Ship Type: Multi purpose offshore vessel

Year Built: 2010

Length x Breadth: 73 m X 16 m

Gross Tonnage: 2177, DeadWeight: 3250 t

Speed recorded (Max / Average): 6.3 / 6.1 knots

Flag: Hongkong [HK]

Call Sign: VRIU6

IMO: 9444364, MMSI: 477095400

 

Yosemite National Park is an American national park in the western Sierra Nevada of Central California, bounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 748,436 acres (1,169 sq mi; 3,029 km2) and sits in four counties: centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness.

 

On average, about four million people visit Yosemite each year, and most spend the majority of their time in the seven square miles (18 km2) of Yosemite Valley. The park set a visitation record in 2016, surpassing five million visitors for the first time in its history. Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development, ultimately leading to President Abraham Lincoln's signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864. John Muir led a successful movement to have Congress establish a larger national park by 1890, one which encompassed the valley and its surrounding mountains and forests, paving the way for the National Park System.

Sometimes looking in the mirror it's hard to believe I am not a woman and in some respects I'm obviously not but I'm certainly not your average male either far from it. Anyone can transgender themselves with hormones but what I've achieved with off the shelf everyday herbs is hardly hard-line transitioning and as I cheated I think they shouldn't have even worked so well, but through unbroken persistence and self-belief they brought out the femininity that was always there just beneath the

skin. Maybe it was a placebo effect and it's all in the mind and maybe we can work wonders with determination and self-belief. But like a sports-person wanting to hit the heights the seed and ability has to be there at the start. Anyone who tries to say transgendered people are a manufactured confection are lying as for me starting to live as Jojo and just deciding to do it was enough to bring to the fore what was inside waiting to get out. Naively when I started I just wanted to grow some breasts thinking that would do, but of course you don't get flowers without leaves and as they slowly grew so did my body change. At night in bed I used to get spasms as the male muscles in my legs broke down and remarkably even the small amount of body hair and beard retreated so now I'm virtually hairless. I mean that is quite remarkable as even those who transition properly with the right hormones don't achieve that so it a bit of a miracle. My mother had preyed for a girl instead of me, and I wonder if she would be happy knowing she got her wish lol. Maybe not as to be Jojo properly I had to think like a woman too and date you guys. I have to say I have no regrets.

Many bouquet agates will have this type of blunted plume or flowers, and without any oustanding color but nice contrast. This one is shown wet and was one of the first 20 or so I cut, from the lot I collected on a ranch near Marfa, Presidio County, Texas on January 2, 2010.

From 1975. This seemed really slow while I was working on it, but in the end it turned out pretty average for me -- a bit over 42 hours. A real old beauty.

Welcome to Modernville, where the past meets the present in the quirkiest ways possible! This vintage postcard captures the essence of our bustling, average European city, complete with all the modern-day marvels and a touch of old-world charm.

 

Front of the Postcard:

 

Skyline: A mix of medieval buildings and sleek skyscrapers, because why not? Our city planners couldn't decide, so they went with both!

 

Traffic: Horse-drawn carriages sharing the road with electric scooters. It's a traffic jam of epic proportions, but hey, it's all part of the charm. River cruise ships showing you the same sights you can admire on land.

 

Cafés: Cobblestone streets lined with quaint cafés where you can sip on artisanal lattes while listening to live accordion music. Just don't trip over the Wi-Fi cables.

 

Fashion: Locals sporting a unique blend of traditional lederhosen and the latest high-tech wearable gadgets. It's a fashion statement that says, "I'm ready for Oktoberfest and a Zoom meeting."

 

Back of the Postcard:

 

Greetings: "Wish you were here to experience the joy of waiting in line for our world-famous hybrid bakery, where you can get a croissant with a side of virtual reality!"

 

Weather: "Today's forecast: partly cloudy with a chance of spontaneous flash mobs. Don't forget your umbrella and your dancing shoes!"

 

Local Attraction: "Be sure to visit our state-of-the-art museum, where you can see ancient artifacts and the latest memes side by side. It's history and hilarity all in one place!"

 

So, whether you're here for the history, the high-tech, or just the hilarity, Modernville has something for everyone. Come for the sights, stay for the Wi-Fi, and leave with a postcard that perfectly captures the delightful chaos of our beloved city.

 

P.S.: Don't forget to try our famous fusion cuisine—schnitzel sushi is a must!

 

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Feel free to share this postcard with friends and family, and let them know that Modernville is the place where the past and present collide in the most entertaining ways!

This is a cool pic that I took yesterday, on a very grey day, on Willow St. in Meriden, Connecticut. Taken at about 7:30 a.m. Using Topaz Silver Efex Pro 2 in PS CS6

 

April 08, 2015 07 36 31 27 mm 1-60 sec at f - 3.5 ISO 100 Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 (Windows) PENTAX K-x PENTAX Center-weighted average metering.

Nothing to see here, move along

Carrieton.

The Carrieton district has a highly unreliable but average rainfall of around 300mm per annum and the elevation at 395 metres (or 1,300 feet) made it an attractive area for early pastoralists. The town of Carrieton stands on what was part of the Yanyarrie Run. In 1853 the Grants sank a well and built a large stone tank around- the Yanyarrie Whim which is located on the northern outskirts of Carrieton. Yanyarrie Run and Coonatto Run made up the main runs of the Grant brothers. By 1859 the combined runs exceeded 900 square miles. In 1866 the Grants bought property near Millicent for pasturage during times of drought. This was needed in that year as in 1864 they had shorn 87,000 sheep but in 1866 they only had 18,000 to shear. Their wool was carted by bullock dray down to Port Augusta through Horrocks Pass. Another run in the district was Yalpara Run east of Carrieton run by John and Richard Ragless. They had their own desalination water plant in the 1870s to make the well water potable. They faced tough years and during the drought of 1866 half of their 250,000 sheep died. Their run, like the Grants runs was resumed in 1875.

 

Despite being many miles beyond Goyder’s Line (even Orroroo was beyond Goyder’s Line) the government resumed this section of the Grant family runs in 1877 to survey the Hundred of Yanyarrie and establish the government towns of Carrieton and Eurelia. Both towns had settlement begin around 1878 just a couple of years before the railway to Quorn was pushed through the area in 1881. With the land sales the Grants bought some freehold land and maintained a small station on Coonatto finally selling up in 1903. As one local newspaper reported in 1880 before the droughts set in “farmers will reach the banks of the Finke River and the McDonnell Ranges”! But 1882 proved Surveyor General George Goyder correct. The grain and the top soil blew away in a terrible drought throughout this region. It was a terrible start to the little towns of Carrieton and Eurelia. Yet they survived.

 

By 1879 Carrieton had a post office, a general store, Davies blacksmiths and coach builders- the largest operations north of Gawler. (In 1890 this business employed 31 men in Carrieton.) The Carrieton Hotel opened in 1879 with Michael O’Grady being the first publican. The Eureka Hotel opened in 1880, but closed in 1946 and was then demolished. When the government conducted a census in 1881 Carrieton had a population of 120. (Today it has less than 100 people.) By then it had a railway siding and railway station which opened in 1880. Carrieton was an important stop as the carriage lamps were all taken out at Carrieton to have their wicks cleaned and trimmed and the lamps polished before being replaced in the next train. In the early 1880s during the drought Carrieton acquired a school (1882), a police station (1884), St Raphael’s Roman Catholic Church (the large presbytery was built in 1889), a small Methodist Church (1882), an Anglican Church (1888) and the railway station, built in 1885 at a cost of £1,500. The first agricultural show was held in Carrieton in 1882. These days the town has an annual night time rodeo which started in 1953. But Carrieton is very much a ghost town. The hotel recently closed, the school is a private residence, the churches are used for housing as is the railway station and the old stores are derelict and falling down. The town has no future.

 

average of all daily photos published december 2016

 

total exposure time in seconds: 2.37362459597

This is the back of my 2018 Fujifilm X-T3.

Top right, in the red box, you can see that the metering collar dial is set to 'MULTI'.

 

In yellow you can see that the camera is actually in 'AVERAGE', not 'MULTI'. If you touch and jiggle the dial a bit, it jumps in and out of 'MULTI' but it is unreliable.

 

Top left, in blue, is another collar dial which is called the 'DRIVE MODE' dial and that is also jittery. It is now set to S (single) but sometimes it jumps to CL (continuous low) to the left or 'MULTI EXPOSURE' to the right on its own.

 

These are very important but low quality dials. I have a much older Pentax K-5 with collar dials and those are flawless.

 

I think they had a boardroom meeting before the launch of the camera: Kenny: "Okay boss, our X-T3 is almost finished, we just need to select the type of metering- and drive mode dials. What kind of dials do you want? We've got these top-of-the-line Zaratsu polished gold plated Japanese made dials that can withstand 50 billion movement and we've got these plastic ones which are 2 cent a pop and also used by European- and American car manufacturers." Boss: "Well Kenny, put those cheap ones in, if they are good enough for the European- and American car consumers, they are good enough for our cameras. They don't know what quality is and they don't expect for it to last for more than 3 years anyway."

 

I like these "X-T" line of camera's but my "X-H" doesn't have these bullshit collar dials and proved to be more reliable. I'm not a Fujifilm fanboy, I'm a Pentax refugee.

 

youtu.be/3JcmQONgXJM?feature=shared

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway , is a Nordic , European country and an independent state in the west of the Scandinavian Peninsula . Geographically speaking, the country is long and narrow, and on the elongated coast towards the North Atlantic are Norway's well-known fjords . The Kingdom of Norway includes the main country (the mainland with adjacent islands within the baseline ), Jan Mayen and Svalbard . With these two Arctic areas, Norway covers a land area of ​​385,000 km² and has a population of approximately 5.5 million (2023). Mainland Norway borders Sweden in the east , Finland and Russia in the northeast .

 

Norway is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy , where Harald V has been king and head of state since 1991 , and Jonas Gahr Støre ( Ap ) has been prime minister since 2021 . Norway is a unitary state , with two administrative levels below the state: counties and municipalities . The Sami part of the population has, through the Sami Parliament and the Finnmark Act , to a certain extent self-government and influence over traditionally Sami areas. Although Norway has rejected membership of the European Union through two referendums , through the EEA Agreement Norway has close ties with the Union, and through NATO with the United States . Norway is a significant contributor to the United Nations (UN), and has participated with soldiers in several foreign operations mandated by the UN. Norway is among the states that have participated from the founding of the UN , NATO , the Council of Europe , the OSCE and the Nordic Council , and in addition to these is a member of the EEA , the World Trade Organization , the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and is part of the Schengen area .

 

Norway is rich in many natural resources such as oil , gas , minerals , timber , seafood , fresh water and hydropower . Since the beginning of the 20th century, these natural conditions have given the country the opportunity for an increase in wealth that few other countries can now enjoy, and Norwegians have the second highest average income in the world, measured in GDP per capita, as of 2022. The petroleum industry accounts for around 14% of Norway's gross domestic product as of 2018. Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and gas per capita outside the Middle East. However, the number of employees linked to this industry fell from approx. 232,000 in 2013 to 207,000 in 2015.

 

In Norway, these natural resources have been managed for socially beneficial purposes. The country maintains a welfare model in line with the other Nordic countries. Important service areas such as health and higher education are state-funded, and the country has an extensive welfare system for its citizens. Public expenditure in 2018 is approx. 50% of GDP, and the majority of these expenses are related to education, healthcare, social security and welfare. Since 2001 and until 2021, when the country took second place, the UN has ranked Norway as the world's best country to live in . From 2010, Norway is also ranked at the top of the EIU's democracy index . Norway ranks third on the UN's World Happiness Report for the years 2016–2018, behind Finland and Denmark , a report published in March 2019.

 

The majority of the population is Nordic. In the last couple of years, immigration has accounted for more than half of population growth. The five largest minority groups are Norwegian-Poles , Lithuanians , Norwegian-Swedes , Norwegian-Syrians including Syrian Kurds and Norwegian-Pakistani .

 

Norway's national day is 17 May, on this day in 1814 the Norwegian Constitution was dated and signed by the presidency of the National Assembly at Eidsvoll . It is stipulated in the law of 26 April 1947 that 17 May are national public holidays. The Sami national day is 6 February. "Yes, we love this country" is Norway's national anthem, the song was written in 1859 by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910).

 

Norway's history of human settlement goes back at least 10,000 years, to the Late Paleolithic , the first period of the Stone Age . Archaeological finds of settlements along the entire Norwegian coast have so far been dated back to 10,400 before present (BP), the oldest find is today considered to be a settlement at Pauler in Brunlanes , Vestfold .

For a period these settlements were considered to be the remains of settlers from Doggerland , an area which today lies beneath the North Sea , but which was once a land bridge connecting today's British Isles with Danish Jutland . But the archaeologists who study the initial phase of the settlement in what is today Norway reckon that the first people who came here followed the coast along what is today Bohuslân. That they arrived in some form of boat is absolutely certain, and there is much evidence that they could easily move over large distances.

 

Since the last Ice Age, there has been continuous settlement in Norway. It cannot be ruled out that people lived in Norway during the interglacial period , but no trace of such a population or settlement has been found.

 

The Stone Age lasted a long time; half of the time that our country has been populated. There are no written accounts of what life was like back then. The knowledge we have has been painstakingly collected through investigations of places where people have stayed and left behind objects that we can understand have been processed by human hands. This field of knowledge is called archaeology . The archaeologists interpret their findings and the history of the surrounding landscape. In our country, the uplift after the Ice Age is fundamental. The history of the settlements at Pauler is no more than fifteen years old.

 

The Fosna culture settled parts of Norway sometime between 10,000–8,000 BC. (see Stone Age in Norway ). The dating of rock carvings is set to Neolithic times (in Norway between 4000 BC to 1700 BC) and show activities typical of hunters and gatherers .

 

Agriculture with livestock and arable farming was introduced in the Neolithic. Swad farming where the farmers move when the field does not produce the expected yield.

 

More permanent and persistent farm settlements developed in the Bronze Age (1700 BC to 500 BC) and the Iron Age . The earliest runes have been found on an arrowhead dated to around 200 BC. Many more inscriptions are dated to around 800, and a number of petty kingdoms developed during these centuries. In prehistoric times, there were no fixed national borders in the Nordic countries and Norway did not exist as a state. The population in Norway probably fell to year 0.

 

Events in this time period, the centuries before the year 1000, are glimpsed in written sources. Although the sagas were written down in the 13th century, many hundreds of years later, they provide a glimpse into what was already a distant past. The story of the fimbul winter gives us a historical picture of something that happened and which in our time, with the help of dendrochronology , can be interpreted as a natural disaster in the year 536, created by a volcanic eruption in El Salvador .

 

In the period between 800 and 1066 there was a significant expansion and it is referred to as the Viking Age . During this period, Norwegians, as Swedes and Danes also did, traveled abroad in longships with sails as explorers, traders, settlers and as Vikings (raiders and pirates ). By the middle of the 11th century, the Norwegian kingship had been firmly established, building its right as descendants of Harald Hårfagre and then as heirs of Olav the Holy . The Norwegian kings, and their subjects, now professed Christianity . In the time around Håkon Håkonsson , in the time after the civil war , there was a small renaissance in Norway with extensive literary activity and diplomatic activity with Europe. The black dew came to Norway in 1349 and killed around half of the population. The entire state apparatus and Norway then entered a period of decline.

 

Between 1396 and 1536, Norway was part of the Kalmar Union , and from 1536 until 1814 Norway had been reduced to a tributary part of Denmark , named as the Personal Union of Denmark-Norway . This staff union entered into an alliance with Napoléon Bonaparte with a war that brought bad times and famine in 1812 . In 1814, Denmark-Norway lost the Anglophone Wars , part of the Napoleonic Wars , and the Danish king was forced to cede Norway to the king of Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel on 14 January of that year. After a Norwegian attempt at independence, Norway was forced into a loose union with Sweden, but where Norway was allowed to create its own constitution, the Constitution of 1814 . In this period, Norwegian, romantic national feeling flourished, and the Norwegians tried to develop and establish their own national self-worth. The union with Sweden was broken in 1905 after it had been threatened with war, and Norway became an independent kingdom with its own monarch, Haakon VII .

 

Norway remained neutral during the First World War , and at the outbreak of the Second World War, Norway again declared itself neutral, but was invaded by National Socialist Germany on 9 April 1940 .

 

Norway became a member of the Western defense alliance NATO in 1949 . Two attempts to join the EU were voted down in referendums by small margins in 1972 and 1994 . Norway has been a close ally of the United States in the post-war period. Large discoveries of oil and natural gas in the North Sea at the end of the 1960s led to tremendous economic growth in the country, which is still ongoing. Traditional industries such as fishing are also part of Norway's economy.

 

Stone Age (before 1700 BC)

When most of the ice disappeared, vegetation spread over the landscape and due to a warm climate around 2000-3000 BC. the forest grew much taller than in modern times. Land uplift after the ice age led to a number of fjords becoming lakes and dry land. The first people probably came from the south along the coast of the Kattegat and overland into Finnmark from the east. The first people probably lived by gathering, hunting and trapping. A good number of Stone Age settlements have been found which show that such hunting and trapping people stayed for a long time in the same place or returned to the same place regularly. Large amounts of gnawed bones show that they lived on, among other things, reindeer, elk, small game and fish.

 

Flintstone was imported from Denmark and apart from small natural deposits along the southern coast, all flintstone in Norway is transported by people. At Espevær, greenstone was quarried for tools in the Stone Age, and greenstone tools from Espevær have been found over large parts of Western Norway. Around 2000-3000 BC the usual farm animals such as cows and sheep were introduced to Norway. Livestock probably meant a fundamental change in society in that part of the people had to be permanent residents or live a semi-nomadic life. Livestock farming may also have led to conflict with hunters.

 

The oldest traces of people in what is today Norway have been found at Pauler , a farm in Brunlanes in Larvik municipality in Vestfold . In 2007 and 2008, the farm has given its name to a number of Stone Age settlements that have been excavated and examined by archaeologists from the Cultural History Museum at UiO. The investigations have been carried out in connection with the new route for the E18 motorway west of Farris. The oldest settlement, located more than 127 m above sea level, is dated to be about 10,400 years old (uncalibrated, more than 11,000 years in real calendar years). From here, the ice sheet was perhaps visible when people settled here. This locality has been named Pauler I, and is today considered to be the oldest confirmed human traces in Norway to date. The place is in the mountains above the Pauler tunnel on the E18 between Larvik and Porsgrunn . The pioneer settlement is a term archaeologists have adopted for the oldest settlement. The archaeologists have speculated about where they came from, the first people in what is today Norway. It has been suggested that they could come by boat or perhaps across the ice from Doggerland or the North Sea, but there is now a large consensus that they came north along what is today the Bohuslän coast. The Fosna culture , the Komsa culture and the Nøstvet culture are the traditional terms for hunting cultures from the Stone Age. One thing is certain - getting to the water was something they mastered, the first people in our country. Therefore, within a short time they were able to use our entire long coast.

 

In the New Stone Age (4000 BC–1700 BC) there is a theory that a new people immigrated to the country, the so-called Stone Ax People . Rock carvings from this period show motifs from hunting and fishing , which were still important industries. From this period, a megalithic tomb has been found in Østfold .

It is uncertain whether there were organized societies or state-like associations in the Stone Age in Norway. Findings from settlements indicate that many lived together and that this was probably more than one family so that it was a slightly larger, organized herd.

 

Finnmark

In prehistoric times, animal husbandry and agriculture were of little economic importance in Finnmark. Livelihoods in Finnmark were mainly based on fish, gathering, hunting and trapping, and eventually domestic reindeer herding became widespread in the Middle Ages. Archaeological finds from the Stone Age have been referred to as the Komsa culture and comprise around 5,000 years of settlement. Finnmark probably got its first settlement around 8000 BC. It is believed that the coastal areas became ice-free 11,000 years BC and the fjord areas around 9,000 years BC. after which willows, grass, heather, birch and pine came into being. Finnmarksvidda was covered by pine forest around 6000 BC. After the Ice Age, the land rose around 80 meters in the inner fjord areas (Alta, Tana, Varanger). Due to ice melting in the polar region, the sea rose in the period 6400–3800 BC. and in areas with little land elevation, some settlements from the first part of the Stone Age were flooded. On Sørøya, the net sea level rise was 12 to 14 meters and many residential areas were flooded.

 

According to Bjørnar Olsen , there are many indications of a connection between the oldest settlement in Western Norway (the " Fosnakulturen ") and that in Finnmark, but it is uncertain in which direction the settlement took place. In the earliest part of the Stone Age, settlement in Finnmark was probably concentrated in the coastal areas, and these only reflected a lifestyle with great mobility and no permanent dwellings. The inner regions, such as Pasvik, were probably used seasonally. The archaeologically proven settlements from the Stone Age in inner Finnmark and Troms are linked to lakes and large watercourses. The oldest petroglyphs in Alta are usually dated to 4200 BC, that is, the Neolithic . Bjørnar Olsen believes that the oldest can be up to 2,000 years older than this.

 

From around 4000 BC a slow deforestation of Finnmark began and around 1800 BC the vegetation distribution was roughly the same as in modern times. The change in vegetation may have increased the distance between the reindeer's summer and winter grazing. The uplift continued slowly from around 4000 BC. at the same time as sea level rise stopped.

 

According to Gutorm Gjessing, the settlement in Finnmark and large parts of northern Norway in the Neolithic was semi-nomadic with movement between four seasonal settlements (following the pattern of life in Sami siida in historical times): On the outer coast in summer (fishing and seal catching) and inland in winter (hunting for reindeer, elk and bear). Povl Simonsen believed instead that the winter residence was in the inner fjord area in a village-like sod house settlement. Bjørnar Olsen believes that at the end of the Stone Age there was a relatively settled population along the coast, while inland there was less settlement and a more mobile lifestyle.

 

Bronze Age (1700 BC–500 BC)

Bronze was used for tools in Norway from around 1500 BC. Bronze is a mixture of tin and copper , and these metals were introduced because they were not mined in the country at the time. Bronze is believed to have been a relatively expensive material. The Bronze Age in Norway can be divided into two phases:

 

Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 BC)

Younger Bronze Age (1100–500 BC)

For the prehistoric (unwritten) era, there is limited knowledge about social conditions and possible state formations. From the Bronze Age, there are large burial mounds of stone piles along the coast of Vestfold and Agder, among others. It is likely that only chieftains or other great men could erect such grave monuments and there was probably some form of organized society linked to these. In the Bronze Age, society was more organized and stratified than in the Stone Age. Then a rich class of chieftains emerged who had close connections with southern Scandinavia. The settlements became more permanent and people adopted horses and ard . They acquired bronze status symbols, lived in longhouses and people were buried in large burial mounds . Petroglyphs from the Bronze Age indicate that humans practiced solar cultivation.

 

Finnmark

In the last millennium BC the climate became cooler and the pine forest disappears from the coast; pine forests, for example, were only found in the innermost part of the Altafjord, while the outer coast was almost treeless. Around the year 0, the limit for birch forest was south of Kirkenes. Animals with forest habitats (elk, bear and beaver) disappeared and the reindeer probably established their annual migration routes sometime at that time. In the period 1800–900 BC there were significantly more settlements in and utilization of the hinterland was particularly noticeable on Finnmarksvidda. From around 1800 BC until year 0 there was a significant increase in contact between Finnmark and areas in the east including Karelia (where metals were produced including copper) and central and eastern Russia. The youngest petroglyphs in Alta show far more boats than the earlier phases and the boats are reminiscent of types depicted in petroglyphs in southern Scandinavia. It is unclear what influence southern Scandinavian societies had as far north as Alta before the year 0. Many of the cultural features that are considered typical Sami in modern times were created or consolidated in the last millennium BC, this applies, among other things, to the custom of burying in brick chambers in stone urns. The Mortensnes burial ground may have been used for 2000 years until around 1600 AD.

 

Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 1050 AD)

 

The Einangsteinen is one of the oldest Norwegian runestones; it is from the 4th century

 

Simultaneous production of Vikings

Around 500 years BC the researchers reckon that the Bronze Age will be replaced by the Iron Age as iron takes over as the most important material for weapons and tools. Bronze, wood and stone were still used. Iron was cheaper than bronze, easier to work than flint , and could be used for many purposes; iron probably became common property. Iron could, among other things, be used to make solid and sharp axes which made it much easier to fell trees. In the Iron Age, gold and silver were also used partly for decoration and partly as means of payment. It is unknown which language was used in Norway before our era. From around the year 0 until around the year 800, everyone in Scandinavia (except the Sami) spoke Old Norse , a North Germanic language. Subsequently, several different languages ​​developed in this area that were only partially mutually intelligible. The Iron Age is divided into several periods:

 

Early Iron Age

Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC–c. 0)

Roman Iron Age (c. 0–c. AD 400)

Migration period (approx. 400–600). In the migration period (approx. 400–600), new peoples came to Norway, and ruins of fortress buildings etc. are interpreted as signs that there has been talk of a violent invasion.

Younger Iron Age

Merovingian period (500–800)

 

The Viking Age (793–1066)

Norwegian Vikings go on plundering expeditions and trade voyages around the coastal countries of Western Europe . Large groups of Norwegians emigrate to the British Isles , Iceland and Greenland . Harald Hårfagre starts a unification process of Norway late in the 8th century , which was completed by Harald Hardråde in the 1060s . The country was Christianized under the kings Olav Tryggvason , fell in the battle of Svolder ( 1000 ) and Olav Haraldsson (the saint), fell in the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 .

 

Sources of prehistoric times

Shrinking glaciers in the high mountains, including in Jotunheimen and Breheimen , have from around the year 2000 uncovered objects from the Viking Age and earlier. These are objects of organic material that have been preserved by the ice and that elsewhere in nature are broken down in a few months. The finds are getting older as the melting makes the archaeologists go deeper into the ice. About half of all archaeological discoveries on glaciers in the world are made in Oppland . In 2013, a 3,400-year-old shoe and a robe from the year 300 were found. Finds at Lomseggen in Lom published in 2020 revealed, among other things, well-preserved horseshoes used on a mountain pass. Many hundreds of items include preserved clothing, knives, whisks, mittens, leather shoes, wooden chests and horse equipment. A piece of cloth dated to the year 1000 has preserved its original colour. In 2014, a wooden ski from around the year 700 was found in Reinheimen . The ski is 172 cm long and 14 cm wide, with preserved binding of leather and wicker.

 

Pytheas from Massalia is the oldest known account of what was probably the coast of Norway, perhaps somewhere on the coast of Møre. Pytheas visited Britannia around 325 BC. and traveled further north to a country by the "Ice Sea". Pytheas described the short summer night and the midnight sun farther north. He wrote, among other things, that people there made a drink from grain and honey. Caesar wrote in his work about the Gallic campaign about the Germanic tribe Haruders. Other Roman sources around the year 0 mention the land of the Cimbri (Jutland) and the Cimbri headlands ( Skagen ) and that the sources stated that Cimbri and Charyds lived in this area. Some of these peoples may have immigrated to Norway and there become known as hordes (as in Hordaland). Sources from the Mediterranean area referred to the islands of Scandia, Scandinavia and Thule ("the outermost of all islands"). The Roman historian Tacitus wrote around the year 100 a work about Germania and mentioned the people of Scandia, the Sviones. Ptolemy wrote around the year 150 that the Kharudes (Hordes) lived further north than all the Cimbri, in the north lived the Finnoi (Finns or Sami) and in the south the Gutai (Goths). The Nordic countries and Norway were outside the Roman Empire , which dominated Europe at the time. The Gothic-born historian Jordanes wrote in the 5th century about 13 tribes or people groups in Norway, including raumaricii (probably Romerike ), ragnaricii ( Ranrike ) and finni or skretefinni (skrid finner or ski finner, i.e. Sami) as well as a number of unclear groups. Prokopios wrote at the same time about Thule north of the land of the Danes and Slavs, Thule was ten times as big as Britannia and the largest of all the islands. In Thule, the sun was up 40 days straight in the summer. After the migration period , southern Europeans' accounts of northern Europe became fuller and more reliable.

 

Settlement in prehistoric times

Norway has around 50,000 farms with their own names. Farm names have persisted for a long time, over 1000 years, perhaps as much as 2000 years. The name researchers have arranged different types of farm names chronologically, which provides a basis for determining when the place was used by people or received a permanent settlement. Uncompounded landscape names such as Haug, Eid, Vik and Berg are believed to be the oldest. Archaeological traces indicate that some areas have been inhabited earlier than assumed from the farm name. Burial mounds also indicate permanent settlement. For example, the burial ground at Svartelva in Løten was used from around the year 0 to the year 1000 when Christianity took over. The first farmers probably used large areas for inland and outland, and new farms were probably established based on some "mother farms". Names such as By (or Bø) show that it is an old place of residence. From the older Iron Age, names with -heim (a common Germanic word meaning place of residence) and -stad tell of settlement, while -vin and -land tell of the use of the place. Farm names in -heim are often found as -um , -eim or -em as in Lerum and Seim, there are often large farms in the center of the village. New farm names with -city and -country were also established in the Viking Age . The first farmers probably used the best areas. The largest burial grounds, the oldest archaeological finds and the oldest farm names are found where the arable land is richest and most spacious.

 

It is unclear whether the settlement expansion in Roman times, migrations and the Iron Age is due to immigration or internal development and population growth. Among other things, it is difficult to demonstrate where in Europe the immigrants have come from. The permanent residents had both fields (where grain was grown) and livestock that grazed in the open fields, but it is uncertain which of these was more important. Population growth from around the year 200 led to more utilization of open land, for example in the form of settlements in the mountains. During the migration period, it also seems that in parts of the country it became common to have cluster gardens or a form of village settlement.

 

Norwegian expansion northwards

From around the year 200, there was a certain migration by sea from Rogaland and Hordaland to Nordland and Sør-Troms. Those who moved settled down as a settled Iron Age population and became dominant over the original population which may have been Sami . The immigrant Norwegians, Bumen , farmed with livestock that were fed inside in the winter as well as some grain cultivation and fishing. The northern border of the Norwegians' settlement was originally at the Toppsundet near Harstad and around the year 500 there was a Norwegian settlement to Malangsgapet. That was as far north as it was possible to grow grain at the time. Malangen was considered the border between Hålogaland and Finnmork until around 1400 . Further into the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, there was immigration and settlement of Norwegian speakers along the coast north of Malangen. Around the year 800, Norwegians lived along the entire outer coast to Vannøy . The Norwegians partly copied Sami livelihoods such as whaling, fur hunting and reindeer husbandry. It was probably this area between Malangen and Vannøy that was Ottar from the Hålogaland area. In the Viking Age, there were also some Norwegian settlements further north and east. East of the North Cape are the scattered archaeological finds of Norwegian settlement in the Viking Age. There are Norwegian names for fjords and islands from the Viking Age, including fjord names with "-anger". Around the year 1050, there were Norwegian settlements on the outer coast of Western Finnmark. Traders and tax collectors traveled even further.

 

North of Malangen there were Norse farming settlements in the Iron Age. Malangen was considered Finnmark's western border until 1300. There are some archaeological traces of Norse activity around the coast from Tromsø to Kirkenes in the Viking Age. Around Tromsø, the research indicates a Norse/Sami mixed culture on the coast.

 

From the year 1100 and the next 200–300 years, there are no traces of Norwegian settlement north and east of Tromsø. It is uncertain whether this is due to depopulation, whether it is because the Norwegians further north were not Christianized or because there were no churches north of Lenvik or Tromsø . Norwegian settlement in the far north appears from sources from the 14th century. In the Hanseatic period , the settlement was developed into large areas specialized in commercial fishing, while earlier (in the Viking Age) there had been farms with a combination of fishing and agriculture. In 1307 , a fortress and the first church east of Tromsø were built in Vardø . Vardø became a small Norwegian town, while Vadsø remained Sami. Norwegian settlements and churches appeared along the outermost coast in the Middle Ages. After the Reformation, perhaps as a result of a decline in fish stocks or fish prices, there were Norwegian settlements in the inner fjord areas such as Lebesby in Laksefjord. Some fishing villages at the far end of the coast were abandoned for good. In the interior of Finnmark, there was no national border for a long time and Kautokeino and Karasjok were joint Norwegian-Swedish areas with strong Swedish influence. The border with Finland was established in 1751 and with Russia in 1826.

 

On a Swedish map from 1626, Norway's border is indicated at Malangen, while Sweden with this map showed a desire to control the Sami area which had been a common area.

 

The term Northern Norway only came into use at the end of the 19th century and administratively the area was referred to as Tromsø Diocese when Tromsø became a bishopric in 1840. There had been different designations previously: Hålogaland originally included only Helgeland and when Norse settlement spread north in the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, Hålogaland was used for the area north approximately to Malangen , while Finnmark or "Finnmarken", "the land of the Sami", lay outside. The term Northern Norway was coined at a cafe table in Kristiania in 1884 by members of the Nordlændingernes Forening and was first commonly used in the interwar period as it eventually supplanted "Hålogaland".

 

State formation

The battle in Hafrsfjord in the year 872 has long been regarded as the day when Norway became a kingdom. The year of the battle is uncertain (may have been 10-20 years later). The whole of Norway was not united in that battle: the process had begun earlier and continued a couple of hundred years later. This means that the geographical area became subject to a political authority and became a political unit. The geographical area was perceived as an area as it is known, among other things, from Ottar from Hålogaland's account for King Alfred of Wessex around the year 880. Ottar described "the land of the Norwegians" as very long and narrow, and it was narrowest in the far north. East of the wasteland in the south lay Sveoland and in the north lay Kvenaland in the east. When Ottar sailed south along the land from his home ( Malangen ) to Skiringssal, he always had Norway ("Nordveg") on his port side and the British Isles on his starboard side. The journey took a good month. Ottar perceived "Nordveg" as a geographical unit, but did not imply that it was a political unit. Ottar separated Norwegians from Swedes and Danes. It is unclear why Ottar perceived the population spread over such a large area as a whole. It is unclear whether Norway as a geographical term or Norwegians as the name of a ethnic group is the oldest. The Norwegians had a common language which in the centuries before Ottar did not differ much from the language of Denmark and Sweden.

 

According to Sverre Steen, it is unlikely that Harald Hårfagre was able to control this entire area as one kingdom. The saga of Harald was written 300 years later and at his death Norway was several smaller kingdoms. Harald probably controlled a larger area than anyone before him and at most Harald's kingdom probably included the coast from Trøndelag to Agder and Vestfold as well as parts of Viken . There were probably several smaller kingdoms of varying extent before Harald and some of these are reflected in traditional landscape names such as Ranrike and Ringerike . Landscape names of "-land" (Rogaland) and "-mark" (Hedmark) as well as names such as Agder and Sogn may have been political units before Harald.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the national assembly was completed at the earliest at the battle of Stiklestad in 1030 and the introduction of Christianity was probably a significant factor in the establishment of Norway as a state. Håkon I the good Adalsteinsfostre introduced the leasehold system where the "coastal land" (as far as the salmon went up the rivers) was divided into ship raiders who were to provide a longship with soldiers and supplies. The leidange was probably introduced as a defense against the Danes. The border with the Danes was traditionally at the Göta älv and several times before and after Harald Hårfagre the Danes had control over central parts of Norway.

 

Christianity was known and existed in Norway before Olav Haraldson's time. The spread occurred both from the south (today's Denmark and northern Germany) and from the west (England and Ireland). Ansgar of Bremen , called the "Apostle of the North", worked in Sweden, but he was never in Norway and probably had little influence in the country. Viking expeditions brought the Norwegians of that time into contact with Christian countries and some were baptized in England, Ireland and northern France. Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldson were Vikings who returned home. The first Christians in Norway were also linked to pre-Christian local religion, among other things, by mixing Christian symbols with symbols of Odin and other figures from Norse religion.

 

According to Sverre Steen, the introduction of Christianity in Norway should not be perceived as a nationwide revival. At Mostratinget, Christian law was introduced as law in the country and later incorporated into the laws of the individual jurisdictions. Christianity primarily involved new forms in social life, among other things exposure and images of gods were prohibited, it was forbidden to "put out" unwanted infants (to let them die), and it was forbidden to have multiple wives. The church became a nationwide institution with a special group of officials tasked with protecting the church and consolidating the new religion. According to Sverre Steen, Christianity and the church in the Middle Ages should therefore be considered together, and these became a new unifying factor in the country. The church and Christianity linked Norway to Roman Catholic Europe with Church Latin as the common language, the same time reckoning as the rest of Europe and the church in Norway was arranged much like the churches in Denmark, Sweden and England. Norway received papal approval in 1070 and became its own church province in 1152 with Archbishop Nidaros .

 

With Christianity, the country got three social powers: the peasants (organized through the things), the king with his officials and the church with the clergy. The things are the oldest institution: At allthings all armed men had the right to attend (in part an obligation to attend) and at lagthings met emissaries from an area (that is, the lagthings were representative assemblies). The Thing both ruled in conflicts and established laws. The laws were memorized by the participants and written down around the year 1000 or later in the Gulationsloven , Frostatingsloven , Eidsivatingsloven and Borgartingsloven . The person who had been successful at the hearing had to see to the implementation of the judgment themselves.

 

Early Middle Ages (1050s–1184)

The early Middle Ages is considered in Norwegian history to be the period between the end of the Viking Age around 1050 and the coronation of King Sverre in 1184 . The beginning of the period can be dated differently, from around the year 1000 when the Christianization of the country took place and up to 1100 when the Viking Age was over from an archaeological point of view. From 1035 to 1130 it was a time of (relative) internal peace in Norway, even several of the kings attempted campaigns abroad, including in 1066 and 1103 .

 

During this period, the church's organization was built up. This led to a gradual change in religious customs. Religion went from being a domestic matter to being regulated by common European Christian law and the royal power gained increased power and influence. Slavery (" servitude ") was gradually abolished. The population grew rapidly during this period, as the thousands of farm names ending in -rud show.

 

The urbanization of Norway is a historical process that has slowly but surely changed Norway from the early Viking Age to today, from a country based on agriculture and sea salvage, to increasingly trade and industry. As early as the ninth century, the country got its first urban community, and in the eleventh century we got the first permanent cities.

 

In the 1130s, civil war broke out . This was due to a power struggle and that anyone who claimed to be the king's son could claim the right to the throne. The disputes escalated into extensive year-round warfare when Sverre Sigurdsson started a rebellion against the church's and the landmen's candidate for the throne , Magnus Erlingsson .

 

Emergence of cities

The oldest Norwegian cities probably emerged from the end of the 9th century. Oslo, Bergen and Nidaros became episcopal seats, which stimulated urban development there, and the king built churches in Borg , Konghelle and Tønsberg. Hamar and Stavanger became new episcopal seats and are referred to in the late 12th century as towns together with the trading places Veøy in Romsdal and Kaupanger in Sogn. In the late Middle Ages, Borgund (on Sunnmøre), Veøy (in Romsdalsfjorden) and Vågan (in Lofoten) were referred to as small trading places. Urbanization in Norway occurred in few places compared to the neighboring countries, only 14 places appear as cities before 1350. Stavanger became a bishopric around 1120–1130, but it is unclear whether the place was already a city then. The fertile Jæren and outer Ryfylke were probably relatively densely populated at that time. A particularly large concentration of Irish artefacts from the Viking Age has been found in Stavanger and Nord-Jæren.

 

It has been difficult to estimate the population in the Norwegian medieval cities, but it is considered certain that the cities grew rapidly in the Middle Ages. Oscar Albert Johnsen estimated the city's population before the Black Death at 20,000, of which 7,000 in Bergen, 3,000 in Nidaros, 2,000 in Oslo and 1,500 in Tunsberg. Based on archaeological research, Lunden estimates that Oslo had around 1,500 inhabitants in 250 households in the year 1300. Bergen was built up more densely and, with the concentration of exports there, became Norway's largest city in a special position for several hundred years. Knut Helle suggests a city population of 20,000 at most in the High Middle Ages, of which almost half in Bergen.

 

The Bjarkøyretten regulated the conditions in cities (especially Bergen and Nidaros) and in trading places, and for Nidaros had many of the same provisions as the Frostating Act . Magnus Lagabøte's city law replaced the bjarkøretten and from 1276 regulated the settlement in Bergen and with corresponding laws also drawn up for Oslo, Nidaros and Tunsberg. The city law applied within the city's roof area . The City Act determined that the city's public streets consisted of wide commons (perpendicular to the shoreline) and ran parallel to the shoreline, similarly in Nidaros and Oslo. The roads were small streets of up to 3 cubits (1.4 metres) and linked to the individual property. From the Middle Ages, the Norwegian cities were usually surrounded by wooden fences. The urban development largely consisted of low wooden houses which stood in contrast to the relatively numerous and dominant churches and monasteries built in stone.

 

The City Act and supplementary provisions often determined where in the city different goods could be traded, in Bergen, for example, cattle and sheep could only be traded on the Square, and fish only on the Square or directly from the boats at the quayside. In Nidaros, the blacksmiths were required to stay away from the densely populated areas due to the risk of fire, while the tanners had to stay away from the settlements due to the strong smell. The City Act also attempted to regulate the influx of people into the city (among other things to prevent begging in the streets) and had provisions on fire protection. In Oslo, from the 13th century or earlier, it was common to have apartment buildings consisting of single buildings on a couple of floors around a courtyard with access from the street through a gate room. Oslo's medieval apartment buildings were home to one to four households. In the urban farms, livestock could be kept, including pigs and cows, while pastures and fields were found in the city's rooftops . In the apartment buildings there could be several outbuildings such as warehouses, barns and stables. Archaeological excavations show that much of the buildings in medieval Oslo, Trondheim and Tønsberg resembled the oblong farms that have been preserved at Bryggen in Bergen . The land boundaries in Oslo appear to have persisted for many hundreds of years, in Bergen right from the Middle Ages to modern times.

 

High Middle Ages (1184–1319)

After civil wars in the 12th century, the country had a relative heyday in the 13th century. Iceland and Greenland came under the royal authority in 1262 , and the Norwegian Empire reached its greatest extent under Håkon IV Håkonsson . The last king of Haraldsätten, Håkon V Magnusson , died sonless in 1319 . Until the 17th century, Norway stretched all the way down to the mouth of Göta älv , which was then Norway's border with Sweden and Denmark.

 

Just before the Black Death around 1350, there were between 65,000 and 85,000 farms in the country, and there had been a strong growth in the number of farms from 1050, especially in Eastern Norway. In the High Middle Ages, the church or ecclesiastical institutions controlled 40% of the land in Norway, while the aristocracy owned around 20% and the king owned 7%. The church and monasteries received land through gifts from the king and nobles, or through inheritance and gifts from ordinary farmers.

 

Settlement and demography in the Middle Ages

Before the Black Death, there were more and more farms in Norway due to farm division and clearing. The settlement spread to more marginal agricultural areas higher inland and further north. Eastern Norway had the largest areas to take off and had the most population growth towards the High Middle Ages. Along the coast north of Stad, settlement probably increased in line with the extent of fishing. The Icelandic Rimbegla tells around the year 1200 that the border between Finnmark (the land of the Sami) and resident Norwegians in the interior was at Malangen , while the border all the way out on the coast was at Kvaløya . From the end of the High Middle Ages, there were more Norwegians along the coast of Finnmark and Nord-Troms. In the inner forest and mountain tracts along the current border between Norway and Sweden, the Sami exploited the resources all the way down to Hedmark.

 

There are no censuses or other records of population and settlement in the Middle Ages. At the time of the Reformation, the population was below 200,000 and only in 1650 was the population at the same level as before the Black Death. When Christianity was introduced after the year 1000, the population was around 200,000. After the Black Death, many farms and settlements were abandoned and deserted, in the most marginal agricultural areas up to 80% of the farms were abandoned. Places such as Skien, Veøy and Borgund (Ålesund) went out of use as trading towns. By the year 1300, the population was somewhere between 300,000 and 560,000 depending on the calculation method. Common methods start from detailed information about farms in each village and compare this with the situation in 1660 when there are good headcounts. From 1300 to 1660, there was a change in the economic base so that the coastal villages received a larger share of the population. The inland areas of Eastern Norway had a relatively larger population in the High Middle Ages than after the Reformation. Kåre Lunden concludes that the population in the year 1300 was close to 500,000, of which 15,000 lived in cities. Lunden believes that the population in 1660 was still slightly lower than the peak before the Black Death and points out that farm settlement in 1660 did not reach the same extent as in the High Middle Ages. In 1660, the population in Troms and Finnmark was 6,000 and 3,000 respectively (2% of the total population), in 1300 these areas had an even smaller share of the country's population and in Finnmark there were hardly any Norwegian-speaking inhabitants. In the High Middle Ages, the climate was more favorable for grain cultivation in the north. Based on the number of farms, the population increased 162% from 1000 to 1300, in Northern and Western Europe as a whole the growth was 200% in the same period.

 

Late Middle Ages (1319–1537)

Due to repeated plague epidemics, the population was roughly halved and the least productive of the country's farms were laid waste. It took several hundred years before the population again reached the level before 1349 . However, those who survived the epidemics gained more financial resources by sharing. Tax revenues for the state almost collapsed, and a large part of the noble families died out or sank into peasant status due to the fall in national debt . The Hanseatic League took over trade and shipping and dominated fish exports. The Archbishop of Nidaros was the country's most powerful man economically and politically, as the royal dynasty married into the Swedish in 1319 and died out in 1387 . Eventually, Copenhagen became the political center of the kingdom and Bergen the commercial center, while Trondheim remained the religious center.

 

From Reformation to Autocracy (1537–1660)

In 1537 , the Reformation was carried out in Norway. With that, almost half of the country's property was confiscated by the royal power at the stroke of a pen. The large seizure increased the king's income and was able, among other things, to expand his military power and consolidated his power in the kingdom. From roughly the time of the Reformation and in the following centuries, the state increased its power and importance in people's lives. Until around 1620, the state administration was fairly simple and unspecialised: in Copenhagen, the central administration mainly consisted of a chancellery and an interest chamber ; and sheriffs ruled the civil (including bailiffs and sheriffs) and the military in their district, the sheriffs collected taxes and oversaw business. The accounts were not clear and without summaries. The clergy, which had great power as a separate organization, was appointed by the state church after the Reformation, administered from Copenhagen. In this period, Norway was ruled by (mainly) Danish noble sheriffs, who acted as intermediaries between the peasants and the Oldenborg king in the field of justice, tax and customs collection.

 

From 1620, the state apparatus went through major changes where specialization of functions was a main issue. The sheriff's tasks were divided between several, more specialized officials - the sheriffs retained the formal authority over these, who in practice were under the national administration in Copenhagen. Among other things, a separate military officer corps was established, a separate customs office was established and separate treasurers for taxes and fees were appointed. The Overbergamtet, the central governing body for overseeing mining operations in Norway, was established in 1654 with an office in Christiania and this agency was to oversee the mining chiefs in the Nordenfjeld and Sønnenfjeld areas (the mines at Kongsberg and Røros were established in the previous decades). The formal transition from county government to official government with fixed-paid county officials took place after 1660, but the real changes had taken place from around 1620. The increased specialization and transition to official government meant that experts, not amateurs, were in charge of each area, and this civil service meant, according to Sverre Steen that the dictatorship was not a personal dictatorship.

 

From 1570 until 1721, the Oldenborg dynasty was in repeated wars with the Vasa dynasty in Sweden. The financing of these wars led to a severe increase in taxation which caused great distress.

 

Politically-geographically, the Oldenborg kings had to cede to Sweden the Norwegian provinces of Jemtland , Herjedalen , Idre and Särna , as well as Båhuslen . As part of the financing of the wars, the state apparatus was expanded. Royal power began to assert itself to a greater extent in the administration of justice. Until this period, cases of violence and defamation had been treated as civil cases between citizens. The level of punishment was greatly increased. During this period, at least 307 people were also executed for witchcraft in Norway. Culturally, the country was marked by the fact that the written language became Danish because of the Bible translation and the University of Copenhagen's educational monopoly.

 

From the 16th century, business became more marked by production for sale and not just own consumption. In the past, it was particularly the fisheries that had produced such a large surplus of goods that it was sold to markets far away, the dried fish trade via Bergen is known from around the year 1100. In the 16th century, the yield from the fisheries multiplied, especially due to the introduction of herring in Western Norway and in Trøndelag and because new tools made fishing for herring and skre more efficient. Line fishing and cod nets that were introduced in the 17th century were controversial because the small fishermen believed it favored citizens in the cities.

 

Forestry and the timber trade became an important business, particularly because of the boom saw which made it possible to saw all kinds of tables and planks for sale abroad. The demand for timber increased at the same time in Europe, Norway had plenty of forests and in the 17th century timber became the country's most important export product. There were hundreds of sawmills in the country and the largest had the feel of factories . In 1680, the king regulated the timber trade by allowing exports only from privileged sawmills and in a certain quantity.

 

From the 1520s, some silver was mined in Telemark. When the peasants chased the German miners whereupon the king executed five peasants and demanded compensation from the other rebellious peasants. The background for the harsh treatment was that the king wanted to assert his authority over the extraction of precious metals. The search for metals led to the silver works at Kongsberg after 1624, copper in the mountain villages between Trøndelag and Eastern Norway, and iron, among other things, in Agder and lower Telemark. The financial gain of the quarries at that time is unclear because there are no reliable accounts. Kongsberg made Denmark-Norway self-sufficient in silver and the copper works produced a good deal more than the domestic demand and became an important export commodity. Kongsberg and Røros were the only Norwegian towns established because of the quarries.

 

In addition to the sawmills, in the 17th century, industrial production ( manufactures ) was established in, among other things, wool weaving, soap production, tea boiling , nail production and the manufacture of gunpowder .

 

The monopoly until the Peace of Kiel (1660–1814)

Until 1660, the king had been elected by the Danish Riksråd, while he inherited the kingdom of Norway, which was a tradition in Norway. After a series of military defeats, the king committed a coup d'état and deposed the Riksdag. King Frederik III introduced absolute power, which meant that there were hardly any legal restrictions on the king's power. This reinforced the expansion of the state apparatus that had been going on for a few decades, and the civil administration was controlled to a greater extent from the central administration in Copenhagen. According to Sverre Steen, the more specialized and expanded civil service meant that the period of autocracy was not essentially a personal dictatorship: The changing monarchs had the formal last word on important matters, but higher officials set the conditions. According to Steen, the autocracy was not tyrannical where the citizens were treated arbitrarily by the king and officials: the laws were strict and the punishments harsh, but there was legal certainty. The king rarely used his right to punish outside the judiciary and often used his right to commute sentences or pardons. It almost never happened that the king intervened in a court case before a verdict had been passed.

 

In 1662, the sheriff system (in which the nobility played an important role) was abolished and replaced with amt . Norway was divided into four main counties (Akershus, Kristiansands, Bergenhus and Trondhjems) which were later called stiftamt led by stiftamtmen with a number of county marshals and bailiffs (futer) under them. The county administrator in Akershus also had other roles such as governor. The former sheriffs were almost absolute within their fiefs, while the new stifamtmen and amtmen had more limited authority; among other things, they did not have military equipment like the sheriffs. The county officials had no control over state income and could not enrich themselves privately as the sheriffs could, taxes and fees were instead handled by their own officials. County officials were employed by the king and, unlike the sheriffs, had a fixed salary. Officials appointed by the king were responsible for local government. Before 1662, the sheriffs themselves appointed low officials such as bailiffs, mayors and councillors. A church commissioner was given responsibility for overseeing the churchwardens' accounts. In 1664, two general road masters were appointed for Norway, one for Sonnafjelske (Eastland and Sørlandet) and one for Nordafjelske (Westlandet and Trøndelag; Northern Norway had no roads).

 

Both Denmark and Norway got new law books. The wretched state finances led to an extensive sale of crown property, first to the state's creditors. Further sales meant that many farmers became self-owned at the end of the 18th century. Industrial exploitation of Norwegian natural resources began, and trade and shipping and especially increasing timber exports led to economic growth in the latter part of the 1700s.

 

From 1500 to 1814, Norway did not have its own foreign policy. After the dissolution of the Kalmar Union in 1523, Denmark remained the leading power in the Nordic region and dominated the Baltic Sea, while Sweden sought to expand geographically in all directions and strengthened its position. From 1625 to 1660, Denmark lost its dominance: Christian IV lost to the emperor in the Thirty Years' War and ceded Skåne, Blekinge, Halland, Båhuslen , Jemtland and Herjedalen as well as all the islands in the inner part of the Baltic Sea. With this, Norway got its modern borders, which have remained in place ever since. Sweden was no longer confined by Norway and Denmark, and Sweden became the great power in the Nordic region. At the same time, Norway remained far from Denmark (until 1660 there was an almost continuous land connection between Norway and Denmark). During the Great Nordic War, Danish forces moved towards Scania and ended with Charles the 12th falling at Fredriksten . From 1720 to 1807 there was peace except for the short Cranberry War in 1788. In August 1807, the British navy surrounded Denmark and demanded that the Danish fleet be handed over. After bombing 2-7. On September 1807, the Danes capitulated and handed over the fleet (known as the "fleet robbery") and the arsenal. Two weeks later, Denmark entered into an alliance with Napoleon and Great Britain declared war on Denmark in November 1807. The Danish leadership had originally envisioned an alliance with Great Britain. Anger at the fleet robbery and fear of French occupation of Denmark itself (and thus breaking the connection with Norway) were probably the motive for the alliance with France. According to Sverre Steen, the period 1807-1814 was the most significant in Norway's history (before the Second World War). Foreign trade was paralyzed and hundreds of Norwegian ships were seized by the British. British ships, both warships and privateers , blocked the sea route between Norway and Denmark as described in " Terje Vigen " by Henrik Ibsen . During the Napoleonic Wars , there was a food shortage and famine in Norway, between 20 and 30 thousand people out of a population of around 900 thousand died from sheer lack of food or diseases related to malnutrition.

 

From the late summer of 1807, Norway was governed by a government commission led by the governor and commander-in-chief, Prince Christian August . Christian August was considered an honorable and capable leader. In 1808, a joint Russian and Danish/Norwegian attack on Sweden was planned; the campaign fails completely and Christian August concludes a truce with the Swedes. The Swedish king was deposed, the country got a new constitution with a limited monarchy and in the summer of 1808, Christian August was elected heir to the throne in Sweden. Christian August died a few months after he moved to Sweden and the French general Jean Baptiste Bernadotte became the new heir to the throne with the name "Karl Johan". After Napoleon was defeated at Leipzig in 1813, Bernadotte entered Holstein with Swedish forces and forced the Danish king to the Peace of Kiel .

 

Colonies and slave trade

Denmark-Norway acquired overseas colonies: St. Thomas (1665), St. Jan and St. Croix (18th century). At the same time, the kingdom entered into an agreement with rulers on the Gold Coast (Ghana) regarding the establishment of slave forts, including Christiansborg in Accra . The trade was triangular from Copenhagen to the Gold Coast with weapons, gunpowder and liquor which were exchanged for gold, ivory and slaves . The slaves were transported across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, among other things to the Danish-Norwegian colonies where St. Croix was most important. The ships returned to Copenhagen with sugar, tobacco, cotton and other goods. About 100,000 slaves were transported across the sea on Danish and Norwegian ships from 1660 to 1802. About 10% of the slaves died during the crossing. At least two of the slave ships ("Cornelia" and "Friderich") were in Norwegian ownership. Engelbret Hesselberg was a fut on St. Croix and after a slave rebellion in 1759, he had some of the rebels executed, among other things, by burning them alive, hanging them by their feet or putting them naked in a cage in the sun. At the end of the 18th century, opposition to the slave trade grew in Denmark-Norway, among others the Norwegian Claus Fasting promoted strong criticism. The slave trade was banned from 1803, while slavery itself was banned in Denmark from 1848.

 

Immigration to Norway

In the 1500s and 1600s, many people moved within Europe. From Germany, France and the Netherlands, enterprising people came to Sweden and Denmark, and gave rise to influential families. Danes in particular came to Norway who, formally speaking, were not foreigners, but were probably perceived as strangers by the local population. There was some immigration of ethnic Germans, some from areas under the Danish crown and others. Some immigrated from the Netherlands, England and Scotland. For example, half of those who applied for citizenship in Bergen in the 17th century were foreigners and they were often founders of new businesses. Immigrants from the Netherlands brought knowledge of line fishing and the preparation of herring; the Scot came with knowledge of the production of cuttlefish ; and Germans engaged in mining. Some foreigners ran large farms they bought near the cities, for example Frogner near Christiania and Lade near Trondheim. A large part of the country's leading echelon of officials and merchants were around 1,800 descendants of immigrants, and family names of foreign origin had a higher status. According to Sverre Steen, it was special for Norway that the immigrants and their descendants were given such a much stronger position than other residents.

 

Social and cultural conditions

Around 1800, most people, both women and men, in Norway could read and many could write. Foreigners traveling in Norway were surprised at how well-informed and interested Norwegian farmers were about the situation outside the country. In the 17th century, Peder Claussøn Friis translated Snorre Sturlason's royal sagas from Old Norse, and in a new edition this book became important in nation-building in later centuries. Early in the 18th century, Tormod Torfæus wrote Norway's history to 1387 in 4 volumes in Latin ; the preparation is considered to be scientifically unsustainable. In the 1730s, Ludvig Holberg wrote the popular scientific Danmarks Reges Historie , which is considered to maintain a high standard. According to Holberg, Norway emerged as a kingdom after the "nomenclature union in 1380". Holberg was the most important Norwegian cultural figure in the Danish era. Gerhard Schøning wrote Norges Reges Historie (in Danish) in the 1770s ; Schøning claimed that the Norwegians were a separate people from the dawn of time and had immigrated from the north-east without visiting Denmark.

 

1814

Norway remained the hereditary kingdom of the Oldenborg kings until 1814 , when the king had to renounce Norway at the Peace of Kiel on 14 January 1814 after being on the losing side during the Napoleonic Wars . Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Iceland were not included in the transfer to Sweden. The King of Sweden undertook to maintain the laws and freedoms the Norwegians had and Norway was to take over its share of the national debt. At the same time, the Swedish king ceded Rügen and Swedish Pomerania as well as 1 million dalers. Norway was ceded to the king of Sweden and the Treaty of Kiel established that Norway was a separate kingdom. Prince Christian Frederik traveled to Trondheim to calm the mood. Sixty leading citizens of Trondheim signed a letter in which they supported the prince's policy of independence and at the same time asked that a congress should be convened to lay the foundations for Norway's future constitution. On his return from Trondheim, he gathered 15 civil servants and 6 businessmen for the Stormannsmøetet at Eidsvoll 16-17. February where it was agreed on a constitutional assembly in the same place from 10 April. Until then, the prince was to rule the country as regent with the support of a government council. After the meeting, the prince announced that the Norwegian people had been released from their oath to Frederik VI and, as a free and independent people, had the right to decide their own government constitution.

 

Sverre Steen describes these as revolutionary ideas: It involved a transition from princely sovereignty to popular sovereignty as was known from the US Constitution and from the French Revolution. Georg Sverdrup stated at the nobles' meeting in February that the Norwegian krone had thus "returned home" to the Norwegian people and that the people could, by their own decision, transfer the krone to whoever was deemed most suitable. The transition was not prepared in Norway except as an idea as individuals. In the previous years, there had been dissatisfaction (especially in Eastern Norway) with the Danish government, but no stated demands for secession from Denmark. When the rumor spread in 1813 that Denmark would probably have to cede Norway, there was talk of independence. At the elders' meeting, it was agreed that the congregations should gather in the churches and swear allegiance to Norway, as a simple referendum on independence and against union with Sweden. At the same time, the priests organized elections for the National Assembly, which was to convene later.

 

In public, there was overwhelming support for independence, while those who wanted union with Sweden advanced their views in silence. The mood of the people was for full independence.

I think i had an average of 30 kids following me everywhere!

 

Every eight years under a full moon, a tribe of Karrayyu priests gather in the Methara region, south of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, for a ceremony to transfer power, this ceremony is named Gada. Five families share and govern the power.

 

In two days, 10,000 people come, mainly by foot to help with the running of the ceremony. Absolutely no tourists are allowed in the proximity. After weeks of negotiation with the tribe’s leader, I managed to obtain access to help at the ceremony. Throughout the entire negotiation process, it was never a matter of money, as is often the case with tribes, it was simply that the ceremony has never been open to foreigners.

 

The chiefs finally accepted, the Karrayyus are living in particularly difficult times and their position is precarious. They want to make the world aware of their predicament ; the drought killing off their livestock and the government selling their fertile land to Saudi-Arabia, India and South Korea.

Their former tribal wars with their neighbours, the Afars and the Sidamos, are beginning again. The number of young fighters wearing an ostrich feather in the hair acts of a badge of having killed another man, this acts as evidence of renewed conflict.

 

The ceremony takes place in the desert with hundreds of temporary houses having been constructed specially for the Gadda. In front of each house there is cow fencing, the cow being a sacred animal, each one being named like one of their children.

A mound of dry cow pat decorated with yellow fruit draws the boundary and the limit that nobody will dare to pass.

Inside the house, each family has brought their bugée mataas, a strip of artistically, studded leather, their only valuable object.

In front of the fences, the home owner waits for the ritual gifts that the visitors have come to offer them : milk, butter, sorghum …

An accurate list of what has been offered is kept by a sort of official or clerk.

 

As night falls, Karrayuus who have not managed to find the friends begin to shout their names, walking up and down in front of the houses. Some send texts from the mobiles, the only infringement of tradition.

At midnight, the tribal danses begin, the mass circle forms, the warriors, the Qondallas with their afro hair style leap up and down to show their power. The desert is no longer just an immense dust cloud.

 

At the same time, a group of other men look for the daughter of the future chief. She hides and they must find her, they are fortunate enough to have help, a full moon. Everybody else waits. All of a sudden at 3am, the women who were sleeping using their dresses as duvets leap to their feet and start singing : the chief’s daughter has been found !

The presents are then bought into the houses and the monstrous feast begins.

 

In the early hours of the morning, one hundred cows are sacrificed. Their throats cut by the Gille, a long traditional blade. The Karrayuus smear blood on the foreheads of the children as a sign of protection.

 

Later on towards midday, all of the men of power including the chief shave the heads meanwhile the women pierce their ears with acacia thornes. Dozens of cows are again sacrificed, and once again the hot blood is smeared on the mens’ freshly shaven heads, even babies have their heads smeared.

At this point, women are allowed to leave the camp.

 

Then comes the solemn, formal moment of the ceremony, the two families face one another. Each holding blades of wildgrass, irrechas and symbols of power. In a mad scramble, the exchange takes place in just a few seconds. The new chief declares power and disappears immediately !

The former chief leaves with tears in his eyes, the warriors pump themselves up in every sense. Drunk with happiness, the chants and songs start again. Everyone agrees to repeat the ceremony, in just 8 years time.

 

© Eric Lafforgue

www.ericlafforgue.com

Go Ahead London Enviro 200 Man 12.240 707 YX58DXC at New Addington on route 130 (New Addington - Thornton Heath, Parchmore Road) Route 130 is currently based at Croydon (C) As well as recently being extended to Thornton Heath to provide more links.

Just the average reds & greens of Zion have a beauty all their own, in Zion, apart from the majestic peaks and huge moutain cliffs, yet still so beautiful in their own right.

Gyalolechia fulgida (Nyl.) Søchting, Frödén & Arup; Synonymy: Caloplaca fulgida (Nyl.) J. Steiner, Fulgensia fulgida (Nyl.) Szatala, Lecanora fulgida (Nyl.) Hue, Placodium fulgens var. fulgidum (Nyl.) Boistel, Squamaria fulgida (Nyl.) H. Olivier

Scrambled egg lichen (?)

Slo.: no name

 

Dat.: April 20. 2018

Lat.: 45.072832 Long.: 14.438302

Code: Bot_1124/2018_DSC2046

Picture file names: from Gyalolechia-fulgida_raw_1 to Gyalolechia-fulgida_raw_7.

 

Habitat: stony path through dense low bushes, calcareous, skeletal ground; sunny, very dry place, slightly inclined terrain, southwest aspect; elevation 70 m (230 feet); average precipitations ~ 1.000 mm/year, average temperature 13 -14 deg C, sub-Mediterranean phytogeographical region.

 

Substratum: hard calcareous rock.

 

Place: West Krk island, west of village Brzac, at about halfway of a trail to sea shore, Kvarner bay, Adriatic Sea, Croatia EC.

 

Comment: Closely related Gyalolechia fulgida and Gyalolechia fulgens (Ref.1) are both beautifully colored lichens. Gyalolechia fulgens is more common but still a rare species. First I thought I found Gyalolechia fulgens. However, later I realized that bare rock is not an appropriate substratum for it since it (mostly?) grows on soil, mosses and sand dunes (it is terricolous species). There were several specimens at the place of this observation and all of them grew on bare, hard calcareous rocks (were exception less saxicolous). This better fits to Gyalolechia fulgida (according to most sources). Gyalolechia fulgida also has convex squamulose thallus all the way to its center, while the thallus of Gyalolechia fulgens is usually smoother or areolate in the central region (Ref.7). Gyalolechia fulgens also prefers less arid habitats than Gyalolechia fulgida (Ref.4.). The habitat of this find is very dry, which also supports my determination. Thallus and apothecia K+ crimson

 

Yet, information about Gyalolechia fulgida I was able to find is very scarce (not mentioned at all in all of my books) and sometimes contradictory. For example: description of thallus; several authors state also soils as substrate of Gyalolechia fulgida (some even exclusively) and others mention also calcareous rock as a possible substrate for Gyalolechia fulgens. Hence my determination isn't completely reliable.

 

Ref.:

(1) U.Arup, U. Søchting and P. Frödén, A new taxonomy of the family Teloschistaceae, Nordic Journal of Botany 31: 016–083 (2013).

(2) www.arkive.org/lichen/fulgensia-fulgida/image-G63295.html (accessed May 7. 2018)

(3) dryades.units.it/italic/index.php?procedure=taxonpage&amp... (accessed May 8. 2018)

(4) www.asturnatura.com/especie/gyalolechia-fulgida.html (accessed May 6. 2018)

(5) italianbotanist.pensoft.net/article/24852/element/7/gyalo... (accessed May 7. 2018)

(6) P. L. Nimis, The Lichens of Italy: A Second Annotated Catalogue, Edizioni Università di Trieste (2016)

(7) www.naturamediterraneo.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=282577 (accessed May 7. 2018)

(8) H. Mayehofer, D. Stešević, A. Brudermann, B.R. FÖtschl & P.O. Biloviz, New or otherwise interesting lichenized and lichenicolous fungi from Montenegro II. - Fritschiana (Graz) (2017) 86: 1–30. Available at: static.uni-graz.at/fileadmin/nawi-institute/Botanik/Frits... (accessed May 7. 2018)

Putting on quite a show at Wilstone. I wish I had arrived 30mins earlier before this part of the res was in partial shadow. It meant I had to catch them at a bit of a distance.

A fairly average photo but the first with my new 16-35 f/4 lens (my old 17-40 had a tragic encounter with a shingle beach). I got home and rushed out to find some nice light. This was the best I could find before I lost the light but, on first impressions, I'm happy with the new kit.

 

Please visit my website at www.brucelittle.net for more images and to order prints

Amtrak Locomotive 40 leading Amtrak Train 58, the northbound City of New Orleans arrives then departs the station in Brookhaven, Mississippi on Wednesday, May 9, 2018.

 

I was told that Locomotive 130, one of Amtrak's new Heritage Units was on this train but unfortunately, it was not.

 

AMTK 40 [GE P42DC]

...But this is not your average big corporation 10% deaI. Have 2 new shirt designs fresh off the press. I figured what better way to release them than in a package. So below is what is included in the package for $25.

 

Included in the package:

1 - t-shirt (you pick either the blue or teal design and let me know what size)

2 - Zines*

1 - Hand printed narwhal wood block print

1 - Ceramic Hedgehog

 

*Zine Choices: Thrive 1,2,3 or 4, Pardon Me But What Pickup Line Works Best for You, Over a Billion People Have Been Killed by Marmots. If you have no preference I can just choose two for you.

 

More photos: www.alyssaduhe.blogspot.com/

 

ETSY

Taken in average and OK - but not great - 'seeing' conditions in the early hours of 28 October 2012, after a month in the UK where hardly any astrophotography has been possible thanks to the cloudy and wet weather. The Great Red Spot and surrounding area seems to have changed fairly dramatically since last year although it will need excellent seeing conditions to see better detail around it.

 

This was also a first test for me of using an Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector to see if I could improve the blue channel in particular.

 

Peter

 

Equipment used:

DMK21AU mono CCD, ADC, 1.25" RGB filters, 2.5x Powermate, 12" Meade LX200 SCT.

Daily average 2m temperature based on NASA MERRA-2 data. From the beginning of December 2018 to the end of November 2019.

 

Testosterone

The chemical structure of testosterone.

A ball-and-stick model of testosterone.

Names

IUPAC name

17β-Hydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one

Systematic IUPAC name

(8R,9S,10R,13S,14S,17S)-17-Hydroxy-10,13-dimethyl-1,2,6,7,8,9,11,12,14,15,16,17-dodecahydrocyclopenta[a]phenanthren-3-one

Other names

Androst-4-en-17β-ol-3-one

Identifiers

CAS Number

58-22-0 ☑

3D model (JSmol)

Interactive image

ChEBI

CHEBI:17347 ☑

ChEMBL

ChEMBL386630 ☑

ChemSpider

5791 ☑

DrugBank

DB00624 ☑

ECHA InfoCard100.000.336

KEGG

D00075 ☑

PubChem CID

6013

UNII

3XMK78S47O ☑

InChI[show]

SMILES[show]

Properties

Chemical formula

C19H28O2

Molar mass288.431 g·mol−1

Melting point155 °C

Pharmacology

ATC code

G03BA03 (WHO)

License data

EU EMA: by INN

Routes of

administration

Transdermal (gel, cream, solution, patch), by mouth (as testosterone undecanoate), in the cheek, intranasal (gel), intramuscular injection (as esters), subcutaneous pellets

Pharmacokinetics:

Bioavailability

Oral: very low (due to extensive first pass metabolism)

Protein binding

97.0–99.5% (to SHBG and albumin)[1]

Metabolism

Liver (mainly reduction and conjugation)

Biological half-life

2–4 hours[citation needed]

Excretion

Urine (90%), feces (6%)

Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa).

☑ verify (what is ☑☒ ?)

Infobox references

Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone and an anabolic steroid. In male humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondary sexual characteristics such as increased muscle and bone mass, and the growth of body hair.[2] In addition, testosterone is involved in health and well-being,[3] and the prevention of osteoporosis.[4] Insufficient levels of testosterone in men may lead to abnormalities including frailty and bone loss.

 

Testosterone is a steroid from the androstane class containing a keto and hydroxyl groups at the three and seventeen positions respectively. It is biosynthesized in several steps from cholesterol and is converted in the liver to inactive metabolites.[5] It exerts its action through binding to and activation of the androgen receptor.[5] In humans and most other vertebrates, testosterone is secreted primarily by the testicles of males and, to a lesser extent, the ovaries of females. On average, in adult males, levels of testosterone are about 7 to 8 times as great as in adult females.[6] As the metabolism of testosterone in males is more pronounced, the daily production is about 20 times greater in men.[7][8] Females are also more sensitive to the hormone.[9]

 

In addition to its role as a natural hormone, testosterone is used as a medication, for instance in the treatment of low testosterone levels in men and breast cancer in women.[10] Since testosterone levels decrease as men age, testosterone is sometimes used in older men to counteract this deficiency. It is also used illicitly to enhance physique and performance, for instance in athletes.

  

Contents

1Biological effects

1.1Before birth

1.2Early infancy

1.3Before puberty

1.4Pubertal

1.5Adult

1.6Aggression and criminality

1.7Brain

2Medical use

3Biological activity

3.1Steroid hormone activity

3.2Neurosteroid activity

4Biochemistry

4.1Biosynthesis

4.2Distribution

4.3Metabolism

4.4Levels

5Measurement

6History

7Other animals

8See also

9References

10Further reading

Biological effects[edit]

In general, androgens such as testosterone promote protein synthesis and thus growth of tissues with androgen receptors.[11] Testosterone can be described as having virilising and anabolic effects (though these categorical descriptions are somewhat arbitrary, as there is a great deal of mutual overlap between them).[12]

 

Anabolic effects include growth of muscle mass and strength, increased bone density and strength, and stimulation of linear growth and bone maturation.

Androgenic effects include maturation of the sex organs, particularly the penis and the formation of the scrotum in the fetus, and after birth (usually at puberty) a deepening of the voice, growth of facial hair (such as the beard) and axillary (underarm) hair. Many of these fall into the category of male secondary sex characteristics.

Testosterone effects can also be classified by the age of usual occurrence. For postnatal effects in both males and females, these are mostly dependent on the levels and duration of circulating free testosterone.

 

Before birth[edit]

Effects before birth are divided into two categories, classified in relation to the stages of development.

 

The first period occurs between 4 and 6 weeks of the gestation. Examples include genital virilisation such as midline fusion, phallic urethra, scrotal thinning and rugation, and phallic enlargement; although the role of testosterone is far smaller than that of dihydrotestosterone. There is also development of the prostate gland and seminal vesicles.

 

During the second trimester, androgen level is associated with sex formation.[13] This period affects the femininization or masculinization of the fetus and can be a better predictor of feminine or masculine behaviours such as sex typed behaviour than an adult's own levels. A mother's testosterone level during pregnancy is correlated with her daughter's sex-typical behavior as an adult, and the correlation is even stronger than with the daughter's own adult testosterone level.[14]

 

Early infancy[edit]

Early infancy androgen effects are the least understood. In the first weeks of life for male infants, testosterone levels rise. The levels remain in a pubertal range for a few months, but usually reach the barely detectable levels of childhood by 4–7 months of age.[15][16] The function of this rise in humans is unknown. It has been theorized that brain masculinization is occurring since no significant changes have been identified in other parts of the body.[17] The male brain is masculinized by the aromatization of testosterone into estrogen, which crosses the blood–brain barrier and enters the male brain, whereas female fetuses have α-fetoprotein, which binds the estrogen so that female brains are not affected.[18]

 

Before puberty[edit]

Before puberty effects of rising androgen levels occur in both boys and girls. These include adult-type body odor, increased oiliness of skin and hair, acne, pubarche (appearance of pubic hair), axillary hair (armpit hair), growth spurt, accelerated bone maturation, and facial hair.[19]

 

Pubertal[edit]

Pubertal effects begin to occur when androgen has been higher than normal adult female levels for months or years. In males, these are usual late pubertal effects, and occur in women after prolonged periods of heightened levels of free testosterone in the blood. The effects include:[19][20]

 

Growth of spermatogenic tissue in testicles, male fertility, penis or clitoris enlargement, increased libido and frequency of erection or clitoral engorgement occurs. Growth of jaw, brow, chin, and nose and remodeling of facial bone contours, in conjunction with human growth hormone occurs.[21] Completion of bone maturation and termination of growth. This occurs indirectly via estradiol metabolites and hence more gradually in men than women. Increased muscle strength and mass, shoulders become broader and rib cage expands, deepening of voice, growth of the Adam's apple. Enlargement of sebaceous glands. This might cause acne, subcutaneous fat in face decreases. Pubic hair extends to thighs and up toward umbilicus, development of facial hair (sideburns, beard, moustache), loss of scalp hair (androgenetic alopecia), increase in chest hair, periareolar hair, perianal hair, leg hair, armpit hair.

 

Adult[edit]

Testosterone is necessary for normal sperm development. It activates genes in Sertoli cells, which promote differentiation of spermatogonia. It regulates acute HPA (hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis) response under dominance challenge.[22] Androgen including testosterone enhances muscle growth. Testosterone also regulates the population of thromboxane A2 receptors on megakaryocytes and platelets and hence platelet aggregation in humans.[23][24]

 

Adult testosterone effects are more clearly demonstrable in males than in females, but are likely important to both sexes. Some of these effects may decline as testosterone levels might decrease in the later decades of adult life.[25]

 

Health risks[edit]

Testosterone does not appear to increase the risk of developing prostate cancer. In people who have undergone testosterone deprivation therapy, testosterone increases beyond the castrate level have been shown to increase the rate of spread of an existing prostate cancer.[26][27][28]

 

Conflicting results have been obtained concerning the importance of testosterone in maintaining cardiovascular health.[29][30] Nevertheless, maintaining normal testosterone levels in elderly men has been shown to improve many parameters that are thought to reduce cardiovascular disease risk, such as increased lean body mass, decreased visceral fat mass, decreased total cholesterol, and glycemic control.[31]

 

High androgen levels are associated with menstrual cycle irregularities in both clinical populations and healthy women.[32]

 

Sexual arousal[edit]

See also: Hormones and sexual arousal

When testosterone and endorphins in ejaculated semen meet the cervical wall after sexual intercourse, females receive a spike in testosterone, endorphin, and oxytocin levels, and males after orgasm during copulation experience an increase in endorphins and a marked increase in oxytocin levels. This adds to the hospitable physiological environment in the female internal reproductive tract for conceiving, and later for nurturing the conceptus in the pre-embryonic stages, and stimulates feelings of love, desire, and paternal care in the male (this is the only time male oxytocin levels rival a female's).[citation needed]

 

Testosterone levels follow a nyctohemeral rhythm that peaks early each day, regardless of sexual activity.[33]

 

There are positive correlations between positive orgasm experience in women and testosterone levels where relaxation was a key perception of the experience. There is no correlation between testosterone and men's perceptions of their orgasm experience, and also no correlation between higher testosterone levels and greater sexual assertiveness in either sex.[34]

 

Sexual arousal and masturbation in women produce small increases in testosterone concentrations.[35] The plasma levels of various steroids significantly increase after masturbation in men and the testosterone levels correlate to those levels.[36]

 

Mammalian studies[edit]

Studies conducted in rats have indicated that their degree of sexual arousal is sensitive to reductions in testosterone. When testosterone-deprived rats were given medium levels of testosterone, their sexual behaviors (copulation, partner preference, etc.) resumed, but not when given low amounts of the same hormone. Therefore, these mammals may provide a model for studying clinical populations among humans suffering from sexual arousal deficits such as hypoactive sexual desire disorder.[37]

 

In every mammalian species examined demonstrated a marked increase in a male's testosterone level upon encountering a novel female. The reflexive testosterone increases in male mice is related to the male's initial level of sexual arousal.[38]

 

In non-human primates, it may be that testosterone in puberty stimulates sexual arousal, which allows the primate to increasingly seek out sexual experiences with females and thus creates a sexual preference for females.[39] Some research has also indicated that if testosterone is eliminated in an adult male human or other adult male primate's system, its sexual motivation decreases, but there is no corresponding decrease in ability to engage in sexual activity (mounting, ejaculating, etc.).[39]

 

In accordance with sperm competition theory, testosterone levels are shown to increase as a response to previously neutral stimuli when conditioned to become sexual in male rats.[40] This reaction engages penile reflexes (such as erection and ejaculation) that aid in sperm competition when more than one male is present in mating encounters, allowing for more production of successful sperm and a higher chance of reproduction.

 

Males[edit]

In men, higher levels of testosterone are associated with periods of sexual activity.[41][42]

 

Men who watch a sexually explicit movie have an average increase of 35% in testosterone, peaking at 60–90 minutes after the end of the film, but no increase is seen in men who watch sexually neutral films.[43] Men who watch sexually explicit films also report increased motivation, competitiveness, and decreased exhaustion.[44] A link has also been found between relaxation following sexual arousal and testosterone levels.[45]

 

Men's levels of testosterone, a hormone known to affect men's mating behaviour, changes depending on whether they are exposed to an ovulating or nonovulating woman's body odour. Men who are exposed to scents of ovulating women maintained a stable testosterone level that was higher than the testosterone level of men exposed to nonovulation cues. Testosterone levels and sexual arousal in men are heavily aware of hormone cycles in females.[46] This may be linked to the ovulatory shift hypothesis,[47] where males are adapted to respond to the ovulation cycles of females by sensing when they are most fertile and whereby females look for preferred male mates when they are the most fertile; both actions may be driven by hormones.

 

Females[edit]

Androgens may modulate the physiology of vaginal tissue and contribute to female genital sexual arousal.[48] Women's level of testosterone is higher when measured pre-intercourse vs pre-cuddling, as well as post-intercourse vs post-cuddling.[49] There is a time lag effect when testosterone is administered, on genital arousal in women. In addition, a continuous increase in vaginal sexual arousal may result in higher genital sensations and sexual appetitive behaviors.[50]

 

When females have a higher baseline level of testosterone, they have higher increases in sexual arousal levels but smaller increases in testosterone, indicating a ceiling effect on testosterone levels in females. Sexual thoughts also change the level of testosterone but not level of cortisol in the female body, and hormonal contraceptives may affect the variation in testosterone response to sexual thoughts.[51]

 

Testosterone may prove to be an effective treatment in female sexual arousal disorders,[52] and is available as a dermal patch. There is no FDA approved androgen preparation for the treatment of androgen insufficiency; however, it has been used off-label to treat low libido and sexual dysfunction in older women. Testosterone may be a treatment for postmenopausal women as long as they are effectively estrogenized.[52]

 

Romantic relationships[edit]

Falling in love decreases men's testosterone levels while increasing women's testosterone levels. There has been speculation that these changes in testosterone result in the temporary reduction of differences in behavior between the sexes.[53] However, it is suggested that after the "honeymoon phase" ends—about four years into a relationship—this change in testosterone levels is no longer apparent.[53] Men who produce less testosterone are more likely to be in a relationship[54] or married,[55] and men who produce more testosterone are more likely to divorce;[55] however, causality cannot be determined in this correlation. Marriage or commitment could cause a decrease in testosterone levels.[56] Single men who have not had relationship experience have lower testosterone levels than single men with experience. It is suggested that these single men with prior experience are in a more competitive state than their non-experienced counterparts.[57] Married men who engage in bond-maintenance activities such as spending the day with their spouse/and or child have no different testosterone levels compared to times when they do not engage in such activities. Collectively, these results suggest that the presence of competitive activities rather than bond-maintenance activities are more relevant to changes in testosterone levels.[58]

 

Men who produce more testosterone are more likely to engage in extramarital sex.[55] Testosterone levels do not rely on physical presence of a partner; testosterone levels of men engaging in same-city and long-distance relationships are similar.[54] Physical presence may be required for women who are in relationships for the testosterone–partner interaction, where same-city partnered women have lower testosterone levels than long-distance partnered women.[59]

 

Fatherhood[edit]

Fatherhood decreases testosterone levels in men, suggesting that the emotions and behavior tied to decreased testosterone promote paternal care. In humans and other species that utilize allomaternal care, paternal investment in offspring is beneficial to said offspring's survival because it allows the parental dyad to raise multiple children simultaneously. This increases the reproductive fitness of the parents, because their offspring are more likely to survive and reproduce. Paternal care increases offspring survival due to increased access to higher quality food and reduced physical and immunological threats.[60] This is particularly beneficial for humans since offspring are dependent on parents for extended periods of time and mothers have relatively short inter-birth intervals.[61] While extent of paternal care varies between cultures, higher investment in direct child care has been seen to be correlated with lower average testosterone levels as well as temporary fluctuations.[62] For instance, fluctuation in testosterone levels when a child is in distress has been found to be indicative of fathering styles. If a father's testosterone levels decrease in response to hearing their baby cry, it is an indication of empathizing with the baby. This is associated with increased nurturing behavior and better outcomes for the infant.[63]

 

Motivation[edit]

Testosterone levels play a major role in risk-taking during financial decisions.[64][65]

 

Aggression and criminality [edit]

See also: Aggression § Testosterone, and Biosocial criminology

Most studies support a link between adult criminality and testosterone, although the relationship is modest if examined separately for each sex. Nearly all studies of juvenile delinquency and testosterone are not significant. Most studies have also found testosterone to be associated with behaviors or personality traits linked with criminality such as antisocial behavior and alcoholism. Many studies have also been done on the relationship between more general aggressive behavior/feelings and testosterone. About half the studies have found a relationship and about half no relationship.[66]

 

Testosterone is only one of many factors that influence aggression and the effects of previous experience and environmental stimuli have been found to correlate more strongly. A few studies indicate that the testosterone derivative estradiol (one form of estrogen) might play an important role in male aggression.[66][67][68][69] Studies have also found that testosterone facilitates aggression by modulating vasopressin receptors in the hypothalamus.[70]

 

The sexual hormone can encourage fair behavior. For the study, subjects took part in a behavioral experiment where the distribution of a real amount of money was decided. The rules allowed both fair and unfair offers. The negotiating partner could subsequently accept or decline the offer. The fairer the offer, the less probable a refusal by the negotiating partner. If no agreement was reached, neither party earned anything. Test subjects with an artificially enhanced testosterone level generally made better, fairer offers than those who received placebos, thus reducing the risk of a rejection of their offer to a minimum. Two later studies have empirically confirmed these results.[71][72][73] However men with high testosterone were significantly 27% less generous in an ultimatum game.[74] The Annual NY Academy of Sciences has also found anabolic steroid use which increase testosterone to be higher in teenagers, and this was associated with increased violence.[75] Studies have also found administered testosterone to increase verbal aggression and anger in some participants.[76]

 

Testosterone is significantly correlated with aggression and competitive behaviour and is directly facilitated by the latter. There are two theories on the role of testosterone in aggression and competition.[77] The first one is the challenge hypothesis which states that testosterone would increase during puberty thus facilitating reproductive and competitive behaviour which would include aggression.[77] Thus it is the challenge of competition among males of the species that facilitates aggression and violence.[77] Studies conducted have found direct correlation between testosterone and dominance especially among the most violent criminals in prison who had the highest testosterone levels.[77] The same research also found fathers (those outside competitive environments) had the lowest testosterone levels compared to other males.[77]

 

The second theory is similar and is known as "evolutionary neuroandrogenic (ENA) theory of male aggression".[78][79] Testosterone and other androgens have evolved to masculinize a brain in order to be competitive even to the point of risking harm to the person and others. By doing so, individuals with masculinized brains as a result of pre-natal and adult life testosterone and androgens enhance their resource acquiring abilities in order to survive, attract and copulate with mates as much as possible.[78] The masculinization of the brain is not just mediated by testosterone levels at the adult stage, but also testosterone exposure in the womb as a fetus. Higher pre-natal testosterone indicated by a low digit ratio as well as adult testosterone levels increased risk of fouls or aggression among male players in a soccer game.[80] Studies have also found higher pre-natal testosterone or lower digit ratio to be correlated with higher aggression in males.[81][82][83][84][85]

 

The rise in testosterone levels during competition predicted aggression in males but not in females.[86] Subjects who interacted with hand guns and an experimental game showed rise in testosterone and aggression.[87] Natural selection might have evolved males to be more sensitive to competitive and status challenge situations and that the interacting roles of testosterone are the essential ingredient for aggressive behaviour in these situations.[88] Testosterone produces aggression by activating subcortical areas in the brain, which may also be inhibited or suppressed by social norms or familial situations while still manifesting in diverse intensities and ways through thoughts, anger, verbal aggression, competition, dominance and physical violence.[89] Testosterone mediates attraction to cruel and violent cues in men by promoting extended viewing of violent stimuli.[90] Testosterone specific structural brain characteristic can predict aggressive behaviour in individuals.[91]

 

Estradiol is known to correlate with aggression in male mice.[92] Moreover, the conversion of testosterone to estradiol regulates male aggression in sparrows during breeding season.[93] Rats who were given anabolic steroids that increase testosterone were also more physically aggressive to provocation as a result of "threat sensitivity".[94]

 

Brain[edit]

The brain is also affected by this sexual differentiation;[13] the enzyme aromatase converts testosterone into estradiol that is responsible for masculinization of the brain in male mice. In humans, masculinization of the fetal brain appears, by observation of gender preference in patients with congenital diseases of androgen formation or androgen receptor function, to be associated with functional androgen receptors.[95]

 

There are some differences between a male and female brain (possibly the result of different testosterone levels), one of them being size: the male human brain is, on average, larger.[96] Men were found to have a total myelinated fiber length of 176 000 km at the age of 20, whereas in women the total length was 149 000 km (approx. 15% less).[97]

 

No immediate short term effects on mood or behavior were found from the administration of supraphysiologic doses of testosterone for 10 weeks on 43 healthy men.[98] A correlation between testosterone and risk tolerance in career choice exists among women.[64][99]

 

Attention, memory, and spatial ability are key cognitive functions affected by testosterone in humans. Preliminary evidence suggests that low testosterone levels may be a risk factor for cognitive decline and possibly for dementia of the Alzheimer's type,[100][101][102][103] a key argument in life extension medicine for the use of testosterone in anti-aging therapies. Much of the literature, however, suggests a curvilinear or even quadratic relationship between spatial performance and circulating testosterone,[104] where both hypo- and hypersecretion (deficient- and excessive-secretion) of circulating androgens have negative effects on cognition.

 

Medical use[edit]

Main article: Testosterone (medication)

Testosterone is used as a medication for the treatment of males with too little or no natural testosterone production, certain forms of breast cancer,[10] and gender dysphoria in transgender men. This is known as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), which maintains serum testosterone levels in the normal range. Decline of testosterone production with age has led to interest in androgen replacement therapy.[105] It is unclear if the use of testosterone for low levels due to aging is beneficial or harmful.[106]

 

Testosterone is included in the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines, which are the most important medications needed in a basic health system.[107] It is available as a generic medication.[10] The price depends on the form of testosterone used.[108] It can be administered as a cream or transdermal patch that is applied to the skin, by injection into a muscle, as a tablet that is placed in the cheek, or by ingestion.[10]

 

Common side effects from testosterone medication include acne, swelling, and breast enlargement in males.[10] Serious side effects may include liver toxicity, heart disease, and behavioral changes.[10] Women and children who are exposed may develop virilization.[10] It is recommended that individuals with prostate cancer not use the medication.[10] It can cause harm if used during pregnancy or breastfeeding.[10]

 

Biological activity[edit]

Steroid hormone activity[edit]

The effects of testosterone in humans and other vertebrates occur by way of multiple mechanisms: by activation of the androgen receptor (directly or as DHT), and by conversion to estradiol and activation of certain estrogen receptors.[109][110] Androgens such as testosterone have also been found to bind to and activate membrane androgen receptors.[111][112][113]

 

Free testosterone (T) is transported into the cytoplasm of target tissue cells, where it can bind to the androgen receptor, or can be reduced to 5α-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by the cytoplasmic enzyme 5α-reductase. DHT binds to the same androgen receptor even more strongly than testosterone, so that its androgenic potency is about 5 times that of T.[114] The T-receptor or DHT-receptor complex undergoes a structural change that allows it to move into the cell nucleus and bind directly to specific nucleotide sequences of the chromosomal DNA. The areas of binding are called hormone response elements (HREs), and influence transcriptional activity of certain genes, producing the androgen effects.

 

Androgen receptors occur in many different vertebrate body system tissues, and both males and females respond similarly to similar levels. Greatly differing amounts of testosterone prenatally, at puberty, and throughout life account for a share of biological differences between males and females.

 

The bones and the brain are two important tissues in humans where the primary effect of testosterone is by way of aromatization to estradiol. In the bones, estradiol accelerates ossification of cartilage into bone, leading to closure of the epiphyses and conclusion of growth. In the central nervous system, testosterone is aromatized to estradiol. Estradiol rather than testosterone serves as the most important feedback signal to the hypothalamus (especially affecting LH secretion).[115] In many mammals, prenatal or perinatal "masculinization" of the sexually dimorphic areas of the brain by estradiol derived from testosterone programs later male sexual behavior.[116]

 

Neurosteroid activity[edit]

Testosterone, via its active metabolite 3α-androstanediol, is a potent positive allosteric modulator of the GABAA receptor.[117]

 

Testosterone has been found to act as an antagonist of the TrkA and p75NTR, receptors for the neurotrophin nerve growth factor (NGF), with high affinity (around 5 nM).[118][119][120] In contrast to testosterone, DHEA and DHEA sulfate have been found to act as high-affinity agonists of these receptors.[118][119][120]

 

Testosterone is an antagonist of the sigma σ1 receptor (Ki = 1,014 or 201 nM).[121] However, the concentrations of testosterone required for binding the receptor are far above even total circulating concentrations of testosterone in adult males (which range between 10 and 35 nM).[122]

 

Biochemistry[edit]

 

Human steroidogenesis, showing testosterone near bottom.[123]

Biosynthesis[edit]

Like other steroid hormones, testosterone is derived from cholesterol (see figure).[124] The first step in the biosynthesis involves the oxidative cleavage of the side-chain of cholesterol by cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (P450scc, CYP11A1), a mitochondrial cytochrome P450 oxidase with the loss of six carbon atoms to give pregnenolone. In the next step, two additional carbon atoms are removed by the CYP17A1 (17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase) enzyme in the endoplasmic reticulum to yield a variety of C19 steroids.[125] In addition, the 3β-hydroxyl group is oxidized by 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase to produce androstenedione. In the final and rate limiting step, the C17 keto group androstenedione is reduced by 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase to yield testosterone.

 

The largest amounts of testosterone (>95%) are produced by the testes in men,[2] while the adrenal glands account for most of the remainder. Testosterone is also synthesized in far smaller total quantities in women by the adrenal glands, thecal cells of the ovaries, and, during pregnancy, by the placenta.[126] In the testes, testosterone is produced by the Leydig cells.[127] The male generative glands also contain Sertoli cells, which require testosterone for spermatogenesis. Like most hormones, testosterone is supplied to target tissues in the blood where much of it is transported bound to a specific plasma protein, sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG).

 

Regulation[edit]

 

Hypothalamic–pituitary–testicular axis

In males, testosterone is synthesized primarily in Leydig cells. The number of Leydig cells in turn is regulated by luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). In addition, the amount of testosterone produced by existing Leydig cells is under the control of LH, which regulates the expression of 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase.[128]

 

The amount of testosterone synthesized is regulated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–testicular axis (see figure to the right).[129] When testosterone levels are low, gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is released by the hypothalamus, which in turn stimulates the pituitary gland to release FSH and LH. These latter two hormones stimulate the testis to synthesize testosterone. Finally, increasing levels of testosterone through a negative feedback loop act on the hypothalamus and pituitary to inhibit the release of GnRH and FSH/LH, respectively.

 

Factors affecting testosterone levels may include:

 

Age: Testosterone levels gradually reduce as men age.[130][131] This effect is sometimes referred to as andropause or late-onset hypogonadism.[132]

Exercise: Resistance training increases testosterone levels,[133] however, in older men, that increase can be avoided by protein ingestion.[134] Endurance training in men may lead to lower testosterone levels.[135]

Nutrients: Vitamin A deficiency may lead to sub-optimal plasma testosterone levels.[136] The secosteroid vitamin D in levels of 400–1000 IU/d (10–25 µg/d) raises testosterone levels.[137] Zinc deficiency lowers testosterone levels[138] but over-supplementation has no effect on serum testosterone.[139]

Weight loss: Reduction in weight may result in an increase in testosterone levels. Fat cells synthesize the enzyme aromatase, which converts testosterone, the male sex hormone, into estradiol, the female sex hormone.[140] However no clear association between body mass index and testosterone levels has been found.[141]

Miscellaneous: Sleep: (REM sleep) increases nocturnal testosterone levels.[142] Behavior: Dominance challenges can, in some cases, stimulate increased testosterone release in men.[143] Drugs: Natural or man-made antiandrogens including spearmint tea reduce testosterone levels.[144][145][146] Licorice can decrease the production of testosterone and this effect is greater in females.[147]

Distribution[edit]

The plasma protein binding of testosterone is 98.0 to 98.5%, with 1.5 to 2.0% free or unbound.[148] It is bound 65% to sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and 33% bound weakly to albumin.[149]

 

Plasma protein binding of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone show

Metabolism[edit]

vte Testosterone metabolism in humans

Testosterone structures

The image above contains clickable linksTestosterone metabolism in humans. Conjugation (sulfation and glucuronidation) occurs both with testosterone and with all of the other steroids that have one or more available hydroxyl (-OH) groups in this diagram.

Both testosterone and 5α-DHT are metabolized mainly in the liver.[1][151] Approximately 50% of testosterone is metabolized via conjugation into testosterone glucuronide and to a lesser extent testosterone sulfate by glucuronosyltransferases and sulfotransferases, respectively.[1] An additional 40% of testosterone is metabolized in equal proportions into the 17-ketosteroids androsterone and etiocholanolone via the combined actions of 5α- and 5β-reductases, 3α-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, and 17β-HSD, in that order.[1][151][152] Androsterone and etiocholanolone are then glucuronidated and to a lesser extent sulfated similarly to testosterone.[1][151] The conjugates of testosterone and its hepatic metabolites are released from the liver into circulation and excreted in the urine and bile.[1][151][152] Only a small fraction (2%) of testosterone is excreted unchanged in the urine.[151]

 

In the hepatic 17-ketosteroid pathway of testosterone metabolism, testosterone is converted in the liver by 5α-reductase and 5β-reductase into 5α-DHT and the inactive 5β-DHT, respectively.[1][151] Then, 5α-DHT and 5β-DHT are converted by 3α-HSD into 3α-androstanediol and 3α-etiocholanediol, respectively.[1][151] Subsequently, 3α-androstanediol and 3α-etiocholanediol are converted by 17β-HSD into androsterone and etiocholanolone, which is followed by their conjugation and excretion.[1][151] 3β-Androstanediol and 3β-etiocholanediol can also be formed in this pathway when 5α-DHT and 5β-DHT are acted upon by 3β-HSD instead of 3α-HSD, respectively, and they can then be transformed into epiandrosterone and epietiocholanolone, respectively.[153][154] A small portion of approximately 3% of testosterone is reversibly converted in the liver into androstenedione by 17β-HSD.[152]

 

In addition to conjugation and the 17-ketosteroid pathway, testosterone can also be hydroxylated and oxidized in the liver by cytochrome P450 enzymes, including CYP3A4, CYP3A5, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, and CYP2D6.[155] 6β-Hydroxylation and to a lesser extent 16β-hydroxylation are the major transformations.[155] The 6β-hydroxylation of testosterone is catalyzed mainly by CYP3A4 and to a lesser extent CYP3A5 and is responsible for 75 to 80% of cytochrome P450-mediated testosterone metabolism.[155] In addition to 6β- and 16β-hydroxytestosterone, 1β-, 2α/β-, 11β-, and 15β-hydroxytestosterone are also formed as minor metabolites.[155][156] Certain cytochrome P450 enzymes such as CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 can also oxidize testosterone at the C17 position to form androstenedione.[155]

 

Two of the immediate metabolites of testosterone, 5α-DHT and estradiol, are biologically important and can be formed both in the liver and in extrahepatic tissues.[151] Approximately 5 to 7% of testosterone is converted by 5α-reductase into 5α-DHT, with circulating levels of 5α-DHT about 10% of those of testosterone, and approximately 0.3% of testosterone is converted into estradiol by aromatase.[2][151][157][158] 5α-Reductase is highly expressed in the male reproductive organs (including the prostate gland, seminal vesicles, and epididymides),[159] skin, hair follicles, and brain[160] and aromatase is highly expressed in adipose tissue, bone, and the brain.[161][162] As much as 90% of testosterone is converted into 5α-DHT in so-called androgenic tissues with high 5α-reductase expression,[152] and due to the several-fold greater potency of 5α-DHT as an AR agonist relative to testosterone,[163] it has been estimated that the effects of testosterone are potentiated 2- to 3-fold in such tissues.[164]

 

Levels[edit]

Total levels of testosterone in the body are 264 to 916 ng/dL in men age 19 to 39 years,[165] while mean testosterone levels in adult men have been reported as 630 ng/dL.[166] Levels of testosterone in men decline with age.[165] In women, mean levels of total testosterone have been reported to be 32.6 ng/dL.[167][168] In women with hyperandrogenism, mean levels of total testosterone have been reported to be 62.1 ng/dL.[167][168]

 

Testosterone levels in males and females show

Total testosterone levels in males throughout life show

 

Reference ranges for blood tests, showing adult male testosterone levels in light blue at center-left.

Measurement[edit]

Testosterone’s bioavailable concentration is commonly determined using the Vermeulen calculation or more precisely using the modified Vermeulen method,[174][175] which considers the dimeric form of sex-hormone-binding-globulin.[176]

 

Both methods use chemical equilibrium to derive the concentration of bioavailable testosterone: in circulation testosterone has two major binding partners, albumin (weakly bound) and sex-hormone-binding-globulin (strongly bound). These methods are described in detail in the accompanying figure.

  

Dimeric sex-hormone-binding-globulin with its testosterone ligands

  

Two methods for determining concentration of bioavailable testosterone.

History[edit]

A testicular action was linked to circulating blood fractions – now understood to be a family of androgenic hormones – in the early work on castration and testicular transplantation in fowl by Arnold Adolph Berthold (1803–1861).[177] Research on the action of testosterone received a brief boost in 1889, when the Harvard professor Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard (1817–1894), then in Paris, self-injected subcutaneously a "rejuvenating elixir" consisting of an extract of dog and guinea pig testicle. He reported in The Lancet that his vigor and feeling of well-being were markedly restored but the effects were transient,[178] and Brown-Séquard's hopes for the compound were dashed. Suffering the ridicule of his colleagues, he abandoned his work on the mechanisms and effects of androgens in human beings.

 

In 1927, the University of Chicago's Professor of Physiologic Chemistry, Fred C. Koch, established easy access to a large source of bovine testicles — the Chicago stockyards — and recruited students willing to endure the tedious work of extracting their isolates. In that year, Koch and his student, Lemuel McGee, derived 20 mg of a substance from a supply of 40 pounds of bovine testicles that, when administered to castrated roosters, pigs and rats, remasculinized them.[179] The group of Ernst Laqueur at the University of Amsterdam purified testosterone from bovine testicles in a similar manner in 1934, but isolation of the hormone from animal tissues in amounts permitting serious study in humans was not feasible until three European pharmaceutical giants—Schering (Berlin, Germany), Organon (Oss, Netherlands) and Ciba (Basel, Switzerland)—began full-scale steroid research and development programs in the 1930s.

  

Nobel Prize winner, Leopold Ruzicka of Ciba, a pharmaceutical industry giant that synthesized testosterone.

The Organon group in the Netherlands were the first to isolate the hormone, identified in a May 1935 paper "On Crystalline Male Hormone from Testicles (Testosterone)".[180] They named the hormone testosterone, from the stems of testicle and sterol, and the suffix of ketone. The structure was worked out by Schering's Adolf Butenandt, at the Chemisches Institut of Technical University in Gdańsk.[181][182]

 

The chemical synthesis of testosterone from cholesterol was achieved in August that year by Butenandt and Hanisch.[183] Only a week later, the Ciba group in Zurich, Leopold Ruzicka (1887–1976) and A. Wettstein, published their synthesis of testosterone.[184] These independent partial syntheses of testosterone from a cholesterol base earned both Butenandt and Ruzicka the joint 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[182][185] Testosterone was identified as 17β-hydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one (C19H28O2), a solid polycyclic alcohol with a hydroxyl group at the 17th carbon atom. This also made it obvious that additional modifications on the synthesized testosterone could be made, i.e., esterification and alkylation.

 

The partial synthesis in the 1930s of abundant, potent testosterone esters permitted the characterization of the hormone's effects, so that Kochakian and Murlin (1936) were able to show that testosterone raised nitrogen retention (a mechanism central to anabolism) in the dog, after which Allan Kenyon's group[186] was able to demonstrate both anabolic and androgenic effects of testosterone propionate in eunuchoidal men, boys, and women. The period of the early 1930s to the 1950s has been called "The Golden Age of Steroid Chemistry",[187] and work during this period progressed quickly. Research in this golden age proved that this newly synthesized compound—testosterone—or rather family of compounds (for many derivatives were developed from 1940 to 1960), was a potent multiplier of muscle, strength, and well-being.[188]

 

Other animals[edit]

Testosterone is observed in most vertebrates. Testosterone and the classical nuclear androgen receptor first appeared in gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates).[189] Agnathans (jawless vertebrates) such as lampreys do not produce testosterone but instead use androstenedione as a male sex hormone.[190] Fish make a slightly different form called 11-ketotestosterone.[191] Its counterpart in insects is ecdysone.[192] The presence of these ubiquitous steroids in a wide range of animals suggest that sex hormones have an ancient evolutionary history.[193]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone

El Alcázar de Segovia es uno de los monumentos más destacados de Segovia, España, que se alza sobre un cerro en la confluencia de los ríos Eresma y Clamores.

Construido entre los siglos XII y XVI, fue numerosas veces restaurado y ampliado, posiblemente desde Alfonso X hasta Felipe II. A este último se debe su aspecto actual, su "silueta" lo hace único entre los castillos españoles.

 

En la Edad Media, por su seguridad como por la proximidad de zonas de caza, el Alcázar se convirtió en una de las residencias favoritas de los Reyes de Castilla, en especial de Alfonso X. Fue habitado muchas veces y llegó a ser uno de los más suntuosos palacio-castillos en el siglo XV.

 

La fortaleza sirvió posteriormente como prisión de Estado hasta que en 1762 Carlos III fundó en Segovia el Real Colegio de Artillería que tuvo su sede en el alcázar. En 1862, un incendio destruyó las suntuosas techumbres de las salas nobles, que pudieron ser reconstruidas fielmente con posterioridad gracias a la existencia de grabados.

En 1931 fue declarado monumento histórico artístico. En el año 1953 se creó el patronato del alcázar que es el responsable del museo que se puede visitar en su interior.

  

View On Black

 

Kapunda.

Six years after the founding of the colony, SA was producing almost no wheat and the government was near bankruptcy. Governor Gawler had run up huge debts that the SA Company and the British government were unwilling to pay. Governor Grey arrived to face these problems but the discovery of commercial quantities of copper at Kapunda saved the state. Captain Charles Bagot of Koonunga Station discovered the copper and conferred with Francis Dutton of Anlaby station who had also discovered copper. They kept the news secret whilst they applied for 80 acres of land to be surveyed which they then bought at auction. Thus the two purchased the Kapunda copper mine with Bagot owning 75% and Dutton 25%. The first samples were assayed and averaged 23% pure copper, an extremely high rate for any mine. Cornish miners were secured for the mining jobs and mining began in January of 1843. The first shipment of copper reached England in 1845 and the royalties from the sales revived the states flagging economy. The first group of three blocks of miners cottages owned by the mine were built in 1845 really marking the beginning of the town. They were near the Dutton chimney stack and whim. Over the next thirty five years the mine delivered about £1,000,000 of wealth and the township of Kapunda grew quickly to become a major SA town. Dutton sold his share of the mine in 1846 for a huge sum (£16,000) which allowed him to invest in the even wealthier Burra copper mine. Bagot became the major shareholder but sold out to an English company within a couple of years although he maintained financial involvement with the mine until 1859. He returned to Adelaide and built Nurney House North Adelaide. His younger son Edward lived on in the district and established a stock agent and wool handling business when the railway reached Kapunda in 1860. This business eventually merged into Elder Smiths Goldsborough Mort. Edward Bagot was an important pastoralist with several stations in the far north of SA and a boiling down works at Thebarton.

 

William Oldham became the mine superintendant in 1848, as well as the Congregational minister, the town surveyor, the local post master and a local businessman. To many he is considered the “father” of Kapunda! From 1866 Captain Osborne succeeded William Oldham as the mine superintendent until the mine closed in 1878. At first copper was carted to Port Adelaide by bullock dray, a six day journey. It was then exported to Wales for smelting. Soon the Welsh joined the Cornish in Kapunda and smelting operations began in the town in 1849. In 1851 three hundred men, including woodcutters were employed in the smelting works. The town had taken its name from an Aboriginal word “cappie oonda” which means spring. There were several mines with different names on the site.

 

In 1850 the Cornish miners built the still impressive Dutton chimney which draw the draft from the Buhl Enginehouse furnaces via a lined tunnel up into the air through the chimney stack. The Cornish traditionally built round chimney stacks and the Welsh built square chimney stacks. The Buhl pump house drew water out of the main shaft which was up to 360 feet deep. Then in 1861-62 a second winding house to haul up copper ore was built further up the hill but for some strange reason it was named the Buhl Winding house although it never contained a Buhl engine. A significant part of the Buhl Winding House ruins remain on the site. Although the first mining was simple open cut mining undertaken by miners and tributers (who were paid according to how much ore they extracted), deep shafts were soon needed to reach the underground lodes of ore. The deepest shafts sunk were 150 m (490ft) and mining operations were complex. By 1861 the mine employed 340 men and boys. Just two years later mining operations were scaled down (Moonta Mine had begun by that time) and the mine reverted to open cut mining. Low grade ore was mined until 1878, the year after the Burra mine closed. Some tribute work continued in the mine until 1912.

 

The original private township was called North Kapunda and it was laid out by the North Kapunda Mining Company in 1846 although many miners were living on the lands of the Dutton copper mine before that time. These early miners squatted on land even if they built a hut or cottage on it. In 1849 the government belatedly surveyed a town which it called Victoria and then Kapunda. Look at a map of Kapunda today and you can see this government town delineated by South, North, and West terraces. This is the northern half of today’s Kapunda where the old primary school is located. Government facilities followed soon after the founding of the mining town with the police station, now a private residence being erected in 1852. Later in 1866 the impressive Court House was built adjacent to the police station still in the private township of the Kapunda Mining Company. The early Congregational Church of 1857 was also built on land obtained from the Kapunda Mining Company. The town prospered greatly once the government railway arrived in 1860. It then became the terminus for the bullock drays carting copper ore from Burra. It was during the 1860s and 1870s that many of the fine buildings in the town were erected. At this time Kapunda was larger than Gawler and Glenelg and in 1850 Kapunda was larger than Brisbane! It was the first town in SA with gas street lighting from around 1870. Kapunda also had its own newspaper from 1864 when the Kapunda Herald was established. Andrew Thomson of Osborne House bought the newspaper later that year. The paper still operates today as the Barossa and Light Herald (from 1908) and is the largest circulating regional weekly newspaper. Thomson also ran the general store, which is now the information centre.

 

Once the mine closed in 1878 the town focused on its agricultural hinterland and Sir Sidney Kidman played a major role in developing the town. He regularly held horse and cattle auctions behind the North Kapunda Hotel in the main street and by the time of his death in 1935 he owned or had a financial interest in 68 large properties which covered over 100,000 square miles ( 64 million acres or 259,000 square kms ) of Australia. Victoria is only 227,000 square kms! Kidman donated his home to the education department in 1921 for it to become Kapunda High School- one of the first high schools outside of Adelaide. In 1876 a local Scot, Alexander Greenshields built a mansion for £4,000 which he called Lanark after his birthplace in Scotland. He was a wealthy Kapunda draper and store owner. Sir Sidney Kidman bought the house around 1897 and renamed it Eringa. A major fire destroyed the roof of Eringa in 1902 and the Art Nouveau style Marseille tile roof replaced the original roof. The western wing was also added at this time and if you get to go inside you can see the delightful Art Nouveau ceiling motifs and the leadlight windows featuring bull rushes. When Sidney and his wife Bel moved to Adelaide they purchased a house at 76 Northgate Street Unley Park which they also named Eringa. Sir Sidney Kidman died here in 1935 and was buried nearby in the Mitcham cemetery. The Kidman Empire was inherited by his son Walter and other family members. Sir Sidney Kidman was mourned by people around the world and the almost illiterate 13 year who set about to create a pastoral empire on his own died an extremely wealthy man. Kidman was knighted partly for his generosity and bequests to the Inland Mission, the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and other charities. During World War One he had also donated hundreds of horses, produce, especially beef and other materials to the Australian war effort including two fighter airplanes. As a generous employer it was not surprising that his employees put on a rodeo party for his 75th birthday in 1932 in the Adelaide Parklands. 60,000 people attended! Kidman was meant to be as comfortable talking to British royalty as to his stockmen. Although the Kidman properties are only half what they used to be in size they are for sale for round $350 million in 2015.

 

Sir Montague( or Montagu) Chapman, Third Baronet of Westmeath near Dublin Ireland, used a loop hole in the Special Survey regulations of 1839 and selected his 4,000 acres for £4,000 in different areas. He took 800 acres at Koonunga near Kapunda; 500 acres at Kapunda; 500 acres near Waterloo and Marrabel; and later in 1842 he selected a further 2,200 acres between the Little Para River and Dry Creek at what is now Mawson Lakes, Salisbury and Cross Keys. At Killua Castle in Ireland he had 9,000 acres and hundreds of tenant farmers. He wanted to do the same in SA. In 1840 he sent out Captain Charles Bagot from Ireland with his family and 224 Irish immigrants to settle his, and Bagot’s lands at Kapunda and Koonunga with Irish labourers and tenants. Then in 1842 he sailed out to SA with 120 Irish tenant farmers who he installed on his lands at Cross Keys. Sir Montague Chapman returned to Ireland the next year. Then in 1847 he sent out with a further 214 Irish immigrants to be tenant farmers on his Cross Key lands. They came out on the ships named Trafalgar and Aboukir. Sir Montague Chapman lived in Ireland not SA but returned to his SA estates in 1852 and drowned at sea in 1853 off Portland when returning to SA from Sydney. His brother Benjamin inherited the SA lands and estates. The lasting effect of Sir Montague Chapmans tenant farming ideas was a large number of Irish Catholics around the Salisbury and Kapunda districts. Many of these immigrants soon became independent landowners themselves. These early Irish Catholic’s had the fourth Catholic Church in SA built at Koonunga. But in 1862 they opened a church in Kapunda itself named St Rose of Lima which was completed in 1866. This church was replaced with the current fine red brick Romanesque style St Rose’s Church which was built in 1938. The original church was demolished in 1946. Beside the church is a bluestone church office, and behind it is a parish hall built in 1909. It replaced an earlier 1865 parish hall. Beyond that is the fine convent built in 1892. This early hall was used as a Catholic school run by the Sisters of St Joseph. When the Dominican sister took over the school they had a new two storey convent built. It is now a private residence. Imprisoned paedophile magistrate Peter Liddy owned this former convent for some years.

 

Apart from the Dutton family, Captain Bagot and Sir Sidney Kidman, Kapunda was also home to Ellen Benham (1871-1917.) She was the daughter of a Kapunda solicitor and was educated in the town. She obtained a Bachelor of Science from the University of Adelaide in 1889 and returned to Kapunda as a teacher. In 1901 she became the first female lecturer employed by the University of Adelaide, and later in 1912 she purchased her own school – Walford Grammar School for Girls. She is buried in the Kapunda cemetery. Sir Jenkin Coles a state parliamentarian who served for 33 years lived in Kapunda for most of his life. In the early days the town’s water supply came from the Light River which flows through the town. Electricity was not turned on until 1925. One of many symbols of its early growth as an urban centre was the establishment of the Kapunda Horticultural Society and Annual Show in 1857. Kapunda is 800 feet or 245 m above sea level, with a population of around 3,000 people today and it has an average annual rainfall of 500mm or 19.6 inches.

  

 

I used to google 'What is the average size?' So i could measure myself and get to it.

For years i taught myself to believe that i was the bigger one, unashamedly, realising now and looking back at past photos, i had a banging bod - then it become to little.

I look and see more of a Woman now than i ever did

Someone who has taken on a lot in the last few years

And my Body represents that, through permanent and irreplaceable marks,

My Body can fluctuate like my moods can

I have a fat day

thin day

Pretty day

Ugly day

I'm not good enough day

Today I wont eat breakfast because 'im not a breakfast person'

I am going to order the burger, chips, onion rings and 3 pints because I didnt eat anything else today, soo that counteracts it right?

Today I ate breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, supper and had a few pints.

Whats up with that?

 

I use to google the average amount a girl like me should eat so I could fit the number.

The daily intake of calories for a Woman. 2000

The average amount of pints on a night out for me, 6

A pint averages at 340 calories

The average size of a Woman. 14

But What if I'm a 12?

Most of my friends are a 10, but I'm a 12..

The NHS has a graph that says I am a healthy 5"4 Woman when I weigh 9 stone

But Ok magazine said that i need to be 8 stone and had pictures of celebs bodies to show me my goal

 

But it could all be Lies because I have haven't weighed my self in years because I hate numbers.

 

But i still read into them.

 

At the end of the day,

I have, 2 eyes, 2 Ears, 2 legs, 2 arms, 2 bum cheeks - you get it.

 

But I also have

2 boobs,

1 vagina

and

A mouth,

And thats pretty fuckin badass to me.

I can deal with being a 4

#woman

Average guys with exceptional hair tour

Scarlett o'hara

Atlanta,GA

 

An average of 250,000 passengers use the Bernina Express annually. Already during the provision and cleaning of the train there is a crowd. Switzerland, June 1, 2023. (2/3)

Loham 💙💚

Average Movie

Half backed

Lalettan & Sidhique kidu 👌👌👏👏

#loham #movie #mohanlal #lalettan #thecompleteactor #mohanlalfan #lalfan #malayalam #malayalammovie #kerala #megastar #laijus #laijulazar ⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

323 Likes on Instagram

  

youtu.be/Uy3JqdyUX7g

 

Starring Arthur Franz, Joanna Moore, Judson Pratt, Nancy Walters, Troy Donahue, and Whit Bissell. Directed by Jack Arnold.

This was Jack Arnold's last horror film for Universal, and the director pulled out all the tricks of his trade for this foray into the teenage drive-in monster genre. Joanna Moore and Arthur Franz star, and Troy Donahue makes an early screen appearance, in this campy campus creature feature.

Universal's B unit produced another sci-fi/horror hybrid in late 1958. It comes as an interesting coincidence, being released around the time of Hideous Sun Demon. Evolution must have been a hot topic then. Both movies feature a Jekyll & Hyde theme with "regressive evolution" as the science part of their fictions. Directed by Jack Arnold (of Black Lagoon fame), Monster on Campus (MoC) has above-average production values for the B market. The acting is pretty solid, with a couple exceptions, and the props are also above-average for what the B market was becoming accustomed to. The overall effect is an entertaining, if somewhat predictable tale.

Plot Synopsis

A university professor receives a ceolacanth (a "prehistoric" fish still found off South Africa). A dog who licks up the melt water from the fish's ice, goes savage. His fangs grow. The professor, Donald, cuts his hand on the fish's teeth and gets more melt water in the cut. He feels woozy, so a nurse drives him home. She is found dead (of fright) and Donald's house ransacked. He remembers nothing. The police suspect him, but fingerprints at the scene are not his. Later, a dragonfly is eating (or drinking) off the fish body. It later returns 2 feet across. Donald kills it, but its blood drips in his pipe. He smokes it, and gets woozie again. He becomes an ape-man. In this state, he kills a policeman assigned to guard him. Donald is sure that the ceolacanth's blood causes reverse evolution. Dog to wolf, dragonfly to a Meganeura, and a man back into an ape-like cave man. Donald's bosses think he's becoming unglued with his talk of giant bugs and ape men, so he's sent up to a mountain cabin for rest. In the cabin, Donald decides to inject himself with ceolacanth plasma, tape record the results and had set up cameras to capture it on film. He does this, but his girlfriend, Madeline, is driving up to see him. She encounters the ape-man on the road, swerves and crashes. Ape-man carries her off. When she screams, a forest ranger investigates. Ape-man kills him with a hatchet. The police arrive too, but Donald has returned to normal. After learning of the killings, Donald decides there is just one thing to do. He says he'll take them all to see the ape-man. He injects himself. When he returns down the hill as the ape-man, the police shoot and kill him. In death, he reverts back to Donald. The End.

The production values are good enough to keep a viewer focused on the story. As yet another evolution-based modernization of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it has some interest. Jack Arnold does a good job keeping the visuals interesting and the pace moving. The musical score uses many familiar themes and tones. One can almost hear the Creature's theme woven in there. It was also fun to see the old familiar trope of the "monster" carrying off the pretty girl in his arms.

There's no Cold War here. There is only a minor element of atomic cautionary tale in that gamma radiation altered the ceolacanth's blood to make it the monster-maker. Radiation makes monsters. Everyone knows that.

Several of the actors and others in MoC are familiar 50s sci-fi names. Jack Arnold directed Creature from the Black Lagoon ('54) and Tarantula ('55). Writer David Duncan wrote for Monster That Challenged the World ('57) and Black Scorpion ('57). Arthur Franz, who plays Donald, also starred in Invaders from Mars ('53) and The Flame Barrier ('57). Whit Bissel plays the skeptical Dr. Cole. He also played in Creature From the Black Lagoon and Target Earth ('54).

 

Another Jekyll & Hyde -- Like Hideous Sun Demon, MoC reuses the good-doctor and evil-beast device. As in HSD, the transformation was accidental, not deliberate as in Jekyll's case. MoC does return to the chemical agent, and returns to the ape-like imagery of the evil-beast. Common to them all is the good-doctor not remembering what he did while the evil-beast. All three had the faithful girlfriend. He original and HSD had the "other" woman (Ivy and Trudy), but MoC had only a rather chaste echo of that in Molly Riordan. MoC returned to the moral of the original, that every modern man carries his beast within.

The populist form of the theory of evolution is the unmistakable foundation of MoC. The genetic connection to the past was more scientifically clean than the embryology basis used in Hideous Sun Demon. The notion that chromosomes were additive over time was quite a leap, however. The ceolacanth was symbolic of evolution halted. Hence, it's blood (with some gamma ray help) had the power to neutralize those modern added layers. Hence the savage ape man, wolf-dog and giant dragonfly.

Shown in the first couple minutes of the movie, Professor Blake's collection of anthropoid face sculptures is a classic linear progression. A quick-eyed viewer might spot Piltdown Man in the line. This "early human ancestor" was finally confirmed as a hoax in 1953, fabricated from a modern human skull fragment and an orangutan jaw. Scientists might drop bogus facts quickly, but the public tends to hang onto them -- especially if they fit the mental model.

Near the end, Donald gives a little monologue on mankind. "It's the savage in man which science must meet and defeat if humanity is to survive." This was a rather Neitzschian view, that mankind was evolving into a better being, leaving behind his brutal self. Note, too, the science-as-savior angle. Mankind's savage nature (evil) was something chemical which science could cure.

 

Bottom line? MoC is a notch above the typical B-movie fare of the late 50s. It's production quality is enjoyable. The recast of Jekyll and Hyde is entertaining too. A triple feature of the 1931 Jekyll & Hyde movie, the Hideous Sun Demon and MoC, would be fun.

synopsis - second opinion.

In this sci-fi film, a college professor must deal with the cataclysmic consequences that ensue when a transmogrifying dragonfly bites a prehistoric fish from Madagascar. Soon after the bite, the strange fish becomes gigantic and begins passing on its new ability to morph all it comes in contact with back into their primal forms. When it bites a dog, the dog becomes a wolf. When some fish slime ends up in the professor's pipe, the professor put it to his lips, and he turns into a rampaging Neanderthal with a very large stone-axe that he freely wields around the terrified college campus. Bloody mayhem ensues.

review

Any Jack Arnold movie from the 1950s is worth seeing, but Monster On The Campus is clearly in the bottom half of his output, despite some suspenseful scenes and clever moments. Arthur Franz brings a dour sincerity to his portrayal of Dr. Donald Blake, the researcher who falls victim to contamination from an ancient fossil that causes him (or any other living thing) that comes in contact with it to revert to a pre-historic state. The movie also provides a vehicle for established veteran players such as Helen Westcott and Alexander Lockwood, and newcomer Troy Donahue, which makes it a strange mix on that level; and the presence of ubiquitous horror/sci-fi player Whit Bissell gives the movie resonance with modern cultists (William Schallert must have been busy elsewhere during the three weeks this movie was in production . . .). But Monster On The Campus, just by virtue of its title, has a certain built-in campiness that expresses itself overtly in a few scenes that, undoubtedly, elicited howls, hoots, and mocking gasps from drive-in audiences at the time. In all, it's not as atmospheric -- except in a few stylistically claustrophobic scenes -- or persuasive as Arnold's best work, and even lacks the underlying sincerity that helped drive works such as The Space Children. It's a fun thrill ride within its modest budgetary and production dimensions, but not much more.

College student JIMMY heads to campus with his dog, while in a classroom MADELEINE, the daughter of the UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT, gets a plaster cast made of her face by fiance DR. DONALD BLAKE. They are interrupted as Jimmy shows up with a special delivery - an ancient fish called a coelacanth that Donald has ordered from Madagascar. Donald notes that the coelacanth has a special ability to "resist evolution." The dog drinks some of the coelacanth blood - and soon goes crazy, attacking Madeleine. Jimmy and Donald subdue the dog and stick it in a cage.

 

Donald takes a sample of the dog's saliva for a rabies test, and notes that the dog has huge teeth. It seems to be an evolutionary throwback to a prehistoric wolf. The UNIVERSITY DOCTOR's assistant MOLLY shows up to get the saliva sample. Donald cuts himself on the coelacanth's teeth as he puts it away, and soon feels woozy. Molly puts him in her car and takes him home. Donald passes out in the car. Molly goes inside to call the Doctor - and a CREATURE comes in and attacks her!

 

Madeleine and a SECURITY GUARD look for Donald in the lab. He's not there, but the dog is back to being a friendly pet. Madeleine heads to Donald's house. It has been trashed. She finds Donald passed out in the back yard - and Molly dead! Cops soon arrive. At first they suspect Donald because they find his tie clip in Molly's hand, but he is quickly exonerated when the cops find an enormous handprint on a window. Is there a killer on the loose? The cops also note that Molly didn't die of any wounds - she had a heart attack. She died of fright!

 

Donald lectures to his students about evolution using the coelacanth as an example. Jimmy shows up to check on the dog, and Donald tries to show him the huge teeth - but they are gone. Donald wonders if he is imagining things. Cop STEVENS is sure that someone is personally after Donald, but Donald has no enemies. Stevens gives Donald bodyguard EDDIE.

 

Donald and Eddie note a small dragonfly land on the coelacanth. Donald also sees "crystallized bacteria" on a slide. He quickly shows the slide to the Doctor, but the bacteria seem totally normal. Did Donald imagine something again? Meanwhile, Jimmy and his girlfriend SYLVIA hear a strange, loud buzzing sound as they hide under some trees to make out. There is a moment of a fake scare, but it turns out to be another couple making out. Jimmy and Sylvia go to the science building - and here they and Donald all see a huge GIANT DRAGONFLY outside the window. Jimmy and Donald trap the giant dragonfly, which Donald recognizes as a prehistoric species.

 

Donald studies the giant dragonfly. As he does so, blood falls into his pipe, which he then smokes. As the dragonfly shrinks back to its original state, Donald transforms into a PREHUMAN ANTHROPOID! The "anthropoid" smashes up the lab and kills Eddie. The cops come, but find only dead Eddie, a huge footprint, and Donald passed out. Donald recognizes the footprint as coming from a prehistoric subhuman, but Stevens thinks it must have been faked to frame Donald.

 

Donald investigates, does experiments, and calls a PROFESSOR in Madagascar who investigates how the fish was preserved. Donald finds that the fish was preserved using gamma ray radiation! Donald cancels lots of classes to continue his studies, and Madeleine and her father are afraid he is cracking up. The President comes to Donald to ask him to take a leave of absence. Donald explains what he has learned - the coelacanth blood, treated with radiation, is transforming creatures into evolutionary throwbacks for short periods of time. Just as he explains this, Donald realizes that he was probably the person who transformed into the monster.

 

Donald heads up to the University President's cabin, where he prepares to experiment on himself. He plans to inject the coelacanth blood into himself and capture the transformation with cameras he has rigged around the room. Meanwhile, Jimmy and Sylvia tell Madeleine about the giant dragonfly. Donald isn't crazy after all! Madeleine heads up to the cabin to see Donald.

 

Donald injects himself with the coelacanth blood as Madeleine drives. He transforms into the anthropoid, trashes the cabin, and runs out into the road. Madeleine sees the anthropoid, screams, and crashes her car. A FOREST RANGER races to the scene and sees the anthropoid standing over her. He calls the cops and grabs his gun. The anthropoid carries Madeleine away. The cops trail them, and the ranger shoots the anthropoid in the arm. Madeleine wakes up and runs, the creature pursues and knocks her out again, and then kills the ranger. Madeleine recovers and makes it back to the cabin as the anthropoid transforms back into Donald. The cops meet them here. Donald develops the film from the cameras and sees a shot of the creature. He knows now that "the beast within" himself is the killer. He takes the cops outside, claiming to know where the anthropoid is hiding. As the Doctor looks on, he injects himself with the coelacanth blood one last time, telling the doctor to "watch closely and see evolution in reverse." He transforms into the anthropoid, and the cops shoot him before the Doctor can stop them. The Doctor and the cops watch in amazement as the dead anthropoid turns back into mild-mannered Donald.

 

The Hamadryas Baboon (Papio hamadryas) is a baboon from the Old World monkey family. It is the northernmost of all the baboons; its range extends from the Red Sea in Egypt to Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. Baboons are also native to and live in Southwestern Arabia, especially in Yemen. The mountains of Yemen and the horn of Africa make it a great place for the baboons live, where predators are not as common as in central Africa. The Hamadryas Baboon was a sacred animal to the ancient Egyptians as the attendant of Thoth, and so, is also called the Sacred Baboon.

 

Apart from the striking size difference between the sexes (males are often twice as large as females) which is common to all baboons, this species also shows sexual dimorphism in coloration. Males are silver-white colored and have a pronounced cape which they develop around the age of ten, while the females are capeless and brown. Their faces range in color from red to tan to a dark brown that older males often exhibit. Males are an average of 30" tall, with tails about 20" long, and weigh an average of about 45 lbs. Tails end in small tufts. Infants are dark in coloration and lighten after about one year. Hamadryas baboons reach sexual maturity at about 51 mo. for females and between 57 and 81 mo. for males.The average life span of Hamadryas baboons in the wild is about 35 years.

 

The Hamadryas Baboon lives in semi-desert areas, savannas and rocky areas, requiring cliffs for sleeping and possibilities to drink water. The Hamadryas Baboon is omnivorous and is adapted to its relatively dry habitat. It is not discriminating in its search for food, eating grass, roots, seeds, reptiles, insects, small mammals and crops. Hamadryas baboons will dig for water in dry streambeds. Hamadryas baboons are diurnal and have the largest day ranges of any primate.

The Hamadryas Baboon is unusual among baboon and macaque species in that its society is strictly patriarchal and patrilineal. Females may try to establish matrilines but they are usually overruled by the males, who forcefully transfer them among social units and away from their female relatives. The males limit the movement of the females. They herd them with visual threats and will grab or bite any female that wanders too far away. Males will sometimes raid harems for females, resulting in aggressive fights. Some males succeed in taking a female from another's harem. This is called a 'takeover'. Visual threats are usually accompanied by these aggressive fights. This would include a quick flashing of the eyelids accompanied by a yawn to show off the teeth. As in many species, infant baboons are taken by the males as hostages during fights.

 

The baboon has an unusual 4-level social system called a multi-level society. Most social interaction occurs within small groups called one-male units or harems containing one male and up to nine females which the males lead and guard. A harem will typically include a younger "follower" male who may be related to the leader. Two or more harems unite repeatedly to form clans. Within clans, the dominant males of the units are probably close relatives of one another and have an age related dominance hierarchy.

 

Bands are the next level. Two to four clans form bands of up to 200 individuals which usually travel and sleep as a group. Both males and females rarely leave their bands. The dominant males will prevent infants and juveniles from interacting with infants and juveniles from other bands. Bands may fight with one another over food, etc and the adult male leaders of the units are usually the combatants. Several bands may come together to form a troop. Several bands also often share a cliff-face which they sleep on.

 

Like other baboons, the Hamadryas Baboon breeds aseasonally. The dominant male of a one-male unit does most of the mating, though other males may occasionally sneak in copulations as well. Often, a male forms a harem by "adopting" subadult females and teaching them to follow him. He protects them and in 1–2 years, they go into estrus and he mates with them.

 

Females do most of the parenting. They nurse and groom the infant and it is not uncommon for one female in a unit to groom an infant that is not hers. Like all baboons, Hamadryas baboons are intrigued by their infants and give much attention to them. Dominant male baboons prevent other males from coming into close contact with their infants. They also protect the young from predators. The dominant male tolerates the young and will carry and play with them. When a new male takes over a female, she may go into deceptive estrous cycles. This behavior is likely an adaptation that functions to prevent the new male from killing the offspring of the previous male.

 

Hamadryas baboons are often depicted in ancient Egyptian art as the sacred attendants of Thoth, scribe to the gods. Occasionally Thoth also appears in the form of a hamadryas (often depicted carrying the moon on his head), as an alternative to his usual depiction as an ibis-headed figure. Hapi, one of the Four Sons of Horus that guarded the organs of the deceased, is hamadryas-headed and thus often sculpted as the lid of a canopic jar. Hamadryas baboons were revered because certain behaviors that they perform were seen as worshiping the sun, and they were viewed as mediators between humans and the gods.

 

Transformation of field and pastureland represents the main threat of the Hamadryas Baboon, their natural enemies (the leopard and the lion) having been nearly exterminated in their range. The IUCN lists it as "least concern" in 2008.

  

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

   

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Spring and fall are the best times of year for sightseeing in Istanbul. The weather is pleasant, with comfortable temperatures averaging around 15°C. While spring is high season in Istanbul, crowds don’t reach their peak until late May. In the fall, the number of tourists who arrive begins to dwindle, with the crowds thinning by early October. Many feel that spring is the best time of all, and particularly April, when the entire city is in bloom for the International Tulip Festival held throughout the month. Still, autumn is the time when the city comes alive in a gamut of colors, both somber and bright, while the light rain and glorious sunsets make for an impressionist painting of sorts. When visiting in the spring, summer or fall, the most pleasant time to experience Istanbul’s top sights is early in the morning, soon after opening, or late in the day. Popular Topkapi Palace is best visited on a Monday morning when it’s usually at its quietest. In winter, you can usually arrive at any time and find no queue or crowds. Summer is just the opposite, arguably the worst time to visit due to the sweltering heat, massive amounts of people visiting the city, and the lines for attractions and other tourist sites. As the major sights in Istanbul all have their own closing days and slightly different operating hours, be sure to check with each one before planning your itinerary.

 

EMIRGAN PARK -

  

The Emirgan Park is a historical urban park located at the Emirgan neighbourhood in the Sarıyer district of Istanbul, Turkey, on the European coast of the Bosphorus. It is one of the largest public parks in Istanbul.

 

In the Byzantine era, the entire area, where today the park stretches, was covered with cypress trees and known as "Kyparades" or "Cypress Forest". It became known as "Feridun Bey Park", when the uninhabited land was granted in the mid-16th century to Nişancı Feridun Bey, a Lord Chancellor in rank in the Ottoman Empire.

 

In the 17th century, Ottoman sultan Murad IV (reigned 1623-1640) presented the estate to Emir Gûne Han, a Safavid Persian commander, who surrendered his sieged castle without any resistance, and followed him back to Istanbul. The name "Feridun Bey Park" was changed to "Emirgûne", which in time became corrupted to "Emirgan".

During the centuries, the estate's owner changed several times, and by the end of the 1860s, it was owned by Khedive Ismail Pasha (reigned 1863-1879), Ottoman governor of Egypt and Sudan. The area was used as the backyard of a large wooden yalı that he built on the shore of the Bosphorus. Further, he built within the park area three wooden pavilions, which still exist.

The heirs of the Khedive's family sold the estate in the 1930s to Satvet Lütfi Tozan, a wealthy Turkish arms dealer, who granted the park grounds, the three pavilions included, later in the 1940s to the City of Istanbul during office of Governor and Mayor Lütfi Kırdar (1938-1949).

 

The park today-

 

A pond with fountain in the Emirgan Park

The park, owned and administered today by the Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul, covers an area of 117 acres (470,000 m2) on a hillside, and is enclosed by high walls.

Inside the park with two decorative ponds are plants of more than 120 species. The most notable rare trees of the park's flora are: Stone Pine, Turkish pine, Aleppo Pine, Blue Pine, Eastern White Pine, Maritime Pine, Japanese Cedar, Norway Spruce, Blue Spruce, Atlas Cedar, Lebanon Cedar, Himalayan cedar, Beech, Ash tree, Sapindus, Babylon Willow, Hungarian Oak, Colorado White Fir, Maidenhair tree, California incense-cedar, Coast Redwood and Camphor tree.

Many jogging tracks and picnic tables make the Emirgan Park a very popular recreation area for the local people, especially during the weekends and holidays.The three historic pavilions, called after their exterior color as the Yellow Pavilion, the Pink Pavilion and the White Pavilion were restored in time between 1979-1983 by the Touring and Automobile Club of Turkey under its CEO Çelik Gülersoy, and opened to the public as cafeteria and restaurant.

The Emirgan Park is closely associated with the tulip, the traditional flower, which gave its name to an era (1718-1730) of the Ottoman Empire. A special garden was established in Emirgan Park in the 1960s to revive the city's tradition of tulip cultivation. Since 2005, an annual international tulip festival is organized here every April making the park attractive and very colorful with these flowers.

  

The Yellow Pavilion - Sarı Köşk is a large wooden mansion in the form of a chalet built by Khedive Ismail Pasha between 1871-1878 as a hunting lodge and guest house.

Situated in the center of the park and overlooking the Bosphorus, the two-storey mansion with one balcony, one terrace and a basement is constructed on an area of 400 m2 (4,300 sq ft). It consists of four rooms, one hall and a kitchen in the lower floor and three rooms and one salon in the upper floor. Its layout reflects the architecture of the traditional Ottoman house with a salon encircled by many living rooms.

 

The ornaments at the ceilings and the walls were the work of the court architect Sarkis Balyan. The ceilings are enriched with oil painted flower figures and the facades with outstanding carvings. The high doors and windows, as well as the opulent interior decorations in bright colors reflect the glory of that era.

A pond is situated to the northeast, next to the mansion.

Used only by the owners from the very beginning, the pavilion was restored within four months in the beginning of the 1980s with due diligence, furnished with antiques and opened to the public as a cafeteria.The Yellow Pavilion, the main base of the park, is run since 1997 by Beltur, the tourism company of the Metropolitan Municipality of Istanbul. Up to 100 guests can be served at the premise in summer and winter time.

 

The Pink Pavilion - Pembe Köşk, one of the three mansions in the park built by Khedive Ismail Pasha, is a two-storey, typical Ottoman house. Named after its exterior's original color of cranesbill flower pink, the pavilion reflects the glory of its history with fine ornaments.

The pavilion is used as a cafeteria on weekends. Furthermore, it available for conventions and wedding ceremonies. In the summer months, the premise can accommodate up to 350 guests, for cocktails up to 500 people. In the winter time, groups of up to 150 guests can be served.

  

The White Pavilion - Beyaz Köşk is the third mansion within the Emirgan Park built by Khedive Ismail Pasha. It is only 150 m (490 ft) far from the Yellow Pavilion. The two-storey wooden building bears the architectural characteristics of the neo-classical style.

The mansion is used in the daytime as a cafeteria and in the evenings as a restaurant of Turkish-Ottoman cuisine.

  

My sisters and I

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He's considered ancient as far as Black-Handed Spider Monkeys go. Average lifespan is about 25 years and this guy will soon celebrate his 35th birthday...and he still rocks the hairdo. They lack an opposable thumb but easily swing from branch to branch using hook-shaped hands. The species is considered 'Vulnerable'. Click the diagonal arrows up in the right-hand corner, look into his eyes. How could you not care?

One of the many old town homes

 

Visby is a popular vacation destination for Scandinavians during the summer and receives thousands of tourists every year. It is by far the most populated locality outside the Swedish mainland. Visby is also the only municipality seat of Sweden that is accessible only by boat and air traffic. The University of Gotland is in Visby, and since 1 July 2013, it is a department of Uppsala University under the name Uppsala university–Campus Gotland.

With a $2.2 million average sales price for 2011 to 2021 Pagani Huayra models, the mid-engine layout is balanced with a 44% front to 56% rear weight distribution. A hand-built Mercedes-AMG 6-liter V12 twin-turbo engine (M158) delivers 730-horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque for a 0-60 mph gallop of 2.8 seconds. A transverse sequential 7-speed transmission with driving modes pairs with the AMG. Top speed is rated at 238 mph as progressive Pirelli performance tires heat up the track and jetpack-ed quad exhaust pipes sing with enthusiasm. Powerful Brembo carbon-ceramic rotors (6-piston front, 4-piston rear) are at your disposal when slower speeds are required. The interior is custom-crafted with titanium, aluminum, and carbon fiber materials for an exquisite drive experience.

  

...complete the Jack Nicolson line ; )

 

Project 52 Flower Power

 

HBW!

The average lifespan of bald eagles in the wild is around 20 years, with the oldest confirmed one having been 38 years of age.

In the early seventies, Miranda introduced the Auto Sensorex EE, which in addition to shutter priority auto exposure also featured a switchable spot and averaging light meter. The averaging pattern is the standard Miranda bottom weighted pattern with some minor tweaks; for the spot meter a second round cell was added right in the center, corresponding to the split image rangefinder spot on the screen. This was an ideal location for the spot meter, but the slits in this area of the mirror are visible in the rangefinder spot and take a little getting used to.

These photos are dedicated to the delicacy and beauty of friendships and the sharing of our visions. Since becoming involved with Flickr, I've had the pleasure of getting to know people from different parts of the world. Some of you quite well, and some as casual contacts. Being retired, I probably spend more time on Flickr than the average person. But when I see new images posted by my friends, it always makes me feel better.

 

Several recent posts have been quite thought provoking. I probably write too much in some of my comments, but I just can't help myself. I hope you don't mind. I value these friendships more than words can express.

  

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Average 3 inches tall diecast figures from Marvel and Star Wars universe by Takara Tomy in 2016. Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Spider-Man and Star Wars series #16 C-3PO. I forgot to include some more new arrivals. Later…

New York City, New York, United States of America

Happy Canada Day Folks!

 

This July 1 was Canada's 142nd Happy Birthday. Specially wishing to those Americans who put Canadian Flags on their backpack while traveling abroad. Anything for safety. :)

 

Some interesting facts about Canada:

 

1. When you send a mail to Santa Clause, it comes to Canada. The postal code for the North Pole is HOHOHO. In the month of December, every mail sent to him gets answered by the Canada Post employees - in 17 languages, including braille.

 

2. The average life expectancy for a Canadian is 8th highest in the world, at 81.16 years. The United States ranks 46th, at 78.14 years.

 

3. Toronto is not the Capital of Canada, Ottawa is. (If I just had a penny for every time I heard the myth).

Cervejaria Cartaxinho, just your average corner bar in Lisboa, site of my last meal in Portugal. Where a pad of butter is one euro but all the wine you can reasonably drink is 2.50. Steak and chips with an egg on top. Grilled fish with salad. Sausage of indeterminate origin. Chocolate pudding. All this and the Barcelona game on the TV.