Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot see physically with his eyes...

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The lights go off and I bolt behind an autopsy table. The sound of Dionaea's breathing made me physically sick. I haven't even eaten anything, either. Then out of nowhere he growls and charges at something. Suddenly the entire building shakes. He went after Jackie. Stupid move. Still, No way I'm leaving him alone with that monster. I jump up from the table, but before I can even find him in the dark. everything goes quiet and all I hearing Jackie saying "oh no" like someone who just dropped wine on a carpet or something.

 

"C-can someone get the lights?"

 

"What's wrong?"

 

"I--uh--I overdid it..."

 

Overdid it? overdid what? I start feeling around the walls for a fusebox to mess with. Then I felt stupid because I remembered having a flashlight. Before I could reach it though the lights went on anyway. Across the room Tim already found the fusebox. In the middle of the room though was a sight that honestly, I'm used to by now. There was a hole in the floor and hunks of concrete jutting out around it, all from Jackie who was standing next to it with a really nervous look on his face.

 

"Whoa...."

 

"I---it was dark, I thought he was really close, but he wasn't, and I just---oh no...what a mess...."

 

"You threw it down a hole?"

 

"A really deep one. Like I said, I overdid it..."

 

"How deep?"

 

"Well, we're up like 3 floors, but that's probably down to the sewers it there's any below this building...."

 

"Holy..."

 

"I'm sorry...oh no, I might've killed him!...."

 

"Eh, it's survived worse."

 

"Still, we gotta check on him. We gotta go down there."

 

"Oh joy...."

 

Character Creation

 

Psylocke is the name of two connected fictional mutant superheroes appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men.

 

The first character to use the Psylocke moniker, Betsy Braddock, was a supporting character in stories focusing on her twin brother Brian, adopting the codename upon joining the X-Men. For 29 years of publication history, the character was body-swapped in-story with the assassin Kwannon.

 

Kwannon took on the moniker to become the second Psylocke after both women returned to their respective bodies and Braddock claimed the mantle of Captain Britain.

 

In addition to their presence in numerous X-related team titles over the decades, both iterations of Psylocke have been featured in various limited series and one-shots. In 1997, Betsy Braddock, as Psylocke, appeared in the 4-issue team-up series Psylocke and Archangel: Crimson Dawn. Additionally, she starred in the one-shot X-Men: Sword of the Braddocks #1 in 2009 and the solo 4-issue series X-Men: Psylocke in 2010. During the Krakoan Age, Kwannon as Psylocke appeared in various team books such as the Hellions (2020) and Marauders (2022) and then starred in the one-shot X-Men: Blood Hunt – Psylocke #1 in 2024. As part of the X-Men: From the Ashes relaunch, Kwannon as Psylocke is set to star in a new solo ongoing series starting in November 2024.

 

Publication History

 

Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with Captain Britain and the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Herb Trimpe in 1976, she first appeared in the Marvel UK series Captain Britain.

 

Betsy Braddock was a supporting character in the adventures of her twin brother, Brian Braddock, as the original Captain Britain, before temporarily becoming the superheroine Captain Britain herself and later joining the X-Men in 1986 as Psylocke, a codename coined by the villains Mojo and Spiral. Presented as a precognitive in the pages of Captain Britain and then as a telepath, she was later established to be a mutant, developing telekinesis as well as martial arts skills, the latter of which derived from a body swap with the Japanese mutant ninja Kwannon lasting nearly 30 years of publication history. She and Kwannon were returned to their original bodies in a 2018 story, after which, Betsy took up the mantle of Captain Britain, while Kwannon adopted the Psylocke identity.

 

Many alternative versions of the character have also appeared in several comics series of Marvel Multiverse, as well as in various other media and merchandise, notably in numerous video games. The body-swapped iteration of the character was portrayed by Meiling Melançon in the 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand and by Olivia Munn in the 2016 film X-Men: Apocalypse.

 

Origin

 

Elizabeth Braddock's father, James Braddock Sr used to live in a different dimension. He was sent to Earth to create the ultimate protector, Captain Britain. He ended up having twins, Elizabeth and Brian. Betsy and her twin brother's lives were anything but normal. Betsy was born and raised in Great Britain in a small town called Maldon, Essex. Psylocke is one of the few Marvel characters that was actually given a birth date. She was born a bit after midnight on April 23, 1956. (Since comics characters never age, or age very slowly, the year of her birth varies). Her parents died when she and her brother were in their late teens or early twenties. Brian began pursuing physics as a major during college while Betsy decided to become a charter pilot. Brian would eventually become Captain Britain. Betsy initially possessed precognitive powers, and later developed telepathic abilities as a consequence of being born a mutant.

 

Creation

 

Psylocke made her first appearance in Captain Britain #8, a Marvel UK publication, in December 1976 and was created by Chris Claremont. She made her U.S. comics debut just under a decade later, in October 1986's New Mutants Annual #2.

 

Character Evolution

 

"Like all admitted to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, I am a mutant (though, I fear, no longer a "youngster"). I am a telepath... born with the power to project thoughts, and perceive those of others" -- Psylocke (Betsy Braddock).

 

Betsy Braddock has been through many changes over the years. Starting in a supporting role with Captain Britain (although she did stand in for him briefly), her move to US Marvel comics made her a key member of the 1980s X-Men. Psylocke differed from many X-Men as she was willing to kill enemies. Her character was portrayed as resilient (as shown in her classic confrontation with Sabretooth), but physically weak, resulting in her wearing armor for a time. Her aspirations to be a warrior were fulfilled during the Acts of Vengeance story arc when she became a ninja, although Chris Claremont has been quoted as saying that the transformation (as he saw it) was a physical/magical one, rather than a "body swap" as established after his departure from writing X-Men comics. After the swap Psylocke's personality changed, becoming much more mysterious and cold, but this was revealed to be Kwannon's personality influencing her. She returned to her normal self after Kwannon died of the Legacy Virus and her mind was clearer. Her first serious brush with death saw her acquire new powers from the Crimson Dawn, where she gained a mysterious red tattoo over her left eye and new shadow bending powers.

 

However, the Crimson Dawn was slowly wiping away Psylocke's personality, making her much more cold and distant. Psylocke later battled the Shadow King and locked him in her mind, which meant she could no longer use her telepathy. After this, during training with Jean Grey, Psylocke's telepathy got switched with Jean's telekinesis powers. Her actual death in X-Treme X-Men #2 (2001) and subsequent return in Uncanny X-Men #455 brought her back with a combination of the two powers, her telekinesis augmenting her physical fighting skills. For a time she was placed with the reality-hopping Exiles, but has since returned to her classic role as a member of the X-Men. She was also part of the new Uncanny X-Force, a secret team of mutants led by Wolverine, formed to preemptively kill threats to mutant-kind. Every member of the team has been manipulated in some way with Psylocke acting as the moral compass of the group. Psylocke is willing to kill but has her boundaries, shown when it came to the decision of killing the child Apocalypse.

 

Beginning

 

One day Betsy received news that her brother Jamie had been injured in an accident, so Betsy called Brian and the two flew back to their mansion in Britain. Their plane crashed after a psychic attack when they began to close in on the mansion. After the plane crash with Brian, Betsy would be influenced by mind control by Dr. Synne. They would be able to restrain Betsy but it was nothing short of easy. Next Brian would defeat Synne and he would lose control over one of his agents, who would reveal that he was truly working for the Red Skull. Brian would team up with Captain America to defeat the Red Skull. Betsy later discovered that she had precognitive abilities that grew to telepathic powers. For a long time, Betsy had lost track of her brother because of his adventures in America and other dimensions. Betsy would soon quit her charter pilot job and pursue a career in modeling.

 

S.T.R.I.K.E.

 

To set herself apart, she began dying her hair purple and her career took off. While Brian was overseas at college, Betsy was recruited into S.T.R.I.K.E.'s Psi Division. During her time there, she would develop a romantic relationship with fellow S.T.R.I.K.E. member, Tom Lennox. While working with S.T.R.I.K.E. one of her assignments was to infiltrate the Hellfire Club (her father had been the Black Bishop of the London branch), but the mission was soon abandoned when she encountered Sage who warned her to stay away. When the crimelord Vixen secretly took over S.T.R.I.K.E. Betsy and her fellow telepaths were targeted lest they expose the infiltration; the assassin Slaymaster was sent after them, killing all but Betsy, her lover Tom Lennox and friend Alison Double before Betsy contacted Brian, who stopped the assassin. Later, the mutant Mad Jim Jaspers used his powers to warp reality, taking over the U.K. and banning superhumans, forcing Betsy and her friend to go on the run.While Captain Britain went to confront him, armored hero hunters found and raided their hideout. Tom sacrificed himself trying to buy the others enough time to escape, but Betsy was captured and sent to a concentration camp. During her time in the camp she met a woman named Victoria Bentley ( Dr. Strange's friend) and Victoria would teach Betsy how to harness the trauma she had gone through and use it to power her psi energies. Eventually they would be let out after Captain Britain stopped Jaspers. Upon repairing the damage that was caused by the reality warp, an alternate version of Captain Britain called Kaptain Briton switched places with the original Captain Britain, and handed him over to the pursuing Technet. He then proceeded to try and rape Betsy, but in self-defense Betsy attacked him mentally and killed him.

 

The New Captain Britain

 

At the urging of the RCX, Betsy Braddock takes over her twin’s mantle as Captain Britain when Jeeves presents her with a modified Captain uniform (from the dead Kaptain Briton) that enhances her powers. Together with Captain UK, she foils robberies and the like until Captain UK returns to her previous life. However, soon a group of Warpies are kidnapped by the Vixen, who challenges Betsy out to a fight to save the children. Reluctantly, Betsy accepts even though she knows it’s a trap. What, or rather who, confronts her is her old enemy Slaymaster, also in an enhanced suit courtesy of the Vixen. The ruthless assassin quickly takes out the inexperienced heroine and blinds her. Brian immediately experienced a psychic flash of Betsy’s pain. He flies to her and finds his maimed twin. In a berserker rage, he kills Slaymaster and returns Betsy to the manor where he wants to throw out the RCX agents.

 

Betsy forbids him from doing so and reveals that Agent Gabriel, who is in love with her, even tried to stop her from taking this risk. Brian isn’t pleased but accepts her decision and returns to Meggan’s side. He finally accepts that he is Captain Britain and nobody else. She was offered cybernetic eyes from RCX but refused to take them and decided to rely on her telepathy to see. Gabriel would soon propose to Betsy, which she accepted. The couple went on vacation to Switzerland so Betsy could recuperate in peace.

 

X-Men

 

In Switzerland, Betsy was using her telepathy to see the world through the eyes of other people around her. There, she was captured by Mojo and Spiral, who held her captive for about a year, during which they gave her bionic eyes to replace the damaged ones. They named her “Psylocke“ and made her the star of a TV show called “Wildways”, which in actuality was in an other-dimensional realm. Kids all over the world were encouraged to call a certain phone number and join the Wildways and, ultimately, the New Mutants became involved too.

 

After Warlock and Cypher finally released Betsy from Mojo’s hold, all of them returned to Westchester. Betsy decided to stay at Xavier’s school, so she could learn how to master her powers, since she felt she had been the victim for far too long. Strangely, the bionic eyes remained with Betsy , giving her visual sight again. Little did she know that the implanted eyes could also function as cameras that allowed Mojo to record everything she saw and broadcast it as TV shows in his Mojoverse. Over the following days, Psylocke discovered, through her telepathy, that Cypher was in love with her. Even though she had similar feelings, she did not explore their relationship further since he was underage.

 

In the Mutant Massacre story arc, Betsy would be able to prove herself to the X-Men. Sabretooth invaded the mansion while the X-Men and New Mutants were away on assignments. Betsy protected the children at the mansion and was able to last long enough until Wolverine arrived to engage in one on one combat with Sabretooth. Betsy would then scan Sabretooth's mind to figure out his plans. It was her bravery in risking her life luring Sabretooth away from the Xavier Institute and the injured inside that earned her Wolverine's respect.

 

Later when the X-Men shows became an resounding success, Mojo tried to turn them into his loyal servants by reducing them to childhood and raising them anew. They were saved form this fate by the New Mutants. During the fight, Betsy learned the true purpose of her bionic eyes, but she decided to keep it secret. During a battle with Adversary, Betsy was killed, then resurrected and teleported away to Australia by Roma. After this Betsy decided to wear armor to protect herself. Later, Storm was thought to be dead and several other X-Men like Wolverine and Rogue were missing, so Psylocke took leadership of the X-Men. Much to the dislike of Havok who didn't trust Betsy because of her casual reading of his mind.

 

The Body Transfer

 

To prevent the X-Men's death, which she had foreseen in a precognitive vision, Betsy sent the team through the Siege Perilous, a device given to her by Roma, Merlyn's daughter. The Siege Perilous would give them all new lives. Betsy awoke on an island near China without her memories. She was found by the evil ninja group, The Hand. The leader of The Hand, Matsu'o Tsurayaba, wanted to save the life of his brain-dead girlfriend, Kwannon. To do so, he had Spiral's Bodyshoppe switch Betsy's and Kwannon's souls. Spiral not only switched their bodies but also fused their minds and physical features. They shared the same memories and shared half of Psylocke's telepathic powers.

 

Betsy was given to The Mandarin to serve as his assassin. While working as an assassin, Betsy changed her armor to a more revealing outfit, and learned to focus her psychic energy and turn them into "psychic knifes". On her first assignment as Lady Mandarin, she had to battle Wolverine. When she stabbed Wolverine in the head with her psychic knife, it showed her his memories and revealed to Psylocke who she truly was.

 

Psylocke then rejected her role as Lady Mandarin and escaped with Wolverine and Jubilee to Genosha. In Genosha, Psylocke, Wolverine, and Jubilee discovered that the X-Men and the New Mutants had been captured by Cameron Hodge. They met Havok in Genosha and went on to defeat Cameron Hodge and free the X-Men. Once the X-Men were freed, they all headed back to New York. Soon, Psylocke’s loyalties were put to the test. Shortly after the original five X-Men rejoined the team, they found themselves under attack by Fenris and Matsu'o Tsurayaba. During the battle, he used a post-hypnotic command, causing Betsy to switch sides and oppose the X-Men. Her entire team ended up captive, but it turned out that she was only feigning obedience. Psylocke had truly overcome her brainwashing.

 

When the X-Men split into two teams, Psylocke joined Cyclops' team. She eventually started flirting with him and when Jean Grey found out, the two started fighting. They were interrupted when Kwannon (now calling herself Revanche) turned up at the Xavier Institute (in Betsy's body) and claimed to be the real Psylocke. Not knowing what or who to believe, the X-Men had no choice but allow her to stay. Revanche then confessed to Psylocke that she had contracted the Legacy Virus thanks to Spiral. Soon after, Revanche was mercy-killed by Matsu'o Tsurayaba. Upon her death Betsy gained her full telepathic powers and the remaining pieces of herself, but was still able to retain Revanche's martial arts skills. Kwannon's fractured memories and personality were also removed from Psylocke's mind by Matsu'o who gained a small fraction of Kwannon's psychic powers. Afterwards, Jean re-trained Betsy to use her telepathy. Betsy then also started a relationship with Angel.

 

The Crimson Dawn

 

Sabretooth had been living in the mansion pretending to be mentally handicapped and subsequently attacked Boomer. Psylocke, in an attempt to save Boomer, battled Sabretooth. Although Psylocke was now a master martial artist, Sabretooth's raw strength was too much for her. In a desperate attempt to beat him, she stabbed him in the head with her psychic knife. However, due to being stabbed in the head already by Wolverine, he lost part of his brain so he was immune to the psychic attacks from Psylocke. Sabretooth then proceeded to brutally beat Psylocke to near death. In a desperate attempt to save her life, Angel, Wolverine, and Doctor Strange went to the Crimson Dawn to retrieve a magical healing liquid. They found it and used it on Psylocke, however there was a side effect. It left a red dagger tattoo on Psylocke's left eye. This gave her the ability to hide and teleport through shadows. The tattoo also made her personality colder, which put a strain on her relationship with Angel. Her new powers and cold personality shook the team, with even Quicksilver commenting how he thought he found it difficult emotionally connecting to people.

 

During their time away from the team, Psylocke and Archangel encountered Maggott, sensing a dark presence within him, Psylocke mistook him for being evil and attacked him. Maggot instinctively fought back but was defeated by the two. Psylocke feels compelled to teleport Maggott and herself in an unknown location, eager to solve the living enigma that Maggott is. Archangel and Maggott’s techno-organic slugs follow along and they are all drawn in the Antarctica citadel. There, Erik the Red ( Magneto in disguise) kidnaps the team and makes them participate in a mock trial for Gambit, where his participation in the Mutant Massacre is revealed.

 

When a demon named Kuragari took over the Crimson Dawn, he demanded a debt be paid for the healing liquid they used for Psylocke. He wanted to corrupt Psylocke and make her his queen. However, in order for Psylocke to be freed, Angel gave part of his essence to Kuragari. Once Psylocke was freed from Kuragari, the two of them defeated the demon. After this incident, Angel and Psylocke retired from the X-Men.

 

The Shadow King

 

Storm received a message from her adopted mother asking for help. Storm gathered Psylocke, Wolverine, and a few other untrained X-Men. Psylocke teleported them all using her Shadow Teleport ability. When they arrived, Psylocke and Wolverine were immediately engaged in battle with sand-warriors. When they finally located Storm and her mother in the village, the other villagers were kidnapped by Ananasi. Psylocke scanned Storm's mother and found out that their enemy was a powerful telepath whose barriers even Psylocke couldn't get past. Psylocke decided to take the fight to the Astral Plane. There they discovered the villagers standing there as if they were mindless. During a fight with Ananasi, Psylocke accidentally stabbed a mindless villager with the psychic knife. This caused a giant shock-wave that disabled the powers of anyone that was a telepath. Ananasi finally took off his mask and revealed that he was the Shadow King. The Shadow King was able to trick Psylocke into using her psi-wave to remove all mutant telepathy on Earth so he could mind control everyone. They battled each other, and the Shadow King destroyed Psylocke's psychic form which nearly killed her. Psylocke was able to survive with the help of the Crimson Dawn.

 

She gained a new shadow form with new abilities. Psylocke then helped Storm's mother escape from the prison and together they found Storm. Psylocke turned the two into shadows because the Shadow King could not sense them in that form. Psylocke engaged him in battle again and tried to hold him off; as Psylocke could not hold the shadow covering Storm and her mother and use her abilities to fight the Shadow King at the same time, she tossed them back to reality. Psylocke then submitted to defeat and swore allegiance to the Shadow King. However, he did not believe her and took her to his prison. The Shadow King devised a plan to take over everyone's mind, but was tricked by Psylocke into over using himself. With a weakened Shadow King, Psylocke was able to separate him from his powers. Therefore, she was able to trap him in the psi-plane. However, in order for her to keep him imprisoned she had to keep her telepathic powers focused on trapping him, which is the reason why she temporarily lost the ability to use it.

 

Return to the X-Men

 

Later, along with many over women in Wolverine's life, Psylocke was kidnapped and brainwashed by the Viper into attacking Wolverine and Jubilee. Psylocke proved to be one of the greatest threats amongst the women as Wolverine and Jubilee couldn't escape her psychic detecting and martial arts skills, however the women were freed from Vipers influence. Also, when Wolverine was brainwashed by Apocalypse into the Death persona, Psylocke, Archangel and others attempted to help him. To help find where Wolverine was, Betsy forced herself into using Cerebro, even though there was a risk the Shadow King would escape. Whilst using Cerebro the Shadow King began to lure Betsy into freeing him, but before it was too late Warren used their psychic connection to stop her and save her from herself, telling her he'd always be there to save her. After this, Psylocke and Angel then helped the X-Men defeat Apocalypse and his forces.

 

When Jean tried to help Psylocke deal with the Shadow King, the two ended up switching powers. So Psylocke's telepathy was added to Phoenix's telepathy, and Psylocke gained telekinesis. Psylocke then returned to active duty on the X-Men with Angel, but due to family troubles, he was only a reserve member whilst she remained on the active roster. During her time back on the time she battled such threats as the Goth and the Neo. During a well earned break, the team were attacked by Stryfe an two prime sentinels under his control. Surprisingly, Stryfe was defeated by Betsy, Stryfe swore revenge on her for humiliating him.

 

One night during dinner with Warren, the pair were attacked by the Twisted Sisters who were hired by an unknown individual to target and kill one of the two. The couple defeated them and assumed it was Warren who was being targeted. However, from a distance, an unknown telepath watched and revealed his intentions were to murder Betsy. The persons identity was never revealed. But he was suspected to be Stryfe. She also participated in the intergalactic, Maximum Security. Almost immediately after his joining the team, there was some romantic tension between Neal Shaara and Betsy. Their attraction developed to such degree that they did not even care to hide their flirtation in front of Warren which resulted in a break-up with Angel.

 

The Fall and Rise Of Psylocke

 

Psylocke then joined Storm's X-treme X-Men team to search for Destiny's diaries in Spain and continued her relationship with Neal. Psylocke fought a man named Vargas, but his sword skills were too much for Psylocke. Vargas ended up killing Psylocke. Psylocke's body was then buried at the Braddock family estate. However, her spirit met with Bishop in one of Gateway‘s Aborigine dreamtime sequences, to help him figure out some hints of the future. Right as she prepared to depart to the afterlife, a glowing portal appeared behind her and Betsy’s spirit was sucked in by a skulled figure. Psylocke was then mysteriously restored on the exact spot where she was apparently murdered and her Crimson Dawn tattoo was gone, and so were the powers that it gave her. Psylocke did not regain her telepathy but the telekinesis that she got from Jean became much stronger.

 

Betsy had no idea how her restoration came to be and, worse, she was taken into custody by the Guardia Civil, who then notified Storm’s team of X-Men, now being referred to as the X.S.E. When they arrived, Betsy angrily lashed out at Bishop for not telling anyone about what he had seen in the dreamtime sequence and naturally blamed him as he was the last person she saw.

 

After she had calmed down a bit, the X-Men decided to take her home to the Xavier Institute to confirm whether she was indeed who she claimed to be. The team didn’t have the chance to check Betsy’s credentials, though, due to an emergency. While left alone in the Blackbird, Betsy had a vision about her mindscape and how it had been altered. More importantly, her brother, mad and powerful Jamie, appeared in there apparently pulling the strings. When the X.S.E. were captured and brought to the Savage Land, it was up to Psylocke and fledgling new student X-23 to rescue the others. Trying to track down her comrades, Betsy bonded somewhat with the young female clone of Wolverine. Eventually, they found and rescued the others, and during the fights with the Saurid race, who were behind the kidnapping, Betsy quickly regained the X-Men’s trust and acceptance.

 

She learned that her still rather untried telekinetic powers were more powerful than anticipated and also had the side effect of making her immune to all kinds of telepathy - whether communication or attacks. Even Marvel Girl admitted that the level of her telekinesis was beyond hers. After this Psylocke returned to the X-Mansion and re-joined the X-Men, helping battle Mojo and Spiral and the Shi'ar Death Commandos but continued to see Jamie. During this time, Betsy befriended Rachel Summers.

 

House of M

 

During the House of M, Betsy and Rachel proved to be linked and, instead of being changed like everyone else, they found themselves pulled into the so-called White Hot Room, the core of creation. However, not even there were they safe from mad Jamie’s manipulations, for after claiming that he had bound their lives and fates together, he transported Betsy and Rachel back to Earth. They too ended up caught in the Scarlet Witch’s reality warp, living new lives and unaware of their previous existence, until Betsy’s twin brother Brian was haunted by dreams of the end of the universe. He convinced Betsy and the several others to investigate the problem and they stopped said threat to reality in the nick of time. In this reality, Psylocke was Princess Royal Elisabeth Glorianna Braddock, sister to the Monarch of England. She was actually the elder of the twins, and thus the rightful heir to the throne. However, she chose to abdicate in favor of her brother so that she could travel the world with her "lady-in-waiting", Rachel Grey.

 

Post House Of M, Psylocke retained her powers and remained with the team and accompanied several X-Men (Rachel, Kitty Pryde and Kurt Wagner, all ex-Excalibur members) to visit Brian Braddock and helped him get his new team Excalibur off the ground. Psylocke also helped defeat the Shi'ar Death Commandos after they killed the entire Grey family. She also helped battle them yet again in New York, taking down their War Skrull. During her time on the team she often flirted with members of the team including Beast, Nightcrawler and Cannonball.

 

First Fallen

 

It was then revealed that Psylocke had been resurrected by her eldest brother Jamie Braddock. Jamie has the ability to manipulate the quantum strings that comprise reality. Jamie also claimed that he had made Psylocke immune to reality warping. Jamie said that this was all a plan to make Psylocke the ultimate weapon against the "Foursaken" and more importantly, the First Fallen. that having the ability of not being effected by manipulation would ultimately save reality. A Watcher appeared and explained the threat of the First Fallen, saying he was the male equivalent of the Phoenix and could destroy reality. Then, Jamie was grabbed by a mysterious giant hand and Nightcrawler teleported everyone out of the area to chase after Jamie and prevent the interference of the O.N.E. After being teleported, the team fought with the Foursaken and Psylocke and the team were kidnapped by the Foursaken, but they could not detect Psylocke, exactly as Jamie had planned.

 

Psylocke, the X-Men, and the Foursaken were then transported to another dimension, the First Fallen's realm. In this realm, the team were powerless except for Psylocke, thanks to her new powers, but was also separated from the team. Psylocke then used her powers to reveal the true form of the First Fallen and shatter the illusion of the 'peaceful' dimension. Angered, the First Fallen tried to kill the others, but Jamie teleported them away, saving Psylocke who planned to sacrifice herself to save her team-mates. It is unknown whether Jamie survived.

 

After Psylocke helped Storm free some people in Africa, she returned to England to talk to her brother, Brian, about Jamie. The Shadow King had returned by then and taken over an alternate reality Professor X. He lured Psylocke to visit him and controlled all the members of New Excalibur - minus Sage - into beating Brian. Psylocke created a telekinetic bubble inside Shadow Xavier's brain to give him a stroke, which freed New Excalibur from his control. Just as Psylocke was about to hit the killing blow with her psychic sword, she disappeared in a flash of light.

 

Joining the Exiles

 

Betsy wasn't unhinged from time as the Exiles usually are, but was still recruited to help mend broken realities. When she was brought to the Panoptichron - the Crystal Palace she was greeted by an alternate reality Sabretooth, who she instinctively lashed out at because of her nearly being killed twice by her reality's Sabretooth. Eventually, after a long fight, Psylocke realized that this Sabretooth was not the evil man she knew, but a much nicer counterpart of Sabretooth. She then met Morph and Heather Hudson, and they told her about the other Exiles members in trouble in Earth-1720. Psylocke, Sabretooth and Morph teleported there to look for their teammates. They battled a few Hydra members and eventually caught up with that reality's Mr. Fantastic. Later, they realized that the other Exiles members were brainwashed and forced to join HYDRA.

 

Psylocke then had to confront Madame Hydra (Invisible Woman in this reality) and her lover, Wolverine. Psylocke had the upper hand on Wolverine until Slaymaster showed up. She became so terrified of him that she forgot about Wolverine, who ended up stabbing her in the back - Slaymaster is a man she had never been able to beat and it was Earth-616 Slaymaster that took out her eyes long ago. Later, the entire reality seemingly exploded before Heather's eyes, but in fact Reed Richards actually saved it. Everyone was able to recuperate fully and finally returned to the Exiles command center. However, the entire place was deserted. They discovered that six months had gone by, and since Heather thought the team was dead, she just left and went home to her own reality.

 

Psylocke agreed to be a member of the Exiles and decided to work with the computers first in order to get used to her new surroundings. While working at the monitors, Betsy fell asleep. However, she didn't have an ordinary dream. She fell into a little island in space where an old couple were having lunch. They asked her to stay and eat, and while Betsy was thinking the old lady responded to Betsy's question. Shocked that they could read her mind, the couple began talking to her about the universe and how all of time and space were unraveling. The man asked Betsy to save it as she woke up. All of a sudden, a mysterious girl was transported right next to Betsy at the Exiles' Headquarters. The girl turned out to be an alternate reality of Kitty Pryde. Betsy tried to help her but she began freaking out and hurt herself after running into a wall she couldn't phase through. Betsy then took her to the infirmary.

 

Meanwhile, Doctor Doom of an alternate reality got his hands on the Tallus from Sabretooth. He used it to transport his men to the Exiles' headquarters, where Betsy tried to fend them off. However, they overwhelmed her and electrocuted her unconscious. Luckily for Betsy, Thunderbird, who had been in a coma after a battle with Galactus and kept in stasis in the infirmary, had just awakened, and despite not knowing who Psylocke and Shadowcat were, immediately sided with them and fought off the intruders. After successfully getting rid of Doom's henchmen, the three of them witnessed the annihilation of the reality the other Exiles had been sent to. Psylocke noticed that their teammates had been scattered over various realities, thus complicating the task of retrieving them all.

 

Thankfully, the Exiles managed to get back together, and Betsy and Thunderbird treated themselves with a visit to the New Excalibur team's victory celebration. Upon opening the door, Brian was shocked to see his sister - whom he believed dead - alive and well. The twins started talking about their latest respective adventures, leading to Brian being slightly annoyed that the Exiles had seemingly taken up what used to be his task - e.g. defending the Multiverse. However, the doorbell rang once more, this time resulting in Brian being gravely injured by Rouge-Mort. Betsy obviously attacked her in retaliation, but her blows seemingly did not affect Rouge-Mort. Both teams - Exiles and New Excalibur - managed to escape, but this was only the beginning of a series of events related in X-Men: Die By The Sword, which led to a few line-up changes for both teams and most importantly the death of Roma.

 

After these events, Betsy told Brian she would stay with the Exiles, as she considered Professor X already had more X-Men than he could use. Longshot decided to stay back with Dazzler, whereas Sage, now with Roma's memories, joined the Exiles. In the meantime old Exiles members Nocturne and Thunderbird took a sabbatical to recuperate after Nocturne's stroke. Blink joined them leaving Sabretooth as team leader and recently added members Rogue (of Earth-1009) and Mystiq (the male counterpart of Mystique from Earth-797) along with Morph, Psylocke, Shadowcat and Sage as the new team roster. Psylocke still couldn't be detected by the Palace's computer so Sabretooth created an armband for her serving as her personal version of the Tallus. As a result Psylocke would now be able to fully function within the Palace although previously it seemed that she was considered non-existent for The Computer.

 

The Return of Lady Mandarin and the Slaymaster

 

Betsy traveled to several realities. Upon arriving on a certain Earth, Psylocke had a mental breakdown due to this world's Psylocke counterpart's psyche being at war with Betsy's own psyche in order to control her body. This reality's Ogun approached Psylocke and offered to train her so she could avenge the death of his apprentice, who was killed by Slaymaster, who was killing different alternate versions of Psylocke due to her defeating him in an earlier mission. Turns out that that reality's version of Psylocke was actually Lady Mandarin trying to take over Betsy's body. During the battle of the psyches, Lady Mandarin begins to start winning over Betsy. This causes Betsy's appearance to start changing into Lady Mandarin's, in-particular, the return of the Crimson Dawn tattoo. Eventually Betsy gets the upper hand and, in tears, kills Lady Mandarin and is 'finally free'. After the fight, Betsy is finally able to face the Slaymaster.

 

During a mission against the Shi'ar Death Commandos, Psylocke is shot in the back and uses her TK to keep the wound together whilst fighting. Soon the Slaymaster arrives and stabs Betsy in the back. Psylocke fights him hand to hand while trying to concentrate on keeping her wounds together. She eventually defeats him but doesn't kill him, saying she's not a killer. After trying to attack her again, the Slaymaster teleports away. During the mission, Betsy's teammate Cat was killed. Betsy mourns her death but eventually returns to the crystal palace with Mystique, Sabretooth, Gambit, where they meet Sage. Tessa explains that she has merged the essence of her being with that of the palace and that whenever someone tries to communicate with the palace, they'll be talking to her. Betsy was mad at Sage and ran away. Tessa follows her and says that she did what she had to do because the palace had lost its soul and because of that, whole dimensions were ending and the omniverse was dying. Psylocke and Sage had a heart-to-heart and Betsy asks her what if this has no going back to what Sage responds that she simply doesn't care: she says she has a sense of everything and might as well make existence a better place. Later Betsy and Sabretooth express their feelings more intimately.

 

Later, the Slaymaster continues to kill alternate versions of Psylocke, and each time he does Betsy gets slammed by a resonance wave of energy in the Crystal Palace. She decides it's time to bring this to an end. Betsy asks Sage to run a hologram simulation of Slaymaster so she can train, however this simulation ends up defeating her. Psylocke runs away, but Sage catches up with her and share some words. While both are at it, the Crystal Palace shows them a vision of Slaymaster killing Brian, Betsy's twin brother. Psylocke decides to go back to the 616 timeline to stop him. After spending the whole day in London, Slaymaster finally shows up. They fight, but Slaymaster easily beats Psylocke. When Captain Britain arrives to help her, Betsy says this is her fight and asks her brother to let her finish this by herself. Psylocke severely beats Slaymaster, so he tries to run away, but Betsy breaks his teleporter. She says this is a challenge to the death and all the Psylockes from all the different realities that Slaymaster killed manifest themselves to witness the battle's final end and she finally kills him once and for all. Brian and Betsy talk for a bit and hug each other. In the end, she returns to the Crystal Palace and reunites with Sabretooth, kissing him.

 

Rejoining the X-Men

 

When Madelyne Pryor returned calling herself The Red Queen she had Spiral, Lady Deathstrike, and Chimera, all members of her Sisterhood of Mutants, bring the body of Kwannon (which is also Betsy's original body) to their hideout. She revealed that she had found Psylocke's Asian body "dancing between parallel worlds". Through a ritual the Red Queen, using the combined might of the Sisterhood, reanimated the dead body and transferred Betsy's mind back into her original form, while the Asian body of Kwannon simply appeared to die. When the Sisterhood attacked the X-Men in order to gain a lock of Jean Grey's hair that Wolverine had stored, it was Psylocke who did battle with Logan until they managed to escape. When the X-members Dazzler, Storm, Karma, and Emma came to confront the Sisterhood at their base, Psylocke and the Mastermind sisters were left to battle them.

 

Dazzler tries to reason with Psylocke and bring her back to her senses, but it's hopeless. Dazzler then generates a huge beam of light and ends up blowing off half of Betsy's face. Psylocke manages to break free for a moment and uses her psi-knife on herself. Inside Psylocke's mind, the real Betsy is at war with her evil self, and ultimately kills the evil being inside of her. Dazzler tries to wake up a seemingly dead Psylocke, when Betsy suddenly awakes in the Asian body. Psylocke freed of the Sisterhood's control rejoins the X-Men. Psylocke reveals she has regained her telepathy (while also retaining her telekinesis) and travels back in time with Beast and his X-Club in order to study the birth of mutant kind and find a way to revert M-Day.

 

During Utopia, Betsy is seen trying to handle the riots in San Francisco, later Cyclops gives Psylocke and the X-Club members a mission to install a number of devices on a huge piece of rock under the sea. When the devices are successfully installed Cyclops gives the order to "rise". When risen the rock is identified to be Asteroid M and will now serve as the X-Men's new base of operations called Utopia. Later when the group arrive on top of Utopia they join the battle against Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers and remaining Dark X-Men. The group take on Dark Beast and Betsy impales him with her psychic katana. After the battle is won she is seen with Emma Frost and Kavita Rao, consulting about Emma's void sliver.

 

Nation X

 

After Utopia, Psylocke helps Namor, along with the rest of the X-Men, defeat a monstrous version of his deceased ex-wife Marrina. Betsy amplifies Iceman's powers telepathically to an extremely powerful level. Psylocke also witnesses Deadpool begging to join the X-Men and helps invade the Hidden City of Atlas after the Agents of Atlas steal Cerebra, she is defeated in battle by Namora. After this, Psylocke and Nightcrawler try to rescue Wolverine from the clutches of Dr. Rot. Kurt and Betsy find a giant psychic engine built with human brains. Psylocke tells Nightcrawler not to smash it, as the engine is like a giant psychic bomb, just waiting to go off. Betsy explains that the bomb could turn everyone crazy for a few moments, she then defuses it carefully with her psy-knife. After one of the bombs go off, Kurt and Betsy temporarily go insane but are saved by Wolverine.

 

After they come to their senses, Nightcrawler finds some of Betsy's hair in his mouth, they promise to never talk about what happened in that thirty seconds again. Psylocke and Nightcrawler are then approached by Pixie's mother, Mrs. Gwynn, asking where her daughter is, they promise to find and rescue her. Emma Frost, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Rockslide, Anole and Blindfold go looking for the missing girls: Pixie, X-23, Mercury and Armor. Whilst looking the group comes into conflict with the Mastermind sisters and Mrs. Gwynn.

 

Later Psylocke is the only person present when Dr. Takiguchi passes away, she informs the X-Men in tears and attends his funeral. During the funeral Magneto gatecrashes, Cyclops informs Betsy to use her psychic knife on Magneto, if necessary. Suddenly the island is attacked by three Predator X, Psylocke helps defeat one of the creatures. After that Psylocke helps Cyclops and Professor X attempt to get the sliver of the Void out of Emma Frost's head, Betsy's role was to lobotomize Emma or Cyclops if the void took over. After the sliver of the Void is successfully sealed, Beast tells the small group that he's leaving, much to Betsy's shock.

 

Shortly after this, Cyclops sends Wolverine, Psylocke and Colossus to hit NY to track down where the Predator X's came from and the source of the nanites. Logan follows the remaining Predator X's scent to the sewers of the city, where the X-Men find out that Fantomex already dealt with the monster. The X-Men ask for Fantomex's aid to determine where the Predators came from, but Fantomex is not willing to help. The group track the Predator's point of origin inside a building, where the super-powered beings who sent the Beasts are waiting for them. They then engage in battle. The villains easily overcome the X-Men, as they have data on the X-Men's powers and fighting techniques. Fantomex arrives to help the X-Men, while E.V.A. shuts down the Facility's computer with all the stolen data. Wolverine, Psylocke, Colossus and Fantomex now manage to take on their foes.

 

On their way back to Utopia, the group receive word of Kitty Pryde returning. They arrive as fast as they can. Psylocke then witnesses Kitty's return to the X-Men. Days pass and after their mission together, Fantomex gives Psylocke flowers, hinting at a new romance between the two.

 

Kill Matsuo

 

With the crisis in San Fransisco past, Psylocke turns her attention to personal matters, namely restoring her old body to the sanctity of its grave in Tokyo. Somewhat shaken by this latest (albeit temporary) body-swap and seeking to make sense of her being and her identity, Betsy hoped that by putting her past self to rest, she would be able to move forward with her life. Taking a Blackbird to Tokyo along with Wolverine (who had some business of his own to take care of), Betsy is attacked by Hand ninjas at the graveyard. While she fights them off, she sees, horrified, as they destroy her old body in the name of Matsuo Tsurayaba, and vows revenge against the man who had destroyed the last link to her past. As Betsy went on a rampage through the Tokyo underworld in order to find her tormentor, she quickly discovered that things were not entirely as they seemed. The X-Men's old ally Yukio was intent on keeping her from killing Matsuo, while another assassin, the fiery Jinn, was also hunting him down in retaliation for the murder of his pregnant wife.

 

Her anger fading, Psylocke defeated the two before tracking Matsu'o down, intent on understanding why he had done these things in an attempt to evade his manipulations. What she saw horrified her; Mat'suo had been reduced to an armless shell of a man by Wolverine, who had continued his tradition of removing one of Matsuo body parts on the anniversary of Mariko Yashida's death until there was little left of the man. Matsuo had engineered these attacks in order to ensure his death at the hands of either Psylocke or Jinn, as he could not longer take his own life, and Mariko's anniversary had come again. Stunned, Psylocke was confronted by Wolverine, who had come once again to take his pound of flesh from the murderer of his love, and Betsy soon found herself fighting against him.

 

Psylocke realizes Matsuo purposefully provoked her and Jinn hoping that he would no longer need to suffer at the hands of Wolverine. Betsy tries to talk Logan out of it, but it's useless. Wolverine attacks Psylocke, and Betsy uses her psi-knife on Logan expecting that he would come to his senses. It doesn't work. Psylocke learns the hard way that only the animal in him remains.

 

The brutal battle continues, Wolverine not stopping, Psylocke is unable to focus until Jinn wakes up; he takes on Logan and tells Betsy that he's going home and that she should follow her own advice: to choose to live. Wolverine returns and stabs Jinn, who flies away in pain. Betsy manages to focus and uses her psi-knife on Logan one more time. Psylocke remembers Jinn's words. She comes to the conclusion that this life isn't hers and that she died a long time ago. She's tired of fighting. Psylocke drops her weapons and tells Wolverine that if he wishes to kill her, then be it. After a few moments of silence, Logan tells her to kill Matsuo, but warns her that they will have a talk later about this desire to die that she has developed.

 

And so he leaves with Yukio to the Blackbird. Psylocke faces Matsu'o once more. He knew it was going to be her to kill him. He's ready. Psylocke uses her telepathy on Matsuo, making him see his body the way it once was, as well as Kwannon to receive him with open arms. Betsy kills him. "For so long, my life has been out of my own control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered. I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul. Myself. But no more. Now I know who I am."

 

Back in Utopia, Psylocke meets Mercury. Betsy praises her for not wanting to kill Sack earlier, despite everything she's been through. Psylocke tells her to "Hold on to yourself with everything you've got". Mercury asks her if she found what she was looking for in Japan, to what Betsy replies: "It's a start".

 

Second Coming

 

Cyclops assembles a main Alpha Roster team to go to where Cable was detected. Psylocke is part of the Alpha Roster along with, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, X-23, Angel and Magik. The team is teleported to Winchester where Cable and Hope where, but the two are already gone, leaving only dead The Right soldiers behind. Cyclops then orders the team to bring back Hope to Utopia. Magik teleports the Alpha Roster right above the Sapien League's vans. The X-Men manage to beat them, X-23 kills one in cold blood to force the other to speak. Nightcrawler is outraged by Laura's killing. Psylocke is upset as she realizes Wolverine, X-23 and Angel are keeping something from the rest of them. Betsy, Kurt and Peter keep asking who are they, but the X-Forcers don't give them an answer. Wolverine then reveals the secret of X-Force to the three, but they have to continue on with their mission.

 

Eventually the Alpha team find Hope and Cable, and they join them in their fight against the Purifiers. During the fight, Warren kills several soldiers and cuts Stryker in half. Psylocke is shocked by what she sees. Psylocke is then assigned to follow Hope with Colossus, whilst driving to their location, Psylocke senses a missile but is unable to stop it and it hits Wolverine, X-23 and Ariel's car. Later in Nebraska, the Alpha Team finally reaches Cable and Hope, after Rogue and Hope leave, Alpha and Cable stay behind as a distraction to Bastion. While being attacked by armored soldiers and a jet. Psylocke uses her TK, to perform a fastball special with X-23, sending her to the jet so she can take it out. Later, the Alpha Team returns to Utopia. Colossus wants to get Pixie to rescue Illyana, but Betsy tells him to wait and that they'll find her. Betsy notices the look on Emma's and Scott's faces. She just asks them "Who?", but Wolverine already knows the answer: "Elf".

 

She then attends his funeral. When Bastion is surrounding San Francisco with a giant impenetrable sphere, Psylocke tries to stop it from closing by focusing her Telekinesis but it doesn't stop it and San Francisco is trapped. Psylocke is part of a team of mutants that Cyclops gathers to hit the mainland so as to keep the order and recon. While doing so, they notice a glowing sphere near the Golden Gate bridge. Psylocke realizes this smaller sphere is a portal as she picks up readings through it, not human minds per se. Suddenly, Nimrods sentinels begin to emerge from it with orders to kill them all. Psylocke helps fight the robots, combining her telekinesis with Hellion's in order to rip a Nimrod apart.

 

She then rushes to Julian's aid with Surge and X-23, after his hands are destroyed. Later, Scott orders Psylocke to get people far away from the sphere. She goes to the streets of San Francisco, using a motorcycle and her telepathy in order to quickly and safely evacuate civilians. Later she helps defeat the invading Nimrods with Iceman and Fantomex. After, she re-joins the fight on the Golden Gate Bridge. After the Nimrods are defeated, she witnesses X-Force's return, Cable's death and Hope turning into the phoenix. After Cable's funeral, Cyclops tells Wolverine that there is no place for X-Force in the future of the X-Men. Logan agrees with him, but as soon as Cyclops leaves, he gathers his new X-Force: Archangel, Psylocke, Fantomex and Deadpool. He says there’s only one rule: No one can know...

 

Post Second Coming

 

Psylocke is one of the X-Men that teleport to San Francisco Harbor in order to be celebrated for saving the city from destruction. Cyclops then decides to assemble a team of 'heavy-hitters' to help rebuild San Francisco from the destruction caused by the Nimrods during Second Coming. Cyclops decides to send Magneto, Colossus, Psylocke, Rogue, Omega Sentinel, Danger and Random to San Francisco in order to rebuild and repair the city from the destruction caused by their battle against Bastion. Rogue brings Hellion along, hoping to take him out of himself for a while. Hope also volunteers to go. In San Francisco, the X-Men do their part at the construction site. Psylocke and Hellion are responsible for clearing the ground. Omega Sentinel realizes some of her systems are malfunctioning, which leads her to attack both Hellion and Hope. Cyclops interviews all involved at the scene, Psylocke tells him that her telepathy comes and goes if she's pushing all-out with her telekinesis, which made it hard to focus in on any one point.

 

After this, Psylocke and old team-mate Dr. Cecilia Reyes journey to Mexico to assist one of the new mutants that emerged due to Hope's return. His name is Gabriel Cohuelo. The boy is in a state of panic and Psylocke notes that his thoughts are moving incredibly fast. He suddenly vanishes, although Psylocke can still sense his presence in the room. She taps into Cecilia Reyes' head and strengthens her powers with her psychic powers to seal off the room to keep him in while Hope saves him.

 

During Curse of the Mutants, Psylocke is part of a squad of X-Men that teleports into a vampire island to help Storm and Gambit take down a horde of vampires. However this is all that's seen of Psylocke during the event. Psylocke is also one of the mutants called in to help save the New Mutants from project purgatory. She also pays her respects to the Human Torch at his funeral.

 

Psylocke also teams up with Hercules to easily defeat the Griffin. After the fight, Hercules propositions Betsy, not remembering a past 'encounter' years before, Psylocke proceeds to punch him in the face for being so ignorant. Psylocke is one of the mutants present on Utopia after a mutant virus spreads which removes their powers and slowly kills them. She takes part in the attack against Lobe and the Sublime corporation, even though she was powerless. However they manage to defeat their opponents and obtain their powers again.

 

X-Force

 

Warren and Betsy rekindle their past relationship and after becoming a part of Wolverine's X-Force. Psylocke dreams of Warrens Archangel's persona threatening her. Betsy wakes up by Warren's side and explains that if she were to remove "Archangel" permanently, it would fracture Warren's mind. Warren says he needs Betsy to keep Archangel from going too far, so he can use it do to some good in X-Force. Psylocke and Angel then join Wolverine and Fantomex, and they all head to the place Deadpool found the Clan Akkaba. When they enter the Clan's headquarters, Wolverine attacks another giant statue; however he becomes possessed by it. The same happens to Psylocke when she uses her psi-knife on it. Fantomex misdirects the statue's feelings and destroys it, setting Psylocke free. Betsy then frees Wolverine, using her psi-knife. The team finds Deadpool, and Warrens explains that Clan Akkaba has found a way to resurrect Apocalypse and that his horsemen have been awoken.

 

They need to kill Apocalypse. Somewhere else, Clan Akkaba is raising a young boy, the new Apocalypse. At Cavern X (X-Force's new secret base), Wolverine, Psylocke, Fantomex and Deadpool all train in the new Danger Room in a scenario where Apocalypse controls Archangel and Psylocke has to kill him, which she successfully does. Warren interrupts and asks what's going on. Betsy remains speechless as Wolverine explains that he's having Betsy do it with all the team and that she's got the power to 'flick' the teams switches, and that repeating the scenario should make the actual act easier should it come to it. Warren sarcastically replies that he's glad she passes. Later before the team leave for the moon, Betsy tells Warren they should speak first.

 

She tells him that her reasoning for joining was not only to help contain Archangel but also that after Nightcrawler's death, she was completely numb, she didn't have anything left to give, she was at a deep hopelessness, an unending avalanche and at the bottom of it, digging forever. She sat for days, searching for the last time she felt human. Only Warren came to mind. She tells him that Apocalypse will not manipulate him again, she's with him to the very end. Once they arrive on the moon, Psylocke senses a Horseman of Apocalypse, saying his mind is full of disgusting anger and that the other Horsemen are surrounding them. X-Force is received by the Final Horsemen. The two teams fiercely fight, EVA is decimated, the team scattered, diseased and terribly injured.

 

Betsy looks in the minds of the Horsemen, finding out their names, histories and powers. She tells Wolverine that Death's power comes from metal, using his rings to inflict disease on the team. Wolverine then takes on Death, leaving Fantomex and Psylocke to take on the others. Betsy turns off Fantomex's ears, so he can be safe from Famine's bio-sonic consumption. She also disconnects his peripheral and nociceptor nerves in order to turn off his pain. War then knocks out Betsy with a punch to the head. War, then took Psylocke and returned with her to his room. There she heals and when she wakes, War tells her he is in love with her. After Fantomex's misdirection wears off, the rest of the Horsemen retreat to their base and prepare to lift-off. Psylocke, who made it inside, flirts with War, and gets close enough to him to drive her psychic knife into his skull, incapacitating him. The ship is about to take off, and Wolverine, Fantomex, Deadpool and Archangel are left behind.

 

With the ship about to take off, Apocalypse is playing with figurines, when the door opens and a sword welding Psylocke approaches the frightened Kid Apocalypse. While Fantomex and Wolverine dispose of the Horsemen, Fantomex uses his powers to trick the ship that Betsy's on into believing that it has already teleported. Psylocke makes her way to the inner chambers of the child Apocalypse and finds it harder to accomplish her task than she ever dreamed of. The rest of the team find the two and intended to kill him. Betsy fiercely vows to protect the child, stating she will kill anyone that attempts to harm the boy.

 

Archangel fiercely argues with her and then goes berserk; which forces Betsy to beat him down, standing over him with her sword ready to strike down, but can't and lowers her sword. The team then comes to an agreement that the child can be saved, until the X-Force members are left shocked looking back at Fantomex who has shot the boy dead with a bullet to the head. Fantomex then closes the child's eyelids and the very stunned team heads back home. After, she attends the team meeting where Deadpool explains his discomfort about the last mission. Seemingly taking Deadpool's side she accuses Wolverine of trying to convince himself that what they did was right.

 

But later she tries to comfort him saying that it's been a strain on all of them and no one blames him. But he shrugs her off, stating, 'does I look worried?' After this, Betsy engages in a conversation with her brother, telling him that she aided in an assassination of a child, he tells her that he can never absolve her of what she did, but he will always love her, however, it's only a danger room hologram. Warren finds her and tells her that Fantomex is in trouble,she shrugs him off saying that he can take care of himself. But the team later arrive to help him and complete their mission.

 

Return of the Reavers and the Shadow King

 

Deadpool does a recon on the Outback town, where he learns from Gateway that the Reavers and Lady Deathstrike are back and planning an attack on Utopia. X-Force decides to learn the details of their plot and then kill all of them. Psylocke is especially happy as she will finally make the Reavers pay for what they did to her and the X-Men years ago. The Reavers are blackmailing Gateway to open a portal to Utopia, otherwise they'll kill his family/tribe. X-Force then confronts the Reavers in Australia. While Logan and Deathstrike fight, one of the Reavers blows up in front of Fantomex and Deadpool. Psylocke and Archangel are left against the rest of them. Some of the Reavers are seen using Gateway's portal to Utopia, and Psylocke goes after them alone. Pixie was on security duty and spotted intruders on radar on Utopia. Cyclops and Magneto find out they're Reavers, but by the time they find them they're all dead. Psylocke had used her telepathy and stealth to get to the Reavers before the X-Men do and kill them. She leaves their corpses and leaves Utopia unnoticed. Later, Wolverine tells Psylocke she doesn't look so happy about the revenge she just had.

 

After this, Betsy senses weird psychic emanations coming from a military base and sends Deadpool to investigate. Whilst he's there, Betsy and Warren continue having another psychic therapy session, where Betsy ends up trapping the "Archangel" persona in one of Warren's first moments of rage. X-Force then decides to head to the military base because they have lost contact with Deadpool. Psylocke tells the others there is a powerful telepath working in that base, and asks them to guard her while she investigates; she then finds The Shadow King on the astral plane. They begin to fight, with Betsy donning her Lady Mandarin armor in astral form. The Shadow King finds a crack in Betsy's psy shields and starts filling her head with images of her brothers telling her how shocked they are that she's a killer and that their father would be disappointed however she manages to escape. While all of that was happening in the Astral Plane, the Shadow King had taken control over the team.

 

Fantomex was left alone to protect Betsy's body by misdirecting them. The mind-controlled Archangel tries to launch the missiles at Utopia. Psylocke tries to stop him, but she gets locked out of the missiles launch room, where only Warren and one other mind-controlled employee were. The Shadow King frees the Archangel persona which takes full control of Warren and cuts the Shadow King in half, to Betsy's surprise Archangel then casts her out of Warren's mind, telling her she won't remember him being freed. Warren then kills the employee who was about to launch the missiles. Unknown to Betsy and the team, the employee was already free of the control, and Warren had a choice of whether to kill him or not.

 

Dark Angel Saga

 

Unaware of Archangel taking full control of Warren, Betsy approached Warren, asking why he was avoiding her and lying all the time, telling him they were due another psychic session. Warren shrugged Betsy off, claiming to have control over Archangel all by himself. Concerned, Psylocke went to Wolverine, telling him that there was a problem with Warren. Later one, Wolverine then finds Warren attempting to kill a man who knows X-Force's secret. They battle and Warren is able to temporarily hold Archangel back, when Psylocke uses her psychic knife to knock Warren out. She then wiped the memories of the man who knew about X-Force. Unwilling to kill Warren, the team needed to find an expert who could help, leading them to break Dark Beast out of prison. Dark Beast tells the team that to stop Warren from becoming Apocalypse, they need to travel to the Age of Apocalypse and obtain the life seed.

 

The team travel to the Age of the Apocalypse where that realities team of X-Men engages them in battle, thinking them to be allies of McCoy. Psylocke stops Wolverine from killing Sabretooth, informing him that this man is very different to the man they know. However, AOA Sunfire destroys the seed of life and Dark Beast leaves the team stranded in the reality without any means of getting home. Sabretooth stops the team from fighting, informing them that he and Psylocke have history together. Psylocke calls Creed a presumptuous ass and that he has no idea what she's been through since they last met. On the way back to the AOA X-Men's home, Psylocke thanks Fantomex for coming to help Warren, but Fantomex merely states that he isn't doing it for Warren. Back in HQ, the team find out that there is only one man who can send them home, Gateway. But he is being held in the Akkaba prison, The Sky.

 

After the meeting, Fantomex tries to speak to Psylocke, but she brushes him off. Fantomex grabs her arm and doesn't feel like being avoided or barked at anymore, accusing Betsy of being rude. Still holding a grudge against Fantomex because of the the child Apocalypse's murder, Psylocke feels she is within. However, Fantomex claims he prevented the child from turning into Apocalypse, something which has happened to Warren, who was under Betsy's watch, implying Betsy was responsible for what's happening, saying it's her mess they're cleaning up and that she doesn't love Warren, she loves being needed. Exasperated, Psylocke demanded that they're not through, to Fantomex who walked away from Betsy, saying he has no idea what she and Warren have been through. In a fit of rage, Betsy punches Fantomex, demanding that he looks at her when she's talking to him.

  

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock

 

Publisher: Marvel

 

First Appearance:

 

As Betsy Braddock:

Captain Britain (vol. 1) #8 (December 1976)

 

As Captain Britain:

Captain Britain (vol. 2) #2 (January 1986)

 

As the Psylocke:

New Mutants Annual #2 (October 1986)

 

Created by: Chris Claremont (writer)

Herb Trimpe (artist)

 

Psylocke has been seen in the Labor Day festivities, rooftop chatting with Phoenix.

The Himba have many unique customs, which tourists find most interesting. The women are physically very beautiful and adorn themselves with fine jewelry made of metal, bone and skin. They rub ‘otjize’ over themselves, which is a mixture of butter fat, red rock powder and sap from a local tree. It gives their bodies a glowing red colour and protects them from the sun and insects. Himba women don’t wash themselves, probably because of the lack of water. Instead, they use the sweet smoke from an herb burned in a container called an ‘ombware’ to cleanse and perfume their bodies before smearing the otjize on themselves every morning. This beauty preparation takes three hours every day. Time is obviously not a problem for them.

 

Beautiful lady - beautiful smile!

 

Himba hairstyles tell a lot about the person; identifying their social status. For example, pre-pubescent girls wear two thick braids in front of their faces – these look like ram horns. After puberty the braids are replaced by many strands hanging all over their heads and faces. As she gets older the braids are lengthened and tied back, indicating that she is ready for marriage. Once married, an ‘erembe’ (a piece of goat leather) is tied to the top of her head. Single men wear their hair in a single braid running backwards from their crowns (called an ‘ondatu’) with the rest shaved off; two plaits if they are eligible to marry and a turban style hairdo for married men. Often these are covered by a similar shaped hat or material.

 

On our drive from Kunene River Lodge to Epupa Falls, we came across a Himba burial site. The gravestones were surrounded by a wooden fence and a number of ox skulls placed on a tree in the area. The skulls apparently denote the wealth of the deceased – each skull representing one hundred oxen that the person owned. Also the direction the skulls are placed tells whether the deceased was male or female.

  

Burial ground

 

Death of the physical body is not the end for the Himba as they believe that the deceased stays in the homestead with them for two generations. Each Himba settlement has what is known as the Holy Fire (Okoruwo). This is always positioned between the entrance to the kraal and the door of the main dwelling. The Holy Fire is used to light all fires in the settlement and it is the duty of the oldest member of the patriclan to ensure that it is kept smoldering and never goes out. Flames from the Holy Fire are used for daily rituals and special ceremonies like births, deaths, marriages and circumcision, and it is through this medium that communication takes place with the ancestors. Special rituals are always performed by the Onganga or witchdoctor.

  

While Skakdi are capable of physically wearing Kanohi Masks, they do not possess the measure of focus nor the mental capacity to utilize their powers...

Except for the very small fraction of the population who were mutated by the personal experiment of one curious Great Being.

 

About 1-3% of the Skakdi population have well above average mental capacities - even beyond that of Toa. While the average Skakdi cannot use Kanohi powers, these mutant Skakdi can use the powers of multiple masks at the same time, without even wearing them.

 

Known as Shamans, or Witch Doctors, these Skakdi are physically larger than their regular counterparts, and their spines are more elaborate. Their mutations also cause the appearance of various abnormal growths on their bodies, though luckily these are always symmetrical.

 

Other physical characteristics are more vibrant skin pigments - the average Skakdi are bi-colored without armor, though both colors are always different shades of the same color - and hunched back.

 

Skakdi Witch Doctors are equally revered and feared by their counterparts, while their existence is seldom considered more than a rumor beyond the shores of Zakaz. The Witch Doctors wield terrifying power, and are able to activate and control the powers of Kanohi masks even at a distance, thus using the powers of opponents' masks against them. They also wield elemental powers, considered by their fellow Skakdi to be "magic", and immense physical strength.

 

It's fortunate, therefore, that Witch Doctors seldom engage in combat. While they are rarely seen outside of Zakaz, all Witch Doctors travel to other islands occasionally to harvest Kanohi - usually still attached to the original owner's head. Beyond this, they do not engage in the warmongering typical of their race.

 

Instead, the Witch Doctors dedicate their time to rituals, incantations, hexes and the consumption of various mushrooms, while practicing the use of Kanohi powers, Their innate abilities allow them to control 3-4 masks, however if exercised (much like a muscle), this can be increased. The most powerful known Witch Doctor managed to simultaneously activate the powers of 35 Kanohi. After this, he claimed to have been "enlightened", and traveled to a nearby Skakdi village where he preached that their world was actually the body of a larger being, who was travelling through the void. The villagers promptly tore the Witch Doctor to bits and ate his remains.

 

Two shamanistic pursuits of the Witch Doctors not related to Kanohi are Voodoo and the training of familiars. The former involved the crafting of - usually Skakdi-like - effigies which can then be linked to the soul of another, thus any force affecting the effigy would effect the individual bound to it. Familiars, in turn, are rahi who are tamed by the Witch Doctor, and kept as loyal pets.

 

This particular Witch Doctor once caught a newly hatched Visorak, tamed it, and enchanted it so that it will never grow in size.

 

Witch Doctors often live in huts or hovels deep in the jungles of their homeland. While the homes of the Shaman often mirror their denizens and are thus unique, one constant in all such homes is a ritual altar, which functions much like a table. Witch Doctors are keen collectors of all kinds of oddities, so seeing various Kanohi, old weapons and even kraata around their altars is not unheard of.

 

All Witch Doctors carry a special staff, which they adorn with the heads of those whose Kanohi they collected. The Shaman are capable of using not only the Kanohi they wear, but also those on their staff. They also all possess ritual daggers, used in the art of Voodoo, as well as other rituals requiring living sacrifice.

Ugh that vine is so gross.

 

I assume that a mentally and physically healthy spruce would be able to fight this shit off. It is being eaten alive in public.

 

-----------------------

 

In Lansing, Michigan, on May 5th, 2019, on the east side of South Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard (Michigan Highway M-99), between West Cavanaugh Road and Hillcrest Street, on the grounds of a Citgo/AGO gas station and convenience store.

 

-----------------------

 

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:

• Ingham (county) (1002502)

• Lansing (2052433)

 

Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:

• Picea (genus) (300343671)

• trees (300132410)

• urban landscapes (300132447)

• vines (300132406)

 

Wikidata items:

• 5 May 2019 (Q57350091)

• Central Michigan (Q2945568)

• Citgo (Q2974437)

• M-99 (Q2354133)

• May 5 (Q2550)

• May 2019 (Q47087597)

• ornamental tree (Q33249028)

• Treaty of Saginaw (Q1572601)

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Spruce (sh85127037)

• Trees—Diseases and pests (sh85137242)

• Trees in cities (sh85137261)

youtu.be/syvF_cutj8w

 

It's 1865 and the telegraph is heading west. George Crane, wanting to keep law and order out of his territory, is out to stop the construction. The engineer on the job is Ken Mason and he is the grandson of Zorro. As Crane sends his men or Indians to stop the work, Mason repeatedly puts on the Zorro costume and rides to the rescue in this 12-chapter serial.

 

Clayton Moore

September 14th, 1914 — December 28th, 1999

 

Clayton Moore, though best remembered today as television’s Lone Ranger, had a lengthy and distinguished career in serials. Moore was a physically ideal serial lead, but his greatest strengths were his dramatic, quietly intense speaking voice and expressive face. These gifts helped Moore to convey a sincerity that could make the most unbelievable dialogue or situations seem real. The bulk of Moore’s cliffhanger work was done after World War 2, when serials’ shrinking budgets cut back on original action scenes and made the presence of skilled leading players more important than in the serial’s golden age. Moore, with his sincerity and acting skill, was just the type of actor the post-war serials needed.

Clayton Moore was born Jack Carlton Moore in Chicago. He began to train for a career as a circus acrobat at the age of eight, and joined a trapeze act called the Flying Behrs after finishing high school; as a member of the Behrs, Moore would perform for two circuses and at the 1934 World’s Fair. An injury to his left leg around 1935 forced him out of the aerialist business, and after working briefly as a male model in New York he moved to Hollywood in 1937, beginning his film career as a stuntman. He played numerous bit roles in addition to his stunt work for the next three years, among them a miniscule part in his first serial, Zorro’s Fighting Legion (Republic, 1939), as one of the members of the titular group. Edward Small, an independent producer allied with United Artists, cast Moore in his first credited parts in a pair of 1940 films, Kit Carson and The Son of Monte Cristo. The former featured Moore as a heroic young pioneer, the latter as an army officer aiding masked avenger Louis Hayward. Following these two films, Moore began to get credited speaking parts in other pictures. In 1941 he played the romantic lead in Tuxedo Junction, one of Republic Pictures’ “Weaver Brothers and Elviry” comedies, and the next year the studio signed him for his first starring serial, Perils of Nyoka (Republic, 1942).

Perils of Nyoka (Republic, 1942) was a vehicle for Republic’s new “Serial Queen,” Kay Aldridge, who played Nyoka Gordon, a girl seeking her missing scientist father in the deserts of North Africa. Moore was the heroic Dr. Larry Grayson, a member of an expedition searching for the “Tablets of Hippocrates,” an ancient list of medical cures sought by Nyoka’s father before he disappeared. Nyoka joined forces with Grayson and his expedition to locate Professor Gordon and the tablets–and to battle Arab ruler Vultura (Lorna Gray) and her band of desert cutthroats, who were after the Tablets and the treasure hidden with them. Perils of Nyoka was a highly exciting serial, with consistently imaginative and varied action sequences, and colorful characters and locales. Although Moore took second billing to Aldridge, his character received as much screen time as hers and his performance was a major part of the serial’s success. Moore, with his intense sincerity, made his nearly superhuman physician character believable; the audience never felt like questioning Dr. Grayson’s ability to perform emergency brain surgery on Nyoka’s amnesiac father in a desert cave, or his amazing powers of riding, wall-scaling, marksmanship, and sword-fighting, far beyond those of the average medical school graduate.

  

Moore went into the army in 1942, almost immediately after the release of Perils of Nyoka. He served throughout World War Two, and didn’t resume his film career until 1946, when he returned to Republic Pictures to appear in The Crimson Ghost. The impact of his starring turn in Perils of Nyoka was diminished by his long hiatus, and he found himself playing a supporting role in this new serial. He was cast as Ashe, the chief henchman of the mysterious Crimson Ghost, and aided that villain in his attempts to steal a counter-atomic weapon called a “Cyclotrode.” Ashe was ultimately brought to justice, along with his nefarious master, by stars Charles Quigley and Linda Stirling. The Crimson Ghost showed that Moore could play intensely mean villains as well as intensely courageous heroes. His sneering, bullying Ashe came off as thoroughly unpleasant, as he stalked through the serial doing his best to kill off hero and heroine.

  

Moore returned to heroic parts in his next cliffhanger, Jesse James Rides Again (Republic, 1947). The serial’s plot had Jesse, retired from outlawry, forced to go on the run because of new crimes committed in his name. Jesse and his pal Steve (John Compton) wound up in Tennessee, where, under the alias of “Mr. Howard,” Jesse came to the aid of a group of farmers victimized by an outlaw gang called the Black Raiders. The Raiders, secretly bossed by local businessman Jim Clark (Tristram Coffin), were after oil reserves beneath the local farmland, but Mr. Howard ultimately outgunned them. James’ own identity was exposed in the process, but he was allowed to escape arrest by a sympathetic marshal. Jesse James Rides Again was Republic’s best post-war Western serial, thanks in part to the unusual plot device of an ex-badman hero. Moore was able to give Jesse James a dangerous edge that most other serial leads couldn’t have pulled off; his cold, steely-eyed glare when gunning down villains seemed very much in keeping with dialogue references to Jesse’s outlaw past.

 

G-Men Never Forget (Republic, 1947), Moore’s next serial, cast him as Ted O’Hara, an FBI agent battling a racketeer boss named Vic Murkland (Roy Barcroft). O’Hara broke up various protection rackets organized by Murkland, but his efforts were hampered by Murkland’s impersonation of a kidnaped police commissioner (also played by Barcroft). G-Men Never Forget possessed a tough and realistic atmosphere not typical of gang-busting serials, and Moore delivered a grimly determined performance well-fitted to the serial’s mood. Moore’s acting, good supporting performances, skilled direction, and a well-written script made G-Men Never Forget a superior serial, one that could hold its own against earlier gang-busting chapterplays like the Dick Tracy outings.

 

Moore’s next serial was Adventures of Frank and Jesse James (Republic, 1948), in which he reprised his Jesse James role. Joined this time by Steve Darrell as Frank James, Moore tried to help a former gang member named John Powell (Stanley Andrews) develop a silver mine. Part of the mine’s proceeds were to be used to pay back victims of James Gang robberies, but the plan was derailed by a crooked mining engineer (John Crawford), who discovered the mine contained gold instead of silver and murdered Powell to keep this find secret. Crawford then used every trick in the book to keep Moore, Darrell, and Noel Neill (as Powell’s daughter) from developing the mine, but the James Boys unmasked his treachery by the end. Frank and Jesse James drew heavily on stock footage and plot elements from Republic’s earlier Adventures of Red Ryder, and was thus more predictable than its predecessor, but it was still an entertaining and well-made serial. Moore again made Jesse seem both sympathetic and (when fighting the bad guys) somewhat frightening.

 

By now, Moore was established as Republic’s premiere serial hero; however, his next cliffhanger would lead to his departure from the studio and change the course of his career. The last in a long line of Republic Zorro serials, Ghost of Zorro (1949) starred Moore as Ken Mason, the original Zorro’s grandson, who donned his ancestor’s mask to help a telegraph company establish a line in the wild West in the face of outlaw sabotage. Like Adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the serial was somewhat derivative of earlier outings (particularly Son of Zorro), but smoothly and professionally done. Moore delivered another strong performance, but for some odd reason Republic chose to have his voice dubbed by another actor in scenes where he was masked as Zorro. This strange production decision did not diminish Moore’s potential as a masked hero in the eyes of a group of television producers who were trying to find an actor to play the Lone Ranger on a soon-to-be-launched TV show; Moore’s turn in Ghost of Zorro landed him the part. Moore debuted as the Ranger in 1949, and played the part for two seasons on TV. During this period, he did make one apparent serial appearance in Flying Disc Man From Mars (Republic, 1950), but all his footage actually came from The Crimson Ghost.

 

In 1952, Moore was dropped from The Lone Ranger without any explanation from the producers, who apparently feared that Moore was becoming too identified as the Lone Ranger, and that he might become so sure of his position that he’d ask for a bigger salary. John Hart replaced Moore as the Ranger for the show’s third season, and Moore returned to freelance acting. He played numerous small roles in feature films, made multiple guest appearances (usually as a heavy) on TV shows like Range Rider and The Gene Autry Show, and also found time to make four more serials.

The first of these was Radar Men from the Moon (Republic, 1952), which featured Moore as a gangster named Graber, who was working with lunar invaders to bring the Earth under the dominion of Retik, Emperor of the Moon (Roy Barcroft). Scientist “Commando” Cody (George Wallace) opposed the planned conquest with the aid of his flying rocket suit and other handy gadgets. Moore met a fiery demise when his car plummeted off a cliff in the last chapter, and Retik came to a similarly sticky end shortly thereafter. Moore’s characterization in Radar Men from the Moon was reminiscent of his performance as “Ashe;” once again he performed deeds of villainy with swaggering relish.

 

Moore’s next serial, Columbia’s Son of Geronimo (1952), was his first non-Republic cliffhanger. He returned to playing a hero in this outing, an undercover cavalry officer named Jim Scott out to quell an Indian uprising led by Rodd Redwing as Porico, son of Geronimo. The uprising was being encouraged by outlaws John Crawford and Marshall Reed to serve their own ends, and Scott and Porico ultimately joined forces to defeat them. Son of Geronimo remains one of the few popular late Columbia serials, due to its strong and unusually violent action scenes and the forceful performances of Moore and his co-stars, particularly Reed and Redwing.

 

Moore’s last Republic serial was Jungle Drums of Africa (1952), in which he played Alan King, an American mining engineer developing a valuable uranium deposit in the African jungles. Moore was assisted by lady doctor Phyllis Coates and fellow engineer Johnny Sands and opposed by a group of Communist spies (Henry Rowland, John Cason) and their witch-doctor accomplice (Roy Glenn). While Drums drew extensively on stock shots of African animals to augment its jungle atmosphere, it relied to an unusually large extent on original footage for its action scenes and chapter endings, and the result was a modestly-budgeted but enjoyable serial that served as a good finish to Moore’s career at Republic.

 

Gunfighters of the Northwest (Columbia, 1953), Moore’s final serial, cast him as the second lead, a Mountie named Bram Nevin who backed up RCMP Sergeant Jock Mahoney. Moore, in his first and only “sidekick” role, played well off Mahoney; while the latter’s character was the focus of the serial’s action, Moore’s role was really more that of co-hero than of a traditional sidekick. The serial pitted the two leads against the “White Horse Rebels,” a gang of outlaws trying to overthrow the Canadian government. Though thinly-plotted, Gunfighters, with its nice location photography and good acting, was the last really interesting Columbia serial; it was also Moore’s last serial. In 1954, he returned to the Lone Ranger series, its producers having been forced to realize that Moore was firmly established as the Ranger and that audiences wouldn’t warm up to his substitute John Hart. The fourth and fifth seasons of the show featured Moore in his familiar place as the “daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains.”

 

After the Lone Ranger series ended in 1956, Moore reprised the role in two big-screen movies and then retired from acting. He remained in the public view, however, making personal appearances throughout the country in his Lone Ranger garb. Publicly and privately, he upheld the ideals that the Lone Ranger–and his serial heroes–had upheld on the screen: courage, charity, and a sense of justice. In 1979, he was barred by court order from making personal appearances as the Lone Ranger because the property’s owners worried that Moore’s close identification with the character would undercut a new Lone Ranger film. Moore nevertheless maintained his status as the “real” Lone Ranger in the eyes of fans, and, after the failure of the new Ranger feature, he was allowed to resume his mask in 1984. Moore died in Los Angeles in 1999, leaving behind several generations of fans that honored him not only for his TV persona, but for the kindess that characterized the off-screen man behind the mask.

Part of Clayton Moore’s success as the Lone Ranger was due to his respectful attitude towards the character. While some actors would have had a hard time taking a masked cowboy from a children’s radio show seriously, Moore’s performance was as heartfelt as if he had been playing a Shakespearian role; he gave the part all the benefit of his considerable acting talent. Moore played his cliffhanger roles, heroic and villainous, with the same respect and the same wholeheartedness. It’s no wonder that serial fans hold him in the same high regard that the Lone Ranger’s fans do.

  

This was a lot more physically challenging than I'd imagined. I thought "buy some flowers, put a water drop on the fish tank, bounce the flash in from the side to minimize reflections... yeah, I'll kick out about a hundred of these."

 

Wrong.

 

I took about 40 shots, and this is the only one you're going to see. I'm gonna have to buy a lot prettier flower than these before I do this again.

 

Oh, aside from standard shadow/contrast adjustments, and a slight crop, no post processing on this... that painted look comes from the original bokeh and the contrast/shadow adjustments I did to reduce reflections/highlights from where I didn't rinse the soap off the glass well enough. The black is from a sheet of poster board I had laying around. Probably the same one I've been using for a while.

 

And, I don't say this a lot about my stuff, or anyone's really, but I believe I'd hang something like this on the wall.

This small wooden jewel was physically relocated to Prague in 1929, to celebrate the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the annexation of Carpathian Ruthenia (the Subcarpathian region) into then-Czechoslovakia after WWI. Also known by its longer name of The Carpathian Church of St. Michael the Archangel, the entirely-wooden church was disassembled and moved to Prague from the village of Medvědovce near Mukačevo, situated on today's Ukrainian side of the Slovak- Hungarian- Ukrainian border area in the Carpathian Mountains, but was moved once before from its original birthplace in the village of Velké Loučky in the same region, in 1793.

 

The hilly garden of Petřín Hill is vaguely reminiscent of the lush, rolling greenery found in the Carpathian region, so the unique church of St. Michael's looks at home here. Set carefully into the well-planned and executed Kinsky Gardens, started in 1825 by the patriotic Count Rudolf Kinský who wanted to create a purely natural landscape without romantic excess, the onion-domed little Church of St. Michael fits perfectly into the landscape, even down to the evocative dark wood of the exterior and its beautifully shingled domes and low-hanging roof.

 

The interior is decorated in the Orthodox faith's characteristic colors of white, green, and red, which represent faith, hope, and love. Kinsky Gardens are located adjacent to the orchard-like gardens of Prague's beloved Petřín Hill, and the two gardens seem to flow seamlessly together. The white Neo-Classical Kinsky Summer Palace with its prized Musaion Ethnographic Exhibition is located further down the path leading from the church. Today St. Michael's Church is used by the Orthodox Church of Bohemia and Slovakia, and religious services are held twice weekly.

Gruene Hall, built in 1878, is Texas’ oldest continually operating and most famous dance hall. By design, not much has physically changed since the Hall was first built. The 6,000 square foot dance hall with a high pitched tin roof still has the original layout with side flaps for open air dancing, a bar in the front, a small lighted stage in the back and a huge outdoor garden. Advertisement signs from the 1930s and 40s still hang in the old hall and around the stage.

 

In the 1800s, Gruene Hall held weekly dances and played host to everything from traveling salesmen to high school graduations to badger fights. Today, the Hall has continued to be a center for the Gruene and Central Texas social and entertainment scene, and the activities are just as varied. In any given week, locals hold court in the front bar after work talking over their day’s activities, a friend’s passing, the weather or the state of the economy. Possibly at the same time, the filming of a movie or commercial or preparation for a festival, fundraiser or a major corporation’s private party may be taking place in the main hall or beer garden.

 

Gruene Hall, located in Gruene, Texas, is one of the oldest functioning dance halls in the state. Largely a tourist attraction today, Gruene (originally known as Goodwin) was settled in the mid-nineteenth century by German farming families. As the head of one of these families, Ernst Gruene moved with his wife and two sons to the area northeast of New Braunfels in 1872. The second of his two sons, Henry (Heinrich) D. Gruene, firmly established the family's presence in the area by acquiring enough cotton-producing land to support between twenty and thirty tenant-farm families. In 1878 he built the dance hall known today as Gruene Hall. Before his death in 1920 he built the town's first mercantile store, cotton gin, lumberyard, and bank. He also provided land for a school and served for a time as postmaster.

 

Henry Gruene's Dance Hall provided area residents a place for socializing and offered hard-working farm families a diversion from their difficult lives. A sign hanging over the bar proclaimed "Den feinsten Schnaps, das beste Bier, bekommt man bei dem Heinrich hier" ("The best liquor, the best beer, you get at Henry's here"). In addition to serving both "the best beer" and "dime-a-shot whiskey," and providing a venue for polka bands and square dancing, the hall often was used by traveling salesmen for displaying their wares. Gruene Hall also became a popular location for Saengerfests (German singing festivals), high school graduation ceremonies, political elections, and both dog and badger fights. During Prohibition, Henry Gruene hung a sign in the bar that read, "Only Near Beer is Sold Here. Real Beer is Sold Near Here."

 

In the early part of the twentieth century, weekend dances usually began early on Saturday evenings. Typically, there would be a break at midnight for sandwiches and coffee, followed by more dancing until 5 A.M. The late Oscar Haas, a long-time resident of New Braunfels, remembered "those wonderful all-night dances at Gruene Hall—the long bar and the beer—the midnight supper—the children sleeping in the side room, as the parents danced until 5 A.M….the polkas, schottisches, waltzes, and the happiest of all, the ring-arounds."

 

Despite such joyous occasions, the residents of Gruene faced difficult times as well. In 1925 a boll weevil infestation devastated area crops. The Great Depression and the attendant decline in cotton prices nearly wiped out what was left of the town, though Gruene Hall continued to stay open.

 

In the early 1970s developers planned to raze the town in order to build new homes. While visiting the dormant community in 1974, Cheryle Fuller began her own efforts to save the town through devising a development plan and conducting a historical survey. In 1975 Gruene was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Two years later, San Antonio residents Bill Gallagher and Pat Molak used a $20,000 loan to purchase a number of local buildings, including the hall, and Molak, along with Mary Jane Nalley, began the work of preservation and renovations of the buildings. Their plans for the 6,000-square-foot hall involved very little structural change. They insisted on maintaining the vintage signs, stage, dance floor and forty-eight-star United States flag.

 

Under the current ownership, Gruene Hall has become internationally recognized as a destination tourist attraction and major music venue for up-and-coming as well as established artists. Since 1975, the Hall has played host to hundreds of celebrities whose pictures adorn the walls.

 

An incomplete list includes: George Strait, Garth Brooks, Lyle Lovett, Albert Collins, Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Arlo Guthrie, Texas Tornadoes, Merle Haggard, Joe Ely, Leon Russell, Kris Kristofferson, Townes Van Zandt,

Los Lobos, Buddy Guy, Willie Nelson, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Dr. John, Reverend Horton Heat, Lucinda Williams and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, & Ziggy Marley.

 

Referenced: gruenehall.com/about & Texas State Historical Association

I started dieting April 15, 2012. Yes, I remember the day bc I glorified it for so many years. I started bc I didn’t physically feel well a lot of the time & I struggled with body image. We all know the cure for that: DIET & EXERCISE! Right?? I posted about my journey for “accountability” and got so much positive feedback. “You look amazing! You’re such an inspiration! Can you help me too?” I was so excited bc I hadn’t ever moved my body or honored it in anyway prior to that. Fueled by the results & positive reinforcement, I kept looking for better ways to diet and exercise for a few years. Then I found CrossFit, an entire global community of dieters & exercisers looking to do as much of both as possible. Perfect! For over 5 years I learned to micro-manage every seed I put into my mouth and sweat more than I ever had in my life. I was so proud to be a woman that was strong. And I still am. But things started to change eventually.

 

Every morning I’d wait until I pooped to weigh myself naked so that I would know the REAL number. What’s this?? How did my weight go up when I paid someone to tell me exactly how much to eat?! Must have been too much broccoli. I’ll pack food to bring to the pizza party. I’ll go “super clean” before the trip, party, event, etc. Everything I learned about, I tried. When information conflicted, I hedged my bets and restricted more of it. I wanted to be the gold standard and I wasn’t going to let anything mess that up. I even became Precision Nutrition “certified” because paying people to tell me what they learned in that one book - that apparently gave them the legal right to charge people to help them restrict food without any other credentials in nutrition or psychology - wasn’t working, so I opted to just become certified myself. And then the inevitable happened... it all stopped working. No matter what I did, who I paid, the results just stopped. My body began to bloat in ways I couldn’t anticipate, no matter what I added or eliminated. Physical discomfort I didn’t know how to stop. The stress of this sent me spiraling emotionally. The only logical explanation was that I was doing something wrong, that there was something I wasn’t doing, and that I wasn’t doing enough. My mind and time were consumed with how to control my body through food & exercise. Devastated when those around me succeeded with less perceived effort than me. I gave myself no leeway.

 

In May 2017 I was in the thick of this. I had been single for about a year and was ready to start dating again. I had been strict intermittent fasting, 8-10 hours of eating & 14-16 off, no matter what. I was asked on a date by someone I was actually really excited about. We had met a few years back working a wedding together and he was really cool. We made the date for a Wednesday night. I was coaching early on Wednesdays then, which meant I needed to start eating earlier in the day. 7-5 to be exact. I decided to do this even though I knew I was going out that night. NO EXCUSES!! Unfortunately the 2 drinks I had over the 4 hour date left me absolutely drunk and spinning.

We were having a fun evening up until that point.

I didn’t feel unsafe going back to his place to sober up.

I thought I could trust him.

I was tragically mistaken.

When I came to and stopped him I remember him trying to explain why it was ok that he was doing what he was doing. He really liked me and would be my boyfriend, he said. Date rape is a terrible and confusing thing to have happen to you. It took me over a week, walking around like a zombie, and a very concerned response from a friend when I told her the story, to really understand what happened to me. I broke ties with him immediately and tried to move on. I acknowledged the truth, felt what I needed to, and opted to learn from it. That year I only shot one wedding and it was out of state. I pulled up to the venue and I see him walking towards me. Out of all the videographers they could have possibly hired, they chose him. And I worked with him. I knew I had to. I could not go up to a bride on her wedding day, as she’s getting ready, and tell her I can’t do it. I learned a lot about my strength as a woman that day.

 

I think it’s important to understand that this happened to me at a time when I least expected it to. I was, and still am, at a point in my life where I consider myself to be a very happy person. I had become self-employed and was enjoying the successes of that. I didn’t view my dieting and exercising as anything bad at the time, and took a lot of pride in my discipline and knowledge. I was happy being single and very selective about who I went out with. I was confident I’d never put myself into a dangerous position again. I felt strong and empowered. It took me a long time to realize how my dieting/exercise routine had contributed to the events of that night. That guy is 100% responsible for his actions that night. It also breaks my heart to think about that version of myself that was so afraid to eat food. A version that weighed her options and chose to drink on an empty stomach and put her trust into her date’s hands.

 

My best friend got married in August 2019, and I was thrilled to be her Maid of Honor. A very special role with a lot of responsibilities and investments. I cleaned up my eating for months beforehand, and was exclusively strict for the month leading up to the big day. By the time the wedding day came, I was happy enough with my results. I was still struggling with my body image and not looking how I felt I should have with the amount of effort I put in. All that effort paired with the time and money invested into the wedding, I became terrified that if I ate any of the food at the wedding I would either A.) get sick because I knew how my body would react to foods I hadn’t been allowing myself to eat, and/or B.) bloat up and undo all the hard work I’d put in for months to look a certain way. So when everyone else was grabbing slices from the pizza food truck, or sampling the dessert options, I was eating cucumbers and hummus at my table. I wasn’t happy about it either. I felt sorry for myself and made up for it at the open bar. I had a great time at her wedding, but know now just how much more fun and enjoyment I could have shared on this most memorable of occasions.

 

The dangers of diet culture were completely unknown and unheard of in my life until I met my friend Iona. She and her partner run a movement based community in Boston, and I fell in love with them immediately. They used to be Crossfitters so I knew I would be understood there. She would talk a little bit about Crossfit and why she wasn’t doing it anymore and why she had stopped restricting food. Sounded good for her, but I couldn’t imagine not watching what I ate. But we’d keep chatting, and followed each other on social media so I was seeing the things she was sharing on the topic. Some things she shared didn’t sound like me at all. I had never been as great as she was and didn’t feel like our stories were the same. I had started a deep mediation practice at the beginning of 2019 that started to shake the foundation of my food & body beliefs. As I listened more to her story, and as I deepened my own personal awareness, I found myself deeply resonating with her. I was having a hard time putting uncomfortable feelings into words. She recommended two books to me: The Fuck It Diet by Caroline Dooner, and Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole.

 

It has been a year since I read The Fuck It Diet, and it shook me down to my core. So much of what she was describing sounded just like everything I was feeling. I felt angry at an industry I was a loyal disciple of for years. I felt ashamed of all the preaching in it’s favor I had done over the years. I felt overwhelmed in realizing that all the work I had put into optimizing my body was actually doing the opposite. I knew without a doubt that this was what my body and soul needed. A release from the confinement of diet culture. So I purchased Intuitive Eating and the accompanying workbook, and spent the last year slowly chipping away at the 10 principles of IE. In TFID she mentions that it can take 3-6 months for people to heal from disordered eating, some more and some less. I figured I’d be done nice and quick. Nope. This shit is HARD. So hard. Especially when the world shuts down 1 month into your practice and turns your world upside-down. I suffered a lot during the quarantine, and I did it silently. I couldn’t share my pain, and didn’t know how to. But I kept at it. I knew I couldn’t give up on this, too much was on the line. I moved in with my boyfriend during the pandemic which threw in a whole new twist and added challenges. I started unfollowing influencers & nutrition pages by the dozen. I utilized a food delivery service to help me take the pressure off of thinking about food so much. I was sick of it. I reached out to Iona for support. And I kept at it, even when it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. I kept at it. I knew my life depended on it.

 

Then some amazing things started to happen. I would put the pint of Ben & Jerry’s back in the fridge instead of eating it all at once. I could eat half my food at a restaurant and easily ask to bring the rest home. A package of cookies went stale in the cabinet because I just didn’t feel like eating them. I started buying new clothes that fit my body now, and even went as far as to go shopping when I felt most uncomfortable and bloated so I knew I could trust my clothes to truly bring me comfort. I can say no when I’m not hungry. I’m starting to be able to truly identify my hunger and fullness cues, and honor them. I’m starting to trust that my body knows what it’s doing and that it knows what size it wants to be. I can trust myself around food now because I know, without a doubt, that I can have it if I want to. Restriction is what leads to overeating, not the other way around. This, by far, has been the hardest but truest lesson I’ve learned in the decade I’ve spent educating myself on fitness and nutrition. I still have a lot of work to do, practice makes progress, and progress is never linear.

 

I have chosen to share this experience for a few reasons. First, the bravery of my friend sharing her vulnerable yet powerful healing experience inspired me to do the same for myself. This is the biggest hope for this project. We don’t get to choose who we influence, or how our influence is received. But we all have a story, and someone out there needs to hear YOUR story. Second, this has been one of the biggest personal items I have been working on recently and has caused a big upheaval in how I approach my life and my work. I pride myself on being openminded and allowing myself the grace to change my mind. Changing my mind on fitness and nutrition was not something I was expecting, and it is not what big diet culture wants us to believe. It is woven into our healthcare, media, and schools. Third, this is a topic I know millions of people, especially women, struggle with every single day. Fourth and final reason is the intersection of so many things in this experience. Self-worth, body image, sexism, science as a religion. Too much of what we think has been put there by someone else. My hope is that sharing my experience with diet culture, date rape, and orthorexia (eating disorder with the preoccupation with eating healthy food) that someone else will be inspired to free themselves from these cages and live life a little happier. Food CAN be neutral and our bodies do know what they’re doing.

Our hearts are physically four chambers. Emotionally though, it’s as if they are all only one, bottomless pit. We inhale a lot of love from other people in hope it will help our heart to continue beating but that love is so lifeless. There is no oxygen in it, no tangible truth. Yet we still hunger for it because it’s right in front of us. We sacrifice what we deserve for what will fill the mould of one of those chambers in that moment. We tend to forget that there are three other chambers, crying out to be fed and satisfied.

I knew a young girl who once turned to someone in her life who was a mentor, an authority and an advisor. Like every other rated R story of a broken rules and a confidence convicted with false romance, this one ended with a flattened life line. This story though is more than half a page in a newspaper. This story is more than a thirty second news report on CNN. This is a girl’s life.

Innocence bloomed into trust which bloomed into reliance, which later became an unbreakable bond between two beating hearts. A love was created between a young girl and someone she once looked up to. It was built of passionate desires and its foundation was created of lies. Neither or is at fault in my eyes because I see the blind folds they both wore and the secrets they both couldn’t keep.

I’m not here to tell you details. I’m not here to share with you the process that a relationship like that can possibly start. I’m here to reveal the truth about a strong girl who chose to stand when the world around her said “Sit back down and cover your face, you poor child.”

Yes, she was empty. Her veins didn’t even remember what blood tasted like and her heart didn’t even remember what the truth felt like. Her feet were cold and when they moved they walked in circles. He took everything from her, even her capability to cry. Oh, those eyes. They were the most difficult to look into because inside I saw absolutely nothing. Not that she lost her worth because of her situation. Not that she lost her inner beauty. Far from that, it was the darkness that wrapped itself around her soul and told her she deserved it. That darkness that lied to her every breath she took.

 

Don’t stop now. Keep listening. This story is a tragedy that almost took a young girl’s life from under her. Hear me, I say almost because God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. When the world is literally falling apart around us and we are walking as lost sheep heading towards the slaughter, He calls us by name. That young girl closed her eyes and allowed herself to die on the inside. Not because someone took the life from her this time. No, because she was ready to be born again into the kingdom of kingdoms where she would be recognized as a precious princess of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Her paths have not been straight or smooth. Her life has not been perfect or even peachy. However, as she bows down on her knees and looks up to the heavens, she feels words being tattooed on her heart. Those words are simple but so undeniable drenched in love. They say “I am your freedom”.

And it is then that the impossible happens…all four chambers of her heart are full.

 

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

Training golden eagles to hunt is physically and mentally demanding. Young Nurguli needs all her strength and a great deal of focus to call her eagle to come to her from a perch at the top of the hill and to land on her gloved arm. Her two uncles and her grandfather are on hand to help in the training process.

 

Mongolian horses are small, fearless, half wild, and unbelievably tough. They are an essential means of transport in this rugged environment.

 

For the PhotoBlog story, please visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/animals-2/nurguli-kazakh-eag...

Being a woman is definitely a beautiful thing but at the same time, it can be physically and emotionally quite taxing too. There are a plenty of things (and issues) you have to take care of and all of it, simultaneously. Yes, you may feel great to love and be loved by your partner, have wonderful kids at home and you may also have this extreme sense of pride and accomplishment for being able to juggle between your household responsibilities and work just perfectly. But there is no denying the fact that all of this will leave you quite strained and exhausted.

 

Being a woman in itself is challenging. You have all sorts of pains to bear with – be it the menstrual cramps, the pregnancy related pains, the excruciating experience of childbirth or the back ache that is now taken to be synonymous with womanhood. That being said, you have to look at ways and alternatives to get rid of your aches. Well, that’s perhaps the least you can do being a woman and yoga can be your go-to buddy here!

 

Yoga for women

 

Yoga is an ancient form of exercise and has been acknowledged all over the world as an effective source for fitness and well being. There are various benefits of yoga however; it is not always easy to perform the different yoga poses. While that is true, it is equally true that with yoga, you will ultimately relax your body, mind and soul. This is the reason why yoga can be extremely beneficial for women to deal with the various pains associated with womanhood. Here are the 5 common pains that most women experience and how yoga helps.

 

Read More

 

happyandpretty.com/5-common-pains-that-yoga-can-treat/

Physically challenged , yet a determination in eyes.

Comments on the SMC-M 85mm / 2.0 from STANS PENTAX PHOTOGRAPHY site.

   

George Stanley - For a short while in the mid-80's, I also tried the SMC Pentax-M 85mm F:2.0 lens. I was quite disappointed with this lens, and got rid of it FAST! Physically, it was nice &small & light-- but decent performance required stop-down to F:5.6.

 

George Stanley -[again] If you seek a manual K-mount portrait lens in the 85mm--135mm range, all the Pentax lenses (but not K-mount Takumars) are good choices, with two embarrassing exceptions. These exceptions are: The SMC Pentax-M 85mm F:2.0; and the SMC Pentax-A 135mm F:2.8. Both of these lenses are 4-group designs, and are quite mushy when used wide open.

 

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Marc Polman - It was this opinion [George's opinion above] on the list that kept me from buying this lens. A few months ago, however, I had the chance to buy one for a fair price. I bought it and have been very content since!

 

It performs remarkably well at f2, just a tad of softness. From f2.8 and on I do not notice any softness at all. It performs way better at f2.8 than my SMC-A 100mm f2.8 does at f2.8!!

 

Mind that I mostly shoot 100ASA slide film...

 

After purchasing the lens I shot a series of "portait" slides of my cat sitting on his favorite "looking post" on the balcony. Mostly shot at f2. They turned out very well, you really can count every hair... Bokeh is quite well, but I've seen better. Maybe it is something for the upcoming "Pets" theme.

 

So my opinion is that there have been some production tolerances in the production period of this lens. Can't explain otherwise, there have been too many different user-reports over the last few years...

 

Luckily my specimen performs as well as it does.

 

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David (ZX5Lx ) -. . . The K mount 85 f1.8 turns out to be he better lens at matching f-stops, but that is not to say the 85 f2.0 isn't good. On the contrary it is...just that the 85 f1.8 is exceptional including it's bokeh. The f2.0 lens is actually smaller and lighter . . .

 

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Bob Waldken - I was one of the people who has owned one and didn't much like it. The reason I disliked it was entirely due to its handling and had nothing to do with the optical quality of the lens. The focusing ring on mine was very slow to turn - although it was smooth it had a lot of resistance - and you have to turn it through more than 360 degrees, if I remember correctly, to go through the full focus range. Neither of these issues is a problem if you doing tripod-mounted and fairly static portraits, for instance, but for my kind of thing it was just too slow.

 

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Bibi Kwa (From the Web) - Very good lens. Very sharp and contrasty. Beautiful colors and bokeh. very light and in combination with 35 mm perfect travel gear.

 

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Fred - . . . I decided to test a number of 85mm lenses side-by-side, so I (temporarily) obtained a few more, so that I could test these 7 models: Super Takumar 85/1.9, SMC Takumar 85/1.8, SMC (K) 85/1.8, SMC (K) 85/2.2 Soft (for the fun of it), M 85/2, A* 85/1.4, and FA* 85/1.4. because there have been comments on the PDML about sample-to-sample variances in the sometimes-maligned M 85/2, I actually got hold of two of them, to get some insight on the variances (and yes, I do know that 2 specimens of a lens still could not provide definitive results, but it certainly is better than one sample of a lens for testing).

 

To be specific about the results for the M 85/2, I found that, despite its small size, despite its relatively simple optical design, despite some of the complaints about it historically here on the PDML (from whence those negatives on Stan's Lens Comments Site come), and despite my own preconceptions, the M 85/2 is actually a pretty good little performer. It was clearly not in the same league as the A* 85/1.4 for overall sharpness.

 

It did not have as good a bokeh as the A* or FA* 85/1.4's. However, [HERESY ALERT !!!] it was not altogether different from the K 85/1.8 (no, not as good, but not horribly worse, either). The M 85/2 turned out to be "the sleeper" in my tests. Furthermore, both M 85/2's seemed to be as identical as I could judge them to be.

 

Since I was pleasantly surprised by the lens, I had actually, for a time, decided to keep one of them (to go along with the A* 85/1.4 and the K 85/1.8 that I will likely be buried with, unless they are pried out of my cold, stiff fingers by some cursed-to-be Pentaxer - ). I even tracked down instances of the dedicated hard lens case and hood for the M 85/2. But, I eventually decided that I really don't need three 85's (and the M 85/2 was really not all that much smaller than the K 85/1.8, which was still going to be my "compact" 85, anyway), so I have since sold both of the M 85/2's. (And, because of how similar the two specimens were, it would have been a "toss up" as to which one I would have kept, too.)

 

So, my opinions on the M 85/2 have changed over time. At first, before owning one, I thought that its simple design might have justifiably caused it to be maligned by some users. After briefly owning two of them, I found that the 85/2 is a lot better lens model than I had previously thought. However, I did finally sell my two specimens, and I am now an ex-85/2-user, so I suppose that says something, too. (And, I should point out, I think that the $411 that one of them recently garnered on eBay is unreasonably high.)

 

Well, I think that, if the K 85/1.8 could be "the poor man's A* 85/1.4", then the M 85/2 could be "the poor man's K 85/1.8". (I am not sure how the FA* 85/1.4 fits into this reasoning , but I digress...) And, I do agree with Bob (Rfsindg@aol.com), who recently said:

> It's a nice, compact and fast lens and will let

> you go places the zooms will never take you.

 

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Jens (Denmark) - I have had one for some months now - I got a good bargain. The focus ring must be turned a long way - not 360 degr. but about 270 degr. Optically it is very good - not outstanding. It is (almost) as sharp/contrasty as my SMC F 70-210/4-5.6, which is VERY good for a zoom lens (one of the best ever made in this focal length area). The color images of the 85mm/2.0 are very beautifull. It is better for "glamour-shots" than for super sharp/contrasty news shots . . .

 

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Bob S. - I used it for years with great pleasure. It . . . had several advantages. It is very small, just a touch longer than a 50/1.4 and lightweight. At 85mm it is easier to isolate your subjects than with a 50mm, but not as restricting as a 135mm is inside the house. And at f2.0, you can take pictures in subdued lighting without a flash. This is especially nice now that 400 & 800 film speeds are so available. It makes candid shots easy.

 

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Arnold Stark - The lens has rather low resolution not only wide open but also when stopped down. All other Pentax 85mm lenses are superior in that respect. Maybe ALL other SMC Pentax primes offer better resolution.With just 5 spherical elements one probably cannot construct a fast lenswith very high resolution. However, high resolution is not necessarily what you really want in a portrait lens. I did some very nice and natural portraits with this lens. Nicely blurred background. Beautiful colours. The M85/f2 is almost as small as a normal lens, so one can easily take it everywhere without intimidating the peolpe you want to portrait, and mechanically it is really wonderful. I should not have sold mine. But of course the FA77/f1.8 is still a greater joy...

 

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William Robb - The M85mm f2 is one of the mor maligned lenses on the list. I have heard more bad about this lens than most any of the primes. Personally, I don't think it deserves the rap. It is a pretty solid little picture maker. Ideal for portraiture. . . I always enjoy using it, and am pretty happy with what it does for me. I haven't used it outside the studio much, so I don't know how it does in general use.

 

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William in Utah - . . . I just picked up one of these . . . about a week and a half ago, and I . . . like the long throw of the focus ring. It seems that it makes it easier to use for portrait pictures. I have so far been satisified with the optical performance (most photos taken between f/2 and f/4) and it seems to do a pleasing job with both color and b&w. A very likable lens, IMO.

Company B Soldiers band together to ensure each team member finishes the obstacle course during the 3rd Annual Recruit Sustainment Program Warrior Challenge April 25 at Camp Lazarus, Ohio. (Ohio Army National Guard photo by Spc. Sam Beavers)

Ohio National Guard Public Affairs

Date: 04.25.2010

Location: Columbus, US

Related Photos: dvidshub.net/r/d2fxa3

Winter may be unpleasant to experience physically– but as these stunning drone photographs show, its effects are incredible to look at.

These images were all taken by some of the most talented drone photographers around and posted to SkyPixel, which is home to some of the world’s...

 

www.dronewatchdogs.com/stunning-winter-drone-images-may-j...

Neither participant was physically harmed during this encounter, though the fox seemed rather dejected in the end. Hedgehogs have a unique way to deter anything from getting too close, they curl up in a ball, hiding their face, and while in that position their quills are ready to prick anything that gets too close and in this case making the fox jump away.

From the history of our parish

1.10.2008

Twenty-eighth October 1888 was for our ancestors, then living in the suburbs of Bratislava called New Town, solemn day, the day of consecration new temple. But this day is solemn and important for us and will be important also for future generations. Our grandfathers built and because church leaders dedicated the temple on that day not only for themselves and for their children, but for all future generations. Those who build Blumentál physically, but spiritually primarily through your prayers, we left a wonderful legacy: church dedicated to the Assumption, the church, which has one hundred and twenty years invites believers can confidently say that the whole city that it glorified God, bring the sacrifice of Christ, purify your soul and implore the gifts of the Spirit for themselves and for their loved ones.

Celebration of consecration

The parish priest Jozef Poeck completed his work, who has devoted many years of his life, as we wrote about in previous figures. For believers Bratislava Nové Mesto parish is 118 years after its establishment saw to it that the faithful have a decent temple, whose tall slender tower towered over the entire eastern part of the city. Blumental Church was until recent times the only dominating this site. As he writes in his book Pozdech pastor, consecration of a new church in Bratislava expected not only residents of suburban New City but the entire Bratislava. Dedication of the temple designated day for 28 October on the feast of St. Simon and Jude, which that year fell on the October last Sunday.

Building a new church was of great interest of the Cardinal John Simor and the highest church dignitary of the Archdiocese of Esztergom, to which at that time belonged Bratislava. He himself a considerable amount contributed to its construction and it is no wonder that himself this new tabernacle of God sanctified .

Bratislavans prepared Cardinal decent adoption. Cardinal-Primate arrived in Bratislava on 27 October At the main station hailed him a great multitude of believers who lined the streets along which he passed to the Primate's Palace. There he has always stayed when visiting Bratislava (the Town palace bought in 1903 for their needs), and even there that day to receive the representatives of the city, various offices, army officials, townspeople and professional groups. The whole city was decorated and lit.

Newly built temple consecration ceremonies began 28 morning at nine. Ceremony was attended by about 30,000 believers (Bratislava at that time had about 70 000 inhabitants). We can imagine where it is today around our church could gather such a large crowd? At that time, however, surrounding the church was not built like today. 9.00 h in the morning on day dedication Blumentálu rozozvučali the bells of all the churches in Bratislava and the Cardinal-Primate, accompanied by church officials came to the new temple. Assisted prelates Cardinal Dr. Francis Horecký and Charles Rimel, Bratislava canons. Accompanied were prelate Dr. Jozef Danko, honest deacons Anton Leek and Joseph Urge, canon Graeff, and other dignitaries, priests and religious. Ceremony was also attended by Dr. Julius Machovič, notary stool Archbishop of Esztergom and the archbishop's office director Dr. John Black, who later became Archbishop of Esztergom. Bishop became a member of another parade Dr. Rimley. Ceremony was attended by prominent city officials, representatives of various agencies and states, armies, and large numbers townspeople simple people of God.

The ceremonies began before the temple gate, then svätiteľ Cardinal Simor escorted entered the church, where the ceremonies continued sanctification anointing altars and the temple walls. To save the remains of the altar stone martyr Adalbert and Gerhard. First Mass in our church served Baltizár bishop and the first sermon delivered svätiteľ Cardinal Simor. The church preached three preachers: Jesuit P. Emil Volbert German, and two Franciscans, one Slovak and one Hungarian. The ceremonies lasted until one o'clock in the afternoon. After the solemn procession returned to the Primate's Palace, where Cardinal Simor for invited guests was given a formal dinner. It goes without saying that it is attended by a priest Poeck, without whose selfless work would not stand this temple.

In connection with the consecration of Blumentálu mentions the event, which was to become the pastor Poeck fatal. On the way to the Primate's Palace was stampeded horses pulled the carriage in which he sat, and as pastor writes Pozdech only by God's providence remained alive.

Celebrations dedication of the temple after years

Believers of this site for years to commemorate the big day solemn consecration of the temple worship, after which they were folk festivities. The annual celebration of the dedication of the temple waving their spiritual and secular. The spiritual part was solemn character, Mass serve senior dignitaries and preachers coming festive. Worship enriched various choirs and ensembles; secular part called. Forgive was associated with folk festivals and party. That day came not only parishioners, but people from all over the city from the nearer and wider surroundings. At that time, around the church still extremely suitable for such celebrations. Open space provide plenty of room for a variety of stalls, attractions, festivals roundabouts... spestrovala brass band from Záhorska Bystrica.

Pozdech pastor remembers that when he wrote his memories, older parishioners at these festivities still remember, as young as yourself to participate in them. Such spectacular folk festivals disappeared after the First World War.

Great was the celebration of consecration Blumentálu in the twenty-fifth anniversary. Although the history of the temple twenty-five years is not much, because the church is built on centuries, writes pastor Pozdech: every believer adhesions with its parish church, where baptism was received into the bosom of the Church, there is divested of their sins, receive the Savior, there is a double promises connects life inextricably to a man with a woman and introduces a new family, there priest begs for mercy for those who embarked on the path of eternity...

Spiritual program began a day before the big feast solemn litanies. In the anniversary Mass celebrated by the parish priest Evariast Czaykowski and preached prelate A. Gaibl. Ceremony was attended by celebrities Bratislava, led by mayor.

In 45 Blumentálu anniversary of the dedication of the restored organ.

In December r. Opened in 1941 Blumentálska fare lecture hall. On that occasion was solemn litany in our church Nuncio Msgr. Dr. Joseph Burzio, who repeatedly took part in the celebrations in Blumentáli. In Slovakia, had to r., 1945. Farewell to Mons. Burzio held on Blumentálska fare.

On the 60th year anniversaries were scheduled to work on the renovated church interior, upgraded lighting should be introduced electric heating, had to return the original painting, restore the altars, and an altar of Our Lady of Lourdes. Estimated costs were two to two and a half million dollars. A Committee made ​​the collections and 4 April 1948 launched the work. On how to fix Blumentálu continued, we have news.

The celebration of the centennial anniversary of the consecration and stodesiateho Blumentálu would know what to say - then- pastor VDP. John Frog and long-time parish administrator VDP. Stephen Herényi. Written reports we have .

www.blumental.sk/casopis-blumental/2008/10/z-historie-nas...

Day 15 (v 15.0) - physically, at least

AJU (optd by Millan)

Mercedes Benz OM****** Almazora Travego modified

 

Location: Don Quixote St, Brgy 479, Zone 47, Sampaloc, Manila

Houston Texas Livestock Show and Rodeo State FFA tractor technician contest Kids repairing a physically disabled tractor March 7 2011 Reliant Center AG Signs mechanics tools box's

Physically challanged bodybuilders who participated in All India Senior Body Building Championship held at Thrissur. Both are members of Kerala team.

Anamika, a 10 year old mentally and physically handicapped girl. Born in a lower middle class family in old dhaka, Bangladesh. After a massive loss in jewelry business, her father is not being able to give her proper medical attention that she need in a daily basis.

 

Note: Feel free to comment. Healthy criticism and suggestions are always welcome.

 

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I started dieting April 15, 2012. Yes, I remember the day bc I glorified it for so many years. I started bc I didn’t physically feel well a lot of the time & I struggled with body image. We all know the cure for that: DIET & EXERCISE! Right?? I posted about my journey for “accountability” and got so much positive feedback. “You look amazing! You’re such an inspiration! Can you help me too?” I was so excited bc I hadn’t ever moved my body or honored it in anyway prior to that. Fueled by the results & positive reinforcement, I kept looking for better ways to diet and exercise for a few years. Then I found CrossFit, an entire global community of dieters & exercisers looking to do as much of both as possible. Perfect! For over 5 years I learned to micro-manage every seed I put into my mouth and sweat more than I ever had in my life. I was so proud to be a woman that was strong. And I still am. But things started to change eventually.

 

Every morning I’d wait until I pooped to weigh myself naked so that I would know the REAL number. What’s this?? How did my weight go up when I paid someone to tell me exactly how much to eat?! Must have been too much broccoli. I’ll pack food to bring to the pizza party. I’ll go “super clean” before the trip, party, event, etc. Everything I learned about, I tried. When information conflicted, I hedged my bets and restricted more of it. I wanted to be the gold standard and I wasn’t going to let anything mess that up. I even became Precision Nutrition “certified” because paying people to tell me what they learned in that one book - that apparently gave them the legal right to charge people to help them restrict food without any other credentials in nutrition or psychology - wasn’t working, so I opted to just become certified myself. And then the inevitable happened... it all stopped working. No matter what I did, who I paid, the results just stopped. My body began to bloat in ways I couldn’t anticipate, no matter what I added or eliminated. Physical discomfort I didn’t know how to stop. The stress of this sent me spiraling emotionally. The only logical explanation was that I was doing something wrong, that there was something I wasn’t doing, and that I wasn’t doing enough. My mind and time were consumed with how to control my body through food & exercise. Devastated when those around me succeeded with less perceived effort than me. I gave myself no leeway.

 

In May 2017 I was in the thick of this. I had been single for about a year and was ready to start dating again. I had been strict intermittent fasting, 8-10 hours of eating & 14-16 off, no matter what. I was asked on a date by someone I was actually really excited about. We had met a few years back working a wedding together and he was really cool. We made the date for a Wednesday night. I was coaching early on Wednesdays then, which meant I needed to start eating earlier in the day. 7-5 to be exact. I decided to do this even though I knew I was going out that night. NO EXCUSES!! Unfortunately the 2 drinks I had over the 4 hour date left me absolutely drunk and spinning.

We were having a fun evening up until that point.

I didn’t feel unsafe going back to his place to sober up.

I thought I could trust him.

I was tragically mistaken.

When I came to and stopped him I remember him trying to explain why it was ok that he was doing what he was doing. He really liked me and would be my boyfriend, he said. Date rape is a terrible and confusing thing to have happen to you. It took me over a week, walking around like a zombie, and a very concerned response from a friend when I told her the story, to really understand what happened to me. I broke ties with him immediately and tried to move on. I acknowledged the truth, felt what I needed to, and opted to learn from it. That year I only shot one wedding and it was out of state. I pulled up to the venue and I see him walking towards me. Out of all the videographers they could have possibly hired, they chose him. And I worked with him. I knew I had to. I could not go up to a bride on her wedding day, as she’s getting ready, and tell her I can’t do it. I learned a lot about my strength as a woman that day.

 

I think it’s important to understand that this happened to me at a time when I least expected it to. I was, and still am, at a point in my life where I consider myself to be a very happy person. I had become self-employed and was enjoying the successes of that. I didn’t view my dieting and exercising as anything bad at the time, and took a lot of pride in my discipline and knowledge. I was happy being single and very selective about who I went out with. I was confident I’d never put myself into a dangerous position again. I felt strong and empowered. It took me a long time to realize how my dieting/exercise routine had contributed to the events of that night. That guy is 100% responsible for his actions that night. It also breaks my heart to think about that version of myself that was so afraid to eat food. A version that weighed her options and chose to drink on an empty stomach and put her trust into her date’s hands.

 

My best friend got married in August 2019, and I was thrilled to be her Maid of Honor. A very special role with a lot of responsibilities and investments. I cleaned up my eating for months beforehand, and was exclusively strict for the month leading up to the big day. By the time the wedding day came, I was happy enough with my results. I was still struggling with my body image and not looking how I felt I should have with the amount of effort I put in. All that effort paired with the time and money invested into the wedding, I became terrified that if I ate any of the food at the wedding I would either A.) get sick because I knew how my body would react to foods I hadn’t been allowing myself to eat, and/or B.) bloat up and undo all the hard work I’d put in for months to look a certain way. So when everyone else was grabbing slices from the pizza food truck, or sampling the dessert options, I was eating cucumbers and hummus at my table. I wasn’t happy about it either. I felt sorry for myself and made up for it at the open bar. I had a great time at her wedding, but know now just how much more fun and enjoyment I could have shared on this most memorable of occasions.

 

The dangers of diet culture were completely unknown and unheard of in my life until I met my friend Iona. She and her partner run a movement based community in Boston, and I fell in love with them immediately. They used to be Crossfitters so I knew I would be understood there. She would talk a little bit about Crossfit and why she wasn’t doing it anymore and why she had stopped restricting food. Sounded good for her, but I couldn’t imagine not watching what I ate. But we’d keep chatting, and followed each other on social media so I was seeing the things she was sharing on the topic. Some things she shared didn’t sound like me at all. I had never been as great as she was and didn’t feel like our stories were the same. I had started a deep mediation practice at the beginning of 2019 that started to shake the foundation of my food & body beliefs. As I listened more to her story, and as I deepened my own personal awareness, I found myself deeply resonating with her. I was having a hard time putting uncomfortable feelings into words. She recommended two books to me: The Fuck It Diet by Caroline Dooner, and Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole.

 

It has been a year since I read The Fuck It Diet, and it shook me down to my core. So much of what she was describing sounded just like everything I was feeling. I felt angry at an industry I was a loyal disciple of for years. I felt ashamed of all the preaching in it’s favor I had done over the years. I felt overwhelmed in realizing that all the work I had put into optimizing my body was actually doing the opposite. I knew without a doubt that this was what my body and soul needed. A release from the confinement of diet culture. So I purchased Intuitive Eating and the accompanying workbook, and spent the last year slowly chipping away at the 10 principles of IE. In TFID she mentions that it can take 3-6 months for people to heal from disordered eating, some more and some less. I figured I’d be done nice and quick. Nope. This shit is HARD. So hard. Especially when the world shuts down 1 month into your practice and turns your world upside-down. I suffered a lot during the quarantine, and I did it silently. I couldn’t share my pain, and didn’t know how to. But I kept at it. I knew I couldn’t give up on this, too much was on the line. I moved in with my boyfriend during the pandemic which threw in a whole new twist and added challenges. I started unfollowing influencers & nutrition pages by the dozen. I utilized a food delivery service to help me take the pressure off of thinking about food so much. I was sick of it. I reached out to Iona for support. And I kept at it, even when it felt like I wasn’t making any progress. I kept at it. I knew my life depended on it.

 

Then some amazing things started to happen. I would put the pint of Ben & Jerry’s back in the fridge instead of eating it all at once. I could eat half my food at a restaurant and easily ask to bring the rest home. A package of cookies went stale in the cabinet because I just didn’t feel like eating them. I started buying new clothes that fit my body now, and even went as far as to go shopping when I felt most uncomfortable and bloated so I knew I could trust my clothes to truly bring me comfort. I can say no when I’m not hungry. I’m starting to be able to truly identify my hunger and fullness cues, and honor them. I’m starting to trust that my body knows what it’s doing and that it knows what size it wants to be. I can trust myself around food now because I know, without a doubt, that I can have it if I want to. Restriction is what leads to overeating, not the other way around. This, by far, has been the hardest but truest lesson I’ve learned in the decade I’ve spent educating myself on fitness and nutrition. I still have a lot of work to do, practice makes progress, and progress is never linear.

 

I have chosen to share this experience for a few reasons. First, the bravery of my friend sharing her vulnerable yet powerful healing experience inspired me to do the same for myself. This is the biggest hope for this project. We don’t get to choose who we influence, or how our influence is received. But we all have a story, and someone out there needs to hear YOUR story. Second, this has been one of the biggest personal items I have been working on recently and has caused a big upheaval in how I approach my life and my work. I pride myself on being openminded and allowing myself the grace to change my mind. Changing my mind on fitness and nutrition was not something I was expecting, and it is not what big diet culture wants us to believe. It is woven into our healthcare, media, and schools. Third, this is a topic I know millions of people, especially women, struggle with every single day. Fourth and final reason is the intersection of so many things in this experience. Self-worth, body image, sexism, science as a religion. Too much of what we think has been put there by someone else. My hope is that sharing my experience with diet culture, date rape, and orthorexia (eating disorder with the preoccupation with eating healthy food) that someone else will be inspired to free themselves from these cages and live life a little happier. Food CAN be neutral and our bodies do know what they’re doing.

Causes

 

The fears of enclosed spaces is an irrational fear. Most claustrophobic people who find themselves in a room without windows consciously know that they aren’t in danger, yet these same people will be afraid, possibly terrified to the point of incapacitation, and many do not know why. The exact cause of claustrophobia is unknown, but there are many theories.

Amygdalal

  

The red structure is the amygdala.

The amygdala is one of the smallest structures in the brain, but also one of the most powerful. The amygdala is needed for the conditioning of fear, or the creation of a fight-or-flight response. A fight-or-flight response is created, when a stimulus is associated with a grievous situation. Cheng believes that a phobia’s roots are in this fight-or-flight response.

In generating a fight-or-flight response, the amygdala acts in the following way: The amygdala’s anterior nuclei associated with fear communicate with each other. Nuclei send out impulses to other nuclei, which influence respiratory rate, physical arousal, the release of adrenaline, blood pressure, heart rate, behavioral fear response, and defensive responses, which may include freezing up. These reactions constitute an ‘autonomic failure’ in a panic attack.

  

Brain synapse

A study done by Fumi Hayano found that the right amygdala was smaller in patients who suffered from panic disorders. The reduction of size occurred in a structure known as the corticomedial nuclear group which the CE nucleus belongs to. This causes interference, which in turn causes abnormal reactions to aversive stimuli in those with panic disorders. In claustrophobic people, this translates as panicking or overreacting to a situation in which the person finds themselves physically confined.

Classical conditioning[edit]

Claustrophobia results as the mind comes to connect confinement with danger. It often comes as a consequence of a traumatic childhood experience,[7] although the onset can come at any point in an individual’s life. Such an experience can occur multiple times, or only once, to make a permanent impression on the mind.[6] The majority of claustrophobic participants in an experiment done by Lars-Göran Öst reported that their phobia had been "acquired as a result of a conditioning experience." In most cases, claustrophobia seems to be the result of past experiences.

Conditioning experiences

A few examples of common experiences that could result in the onset of claustrophobia in children (or adults) are as follows:

A child (or, less commonly, an adult) is shut into a pitch-black room and cannot find the door or the light-switch.

A child gets shut into a box.

A child is locked in a closet.

A child falls into a deep pool and cannot swim.

A child gets separated from their parents in a large crowd and gets lost.

A child sticks their head between the bars of a fence and then cannot get back out.

A child crawls into a hole and gets stuck, or cannot find their way back.

A child is left in their parent's car, truck, or van.

The term ‘past experiences,’ according to one author, can extend to the moment of birth. In John A. Speyrer’s ‘’Claustrophobia and the Fear of Death and Dying,’’ the reader is brought to the conclusion that claustrophobia’s high frequency is due to birth trauma, about which he says is "one of the most horrendous experiences we can have during our lifetime," and it is in this helpless moment that the infant develops claustrophobia.[9]

  

In an MRI, the patient is inserted into the tube.

Magnetic resonance imaging, or the MRI, has been attributed to the onset of claustrophobia. Since a patient has to be put into the center of a magnet to optimize imaging, the patient finds themselves in a narrow tube for an extended period of time. In a study involving claustrophobia and the MRI, it was reported that 13% of patients experienced a panic attack during the procedure. The procedure has been linked not only to the triggering of ‘preexisting’ claustrophobia, but also to the onset in some people. These panic attacks during the procedure make it so the patient is unable to adjust to the situation, and therefore the fear remain.

  

The conditions inside a mine

S.J. Rachman tells of an extreme example citing the experience of 21 miners in the Claustrophobia section of ‘’Phobias: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Treatment.’’ These miners were trapped underground for 14 days, during which six of the miners died of suffocation. After their rescue, ten of the miners were studied for ten years. All but one were greatly changed by the experience, and six of those developed phobias, phobias that involved "confining or limiting situations." The only miner who did not develop any noticeable symptoms was the one who acted as leader.

Another factor that could cause the onset of claustrophobia is "information received." As Aureau Walding states in ‘’Causes of Claustrophobia,’’ many people, especially children, learn who and what to fear by watching parents or peers. This method does not only apply to observing a teacher, but also observing victims. Vicarious classical conditioning also includes when a person sees another person exposed directly to an especially unpleasant situation. This would be analogous to observing someone getting stuck in a tight space, suffocated, or any of the other examples that were listed above.

Prepared phobia[edit]

There is research that suggests that claustrophobia isn’t entirely a classically conditioned or learned phobia. It is not necessarily an inborn fear, but it is very likely what is called a prepared phobia. As Erin Gersley says in ‘’Phobias: Causes and Treatments,’’ humans are genetically predisposed to become afraid of things that are dangerous to them. Claustrophobia may fall under this category because of its "wide distribution… early onset and seeming easy acquisition, and its non-cognitive features." The acquisition of claustrophobia may be part of a vestigial evolutionary survival mechanism, a dormant fear of entrapment and/or suffocation that was once important for the survival of humanity and could be easily awakened at any time.[15] Hostile environments in the past would have made this kind of pre-programmed fear necessary, and so the human mind developed the capacity for "efficient fear conditioning to certain classes of dangerous stimuli."

Rachman provides an argument for this theory in his article: ‘’Phobias.’’ He agrees with the statement that phobias generally concern objects that constitute a direct threat to human survival, and that many of these phobias are quickly acquired because of an "inherited biological preparedness.]" This brings about a prepared phobia, which is not quite innate, but is widely and easily learned. As Rachman explains in the article: "The main features of prepared phobias are that they are very easily acquired, selective, stable, biologically significant, and probably [non-cognitive]." ‘Selective’ and ‘biologically significant’ mean that they only relate to things that directly threaten the health, safety, or survival of an individual. ‘Non-cognitive’ suggests that these fears are acquired unconsciously. Both factors point to the theory that claustrophobia is a prepared phobia that is already pre-programmed into the mind of a human being.

Treatment

 

Cognitive therapy

Cognitive therapy is a widely accepted form of treatment for most anxiety disorders. It is also thought to be particularly effective in combating disorders where the patient doesn’t actually fear a situation but, rather, fears what could result from being in such a situation.[17] The ultimate goal of cognitive therapy is to modify distorted thoughts or misconceptions associated with whatever is being feared; the theory is that modifying these thoughts will decrease anxiety and avoidance of certain situations.[17] For example, cognitive therapy would attempt to convince a claustrophobic patient that elevators are not dangerous but are, in fact, very useful in getting you where you would like to go faster. A study conducted by S.J. Rachman shows that cognitive therapy decreased fear and negative thoughts/connotations by an average of around 30% in claustrophobic patients tested, proving it to be a reasonably effective method.

In vivo exposure.

This method forces patients to face their fears by complete exposure to whatever fear they are experiencing.[17] This is usually done in a progressive manner starting with lesser exposures and moving upward towards severe exposures. For example, a claustrophobic patient would start by going into an elevator and work up to an MRI. Several studies have proven this to be an effective method in combating various phobias, claustrophobia included. S.J. Rachman has also tested the effectiveness of this method in treating claustrophobia and found it to decrease fear and negative thoughts/connotations by an average of nearly 75% in his patients. Of the methods he tested in this particular study, this was by far the most significant reduction.

Interoceptive exposure

This method attempts to recreate internal physical sensations within a patient in a controlled environment and is a less intense version of in vivo exposure. This was the final method of treatment tested by S.J. Rachman in his 1992 study. It lowered fear and negative thoughts/connotations by about 25%. These numbers did not quite match those of in vivo exposure or cognitive therapy, but still resulted in significant reductions.

Other forms of treatment that have also been shown to be reasonably effective are psychoeducation, counter-conditioning, regressive hypnotherapy and breathing re-training. Medications often prescribed to help treat claustrophobia include anti-depressants and beta-blockers, which help to relieve the heart-pounding symptoms often associated with anxiety attacks.

Studies

 

MRI procedure

Because they can produce a fear of both suffocation and restriction, MRI scans often prove difficult for claustrophobic patients.[18] In fact, estimates say that anywhere from 4–20% of patients refuse to go through with the scan for precisely this reason.[19] One study estimates that this percentage could be as high as 37% of all MRI recipients. The average MRI takes around 50 minutes; this is more than enough time to evoke extreme fear and anxiety in a severely claustrophobic patient.

This study was conducted with three goals: 1. To discover the extent of anxiety during an MRI. 2. To find predictors for anxiety during an MRI. 3. To observe psychological factors of undergoing an MRI. Eighty patients were randomly chosen for this study and subjected to several diagnostic tests to rate their level of claustrophobic fear; none of these patients had previously been diagnosed with claustrophobia. They were also subjected to several of the same tests after their MRI to see if their anxiety levels had elevated. This experiment concludes that the primary component of anxiety experienced by patients was most closely connected to claustrophobia.

This assertion stems from the high Claustrophobic Questionnaire results of those who reported anxiety during the scan. Almost 25% of the patients reported at least moderate feelings of anxiety during the scan and 3 were unable to complete the scan at all. When asked a month after their scan, 30% of patients (these numbers are taken of the 48 that responded a month later) reported that their claustrophobic feelings had elevated since the scan. The majority of these patients claimed to have never had claustrophobic sensations up to that point. This study concludes that the Claustrophobic Questionnaire (or an equivalent method of diagnosis) should be used before allowing someone to have an MRI.

Use of virtual reality distraction to reduce claustrophobia

The present case series with two patients explored whether virtual reality (VR) distraction could reduce claustrophobia symptoms during a mock magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan. Two patients who met DSM-IV criteria for specific phobia, situational type (i.e., claustrophobia) reported high levels of anxiety during a mock 10-min MRI procedure with no VR, and asked to terminate the scan early. The patients were randomly assigned to receive either VR or music distraction for their second scan attempt. When immersed in an illusory three-dimensional (3D) virtual world named SnowWorld, patient 1 was able to complete a 10-min mock scan with low anxiety and reported an increase in self-efficacy afterwards. Patient 2 received "music only" distraction during her second scan but was still not able to complete a 10-min scan and asked to terminate her second scan early. These results suggest that immersive VR may prove effective at temporarily reducing claustrophobia symptoms during MRI scans and music may prove less effective.[20]

Separating the fear of restriction and fear of suffocation[edit]

Many experts who have studied claustrophobia claim that it consists of two separable components: fear of suffocation and fear of restriction. In an effort to fully prove this assertion, a study was conducted by three experts in order to clearly prove a difference. The study was conducted by issuing a questionnaire to 78 patients who received MRIs.

The data was compiled into a "fear scale" of sorts with separate subscales for suffocation and confinement. Theoretically, these subscales would be different if the contributing factors are indeed separate. The study was successful in proving that the symptoms are separate. Therefore, according to this study, in order to effectively combat claustrophobia, it is necessary to attack both of these underlying causes.

However, because this study only applied to people who were able to finish their MRI, those who were unable to complete the MRI were not included in the study. It is likely that many of these people dropped out because of a severe case of claustrophobia. Therefore, the absence of those who suffer the most from claustrophobia could have skewed these statistics.

A group of students attending the University of Texas at Austin were first given an initial diagnostic and then given a score between 1 and 5 based on their potential to have claustrophobia. Those who scored a 3 or higher were used in the study. The students were then asked how well they felt they could cope if forced to stay in a small chamber for an extended period of time. Concerns expressed in the questions asked were separated into suffocation concerns and entrapment concerns in order to distinguish between the two perceived causes of claustrophobia. The results of this study showed that the majority of students feared entrapment far more than suffocation. Because of this difference in type of fear, it can yet again be asserted that there is a clear difference in these two symptoms.

Probability ratings in claustrophobic patients and non-claustrophobics

This study was conducted on 98 people, 49 diagnosed claustrophobics and 49 "community controls" to find out if claustrophobics' minds are distorted by "anxiety-arousing" events (i.e. claustrophobic events) to the point that they believe those events are more likely to happen. Each person was given three events—a claustrophobic event, a generally negative event, and a generally positive event—and asked to rate how likely it was that this event would happen to them. As expected, the diagnosed claustrophobics gave the claustrophobic events a significantly higher likelihood of occurring than did the control group. There was no noticeable difference in either the positive or negative events. However, this study is also potentially flawed because the claustrophobic people had already been diagnosed.[citation needed] Diagnosis of the disorder could likely bias one’s belief that claustrophobic events are more likely to occur to them.

 

A five-dimensional space is a space with five dimensions. If interpreted physically, that is one more than the usual three spatial dimensions and the fourth dimension of time used in relativistic physics. It is an abstraction which occurs frequently in mathematics, where it is a legitimate construct. In physics and mathematics, a sequence of N numbers can be understood to represent a location in an N-dimensional space. Whether or not the universe is five-dimensional is a topic of debate.Three Logical Proofs: The Five-Dimensional Reality of Space-Time

West Virginia University at Parkersburg Physics, 300 Campus Drive Parkersburg, West Virginia 26104 e-mail: jebcolst@aol.com

Abstract- A century and a half ago, a revolution in human thought began that has gone largely unrecognized by modern scholars: A system of non-Euclidean geometries was developed that literally changed the way that we view our world. At first, some thought that space itself was non-Euclidean and four-dimensional, but Einstein ended that 'speculation' when he declared that time was the fourth dimension. Yet our commonly perceived space is four-dimensional. Einstein unwittingly circumvented that particular revolution in thought and delayed its completion for a later day, although his work was also necessary for the completion of that revolution. That later day is now approaching. The natural progress of science has brought us back to the point where science again needs to consider the physical reality of a higher-dimensional space. Science must acknowledge the truth that space is four-dimensional and space-time is five- dimensional, as required by accepted physical theories and observations, before it can move forward with a new unified fundamental theory of physical reality.

Keywords: four-dimensional-five-dimensional-space-time-Einstein- Clifford- Kaluza- Kaluza-Klein- magnetic vector potential- electromagnetism- Yukawa potential- xpanding universe- general relativity-unification-superstrings-branes-Randall-Sundmm

Introduction

Individual scientists have been searching for evidence of a fourth dimension of space for more than a century and a half. That search subsided somewhat after Albert Einstein identified time as the fourth dimension and developed the theories of relativity. However, Theodor Kaluza added a fifth dimension to space-time in 1921. Others have contributed to this line of scientific devel- opment, but not to as high an extent. Given the fact the physicists have now developed 10- and 11-dimensional theories of reality, it would seem that the search for a fourth dimension of space would have taken on a new and sig- nificant meaning, but it has not. Yet several generally accepted scientific theories and concepts do imply the existence of a fourth spatial dimension.

On the other hand, a growing number of scientists have acknowledged and embraced the simple fact that physics needs a single fundamental theory to

  

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continue its astonishing rate of progress. A complete unification of the funda- mental forces of nature has itself been a long process predating the 1970s, but that unification was made basically from the relativistic point-of-view by Einstein and a few other scientists before the 1960s. Einstein searched for a successful unification of gravity and electromagnetism for the last three decades of his life, hoping that the quantum and quantum effects would emerge from the mathematical formalisms of his unified field theory, but most other scientists shared neither his optimism nor his goal. During the 1970s, quantum physicists finally adopted Einstein's goal, but not his emphasis on a unification based upon general relativity and a continuous view of the ultimate nature of reality. Quantum theorists began their own long search for unification with the discovery of the standard model, then the electroweak force and finally the hope that gravity would eventually submit to quantum analysis. They have utterly failed to achieve this last step toward unification.

All that science can say for certain is that there are presently two theories that can claim to represent the most fundamental nature of reality: Quantum theory and relativity. Unfortunately, these two are mutually incompatible. The near complete dominance of the quantum paradigm over the last century has led most physicists to conclude that any future theory that unifies physics must be based upon a discrete quantum model rather than a continuous relativistic model. The attitude that discreteness can replace continuity at all levels of reality is prob- lematic: It reflects a general disregard for the depth and extreme nature of the major differences between the two theories. This disregard has led scientists to speculate on the structure of reality at as small a level as the Planck length, resulting in the development of quantum loop theories and other attempts to find a quantum gravity theory. Whether the existence of a major conflict between the discrete and continuous is acknowledged or not, the fact that these two models of reality are mutually incompatible is generally minimized or belittled by many theoretical scientists who overwhelmingly assume that discreteness offers the only possible solution to the problem of unification.

Recent attempts to overcome this incompatibility, such as the supergravity, superstring and brane theories, have relied heavily upon the concept of hyper- dimensional spaces. These models have been unsuccessful, yet the overall notion of hyper-dimensionality still offers a way out of the dilemma. Einstein first rendered the notion of a higher-dimensional reality plausible in 1905, but the revolution that Einstein began when he unified three-dimensional space with time to form a four-dimensional space-time continuum has never been fully realized. In the meantime, the opposing quantum concept may have fully run its course and reached its inherent theoretical limits. The modem unification theories based upon the quantum model do not seek to rectify the fundamental differences between the quantum theory and special relativity. Quantum field theories only calculate quantum effects in the relativistic limit; they do not unify the theories at the necessary fundamental level that is often claimed. Many scientists ignore the extent and importance of the differences between continuity

 

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and the discrete and instead worry about the insignificant problems of inde- terminism and counting bits of information. So the latest attempts at unification have failed utterly even though the quantum theory has been attempting to quantize gravity for several decades.

There are many levels to the hyper-dimensionality problem, many of which have not yet been explored even though the central problem of dimensionality for present day science dates back a century and a half. Science has been misled and has failed to recognize the significance of a far more fundamental revolution that began in the 1850s when Bernhard Riemann developed a generalized system of non-Euclidean geometries (Riemann, 1854). Riemann's work directly implied that space is four-dimensional as well as continuous. His new system of geometry remained relatively unknown for more than a decade and was only popularized within the scientific community in the late 1860s. Simultaneously, James Clerk Maxwell developed Michael Faraday's field concept of electro- magnetism into a complete theory of electromagnetism. Whether the timing of these developments was coincidental or not, and only a careful review of historical documents can determine if the simultaneous development of these theories was truly a coincidence, the two fundamental concepts of the continuity of the electromagnetic field and the four-dimensionality of space are physically related. There are three logical proofs that this fact is true.

The first logical proof derives directly from Maxwell's electromagnetic theory and deals directly with the inability of science to sufficiently explain the nature of the vector or magnetic potential used to explain magnetic induction. The second logical proof deals with the nature of matter itself as represented by the Yukawa potential and the atomic nucleus. The Yukawa potential is normally used to explain how electrical repulsion is overcome to bind particles within the nucleus. However, the mathematical expression for the potential also matches the general shape of space-time curvature within the individual particles that combine to form the nucleus. And finally, the last proof is a more general argu- ment dealing with the simple three-dimensional orientations of spiral galaxies relative to the Riemannian curvature of the universe as a whole. Although these proofs are independent of any particular modern hyper-dimensional theory, they are supported by Kaluza's theory of five-dimensional space-time.

Electromagnetism Speaks Up

The popular concept of a 'force field' is completely erroneous. Even in a classical sense, no force is associated with a field until a material particle or body interacts with it. Force is not a characteristic of the field alone. The interaction of the field and matter results in the force, but the interaction can also be characterized by a potential energy. The energy results from the force acting on the particle in one sense, or from the relative position of the particle in the field in another sense. What exists at any particular position in the field before the interaction takes place is called the potential. So a physical field is char- acterized by the potential of the field, not a force.

 

526 J. E. Beichler

Gravity presents a good example for the concept of potential. Gravitational field strength decreases radially outward from the center of gravity of a material body like the earth according to the inverse square law. All points that are equidistant from the center of gravity form a surface in three-dimensional space along which the gravitational potential is constant, an equipotential surface. At each point on this surface, the surface is perpendicular to a radial line drawn from the center of gravity. A material body orbiting the earth would have a constant speed along any equipotential surface. Electricity presents another simple example. In this case, the units of potential are 'volts', a common electrical unit with which everyone is familiar. Equipotential surfaces representing specific volt measurements are a commonly accepted fact of electrical fields. The fact that an equipotential surface can be formed and that the surface is perpendicular to the radius of curvature at each and every point where they intersect is a general property of fields. From a theoretical point-of-view, equipotential surfaces must exist for all physical fields. For any field, successive equipotential surfaces form onionskin-like concentric surfaces around point charges or charged bodies.

There is a direct equivalence between electricity and magnetism and that equivalence forms the basis of the electromagnetic theory. Any physical quan- tities or properties of electricity correspond to similar quantities and properties for magnetism. But that equivalence has not yet been fully realized since there is no such thing as magnetic 'volts' or measurable magnetic potential. Magnetic potential has been, is now and will be in the future a mathematical entity alone, given the three-dimensionality of space. Consider a simple magnetic field, per- haps that of a bar magnetic. An equipotential surface cannot be drawn or represented visually as it can for an electric field, although magnetic field lines can still represent the field. A line perpendicular to any field line through a given point on that field line, representing the magnetic vector potential at that point, cannot be connected to neighboring points of equal potential on other field lines to form a continuous surface. In other words, an equipotential surface cannot be formed in the three-dimensional space of the magnetic field represented by the field lines. All equipotential surfaces would go through the same point on a field line in three-dimensional space, which is impossible, but no other conclusion can be reached from the given physical geometry of the magnetic field.

According to Roger Penrose, the magnetic potential is "not uniquely determined by the field F, but is fixed to within the addition of a quantity dO where O is some real scalar field." The scalar field is taken to be a purely mathematical entity, such that the magnetic potential A "is not a locally mea- surable quantity" (Penrose, 2005).The magnetic potential A exists, but no phys- ical experiment can measure or otherwise determine the value of A plus the additional quantity dO, so the value of A alone cannot be uniquely determined. In a sense then, the magnetic potential exists only at the point of intersection, not beyond that point in three-dimensional space. Magnetic potential is purely a point phenomenon in three-dimensional space no matter what its value. It is a mathematical paradox, but the paradox can be solved if a higher dimension to

 

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space is used. Any connection between a given potential on one field line and neighboring field lines must be in another dimension (orthogonal direction) other than the three normal directions of common space, in order for there to exist an equipotential surface. The 'gauge factor' dO mentioned by Penrose actually represents a minuscule measurement or perturbation in the fourth direction that does not otherwise affect normal three-dimensional field variations in the local environment. This fact can also be seen in the equations that are commonly used to express and model magnetic potential.

Although it cannot be described or measured in a normal three-dimensional space, the magnetic potential can be expressed mathematically, by its rela- tionship to the field, as

and

where B is the magnetic field strength. In this form, the quantity A is known as the magnetic vector potential or just the vector potential. Since the operator

V= (dldxi,dldyj,d/dzk),

taking the curl of A would be the mathematical equivalent of constructing the magnetic field B point-by-point by simultaneously looking at the perpendicular components to A in each of the three dimensions of space. These equations may seem trivial to physicists, but they have far more physical meaning than they have been given in the normally accepted electromagnetic interpretation.

The potential A must be simultaneously perpendicular to all three coordinates used to represent a point in space according to these formulations. However, the only 'thing' that can be perpendicular to all three dimensions of space simulta- neously would be a fourth orthogonal dimension. Therefore, changes in the magnetic potential as well as magnetic potential itself are perpendicular to all three directions at any spatial position in our normally perceived physical space. Different equipotential surfaces would still be expressed by three-dimensional equations even though they are displaced in the fourth direction because they would act like three-dimensional spaces that are parallel to or stacked on top of our common three-dimensional space in the fourth direction. Given the con- tinuity of space, our three-dimensional material world is actually embedded in a four-dimensional space (or manifold). Bernhard Riemann's original develop- ment of the generalized formulations of non-Euclidean geometry posited that an n-dimensional space would be embedded in an n+l-dimensional manifold, which implies that the physical reality of our three-dimensional space (where n= 3) requires the existence of a higher-dimensional manifold. In present theories of higher-dimensional spaces, such as the various superstring theories, several higher embedding dimensions are used, but the Riemannian mathematics used in general relativity only 'requires' one higher embedding dimension.

 

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The fact that magnetism implies a fourth dimension is not new. William Kingdom Clifford, a British geometer, tried to express Maxwell's electromag- netic theory using a four-dimensional space model in the 1870s. Clifford is better known for offering the first translation of Riemann's Habilitationsschrift lecture, " On the hypotheses which lie at the bases of geometry" , into English in 1873, among other things. Based on his understanding and interpretation of Riemann's geometry, Clifford claimed that what we sense as matter is nothing more than three-dimensional space curved in a fourth dimension and what we conceive as matter in motion is no more than variations in that curvature (Clifford, 1870). For having stated this, Clifford's geometrical model of space is normally regarded as a precursor to Einstein's model of space-time curvature in the general theory of relativity. Most twentieth century scholars have also concluded that Clifford never developed a theory and had no followers (Eddington, 1921; d'Abro, 1927; Bell, 1940; Jammer, 1954; Hoffman, 1972; Kilmister, 1973; Swenson, 1979)' so his theoretical work is viewed in this regard as a historical footnote and no more. The mathematician and historian E.T. Bell has gone so far as to characterized Clifford's anticipation of Einstein as little more than a case of some lucky person hitting "the side of a barn at forty yards with a charge of buckshot" (Bell, 1937), but this view of history is completely false. While Clifford's physical theories have gone unnoticed, Clifford numbers and his system of bi-quaternions have found new uses in some modern interpretations of quantum theory and relativity (Power, 1970; Gurney, 1983; Chisholm and Common, 1985) even though they were originally developed to describe his four-dimensional space, a fact that should imply new ways of interpreting the quantum.

Many modern scholars have mistakenly interpreted Clifford's theoretical model of a four-dimensional space in physics against a historical mindset biased by an early twentieth century view of general relativity (Beichler, 1996). Clifford's main purpose was not to develop a new theory of gravity, as did Einstein several decades later. Clifford's original theoretical work only dealt with Maxwell's electromagnetic theory even though he planned to add gravity to his theory at a later date (Clifford, 1887), if he had not died. Actually, Clifford was developing what we would today consider a unified field theory or better yet a theory of everything. He was fond of saying that he was " solving the universe" (Pollock in Clifford, 1879),which was his way of describing a single theory that covered all of the natural forces. Clifford attempted first to explain magnetic induction, not gravity, with his four-dimensional geometry (Pearson in Clifford, 1885). Magnetic induction is governed by the equation B = V@A, providing a direct link between the current logical argument for a four-dimensional space and Clifford's interpretation of Maxwell's electromagnetic induction.

Clifford published numerous mathematical papers on the motion of three- dimensional matter in four-dimensional elliptical (single polar Riemannian) spaces. He also published a book that actually presented his first step in building a proper theory, that is, for any of his peers who understood what he was trying to do. Historians and scholars today do not understand what Clifford was

 

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attempting to accomplish, so they only see the book as a simple introductory trea- tise on kinematics. Anyone looking for a completed gravity theory in Clifford's work simply will not find it. Nearly all modern historians have mistakenly claimed that he never published his theory because they are looking for a nonexistent gravity theory with time as a fourth dimension.

Clifford expressed the opinion that all energies are either potential or kinetic (Clifford, 1880), but he also believed that kinetic energies in three-dimensional space would become potential energies in his four-dimensional spatial frame- work. In other words, forces in three-dimensional space would reduce to constant variations in position along paths in a four-dimensional curved space, an idea that was made current in general relativity. However, the modern concept only deals with gravity as modeled by modem relativity theory while Clifford meant to apply the concept to all forces in his model. Upon this hypothesis, he published the first volume of a series of books titled Elements of Dynamic (Clifford, 1878). His first volume was subtitled Kinematics. Everyone that knew Clifford or his work knew that dynamics in three-dimensional space is just kinematics in Clifford's four-dimensional space, that is why he referred to his explanation of Dynamics as Kinematics in the book title. He was writing about four-dimensional kinematics, which was equivalent to three-dimensional dynamics in his mind and theoretical model. Coincidentally, this same book is recognized by historians as the first published statement by a mathematician that distinguished between the cross and dot products in vector algebra (Crowe, 1967), the same dot and cross products that are used in the vector and scalar representations of magnetic potential given above. It should be clear then that Clifford understood the four- dimensionality of magnetic potential a full century before the modem scientific community took the unification of gravity and electromagnetism seriously.

In developing his theory, Clifford faced the problem that no mathematical formalism existed to express his four-dimensional ideas. So he used a form of quaternions of his own invention (bi-quaternions) to express his four- dimensional model of space (Clifford, 1882). Unfortunately, quaternions lost favor in the late nineteenth century to vectors and their use was largely aban- doned during the first few decades of the twentieth century. So no one today would even recognize that Clifford's mathematics represented his four- dimensional theory of physical reality. Einstein's theoretical work on a theory of gravity used the Levi-Civita tensor formalisms that had developed along a different line of reasoning than Clifford used for his quaternion algebra. The tensor calculus used by Einstein was only developed after Clifford's death.

As stated above, Clifford did not ignore the effect of his four-dimensional model of matter on the Newtonian theory of gravity. Clifford died of consumption in 1879 at the age of 34 and never completed his research, but it is still possible to discover what he planned to eventually accomplish with his four-dimensional model. His colleagues were so impressed with his theoretical ideas that both his published and unpublished works were collected, edited and published within a decade after his death. His followers and colleagues

 

530 J. E. Beichler

published everything that they could find, including lecture notes of classes that he taught, because they thought that his theoretical work was important enough to save for posterity and the future. Clifford's outline for the second volume of his Elements of Dynamic was among the unfinished works that were published. His student Robert Tucker edited this book. In it, Clifford stated his views on the theory of gravity and outlined how he would change gravity given his new four- dimensional geometry, thus indicating the fact that he was searching for, and may have found but never published, a unified field theory. But we will never know that fact for sure.

Of course, philosophical and mathematical arguments are not as valuable in science as observation and experimental verification. Yet there is some experi- mental evidence supporting the existence of magnetic potential in the Aharonov- Bohm effect (Aharonov & Bohm, 1959). In the Aharonov-Bohm experiment, an electron beam is split in such a manner that the two resulting beams pass on either side of an upright solenoid before coming back together on a screen. The solenoid is oriented in such a way that the twin beams cut across the field lines (perpendicular to B) and thus the net force acting on them is zero. Yet when the beams come together at the screen they interfere with each other. The interference clearly shows that the wave functions associated with the electron beams are out of phase, yet they should not be out of phase by the normal standards of Maxwell's electromagnetic theory. Although the effect is somewhat paradoxical, it is normally interpreted as evidence that the magnetic potential associated with the magnetic field is real even though it cannot be measured or experimentally determined. While the net force is zero, an integration of the potential A in a closed loop around the coil is not zero. The common interpretation of this experiment introduces a quantum solution (Bohm & Hiley, 1993). However, this effect can be simply explained and understood within the four-dimensional framework of electromagnetic induction. In other words, a classical electromagnetic interpretation can be used to explain the results if a physically real four-dimensional space that is associated with the magnetic vector potential is assumed.

While the net force is zero on either of the electron beams, the electrons are moving at a constant speed through different portions of the coil's mag- netic field. So they each follow paths of varying potential (surfaces) in four- dimensional space corresponding to the portions of the magnetic field through which they travel. Since they are following four-dimensional paths of different lengths, they are out of phase when they reach the screen and interfere with each other. The principle is similar to a satellite orbiting the earth at a constant speed. The constant speed holds the satellite to a path along a gravitational equi- potential surface. When the speed changes, the satellite follows a path through different equipotential surfaces. The orbital speed determines the altitude of the orbit and the potential path (surface) along which the satellite travels. The electrons in the beam also follow curved potential paths in the fourth dimension, which are different according to the portions of the magnetic field through which

 

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they pass in three-dimensional space. The difference in curved paths in four- dimensional space puts them out of phase at the end of the trip even though their paths in three-dimensional space, the projections of their paths in four- dimensional space, are not curved.

And finally, given a real fourth dimension of space that is characterized by magnetic potential, anything that emits a normal transverse electromagnetic wave in three-dimensional space would also cause a corresponding compressive wave of magnetic potential variation in the fourth direction of space. Numerous scientists have claimed to show the mathematical possibility of such longitudinal electromagnetic waves. Edmund T. Whittaker's model of 1903 is perhaps the best known of these attempts (Whittaker 1903, 1904). According to Whittaker,

... thus we have the result, that the general solution of Laplace's equation

wheref is an arbitrary function of the two arguments z+ix cos u+iy sin u and u.

Moreover, it is clear from the proof that no generality is lost by supposing thatf is a periodic function of u (Whittaker, 1903).

The variable u actually represents the fourth dimension of space while V is the magnetic potential. This interpretation renders Whittaker's formulation com- patible with modem advances in the laws of electromagnetism without surren- dering the possibility of a longitudinal electromagnetic wave. The function f is periodical with respect to u, which means that the fourth dimension is closed with respect to the other three dimensions of space. This closure corresponds completely to Kaluza's closure condition for the fifth dimension of space-time, while the factor of du over which the function f is integrated corresponds to Penrose's gauge invariance dO.

In this respect, the fourth dimension of space is independent of the length of the extension in the fourth direction, such that the fifth direction of space-time can be either microscopic or macroscopic in extent. There is no difference between the two in the functionf as long as the fourth dimension of space is closed. Whittaker then analyzed the general form of the differential equations for wave motion

to demonstrate that the mathematical model can account for a longitudinal

 

532 J. E. Beichler

electromagnetic wave. However, if V is taken to mean the magnetic potential in the fourth direction of space, then the magnetic potential V can be related directly to the concept of proper time in special relativity. Whittaker's concept

I of a longitudinal component of electromagnetic waves can thus be rendered

~

in relativistic terms, which implies that the concept is actually a wave of changing magnetic potential propagating in the fifth direction of a five- dimensional space-time continuum.

Whether or not Maxwell's electromagnetic theory requires a longitudinal wave in its classical three-dimensional interpretation is open to debate, but the existence of a fourth dimension to space would require a corresponding longi- tudinal wave that propagates throughout the fourth dimension relative to the normal three dimensions of space. No one has ever detected a three-dimensional longitudinal wave, but that does not mean the wave cannot be four-dimensional. After all, no one has ever detected or measured a 'magnetic-volt' of potential in three-dimensional space either, even though the potential exists in four- dimensional space.

The Yukawa Field

Modern physics also requires the existence of a fourth spatial dimension, but this time the culprit is the Yukawa potential. The Yukawa potential normally takes the form

The quantity g is real. It represents the coupling constant between the meson field and the fermion with which it interacts, at least in the normal quantum interpretation. The Yukawa potential itself arises from the exchange of a massive scalar field or particle such as the pi meson or pion (Yukawa, 1935). The nega- tive sign guarantees that the force between particles in the nucleus is always attractive.

This potential is associated with the extremely short-range strong nuclear force and it is usually only interpreted as a quantum phenomenon. The potential associated with the Yukawa field decreases exponentially, guaranteeing the short range of the Yukawa field to little more than the outer boundaries of the nucleus. It is simply assumed that the Yukawa field cannot be interpreted within a non-quantum context, yet there is no hard and fast rule that states that the Yukawa potential cannot be interpreted geometrically. Classical fields are nor- mally interpreted geometrically, so it would seem that the Yukawa field should also have a geometrical interpretation. Even the modern view of gravity as resulting from the curvature of space-time is geometrical in nature.

According to a simple interpretation of physical laws, the field strengths of both electric and gravitational fields vary as llr2. Traditionally, this inverse square law has been interpreted as resulting from the three-dimensionality of

 

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this may seem, the inverse square law has been used in the past to explain the necessity of a three-dimensional space to the laws of physics (Whitrow, 1955; Abramenko, 1958; Biichel, 1963; Freeman, 1969). In other words, the inverse square law is normally thought to imply (if not prove) that space 'must be' three-dimensional. It has also been a common practice in the past to criticize higher-dimensional theories by pointing out that gravity would not work in a higher-dimensioned space because the inverse square law would not apply. However, we commonly accept the notion of a four-dimensional space-time without any alteration to the inverse square law without realizing that we do so. The fourth dimension of time is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from the normal three dimensions of space, so it does not affect the inverse square law. By the same token, there is no hard and fast rule that unequivocally requires that a fourth dimension of space would be both quantitatively and qualitatively the same as our normal three dimensions of space. In fact, given the reality of a fourth dimension of space, nature seems to have ordained that the fourth dimension is different from our normal three dimensions of space and nature rules physics instead of the other way around. So there is no valid or compelling reason to assume that a fourth spatial dimension would have any effect on the inverse square law and gravity. In fact there are reasons to believe that the opposite is true.

Many scientists have long believed that matter is electrically constituted and electricity acts according to the inverse square law. Our perception of space is dependent on the relative positions of matter in that space. So if matter is three- dimensional we sense space as three-dimensional. The three-dimensional surface curvature of a material particle or material body may be sufficient to determine the three-dimensionality of space, but the complete three- dimensionality of the particle is not necessary according to how it outwardly appears. Nor is it complete. The interior portion of a material particle could still be higher dimensional. For instance, the interior of a proton could be a physical singularity stretching into a higher fourth dimension even though the exterior surface of the proton is still curved spherically in three-dimensional space. Space

1 could have any number of dimensions while three-dimensional matter only determines that part of the space or manifold in which the electrical field acts and reacts. Our normal senses evolved in the three-dimensional material world of nature, so they would be limited to detect only the three-dimensionality of matter even given a real fourth dimension. Since gravity acts between material particles, which are three-dimensional due to their electrical nature, it would also act three-dimensionally even if space had four or more dimensions. While it is commonly argued that space is three-dimensional because of the inverse square law, it could also be argued that we only sense three out of a greater number of dimensions because of the inverse square law by which gravity and electricity act as they do in three dimensions.

It seems that the inverse square law only guarantees the three-dimensional actions and interactions of matter, not the other way around. The forces

 

534 J. E. Beichler

associated with common fields act three-dimensionally and no more. The inverse square law does not guarantee that either space itself or fields in general are three-dimensional or otherwise limited to three dimensions. Fields could be higher-dimensional entities just as space could be higher dimensional even though we only sense three dimensions of space. Matter reacts with fields in three- dimensional space because matter is outwardly three-dimensional, not because fields are three-dimensional. If fields are higher dimensional, there may be field- field interactions that occur only in the higher dimensions of space and thus remain undetected in the three-dimensional material space except by their sec- ondary effects. An effect such as quantum entanglement could be explained in this manner. When all is taken into account, neither physical fields nor space need be limited to three dimensions by either the laws of nature or logic and reason.

On the other hand, the potentials associated with fields vary as llr. So

a physical field associated with a particular potential has one more factor of the

2

variable 'r' than the potential itself because fields vary as l/r . The dimen-

sionality of the space that the field occupies is generally two greater than the exponent of the variable 'r' in the denominator of the formula representing the potential. This logic also follows for the Yukawa potential: The variable 'r' in the denominator reflects the three-dimensionality of the field, but there is another term with an 'r-' factor in the exponent in the numerator of the formula. The variable 'r' in the numerator of the formula could easily represent another dimension, so the Yukawa potential would require that the space occupied by the Yukawa field is four-dimensional, not three-dimensional. The exponential term eKkrrepresents both the geometrical structure of the particle and its associated field as extended into the fourth dimension of space. The extension of a particle in the fourth direction would occur internally relative to three-dimensional space so that the part of the material particle that we sense or detect remains the three- dimensional exterior surface of the particle.

In this model of the Yukawa potential and field, the variable 'r' in the denominator would account for the spherical shape of elementary particles and the nucleus itself. By analogy, this would indicate that the exponential term in the numerator would refer to the geometrical shape of the Yukawa field in the higher fourth dimension. If the Yukawa field conforms to the shape of an exponential curve in the higher dimension, as opposed to the spherical shape in three-dimensional space, then the fourth dimension of space is most certainly different from the other three dimensions of normal space, as noted above.

In fact, elementary particles such as protons and neutrons would be small singularities according to the general theory of relativity; or rather they would be singular at their centers. They would therefore follow curved space-time in a shape similar to a rotated exponential curve, as shown in a normal drawing of the curved metric of a singularity (see Figure 1).

So the Yukawa field would correspond to the shape of a nucleus or elementary particles predicted by relativity theory, if general relativity is taken to depict a real curvature of three-dimensional space in a higher embedding fourth

 

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Exponential curves define the outer shape of the singularity in

Fig. 1. The internal curvature of an elementary particle.

dimension of space. At this point, there is no need to assume a dimensionality greater than four as used in some recent theories, although there are no re- strictions on space having more than four dimensions. Moreover, the curvature of space-time in general relativity is a function of the mass of a particle or body. The constant k in the Yukawa potential is also related to the mass of the exchange particle between nucleons. In both cases, the mass is related to the curvature explicit in the mathematical model, which indicates that the Yukawa potential could be modeled by the curvature of space-time as expressed by the theory of relativity rather than the particle exchange concept of quantum field theory. In either case, the Yukawa potential logically requires that space is four- dimensional and thus the space-time continuum of relativity is five-dimensional. The relationship between the Yukawa potential and general relativity leads to the third logical proof that space is four-dimensional, only this time the proof deals with the macroscopic world of the greater universe rather than the microscopic world of the quantum.

The Cosmological Connection

In the late 1920s, Edwin Hubble observed that other galaxies were receding from our Milky Way galaxy with increasing speed as the distance to the other galaxies increased. These observations indicated that our universe is expanding. Georges-Henri Lemaitre and others who developed the expansion hypothesis by a theoretical application of general relativity had already predicted the expansion. The marriage of observation and theory in this case produced one of the most spectacular successes for science in the twentieth century. The simple notion of an expanding universe is usually explained by analogy to a two- dimensional surface expanding in a third dimension.

A good example would be a balloon with spirals drawn on its surface to represent galaxies. When the balloon is blown up and expands, the spirals spread

 

536 J. E. Beichler

apart and move away from each other in the same pattern of motion that the receding galaxies show during astronomical observation. The expanding surface of the balloon is analogous to our expanding universe, the difference being that the balloon is a two-dimensional surface expanding outward in a third direction while the universe is a three-dimensional surface expanding into 'who knows what'. Although the phrase 'who knows what' is not an appropriate phrase for scientific use, it does represent how science views the question of what the universe is expanding into.

Some versions of modern brane theory postulate variously dimensioned branes curved in higher-dimensional bulks, so brane theorists could claim that the universe is expanding into the embedding bulks. However, brane theories have other problems to overcome: There is a discontinuity between the branes and the bulks in which they are embedded, such that the branes and bulks are separate things. As such, they break the continuity of the space-time continuum. The brane theories are based upon Klein's interpretation of Kaluza's five-dimensional theory of space-time, but they violate the basic assumptions upon which Kaluza unified electromagnetism and gravity as expressed by general relativity: Kaluza assumed the continuity of four-dimensional space-time with the fifth and higher dimension. So it would seem that the brane theories as well as the superstring theories upon which they were conslrucled are at odds with their own basic premise.

However, the balloon analogy gives more information about the expansion than ordinarily suspected, which implies an answer to this unanswered question about what the universe is expanding into. The spirals drawn on the balloon's surface are all rotating and expanding relative to a single point, the geometric center of the balloon, rather than any center on the surface of the balloon. This part of the analogy is often used to argue that our universe has no center within its three-dimensional expanse, which is true. The curvature of space-time in general relativity has always been considered an intrinsic property of space-time such that a higher embedding dimension has been unnecessary to explain observed and suspected phenomena. However, a higher embedding dimension, demonstrating that the curvature of space-time is an extrinsic property, is still perfectly compatible with general relativity (Misner et al., 1973). Extrinsic curvature is sufficient to explain the effects of general relativity, but has never been considered necessary as long as the idea of intrinsic curvature was con- sidered more likely. But if the concept of extrinsic curvature and a higher embedding spatial dimension does not represent our true reality, simple rela- tivity will be violated in the case of the expanding universe and other astronomical observations.

In the balloon analogy, as stated above, the plane of rotation of the spirals and the recession of the spirals as the balloon expands are all oriented relative to a single point, the center of curvature of the balloon's surface. In the real three-dimensional spatially extended universe, all of the galaxies rotate and recede from each other at all possible angles or orientations in three-dimensional space. Yet you cannot have a mathematical property true for one configuration

 

Five Dimensions of Space-Time 537

of spatial dimensions (two dimensions embedded in three-dimensional space) that is not true for another configuration (three dimensions embedded in a four- dimensional space). Such an inconsistency would destroy the validity of the mathematical model. The general geometric properties are the same for all spaces and embedding manifolds for an n-dimensional geometry embedded in an n+l-dimensional manifold. Riemannian geometry is based upon this simple idea. So, there is a logical necessity that the orientation of all of the galaxies in the expanding universe be relative to a single point or center of curvature of the universe. The natural rotations of galaxies in the universe are all relative to the same point, and the planes of galactic rotation are all tangential to the three- dimensional surface that is our space, which is perpendicular to the real extrinsic radii drawn between them and the center of a physically real curvature of our universe in a fourth spatial dimension.

In this case, it is illogical to speak of the overall curvature of the universe and then deny the reality of the higher embedding dimension because of a human sensory and perceptual bias against the possibility of a fourth spatial dimension. Perhaps local spatial curvature can be explained away as an intrinsic charac- teristic of the space-time continuum, but the concept of intrinsic curvature on a global level is untenable. The notion of an intrinsic radius of curvature for the whole of the universe is illogical. The three-dimensional surface of our universe is closed such that it forms a Riemannian sphere, which would require a higher embedding dimension to account for the closure. Once again, the only way to derive a direction perpendicular to all three dimensions of space simultaneously would be to adopt the geometry of a real four-dimensional embedding space. That fourth dimension or direction is orthogonal to the normal three dimensions of space. So the observed three-dimensional orientation of astronomical bodies directly requires the reality of a fourth spatial dimension. In effect, our three- dimensional universe is expanding into a fourth dimension of space. The simple fundamental notions of relative motion and actual observation, rather than any specific theory, logically require that our space is four-dimensional and thus space-time is five-dimensional.

The Kaluza Confirmation

While these logical proofs may not be completely persuasive or even persuasive enough to sway the attitudes of many within the general scientific community, there are other extenuating factors and circumstances that should be persuasive given the validity of the logical proofs. Also, these three logical proofs should be considered independent of any particular hyper-dimensional theory of space-time. They only indicate that some higher-dimensional theory would give a more correct picture of our physical reality without specifying the exact theory to be used. Yet there is already a specific scientific theory that successfully utilizes a five-dimensional space-time geometry to unify general relativity and electromagnetism: Kaluza's 1921 theory. Kaluza's theory has been largely ignored in spite of its successful derivation of Maxwell's electromagnetic

 

538 J. E. Beichler

theory from the general relativity of a five-dimensional space-time continuum. Most modern scientists are only familiar with Kaluza's theory through its association with the work of Oskar Klein, altering the theory to the Kaluza-Klein model of space-time. Little is known of Kaluza's original theory under these circumstances. Klein's subsequent adaptation of the theory (Klein 1926a, 1926b, 1927) was an attempt to incorporate quantum theory into the geometry of space-

time. But Kaluza's theory can stand alone on its own merits, without considering 7

Klein s extended version of the theory into the realm of the quantum. Kaluza's original theory had nothing to do with the quantum.

According to Kaluza's original theory, two mathematical conditions are necessary to unify general relativity and electromagnetic theory. All points in the four-dimensional space-time continuum are extended orthogonally into the fifth dimension along what Kaluza called A-lines. The A-lines follow circular paths in the fifth direction back to our space-time continuum, so they are closed with respect to the fifth direction. Kaluza's first condition was to close the system in the fifth direction, but the A-lines were also required to be of equal length, giving the second condition. Kaluza also suggested that the A-lines are infinitesimally short to guarantee that we could not detect the fifth dimension, although this suggestion was not a required mathematical condition. The two conditions were necessary to guarantee the mathematical consequences of add- ing the fifth dimension: Deriving the equations of general relativity by applying a four-transformation while obtaining the equations of electromagnetism by applying a cut-transformation.

If either of the initial conditions were to be changed or relaxed in any manner, it is possible and even likely that the results of the change would render electromagnetism and gravity incompatible if not break Kaluza's link between them altogether. But Kaluza also assumed, without so stating, a third condition of continuity in the fifth direction. Continuity was built into the calculus that Kaluza used to develop his geometrical model. So if continuity is forfeited, then Kaluza's theory could still fall apart. Before any of these conditions is changed in new extensions of Kaluza's theory, it must be shown that any of these changes, or any combination of them, does not alter Kaluza's results, the unifi- cation of gravity and electromagnetism. There are no middle roads to take here; it is all either black or white. If Kaluza's initial conditions were altered in any manner that breaks or weakens the link between gravity and electromagnetism, then the extension would be invalid for having destroyed the very foundations upon which the new theory is based. Yet changes in these conditions have been made to expedite the development of modern theories and thus could have a direct bearing on the validity of the supergravity, superstring and brane theories, all of which depend on extended versions of the Kaluza-Klein model.

When Klein adopted Kaluza's theory in an attempt to quantize the unified field, he did not relax or alter Kaluza's conditions. He merely followed Kaluza's suggestion that the extension in the fifth direction must be extremely small since we cannot detect the extra dimension. Klein equated the periodicity in the

 

Five Dimensions of Space-Time 539

'closed loop' condition to the quantum of action. At the time, Klein's version of the theory was largely ignored by the scientific community, which was mesmer- ized by other developments in quantum theory such as quantum mechanics and wave mechanics. Unfortunately, Klein could not make his theory work. He rejected his first theory and made two later attempts to rectify the errors in his theory, in 1939 and 1947 (Klein 1939, 1947), but eventually rejected his basic hypothesis and gave his theory up as a lost cause.

Klein's adaptation of Kaluza's theory, the Kaluza-Klein theory, was re- discovered in the 1970s and adopted by supergravity theorists as a method to unify gravity with the latest versions of the quantum field theories and the standard model of elementary particles. The superstring theorists adopted the Kaluza-Klein theory a few years later, but both groups of theorists have expanded the number of dimensions to 10,11or more. However, these scientists have never demonstrated that adding the extra dimensions above Kaluza's original five would remain consistent with the original purpose of Kaluza's theory to unify general relativity and electromagnetism. These theories are untenable and speculative and they will remain so until superstring theorists can demonstrate that adding the extra dimensions does not alter the connection between Einstein and Maxwell's theories that Kaluza's five-dimensional structure established.

On the other hand, any extension of the Kaluza-Klein theory that is super- imposed on a quantum field theory should also suffer from fundamental problems because quantum field theories are by their very nature based upon a discrete model that is at odds with the assumed condition of continuity in Kaluza's original theory. Nor have the superstring theorists explained how the curvature of space-time fits into their theories, even though they take general relativity for granted as the basis of their theories. Any Kaluza or Kaluza-Klein theory that retains the infinitesimal (or Planck) extension of length in the fifth direction must deal with the same fundamental problem. The adoption of a real physical five-dimensional space-time structure, instead of a limited purely mathematical model, implies that curvature is an extrinsic characteristic of our common four-dimensional space-time continuum. However, an infinitesimally extended fifth direction seems to retain the intrinsic nature of the four- dimensional space-time by not explaining how the concept of curvature fits into the model, creating a paradox.

The superstring theories have evolved into the more general 'brane' theories. Several 'brane' theorists have speculated on all types of structures including dual three-dimensional branes, five-dimensional branes, colliding branes and curved branes within a bulk, to mention only a few examples. But it seems that they have yet to demonstrate whether these geometrical structures conform to the basic hypotheses upon which their theories depend, Kaluza's initial derivation of the general relativity and electromagnetic formulas from an extremely limited and conditional five-dimensional mathematical model of a continuous space- time. The Randall-Sundrum theory offers a case in point (Randall & Sundrum,

1999a, 1999b). In the Randall-Sundrum model, two branes are separated

1

 

540 J. E. Beichler

by a higher-dimensional bulk. One of the branes represents our common three-dimensional curved space, while gravitons traveling from our brane to the other brane are the only direct links between the branes. In one model, the second brane is an infinite distance away, effectively limiting our world to the single brane embedded in the bulk and guaranteeing a weak gravitational force. However, this model is in direct violation of Kaluza's condition that our four- dimensional world is closed with respect to the higher fifth dimension. Brane theories of this type must be required to demonstrate that their models do not disrupt the unification of electromagnetism and gravity in the Kaluza model upon which they are based. Yet no one has ever argued or even explored how such changes would affect the basic underlying principles of the original mathematical unification model developed by Kaluza.

The only theoretical research ever conducted to determine the mathematical consequences of changing Kaluza's theory only considered the relaxation of his initial suggestion of an infinitesimal extension, rather than changing any of his initial conditions. Einstein and Peter G. Bergmann completed this change in 1938 (Einstein & Bergmann, 1938). Einstein, Bergmann and Valentine Bargmann again considered it in 1941 (Einstein et al., 1941). They retained the 'closed loop' and 'equal length' conditions and remained within a continuous mathematical model of five-dimensional space-time, but allowed for the possibility of macroscopically extended lengths of the A-lines. Under these conditions, they were still able to derive Maxwell's formulas and thus maintain Kaluza's unification. But Einstein eventually gave up this avenue of research toward his goal of a unified field theory because he could not justify the notion of a normal sized fifth dimension that could not be sensed or detected in any manner. Even so, Einstein listed the five-dimensional approach as one of three possibilities to develop a unified field theory in his last published book before he died (Einstein, 1956). He stipulated that the five-dimensional hypothesis would only be tenable if it could be explained why the fifth dimension cannot be detected.

Conclusion

These three logical proofs, in themselves, will not immediately change the course of science. Science has ignored the implied existence of a real fourth spatial dimension for more than a century, so it will not be so easily compelled to accept it now. However, it is not just the three logical proofs that indicate the existence of a fourth spatial dimension to our universe. It is a preponderance of the evidence that will soon force science to accept the four-dimensional reality of space. The value of these three logical proofs will only become evident over [he lvnger term of scientific advances.

While logically proving the existence of a fourth dimension to space, these proofs also imply the geometric structure of that dimension relative to the other three. First of all, the fourth dimension of space would be different, like time, from the other three common dimensions of space. Otherwise, four- dimensionality would adversely affect the inverse square law and thus conflict

  

Five Dimensions of Space-Time 541

with normally accepted physical laws. Instead, the fourth dimension should be characterized by changing magnetic potential except inside elementary particles where the space curvature corresponding to matter would assume the shape of an exponential curve. Both of these characteristics imply that the total extension of space in the fourth direction cannot be infinitesimally small or even microscopic as in Klein's version of Kaluza's theory. The exponentially shaped singularity at the center of elementary particles such as protons would require a non- infinitesimal extension of space in the higher dimension.

In other words, if the magnetic potential and Yukawa potential exist in nature as described, then the fourth dimension of space, or the fifth dimension of space- time, cannot be infinitesimally extended. Both logical arguments imply that the extra higher dimension is macroscopically extended as Einstein, Bergmann and Bargmann demonstrated. It is provident that Kaluza's theory has already been developed as the basis for a new unification, but the macroscopic extension in the fourth direction of space means that the present unification theories that are based upon Kaluza's suggestion and Kaluza-Klein models are not valid. The path of unification that science must follow is the path that physics and nature leads us down, not the path that some scientists decide that nature must logically follow, no matter how 'beautiful' or aesthetically pleasing those theories might be. The path that nature has decided for science is the one that leads to the four- dimensionality of space (the Clifford model) and the five-dimensionality of the space-time continuum (the Einstein-Kaluza model).

 

Much of the early work on five-dimensional space was in an attempt to develop a theory that unifies the four fundamental interactions in nature: strong and weak nuclear forces, gravity and electromagnetism. German mathematician Theodor Kaluza and Swedish physicist Oskar Klein independently developed the Kaluza–Klein theory in 1921, which used the fifth dimension to unify gravity with electromagnetic force. Although their approaches were later found to be at least partially inaccurate, the concept provided a basis for further research over the past century.

 

Space-time--time couples Kaluza's five-dimensional geometry with Weyl's conformal space-time geometry to produce an extension that goes beyond what either of those theories can achieve by itself. Kaluza's ``cylinder condition'' is replaced by an ``exponential expansion constraint'' that causes translations along the secondary time dimension to induce both the electromagnetic gauge transformations found in the Kaluza and the Weyl theories and the metrical gauge transformations unique to the Weyl theory, related as Weyl had postulated. A space-time--time geodesic describes a test particle whose rest mass, space-time momentum, and electric charge q, all defined kinematically, evolve in accord with definite dynamical laws. Its motion is governed by four apparent forces: the Einstein gravitational force, the Lorentz electromagnetic force, a force proportional to the electromagnetic potential, and a force proportional to a scalar field's gradient d(ln phi). The test particles exhibit quantum behavior: (1) they appear and disappear in full-blown motion at definite events; (2) all that share an event E of appearance or disappearance do so with the same charge magnitude |q| = phi(E); (3) conservation of space-time--time momentum at such an event entails conservation of electric charge in addition to conservation of space-time momentum, among the participating particles; (4) at such events the d(ln phi) force infinitely dominates the other three --- this strongly biases the appearance and disappearance events to be concentrated deep in the discretely spaced potential wells of ln phi, and sparse elsewhere.

 

To explain why this dimension would not be directly observable, Klein suggested that the fifth dimension would be rolled up into a tiny, compact loop on the order of 10-33 centimeters. Under his reasoning, he envisioned light as a disturbance caused by rippling in the higher dimension just beyond human perception, similar to how fish in a pond can only see shadows of ripples across the surface of the water caused by raindrops.[2] While not detectable, it would indirectly imply a connection between seemingly unrelated forces. The Kaluza–Klein theory experienced a revival in the 1970s due to the emergence of superstring theory and supergravity: the concept that reality is composed of vibrating strands of energy, a postulate only mathematically viable in ten dimensions or more. Superstring theory then evolved into a more generalized approach known as M-theory. M-theory suggested a potentially observable extra dimension in addition to the ten essential dimensions which would allow for the existence of superstrings. The other 10 dimensions are compacted, or "rolled up", to a size below the subatomic level. The Kaluza–Klein theory today is seen as essentially a gauge theory, with the gauge being the circle group.

 

The fifth dimension is difficult to directly observe, though the Large Hadron Collider provides an opportunity to record indirect evidence of its existence. Physicists theorize that collisions of subatomic particles in turn produce new particles as a result of the collision, including a graviton that escapes from the fourth dimension, or brane, leaking off into a five-dimensional bulk. M-theory would explain the weakness of gravity relative to the other fundamental forces of nature, as can be seen, for example, when using a magnet to lift a pin off a table — the magnet is able to overcome the gravitational pull of the entire earth with ease.

 

Mathematical approaches were developed in the early 20th century that viewed the fifth dimension as a theoretical construct. These theories make reference to Hilbert space, a concept that postulates an infinite number of mathematical dimensions to allow for a limitless number of quantum states. Einstein, Bergmann and Bargmann later tried to extend the four-dimensional spacetime of general relativity into an extra physical dimension to incorporate electromagnetism, though they were unsuccessful.[1] In their 1938 paper, Einstein and Bergmann were among the first to introduce the modern viewpoint that a four-dimensional theory, which coincides with Einstein-Maxwell theory at long distances, is derived from a five-dimensional theory with complete symmetry in all five dimensions. They suggested that electromagnetism resulted from a gravitational field that is “polarized” in the fifth dimension.

 

www.scientificexploration.org/docs/21/jse_21_3_beichler.pdf

 

The main novelty of Einstein and Bergmann was to seriously consider the fifth dimension as a physical entity, rather than an excuse to combine the metric tensor and electromagnetic potential. But they then reneged, modifying the theory to break its five-dimensional symmetry. Their reasoning, as suggested by Edward Witten, was that the more symmetric version of the theory predicted the existence of a new long range field, one that was both massless and scalar, which would have required a fundamental modification to Einstein's theory of general relativity. Minkowski space and Maxwell's equations in vacuum can be embedded in a five-dimensional Riemann curvature tensor.

 

In 1993, the physicist Gerard 't Hooft put forward the holographic principle, which explains that the information about an extra dimension is visible as a curvature in a spacetime with one fewer dimension. For example, holograms are three-dimensional pictures placed on a two-dimensional surface, which gives the image a curvature when the observer moves. Similarly, in general relativity, the fourth dimension is manifested in observable three dimensions as the curvature path of a moving infinitesimal (test) particle. 'T Hooft has speculated that the fifth dimension is really the spacetime fabric.

  

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-dimens

The benefits of being physically fit and in good health are invaluable, good health is treasured by people who might have for one reason or the other experienced a case of illness that made them realize the value of being healthy and physically fit. There are only benefits from these two states...

 

halfmyweight.com/7-benefits-of-health-and-fitness/

I am often asked why I never post photographs of myself.

 

The truth is, I've never really liked myself.

 

At age 27 I hit "rock bottom", after spending my teens and early/mid-twenties trapped in a cycle of self-harm and suicidal ideation.

 

I hit rock bottom on June 12, 2017. That same day I decided to retool my hatred and self-loathing, using it as fuel to create a new, more fulfilling existence.

 

Through rational self-analysis, I identified the aspects of my personality I despised and what triggered their manifestation. Through a new-found love of weight lifting, I ground those detrimental aspects of my psyche out of me.

 

Through sheer force of will I broke myself down physically, mentally and emotionally, and from the ashes I reconstructed an individual I could tolerate, if not fully accept.

 

While I am still susceptible to episodes of soul-scraping depression and self-loathing, those episodes are few and far between (think every two or three years rather than every waking moment.)

 

Potentiality is a wellspring of ever-present hope, and that is what keeps me going. Inner peace still eludes me, however, which means there are still loftier and more ambitious accomplishments to strive for.

 

For now, these words and this photograph are as close to a portrait of O . . .Phuck!™ (a.k.a. Prichard Nixon!) as you get.

 

"You are allowed to be a masterpiece and a work-in-progress simultaneously." - Sophia Bush

My father was born during the Great Depression, to a hard working but poor farming family and his early life was physically and financially challenging.

As a young man, as soon as he turned 18, he volunteered for the military. He served bravely and without hesitation as an officer in the USN - in the Pacific Theater for 4 years during World War II and later, for 2 years during the Korean War.

His adult life was colored by the 1950s - perhaps the last time in the USA when morality, ethics,and a man's approach to life were simply and clearly prescribed and this defined his approach to marriage, children, and career .

 

I was a child of the 1960s and early 70s - a hippie, a flower child, a political radical. As many fathers and sons from that period can attest to, this translated to a difficult and often confrontational relationship.

We never resolved our differences but fortunately, over time, as he mellowed and I matured, we came to respect each other. Though our views and decisions on how we chose to lead our lives differed dramatically, I came to appreciate that my father was a man who lived true to his beliefs.

He was the most honest and personally responsible individual I have ever met. Though my life has followed a quite different path, I owe much of my own personal strength and integrity to his guidance. insight and example.

 

So this one is in thankful remembrance of you Dad. Love you!

   

youtu.be/syvF_cutj8w

It's 1865 and the telegraph is heading west. George Crane, wanting to keep law and order out of his territory, is out to stop the construction. The engineer on the job is Ken Mason and he is the grandson of Zorro. As Crane sends his men or Indians to stop the work, Mason repeatedly puts on the Zorro costume and rides to the rescue in this 12-chapter serial.

 

Clayton Moore

September 14th, 1914 — December 28th, 1999

 

Clayton Moore, though best remembered today as television’s Lone Ranger, had a lengthy and distinguished career in serials. Moore was a physically ideal serial lead, but his greatest strengths were his dramatic, quietly intense speaking voice and expressive face. These gifts helped Moore to convey a sincerity that could make the most unbelievable dialogue or situations seem real. The bulk of Moore’s cliffhanger work was done after World War 2, when serials’ shrinking budgets cut back on original action scenes and made the presence of skilled leading players more important than in the serial’s golden age. Moore, with his sincerity and acting skill, was just the type of actor the post-war serials needed.

Clayton Moore was born Jack Carlton Moore in Chicago. He began to train for a career as a circus acrobat at the age of eight, and joined a trapeze act called the Flying Behrs after finishing high school; as a member of the Behrs, Moore would perform for two circuses and at the 1934 World’s Fair. An injury to his left leg around 1935 forced him out of the aerialist business, and after working briefly as a male model in New York he moved to Hollywood in 1937, beginning his film career as a stuntman. He played numerous bit roles in addition to his stunt work for the next three years, among them a miniscule part in his first serial, Zorro’s Fighting Legion (Republic, 1939), as one of the members of the titular group. Edward Small, an independent producer allied with United Artists, cast Moore in his first credited parts in a pair of 1940 films, Kit Carson and The Son of Monte Cristo. The former featured Moore as a heroic young pioneer, the latter as an army officer aiding masked avenger Louis Hayward. Following these two films, Moore began to get credited speaking parts in other pictures. In 1941 he played the romantic lead in Tuxedo Junction, one of Republic Pictures’ “Weaver Brothers and Elviry” comedies, and the next year the studio signed him for his first starring serial, Perils of Nyoka (Republic, 1942).

Perils of Nyoka (Republic, 1942) was a vehicle for Republic’s new “Serial Queen,” Kay Aldridge, who played Nyoka Gordon, a girl seeking her missing scientist father in the deserts of North Africa. Moore was the heroic Dr. Larry Grayson, a member of an expedition searching for the “Tablets of Hippocrates,” an ancient list of medical cures sought by Nyoka’s father before he disappeared. Nyoka joined forces with Grayson and his expedition to locate Professor Gordon and the tablets–and to battle Arab ruler Vultura (Lorna Gray) and her band of desert cutthroats, who were after the Tablets and the treasure hidden with them. Perils of Nyoka was a highly exciting serial, with consistently imaginative and varied action sequences, and colorful characters and locales. Although Moore took second billing to Aldridge, his character received as much screen time as hers and his performance was a major part of the serial’s success. Moore, with his intense sincerity, made his nearly superhuman physician character believable; the audience never felt like questioning Dr. Grayson’s ability to perform emergency brain surgery on Nyoka’s amnesiac father in a desert cave, or his amazing powers of riding, wall-scaling, marksmanship, and sword-fighting, far beyond those of the average medical school graduate.

  

Moore went into the army in 1942, almost immediately after the release of Perils of Nyoka. He served throughout World War Two, and didn’t resume his film career until 1946, when he returned to Republic Pictures to appear in The Crimson Ghost. The impact of his starring turn in Perils of Nyoka was diminished by his long hiatus, and he found himself playing a supporting role in this new serial. He was cast as Ashe, the chief henchman of the mysterious Crimson Ghost, and aided that villain in his attempts to steal a counter-atomic weapon called a “Cyclotrode.” Ashe was ultimately brought to justice, along with his nefarious master, by stars Charles Quigley and Linda Stirling. The Crimson Ghost showed that Moore could play intensely mean villains as well as intensely courageous heroes. His sneering, bullying Ashe came off as thoroughly unpleasant, as he stalked through the serial doing his best to kill off hero and heroine.

  

Moore returned to heroic parts in his next cliffhanger, Jesse James Rides Again (Republic, 1947). The serial’s plot had Jesse, retired from outlawry, forced to go on the run because of new crimes committed in his name. Jesse and his pal Steve (John Compton) wound up in Tennessee, where, under the alias of “Mr. Howard,” Jesse came to the aid of a group of farmers victimized by an outlaw gang called the Black Raiders. The Raiders, secretly bossed by local businessman Jim Clark (Tristram Coffin), were after oil reserves beneath the local farmland, but Mr. Howard ultimately outgunned them. James’ own identity was exposed in the process, but he was allowed to escape arrest by a sympathetic marshal. Jesse James Rides Again was Republic’s best post-war Western serial, thanks in part to the unusual plot device of an ex-badman hero. Moore was able to give Jesse James a dangerous edge that most other serial leads couldn’t have pulled off; his cold, steely-eyed glare when gunning down villains seemed very much in keeping with dialogue references to Jesse’s outlaw past.

 

G-Men Never Forget (Republic, 1947), Moore’s next serial, cast him as Ted O’Hara, an FBI agent battling a racketeer boss named Vic Murkland (Roy Barcroft). O’Hara broke up various protection rackets organized by Murkland, but his efforts were hampered by Murkland’s impersonation of a kidnaped police commissioner (also played by Barcroft). G-Men Never Forget possessed a tough and realistic atmosphere not typical of gang-busting serials, and Moore delivered a grimly determined performance well-fitted to the serial’s mood. Moore’s acting, good supporting performances, skilled direction, and a well-written script made G-Men Never Forget a superior serial, one that could hold its own against earlier gang-busting chapterplays like the Dick Tracy outings.

 

Moore’s next serial was Adventures of Frank and Jesse James (Republic, 1948), in which he reprised his Jesse James role. Joined this time by Steve Darrell as Frank James, Moore tried to help a former gang member named John Powell (Stanley Andrews) develop a silver mine. Part of the mine’s proceeds were to be used to pay back victims of James Gang robberies, but the plan was derailed by a crooked mining engineer (John Crawford), who discovered the mine contained gold instead of silver and murdered Powell to keep this find secret. Crawford then used every trick in the book to keep Moore, Darrell, and Noel Neill (as Powell’s daughter) from developing the mine, but the James Boys unmasked his treachery by the end. Frank and Jesse James drew heavily on stock footage and plot elements from Republic’s earlier Adventures of Red Ryder, and was thus more predictable than its predecessor, but it was still an entertaining and well-made serial. Moore again made Jesse seem both sympathetic and (when fighting the bad guys) somewhat frightening.

 

By now, Moore was established as Republic’s premiere serial hero; however, his next cliffhanger would lead to his departure from the studio and change the course of his career. The last in a long line of Republic Zorro serials, Ghost of Zorro (1949) starred Moore as Ken Mason, the original Zorro’s grandson, who donned his ancestor’s mask to help a telegraph company establish a line in the wild West in the face of outlaw sabotage. Like Adventures of Frank and Jesse James, the serial was somewhat derivative of earlier outings (particularly Son of Zorro), but smoothly and professionally done. Moore delivered another strong performance, but for some odd reason Republic chose to have his voice dubbed by another actor in scenes where he was masked as Zorro. This strange production decision did not diminish Moore’s potential as a masked hero in the eyes of a group of television producers who were trying to find an actor to play the Lone Ranger on a soon-to-be-launched TV show; Moore’s turn in Ghost of Zorro landed him the part. Moore debuted as the Ranger in 1949, and played the part for two seasons on TV. During this period, he did make one apparent serial appearance in Flying Disc Man From Mars (Republic, 1950), but all his footage actually came from The Crimson Ghost.

 

In 1952, Moore was dropped from The Lone Ranger without any explanation from the producers, who apparently feared that Moore was becoming too identified as the Lone Ranger, and that he might become so sure of his position that he’d ask for a bigger salary. John Hart replaced Moore as the Ranger for the show’s third season, and Moore returned to freelance acting. He played numerous small roles in feature films, made multiple guest appearances (usually as a heavy) on TV shows like Range Rider and The Gene Autry Show, and also found time to make four more serials.

The first of these was Radar Men from the Moon (Republic, 1952), which featured Moore as a gangster named Graber, who was working with lunar invaders to bring the Earth under the dominion of Retik, Emperor of the Moon (Roy Barcroft). Scientist “Commando” Cody (George Wallace) opposed the planned conquest with the aid of his flying rocket suit and other handy gadgets. Moore met a fiery demise when his car plummeted off a cliff in the last chapter, and Retik came to a similarly sticky end shortly thereafter. Moore’s characterization in Radar Men from the Moon was reminiscent of his performance as “Ashe;” once again he performed deeds of villainy with swaggering relish.

 

Moore’s next serial, Columbia’s Son of Geronimo (1952), was his first non-Republic cliffhanger. He returned to playing a hero in this outing, an undercover cavalry officer named Jim Scott out to quell an Indian uprising led by Rodd Redwing as Porico, son of Geronimo. The uprising was being encouraged by outlaws John Crawford and Marshall Reed to serve their own ends, and Scott and Porico ultimately joined forces to defeat them. Son of Geronimo remains one of the few popular late Columbia serials, due to its strong and unusually violent action scenes and the forceful performances of Moore and his co-stars, particularly Reed and Redwing.

 

Moore’s last Republic serial was Jungle Drums of Africa (1952), in which he played Alan King, an American mining engineer developing a valuable uranium deposit in the African jungles. Moore was assisted by lady doctor Phyllis Coates and fellow engineer Johnny Sands and opposed by a group of Communist spies (Henry Rowland, John Cason) and their witch-doctor accomplice (Roy Glenn). While Drums drew extensively on stock shots of African animals to augment its jungle atmosphere, it relied to an unusually large extent on original footage for its action scenes and chapter endings, and the result was a modestly-budgeted but enjoyable serial that served as a good finish to Moore’s career at Republic.

 

Gunfighters of the Northwest (Columbia, 1953), Moore’s final serial, cast him as the second lead, a Mountie named Bram Nevin who backed up RCMP Sergeant Jock Mahoney. Moore, in his first and only “sidekick” role, played well off Mahoney; while the latter’s character was the focus of the serial’s action, Moore’s role was really more that of co-hero than of a traditional sidekick. The serial pitted the two leads against the “White Horse Rebels,” a gang of outlaws trying to overthrow the Canadian government. Though thinly-plotted, Gunfighters, with its nice location photography and good acting, was the last really interesting Columbia serial; it was also Moore’s last serial. In 1954, he returned to the Lone Ranger series, its producers having been forced to realize that Moore was firmly established as the Ranger and that audiences wouldn’t warm up to his substitute John Hart. The fourth and fifth seasons of the show featured Moore in his familiar place as the “daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains.”

 

After the Lone Ranger series ended in 1956, Moore reprised the role in two big-screen movies and then retired from acting. He remained in the public view, however, making personal appearances throughout the country in his Lone Ranger garb. Publicly and privately, he upheld the ideals that the Lone Ranger–and his serial heroes–had upheld on the screen: courage, charity, and a sense of justice. In 1979, he was barred by court order from making personal appearances as the Lone Ranger because the property’s owners worried that Moore’s close identification with the character would undercut a new Lone Ranger film. Moore nevertheless maintained his status as the “real” Lone Ranger in the eyes of fans, and, after the failure of the new Ranger feature, he was allowed to resume his mask in 1984. Moore died in Los Angeles in 1999, leaving behind several generations of fans that honored him not only for his TV persona, but for the kindess that characterized the off-screen man behind the mask.

Part of Clayton Moore’s success as the Lone Ranger was due to his respectful attitude towards the character. While some actors would have had a hard time taking a masked cowboy from a children’s radio show seriously, Moore’s performance was as heartfelt as if he had been playing a Shakespearian role; he gave the part all the benefit of his considerable acting talent. Moore played his cliffhanger roles, heroic and villainous, with the same respect and the same wholeheartedness. It’s no wonder that serial fans hold him in the same high regard that the Lone Ranger’s fans do.

  

For all of you who are or will know returning service members after combat or see them in criminal cases or, indeed, anyone with PTSD (including significant others who have been physically, sexually, or emotionally abused by words, acts, and or neglect), I thought you would be very interested in this article from Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle:

 

PTSD leaves physical footprints on the brain

 

Justin Berton, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

 

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Dr. Thomas Neylan (left) and physicist Norbert Schuff are...

 

At a recent conference for some of the area's leading neurologists, San Francisco physicist Norbert Schuff captured his colleagues' attention when he presented colorful brain images of U.S. soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan and were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

The yellow areas, Schuff explained during his presentation at the city's Veterans Affairs Medical Center, showed where the hippocampus, which plays major roles in short-term memory and emotions, had atrophied. The red swatches marked hyperfusion - increased blood flow - in the prefrontal cortex, the region responsible for conflict resolution and decision-making. Compared with a soldier without the affliction, the PTSD brain had lost 5 to 10 percent of its gray matter volume, indicating yet more neuron damage.

 

Schuff, who was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt just as colorful as the brain images he'd brought, reminded his colleagues that while his findings were preliminary and the trials ongoing, researchers were at least inching closer to finding the biological markers that distinguish a brain affected by PTSD. As the technology of brain imaging improves and the resulting data are refined, doctors believe that one day they will be able to look at a computer screen and see PTSD as clearly as they now see a brain tumor.

 

"But we're still in the infancy of neuroimaging," Schuff cautioned later in his office. "Do you get PTSD because you have a small hippocampus? Or does a small hippocampus mean you'll develop PTSD? That, we still don't know."

 

Schuff's research is at the forefront of a bold push by the Department of Defense to address PTSD, the psychological disorder that will haunt an estimated 30 percent of the veterans returning from the current two wars, according to the Pentagon. Forty thousand veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon officials say, have already been diagnosed with PTSD, which is defined as an anxiety disorder triggered by exposure to traumatic events; symptoms can include nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks.

 

Left untreated, clinicians say, patients with PTSD are more likely to engage in anti-social behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse. The disorder, neurologists are now learning, can also lead to long-term maladies, such as Alzheimer's and dementia.

Manhattan Project urgency

 

The quest is to understand how the disorder begins inside the brain. The Defense Department has invested $78 million in San Francisco's Northern California Institute for Research and Education at the VA center in the past four years, making it the largest VA research institute in the country and the only one that specializes in neuroscience. With 200 researchers on staff, and an estimated 40 ongoing studies that rely on 60 to 80 veterans as research participants, the center has the urgency of a Manhattan Project site, this time searching for a way to end a mental health crisis.

 

The Department of Defense "has such a compelling need for these answers," said Dr. Thomas Neylan, an associate professor of psychiatry at UCSF and director of the post-traumatic stress disorder program at the VA center. "They want to know these answers now, which is the right approach. We want the answers now; people are still going off to the war, coming back, and a lot of them are suffering for a long time."

 

The search for PTSD biological markers through brain imagining is the primary concern of five research centers in the country, including teams at Harvard and Emory universities. Researchers believe that once the markers are defined, successful treatments can be developed.

 

Since 1995, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, has been used to explore the brain through mostly black-and-white images with fuzzy resolution. But in the past few years, advances in computer-imaging technology have enabled neurologists to detect the smallest changes in brain activity.

 

At the San Francisco VA center, thanks to the installment five years ago of a $4 million MRI machine called the 4T - T stands for Tesla, a unit of magnetic field - Schuff and his colleagues are now able to look into the brain at 1 millimeter resolution, in color and in 3-D. By contrast, Schuff said a 1.5T MRI machine could not register atrophy on PTSD brains. But the 7T MRI machine that was installed at the UCSF Mission Bay campus last year can detect microscopic neuron damage that a 4T is incapable of "seeing."

 

"With each stronger magnet, we get a finer view of what's going on in the brain," Neylan said.

 

These advances allow neurologists not only to further understand PTSD, but to study its relationship with brain trauma, one of the leading injuries incurred by soldiers in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The effects of IEDs

 

At the VA conference, titled "The Brain at War: Neurocognitive Consequences of Combat," Col. Karl Friedl, director of the U.S. Army Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, explained why brain injuries have become more prevalent. The main cause: the improvised explosive device, or IED, a homemade device that has become the enemy's signature weapon.

 

While some well-armored soldiers were able to survive the IED blasts, incurring no outward signs of damage, they later complained of dizziness and "having their bell rung," symptoms consistent with the lesser-known mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

 

As many as 150,000 troops have been diagnosed with brain injuries, the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force reported last year, but it's unknown how many suffer from mTBI. Mild brain injuries are less often diagnosed because soldiers often believe getting knocked around is part of the job. But over time, with each successive mild brain injury, the effects can become more severe.

 

The link between mild brain trauma and PTSD is being studied at the VA center in San Francisco by Dr. Gary Abrams, whose preliminary studies show that the overlap between PTSD patients and sufferers of mild brain trauma injury "is tremendous." Abrams has yet to release definitive numbers.

 

During the next two years, Neylan expects the center will produce a few major findings in terms of possible treatments and advances in neuroimaging. One of the outcomes of the advanced brain imaging could be a prescreen test for soldiers to detect brains already showing PTSD tendencies. Neylan, who specializes in the role sleep plays in a healthy mind, is working on a study of police officers who are resistant to PTSD.

 

"We're using this opportunity to also see why some people are able to walk away from these situations and live healthy lives," he said, "and why others are not."

 

Recent attempts to estimate frequency

 

Iraq and Afghanistan: The number of post-traumatic stress disorder cases is in dispute. The Pentagon estimates 30 percent of veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars will be diagnosed with PTSD. Vietnam War: In 1988, a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the rate of Vietnam vets with PTSD at 14.7 percent. But the 1990 National Vietnam Readjustment Study calculated the rate at 30.9 percent. Both relied mainly on self-reporting. In 2006, a paper in the journal Science added to the debate by estimating the rate at 18.7 percent. World War II: Though there was no official PTSD diagnosis until 1980, after World War II the term "shell shock" was reported by veterans troubled by combat experiences. Researchers such as Dr. Charles Marmar at the San Francisco VA center's Northern California Institute for Research and Education estimate the number of WWII vets with PTSD is consistent with the 1-in-5 figures found in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. - Justin Berton

Experiments probe further into post-traumatic stress disorder

 

Four PTSD-related research experiments at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center:

 

Nasal spray: Scott Panter is developing a battlefield-ready nasal spray for troops who suffer brain trauma. After the trauma occurs, the brain swells, causing tissue damage. Panter's nasal spray, applied within 20 minutes of a trauma, would aim to stop the swelling process. Troops could carry the spray in their packs and self-apply or administer to others.

 

D-cycloserine: Dr. Charles Marmar is conducting trials on PTSD patients using D-cycloserine. The drug, which was originally used as an antibiotic for tuberculosis, has also proved to help lab animals "unlearn fear responses." Given in small doses 30 minutes before a therapy session, D-cyclo is meant to help PTSD patients open up about their traumatic experiences and become more willing to engage in therapy. The hypothesis is that the group taking D-cyclo will make more and faster progress in therapy.

 

Blood/gene test: Dr. Lynn Pulliam is trying to establish a blood profile to diagnose PTSD. Using gene array technology, researchers will be able to take an RNA test, much like a DNA test, to determine whether a patient "tests positive" for PTSD.

 

Sleep experiment: Dr. Thomas Neylan is conducting a study on improving veterans' sleep habits without drugs. Neylan said PTSD patients often feel anxious about sleeping, in part because they anticipate insomnia but also because they worry about nightmares. Subjects are coached to avoid substances that interfere with their sleep. "If we get them to sleep better at night," Neylan said, "they'll have fewer nightmares and feel better during the day."

 

- Justin Berton

 

E-mail Justin Berton at jberton@sfchronicle.com.

 

sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/27/MNH611UU...

 

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

 

Being with the right person is caring for another physically, mentally and spiritually. It is caring for another's soul. As the relationship grows deeper over the years each kiss is still as new and exciting as the first, each embrace is a song of ever-deepening love, and each night becomes a celebration of unity and fulfillment. Every day becomes richer and fuller. Being with the right person answers one of the deeper longings of the human soul. It represents the union of opposites, the fulfillment of the law of creation, and is a rare and precious gift from our Creator.

 

My daughter Julie took this photo of Tim and I in Yosemite Valley.

Glebe, Sydney, Australia

 

For one reason or another a lot of my shots from 2011 (and earlier) haven't made it to Flickr. Sometimes I just feel like I need to sit on them for a while, others I just don't get around to posting at the time. Often when I'm experimenting in post-processing I'll go back to an older photo to use as the guinea pig, which is the case here.

 

I know all this makes my photostream inconsistent but I can't see myself ever catching up or posting to Flickr in a chronological order any time soon. In the meantime, my goal for early 2012 is to catch up a little bit. I'm hoping over the next few weeks to share some older images that I like myself but ones that haven't made it beyond my own personal collection. As always, any feedback, especially areas for improvement, would be appreciated.

 

This image is probably one of my more ambitious post-processing efforts for 2011, a panoramic stitch of several HDR images which ended up quite large yet very disappointing to me as a small, internet style image. For detail, I've posted the 'original' here at 4000 pixels across which is about 20% of the actual original.The smaller sizes miss the point of this image entirely so I won't say "best viewed large on black".

These are sake barrels (酒樽). Though empty physically speaking, they're not so, in the spiritual sense. These're called decoration barrels (飾樽).

 

In ancient Japan, rice wine was known as miki (神酒), which means, "god wine". According to Shinto, sake has the power to unify man with the gods. During religious ceremonies, worshipers are given wine. Most shrines get donations from sake brewers but two shrines regulate the donations, namely, Meiji Jingu in Tokyo and Ise Jingu in Mie prefecture.

 

Surprisingly, sakeis normally not kept in wooden barrels for too long as the taste and smell of wood in the sake will then get too strong. Instead, they're kept in steel tanks.

 

(Summarized from: search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20071016wh.html))

 

See where this picture was taken. [?]

 

Explored, Best Position #345

Maybe I'm crazy paranoid, but I physically destroyed 100 or so CD-ROMs before recycling them. Old backup files, mostly, ya just never know what could be on them (credit card numbers, files from Napster that someone working at my company could have downloaded, etc.). Simpler to destroy and greatly reduce the chance that something useful would be found by a resourceful data thief.

 

Obsolete or unrepairable CD's and cases can be recycled. Recordable CD-R's have about 20mg of gold that can be recovered, and some processors can actually remove the data layer, and reuse the plastic disc. If you are worried about proprietary data, you can cut them with a pair of heavy duty tin shears, or place them in a microwave oven with a small glass of water (for one disc, 5 seconds on medium does a fantastic job, and creates a spectacular light show)

 

Since CD's are not very valuable, nobody will pay you for recycling. Send pre-paid by UPS Ground, third-class mail, freight or other surface transportation to NESAR Systems, 420 Ashwood Road, Darlington, PA 16115 (724)827-8172 or Digital Audio Disk Corporation, Attention: Disc Recycling Program, 1800 Fruitridge Ave., Terre Haute, IN 47804-1788, (812) 462-8323a

 

www.obviously.com/recycle/guides/hard.html

• Tillasurp: One of the larger free-swimming marine predators out there, this particular beast reigns supreme among all other fish and assorted sea-dwellers within the waters of planet Dexwhupra, of which the Tillasurp is also the most massive native creature overall, as well as the most physically adept. Leaner and less bulbous in shape, and thus far more agile, compared to other aquatic animals of similar and/or greater caliber, such as the Wresher, Tillasurps propel themselves through water primarily through high-energy stroking of their powerful fins, whose front and hind pairs are curiously rather analogous in their proportional respective lengths to the arms and legs of many a typical humanoid race. This resemblance is further reinforced by the uniquely upright posture in which they do most of their long-distance swimming. Locomotion-wise, Tillasurps are renowned for both their raw speed capacity and their immense stamina, being able to maintain the former across miles and miles of ocean by virtue of the latter, and with them being simple-mindedly ravenous beings that spend nearly their entire lives pursuing food, this high aptitude for mobility makes most of their existences very undemanding, at the expense of the assorted smaller marine critters that compose their predominantly carnivorous diet. The Tillasurp's highly-complex and equally-efficient system of oral structures, including a wide and tall-opening jaw, an intensely powerful bite, externally-embedded extra teeth for drawing in matter that might otherwise escape its chomping maw and a long, adhesively-gripping tongue, additionally make things even easier for itself, and likewise harder for its prey. Furthermore, the thorny protrusions at the bottoms of a Tillasurp's rear/lower fin-limbs bear a form of venom that can be delivered into enemies via a lashing, stabbing-esque attack. Instances of this specialized attack's necessity are seldom, however, and the venom it administers, while lethal to most other forms of aquatic life present on Dexwhupra, is generally non-deadly to any humanoid explorer who might come into hostile contact with a Tillasurp, in which event said explorer should be far more concerned about being bitten in half or even swallowed whole by its previously-described jaws. Tillasurps, though, are usually unaggressive towards any non-provoking humanoids they come across, and face-to-face encounters with them by Rekadolays are uncommon, the latter Dexwhupran natives rarely venturing into their homeworld's major water-bodies. Strangely, it has nevertheless been verifiably noted that the vast majority of violent altercations between Tillasurps and Rekadolays, ostensibly explainable on their own as freak accidents, have historically involved the young, ethically-impartial forms of the humanoids, as opposed to either of their race's transformed states, as the victims.

 

The raw flesh of the Tillasurp is not particularly resilient against piercing and other forms of physical trauma, but any and all such shortcomings that the animal might suffer from in terms of sturdiness are more-than-compensated for by its possession of blood that coagulates very quickly, even in water, plus a selective handful of redundant "backup" organs, ensuring that the creature's effective toughness is up-to-par with that of other comparably-sized organisms; its average durability value range is calculated at 2,200-2,800. Ultimately, the only real inherent weakness of the Tillasurp species is one that affects not the individual specimen, but rather the reproductive sustainability of its race: the majority of matings do not yield viable offspring, multiple births from a single coupling are nigh-unheard of, and freshly-born Tillasurps take several cycles' worth to properly develop in size and physical aptitude, during which time they must fend for themselves, and frequently end up failing to do so. These procreative limitations are largely necessary to keep the otherwise-overly-fit beasts from becoming too numerous for the good of the natural ecosystem.

  

• Abinocker: Being a machine-esque angelic entity composed of extra-corporeal material (and one of many varieties that can be accurately described as such), the Abinocker is a fairly rare angel, fewer in number than most other Heavenly creatures of comparable complexity and caliber, whose population originates and mainly dwells inside and around the Super-Supernal Spire, the many-tiered structure acting as a bridge between the central peak of Paradise, where Bestamiak resides and presides, and the Temple of Infinity. Primarily acting as guardians and stewards of this location, Abinockers are also occasionally deployed to other sites throughout the Heavenly Realms and, more rarely, in the mortal realm, per the volition of Bestamiak and/or Vaynmizs, both of whom jointly hold command over them as their breed's patron Heavenly Lord(s) and share this role without any discernible conflict or disagreements between them, surely by virtue of their high-order divine nature.

 

Standing roughly four feet in height while weighing several times as much as any likewise-sized mortal being, the Abinocker's most defining features are the extremities of its two arms, only one of which can even loosely be called a "hand", as well as its primary means of locomotion. The aforementioned extremity of the angel that one could reasonably argue qualifies as a hand, and which may interchangeably reside upon either of its arms, right or left, from specimen to specimen, consists of multiple sets of specialized digits with which the Abinocker comes equipped for the purpose of being able to perform a wide variety of manual tasks, ranging from both simple and complex gripping to such functions as twisting screws in (or out), manually picking locks and even precision welding with a miniature heat-ray. The decided non-hand opposite, meanwhile, consists in its entirety of a large mounted cannon that, despite possessing only a single barrel and lacking any perceivable indicators of function-shifting capabilities, can indeed discharge a great number of different plasma-like materials and energies whose application the Abinocker is able to switch between so seamlessly that doing so while firing continuously will produce no visible disruption in the stream being emitted beyond a smooth shift in color hue. The Abinocker's all-in-one arsenal includes, but is not limited to, volatile Rainbow Energy blasts, standard ballistic fire, lava-like molten energy, controlled application of heat-force for welding on large structures, a freezing beam of ice, a nonlethal "sleep-ray", and even beams that benefit their targets through healing or generating shields of kinetic energy.

 

Although possessing basic legs, Abinockers, while on the move, rely much more heavily on their singular, large treaded wheels whose traction not only allows for movement across all solid surfaces but additionally defies gravity for all intents and purposes, enabling the angels to move up walls at ninety-degree angles (and all other angles, for that matter) and even upside-down across ceilings. In the exceedingly unlikely event that an Abinocker does end up falling from any considerable height, it will automatically land right-side up, wheel-first, sustaining no damage whatsoever regardless of the distance fallen; this has been best-demonstrated through assorted incidents wherein Abinockers have literally fallen from Paradise (or higher) down to the lowermost planes of Neo-Skyhold and immediately resumed unfazed movement back towards their stations without delay thereafter.

 

The headpiece of an Abinocker resembles a triangular prism and features a single eyeball with multiple, clustered pupils in addition to a small mouth that exists strictly for speech purposes but rarely vocalizes much of interest. Encircling this head is a physically-attached ringlike structure, which is counted as a halo by some. Abinockers are very sturdy beings for their size even by the standards of other angels, with an almost exact durability value of 3,000 for nearly all individuals.

  

• Sumnewto: Reputed as a fiend of particularly nightmarish repugnance even by the standards of most other Underworld-spawned beings, this animalistic and masterless demon is best-known for its habitual inclination to appear and proceed to make itself at home within elaborate tombs, temples and other sites of veneration vainly dedicated to famous mortals by their peers, a pattern of behavior that has earned it the popular nickname of the "Defiler". Liable to spontaneous formation from coagulations of dark energies that sporadically occur throughout the Gomorran Desert Plane, the Cycian Deadlands and the Sea of Sludge, Sumnewtos instinctively drift upward towards and into the mortal realm in sub-corporeal energy form subsequent to their "birth", and as such are encountered almost exclusively across various worlds of the Prime Galaxy as opposed to within the Underworld. They are considered among the rarer, scarcer-in-number demonic varieties altogether, with the race's total current population estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000, although this number is believed to be slowly increasing as more new specimens come into being than those that are killed over time.

 

The form in which the Sumnewto is most commonly seen and consequently envisioned in popular consciousness amounts to a towering, brutishly bulky, stout and large-fisted humanoid figure externally composed of largely metallic and stone-like textures and bearing an upwards-protruding, long-necked and tiny-skulled head structure of squishier composition than any other readily visible part of the monster's body and generally resembling a worm and/or maggot. This lumpen core, which extends considerably further downward into its shell past the "neck-hole", is in actuality representative of the Sumnewto's entire fundamental being in the sense that the rest of the demon's active physical form is made to take shape around it through a channeling of Dark Magic energy, and in the event of its destruction, the central entity, provided it remains intact, survives and maintains the ability to form a new body for itself. This rarely matters in practice, though, since almost every instance of a Sumnewto's bodily destruction is due to someone or something else actively setting out to kill it, and once exposed, the wormlike core by itself is nigh-defenseless. The official, rounded durability value calculation for a standard fully-formed Sumnewto is 2,500, while the durability of the demon's "true" body by itself is less than one fifth of said value.

 

Once having situated itself into a mortal-made site of dedication to one or more deceased figures of perceived special importance, a Sumnewto will wordlessly decree the location in question to now be its personal abode and its abode alone, aggressively attacking any and all others who come inside or, in some cases, even near its claimed home. It will never leave until/unless killed or otherwise removed through force, and in the meantime will almost invariably make an utter mess of the place and those contents of it which are held as sacred, subjecting important objects, including the bodies of the site's venerated themselves, to mutilation, consumption, soiling and worse. Some sects of divine worship have suggested Sumnewtos to be intended as part of a natural order rather than being strictly aberrant monsters, believing the demons to serve as a means of deterring and punishing vain worship and idolatry of mortal men and women that is perceived to interfere with the true way of God. It should be noted, however, that no Sumnewto has ever been known to associate itself with sites related to the much more obvious form of such "interference" that is Primal worship.

  

• Umptydon: An omnivorous six-limbed animal of contested classification regarding the basic zoological categories, the Umptydon is an indigenous yet somewhat uncommon denizen of Namyufefe, where its presence can be felt most strongly in and around the world's less-developed territories inhabited by the Hernolalls as opposed to near large Yunstoxan cities and other settlements, towards which it seldom ventures. Generally viewed as a pest - mostly incapable of causing serious harm yet still distinctly troublesome and with its existence in the local ecosystem lacking in beneficial effects to other beings - the Umptydon can be characterized as, above all else, an exceptionally avaricious creature. This holds not only in terms of gluttony but also, and indeed more-so, in its habitual and seemingly pointless collection and hoarding of anything and everything it comes across that it sees value, warranted or otherwise (usually the latter), in. This typically includes, but is far from limited to, mortal-made tools and crafts, rare mineral ores and gems identifiable to an Umptydon for their "sparkly" quality, random (as far as anyone else can tell or is concerned) rocks, leaves and twigs, and even such filth as other animals' waste matter and small critters' carcasses. All these objects in addition to whatever others the Umptydon finds, picks up and decides to keep are then stored inside an organic pouch that is mounted upon the beast's back and is roughly as deep as its torso (which includes its face, the organism lacking a distinct and separate cranium) is tall, and stay there indefinitely until their new owner either is felled or reaches the point where its pouch is filled to capacity. In the event of the latter occurrence, the overburdened Umptydon will deposit the contents of its collected load at a remote personal caching site, usually never to revisit any of it again except to dump even more clutter onto the pile after filling its bag to the brim once more. Curiously and in spite of the Umptydon's elsewhere-evident irrationality and low intelligence, these sites tend to be very well-hidden, to the point that their stumbling-upon by other beings, accidental or otherwise, is quite rare.

 

Umptydons are notorious among Hernolalls for their thieving tendencies, with the creatures commonly wandering into the primitive humanoids' villages and stealing random items, potentially (and, given the tendency of the objects in question to be visibly striking by design, frequently) including crafted idols and other relics of designated importance. Though they are lacking in stealth as well as in basic discretion over when it is ideal to strike, often doing so in broad daylight when dozens of Hernolalls are around to hinder them, Umptydon thieves remain tricky intruders to stop from making off with things of value thanks primarily to their strongly-built legs and consequent natural fleet-footedness. This includes the ability, eerily similar to - and surpassing, speed-wise - a Hernolall's capacity to sprint on all-fours, to fall down forward onto all-sixes for even faster movement carried by every one of its limbs, all while keeping the main body arched upward at such an angle that little-to-nothing is spilled from its mounted pouch as it scurries in this position. Vision, however, is severely impaired while doing this, and large tree trunks and the like have time-and-time-again foiled various unlucky Umptydons' attempts to escape in this fashion from hostile situations of their own provocation. The active hunting of Umptydons, meanwhile, is widely considered to represent more trouble than it's worth, due to both the beast's aforementioned swiftness which is generally unaffected by the load it carries as well as

 

the infrequency of anything significantly valuable being salvageable from their back-bags compared to how much debris, junk, garbage and worse must invariably be searched through in search of any such treasure. Furthermore, no natural part of the Umptydon's body is of any worthwhile use to Hernolalls or anyone else, which is also why the strange pests have no natural predators on Namyufefe. Considering this, it thusly stands as fortunate that these animals have little instinctive drive to mate, whether for reproductive purposes or otherwise, and as a result are far less numerous than they would be were they more sexually active.

 

An Umptydon's only real method of attack consists of jabbing with its upper pair of arms which each bear a single spiked talon, and when threatened, it is much more liable to run away than to stand and fight in this manner. Umptydon durability values range from just above 600 to just below 900.

  

• Fangazzik: The largest and strongest naturally-occurring avian being in the whole of the Prime Galaxy, the Fangazzik boasts a legendary reputation with historians and animal enthusiasts for being the only creature among Ultavnah's native array of naturally-oversized inhabitants that still freely exists elsewhere in the galaxy following its home planet's forcibly-induced isolation and can be met and interacted with to this day.

 

Standing between twenty-five feet and ten meters tall in default, upright standing position, Fangazziks possess very broad and heavy-built central torsos that connect and support limbs and craniums of only marginally lesser proportional mass. Many of their prominent features can be described as considerably upscale versions of ones characteristic of more common birds, including sharp and strong-gripping talons, ruffly masses of variously-colored feathers and, perhaps most pronouncedly of all in the Fangazziks' specific case, large, beaked mouths which here not only are particularly tremendous even relative to the rest of their bodies, but are more often than not held open, revealing the beasts' gaping, toothy maws to palpably intimidating effect. Most notable among of all the Fangazzik's physical attributes, however, are its immense and majestic wings, which represent one of nature's prime candidates for the largest such structures to be found on any mortal animal, with the strength to match. This brings us back to the above-mentioned matter of the Fangazzik species' ultimate escape from the curse that has effectively rendered all other forms of life unique to Ultavnah as lost to the rest of the rest of the universe, which was indeed made possible by the great avians' mighty wings and consequent capacity for free-flight on top of their related ability to store excess oxygen inside a special "third lung"-resembling sack within their bodies and subsequently release it into their respiratory systems at will, effectively allowing them to breathe in zero-atmosphere space for limited periods of time. This combination of abilities, found in nary any other mortal animal, amounts to the Fangazzik being capable of interplanetary travel without the aid of any sort of vehicular apparatus, an endeavor in which the colossal birds have engaged freely and regularly ever since first coming into being, with some individuals even managing within their lifetimes (approximately sixty years, which is actually known to be the shortest natural lifespan of any Ultavnahn creature) to visit all eight octants of the Prime Galaxy; such a feat is otherwise unheard of for non-humanoids. When Ultavnah was sealed off by Lord Reson's magic, thousands of Fangazziks were out and about on, or traveling between, other worlds, and in the present day, a similar number remain active throughout the Prime Galaxy; most live alone, roosting up in remote and secluded locations, but several small, settled herds of Fangazziks, evidently formed for the purpose of maintaining steady reproduction in light of the species population's otherwise scattered and sparse state, are also known to exist.

 

Virtually all known Ultavnahn organisms have been noted to be very physically and environmentally resilient even relative to their great size, and the Fangazzik is no exception; in fact, it could even be argued as a particular standout among the others (based on what remains known about them) in this regard, with most specimens having durability values of well over 4,000, and the strongest individuals frequently surpassing 5,000 or even approaching (though never outright reaching) 6,000. One visible factor that contributes to this toughness is the presence of armored scales on select parts of the Fangazzik's body, which also serves to give the beast somewhat of a "reptilian" vibe to its overall appearance.

 

• Malroquo: Amphibious arthropods found plentifully throughout most regions of Nonfialy's map, Malroquo are widely acknowledged as said planet's apex predatory animals not by the virtues of individual brute force and toughness, in which respects they are hardly special, but rather by those of terrain-versatility and strength in numbers, including group-coordination thereof. A quadrupedal beast standing just-about-evenly with the average Ojohkey height-wise but being considerably more massive than its humanoid peers with girth and density accounted, much of the Malroquo's external body is prominently lined with visibly-striated muscle tissue that is tempered from its typical form to effectively serve as a moderately-durable, leathery natural hide. The Malroquo additionally possesses a jagged, bluish crystal-like shell upon its upper-posterior, covering from its waistline to its shoulders (or the equivalents thereof, in any case) and representing, as one might easily deduce from appearances, another form of built-in protection for the animal: the crystalline structure is on par with many forms of bone damage-absorption-wise, but its usefulness is limited by how little of the overall body it covers. Rather peculiarly, though, the creature's tenderly fleshy head is among its only parts to bear no protective features of note whatsoever, a weakness for which the Malroquo's toughness elsewhere may very well have been developed to compensate… or vice versa. All in all as trauma-resistance goes, the durability values of varying Malroquo specimens start around 800 and peak near 1,200.

 

As for means of attacking prey and/or actively defending itself, a Malroquo generally has two forms of physical aggression at its disposal, the first and arguably primary of these being its large and powerful hands which boast both surprisingly well-formed and articulate sets of fingers and jagged, spiny formations upon their knuckles and wrists, which effectively enhance punching ability while also aiding in the breaking-through of miscellaneous surfaces for other purposes outside of hostile engagement. The beast's other, less-frequently-practical method of attack lies in its feet and the functional, reflex-activated pincers mounted in the fronts of their bases, which are often made use of in conjunction with the simultaneous kicking of two of the Malroquo's legs; the intended result of this maneuver is akin to a pinning tackle, although it has been demonstrated in numerous cases to be a less-than-reliable attack, particularly against sufficiently fast-reflexed humanoids including Ojohkeys.

 

The greatest assets of the Malroquo species, however, lie not in their physical statistics as combatants but in the less-obviously-visible fields of adaptability, with the creatures being more-than-reasonably able to survive and thrive in a very wide range of environment types, including just about all of planet Nonfialy's naturally-occurring biome variations, and communication among others of their own kind to cooperative ends, which is especially impressive considering that Malroquo do not operate in packs by default. Rather, they simply possess the situational discretion and cooperativeness among each other to converge into groups whenever a task is perceived to be worth undertaking yet too monumental for any one of them to individually accomplish. The most recurrent of Malroquo group undertakings has been observed to be the construction of communal nesting grounds, which is often preceded by the mass-clearing-out of debris and/or rival creatures from the sites chosen to serve as such. Also common is the raiding of food stocks from supply-bases belonging to local Ojohkeys, who usually respond to incidents of this nature by going out in armed groups and slaughtering Malroquo on an almost military scale before quickly and inevitably growing bored of this, declaring their vengeance to be exacted and returning home.

The entities comprising the following grouping all hail from Royskanblu, a small but densely-featured and likewise-populated planet located just within the boundaries of the Delta Octant near where it borders the Beta Octant, and noted for the uniquely-structured global society in which all three of its distinct races of humanoid natives live co-dependently…

  

• Loofravan: Stout, somewhat pudgy humanoids of purplish/pinkish-to-bluish complexion, Loofravans are popularly reputed as the most intelligent Royskanbluish citizens while also being the least-physically-adept, while a rather more precisely-accurate characterization for them is as their world's most deeply-thoughtful, devout and, above all, disciplined people. Predisposed, seemingly by a drive intrinsic to their very species, to honor - in any and all ways possible - both the God that created the realm of their inhabitation and the processes of nature that harbored their specific biological formation as a race, the Loofravans are noted for holding the fairly unique viewpoint of these two factors of reality both being equally-important and co-dependent, with neither being adequate for a meaningful and sustainable universe's development without the other. To the end of upholding such notions of honor, Loofravans generally resolve to make the most out of both their own existence and the resources available in the world around them, and per their values and conceptions as a people, this entails an extremely disciplined, productiveness-emphasizing lifestyle, with particular importance being seen in ambitious inventiveness and technological pursuit. Hence, Loofravans have, throughout most of Royskanbluish history, served as the visionaries, though not so much the official political leaders, of their civilization's progress and growth, being very much the "brains" of its global operation. They tend not to be satisfied with "merely" seeing through the same kinds of advancements as other enlightened worlds are all expected to make in due time, either, constantly striving to design truly unique utilities of whose sorts nothing would exist anywhere otherwise while seeing themselves and themselves alone as the ones destined to bring certain ideas to life through their skills of invention. One prime example of a technological concept largely originated in Loofravan science and having since found widespread and practical application elsewhere is that of artificial "psychokinesis" in the form of neurally-interfacing equipment powered and directed in its usage by brainwaves.

 

Loofravans are by far the most well-renowned Royskanbluish people throughout the rest of the Prime Galaxy, mainly by virtue of having the most regular interaction with other worlds and their respective inhabitants; many thousands of them have come to take up residence on different planets, primarily within the Delta and Beta Octants, being driven to do so in large part by the prospects of seeing/exploring the environments, and delving into the research possibilities presented by the resources, of foreign realms. Despite their willingness to physically leave it behind, though, nearly all Loofravans (with those born abroad constituting most of the exceptions) retain a strong, patriotic identification with their homeworld's unique culture and natural conditions that produced them, and they are thusly seen as prominent ambassadors of the Royskanbluish planetary identity, especially the few who go the extra (many thousands of) mile(s) in this regard by venturing beyond the Delta and Beta Octants to explore even more distant worlds. A related tradition, ironically engrained in galactic popular consciousness more prominently than in actual Royskanbluish culture, is for the first Loofravan to reach a planet previously unvisited by their kind to symbolically plant their world's flag at some important location with permission from the natives after successfully meeting with them on amicable terms. Today, the Royskanbluish flag exists in this form on just about every planet with non-hostile humanoid inhabitants, in many cases without any actual Loofravan migrant populations having been established there following the initial visits wherein the banners were planted.

 

In spite of the Loofravan form leaving a lot to be desired physique-wise and being unable to truly overcome its limitations (at least directly), the humanoids are almost as self-disciplining physically as they are mentally, and have developed their own unique system of martial arts, designed specifically to accommodate their particular physical attributes and heavily-utilizing the principle of mind-body synchronization through focus and meditation, which their culture expects (and severely pressures) all of its members to at least semi-regularly dabble in. As a result of this practice and its widespreadness, the average Loofravan, compared to a typical Konvadist, is weaker by a universal standard, but "stronger"/more-adept relative to his/her kind's capacity to grow in strength and skill through training, etc. Overall, 500 is considered a low-end durability value for a Loofravan, and 800 a high-end one.

  

• Konvadist: The most numerous of Royskanblu's peoples, outnumbering the Loofravans by a margin amounting to about 5% of their shared world's total humanoid population, Konvadists are yellowish-skinned beings identifiable by their massive, frequently bearded (even for females) chins while having an otherwise very standard build in terms of both shape and size, as well as in durability value (~800-900). By virtue of the particular format in which their metabolisms are structured and the slow yet efficient rate at which they function, they are also the longest-lived Royskanbluish organisms, humanoid or otherwise, being capable of living for up to a full century and with the very oldest Konvadists ever having died as super-centenarians.

 

Often stereotyped by others in the broader galaxy as the dumbest and most brutish/violent of their world's three prime races, Konvadists are innately warrior-like in their nature, but should in no way be dismissed as violent barbarians, possessing great honor, civility with allies and, most importantly, an aptitude as a people for applying their inherent strengths - ones that various other, genuinely barbaric races would and do use as excuses and means for destructive and cruel behaviors - to constructive ends as an importantly-contributing part of an advanced, enlightened larger society. Indeed, Konvadists form the backbone of Royskanbluish civilization's manual workforce, being responsible for the majority of construction work on the world's cities and other key institutions, of which more new ones continue to be actively, ambitiously built to this day, much more-so than in most other sufficiently-advanced civilizations. Konvadist hands are also the instruments by which most Loofravan-designed equipment is physically assembled, and in many cases, especially where putting a device into mass-production is concerned, this requires a fair bit of intelligent decision-making - specifically in the engineering field - on the parts of the entrusted manual workers. Unfortunately, many tend to overlook this vital role of Konvadist intuition in bringing to fruition that which Loofravans, conversely, are popularly given unduly singular credit for. All in all, the Konvadists serve as the "brawn" to the Loofravans' "brains", with this terminology being meant in the most positive way possible here, where either "component" of the figurative Royskanbluish "equation" of productiveness is equally-important to, co-dependent upon and effectively-cooperative with the other.

 

Konvadists are widely known to be the least-outgoing of their homeworld's races as far as direct galactic interaction goes; the vast majority of them never leave Royskanblu to travel anywhere else at any point in their whole natural lives, and although the same also technically holds true for their Bidempair brethren, remote communication with other world's peoples by Royskanbluish leaders belonging to the latter species still gives galactic society a strong, largely positive hands-on impression of them that the former kind lacks altogether. However, Konvadists generally do not mind their people's lack of galactic exposure, and are almost-uniformly content with their living arrangements and productive, domestically well-appreciated roles within Royskanbluish civilization, which ultimately - albeit inadvertently - ends up contributing to the issue of demeaning-and-worse stereotypical perceptions about them, in that they don't really see a need to do anything about this reputation. The biggest historical exception to the Konvadists' tendencies of shying from foreign interaction arose as a result of the Vision Wars, where numerous members of their race participating, to great effect, in various battles against invading Cosmo'rath forces throughout the Delta Octant; the initially-limited numbers doing so drastically increased starting in the Fourth Cycle of Age 567, following Cosmo'rath's sole major terror attack against Royskanblu during the war which served as an effective provocation for its people to heighten their contributions to the resisting war effort. Today, roughly three out of every five Konvadists still living on any planet besides Royskanblu are descended from those who traveled to said worlds for the war and decided to continue living there after its conclusion, leading to a popular, half-joking "theory" that surmises the humanoids to simply be very reluctant to engage in interplanetary travel.

  

• Bidempair: The least-populous of the Royskanbluish racial triumvirate, comprising one quarter of its citizenry at most (and oftentimes slightly less, depending on fluctuating demographics), Bidempairs are a very physically well-endowed and consequently intimidating people, ranking just below Barserinv's Kierraplips as far as the Prime Galaxy's largest-bodied extant races go; adults generally measure between seven or eight feet - usually closer to the latter threshold - in height. This massiveness, which brings with it proportionally greater-than-average energy intake requirements for each Bidempair, is a major contributing factor to the species' limited numbers in the natural status quo, as are their reproductive limitations, with pregnancy terms lasting significantly longer than for most other humanoid beings and multiple births being nigh-unheard of. Bidempair flesh, predominantly orangish in pigment, is rough and leathery, and as one would be stupid not to expect given their size, they are both the strongest Royskanbluish beings and the most resilient, with the average well-developed adults of their race boasting durability values between 1,100 and 1,300 and individuals of exceptionally dedicated physical self-discipline being able to achieve even greater levels of toughness - the all-time record stands at just below 1,800 - via heavy personal training over the course of several or more years.

 

The Bidempair sub-culture within the greater Royskanbluish civilization is the most relatively-independent from those of the other two races, though just as they bear somewhat more physical resemblance to their Konvadist cousins compared to the Loofravan form, the equivalent can also be said in respects to the races' societal relations. Bidempairs are the most naturalistic and least-technologically-dependent of Royskanblu's peoples, and furthermore are (pretty much rightly) regarded as the most philosophically-wise, practical, responsible and innately leader-like citizens of their world in spite of their comparably primitive, often tribal-like lifestyle tendencies and lacking anything resembling the sheer book-and-tech-smarts of their Loofravan brethren. As a result of these positive stereotypes and their widespread recognition within Royskanbluish culture itself, Bidempairs have long-occupied the majority of leadership positions in their global society's government - which can best be described as a constitutional, departmentalized oligarchy - and are traditionally perceived to be pre-inclined as the best fits for these roles by nature, destiny or both. While some might (and, indeed, frequently do) decry this tradition as system-embedded racial favoritism, very few of the complaints brought up about this over the years (primarily the more recent ones) have actually come from Royskanbluish citizens, most of whom have no qualms with how their (historically very internally-stable) civilization is organized. Also note that there is nothing officially stopping Loofravans and Konvadists from gaining these positions, at least strictly (de facto hurdles from public bias may be a very different story), and that either way, very few of them ever express any interest in doing so, let alone make serious bids for office.

 

Additionally, the bulk of the Bidempair population is not actively involved with pursuing appointment to leading posts either, with a majority of the race's citizenry maintaining fairly simple existences of caring for themselves, family, etc. throughout the entirety of adult life. It is only an ambitious minority of Bidempairs who devote years of their lives to preparing and proving themselves to be worthy of leading large sectors of their global civilization, a gruelingly mettle-testing process that constitutes almost as much of a "career" in and of itself as does actually serving in an office (to the point where providing personal training to the specific end of becoming "leader material" is its own viable business option). The pursuit of authority-qualification for a Bidempair aspirant invariably begins at a local level, with one's immediate peers collectively considering whether or not they should lend their vocal support to one's early efforts to gain sociopolitical traction through recognition. This is judged based on a few different key factors, including one's demonstrated decision-making skills and responsibility, their contributions to society on what is referred to as a "village" (local) scale, and various, sometimes gratuitous and/or savage-seeming feats of strength such as trophy-hunting of large animals; once a Bidempair has gained sufficient recognition beyond a local scope and effectively moves up to a more professional level of political pursuit, the last of these listed factors largely ceases to be relevant in favor of social responsibility becoming the solely primary trait being sought. In spite of its crudeness, this tradition-based system of peer-certification has proven a fairly reliable one for producing adequate selections of quality leadership candidates throughout Royskanbluish history, thanks in main part to the Bidempairs being a very honest people, innately and culturally; any and virtually all corrupt individuals seeking power for selfish-or-worse reasons are quickly weeded out by peers who will have no part of such manipulativeness, for which their culture's standard punishment is castration.

  

• Pilbitzor: Known as the most prominent of Royskanbluish non-humanoid life-forms, the Pilbitzor can be encountered as a common wildlife variety amid all regions of the world's geography, and is typically regarded as inconsequential - a mere nuisance, if anything - by its citizens, whose society has long-since developed past the point of the creature's edible, but hardly delectable, meat ceasing to be essential as a food source. As a result of ceasing to be hunted, Pilbitzors have become considerably more plentiful in their numbers over the past few centuries, and as of the matter's most recent study, conducted in Age 847, their total population stands poised to surpass that of the Konvadists within the next decade or so. Consequently, it has been repeatedly hypothesized and suggested by experts from abroad that some sort of measure ought to be taken against the animals' currently-unchecked continued proliferation, so as to prevent their abundance from becoming an adversity for other organisms on Royskanblu, sometime in the near future. The planet's peoples have yet to heed any of this advice, however, seeing little reason to be concerned by the issue, in large part due to the fact that continued population overgrowth by the Pilbitzors - hardly the most dangerous or aggressive of beasts - would not pose nearly so much a threat to them as it would to a number of smaller native organisms that might end up facing extinction from excessive predation and/or competition. Unlike, and in this case to the chagrin of, most of its neighboring/peer civilizations, Royskanbluish culture has never perceived much value in the cause of preserving animal biodiversity for its own sake if the at-risk life-forms in question aren't considered to serve any utilitarian purpose to humanoids.

 

Regarding the physical attributes of the Pilbitzor itself, it is a quadrupedal, amphibious (though seldom having the opportunity, much less the need, to make use of its swimming capacities) creature, usually classified as a mammal-reptile hybrid, whose bulbous, rotund lower body, to which its scaly legs connect in pairs at either opposite end, forms the base of an uprightly-oriented torso and overall upper half. A long tail, texturally continuous with the animal's color-striped underbelly, is often held up, visibly wagging, behind the Pilbitzor, and though this tail does bear a set of thorny projections at its end, these do not entail any special offensive capabilities - such as poison/venom, which is common in similar structures belonging to other animals - beyond that of simple puncturing. This plus the basic claws upon the beast's main hands together constitute the entirety of the Pilbitzor's set of built-in means for aggression, which is generally more-than-adequate to ensure its survival and thriving despite its modesty, with its natural place in its ecosystem being one without many actively-threatening predators to deal with, Secerpoyts being the one major exception. Conversely, Pilbitzors themselves, being omnivores, and far-from-picky ones at that, are prone to often-relentlessly hunting down and devouring most Royskanbluish fauna varieties of significantly lesser size than themselves, but pose no menace to any other major being of comparable, let alone greater, scale and complexity.

 

Just below the Pilbitzor's neckline resides a connected trio of gizzard-esque structures that do, in fact, serve and function as the mammaries of the creature, and per the norm for such are substantially larger in female specimens compared to males. Pilbitzor eyes are atypically-structured, lacking visible pupils, but ultimately are not any functionally different from standard eyes for this, while a set of lumpy, sack-like protrusions near the top of the beast's head are also visually prominent yet largely inconsequential, merely serving as some light additional cranial protection. Further regarding the subjects of protection and resilience in general: the Pilbitzor is quite sturdy for an organism of its size (that being less than four feet in height in most cases) on the whole, with its durability value frequently surpassing the 1,000 benchmark.

  

• Secerpoyt: A functionally-winged, serpentine reptile inclined to dwelling in and around mountainous areas, most notable of which on Royskanblu - and thus serving as the biggest population center for the beast - is the Raker Range occupying a sizable portion of the planetary map's Northeastern corner, the Secerpoyt is domestically infamous as the most hostile and effectively threatening Royskanbluish organism as far as its humanoid populations are concerned. Long-tailed and legless (unless one counts its lone pair of conventional limbs which would normally fall under the "arm" category as "legs"), it is able to fly freely and nimbly throughout the skies immediately above Royskanblu's surface, but not at advanced altitudes, due to the air thinning rather rapidly as one progresses upward through the planet's particular atmosphere and Secerpoyt wings possessing poor adaptability/climate-versatility despite their great effectiveness within a basic environment. In terms of their very tall overall heads and likewise-proportioned necks and faces, Secerpoyts lack any sort of lips, and therefore give off the appearance of "smiling" at all times, with their naturally-yellow teeth and a greenish, extremely thick surrounding set of gums on full display. Also highly noticeable is a forward-jutting structure, located just under the creature's nose, consisting of a tiny hole through which pokes out a largely useless and utterly superfluous miniature "tongue" resembling those of many a small serpent and lizard.

 

The Secerpoyt is the single-most-innately-aggressive, not to mention voracious, creature among all native Royskanbluish organisms, and one of the very few mortal beasts throughout the whole of the Prime Galaxy to harbor a particular taste for humanoid flesh; indeed, while both able and willing to prey upon and consume other animals, it is, in fact, significantly more tenacious in doing so to - more inclined to specifically seek out - Royskanblu's intelligent citizens, Loofravan, Konvadist and Bidempair alike, making it a true man-eater. Although not all potential targets are susceptible to it, namely with Bidempairs being far too massive and heavy, by far the Secerpoyt's most commonly-favored predation tactic consists of swooping down upon a target, lifting them up within both of its large hands and carrying them off to a nest, roost or other (usually high-up) location where it can take its time in devouring them at its own pace. This strategy is frequently employed in a "hit-and-run"-type manner, with the attacking Secerpoyt taking a single victim while many other bystanders are present, and doing so with such swiftness that it is difficult to stop the abduction process even with several people trying. Furthermore, it is far-from-unheard of for multiple Secerpoyts to raid together in a groups, collectively targeting a number of people at once and going about it with much more bold aggressiveness compared to when only one of them is striking. Even when a Secerpoyt is slain or otherwise stopped from successfully making off with a victim, the latter's is usually spared only from the indignity of being slowly eaten, as opposed to escaping death altogether, for as soon as it gets a hold of someone, the beast will almost invariably skewer its prey - generally near the neck or shoulder area(s) - with long, extremely sharp and nigh-unbreakably hard singular spikes that extend from either of its wrist and exist specifically for this very purpose. Needless to say, this is more-often-than-not fatal in and of itself, and the matter of being dropped from what usually amounts to a considerable height as part of the process of being "saved" makes actually surviving being grabbed by a Secerpoyt an even rarer feat still. With all this in mind, the people of Royskanblu have come to outfit most of their settlements - especially those located nearer to major Secerpoyt lairs, i.e. mountain ranges - with roofing and/or walling to make reaching their residents as inconvenient as possible for the monstrous animals.

 

From the topmost point of its head down to the far-tip of its tail, the average Secerpoyt measures approximately five meters in total body length, but one should not be (too) intimidated based on this statistic alone, for the creature itself is, necessarily-so for it to be able to fly with its wings being of the caliber they are, very leanly-built relative to it, low in body density and lacking a strong center of mass. Hence, it is less massive in practice than it might outwardly appear to be, and correspondingly easier to bring down in regards to the quantity of force required to do so; no Secerpoyt's durability value ever exceeds 1,000.

  

• Unischerk: Being the largest native Royskanbluish organisms, albeit by a small margin compared to the Bidempairs, Unischerks are chitinous-bodied, heavy-built and muscular, upright-standing and considerably fearsome-looking predatory animals found more-or-less consistently, but generally in low population density, all throughout the planet's mainland surface regions. Despite their startling appearance and at-times-particularly-ruthless aggressiveness towards all of the smaller local life-forms designated as their natural prey, with the latter attribute seeming only befitting of the former, Unischerks' inclinations to hostility do not extend to Royskanblu's humanoid citizens, none of whom fall under said prey category in the creatures' eyes (not even the extra ones). So long as it is not provoked, a wild, free-roaming Unischerk will largely ignore any humanoids, whether they be native to or visiting the planet, and even when feeling threatened by any such unfamiliar beings, it will not always immediately attack outright, often acting with confusion and appearing to be almost as frightened by them as vice-versa. Resultantly, it is possible, though very difficult and risky, to train and semi-domesticate a Unischerk, a feat that is only attempted with any regularity by Bidempairs; once having secured the loyalty of one of the beasts as a "pet", they will use its presence as such as a display of their own disciplinary skillfulness, so as to demonstrate and legitimize their self-purported suitability for whatever position(s) of authority they may be in the process of coveting. This practice, while still existing today, peaked during the Sixth Century Relative, over the course of which it came into play abroad during the Vision Wars, where a number of trained Unischerks - having initially been tamed simply to make a vain point - were deployed into action on other planets, serving as fairly useful war-beasts against Cosmo'rath forces. As a notable and inadvertent consequence of this particular wartime contribution by the humanoid-inhabited Delta Octant world least-affected by the Vision Wars, a small, but undetermined in its exact number, population of Unischerks, whose lineage has since reverted to the animal's default, wild state, continue to freely roam Yominasst to this day, having proven surprisingly adaptable to that planet's environment in spite of never having been intended to live there.

 

As for the physical characteristics of the animal itself, the Unischerk's most prominent nonstandard feature is the presence of paired, scythe-like claws attached to semi-segmented and tentacle-esque retractable appendages upon/within what most would call its "shoulders". The long reach of these structures, used for violent aggression, as well as the arced angles at which they extend and retract, has led to certain comparisons being drawn between the Unischerk and the demonic Tredewraif, although the latter's analogous mechanism is near-exponentially deadlier. The creature's main pair of arms, meanwhile, reside not immediately below its "shoulders", but significantly lower-down: barely above the midpoint of the main body, which is a necessarily peculiar placement given what the Unischerk's upper-chest-and-back area needs to be able not only to carry, but to actively fit and hold within its space. Like the "clawed tentacles", these arms are similarly-rooted, such that their lengths may be retracted into their owner's torso at will, but this is almost never practical for a Unischerk to do and thus is very rarely demonstrated as an ability. Additionally, their hands lack claws or other offensively-oriented features of their own, and hence cannot be effectively used in combat, where the Unischerk's special appendages serve as its singularly primary means for inflicting damage.

 

The beast's legs, and its feet especially, are intensely heavy-set, even compared to the rest of its body, as is its large tail, which bears a functionally club-like end-piece which can be swung around as a secondary, generally inferior attack mechanism. As alluded to above, Unischerks have five eyes, the unpaired one of which resides upon the forehead. Their durability values range from 1,200 to 1,600, depending on size and muscular development, factors which tend to vary quite a bit from specimen to specimen.

  

• ROYSKANBLUISH WEAPONS:

 

- Psy-Kin WaveWand

 

- Ocular Blastscoper

 

- Omnioriental Scissorer

 

- Powder-Power Pulverizer

 

- Sureitkan LaunchSaber

 

- Fan-O-War

i miss riding and the smell of the barn sooo much....

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The Boy Scout Oath:

 

"On my honor, I will do my best

To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law;

To help other people at all times;

To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight."

 

Welcome to Boy Scout Lane. There is so much awesome folklore, ghost stories, paranormal searches, ghost hunts, urban legend & "holy shit, did you see that thing?!" that surround this dead end road in Portage County in Stevens Point, WI.

 

My buddy & I made the trek to this neck of the woods on an early wintry Saturday morning (03/07/2015) hoping to debunk the stories surrounding this road. Legend has it that sometime between the 1950's - 1960's, an entire boy scout troop tragically died right on this very road. Some say the bus bringing them to their camp crashed & burned. Some say they were all brutally & sadistically murdered by their Scout Troop. Some state one of them dropped their lantern which resulted in a large forest fire that rendered all of them discombobulated & they all perished at the hand of the fire. In certain versions of this story, two of the boy scouts escape the fate of the rest of their troop and tried to find help. The two scouts who escaped inevitably fall victim to the elements as well as thirst/starvation and die lost, alone and far from home in these Wisconsin woods. Regardless of how it is they all died in each version of each story, each legend all determine the woods that line Boy Scount Lane are haunted by the scouts that died here. Stories have been published & circulated in many Wisconsin travel guides that state in some instances visitors are reported to have seen swinging / moving lights in the woods at night which are supposedly the lanterns of the spirits of the boy scouts. Others have reported a feeling that comes over them of being watched by someone or something in addition to the sound of breaking branches that seem to envelop them from all areas of the surrounding woods. Perhaps the most intriguing story I seemed to find was an individual who stated they had numerous muddy / bloody child-sized hand prints covering their vehicle when visiting Boy Scout Lane one evening.

 

I don't really know what to make of it, BUT I will say that I am having fun getting to experiment with my camera and settings and pushing buttons and twisting knobs and clicking icons and blowing out apertures and 'hey-i-wonder-what it-will-look-like-if-I-do-this!' and doing everything I can to have an adventure with my camera and I. In addition to that, I get to hang out with a buddy of mine & chase local Wisconsin legends, ghosts and the history that surrounds the state we live in. I shall post my findings about Boy Scount Lane in my upload tomorrow. Fact or Fiction? ...I'll tell you the end of the story tomorrow and despite the outcome, I'm finding these Saturday adventures help get through the Wisconsin winter AND it's terribly fun to fall down several rabbit holes in order to get to the bottom of a local legend that began back in the 1950's.

 

I will say that ghost stories that seem to surround Boy Scouts and insane axe-murdering scout troops seem to go together here in Wisconsin like beer-battered fish and tartar sauce.

 

Happy Sunday, friends. Spring ahead and let's leave this Wisconsin winter far behind us.

Beautiful 15 month old Todd was discovered wandering the country lanes in an emaciated state, he was crawling with lice and his feet were infested with maggots. He had to be looked after in a stable as he was so weak and had to be physically lifted to get him standing.He had given up and his spirit was broken .

He has now been nursed back to health at the Animal Rescue where i Volunteer, and is now a confident and gentle boy.He has a real reason to mistrust humans but if you go into the yard he is the first to greet you . I always take carrots and polo mints for the horses as they love them . We have 61 horses at the moment including 4 donkeys, we are at bursting point,when in reality we only have the capacity for 45.

We have at any one time around 2,000 animals, including, cats, cattle, sheep, pigs, goats , rabbits, ferrets, mice, hedgehogs & birds including ducks chickens geese parrots wild birds and many others .Some animals have been saved from the Slaughter house, some have been found at the roadside broken and left for dead , others have been abused and beaten, some simply have been unwanted anymore, discarded like an old shoe ...

My work at the Retreat is hard work but so very rewarding, in fact it's the best job i have even had, helping to care for the animals and horses like Todd is the best job in the World. We have a real "no kill " policy at the Retreat ,others rescue, but don't always have that policy ?

 

You can click on the link below if you want to find out about the Rescue, thank you for taking the time to read this :)

  

Update on Todd:

 

Yesterday Jan 30th our beautiful Todd has gone to his forever home, a wonderful lady adopted him as a companion horse for her other one, this is the best outcome for our beautiful boy, i will miss him at the Retreat but i know he is going to be so very happy in his new home

 

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I like how I can now physically hammer down letters and words with ink onto paper.

The technical/mechanical design of a typewriter is really amazing.

 

This typewriter I got as a gift a few weeks back, let me discover an interest for writing. So I immediately wrote a short story with it which I won't let anyone read.

 

An analog keyboard with printer, but more importantly a beautiful gift to remember the kindest old lady I ever met by, who passed away not so long ago.

One of these rendered examples cannot be recreated physically as some of the parts lack the available colors. I usually refrain from doing that, but now you know. Guess which one 😊

 

MiSTer (also known as MiSTer FPGA) is an open-source project that aims to recreate various classic computers, game consoles and arcade machines, using modern FPGA-based hardware. It allows software and video game images to run as they would on original hardware, using peripherals such as mice, keyboards, joysticks and other game controllers.

 

The MiSTer project was created by Alexey “Sorgelig” Melnikov, and was introduced on GitHub in June 2017.

 

At the heart of the MiSTer is the Terasic DE10-Nano, and it usually also contains add-on boards and extra USB connections for peripherals. Such a bare MiSTer stack is then housed in one of many different kinds of cases. My story is that my acrylic case was damaged, so I build a new one in LEGO bricks. This Project S is my second design.

 

Outside of gaming the whole project aims at preserving hardware in a general historic perspective.

 

Read more about the MiSTer FPGA device:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiSTer

. . . seen from my house

__________________________

 

A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc. Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the sun.

 

Rainbows can be full circles. However, the average observer sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centred on a line from the sun to the observer's eye.

 

In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side. This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it.

 

In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc.

 

OVERVIEW

A rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an optical illusion caused by any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to a light source. Thus, a rainbow is not an object and cannot be physically approached. Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the light source. Even if an observer sees another observer who seems "under" or "at the end of" a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow - farther off - at the same angle as seen by the first observer.

 

Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colours. Any distinct bands perceived are an artefact of human colour vision, and no banding of any type is seen in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow, only a smooth gradation of intensity to a maximum, then fading towards the other side. For colours seen by the human eye, the most commonly cited and remembered sequence is Newton's sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, remembered by the mnemonic, Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (ROYGBIV).

 

Rainbows can be caused by many forms of airborne water. These include not only rain, but also mist, spray, and airborne dew.

 

VISIBILITY

Rainbows can be observed whenever there are water drops in the air and sunlight shining from behind the observer at a low altitude angle. Because of this, rainbows are usually seen in the western sky during the morning and in the eastern sky during the early evening. The most spectacular rainbow displays happen when half the sky is still dark with raining clouds and the observer is at a spot with clear sky in the direction of the sun. The result is a luminous rainbow that contrasts with the darkened background. During such good visibility conditions, the larger but fainter secondary rainbow is often visible. It appears about 10° outside of the primary rainbow, with inverse order of colours.

 

The rainbow effect is also commonly seen near waterfalls or fountains. In addition, the effect can be artificially created by dispersing water droplets into the air during a sunny day. Rarely, a moonbow, lunar rainbow or nighttime rainbow, can be seen on strongly moonlit nights. As human visual perception for colour is poor in low light, moonbows are often perceived to be white.

 

It is difficult to photograph the complete semicircle of a rainbow in one frame, as this would require an angle of view of 84°. For a 35 mm camera, a wide-angle lens with a focal length of 19 mm or less would be required. Now that software for stitching several images into a panorama is available, images of the entire arc and even secondary arcs can be created fairly easily from a series of overlapping frames.

 

From above the earth such as in an aeroplane, it is sometimes possible to see a rainbow as a full circle. This phenomenon can be confused with the glory phenomenon, but a glory is usually much smaller, covering only 5–20°.

 

The sky inside a primary rainbow is brighter than the sky outside of the bow. This is because each raindrop is a sphere and it scatters light over an entire circular disc in the sky. The radius of the disc depends on the wavelength of light, with red light being scattered over a larger angle than blue light. Over most of the disc, scattered light at all wavelengths overlaps, resulting in white light which brightens the sky. At the edge, the wavelength dependence of the scattering gives rise to the rainbow.

 

Light of primary rainbow arc is 96% polarised tangential to the arch. Light of second arc is 90% polarised.

Number of colours in spectrum or rainbow

 

A spectrum obtained using a glass prism and a point source is a continuum of wavelengths without bands. The number of colours that the human eye is able to distinguish in a spectrum is in the order of 100. Accordingly, the Munsell colour system (a 20th-century system for numerically describing colours, based on equal steps for human visual perception) distinguishes 100 hues. The apparent discreteness of main colours is an artefact of human perception and the exact number of main colours is a somewhat arbitrary choice.

 

Newton, who admitted his eyes were not very critical in distinguishing colours, originally (1672) divided the spectrum into five main colours: red, yellow, green, blue and violet. Later he included orange and indigo, giving seven main colours by analogy to the number of notes in a musical scale. Newton chose to divide the visible spectrum into seven colours out of a belief derived from the beliefs of the ancient Greek sophists, who thought there was a connection between the colours, the musical notes, the known objects in the Solar System, and the days of the week.

 

According to Isaac Asimov, "It is customary to list indigo as a color lying between blue and violet, but it has never seemed to me that indigo is worth the dignity of being considered a separate color. To my eyes it seems merely deep blue."

 

The colour pattern of a rainbow is different from a spectrum, and the colours are less saturated. There is spectral smearing in a rainbow owing to the fact that for any particular wavelength, there is a distribution of exit angles, rather than a single unvarying angle. In addition, a rainbow is a blurred version of the bow obtained from a point source, because the disk diameter of the sun (0.5°) cannot be neglected compared to the width of a rainbow (2°). The number of colour bands of a rainbow may therefore be different from the number of bands in a spectrum, especially if the droplets are particularly large or small. Therefore, the number of colours of a rainbow is variable. If, however, the word rainbow is used inaccurately to mean spectrum, it is the number of main colours in the spectrum.

 

The question of whether everyone sees seven colours in a rainbow is related to the idea of Linguistic relativity. Suggestions have been made that there is universality in the way that a rainbow is perceived. However, more recent research suggests that the number of distinct colours observed and what these are called depend on the language that one uses with people whose language has fewer colour words seeing fewer discrete colour bands.

 

EXPLANATION

When sunlight encounters a raindrop, part of the light is reflected and the rest enters the raindrop. The light is refracted at the surface of the raindrop. When this light hits the back of the raindrop, some of it is reflected off the back. When the internally reflected light reaches the surface again, once more some is internally reflected and some is refracted as it exits the drop. (The light that reflects off the drop, exits from the back, or continues to bounce around inside the drop after the second encounter with the surface, is not relevant to the formation of the primary rainbow.) The overall effect is that part of the incoming light is reflected back over the range of 0° to 42°, with the most intense light at 42°. This angle is independent of the size of the drop, but does depend on its refractive index. Seawater has a higher refractive index than rain water, so the radius of a "rainbow" in sea spray is smaller than a true rainbow. This is visible to the naked eye by a misalignment of these bows.

 

The reason the returning light is most intense at about 42° is that this is a turning point – light hitting the outermost ring of the drop gets returned at less than 42°, as does the light hitting the drop nearer to its centre. There is a circular band of light that all gets returned right around 42°. If the sun were a laser emitting parallel, monochromatic rays, then the luminance (brightness) of the bow would tend toward infinity at this angle (ignoring interference effects). (See Caustic (optics).) But since the sun's luminance is finite and its rays are not all parallel (it covers about half a degree of the sky) the luminance does not go to infinity. Furthermore, the amount by which light is refracted depends upon its wavelength, and hence its colour. This effect is called dispersion. Blue light (shorter wavelength) is refracted at a greater angle than red light, but due to the reflection of light rays from the back of the droplet, the blue light emerges from the droplet at a smaller angle to the original incident white light ray than the red light. Due to this angle, blue is seen on the inside of the arc of the primary rainbow, and red on the outside. The result of this is not only to give different colours to different parts of the rainbow, but also to diminish the brightness. (A "rainbow" formed by droplets of a liquid with no dispersion would be white, but brighter than a normal rainbow.)

 

The light at the back of the raindrop does not undergo total internal reflection, and some light does emerge from the back. However, light coming out the back of the raindrop does not create a rainbow between the observer and the sun because spectra emitted from the back of the raindrop do not have a maximum of intensity, as the other visible rainbows do, and thus the colours blend together rather than forming a rainbow.

 

A rainbow does not exist at one particular location. Many rainbows exist; however, only one can be seen depending on the particular observer's viewpoint as droplets of light illuminated by the sun. All raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer's eye. This light is what constitutes the rainbow for that observer. The whole system composed by the sun's rays, the observer's head, and the (spherical) water drops has an axial symmetry around the axis through the observer's head and parallel to the sun's rays. The rainbow is curved because the set of all the raindrops that have the right angle between the observer, the drop, and the sun, lie on a cone pointing at the sun with the observer at the tip. The base of the cone forms a circle at an angle of 40–42° to the line between the observer's head and their shadow but 50% or more of the circle is below the horizon, unless the observer is sufficiently far above the earth's surface to see it all, for example in an aeroplane (see above). Alternatively, an observer with the right vantage point may see the full circle in a fountain or waterfall spray.

 

MATHEMATICAL DERIVATION

We can determine the perceived angle which the rainbow subtends as follows.

 

Given a spherical raindrop, and defining the perceived angle of the rainbow as 2φ, and the angle of the internal reflection as 2β, then the angle of incidence of the sun's rays with respect to the drop's surface normal is 2β − φ. Since the angle of refraction is β, Snell's law gives us

 

sin(2β − φ) = n sin β,

 

where n = 1.333 is the refractive index of water. Solving for φ, we get

 

φ = 2β − arcsin(n sin β).

 

The rainbow will occur where the angle φ is maximum with respect to the angle β. Therefore, from calculus, we can set dφ/dβ = 0, and solve for β.

 

Substituting back into the earlier equation for φ yields 2φmax ≈ 42° as the radius angle of the rainbow.

 

VARIATION

MULTIPLE RAINBOWS

Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and are centred on the sun itself. They are about 127° (violet) to 130° (red) wide. Since this is more than 90°, they are seen on the same side of the sky as the primary rainbow, about 10° above it at apparent angles of 50–53°. As a result of the "inside" of the secondary bow being "up" to the observer, the colours appear reversed compared to the primary bow. The secondary rainbow is fainter than the primary because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one and because the rainbow itself is spread over a greater area of the sky. Each rainbow reflects white light inside its coloured bands, but that is "down" for the primary and "up" for the secondary. The dark area of unlit sky lying between the primary and secondary bows is called Alexander's band, after Alexander of Aphrodisias who first described it.

 

TWINNED RAINBOW

Unlike a double rainbow that consists of two separate and concentric rainbow arcs, the very rare twinned rainbow appears as two rainbow arcs that split from a single base. The colours in the second bow, rather than reversing as in a secondary rainbow, appear in the same order as the primary rainbow. A "normal" secondary rainbow may be present as well. Twinned rainbows can look similar to, but should not be confused with supernumerary bands. The two phenomena may be told apart by their difference in colour profile: supernumerary bands consist of subdued pastel hues (mainly pink, purple and green), while the twinned rainbow shows the same spectrum as a regular rainbow. The cause of a twinned rainbow is the combination of different sizes of water drops falling from the sky. Due to air resistance, raindrops flatten as they fall, and flattening is more prominent in larger water drops. When two rain showers with different-sized raindrops combine, they each produce slightly different rainbows which may combine and form a twinned rainbow. A numerical ray tracing study showed that a twinned rainbow on a photo could be explained by a mixture of 0.40 and 0.45 mm

 

droplets. That small difference in droplet size resulted in a small difference in flattening of the droplet shape, and a large difference in flattening of the rainbow top.

 

Meanwhile, the even rarer case of a rainbow split into three branches was observed and photographed in nature.

 

FULL-CIRCLE RAINBOW

In theory, every rainbow is a circle, but from the ground, only its upper half can be seen. Since the rainbow's centre is diametrically opposed to the sun's position in the sky, more of the circle comes into view as the sun approaches the horizon, meaning that the largest section of the circle normally seen is about 50% during sunset or sunrise. Viewing the rainbow's lower half requires the presence of water droplets below the observer's horizon, as well as sunlight that is able to reach them. These requirements are not usually met when the viewer is at ground level, either because droplets are absent in the required position, or because the sunlight is obstructed by the landscape behind the observer. From a high viewpoint such as a high building or an aircraft, however, the requirements can be met and the full-circle rainbow can be seen. Like a partial rainbow, the circular rainbow can have a secondary bow or supernumerary bows as well. It is possible to produce the full circle when standing on the ground, for example by spraying a water mist from a garden hose while facing away from the sun.

 

A circular rainbow should not be confused with the glory, which is much smaller in diameter and is created by different optical processes. In the right circumstances, a glory and a (circular) rainbow or fog bow can occur together. Another atmospheric phenomenon that may be mistaken for a "circular rainbow" is the 22° halo, which is caused by ice crystals rather than liquid water droplets, and is located around the sun (or moon), not opposite it.

 

SUPERNUMERARY RAINBOWS

In certain circumstances, one or several narrow, faintly coloured bands can be seen bordering the violet edge of a rainbow; i.e., inside the primary bow or, much more rarely, outside the secondary. These extra bands are called supernumerary rainbows or supernumerary bands; together with the rainbow itself the phenomenon is also known as a stacker rainbow. The supernumerary bows are slightly detached from the main bow, become successively fainter along with their distance from it, and have pastel colours (consisting mainly of pink, purple and green hues) rather than the usual spectrum pattern. The effect becomes apparent when water droplets are involved that have a diameter of about 1mm or less; the smaller the droplets are, the broader the supernumerary bands become, and the less saturated their colours. Due to their origin in small droplets, supernumerary bands tend to be particularly prominent in fogbows.

 

Supernumerary rainbows cannot be explained using classical geometric optics. The alternating faint bands are caused by interference between rays of light following slightly different paths with slightly varying lengths within the raindrops. Some rays are in phase, reinforcing each other through constructive interference, creating a bright band; others are out of phase by up to half a wavelength, cancelling each other out through destructive interference, and creating a gap. Given the different angles of refraction for rays of different colours, the patterns of interference are slightly different for rays of different colours, so each bright band is differentiated in colour, creating a miniature rainbow. Supernumerary rainbows are clearest when raindrops are small and of uniform size. The very existence of supernumerary rainbows was historically a first indication of the wave nature of light, and the first explanation was provided by Thomas Young in 1804.

 

SCIENTIFIC HISTORY

The classical Greek scholar Aristotle (384–322 BC) was first to devote serious attention to the rainbow. According to Raymond L. Lee and Alistair B. Fraser, "Despite its many flaws and its appeal to Pythagorean numerology, Aristotle's qualitative explanation showed an inventiveness and relative consistency that was unmatched for centuries. After Aristotle's death, much rainbow theory consisted of reaction to his work, although not all of this was uncritical."

 

In Book I of Naturales Quaestiones (c. 65 AD), the Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger discusses various theories of the formation of rainbows extensively, including those of Aristotle. He notices that rainbows appear always opposite to the sun, that they appear in water sprayed by a rower, in the water spat by a fuller on clothes stretched on pegs or by water sprayed through a small hole in a burst pipe. He even speaks of rainbows produced by small rods (virgulae) of glass, anticipating Newton's experiences with prisms. He takes into account two theories: one, that the rainbow is produced by the sun reflecting in each water drop, the other, that it is produced by the sun reflected in a cloud shaped like a concave mirror; he favours the latter. He also discusses other phenomena related to rainbows: the mysterious "virgae" (rods), halos and parhelia.

 

According to Hüseyin Gazi Topdemir, the Persian physicist and polymath Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen; 965–1039), attempted to provide a scientific explanation for the rainbow phenomenon. In his Maqala fi al-Hala wa Qaws Quzah (On the Rainbow and Halo), al-Haytham "explained the formation of rainbow as an image, which forms at a concave mirror. If the rays of light coming from a farther light source reflect to any point on axis of the concave mirror, they form concentric circles in that point. When it is supposed that the sun as a farther light source, the eye of viewer as a point on the axis of mirror and a cloud as a reflecting surface, then it can be observed the concentric circles are forming on the axis." He was not able to verify this because his theory that "light from the sun is reflected by a cloud before reaching the eye" did not allow for a possible experimental verification. This explanation was later repeated by Averroes, and, though incorrect, provided the groundwork for the correct explanations later given by Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī (1267–1319) and Theodoric of Freiberg (c.1250–1310).

 

Ibn al-Haytham's contemporary, the Persian philosopher and polymath Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna; 980–1037), provided an alternative explanation, writing "that the bow is not formed in the dark cloud but rather in the very thin mist lying between the cloud and the sun or observer. The cloud, he thought, serves simply as the background of this thin substance, much as a quicksilver lining is placed upon the rear surface of the glass in a mirror. Ibn Sīnā would change the place not only of the bow, but also of the colour formation, holding the iridescence to be merely a subjective sensation in the eye." This explanation, however, was also incorrect.[65] Ibn Sīnā's account accepts many of Aristotle's arguments on the rainbow.

 

In Song Dynasty China (960–1279), a polymath scholar-official named Shen Kuo (1031–1095) hypothesised—as a certain Sun Sikong (1015–1076) did before him—that rainbows were formed by a phenomenon of sunlight encountering droplets of rain in the air. Paul Dong writes that Shen's explanation of the rainbow as a phenomenon of atmospheric refraction "is basically in accord with modern scientific principles."

 

According to Nader El-Bizri, the Persian astronomer, Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236–1311), gave a fairly accurate explanation for the rainbow phenomenon. This was elaborated on by his student, Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī (1267–1319), who gave a more mathematically satisfactory explanation of the rainbow. He "proposed a model where the ray of light from the sun was refracted twice by a water droplet, one or more reflections occurring between the two refractions." An experiment with a water-filled glass sphere was conducted and al-Farisi showed the additional refractions due to the glass could be ignored in his model. As he noted in his Kitab Tanqih al-Manazir (The Revision of the Optics), al-Farisi used a large clear vessel of glass in the shape of a sphere, which was filled with water, in order to have an experimental large-scale model of a rain drop. He then placed this model within a camera obscura that has a controlled aperture for the introduction of light. He projected light unto the sphere and ultimately deduced through several trials and detailed observations of reflections and refractions of light that the colours of the rainbow are phenomena of the decomposition of light.

 

In Europe, Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics was translated into Latin and studied by Robert Grosseteste. His work on light was continued by Roger Bacon, who wrote in his Opus Majus of 1268 about experiments with light shining through crystals and water droplets showing the colours of the rainbow. In addition, Bacon was the first to calculate the angular size of the rainbow. He stated that the rainbow summit can not appear higher than 42° above the horizon. Theodoric of Freiberg is known to have given an accurate theoretical explanation of both the primary and secondary rainbows in 1307. He explained the primary rainbow, noting that "when sunlight falls on individual drops of moisture, the rays undergo two refractions (upon ingress and egress) and one reflection (at the back of the drop) before transmission into the eye of the observer." He explained the secondary rainbow through a similar analysis involving two refractions and two reflections.

 

Descartes' 1637 treatise, Discourse on Method, further advanced this explanation. Knowing that the size of raindrops did not appear to affect the observed rainbow, he experimented with passing rays of light through a large glass sphere filled with water. By measuring the angles that the rays emerged, he concluded that the primary bow was caused by a single internal reflection inside the raindrop and that a secondary bow could be caused by two internal reflections. He supported this conclusion with a derivation of the law of refraction (subsequently to, but independently of, Snell) and correctly calculated the angles for both bows. His explanation of the colours, however, was based on a mechanical version of the traditional theory that colours were produced by a modification of white light.

 

Isaac Newton demonstrated that white light was composed of the light of all the colours of the rainbow, which a glass prism could separate into the full spectrum of colours, rejecting the theory that the colours were produced by a modification of white light. He also showed that red light is refracted less than blue light, which led to the first scientific explanation of the major features of the rainbow. Newton's corpuscular theory of light was unable to explain supernumerary rainbows, and a satisfactory explanation was not found until Thomas Young realised that light behaves as a wave under certain conditions, and can interfere with itself.

 

Young's work was refined in the 1820s by George Biddell Airy, who explained the dependence of the strength of the colours of the rainbow on the size of the water droplets. Modern physical descriptions of the rainbow are based on Mie scattering, work published by Gustav Mie in 1908. Advances in computational methods and optical theory continue to lead to a fuller understanding of rainbows. For example, Nussenzveig provides a modern overview.

 

EXPERIMENTS

Experiments on the rainbow phenomenon using artificial raindrops, i.e. water-filled spherical flasks, go back at least to Theodoric of Freiberg in the 14th century. Later, also Descartes studied the phenomenon using a Florence flask. A flask experiment known as Florence's rainbow is still today often-used as an imposing and intuitively accessible demonstration experiment of the rainbow phenomenon. It consists in illuminating (with parallel white light) a water-filled spherical flask through a hole in a screen. A rainbow will then appear thrown back / projected on the screen, provided the screen is large enough. Due to the finite wall thickness and the macroscopic character of the artificial raindrop, several subtle differences exist as compared to the natural phenomenon, including slightly changed rainbow angles and a splitting of the rainbow orders.

 

A very similar experiment consists in using a cylindrical glass vessel filled with water or a solid transparent cylinder and illuminated either parallel to the circular base (i.e. light rays remaining at a fixed hight while they transit the cylinder) or under an angle to the base. Under these latter conditions the rainbow angles change relative to the natural phenomenon since the effective index of refraction of water changes (Bravais' index of refraction for inclined rays applies).

 

Other experiments use small liquid drops, see text above.

 

CULTURE

Rainbows occur frequently in mythology, and have been used in the arts. One of the earliest literary occurrences of a rainbow is in Genesis 9, as part of the flood story of Noah, where it is a sign of God's covenant to never destroy all life on earth with a global flood again. In Norse mythology, the rainbow bridge Bifröst connects the world of men (Midgard) and the realm of the gods (Asgard). Cuchavira was the god of the rainbow for the Muisca people in present-day Colombia and when the regular rains on the Bogotá savanna were over, the people thanked him offering gold, snails and small emeralds. The Irish leprechaun's secret hiding place for his pot of gold is usually said to be at the end of the rainbow. This place is appropriately impossible to reach, because the rainbow is an optical effect which cannot be approached.

 

Rainbows sometimes appear in heraldry too, even if its characteristic of multiple colours doesn't really fit in to the usual heraldic style.

 

Rainbow flags have been used for centuries. It was a symbol of the Cooperative movement in the German Peasants' War in the 16th century, of peace in Italy, and of gay pride and LGBT social movements since the 1970s. In 1994, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and President Nelson Mandela described newly democratic post-apartheid South Africa as the rainbow nation. The rainbow has even been used in technology product logos including the Apple computer logo. Many political alliances have called themselves Rainbow Coalition.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Saints and Sinner Chapter Three In Tune

There had been some privacy at the old stone home across from the Hopes Mill on the Indian River, except in the summers from when schools out till the temperature dropped in September and chased the swimmers and partyers away. Still, nine months of quiet in this busy world is very wonderful. A plus to this unique century old home was the water across the road where a small lake flowed into a dam below which swimmers enjoyed the cool shallow waters of the Indian River. Along side the lake a seasonal camp ground was located operated by the local Conservation Authority. It too was void of people in the off season and provided a perfectly groomed space to walk with the dog Chico a German shepherd with a floppy ear and the two youngest children Cassidy and Jade who were small enough to want to be pulled in a wagon when their legs got weary. The owner of the Stone House property was a lovely woman named Kathy Gist who had been raised at the home and she was happy that a ‘handyman’ would be looking after it, though the only real change we made was to have the entire home interior painted white prior to moving in. We lived in the home twice, once just temporarily as we had sold our home below the town of Keene for a ridiculous sum of money and needed a short term rental while our new home in Peterborough had a later closing date, a mistake I won’t make twice in life, though, I must say, when you are young you are able to do much more physically than when you are older. Our new home was in Peterborough and it just didn’t work out very well, I can just say that we ran into some issues within the family and we decided that the city was not where we should live. Like now, good houses were easy to sell and I don’t think we lost much money other than lawyers fees and some to the realtors.

It turns out that professor Gists house was still available and that is where we would go every day and brighten it up with paint, to make if prettier, so to speak prior to moving in. The house was large with two entrances, one at the front that opened to the basement that was comprised of a long creaky wooden stairway that led to the main floor. If you stayed on the lower floor it opened off to the left where there was a large unheated space that we used for storage of boxes, off of the hallway to the right there was another smaller room with built in cupboards that were stocked with older kitchen things that just seemed to have been left there for ages, crocks and such, some of which we found useful in our everyday lives. At the front of that area there was a doorway that led to the one car garage and a small room that held the oil furnace. Behind the bigger room there was a large cistern I would guess it was six feet tall by ten feet by ten, you could store a lot of water in there., the first time we saw the house, the cistern was frozen solid. It took a few days to thaw once an electric heater had been turned on in the room by Hilliard the local handy man who also sorted out the Ultraviolet device to clean the water as well as the old water pump. I recall he had some problem once the water was turned on and running. The taps in the bathroom on the main floor would not flow. Hilliard was a genius with many years experience, I watched as he used a thin metal wire to get through the rust and eventually the taps began to work, replacing the rubber washers was a smart move as the taps shut off with no drips afterwards.

The other entrance was at the back of the house via a set of wide stairs that led to a big covered over porch that stretched the length of the building, you had to be careful on that porch as some of the boards required replacement. When you entered that set of doors you came into the main house living area, which led to a small galley kitchen that had a window that overlooked the water across the street. I’m not sure you would call this a centre hall plan house but I recall there was a set of stairs to take you to an upper floor that had a big and a small bedroom, Christine took the smaller bedroom, she had to walk through our room to get to hers, which wasn’t such a bad idea at the time. We could keep a better eye on her. Back on the main floor one entered another living room and at the back of it there were two more bedrooms that faced the water, these were rooms which Cassidy and Jade slept in. There was so much space and I must say we were used to lots of space as our house on the river in Keene had two living rooms as well.

That spring I recall being by the old well platform that had a hand pump and paying attention, more than usual surprisingly, I think the privacy was part of this, awakening, this awareness of being in nature, to a degree of this quiet we had not previously experienced. It really was wonderful, and that damp spring day I recall seeing little groupings of purple flowers called grape hyacinthes coming alive like people, in a way along the edge of the property near the well and I felt joy that I was with other species, sharing this wonderful earth. Towards the middle of the property that would comprise a half acre or so three old knotty trees grew they were fifty or so feet tall black locusts and I recall worrying as to whether they were alive or not as all the other trees in the area had shown their leaves. In time numerous other flowers erupted in the warmth of spring which I would point out to Julia who was busy with the young boy Cassidy and the wee daughter Jade who was less than a year old. This was an excellent hide out, not as good for fishing as the last place where our boat was parked on the waters edge, but here, we were offered other fishing opportunities, if one just wanted to throw a baited line into the pond across the way, or paddle a canoe upstream and fish for smallmouth bass in undisturbed splendor.

We never were alone a lot, there was always someone visiting from the city to share a drink with, The Count and Don Schmidt came for a night pouring whiskey down my throat, bouncing the kids on their knees. A pot grower/boogie woogie piano player named Ron Peters, I called him Doctor Science came and stayed a while, the reason we called him that is that he would get high on reefer on the back porch in the evenings and there would be fireflies flying about, Ron had some schooling he was an accredited teacher, he would talk about the scientific process that was happening in the firefly for the light to occur, we never really understood a word of his highbrow talking in that regard.

Family would drop by, Julia’s mother Joan came and stayed a while, she looked after the kids one time when Julia and I snuck out to BC to see what it was like out there, one word, expensive! I think the property reminded Joan of faraway England and her youth as she was happy to be there, to sit on a lawn chair, puffing away, near the cedar fence line watching cows graze who would come right up to greet her. There were the last visits from Quebec when aunt Yolande and uncle Gaspard came to console my mom Gisele when her son my brother Shane had died tragically on the long weekend in September of 1993. My sister Suzanne did not take it well and I was grieving and walking Chico in the campground when I was called I heard my voice being shouted and I had to get into Peterborough to calm her down, this ended up in Sue entering the psychiatric ward of the Peterborough hospital for a major tune up, that was so hard to see as at one point when she was quite upset they had to use those bed restraint ties on her and put her in a safe room. Then Barb and Tim came out and that hit home, that Shane was gone and I recall being a bit careless on the riding mower and tipping it on the embankment of the septic area and quite possibly ran the risk of having my appendages cut off! The rent was cheap, I don’t think it was much more than $500 a month and we never paid for the first four or five months as that was applied to painting the place and the cost of paint labour involved. When the landlady eventually did ask for some rent money we were more than pleased to give her some. In the winter the two foot thick stone home was frigid and this could have been avoided if we were allowed to use the chimney to burn wood as I would have had an air tight stove installed, but, alas, Kathy did not want this claiming ‘the Insurers won’t allow a wood burning appliance’ and that was that, we cuddled up at night to stay warm and kept an electric heater on in the cistern room where the trucked in water was stored so it would not freeze, Ray the water truck driver was happy to accept a snort of Old Jack’s whiskey when making deliveries that were about every month and a half, so strange actually as the water was just across the road and for the price of a gas pump and a 100 foot coil of black one inch poly tubing we could have filled that cistern brim full of water in an hour or so. The well was weak and could not provide for the needs of the house. I had a discussion with the landlady about her Riparian rights when I saw a good spring in the ground near the fallen barn which I thought could be diverted to the house and cut down on the expense of bringing water in to fill the cistern. She would hear nothing of it, I think she felt the land had done OK on its own for a few hundred years why change things now. We might of lived there forever but having had this taste of quiet got me searching for something that was even more beautiful, though, I must say, there is a timelessness to this part of Ontario near Lang and Hopes Mill, a feeling about this part of the world that speaks to me today.

Nogies Creek

Twenty five years have passed since some phenomenon took place in my life. Phenomenon that could be described as modern day miracles to some, yet to others, perhaps the work of a person or persons with abilities. I believe that these events being written out may take me and the reader to some understanding of their root. Then again, they may just disappear as they came from nowhere in the beginning. These occurrences did take place during a special time in our lives in which we were granted a spacious remote property to be with at a time when our personal studies of New Age dynamics were at a peak. Our fifty acre retreat was located near a place called Nogies Creek, a stream that flows from north to south, emptying into Buckhorn Lake a few miles east of the town of Bobcaygeon. We moved there in late summer of the year 1994. Julia and I had been looking for a quiet place to be for quite some time. We had even travelled to British Columbia with the idea of relocating, however we found the prices on homes out there to be two and three times what prices were in Ontario at that time. Retreat properties like this one seldom come on the market. We discovered it by looking through thick black and white real estate books provided by our realtor and friend Mighty Fallen. It was against realty law that these books were given to clients as they were supposed to be the sole possession of the realtor, but what the heck, we broke much more severe laws back then. The degree of privacy this homestead would provide was considerably more than any we had experienced before hand

We wanted more than that and I recall Julie and I spending days and days looking at properties spread throughout the area surrounding Peterborough which had become our home zone. We went to visit this fifty acre property off a side road off a side road and were quickly smitten with it. To reach the land you drove north on Bass Lake Road about a mile then a sharp right on Tully Road past the hillbilly place, past the small cottages dotting the slow moving Nogies Creek, around a corner, past what looked to be an abandoned farm and there was a long driveway on the right hand side that sloped up to sights unknown as there was a curve in the road part way up. On our first trip we placed some tobacco on the road and said a prayer, a ways up from that spot we saw a snake on the road and this did not sit well with me. Once on top of the driveway the home itself was another fifty yards to the left with a double car two storey barn across from it and inland a bit more. The home was architecturally designed and had a pleasing look, the siding was lapstrake wood, there was a porch low to the ground off the main entrance, to the left of the home there was an inground pool at a lower level with a walk in to the basement of the house. I must say the property had eye appeal, but it also needed much cleaning up and wood staining. We weren’t afraid of work though and with my intermittent schedule there would be lots of time to do the required maintenance. For heat the property had a modern wood and electric stove in the basement with a door to that area and stairs to throw firewood down. Some of the rooms had electric heat, but we seldom relied on that. The main floor had a big stone fireplace that we would start up when we wanted some ambience but our main source of heat was the wood portion of the dual function furnace.

We never knew a soul in the area, and it didn’t matter one bit, whoever was meant to be in our lives would come visit. There was a contentment to being on this property that is different from any other contentment we have had. It’s difficult to explain, but maybe a better word is that we were happy there and the fact we were experiencing an epiphany of sorts in our way of looking at the world was beneficial along with this sacred location. At the back of the house there was a screened in sun porch, a good size room. The fields behind the house weren’t that big, maybe twenty acres that stretched to a forest of thousands of acres of crown land. Just as you got into the forest there was a pond and at night while sitting on the back porch the sounds of the frogs and such croaking to each other was all you needed to hear, it was wonderful and scary at the same time. For entertainment we would pile young Cassidy and Jade into the Jeep and ride down to the forest where we had discovered a road wide enough for the vehicle to pass through the trees that encircled the pond, we’d shout out, “there’s a dinosaur” and the kids would scream in excitement. Many days we would walk deep into the forest, one day Cassidy said, “I’m going home” we were a good bit into the forest, yet he walked all the way home accompanied by our dog Chico a german shepherd. Jade and I continued on the lookout for lost civilizations.

Life was good, maybe to good as we lost ourselves in the new property. Neither Julie or I can recall when or why we took the vow of No News for a Year. This meant that we would not listen to or watch any news whatsoever. As a result I would say we became less negative and more aware of our surroundings. For example as I was cutting out trails for the meditation paths around the perimeter of the land I was astutely aware of the natural world, of the homes of species I would be disrupting by moving a rotting piece of log or a boulder. Newspaper reading was also included in our news ban. It was the year of the Oklahoma bombings and we never knew what took place and in retrospect there was no need for us to know as there was nothing we could do about it. Some of this thinking must have come by Osmosis by reading uplifting New Age literature and I suppose that popular book at the time The Celestine Prophecies. The book Autobiography of a Yogi was quite instrumental in setting us on a new course. I recall reading aloud to Julia in this quiet den we had in the house and one time I was quite surprised to have told her something that I read verbatim five minutes later in the book I had in my hand. That is called Being In Tune. It is a bit unnerving to think that you are developing in a spiritual manner without the aid of an actual organization, but the way we look at it is that we were on our own spiritual quest through study. We were very conscious of the natural world around us and this new location had awoken in us an understanding that we had not known before.

Besides the reading we did other things to please the Gods. There was a field between the house and the barn that was grown over with wild flowers, mostly orange ones but some yellow ones as well. Using an old beat up gas lawnmower I cut an OM symbol approximately twenty feet long by twenty feet wide into the wild flowers for anyone above to see. On our satellite dish we painted an OM symbol as well which would get my brother Kevin chuckling when he would come visit on weekends from his housing arrangement with the Queen, and later too when he was released to a half way house in Orillia and then his own apartment. At days end we were almost exhausted from looking after the property. We had a sign made to go at the front of the house at the roadside, it read Dreamfields Winged Spirits Retreat, we incorporated an OM into the sign and there was also an enlarged photograph of a colourful Flying Frog. All of this was set into a fancily sconced frame. Who knew what the neighbours would have thought, we did not worry about that, as there were no neighbours. Some might have thought ‘weirdos’ live up there.

Before you knew it winter had arrived and it was a cold one with lots of snow. We had a snow blower and on bad storms we called a truck in to plow the long driveway, we were the last on his list of customers so some days we were snowed in till past mid day. I don’t think we minded very much. We bought a nice snowmobile to tour around the acreage, nothing fancy a $500 machine in mint condition that Christine was enjoying until one night when she crashed, thank goodness she was OK, though the machine was no longer mint, it suffered some damage and I sold it off to avoid any future crashes and I suppose to send a message to the young lady who was acting much older than her 14 and a half years. She was quick to find a ‘fast crowd’ little did they know that she would be very fast herself as some issues arose at the Fenelon Falls High School. I don’t know that I had ever considered that some of my own traits would have ended up in her genes. We kept a good eye on things and dealt with matters best we could as they presented themselves.

That winter we burned almost eight full cords of firewood. It was a three time a day job going into the basement and filling the furnace, emptying the ashes that had to be stored in steel pails before being disposed of. Though the furnace was ultra modern it did seem to burn a lot of wood and I thought it was not as efficient as an airtight wood stove might have been. In the wee hours on a very cold night the electric heat would kick in to get us through until the morning stoking, one great thing to say about wood heat is that it will keep you fit. There were some trees on the edges of the property that we had cut up in the fall. We had an old riding mower that we would hook an equally old flatbed skidoo trailer to then haul the wood to the back of the house or inside the big barn like garage. You could never own enough wood to burn. Most of the trees I took down were those that had seen better days and were starting to rot. I never cut trees down that were too big to handle. Though there were acres and acres of trees in back of us on the crown land I did not have the correct equipment nor energies to move the logs from that rugged terrain to the house itself. One family who lived a few lines over delivered and hand tossed eight cords of wood on two separate nights using their 4X4 pick up truck with a trailer, we were busy for a few days stacking it up, there is a photo somewhere of the young kids standing on top of the pile. When the pool froze we let the kids skate on the frozen ice, at three and four years of age they were not very heavy. Prior to the snows we had rode our bikes with child attachments a few nights of the week all the way down to the highway and up to some side roads that wandered around, by seasons end we had found our legs and were able to ride the bikes all the way up the driveway which we thought was quite a feat. Either everyone was in their cars or there weren’t many bike riders as I don’t recall seeing anyone else riding bikes.

To break in the property we had a small New Years party which some friends attended. Julia made a big lasagna, Pete came with Toom his new wife who had come here from Thailand, Gary Kendall and his wife Shirley Gillis came from the city, the Woolseys Bob and Jude were still together they came in from Peterborough, Mighty came with a new friend. That night wee Jade screamed at the top of her lungs for the longest time until someone went up with a freezie for her. A bunch of us ended up in the living room watching of all things Jurassic Park with the volume exceedingly loud. The next morning, the couples headed out and we knew it would not be till spring that we would see anyone being as it were in this remote location.