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Someone thoughtfully added some flowers where there had previously been only overgrown grass and weeds. So you see, graffiti can be useful after all...
thequiltingdee.blogspot.com/2011/10/swoon-and-useful-bask...
Four "useful" baskets made entirely of scraps and donated denim. They're part of my fund raising efforts for our homeschool co-op's Senior Scholarship.
Zanysson - A crabronid wasp. Most of the stinging wasps are fairly badass in aspect, to use a technical term. This one certainly is worthy of a tattoo on someone's chest and was collected by Merle Shepherd from Spring Island along the coast of South Carolina. It is unclear which species this is, but perhaps someone will reveal that to us. The group as a whole are cleptoparasites of other Crabronid wasps.
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All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.
Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200
Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know
" Ode on a Grecian Urn"
John Keats
You can also follow us on Instagram - account = USGSBIML Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen:
Art Photo Book: Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World
www.qbookshop.com/products/216627/9780760347386/Bees.html...
Basic USGSBIML set up:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY
USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdmx_8zqvN4
PDF of Basic USGSBIML Photography Set Up:
ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/er/md/laurel/Droege/How%20to%20Take%20MacroPhotographs%20of%20Insects%20BIML%20Lab2.pdf
Google Hangout Demonstration of Techniques:
plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo
or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU
Excellent Technical Form on Stacking:
Contact information:
Sam Droege
sdroege@usgs.gov
301 497 5840
Chippendale's former Carlton Brewery site is being redeveloped by Frasers Property and Sekisui House, and the old brewery wall comes in useful again for Vivid. The theme of 'X Factory' seems to touch on Silicon Valley entrepreneur Martin Ford's book which expounds that as technology improves fewer people will be needed to run it.
At front is 'Silent Disco' which allows about 150 people to don headsets. The red blue and green headphones have different tunes but silent it's not when the crowd break into chorus 'Mickey you're so fine you blow my mind...'. It's mostly locals and students, couldn't spot a tourist, and on the last day of Vivid it's not busy at all :).
Nearby is the terrific Spice Alley, and restaurants include Automata which is former Momofuku Seiōbo sous chef Clayton Wells' first restaurant, backed by Singaporean hotelier and restaurateur Loh Lik Peng. The menu features a set menu of five dishes for $88 with matching wines for $60 and the seating is mixed communal style, some tables and bar seating. The food is progressive Australian with Japanese influence (excellent umagi and wagyu beef dishes and saki list) and it's a bit like Fitzroy's Cutler & Co. for style.
Seems like a good time to drop in Kraftwerk who performed at a previous Vivid (what else but 'We are the robots'?): www.youtube.com/watch?v=okhQtoQFG5s
Toni Basil's Hey Mickey [www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqLwHP4y6Q]
This angle shows the Magic Carpet in its most useful configuration being used at the water line as a tender dock. For all but a couple of brief periods, Magic Carpet was on Deck 14 and closed. I was unimpressed until it came time to tender.
My on-and-off relationship with my passions has brought me to a new strange overlap in my relaxation and organization efforts. I need to organize my belongings in the new house that my wife and I recently moved into, while also finding the free time to practice my hobbies and get away from both the nauseating political climate of the world and the exhausting labor of an intensely physical job.
The overlap has allowed me to direct my efforts toward something I can both enjoy and utilize. I've been using origami to organize my home and my workplace in ways that all those involved find beneficial.
This model is a blend of Ángel Écija Blanco's Pencil Pot 2, Hans-Werner Guth's Tool Box, and Marc Vigo Anglada's Pencil pot.
Each pot was folded from an 8.5" x 11" sheet of Astrobrights Metallic cardstock.
Hauling a string of 8, matched wooden coaches at a "Day out with Thomas" event in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, the Strasburg Rail Road's live-steam "Thomas" enters the yard with a sold out trainload of happy kids and their parents. The former Brooklyn Eastern District Locomotive #15 has now been in service as the character from the children's book series "Thomas & Friends" for a quarter of a century and he's still very popular with the kiddos. Although just a dockside switcher underneath the baby blue sheet metal, this is one very powerful locomotive, or as the book says: " A very useful engine." I have personally witnessed this engine on many occasions, starting a full loaded, 8-car train from a dead stop on the grade above Cherry Hill, with very little wheel-slip, and stack-talk that you could hear in the next county.
Quality prints, greeting cards and many useful products can be purchased at >> kaye-menner.pixels.com/featured/columbus-day-by-kaye-menn...
Columbus Day is a U.S. holiday that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492, and Columbus Day 2018 occurs on Monday, October 8. It was unofficially celebrated in a number of cities and states as early as the 18th century, but did not become a federal holiday until 1937.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian-born explorer who set sail in August 1492, bound for Asia with backing from the Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
Columbus intended to chart a western sea route to China, India and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. Instead, on October 12, he landed in the Bahamas, becoming the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings established colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland during the 10th century.
Columbus Day in the United States:
The first Columbus Day celebration took place in 1792, when New York’s Columbian Order—better known as Tammany Hall—held an event to commemorate the historic landing’s 300th anniversary. Taking pride in Columbus’ birthplace and faith, Italian and Catholic communities in various parts of the country began organizing annual religious ceremonies and parades in his honor.
In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage with patriotic festivities, writing, “On that day let the people, so far as possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.”
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday, largely as a result of intense lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, an influential Catholic fraternal organization.
Columbus Day Alternatives
Controversy over Columbus Day dates back to the 19th century, when anti-immigrant groups in the United States rejected the holiday because of its association with Catholicism.
In recent decades, Native Americans and other groups have protested the celebration of an event that resulted in the colonization of the Americas, the beginnings of the transatlantic slave trade and the deaths of millions from murder and disease.
European settlers brought a host of infectious diseases, including smallpox and influenza, that decimated indigenous populations. Warfare between Native Americans and European colonists claimed many lives as well.
Indigenous Peoples Day
The image of Christopher Columbus as an intrepid hero has also been called into question. Upon arriving in the Bahamas, the explorer and his men forced the native peoples they found there into slavery. Later, while serving as the governor of Hispaniola, he allegedly imposed barbaric forms of punishment, including torture.
In many Latin American nations, the anniversary of Columbus’ landing has traditionally been observed as the Dìa de la Raza (“Day of the Race”), a celebration of Hispanic culture’s diverse roots. In 2002, Venezuela renamed the holiday Dìa de la Resistencia Indìgena (“Day of Indigenous Resistance”) to recognize native peoples and their experience.
Several U.S. cities and states have replaced Columbus Day with alternative days of remembrance. Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and South Dakota have officially replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, as have cities like Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
When Is Columbus Day?
Columbus Day was originally observed every October 12, but was changed to the second Monday in October beginning in 1971.
In some parts of the United States, Columbus Day has evolved into a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Local groups host parades and street fairs featuring colorful costumes, music and Italian food. In places that use the day to honor indigenous peoples, activities include pow-wows, traditional dance events and lessons about Native American culture.
Old Absinthe House bar in New Orleans.
Some geography of New Orleans. The location and geography of New Orleans is unique in America. Most of the city is well below sea level, except for the French Quarter which was built on a natural levee of the river in the 1700s. As the city has expanded special levees, pumps and flood gates have been erected around the city. When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 the storm itself did damage to New Orleans but the major devastation came from the levees failing and water flooding at least 80% of the city area. It is useful to remember that 50% of New Orleans city is water and not land! Its location on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River, near the delta bayous and swamps was the raison d’être for the city. It was to control all navigation and commercial activity on the river and to provide a safe harbour as close as possible to the Gulf of Mexico. Because of its strategic location it has always been the prize for invaders during wars. The city has a tropical climate and the regions north of the city along the banks of the Mississippi were and are major sugar plantation areas, not cotton plantation areas. You have to travel upstate in Louisiana to find the cotton growing areas. This tropical climate along one of the world’s major water courses meant until recently that the area was plagued with Yellow Fever, malaria and other deadly illnesses. To the north and east of the city is Lake Pontchartrain, a huge body of water; in fact the city is bordered by water on three sides. By road the mouth of the Mississippi is over 100 miles away but this is because the river follows a circuitous route to the mouth of its delta. The city metropolitan area has a population of 1.1 million, exactly the same as the population of Adelaide. Although the population fell after Hurricane Katrina the population is now 90% of what is was before the hurricane. There is little evidence of flood damage in the areas that we will see as tourists. The French Quarter was not flooded because the founding French settlers sensibly chose a high site for their city.
Some early history of New Orleans. The city was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, a major trader in furs bought from the Indians up river. They got the local Indians, the Chitimacha to cede land to them. The Company named the city after the Duke of Orleans who was the Regent of France at that time. After the French Wars between the Indians, British, French and Spanish in America from 1756-63 the French ceded New Orleans to the Spanish. The Spanish held New Orleans from 1763 to 1801 when Napoleon defeated the Spanish and New Orleans and its territories to the west were returned to France. As Napoleon needed more funds to continue his Napoleonic Wars with Britain and others he soon (in 1803) sold New Orleans and all territories west of the Mississippi to President Jefferson for the small sum of $15 million. West Florida, New Orleans and the west comprised over 800,000 square miles! The Louisiana Purchase covered - Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nth & Sth Dakota, Oklahoma & parts of Texas and Wyoming.
When the French settled New Orleans they built a trading port city of wooden buildings on the high ground along the banks of the Mississippi. The streets were named after the royal houses of France and Catholic saints, hence Bourbon Street after the Dukes of Bourbon, not the whisky. Local pine was the timber used for building the houses, often on brick pylons to raise the houses above any possible flood threat. The compact town was destroyed by two major fires during the Spanish ownership of Louisiana in 1788 and again in 1794. The city was rebuilt in brick, with wrought iron balconies in the Spanish style usually with central courtyards. So most of what we see today in the French Quarter or Vieux Carré is actually of Spanish design and from the era of Spanish building in the late 1790s. So the French Quarter is really the Spanish Quarter and the Spanish buildings include the three major public buildings of this era- the Cathedral of St. Louis, and the adjoining Cabildo and Presbytere. The first St. Louis Cathedral was built in 1781; the second in 1725; and the third in 1789. That third structure in Spanish style was almost totally rebuilt in 1850 in the style of the previous cathedral.
The Strategic Importance of New Orleans. Not long after the Americans bought New Orleans a major war broke out between England and her former American colonies. War raged from 1812-14 when the British, amongst other achievements, sailed up the Potomac River in Washington and burnt down the White House and attacked the national capital. As the port that controlled the Mississippi and the river system that went up to the British colonies in Canada the British wanted to retake New Orleans. A young American officer, Andrew Jackson (later President Andrew Jackson) led the American forces in a battle with the British. The battle of New Orleans (remember the hit song about it in 1959?) took place in January 1815. It was the final battle of the War of 1812 and despite bad odds Andrew Jackson and the Americans prevailed and won the battle. Hence the main square in New Orleans is Jackson Square with a fine statue of the later President on horseback is in the centre of the square. And again during the Civil War both the Confederates and Unionists wanted to control New Orleans. During the Antebellum period New Orleans had been a major port for the slave trade and the major slave auction centre of the American South. Louisiana declared their secession from the Union in January 1861 and the Confederates bolstered their occupation of the area. It was the link to the South’s cotton plantations up the Mississippi River Valley and its link across the Mississippi to the wealthy states of Texas, Arkansas and some secessionist counties of Missouri. The first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861. New Orleans was blockaded by the North in May 1861 showing what an important prize the city was to the Union. After two short battles in April 1862 the Union forces occupied New Orleans and split the Confederacy into two parts as it then controlled the Mississippi River too.
The Creole Culture of New Orleans. Creole culture in Louisiana is still strong. Creoles are primarily the people descended from the early French and Spanish settlers mixed with later German immigrants and African slaves. Creoles were originally white Europeans but the term later included mixed race people. When the Haitian Revolution led by slaves erupted in 1804 many French residents fled from Haiti to New Orleans with their African slaves. They reinforced the French culture of New Orleans and established their three tiered society of white Creoles, mixed race Creoles and black slaves. The mixed race Creoles were mainly fee black people and added to the free black population of New Orleans. French speakers dominated in New Orleans until 1830. But as late as 1900, 25% of residents spoke French and 75% could understand it. (250,000 Louisianans still speak French at home today.) Half the schools in New Orleans taught in French until the Civil War. In 1862 the Union occupier of the city General Butler abolished French instruction and enforced English teaching. The War made New Orleans an American city. But the Creoles did not disappear. They continued to dominate society for some time. The Creole planters along the Mississippi lived on their plantations during the hot malaria filled summers but moved to their French Quarter town houses for the cool winters. (It was the reverse in Charleston where the planters lived in Charleston in the hot summers and spent winters on their plantations.) The New Orleans winter was the time for balls and parties and the celebrations around Lent and the Mardi Gras activities, which still persist as a reminder of the French heritage of the city. The white French Creoles also often took black slave women as mistresses but unlike the white Americans they tended to give freedom to the children born from these unions. Thus New Orleans ended up with the largest number of free blacks of any Southern city in the Antebellum days. Mixed race Creoles had their own society balls and functions. Many had property and were quite wealthy in their own rights because of grants from their white Creole fathers. But their access to political and legal rights disappeared during the Jim Crow era as white Americans applied their white-black caste system on all parts of America including Louisiana. Free persons of colour were discriminated against by the Jim Crow regulations and segregation in New Orleans too. Change came with of the Civil Rights era.
Our Daily Challenge 3-9 December :On the Windowsill 2
I can't just sit and watch TV, I need to do something else as well.
Scania L94/Wrights 60071 is seen here withdrawn at BN depot after providing useful parts to other buses.
“Mock strawberry plants or False strawberry or Snake berry or Indian berry or Barren strawberry or Duchesne indica very useful Medicinal herb with yellow flowers in a small garden on the the shore of Lake Ontario in squires beach in Ajax , April 27. 2024”
“Mock strawberry plants or False strawberry or Snake berry or Indian berry or Barren strawberry or Duchesne indica very useful Medicinal herb with yellow flowers in a small garden on the the waterfront trail of Lake Ontario in squires beach , Martins photographs , Ajax, Ontario , Canada , April 27. 2024”
“Mock strawberry plants”
“False strawberry”
“Snake berry”
“Indian berry“
“Barren strawberry”
“Duchesne indica very useful Medicinal herb with yellow flowers in a small garden”
“on the the shore of Lake Ontario in squires beach in Ajax”
“Martin’s photographs”
Ajax
Ontario
Canada
“April 2024”
“Favourite photographs”
“iPhone XR”
“The shore of Lake Ontario”
Favourite
Favourites
“Tree roots”
“Simcoe point pioneer cemetery”
“Squires beach”
Blossoms
Rootstock
Autumn
“February 2024”
Shrubs
“Thorny trees”
“Large Oak tree”
Trees
Stones
Reflections
Reflection
blue sky
“cloud cover”
“Waterfront trail on Lake Ontario”
“Waterfront trail of Lake Ontario”
“Thorny trees”
Autumn
Shadows
“IPhone XR”
“iPhone SE 2020”
“Lake Ontario”
Fungi
Heron
“Gravel path”
“August 2023”
“Duffins creek marsh”
Log
“Wild Asters”
“Flowering trees”
Goldenrod
“Cropped photograph”
Family
“Old orchard”
“Apple tree”
Sunset
Shrubs
“Oak tree”
Trees
Stones
Reflections
Reflection
Dogwood
“Duffins trail”
“blue sky”
“cloud cover”
Autumn
Shadows
Mushroom
wildflowers
“Lake Ontario”
“Mouth of Duffins creek marsh”
“white Deadnetles”
River
Dogwood
Woods
Favourites
For Strobist, softbox behind subjects on f11 to shine trough and also be a white background. To the left sb910 on a tripod shooting trough a brolly on f9 and to the right high on a boom a flash sb900 with a Westcott Apollo Micro diffuser also on f9. Everything metered with a simple Seconic lightmeter. Triggered it all by a simple Hama remote and flashes as slave triggered by the su-4 system. Set-up in comments
This 1943 Diamond T 980 started life with the British Army as an M20 ballast tractor and would have been paired with a Rogers M9 tank transporter trailer.
Sometime after its 1959 de-mob the ballast box has been removed and a Holmes 750 crane set fitted.
It is currently operated by Osborne Earl recovery at Willowholme, Carlisle.
A relatively new selection of screwdriver bits. Now I can get into anything!
113 of 120 pictures in 2020 - Useful
"7 Days of Shooting" "Week #21 ~ Health" "Unusual PoV Tuesday"
My handy pill splitter, or tablet cutter. Sometimes it works better than other times! :D
Taken at The Regency, Laguna Woods, California. © 2013 All Rights Reserved.
My images are not to be used, copied, edited, or blogged without my explicit permission.
Please!! NO Glittery Awards or Large Graphics...Buddy Icons are OK. Thank You!
Have a happy day!
Net Zero (The Great Leap Forward: starvation and death) is a net of deception that will end with mass death and destruction. Reduce CO2 emissions! Less plants and oxygen, less life…woohoo! You are the CO2 they want to reduce. The unwanted carbon they most want to get rid of is you…the earth is overpopulated you know. Say no to cow farts…eating meat: bad; eating bugs: good! No driving or flying…yay! Green energy is unsustainable and so are you…buhahaha! Reduce nitrogen emissions (nitrogen fertilizer)! Less fertilizer and food, less life…woohoo! In the end you will not be allowed to collect rain water, grow a garden or raise animals. Scarcity = dependency = control. Sustainability means depopulation. If you haven’t figured it out yet: the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals is an agenda to implement global communism—to centralize, control, and depopulate. It’s about the famous communist religious doctrine of “redistribution of wealth”. They will make the west poorer, yet they will allow China to be exempt, thus elevating China. It’s nothing but a communist redistribution scheme…equality for all! Stakeholder Capitalism (Stakeholder Communism) anyone? Communism rebranded…woohoo! Human rights: a repackaging of socialism. Let’s repackage and rename the latest version of the revolution: wokeism—“Tyranny of the minority.” Then the masses will consume the latest greatest neo-communist dialectic fad.
1970s: Global Cooling
1980s: Greenhouse Gas
1990s: Ozone Depletion
2000s: Global Warming
2010s: Climate Change
2020s: Global Boiling
“These, Health and Climate, are the twin tools of oppression being slatheringly adopted by all Politian’s and aspiring dictators.” They never let a crisis go to waste, even if they have to invent one—covid and climate fascism. The Nazi’s used medicine and science too. Why is it that Canada’s euthanasia laws remind me of Nazi Germany? Yet useful idiots will defend such laws. So where is the public debate on all this stuff? When talking about the Medical-Industrial Complex or the Scientific-Industrial Complex we get met by the Censorship-Industrial Complex. Hands off the Patent-for-profit Government-Medical-Pharmaceutical Axis! Governments and corporations working hand in hand: fascism. That’s odd…who would’ve thought!?! That’s why the United Nations loves its Public-Private Partnerships. Indeed, Google wasn't meant for searching anything but the user! Can anyone say: data mining!?! Data will be used to control you. Ah…the beautiful smell of the Beast Technostructure System—a techno-driven data enslavement system. 666: the sweet smelling system of tyranny. Woohoo…the future smells like death and destruction, like hell on earth! Authoritarianism at its finest! The utopian dream of sustainability!
Build Back Beter: you must destroy (tear down) in order to rebuild (Lahaina; Lytton). In order for them to rebuild, they will first tear down society. We must destroy democracy by adopting global environmental data standards, so that we can address the triple planetary crisis. We must pool data and digital infrastructure across all United Nations member states, building flagship data sets and standards for interoperability, so that we can bring together data and AI expertise to build insights and applications for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
To be a good global citizen you will need to follow (live by) the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. These Sustainable Development Goals will be enforced through a global Social Credit Score System. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals is the Hegelian Dialectic that is taking us into the New World Order—Build Back Better. Will we get to vote on all this? No! “Sustainability is the tyranny of the 21st century.”
The perfect global citizen is one who lacks purpose, one who is apathetic and cowardly, one who will not stand up for what is right and true. These people feel like they live empty and meaningless lives. They are bored, socially alienated and lonely (social media ring a bell?). Such people will more readily fall for spoon fed ideology through propaganda, indoctrination and peer pressure. Then, with faithful devotion, they will religiously adhere to their new doctrine of wokeism. They lack understand concerning freedom; they lack understand concerning their responsibility to maintain freedom. They lack critical thinking skills and are willfully ignorant. They don’t want to take responsibility for themselves but want someone else (big daddy government) to look after them. So when a One World Totalitarian Socialist Governance System presents itself, the masses will be compliant. Welcome to the New (dark) Age of enlightenment (unreason). Welcome to the cyber-zombie apocalypse. Paradigm blindness: they will gladly accept a digital pseudo-reality—the metaverse synthetic multiverse effect. These global citizens will outsource their thinking to the Beast hive mind system. They will be willing and blissful slaves. “They will own nothing and be happy.” Global citizens will embrace the false utopianism of the New World Order when it presents itself. They will take the smart-tattoo-chip to the hand or forehead, and they will plead allegiance to the new tyrant. This up coming regime will be worse than the other communist and fascist regimes, and it will have a worse leader. It will cause more starvation and death, and it will have more control of the people. Let’s repackage and rename this latest version of the techno-revolution: antichristism. Welcome to the digital 666 gulags, where billions will die! Welcome to the digital prison planet Beast system. They will tear down humanity, in order to replace it with transhumanity. You will not be able to live in a digital world and keep your individuality, freedom and autonomy. Even worse, you will not be able to live in a digital Trans-666-humanist world and keep your soul. Which christ will you follow? You cannot serve two masters!
Matthew 24:28 “Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.”
Quality prints, greeting cards and many useful products can be purchased at >> kaye-menner.pixels.com/featured/grassy-sand-dune-by-kaye-...
A small sand dune at the end of the long North Haven Breakwater, mid North Coast, New South Wales, Australia. It was very windy and the grass - Spinifex was blowing madly in the strong wind. This shows the last few large rocks that line the long Breakwater. The beach is just over the sand dune.
THE FINE ART AMERICA LOGO / MY WATERMARK WILL NOT APPEAR ON PURCHASED PRINTS OR PRODUCTS.
[From Wikipedia]
Spinifex is a genus of perennial coastal plants in the grass family.
They are one of the most common plants that grow in sand dunes along the coasts of Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia, with the ranges of some species extending north and west along the coasts of Asia as far as India and Japan. As they help stabilise the sand, these grasses are an important part of the entire sand dune ecosystem. The single species indigenous to New Zealand, Spinifex sericeus, is also found in Australia.
Confusingly, the word "spinifex" is also used as a common name referring to grasses in the related genus Triodia. Triodia however is native to inland Australia and refers to a group of spiny-leaved, tussock-forming grasses.
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On a few days vacation recently, I took a drive not far south of Port Macquarie, mid north coast, New South Wales, Australia. I came across this beautiful spot in the Camden Haven district called North Haven. Such a beautiful beach, not at all crowded, and a 'waiting to be photographed' breakwater or break bridge as I believe they call it. The breakwater was quite long with all different types of huge rocks lining the edge. I think many of them were granite. I have no idea how they transported so many very big rocks to this location. It is as if it is a bit of a secret location, as Google, etc to not seem to have much on the net about this.
On one side of the breakwater was the surf / ocean and on the other side a type of lagoon which had pretty blue water and is apparently a great place for fishing.
[Courtesy Wikipedia]
North Haven is a suburb in the Camden Haven district on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. As the suburb's name suggests, North Haven is located on the northern shore of Camden Haven and is connected to the nearby commercial centre of Laurieton by a bridge.
Enjoy the beautiful waterways, sparkling ocean, gorgeous beaches and stunning national parks around North Haven, a charming village at the mouth of the Camden Haven River. The Grants Beach coastal walk is great way to experience the diverse beauty and rich birdlife.
{Courtesy - visitnsw.com/destinations/north-coast/port-macquarie-area/north-havenAbout North Haven]
From swimming and surfing to fishing and boating, North Haven is a delightful holiday destination in the Greater Port Macquarie region on the NSW North Coast. You’ll be delighted with the beautiful waterways, including Camden Haven River and Queens Lake.
The Leitz Wetzlar Elmarit 90mm F1:2,8 it is an fast Tele Lens designed in 5 Glass Elements into 3 Groups. The Iris got 12 Blades for an fantastic creamy bokeh. The Lens you can get with M39 Screw and Leica M Bajonett... these Version it is one of the 1962 Leica M ones. The Optical Quality: Rich with Details but always a Soft Touch, sharpness peak you will get ~ F9,4i think ... these Lens it is not so sharp like the 90mm F4 Elmar from Leitz. The Soft Charaktaristic of these fine Lens will be useful for Portrait Fotografie. The Mecanical Quality: Leica at its Best ... a piece of Jewel :-)
Jupiter-11 (1:4/135)
The Jupiter lenses perform astonishingly well, even on the 36MP A7r! Biggest advantages of this tele are it's character and it's compact size and weight. (102x47mm and an amazing 277gr).
The Jupiter-11 is build according to a pre war Zeiss design.
Useful for small items that get lost in a pen/pencil holder.
Wooden bone folder from Leyla Torres
Origami Refold;
Travelling in the Swiss designed Schindler Coaches from the late 40s behind a British designed (English Electric) diesel loco from the 60s on the 'Mira Douro'. We had left Sao Bento Station in the heart of Porto heading to Pocinho, the end of Douro Valley line across the width of Portugal and just a few miles from the Spanish Border. This line is often classed as one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world. And these coaches, restored from 2017 to 2021 have pull down windows for reflection free photography of the stunning scenery to come. Also very useful as they don't have A/C on what was one of the hottest days of the year! A total of about 7 hours travelling to Pocinho and back awaited us.
The broadest and most useful definition of a trading range is that it is simply an area of two-sided trading. It can be as small as a single bar (a doji bar) or larger than all of the bars on your screen. It can be mostly horizontal, which indicates that the bulls and bears are in balance, or it...
#freeebook #freebook #ebook #book #Pomdy
Editor: taphuong
www.pomdy.com/book/trading-price-action-trading-ranges/pa...
New Orleans Cathedral in French Quarter.
Some geography of New Orleans. The location and geography of New Orleans is unique in America. Most of the city is well below sea level, except for the French Quarter which was built on a natural levee of the river in the 1700s. As the city has expanded special levees, pumps and flood gates have been erected around the city. When Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005 the storm itself did damage to New Orleans but the major devastation came from the levees failing and water flooding at least 80% of the city area. It is useful to remember that 50% of New Orleans city is water and not land! Its location on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River, near the delta bayous and swamps was the raison d’être for the city. It was to control all navigation and commercial activity on the river and to provide a safe harbour as close as possible to the Gulf of Mexico. Because of its strategic location it has always been the prize for invaders during wars. The city has a tropical climate and the regions north of the city along the banks of the Mississippi were and are major sugar plantation areas, not cotton plantation areas. You have to travel upstate in Louisiana to find the cotton growing areas. This tropical climate along one of the world’s major water courses meant until recently that the area was plagued with Yellow Fever, malaria and other deadly illnesses. To the north and east of the city is Lake Pontchartrain, a huge body of water; in fact the city is bordered by water on three sides. By road the mouth of the Mississippi is over 100 miles away but this is because the river follows a circuitous route to the mouth of its delta. The city metropolitan area has a population of 1.1 million, exactly the same as the population of Adelaide. Although the population fell after Hurricane Katrina the population is now 90% of what is was before the hurricane. There is little evidence of flood damage in the areas that we will see as tourists. The French Quarter was not flooded because the founding French settlers sensibly chose a high site for their city.
Some early history of New Orleans. The city was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, a major trader in furs bought from the Indians up river. They got the local Indians, the Chitimacha to cede land to them. The Company named the city after the Duke of Orleans who was the Regent of France at that time. After the French Wars between the Indians, British, French and Spanish in America from 1756-63 the French ceded New Orleans to the Spanish. The Spanish held New Orleans from 1763 to 1801 when Napoleon defeated the Spanish and New Orleans and its territories to the west were returned to France. As Napoleon needed more funds to continue his Napoleonic Wars with Britain and others he soon (in 1803) sold New Orleans and all territories west of the Mississippi to President Jefferson for the small sum of $15 million. West Florida, New Orleans and the west comprised over 800,000 square miles! The Louisiana Purchase covered - Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nth & Sth Dakota, Oklahoma & parts of Texas and Wyoming.
When the French settled New Orleans they built a trading port city of wooden buildings on the high ground along the banks of the Mississippi. The streets were named after the royal houses of France and Catholic saints, hence Bourbon Street after the Dukes of Bourbon, not the whisky. Local pine was the timber used for building the houses, often on brick pylons to raise the houses above any possible flood threat. The compact town was destroyed by two major fires during the Spanish ownership of Louisiana in 1788 and again in 1794. The city was rebuilt in brick, with wrought iron balconies in the Spanish style usually with central courtyards. So most of what we see today in the French Quarter or Vieux Carré is actually of Spanish design and from the era of Spanish building in the late 1790s. So the French Quarter is really the Spanish Quarter and the Spanish buildings include the three major public buildings of this era- the Cathedral of St. Louis, and the adjoining Cabildo and Presbytere. The first St. Louis Cathedral was built in 1781; the second in 1725; and the third in 1789. That third structure in Spanish style was almost totally rebuilt in 1850 in the style of the previous cathedral.
The Strategic Importance of New Orleans. Not long after the Americans bought New Orleans a major war broke out between England and her former American colonies. War raged from 1812-14 when the British, amongst other achievements, sailed up the Potomac River in Washington and burnt down the White House and attacked the national capital. As the port that controlled the Mississippi and the river system that went up to the British colonies in Canada the British wanted to retake New Orleans. A young American officer, Andrew Jackson (later President Andrew Jackson) led the American forces in a battle with the British. The battle of New Orleans (remember the hit song about it in 1959?) took place in January 1815. It was the final battle of the War of 1812 and despite bad odds Andrew Jackson and the Americans prevailed and won the battle. Hence the main square in New Orleans is Jackson Square with a fine statue of the later President on horseback is in the centre of the square. And again during the Civil War both the Confederates and Unionists wanted to control New Orleans. During the Antebellum period New Orleans had been a major port for the slave trade and the major slave auction centre of the American South. Louisiana declared their secession from the Union in January 1861 and the Confederates bolstered their occupation of the area. It was the link to the South’s cotton plantations up the Mississippi River Valley and its link across the Mississippi to the wealthy states of Texas, Arkansas and some secessionist counties of Missouri. The first shots were fired at Fort Sumter in April 1861. New Orleans was blockaded by the North in May 1861 showing what an important prize the city was to the Union. After two short battles in April 1862 the Union forces occupied New Orleans and split the Confederacy into two parts as it then controlled the Mississippi River too.
The Creole Culture of New Orleans. Creole culture in Louisiana is still strong. Creoles are primarily the people descended from the early French and Spanish settlers mixed with later German immigrants and African slaves. Creoles were originally white Europeans but the term later included mixed race people. When the Haitian Revolution led by slaves erupted in 1804 many French residents fled from Haiti to New Orleans with their African slaves. They reinforced the French culture of New Orleans and established their three tiered society of white Creoles, mixed race Creoles and black slaves. The mixed race Creoles were mainly fee black people and added to the free black population of New Orleans. French speakers dominated in New Orleans until 1830. But as late as 1900, 25% of residents spoke French and 75% could understand it. (250,000 Louisianans still speak French at home today.) Half the schools in New Orleans taught in French until the Civil War. In 1862 the Union occupier of the city General Butler abolished French instruction and enforced English teaching. The War made New Orleans an American city. But the Creoles did not disappear. They continued to dominate society for some time. The Creole planters along the Mississippi lived on their plantations during the hot malaria filled summers but moved to their French Quarter town houses for the cool winters. (It was the reverse in Charleston where the planters lived in Charleston in the hot summers and spent winters on their plantations.) The New Orleans winter was the time for balls and parties and the celebrations around Lent and the Mardi Gras activities, which still persist as a reminder of the French heritage of the city. The white French Creoles also often took black slave women as mistresses but unlike the white Americans they tended to give freedom to the children born from these unions. Thus New Orleans ended up with the largest number of free blacks of any Southern city in the Antebellum days. Mixed race Creoles had their own society balls and functions. Many had property and were quite wealthy in their own rights because of grants from their white Creole fathers. But their access to political and legal rights disappeared during the Jim Crow era as white Americans applied their white-black caste system on all parts of America including Louisiana. Free persons of colour were discriminated against by the Jim Crow regulations and segregation in New Orleans too. Change came with of the Civil Rights era.
Most Dramatic Space Missions of 2016 ( The Journey of Space Missions in 2016 )
It's been a busy year of transition around the solar system. Some spacecraft crashed on distant planets, while others were found after we thought they were lost. And some cool stuff began to happen with new missions, such as exploring Jupiter and figuring out how useful inflatable structures will be in space. Here are some of the mission transitions of 2016.
1. Philae
2. Schiaparelli
4. Hitomi/ASTRO-H/New X-ray Telescope (NeXT)
5. Falcon 9 rocket + Amos-6
6. Tiangong-1
7. Juno
8. ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter
9. BEAM (International Space Station)
10. International Space Station one-year mission
11. Cassini
12. Russia's Progress resupply vehicle
Here you go:
1. Philae had quite the ride after separating from its parent spacecraft, Rosetta, in November 2014. The little lander bounced on its first contact with Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and flew for an incredible two hours, finally coming to rest in a spot too shady to charge its solar-powered self. Philae did a few dozen hours of science, went into hibernation, and only gave a few peeps in the months afterwards until the European Space Agency gave up trying to contact it.Philae was found in one of the suspected landing zones.
www.seeker.com/philae-found-rosetta-spies-dead-comet-land...
2. STEREO-B : One of the twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatories (STEREO-B) stopped transmitting in October 2014, then, this August, NASA's Deep Space Network finally locked on to the spacecraft.Unfortunately, NASA couldn't recover the spacecraft because it was uncontrolled and far away from Earth, at about two Earth-sun distances. With the limited data the agency had, it tried to stabilize the spacecraft,but failed.
stereo-ssc.nascom.nasa.gov/behind_status.shtml
3. Schiaparelli : Schiaparelli separated from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and made its descent as planned on Oct. 19, but something happened along the way and it crashed. What exactly happened is still being figured out by an investigation board
www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Schiapar...
4. Hitomi/ASTRO-H/New X-ray Telescope (NeXT) : Hitomi was an X-ray astronomy satellite from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, which was supposed to look at high-energy processs across the universe. The spacecraft made it into space as planned on Feb. 17, but controllers lost contact with it permanently on March 26.
5. Falcon 9 rocket and Amos-6 : On Sept. 1, a Falcon 9 rocket by SpaceX was on the pad undergoing a standard static fire test, before launching Amos-6 — an Israeli communications satellite. The rocket exploded and took the satellite with it, luckily causing no injuries at Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40.
www.seeker.com/spacex-elon-musk-falcon-rocket-explosion-l...
6. Tiangong-1 : Tiangong-1 was China's first space station — not a full station, but a small prototype to expand its space program in the future. It launched as a one-piece station in September 2011 and was visited by three spacecraft: Shenzhou 8 (uncrewed), Shenzhou 9 (crewed) and Shenzhou 10 (crewed)
7. Juno : Juno arrived at Jupiter on July 4 and has been making scientific observations for the past few months.More detailed findings will come after Juno has been active for a while.
www.seeker.com/computer-glitch-nixes-juno-science-run-at-...
8. ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter : The new Trace Gas Orbiter, which arrived at Mars in October, is designed to look at trace gases in the Red Planet's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the major force on Mars, but there are smaller portions of the atmosphere that are less understood. One famous example is methane, which has been measured in different abundances by different telescopes, orbiters and even NASA's Curiosity rover.
TGO is highly elliptical right now, but over time it will use aerobraking — skimming through the thinnest part of Mars' atmosphere — to lower itself into a science orbit about 400 kilometers from the surface.
www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/How_TGO_...
9. ISS BEAM : BEAM was inflated on May 26, but the attempt was called off because there was more air pressure than expected inside the module (possibly caused by fabric layers sticking together). A second attempt on May 28 was successful. Astronauts have entered BEAM a few times since to collect air samples and do some other routine monitoring, but for the most part it just sits by itself, attached to the Tranquility node.
The International Space Station is an excellent location to do long-term research in everything from plants to human physiology. It's also a great spot for companies to test out new processes and ideas. One recent one is the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, also known as BEAM. Bigelow has two inflatable mini-space stations that have been in orbit for several years to test how inflatables behave in low-Earth orbit. The next step for the company was to install an inflatable module to the ISS.
www.seeker.com/space-station-now-has-inflatable-digs-1832...
10. ISS one-year mission : While a lot of astronauts have spent six months on the station, NASA hopes to have longer missions to prepare for a possible journey to Mars in the coming decades. In 2015, Mikhail Kornienko (Roscosmos) and Scott Kelly (NASA) blasted off to spend nearly a year on the orbiting complex. It was the first time humans had spent so long in space since the Mir space station era of the 1990s. The two arrived safely on Earth again in March.
Kelly got most of the press in the United States — he's a twin, a great photographer and was charmingly laconic and funny on Twitter. Kelly's twin brother, Mark, was also an astronaut and volunteered to take part in the same genetic studies so that investigators could take advantage of a unique opportunity. It will take years for all the data to be processed and analyzed, but Kelly's and Kornienko's flight is expected to help scientists learn more about the effects of space on the human body.
11.Cassini : The Cassini spacecraft has provided an incredible perspective on Saturn and its system for the past 12 years. We've seen water jets from Enceladus, lakes on Titan and strange vertical structures in Saturn's rings. The spacecraft is now low on fuel after exploring the solar system since 1997, however, and investigators want to steer Cassini into Saturn so it doesn't accidentally hit a potentially habitable moon.
Cassini will gradually move between Saturn and its rings — a first in space exploration — to better understand some of the structures of the particles that make up Saturn's crown. In September 2017, it will make a last swan dive into Saturn, taking atmospheric measurements as long as possible so that investigators can learn more about the planet's interior structure.
12. Russia's Progress resupply vehicle : On Dec. 1, Russia lost contact with its unmanned Progress space station resupply vehicle shortly after launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The cargo ship was carrying 2.4 tons of food, supplies and equipment and officials confirmed that it failed to reach its proper orbit, ultimately succumbing to gravity and burning up in the atmosphere. Though obviously a huge setback for the Russian space agency and space station operations, the orbiting outpost had a good level of supplies in reserve. This was the second failed Progress launch in less than two years. The failure of the April 2015 Progress mission was blamed on a problem with the Soyuz launch system.
www.seeker.com/russia-progress-spacecraft-launch-fails-bu...
This is End !!!
Mars is a tough place to land on — just ask any of the various groups that have tried to send landers over the years, and failed (such as NASA, the former Soviet Union and the European Space Agency). While ESA thought it had learned the lessons of the Beagle 2 failed landing in 2003, it turned out that another landing demonstrator called Schiaparelli didn't make it to the surface.
Credit : NASA
"The Little Red Wonder Book;" A First Book of Religion for Little Children by Lewis Gilbert Wilson. Illustrated by Clara E. Atwood. Copyright 1917, The Beacon Press, Boston.
These bushes by Cube Republic are just as their name suggests... Incredibly useful! Designed for those exterior spaces, where you need some greenery or colour to fill in gaps they work very well. 3 shades of green and various coloured flower options. Resizing and scaling them to fit is simple.
Available at this January 2019 round of The Liaison Collaborative
CR Useful Bush LPoly Linkset - utilised all round the garden with various variants of the texture included.
Build and other garden decor:
Trompe Loeil - Ysela A-Frame Cabin
CR Beach Hedge
CR Mountain Pine 1
CR Dandelion Group 1
Heart - Flowering Path - Undecorated - Straight + Curved
HEART - Wild Grasses - Flowering - Round Dense - Aged
Jammin - StonePathwayWide_Straight (Mossy)
LB_GiantBeech{Animated}4Seasons 1
Be patient and tough. Someday this pain will be useful to you.
~Ovid
I struggle with all the disasters and pain in the world around us. I see this disheveled-looking dahlia as somewhat symbolic of the beauty that will someday be found through and/or in spite of and/or because of the wreckage and turmoil. My heart breaks for all the people who are hurting. I pray for them and am donating to relief funds as much as I am able.
There are two reasons for uploading this rather mundane image of a pair of Direct Rail Services' 'body snatchers', with grubby 57007 leading 57011 on the 6Z22 Sellafield to Carlisle Kingmoor special move; firstly, what in the heck are these casks mounted on a rather hefty looking translator frame on the 'PFA' wagon', other than perhaps conveying different grades of irradiated Castrol Oil; secondly, to demonstrate the hideous antenna mast and cabin that has now appeared in the middle of nowhere between Dalson and Wigton. Add this to the plethora of wind turbines mushrooming all over the land in this district, one just visible to the distant right of the image, what on earth is going on in our countryside. Someone is making a packet out of this I assume. Anyway, enough of the ranting, this was one of my useful spots along the difficult M&C route for sun on the nose in the middle of the day, but now I have no choice but to take or leave the antenna mast. A nice trailing load, not, for a pair of GM 57's, a total of 5,000hp! More recce work required in the area me thinks.
© Copyright Gordon Edgar - No unauthorised use.