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Messier 3 (M3 or NGC 5272) is a globular cluster of stars in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Charles Messier on May 3, 1764, and resolved into stars by William Herschel around 1784. Since then, it has become one of the best-studied globular clusters. Identification of the cluster's unusually large variable star population was begun in 1913 by American astronomer Solon Irving Bailey and new variable members continue to be identified up through 2004.
Many amateur astronomers consider it one of the finest northern globular clusters, following only Messier 13. M3 has an apparent magnitude of 6.2, making it a difficult naked eye target even with dark conditions. With a moderate-sized telescope, the cluster is fully defined. It can be a challenge to locate through the technique of star hopping, but can be found by looking almost exactly halfway along an imaginary line connecting the bright star Arcturus to Cor Caroli. Using a telescope with a 25 cm (9.8 in) aperture, the cluster has a bright core with a diameter of about 6 arcminutes and spans a total of 12 arcminutes.
This cluster is one of the largest and brightest, and is made up of around 500,000 stars. It is estimated to be 8 billion years old. It is located at a distance of about 33,900 light-years away from Earth.
Messier 3 is located 31.6 kly (9.7 kpc) above the Galactic plane and roughly 38.8 kly (11.9 kpc) from the center of the Milky Way. It contains 274 known variable stars; by far the highest number found in any globular cluster. These include 133 RR Lyrae variables, of which about a third display the Blazhko effect of long-period modulation. The overall abundance of elements other than hydrogen and helium, what astronomers term the metallicity, is in the range of –1.34 to –1.50 dex. This value gives the logarithm of the abundance relative to the Sun; the actual proportion is 3.2–4.6% of the solar abundance. Messier 3 is the prototype for the Oosterhoff type I cluster, which is considered "metal-rich". That is, for a globular cluster, Messier 3 has a relatively high abundance of heavier elements.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_3
Taken on April 26 2017 at Caprock Canyons State Park, Quitake, TX
Type: LRGB: 16:10:10:10 frames of 240 secs each.
Hardware: AT8RC, SBIG ST8300M
Software: Nebulosity, CCDStack, Photoshop CS6
The works of Peruvian-French artist Bryan Ley (1988) sow confusion. Are we looking at photographs, or something else entirely? With his choice of black-and-white or monochrome acrylic paintings and day-night modulations, Ley creates dusky mysteries. Drawing inspiration from online photographs and images from magazines, he lends his subjects an iconic charge, transforming them into new incarnations and imagined portraits. Museum MORE presents more than 30 works in Bryan Ley’s first solo museum exhibition: from 9 November 2025 to 3 May 2026.
After almost eighteen years of deceptive silence, Brazen is back with Distance, an ambitious indie-rock epic where melancholic modulations and vocal harmonies intertwine on a soaring instrumental carpet. The eight tracks that make up the album are characterised by refined songwriting, carried by an epic breath that makes each track a journey in its own right. Composed, arranged and recorded remotely between London and Geneva over the course of almost a decade, the album is as musically polished as it is rich in narrative twists. The meticulous care taken in its conception gives it a timeless character that in no way detracts from its emotional intensity.
Currently discontinued!
The Pulsemonger is a one of a kind design by me. It takes an input signal, squares it up, divides it by 2 (the sub-octave), and sends each pitch through individual pulse width modulator circuits that generates synth like tones. With the internal shapeable triangle LFO chorus and sci-fi sounds can be produced. The pulse width is variable from 1-50% and each can be externally controlled via the 1/4" input jacks.
Rolex Learning Center - EPFL Lausanne
Designed by Roger Pfund
(MODULATION ENTRE HARMONIE ET MATHÉMATIQUE - 2010 Roger Pfund)
A science project, stretch a 50 foot wire antenna and create a crystal radio. This was how I discovered 'Rock n Roll'!
Pose created using Anypose
The crystal radio operates without a power source.
Think about it.
Technical Characteristics
Medium wave signals travel via ground wave propagation, allowing them to follow the curvature of the Earth for reliable local coverage during the day. As night falls, these signals can also bounce off the ionosphere, enabling long-distance reception that may span hundreds of miles under the right conditions.
Amplitude modulation varies the strength of the radio wave to carry audio information, making it the oldest method used for radio broadcasting.
To create this image, first I went to MP and bought a window. Then on MP I bought a blank folded piece of paper. I also purchased siding textures and a Casablanca poster. I then googled images of insulators and vintage earphones. When I found the images I wanted I erased the backgrounds. I googled the schematic for a crystal radio and added it to the piece of paper. The Avatar is seated in the open window in front of the Casablanca poster holding the paper with schematic. Everything else, the earphone, the siding, the insulator, the wire... they were all layered in.
I always prefer photographing in available light – or Rembrandt-light I like to call it – so you get the natural modulations of the face. It makes a more alive, real, and flattering portrait.
~ Alfred Eisenstaedt, Eisenstaedt : Remembrances by Bryan Holme, Doris C. O'Neil, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Barbara Baker Burrows , ISBN: 0821225979 , Page: XVII
*Copyright © 2010 Lélia Valduga, all rights reserved.
*Reprodução proibida. © Todos os direitos reservados.
*Imagem protegida pela Lei do Direito Autoral Nº 9.610 de 19/02/1998.
A Casa de Mateus é mandada construir na primeira metade do século XVIII por António José Botelho Mourão, 3º Morgado de Mateus. Substitui-se à casa da família já existente no local em inícios do século XVII. Em 1911 é classificada como Monumento Nacional.
A arquitectura barroca, de gosto italiano, é atribuída a Nicolau Nasoni pela coerência do estilo e semelhança com outras obras de sua autoria. Segundo Robert Smith, especialista na sua obra, o arquitecto terá dedicado à construção da Casa, ou pelo menos à sua fachada central e decoração, os anos entre 1739 a 1743.
Para além do esplendor barroco da fachada principal e da riqueza da decoração, composta por cimalhas curvas, frontões, pináculos e estatuária, impressiona a racionalidade da planta e o rigor da métrica e da modulação.
A planta inscreve-se num rectângulo, e divide-se em dois quadrados vazados ao centro, que criam várias alas e compõem dois pátios ligados entre si por grandes aberturas no piso térreo. O pátio frontal é aberto libertando a vista da fachada principal recuada e voltada a poente, e o posterior é encerrado, e definem através dos grandes vãos do rés-do-chão um eixo central de perspectiva que atravessa toda a construção, e constitui um enfiamento de expressão clássica e grande harmonia.
O acesso ao piso nobre faz-se por duplas escadarias que se repetem nas fachadas transversais dos dois pátios, duas a poente e uma a nascente, e acentuam a simetria e o movimento barroco de toda a ornamentação.
No 1º andar, entre os pátios e com fachadas sobre ambos, ao centro da construção e definindo a linha de união dos dois quadrados que compõem a planta, localiza-se o Salão de Entrada. Dá acesso a norte e a sul, respectivamente à Biblioteca e ala de quartos, e à Sala do Tijolo e ala das salas. As duas alas são ligadas entre si no topo nascente através de uma ala com quartos que dá acesso ao Coro da Capela.
Os vinhos são DIVINOS e os jardins magníficos!
Fonte:casademateus.com/historia.htm
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The Matthew House is ordered to be built in the first half of the eighteenth century by Antonio José Botelho Mourao, 3rd Morgado de Mateus. Replaces up to the family home already on site in the early seventeenth century. In 1911 is classified as a National Monument.
The baroque architecture of Italian style, is attributed to Nasoni consistency of style and resemblance to other works of authorship. According to Robert Smith, an expert in his work, the architect will be devoted to building the house, or at least its central facade and decor, the years between 1739 to 1743.
Apart from the baroque splendor of the main façade and wealth of decoration, consisting of curved cornice, gables, spiers and statuary, impresses the rationality and accuracy of the plant and metric modulation.
The plant is part of a rectangle and divided into two quadrants in the center, creating several wards and consist of two courtyards connected by large openings on the ground floor. The front patio is open, releasing the rearward view of the main facade and facing the west, and the latter is closed, and define through large openings in the ground-floor view of a central axis running through the building, and is a string of classical expression and great harmony.
Access to the first floor is by twin staircases that are repeated on the facades of the two cross courts, two to the west and east, and emphasize the symmetry and movement of all the Baroque ornamentation.
On the 1st floor, between the courts and on both fronts, the center of the building and defining the line of union of the two squares that make up the plant, located in the Entrance Hall. Provides access to the north and south respectively to the library and ward rooms, and room of the Brick and ward rooms. The two wings are linked together through spring at the top of a wing with rooms that gives access to the Chapel Choir.
The wines are magnificent gardens and DIVINE!
More waving the Pulse Width Modulation device at Tynemouth beach) , with a bit of the newly refurbished City Lites addressable LED stick thrown in for good measure.
This one has had contrast and levels slightly tweaked in Adobe Camera RAW.
[ Compulsory note: I did something here that I never do -- replaced a photo/post. Explanation: I uploaded this while taking a walk recently, or tried to, rather. No Wi-Fi [was in semi-Rural Texas at the time] and 0 phone data availability. Anyway, I accidentally uploaded the same image twice. Shockingly, I didn't go for twenty-three identical images or more [I am joking].
SO, instead of moving forward, ignoring the identical twins of my stream, AND to keep myself from just deep-sixing it [that wouldn't be very nice at all ;], I subbed a BW image shot at approx. same time and local.
Appreciate your understanding. Prost.
"Deliverance" Chardonnay 2020, North Canterbury New Zealand
A good Saturday afternoon with wine, sun and ABBA
The greatest pop band ever in existence is back. It's like saying Elvis is in fact alive or Bowie faked his death (which he totally did) or Prince had a twin who is also a genius and still alive living as a recluse playing funk or Beatles recorded secret album in 1967 which just been found.
Favourite ABBA song?
impossible
but let's say I need to pick one for aliens to show them what ABBA thing is?
Ok I'll go with that one, it's just because I know, no strike that, my body knows (skin and all) , every note every shade of the keyboard track every voice modulation of every second of it, all of which is in its perfect place
About 7 years after Japan first staked it’s claim on Mercury and began mining the planet for Magnesium ore in an effort to curb reliance on the Russo-Sino Confederacy, the miners began taking scrap and creating maglev tracks and racing modified mining buggies and carts.
Within 20 years, the planetary pastime was refined and became increasingly dangerous, high tech, and profitable in its own right.
Bleeding edge technology not commonly used for terrestrial race applications became commonplace due to the lack of safety regulations pertaining to anything but the extraction of ore, an inherently risk seeking populace of thrill and adventure seekers now a generation deep.
Usually events were matched in three way heats to extend the festivities over the course of a full Mercurian day, or almost 2 months long on Earth. Pilots could expect to cross between scorching heat and bitterly freezing temperatures making the need for robust propulsion systems and life support systems paramount.
Here we see from left to right a Klandonian MKIV, adorned in spoilers which have less to do with producing downforce in a minimal atmosphere and more importantly work to transfer heat to or from the core of the vehicle depending on daytime or night time racing.
The Titan Industries Marauder is the only design produced from a manufacturer based on Mercury, and it’s record number of podium finishes is there to prove it. With a similarly complex set of veins and spoiler surfaces to mitigate heat and provide what aerodynamic modulation it can, it is slightly more delicate than the rest but otherwise supremely tuned to its environment.
Last in this heat is the Subaru Pleiades - a newly designed introduction from the Japanese automobile manufacturer. Hoping to stake a name for themselves in the fastest growing segment of industry and Motorsport entertainment, their cutting edge design was produced in partnership with Titan Industries but takes bold steps away from the reliance on heat sinks, diffusers, and spoilers, and focuses on a robust more rally like design. Not to be easily outdone, the vehicle shares the same power plant as the competitors but recirculates the heat in an ingenious internal channeling system that primes the fuel delivery system for more powerful combustion less reliant on external conditions and is thusly much more consistently performing in its output.
Events rarely end without one or two pilots meeting a glorious end by nightfall, but the prestige and a chance at the grand prize of a peripheral mining colony is too much for many young miners to pass up.
Here at one of the first officially recognized long distance tracks, Hi Bakudan Raceways (re-named after the tremendous and fatal collision during its inaugural race when it was simply known as The Path) all are expected to survive, but the odds are ever shifting.
Racers built by Shawn Davis
Starting Grid built by Peter Carmichael
Radioteletype (RTTY) is a telecommunications system consisting originally of two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations connected by radio rather than a wired link. Radioteletype evolved from earlier landline teleprinter operations that began in the mid-1800s. The US Navy Department successfully tested printing telegraphy between an airplane and ground radio station in 1922. Later that year, the Radio Corporation of America successfully tested printing telegraphy via their Chatham, Massachusetts, radio station to the R.M.S. Majestic. Commercial RTTY systems were in active service between San Francisco and Honolulu as early as April 1932 and between San Francisco and New York City by 1934. The US military used radioteletype in the 1930s and expanded this usage during World War II. From the 1980s, teleprinters were replaced by personal computers (PCs) running software to emulate teleprinters.
The term radioteletype is used to describe both the original radioteletype system, sometimes described as "Baudot", as well as the entire family of systems connecting two or more teleprinters or PCs using software to emulate teleprinters, over radio, regardless of alphabet, link system or modulation.
In some applications, notably military and government, radioteletype is known by the acronym RATT (Radio Automatic Teletype).
Steam yacht Thelma, photographed in 1904. My colorization of an image in the Library of Congress archive (Detroit Publishin Co. collection).
Three years later Thelma made made history. The world´s first ship-to-shore broadcast was made from the yacht.
Electrical World reported on August 10, 1907:
"The first actual application of radio-telephony to practical work anywhere in the world was made at Put-in-Bay, in Lake Erie, during the week of July 15 to 20, in reporting the regatta of the Interlake Association. The Radio Telephone Company installed the De Forest wireless telephone on board of the cruiser yacht "Thelma," and also equipped a shore station at the Fox Dock at Put-in-Bay.
The "Thelma" followed the competing yachts around the course through most of the races and full and graphic accounts were telephoned into the shore station.
The greatest distance at which the reports from the yachts were heard and recorded was four miles, considered remarkable in view of the height of "Thelma's" spars and the power of the transmitter on board. Her equipment comprised a 220-volt generator of 1 kilowatt capacity, the DeForest oscillator and transmitter, and for the receiving apparatus an audion detector and "pan cake" form of syntonizer or tuner. Her aerial wires led through the roof of the wheelhouse to a small crossarm on top of the foremast and thence to a similar arm on the mainmast. Ground connection was at first made to the propeller shafts of her twin screws, but as this was found insufficient, more area was added by fastening two sheets of zinc to the yacht's hull at the bow.
The telephone dynamo was belted direct to the flywheel of her starboard engines, aft, and the rest of the radio apparatus was mounted on a small table in her main cabin convenient to all.
On shore 110-volt direct-current was available and this was transformed to 220 volts by a motor generator. The current was led through a rheostat and choke coils to the oscillator. Connected to this oscillator is a shunt circuit consisting of a condenser of peculiar construction and a primary coil, the exact number of turns of which could be varied at will to alter the tune or wave length of the electrical waves which were generated. A second coil within this primary had its upper end connected direct with the antennae or aerial wire, while its lower end led first through the microphone transmitter and thence to the earth plate. In this way the changes in resistance in the microphone produced by the modulations of the human voice directly affect the intensity of the high-frequency currents which are continually passing from the air wire to the ground plate. Inasmuch as the receiver instrument is affected exactly in proportion with the strength of the received electric waves, it is evident that every variation in the microphone resistance by the voice will be reproduced to the listening ear at the distant station by the vibration of the telephone diaphragm there. The microphone transmitter and the telephone receiver are exactly the same as used in the wire telephone, with which all are familiar. The "oscillator" and the "responder" are the only new and additional features, and the ether takes the place of the connecting wire.
Upon the finish of the regatta the telephone apparatus from the "Thelma" and the Put-in-Bay shore station was shipped to Toledo, where it is the intention of the Radio Telephone Company to install it permanently, where it can be in communication with other wireless telephone sets to be installed on vessels sailing Lake Erie. The Great Lakes offer, perhaps, the most promising field anywhere in the world for the first general application of this new invention to the needs of a merchant marine, and it is the intention of the company to at once enter this promising field."
Electrical World, August 10, 1907
Kingdom Animalia
Superphylum Ecdysozoa
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Hexapoda
Class Insecta
Subclass Pterygota
Infraclass Palaeoptera (ancient winged insects)
Order Odonata (Damselflies & Dragonflies)
Suborder Anisoptera (Dragonflies)
Family Libellulidae (Common Skimmers)
Genus Erythemis
Species simplicicollis (Eastern Pondhawk) - ♂
August 9, 2020; Leon County; Tallahassee, Florida.
There were many dozens of male pondhawks at the local pond Sunday. I only saw a couple of females, and they where seeking refuge towards the center of the pond. The males were busy harassing each other along the pond's fringes.
Canon M6 Mark II; MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro; 101 images @ 100um increments; WeMacro rail; Used a DIY "light tunnel" fabricated from a roll of sheet metal and LED strip lights placed in the interior in a tight spiral (a proof of concept prototype); Canon DPP4 used to convert raw images to TIF; Zerene Stacker using slabbing method (10 images each with 3 overlap) with Pmax; exposure and color balanced w/ PS..
I knew nothing about the practical use of LED strip lights before this project. I've since discovered the concept of "pulse width modulation," or PWM. There's plenty of info on the net about it. What I observed was ghost imaging at high magnifications (>5X) and at shutter speeds of less than 1/400s. The "light tunnel" produces a lot of light, but I still had to use an ISO of 1000 at TV 1/400s and Av 5.6 at those high magnifications. The ghosting effect decreases to negligibility at lower magnifications of less than 2X and I was able to adjust exposure parameters such as reducing ISO and Tv. I did not notice any typical banding effects. I had installed a dimmer mechanism on the LED circuit, but will remove it to see if it affects anything.
I like the light that the "light tunnel" produces. Very soft and diffused.
200809_Pondhawk_Head_04
A partial view of one of the three apses of Florence's cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, from the bottom up.
I have been fascinated by the series of layers you can see, something like steps in a ladder climbing towards the sky, culminating with the curve surface of Brunelleschi bricks dome and the gilt copper sphere and cross crowning the whole structure (the lantern is hidden due to the curvature of the dome, from this point of view).
This view strikes me as another kind of visual counterpoint, the spiral canon - a canon whose theme at every repetition begins at a different pitch, creating a sort of ascending (or possibly descending - I do not know examples of this, though) musical spiral - or a ladder, indeed.
There are few examples of spiral canons, the most known being the ascending spiral canon in Bach's Musical Offering BWV 1079, which ia accompanied by the Latin motto Ascendenteque Modulatione ascendat Gloria Regis (As the keys ascend so may the glory of the king also ascend).
The spiral canon is one of the "musical traps" set by Bach for Frederick the Great, to whom the work is dedicated - with no flattery from the Author. The motto is related to the structure of the canon, which undeniably sports an ascending pitch progression - on the stave, at least. But the Royal Theme permeating the whole work - a tricky theme imposed upon Bach by Frederick himself for an impromptu display of his masterly contrapunctal arts - is so rich in chromaticism that, upon execution, one cannot really perceive the ascending modulation. I strongly suspect that this could be just a way to negate with music the letter of the Latin motto, getting into perspective Frederick's earthly power (possibly suggesting that the only King is not of this world) :-))
I have blended three HDR images derived from a 3-bracketing, -1 ev/0/+1 ev, generated and tonemapped with Luminance HDR 2.4.0 (Mantiuk06, Reinhard05 and Fattal operators).
Luminance HDR 2.4.0 tonemapping parameters:
Operator: Mantiuk06
Contrast Mapping factor: 0.54
Saturation Factor: 0.51
Detail Factor: 2.7
------
PreGamma: 0.45
Operator: Fattal
alpha: 2.0
beta: 0.90
Saturation: 0.81
Noiseredux: 0
fftsolver: 1
---
PreGamma: 1.12
Operator: Reinhard05
Brightness: -1.8
Chromatic adaptation: 0.13
Light adaptation: 0.90
---
PreGamma: 1.18
Pulse width modulation of the LEDs, swung about on the end of their cable in the Victoria Tunnel.
Like a numpty, I'd left my cable release at home, so was stuck to a 30s max exposure time. Also reckon the camera angle is wrong here, resulting in a bad case of excessive orbage placement in the upper regions.
Testing out the fadeable cathode wrangled by Mr J Barkby.
Changed the tube to blue, and annoyingly, the pot that controls the speed of the fade broke off.
After requests to show the setup I used for the lighting of Streets of Barqa, here is a sketch of how I remember I connected the cables. The only reason I used my eLite Advanced 2 was due to a shortage of inputs and too short cables, will probably replace that as soon as I order more stuff from LifeLites if I do not dismantle the MOC before that. The "flicker flame" diodes did not like it's ordinary outputs however even at steady light (probably due to PWM modulation messing with the flickering diode's electronics?) so I had to use the non-controlled output for that.
The ModuLites are of the warm-white kind and using two + white interior walls gave quite a lot more light as can be seen on the building to the right.
I gladly recommend LifeLites to anyone who wants to light their MOCs! Just be careful with those fragile connectors...
Edit: Replaced the file with one of better quality
Germany, Hamburg, Harbour City, Magellan Terraces, a square covering about 5,000 square metres, similar to an amphitheatre & providing a fine view of the Traditional-Ship Harbour in the Harbour City. This square is an inviting place to linger & is also used for cultural events.
For almost one & a half century, since 1866, the Harbour at the “Sandtorwall” was used as a port for ships with all kinds of imports from around the world. With the increasing size of cargo ships & later the container giants, the ware house area was not able to handle the freighters any longer. The whole area started than to be changed, maintaining the historic structure & buildings, into today’s harbour city, housing offices, apartments, gastronomy, shops etc., the re-modulation of the harbour city will still go on for many years, including the never ending story of the philharmonic concert hall.
👉 One World one Dream,
...Danke, Xièxie 谢谢, Thanks, Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Obrigado, Arigatô, Dhanyavad, Chokrane to you & over
10 million visits in my photostream with countless motivating comments
There is a superhighway between the brain and GI system that holds great sway over humans
"There is a muscle that encircles the gut like a lasso when we are sitting… creating a kink in the tube," Giulia Enders explains in Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ. She calls the mechanism "an extra insurance policy, in addition to our old friends, the sphincters" (you have two sphincters – keep reading) and cites studies showing that squatters, with their unkinked guts, are less susceptible to haemorrhoids and constipation.Enders, a 25-year-old student at the Institute for Microbiology in Frankfurt, inside an underground public lavatory in central London. "Is there a toilet in this toilet?" she asks when she arrives. There is not, a barista tells her. The Victorian urinals, abandoned in the 1960s, have been converted into cafe with booths and stools, and no room for anything else.After a dash to a pub loo above ground, Enders talks with infectious energy about the wonder of the gut. She has been delighted to discover how many people share her fascination with a subject that can suffer for being taboo. "Even today in the taxi, I told the driver what I was doing and within about two minutes he was telling me about his constipation," she says in perfect English, which she owes to a year of study in the US. "And it's not just him. It's ladies with chic hair at big gala dinners, too. Everyone wants to talk about it."Enders first got noticed after a self-assured turn at a science slam in Berlin three years ago. Her 10-minute lecture went viral on YouTube, and now, weeks after completing her final exams as a doctoral student, she is a publishing sensation. Her book, called Darm Mit Charme ("Charming Bowels") in Germany, has sold more than 1.3 million copies since it came out last year. Rights have been sold to dozens of countries.
Her way into the gut is a lightness that some reviewers have found too childish or lacking in scientific rigour to be taken seriously. But there is something compelling and refreshing about her curiosity and popular approach. "When I read the research, I think, why don't people know about this – why am I reading about it in some paper or specialist magazine? It's ridiculous because everyone has to deal with it on a daily basis." After she explains the inspiration for her fixation (the suicide of an acquaintance who had had severe halitosis, and her own teenage skin condition, which turned out to have been caused by a wheat intolerance) Enders starts at the end of the digestive tract with what she calls the "masterly performance" that is defecation. "There is so much about the anus that we don't know," she says, reaching for a gluten-free chocolate chip cookie. "The first surprise is the sophistication of our sphincters… you know about the outer one because you can control it, but the inner one nobody knows about."
This inner opening is beyond our conscious control, releasing waste material into a sort of anal vestibule where, in Enders words, "a small taster" hits sensor cells that tell the body what it's dealing with and how to respond using the outer sphincter. This opening, and our mouths, are the recognisable and controllable ends of a system that, stretched out, would be almost as long as a bus. But it's the bits in between, and their link with the rest of our bodies, including our brains and emotions, that really interest Enders.
"Medical diagrams show the small intestine as a sausage thing chaotically going through our belly," she says. "But it is an extraordinary work of architecture that moves so harmonically when you see it during surgery. It's clean and smooth, like soft fabric, and moves like this." She performs a wavy, pulsating motion with her hands. Enders believes that if we could think differently about the gut, we might more readily understand its role beyond basic digestion – and be kinder to it. The great extent to which the gut can influence health and mood is a growing field in medicine. We speak of it all the time, whether we describe "gut feelings", "butterflies in our stomachs", or "pooing our pants" in fear, but popular understanding of this gut-brain axis remains low.
A primal connection exists between our brain and our gut. We often talk about a “gut feeling” when we meet someone for the first time. We’re told to “trust our gut instinct” when making a difficult decision or that it’s “gut check time” when faced with a situation that tests our nerve and determination. This mind-gut connection is not just metaphorical. Our brain and gut are connected by an extensive network of neurons and a highway of chemicals and hormones that constantly provide feedback about how hungry we are, whether or not we’re experiencing stress, or if we’ve ingested a disease-causing microbe. This information superhighway is called the brain-gut axis and it provides constant updates on the state of affairs at your two ends. That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach after looking at your postholiday credit card bill is a vivid example of the brain-gut connection at work. You’re stressed and your gut knows it—immediately.
The enteric nervous system is often referred to as our body’s second brain. There are hundreds of million of neurons connecting the brain to the enteric nervous system, the part of the nervous system that is tasked with controlling the gastrointestinal system. This vast web of connections monitors the entire digestive tract from the esophagus to the anus. The enteric nervous system is so extensive that it can operate as an independent entity without input from our central nervous system, although they are in regular communication. While our “second” brain cannot compose a symphony or paint a masterpiece the way the brain in our skull can, it does perform an important role in managing the workings of our inner tube. The network of neurons in the gut is as plentiful and complex as the network of neurons in our spinal cord, which may seem overly complex just to keep track of digestion. Why is our gut the only organ in our body that needs its own “brain”? Is it just to manage the process of digestion? Or could it be that one job of our second brain is to listen in on the trillions of microbes residing in the gut?
Operations of the enteric nervous system are overseen by the brain and central nervous system. The central nervous system is in communication with the gut via the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system, the involuntary arm of the nervous system that controls heart rate, breathing, and digestion. The autonomic nervous system is tasked with the job of regulating the speed at which food transits through the gut, the secretion of acid in our stomach, and the production of mucus on the intestinal lining. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, or HPA axis, is another mechanism by which the brain can communicate with the gut to help control digestion through the action of hormones.
This circuitry of neurons, hormones, and chemical neurotransmitters not only sends messages to the brain about the status of our gut, it allows for the brain to directly impact the gut environment. The rate at which food is being moved and how much mucus is lining the gut—both of which can be controlled by the central nervous system—have a direct impact on the environmental conditions the microbiota experiences.
Like any ecosystem inhabited by competing species, the environment within the gut dictates which inhabitants thrive. Just as creatures adapted to a moist rain forest would struggle in the desert, microbes relying on the mucus layer will struggle in a gut where mucus is exceedingly sparse and thin. Bulk up the mucus, and the mucus-adapted microbes can stage a comeback. The nervous system, through its ability to affect gut transit time and mucus secretion, can help dictate which microbes inhabit the gut. In this case, even if the decisions are not conscious, it’s mind over microbes.
What about the microbial side? When the microbiota adjusts to a change in diet or to a stress-induced decrease in gut transit time, is the brain made aware of this modification? Does the brain-gut axis run in one direction only, with all signals going from brain to gut, or are some signals going the other way? Is that voice in your head that is asking for a snack coming from your mind or is it emanating from the insatiable masses in your bowels? Recent evidence indicates that not only is our brain “aware” of our gut microbes, but these bacteria can influence our perception of the world and alter our behavior. It is becoming clear that the influence of our microbiota reaches far beyond the gut to affect an aspect of our biology few would have predicted—our mind.
For example, the gut microbiota influences the body’s level of the potent neurotransmitter serotonin, which regulates feelings of happiness. Some of the most prescribed drugs in the U.S. for treating anxiety and depression, like Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil, work by modulating levels of serotonin. And serotonin is likely just one of a numerous biochemical messengers dictating our mood and behavior that the microbiota impacts.
Most of us can relate to the experience of having butterflies in our stomach, or to a visceral gut-wrenching feeling, and how often are we told not to ignore our “gut-instinct” or “gut-feeling” when making a decision.
Even from our simple slang, it’s clear just how symbolically connected the gut is to our emotions. Now, there’s tangible proof to support these popular metaphors.
We all have a microbiome, and they are as unique as our neural pathways
Research has shown that the body is actually composed of more bacteria than cells. We are more bug than human! Collectively, these trillions of bacteria are called the microbiome. Most of those bacteria reside in our gut, sometimes referred to as the gut microbiota, and they play multiple roles in our overall health.
The gut is no longer seen as an entity with the sole purpose of helping with all aspects of digestion. It’s also being considered as a key player in regulating inflammation and immunity.
A healthy gut consists of different iterations of bacteria for different people, and this diversity maintains wellness. A shift away from “normal” gut microbiota diversity is called dysbiosis, and dysbiosis may contribute to disease. In light of this, the microbiome has become the focus of much research attention as a new way of understanding autoimmune, gastrointestinal, and even brain disorders.
The benefit of a healthy gut is illustrated most effectively during early development. Research has indicated just how sensitive a fetus is to any changes in a mother’s microbiotic makeup, so much so that it can alter the way a baby’s brain develops. If a baby is born via cesarean section, it misses an opportunity to ingest the mother’s bacteria as it travels down the vaginal canal. Studies show that those born via c-section have to work to regain the same diversity in their microbiome as those born vaginally. Throughout our lives, our microbiome continues to be a vulnerable entity, and as we are exposed to stress, toxins, chemicals, certain diets, and even exercise, our microbiome fluctuates for better or worse.
The gut as second brain
Our gut microbiota play a vital role in our physical and psychological health via its own neural network: the enteric nervous system (ENS), a complex system of about 100 million nerves found in the lining of the gut.
The ENS is sometimes called the “second brain,” and it actually arises from the same tissues as our central nervous system (CNS) during fetal development. Therefore, it has many structural and chemical parallels to the brain.
Our ENS doesn’t wax philosophical or make executive decisions like the gray shiny mound in our skulls. Yet, in a miraculously orchestrated symphony of hormones, neurotransmitters, and electrical impulses through a pathway of nerves, both “brains” communicate back and forth. These pathways include and involve endocrine, immune, and neural pathways.
At this point in time, even though the research is inchoate and complex, it is clear that the brain and gut are so intimately connected that it sometimes seems like one system, not two.
Our emotions play a big role in functional gastrointestinal disorders
Given how closely the gut and brain interact, it has become clear that emotional and psychosocial factors can trigger symptoms in the gut. This is especially true in cases when the gut is acting up and there’s no obvious physical cause.
The functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) are a group of more than 20 chronic and hard to treat medical conditions of the gastrointestinal tract that constitute a large proportion of the presenting problems seen in clinical gastroenterology.
While FGID’s were once thought to be partly “in one’s head,” a more precise conceptualization of these difficulties posits that psychosocial factors influence the actual physiology of the gut, as well as the modulation of symptoms. In other words, psychological factors can literally impact upon physical factors, like the movement and contractions of the GI tract, causing, inflammation, pain, and other bowel symptoms.
Mental health impacts gut wellness
In light of this new understanding, it might be impossible to heal FGID’s without considering the impact of stress and emotion. Studies have shown that patients who tried psychologically based approaches had greater improvement in their symptoms compared with patients who received conventional medical treatment.
Along those lines, a new pilot study from Harvard University affiliates Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that meditation could have a significant impact for those with irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. Forty-eight patients with either IBS or IBD took a 9-week session that included meditation training, and the results showed reduced pain, improved symptoms, stress reduction, and the change in expression of genes that contribute to inflammation.
Poor gut health can lead to neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders
Vice-versa, poor gut health has been implicated in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Disturbances in gut health have been linked to multiple sclerosis, autistic spectrum disorders, and Parkinson’s disease. This is potentially related to pro-inflammatory states elicited by gut dysbiosis-microbial imbalance on or inside the body. Additional connections between age-related gut changes and Alzheimer’s disease have also been made.
Further, there is now research that is dubbing depression as an inflammatory disorder mediated by poor gut health. In fact, multiple animal studies have shown that manipulating the gut microbiota in some way can produce behaviors related to anxiety and depression. (Maes, Kubera, Leunis, Berk, J. Affective Disorders, 2012 and Berk, Williams, Jacka, BMC Med, 2013).
Our brain’s health, which will be discussed in more depth in a later blog post, is dependent on many lifestyle choices that mediate gut health; including most notably diet (i.e., reduction of excess sugar and refined carbohydrates) and pre and probiotic intake.
The brain-gut connection has treatment implications
We are now faced with the possibility of both prevention and treatment of neurological/neuropsychiatric difficulties via proper gut health. On the flip side, stress-reduction and other psychological treatments can help prevent and treat gastrointestinal disorders. This discovery can potentially lead to reduced morbidity, impairment, and chronic dependency on health care resources.
The most empowering aspect to the gut-brain connection is the understanding that many of our daily lifestyle choices play a role in mediating our overall wellness. This whole-body approach to healthcare and wellness continues to show its value in our longevity, well-being, and quality of life: that both physical and mental health go hand-in-hand.
Kingdom Animalia
Superphylum Ecdysozoa
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Hexapoda
Class Insecta
Subclass Pterygota
Infraclass Palaeoptera (ancient winged insects)
Order Odonata (Damselflies & Dragonflies)
Suborder Anisoptera (Dragonflies)
Family Libellulidae (Common Skimmers)
Genus Erythemis
Species simplicicollis (Eastern Pondhawk) - ♂
August 9, 2020; Leon County; Tallahassee, Florida.
There were many dozens of male pondhawks at the local pond Sunday. I only saw a couple of females, and they where seeking refuge towards the center of the pond. The males were busy harassing each other along the pond's fringes.
Canon M6 Mark II; MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro; 101 images @ 100um increments; WeMacro rail; Used a DIY "light tunnel" fabricated from a roll of sheet metal and LED strip lights placed in the interior in a tight spiral (a proof of concept prototype); Canon DPP4 used to convert raw images to TIF; Zerene Stacker using slabbing method (10 images each with 3 overlap) with Pmax; exposure and color balanced w/ PS..
I knew nothing about the practical use of LED strip lights before this project. I've since discovered the concept of "pulse width modulation," or PWM. There's plenty of info on the net about it. What I observed was ghost imaging at high magnifications (>5X) and at shutter speeds of less than 1/400s. The "light tunnel" produces a lot of light, but I still had to use an ISO of 1000 at TV 1/400s and Av 5.6 at those high magnifications. The ghosting effect decreases to negligibility at lower magnifications of less than 2X and I was able to adjust exposure parameters such as reducing ISO and Tv. I did not notice any typical banding effects. I had installed a dimmer mechanism on the LED circuit, but will remove it to see if it affects anything.
I like the light that the "light tunnel" produces. Very soft and diffused.
200809_Pondhawk_Head_05
Indexical Patterning/Painting : Affective Relational Intensities (Micropolitics of slowness and repetition)
Layered Drawings : Architectural Screens/Modulations of Translucency
Space Between People
How the virtual changes physical architecture
Stephan Doesinger
This book shows how the virtual has completely changed the physical world around us. If architecture is the construction of space between people, what happens when that space exists in a virtual world? That question is the starting point for this collection of revolutionary projects by a new generation of designers. The book begins by examining the important issues that have emerged as technology reshapes our idea of place and proceeds to present the four winning projects from the first architecture competition held within the explosively popular Internet community known as Second Life. Chosen for their inventiveness and aesthetic excellence, these structures - a cloud that can be inhabited; a meta-museum; an interactive sound scape; and a snow palace of discarded objects - illustrate the mindbending possibilities of digital design. In the books final section, media artists share their real-time experiences conceptualizing and creating projects for the virtual world.
Non Spaces/Digital Still Image : Fire escape Winchester School of Art
Meshworks/Norwich, moving analogue source : Midway/Dante
Beginning as one always does in the middle, in mediis rebus, one experiences a sense of disorientation, a sort of cartographic anxiety or spatial perplexity that appears to be part of our fundamental being-in-the-world. It is an experience not unlike that of Dante, in the opening lines of his Commedia:
Midway along the journey of our life,
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path.
( Dante 1984 : 67)
Introduction : Spatiality .
Robert T. Tally Jr.
the New Critical Idiom, Routledge 2013
Art as Spatial Practice.
Space folds : Containing "Spatialities around historicality and sociality"
"All that is solid melts into air"
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels,
(Poetic observation concerning the constant revolutionizing of social conditions)
Perceptions now gathering at the end of the millennium. Spatiality, Robert T. Tally Jr. 2013
Sensuality, Drawing and Astronomical Space.
Architectural Translucency (Tracing Layers)
DSC_8860 Pavilion : Borderlands
Andreas Horlitz : Simulacrum. 2006
Brian Clarke : Lamina. 2005
Testing out the fadeable cathode wrangled by Mr J Barkby. This device is the first step in trying to construct a more complex tool.
Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 2.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com
Hu Zhengyan (c. 1584-1674) was a Chinese traditional painter, calligrapher, seal carver and publisher during the transition of the Ming and Qing dynasties. He produced China’s first printed publication in color, and was famous for his incredible techniques achieving gradation and modulation of shades in woodblock prints.
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: rawpixel
During the full moon on March 19th 2011 the moon was only 221,565 miles (356,575 kilometers) away. The closest it’s been in almost 20 years. It appeared 14 percent bigger and 30% brighter than usual.
A "Super Moon".
How to shoot the moon:
1. Use a good solid Tripod, keep the center column down. Over the distance from you to the moon, any vibration is going to affect your image.
2. Use a long lens, mine is 400mm on a 1.6x crop body = 640mm
3. ISO 100. Although this is at night, the moon is very bright, use your lowest ISO to get the cleanest image.
4. Use RAW, jpg disposes of detail before you've had a chance to optimize it.
5. Set your lens to its sharpest aperature, mine is F8. Check your lens MTF (Modulation Transfer Function [resolution]) at photozone. For example see Test Report - Analysis
6. Set your shutter speed to one stop below getting the blinking overexposed warning. This is 'expose to the right'. In camera, this will look over exposed, but once we post process it, you will get the maximum detail - this is important! see "Expose to the Right"
7. Live View to focus critically at 10x magnification. You would imagine at this distance the lens would be at infinity, but you'll be be surprised.
8. Use the self timer with mirror lockup. You want the camera to be as still as possible at the point of exposure.
9. Post processing
The expose to the right technique maximises detail, but requires you fix the exposure level in Post Processing, do it manually or try the Auto fix.
Increase the contrast via curves adjustment, to darken the 'seas', and brighten the craters.
Tone if desired.
Crop.