View allAll Photos Tagged physically"
There’s nothing like traveling... whether physically actually going places or mentally just reading a book, studying or browsing photos on Flickr
while semi-looking for inspiration for my final photography assignment [a portrait of an artist], wandering around the architecture building, i went into the drawing room, where i had recently accumulated a massive amount of magazine clippings. it was a nice mess. i decided i ought to turn myself into a collage. and thus, i ended up gluing scraps to the table and chairs, to myself, building a 3d collage to photograph.
*oh! and as for the roses...they have their own story. i left school for a quick break the eve of this shoot and stopped by the market on the way home. as i was locking my bicycle up, a man stepped out of his flower shop and quickly back in before dashing out with a bouquet of roses. he asked me if i'd like them and i accepted, awed, because that was exactly what i needed at the moment, in exactly the right color. peachy. so i thought i'd honor him by incorporating them into my forthcoming project. chin chin, mr. rose!
here is my solution for the same assignment, one year prior.
Her 4th gallery, Gwyneth shows incredible strength both physically and of character in her commitment to a 100% natural physique.
#WWHA is an artistic photography project designed to bring about positivity and confidence on the subject of body hair by involving professional models who have forearm hair and presenting elegant imagery that is fitting for social movement towards a more loving relationship with one's own body.
Supporters of our project access all of the photography we do through our website. Samples are available on our /download page, or via our mailing list.
I've been feeling super sick and exhausted (physically and mentally) all week so this is pretty much what I've been doing every morning, lounging with the dogs (btw, that little puppy ear I am grabbing belongs to our newest family member, Whiskey the boxer. He's a pain in the butt but he's the sweetest thing ever).
I want to try to be as honest and open with these self portraits as I possibly can. Although I promise I am more exciting than this haha.
They say U.S. schoolchildren are among the least physically fit in the civilized world. Very few walk to school anymore, and beautiful ball fields on a beautiful afternoon are entirely empty.
Some time later…
There was an eerie unease on the bridge. Nine figures—some physically present, others present through holo projections—stood in a circle around the huge imperial crest carved into the center of the bridge.
The sound of Grand Moff Cerato’s cane against the black polished floor broke the silence. “Welcome to Korriban, the gateway to the Stygian Caldera.” The Grand Moff looked around at the other eight, and continued his speech.
“This place bears certain symbolism to what we will witness here.
For too long we have seeked refuge in the shadows. Hiding from the New Republic. Some among us misplaced trust in the Shadow Council, others superstitiously waited for the ghost-emperor to return. Our separation and secrecy has served us well. We have grown strong. The time has come to unite that strength.”
The contrasting expressions on the faces around him were palpable; pride, frustration, awe, and disbelief. But every single one of them understood the weight of this moment. This was a moment that would redefine the galaxy.
The war-hardened rasp of Moff Cerato's voice provided the announcement with the gravity it deserved.
"This gathering marks the birth of the Crim Empire, with The Crimson Dutchess' ascension as Empress of the Trans-Hydian Borderlands, the Greater Maldrood, the Tion Cluster, the Ciutric Hegemony, and beyond.”
Quite literally, physically and emotionally. I'm at the top of a mountain with a path splitting off into two directions....I'm still standing here trying to decide which route will be best to follow down. Easiest or more adventurous? I think we all know my choice but its a scary path. Here goes nothing.
This was like 6-8pm (dark) in some abandoned building on Friday.
I'm trying to expand my limits. Exploring abandonment's at night adds a new sense of excitement and adventure. What I like most is the way my mind has to think to get a shot. Its forcing me to use my strobes (a new years resolution) and fun way to explore new opportunities.
Spring City, PA
May 25th, 2014
That was the name found on the foot of the bed
Some History of the place:
"Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff and two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction."
SOURCE: SOURCE: www.pennhurstasylum.com/index2.html#/history
"Even when the artist is not physically present in the photograph, her gaze is in it. The object of her gaze, be it model or landscape, is something the artist has choosen to frame out from the world. The photograph contains this gaze and results from it."
"Sanatçının kendisi fotoğrafta görünmese bile, bakışı her zaman fotoğrafın içindedir. Onun baktığı özne, ister bir model ister manzara olsun, dünya içinden çerçevesini çizip çıkarmayı seçtiği şeydir. Fotoğraf bu bakışı ve sonuçlarını barındırır."
Sable
The most physically impressive antelope is undoubtedly the Sable.
Prime elements of its majestic appearance are its horns, of course, its height at the shoulder, its mane and its glossy chestnut coat.
The late 1950s pre-set 1:1 version of the Macro-Takumar is my favourite manual focus lens, without a doubt. Physically, it’s a gem. Beautifully engineered, quite small (when not extended), with exquisite engraved markings, and it has a fabulously smooth focus throw. When it extends to take close-up shots, it looks like it’s ready for some really serious macro photos....
...and here is my photo album from the lens:
www.flickr.com/photos/95859572@N06/albums/72157644855700903
Personally, I enjoy using pre-set lenses. The unclicked aperture rings are useful for trying out different depths of field in close-up shots.
It’s quite a hard lens to master, and that makes it even more appealing to me. Modern DSLRs seem to struggle with metering the deep-set glass in macro shots, too often over-exposing and blowing out brighter details, such as reflections on leaves. It’s a lens that one needs to learn how to use, and you need to be comfortable with all the manual camera controls as well as close-up focusing. With a relatively slow maximum aperture of f4 the lens can be hard work sometimes, not just focusing on a darker screen, but also handling moving objects.
Optically, The Maco-Takumar is one of the sharpest lenses I’ve ever used, including that optical paragon, the DA 35 Macro Limited, and the much praised F 100/2.8 Macro. The colours, to me, are more natural than the DA’s output, and the images have bags more character than digital lenses IMO. It’s also quite rare to have 1:1, because after this lens, Pentax dropped the 1:1 ratio for macro 50mm lenses for decades.
The lens is more than a macro. It is a perfectly decent walk around lens. Given the deep-set glass, it doesn't need a hood. It works very well all the way to infinity. Some macro lenses, because of the design compromises required to optimise close-up focusing, are not that great at infinity. This is not an issue with the Macro-Takumar.
If I was told I had one day to go out with a single lens and take a photo that people might say “WOW” to, then it would be the Macro-Takumar. I’d trust it completely, either to take a fascinating insight in the macro world of flowers, insects or other objects, or a more conventional scene without flares or distortions. It’s that good.
At this point I should say that there are many wonderful MF lenses I don’t own, that could easily make my top 5 list. There are Leica lenses I’d love to own, with that Leica effect. I don’t have any lenses faster than f1.4; the 55mm/1.2 lenses strike me as having a great focal length/speed. The A* Pentax lenses. And then the Helios 40 (85/1.5), the rare Takumar 58/2 and Pentax K 28/2, the exotic radio-active Carl Ziess Jena Pancolar 55/1.4…..and many more….
In Lancashire and immersed in legend and, physically, a very striking and beautiful peak. The perspective of this shot and the previous has nothing to do with rivalry between Lancashire (Pendle) and Yorkshire!! Beauty is beauty :-) If you'd like to see a much larger pic of this peak, it can be found on p4 of this stream.
Now retired, I am free to wander and sometimes post daily, so perhaps you might take a quick look @ the previous 2/3 shots, if you have a moment, which means that my exposures will continue to enjoy exposure! Thanx, Phil
To all who view and/or comment on my pix; each is a help and a pleasure in equal measure. As I use wide or super wide lenses a lot, I feel that my landscape shots (that'll be most of them, then :-) benefit from viewing after pressing L and then F11
....despite being physically challenged, this active dog was quite fast at running....Toronto Ontario
Sufi whirling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sufi whirling (or Sufi spinning) is a form of Sama or physically active meditation which originated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a customary dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes (also called semazens) aim to reach the source of all perfection, or kemal. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, egos or personal desires, by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the sun. As explained by Sufis:
In the symbolism of the Sema ritual, the semazen's camel's hair hat (sikke) represents the tombstone of the ego; his wide, white skirt (tennure) represents the ego's shroud. By removing his black cloak (hırka), he is spiritually reborn to the truth. At the beginning of the Sema, by holding his arms crosswise, the semazen appears to represent the number one, thus testifying to God's unity. While whirling, his arms are open: his right arm is directed to the sky, ready to receive God's beneficence; his left hand, upon which his eyes are fastened, is turned toward the earth. The semazen conveys God's spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, the semazen embraces all humanity with love. The human being has been created with love in order to love. Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, "All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!"
Pennhurst Asylum
Spring City, PA
May 25th, 2014
I got to hang out with the awesome people of the Pennhurst Paranormal Association for 5 hours that was filled with paranormal stories, history and lots and lots of photography. And insane amount of photos to follow over the next few weeks. Stay tuned!
Some History of the place:
"Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff and two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction."
SOURCE: SOURCE: www.pennhurstasylum.com/index2.html#/history
For more info on photo tours and scheduling a paranormal investigation, contact Melissa at mjd.pennhurstpara@gmail.com
On the 100th Anniversary of The Battle of the Somme I thought it was appropriate to post this photograph of my 1913 Douglas Motorcycle and my Great Uncle, Sergeant William (Billy) Twyble.
Billy transferred from the West Belfast Y.C.V/U.V.F. to the Royal Irish Rifles shortly after the outbreak of WW1. He was then transferred to 9 Signalling Company of the Royal Engineers and from 4th Oct 1915 to 3rd Jan 1918 he was in the BEF (The British Expeditionary Force) serving on the Western Front. The photograph of Billy was taken in France around that time.
Billy was discharged "being no longer physically fit for war service" after suffering from shell shock and was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field.
He purchased the Douglas on 12th May 1921 but some years later Billy emigrated to Australia and the Douglas was left to rot in a shed until my father acquired it in the late 1970's.
It was restored a number of years ago and ownership passed to me when my father died in 2012.
My name and Billy's are the only names on the V5C with Billy being listed as the previous owner.
The Abandoned Pennhurst Asylum
May 25th, 2014
Some info on this historic location:
“Pennhurst is the scariest place I have ever seen. Period. I have traveled all over the country visiting haunted places and attractions and nothing compares to this incredible, dilapidated campus. Last October, I was approached by the owners of Pennhurst Associates, and asked if I would like to be a partner in their haunted attraction. At first I was skeptical because everyone thinks this industry is easy, with a “get rich quick” attitude, and we all know how much work is involved and how hard it is to be successful. I was really skeptical…until I visited Pennhurst. The day I drove into this huge complex of brick structures, I was hooked. I knew this place had the potential to be the greatest haunted attraction ever. With a ton of money, corporate sponsors, the right build crew, and a great plan, Pennhurst Asylum could come to life and entertain the hard core haunters. Not only does this place have an incredible ambiance, a built in cult following, and a treasure trove of unique props, it has a history; a history riddled with accusations of torture, abuse and neglect. A history of mental patients chained to the walls in dark tunnels, children left for years in cribs, sexual abuse by the staff and even murder. All this happened behind the walls of Pennhurst State School, Spring City, Pennsylvania.
Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff and two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction.
As I research the history of this place, I begin to realize the potential of Pennhurst as an intriguing location for a haunted attraction. This place is really haunted. Several reputable Ghost Hunter groups have documented audible recordings, temperature changes, and unexplained movement of objects in the buildings of Pennhurst. This is the kind of environment I want to build the next generation of haunted house; a proven haunted location.
My team, headed by John Brady, Shawn Sieger, Jim Souflous, Todd Beringer, Rob Sieger and others search the complex for valuable props. We wander deep into the tunnels that stitch the complex. We move into the basements of maintenance buildings, storage areas, dormitories and dietary in search of unique items that will set this haunt apart from all other. We find a huge electro-mechanical device that has to be the control for the electrotherapy department. It is so old that it used electrical tube circuits developed in the 30’s. Insulators and other unrecognizable devices are strewn about the room. This is a huge find. As we cruise through the old abandoned hospital, we harvest giant 48” surgical lights that are suspended from the rotting ceilings. They are mounted on tracks that allow the lights to be moved to focus on the unsuspecting patients. These will be perfect in the rooms for our haunt. We find medical cabinets, drawers, storage lockers, operating tables are everywhere. This is a veritable treasure trove of props for our attraction. As we move through the dark corridors, with flashlights moving side to side, I can’t keep the feelings of growing anticipation from my mind. I know there is something out there but can’t put my finger on it. I come around the corner and enter a small room to the right, and there it is; the morgue. I recognize it because it has two drawer slides and a refrigeration unit on top. This is what we came here to find. This will be one of the most unique features of our attraction; a real morgue scene. Stainless steel tables with large drains, stainless steel cabinets, lab equipment and a real, 1930’s autopsy table! I am blown away by this scene. I can picture the thousands of customers coming through our attraction knowing that everything in here is REAL. My arms have gooseflesh!
Back at the Administration building, construction is moving forward. All the asbestos has been abated, the floors have been repaired, roof repaired, windows replaced, and structural inspections have been completed. The building is safe for use as an amusement building. Now the hard work of turning this into one of the most complex haunted houses is under way. A full electrical upgrade needs to be completed. Smart lighting, imbedded audio systems and fiber optical controls will be installed. Pneumatic infrastructure will be run throughout the building so props can be installed in any room. A lot of work must be completed in a few short months in preparation for the 2010 season.
We want this attraction to be a full experience of Pennhurst, but we need to work the audience up slowly so they won’t chicken out right away. This place is so creepy, that we need to get the ticket sales completed before they see the complex. A state of the art POS system will be installed by Interactive Ticketing, and can handle the thousands of expected customers. This system will track every ticket sold, and with the aid of digital scanners that are integrated with the internet, and keep track of each customer. Once the customer has bought their ticket, they will be guided to the walkway that surrounds the complex. This walkway will act as a huge queue line to the main entrance of the haunt, but will take them on a tour around several other buildings before entering the Administration building. As the customers walk the 800’ long walkway, they will experience the vastness of Pennhurst. With over 10 buildings in view, most in bad condition, they will be able to witness the downfall of this once beautiful campus. The once beautiful courtyards are now overgrown and the children’s playground equipment lay rotting all around. As the people approach the Admin building, they will be diverted to the side and then around to the front and into the main entrance. A large stone portico greets the crowd as they are ushered into the attraction. A unique feature of Pennhurst will be the museum. Many local residents have a strong feeling that the memories of the atrocities that occurred here should be preserved in some way so that they will not re-occur in the future. With this in mind, we felt that the construction of a Pennhurst Museum was in order. We have reconstructed four rooms on the first floor that will act as an indoor queue line and, at the same time, teach the public about the history of this magnificent place. With high tech videos, historical photos and artifacts from the past, the customers will be able to go back in time and witness the rise and fall of Pennhurst, as it happened. As they move slowly through the museum, they will notice that the rooms are beginning to decay. By the time they enter the great corridor the building has fallen into disrepair. This is when they will enter the scariest haunted house imaginable.
With an asylum theme in mind, and real, antique hospital equipment on hand, we began to build our attraction. We painted the entire interior with a special barrier sealant that encapsulates any lead paint and is also 100% flameproof. Rotted flooring has been replaced, and roof leaks have been plugged. We install MDF board as a wainscote and paint it to look like the marble that was part of the original building, but stolen long ago. We want an old time feeling to envelope the customers; a feeling of going back in time. The first room you enter is the intake office, complete with a psychiatrist giving you the Rorschach test, otherwise known as the ink blot test. As the Dr. engages the crowd, slides flip by on a large screen. After the intake, you enter the de-lousing showers, where shower heads spew out a combination of fog, air and CO2, giving it a cold feel. Other rooms include the dietary unit with copious use of existing cafeteria items like tray holders, rolling carts, plastic ware, cups, plates, tables and ovens. Pneumatic and actor scares abound in this haunt as there are a large number of great setups and hiding spots throughout the building. Moving upstairs, we have a large room with the ceiling removed. It shows the expansive architecture of the building, and the roofline looms over 35’ above your head. The focus in this room is the old, female actor in the corner, who is sitting in a vintage wheelchair. She is spot lighted with down lighting that also shows beds, furniture and other belongings. As she distracts the crowd, a switch is flipped and flood lights reveal the height of the ceiling, filled with another animatronic surprise.
Another part of the building is an area that has suffered a moderate fire. Door frames and headers are charred, and the smell of burnt wood is still perceptible. The area that was burned housed two sound proof cells; small rooms where patients could be locked away and their screams could be totally muffled. The floors, walls and ceilings are 6” thick with heavy insulation stuffed between the studs. The interiors are lined with sound proof tiles, and the exterior is sheathed in another layer of sound proofing. Even the doors are 8” thick and insulated. As you walk into these rooms, you can feel the air get heavy, the sounds deaden and you can imagine how the patients felt being locked up in the pitch dark with no one hearing your screams.
As you can imagine, the really cool rooms are left for last. With tons of great, original props, we build out sets that appear to be real operating rooms. One room is set up to be themed as a lobotomy operating room. Steel tables, medical cabinets and surgical equipment are everywhere. Actors bring off the scare and make this scene believable. The next room is our autopsy chamber. This room is decorated with the original equipment we found in the old hospital. The cabinets mounted to the walls are stainless steel, and look brand new, even after 50 or more years. The large sink structure, with an industrial size in-sinkerator, and long overflow drain, is up against the far wall. On the right is the original two drawer morgue unit, moved here from the hospital basement, and restored to its original form. The drawers roll out as easily as they did when first installed, and the refrigeration unit above the drawers adds to the realism of the scene. To top it off, an antique autopsy table stands in the center of the room. I bought the table at a funeral home auction 15 years ago and it has now found a new home. Overhead is a huge surgical style lamp, measuring over 40” across, and fitted with a friction gear that allows one to direct the light in any direction.
Another great room design we are using is the shock therapy room. This room has tile walls and floor, large overhead lights (harvested from the depths of building c) and the original electroconvulsive shock therapy machine retrieved from the hospital. Most modern ECT machines deliver a brief-pulse current, which is thought to cause fewer cognitive effects than the sine-wave currents which were originally used in ECT. Our machine is of the sine wave type, and caused unconsciousness and convulsions for 15 to 30 seconds. It is a large stainless steel console with dials and meters, and long electrode leads still attached. Our shock table is hinged in the center, and can tilt down for easy loading and unloading of the patient. The table has a latch where the actor can drop the foot of the table and attack the audience. This coupled with bang sticks, strobe lights, fog machines and a blistering 400 watt soundtrack make this one of the premier rooms at Pennhurst. In all, Pennhurst Asylum will have 18 complete rooms, not including the 4 room used in the museum. All of these rooms are highly detailed to be realistic in every way.
We have really strived to mix fact with fiction, folklore with fear, to come up with some of our unique room designs. There have been accounts of an old dentist chair that was located in the deep recesses of Mayflower, one of the more notorious dorms at Pennhurst. This chair is a little different than the ones you and I are used too; it has restraining straps attached to the arms, legs and headrest. This chair was reportedly used to remove the teeth of patients that were prone to biting the staff here. Imagine yourself being strapped into this device and having all your teeth ripped out without any kind of medication. This is just one more example of how unique this location is.
The most intriguing part of Pennhurst is their tunnel complex. All of the buildings on the campus are connected by above ground walkways with tunnels under them. These tunnels are 10 feet high, 8 feet wide and thousands of feet long. Concrete floors, tile walls and concrete ceilings create an incredible echo effect at certain intersections. In fact, I have looked behind myself several times to see if there is someone following me a few feet back. The echoes are so distinct you can hear whispers from hundreds of feet away.
As the guests are scared out of the last room in the Asylum, they find themselves in a large foyer with paintings and photographs on the walls. This is the queue line for the tunnels. Once through the lines, the guests are ushered down a long set of stairs and into the basement. Once there, with a temperature drop of at least 20 degrees, they are let through the double doors that lead to the exit…900 feet away. Scenes and actors appear at intersections along the way. Glass jars with cages around them contain the only lighting down here, and they are all connected to commercial lighting controls that are programmed to flicker, dim and occasionally go completely dark. We also added several subsonic bass tubes that cannot be heard, only felt. This will induce an uneasy feeling in all who enter the tunnels. Special chicken exits have been designed into the tunnel system and I’m sure will be used many times. This will be the scariest part of this attraction. The best part of the tunnel system is that it will contain our guests on their way back to the main entrance. People coming into the show along the walkways above will hear the screams emanating from the tunnels below them. They will hear the reactions to our show before they even enter the walkways leading to our haunt. What better way to elevate the anticipation and fear level than to hear, first hand, how scary this place is. If this place is scary to seasoned haunters, imagine how the general public will feel.
Another unique feature of Pennhurst is that it is really haunted. Featured on the Travel Channel, the Ghost Adventures crew have recorded many strange voices, noises and unexplained movement and documented this in their shows. The Pennhurst Ghost Tours, open to professional and amateur ghost hunters, has been a huge success, with recordings, photos and accounts of physical contact throughout the Pennhurst complex. So, if you want to get scared, come to Pennhurst Asylum. You may even witness the supernatural… whether you want to or not.”
Beautiful Golden Ratio Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess! Helen of Troy! Pretty Athletic Woman!
The golden gun is designed with proportions of the golden ratio! Learn more here:
facebook.com/goldennumberratio
instagram.com/goldennumberratio
Would you like to see the whole set? Comment below and let me know!
Follow me!
I am working on several books on "epic photography," and I recently finished a related one titled: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography: An Artistic and Scientific Introduction to the Golden Mean . Message me on facebook for a free review copy!
www.facebook.com/goldennumberratio/
The Golden Ratio also informs the design of the golden revolver on all the swimsuits and lingerie, as well as the 45surf logo!
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after. Robust, ordered growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life—in the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in nature’s elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which all their vital sustenance and they themselves had been created—the golden ratio.
Exalt in the glorious golden ratio! facebook.com/goldennumberratio
Peter’s body wailed in pain as he glanced at the first aid kit sitting next to him. He looked down at his blood-soaked bandages on various places of his body. Shutting his eyes, he contemplated the situation he had just faced. Nothing had pushed him to his limits both physically and mentally in his entire career. With this thought, he fought against the exhaustion and his eyes opened slowly, peering at his now torn red and blue suit.
Peter Parker: Thank god it's Saturday…not looking forward to pricking myself with a needle while sewing… I don’t need to lose any more of my precious Spider-Blood.
And with those words, Peter gradually drifted off…
Peter was once again awake, feeling as if dozing off was just a few moments ago. Beams of sunlight crackled through his window, warmed his face, and created oblong shadows in his room. His eyes wandered around until he found what he was looking for and shot a web. When it attached to its target, he flicked his wrist and prompted the TV remote to come sailing towards him. The plastic made a slight smack when it landed into the palm of his hand, and he pressed the power button. The TV flared to life, landing on a channel playing some godforsaken modern cartoon about five colorfully clad teenagers. He quickly pressed two familiar buttons and was now staring at what he would probably consider being a more horrific sight than the last.
JJJ: Thank you, Eddie…
JJJ flips a paper
JJJ: Alright folks, some breaking news. Recently, the criminal dubbed as “The Vigilante” by most police officers and civilians has been captured by that menace and threat to society as we know it, Spider-Man.
Peter almost reeled back in shock, he still wasn’t used to the fact that the police were giving him credit after trying to kill him for years.
JJJ: Now, some of you may be saying “Well Jonah, isn’t that a GOOOOOD thing?” or “We certainly don’t want murderers on the loose”. And to that I say, yes, we don’t want murderers on the streets. Especially international, world-renowned hunters of various animals.
JJJ clears his throat
JJJ: As I have always done, I will keep my opinions to myself about Mr. Kravinoff’s testimony.
Peter almost busted out laughing at the completely inaccurate statement. A snort substituted the outburst, but even that caused his body to roar in agony.
JJJ: But, I will not hold my tongue about Spider-Man. Ladies and gentlemen...we cannot have this menace running amok in our city. Yes, I’m not blind to blatant and truthful information. Spider-Man did indeed stop Mr. Kravinoff. But how long did it take him? Three weeks. Three weeks, I tell you! Had our heroic boys in blue. No, excuse me. Men and women in blue had the opportunity to do their jobs...and not wait for that slacker Spider-Man…maybe it would’ve gotten done sooner. Well, that’s enough of my two cents. It’s time for our caller por-
Peter turned the TV off and sighed, then coughed. His body still ached.
Peter Parker: Why do I keep listening to that garbage? Better question, why do I work for that garbage? Sometimes, I can’t believe I do what I do. I basically run in circles like a puppy. Not to mention, Jonah is going to be royally pissed when no one has any photos of the incident.
Peter slowly slides out of bed and winces. Just as he touches the door handle his phone buzzes. He shimmies back over and picks up his phone.
Peter Parker: Captain Stacy?
The text reads: Spider-Man, I know you told me to not thank you for what you do, but I must. Without you, our department would have been scrambling for weeks… Hell, even months without your help. So no matter what that idiot Jameson says, just remember you have mine and (most) of the departments' support. -Your friend, George Stacy
Peter chuckles at the benevolence of the kind-hearted officer. He then looks at his suit, torn and blood-stained in several places and shakes his head, then looks down at his body, to which reveal the matching wounds. He reaches in his desk drawer and pulls out a thread and needle.
Peter, sighing: Time to start more of my bloodshed. Just a little less panic, and a little more precision.
More videos on my new youtube channel:
Which song do you like better for the twin goddess videos?
Amazing Grace
Pachelbel's Canon
Please let me know what you think of my new fine art videos!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3b1df46oKw
Epic Landscape Photography!
facebook.com/epiclandscapephotography/
Greetings mate! As many of you know, I love marrying art, science, and math in my fine art portrait and landscape photography!
The gold 45 revolver lingerie is designed in accordance with the golden ratio! More about the design and my philosophy of "no retouching" on the beautiful goddesses in my new book:
www.facebook.com/Photographing-Women-Models-Portrait-Swim...
"Photographing Women Models: Portrait, Swimsuit, Lingerie, Boudoir, Fine Art, & Fashion Photography Exalting the Venus Goddess Archetype"
If you would like a free review copy, message me!
And here's more on the golden ratio which appears in many of my landscape and portrait photographs (while shaping the proportions of the golden gun)!
www.facebook.com/goldennumberratio/
'
The dx4/dt=ic above the gun on the lingerie derives from my new physics books devoted to Light, Time, Dimension Theory!
www.facebook.com/lightimedimensiontheory/
Thanks for being a fan! Would love to hears your thoughts on my philosophies and books! :)
http:/instagram.com/elliotmcgucken
instagram.com/goldennumberratio
Beautiful swimsuit bikini model goddess!
Golden Ratio Lingerie Model Goddess LTD Theory Lingerie dx4/dt=ic! The Birth of Venus, Athena, and Artemis! Girls and Guns!
Would you like to see the whole set? Comment below and let me know!
Follow me!
I am working on several books on "epic photography," and I recently finished a related one titled: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography: An Artistic and Scientific Introduction to the Golden Mean . Message me on facebook for a free review copy!
www.facebook.com/goldennumberratio/
The Golden Ratio informs a lot of my art and photographic composition. The Golden Ratio also informs the design of the golden revolver on all the swimsuits and lingerie, as well as the 45surf logo! Not so long ago, I came up with the Golden Ratio Principle which describes why The Golden Ratio is so beautiful.
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after. Robust, ordered growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life—in the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in nature’s elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which all their vital sustenance and they themselves had been created—the golden ratio.
The Birth of Venus! Beautiful Golden Ratio Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess! Helen of Troy! She was tall, thin, fit, and quite pretty!
Read all about how classical art such as The Birth of Venus inspires all my photography!
www.facebook.com/Photographing-Women-Models-Portrait-Swim...
"Photographing Women Models: Portrait, Swimsuit, Lingerie, Boudoir, Fine Art, & Fashion Photography Exalting the Venus Goddess Archetype"
Enjoy my new fine art landscapes & ballet video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3b1df46oKw
Let me know what you think! :)
Reflecting in those puddle after the rain we should examined in the light of the Ageless Wisdom teachings, we are reminded of the great occult maxim "As Above So Below" The mural shows the right eye, the left eye and the middle eye. This tower is the symbol for not only all three schools, but also the meaning and purpose of life itself. Vertical rods/constructs are considered archetypal symbols of the phallus. As the dual serpents address the concept of gender, the staff serves as an emissary of transference between body and mind, physically and spiritually. The rod could also be viewed as a conduit between the mundane and ethereal.. The puddle is male, the tower is female and the horizontal line is the child, the source of both the other building, for we all begin life as a child. The upper side, the feminine pathway, explores the human nature of emotions and feeling, both positive and negative, sexual energy and birthing, death, certain psychic energy, and everything that is not logical.As guided from within, outwards. “As above, so below” and vice versa, Solar Systems are born, die and come to birth anew in cycles of activity and rest, as does wo-man. There is a constant flaming out and dying down of activity in every department of nature, corresponding to the alternations of ebb and flow, day and night, summer and winter, life and death. In the beginning of a Day of Manifestation it is taught that a certain Great Being (designated in the Western World by the name of God, but by other names in other parts of the earth) limits Himself to a certain portion of space, in which He elects to create a Solar System for the evolution of added self-consciousness. He includes in His own Being hosts of glorious Hierarchies of, to us, immeasurable spiritual power and splendor. They are the fruitage of past manifestations of this same Being and also other Intelligences, in descending degrees of development down to such as have not reached a stage of consciousness as high as our present humanity, and therefore these latter will not be able to finish their evolution in this System. In God — this great collective Being — there are contained lesser beings of every grade of intelligence and stage of consciousness, from omniscience to an unconsciousness deeper than that of the deepest trance condition. During the period of manifestation with which we are concerned, these various grades of beings are working to acquire more experience than they possessed at the beginning of this period of existence. Those who, in previous manifestations, have attained to the highest degree of development, work on those who have not yet evolved any consciousness. They induce in them a stage of self-consciousness from which they can take up further work themselves. Those who had started their evolution in a former Day of Manifestation, but had not progressed far at the close, now take up their task again, just as we take up our daily work in the morning where we left off the previous night. All the different Beings, however, do not take up their evolution at the early stages of a new manifestation. Some must wait until those who precede them have made the conditions which are necessary for their further development. There are no instantaneous processes in nature. All is an exceedingly slow unfolding, a development which, though so exceedingly slow, is yet absolutely certain to attain ultimate perfection. Just as there are progressive stages in the human life — childhood, youth, manhood or womanhood, and old age — so in the macrocosm there are different stages corresponding to these various periods of the microcosmic life. A child cannot take up the duties of fatherhood or motherhood. Its undeveloped mental and physical condition render it incapable of doing such work. The same is true of the less evolved beings in the beginning of manifestation. They must wait until the higher evolved have made the proper conditions for them. The lower the grade of the intelligence of the evolving being, the more it is dependent upon outside help. At the Beginning, then, the highest Beings — those who are the farthest evolved — work upon those who have the greatest degree of unconsciousness. Later, they turn them over to some of the less evolved entities, who are then able to carry the work a little further. At last self-consciousness is awakened. The evolving life has become Woman-Man. The right eye is controlled by the left brain; it’s male knowledge. Although the right eye “sees” directly to the right brain, this is not what the Egyptians were communicating. It is not the “seeing” but rather the interrupting of the “seeing” information that was important here. It is the left brain that makes this interruption of what is seen; it controls the right side of the body, and vice versa. In the same manner, the Left Eye of Horus, controlled by the right brain, is female knowledge.What happens on one level of reality also happens on every other level; the microcosm and macrocosm behave alike. A revolution occurred during the 20th century in our understanding of the nature of the physical universe. This change is extremely important to religion, for it eliminates a basic conflict between science and religious belief. Prior to this change, our scientific beliefs were based on an approach that was initiated in the 17th century: "We live in a mechanical universe, and we are simply complex machines." This scientific notion that man was purely a mechanical system contradicts what is probably the core of religious belief, namely the idea that mind-like or spirit-like factors can make a difference in human behavior. The religious outlook assumes that a human being, acting on basis of conscious choices, is NOT equivalent to a mechanical system, whose every action is completely determined by direct interaction between tiny neighboring bits of matter. 20th century science, however, has shown that the earlier mechanical concept of reality to be incompatible with empirical facts. To cope with this failure of earlier ideas, physicist made a breakthrough change. Physical theory was converted from a theory about the physical world itself into a theory of WHAT ONE COULD KNOW about the physical world. Human experience was introduced into the theory and made fundamental. This was to be later known as the Copenhagen interpretation. It had drawbacks.For example, while it brought human knowledge into physical theory, it also renounced the possibility of understanding the underlying physical reality. It set our limits of understanding. It was the eminent mathematician John von Neumann and Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner to reincorporate physical reality. They did this by casting the new physics into a theory of the interaction between our conscious thoughts and our physical brains. This was known as von Neumann-Wigner formation of quantum theory, and rationally incorporated conscious thoughts into the basic dynamics. Physics was not yet ready to tackle the problem of interaction between our thoughts and our brain. It was some time before this was scientifically feasible for this kind of proof. Now however, there is a huge and rapidly growing field of experimental data on this question of the connection between minds and brains.
This shift in science is important significance to religion. It removes the basic contradiction between the older scientific claim that human beings are essentially mechanical robots, while religion maintains than man is not ruled by matter alone. The new physics now dynamically entangles our conscious thoughts with the quantum representation of the physical world. There is a plethora of competing theories arising from many disciplines to account for the psychophysical expressions of consciousness in function and structure. The only comprehensive theory must be one that is based in nondualism, and accounts for such self-organizing mindbody manifestations as spontaneous healing or self-recovery, or even the placebo effect. The mind-matter connection is intimately linked to any speculations we can make about alleged mind-over-matter phenomena. In fact all psi phenomena, including such nonlocality demonstrations as the “simple connections” of telepathy, ESP, or synchronicity in general are related to this problem of an underlying or connecting field through which information exchange is instantaneous and unimpeded.The leading contender for such a field, vacuum fluctuation or quantum foam, was proposed by David Bohm. Turbulent motion in this highly excited, subquantal field leads to the emergence from virtuality into actuality of quantum entities which just as quickly dissolve back into the subquantal sea. This same ocean of virtual or metaphysical “stuff” has the property of containing, storing, and transmitting information about the nature of matter and even thought. The observables of nonlocality and psi cry out for some form of interconnection between phenomenon separated in space and/or time. The concept most generally used in physics to account for spatial and temporal interconnection is that of a field. Fields themselves cannot be observed, and so can be considered meta- or beyond physical. Yet the influences propagating through them are observable, eventually. Mind, memory, and consciousness may be such phenomena. Is there one massive holographic field that actually exists in nature in the sense of Bohm’s holomovement? And if so, how does this relate to our consciousness and our relationship to the cosmos. And what is the mechanism by which this universal force interfaces within our organism? When we recognize that we really are that, that nature lies within our deepest structure and function, we come to understand that we are not separate from the whole of creation. We recognize that “I AM THAT I AM.” Everything including ourselves, is deeply connected in one holy movement. The quantum vacuum, the energy-field that characterizes the ground state of the universe, possibly furnishes the indicated ‘fifth field,’ the hidden variables of chaotic yet deterministic micromotion that bootstraps all energy/matter into existence. This plenum could transmit as-yet-unknown effects. This quantum foam, which Wheeler called superspace, consists of a pure massless charge-flux.
We argue, along with Laszlo that, “The conclusion to be derived from the considerations presented here is that the four-demnsional manifold Einstein described as spacetime is likely to be more than a geometrical abstraction. As the energetically superdense quantum vacuum, it may be a physically real field, limiting the velocity of light and other matter-particles and transmittingg a variety of effects, including, but not limited to, gravitation and electromangetism. We may well ask, then, whether the field would also transmit the kind of effects associated with psi.”
Waves of this purely informational (scalar) force could create a potential gradient where quantal motion triggers scalar waves in the vacuum, and these propagate by alternately compressing and rarefying its virtual-particle gas. Scalars are neither ‘light’ nor ‘matter’, but longitudinally propoagating fluctuations below the energy-threshold of particle pair-creation.This produces a self-generating cosmological feedback cycle which translates into interference patterns created by the motion of charged particles modifying the local topology of the vacuum. The modified vacuum field modifies in turn the motion of the particles, (Laszlo, 1993, 1994).Fourier show that any three-dimensional pattern can be analyzed into a set of regular, periodic oscillations that differ only in frequency, amplitude, and phase. Specific waveforms can be exact representations of spatiotemporal objects--thus we have a “Holographic Universe.” Analysis shows that the signals transmitted through the vacuum field are precisely of the psi variety, because information in that field is holographic, and because the propagation of the holographic interference patterns is quasi-instantaneous. Therefore, this virttual field might provide a metaphysical foundation for a broad range of psi phenomena and psychophysical interaction, including self-organization and healing. The quantum vaccum is a highly anomlous universal energy realm of pure potential. It is both the source and destination of all matter in the universe, and thus of any form of consciousness which may emerge through its autopoeitic process. The human brain, with its pronounced and constant state of chaos, could receive and amplify such signals, expressed both consciously and unconsciously in our biophsyical self and our ephemeral thoughts and intuitions.The von-Neumann-Wigner formulation provides the basic logical principles that govern the interaction between thoughts and the brain. It provides prima facie evidence that human thoughts are linked to nature by nonlocal connections. What a person chooses to do in one region seems immediately to effect what is true elsewhere in the universe. This nonlocal aspect can be understood by conceiving the universe to be not a collection of tiny bits of matter, but rather a growing compendium of "bits of information." This profound shift about the nature of reality has not yet sunk in culturally. It will happen by the promotion of understanding of the radical shifts wrought by quantum theory. Most quantum physicists are interested more in applications of quantum theory than in its deep implications. Most now agree that a conception of physical reality is informational in character, not material. Our conscious thoughts ought eventually to be understood within science and that when properly understood, our thoughts will be seen to DO something; they will be efficacious. From what most quantum physicists now understand, certain ontological claims can now be made. 1. The "physical world," as understood in quantum theory, is a store of information, and this information is NOT imbedded in hordes of tiny particles (as they were in classical theory). The information is stored in a mathematically described structure that specifies propensities for certain events to occur. This events (paradigms) include the acquision of information by human agents.2. Conscious events should eventually be understood in science, and these events should be efficacious. They should have a real effect on our actions. The von Neumann-Wigner formulation of quantum theory achieves these ends. It has never been seriously broached in science, not because it was considered unimportant, but because it was deemed too difficult. Pertinent data seemed insufficient and restrictive. This has changed because science has changed.The six sided star in the structural support of the tower incorporates the Duality, Male and Female (Unity), the Blade (upward pointing triangle) and Chalice. The blade represents the Physical, and the Chalice represents the Spiritual realm. It is sometimes referenced as the fire and water triangle as well. Moloch, Chiun and Remphan are all names for the star god, Saturn, whose symbol is a six pointed star formed by two triangles. Saturn was the supreme god of the Chaldeans. The hexagram is referred to the talisman of Saturn. The hexagram was brought to the Jewish people by Solomon when he turned to witchcraft and idolatry after his marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter. It became known as the Seal of Solomon in Egyptian magic and witchcraft. The six pointed star was adopted as the family crest or shield by the Rothschild family during the 19th century,he helped to finance Eiffel. Heavily associated with alchemy, Leo, the Lion, the Double Lion, Routi, refers directly to the Sun as being a source of knowledge. Leo, is one of the constellations of the Zodiac. The Zodiac, is a direct reference to the Sun. The Sun’s position at midday during the time of the Egyptians coincided with the midsummer solstice. Leo was a constellation of the summer.
The theme of Illumination, Knowledge, or Secrets being kept “under the Lion’s Paw” is a recurring motif.There are lions on the first floor belly. The spiral effect the descending forces of the tower, that indicates an expansion of knowledge, and the undulating dance of cosmic forces. Such dualities include:
Asleep/Awake Illness/Health Separation/Unity Male/Female
Left/Right Binding/Loosing Wax/Wane Water/Fire Sun/Moon
Yin/Yang Light/Dark Good/Evil Upper/Lower. If you take it a step further, you notice the dual intertwined snakes form a double helix DNA strand; Serpent DNA specifically. If the serpent is a biological anthropomorphism of DNA, then we can attribute the Ouroboros to cycles of DNA change.Let us examine this slide which I feel holds many secrets. First you have the sun and moon in opposite positions which proves the world has been put on a purposeful pole shift done at the hands of man.
In the East where the sun is supposed to rise you now have the moon or crescent where there is a Brother with a sword with an eagle or falcon upon it where he is shielding his eyes from the light because it is either too bright or he cannot see because he is blinded by the darkness.
In the West where the sun is supposed to set, you now have the sun with a brother who can see clearly what is going on as he holds the staff and serpent.
In the middle is the LORD OR LORDS and KING OF KINGS who represent the union of both and has risen above the Abyss on the wings of destiny. The Phoenix or Rex Mundi who represents not only the union of East and West, but also AS ABOVE SO BELOW.
So what does it mean?
The microcosm is oneself, and the macrocosm is the universe. The macrocosm is as the microcosm, and vice versa; within each lies the other, and through understanding one you can understand the other. The primary idea behind this is that the “above” refers to what is visible in the sky. The below, refers to Earth. This creates an equality as it explains how the Earth is a microcosm of the configuration of the planets in the solar system. It draws the connection that the Earth is affected by planetary orbits. This concept also affects various levels of reality: physical, emotional, and mental What happens on any level happens on every other.
The concept has not only been a practice, but an attempt to replicate and do a better job then YHWH himself. This is why alchemy and astrology play such an important role in the Illuminati.
In Alchemy, there is a process which Mercury and Lead can supposedly turned to Gold. The Gold isn’t the main goal. It’s to understand the process of how mercury or lead changes into gold. Man wants to replicate and modify what is on the Earth into their standards.
The same goes for Astrology. The elite not only observe all of the astrological signs, but use them to construct the architecture of this tower.
There will come a time when it will have been in vain that Egyptians have honored the Godhead with heartfelt piety and service; and all our holy worship will be fruitless and ineffectual. The Elohim will return from earth to heaven; Egypt will be forsaken, and the land which was once the home of religion will be left desolate, bereft of the presence of its deities.
They will no longer love this world around us, this incomparable work of YHWH, this glorious structure which HE has built, this sum of good made up of many diverse forms, this instrument whereby the will of YHWH operates in that which he has made, ungrudgingly favoring man’s welfare.
Darkness will be preferred to light, and death will be thought more profitable than life; no one will raise his eyes to heaven; the pious will be deemed insane, the impious wise; the madman will be thought a brave man, and the wicked will be esteemed as good.
As for the soul, and the belief that it is immortal by nature, or may hope to attain to immortality, as I have taught you; all this they will mock, and even persuade themselves that it is false. No word of reverence or piety, no utterance worthy of heaven, will be heard or believed.
And so the Elohiym will depart from mankind – a grievous thing and only evil angels will remain, who will mingle with men, and drive the poor wretches into all manner of reckless crime, into wars, and robberies, and frauds, and all things hostile to the nature of the soul.
Then will the earth tremble, and the sea bear no ships; heaven will not support the stars in their orbits, all voices of the Elohiym will be forced into silence; the fruits of the Earth will rot; the soil will turn barren, and the very air will sicken with sullen stagnation; all things will be disordered and awry, all good will disappear.
But when all this has befallen, then YHWH the Creator of all things will look on that which has come to pass, and will stop the disorder by the counterforce of his will, which is the good. HE will call back to the right path those who have gone astray; he will cleanse the world of evil, washing it away with floods, burning it out with the fiercest fire, and expelling it with war and pestilence.The double tetrahedron visible in the structural's forms of the tower can be referred to as the interdimensional vehicle for travel, the Merkaba. It also incorporates the Duality, Male and Female, the Blade (upward pointing triangle) and Chalice. The blade represents the Physical, and the Chalice represents the Spiritual realm. The Star of Solomon can also represent Jerusalem.The Square and Compass is the Blade and Chalice, God and Goddess in the act of Creation, and within the Star we find the Heavenly Luminaries or the Eyes or Spirits of God (the Planets). The symbols on the star represent the astrological portion of the symbol, Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, Mercury, Mars and Saturn, with the Sun being at the center. Zoroaster’ teachings mentioned earlier in the thread as Thoth or Hermes, would be responsible for the seven petal flower depicted at the center.
Early Spring Morning, Rocky Mountain Front Range, Colorado.
This pair of coyotes passed behind our home just after sunrise. Whenever I see them, they usually are physically close to each other, hunting in tandem.
thanks to all of you for your great birthday wishes. I'm not feeling well physically today, but I am enjoying my day in spite of feeling like a Mack truck ran me over ;) I took a little trip to see my baby today and share some cake with her. I was going to try to bribe the dumb asses at the gate for a quick pic inside, but I didn't want to make all of my D friends too jealous :)
ha.
but seriously, thank you for all of the well wishes. I appreciate each and every one of them.
Garden at Caloola, Sunbury. Caloola buildings are set in extensive grounds with plantings of mature trees and remnant farmland. Caloola commenced in 1864 as an Industrial School, was redeveloped in 1879 as a Lunatic Asylum, substantially enlarged in the period 1891 to 1914 and was maintained in use as a psychiatric hospital (1879-1968) and later a training centre for the intellectually disabled (1962-1992). Part of the site became a Victoria University campus from 1994 to 2011 and the remainder is in use by the Department of Education.
The Industrial School consisted of ten basalt buildings (nine extant), designed under the direction of Public Works Department Inspector General William Wardell and constructed in 1865-66, four workrooms, kitchen, hospital, basalt farm building, road and stone wall remnants which were used to house and train neglected children in the 1860s. Boys in the Sunbury Industrial School worked on the farm and in the tailoring and shoe-making workshops to maintain themselves whilst in the institution and were given some basic education. Major alterations were undertaken to the earlier basalt wards in the period 1908-12 when the buildings were linked.
The Industrial School at Sunbury is believed to be the earliest surviving example in Victoria; of the original twelve industrial schools: only one other, constructed in 1875-76, survives at North West Hospital, Parkville.
The purpose built Sunbury Lunatic Asylum, constructed mainly between 1892 and 1912, was designed and constructed mainly under the direction of the Chief Architect of the Victorian Public Works Department, George Watson. A site plan was prepared by the talented architect Henry Bastow in 1888. Its pavilion wards in brick with terra cotta roofing tiles conformed to international standards of asylum and hospital planning adopted in the later nineteenth century and were a departure from the single monolithic buildings constructed at Kew and Beechworth. Electric lighting was installed in the wards in 1905-6. A tramway was laid linking the rear of the wards with the kitchen (built 1906-7) in 1908. Telephone and fire alarm systems were installed to connect the 20 separate buildings of the asylum in 1911.
The landscape designed by prominent landscape designer Hugh Linaker dates principally from the inter-war period The landscape also includes mature trees , mainly pines, cypress, oaks and elms and the remains of a drystone perimeter wall and a later brick ha ha wall.
How is it significant?
Caloola is of historical, architectural, aesthetic, archaeological and social significance to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?
The Caloola complex is of historical significance for its demonstration of attitudes to child welfare and mental health in its early industrial school buildings and asylum buildings, airing courts and gardens. .
Caloola is historically significant for the former Industrial School buildings constructed mainly from 1865-66. The school operated from 1865 to 1879 as the first purpose-built Industrial School in Victoria. The buildings at Sunbury are demonstrative of the harsh conditions which characterised such schools for neglected or delinquent children. The former Industrial School hospital (1865) is amongst the earliest hospital buildings surviving in the state.
Caloola is of historical significance for its typical asylum landscaping and site planning, its airing courts (many of which retain early sunshades and privies) and a complete example of a sunken wall (or ha ha wall). Asylums were typically distant from population centres, with extensive grounds and ha ha walls to prevent escape.
Caloola is historically significant for its purpose built Sunbury Lunatic Asylum, constructed between 1892 and 1912. Caloola's large and architecturally impressive buildings in a curved detached pavilion arrangement demonstrate changes in the accommodation and treatment of mentally ill patients in the nineteenth century. The clear evidence of farming operations also demonstrates the policy of employing boys in industrial schools to train them in farm work and the later policy of involving physically able mentally ill patients in outdoor work.
Caloola is of historical significance for its physical fabric and spaces which demonstrate nineteenth century attitudes to the treatment of mental illness, including the padded cells, ripple iron cells and dormitory accommodation. The female refractory ward, originally designed for male criminally insane patients, demonstrates contemporary practices in dealing with female patients who were transferred from the general wards for disruptive behaviour.
The Caloola complex is of historical significance for their association with the talented Public Works Department architects from the 1860s, and particularly associated with Henry Bastow and Chief Architect George Watson, who were responsible for the design of the pavilion buildings from the 1890s to 1912. Its association with noted landscape designer, Hugh Linaker, who was responsible for the grounds from 1912, is also significant.
The Caloola site is of archaeological significance for its potential to contain historical archaeological features, deposits and relics that relate to the construction and use of the Industrial School and the Lunatic Asylum.
Caloola is of architectural significance for its institutional buildings of the 1860s and the 1890s. Its industrial school buildings of the 1860s are typical of the Public Works Department output of the 1860s, use local material, have simple classically derived detailing and gain much of their importance by the repetition of forms. Major alterations were undertaken to the earlier basalt wards in the period 1908-12 when the buildings were linked. The planning of these links is accomplished and contributed to the continuity of use of the site and represented changing attitudes to mental health.
The site at Sunbury is architecturally significant for its rare and intact examples of an industrial school and a late nineteenth century lunatic asylum. The site contains rare examples of hairpin fencing used to enclose airing courts for patients. Outdoor shelters or sunshades for patients are also uncommon in Victoria.
The Caloola complex is of architectural significance for its industrial school and asylum buildings. The earliest of the remaining buildings of the Sunbury Industrial School are architecturally significant as forming the earliest purpose built example of its type,. They are important for their bluestone construction and austere style which distinguished them from the later asylum buildings. The 1860s buildings which exhibit classically derived detailing are constructed of local basalt. The red brick and timber buildings of the principal phase of asylum expansion of 1891 to 1912 are of architectural significance for innovative design as a pavilion hospital grouping and include distinctive detailing.
Caloola is architecturally significant as a former lunatic asylum, one of several surviving in the state. It demonstrates typical characteristics such as formal planning, use of sunken walls (ha ha walls), airing courts and a diverse range of building types to cater for the patient and staff population. They gain their architectural significance from the unity of materials, overall cohesiveness of design, consistent and distinctive detailing (especially in the unusual use of buttresses and steep roofs in the former hospital wards), impressive site planning and spacious setting.
The Caloola complex is of aesthetic significance for the quality and range of its architecture and garden elements, consistent use of basalt, red brick and terra cotta tiles, its consistency of architectural styles and materials within the two major building phases, for its landscape planning and plantings and for its prominent siting on the hill with views to and from the site...(VHR)
I can remember my father touching me four times. I mean, physically touching me. We’ll get to the first time in a bit.
The second time was when I got the spanking. I was over at the Secrests. Mrs. Secrest had been my kindergarten teacher, and she and my mother were really good friends, and their daughter Jenny Lou was my sister Julie’s best friend, so the short answer is, I don’t really know why I was over there. But there I was. I was in the fourth grade, so it didn't have anything to do with school. Julie must have been at home. I don’t think I was advanced enough to want to flirt with Jenny Lou. I might have been playing solitaire. I think they taught me to play solitaire. And while we’re sitting at the dining room table playing solitaire, the radio man (I don’t remember any female announcers back in those days) interrupted the music and said there was a “dangerous escaped convict” on the loose. Everybody in town had the radio on all the time, and most everyone was listening to the local station. Now the whole town knew about the escaped convict.
I don’t know why, because I loved being at the Secrest’s, and I was probably going to feel as happy, as safe, as secure there as I would feel if I were at home, and my stress level would probably be lower, but for some reason I just wanted to go home. I insisted that they let me go. I’m just guessing that this is the way it was. It feels like the way it was.
And so I left. It was almost dark, that time of day when there’s just a thin strip of gray on the western horizon, and you can feel the darkness rushing in. But I had half a block down the hill, heading north, one full block up the next hill, and then a left on Stewart. Half way down very steep Stewart there was an alley on the right that bisected our block. When I cut through that unpaved alley, with coal cinders scattered about and ruts the size of alligators, the third house on the left, with its rickety wooden garage and its concrete walkway leading to the back door, was home.
When I went inside, of course my mother was standing in the kitchen waiting for me. I honestly I can’t remember what she said to me, except it couldn’t have been pleasant. “Your father’s waiting for you in the living room.” I’m pretty sure she said that.
I really didn’t hold it against Mrs. Secrest that she had called my mother and told her that I had insisted on leaving, and that my mother should be expecting me to arrive any minute. I may not have even thought about that. In the living room, Papa was sitting in a stuffed armchair. I had to go over and lie in his lap, back side up. I suppose it was bare butt. I guess it was kind of humiliating. I hadn’t thought of that, the bare butt thing, until just now.
And I don’t want to give the impression that I blame my mother: she was rightfully upset and concerned for my welfare. I doubt she raised her voice. Most of the time, she could control herself.
With the palm of his hand, Papa gave me three whacks. They weren't soft enough to be disgracefully non-consequential, but they weren't delivered with the full-force of his being. I don't remember crying.
And that was it: the only spanking I ever got. And the second time my father touched me.
15 more weeks til my 2nd yearly hospital check-up with the surgeon who physically saved my life at the end of 2018.
Almost 2 years ago, he successfully removed a 1cm malignant tumour from my right breast, and a few lymph nodes to check the cancer hadn't spread, (it hadn't) and I recovered quickly.
Today I can barely see the scar around my nipple, and I can't see the one in my armpit at all.
Every year I am scheduled for a mammogram as a precaution, but a mammogram didn't detect my tumour back then - the result was negative, but an ultrasound thankfully picked it up.
Why?
Well, because my breast tissue is dense.. I am relatively young and haven't had children, and this can mean a mammogram may not be the most effective method of detection in similar patients.
I had a 1 year mammogram check-up in December 2019 which again came back negative but to my pleasant surprise, I didn't just have a consultation as expected after one year, I was given an ultrasound too, which was clear and completely put my mind at ease.
I would love to see breast cancer survivors under 50 and those in the same age bracket getting screened due to ominous symptoms receive routine ultrasounds rather than mammograms in the future.. for peace of mind for many patients with dense breast tissue like myself.
I am writing a book of my day-to-day personal experience with breast cancer, featuring many of my self-portraits taken during that time, plus candids & I cannot wait to present this to you in the coming months!
And now changing the subject slightly.. this stunning ensemble of flares, bell-sleeve cropped tie top & headscarf is by All About Audrey of course - my favourite bohemian bouique(!) photographed in my bedouin boudoir set at The Hacienda, London by yours truly - yes, it's another self-portrait of course, as it my entire portfolio here!
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Fictional class of US cruiser circa late WWII.
I've been wanting to build a smooth hull style ship for a long time now and finally found some time to do it.
I'm currently planning to physically build this in time for BrickCon 2021 in October.
Inspired by some of the amazing ship builders in the LEGO community.
Masai Mara National Reserve
Kenya
East Africa
A hyena is more physically like a cat than a dog. Unknown to many people, the hyena spends 95% of its time hunting and not scavenging.
The spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), also known as the laughing hyena, is a species of hyena, currently classed as the sole member of the genus Crocuta, native to Sub-Saharan Africa. It is listed as being of least concern by the IUCN on account of its widespread range and large numbers estimated between 27,000 and 47,000 individuals.The species is, however, experiencing declines outside of protected areas due to habitat loss and poaching.
The spotted hyena is the most social of the Carnivora in that it has the largest group sizes and most complex social behaviours. Its social organisation is unlike that of any other carnivore, bearing closer resemblance to that of cercopithecine primates (baboons and macaques) with respect to group-size, hierarchical structure, and frequency of social interaction among both kin and unrelated group-mates.
The social system of the spotted hyena is openly competitive rather than cooperative, with access to kills, mating opportunities and the time of dispersal for males depending on the ability to dominate other clan-members. Females provide only for their own cubs rather than assist each other, and males display no paternal care. Spotted hyena society is matriarchal; females are larger than males and dominate them. From Wikipedia.
The inner German border (innerdeutsche Grenze or deutsch-deutsche Grenze; initially also Zonengrenze) was the border between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990.
Not including the similar but physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,393 kilometres (866 mi) long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia.
It was formally established on 1 July 1945 as the boundary between the Western and Soviet occupation zones of former Nazi Germany. On the eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed GDR guards who faced tens of thousands of West German, British and US guards and soldiers. In the hinterlands behind the border were more than a million North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Warsaw Pact troops.
The border was a physical manifestation of Winston Churchill's metaphorical Iron Curtain that separated the Soviet and Western blocs during the Cold War. It marked the boundary between two ideological systems – democratic capitalism and single-party communism. Built by East Germany in phases from 1952 to the late 1980s, the fortifications were constructed to stop the large-scale emigration of East German citizens to the West, about 1,000 of whom are said to have died trying to cross it during its 45-year existence. It caused widespread economic and social disruption on both sides; East Germans living in the region suffered especially draconian restrictions.
The better-known Berlin Wall was a physically separate, less elaborate, and much shorter border barrier surrounding West Berlin, more than 155 kilometres (96 mi) to the east of the inner German border (Berlin having been similarly divided by the four powers after World War II, despite the entire city being in the Soviet zone, thus creating an enclave of capitalism surrounded by the communist east). On 9 November 1989, the East German government announced the opening of the Berlin Wall and the inner German border. Over the following days, millions of East Germans poured into the West to visit. Hundreds of thousands moved permanently to the West in the following months as more crossings were opened, and ties between long-divided communities were re-established as border controls became little more than a cursory formality. The inner German border was not completely abandoned until 1 July 1990, exactly 45 years to the day since its establishment, and only three months before German reunification formally ended Germany's division.
Little remains of the inner German border's fortifications. Its route has been declared part of a "European Green Belt" linking national parks and nature reserves along the course of the old Iron Curtain from the Arctic Circle to the Black Sea. Museums and memorials along the old border commemorate the division and reunification of Germany and, in some places, preserve elements of the fortifications.
Most of us are immersed in "stuff", both physically and mentally. Our limited time is spent not on what we've chosen but on what we're confronted with. We dilute our lives with so much of everything that the overall effect is to mire us in indecision and make everything just mediocre.
It occurred to me recently that so many things in life might be made better by the simple act of culling. Of making decisions between and among things, of picking what’s most important and shedding the chaff, even if there’s only a hair’s breadth between the two. Perhaps this often-painful process can make enjoyment of what remains – the carefully chosen – so much sweeter. Perhaps our possessions, how we spend our time, the words we use, the art we make and even our thoughts can all be honed and subjected to the same meticulous process of separating the true gems from the mere minerals.
Culling takes courage, but I believe it refines our ability to be decisive, to take risks, and to discern true beauty or value from a steady menu of mediocrity. The result could be a simpler, more focused and more meaningful experience.
For me, 2015 will be about culling.
[Photo culled from 200+ images taken last Saturday morning at Rainbow Springs State Park, Dunnellon, Florida]
Captain Ernest Herschell was a big personality: he was physically strong, well-educated, successful in business, well-liked and a talented rugby-player. Interestingly, he is another of our local casualties with German ancestry.
His father was Adolph Herschell (1830-1913), who came to Hull from Germany in about 1855.
He eventually settled in Liverpool and made his money in the African trade.
His wife was Anne Emerson (born c.1841 in London). The couple married in Marylebone in 1870.
Anne’s family were also successful business people, involved in silk manufacture and international trade.
Adolph and Anne eventually settled in Beresford Road in Oxton. They had five children – Arnold, Jane, Bertha, Ernest and Edith. In 1891 Ernest was a boarder at Amersham Hall School in Caversham, just north of Reading.
The school had been founded by Ebenezer West in 1829 “for the sons of dignified gentlemen”.
Doubtless it was here that he learned to play rugby – the sport which he grew to love and to play very well at a high level. He became a member of the Birkenhead Park Club.
Someone calling himself C.C. wrote Ernest’s eulogy which appeared in The Birkenhead News of 30th September 1916: “Captain Ernest Herschell was a great rugby player. As a forward he stood high among his fellows in the middle of the nineties … For ten successive years he was in the list of prominent men north of the Trent … with ‘Flapper’ Herschell in the scrum it was much more healthy to be on his side than against him. He was a deadly tackler, and when he got the ball tucked under his arm and set the pace it was almost more than mortal man could do to bring him down.”
He said that Ernest played for the North against the South at Exeter in 1897, in 1898 at Newcastle and in 1905 at Birkenhead. He also played against the New Zealand All Blacks in that year. He played cricket for Oxton, but “rugby was his code”.
His brother Arnold was a famous tennis player.
By 1911, Ernest was married to Bertha Mary and living on Heron Road in Meols; the couple had a seven-month old baby called Winifred Mary and employed two servants – Maud Edith Partington from Beaumaris and Elizabeth Derbyshire of Liverpool. Ernest was doing well in business – he was a managing director for a firm of forwarding agents, called R.H. Morgan and Co. Ltd., which specialised in trade with South America. Ernest had worked for some time in Argentina, where he was probably able to keep up his rugby.
He probably spoke Spanish, which is why his house was named Buen Orden, meaning “good order”.
C.C. went on to comment about Ernest’s military career: “Having passed his fortieth year, he could have kept out of the war, but his old love to be where the strife was hottest, and his great patriotism, forced him to leave his family and home for the trenches, and he joined the Liverpool Regiment”. The 1/6th Battalion was a territorial unit which became part of the 165th Brigade, 55th (West Lancashire) Division.
He was promoted from lieutenant to the temporary rank of captain on 16th November 1914, interestingly at the same time as another German-sounding officer – Charles E. Wurtzburg.
The 55th Division relieved the 11th (Northern) Division on the Somme front 25th July 1916, in the area facing Guillemont. It took part in the Battles of Flers-Courcelette between 17th and 22nd September and Morval between 25th and 28th September.
The Book of Remembrance says that he died at Flers. C.C. said, “Today he lies low, but I’ll warrant he did his duty. Ernest Herschell was a good fellow, and as a sportsman he could take hard knocks as generously as he gave them to his opponents , and many a hundred men had cause to remember him when his springing footsteps were prancing the enclosure of a Rugby field. Those of us who knew him are sorry for his end. Some day, perchance, I may recall the lighter side of his genial nature. At the moment we bow to the severance, and salute the name and record of one who did his bit for King and country.”
Ernest’s parents lived well into their 80’s and are buried in West Kirby. The family grave is in Grange Hill Cemetery.
Notes:
Birth: June 1875
Death: 26th September 1916 aged 41
Addresses: 29 Beresford Road, Oxton (81-01), ‘Buen Orden’, 21 Heron Road, Meols
Occupation: Managing Director of a Firm of Forwarding Agents, Engaged in the South American Trade
Unit: 6th Bn. King’s (Liverpool Regiment)
Rank: Captain
Medals: 14/15 Star, British War and Victory
Commemorated and Buried: GH, H. GHC, France: Somme, Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbé IV. G. 38.
The above information was obtained from an online article:
An Imperishable Record
The People of North-West Wirral and the Great War by
Stephen John Roberts.
Singapore National Day Parade
Singapore celebrated its first National Day as an independent nation in 1966, one year after Singapore's separation from Malaysia on 9 August 1965.
The first National Day Parade started in the morning at 9:00 a.m. that day. People came as early as 7:00 a.m. in order to get good vantage points. Singapore's first President, Mr Yusof bin Ishak and Singapore's first Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, were seated with members of the government at the grandstand on the steps of City Hall. When the parade began, 6 military contingents (including the Singapore Infantry Regiment, SPDF and the then Republic of Singapore Police), a mobile column from the SIR, and various schools and civil contingents marched past City Hall and then into the city streets. Three military bands accompanied the parade inspection and later the march past with military music. The Singapore Fire Brigade also took part in this first parade with its firetrucks included in the mobile column. Rounding it all was a massed lion and dragon dance performance from drum and dragon troupes nationwide.
The following year, the contingents increased to 76, including those of the then established Singapore Armed Forces, the RSP and more cultural groups, with the addition of more civil marching groups. The reason is partly due to the introduction of the National Service program in the military and police forces, and later extended to the Fire Brigade, later called the Singapore Fire Services in the 1970s. Street performances by various groups also debuted in that year's parade. The 1968 edition, although held on a rainy morning that surprised even the marching contingents and the dignitaries, saw the first ground performances on the Padang as the weather improved - a prelude to today's show performances. 1969's parade, the one where the Mobile Column made its first drivepast, commemorated the 150th year of the city's founding and had Princess Alexandra of the UK as principal guest.
On the August 9, 1970 NDP edition, the Flypast of the State Flag and the Republic of Singapore Air Force Flypast debuted. A combat simulation performance by Singapore Army personnel was one of the new highlights for that year.
The 1971 NDP was the first to include the iconic mobile parade floats from various organizations. Choirs also debuted on that year's edition.
The 1973 parade was held from the afternoon to early evening for the first time to attract more attendance from the public. The next year, colour broadcasts of the parade on television began.
The 1975 parades, held to celebrate Singapore's 10th year, were for the first time decentralized into 13 parade venues for more public participation. Almost all of them lasted for an hour and all of them even had route marches on the streets to the participating venues.
By the time the NDP was held at the National Stadium (for the first time) in 1976, the NDP Guard of Honour, composed of officers and personnel of the SAF and the Singapore Police Force made its first appearance, followed after the parade proper by the very first evening presentations by various groups, a prelude to future evening NDPs in 1980 and from 1984 onward. 1977's parade was a decentralized event like two years before (and like 1968's was damped by the rain) while 1978 would see the parade back at the Padang grounds. 1979's parade was yet another decentralized one, held in several high schools and sports stadiums nationwide.
The 1980 parade, held at the National Stadium, almost rained at the start, but the performances went on as planned as the weather improved later. This was the first parade in which the feu de joie of the Guard-of-Honour contingents made its inaugural appearance. 1981's NDP was the very first parade appearance of the then SPF Civil Defense Command, presently the Singapore Civil Defense Force, later combined with the SFS in 1989. (The SCDF of today showed itself for the first time in the 1982 NDP held in the Padang.) They were held in two decentralised venues, Jurong and Queenstown Sports Stadiums for further increase public attendance and participation in the celebrations. 1982's parade, back at the Padang site, featured more contingents and for the first time the mobile column drove past after the marchpast had concluded, thus making it a predecessor to the parades at the Padang from 1995 onward (every 5 years).
1983 would be the final year that the NDP was held in multiple venues.
The 1984 NDP, now back at the Padang, celebrated Singapore's Silver Jubilee of self-governance and included a bigger Mobile Column, the first appearance of the popular Silent Precision Drill Squad from the Singapore Armed Forces Military Police Command and the first true evening fireworks display (plus the debut of the very first NDP theme song) while NDP 1985 celebrated the nation's 20th year with more participants in the parade segment and in the show proper. The 1986 edition was the first true evening edition of the parade, and the first to use flashlights for audience use. 1987's parade, held at the Padang, was the first ever evening event held there and featured the first appearance of the massed military bands of the SAF. 1988 saw the card stunt feature being used for the first time during the National Stadium event and the 1989 edition, the first National Stadium daytime event, saw the debut of the nationally famous Red Lions parachute team and the daylight fireworks after 1966. The parade returned to the Padang in 1990 to honor the nation's silver jubilee year, which would turn out to be the last afternoon event ever to be held.
In 1997, for the first time, there was a National Education Show, where Primary 5 students watch NDP rehearsals.
The government set up the electronic voting ticketing system in 2003 in order to tackle the problem of overcrowding. Such ticketing system enables citizens to stand a chance at winning the tickets by registering their e-mail addresses or mobile numbers at the NDP website or phonelines.
Starting 2008, the NDP is also aired all over the Asia-Pacific region through Channel NewsAsia.
2009's NDP was the first ever edition to have an integrated show including the parade segment.
In 2014 Third Warrant Officer Shirley Ng became the first female Red Lion parachutist to jump at the NDP.[1][2]
2015's parade, even as all was planned for the parade to be at the Padang, will be the first ever parade to be held both there and at the Float at Marina Bay, breaking a parade tradition in the process. NDP 2015 is the first National Day Parade without the founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, who never missed a single National Day Parade since 1966, for whom he had died on 23 March 2015, within 8 months after attending the 2014 edition.
NDP editions
The venue of the parade is usually at the historical grounds of the Padang, where the declaration of Singapore's independence was held. Since the first parade in 1966, all the way to 1975, the venue was located in this central area to bring the parade closer to the people. In 1976, the parade was held for the first time at the newly completed National Stadium, where the much larger capacity allowed for more to view the parade live.
Although offering about 60,000 seats in the National Stadium, the demand for tickets remained high. Hence there were several attempts to decentralise the venue to bring the celebration closer to more Singaporeans. From 1975 to 1983, celebrations were alternated between a decentralised event and one centered at the Padang or stadium. From 1984, the parade was held twice at the stadium before being brought back to the Padang. This three-year cycle was repeated up to 1994.
From 1995, it was decided that the Padang would be used as the venue every five years. The Padang, although historically important, posed a greater logistical challenge and also offered fewer seats for spectators. The event and rehearsals also required the closing of surrounding roads. There was a need to construct temporary spectator stands around the field. The site remained, however, the only feasible venue for the mobile column, as the heavy vehicles could not be driven onto the stadium track. The Padang was used as the main performance venue for the 2005 parade, with fringe activities decentralised to Marina South, Jurong East, Yishun and Tampines.
Several alternate locations were mooted, including the utilisation of the Padang, which is physically bigger and less likely to disrupt daily functions in the city.
Parade being held at the Marina Bay Floating Stadium in 2007
On 16 October 2005, it was announced that that 2006 NDP would be held at the old stadium for the last time before moving to The Float at Marina Bay [1]. The 130 metre by 100 metre platform would be used for the next five years until the new stadium is completed. Although offering a seating capacity of only 27,000, which is less than National Stadium, there is a vast area for 150,000 extra spectators along the Marina Bay waterfront.
Since the 2000s (decade), every year's parade would revolve around a theme which would guide the planning of the parade and show.
After ten-year hiatus, the 2016 edition of NDP will return back to the new National Stadium
Male Greater Kudu in morning light
Männlicher Großer Kudu im Morgenlicht
Kruger National Park is one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 19,485 km2 (7,523 sq mi) in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa, and extends 360 km (220 mi) from north to south and 65 km (40 mi) from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza. Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926.
To the west and south of the Kruger National Park are the two South African provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga. In the north is Zimbabwe, and to the east is Mozambique. It is now part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a peace park that links Kruger National Park with the Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe, and with the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.
The park is part of the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere an area designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as an International Man and Biosphere Reserve (the "Biosphere").
The park has nine main gates allowing entrance to the different camps.
(Wikipedia)
The greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) is a woodland antelope found throughout eastern and southern Africa. Despite occupying such widespread territory, they are sparsely populated in most areas due to declining habitat, deforestation and poaching. The greater kudu is one of two species commonly known as kudu, the other being the lesser kudu, T. imberbis.
Kudu, or koodoo, is the Khoikhoi name for this antelope. Tragos (Greek) denotes a he-goat and elaphos (Greek) a deer. Strepho (Greek) means "twist", and strephis is "twisting". Keras (Greek) refers to the horn of the animal.
Greater kudus have a narrow body with long legs, and their coats can range from brown/bluish grey to reddish brown. They possess between 4 and 12 vertical white stripes along their torso. The head tends to be darker in colour than the rest of the body, and exhibits a small white chevron which runs between the eyes.
Greater kudu bulls tend to be much larger than the cows, and vocalize much more, utilizing low grunts, clucks, humming, and gasping.[citation needed] The bulls also have large manes running along their throats, and large horns with two and a half twists, which, were they to be straightened, would reach an average length of 120 cm (47 in), with the record being 187.64 cm (73.87 in).[citation needed] They diverge slightly as they slant back from the head. The horns do not begin to grow until the bull is between the age of 6–12 months, twisting once at around 2 years of age, and not reaching the full two and a half twists until they are 6 years old; occasionally they may even have 3 full turns.
This is one of the largest species of antelope. Bulls weigh 190–270 kg (420–600 lb), with a maximum of 315 kg (694 lb), and stand up to 160 cm (63 in) tall at the shoulder. The ears of the greater kudu are large and round. Cows weigh 120–210 kg (260–460 lb) and stand as little as 100 cm (39 in) tall at the shoulder; they are hornless, without a beard or nose markings. The head-and-body length is 185–245 cm (6.07–8.04 ft), to which the tail may add a further 30–55 cm (12–22 in).
The range of the greater kudu extends from the east in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Eritrea and Kenya into the south where they are found in Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Other regions where greater kudu are located are Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Malawi, Mozambique, Somalia, Swaziland, and Uganda. They have also been introduced in small numbers into New Mexico, but were never released into the wild. They are often refered to as "desert moose" in southeren United States. Their habitat includes mixed scrub woodlands (the greater kudu is one of the few largest mammals that prefer living in settled areas – in scrub woodland and bush on abandoned fields and degraded pastures, mopane bush and acacia in lowlands, hills and mountains. They will occasionally venture onto plains only if there is a large abundance of bushes, but normally avoid such open areas to avoid becoming an easy target for their predators. Their diet consists of leaves, grass, shoots and occasionally tubers, roots and fruit (they are especially fond of oranges and tangerines).
During the day, greater kudus normally cease to be active and instead seek cover under woodland, especially during hot days. They feed and drink in the early morning and late afternoon, acquiring water from waterholes or roots and bulbs that have a high water content. Although they tend to stay in one area, the greater kudu may search over a large distance for water in times of drought, in southern Namibia where water is relatively scarce they have been known to cover extensive distances in very short periods of time.
Predators of the greater kudu generally consist of lions, Spotted hyenas, and African hunting dogs. Although cheetahs and leopards also prey on greater kudus, they are unable to bring down a bull, and consequently target the more vulnerable cows and offspring. There are several instances reported where Nile crocodiles have preyed on greater kudus, although based on records the larger mammalian carnivores statistically are much more dangerous to the kudu and comparable large ungulates, or at least those with a preference for dry, upland habitats over riparian or swamp areas. When a herd is threatened by predators, an adult (usually female) will issue a bark to alert the rest of the herd. Despite being very nimble over rocky hillsides and mountains, the greater kudu is not fast enough (and nor does it have enough stamina) to escape its main predators over open terrain, so it tends to rely on leaping over shrubs and small trees to shake off pursuers. Greater kudus have excellent hearing and acute eyesight which helps to alert them to approaching predators.
Greater kudus have a life span of 7 to 8 years in the wild, and up to 23 years in captivity. They may be active throughout the 24-hour day. Herds disperse during the rainy season when food is plentiful. During the dry season, there are only a few concentrated areas of food so the herds will congregate. Greater kudu are not territorial; they have home areas instead. Maternal herds have home ranges of approximately 4 square kilometers and these home ranges can overlap with other maternal herds. Home ranges of adult males are about 11 square kilometers and generally encompass the ranges of two or three female groups. Females usually form small groups of 6-10 with their offspring, but sometimes they can form a herd up to 20 individuals. Male kudus may form small bachelor groups, but they are more commonly found as solitary and widely dispersed individuals. Solitary males will join the group of females and calves (usually 6-10 individuals per group) only during the mating season (April–May in South Africa).
The male kudus are not always physically aggressive with each other, but sparring can sometimes occur between males, especially when both are of similar size and stature. The male kudus exhibit this sparring behavior by interlocking horns and shoving one another. Dominance is established until one male exhibits the lateral display. In rare circumstances, sparring can result in both males being unable to free themselves from the other's horns, which can then result in the death of both animals.
Rarely will a herd reach a size of forty individuals, partly because of the selective nature of their diet which would make foraging for food difficult in large groups. A herd's area can encompass 800 to 1,500 acres (6.1 km2), and spend an average of 54% of the day foraging for food.
Greater kudus reach sexual maturity between 1 and 3 years of age. The mating season occurs at the end of the rainy season, which can fluctuate slightly according to the region and climate. Before mating, there is a courtship ritual which consists of the male standing in front of the female and often engaging in a neck wrestle. The male then trails the female while issuing a low pitched call until the female allows him to copulate with her. Gestation takes around 240 days (or eight months). Calving generally starts between February and March (late austral summer), when the grass tends to be at its highest.
Greater kudus tend to bear one calf, although occasionally there may be two. The pregnant female kudu will leave her group to give birth; once she gives birth, the newborn is hidden in vegetation for about 4 to 5 weeks (to avoid predation). After 4 or 5 weeks, the offspring will accompany its mother for short periods of time; then by 3 to 4 months of age, it will accompany her at all times. By the time it is 6 months old, it is quite independent of its mother. The majority of births occur during the wet season (January to March). In terms of maturity, female greater kudus reach sexual maturity at 15–21 months. Males reach maturity at 21–24 months.
Greater kudus have both benefited and suffered from interaction with humans. Humans are turning much of the kudu's natural habitat into farmland, restricting their home ranges. Humans have also destroyed woodland cover, which they use for their habitat. However, wells and irrigation set up by humans has also allowed the greater kudu to occupy territory that would have been too devoid of water for them previously. The greater kudu are also a target for poachers for meat and horns. The horns of greater kudus are commonly used to make Shofars, a Jewish ritual horn blown at Rosh Hashanah.
The greater kudu population in the northern part of its range has declined due to excessive hunting and rapid habitat loss. However, they are evaluated as low risk in the IUCN Red List of endangered species. The long-term survival of the greater kudu at large is not in jeopardy as populations located elsewhere remain robust and well-managed. The greater kudu receives adequate protection from southern Tanzania to South Africa. There are large populations in parks and reserves such as Ruaha-Rungwa-Kisigo and Selous (Tanzania), Luangwa Valley and Kafue (Zambia), Etosha (Namibia), Moremi, Chobe and Central Kalahari (Botswana), Hwange, Chizarira, Mana Pools and Gonarezhou (Zimbabwe) and in Kruger (11,200 – 17,300) and Hluhluwe–iMfolozi (South Africa). An abundance of greater kudu is also found in private farms and conservancies in southern Africa, in particular in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, where they are popular amongst trophy hunters.
(Wikipedia)
Der Kruger-Nationalpark (deutsch häufig falsch Krüger-Nationalpark) ist das größte Wildschutzgebiet Südafrikas. Er liegt im Nordosten des Landes in der Landschaft des Lowveld auf dem Gebiet der Provinz Limpopo sowie des östlichen Abschnitts von Mpumalanga. Seine Fläche erstreckt sich vom Crocodile-River im Süden bis zum Limpopo, dem Grenzfluss zu Simbabwe, im Norden. Die Nord-Süd-Ausdehnung beträgt etwa 350 km, in Ost-West-Richtung ist der Park durchschnittlich 54 km breit und umfasst eine Fläche von rund 20.000 Quadratkilometern. Damit gehört er zu den größten Nationalparks in Afrika.
Das Schutzgebiet wurde am 26. März 1898 unter dem Präsidenten Paul Kruger als Sabie Game Reserve zum Schutz der Wildnis gegründet. 1926 erhielt das Gebiet den Status Nationalpark und wurde in seinen heutigen Namen umbenannt. Im Park leben 147 Säugetierarten inklusive der „Big Five“, außerdem etwa 507 Vogelarten und 114 Reptilienarten, 49 Fischarten und 34 Amphibienarten.
(Wikipedia)
Strepsiceros ist eine afrikanische Antilopen-Gattung, deren Vertreter die vier Arten des Großen Kudu sind. Die Gattung kommt in vielen afrikanischen Savannengebieten vor, während die nah verwandte Gattung Ammelaphus mit der Art Kleiner Kudu ein recht beschränktes Verbreitungsgebiet im östlichen Afrika bewohnt.
Die Tiere erreichen eine Kopf-Rumpf-Länge von 193 bis 248 cm und eine Schulterhöhe von 121 bis 157 cm. Der Geschlechtsdimorphismus ist sehr stark ausgeprägt. Männliche Tiere werden zwischen 249 und 344 kg schwer und sind damit bis zu 150 % größer als weibliche, die 160 bis 210 kg wiegen. Die kleinste Art ist der Westliche Großkudu (Strepsiceros cottoni), alle anderen sind durchschnittlich größer. Mit den angegebenen Maßen gehören die Strepsiceros-Arten nach den Elenantilopen (Taurotragus) zu den größten bekannten Antilopen. Das Fell der Männchen ist graubraun, das der Weibchen und Jungtiere mittelbraun gefärbt und mit sechs bis zehn weißen Querstreifen versehen. Die Tiere verfügen über große, runde Ohren und einen buschigen Schwanz. Die Männchen tragen ein Schraubengehörn, das bis zu 105 cm lang wird, entlang der Schraubenwindung gemessen erreicht es 160 cm. Die Hornspitzen stehen etwa 80 cm auseinander. Der Nachwuchs entspricht im Aussehen den hornlosen Weibchen, heranwachsende männliche Jungtiere können anhand der Anzahl der Windungen bestimmt werden, da die erste Windung etwa mit zwei Jahren ausgebildet ist.
Die Arten von Strepsiceros leben im östlichen und südlichen Afrika und halten sich vor allem in Baumsavannen, nicht jedoch in reinen Waldgebieten oder reinem Grasland auf, sie kommen aber auch in der Nähe von Flüssen in ariden Gebieten vor.
Meistens leben die Weibchen und Jungtiere in relativ ortstreuen Herden von drei bis zehn Individuen, bei größerer Anzahl splitten sie sich auf. Diese Clans durchstreifen Gebiete von 1,6 bis 5,2 km² Größe, in einigen Fällen können sie auch 25 km² erreichen. Die Männchen leben in eigenen Junggesellen-Gruppen bestehend aus 3 bis 4 Individuen oder sind Einzelgänger und gesellen sich nur zur Brunft zu den Weibchen. In der Regel wird nur ein einzelnes, etwa 16 kg schweres Junges in der Regenzeit geboren. Kudus sind je nach Region tag- oder nachtaktiv. Die Nahrung besteht hauptsächlich aus Laub und jungen Zweigen, wobei sie nicht wählerisch sind. Kudus fressen auch Pflanzen die von anderen Tieren wegen ihrer Giftigkeit gemieden werden. Die Lebenserwartung der Böcke beträgt bis zu 8 Jahre, die der Kühe bis zu 15 Jahre.
Die Bestände der Vertreter von Strepsiceros gelten in Ost- und Südafrika als einigermaßen gesichert. Regional ist er aber bedroht, vor allem in seinem nördlichsten Verbreitungsgebiet in Äthiopien, Somalia, Sudan und Tschad. Neben dem Menschen stellen Leoparden, Löwen und Wildhunde den Kudus nach. Für gewöhnlich versuchen Kudus, sich vor ihren Feinden im Gebüsch zu verstecken. Gelingt dies nicht, können sie mit hoher Geschwindigkeit und weiten Sprüngen fliehen. Zäune, z. B. um Farmgelände, stellen in der Regel kein Hindernis für sie dar, da sie bis zu 3 Meter hohe Hindernisse überspringen können.
Der Name „Kudu“ stammt aus der Sprache der Khoi Khoi und wurde von diesem Volk nur auf diese Antilope angewandt, von den Weißen dann aber auch auf den Kleinen Kudu übertragen.
Der Kudu ist offizielles Wappentier Simbabwes.
(Wikipedia)
One of the keys to shooting Epic Landscape Photography is exalting the photograph's soul via golden ratio compositions, thusly wedding the photographic art to the divine proportion by which life itself was designed and exalted.
Dr. Elliot McGucken's Golden Number Ratio Fine Art Landscape & Nature Photography Composition Studies!
instagram.com/goldennumberratio
www.facebook.com/goldennumberratio/
Greetings flickr friends! I am working on several books on "epic photography," and I recently finished a related one titled: The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Why the Fibonacci Numbers Exalt Beauty and How to Create PHI Compositions in Art, Design, & Photography: An Artistic and Scientific Introduction to the Golden Mean . Message me on facebook for a free review copy!
www.facebook.com/goldennumberratio/
The Golden Ratio also informs the design of the golden revolver on all the swimsuits and lingerie, as well as the 45surf logo!
The Golden Number Ratio Principle: Dr. E’s Golden Ratio Principle: The golden ratio exalts beauty because the number is a characteristic of the mathematically and physically most efficient manners of growth and distribution, on both evolutionary and purely physical levels. The golden ratio ensures that the proportions and structure of that which came before provide the proportions and structure of that which comes after. Robust, ordered growth is naturally associated with health and beauty, and thus we evolved to perceive the golden ratio harmonies as inherently beautiful, as we saw and felt their presence in all vital growth and life—in the salient features and proportions of humans and nature alike, from the distribution of our facial features and bones to the arrangements of petals, leaves, and sunflowers seeds. As ratios between Fibonacci Numbers offer the closest whole-number approximations to the golden ratio, and as seeds, cells, leaves, bones, and other physical entities appear in whole numbers, the Fibonacci Numbers oft appear in nature’s elements as “growth’s numbers.” From the dawn of time, humanity sought to salute their gods in art and temples exalting the same proportion by which all their vital sustenance and they themselves had been created—the golden ratio.
Ansel Adams is not only my favorite photographer, but he is one of the greatest photographers and artists of all time. And just like great artists including Michelangelo, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Leonardo da Vinci, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Botticelli, and Picasso, Ansel used the golden ratio and divine proportions in his epic art.
Not so long ago I discovered golden regions in many of his famous public domain his 8x10 aspect ratio photographs. I call these golden harmony regions "regions of golden action" or "ROGA"S, as seen here:
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1812448512351066.107374...
And too, I created some videos highlighting Ansel's use of the golden harmonies. Enjoy!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGnxOAhK3os
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFlzAaBgsDI
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3eJ86Ej1TY
More golden ratio and epic photography composition books soon! Best wishes for the Holiday Season! Dr. Elliot McGucken :)
A baby gorilla at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park was physically introduced with her mother, Imani for the first time this morning. The baby was born at the Safari Park on March 12 after an emergency C-section was needed. Since the physical introduction occurred, Imani has been extremely attached, holding and constantly carrying around the young gorilla.
Animal care staff placed the 12-day-old gorilla on a soft hay pile and then let Imani come in to physically meet her daughter for the first time. Imani examined the young gorilla by smelling her and then picked her up, carrying and cradling her around the bedroom area, even letting the baby cling and hold onto her back as she walked around. Animal care staff let other members of the gorilla troop have visual contact with Imani and the baby through a protective mesh barrier while the introductions occurred.
Animal care staff let Imani spend some time alone bonding with her baby and then let 5-year-old male gorilla Frank come into the off-exhibit bedroom area to be with Imani and the baby as well. Imani has a special bond with Frank, as she served as a surrogate mother to him after he was born at the San Diego Zoo in 2008. Both Imani and Frank came to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park from the San Diego Zoo in January 2013.
"Initially she was just carrying the baby, she never set the baby down," said Andrew Stallard, animal care supervisor at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. "About three hours in, she began nursing the baby. After about a five-minute bout, the baby fell asleep, which is exactly what we were looking for, so we were really excited!"
The baby gorilla was observed nursing, but staff will continue to closely monitor the infant to make sure she is getting the nutrition she needs. This is the first baby for Imani and the 17th gorilla to be born at the Safari Park. The Safari Park is home to eight gorillas, including the new baby.
Pennhurst Asylum
Spring City, PA
May 25th, 2014
Some History of the place:
"Pennhurst was constructed and opened in 1908 as a state school for the mentally and physically disabled. Pennhurst's property was vast, covering 120 acres. Created to house over 10,000 patients at a point in time, Pennhurst was one of the largest institutions of its kind in Pennsylvania. Half of Pennhurst's residents were committed by court order and the other half were brought by a parent or other guardian. It was devoted strictly to the care, treatment and education of the disabled. Originally named Pennhurst Home for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic, it finally was just called Pennhurst State School. Pennhurst employed a large number of staff to help assist in maintaining the facility. This staff included a board of trustees, medical staff, dental staff, and specialists in psychology, social services, accounting, and various fields of education. The grounds of Pennhurst included a 300-bed hospital, which had a full nursing staff and two surgeons on call at all times. Others at Pennhurst included members of the clergy and farming experts who grew most of Pennhurst's food . Pennhurst was an essentially self-sufficient community, its 1,400-acre site containing a firehouse, general store, barber shop, movie theatre, auditorium and even a greenhouse. The buildings of Pennhurst were named after towns in Pennsylvania such as Chester and Devon. The original buildings were designed by architect Phillip H. Johnson. All of Pennhurst's electricity was generated by an on-site power plant. A cemetery lay on the property, as well as baseball and recreational fields for the residents. Many of Pennhurst's buildings were strictly for storage; however, the majority were dormitory and hospital-style living quarters for the residents. Many of the buildings had security screens that were accessed on the inside, to prevent patients from escaping, or jumping to their deaths. Most of the stairwells had security fences to keep patients from jumping over the railings. Many of the buildings are linked by an underground tunnel system designed for transportation of handicapped patients to and from the dormitory, recreational buildings and dietary.
Pennhurst was often accused of dehuminazitation and was said to have provided no help to the mentally challenged. The institution had a long history of staff difficulties and negative public image, for example, a 1968 report by NBC called "Suffer the Little Children". Pennhurst State School was closed in 1986 following several allegations of abuse. These allegations led to the first lawsuit of its kind in the United States, Pennhurst State School and Hospital vs. Halderman, which asserted that the mentally retarded have a constitutional right to living quarters and an education. Terry Lee Halderman had been a resident of the school, and upon release she filed suit in the district court on behalf of herself and all other residents of Pennhurst. The complaint alleged that conditions at Pennhurst were unsanitary, inhumane and dangerous, that these living conditions violated the fourteenth amendment, and that Pennhurst used cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. After a 32-day trial and an immense investigation, prosecutors concluded that the conditions at Pennhurst were not only dangerous, with physical and mental abuse of its patients, but also inadequate for the care and habilitation for the mentally retarded. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also concluded that the physical, mental, and intellectual skills of most patients had deteriorated while in Pennhurst.
In 1986, Pennhurst was ordered closed, and began a program of de-institutionalism that lasted several years. Once the buildings were closed, they began to rapidly deteriorate from lack of heating, moisture invasion and vandalism. Thousands of people began to illegally tour the property spray painting everything in sight and breaking all the glass in the place. Theft was rampant and the destruction of the property was in full swing. Patients were thrown out and a large homeless contingent developed in the area.
Pennhurst fell into complete ruin as the complex was shut down. Buildings were abandoned as they were, with patient’s clothes and belonging strewn about. Furniture, cabinets and medical equipment were left to decay as if someone had just got up and walked out the front door. This is the place that will eventually resurrect into one of the most studied properties in the ghost hunter media, and will become an amazing haunted attraction."
SOURCE: SOURCE: www.pennhurstasylum.com/index2.html#/history
And with advance to REALITY COPY there’s certainly no way of changing this perception only enforcing it, nothing in reality is good enough for “REALITY COPY” that is just another paradox that is not futuristic.
We might be still skeptical about the arrival of REALITY COPY, but its only before its sold at the supermarkets.
What would happen after “Reality Copy” when the progress of all possible levels of true “reality copy” (in technical sense, not psychologically-philosophical) are achieved. The reality hence is copied and sealed.
Technology won’t stop there… one wonders. What is next.
In political sense when reality in representation is something embraced by conservative social power than with “reality copy” the conservative power is the dominating from the social point of view having new level of reality and it’s copy to be controlled.
*seems like the only possibly alternative to REALITY COPY could be ultra radical Invisibility)
In principle the artist aims to deform the reality subjectively to create not the “reality copy” lacking such skills but to convey the artistic poetic goal of expressing whatever given artist wants to express.
In a matter of “reality copy” what is left for the artist to argue with and deform… to question and test… Nothing really changes socially except for more pressure applied to the issue of dealing with self-image and tools to “sell” When a person changes the image the higher the technology the more transformed is the final product.
The progress of mental growth is just as conservative as control on the “visual image of reality” and its copy.
The ongoing technological progress is irreversible as it carries percent of good with bad,
It is common knowledge how for instance internet is benefit and at the same time does damage. A person who knows about the addiction and suffers would acquire the knowledge and hope from the place the person suffers the internet of course.
Same thing is with photography and video. Reality copy would add more psychological problems to the present but create more visual attraction of true-life experience with whatever could be rediscovered in Lifecopy style. Probably is benefits pornography since it will continue same as consumption of food. The basic things… Consumerism benefits since it is super-trained for “instant reach” affect and will commercially exploit the “reality copy” to sell more of “reality copy” gadgets the phones, screens, etc.
New generation of people will repeat the cycle in new technological means of having “reality copy” as nothing new but similar to any visual information currently available.
The creative people are the ones BEHIND the time it seems in a matter of “reality copy” and being unable to have anything is an alternative.
The Invisible alternative is the ONLY ONE to question “reality copy”
That is the power of UNKNOWN.
Techno progress can deal in “reality” bringing higher resolution to the fore to sell new generation of phones and gadgets.
But it really doesn’t change the philosophical issue of questions asked by philosophers, what is life, what is art, why do we live. Questions remain unanswered when techno progress veils those questions with the promise that higher technology would bring the end to all unanswered questions and answer them for people.
So far the techno advance puts the artistic, literary and philosophical field out of business. As when people get the toys (gadgets) and the playground (the podium of internet) the art is irrelevant and completely disconnected from the social phenomenon of self-representation. Art is not interested to question something with no philosophical substance to it.
The commercial art is willing to supply more stuff for consumerism. If its reality-copy than someone empowered by financial wealth (born rich) would come up with more decorative solutions that could serve REALITY COPY in needed fashion, add more details to the “reality set” to those who can afford it.
Same way it is now when people with means live with more things.
“Reality Copy” of people without means would look just as it is in reality, gray and unexciting. To help people without means the software would offer “decoration” solutions to add the faux details able to transform the surroundings to less depressing. It would enter the person into “life copy” of vacation at Caribbean resorts… etc.
What in such situation could be philosophically questioned, if nothing changed in human morality, but techno advance manage to involve people into self-entertainment to such degree that a person is no longer interested to read books about other people or watch movies and hear news. Self-promotion is the ongoing and time-consuming thing. One has to research the “popular” topics.
As to participating in reality activities, there’s the issue of not having time for anything that doesn’t deal with self-promotion and earning a living.
ART commerce is growing commercially going Industrial since supplying consumer goods is always rewarding in sales. On the other hand this and techno revolution reduces interest of writers and philosophers to dig in depths where there is no depth. It makes such people disengaged with the process. When there are no critical voices to the established situation or some few art critics pretend to do what is expected of them – know about current situation not only on the art scene but at large - socially, and have strong voice against the trends that contribute to the lowering of culture. There’s no more liberal freedom since nobody reads the newspapers. Even if the working critics were principal enough to write articles and books they know their voice would not be heard. They are not vociferous about anything at all because there’s a concept of supporting and art endavour since art is in decline and anything that relates to art needs their support.
There are no voices to oppose the current situation for many reasons such as no younger people would be interested in such undertaking also for many reasons of being disoriented in expectation of techno changes or living their me-life.
The young ones are the invisibility movers, every day someone who is young, information and internet savvy adds the invisibility statement to their online identity. I saw it on tumblr and Iheart. (samples year web address – source)
Art consumer goods sell and make the seller get the goods since sale is the rule.
Art critics silently agree and actually it seems if they even try to disagree there is nothing in art that presently shows any direction against the established art situation.
There isn’t anything not saying a serious claim to deny aesthetic values of the art present and past, to turn away from any influence and history by the fashion avant-garde to question than resuscitate (bring back from death) art that lost vitality and practically is a dead art of dominating taste in an authoritarian culture and conformity.
Bring new blood to reinvent the art into weapon against the outlived old and positioning itself as direct opposition AGAINST art that represents culture of the present time.
Culture of consumerism that turned into visual consumerism with the help of internet is hard to oppose and challenge in any attempt of making bid public art spectacle, won’t challenge any concept but serve certain need for entertainment.
Invisible art of Paul Jaisini stands against all that is dominating and culturally regressive in the present, false visual multiplicity that imply democracy and absence of segregation in visual sphere, all inclusiveness.
On so many levels Paul Jaisini brings knowledge of how the present condition reflect on a mind. (non-linear thinking, information processing, constant analysis is the advanced state of high analytical creative mind /osd, adad is the side effect but there are more worse side effects) Shows the burst to create in manifestation of genius mind (can do any task without training) but unable to maintain the creative process as wholesome, bored with the immediate results. Invisibility is theoretical stability and result of high impact activity that gives fast result of creativity and genius realized in art. Then instability in the fact of the created art un--preserved and lost, destroyed.
On a lower level of people who start building some blog with enthusiasm dedicating time, research than abandoning it to become digital graveyard demonstrates inability to continue and search for new. Inability to face what yesterday seemed interesting and capture someone’s mind to give the creative boost.
(fast life, no sleep, high tech knowledge, constant search for new, unsatisfied… new is old – altogether supports “CONSUMERISM” when buying is haul more than physically needed, quantity is the need for new.
Invisible art as a concept seem to attract wide public and elite in such diametrically opposed combination, of people without high aesthetics in mind or the complete opposite illuminati-culturati. People with average or below average taste and aesthetic requirements are as interested and supportive as the elite. When it comes to someone in the middle- another phenomena, quite often those who are educated and intelligent take a stand against even one mention of the art being possibly somehow invisible.
These people respond very well and willing to agree with the concept as Invisible art is brought to them by mass media. In the beginning I was using internet to send out essays and saw the proof that as avant-garde wanted to reach people who never acquired artistically developed taste the invisible art was and now is more than ever suits their taste even to degree of obsession.
That’s adds insult to injury when nobody even pay attention and there’s nothing to offer as the alternative.
They want something tangible as the alternative, the grown philosophy to brew in the minds of people and artists as the sign of time.
The invisibility is the idea that has the power to antagonize the “reality copy” but not in a sense that is widely used in the present time. To express social isolation in case of the teens as seen on tumblr. (examples and variations of Invisibility trend in primitive pictures shared every day in such huge quantities no art publication ever knew, teens and pre-teens are those with passion among the rest of us, when they spread the word it goes far, same as the early internet time, when the word would go far distances to large number of people)
Historically known of the episodes when many artists tried to create the so-called invis art but it really didn’t involve much creativity except for the concepts they came up with, but in reality it involved the reduction of visual means and performance art when the audience came up with more ideas acting around the non-existent artwork than the artist.
Personally I discovered high interactive value of the “PRESUMED” invisible painting when I was getting a lot of responses with very interesting commentaries from the people who actually insisted I was sending them info about the invisible artworks. I never made any claims when sending written essays. People decided for me and probably this is the best way for the interactive dialogue to let people decide.
The only known versions of invisible artworks would be not something that can turn into a philosophical school of thought but random reductions of visual means of various artists. It all came to same MOA that involved frames etc., not the process of creativity or life long creativity that would show how such artistic philosophy develops and what various periods of the artist’s life produce by his belief in his artistic style.
The known precedents of exhibiting so-called invisible art were always random statements that never continued to develop in a distinct style.
What one usually expects is a blank canvas, a picture with some written ideas which is more a topography art, a picture that is in a wrapping of covered up and is a found object art. The only known artists who continued wrapping is Christo but his art is not considered invisible even though he hides or attempts to hide what is inside the wrapping….
Recently same as in more distant periods in time many artists are trying to reduce their visual means. There’s a difference though. In previous times artists ventured into reduction of visual means with more ease. The artworks from older times with reduced visual means had much less labor and look less worked on.
Now the reduction of visual means is something that doesn’t fall under the artistic philosophy when an artists trying to prevent an overkill of the visual imagery.
If Rothko worked on his abstract painting laboriously than in current standards his work would be considered not sale’s worthy. Now to be sale-worthy the abstraction is worked to show a lot of workmanship. Surely Rothko doesn’t want anyone to see a lot of workmanship quite the opposite, he wanted his paintings to look fresh and not overdone. And in current standards he would have to toil on every dot in his painting to perfect it.
Today’s abstract paintings look like very hard-worked on simulations of surfaces that look like some textures (varieties of plain or distressed surfaces /stone and whatever is the decorative surfaces of abstracts, patterns that are used in interior design.
Overworked, machine-like is expensive looking enough to sell in the gallery but it creates a certain amount of fatigue in time. The commerce knows about it, the fatigue would bring the art buyer to buy more to add some new life to the art collection ed infinitum.
Art commerce wants more art collectors in the times when art is selling and makes money and should be called what it is – decorative luxury items.
Art or luxury decorative items was always meant for people with wealth and they always wanted to get their money worth.
When abstract painting is done in a manner to be worthy of selling price it is not creativity of conceptual thought and has no abstracted meaning. The craft of simulating surfaces is widely known and is used in interior design. When it is unique that no other craftsman can repeat it is recognized nearly as jewelry and rag-making, etc. All the items that cost money due to the high workmanship and hours, months and sometimes years of creation. Same way was built the historical hand-made furniture. Same way the current abstract decorations will hold in time. It is made for someone as rich as royalties but it doesn’t mean that it has anything to do with artistic creativity, the most mysterious and unexplained human phenomenon.
So anyone who is interested to earn money as a maker of such luxury items and be able to place them in the store for sale – the art gallery, can come up with own recipe for surface replica and start working will find a paying job on the art scene nowadays...
It doesn’t involve questioning of morals, times and life. It involves many hours of working and ability to produce varieties of the same surfaces in good taste. Instead of questioning human spirituality, or questioning art means that someone considers irrelevant and outdated, not for any breakthrough to create something revolutionary new.
Today marked my first day going back to the office physically this year. It 's also my first day going back to Alviso for some photo shoots. And guess what? This photo is also my first shot with my new Leica M digital body.
Why Leica? That 's a good question. I am curious myself. I have been shooting with my other M6 classic film body and also lurking around the Leica user forum to find out what exactly that Leica look is all about. A rare opportunity arose before X'mas when I discovered a mint condition Leica ME typ 240 being sold at a "good price" from Lensrental. This Leica ME was first introduced in 2019 and was supposed to be an entry model using the same body and specifications as the previous generation M240. Its CMOS image sensor is about as old as it gets and is lacking dynamic range by today's standard. Previously I was looking for an M10 which has an improved sensor but I just could not justify its high price tag. Nonetheless, I have seen prices of Leica M bodies both film and digital steadily increasing over last year. However, the digital bodies usually decline in value over time but at a much slower pace than other brands such as Sony, Nikon, and Canon. Used prices of Leica M bodies typically hold up pretty well. As I have been shooting with my film Leica M6, I figured I needed a digital body to complement it for those low light situations. Yes, there were times when I had a low ISO film in the M6 and I couldn't do anything about it when the light got dim. The two M bodies are also small enough to fit into my three-liter sling bag provided that I don't bring any additional lens. I have already made up my mind that I am going to keep my M6 classic as it is timeless. Heck, it might even outlive me. As for the ME typ 240, I would play further with it to see if I really like its output. It 's quite easily for me to resell it in the used market as this model had a limited production run with its unique "Anthracite Paint". Right of the bat, I have already seen its limited dynamic range where there is really not much head room to recover the highlights from the DNG RAW files. The shadows seem to hold up reasonably well if I push a couple of stops. So I would have to expose for the shadows and try to preserve the highlights. This is counterintuitive to film. I also need to be aware of its shutter speed labels as they are opposite to my M6 classic on the shutter speed dial. So far my verdict is still out there.
Lens: Carl Zeiss C Sonnar 50mm F1.5 ZM
ME
Even though I can physically spend only a few hours each week in this mode, this is as much "me" as the other person. Psychologically, there is absolutely no difference. And, understand, I have no problem with that "other person" when he must be the face of me.
So, is this a better representation of the "real me?" I guess they are simply two sides of the same coin.
Helena Bonham Carter in full regalia as The Red Queen in Burton's Alice.
She was physically inspired by Bette Davis as Elizabeth I.
The tallest North American bird standing as much as 5 foot tall, the Whooping Crane is an endangered species that is still struggling to come back from near extinction. In 1941, there were as few as 15 Whooping Cranes remaining in the wild, with only two surviving in captivity. Thanks to conservation efforts, as of February 2015, the total population was 603 birds, which included 161 held in captivity. The four that I encountered on August 27, 2016 are some of the 440 Whooping Cranes that still remain in the wild.
I had been chasing Whooping Cranes to photograph since I first began seeing reports of them in eastern Missouri earlier this year. In May I was at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area near Columbia, Missouri, photographing young eagles when I began to notice an unusual number of cars driving quickly through the conservation area towards one of the back lakes. Suspecting something was going on, I continued photographing the eagles hoping that whatever it was that the others were chasing, it would still be there by the time I made my way to the far end of the conservation area. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. By the time I arrived, everyone was getting back into their cars. Several people stopped me and told me that I had just missed four Whooping Cranes who had stopped for breakfast. They pointed in the direction of where the Whooping Cranes had flown, but I was unable to find any sign of them.
About 10 days ago (mid-August) I began seeing reports of four Whooping Cranes in Kaskaskia, Illinois. Kaskaskia is a very small farming community with a population of 14. Kaskaskia’s claim to fame is that, due to a flood in 1881 that caused a shift in the Mississippi River, the town actually sits on the Missouri side of the River, and is physically separated from the State of Illinois. The area (often called Kaskaskia Island) consists mostly of farm land (lots of corn) and low wetlands that are frequented by shorebirds (it’s a great place to find hundreds of egrets and herons).
After seeing several reports of the Whooping Cranes, I packed my gear very early last weekend and arrived in Kaskaskia before the sun rose. I began cruising the roads throughout Kaskaskia, focusing my attention on the area where the four birds had last been reported. I spent about three hours searching for the elusive Whooping Cranes before abandoning my efforts and crossing the river on the bridge at Chester to see if I could salvage my day with some other birds in southern Illinois.
Friday night (August 26, 2016) I couldn’t sleep at all. I had planned on waking up early to take a trip to Otter Slough near Dexter, Missouri, where I had seen reports of Avocets and Black-necked Stilts. When the clock read 2:00 a.m. and I still hadn’t fallen asleep, I decided I might as well pack my gear and get an early start to Otter Slough. I arrived just as the sun was coming up. Although I never did find the Avocets, I did find a small group of Black-necked Stilts to photograph.
Debating whether I should just go home and take a nap, or try one more spot to photograph, I decided to veer off I-55 and head back to Kaskaskia for one more try at finding the Whooping Cranes. I arrive in the small town around 10:30 a.m. I had lost the good morning light, but there was just enough cloud cover to soften the sun’s rays to avoid overly harsh photographs. I drove straight to the site of the last reported sighting that I had received just 2 days earlier on the Mo-Birds list-serve (an oxbow lake in a cornfield on Cemetery Lane). As I drove down the gravel road, I could see an SUV parked along the side of the road up ahead with a spotting scope on a tripod standing at the edge of the grass. Unless someone was watching the corn grow, I suspected that I had finally found my Whooping Cranes.
Bird watchers are always some of the friendliest people. As I pulled up one of the gentlemen waved me over and handed me his binoculars, pointing out several hundred yards to some white objects at the far end of the shallow oxbow lake surrounded by corn stalks. “Whooping Cranes?” I asked. “Whoppers,” he joked, referring to a report he had read on a list-serve that had misspelled the name. I looked through the binoculars and there they were - - four adult Whooping Cranes leisurely foraging in the shallow waters for food.
I quickly grabbed my camera with a 600mm lens and decided that since the birds were so far out, I would add a 2x teleconverter to the set up to provide maximum magnification. I walked to the edge of the oxbow lake and began shooting, being very careful to walk slowly and remain silent so as not to spook the endangered birds. As I did, the Whooping Cranes began slowly walking towards me. For a good 30 to 40 minutes, the Whooping Cranes kept wading closer and closer as I kept shooting. Eventually, they came so close that I had to remove the 2x teleconverter to keep them from overfilling the frame!
The Whooping Cranes ended up stopping within 40 feet or so of my location. I backed up several times to try to maintain my distance, but they clearly had little fear of humans (which is a problem for their survival). As you can see, all four birds are banded with radio transmitters on both legs (note the antenna). Although I’m sure these four have been reported many times by others over the past couple of days, I went ahead and reported their bands to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
These are incredible birds. They stood a good 4+ feet tall each and were peaceful and gentle. After they got a good look at me, and I got several hundred good photographs of them, they began to wade back in the direction they came. All-in-all, a pretty good photo day.
© All rights reserved - - No Usage Allowed in Any Form Without the Written Consent of the photographer.
The best way to view my photostream is on Flickriver: Nikon66's photos on Flickriver
The tranquil impression of a sleepy backwater is deceptive at this location, although the grey traffic information sign on the left in the picture gives away this is actually a few yards from one of the busiest motorways in the country near Lofthouse. Don't these buses just look so fine from any angle tho !
For a dog who doesn't like to be touched & can find just being physically close to people difficult, it's always extra special seeing that happy grin, as Flynn races back to me when I call his name! Flynn's recall has always been reliable, since before he came to me - although we're continually working on *keeping* it good & over time he's definitely got more enthusiastic about coming back & sticking around afterwards.
My old Barney has a very good recall too - except if something scares him (usually a gunshot) & then he's capable of suddenly turning tail & running off. It's terrifying having your usually obedient dog go completely deaf to your calls & fleeing into the distance. Usually, Barney would return after a minute but once or twice, he has disappeared for longer, or I've had to hunt for him under bushes & in ditches, after he'd just decided to hide. Those occasional incidents where Barney's not listened have resulted in him spending much more of his life stuck on a lead, when he should have been playing free.
Flynn's never been scared of gunshot in the way Barney is but I've seen him spook a bit - at things like the squeal of a mountain bike's brakes, & I wouldn't put it past him to get into a panic, especially given his other issues. I was determined Flynn would learn that coming back to me is *always* the best option. We practice recalls regularly & he gets a treat party whenever we hear a potentially "scary" sound, or see something unexpected. Looks like the training has payed off - these days, if Flynn hears a bang or sees something weird, his automatic reaction, is to whirl back around & dash over to me.