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Issues contributing to luna moth rarity:
◦Habitat degradation and fragmentation
◦Light pollution in areas of human habitation can disrupt mating behavior and has a negative impact on their populations – the adult moths are strongly attracted to light
◦Pesticide accumulation in the environment
◦The European fly Compsilura concinnata, a parasite deliberately introduced to the USA throughout much of the 20th century as a biological control for non-native, invasive gypsy moths, can parasitize more than 150 species of butterflies and moths in North America, crippling and killing non-target species
I was thrilled to find this luna moth, one of two I saw here today!
State Parks are great!
The best of our 848 captures are in a mini-themed album:
• Outing to Oconee State Park, SC – 2021APR13
◦ Moody Spring – 2021APR13 – SC Highway 107
◦ Oconee State Park – 2021APR13 – Mountain Rest, SC
◦ Wigington Overlook – 2021APR13 – SC Highway 413
Hope you enjoy 35% of these 155 luna captures I took today!
Enfield Garage was never known for tidy buses as RM 2074 confirms in this view at the garage on 2 May 1982. For that time of the year it would be unlikely that road conditions have directly contributed to the dirty state of the bus so less than diligent washing over time is probably to blame. Careless fuel filling has caused staining and hydraulic fluid spill has acted like glue to attract dirt. An unusual position for a dent, a missing wheel nut guard and a roof showing signs of outside parking plus a lot of mileage under trees at the northern end of the 279`s add to the scruffy appearance.
From the notes of where I went on that date it appears that I was at Enfield before midday so it is an unusual capture of an advert fixer working at that time of day.
Their work generally started at evening run-in to be, logically, on site when most buses were. But if a new advert contract start required multiple buses to be attended to - or to catch up on a backlog - daytime working occasionally happened. Can`t help thinking that the Health & Safety requirements now would outlaw standing on a ladder propped against the bus and using a paste brush in one hand whilst holding a large paper advert (or a bill as they were always called) in the other hand.
The New York Court of Appeals Building, officially referred to as Court of Appeals Hall, is located at the corner of Eagle and Pine streets in central Albany, New York, United States. It is a stone Greek Revival building designed in the mid-19th century by Henry Rector. In 1971 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, one of six buildings housing a state's highest court currently so recognized.[note 1] Seven years later it was included as a contributing property when the Lafayette Park Historic District was listed on the Register.
At the time it was built it was known simply as the State Hal 244
Another sneak peek of whats to come for TAG Gacha from 7mad;Ravens. The event will be starting next week, so if you haven't already done so, favorite the website taggacha.com/, and check back for more information on a lot of amazing shops contributing!
Built in 1923, this Pueblo Revival-style building was designed under the purview of superintendent Jesse L. Nusbaum, and built to serve as the Headquarters for Mesa Verde National Park. The building is clad in rough-hewn stone with casement windows, porches with wooden and stone columns, vigas, and parapets. The building is a contributing structure in the Mesa Verde Administrative District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
If you do Facebook and appreciate vintage, and not so vintage, images of steam railways, consider joining my Facebook Group www.facebook.com/groups/641198139996056/
You don't have to necessarily contribute pics, just join in the discussion or enjoy the images.
On the JiTong Railway, sub zero temperatures make for spectacular steam and smoke effects as a pair of QJ 2-10-2s (7002 + 7041) get their heavy freight under way after a signal check at Dariqiga in Inner Mongolia on 22 February 2005.
V200_2_241_1600
Pilger, NE EF4 tornado. Photographed as the tornado approached Pilger, NE on June 16th, 2014. Pilger is on the right side of the highway.
To donate to help the victims of this tornado, go to stormassist.org/contribute/
A view of the south side of Lockhart's courthouse square. Shown here is the 100 block of E. Market St. as seen from S. Main St. The buildings shown in this view are contributing properties in the Caldwell County Courthouse Square Historic District listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
On the corner at 100 E. Market St. is the E. L. Bowden Building, built in 1889 for a hardware business. The facade has been much altered with plaster, however, the two-story commercial building still retains its original ornamental awning hooks across the front and down its entire west side.
Next door at 102 E. Market St. is the former First National Bank of Lockhart Building. Constructed in 1888, this two-story, three-bay stuccoed building has two one-story Doric columns sup- porting the central bay, while flanking pilasters terminate the sides. The original openings have been replaced, but the decorative molding over the first floor is still evident. The second floor contains a wide central window, flanked by narrower windows. An applied cornice with large double brackets and a triangular parapet crown the building.
The third building from the corner is the Flowers and Storey Building at 104-106 E. Market. Constructed in 1902, this building originally housed a barber shop and druggist's office.
The two-story, originally redbrick building is distinguished by the recessed entrance sheltered by an arcade of three round arches supported by two central Corinthian columns. The three-bay building is divided by brick pilasters on the second floor. Two round arched windows form the central bay, while flat arched windows form the end bays. These windows have been replaced with aluminum windows. The building is crowned by decorative corbelling and a parapet over the central bay.
When the building was built an agreement was made with the bank to the west to build and maintain a common stairway to each building's second floor. The first floor entrance has recently been bricked over, but the narrow round arched window on the second floor is still evident.
There are five other buildings in this block, but our view of them is obscured by a tree and light pole. The five buildings were all constructed between 1889 and 1910, and originally housed businesses including two saloons, a confectionery, barber shop, and storehouse.
Lockhart, a community of 14,811 at the 2020 census, is the seat of Caldwell County and is located just 30 miles south of the state capital in downtown Austin. Lockhart's square and downtown is filled with late 19th and early 20th century buildings, nearly all contributing properties to the historic district. The city's turn-of-the-century appearance has attracted the attention of film makers. Over 50 films for the theater and TV have been shot in whole or in part in Lockhart, including the 1996 Christopher Guest comedy film Waiting for Guffman and the 1993 drama What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
Originally had thought it might be ok for a side lit photo for one of the other themed groups that I try to contribute to, but I wasn’t quite happy enough with it for that. However, I did quite like the isolation of the highlighted floret that the evening sun had provided and therefore felt it good enough to keep for another time.
The UK is braced for Storm Brian today, so there won’t be much calmness out in the garden for any decent photos.
Thanks for stopping
España - Ciudad Real - Almadén - Plaza de toros hexagonal
ENGLISH:
Building declared UNESCO World Heritage Site on june, 30th, 2012, unique in the world with its hexagonal shape and possibly the oldest bullring in Spain.
The construction of the Plaza de Toros of Almadén is closely linked to the San Rafael Royal Mining Hospital.
In early August 1752, the superintendent of the mines, which at the time was Mr. Francisco Javier de Villegas, given the frequent epidemics and high mortality among the population and forced laborers in the mines, proposed the foundation of the San Rafael Royal Mining Hospital.
These epidemics were motivated, among other reasons, by the housing shortage to accommodate the seasonal workers of the mines. This resulted in the construction of 24 houses shaping a hexagonal plaza with a dual purpose, to avoid overcrowding in the neighborhood - 4 or 5 families per house - which increased the risk of epidemics, and to contribute, with its rental, with money to build the Mining Hospital.
These 24 houses, in turn, formed a ring for the celebration of bullfighting festivals and was a meeting place for the general population, with a capacity of 4,000 people, investing likewise the income obtained in such celebrations in the construction of the San Rafael Royal Mining Hospital.
Another reason for the construction of the bullring was the spread of the mining works to the plaza where, up to then, the bullfighting celebrations had been taking place (currently Plaza de la Constitución). In fact, there is a winch (mineshaft) located in what today are the stairs to the Church of San Juan. For this reason, the arc located under Almadén Town Hall is known as “el toril", since it is the place where the bulls were enclosed. At the same time, and for the same reason, Antonio Blazquez Street is locally known under the name of "street of the bulls," as this is the street by where the bulls were brought to the pen to be enclosed.
Once the "Plaza Nueva" was built, the project of at least six annual bullfight festivals, with five or six bulls each, was established with the aim of raising revenue for the construction of the hospital.
The Villegas superintendent did not wait for the approval of his superiors to start working on the plaza. In an official statement on August 16, 1752 he reported the commencement of the construction, while requesting permission to hold the first bullfights celebration in order to get the first money to meet the loans granted for its construction by the town residents, mainly mine journeymen and members of the Charity Congregation.
These requests are approved by Royal Order of August 28, 1752. On April 4, 1753 all interior and exterior walls up to the first floor had been built in order to celebrate the first festivals. The rental of the houses, mainly intended for seasonal workers accommodation, began in late 1753 with only 8 inhabited houses and in 1755 more than half of them were inhabited and the number of occupants exceeded 200.
Between 1755 and 1757 the works were forced unemployment of the mine workers due to the fire that affected the mines, and which lasted for two and a half years. During this period, both the square and the hospital itself-which began its construction in November 1755- benefited from the use of a greater number of workers in an attempt to avoid a massive emigration.
The old houses are placed on two floors surrounding the arena, which is formed in turn by two galleries in height, being the lower built in whitewashed arcade and the upper by wooden columns and wooden structure holding elements. After their rehabilitation in 2003, still today important bullfighting festivals take place and it also houses the Bullfighting Museum, exhibition hall, Tourist Office, restaurant and hotel.
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ESPAÑOL:
La plaza de toros de Almadén, construida a partir de 1752, es única en el mundo por su forma HEXAGONAL, además está considerada como una de las plazas de toros más antigua de España.
La construcción originaria de la plaza de toros de Almadén, hay que vincularla a la construcción del Real Hospital de Mineros de San Rafael. El entonces superintendente de las Minas, D. Francisco Javier de Villegas, ante las reiteradas epidemias y alta mortandad que existía en la población y en los forzados que trabajaban en las minas, propone la fundación del Real Hospital de Mineros. Las epidemias y la falta de alojamientos, fueron motivo para que se construyeran veinticuatro VIVIENDAS en esta plaza hexagonal. Dichas viviendas tendrían una doble finalidad: evitar el hacinamiento de vecinos en las casas de la localidad, que estaba en cuatro o cinco familias por casa, lo que aumentaba el riesgo de epidemias y aportar dinero con el alquiler de las mismas, para la construcción del Hospital de Mineros. La plaza en sí, con capacidad para unas cuatro mil personas, se destinaría a la celebración de festejos taurinos y serviría de centro cívico de la población.
De dos pisos de altura, constituido por una sola manzana, integrada por veinticuatro viviendas al exterior con cubierta de teja acusada y curiosas e interesantes chimeneas; se mantiene el zócalo y el encalado, en su interior se diseñó la plaza de toros propiamente dicha, con dos alturas, la baja formada por arcos y la superior adintelada por soportes.
En 1754, Fernando VI prohibió la celebración de festejos taurinos en todo el Reino. Con esta disposición, pretendía la recuperación de la cabaña ganadera, diezmada por la sequía y las epidemias. Pero esta medida no afectó a Almadén, ya que el Superintendente Villegas, argumentando el destino benéfico de los ingresos, obtuvo una dispensa para la celebración de festejos.
Desde 1979 es Monumento Histórico Nacional y desde 2012 es Patrimonio de la Humanidad de la Unesco.
Actualmente es un edificio privado. Su última restauración finalizó en el año 2003, y hoy día se celebran importantes festejos taurinos, así como alberga sala de exposiciones, oficina de turismo, hotel y restaurante.
What looks like a teleporter from science fiction being draped over NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, is actually a "clean tent." The clean tent protects Webb from dust and dirt when engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland transport the next generation space telescope out of the relatively dust-free cleanroom and into the shirtsleeve environment of the vibration and acoustics testing areas. In two years, a rocket will be the transporter that carries the Webb into space so it can orbit one million miles from Earth and peer back over 13.5 billion years to see the first stars and galaxies forming out of the darkness of the early universe.
For more information about the Webb telescope, visit: www.jwst.nasa.gov or www.nasa.gov/webb.
Photo Credit: NASA/Goddard/Chris Gunn
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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I hope you'll enjoy the my images as much as I enjoyed taking them.
When I get out of the water, I'm so happy - 5 Goose gosling they often bite each other little wings and feet. Sometimes they wrestled among themselves. It was the first time I watched them chasing and fighting each other. Greylag Geese was following the family around made the father very uneasy. The sun emerging through the clouds this morning contributed to the colours on my photos from time to time.
Quick note - Sorry I know a little too much for the 15 Goose gosling photo series.
Canada goose gosling - The baby geese, called goslings, take about a month to hatch. Hatchlings are covered with yellowish down and their eyes are open. They leave the nest when 1-2 days old, depending on weather, and can walk, swim, feed, and even dive. They have enough energy remaining in their yolk sac to survive 2 days before feeding. Babies are covered with soft feathers called down. They hatch with their eyes open and will leave the nest within 24 hours, following their parents. Goslings can swim right away. In less than two months, the goslings grow adult feathers and learn to fly.
How many goslings can Canadian geese have?
Gang broods may range from 20 to 100 goslings following just a few adults. Gang broods are more common in areas of high nest density. Family groups of parents, that year's offspring, and sometimes 1 or 2 of the previous year's goslings stay together well into the winter.
How long before baby geese can fly?
Eggs hatch after 25 to 30 days of incubation. The young, called goslings, can walk, swim, and feed within 24 hours. Both parents (especially the gander) vigorously defend the goslings until they are able to fly, which is at about ten weeks. The young geese remain with their family group for about one year.
Do Canadian geese return to the same place every year?
Nest sites are chosen to offer some protection from exposure to wind while giving the incubating female a clear line of sight to detect approaching predators. Female Canada Geese always return to nest in the same area where their parents nested and often use the same nest site year after year.
In spring and summer, geese concentrate their feeding on grasses and sedges, including skunk cabbage leaves and eelgrass. During fall and winter, they rely more on berries and seeds, including agricultural grains, and seem especially fond of blueberries. They’re very efficient at removing kernels from dry corn cobs. Two subspecies have adapted to urban environments and graze on domesticated grasses year round.
Thank you so much for visiting my stream, whether you comments , favorites or just have a look.
I appreciate it very much, wishing the best of luck and good light.
© All rights reserved R.Ertug Please do not use this image without my explicit written permission. Contact me by Flickr mail if you want to buy or use Your comments and critiques are very well appreciated.
Lens - hand held or Monopod and definitely SPORT VR on. Aperture is f5.6 and full length. All my images have been converted from RAW to JPEG.
I started using Nikon Cross-Body Strap or Monopod on long walks. Here is my Carbon Monopod details : Gitzo GM2542 Series 2 4S Carbon Monopod - Really Right Stuff MH-01 Monopod Head with Standard Lever - Really Right Stuff LCF-11 Replacement Foot for Nikon AF-S 500mm /5.6E PF Lense -
Thanks for stopping and looking :)
A fairly new SD40-2 and a geep work the Mead landing at Trout Lake. Mead was a steady customer for SOO and WC at Trout Lake contributing anywhere from 3-12 loads a day well into the WC era.
St. Nicholas, patron saint of Lorraine.
He's portrayed here with the three young children he is said to have saved from a butcher - an episode that contributed to his status as a patron saint of children, as well as of Lorraine.
Little fish sprinkles. Who thinks we should name them all? Add your note. :)
**Update I am so glad that everyone's been contributing to this! All of the fishes are now named. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who named a fish.
Not quite of Germanic origin; in fact, this type of cake was invented by Sam German, a chocolate maker that had contributed to the development of dark baking chocolate, that of which is used in the recipe of this confectionery delight.
It's close to 7PM here in the west coast... a bit early for cake, but I couldn't resist. Conceivably, I'll have to find another dessert post dinner. Still, I do need to load up on carbs tonight. Perhaps I'll have some Italian breadsticks with marinara while I catch up on my Batman tetralogy. Last weekend, I've missed my chance of acquiring one of those warm, soft-pretzels during my open carb-window. Maybe I'll go and grab one tonight?
OPEN FOR PUBLIC TODAY!
ROCK YOUR RACK 2024 🎊🎉💕
Fighting Breast Cancer and Raising Awareness.
This is it! Finally, I'm able to have time and contribute something for this worthy cause - Rock Your Rack 2024 Art Show. I have my favorite works up for grabs of which 2 pieces, "Remember Me" and "Dance Through Pain" are both for 100% donation, the rest are 50% donations to the cause.
Also don't forget your free RYR 2024 gift from me which I specially made for souvenir and as thank you for visiting my place in the event. 😍🎁
Here is your taxi to my humble booth:
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Charming%20Isle/106/100/24...
LM for the Opening Event:
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Charming%20Isle/183/87/21?...
This is our award winning 2024 Roguebricks collaboration - RogueRonin, a huge display of Edo period Japan.
It was only exhibited once at Bricking Bavaria 2024 in Fürth, Germany.
In all this huge excellence i contributed just a tiny piece of 4 32x32 modules
Davidson-Thomas House Quincy FL
Contributing Building - Quincy Historic District - National Register of Historic Places.
This house was built by J.E.A Davidson who served as a state senator for Gadsden County in 1868. The semi-circular porch, added in 1890, is supported by six Corinthian columns. Charles W. Thomas purchased the home in 1926. He and his son, Charles, operated a large lumber mill, grew shade tobacco and raised livestock on their extensive land holdings. Thomas Memorial Baptist Church is Thomas’s gift to the Quincy congregation
shot with the latest iPhone (perhaps processed in one or more desktop or iOS apps) and finished in photoshop.
an ongoing project contributing to my pocket project flickr set.
Marine reserves constitute a specific measure that contributes to achieving a sustained exploitation of resources of fishing interest, establishing specific protection measures in delimited areas of traditional fishing grounds.
The effect of a marine reserve is manifested by a significant recovery of the fishing grounds in which it is inserted due to the dispersion of the species whose reproduction has been protected in it.
The seabed of the Isla Hormigas Cabo de Palos Marine Reserve is in incredible health, in this area artisanal fishing coexists with the recreational activity of recreational diving, both are compatible and the result is that divers can enjoy the best diving in the Mediterranean and one of the best in the world and fishermen benefit from a very abundant fishing ground.
There are 12 Marine Reserves in Spain and there should be more. In this photo we can see two of the most characteristic specimens of the area, the Goldblotch grouper and the Dusky grouper.
Photo taken in the Marine Reserve of Cabo de Palos (Murcia-Spain).
Copyright @2023 José Salmerón. All rights reserved.
Las reservas marinas constituyen una medida específica que contribuye a lograr una explotación sostenida de los recursos de interés pesquero, estableciendo medidas de protección específicas en áreas delimitadas de los caladeros tradicionales.
El efecto de una reserva marina se manifiesta por una recuperación significativa de los caladeros en los que está inserta por efecto de la dispersión de las especies cuya reproducción se ha protegido en la misma.
Los fondos de la Reserva Marina de Isla Hormigas Cabo de Palos, goza de una salud increíble, en esta área conviven la pesca artesanal con la actividad lúdica del buceo recreativo, ambas son compatibles y el resultado es que los buceadores podemos disfrutar del mejor buceo del Mediterráneo y uno de los mejores del mundo y los pescadores se benefician de un caladero muy abundante.
En España hay 12 Reservas Marinas y debería haber más.
En esta foto podemos ver dos de los ejemplares mas caracteristicos de la zona el Goldblotch grouper y el Dusky grouper.
Foto tomada en la Reserva Marina de Cabo de Palos (Murcia-España).
Copyright @2023 José Salmerón. Todos los derechos reservados.
"The Sessions–Pope–Sheild House, also known as Sessions House or Sheild House, is a historic home located at Yorktown, York County, Virginia. It was built in 1691, and is a 1+1⁄2-story, five bay by two bay, brick Southern Colonial dwelling. It has a clipped gable roof with dormers. It has two "T"-shaped end chimney. Also on the property is a contributing archaeological site.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Yorktown is a census-designated place (CDP) in York County, Virginia. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1682. Yorktown's population was 195 as of the 2010 census, while York County's population was 66,134 in the 2011 census estimate.
The town is most famous as the site of the siege and subsequent surrender of General Charles Cornwallis to General George Washington and the French Fleet during the American Revolutionary War on October 19, 1781. Although the war would last for another year, this British defeat at Yorktown effectively ended the war in North America. Yorktown also figured prominently in the American Civil War (1861–1865), serving as a major port to supply both northern and southern towns, depending upon who held Yorktown at the time.
Yorktown is one of three sites of the Historic Triangle, which also includes Jamestown and Williamsburg as important colonial-era settlements. It is the eastern terminus of the Colonial Parkway connecting these locations. Yorktown is also the eastern terminus of the TransAmerica Trail, a bicycle touring route created by the Adventure Cycling Association.
One of Yorktown's historic sister cities is Zweibrücken in Germany, based on participation of a unit from there during the American Revolutionary War." - info from Wikipedia.
The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.
Now on Instagram.
Keeping my fingers tightly crossed that this is not the next thing to go wrong in my home!!!
"Calgary’s unusually cold start to the winter is causing headaches for homeowners, property managers and tenants, and response requests are busier than ever. A big issue is ATTIC RAIN: a phenomenon caused by prolonged extreme cold spells & poor ventilation followed by rapid warming of temperatures. It’s caused by excessive moisture building up in the attic, which then freezes to beams and ceilings. When temperatures rise, the frost melts and leaks through the ceiling.
There are a number of contributing factors to attic rain such as but not limited to poor intake ventilation, exhaust, high humidity or lack of insulation. These can all contribute to the process, making it tough to nail down the cause.
These problems become visible when temperatures start to climb, melting the frost and creating leaks. The leaks can manifest themselves by entering the dwelling through light fixtures, bathroom exhaust vents, down the sides of walls and ceilings. You may notice drips/stains in your ceilings that were not there before. Those stains could be an early indicator that an expert should be called in to inspect the attic." From Residential Services on 11 January 2022.
Today, 11 January 2022, our temperature got up to about PLUS 8°C. Sunrise is at 8:36 am and sunset is at 4:52 pm. A lovely sunny day! Starting yesterday, our deepfreeze has finally come to an end - at least until the next one.
How good this felt when I was out on a walk at Carburn Park again this morning, 11 January 2022! The continuing several Trumpeter Swans and one Tundra Swan looked so different in the sunshine compared to how they looked a few days ago. The sleepy Porcupine was an extra special treat (at least to me).
I haven't yet edited photos from today, so am posting another five images from my archives. I am adding the description that I wrote under a previously posted photo taken the same day.
"In the early afternoon of 7 November 2014, I drove over to the east end of Fish Creek Park and was lucky enough to see two of these beautiful Rusty Blackbirds. IUCN Status: Vulnerable. I very rarely see these birds, so I’m always glad when I do see one. It was interesting to watch this one pick up and then toss aside endless leaves to check underneath them for food. Eventually, it did find a big, fat, juicy water worm of some kind, and ate it. As you can see from the photo, this bird is camouflaged quite well in those surroundings."
“The Rusty Blackbird is one of North America’s most rapidly declining species. The population has plunged an estimated 85-99 percent over the past forty years and scientists are completely puzzled as to what is the cause. They are relatively uncommon denizens of wooded swamps, breeding in the boreal forest and wintering in the eastern U.S. In winter, they travel in small flocks and are identified by their distinctive rusty feather edges and pallid yellow eyes.” From AllAboutBirds.
Local knowledge can never be replaced with a guidebook, Google Earth or whatever tool you use when visiting a place for the first time. Hiring a local guide or joining a tour, is by far the most effective way to get good results from a trip. Not only will you get access to prime spots but you will also contribute to the local economy by hiring local businesses.
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On this trip we had the pleasure of being shown around by my good friend @starvingphotographer who took us to this lovely looking cabin on the backroads in Skagit Valley.
I haven't contributed to the Macro Monday group for a while, so it is my pleasure to wish you all a HMM!
Having just bought my first Speedlight, I would like to say a big thank you to my friend Di (PhotosbyDi) who has provided me with useful and helpful material to help get me started. This is my first attempt with it and there is much to learn, but it has been a lot of fun experimenting this evening!
Copyright photo.
Fig 227: Athens' Acropolis from Philopappos hill. This particularly memorable form was a citadel before its famous temples were built. It has remained an outstanding example of civilization's response to landform.
We arrive in Greece with Athens crowned by that most famous example of civilized response to special landform, ATHENS' ACROPOLIS . The Acropolis was one of the earliest settlements in Greek antiquity. Its plateaued top, 100m above the plain of Attica, attracted an original community to this strategic position around 4,000 BC. This site later became a focus of court life, a Mycenaean king's citadel, and fortified with Cyclopean walls.
The Acropolis hill is a limestone block, and the buildings were to intentionally emphasize its form. Several architects working in harmony designed the asymmetric grouping of marble structures. It was to provide a related composition to be reminder to the town's people below, and to enhance movement of processions within the rock-pedestalled group. Everyone in society contributed.
Monterey State Historical Park Museum 6.22
Monterey State Historic Park is a historic state park in Monterey, California. It includes part or all of the Monterey Old Town Historic District, a historic district that includes 17 contributing buildings and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970.[2][1] The grounds include California's first theatre, and the Monterey Custom House, where the American flag was first raised over California.
The park is a group of restored historic buildings: the Custom House, the Larkin House, California's First Brick House, Colton Hall (City Hall of Monterey), Old Whaling Company, the Stevenson House, the First Theater, the Pacific House Museum, the Interpretive House, Casa del Oro, and Casa Soberanes. These houses display the cultural diversity that guided California's transition from a remote Spanish outpost in Las Californias province, to an agricultural Mexican Alta California territory, to U.S. statehood. These influential adobe houses made up California's earliest capital and were the site of the state's first constitutional convention.
Today the historic buildings retain their rich heritage, preserving an important part of Californian as well as Spanish, Mexican, and American history.[3] Added to the adobe houses is the park's Interpretive Center and the Pacific House Museum. The park provides tours of the historic houses and museums for the general public. The 'Secret Gardens of Old Monterey' are part of the open-air museum for visitors.[4] The Monterey State Historic Park Association (MSHPA) is the non-profit association that works to support the park.-profit association that works to support the park.
The University Of Oxford Botanic Garden is an historic botanic garden in Oxford, Oxfordshire. It is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it contains over 8,000 different plant species on 1.8 hectares (4½ acres). It is one of the most diverse yet compact collections of plants in the world and includes representatives from over 90% of the higher plant families.
In 1621, Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, contributed £5,000 (equivalent to £744,000 in 2005) to set up a physic garden for "the glorification of the works of God and for the furtherance of learning". He chose a site on the banks of the River Cherwell at the northeast corner of Christ Church Meadow, belonging to Magdalen College. Part of the land had been a Jewish cemetery until the Jews were expelled from Oxford (and the rest of England) in 1290. Four thousand cartloads of "mucke and dunge" were needed to raise the land above the flood-plain of the River Cherwell.
Humphry Sibthorp began the catalogue of the plants of the garden, Catalogus Plantarum Horti Botanici Oxoniensis. His youngest son was the well-known botanist John Sibthorp (1758–1796), who continued the Catalogus Plantarum.
The Garden comprises three sections:
1. The Walled Garden, surrounded by the original seventeenth century stonework and home to the Garden's oldest tree, an English yew, Taxus baccata.
2. The Glasshouses, which allow the cultivation of plants needing protection from the extremes of British weather.
3. The area outside the walled area between the Walled Garden and the River Cherwell.
A satellite site, the Harcourt Arboretum, is located six miles (10 km) south of Oxford.
The Garden was the site of frequent visits in the 1860s by Oxford mathematics professor Lewis
Carroll and the Liddell children, Alice and her sisters. Like many of the places and people of Oxford, it was a source of inspiration for Carroll's stories in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Garden's waterlily house can be seen in the background of Sir John Tenniel's illustration of "The Queen's
Croquet-Ground".
Another Oxford professor and author, J. R. R. Tolkien, often spent his time at the garden reposing under his favourite tree, Pinus nigra. The enormous Austrian pine is much like the Ents of his The Lord of the Rings story, the walking, talking tree-people of Middle-earth.
In the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited, Lord Sebastian Flyte takes Charles Ryder "to see the ivy" soon after they first meet. As he says, "Oh, Charles, what a lot you have to learn! There's a beautiful arch there and more different kinds of ivy than I knew existed. I don't know where I should be without the Botanical gardens" (Chapter One).
In Philip Pullman's trilogy of novels His Dark Materials, a bench in the back of the garden is one of the locations/objects that stand parallel in the two different worlds that the protagonists, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, live in. In the last chapter of the trilogy, both promised to sit on the bench for an hour at noon on Midsummer's day every year so that perhaps they may feel each other's presence next to one another in their own worlds.
Information source:
This series of photos will include some of the flowers.....
Geology and climate are important contributing to the successful establishment of plants within the park. Deep deposits of volcanic ash combined with even rainfall, mild winters and warm summer temperatures are conducive to plant growth for a range of species from around the world. With this variety of plant types Pukekura is unique in offering a diverse range of landscapes from dense remnant tawa/mahoe/pukatea forest to broad lawns with annual bedding displays and themed garden plantings.
High saturation, high contrast
If you like my photograph, feel free to download it.
Just click the link down below in case you wish to contribute with a donation. That would be highly appreciated, thank you :)
Looking Close on Friday theme: Not a Real One
Been away from this group for a over a month and glad to be contributing again. This is a tiger ornament that I gave to me husband becuase his Chinese Zodiac animal is a tiger, not that he's into that sort of thing, but he does love a tiger. It's too big to show too much of it and be classed as macro or close-up.
Happy Looking Close On A Friday! Many thanks for all your comments and favourites.
I've had my pupils dilated to be checked for small tears (thankfully none) but I'm struggling to see your shots properly so will appreciate and comment on them much later when I can see properly!
The New York State Capitol is the capitol building of the U.S. state of New York. Housing the New York State Legislature, it is located in the state capital city Albany as part of the Empire State Plaza on State Street in Capitol Park. The building, completed in 1899 at a cost of $25 million (worth approximately half a billion current dollars), was the most expensive government building of its time.[citation needed] It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, then included as a contributing property when the Lafayette Park Historic District was listed in 1978. The following year it was declared a National Historic Landmark
photo rights reserved by B℮n
Sameba Cathedral in Tbilisi is one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world and the main cathedral of the Georgian Orthodox Church. The cathedral is located on the hilltop of Elijah in the historic center of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, and dominates the city skyline with its impressive architecture. Completed in 2004, the cathedral combines elements of traditional Georgian architecture with Byzantine influences. The design incorporates classic Georgian elements such as cruciform structures and details found in older monasteries and churches in Georgia. The dome of the church, covered in gold, rises 87 meters above the ground, giving the cathedral an impressive height difference and making it visible from many parts of the city. The construction of the cathedral was intended to symbolize Georgian unity and revival after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The project began in the 1990s and was largely funded by donations from both the Georgian government and the Georgian people.
The main entrance to the complex surrounding the Sameba Cathedral in Tbilisi leads to the cathedral itself. This entrance consists of a beautifully decorated gate with stone columns and crucifixes on both sides of the path, creating a symbolic passage to the holy place. The wide promenade, surrounded by green bushes and benches, invites visitors to walk serenely towards the cathedral. The architecture of the entrance wall is grand and massive, with round turrets and arched doors, which together create an imposing appearance. The building above the gate is crowned with a dome that emphasizes the Georgian style and serves as a landmark from the surroundings. The bell tower is a striking architectural feature that stands out from the main cathedral itself. It functions not only as a tower for the bells, but also as a symbolic gateway to the sacred precincts. The bell tower contributes to the overall grandeur and spiritual atmosphere of Sameba Cathedral and is an essential part of this important religious and cultural complex in Georgia.
De hoofdingang van het complex rond de Sameba-kathedraal in Tbilisi, leidt naar de kathedraal zelf. Deze ingang bestaat uit een prachtig versierde poort met stenen zuilen en kruisbeelden aan beide zijden van het pad, wat een symbolische doorgang creëert naar de heilige plek. De brede promenade, omringd door groene struiken en banken, nodigt bezoekers uit om op een serene manier naar de kathedraal toe te lopen. De architectuur van de ingangsmuur is groots en massief, met ronde torentjes en boogvormige deuren, die samen een imposante uitstraling geven. Het gebouw boven de poort is bekroond met een koepel die de Georgische stijl benadrukt en als een herkenningspunt dient vanaf de omgeving. De klokkentoren van de kathedraal is een opvallend architectonisch element dat zich onderscheidt van de hoofdkathedraal zelf. De klokkentoren staat apart bij de ingang van het complex. Het fungeert niet alleen als een toren voor de klokken, maar ook als een symbolische poort naar het heilige terrein. De Sameba-kathedraal in Tbilisi is één van de grootste orthodoxe kerken ter wereld en de belangrijkste kathedraal van de Georgisch-Orthodoxe Kerk. De kathedraal staat op de heuveltop van Elia in het historische centrum van Tbilisi, de hoofdstad van Georgië, en domineert de skyline van de stad met zijn indrukwekkende architectuur. De kathedraal, voltooid in 2004, combineert elementen van traditionele Georgische architectuur met Byzantijnse invloeden. Het ontwerp bevat klassieke Georgische elementen zoals kruisvormige structuren en details die je ook terugziet in oudere kloosters en kerken in Georgië. De koepel van de kerk, bedekt met goud, steekt 87 meter boven de grond uit, wat de kathedraal een indrukwekkend hoogteverschil geeft en zorgt dat deze vanuit veel delen van de stad zichtbaar is. De constructie van de kathedraal was bedoeld als symbool voor de Georgische eenheid en heropleving na het uiteenvallen van de Sovjet-Unie. Het project begon in de jaren 90 en werd voor een groot deel gefinancierd door donaties van zowel de Georgische regering als het Georgische volk.
Contributed to Caroline Penris' AUTOFOCUS project, www.facebook.com/autofocusnl/photos_stream, iPhone 4S with 645 Pro App
Proposition 8's been a big thing here in LA the last week, this fairly progressive city was damned shocked that the proposition (which restricted marriage to 1 man and 1 woman) passed, albeit by a slim margin. Folks plastered their disappointment all over various internet sites, and there've been several protests, including a couple in front of local Mormon churches, as the LDS apparently contributed large amounts to the pro-Prop. 8 campaign.
I've found myself discussing the proposition with most people I run into, be it out and about or at work. I'm currently in an e-mail discussion with someone, debating the various facets.
What I've heard from the Pro group is that they don't approve of homosexuality, but that's okay. That's not their problem. Their problem is either a) they don't want it taught in schools, or b) they don't want society dragged down by something they consider unholy.
(If you've got a different reason for being against gay marriage, please chime in.)
Now, why do I feel like the need to comment? Because everyone should comment. Because remaining silent, one way or the other, that's...what's the quote, "evil wins when good men do nothing."
We live in a country based on freedom. Not absolute freedom, true, but the idea that folks should have more freedom, not less.
200 years ago I wouldn't have been able to marry a white woman in this country. 50 years ago I wouldn't have been able to sit at the same counter as a white person.
So when I hear that someone can't marry someone else, it chaps my hide.
If your religion tells you not to do something, that's fine. If your religion tells me not to do something, we've got a problem.
A co-worker tried this: You can't marry your mother, you can't marry your sister. You can't just marry whoever you want.
Which is...interesting. Until you realize that U.S. government has already considered all this. There are laws against incest in each and every one of the 50 states.
However, the Supreme Court has ruled that anti-sodomy laws are unconstitutional.
Therefore, it has condoned homosexual sex, relationships, etc.
And if a relationship is okay, why not marriage?
So that dog don't hunt. Incest = bad. Gay folks getting it on = good. So say the Supreme Court, so say we all.
If you've a biblical reason why gay folk shouldn't get married, move to Vatican City, they're all about the bible. The U.S. is more than a bit touchy about religion encroaching on the affairs of the state. And vice versa. In case you hadn't heard.
Come up with a single non-religious reason, we'll talk (This is not rhetorical. I really wanna hear a reason). A single reason two adults (whose relationship is sanctioned by the federal government) shouldn't be allowed to make their relationship official in the way all other adults do so, a single reason what two people do with their friends and family, what they put on their legal documents, has anything to do with your life, let me know.
Because it sounds like a bunch of people trying to tell another bunch of people they can't do what everyone else is allowed to do. And that's bigotry.
Black jew that I am, I'm a wee bit sensitive about things like that.
A wee poem to bring it all home on the blog: blog.louobedlam.com/post/55632523/breaking-news-analysis-...
The Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra (proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery. Writers of the Roman Empire period referred to this mystery religion by phrases which can be anglicized as Mysteries of Mithras or Mysteries of the Persians; modern historians refer to it as Mithraism,[1] or sometimes Roman Mithraism.The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.
Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation, with ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake".They met in underground temples (called mithraea), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome.
Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire.The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments.[9] It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in Rome.[10] No written narratives or theology from the religion survive, with limited information to be derived from the inscriptions, and only brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested.
The Romans regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources. Since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between Persian Mithra-worship and the Roman Mithraic mysteries. In this context, Mithraism has sometimes been viewed as a rival of early Christianity with similarities such as liberator-saviour, hierarchy of adepts (archbishops, bishops, priests), communal meal and a hard struggle of Good and Evil (bull-killing/crucifixion).The name Mithras (Latin, equivalent to Greek “Μίθρας” is a form of Mithra, the name of an Old Persian god– a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of Franz Cumont. An early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century BC work by Xenophon, the Cyropaedia, which is a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great.
The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of declension. There is archeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god’s name as “Mithras”. However, in Porphyry’s Greek text De Abstinentia («Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων»), there is a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name “Mithra” as an indeclinable foreign word.
Related deity-names in other languages include
Sanskrit Mitra (मित्रः), the name of a god praised in the Rig Veda.In Sanskrit, "mitra" means "friend" or "friendship"
the form mi-it-ra-, found in an inscribed peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 BC.
Iranian "Mithra" and Sanskrit "Mitra" are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word mitra meaning "contract, agreement, covenant".
Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity worshipped in several different religions. On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century BC, and to whom an old name was applied.
Mary Boyce, a researcher of ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Empire Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than historians used to think, still "as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance.Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures. There have been many attempts to interpret this material.
Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. But the image of bull-slaying (tauroctony) is always in the central niche.Textual sources for a reconstruction of the theology behind this iconography are very rare. (See section Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene below.)
The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "... there is no evidence that the Iranian god Mithra ever had anything to do with killing a bull."n every Mithraeum the centrepiece was a representation of Mithras killing a sacred bull, called the tauroctony.
The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils[33] with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol. A dog and a snake reach up towards the blood. A scorpion seizes the bull's genitals. A raven is flying around or is sitting on the bull. Three ears of wheat are seen coming out from the bull's tail, sometimes from the wound. The bull was often white. The god is sitting on the bull in an unnatural way with his right leg constraining the bull's hoof and the left leg is bent and resting on the bull's back or flank.[34] The two torch-bearers are on either side, dressed like Mithras, Cautes with his torch pointing up and Cautopates with his torch pointing down. Sometimes Cautes and Cautopates carry shepherds' crooks instead of torches.
Tauroctony from the Kunsthistorisches Museum
The event takes place in a cavern, into which Mithras has carried the bull, after having hunted it, ridden it and overwhelmed its strength.[38] Sometimes the cavern is surrounded by a circle, on which the twelve signs of the zodiac appear. Outside the cavern, top left, is Sol the sun, with his flaming crown, often driving a quadriga. A ray of light often reaches down to touch Mithras. At the top right is Luna, with her crescent moon, who may be depicted driving a biga.[39]
In some depictions, the central tauroctony is framed by a series of subsidiary scenes to the left, top and right, illustrating events in the Mithras narrative; Mithras being born from the rock, the water miracle, the hunting and riding of the bull, meeting Sol who kneels to him, shaking hands with Sol and sharing a meal of bull-parts with him, and ascending to the heavens in a chariot.[39] In some instances, as is the case in the stucco icon at Santa Prisca mithraeum, the god is shown heroically nude. Some of these reliefs were constructed so that they could be turned on an axis. On the back side was another, more elaborate feasting scene. This indicates that the bull killing scene was used in the first part of the celebration, then the relief was turned, and the second scene was used in the second part of the celebration.Besides the main cult icon, a number of mithraea had several secondary tauroctonies, and some small portable versions, probably meant for private devotion, have also been found.[The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene.The banquet scene features Mithras and the Sun god banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull. On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a caduceus towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a psychopomp, the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter. Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: the blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.Mithras is depicted as being born from a rock. He is shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, standing with his legs together, and is wearing a Phrygian cap.
However, there are variations. Sometimes he is shown as coming out of the rock as a child, and in one instance he has a globe in one hand; sometimes a thunderbolt is seen. There are also depictions in which flames are shooting from the rock and also from Mithras' cap. One statue had its base perforated so that it could serve as a fountain, and the base of another has the mask of the water god. Sometimes Mithras also has other weapons such as bows and arrows, and there are also animals such as dogs, serpents, dolphins, eagles, other birds, lion, crocodiles, lobsters and snails around. On some reliefs, there is a bearded figure identified as Oceanus, the water god, and on some there are the gods of the four winds. In these reliefs, the four elements could be invoked together. Sometimes Victoria, Luna, Sol and Saturn also seem to play a role. Saturn in particular is often seen handing over the dagger to Mithras so that he can perform his mighty deeds.
In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds.
On some occasions, an amphora is seen, and a few instances show variations like an egg birth or a tree birth. Some interpretations show that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by lighting torches or candles.[One of the most characteristic features of the Mysteries is the naked lion-headed figure often found in Mithraic temples, named by the modern scholars with descriptive terms such as leontocephaline (lion-headed) or leontocephalus (lion-head). He is entwined by a serpent (or two serpents, like a caduceus), with the snake's head often resting on the lion's head. The lion's mouth is often open, giving a horrifying impression. He is usually represented as having four wings, two keys (sometimes a single key), and a scepter in his hand. Sometimes the figure is standing on a globe inscribed with a diagonal cross. In the figure shown here, the four wings carry the symbols of the four seasons, and a thunderbolt is engraved on the breast. At the base of the statue are the hammer and tongs of Vulcan, the cock, and the wand of Mercury. A more scarcely represented variant of the figure with a human head is also found.
Although animal-headed figures are prevalent in contemporary Egyptian and Gnostic mythological representations, an exact parallel to the Mithraic leontocephaline figure is not found.
The name of the figure has been deciphered from dedicatory inscriptions to be Arimanius (though the archeological evidence is not very strong), which is nominally the equivalent of Ahriman, a demon figure in the Zoroastrian pantheon. Arimanius is known from inscriptions to have been a god in the Mithraic cult (CIMRM 222 from Ostia, 369 from Rome, 1773 and 1775 from Pannonia).
While some scholars identify the lion-man as Aion (or Zurvan, or Cronus) others assert that it is Ahriman.[51] There is also speculation that the figure is the Gnostic demiurge, (Ariel) Ialdabaoth. Although the exact identity of the lion-headed figure is debated by scholars, it is largely agreed that the god is associated with time and seasonal change.[53] An occultist, D. J.Cooper, speculates to the contrary that the lion-headed figure is not a god, but rather represents the spiritual state achieved in Mithraism's "adept" level, the Leo (lion) degree. Rituals and worship[edit]
According to M. J. Vermaseren, the Mithraic New Year and the birthday of Mithras was on December 25. However, Beck disagrees strongly.Clauss states: "the Mithraic Mysteries had no public ceremonies of its own. The festival of natalis Invicti [Birth of the Unconquerable (Sun)], held on 25 December, was a general festival of the Sun, and by no means specific to the Mysteries of Mithras." Mithraic initiates were required to swear an oath of secrecy and dedication, and some grade rituals involved the recital of a catechism, wherein the initiate was asked a series of questions pertaining to the initiation symbolism and had to reply with specific answers. An example of such a catechism, apparently pertaining to the Leo grade, was discovered in a fragmentary Egyptian papyrus (P.Berolinensis 21196),and reads:
... He will say: 'Where ... ?
... he is/(you are?) there (then/thereupon?) at a loss?' Say: ... Say: 'Night'. He will say: 'Where ... ?' ... Say: 'All things ...' (He will say): '... you are called ... ?' Say: 'Because of the summery ...' ... having become ... he/it has the fiery ... (He will say): '... did you receive/inherit?' Say: 'In a pit'. He will say: 'Where is your ...?... (Say): '...(in the...) Leonteion.' He will say: 'Will you gird?' The (heavenly?) ...(Say): '... death'. He will say: 'Why, having girded yourself, ...?' '... this (has?) four tassels. Very sharp and ... '... much'. He will say: ...? (Say: '... because of/through?) hot and cold'. He will say: ...? (Say): '... red ... linen'. He will say: 'Why?' Say: '... red border; the linen, however, ...' (He will say): '... has been wrapped?' Say: 'The savior's ...' He will say: 'Who is the father?' Say: 'The one who (begets?) everything ...' (He will say): '('How ?)... did you become a Leo?' Say: 'By the ... of the father'. ... Say: 'Drink and food'. He will say '...?'
'... in the seven-...
Almost no Mithraic scripture or first-hand account of its highly secret rituals survives;with the exception of the aforementioned oath and catechism, and the document known as the Mithras Liturgy, from 4th century Egypt, whose status as a Mithraist text has been questioned by scholars including Franz Cumont. The walls of Mithraea were commonly whitewashed, and where this survives it tends to carry extensive repositories of graffiti; and these, together with inscriptions on Mithraic monuments, form the main source for Mithraic texts.
Nevertheless, it is clear from the archeology of numerous Mithraea that most rituals were associated with feasting – as eating utensils and food residues are almost invariably found. These tend to include both animal bones and also very large quantities of fruit residues.The presence of large amounts of cherry-stones in particular would tend to confirm mid-summer (late June, early July) as a season especially associated with Mithraic festivities. The Virunum album, in the form of an inscribed bronze plaque, records a Mithraic festival of commemoration as taking place on 26 June 184. Beck argues that religious celebrations on this date are indicative of special significance being given to the Summer solstice; but this time of the year coincides with ancient recognition of the solar maximum at midsummer, whilst iconographically identical holidays such as Litha, St John's Eve, and Jāņi are observed also.
For their feasts, Mithraic initiates reclined on stone benches arranged along the longer sides of the Mithraeum – typically there might be room for 15 to 30 diners, but very rarely many more than 40 men. Counterpart dining rooms, or triclinia, were to be found above ground in the precincts of almost any temple or religious sanctuary in the Roman empire, and such rooms were commonly used for their regular feasts by Roman 'clubs', or collegia. Mithraic feasts probably performed a very similar function for Mithraists as the collegia did for those entitled to join them; indeed, since qualification for Roman collegia tended to be restricted to particular families, localities or traditional trades, Mithraism may have functioned in part as providing clubs for the unclubbed.However, the size of the Mithraeum is not necessarily an indication of the size of the congregation.
Each Mithraeum had several altars at the further end, underneath the representation of the tauroctony, and also commonly contained considerable numbers of subsidiary altars, both in the main Mithraeum chamber and in the ante-chamber or narthex.[68] These altars, which are of the standard Roman pattern, each carry a named dedicatory inscription from a particular initiate, who dedicated the altar to Mithras "in fulfillment of his vow", in gratitude for favours received. Burned residues of animal entrails are commonly found on the main altars indicating regular sacrificial use. However, Mithraea do not commonly appear to have been provided with facilities for ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals (a highly specialised function in Roman religion), and it may be presumed that a Mithraeum would have made arrangements for this service to be provided for them in co-operation with the professional victimarius of the civic cult. Prayers were addressed to the Sun three times a day, and Sunday was especially sacred.
It is doubtful whether Mithraism had a monolithic and internally consistent doctrine. It may have varied from location to location. However, the iconography is relatively coherent. It had no predominant sanctuary or cultic centre; and, although each Mithraeum had its own officers and functionaries, there was no central supervisory authority. In some Mithraea, such as that at Dura Europos, wall paintings depict prophets carrying scrolls,but no named Mithraic sages are known, nor does any reference give the title of any Mithraic scripture or teaching. It is known that intitates could transfer with their grades from one Mithraeum to another.
Mithraeum
See also: Mithraeum
A mithraeum found in the ruins of Ostia Antica, Italy
Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier; while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithriac rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum.Some new finds at Tienen show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.
For the most part, Mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The Mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure. There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. Mithraeum is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space).
In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard; potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to colitores or non-initiated worshippers.Mithraea were the antithesis of this.
Degrees of initiation
In the Suda under the entry "Mithras", it states that "no one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests."Gregory Nazianzen refers to the "tests in the mysteries of Mithras".
There were seven grades of initiation into the mysteries of Mithras, which are listed by St. Jerome.Manfred Clauss states that the number of grades, seven, must be connected to the planets. A mosaic in the Ostia Mithraeum of Felicissimus depicts these grades, with symbolic emblems that are connected either to the grades or are just symbols of the planets. The grades also have an inscription beside them commending each grade into the protection of the different planetary gods. In ascending order of importance, the initiatory grades were:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_mysteries
In the Mithraic ceremonies, there were seven degrees of initiations: Corax (Raven), Nymphus (Bridegroom), Miles (Soldier), Leo (Lion), Perses (Persian),Heliodromus (Courier of the Sun), and Pater (Father). Those in the lowest ranks, certainly the Corax, were the servants of the community during the sacred meal of bread and water that formed part of the rite.
The area where the concentration of evidence for Mithraism is the most dense is the capital, Rome, and her port city, Ostia. There are eight extant mithraea in Rome of as many as seven hundred (Coarelli 1979) and eighteen in Ostia. In addition to the actual mithraea, there are approximately three hundred other mithraic monuments from Rome and about one hundred from Ostia. This body of evidence reveals that Mithraism in Rome and Ostia originally appealed to the same social strata as it did in the frontier regions. The evidence also indicates that at least some inhabitants knew about Mithraism as early as the late first century CE, but that the cult did not enjoy a wide membership in either location until the middle of the second century CE.
As the cult in Rome became more popular, it seems to have "trickled up" the social ladder, with the result that Mithraism could count several senators from prominent aristocratic families among its adherents by the fourth century CE. Some of these men were initiates in several cults imported from the eastern empire (including those of Magna Mater and Attis, Isis, Serapis, Jupiter Dolichenus, Hecate, and Liber Pater, among others), and most had held priesthoods in official Roman cults. The devotion of these men to Mithraism reflects a fourth-century "resurgence of paganism," when many of these imported cults and even official Roman state religion experienced a surge in popularity although, and perhaps because, their very existence was increasingly threatened by the rapid spread of Christianity after the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 313 CE.
global.britannica.com/topic/heliodromus
Mithraism had a wide following from the middle of the second century to the late fourth century CE, but the common belief that Mithraism was the prime competitor of Christianity, promulgated by Ernst Renan (Renan 1882 579), is blatantly false. Mithraism was at a serious disadvantage right from the start because it allowed only male initiates. What is more, Mithraism was, as mentioned above, only one of several cults imported from the eastern empire that enjoyed a large membership in Rome and elsewhere. The major competitor to Christianity was thus not Mithraism but the combined group of imported cults and official Roman cults subsumed under the rubric "paganism." Finally, part of Renan's claim rested on an equally common, but almost equally mistaken, belief that Mithraism was officially accepted because it had Roman emperors among its adherents (Nero, Commodus, Septimius Severus, Caracalla, and the Tetrarchs are most commonly cited). Close examination of the evidence for the participation of emperors reveals that some comes from literary sources of dubious quality and that the rest is rather circumstantial. The cult of Magna Mater, the first imported cult to arrive in Rome (204 BCE) was the only one ever officially recognized as a Roman cult. The others, including Mithraism, were never officially accepted, and some, particularly the Egyptian cult of Isis, were periodically outlawed and their adherents persecuted.
ecole.evansville.edu/articles/mithraism.html
Some words were enough for God to precipitate the most beautiful of his creatures at the bottom of the abyss. Lucifer, the carrier of Light, pulled(entailed) with him a third(third party) of the angels in its revolt. Hell was created for him. We know the continuation(suite) … The column of July Place de la Bastille, was set up between 1833 and 1840. In its summit, thrones the "Spirit of liberty" conceived(designed) by the sculptor Auguste Dumont. Curious tribute returned by Louis Philippe to the insurgents who knocked down(spilled) Charles X and the Absolute monarchy three years earlier. Lucifer picked up. No detail misses(is lacking) … Torch in the hand, the Angel has just broken his chains(channels) and dashes to new conquests. Under its impressive base is a crypt sheltering some 500 rests of Fighters of 1830, as well as Egyptian mummy brought back(reported) by Napoleon.Durant la commune de Paris en 1870, après avoir abattu la colonne Vendôme, les communards s’en prirent à celle de la Bastille… sans succès. Ni le dispositif d’explosifs souterrains, ni le tir d’une trentaine d’obus depuis les buttes Chaumont n’en virent pas à bout. La flamme du porteur de Lumière refusa de s’éteindre…
During the municipality of Paris in 1870, having brought(shot) down the column Vendôme, the Communards took themselves in that of the Bastille unsuccessfully. Neither the device(plan) of subterranean explosives, nor the shooting(firing) of around thirty shells since mounds Chaumont transfer(fire) it to end. The flame of the carrier of Light refused to go out …Lucifer was so far away...?
« Non Serviam »- « Je ne servirai pas ! »
Quelques mots suffirent à Dieu pour précipiter la plus belle de ses créatures au fond de l’abîme. Lucifer, le porteur de Lumière, entraîna avec lui un tiers des anges dans sa révolte. L’enfer fut créé pour lui. Nous connaissons la suite…La colonne de Juillet Place de la Bastille, fut érigée entre 1833 et 1840. À son sommet, trône le « Génie de La Liberté » conçu par le sculpteur Auguste Dumont. Curieux hommage rendu par Louis Philippe aux insurgés qui renversèrent Charles X et la Monarchie absolue trois ans plus tôt. Lucifer a repris du poil de la bête. Aucun détail ne manque… Torche à la main, l’Ange vient de briser ses chaînes et s’élance vers de nouvelles conquêtes. Sous son imposant piédestal se trouve une crypte abritant quelques 500 restes des combattants de 1830, ainsi qu’une momie égyptienne rapportée par Napoléon.Durant la commune de Paris en 1870, après avoir abattu la colonne Vendôme, les communards s’en prirent à celle de la Bastille… sans succès. Ni le dispositif d’explosifs souterrains, ni le tir d’une trentaine d’obus depuis les buttes Chaumont n’en virent pas à bout. La flamme du porteur de Lumière refusa de s’éteindre…
www.pariszigzag.fr/histoire-insolite-paris/qui-est-vraime...
The Walk About made a 35 min documentary on margalla national park is amazing.. They have done a wonderful job and i am happy to contribute my part for the protection of margalla national park Islamabad..
While driving back from Snaefellsnes Peninsula to Reykjavik, it happened to be foggy while we drive pass the lake which surprisingly contributed to the serene, otherworldly scene.
The former Walker Brothers Druggists building was constructed circa 1930. The structure is located in the Downtown Columbia Historic District listed on the National Register of Historic Place and is a contributing property.
These three images are of the central region of the magnificent spiral galaxy M100, taken with three generations of the Hubble Space Telescope cameras that were sequentially swapped out aboard the telescope, and document the consistently improving capability of the observatory.
The image on the left was taken with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera 1 in 1993. The photo is blurry due to a manufacturing flaw (called spherical aberration) in Hubble's primary mirror. Celestial images could not be brought into a single focus. [Credit: NASA, ESA, and Judy Schmidt]
The middle image was taken in late 1993 with Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 that was installed during the Dec. 2-13 space shuttle servicing mission (SM1, STS-61). The camera contained corrective optics to compensate for the mirror flaw, and so the galaxy snapped into sharp focus when photographed. [Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. DePasquale (STScI)]
The image on the right was taken with a newer instrument, Wide Field Camera 3, that was installed on Hubble during the space shuttle Servicing Mission 4 in May 2009. [Credit: NASA, ESA, and Judy Schmidt]
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of NASA's first space servicing mission to Hubble, these comparison photos of one of the telescope's first targets are being released today.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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