – centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95 percent of the park is designated wilderness. Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals.

 

The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granite rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and tilted to form its unique slopes, which increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in the formation of deep, narrow canyons. About one million years ago glaciers formed at higher elevations which eventually melted and moved downslope, cutting and sculpting the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today

 

European American settlers first entered Yosemite Valley itself in 1851. There are earlier instances of other travelers entering the Valley but James D. Savage is credited with discovering the area that became Yosemite National Park. Despite Savage and others claiming their discovery of Yosemite, the region and Valley itself have been inhabited for nearly 4,000 years, although humans may have visited the area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.

 

Yosemite was critical to the development of the national park idea. Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, ultimately leading to President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Yosemite Grant of 1864 which declared Yosemite as federally preserved land. It was not until 1890 that John Muir led a successful movement which had Congress establish Yosemite Valley and its surrounding areas as a National Park. This helped pave the way for the National Park System. Yosemite draws about four million visitors each year, and most visitors spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles (18 km2) of Yosemite Valley. The park set a visitation record in 2016, surpassing five million visitors for the first time in its history. The park began requiring reservations to access the park during peak periods starting in 2020 as a response to the rise in visitors.

 

The indigenous natives of Yosemite called themselves the Ahwahneechee, meaning "dwellers" in Ahwahnee. The Ahwahneechee People was the only tribe that lived in the boundaries of Yosemite National Park but other tribes lived in its surrounding areas, together they formed a larger Indigenous population in California, called the Southern Sierra Miwok. They are related to the Northern Paiute and Mono tribes. Other tribes like the Central Sierra Miwoks and the Yokuts, who both lived in the San Joaquin Valley and central California, visited Yosemite to trade and intermarry with the Ahwahneechee. This resulted in a blending of culture which helped preserve Indigenous people's presence in Yosemite after early American settlements and urban development threatened their survival.[20] Vegetation and game in the region were similar to modern times; acorns were a staple to their diet, as well as other seeds and plants, salmon and deer.

 

A major event impacting the native population of Yosemite and all of California in the mid-19th century was the California Gold Rush, which drew more than 90,000 European Americans to the area in less than two years, causing competition for resources between gold miners and the local Natives. Before large amounts of European settlers arrived in California, about 70 years before the Gold Rush, the Indigenous population was estimated to be 300,000, once the Gold Rush started it dropped down to 150,000, and just ten years later, only about 50,000 remained. The reason for such a decline in the Native American population results from numerous reasons including disease, birth rate decreases, starvation, and the conflicts from the American Indian Wars. The conflict in Yosemite is known as the Mariposa War, it started in December 1850 when California funded a state militia to drive Native people from contested territory, also known as Indigenous traditional and sacred homelands; the goal was to suppress Native American resistance to American expansion.

 

In retaliation to the extermination and domestication of their people, and loss of their lands and resources, Yosemite Indian tribes often stole from settlers and miners, sometimes killing them, both actions seen as tribute for the great losses they experienced. The War and formation of the Mariposa Battalion was partially the result of a single incident involving James Savage, a trader in Fresno, California whose trading post was attacked in December, 1850. After the incident, Savage rallied other miners and gained the support of local officials to pursue revenge and a full out war against the Natives, that is how he was appointed United States Army Major and leader the Mariposa Battalion in the beginning of 1851. He and Captain John Boling were responsible for pursuing the Ahwahneechee people that were being led by Chief Tenaya and driving them as far west as possible, out of Yosemite. In March 1851 under the command of Savage, the Mariposa Battalion captured about 70 Ahwahneechee and planned to take them to a reservation in Fresno, but they all managed to escape. Later in May, under the command of Boling, the battalion captured 35 Ahwahneechee including Chief Tenaya and marched them to the reservation but most were allowed to eventually leave and the rest escaped. Tenaya and others fled across the Sierra Nevada and settled with the Mono Lake Paiutes. Tenaya and some of his companions were ultimately killed in 1853 either over stealing horses or a gambling conflict and the survivors of Tenaya's group and other Ahwahneechee were absorbed into the Mono Lake Paiute tribe.

 

Accounts from this battalion were the first well-documented reports of ethnic Europeans entering Yosemite Valley. Attached to Savage's unit was Doctor Lafayette Bunnell, who later wrote about his awestruck impressions of the valley in The Discovery of the Yosemite. Bunnell is credited with naming Yosemite Valley, based on his interviews with Chief Tenaya. Bunnell wrote that Chief Tenaya was the founder of the Ahwahnee colony. Bunnell falsely believed that the word "Yosemite" meant "full-grown grizzly bear." In fact, "Yosemite" was derived from the Miwok term for the Ahwaneechee people: yohhe'meti, meaning "they are killers".

 

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.

This morning we had this beautiful clouds filling the sky. I tried this panorama shot with two images. Doesn't really convey what I actually saw.

 

Happy a great week ahead!

 

Best seen in Blackbox.