A capture from this past week of my outing on the bayou where fellow paddler and photographer Gary and I searched for those ever so precious encounters with the wildlife that forage in the area. Gary uses a sit on kayak for his handiwork while I use a canoe. Either craft makes an excellent platform from which to photograph the wildlife. The slow and methodical approach seems to work most of the time and can get you up close and personal with your subject. You can drop by Gary’s Photostream and view some of his exceptional handiwork. He’s definitely one of the true masters at capturing wildlife from this platform. A keen eye is also very beneficial and I know that there is some hawk blood in Gary’s veins because his eyesight is very keen when it comes to spotting animals in the trees along the water’s edge.

 

DSC06238uls

This is how he deals with his dinner salads pretty often. Pulls them apart, has some of the veg, then leaves them alone for a while.

 

Snow just eats his methodically from start to finish.

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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on April 30th 2015

  

CREATIVE RF gty.im/ 552123007 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**

  

This photograph became my 591st image to be selected for inclusion and sale in the Getty Images 'Moment' collection, and I am very grateful to them for such an amazing opportunity.

 

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THE BEST LAID PLANS..... (Part One)

 

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COFFEE TASTING KISSES

 

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Caffè Artigiano, Hornby Street, just off of Robson. Early in the AM and I'm in need of my caffeine fix. I'm here for a reason, not simply by chance or else any Starbucks offering overpriced grinds and yesterdays cake would suffice. The joint is relatively quiet right now, just a handful of early birds revelling in the delicious aromas of freshly ground coffee beans or grabbing a bite to eat to start the day before the rush sets in. Commuter zone in the big city, bored faces, blank expressions, dashed aspirations crushed on the rocks of a world of tedium and conformity. Damn this modern day life and the frenetic pace that we lead like sheep, following the pack, never questioning why we do what we do, never stopping to smell the roses and take some time out to enjoy what we actually have. Not the commercialism nor Rolex around our wrists, but the purity of life, the wonder of our existence, the simple things that fall prey to the darkness all around us, victim of our need and greed.

 

I clear the table of all debris and distractions, every trace of the people who sat here before me. I like clean lines, a lack of clutter, room to think and move, nothing invading my personal space as I brush aside some sugar granules and a cellophane wrapper to an oatmeal cookie that offends my eyes as it covets the beautiful antique styled wooden table at which I sit. My left hand rises slowly to reveal the Omega chrome bezel of my wrist watch flashing beneath the overhead strip lighting which tells me that it's just turned eight. The coffee parked up in front of me, teasing my senses is a work of art, I ask you, how can a simple coffee look so fucking appealing for a couple of measly bucks?

 

That old Omega reminds me of my own mortality. A parting gift from the only woman I ever truly loved and the only person to get close enough to me to scare me shitless at the very prospect of giving up the only life that I have known ever since I was a rebellious and wayward kid. The soldier within me still yearns for leadership, like a scruffy mutt I await my orders before I commit to action. Times change, people bend the truth, lips lie but memories stay as true and fresh as the day that they formed in your pathetic little mind. I'm the same man yet different from the one back then. Older and wiser, more resigned and bitter at life's misfortunes and twists of fate, I believe in always looking to the future, though a nod to the past sometimes keeps us from insanity.

 

The rich dark roasted beans seduce my taste buds as I take a sip, carefully placing lips to porcelain, cautious not to burn my flesh and take layers off the roof of my mouth in the process. But I needn't worry. Corporate bullshit, health and safety gone mad, rules and regulations regarding the safe operating temperatures of tea urns and coffee machines to safeguard against customer claims of injury and the subsequent backlash of claims and counter claims in the Canadian court rooms. It's civilisation gone mad as newspapers daily tell us of fatheads playing the system and winning millions in damages for the grape that they slipped over on in Walmart whilst browsing for some breakfast fruit, the burns received from the hot apple pies that are served in MacDonald's or the Winnebago that crashed on cruise control when the driver left the drivers seat to go to the porta-loo thinking that the vehicle would just follow the road on it's own volition.

 

There is a dumbing down of society, a wising up to the intricacies of playing the system, screwing your fellow man and taking them for everything you can get. I could weep. Still, the Java tastes good as I completely destroy the delicate and ornate patterning that now swirls around like a tsunami in my neatly monikered cup, eyes subtly surveying the room as the people sit in their own little worlds. To my right at a two seater table sits Miss Prissy knickers, Librarian looks, mousy hair that could do with a little TLC, glasses that could kill a mans passion at twenty yards and eyes glued to the pages of this weeks new Stephen King best selling paperback. She's a speed reader, well practised in the art of darting through those written words at a rate of knots, taking in the impactive detail, digesting the characterisation without a hint of emotion in her face. Not a twitch nor flicker of the eybrows, not a muscle moved in the mouth, jeez, she'd make the perfect assassin with that poker face. She's blissfully unaware of anything around her, devoted to the storyline, immersed. No hint of a wedding ring on her fingers, she's married to her job, resolutely single and has probably never had a decent lay in her entire life.

 

A guy passes by her table, emerging from the tight and compact dimensions of the wash-room at the rear of the coffee-house, discreetly placed and merging into the décor with an elegant simplicity. His hands are still slightly wet, beads of water tumbling from his flesh to the ground like jumpers from a blazing sky scraper. He walks to the table and gathers up his belongings, checking his inner jacket pocket for his cell phone which he flicks open and checks, eyes registering a degree of disdain at not receiving whatever message he had hoped. A lovers words, a secret rendezvous, work details and directions, whatever, he's none too pleased as he pulls a set of car keys from his pocket, I catch a brief glimpse of the manufacturers corporate logo as he winks at the pretty young thing behind the bar who served him as she has each morning this week at the same time, same beverage, same price. People and habits, you just gotta love 'em.

 

" Have a good one Ray ", she says as he reaches the door and throws a smile back her way. I drain my cup of it's final liquid droplets and rise to my feet, pushing the wooden chair back a way before turning and making my exit through the door. The sunlight is bright and brilliant, piercing my retinas as I place my Ray bans on walk down the road about thirty five paces behind Ray. An unremarkable man of five feet ten inches in height, thirty six years old, married with two children. Samantha aged fourteen and David aged twelve. A picture of bliss with a neat condo on Beacon Avenue near the waterfront in Sidney, BC, two cars, a dog and two cats. The details from his file are fresh in my mind as I increase my pace to within twelve paces of the mark as he winds his way unwittingly towards the end of his life. A gambling man by any standards, neatly attired, respectable and clean, though up to his neck in debt thanks to a dead cert bet that he obtained through a friend of a friend who just happened top hear a couple of guys in the know talking shit near the race track. I hate gamblers more than any other form of low life scum sucking mother fuckers. The thin veneer of honesty and integrity whilst all the while they would sell their own grandma down the line if they thought it would fund their next certainty. I learned long ago in life that there is no such thing as a certainty, and any fool who lives with that lie and hope deserves what's coming to him. In Ray's case it's a head full of nine millimetre full metal jacket for defaulting on his twenty five thousand dollar stake money that he borrowed form some very unsavoury dudes. These are the sort of guys that would kill your family right out in front of you just to prove a point, not that that ever crossed Rays stupid head when the moment came to place the bet that he could never honour should the worse scenario play out, which it surely did.

 

He is striding casually, oblivious to my presence, unaware that he is now about a minute from his own death and that his wife and two children have already been taken care of by the men who shall remain nameless. You see, in this game, nothing is sacrosanct, not the solemn vows of marriage nor the bonds of love from a husband to a wife, a mother to her daughter, a father to her son. You take the risk, you make the bet, you borrow the money and if you fail to deliver what's owed on time, well then let's just Say that all hell breaks loose until the beneficiaries, who in this sad situation in fact benefited from a big fast zero in monetary gain terms, deem that the punishment has indeed been made to fit the crime. My eyes are surveying the scene, looking ahead, my brain calculating angles and degrees, seconds and minutes of escapes routes from the scene of the crime before it has been committed. Lucky for me, Ray turns Eastwards and moves into a skinny alley between two buildings, like a set from a motion picture as I hone in on his footsteps and reach inside my coat pocket for the cold steel of the weapon. In a way I'm helping the hapless fool out, he has no idea that his family home is now a bloodbath resembling a shoot out scene from a Quentin Tarantino flick, everything he loved wiped out in an instant. Well, I say everything, but of course that is not counting the blonde floozy twenty two year old from work that he has been enjoying after hours horizontal naked dancing with in the week that I have tailed and watched his every move. Me, I'm methodical if nothing else. I like to study the mark, learn their traits and characteristics, those little things that define who they are, daily details lost amidst the city lights and hubbub of noise and people. And what a sweet little thing his mistress is. I can almost hear her tears and see the droplets flood from the beautiful eyes when she discovers the awful truth that will hit the newspaper stands by the morning.

 

My hand emerges wit the silenced gun, the metal texture glistening under the sunlight as I come to a standstill right next to Ray who has stopped by the wall to pull a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. We exchange a glance as he suddenly sees the weapon and realizes that for him, there is no hiding now, no turning back the clocks.

 

" Please, whatever they are paying you, I can match it, double it.... name your price "

 

Quite understandably, the man is shaking with fear as he drops the unlit cigarette from his hand, those eyes begging my approval and acceptance like a scolded child looking to his fathers face. I'm just not the forgiving type sadly for Raymond Jacobs as I raise the silencer to within just a few inches from his right temple and reply.

 

" Really Ray. See, from where I am standing, you don't have a fucking pot to piss in what with the money you lost at the race track. Oh and by the way, Mr Stokes and Mr Reynolds both send you their warmest regards, and wish you to know that your wife and two children will be waiting for you somewhere in the afterlife. Hey, what's it to be, head or heart? "

 

Ray looks momentarily bemused as tears form in his eyes, " What? ", he says, staling for time, an effort wasted on a cold hearted bastard such as I. And after the silence comes the pain and as he begins to beg like an animal for his life, a mouth off all at a tangent spouting all manner of gibberish that is beyond my comprehension. Now me, I'm a tolerant man, I can suck it in wit the very best of them, I can stand most anything in life except maybe the sight of a man crying like a baby. I hate it when a mark does that, I mean, come on fella, at least face your plight like a grown man and die with a little semblance of dignity would ya!

 

" Okey-dokey, head it is then my friend ", I calmly announce as I pump a single round round straight into his skull. A spurt of blood splatters across the cement wall behind, leaving a pattern like a map of Africa as the bullet pushes out with a mixture of bone fragment and brain matter. The shell embeds itself in the wall as the casing hits the floor with a glorious ping of metal on pavement. His body rocks upwards and back, falling to the ground like a sack of the proverbial shit, eyes registering the shock and pain of that moment of impact before I pump two further rounds into his heart. His ribcage rises one last time, the expellation of air from his lungs is loud and forced, followed by silence as the life bleeds out of his eyes. I holster my gun, checking the vicinity for unwelcome attention, though mercifully the coast is clear. I retrieve the shell casing from the ground, placing it into my pocket, and also the slug from the wall which comes out with a couple of prods of my bony fingers. I hate clutter, I don't like debris and remnants left at the scene, it's just plain sloppy work.

 

The job is done, my work is finished, and my bank balance will be swollen by twenty large ones no sooner than I have contacted my keeper with confirmation of the kill. Time to vacate the scene before the cops come tumbling down upon me. The coffee is still on my mind and lips, staining my teeth and overwhelming my senses with the delerium of that java buzz as I make good my exit. Coffee kisses from the bosses, Ray. At least you are reunited with your family now

 

As I begin walking along the corridor between the two building, ears prick up to the sound of cough. Dust allergy perhaps, muted tone, stifled by a closed hand across the convulsing lips. Eyes hone in on the doorway slightly ajar to my immediate left where I stand. Dusty layers formed like a blanket through non use, finger prints and a palm fresh and staring me right in the face. I place my right hand onto the wooden textures of the old lockless door, perhaps once a storage room to one of the nearby shops, and press firmly as it creaks under protest and leaves a shadow across the floor that dances a tango of delight to the woman cowering in the shadows. Eyes meet for the first time and form a deep and abiding dislike for one another.

 

She darts past me like a frightened mouse and heads towards the network of quaint shops with faux period facades and cobbled stones. I cannot allow her to escape. The hunt is on.......

 

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TO BE CONCLUDED......

 

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Written June 8th 2011

   

Photograph taken at 08:25am inside the Caffe Artigiano coffee house in Hornby Street, just off Robson Street in down town Vancouver, Canada on April 5th 2010.

 

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Nikon D90 15mm 1/60s f/4.0 iso450 Tamron 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5 Di LC II. UV filter

 

THE DRUNKEN MUSE

The story "Drunken Muse" was audio recorded on a hidden voice recorder during the conversations about two decades ago. The story-teller didn't know or consent to the recording.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_recorder

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_tape

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Cassette

The audio tapes on compact cassettes were never used. The records were partially damaged and lost.

Herewith the unedited transcript version.

 

medium.com/paul-jaisini-paints-invisible-paintings/paul-j...

  

I am so pumped to get back to painting as I return to the second year of the art school after a full year suspension. As always it is like time-travel culturally speaking, like walking right into the middle ages going through the antique building’s portal.

Art studios are the huge L-shaped lofts with super tall ceilings 20 feet no less with the wall to wall windows so that sunlight illuminates the space from south and east side designed for the purpose so that one could paint there from morning till sunset.

In a studio there are classical gypsum sculptures, expensive copies of Venus de Milo, David, Laocoön and the others. In the art studio there stood the noses, eyes, lips, feet, and palms on the wood shelves.

Sketching the gypsum body parts helps you to build the classic academic base on which stands the whole modern and contempo art. This sort of teaching is specific for the art schools that preserve the traditions they had been founded on. There is only few art schools like this and of this caliber left now. Could be that this is the only legendary school that continues to function as if nothing had changed in the world. In the rest of the world with billions of some art classes nobody knows what does the old tradition of art school is for, its totally unfashionable.

Studying classic art (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_art) here is the foundation for creativity in any of the art styles.

  

The smell of art is what defines the studio but not from human presence, something like an aroma reminiscent of the eastern market where smoke from hookaahs mix with the oil vapors, exotic fragrance from candles and spices. The Art Studios were never renovated since the times they were built over 150 years ago. The wood floors are saturated with art oils as if the floor is waxed with the organic oils from nuts, linen ( linseed oil, poppy seed oil, and so forth.) Adding to the mix the varnishes used by painters (pine wood varnish, Dammar varnish and others) It makes this ART SMELL to be the most intoxicating and ever-lasting musk.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_painting

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_painting - Ingredients

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio - Art_studio

  

The instance you enter the studio space you feel the belonging to a knighthood and the whole art history. You are the undivided part of those people who left their creation imprints.

Super pumped up after the long break up with the arts after my full year of non-stop party marathons I had returned to the bohemian life style.

Actually my other life style wasn't any different from the bohemian.

The only difference is that there is some meaning in the bohemian life style, something to create, to shape. Not just spend time doing sports and girls but something on a whole 'nother level only with the same sub text and by far more emotionally connected.

The bohemian I think is much more my thing, that fits me as a person. Maybe because my old man is the greatest sculptor.

He is color blind so apparently I took up the torch, I have a very special sense for color.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness

  

There could be an inborn human predicament or inborn genius.

I returned into the world to kiss its ground. I like everything about it, the babeville and its fashion circus.

The art students are known to come up with endless varieties of how to be stylish.

Take me for example, I am chilling in a suit jacket. It was professionally hand-tailored out of a denim Pajamas with stripes and starry silk underlining.

This “look” is completed by my python leather jeans. And over that an authentic LONG military Germany Waffen Elite Officer black Leather Coat from the WWII, only it is without a Swastika.

I never part with my large portfolio and a Field Easel.

EASEL

  

About 700 students attend the studies. The art school accepts only the best of best with few exception such as the kids of celebrity artists, writers and musicians and people who had real power in the city.

I wasn't enrolled for money or the A-lister parents, but for my talents. The Art specialty (painting, drawing, sculpture) teachers here are the world-wide recognized contemporary artists.

In a matter of my working ethics these important artists would point at me as the example of how fast I work, how well I sketch in color, how I always choose the most unexpected and unusual angle for my composition and so on...

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_(visual_arts)

name banner gif

  

Optical illusion geometric gif

  

(portraiture, still-life, and landscape)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_life

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landscape_painting

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_drawing

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_painting

  

I never work on an académie (live drawing of a model, live painting of a model) the given eighty -- ninety hours. My whole process is about six -- nine hours to fully complete the work so I get out of the studio for some action and fun.

I’m probably the strongest in the class. My art professors know I don’t need to be there to distract the others.

When I’ve got nothing to do I start banging the head against the wall. Still I am criticized SUPER harshly for cutting the classes.

At this point I am not aware of the inner workings of “THE SYSTEM”.

I call suitcase with a secret compartment.

At the grade shows I only see the bad grades on my best artworks.

There is another side of the coin. It revealed in the future when I got to befriend a secretary at the Dean’s office. It was about the time of my graduating year.

The art teachers actually always considered me to be the leading artist among all students. They would grade all my artworks high on my personal record I knew nothing about.

That was how the art school’s system pushed the talented students to go further to open up their potential. Pushing to the limits of impossible.

I am harshly criticized for cutting a lot of classes.

There is another side of the coin. It will be revealed in the future when I got to befriend a secretary at the Dean's office. It was about the time of my graduating year.

The art teachers actually always considered me to be the leading artist among all students. They would grade all my artworks high on my personal record I knew nothing about.

That was how the art school's system pushed the talented students to go further to open up their potential. Pushing to the limits of impossible.

Willing or not but the doubts get in my head. I was thinking (rather frantically) that maybe I’m all just misguided. I will work to beef up my skills unable to accept that I am not really a “genius” artist. The bad grades were corrupting my vision.

Totally clueless that these bad grades in my case were used as "disciplinary measures" for my behavior of anarchy. These grades had nothing to do with my artworks.

And yet my best drawings and paintings are graded the lowest. At the same time the art professors are taking my works home. I always find empty walls where my works were displayed for the semester shows.

Sooner or later the missing artworks got me enraged. My classmates tell me the back story on what REALLY had happened.

All the art professors usually go the painting major's finals. So they just took my artworks right off the wall.

Ever since I heard this back story I flaunt how IDGAF to even pick up my works with the bad grades after the finals end.

Like a bunch of some doomsday looters in sight of an electronic store the art students same as the teachers vultured my artworks. Later some of my paintings and drawings were seen at the school's museum, especially the paintings.

The story of the artworks snatched off my exhibit wall developed further.

In the art school the art teachers are the privileged kind who exhibit regularly. All are the accomplished artists with big names.

Another thing about my artworks (no longer mine and in someone else's possession) is the story that involves someone with the top art rep being the art dynasty. Even so it happed that the leading art professor nicknamed Molly (for her annoying facial mole) used my art stuff to have her son who studied same years as me, just never expelled, to apply to an art academy with the highest qualification requirements. Molly's son portfolio sucked. To get him qualified to apply she gave her son all of my artworks she collected.

The juice was given to me by the reliable sources. The story was concurred by the eye--witnesses the students who were applying to the same academy together with Molly's son. Some of these students knew my work by the style, special color palette and the brushwork.

They all knew that Molly's son was using my artworks. He only had to forge his signature and remove mine.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Study_(art)

  

My drawings, sketches, paintings, watercolors are in "wide" use by others.

I tell that to describe the routine of my life.

It could explain why I was expelled three times for the chronic absence, for sabotaging the lectures -- getting my classmates to leave the studio and go to the movies or to the beach.

Fast forward to that event of the breaking point when I started to work systematically.

  

I was sucked into work as if a drug addiction. I was penetrating deeper to the very core of creativity. Reading books, going to the museums, working in the field, working in the museums to copy masters. I completely forgot all about life around me.

Practically I was devoured and digested with my nails and hair by that devil called the academic art. It sucked out the leftovers of my soul.

I stayed in the studio after the classes to work. There were only few students like this, spiritually close to me. To them it was their life style since the day they had entered the art school unlike me. Whenever I'd get bored with art I'd quit working and just leave without asking permission.

Now as if something had hit me hard and I started to really work. Most art students here typically come from such backgrounds when they did their baby steps and studied in the children's (secondary) art school from an early age and tutored by art teachers at home

I had a tendency to take on a higher complexity unprepared without the experience of any art school training (the eight years on a daily basic with teachers and methodical practice.)

As long as I remember myself I was drawing, during my school years, on the notebooks, with chalk on the asphalt, with stick on the sand. I did it subconsciously, not knowing what I was doing.

IDK, could be due to the several bad bike accidents when my head ended up hitting the brick...

  

Why did my brain moved into the direction of noticing those things that normal people should not be noticing? That the leaves on the trees are not at all green, but violet.

The falling shadows from the street lights are not at all outlined by black, the contours are the absolute blue.

The trees look like people.

There are so much more shades of colors that language could articulate.

Stuff like this filled up my head so that there was no place left for just a thought about girls, more so even the thoughts to manipulate my body functions. For instance using the

bathroom. I almost peed my pants. Truthfully I was on the edge of madness.

I remember how I hallucinated during my work imagining that someone had come into my studio and I spoke to "the guest." My brain was ill, there was no escape from that hell.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_(color)

  

Once I was walking on a street without any awareness. My mind was no longer in command of anything accept the obsession with my painting. As I was pushing the limits of what was humanly possible in a matter of progress from the previous stage when I could draw and paint with intuitive results now I considered as totally armature waste of art materials. My condition would be hard to describe since I could hardly remember what was it like during that madly intense period. I know that I was working non--stop and did make some major break through. It worked but at the same time the progress turned its evil side, I wasn't able to stop even for a brief moment. Something happened to my otherwise incorruptible memory that I could only remember few things from that period. And one of those things was my death walk through the city streets on a day I was supposed to disappear.

When I realized that I was walking automatically, blind and incredibly

avoiding the cars, for the first time I felt the fear of madness that can easily take my life. It wasn't something I would fear if I was in my other life when loosing it would be quite an ordinary thing and not due to my lost mind.

Whatever it was I survived with no chances to stay alive that day. I had more chances to live on when I was shot at execution style, when I was drowning in bad storm, climbing on a building like a cat, and on many others such occasions.

Some guardian angel was looking over me as I came to the final moment of certain death, blind, deaf, disoriented and delusional.

As we finished with draperies, still life, gypsum figures we moved on to the nude. To draw and paint from the live sitter, male or female model.

There comes an old fat hag to be posed before the artists. She will be POSING even during the breaks. She sits professionally without a slight move of her flab folds for us to draw her “forms”. ‘assume it was done for the boys not to get distracted with the female anatomy.

The models with “rounded” forms were chosen so we would study the reflects and double reflects on a “sphere-like” and “cylinder-like” forms.

There would be plenty of the cast shadow (a type of shadow that is created on a form), and a drop shadow ( below the image).

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_positions

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_study

  

The working objective was to concentrate on the drawing’s construction.

When we’d get a young female model, she’d be so skeletal that we studied the skeleton. This type of models was as unattractive as the fat ones.

The art students without an eye for a drawing and technique produced their works of caricature quality. With the lost proportions the models looked like animals, skinny chickens or fat frogs.

For me it was a serious job, body didn’t exist. I x-rayed the flubs of fat to see the bones to connect them to muscles, to build a form.

  

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caricature

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeleton

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skeleton

  

The illness I call the overdose had progressed and my end was near.

Homies who knew me used to say that I was cracked.

When I moved from the classicism to modern (I refused to see any modern or contemporary art, never wanted to see it, or ever saw it) I entered the Modern art on my own, as my foot stepped into the forth dimension.

I entered the world of mad pressure. Good I stepped in it one foot yet.

I was sleeping in the studio right on the floor near my work and placed an electric heater near by.

It was impossible to heat up whole place where fifty heavy-duty easels only took a quarter of the studio space.

In the center there was a huge round stage made from a special hard wood to hold any number of models when needed for the multiple human-figure compositions.

The place was full of easels, portable and the large for the field. The chairs, tables, palettes, boxes with paint, cases with paper and lots of other art stuff piled up into mountains.

The parquet floor was always covered in fresh oil paints even though the teachers tried in vein to prove a fact that working neatly was by far more productive.

  

We had a dormitory built same year as the art school which was 150 something years ago.

If you stayed late in the studio that was forbidden, you couldn't get to the dorm.

A guard at the main door was a real watch dog, he faithfully guarded the pathway knowing every student's face.

The dorm was occupied by those who couldn't pay for a room or the apartment in the city.

Ten beds were squeezed in a dorm room.

This part of the antique building was never renovated probably b/c it was planned to be turned into more art studios.

But since there were out of town students who had no place to live they were given a place in this dorm.

The beds were of a good prison-like quality so the survival was possible. Another thing is what was happening in the dorm.

On a typical day nobody there had any money left after the expensive art materials. Not a penny to get high. Alcoholic liquid (40-60%) was soaked into the bread.

From one bite of that bread you could instantly drop dead as if your legs got cut off by a train.

The receptors inside the nose absorb the fumes to hit right into the brain, this way the booze doesn't ever enter the digestive system and blood.

It kills or makes one go bonkers.

Some pissheads in desperation poured vodka into a wine bottle cap to inhale it like coke. After one cap screw it was a total alchoholocaust.

There were many ways of economizing: to use a medical thin rubber tube to suck the drink very slowly, one bottle would

serve four alkies.

It was the usual schizophrenic day for me. I had my dose of coffee and ate on a way to the studio.

Those days I didn't miss a class afraid to get expelled for the last and final time.

I couldn't understand this thing about my artworks. Why did my classmates literally begged on their knees to have the C-graded artworks I was never satisfied with.

It became my trade mark to give away all of my stuff left and right. I didn't know why I let go of my drawings and paintings so easy. Now I regret that. It would be interesting to see the growth.

Once I happened to tell a guy from my class who worked very hard on his drawing (he wasn't a good draftsman): "Oh Wow! you are doing a lot of progress, buddy, congrats!" I looked at his portfolio and pointed at a piece: "This drawing here is really mature and quite interesting, you achieved volume and air in just a linear drawing."

The guy suddenly goes red, stares at me wide-eyed with anger or confusion I couldn't quite understand...

"Am I saying something wrong?" I asked.

"You're fucking dissing me!" He answered.

"Why?" I wondered.

"This is YOUR drawing," Was the answer: "I took it, that is when I asked you and you gave it to me, don't you remember?"

I didn't recognize, didn't see my signature, as it was overlapping the drawing.

The guy was holding a grudge for this but it didn't turn him into one of my enemies.

  

At some point I am thankful to the teachers for their sneaky methods and experience on how to tame the most unruly and bring them into the art's stable. On the other hand these people were like sadistic fascists who used their special gases on me experimenting, would I survive it and live on.

The bohemian hyped up life only started after the classes at about seven in the evening. This part of the artist's life was full of sex, booze, and drugs, more sex booze drugs and orgies. The art youth was progressive, the sex - communal with the conveniently shared girlfriends and boyfriends.

Strangely the good times didn't concern me anymore now.

There was a small group of idiots who followed their criteria of achievement: to draw and paint a vase with flowers so that it comes to life, right out of the canvas to the carrying hands of the one who painted it. The flowers turned alive would be given to the girl/boyfriend.

The madness of the 4th dimension.

The art group was lead by me and another guy soon (one month later) to disappear forever for the reasons unknown.

After the classes me and few others searched for a studio. Found it. Not my studio. Any studio with the door unlocked.

As usual I would set a still life. Take off my nazi coat.

Set my next canvas on the easel to start quick sketching.

Out of nowhere shows up some dude who was a new student, he was much older, about twenty three, somewhere from Texas and just plain untalented.

He wanted to hang around with "the power-group" to learn.

There were few girls with the ambition to reach the level of a manly hand in creation.

We all usually worked in grave silence and even a slight noise would be extremely annoying.

If a brush would fall it seemed the atomic bomb had exploded somewhere near. We would exchange vicious cursing at the jittery creaking sneezing noise maker.

When you are focusing intensely and can't quite catch the brush stroke to complete the shaping of a form so that the image would turn real and come out of the flat surface the nerves are high strung to the limit.

The last months I just never left the studio, didn't even come outside. Slept on my German coat in the corner. It was veiled with the drapery. I'd wake up in the morning. The doorman was already used to give me the keys knowing that I sleep and work there. It came with a warning that if I am discovered I must tell any story and solemnly kept the secret.

The memories from those years distract me from telling what I want. It's about the event that had closed for me the entry into the forth dimension.

That day I was getting upset over some stupid teases: "What had happened to you!"

Whether the bros wanted to elevate my mental state, or they needed to get my works it had really caused me distraction. I was focusing on my work. Suddenly I hear the sounds of music in the studio. It jumped me: “Are you out of your fucking minds? That asshole doorman will come here."

"No he ain’t gonna."

"Why?"

"He is passed out, we had to carry him away." Was the answer.

"What is going down?" I worried.

"Not much, nothing is going down, we just want some fun. The way it is on here is so buzz-killing."

Was it some holiday, I didn’t know. Holidays passed by me, I didn’t smoke or drink and only worked. What they were saying didn’t reach me.

“Shut down the music. You’re gone but I must sleep here."

"Why must you sleep here?" Asked Lorenzo (nick-named after his personal preferences of the Benzos)

"Hmm, I guess there will be no way of working today?" I asked.

"Working, way working, you gonna make me some home works," Assured me the dude nicknamed Kuz. "For that I will make your sculpture complete."

As interesting as it was to play with the real forms in sculpting I disliked dealing with the clay. Those times I believed the painting to be so much more in gradations, possibilities and complexity. Now I changed my mind to consider any art media possess the unlimited possibilities.

I agreed. Suddenly the guys were fixing to leave and I had to ask: "So? Who will finish building up the sculpture if you're leaving?"

"No worries, will build it up, brb just a quick run for some booze before the stores closed up."

"What booze? Get out of here go to another studio. I work, don’t mess me up."

"No biggie, son, you can rest for once."

It was pointless to argue, they'd already been drunk and I was only getting nervous. My work wasn’t going good at all. I have changed the lighting set up many ways in vein.

Suddenly, out of nowhere Muse appears. A young, very-very attractive girl about eighteen. The returned gang introduced her to me:

"J-Sin, meet her... lets say Nicky."

"Eh, hello Nicky, who and what are you?" were my greetings.

She smiled to everyone and answered: "I will be posing for you today."

"We agreed about everything, will pay the price,” –explained Lorenzo barely moving his tongue, "She is gonna be happy!"

His bag full of bottles made loud clanking noise.

When the drunks got them out I counted six.

“Yes, this is going to be a wild night.” I was thinking what to do now. I approached the model, took off her coat and hanged it, removed her blouse and explained that she can go behind the curtain.

"Hey, hey! What curtain son, what’s with you? She is from the med school, our people!"

I heard the Kuz's inebriated voice. "She is THE model!"

"What -- nude?" I wondered.

"And what did you think, she'd sit covered up in here?" They burst into laughter.

Suddenly I feel elated with the anticipation of the new and amazing subject for the work. I was fed up with the poor set up and the struggle to "find" the good lighting for the gypsum head. How wonderful it turned out that I could make some picturesque oil sketches.

When the model took off her bra, her young breasts, her nipples instantly distract my attention from work.

Shit, I couldn’t focus. Since we hadn’t a glimpse at such models it was too interesting. Could be that something about this evening or the environment was different. First time in a long while the music was playing, the glasses jingled and filled up with wine.

As she posed we were all doing the quick sketching. She removed everything except her panties.

The drunken assholes wouldn’t let me focus.

"Let me finally have a chance to work." I yelled getting distracted.

They seemed to try bargaining: "We brought you the model, hey girl turn around!" Kuz pulled up her skirt and slapped her buddy. "Look at these buns, you've got to do another

drawing for the semester show."

"Boys, you are so bad!" She giggled to Kuz. "I will spank you for being soooo bad!" And she was laughing in most contagious sexy trills of her childish capricious voice.

  

I didn’t understand what these die--hard drunks were doing at the art school, without any talent or interest in art. My former palls in another life that was long forgotten. Today the serious artists who always worked together with me had left the moment this bad company swam by.

Now I was looking at their watery eyes winking at the model. They caressed her things as she reclined on the wooden stage to rest. I wanted to figure out why did they distract me even more now?

I was the same age as the model. I didn’t see her body, to me now it was the model for painting.

It was getting late when the cold winds penetrate the place from the drafty wall size windows. I put on my sweater in the starting freezer. The one meter or the three feet and 33/8 inch walls are like the thermos to absorb and hold the cool temperature. I looked at the laughing bunch who labored on my sculpture.

One was drawing a huge flying dick with wings with a charcoal right on a white wall.

I had finished sketching the figure. I came up to the stage to set up the heater. I asked the model if she could sit some more taking breaks whenever she needs to move.

When she looked at me she was constantly smiling.

"Sure she’ll sit! And she'll lay, right, sweet buns?"

I held my breath working imagining how awesome would be to have such a model every day. With a shaky hand I was working fast as a machine expecting any minute now she would say that she is too cold to sit another minute and she leaves, its all over. I will have to kill her and sit her lifeless body on a chair to complete my work.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!"

The heater I placed caused the red reflexes on the body. I was painting and had to get the color right. So I removed the heater. The model immediately complained about the cold. Kuz brought her a glass of wine asking me why did I remove the heater.

From wine her face flushed red. I tried to adjust the color scale, laying brushstrokes over the whole figure.

Meanwhile the music turned up it was getting real loud.

The model took her break.

I walked after her studying her forms.

"Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Its all right, could you turn this way."

"Oh, I see. Same in our med school, the nut cases," She openly declared to the others when I was on a floor looking from a lower viewpoint.

"Who is this?" She asked: "What kind of a mental is he?"

"Its a disease, but it will pass" – was the answer for her. "Sometimes it is terminal. Not his tho, his will pass, he loves the young girls very much…"

Something from the stupid jokes had reached me.

"Hon, now he needs the medical attention. You are the medic? We are forever in debt to yous for allowing us come to the mortuary and for helping with the dead bodies... What we have here is a zombie. You are the goddess who saves the body as your calling."

What I heard was polluting my pure artistic brain with that life I refused. Now I was paying attention not to the mammary glands but to her breasts. Her back muscles are slightly weak. As I looked over the skeleton the muscles slowly disappeared. No matter how hard I tried to focus my x-rays were weakened. Maybe the electricity turned off inside my head.

"Pour me some," I asked.

Six months of my immaculate virginity and celibacy was broken by a wine glass. The red wine like the blood of innocents was running in my throat filling up the brain that shortly was boiling with vigor. So I said:

"Could you please remove your panties?"

"It wasn’t the deal," protested the model with her eyes glowing like honey.

Lorenzo interrupted her:

"For god’s sake, take of your panties, what is it to you, aren't you a medic?"

"I thought someone here was shy, as for me" She lustfully licked her lips. "Well, of course its nothing."

"Who is shy?" Asked someone.

"Him the weirdo!" She giggled in a very cute bubbly little voice.

"Are you shy?"

"It seems it was me who asked her to remove the panties." I explained.

She just jumped right out of her panties not without pleasure it seemed.

I imagined how to position her, what pose should she take.

"Hey!" I asked Kuz to pour me another glass. He was cheering me on yet reminding that I should first finish the drawing.

"Later," I mumbled turning to the model: "Would you please sit on a chair and spread your pretty legs a little, as much as you wish."

"Hey, Alex, so he is normal?" She asked.

I was far away from normality. A actual girl weaved from the reality. But the process was a transformation with splitting dimensions.

She was turning more real when I touched her to show how to position her legs.

I glimpsed at the red pubic hair seeing the pink flesh of her vaginal lips.

I couldn't focus on my work. Could the “female anatomy” destroy the temple of magic I was erecting for the eight months?

I returned to my easel and continued working. She was fidgeting changing poses uncomfortable this something hurting that... But it was only natural, she was sitting naked on a plain hard wooden chair. She was sliding from one side of the chair to another. I was buzzed from wine and couldn’t work, but I tried to complete my work just to annoy these assholes who screwed up my day. First work was washed off with turpentine and I wiped up the canvas dry with a rag.

I was sketching now not with a charcoal but brushing in umber. It resulted in an interesting tonality and I was captured again. The model squirming on her hard chair complained.

"Yo, why don’t you lay her down, what is she suffering for?" Asked Alex, "Lay her the fuck down, why not."

Right! I thought a little and told her to lay on the stage. Underneath her I spread some drapery.

After few wine glasses I took off my sweater, my cheeks were on fire. Hers too. I unbuttoned my shirt, my blood was boiling, the body was washed with the warmth.

The heater was moved away.

"So true that wine warms you up," she said to Alex.

"Jay, so tell me how to lay her down there. Sit, sit, you poor thingy, I'll assist you" And he jumped on the stage. "Do you want her legs spread this way?" he asked opening

up her legs so that her whole anatomy was showing.

"Is this ok for you?" He winked at me: "Is it good?"

"Oh no, can’t show it like this at the mid-semester show." Thinking some I added: " Let it be, lift her leg a little higher, like this. Turn her head down."

"Like this?" He kissed her on the lips.

"Alex, the fuck you're doing, I don’t have any time."

"Work, keep drawing, go on!" he said. "We won’t disturb you."

I was outraged after I just washed everything off my canvas ready to work, but this wasn't going anywhere. I kept asking Alex what did he mean by not disturbing me when he messed everything up. I heard the girls laughing trills. "For real, he is ill!"

"The sick can be cured." Insisted Alex. "Will hill him." He slurred.

Of course, I own them my very life. If it weren't for them –- that’s it, finito.

Kissing her on the lips and winking at me Alex continued bugging me: “Is this right?”

For like ten minutes I was staring in the infinity in the emptiness… Then I yelled: "Why are you sucking her? Get away from her, let her lay there quietly."

Only to hear some nonsensical mumbling.

"But I want you to work on the position, is this position right?"

"Right, just fuck off of her."

Meanwhile Kuz, I noticed, was taking off his pants. He said: “Let him go fuck himself. Motherfucker is gonna fuck us up today, if he doesn’t want it, so fuck it.”

Now I thought I knew what they wanted from me.

I saw Alex’s naked butt as he laid on the stage, banging the girl and his ass wiggled.

I started sketching their nude asses.

My consciousness was still in the process of transforming.

I thought of how interesting were their poses.

Lorenzo came up to me and took the brushes from my hands placing all in my field easel he closed up.

"Listen, J-man, you’re being a fucking buzzkill. Go draw some vases, fuck off to another studio. You don’t want it. For free?"

I didn't understand him what did he mean. He explained:

"What do you see Alex is doing right now?"

"He is fucking his girlfriend." I said.

Lorenzo continued:

"Whose girlfriend? What we have here is a

scientist, from the med school who is helping us in our artistic quests, to understand the core of anatomy not only from the outside but from the inside. I recommend you, in order to comprehend, as you must know, you can only know the truth from the inside, experiencing the inside, to understand the outside. That’s why I seize the brushes. Here is another glass of wine. Drink!"

I looked at him as a doctor listening to his drunken bullshit.

"The most important thing for you is to understand from the inside. See, you can’t understand it from the outside, it’s not how things are done."

"Yes knowing the internal anatomy helps, take a muscle, body doesn’t exist without muscles." I agreed.

"Hell yeah, yeah… ha ha…that’s what I am going about. Look how Alex is working how he is learning."

I looked at the bare ass's motions back and forth, at the girl who was lifting her legs and actively moving her hips. Alex jumped off, wiped up his cock with the drapery, he also wiped out the girl. “Who is next?”

Kuz was kissing her from one side, when Lorenzo said:

"He worked very hard today, he must learn from the inside. You see, because he just can’t break through the inside."

When Kuz was mounting her, Lorenzo spanked him loudly:

"You can wait, the man needs the muse, get it? Understanding the Muse comes only from the inside.." They all bust into laughter.

Lorenzo nearly helped my cock inside the girl cheering on: "Just do it, little one, everything is gonna be great. Honey, turn him back into a soldier that we've lost."

"The man is gone, the man known yesterday is not the man you meet, forever, around the corner, in London or in the street..." chanted Nick appearing from nowhere. He continued slurring his poems.

Hearing the noise I didn’t know what’s going on as I kissed her breasts.

"Feel the forms." I heard the racket near by as I was buzzing off the wine and licking the girl's body. On the other side Lorenzo had joined in groping her breasts. To be more at ease I moved her body closer to the stage’s edge. I was on top.

I didn't hear any sounds of music, the entry door was covered with the draperies as the orgy just steamed up for the whole night.

I woke up on the stage from loud knocking.

The art students asked me what happened to the busted still life set.

I exhaled my dragon breath to hear no more questions. Took my coat and left the building. Walking the street I met Alex.

"Your face is not yet blushed, your eyes are a bit foggy, can’t say anything after the sleepless night. Like Cures Like."

He grinned getting money out of his pocket. "Let us get some treatment."

We walked to the known spot for aching heads gathering.

 

"The organ goes back to an instrument that was built between 1683 and 1684 by the organ builders Johann Jobst Schleich and his journeyman Nikolaus Will. The original, preserved front of the main organ in the west gallery was built by Johann-Jobst Schleich. The painted front pipes of the Praestant 8′ are also original and are playable. The instrument was rebuilt several times by the Weiß organ building company in Zellingen. The organ has 64 sounding stops (4,266 pipes) on four manuals and a pedal. The pipes from the Chamadenwerk are on grinding and clay comb drawers; the remaining pipes are on cone leden. The actions are electro-pneumatic, those of the Chamadenwerk are electric. A special feature of the instrument are the special musical mechanisms Celesta (bell chime with brass bells, c 0 – d 3 in the swell mechanism) and Carillon (tube chime, g 0 – g 2 in the remote mechanism). The organ also has an adjustable cymbal star (8 tones, brass bells) with a visible, rotating star in the main tower of the front; the cymbel star comes from the instrument from 1683/84.

 

The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Andreas in Karlstadt, the district town of the Lower Franconian district of Main-Spessart in Bavaria, was built from the 14th century on the foundations of a late Romanesque basilica.

 

From the previous Romanesque building, which dates back to the time the city was founded around the year 1200, the current church contains remains of walls in the nave, as well as the former sacristy in the southern choir corner (today the baptismal chapel), the crossing and the west tower. From the middle of the 14th century, the transept and choir were built in the Gothic style. The Rieneck chapel, which opens to the northern transept and choir, was built in 1447, as evidenced by a keystone on the vault bearing this date. The nave was built around 1481 and vaulted in 1512/13. Around 1583, the Würzburg Prince-Bishop Julius Echter had the tower increased by one storey and given a new pointed helmet.

 

Over the centuries the church was redesigned several times. In 1614 it was painted in the Renaissance style by Wolfgang Ritterlein from Innsbruck. Some of these paintings are still preserved on the frames of the portals and on some windows. During the Baroque period, the church received new furnishings, which were exchanged for neo-Gothic ones at the end of the 19th century. In 1999/2000 the church was further renovated and new furnishings were created.

 

Karlstadt is a town in the Main-Spessart in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of Main-Spessart (Kreisstadt), and has a population of around 15,000.

 

Karlstadt lies on the River Main in the district (Landkreis) of Main-Spessart, roughly 25 km north of the city of Würzburg. It belongs to the Main-Franconian wine-growing region. The town itself is located on the right bank of the river, but the municipal territory extends to the left bank.

 

Since the amalgamations in 1978, Karlstadt's Stadtteile have been Gambach, Heßlar, Karlburg, Karlstadt, Laudenbach, Mühlbach, Rohrbach, Stadelhofen, Stetten, and Wiesenfeld.

 

From the late 6th to the mid-13th century, the settlement of Karlburg with its monastery and harbor was located on the west bank of the Main. It grew up around the Karlsburg, a castle perched high over the community, that was destroyed in the German Peasants' War in 1525.

 

In 1202, Karlstadt itself was founded by Konrad von Querfurt, Bishop of Würzburg. The town was methodically laid out with a nearly rectangular plan to defend Würzburg territory against the Counts of Rieneck. The plan is still well preserved today. The streets in the old town are laid out much like a chessboard, but for military reasons they are not quite straight.

 

In 1225, Karlstadt had its first documentary mention. In 1236, the castle and the village of Karlburg were destroyed in the Rieneck Feud. In 1244, winegrowing in Karlstadt was mentioned for the first time. From 1277 comes the earliest evidence of the town seal. In 1304, the town fortifications were finished. The parish of Karlstadt was first named in 1339. In 1369 a hospital was founded. Between 1370 and 1515, remodelling work was being done on the first, Romanesque parish church to turn it into a Gothic hall church. About 1400, Karlstadt became for a short time the seat of an episcopal mint. The former Oberamt of the Princely Electorate (Hochstift) of Würzburg was, after Secularization, in Bavaria's favour, passed in 1805 to Grand Duke Ferdinando III of Tuscany to form the Grand Duchy of Würzburg, and passed with this to the Kingdom of Bavaria.

 

The Jewish residents of the town had a synagogue as early as the Middle Ages. The town's synagogue was destroyed on Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass, 9 November 1938) by Nazi SA men, SS, and Hitler Youth, as well as other local residents. Its destruction is recalled by a plaque at the synagogue's former site. The homes of Jewish residents were attacked as well, the possessions therein were looted or brought to the square in front of the town hall where they were burned, and the Jews living in the town were beaten.

 

Lower Franconia (German: Unterfranken) is one of seven districts of Bavaria, Germany. The districts of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia make up the region of Franconia. It consists of nine districts and 308 municipalities (including three cities).

 

After the founding of the Kingdom of Bavaria the state was totally reorganised and, in 1808, divided into 15 administrative government regions (German: Regierungsbezirke, singular Regierungsbezirk), in Bavaria called Kreise (singular: Kreis). They were created in the fashion of the French departements, quite even in size and population, and named after their main rivers.

 

In the following years, due to territorial changes (e. g. loss of Tyrol, addition of the Palatinate), the number of Kreise was reduced to 8. One of these was the Untermainkreis (Lower Main District). In 1837 king Ludwig I of Bavaria renamed the Kreise after historical territorial names and tribes of the area. This also involved some border changes or territorial swaps. Thus the name Untermainkreis changed to Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg, but the city name was dropped in the middle of the 20th century, leaving just Lower Franconia.

 

From 1933, the regional Nazi Gauleiter, Otto Hellmuth, (who had renamed his party Gau "Mainfranken") insisted on renaming the government district Mainfranken as well. He encountered resistance from Bavarian state authorities but finally succeeded in having the name of the district changed, effective 1 June 1938. After 1945 the name Unterfranken was restored.

 

Franconia (German: Franken, pronounced [ˈfʁaŋkŋ̍]; Franconian: Franggn [ˈfrɑŋɡŋ̍]; Bavarian: Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: Fränkisch).

 

Franconia is made up of the three Regierungsbezirke of Lower, Middle and Upper Franconia in Bavaria, the adjacent, Franconian-speaking, South Thuringia, south of the Thuringian Forest—which constitutes the language boundary between Franconian and Thuringian— and the eastern parts of Heilbronn-Franconia in Baden-Württemberg.

 

Those parts of the Vogtland lying in Saxony (largest city: Plauen) are sometimes regarded as Franconian as well, because the Vogtlandian dialects are mostly East Franconian. The inhabitants of Saxon Vogtland, however, mostly do not consider themselves as Franconian. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the Hessian-speaking parts of Lower Franconia west of the Spessart (largest city: Aschaffenburg) do consider themselves as Franconian, although not speaking the dialect. Heilbronn-Franconia's largest city of Heilbronn and its surrounding areas are South Franconian-speaking, and therefore only sometimes regarded as Franconian. In Hesse, the east of the Fulda District is Franconian-speaking, and parts of the Oden Forest District are sometimes regarded as Franconian for historical reasons, but a Franconian identity did not develop there.

 

Franconia's largest city and unofficial capital is Nuremberg, which is contiguous with Erlangen and Fürth, with which it forms the Franconian conurbation with around 1.3 million inhabitants. Other important Franconian cities are Würzburg, Bamberg, Bayreuth, Ansbach and Coburg in Bavaria, Suhl and Meiningen in Thuringia, and Schwäbisch Hall in Baden-Württemberg.

 

The German word Franken—Franconians—also refers to the ethnic group, which is mainly to be found in this region. They are to be distinguished from the Germanic people of the Franks, and historically formed their easternmost settlement area. The origins of Franconia lie in the settlement of the Franks from the 6th century in the area probably populated until then mainly by the Elbe Germanic people in the Main river area, known from the 9th century as East Francia (Francia Orientalis). In the Middle Ages the region formed much of the eastern part of the Duchy of Franconia and, from 1500, the Franconian Circle. The restructuring of the south German states by Napoleon, after the demise of the Holy Roman Empire, saw most of Franconia awarded to Bavaria." - info from Wikipedia.

 

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

 

Now on Instagram.

 

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

Wetland Dawn, Trees. Sacramento Valley, California. January 8, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell - all rights reserved.

 

Trees and dawn sky reflected in the surface of a wetlands pond, Sacramento Valley

 

Some people speak and write a lot about the role of careful planning followed by slow and methodical work in landscape photography. Sometimes that certainly does pay off, but I find that far more often it is about acting on hunches, making good guesses about conditions and locations, and being ready and prepared to take advantage of pure, dumb luck when it comes to you. This photograph is a case in point.

 

There is no way that I could actually plan much a photograph — the best I could do (and I do this) is to carry around some ideas about clouds reflecting in water and about silhouettes of trees, and then be ready to recognize the opportunity and act when something similar actually appears. But to take credit for dawn clouds whose curve mirrors that of a grove of trees, reflected in a seasonal pond on a morning that just happened to produce a bit of ground fog and beautiful colors would be both egotistical and a lie!

  

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, "California's Fall Color: A Photographer's Guide to Autumn in the Sierra" is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Maker: Berenice Abbott (1898-1991)

Born: USA

Active: France/USA

Medium: gelatin silver print

Size: 13 5/8 in x 10 1/2 in

Location: USA

 

Object No. 2022.316

Shelf: A-4

 

Publication: The Beauty of Physics, The New York Academy of Sciences, New York, 1987, pg 10

Berenice Abbott, Marlborough Gallery/Lunn Gallery, 1976, No 187

Berenice Abbott, Photographs, Horizon Press, New York, 1970, pg 153

Hank O'Neal, Berenice Abbott, American Photographer, McGraw-Hill Book Co, New York, 1982 pg 220

Documenting Science, Steidl, Gottingen, 2012, pg 22

Ben Burbridge, Revelations, MACK, 2015, pg 143

Ann Thomas, Beauty of Another Order, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997, pg 111

 

Other Collections:

 

Provenance: Estate of Harry Lunn

Rank: 900

 

Notes: Printed 1976. Signed in pencil on recto below image with Abbott's Abbott, Maine hand stamp on verso. Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) was born in Springfield, Ohio and attended Ohio State University. In 1918 she moved to New York and then Paris in 1923 where she was introduced to Man Ray, who hired her to be his photography assistant. Despite having no experience in photography, Abbott soon started to produce her own work, eventually opening a studio of her own. In 1926, Abbott had her first solo show, featuring dynamic portraits of the artistic and literary avant-garde. Abbott had first encountered the work of Eugène Atget through Man Ray in 1925. Though Atget had been documenting Paris for three decades, he was long forgotten by the public by the time they became friends. The only known portraits of Atget were made by Abbott shortly before his death in 1927. She purchased more than 5000 negatives, glass slides, and prints of his work, returning to New York with the extensive archive she had amassed. She was fiercely dedicated to preserving Atget’s legacy over the next forty years. Abbott’s collection was ultimately acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in 1968. Upon returning to the U.S. Abbott took on commercial assignments and taught photography at the New School for Social Research. She dedicated herself to documenting New York with the methodical vigor and passion Atget had previously given to Paris, shooting its streets, buildings, parks—and of course, its people. With the support of the WPA Federal Art Project from 1935 to 1939, she created the seminal the body of work, Changing New York, an extensive socio-historical record of New York’s vanishing past as well as the construction of its modern future. The results of the project were distributed to high schools, libraries, and various public institutions throughout the metropolitan area; to this day, Changing New York serves as an invaluable record of New York’s history. Abbott then shifted her focus towards science. In the 1940s, she served as photo editor for Science Illustrated, and went on to photograph scientific principles and processes for the Physical Sciences Study Committee at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology in 1958, developing innovative techniques and mechanisms which enabled her to capture scientific phenomena. Easily her most creative and innovative work, her aesthetically elegant photographs of swinging pendulums, bouncing balls, and wave patterns lend understandable reality to the many complex concepts of physical science. In 1970, Abbott’s first major retrospective opened at the Museum of Modern Art. Her work has since been exhibited and acquired by many institutions throughout the world. Abbott lived in Maine from 1966 until her death. (source: Howard Greenberg Gallery)

  

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By way of immediate action, a stand must first be made against thought, against mental processes. "I do not know" - it is said - "anything which, when unbridled, uncontrolled, unwatched, untamed, brings such ruin as thought, and I do not know anything which, when bridled, controlled, watched, tamed, brings such benefits as thought."

 

Thought, which everyone lightly says is "mine," is, in reality, only to a very small degree in our power. In the majority of cases, instead of "to think" it would be correct to say "we are thought" or "thought takes place in me." In the normal way, the characteristic of thought is its instability. "Incorporeal" - it is said - "it walks by itself": it "runs hither and thither like an untamed bull." Hard to check, unstable, it runs where it pleases. In general, it is said that, while this body may persist one year, two years, three years or even up to a hundred years and more in its present form, "what we call thought, what we call mind, what we call consciousness arises in one manner, ceases in another; incessantly, night and day"; "it is like a monkey who goes through the forest, and who progresses by seizing one branch, letting go of it, taking hold of another, and so on."

 

The task is to "arrest" thought: to master it and to strengthen the attention; to be able then to say: "Once this thought wandered at its fancy, at its pleasure, as it liked: I today shall hold it completely bridled, as a mahout holds a rut-elephant with his goad."

 

A few explanations.

 

If one day normal conditions were to return, few civilizations would seem as odd as the present one, in which every form of power and dominion over material things is sought, while mastery over one's own mind, one's own emotions and psychic life in general is entirely overlooked. For this reason, many of our contemporaries - particularly our so-called "men of action" - really resemble those crustaceans that are as hard-shelled outside with scabrous incrustations as they are soft and spineless within. It is true that many achievements of modern civilization have been made possible by methodically applied and rigorously controlled thought. This, however, does not alter the fact that most of the "private" mental life of every average and more-than-average man develops today in that passive manner of thought that, as the Buddhist text we have just quoted strikingly puts it, "walks by itself," while, half-unconscious, we look on. Anyone can convince himself of this by trying to observe what goes on in his mind, for example, when leaving his house: he thinks of why he is going out but, at the door, his thoughts turn to the postman and thence to a certain friend from whom news is awaited, to the news itself, to the foreign country where his friend lives and which, in turn, makes him remember that he must do something about his own passport: but his eye notices a passing woman and starts a fresh train of thought, which again changes when he sees an advertisement, and these thoughts are replaced by the various feelings and associations that chase each other during a ride through the town. His thought has moved exactly like a monkey that jumps from branch to branch, without even keep-ing a fixed direction. Let us try, after a quarter of an hour, to remember what we have thought - or, rather, what has been thought in us - and we shall see how diffi¬cult it is. This means that in all these processes and disordered associations our consciousness has been dazed or "absent." Having seen this, let us undertake to follow, without disturbing them, the various mental associations. After only a minute or two we shall find ourselves distracted by a flood of thoughts that have invaded us and that are quite out of control. Thought does not like being watched, does not like being seen. Now this irrational and parasitical development of thought takes up a large part of our normal psychic life, and produces corresponding areas of reduced activity and of reduced self-presence. The state of passivity is accentuated when our thought is no longer merely "spontaneous" and when the mind is agitated by some emotion, some worry, hope, or fear. The degree of consciousness is certainly greater in these cases - but so, at the same time, is that of our passivity.

These considerations may throw some light on the task that is set when one "ceases to go"; one reacts, one aims at being the master in the world of one's own mind. It now seems quite incomprehensible that nearly all men have long since been accustomed to consider as normal and natural this state of irrationality and passivity, where thought goes where it will - instead of being an instrument that enters into action only when necessary and in the required direction, just as we can speak when we wish to, and with a purpose, and otherwise remain silent. In comprehending this "according to reality," we must each decide whether we will continue to put up with this state of affairs.

 

In its fluid, changeable and inconsistent character, normal thought reflects, moreover, the general law of samsāric consciousness. This is why mental control is consid¬ered as the first urgent measure to be taken by one who opposes the "current." In un¬dertaking this task, however, we must not be under any illusions. The dynamis, the subtle force that determines and carries our trains of thought, works from the subconscious. For this reason, to attempt to dominate the thought completely by means of the will, which is bound to thought itself, would almost be like trying to cut air with a sword or to drown an echo by raising the voice. The doctrine, which declares that thought is located in the "cavern of the heart," refers, among other things, to thought considered "organically" and not to its mental and psychological offshoots. Mastery of thought cannot, therefore, be merely the object of a form of mental gymnastics: rather, one must, simultaneously, proceed to an act of conversion of the will and of the spirit; inte¬rior calm must be created, and one must be pervaded by intimate, sincere earnestness.

 

The "fluttering" of thought mentioned in our text is more than a mere simile: it is related to the primordial anguish, to the dark substratum of samsāric life that comes out and reacts since, as soon as it feels that it is seen, it becomes aware of the danger; the condition of passivity and unconsciousness is essential for the development of samsāric being and for the establishment of its existence. This simile illustrates an experience that, in one form or another, is even encountered on the ascetic path.

 

The discipline of constant control of the thought, with the elimination of its automatic forms, gradually achieves what in the texts is called appamada, a term variously translated as "attention," "earnestness," "vigilance," "diligence," or "reflection." It is, in point of fact, the opposite state to that of "letting oneself think," it is the first form of entry into oneself, of an earnestness and of a fervid, austere concentration. When it is understood in this sense, appamāda constitutes the base of every virtue. It is also said: "This intensive earnestness is the path that leads toward the deathless, in the same way that unreflective thought leads, instead, to death. He who possesses that earnestness does not die, while those who have unstable thought are as if already dead." An ascetic "who delights in appamāda - in this austere concentration - and who guards against mental laxity, will advance like a fire, burning every bond, both great and small." He "cannot err." And when, thanks to this energy, all negligence is gone and he is calm, from his heights of wisdom he will look down on vain and agitated beings, "as one who lives on a mountaintop looks down on those who live in the plains."

 

--------

 

excerpt from The Doctrine of Awakening by Julius Evola

 

--------

 

painting by Munch

 

By way of immediate action, a stand must first be made against thought, against mental processes. "I do not know" - it is said - "anything which, when unbridled, uncontrolled, unwatched, untamed, brings such ruin as thought, and I do not know anything which, when bridled, controlled, watched, tamed, brings such benefits as thought."

 

Thought, which everyone lightly says is "mine," is, in reality, only to a very small degree in our power. In the majority of cases, instead of "to think" it would be correct to say "we are thought" or "thought takes place in me." In the normal way, the characteristic of thought is its instability. "Incorporeal" - it is said - "it walks by itself": it "runs hither and thither like an untamed bull." Hard to check, unstable, it runs where it pleases. In general, it is said that, while this body may persist one year, two years, three years or even up to a hundred years and more in its present form, "what we call thought, what we call mind, what we call consciousness arises in one manner, ceases in another; incessantly, night and day"; "it is like a monkey who goes through the forest, and who progresses by seizing one branch, letting go of it, taking hold of another, and so on."

 

The task is to "arrest" thought: to master it and to strengthen the attention; to be able then to say: "Once this thought wandered at its fancy, at its pleasure, as it liked: I today shall hold it completely bridled, as a mahout holds a rut-elephant with his goad."

 

A few explanations.

 

If one day normal conditions were to return, few civilizations would seem as odd as the present one, in which every form of power and dominion over material things is sought, while mastery over one's own mind, one's own emotions and psychic life in general is entirely overlooked. For this reason, many of our contemporaries - particularly our so-called "men of action" - really resemble those crustaceans that are as hard-shelled outside with scabrous incrustations as they are soft and spineless within. It is true that many achievements of modern civilization have been made possible by methodically applied and rigorously controlled thought. This, however, does not alter the fact that most of the "private" mental life of every average and more-than-average man develops today in that passive manner of thought that, as the Buddhist text we have just quoted strikingly puts it, "walks by itself," while, half-unconscious, we look on. Anyone can convince himself of this by trying to observe what goes on in his mind, for example, when leaving his house: he thinks of why he is going out but, at the door, his thoughts turn to the postman and thence to a certain friend from whom news is awaited, to the news itself, to the foreign country where his friend lives and which, in turn, makes him remember that he must do something about his own passport: but his eye notices a passing woman and starts a fresh train of thought, which again changes when he sees an advertisement, and these thoughts are replaced by the various feelings and associations that chase each other during a ride through the town. His thought has moved exactly like a monkey that jumps from branch to branch, without even keep-ing a fixed direction. Let us try, after a quarter of an hour, to remember what we have thought - or, rather, what has been thought in us - and we shall see how diffi¬cult it is. This means that in all these processes and disordered associations our consciousness has been dazed or "absent." Having seen this, let us undertake to follow, without disturbing them, the various mental associations. After only a minute or two we shall find ourselves distracted by a flood of thoughts that have invaded us and that are quite out of control. Thought does not like being watched, does not like being seen. Now this irrational and parasitical development of thought takes up a large part of our normal psychic life, and produces corresponding areas of reduced activity and of reduced self-presence. The state of passivity is accentuated when our thought is no longer merely "spontaneous" and when the mind is agitated by some emotion, some worry, hope, or fear. The degree of consciousness is certainly greater in these cases - but so, at the same time, is that of our passivity.

These considerations may throw some light on the task that is set when one "ceases to go"; one reacts, one aims at being the master in the world of one's own mind. It now seems quite incomprehensible that nearly all men have long since been accustomed to consider as normal and natural this state of irrationality and passivity, where thought goes where it will - instead of being an instrument that enters into action only when necessary and in the required direction, just as we can speak when we wish to, and with a purpose, and otherwise remain silent. In comprehending this "according to reality," we must each decide whether we will continue to put up with this state of affairs.

 

In its fluid, changeable and inconsistent character, normal thought reflects, moreover, the general law of samsāric consciousness. This is why mental control is consid¬ered as the first urgent measure to be taken by one who opposes the "current." In un¬dertaking this task, however, we must not be under any illusions. The dynamis, the subtle force that determines and carries our trains of thought, works from the subconscious. For this reason, to attempt to dominate the thought completely by means of the will, which is bound to thought itself, would almost be like trying to cut air with a sword or to drown an echo by raising the voice. The doctrine, which declares that thought is located in the "cavern of the heart," refers, among other things, to thought considered "organically" and not to its mental and psychological offshoots. Mastery of thought cannot, therefore, be merely the object of a form of mental gymnastics: rather, one must, simultaneously, proceed to an act of conversion of the will and of the spirit; inte¬rior calm must be created, and one must be pervaded by intimate, sincere earnestness.

 

The "fluttering" of thought mentioned in our text is more than a mere simile: it is related to the primordial anguish, to the dark substratum of samsāric life that comes out and reacts since, as soon as it feels that it is seen, it becomes aware of the danger; the condition of passivity and unconsciousness is essential for the development of samsāric being and for the establishment of its existence. This simile illustrates an experience that, in one form or another, is even encountered on the ascetic path.

 

The discipline of constant control of the thought, with the elimination of its automatic forms, gradually achieves what in the texts is called appamada, a term variously translated as "attention," "earnestness," "vigilance," "diligence," or "reflection." It is, in point of fact, the opposite state to that of "letting oneself think," it is the first form of entry into oneself, of an earnestness and of a fervid, austere concentration. When it is understood in this sense, appamāda constitutes the base of every virtue. It is also said: "This intensive earnestness is the path that leads toward the deathless, in the same way that unreflective thought leads, instead, to death. He who possesses that earnestness does not die, while those who have unstable thought are as if already dead." An ascetic "who delights in appamāda - in this austere concentration - and who guards against mental laxity, will advance like a fire, burning every bond, both great and small." He "cannot err." And when, thanks to this energy, all negligence is gone and he is calm, from his heights of wisdom he will look down on vain and agitated beings, "as one who lives on a mountaintop looks down on those who live in the plains."

 

--------

 

excerpt from The Doctrine of Awakening by Julius Evola

 

--------

 

woodcut by Munch

  

ha ha - take that November!

 

"Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is damp , drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially when my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can" -- Herman Melville 'Moby Dick'

With Tamron SP AF 70-300mm F/4-5.6 Di VC USD Lens

 

The intermediate egret or yellow-billed egret (Mesophoyx intermedia) is a medium-sized heron, stalks its prey methodically in shallow coastal or fresh water, including flooded fields. It eats fish, frogs, crustaceans and insects. It often nests in colonies with other herons. It is a resident breeder from east Africa across the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia and Australia.

 

Gajaldoba is a small village on the western side of Teesta River in the Oodlabari area of Jalpaiguri district (West Bengal, India). Gajaldoba is famous for the dam on River Teesta, constructed for irrigation of agricultural lands, which resulted in a large waterbody upstream and has become home to many migratory birds during the winter. The natural beauty of the place with its view of the forest, river and majestic Kangchenjunga is awe inspiring!

 

The wetland with sprawling vegetation and reedbeds is a safe haven of at least 100 species of birds, primarily the waterfowls, which attracts a number of winter migrants. Birds from Europe, Central and southeast Asia, Ladakh and Himalayas winter here. Gajaldoba now host at least 20,000 waterfowls in the peak season (November to March) and becoming a significant global waterfowl habitat.

 

Gajaldoba took increased prominence due to the state government's initiative to promote a mega tourism hub in the area. An area of more than 200 acres has been demarcated for the purpose and infrastructure is being developed. In the near future, the area is expected to become one of the high end tourist destinations of Bengal.

If you don't know who this is... you will, soon enough!

 

In the meantime, get hep with the times, you chicks and cats! Check out the latest issues of Brow Pow mag for the latest dirt juicy gossip fact-based and methodically researched news:

 

www.flickr.com/photos/135742756@N07/48803700958

 

and

 

www.flickr.com/photos/135742756@N07/42440247075/

 

Here's an additional part... or parts... of the inspiration:

www.flickr.com/photos/branbeckman2/50979096538/

  

Some test shots from the square 24mm by 24mm pinhole camera using 3D printed parts. I have made several small adjustments and I'm working in the right direction. There are still some adjustments to make but I'm working through them in a methodical manner.

 

One issue I've worked through is the .05mm pinhole I started with. That is simply too small and caused light turbulence at the opening resulting in a very fuzzy image. The larger .10 pinhole is better but it is over-exposing due to the very short 11mm focal length. The .05 pinhole was f260 while the .10 pinhole is f110. A sunny-16 light situation is 1.9 seconds on the .05 pinhole and is 1/2 second on the .10 pinhole. That's awfully fast, even for the pinch-and-reveal method.

 

It appears I am exposing the sprockets in the frame so I need to work on lowering the film just a bit. That shouldn't be too much of an issue but I'll tackle that after I finalize the lensboard/shutter design that uses magnets. I am printing an updated version that is a bit thicker than the working version to see if I can address some of the light leak in the image.

 

After these issues are addressed I will be working on the sprocket-calculated film advance mechanism (currently a 1/2 turn-or-so-guesstimation system) so there is no film wasted.

 

Camera: 135 Pin V7.0

Lens: 0.10mm Laser Drilled Pinhole from Fireseller66 on eBay

Film: Ultrafine Extreme 100

Developer: Xtol

Scanner: Epson V600

Photoshop: Curves, Healing Brush (spotting)

Cropping: None

We didn't have a toy with us, so I knotted Barn's leash & let him play with it. Kept chucking it out into the long grass, while he wasn't looking, then sending him out to search for it. Barney seemed pretty happy with his improvised toy... perhaps a little too happy at times - we had words about not chewing toys up, after the naughty dog got overexcited & started bouncing around, shaking & chomping on it! Luckily, he didn't manage to do any damage - I'm fond of that lead.

 

Playing search games is quite a new thing for Barney. Due to the arthritis, he's not supposed to do lots of twisting & jumping, so I've been working on his searching/nose work skills recently, as an alternative, low impact activity to things like fetch. It's been a fun challenge - we've joked for years that Barney has the worst sense of smell of any dog, ever - I mean, he could barely sniff out a biscuit dropped on the floor. However, since actively working on it, I now feel bad for accusing Barney of having a lack of abilities - he'd just not had a good teacher! Oops.

 

I didn't think about the fact this is a dog who likes to be really shown what to do - I just thought sniffing was something dogs did. Started off hiding treats for him in the front room & massively encouraged him to find them (initially leading him really close to the right spot). Then we moved on to finding toys inside, then in the garden. I've now taught him to find my keys (indoors & out) & he was searching really well for the lead yesterday, out on the open hillside. He's no bloodhound & not terribly methodical at searching but obviously very much enjoys it & is quite a determined little sniffer :)

Reached Explore #40

It's always a bit of a gamble heading out in blustery conditions, but after a methodical wait for a number of hours a 20 second burst of light was all that was needed and I could head home a happy man.

Kamera: Nikon FE2

Linse: Nikkor-O Auto 35mm f2 (1970)

Film: Kodak 5222 @ ISO 250

Kjemi: Rodinal (1:50 / 9 min. @ 20°C)

 

Wikipedia: Gaza genocide

 

***

 

HRF and Partners Invoke Universal Jurisdiction in Canada Seeking Arrest of Olmert and Livni for War Crimes

 

Ottawa, 3 December 2025

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), the Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR), and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) filed a complaint to the RCMP and the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Section of the Department of Justice today ahead of Former Israeli Prime Minister 2006-2009 Ehud Olmert (b. 1945) and Former Israeli Foreign Minister 2006-2009 Tzipi Livni’s visit to Toronto. The complaint details Olmert and Livni’s participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 2008–2009 Gaza War. The complaint urges the RCMP to open an investigation into their roles and issue a warrant for their arrest pursuant to Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act, S.C. 2000, c. 24, and in compliance with Canada’s obligation under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 to “seek out and prosecute” those reasonably suspected of grave breaches who set foot in Canada.

 

As Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, Olmert exercised ultimate political and civilian authority over Israeli military operations in Gaza in the 2008-2009 War. Under his leadership, the Israeli military executed a massive military campaign that resulted in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, including: targeted and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, the use of white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas, the destruction of homes, mosques, medical facilities, and UN schools sheltering displaced families, extrajudicial killings and shootings of civilians attempting to flee or waving white flags, torture of Palestinian detainees, denial of humanitarian access and obstruction of medical rescue operations, and the deliberate targeting of infrastructure essential to civilian survival.

 

As Israel’s foreign minister and a member of Olmert’s security cabinet, Tzipi Livni (b. 1958) played a key role in the decisions made before and during the 2008-2009 War. Livni was reported stating the following with respect to Operation Cast Lead:

 

«Israel is not a country upon which you fire missiles and it does not respond. It is a country that when you fire on its citizens it responds by going wild – and that is a good thing».

 

Olmert and Livni, as senior government officials and members of the Security Cabinet, had full access to detailed operational information and played key roles in shaping and authorising Israel’s wartime policies. Their public endorsements of the conduct, coupled with their failure to take meaningful action in response to credible reports of serious violations, make them liable as civilian superiors under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act (CAHWCA).

 

«Universal jurisdiction exists for precisely these moments. We cannot let political power protect those suspected of grave crimes. Canada must show that no one is above the law,» said Henry Off, a Canadian lawyer and Board Member at CLAIHR.

 

«Those who planned, ordered, and supervised crimes committed against Palestinians — whether in the past or present — must be held accountable, as war crimes and crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations,» said Natacha Bracq, Head of Litigation at HRF. «The Hind Rajab Foundation calls on Canada to act without delay, in fulfillment of its international obligations, because justice cannot be postponed or denied.»

 

Both have already been the subject of criminal complaints in Germany, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Switzerland. In December 2009, a UK court issued an arrest warrant for Livni on the basis of alleged war crimes committed during the 2008-2009 Gaza War. Last month, the Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint against Olmert in Germany over alleged war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead.

 

Moreover, given that the RCMP has opened a structural investigation into the ongoing Israel- Gaza War, the complaint also calls on the RCMP to question Olmert and Livni over their knowledge of the commission of international crimes in Palestine since 7 October 2023.

 

About the Letter Signatories

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation, established during the ongoing Gaza genocide, is dedicated to the quest for justice in response to the crimes against humanity, war crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by the Israeli state against Palestinians.

 

The Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights, founded in 1992, is a non-governmental organization of lawyers, law students, and legal academics working to promote international human rights within and in connection to Canada.

 

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights is non-profit independent Palestinian human rights organization based in Gaza City. The Centre enjoys Consultative Status with the ECOSOC of the United Nations. The PCHR works to protect human rights, promote the rule of law and democratic institutions, and document legal violations in Palestine.

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - HRF and Partners Invoke Universal Jurisdiction in Canada Seeking Arrest of Olmert and Livni for War Crimes (Publ 3 Dec. 2025)

 

***

 

Statement on the Cooperation Between Europol and the Hind Rajab Foundation

 

Brussels, 19 November 2025

 

On 22 October 2025, Europol invited the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) to speak at its annual meeting in The Hague. This invitation forms part of a broader communication process and an exploration of possible cooperation between HRF and Europol. In the last two days, several Israeli lobby groups and media outlets have expressed consternation regarding this interaction.

 

It is not unusual for law enforcement to cooperate with civil-society organisations in the fight against impunity. In fact, during the Rwandan genocide and other mass-atrocity contexts, civil-society organisations played an instrumental role in identifying perpetrators and uncovering critical evidence. The pursuit of justice for the genocide in Gaza will be no different.

 

The fact that lobby groups defending or denying the genocide are angered by this cooperation is no surprise. They seek to obstruct justice; we seek to allow justice to take its course.

 

On the factual side, an HRF delegation consisting of our Head of Litigation, Natacha Bracq; Operational Director, Karim Hassoun; Board Member, Haroon Raza; and led by our General Director, Dyab Abou Jahjah, attended the meeting in The Hague. Mr. Abou Jahjah addressed the assembled delegations during a session organised specifically for the foundation, and Ms. Bracq delivered a presentation outlining HRF’s methodology in evidence gathering and case-building.

 

Delegations from several European countries attended the sessions and expressed strong interest in our work and in exploring cooperation. Multiple bilateral meetings took place with national war-crimes units and other law-enforcement representatives, during which mutual cooperation was discussed—particularly in relation to sharing HRF evidence on Israeli war criminals who visit these countries or who hold their nationality.

 

Israeli lobby groups and media outlets have spent months pushing smears and defamation against the Hind Rajab Foundation and its founders. Their reaction now is predictable: Europol’s decision to engage with HRF and invite it to its annual convention makes clear that these accusations are baseless. A law-enforcement agency would never extend such an invitation if it had even the slightest doubt about the foundation or its leadership. This is precisely why the hasbara machinery is now frustrated.

 

Furthermore, Europol is a European law-enforcement agency, and the HRF is a European organisation. Foreign lobby groups and foreign governments cannot be allowed to dictate how European institutions engage with European citizens and European civil society.

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation remains fully focused on its mission: bringing war criminals to justice and ending Israel’s impunity. That mission necessarily includes cooperation with law-enforcement bodies and relevant stakeholders across Europe and beyond.

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - Statement on the Cooperation Between Europol and the Hind Rajab Foundation (Publ. 19 Nov. 2025)

 

***

 

HRF Moves Against Israeli Soldier in Denmark for War Crimes and Genocide

 

17 November 2025 – Copenhagen

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has filed a criminal complaint in Denmark against Israeli soldier Sergeant Ohad Hillel, a member of the 846th Patrol Battalion “Samson’s Foxes” of the Givati Brigade, for his role in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide committed during Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

 

The complaint was filed by HRF’s Danish legal counsel, Eddie Omar Rosenberg Khawaja, with the Copenhagen Police and the National Special Crime Unit (NSK) [National enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet]. It is submitted under Denmark’s newly strengthened legal framework for prosecuting international crimes, drawing on both Danish criminal law (§118 c, §118 f, §118 g, §118 h) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

 

This filing makes Denmark the latest European country where HRF activates universal jurisdiction mechanisms to prevent Israel’s war criminals from enjoying impunity abroad.

 

HRF’s investigation confirms that Ohad Hillel served in Gaza from January 2024 to August 2025, during the most destructive phases of the invasion. At the moment of filing, he was located in Copenhagen and traveling around Denmark with his Danish partner.

 

HRF warns that individuals directly involved in the destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure are now traveling freely across Europe, including in countries legally obliged to investigate grave international crimes.

 

Documented Involvement in the Destruction of Shuja’iya and Jabalia

 

HRF’s investigative report—submitted as Appendix A to the complaint—provides extensive evidence of Hillel’s participation in:

 

1. The burning of the Shuja’iya neighbourhood

 

Members of his battalion filmed and celebrated the torching of residential buildings, calling it the «8th candle of Hanukkah — burning Shuja’iya.»

 

Hillel posted images of a burning civilian structure on the same day.

 

He photographed himself inside Hittin Basic School, a protected civilian facility.

 

2. The destruction of Jabalia

 

Hillel posted photographs and videos from UNRWA Health Centre facilities, documenting the Givati Brigade’s occupation of a UN humanitarian building.

 

His battalion also posted videos of forced displacement, arson, and arrests.

 

Jabalia was turned into “acres of rubble,” with 1,339 buildings destroyed.

 

These actions were not incidents of combat, but deliberate, systematic, and punitive destruction of civilian life and infrastructure once the IDF already had full operational control of the areas.

 

Crimes Under Danish and International Law

 

The complaint argues that Hillel’s actions constitute violations of:

 

War Crimes

 

- §118 f(2) – destruction of civilian property without military necessity

 

- §118 h(3) & (9) – attacks on undefended civilian buildings, towns, and dwellings

 

- §118 g(1) – attacks on humanitarian facilities (UNRWA)

 

Genocide

 

- §118 c(1)(iii) – imposing conditions of life meant to bring about the destruction of a protected group

 

- Based on Article 6(c) of the Rome Statute and the September 2025 findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry

 

HRF’s report places Hillel within the broader Israeli policy of systematically destroying Gaza’s ability to sustain life—homes, water systems, schools, hospitals, and civilian districts.

 

HRF: Denmark Must Not Be a Gateway for Atrocity Crimes

 

«Denmark cannot allow its territory to become a revolving door for soldiers who took part in the systematic devastation of Gaza», said Dyab Abou Jahjah (b. 1971), General Director of the Hind Rajab Foundation. «This is not only a legal issue—it is a political and moral test for Europe. If European states want credibility when they speak about human rights and international law, they must ensure that individuals like Ohad Hillel face genuine investigation and accountability, not safe passage.»

 

«Much of what happened in Gaza cannot be characterized as combat operations. It was the result of methodical and systematic destruction», said Natacha Bracq, Head of Litigation at HRF. «Civilian neighborhoods were deliberately burned, protected structures were intentionally destroyed, and entire communities were erased through purposeful actions. Evidence indicates that Ohad Hillel participated in these acts. Under international law, Denmark has both the legal basis and the obligation to act.»

 

The complaint urges Danish authorities to immediately launch a criminal investigation under §§118 c, 118 f, 118 g, and 118 h of the Danish Criminal Code, prevent Ohad Hillel from leaving the country, and seize all electronic devices that may contain evidence of his actions in Gaza. It also calls for an inquiry into possible aiding and abetting under §§21–23 and for formal updates pursuant to §158 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

 

For the Hind Rajab Foundation, this case is part of a broader global strategy: ensuring that no Israeli soldier implicated in war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide can have sanctuary. HRF is pursuing perpetrators across multiple jurisdictions, building a legal firewall against impunity. We will continue this work until every perpetrator, every accomplice, and every inciter of the Gaza genocide is held accountable.

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - HRF Moves Against Israeli Soldier in Denmark for War Crimes and Genocide (Publ. 18 Nov. 2025)

 

***

 

HRF Files Criminal Complaint in Prague Against Israeli Rapper–Soldier Noam Tsuriely for War Crimes and Genocide

 

14 November 2025 – Prague

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has filed a criminal complaint before the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office in Prague against Israeli reservist and rapper Noam Tsuriely, accusing him of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide committed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

 

The filing was submitted by JUDr. Jan Täubel, LL.M., attorney-at-law at TAUBEL LEGAL in Prague, acting on behalf of HRF. It is grounded in an HRF Investigative report, which documents Tsuriely’s direct involvement in the destruction of civilian structures and his public glorification of these acts through music.

 

Tsuriely is currently in the Czech Republic, having performed in Prague on 13 November 2025.

 

A Perpetrator in Gaza, a Performer in Europe?

 

According to HRF’s investigation, Tsuriely deployed with the 699th Paratroopers Battalion of the 551st “Fire Arrows” Brigade on 27–28 October 2023, entering the Gaza Strip as part of the ground invasion. His own social media posts document multiple entries into Gaza, repeated deployment cycles, and direct involvement in destruction operations.

 

A key incident occurred on 8 November 2023, when the 551st Brigade carried out a controlled demolition in Beit Hanoun, destroying a civilian building located above tunnels near a UNRWA school. HRF’s geolocation analysis and military-source verification place Tsuriely at the scene during the operation.

 

Controlled demolitions require full control of the area, entry into the structure, placement of explosives, and withdrawal — a method incompatible with claims of active combat or urgent military necessity. The structure therefore remained a protected civilian object, making its destruction a war crime under the Rome Statute and under Czech law (Sections 412 and 413 CC).

 

War Crimes and Genocidal Context

 

HRF’s complaint invokes Czech universal jurisdiction under:

 

- Section 7 of the Czech Criminal Code (universal jurisdiction)

- Section 400 – Genocide

- Section 401 – Crimes against humanity

- Section 412 – War atrocities

- Section 413 – Persecution of population

 

and is filed pursuant to Section 158 of the Czech Criminal Procedure Code.

 

HRF finds that Tsuriely’s actions may constitute several crimes:

 

- Intentionally attacking protected buildings (Rome Statute Art. 8(2)(b)(ix))

- Extensive destruction of property not justified by military necessity (Art. 8(2)(a)(iv))

- Attacking undefended towns, villages, and dwellings (Art. 8(2)(b)(v))

- War atrocities (Czech CC §412)

 

Given that by January 2025, 70% of Gaza’s structures, 92% of homes, and 80% of commercial facilities had been destroyed, HRF concludes that Tsuriely’s actions contributed directly to the genocidal destruction of Palestinian life.

 

This aligns with the UN Commission of Inquiry’s September 2025 finding that Israel has committed genocide, including the deliberate infliction of conditions of life aimed at destroying the population.

 

«The massive destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure is the most clearly defined component of genocide,» said Natacha Bracq, HRF’s Head of Litigation.

«Noam Tsuriely took part in that destruction. He helped erase entire neighborhoods, and then he turned that devastation into entertainment.»

 

Weaponizing Music to Normalize Atrocities

 

After returning from Gaza, Tsuriely released the song “Another Day in Gaza”, framing Israeli soldiers as “the light” — even as the UN and leading human rights organizations classified Israel’s actions as genocide.

 

During a December 2024 performance, he projected real footage of Israeli troops storming Palestinian homes and demolishing buildings. In televised interviews, he performed lyrics such as:

 

«to shatter Gaza to pieces.»

 

His role as both a soldier and a public artist magnifies the impact of his conduct. Under Czech law, such performances may also constitute:

 

- Section 365 – Approving a criminal offence, and

- Section 356 – Inciting hatred against a group of persons.

 

«You cannot commit war crimes in Gaza and then tour Europe as an artist as if nothing happened,» said Dyab Abou Jahjah (b. 1971), HRF's General Director.

«This man is weaponizing his art as an extension of the war crimes he helped commit. Europe cannot serve as a stage for perpetrators.»

 

HRF Calls on Czech Authorities to Act

 

The complaint urges Czech prosecutors to:

 

1. Open criminal proceedings under Sections 400, 401, 412, and 413 CC

2. Seize Tsuriely’s electronic devices to preserve evidence

3. Impose a travel ban or detain him

4. Investigate possible incitement and approval of war crimes during his performances in Prague

 

Under Section 7 CC, Czech authorities are fully empowered to prosecute Tsuriely — regardless of where the crimes were committed.

 

HRF reiterates that Europe must not become a transit hub or sanctuary for individuals who committed atrocities in Gaza.

 

From Beit Hanoun to Prague, HRF will continue to track, document, and pursue accountability for all perpetrators — artists, soldiers, commanders, and public figures alike.

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - HRF Files Criminal Complaint in Prague Against Israeli Rapper–Soldier Noam Tsuriely for War Crimes and Genocide (Publ. 14 Nov. 2025)

 

***

 

HRF Files for the Arrest of Israeli Soldier Sharon Dawit in Cyprus for Torture, War Crimes, and Genocide

 

11 November 2025 – Brussels / Nicosia

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) has officially filed a legal complaint before Cypriot authorities demanding the arrest of Israeli soldier Sharon Dawit — a Sergeant in the 424th Infantry Battalion “Shaked/Almond” of the Givati Brigade — for his direct involvement in acts of torture, war crimes, and genocide committed during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

 

The filing, submitted on 11 November 2025 by human rights lawyer Nikoletta Charalambidou on behalf of HRF, is based on the Foundation’s investigative report documenting Dawit’s participation in the humiliation and abuse of Palestinian detainees, including a verified image showing him posing proudly over a naked, blindfolded, handcuffed man in Gaza.

 

From Evidence to Legal Action

 

The case details Dawit’s deployment with the Givati Brigade from December 2023 to September 2024, and his role in systematic operations involving torture, destruction of civilian property, forced displacement, and psychological degradation.

 

On 2 January 2024, Dawit posted a photomontage on Instagram, including a photograph where he sits armed in an armchair while a naked Palestinian man kneels before him, handcuffed and blindfolded. HRF authenticated this image using digital forensic tools, concluding that it depicts an act of torture and inhuman treatment in violation of the Rome Statute and the UN Convention Against Torture.

 

The Foundation’s filing requests Cypriot authorities to act immediately under Article 5(1)(e)(v) of the Cypriot Criminal Code (Cap. 154), which provides for universal jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity committed outside Cypriot territory. The submission also invokes the Republic’s obligations under the Rome Statute, the Geneva Conventions, and Law 235/1990, which require the arrest of individuals credibly suspected of torture to ensure prosecution.

 

A Pattern of Abuse

 

The Givati Brigade, to which Dawit belongs, was among the first Israeli army units to enter Gaza after October 7, 2023. HRF’s investigation shows that it played a leading role in attacks on civilians, destruction of residential areas, looting, and forced displacement.

 

The acts captured in Dawit’s photo reflect a broader, systematic pattern of abuse. HRF and its partners have documented the use of identical stress positions and humiliation methods, confirming that such practices are institutional, not incidental — a policy of collective degradation carried out under the cover of war.

 

A Legal and Moral Imperative

 

«This case is not symbolic — it is procedural and concrete,» said Natacha Bracq, HRF’s Head of Litigation.

«Torture is one of the clearest and most universally condemned crimes in international law. Sharon Dawit’s act, captured and publicized by himself, is the visual proof of a system built on humiliation and domination.»

 

The filing outlines that Dawit’s conduct constitutes multiple violations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, including:

 

- War crimes – torture and cruel treatment (Article 8(2)(a)(i));

- Crimes against humanity – torture and other inhumane acts (Article 7(1)(f) and (k));

- Genocide – causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a protected group (Article 6(b)).

 

HRF’s report also references the UN Commission of Inquiry’s September 2025 findings, which concluded that Israeli forces have committed acts meeting the legal threshold for genocide in Gaza — including systematic torture and sexualized violence against detainees.

 

Cyprus Must Not Become a Safe Haven

 

«Cyprus must decide what side of history it stands on,» said Dyab Abou Jahjah (b. 1971), Director General of the Hind Rajab Foundation.

«If suspected war criminals can land on European soil, holiday freely, and leave without consequence, then Europe’s commitment to justice is an illusion. Cyprus cannot become a safe haven for perpetrators of genocide — and this filing is a test of its resolve to uphold international law.»

 

HRF stresses that this case goes beyond one soldier: it is part of a wider effort to end impunity and enforce accountability for the crimes committed during Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza. The Foundation’s team has filed or supported multiple legal actions across Europe and at the International Criminal Court, using verifiable evidence collected through open-source intelligence, witness testimonies, and forensic documentation.

 

Justice Has No Borders

 

From Brussels to Nicosia, HRF is pursuing perpetrators wherever they are found, in coordination with national prosecutors and international legal mechanisms. The Foundation remains steadfast in its mission to end impunity and restore dignity to the victims of Israel’s ongoing campaign of annihilation.

 

«Justice begins when impunity ends,» Bracq added. «Our work is to bridge that gap — with evidence, law, and the courage to act where others remain silent.»

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - HRF Files for the Arrest of Israeli Soldier Sharon Dawit in Cyprus for Torture, War Crimes, and Genocide (Publ. 11 Nov. 2025)

 

***

 

HRF Files War Crimes Complaint in Germany Against Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for Crimes Committed in 2008-2009

 

Brussels / Berlin, 5 November 2025

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a criminal complaint (Strafanzeige) in Germany against former Israeli Prime Minister 2006-2009 Ehud Olmert (b. 1945) for war crimes committed during the 2008–2009 Israeli military offensive on Gaza, known as Operation “Cast Lead.” Ehud Olmert is scheduled to appear publicly in Berlin on 6 November 2025.

 

The complaint, submitted by German lawyer Melanie Schweizer, was filed simultaneously with the General Public Prosecutor’s Office in Berlin and the Federal Public Prosecutor General (Generalbundesanwalt) in Karlsruhe, which has jurisdiction over international crimes under Germany’s Code of Crimes against International Law (Völkerstrafgesetzbuch, VStGB).

 

Criminal Responsibility of Ehud Olmert

 

As Prime Minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, Ehud Olmert (b. 1945) exercised ultimate political and military authority over all Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) operations, including the assault on Gaza launched on 27 December 2008.

 

Under Olmert’s leadership, the Israeli government and military high command executed a large-scale military campaign that resulted in the indiscriminate bombardment of densely populated civilian areas, the destruction of hospitals, schools, and UN facilities, and the killing of more than 1,300 Palestinians, among them over 300 children and 115 women. More than 5,000 people were injured and tens of thousands of homes were destroyed.

 

The Goldstone Report, the Amnesty International report “Operation Cast Lead: 22 Days of Death and Destruction” (Publ. 2 July 2009), and the Human Rights Watch report "Rain of Fire" documented a consistent pattern of deliberate or reckless targeting of civilians and civilian objects, the use of white phosphorus munitions in populated areas, and collective punishment of the entire Gaza population through the systematic destruction of vital infrastructure.

 

Under international law, political and military leaders bear command responsibility for war crimes committed by forces under their control when they knew or should have known of such crimes and failed to prevent or punish them. The complaint therefore holds Olmert personally responsible for the planning, authorization, and failure to restrain or prosecute these actions.

 

Documented War Crimes During Operation Cast Lead

 

The HRF complaint outlines a catalogue of grave breaches of international humanitarian law, including but not limited to:

 

- Targeted and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in violation of Articles 51 and 52 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, corresponding to §§ 8 and 11 of the German VStGB.

- Use of white phosphorus munitions in densely populated areas such as Tel al-Hawa, Khuza’a, and Beit Lahiya, causing severe burns and civilian deaths.

- Destruction of homes, mosques, medical facilities, and UN schools sheltering displaced families, as in the Jabaliya UNRWA school attack and the 2009 Al-Fakhoura school shelling.

- Extrajudicial killings and the shooting of civilians attempting to flee or waving white flags, including entire families such as the Al-Samouni family in the Zeitoun district.

- Denial of humanitarian access and obstruction of medical rescue operations, resulting in wounded civilians bleeding to death.

- Deliberate targeting of infrastructure essential to civilian survival, including water facilities, power stations, and food storage sites.

 

These actions, the complaint argues, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under both customary international law and German law, which incorporates the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court through the VStGB.

 

Urgent Legal Action in Germany

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation’s legal filing requests the immediate initiation of a criminal investigation, the issuance of an arrest warrant, and a European Arrest Warrant against Olmert.

 

The complaint notes that Ehud Olmert is scheduled to appear publicly in Berlin on 6 November 2025 at the Haaretz Democracy Conference, hosted by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. The Foundation therefore calls on German authorities to act swiftly to prevent his departure and ensure he is held to account.

 

Universal Jurisdiction and the Fight Against Impunity

 

Germany’s Code of Crimes against International Law (VStGB), enacted in 2002, allows the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide even if committed abroad by foreign nationals. It has already enabled landmark cases against perpetrators from Syria and other conflict zones.

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation argues that the same legal principle must apply to Israeli officials responsible for crimes in Gaza.

 

«The victims of Gaza deserve justice, no matter how much time has passed,» said Dyab Abou Jahjah, General Director of the Hind Rajab Foundation. «Those responsible for war crimes must know that accountability has no expiration date and that the world is closing in on impunity.»

 

The Foundation stressed that it will not allow any war criminal to travel, pose, or speak anywhere as if they are above the law. Justice must be served — even decades after the crimes were committed.

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - HRF Files War Crimes Complaint in Germany Against Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for Crimes Committed in 2008-2009 (Publ. 5 Nov. 2025)

 

***

 

Hind Rajab Foundation Files War Crimes Complaint in Germany Against Israeli Extremist Elkana Federman for Torture and Starvation of Civilians

 

Berlin, October 31, 2025

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a criminal complaint before the German Federal Prosecutor (Generalbundesanwalt) in Karlsruhe against Elkana Federman, an Israeli national affiliated with the Kfir Brigade’s Battalion 94 (Duchifat) and the extremist organization Tsav 9, for war crimes and crimes against humanity under the German Code of Crimes Against International Law (VStGB). The complaint, submitted by Attorney Melanie Schweizer on behalf of the Foundation, demands the immediate arrest of Federman and the issuance of a European Arrest Warrant. The filing is based on extensive digital evidence showing his direct involvement in acts of torture and the systematic obstruction of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

 

Elkana Federman is currently in Berlin, where he appeared on October 30, 2025, as a speaker at a public propaganda event.

 

Torture and Abuse of Prisoners

 

Videos and public statements by Federman reveal his participation in and glorification of the abuse of Palestinian detainees.

 

In one widely circulated interview, Federman boasts about taking his dog “to Gaza as a fighter” and claims the animal “dealt with Palestinian prisoners” at the Sde Teiman detention facility, where human rights organizations — including B’Tselem — have documented systematic torture, sexual violence, and inhuman treatment.

 

The complaint notes that Federman’s statements were made in a public setting, eliciting laughter from interviewers and panelists, highlighting the normalization of torture within the military and settler extremist culture he represents.

 

Such actions fall under §7(1) Nr. 5 and Nr. 6 VStGB, which criminalize torture and sexual violence as crimes against humanity.

 

Starvation of Civilians as a Weapon

 

Federman is also a prominent member of Tsav 9, a far-right Israeli group sanctioned by the United States in 2024 for blocking humanitarian aid convoys bound for Gaza.

 

Through multiple videos and social media posts, Federman personally participated in and encouraged others to physically obstruct trucks carrying food and medicine.

 

Such actions directly contributed to the starvation of civilians, a method of warfare prohibited under §11(1) Nr. 5 VStGB, which defines the deliberate deprivation of food as a war crime.

 

The complaint references UN reports confirming that hundreds of Palestinians, including children, have died from hunger in 2025 due to Israel’s blockade and obstruction of humanitarian relief.

 

Universal Jurisdiction and Accountability

 

Under Germany’s universal jurisdiction, crimes under the VStGB can be prosecuted regardless of the perpetrator’s nationality or where the crimes occurred.

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation calls on the German Federal Prosecutor to:

 

1. Open a criminal investigation into Elkana Federman;

2. Order his pre-trial detention due to the risk of flight;

3. Issue a European Arrest Warrant to ensure his apprehension within EU territory.

 

Federman was reportedly sighted in Berlin on October 30, 2025, underscoring the urgency of the request.

 

Statement from the Hind Rajab Foundation

 

«The deliberate starvation of an entire population and the torture of prisoners are among the gravest crimes known to humanity,» said Dyab Abou Jahjah (b. 1971), Director of the Hind Rajab Foundation.

«Elkana Federman’s conduct, proudly displayed online and tolerated within Israeli society, embodies the cruelty and impunity that have defined this genocide. Germany has both the legal authority and the moral duty to act.»

 

This filing follows the Hind Rajab Foundation’s complaint in Germany against IDF officer Shimon Avi Zuckerman, as well as similar actions by NGOs targeting an Israeli sniper. The case of Elkana Federman, however, offers a unique opportunity for Germany to act decisively, as he is affiliated with Tsav 9, a group already designated by the United States as violent and extremist. Taking legal action in this case would affirm Germany’s commitment to international law, human rights, and accountability, and demonstrate that justice applies equally—regardless of political sensitivities or alliances.

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - Hind Rajab Foundation Files War Crimes Complaint in Germany Against Israeli Extremist Elkana Federman for Torture and Starvation of Civilians (Publ. 31 Oct. 2025)

 

***

 

HRF Files Criminal Complaint in Germany Against Dual National IDF Soldier Shimon Avi Zuckerman

 

Brussels / Karlsruhe, 24 October 2025

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a detailed criminal complaint with the German Federal Prosecutor General (Generalbundesanwalt) against Shimon Avi Zuckerman, a German-Israeli dual national who served as a combat engineer in the 8219 Engineer Battalion of the Israeli army’s 551st Brigade during its military operations in the Gaza Strip.

 

The complaint, submitted on 30 May 2025 through German attorney Melanie Schweizer, accuses Zuckerman of committing:

 

- War crimes under §9 of the German Code of Crimes Against International Law (VStGB),

- Crimes against humanity under §7 VStGB, and

- Genocide under §6 VStGB.

 

Who is Shimon Avi Zuckerman?

 

Zuckerman is a publicly known figure who actively documented his military activities during Israel’s war on Gaza. On his Instagram account, he shared extensive footage and images from the battlefield — not only of his presence and actions in combat zones, but specifically of the destruction of Palestinian civilian infrastructure.

 

The complaint identifies Zuckerman visually in multiple videos and posts as he detonates or celebrates demolitions of residential buildings. The posts often include graphic scenes of destruction, paired with celebratory gestures such as smoking shisha, cheering with fellow soldiers, or posing for the camera before and after explosions.

 

Documented Crimes and Key Incidents

 

Among the most egregious episodes documented is Operation “Nir and Oz”, in which the Palestinian town of Khuza’a, home to approximately 5,000 residents, was completely demolished. Zuckerman’s unit — the 8219 Engineer Battalion — played a central role in the destruction of this civilian area, reducing homes, schools, mosques, a water station, and a community building to rubble.

 

Footage posted by Zuckerman shows him directly triggering demolitions, cheering with comrades, and documenting the destruction as a form of performance. In one instance, he is seen posing and laughing as buildings collapse behind him. In another, a techno-themed video clip shows him initiating an explosion without wearing a helmet — indicating a non-combat situation and a lack of military necessity.

 

The complaint also cites independent investigative journalism by platforms including Bellingcat [PS - Check out: How to Archive the Web - Bellingcat’s Auto Archiver Tool] and The Washington Post, which have verified the identities, locations, and operations of Zuckerman and his unit. These reports are incorporated into the legal filing as corroborating evidence.

 

Germany Must Act as a State of Law — Not of Political Convenience

 

«The evidence is not just overwhelming — it is self-incriminating,» said Dyab Abou Jahjah (b. 1971), General Director of the Hind Rajab Foundation. «Shimon Zuckerman posted his own crimes online. He is a German national, clearly identified, taking part in the unlawful destruction of an entire town, and celebrating it. If Germany refuses to act on this, it sends the message that law applies only when politics allow. A state of law cannot choose justice selectively.»

 

Legal Obligation and Consequences of Inaction

 

Attorney Melanie Schweizer, who filed the complaint on behalf of the Hind Rajab Foundation, emphasized Germany’s legal responsibility:

 

«The German state has a clear obligation under the Code of Crimes Against International Law. This is not optional. If the Prosecutor General fails to investigate, that failure itself may amount to complicity. It would be a legal and moral abdication — and we are fully prepared to challenge that in German and international courts if necessary.»

 

She continued:

 

«We are not dealing with vague allegations. We are dealing with documented acts of violence against civilians, published by the suspect himself, corroborated by multiple independent investigations, and committed by a person holding a German passport. Justice demands action.»

 

Legal Action and Demands

 

The Hind Rajab Foundation is requesting the immediate:

 

- Opening of a formal investigation,

- Issuance of an arrest warrant, and

- Consideration of pre-trial detention due to the seriousness of the alleged crimes and the suspect’s dual nationality and mobility.

 

Ongoing Legal Strategy

 

This complaint is part of the Hind Rajab Foundation’s broader legal campaign to expose and prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Israel’s war on Gaza. The Foundation is working with legal teams across multiple jurisdictions to pursue both individual perpetrators and those in positions of command responsibility.

 

As more evidence surfaces and survivors come forward, the Hind Rajab Foundation remains committed to transforming that evidence into legal action.

 

Source: Hind Rajab Foundation - HRF Files Criminal Complaint in Germany Against Dual National IDF Soldier Shimon Avi Zuckerman (Publ. 24 Oct. 2025)

While attempting to photograph the architecture of this town, people kept getting in the frame. This mail carrier went about her job methodically and precisely while the streets teemed with people. I found great interest in how one block can have non-stop Bourbon St revelry and the next block is a shockingly quiet residential setting. The Quarter is partying but I see people living there too.

The water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) is a large bovid originating in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. Today, it is also found in Europe, Australia, and some American countries. The wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) native to Southeast Asia is considered a different species, but most likely represents the ancestor of the domestic water buffalo.

 

Two extant types of water buffalo are recognized based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of South Asia and further west to the Balkans, Egypt, and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The origins of the domestic water buffalo types are debated, although results of a phylogenetic study indicate that the swamp type may have originated in China and was domesticated about 4,000 years ago, while the river type may have originated from India and was domesticated about 5,000 years ago. Water buffalo were traded from the Indus Valley Civilisation to Mesopotamia, in modern Iraq, 2500 BC by the Meluhhas. The seal of a scribe employed by an Akkadian king shows the sacrifice of water buffalo.

 

At least 130 million domestic water buffalo exist, and more human beings depend on them than on any other domestic animal. They are especially suitable for tilling rice fields, and their milk is richer in fat and protein than that of dairy cattle. The large feral population of northern Australia became established in the late 19th century, and smaller feral herds are in New Guinea, Tunisia, and northeastern Argentina. Feral herds are also present in New Britain, New Ireland, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, and Uruguay.

 

CHARACTERISTICS

The skin of river buffalo is black, but some specimens may have dark, slate-coloured skin. Swamp buffalo have a grey skin at birth, but become slate blue later. Albinoids are present in some populations. River buffalo have comparatively longer faces, smaller girths, and bigger limbs than swamp buffalo. Their dorsal ridges extend further back and taper off more gradually. Their horns grow downward and backward, then curve upward in a spiral. Swamp buffalo are heavy-bodied and stockily built; the body is short and the belly large. The forehead is flat, the eyes prominent, the face short, and the muzzle wide. The neck is comparatively long, and the withers and croup are prominent. A dorsal ridge extends backward and ends abruptly just before the end of the chest. Their horns grow outward, and curve in a semicircle, but always remain more or less on the plane of the forehead. The tail is short, reaching only to the hocks. Height at withers is 129–133 cm for males, and 120–127 cm for females. They range in weight from 300–550 kg, but weights of over 1,000 kg have also been observed.

 

Tedong bonga is a black pied buffalo featuring a unique black and white colouration that is favoured by the Toraja of Sulawesi.

 

The swamp buffalo has 48 chromosomes; the river buffalo has 50 chromosomes. The two types do not readily interbreed, but fertile offspring can occur. Buffalo-cattle hybrids have not been observed to occur, and the embryos of such hybrids do not reach maturity in laboratory experiments.

 

The rumen of the water buffalo has important differences from that of other ruminants. It contains a larger population of bacteria, particularly the cellulolytic bacteria, lower protozoa, and higher fungi zoospores. In addition, higher rumen ammonia nitrogen (NH4-N) and higher pH have been found as compared to those in cattle

 

ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR

River buffalo prefer deep water. Swamp buffalo prefer to wallow in mudholes which they make with their horns. During wallowing, they acquire a thick coating of mud. Both are well adapted to a hot and humid climate with temperatures ranging from 0 °C in the winter to 30 °C and greater in the summer. Water availability is important in hot climates, since they need wallows, rivers, or splashing water to assist in thermoregulation. Some breeds are adapted to saline seaside shores and saline sandy terrain.

 

DIET

Water buffalo thrive on many aquatic plants and during floods, will graze submerged, raising their heads above the water and carrying quantities of edible plants. They eat reeds (quassab), a giant reed (birdi), a kind of bulrush (kaulan), water hyacinth, and marsh grasses. Some of these plants are of great value to local peoples. Others, such as water hyacinth, are a major problem in some tropical valleys, and water buffalo may help to keep waterways clear.

 

Green fodders are used widely for intensive milk production and for fattening. Many fodder crops are conserved as hay, chaffed, or pulped. Fodders include alfalfa, berseem and bancheri, the leaves, stems or trimmings of banana, cassava, fodder beet, halfa, ipil-ipil and kenaf, maize, oats, pandarus, peanut, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane, bagasse, and turnips. Citrus pulp and pineapple wastes have been fed safely to buffalo. In Egypt, whole sun-dried dates are fed to milk-buffalo up to 25% of the standard feed mixture.

 

REPRODUCTION

Swamp buffalo generally become reproductive at an older age than river breeds. Young males in Egypt, India, and Pakistan are first mated at about 3.0–3.5 years of age, but in Italy

 

they may be used as early as 2 years of age. Successful mating behaviour may continue until the animal is 12 years or even older. A good river male can impregnate 100 females in a year. A strong seasonal influence on mating occurs. Heat stress reduces libido

 

Although buffalo are polyoestrous, their reproductive efficiency shows wide variation throughout the year. Buffalo cows exhibit a distinct seasonal change in displaying oestrus, conception rate, and calving rate. The age at first oestrus of heifers varies between breeds from 13–33 months, but mating at the first oestrus is often infertile and usually deferred until they are 3 years old. Gestation lasts from 281–334 days, but most reports give a range between 300 and 320 days. Swamp buffalo carry their calves for one or two weeks longer than river buffalo. It is not rare to find buffalo that continue to work well at the age of 30, and instances of a working life of 40 years are recorded.

 

TAXONOMIC HISTORY

Carl Linnaeus first described the genus Bos and the water buffalo under the binomial Bubalis bubalus in 1758; the latter was known to occur in Asia and as a domestic form in Italy. Ellerman and Morrison-Scott treated the wild and domestic forms of the water buffalo as conspecifics whereas others treated them as different species. The nomenclatorial treatment of wild and domestic forms has been inconsistent and varies between authors and even within the works of single authors.

 

In March 2003, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature achieved consistency in the naming of wild and domestic water buffalo by ruling that the scientific name Bubalus arnee is valid for the wild form. B. bubalis continues to be valid for the domestic form and applies also to feral populations.

 

DOMESTICATION AND BREEDING

Water buffalo were domesticated in India about 5000 years ago, and in China about 4000 years ago. Two types are recognized, based on morphological and behavioural criteria – the river buffalo of the Indian subcontinent and further west to the Balkans and Italy, and the swamp buffalo, found from Assam in the west through Southeast Asia to the Yangtze valley of China in the east. The present-day river buffalo is the result of complex domestication processes involving more than one maternal lineage and a significant maternal gene flow from wild populations after the initial domestication events. Twenty-two breeds of the river type water buffalo are known, including Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Surti, Jafarabadi, Anatolian, Mediterranean, and Egyptian buffalo. China has a huge variety of buffalo genetic resources, comprising 16 local swamp buffalo breeds in various regions.

 

Results of mitochondrial DNA analyses indicate that the two types were domesticated independently. Sequencing of cytochrome b genes of Bubalus species implies that the domestic buffalo originated from at least two populations, and that the river and the swamp types have differentiated at the full species level. The genetic distance between the two types is so large that a divergence time of about 1.7 million years has been suggested. The swamp type was noticed to have the closest relationship with the tamaraw.

 

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATIONS

The water buffalo population in the world is about 172 million.

 

IN ASIA

More than 95.8% of the world population of water buffalo are found in Asia including both river and swamp types. The water buffalo population in India numbered over 97.9 million head in 2003, representing 56.5% of the world population. They are primarily of the river type, with 10 well-defined breeds comprising Badhawari, Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Jafarabadi, Marathwada, Mehsana, Nagpuri, Pandharpuri, Toda, and Surti. Swamp buffalo occur only in small areas in the north-eastern part of the country and are not distinguished into breeds.

 

In 2003, the second-largest population lived in China, with 22.759 million head, all of the swamp type with breeds kept only in the lowlands, and other breeds kept only in the mountains; as of 2003, 3.2 million swamp-type carabao buffalo were in the Philippines, nearly three million swamp buffalo were in Vietnam, and 772,764 buffalo were in Bangladesh. About 750,000 head were estimated in Sri Lanka in 1997.

 

The water buffalo is the main dairy animal in Pakistan, with 23.47 million head in 2010. Of these, 76% are kept in the Punjab. The rest of them are mostly in the province of Sindh. Breeds used are Nili-Ravi, Kundi, and Azi Kheli. Karachi has the largest population of water buffalos for an area where fodder is not grown, consisting of 350,000 head kept mainly for milking.

 

In Thailand, the number of water buffalo dropped from more than 3 million head in 1996 to less than 1.24 million head in 2011. Slightly over 75% of them are kept in the country's northeastern region. The statistics also indicate that by the beginning of 2012, less than one million were in the country, partly as a result of illegal shipments to neighboring countries where sales prices are higher than in Thailand.

 

Water buffalo are also present in the southern region of Iraq, in the marshes. These marshes were drained by Saddam Hussein in 1991 in an attempt to punish the south for the uprisings of 1991. Following 2003, and the fall of the Saddam regime, these lands were reflooded and a 2007 report in the provinces of Maysan and Thi Qar shows a steady increase in the number of water buffalo. The report puts the number at 40,008 head in those two provinces.

 

IN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN

Water buffalo likely were introduced to Europe from India or other Oriental countries. To Italy they were introduced about the year 600 in the reign of the Longobard King Agilulf. As they appear in the company of wild horses, they probably were a present from the Khan of the Avars, a Turkic nomadic tribe that dwelt near the Danube River at the time. Sir H. Johnston knew of a herd of water buffalo presented by a King of Naples to the Bey of Tunis in the mid-19th century that had resumed the feral state in northern Tunis.

 

European buffalo are all of the river type and considered to be of the same breed named Mediterranean buffalo. In Italy, the Mediterranean type was particularly selected and is called Mediterranean Italian breed to distinguish it from other European breeds, which differ genetically. Mediterranean buffalo are also found in Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, and the Republic of Macedonia, with a few hundred in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Hungary. Little exchange of breeding buffalo has occurred among countries, so each population has its own phenotypic features and performances. In Bulgaria, they were crossbred with the Indian Murrah breed, and in Romania, some were crossbred with Bulgarian Murrah. Populations in Turkey are of the Anatolian buffalo breed.

 

IN AUSTRALIA

Between 1824 and 1849, water buffalo were introduced into the Northern Territory from Timor, Kisar, and probably other islands in the Indonesian archipelago. In 1886, a few milking types were brought from India to Darwin. They have been the main grazing animals on the subcoastal plains and river basins between Darwin and Arnhem Land since the 1880s. In the early 1960s, an estimated population of 150,000 to 200,000 buffalo were living in the plains and nearby areas.

 

They became feral and are causing significant environmental damage. Buffalo are also found in the Top End. As a result, they were hunted in the Top End from 1885 until 1980. The commencement of the brucellosis and tuberculosis campaign (BTEC) resulted in a huge culling program to reduce buffalo herds to a fraction of the numbers that were reached in the 1980s. The BTEC was finished when the Northern Territory was declared free of the disease in 1997. Numbers dropped dramatically as a result of the campaign, but have since recovered to an estimated 150,000 animals across northern Australia in 2008.

 

During the 1950s, buffalo were hunted for their skins and meat, which was exported and used in the local trade. In the late 1970s, live exports were made to Cuba and continued later into other countries. Buffalo are now crossed with riverine buffalo in artificial insemination programs, and may be found in many areas of Australia. Some of these crossbreds are used for milk production. Melville Island is a popular hunting location, where a steady population up to 4,000 individuals exists. Safari outfits are run from Darwin to Melville Island and other locations in the Top End, often with the use of bush pilots. The horns, which can measure up to a record of 3.1 m tip-to-tip, are prized hunting trophies.

 

The buffalo have developed a different appearance from the Indonesian buffalo from which they descend. They live mainly in freshwater marshes and billabongs, and their territory range can be quite expansive during the wet season. Their only natural predators in Australia are adult saltwater crocodiles, with whom they share the billabongs, and dingoes, which have been known to prey on buffalo calves and occasionally adult buffalo when the dingoes are in large packs.

 

Buffalo were exported live to Indonesia until 2011, at a rate of about 3000 per year. After the live export ban that year, the exports dropped to zero, and had not resumed as of June 2013.

 

IN SOUTH AMERICA

Water buffalo were introduced into the Amazon River basin in 1895. They are now extensively used there for meat and dairy production. In 2005, the buffalo herd in the Brazilian Amazon stood at roughly 1.6 million head, of which 460,000 were located in the lower Amazon floodplain. Breeds used include Mediterranean from Italy, Murrah and Jafarabadi from India, and Carabao from the Philippines.

 

During the 1970s, small herds were imported to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Cayenne, Panama, Surinam, Guyana, and Venezuela.

 

In Argentina, many game ranches raise water buffalo for commercial hunting

 

IN NORTH AMERICA

In 1974, four water buffalo were imported to the United States from Guam to be studied at the University of Florida. In February 1978, the first herd arrived for commercial farming. Until 2002, only one commercial breeder was in the United States. Water buffalo meat is imported from Australia. Until 2011, water buffalo were raised in Gainesville, Florida, from young obtained from zoo overflow. They were used primarily for meat production, frequently sold as hamburger.[38] Other US ranchers use them for production of high-quality mozzarella cheese.

 

HUSBANDRY

The husbandry system of water buffalo depends on the purpose for which they are bred and maintained. Most of them are kept by people who work on small farms in family units. Their buffalo live in very close association with them, and are often their greatest capital asset. The women and girls in India generally look after the milking buffalo while the men and boys are concerned with the working animals. Throughout Asia, they are commonly tended by children who are often seen leading or riding their charges to wallowing places. Water buffalo are the ideal animals for work in the deep mud of paddy fields because of their large hooves and flexible foot joints. They are often referred to as "the living tractor of the East". It probably is possible to plough deeper with buffalo than with either oxen or horses. They are the most efficient and economical means of cultivation of small fields. In most rice-producing countries, they are used for threshing and for transporting the sheaves during the rice harvest. They provide power for oilseed mills, sugarcane presses, and devices for raising water. They are widely used as pack animals, and in India and Pakistan also for heavy haulage. In their invasions of Europe, the Turks used buffalo for hauling heavy battering rams. Their dung is used as a fertilizer, and as a fuel when dried.

 

Buffalo contribute 72 million tones of milk and three million tones of meat annually to world food, much of it in areas that are prone to nutritional imbalances. In India, river-type buffalo are kept mainly for milk production and for transport, whereas swamp-type buffalo are kept mainly for work and a small amount of milk.

 

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Water buffalo milk presents physicochemical features different from that of other ruminant species, such as a higher content of fatty acids and proteins. The physical and chemical parameters of swamp and river type water buffalo milk differ. Water buffalo milk contains higher levels of total solids, crude protein, fat, calcium, and phosphorus, and slightly higher content of lactose compared with those of cow milk. The high level of total solids makes water buffalo milk ideal for processing into value-added dairy products such as cheese. The conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) content in milk ranged from 4.4 mg/g fat in September to 7.6 mg/g fat in June. Seasons and genetics may play a role in variation of CLA level and changes in gross composition of the water buffalo milk.

 

Water buffalo milk is processed into a large variety of dairy products:

 

- Cream churns much faster at higher fat levels and gives higher overrun than cow cream.

- Butter from water buffalo cream displays more stability than that from cow cream.

- Ghee from water buffalo milk has a different texture with a bigger grain size than ghee from cow milk.

- Heat-concentrated milk products in the Indian subcontinent include paneer, khoa, rabri, kheer and basundi.

- Fermented milk products include dahi, yogurt, and chakka.

- Whey is used for making ricotta and mascarpone in Italy, and alkarish in Syria and Egypt.

- Soft cheeses made include mozzarella in Italy, karish, mish, and domiati in Egypt, madhfor in Iraq, alghab in Syria, kesong puti in the Philippines, and vladeasa in Romania.

- The semihard cheese beyaz peynir is made in Turkey.

- Hard cheeses include braila in Romania, rahss in Egypt, white brine in Bulgaria, and akkawi in Syria.

- Watered-down buffalo milk is used as a cheaper alternative to regular milk.

 

MEAT AND SKIN PRODUCTS

Water buffalo meat, sometimes called "carabeef", is often passed off as beef in certain regions, and is also a major source of export revenue for India. In many Asian regions, buffalo meat is less preferred due to its toughness; however, recipes have evolved (rendang, for example) where the slow cooking process and spices not only make the meat palatable, but also preserve it, an important factor in hot climates where refrigeration is not always available.Their hides provide tough and useful leather, often used for shoes.

 

BONE AND HORN PRODUCTS

The bones and horns are often made into jewellery, especially earrings. Horns are used for the embouchure of musical instruments, such as ney and kaval.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

Wildlife conservation scientists have started to recommend and use introduced populations of feral domestic water buffalo in far-away lands to manage uncontrolled vegetation growth in and around natural wetlands. Introduced water buffalo at home in such environs provide cheap service by regularly grazing the uncontrolled vegetation and opening up clogged water bodies for waterfowl, wetland birds, and other wildlife. Grazing water buffalo are sometimes used in Great Britain for conservation grazing, such as in Chippenham Fen National Nature Reserve. The buffalo can better adapt to wet conditions and poor-quality vegetation than cattle.

 

Currently, research is being conducted at the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies to determine the levels of nutrients removed and returned to wetlands when water buffalo are used for wetland vegetation management.

 

However, in uncontrolled circumstances, water buffalo can cause environmental damage, such as trampling vegetation, disturbing bird and reptile nesting sites, and spreading exotic weeds.

 

RESEARCH

The world's first cloned buffalo was developed by Indian scientists from National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal. The buffalo calf was named Samrupa. The calf did not survive more than a week, and died due to some genetic disorders. So, the scientists created another cloned buffalo a few months later, and named it Garima.

 

On 15 September 2007, the Philippines announced its development of Southeast Asia's first cloned buffalo. The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD), under the Department of Science and Technology in Los Baños, Laguna, approved this project. The Department of Agriculture's Philippine Carabao Center (PCC) will implement cloning through somatic cell nuclear transfer as a tool for genetic improvement in water buffalo. "Super buffalo calves" will be produced. There will be no modification or alteration of the genetic materials, as in genetically modified organisms.

 

On 1 January 2008, the Philippine Carabao Center in Nueva Ecija, per Filipino scientists, initiated a study to breed a super water buffalo that could produce 4 to 18 litres of milk per day using gene-based technology. Also, the first in vitro river buffalo was born there in 2004 from an in vitro-produced, vitrified embryo, named "Glory" after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Joseph Estrada's most successful project as an opposition senator, the PCC was created through Republic Act 3707, the Carabao Act of 1992.

 

IN CULTURE

Some ethnic groups, such as Batak and Toraja in Indonesia and the Derung in China, use water buffalo or kerbau (called horbo in Batak or tedong in Toraja) as sacrificial animals at several festivals.

 

- Legend has it that the Chinese philosophical sage Laozi left China through the Han Gu Pass riding a water buffalo.

- According to Hindu lore, the god of death Yama, rides on a male water buffalo.

- The carabao subspecies is considered a national symbol in the Philippines.

- In Vietnam, water buffalo are often the most valuable possession of poor farmers: "Con trâu là đầu cơ nghiệp". They are treated as a member of the family: "Chồng cày, vợ cấy, con trâu đi bừa" ("The husband ploughs, the wife sows, water buffalo draws the rake") and are friends of the children. Children talk to their water buffalo, "Bao giờ cây lúa còn bông. Thì còn ngọn cỏ ngoài đồng trâu ăn." (Vietnamese children are responsible for grazing water buffalo. They feed them grass if they work laboriously for men.) In the old days, West Lake, Hà Nội, was named Kim Ngưu - Golden Water Buffalo.

- The Yoruban Orisha Oya (goddess of change) takes the form of a water buffalo.

 

FIGHTING FESTIVALS

- Pasungay Festival is held annually in the town of San Joaquin, Iloilo in the Philippines.

- Moh juj Water Buffalo fighting, is held every year in Bhogali Bihu in Assam. Ahotguri in Nagaon is famous for it.

- Do Son Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Vietnam, held each year on the ninth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar at Do Son Township, Haiphong City in Vietnam, is one of the most popular Vietnam festivals and events in Haiphong City. The preparations for this buffalo fighting festival begin from the two to three months earlier. The competing buffalo are selected and methodically trained months in advance. It is a traditional festival of Vietnam attached to a Water God worshipping ceremony and the Hien Sinh custom to show martial spirit of the local people of Do Son, Haiphong.

- "Hai Luu" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Vietnam, According to ancient records, the buffalo fighting in Hai Luu Commune has existed from the 2nd century B.C. General Lu Gia at that time, had the buffalo slaughtered to give a feast to the local people and the warriors, and organized buffalo fighting for amusement. Eventually, all the fighting buffalo will be slaughtered as tributes to the deities.

- "Ko Samui" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival of Thailand, is a very popular event held on special occasions such as New Year's Day in January, and Songkran in mid-April, this festival features head-wrestling bouts in which two male Asian water buffalo are pitted against one another. Unlike in Spanish Bullfighting, wherein bulls get killed while fighting sword-wielding men, Buffalo Fighting Festival held at Ko Samui, Thailand is fairly harmless contest. The fighting season varies according to ancient customs & ceremonies. The first Buffalo to turn and run away is considered the loser, the winning buffalo becomes worth several million baht. Ko Samui is an island in the Gulf of Thailand in the South China Sea, it is 700 km from Bangkok and is connected to it by regular flights.

- "Ma'Pasilaga Tedong" Water Buffalo Fighting Festival, in Tana Toraja Regency of Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, is a very popular event where the Rambu Solo' or a Burial Festival took place in Tana Toraja.

 

RACING FESTIVALS

Carabao Carroza Festival is being held annually every May in the town of Pavia, Iloilo, Philippines.

Kambala races of Karnataka, India, take place between December and March. The races are conducted by having the water buffalo (he buffalo) run in long parallel slushy ditches, where they are driven by men standing on wooden planks drawn by the buffalo. The objectives of the race are to finish first and to raise the water to the greatest height and also a rural sport. Kambala races are arranged with competition, as well as without competition and as a part of thanks giving (to god) in about 50 villages of coastal Karnataka.

 

In the Chonburi Province of Thailand, and in Pakistan, there are annual water buffalo races.

 

Chon Buri Water buffalo racing festival, Thailand In downtown Chonburi, 70 km south of Bangkok, at the annual water buffalo festival held in mid-October. About 300 buffalo race in groups of five or six, spurred on by bareback jockeys wielding wooden sticks, as hundreds of spectators cheer. The water buffalo has always played an important role in agriculture in Thailand. For farmers of Chon Buri Province, near Bangkok, it is an important annual festival, beginning in mid-October. It is also a celebration among rice farmers before the rice harvest. At dawn, farmers walk their buffalo through surrounding rice fields, splashing them with water to keep them cool before leading them to the race field. This amazing festival started over a hundred years ago when two men arguing about whose buffalo was the fastest ended up having a race between them. That’s how it became a tradition and gradually a social event for farmers who gathered from around the country in Chonburi to trade their goods. The festival also helps a great deal in preserving the number of buffalo, which have been dwindling at quite an alarming rate in other regions. Modern machinery is rapidly replacing buffalo in Thai agriculture. With most of the farm work mechanized, the buffalo-racing tradition has continued. Racing buffalo are now raised just to race; they do not work at all. The few farm buffalo which still do work are much bigger than the racers because of the strenuous work they perform. Farm buffalo are in the "Buffalo Beauty Pageant", a Miss Farmer beauty contest and a comic buffalo costume contest etc.. This festival perfectly exemplifies a favored Thai attitude to life — "sanuk," meaning fun.

 

Babulang Water buffalo racing festival, Sarawak, Malaysia, is the largest or grandest of the many rituals, ceremonies and festivals of the traditional Bisaya (Borneo) community of Limbang, Sarawak. Highlights are the Ratu Babulang competition and the Water buffalo races which can only be found in this town in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Vihear Suor village Water buffalo racing festival, in Cambodia, each year, people visit Buddhist temples across the country to honor their deceased loved ones during a 15-day period commonly known as the Festival of the Dead but in Vihear Suor village, about 35 km northeast of Cambodia, citizens each year wrap up the festival with a water buffalo race to entertain visitors and honour a pledge made hundreds of years ago. There was a time when many village cattle which provide rural Cambodians with muscle power to plough their fields and transport agricultural products died from an unknown disease. The villagers prayed to a spirit to help save their animals from the disease and promised to show their gratitude by holding a buffalo race each year on the last day of "P'chum Ben" festival as it is known in Cambodian. The race draws hundreds of spectators who come to see riders and their animals charge down the racing field, the racers bouncing up and down on the backs of their buffalo, whose horns were draped with colorful cloth.

Pothu puttu matsaram, Kerala, South India, is similar to Kambala races.

 

WIKIPEDIA

I ordered some film the other week and i was exited to get an nice big parcel in the post.

 

actually some turned up the first day and then a bit more a few days later, and then some more on friday, but i missed the post so had to go to the post office, but got there too late on sat, so had to wait until tuesday. I was hoping for a nice big parcel and was gonna do this shot last week, but logistics and the postal system were against me.

 

So this is the film that arrived, plus a few extras from my fridge for artistic value.

 

I don;t really know what makes up the differences between films, and i'm not really experimenting methodically, so if you have any opinion on a film here, please let me know, as it would be good to learn.

 

I know some people are very loyal to one brand, so what works for you? and why?

 

D200, nikkor 18-200mm, sb600 on full power though brolly, alison holding the backdrop, and it looks like i need a bigger fridge

thegoldensieve.com

 

A good thing continues

 

Some six months ago, I posted almost 100 images and a few thoughts I felt were missing from the many existing RX1 reviews. The outpouring of support and interest in that article was very gratifying. When I published, I had used the camera for six full months, enough time to come to a view of its strengths and weaknesses and to produce a small portfolio of good images, but not enough time to see the full picture (pun intended). In the following six months, I have used the camera at least as frequently as in the first six and have produced another small set of good images. It should be noted that my usage of the RX1 in the last six (and especially in the last 3) months has involved less travel and more time with the family and around the house; I will share relatively few of these images but will spend some time sharing my impressions of its functionality for family snapshots as I am sure there is some interest. And let it be said here: one of the primary motivations to purchase the camera was to take more photos with the family, and after one full year I can confidently say: money well spent.

The A7/r game-changer?

 

In the past six months, Sony have announced and released two full-frame, interchangeable lens cameras that clearly take design cues from the RX1: the A7 and the A7r. These cameras are innovative and highly capable and, as such, are in the midst of taking the photography world by storm. I think they are compelling enough cameras that I wonder whether Sony is wasting its energy continuing to develop further A-mount cameras. Sony deserve credit for a bold strategy—many companies would have been content to allow the success of the the RX1 (and RX1R) generate further sales before pushing further into the white space left unexplored by camera makers with less ambition.This is not the place to detail the relative advantages and disadvantages of the RX1 versus the A7/r except to make the following point. I currently use a Nikon D800 and an RX1: were I to sell both and purchase the A7r + 35mm f/2.8 I would in many ways lose nothing by way of imaging capability or lens compatibility but would pocket the surplus $1250-1750. Indeed this loyal Nikon owner thought long and hard about doing so, which speaks to the strategic importance of these cameras for a company trying to make inroads into a highly concentrated market.Ultimately, I opted to hang onto the two cameras I have (although this decision is one that I revisit time and time again) and continue to use them as I have for the past year. Let me give you a quick flavor of why.

The RX1 is smaller and more discrete

 

This is a small a point, but my gut reaction to the A7/r was: much smaller than the D800, not as small as the RX1. The EVF atop the A7/r and the larger profile of interchangeable mount lenses means that I would not be able to slip the A7/r into a pocket the way I can the RX1. Further, by virtue of using the EVF and its loud mechanical shutter, the A7/r just isn’t as stealthy as the RX1. Finally, f/2 beats the pants off of f/2.8 at the same or smaller size.At this point, some of you may be saying, “Future Sony releases will allow you to get a body without an EVF and get an f/2 lens that has a slimmer profile, etc, etc.” And that’s just the point: to oversimplify things, the reason I am keeping my RX1 is that Sony currently offers something close to an A7 body without a built-in EVF and with a slimmer profile 35mm f/2.

The D800 has important functional advantages

 

On the other side of the spectrum, the AF speed of the A7/r just isn’t going to match the D800, especially when the former is equipped with a Nikon lens and F-mount adapter. EVFs cannot yet match the experience of looking through the prism and the lens (I expect they will match soon, but aren’t there yet). What’s more, I have made such an investment in Nikon glass that I can’t yet justify purchasing an adapter for a Sony mount or selling them all for Sony’s offerings (many of which aren’t to market yet).Now, all of these are minor points and I think all of them disappear with an A8r, but they add up to something major: I have two cameras very well suited to two different types of shooting, and I ask myself if I gain or lose by getting something in between—something that wasn’t quite a pocket shooter and something that was quite a DSLR? You can imagine, however, that if I were coming to the market without a D800 and an RX1, that my decision would be far different: dollar for dollar, the A7/r would be a no-brainer.During the moments when I consider selling to grab an A7r, I keep coming back to a thought I had a month or so before the RX1 was announced. At that time I was considering something like the NEX cameras with a ZM 21mm f/2.8 and I said in my head, “I wish someone would make a carry-around camera with a full frame sensor and a fixed 35mm f/2.8 or f/2.” Now you understand how attractive the RX1 is to me and what a ridiculously high bar exists for another camera system to reach.

Okay, so what is different from the last review?

 

For one, I had an issue with the camera’s AF motor failing to engage and giving me an E61:00 error. I had to send it out to Sony for repairs (via extended warranty and service plan). I detailed my experience with Sony Service here [insert link] and I write to you as a very satisfied customer. That is to say, I have 3 years left on a 4 year + accidental damage warranty and I feel confident enough in that coverage to say that I will have this beauty in working order for at least another 3 years.For two, I’ve spent significantly less time thinking of this camera as a DSLR replacement and have instead started to develop a very different way of shooting with it. The activation barrier to taking a shot with my D800 is quite high. Beyond having to bring a large camera wherever you go and have it in hand, a proper camera takes two hands and full attention to produce an image. I shoot slowly and methodically and often from a tripod with the D800. In contrast, I can pull the RX1 out, pop off the lens cap, line up and take a shot with one hand (often with a toddler in the other). This fosters a totally different type of photography.

My “be-there” camera

 

The have-everywhere camera that gives DSLR type controls to one-handed shooting lets me pursue images that happen very quickly or images that might not normally meet the standards of “drag-the-DSLR-out-of-the-bag.” Many of those images you’ll see on this post. A full year of shooting and I can say this with great confidence: the RX1 is a terrific mash-up of point-and-shoot and DSLR not just in image quality and features, but primarily in the product it helps me create. To take this thinking a bit further: I find myself even processing images from the RX1 differently than I would from my DSLR. So much so that I have strongly considered starting a tumblr and posting JPEGs directly from the RX1 via my phone or an iPad rather than running the bulk of them through Lightroom, onto Flickr and then on the blog (really this is just a matter of time, stay tuned, and those readers who have experience with tumblr, cloud image storage and editing, etc, etc, please contact me, I want to pick your brain).Put simply, I capture more spontaneous and beautiful “moments” than I might have otherwise. Photography is very much an exercise in “f/8 and be there,” and the RX1 is my go-to “be there” camera.

The family camera

 

I mentioned earlier that I justified the purchase of the RX1 partly as a camera to be used to document the family moments into which a DSLR doesn’t neatly fit. Over the past year I’ve collected thousands and thousands of family images with the RX1. The cold hard truth is that many of those photos could be better if I’d taken a full DSLR kit with me to the park or the beach or the grocery store each time. The RX1 is a difficult camera to use on a toddler (or any moving subject for that matter); autofocus isn’t as fast as a professional DSLR, it’s difficult to perfectly compose via an LCD (especially in bright sunlight), but despite these shortcomings, it’s been an incredibly useful family camera. There are simply so many beautiful moments where I had the RX1 over my shoulder, ready to go that whatever difficulties exist relative to a DSLR, those pale in comparison to the power of it’s convenience. The best camera is the one in your hand.

Where to go from here.

 

So what is the value of these RX1 going forward, especially in a world of the A7/r and it’s yet-to-be-born siblings without an EVF and a pancake lens? Frankly, at its current price (which is quite fair when you consider the value of the the body and the lens) I see precious little room for an independent offering versus a mirrorless, interchangeable lens system with the same image quality in a package just as small. That doesn’t mean Sony won’t make an RX2 or an RX1 Mark II (have a look at it’s other product lines to see how many SKUs are maintained despite low demand). Instead, I see the RX1 as a bridge that needed to exist for engineers, managers, and the market to make it to the A7/r and it’s descendants.A Facebook friend recently paid me a great compliment; he said something like, “Justin, via your blog, you’ve sold a ton of RX1 cameras.” Indeed, despite my efforts not to be a salesman, I think he’s right: I have and would continue to recommend this camera.The true value of the RX1 going forward is for those of us who have the thing on our shoulders; and yes, if you have an investment in and a love for a DSLR system, there’s still tremendous value in getting one, slinging it over your shoulder, and heading out into the wide, bright world; A7/r or no, this is just an unbelievably capable camera.

Anyone who knows me, knows I like things just right! Sewing projects are no exception.

The heron is a common subject in folklore worldwide. For Buddhists, their grace and slow, methodical behavior is seen as a symbol of wisdom and awareness. Often, and especially in Native American lore, they have come to symbolize life and death, the cycle of everything.

 

Taipei, Taiwan

Dans une vue plongeante , le regard s'arrête d'abord sur les personnages : un paysan qui laboure son champ, un berger appuyé sur son bâton, un pêcheur de dos qui tend son fil. Le rouge de la blouse du laboureur et de l'echarpe du pêcheur attire l'attention sur leurs occupations. Quand les yeux peuvent s'en détacher, on découvre la profondeur de l'espace quasi infini. À l'horizon, le soleil forme un disque qui irradie et unit le violet du ciel à l'émeraude de la mer. Les montagnes qui bordent celle-ci paraissent irréelles, blanches et légères, comme le port qui s'éveille dans une lumière rose.

L'esprit se plaît à admirer ce paysage harmonieux et paisible mais l'œil, irrésistiblement revient au rouge sang du premier plan, vers ce paysan absorbé par sa tâche. Nous le voyons de biais, la scène étant construite en diagonale et l'impression d'un travail continu, méthodique, en train de se faire, en est accentuée. Derrière lui, les taches claires des brebis guident le regard vers les voiles beiges du navire qui passe. Il est temps alors de découvrir les « détails » de cette scène quotidienne : près du bateau, devant le rocher, la mer se ride et deux jambes s'agitent : Icare est en train de se noyer dans l'indifférence de l'entourage et de la nature. Icare, coupable de s'être approché un peu trop près du soleil, qui a cru braver les lois de la gravité et de la condition humaine, plonge dans le vert émeraude profond et personne ne le remarque. Pas même la perdrix dont le regard vague et lointain rappelle celui du berger qui tourne le dos au drame.

 

Deux interprétations parmi beaucoup d'autres :

Comme souvent, le peintre prend l'inverse de la tradition, l'envers des choses et distille discrètement son ironie. Si les personnages d'Ovide sont représentés pour la première fois, l'essentiel est inversé : les gens à l'aube d'une journée de travail, sauf le berger qui regarde le ciel, n'ont pas de temps à perdre avec l'ambition d'un fou ou d'un rêveur. Il faut ensemencer et pêcher, il faut retendre les cordages afin que le navire, comme la vie, avance vers la lumière ou l'or philosophal, selon une lecture ésotérique.

Stoïcien et humaniste, Brueghel exprime l'accord de l'homme avec les lois de l'Univers dont il n'est qu'une petite partie. À l'avant-plan, l'épée et la bourse, posées près du laboureur, évoquent un de ces proverbes populaires que Brueghel a illustrés dans d'autres tableaux : « Épée et argent requièrent mains astucieuses. », van Lennep.

 

Pierre Francastel développe une autre théorie qui a le mérite de situer le peintre dans le contexte historique de son pays. Icare incarne aussi le courage, l'aventure positive de ceux qui osent. Prisonnier de Minos, il a la volonté de s'enfuir et l'audace d'essayer. C'est l'ingéniosité de son père, Dédale, qui lui en fournit le moyen. Son seul « défaut » est de succomber à la griserie de la réussite. Il est jeune encore. Dédale reste le forgeron, l'artiste et le créateur génial. Au XVIe siècle, le mythe trouve un écho dans ce pays sous domination étrangère : c'est l'appel de la liberté et le rêve d'évasion… La vie continue, oui mais les questions restent posées : toute tentative libératrice est-elle voué à l'échec ? N'y a-t-il plus place pour le rêve ? L'indifférence n'est-elle pas l'écueil le plus dangereux pour l'aventure humaine et le progrès ?

 

In a plunging view, the gaze first stops on the characters: a peasant who plows his field, a shepherd leaning on his staff, a fisherman back who holds out his thread. The red of the plowman's blouse and fisherman's scarf draws attention to their occupations. When the eyes can be detached, we discover the depth of almost infinite space. On the horizon, the sun forms a disc that radiates and unites the violet of the sky with the emerald of the sea. The mountains that border it seem unreal, white and light, like the port that awakes in a light pink.

The mind takes pleasure in admiring this harmonious and peaceful landscape, but the eye, irresistibly, returns to the red blood of the foreground, towards this peasant absorbed by his task. We see it sideways, the scene being constructed diagonally and the impression of a continuous, methodical work being done, is accentuated. Behind him, the light spots of the sheep guide the eyes towards the beige sails of the passing ship. It is then time to discover the "details" of this daily scene: near the boat, in front of the rock, the sea is wrinkled and two legs shake: Icarus is drowning in the indifference of the entourage and of nature. Icarus, guilty of having approached a little too close to the sun, who believed to brave the laws of gravity and the human condition, plunges into the deep emerald green and no one notices it. Not even the partridge, whose vague and distant look is reminiscent of the shepherd who turns his back on the drama.

 

Two interpretations among many others:

As often, the painter takes the opposite of tradition, the reverse side of things and discretely distils his irony. If Ovid's characters are represented for the first time, the essential is reversed: people at the dawn of a working day, except the shepherd who looks at the sky, have no time to lose with the ambition of a madman or a dreamer. It is necessary to sow and fish, it is necessary to tighten the ropes so that the ship, like the life, advance towards the light or the philosopher's gold, according to an esoteric reading.

Stoic and humanist, Brueghel expresses the agreement of man with the laws of the Universe of which he is only a small part. In the foreground, the sword and purse, placed near the plowman, evoke one of those popular proverbs that Brueghel illustrated in other paintings: "Sword and money require clever hands. Van Lennep.

 

Pierre Francastel develops another theory that has the merit of situating the painter in the historical context of his country. Icarus also embodies the courage, the positive adventure of those who dare. Prisoner of Minos, he has the will to flee and the audacity to try. It is the ingenuity of his father, Daedalus, who provides him with the means. His only "fault" is to succumb to the excitement of success. He is young again. Daedalus remains the blacksmith, the artist and the brilliant creator. In the sixteenth century, the myth finds an echo in this country under foreign domination: it is the call of freedom and the dream of escape ... Life goes on, yes but the questions remain: are any liberating attempts bound to failure ? Is there no room for dreams? Is not indifference the most dangerous stumbling block for human adventure and progress?

Italian postcard in the World Collection series, no. p.c. 471. Photo: Ada / Olympia. Daniel Day-Lewis in In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan, 1993).

 

Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis (1957) won the Best Actor Oscar for My Left Foot (1990), There Will Be Blood (2007) and Lincoln (2013). Day Lewis has also received more than 90 other acting awards fort these films and for his roles in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), A Room with a View (1985), Gangs of New York (2002) and Nine (2009).

 

Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis was born in Kensington, London, in 1957. His father was the British Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis. His mother, actress Jill Bacon, came from a Jewish family and was the daughter of Sir Michael Balcon, former head of Ealing Studios. Cecil Day-Lewis was already 53 when his son was born, and it seemed that he had little interest in his children. Cecil died when Daniel was 15. Day-Lewis later said that he regretted never having had a good relationship with his father. At his school in Greenwich, Day-Lewis was often bullied by children, often because of his Jewish heritage and the luxurious way of life at home. Day-Lewis later said that he behaved badly in his younger years. He got into trouble several times for shoplifting and other illegal activities. In 1968, he went to a boarding school in Kent because his parents thought he was behaving too freely. Although he disliked the school, it was there that he was first introduced to two of his main interests, acting and woodworking. Day-Lewis made his debut in Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Schlesinger, 1971). He was 14 years old at the time and played a vandal. His role is not mentioned in the credits. According to Day-Lewis, he received two dollars for that role to wreck some expensive cars and he later said that this wrecking felt like "heaven". After two years at boarding school, he attended Bedalas School in Petersfield. He left the school in 1975. His behaviour had improved somewhat by then. Day-Lewis arrived at a time when he had to choose in which direction he wanted to go, acting or woodworking. He decided for acting, but he was not accepted because he had too little experience. That is why he chose acting. He followed a three-year course at the Bristol Old Vic theatre school. He then acted on stage with the Bristol Old Vic and Royal Shakespeare Companies. He made his West End stage debut in 1982, starring for several months in the play 'Another Country'.

 

In 1982, Daniel Day-Lewis had another small role in a major film, this time as the bully in Gandhi (Richard Attenborough, 1982). Later, he also starred in a 'Romeo and Juliet' play and had a supporting role in the film The Bounty (Roger Donaldson, 1984), starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins. His next theatre role was in 'The Count', a play about Dracula. In My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears,1985), he played a lower-class, gay ex-skinhead in love with an ambitious Pakistani businessman (Gortdon Warnecke) in Margaret Thatcher's London. His next film A Room with a View (James Ivory, 1985) was again very well received. In that film, he played the fiancée of the main character played by Helena Bonham Carter. My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room With a View opened on the same day in New York. Day-Lewis astonished critics and audiences with his chameleon-like versatility. The New York Film Critics Circle took particular note of his talent, naming him the year's Best Supporting Actor for his work in both films. In 1987, Day-Lewis starred in Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Philip Kaufman, 1987), along with Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche. Day-Lewis played the role of a philandering surgeon from Prague, who gets an emotional relationship with a woman for the first time. In 1989, Day-Lewis did a brilliant performance as the disabled Irish writer Christy Brown in the film My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989). He won several awards for this role, including an Academy Award for Best Actor. During filming, Day-Lewis broke two ribs after an accident with the wheelchair in which his character always sat. After several films, Daniel Day Lewis returned to the stage for Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet'. He collapsed on stage, however, when (supposedly) the ghost of Hamlet's father came on stage. Day-Lewis later said that he mistook him for his father's ghost. After this incident, Day-Lewis never returned to the stage. In 1992, three years after he won an Oscar, Day-Lewis starred in The Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992), a film that met with mixed reviews but was a great success at the box office. He played a turn-of-the-century New York society man in Martin Scorsese's lavish adaptation of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence (Martin Scorsese, 1993) opposite Michelle Pfeiffer and Winona Ryder. Another success was In the Name of the Father (Jim Sheridan, 1993). For his role as an innocent convict of an IRA bombing, he lost a lot of weight and had to act with an Irish accent. According to Day-Lewis, he frequently urged crew members to throw cold water on him and use verbal abuse against him so that his anger, which his character must have in circumstances such as the film, would become more realistic. Day-Lewis was again nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his role. He was also nominated for a BAFTA for the third time and a Golden Globe for the second time. Next, he starred as the tragically adulterous John Proctor alongside Winona Ryder in The Crucible (Nicholas Hytner, 1996). The film was based on a script by Arthur Miller, who would become Day-Lewis' father-in-law. He then had a role in Jim Sheridan's The Boxer (1997), as a former boxer trying to make a new life for himself after being imprisoned for fourteen years for his work with the IRA. He had to prepare for that role as well, training for six months in boxing with former world boxing champion Barry McGuigan.

 

Daniel Day-Lewis took a break for several years. He decided to focus on his old passion: woodworking. He moved to Florence in Italy. It was not until 2002 that another of his films premiered, Gangs of New York (Martin Scorsese, 2002) with Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. Day-Lewis' decidedly methodic approach to creating convincing screen characters would ultimately pay off as many cited his Oscar nominated performance as one of the most convincing of the talented actor's career. Day-Lewis typically disappeared from sight yet again after Gangs, waiting two years before appearing again in a film. In 2005, The Ballad of Jack and Rose premiered. This film was directed by his own wife, Rebecca Miller. Day-Lewis played the role of an old man who is dying and reflects on his life. During filming, he lived apart from his wife to make his role as a lonely old man even more believable. His next film was based on Upton Sinclair's novel 'Oil!'. The film was renamed There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007) and Day Lewis won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in that film. In 2009, Day-Lewis starred in Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine (2009) as film director Guido Contini. In 2013, he won his third Oscar for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln (Steven Spielberg, 2013) with Sally Field. Daniel Day-Lewis is the only person in film history to have won the Oscar for best male lead three times. In 2014, he received a knighthood for his services to drama. Following the filming of Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2017 ), for which he was again nominated for an Oscar for best male lead, Day-Lewis announced that he was quitting acting. Day-Lewis is very protective of his privacy. He rarely reveals his private life in public. Day-Lewis first had a relationship with the French actress Isabelle Adjani. They had a son together, Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis (in 1995), but by then the relationship had already ended. In 1996, while working on the film The Crucible, he went to visit the writer of the script, Arthur Miller. During that visit, he fell in love with Miller's daughter, Rebecca Miller. They were married two weeks before the premiere of The Crucible. They have two sons together, Ronan (born in 1998) and Cashel (2002). They spend their time together in their homes in the United States and Ireland. Daniel Day Lewis was in a relationship with Isabelle Adjani from 1989 to 1994. They have one son together, Gabriel-Kane Day Lewis (born 1995). With Rebecca Miller, he has two sons, Ronan Cal Day-Lewis (born 1998) and Cashel Blake Day-Lewis (born 2002). Daniel Day Lewis has dual citizenship between the United Kingdom and Ireland.

 

Sources: Rebecca Flint Marx (AllMovie), Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.

 

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

I'm pregnant! Baby #2 is due April 8, 2014. I'm definitely showing earlier this pregnancy, and have been in maternity pants for a couple weeks already.

 

The last couple months have been challenging. I had some complications early on, and for several weeks, it wasn't clear what to expect. I had 5 ultrasounds within about 7 weeks. Luckily, it seems like everything is going well now. And, bonus, with all those ultrasounds? We've watched the progression from blob, to bigger blob, to blob with some bumps, to something that is starting to look like an actual baby. We had our standard 12-week ultrasound with the maternal-fetal medicine specialist last week, and things are looking good.

 

I've also had terrible nausea, heartburn, etc. Zofran and Zantac are my friends. I've tried a few different anti-nausea meds, but Zofran is the only one that works without making me fall asleep at inconvenient times. Like while at my desk at work, or while driving. My insurance company doesn't cover a full prescription for it, so I'm paying for some of it out-of-pocket. My OB prescribed every-6-hours course of meds, but insurance covers 9 pills a week. $6 per pill seems expensive, but it's a small cost to pay for not puking at work. (I end up doing ok with just 1 or 2 pills most days.) I'm hoping that this gets better in the second trimester. In the meantime, I'm living on bread, pasta, potatoes, cheese and crackers, carrots and hummus, grapefruit, and watermelon. And, on rare occasions, Chinese food and fried chicken. Yeah. I don't even. Fried chicken? Where did that one come from? I never eat fried chicken.

 

Thom has been a wonderful support. I have a hard time in the evenings, when the exhaustion hits hardest. As soon as Henry is in bed, I'm a useless lump on the couch. Thom has picked up a lot of the slack at home and with Henry. And Henry, uh, has been introduced to the miracles of TV. He's especially fond of Curious George. I, meanwhile, have started to methodically work my way through The Good Wife. Have I mentioned that Thom is the best? Especially when I caught some sort of virus and was sick for over a week, and out of work for 4 days, in the middle of September. He took care of me and Henry, with some help from my mom when Thom was at work.

 

We've started to pick out names already, and have one or two top contenders for each sex. We will definitely find out the sex at our 2nd trimester ultrasound, if not sooner. I may be eligible for the Maternit21 genetic screening blood test, since I am of "advanced maternal age" at the ripe old age of 35. That test can also make an early determination of sex.

 

We are both excited to welcome this baby to our family. And I am hoping that the second trimester may be a bit easier than the first.

 

created with DEEP DREAM TEXT2DREAM - DDG Model DaVinci2

 

Seed Image came from Nightcafe used on Deep Dream, same prompt, different pile.

  

PROMPT:

"wild west surrealism. medium shot. wild bill hickup holding a banana to the head of a little chibi monster. macro. in the styles of otto rapp, emek, and paul cunha. vivid colors, magic realism textures, intricate details. methodical, mixed media collage. elaborate cryptid taxidermy in the background, set in a fantastical, mystical landscape. sunset"

One of these days I'm going to have to see if they'll hold something in their mouths. As I've near-zero* luck in the past with any of the dogs, I'm guessing not and haven't bothered trying.

 

*Henry would BRIEFLY** hold anything I physically put in his mouth (open mouth, insert object) - briefly, because he wasn't the quickest (understatement) and I usually had enough time to get out of the way and snap the picture before he methodically dropped whatever I'd put there.

 

** except the cheeseburger (see comments). He was happy to hold that - and didn't even try to eat it!

 

Oddly, Zachary - who I was able to train to do just about anything (e.g. unload the dryer) staunchly refused, even when using his favorite clicker method of approximations. Total no go. If I remember correctly I couldn't even get him to put his lips on items.

 

With these two (Riley and Toby) I might have a shot with Riley. As it took me months to get Toby to the point where he looks forward to photography (e.g. "Cookie Time") I'm not inclined to do anything to spoil his accommodating mood.

 

Our Daily Challenge - THE STONE AGE is the topic for Wed May 7 2025

 

Enjoy taking pictures of your dog? Consider joining the Daily Dog Challenge, with a new topic every day, such as...

 

Daily Dog Challenge - #5255. 5/4 “Orange”

 

365:2025 - #129

 

100x:2025 - #38 (Studio Dogs)

The Grote Kerk or St.-Bavokerk is a Reformed Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square (Grote Markt) in the Dutch city of Haarlem.

 

This church is an important landmark for the city of Haarlem and has dominated the city skyline for centuries. It is built in the Gothic style of architecture, and it became the main church of Haarlem after renovations in the 15th century. It is dedicated to Saint Bavo, who is commemorated for saving Haarlem from the Kennemers.

 

The interior of the church has changed little over the years, though the inner chapels suffered greatly during the Beeldenstorm, and many stained-glass windows were lost to neglect. Fortunately, the interior has been painted many times by local painters, most notably by Pieter Jansz Saenredam and the Berckheyde brothers. Based on these paintings, work has been done to reconstruct the interior so various items such as rouwborden or "mourning shields" hang again today in their "proper" place.

 

The organ of the Sint-Bavokerk (the Christiaan Müller organ) is one of the world's most historically important organs. It was built by the Amsterdam organ builder Christian Müller, with stucco decorations by the Amsterdam artist Jan van Logteren, between 1735 and 1738. Upon completion it was the largest organ in the world with 60 voices and 32-foot pedal-towers. In Moby-Dick (1851), Herman Melville describes the inside of a whale's mouth:

 

"Seeing all these colonnades of bone so methodically ranged about, would you not think you were inside of the great Haarlem organ, and gazing upon its thousand pipes?"

 

Today concerts are regularly held in the church, and all through the year special opening times are organized so the public can walk in free of charge to listen to this famous organ in action.

This first year Bald Eagle spent quite some time methodically eating a prey that was on the other side of branches for me to see clearly. I kept 3 shots to help identify the prey (are those feather bits or fin bits?) They are in comments for the two shots I actually like.

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”

Herman Melville

 

A biomechanical terraformer, spreading the reach of the Verdant Protocol into the unstable wilderness of the Shattersea.

 

Function & Purpose:

 

Bloomcaller units are autonomous biological terraforming constructs, designed to expand the Verdant Protocol’s influence by seeding, cultivating, and adapting plant life to harsh or unstable conditions. Unlike the more aggressive Harvesters, which break down and repurpose organic material, Bloomcallers focus on growth, regeneration, and controlled mutation, turning barren landscapes into thriving biomes.

 

They are not combat units, but they are far from defenceless. Their ability to rapidly alter the local environment allows them to make terrain inhospitable to threats, deploying toxic spores, root entanglements, and hallucinogenic pollen clouds as a deterrent. Their primary mission, however, is to spread, adapt, and sustain the Verdant ecosystem, ensuring the continued evolution of organic life within the Shattersea.

 

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Physical Characteristics & Capabilities:

 

Mycelial Canopy (Floral Crown)

•The cluster of plant life atop the Bloomcaller is more than just decorative—it acts as a real-time environmental scanner and genetic repository.

•This organic canopy samples the atmosphere, temperature, and soil, adjusting its seeding process accordingly.

•Different Bloomcaller units grow unique flora based on their region of deployment, making them highly adaptable.

•Some act as pollinators, while others introduce hardy, fast-spreading fungal networks that help stabilize terrain.

Spore Chambers & Bioluminescent Vats

•The large, translucent sacs on its body contain specialized spores, bio-serum, and genetically engineered seedlings.

•Depending on the situation, the Bloomcaller can release:

•Hardy Flora Spores: Creates drought-resistant plant growth, stabilizing soil in shifting or crumbling environments.

•Fungal Mycelium Webs: Spreads Verdant neural networks underground, linking plants and extending the Protocol’s influence.

•Hallucinogenic or Defensive Spores: Releases clouds of spores that can disorient intruders or deter hostile wildlife.

•Adaptive Hybrid Seeds: Capable of mutating to better withstand the extreme conditions of the Shattersea.

Hydro-Root Injection Systems

•The tentacle-like appendages and clawed manipulators are designed for direct interaction with terrain.

•Some function as root injectors, implanting fast-growing vegetation deep into the ground.

•Others serve as nutrient distributors, helping spread organic material from decayed sources to sustain new life.

Tripedal Stability & Traversal Adaptability

•The Bloomcaller’s three-legged stance allows for stable movement across unstable ground, including shifting sand, deep mud, and debris-laden terrain.

 

Unlike more predatory Verdant units, it has no offensive weaponry, relying on environmental manipulation and biome-defense mechanisms to avoid threats.

•When under extreme duress, some Bloomcallers self-terminate, bursting into a wave of spores that create an immediate, fast-growing fungal bloom, obscuring their retreat and leaving behind a Verdant “seed” that will later develop into a new outpost.

 

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Role in the Shattersea:

•Terraforming & Expansion: Deploys in unstable regions, planting flora and fungal networks that anchor and stabilize terrain.

•Reclamation & Healing: Can be sent to dead zones, restoring them to sustainable ecosystems over time.

•Ecosystem Adaptation: Introduces new plant species tailored to the environment, ensuring biodiversity.

•Tactical Denial & Terrain Manipulation: Uses defensive plant growth to create barriers, obscure pathways, or redirect intruders away from Verdant-controlled zones.

 

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Personality & Behaviour:

•Unlike Harvesters, which are more mechanical and purpose-driven, Bloomcallers exhibit a form of curious, slow intelligence.

•They move deliberately and methodically, scanning and adjusting their environment before acting.

•Some Drift Runners claim that Bloomcallers watch them—not with hostility, but with a kind of detached interest, as if measuring whether the land should welcome them or resist them.

•They are not aggressive unless directly threatened, preferring to retreat and let the landscape itself become the deterrent.

 

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Interactions with Humans & Drift Runners

•Hostile Factions: Many human groups—especially Bastion forces and industrial factions—see Bloomcallers as a threat to expansion efforts, as they can overtake infrastructure and terraform industrial sites into Verdant territory.

•Tromas & The Howling Hoser: Given Tromas’ collaboration with the Verdant Protocol, he has encountered and

even guided a Bloomcaller unit before. He has a designated safe route through Bloomcaller-controlled zones, allowing for limited trade of bio-fuels and organic materials.

With so few flowers in bloom at this time, I had to really be on the lookout for Hummers. The foraging Hummers also have to be on the lookout for any blooming plant.This lady was methodically sampling all of these red blooms on an ornamental shrub in my daughter's back yard. I saw only a few flying Hummers species (mostly female Anna's and Costa's). These ladies are segregated from each other for IDs mainly on their bill shapes. This bill is said to be straighter... but there is overlap.

 

IMG_0112; Anna's Hummingbird

thegoldensieve.com

 

A good thing continues

 

Some six months ago, I posted almost 100 images and a few thoughts I felt were missing from the many existing RX1 reviews. The outpouring of support and interest in that article was very gratifying. When I published, I had used the camera for six full months, enough time to come to a view of its strengths and weaknesses and to produce a small portfolio of good images, but not enough time to see the full picture (pun intended). In the following six months, I have used the camera at least as frequently as in the first six and have produced another small set of good images. It should be noted that my usage of the RX1 in the last six (and especially in the last 3) months has involved less travel and more time with the family and around the house; I will share relatively few of these images but will spend some time sharing my impressions of its functionality for family snapshots as I am sure there is some interest. And let it be said here: one of the primary motivations to purchase the camera was to take more photos with the family, and after one full year I can confidently say: money well spent.

The A7/r game-changer?

 

In the past six months, Sony have announced and released two full-frame, interchangeable lens cameras that clearly take design cues from the RX1: the A7 and the A7r. These cameras are innovative and highly capable and, as such, are in the midst of taking the photography world by storm. I think they are compelling enough cameras that I wonder whether Sony is wasting its energy continuing to develop further A-mount cameras. Sony deserve credit for a bold strategy—many companies would have been content to allow the success of the the RX1 (and RX1R) generate further sales before pushing further into the white space left unexplored by camera makers with less ambition.This is not the place to detail the relative advantages and disadvantages of the RX1 versus the A7/r except to make the following point. I currently use a Nikon D800 and an RX1: were I to sell both and purchase the A7r + 35mm f/2.8 I would in many ways lose nothing by way of imaging capability or lens compatibility but would pocket the surplus $1250-1750. Indeed this loyal Nikon owner thought long and hard about doing so, which speaks to the strategic importance of these cameras for a company trying to make inroads into a highly concentrated market.Ultimately, I opted to hang onto the two cameras I have (although this decision is one that I revisit time and time again) and continue to use them as I have for the past year. Let me give you a quick flavor of why.

The RX1 is smaller and more discrete

 

This is a small a point, but my gut reaction to the A7/r was: much smaller than the D800, not as small as the RX1. The EVF atop the A7/r and the larger profile of interchangeable mount lenses means that I would not be able to slip the A7/r into a pocket the way I can the RX1. Further, by virtue of using the EVF and its loud mechanical shutter, the A7/r just isn’t as stealthy as the RX1. Finally, f/2 beats the pants off of f/2.8 at the same or smaller size.At this point, some of you may be saying, “Future Sony releases will allow you to get a body without an EVF and get an f/2 lens that has a slimmer profile, etc, etc.” And that’s just the point: to oversimplify things, the reason I am keeping my RX1 is that Sony currently offers something close to an A7 body without a built-in EVF and with a slimmer profile 35mm f/2.

The D800 has important functional advantages

 

On the other side of the spectrum, the AF speed of the A7/r just isn’t going to match the D800, especially when the former is equipped with a Nikon lens and F-mount adapter. EVFs cannot yet match the experience of looking through the prism and the lens (I expect they will match soon, but aren’t there yet). What’s more, I have made such an investment in Nikon glass that I can’t yet justify purchasing an adapter for a Sony mount or selling them all for Sony’s offerings (many of which aren’t to market yet).Now, all of these are minor points and I think all of them disappear with an A8r, but they add up to something major: I have two cameras very well suited to two different types of shooting, and I ask myself if I gain or lose by getting something in between—something that wasn’t quite a pocket shooter and something that was quite a DSLR? You can imagine, however, that if I were coming to the market without a D800 and an RX1, that my decision would be far different: dollar for dollar, the A7/r would be a no-brainer.During the moments when I consider selling to grab an A7r, I keep coming back to a thought I had a month or so before the RX1 was announced. At that time I was considering something like the NEX cameras with a ZM 21mm f/2.8 and I said in my head, “I wish someone would make a carry-around camera with a full frame sensor and a fixed 35mm f/2.8 or f/2.” Now you understand how attractive the RX1 is to me and what a ridiculously high bar exists for another camera system to reach.

Okay, so what is different from the last review?

 

For one, I had an issue with the camera’s AF motor failing to engage and giving me an E61:00 error. I had to send it out to Sony for repairs (via extended warranty and service plan). I detailed my experience with Sony Service here [insert link] and I write to you as a very satisfied customer. That is to say, I have 3 years left on a 4 year + accidental damage warranty and I feel confident enough in that coverage to say that I will have this beauty in working order for at least another 3 years.For two, I’ve spent significantly less time thinking of this camera as a DSLR replacement and have instead started to develop a very different way of shooting with it. The activation barrier to taking a shot with my D800 is quite high. Beyond having to bring a large camera wherever you go and have it in hand, a proper camera takes two hands and full attention to produce an image. I shoot slowly and methodically and often from a tripod with the D800. In contrast, I can pull the RX1 out, pop off the lens cap, line up and take a shot with one hand (often with a toddler in the other). This fosters a totally different type of photography.

My “be-there” camera

 

The have-everywhere camera that gives DSLR type controls to one-handed shooting lets me pursue images that happen very quickly or images that might not normally meet the standards of “drag-the-DSLR-out-of-the-bag.” Many of those images you’ll see on this post. A full year of shooting and I can say this with great confidence: the RX1 is a terrific mash-up of point-and-shoot and DSLR not just in image quality and features, but primarily in the product it helps me create. To take this thinking a bit further: I find myself even processing images from the RX1 differently than I would from my DSLR. So much so that I have strongly considered starting a tumblr and posting JPEGs directly from the RX1 via my phone or an iPad rather than running the bulk of them through Lightroom, onto Flickr and then on the blog (really this is just a matter of time, stay tuned, and those readers who have experience with tumblr, cloud image storage and editing, etc, etc, please contact me, I want to pick your brain).Put simply, I capture more spontaneous and beautiful “moments” than I might have otherwise. Photography is very much an exercise in “f/8 and be there,” and the RX1 is my go-to “be there” camera.

The family camera

 

I mentioned earlier that I justified the purchase of the RX1 partly as a camera to be used to document the family moments into which a DSLR doesn’t neatly fit. Over the past year I’ve collected thousands and thousands of family images with the RX1. The cold hard truth is that many of those photos could be better if I’d taken a full DSLR kit with me to the park or the beach or the grocery store each time. The RX1 is a difficult camera to use on a toddler (or any moving subject for that matter); autofocus isn’t as fast as a professional DSLR, it’s difficult to perfectly compose via an LCD (especially in bright sunlight), but despite these shortcomings, it’s been an incredibly useful family camera. There are simply so many beautiful moments where I had the RX1 over my shoulder, ready to go that whatever difficulties exist relative to a DSLR, those pale in comparison to the power of it’s convenience. The best camera is the one in your hand.

Where to go from here.

 

So what is the value of these RX1 going forward, especially in a world of the A7/r and it’s yet-to-be-born siblings without an EVF and a pancake lens? Frankly, at its current price (which is quite fair when you consider the value of the the body and the lens) I see precious little room for an independent offering versus a mirrorless, interchangeable lens system with the same image quality in a package just as small. That doesn’t mean Sony won’t make an RX2 or an RX1 Mark II (have a look at it’s other product lines to see how many SKUs are maintained despite low demand). Instead, I see the RX1 as a bridge that needed to exist for engineers, managers, and the market to make it to the A7/r and it’s descendants.A Facebook friend recently paid me a great compliment; he said something like, “Justin, via your blog, you’ve sold a ton of RX1 cameras.” Indeed, despite my efforts not to be a salesman, I think he’s right: I have and would continue to recommend this camera.The true value of the RX1 going forward is for those of us who have the thing on our shoulders; and yes, if you have an investment in and a love for a DSLR system, there’s still tremendous value in getting one, slinging it over your shoulder, and heading out into the wide, bright world; A7/r or no, this is just an unbelievably capable camera.

Methodical experiment

Subjective significance

Reliability reason

 

This Choco Toucan was one of two birds first seen in the distance. As they moved through the forest, they were very deliberate and methodical. They tilted their heads and changed postures before flying or hopping along a limb, evidently checking for predators.

 

July 8, 2014. Milpe Bird Sanctuary, Pichincha Province, Ecuador.

Going on a “Snipe hunt” is a well-known practical joke where an unsuspecting dupe is given a pillow case and led outdoors in the middle of the night and tricked to go on a hunt for an imaginary creature called a “Snipe.” However, the joke may really be on the jokesters, because Snipes are not imaginary.

 

This is a Wilson’s Snipe. One of about 26 types of Snipes, the Wilson’s Snipe is commonly found wading in and around the edges of swamps, bogs and wetlands, using its long narrow bill to methodically probe into the mud in search of insect larvae, worms, and other invertebrate prey. The bill has a flexible tip which allows the Wilson’s Snipe to grasp food while keeping the base of its bill closed, and allowing them to actually “slurp” their prey from the mud without having to remove their bill from the soil. Their eyes are set far back on their head, allowing them to see behind as well as in front and to the sides, making it difficult for predators (or photographers) to sneak up on them. Wilson’s Snipe have massive flight muscles and can reach speeds of 60 M.P.H.

 

So next time someone laughs about taking someone on an imaginary Snipe hunt, you can have the last laugh and tell them that they are actually real.

 

Taken March 28, 2020, at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area in Boone County, Missouri.

 

© All rights reserved - - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of the photographer, Mark S. Schuver.

 

The best way to view my photostream is on Flickriver: Nikon66's photos on Flickriver

   

With so few flowers in bloom at this time, I had to really be on the lookout for Hummers. The foraging Hummers also have to be on the lookout for any blooming plant.This lady was methodically sampling all of these red blooms on an ornamental shrub in my daughter's back yard. I saw only a few flying Hummers species (mostly female Anna's and Costa's). These ladies are segregated from each other for IDs mainly on their bill shapes. This bill is said to be more curved... but there is overlap.

 

IMG_9875; Costa's Hummingbird

The Gates of Hell

 

On August 16, 1880, Rodin received a commission to create a pair of bronze doors for a new decorative arts museum in Paris. Although the museum did not come to fruition and the doors were never fully realized, The Gates of Hell became the defining project of Rodin's career and a key to understanding his artistic aims. During the thirty-seven-year period that the sculptor worked on the project he continually added, removed, or altered the more than two hundred human figures that appear on the doors. Some of his most famous works, like The Thinker, The Three Shades, or The Kiss, were originally conceived as part of The Gates and were only later removed, enlarged, and cast as independent pieces.

 

Rodin's initial inspiration came from Inferno (Italian for "hell"), the first part of Italian poet Dante Alighieri's (1265–1324) epic poem The Divine Comedy. Rodin imagined the scenes described by Dante as a world with limitless space and a lack of gravitational pull. This allowed for ceaseless and radical experimentation by the artist, with figures that obey no rules in their poses, emotive gestures, or sexuality. For Rodin, the chaotic population on The Gates of Hell enjoyed only one final freedom—the ability to express their agony with complete abandon. In the end, the artist discarded the specific narratives of Dante's poem, and today The Gates is no longer a methodical representation of Inferno. Instead, the figures on the doors poignantly and heart-renderingly evoke universal human emotions and experiences, such as forbidden love, punishment, and suffering, but they also suggest unapologetic sexuality, maternal love, and contemplation.

 

In Rodin's lifetime The Gates of Hell was never cast in bronze and was known only in a full-size plaster model kept at the artist's studio in Meudon outside of Paris. The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia owns the first bronze cast of The Gates, commissioned in 1925 by the Museum's founder, Jules Mastbaum. At the time, Mastbaum ordered two sets of the doors—one for Philadelphia and one for the Musée Rodin in Paris.

 

Via www.rodinmuseum.org/collections/collectiontheme/4.html

A small, dark heron arrayed in moody blues and purples, the Little Blue Heron is a common but inconspicuous resident of marshes and estuaries in the Southeast. They stalk shallow waters for small fish and amphibians, adopting a quiet, methodical approach that can make these gorgeous herons surprisingly easy to overlook at first glance. Reference www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Little_Blue_Heron/id

Image - Copyright 2018 Alan Vernon

 

Drawiing from the open studio project Danforth Museum

“Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 12, 1888, Henry James Soulen (1888-1965) was a distinguished illustrator. He joined the Art Students League in Milwaukee, the Art Institute of Chicago, and later studied under Howard Pyle, the founder of the Brandywine School.

 

“An illustrator for ‘The Saturday Evening Post,’ Soulen began his career in May 1912. He also worked for other publications including ‘Country Gentleman’ and ‘Ladies Home Journal’ and received the Peabody Award for his magazine cover designs. He was well known for his use of powerful, vivid color at a time when most illustrations were in black and white.

 

“He was a methodical researcher and owned a large collection of costumes, weapons, and other objects that he used in his drawings. At age 62, he became a college professor at the University of Maryland and taught illustration in the art department. Soulen passed way at the age of 77 in 1965.” – Saturday Evening Post Archives

 

Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen)

 

The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a medium-sized black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Although once considered to be three separate species, it is now considered to be one, with nine recognised subspecies. A member of the Artamidae, the Australian magpie is placed in its own genus Gymnorhina and is most closely related to the black butcherbird (Melloria quoyi). It is not, however, closely related to the European magpie, which is a corvid.

 

The adult Australian magpie is a fairly robust bird ranging from 37 to 43 cm (14.5 to 17 in) in length, with distinctive black and white plumage, gold brown eyes and a solid wedge-shaped bluish-white and black bill. The male and female are similar in appearance, and can be distinguished by differences in back markings. The male has pure white feathers on the back of the head and the female has white blending to grey feathers on the back of the head. With its long legs, the Australian magpie walks rather than waddles or hops and spends much time on the ground.

 

Described as one of Australia's most accomplished songbirds, the Australian magpie has an array of complex vocalisations. It is omnivorous, with the bulk of its varied diet made up of invertebrates. It is generally sedentary and territorial throughout its range. Common and widespread, it has adapted well to human habitation and is a familiar bird of parks, gardens and farmland in Australia and New Guinea. This species is commonly fed by households around the country, but in spring a small minority of breeding magpies (almost always males) become aggressive and swoop and attack those who approach their nests.

Over 1000 Australian magpies were introduced into New Zealand from 1864 to 1874 but have subsequently been accused of displacing native birds and are now treated as a pest species. Introductions also occurred in the Solomon Islands and Fiji, where the birds are not considered an invasive species. The Australian magpie is the mascot of several Australian sporting teams, most notably the Collingwood Magpies, the Western Suburbs Magpies and Port Adelaide Magpies.

  

Taxonomy

 

The Australian magpie was first described by English ornithologist John Latham in 1801 as Coracias tibicen, the type collected in the Port Jackson region. Its specific epithet derived from the Latintibicen "flute-player" or "piper" in reference to the bird's melodious call. An early recorded vernacular name is piping poller, written on a painting by Thomas Watling, one of a group known collectively as the Port Jackson Painter, sometime between 1788 and 1792. Tarra-won-nang, or djarrawunang, wibung, and marriyang were names used by the local Eora and Darug inhabitants of the Sydney Basin. Booroogong and garoogong were Wiradjuri words, and carrak was a Jardwadjali term from Victoria. Among the Kamilaroi, it is burrugaabu, galalu, or guluu. It was known as Warndurla among the Yindjibarndi people of the central and western Pilbara. Other names used include piping crow-shrike, piper, maggie, flute-bird and organ-bird. The term bell-magpie was proposed to help distinguish it from the European magpie but failed to gain wide acceptance.

 

The bird was named for its similarity in colouration to the European magpie; it was a common practice for early settlers to name plants and animals after European counterparts. However, the European magpie is a member of the Corvidae, while its Australian counterpart is placed in the family Artamidae (although both are members of a broad corvid lineage). The Australian magpie's affinities with butcherbirds and currawongs were recognised early on and the three genera were placed in the family Cracticidae in 1914 by John Albert Leach after he had studied their musculature. American ornithologists Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist recognised the close relationship between woodswallows and the butcherbirds in 1985, and combined them into a Cracticini clade, in the Artamidae. The Australian magpie is placed in its own monotypic genus Gymnorhina which was introduced by the English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1840. The name of the genus is from the Ancient Greek gumnos for "naked" or "bare" and rhis, rhinos "nostrils". Some authorities such as Glen Storr in 1952 and Leslie Christidis and Walter Boles in their 2008 checklist, have placed the Australian magpie in the butcherbird genus Cracticus, arguing that its adaptation to ground-living is not enough to consider it a separate genus. A molecular genetic study published in a 2013 showed that the Australian magpie is a sister taxon to the black butcherbird (Melloria quoyi) and that the two species are in turn sister to a clade that includes the other butcherbirds in the genus Cracticus. The ancestor to the two species is thought to have split from the other butcherbirds between 8.3 and 4.2 million years ago, during the late Miocene to early Pliocene, while the two species themselves diverged sometime during the Pliocene (5.8–3.0 million years ago).

The Australian magpie was subdivided into three species in the literature for much of the twentieth century—the black-backed magpie (G. tibicen), the white-backed magpie (G. hypoleuca), and the western magpie (G. dorsalis). They were later noted to hybridise readily where their territories crossed, with hybrid grey or striped-backed magpies being quite common. This resulted in them being reclassified as one species by Julian Ford in 1969, with most recent authors following suit.

  

Subspecies

 

There are currently thought to be nine subspecies of the Australian magpie, although there are large zones of overlap with intermediate forms between the taxa. There is a tendency for birds to become larger with increasing latitude, the southern subspecies being larger than those further north, except the Tasmanian form which is small.[26] The original form, known as the black-backed magpie and classified as Gymnorhina tibicen, has been split into four black-backed races:

•G. tibicen tibicen, the nominate form, is a large subspecies found in southeastern Queensland, from the vicinity of Moreton Bay through eastern New South Wales to Moruya, New South Wales almost to the Victorian border. It is coastal or near-coastal and is restricted to east of the Great Dividing Range.

 

•G. tibicen terraereginae, found from Cape York and the Gulf Country southwards across Queenslandto the coast between Halifax Bay in the north and south to the Mary River, and central and western New South Wales and into northern South Australia, is a small to medium-sized subspecies. The plumage is the same as that of subspecies tibicen, although the female has a shorter black tip to the tail. The wings and tarsus are shorter and the bill proportionally longer. It was originally described by Gregory Mathews in 1912, its subspecies name a Latin translation, terra "land" reginae "queen's" of "Queensland". Hybridisation with the large white-backed subspecies tyrannica occurs in northern Victoria and southeastern New South Wales; intermediate forms have black bands of varying sizes in white-backed area. Three-way hybridisation occurs between Bega and Batemans Bay on the New South Wales south coast.

 

•G. tibicen eylandtensis, the Top End magpie, is found from the Kimberley in northern Western Australia, across the Northern Territory through Arnhem Land and Groote Eylandt and into the Gulf Country. It is a small subspecies with a long and thinner bill, with birds of Groote Eylandt possibly even smaller than mainland birds. It has a narrow black terminal tailband, and a narrow black band; the male has a large white nape, the female pale grey. This form was initially described by H. L. White in 1922. It intergrades with subspecies terraereginae southeast of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

 

•G. tibicen longirostris, the long-billed magpie, is found across northern Western Australia, from Shark Bay into the Pilbara. Named in 1903 by Alex Milligan, it is a medium-sized subspecies with a long thin bill. Milligan speculated the bill may have been adapted for the local conditions, slim fare meaning the birds had to pick at dangerous scorpions and spiders. There is a broad area of hybridisation with the western dorsalis in southern central Western Australia from Shark Bay south to the Murchison River and east to the Great Victoria Desert.

  

The white-backed magpie, originally described as Gymnorhina hypoleuca by John Gould in 1837, has also been split into races:

 

•G. tibicen tyrannica, a very large white-backed form found from Twofold Bay on the New South Wales far south coast, across southern Victoria south of the Great Dividing Range through to the Coorong in southeastern South Australia. It was first described by Schodde and Mason in 1999. It has a broad black tail band.

 

•G. tibicen telonocua, found from Cowell south into the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas in southern South Australia, as well as the southwestern Gawler Ranges. Described by Schodde and Mason in 1999, its subspecific name is an anagram of leuconota "white-backed". It is very similar to tyrannica, differing in having a shorter wing and being lighter and smaller overall. The bill is relatively short compared with other magpie subspecies. Intermediate forms are found in the Mount Lofty Ranges and on Kangaroo Island.

  

•G. tibicen hypoleuca now refers to a small white-backed subspecies with a short compact bill and short wings, found on King and Flinders Islands, as well as Tasmania.

 

•The western magpie, G. tibicen dorsalis was originally described as a separate species by A. J. Campbell in 1895 and is found in the fertile south-west corner of Western Australia. The adult male has a white back and most closely resembles subspecies telonocua, though it is a little larger with a longer bill and the black tip of its tail plumage is narrower. The female is unusual in that it has a scalloped black or brownish-black mantle and back; the dark feathers there are edged with white. This area appears a more uniform black as the plumage ages and the edges are worn away. Both sexes have black thighs.

 

•The New Guinean magpie, G. tibicen papuana, is a little-known subspecies found in southern New Guinea. The adult male has a mostly white back with a narrow black stripe, and the female a blackish back; the black feathers here are tipped with white similar to subspecies dorsalis. It has a long deep bill resembling that of subspecies longirostris. Genetically it is closely related to a western lineage of Australian magpies comprising subspecies dorsalis, longirostris and eylandtensis, suggesting their ancestors occupied in savannah country that was a land bridge between New Guinea and Australia and was submerged around 16,500 years ago.

  

Description

 

The adult magpie is a fairly solid, sturdy bird ranging from 37 to 43 cm (14.5 to 17 in) in length with a 65–85 cm (25.5–33.5 in) wingspan, and weighing 220–350 g (7.8–12.3 oz). Its robust wedge-shaped bill is bluish-white bordered with black, with a small hook at the tip. The black legs are long and strong. The plumage is pure glossy black and white; both sexes of all subspecies have black heads, wings and underparts with white shoulders. The tail has a black terminal band. The nape is white in the male and light greyish-white in the female. Mature magpies have dull red eyes, in contrast to the yellow eyes of currawongs and white eyes of Australian ravens and crows. The main difference between the subspecies lies in the "saddle" markings on the back below the nape. Black-backed subspecies have a black saddle and white nape. White-backed subspecies have a wholly white nape and saddle. The male Western Australian subspecies dorsalis is also white-backed, but the equivalent area in the female is scalloped black.

Juveniles have lighter greys and browns amidst the starker blacks and whites of their plumage; two- or three-year-old birds of both sexes closely resemble and are difficult to distinguish from adult females. Immature birds have dark brownish eyes until around two years of age. Australian magpies generally live to around 25 years of age, though ages of up to 30 years have been recorded. The reported age of first breeding has varied according to area, but the average is between the ages of three and five years.

Well-known and easily recognisable, the Australian magpie is unlikely to be confused with any other species. The pied butcherbird has a similar build and plumage, but has white underparts unlike the former species' black underparts. The magpie-lark is a much smaller and more delicate bird with complex and very different banded black and white plumage. Currawong species have predominantly dark plumage and heavier bills.

 

Vocalisation

 

One of Australia's most highly regarded songbirds, the Australian magpie has a wide variety of calls, many of which are complex. Pitch may vary as much as four octaves, and the bird can mimic over 35 species of native and introduced bird species, as well as dogs and horses. Magpies have even been noted to mimic human speech when living in close proximity to humans. Its complex, musical, warbling call is one of the most familiar Australian bird sounds. In Denis Glover's poem "The Magpies", the mature magpie's call is described as quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle, one of the most famous lines in New Zealand poetry, and as waddle giggle gargle paddle poodle, in the children's book Waddle Giggle Gargle by Pamela Allen.

 

When alone, a magpie may make a quiet musical warbling; these complex melodious warbles or subsongs are pitched at 2–4 KHz and do not carry for long distances. These songs have been recorded up to 70 minutes in duration and are more frequent after the end of the breeding season. Pairs of magpies often take up a loud musical calling known as carolling to advertise or defend their territory; one bird initiates the call with the second (and sometimes more) joining in. Often preceded by warbling, carolling is pitched between 6 and 8 kHz and has 4–5 elements with slurring indistinct noise in between. Birds will adopt a specific posture by tilting their heads back, expanding their chests, and moving their wings backwards. A group of magpies will sing a short repetitive version of carolling just before dawn (dawn song), and at twilight after sundown (dusk song), in winter and spring.

 

Fledgling and juvenile magpies emit a repeated short and loud (80 dB), high-pitched (8 kHz) begging call. Magpies may indulge in beak-clapping to warn other species of birds.They employ several high pitched (8–10 kHz) alarm or rallying calls when intruders or threats are spotted. Distinct calls have been recorded for the approach of eagles and monitor lizards.

 

Distribution and habitat

 

The Australian magpie is found in the Trans-Fly region of southern New Guinea, between the Oriomo River and Muli Strait, and across most of Australia, bar the tip of Cape York, the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts, and southwest of Tasmania. Birds taken mainly from Tasmania and Victoria were introduced into New Zealand by local Acclimatisation Societies of Otago and Canterbury in the 1860s, with the Wellington Acclimatisation Society releasing 260 birds in 1874. White-backed forms are spread on both the North and eastern South Island, while black-backed forms are found in the Hawke's Bay region. Magpies were introduced into New Zealand to control agricultural pests, and were therefore a protected species until 1951. They are thought to affect native New Zealand bird populations such as the tui and kereru, sometimes raiding nests for eggs and nestlings, although studies by Waikato University have cast doubt on this, and much blame on the magpie as a predator in the past has been anecdotal only. Introductions also occurred in the Solomon Islands and Sri Lanka, although the species has failed to become established. It has become established in western Taveuni in Fiji, however.

 

The Australian magpie prefers open areas such as grassland, fields and residential areas such as parks, gardens, golf courses, and streets, with scattered trees or forest nearby. Birds nest and shelter in trees but forage mainly on the ground in these open areas. It has also been recorded in mature pine plantations; birds only occupy rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest in the vicinity of cleared areas. In general, evidence suggests the range and population of the Australian magpie has increased with land-clearing, although local declines in Queensland due to a 1902 drought, and in Tasmania in the 1930s have been noted; the cause for the latter is unclear but rabbit baiting, pine tree removal, and spread of the masked lapwing (Vanellus miles) have been implicated.

 

Behaviour

 

The Australian magpie is almost exclusively diurnal, although it may call into the night, like some other members of the Artamidae. Natural predators of magpies include various species of monitor lizard and the barking owl. Birds are often killed on roads or electrocuted by powerlines, or poisoned after killing and eating house sparrows or mice, rats or rabbits targeted with baiting. The Australian raven may take nestlings left unattended.

 

On the ground, the Australian magpie moves around by walking, and is the only member of the Artamidae to do so; woodswallows, butcherbirds and currawongs all tend to hop with legs parallel. The magpie has a short femur (thigh bone), and long lower leg below the knee, suited to walking rather than running, although birds can run in short bursts when hunting prey.

 

The magpie is generally sedentary and territorial throughout its range, living in groups occupying a territory, or in flocks or fringe groups. A group may occupy and defend the same territory for many years. Much energy is spent defending a territory from intruders, particularly other magpies, and different behaviours are seen with different opponents. The sight of a raptor results in a rallying call by sentinel birds and subsequent coordinated mobbing of the intruder. Magpies place themselves either side of the bird of prey so that it will be attacked from behind should it strike a defender, and harass and drive the raptor to some distance beyond the territory. A group will use carolling as a signal to advertise ownership and warn off other magpies. In the negotiating display, the one or two dominant magpies parade along the border of the defended territory while the rest of the group stand back a little and look on. The leaders may fluff their feathers or caroll repeatedly. In a group strength display, employed if both the opposing and defending groups are of roughly equal numbers, all magpies will fly and form a row at the border of the territory. The defending group may also resort to an aerial display where the dominant magpies, or sometimes the whole group, swoop and dive while calling to warn an intruding magpie's group.

 

A wide variety of displays are seen, with aggressive behaviours outnumbering pro-social ones. Crouching low and uttering quiet begging calls are common signs of submission. The manus flutter is a submissive display where a magpie will flutter its primary feathers in its wings. A magpie, particularly a juvenile, may also fall, roll over on its back and expose its underparts. Birds may fluff up their flank feathers as an aggressive display or preceding an attack. Young birds display various forms of play behaviour, either by themselves or in groups, with older birds often initiating the proceedings with juveniles. These may involve picking up, manipulating or tugging at various objects such as sticks, rocks or bits of wire, and handing them to other birds. A bird may pick up a feather or leaf and flying off with it, with other birds pursuing and attempting to bring down the leader by latching onto its tail feathers. Birds may jump on each other and even engage in mock fighting. Play may even take place with other species such as blue-faced honeyeaters and Australasian pipits.

 

Breeding

 

Magpies have a long breeding season which varies in different parts of the country; in northern parts of Australia they will breed between June and September, but not commence until August or September in cooler regions, and may continue until January in some alpine areas. The nest is a bowl-shaped structure made of sticks and lined with softer material such as grass and bark. Near human habitation, synthetic material may be incorporated. Nests are built exclusively by females and generally placed high up in a tree fork, often in an exposed position. The trees used are most commonly eucalypts, although a variety of other native trees as well as introduced pine, Crataegus, and elm have been recorded. Other bird species, such as the yellow-rumped thornbill (Acanthiza chrysorrhoa), willie wagtail(Rhipidura leucophrys), southern whiteface (Aphelocephala leucopsis), and (less commonly) noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala), often nest in the same tree as the magpie. The first two species may even locate their nest directly beneath a magpie nest, while the diminutive striated pardalote (Pardalotus striatus) has been known to make a burrow for breeding into the base of the magpie nest itself. These incursions are all tolerated by the magpies. The channel-billed cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae) is a notable brood parasite in eastern Australia; magpies will raise cuckoo young, which eventually outcompete the magpie nestlings.

 

The Australian magpie produces a clutch of two to five light blue or greenish eggs, which are oval in shape and about 30 by 40 mm (1.2 by 1.6 in). The chicks hatch synchronously around 20 days after incubation begins; like all passerines, the chicks are altricial—they are born pink, naked, and blind with large feet, a short broad beak and a bright red throat. Their eyes are fully open at around 10 days. Chicks develop fine downy feathers on their head, back and wings in the first week, and pinfeathers in the second week. The black and white colouration is noticeable from an early stage. Nestlings are fed exclusively by the female, though the male magpie will feed his partner. The Australian magpie is known to engage in cooperative breeding, and helper birds will assist in feeding and raising young. This does vary from region to region, and with the size of the group—the behaviour is rare or nonexistent in pairs or small groups.

 

Juvenile magpies begin foraging on their own three weeks after leaving the nest, and mostly feeding themselves by six months old. Some birds continue begging for food until eight or nine months of age, but are usually ignored. Birds reach adult size by their first year. The age at which young birds disperse varies across the country, and depends on the aggressiveness of the dominant adult of the corresponding sex; males are usually evicted at a younger age. Many leave at around a year old, but the age of departure may range from eight months to four years.

 

Feeding

 

The Australian magpie is omnivorous, eating various items located at or near ground level including invertebrates such as earthworms, millipedes, snails, spiders and scorpions as well as a wide variety of insects—cockroaches, ants, beetles, cicadas, moths and caterpillars and other larvae. Insects, including large adult grasshoppers, may be seized mid-flight. Skinks, frogs, mice and other small animals as well as grain, tubers, figs and walnuts have also been noted as components of their diet. It has even learnt to safely eat the poisonous cane toadby flipping it over and consuming the underparts. Predominantly a ground feeder, the Australian magpie paces open areas methodically searching for insects and their larvae. One study showed birds were able to find scarab beetle larvae by sound or vibration. Birds use their bills to probe into the earth or otherwise overturn debris in search of food. Smaller prey are swallowed whole, although magpies rub off the stingers of bees and wasps before swallowing.

 

Relationship with humans

 

Swooping

 

Magpies are ubiquitous in urban areas all over Australia, and have become accustomed to people. A small percentage of birds become highly aggressive during breeding season from late August to early - mid October, and will swoop and sometimes attack passersby. Attacks begin as the eggs hatch, increase in frequency and severity as the chicks grow, and tail off as the chicks leave the nest.

 

The percentage has been difficult to estimate but is significantly less than 9%. Almost all attacking birds (around 99%) are male, and they are generally known to attack pedestrians at around 50 m (160 ft) from their nest, and cyclists at around 100 m (330 ft). There appears to be some specificity in choice of attack targets, with the majority of individuals specializing on either pedestrians or cyclists.Smaller - especially younger - people, lone people, and people travelling quickly (i.e., runners and cyclists) appear to be targeted most often by swooping magpies. Anecdotal evidence suggests that if a magpie sees a human trying to rescue a chick that has fallen from its nest, the bird will view this help as predation, and will become more aggressive to humans from then on.

 

Magpies may engage in an escalating series of behaviours to drive off intruders. Least threatening are alarm calls and distant swoops, where birds fly within several metres from behind and perch nearby. Next in intensity are close swoops, where a magpie will swoop in from behind or the side and audibly "snap" their beaks or even peck or bite at the face, neck, ears or eyes. More rarely, a bird may dive-bomb and strike the intruder's (usually a cyclist's) head with its chest. A magpie may rarely attack by landing on the ground in front of a person and lurching up and landing on the victim's chest and pecking at the face and eyes.

 

Magpie attacks can cause injuries, typically wounds to the head, and being unexpectedly swooped while cycling can result in loss of control of the bicycle, which may cause injury.

 

If it is necessary to walk near the nest, wearing a broad-brimmed or legionnaire's hat or using an umbrella will deter attacking birds, but beanies and bicycle helmets are of little value as birds attack the sides of the head and neck.

 

Magpies prefer to swoop at the back of the head; therefore, keeping the magpie in sight at all times can discourage the bird. A basic disguise such as sunglasses worn on the back of the head may fool the magpie as to where a person is looking. Eyes painted on hats or helmets will deter attacks on pedestrians but not cyclists.

 

Cyclists can deter attack by attaching a long pole with a flag to a bike, and the use of cable ties on helmets has become common and appears to be effective.

 

Magpies are a protected native species in Australia, so it is illegal to kill or harm them. However, this protection is removed in some Australian states if a magpie attacks a human, allowing for the bird to be killed if it is considered particularly aggressive (such a provision is made, for example, in section 54 of the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Act).[ More commonly, an aggressive bird will be caught and relocated to an unpopulated area. Magpies have to be moved some distance as almost all are able to find their way home from distances of less than 25 km (16 mi). Removing the nest is of no use as birds will breed again and possibly be more aggressive the second time around.

 

Some claim that swooping can be prevented by hand-feeding magpies. Magpies will become accustomed to being fed by humans, and although they are wild, will return to the same place looking for handouts. The idea is that humans thereby appear less of a threat to the nesting birds. Although this has not been studied systematically, there are reports of its success.

  

Cultural references

 

The Australian magpie featured in aboriginal folklore around Australia. The Yindjibarndi people of the Pilbara in the northwest of the country used the bird as a signal for sunrise, frightening them awake with its call. They were also familiar with its highly territorial nature, and it features in a song in their Burndud, or songs of customs. It was a totem bird of the people of the Illawarra region south of Sydney.

 

Under the name piping shrike, the white-backed magpie was declared the official emblem of the Government of South Australia in 1901 by Governor Tennyson, and has featured on the South Australian flag since 1904. The magpie is a commonly used emblem of sporting teams in Australia, and its brash, cocky attitude has been likened to the Australian psyche. Such teams tend to wear uniforms with black and white stripes. The Collingwood Football Club adopted the magpie from a visiting South Australian representative team in 1892. The Port Adelaide Magpies would similarly adopt the black and white colours and Magpie name in 1902. Other examples include Brisbane's Souths Logan Magpies, and Sydney's Western Suburbs Magpies. Disputes over who has been the first club to adopt the magpie emblem have been heated at times. Another club, Glenorchy Football Club of Tasmania, was forced to change uniform design when placed in the same league as another club (Claremont Magpies) with the same emblem.

 

In New Zealand, the Hawke's Bay Rugby Union team, from Napier, New Zealand, is also known as the magpies. One of the best-known New Zealand poems is "The Magpies" by Denis Glover, with its refrain "Quardle oodle ardle wardle doodle", imitating the sound of the bird – and the popular New Zealand comic Footrot Flats features a magpie character by the name of Pew.

 

An online poll conducted by Guardian Australia and BirdLife Australia was held in late 2017 to choose the "Australian Bird of the Year". The Australian magpie won the contest with 19,926 votes (13.3%), narrowly ahead of the Australian white ibis.

 

[Credit: en.wikipedia.org]

A storm clears the Friendship and the nearby Pedrick House. This building is the original building that was built in 1770 in Salem and at some time moved to Marblehead. In 2003 a local historian noted that this was not a building orignally in Marblehead but a Salem building. The park service managed to get the building transferred to them and Salem and then a labor of love began as it was taken apart very methodically and brought to Salem. It was then piece by piece put back together and it sits much as it had in the 1700s.

Tiny spider making its web, it had already completed the main outline and was methodically completing the filler threads.

After years of restoration effort in the shops of the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, the completed Columbia River Belt Line Locomotive #7 "Skookum" sees the light of day for the first time in the yard at Garibaldi, OR. An original Baldwin delivery banner, donated by a member of the crew adorns her boiler jacket, as would likely have been the case when she was delivered new.

 

Built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1909 as their builder's number 33463, this unusual 2-4-4-2 articulated, compound Mallet was intended for the Little River Railroad in Townsend, TN as their number 126. Unfortunately, that railroad quickly determined that she was too long for the tight curves on their line and she was returned to Baldwin. In 1910, Baldwin managed to resell her to the Columbia River Belt Line Railway in Blind Slough, OR, where she was put to work as a logging engine. That railroad typically named their locomotives rather than number them, and this engine received the name "Skookum", which is apparently a Chinook term, meaning large, powerful or impressive. She served the Columbia River Belt Line from 1910 through 1920, before being sold to the Carlisle-Pennell Lumber Company, where she acquired the number 7. After a four-year stint there, she served 4 other railroads, including the Deep River Logging Company, where her long career came to a sudden end in 1955, when she rolled over with a string of empty log bunks. Since that line was in the process of shutting down, no attempt was made to recover her and she was left in place.

 

In 1956, she was acquired by a man named Charles Morrow, who removed her from her wreck site in pieces....and she's spent the next 60 years in pieces, owned by several individuals and moved several different places. In 2005, she was acquired by Chris Baldo, who had her moved to the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad, with the goal of restoring her. It's been a long road. Some pieces had been damaged when she was removed from the wreck site, and some pieces had been lost. Over the past 13 years, a restoration team has slowly and methodically restored her major components and re-assembled her into the condition you see here. She appeared in public for the first time at a Lerro Productions Charter in October of 2018, but alas, she was unable to perform for the photographers, because she still has some technical issues, including valve timing, which must be tweaked and adjusted. She's a complex locomotive, and there's still some work to do. But the heavy lifting has been done, and after 60 years in pieces, one of the most unique steam locomotive survivors will shortly be gracing the rails in the Pacific Northwest, where she made her living during the first half of the last century.

A few days ago I was able to catch a pileated woodpecker visiting my deck, but so briefly that I didn't know why he was there. Now comes another member of the family, the Red-headed Woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus) who has been here the last several days, allowing me to determine that it is the corn on the bird house which I receive every Christmas as a gift drawing their attention. Who knew? Usually completely devoured by the squirrels over the winter, this year it was ignored for some reason, obviously to the happiness of the woodpeckers. I had no idea they were corn-eaters.

 

Having discovered this, I placed the feeder/birdhouse in a more conducive spot for photo-taking and this was the result. He is really not as shy as most and spends a significant amount of time here, selecting a kernel (as seen here) before flying to a nearby tree to peck at it. Very methodical, you can see he has already dispatched of a number of ears, but will take some time to get them all. I now look forward to his visits and it's a pleasure to have him around.

 

If you look closely to the far lower left center, you'll also see a chipmunk dining on his own fare on the steps to the dock.

You know you are living life when at the end of the day you can say "I tried."

No Fear of God

 

In the opening chapters of Romans, Paul has been methodically building his case that all mankind in Adam is without the righteousness that allows us to stand unafraid before God Almighty. The Gentiles who do not have the Mosaic law nonetheless suppress and reject the Lord's revelation in creation and their consciences. The Jews who have the Scriptures are no better off, for they have not kept God's law with the perfection required for justification—the Lord's declaration that a person is righteous in His sight. True, Jews have benefits that Gentiles lack, but mere possession of these benefits is not enough, and like the Gentiles, the Jews have fallen far short of God's glory. But although this teaching is offensive to anyone who measures goodness by comparing themselves to others and not to the Lord's perfect standards, it should not be difficult for anyone who actually knows the Old Testament. After all, the Hebrew Scriptures provide ample testimony of the pervasive sinfulness of humanity (Rom.1:18; 3:17). The worst indictment of all that we read in the Old Testament is Psalm 36:1, which the Apostle quotes in today's passage (Rom.3:18). "There is no fear of God before their eyes" represents a stinging and decisive rebuke for all who think themselves in the right before our Creator. Remember that the fear of God or the fear of the Lord is the foundation of all true piety. It is the starting point for godliness, the beginning of wisdom that leads to eternal life (Psa.111:10; Pro.10:27). The fear of God is properly held before our "eyes" because fearing Him means that we keep Him and His statutes as the focus and center of our attention. But human beings in Adam have utterly failed to view the Lord with such reverence. Because of this, we sin in what we think, do, and say. Ultimately, if we cannot keep the fear of God before our eyes, we cannot do anything else that is pleasing to Him. We start off on the wrong foot, as it were, and that means the entire direction of our lives is oriented away from the things of the Lord. Because there is no fear of the Almighty for the naturally conceived-and-born sons and daughters of Adam, "..None is righteous, no, not one" (Rom.3:10). Matthew Henry comments on today's passage, "Where no fear of God is, no good is to be expected." Fallen people might do civic goods that are praiseworthy from a human perspective, but they cannot do what is fully and truly good in the Lord's sight. Apart from Christ, we are as bad off as we could possibly be.

_____

Renewing Your Mind - A Message by R.C. Sproul

Devotional originally published at Ligonier.org

This image perfectly represents the problems I have with 35mm film. The biggest issue for me is that it takes me so long to finish a roll. I am too methodical for 35mm anymore. I loaded this roll into my pinhole camera in August of 2022, shot 2/3 of the roll on a trip to Victoria, BC then promptly forgot about it. I set the camera aside, played with other pinhole cameras and then when I got the itch to shoot my 35mm pinhole again it was late March of 2024 and by this point I had forgotten there was even film in the camera still. I remembered quickly enough when I popped the lid of the camera and saw a roll inside rapidly soaking up all the light I was pouring into the camera. Thankfully this was not my first time inadvertently exposing a loaded roll of film and my reflexes kicked in and a dark bathroom got me the rest of the way to making sure I didn't spoil this roll. Even seeing the film once I had rewound it gave me no clue as to what I had been shooting with it when first loaded. It was not until I saw the developed negatives and realized this was a leftover roll from that Victoria trip that the pieces all came together in my memory. I guess if I am being fair, the length of time it takes me to get through a roll of 35mm is not the only issue at play here. There is also the fact that I have so many pinhole cameras that this one was able to sit out of rotation for way too long. And the fact that I really should be better about putting sticky notes on my cameras noting the film type loaded. But hey...

 

As far as what is going on in this image, I was using the Reality So Subtle 35R pinhole camera. It has two pinholes, one on the front of the camera and another on the back of the camera. You can expose your film either normally on the emulsion side, or through the reverse side of the film creating a redscale effect. Or, as in what I did here, you can make two exposures one via the front and then turn the camera around and make a second via the rear pinhole overlapping the normal and redscale images into a double exposure. Kind of fun and I kind of like kind of fun stuff. What else am I going to do while waiting for a drawbridge to raise?

 

Reality So Subtle 35R

Silberra Color 50