DESCRIPTION FROM ROADSIDE AMERICA

 

Two-Story Outhouse

Gays, Illinois

In England they have urinals

In Paris bidets

But nowhere on earth

Has an outhouse like Gays

This ditty, posted on a billboard in Gays, Illinois, is not strictly true -- there are other multi-story privies on the planet. But there may be nowhere on earth with as much local pride in an outhouse as here.

This celebrity biffy even has its own official blue highway sign out on the county blacktop: "TOURIST ACTIVITIES: Historical Two Story Outhouse 1872." It's the toast of Moultrie County.

A double decker outhouse sounds absurd to a generation weaned on indoor plumbing. (Hah hah, peepul on floor 1 get poop on hed.) But this "skyscrapper" is no joke. Its upper- and lower-floor holes are discreetly placed on opposite sides, and a second, inset wall on the ground floor forms an invisible chute. Droppings from above plummet unobstructed and out of sight, although not out of earshot.

Samuel Gammill built the outhouse at the rear of his general store. There were apartments upstairs, and the second floor of the building connected to the second floor of the outhouse across a short ramp, giving 19th century tenants a private bathroom. The store was torn down in 1984, but the outhouse was carefully spared. Gays had been promoting it as a tourist attraction since the 1960s.

The outhouse stands today, on a patch of green grass in a little park. It's in fine shape, thanks to the late Gene Goodwin, president of Gays' village board, who championed its preservation. The park is named after Gene, according to its sign, "in memory of a devoted promoter of the Historical Two Story Outhouse." He reportedly wanted to build a stairway so that visitors could admire the view from the second floor, but that hasn't happened. The outhouse is padlocked to keep out vandals and those who might be tempted to fully experience this interactive structure.

The billboard with the outhouse poem stands at the center of the park, displaying press clippings and town notices under glass. These give voice to those who are not here to speak for the outhouse. "The young people," reads one, "hardly know anything about these little structures and have no understanding of the lifestyle that went with them." "Outhouses," asserts another, "were once an important part of everyday life and their historical contribution should be recorded for prosperity.[sic]"

An American flag on a pole flaps impressively, but it's part of a memorial for 21-year-old Cole Spencer, "American by Birth, Patriot by Choice," who died in Iraq.

A miniature version of the outhouse, designed to hold address cards to be filled out by visitors, is attached to the billboard. There were no cards left uncollected during our visit -- denying us access to what must be interesting outhouse mail, but proof of the continued fame of this beloved double dumper.

 

Understanding Witches Now

@

Washington High School

SE 13th/SE Stark

September 7-16: Open Daily, 12-6:30pm

September 20-29: Thu–Fri, 12-6:30pm; Sat 12-4pm

    

www.pica.org/festival_detail_new.aspx?eventid=891

Feb 2016: “A compact, c 1,000 sq ft Victorian chapel by the entrance to the former Our Lady’s Hospital, Cork is coming to market with a guide price for €250,000, via agent John O’Mahony of O’Mahony Walsh, Ballincollig”

 

Our Lady’s was wound down in the 1980s, and although Our Lady’s Hospital showed some interest it was sold with 50 acres in 1995 by the then-Southern Health Board for £910,000 to Dublin-based Lance Investments.

 

Some elements of the Our Lady’s complex have since been sold off, such as a number of apartments, town houses, mews houses and stables conversions and the old gate lodge by the Lee Road is now in commercial use, occupied by agriculture advisors the Brady Group.

 

My understanding is that there are two distinct sections to the main complex.

 

Our Lady's which was the Lee Road in Ireland. Locals are inclined to refer to the entire structure as St. Anne's and they and do not differentiate between the grey section, Our Lady's and the red section, St. Kevin's which is totally derelict.

 

A a section of Our Lady’s Hospital has been renovated as Lee Road.

 

Our Lady’s Hospital, formerly Eglinton Asylum [named after the Earl of Eglinton, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland], Cork was built to house 500 patients. It was the largest of seven district lunatic asylums commissioned by the Board of Public Works in the late 1840s to supplement the nine establishments erected by Johnston and Murray in 1820-35. Like the earlier buildings, the new institutions were ‘corridor asylums’, but with the emphasis on wards rather than cells. There was a change in style from Classical to Gothic.

 

Designed by local architect William Atkins, the Cork Asylum was one of the longest buildings in Ireland (almost 1000 feet), originally split into three blocks punctuated with towers and gables. Atkins made good use of polychromy, contrasting Glanmire sandstone with limestone dressings. The elevated site overlooking the River Lee, appears to have been chosen for dramatic effect rather than practicality, great difficulty being encountered in providing exercise yards on the steep slope.

- and understanding what we're escaping from...

I took this at Borders before they went bankrupt and then went home and ordered it from Amazon for half the price:) its a great book and i learned so much from it. Its all basic knowledge, but very useful to refer to now and again. Also some beautiful photos.

Happy Bookshelf Friday

Thanks for all of your feedback my friends.

 

PLEASE... don't blog, pin, or add ANY of my images to a website without asking.

All of my photographs are Copyrighted and All Rights Reserved.

(© All rights reserved), Every single image is protected under the United States and International Copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without written permission.

Thank you for respecting the copyright.

 

 

She had a message for me.

 

The delivery was something else.

 

Viewminder knows how to start a fire.

 

Beautiful

  

View Large On Black

© DM Parody 2015 (www.dotcom.gi/photos) These images are protected by copyright. You CANNOT copy or republish any of these photos without written consent of the photographer even if you retain the watermark (if present) and/or credit the photographer. You cannot use on any media including social media either. You CAN post a link to the page where the image appears without reference to the photographer. Copyright infringements will be followed up, legally if necessary. Thank you for your understanding.

binky binks with Moon Eyes and Astral Lightening was almost titled Astral Pupil Lightening and Moon Eyed Cat.

 

This Kitty appeared to be a Venusia Feline full of Victorious Luna Lightening reaching down from Binah with Understanding.

 

The phone camera take a JPG and DNG. These pictures are 13 edited from DNG and then JPG.

 

PHH Sykes 2022

phhsykes@gmail.com

 

While we all have an abstract understanding that all things have endings, we tend to think of endings as a discrete point, situated always somewhere off in a distant land called the future. In reality our end is always already underway. The markets where we sell our goods begin to close down - a few at first, and then more, and more. Our customers relocate or lose interest in our wares, and the product which is ourself becomes less of a bargain with each passing moment. There are words that could be said about this economic downturn, lots and lots of words.

One friend will say “soon,bro”, and then in what seems the blink of an eye you will have heard these words a hundred thousand times. A certain number of days later, you will forget when you last heard any words addressed to you at all.

One day you yourself will have spoken your final words, and they will sound like this: “OK no problem”. “Fingers crossed.” “I miss you.”

 

 

Hot Air Ballooning Cappadocia:

 

A must do in Cappadocia is take a balloon ride in order to see the sights from a vantage point like no other. On this 1-hour flight at sunrise you will experience the changing colors and the unique landscapes that scatter the region.

Enjoy a unique hot air balloon flight over the fairy chimneys and rock cut churches. This exhilarating experience in Cappadocia is one of the best places around the world to fly with hot air balloons.

 

www.britannica.com/place/Cappadocia/media/94094/229210

  

CAPPADOCIA WORLD HERITAGE LIST :

 

www.whc.unesco.org/en/list/357

 

In a spectacular landscape, entirely sculpted by erosion, the Göreme valley and its surroundings contain rock-hewn sanctuaries that provide unique evidence of Byzantine art in the post-Iconoclastic period. Dwellings, troglodyte villages and underground towns – the remains of a traditional human habitat dating back to the 4th century – can also be seen there.

Brief synthesis

Located on the central Anatolia plateau within a volcanic landscape sculpted by erosion to form a succession of mountain ridges, valleys and pinnacles known as “fairy chimneys” or hoodoos, Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia cover the region between the cities of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos, the sites of Karain, Karlık, Yeşilöz, Soğanlı and the subterranean cities of Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu. The area is bounded on the south and east by ranges of extinct volcanoes with Erciyes Dağ (3916 m) at one end and Hasan Dağ (3253 m) at the other. The density of its rock-hewn cells, churches, troglodyte villages and subterranean cities within the rock formations make it one of the world's most striking and largest cave-dwelling complexes. Though interesting from a geological and ethnological point of view, the incomparable beauty of the decor of the Christian sanctuaries makes Cappadocia one of the leading examples of the post-iconoclastic Byzantine art period.

It is believed that the first signs of monastic activity in Cappadocia date back to the 4th century at which time small anchorite communities, acting on the teachings of Basileios the Great, Bishop of Kayseri, began inhabiting cells hewn in the rock. In later periods, in order to resist Arab invasions, they began banding together into troglodyte villages or subterranean towns such as Kaymakli or Derinkuyu which served as places of refuge.

Cappadocian monasticism was already well established in the iconoclastic period (725-842) as illustrated by the decoration of many sanctuaries which kept a strict minimum of symbols (most often sculpted or tempera painted crosses). However, after 842 many rupestral churches were dug in Cappadocia and richly decorated with brightly coloured figurative painting. Those in the Göreme Valley include Tokalı Kilise and El Nazar Kilise (10th century), St. Barbara Kilise and Saklı Kilise (11th century) and Elmalı Kilise and Karanlık Kilise (end of the 12th – beginning of the 13th century).

Criterion (i): Owing to their quality and density, the rupestral sanctuaries of Cappadocia constitute a unique artistic achievement offering irreplaceable testimony to the post-iconoclastic Byzantine art period.

Criterion (iii): The rupestral dwellings, villages, convents and churches retain the fossilized image of a province of the Byzantine Empire between the 4th century and the arrival of the Seljuk Turks (1071). Thus, they are the essential vestiges of a civilization which has disappeared.

Criterion (v): Cappadocia is an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement which has become vulnerable under the combined effects of natural erosion and, more recently, tourism.

Criterion (vii): In a spectacular landscape dramatically demonstrating erosional forces, the Göreme Valley and its surroundings provide a globally renowned and accessible display of hoodoo landforms and other erosional features, which are of great beauty, and which interact with the cultural elements of the landscape.

Integrity

Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia, having been extensively used and modified by man for centuries, is a landscape of harmony combining human interaction and settlement with dramatic natural landforms. There has been some earthquake damage to some of the cones and the pillars, but this is seen as a naturally occurring phenomenon. Overuse by tourists and some vandalism have been reported and some incompatible structures have been introduced.

The erosional processes that formed the distinctive conical rock structures will continue to create new fairy chimneys and rock pillars, however due to the rate of this process, the natural values of the property may still be threatened by unsustainable use. The cultural features, including rock-hewn churches and related cultural structures, mainly at risk of being undermined by erosion and other negative natural processes coupled with mass tourism and development pressures, can never be replaced. threats Some of the churches mentioned by early scholars such as C. Texier, H.G. Rott and Guillaume de Jerphanion are no longer extant.

Authenticity

The property meets the conditions of authenticity as its values and their attributes, including its historical setting, form, design, material and workmanship adequately reflect the cultural and natural values recognized in the inscription criteria.

Given the technical difficulties of building in this region, where it is a matter of hewing out structures within the natural rock, creating architecture by the removal of material rather than by putting it together to form the elements of a building, the underlying morphological structure and the difficulties inherent in the handling of the material inhibited the creative impulses of the builders. This conditioning of human effort by natural conditions persisted almost unchanged through successive periods and civilizations, influencing the cultural attitudes and technical skills of each succeeding generation.

Protection and management requirements

The World Heritage property Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia is subject to legal protection in accordance with both the Protection of Cultural and Natural Resources Act No. 2863 and the National Parks Act No. 2873. The entire territory between the cities of Nevşehir, Ürgüp and Avanos is designated as a National Park under the Act No. 2873. In addition, natural, archaeological, urban, and mixed archaeological and natural conservation areas, two underground towns, five troglodyte villages, and more than 200 individual rock-hewn churches, some of which contain numerous frescoes, have been entered into the register of immovable monuments and sites according to the Act No. 2863.

Legal protection, management and monitoring of the Göreme National Park and the Rock Sites of Cappadocia fall within the scope of national and regional governmental administrations. The Nevşehir and Kayseri Regional Conservation Councils are responsible for keeping the register of monuments and sites, including carrying out all tasks related to the legal protection of monuments and listed buildings and the approval to carry out any restoration-related works. They also evaluate regional and conservation area plans prepared by the responsible national and/or local (i.e. municipal) authorities.

Studies for revision and updating of the existing land use and conservation plan (Göreme National Park Long-term Development Plan) of 1981 were completed in 2003. The major planning decisions proposed were that natural conservation areas are to be protected as they were declared in 1976. Minor adjustments in the peripheral areas of settlements and spatial developments of towns located in the natural conservation sites including Göreme, Ortahisar, Çavuşin, Ürgüp and Mustafapaşa will be strictly controlled. In other words, the Plan proposes to confine the physical growth of these towns to recently established zones. Hotel developments will take into account the set limits for room capacities. Furthermore, the plan also suggested that local authorities should be advised to review land use decisions for areas that have been reserved for tourism developments in the town plans.

Preparation of conservation area plans for the urban and/or mixed urban-archaeological conservation sites within the historic sections of Göreme are in place and provide zoning criteria and the rules and guidelines to be used in the maintenance and restoration of listed buildings and other buildings which are not registered, but which are located within the historic zones. Similar planning studies for the towns of Ortahisar and Uçhisar are in place. Once finalised, a conservation area plan for the urban conservation area in Ürgüp will be in place. All relevant plans are kept up to date on a continuing basis.

Appropriate facilities aimed at improving the understanding of the World Heritage property have been completed for the subterranean towns of Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu, and are required for Göreme and Paşabağı.

Monuments in danger due to erosion, including the El Nazar, Elmalı, and Meryemana (Virgin Mary) churches, have been listed as monuments requiring priority action. Specific measures for their protection, restoration and maintenance are required at the site level.

While conservation plans and protection measures are in place for individual sites, it is recognised by the principal parties responsible for site management that an integrated Regional Plan for the Cappadocia Cultural and Tourism Conservation and Development Area is required to protect the World Heritage values of the property. Adequate financial, political and technical support is also required to secure the management of the propert

 

whc.unesco.org/en/list/357

 

www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/cappadocia/

 

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocia

   

Brussels

Conscious understanding is not always what we think it is. Some times we just do things only in an unconscious way thinking we did them from our conscious mind. Are we awake or are we sleeping all the time? Is this the dream or is this the life fully awake knowing all we can know? Do I read the words or is it all scribes on the wall? I need to let go of what I think I know and look at what I don't know. Tomorrow is just fantasy to me right now. Yesterday is only the fuzzy recollection of what I slightly recall. Bits and pieces of myself are memories locked in time and conscious desitions I have made. Is this how I use my free will? Why do I like to be in a box? Who made my box but me. When will I explore the dream out side my box of black and white colors. What are the real colors I should see?

 

Mike

 

Father and son collaboration

 

Our photographic art is a kinetic motion study, from the results of interacting with my son A.J and his toys.

 

He was born severely handicapped much like a quadriplegic. On December 17,1998. Our family’s goal has always been to help A.J. use his mind, even though he has minimal use of his body.

 

A.J. likes to watch lights and movement. One of the few things he can do for himself is to operate a switch that sets in motion lights and various shiny, colorful streamers and toys that swirl above his bed.

 

One day I took a picture of A.J. with his toys flying out from the big mobile near his bed like swings on a carnival ride. I liked the way the swirling objects and colors looked in the photo.

 

I wanted to study the motion more and photograph the whirling objects in an artful way, I wanted my son A.J. to be a part of it. After all, he’s the one who inspires me. When A.J. and I work together on our motion artwork, A.J. starts his streamers and objects twirling, I take the photographs.

 

Activating a tiny switch might not seem like much to some, but it’s all A.J. can do. He controls the direction the mobile will spin, as well as when it starts and stops. The shutter speeds are long, and sometimes, I move the camera and other times I hold it still.

 

I begin our creation with a Nikon digital camera. Then I use my computer with Photoshop to alter the images into what I feel might be an artistic way. Working with Photoshop, I find the best parts from several images and combine them into the final composite photograph. I consider the finished work to be fine art. The computer is just the vehicle that helps my expressions grow.

 

I take the photographs and A.J. adds the magic. It’s something this father and son do together. After I’ve taken a few shots, I show him the photos in the back of the camera. When the images are completed, I show him from a laptop. He just looks. He can’t tell me whether or not he likes the images, but he’s always ready to work with me again.

 

It offers me my only glance into A.J.’s secret world. We’ve built a large collection of images and I hope the motion and color move you as much as they do me.

 

A.J. inspires me to work harder to understand my life in the areas of art, photography, people, spirituality, and so much more. He truly sets my mind in motion and helps me find the beauty in everyday things.

 

Mike

 

Abstract Art set:

www.flickr.com/photos/patnode-rainbowman/sets/72157602269...

 

AJ Patnode - A Journey of Hope (documentary):

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7m8QFcmRM

 

This shows how I do the Camera work:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmjVVGraUVw

 

AJ'S blog:

www.ajpatnode.com

 

A walk into town to see the East Kent Morris dancers on Easter Saturday the 19th April 2025. and to get a haircut. Yellow filter on camera today.M1010693

Boards Of Canada

 

Image

 

Son

 

Book :

 

Xavier Veilhan

1999 - 2009

JRP I Ringier

2009

 

CD :

 

The Sea And Cake

The Moonlight Butterfly

Thrill Jockey

THRILL278

 

Recorded and Mixed by John McEntire

Drawing by Eric Claridge

Design by Archer Prewitt Sam Prekop & Sheila Sachs

 

iTunes :

 

Shuttle358

Understanding Wildlife

Mille Plateaux

MP115

 

Sir GMAttenborough ...

.

.

  

So, let's get one thing straight from the outset.

  

I LOVE CARRION CROW.

  

There, I've said it. Words I use to describe these amazing birds would include stunning, beautiful, bold, magnificent, intelligent and fantastic, loving, tender, victimized.

  

Right now I have a resident pair of Carrion crows who have decided that my garden is theirs, and are playing a game of cat and mouse with a pair of cheeky Magpies (Pica pica) for dominance and food rights. The male crow actually flies in and 'wings' the magpies to make them leave, an incredible sight to witness. It's an honour and a privilege to be able to win their trust and they have given me so much pleasure this year being able to get within a few feet of them, to photograph and feed them, and they have reinforced my already deep admiration for a bird that is brimming with beauty, intelligence, confidence and also surrounded by myths, legend and prejudice.

  

So let's begin with a look back over history.

  

LEGEND AND MYTHOLOGY

  

Crows appear in the Bible where Noah uses one to search for dry land and to check on the recession of the flood. Crows supposedly saved the prophet, Elijah, from famine and are an Inuit deity. Legend has it that England and its monarchy will end when there are no more crows in the Tower of London. And some believe that the crows went to the Tower attracted by the regular corpses following executions with written accounts of their presence at the executions of Anne Boleyn and Jane Gray.

  

In Welsh mythology, unfortunately Crows are seen as symbolic of evilness and black magic thanks to many references to witches transforming into crows or ravens and escaping. Indian legend tells of Kakabhusandi, a crow who sits on the branches of a wish-fulfilling tree called Kalpataru and a crow in Ramayana where Lord Rama blessed the crow with the power to foresee future events and communicate with the souls.

  

In Native American first nation legend the crow is sometimes considered to be something of a trickster, though they are also viewed positively by some tribes as messengers between this world and the next where they carry messages from the living to those deceased, and even carry healing medicines between both worlds. There is a belief that crows can foresee the future. The Klamath tribe in Oregon believe that when we die, we fly up to heaven as a crow. The Crow can also signify wisdom to some tribes who believe crows had the power to talk and were therefore considered to be one of the wisest of birds. Tribes with Crow Clans include the Chippewa (whose Crow Clan and its totem are called Aandeg), the Hopi (whose Crow Clan is called Angwusngyam or Ungwish-wungwa), the Menominee, the Caddo, the Tlingit, and the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico.

  

The crow features in the Nanissáanah (Ghost dance), popularized by Jerome Crow Dog, a Brulé Lakota sub-chief and warrior born at Horse Stealing Creek in Montana Territory in 1833, the crow symbolizing wisdom and the past, when the crow had became a guide and acted as a pathfinder during hunting. The Ghost dance movement was originally created in 1870 by Wodziwob, or Gray Hair, a prophet and medicine man of the Paiute tribe in an area that became known as Nevada. Ghost dancers wore crow and eagle feathers in their clothes and hair, and the fact that the Crow could talk placed it as one of the sages of the animal kingdom. The five day dances seeking trance,prophecy and exhortations would eventually play a major part in the pathway towards the white man's broken treaties, the infamous battle at Wounded knee and the surrender of Matȟó Wanáȟtaka (Kicking Bear), after officials began to fear the ghost dancers and rituals which seemed to occur prior to battle.

  

Historically the Vikings are the group who made so many references to the crow, and Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons used this species in his banner as well as appearances in many flags and coats of arms. Also, it had some kind of association with Odin, one of their main deities. Norse legend tells us that Odin is accompanied by two crows. Hugin, who symbolizes thought, and Munin, who represents a memory. These two crows were sent out each dawn to fly the entire world, returning at breakfast where they informed the Lord of the Nordic gods of everything that went on in their kingdoms. Odin was also referred to as Rafnagud (raven-god). The raven appears in almost every skaldic poem describing warfare.Coins dating back to 940's minted by Olaf Cuaran depict the Viking war standard, the Raven and Viking war banners (Gonfalon) depicted the bird also.

  

In Scandinavian legends, crows are a representative of the Goddess of Death, known as Valkyrie (from old Norse 'Valkyrja'), one of the group of maidens who served the Norse deity Odin, visiting battlefields and sending him the souls of the slain worthy of a place in Valhalla. Odin ( also called Wodan, Woden, or Wotan), preferred that heroes be killed in battle and that the most valiant of souls be taken to Valhöll, the hall of slain warriors. It is the crow that provides the Valkyries with important information on who should go. In Hindu ceremonies that are associated to ancestors, the crow has an important place in Vedic rituals. They are seen as messengers of death in Indian culture too.

  

In Germanic legend, Crows are seen as psychonomes, meaning the act of guiding spirits to their final destination, and that the feathers of a crow could cure a victim who had been cursed. And yet, a lone black crow could symbolize impending death, whilst a group symbolizes a lucky omen! Vikings also saw good omens in the crow and would leave offerings of meat as a token.

  

The crow also has sacred and prophetic meaning within the Celtic civilization, where it stood for flesh ripped off due to combat and Morrighan, the warrior goddess, often appears in Celtic mythology as a raven or crow, or else is found to be in the company of the birds. Crow is sacred to Lugdnum, the Celtic god of creation who gave his name to the city of Lug

  

In Greek mythology according to Appolodorus, Apollo is supposedly responsible for the black feathers of the crow, turning them forever black from their pristine white original plumage as a punishment after they brought news that Κορωνις (Coronis) a princess of the Thessalian kingdom of Phlegyantis, Apollo's pregnant lover had left him to marry a mortal, Ischys. In one legend, Apollo burned the crows feathers and then burned Coronis to death, in another Coronis herself was turned into a black crow, and another that she was slain by the arrows of Αρτεμις (Artemis - twin to Apollo). Koronis was later set amongst the stars as the constellation Corvus ("the Crow"). Her name means "Curved One" from the Greek word korônis or "Crow" from the word korônê.A similar Muslim legend allegedly tells of Muhammad, founder of Islam and the last prophet sent by God to Earth, who's secret location was given away by a white crow to his seekers, as he hid in caves. The crow shouted 'Ghar Ghar' (Cave, cave) and thus as punishment, Muhammad turned the crow black and cursed it for eternity to utter only one phrase, 'Ghar, ghar). Native Indian legend where the once rainbow coloured crows became forever black after shedding their colourful plumage over the other animals of the world.

  

In China the Crow is represented in art as a three legged bird on a solar disk, being a creature that helps the sun in its journey. In Japan there are myths of Crow Tengu who were priests who became vain, and turned into this spirit to serve as messengers until they learn the lesson of humility as well as a great Crow who takes part in Shinto creation stories.

  

In animal spirit guides there are general perceptions of what sightings of numbers of crows actually mean:

  

1 Crow Meaning: To carry a message from your near one who died recently.

 

2 Crows Meaning: Two crows sitting near your home signifies some good news is on your way.

 

3 Crows Meaning: An upcoming wedding in your family.

 

4 Crows Meaning: Symbolizes wealth and prosperity.

 

5 Crows Meaning: Diseases or pain.

 

6 Crows Meaning: A theft in your house!

 

7 Crows Meaning: Denotes travel or moving from your house.

 

8 Crows Meaning: Sorrowful events

  

Crows are generally seen as the symbolism when alive for doom bringing, misfortune and bad omens, and yet a dead crow symbolises potentially bringing good news and positive change to those who see it. This wonderful bird certainly gets a mixed bag of contradictory mythology and legend over the centuries and in modern days is often seen as a bit of a nuisance, attacking and killing the babies of other birds such as Starlings, Pigeons and House Sparrows as well as plucking the eyes out of lambs in the field, being loud and noisy and violently attacking poor victims in a 'crow court'....

  

There is even a classic horror film called 'THE CROW' released in 1994 by Miramax Films, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee in his final film appearance as Eric Draven, who is revived by a Crow tapping on his gravestone a year after he and his fiancée are murdered in Detroit by a street gang. The crow becomes his guide as he sets out to avenge the murders. The only son of martial arts expert Bruce Lee, Brandon lee suffered fatal injuries on the set of the film when the crew failed to remove the primer from a cartridge that hit Lee in the abdomen with the same force as a normal bullet. Lee died that day, March 31st 1993 aged 28.

  

The symbolism of the Crow resurrecting the dead star and accompanying him on his quest for revenge was powerful, and in some part based on the history of the carrion crow itself and the original film grossed more than $94 Million dollars with three subsequent sequels following.

  

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK

  

So let's move away from legend, mythology and stories passed down from our parents and grandparents and look at these amazing birds in isolation.

  

Carrion crow are passerines in the family Corvidae a group of Oscine passerine birds including Crows, Ravens, Rooks, Jackdaws, Jays, Magpies, Treepies, Choughs and Nutcrackers. Technically they are classed as Corvids, and the largest of passerine birds. Carrion crows are medium to large in size with rictal bristles and a single moult per year (most passerines moult twice). Carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne after his ennoblement) in his 1758 and 1759 editions of 'SYSTEMA NATURAE', and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone, derived from the Latin of Corvus, meaning Raven and the Greek κορώνη (korōnē), meaning crow.

  

Carrion crow are of the Animalia kingdom Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Corvus and Species: Corvus corone

  

Corvus corone can reach 45-47cm in length with a 93-104cm wingspan and weigh between 370-650g. They are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in the United Kingdom with a Green UK conservation status which means they are of least concern with more than 1,000,000 territories. Breeding occurs in April with fledging of the chicks taking around twenty nine days following an incubation period of around twenty days with 3 to 4 eggs being the average norm. They are abundant in the UK apart from Northwest Scotland and Ireland where the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) was considered the same species until 2002. They have a lifespan of around four years, whilst Crow species can live to the age of Twenty years old, and the oldest known American crow in the wild was almost Thirty years old. The oldest documented captive crow died at age Fifty nine. They are smaller and have a shorter lifespan than the Raven, which again is used as a symbol in history to live life to the full and not waste a moment!

  

They are often mistaken for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), a similar bird, though in the UK, the Rook is actually technically smaller than the Carrion crow averaging 44-46cm in length, 81-99cm wingspan and weighing up to 340g. Rooks have white beaks compared to the black beaks of Carrion crow. There are documented cases in the UK of singular and grouped Rooks attacking and killing Carrion crows in their territory. Rooks nest in colonies unlike Carrion crows. Carrion crows have only a few natural enemies including powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the Eurasian eagle-owl and the golden eagle which will all readily hunt them.

  

Regarded as one of the most intelligent birds, indeed creatures on the planet, studies suggest that Corvids cognitive abilities can rival that of primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas and even provide clues to understanding human intelligence. Crows have relatively large brains for their body size, compared to other animals. Their encephalization quotient (EQ) a ratio of brain to body size, adjusted for size because there isn’t a linear relationship is 4.1. That is remarkably close to chimps at 4.2 whilst humans are 8.1. Corvids also have a very high neuronal density, the number of neurons per gram of brain, factoring in the number of cortical neurons, neuron packing density, interneuronal distance and axonal conduction velocity shows that Corvids score high on this measure as well, with humans scoring the highest.

  

A corvid's pallium is packed with more neurons than a great ape's. Corvids have demonstrated the ability to use a combination of mental tools such as imagination, and anticipation of future events. They can craft tools from twigs and branches to hook grubs from deep recesses, they can solve puzzles and intricate methods of gaining access to food set by humans., and have even bent pieces of wire into hooks to obtain food. They have been proven to have a higher cognitive ability level than seven year old humans. Communications wise, their repertoire of wraw-wraw's is not fully understood, but the intensity, rhythm, and duration of caws seems to form the basis of a possible language. They also remember the faces of humans who have hindered or hurt them and pass that information on to their offspring.

  

Aesop's fable of 'The Crow and the Pitcher, tells of a thirsty crow which drops stones into a water pitcher to raise the water level and enable it to take a drink. Scientists have conducted tests to see whether crows really are this intelligent. They placed floating treats in a deep tube and observed the crows indeed dropping dense objects carefully selected into the water until the treat floated within reach. They had the intelligence to pick up, weigh and discount objects that would float in the water, they also did not select ones that were too large for the container.

  

Pet crows develop a unique call for their owners, in effect actually naming them. They also know to sunbathe for a dose of vitamin D, regularly settling on wooden garden fences, opening their mouths and wings and raising their heads to the sun. In groups they warn of danger and communicate vocally. They store a cache of food for later if in abundance and are clever enough to move it if they feel it has been discovered. They leave markers for their cache. They have even learned to place walnuts and similar hard food items under car tyres at traffic lights as a means of cracking them!

  

Crows regularly gather around a dead fellow corvid, almost like a funeral, and it is thought they somehow learn from each death. They can even remember human faces for decades. Crows group together to attack larger predators and even steal their food, and they have different dialects in different areas, with the ability to mimic the dialect of the alpha males when they enter their territory!

  

They have a twenty year life span, the oldest on record reaching the age of Fifty nine. Crows can leave gifts for those who feed them such as buttons or bright shiny objects as a thank you, and they even kiss and make up after an argument, having mated for life.

  

In mythology they are associated with good and bad luck, being the bringers of omens and even witchcraft and are generally reviled for their attacks on baby birds and small mammals. They have an attack method of to stunning smaller birds before consuming them, tearing violently at smaller, less aggressive birds, which is simply down to the fact that they are so highly intelligent, and also the top of the food chain. Their diet includes over a thousand different items: Dead animals (as their name suggests), invertebrates, grain, as well as stealing eggs and chicks from other birds' nests, worms, insects, fruit, seeds, kitchen scraps. They are highly adaptable when food sources grow scarce. I absolutely love them, they are magnificent, bold, beautiful and incredibly interesting to watch and though at times it is hard to witness attacks made by them, I cannot help but adore them for so many other and more important reasons.

  

OBSERVATIONS ON THE PAIR IN MY GARDEN

  

Crows have been in the area for a while, but rarely had strayed into my garden, leaving the Magpies to own the territory. Things changed towards the end of May when a beautiful female Carrion crow appeared and began to take some of the food that I put down for the other birds. Within a few days she began to appear regularly, on occasions stocking up on food, whilst other times placing pieces in the birdbath to soften them. She would stand on the birdbath and eat and drink and come back over the course of the day to eat the softened food.

Shortly afterwardsds she brought along her mate, a tall and handsome fella, much larger than her who was also very vocal if he felt she was getting a little too close to me.

  

By now I had moved from a seated position from the patio as an observer, to laying on a mat just five feet from the birdbath with my Nikon so that I could photograph the pair as they landed, scavenged and fed. She was now confident enough to let me be very close, and she even tolerated and recognized the clicking of the camera. At first I used silent mode to reduce the noise but this only allowed two shooting frame rates of single frame or continuous low frame which meant I was missing shots. I reverted back to normal continuous high frames and she soon got used to the whirring of the frames as the mirror slapped back and forth.

  

The big fella would bark orders at her from the safety of the fence or the rear of the garden, whilst she rarely made a sound. That was until one day when in the sweltering heat she kept opening her beak and sunning on the grass, panting slightly in the heat. I placed the circular water sprayer nearby and had it rotating so that the birdbath and grass was bathed in gentle water droplets and she soon came back, landed and seemed to really like the cooling effect on offer. She then climbed onto the birdbath and opened her wings slightly and made some gentle purring, cooing noises....

  

I swear she was expressing happiness, joy....

  

On another blisteringly hot day when the sprayer was on, she came down, walked towards it and opened her wings up running into the water spray. Not once, but many times.

A final observation came with the male and female on the rear garden fence. They sat together, locked beaks like a kiss and then the male took his time gently preening her head feathers and the back of her neck as she made tiny happy sounds. They stayed together like that for several minutes, showing a gentle, softer side to their nature and demonstrating the deep bond between them.

  

Corvus Corone.... magnificently misunderstood by some!

  

Paul Williams June 4th 2021

  

©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®

  

No license is given nor granted in respect of the use of any copyrighted material on this site other than with the express written agreement of ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams). No image may be used as source material for paintings, drawings, sculptures, or any other art form without permission and/or compensation to ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams)

  

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Photograph taken at an altitude of Fifty nine metres at 13:45pm on a summer afternoon of sunshine and rain showers on Thursday 3rd June 2021, off Hythe Avenue and Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.

  

Here we see a large adult female Carrion crow (Corvus corone) patrolling a garden and gathering up some bread, a passerine bird of the family Corvidae and the genus Raven (Higher classification: Corvus), which is native to western Europe and eastern Asia.

  

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Nikon D850 Focal length 450mm Shutter speed: 1/500s Aperture f/7.1 iso400 Hand held with Tamron VC Vibration control enabled on setting 1 Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW Size L (8256 x 5504 Pixels) (14 bit uncompressed) AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. AF-S Priority selection: Focus. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual exposure mode Metering mode: Matrix metering White balance on: Auto1 (4780K) Colour space: RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)

  

Sigma 60-600mm f/4.5-6.3DG OS HSM SPORTS. Lee SW150 MKI filter holder with MK2 light shield and custom made velcro fitting for the Sigma lens. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch.Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup. Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.

    

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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 28.35s

LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.43s

ALTITUDE: 59.0m

  

RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 90.8MB

PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 37.40MB

    

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PROCESSING POWER:

  

Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00

  

HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.

  

The Great Lakes contain 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water and provide 35 million people with drinking water. Their immense size has led many to perceive them as unresponsive to climate change. Researchers have found that between 1998 to 2014, water levels dropped in the Great Lakes to the longest low-level period in over 100 years. Then in 2016, water levels recovered in Lake Huron, jumping more than three feet after 12 days of rain.

Where is the water going in the Great Lakes? Precipitation is one driver of year-to-year fluctuations, but scientists suspected another cause. After observing evaporation in the Great Slave Lake, an extensive lake in northern Canada, scientists had a hunch evaporation may also play a major role in the Great Lakes’ water cycle. Understanding how evaporation works and what it contributes to lake-level changes would provide insight on where lake levels are headed in the long term.

 

Click here to learn more: earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/sensing-our-planet/to-the-lighth...

  

Caption: This aerial view shows Spectacle Reef Light on the northwest side of Lake Huron, 11 miles east of Bois Blanc Island.

 

Image Credit: Courtesy US Coast Guard

Paddy's way of coping with new words

1. Taking pictures a tool (camera), not a photographer.

2. The choice of tool limits the possibilities.

3. Experience allows him (instrument) less and less to limit their capabilities.

4. The ability to see is given only when the observer allows ...

5. The moment of observation is the real find ...

6. Training and mastering it defies. Training leads to poor imitations of the original.

7. Often the result should ripen, like wine. Although time is the understanding of the mind, therefore it is very speculative.

8. The meaning of all this is the process!

9. Let it be!

 

youtu.be/2pQrWPpUN1U

www.facebook.com/oleg.pivovarchik.1971

listenwave.smugmug.com

#FilmOFone

Vision conceived as "transparency" is the Buddhist ideal: "as one sees through clear water, the sand, the gravel, and the color of the pebbles, simply by reason of its transparency, so one who

seeks the path of liberation must have just such a clear mind."

 

The image that illustrates the manner in which an ascetic apprehends the four truths of the Ariya is this: "If at the edge of an alpine lake of clear, transparent and pure water there were to stand a man with keen sight looking at the shells and shellfish, the gravel and the sand and the fish, watching how they swim and how they rest; this thought would come to him: 'This alpine lake is clear, transparent, and pure; I see the shells and shellfish, the gravel, the sand and the fish, how they swim and rest'”.

 

In this same manner an ascetic apprehends "in conformity with truth" the supreme object of the doctrine. The formula "in conformity with truth" or "with reality" is a recurrent theme in the texts, like the attributes, "eye of the world", or "become eye", or "become knowledge", of the Awakened Ones.

 

This is naturally an achievement only through a gradual process. "As an ocean deepens gradually, declines gradually, shelves gradually without sudden precipices, so in this law and discipline there is a gradual training, a gradual action, a gradual unfolding, and no sudden apprehension of supreme knowledge."

 

Again: "One cannot, I say, attain supreme knowledge all at once; only by a gradual training, a gradual action, a gradual unfolding, does one attain perfect knowledge. In what manner? A man comes, moved by confidence; having come, he joins (the order of the Ariya); having joined, he listens; listening, he receives the doctrine; having received the doctrine, he remembers it; he examines the sense of the things remembered; from examining the sense, the things are approved of; having approved, desire is born; he ponders; pondering, he eagerly trains himself; and eagerly training himself, he mentally realizes the highest truth itself and, penetrating it by means of wisdom, he sees." These are the milestones of the development.

 

It is hardly worth saying that the placing of "confidence" at the beginning of the series does not signify a falling back into "belief": in the first place, the texts always consider that confidence is prompted by the inspiring stature and the example of a master; in the second place, as we can see clearly from the development of the series, it is a matter of a provisional admission only; the real adherence comes when, with examination and practice, the faculty of direct apprehension, of intellectual intuition, absolutely independent of its antecedents, has become possible.

 

Therefore it is said: "He who cannot strenuously train himself, cannot achieve truth; through strenuous training (an ascetic) achieves truth: therefore strenuous training is the most important thing for the achieving of truth."

 

Naturally, there is here an implicit assumption, which we shall discuss before long in detail, an assumption, that is to say, that the men to whom the doctrine was directed were not entirely in the state of brute beasts: that they recognised, not as an intellectual opinion, but through a natural and innate sense, the existence of a reality superior to that of the senses. For the "common man," one who thinks in his heart: "There is no giving, no offering, no alms, there is no result of good and bad actions, there is no this world, there, is no other world, there is no spiritual rebirth, there are not in the world ascetics or Brāhmans who are perfect and fulfilled and who, having with their own understanding comprehended, and realised this world and the other world, make known their

knowledge" - for such the doctrine was not considered to have been expounded, since they lack the elementary quality of "confidence" that defines the "noble son" and that is the first member of the series we have mentioned.

 

Such men, according to an apt textual illustration, are as "arrows shot by night”.

 

As for the preeminence accorded (in a pragmatic and anti-intellectualistic spirit) to action in the Doctrine of Awakening, we quote another Buddhist simile. A man struck by a poisoned arrow, for whom his friends and companions wish to fetch a surgeon, refuses to have the arrow extracted before learning who struck him, what his name might he, who his people are, what his appearance, if his bow was great or small, of what wood it was made, with what it was strung, and so on. This man would not succeed in learning enough to satisfy him before he died. Just so (says the text) would a man behave who followed the Sublime One only on the condition that the latter gave him answers to various speculative problems, telling him if the world was eternal or not, if body and the life-principle are distinct or not, what happens to the Accomplished One after death, and so on. None of this—says the Buddha—has been explained by me. "And why has it not been explained by me? Because this is not salutary, it is not truly ascetic, it does not lead to disgust, it does not lead to detachment, it does not lead to dispassion, it does not lead to calmness, it does not lead to contemplation, it does not lead to awakening, it does not lead to extinction: therefore has this not been explained by me”.

 

In the opposing theories regarding the world and regarding man, characteristically reminiscent of the Kantian antinomies, either one opposite or the other might he true. One thing is certain, however: the state in which man actually finds himself, and the possibility of his training himself, during his lifetime, to achieve the destruction of this state.

 

----

 

Julius Evola: The Doctrine of Awakening - Part I., Chapter 4. - Destruction of the Demon of Dialectics (excerpt)

 

I enjoyed doing the pencil portrait of this fabulous horse so much I couldn't resist having a go in pastel too. What an animal!

 

'Karioko' belonged to the late Miguel Tovar who won many competitions with his Spanish horses.

 

Drawn with kind permission from a photograph by Diego López

Rodríguez.

 

Limited edition prints are available to buy using the link below:

 

www.alibannister.com/…/the-spanish-horse-pastel-p-15…

 

Any questions feel free to contact me; or for more information about prints or commissions:

 

www.alibannister.com

 

For those who are interested in more about the drawing....

 

It's rare that I am called upon to offer my thoughts behind a piece as most make sense on a purely surface level as straight renderings of an animal ...and people rarely look deeper. But recently I was asked about this drawing and what, if anything, it meant to me. I thought I'd share my reply here:

 

To explain I would like to share the quote that I came across this week which rather succinctly describes what I see in this piece.

 

'The horse is the best judge of a good rider, not the spectator. If the horse has a high opinion of the rider, he will let himself be guided, if not, he will resist.' - Nuno Oliveira

 

To me this picture shows a horse who has judged it's rider and found him worthy of following. In that way it is a partnership, a relationship completely in harmony; two species in sync; speaking a language that both understand and respect. The horse willing to give whatever is asked and the rider wise enough and respectful enough to not ask too much.

 

It's a partnership, a relationship, if you will, that I have known and that I miss. It was both an honour and a privilege to have been part of my horse's life, a respected friend and to be her sole teammate for so many years. But it's also a relationship that probably wouldn't be expressed as well in a drawing of a gawky 14 year old me on a slightly ageing pony of underwhelming breeding. In truth, it wouldn't do it justice.

 

So in essence this picture is a representation of the respect, harmony and partnership that I had with my little mare, who I loved greatly and miss still. She taught me so much - and in many ways purely by her living example. She had a wiseness about her, a dignified understanding and respect. She wasn't a 'huggy' pony, not affectionate as such, but the ways that she showed her respect and acceptance of us was equally as powerful and meaningful.

 

My mum said that she got to know my pony, Felix, best when she was injured and had to be taken for controlled walks (as you would a dog) to build the strength back up in her tendon. It meant that they spent a lot of time together, side by side, day by day while I was at school. Felix had to trust my mum and accept the limitations put on her with patient tolerance, which she did - as if she somehow knew that it was for the best/that we had her best interests at heart.

 

My uncle had said that caring for my granny in the last years of her life was one of the most important and meaningful things that he ever did. Well, in looking after my horse when she most needed it, in caring for her and loving her, my mum's relationship with her deepened.

 

As her team mate, my relationship with Felix was similar but subtly different: we had to place deep trust in each other - but in a more intense way. Riding over cross country fences is still a high risk sport. (I have heard it described as 'heading at 30 miles an hour towards 30 solid obstacles on the back of a beast that weighs a tonne but has a brain smaller than a golf ball'). People can -and do- get seriously injured and even die. So the trust that we had was deep and important - but oh the fun we had! ...and the success - but more importantly the fun: the pleasure, the sheer joy of flying round a course together as one, her legs as mine, turning in the air together; speed I could never reach without her, leaps I could never make alone, courage that came only from our combined confidence - my knowledge of the terrain and obstacles - her trust in me to guide her safely. To this day those times are still my happiest memories.

 

But for all the fun and thrill of the cross country courses, it was the moments where she would submit and let me lead in the dressage that meant the most to me - because this was an area of little interest or point to her. There was no fun to be had, no pleasure to be enjoyed - but the profound respect that she showed me in bending to my will at those times mean more to me than any height of fence jumped or trophy won. Rather than some feat achieved together this was a gift of her giving - and it was given freely and to few people - BUT - and this is a big but - it wasn't given often - so it was a rare and therefore far more meaningful gift.

 

In the picture of the grey horse I see the undeniable power and strength of the animal - a horse could easily kill a human if it chose to - but also it's beauty and the gift of it's submission. The presence of the rider is implied by the position of, and tension in, the reins, so the relationship is there - but the focus is on the horse and the the gift of it's submission in that moment.

 

I don't know of a single other animal that has the strength of a horse AND the beauty AND the power AND the grace AND the speed AND the sensitivity ...and then gifts submission to man.

 

So that's what the grey horse picture means to me: it's a representation of the relationship I miss, shown through the visual of an act of giving by an animal that to me is unlike any other and second to none.

 

(On a technical note the lack of background detail is designed to concentrate your eye on the subject. The limited and desaturated palette brings the piece together, makes it more coherent and lends it a classical feel which I hope make the piece feel more timeless.)

 

And the grey 'dapples' are reminiscent of the rocking horses that I drooled over as a child before real horses were even a part of my world. (My friend had one - at the time I thought that was the dizzying height that any child's desire could reach. What a thing it would be to have daily access to something so beautiful, I thought).

 

Dapples are also technically very difficult to draw and have caused me huge problems in the past -so this drawing was a way for me to 'grasp that nettle', bring my drawing on and hopefully lay a few demons.

 

Philippe Halsman (1906-1979), an Austrian émigré forced to live in exile in France, had deep sympathy for, and understanding of, individuals whose basic living needs were in jeopardy. At the time Refugee Girl, Paris, 1938, was taken, Halsman had already established a reputable career as a fashion photographer, and his closely-cropped portraits were lauded as the new preferred mode over the previous style of soft focus and heavy styling. Halsman fused his skills as a fashion photographer with his deep compassion for the refugee to create an image that is striking for its aesthetic appeal as much as for its sincerity.

 

Prior to the invasion of France by Germany in 1940 Halsman managed to get an American visa with the help of Albert Einstein. In 1947, he clicked one of his most famed photographs, that of Albert Einstein in a mournful expression because during the session he was recounting his regrets on his role in America, helping to create the atomic bomb. The photo was later used in the postage stamp of United States in 1966 and on Time magazine’s cover in 1999. In 1958, Halsman was nominated in World’s Ten Greatest Photographers for Popular Photography. In1975, the American Society of Magazine Photographers gave him the Photography Award for Life Achievement.

 

This portrait was seen and photographed on display at San Francisco's Pier 24 Photography in an exhibit entitled "Looking Back".

Quotation art.

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haha i had the best fun ever making this you will need your sunglasses for this one . it is a dark cold wet day so i decided to make mine full of colours hahaha and i learned how to make a photo huge . did all this on picknik dont really know how i decided this time to press every second button and this is what i got . i love big bright bold colours and i sure did get them . i loooooove pressing buttons to see what happens . running out of buttons on picknik to press will have to find something new to try out that is not too hard for me as i am not very good with computers lol as you can see haha

 

explore.marcopix.com/profile/index.php?id=42419413@N02

 

[ EXPLORED # 94 BEST POSITION EVER . march 5th 2011 ]

  

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Scratched into the horizontal surface of one of the steps leading to Il-Maqluba. Who knows if they still care for each other?

On Saturday 25 February 2023, several thousand Peace Now demonstrators gathered in London to demand negotiations to bring about a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war.

 

PEACE TALKS NOW.

 

Almost all the protesters agreed that their main demand was for a greater effort to end the horrific conflict in Ukraine, in which possibly as many as 200,000 may have already died and with the risk of escalation threatening the end of all human life on earth.

 

WASHINGTON AND LONDON BLOCKED TALKS IN 2022

 

The evidence suggests that the United States and United Kingdom blocked Ukraine from carrying through with its proposed basis for a peace deal with Russia during negotiations in March-April 2022, with the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda, citing sources close to Zelensky, claiming that Boris Johnson, on his visit to Kiev on 9 April, personally lobbied the Ukrainian president to abandon peace talks and continue the conflict.

 

peacenews.info/node/10287/liz-truss-helped-derail-chances...

 

The former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, also claimed that Washington blocked his attempts to negotiate a peace deal between Kiev and Moscow.

 

thegrayzone.com/2023/02/06/israeli-bennett-us-russia-ukra...

  

A VARIETY OF VIEWS ON SENDING ARMS

 

Protesters had a greater variety of views on whether the West should send any arms to Ukraine at all, with many opposing any supply of arms that they believe will only prolong the conflict and suffering and risk further escalation, while others argued that sending some arms was morally justifiable to help Ukraine, but that the supply should be carefully calibrated so as not to make a wider and even more catastrophic world war more likely.

 

JEREMY CORBYN'S SPEECH

 

Jeremy Corbyn, as he concluded his brief speech, declared that 'if all the protagonists in this conflict can come together to discuss the supply of grain to the world, and come to an agreement by which ships carrying the grain from Ukraine and Russia can go to feed other people in other parts of the world; if the US is capable of contacting Russia to say that president Biden is visiting Kiev, then it is obviously possible they could come together for serious talks and serious negotiations to stop the fighting, stop the killing, stop the conflict, and bring about peace and justice."

 

WHY THE WEST NEEDS TO SUPPORT AND NOT BLOCK PEACE NEGOTIATIONS

 

1. Regardless of one's opinions on the rights and wrongs of this conflict, it has already claimed at least 100,000 lives, possibly over 200,000, including more than 8,000 civilians

 

abcnews.go.com/International/russia-ukraine-war-tens-thou...

 

Its continuation also threatens global food supplies and energy prices, plunging thousands into food and fuel poverty across Europe and leading to widespread food shortages and hunger across Africa and parts of Asia.

 

2. Every day the war continues, and as NATO supplies of ever more powerful weaponry continue to increase, the risk of the war escalating into a terminal nuclear conflict continues to grow. Putin and much of the Russian military establishment will do almost anything to prevent a Ukrainian victory, especially one that might see Crimea, of huge strategic importance and with a clear majority Russian population, be returned to Ukraine. Many strategic analysts and Russia specialists believe that Moscow would be willing to consider using at least tactical nuclear weapons, and that this could quickly escalate into global conflict. The ongoing conflict is also jeopardising all the remaining arms control agreements which prevent another nuclear arms race, so that even if Ukraine is victorious, we risk entering a new cold war which is likely to end, soon rather than later, in a nuclear conflict that will terminate all organised human life on earth.

 

3. The Ukraine War has led to a huge increase in the consumption of fossil fuels, and the reversal of key policies in the fight against climate change. It also hinders crucial cooperation between Russia and the West on this urgent issue with regards measures to curb emissions, as well as cooperation between Russian and Western scientists, particularly as Russia occupies a large part of the arctic, where research findings are vital for our understanding of how rapidly climate change is occuring.

 

4. We have to acknowledge that some of the West's recently declared war aims are highly questionable such as returning Crimea to Ukraine. Not only are the Russians unlikely to ever consider entering peace negotiations over its return, but over 60% of the population is Russian according to the last 2001 Ukrainian census and only 24% ( about 1 in 4) are Ukrainian. So it will be difficult to incorporate the territory back into Ukraine without at least some sort of referendum on Crimea's status. It also has to be acknowledged that the millions of Russians who live within Ukraine have for years faced harsh discrimination with severe restrictions on the importation of books in the Russian language since 2017 (Russian books had previously accounted for 60% of all titles), restrictions on the use of Russian language in schools and Russophobic attacks in the streets.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Ukraine

 

The Russians in the Donbass area have also suffered from years of shelling during a prolonged war Ukrainian forces waged against them, with a total death toll up to December 2021 (including both Ukrainian and insurgent forces) of over 14,000, including over 3,000 civilians killed. Yes, there was an inflow of Russian arms which also stoked the conflict, but many Russians viewed this as legitimate support for a population which was under attack from the Ukrainian army.

 

ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/Conflict-relat...

 

5. Finally, whatever one's views on the Ukrainian conflict, the evidence suggests that Western strategy is failing. Russian forces continue to gain ground in Ukraine on a daily basis, despite an enormous inflow of NATO arms. Russian industry is able to be fully mobilised on a war footing in a way that the West, with its just in time corporate controlled arms industry, can't compete with. NATO has already acknowledged that by the summer of this year, Ukraine is likely to run out of artillery shells. What is brutally termed the "burn rate" of NATO supplied military equipment (and indeed of Ukrainian young men) is far higher than its replenishment rate. At the same time, despite all the sanctions the Russian economy is predicted to grow faster this year than either Germany or the United Kingdom.

 

www.grid.news/story/global/2023/02/01/russias-economy-is-...

 

The ruble has actually gained slightly in strength against the US dollar, relative to its value a year ago in February 2022,

 

www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=RUB&to=USD

 

and Russian reserves remain impressively high. Much of the world, including China, India, South Africa and Brazil, remain more than willing to retain good relations with Russia and import its oil and other key commodities. Western strategy is failing to weaken Russia but the war strengthens the position of the nationalists within Russia, and gives the Russian government a pretext to clampdown on dissent. It also pushes Russia ever closer to China, while accelerating Europe's relative economic decline. So whatever one's moral view on the conflict, the lack of any coherent strategy to end this conflict and the West's refusal even to consider peace negotiations appears to be a catastrophic mistake.

A little note from me to some admins:

 

Please do not place any invitation likns on my images if you really insist on my giving awards in your groups because I have no intentions of upsetting you by violating your group rules. Please read carefully before you place any invite links for any invites placed under will be regarded as those that require no compulsory awarding.

 

Nevertheless, I appreciate anyone who visits my photostream. Thanks for your kind understanding!!!

 

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If you are interested in my works, they are available on Getty Images.

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一張可以完全表達一個人對照片內容的最深沈的感受的照片才是張絕佳的照片。

A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.

～Ansel Adams

A Haiku Note:

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Here see the Buddha

encircled in the sunlight

in meditation

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The Noble Eightfold Path describes the way to the end of suffering, as it was laid out by Siddhartha Gautama. It is a practical guideline to ethical and mental development with the goal of freeing the individual from attachments and delusions; and it finally leads to understanding the truth about all things. Together with the Four Noble Truths it constitutes the gist of Buddhism. Great emphasis is put on the practical aspect, because it is only through practice that one can attain a higher level of existence and finally reach Nirvana. The eight aspects of the path are not to be understood as a sequence of single steps, instead they are highly interdependent principles that have to be seen in relationship with each other.

 

1. Right View

 

Right view is the beginning and the end of the path, it simply means to see and to understand things as they really are and to realise the Four Noble Truths. As such, right view is the cognitive aspect of wisdom. It means to see things through, to grasp the impermanent and imperfect nature of worldly objects and ideas, and to understand the law of karma and karmic conditioning. Right view is not necessarily an intellectual capacity, just as wisdom is not just a matter of intelligence. Instead, right view is attained, sustained, and enhanced through all capacities of mind. It begins with the intuitive insight that all beings are subject to suffering and it ends with complete understanding of the true nature of all things. Since our view of the world forms our thoughts and our actions, right view yields right thoughts and right actions.

 

2. Right Intention

 

While right view refers to the cognitive aspect of wisdom, right intention refers to the volitional aspect, i.e. the kind of mental energy that controls our actions. Right intention can be described best as commitment to ethical and mental self-improvement. Buddha distinguishes three types of right intentions: 1. the intention of renunciation, which means resistance to the pull of desire, 2. the intention of good will, meaning resistance to feelings of anger and aversion, and 3. the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.

 

3. Right Speech

 

Right speech is the first principle of ethical conduct in the eightfold path. Ethical conduct is viewed as a guideline to moral discipline, which supports the other principles of the path. This aspect is not self-sufficient, however, essential, because mental purification can only be achieved through the cultivation of ethical conduct. The importance of speech in the context of Buddhist ethics is obvious: words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace. Buddha explained right speech as follows: 1. to abstain from false speech, especially not to tell deliberate lies and not to speak deceitfully, 2. to abstain from slanderous speech and not to use words maliciously against others, 3. to abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others, and 4. to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth. Positively phrased, this means to tell the truth, to speak friendly, warm, and gently and to talk only when necessary.

 

4. Right Action

 

The second ethical principle, right action, involves the body as natural means of expression, as it refers to deeds that involve bodily actions. Unwholesome actions lead to unsound states of mind, while wholesome actions lead to sound states of mind. Again, the principle is explained in terms of abstinence: right action means 1. to abstain from harming sentient beings, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently, 2. to abstain from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty, and 3. to abstain from sexual misconduct. Positively formulated, right action means to act kindly and compassionately, to be honest, to respect the belongings of others, and to keep sexual relationships harmless to others. Further details regarding the concrete meaning of right action can be found in the Precepts.

 

5. Right Livelihood

 

Right livelihood means that one should earn one's living in a righteous way and that wealth should be gained legally and peacefully. The Buddha mentions four specific activities that harm other beings and that one should avoid for this reason: 1. dealing in weapons, 2. dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution), 3. working in meat production and butchery, and 4. selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs. Furthermore any other occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided.

 

6. Right Effort

 

Right effort can be seen as a prerequisite for the other principles of the path. Without effort, which is in itself an act of will, nothing can be achieved, whereas misguided effort distracts the mind from its task, and confusion will be the consequence. Mental energy is the force behind right effort; it can occur in either wholesome or unwholesome states. The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness. Right effort is detailed in four types of endeavours that rank in ascending order of perfection: 1. to prevent the arising of unarisen unwholesome states, 2. to abandon unwholesome states that have already arisen, 3. to arouse wholesome states that have not yet arisen, and 4. to maintain and perfect wholesome states already arisen.

 

7. Right Mindfulness

 

Right mindfulness is the controlled and perfected faculty of cognition. It is the mental ability to see things as they are, with clear consciousness. Usually, the cognitive process begins with an impression induced by perception, or by a thought, but then it does not stay with the mere impression. Instead, we almost always conceptualise sense impressions and thoughts immediately. We interpret them and set them in relation to other thoughts and experiences, which naturally go beyond the facticity of the original impression. The mind then posits concepts, joins concepts into constructs, and weaves those constructs into complex interpretative schemes. All this happens only half consciously, and as a result we often see things obscured. Right mindfulness is anchored in clear perception and it penetrates impressions without getting carried away. Right mindfulness enables us to be aware of the process of conceptualisation in a way that we actively observe and control the way our thoughts go. Buddha accounted for this as the four foundations of mindfulness: 1. contemplation of the body, 2. contemplation of feeling (repulsive, attractive, or neutral), 3. contemplation of the state of mind, and 4. contemplation of the phenomena.

 

8. Right Concentration

 

The eighth principle of the path, right concentration, refers to the development of a mental force that occurs in natural consciousness, although at a relatively low level of intensity, namely concentration. Concentration in this context is described as one-pointedness of mind, meaning a state where all mental faculties are unified and directed onto one particular object. Right concentration for the purpose of the eightfold path means wholesome concentration, i.e. concentration on wholesome thoughts and actions. The Buddhist method of choice to develop right concentration is through the practice of meditation. The meditating mind focuses on a selected object. It first directs itself onto it, then sustains concentration, and finally intensifies concentration step by step. Through this practice it becomes natural to apply elevated levels of concentration also in everyday situations.

Wotancraft's Traveler's Notebook and City Explorer Camera Bag Review - Part 1

 

Our job to find great stuffs from all over the world doesn't stop at product level, I believe understanding the concept and stories behind is far more important than product features. Only through digging deeper will I be able to bring true benefits to end users, in the process of doing this I learned a lot and makes my job an adventurous one. It is exactly this practice which sets us apart from a typical retail chain store.

 

This review is separated into two parts. Part 1 is a story in this post, Part 2 is a product review in the next post.

 

I first found Wotancraft from random searching on the net a year or so before, then I popped into a great store in Hong Kong called Annie Barton and found their products there. Admiring the quality and aesthetics I grew interest in the brand, I was scared away by the price though. So despite having the feeling that those bags suit my needs and in styles I adore, I found myself staring at them repeatedly on the net and never got myself one. What stopped me from getting one? The price tag and lack of knowledge about Wotancraft's true attention to details. Annie Barton told me each one of the bags were made by hand by those artisans in Taiwan, I couldn't believe it, no way, the bags are so well made I thought they were produced by professional mass producing bag maker. Judging from the details, each model requires literally hundreds of manufacturing processes and it was not possible to be made by just a few persons by hands. The story turned out entirely true when I got a chance to visit Taipei 20 days ago.

 

On the day I arrived Taipei, before other business engagements I shot right away to the Wotancraft showroom/shop. It was a huge disparity between what's inside the place and everything else surrounding it! Inside a dim florescent lit office building full of local trading businesses with zero taste and style decorations, I was still assuming Wotancraft a corporation you know, but once I entered the showroom, everything changed.

 

Surrounded by cozy fixtures made from aged wood and pig iron, products made from leather and canvas, I immediately felt homey. One side of the store was an open shelf displaying full product range and prototypes, while the other side is a service counter full of custom made leather straps for Panerai watches. I picked up the City Explorer series of bags and started examining each one of them until a friendly staff came out of the backyard and explained to me product details.

 

Soon I was unpacking my camera bag and started trying out almost every model possible. I guess camera bag to a guy is like fashion to a girl, you can spend hours enjoying the selection process in a setting like that. The staff noticed my Traveler's Notebook and some of my leather craft stuffs like camera case and straps. "James have the same notebook! He made crazy customization of it." That's when real conversation began.

 

By then I realized that each one of their bags were literally made by their own hands. Four artisans made up the entire Wotancraft company, the two I met in store were among them. It was not a corporation I presumed before, just a small bunch of people doing everything by themselves. Time to leave for a business engagement, hungered for more stories, I used Paypal to pay for the City Explorer 002 Ranger bag, left the showroom and determined to contact James about his Traveler's Notebook and come back a few days later. During my initial stay at the showroom, there were constant influx of Panerai fans looking for unique leather straps, but I'm not gonna cover that part of the story here.

 

3 days later, after a few email exchanges I finally met James, the soul behind Wotancraft. The company was created out of his pure passion in photography and watches, despite working as a bio-chemist after his graduation, he started to make his first prototype camera bag 5 years ago. Not satisfied with camera bags with trivial features and ugly looks, he explored different forms and materials and came up with a bag he would use. He was kind enough to show me all the thoughts he put into this City Explorer 002 Ranger bag, comparing it to his first prototype. I will cover the details in Part 2 in the next post.

 

Let's talk about James' Traveler's Notebook. In a typical Traveler's Notebook show me yours and I'll show you mine fashion, we exchanged our usage patterns. His cover is not the original but one made by himself, a very thoughtful implementation. There are two layers of leathers, a thicker one forms the shape while the outer thinner one gives its distinct Wotancraft look.

 

The thin leather on the cover is the same material James uses in his City Explorer series of camera bags. Stitched together on 3 sides, the notebook cover has an opening on one side doubling the cover as a pocket by itself. To increase the pocket size, James relocated the elastic string attachment point from the middle of the back to the edge, creating an inner space large enough for his stationery stuffs.

 

As a master of customization, he of course couldn't settle with a bookmark without his very own Wotancraft branded charm and leather tag. On typical day, James would use two types of notebooks inside - Traveler's Notebook lightweight paper for note taking, sketch paper for sketching. Inspecting his TN, I found inspirations common to creative people, not only would he take notes in meticulous details, he sketches out architectural structures purely out of his head, perhaps this keen practice is his way of precipitating his creativity into reality.

 

James' TN is so far the best Traveler's Notebook mod I've ever seen, functional and pleasing. I've got to make one myself someday :) Stay tuned for Part 2.

 

More on Scription blog: scription.typepad.com/blog/2012/03/wotancrafts-travelers-...

Understanding how to grow algae in space might be the key to a successful closed life support system in future spacecraft. And it helps us to better understand Earth's eco system, too.

 

Zu verstehen, wie man Algen im Weltraum züchten kann, könnte der Schlüssel zu einem funktionierenden geschlossenen Lebenserhaltungssystem in zukünftigen Raumschiffen sein. Und noch dazu hilft es uns, das Ökosystem unserer Erde besser zu verstehen.

 

ID: 362D5783

Credit: ESA/NASA

Russian postcard by 'Goznak', Moscow, series 2, no. A 1725, 1927. The card was issued in an edition of 15.000 copies.

 

Danish silent film actress Asta Nielsen (1881-1972), was one of the most popular leading ladies of the 1910s and one of the first international film stars. Of her 74 films between 1910 and 1932, seventy were made in Germany where she was known simply as 'Die Asta'. Noted for her large dark eyes, mask-like face, and boyish figure, Nielsen most often portrayed strong-willed passionate women trapped by tragic consequences.

 

Asta Sofie Amalie Nielsen was born in the Copenhagen suburb of Vesterbro, Denmark, in 1881. She was the daughter of an often unemployed blacksmith and a washerwoman. Nielsen's family moved several times during her childhood while her father sought employment. When she was fourteen years old, her father died. Asta's stage debut came as a child in the chorus of the Kongelige Teater's production of Boito's opera 'Mephistopheles'. At the age of eighteen, Nielsen was accepted into the drama school of the Royal Danish Theatre. During her time there, she studied with the Royal Danish actor Peter Jerndorff. In 1901, twenty years old, she became pregnant and gave birth to her daughter, Jesta. Nielsen never revealed the identity of the father, and chose to raise her child alone with the help of her mother and older sister. In 1902, she graduated from drama school. For the next three years, she worked at the Dagmar Theatre, then toured in Norway and Sweden from 1905 to 1907 with De Otte and the Peter Fjelstrup companies. Returning to Denmark, she was employed at Det Ny Theater (The New Theatre) from 1907 to 1910. Although she worked steadily as a stage actress, her performances remained unremarkable. Danish historian Robert Neiiedam wrote that Nielsen's unique physical attraction, which was of great value on the screen, was limited on stage by her deep and uneven speaking voice.

 

In 1909, set designer and director Urban Gad encouraged Asta Nielsen to become a film actress and she starred in his Danish silent film Afgrunden/The Abyss (Urban Gad, 1910). Gary Morris observes in Bright Lights Film Journal: "this film established from the beginning key components of her legend: scandalous eroticism and a uniquely minimalist acting style." Asta plays a music teacher lured away from her stolid fiancee (Robert Dinesen) by a sexy but faithless circus cowboy (Poul Reumert). In a startling sequence of sexual intensity, she lassos her boyfriend and does a lewd dance, bumping and grinding against him. Morris: "This vulgar ‘gaucho-dance’ was what most viewers remembered, but critics of the time also applauded Asta's naturalistic acting." The film was a huge success so she was encouraged to continue. The following year Balletdanserinden/The Ballet Dancer (August Blom, 1911) proved to be another success. Nielsen and Gad soon married. A German distributor, Paul Davidson, invited Nielsen to Germany, where he was building a new studio. Eventually, this would become Europe's largest film studio - the Universum Film Union A.-G. (or Ufa). Asta signed a contract for $80,000 a year, then the highest salary for a film actress. In 1911, she moved to Berlin with Urban Gad. In a Russian popularity poll of that year, she was voted world's top female film star, behind French comedian Max Linder and ahead of her Danish compatriot Valdemar Psilander.

 

In the next six years, Asta Nielsen played every conceivable kind of character in both tragedies and comedies. In Die Suffragette/The Militant Suffragette (Urban Gad, 1913), she is an English female liberationist whose beliefs force her to become violent, placing a bomb in Parliament. In Zapatas Bande/Zapata's Gang (Urban Gad, 1916), she plays a highway robber. In the comedy Das Liebes-ABC/The ABCs of Love (Magnus Stifter, 1916), she pretends to be a man and takes her wimpy boyfriend out on the town in order to "bring out the man in him." Nielsen was so famous that the name Asta became a trademark for cigarettes and perfumes. In the Dutch city The Hague, a cinema was named after her. Her beauty was praised by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire as "the drunkard's vision and the lonely man's dream". One of Asta's most interesting productions was Hamlet (Sven Gade, Heinz Schall, 1921). Gary Morris: "Asta brings a subtle twist to her version not by playing a man, but by playing a woman disguised as a man, adding another level of gender complexity. Hamlet was based less on William Shakespeare than on a popular book of the time that said Hamlet was actually a girl forcibly raised as a boy in order to provide an heir to the Danish throne. At first, the effect is more puzzling than effective, but the actress's strategy becomes evident in sexually charged scenes between Asta/Hamlet and Horatio, who caress and coddle each other in what surely appeared to viewers of the time (as it does to modern audiences) as a gay tryst. Asta brilliantly imparts the gender-unstable nature of the character in these scenes with Horatio and others with Fortinbras, whose encounters with Hamlet are also clearly coded as gay. The actress's effortless creation of these subtle, sympathetic homosexual tableaux gives a tremendous vitality to this production. The fact that the film was truly hers — being the first film she made with her own production company — shows just how daring and modern she was."

 

Nowadays Asta Nielsen is best known for Die Freudlose Gasse/The Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst, 1925). Asta plays in this film an impoverished woman who resorts to prostitution and murder. In the original prints there were two equal-time female leads: Nielsen and a young actress from Sweden, Greta Garbo. Ruthlessly cut for American release, the film suddenly became a Garbo vehicle. Fortunately, the print has been restored recently and Asta triumphs in it as the increasingly unbalanced Marie. Nielsen continued to be a screen legend in Germany, and appeared in films like Dirnentragödie/Tragedy of the Street (Bruno Rahn, 1927) and in her only sound film Unmögliche Liebe/Crown of Thorns (Erich Waschneck, 1932). After the Nazis came to power she was rumoured to be offered her own studio by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Understanding the implications well, she left Germany for good in 1936, settling in Denmark where she returned to stage acting and became a private figure. In her later years, Asta Nielsen wrote articles on art and politics and a two-volume autobiography, 'Den tiende Muse' (The Silent Muse) in 1946. She also became an acclaimed collage artist. In 1964, Nielsen had to come to terms with the most severe blow of her life: her daughter Jesta committed suicide following the death of her husband. At 86, Asta directed her first film. Luise F. Pusch writes in FemBio: "After a film about her life did not meet with her approval, she set to work on the project herself. The result was a work of art." At 88, Asta Nielsen married her third husband, Christian Theede, an art dealer 18 years her junior and the great love of her life. The two enjoyed their travels together so much that they decided to leave their fortune to a foundation to fund trips for the elderly. In 1972, Asta Nielsen died in Copenhagen after a leg fracture. She was 90.

 

Sources: Gary Morris (Bright Lights Film Journal), Luise F. Pusch (FemBio), Jim Beaver (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.

 

David Viscott, MD

"This I do for you, Before I try to fight the truth my final time"

 

Update: the third picture is here in big.

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(Bigger is better)

 

© Pablo León-Asuero Moreno. All rights reserved.

Perpetual Moonlight - www.flickr.com/groups/moochiesl/, Moochie (220, 60, 22) - Moderate

 

Visit this location in Second Life

And be sure to check by my other acount: www.flickr.com/photos_user.gne?path=&nsid=77145939%40..., to see what else I saw recently!!

 

Yes I'm back again.

However due to my main computer on which I edit my work being struck down with a big bad virus, this picture and all the others I am uploading, were Unedited but have now been replaced with Edited versions. So enjoy and Thanks for your patience and understanding.

 

I do still hate everything about this shit that is new Flickr and always will, but an inability to find another outlet for my work that is as easy for me to use as the Old BETTER Flickr was, has forced me back to Flickr, even though it goes against everything I believe in.

 

I don't generally have an opinion on my own work, I prefer to leave that to other people and so based on the positive responses to my work from the various friends I had made on Flickr prior to the changes I have decided to upload some more of my work as an experiment and to see what happens.

 

So make the most of me before they delete my acount: www.flickr.com/photos/69558134@N05/?details=1, to stop me complaining!!

NO Self promotion by Image / HTML or WEB Link

NO Faves With out Comments plz,

Doing such act might cause you A Block from Me

Only Appreciation. Critics . comments Faves, Notes , Blog it And Own Comments are welcome and NO Round Up Comments plz !!

Take Some time with me to share your feelings here,

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824917012011

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,Pay Visit to my:

 

Light Box

 

Getty Image Here

Twitter Here

Face Book Here

  

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The Edit of this Photo Demands Your View In BLACK with Large size for better out put, Plz Press L for Black

 

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Description

The wonderful sun set sometime may not always and with every one , travel from past to present , and following the future. The sensational mood shall depend on the place and the environment of which the sunset made an image in a human mind.

 

Even with to an honesty to corruption [ here corruption mens with environmental injustice] everyone has different feelings during a twilight at different place even at the same place by different person,

I noticed b4 , the birds enjoying twilight in this Horizon When Time Truned Away [সূয্য ডুবার পালা -1] at here , and Also shown you in my photo Nature Teaches Selflessness here How rude the people with nature, still the sun is selfless to the nature .

 

No I am No More trying to contradict the ppl with nature here , My subject is Traveling through twilight [Ttt] when I see through my lens from Dhaka BANGLADESH and Shown the world flickr community here , is almost its traveled all alone the world, But One traveling from past to present through twilight is a matter of his / her understanding to the climax in his life cycle, Climax in his relationship, and a climax through the age and age over and over !!! .

 

Let there be Light and twilight in every human mind and travel Through be past , present or Future,

  

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Thanks In Advance for not Inviting me to any Group and Attaching Graphics to this picture as a part of your comments, I appreciate you to view my photo , click Faves and write your comments instead you copy pest your comment to me.

 

Press F to Faves This Photo

  

-Please don't use or alter this image on websites, blogs or any other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved,

some recent stock material with young fitness model

 

no graphic comments/invites please! (they will be deleted)

thanks for understanding

 

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"Once I knew only darkness and stillness... my life was without past or future... but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living." - Helen Keller

 

Understanding HDR part III - The Histograms

The histograms are very important for all photographers, including HDR photographers. In this article goo.gl/2fD0J3 I explain histograms and why they are important to HDR photographers and how to use them to increase your image quality significantly.

This photo is the Piccadilly Circus.

Piccadilly is always crowded - well almost always. And shooting photos there is difficult because of all of the people. But when you patiently are waiting, with your camera on tripod, people also get curious and come talking to you. This particular image is assembled from 9 various photos, with different people and light settings. Photo by: Jacob Surland, www.caughtinpixels.com

Understanding Napoli, in Italy.

 

@ 2013