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tee design... still up for scoring @ threadless. score '5' here: thrdl.es/~/HGy to get this printed.
thanks for the support. :D
ISO: 100
Focal Length: 22mm
Aperture: f/4
Shutter Speed: 1/8
Tells a story of an agent who overcomes a beating.
On the lookout for trouble and ready to solve any problem that comes
your way, Agent 99 seeks to serve and protect.
For "Careers" --- week 15/52 --- 52 weeks of Blythe
Raincoat by Blythedressingroom, glasses by BHC.
Name: Levi Turner.
Age: 15.
Allies: Batman, and the FBI.
Enemies: Black Mask, and many drug lords.
Abilities: Master of stealth, the best sniper the FBI has, great at close combat, and expert at being lazy hacking.
Bio: Levi Turner grew up in a small town right outside Gotham. He went to school that was connected to Brentwood Academy. He graduated at the age of thirteen at the top of his senior class. Most of his teachers (judging by his attitude and personality) doubted whether or not he was actually doing the work or just cheating. Though no solid evidence of him cheating was ever found.
He spent his days after school playing video games and watching tv. He was able to get a job at a local grocery store. Levi then quit his job because his boss was very strict on him and never gave him all of his pay check. He found a job at a Wayne Tech warehouse where he was quickly fired for stealing equipment. Levi finally gave up trying to find a job and started devoting his time to becoming a experienced hacker and game player. He hacked into the FBI's private website and signed a form that said that he would become an agent if they needed him. Finally the day came when the FBI needed him, or at least what he said he was on the form. He excitedly said 'yes' and went to the local FBI base. There he was trained by an agent named Jim Bond to become what he said he was. He quickly became an expert sniper but has failed multiple tests at stealth. Jim also trained him in close combat with both guns and just his hands. The 'main man' as Levi liked to call him liked what he saw when Levi was fighting Jim. Turner got really good at everything he listed he was good at on the FBI form and also became a well-respected agent of the FBI.
Little did he know that the reason he was called into the FBI was because he was needed to take out many drug lords. One of those names was Black Mask. Levi knew that this was going to be a dangerous task but he was confident in his training and was willing to do what was needed.
Levi Turner became Agent Titan, and was about to begin his mission of taking down anyone who stood threat to the FBI.
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I hope you guys enjoy the bio for my new hero.
If you want check out the first story here it is: www.flickr.com/photos/74727595@N05/10258596964/
I took about five photos of this guy; because of how dark his costume was against a fairly dark background, my camera just would not focus properly. Second time using the ProPhoto color profile. Used Nik Software's "Silver Efex" to de-saturate the background's colors and mask out Agent Venom (in full-color).
Agent Orange Crop Duster in Dusty, Washington. Photographed with Rolleiflex Automat K4B MX TLR with a Schneider - Kreuznach Xenar f:3.5 75mm Lens. Kodak Ektar 100 film.
Perry the Platypus, of Phineas and Ferb fame, playing the part of sleuth Agent P.
Disney's Hollywood Studios | Streets of America
Thanks for looking. I appreciate feedback!
Goolwa.
The Currency Creek Special Survey was taken out in 1839 by the Currency Creek Association based in England. Locally it was taken out by their agent Robert Wright on behalf of about 30 men. The Currency Creek Association laid out a major town which they hoped would become the New Orleans of the South. It was after all on a good river, near a great lake and near the mouth of the might Murray River system just like the location of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi in the USA. They named it after the local river- Currency Creek. They also laid out a much smaller port for the town which they called Goolwa. Currency Creek town covered 8 acres, Goolwa 2 acres. History would show they made the wrong decision as Goolwa prospered and Currency Creek withered! One of the early explorers of this region Young Hutchinson (who explored with Thomas Strangways) liked the area so much that he became a major landowner in Goolwa in 1856. Another explorer William Younghusband gave his name to the peninsula near the Murray Mouth. Although the town was laid out in 1840 sales were minimal until the Governor committed the state to developing Goolwa as a river port and Port Elliot as a coastal port for future riverboat trade up the Murray with a horse railway to connect the two. Work began on this £20,000 project in 1851. (An alternate plan to build a canal between the two at an estimated cost of £28,000 was not pursued by the government.) Apart from the Currency Creek Special Survey of 1839 the government also surveyed land along the proposed rail route to Port Elliot in 1849 making land available to buyers. The first land purchases in this region were made in 1849 at Middleton. But Governor Young’s dream of river trade up the Murray and a railway to Port Elliot were not generally popular. A newspaperman wrote in the SA Gazette and Mining Journal in 1851 “There is great difficulty in characterising Sir Henry Young's job "in terms polite". The Goolwa Railway, in the nostrils of the colonists, is odorous of assafoetida, and there are in their mouths, in common use, epithets reflecting upon his Excellency far more offensive than have ever yet appeared in print... Where are the produce, the population, the traffic of the Murray crowding the banks, and suffering for want of an outlet to a market? Why, a single bullock dray once a month will suffice to bring to Adelaide all its exportable produce for the next five years...”
At Goolwa work proceeded and the government invested in the new port town with the construction of the Railway Superintendent’s house in 1852(first occupied in 1854) and the Goolwa wharf in 1852. But the town laid out by the Currency Creek Special Survey in 1840 was still almost non-existent. Its English names like Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street are now located in North Goolwa. The government surveyed a government town in 1853 next to the Currency Creek Survey town. The first commercial building in the new government town was the Goolwa Hotel (oldest single storey part) built in 1853 and the two storey section was added in around 1865. In that year the Governor announced a prize of several thousand pounds for the first river boat to prove the Murray was navigable from Goolwa to Wentworth on the Darling. The Governor and his wife and party journeyed with Captain Cadell. Meantime Captain Randell of Mannum also set off about the same time and the two boats raced to Wentworth. The friend of the Governor - Cadell picked up the prize money and Randell received nothing. But this river boat expedition was so important to indicate a prosperous future and so Goolwa began to emerge as a small town with the main street named Cadell after the famous riverboat captain. Next to the government town “Little Scotland” was subdivided into town blocks in 1854. Sales of more town blocks continued in 1855 followed by more in 1856 and some of the first buildings included the bow fronted general store in the Main Street near the old horse tram museum, the first Post office 1857(now the Visitor Information Centre), the Police station and Courthouse 1859, the Customs House 1859, the former Australasian Hotel 1857(closed 1934) and the Corio Hotel also 1857. Land speculators could see a future for Goolwa by then and they also began to purchase blocks of land. The first residential stone cottages were erected around 1857. Goolwa prospered in the 1860s and 1870s when significant development occurred.
One of the finest private buildings of this period from 1860 to 1880 was what is now known as Rose Eden House. This grand two storey Italianate house was built in 1876 with some wrought iron lacework and upper veranda. It was built for the town school headmaster Mr Phillip Hill who must have run a private school in the town as well as the government school, of which he was headmaster, did not opened until 1879. But Mr Hill was a headmaster from 1873 of the town school which became the state school after the passing of the 1785 Education Act. It is claimed that he accommodated school boarders in this large house so that they could attend the Goolwa government school from 1879. Hill left the town of Goolwa in 1884 and the property was sold by him in 1886 when it was known as Hygiene House. It changes hands several times before it was purchased by the SA government in 1913 as a residence for the headmaster of Goolwa Primary School. It served this purpose until sold by the Education Department in 1973. In 2005 it was restored and re-opened as luxury bed and breakfast accommodation with the new name of Rose Eden House. Other fine structures of this 1860 to 1890 era are:
•Thomas Goode’s General Store next to the Goolwa Hotel was built in 1860 and then rebuilt in classical style in 1884. Thomas Goode was the first Post Master of Goolwa in 1857.
•the former Bank of South Australia (1872).
•the Holy Evangelist Anglican church was built in 1867, with the tower added in 1905. But the church was surrounded in controversy as the Governor gave a free land grant in 1855 for the church to be erected.
•the town morgue behind the Courthouse 1883.
•the first part of the Institute opened in 1878. That was the rear part of the current building in a very different style. The Town Hall (now the Alexandrina Council Chamber/Library) was added to the Institute in 1907 facing onto Cadell Street. It was later doubled in size when a matching room was added to the 1907 one.
•the superb Gothic state school built in 1879. The first town school began in Goolwa in 1855.
• the figurehead from the wreck of the Mozambique on the roof line of the Goolwa Hotel.
•the magnificent ceiling paintings in the Corio Hotel dining room (The Great Yankee Doodle Tobacco mural
•the original railway station(1872) now an opportunity shop beside public toilet block near the town rotunda. The railway station as moved to the Goolwa wharf after 1884 when steam trains started operating through to Adelaide. The old yards converted to a park, now the Soldiers’ Memorial Park as the rail yards moved to the Goolwa wharf where it is still located.
•Highlands House in Goyder Street built in 1853. Probably the oldest residence in Goolwa still in use.
The early churches of Goolwa apart from the Anglican Church include the Congregational Church built in 1859 and now a dental practice office but it was also used as a Catholic Church from 1896 to 1961, the Wesleyan Methodist Church built in 1861 with transepts added in 1881 and the Goolwa Church of Christ built in 1905. The Anglican Church was surrounded in some controversy as without any real authority Governor MacDonnell donated a town block to the Anglican Church in 1855. This was against state policy as it was favouring the Anglican Church as an established church. But the Premier of the day Boyle Finniss put some political spin on it and said the Governor had the right give away one of the government reserves in Goolwa. The local Congregational Minister Reverend Newland of Encounter Bay disputed this and rightly objected but to no avail. The newspapers were flooded with letters of objection.
The fine stone Goolwa flourmill was totally demolished in the 1920s. Edward Dutton had a brewery at Goolwa for some years from 1864 to 1879. Shipbuilding as in river boats and repairs was a major industry in Goolwa but few of these structures remain as they were usually iron and timber and relatively temporary. One of the main companies repairing and building boats were the Goolwa Foundry and Iron Works and Abraham Graham’s Patent Slip and Iron Works established in 1864. Abraham Graham owned Graham’s Castle etc. Ten river barges or steamers were made at Goolwa between 1853 and 1859. Many more followed. Among the many paddle stammers built in Goolwa were the PS Industry (number two) in 1911, the government owned vessel named Prince Alfred (1867), the Canberra a diesel paddle steamer built late in 1912 and well known paddle steamers such as the Eureka, the Goolwa, the Avoca, the Darling, the Wentworth, the Queen, the Miriam, the Express, the Princess Royal, the Cadell, the Victor, the Kookaburra, the Renmark, etc. Around 60 paddle steamers and barges were constructed in Goolwa with the last completed in 1912. As the ship building industry collapsed in the late 1880s much of the foundry equipment was sold to the Chaffey Brothers at Renmark for their irrigation works and boiler pumps.
Agents are the basis of many models of complex adaptive systems, and in today's world, the "network" paradigm, as depicted in the figure to the left, is predominant.
The figure to the right is the outcome of a cellular automata model, which simulates multi-state agent-based systems who have local (e.g. geographic) influence. Cellular automata have been shown to accurately model many physical and social systems.
An excellent CA model simulator that you can easily run on any computer is Mierk's Java Cellebration, found here:
Lizzy: so, you're the one that took my hand
Agent 47: I was aiming for your head
Lizzy: right.. now you're surrounded. girls? take him down!
Ciri: I should've mentioned, I gave up violence years ago
Lizzy: what?
Beth: I can't chop a man up with a machete! why did you even give this to me?
Lizzy: ugh..
Lara Croft: I had a chance with my sword and I couldn't do it either
Beth: I just want to go back home and play computer games!
Lizzy: you're all useless!.. mister bald guy? could I.. hire you?
47: with what? you outlawed all currency, that is why I've been trying to kill you
Lizzy: oh. why is that bad?
47: I can do, whatever I'm payed to. if there's no more money, I'm out of work
Lizzy: I can hire you . I guess.. I could pay you in serums and Institute technology?
47: that will have to do
(47 must like money because it's green and pretty? I never got what he or Geralt was saving for)
The French naturalist and physician Pierre Belon (1517-1565) was born in Soultière and is best known for his texts, works of a self-taught naturalist, than for his services as secret agent to cardinals du Bellay and of Tournon. He worked first as an apothecary and later as an agronomist. He studied Medicine in Wittenberg with Valerius Cordus in 1540-1541 and in Italy in 1551. At that time, helped by the political situation, he completed his studies in physic at the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des Prés, from where he graduated "cum laude" in 1560, although he was never awarded the title of doctor.
Belon owed his career mainly to his political patrons. From 1542 onwards he was in the service of the Cardinal of Tournon and took part in various diplomatic legations. Entrusted with missions to the court of Charles V and to Germany, he later followed his teacher Valerius Cordus to Rome, collecting flora also from the gardens of Venice, Padua, Milan and the lakes of Northern Italy.
Again in the service of the Cardinal de Tournon, now minister to the king, Belon frequented the court and the palace of Saint Germain en Laye, admiring the monarch’s collection, which included curious specimens from all over the then known world, such as lions, panthers, ostriches, timber from Brazil and rare plants. It was then that Belon decided to translate Dioscurides and Theophrastus, collating ancient and modern plant names in his work. In 1546, at the age of just thirty, he joined Ambassador d’Aramon’s diplomatic mission to the East, a move that was to determine the rest of his life and work.
D’Aramon left Paris secretly in December 1546, with a numerous embassy, including for the first time a team of scientists. After crossing France and Switzerland, they arrived in Venice, from where they sailed away in three galleys, in February 1547. Coasting the Adriatic, the party arrived in Ragusa, from where the ambassador took the land route to Constantinople, via the southern Balkan Peninsula. Belon and Bénigne de Villers, an apothecary from Dijon, chose the maritime route through the Ionian Sea.
At Paxi, while Belon was collecting flora, his companion was kidnapped by pirates. In the spring of 1547, Belon arrived on Crete. He stayed in the house of Callergis, who provided him with guides to Mount Ida, Rethymnon and the mountains of Sphacia. The French naturalist observed the flora and fauna of the island, was tricked by the false labyrinth, watched how labdanum was collected, wandered about, collected and tried specimens, and asked questions on everything he was looking for or came upon.
Belon left Crete for Constantinople on a Venetian felucca. While sailing by Cea, the ship was attacked by pirates, but finally, by way of southern Euboea, it reached the Bosporus coast, probably in late spring. Together with Pierre Gilles, also attaché to the French embassy, Belon explored the maze of bazaars and alleys of the Ottoman capital. He became friends with a wise Turk who knew Arabic, with the help of whom and of the Avicenna Canon, which gave the names of the medicinal flora, he compiled a glossary of plants in Turkish. With this in hand, Belon explored the bazaars, in order to get to know all the edible and medicinal plants bought and sold in Turkey.
Such products were among the most important imports in the trade with the East, which was till in the hands of Venetian middlemen. Thus, Belon’s researches were to be of great help to France, mercantile rival of Venice.
Famous among the curative products of the time was “Lemnian earth” ("terra lemnia" or terra "sigillata"), the medicinal clay of Lemnos, which all European ambassadors sought to bring to their masters as a precious gift. Belon decided to visit the place of extraction of this mineral. Carrying his letters of recommendation, he embarked on a brigantine and sailed to Lemnos. Due to windless weather, the ship was again in peril from pirates and sought refuge in a harbour of Imbros, where it stayed for two days. Finally, the party reached Lemnos by rowing. In spite of Belon’s fervent wish to see the extraction of "terra lemnia", this was not possible as is it takes place only once a year, on 6 August, the feast of the Transfiguration of the Saviour. Nonetheless, Belon explored Lemnos in depth and studied its flora and fauna. He offered medical services to local patients, was housed by the island’s authorities, and finally managed to arrive in the area of the "terra lemnia" deposits, escorted by a janissary. From Lemnos, Belon reached Thasos, in the company of two monks, after a storm blew them off course near Skyros. Finally, he managed to sail by boat in four hours from Thasos to the coast of Mount Athos. He collected plants, fished, chased insects and birds and was only disappointed when he was unable to locate traces of Xerxes’ canal.
Within two days, Belon arrived in Thessaloniki. He was the first to visit and describe the metal mines of Siderocausia in the Chalcidice. He then took the route to the Strymon river, visited Serres and Drama, and toured the ruins of Philippi. He stayed in the "imaret" in Cavala and wrote on hospitality provided in similar "vakuf" ("waqf" – religious endowment) hostelries. He also passed through the lagoon of Porto Lagos, the city of Comotini, the alum mines at Sapes, and from Heraclea, Rhaidestos (Tekirdag) and Silivri in Eastern Thrace. There, he came across four thousand Ottoman troops bound for Persia, camped next to a caravanserai and moving about in exemplary discipline and quiet.
At the beginning of August 1547, Belon returned to Constantinople. In the company of Mr de Fumel and many other French noblemen, escorted by janissaries, subalterns ("çavuş") and dragomans (interpreters), they departed on the voyage to the East, starting from Egypt. Exiting the Dardanelles, Belon becomes the first European traveller to locate the ruins of Troy. He wrote on the edible plants of Lesbos, the mastic and the kindly women of Chios. Sailing by Samos, he speaks of the Greek sailor travelling with them, who was a native of that island. On visiting Patmos, he also mentions Saint John and the "Apocalypse", as well as the islands of Leros and Pserimos, Kos and Hippocrates. The ship finally dropped anchor in Rhodes. The city of the Knights, its market and port, local products and inhabitants unfold in Belon’s notes.
The company arrived in Alexandria at the end of August. They visited Cairo, Memphis, the Giza pyramids and reached the monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Egyptian part of Belon’s journey is one of the first and most insightful approaches made by a European traveller to the exotic Arab Muslim world of the East. The Nile and its canals, the markets and the fauna of Africa, the womenfolk, curiosities of dress, mummies, the pyramids, the oases and the desert of Arabia, boats on the Red Sea, minerals and wild animals find their place for the first time in a dense text with unique style.
From Egypt, the company proceeded to Palestine, where they arrived ten days later, and the Holy Land becomes Belon’s new field of research. He lists rare animals, semiprecious stones, fish, birds, the uses of water, wells, and identifies trees, shrubs and native flora. He does this according to his favourite model, that is, the contrasting of modern information with ancient testimonies, without failing to record the uses and the varieties of each species. Thus, he made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land in his own way and was moved to tears in such hallowed places as Jerusalem, Galilee, Nazareth, Bethlehem and Jericho.
After touring Palestine, the travellers headed northwards. Walking across fields of sesame and cotton, they reached Damascus within five days. Belon makes a systematic classification of every remarkable thing he sees: the walls of Damascus, Syrian medicine and justice, caravanserais and pilgrims to Mecca, rare flora of the land, cedars, local methods of cultivation, the ruins of Baalbek, Aleppo (ancient Beroea), alleyways and coins, Antioch and the remains of early Christianity, Adana and the fields where Alexander the Great fought his battles, and every curiosity he came upon in the Middle East.
In central Asia Minor, Belon makes observations on the local dietary habits, especially of the Turks, and on the textiles, without neglecting plants, therapeutic springs, horses and a local species of goat. By way of Iconium (Konya) and Aksehir (he makes mention of Ankara), Belon reached Afyonkarahisar, where he stayed the rest of the winter of 1547 and until early spring of 1548. In that city he was able to write the third part of his chronicle, which speaks of the origin of the Turks, their public and private life, the institutions and administration of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the customs and religious beliefs of the Muslims.
Belon then visited to Kütahya, and toured Bursa. When he finally arrived in Constantinople, the French ambassador d’Aramon was preparing to follow Suleiman the Magnificent on his campaign against Persia. The military expedition left Ottoman capital in May 1548. The indefatigable Belon, together with Gilles and Thevet, came along as well, but this time the French naturalist only made it to Nicomedia. He returned to Constantinople and sailed to Venice at the beginning of 1549. In 1550 he left France again on a new diplomatic mission to England.
Belon became a protegé of the Montmorency family. He divided his time between botanical explorations in the provinces of France and Italy (from where he brought cypresses, plane trees and rhododendrons to his country), and his clerical duties, becoming more and more fervently opposed to the Reformation. In the last years of his life he became embroiled in the religious wars as a fanatic supporter of the Catholics. He was murdered mysteriously in the Bois de Boulogne of Paris, on an April night of 1565, while on his way to the Château de Madrid, where he had been offered a place to stay. The perpetrator was probably a fanatical Huguenot. Belon was just 48 years old.
From 1551, Belon had dedicated himself to writing and publishing his works, starting with his essay entitled "Histoire naturelle des étranges poissons marins", with his own illustrations. In 1553, he published another work on fish, "De aquatilibus", which was followed two years later by its French version, "De la nature & diversité des poissons". Again in 1553, the chronicle of his voyage circulated, which was republished in 1554 and in a revised and expanded version in 1555, together with "Histoire de la nature des oiseaux". In that same year, Belon published two studies on two different subjects, "De arboribus coniferis" and "De admirabile operum antiquorum".
Belon’s travel chronicle was reprinted in 1558, 1585, and 1588. The last edition was enriched with two engravings absent from the previous editions (Mount Sinai and Lemnos-Mount Athos). It was translated into Latin, English and German during the eighteenth century, and into Bulgarian in 1953. Extracts from this work (on Lemnos and Mount Athos) have on occasion been translated into Greek, and a publication of the chapters on Crete is currently in preparation.
Belon was a man of the sixteenth century, a pragmatist, barely sensitive to the enchantments of nature. He is a fine example of a humanist traveller-researcher, devoted as he is to the quest for truth, in his case almost exclusively in relation to matters of botany or zoology. He is the first model of a truly reliable informant, and his work was the basic manual for all travellers until Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, who visited the Aegean archipelago and the East in 1700-1702, and whose work, published in 1717, became the model for the description of the Greek islands.
Belon travelled in foreign lands with the passion of the humanist naturalist. He abandoned his books in order to don the habit of the wandering researcher, with a zeal for life and scientific knowledge
Written by Ioli Vingopoulou
Fransız asıllı doğa bilimci ve doktor Pierre Belon (1517-1565) Soultière'de doğar. Adı, Du Bellay ve Tournon Kardinalleri hesabına gizli ajan olarak verdiği hizmetlerden çok kendi kendini eğitmiş bir doğa bilimci olarak kaleme aldığı kitaplar sayesinde tarihte kalır. İlk başta eczacı daha sonra ise ziraatçı olan Belon, 1540-41 yıllarında Witteberg'de Valerius Cordus yanında ve daha sonra İtalya'da (1551) tıp öğrenimi görür. Dönemin siyasal durumundan yararlanarak Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Près manastırında tıp öğrenimini tamamlayıp 1560 yılında üstün başarıyla mezun olur, ancak profesör doktor ünvanını hiçbir zaman elde etmez.
Kariyerini özellikle siyasi destekleyicilerine borçlu olan Belon, 1542 yılından sonra Tournon Kardinali hizmetine atanıp birçok diplomatik sefere katılır. Başta Şarlken (V. Karl) sarayı olmak üzere Almanya'da çeşitli görevlerde bulunur. Hocası Valerius Cordus'u Roma seyahatinde izler ve Venedik bahçelerinde, Padova, Milano ve kuzey İtalya göllerinde bitki incelemeleri yapar. Dönüşünde yeniden, artık kraliyet bakanı olan Kardinal de Tournon'un hizmetine girer; bu görevdeyken sık sık kral sarayı ve Saint Germain en Laye sarayında bulunup hükümdarın o devrin bilinen dünyasından derlemiş olduğu görülmeğe değer (aslanlar, panterler, zürafa kuşları, Brezilya odunu, nadir bitkiler) koleksiyonlarını hayranlıkla seyreder. İşte tam bu sırada Belon Anavarzalı Dioskorides ve Teofrastos'un eserlerini çevirerek bu metinlere bitkilerin eski ve yeni adlarını içeren bir listeyi eklemeyi kafasına koyar. Henüz 30 yaşındayken, 1546 yılında, elçi D’Aramon'un Doğu'ya yaptığı diplomatik sefere katılır; bu yolculuk tüm yaşamını ve yazarlık uğraşını belirleyecektir.
Elçi D' Aramon 1546 yılının Aralık ayında yanına güçlü bir maiyet alarak gizli bir diplomatik sefere çıkar. Bu sefere ilk kez bilimadamlarından oluşan bir ekip de katılır. Fransa ve İsviçre'yi geçip Venedik'e varırlar, buradan üç kadırgayla 1547'nin Şubat ayında denize açılırlar. Ekip, Adriyatik kıyılarını geçerek Ragusa'ya gelir; buradan elçi D' Aramon güney Balkanlar kara yoluyla İstanbul'a doğru yol alırken Belon da Dijon'lu eczacı Bénigne de Villers ile birlikte deniz yolunu seçip İyon denizini geçer ve İstanbul'a doğru yönelir. Paksos adalarında bitki araştırması yaptığı sırada oraya gelen korsanlar yol arkadaşını kaçırırlar. 1547 yılının baharında Girit'e gelir ve Kallergis tarafından misafir edilir. Kallergis ona İda dağında, Rethimno (Resmo) ve Sfakia (İsfakiye) dağlarında gezebilmesi için rehberler sağlar. Fransız doğabilimci adanın flora ve faunasını gözlemler, sözde labirentle yanılgıya düşer, laden (labdanum) toplamasını izler, gezinir, toplar, dener, aradığı her eski şey rasladığı her yeni şey hakkında sorular sorar. Belon, Girit'ten bir Venedik filikasına binip İstanbul'a doğru yol alır, gemi Kea adasından geçerken korsanlarla bir maceraları olur, nihayet güney Evia'dan (Eğriboz) geçerek İstanbul Boğazı kıyılarına gelirler, zaman tahminen bahar sonudur. İstanbul'da Belon kendisi gibi Fransa elçiliğinde ataşe olan P. Gilles ile birlikte şehrin dolambaçlı çarşı ve sokaklarını keşfe çıkar. Arapça bilen bir Türk bilge ile arkadaşlık kurup onun yardımıyla, İbn-i Sina'nın şifa bitkilerinin adlarını belirten Tıp Kanunu'ndan yararlanarak, türkçe bir dizin hazırlar ve bununla pazar yerlerini gezip Türkiye'de satılıp alınan gıda ve şifa bitkilerini öğrenmeye çalışır. Bu tür ürünlerin ithalâtı o devirde Doğu ile ticaretin en önemli öğelerinden birini oluşturmaktaydı. Ne var ki şifa otu ticaretini hâlâ Venedikli aracılar halletmekteydi. Bu yüzden Belon'un araştırmaları Venedik'in rakibi Fransa için büyük önem taşımaktaydı.
Şifalı türler arasında tüm Avrupalı elçilerin hükümdarlarına değerli bir hediye olarak sunmak istedikleri ve bu nedenle daima önemle aradıkları bir tür de "tıyn-ı mahtûm" (Limni toprağı) ürünüydü. Belon bu toprak türünün çıkarılma eyleminde şahsen bulunmayı aklına koyar. Birkaç referans mektubu sağlayarak bir perkendeye biner ve Limnos'a (Limni) doğru yol alır. Denizin sakin oluşu yolcuları korsan saldırısına uğrama riskine sokar, bu yüzden Gökçeada'nın (İmroz) bir limanına çekilirler, orada iki gün bekledikten sonra kürek gücüyle Limnos'a varırlar. Belon'un büyük arzusuna karşın "tıyn-ı mahtûm"un çıkarılma eylemi Limnos'ta yılda sadece bir kez, 6 Ağustos Tecelli bayramında (İsa'nın metamorfozu) yapılmaktadır. Belon adada uzun uzun gezip flora ve faunayı inceler, yerli hastalara tıbbî hizmetlerde bulunur, yerel yöneticiler tarafından misafir edilir ve, nihayet, bir yeniçeri refakatinde "tıyn-ı mahtûm"un çıkarıldığı bölgeye gelmeyi başarır. Belon Limnos'tan ayrıldıktan sonra fırtınalar gemisini Skiros'a sürükler ancak daha sonra iki rahiple birlikte Thasos (Taşoz) adasına gelir. Oradan bir sandalla dört saat içinde Ayion Oros (Aynaroz) kıyılarına yanaşır. Burada bitki toplar, balık, böcek ve kuş avlar, Aynaroz dağı tepesinden Ege denizine bakar, mamafih Kserkses'ten iz bulamayınca düş kırıklığına uğrar. Buradan ayrıldıktan sonra iki gün içinde Selânik'e varır. Halkidiki'nin Siderokapsa (Seder Kapı) maden ocaklarını ziyaret edip betimleyen ilk kişidir. Daha sonra Struma nehrine doğru yönelir, Seres (Serez) ve Drama'dan geçer, antik kent Filippi'nin harabelerini gezer, Kavala'da İmarette kalıp bunun gibi vakıf misafirhanelerinin misafirperverliği hakkında yazar. Belon daha sonra Porto Lagos iç denizinden, Komotini'den (Gümülcine), Sapes'deki (Şapçı) şap madeni ocaklarından, Tekirdağ, Marmara Ereğlisi, Silivri'den geçip bunlardan seyahatnamesinde sözeder. Bu sırada İran seferine çıkan, örnek olabilecek bir düzen ve sessizlik içinde hareket eden ve bir kervansaray yakınlarında karargâh kurmuş olan 4.000 kişilik Osmanlı ordusu ile karşılaşır.
1547'nin Ağustos ayında, Belon, İstanbul'a döner ve bay De Fumel'den başka birçok Fransız soylu, yeniçeri, çavuş ve tercümandan meydana gelen kalabalık bir maiyetle Doğu gezisine çıkar. Amaçları ilk olarak Mısır'ı ziyaret etmektir. Belon Çanakkale Boğazı çıkışında Truva harabelerinin yerini tespit eden ilk Avrupalı gezgin olur. Midilli'den geçerken adanın yetiştirdiği ürünler, Sakız'dan geçerken adanın sakızı ve sevecen kadınları, Samos'ta yanlarına aldıkları adanın yerlisi yunanlı denizci, Patmos'da Yuhanna'nın Vahiy kitabı, Leros ve Pserimos adaları, Kos'ta (İstanköy) Hipokrat hakkında yazar; en sonunda Rodos'a demir atarlar. Belon'un seyahat notlarında buradaki şövalye kenti, çarşı ve liman, yerli ürünler ve adanın sakinlerinden sözedilir. Gezginler Ağustos sonunda İskenderiye'ye varırlar. Kahire ile Memfis'i ve Giza piramitlerini ziyaret edip Sina dağındaki Azize Katerina manastırına kadar gelirler. Belon'un seyahatnamesinin Mısır'la ilgili bölümünde bir Avrupalı gezgin tarafından Doğu'nun arap müslüman egzotik dünyasına karşı yöneltilen ilk ve en keskin bakışlardan birini bulmaktayız. Nil nehri ve kanallar, çarşılar, Afrika faunası, kadınlar ve kıyafet gariplikleri, mumyalar, piramitler, Arabistan çölü ve vahalar, Kızıldenizdeki kayıklar, mineraller ve vahşi hayvanlar; bunların tümü ilk kez olarak bir kitap içinde yoğun ve özel bir tarzda konum almaktadır.
Gezginler Mısır'dan Filistin'e doğru yayan olarak yola çıkarlar, on gün sonra oraya varırlar. Kutsallaşmış Yerler Belon için yeni bir araştırma alanı olur. Metninde nadir hayvan, yarı değerli taş, balık, kuş adları sayar, suyun kullanımları ve kuyular hakkında yazar, ağaçlar, fundalar ve yerel bitkilerin adlarını özdeşleştirir. Daima yaptığı gibi çağdaş bilgileri eski metinlerdeki verilerle kıyaslayıp her türün çeşitlerini ve kullanım biçimlerini de kaydeder. Belon Kutsal Yerlere kendi bildiği gibi ibadet eder; ancak tabii ki huşu içinde olan Kudüs, Celile, Nasıra, Beytüllahim ve Eriha gibi mekânlar onu heyecanlandırır.
Kutsal Yerlerde gezilerini tamamladıktan sonra kuzeye doğru yürürler. Susam ve pamuk tarlaları arasından geçip beş gün içinde Şam'a varırlar. Yazar burada da aynı düzenli biçimde Şam şehrinin surları, Suriye'de tıp, hukuk ve kervansaraylar, Mekke'ye giden hacılar, bölgenin nadir faunası, sedir ağaçları, tarım biçimleri, Baalbek harabeleri, Halep sokakları ve eski sikkeler, Antakya ve erken hristiyanlığın kalıntıları, Adana ve Büyük İskender'in muharebe yaptığı ovalar ve Orta Doğu'da görülmeğe değer tüm garip şeyleri sırayla kaydeder.
Orta Anadolu'ya vardıklarında özellikle Türklerin beslenme alışkanlıkları ve dokumacılıkları hakkında gözlemler yapar, ancak bitki araştırmasından bir an bile vazgeçmez, ayrıca kaplıcalar, atlar ve bölgedeki özel koyun cinsini (tiftik) kaydeder. Gezginler Konya ve Akşehir'den geçerek Ankara'ya oradan da Afyon Karahisar'a gelirler ve 1547 yılı kışının geri kalan kısmını 1548'in baharına dek burada geçirirler. Belon bu arada seyahatnamesinin üçüncü bölümünü yazma fırsatını bulur. Bu bölümde Türklerin kökenleri, özel ve kamu hayatları, Osmanlı İmparatorluğunun toplumsal kurumları ve yönetimi, müslümanların adetleri ve dinî inançları hakkında yazar. Yolu Kütahya'ya doğru devam eder ve Bursa'yı ziyaret eder; nihayet İstanbul'a vardığında Fransa elçisi D' Aramon'u Kanuni Sultan Süleyman'ın İran'a karşı yapacağı seferde izlemeye hazır bulur. Seferberlik 1548'in Mayıs ayında gerçekleşir ve yorulmak bilmeyen Belon yanında Gilles ve Thevet ile beraber seferberliğe katılır. Ancak bu kez Fransız doğabilimci sadece İzmit'e kadar ulaşabilir. Buradan İstanbul'a dönüp bir gemiye biner ve 1549 yılı başlarında nihayet Venedik'e ulaşır. 1550'de ise yeni bir diplomatik görevle İngiltere'ye doğru yola çıkar.
Daha sonra Montmorency'lerin himayesine girip bundan sonraki zamanını Fransa taşrasından İtalya'ya kadar uzanan bir alanda bitki araştırmalarına ayırır - nitekim İtalya'dan ülkesine selvi, çınar ve zakkum çeşitleri götürür. Öte yandan gittikçe Reform rejimine karşı tavır alan kilisedeki görevini de sürdürür. Ömrünün son yıllarında, süregitmekte olan dinî çarpışmalarda kendisi de fanatik bir katolik taraftarı olarak faal rol alır. Nihayet 1565 yılının Nisan ayında bir akşam Paris'te esrarengiz bir biçimde öldürülür. Boulogne ormanında bulunan Madrid sarayında kendisine sağlanan misafirhaneye giderken fanatik bir Hugueno tarafından vurulduğu sanılıyor. Henüz 48 yaşındaydı.
Belon 1551 yılından itibaren kitaplarını yazmaya ve yayınlamaya başlar. İlk başta gelen Histoire naturelles des étranges poissons marins adlı yapıtı kendi desenleriyle tamamlanmış bir çalışmadır. 1553 yılında, balıklar hakkında latincede yazılmış De aquqtilibus kitabını yayınlar. Aynı kitap iki yıl sonra De la nature & diversité des poissons başlığıyla fransızca olarak basılır. Gine 1553'te seyahatnamesini de yayınlar. Bu yapıt 1554'te ikinci baskı yapar, 1555'te ise Histoire de la nature des oiseaux çalışması ile birlikte düzeltmeler ve eklemeler yapıldıktan sonra üçüncü kez yayınlanır. Bunlardan başka 1553'de De arboribus coniferis ve De admirabile operum antiquorum başlıklı değişik konulu iki çalışmasını da yayınlar.
Seyahatnamesi 1558, 1585, 1588 yıllarında tekrar basılır, son baskı ise daha öncekilerde bulunmayan iki gravürle zenginleştirilir. Bu gravürler Sina dağı ve Limnos ile Aynaroz dağını görüntülemektedir. Eser 18. yüzyıl içinde latince, ingilizce ve almancaya, 1953'te bulgarcaya çevrilir. Limnos ve Aynaroz ile ilgili bölümler yunancada bulunmakta, ayrıca Girit ile ilgili bölümlerin yunanca olarak yayınlanması da öngörülmektedir.
Belon bir 16. yüzyıl insanı olarak doğanın cazibesine karşı hemen hemen hiç duyarlı olmayan bir pragmatisttir. Kendini tamamen gerçeğin arayışına vermiş bir hümanist gezgin-kâşif in mükemmel örneğini oluşturmaktadır. Belon için gerçek tamamen bitki ve hayvan bilimi konularıyla ilintili olup biriktirdiği özgün bilgiler ilerideki gezginler için (Joseph Pitton de Tournefort'un eseri yayınlanana dek) temel bir el kitabı oluşturur. Belon'dan sonra Joseph Pitton de Tournefort 1700-1702'de Ege adaları ve Anadolu'da seyahat etmiş ve 1717'de yayınlanan seyahatnamesi özellikle yunan adaları betimlemesinde örnek bir eser olmuştu.
Belon hümanist bir doğabilimci coşkusuyla bilginin kuramsal çerçevesini terkedip doğa yürüyüşlerini yaparken gezici bir araştırmacı kılığına bürünür ve sabit fikir derecesinde olan bilimsel düşünüş ve yaşama tarzını fanatik bir biçimde gezindirir .
Yazan: İoli Vingopoulou
New Release at Losthaven!
Imperial Agent.
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Losthaven: slurl.com/secondlife/Ave%20Maria/152/48/486
The Draken Harald Hårfagre made port in Brockville (a little more than an hour's drive from Ottawa) last Friday after sailing from Norway via Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, Quebec City and Montreal. It stayed for the weekend and makes sail for Toronto tomorrow.
It's quite a remarkable ship; made entirely using ancient techniques, about the only thing belying its modernity is the radar array and sat-phone antennas. Otherwise, it's an old-school Viking ship with sails and oars. The deck is open and the only shelter is a tent amidships where the crew rests in 4 hour shifts. Check out www.drakenexpeditionamerica.com/ for more info.
The boys’ are on a mission — Secret Agent birthday cake for two of my grandsons’ joint birthday party. The candle in the bomb cookie is a sparkler candle — I hope it “fizzes” like it is supposed to!