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A sculpture at Jiuzi Park - a pocket park - in Shanghai, China. All of the sculptures here are of traditional Chinese games.
The funny thing about this sculpture is that it's right next to the published park rules for Shanghai parks.
Rule #2 (verbatim!): "Ethic codes are to be duly honored. Visitors are expected not to urinate or shit, post ads or posters, and write or carve around in the park." To this, I say, "D'OH!"
Shanghai, China.
Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, is expected to confront an extraordinary political storm on Wednesday when he testifies before Congress, with Republicans who once defended the bureau now denouncing it as a weapon wielded against former President Donald J. Trump and his supporters.Mr. Wray, who is appearing for the first time before the House Judiciary Committee since Republicans won the House, is likely girding for the worst. The committee, led by Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, says it “will examine the politicization” of the F.B.I. under Mr. Wray and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.Stoked by Mr. Trump, congressional Republicans have adopted an increasingly caustic tone in their criticism of the country’s premier law enforcement agency, trying to damage the bureau’s legitimacy and undermine its standing with the public.That criticism was once trained on the bureau’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election. It is now focused on other flash points: Mr. Trump’s indictment in an inquiry into his handling of classified documents; the F.B.I.’s role in the search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate last August, as part of that inquiry; unfounded claims of a “two-tiered” system of justice favoring Democrats; and the Justice Department’s plea agreement with the president’s son, Hunter Biden.So far, Republicans have not provided evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr.
www.newstodayjournal.com/what-to-watch-for-as-fbi-directo...
On Sunday the Anti Easter Bunny was spotted at this years London Marathon
The creation of the London Bridge Experience and London Tombs, the Anti Easter Bunny is the star of the attraction’s new Easter exhibition – The Easter Head Hunt.
However the Anti Easter Bunny is now out of control, has escaped the confines of the attraction and is at large on the streets of London.
Explains general manager James Kislingbury, “The London Bridge Experience and London Tombs is all about the darker side of London’s history. We like to do things differently and whilst other attractions will be holding Easter Egg Hunts, we will be holding an Easter Head Hunt, where visitors must find the heads in the attraction to win a prize.
The Anti Easter bunny is supposed to be part of the Easter Head Hunt exhibition and we are appealing for the public to help us find him so we can recapture him and return him to the London Bridge Experience and London Tombs where he belongs.”
Appealing for the public’s help to track down the Anti Easter Bunny James Kislingbury says, “We expect the Zombie bunny will be targeting Easter cutesiness wherever he finds it and trying to get people to try a different form of Easter entertainment. Anyone who encounters the Anti Easter Bunny should send us a photograph and location to claim a reward.”
If you see the Zombie Easter Bunny text a photograph to 07870917906 or email competitions@thelondonbridgeexperience.com
Natural disasters are expected to increase in both number and severity as a result of climate change. Many places lack the resources and institutional capacity for disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. As a result, climate-related natural disasters can act as a threat multiplier, undermining the stability of nations and regions and exacerbating insecurity. Recognizing this, the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, and their partners are working to strengthen U.S. responses to climate change through increased collaboration and coordination.
Join us for a discussion of whole-of-government interventions to reduce climate change vulnerability. Where are there opportunities to increase collaboration across U.S. agencies? What role can disaster risk management play in building stability? What are the barriers to strengthening disaster risk management? How can U.S. agencies work better with one another and with international partners?
This event is co-sponsored by the Jackson Foundation.
Read more: www.wilsoncenter.org/event/climate-change-disasters-and-s...
For the first black-and-white film with my new camera Pentax 17 (see below for the details about the camera), I loaded a special film given to me as a gift by « Ateliers de Marinette », Lyon, France. The film was spooled for 30-exposures (60 expected for the Pentax 17 that a half-frame camera) and is a bulk Ilford PanF Plus expire in 2005. The film is however well conserved and it could shot for the original 50 ISO sensitivity.
The Pentax 17 was equipped with an Anti-UV 40.5mm Hoya HMC filter. For the camera transportation, I used a small camera bag ThinkTank « Mirrorless Mover 5 » that was well protecting the camera from possibly damaging vibrations when using my bicycles.
The expositions were automatically metered by the camera system using the « P » program modes with, or without, flash. For very bright scenes the exposition was corrected by +0.3 to +1EV to compensate the biais induced (and reversely -0.3 to 0.7 EV for very dark scenes to objects).
Cycas revoluta (Japan)
Jardin Botanique de Lyon, April 17, 2025
Parc de la Tête d'Or
69006 Lyon
France.
After completion the film was processed according the Marinette advice in Adox Adonal developer at 1+25 dilution for 7min at 20°C.
Single-frame digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm at approximate reproduction ratio of 1:2. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.2) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.
About the camera :
Since last Christmas, it was on display in the middle of « reusable » cheap camera’s in the window of my local photography store. But this camera is not cheap and sold at 10-times the price of those « reusable » film camera’s. The Pentax 17 is a novel film camera released by Pentax (a brand belonging to Ricoh Imaging, Japan) in June 2024.
The history of « Pentax » name is still something worth to mention. After the WWII, in Dresden (that was heavily destroyed by the bombing of Feb. 13-15, 1945), Germany, The Zeiss Ikon company could not produce anymore the legendary original Contax (a high-reputation professional range-finder 35mm released in 30’s) camera that was taken by Russia and transferred to Kiev, Ukraine, in the USSR. However the brand name Contax survived and the German engineers designed something completely new within several years : the Contax S (S for « Spiegel mirror reflex ») that integrated a pentaprism for a full redressed reflex viewer observation. Zeiss Ikon Dresden registered to new trademarks derived from the words « Pentaprism » and « Contax » that were « Pentax » and « Pentacon ». If Pentacon became the new name of the company in Dresden, the trademark Pentax was bought by Asahi Optical Company in Japan, and became a formidable industrial and commercial success. Asahi Pentax, then Pentax alone, produced amazing quality camera’s including the legendary « Spotmatic » (a 35mm SLR) and stunning medium-format camera’s heavily used by professional photographers. Many of these camera’s of the past century are still operative and appreciated by film photography enthusiast’s.
Production of film camera’s vanished progressively in the mid 2000’s, as digital camera’s became of better quality and finally of generalized appliances in photography. The Pentax 17 was introduced to the market in June 2024, it was a big surprise for all the film photography lovers. Seeing a newly engineered brand-new film camera was a sort of renaissance of the film photography today of a growing interest worldwide.
The camera is a « half-frame » format on the traditional double-perforated 35mm film giving 17x24mm photograms. This format was not as popular as to classical 24x36mm (full-frame) format of most of the 35mm camera’s. However famous and quality half-frame camera’s were produced in the past including, the long series of Olympus Pen for example. Then, the Pentax 17 immediately attracted the attention of experimented film photographers and camera collectors, probably more than the officially targeted customers of the younger generations. Less than a year after, the future of the Pentax 17 and the film photography project of Pentax is questioned today. The chef-engineer who conducted the project in Ricoh company recently left and the marketing of Pentax 17 is now a question.
This finally decided me to buy an exemplary from my local shop and to discover this strange machine. The camera is of course guaranteed, even with a there-year extension after the camera registration on the Pentax website. The whole ergonomic is clearly derived from classical past 35mm camera’s with a fully mechanical film advance and rewind, a collimated Albada viewer, no digital display at all, only levers, barrels, crank and wheels… However inside is a automatic electronic exposure system with flash, the focusing is manual but the electronic mechanism moves the whole optical group with a micro motor.
The lens is a Cooke triplet 1:3.5 f=25mm equivalent to a 37mm of a 24x36mm format. The Cooke triplet is a photographic lens designed and patented in 1893 by Dennis Taylor who was employed as chief engineer by T. Cooke & Sons of York. It was the first lens system that allowed the elimination of most of the optical distortion or aberration at the outer edge of the image. It likely for this reason that the lens is unscripted curiously « Traditional » on the front lens ring… It is known that a Cooke triplet lens could give surprisingly good results with only three separated optical elements. The Cooke Triplet is still widely used in inexpensive cameras, including variations using aspheric elements, particularly in cell-phone cameras. The Cooke triplet consists of three separated lenses positioned at the finite distance. It is often considered that the triplet is one of the most important discoveries in the field of photographic objectives
The lens receives 40.5mm diameter thread filters that I use for my Zorki / Leningrad lenses Jupiter-8 2/50mm, Jupiter-11 4/135mm and Jupiter-12 2.8/35mm. The metal shade hood Minolta D42KA could mounted on the filter but I have to check is there is vignette induced.
The camera size is close to the original dimensions of a thread-mount Leica (called also the original Barnack Leica) which are, in a way, a sort of « Gold » size in the 35mm camera’s. I compared with my Zorki 1D year 1954 that is a straight reproduction of the Leica Iic. The upper deck of Pentax 17 is designed very clearly as a classical 35mm and we even find the original logo of Asahi Optical Company. The rewind crank is also a revival of past design seen on old Pentax SLR as my year-1971 Spotmatic SP in this seres of pictures.
The Pentax 17 is very light (about 300g) compared to those old ancestors that weight easily the double or the triple. It is then an effortless camera to carry. The Pentax 17 fits in the small ThinkTank bag (called « Mirorless Mover 5 ») that I recently bought to safely carry a film back of my Hasselblad or my Bronica 6X6 camera’s. In this tiny bag, the camera is protected for the element and vibrations due to cycling for instance.
Reference
analoguewonderland.co.uk/blogs/film-photography-blog/pent...
Key features and specifications
* Half-frame image capture (17 x 24mm)
* 37mm (equiv.) FOV F3.5 lens
* Zone focusing system with 6 zones
* Circular leaf shutter (F3.5-16)
* Built-in flash (6m/20ft at ISO100)
* Optical tunnel viewfinder with frame lines
* Exposure from 1/350 sec to 4 sec (+ Bulb)
* Supports films from ISO 50 to ISO 3200
Specifically the lens has:
1. HD coating, which maintains high performance of the lens, by using this PENTAX multi-coating. This also enables high contrast and high definition right to the edges.
2. SP coating (Super Protect) which helps to repel water and oil from the lens.
The fact that the focusing on the Pentax 17 is electronic i.e. the lens only moves when you half-press the shutter gives me faith that autofocus was already considered in the R&D stage.
Rick And Morty Season 5 Finale has been delayed. It was expected to air on August 15, 2021. Rick and Morty 5 debuted in June 2021, with episodes releasing weekly on Sundays. The season - which was part of the landmark 70-episode deal Adult Swim made with the show's creators back in 2018- was expected to end in August, but now the show is on hiatus.
Rick and Morty season 5 finale redeemed the otherwise mixed batch of episodes in the show's latest installment. While the premiere, which introduced Rick's rival, started season 5 on the right foot, there have been several episodes that were met with lukewarm receptions. Whether it be Morty's mutant sperm or a Thanksgiving-themed episode in July, several of Rick and Morty's season 5 entries didn't feel up to the show's usual high standards.
However, Rick and Morty 5, episode 8 “Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Morts” largely made up for the previous weaker episodes, offering never-before-seen insight into the titular scientist — including the truth behind his relationship with Birdperson, as well as why he's so hated by the other Ricks. No doubt many fans were hoping for a continuation of this story — but they'll have to wait. Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland are ending season 5 with a feature-length finale, which airs on September 5.
En medio de gran expectativa debido a que se abren nuevas puertas para seguir impulsando el desarrollo del país, el Gobierno Nacional a través del Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas y Autoridad Portuaria de Guayaquil, firmó este lunes (6) el contrato de concesión bajo la modalidad de Alianza Público – Privada con la empresa dubaití DP World, representada en el país por el Consorcio Nobis, misma que invertirá más de 1.200 millones de dólares para la construcción de un moderno terminal portuario de aguas profundas en Posorja.
A white sparkly background behind the wonderful expect miracles wording and fish symbol.
Gold backing.
A stunning charm.
This World Class attraction was everything we expected and more. Construction has just begun on a major expansion, but that has been managed in such a way that it does not in any way detract from the experience now.
This album focuses on the artwork inside the buildings and on the other interior spaces including the Eleven Restaurant and the Gift Shop. A separate album posted a few days ago is devoted to the two April mornings that we spent exploring just some of the trails that crisscross the 120 acres of Arkansas forest around the museum.
Alice Walton and her co-creative team can be proud of the vision and execution of everything on this 120 acre site.
_____________________________________________
"Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission.
Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, spearheaded the Walton Family Foundation's involvement in developing Crystal Bridges. The museum's glass-and-wood design by architect Moshe Safdie and engineer Buro Happold features a series of pavilions nestled around two creek-fed ponds and forest trails. The 217,000 square feet complex includes galleries, several meeting and classroom spaces, a library, a sculpture garden, a museum store designed by architect Marlon Blackwell, a restaurant and coffee bar, named Eleven after the day the museum opened, "11/11/11". Crystal Bridges also features a gathering space that can accommodate up to 300 people. Additionally, there are outdoor areas for concerts and public events, as well as extensive nature trails. It employs approximately 300 people, and is within walking distance of downtown Bentonville."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Bridges_Museum_of_American_Art
crystalbridges.org/nature-trails/
...
Barquin Photography offers Family Photography Portraits, Maternity & Expecting Photography Portraits, Newborn & Baby Photography Portraits, Children Photography Portraits, High School Senior Photography Portraits, Fashion & Lifestyle Photography Portraits, Baptism & Communion Photography Portraits, Dance & Event Photography Portraits, School & Sports Photography Portraits in the Miami Florida FL area.
We knew there would be no access to the beach at Fitzgerald, but I held out hope we might be able to at least walk out to the overlook. Oh well. Onward.
this was a surprise to see ,,, if it hatches should bring in more visitors --- i would assume mum is on the egg and the other post is daddy
I arrived in Circleville OH expecting it to be foggy. That was not the case when L53 came into town. But if you look closely, you will notice that the trees in the background are somewhat obscured. that foretells the conditions in a few minutes.
2019 07 31 0650hrs NS #L53 Local 7102, Circleville OH (Large)
“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
OK, so.. Insect Mecha Girl. As mentioned yesterday, I was actually kind of confused when I received this - I was expecting a Good Smile Company branded box, or something along the lines of that, but instead it seems to be direct from Big Firebird Build.... which got the Spidey Senses tingling. ... it's not exactly a secret that I hae some issues with the QC at Big Firebird Build.
I believe that once upon a time, this was meant to be a add on for the very much failed Magical Girl Henshin series that gave us the combiner with a multitude of QC issues. Guess they tweaked the design to have it be a stand alone, and to be fair it seems they did a pretty good job of doing that. But aesthetically, especially the robot mode torso and face, well, there's no mistaking it's heritage.
Decent number of accessories including hands and weapons , along with two pieces of hardware to mount the weapons to the body. Not a fan of the hands with the ball joint as a wrist peg but I guess that isn't really going anywhere. I had thought that BFB had learned its lesson about weapon grips with Nicee/Mocha, but overall it seems the weapon gripping hands are really meant for the two larger handled pieces, as the Katana and Pistol are really loose in hand. The sole exception would be the spear, which has a dedicated hand for wielding it... but it's a right hand only.
The manual... well, it's there. It's not very good, as usual.
It would seem either the workers at the factory got some upgrade training or something, but the overall Build for this figure was found to be better thant Nicee and Mocha, and without question the Henshin Girls. Joints were stiff, but not overly stiff. Use of die cast metal for the Insect Wings/Robot Shins helped to balance the figure in a variety of poses. Arms were actually strong enough to support the weight of the weapons, including the metal spear. There are concerns with paint wear though , particularly with the larger Sheath that holds the Katana.
The thing LOOKS pretty cool. Brown isn't exactly the colour I would have gone with, but it is what it is. I like the Samurai motif and they worked that into the figure quite nicely, despite the transformation into a Beetle. Clever ways of hiding the insect legs are appreciated, such as the bow on the back.
Articulation is... I'd say roughly the same as Nicee/Mocha, though in some ways not as good. In general, the lack of ball joints used in the body made for some annoying posing. There are a few ball joints, but for some reason they don't use them as much as they should. It's almost like there's some computer software that helps with the transformation design, but it's one that likes two dimension movement only. Like pretty much all their Fembot products, the emphasis is on the curves. There's no waist swivel and no butterfly shoulder joints so she can't cross or arms or arch them back. Due to the lack of the Nicee/Mocha thigh transformation joint, she can't cross her legs either.
Paint Work is, for the most part, solid. There was a hilariously bad paint app on one of the insect legs that form the bow, resulting in one looking like it didn't get enough red paint. As expected, it's paint by exception for the most part, with the base plastics being mostly Brown or White. The colour matching for the die cast metal shins with the Brown plastic is not bad, but a shade too light for a perfect match. But, at least it is clean. The face and a few other areas showed signs of poor masking, but it's mostly Macro level photography that would pick those up.
The real anger starts when you actually transform this thing. The actual transformation isn't terribly hard, though it did involve some Partsforming. The not so good instructions, coupled with the fact that like most other people, I could not for the life of me get he legs to tab into the head, made for a very frustration endeavor. It's almost like some changes were made for the Production copy, but it was never tested to make sure nothing was wrong. It's a shame because Beetle does look pretty good, and unlike many other toys, the Insect legs are actually strong enough to hold the body up.
So all in all, somewhat of a let down. I'm happy to see that some of the QC issues I've experienced in the past aren't on this product (especially after the Henshin Girls) but I'm still not convinced that the final products are properly play tested to ensure full functionality.
Ah well.. guess I'll just relax for until Nocha comes out, then I can get angry again.
I know! I know! It's not #evilfriday but it IS Valentine's Day. I'm not a huge fan of the day but wanted to wish my dear IG friends a great day....in the way you would come to expect from me. YAY for cake! Happy Valentines Day!
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when taking her a picture
the most difficult thing is
how to put the focus on her eyes.
this time it seems worked! :-)
Muita expectativa e animação foram marcas registrada do nosso evento e as atrações não decepcionaram. Teve muito rock, mas também teve reggae, alto astral de sobra, gente bacana e alegria contagiante. Dá só uma olhada no que rolou por lá no 1º dia de evento.