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One of three I found on Amazon.

Materials: Prismacolor pencils on AMI black paper

Category: beginner

Thank you Sally Robertson for the photo.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 27 x 43 cm. Source: s006.radikal.ru/i213/1401/2b/9d8dbf818d56t.jpg. I have changed the light and contrast of the original photo.

Materialer:

95% polyester, 5% elasthan

 

Pris: Kig på hjemmeside www.verdious-wardrobe.dk

 

Direkte link til disse leggins: www.verdious-wardrobe.dk/produkt.php?vareid=12

 

Andre bukser: www.verdious-wardrobe.dk/side4.php?varekat=4-5-7

took this nice snapshot of all these coils with all these threads. it looks really messy but i reckon it looks pretty cool.

Work underway at the Prairie Material processing facilty. A view from Halsted Street.

25x35 cm watercolor, ink, gold acrylic

[PT]

Comboio: 96202.

Material Circulante: CP 4709 + 11 Us.

Sentido: Monte das Flores > Terminal de Mercadorias da Bobadela.

Local: Apeadeiro de Santa Iria.

 

[ENG]

A track ballast train from a quary in Monte das Flores (Évora Line) to Bobadela freight terminal (North Line).

Lucky Super 200

Asahi Pentax K1000

 

Napoles. A name which will be forever infamous here in the Philippines. The crime you ask. Was the stealing billions of taxpayers money by setting up fake NGOs pocketing contributions and giving a % back to the pockets of those who contributed. There was even a 10 million PHP reward for her capture from the President but she ended up surrendering. Majority of the money came from the pork barrel of the government. A budget given to politicians to do what they will for the country. I thought it was funny that they called it that and wondered why would they call themselves pigs. I found out its origins eventually, however i think the pig theory is fitting with the corruption and behaviour by those involved.

 

In a country which has alot of poverty and sub standard infrastructure, where clean drinking water and electricity is not available to all, such corruption is sickening. There is alot of outcry from the masses and so there should be. I left this country when I was 12 and moved to Australia. Usually when you return to a place of memory, changes are inevitable and you feel a certain disconnection from the strangely familiar feeling of place. Here a certain regression has occured. Nothing has moved forward. Corruption is worse. There is a war in the island of Mindanao between the Philippine military and the MNLF. Floods still occur in my hometown and the Rivers are still full of ash from the Mount Pinatubo volcano eruption from 1991. Construction practices have not developed. Food products are overtly unhealthy yet approved by the government in particular a popular cheese spread that has been around since I was a child. Its 30g serving already has 540mg of salt! Its no wonder hypertension is so high here. Alot more things need to be done. The problems all seeming to come from a lack of education.

 

“The oppressors do not favor promoting the community as a whole, but rather selected leaders.”

 

― Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

  

Material Circulante: UTE 2247

Hora: 16:15

Data: 01-04-2015

Local: Sorieira (PK 135 - Linha do Norte)

Serviço: R 4517 (Entroncamento --» Coimbra)

Fish, any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals (phylum Chordata) found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. Living species range from the primitive jawless lampreys and hagfishes through the cartilaginous sharks, skates, and rays to the abundant and diverse bony fishes. Most fish species are cold-blooded; however, one species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-blooded.

 

The term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines. It describes a life-form rather than a taxonomic group. As members of the phylum Chordata, fish share certain features with other vertebrates. These features are gill slits at some point in the life cycle, a notochord, or skeletal supporting rod, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, and a tail. Living fishes represent some five classes, which are as distinct from one another as are the four classes of familiar air-breathing animals—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. For example, the jawless fishes (Agnatha) have gills in pouches and lack limb girdles. Extant agnathans are the lampreys and the hagfishes. As the name implies, the skeletons of fishes of the class Chondrichthyes (from chondr, “cartilage,” and ichthyes, “fish”) are made entirely of cartilage. Modern fish of this class lack a swim bladder, and their scales and teeth are made up of the same placoid material. Sharks, skates, and rays are examples of cartilaginous fishes. The bony fishes are by far the largest class. Examples range from the tiny seahorse to the 450-kg (1,000-pound) blue marlin, from the flattened soles and flounders to the boxy puffers and ocean sunfishes. Unlike the scales of the cartilaginous fishes, those of bony fishes, when present, grow throughout life and are made up of thin overlapping plates of bone. Bony fishes also have an operculum that covers the gill slits.

 

The study of fishes, the science of ichthyology, is of broad importance. Fishes are of interest to humans for many reasons, the most important being their relationship with and dependence on the environment. A more obvious reason for interest in fishes is their role as a moderate but important part of the world’s food supply. This resource, once thought unlimited, is now realized to be finite and in delicate balance with the biological, chemical, and physical factors of the aquatic environment. Overfishing, pollution, and alteration of the environment are the chief enemies of proper fisheries management, both in fresh waters and in the ocean. (For a detailed discussion of the technology and economics of fisheries, see commercial fishing.) Another practical reason for studying fishes is their use in disease control. As predators on mosquito larvae, they help curb malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.

 

Fishes are valuable laboratory animals in many aspects of medical and biological research. For example, the readiness of many fishes to acclimate to captivity has allowed biologists to study behaviour, physiology, and even ecology under relatively natural conditions. Fishes have been especially important in the study of animal behaviour, where research on fishes has provided a broad base for the understanding of the more flexible behaviour of the higher vertebrates. The zebra fish is used as a model in studies of gene expression.

 

There are aesthetic and recreational reasons for an interest in fishes. Millions of people keep live fishes in home aquariums for the simple pleasure of observing the beauty and behaviour of animals otherwise unfamiliar to them. Aquarium fishes provide a personal challenge to many aquarists, allowing them to test their ability to keep a small section of the natural environment in their homes. Sportfishing is another way of enjoying the natural environment, also indulged in by millions of people every year. Interest in aquarium fishes and sportfishing supports multimillion-dollar industries throughout the world.

 

Fishes have been in existence for more than 450 million years, during which time they have evolved repeatedly to fit into almost every conceivable type of aquatic habitat. In a sense, land vertebrates are simply highly modified fishes: when fishes colonized the land habitat, they became tetrapod (four-legged) land vertebrates. The popular conception of a fish as a slippery, streamlined aquatic animal that possesses fins and breathes by gills applies to many fishes, but far more fishes deviate from that conception than conform to it. For example, the body is elongate in many forms and greatly shortened in others; the body is flattened in some (principally in bottom-dwelling fishes) and laterally compressed in many others; the fins may be elaborately extended, forming intricate shapes, or they may be reduced or even lost; and the positions of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and gill openings vary widely. Air breathers have appeared in several evolutionary lines.

 

Many fishes are cryptically coloured and shaped, closely matching their respective environments; others are among the most brilliantly coloured of all organisms, with a wide range of hues, often of striking intensity, on a single individual. The brilliance of pigments may be enhanced by the surface structure of the fish, so that it almost seems to glow. A number of unrelated fishes have actual light-producing organs. Many fishes are able to alter their coloration—some for the purpose of camouflage, others for the enhancement of behavioral signals.

 

Fishes range in adult length from less than 10 mm (0.4 inch) to more than 20 metres (60 feet) and in weight from about 1.5 grams (less than 0.06 ounce) to many thousands of kilograms. Some live in shallow thermal springs at temperatures slightly above 42 °C (100 °F), others in cold Arctic seas a few degrees below 0 °C (32 °F) or in cold deep waters more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) beneath the ocean surface. The structural and, especially, the physiological adaptations for life at such extremes are relatively poorly known and provide the scientifically curious with great incentive for study.

 

Almost all natural bodies of water bear fish life, the exceptions being very hot thermal ponds and extremely salt-alkaline lakes, such as the Dead Sea in Asia and the Great Salt Lake in North America. The present distribution of fishes is a result of the geological history and development of Earth as well as the ability of fishes to undergo evolutionary change and to adapt to the available habitats. Fishes may be seen to be distributed according to habitat and according to geographical area. Major habitat differences are marine and freshwater. For the most part, the fishes in a marine habitat differ from those in a freshwater habitat, even in adjacent areas, but some, such as the salmon, migrate from one to the other. The freshwater habitats may be seen to be of many kinds. Fishes found in mountain torrents, Arctic lakes, tropical lakes, temperate streams, and tropical rivers will all differ from each other, both in obvious gross structure and in physiological attributes. Even in closely adjacent habitats where, for example, a tropical mountain torrent enters a lowland stream, the fish fauna will differ. The marine habitats can be divided into deep ocean floors (benthic), mid-water oceanic (bathypelagic), surface oceanic (pelagic), rocky coast, sandy coast, muddy shores, bays, estuaries, and others. Also, for example, rocky coastal shores in tropical and temperate regions will have different fish faunas, even when such habitats occur along the same coastline.

 

Although much is known about the present geographical distribution of fishes, far less is known about how that distribution came about. Many parts of the fish fauna of the fresh waters of North America and Eurasia are related and undoubtedly have a common origin. The faunas of Africa and South America are related, extremely old, and probably an expression of the drifting apart of the two continents. The fauna of southern Asia is related to that of Central Asia, and some of it appears to have entered Africa. The extremely large shore-fish faunas of the Indian and tropical Pacific oceans comprise a related complex, but the tropical shore fauna of the Atlantic, although containing Indo-Pacific components, is relatively limited and probably younger. The Arctic and Antarctic marine faunas are quite different from each other. The shore fauna of the North Pacific is quite distinct, and that of the North Atlantic more limited and probably younger. Pelagic oceanic fishes, especially those in deep waters, are similar the world over, showing little geographical isolation in terms of family groups. The deep oceanic habitat is very much the same throughout the world, but species differences do exist, showing geographical areas determined by oceanic currents and water masses.

 

All aspects of the life of a fish are closely correlated with adaptation to the total environment, physical, chemical, and biological. In studies, all the interdependent aspects of fish, such as behaviour, locomotion, reproduction, and physical and physiological characteristics, must be taken into account.

 

Correlated with their adaptation to an extremely wide variety of habitats is the extremely wide variety of life cycles that fishes display. The great majority hatch from relatively small eggs a few days to several weeks or more after the eggs are scattered in the water. Newly hatched young are still partially undeveloped and are called larvae until body structures such as fins, skeleton, and some organs are fully formed. Larval life is often very short, usually less than a few weeks, but it can be very long, some lampreys continuing as larvae for at least five years. Young and larval fishes, before reaching sexual maturity, must grow considerably, and their small size and other factors often dictate that they live in a habitat different than that of the adults. For example, most tropical marine shore fishes have pelagic larvae. Larval food also is different, and larval fishes often live in shallow waters, where they may be less exposed to predators.

 

After a fish reaches adult size, the length of its life is subject to many factors, such as innate rates of aging, predation pressure, and the nature of the local climate. The longevity of a species in the protected environment of an aquarium may have nothing to do with how long members of that species live in the wild. Many small fishes live only one to three years at the most. In some species, however, individuals may live as long as 10 or 20 or even 100 years.

 

Fish behaviour is a complicated and varied subject. As in almost all animals with a central nervous system, the nature of a response of an individual fish to stimuli from its environment depends upon the inherited characteristics of its nervous system, on what it has learned from past experience, and on the nature of the stimuli. Compared with the variety of human responses, however, that of a fish is stereotyped, not subject to much modification by “thought” or learning, and investigators must guard against anthropomorphic interpretations of fish behaviour.

 

Fishes perceive the world around them by the usual senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste and by special lateral line water-current detectors. In the few fishes that generate electric fields, a process that might best be called electrolocation aids in perception. One or another of these senses often is emphasized at the expense of others, depending upon the fish’s other adaptations. In fishes with large eyes, the sense of smell may be reduced; others, with small eyes, hunt and feed primarily by smell (such as some eels).

 

Specialized behaviour is primarily concerned with the three most important activities in the fish’s life: feeding, reproduction, and escape from enemies. Schooling behaviour of sardines on the high seas, for instance, is largely a protective device to avoid enemies, but it is also associated with and modified by their breeding and feeding requirements. Predatory fishes are often solitary, lying in wait to dart suddenly after their prey, a kind of locomotion impossible for beaked parrot fishes, which feed on coral, swimming in small groups from one coral head to the next. In addition, some predatory fishes that inhabit pelagic environments, such as tunas, often school.

 

Sleep in fishes, all of which lack true eyelids, consists of a seemingly listless state in which the fish maintains its balance but moves slowly. If attacked or disturbed, most can dart away. A few kinds of fishes lie on the bottom to sleep. Most catfishes, some loaches, and some eels and electric fishes are strictly nocturnal, being active and hunting for food during the night and retiring during the day to holes, thick vegetation, or other protective parts of the environment.

 

Communication between members of a species or between members of two or more species often is extremely important, especially in breeding behaviour (see below Reproduction). The mode of communication may be visual, as between the small so-called cleaner fish and a large fish of a very different species. The larger fish often allows the cleaner to enter its mouth to remove gill parasites. The cleaner is recognized by its distinctive colour and actions and therefore is not eaten, even if the larger fish is normally a predator. Communication is often chemical, signals being sent by specific chemicals called pheromones.

 

Many fishes have a streamlined body and swim freely in open water. Fish locomotion is closely correlated with habitat and ecological niche (the general position of the animal to its environment).

 

Many fishes in both marine and fresh waters swim at the surface and have mouths adapted to feed best (and sometimes only) at the surface. Often such fishes are long and slender, able to dart at surface insects or at other surface fishes and in turn to dart away from predators; needlefishes, halfbeaks, and topminnows (such as killifish and mosquito fish) are good examples. Oceanic flying fishes escape their predators by gathering speed above the water surface, with the lower lobe of the tail providing thrust in the water. They then glide hundreds of yards on enlarged, winglike pectoral and pelvic fins. South American freshwater flying fishes escape their enemies by jumping and propelling their strongly keeled bodies out of the water.

 

So-called mid-water swimmers, the most common type of fish, are of many kinds and live in many habitats. The powerful fusiform tunas and the trouts, for example, are adapted for strong, fast swimming, the tunas to capture prey speedily in the open ocean and the trouts to cope with the swift currents of streams and rivers. The trout body form is well adapted to many habitats. Fishes that live in relatively quiet waters such as bays or lake shores or slow rivers usually are not strong, fast swimmers but are capable of short, quick bursts of speed to escape a predator. Many of these fishes have their sides flattened, examples being the sunfish and the freshwater angelfish of aquarists. Fish associated with the bottom or substrate usually are slow swimmers. Open-water plankton-feeding fishes almost always remain fusiform and are capable of rapid, strong movement (for example, sardines and herrings of the open ocean and also many small minnows of streams and lakes).

 

Bottom-living fishes are of many kinds and have undergone many types of modification of their body shape and swimming habits. Rays, which evolved from strong-swimming mid-water sharks, usually stay close to the bottom and move by undulating their large pectoral fins. Flounders live in a similar habitat and move over the bottom by undulating the entire body. Many bottom fishes dart from place to place, resting on the bottom between movements, a motion common in gobies. One goby relative, the mudskipper, has taken to living at the edge of pools along the shore of muddy mangrove swamps. It escapes its enemies by flipping rapidly over the mud, out of the water. Some catfishes, synbranchid eels, the so-called climbing perch, and a few other fishes venture out over damp ground to find more promising waters than those that they left. They move by wriggling their bodies, sometimes using strong pectoral fins; most have accessory air-breathing organs. Many bottom-dwelling fishes live in mud holes or rocky crevices. Marine eels and gobies commonly are found in such habitats and for the most part venture far beyond their cavelike homes. Some bottom dwellers, such as the clingfishes (Gobiesocidae), have developed powerful adhesive disks that enable them to remain in place on the substrate in areas such as rocky coasts, where the action of the waves is great.

 

The methods of reproduction in fishes are varied, but most fishes lay a large number of small eggs, fertilized and scattered outside of the body. The eggs of pelagic fishes usually remain suspended in the open water. Many shore and freshwater fishes lay eggs on the bottom or among plants. Some have adhesive eggs. The mortality of the young and especially of the eggs is very high, and often only a few individuals grow to maturity out of hundreds, thousands, and in some cases millions of eggs laid.

 

Males produce sperm, usually as a milky white substance called milt, in two (sometimes one) testes within the body cavity. In bony fishes a sperm duct leads from each testis to a urogenital opening behind the vent or anus. In sharks and rays and in cyclostomes the duct leads to a cloaca. Sometimes the pelvic fins are modified to help transmit the milt to the eggs at the female’s vent or on the substrate where the female has placed them. Sometimes accessory organs are used to fertilize females internally—for example, the claspers of many sharks and rays.

 

In the females the eggs are formed in two ovaries (sometimes only one) and pass through the ovaries to the urogenital opening and to the outside. In some fishes the eggs are fertilized internally but are shed before development takes place. Members of about a dozen families each of bony fishes (teleosts) and sharks bear live young. Many skates and rays also bear live young. In some bony fishes the eggs simply develop within the female, the young emerging when the eggs hatch (ovoviviparous). Others develop within the ovary and are nourished by ovarian tissues after hatching (viviparous). There are also other methods utilized by fishes to nourish young within the female. In all live-bearers the young are born at a relatively large size and are few in number. In one family of primarily marine fishes, the surfperches from the Pacific coast of North America, Japan, and Korea, the males of at least one species are born sexually mature, although they are not fully grown.

 

Some fishes are hermaphroditic—an individual producing both sperm and eggs, usually at different stages of its life. Self-fertilization, however, is probably rare.

 

Successful reproduction and, in many cases, defense of the eggs and the young are assured by rather stereotypical but often elaborate courtship and parental behaviour, either by the male or the female or both. Some fishes prepare nests by hollowing out depressions in the sand bottom (cichlids, for example), build nests with plant materials and sticky threads excreted by the kidneys (sticklebacks), or blow a cluster of mucus-covered bubbles at the water surface (gouramis). The eggs are laid in these structures. Some varieties of cichlids and catfishes incubate eggs in their mouths.

 

Some fishes, such as salmon, undergo long migrations from the ocean and up large rivers to spawn in the gravel beds where they themselves hatched (anadromous fishes). Some, such as the freshwater eels (family Anguillidae), live and grow to maturity in fresh water and migrate to the sea to spawn (catadromous fishes). Other fishes undertake shorter migrations from lakes into streams, within the ocean, or enter spawning habitats that they do not ordinarily occupy in other ways.

 

The basic structure and function of the fish body are similar to those of all other vertebrates. The usual four types of tissues are present: surface or epithelial, connective (bone, cartilage, and fibrous tissues, as well as their derivative, blood), nerve, and muscle tissues. In addition, the fish’s organs and organ systems parallel those of other vertebrates.

 

The typical fish body is streamlined and spindle-shaped, with an anterior head, a gill apparatus, and a heart, the latter lying in the midline just below the gill chamber. The body cavity, containing the vital organs, is situated behind the head in the lower anterior part of the body. The anus usually marks the posterior termination of the body cavity and most often occurs just in front of the base of the anal fin. The spinal cord and vertebral column continue from the posterior part of the head to the base of the tail fin, passing dorsal to the body cavity and through the caudal (tail) region behind the body cavity. Most of the body is of muscular tissue, a high proportion of which is necessitated by swimming. In the course of evolution this basic body plan has been modified repeatedly into the many varieties of fish shapes that exist today.

 

The skeleton forms an integral part of the fish’s locomotion system, as well as serving to protect vital parts. The internal skeleton consists of the skull bones (except for the roofing bones of the head, which are really part of the external skeleton), the vertebral column, and the fin supports (fin rays). The fin supports are derived from the external skeleton but will be treated here because of their close functional relationship to the internal skeleton. The internal skeleton of cyclostomes, sharks, and rays is of cartilage; that of many fossil groups and some primitive living fishes is mostly of cartilage but may include some bone. In place of the vertebral column, the earliest vertebrates had a fully developed notochord, a flexible stiff rod of viscous cells surrounded by a strong fibrous sheath. During the evolution of modern fishes the rod was replaced in part by cartilage and then by ossified cartilage. Sharks and rays retain a cartilaginous vertebral column; bony fishes have spool-shaped vertebrae that in the more primitive living forms only partially replace the notochord. The skull, including the gill arches and jaws of bony fishes, is fully, or at least partially, ossified. That of sharks and rays remains cartilaginous, at times partially replaced by calcium deposits but never by true bone.

 

The supportive elements of the fins (basal or radial bones or both) have changed greatly during fish evolution. Some of these changes are described in the section below (Evolution and paleontology). Most fishes possess a single dorsal fin on the midline of the back. Many have two and a few have three dorsal fins. The other fins are the single tail and anal fins and paired pelvic and pectoral fins. A small fin, the adipose fin, with hairlike fin rays, occurs in many of the relatively primitive teleosts (such as trout) on the back near the base of the caudal fin.

 

The skin of a fish must serve many functions. It aids in maintaining the osmotic balance, provides physical protection for the body, is the site of coloration, contains sensory receptors, and, in some fishes, functions in respiration. Mucous glands, which aid in maintaining the water balance and offer protection from bacteria, are extremely numerous in fish skin, especially in cyclostomes and teleosts. Since mucous glands are present in the modern lampreys, it is reasonable to assume that they were present in primitive fishes, such as the ancient Silurian and Devonian agnathans. Protection from abrasion and predation is another function of the fish skin, and dermal (skin) bone arose early in fish evolution in response to this need. It is thought that bone first evolved in skin and only later invaded the cartilaginous areas of the fish’s body, to provide additional support and protection. There is some argument as to which came first, cartilage or bone, and fossil evidence does not settle the question. In any event, dermal bone has played an important part in fish evolution and has different characteristics in different groups of fishes. Several groups are characterized at least in part by the kind of bony scales they possess.

 

Scales have played an important part in the evolution of fishes. Primitive fishes usually had thick bony plates or thick scales in several layers of bone, enamel, and related substances. Modern teleost fishes have scales of bone, which, while still protective, allow much more freedom of motion in the body. A few modern teleosts (some catfishes, sticklebacks, and others) have secondarily acquired bony plates in the skin. Modern and early sharks possessed placoid scales, a relatively primitive type of scale with a toothlike structure, consisting of an outside layer of enamel-like substance (vitrodentine), an inner layer of dentine, and a pulp cavity containing nerves and blood vessels. Primitive bony fishes had thick scales of either the ganoid or the cosmoid type. Cosmoid scales have a hard, enamel-like outer layer, an inner layer of cosmine (a form of dentine), and then a layer of vascular bone (isopedine). In ganoid scales the hard outer layer is different chemically and is called ganoin. Under this is a cosminelike layer and then a vascular bony layer. The thin, translucent bony scales of modern fishes, called cycloid and ctenoid (the latter distinguished by serrations at the edges), lack enameloid and dentine layers.

 

Skin has several other functions in fishes. It is well supplied with nerve endings and presumably receives tactile, thermal, and pain stimuli. Skin is also well supplied with blood vessels. Some fishes breathe in part through the skin, by the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the surrounding water and numerous small blood vessels near the skin surface.

 

Skin serves as protection through the control of coloration. Fishes exhibit an almost limitless range of colours. The colours often blend closely with the surroundings, effectively hiding the animal. Many fishes use bright colours for territorial advertisement or as recognition marks for other members of their own species, or sometimes for members of other species. Many fishes can change their colour to a greater or lesser degree, by movement of pigment within the pigment cells (chromatophores). Black pigment cells (melanophores), of almost universal occurrence in fishes, are often juxtaposed with other pigment cells. When placed beneath iridocytes or leucophores (bearing the silvery or white pigment guanine), melanophores produce structural colours of blue and green. These colours are often extremely intense, because they are formed by refraction of light through the needlelike crystals of guanine. The blue and green refracted colours are often relatively pure, lacking the red and yellow rays, which have been absorbed by the black pigment (melanin) of the melanophores. Yellow, orange, and red colours are produced by erythrophores, cells containing the appropriate carotenoid pigments. Other colours are produced by combinations of melanophores, erythrophores, and iridocytes.

 

The major portion of the body of most fishes consists of muscles. Most of the mass is trunk musculature, the fin muscles usually being relatively small. The caudal fin is usually the most powerful fin, being moved by the trunk musculature. The body musculature is usually arranged in rows of chevron-shaped segments on each side. Contractions of these segments, each attached to adjacent vertebrae and vertebral processes, bends the body on the vertebral joint, producing successive undulations of the body, passing from the head to the tail, and producing driving strokes of the tail. It is the latter that provides the strong forward movement for most fishes.

 

The digestive system, in a functional sense, starts at the mouth, with the teeth used to capture prey or collect plant foods. Mouth shape and tooth structure vary greatly in fishes, depending on the kind of food normally eaten. Most fishes are predacious, feeding on small invertebrates or other fishes and have simple conical teeth on the jaws, on at least some of the bones of the roof of the mouth, and on special gill arch structures just in front of the esophagus. The latter are throat teeth. Most predacious fishes swallow their prey whole, and the teeth are used for grasping and holding prey, for orienting prey to be swallowed (head first) and for working the prey toward the esophagus. There are a variety of tooth types in fishes. Some fishes, such as sharks and piranhas, have cutting teeth for biting chunks out of their victims. A shark’s tooth, although superficially like that of a piranha, appears in many respects to be a modified scale, while that of the piranha is like that of other bony fishes, consisting of dentine and enamel. Parrot fishes have beaklike mouths with short incisor-like teeth for breaking off coral and have heavy pavementlike throat teeth for crushing the coral. Some catfishes have small brushlike teeth, arranged in rows on the jaws, for scraping plant and animal growth from rocks. Many fishes (such as the Cyprinidae or minnows) have no jaw teeth at all but have very strong throat teeth.

 

Some fishes gather planktonic food by straining it from their gill cavities with numerous elongate stiff rods (gill rakers) anchored by one end to the gill bars. The food collected on these rods is passed to the throat, where it is swallowed. Most fishes have only short gill rakers that help keep food particles from escaping out the mouth cavity into the gill chamber.

 

Once reaching the throat, food enters a short, often greatly distensible esophagus, a simple tube with a muscular wall leading into a stomach. The stomach varies greatly in fishes, depending upon the diet. In most predacious fishes it is a simple straight or curved tube or pouch with a muscular wall and a glandular lining. Food is largely digested there and leaves the stomach in liquid form.

 

Between the stomach and the intestine, ducts enter the digestive tube from the liver and pancreas. The liver is a large, clearly defined organ. The pancreas may be embedded in it, diffused through it, or broken into small parts spread along some of the intestine. The junction between the stomach and the intestine is marked by a muscular valve. Pyloric ceca (blind sacs) occur in some fishes at this junction and have a digestive or absorptive function or both.

 

The intestine itself is quite variable in length, depending upon the fish’s diet. It is short in predacious forms, sometimes no longer than the body cavity, but long in herbivorous forms, being coiled and several times longer than the entire length of the fish in some species of South American catfishes. The intestine is primarily an organ for absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. The larger its internal surface, the greater its absorptive efficiency, and a spiral valve is one method of increasing its absorption surface.

 

Sharks, rays, chimaeras, lungfishes, surviving chondrosteans, holosteans, and even a few of the more primitive teleosts have a spiral valve or at least traces of it in the intestine. Most modern teleosts have increased the area of the intestinal walls by having numerous folds and villi (fingerlike projections) somewhat like those in humans. Undigested substances are passed to the exterior through the anus in most teleost fishes. In lungfishes, sharks, and rays, it is first passed through the cloaca, a common cavity receiving the intestinal opening and the ducts from the urogenital system.

 

Oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve in water, and most fishes exchange dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in water by means of the gills. The gills lie behind and to the side of the mouth cavity and consist of fleshy filaments supported by the gill arches and filled with blood vessels, which give gills a bright red colour. Water taken in continuously through the mouth passes backward between the gill bars and over the gill filaments, where the exchange of gases takes place. The gills are protected by a gill cover in teleosts and many other fishes but by flaps of skin in sharks, rays, and some of the older fossil fish groups. The blood capillaries in the gill filaments are close to the gill surface to take up oxygen from the water and to give up excess carbon dioxide to the water.

 

Most modern fishes have a hydrostatic (ballast) organ, called the swim bladder, that lies in the body cavity just below the kidney and above the stomach and intestine. It originated as a diverticulum of the digestive canal. In advanced teleosts, especially the acanthopterygians, the bladder has lost its connection with the digestive tract, a condition called physoclistic. The connection has been retained (physostomous) by many relatively primitive teleosts. In several unrelated lines of fishes, the bladder has become specialized as a lung or, at least, as a highly vascularized accessory breathing organ. Some fishes with such accessory organs are obligate air breathers and will drown if denied access to the surface, even in well-oxygenated water. Fishes with a hydrostatic form of swim bladder can control their depth by regulating the amount of gas in the bladder. The gas, mostly oxygen, is secreted into the bladder by special glands, rendering the fish more buoyant; the gas is absorbed into the bloodstream by another special organ, reducing the overall buoyancy and allowing the fish to sink. Some deep-sea fishes may have oils, rather than gas, in the bladder. Other deep-sea and some bottom-living forms have much-reduced swim bladders or have lost the organ entirely.

 

The swim bladder of fishes follows the same developmental pattern as the lungs of land vertebrates. There is no doubt that the two structures have the same historical origin in primitive fishes. More or less intermediate forms still survive among the more primitive types of fishes, such as the lungfishes Lepidosiren and Protopterus.

 

The circulatory, or blood vascular, system consists of the heart, the arteries, the capillaries, and the veins. It is in the capillaries that the interchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and other substances such as hormones and waste products takes place. The capillaries lead to the veins, which return the venous blood with its waste products to the heart, kidneys, and gills. There are two kinds of capillary beds: those in the gills and those in the rest of the body. The heart, a folded continuous muscular tube with three or four saclike enlargements, undergoes rhythmic contractions and receives venous blood in a sinus venosus. It passes the blood to an auricle and then into a thick muscular pump, the ventricle. From the ventricle the blood goes to a bulbous structure at the base of a ventral aorta just below the gills. The blood passes to the afferent (receiving) arteries of the gill arches and then to the gill capillaries. There waste gases are given off to the environment, and oxygen is absorbed. The oxygenated blood enters efferent (exuant) arteries of the gill arches and then flows into the dorsal aorta. From there blood is distributed to the tissues and organs of the body. One-way valves prevent backflow. The circulation of fishes thus differs from that of the reptiles, birds, and mammals in that oxygenated blood is not returned to the heart prior to distribution to the other parts of the body.

 

The primary excretory organ in fishes, as in other vertebrates, is the kidney. In fishes some excretion also takes place in the digestive tract, skin, and especially the gills (where ammonia is given off). Compared with land vertebrates, fishes have a special problem in maintaining their internal environment at a constant concentration of water and dissolved substances, such as salts. Proper balance of the internal environment (homeostasis) of a fish is in a great part maintained by the excretory system, especially the kidney.

 

The kidney, gills, and skin play an important role in maintaining a fish’s internal environment and checking the effects of osmosis. Marine fishes live in an environment in which the water around them has a greater concentration of salts than they can have inside their body and still maintain life. Freshwater fishes, on the other hand, live in water with a much lower concentration of salts than they require inside their bodies. Osmosis tends to promote the loss of water from the body of a marine fish and absorption of water by that of a freshwater fish. Mucus in the skin tends to slow the process but is not a sufficient barrier to prevent the movement of fluids through the permeable skin. When solutions on two sides of a permeable membrane have different concentrations of dissolved substances, water will pass through the membrane into the more concentrated solution, while the dissolved chemicals move into the area of lower concentration (diffusion).

 

The kidney of freshwater fishes is often larger in relation to body weight than that of marine fishes. In both groups the kidney excretes wastes from the body, but the kidney of freshwater fishes also excretes large amounts of water, counteracting the water absorbed through the skin. Freshwater fishes tend to lose salt to the environment and must replace it. They get some salt from their food, but the gills and skin inside the mouth actively absorb salt from water passed through the mouth. This absorption is performed by special cells capable of moving salts against the diffusion gradient. Freshwater fishes drink very little water and take in little water with their food.

 

Marine fishes must conserve water, and therefore their kidneys excrete little water. To maintain their water balance, marine fishes drink large quantities of seawater, retaining most of the water and excreting the salt. Most nitrogenous waste in marine fishes appears to be secreted by the gills as ammonia. Marine fishes can excrete salt by clusters of special cells (chloride cells) in the gills.

 

There are several teleosts—for example, the salmon—that travel between fresh water and seawater and must adjust to the reversal of osmotic gradients. They adjust their physiological processes by spending time (often surprisingly little time) in the intermediate brackish environment.

 

Marine hagfishes, sharks, and rays have osmotic concentrations in their blood about equal to that of seawater and so do not have to drink water nor perform much physiological work to maintain their osmotic balance. In sharks and rays the osmotic concentration is kept high by retention of urea in the blood. Freshwater sharks have a lowered concentration of urea in the blood.

 

Endocrine glands secrete their products into the bloodstream and body tissues and, along with the central nervous system, control and regulate many kinds of body functions. Cyclostomes have a well-developed endocrine system, and presumably it was well developed in the early Agnatha, ancestral to modern fishes. Although the endocrine system in fishes is similar to that of higher vertebrates, there are numerous differences in detail. The pituitary, the thyroid, the suprarenals, the adrenals, the pancreatic islets, the sex glands (ovaries and testes), the inner wall of the intestine, and the bodies of the ultimobranchial gland make up the endocrine system in fishes. There are some others whose function is not well understood. These organs regulate sexual activity and reproduction, growth, osmotic pressure, general metabolic activities such as the storage of fat and the utilization of foodstuffs, blood pressure, and certain aspects of skin colour. Many of these activities are also controlled in part by the central nervous system, which works with the endocrine system in maintaining the life of a fish. Some parts of the endocrine system are developmentally, and undoubtedly evolutionarily, derived from the nervous system.

 

As in all vertebrates, the nervous system of fishes is the primary mechanism coordinating body activities, as well as integrating these activities in the appropriate manner with stimuli from the environment. The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is the primary integrating mechanism. The peripheral nervous system, consisting of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to various body organs, carries sensory information from special receptor organs such as the eyes, internal ears, nares (sense of smell), taste glands, and others to the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system also carries information via different nerve cells from the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. This coded information is carried to the various organs and body systems, such as the skeletal muscular system, for appropriate action in response to the original external or internal stimulus. Another branch of the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, helps to coordinate the activities of many glands and organs and is itself closely connected to the integrating centres of the brain.

 

The brain of the fish is divided into several anatomical and functional parts, all closely interconnected but each serving as the primary centre of integrating particular kinds of responses and activities. Several of these centres or parts are primarily associated with one type of sensory perception, such as sight, hearing, or smell (olfaction).

 

The sense of smell is important in almost all fishes. Certain eels with tiny eyes depend mostly on smell for location of food. The olfactory, or nasal, organ of fishes is located on the dorsal surface of the snout. The lining of the nasal organ has special sensory cells that perceive chemicals dissolved in the water, such as substances from food material, and send sensory information to the brain by way of the first cranial nerve. Odour also serves as an alarm system. Many fishes, especially various species of freshwater minnows, react with alarm to a chemical released from the skin of an injured member of their own species.

 

Many fishes have a well-developed sense of taste, and tiny pitlike taste buds or organs are located not only within their mouth cavities but also over their heads and parts of their body. Catfishes, which often have poor vision, have barbels (“whiskers”) that serve as supplementary taste organs, those around the mouth being actively used to search out food on the bottom. Some species of naturally blind cave fishes are especially well supplied with taste buds, which often cover most of their body surface.

 

Sight is extremely important in most fishes. The eye of a fish is basically like that of all other vertebrates, but the eyes of fishes are extremely varied in structure and adaptation. In general, fishes living in dark and dim water habitats have large eyes, unless they have specialized in some compensatory way so that another sense (such as smell) is dominant, in which case the eyes will often be reduced. Fishes living in brightly lighted shallow waters often will have relatively small but efficient eyes. Cyclostomes have somewhat less elaborate eyes than other fishes, with skin stretched over the eyeball perhaps making their vision somewhat less effective. Most fishes have a spherical lens and accommodate their vision to far or near subjects by moving the lens within the eyeball. A few sharks accommodate by changing the shape of the lens, as in land vertebrates. Those fishes that are heavily dependent upon the eyes have especially strong muscles for accommodation. Most fishes see well, despite the restrictions imposed by frequent turbidity of the water and by light refraction.

 

Fossil evidence suggests that colour vision evolved in fishes more than 300 million years ago, but not all living fishes have retained this ability. Experimental evidence indicates that many shallow-water fishes, if not all, have colour vision and see some colours especially well, but some bottom-dwelling shore fishes live in areas where the water is sufficiently deep to filter out most if not all colours, and these fishes apparently never see colours. When tested in shallow water, they apparently are unable to respond to colour differences.

 

Sound perception and balance are intimately associated senses in a fish. The organs of hearing are entirely internal, located within the skull, on each side of the brain and somewhat behind the eyes. Sound waves, especially those of low frequencies, travel readily through water and impinge directly upon the bones and fluids of the head and body, to be transmitted to the hearing organs. Fishes readily respond to sound; for example, a trout conditioned to escape by the approach of fishermen will take flight upon perceiving footsteps on a stream bank even if it cannot see a fisherman. Compared with humans, however, the range of sound frequencies heard by fishes is greatly restricted. Many fishes communicate with each other by producing sounds in their swim bladders, in their throats by rasping their teeth, and in other ways.

 

A fish or other vertebrate seldom has to rely on a single type of sensory information to determine the nature of the environment around it. A catfish uses taste and touch when examining a food object with its oral barbels. Like most other animals, fishes have many touch receptors over their body surface. Pain and temperature receptors also are present in fishes and presumably produce the same kind of information to a fish as to humans. Fishes react in a negative fashion to stimuli that would be painful to human beings, suggesting that they feel a sensation of pain.

 

An important sensory system in fishes that is absent in other vertebrates (except some amphibians) is the lateral line system. This consists of a series of heavily innervated small canals located in the skin and bone around the eyes, along the lower jaw, over the head, and down the mid-side of the body, where it is associated with the scales. Intermittently along these canals are located tiny sensory organs (pit organs) that apparently detect changes in pressure. The system allows a fish to sense changes in water currents and pressure, thereby helping the fish to orient itself to the various changes that occur in the physical environment.

  

Esperando a dar el tren dispuesto una vez echa la prueba de freno para regresar en vacío a Trasona.

“The Eye Moment photos by Nolan H. Rhodes”

nrhodesphotos@yahoo.com

www.flickr.com/photos/the_eye_of_the_moment

“Any users, found to replicate, reproduce, circulate, distribute, download, manipulate or otherwise use my images without my written consent will be in breach of copyright laws.” www.flickr.com/photos/the_eye_of_the_moment

 

An Ancistrocerus (I think!) wasp, collecting nesting material in our Staffordshire garden today.

 

As with other Ancistrocerus solitary wasps that I've observed, she collected dry soil granules and mixed them with saliva, to make mud. The mud is then carried off in her mandibles and used to make the brood-cell partitions in her nest.

Materials: woodblock print. Nr.: 50.2874. Dimensions: 38.8 x 26.3 cm. Source: mfas3.s3.amazonaws.com/objects/SC205896.jpg. I have changed the light and contrast of the original photo.

Materials used:

 

Cardboard

Bunch of black straws

Glue

Flat black paint

  

flickriver.com/photos/javier1949/popular-interesting/

  

FUNDACIÓN FRANCISCO GINER DE LOS RÍOS Rehabilitación y Ampliación

Paseo del General Martínez Campos, 14. Madrid

 

Pabellón Macpherson: arquitecto, Joaquín Kramer Arnaiz: 1908-1909.

 

Rehabilitación y Ampliación: AMID[cero9]-Cristina Díaz Moreno & Efrén García Grinda arquitectos-. Concurso: 2004-05. Proyecto 2006-2007. Construcción.- 2011-2014. Paisajista Teresa Galí-Izard. Colaboradores. Concurso: Ana Belén Franco, Iñigo González-Haba Plana, David Marsinyach, Jorge Martín Sainz de los Terreros. Proyecto básico: Jaime Bartolomé Yllera, Íñigo González-Haba Plana, Julia Gómez Candela, Jesús Isla, José Quintanar Iniesta, Jorge Saz Semolino y Rebeca Vallecillo.

  

La Fundación Francisco Giner de los Ríos, uno de los pedagogos más significativos de la Europa contemporánea, encarna desde 1916 a la Institución Libre de Enseñanza. Se creó a la muerte de Giner, para asegurar la continuación de su labor, encargándose de la tutela de su patrimonio material e intelectual. Su Patronato ha mantenido sin interrupciones la continuidad desde aquella fecha, lo que permitió que, tras la incautación sufrida tras la Guerra Civil, en los años de la transición democrática la Fundación viera de nuevo reconocida plenamente su personalidad jurídica y recobrara sus bienes. Desde entonces, ha venido trabajando en la recuperación del legado de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza para la sociedad española de nuestro tiempo.

En el año 2003, debido a las condiciones de deterioro de los edificios de la Fundación se inicia un proceso para la rehabilitación y ampliación de su sede. Los ganadores del concurso público son Cristina Díaz Moreno y Efrén García Grinda. Su propuesta mantiene íntegramente los edificios históricos del conjunto, la casa de Giner y Cossío, de finales del XIX, que existía ya antes de la llegada de la institución, y el Pabellón Macpherson, y sustituye el resto de edificaciones por una serie de volúmenes que se relacionan entre sí a través del jardín, espacio generador de todo el proyecto.

 

La rehabilitación y ampliación refleja la visión vanguardista del espacio arquitectónico, de la naturaleza y del paisaje de Francisco Giner de los Ríos, a la vez que recrea la organización espacial de su sede histórica a partir de 1884 alrededor del jardín que perseguía el ideal pedagógico de la Institución de aproximarse hasta el último grado posible a la vida al aire libre.

El proyecto ha conservado y rehabilitado íntegramente los edificios históricos: la casa de Giner y Cossío, edificio preexistente a la instalación de la Institución, y el Pabellón Macpherson, como un objeto que atesora la memoria de la arquitectura escolar inspirada por la ILE antes de su implantación como modelo con validez general. En ambos casos se han mantenido las fachadas, el volumen y la espacialidad originales. El resto de edificaciones, añadidas tras la guerra civil o desfiguradas y deterioradas por las sucesivas remodelaciones, incluyendo el llamado pabellón de párvulos, han sido sustituidas por un conjunto de nuevos espacios vinculados directamente al jardín, que cobra su original protagonismo, y adaptados a las funciones que la renovada Institución tiene que cumplir en nuestros días.

Se preserva la idea original del jardín como "punto de encuentro" y se convierte en un espacio cambiante y en continuo proceso, mostrando su evolución en las distintas estaciones. Un espacio vivo y activo recuperado gracias a la documentación gráfica y escrita y al trabajo de la paisajista Teresa Galí-Izard. El edificio queda tan sólo como el elemento que configura el jardín, cediéndole todo el protagonismo. Las salas del conjunto, tanto cerradas como al aire libre, se vuelcan hacia el jardín generando entrantes y salientes, que lo dividen en sectores múltiples, jardines diferentes. Son los conos visuales a lo largo del recorrido por el jardín los que determinan la disposición de los volúmenes, con el objetivo de crear espacios con distinto grado de privacidad y exposición.

 

"Las aulas son espacios multifocales sin dirección predominante, rodeados por un cerramiento de vidrio y sistemas flexibles de cuelgue que permiten modificar intencionadamente sus condiciones acústicas y lumínicas de manera sencilla. Su geometría replica el sistema de plantaciones del jardín y permite diferentes configuraciones para ensayar también con el espacio como herramienta educativa. Los distintos tamaños y agrupaciones de las salas, así como las posibilidades de apertura del cerramiento exterior, permiten entender las salas en perfecta continuidad con el exterior".

De los 5.000 metros cuadrados construidos, la mitad lo está bajo tierra. Unas escaleras conectan el patio ajardinado con un deambulatorio subterráneo. Al final del pasillo, como una sorpresa inesperada, aparece un vanguardista auditorio con 263 butacas que se utilizará para congresos, conferencias o proyecciones. Para la directora de la Fundación, Elisa Navas, el resultado final de este proyecto "hace honor a la tradición innovadora de la Institución Libre de Enseñanza y es perfectamente adecuado a las necesidades de la Fundación".

Las ideas de la Institución están también presentes en la elección de los materiales, sostenibles, durables, austeros y fáciles de mantener. La envolvente exterior hacia el jardín está formada por una celosía metálica que varía la escala de sus barras y su disposición actuando de protección solar y de filtro visual entre las aulas y el espacio al aire libre.

Amid.cero9 define la ampliación como una "medianera especializada". El edificio se construye como un muro que se deforma ensanchándose y comprimiéndose a lo largo de todo el perímetro para albergar salas de diversos tamaños que, sin necesidad separar físicamente el espacio y condicionar futuros cambios de uso, pueden destinarse a funciones distintas. Se ha mantenido la altura de la construcción anterior, dejando bajo rasante la zona destinada a los actos públicos. Los espacios vierten sobre el salón de actos principal, con la posibilidad de abrirse o cerrarse, variando el tamaño de la sala según la audiencia.

 

"El proyecto trata al mismo tiempo de instalarse dentro de la geografía sentimental de la Fundación y el ideario institucionista, tejiendo con cuidado los hilos de las relaciones entre las personas y su legado material e intelectual, para construir una evocación del espíritu de la Institución sin conservación acrítica del pasado; admitiendo el valor espacial y escala del jardín y pabellones existentes, pero redefiniéndolo de forma confiada y optimista a través de una sensibilidad completamente contemporánea para ayudar a proyectar la Fundación hacia el futuro".

La Rehabilitación y ampliación ha sido Premio COAM 2015 por "su excelente implantación en el lugar a nivel urbano, manejando una escala acertada y adecuada”. El interés del proyecto motivó su elección para formar parte del Pabellón de España en la 14ª edición de la Bienal de Arquitectura de Venecia de 2014

 

www.fundacionginer.org/index.htm

www.openhousemadrid.org/#!fundacion-francisco-giner-de-lo...

www.metalocus.es/content/es/blog/fundaci%C3%B3n-giner-de-...

bacecg.com/newsandmedia/premio-coam-2015-para-el-proyecto...

www.coam.org/es/actualidad/noticias/sede-fundacion-franci...

www.cero9.com

www.fueradeserie.expansion.com/2015/04/21/arquitectura/14...

 

Material rodant de quatre països reunit en una sola composició: una locomotora hongaresa maniobra amb una llarga filera de cotxes ucraïnesos, russos i polonesos. Es tracta del material buit del tren nocturn procedent de Varsòvia, arribat uns minuts abans, que incorpora cotxes directes des de Kiev i Moscou. Una imatge habitual fa no gaires anys i avui impossible per culpa de la guerra.

 

Material rodante de cuatro países reunido en una sola composición: una locomotora húngara maniobra con una larga hilera de coches ucranianos, rusos y polacos. Se trata del material vacío del tren nocturno procedente de Varsovia, llegado unos minutos antes, que incorpora coches directos desde Kiev y Moscú. Una imagen habitual hace no demasiados años y hoy imposible por culpa de la guerra.

 

Rolling stock from four countries in just one consist: a Hungarian locomotive shunts a long line of Ukrainian, Russian and Polish carriages. It is the empty rolling stock from the night train from Warsaw, which arrived a few minutes earlier, including direct carriages from Kiev and Moscow. A common sight not too many years ago and impossible today because of the war.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 177.5 x 93.5 cm. Sold by Lempertz, in Köln, on November 22, 2011. Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andreas_Achenbach_Wildbac.... I have changed the contrast of the original photo.

Materials: oil on panel. Dimensions: 35.6 x 45.7 cm. Inscriptions: Atkinson Grimshaw 1881 (lower left). Source: cp12.nevsepic.com.ua/55-3/1354924139-0600263-www.nevsepic.... P.S. I have changed the light and contrast of the original photo.

River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.

These images were taken during the last full week of November 2016.

 

Still a reasonable level of traffic here with hard material being trucked out of the Slang/Rehills section of the river bank.

 

I believe the Council have contracted for the removal and transport of soil material from this site to a new (road) construction site down at Calary.

The previous 'mountains' and terraces are slowly but steadily shrinking.

 

I tell you, the company hiring out trucks for the movement of all this material must be rubbing their hands with glee.

But, there is a down side to all this.

 

On occasion, we have seen a line of 13 such trucks lined up first thing in the morning, ready to haul soil.

The Upper Dargle Road, while a minor one, is a busy little throughway, and is especially busy with the morning/evening rush hours.

Introducing such a level of heavy-duty trucks on to this road, where they need to drive in and out of the Slang/Rehills compound, only serves to further aggravate the traffic flows. The entrance to the site is close to a blind bend. Not good.

 

On a regular basis, we have seen (and felt) the effects of the trucks as they thunder by, particularly the unladen ones returning to pick up another load.

There is the 'speed limit' and then there is 'driving in a manner inappropriate to the road conditions'.

 

And THAT is why we have also seen unusually high visibility of Garda presence along here, focusing on the movement of the trucks.

The heavy truck traffic also brings debris and soil on to the road.

The contractors struggle to keep the road washed and swept. And the slow progress of their road-sweeping vehicles, in turn, cause delay and frustration for other road users. Not good.

 

It's not a good experience, right now, for the residents along this stretch of road.

 

We are aware of the Gardai talking to the contractors about a 'traffic plan'. The morning+evening rush hours are now happening in darkness. Plus all this construction traffic. Not good.

 

Si quieres ver el vídeo “Las Trampas del Mundo" donde sale este mensaje, ve aquí: youtu.be/YIvI-nEz7o0

"old pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water." - matsuo basho, translated by lafcadio hearn -

 

scanned and altered image, august 31, 2006

Material Circulante: EM 120

Hora: 09:17

Data: 07-04-2014

Local: Entroncamento (PK 107 - Linha da Beira Baixa)

Serviço: Comboio n.º 30501 (Entroncamento --» Central do Pego)

Materials: oil on oak panel. Dimensions: 71.8 x 101 cm. Nr.: HK-159. Source: www.hamburger-kunsthalle.de/sites/default/files/66453_0.jpg. I have changed the light and contrast of the original photo.

Some background:

With more and more experience through military mecha in Japan during the late Nineties, Schaft Enterprise’s Europe branch started the development of civil Labors for public use. These models included the Type-8FF firefighting Labor, which was originally created for the Japanese market but eventually only sold and operated in the European market, and the Type-10P, a dedicated police duty Labor and a direct competitor to Shinohara Industry’s highly successful AV-98 Ingram.

 

The Type-10P was based on a completely new chassis and introduced many composite material elements that lightened its structure and even gave it a light armor protection against small caliber rounds. It was designed to be effective in situations like dealing with stolen labor units or rogue labors, but also for more mundane duties like riot control and escorts. Its intimidating size certainly helped psychologically. However, the Type-10P was not designed to take on military labors in close combat, even though it could be outfitted with manual weapon that would offer considerable firepower at distance. Typical police service weapons included a shield and a stun stick (with an optional taser function) as well as a handheld revolver gun, but other equipment was available, too. Precise manipulator fingers (with three fingers and one thumb on each hand) allowed delicate handling.

 

The pilot sat in a fully enclosed, climatized cabin in the Labor’s breast section, with an excellent field of view and protected from water and gas. In order to ensure proper surveillance under harsh conditions in any weather and at day and night, the Type-10P received a complex sensor suite, including a telescopic camera boom, a close-range Lidar and a directional microphone. Communication with other units was ensured by both radio and laser communication systems.

 

Further special equipment could be attached to the Type-10P’s back. These easily interchangeable “backpacks” included an extra battery for extended operation, a fuel-powered external generator with one or two powerful searchlights, a pack with loudspeakers, a large, retractable LED matrix display, and two packs with pressurized canisters that were connected with a handheld spray gun each, either carrying CO2 as a fire extinguisher or OC spray for riot control. Even an inflatable lifeboat was available, as well as special weapons like an EMP pulse rifle, which necessitated an external auxiliary battery pack, and a rearward-facing “brown note” infranoise generator.

 

Officially baptised “Michael”, after the German police’s Christian patron saint, the Type-10P was in 2000 adopted by special units of the German Bundespolizei and by some major police departments on federal state level. Typical German Labor units would operate two or three of these vehicles, primarily as support units for standard units when called upon in an emergency and also to counter Labor crimes and accidents. Their psychological value in riot control duties was highly appreciated, and the Type 10Ps were also frequently sent to official political events for PR purposes.

The Type-10P was also promoted abroad, esp. in Japan, but it was rejected there due to its size and the strong (and established) competition from Shinohara Industry, namely the MPL-97S “Python” and the AV-98 “Ingram”. However, eight Type-10Ps were sold to the Austrian Bundespolizei and an undisclosed small number was bought by a private security service company in Northern America.

  

Technical Data:

Code name: Type-10P "Michael"

Unit type: police labor

Manufacturer: SEE (Schaft Enterprises Europe)

Operator: German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) and several major German federal state

police departments (Berlin, Northrhine-Westphalia, Bavaria), Austria, USA

Number built: 33

Accommodation: pilot only, in heat- and ABC-insulated cockpit in front torso

 

Dimensions:

Overall height 9.42 meters

Overall width 5.95 meters

Minimum revolving radius: 6.0 meters

 

Weight:

Standard 6.55 metric tons

Full 8.1 metric tons

 

Armor materials:

Light composite armor, effective against fire and small caliber rounds of up to 12.7 mm

 

Powerplant:

unknown

 

Maximum weight lifting capacity:

2.50 metric tons

 

Equipment and design features:

Visual and acoustic sensors, range unknown, with suitable recording and data transfer equipment

Retractable visor cover

Highly articulated manipulator hands

Searchlights

Flashlights and four claxons/loudspeakers on the shoulders

 

Armaments:

No internal weapons installed;

The Type-10P can operate a wide range of handheld equipment like an extendable baton,

anti-terror shields, and weapons like a 42 mm revolver handgun, a taser or a 90 mm pellet shotgun.

Two hardpoints on the lower arms to attach equipment/weapons, plus a single hardpoint on the

back with the option to carry a wide range of equipment packages.

  

The kit and its assembly:

Traditions can be nice to keep up, and this build is actually a kind of serial project: in 2015, a group build under the motto "De-/Militarize it" ran at whatifmodellers.com, and I submitted a thorough conversion of a 1:60 "SEE Type-7 Brocken" Labor it from Bandai – a pure military Labor turned into a firefighting mecha.

 

Now, in early 2021, the “Blue Lights” group build ran, and Patlabor – an anime near-SF universe circling around robot-assisted police work – lent itself for another mecha submission. I had an AV-X0 prototype as well as two Ingram kits in store, but I wanted “something different” and also not a Japanese police Labor, since I had just built a fictional Daihatsu Move police car of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. So, the choice fell on the “Phantom” kit as basis, what called for considerable modifications. The “Phantom” is actually an unmanned robot, but I found its stature quite intimidating and more plausible for a non-Japanese police Labor than e. g. a re-badged AV-X0.

 

At an early stage I already settled for a German police Labor, and took inspiration in some heavier vehicles that are operated by special units of the Bundespolizei, e.g. armored cars or water throwers. This also defined the Labor’s paint scheme (see below). However, the new police Labor’s design was far from certain, it gradually evolved while building the separate OOB elements. Thankfully, this 3rd generation mecha kit allows such a gradual progress, and step by step the details that had to be changed or scratched became clearer.

 

This primarily included:

A completely new head section; the Phantom has a kind of fixed "hood" with a relatively small and fixed "face unit" in its front. This would be changed into a free-standing head unit, like the standard Labors. I was lucky to find a leftover head unit from a “Helldiver”, an airborne military Labor from the same model universe – its pilot helmet added a tough look to my build, and I added some sensor booms from an Ingram, too. Some PSR went into the head’s re-design, too, and, in the end, it adds to the “riot control” look of my build.

The completely new head necessitated the complete removal of the original “hood” of the “Phantom” and its fixed, small head, and this gap had to be filled/framed with a scratched collar and a new attachment point for the new head. Later, the OOB “neck” element was integrated into the opening, and scratched hydraulic pistons filled void space.

 

In the same wake, a cockpit fairing was added to the chest, since this would become a manned vehicle, not a robot. This, as well as the collar, were sculpted with 2C putty.

In order to change the Labor’s hull shape a little more, I added a pair of headlights to the flanks of the breast – these are 1:24 car parts, left over from my recent Daihatsu Move build. The parts were fitted into holes, received a shiny backing with chrome foil (hard to tell through the protective grates, though) and were blended into the hull via PSR.

The pack with retractable boosters in the back as well as the extentable upper body (with the visible innards and the spinning blades hidden there) were omitted. Instead, I implanted a donor piece to the back (a back pack from an 1:144 Yha-Giga mecha from Megaro Zamac), which looks very mechanical (a heat exchanger, maybe?) and natural.

Furthermore, the openings for the “Phantom”’s original optical sensors in the chest were faired over.

 

New hands were deemed necessary; the OOB hands are much too slender and claw-like, and I was able to use the hands from an 1:24 PA-36HD (from Dorvack).

 

While raiding the donor banks I also came across suitable new shoulder guards, from an 1:144 “Serpent Custom” (Gundam). They replaced the OOB parts, they are taller and more edgy, which is against the “Phantom”’s rather organic design – but they were too good to be rejected, with consoles that would later carry flashlights (scratched) and louvres that could easily hide (and protect) sirens inside.

 

However, in order to integrate the new shoulder parts better into an overall look, I decided to modify the knee and elbow guards into a more squarish shape – with the help of styrene sheet and some (more) PSR. This stunt worked surprisingly well.

 

During this modification I also added hardpoints to the lower arms for equipment. I did not want a gun but rather fancied a riot shield and a baton. The right hand was modified to carry a stun baton, sourced from an Ingram kit, and the transparent shield was scratched from a mouth wash bottle.

 

Lots of work, but it was necessary to move the build away from its “Phantom” basis.

  

Painting and markings:

Basically very simple: all-blue. The current ID color of German police vehicles is RAL 5017 (Verkehrsblau/Traffic Blue), and before 2006 it was RAL 6029 (Pfefferminzgrün/Peppermint Green), both combined on standard vehicles with white - normally, these are leased white or, more recently, silver vehicles with foil. For the Labor's time frame around 2000, the classic green would have been appropriate, but I eventually voted for the later blue because it looks IMHO less militaristic.

Further design background: German special police vehicles like water throwers or armored cars rather carry a uniform livery, contrasted with very dark grey around the lower areas, and that's what I adopted for the Michael I police Labor, too, using the “Phantom”’s original livery as benchmark.

 

In Gunze Sangyo’s Mr. Hobby H15 (Bright Blue) I found a pretty good guesstimate for the characteristic German police blue, and it was contrasted with Revell 06 (Tar Black; RAL 9021). The backpack became medium grey, a similar tone to the silicone covers (which were left unpainted, just treated with a washing with thinned dark grey acrylic artist paint), and this medium grey was also used for some detail contrasts around the hull. This looks rather dry, but it reflects the sobriety of German police items, and the uniform blue is also a good contrast to the Japanese police Labors in white and black in my collection, and the others, too. A few highlights in white and cream are the only distractions.

 

Even though I did not want to weather the model, I did some dry-brushing/post shading (Humbrol 25, Revell 09, 77 and 75 in some areas) to emphasize the shapes/edges and to make the large areas, esp. on the legs, less uniform.

 

The markings come from two aftermarket sheets for German police cars: one is a 1:43 scale sheet from IDC Decals, the other a 1:87 scale sheet from TL Modellbau. The provided not only suitably-sized “Polizei” letterings and emblems, the IDC set also came with the characteristic dotted trim lines (reflective material in real life) that decorate many typical German police cars and which help to visually structure the Labor’s lines – even though their application to the bulbous surface of the model was not easy, and I rather used them sparsely.

 

After some more detail painting (e. g. some fake black panel lines, created with a fine felt tip pen) the model’s sections were sealed with a mix of matt and some semi-gloss acrylic varnish on the blue areas for a sheen finish, while the dark grey areas were painted with pure matt varnish.

  

The build of the “Michael I” police Labor was quite a challenge – mostly because it was not easy to get away from the model’s “Phantom” basis. But with the completely new head/shoulder section and the slight mods on arms and legs it looks quite unrelated – but still intimidating. The all-blue livery is not spectacular, but true to German standards, and it works surprisingly well and convincingly.

 

Mano grande... pene pequeño...

¿Onanismo intenso?

El mármol tiene sus límites de resistencia.

 

Fotograma originalmente tomado en la Galeria degli Uffizi, en Florencia (Italia), en Enero de 1998 en película Agfa HDC 100, con una cámara Pentax K1000 y un teleobjetivo Chinon 200 mm. Todo un esfuerzo artístico.

ELLIPHANT (Steve Madden Summer Music Series)

Rough Trade (Record Shop)

Williamsburg, Brooklyn (NY)

Thursday, August 4th, 2016

© 2016 LEROE24FOTOS.COM

For; LOVE ELLIPHANT

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Tonight was all about hero material. We got down and dirty and Ryan saved the day!!!

 

Model: Ryan Cummings Model Mayhem # 2038027

Photography / Retouching: Toni Wallachy, orangeroads Photography, Model Mayhem # 1653131

Pink Panther Studios workshop: Portfolio Builder: Down & Dirty - a Man's Perspective

St Albans is in southern Hertfordshire, England, around 22 miles (35 km) north of London, beside the site of a Catuvellauni settlement and the Roman town of Verulamium and on the River Ver. St Albans is Hertfordshire's oldest town, a modern city shaped by over 2000 years of continuous human occupation.

 

Pre-Roman and Roman times

The town is first recorded as Verulamium, a Celtic British Iron Agesettlement whose name means 'the settlement above the marsh'. After the Roman conquest of Britain in AD 43, it developed as Verulamium and became one of the largest towns in Roman Britain and the capital city . Built mainly of wood, it was destroyed during the revolt of Boudica in AD 60-61, but was rebuilt and grew to feature many impressive town houses and public buildings. It was encircled by gated walls in AD 275.

 

The Romans leave

The Roman City of Verulamium slowly declined and fell into decay after the departure of the Roman Army in AD 410. However, its ruined buildings provided building materials to build the new monastic and market settlement of St Albans which was growing on the hill above, close to the site of Saint Alban's execution. In the Norman Abbey tower, you can still see the Roman bricks removed from Verulamium.

 

Much of the post-Roman development of St Albans was in memorial to Saint Alban, the earliest known British Christian martyr, executed in AD 250 (the exact date is unknown, with scholars suggesting dates of 209, 254 and 304). The town itself was known for some time by the Saxon name 'Verlamchester'. A shrine was built on the site of his death following Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century a Benedictine monastic church was constructed.

 

The Abbey is founded

Another abbey was founded by King Offa of Mercia in 793. The settlement grew up around the precincts of another It was 350 feet (110 m) long with a tower and seven apses.

 

A nunnery, Sopwell Priory, was founded nearby in 1140 by Abbot Geoffrey de Gorham.

The head of the abbey was confirmed as the premier abbot in England in 1154. The abbey was extended by John of Wallingford (also known as John de Cella) in the 1190s, and again between 1257 and 1320 but financial constraints limited the effectiveness of these later additions.

 

In August 1213 the first draft of Magna Carta was drawn up in St Albans Abbey.

 

The Liberty of St Albans was given palatine status by Edward I. In 1290 the funeral procession of Eleanor of Castile stopped overnight in the town and an Eleanor cross was put up at a cost of £100 in the Market Place. The cross, which stood for many years in front of the 15th century Clock Tower, was demolished in 1701.

 

A market was running outside the abbey from the 10th century; it was confirmed by King John of England in 1202 and by a Royal Charter of Edward VI in 1553.

 

Conflict

 

Abbey Gateway from the 1360s

During the 14th century the Abbey came into increasing conflict with the townsfolk of St Albans, who demanded rights of their own. This led, among other things, to the construction of a large wall and gate surrounding the Abbey (for instance, the Great Gatehouse, the "Abbey Gateway", which is the only surviving monastic building other than the Abbey Church, dates from 1365).

 

Richard of Wallingford, a local landowner, who had presented demands to Richard II on behalf of Wat Tyler in London, brought news of this to St Albans and argued with the abbot over the charter. However, this was short lived. Once the 14-year-old king had regained control of the capital and then the whole country, Grindcobbe was tried in the Moot Hall (on the site of the present-day W H Smith stationery shop, where a plaque commemorates the event) and adjudged a 'traitor' alongside John Ball('the mad priest of Kent', one of the rebel leaders who had escaped from Smithfield, London to Coventry) and more than a dozen others. He was hanged, drawn and quartered in July 1381.

Another notable building dating from around this time, the Clockhouse belfy or Clock Tower, built between 1403 and 1412, seems to have been intended both as a visible and audible statement of the town's continuing civic ambitions against the power of the Abbot.

 

During the Wars of the Roses two battles were fought in and around St Albans. The First Battle of St Albans on 22 May 1455 was a Lancastriandefeat that opened the war. The Lancastrian army occupied the town but the Yorkist forces broke in and a battle took place in the streets of the town. On 17 February 1461 the Second Battle of St Albans on Bernards Heath north of the town centre resulted in a Lancastrian victory.

 

Following the Reformation, the Abbey was dissolved in 1539 and the Abbey Church sold to the town in 1553 for £400: it became a Protestant parish church for the borough and the Lady Chapel was used as a school. The Great Gatehouse was used as a prison until the 19th century, when it was taken over by St Albans School. In May 1553, in response to a public petition, the first royal charter for the town was issued by King Edward VI, granting it the status of borough. The charter defined the powers of the mayor and councillors, then known as burgesses, as well as specifying the Wednesday and Saturday market days which continue to this day.

In 1555, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a Protestant Yorkshire baker, George Tankerfield, was brought from London and burnt to death on Romeland because of his refusal to accept the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.

During the English Civil War (1642–45) the town sided with parliament but was largely unaffected by the conflict.

 

An early transport hub

Three main roads date from the medieval period - Holywell Hill, St Peter's Street, and Fishpool Street. These remained the only major streets until around 1800 when London Road was constructed, to be followed by Hatfield Road in 1824 and Verulam Road in 1826.

 

Verulam Road was created specifically to aid the movement of stage coaches, since St Albans was the first major stop on the coaching route north from London. The large number of coaching inns is, in turn, one reason why the City has so many pubs today (another being that it was, and remains, a major centre for Christian pilgrimage).

The railway arrived in 1868, off-setting the decline in coaching since the 1840s.

 

Growth was always slow and steady, with no sudden burst: in 1801 there were 6,000 people living in St Albans; in 1850 11,000; in 1931 29,000; and in 1950 44,000.

 

The City Charter

In 1877, in response to a public petition, Queen Victoria issued the second royal charter, which granted city status to the borough and Cathedral status to the former Abbey Church. The new diocese was established in the main from parts of the large Diocese of Rochester. Lord Grimthorpe financed a £130,000 renovation and rebuilding of the then dilapidated cathedral, which is most apparent in his generally poorly regarded Neo-Gothic rebuild of the west front (1880–1883). However, without Grimthorpe's money, it seems reasonable to assume that the Abbey Church would now almost certainly be a ruin, like many other former monastic churches, despite the work performed under Sir George Gilbert Scott in the years 1860 to 1877.

 

The city's football club (St Albans City F.C.) was founded in 1880.

 

Ralph Chubb, the poet and printer, lived on College Street in St Albans from 1892 to 1913, and attended St Albans School. His work frequently references the Abbey of St Albans, and he ascribed mystical significance to the geography and history of the town.

 

World War I

In September 1916, following an attack on St Albans, the German Airship SL 11 became the first airship to be brought down over England. But when London Colney was attacked, the nation was so angered it became united in its battle.

 

Modern growth

Between the wars

  

In the inter-war years St Albans, in common with much of the surrounding area, became a centre for emerging high-technology industries, most notably aerospace. Nearby Radlett was the base for Handley Page Aircraft Company, while Hatfield became home to de Havilland. St Albans itself became a centre for the Marconi plc company, specifically, Marconi Instruments. Marconi (later part of the General Electric Company) remained the city's largest employer (with two main plants) until the 1990s. A third plant - working on top secret defence work - also existed. Even Marconi staff only found out about this when it closed down. All of these industries are now gone from the area.

In 1936 St Albans was the last but one stop for the Jarrow Crusade.

 

Post-war growth

The City was expanded significantly after World War II, as government policy promoted the creation of New Towns and the expansion of existing towns. Substantial amounts of local authority housing were built at Cottonmill (to the south), Mile House (to the south-east) and New Greens (to the north). The Marshalswick area to the north-east was also expanded, completing a pre-war programme.

In 1974 St Albans City Council, St Albans Rural District Council and Harpenden Town Council were merged to form St Albans District Council(part of a much wider local government reorganisation).

The 2001 census returns show a population of 129,000 for St Albans City and District, which had risen to 140,664 at the 2011 census.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_St_Albans

Realizing I'm over a year behind on posting pics, I'm going to try posting by month, and play a bit of catch up. Presenting Marchof '17 .

 

While Flickr will always have the most images of each outfit, follow me on Instagram (/secretjess42) to see the latest pics!

Secret Solstice Festival

June, 2015

Reykjavik, Iceland

© 2015 LEROE24FOTOS.COM

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Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 79 x 93 cm. Nr.: MIN 0909. Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christen_K%C3%B8bke_-_The.... I have changed the light, contrast and colors of the original photo.

Material Culture

Beth Lipman (American, born 1971)

www.cmog.org

 

Beth has glued vessels to form a glass tower

which purposefully overwhelms a small table,

making a statement about the cultures of excess!

 

I found so many exhibits full of symbolism and metaphors which gives a whole new meaning to glass art!

 

Click here for a fascinating video:

glassapp.cmog.org/#/objects/161

  

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