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For nearly 40 years I have driven by this place, and thought it was beautiful, charming, idyllic, gorgeous, quaint, nostalgic, fairy-tale like, and splendid. It didn't seem to matter what season, I always loved it. There was no safe place to park and take pictures from the highway. Today, July 15, 2012, I decided the weather and lighting would never get much better, and that today was the day to get the courage to knock on the door and ask permission to take some pictures. Knowing full well, they might say no, I asked the young man that answered the door and he said yes. I had the best time, and will be adding pictures as I can.
If my mother were still alive she would have been 98 years old today. I think she would have enjoyed the whole event, from the lovely place to asking permission and getting to take pictures. Happy Birthday, Mom.
NOTE: I tried geotagging, but it might be off a number of miles, because my computer is old and on dial-up and I can't get the maps to work for me the way I want them to, and also this particular map did not show Leaburg, only Walterville & Vida. Sorry :(
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Tenuous Link: Decorative sprig of holly >> real Holly Farm
(1719springcreekhollyfarmsigntuRIT)
Smart phone and app driven robot on display and demonstration for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue, and Mrs. Mary Perdue, on tour inside the 4-H Exhibit Hall and complex, where 4-H members and youth, green shirts, talk about various projects, interactive learning areas, and craft products, at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, in Indianapolis, IN, on August 8, 2017.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue is on a five-state RV tour, featuring stops in five states: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana; titled the “Back to Our Roots” Tour, he is gathering input on the 2018 Farm Bill and increasing rural prosperity, Aug. 3-8, 2017. Along the way, Perdue will meet with farmers, ranchers, foresters, producers, students, governors, Members of Congress, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees, and other stakeholders. This is the first of two RV tours the secretary will undertake this summer. “The ‘Back to our Roots’ Farm Bill and rural prosperity RV listening tour will allow us to hear directly from people in agriculture across the country, as well as our consumers – they are the ones on the front lines of American agriculture and they know best what the current issues are,” Perdue said. “USDA will be intimately involved as Congress deliberates and formulates the 2018 Farm Bill. We are committed to making the resources and the research available so that Congress can make good facts-based, data-driven decisions. It’s important to look at past practices to see what has worked and what has not worked, so that we create a farm bill for the future that will be embraced by American agriculture in 2018.” For social media purposes, Secretary Perdue’s Twitter account (@SecretarySonny) will be using the hashtag #BackToOurRoots. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
Eyad Alkassar, CEO, Rocket Internet ME, Germany.Abha Joshi-Ghani, Senior Adviser, Infrastructure, Public-Private Partnerships and Guarantees, World Bank, Washington DC.Christian Ulbrich, Global Chief Executive Officer; President, JLL, USA.Aisha Butti Bin Bishr, Director-General, Dubai Smart City, United Arab Emirates.Paul E. Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm, USA.Conrad van Oostrom, Chief Executive Officer, OVG Real Estate, Netherlands, speaking at the Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 23, 2018
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Mattias Nutt
These are some shots from a shoot I did for Driven-- a luxury car service in London. I was shooting with a photographer friend of mine all over the city.
The photos we took in Trinity Square (next to the Tower of London) were pretty interesting to capture as everyone who saw us shooting assumed there was someone famous in the car and stood around getting in our way, until we got into the cars ourselves. haha.
Goodtimes.
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Occurring annually Cochabamba, Bolivia during mid-August, the Festival of the Virgin of Urkupiña is an amazing blending of Catholic ritual and local indigenous culture and religion. The Fiesta is a multi-day affair. The first day is the Entrada, which is a sixteen hour “parade” with absolutely beautiful costumes and participants. The energy exhibited in this pageant is astonishing and physically challenging for all. They do not march the route, they literally dance the route, and not just a little shuffle; the dances are strenuous, vibrant and testaments of faith and dedication. These young ladies in particular, but all the participants, have dedicated three years of their lives—at least—to the festival, and in return, they make requests of the Virgin of Urkupiña. It is kind of a quid pro quo prayer: “I promise three years of practice and dancing, and a dedication to the rosary if you, Virgin, will accept my prayer.” The costumes are all handmade; and the riot of colors, the marching bands with their bass drum-driven music, the smells of cooking food, beer and chicha (the local corn-based home brew) and the unique mix of spiritual adoration and physical overindulgence in alcohol and food cannot be adequately captured.
The next day is the Calvario. This is a holiday in Cochabamba; there are perhaps, 500,000 to 750,000 people moving very slowly up to the hilltop known as the Calvario, then proceeding around the top, stopping to drink, or eat, or watch. All are there to pray for their future or to break rocks as a symbol of their willingness to work for their part of the bargain with the Virgin. It is not going to happen only by prayer, it takes action and a willingness to work hard—and Bolivians as a culture are incredibly hardworking. They then take the rocks home with them, and the following year, return them to the Calvario as part of the process of promise and action on both parts. The day is a particularly moving day, filled with a kind of quiet, reflective revelry. However, the peace is frequently shattered by brass bands hired by individual families that loudly accompanied the prayers and transformed the requests into celebrations of the future. Strange, but incredibly Bolivian, and incredibly hopeful. This day is really one of hope for the future of the family, for the entire family is involved in the work and the prayers and the celebration. With frequency, they halt the pounding, and pour beer on the ground and sprinkle some coca leaves as an offering and a sharing with Pachamama; and then they drink—or chew—some themselves. The line of people up and down the Calvario was approximately two miles long, and it was solid people, with no pushing and shoving, just a steady shuffling up and down the hill. Many Bolivians start their walk in the early morning hours, arriving at the Calvario in time for a 6:00 am mass. Thousands walk 15–20 kilometers throughout the night, personally asking or thanking the Virgin. We witnessed an incredible event, an incredible fiesta, filled with prayer, anticipation and thanksgiving.
From "CYCLING" magazine - February 26,1932
Finally ... one bicycle which I am happy to NOT see on the roads.
With no Honda logo or mention of them, I wondered if these people were just used car dealers who’d sold this Accord at some point in its life. However, a quick Google shows a slightly older photo of their building with Honda signage, looking very much like a dealers from the 1970s/80s:
www.localdatasearch.com/london/catford/garage_services/gi...
Note Acty and Concerto outside!
Streetview shows the place looking much the same but with a nice Legend coupe parked on the forecourt:
maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&g...
They’re based at Sangley Road, Catford. Unlikely I’ll ever be going anywhere near there in the near future, though I probably have driven quite close by in the past as it’s not far off the A205 South Circular.
Would be interesting to investigate them further, see how far back their involvement with Honda goes.
Paul E. Jacobs, Executive Chairman, Qualcomm, USA.Conrad van Oostrom, Chief Executive Officer, OVG Real Estate, Netherlands, speaking at the Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 23, 2018
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Mattias Nutt
I test drove this at Available Car in Castle Donington, Leicestershire.
If you are going to have a Volvo estate, then why not have the most nutty one available right?
The XC70 is nutty. 210mm of ground clearance, big plain plastic bumpers, M+S tyres, 4 wheel drive... even the dog guard is standard equipment (its is on gas struts so you can fold it up into the headlining when not required).
However, not is all it seems with this XC70. Its missing an important element that turns a nutty car into a nutty car that doesn't really make sense.
Excerpt from here: www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/volvo/volvo-xc70-drive-...
"On looks alone, this Volvo XC70 may seem like old news, yet it puts a whole new twist on the urban off-roader theme. Why? Because, despite the jacked-up stance, it’s actually front-wheel drive.
What’s happened to the 4x4 version? Don’t panic, it’s still on sale. The front-wheel drive XC70 has been introduced along with a front-drive XC60, both cars being cheaper and less polluting than the 4x4 variants that sired them."
So, this one isn't for us with its missing its 4 wheel drive and in basic trim (for Volvo). A more sensible choice would be the plain old V70.
#95, Aston Martin Racing, Aston Martin Vantage AMR, LMGTE Pro, driven by: Marco Sorensen, Nicki Thiim, Darren Turner, FIAWEC Prologue 2018, 06/04/2018,
Ash had been shot by an overzealous Catwalker and was recovering, confined to a wheelchair. Who should come along but everyone's favorite Shadow!
Serp Iwashi's field of vision like a crimson tide fans out down the corridor leaving its lingering touch in a faint scarlet tinge creeping out around the bend. Making reconaissance and inspecting the cause of the scent taken through the current and the warm sensations growing upon his proximity to the flickering flames. The gaudy frame of mechanics treading carefully over the concrete with a purposeful measure of his caution and some attempted refusal of his clanky form. Abound with tiny mechinism now settled deep within his guise as to only remain waiting. The copiously driven swirl of the feline tail dangling along the backside the chair and the ears protruding from the fire slathering his crude smile upon his charred face.
Ashur Kentoku warms her hands, blinking glassily through her haze of medication....she considers callling Ember, tired of waiting for her and missing her, but sits, hypnotized by the flames instead, unaware of the danger behind her...
Ashur Kentoku sighs and rummages for her PDA...which pocket did she put it in again? A scent reaches her...somehow familiar and altogether unique, and it penetrates her addled mind....the hairs on the back of her neck rise and she feezes, ears trying to pick up sounds behind her...
Serp Iwashi a faint hissing parts ways through the revealed palm and chain now presented before the distant light. The hooked end would creep down slowly with the chimes ushering his true intentions forward. Regal like folds through that all too familiar ominous shroud fully set aside to show the gleaming expanse of thick slabs that made up the abdominal wall. They would nearly pearl into the inferno seemingly as the flames intensity would meet the glacial exterior with tiny beads of condensation already dripping down in single streams following the curvature of his well muscled form. There was no hiding now and a further plume of the noxious mist would try to stiffle the fire as he shaped the strands upon her head.
Ashur Kentoku takes a deep breath and turns her wheelchair around to face the dark figure....she narrows her eyes defiantly, even as her heart begins to pound within her chest. "What do you want, Serp?" she mews. "I'm not in the mood for playing with you today." She tries to keep her voice casual, but she's all too aware of her predicament now...she wonders how fast a wheelchair could be if the occupant was desperate enough....
Serp Iwashi had watched quietly as she turned with a dreadful second of waiting. A stillness and true silence that had come so sudden that was truely ordinary. Yet the titanic formation was anything but that as a cold stare fell over the feline. Smoke billowing through his guise and out into the perpetual night that was this cities plight. His frigid nature holding the woman to an unwavering judgement spoken through tainted ink. Finally a shudder of the murky flesh escaping well sculpted canines in the follow of his booming voice.. " You should know well I dont often play with my food..Though I will say I enjoy you're current form..half machine now are we..." A twitch of the cheek region just below that hypnotic gaze that ran red like a scarlet tear pushing aside his humanity and fully allowing him to take advantage of what was to come. The hooked end continously rocking back and forth as the momentum built so did the fiendish laughter now pouring through the alleyways.
Naomah Beaumont is happily nibbling V's collarbone one moment, and the next *that* laugh echoes through the maze of passages behind the den. Nio starts, looking around, but seeing only the usual, but the oily chill slides down her back in thick, dark droplets. She doesn't say anything at the moment, though.
Ashur Kentoku tenses and tries to rise from her chair but succeeds only in doubling into a half-crouch, balancing on one leg, one arm against the wall supporting her weight, the other gripping an armrest. Her face scrunches in pain as her insides feel like they're tearing open again at the sudden exertion...."Serp," she gasps. "I'm not prey...not like this..." Her eyes follow the hook with horrified fascination.
Naomah Beaumont wanders toward the med den, then turns back to listen to Kiri. She chuckles. "You never cease to surprise me, Kiri."
Serp Iwashi spoken tongue was more akin to some demonic entity from another realm then the more comforting notion that he was a mere machine..an earthly creation. " Oh but you are..but tell me how many lives are left so I know how many more times I can beat you within an inch of you're miserable life.." The nefarious lord nodding through his inquiries with a final exasperated sigh hissing through the tubular protrusions beneath jaws fit for some measure of barbarism. The slow gait remained just that as the hook swung back one final time awaiting the moment she would speak before flying outward with a hungered gleam of rotted flesh discarded to make way for the encasement of the rustic blade wanting to bite into those thighs.
Naomah Beaumont blinks. "No, I didn't know. You never did sit down and tell me your life's story. You keep threatening to, but so far, no soap." Nio scratches an ear, looking down at her former pledge mom, wondering how much else she doesn't know about the other cat.
Ashur Kentoku: "More than enough for the likes of you, coward!" she snarls defiantly, and then the hook sweeps down at her and she moves suddenly, twisting aside, a wonderful testament to her training and boosted feline reflexes, but its not enough...not this time...her stiff leg betrays her and the hook still slashes into her thigh, leaving a bloody furrow....she feels something break inside her and her vision dims for a moment as she collapses at Serp's feet, a yowl of pain and despair escaping her lips....
Naomah Beaumont stiffens. That's a yelp she knows entirely too well. "Ash... Shit. Amrys, get up here..." Nio runs toward the sound as best her own battered legs will carry her, stitches be damned.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) says 'What is it?'
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) looks over the rooftops, then finally down. "oh my-- What..."
Serp Iwashi delivered a rather softer cackle that strayed from his otherwise overbearing mechanically induced tone. Lifting a shard like brow high above his right eye in response to her words..His laugh dieing alongside the last notion that there was anything amusing to be found in this .." Just an opportunist my dear..." The rich blood coaxed out from the fresh wound as the blade gnaws away at her thigh trying to sink into the meat with his palm giving a yank back to bring her with now dragging alongside the concrete.." Come we have much to discuss.." His icey fingertips rapping upon his own chain as he began to haul her out into the shadows.
Naomah Beaumont looks over the edge at the tableau unfolding below. "Fuck. SERP! GET AWAY FROM HER. HER CANDY ASS IS MINE!" Well... that's perhaps misrepresenting things a trifle, but at times, it's best to stick to the most primal motivations. Violence. Defence of prey. In a lower voice she says to Amrys. "In the lockers upstairs. Locker 30. Combo There's a rifle made of white plastic. Grab it and bright it to me. And make sure to grab one of the magazines for it at the bottom of the locker." As she says this, she draws the only weapons she has on her, a pair of 9mm automatics. She can hit from here. She's sure she can. But whether the rounds will do anything to the horror stalking the alley is entirely another question. "Hurry!" she enjoins the blue cat.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) backs away from the railing and runs to the med den
Ashur Kentoku screams like a kitten as she's dragged by the hook across the concrete, leaving a trail of blood.....she extends her claws, diamond-hard and sharp nanotech constructs, her only weapons now, and claws frantically at whatever part of Serp is in reach....if she could just delay him or hurt him enough to let her go, she might, just might be able to scuttle away under cover from the shots from above....
Emberen Twine arrives at the scene, her breath issuing halted and heaving. "Get off of her," she growls, her body temperature spiking instantly as she draws her axe.
Serp Iwashi Nothing human evident in those swirling pits now glancing upward to the jealous tirade spoken from high above. Grizzly formation of those fearsome rows beaming to the kitten walker or whatever manner of their pesiferous hiearchy..His tongue gracing his lower rows as his sonorous vocalization launches itself to the catwalks like its own chaotic agent. Only the chain remained about her thigh and the titanium could withstand the claws as he continued to back off around the shed..
"Silence wench..If you want her..come down.." A masterful puppet overlord pulling on the strings that was his chains nearly binding Ashur to his will.
Naomah Beaumont runs forward to compensate for the changing angle of the shot and draws a bead on Serp's head with the open sights of her pistols. She has to aim for the head, really. Any lower and she risks putting (more) bullets in Ash.
Akiel Martian reached his left hand for the hand of his blade, silent. Numbed eyes looking over to the darkened fellow, draped in black, original. The blade shifted from his left as he tossed it into the air, snatching at it with his right, "..I'm in the mood to beat someone senseless..", he said low, rumbling in his throat. Growling only slightly as he held the blade lazily over his shouler in his bloodied right hand.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) rushes out of the med den with the gun Niobe had requested. She held it out as soon as she saw Niobe. "Here," she said, obviously a little strained from trying (and failing) to run down teh stairs with it.
Emberen Twine glances to Syle, her body shaking with that uncontrolled energy. She turns back just in time to see Ashur's body dragged around the corner, her eyes widening before narrowing darkly under heavily furrowed brow. A sweat breaks onto her flesh as the acid burn of rage burns within her and she approaches the shadowed figure, her eyes sparking before seeming to ignite in a swirl of liquid fire. She falls silent as she approaches her target, focus falling tunneled upon approach.
Ashur Kentoku casts a desperate lok back at Ember as she's draged around the corner..."NO!" she screams..."Stay away! I can handle....this..." The blood seeping from her mouth, an indication of her internal injuries having opened some, and the hook through her thigh seems to make the proposition somewhat unfeasible, but she didnt want Ember hurt...if it was her last act, she wanted her safe....
Ashur Kentoku: ...and tries to pull herself closer to Serp, using the chain embedded in her thigh, to sink her claws into his body and rip and tear at the armour and cybernetics that composed his form....
Serp Iwashi had caught only a glimpse of the bushido wannabe and axe wielding kitten upon his departure from the birthed flames of the pit to now retreat back into the alley with his prey. Casting a parting glance above long enough to hawk out a large chemical splatter over the concrete. Perhaps not terribly in good shape for the sheer corpulence of his overbearing mechanical form but steady nevertheless as those nails screech alongside the carapace only forming distinct lines of silver etchings peeling away the caliginous nature of those crude slabs of armor. His laugh starting up again as his teeth flashed sharply through the changing mood of the scene..The ragged ends of his cloak would be just against the railing now as he would readily embrace the fleeting marks of a wild cat in desperation..His palm risen in that immense fist taking the chain with to try and keep her off balance through another volatile tug that could likely take her into the railing or over.
Ashur Kentoku snarls, even as her vision dims momentarily, and tries to inflict some kind of damage that would cause him to leak whatever substance passes for circulatory fluid, hoping it would make tracking him easier...she'd done it before, in her fights with him in the past, but this was different, and she was badly hurt...she yowled as she was jerked up to the railing and clung stubbornly with one free hand, not willing to go into the darkness that awaited her....her face turns and she locks her eyes on Em's....
Naomah Beaumont drops her pistols on the catwalk and takes the M41 from Amrys as she hands it to her, stuffs the mag in and racks the action of the much heavier assault rifle, preparing to rain 10mm slugs on Serp's head and upper torso like a hailstorm from hell. As she draws the bead on him she yells, "UNHOOK THE CHAIN, ASH!" Whether all this is in time to save Ash from being chucked into the canal is subject to the actions of a lot of others. Particularly Serp's.
Emberen Twine stalks closer to her target, breath huffing heavily through flared nostrils, focus tunneling further as she lowers to a crouch before springing forth, flipping the axe as she flies at the shadowed figure, the spike aiming for his throat.
Serp Iwashi A bulwark of thick metallic slabs rising and falling making a mockery of the fleshlings now attempting to thrust the axe into where the jugular would normally lay. Perhaps it was the brash manner of assault or the predicament of the situation but an orotrund cackle soon broke away from the clatter of obsidians fangs with his mechanical defiance making its presense known through the heavy reverberation pinging against the sheathed aluminum that made up the shed beside him. The chain was still strung upward as if he were going to lynch ashur as he stepped aside letting the chains loop around and in the same movement guiding such to let the axe hit the chains forcing a violent rattle trying to swing the momentum of the axe wielder away from him.Sparks likely following the opposition of metal over metal with a pompous air discharged through baited breath of noxous fumes like a malginant cloud trying to creep into their lungs.. His head was still somewhat in view but the rest of his imposing form had..
Serp Iwashi two felines before him essentially blocking most of his mass..though his cranium was gauging through a lingering eye to the weaponary above..how good was that aim indeed..
Ashur Kentoku squalled in pain and anger, her actions weakening as her injuries began to get the better of her...she tried again to break circulatory tubes she knew lurked between the armor plates, still maintaining her death grip on the railing...
Naomah Beaumont seems to have a moment before Emby gets to Serp, and she cuts loose with the M41, its suppressed chugging sound belying the high powered slugs she's sending Serp's way. She's aiming for his chest, while she has the moment. Chest and head, as the pulse rifle climbs.
Emberen Twine screeches as the axe is deflected by the chains, white knuckles clinging tightly to their charge, before the momentum of his swing casts her off like a rag doll. Claws extend on her free hand, aiming with a powerful swipe before she is thrust head first into the brick wall, her body sliding to the ground with a thud, blood streaming from her skull.
Serp Iwashi constructs illuminated as soon as the gun fire roared through pelting his chest region with two of the slugs and the others streaking up accross his carapace towards the should region and upward with distant splashes of the final rounds hitting the slime below. Black tar oozing out as his gait seemed to loose control with a choked burst of a howl that only further sends more of his blood oozing out the pectoral region..His grip would not falter though even as legs seemed to want to give way to the throbbing pain stemming from the core of his chest. His free hand grasping the back of the rail as his tongue swiped away the murky blood dripping down his fangs..His eyes dimming as he lets himself fall backward into the sewage with the chain running through fast and soon taking Ashur over and into the sludge should she be unable to get out of the tangled mess of rustic links.
Ashur Kentoku gives a final squall as her grip is broken by the immense weight of the falling Shadow and she's dragged into the murky depths along with him, leaving nothing but her blood pooled on the concrete next to the railing to show she was ever there....
Naomah Beaumont lets stitches be damned and makes a high performance leap from the catwalk to the ground running to the edge of the canal. The stitches in one leg tear, leaving a bloody streak down her thigh as she peers over the railing trying to find something, anything to shoot at. And then there are bubbles. She fires on them with little hope, knowing that... hoping that... Ashur is holding her breath and the bubbles come from Serp.
Serp Iwashi’s tar seemed to break out among the stagnant pools in blotches accross the surface of the sludge like some oil spill of sorts. A few pieces of black cloth even floating atop but no bubbles that could be made out amid the thick consistancy of the sewage. The sounds of chains rattling not breaking the surface as he crawls along the bottom with those reflective lenses peering through the murky depths.Feeling along the bottom as he dragged ashur with him down the canal. She would likely float but where he was exactly was hard to determine besides the general direction of ripples eminating outward with stray shots licking away close to him perhaps but unknown which would hit its mark.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) leaps onto the nearest roof and, once she regains her balance, aims with the knife, then realizes she can't see the attacker. "Damn," she mutters, she was tired of people getting hurt because of her incompetence.
Ashur Kentoku holds her breath as well as she can, but her struggles are weak now as bloodloss, pain, shock and lack of oxygen take their toll...her mind clouds and dims and she thinks....'Hey, this is peaceful...I think I might just go to sleep...' "
Naomah Beaumont stares down into the water. "Look!" she shouts to Amrys. "The ripples!" She yells up. "Call for backup!" And with that she goes vertical, pulling more stitches out, moving over the building between her and Ash and Serp's path.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) pulls out her phone and texts madly, knife still in hand. Tricky, but it can be done.
Serp Iwashi was indeed quite at home without a need to breath in the typical sense he easily remained submerged. His steely fingertips clawing away at the grime encrusted stone with his cloak spreading outward from him akin to some dark manta flattening him as best he could. Little interest was held to wether the feline could breath or not but surely he thought her tougher then a mere victim of drowning.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) puts the phone away and resumes looking to the sewage. "I don't know her well, I don't actually know. Nio said call for backup, so I did." Her tone is angry, but she's glaring down at the sludge below--unclear where the anger is directed.
Ashur Kentoku lapses into a state of semi-consciousness...she hasn't automatically inhaled any water yet, but if she's kep under for too much longer she will...
Naomah Beaumont: "It's Ash." Nio yells. "he's down in the canal with her." The guilt in Nio's voice comes out almost like a sob. "He's headed south"
Naomah Beaumont adds. "Follow them! He has to surface if he wants her alive!"
Serp Iwashi bubbling formation rises out through what could be some manner of speech spoken beneath the surface of the muck running down the canal. The resounding vocalization forming more ripples dancing above until calming the waves..A few moments longer he could attempt to keep his captive alive but for now content on the same route without pause to allow her breath.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) nods and runs over to where Niobe is, assuming she can see them ((Amrys lost them)). Then she begins to follow their movements.
Amrys (Ameretat Skytower) quietly says to Nio "If she's there, he should be in front of her, right?"
Naomah Beaumont: Probably, I don't know.... Yeah, she's not swimming...
Brandon Dragonfly slowly stammered down the steps, each little piece of concrete trembling beneath the weighted boots; he'd seem heavily armored. Pounds upon pounds of casted metal stretch about the human fleshy form beneath, a harbinger mask of sorts was worn. The harbinger of chaos scanned a quick gaze over the surrounding area, glancing for any signs of distress he'd have heard deep within the lobs of his ear.
Serp Iwashi had made it just under the bridge with a turn of his body like some leviathan rising up out of the sewage now dripping down the length of the folds that made up his cloak. Soaked and matted alongside his thighs and the musculature of his form he would tug upwards and reach out gripping the chain and trying to consume the neck to bring her out like a wet rat opposing to her feline genetics. Wanting to ring her out as he allowed but a single gasp before he would lower himself back down and her with.
Niemack Saarinen glances around following the harbinger...hand on the grip of his kalashnakov....scanning....he'd hear some metal distress but..couldnt point out where it was comming from quite yet....he muttered quietly in german under his facemask...the sound distroyed and unrecognizable outside....just muffles.
Naomah Beaumont looks over her shoulder at the other two people who've moved onto the sidewalk. She eyes them, and makes her way back across the street.
Serp Iwashi cloak soon slipped over the side of the concrete with raining droplets beading down along the surface as he arose from the waste. His cumbersome form soon landing down with a heavy thud while the chain is slowly taken back into his grip to hoist ashur up and out of the sludge. The liquid was inside his shell now with a expelled cough wreaking havoc on the modulation of his voice before spewing out some of his own blood and the swallowed green slime off to the side. A growl in aggravation with his free hand letting his thumb probe over the fresh peneration of lead that had warped his exterior.
Ashur Kentoku splutters and gasps as she's hauled free of the foul water, and then coughs weakly, still only semi-aware of her surroundings...she knew she was in trouble but lucid thought escaped her for the moment as she recovered from her underwater voyage.
Serp Iwashi once luminous orbs covered in a toxic sheath seeming to drown a little during her gasped fit. He lets the chain fall almost immediatelt with his talosn swooping in to try and grab those wrists to hold her up above and leave her face mere inches from his own..
Ashur Kentoku dangles limply, head down, wet hair matting her face....she coughs again, then brings her head up slowly to meet the skull-like face, blinking owlishly. Her ears fold back and she hisses weakly, instinctively....
Serp Iwashi Decayed manacles of those icy grips claiming the pulse running through those wrists as the sopping wet cat continues to drip over the grime. Long chains that had weighed her down now dangling as well with the hook still sunken deep not wanting to release the connection through such tantalizing prospects in some fusion of metal and beast. An animal was all she was to him as those cold orbs continue to belittle her and make judgement. The scarlet sheathing peeling back several times with the spinning motion evident. Clangerous bite of his jaws promising to taste her flesh as his plates groaned in some complaint..There was still some of his own blood running down his chest in droplets splashing to the cement. Each one forcing a twitch under the inky skin as his grip tightening.." Wake up kitten.." His voice breaks free of the visage and washes over the paled skin.
Ashur Kentoku hisses again, ears still folded back, her pale eyes suddenly shining with defiance and a mixture of anger and fear...she struggles weakly to break free of the tightening grip on her wrists as she hangs above the filthy sewage water and tries to raise her weary legs in an attempt at kicking against the dark figure's vast, armored chest, but she's too hurt inside and her muscles simply won't obey her...she settles for wriggling a few moments instead before subsiding, panting. She coughs convulsively, and blood fills her mouth, some of it leaking down her chin...
Serp Iwashi Those dreadful crimson beams continue to whirl in a circular fashion as the clanking of multiple pieces release themselves in shuttering expells. Cluttering steel vibrating outward as his features begin to protrude out of the mask. His tongue lashing out swiping away the blood dripping down her chin..A faint breath bated as his mechanical hiss sheered rough the confines of the tunnels. Savoring the taste with a satisfied rumble churned through his gullet before moving his head into Ashur's .Letting the horrid black steely brows roll about her face in almost a loving embrace as the coldness of his clammy flesh would grace her own. " Im going to enjoy this..." Words nearly whispered at but a wisp of smoke lingering around the ebon spindles of those long locks and tugging on the feline ears..But a moment to pass befoe his face changed with the sharp shards narrowing inward giving the crimson a slant that streaked accross directly about her sight like a visor.." Are you ready kitten.."His head suddenly rearing back and trying to slam it directly into her own before releasing her to face the brunt of the blow should he suceed meshing titanium and her own chin and or forehead depending on how she would move. A sickening crack would likely be heard through and the newly laced blood promising to paint his own charred face should it follow through.
Ashur Kentoku recoils as the tongue flicks out to lap at the blood leaking down her chin, turning her face aside and grimacing at the touch. She glares into the crimson orbs and growls, ever-defiant in spite of her fear and pain. She was a warrior, used to be, and still had the heart of one and snarls, bloody fangs bared when the skull face presses itself against hers, frustrated at her body's betrayal and her inability to fight back...she opens her mouth to say something when the horror before her speaks, but never gets the chance as the head slams into her forehead with a crack that echoes off the sewer walls...for a few moments she sees and feels and hears nothing, then it comes back in a rush of new pain, and she mews slowly, desperately trying to focus, blinking through the blood running down her face and stinging her eyes...
Serp Iwashi Vigorious movements of steely talons undulating in the damp air that encompassed them. Nocturnal wings flailing aside as if suddenly driven by unseen forces letting the ripples of stygian cloth unfurl. Grotesque shards shifting back as his own head begins to shift side to side making sure to carefully roll it atop that thick set of darkened tissues that was his neck." This will be just a faint memory..a blurr in you're miserable life.. " Her dazed state easily allow him time to approach as his thumb flicked her own blood off his face and to the wall. The tremor of his step closing in towards her as he loomed atop with an audible chime of his thick mechanical digits crossing over one another and flexing. Even the tone of his voice would seem like an assault ringing through those ears. Hellish grin of metal peaking out of his dark visage as he hovered there a few seconds longer..Suddenly his right palm forming a back hand and rearing back with a resounding slap booming through the tunnels should it connect accross her cheek bone..The same hand would swing backward but this time swooping in low to sink those claws in about the abdomen to try and get ahold of her better. The thumb and index finger pincering through the lowest rib of an anatomy he knew all so very well.
Ashur Kentoku yelps as her face is struck, her cheekbone breaking and flesh splitting, sending a spray of blood across the sewer wall, then gasps as the clawed hand sinks into her abdomen and slices through a rib....she doubles over and holds onto the figure's arm, another hand against his chest in a curiously intimate-seeming gesture....She blinked at the blood obscuring her vision and started shivering involuntarily, her skin clammy and cold from shock..."You know....nothing...of my life," she whispers....
Serp Iwashi Rich organs that were cradled within but a breath away from being split open but that was too easy an option. The vice like grip crushing the bone and rending flesh that his hand was now apart of her body with the raw mechanical nature pumping his toxicity into her. Brittle peelings of his own hand making the skin rise under her stomach region before peaking out and soon tiny beads of crimson pouring through each and every hole..Her touch meant nothing to him as he had felt nearly nothing but the thrill seeping through his mind. An echoic roar of laughter before squelching such and letting his other hand reach behind his cloak.." I dont care to know fleshling..you are all the same..bone..tissue..organs..blood....- meat-.." Ominous overtones spoken with a true passion as he grunts taking her with directly to the wall to try and pin her up..The concrete absorbed the blow and her backside scraping along all the way up..her clothing..her skin catching on the cement slabs as he continued to toy with the ribs..another inch..reaching for the second just beneath the skin as a dagger suddenly comes to the dismal light now held in his left hand..A tool as every much a part of him as his own claws..He brings it down screeching against the brick making it dull with each blow and a horrid peeling sending the dull ache of the sound flooding the tunnels.
Ashur Kentoku screams as she's rent asunder, digging her claws into his arm, her other clawed hand scrabbling at his chest for support, something to cling to, to try quell the pain...she had none but her torturer for that and so she clung to him, a hideous embrace. She yelps again, a short, cut-off sound as she's slammed against the wall and pinned there, her skin tearing and her ribs cracking further under the force....She's so overcome with pain and shock she barely notices the knife, simply hanging there, panting and shivering, ears pinned back....
Serp Iwashi elongated tips slide over the handle more firmly as that horrific sculpt of his own blade gealms under the incandescent glow of his own sight. A snarl let forther to become a mask of hunger in a boisterous display of mechanical harmonics trying to seep through to ones very bones..Muscled layers giving way to the cruel nature of his talons squirming inside like starved maggots eating her alive. Thet mystifying gaze glaring into her as his breath like the decay of a thousand corpses seeps out and clings to her flesh. The jagged edge stroking alongside her cheek as she shivered more under the cool dampness of the tunnel and his very own presense only making manners worse as her blood continued to drizzle down along his plates..Her meager attempts at clawing across his chest a mere tickle while he toyed just a moment longer.." Shhh..So attractive you are..though I had heard beauty is only skin deep..perhaps.." A cloud of his cancerous breath pluming out.." We should find out.." With that his jaws clench and the blade departs from her face now thrusting it downward along her bicep trying to peel under and separate skin from muscle tissues as if he was some butcher preparing the meal to come..He would likely stop mid palm with a swipe of blood splattered accross his own garb..The motion entertained again as he continued with another following the same as he attempts to repeat the motion with resistant overpowered by his mechanical might..A demented gleam of his fangs just under those swirling pits of hatred with blackened nostrisl flaring..breathing more heavily and his tongue squirming through pushing foam like chemical concotion out between the cracks of his jaws as he worked pushing harder and harder on the ribs trying to compress the abdomen as he did so.
Ashur Kentoku's internal nanites swarm and struggle to control her blood-loss and system shock, trying to keep her alive...She couldn't scream anymore, couldnt find the breath to, so she just mews quietly, almost casually, as if to herself, as her ribs collapse. She lays her head against the armoured chest and closes her eyes, even moving her head a little to get comfortable, still clinging to the arm that's killing her, and sighs.
Serp Iwashi finally pulled the blade aside to let the droplets fly outward.Her arms likely looked mangled now and her ribs upon her left hand side were nearly protruding out in a compount fracture as he pulled half the the bone with. Crushing it in his hand almost into a powdery film now sprinkled atop her..His foot kicking her back to the wall and soon striking the armored shin across her body several times to batter her. He would slowly move back to gauge the damage as his licked the blade a moment in thought. he could nearly whistle at this point to judge his quick work as if to see if he had gotten any better through the countless bodies that have come to past.
Ashur Kentoku crumples to the sewer floor and twitches as she's battered, but it's perhaps a blessing she's unconscious now....she lies there and sets about the business of dying as the horror before her contemplates his handiwork, her blood mingling with the waters and flowing away from her...
Serp Iwashi soon slipped the blade along his backside once more. The white film tainted in red continously rubbed through his inner palm as he would lean down only once letting his figners graze atop her feline ear..Stroking the tip a moment with a soft laugh that nearly betrayed the size and mass of his mechanical form. " Enjoy you're recovery.." Soon walking off back into the shadows of the tunnel as if nothing had happened.
Driven by Hervé Poulain (F), Marcel Mignot (F)
Le Mans 24 Hours 1977
Placed 9th
Roy Lichtenstein was commissioned by BMW to paint a Group 5 Racing Version of the BMW 320i as part of the BMW Art Car Project
Seen in Stamford Street, London SE1 today are two 8gp (girl power) pedi-buses.
Each person faces inwards whilst peddling away in order for the driver to steer the "bus". I'm not quite sure what the pink hair was all about....or the blow-up doll at the back !
Music and wine was flowing, but the overtaking cyclist had had enough.
Might need to enlarge the photo in order to understand what's going on.
When 2010 began I was real heavy into motivational messages and designs. One word I used a lot in my designs was DRIVEN. Here is one of those designs I created this year using that word!
1989 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Jim Hague during the afternoon race for Group 8B (1974-1990 Stock Cars with disc brakes) on Sunday at the 2012 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
Macro Mondays Theme - Drive Me Wild
It drives me wild that not all screws are driven like the one on the right!
27/10/2013. Ladies European Tour. Sanya Ladies Open, Yalong Bay Golf Club, Sanya, China. Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa is driven to the 18th green with the South African flag flying .
ROMA ARCHEOLOGICA & RESTAURO ARCHITETTURA 2021. ROME CANNOT SURVIVE ANOTHER RAGGI TERM AS MAYOR - Raggi: "I rebuilt Rome, transforming it into a Ferrari, the strongest Italian car." The Romans: "A Ferrari driven by wild boars." Italics Magazine (16 Sept. 2021) & Cinghiali “contromano” tra il traffico: in via Trionfale; in: Prati Borgo / San Pietro (21/09/2021). wp.me/pbMWvy-1VH
“Bestemmie e cinghiali…dimmi che sei di Roma senza dirmi che sei di Roma”; in:
welcometofavalas / Instagram (Giugno e Luglio 2021).
1). ROME CANNOT SURVIVE ANOTHER RAGGI TERM AS MAYOR – Raggi: “I rebuilt Rome, transforming it into a Ferrari, the strongest Italian car.” The Romans: “A Ferrari driven by wild boars.” Italics Magazine (16 Sept. 2021)
Foto: Roma & Virginia Raggi / Facebook & Twitter (09/2021).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/51503201160
ROME - With just under three weeks left until elections in Rome, more than 2 million residents are tasked with choosing the next mayor of the Italian capital city amid a flurry of last-ditch public appearances and advertising onslaughts. The current mayor, anti-establishment Five Star Movement Virginia Raggi, is not lacking for opponents. The most significant is Enrico Michetti, who has thrown down the gauntlet to Raggi in a bid to raise the center-right flag over Capitoline Hill. But she’s got plenty to worry about on her own side of the aisle in the forms of Roberto Gualtieri as the center-left nominee and Carlo Calenda as the candidate for the progressive Azione party.
Most polling doesn’t bode particularly well for the incumbent Raggi: she’s currently trailing both Michetti and Gualtieri and only a hair in front of Calenda. Of course, with undecided voters topping 40%, it really is still anyone’s game. But it shouldn’t be this close, not with the promise with which Raggi entered the Eternal City. So what went wrong for her?
A rough start as a mayor
Virginia Raggi was elected the 34th mayor of Rome in June 2016, with 67.2% of votes in the second round. The first female mayor of the capital city promised to rid it of corruption, with the promise that “the wind is changing.” But it all went wrong.
It was a risky move to withdraw their 2024 Olympic bid, and the way it was done made her no friends in both public or private circles. She insisted that “with more than €13 billion of debt, Rome can’t afford to shoulder more to build cathedrals in the desert.” But her detractors heavily contested the position, claiming that pulling out from the bidding wasted the chance to upgrade infrastructure and public facilities with little or no expense. Funds would have come into Rome via the International Olympic Committee, private investors, and the government. According to a study from Tor Vergata University, the city lost an estimated €7.1 billion of gross revenue, 40,000 job opportunities, and, most of all, the chance to drag the capital city into the 21st century with cutting-edge infrastructures.
Once, Roman emperors used to host awe-inspiring public games in an attempt to appease and distract a population in constant turmoil. Back then, the Roman poet called Juvenal called it panem et circenses, Bread and Circuses.
Foto: Foto: France / EuroNews (13/07/2021) & Virginia Raggi / Instagram (17/07/2021).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/51318116878
These days no one seems to bother that much, preferring it seems to distract citizens with piles of garbage and wild boars. Though that sounds like a metaphor, it sadly is not. The waste management sector of Rome is near total collapse: every year the city council spends €170 million shipping the capital’s garbage to other Italian regions. Dumpsters are so full of trash that gulls, rats, and even boars have been spotted rummaging through bins to find something to eat. They are not particular, but no matter; they are spoiled for choice.
Foto: TG 3 Lazio & Virginia Raggi (07/2021).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/51342747717
Make no mistake, Rome is filthy. Not only does the capital recycle 15% less garbage than the Italian average (45% as opposed to 61.3% in 2019), but only 60% of roads in the city are effectively cleaned, far below the 92% guaranteed by the publicly traded AMA, the company tasked with providing urban hygiene services. Yet despite this, Roman residents pay the highest waste tax in Italy, 42% higher than Florence.
The (lost) battle against corruption
Faithful to the motto of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, Virginia Raggi trounced her opponents by promising to clean the city of corruption. But for a mayor that failed to clean up waste from the streets, it’s not surprising that she soon found herself under investigation by magistrates. The long list of judiciary proceedings deeply undermined Virginia Raggi’s authority, as two cases of malfeasance in office regarding staffing of her private office broke out. Eventually, the Court dropped all the charges against the mayor, citing her right-hand Raffaele Marra instead for illegal hiring practices. But the damage was done to her reputation and in Rome, reputation is everything.
Another trial regarding the new AS Roma soccer club stadium in 2018 resulted in the arrest of none people for crimes including corruption. Among them was the president of Acea (the local multi-utility providing water and energy services) Luca Lanzalone, who had been appointed to the position by Raggi herself. Although the mayor didn’t receive a sentence, the affair perpetrated the notion that anyone around the mayor was incompetent or, at worse, corrupt.
Regardless of who takes the reins, expectations look gloomy for the Eternal city. And though it is unfair to blame Virginia Raggi for everything that has gone wrong in the capital, she certainly hasn’t done anything to alleviate the problems that both preceded her and emerged in her tenure. For someone with so much promise, her greatest sin may just be her apathetic governance. The data speaks for itself: the city of Rome dropped from 18th in 2019 to 32th in 2020 in the national rankings for quality of life. No amount of bread nor circuses can fix that.
Fonte / source:
--- Italics Magazine (16 Sept. 2021).
italicsmag.com/2021/09/16/rome-cannot-survive-another-rag...
Foto: Rome, Prati Borgo / San Pietro (21/09/2021).
www.flickr.com/photos/imperial_fora_of_rome/51502272366
2). ROMA - Cinghiali “contromano” tra il traffico: in via Trionfale la processione si svolge in pieno giorno. Prati Borgo / San Pietro (21/09/2021).
In una via Trionfale trafficata, in pieno giorno, i cinghiali “contromano” si districano tra il traffico. La scena è stata ripresa, all’altezza del civico 8229, da un residente mentre era sul balcone della sua abitazione e mostra un comportamento fin qui inedito di suidi che, solitamente, si spostano al calar del sole alla ricerca di cibo, soprattutto accanto ai cassonetti ricolmi di rifiuti.
Automobilisti e scooteristi, quasi increduli, sono costretti a scansarsi per far passare tre cinghiali adulti e undici cuccioli, non si sono registrati incidenti.
Il candidato sindaco di Azione, Carlo Calenda, ha postato nel proprio profilo Twitter un video che ritrae i cinghiali da un’altra angolazione. “Non pensate sia arrivato il momento di sedervi a un tavolo e affrontare la questione?” – ha scritto Calenda taggando il presidente della Regione, Nicola Zingaretti, e la prima cittadina di Roma, Virginia Raggi.
I suidi sono animali dal comportamento prevalentemente notturno. La carovana non è la prima ripresa nel nostro territorio, il 21 luglio scorso, un cinghiale è stato filmato da una passante in viale Mazzini, a poche decine di metri da piazzale Clodio, due giorni dopo, invece, un cucciolo è stato trovato morto in via Trionfale, accanto ai bidoni della spazzatura.
Fonte / source:
--- Prati Borgo / San Pietro (21/09/2021).
romah24.com/prati/news/cinghiali-contromano-tra-il-traffi...
A closer view of the flywheel and tensioner pulley on the air compressor. This place was an absolute maze of pipes.
More images in the St. Nicholas Coal Breaker set.
1991 Mazda RX-7 driven by Jeremy Barnes during the morning race for Group 6B (1981-1989 FIA Mfg. Championship IMSA GTP) on Sunday at the 2012 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
On the 9th November 2019 a loco has seen the Bord Na Nona branding changed. No need for many rally drivers on the 3'gauge systems.
Aisha Butti Bin Bishr, Director-General, Dubai Smart City, United Arab Emirates , speaking at the Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 23, 2018
Copyright by World Economic Forum / Mattias Nutt
Driven is our once a month worship service. Driven incorporates art, short films, teaching God's Word, and Christian fellowship. These shirts are designed for guys that come to driven.
[The models are from alternative apparel where we get all of our shirts.]