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Group 3_
Alejandro Candela, Georgina Muñoz, Carlos Paz, Berenice Jimenez, Laura Antelo, Gabriel Manriquez
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
This is a tremolo that we have designed as standard sounding with LFO. Transparent and in sinusodial wave form. Extra led indicates LFO's speed. Not operable with battery.Controls: Depth, Rate--SOLD--
Dimensions: 20" wide X 10" tall X 12" deep.
Uses standard 1/4" jacks for audio out and patch panel.
Monophonic, with low-pass filter, envelope (HADSR) controls, LFO, pitch width modulation, white and pink noise generation, and external signal in jack.
About the Korg MS-10:
The Dirty Carter Electronic Sound Generating Instrument was designed by John Richards (Dirty Electronics) and Chris Carter from legendary Industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle. It was produced for a special performance by Carter and the 25 strong Dirty Electronics Ensemble in 2010. It was originally designed as a touch controlled instrument with the player's skin resistance completing the circuit. This hard wired modification by A.S.M.O. gives more control and predictability by wiring all to the touch contacts to pots and switches. An additional low pass resonant filter has been added, LFO and an external CV socket for filter modulation.
The case is made of stained ply and the front panel is covered with black leatherette.
Having fun with my new Strobist gear. Decided to take this interesting older radio out of the cabinet and see what I could do.
Strobist info:
Canon EOS 40D, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM, 13mm extension tube
1/250, f/8, ISO 100
Canon Speedlite 430EX @ 1/64, 105mm camera right
Canon Speedlite 430EX II @ 1/64, 24mm behind radio
20" silver reflector camera left
Flashes fired via CyberSync triggers
Airbrushed various Alclads onto the tripod after polishing the helmet (hohoho).
I thought I'd try colour modulation for the first time on the tanks. Looks crazy now but it should tone down nicely.
Here's some spec's on this sweet system. It's a "Matrix" system, meaning that it has the ability to change all of it's routings on every preset.
Instead of being tied to one signal flow you can have any signal flow you want, when you want. Which is pretty handy for score music composer & guitar instrumental musician who has to constantly change the signal flow.
The switcher has a software interface that allows you to create an icon for each device and it's corresponding input(s) & Output(s), then using the mouse, connect the rig you want to have at that moment with no extra devices connected to the signal path for the cleanest path possible from pick ups to speakers.
A matrix switcher has 16x Inputs & 16x Outputs, so we decided to put 5 switchers in this system, connected them to each other & bunch of other cool gear. Each switcher has a "Group" responsibility:
1. "Master" - Magnetic & Piezo Inputs + 4x Amplifiers + 1 Axe FX ("Front End" of 4 Wire Config) + Multiple Connections to the other Switchers
2. "Harmonics" - Octave, Fuzz & Overdrive devices.
3. "Dynamics" - Compressors, EQ's Filters, Synthesizers.
4. "Modulations" - Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, UniVibe, & Tremolo.
5. "Time" - Delays & Reverbs + Axe FX ("Back End") for Reverb, Delay & Looper.
Any order & combination of series & parallel is possible, the possibilities for signal routings are only limited by the player's imagination...
In the afternoon of 15 April 2009, the Moon-1 Humvee Rover encountered a snow-covered lead (opening in the sea-ice exposing liquid water) at 68o15.573’N, 108o52.820’W which caused the vehicle to sink through slush and become immobilized. The Northwest Passage Drive Expedition team succeeded in rescuing the vehicle using the Moon-1’s powerful front winch, ice anchors, and the Humvee’s unique break throttle modulation (BTM) torque transfer capability. The Expedition continued that day and reached Campsite Five at the western tip of Kent Peninsula (68o36.820’N, 108o19.409’W) in the evening, achieving a distance traversed that day of 97 km and a total distance traversed from Kugluktuk of 336 km.
(Photo Mars Institute/Haughton-Mars Project/J. Schutt)
Highlights from NPR (Neighborhood Public Radio) at MOCA's Engagment Party. "IN YOUR CAR" Day 2 of 3
While MOCA generally encourages green transportation, NPR asks that visitors bring their cars to this event. FREE parking will be available in public lot 7; entry is accessible from Judge John Aiso Street.
In Your Car will feature two concurrent sound projects broadcasting on local frequencies, Park Park Revolution and Ping Modulation.
Park Park Revolution will be a composition “played” by cars parked in the lot surrounding the Geffen Contemporary. NPR will divide the Geffen lot into four sections, with each assigned to its own broadcast frequency. Directed into parking spaces, drivers will be instructed to tune in their radios and turn up their volumes to create a quadraphonic matrix of sound.
Under the canopy located at the Geffen entrance, Ping Modulation will pay homage to artist Robert Rauschenberg’s Open Score. For this project, NPR will outfit ping-pong tables with contact microphones and sound processors; as visitors match off in games of table tennis, the noise of their play will be fed to radio broadcasts that will transform their participation into sound art.
Published on May 2, 2011
by MOCA
Group 3_
Alejandro Candela, Georgina Muñoz, Carlos Paz, Berenice Jimenez, Laura Antelo, Gabriel Manriquez
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
Group 3_
Alejandro Candela, Georgina Muñoz, Carlos Paz, Berenice Jimenez, Laura Antelo, Gabriel Manriquez
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
Dub~STEP~ARCADE
a cross between a dub siren and atari punk console with A/D gen and LFO modulation
KITS NOW AVAILABLE
With the EBS UniChorus you can choose between low noise studio quality Chorus, Flange and Pitch Modulation effects. Analog Processing
The pedal is built with the best analog processing circuitry. This gives a smoother, warmer and fatter sounding chorus/flange effect, useful both for live and studio performances.
Manchester Cathedral.
St Mary Window, 1980.
By Antony Hollaway (1928-2000).
In 1963 the stained glass designer and craftsman Tony Hollaway was introduced to the Manchester architect, Harry Fairhurst. Eight years later, after they had worked together on commissions in Cheshire and Liverpool, Fairhurst sought Tony's advice about a plan for five large stained-glass windows in Manchester Cathedral.
Thus was Tony asked to design and make the first window, the St George in the inner south-west aisle. It was completed in 1973. Further windows followed in 1976 and 1980 and the final window, Revelation was installed in 1995.
Detail: The St Mary Window. Designed by Antony Hollaway, 1980. (This is in the Tower.)
The circle, which dominates the window, is the ancient Christian symbol of perfection. It is marred by the death of Jesus in the form of a shart of leight or the sword. This is a direct reference to the prohecy of Simeon to the Blessed Virgin at the time of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. (“A sword shall piee through your own Soul also”. Luke 2: 35).
This destoryed the perfection of the circle which is compensated for visually the the arcs of red and yellow. “And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven: a women clother with the sun, the moon under her feet …” (Revelation 12:1). These radii restore the symmetry required for formal and design purposes.
These are seven shades of blue within the circle, blue being a colour traditionally associated with St Mary the Virgin. The circle contains a serpent. This is a multiple image best understood under the following headings:
The circle placed upon these blocks of colour are letter forms both upper and lower case which are essentially to create a pattern. However, they may be re-assembled to read verses from the Magnificate: left to right. The act of re-assembling the letters is intended to concentrate the mine on the text which would not necessarily result from ‘easy reading’.
The above details are intended to present:
1. A suitable light modulation for this part of the building.
2. A relationship with the two adjoining windows.
3. A monumentality and dignity appropriate to the Architecture and to the special place of this window in the Scheme, and of the Virgin Mary among the Patron Saints of the Cathedral.
All the teaching elements of the window are subordinate to the formal design requirements expressed in (3).
Class 4 antennas such as Sentinel® from CommScope diminish the
risk of interference to the microwave link (see graph), providing a marked improvement of the
carrier-to-interference (C/I) ratio. This allows radios to operate at higher modulation levels for
longer, thereby increasing total traffic and, hence, revenue over the link.
Additionally, Class 4 antennas with their low side lobe levels allow better reuse of the same
frequency channel, thus requiring fewer channels. This more efficient use of spectrum offers
significant advantages: The repeated reuse of the same frequencies substantially reduces
spectrum costs; alternatively, where required, the spectrum freed by using Class 4 antennas
allows wider channels to be used, thus increasing capacity in the network.
Group 3_
Alejandro Candela, Georgina Muñoz, Carlos Paz, Berenice Jimenez, Laura Antelo, Gabriel Manriquez
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
Group 3_
Alejandro Candela, Georgina Muñoz, Carlos Paz, Berenice Jimenez, Laura Antelo, Gabriel Manriquez
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
Group 3_
Alejandro Candela, Georgina Muñoz, Carlos Paz, Berenice Jimenez, Laura Antelo, Gabriel Manriquez
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
We hosted a lunch meeting with a couple of our favorite Stanford Profs: Nolan Williams (rapid TMS, ibogaine, nanoparticle drug-delivery to specific brain regions unlocked by focused ultrasound) and Karl Deisseroth (optogenetics, deep brain gene expression and ketamine).
Deisseroth is the pioneer of optogenetics, the mind-reading & writing tool that allows for individual neuron targeting and manipulation, and his new work looks at the effects of mind-altering drugs on brain function in detail.
For a sense of the power of his methods: he can take a pair of mice than were just mating happily, and with a flip of a switch, they become violent to each other. He made a mouse walk in an infinite left turn loop when a fiber optic is flipped on in the motor cortex (with no apparent awareness or distress at being controlled this way). He admits that he finds this capability “deeply disturbing.”
Another team selectively activated subsets of parenting behavior (like bringing wandering young back to the nest, or grooming behaviors). They can also probe three different sub-states of anxiety that we only experience as a bundle.
How does this work? Before the plant kingdom evolved chlorophyll to harvest energy from sunlight, the more ancient bacteria used rhodopsins in a membrane-bound proton-pump to do the same. The rhodopsins captured a swath of the sun’s spectrum, tilting the algae to the leftover parts of the spectrum not yet absorbed, and this is why plants are green. Karl introduced these bacterial light-triggered elements into neurons of interest using a viral vector to the brain. He can then trigger neuronal firing optically, as the rhodopsin pump supplements the ion channels in the neuron. He can also trigger reporter molecules from the bacterial world to read out brain activity as the brain is functioning.
So, for example, he has observed a 3 Hz cycling in the retrosplenial cortex of a mouse brain on ketamine, and he has been able to reproduce the effects with optogenetic stimulation to achieve similar effects. He has also found that the dissociative drugs (ketamine and PCP) allow for reflexes to pain (e.g., heat on paw or puff of air to eyes) to continue normally, while the protective cognitive reactions (licking the paws after heat or squinting in anticipation of the next puff) disappear, a disassociation of mind and body reflexes.
He is diving deeper into the brain to investigate how this works, finding that the various subregions of the thalamus are regulated by disassociative drugs by overpowering the voting circuits with a pulsing 3 Hz modulation of the ketamine-enhanced circuits. The other nodes in the thalamus are operating as before, but do not achieve as powerful a consensus. The thalamus regulates where we spend our attention and conscious focus, to avoid doing everything we might be tempted to do simultaneously, and thereby not really doing any of them well.
The implications of this level of understanding are enormous. The questions we can now ask using optogenetics will transform how we understand mental disorders and also call into question some deep philosophical questions surrounding consciousness and free will. It may also unveil the mysteries about how psychedelics operate in the brain, allowing us to optimize the use cases for testing in human clinical trials. Exciting work is going on with psilocybin for alcohol use disorder, extreme OCD and the eating disorders (which are also a disassociation of mind from body).
Also, “some patients do not disassociate on ketamine. From some anecdotal evidence, those tend to be the sociopaths.”
Disassociation naturally has a 10% incidence, and 70% among people with trauma. When in a state of induced disassociation (e.g., from ketamine), that 3 Hz rhythm occurs in a part of the Default Mode Network involved with coordinate transformations (aligning the 3D models for ego-centric and allocentric coordinates).
I find this fascinating in light of Jeff Hawkins’ work on the ubiquity of reference frames in cortical columns: Everything we perceive is a constructed reality, a cortical consensus from competing internal models resident in many cortical columns, the amalgam of 1000 brains. Those models are updated by data streaming from the senses. But our reality resides in the models.
Some of Deisseroth’s newest work saves and sequences the brain cells that stick to the deep-drain electrode needles, a core sample of genetic expression at different depths. These cells were routinely discarded, but now offer a new view into the workings of the brain.
• More on optogenetics: optogenetics.org at Stanford
• My prior post on Nolan Williams and the remarkable results using a single dose of ibogaine to cure TBI disability (and depression, PTSD, anxiety, and addiction all in one go): x.com/FutureJurvetson/status/1743305447103516773
The Dirty Carter Electronic Sound Generating Instrument was designed by John Richards (Dirty Electronics) and Chris Carter from legendary Industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle. It was produced for a special performance by Carter and the 25 strong Dirty Electronics Ensemble in 2010. It was originally designed as a touch controlled instrument with the player's skin resistance completing the circuit. This hard wired modification by A.S.M.O. gives more control and predictability by wiring all to the touch contacts to pots and switches. An additional low pass resonant filter has been added, LFO and an external CV socket for filter modulation.
The case is made of stained ply and the front panel is covered with black leatherette.
Teisipäev, 14. aprill kell 19.30 ja 21.00
Kanuti Gildi SAAL (Pikk 20)
Pilet 10/7 eelmüügist, 12/7 enne kontserti
KAVAS:
“Rhythmus 21” (1921): Video Hans Richter, muusika Ove-Kuth Kadak (2015, esiettekanne) … 3’10”
“(üle)küllus” (2015, esiettekanne): Muusika ja video Aljona Kastjušina … 7’
“Controcorrente” (2012, Eesti esiettekanne): Muusika ja video Ivan Penov … 7’30″
“Phase Walk” (2015, esiettekanne): Henri Georg Viies … u 7’
“Cross modulation” (2015, esiettekanne): Muusika Ekke Västrik … 7’
“Ghosts and Whispers” (2014, Eesti esiettekanne): Muusika ja video Damiano Marconi … 6’30″
“Merkin” (2015, esiettekanne): Hendrik Tammjärv … u 7’
“Seppie senz’ossa” (2013, Eesti esiettekanne): Video Paolo Pachini, muusika Roberto Doati … 10’
“Rhythmus 21” (1921): Video Hans Richter, muusika Giovanni Tancredi (2015, esiettekanne) … 3’10”
Audiovisuaalsed kompositsioonid, versioon 1.2: visuaalne väljendus muusikalise mõtte laiendusena.
Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia kompositsiooniosakonna audiovisuaalse kompositsiooni kontsert toob kokku selle valdkonna ajaloo olulise repertuaari ja EMTA audiovisuaalse kompositsiooni tudengite loomingu. Sel aastal esitleb EMTA muuhulgas rahvusvaheliselt tuntud heliloojate Paolo Pachini ja Roberto Doati audiovisuaalse kompositsiooni “Seppie senz’ossa” (2013) Eesti esiettekannet.
Kontserdi kunstiline juht on Paolo Girol.
Kestus: umbes 1 tund.
Saadaval piiratud hulk pileteid (kontsert kantakse ette kaks korda, igal kontserdil ainult 50 istekohta patjadel). Hilinejaid sisse ei lubata!
Koostöös Eesti Muusika- ja Teatriakadeemia kompositsiooniosakonna ja festivaliga “Saksa kevad”
Group 1_
Cynthia Castillo, Moises Talavera, Amir Hanna, Guillermo Perez, Osvaldo Andrade
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
Group 3_
Alejandro Candela, Georgina Muñoz, Carlos Paz, Berenice Jimenez, Laura Antelo, Gabriel Manriquez
Networked Fabrication for Urban Provocations.
Shifting Paradigms from Mass Production to Mass Customization
Computational architecture and design course
Conventional construction methods all depart from the basic premises of mass production: standardization, modulation and a production line. What these systems developed during the last two centuries fail to take into account are the evolutionary leaps and bounds the manufacturing industry has taken over the last decades. With the introduction of CNC technologies and rapid prototyping machines have altered the paradigms of fabrication forever. It is due to these new tools that it is now possible to create (n) amount of completely unique and different pieces with the same amount of energy and material that is required to create (n) identical pieces. The possibilities for implementation of new forms, textures, materials and languages are infinite due to the versatility that these new tools offer a growing network of architects, designers, fabricators that are integrating them into their professional practices to generate unique and precise objects that respond to countless data and real-life conditions.
Instructors:
Monika Wittig [ LaN, IaaC ]
Shane Salisbury [ LaN, IaaC ]
Filippo Moroni [ SOLIDO, Politecnico di Milano ]
MS Josh Updyke [ Advanced Manufacturing Institute, KSU, Protei ]
Aaron Gutiérrez Cortes [ Amorphica ]
SMS303's Ultra Rare Dutch
Tidal Quad Modular Filter
Only 15-20 are build
Back rear controls, in-outputs
The Tidal Quad is a 4-channel filterbank with extensive control and modulation possibilities. The filter can be used in High-/ Low-/ or Bandpass with an Envelope follower for each mode. There is also an LFO for each set of 2 Channels which allows complex modulations. Additionally it offers a Waveshaper for each channel. For friends of analog distortion this unit leaves no wish open.
* 4x HP/BP/LP - Filtermodule
* LFO Channel 1+2 (Cutoff)
* LFO Channel 3+4 (Cutoff)
* LFO each channel positive or negative switch
* 1 Waveshaper per Channel
* 4x Sidechain Input with Envelope Follower for Cutoff-Modulation
The resonant filter might be the most important effect in popular music these days. However if you want to insert a filter on multiple channels of your mixer and also would like to have a lot of knobs and modulation possibilities, there was no real solution. That's why Tidal Music Electronics announces it's four channel desktop multimode filter. You can switch the four individual resonant filters between Lowpass, Bandpass and Highpass modus. Each filter can be modulated by an envelope follower, a LFO and an external CV. The envelope follower is specially designed to track percussive sounds without false triggering, a key feature when used with drumcomputers, grooveboxes or guitar.
Maximum Modulation:
Each filterbank has 4 VCFs, 4 Waveshapers, 4 Envelopefollowers and 2 Low Frequency Oscillators (LFOs). The filters are switchable between 3 modes, Lowpass, Bandpass and Highpass. The Low- and Bandpass are 24 dB and the Highpass is 12 dB/Oct. The cutoff of each channel can be modulated by it's own Envelope follower which can be fed by a sidechain input or by the audiosignal itself. This option gives you the possibilities to create very funky filter-effects. Each LFO modulates 2 channels and every channel has it's own depth controller which can be set positive or negative. This can be used to generate cool stereo effects.
The Waveshaper
The waveshaper is one of the components which give the filterbank it's unique sound. It actually is a wavefolder which "folds" the tops of the waveform back instead of clipping. This sounds a bit like an overdrive but also has some characteristics of Frequency Modulation.
To give you a better idea what the waveshaper actually does we'll illustrate what happens with a simple sine wave using different ratio settings for each of the two shaper modes.
DSP-based drumcomputer. Very versatile. Offers 4 different algorithms to create drums with: an emulation of the Roland TR-series, Frequency Modulation, Physical Modelling and 12bit samples. Love it for being an allrounder.
So I moulded and casted an improved cockpit from my vac-formed master, cleaned it up, and hey, not bad!
All credit for the electronics and programming work goes to my dad, who is just roughing out the sequencing for the micropython system. He assures me the modulation and frequency can be made a lot smoother, but these tests are just to understand what we're trying to acheive
White Sands Missile Range Museum
Telemetry is the science of measuring something in one place and reporting the results in another.
A simple example of telemetry is the automobile speedometer, which measures the wheels' rotation and presents it in miles per hour on the dashboard.
Most telemetry used in missile testing is Radio Frequency (RF) transmitted from a missile to a ground receiver. NASA uses telemetry to keep tabs on the functioning of space equipment. Telemetry has been one of the most important data sources used for testing at WSMR.
This telemetry package was discovered in an old missile assembly building in the mid-1980s. Shipping documents indicate that it was shipped to Douglas Aircraft Company at White Sands Proving Ground in 1956 and 1957.
These Commutator/ Transmitter sets are believed to have been utilized in the Honest John rocket.
Especially noteworthy is the fact that this Commutator was a motor driven, mechanical device and the VCO/Transmitter package used vacuum tubes. Today's packages are completely solid state.
How did this circa-1957 telemetry package work?
COMMUTATOR
Analog voltages representing a number of functions such as elevon, rudder and seeker head positions pressure, and battery voltages were sequentially sampled and converted to a voltage pulse temperature, train (commutated data) and sent to a VCO
VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator)
The voltage pulse train (commutated data) was used to drive a VCO to vary the oscillator's center frequency (called FM or frequency modulation)
TRANSMITTER
This FM (frequency modulated) signal from the VCO was then sent to a RF Transmitter (radio frequency amplifier) that transmitted the data through an onboard antenna to a ground station receiver
RECEIVER
The ground station received this transmitted data signal and sent it through an FM discriminator that changed the data signal back to a voltage pulse train.
DECOMMUTATOR
The decommutator converted the voltage pulse train data back to the original set of analog functions that were then recorded on media such as strip charts or analog tapes.
Just in time for some potentially wet Bike Polo in Asheville, "Allwrong" is yet again equipped with a front disc brake. This time with a cheap-assed 700c disc wheel which replaced the broken race wheel and a 160mm rotor intstead of a 180mm. Yay modulation!
Static
a. inactive, not in physical motion
b. of or relating to bodies at rest or forces in equilibrium
c. a crackling or hissing noise caused by electrical interference
Pulse
a. rhythmical beating, vibrating, or sounding
b. a transient variation of a quantity whose value is normally constant
c. an electromagnetic wave or modulation thereof of brief duration
Shot in Tokyo with Canon 350D and 5D DSLRs, processed with Lightroom (raw files color adjustment and resizing)/VirtualDub (deshaker/deflicker filters)/Sony Vegas (editing). Original rendered in full 1080 HD@30p.
Music : Edge to Life by Recoil on "Bloodline", one of my favorite albums ever. Available from all major music outlets.
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This is a frame from a video. You can watch it on Vimeo.
Corners of Houston, Lafayette, Mulberry and Jersey, Nolita
The Puck Building, originally the home of Puck magazine, is one of the great surviving buildings from New York's old publishing and printing district.
The red-brick round-arched structure occupies the entire block bounded by East Houston, Lafayette, Mulberry and Jersey Streets, and has been one of the most prominent architectural presences in the area since its construction one hundred years ago. The building is further distinguished by the large statue of Puck at the building's East Houston and Mulberry Street corner; this is among the city 's most conspicuous pieces of architectural sculpture.
Puck was, from its founding in 1876 until its demise in 1918, the city's and one of the country's best-known humor magazines. Published in both English and German-language editions , Puck satirized most of the public events of the day. The magazine featured color lithographic cartoons produced by the J. Ottman Lithographic Company, largest in the country, which shared the Puck Bllilding space.
The current building is the result of three stages of construction, all supervised by architect Albert Wagner; the building and its additions read as a single unified composit ion. The style is an adaptation of the Romanesque
Revival, which had reached great popularity in the 1880s through the works of H. H. Richardson. Wagner's Romanesque, however, was not Richardsonian. A German-born architect, Wagner had worked in New York for Prague-trained Leopold Eidlitz, and his version of the Romanesque appears to reflect the round-arched Gernan "Rundbogenstil" that Eidlitz had brought to New York several decades earlier.
The Puck Building remains one of the most striking 19th-century industrial buildings in lower Manhattan. The comic magazine was founded by Joseph Keppler (1838-1894) and Adolph Schwarzman first appeared in German in 1876. Puck's attitude varied from d humor to merciless satire. Politicallv, in Keppler's time, supported the Democratic Party, but it was never a partisan magazine. It ridiculed poiitical corruption, monopolies, labor unions, suffragism, and all forms of graft, extravagance, and unjustice. It reviewed theater and musical performances. It laughed at fashions and different fads.
In March 1885, with the magazine's circulation and success on the rise, Keppler, Schwarzmann and Ottman purchased property on the southwest corner of East Houston and Mulberry Streets to be the site of a building to house both Puck and the Ottman company. The location was at the fringes of what was then New York's printing district, whose -center was the Astor Library on Lafayette Street (then Lafayette Place). The authors of a Puck supplement issued on the occasion of its tenth anniversary wrote that "Houston street marks the southernmost boundary of a region much affected by large publishing houses."
Publishing houses, periodicals, and printers were located throughout the neighborhood during the 1880s and 1890s, and it was a natural choice for Puck. The original building was erected in 1885-86 to the designs of Albert Wagner, but went through several additions and alterations. In August 1890, spurred by the continuing growth of the magazine, Keppler, Schwarzann, and J. Ottman's heirs bought the adjoining property to the south at 281 Mulberry Street and erected an addition to the Puck Building in 1892-93, again to Albert Wagner's design. The two-year delay was caused by uncertainty in 1890, about the potential route of a proposed new rapid transit line.
Although the Puck Building is too late to be considered part of the Rundbogenstil, it appears to show the influence of Wagner's earlier experience with it. Such a connection would help explain both the references to the style as "Renaissance," and its dissimilarity to the then more popular Richardsonian version of the Romanesque.
The enormous red brick structure has been a commanding presence in the neighborhood since the time of its construction. Its identity was further announced by the statue of Puck at the Houston and Mulberry Street corner of the building, where the two main entrances originally met, one on either street. There is also a smaller statue over the Lafayette Street entrance. The larger '"Puck" on East Houston Street was apparently designed by Henry Baerer, the sculptor of the bust of Beethoven in Central Park. The designer of the smaller "Puck" is not known.
The Puck Building today comprises the original 1885-86 structure and the 1892 addition, less the western portion of each removed in 1898; the Lafayette Street elevation dates from the latter alteration, but duplicates the earlier design. The building occupies an irregular lot bounded by East Houston Street on the north, Mulberry Street on the east, Jersey Street on the south, and Lafayette Street on the west.43 Despite the complexity of its building history, the Puck reads as a single structure retaining the integrity of its original design. The original portion is seven stories high, and the addition nine, but otherwise they are practically identical in design and material.
The building's architectural effects derive from the rhythms set up by arches of varying width, within bays of equal width, and from an adept use of red brick which creates the modulations in the piers, the definition of the arches, and the corbeling of the cornice. Cast-iron window enframements, statuary, and wrought-iron entrance gates, and the cast-iron and glass vault-lighting, provide the necessary contrast in materials.
The original section now comprises four bays on Lafayette Street, three bays on East Houston, and six bays on Mulberry. On Mulberry, the bays are defined by large brick piers that run the full height of the building. Each pier is actually in two sections: a wider pier at the first and second stories, and a narrower pier above. Each pier has a small brownstone base and rests on a five-foot high block of polished gray granite; each is banded in projecting brick. Within each bay at the first and second stories is a double-story brick arch, with projecting brick edges. Ihthin the arch, each bay consists of an upper arched lunette and a lower rectangle, separated by a cast-iron transom. The lunette contains a central double-hung one-over-one window, flanked on either side by a swing window topped by a quarter-arch pane. Beneath the spandrel are three large rectangular windows with transoms above and six-paned basement windows below.
The second and fourth bays south of East Houston Street contain secondary storefront entrances; the door replaces the central rectangular window of each storefront. The first and second stories are set off from those above by a brownstone stringcourse, beneath which is a band of corbeling.
The second section of pier, running from the third story to the seventh story, is narrower than the lower section; each is banded and adorned with an elegant iron ornamental tie-rod end at the fourth story, and a smaller one at the top. At the third and fourth story each bay comprises a pair of two-story arches, each half the width of the arches below. These arches rest on small brick piers with patterned brick "capitals." Within each arch are a pair of four-over-four doublehung windows above the brick spandrel, and a similar pair below the spandrel; each window in the pair is separated from the one next to it by a slender cast-iron pier with neo-Grec detailing. The third and fourth story bay is topped by corbeling and a brownstone sillcourse above.
- From the 1983 NYCLPC Landmark Designation report
Species of Melosira from the salt pond site NS-1 in Heron's Head Park, San Francisco, on San Francisco Bay. This was taken with Hoffman Modulation Contrast Optics at 1,000x, from a wet mount slide. This shows the barrel structure of a single cell of this colonial diatom.
So I moulded and casted an improved cockpit from my vac-formed master, cleaned it up, and hey, not bad!
All credit for the electronics and programming work goes to my dad, who is just roughing out the sequencing for the micropython system. He assures me the modulation and frequency can be made a lot smoother, but these tests are just to understand what we're trying to acheive
Dub~STEP~ARCADE REAR VIEW has both 9v battery and 9vdc supply socket- board has a LM3809 9v regulator on board
a cross between a dub siren and atari punk console with A/D gen and LFO modulation
KITS NOW AVAILABLE
Architects: Sauerbruch Hutton
Location: Cologne, Germany
Client: MEAG MunichErgo Asset Managment
Area: 42,700 sqm
Year: 2010
A pair of free-form volumes responds to the landscape qualities of the site – a former floodplain of the Rhine – as well as to the memory of villas in park-like settings that once occupied this now increasingly densified area. In addition the new buildings acknowledge the sculptural characteristics of the adjacent twelve-storey 1960s high-rise, while their vivid polychromy supports the organic character of the external space.
In each building the office areas are arranged around three compact cores. Primary cores are connected to the main entrance hall, while secondary ones are entered from the more intimate patio spaces. Every floor can be subdivided into three distinct units, each identifiable through its own reception area, sculptural stair and elevator core. The varying depth of plan offers a great number of variations in office layout. The generosity of the windows is echoed in the glazed corridor walls that ensure maximum light throughout the depth of the plan, while giving spectacular views out towards the Rhine and Cologne Cathedral.
One innovative development lies in the series of finger-shaped canopies that were prototyped as an alternative to a suspended ceiling, so as to take advantage of thermal mass and to increase clear height. All necessary services – lighting, air distribution, sprinklers and acoustic modulation – are unobtrusively integrated in these overhead elements. The offices use groundwater from the Rhine as a source of geothermal energy and to supplement the heating and cooling systems, while also carefully building above the 100-year water level and to flood defence specifications.
Features:
1.Built-in Wireless Bluetooth 3.0 keyboard
2.Desighned with the 7.9 inch iPad in mind
3.7.9 inch iPad display stand for convenient viewing
4.Built-in Rechargeable Polymer lithium battery with lasts for approximately 55 hours
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5.Touch screen interface with multiple uses
6.Light weight,quiet keystrokes,water and dust-proof
Specifications
1.Bluetooth 3.0 standard interface
2.Operating distance of 10 meters
3.Modulation System:GFSK
4.Operating Voltage:3.0-5.0v
5.Working Current:<5.0mA
6.Standby Current:2.2.5mA
7.Charge Time:4-5 hours
8.Standby Time:60days
9.Charging Time:4-5 hours
10.Polymer Lithium Battery Capacity:200mA
11.Uninterrupted Working Time:55 hours
12.Polymer Lithium Bttery life-span:3 years
13.Plymer Lithium Battery Specifications:25mmx16mmx4mm
14.Key Strength:80g
15.Key Life -span:5 million strokes
16.Operating Temperature Range:-10-+55℃
17.Keyboard Dimensions:205x146.5x21mm
18.Keyboard NW:350g
Includes:
1.Wireless/wired keyboard
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Order here now: www.casesinthebox.com/wireless-bluetooth-keyboard-for-7-9...
Title: Concha Renaissance San Juan Resort
Other title: Concha
Creator: Toro, Osvaldo 1914-1995; Ferrer, Miguel, 1915-2004; Salvadori, Mario George, 1907-1997; Marvel & Marchand Architects
Creator role: Architect
Date: 1958 (original) 2008 (renovation)
Current location: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Description of work: Renaissance Hotels tasked architect Jose R. Marchand and interior designer Jorge Rossello with renovating and saving this beachside landmark. "[B]y the mid-1990s the venerable La Concha hotel had been shuttered, abandoned and left to rot...Originally designed by Osvaldo Toro and Miguel Ferrer, with an eccentric but utterly loveable seashell-shaped restaurant by Mario Salvatori [sic], La Concha was a beautifully massed, expertly sited, vividly inventive building perfectly in sync with its time. Closely attuning the hotel to its sun-swept setting, the architects created deep-shading overhangs, open corridors, windows and doors that gave onto lush interior courtyards and provided cross ventilation, and beautifully lacy quiebra-sol (their take on a brise-soleil) for further modulation of the light and heat" (Frank, Michael. "La Concha Revival". Architectural Digest. Aug 2009, p. 103-104. Print).
Description of view: View of the north facade, with the outdoor shower and spa area by the beachfront pool.
Work type: Architecture and Landscape
Style of work: Modern: International Style
Culture: Puerto Rican
Materials/Techniques: Concrete
Trees
Plants
Source: Pisciotta, Henry (copyright Henry Pisciotta)
Date photographed: May 13, 2008
Resource type: Image
File format: JPEG
Image size: 2304H X 3072W pixels
Permitted uses: This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted. For additional details see: alias.libraries.psu.edu/vius/copyright/publicrightsarch.htm
Collection: Worldwide Building and Landscape Pictures
Filename: WB2010-0279 Concha.JPG
Record ID: WB2010-0279
Sub collection: resorts
Copyright holder: Copyright Henry Pisciotta
The mallard or wild duck (Anas platyrhynchos) is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa. It has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Falkland Islands, and South Africa. This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. Males have green heads, while the females (hens or ducks) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black or iridescent purple or blue feathers called a speculum on their wings; males especially tend to have blue speculum feathers. The mallard is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long, of which the body makes up around two-thirds the length. The wingspan is 81–98 cm (32–39 in) and the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in) long. It is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks, weighing 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb). Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes.
The female lays 8 to 13 creamy white to greenish-buff spotless eggs, on alternate days. Incubation takes 27 to 28 days and fledging takes 50 to 60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch.
The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Unlike many waterfowl, mallards are considered an invasive species in some regions. It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development. The non-migratory mallard interbreeds with indigenous wild ducks of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. This species is the main ancestor of most breeds of domestic duck, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool has been genetically polluted by the domestic and feral mallard populations.
Taxonomy and evolutionary history
The mallard was one of the many bird species originally described in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus. He gave it two binomial names: Anas platyrhynchos and Anas boschas.The latter was generally preferred until 1906 when Einar Lönnberg established that A. platyrhynchos had priority, as it appeared on an earlier page in the text. The scientific name comes from Latin Anas, "duck" and Ancient Greek πλατυρυγχος, platyrhynchus, "broad-billed" (from πλατύς, platys, "broad" and ρυγχός, rhunkhos, "bill"). The genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013.
The name mallard originally referred to any wild drake, and it is sometimes still used this way. It was derived from the Old French malart or mallart for "wild drake" although its true derivation is unclear. It may be related to, or at least influenced by, an Old High German masculine proper name Madelhart, clues lying in the alternative English forms "maudelard" and "mawdelard". Masle (male) has also been proposed as an influence.
Mallards frequently interbreed with their closest relatives in the genus Anas, such as the American black duck, and also with species more distantly related, such as the northern pintail, leading to various hybrids that may be fully fertile. The mallard has hybridized with more than 40 species in the wild, and an additional 20 species in captivity, though fertile hybrids typically have two Anas parents. Mallards and their domestic conspecifics are fully interfertile; many wild mallard populations in North America contain significant amounts of domestic mallard DNA.
Genetic analysis has shown that certain mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives, while others are related to their American relatives. Mitochondrial DNA data for the D-loop sequence suggest that mallards may have evolved in the general area of Siberia. Mallard bones rather abruptly appear in food remains of ancient humans and other deposits of fossil bones in Europe, without a good candidate for a local predecessor species. The large Ice Age palaeosubspecies that made up at least the European and West Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas.
Mallards are differentiated in their mitochondrial DNA between North American and Eurasian populations,[19] but the nuclear genome displays a notable lack of genetic structure. Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and eastern spot-billed ducks can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea. The Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards becoming a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited.
Also, the paucity of morphological differences between the Old World mallards and the New World mallard demonstrates the extent to which the genome is shared among them such that birds like the Chinese spot-billed duck are highly similar to the Old World mallard, and birds such as the Hawaiian duck are highly similar to the New World mallard.
The size of the mallard varies clinally; for example, birds from Greenland, though larger, have smaller bills, paler plumage, and stockier bodies than birds further south and are sometimes classified as a separate subspecies, the Greenland mallard (A. p. conboschas).
Description
The mallard is a medium-sized waterfowl species that is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm (20–26 in) long – of which the body makes up around two-thirds – has a wingspan of 81–98 cm (32–39 in),[24]: 505 and weighs 0.7–1.6 kg (1.5–3.5 lb).[25] Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm (10.1 to 12.0 in), the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm (1.7 to 2.4 in), and the tarsus is 4.1 to 4.8 cm (1.6 to 1.9 in). The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and a white collar that demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey-brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The rear of the male is black, with white-bordered dark tail feathers. The bill of the male is a yellowish-orange tipped with black, with that of the female generally darker and ranging from black to mottled orange and brown. The female mallard is predominantly mottled, with each individual feather showing sharp contrast from buff to very dark brown, a coloration shared by most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat, and neck, with a darker crown and eye-stripe. Mallards, like other sexually-dimorphic birds, can sometimes go though spontaneous sex reversal, often caused by damaged or nonfunctioning sex organs, such as the ovaries in mallard hens. This phenomenon can cause female mallards to exhibit male plumage, and vice versa (phenotypic feminisation or masculinisation).
Both male and female mallards have distinct iridescent purple-blue speculum feathers edged with white, which are prominent in flight or at rest but temporarily shed during the annual summer moult. Upon hatching, the plumage of the duckling is yellow on the underside and face (with streaks by the eyes) and black on the back (with some yellow spots) all the way to the top and back of the head. Its legs and bill are also black. As it nears a month in age, the duckling's plumage starts becoming drab, looking more like the female, though more streaked, and its legs lose their dark grey colouring. Two months after hatching, the fledgling period has ended, and the duckling is now a juvenile. The duckling is able to fly 50–60 days after hatching. Its bill soon loses its dark grey colouring, and its sex can finally be distinguished visually by three factors: 1) the bill is yellow in males, but black and orange in females; 2) the breast feathers are reddish-brown in males, but brown in females; and 3) in males, the centre tail feather (drake feather) is curled, but in females, the centre tail feather is straight. During the final period of maturity leading up to adulthood (6–10 months of age), the plumage of female juveniles remains the same while the plumage of male juveniles gradually changes to its characteristic colours. This change in plumage also applies to adult mallard males when they transition in and out of their non-breeding eclipse plumage at the beginning and the end of the summer moulting period. The adulthood age for mallards is fourteen months, and the average life expectancy is three years, but they can live to twenty.
Several species of duck have brown-plumaged females that can be confused with the female mallard. The female gadwall (Mareca strepera) has an orange-lined bill, white belly, black and white speculum that is seen as a white square on the wings in flight, and is a smaller bird. More similar to the female mallard in North America are the American black duck (A. rubripes), which is notably darker-hued in both sexes than the mallard, and the mottled duck (A. fulvigula), which is somewhat darker than the female mallard, and with slightly different bare-part colouration and no white edge on the speculum.
Mallards are among the most common bird species to exhibit aberrant colouration, typically due to genetic mutations.[39] The female pictured here is leucistic; leucism in birds often results in 'cream-colored', 'apricot' or muted feathers on certain parts of the body.
In captivity, domestic ducks come in wild-type plumages, white, and other colours. Most of these colour variants are also known in domestic mallards not bred as livestock, but kept as pets, aviary birds, etc., where they are rare but increasing in availability.
A noisy species, the female has the deep quack stereotypically associated with ducks. Male mallards make a sound phonetically similar to that of the female, a typical quack, but it is deeper and quieter compared to that of the female. Research conducted by Middlesex University on two English mallard populations found that the vocalisations of the mallard varies depending on their environment and have something akin to a regional accent, with urban mallards in London being much louder and more vociferous compared to rural mallards in Cornwall, serving as an adaptation to persistent levels of anthropogenic noise.
When incubating a nest, or when offspring are present, females vocalise differently, making a call that sounds like a truncated version of the usual quack. This maternal vocalisation is highly attractive to their young. The repetition and frequency modulation of these quacks form the auditory basis for species identification in offspring, a process known as acoustic conspecific identification. In addition, females hiss if the nest or offspring are threatened or interfered with. When taking off, the wings of a mallard produce a characteristic faint whistling noise.
The mallard is a rare example of both Allen's Rule and Bergmann's Rule in birds. Bergmann's Rule, which states that polar forms tend to be larger than related ones from warmer climates, has numerous examples in birds, as in case of the Greenland mallard which is larger than the mallards further south. Allen's Rule says that appendages like ears tend to be smaller in polar forms to minimise heat loss, and larger in tropical and desert equivalents to facilitate heat diffusion, and that the polar taxa are stockier overall. Examples of this rule in birds are rare as they lack external ears, but the bill of ducks is supplied with a few blood vessels to prevent heat loss, and, as in the Greenland mallard, the bill is smaller than that of birds farther south, illustrating the rule.
Due to the variability of the mallard's genetic code, which gives it its vast interbreeding capability, mutations in the genes that decide plumage colour are very common and have resulted in a wide variety of hybrids, such as Brewer's duck (mallard × gadwall, Mareca strepera).
Distribution and habitat
The mallard is widely distributed across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; in North America its range extends from southern and central Alaska to Mexico, the Hawaiian Islands, across the Palearctic, from Iceland and southern Greenland and parts of Morocco (North Africa) in the west, Scandinavia and Britain to the north, and to Siberia, Japan, and South Korea. Also in the east, it ranges to south-eastern and south-western Australia and New Zealand in the Southern hemisphere. It is strongly migratory in the northern parts of its breeding range, and winters farther south. For example, in North America, it winters south to the southern United States and northern Mexico, but also regularly strays into Central America and the Caribbean between September and May. A drake later named "Trevor" attracted media attention in 2018 when it turned up on the island of Niue, an atypical location for mallards.
The mallard inhabits a wide range of habitats and climates, from the Arctic tundra to subtropical regions. It is found in both fresh- and salt-water wetlands, including parks, small ponds, rivers, lakes and estuaries, as well as shallow inlets and open sea within sight of the coastline. Water depths of less than 0.9 metres (3.0 ft) are preferred, with birds avoiding areas more than a few metres deep. They are attracted to bodies of water with aquatic vegetation.
Behaviour
The mallard is omnivorous and very flexible in its choice of food. Its diet may vary based on several factors, including the stage of the breeding cycle, short-term variations in available food, nutrient availability, and interspecific and intraspecific competition. The majority of the mallard's diet seems to be made up of gastropods, insects (including beetles, flies, lepidopterans, dragonflies, and caddisflies), crustaceans, other arthropods, worms, many varieties of seeds and plant matter, and roots and tubers. During the breeding season, male birds were recorded to have eaten 37.6% animal matter and 62.4% plant matter, most notably the grass Echinochloa crus-galli, and nonlaying females ate 37.0% animal matter and 63.0% plant matter, while laying females ate 71.9% animal matter and only 28.1% plant matter. Plants generally make up the larger part of a bird's diet, especially during autumn migration and in the winter.
The mallard usually feeds by dabbling for plant food or grazing; there are reports of it eating frogs. However, in 2017 a flock of mallards in Romania were observed hunting small migratory birds, including grey wagtails and black redstarts, the first documented occasion they had been seen attacking and consuming large vertebrates. It usually nests on a river bank, but not always near water. It is highly gregarious outside of the breeding season and forms large flocks, which are known as "sordes".
Breeding
Mallards usually form pairs (in October and November in the Northern Hemisphere) until the female lays eggs at the start of the nesting season, which is around the beginning of spring. At this time she is left by the male who joins up with other males to await the moulting period, which begins in June (in the Northern Hemisphere). During the brief time before this, however, the males are still sexually potent and some of them either remain on standby to sire replacement clutches (for female mallards that have lost or abandoned their previous clutch) or forcibly mate with females that appear to be isolated or unattached regardless of their species and whether or not they have a brood of ducklings.
Nesting sites are typically on the ground, hidden in vegetation where the female's speckled plumage serves as effective camouflage, but female mallards have also been known to nest in hollows in trees, boathouses, roof gardens and on balconies, sometimes resulting in hatched offspring having difficulty following their parent to water.
Egg clutches number 8–13 creamy white to greenish-buff eggs free of speckles. They measure about 58 mm (2.3 in) in length and 32 mm (1.3 in) in width.[90] The eggs are laid on alternate days, and incubation begins when the clutch is almost complete. Incubation takes 27–28 days and fledging takes 50–60 days. The ducklings are precocial and fully capable of swimming as soon as they hatch. However, filial imprinting compels them to instinctively stay near the mother, not only for warmth and protection but also to learn about and remember their habitat as well as how and where to forage for food. Though adoptions are known to occur, female mallards typically do not tolerate stray ducklings near their broods, and will violently attack and drive away any unfamiliar young, sometimes going as far as to kill them.
When ducklings mature into flight-capable juveniles, they learn about and remember their traditional migratory routes (unless they are born and raised in captivity). In New Zealand, where mallards are naturalised, the nesting season has been found to be longer, eggs and clutches are larger and nest survival is generally greater compared with mallards in their native range.
In cases where a nest or brood fails, some mallards may mate for a second time in an attempt to raise a second clutch, typically around early-to-mid summer. In addition, mallards may occasionally breed during the autumn in cases of unseasonably warm weather; one such instance of a 'late' clutch occurred in November 2011, in which a female successfully hatched and raised a clutch of eleven ducklings at the London Wetland Centre.
During the breeding season, both male and female mallards can become aggressive, driving off competitors to themselves or their mate by charging at them. Males tend to fight more than females and attack each other by repeatedly pecking at their rival's chest, ripping out feathers and even skin on rare occasions. Female mallards are also known to carry out 'inciting displays', which encourage other ducks in the flock to begin fighting. It is possible that this behaviour allows the female to evaluate the strength of potential partners.
The drakes that end up being left out after the others have paired off with mating partners sometimes target an isolated female duck, even one of a different species, and proceed to chase and peck at her until she weakens, at which point the males take turns copulating with the female. Lebret (1961) calls this behaviour "Attempted Rape Flight", and Stanley Cramp and K.E.L. Simmons (1977) speak of "rape-intent flights". Male mallards also occasionally chase other male ducks of a different species, and even each other, in the same way. In one documented case of "homosexual necrophilia", a male mallard copulated with another male he was chasing after the chased male died upon flying into a glass window. This paper was awarded an Ig Nobel Prize in 2003.
Mallards are opportunistically targeted by brood parasites, occasionally having eggs laid in their nests by redheads, ruddy ducks, lesser scaup, gadwalls, northern shovelers, northern pintails, cinnamon teal, common goldeneyes, and other mallards. These eggs are generally accepted when they resemble the eggs of the host mallard, but the hen may attempt to eject them or even abandon the nest if parasitism occurs during egg laying.
Predators and threats
In addition to human hunting, mallards of all ages (but especially young ones) and in all locations must contend with a wide diversity of predators including raptors and owls, mustelids, corvids, snakes, raccoons, opossums, skunks, turtles, large fish, felids, and canids, the last two including domestic cats and dogs. The most prolific natural predators of adult mallards are red foxes (Vulpes vulpes; which most often pick off brooding females) and the faster or larger birds of prey, (e.g. peregrine falcons, Aquila or Haliaeetus eagles). In North America, adult mallards face no fewer than 15 species of birds of prey, from northern harriers (Circus hudsonius) and short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) (both smaller than a mallard) to huge bald (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), and about a dozen species of mammalian predators, not counting several more avian and mammalian predators who threaten eggs and nestlings.
Mallards are also preyed upon by other waterside apex predators, such as grey herons (Ardea cinerea), great blue herons (Ardea herodias) and black-crowned night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax), the European herring gull (Larus argentatus), the wels catfish (Silurus glanis), and the northern pike (Esox lucius). Crows (Corvus spp.) are also known to kill ducklings and adults on occasion. Also, mallards may be attacked by larger anseriformes such as swans (Cygnus spp.) and geese during the breeding season, and are frequently driven off by these birds over territorial disputes. Mute swans (Cygnus olor) have been known to attack or even kill mallards if they feel that the ducks pose a threat to their offspring. Common loons (Gavia inmer) are similarly territorial and aggressive towards other birds in such disputes, and will frequently drive mallards away from their territory. However, in 2019, a pair of common loons in Wisconsin were observed raising a mallard duckling for several weeks, having seemingly adopted the bird after it had been abandoned by its parents.
The predation-avoidance behaviour of sleeping with one eye open, allowing one brain hemisphere to remain aware while the other half sleeps, was first demonstrated in mallards, although it is believed to be widespread among birds in general.
Status and conservation
Since 1998, the mallard has been rated as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. This is because it has a large range–more than 20,000,000 km2 (7,700,000 mi2) and because its population is increasing, rather than declining by 30% over ten years or three generations and thus is not warranted a vulnerable rating. Also, the population size of the mallard is very large.
Unlike many waterfowl, mallards have benefited from human alterations to the world – so much so that they are now considered an invasive species in some regions. They are a common sight in urban parks, lakes, ponds, and other human-made water features in the regions they inhabit, and are often tolerated or encouraged in human habitat due to their placid nature towards humans and their beautiful and iridescent colours. While most are not domesticated, mallards are so successful at coexisting in human regions that the main conservation risk they pose comes from the loss of genetic diversity among a region's traditional ducks once humans and mallards colonise an area. Mallards are very adaptable, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development. The release of feral mallards in areas where they are not native sometimes creates problems through interbreeding with indigenous waterfowl. These non-migratory mallards interbreed with indigenous wild ducks from local populations of closely related species through genetic pollution by producing fertile offspring. Complete hybridisation of various species of wild duck gene pools could result in the extinction of many indigenous waterfowl. The mallard itself is the ancestor of most domestic ducks, and its naturally evolved wild gene pool gets genetically polluted in turn by the domestic and feral populations. Over time, a continuum of hybrids ranging between almost typical examples of either species develop; the speciation process is beginning to reverse itself. This has created conservation concerns for relatives of the mallard, such as the Hawaiian duck, the New Zealand grey duck (A. s. superciliosa) subspecies of the Pacific black duck, the American black duck, the mottled duck, Meller's duck, the yellow-billed duck, and the Mexican duck, in the latter case even leading to a dispute as to whether these birds should be considered a species (and thus entitled to more conservation research and funding) or included in the mallard species. Ecological changes and hunting have also led to a decline of local species; for example, the New Zealand grey duck population declined drastically due to overhunting in the mid-20th century. Hybrid offspring of Hawaiian ducks seem to be less well adapted to native habitat, and using them in re-introduction projects apparently reduces success. In summary, the problems of mallards "hybridising away" relatives is more a consequence of local ducks declining than of mallards spreading; allopatric speciation and isolating behaviour have produced today's diversity of mallard-like ducks despite the fact that, in most, if not all, of these populations, hybridisation must have occurred to some extent.
Invasiveness
Mallards are causing severe "genetic pollution" to South Africa's biodiversity by breeding with endemic ducks even though the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds – an agreement to protect the local waterfowl populations – applies to the mallard as well as other ducks.[131] The hybrids of mallards and the yellow-billed duck are fertile, capable of producing hybrid offspring. If this continues, only hybrids occur and in the long term result in the extinction of various indigenous waterfowl. The mallard can crossbreed with 63 other species, posing a severe threat to indigenous waterfowl's genetic integrity. Mallards and their hybrids compete with indigenous birds for resources, including nest sites, roosting sites, and food.
Availability of mallards, mallard ducklings, and fertilised mallard eggs for public sale and private ownership, either as poultry or as pets, is currently legal in the United States, except for the state of Florida, which has currently banned domestic ownership of mallards. This is to prevent hybridisation with the native mottled duck.
The mallard is considered an invasive species in Australia and New Zealand, where it competes with the Pacific black duck (known as the grey duck locally in New Zealand) which was over-hunted in the past. There, and elsewhere, mallards are spreading with increasing urbanisation and hybridising with local relatives.
The eastern or Chinese spot-billed duck is currently introgressing into the mallard populations of the Primorsky Krai, possibly due to habitat changes from global warming. The Mariana mallard was a resident allopatric population – in most respects a good species – apparently initially derived from mallard-Pacific black duck hybrids; it became extinct in the late 20th century.
The Laysan duck is an insular relative of the mallard, with a very small and fluctuating population. Mallards sometimes arrive on its island home during migration, and can be expected to occasionally have remained and hybridised with Laysan ducks as long as these species have existed. However, these hybrids are less well adapted to the peculiar ecological conditions of Laysan Island than the local ducks, and thus have lower fitness. Laysan ducks were found throughout the Hawaiian archipelago before 400 AD, after which they suffered a rapid decline during the Polynesian colonisation.Now, their range includes only Laysan Island. It is one of the successfully translocated birds, after having become nearly extinct in the early 20th century.
Relationship with humans
Mallards have often been ubiquitous in their regions among the ponds, rivers, and streams of human parks, farms, and other human-made waterways – even to the point of visiting water features in human courtyards.
George Hetzel, mallard still life painting, 1883–1884
Mallards have had a long relationship with humans. Almost all domestic duck breeds derive from the mallard, with the exception of a few Muscovy breeds, and are listed under the trinomial name A. p. domesticus. Mallards are generally monogamous while domestic ducks are mostly polygamous. Domestic ducks have no territorial behaviour and are less aggressive than mallards. Domestic ducks are mostly kept for meat; their eggs are also eaten, and have a strong flavour. They were first domesticated in Southeast Asia at least 4,000 years ago, during the Neolithic Age, and were also farmed by the Romans in Europe, and the Malays in Asia. As the domestic duck and the mallard are the same species as each other, it is common for mallards to mate with domestic ducks and produce hybrid offspring that are fully fertile. Because of this, mallards have been found to be contaminated with the genes of the domestic duck.
While the keeping of domestic breeds is more popular, pure-bred mallards are sometimes kept for eggs and meat, although they may require wing clipping to restrict flying.
Hunting
Mallards are one of the most common varieties of ducks hunted as a sport due to the large population size. The ideal location for hunting mallards is considered to be where the water level is somewhat shallow where the birds can be found foraging for food. Hunting mallards might cause the population to decline in some places, at some times, and with some populations. In certain countries, the mallard may be legally shot but is protected under national acts and policies. For example, in the United Kingdom, the mallard is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, which restricts certain hunting methods or taking or killing mallards.
As food
Since ancient times, the mallard has been eaten as food. The wild mallard was eaten in Neolithic Greece. Usually, only the breast and thigh meat is eaten. It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port.