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This little mug rug is about a 7.5" square. It is made of bits of many fabrics and Kona white. The binding and back are also white. It is for my secret partner is the spring Scrappy Mug Rug Swap.
blogged: shecanquilt.blogspot.ca/2012/03/swaps-leaving-and-arrivin...
I am adding the link to the paper pieced pattern, which I reduced to 50% or something like that. The pattern is here: www.bryerpatch.com/pattern/pattern.htm
8x10 contact print on Fomatone MG classic with moersch ECO 4812. Shot with Sinar 8x10 Sinaron S 6.8/360 on Ilford FP4 and developt with Ilford ID11. Selective bleached with farmer's reducer and toned with selen for a view seconds.
EXPLORED! Highest position: 147 on Thursday, July 9, 2009
Still busy, these next two weeks will probably be even worse...
Getting stronger, on Thursday they scheduled me the final job interview (already succesfully passed through two) for a really interesting opportunity.
I will be meeting the General Manager of the company. Sounds good!
The shot
Another sunrise from my April Tuscany trip. Taken some minutes before "Tuscany Sunrise @75mm". Tighter crop, less contrasty.
I'm in love with that place.
The Processing
Photoshop: (SINGLE EXPOSURE)
- Duplicated the background layer, switched to soft light mode and applied a gradient mask (sky only)
- Switched to LAB mode and applied two curves to improve contrast and tones
- Back to RGB, added a vibrance layer to boost up minor tones
- Used color balance tool to improve colors
- Duplicated the background layer, switched to linear add and applied a gradient mask (foreground only)
- Created an Overlay layer to adjust light
- Resized
- Run Noise Ninja to reduce Noise
- Sharpening (Smart Sharpen + more accurate)
- Framing and signature.
Take a look at it, LARGE on Black :
The best is yet to come, on Black
@ You all
Comments, faves and critiques are always welcomed!
I wish you all a splendid sunday and a marvellous week ahead.
I will be checking your streams out tonight.
Happy Earth Day, ya'll
Reuse more, waste less.
Keep them bushes tidy
and above all don't litter!
Every little bit helps :)
in the back of our school, the parents and kids constructed a greenhouse using recycled bottles to retain the heat. there are tables for the plants.
ANSH scavenger12 habitat
Der NABU erklärte den Eisvogel zum Vogel des Jahres 2009 in Deutschland.
Der Eisvogel ernährt sich von Fischen, Wasserinsekten und deren Larven, Kleinkrebsen und Kaulquappen. Er kann Fische bis neun Zentimeter Länge mit einer maximalen Rückenhöhe von zwei Zentimetern verschlingen. Bei langgestreckten, dünnen Arten verschiebt sich die Höchstgrenze auf zwölf Zentimeter Körperlänge.
Die Jagdmethode des Eisvogels ist das Stoßtauchen. Von einer passenden Sitzwarte im oder nahe am Wasser wird der Stoß angesetzt. Wenn er eine mögliche Beute entdeckt, stürzt er sich schräg nach unten kopfüber ins Wasser und beschleunigt dabei meist mit kurzen Flügelschlägen. Die Augen bleiben beim Eintauchen offen und werden durch das Vorziehen der Nickhaut geschützt. Ist die Wasseroberfläche erreicht, wird der Körper gestreckt und die Flügel eng angelegt oder nach oben ausgestreckt. Bereits kurz vor dem Ergreifen der Beute wird mit ausgebreiteten Flügeln und Beinen gebremst. Zur Wasseroberfläche steigt er zuerst mit dem Nacken, wobei er den Kopf an die Brust gepresst hält. Schließlich wird der Schnabel mit einem Ruck aus dem Wasser gerissen und der Vogel startet entweder sofort oder nach einer kurzen Ruhepause zum Rückflug auf die Sitzwarte. Im Allgemeinen dauert ein Versuch nicht mehr als zwei bis drei Sekunden. Der Eisvogel kann aber auch aus einem kurzen Rüttelflug tauchen, wenn ein geeigneter Ansitz fehlt. Nicht jeder Tauchgang ist erfolgreich, er stößt oft daneben.
Der Eisvogel benötigt zur Bearbeitung der Beute in der Regel einen dicken Ast oder eine andere, möglichst wenig schwingende Unterlage. Kleinere Beute wird mit kräftigem Schnabeldrücken oft sofort verschluckt. Größere Fische werden auf den Ast zurück gebracht, dort tot geschüttelt oder auf den Ast geschlagen, im Schnabel „gewendet“ und mit dem Kopf voran verschluckt; anderenfalls könnten sich im Schlund die Schuppen des Fisches sträuben. Der Eisvogel schluckt seine Beute in einem Stück. Unverdauliches wie Fischknochen oder Insektenreste werden etwa ein bis zwei Stunden nach der Mahlzeit als Gewölle herausgewürgt.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisvogel
NABU (NATURE AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION UNION) chose this bird "Bird of the year 2009" in Germany.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Kingfisher
The Common Kingfisher hunts from a perch 1–2 m (3–6 ft) above the water, on a branch, post or riverbank, bill pointing down as it searches for prey. It bobs its head when food is detected to gauge the distance, and plunges steeply down to seizes its prey usually no deeper than 25 cm (19 in) below the surface. The wings are opened under water and the open eyes are protected by the transparent third eyelid. The bird rises beak-first from the surface and flies back to its perch. At the perch the fish is adjusted until it is held near its tail and beaten against the perch several times. Once dead, the fish is positioned lengthways and swallowed head-first. A few times each day, a small greyish pellet of fish bones and other indigestible remains is regurgitated.
The food is mainly fish up to 12.5 cm (5 in) long, but the average size is 2.3 cm (1 in). Minnows, sticklebacks, small roach and trout are typical prey. About 60% of food items are fish, but this kingfisher also catches aquatic insects such as dragonfly larvae and water beetles, and, in winter, crustaceans including freshwater shrimps.
Sticklebacks are common prey
A challenge for any diving bird is the change in refraction between air and water. The eyes of many birds have two foveae (the fovea is the area of the retina the greatest density of light receptors), and a kingfisher is able to switch from the main central fovea to the auxiliary fovea when it enters water; a retinal streak of high receptor density which connects the two foveae allows the image to swing temporally as the bird drops onto the prey. The egg-shaped lens of the eye points towards the auxiliary fovea, enabling the bird to maintain visual acuity underwater.[14] Because of the positions of the foveae, the kingfisher has monocular vision in air, and binocular vision in water. The underwater vision is not as a sharp as in air, but the ability to judge the distance of moving prey is more important than the sharpness of the image.
Each cone cell of a bird’s retina contains a oil droplet which may contain carotenoid pigments. These droplets enhance colour vision and reduce glare. Aquatic kingfishers have high numbers of red pigments in their oil droplets; the reason red droplets predominate is not understood, but the droplets may help with the glare or the dispersion of light from particulate matter in the water.
These are the last pics from a couple of days ago.
Due to me actually starting gainful employment this week; I anticipate a greatly reduced service for my followers for the foreseeable future.
And before you ask, no I will not be going to work wearing a dress!
Thanks to all for your continued support.
KT xXx
Castle Sinclair Girnigoe is located about 3 miles north of Wick on the east coast of Caithness, Scotland. It is considered to be one of the earliest seats of Clan Sinclair. It comprises the ruins of two castles: the 15th-century Castle Girnigoe; and the early 17th-century Castle Sinclair. They are designated as a scheduled monument.
The earlier Castle Girnigoe was built by William Sinclair, 2nd Earl of Caithness, probably sometime between 1476 and 1496, but certainly before his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. There is some evidence to suggest that the castle was built on the foundations of an earlier fortalice.
In 1577, George Sinclair, 4th Earl of Caithness, imprisoned his own son John Sinclair, Master of Caithness, in Castle Girnigoe, on suspicion of rebelling against his rule. He was held there for seven years, after which his father fed him a diet of salted beef, with nothing to drink, so that he eventually died insane from thirst. The rebel Earl of Bothwell was at Girnigoe in December 1594.
Expansion occurred in 1606 when Castle Sinclair was built, comprising a gatehouse and other buildings, along with a curtain wall. These were connected to the earlier castle by a drawbridge over a ravine. The same year George Sinclair, 5th Earl of Caithness, requested the Scottish Parliament to change the name to Castle Sinclair, but because the names Castle Sinclair and Castle Girnigoe were both written down in 1700, both names have been in use since.
Robert Sinclair describes Girnigoe as "an adapted 5-storey L-plan crow-stepped gabled tower house, which sat upon a rocky promontory jutting out into Sinclair Bay. Of interest is the secret chamber in the vaulted ceiling of the kitchen."
In 1672, George Sinclair, 6th Earl of Caithness, was in heavy debt to his fourth cousin, John Campbell of Glenorchy, and transferred the castle to Campbell as payment. When Sinclair died four years later with no heir, Campbell claimed the title Earl of Caithness and married Sinclair's widow. However, Sinclair's first cousin, George Sinclair of Keiss, challenged Campbell's title. This resulted in the Battle of Altimarlach in which Campbell defeated Sinclair in 1680. Glenorchy and some of his troops remained in Caithness for some time and levied rents and taxes on the people, subjecting them to the most grievous oppression. He sent the remainder home immediately after the battle. However, George Sinclair of Keiss continued his opposition and laid siege, with firearms and artillery, to Castle Sinclair Girnigoe which he took after feeble resistance from the garrison. As a result, he and his three friends who had assisted him, Sinclair of Broynach, Sinclair of Thura and Mackay of Strathnaver were declared rebels. The political current having turned in favor of Sinclair of Keiss however, this was quashed. Having failed to regain his inheritance by force, Sinclair of Keiss then turned to the law.[9] Through the influence of the Duke of York and afterwards James II, he took his place as 7th Earl of Caithness on 15 July 1681, and his lands were restored on 23 September. Campbell of Glenorchy was made Earl of Breadalbane by way of compensation.
The Highlands is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands. The term is also used for the area north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east. The Great Glen divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands. The Scottish Gaelic name of A' Ghàidhealtachd literally means "the place of the Gaels" and traditionally, from a Gaelic-speaking point of view, includes both the Western Isles and the Highlands.
The area is very sparsely populated, with many mountain ranges dominating the region, and includes the highest mountain in the British Isles, Ben Nevis. During the 18th and early 19th centuries the population of the Highlands rose to around 300,000, but from c. 1841 and for the next 160 years, the natural increase in population was exceeded by emigration (mostly to Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and migration to the industrial cities of Scotland and England.) and passim The area is now one of the most sparsely populated in Europe. At 9.1/km2 (24/sq mi) in 2012, the population density in the Highlands and Islands is less than one seventh of Scotland's as a whole.
The Highland Council is the administrative body for much of the Highlands, with its administrative centre at Inverness. However, the Highlands also includes parts of the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Moray, North Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.
The Scottish Highlands is the only area in the British Isles to have the taiga biome as it features concentrated populations of Scots pine forest: see Caledonian Forest. It is the most mountainous part of the United Kingdom.
Between the 15th century and the mid-20th century, the area differed from most of the Lowlands in terms of language. In Scottish Gaelic, the region is known as the Gàidhealtachd, because it was traditionally the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, although the language is now largely confined to The Hebrides. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably but have different meanings in their respective languages. Scottish English (in its Highland form) is the predominant language of the area today, though Highland English has been influenced by Gaelic speech to a significant extent. Historically, the "Highland line" distinguished the two Scottish cultures. While the Highland line broadly followed the geography of the Grampians in the south, it continued in the north, cutting off the north-eastern areas, that is Eastern Caithness, Orkney and Shetland, from the more Gaelic Highlands and Hebrides.
Historically, the major social unit of the Highlands was the clan. Scottish kings, particularly James VI, saw clans as a challenge to their authority; the Highlands was seen by many as a lawless region. The Scots of the Lowlands viewed the Highlanders as backward and more "Irish". The Highlands were seen as the overspill of Gaelic Ireland. They made this distinction by separating Germanic "Scots" English and the Gaelic by renaming it "Erse" a play on Eire. Following the Union of the Crowns, James VI had the military strength to back up any attempts to impose some control. The result was, in 1609, the Statutes of Iona which started the process of integrating clan leaders into Scottish society. The gradual changes continued into the 19th century, as clan chiefs thought of themselves less as patriarchal leaders of their people and more as commercial landlords. The first effect on the clansmen who were their tenants was the change to rents being payable in money rather than in kind. Later, rents were increased as Highland landowners sought to increase their income. This was followed, mostly in the period 1760–1850, by agricultural improvement that often (particularly in the Western Highlands) involved clearance of the population to make way for large scale sheep farms. Displaced tenants were set up in crofting communities in the process. The crofts were intended not to provide all the needs of their occupiers; they were expected to work in other industries such as kelping and fishing. Crofters came to rely substantially on seasonal migrant work, particularly in the Lowlands. This gave impetus to the learning of English, which was seen by many rural Gaelic speakers to be the essential "language of work".
Older historiography attributes the collapse of the clan system to the aftermath of the Jacobite risings. This is now thought less influential by historians. Following the Jacobite rising of 1745 the British government enacted a series of laws to try to suppress the clan system, including bans on the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartan, and limitations on the activities of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Most of this legislation was repealed by the end of the 18th century as the Jacobite threat subsided. There was soon a rehabilitation of Highland culture. Tartan was adopted for Highland regiments in the British Army, which poor Highlanders joined in large numbers in the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815). Tartan had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people of the region, but in the 1820s, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe. The international craze for tartan, and for idealising a romanticised Highlands, was set off by the Ossian cycle, and further popularised by the works of Walter Scott. His "staging" of the visit of King George IV to Scotland in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish woollen industry. Individual clan tartans were largely designated in this period and they became a major symbol of Scottish identity. This "Highlandism", by which all of Scotland was identified with the culture of the Highlands, was cemented by Queen Victoria's interest in the country, her adoption of Balmoral as a major royal retreat, and her interest in "tartenry".
Recurrent famine affected the Highlands for much of its history, with significant instances as late as 1817 in the Eastern Highlands and the early 1850s in the West. Over the 18th century, the region had developed a trade of black cattle into Lowland markets, and this was balanced by imports of meal into the area. There was a critical reliance on this trade to provide sufficient food, and it is seen as an essential prerequisite for the population growth that started in the 18th century. Most of the Highlands, particularly in the North and West was short of the arable land that was essential for the mixed, run rig based, communal farming that existed before agricultural improvement was introduced into the region.[a] Between the 1760s and the 1830s there was a substantial trade in unlicensed whisky that had been distilled in the Highlands. Lowland distillers (who were not able to avoid the heavy taxation of this product) complained that Highland whisky made up more than half the market. The development of the cattle trade is taken as evidence that the pre-improvement Highlands was not an immutable system, but did exploit the economic opportunities that came its way. The illicit whisky trade demonstrates the entrepreneurial ability of the peasant classes.
Agricultural improvement reached the Highlands mostly over the period 1760 to 1850. Agricultural advisors, factors, land surveyors and others educated in the thinking of Adam Smith were keen to put into practice the new ideas taught in Scottish universities. Highland landowners, many of whom were burdened with chronic debts, were generally receptive to the advice they offered and keen to increase the income from their land. In the East and South the resulting change was similar to that in the Lowlands, with the creation of larger farms with single tenants, enclosure of the old run rig fields, introduction of new crops (such as turnips), land drainage and, as a consequence of all this, eviction, as part of the Highland clearances, of many tenants and cottars. Some of those cleared found employment on the new, larger farms, others moved to the accessible towns of the Lowlands.
In the West and North, evicted tenants were usually given tenancies in newly created crofting communities, while their former holdings were converted into large sheep farms. Sheep farmers could pay substantially higher rents than the run rig farmers and were much less prone to falling into arrears. Each croft was limited in size so that the tenants would have to find work elsewhere. The major alternatives were fishing and the kelp industry. Landlords took control of the kelp shores, deducting the wages earned by their tenants from the rent due and retaining the large profits that could be earned at the high prices paid for the processed product during the Napoleonic wars.
When the Napoleonic wars finished in 1815, the Highland industries were affected by the return to a peacetime economy. The price of black cattle fell, nearly halving between 1810 and the 1830s. Kelp prices had peaked in 1810, but reduced from £9 a ton in 1823 to £3 13s 4d a ton in 1828. Wool prices were also badly affected. This worsened the financial problems of debt-encumbered landlords. Then, in 1846, potato blight arrived in the Highlands, wiping out the essential subsistence crop for the overcrowded crofting communities. As the famine struck, the government made clear to landlords that it was their responsibility to provide famine relief for their tenants. The result of the economic downturn had been that a large proportion of Highland estates were sold in the first half of the 19th century. T M Devine points out that in the region most affected by the potato famine, by 1846, 70 per cent of the landowners were new purchasers who had not owned Highland property before 1800. More landlords were obliged to sell due to the cost of famine relief. Those who were protected from the worst of the crisis were those with extensive rental income from sheep farms. Government loans were made available for drainage works, road building and other improvements and many crofters became temporary migrants – taking work in the Lowlands. When the potato famine ceased in 1856, this established a pattern of more extensive working away from the Highlands.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional and controversial subject, of enormous importance to the Highland economy, and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The poor crofters were politically powerless, and many of them turned to religion. They embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival after 1800. Most joined the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. The religious change energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords; it helped prepare them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League. Violence erupted, starting on the Isle of Skye, when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quietened when the government stepped in, passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. This contrasted with the Irish Land War underway at the same time, where the Irish were intensely politicised through roots in Irish nationalism, while political dimensions were limited. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, which listened to their pleas. The results included explicit security for the Scottish smallholders in the "crofting counties"; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and the creation of a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained their votes.
Today, the Highlands are the largest of Scotland's whisky producing regions; the relevant area runs from Orkney to the Isle of Arran in the south and includes the northern isles and much of Inner and Outer Hebrides, Argyll, Stirlingshire, Arran, as well as sections of Perthshire and Aberdeenshire. (Other sources treat The Islands, except Islay, as a separate whisky producing region.) This massive area has over 30 distilleries, or 47 when the Islands sub-region is included in the count. According to one source, the top five are The Macallan, Glenfiddich, Aberlour, Glenfarclas and Balvenie. While Speyside is geographically within the Highlands, that region is specified as distinct in terms of whisky productions. Speyside single malt whiskies are produced by about 50 distilleries.
According to Visit Scotland, Highlands whisky is "fruity, sweet, spicy, malty". Another review states that Northern Highlands single malt is "sweet and full-bodied", the Eastern Highlands and Southern Highlands whiskies tend to be "lighter in texture" while the distilleries in the Western Highlands produce single malts with a "much peatier influence".
The Scottish Reformation achieved partial success in the Highlands. Roman Catholicism remained strong in some areas, owing to remote locations and the efforts of Franciscan missionaries from Ireland, who regularly came to celebrate Mass. There remain significant Catholic strongholds within the Highlands and Islands such as Moidart and Morar on the mainland and South Uist and Barra in the southern Outer Hebrides. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw somewhat greater success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 19th century, the evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly, appealing much more strongly than did the established church.
For the most part, however, the Highlands are considered predominantly Protestant, belonging to the Church of Scotland. In contrast to the Catholic southern islands, the northern Outer Hebrides islands (Lewis, Harris and North Uist) have an exceptionally high proportion of their population belonging to the Protestant Free Church of Scotland or the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The Outer Hebrides have been described as the last bastion of Calvinism in Britain and the Sabbath remains widely observed. Inverness and the surrounding area has a majority Protestant population, with most locals belonging to either The Kirk or the Free Church of Scotland. The church maintains a noticeable presence within the area, with church attendance notably higher than in other parts of Scotland. Religion continues to play an important role in Highland culture, with Sabbath observance still widely practised, particularly in the Hebrides.
In traditional Scottish geography, the Highlands refers to that part of Scotland north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which crosses mainland Scotland in a near-straight line from Helensburgh to Stonehaven. However the flat coastal lands that occupy parts of the counties of Nairnshire, Morayshire, Banffshire and Aberdeenshire are often excluded as they do not share the distinctive geographical and cultural features of the rest of the Highlands. The north-east of Caithness, as well as Orkney and Shetland, are also often excluded from the Highlands, although the Hebrides are usually included. The Highland area, as so defined, differed from the Lowlands in language and tradition, having preserved Gaelic speech and customs centuries after the anglicisation of the latter; this led to a growing perception of a divide, with the cultural distinction between Highlander and Lowlander first noted towards the end of the 14th century. In Aberdeenshire, the boundary between the Highlands and the Lowlands is not well defined. There is a stone beside the A93 road near the village of Dinnet on Royal Deeside which states 'You are now in the Highlands', although there are areas of Highland character to the east of this point.
A much wider definition of the Highlands is that used by the Scotch whisky industry. Highland single malts are produced at distilleries north of an imaginary line between Dundee and Greenock, thus including all of Aberdeenshire and Angus.
Inverness is regarded as the Capital of the Highlands, although less so in the Highland parts of Aberdeenshire, Angus, Perthshire and Stirlingshire which look more to Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Stirling as their commercial centres.
The Highland Council area, created as one of the local government regions of Scotland, has been a unitary council area since 1996. The council area excludes a large area of the southern and eastern Highlands, and the Western Isles, but includes Caithness. Highlands is sometimes used, however, as a name for the council area, as in the former Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern is also used to refer to the area, as in the former Northern Constabulary. These former bodies both covered the Highland council area and the island council areas of Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.
Much of the Highlands area overlaps the Highlands and Islands area. An electoral region called Highlands and Islands is used in elections to the Scottish Parliament: this area includes Orkney and Shetland, as well as the Highland Council local government area, the Western Isles and most of the Argyll and Bute and Moray local government areas. Highlands and Islands has, however, different meanings in different contexts. It means Highland (the local government area), Orkney, Shetland, and the Western Isles in Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service. Northern, as in Northern Constabulary, refers to the same area as that covered by the fire and rescue service.
There have been trackways from the Lowlands to the Highlands since prehistoric times. Many traverse the Mounth, a spur of mountainous land that extends from the higher inland range to the North Sea slightly north of Stonehaven. The most well-known and historically important trackways are the Causey Mounth, Elsick Mounth, Cryne Corse Mounth and Cairnamounth.
Although most of the Highlands is geographically on the British mainland, it is somewhat less accessible than the rest of Britain; thus most UK couriers categorise it separately, alongside Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and other offshore islands. They thus charge additional fees for delivery to the Highlands, or exclude the area entirely. While the physical remoteness from the largest population centres inevitably leads to higher transit cost, there is confusion and consternation over the scale of the fees charged and the effectiveness of their communication, and the use of the word Mainland in their justification. Since the charges are often based on postcode areas, many far less remote areas, including some which are traditionally considered part of the lowlands, are also subject to these charges. Royal Mail is the only delivery network bound by a Universal Service Obligation to charge a uniform tariff across the UK. This, however, applies only to mail items and not larger packages which are dealt with by its Parcelforce division.
The Highlands lie to the north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, which runs from Arran to Stonehaven. This part of Scotland is largely composed of ancient rocks from the Cambrian and Precambrian periods which were uplifted during the later Caledonian Orogeny. Smaller formations of Lewisian gneiss in the northwest are up to 3 billion years old. The overlying rocks of the Torridon Sandstone form mountains in the Torridon Hills such as Liathach and Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross.
These foundations are interspersed with many igneous intrusions of a more recent age, the remnants of which have formed mountain massifs such as the Cairngorms and the Cuillin of Skye. A significant exception to the above are the fossil-bearing beds of Old Red Sandstone found principally along the Moray Firth coast and partially down the Highland Boundary Fault. The Jurassic beds found in isolated locations on Skye and Applecross reflect the complex underlying geology. They are the original source of much North Sea oil. The Great Glen is formed along a transform fault which divides the Grampian Mountains to the southeast from the Northwest Highlands.
The entire region was covered by ice sheets during the Pleistocene ice ages, save perhaps for a few nunataks. The complex geomorphology includes incised valleys and lochs carved by the action of mountain streams and ice, and a topography of irregularly distributed mountains whose summits have similar heights above sea-level, but whose bases depend upon the amount of denudation to which the plateau has been subjected in various places.
Climate
The region is much warmer than other areas at similar latitudes (such as Kamchatka in Russia, or Labrador in Canada) because of the Gulf Stream making it cool, damp and temperate. The Köppen climate classification is "Cfb" at low altitudes, then becoming "Cfc", "Dfc" and "ET" at higher altitudes.
Places of interest
An Teallach
Aonach Mòr (Nevis Range ski centre)
Arrochar Alps
Balmoral Castle
Balquhidder
Battlefield of Culloden
Beinn Alligin
Beinn Eighe
Ben Cruachan hydro-electric power station
Ben Lomond
Ben Macdui (second highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Ben Nevis (highest mountain in Scotland and UK)
Cairngorms National Park
Cairngorm Ski centre near Aviemore
Cairngorm Mountains
Caledonian Canal
Cape Wrath
Carrick Castle
Castle Stalker
Castle Tioram
Chanonry Point
Conic Hill
Culloden Moor
Dunadd
Duart Castle
Durness
Eilean Donan
Fingal's Cave (Staffa)
Fort George
Glen Coe
Glen Etive
Glen Kinglas
Glen Lyon
Glen Orchy
Glenshee Ski Centre
Glen Shiel
Glen Spean
Glenfinnan (and its railway station and viaduct)
Grampian Mountains
Hebrides
Highland Folk Museum – The first open-air museum in the UK.
Highland Wildlife Park
Inveraray Castle
Inveraray Jail
Inverness Castle
Inverewe Garden
Iona Abbey
Isle of Staffa
Kilchurn Castle
Kilmartin Glen
Liathach
Lecht Ski Centre
Loch Alsh
Loch Ard
Loch Awe
Loch Assynt
Loch Earn
Loch Etive
Loch Fyne
Loch Goil
Loch Katrine
Loch Leven
Loch Linnhe
Loch Lochy
Loch Lomond
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
Loch Lubnaig
Loch Maree
Loch Morar
Loch Morlich
Loch Ness
Loch Nevis
Loch Rannoch
Loch Tay
Lochranza
Luss
Meall a' Bhuiridh (Glencoe Ski Centre)
Scottish Sea Life Sanctuary at Loch Creran
Rannoch Moor
Red Cuillin
Rest and Be Thankful stretch of A83
River Carron, Wester Ross
River Spey
River Tay
Ross and Cromarty
Smoo Cave
Stob Coire a' Chàirn
Stac Polly
Strathspey Railway
Sutherland
Tor Castle
Torridon Hills
Urquhart Castle
West Highland Line (scenic railway)
West Highland Way (Long-distance footpath)
Wester Ross
The Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) is a tailless, arboreal, black furred gibbon native to the forests of Malaysia, Thailand, and Sumatra. The largest of the lesser apes, the Siamang can be twice the size of other gibbons, reaching 1 m in height, and weighing up to 14 kg. The Siamang is the only species in the genus Symphalangus.
The Siamang is distinctive for two reasons. The first is that two fingers on each hand are fused together — hence the name "syndactylus", from the Ancient Greek sun-, "united" + daktulos "finger". The second is the large "gular sac" (found in both male and female of the species), which is a throat pouch that can be inflated to the size of its head, allowing the Siamang to make loud resonating calls or songs.
There may be two subspecies of the Siamang. If so, they are the nominate Sumatran Siamang (S. s. syndactylus) and the Malaysian Siamang (S. s. continentis, in peninsular Malaysia). Otherwise, the Malaysian individuals are only a population. The Siamang is the only gibbon which occurs sympatrically with other gibbons; its two ranges are entirely within the combined ranges of the Agile Gibbon and the Lar Gibbon. Although the siamang is given a different name than other gibbons, this division is not cladistically sound, since the genus Nomascus split from the rest of the gibbons before Symphalangus split.
The Siamang can live up to 30+ years in captivity.
While the illegal pet trade takes a toll on wild populations, the principal threat to the Siamang is habitat loss in both Malaysia and Sumatra. Palm oil production is clearing large swathes of forest, reducing the habitat of the Siamang, along with that of other species such as the Sumatran Tiger.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
IN ENGLISH BELOW THE LINE
La mansió anglesa de Lacock Abbey fou l'escenari on William Henry Fox Talbot descobrí la fotografia, realitzant el primer negatiu fotografic de la historia aquí, el 1835. Es tracta d'un negatiu de paper poc més gran que un segell, fet amb el que la seva dona anomenava "càmeres de trampa de ratolins".
Aquí podeu veure la sala on va fer aquest primer negatiu, amb la càmera sobre una xemeneia i mirant cap a la finestra.
De manera resumida, mullà paper fí amb sal de taula i nitrat de plata; el posà a la càmera i la deixà mirant cap a la finestra durant força temps. M'han comentat que entre 15 minuts i dues hores, però crec que més aviat fou entre 2 i 3 hores. A la llum d'espelmes va veure que el paper havia obtingut la imatge del finestral... en negatiu. Tot seguit el va submergir en una forta sol·lució de sal, el que quasi fixà la imatge en el seu estat. No fou fins 6 anys després que es va descobrir que amb tiosulfat de sodi la imatge quedava perfectament fixada, en dissoldre la resta de sals de plata presents (que enfosquirien del tot la imatge, amb el temps).
Fox Talbot no va publicar els seus treballs fins el 1839, quan el varen sorpendre les noticies que arrivaven de França, on Louis Daguerre havia presentat solemnement el seu procés amb planxes de plata i tòxics vapors de iode i mercuri, el daguerrotip.
Fox Talbot va millorar molt el seu propi procés el 1840, en incorporar el fixador i sobretot en aconseguiir reduir les expossicions de 3 hores a 3 minuts (i fins a menys de un, amb un bon objectiu). Ho va anomenar calotip.
Però des del 1839 fins al 1851, els daguerrotips varen dominar la fotografia completament, ja que eren impressionantment més definits i permetien fàcilment retrats. Però els calotips es podien copiar, al ser negatius, cosa que feu que la evolució de la fotografia (amb la placa humida a partir de 1851) fos a partir de la obra de Fox Talbot.
ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Fox_Talbot
ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abadia_de_Lacock
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The English manor of Lacock Abbey was the scene where William Henry Fox Talbot discovered photography, making the first photographic negative in history here, in 1835. It is a paper negative little bigger than a stamp, made with the which his wife called "mousetrap cameras".
Here you can see the room where he made this first negative, with the camera on a fireplace and looking out the window.
Briefly, he painted fine paper with table salt and silver nitrate; he put it on the camera and left it staring at the window for quite some time. They told me that between 15 minutes and two hours, but I think it was more like between 2 and 3 hours. In the candlelight he saw that the paper had obtained the image of the window...in negative. He then immersed it in a strong salt solution, which almost fixed the image in its state. It wasn't until 6 years later that it was discovered that with sodium thiosulphate the image was perfectly fixed, by dissolving the rest of the silver salts present (which would completely darken the image, over time).
Fox Talbot did not publish his work until 1839, when he was surprised by the news arriving from France, where Louis Daguerre had solemnly presented his process with silver plates and toxic vapors of iodine and mercury, the daguerreotype.
Fox Talbot greatly improved his own process in 1840, by incorporating the fixer and especially by managing to reduce exposures from 3 hours to 3 minutes (and down to less than one, with a good objective). He called it a calotype.
But from 1839 to 1851, daguerreotypes dominated photography completely, as they were impressively sharper and easily allowed portraits. But calotypes could be copied, being negatives, making the evolution of photography (with the wet plate from 1851 onwards) from the work of Fox Talbot.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacock_Abbey
Redeveloped in 1886 for local property speculator James Darragh, the hotel was originally named the Kangaroo Point Hotel. It replaced the original hotel on the site named the Logan Hotel and is one of only seven, three storey hotels in Queensland from that period. Following the construction of the Story Bridge in 1940 it’s name changed to the Story Bridge Hotel in 1941.
During WWII, the R.A.N. used it for sailors' quarters . The Queensland government issued Protection of Persons and Property Orders No.1. (23 December 1941) and No.2 (23 March 1942)compelling air raid shelters on private premises holding 30 (reduced to 15) or more persons. The Hotel's shelter was built in 1942. Postwar, it was used as a storeroom and the 'Bomb Shelter Bar’
Última semana que nos queda de vacaciones, así que a disfrutar al máximo. Mañana no creo que pueda subir fotos así que felices reyes a todos y espero que os regalen muchas cosas.
*Esta tarde con mis niñas a ver los reyes y a comprar últimos regalos.
Cicindelidia obsoleta obsoleta
In the afternoon heat, facing the sun head on reduces the beetle's solar footprint.
Equipment: Takahashi FSQ-130ED, F3 Reducer 0.6x, IDAS Clear Filter, and EOS R-SP4II, modified by Seo San on ZWO AM5n Equatorial Mount, autoguided with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, Pentax x2 Extender, ZWO ASI 174MM-mini, and PHD2 Guiding
Exposure: 6 times x 480 seconds, 3 x 240 sec, 7 x 60 seconds at ISO 1,600 and f/3.0, focal length 390mm
site: 1,449m above sea level at lat. 35 24 30 North and long. 138 38 23 East near Mt.Fuji in Asagiri Shizuoka 静岡県朝霧高原. SQML was up to 21.0, though astmospheric turbulence was poor. Atmospheric temperature was around -8 degrees Celsius or 18 degrees Fahrenheit.
Multicolor bromoil on liquid emulsion from Foma.
Gandolfi with 4x5 reducing back, Kodak Portrait Lens 305 mm, f 8.
Ilford HP5 in DD-X.
The Mount McAllister Fire burnt burnt over 26,000 hectares of forest near Hudson's Hope B.C. last summer. When I was able to explore some of the burned landscape in October after the fire fighting crews had left there was still many small isolated fires still burning and the air was still fairly smokey.
We are really trying to do our part to reduce plastic use. I got these bags for the grocery store and Anna bought some bags for lunches so we can phase out our Ziploc use.
Thank you everyone for visiting, commenting and fav'ing - very much appreciated! Press "L" for better view and "F" if you like it!
The Central Valley of California is huge and has big farming. You can drive for many minutes along the same type of crop. I took this shot from a car driving 60 mph along the highway near Lemoore, California. This field is big & flat, and you can see a mirage at the end. Drip irrigation is used, which helps in reducing water usage - water is a very precious fluid in California. Monoculture makes sense economically, but wonder what impact it has on animals, insects and the use of pesticides.
I processed this single shot into an HDR photo, then reduced the color saturation to give it a pastel look.
HDR, 1 exposure, NEX-6, _DSC3055_hdr1def1b2
This and the prior image were shot with my A6500. Since there were two windows, I had a camera at each one to reduce the setup time for shots. The bright spotlight from Roosevelt Island made the spots on the window more visible on the river.
Shanghai 。朱家角之
東方威尼斯 - 水鄉
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Non HDR, simple blending techniques process by CS5 software.
Basic Standard Gears I rely for Landscape
Canon EOS 5D Mark2 (a full frame ideal for interpolating landscape image).
Tokina 16-28 F2.8 ultra wide lens.
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Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB) is a Swedish mining company. The company mines iron ore at Kiruna and at Malmberget in northern Sweden. The company was established in 1890, and has been 100% state-owned since the 1950s. In 1918 the company purchased the Francis Flower business in the UK which included the GBSS processing plant at Scunthorpe steelworks.
Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS) is produced by quenching molten iron slag from a blast furnace in water or steam, to produce a glassy, granular product that is then dried and ground into a fine powder. It replaces up to 70% of the Portland Cement in concrete, and can significantly reduce CO2-emissions. Francis Flower produced GGBS in Scunthorpe on the grounds of British Steel upgrading their blast furnace slag. LKAB is also a significant supplier of highly upgraded iron ore products to British Steel, the first deliveries were made in the 1930’s. Francis Flower was the second largest supplier of GGBS in the UK.
The plant in the near background is operated by Calumite Limited which supplies glassmakers in the UK and overseas with Calumite, a refined blast furnace slag. Calumite is a glassy calcium-alumina-silicate that is used as a raw material in all types of soda-lime-silica glassmaking.
I've enhaced this amazing sculpture by American artist Randolph Rogers using Topaz Texture Effects Crisp Morning Run preset adding an additional light rays layer with the size increased to 1.51 and moved slightly then added a Basic Adjustment layer to reduce brightness slightly and increase clarity to add slightly more definition to the face.
Photographed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.
A rare moment of considerable snowfall captured here at Barnes on 11 December 1981. RM 116 has, by this time, overcome the early problems with its hydraulic suspension system trialed in service at Mortlake Garage but, by coming late in Routemaster life, was destined to stay unique.
The `in-house` advertising promoting the fares fair policy was applied widespread across the fleet as the almost immediate success of the scheme took many by surprise when vastly reduced bus fares achieved a huge uplift in bus travel and an equally huge drop in car traffic. Those of us who worked through the before, during and after of the scheme saw an interesting chapter in LT`s history never to be repeated in such a meaningful way as the journey speed attained by Routemasters would not be replicated by doored buses.
The insignificant turning (Queen Elizabeth`s Walk) to the right of RM 116 was at the time of the photo almost twenty years away from becoming the main access into the now highly successful London Wetland Centre created out of a vast complex of soon to be redundant reservoirs when the London ring main was completed in the late 1980`s.
Ilkley & Otley local services have been reorganised following Transdev's decision not to re-tender for them. Connexionsbuses is running a rationalised (ie reduced) version and has obtained ex Go North East SR NK61DBZ, suitably branded, for the work. Connexionsbuses previously operated the local services until losing out to Transdev in 2017.
Whilst feeding and searching for food, Reddish Egrets race around energetically opening their wings wide to provide shade, reducing surface reflection and to enable it to better see the food below. A fun dance to observe. Like most herons, they eat fish, crustaceans, frogs and insect.
Image - Copyright 2018 Alan Vernon
Some Young History.
Like all the areas of the western slopes of NSW this was once the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people. Their lands covered one of the biggest agricultural regions of Australia. There was little conflict in this region and diseases more than pastoralist action reduced their numbers considerably within a couple of years of white pastoral occupation. Like so many areas beyond the declared Nineteen Counties- the legal limit of white settlement in the 1820s and 1830s - the first pastoralist was white squatter James White in 1826. This free settler established his Burrangong station on the banks of Stoney Creek on the advice of a local Aboriginal man, Coborn Jackie. James White never married but his brother joined him and the first white child born in the region was his niece Sarah White in 1830. She lived to be 107 years old. The district was rich as the soils were volcanic soils and numerous streams ran westward to the lower areas of western NSW. The area where the sheep flocks of White rested for their lambing became known as Lambing Flat. Another pastoralist Edward Taylor planted some cherry trees in 1847. In the 1840s these squatters got licensing and later leasehold rights over the land. Until the upheaval of 1860. Gold was discovered then by James White’s nephew Dennis Regan and Alexander the Yankee with it being reported in the press in August 1860.
By mid-1861 20,000 miners were at Lambing Flat including 2,000 Chinese diggers. The Chinese were resented and some argue that the origins of the White Australia Policy stem from the xenophobia of Lambing Flat. There is no direct linkage here but the sentiments foreshadowed the Commonwealth policy of 1901. A group of white diggers drove off 500 Chinese miners in November of 1860 and violence and distrust continued as they destroyed their tents. The NSW government acted quickly and a Gold Commissioner and troops were despatched to Lambing Flat two weeks later. A further group of Chinese were driven away in December. In early January a similar incident occurred but this time the diggers threatened to attack the police troops if they interfered. Despite 30 police troops at Lambing Flat a further indecent occurred at the end of January when hundreds of Chinese were frightened off the fields and their tens burnt. A Miners Protective League was formed to expel the Chinese. This did not happen on other goldfields so why Lambing Flat? No one really knows. In March the government sent 300 troops to Lambing Flat armed with cannon and a defensive compound was erected. The last violence occurred in late June and early July 1861 when 3,000 miners attacked the Chinese, cut off pigtails and stole property and burnt tents. One European miner was killed in the melee. Next they attacked the fortified gaol in order to release some imprisoned miners for violence on the goldfields. One miner was killed by the police during the riot which happened near the current main street of Young. The Courthouse and police station were burnt down by the protesters. Calm quickly returned and the police regained control of the goldfields. Were the miners influenced by their knowledge of Eureka? Is this really a foreshadowing of the emergence of the workers unions? Five miners were tried for crimes in Goulburn Courthouse later in 1861 but were all acquitted and then the NSW government passed the Chinese Immigration Restriction Act in November 1861. The miners appeared to have won the battle. The anti-Chinese banner which the rioters carried was hidden for 100 years but re-discovered in Young in the 1960s. It is now in the town museum. The Lambing Flat Folk Museum in Young has artefacts to tell the story of the Lambing Flat riots and the bushranging era. It also has the name plate of Coborn Jackie the Aboriginal friend and advisor of James White.
The town of Yong was surveyed in March of 1861 during the goldfield violence. The name of Lambing Flat was already tainted by then and the town was named Young after Sir John Young the Governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867. Town blocks were sold in May 1861 and before the end of that year Young had a Post Office, a school, a bank, an Anglican and a Catholic church and a newspaper. A hospital and a new Courthouse were erected in 1862. At that time Young was having about 124,000 ounces of gold escorted out of the town annually. But the rush was over by 1864 and less and less gold was being located by 1867. The town turned into an agricultural service centre with a saw mill (1865), a flour mill (1866), a brewery (1877) and finally railway (1885). The town then got a tannery, a soap factory, a work boot factory, a brick kiln, meat works and butter factory all before 1900. In 1889 Young became the first town outside of Sydney to have a domestic electricity supply for its residents. The arrival of the railway in 1885 allowed farmers to experiment with fruit crops as the train could speed them to markets in Sydney. Apples, oranges and plums were the first grown commercially in the 1890s and one farmer in the 1890s had a cherry orchard with 7,000 fruiting trees and 3,000 seedling cherries. Others followed suit and by 1908 Young was railing 15,000 cases of cherries to Sydney each season. Major expansion of the cherry industry occurred in the 1920s with 77 orchards near Young and it was soon the second most important cherry growing region of NSW after Orange. Young began holding a cherry festival in 1949 and still does each year in early December when picking is in full swing.
Some interesting buildings in Boorowa Street and vicinity are:
•In Zouch Street is the Gothic Anglican Church built in 1893. Architect was Edmund Blacket. The first Anglican Church was built on this spot in 1865. Adjacent is the red brick 1937 Rectory and the 1866 Anglican school room.
•Continue along Cloete St. Take next left into Lynch St. Here is the Methodist Church built in 1909. Now the Uniting Church. Built in Arts and Craft style with horizontal banding bricks, tower etc. The first Methodist Church was built in 1865. Turn around and go along Lynch Street.
•On the corner is the 1928 neo classical style Courthouse with Doric columns.
•Next to it is the much altered Post Office and clock built in 1878. The original Post Office stood here when built 1862.
•Cross the roundabout to see the School of Arts building and library. Built in 1904 as a single storey with two gables.
•Next door is the former AMP Society building on the corner. Built in the 1920s with a curved Doric pillared entrance with the AMP statue logo above. A friend in times of need.
•Opposite is the Presbyterian Church. Built in 1920 of greenish grey coloured feldspar quartz. Young’s first Presbyterian church was built in 1871. Turn around and turn right at the roundabout into Boorowa St.
•On the corner is the Baroque style Commercial Bank of Sydney built in 1890. Two different style porches for the entrances.
•On the right painted grey is The Great Eastern Hotel built in 1904. A typical Australian hotel but with triangular pediments.
•At the next roundabout is the Commercial Hotel. Built in 1930s in Spanish Mission style in red brick.
•Next on left is Millard’s Department Store built in 1917. A major three storey edifice in the street.
•Opposite is Young Town Hall built in 1875. In 1922 the Soldiers War Memorial Clock tower was added. Turn around and go back to the roundabout and turn right. Just along the road is the marked Federation building built around 1901. It has a stepped pediment along the roof. It is important as it was the store of one of the last 19th century Chinese traders in Young – Billy Hayes (anglicised.) He ran it to the 1960s.
•Turn right here next you will see on the right the five storey red brick Millard’s flourmill. Cross the creek.
•You will see St Mary’s Catholic Church. Gothic in style and erected 1874 of local granite with Welsh slate roof. Granite addition to the nave made in 1934. Just behind the church on the side street is the Catholic Convent built in 1891. Gothic looking gables and excellent cast iron lacework on balconies. Now part of the Catholic College.
•Opposite is the Lambing Flat Museum in the old original town school. It opened in 1883. The first town school began in 1861 with the first government school on the site on the present railway station.
•Beyond the park is Young High School. It began as the first Courthouse on these goldfields in 1861. A second grand classical Greek temple building Courthouse opened in 1886 at a cost of £12,000. It was given to the Education Department in 1924. With additions it opened as the Young High School in 1947.
•Young railway station. The railway reached here from Harden in 1885 when the Gothic station was built. It is now the Information Centre.
EK is sending the A380 to Zurich again. This is the first A380 arrival @ ZRH since EK and SQ stopped sending the mighty double decker when the coronavirus pandemic forced the airline to first cease, and then, to reduce their service. Welcome back!
(Monticola brevipes)
Namíbia
Taken very early in the morning with high ISO (6400) and I didn't use any noise reduction as I didn't find yet a way, in GIMP, to reduce the noise without loosing details beyond an acceptable limit (IMO). However I applied a substantial amount of gaussian blur on background.
Species 630 on BBM
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All my photos are now organized into sets by the country where they were taken, by taxonomic order, by family, by species (often with just one photo for the rarer ones), and by the date they were taken.
So, you may find:
- All the photos for this trip Namíbia (2015) (260)
- All the photos for this order PASSERIFORMES (3553)
- All the photos for this family Muscicapidae (Muscicapídeos) (454)
- All the photos for this species Monticola brevipes (2)
- All the photos taken this day 2015/12/20 (24)
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There is not a lot of color in my flower garden now, so I opted to put a boxwood plant into a recycle can. Thought I would get a snap with the 50mm and share.
The Royal Air Force unveiled impressive images of a unique aircraft formation to celebrate the forty years of service of the Panavia "Tornado GR4" attack jet.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Panavia "Tornado" is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom, and West Germany. There are three primary "Tornado" variants: the "Tornado IDS" (interdictor/strike) fighter-bomber, the suppression of enemy air defences "Tornado ECR" (electronic combat/reconnaissance) and the "Tornado ADV" (air defence variant) interceptor aircraft.
The "Tornado" was developed and built by Panavia Aircraft GmbH, a tri-national consortium consisting of British Aerospace (previously British Aircraft Corporation), MBB of West Germany, and Aeritalia of Italy. It first flew on 14 August 1974 and was introduced into service in 1979–1980. Due to its multirole design, it was able to replace several different fleets of aircraft in the adopting air forces. The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) became the only export operator of the "Tornado" in addition to the three original partner nations. A tri-nation training and evaluation unit operating from RAF Cottesmore, the Tri-National "Tornado" Training Establishment, maintained a level of international co-operation beyond the production stage.
The "Tornado" was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), Italian Air Force, and RSAF during the Gulf War of 1991, in which the "Tornado" conducted many low-altitude penetrating strike missions. The "Tornado's" of various services were also used in conflicts in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War and Kosovo War, the Iraq War, Libya during the Libyan civil war, as well as smaller roles in Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria. Including all variants, 992 aircraft were built.
Development
Origins
During the 1960s, aeronautical designers looked to variable-geometry wing designs to gain the manoeuvrability and efficient cruise of straight wings with the speed of swept wing designs. The United Kingdom had cancelled the procurement of the TSR-2 and subsequent F-111K aircraft, and was still looking for a replacement for its Avro "Vulcan" and Blackburn "Buccaneer" strike aircraft. Britain and France had initiated the AFVG (Anglo French Variable Geometry) project in 1965, but this had ended with French withdrawal in 1967. Britain continued to develop a variable-geometry aircraft similar to the proposed AFVG, and sought new partners to achieve this. West German EWR had been developing the swing-wing EWR-Fairchild-Hiller "A400 AVS (Advanced Vertical Strike) (which has a similar configuration to the "Tornado").
In 1968, West Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Canada formed a working group to examine replacements for the Lockheed F-104 "Starfighter", initially called the Multi Role Aircraft (MRA), later renamed as the Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MRCA). The participating nations all had ageing fleets that required replacing; but, as the requirements were so diverse, it was decided to develop a single aircraft that could perform a variety of missions that were previously undertaken by a fleet of different aircraft. Britain joined the MRCA group in 1968, represented by Air Vice-Marshal Michael Giddings, and a memorandum of agreement was drafted between Britain, West Germany, and Italy in May 1969.
By the end of 1968, the prospective purchases from the six countries amounted to 1,500 aircraft. Canada and Belgium had departed before any long-term commitments had been made to the programme; Canada had found the project politically unpalatable; there was a perception in political circles that much of the manufacturing and specifications were focused on Western Europe. France had made a favorable offer to Belgium on the Dassault "Mirage 5", which created doubt as to whether the MRCA would be worthwhile from Belgium's operational perspective.
Panavia Aircraft GmbH
On 26 March 1969, four partner nations – United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, agreed to form a multinational company, Panavia Aircraft GmbH, to develop and manufacture the MRCA. The project's aim was to produce an aircraft capable of undertaking missions in the tactical strike, reconnaissance, air defence, and maritime roles; thus allowing the MRCA to replace several different aircraft then in use by the partner nations. Various concepts, including alternative fixed-wing and single-engine designs, were studied while defining the aircraft. The Netherlands pulled out of the project in 1970, citing that the aircraft was too complicated and technical for the RNLAF's preferences, which had sought a simpler aircraft with outstanding manoeuvrability. An additional blow was struck by the German requirement reduced from an initial 600 aircraft to 324 in 1972. It has been suggested that Germany deliberately placed an unrealistically high initial order to secure the company headquarters and initial test flight in Germany rather than the UK, so as to have a bigger design influence.
When the agreement was finalised, the United Kingdom and West Germany each had a 42.5% stake of the workload, with the remaining 15% going to Italy; this division of the production work was heavily influenced by international political bargaining. The front fuselage and tail assembly was assigned to BAC (now BAE Systems) in the United Kingdom; the centre fuselage to MBB (now EADS) in West Germany; and the wings to Aeritalia (now Alenia Aeronautica) in Italy. Similarly, tri-national worksharing was used for engines, general and avionic equipment. A separate multinational company, Turbo-Union, was formed in June 1970 to develop and build the RB199 engines for the aircraft, with ownership similarly split 40% Rolls-Royce, 40% MTU, and 20% FIAT.
At the conclusion of the project definition phase in May 1970, the concepts were reduced to two designs; a single seat Panavia 100 which West Germany initially preferred, and the twin-seat Panavia 200 which the RAF preferred (this would become the "Tornado"). The aircraft was briefly called the Panavia "Panther", and the project soon coalesced towards the two-seat option. In September 1971, the three governments signed an Intention to Proceed (ITP) document, at which point the aircraft was intended solely for the low-level strike mission, where it was viewed as a viable threat to Soviet defences in that role. It was at this point that Britain's Chief of the Defence Staff announced "two-thirds of the fighting front line will be composed of this single, basic aircraft type".
Prototypes and testing
The first of more than a dozen "Tornado" prototypes took flight on 14 August 1974 at Manching, Germany; the pilot, Paul Millett described his experience: "Aircraft handling was delightful... the actual flight went so smoothly that I did begin to wonder whether this was not yet another simulation". Flight testing led to the need for minor modifications. Airflow disturbances were responded to by re-profiling the engine intakes and the fuselage to minimise surging and buffeting experienced at supersonic speeds.
According to Jim Quinn, programmer of the "Tornado" development simulation software and engineer on the "Tornado" engine and engine controls, the prototype was safely capable of reaching supercruise, but the engines had severe safety issues at high altitude while trying to decelerate. The triple shaft engine, designed for maximum power at low altitude, resulted in severe vibrations while attempting to decelerate at high altitude. At high altitude and low turbine speed the compressor did not provide enough pressure to hold back the combustion pressure and would result in a violent vibration as the combustion pressure backfired into the intake. To avoid this effect the engine controls would automatically increase the minimum idle setting as altitude increased, until at very high altitudes the idle setting was so high, however, that it was close to maximum dry thrust. This resulted in one of the test aircraft being stuck in a mach 1.2 supercruise at high altitude and having to reduce speed by turning the aircraft, because the idle setting at that altitude was so high that the aircraft could not decelerate.
The British Ministry of Supply ordered Chief Engineer Ted Talbot from the Concorde development team to provide intake design assistance to the "Tornado" development team in order to overcome these issues, which they hesitantly agreed to after noting that the "Concorde" intake data had apparently already been leaked to the Soviet Union. The German engineers working on the "Tornado" intake were unable to produce a functional "Concorde" style intake despite having data from the "Concorde" team. To make the problem worse, their management team incorrectly filed a patent on the "Concorde" design, and then tried to sue the British engineers who had provided the design to them. The German lawyers realized that the British had provided the designs to the German team, and requested further information to help their engineers overcome the problems with the "Tornado" intake, but Chief Engineer Talbot refused. According to Talbot, the "Concorde" engineers had determined the issue with the "Tornado" intake was that the engine did not respond to unexpected changes in the intake position, and therefore the engine was running at the wrong setting for a given position of the intake ramps. This was because the "Concorde" had similar issues due to control pressure not being high enough to maintain proper angles of the intake ramps. Aerodynamic forces could force the intakes into the improper position, and so they should have the ability to control the engines if this occurs. The "Tornado" intake system did not allow for this. Due to the behaviour of the German management team, the British engineers declined to share this information, and so the "Tornado" was not equipped with the more advanced intake design of the "Concorde".
Testing revealed that a nose-wheel steering augmentation system, connecting with the yaw damper, was necessary to counteract the destabilising effect produced by deploying the thrust reverser during landing rollouts.
From 1967 until 1984 Soviet KGB agents were provided details on the "Tornado" by the head of the West German Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Planning department, Manfred Rotsch.
Two prototypes were lost in accidents, both of which had been primarily caused by poor piloting decisions and errors leading to two ground collision incidents; a third "Tornado" prototype was seriously damaged by an incident involving pilot-induced pitch oscillation. During the type's development, aircraft designers of the era were beginning to incorporate features such as more sophisticated stability augmentation systems and autopilots. Aircraft such as the "Tornado" and the General Dynamics F-16 "Fighting Falcon" made use of these new technologies. Failure testing of the "Tornado's" triplex analogue command and stability augmentation system (CSAS) was conducted on a series of realistic flight control rigs; the variable-sweep wings in combination with varying, and frequently very heavy, payloads complicated the clearance process.
Production
The contract for the Batch 1 aircraft was signed on 29 July 1976. The first aircraft were delivered to the RAF and German Air Force on 5 and 6 June 1979 respectively. The first Italian "Tornado" was delivered on 25 September 1981. On 29 January 1981, the Tri-National "Tornado" Training Establishment (TTTE) officially opened at RAF Cottesmore, remaining active in training pilots from all operating nations until 31 March 1999. The 500th "Tornado" to be produced was delivered to West Germany on 19 December 1987.
Export customers were sought after West Germany withdrew its objections to exporting the aircraft; Saudi Arabia was the only export customer of the "Tornado". The agreement to purchase the "Tornado" was part of the controversial Al-Yamamah arms deal between British Aerospace and the Saudi government. Oman had committed to purchasing "Tornado's" and the equipment to operate them for a total value of £250 million in the late 1980s, but cancelled the order in 1990 due to financial difficulties.
During the 1970s, Australia considered joining the MRCA programme to find a replacement for their ageing Dassault "Mirage IIIs"; ultimately the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 "Hornet" was selected to meet the requirement. Canada similarly opted for the F/A-18 after considering the "Tornado". Japan considered the "Tornado" in the 1980s, along with the General Dynamics F-16 "Fighting Falcon" and F/A-18, before selecting the "Mitsubishi F-2", a domestically produced design based on the F-16. In the 1990s, both Taiwan and South Korea expressed interest in acquiring a small number of "Tornado ECR" aircraft. In 2001, EADS proposed a "Tornado ECR" variant with a greater electronic warfare capability for Australia.
Production came to an end in 1998; the last batch of aircraft being produced went to the Royal Saudi Air Force, who had ordered a total of 96 IDS "Tornado's". In June 2011, it was announced that the RAF's "Tornado" fleet had flown collectively over one million flying hours. Aviation author Jon Lake noted that "The Trinational Panavia Consortium produced just short of 1,000 Tornados, making it one of the most successful postwar bomber programs". In 2008, AirForces Monthly said of the "Tornado": "For more than a quarter of a century ... the most important military aircraft in Western Europe."
A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species Bos taurus (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, including for sacrifices. These animals play a significant role in beef ranching, dairy farming, and a variety of sporting and cultural activities, including bullfighting and bull riding.
Due to their temperament, handling of bulls requires precautions.
Nomenclature
See also: List of animal names
The female counterpart to a bull is a cow, while a male of the species that has been castrated is a steer, ox, or bullock, although in North America, this last term refers to a young bull. Use of these terms varies considerably with area and dialect. Colloquially, people unfamiliar with cattle may also refer to steers and heifers as "cows", and bovines of aggressive or long-horned breeds as "bulls" regardless of sex.
A wild, young, unmarked bull is known as a micky in Australia.[3] Improper or late castration on a bull results in him becoming a coarse steer, also known as a stag in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In some countries, an incompletely castrated male is known also as a rig or ridgling.
The word "bull" also denotes the males of other bovines, including bison and water buffalo, as well as many other species of large animals, including elephants, rhinos, seals and walruses, hippos, camels, giraffes, elk, moose, whales, dolphins, and antelopes.
Characteristics
Bulls are much more muscular than cows, with thicker bones, larger feet, a very muscular neck, and a large, bony head with protective ridges over the eyes. These features assist bulls in fighting for domination over a herd, giving the winner superior access to cows for reproduction. The hair is generally shorter on the body, but the neck and head often have a "mane" of curlier, wooly hair. Bulls are usually about the same height as cows or a little taller, but because of the additional muscle and bone mass, they often weigh far more. Most of the time, a bull has a hump on his shoulders.
In horned cattle, the horns of bulls tend to be thicker and somewhat shorter than those of cows, and in many breeds, they curve outwards in a flat arc rather than upwards in a lyre shape. It is not true, as is commonly believed, that bulls have horns and cows do not: the presence of horns depends on the breed, or in horned breeds on whether the horns have been disbudded. (It is true, however, that in many breeds of sheep only the males have horns.) Cattle that naturally do not have horns are referred to as polled, or muleys.
Castrated male cattle are physically similar to females in build and horn shape, although if allowed to reach maturity, they may be considerably taller than either bulls or cows, with heavily muscled shoulders and necks.
Bulls become fertile around seven months of age. Their fertility is closely related to the size of their testicles, and one simple test of fertility is to measure the circumference of the scrotum; a young bull is likely to be fertile once this reaches 28 centimetres (11 in); that of a fully adult bull may be over 40 centimetres (16 in). Bulls have a fibroelastic penis. Given the small amount of erectile tissue, little enlargement occurs after erection. The penis is quite rigid when not erect, and becomes even more rigid during erection. Protrusion is not affected much by erection, but more by relaxation of the retractor penis muscle and straightening of the sigmoid flexure. Bulls are occasionally affected by a condition known as "corkscrew penis". The penis of a mature bull is about 3–4 cm in diameter, and 80–100 cm in length. The bull's glans penis has a rounded and elongated shape.
Misconceptions
A common misconception widely repeated in depictions of bull behavior is that the color red angers bulls, inciting them to charge. In fact, like most mammals, cattle are red–green color blind. In bullfighting, the movement of the matador's cape, and not the color, provokes a reaction in the bull.
Management
Beef production
Other than the few bulls needed for breeding, the vast majority of male cattle are castrated and slaughtered for meat before the age of three years, except where they are needed (castrated) as work oxen for haulage. Most of these beef animals are castrated as calves to reduce aggressive behavior and prevent unwanted mating, although some are reared as uncastrated bull beef. A bull is typically ready for slaughter one or two months sooner than a castrated male or a female, and produces proportionately more and leaner muscle.
Frame score is a useful way of describing the skeletal size of bulls and other cattle. Frame scores can be used as an aid to predict mature cattle sizes and aid in the selection of beef bulls. They are calculated from hip height and age. In sales catalogues, this measurement is frequently reported in addition to weight and other performance data such as estimated breed value.
Temperament and handling
Adult bulls may weigh between 500 and 1,000 kg (1,100 and 2,200 lb). Most are capable of aggressive behavior and require careful handling to ensure the safety of humans and other animals. Those of dairy breeds may be more prone to aggression, while beef breeds are somewhat less aggressive, though beef breeds such as the Spanish Fighting Bull and related animals are also noted for aggressive tendencies, which are further encouraged by selective breeding.
An estimated 42% of all livestock-related fatalities in Canada are a result of bull attacks, and fewer than one in 20 victims of a bull attack survives. Dairy breed bulls are particularly dangerous and unpredictable; the hazards of bull handling are a significant cause of injury and death for dairy farmers in some parts of the United States. The need to move a bull in and out of its pen to cover cows exposes the handler to serious jeopardy of life and limb. Being trampled, jammed against a wall, or gored by a bull was one of the most frequent causes of death in the dairy industry before 1940.[1] With regard to such risks, one popular farming magazine has suggested, "Handle the bull with a staff and take no chances. The gentle bull, not the vicious one, most often kills or maims his keeper".
Handling
In many areas, placing rings in bulls' noses to help control them is traditional. The ring is usually made of copper, and is inserted through a small hole cut in the septum of the nose. It is used by attaching a lead rope either directly to it or running through it from a head collar, or for more difficult bulls, a bull pole (or bull staff) may be used. This is a rigid pole about 1 m (3 ft) long with a clip at one end; this attaches to the ring and allows the bull both to be led and to be held away from his handler.
An aggressive bull may be kept confined in a bull pen, a robustly constructed shelter and pen, often with an arrangement to allow the bull to be fed without entering the pen. If an aggressive bull is allowed to graze outside, additional precautions may be needed to help avoid him harming people. One method is a bull mask, which either covers the bull's eyes completely, or restricts his vision to the ground immediately in front of him, so he cannot see his potential victim. Another method is to attach a length of chain to the bull's nose-ring, so that if he ducks his head to charge, he steps on the chain and is brought up short. Alternatively, the bull may be hobbled, or chained by his ring or by a collar to a solid object such as a ring fixed into the ground.
In larger pastures, particularly where a bull is kept with other cattle, the animals may simply be fed from a pickup truck or tractor, the vehicle itself providing some protection for the humans involved. Generally, bulls kept with cows tend to be less aggressive than those kept alone. In herd situations, cows with young calves are often more dangerous to humans. In the off season, multiple bulls may be kept together in a "bachelor herd".
Artificial insemination
Many cattle ranches and stations run bulls with cows, and most dairy or beef farms traditionally had at least one, if not several, bulls for purposes of herd maintenance.[32][33] However, the problems associated with handling a bull (particularly where cows must be removed from his presence to be worked) has prompted many dairy farmers to restrict themselves to artificial insemination (AI) of the cows. Semen is removed from the bulls and stored in canisters of liquid nitrogen, where it is kept until it can be sold, at which time it can be very profitable; in fact, many ranchers keep bulls specifically for this purpose. AI is also used to improve the quality of a herd, or to introduce an outcross of bloodlines. Some ranchers prefer to use AI to allow them to breed to several different bulls in a season or to breed their best stock to a higher-quality bull than they could afford to purchase outright. AI may also be used in conjunction with embryo transfer to allow cattle producers to add new breeding to their herds.
Relationship with humans
Aside from their reproductive duties, bulls are also used in certain sports, including bullfighting and bull-riding. They are also incorporated into festivals and folk events such as the Running of the Bulls and were seen in ancient sports such as bull-leaping. Though less common than castrated males, bulls are used as draught oxen in some areas. The once-popular sport of bull-baiting, in which a bull is attacked by specially bred and trained dogs (which came to be known as bulldogs), was banned in England by the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835.
As with other animals, some bulls have been regarded as pets. The singer Charo, for instance, has owned a pet bull named Manolo.
Significance in human culture
Sacred bulls have held a place of significance in human culture since before the beginning of recorded history. They appear in cave paintings estimated to be up to 17,000 years old. The mythic Bull of Heavens plays a role in the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, dating as far back as 2150 BC. The importance of the bull is reflected in its appearance in the zodiac as Taurus, and its numerous appearances in mythology, where it is often associated with fertility. See also Korban. In Hinduism, a bull named Nandi, usually depicted seated, is worshipped as the vehicle of the god Shiva and depicted on many of the images of that deity.
Symbolically, the bull appears commonly in heraldry. Bulls appears as charges and crests on the arms of several British families. Winged bulls appear as supporters in the arms of the Worshipful Company of Butchers. In modern times, the bull is used as a mascot by both amateur and professional sports teams.
Bulls also have a special significance in Spanish culture, where the Running of the Bulls celebration occurs every year in summer. During this festival, a group of human runners called "mozos" try to outrace a group of bulls running behind them, while large crowds watch the entire race.
A popular NBA team, the Chicago Bulls, features the bull as its mascot.
Reworked photo.
Photos of these animals were taken in low light, and are particularly difficult due to their dark fur. Getting detail without too much noise was nearly impossible.
To overcome this, in photoshop, I used Topaz Glow on a new layer copy (fur & feathers) which exaggerates the fur and the wrinkles. I then merged this layer using soft light.
I then used a layer mask to reduce the over-aggressive bits and totally in the background (with the help of the selection tool).
For me, it work.
Fortunately the Hike Inn had power after the tornados hit, Nancy Hoch said, if she didn’t have power she wouldn’t have been able to accommodate me there.
Her husband Jeff was out of town. Sadly, I would have loved to talk with him about his extraordinary first people collection of arrowheads and spear tip points and other Native artifacts. They had no internet there and all I could do was upload my photos and videos to my laptop from my camera. The processing of a video to my laptop takes a while; I just splice the segments together in chronological order, that’s it. No editing. I shoot; I talk and try to keep it interesting, and speak correctly about all the facts and science in my head.
I have no script to follow. I just shoot from the hip, sort of speaking.
It was sunny and warm, enabling me to dry out all my gear. After resupplying in Robbinsville I was given a ride back to the Fontana Dam Marina. My next resupply point was over 100 miles away, past the Smokey Mountains to Hot Springs North Carolina, where I mailed my laptop to the Bluff Mountain Outfitter. This will be my longest leg of my journey so far. If I get jammed-up, there are points along the way I can stop, like Gatlinburg Tennessee.
The Fontana Lodge had a restaurant, so at the dam I called for a pickup to have one last good meal, while I still smelled nice, then off to the Smokey Mountains.
I hiked to Birch Spring Gap, the only tent site with no shelter in the Smokey’s.
In the great Smokey mountain National Park you can‘t setup a tent anywhere you want to, and I knew I would have to start sleeping in the crowded shelters soon, so I stopped at Birch Spring to be alone after my resupply. The Appalachian Trail in the Smokey Mountains is very heavily visited, so to reduce the impact on the natural surroundings, it’s pretty mandatory, that you stay in the shelters.
Birch Spring was a beautiful camp site, the best water I ever had came from the Smokey’s, and this spot was no exception. I carried the SteriPEN….Adventure to purify my water, I highly recommend it. But to tell you the truth, when the water from a spring came right out of the side of a mountain, I just drank it. Up from the blue blaze trail they had a hitching post for horses; the Smokey’s is the only place where people with horses share the Appalachian Trail. Many hikers have mixed feelings about sharing the trail with them. I do not. . I love horses so much; they have such a beautiful power. I love to touch them and hold them in my arms and really feel them.
That night I heard my first bear in the middle of the night going down the hill very close to my tent, it was big and noisy, obviously not very worried about being heard.
My plan was to hike to Spence Field Shelter for the night, I was excited to camp up on a grassy bald and take in some grand views. I fell short of my goals many times during my hike, but I wasn’t going to let that get me down, I just want to go with the flow of the cosmos, wherever it lead me was fine too.
It took me longer than I expected to hike through the Smokey’s, the shelter weren’t spaced right for my speed. I found much later, when I could hike much faster, that I didn’t like to go faster than 16 miles a day. The reason was, when I went faster than that I noticed, I would’nt take many photos, shoot many videos, I just wasn’t observing nature like I wanted to.
Up the trail just before Mollies Ridge Shelter I ran into some guys that said Mollies Ridge was dry, and I should take water down a side trail, that was poorly marked and I did just that. Coming up on Mollies Ridge Shelter it started to get real dark again, I could hear the thunder for the last two hours and although it was early for a lunch I thought, I would eat and wait the incoming storm that will be here at any moment. I went around to the front of the shelter to see someone’s gear, an old mid 1980’s Jan-sport external frame backpack and in the lower left corner a sleeping bag opened.
I called out and with no reply I went back to the side where the built-in table was, to have lunch and then came the rain. After a light snack I propped my pack up and laid down against it for some rest. After a short while and the rain was coming down, I could feel something, like someone was watching me, my hair rose up on my neck.
I looked over my left shoulder at a guy, wearing a ski-mask, was coming up behind me with one hand behind his back. Swiftly I jumped up and cut him off with the angle of the table. Instinctively my left hand went into my pocket, holding my knife with my thumb on the bolt that would quickly open my blade. If he would have came up with a weapon behind his back I would have cut his throat and he would have bleed-out dead before his corpse hit the ground.
Kitea, off to the side in the brush, was watching the whole thing go down from the very start. She saw him sneaking up on his blind side, with her body stretched out and on the tips of her paws, her tail straight and the tip whipping with fast short strokes back and forth ready to pounce. „What is this crazy bastard doing with a ski-mask in this heat?“
She felt much better, when Puma saw him and jumped for cover, with the posture of his hand in his pocket she assumed he had a weapon, and said „I got your back, big boy…“
His senses are very in-tuned she said, he has developed his 6th sense very well, very intuitive, it must have been all that Marine Corps training, he is so hot…. A Natural Borne Killer….
I remember several nights ago, when I was sleeping next to his tent, he talked to me in his sleep. He said, “I make the sound of the deer well, I grunt softly and they come to me...I’m a killer and I feel my prey like a ghost walking among them…”
The guy held out his other hand and in it was a very old leather glove, cheaply made, worn out and only one. He was saying something….. „wouwoouwo“… with his ski- mask it was hard to understand him and I said to him with a loud voice….. “I cant hear a damn word you are saying…. WITH YOUR SKI-MASK ON”…
Then he said it again….. it was something like…… he found this glove and was it mine. His speech was distorted and I could tell he had mental health issues….
Still crazy or not he had his other hand hidden behind his back and I’m on guard…
I told him one more time I cant hear him with his ski-mask on. It is not my glove and I don’t care, and for him to go away from me, I lunged at him just to give him a bit of a scare and yelled …..GO…OOOOOO ……
My heart was pounding, and I said to myself as soon as the rain lets up I’m so freaking out of here. Two days later I ran into a work party at Derrick Knob Shelter and a young man in charge had a radio and called it in, two days after that, I ran into a Ridge runner, and he said, they went up and got him out and that he was removed a few weeks before that too. They had to counsel with lawyers, to find out what to do with a homeless person, living in the shelters.
The rain let up and I was gone, but that was just the first band of the storm. The events, that occurred after that, were incredible, this will be the third biggest storm I was in during my hike, it sure was a season for storms and tornados. The winds, heavy rain, hail and thunder once again, unbelievable. Trees were being uprooted, snapping into and falling everywhere. I had to step off trail, the water ran down the trail like a river and I shot a video of it for my youtube channel.
When I got to the Russell Field Shelter, it was still early, two men from Atlanta Georgia where settling down there for the day. They were out for the weekend and this will be their last night out. We talked for a while, they were very nice, I like them very much so. They loved to hear my stories of my hike, the storms, the crazy’s…. hikers where coming by from the north, talking about the guy with the ski-mask, they had heard from other hikers north bound, I thought it was funny, the hikers, that told me about the water, never mentioned him.
The traffic south bound talked about a backpacking guide from REI, that would tell all the hikers, that stayed in “Her Shelter” for the night up the trail what to do, where to cook, where to sleep and where to hang there packs, she was even giving my dear sweet friend Susan a hard time about where she can cook. Susan argued with her, that she came from Springer Mountain, and that she has been backpacking for many years, and she will not tell her what to do. It hurt me to hear such things, its always about power and control, humans trying to force their will on others.
She was some kind of “Hiker Nazi”, cutting all the dangly bits of rope that people hung their packs on, really, they were in every shelter, I have seen during my entire hike. I wanted to hike on, it was still early and I could have made it to Spence Field Shelter like I had planned. The news was, that the REI guide was there with her party and my new friends begged me to stay with them. Why put yourself through the stress of having her around me like that. Relax here with us, we love to hear your stories…. Oh yes, I was a story teller my whole life, since childhood I could spin a good yarn….. it’s a gift.
Although it was probably a good call, I did stay, but I had no idea that it was a Saturday and the shelter was filling up fast. I took a spot on the upper left side with my back to the wall.
That night I woke up, packed close with so many people. I couldn’t breathe, I was having a panic attack. I sat up for a bit and then went for a walk. It always took me some time to put weight on my feet when I first get up, my feet where chronically sore the whole time I was on trail, and I had to move my feet a bit every morning so I could walk, hiker hobble they call it.
I’m sure the people, that were awake, when I had my episode during the night, were shocked; I knew I would have trouble sleeping in the packed shelters here in the Smokey’s.
The next day I was up and out early, said my goodbyes to my new friends, who were going down to their car and back home. They gave me some of their extra food, some fancy backpacking meals. I hiked to Derrick Knob Shelter, where a group of volunteers were camped, doing trail maintenance.
I tell you, if they didn’t maintain the trail like they do, nature would claim it back in a year or two, that’s it….
It was fun sitting with all the young people, talking about Religion and Politics, two of my favorite subjects. There was a photo-journalist there writing a story about trail maintenance.
It was love at first sight…… he was in the Navy and loved to call me Jar-head, affectionately of course…… and I referred to him as Squidly…….
They all stayed in their tents and with the weekend over it wasn’t too crowded.
I loved their youthful energy, they had a fire going all the time, cutting and splitting wood, gave me a chance to dry my boots or make them not as wet. Most of the kids were taking a break from their studies in the universities. The young women were quite attractive and it was fun watching them all jockeying for position, guided by their hormones running wild.
In the evening we sat around the fire and talked, I’m sure it was me, that started the conversation about religion and politics and how closely they are related. It’s all about power and control, I said.
Separatism is the major flaw in human development, we are so busy discounting everyone’s believes, that we are missing the big picture. Religion has killed more people than all the plagues; I think religion caused some of the plagues. Then the social class system of the rich and poor, money is the cause of all evil the in world. We should do away with it, its all a big lie anyway. Our monetary system is flawed by corruption; they have juggled the numbers for so long, it was just a matter of time when it would all come crashing down like a house of cards. We went back and forth through the night in interesting debate.
Before the emergence of the big three monotheistic religions Judaism, Islam and Christianity, there was no “Gender Assignment” for a god, in fact men and women were equally represented with gods and goddesses and a balance of power was achieved, men and women were equal.
What if, way after the death of Jesus and Christianity became legal and rose to power in Europe, with The Church” in their struggle for power made an allegiance with the monarchy to control and rule over the people. What a head trip to say “ you better be good for goodness sake” or you will spend eternity burning in hell. Anyone, who has ever had a bad burn, knows, its an endless pain to be burned, many hours and days even after the burn it still feels like your burning. What a brilliant physiological torture to impose on the masses to keep them in line.
What if, they could cut half of the population right out, by making women second class citizens with no say so what so ever. If Eve, beguiled by the serpent, went against god and ate from the tree of wisdom, ruining mans great life in paradise, then she was maid to serve man as a punishment. It sounds like a lie to enslave half of the population.
Who ever said, god was a he anyway, I bet it was a man. I bet a man wrote the book of genesis too, just that in itself needs to be addressed, the serpent was a pagan goddess deity, how coincidental is that. I think, if Jesus was alive in the here and now, he would be very upset how his good work has been tarnished for the sake of power and control.
Women have been victimized and still are all over the world in places like China, Japan, Africa.
In China they have a astrological calander and the Chinese Zodiac here women born under the sign “Fire horse Women“ In Japan it’s called Hinoeuma
Fire Horse women are called dangerous, headstrong, and are seen as deadly to men. This may sound quaint to western ears, but the 1906 Japanese women were subjected to poverty and starvation because they could not marry. According to the Chinese Zodiac, girls who were born in the year of the horse were said to be stubborn and short tempered.
Fire Horses are seen as outgoing, people-loving, ambitious, rebellious, and independent. They are supposedly freedom-loving and impossible to contain.
While ambition and independence are prized as ingredients for success nowadays, they were never seen as ideal female qualities. The proper woman was seen as submissive, quiet, and dependent, not rebellious and strong. This prejudice against fire horse women kept the 1906 women wracked by poverty in Japan, since no one would risk marrying a woman with these qualities. Now over 90 years old, many of the surviving hinoeuma women are poor and homeless.
Out spoken women in Europe were taken care of by saying they were witches in league with the devil and simply murdered in the name of Christ. Thousands of women were hiked this way, in the New World too.
It wasn’t long ago, when women couldn’t vote in this great country. Women in Europe and in America around the middle to late 1800’s started to protest, woman like writer and poet Renee Vivien from Paris France will always be rememberd as one of the “First Wave Feminist” and many others too,
Separatism….. we have to stop the insanity of this odious behavior, inherent in all of us, if we wish to evolve into better human beings, after all we are from the same “Human Family”
We have lived in tyranny long enough and people will rise up around the world and say we will not take this anymore.
Everyone stood and cheered, I love young people, they are willing to see things in a different light not afraid of change, unlike us old folks, well that’s a different story. The passion of my thoughts exhausted me and I said good night.
Kitea, thinking of all that was said, lay in the woods, unable to sleep all night. She said, his great burden never was about his pack weight, it’s what’s in his head. He sees the world as one, united in a common good for the entire world to share equally. The end of separatism and equality for all…..how great life could be for all…
Feeling quite well and rested, my boots and socks were the driest they have been in a few days I hit the trail. Silers Bald was covered in fog, hiking the trail reminded of being in a rain forest all morning the fog and mist would rise to the heavens, in the afternoon it would come down again as rain everyday after day….
As I got close to the highest peak on the Appalachian Trail Clingmans Dome, I got lost again. The trail got tight along a ridge, then widened but started to go down, it didn’t feel right but I followed for a little bit then turned around. I went back to where a sign was and saw a white blaze up on a rock cliff, it was a bit of a scramble then the trail leveled out on a beautiful ridge. I loved to hike the ridges, you could see very well where you were going… you could see for miles and miles, it truly my favorite hiking. The bad part was, if you were up on a ridge when a storm came in the lightning was very dangerous
You were so exposed; I was caught up on a ridge twice and hiked very fast to drop down for shelter. The trail got tricky close to the Dome and I slowed not to miss the trail.
Getting low on water but not wanting to go off trail to the Dome I pressed on not sure where I would find water. It was getting quite late when I arrived at the Mt. Collins Shelter and water. Two guys both named Dave and heading in opposite directions had a fire going when I approached the shelter. The north bound Dave and I talked a bit in the morning; I had hiked 13 miles the day before, climbed the highest peak on the AT and was so tired when I made it to camp the night before. Every night my feet were so sore and I was so tired, having to setup camp and make supper, gathering wet wood for my Zip-stove I took my time in the mornings enjoying my coffee rested and could really relax and take it all in.
South bound Dave was up a gone early, while north bound Dave was on his final day.
He was getting off trail at Newfound Gap heading down to Gatlinburg and home to Florida his journey ended. We hiked together for a bit, the smells in the conifer forest were incredible, very sweet and spicy like cinnamon, gorgeous and the shades of green with all the moss covered rocks and fallen trees were on of my fondest memories.
Dave talked about the town below and I decided to go down to Gatlinburg for pizza and cheeseburgers.
Kitea following closely as she always had since she found Puma thought what a great opportunity she had to go home and see her Grandmother Capote. Puma didn’t plan to stop in Gatlinburg and it wasn’t a thought for her but now she was excited to talk to grandmother about him and read the smoke and her dreams.
Newfound Gap was right in-between Gatlinburg and Cherokee town and Reservation.
She figured it’s only 30 miles away, Puma will probably stay for two days, she could catch-up with him on the trail by picking up his scent.
When I got close to the Gap I could hear the traffic first, then I got to the road and could see it was an overlook across the road. Tired, wet, hungry for a proper meal, I smelt like a wild animal I thought as I crossed the highway to the parking lot full of people. They had all pulled over to rest and take photos of the mountain views. When some people saw me coming I was swarmed by them, like I was some kind of celebrity or something. A man came up to me by the restrooms asking about my hike, then asked if we could pray.
I said sure, I love all good people and respect everyone’s right to worship in there own way. He asked Jesus to watch over me, protect me while on my journey as we held hands
and tears fell from my eyes it was so beautiful. A man asked if I would like some granola bars I said sure. People came up to me so curious and full of love, wanting to have their photo taken with me.
Four beautifully stout southern black women came up to me in their Sunday dresses and hats with very colorful flower prints. They just dazzled me, they were so beautiful and smelt so nice, touching me, hugging me and kissing me on my cheeks. I went to apologized, for I smelt so badly, one of the women whispered in my ear you don’t smell so bad. I did change my shirt to my camp shirt to get ready to hitch hike a ride to town.
Their husbands where taking photos of the spectacle or I think one was making a video,
when one of the women asked if she could go and hike with me. I said to her,
baby I will cook for you every night……. If you will carry my backpack.
Her husband looked away from the viewfinder of his camera and at me winking and smiling at me, it was truly a beautiful experience. Newfound Gap was like a melting pot of tourist, it was like the whole world was being represented.
Even the bikers, both the men and the women looked my way in appreciation.
Bikers and I are very similar in a way, we are a bit standoffish, loners and rebels, if you ever met me in person I have a look
about me that is somewhat threatening and somewhat loving, people can feel me and I can feel them without ever saying a word….it’s a gift
Perhaps because I’m so sensitive….
Or maybe when I was electrocuted by 5,000 volts at work one day…
Or when I was shot….
Or when I was stabbed…..
Or when I was bitten by a rattlesnake as a child…..
Or maybe when I was struck by lightning….
I feel much differently since I was hit by lightning, it scrambled my brain
Sometimes things get so mixed-up in my head and random thoughts
bounce around like electrons, neutrons and protons in a pattern like a spider web
all connecting, yet random like the cosmos.
Whatever it is……
People can feel me when I write too…..
I write with my soul…..
The unseasonal July weather may well have reduced the number of flying displays at the 2023 Royal International Air Tattoo, but had no impact on the number of coaches attending. One such vehicle pictured arriving at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire was YN15 ENX, a Scania K360IB4/Irizar i6 C53Ft coach new to Commandery, Worcester in May 2015.
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Copyright © P.J. Cook, all rights reserved. It is an offence to copy, use or post this image anywhere else without my permission.
I increased the spacing of the reducer to increase the amount of reduction. The resolution changed to 0.95"/px from the native 0.6"/px. This image is uncropped and you will notice more noise on the edges due to dithering in between exposures. Th stars near the edges show a little coma which is to be expected, but I am really surprised at the small amount of coma.
Over all I am very happy with this result and plan on keeping this setup for awhile.
AT8RC Specs
Native - 200mm f8 fl 1623mm
with Reducer - 200mm f5 fl 1050mm
44 x 180 sec ISO 1600
Greater Manchester Police have made 18 arrests, seized a substantial amount of Class A drugs and shut down a cannabis farm after executing a series of warrants in Salford.
This morning, Wednesday 14 October 2015, more than 200 officers executed warrants at 22 addresses across Eccles and Pendleton as part of a Project Gulf operation designed to tackle organised crime.
Gulf is part of Programme Challenger, the Greater Manchester approach to tackling organised criminality across the region.
The raids are the result of an intelligence-led operation conducted over a number of months into offences such as supplying Class A drugs and other criminality. Searches at a number of properties are still on-going.
Fifteen men and three women have so far been arrested on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs. They remain in custody for questioning.
Searches of the 22 properties also uncovered a cannabis farm, and have resulted in officers seizing a substantial amount of cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, cannabis, a stolen motorbike and some cash.
Superintendent Mark Kenny, of Salford Division, said: “These warrants are a result of a sustained and in-depth operation into the supply of Class A drugs not just in Salford, but Greater Manchester as a whole.
“They have utilised some excellent work by my officers in the gathering of intelligence and information, which has allowed us to seize a significant amount of drugs which would soon have been poisoning our streets.
“We have also been successful in confiscating a large amount of cash, hitting the dealers where it hurts.
“We would not have been able to carry out these warrants had it not been for members of the public coming to us with information and intelligence, and that is very pleasing.
“However, our investigations are continuing and if anyone has any information they think will assist I would encourage them to contact us.
“Our communities have already shown they are prepared to work with us in the fight against drugs and organised crime and I would like to express my thanks to those who came forward and helped us reduce the amount of dangerous narcotics in their areas.
“But there is still more to do and, as with any fight against organised crime groups embedded in our communities, we need residents to come to us with information so we can put a stop to this criminality.
“If you see drug dealing taking place in your area, come to us, we can help to put a stop to it and help to make Greater Manchester a safer place to live.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.
Bovine gelatin containing natural dye developed to increase the potential application of natural dyes in powder for preparation of desserts, drinks, jelly beans,
confectionery, in order to make these healthier food products and reduce the consumption of artificial dyes directly related to toxicological problems to human health. The image shows the high power particles present to absorb moisture and become swollen.
Courtesy of Thaís Passos
Image Details
Instrument used: Quanta Family
Magnification: 10.000x
Horizontal Field Width: 29,8 µm
Vacuum: 110 Pa
Voltage: 20 kV
Spot: 3.0
Working Distance: 18.7 mm
Detector: Mix - BSE plus SE