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Day 16: After falling into a pattern of taking photos of things in and around the house, I was determined to make today's shot something outdoors. Since Sunday is the day my coed recreational softball team plays, I took my camera to the field looking for something to capture. After the softball game, we stayed at the park to test out a friend's new portable commercial grill. We had tacos with three types of meat (carne asada, al pastor, and chicken) and several varieties of salsa. Luckily for me, as we were enjoying our tacos just before sunset, the skies over our field turned a pretty reddish-orange shade. Unfortunately, I took dozens of shots but was not quite able to capture the real-life beauty of the sky. After initially failing to get the shot right in post-processing, I uploaded an SOOC shot. After doing so, I couldn't shake my unsatisfied feeling, so I spent a couple of hours with Lightroom 3 tutorials and getting to know the software better. This updated photo represents my best attempt to salvage my shot.
P.S. I've only been using Lightroom 3 for a month. I'm a total newbie to serious photo-editing software. In that sense, this project is allowing me the opportunity to develop my almost nonexistent post-processing and photo-editing skills.
For FGR: Ads For Nonexistent Products
Have you ever had difficulty determining the difference between shit and shinola?
Well, I have, and I’ve found a solution, thanks to a collaboration between Ronco and Apple. Together, they've developed an app for your iPhone that solves the puzzle once and for all.
Simply take an iPhoto of the suspect items and load them into the Ronco “Sniffer” application on your iPhone. Thanks to decades of military research, the Sniffer converts the iPhotos to digital representations of iShit and iShinola, then almost immediately displays the results on your iPhone in an easy to understand format with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.
All I can say is thank you, Ronco and Apple, for making my life so much easier!
Yeah, there's an app for that!
This is an actual customer's testimonial. No actors were paid for this advertisement.
Carpenter bees (the genus Xylocopa in the subfamily Xylocopinae) are large, hairy bees distributed worldwide. There are some 500 species of carpenter bee in 31 subgenera.[1] Their name comes from the fact that nearly all species build their nests in burrows in dead wood, bamboo, or structural timbers (except those in the subgenus Proxylocopa, which nest in the ground). Members of the related tribe Ceratinini are sometimes referred to as "small carpenter bees".
In several species, the females live alongside their own daughters or sisters, creating a sort of social group. They use wood bits to form partitions between the cells in the nest. A few species bore holes in wood dwellings. Since the tunnels are near the surface, structural damage is generally minor or nonexistent.
Carpenter bees can be important pollinators on open-faced flowers, even obligate pollinators on some, such as the Maypop (Passiflora incarnata), though many species are also known to "rob" nectar by slitting the sides of flowers with deep corollas.
Somewhere on the train ride from Kandy to Haputale. Communication was almost nonexistent and only nonverbal, but I really think they wanted to have a photo taken. Bit shaky because there wasn't much light :-/ (I added some brightness with gimp...)
And unfortunately we didn't manage to get a written address where to send it to....
This station in Norton was once a stop on the Taunton Branch Railroad. It's a pretty early station, built in 1853. This station is only 4 miles from where I live if you were to travel along the nonexistent rail line (half that distance is now a bike path) -- it would have been a quick ride even on a slow old steam train. (It's only slightly farther traveling along the roads, but less fun.)
This station has been recently been restored and is now for sale as a private home, asking price $409,000. It has previously held a post office, a glue factory, a bakery, and a bistro (not at the same time...) Its role as a passenger station ended in 1938, although the railroad line continued to exist until 1965.
The real estate ads that I found for this building online do mention that it used to be a train station. I'm not sure why the for sale sign has been pulled out -- according to all the websites, it's currently for sale. Next, I might have to pretend to be a potential buyer so I can get a real estate agent to show me the interior :)
HELP!! The label says this is from Tsumeb, where pyromorphite has been noted once or twice, but is thought to be almost nonexistent. Does anyone have any thoughts on what those brown transparent crystals might be?
This fighter doesn't exist. It has an ejectable seat, flick fire missiles and other missiles. I know, lots of missiles, here's a video of it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd5H6bZNybU
This Mustang convertible will be a major undertaking to restore. The floor pans were mostly nonexistent. There was no instrument cluster or dash in the car. Amazingly, at the end of the show, it was started and driven, hopefully to a trailer, leaving the aroma of stale gas being burned.
Naysayers claim that public transportation in Florida is almost nonexistent, but the PSTA begs to differ.
US 19 at 118th/Bryan Dairy, Pinellas Park.
This slideshows star is a field of barley or wheat and Tara hill in the background. Its in Coolgreany, Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland. I walk by this most days with my dog. Its made up of about 60 photos thoughout the seasons. Music is a free download from YouTube called "Where Silence is Nonexistent - A Himitsu" to help pass the time.
Used my Huawei p30 for the photos.
Tortola, British Virgin Islands. 110v. 60hz current used despite the English made transformers & insulators.Taken 1971. This voltage, nonexistent in America, is common in UK.
The line for the Main Bar is always long, but the line for the Front Bar is nonexistent. Really people?
UPDATE: The store that housed this exhibt was burned down. Google The Wilde Collection, Houston TX to read the story. The child mortality rate in Victorian England was high; with a quarter of babies dying before their first birthday. For a select few, the ritual of séance became the only method of extending their cruelly short parenthood. Out of all spirit contact, child spirits were the most difficult to engage. With a limited or nonexistent vocabulary, conventional methods such as talking boards were not feasible. The child spirit was no different than a living child; shy and scared of initial interaction with unknown adults. New methods had to be devised to lure child spirits into the circle so that they could, once again, be reunited with their bereaved parents. Due to this problem, Hungarian spiritualist, Ciprian Zaharie, felt compelled to create an unusual and never before devised method for child spirit communication: the Christening Doll.
Many in contemporary society would see this as morbid, during Victorian times, Zaharie’s Christening Doll was one of the most sought after gift for the new mother. The doll would be given to the mother bald, with no eyes or teeth. Once the baby arrived and the new mother saw their eye color, she would take it to the doll maker where they will install the eye color to match her child’s. Once the child got their first haircut, the mother would again take it back to the doll maker for them to root the baby’s hair into the dolls head. The same was repeated when the baby lost their baby teeth. Inside the doll, was a tin compartment where the mother would place the physical nine month mother child attachment: the umbilical cord. This process was to give the Christening Doll, as much likeness and energy of the child, much like voodoo dolls.
Every day, the new mother would set aside a special time of the day for the baby to play with the doll and no other toy. As a child becomes attached to a toy in life, it can equally become as attached in death. Scheduling playtime with the doll would ensure that it would become the child’s favorite toy and they would, more easily be attracted to play with it even after their untimely death.
The Black Swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia they are nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon climatic conditions. Black Swans are large birds with mostly black plumage and red bills. They are monogamous breeders that share incubation duties and cygnet rearing between the sexes.
The black swan theory or theory of black swan events is a metaphor that describes an event that is a surprise (to the observer), has a major effect, and after the fact is often inappropriately rationalized with the benefit of hindsight. The expression derives from the Old World presumption that all swans must be white because all historical records of swans reported that they had white feathers. In that context, a black swan was impossible or at least nonexistent.
Yorgui Teyrouz is a pharmacy student at the Lebanese American
University. He’s been a scout for 15 years. He also served in the Red
Cross in 2003 for a year.
Yorgui is the founder of Donner Sang Compter (DSC), and he has
been working to better the blood donation cause in Lebanon for the
past 5 years. Lebanon lacks a national blood bank, or any public
blood donation service and awareness about the importance of
voluntary blood donation is often nonexistent. DSC is composed of
young volunteers from various social and professional backgrounds.
Their job is to raise awareness about voluntary blood donation
across the Lebanese territory: from schools and universities, to
churches and mosques, to movie theatres and even nightclubs.
Along with awakening young people to the vital importance of the
selfless act itself, DSC is encouraging them to become voluntary
blood donors. The service is completely free of charge and relies
solely on the registered donors’ selfless efforts to help save a life.
When he’s not donating blood, running his NGO or studying, Yorgui
goes camping and loves to discover new places in Lebanon. His
activities are all about friends and team sports. Reggae music keeps
him smiling and is a part of his daily life.
This series of photos shows our cruise ship's journey along the Fiordland coast between Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, and then our looping route in one entrance to this enormous fiord and out another. The reaction of my fellow passengers to this magnificent New Zealand scenery was, in itself, wonderful to observe.
•Doubtful Sound is a very large and naturally imposing fiord in Fiordland, in the far south west of New Zealand. Doubtful Sound was named 'Doubtful Harbour' in 1770 by Captain Cook, who did not enter the inlet as he was uncertain whether it was navigable under sail. It was later renamed Doubtful Sound by whalers and sealers. There are three distinct arms to the sound, which is the site of several large waterfalls, notably Helena Falls at Deep Cove, and the Browne Falls which have a fall of over 600 metres. The steep hills are known for their hundreds of waterfalls during the rainy season. Access to the sound is either by sea, or by the Wilmot Pass road from the Manapouri Power Station. Most areas of the sound itself are only accessible by sea however, as the road network in this area of New Zealand is sparse or nonexistent, as is the human population. Doubtful Sound is unusual in that it contains two distinct layers of water that scarcely mix. The top few meters is fresh water, fed from the high inflows from the surrounding mountains, and stained brown with tannins from the forest. Below this is a layer of cold, heavy, saline water from the sea. The dark tannins in the fresh water layer makes it difficult for light to penetrate. Thus, many deep-sea species will grow in the comparatively shallow depths of the Sound.
Suspended Animation Classic #350
Originally published September 3, 1995 (#35)
(Dates are approximate)
The X Files; Los Omnipotents
By Michael Vance
The silliness called Psychobabble is psychology based on faulty or nonexistent science. Now, there’s a new babble in town.
A confusion of myths from Atlantis to Zulus with wings – our metaphysical beliefs from all times and nations – that I now label metababble is hot.
And metababble is kept in “The X Files”.
Government agents Mulder and Scully investigate metababble on television and in a new comic book. In current issues, they travel to St. Elias, Alaska. Atlantic is buried under the ice there.
In Atlantis, someone has rediscovered that eating a person gives the eater the eaten’s knowledge. This ancient myth of cannibalism is given veracity by the new discovery that all knowledge is stored in human DNA. Adding to the silliness, Aztecs and Toltecs have also become the Lost Tribe of Israel.
This is metababble, fun unless taken seriously.
Taken with a grain of salt is the art of this series. It’s clean, interesting storytelling with one major fault. Neither Scully nor Mulder look like Scully or Mulder.
Also salty is the written word. Stefan Petrucha has done his homework according to a long list of reference materials. He understands that adding layers of myth makes metaphysical confusion almost believable and a fun read.
In addition, unfolding plot, and characterization are intriguing. Much is promised in this half of the two-part “shocker”, “Silent Cities of the Mind”.
But you won’t be shocked. You won’t throw this in the “round” file, either.
Taken with a large grain of salt is the price of “The X Files”, which follows the standard rules of packaging like page count and paper quality. Why is it so high?
#8/22 pages, $2.95 from Topps Comics/writer: Stephan Petrucha; artist: Charles Adlard/available in comics shops, on newsstands, and by mail.
MINIVIEW: “Los Omnipotents” [El Wendigo]. Comics articles and a long, well drawn, futuristic comics drama filled with ugliness and violence. For mature, Spanish reading comics fans.
Day 68 of the 365 Journey. As I drove to work this morning, I looked at thermostat and it read 72 degrees. As it was only 6:30 in the morning, everything screamed SCORCHER! Had there only been a slight breeze it would have made the outrageous heat a tad bit bearable. However as it was, the breeze was nonexistent. After work I rushed home, grabbed the hose, and sprayed myself as if I was one of the puppies trying to avoid overheating. The title was originally “TRIPLE DIGITS”, however something about it just screamed “NIKE AD”. HAHA, so there ya have it!
(DISCLAIMER:Not affiliated with NIKE in any way shape or form)
Tomorrow should be about 10 degrees cooler…..WHEW!
Strobist:
Shutter Speed 2s
Aperture F32
ISO 100
Focal Length – 40mm
White Bal – Auto
Lighting – Flashpoint Monolight 1220 at 2/5 Power with 45’’ Shoot thru Umbrella at at subject 85 Degrees (approx 5ft forward).
1993 Suède Sweden Svezia
Tiens qui est-ce donc ?
Who's that ?
Ma dai, lei è anche lì !!!!!
Escapade en train à Blåhammaren, dans le nord de la Suède, près de la frontier norvégienne.
Il est conseillé de savoir lire une carte et utiliser la boussole, car les sentiers ne sont pas bien marqués et on ne rencontre quasi personne ... le temps peut aussi changer brusquement : en qq minutes on passé de l'été à l'hiver avec de la neige (meme en plein mois de juillet).
Week-end close to the Norwegian border, in the north of Sweden, at Blåhammaren.
It is recommended to be able to read a map and use a compass because the paths are almost nonexistent ... the weather can also change within minutes going from Summer into Winter (with snow mid of July).
Camminata vicina al confine con la Norvegia, a Blåhammaren (2 giorni).
Saper leggere una mappa e utilizzare una bussola è d'obbligo perché i sentieri non si vedono bene. E non c'è molta gente da incontrare ! Subito il meteo può anche cambiare da estate a inverno con neve a metà luglio !
Memory is at once existent and nonexistent. Memories rest in our minds until the time we must recall them. Memories seem solid. KNOWN. But they are so fragile that in a moment they are gone. SHATTERED. They shift with the light that colors events and change as others move into their space. Our friends can only experience our memories from the angle we give them. Memories leave marks in our brains of the stops along our paths -- a mark for each moment -- yet some are so deeply imbedded that we cannot recall them. THEY WAVER, yet we base our lives on our memories.
Gothic Armor
Date:
late 15th century; extensively restored and completed ca. 1926
Culture:
German and Italian
From the early nineteenth century through about the mid-twentieth century, it was not unusual to restore incomplete armor by combining elements from different armors, making missing pieces out of modern or reused old metal and decorating or redecorating pieces to match as needed. With objects in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, founding curator of the Arms and Armor Department Bashford Dean took a conservative approach for his day, having his armorers make, add to, or alter only those pieces he considered absolutely necessary to create an exhibitable display. In addition, the work done on the Museum’s pieces was usually signed and dated. For his private collection, however, Dean sometimes took a more liberal approach, delighting in composing armors out of disparate parts, augmented by whatever newly made or repurposed pieces were required to complete the ensemble he had in mind.
In this instance, Dean’s goal was to create a late German Gothic armor, a type often considered the pinnacle of armor-making. Complete and homogeneous examples were nonexistent on the art market by Dean’s time. Taking a superb late fifteenth-century helmet by the Landshut armorer Matthes Deutsch, and a nucleus of genuine torso, arm, and leg pieces, Dean’s craftsmen made this truly impressive and historically accurate representation of a German Gothic armor. As a result, about fifty percent of it is restoration. The plates are not signed, but we know from letters written at the time that some of the work was done by Leonard Hugel (1877–about 1935) and Harvey Murton (1907–2004) in about 1926. However, because of the extent of the restorations, only the helmet is regularly on permanent display today.
Stivan, a small settlement on Adriatic Sea island Cres in Kvarner bay, is an almost abandoned place. Incredibly stony ground, almost nonexistent arable soil, not close enough to the sea shore to be of interest for tourists, offers little to survive. Some old fig trees and olive trees and sheep, this is all one can rely on. But it is situated in a great landscape, in an open, rather flat (as the whole south part of the island) Mediterranean landscape, harsh, wind-swept and sunny, with mild spring and autumn climate and hot summers. Yet, 200 years ago men was capable not only to survive here but also to live full lives and to build large stony farmhouses like this one on my pictures. Now it is a ruin worth nothing, defeated by time and overtaken by Wulfen's Spurge (Euphorbia wulfeni).
L to R, per Anna: Erik, Anna's friend, Anna (with butterfly dress), Anna's brother, Toby the dog (on the pink leash), Anna's sister
The crew of this ancient 'boat appear not to be too troubled by the almost nonexistent slipstream acquired at a stately ninety knots. Although originally built (in 1925) with wooden hulls, the 11 Southampton Is were rebuilt as Mk IIs with metal hulls early in the 1930s. Some 60 were used by the RAF in the 1925-1936 era. Many were based at RAF Seletar, Singapore. In addition to the RAF squadrons, some 20 or so Southamptons were sold abroad, including a civil passenger model for Japan.
See also: www.aviastar.org/air/england/supermarine_southampton.php
Somalia is often described as the world's original failed state – a lawless country that has been engulfed in conflict for more than 20 years. According to women in Somalia saying that one of the greatest risk to women's lives is not war, but birth. One of the most dangerous things a woman in Somalia can do is to become pregnant. When she does, her chances of survival drop considerably due to the nonexistent antenatal care, nonexistent medical supplies, the extraordinarily poor healthcare available and the lack of infrastructure. A woman's lifetime risk of dying from maternal causes here is 1 in 14. This is one of the highest rates in the world, second only to Afghanistan. When a woman is due to give birth, she just waits for delivery, praying she doesn't die in the process.
More about womens world www.flickr.com/photos/noomad/sets/72157629934029865/
Naturalised parrots Psittacula krameri bird (Ring-necked parakeet) frequent an apartment neighbourhood in the Hague, the Netherlands.
The feeder is hanging on a tree in front of balcony, due to nonexistent yard. The wire ball (actually a lampshade frame) successfully keeps crows off the feeder...but larger birds regularly clean up the waste falling to the ground.
Individual seeds or nuts are much better than mixed bird foods or ready made suet cakes. Keep in mind that food for human consumption of far better quality, cheaper and not moldy. It is not healthy for birds to eat moldy food.
Vacumed shelled unsalted peanuts is a good choice, however it is advisable to
roast raw peanuts (see: www.avianweb.com/feedingwildbirds.html).
Hand feeding chickadees and woodpeckers in Mendon Ponds Park on Songbird Trail.
Friday afternoon, November 12, 2010 - unseasonably warm at 64° F (temps average 40° F in Western NY in mid-November).
Mendon Ponds Park is owned and very poorly maintained by the County of Monroe, NY.
Unfortunately, this extraordinary property is rapidly deteriorating due to an egregious lack of care. Trails are not cleared of debris... signs are useless. Park maintenance is essentially nonexistent. They do have a marketing department. Seriously, the taxpayers are paying the salaries of a county parks marketing department.
Email Mendon Ponds Park complaints to: countyexecutive@monroecounty.gov
East Point, Northern Territory. I did not think there would be much of a sunset this night as there was lot of cloud about and some rain. Caused by a tropical low near Timor, a long way to the north, but I went anyway for some long exposures on the rocks.
The tide of 7.1m is still coming in and always looks nice and clean and blue at the top of these big tides. The swell was almost nonexistent maybe rising to a half a metre at the most. I stayed here until after sunset but there was not enough water movement to create that misty effect I was after.
Those birds on the rocks are Pied Oystercatchers and the ship on the horizon is at anchor.
16-35mm F4 G ED VR @ 26mm, 1/5 second, f6.3, ISO 1 EV under 100. Cokin GND
Best viewing large on black. click here - click on photo or press L
Ciao, 2010! ~ 2011, ahoj!
Klangboot Radio #021 ~ podcast ~ by klangboot
Track (Album) / Artist / Label / Year
1. Nonexistent time (eternal sadness) / YARA* / dedpop.co.uk / 2010
2. Old Sky (VA - Goodfellas) / YARA* / www.mixgalaxyrecords.com / 2010
3. Winter Reprise (VA - Goodfellas) / Waterplea / www.mixgalaxyrecords.com / 2010
4. Puppy (VA - Goodfellas) / Nuts Gives Power / www.mixgalaxyrecords.com / 2010
5. Are you translucent? - Silencide RMX (DedRMX) / Kesta / dedpop.co.uk / 2009
6. The Javo Super - Nocow RMX (DedRMX) / Rykard / dedpop.co.uk / 2009
7. Copernico (Autour de la Lune) / Massimo Ruberti / elpamusic.lv / 2010
8. Inside (45 seconds of silence) / BurbonMonsters / ambitonica.com / 2009
9. Ya no un Yo sino un Nosotros (Phantastico Dogma Remixes) / In Vitro / breathe-comp.com / 2010
10. High plains (Therapy) / Khate / justnotnormal.wordpress.com / 2010
11. Rain (logical types of cracks) / sun-inside / picpack.org.ua / 2010
12. Raroia (Tidal Wave) / Urenga / load-and-clear-netlabel.blogspot.com / 2008
13. Desert (Road_to_plain) / Rion / ambitonica.com / 2008
Artists: YARA*, Waterplea, Nuts Gives Power, Kesta, Rykard, Massimo Ruberti, BurbonMonsters, In Vitro, Khate, sun-inside, Urenga, Rion
Labels: dedpop, mixgalaxyrecords, elpamusic, ambitonica, breathe, justnotnormal, picpack, load-and-clear-netlabel
So there I was, walking through grand central to catch a train.
My brain was still spinning from a long day at work, and I was doing my
thing where I obsess about whether I'm actually smart enough to do my job.
(I know what you're thinking: "chris, you're the most brilliant person I've
ever met! How could you think you're not smart enough?". You just have to
understand that I work with some DAMN SMART PEOPLE. Some would use the
word "distinctive.". At the risk of overextending this parenthetical
detour, I should tell you that I sometimes tell myself that my
Tuck Scholarhood was due exclusively to 3 things: 1. My admittedly recent
desire to prove to myself that I'm smart, 2. my willingness to work my ass
off to do so, and 3 my obsession with Excel. At other times, I convince
myself that I never see anything through to the end, but I get by because
I'm a brilliant test taker. Bottom line: I'm a self-conscious
pyschological basketcase who's off his meds (because he works too hard to
remember to re-order his Rx))
So that was my state of mind, when my brain suddenly registered the
stimulus it was receiving from this advertisement on the wall. And then I
smiled. I couldn't control the smile. I just suddenly broke out this big
shit-eating grin on my face, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I'm not sure if any of the other busy commuters noticed my sudden lack of
new york detachment. I can only pray that my lapse went unnoticed, or at
least that I never cross paths with the same people again.
So bravo to Kleenex! Bravo to the creative genius who conceived of that
ad!
You made me smile, at a time when I really needed to smile, if only to
remind me that what makes me truly distinctive is not my ability to perform
public mathematical gymnastics (nonexistent), or my smooth communication
style (not so much), but rather my absurdly senstitive soul that
appreciates truth and beauty much more deeply than any of you shallow
robots reading this blog.....yes, even in a toilet paper advertisement.
+
...but then its just the "human condition".
Human self-awareness leads us to recognize three core paradoxes or absurd features of the human condition:
(1) The human imagination has no physical boundaries, but bodies do. In the mind, humans can instantly travel to the ends of the universe, the center of the earth, even the center of the sun. People can use a mental microscope to visualize germs, viruses, atoms, quarks. As soon as they detect something with any instrument, they can make images of it in their minds. Humans can travel effortlessly in thought. The boundless production of fiction literature is evidence of the creative powers of the imagination. However, humans exist on one relatively small planet, and due to the speed limit of the universe (speed of light), it appears that we are bound to a small neighborhood around this planet for the foreseeable future. This frustration forms the physical paradox of the human condition.
(2) Human spirits can motivate selfless and noble acts, the most altruistic actions, and the most beneficial generosities. The same minds can also produce atrocities and violence against countless people, possibly destroying themselves. The human will can thus be seen as mercurial, untamed by moral law or conscience. On a grander scale, charismatic leaders can sway large populations to do things — benevolent or malevolent — that individuals may have never contemplated on their own. How can these two extremes coexist in the same individual and yet be nonexistent amongst other animals? Moral conflicts are exclusive to the human condition.
(3) Human actions and lives are motivated by hope, the idea that an individual can effect mass change, and a drive to improve the self and the environment. However, these drives are tempered by the knowledge of the human's own finite existence. Another paradox emerges, as a vision of the future perseveres amid the realization that the human may not live to see it. Thus, by extension, hope exists regarding eternal life beyond the grave — God, heaven, paradise. Even some atheists, although not hoping for literal eternal life, seek to leave an impact on the world that persists after their death. These aspirations for hope, meaning, significance, purpose, identity, peace, happiness, and love, even in the face of certain death, form the spiritual aspect of the human condition.
These paradoxes present universal, inescapable questions about life. Whenever any people lift their thoughts from daily routines, they may ponder these questions. Attempts to explain or resolve these paradoxes are the domain of religion and philosophy. The human condition is the central subject of all literature, drama and art.
-Wikipedia-
I unfortunately didn't get many photos of the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish areas of New Orleans. We took a bus tour through these very hard hit areas. The glare on the bus windows made photos rather tough, but I wish I would have tried harder. This was actually across the street from the Nunez Community College that we visited. A SMALL example of the devastation of the area.
3 years after Katrina and Rita and it was really sad to see the level of destruction that still exists. Entire shopping centers and apartment complexes sitting empty. A patchwork of homes partially repaired, fully repaired, or nonexistent except for a cement foundation. Many people are still paying a mortgage on a home or business that no longer exists.
We were fortunate enough to have a college professor on our bus that lives in this neighborhood and gave us the first hand accounts of what happened and the aftermath. Very sad situation. Even more sad that three years later and people have forgotten about New Orleans and the incredible amount of assistance these folks still need. FEMA (a very bad word in N.O.) has pulled out and no longer offers assistance or trailers. Some people were living in trailers that are TINY for 3 years. Ridiculous amount of red tape to get financial assistance which ends up not being nearly enough to actually rebuild or move on with life. Actually made me really sad but also REALLY mad that this could happen in my country and that these people could just be forgotten.
Some of the other observations and comments by our guide that really struck me...
- Professor said they knew the storm was coming. He looked out the window and there was nothing. In 20 minutes the water was 19-20 feet high in the neighborhood.
- There were actually 4 disasters that hit this area in a few weeks time...Katrina, levee breaks, Rita, and oil spill...any one of which would have been devastating let alone all three together.
- There were 67,000 people in St. Bernard Parish area and now there is less than a third of that number living there
- everything was dead according to the professor...no bugs, no birds, no animals, just dead silence
- strange things in homes like perfectly intact crystal heirlooms, a book in the exact place it was left and perfectly dry, and water moccasins in closets. Can you imagine?
- Bodies are still being found in homes and buildings in the area
- The homes in this area were actually nice homes and in some cases REALLY nice homes and GONE
- Only ones really helping still in the area are the independent Christian groups...we saw a big group of teenagers there when we drove through gutting homes and helping with rebuilding.
- There was a brand new hospital in the area that is now gone. No one will rebuild a hospital there so a Christian group has sent up a tent hospital system to try and provide basic care...3 years later!
- The local government had just moved back into their office building the week I was there after working out of tents and trailers for the last 3 years.
I don't care how you spent your Sunday, you couldn't have possibly had any more fun than I did even if my G tolerance is almost nonexistent (time to start working out maybe?). Thanks Jon!
The strange perspective here was right side up and mostly level from my pint of view at the time.
during my week off in cape town i explored the city by foot and bus, and the surrounding area by car. i don't drive all that regularly, but south africa is one of those few countries which drives on the left, so i felt very comfortable on the road. unfortunately i can't claim the same of my belgian colleague who accompanied me on the road trips. on the first day with the car he was behind the wheel when i saw a car advancing towards us. it took me a few seconds to work out what was wrong before i started shouting "left! left!" from the passenger seat. it took him a few seconds to realise that i wasn't referring to a nonexistent left turn and switch to the correct side of the road. we both agreed that i should drive the next day, which turned out to be a good decision as i later discovered that he also crashed into a stationary car on the way back to the rental garage!
here's the original
december 30, 2006 -
brown eyed girl.
i obviously stayed up way too late last night. i woke up at 1pm today.
this is post-moisturizer, but pre-concealer.
i had a boyfriend once who SWORE up and down that there were 'golden halos' in my eyes. so damn sappy/sweet, right?
as i've gotten older, i've realized that i can't quite see them anymore. le sigh.
I picked up this bottle earlier this week at Moore Brothers. Although a lovely bottle of Champagne (gorgeous dark rose color), it was off. There was a mildly off putting funk but it was completely nonexistent in the finish. It wasn't entirely undrinkable but I didn't like the unpleasant moldy nose at the start. We waited for it to disappear but never did. I might go to Moore Bros and let them know.
The center of the piece is a picture to show that photography is my main goal in this class. The photograph has all my plans for the future and the major things in my life right now on it to show who I am today. The outer edge is hand drawn and is like a map. It starts towards the left with Phoenix and is a road map of all the major places I have lived in. Eventually it progresses in to the bubble where Boston and Germany is, which represent my plans for the future. The map ends in the bottom left corner where there is an image I drew that shows the unstructured nature of the future and that no matter how far we plan for the future is a mystery.
My goals in this class are to explore my more creative side and take a break from really rigid STEM classes. I want to improve in photography and develop my nonexistent drawing skills.
This was the absolute first project we did in this class and I loved it. I remember being very conscious of my limited artistic ability and how I was worried I would mess up my portrayal of myself as an artist. The swirls in this project are my signature and go-to doodle, so it ended up really representing me.
I unfortunately didn't get many photos of the Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish areas of New Orleans. We took a bus tour through these very hard hit areas. The glare on the bus windows made photos rather tough, but I wish I would have tried harder. This was actually across the street from the Nunez Community College that we visited. A SMALL example of the devastation of the area.
3 years after Katrina and Rita and it was really sad to see the level of destruction that still exists. Entire shopping centers and apartment complexes sitting empty. A patchwork of homes partially repaired, fully repaired, or nonexistent except for a cement foundation. Many people are still paying a mortgage on a home or business that no longer exists.
We were fortunate enough to have a college professor on our bus that lives in this neighborhood and gave us the first hand accounts of what happened and the aftermath. Very sad situation. Even more sad that three years later and people have forgotten about New Orleans and the incredible amount of assistance these folks still need. FEMA (a very bad word in N.O.) has pulled out and no longer offers assistance or trailers. Some people were living in trailers that are TINY for 3 years. Ridiculous amount of red tape to get financial assistance which ends up not being nearly enough to actually rebuild or move on with life. Actually made me really sad but also REALLY mad that this could happen in my country and that these people could just be forgotten.
Some of the other observations and comments by our guide that really struck me...
- Professor said they knew the storm was coming. He looked out the window and there was nothing. In 20 minutes the water was 19-20 feet high in the neighborhood.
- There were actually 4 disasters that hit this area in a few weeks time...Katrina, levee breaks, Rita, and oil spill...any one of which would have been devastating let alone all three together.
- There were 67,000 people in St. Bernard Parish area and now there is less than a third of that number living there
- everything was dead according to the professor...no bugs, no birds, no animals, just dead silence
- strange things in homes like perfectly intact crystal heirlooms, a book in the exact place it was left and perfectly dry, and water moccasins in closets. Can you imagine?
- Bodies are still being found in homes and buildings in the area
- The homes in this area were actually nice homes and in some cases REALLY nice homes and GONE
- Only ones really helping still in the area are the independent Christian groups...we saw a big group of teenagers there when we drove through gutting homes and helping with rebuilding.
- There was a brand new hospital in the area that is now gone. No one will rebuild a hospital there so a Christian group has sent up a tent hospital system to try and provide basic care...3 years later!
- The local government had just moved back into their office building the week I was there after working out of tents and trailers for the last 3 years.
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joints than their lizard ancestors, enabling them to swallow prey much larger than their heads (cranial kinesis). To accommodate their narrow bodies, snakes' paired organs (such as kidneys) appear one in front of the other instead of side by side, and most have only one functional lung. Some species retain a pelvic girdle with a pair of vestigial claws on either side of the cloaca. Lizards have independently evolved elongate bodies without limbs or with greatly reduced limbs at least twenty-five times via convergent evolution, leading to many lineages of legless lizards. These resemble snakes, but several common groups of legless lizards have eyelids and external ears, which snakes lack, although this rule is not universal (see Amphisbaenia, Dibamidae, and Pygopodidae).
Living snakes are found on every continent except Antarctica, and on most smaller land masses; exceptions include some large islands, such as Ireland, Iceland, Greenland, the Hawaiian archipelago, and the islands of New Zealand, as well as many small islands of the Atlantic and central Pacific oceans. Additionally, sea snakes are widespread throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans. Around thirty families are currently recognized, comprising about 520 genera and about 3,900 species. They range in size from the tiny, 10.4 cm-long (4.1 in) Barbados threadsnake to the reticulated python of 6.95 meters (22.8 ft) in length. The fossil species Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 12.8 meters (42 ft) long. Snakes are thought to have evolved from either burrowing or aquatic lizards, perhaps during the Jurassic period, with the earliest known fossils dating to between 143 and 167 Ma ago. The diversity of modern snakes appeared during the Paleocene epoch (c. 66 to 56 Ma ago, after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event). The oldest preserved descriptions of snakes can be found in the Brooklyn Papyrus.
Most species of snake are nonvenomous and those that have venom use it primarily to kill and subdue prey rather than for self-defense. Some possess venom that is potent enough to cause painful injury or death to humans. Nonvenomous snakes either swallow prey alive or kill by constriction.
Etymology
The English word snake comes from Old English snaca, itself from Proto-Germanic *snak-an- (cf. Germanic Schnake 'ring snake', Swedish snok 'grass snake'), from Proto-Indo-European root *(s)nēg-o- 'to crawl to creep', which also gave sneak as well as Sanskrit nāgá 'snake'. The word ousted adder, as adder went on to narrow in meaning, though in Old English næddre was the general word for snake. The other term, serpent, is from French, ultimately from Indo-European *serp- 'to creep', which also gave Ancient Greek ἕρπω (hérpō) 'I crawl' and Sanskrit sarpá ‘snake’.
The fossil record of snakes is relatively poor because snake skeletons are typically small and fragile making fossilization uncommon. Fossils readily identifiable as snakes (though often retaining hind limbs) first appear in the fossil record during the Cretaceous period. The earliest known true snake fossils (members of the crown group Serpentes) come from the marine simoliophiids, the oldest of which is the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian age) Haasiophis terrasanctus from the West Bank, dated to between 112 and 94 million years old.
Based on comparative anatomy, there is consensus that snakes descended from lizards. Pythons and boas—primitive groups among modern snakes—have vestigial hind limbs: tiny, clawed digits known as anal spurs, which are used to grasp during mating The families Leptotyphlopidae and Typhlopidae also possess remnants of the pelvic girdle, appearing as horny projections when visible.
Front limbs are nonexistent in all known snakes. This is caused by the evolution of their Hox genes, controlling limb morphogenesis. The axial skeleton of the snakes' common ancestor, like most other tetrapods, had regional specializations consisting of cervical (neck), thoracic (chest), lumbar (lower back), sacral (pelvic), and caudal (tail) vertebrae. Early in snake evolution, the Hox gene expression in the axial skeleton responsible for the development of the thorax became dominant. As a result, the vertebrae anterior to the hindlimb buds (when present) all have the same thoracic-like identity (except from the atlas, axis, and 1–3 neck vertebrae). In other words, most of a snake's skeleton is an extremely extended thorax. Ribs are found exclusively on the thoracic vertebrae. Neck, lumbar and pelvic vertebrae are very reduced in number (only 2–10 lumbar and pelvic vertebrae are present), while only a short tail remains of the caudal vertebrae. However, the tail is still long enough to be of important use in many species, and is modified in some aquatic and tree-dwelling species.
Many modern snake groups originated during the Paleocene, alongside the adaptive radiation of mammals following the extinction of (non-avian) dinosaurs. The expansion of grasslands in North America also led to an explosive radiation among snakes. Previously, snakes were a minor component of the North American fauna, but during the Miocene, the number of species and their prevalence increased dramatically with the first appearances of vipers and elapids in North America and the significant diversification of Colubridae (including the origin of many modern genera such as Nerodia, Lampropeltis, Pituophis, and Pantherophis).
Fossils
There is fossil evidence to suggest that snakes may have evolved from burrowing lizards, during the Cretaceous Period. An early fossil snake relative, Najash rionegrina, was a two-legged burrowing animal with a sacrum, and was fully terrestrial. One extant analog of these putative ancestors is the earless monitor Lanthanotus of Borneo (though it also is semiaquatic). Subterranean species evolved bodies streamlined for burrowing, and eventually lost their limbs. According to this hypothesis, features such as the transparent, fused eyelids (brille) and loss of external ears evolved to cope with fossorial difficulties, such as scratched corneas and dirt in the ears. Some primitive snakes are known to have possessed hindlimbs, but their pelvic bones lacked a direct connection to the vertebrae. These include fossil species like Haasiophis, Pachyrhachis and Eupodophis, which are slightly older than Najash.
This hypothesis was strengthened in 2015 by the discovery of a 113-million-year-old fossil of a four-legged snake in Brazil that has been named Tetrapodophis amplectus. It has many snake-like features, is adapted for burrowing and its stomach indicates that it was preying on other animals. It is currently uncertain if Tetrapodophis is a snake or another species, in the squamate order, as a snake-like body has independently evolved at least 26 times. Tetrapodophis does not have distinctive snake features in its spine and skull. A study in 2021 places the animal in a group of extinct marine lizards from the Cretaceous period known as dolichosaurs and not directly related to snakes.
An alternative hypothesis, based on morphology, suggests the ancestors of snakes were related to mosasaurs—extinct aquatic reptiles from the Cretaceous—forming the clade Pythonomorpha. According to this hypothesis, the fused, transparent eyelids of snakes are thought to have evolved to combat marine conditions (corneal water loss through osmosis), and the external ears were lost through disuse in an aquatic environment. This ultimately led to an animal similar to today's sea snakes. In the Late Cretaceous, snakes recolonized land, and continued to diversify into today's snakes. Fossilized snake remains are known from early Late Cretaceous marine sediments, which is consistent with this hypothesis; particularly so, as they are older than the terrestrial Najash rionegrina. Similar skull structure, reduced or absent limbs, and other anatomical features found in both mosasaurs and snakes lead to a positive cladistical correlation, although some of these features are shared with varanids.
Genetic studies in recent years have indicated snakes are not as closely related to monitor lizards as was once believed—and therefore not to mosasaurs, the proposed ancestor in the aquatic scenario of their evolution. However, more evidence links mosasaurs to snakes than to varanids. Fragmented remains found from the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous indicate deeper fossil records for these groups, which may potentially refute either hypothesis.
Genetic basis of snake evolution
Main article: Limb development
Both fossils and phylogenetic studies demonstrate that snakes evolved from lizards, hence the question became which genetic changes led to limb loss in the snake ancestor. Limb loss is actually very common in extant reptiles and has happened dozens of times within skinks, anguids, and other lizards.
In 2016, two studies reported that limb loss in snakes is associated with DNA mutations in the Zone of Polarizing Activity Regulatory Sequence (ZRS), a regulatory region of the sonic hedgehog gene which is critically required for limb development. More advanced snakes have no remnants of limbs, but basal snakes such as pythons and boas do have traces of highly reduced, vestigial hind limbs. Python embryos even have fully developed hind limb buds, but their later development is stopped by the DNA mutations in the ZRS.
Distribution
There are about 3,900 species of snakes, ranging as far northward as the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia and southward through Australia. Snakes can be found on every continent except Antarctica, as well as in the sea, and as high as 16,000 feet (4,900 m) in the Himalayan Mountains of Asia. There are numerous islands from which snakes are absent, such as Ireland, Iceland, and New Zealand (although New Zealand's northern waters are infrequently visited by the yellow-bellied sea snake and the banded sea krait).
Taxonomy
All modern snakes are grouped within the suborder Serpentes in Linnean taxonomy, part of the order Squamata, though their precise placement within squamates remains controversial.
The two infraorders of Serpentes are Alethinophidia and Scolecophidia. This separation is based on morphological characteristics and mitochondrial DNA sequence similarity. Alethinophidia is sometimes split into Henophidia and Caenophidia, with the latter consisting of "colubroid" snakes (colubrids, vipers, elapids, hydrophiids, and atractaspids) and acrochordids, while the other alethinophidian families comprise Henophidia. While not extant today, the Madtsoiidae, a family of giant, primitive, python-like snakes, was around until 50,000 years ago in Australia, represented by genera such as Wonambi.
There are numerous debates in the systematics within the group. For instance, many sources classify Boidae and Pythonidae as one family, while some keep the Elapidae and Hydrophiidae (sea snakes) separate for practical reasons despite their extremely close relation.
Recent molecular studies support the monophyly of the clades of modern snakes, scolecophidians, typhlopids + anomalepidids, alethinophidians, core alethinophidians, uropeltids (Cylindrophis, Anomochilus, uropeltines), macrostomatans, booids, boids, pythonids and caenophidians.
Legless lizards
Main article: Legless lizard
While snakes are limbless reptiles, evolved from (and grouped with) lizards, there are many other species of lizards that have lost their limbs independently but which superficially look similar to snakes. These include the slowworm and glass snake.
Other serpentine tetrapods that are unrelated to snakes include caecilians (amphibians), amphisbaenians (near-lizard squamates), and the extinct aistopods (amphibians).
Biology
The now extinct Titanoboa cerrejonensis was 12.8 m (42 ft) in length. By comparison, the largest extant snakes are the reticulated python, measuring about 6.95 m (22.8 ft) long, and the green anaconda, which measures about 5.21 m (17.1 ft) long and is considered the heaviest snake on Earth at 97.5 kg (215 lb).
At the other end of the scale, the smallest extant snake is Leptotyphlops carlae, with a length of about 10.4 cm (4.1 in). Most snakes are fairly small animals, approximately 1 m (3.3 ft) in length.
Perception
Pit vipers, pythons, and some boas have infrared-sensitive receptors in deep grooves on the snout, allowing them to "see" the radiated heat of warm-blooded prey. In pit vipers, the grooves are located between the nostril and the eye in a large "pit" on each side of the head. Other infrared-sensitive snakes have multiple, smaller labial pits lining the upper lip, just below the nostrils.
A snake tracks its prey using smell, collecting airborne particles with its forked tongue, then passing them to the vomeronasal organ or Jacobson's organ in the mouth for examination. The fork in the tongue provides a sort of directional sense of smell and taste simultaneously. The snake's tongue is constantly in motion, sampling particles from the air, ground, and water, analyzing the chemicals found, and determining the presence of prey or predators in the local environment. In water-dwelling snakes, such as the anaconda, the tongue functions efficiently underwater.
The underside of a snake is very sensitive to vibration, allowing the snake to detect approaching animals by sensing faint vibrations in the ground. Despite the lack of outer ears, they are also able to detect airborne sounds.
Snake vision varies greatly between species. Some have keen eyesight and others are only able to distinguish light from dark, but the important trend is that a snake's visual perception is adequate enough to track movements. Generally, vision is best in tree-dwelling snakes and weakest in burrowing snakes. Some have binocular vision, where both eyes are capable of focusing on the same point, an example of this being the Asian vine snake. Most snakes focus by moving the lens back and forth in relation to the retina. Diurnal snakes have round pupils and many nocturnal snakes have slit pupils. Most species possess three visual pigments and are probably able to see two primary colors in daylight. The annulated sea snake and the genus Helicops appears to have regained much of their color vision as an adaption to the marine environment they live in. It has been concluded that the last common ancestors of all snakes had UV-sensitive vision, but most snakes that depend on their eyesight to hunt in daylight have evolved lenses that act like sunglasses for filtering out the UV-light, which probably also sharpens their vision by improving the contrast.
Skin
The skin of a snake is covered in scales. Contrary to the popular notion of snakes being slimy (because of possible confusion of snakes with worms), snakeskin has a smooth, dry texture. Most snakes use specialized belly scales to travel, allowing them to grip surfaces. The body scales may be smooth, keeled, or granular. The eyelids of a snake are transparent "spectacle" scales, also known as brille, which remain permanently closed.
The shedding of scales is called ecdysis (or in normal usage, molting or sloughing). Snakes shed the complete outer layer of skin in one piece. Snake scales are not discrete, but extensions of the epidermis—hence they are not shed separately but as a complete outer layer during each molt, akin to a sock being turned inside out.
Snakes have a wide diversity of skin coloration patterns which are often related to behavior, such as the tendency to have to flee from predators. Snakes that are at a high risk of predation tend to be plain, or have longitudinal stripes, providing few reference points to predators, thus allowing the snake to escape without being noticed. Plain snakes usually adopt active hunting strategies, as their pattern allows them to send little information to prey about motion. Blotched snakes usually use ambush-based strategies, likely because it helps them blend into an environment with irregularly shaped objects, like sticks or rocks. Spotted patterning can similarly help snakes to blend into their environment.
The shape and number of scales on the head, back, and belly are often characteristic and used for taxonomic purposes. Scales are named mainly according to their positions on the body. In "advanced" (Caenophidian) snakes, the broad belly scales and rows of dorsal scales correspond to the vertebrae, allowing these to be counted without the need for dissection.
Molting
Molting (or "ecdysis") serves a number of purposes. It allows old, worn skin to be replaced and it can remove parasites such as mites and ticks that live in the skin. It has also been observed in snakes that molting can be synced to mating cycles. Shedding skin can release pheromones and revitalize color and patterns of the skin to increase attraction of mates. Renewal of the skin by molting supposedly allows growth in some animals such as insects, but this has been disputed in the case of snakes.
Molting occurs periodically throughout the life of a snake. Before each molt, the snake stops eating and often hides or moves to a safe place. Just before shedding, the skin becomes dull and dry looking and the snake's eyes turn cloudy or blue-colored. The inner surface of the old skin liquefies, causing it to separate from the new skin beneath it. After a few days, the eyes become clear and the snake "crawls" out of its old skin, which splits close to the snake's mouth. The snake rubs its body against rough surfaces to aid in the shedding of its old skin. In many cases, the cast skin peels backward over the body from head to tail in one piece, like pulling a sock off inside-out, revealing a new, larger, brighter layer of skin which has formed underneath.
A young snake that is still growing may shed its skin up to four times a year, but an older snake may shed only once or twice a year. The discarded skin carries a perfect imprint of the scale pattern, so it is usually possible to identify the snake from the cast skin if it is reasonably intact. This periodic renewal has led to the snake being a symbol of healing and medicine, as pictured in the Rod of Asclepius.
Scale counts can sometimes be used to identify the sex of a snake when the species is not distinctly sexually dimorphic. A probe is fully inserted into the cloaca, marked at the point where it stops, then removed and measured against the subcaudal scales. The scalation count determines whether the snake is a male or female, as the hemipenes of a male will probe to a different depth (usually longer) than the cloaca of a female.
Skeleton
The skeletons of snakes are radically different from those of most other reptiles (as compared with the turtle here, for example), consisting almost entirely of an extended ribcage.
The skeleton of most snakes consists solely of the skull, hyoid, vertebral column, and ribs, though henophidian snakes retain vestiges of the pelvis and rear limbs.
The skull consists of a solid and complete neurocranium, to which many of the other bones are only loosely attached, particularly the highly mobile jaw bones, which facilitate manipulation and ingestion of large prey items. The left and right sides of the lower jaw are joined only by a flexible ligament at the anterior tips, allowing them to separate widely, and the posterior end of the lower jaw bones articulate with a quadrate bone, allowing further mobility. The mandible and quadrate bones can pick up ground-borne vibrations; because the sides of the lower jaw can move independently of one another, a snake resting its jaw on a surface has sensitive stereo auditory perception, used for detecting the position of prey. The jaw–quadrate–stapes pathway is capable of detecting vibrations on the angstrom scale, despite the absence of an outer ear and the lack of an impedance matching mechanism—provided by the ossicles in other vertebrates—for receiving vibrations from the air.
The hyoid is a small bone located posterior and ventral to the skull, in the 'neck' region, which serves as an attachment for the muscles of the snake's tongue, as it does in all other tetrapods.
The vertebral column consists of between 200 and 400 vertebrae, or sometimes more. The body vertebrae each have two ribs articulating with them. The tail vertebrae are comparatively few in number (often less than 20% of the total) and lack ribs. The vertebrae have projections that allow for strong muscle attachment, enabling locomotion without limbs.
Caudal autotomy (self-amputation of the tail), a feature found in some lizards, is absent in most snakes. In the rare cases where it does exist in snakes, caudal autotomy is intervertebral (meaning the separation of adjacent vertebrae), unlike that in lizards, which is intravertebral, i.e. the break happens along a predefined fracture plane present on a vertebra.
In some snakes, most notably boas and pythons, there are vestiges of the hindlimbs in the form of a pair of pelvic spurs. These small, claw-like protrusions on each side of the cloaca are the external portion of the vestigial hindlimb skeleton, which includes the remains of an ilium and femur.
Snakes are polyphyodonts with teeth that are continuously replaced
Snakes and other non-archosaur (crocodilians, dinosaurs + birds and allies) reptiles have a three-chambered heart that controls the circulatory system via the left and right atrium, and one ventricle. Internally, the ventricle is divided into three interconnected cavities: the cavum arteriosum, the cavum pulmonale, and the cavum venosum. The cavum venosum receives deoxygenated blood from the right atrium and the cavum arteriosum receives oxygenated blood from the left atrium. Located beneath the cavum venosum is the cavum pulmonale, which pumps blood to the pulmonary trunk.
The snake's heart is encased in a sac, called the pericardium, located at the bifurcation of the bronchi. The heart is able to move around, owing to the lack of a diaphragm; this adjustment protects the heart from potential damage when large ingested prey is passed through the esophagus. The spleen is attached to the gall bladder and pancreas and filters the blood. The thymus, located in fatty tissue above the heart, is responsible for the generation of immune cells in the blood. The cardiovascular system of snakes is unique for the presence of a renal portal system in which the blood from the snake's tail passes through the kidneys before returning to the heart.
The vestigial left lung is often small or sometimes even absent, as snakes' tubular bodies require all of their organs to be long and thin.[71] In the majority of species, only one lung is functional. This lung contains a vascularized anterior portion and a posterior portion that does not function in gas exchange. This 'saccular lung' is used for hydrostatic purposes to adjust buoyancy in some aquatic snakes and its function remains unknown in terrestrial species. Many organs that are paired, such as kidneys or reproductive organs, are staggered within the body, one located ahead of the other.
Snakes have no lymph nodes.
Venom
Cobras, vipers, and closely related species use venom to immobilize, injure, or kill their prey. The venom is modified saliva, delivered through fangs. The fangs of 'advanced' venomous snakes like viperids and elapids are hollow, allowing venom to be injected more effectively, and the fangs of rear-fanged snakes such as the boomslang simply have a groove on the posterior edge to channel venom into the wound. Snake venoms are often prey-specific, and their role in self-defense is secondary.
Venom, like all salivary secretions, is a predigestant that initiates the breakdown of food into soluble compounds, facilitating proper digestion. Even nonvenomous snakebites (like any animal bite) cause tissue damage.
Certain birds, mammals, and other snakes (such as kingsnakes) that prey on venomous snakes have developed resistance and even immunity to certain venoms.Venomous snakes include three families of snakes, and do not constitute a formal taxonomic classification group.
The colloquial term "poisonous snake" is generally an incorrect label for snakes. A poison is inhaled or ingested, whereas venom produced by snakes is injected into its victim via fangs. There are, however, two exceptions: Rhabdophis sequesters toxins from the toads it eats, then secretes them from nuchal glands to ward off predators; and a small unusual population of garter snakes in the US state of Oregon retains enough toxins in their livers from ingested newts to be effectively poisonous to small local predators (such as crows and foxes).
Snake venoms are complex mixtures of proteins, and are stored in venom glands at the back of the head. In all venomous snakes, these glands open through ducts into grooved or hollow teeth in the upper jaw. The proteins can potentially be a mix of neurotoxins (which attack the nervous system), hemotoxins (which attack the circulatory system), cytotoxins (which attack the cells directly), bungarotoxins (related to neurotoxins, but also directly affect muscle tissue), and many other toxins that affect the body in different ways. Almost all snake venom contains hyaluronidase, an enzyme that ensures rapid diffusion of the venom.
Venomous snakes that use hemotoxins usually have fangs in the front of their mouths, making it easier for them to inject the venom into their victims. Some snakes that use neurotoxins (such as the mangrove snake) have fangs in the back of their mouths, with the fangs curled backwards. This makes it difficult both for the snake to use its venom and for scientists to milk them. Elapids, however, such as cobras and kraits are proteroglyphous—they possess hollow fangs that cannot be erected toward the front of their mouths, and cannot "stab" like a viper. They must actually bite the victim.
It has been suggested that all snakes may be venomous to a certain degree, with harmless snakes having weak venom and no fangs. According to this theory, most snakes that are labelled "nonvenomous" would be considered harmless because they either lack a venom delivery method or are incapable of delivering enough to endanger a human. The theory postulates that snakes may have evolved from a common lizard ancestor that was venomous, and also that venomous lizards like the gila monster, beaded lizard, monitor lizards, and the now-extinct mosasaurs, may have derived from this same common ancestor. They share this "venom clade" with various other saurian species.
Venomous snakes are classified in two taxonomic families:
Elapids – cobras including king cobras, kraits, mambas, Australian copperheads, sea snakes, and coral snakes.
Viperids – vipers, rattlesnakes, copperheads/cottonmouths, and bushmasters.
There is a third family containing the opistoglyphous (rear-fanged) snakes (as well as the majority of other snake species):
Colubrids – boomslangs, tree snakes, vine snakes, cat snakes, although not all colubrids are venomous.
Reproduction
Although a wide range of reproductive modes are used by snakes, all employ internal fertilization. This is accomplished by means of paired, forked hemipenes, which are stored, inverted, in the male's tail. The hemipenes are often grooved, hooked, or spined—designed to grip the walls of the female's cloaca. The clitoris of the female snake consists of two structures located between the cloaca and the scent glands.
Most species of snakes lay eggs which they abandon shortly after laying. However, a few species (such as the king cobra) construct nests and stay in the vicinity of the hatchlings after incubation. Most pythons coil around their egg-clutches and remain with them until they hatch. A female python will not leave the eggs, except to occasionally bask in the sun or drink water. She will even "shiver" to generate heat to incubate the eggs.
Some species of snake are ovoviviparous and retain the eggs within their bodies until they are almost ready to hatch. Several species of snake, such as the boa constrictor and green anaconda, are fully viviparous, nourishing their young through a placenta as well as a yolk sac; this is highly unusual among reptiles, and normally found in requiem sharks or placental mammals. Retention of eggs and live birth are most often associated with colder environments.
Sexual selection in snakes is demonstrated by the 3,000 species that each use different tactics in acquiring mates. Ritual combat between males for the females they want to mate with includes topping, a behavior exhibited by most viperids in which one male will twist around the vertically elevated fore body of its opponent and force it downward. It is common for neck-biting to occur while the snakes are entwined.
Facultative parthenogenesis
Parthenogenesis is a natural form of reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization. Agkistrodon contortrix (copperhead) and Agkistrodon piscivorus (cottonmouth) can reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis, meaning that they are capable of switching from a sexual mode of reproduction to an asexual mode. The most likely type of parthenogenesis to occur is automixis with terminal fusion, a process in which two terminal products from the same meiosis fuse to form a diploid zygote. This process leads to genome-wide homozygosity, expression of deleterious recessive alleles, and often to developmental abnormalities. Both captive-born and wild-born copperheads and cottonmouths appear to be capable of this form of parthenogenesis.
Reproduction in squamate reptiles is almost exclusively sexual. Males ordinarily have a ZZ pair of sex-determining chromosomes, and females a ZW pair. However, the Colombian Rainbow boa (Epicrates maurus) can also reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis, resulting in production of WW female progeny. The WW females are likely produced by terminal automixis.
Embryonic Development
Snake embryonic development initially follows similar steps as any vertebrate embryo. The snake embryo begins as a zygote, undergoes rapid cell division, forms a germinal disc, also called a blastodisc, then undergoes gastrulation, neurulation, and organogenesis. Cell division and proliferation continues until an early snake embryo develops and the typical body shape of a snake can be observed. Multiple features differentiate the embryologic development of snakes from other vertebrates, two significant factors being the elongation of the body and the lack of limb development.
The elongation in snake body is accompanied by a significant increase in vertebra count (mice have 60 vertebrae, whereas snakes may have over 300). This increase in vertebrae is due to an increase in somites during embryogenesis, leading to an increased number of vertebrae which develop. Somites are formed at the presomitic mesoderm due to a set of oscillatory genes that direct the somitogenesis clock. The snake somitogenesis clock operates at a frequency 4 times that of a mouse (after correction for developmental time), creating more somites, and therefore creating more vertebrae. This difference in clock speed is believed to be caused by differences in Lunatic fringe gene expression, a gene involved in the somitogenesis clock.
There is ample literature focusing on the limb development/lack of development in snake embryos and the gene expression associated with the different stages. In basal snakes, such as the python, embryos in early development exhibit a hind limb bud that develops with some cartilage and a cartilaginous pelvic element, however this degenerates before hatching. This presence of vestigial development suggests that some snakes are still undergoing hind limb reduction before they are eliminated. There is no evidence in basal snakes of forelimb rudiments and no examples of snake forelimb bud initiation in embryo, so little is known regarding the loss of this trait. Recent studies suggests that hind limb reduction could be due to mutations in enhancers for the SSH gene, however other studies suggested that mutations within the Hox Genes or their enhancers could contribute to snake limblessness. Since multiple studies have found evidence suggesting different genes played a role in the loss of limbs in snakes, it is likely that multiple gene mutations had an additive effect leading to limb loss in snakes.
Behavior
Snake coiled on a stick in Oklahoma. It was brumating in a large pile of wood chips, found by this landscaper after he bulldozed the pile in late autumn 2018.
In regions where winters are too cold for snakes to tolerate while remaining active, local species will enter a period of brumation. Unlike hibernation, in which the dormant mammals are actually asleep, brumating reptiles are awake but inactive. Individual snakes may brumate in burrows, under rock piles, or inside fallen trees, or large numbers of snakes may clump together in hibernacula.
Feeding and diet
All snakes are strictly carnivorous, preying on small animals including lizards, frogs, other snakes, small mammals, birds, eggs, fish, snails, worms, and insects. Snakes cannot bite or tear their food to pieces so must swallow their prey whole. The eating habits of a snake are largely influenced by body size; smaller snakes eat smaller prey. Juvenile pythons might start out feeding on lizards or mice and graduate to small deer or antelope as an adult, for example.
The snake's jaw is a complex structure. Contrary to the popular belief that snakes can dislocate their jaws, they have an extremely flexible lower jaw, the two halves of which are not rigidly attached, and numerous other joints in the skull, which allow the snake to open its mouth wide enough to swallow prey whole, even if it is larger in diameter than the snake itself. For example, the African egg-eating snake has flexible jaws adapted for eating eggs much larger than the diameter of its head. This snake has no teeth, but does have bony protrusions on the inside edge of its spine, which it uses to break the shell when eating eggs.
The majority of snakes eat a variety of prey animals, but there is some specialization in certain species. King cobras and the Australian bandy-bandy consume other snakes. Species of the family Pareidae have more teeth on the right side of their mouths than on the left, as they mostly prey on snails and the shells usually spiral clockwise.
Some snakes have a venomous bite, which they use to kill their prey before eating it. Other snakes kill their prey by constriction, while some swallow their prey when it is still alive.
After eating, snakes become dormant to allow the process of digestion to take place; this is an intense activity, especially after consumption of large prey. In species that feed only sporadically, the entire intestine enters a reduced state between meals to conserve energy. The digestive system is then 'up-regulated' to full capacity within 48 hours of prey consumption. Being ectothermic ("cold-blooded"), the surrounding temperature plays an important role in the digestion process. The ideal temperature for snakes to digest food is 30 °C (86 °F). There is a huge amount of metabolic energy involved in a snake's digestion, for example the surface body temperature of the South American rattlesnake (Crotalus durissus) increases by as much as 1.2 °C (2.2 °F) during the digestive process. If a snake is disturbed after having eaten recently, it will often regurgitate its prey to be able to escape the perceived threat. When undisturbed, the digestive process is highly efficient; the snake's digestive enzymes dissolve and absorb everything but the prey's hair (or feathers) and claws, which are excreted along with waste.
Hooding and spitting
Hooding (expansion of the neck area) is a visual deterrent, mostly seen in cobras (elapids), and is primarily controlled by rib muscles.[98] Hooding can be accompanied by spitting venom towards the threatening object,[99] and producing a specialized sound; hissing. Studies on captive cobras showed that 13 to 22% of the body length is raised during hooding.
Locomotion
The lack of limbs does not impede the movement of snakes. They have developed several different modes of locomotion to deal with particular environments. Unlike the gaits of limbed animals, which form a continuum, each mode of snake locomotion is discrete and distinct from the others; transitions between modes are abrupt.
Lateral undulation
Lateral undulation is the sole mode of aquatic locomotion, and the most common mode of terrestrial locomotion In this mode, the body of the snake alternately flexes to the left and right, resulting in a series of rearward-moving "waves". While this movement appears rapid, snakes have rarely been documented moving faster than two body-lengths per second, often much less. This mode of movement has the same net cost of transport (calories burned per meter moved) as running in lizards of the same mass.
Terrestrial lateral undulation is the most common mode of terrestrial locomotion for most snake species. In this mode, the posteriorly moving waves push against contact points in the environment, such as rocks, twigs, irregularities in the soil, etc. Each of these environmental objects, in turn, generates a reaction force directed forward and towards the midline of the snake, resulting in forward thrust while the lateral components cancel out. The speed of this movement depends upon the density of push-points in the environment, with a medium density of about 8[clarification needed] along the snake's length being ideal. The wave speed is precisely the same as the snake speed, and as a result, every point on the snake's body follows the path of the point ahead of it, allowing snakes to move through very dense vegetation and small openings.
When swimming, the waves become larger as they move down the snake's body, and the wave travels backwards faster than the snake moves forwards. Thrust is generated by pushing their body against the water, resulting in the observed slip. In spite of overall similarities, studies show that the pattern of muscle activation is different in aquatic versus terrestrial lateral undulation, which justifies calling them separate modes. All snakes can laterally undulate forward (with backward-moving waves), but only sea snakes have been observed reversing the motion (moving backwards with forward-moving waves).
Sidewinding
Most often employed by colubroid snakes (colubrids, elapids, and vipers) when the snake must move in an environment that lacks irregularities to push against (rendering lateral undulation impossible), such as a slick mud flat, or a sand dune, sidewinding is a modified form of lateral undulation in which all of the body segments oriented in one direction remain in contact with the ground, while the other segments are lifted up, resulting in a peculiar "rolling" motion. This mode of locomotion overcomes the slippery nature of sand or mud by pushing off with only static portions on the body, thereby minimizing slipping. The static nature of the contact points can be shown from the tracks of a sidewinding snake, which show each belly scale imprint, without any smearing. This mode of locomotion has very low caloric cost, less than 1⁄3 of the cost for a lizard to move the same distance. Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence that sidewinding is associated with the sand being hot.
Concertina
When push-points are absent, but there is not enough space to use sidewinding because of lateral constraints, such as in tunnels, snakes rely on concertina locomotion. In this mode, the snake braces the posterior portion of its body against the tunnel wall while the front of the snake extends and straightens. The front portion then flexes and forms an anchor point, and the posterior is straightened and pulled forwards. This mode of locomotion is slow and very demanding, up to seven times the cost of laterally undulating over the same distance. This high cost is due to the repeated stops and starts of portions of the body as well as the necessity of using active muscular effort to brace against the tunnel walls.
Arboreal
The movement of snakes in arboreal habitats has only recently been studied. While on tree branches, snakes use several modes of locomotion depending on species and bark texture. In general, snakes will use a modified form of concertina locomotion on smooth branches, but will laterally undulate if contact points are available. Snakes move faster on small branches and when contact points are present, in contrast to limbed animals, which do better on large branches with little 'clutter'.
Gliding snakes (Chrysopelea) of Southeast Asia launch themselves from branch tips, spreading their ribs and laterally undulating as they glide between trees. These snakes can perform a controlled glide for hundreds of feet depending upon launch altitude and can even turn in midair.
Rectilinear
The slowest mode of snake locomotion is rectilinear locomotion, which is also the only one where the snake does not need to bend its body laterally, though it may do so when turning. In this mode, the belly scales are lifted and pulled forward before being placed down and the body pulled over them. Waves of movement and stasis pass posteriorly, resulting in a series of ripples in the skin. The ribs of the snake do not move in this mode of locomotion and this method is most often used by large pythons, boas, and vipers when stalking prey across open ground as the snake's movements are subtle and harder to detect by their prey in this manner.
Interactions with humans
Snakes do not ordinarily prey on humans. Unless startled or injured, most snakes prefer to avoid contact and will not attack humans. With the exception of large constrictors, nonvenomous snakes are not a threat to humans. The bite of a nonvenomous snake is usually harmless; their teeth are not adapted for tearing or inflicting a deep puncture wound, but rather grabbing and holding. Although the possibility of infection and tissue damage is present in the bite of a nonvenomous snake, venomous snakes present far greater hazard to humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists snakebite under the "other neglected conditions" category.
Documented deaths resulting from snake bites are uncommon. Nonfatal bites from venomous snakes may result in the need for amputation of a limb or part thereof. Of the roughly 725 species of venomous snakes worldwide, only 250 are able to kill a human with one bite. Australia averages only one fatal snake bite per year. In India, 250,000 snakebites are recorded in a single year, with as many as 50,000 recorded initial deaths. The WHO estimates that on the order of 100,000 people die each year as a result of snake bites, and around three times as many amputations and other permanent disabilities are caused by snakebites annually.
The treatment for a snakebite is as variable as the bite itself. The most common and effective method is through antivenom (or antivenin), a serum made from the venom of the snake. Some antivenom is species-specific (monovalent) while some is made for use with multiple species in mind (polyvalent). In the United States for example, all species of venomous snakes are pit vipers, with the exception of the coral snake. To produce antivenom, a mixture of the venoms of the different species of rattlesnakes, copperheads, and cottonmouths is injected into the body of a horse in ever-increasing dosages until the horse is immunized. Blood is then extracted from the immunized horse. The serum is separated and further purified and freeze-dried. It is reconstituted with sterile water and becomes antivenom. For this reason, people who are allergic to horses are more likely to have an allergic reaction to antivenom. Antivenom for the more dangerous species (such as mambas, taipans, and cobras) is made in a similar manner in South Africa, Australia , and India, although these antivenoms are species-specific.
Snake charmers
In some parts of the world, especially in India, snake charming is a roadside show performed by a charmer. In such a show, the snake charmer carries a basket containing a snake that he seemingly charms by playing tunes with his flutelike musical instrument, to which the snake responds. The snake is in fact responding to the movement of the flute, not the sound it makes, as snakes lack external ears (though they do have internal ears).
The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 in India technically prohibits snake charming on the grounds of reducing animal cruelty. Other types of snake charmers use a snake and mongoose show, where the two animals have a mock fight; however, this is not very common, as the animals may be seriously injured or killed. Snake charming as a profession is dying out in India because of competition from modern forms of entertainment and environment laws proscribing the practice. Many Indians have never seen snake charming and it is becoming a folktale of the past.
Trapping
The Irulas tribe of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in India have been hunter-gatherers in the hot, dry plains forests, and have practiced the art of snake catching for generations. They have a vast knowledge of snakes in the field. They generally catch the snakes with the help of a simple stick. Earlier, the Irulas caught thousands of snakes for the snake-skin industry. After the complete ban of the snake-skin industry in India and protection of all snakes under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, they formed the Irula Snake Catcher's Cooperative and switched to catching snakes for removal of venom, releasing them in the wild after four extractions. The venom so collected is used for producing life-saving antivenom, biomedical research and for other medicinal products. The Irulas are also known to eat some of the snakes they catch and are very useful in rat extermination in the villages.
Despite the existence of snake charmers, there have also been professional snake catchers or wranglers. Modern-day snake trapping involves a herpetologist using a long stick with a V-shaped end. Some television show hosts, like Bill Haast, Austin Stevens, Steve Irwin, and Jeff Corwin, prefer to catch them using bare hands.
Consumption
Although snakes are not commonly thought of as food, their consumption is acceptable in some cultures and may even be considered a delicacy. Snake soup is popular in Cantonese cuisine, consumed by locals in the autumn to warm their bodies. Western cultures document the consumption of snakes only under extreme circumstances of hunger, with the exception of cooked rattlesnake meat, which is commonly consumed in Texas and parts of the Midwestern United States.
In Asian countries such as China, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Cambodia, drinking the blood of a snake—particularly the cobra—is believed to increase sexual virility. When possible, the blood is drained while the cobra is still alive, and it is usually mixed with some form of liquor to improve the taste.
The use of snakes in alcohol is accepted in some Asian countries. In such cases, one or more snakes are left to steep in a jar or container of liquor, as this is claimed to make the liquor stronger (as well as more expensive). One example of this is the Habu snake, which is sometimes placed in the Okinawan liqueur Habushu (ハブ酒), also known as "Habu Sake".
Snake wine (蛇酒) is an alcoholic beverage produced by infusing whole snakes in rice wine or grain alcohol. First recorded as being consumed in China during the Western Zhou dynasty, this drink is considered an important curative and is believed to reinvigorate a person according to traditional Chinese medicine
Pets
In the Western world, some snakes are kept as pets, especially docile species such as the ball python and corn snake. To meet the demand, a captive breeding industry has developed. Snakes bred in captivity are considered preferable to specimens caught in the wild and tend to make better pets. Compared with more traditional types of companion animal, snakes can be very low-maintenance pets; they require minimal space, as most common species do not exceed 5 feet (1.5 m) in length, and can be fed relatively infrequently—usually once every five to 14 days. Certain snakes have a lifespan of more than 40 years if given proper care.
Symbolism
In ancient Mesopotamia, Nirah, the messenger god of Ištaran, was represented as a serpent on kudurrus, or boundary stones. Representations of two intertwined serpents are common in Sumerian art and Neo-Sumerian artwork and still appear sporadically on cylinder seals and amulets until as late as the thirteenth century BC. The horned viper (Cerastes cerastes) appears in Kassite and Neo-Assyrian kudurrus and is invoked in Assyrian texts as a magical protective entity. A dragon-like creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian Period until the Hellenistic Period (323 BC–31 BC). This creature, known in Akkadian as the mušḫuššu, meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as a general protective emblem. It seems to have originally been the attendant of the Underworld god Ninazu, but later became the attendant to the Hurrian storm-god Tishpak, as well as, later, Ninazu's son Ningishzida, the Babylonian national god Marduk, the scribal god Nabu, and the Assyrian national god Ashur.
In Egyptian history, the snake occupies a primary role with the Nile cobra adorning the crown of the pharaoh in ancient times. It was worshipped as one of the gods and was also used for sinister purposes: murder of an adversary and ritual suicide (Cleopatra). The ouroboros was a well-known ancient Egyptian symbol of a serpent swallowing its own tail. The precursor to the ouroboros was the "Many-Faced", a serpent with five heads, who, according to the Amduat, the oldest surviving Book of the Afterlife, was said to coil around the corpse of the sun god Ra protectively. The earliest surviving depiction of a "true" ouroboros comes from the gilded shrines in the tomb of Tutankhamun. In the early centuries AD, the ouroboros was adopted as a symbol by Gnostic Christians and chapter 136 of the Pistis Sophia, an early Gnostic text, describes "a great dragon whose tail is in its mouth". In medieval alchemy, the ouroboros became a typical western dragon with wings, legs, and a tail.
In the Bible, King Nahash of Ammon, whose name means "Snake", is depicted very negatively, as a particularly cruel and despicable enemy of the ancient Hebrews.
The ancient Greeks used the Gorgoneion, a depiction of a hideous face with serpents for hair, as an apotropaic symbol to ward off evil. In a Greek myth described by Pseudo-Apollodorus in his Bibliotheca, Medusa was a Gorgon with serpents for hair whose gaze turned all those who looked at her to stone and was slain by the hero Perseus. In the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses, Medusa is said to have once been a beautiful priestess of Athena, whom Athena turned into a serpent-haired monster after she was raped by the god Poseidon in Athena's temple. In another myth referenced by the Boeotian poet Hesiod and described in detail by Pseudo-Apollodorus, the hero Heracles is said to have slain the Lernaean Hydra, a multiple-headed serpent which dwelt in the swamps of Lerna.
The legendary account of the foundation of Thebes mentioned a monster snake guarding the spring from which the new settlement was to draw its water. In fighting and killing the snake, the companions of the founder Cadmus all perished – leading to the term "Cadmean victory" (i.e. a victory involving one's own ruin).
Three medical symbols involving snakes that are still used today are Bowl of Hygieia, symbolizing pharmacy, and the Caduceus and Rod of Asclepius, which are symbols denoting medicine in general.
One of the etymologies proposed for the common female first name Linda is that it might derive from Old German Lindi or Linda, meaning a serpent.
India is often called the land of snakes and is steeped in tradition regarding snakes. Snakes are worshipped as gods even today with many women pouring milk on snake pits (despite snakes' aversion for milk). The cobra is seen on the neck of Shiva and Vishnu is depicted often as sleeping on a seven-headed snake or within the coils of a serpent. There are also several temples in India solely for cobras sometimes called Nagraj (King of Snakes) and it is believed that snakes are symbols of fertility. There is a Hindu festival called Nag Panchami each year on which day snakes are venerated and prayed to. See also Nāga.
In India there is another mythology about snakes. Commonly known in Hindi as "Ichchhadhari" snakes. Such snakes can take the form of any living creature, but prefer human form. These mythical snakes possess a valuable gem called "Mani", which is more brilliant than diamond. There are many stories in India about greedy people trying to possess this gem and ending up getting killed.
The snake is one of the 12 celestial animals of Chinese zodiac, in the Chinese calendar.
Many ancient Peruvian cultures worshipped nature. They emphasized animals and often depicted snakes in their art.
Religion
Snakes are used in Hinduism as a part of ritual worship. In the annual Nag Panchami festival, participants worship either live cobras or images of Nāgas. Lord Shiva is depicted in most images with a snake coiled around his neck. Puranic literature includes various stories associated with snakes, for example Shesha is said to hold all the planets of the Universe on his hoods and to constantly sing the glories of Vishnu from all his mouths. Other notable snakes in Hinduism are Vasuki, Takshaka, Karkotaka, and Pingala. The term Nāga is used to refer to entities that take the form of large snakes in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Snakes have been widely revered in many cultures, such as in ancient Greece where the serpent was seen as a healer.[148] Asclepius carried a serpent wound around his wand, a symbol seen today on many ambulances. In Judaism, the snake of brass is also a symbol of healing, of one's life being saved from imminent death.
In religious terms, the snake and jaguar were arguably the most important animals in ancient Mesoamerica. "In states of ecstasy, lords dance a serpent dance; great descending snakes adorn and support buildings from Chichen Itza to Tenochtitlan, and the Nahuatl word coatl meaning serpent or twin, forms part of primary deities such as Mixcoatl, Quetzalcoatl, and Coatlicue." In the Maya and Aztec calendars, the fifth day of the week was known as Snake Day.
In some parts of Christianity, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ is compared to saving one's life through beholding the Nehushtan (serpent of brass). Snake handlers use snakes as an integral part of church worship, to demonstrate their faith in divine protection. However, more commonly in Christianity, the serpent has been depicted as a representative of evil and sly plotting, as seen in the description in Genesis of a snake tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden. Saint Patrick is purported to have expelled all snakes from Ireland while converting the country to Christianity in the 5th century, thus explaining the absence of snakes there.
In Christianity and Judaism, the snake makes its infamous appearance in the first book of the Bible when a serpent appears before Adam and Eve and tempts them with the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The snake returns in the Book of Exodus when Moses turns his staff into a snake as a sign of God's power, and later when he makes the Nehushtan, a bronze snake on a pole that when looked at cured the people of bites from the snakes that plagued them in the desert. The serpent makes its final appearance symbolizing Satan in the Book of Revelation: "And he laid hold on the dragon the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years."
In Neo-Paganism and Wicca, the snake is seen as a symbol of wisdom and knowledge. Additionally, snakes are sometimes associated with Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft.
Medicine
Several compounds from snake venoms are being researched as potential treatments or preventatives for pain, cancers, arthritis, stroke, heart disease, hemophilia, and hypertension, and to control bleeding (e.g. during surgery).
Only about 30 elephants are estimated to remain inside Ngorongoro Crater.
Because Ngorongoro is well protected from outside influences, old male Elephants go there to retire and relax for the remaining years of their life. Often, these old beasts have some of the longest tusks in all of Africa since poaching here is nonexistent. I saw one with very impressive long tusks, but I was not able to find its photo. I probably was so mesmerized that I forgot to take one.
More architectural whimsy. This sandstone sculpture and medallion decorate the entrance to the Santa Barbara courthouse. They represent agriculture and industry, which were historically important in Santa Barbara. These days, agcriculture is all but nonexistent in Santa Barbara itself. If it were carved today, she'd probably be holding a bottle of wine, which is the county's biggest agricultural commodity.
I love the fellow depicted as "industry" inside the medallion. Trains chug in front of him, he sports a winged cap, and he holds a ship in one hand and a fistful of electrical bolts in the other. These days, his left hand would hold a yacht, and the other might have a shopping bag or a plate of fancy grub to go with Lady Agriculture's bottle of wine.
A curious bit of history goes along with these carvings. The sculptor, and Italian named Ettore Cadorin, had moved to Santa Barbara just before the infamous 1925 earthquake, which leveled most of the buildings in town. Having been trained in Venice and Paris, Cadorin was an easy favorite for the contract to do the sculpture work for the new courthouse.
Within days of the earthquake, Cadorin launched a campaign to convince the city that it should be "rebuilt in high artistic style.” Moreover, the city should rebuild “even the houses which are not damaged, but are ugly, and would spoil the whole effect.”
Santa Barbara now advertises itself as California's Riviera, although some argue that the city is excessively vain about appearance. Houses are mostly whitewashed with orange-tile roofs, which adds a homogeneous look to the city. Hot pink or electric blue houses are zoned out of existence. Cadorin would have approved.