View allAll Photos Tagged comment
Photographed in the Falkland Islands
Please click on the image to view at the largest size
Thank you for your visit and comment
The Antarctica Trip - (01/01/23 to 01/21/23)
On the first day of 2023, my wife and I flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in preparation for a cruise to Antarctica, via The Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island. We’d never visited Antarctica and, in fact, felt a little unprepared for this trip since we’d only been on one cruise previously...and that was many years ago when we went on a cruise to Alaska…and that one trip to Alaska was enough to let my wife know that she was very prone to seasickness. Consequently, she was very concerned about this much longer trip because of the potential for rough weather.
We spent several days in Buenos Aires before we finally boarded the ship on 01/06/23 and headed off towards the Falkland Islands. The ship we were on was very nice…clean and comfortable room, friendly staff, incredibly interesting folks for lectures: A former astronaut, a former college professor with a doctorate in Ornithology and a geologist.
The photos:
Until we made landfall in the Falklands, the only wildlife we would see were the many pelagic birds that occasionally accompanied our ship. The larger birds, albatross, giant petrels, etc. managed to effortlessly soar over the swells, seemingly without ever flapping their wings. The smaller birds like the prions, also appeared to not waste much energy flapping their wings and were fun to watch as they maneuvered back and forth alongside our ship. Most of the photos I took from the ship were taken from our balcony on deck six. The balcony was a great location for landscape shots when we were near shore…but the height above the water made it difficult to photograph birds that were close to the water’s surface. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking with it. :-)
I plan to post photos taken at the several various locations we visited, as well as any I took while we were underway. I apologize in advance for the small size of the underway photos because they were taken either from the ship’s bow, stern or our balcony on deck 6, and I was a long way from the water. For the most part, and for no particular reason, I’ll be posting the photos chronologically.
======================
From Wikipedia: The upland goose or Magellan goose (Chloephaga picta) is a sheldgoose of the shelduck-sheldgoose subfamily of the Anatidae, the biological family that includes the ducks and most duck-like waterfowl such as the geese and swans. Sheldgeese resemble true geese and display similar habits, yet they are more closely related to shelducks and ducks.
This species nests and breeds close to water (rivers, ponds, oceans) either on the ground or near it among vegetation, usually in grasslands or coastal meadows in the Falkland Islands or in southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego at the beginning of the austral summer. Population estimates suggest the insular subpopulations are stable, but continental populations show a recent decline in abundance. Upland geese are herbivores, specializing in plant leaves, stems and seeds.
Food and feeding:
The upland goose is primarily a herbivore, feeding mostly of seeds, leaves, stems, and other plant matter. They are very gregarious, and flocks of thousands of birds can be found grazing in one pasture alone. They are considered pests by farmers due to the fact that they eat on the pastures that are used for cattle and sheep, and because they claim that upland geese significantly decrease crop yield. However, a recent study claims that while sheldgeese do reduce wheat cover, they do not reduce overall wheat yield and they might even provide an ecosystem service through weed grazing.
FI-0I7A1826fFlkrDs
On 17 January 2021, I had commented on a fellow photographer's old Snowy Owl photo taken late last year. I said that there didn't seem to be as many of these magnificent birds this winter. Immediately, Ron sent me a Flickr mail, telling me in which area he had seen several of them. My reply was that that was a long drive and further than I would normally drive. And that was that. However, I kept looking at the map, knowing that a good part of the distance was new to me. Then I began to think that maybe I could do it after all. No desperation, no need to get out there immediately. In fact, 13 days went by before this trip. Thank you so much, Ron, for passing on this information to me and later, to at least one other person. Though we both had successful days, we can only take part of the credit for our finds. I would never have even thought of travelling to this area. Of course, there was still no guarantee that any owls would be seen, but it was fun to explore a new place. Thoroughly enjoyed myself finding and photographing various old barns and sheds, too.
I had planned out my main route - and then the weather forecast changed at the last minute. Now the forecast said it was going to be a cloudy day with sunny breaks. Did I really want to go? When I checked the forecast for the coming week, snow was forecast for four days and I knew I would never drive rough roads after a snowfall. So, yesterday it was. I wasn't sure if any photos would turn out with such low light, but they seemed usable. One thing that I was definitely not impressed to see, shortly before reaching my destination, was the sudden appearance of my car's maintenance light come on!
I saw three Snowy Owls; two females and 1 male. The first female decided to fly when I was ridiculously far down the road. Maybe she had spotted some prey. The second owl was the female seen in all three photos posted today. She was perched on a far away silo. She had her back to me and stayed that way. When she turned her head to preen her back feathers, at least I could see her face. She knew I was there, as she had glanced my way two or three times, but was comfortable enough to sit and preen for a little while. The third owl was a beautiful white male. I hadn't seen it, perched on top of a power pole, but when I pulled over to stop and check my map, suddenly there was a flap of huge white wings seen out of the corner of my eye. No photos of either the first or third bird.
A few other birds that I saw included a flock of maybe 10 or so Gray Partridge that flew across the road in front of my car, and a fairly large flock of Snow Buntings, behaving the way they always do.
On the way home, I decided to quickly check on a few things east of the city. Nothing new, but nice to see a few familiar old barns and sheds.
So glad I made myself do this new drive.
Comments are always welcome and favs most appreciated.
Comentarios y favs son siempre bienvenidos
© Photography of Ricardo Gomez Angel
All rights reserved. All images on this website are the property of Ricardo Gomez Angel. Images may not be reproduced, copied or used in any way without written permission.
© Fotografía de Ricardo Gomez Angel
Todos los derechos reservados. Todas las imágenes contenidas en este sitio web son propiedad de Ricardo Gomez Angel. Las imágenes no se pueden reproducir, copiar o utilizar de ninguna manera sin el permiso escrito
Many thanks for the visits, faves and comments. Cheers
Eastern bearded dragon
Scientific Name: Pogona barbata
The eastern bearded dragon is an agamid lizard found in wooded parts of Australia. It is one of a group of species known commonly as bearded dragons. Other common names for this species include Jew lizard and frilly lizard, the latter being a confusion between this and another dragon, the frill-necked lizard (Chlamydosaurus kingii). This species was originally described in 1829 by Georges Cuvier, who named it Amphibolurus barbatus.
Description: P. barbata is one of the eight recognized species within the Pogona genus. Adult males can grow to about 60 cm (24 in) from the snout to the tip of the tail, while females may reach 50 cm (20 in) in overall length. The head is large and triangular in shape. The throat is covered with spiny, dark grey scales which can be raised to form an impressive "beard". Several groups of even longer spiny scales are located at the back of the head, the corners of the mouth, the external ear openings, and running posteriorly along both sides of the abdomen. The thorax and abdomen are relatively slender and flattened dorsoventrally. It is usually grey-black in skin colour and is sometimes reddish-brown, yellowish-brown, or dark brown. Juveniles are paler in colour than the adults and have patterns that fade as they mature. As the animal matures, it develops a subtle pale yellow, blue, or green tinge on the forepart of its head. If excited and at higher temperatures head, flanks and legs have a yellowish to orange colour. Usually however they are rather dark, from yellowish to grey and black. The inside of the mouth is generally a bright yellow colour. P. barbata resembles its close relative, the central bearded dragon, but may be distinguished from the latter by its less robust body and the row of spines along the lateral edge of the body, which continues over the forearm.
Distribution and habitat: It is most common in eastern Australia south of Cape York Peninsula, but specimens have been collected from Cape York, through central Australia, and even from the west coast of Australia.
Ecology and behaviour: Eastern bearded dragons are diurnal. They are semiarboreal and perch on exposed places such as tree branches or logs, retreating to lower and cooler places when too hot. They are more aggressive than the central bearded dragon. The males are territorial and permit only females and juveniles in their territory. Dominant males are usually the biggest dragons and get the highest perches. Females tunnel into dry earth to lay a clutch of eggs. When threatened, it inflates its throat and displays its beard. If further provoked, it opens its mouth to display the bright yellow colour of the lining of its mouth. In its close relative, the central bearded dragon; the lining of the mouth is of a reddish-pink hue. However the eastern bearded dragon will perform this beard display more often than its cousin.
Diet: The eastern bearded dragon feeds on a variety of small animals, including mice, smaller reptiles, and insects. In captivity, it also eats leaf vegetables such as clover and small flowers, fruits, and berries.
(Source: Wikipedia)
© Chris Burns 2016
__________________________________________
All rights reserved.
This image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying and recording without my written consent.
Comment Box ..CLOSED..
but will be returning faves "Share + Look"
All best wish happy and take care 2022
Aber Lin
July/11/2022
😍😍😷😷💉💉💉😷😷😍😍
- .| (FWRD)
.| Like, Comment, Follow & Share.
The “(DAKATO BUNDLE)”
“ Welcome Back! (DAKOTA BUNDLE) , Comes with 8 Eye color options with 3 brightness options HD, 1 Skin with 4 beautiful tones followed by 3 pairs of full lashes.| Compatible with ☁️
•
•
•
#secondlife #secondlifedecor #secondhandfashion #secondlifueavi #imvu #imvulifestyle
Another long-winded description to follow. Please feel free to just drop to the comment box if you want.
First, about the eagles. They pretty clearly have chosen nest #2 again this year. That's too bad. It is in a tree on an island in the middle of the Cedar River; too far tor good photos from nearest approachable point.
It doesn't appear that any eggs have been laid yet, based on the fact that in my three visits so far, including today, neither eagle was on the nest, or even in the same tree. Both were present, but both flew off, leaving the nest untended.
This photo is a long shot. Certainly at the very outer extreme for any of my previous gear. I know that at some point the eagles will fly much closer and lower, and I'm looking forward to that. Also, will soon have the excellent 1.4x, so should get some nice close-ups this season.
Now to a quick review of the new Canon 7D MkII. The evaluation mostly hinges on my unfamiliarity with it, and little time for practice and testing.
The camera takes wonderful photos...and the 400mm 5.6 prime lens is very sharp indeed. Sharpest long glass I've ever used, and surprisingly nicely-priced.
You probably know that I rely heavily on constantly adjusting the EV settings, and taking advantage of ISO numbers to deal with changing conditions, or when I point the camera in different directions. I have two observations about these settings on the new camera. First...exposure compensation. The settings are different. EV = - 2/3, and / or EV +1.0, or I imagine any other settings, do not give the same results on the different cameras.
That's not a value judgment (pun intended). Not saying either one is better than the other; only that using the same setting gives different results. I haven't had enough time outside in good weather to seriously test the Canon, so I'm using conservative settings.
My other observation -- again no surprise -- is that I'm finding it much more challenging to change either of these 'on the fly' on the new camera. I'll get the hang of it soon enough, or perhaps there are better ways of doing them than I've so far discovered.
On final very minor mixed review. The Canon allows a photo to be examined in quite a bit larger size in the monitor than on the Nikon. That's good. On the Canon, though, it takes actions by both hands to do it. In fact, so far I'm finding that several features seem to require both hands on the Canon, where Nikons only need one hand. BUT...since many of the buttons on the Canon can be re-defined, it is likely that I'll be able to customize this camera to suit my idiosyncratic shooting technique.
All of that said, I'm loving the sharpness, and the 'closeness' I'm able to achieve. This distant eagle photo gives some idea of what I mean.
Nice comments without copied/pasted group icons are appreciated.
Photography experience courses available, contact for details
As Flickr is a sharing site I only add my pictures to public
groups,
The full portfolio available from Stock photography by Tim Large at Alamy
More of this guy on my Patreon, All earnings from Patreon is used to hire model/buy props or gear
www.patreon.com/user?u=4798784
Model:- Mothy
purpleport.com/portfolio/mothy/
IG:- mothy,model
Photographer:- Studio Stito
purpleport.com/portfolio/nusnus/nofollow
Location:- Studio Stito, Keyworth, Notts, UK
©Studio Stito
View large.
Special NOTE: On Feb. 8, 2012 I attached a comment, readable & easily discoverable on Page 2 of the comments below, that details the vast corporatist scheme, fronted by Jeb Bush, financed in part with hundreds of millions from Rupert Murdoch (FOX nooze), to privatize American public education & reduce it to 'virtual' schools - not to improve anything (as national & international educational research studies clearly show), but rather to become the final recipients of the taxes people pay so that they can skim huge profits off of the top while providing grotesquely inferior services & lots of lying propaganda to keep the public bamboozled. I beg everyone to read the report.
The McGuffey's Ecclectic Spelling Book was published in 1879.
Raymond Cyrus Hoiles (1878-1970) founded Freedom Communications, a newspaper publishing & broadcasting company that has never hesitated to shape the news to fit right wing ideology. When Hoiles was alive & roaring I lived in Orange County, California, home of the equally right wing Walt Disney & Walter Knott, & was frequently compelled to suffer people who agreed with Hoiles' constantly editorialized insistence that public education was a form of theft & communism that must at once be got rid of. Hoiles was motivated by his fundamentalist Christian persuasions, & quite serious. We should restrain our laughter at the abysmal stupidity of his example, because in many ways he & people like him won & are still winning control of public education. - To introduce the article below, I'll say a little about the Christian strategy.
For many years Orange County's teachers worked under a Draconian ruling that forbade the teaching of values. There is no way around the fact, however, that the statement, "Values may not be taught," is itself a value statement belonging to a class of propositions known as Epimenidean Paradoxes. A comparably illustrative sentence would be, "This is not a sentence." Or, a favorite of the best hypnotists, used when addressing a resistant subject, "Do not obey any instruction which I give you."
What, then, was intended by those who created the paradoxical Orange County law? Well, if any teacher dared to say or imply something that would be disagreeable to any person whose beliefs began & ended with church, flag & free-for-all capitalism, then that teacher could be charged with teaching values & be suspended. One family friend, a young man teaching at an elementary school in Anaheim, was charged, hounded, publicly disgraced, threatened with death & discharged from his post, immediately after which he died from a heart attack. The case was depicted in Life Magazine. His only crime was that he was Jewish. His wife, also a teacher, remained bereft & embittered the rest of her long life.
These people became increasingly invisible over time, largely by devising ever more clever ways for gaining control of both education policy & the public dialogue about education.
Ralph Reed, working for Pat Robertson & the Christian Coalition, devised the "stealth agenda" to place fundamentalists in every local school board in America. The plan helped select & fund candidates, who in accord with Reed's instructions never mentioned their religion or religious connections when campaigning for office. In 1983 Reed rigged an election at his university - he got started early, in other words. Recently we learned that Mr. Reed & Jack Abramoff were associate crooks. The revelation forced Reed to abandon his run to become the lieutenant governor of Georgia. Mr. Reed will not disappear, however. He remains a darling of the far Christian right, & owns Century Strategies, a dirty-tricks political consulting & lobbying organization. In 1999 Karl Rove got reed a nice contract with Enron, which was paying Reed $30,000 per month. And guess who recently went to Georgia to try to save poor Reed? Rudy Giuliani, who has the hots to be the next U.S. president & is pandering to the Christians so he can be their new burning Bush.
Stealthiness did not go away when the Christian Coalition folded & Reed went off on his own to rig elections for big bucks. Rather, the stealth moved into policy matters. For instance, all the phony propaganda claiming religious & private education is more successful, creating the excuse to promote vouchers (for which the motives are both religious & racist). Or, most recently, Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which was sought by the Christians not because they believed all the testing of students would lead to improved education, but rather because they wanted teachers to be made too busy preparing students for endless tests about facts to find time to do the great evil thing, which is the teaching of concepts. Teaching concepts leads to teaching logic, scientific & other academic methodologies which by their nature instill respect for critical - read, skeptical - thinking. Dogmatists, advertisers & con men have equal cause to fear skepticism.
-------------------------
From: Truthdig.com
Taking Back Our Schools--and Fixing Them
Full text with links: www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060425_taking_back_our_sch...
Posted on Apr. 25, 2006
By Wellford Wilms
The recent news reported in The New York Times that schools are throwing out science, social studies and art to make time for drilling students in remedial math and reading is a sign of things gone terribly wrong. Former New York State Commissioner of Education Thomas Sobol told the Times that narrowing education to just math and reading would be akin to restricting violin students to playing scales day after day. “They’d lose their zest for music.” But most schools that serve poor populations, like those in Cuero, Texas, are squeezed to meet federal math and reading standards. Cuero Superintendent Henry Lind told the paper, “When you have so many hours per day and you’re behind in some area that’s being hammered on, you have to work on that.”
But by the looks of things, hammering students for higher test scores isn’t making much of a difference. Most students have already lost their zest for learning. How do we know? In Los Angeles, upwards of 50% of Latino and African American students never finish high school. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
I’ve been a professor of education at UCLA for more than 25 years and am convinced that despite the fads that come and go, nothing has put a dent in the public schools’ failure to educate inner-city children. In fact, things are getting worse. But I am also convinced that we’ve been looking in the wrong places for solutions. My own research across a wide array of organizations—corporations, trade unions, public schools, colleges, teacher unions and police agencies—suggests another way of looking at the problem and that solutions will come from a new direction.
This essay is a proposition—one that I hope will spark a lively debate among Truthdig readers and inform policy leaders. Future essays will examine Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign to take over the public schools, analyze whether teacher unions can be a force for productive change, and expose promising ways to rebuild public investment in the schools.
Let’s start with Jonathan Kozol’s new book, “The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America.” It is a scathing indictment of American social policy that banned racial segregation in public schools in 1955 and then turned a blind eye to its implementation. Today, Kozol says, schools are more segregated than ever. But he fails to explain why resegregation has occurred. Because Kozol overlooks the root causes of the problem, his solutions—spending more money on dysfunctional schools and wishing for a social mandate to desegregate the schools—miss the point.
To be sure the problems are undeniable. Kozol examines the appalling condition of big-city schools. In school after school we see children who are brimming with potential but who are walled off from the larger society and abandoned by the schools. Most middle-class white Americans simply cannot comprehend the horrid schools that Kozol describes. Ceilings fall in, toilets are filthy, libraries, music and arts have been stripped away. Teachers in these schools, who are paid 40% less than teachers in the suburbs, are forced to teach “scripted” lessons that are written for children who are deemed incapable of learning.
It is all part of the latest reform pushed by the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind initiative, a reform aimed at the singular pursuit of increasing test scores. Learning has been stripped of its intrinsic meaning and reduced to simplistic steps—“Authentic Writing,” “Active Listening,” “Accountable Talk”—that hamper teachers in teaching anything but how to take a test. Behind it all is an attempt to impose control, much as mass production techniques were used a century ago, to standardize instruction to fit new immigrants to the system.
Meanwhile, millions of children are failing. In nearly half of the high schools in America’s 100 largest districts, fewer than 50% of students graduate in four years. Most of these students are from poor Latino and African-American families. And from 1993 to 2000 the number of failing schools has mushroomed by 75%. Mayor Villaraigosa calls Los Angeles’ high dropout rates “numbers that should put a chill down your spine.”
The reasons, Kozol argues, are lack of money and racial discrimination that produce inferior and segregated schools. No doubt this is partly true. We have tried to desegregate the schools for a half-century and failed. Middle-class white parents have voted for individual freedom with their feet, enrolling their children in private schools, leaving the public schools more segregated than ever. The same is true for middle-class black families. Gail Foster, an educator who has studied black independent schools, was quoted in 2004 in The New York Times as saying: “Many of the most empowered parents and families are removing their children. What’s left, in even working-class communities, are schools filled with the least empowered families. Families with the least parent involvement to offer, families with the least help with homework to offer. There’s been a continual outflow for at least 10 years, and it isn’t stopping now.”
More money is not the answer either. Kozol points to wide disparities in educational expenditures ranging from $11,700 per student in New York City to $22,000 in suburban Manhasset. Disturbing as that is, study after study shows that equalizing money does not necessarily equalize learning.
In 1966, sociologist James Coleman conducted the most extensive study ever made of desegregating education and found that what mattered most in students’ learning was the economic status of their peers rather than the racial makeup of the school. He also found that school funding was not closely related to students’ achievement—their families’ economic status was far more predictive. Coleman’s findings were controversial and led to a bitter debate, but they have been replicated many times. Daniel Patrick Moynihan summed it up best when he commented shortly after Coleman’s groundbreaking study, “We should begin to see that the underlying reality is not race but social class.”
Since social class matters because money follows privilege, and since desegregation will take generations to eradicate, what can be done now? Are poor children doomed to attend grossly inadequate schools? Surely not. We must find ways to remove the influences that have crippled the schools. Money must be diverted from bloated bureaucracies that snuff out innovation. Instead it must go directly to schools where principals and teachers can influence what is taught and what children learn, and help bring parents back into the fold. Otherwise, it is going down a rat hole.
Parents have a significant role to play in their children’s education, but their voices have been largely silenced. Over the last 40 years, we have witnessed the decline of civic involvement and the growing dominance of self-interest over the greater good, a social deterioration that sociologist Robert Putnam calls “hollowing out” in his 2000 book “Bowling Alone.” One result, as the old saying goes, is that “the rich get richer” and the poor fall ever further behind in crumbling schools.
Over the last 25 years, education in general has been taken from ordinary citizens and teachers by politicians, administrators, union leaders, publishers, test makers, consultants, university professors, hardware and software developers and the media, each playing its part in keeping alive the illusion of reform. All in all, this $1-trillion industry has replaced the common interest, and no one, it seems, can muster the will to rein it in.
Local control is only a dim memory. Decisions now come from the top—from the federal and state governments, school boards and high-level administrators who have little knowledge of what goes on in the classroom. Teachers are left out of these decisions, carrying on the best they can, safe in the assumption that the newest fad, like those before it, will blow over. Parents are all but forgotten.
While command-and-control management may seem to produce results in the short run, it strips schools of the capacity to develop the stable leadership that is necessary to sustain success. Principals are besieged with demands from district offices and from the educational fads that emanate from publishers and university researchers. Many principals know that they put their careers in peril unless they do what their bosses want. One elementary school principal told me, “District directives undermine our own abilities to think for ourselves, to believe in what we see and know.” When schools discover something that works, it is rarely sustained because they lack authority or stable leadership.
In 1969 when I worked for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, I monitored the schools in impoverished Ocean Hill-Brownsville in New York City. The local school board hired a charismatic superintendent, who fired incompetent teachers and hired young and idealistic ones. The firings set the local board at odds with the huge teachers’ union, which demanded due process for the fired teachers. The superintendent, Rhody McCoy, was convinced that good teachers had to respect the children they taught. He put it in plain words: “If you’re convinced that this kid is doomed by nature or by something else to lead a shrunken and curtailed life, then you’re basically incompetent to teach that child.” The experiment worked. Observing classrooms left no doubt in my mind that students were learning. Eager first-graders sat attentively on the floor in semicircles shouting out answers to fraction problems and reading aloud. The schools buzzed with excitement as parent helpers streamed in and out of classrooms. But in a bitter power struggle the board seized authority and the experiment ended.
Years later, in 1985, Deborah Meier, a passionate educator who founded Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary School, achieved stunning successes that led the school to be celebrated as a model alternative school in Time magazine. But it could not be sustained beyond Meier’s unique leadership. Today, 10 years after Meier left, a respected children’s advocacy group, Insideschools and Advocates for Children, reports that the Harlem school “…has fallen on hard times in recent years with rapid staff turnover, low staff morale and uneven discipline.”
In risk-averse environments like public schools, few principals will stick out their necks, because they don’t want to buck the bosses downtown. Courageous and visionary principals like Rhody McCoy and Deborah Meier keep coming. But charismatic leadership is no match for heavy-handed district management, which always wins out.
Take Foshay Learning Center in Los Angeles, for example. In 1989, Howard Lappin took over a failing middle school. With the help of teachers and an infusion of money, Lappin wrested control from the district and transformed Foshay. The school expanded into a K-12 “learning center” and became largely autonomous of the district’s bureaucratic requirements. Teachers and administrators decided who would be hired and what would be taught. Foshay succeeded, and in 2000 its high school was selected by Newsweek as one of the 100 best in America. But in 2001 Lappin retired, and his unique leadership was lost. Today Foshay is being threatened with sanctions by the district and the county because gains in students’ test scores have stalled. As the school has fallen under the district’s “one-size-fits all” bureaucratic requirements, the impact has been to undermine the once vibrant teacher leadership that made the school so enviable.
The problem with public education is not with the teachers, or with the children, but the way we organize the schools. Probably the greatest casualties are teachers themselves, who are forced to accept decisions by authorities about teaching that they know to be nonsense. One professor interviewed by Kozol said that forcing an absurdity on teachers teaches something: acquiescence. For example, in study after study, teachers report that relying on test scores as sole marks of student achievement and teaching scripted lessons destroy students’ natural love of learning. And such practices also erode teachers’ professional authority, which is fundamental to student learning.
Why is it so hard to foster the only kind of reform that really works, which is right in the schoolhouse? Because politicians, school board members and administrators are under intense pressure to produce immediate results, i.e., higher and higher test scores—a goal that is pursued through directives from districts with little input of principals, teachers and parents. Superintendents serve at the pleasure of school boards, and most board members are elected or appointed and have limited terms of office. As test scores have become the measure of educational quality, everyone is under immense pressure to show fast results or be turned out.
No wonder that school boards hire superintendents who promise to deliver quick results. But few do. Superintendents last on average only three or four years. Many are thwarted by outmoded bureaucracies that were designed a century ago using top-down control practiced in American industry to mass-produce learning. Within these organizations, power has quietly accumulated, making them all but impervious to outside influence. Sid Thompson, former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, told me: “Trying to change the district is like trying to change the direction of a fast-moving freight train. You might knock it off course for a moment, but before you know it it’s rattling right down the tracks again.”
Frustration and suspicion about who might emerge from the shadows to sabotage their plans often lead superintendents to jealously guard their power. In 2002, Day Higuchi, then president of United Teachers Los Angeles, the Los Angeles teacher union, had high hopes for working with the school district’s new “can-do” superintendent, Roy Romer. Higuchi hoped that Romer would endorse a new union initiative called Lesson Study, a plan to help teachers work collectively to improve classroom lessons. At a breakfast meeting that I attended, Higuchi presented Romer with an invitation to work with the union to develop and spread Lesson Study across the district. When Higuchi finished, Romer flipped over his paper placemat and with a red felt pen drew a box with an S in it. “That’s me,” he said. Beneath he drew 11 boxes with smaller s’s in them, representing the 11 local superintendents, and below that, a number of small boxes with roofs, representing schools and teachers. Then, pulling his face near to Higuchi’s, he drew bold red arrows pointing downward from the top. Romer jabbed his pen in the air to accentuate each word: “You cannot usurp my authority to manage this district!” It was a dumbfounding moment, one that revealed the true underside of the use of power. Here was a chance for a new superintendent to forge a small but significant step with the union, but Romer, who recently announced his resignation, explained that he was “in a hurry.” He clearly had little time for ideas that were at odds with his own. In the end his refusal to work with the union undermined the possibility of creating a broader base of power that could transcend self-interest.
Nor are the unions exempt from self-interest. A few years ago I helped establish a national group of union presidents called TURN (Teacher Union Reform Network) who were dedicated to remaking their unions as forces to improve education. One way was to cooperate with administrators and encourage teachers to use their classroom know-how to redesign teaching at the schoolhouse. But hostility and mistrust run deep. The union leaders became nervous, fearing that fellow unionists would attack them for “collaborating” with the enemy and that if the effort to collaborate failed they would share the blame. Don Watley, president of the New Mexico Federation of Educational Employees, commented: “It’s like the Normandy landing. We’ve got the best troops in the world. We’ve got the best officers in the world. And we’ve got the best equipment in the world. But at 0800 when we hit the beach half of us are going to get killed!” Sadly, in the years to come, the ingrained mistrust, and the unpredictable dance of union politics, prevented these unionists from becoming a positive force in educational reform. Instead, they have been reduced to stockpiling power, much as the Soviets and Americans stockpiled nuclear weapons during the Cold War, to oppose any hostile moves the other side might make.
So what can be done to break the standoff between teacher unions and districts? How can teachers’ professional authority be restored? How can parents be awakened and brought back into the fold? Experience shows that it can be done. Schools such as Harlem’s Central Park East Secondary, Los Angeles’ Foshay Learning Center, those in Ocean Hill-Brownsville, and many others attest to the fact that schools can be made into safe places where children learn. Sustaining them is the hard part.
There is little doubt that trying to build good schools with command-and-control management doesn’t work. School boards, superintendents and union officials need to clear the obstacles—unnecessary bureaucratic requirements and outmoded work rules—to make innovation at the schoolhouse possible. These top-level educational leaders also must make resources available to support new ways of teaching. Jonathan Kozol has it right. Teaching is the only reform that counts and it can be done only at the schoolhouse by teachers, principals, parents and students working together.
Turning school districts upside down will also mean turning a century of top-down management on its head. But where is such bold leadership to be found? One promising place is among big-city mayors. But they must resist trying to take over the schools, as they did in New York, Chicago and Boston with mixed results at best. Instead, popular mayors could use their influence and visibility to tell the truth about the condition of education and to build a popular consensus about how change must occur.
In the next essay I am going to examine what mayors can do. Waiting for the schools to be saved by someone else is nonsense. Only concerted local action offers a chance. Doubters should recall Margaret Mead’s observation: “Never doubt that a small group of concerned people can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2006 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.
###
Thanks for all the nice comments in my previous photo! =D =D Love you all! =D
My dad's gone away to norway, and took his camera with him.. so I'm just editing some old photos now, till I can finally welcome my (well, okay his!) beloved camera back home ;)
This is an outtake from this shoot ;)
*oh and all stock photos came from here!*
225/365
Wansink Photography © All Rights Reserved. 2010. Do not use, copy or edit any of my photographs without written permission.
Any comments and favs are very much appreciated
If you like my creative work, please follow the tracking or other social networking sites below
如果喜歡我的創作與拍攝,歡迎追蹤
非常感激
Follow me:
Facebook｜Instagran | 500px | 圖蟲網
聯絡方式
Contact information :
Line id : kelvin9925
WeChat ID: Kelvin9925
email : iwakuma.kelvin@gmail.com
PLEASE COMMENT IF YOU FAVE!
So, I didn't actually plan on making her, but I just saw Suicide Squad on Saturday for the first time. Harley was literally the only thing that was keeping me interested along with deadshot's character arc.
So this fig is Squad inspired, with my own twists.
Also, new background!
Harley Quinn:
Her head is official, with blue and red eyeshadow added on. Her hair is from the CMF babysitter, painted in a off white, with baby blue and pink painted onto the tips. It also has some blue and red hairties. I liked the jacket less version in the film, so I went for that approach. The red top was swapped with blue, and the blue arm stripes were swapped with red. The shirt design is based off an actual HQ shirt, but I added the Card suit logos. The shirt is ripped at the ends, to give Harley a sense of edginess. The shorts are straight from Suicide Squad, but I didn't feel like adding fishnet stockings. The boots are knee high, with simple detail.
Overall, I really like how it turned out.
I plan on making the other Gotham Sirens, but with my own twists.
Again, please comment if you fave!
Thanks!
Boss.
Comments are welcome if you have an opinion about whether the right or left image is better. They're welcome anyway but I'm curious which one you like better.
In childhood, I had a relative whose house had a well and you had to pump a handle, like the one shown here, to get water. It was potable water from a well but you had to work for it.
Out of frame: this place had "grenade" style glass carbon tetrachloride fire extinguishers. In concept, good. Downside: in a fire the extinguishing agent decomposes into phosgene gas.
…It’s very hard to motivate change when the costs are up-front and the benefits [are later].
— Peter Orszag
Journalism grade images.
Source: 8,100x2,500 file composed of two 16-bit TIF files.
Please do not copy this image for any purpose.
Comments and Critic are highly appreciated.
Description: One of the single exposure shot taken during my timelapse shot on a lovely afternoon while overlooking the traffic jam on the AKLEH.
Filter: Singh Ray RGND (0.9)
Follow me on:
www.facebook.com/hafidz.abdulkadir
My pictures available at Getty Images
My Timelapse/footage available at Shutterstock
Hafidz Abdul Kadir / © All rights reserved
Comments always appreciated, as long as you keep it clean - I love to hear your feedback! xx
For Leeds Fisrt Friday Gemma and I helped out two first-timers as we love to do. What a brilliant night! Rose and Becky had such a good time - and Becky even came out with us the next night to a non-lgbt club! Amazing, and wonderful to see someone new really taking to being out and about.
Also, I did my second ever karaoke performance at The Bridge, which I absolutely loved! And it turns out there's a little diva buried inside me somewhere - at the end of the song, I got a couple of cheers from the back of the pub, and in response I blew a kiss, LOL! Diva!
Another of Gemma's awesome slow motion corridor walking videos. I forgot to upload this one the other day when I uploaded the others.
*** Comments disabled for this image ***
Monument Valley, USA.
Taken at sunrise.
June 2013.
Please do not download or use any of my photographs without first getting my approval. Copyright Rebecca Ang 2013. All Rights Reserved.
From the archive, but not previously uploaded.
I've still not seen one this Winter, but a small group were spotted this week in Cambridge. If it does ever stop raining then I'll try my best to find them.
Enjoy your weekend and thank you for all your great comments recently, always appreciated.
Often when I see people pitch X-men reboots, they do one of two things: A) Do the original Uncanny X-men roster of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel and Iceman or B) Just plugs in every popular X-men right off the bat. I don't like either of these. The uncanny X-men roster is kinda bland, while having every popular X-man in one movie would obviously not work.
My ideal line up would comprise of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, Storm and Angel. Professor X and Beast would also be present but as mentors to the team, not actual X-men.
Ce matin-là, cette femme de l'ethnie Surma, prénommée Toulaoli, est venue à notre bivouac pour nous montrer avec fierté le labret d'argile qu'elle a façonné la veille devant nous et qu'elle a fait cuire le soir dans son village.
Ce labret nous a été offert, (peut-être quand même en échange de quelques birs) ; il fait désormais partie de notre cabinet de curiosités.
Le port du labret (ou plateau labial) traditionnellement pratiqué chez les Surma et les Mursi, s'il disparait peu à peu et ne concerne plus guère que les femmes un peu âgées, est cependant encore porté par certaines femmes jeunes.
On trouve beaucoup d'erreurs et d'affirmations fantaisistes (comme cette explication souvent citée qui voudrait que l'enlaidissemnt des femmes portant le labret, les protègent des razzias des esclavagistes) dans les textes qui évoquent le port du labret chez les femmes Mursi et Surma, même dans les ouvrages les plus classiques sur le sujet. De tous les textes que j'ai consulté, celui qui me parait le plus sérieux à ce propos est celui-ci :
journals.openedition.org/imagesrevues/2501
Je m'en suis inspiré pour écrire ce texte.
Après avoir enlevé les incisives inférieures, la lèvre inférieure des jeunes-femmes surma est percée puis étirée progressivement en utilisant des disques de plus en plus grands. Après quelques mois d'étirement, la lèvre est si élastique qu'on peut y introduire le labret sans difficulté
Les contextes cérémoniels sont propices au port du labret, par exemple les danses et autres moments de séduction, ou lorsqu’une épouse sert un repas à son mari et ses hôtes, ou encore lors de la plupart des rituels, seuls moments réunissant plus de personnes que le voisinage immédiat. Les moments où le labret s’impose sont assez bien définis et, dans tous les cas, le port du labret correspond à la présence d'hommes.
Le labret est porté de la maturité sexuelle à la naissance des premiers enfants, c'est-à-dire pendant quelques années seulement. Les femmes le délaisseront ensuite et la lèvre se rétractera
Les femmes surma fabriquent elles-mêmes leurs labret. Elles utilisent une boule de terre argileuse humidifiée qu'elles frappent longuement afin d’en extraire les poches d’air et d’augmenter sa densité. Petit à petit, cette boule est aplatie et un disque apparaît. Une fois que celui-ci atteint le diamètre voulu, les doigts mouillés de la femme qui le fabrique dessinent sur la tranche un sillon large d’une lèvre, le plus lisse et régulier possible. Il est ensuite jeté dans les braises d’un feu et, selon le procédé de cuisson et d’oxydation, deviendra noir, rouge, brun ou blanc.
Quant à la signification du labret, cette étude, après avoir rapelé l'importance primordiale des bovins dans la culture Surma, en donne une interprétaion originale que je vous livre : "Le labret participe à réduire la distance entre forme des visages et forme des faces. Aux femmes, il manque le mufle [ ... ]. Le labret change les proportions du visage féminin qui s’approchent alors de celles du bovin".
All comments regarding this picture, subject, composition, etc are welcome and appreciated. TIA.
To see more pictures of Great Gray Owls, please visit my Great Gray Owl album at www.flickr.com/photos/black_cat_photography/albums/721577...
To see my pictures on flickr river - please visit www.flickriver.com/photos/black_cat_photography/popular-i...
To learn more about these magnificent birds please visit www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/overview
-
هذَا الصبح محمّل بأمانينا تلكَ التي تقودنا للسعي وإكمال الطريق، يالله هاهي أمانينا نملئُ بها صلواتنا ونعلم يقينًا أنك لا تُخيب الساعين إليك، هاهي نستودِعها لديك لتعيدها إلينا حقيقة نعيشها بكل الفرح
ask.fm:
Twitter:
PLEASE COMMENT WHEN YOU FAVE. It’s really not that hard and i love hearing feedback. It’s not much, even if its just "nice" or something, but it really makes a difference. also, please try to be respectful to myself and others. thank you.
even thought ive posted a lot of these guys separately but i thought it would be nice to put them all together. i think they came out really good.
from left to right
Mad Hatter, Black Mask, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Ra's Al Ghul, Manbat, Bane, The Joker, Riddler, Mr Freeze, Penguin, Two-Fce, Hush, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc
Comments are always welcome and favs most appreciated.
Comentarios y favs son siempre bienvenidos
© Photography of Ricardo Gomez Angel
All rights reserved. All images on this website are the property of Ricardo Gomez Angel. Images may not be reproduced, copied or used in any way without written permission.
© Fotografía de Ricardo Gomez Angel
Todos los derechos reservados. Todas las imágenes contenidas en este sitio web son propiedad de Ricardo Gomez Angel. Las imágenes no se pueden reproducir, copiar o utilizar de ninguna manera sin el permiso escrito
Any comments and favs are very much appreciated
If you like my creative work, please follow the tracking or other social networking sites below
如果喜歡我的創作與拍攝,歡迎按追蹤
非常感激
Follow me:
Facebook｜Instagran | 500px中國 |
合作邀約聯絡方式
Contact information :
Line id : kelvin9925
WeChat ID: Kelvin9925
email : iwakuma.kelvin@gmail.com