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February2025.Along Main Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.RolleiRetro80s@200.CanonF1n.CanonFD-50f1.4@f11.YellowFilter. First attempt at developing in Caffenol-CH for this film. Pre- soaked for two minutes at 20°C agitating at least twice. Developed in Caffenol-CH developer @ 20°C for 30 minutes agitating for the first full minute and then three rotations every minute. Stopped in tapwater at 20°C for two minutes agitating at least twice. Fixed in Ilford rapid fixer at 20°C for five minutes agitating the first 30 seconds and one more time halfway in. Washed in tapwater using the Ilford method. Final wash in distilled water for two minutes.FilmScan:FujifilmXH1
The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a small canid native to much of North America and Eurasia, as well as northern Africa and pakistan. It is the most recognizable species of fox and in many areas it is referred to simply as "the fox". As its name suggests, its fur is predominantly reddish-brown, but there is a naturally occurring grey morph known as the “silver” fox; a strain of domesticated silver fox has been produced from these animals by systematic domestication.
The red fox is by far the most widespread and abundant species of fox, found in almost every single habitat in the Northern Hemisphere, from the coastal marshes of United States, to the alpine tundras of Tibetan Plateau. It was introduced into Australia in the 19th century.[2] It is capable of co-existing with more specialized species of foxes, such as Arctic fox, in the same habitat. The red fox can withstand and sometimes thrive in areas with heavy human disturbance. It is nowhere near extinction, and its amazing adaptiveness is driving many other less competent species into extinction.
The red fox is frequently featured in stories of many cultures, and is often portrayed as a sly animal.
Living as it does in a wide variety of habitats, the red fox displays a wide variety of behaviours. In Biology and Conservation of Wild Canids,[34] MacDonald and Sillero-Zubiri state that two populations of the red fox may be behaviourally as different as two species.
The red fox is primarily crepuscular with a tendency to becoming nocturnal in areas of great human interference (and artificial lighting); that is to say, it is most active at night and at twilight. It is generally a solitary hunter. If a fox catches more food than it can eat, it will bury the extra food (cache) to store it for later.
In general, each fox claims its own territory; it pairs up only in winter, foraging alone in the summer. Territories may be as large as 50 km² (19 square miles); ranges are much smaller (less than 12 km², 4.6 sq mi) in habitats with abundant food sources, however. Several dens are utilized within these territories; dens may be claimed from previous residents such as marmots, or dug anew. A larger main den is used for winter living, birthing and rearing of young; smaller dens are dispersed throughout the territory for emergency and food storage purposes. A series of tunnels often connects them with the main den. One fox may only need a square kilometre of land marked by recognition posts that are special smells that come from a scent gland located just above a fox's tail.
The scent from this gland is composed of or very closely related to the thiols and thioacetate derivatives used by skunks (most notably Mephitis mephitis) as a defensive weapon. This gives the red fox a skunklike scent detectable by humans at close proximity (about 2 to 3 meters or less) but which is not easily transferred to other animals or inanimate objects; so the concentrations secreted and/or produced by the gland must be very much less than that of the skunk. The red fox cannot spray the thiolates like the skunks and does not appear to use the secretion as a defense.
The red fox primarily forms monogamous pairs each winter, who cooperate to raise a litter of 4–6 kits (also called pups) each year. Young foxes disperse promptly on maturity (approx. 8–10 months).
Though usually monogamous, evidence for polygamy (polygyny and polyandry) exists, including males’ extraterritorial movements during breeding season (possibly searching for additional mates) and males’ home ranges overlapping two or more females’ home ranges. Such variability is thought to be linked to variation in the spatial availability of key resources such as food.[1]
The reason for this "group living" behaviour is not well understood; some researchers[who?] believe the non-breeders boost the survival rate of the litters while others[who?] believe there is no significant difference, and such arrangements are made spontaneously due to a resource surplus.
Socially, the fox communicates with body language and a variety of vocalizations. Its vocal range is quite large and its noises vary from a distinctive three-yip "lost call" to a shriek reminiscent of a human scream. It also communicates with scent, marking food and territorial boundary lines with urine and faeces.
John James Audubon noted that cross foxes tended to be shyer than their fully red counterparts. He conjectured that the reason was due to the greater commercial value its fur, thus forcing it to adopt a warier behaviour to evade hunters.[35]
A Shot During Mohiniyattam Performance At Soorya Festival TVM
* Do Not Use This Picture Anywhere Without Permission
The Dolomites are scattered with churches around every corner, each usually perched in beautiful locations with their signature spires.
This one was a little different. Seemingly hiding by its unusual architecture amongst some trees and lacking the usual spire, this church was instead paired with what looked like a very tall telecommunications tower.
As the morning sunlight creeped over the mountains and through the fog, this church stood out clearly despite being dwarfed by the huge Dolomites around it. As the light became more pronounced the church, like the fog, disappeared.
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Nikon D800 with a Tamron SP 70-200mm F/2.8 Di VC USD
PLEASE DO NOT COMMENT
Nearly everyone I communicate with here is, like me, primarily interested in nature... not parades and marches. So.. to save the tedium several times a year, just fave if you like it, and don't comment. ( There is a "Commenting disabled" option, but I can't get it to cooperate ).
To normal people - this would just be random foam patterns on the sea... but we know better !!
Nikkormat FT3, Nikkor 105mm F/2.5, Kodak T-Max@800, Xtol
Communications towers atop Sandia Crest. This location at 10,678' is nearly dead-ccenter in the State, allowing signals to be received from almost any location in New Mexico. Radio interference from the towers often interferes with keyless entry systems in visiting cars. Visibility can extend to 100 miles on a clear day!
My new normal since Covid-19 began... working from home and communicating with everyone via Zoom. I still have weekly Zoom meetings with the Finance team at work. And I have been participating in watercolor painting workshops and classes, most of them on Zoom.
This is one of my favorite classes, a watercolor landscape workshop with Rick Surowicz. He teaches the class on Tuesdays and also records critiques of our paintings each week. It is very effective and I have learned so much from him. I would never be able to attend workshops wth him in person because he lives in Ohio!
I love the Zoom format for workshops like this because you can ask questions during the live session.
ANSH117: Something beginning with Z
AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT CORVUS CORONE
LEGEND AND MYTHOLOGY
Crows appear in the Bible where Noah uses one to search for dry land and to check on the recession of the flood. Crows supposedly saved the prophet, Elijah, from famine and are an Inuit deity. Legend has it that England and its monarchy will end when there are no more crows in the Tower of London. And some believe that the crows went to the Tower attracted by the regular corpses following executions with written accounts of their presence at the executions of Anne Boleyn and Jane Gray.
In Welsh mythology, unfortunately Crows are seen as symbolic of evilness and black magic thanks to many references to witches transforming into crows or ravens and escaping. Indian legend tells of Kakabhusandi, a crow who sits on the branches of a wish-fulfilling tree called Kalpataru and a crow in Ramayana where Lord Rama blessed the crow with the power to foresee future events and communicate with the souls.
In Native American first nation legend the crow is sometimes considered to be something of a trickster, though they are also viewed positively by some tribes as messengers between this world and the next where they carry messages from the living to those deceased, and even carry healing medicines between both worlds. There is a belief that crows can foresee the future. The Klamath tribe in Oregon believe that when we die, we fly up to heaven as a crow. The Crow can also signify wisdom to some tribes who believe crows had the power to talk and were therefore considered to be one of the wisest of birds. Tribes with Crow Clans include the Chippewa (whose Crow Clan and its totem are called Aandeg), the Hopi (whose Crow Clan is called Angwusngyam or Ungwish-wungwa), the Menominee, the Caddo, the Tlingit, and the Pueblo tribes of New Mexico.
The crow features in the Nanissáanah (Ghost dance), popularized by Jerome Crow Dog, a Brulé Lakota sub-chief and warrior born at Horse Stealing Creek in Montana Territory in 1833, the crow symbolizing wisdom and the past, when the crow had became a guide and acted as a pathfinder during hunting. The Ghost dance movement was originally created in 1870 by Wodziwob, or Gray Hair, a prophet and medicine man of the Paiute tribe in an area that became known as Nevada. Ghost dancers wore crow and eagle feathers in their clothes and hair, and the fact that the Crow could talk placed it as one of the sages of the animal kingdom.
The five day dances seeking trance,prophecy and exhortations would eventually play a major part in the pathway towards the white man's broken treaties, the infamous battle at Wounded knee and the surrender of Matȟó Wanáȟtaka (Kicking Bear), after officials began to fear the ghost dancers and rituals which seemed to occur prior to battle.
Historically the Vikings are the group who made so many references to the crow, and Ragnarr Loðbrók and his sons used this species in his banner as well as appearances in many flags and coats of arms. Also, it had some kind of association with Odin, one of their main deities. Norse legend tells us that Odin is accompanied by two crows. Hugin, who symbolizes thought, and Munin, who represents a memory. These two crows were sent out each dawn to fly the entire world, returning at breakfast where they informed the Lord of the Nordic gods of everything that went on in their kingdoms. Odin was also referred to as Rafnagud (raven-god). The raven appears in almost every skaldic poem describing warfare.Coins dating back to 940's minted by Olaf Cuaran depict the Viking war standard, the Raven and Viking war banners (Gonfalon) depicted the bird also.
In Scandinavian legends, crows are a representative of the Goddess of Death, known as Valkyrie (from old Norse 'Valkyrja'), one of the group of maidens who served the Norse deity Odin, visiting battlefields and sending him the souls of the slain worthy of a place in Valhalla. Odin ( also called Wodan, Woden, or Wotan), preferred that heroes be killed in battle and that the most valiant of souls be taken to Valhöll, the hall of slain warriors. It is the crow that provides the Valkyries with important information on who should go. In Hindu ceremonies that are associated to ancestors, the crow has an important place in Vedic rituals. They are seen as messengers of death in Indian culture too.
In Germanic legend, Crows are seen as psychonomes, meaning the act of guiding spirits to their final destination, and that the feathers of a crow could cure a victim who had been cursed. And yet, a lone black crow could symbolize impending death, whilst a group symbolizes a lucky omen! Vikings also saw good omens in the crow and would leave offerings of meat as a token.
The crow also has sacred and prophetic meaning within the Celtic civilization, where it stood for flesh ripped off due to combat and Morrighan, the warrior goddess, often appears in Celtic mythology as a raven or crow, or else is found to be in the company of the birds. Crow is sacred to Lugdnum, the Celtic god of creation who gave his name to the city of Lug
In Greek mythology according to Appolodorus, Apollo is supposedly responsible for the black feathers of the crow, turning them forever black from their pristine white original plumage as a punishment after they brought news that Κορωνις (Coronis) a princess of the Thessalian kingdom of Phlegyantis, Apollo's pregnant lover had left him to marry a mortal, Ischys. In one legend, Apollo burned the crows feathers and then burned Coronis to death, in another Coronis herself was turned into a black crow, and another that she was slain by the arrows of Αρτεμις (Artemis - twin to Apollo). Koronis was later set amongst the stars as the constellation Corvus ("the Crow"). Her name means "Curved One" from the Greek word korônis or "Crow" from the word korônê.A similar Muslim legend allegedly tells of Muhammad, founder of Islam and the last prophet sent by God to Earth, who's secret location was given away by a white crow to his seekers, as he hid in caves. The crow shouted 'Ghar Ghar' (Cave, cave) and thus as punishment, Muhammad turned the crow black and cursed it for eternity to utter only one phrase, 'Ghar, ghar). Native Indian legend where the once rainbow coloured crows became forever black after shedding their colourful plumage over the other animals of the world.
In China the Crow is represented in art as a three legged bird on a solar disk, being a creature that helps the sun in its journey. In Japan there are myths of Crow Tengu who were priests who became vain, and turned into this spirit to serve as messengers until they learn the lesson of humility as well as a great Crow who takes part in Shinto creation stories.
In animal spirit guides there are general perceptions of what sightings of numbers of crows actually mean:
1 Crow Meaning: To carry a message from your near one who died recently.
2 Crows Meaning: Two crows sitting near your home signifies some good news is on your way.
3 Crows Meaning: An upcoming wedding in your family.
4 Crows Meaning: Symbolizes wealth and prosperity.
5 Crows Meaning: Diseases or pain.
6 Crows Meaning: A theft in your house!
7 Crows Meaning: Denotes travel or moving from your house.
8 Crows Meaning: Sorrowful events
Crows are generally seen as the symbolism when alive for doom bringing, misfortune and bad omens, and yet a dead crow symbolises potentially bringing good news and positive change to those who see it. This wonderful bird certainly gets a mixed bag of contradictory mythology and legend over the centuries and in modern days is often seen as a bit of a nuisance, attacking and killing the babies of other birds such as Starlings, Pigeons and House Sparrows as well as plucking the eyes out of lambs in the field, being loud and noisy and violently attacking poor victims in a 'crow court'....
There is even a classic horror film called 'THE CROW' released in 1994 by Miramax Films, directed by Alex Proyas and starring Brandon Lee in his final film appearance as Eric Draven, who is revived by a Crow tapping on his gravestone a year after he and his fiancée are murdered in Detroit by a street gang. The crow becomes his guide as he sets out to avenge the murders. The only son of martial arts expert Bruce Lee, Brandon lee suffered fatal injuries on the set of the film when the crew failed to remove the primer from a cartridge that hit Lee in the abdomen with the same force as a normal bullet. Lee died that day, March 31st 1993 aged 28.
The symbolism of the Crow resurrecting the dead star and accompanying him on his quest for revenge was powerful, and in some part based on the history of the carrion crow itself and the original film grossed more than $94 Million dollars with three subsequent sequels following.
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK
So let's move away from legend, mythology and stories passed down from our parents and grandparents and look at these amazing birds in isolation.
Carrion crow are passerines in the family Corvidae a group of Oscine passerine birds including Crows, Ravens, Rooks, Jackdaws, Jays, Magpies, Treepies, Choughs and Nutcrackers. Technically they are classed as Corvids, and the largest of passerine birds. Carrion crows are medium to large in size with rictal bristles and a single moult per year (most passerines moult twice). Carrion crow was one of the many species originally described by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne after his ennoblement) in his 1758 and 1759 editions of 'SYSTEMA NATURAE', and it still bears its original name of Corvus corone, derived from the Latin of Corvus, meaning Raven and the Greek κορώνη (korōnē), meaning crow.
Carrion crow are of the Animalia kingdom Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Corvidae Genus: Corvus and Species: Corvus corone
Corvus corone can reach 45-47cm in length with a 93-104cm wingspan and weigh between 370-650g. They are protected under The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in the United Kingdom with a Green UK conservation status which means they are of least concern with more than 1,000,000 territories. Breeding occurs in April with fledging of the chicks taking around twenty nine days following an incubation period of around twenty days with 3 to 4 eggs being the average norm.
They are abundant in the UK apart from Northwest Scotland and Ireland where the Hooded crow (Corvus cornix) was considered the same species until 2002. They have a lifespan of around four years, whilst Crow species can live to the age of Twenty years old, and the oldest known American crow in the wild was almost Thirty years old. The oldest documented captive crow died at age Fifty nine. They are smaller and have a shorter lifespan than the Raven, which again is used as a symbol in history to live life to the full and not waste a moment!
They are often mistaken for the Rook (Corvus frugilegus), a similar bird, though in the UK, the Rook is actually technically smaller than the Carrion crow averaging 44-46cm in length, 81-99cm wingspan and weighing up to 340g. Rooks have white beaks compared to the black beaks of Carrion crow, a more steeply raked ratio from head to beak, and longer straighter beaks as well as a different plumage pattern. There are documented cases in the UK of singular and grouped Rooks attacking and killing Carrion crows in their territory. Rooks nest in colonies unlike Carrion crows. Carrion crows have only a few natural enemies including powerful raptors such as the northern goshawk, the peregrine falcon, the Eurasian eagle-owl and the golden eagle which will all readily hunt them.
Regarded as one of the most intelligent birds, indeed creatures on the planet, studies suggest that Corvids cognitive abilities can rival that of primates such as chimpanzees and gorillas and even provide clues to understanding human intelligence. Crows have relatively large brains for their body size, compared to other animals. Their encephalization quotient (EQ) a ratio of brain to body size, adjusted for size because there isn’t a linear relationship is 4.1. That is remarkably close to chimps at 4.2 whilst humans are 8.1. Corvids also have a very high neuronal density, the number of neurons per gram of brain, factoring in the number of cortical neurons, neuron packing density, interneuronal distance and axonal conduction velocity shows that Corvids score high on this measure as well, with humans scoring the highest.
A corvid's pallium is packed with more neurons than a great ape's. Corvids have demonstrated the ability to use a combination of mental tools such as imagination, and anticipation of future events. They can craft tools from twigs and branches to hook grubs from deep recesses, they can solve puzzles and intricate methods of gaining access to food set by humans., and have even bent pieces of wire into hooks to obtain food.
They have been proven to have a higher cognitive ability level than seven year old humans. Communications wise, their repertoire of wraw-wraw's is not fully understood, but the intensity, rhythm, and duration of caws seems to form the basis of a possible language. They also remember the faces of humans who have hindered or hurt them and pass that information on to their offspring.
Aesop's fable of 'The Crow and the Pitcher, tells of a thirsty crow which drops stones into a water pitcher to raise the water level and enable it to take a drink. Scientists have conducted tests to see whether crows really are this intelligent. They placed floating treats in a deep tube and observed the crows indeed dropping dense objects carefully selected into the water until the treat floated within reach. They had the intelligence to pick up, weigh and discount objects that would float in the water, they also did not select ones that were too large for the container.
Pet crows develop a unique call for their owners, in effect actually naming them. They also know to sunbathe for a dose of vitamin D, regularly settling on wooden garden fences, opening their mouths and wings and raising their heads to the sun. In groups they warn of danger and communicate vocally. They store a cache of food for later if in abundance and are clever enough to move it if they feel it has been discovered. They leave markers for their cache. They have even learned to place walnuts and similar hard food items under car tyres at traffic lights as a means of cracking them!
Crows regularly gather around a dead fellow corvid, almost like a funeral, and it is thought they somehow learn from each death. They can even remember human faces for decades.Crows group together to attack larger predators and even steal their food, and they have different dialects in different areas, with the ability to mimic the dialect of the alpha males when they enter their territory!
They have a twenty year life span, the oldest on record reaching the age of Fifty nine. Crows can leave gifts for those who feed them such as buttons or bright shiny objects as a thank you, and they even kiss and make up after an argument, having mated for life.
In mythology they are associated with good and bad luck, being the bringers of omens and even witchcraft and are generally reviled for their attacks on baby birds and small mammals. They have an attack method of to stunning smaller birds before consuming them, tearing violently at smaller, less aggressive birds, which is simply down to the fact that they are so highly intelligent, and also the top of the food chain. Their diet includes over a thousand different items: Dead animals (as their name suggests), invertebrates, grain, as well as stealing eggs and chicks from other birds' nests, worms, insects, fruit, seeds, kitchen scraps. They are highly adaptable when food sources grow scarce. I absolutely love them, they are magnificent, bold, beautiful and incredibly interesting to watch and though at times it is hard to witness attacks made by them, I cannot help but adore them for so many other and more important reasons.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PAIR IN MY GARDEN
Crows have been in the area for a while, but rarely had strayed into my garden, leaving the Magpies to own the territory. Things changed towards the end of May when a beautiful female Carrion crow appeared and began to take some of the food that I put down for the other birds. Within a few days she began to appear regularly, on occasions stocking up on food, whilst other times placing pieces in the birdbath to soften them. She would stand on the birdbath and eat and drink and come back over the course of the day to eat the softened food.
Shortly afterwards she brought along her mate, a tall and handsome fella, much larger than her who was also very vocal if he felt she was getting a little too close to me. By now I had moved from a seated position from the patio as an observer, to laying on a mat just five feet from the birdbath with my Nikon so that I could photograph the pair as they landed, scavenged and fed. She was now confident enough to let me be very close, and she even tolerated and recognized the clicking of the camera. At first I used silent mode to reduce the noise but this only allowed two shooting frame rates of single frame or continuous low frame which meant I was missing shots. I reverted back to normal continuous high frames and she soon got used to the whirring of the mechanisms as the mirror slapped back and forth.
The big fella would bark orders at her from the safety of the fence or the rear of the garden, whilst she rarely made a sound. That was until one day when in the sweltering heat she kept opening her beak and sunning on the grass, panting slightly in the heat. I placed the circular water sprayer nearby and had it rotating so that the birdbath and grass was bathed in gentle water droplets and she soon came back, landed and seemed to really like the cooling effect on offer. She then climbed onto the birdbath and opened her wings slightly and made some gentle purring, cooing noises....
I swear she was expressing happiness, joy....
On another blisteringly hot day when the sprayer was on, she came down, walked towards it and opened her wings up running into the water spray. Not once, but many times.
A further revelation into the unseen sides to these beautiful birds came with the male and female on the rear garden fence. They sat together, locked beaks like a kiss and then the male took his time gently preening her head feathers and the back of her neck as she made tiny happy sounds. They stayed together like that for several minutes, showing a gentle, softer side to their nature and demonstrating the deep bond between them. Into July and the pair started to bring their three youngsters to my garden, the nippers learning to use the birdbath for bathing and dipping food, the parents attentive as ever. Two of the youngsters headed off once large enough and strong enough.
I was privileged to be in close attendance as the last juvenile was brought down by the pair, taught to take food and then on a night in July, to soar and fly with it's mother in the evening sky as the light faded. She would swoop and twirl, and at regular intervals just touch the juvenile in flight with her wing tip feathers, as if to reassure it that she was close in attendance. What an amazing experience to view. A few days later, the juvenile, though now gaining independence and more than capable of tackling food scraps in the garden, was still on occasions demand feeding from it's mother who was now teaching him to take chicken breast, hotdogs or digestive biscuits and bury them in the garden beds for later delectation. The juvenile also liked to gather up peanuts and bury them in the grass. On one occasion I witnessed a pair of rumbunctious Pica Pica (Magpies), chasing the young crow on rooftops, leaping at him no matter how hard he tried to get away. He defended himself well and survived the attacks, much to my relief.
Into August and the last youngster remained with the adults, though now was very independent even though he still spent time with his parents on rooftops, and shared food gathering duties with his mum.Hotdog sausages were their favourite choice, followed by fish fingers and digestive biscuits which the adult male would gather up three at a time.
Corvus Corone.... magnificently misunderstood by some!
Paul Williams June 4th 2021
©All photographs on this site are copyright: ©DESPITE STRAIGHT LINES (Paul Williams) 2011 – 2021 & GETTY IMAGES ®
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty two metres at 07:18am on a cold but bright summer morning on Monday 24th May 2021, off Hythe Avenue and Chessington Avenue in Bexleyheath, Kent.
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Nikon D850 Focal length 420mm Shutter speed: 1/200s Aperture f/6.0 iso1250 Tripod mounted with Tamron VC Vibration Control set to position 3. Image area FX (36 x 24) NEF RAW L (4128 x 2752). JPeg basic (14 bit uncompressed) AF-C Priority Selection: Release. Nikon Back button focusing enabled. AF-S Priority selection: Focus. 3D Tracking watch area: Normal 55 Tracking points Exposure mode: Manual exposure mode Metering mode: Spot metering White balance on: Auto1 (6200k) Colour space: RGB Picture control: Neutral (Sharpening +2)
Tamron SP 150-600mm F/5-6.3 Di VC USD G2. Nikon GP-1 GPS module. Lee SW150 MKII filter holder. Lee SW150 95mm screw in adapter ring. Lee SW150 circular polariser glass filter.Lee SW150 Filters field pouch. Hoodman HEYENRG round eyepiece oversized eyecup.Manfrotto MT057C3-G Carbon fiber Geared tripod 3 sections. Neewer Carbon Fiber Gimble tripod head 10088736 with Arca Swiss standard quick release plate. Neewer 9996 Arca Swiss release plate P860 x2.Jessops Tripod bag. Mcoplus professional MB-D850 multi function battery grip 6960.Two Nikon EN-EL15a batteries (Priority to battery in Battery grip). Black Rapid Curve Breathe strap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC 80MB/s card. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 28m 27.99s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 8m 10.43s
ALTITUDE: 54.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB NEF FILE: 92.7MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 32.00MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.10 (9/05/2019) LD Distortion Data 2.018 (18/02/20) LF 1.00
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB Data storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit Version 1.4.1 (18/02/2020). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit Version 1.6.2 (18/02/2020). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 2.4.5 (18/02/2020). Nikon Transfer 2 Version 2.13.5. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
#MTron Comm. Bracelet
(Scroll through for Video and features)
The new #LEGO #DOTS are #AMAZING & with so much more #durability and #clutchpower than I imagined (but certainly hoped for!)
Thank you @BrickmasterAmy and the @LEGO team for designing a cool new #WearableLEGO line, I am so excited to build more #MOCs with these sweet bracelets!
Special thanks to my daughter for helping me with the photos and video!!! She loves the DOTS, too and we have been using them as communicators and wearing them all day!
Teddy said he was going to contact his folks ..... I thought he meant Email or phone, I never expected this.
But then with Teddy you should always expect the unexpected.
From the Classical Era through the 20th century, before the invention of the interwebs, people communicated with each other over long distances and even greater spaces of time by making markings on convenient flat surfaces such as clay tablets, animal skins, or a forest product called "paper." Because these markings could be arranged to represent words, and those words could be organized into ideas, they were thought very useful and versatile. For example, they were sometimes composed in such a way as to communicate a personal message (called a "letter"), transfer money via a third party to a named person or entity (called "paying the bills," done by "writing checks"), or even tell a story (sometimes called "literature," if the story was a good one).
Depending on the era, a remarkable proportion of the population was able to communicate via such markings (or "literate"), and since one of governments' chief functions was to organize their movement (called "the mail"), they often built large and ornate buildings (called "post offices") to facilitate this activity. Today some people contend that the work that was done in these buildings was carried out by snails, but that is only a whimsical urban legend. It instead seems that in the period of transition during which the use of these markings was becoming obsolete, their movement was increasingly viewed as cumbersome and slow, giving rise to the term "snail mail."
Above, the Socialist Modernist Central Post Office in Plovdiv (1970s). During construction of the massive building the 1st century Roman Forum (foreground) was discovered and partially excavated. The building is still in use but is decaying and much of it is empty or repurposed. When we arrived the whole area seemed to have been taken over temporarily by Coca Cola, since it was lined with banners and youths passing out free cokes. Central Post Office, Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
With nested rotating spheres within spheres, this mechanical device afforded motion sensing on 2 axis, much less effectively that the 6-axis accelerometers now standard in all of our cell phones (and built on-chip with Silicon MEMS). But she is a beauty inside, and the subject of a Pilat painting (details in comment below).
UPDATE: new research shows that this S/N 39, was in 1973 a LM spare located at AC/Delco in Milwaukee. Two of the three Inertial Reference Integrating Gyroscopes (IRIG) were prime spares for Apollo 17.
This Block II Apollo Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) comprised the heart of the spacecraft’s primary guidance and navigational control system (PGNCS). Here is a cool 1-minute video on this "ball of wizardry and magic" and a short I posted of my spinning.
The IMU provided inertial reference inputs to the onboard Apollo Guidance Computer, and Flight Director Attitude Indicators and served as a fixed reference point in space with which to measure vehicle displacement. Encased within the housing are three inertial rate integrating gyros and three pulsed-integrating pendulous accelerometers; these are mounted to a gimbaled platform to allow three directions of freedom. Any displacement of the platform, resulting from either a change in spacecraft attitude or velocity, would be sensed and communicate signals representative of the magnitude and direction of displacement. The IMU was developed by Dr. Charles Draper and the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory and manufactured by General Motors (A.C. Spark Plug Division). The technology is a derivative of the Polaris Ballistic Missile submarine guidance system. RRAuction described it as "an extreme rarity, auction records indicate this is likely the first of its kind offered for sale."
The device is spherical and approximately 12″ in diameter, and bears a metal NASA tag reading: “Apollo G. &. N. System. Name: Inertial Measuring Unit, Part No. 2018601-241, Serial No. AC 39, Cont. No. NAS 9-497.” Above this is another tag, labeled “PIP,” reading: “X: 2AP-293R, Y: 3AP-313, Z: 2AP-241.” An artifact in the Future Ventures’ 🚀 Space Collection.
High-profile virologist Didier Raoult, a leading proponent of the controversial drug chloroquine as a treatment for Covid-19, says the virus is disappearing in Marseille. But the city's regional health boss says it’s far too early for such conclusions.
In a video on twitter on Tuesday night, the specialist in infectious diseases at Marseille university hospital declared that the virus is “gradually disappearing” in the city.
“There is a very significant drop in the number of positive tests and an even bigger drop among those who are tested who have no symptoms,” he says.
At the height of the epidemic, Raoult’s Méditerranée Infection Foundation counted 368 new cases per day. But now he says numbers are around 60 to 80.
“It’s possible that the epidemic will disappear in the spring", he says, "A few weeks from now, it’s possible that there will be no more cases. We don’t know why, but we see it quite often, with the majority of viral respiratory illnesses.”
However, the Director General of the Regional Health Agency for the Marseille area worries about such suggestions.
"It is far too early to make predictions about the end of the epidemic", Philippe de Mester told the French newspaper France Bleu Provence. "We know nothing about its duration, unfortunately. It is true that we have recorded a slowdown in the spread of the epidemic, but not an actual decline. The epidemic will continue and it will take a few more weeks”
He stressed the importance of continuing to follow the lockdown rules.
Raoult regularly posts videos on Twitter, communicating directly with the public and not simply to the scientific community.
His long hair and unconventional manner are part of the anti-establishment style he appears to cultivate and he has a growing number of followers.
Supporters of his treatment see him as provincial hero challenging a Parisian scientific establishment and a working doctor standing up to researchers in ivory towers.
He maintains that an anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, combined with the antibiotic azithromicyne, is an effective treatment for Covid-19 patients, if used before they need intensive care.
He has published results from his use of this approach which show considerable success but with no neutral control group for comparison, there is no conclusive proof that patients recover because of his treatment. As a result, it has not been authorised for use except in certain conditions in hospitals. The drug is known to have negative side effects but it is already used against malaria and in the treatment of Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
In an interview in Le Figaro on 3 April, Raoult was critical of today’s medical research processes.
He said that trial methodology established during the fight against Aids was not suitable for all situations and that the “group of people” who worked together at that time adhered to such methods too rigidly. He said that research had become too divorced from medicine.
Although Raoult himself is both a researcher and a clinical practitioner, he distinguished between the two, saying that as a doctor he wanted to use what seemed to work. In a health crisis, he said, lengthy trials could be shortened for a drug which is already in use.
Numerous other trials on hydroxychloroquine are underway but so far none which tests his exact approach.
It is unclear why his critics in the scientific community have not conducted such trials, to prove or disprove its effectiveness.
Instead the impression is given of a scientific community which is unwilling for some reason to explore certain options versus a maverick burnishing a reputation.
Several mostly right wing politicians have voiced support for Raoult and former health minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, a cardiologist, launched a petition to allow wider use of hydroxychloroquine.
In an interview with RFI on Wednesday, President Macron said he was “convinced he is a great scientist”, describing him as one of our most eminent experts. Macron has now called for rigorous trials of Raoult’s treatment approach to be conducted very soon so that its efficacy can be proved or disproved.
Born in Senegal, where he spent his childhood, the French doctor and researcher has maintained strong professional and emotional ties with the continent. And many African countries are already using chloroquine to treat people infected with Covid-19.
On 24 March, Professor Didier Raoult slammed the door on the circle of researchers who were supposed to advise the French president on the pandemic.
Disagreeing with the containment policy adopted by France, which favours mass screening, the iconoclastic infectiologist has just been disavowed by his peers, who are reluctant to endorse the use of hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus.
On Thursday 9 April, Raoult could measure the progress made when President Emmanuel Macron travelled especially to Marseilles to talk to him in order to “take stock of the question of treatment.”
This was a strong political gesture in favour of Raoult’s theses, whose promotion of the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients has been the subject of much controversy for several weeks.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: 9 things to know about chloroquine
Pre-COVID-19 era
A specialist in emerging tropical infectious diseases at Marseille’s Faculty of Medical and Paramedical Sciences and at the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection, the long-haired professor with the pepper and salt beard was still largely unknown to the general public at the end of February when his views on a chloroquine-based coronavirus treatment began to be heard.
Since then, the Frenchman has seen his media and digital fame take off. And in the ranks of its most fervent supporters, the African continent is not to be outdone.
Is it because the chemical compound he uses to treat his patients, hydroxychloroquine, is well known on the continent, where it has long been used to treat malaria? In two publications exposing tests carried out on some 20 patients, then on 80, the researcher and his teams conclude that “hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin is effective in the treatment of COVID-19”.
This quinine derivative is currently the subject of several studies. Those carried out by Professor Raoult have indeed aroused reservations among many experts, who reproach him for not having respected standard scientific protocols. At the end of March in France, the High Council of Public Health considered that chloroquine could be administered to patients suffering from “serious forms” of the coronavirus.”
READ MORE: To fight coronavirus, Burkina Faso is tempted by chloroquine
Those African countries that opt for chloroquine
At Fann Hospital in Dakar, Professor Moussa Seydi, head of the department of infectious and tropical diseases, has already administered chloroquine alone to the first 100 patients who tested positive for COVID-19. “In Marseille, Dr Didier Raoult published encouraging preliminary results. The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin should make it possible to shorten the carrying time [of the virus], in order to accelerate the healing of the sick,” Seydi told Jeune Afrique on 19 March. To use this drug, he says he relied on the study co-signed by his French counterpart.
Like Senegal, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Morocco have also opted for chloroquine.
On 23 March, the Ministry of Health of the Cherifian Kingdom thus requisitioned the national stocks and distributed to the directors of CHU the protocol for the prescription of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for confirmed cases of COVID-19. A decision inspired by Chinese research on the subject, and studies conducted by the French researcher, according to a member of the Moroccan committee in charge of the fight against the pandemic.
Born and raised in Senegal
If Professor Raoult is well known on the continent, it is also because this specialist in tropical and infectious diseases, in addition to having grown up there, has worked a lot there. It was in Dakar that the Frenchman is said to have caught the research virus.
Born in 1952 in the Senegalese capital, he lives there, in the building of the Research Office for Food and African Nutrition (Orana), created by his father.
This building sits opposite the Pasteur Institute in Dakar which houses the frontline laboratory in the fight against the epidemic in Senegal, and is where this son of a nurse and a military doctor stationed at the capital’s main hospital, took his first steps.
A childhood marked by happy memories of playing on the beach at Anse Bernard, made the move “complicated” when the young Didier Raoult arrived in Marseille at the age of 9. “Being partly Senegalese, I can’t help but feel concerned by what’s happening in Africa,” he says in a video addressed to the Senegalese group eMédia on 7 April.
QUEST FOR CHLOROQUINE
Coronavirus: Didier Raoult the African and chloroquine, from Dakar to Brazzaville
By Marième Soumaré, Rémy Darras
Posted on Wednesday, 15 April 2020 19:39
didier raoult
Professor Didier Raoult with Doctor Cheikh Sokhna (in the yellow shirt) in Niokolo-Koba park in Senegal, August 2019 © DR
Born in Senegal, where he spent his childhood, the French doctor and researcher has maintained strong professional and emotional ties with the continent. And many African countries are already using chloroquine to treat people infected with Covid-19.
On 24 March, Professor Didier Raoult slammed the door on the circle of researchers who were supposed to advise the French president on the pandemic.
Disagreeing with the containment policy adopted by France, which favours mass screening, the iconoclastic infectiologist has just been disavowed by his peers, who are reluctant to endorse the use of hydroxychloroquine against coronavirus.
On Thursday 9 April, Raoult could measure the progress made when President Emmanuel Macron travelled especially to Marseilles to talk to him in order to “take stock of the question of treatment.”
This was a strong political gesture in favour of Raoult’s theses, whose promotion of the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients has been the subject of much controversy for several weeks.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: 9 things to know about chloroquine
Pre-COVID-19 era
A specialist in emerging tropical infectious diseases at Marseille’s Faculty of Medical and Paramedical Sciences and at the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) Méditerranée Infection, the long-haired professor with the pepper and salt beard was still largely unknown to the general public at the end of February when his views on a chloroquine-based coronavirus treatment began to be heard.
Since then, the Frenchman has seen his media and digital fame take off. And in the ranks of its most fervent supporters, the African continent is not to be outdone.
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Is it because the chemical compound he uses to treat his patients, hydroxychloroquine, is well known on the continent, where it has long been used to treat malaria? In two publications exposing tests carried out on some 20 patients, then on 80, the researcher and his teams conclude that “hydroxychloroquine combined with azithromycin is effective in the treatment of COVID-19”.
This quinine derivative is currently the subject of several studies. Those carried out by Professor Raoult have indeed aroused reservations among many experts, who reproach him for not having respected standard scientific protocols. At the end of March in France, the High Council of Public Health considered that chloroquine could be administered to patients suffering from “serious forms” of the coronavirus.”
READ MORE: To fight coronavirus, Burkina Faso is tempted by chloroquine
Those African countries that opt for chloroquine
At Fann Hospital in Dakar, Professor Moussa Seydi, head of the department of infectious and tropical diseases, has already administered chloroquine alone to the first 100 patients who tested positive for COVID-19. “In Marseille, Dr Didier Raoult published encouraging preliminary results. The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin should make it possible to shorten the carrying time [of the virus], in order to accelerate the healing of the sick,” Seydi told Jeune Afrique on 19 March. To use this drug, he says he relied on the study co-signed by his French counterpart.
Like Senegal, Burkina Faso, Algeria and Morocco have also opted for chloroquine.
On 23 March, the Ministry of Health of the Cherifian Kingdom thus requisitioned the national stocks and distributed to the directors of CHU the protocol for the prescription of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for confirmed cases of COVID-19. A decision inspired by Chinese research on the subject, and studies conducted by the French researcher, according to a member of the Moroccan committee in charge of the fight against the pandemic.
Born and raised in Senegal
If Professor Raoult is well known on the continent, it is also because this specialist in tropical and infectious diseases, in addition to having grown up there, has worked a lot there. It was in Dakar that the Frenchman is said to have caught the research virus.
Born in 1952 in the Senegalese capital, he lives there, in the building of the Research Office for Food and African Nutrition (Orana), created by his father.
This building sits opposite the Pasteur Institute in Dakar which houses the frontline laboratory in the fight against the epidemic in Senegal, and is where this son of a nurse and a military doctor stationed at the capital’s main hospital, took his first steps.
A childhood marked by happy memories of playing on the beach at Anse Bernard, made the move “complicated” when the young Didier Raoult arrived in Marseille at the age of 9. “Being partly Senegalese, I can’t help but feel concerned by what’s happening in Africa,” he says in a video addressed to the Senegalese group eMédia on 7 April.
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In 2008, Raoult established a joint research unit at his IHU in the Senegalese capital dedicated to communicable infectious diseases – one of Raoult’s two African teams with the Algiers team. The latter claims to produce 10% of scientific publications in the country of Teranga. “He wanted to have a lot of field staff: epidemiologists, virologists and bacteriologists,” explains one of his close friends, epidemiologist and biologist Cheikh Sokhna, team leader at the IHU Méditerranée Infection in Marseille.
READ MORE: To fight coronavirus, Burkina Faso is tempted by chloroquine
Research on all fronts
Sokhna, also a Senegalese, is director of research at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), and regularly exchanges with Professor Raoult. This week, IHU’s Senegalese team of about thirty people was due to submit a research project to the Senegalese Ministry of Health on the protocol of the chloroquine-azithromycin combination.
An encouraging sign, according to Sokhna, is that the prevalence of coronavirus seems to be lower in areas where the use of antimalarial drugs such as chloroquine or mefloquine is frequent.
“This can be seen very crudely. But other factors will have to be taken into account before any definitive conclusions can be drawn,” adds the enthusiastic and cautious researcher, who is usually based in Marseille but is currently on a long-term mission in Dakar.
This mixed research unit is far from being the only innovation driven by Didier Raoult in Africa. In 2012, the French researcher installed a MALDI-TOF at the main hospital in Dakar: a mass spectrometer that can detect bacteria in a few hours, compared to the usual two to three days with traditional methods.
Then, starting in 2015, he set up three small laboratories in Dakar and two villages in the Fatick region (Centre-West), three small laboratories – points of care (POC), in the jargon of the milieu – which allow blood or saliva to be taken and the origin of the disease or fever to be quickly given so that the nurses can propose an effective remedy in good time.
Didier Raoult launches research all over Senegal. On malaria, borreliosis, rickettsiosis, malnutrition, hand washing – “which can reduce diarrhoeal diseases by 50% and respiratory diseases by 30%”. The French doctor was already working with his Senegalese teams on other less severe forms of the coronavirus family that existed in the country, causing colds and pneumopathies.
READ MORE: Top 10 coronavirus fake news items
“Big African brother”
Every year, since 2008, he comes to spend a week in Dakar, participating in the IRD’s scientific day organized by Cheikh Sokhna, which brings together health actors and NGOs. It was on this occasion that he met two renowned scientists: the parasitologist Oumar Gaye, from the Cheikh-Anta-Diop University of Dakar (Ucad), and the pharmacist-colonel Souleymane Mboup, virologist and bacteriologist. They will join the scientific board of the IHU Méditerranée Infection, where the second will succeed the first.
All these names join the large community of African researchers gathered around the Marseille-based professor, including the Congolese Jean Akiana, from the Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville, the Algerian Idir Bitam, from the National Veterinary College in Algiers, and the Malian Ogobara Doumbo (who died in 2018). They all consider their peer as a “big African brother”. Not to mention his former doctoral students, with whom he has plans to create cutting-edge laboratories in Guinea-Conakry.
Described as an anti-conformist in the fight against dogma, familiar with the terrain but resistant to the beaten track, Professor Raoult does not hesitate to travel to the African countryside. “It’s an elephant that likes to come into contact with gorillas,” says Dr. Jean Akiana, director of health technologies at the Ministry of Health and a researcher at the National Public Health Laboratory in Brazzaville.
Interested in the transmission of bacteria from animals to humans, and vice versa, Raoult also went to meet gorillas in the Lésio-Louna reserve, in the Pool region, in south-eastern Congo-Brazzaville, to analyse their microorganisms and compare their residues with human faeces. “Picornavirus of the same family as coronavirus was found in the gorillas’ faeces. If we see Ebola genes, it could be a warning,” says Jean Akiana.
Akiana recently received a credit from Professor Raoult’s laboratory to travel to the Tchimpounga reserve to check whether chimpanzees might be the cause of the wild polio virus that struck Pointe-Noire in 2015. The Marseille-based professor also travelled to several departments such as Likouala, Sangha and the Plateaux to prospect for new micro-organisms with no immediate link to an identified outbreak. Samples that, when examined in Marseille, could help to take the lead when new epidemics occur.
In Algiers, a team made up of 100% Algerian teaching and research staff, is working on the final establishment of a research laboratory. The joint unit based in the Algerian capital is also working on infectious disease surveillance, taking advantage of the facilities of the Marseille-based institute.
Without foreigners, “no science in France”
“Its main objective is to help French-speaking countries, to transfer cutting-edge technology and to train young researchers in these innovative diagnostic tools,” says Sokhna. But Raoult, on the other hand, also knows very well what his country’s science owes to the African continent.
Critical of the restrictions imposed by the French administration in terms of the time it takes to obtain a visa, he believes that today the French scientific community relies above all on the contribution of doctoral students from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. During Emmanuel Macron’s visit, the Head of State was welcomed by a team of young researchers from Algeria, Morocco, Mali and Burkina Faso.
“In France, 50% of PhD students are foreigners. Without foreigners, there is no French science,” Raoult pointed out at a conference in 2013. At the time, the French researcher praised the work of the émigrés who are part of his team, the “engine of war” in scientific research. “The best, the most intelligent, the most dynamic, those who work on Sundays are only Sub-Saharan Africans and North Africans. That’s it! That’s the way it is.”
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Ending Europe’s colonial approach to medicine in Africa
Free spirit
The theme of the conference? “Disobedience at the heart of the research innovation process”. Raoult is known for not embarrassing himself in manners and freeing himself from doctrine, insulted by some, adulated by others, Raoult is a lasting figure. And he doesn’t seem to care. “I couldn’t imagine [my studies] triggering passions of this nature, I don’t even know where they come from,” he says in a video posted online on 8 April, in which he announces the imminent results of his new study, this time involving 1,000 patients.
According to the French press, the professor would have presented last Thursday to Emmanuel Macron his results, which establish a rate of virological cure of his patients of more than 91%. Accustomed to not being listened to by politicians, who take researchers “for strange birds”, Professor Raoult, says he is “guided by curiosity and exploratory research”.
Will he be able to rally Macron to his cause? In a recent Odoxa barometer, Raoult the iconoclast, appears in any case in second place among the favourite personalities of the French.
www.theafricareport.com/26264/coronavirus-didier-raoult-t...
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