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Hello friends, I have taken a week of vacanciones, and have prepared a series in 3D of Madrid precisely one of the door of entry and exit of Madrid, in concrete-ATOCHA - and surroundings, hope that you should like. This summer all the places of Madrid and the community of Madrid I am going to raise it in 3D, a premiere in this sense so much for flikr as for Internet. Please it do not feel you bound to comment, only to look and enjoying, do not forget to try some glasses for 3D, it is worth it, a very strong hug.
Hola amigos,he tomado una semana de vacanciones,y he preparado una serie en 3D de Madrid precisamente una de las puerta de entrada y salida de Madrid,en concreto-ATOCHA- y alrededores ,espero que os guste.Ese verano todos los lugares de Madrid y la comunidad de Madrid lo voy a subir en 3D,un estreno en ese sentido tanto para flikr como para internet.Por favor no os sientes obligado a comentar,solo a mirar y disfrutar,no olvides procurar unos gafas para 3D,merece la pena,un abrazo muy fuerte.
Please view large on black!
This is my first successful attempt at astrophotography! The first night was a bust, but I learned what not to do. I'm impressed this is even possible with just an (unmodified) dSLR, a fast lens, a tripod, and special software to process a number of images! The entrance to the park area of Tuttle Creek Lake is reasonably dark and shielded from the lights of Manhattan.
I am currently using Deep Sky Stacker, a free program, to process the individual images. It is critical that the stars do not have star trails, otherwise there tends to be problems precisely registering the images so that they align perfectly. I am using the highest ISO that gathers actual data as opposed to just adding noise. This is dependent on the camera model; it seems to be ISO 1600 for the Canon T2i. Prefer a fast prime lens to a zoom lens, especially when no kind of tracking is available. I used other ISO speeds in an attempt to gather more color information.
Be sure to turn off the display when you are taking pictures. The display will add extra heat to the inside of the camera, which will needlessly add extra heat to the CMOS sensor. For a CCD based sensor the noise doubles for every 6C (10.8F) increase in temperature. I don't know if these numbers conform exactly to a CMOS based sensor, but the principle still applies. While running technical tests on the Canon T2i by shooting a series of dark pictures, I found that the sensor noticeably heats up and produces far more noise. With a comparable set of darks with the display turned on, the sensor heated up even faster and produced a corresponding amount of extra noise. As a side note, with all things being equal and with a camera that isn't temperature controlled, it is better to take astrophotographic pictures while it is cooler outside for essentially the same reason. The cooler ambient temperatures keep the CMOS sensor cooler, which keeps the amount of noise down.
I found the Magic Lantern firmware to be immensely helpful in correctly focusing my lens in live preview and also providing an intervalometer. Focusing with the live preview is helpful, but it is best to take test pictures and compare them on a laptop before you get too far. It is just too hard to tell for sure if the focus is perfect on the LCD screen of the camera. It is better to spend more time upfront than to come back and find that all of your pictures are out of focus.
In the 151 image stack there were 3 sets of images. In each set there were about 50 light frames, 20 dark frames, and 100 bias frames. The dark and bias frames help to greatly reduce the noise in the image. I used photoshop to bring out as much detail and color as possible without emphasizing the noise too much.
Comparing visible stars to the catalog in Stellarium, it appears that the faintest recognizable star is around 13.7 apparent magnitude in the 151 stacked image versus 10.8 apparent magnitude in the single non-stacked image. [Apparent Magnitude]
I initially thought that 14x times more light was being picked up in the stacked image. (2.512 ^ (13.7 - 10.8) = 14.46) because the faintest recognizable star went from 10.8 to 13.7 apparent magnitude when comparing the single image to the stacked image. I'm not 100% sure any more. I previously thought that light was being gathered in a non-linear fashion with multiple exposures. A discussion on the Deep Sky Stacker Yahoo group, claims that an additional amount of exposure worth of light isn't being gathered in the stacking process. Instead, they say stacking greatly improves the signal in the resultant image, such that the faintest recorded stars are visible above the noise. The faint stars are in all of the exposures, but they are buried in noise. And additionally Blair MacDonald mentions that "In order to be detectable in the image a single star must be about 3 standard deviations above the noise floor."
However, I'm not convinced that no additional exposure worth of light is being added during the stacking process. In an exchange with someone else he says that "… a modern SLR is truly sensitive enough to capture and digitize individual photons. The read noise is generally between 2-20 equivalent photons, so that definitely gets in the way, because the light source you're trying to measure itself has noise (Poisson distribution). But yes, you can stack almost infinitely dim sub-exposures to get a result. The extra time required goes up dramatically at some point, because the read noise accumulates, but it is possible. This is why, all things being equal, longer exposures are better. But most of the time all things are not equal."--anonymous. If cameras are that sensitive, I can see how given enough sub-exposures and stacking, a periodic photon source at a particular pixel that only shows up in every x sub-exposures could still be translated into a luminosity value above zero.
To my knowledge everyone is recommending a certain number of sub-exposures to deal with practical issues, such as noise and tracking issues over very long exposures. John Smith released a couple of papers that are useful in determining the number of sub-exposures in imaging a particular deep sky object. I have created a spread sheet based on his work that should be useful to others getting started with astrophotography. You put in an initial sub-exposure time and total exposure time and it updates two tables. One table shows different options for keeping the same SNR but adjusting the number of subs-exposures and individual exposure times. The other table shows how SNR changes by keeping the total exposure time constant, but varying the number of subs-exposures and the individual exposure times. You can find it here. You should be able to open the spreadsheet either in Open Office or Excel.
There are some options for choosing the number of sub-exposures, but there is a practical minimum exposure that is needed to record the object. The practical minimum will depend on a number of factors. Some of them include the background sky luminosity, the camera/sensor being used, and the target object's luminosity. Keep this in mind when looking at the spreadsheet.
On a related note, I went out again and took over 1,400 images of the Orion Nebula with 200 dark frames! The outing was a bit of a bust because the images were slightly out of focus and had star trails. Despite the problems, I processed them as a massive stack with sigma clipping in Deep Sky Stacker. The image was virtually noise free and it appeared that there was slightly more exposure, but not by a huge amount given the number of pictures. The faintest recognizable star may have been about .5 magnitude dimmer in the 1,400 image stack. Maybe if it had been more in focus, there would have been a more dramatic improvement?
I am working on building a barn door tracker so that I can take much longer exposures and get images that are not practically possible for me right now. Being limited to 1 to 2 seconds at 85mm is very restrictive! It will use an Arduino and a stepper motor for automated tracking. From what I have read, I should be able to get 15x as long exposures (or more) before star trails show up.
In the process of learning more about lenses and astrophotography, I found out that chromatic aberration can be particularly problematic with the use of lenses. Most photographers are more familiar with the variety known as lateral chromatic aberration. But a special kind of chromatic aberration known as longitudinal chromatic aberration (or axial color), shows up as colored fringing that completely incircles objects such as stars. This is caused by the lens being unable to focus all wave lengths of visible light at the same point. My 85mm lens is not apochromatic and thus exhibits this flaw. I have gone back and replaced the original image that I uploaded with a hand corrected version that attempts to visually minimize the color fringing. Color tends to build up perceived contrast, so I greatly reduced the saturation of color in the purplish fringes and replaced the color with a small amount of random color from the background sky. I feel that this change is a noticeable improvement over the original. If anyone has thoughts on this, I welcome their input.
my identifier: orion nebula d
Cranes practice "safety in numbers" and regularly bed down for the night in large groups. They select different sites at different times, and where they go is not always predictable. We've found that if some birds land early in this shallow lake we're monitoring, and are left undisturbed, that the group will act as live decoys to lure other birds down to the seemingly safe haven for the night. This flight duo is doing precisely that... being drawn down to the lake with landing gear already down, and prepared for landing! Some birds drop down so steeply it's more like a parachute landing!
IMG_4277; Sandhill Cranes
The third instalment in my mash with the brilliant Cèdric Philippe and Paul Jarvis.
Stanislaw Had A Box For Everything – Part 3
Precisely when Stanislaw had blacked out was not clear to him, but he sensed he was now waking into one of the old nightmares. Like when he was in the clinic and they were drugging his porridge.
From somewhere close by, in the dead tones of a hostage imprisoned in an interminable loop, a vaguely familiar voice was repeating the refrain: “Good evening, this is the news. You can’t box up emotion.” Cold-sweating, Stanislaw looked around him. His cartons had morphed into battered TV sets with screens striving primordially to burst into life, and hellish green swamp vapours were rising from the floorless depths of the Box Chamber. He shuddered.
The voice suddenly dissolved into eerie laughter that caused Stanislaw to start. The bad psychiatrist! Terrified now, he looked up, but the face on the screen was not the one he so feared. It belonged to a wild-eyed macaque which, as it caught his eye, broke off its cackling and enquired facetiously: “How you gonna cope wi’ life as a dwarf penguin, man? You got yourself a cool box wi’ fish?”
Text and vocals by Paul Jarvis: baripaul.blogspot.com/
Matthew Watkins on iPad and harmonica: www.watkinsmedia.com/
Cédric Philippe on iPad and electric guitar: cedricphilippe.blogspot.com/
Precisely 5 months and 4 days after ordering (and paying for!) and 24 emails its eventually arrived. My fantastic f-stop Tilopa in Anthracite Black with large pro ICU. It's such a shame that this company struggles so much to deliver its orders to its customers because its products (once you receive them) are fantastic, solid and well built! Can't wait to get out into the wild and put it through its paces!
Strobist...580exii strobius strobistrip camera left 1/1 24mm.
Adults constantly raise the bar on smart children, precisely because they're able to handle it. The children get overwhelmed by the tasks in front of them and gradually lose the sort of openness and sense of accomplishment they innately have. When they're treated like that, children start to crawl inside a shell and keep everything inside. It takes a lot of time and effort to get them to open up again. Kids' hearts are malleable, but once they gel it's hard to get them back the way they were.
~ Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore)
and a little more blogged here
Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and eight metres, in the Golden Hour around Sunset, (Sunset was at precisely 19:38pm), at 19:29pm on Saturday 14th September 2013 Just before Aberfeldy on the shoreline of Loch Tay, nestled in the Tay Forest Park near Kenmore off the A827.
Kenmore (Cheannmhor) is a small village in Perthshire in the Highlands of Scotland where Loch Tay drains into the River Tay.
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Nikon D800 24mm 1/60s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit)
Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL15 batteries. Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Manfrotto 327RC2 Grip action ball head. Sandisc 32GB Ultra Class 10 30MB/s SDHC. Nikon DK-17a magnifying eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft eyepiece cup. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.
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LATITUDE: N 56d 34m 52.39s
LONGITUDE: W 4d 1m 15.46s
ALTITUDE: 108.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 15.57MB
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Processing power:
HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres, in the magic prior to the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:41am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Here, I am standing beside the wooden decked viewing platform, looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.
These Canada Geese, along with many other small groups, fly across the lake from East to West every morning and back again every evening at Sunset, and I love to watch the classic Vee formations and listen to the honking as they pass me by.
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Nikon D800 70mm 1/1000s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.
LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.79s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s
ALTITUDE: 7.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 13.81MB
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Processing power:
HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
Norwegen / Buskerud - Hallingskarvet-Nationalpark
On the way back from Prestholtskarvet.
Auf dem Weg zurück vom Prestholtskarvet.
Hallingskarvet National Park (Norwegian: Hallingskarvet nasjonalpark) is a national park in central Norway that was established by the government on 22 December 2006. The park is located in the municipalities of Hol (Buskerud county), Ulvik and Aurland (both in Vestland county). More precisely, the park comprises the Hallingskarv plateau and the high mountain areas to the west of it. It includes the Vargebreen glacier as well as the valleys of Såtedalen, Lengjedalen, Ynglesdalen, and parts of Raggsteindalen.
The national park covers 450 square kilometres (170 sq mi) of the Hallingskarvet mountain range and hosts large stocks of wild reindeer, an important factor in the establishment of the park. The highest point in the national park is Folarskardnuten which reaches an elevation of 1,933 metres (6,342 ft) above sea level.
The landscape of Hallingskarvet was shaped by multiple ice ages. The park shows the geological history and the connection between this history and the variation in the species living there. It includes areas of special value and which are home to threatened or vulnerable species such as Draba cacuminum (whitlow-grass) and Botrychium lanceolatum (lance-leaf grapefern).
The Bergen Line runs along the southern boundary of the park. There is no road access to the southern side of the park, so Finse Station, a stop on the railway line, is one of the few ways that people can access this part of the park. The Norwegian County Road 50 runs near the northern boundary of the park.
Protection and use
The main objective of this national park is to preserve a large, unique, and largely untouched area in order to protect the landscape and the biome with its ecosystem, species and populations of, amongst others, the wild reindeer. The protection is designed to safeguard a characteristic element needed to understand the geological history of the Norwegian landscape. It is also designed to protect valuable elements of the cultural heritage.
The park is open to the traditional forms of outdoor activities which require little or no technical means.
Name
The first element is halling (inhabitant of the Hallingdal valley) and the last is the finite form of skarv (mountain or mountainous area without vegetation).
(Wikipedia)
Der Hallingskarvet-Nationalpark (norwegisch Hallingskarvet nasjonalpark) ist ein südnorwegischer Nationalpark. Er umfasst das Hallingskarvet-Hochplateau und erstreckt sich über das Gebiet der Gemeinden Hol (Provinz Buskerud), Ulvik und Aurland (Provinz Vestland) gehört.
Gegründet wurde der Park am 22. Dezember 2006, um die dortige große, unverwechselbare und nahezu unberührte Bergregion, die Artenvielfalt von Flora und Fauna und die dort heimischen Bergrentiere zu schützen. Der Park grenzt an das Naturschutzgebiet Skaupsjøen/Hardangerjøkulen und das Biotop Finse.
Im Süden des Parkes führen sowohl die Bergenbahn als auch die Reichsstraße 7 vorbei.
Geologie, Landschaft und Geografie
Der Nationalpark umfasst größtenteils das Hallingskarvethochplateau, welches aufgrund der Kaledonischen Orogenese entstand. Das vorherrschende Gesteinsmaterial der Bergkette ist präkambrisches Pluton.
Der höchste Berg ist der Folarskardnuten mit 1.933 m. Im Hallingskarvet befindet sich auch Norwegens höchster See, der Flakavatnet, welcher auf 1.453 m Höhe liegt.
Flora
Die Pflanzenwelt gestaltet sich mit über 300 verschiedenen Arten sehr vielfältig. Die am weitesten verbreiteten Pflanzen sind der Weiße Silberwurz, Knöllchen-Knöterich und Herbst-Löwenzahn. In den höheren Lagen kommen vor allem Dreiblatt-Binsen, Polarsimsen, Moosheide und Gletscher-Hahnenfuß vor.
Fauna
Im Park gibt es an größeren Säugetieren Bergrentiere, Elche, Rehe, Polarfüchse und Schneehasen. Nördlich des Parks leben zudem Vielfraße.
Die größten Greifvögel sind Steinadler, Gerfalke, Turmfalke und Raufußbussard. Der Kolkrabe ist im Hallingskarvet ebenfalls heimisch.
Kulturerbe
Im Nationalpark wurden verschiedene Jagdutensilien gefunden, die auf eine prähistorische/historische Nutzung der Berge als Jagd- und/oder Siedlungsgebiet schließen lassen.
Im 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert lag der Park entlang einer wichtigen Handelsroute. Einfache Übernachtungshütten, sog. lægre, zeugen noch heute davon. Im Jahre 1880 ließ der englische Graf Lord Garvagh eine steinerne Jagdhütte, die Lordehytta, errichten, um in der näheren Umgebung auf Rentierjagd zu gehen.
Verwaltung und Tourismus
Der Norwegische Wanderverein unterhält im Park die Hütten Finsehytta im Süden und Geiterygghytta im Norden. Private Unterkünfte gibt es im Raggsteindalen und bei Haugastøl. Zwischen den Hütten gibt es markierte Wanderwege.
Zwischen Finse und Ustaoset verläuft ein Stück des Skarverennet durch den Park. Im Süden des Parks verläuft zudem der Rallarvegen.
(Wikipedia)
The Monostor Fortress - the largest modern fortress in Central Europe - was built between 1850 and 1871. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the neoclassical military monument is a fascinating sight with its huge walls of precisely hewn stone, the 3-4 metre thick earthen ramparts covering the defences and its network of underground passages (kazamata) several kilometres long.
Its monumental dimensions are evidenced by the following figures: The fortress covers 25 hectares, the total area including the firing ranges is 70 hectares, the floor area of the buildings is 25 680 m2 and the number of rooms is 640.
After the fortress was built, it served generations of soldiers of the Hungarian Defence Forces. Its tasks included the defence of the central fortress (North - Komárom) and the control of shipping on the Danube. It was never used in combat and served mainly as a training centre and weapons depot. During the First World War it was used as a conscription and training centre. During the Second World War, the 22nd Infantry Regiment had its headquarters at Fort Monostor, and the soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Infantry Regiments were stationed there. After the Second World War.
Between 1945 and 1990, the Red Army's Army Group South set up the largest ammunition depot in Central Europe in the fort. With their withdrawal, the military function of the fortress ended forever.
Today the fort is a popular destination with a military history exhibition, Cold War vehicles, a bread museum, a boat exhibition and numerous events.
The Pomegranate Seeds - From Tanglewood Tales, 1853
By Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864.
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But Queen Metanira, as was very natural, had a great curiosity to know precisely what the nurse did to her child. One night, therefore, she hid herself in the chamber where Ceres and the little prince were accustomed to sleep. There was a fire in the chimney, and it had now crumbled into great coals and embers, which lay glowing on the hearth, with a blaze flickering up now and then, and flinging a warm and ruddy light upon the walls. Ceres sat before the hearth with the child in her lap, and the firelight making her shadow dance upon the ceiling overhead. She undressed the little prince, and bathed him all over with some fragrant liquid out of a vase. The next thing she did was to rake back the red embers, and make a hollow place among them, just where the backlog had been. At last, while the baby was crowing, and clapping its fat little hands, and laughing in the nurse's face (just as you may have seen your little brother or sister do before going into its warm bath), Ceres suddenly laid him, all naked as he was, in the hollow among the red-hot embers. She then raked the ashes over him, and turned quietly away.
You may imagine, if you can, how Queen Metanira shrieked, thinking nothing less than that her dear child would be burned to a cinder. She burst forth from her hiding-place, and running to the hearth, raked open the fire, and snatched up poor little Prince Demophoön out of his bed of live coals, one of which he was gripping in each of his fists. He immediately set up a grievous cry, as babies are apt to do, when rudely startled out of a sound sleep. To the queen's astonishment and joy, she could perceive no token of the child's being injured by the hot fire in which he had lain. She now turned to Mother Ceres, and asked her to explain the mystery.
"Foolish woman," answered Ceres, "did you not promise to intrust this poor infant entirely to me? You little know the mischief you have done him. Had you left him to my care, he would have grown up like a child of celestial birth, endowed with superhuman strength and intelligence, and would have lived forever. Do you imagine that earthly children are to become immortal without being tempered to it in the fiercest heat of the fire? But you have ruined your own son. For though he will be a strong man and a hero in his day, yet, on account of your folly, he will grow old, and finally die, like the sons of other women. The weak tenderness of his mother has cost the poor boy an immortality. Farewell."
Saying these words, she kissed the little Prince Demophoön, and sighed to think what he had lost, and took her departure without heeding Queen Metanira, who entreated her to remain, and cover up the child among the hot embers as often as she pleased. Poor baby! He never slept so warmly again.
These shots are D800E+Apo-Sonnar 135mm F2.0.
Recently I realized back focus problem.
Even I try hard to focus precisely with D800E finder, the taken picuture is "back focus".
I found that Zeiss has been refering about this issue.
www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de/website/photography/wha...
Bilaminate structure of foot clearly distinguished on melanistic specimens as ventral sole-layer is white and dorsal layer black. Two layers do not precisely coincide; to anterior of snout (1) the dorsal layer, like the snout, is deeply and widely bifid exposing large 'V' of white sole-layer (2) .
At anterior, lobe-tip of black upper-layer may be well behind sole edge (3), close to it (4), or extend beyond it ( 14Rd flic.kr/p/Hyrx4f ).
Full SPECIES DESCRIPTION: flic.kr/p/HyryEG
Sets of OTHER SPECIES:
iss043e241847 (05/22/15) --- NASA astronaut Scott Kelly on the International Space Station May 29, 2015 tweeted this image out of an Earth observation as part of his Space Geo trivia contest. Scott tweeted this comment and clue: "#SpaceGeo 3 iconic man-made structures of this country are precisely aligned w the Constellation of #Orion. Name it!"
Congratulations to @burwellian for correctly identifying this image as Egypt first. He will receive an autographed copy of this image when Scott returns to Earth in March 2016.
Ayam penyet (Javanese for: smashed fried chicken) is Indonesian — more precisely East Javanese cuisine — fried chicken dish consisting of fried chicken that is smashed with the pestle against mortar to make it softer, served with sambal, slices of cucumbers, fried tofu and tempeh. In Indonesia penyet dishes, such as fried chicken and ribs are commonly associated with Surabaya, the capital city of East Java. The most popular ayam penyet variant is ayam penyet Suroboyo.
It is also known for its spicy sambal, which is made with a mixture of chilli, anchovies, tomatoes, shallots, garlics, shrimp paste, tamarind and lime juice. Like its namesake, the mixture is then smashed into a paste to be eaten with the dish.
Taken in the forest, not far from place where I live.
Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is a species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortleberry. It is found natively in Europe, northern Asia, Greenland, Iceland, Western Canada, and the Western United States. It occurs in the wild on heathlands and acidic soils. Its berry has been long consumed in the Old World. It is related to the widely cultivated North American blueberry. The bilberry fruit is smaller than that of the blueberry and similar in taste. Bilberries are darker in colour, and usually appear near black with a slight shade of blue. While the blueberry's fruit pulp is light green, the bilberry's is red or purple, heavily staining the fingers and lips of consumers eating the raw fruit. Vaccinium myrtillus fruits has been used for nearly 1,000 years in traditional European medicine for treatment of disorders of the gastrointestinal tract and diabetes. In cooking, the bilberry fruit is commonly used for the same purposes as the American blueberry such as pies, cakes, jams, muffins, cookies, sauces, syrups, juices, and candies.
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Jagódki pstryknięte w lesie, niedaleko mojego osiedla :)
Borówka czarna (Vaccinium myrtillus) – gatunek rośliny wieloletniej z rodziny wrzosowatych. Ma wiele nazw zwyczajowych, m.in. jagoda, czarna jagoda, czernica. Roślina jest szeroko rozprzestrzeniona w Azji, Europie i Ameryce Północnej na obszarach o klimacie umiarkowanym i arktycznym. W Polsce jest pospolita zarówno na nizinach, jak i w górach. Jest wykorzystywana szeroko jako roślina jadalna i lecznicza. Znaczenie gospodarcze borówki czarnej pozostaje wysokie mimo silnej konkurencji znacznie bardziej plennych borówek północnoamerykańskich, których owoce mają uboższy skład chemiczny od czernicy. Owoce borówki czarnej były od dawna bardzo istotne dla Słowian i ludów północnej Europy. Używano jej owoców jako lekarstwa przy biegunkach i krwawej dyzenterii. Zastosowanie takie utrzymało się w lecznictwie ludowym, przy czym często zalecano je także w większych dawkach przeciw owsikom. Ponadto owoce borówki czarnej oferowane i spożywane są w postaci świeżej, suszonej, mrożonej oraz jako składnik przetworów takich jak dżemy, ciasta, soki oraz ciekłe lub sproszkowane koncentraty, będące suplementem diety. Przetwory z jagód wyróżniają się długą trwałością.
Yuri: “Now, I will have to go down to the store myself, which was precisely what I was trying to avoid when I had you pick up the extra supplies on your way over here!”
Kumi: “Don’t get your Chanel in a twist, I’ll go back to the store and get your damn sugar. Geez!” *shoves two cookies into her mouth, dusts her hands off, begins to make her way towards the door*
Yuri: “No, no, by all means, allow me. I have nothing better to do, other than bake seventy dozen cookies, twenty four pies, and eighteen cakes…*follows Kumi out of the kitchen*
Kumi: “Sheesh, just shut up already! I said I’d go get it, didn’t I?”
--Sound of bickering fades as the girls make their way through the dining room--
Hermione: “Huh, I guess you were right, Lizard. They do fight sometimes.”
Lizzy (sagely): “They’re sisters. It’s inevitable. I love Georgie, but she drives me cray-cray some days.”
Hermione: “Bet you a cherry Slurpee they don’t stay mad long, though.”
Lizzy: “Nope. They’ll be over it by the time they come back… *hops off her stool and begins loading cookies into boxes* Hey, wanna help? Miz Yuri said to put a dozen into each box.”
Hermione: “Sure. *hops off her own stool, begins helping Lizzy stuff boxes* So, which one?”
Lizzy: “Huh?”
Lukas: *sticks his head into the kitchen, intent on avoiding teenage detection, and seeing the girls’ backs turned to him, enters stealthily, opening the fridge door slowly (to avoid condiment jingle)*
Hermione: “Which guy would you pick? You never said. You can’t have Mr. Simon. I’ve already dibbed all over his fine ass.”
Lukas: *rolls his eyes, mouths* “Typical.” *scans the fridge*
Lizzy (vehemently): “I don’t want any of them! I just hope Georgie knows what she’s doing by getting messed up with Mr. Hawk. Men suck.”
Lukas: *brow furrows, pulls his head out of the fridge to stare at Lizzy’s back, clearly deciding whether or not to let that sleeping dog of a comment lie*
Hermione: “Yeah! They totally suck! Um, I mean, well, some of them do. Not all of them, though…and I like Mr. Hawk. I thought you did, too.”
Lukas: *nods in relieved agreement, goes back to searching for something snack-y*
Lizzy: “No! All of them! They’re all awful, stupid, mean, cowardly liars.” *slams the lid on her cookie box, denting it in the process*
Lukas: *straightens up, sighing dejectedly, as he quietly closes the fridge door and announces his presence* “Hey, double troubles. What fresh horrors be ye perpetrating in here today?”
Lizzy & Hermione: *whip around, startled*
Hermione (brightly): “Hiya, Mr. Luke!”
Lizzy: *hands landing on her hips* “Hmmph.”
Hermione: *surprised look at Lizzy’s cold greeting, quickly* “Um, would you like a cookie?”
Fashion Credits
**Any doll enhancements (i.e. freckles, piercings, eye color changes) were done by me unless otherwise stated.**
Lizzy
Skirt: Jennifer Sue
Sweater: Christmas ornament (Thank you, Emjay!)
Knee Socks: MGA – High Glam Accessory Pack
Mary Janes: Jennifer Sure
Bow: IT – Poppy Parker – Holiday in the Hamptons
Bracelets: Me
Hello Kitty Pin: Nikki in Wales (Thank you, Nikki!)
Doll is a Lacy Modernist Momoko.
Hermione
Jeans: Lazy Seventeen Momoko
Sweater – Christmas ornament (Thank you, Emjay!)
Sneakers: Momoko Separate
Bracelets: Me
Hair Clip: Me
Doll is a Preppy Girl Momoko.
Lukas
Cords: Gwendolyn’s Treasures
Plaid Shirt: Gwendolyn’s Treasures
T-shirt: IT – Dynamite Boys – Back to Brooklyn Remi
Sneakers: IT – Homme – Euro-Classic Fashion
Necklace: Me
Doll is a Rock Ringmaster Lukas.
Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty six metres, in the first vestiges of light prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 02:38am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking a blanket of morning mist as it rolled across the Poppy field by Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.
This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.
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Nikon D800 52mm 5 second exposure f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.
Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 4.36s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 52.53s
ALTITUDE: 66.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 16.74MB
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Processing power:
HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
The Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis or precisely, the remains of it in its modern appearance.
Built between 447-438 BC (decoration extended until 432) and dedicated to Athene, also Pallas Athene and/or Athene Parthenos, as thanks to the goddess for the Hellenic victory over the Persian Invaders.
The Parthenon was commissioned by the Athenian politician Pericles as a part of a wider building program on the Acropolis to resemble the power and ambitions of Athens within the Delian League and Greece as a whole.
It is considered the most important surviving building of Classical Greece and as the zenith of the Doric order. The Parthenon was further richly ornate with highly detailed Metopes and Pediments as well as the famous Frieze.
Since 1975 the Greek government initiated the restoration of the over 2.500 years old monument. The efforts to restore and conserve this site are a continuing process to the present day.
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In various Mithraic temples there have been found representations of a monstrous figure (according to Hieronymus a monstruosum portentum), generally with a lion's head and a human body entwined by a snake. On none of these, however, is there an inscription to tell us precisely which deity is portrayed. Several attempts have been made, particularly in more recent years, to equate this figure with Ahriman, the god of evil, a suggestion made by Prof. R. Zaehner of Oxford and accepted, with reservation, by the Belgian scholar of Persian, Duchesne-Guillemin. There are, it is true, some dedicatory inscriptions to Ahriman, but they are carved on altars and only three of them are recorded, one each in Rome, England and Austria. They were obviously intended to placate the god of evil and to implore him to avert his magic force, and they must have been inscribed by sorely troubled followers of Mithras who preferred to invoke Ahriman himself rather than place complete trust in their own god who, ultimately and inevitably, was to conquer evil. To us it would seem odd to find an altar dedicated to the devil in a Christian church, but to the ancient way of thinking this was not unusual and even sacrifices of wild boars were made to pacify the malicious Ahriman.
The lion-headed figure is the Time-god called Aion by the Greeks and Zervan in Persian literature. As far as the Persian texts are concerned, three different aspects of the Time-god must be distinguished. According to the orthodox teaching of Zarathushtra, Zervan is a creature of Ahura-Mazda, the God of Good. According to a second theory, however, there were originally two archetypes, that of Good and that of Evil. A separate Sassanid sect regarded Zervan Akarana, Infinite Time, as the cause and the source of all things. Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman both sprang from Zervan and were subject to him, and the followers of this cult called themselves Zervanists. It seems plausible that the same Zervan, after having undergone all kinds of foreign influences, was admitted into the Mithraic pantheon and that the figure with the lion's head is none other than Zervan who, by means of a put on Chronos (Time), was identified in the Greek texts with Kronos and, in the Roman world, with Saturn. This god is mostly portrayed in a stiff hieratic pose, with legs close together. Sometimes he is shown nude, though often his sex is disguised by a loin-cloth or by an enveloping snake, as if it were intended either to leave the deity's sex vague or to convey that both sexes were united in him, and that he was capable of self procreation. In between the coils of the snake, which often winds itself, significantly, seven times round the god, are sometimes seen the signs of the zodiac. The horrifying figure usually has a lion's head with flowing mane and wide-open mouth showing threatening protruding teeth. For even greater effect the mouth is sometimes painted red and the gullet is hollowed out. A statue from Saida in Africa has an opening made in its head, and it is highly likely that this was intended to take a burning torch. The statue would thus appear to breathe fire and so inspire even more respect for the god than his dread visage alone could evoke. In one example he is holding two torches, while a long-pointed flame shoots out of his mouth and fuses with the flames of the burning altar beside him. An unknown author records in an essay on Saturn that he 'is sometimes represented with the appearance of a snake because of excessive cold, and at other times with a wide open lion's mouth on account of scorching heat'. Sometimes this strange creature is carrying a key in both hands, a pointer to a connection with Janus, the ruler of the ianus, the gateway to the underworld of which he possessed the keys. Finally, parallels have been drawn between Saturn and Sarapis, the Egyptian deity of the realm of the dead, and he is in some way related to certain Syrian figures who are found entwined by snakes.
Norwegian, or more precisely Norwegian Air UK, started serving Buenos Aires from Gatwick on 14th February. It runs four times a week, and I caught Dreamliner G-CKOG just before touching down at its European destination.
In line with group policy, it features a 'hero' on the fin, which in this case is Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía
London Gatwick
24th February 2018
20180224 IMG_9573 GCKOG
The carpenter cut the wood precisely on angles. The public did not approve and crucified the guy.
Size: 12x12 inches
Paintings for sale: www.shawnshawn.co/store/p204/Wood-Composition-III
Newsletter: www.shawnshawn.co/Site/Contact.html
Art Code: AA01187
Art of the Real
Welcome to France, more precisely Paris, our second destination on our journey around the world.
In France, the main language they speak is French.
In the book you can see a translation of the English sentence into French.
We've reached 2,000 support!!!
This is precisely what I love about this city.
People can do whatever they want, wherever they want. (ok, there are a few rules. anyways)
This dude was practicing his stuff inside the station. Not for money. Its too cold outside. No-one had a problem.
I was doing my stuff..something like weird crawling on the ground. No-one had an issue. (well, i was interrogated a few days back while taking snaps of a door in the airport, but thats ok. lets accept it, we are weird)
He was done in like 10 mins. I was not too happy to say "c ya mate".
Alaa Abd El-Fattah has endured much of the last twelve years in some of the worst prison conditions anywhere for his brave work in promoting democracy in Egypt. He was last arrested in September 2019 while attending Cairo's Dokki Police Station and in December last year was sentenced to five years imprisonment for "spreading false news undermining state security." More precisely, he had shared social media posts explaining the hell-hole reality of Egyptian prison conditions.
PROTEST OUTSIDE THE FOREIGN OFFICE
When this photo was taken, Alaa's two sisters, Mona and Sana'a Seif, were staging a protest in London's King Charles Street outside the British Foreign Office in the hope that the Egyptian government can be pressured to release him, as media attention began to focus on the upcoming COP27 conference at Sharm El Sheikh on Egypt's Red Sea coast.
UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2022
Starting from Sunday 6 November, Alaa escalated his hunger strike, and stopped taking water. His sister Sanaa Seif took a flight the same weekend to attend the COP27 conference at Sharm El Sheikh in a last-minute effort to save Alaa's life.
For the latest on Alaa's situation listen to his sister's Sanaa Seif's speech to journalists attending the conference on Tuesday 8 November - "They are very happy for him to die. The only thing they care about is that it doesn't happen while the world is watching."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqXibJ7PUTY
TORA PRISON - "A DAY HERE, IS LIKE A YEAR IN BELMARSH"
In April, Alaa began his hunger strike in a cell in one of the most secure sections of Cairo's sprawling and notorious Tora Prison - a maze of grim high concrete walls and watch towers, which strike fear into even the thousands of commuters who have to pass daily.
In 2012, one young Londoner confined to one of the least uncomfortable and most survivable wings of Tora prison, contrasted it with his own previous experience at Britain's high security Belmarsh. I can never forget his exact words. "A day here, is like a year at Belmarsh!" A little over 12 months later, he died of TB - the prison authorities had refused to listen to the pleas of his aunt, who fell on her knees during a rare visit, begging that he be admitted to the prison hospital.
ALAA'S HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES AT WADI EL NATRUN PRISON
More than 200 days have passed since Alaa started his hunger strike. He has now been moved to the Wadi El Natrun prison complex in the desert north of Cairo, dubbed by inmates as the "Valley of Hell."
He may not survive much longer. However, as he holds British-Egyptian nationality, one would hope that the British government would be doing everything they could to secure his immediate release and it would be reasonable to suppose that the Foreign Office could get an immediate pledge in this regard, especially given that the British companies, including the likes of British Petroleum and BP, are the biggest investors in Egypt.
NO CONSULAR ACCESS
However, the British government have failed even to get him any consular access - think about that. That's an outrage. Even a convicted mass murderer, if British, would be entitled to consular access while in prison. That meeting would obviously not take place in his cell - but in a designated room in the prison or the highly supervised prison visiting area.
British men and women convicted of drug smuggling and other crimes in Egypt have received consular visits, so why not Alaa? The answer is because Alaa's crime is that he dared to tell the truth about Egypt, and the injustice both inside and outside its many prison walls. Nobody knows exactly how many political prisoners Egypt now has, but the number is estimated to be at least 60,000.
ALAA WAS ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN
Alaa Abd El-Fattah was one of the leaders of arguably the most inspirational democratic revolt the world has seen in the last hundred years. Although the first phase of the 2011 uprising in Egypt lasted just 18 days, and although it followed the toppling of the dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia - the streets and bridges around Tahrir Square became a deadly stage watched by the world, where protesters from every walk of life were pitted against Egypt's feared state security forces. Against all the odds, and at the cost of many lives, Egyptians refused to leave the square, sleeping in front of the tanks and fending off attacks from government militia.
The Egyptian people's initial success in toppling the dictator Mubarak led to further revolts not just across the Middle East (most notably in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria) - the highly organised Tahrir-Square sit-in provided the inspiration for strikes and workplace sit-ins against austerity across the United States and Europe and to the Occupy Movement of the same year. The people of Egypt showed that it does not matter how brutal, feared and authoritarian a government is, it can be toppled if people act collectively.
THE MILITARY BACKLASH
It's true that Egypt's flirtation with the path to greater freedom seemed to be only temporary - the Egyptian authorities deployed the usual divide and rule tactics - encouraging the less committed protesters to return home - and then rushed to elections without allowing time for genuinely democratic opposition parties to develop.
Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won the presidential election in 2012 - the Brotherhood (contrary to the perception many people have here in the West) had genuinely progressive elements within it, but the chance for any transformative radical programme was prevented partly by the corruption and self-interest of some of the main political actors and partly by opposition to its democratic mandate from the deep state (the military, the Interior Ministry, State Security, the police etc.)
The army, seeing its chance, seized power in 2013, superficially in the name of the people, but in reality, to advance the interests of the generals. The new president, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, moved quickly to crush all opposition, and ordering his security forces to attack Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had gathered in eastern Cairo at Rabaa al-Adaweya Square, killing at least 800 people - the bloodiest massacre of civilians in Egypt's modern history.
DON'T ALLOW EGYPT TO USE COP27 TO GREENWASH ITS REGIME - AND PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE ALAA
Now COP27 is scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh and Sisi has been given a golden opportunity to greenwash his murderous regime, which has also seen ever increasing levels inequality and corruption. While British representatives at COP27 will be given accommodation in the most luxurious five star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh and fall asleep listening to the sound of the waves, another British citizen, Alaa Abdel El-Fatah is near death, on a painful hunger strike in the darkest of places - his dimly lit cell. The only thing he might hear at night is the desperate cry from some prisoner in another cell appealing for medical help which most likely never comes.
If we care for freedom, real democracy and justice, we can't allow the British Foreign Office to forget Alaa - especially if it's simply not to upset the highly profitable relationship British multinationals have with one of the world's most authoritarian and corrupt regimes - a relationship which only benefits the wealthiest of Egyptians.
If you live in London, please show your support at the protest at King Charles Street - and wherever you live please sign the petition -
www.change.org/p/help-free-my-brother-before-it-s-too-lat...
It's July 26, 1961 at precisely 7:45 AM. Northern Pacific 855 and 911 find themselves derailed at the north end of Rice's Point in Duluth, Minnesota. While officials (wearing the fancy fedoras) are on the scene trying to figure out how to solve this problem without spending too much money. The very curious fellow who is taking the closest look at the carnage is likely the engineer—hoping that he won't get the blame for today's little mishap. When the lead wheels of the locomotive pick a switch (go the wrong direction) this is the result nearly 100% of the time. It is with good reason why yard speed limits are limited to 10 m.p.h. With so many train movements in the yard and so many switches to navigate—the slower you go—the less damage there will be when things go wrong. NP 855 is an Alco RS-3 built in December of 1953. NP 911 is an Alco RS-11 built in July of 1958. Both will recover after a trip to the roundhouse to put their equalizers back on. the trucks on Alco road switchers had a nasty habit of falling apart if the engine came off the track. An arguably flawed design that Alco's competitors simply didn't have to deal with. Alco went out of business in 1969. FYI, most of the ground between the men in the photo and the turntable is now under the I-35 expressway. The turntable (background-right) belonged to the Soo Line and it would have been located along where Lower Michigan Street is now.
"The Heidenmauer is the best-known Roman monument in the Hesse state capital of Wiesbaden, the Roman Aquae Mattiacorum. According to current opinion, it was built around 370 AD under Emperor Valentinian I and is therefore the oldest surviving building in the city. The purpose of this defensive wall cannot yet be clearly determined, and the dating cannot be narrowed down more precisely than generally to the late phase of Roman Wiesbaden.
During the Wilhelmine period, the Heath Wall was broken through to build Coulinstrasse and the so-called Roman Gate was added in the style of the time. While only a few sections of the wall are visible above ground, the gate that was added later is integrated as a visible monument into the urban development structures of the 19th century in the Quellenviertel. It is a cultural monument for artistic, urban development and local historical reasons, the Heidenmauer for urban historical reasons.
Wiesbaden (German pronunciation: [ˈviːsˌbaːdn̩]) is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. As of June 2020, it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area is home to approximately 560,000 people. Wiesbaden is the second-largest city in Hesse after Frankfurt am Main.
The city, together with nearby Frankfurt am Main, Darmstadt, and Mainz, is part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Region, a metropolitan area with a combined population of about 5.8 million people.
Wiesbaden is one of the oldest spa towns in Europe. Its name translates to "meadow baths", a reference to its famed hot springs. It is also internationally famous for its architecture and climate—it is also called the "Nice of the North" in reference to the city in France. At one time, Wiesbaden had 26 hot springs. As of 2008, fourteen of the springs are still flowing.
In 1970, the town hosted the tenth Hessentag Landesfest (English: Hessian Day, a state festival).
The city is considered the tenth richest in Germany (2014) boasting 110.3% of the national average gross domestic product in 2017. The average annual buying power per citizen is €24,783.
Rheingau is one of 13 designated German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) producing quality wines (QbA and Prädikatswein). It was named after the traditional region of Rheingau (meaning "Rhine district"), the wine region is situated in the state of Hesse, where it constitutes part of the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis administrative district. Although, making up only 3 percent of the total German vineyard area, Rheingau has been the source of many historically important innovations in German wine making, and contains many wine producers of international reputation, such as Schloss Johannisberg. Rheingau, with 3,125 hectares (7,720 acres) of vineyards in 2016, also boasts a higher proportion of Riesling (77.7%) than any other German wine-growing region, with Spätburgunder (Pinot noir) making up most of the rest (12.2%), followed by Müller-Thurgau.
The geography of the Rheingau is very distinct. Around Wiesbaden, the river Rhine detours from its northward flow west for about 30 km before it flows north again. The greater part of the Rheingau is situated here on the river's right bank, but the region also includes the stretch along Rhine after it turns northward again, around the villages Assmannshausen and Lorch. The vineyards in Hochheim on the Main river are also included, just before it flows into Rhine. The Rheingau spans about 50 km from end to end. North of the Rheingau rises the Taunus mountain range, so most of the Rheingau's vineyards are on south-facing slope between hills and streams, which provides excellent wine-growing conditions in these northerly latitudes.
Since the Verona donation in 983, the Rheingau belonged to the archbishopric of Mainz. Legend has it that Charlemagne let the first vineyards be planted in the region, close to present-day Schloss Johannisberg. However finds like a Roman origin grapevine cutting knife point to even earlier cultivation. Better documented is the early influence of the church on Rheingau winemaking, which was controlled from Eberbach Abbey. Augustinians and Benedictines are known to have inhabited the area of the later abbey from 1116, and in 1135 the Cistercians arrived, sent out from Clairvaux. Legend has it that the Cistercians, which are also credited with having founded the wine industry in Burgundy, brought Pinot noir with them to Rheingau, although the earliest record of the grape variety in Rheingau is from 1470. The slopes down from the Taunus mountains belonging to Eberbach Abbey were planted as vineyards in the 12th century, and early in the 13th century the vineyards had reached their present area. In medieval times, more red than white wine was produced, usually as Gemischter Satz, i.e. the vineyards were planted with mixed varieties which were vinified together.
Rheingau Wine Official Classification of 1867
In 2011 it was unveiled, that the Official Wine Classification in the Rheingau has a 150 years history. The classification was the basis for taxation of wineries after the annexation of the Duchy of Nassau by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1866. In the book Der nassauische Weinbau published in 1867 by Friedrich Wilhelm Dünkelberg a historical map Weinbau-Karte des nassauischen Rheingaus (Viticultural map of the Rheingau in the Duchy of Nassau), all known vineyards at that time had been marked up by colour, evaluated and classified in first class vineyards (I. Klasse), second class vineyards (II. Klasse) and the remaining vineyards." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
Created with ChatGPT
The Book of Katarina by Adrian Keeley (Feat Kat Verde-Dillingham)
THE CITY OF SHADOWS 1784
Paris smelled of rain.
It smelled of horses, sewage, smoke, perfume, rotting food, wet stone, and humanity packed so tightly together that even the night seemed unable to contain it.
To Katarina Verde, it was magnificent.
The city stretched before her beneath a sky of silver cloud and scattered moonlight. Thousands of lanterns burned along streets and bridges. Carriages rattled over cobblestones. Music drifted from taverns and theatres. The Seine reflected a thousand broken lights.
Nothing in Europe resembled Paris.
Nothing in Europe hid more secrets.
Which was precisely why she had come.
Lucien hated Paris.
He never denied it.
"You can feel them everywhere," he muttered as they crossed the Pont Neuf.
Katarina glanced sideways.
"The vampires?"
"The ambition."
His expression darkened.
"Cities create ambition."
"And?"
"And ambition creates corpses."
Katarina smiled.
"You've described half of Europe."
Lucien failed to smile in return.
That alone made her pay attention.
The rumors had begun six months earlier.
A merchant in Venice.
A scholar in Vienna.
An immortal encountered briefly outside Prague.
Different sources.
Different countries.
The same whispers.
Paris.
Something unusual was happening in Paris.
Not merely vampires.
Vampires existed everywhere.
This was something else.
Ancient laws were being challenged.
Old powers were stirring.
Certain immortals had vanished.
Others had appeared.
The hidden network of rumor that connected immortal society had become strangely focused upon a single city.
Paris.
Eventually even Lucien had taken notice.
When Lucien de Morcant noticed something, Katarina paid attention.
The city overwhelmed her senses.
Immortality sharpened everything.
Human beings experienced crowds.
Vampires experienced oceans.
Heartbeats.
Thousands of them.
Millions.
An endless symphony of blood flowing through veins.
The first years had nearly driven her mad.
Now she had learned to separate herself from it.
Mostly.
Yet Paris tested even her discipline.
Every street pulsed with life.
Every tavern.
Every theatre.
Every church.
Every palace.
Every slum.
The city seemed alive in a way few places ever became.
Hungry.
Restless.
Waiting.
They rented rooms beneath false names.
As always.
Lucien maintained identities the way other men collected books.
Katarina had stopped asking how many existed.
The answer was probably alarming.
For several weeks they did nothing.
At least that was how it appeared.
They walked.
Observed.
Listened.
Waited.
Immortals who survived centuries rarely rushed toward answers.
History rewarded patience.
History punished enthusiasm.
Katarina hated this lesson.
Which was perhaps why Lucien repeated it so often.
The first sign appeared in a cemetery.
Not a supernatural sign.
Not a dramatic sign.
A practical one.
Three fresh graves.
All recently disturbed.
All empty.
The church blamed grave robbers.
The local authorities blamed criminals.
Lucien said nothing.
Katarina crouched beside one of the open graves and studied the earth.
No coffin fragments.
No drag marks.
No signs of excavation.
The body had not been stolen.
It had left.
The realization should have frightened her.
Instead it fascinated her.
The second sign appeared near the theatre district.
Disappearances.
Not random.
Not numerous.
Specific.
A prostitute.
A musician.
A thief.
A retired soldier.
No obvious connection.
Yet all had vanished within a remarkably small area of the city.
Again Lucien became quieter.
Again Katarina became more curious.
The pattern continued.
Then she saw him.
Not Lestat.
Not yet.
Armand.
Though she did not know his name.
Only his face.
She noticed him because he should not have existed.
He appeared young.
Almost impossibly young.
His beauty bordered upon the unnatural.
Auburn hair.
Pale skin.
Eyes far older than the face surrounding them.
He stood among a crowd outside a church shortly after sunset.
Motionless.
Watching.
Not the church.
The people.
The way a predator studies prey.
Katarina recognized him immediately.
Not personally.
Professionally.
The archive had contained references.
Descriptions.
Accounts.
A beautiful immortal who moved through Europe like a rumor.
Never remaining.
Never belonging.
Always watching.
She followed him.
Of course she did.
The pursuit lasted nearly two hours.
Across bridges.
Through narrow streets.
Into districts she had never visited.
Twice she lost sight of him.
Twice she found him again.
Eventually he entered an abandoned structure near the outskirts of the city.
An old cemetery chapel.
Katarina waited.
Observed.
Counted entrances.
Counted exits.
Then she saw others arriving.
Not humans.
Vampires.
One.
Then another.
Then three more.
The realization struck instantly.
A gathering.
A coven.
Her pulse quickened.
She had spent years studying references to vampire societies.
Most were extinct.
Others remained hidden.
Finding one was extraordinarily rare.
Finding one in Paris explained every rumor.
She returned to Lucien before dawn.
For the first time in years she found him genuinely surprised.
"A coven?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"At least five."
Lucien sat silently.
Thinking.
That worried her.
When ancient vampires became thoughtful, disaster often followed.
Finally he spoke.
"Do not approach them."
Katarina sighed.
"You know that's not going to happen."
"No."
His expression darkened.
"I suppose it isn't."
Elsewhere in Paris, another story had already begun.
A very different story.
One involving a young vampire incapable of following instructions.
Lestat de Lioncourt hated rules.
He hated them instinctively.
Almost artistically.
The older he became, the more spectacularly he violated them.
By 1784 he had already become a problem.
The word appeared repeatedly in accounts written by older immortals.
Problem.
Danger.
Disruption.
Chaos.
No vampire seemed capable of describing him any other way.
Lestat enjoyed this immensely.
The ancient customs that governed vampire society struck him as absurd.
Hide.
Fear.
Obey.
Remain invisible.
Remain silent.
Remain dead.
Lestat had never excelled at silence.
Or obedience.
Or invisibility.
The first time he heard rumors of the Paris coven he laughed.
The second time he became interested.
The third time he decided to investigate.
That decision altered everything.
Deep beneath Paris.
Far below the city streets.
Far below the cemeteries.
Far below ordinary human knowledge.
The ancient world still survived.
Dark tunnels.
Hidden chambers.
Forgotten catacombs.
An underground kingdom of shadows.
And at its center ruled Armand.
The beautiful vampire Katarina had followed through the city.
The ancient vampire whose youthful appearance concealed centuries of existence.
The leader of the Children of Darkness.
A creature who believed absolutely in ancient laws.
Ancient traditions.
Ancient fears.
Everything Lestat despised.
Everything Lestat intended to challenge.
Neither Katarina nor Armand knew it yet.
Neither Katarina nor Lestat knew it yet.
Yet they had begun orbiting the same secret.
The same conflict.
The same collision point.
One approached through curiosity.
One approached through rebellion.
Both moved toward the same darkness beneath Paris.
And darkness, as Katarina had learned long ago, rarely tolerated two separate investigations forever.
Eventually paths crossed.
Eventually doors opened.
Eventually destinies collided.
For now Paris waited.
The city of kings.
The city of revolution.
The city of immortals.
And somewhere beneath its streets, hidden from the world above, ancient shadows were beginning to stir.
Katarina could feel it.
Lestat could feel it.
Even Armand could feel it.
Though none of them yet understood what was coming.
Only that something had begun.
And Paris would never be the same.
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Image Prompt - Ultra-photorealistic IMAX fantasy photograph, cinematic Netflix-quality realism, 16:9 aspect ratio, 64K UHD, razor-sharp detail, HDR, Unreal Engine 5.5 lighting, wet moonlit Paris, 1784. A richly layered dark-fantasy story collage showing ancient vampire intrigue beneath the City of Light. Central panoramic skyline of Paris at night with the Seine, Notre-Dame, bridges, lantern reflections and rain-soaked cobblestones. Katarina Verde, a striking blonde immortal with long naturally curly golden-blonde hair, elegant black-and-burgundy Victorian gothic gown, intelligent calm expression, overlooking the city. Lucien, ancient dark-haired vampire in ornate black aristocratic attire, watchful and mysterious. Lestat de Lioncourt, handsome fair-haired French vampire nobleman with shoulder-length wavy blond hair, embroidered black coat and ivory cravat, holding a crystal glass. Armand, youthful auburn-haired vampire with pale beauty and ancient eyes. Hidden underground catacombs, abandoned cemetery chapel, vampire coven gathered by candlelight, forgotten tunnels, crypts and ancient stone chambers beneath Paris. Layered cinematic montage composition, seamless transitions between scenes, dramatic chiaroscuro lighting, volumetric moonlight, drifting mist, glowing lanterns, reflective wet streets, gothic architecture, baroque elegance, atmospheric depth, epic historical dark fantasy, no modern objects, no logos, no watermarks.
Pic, Prompt and Story by Adrian
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***** Selected for sale in the GETTY IMAGES COLLECTION on February 24th 2015
CREATIVE RF gty.im/539799645 MOMENT OPEN COLLECTION**
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Photograph taken at an altitude of Seven metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:31am, (sunrise was at precisely 06.15am) on Saturday 6th September 2014 off the Patricia Bay Highway 17, on Lochside Drive close to Frost Avenue and the Lochside Waterfront Park, in beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
Here, we are looking over towards Mt Baker in Washington State, USA from beautiful Sidney by the sea on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Also known as Koma Kulshan, (pronounced kō-ō’mah’ kool-shän’),she is an active glaciated andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington State in the United States, standing 3,286 metres tall and was first ascended in 1868, her last eruption recorded in 1880.
The name Mount Baker first appeared in print in Captain Vancouver’s 1798 narrative of his voyage around Vancouver Island. Legend has it that his third-lieutenant, Joseph Baker, was the first to spot the mountain while they sailed into Dungeness Bay on April 30th, 1792. Also known by the Lummi as Kwud-Shad, and Koba (meaning 'high mountain always covered with snow', was the Skagit name.
Every morning around sunrise, the gathering of Canada Geese resting upon the water, take to the wing and fly East to West across the Bay. Each squadron of V formation Gese is known as a Skein, and the flight is reversed around the same time each eavening around sunset. An absolute joy to behold.
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Nikon D800 116mm 1/500s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
Nikkor AF-S 70-200mm f/2.8G ED IF VRII. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.
LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.80s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s
ALTITUDE: 7.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 15.26MB
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Processing power:
HP Pavillion P6-2388EA Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
My dear journal I did precisely as I had planned and drank far more than my fill on Sunday night and faced my father on Monday morning in a fairly cheerful mood. Now that I think about it I am sure I was still very drunk, and he was aware of it because by lunchtime was taking delight in making as much noise as he could in his office as my good mood turned to one of the worst headaches I have had in my life. Little did I know that would come later in the night.
At the end of the day, Father thrashed me and left me to my misery with a list of jobs that needed doing before I could go home.
My work was slow as I moved gingerly feeling every agonising little jot until around 11 o'clock when the pain had mostly subsided, and I finally finished. I was gathering my coat and the moneybox to put away in the safe when I heard feet outside the office door and froze. There was no way father had returned to check on me, not at that hour.
I set the box on the desk went to the door quietly hoping the feet would shuffle out, but then I heard a second set creaking down the hall. The bell on the door hadn't gone, they must have come in another way, but it doesn't matter.
What happened next was a blur of motion as two figures burst into the office. Once tackled me and we fell back against fathers’ desk so hard it knocked the air from my lungs. The moneybox went flying as the large desk scraped across the floor with the combined weight of us and crashed to the ground behind it sending coins and notes flying, and one man scrambled away behind the desk to retrieve what he could it while the other was pummelling me.
The pain was unbearable, but I fought hard seeing red, I shoved my attacker away. I do not recall anything afterwards
The next thing I knew they were gone, I was soaked in blood though I was unsure whose it was, and to my relief, the money was still on the floor where it had fallen. I climbed to my feet, and the room spun, but regardless I scooped up the money and put the box away in the safe, I turned around again shaking finding a familiar face in the doorway that hadn't been there before, and he looked very puffed out.
I expect I fainted because I woke up in my bed, confused and numb.
Lucy informed me later in the day that Oliver had come to pick me up and was the one to find me covered from head to toe in blood and the office in a state. As it turns out, the warm patch on my left cheek was a deep but clean cut from my cheekbone to the middle of my cheek about the length of my nose. Unfortunately, it will scar, and it looks awful.
It took me a long time to realise that I was lying in bed in nothing but some loose pants and bandages covering most of my chest. There was a small cut on my chest, but I could not figure out how that had happened or why such a tiny cut would need so many bandages and still be missed, but then it suddenly clicked in my groggy mind that the bandages were for my back.
The way Jane was looking at me from her chair at the side of the bed told me all I needed to know She wasn't stupid and no doubt Lucy had been cursing father was like when they had been cleaning me up... I rolled on my belly and shooed them all away, ashamed and embarrassed.
Lucy told me when I eventually let them come back into the main bedroom that my father had stopped by and much to my surprise told her to keep me off the rest of the day and tomorrow and to see that my face was seen too by a proper doctor, but I would be expected in on Wednesday as usual. He made no mention of the ugly welts on my back a bit daft on my part to think he would really.
Eventually, Jane reappeared and climbed onto the bed and sat beside me. And holding her hand in mine, I caved and told her everything I could think of, from the abuse my family had suffered at fathers hands the constant worry for mother and little Phillip (though he was in boarding school now and I had written requesting they keep an eye on him as they had done for me). To the anger, resentment and embarrassment, I felt that though I was meant to be a grown man now, father frightened me far more than when I was small. And worst of all, I could not stop myself from crying.
I opened my eyes, and she was holding me stroking my hair, and suddenly I was exhausted, Whatever Lucy had given me for the pain had faded and I could still feel every bruise and scrape and welt as I lay there being soothed like a babe but I welcomed the comfort, Jane was gentle, and I could see she was crying too, So very carefully, I sat up ignoring the protests of my entire body and kissed her on the lips. I hate to see her upset and knowing it was my fault; it breaks my heart.
I will leave it here, for now, I am still sore, and I need to sleep. The doctor managed to fit in 7 little stitches on my cheek, and I didn't even ask about my back, according to Lucy, he did an awful job. I won't argue with her, but I do not care how pleasing they are to the eye; I am just glad they are no longer open wounds.
Goodnight. I have work tomorrow, unfortunately, bruises or no. My two days of rest are all the thanks I am going to get from father for saving him a week’s money.
P.S. I run into Jeremiah on my way to the doctors this afternoon he told me Samuel and Jack had disappeared sometime last night, I was sorry to hear that, but those two were not the best company at least from what little I could remember from Sunday night.
He (Jeremiah) asked about my face, and I explained what had happened at the office. When I finished my story, He gives me such a strange look, and I honestly had no idea what to make of it and still do not. The look ended our convocation it seems as he bid me farewell and told me to look after myself. I wished him well and watched him go I do hope he is alright.
This is precisely how you are most likely to bump into a bear in the wild/forest, literally bumping into each other entirely by accident. Nothing can be hidden from a bears nose, which generally speaking is over 500 times more powerful than a bloodhounds nose, but if the wind is ripping, its easy for them to miss your presence altogether, that happens to me all the time....
... the softest, the lightest, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a flash, a moment. A little makes the way of the best happiness.”
Nietzsche
This was one of those moments.
My most recent post, of this spring (2020) showed the eruptive activity at Etna's Voragine crater, which ended in mid-May of this year. The activity then concentrated at the Southeast Crater, or more precisely, at the vent that occupies what was once the saddle between the old and new cones of the Southeast Crater. Initially, this activity was intermittent, with an episode of minor lava fountaining on 19 April and several minor episodes of Strombolian activity and ash emission. Since around 10 July, the activity at this vent has become more continuous, though it remained at rather modest levels, and since a few days it is virtually continuous.
At the same time, two more of Etna's total of four summit craters are active. The Northeast Crater since a couple of months is producing Strombolian explosions from three to four (the number varies from day to day) vents on the crater floor. In early November also the Bocca Nuova crater became active again, after having been filled with lava from the nearby Voragine between September and April. This situation is similar to that of November-December 2018, preceding a short but spectacular outbreak on the flank. This is true also for geophysical signals (seismicity and ground deformation), which show gradually increasing trends in recent weeks.
Here is the view of the Southeast Crater erupting at nightfall on 14 November 2020, seen from our home in the village of Tremestieri Etneo (20 km south-southeast of the crater).
At precisely 17:15 on a Thursday evening, 58046 trundles southward through Stoke with an empty MGR train. From whence it came and where it was going I have no idea!
I did like the original railfreight livery applied to these locos, and for my money, they looked even better when work-stained as in this view.
I don't suppose the Staffordshire Polytechnic is still known as such!
Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty six metres, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:42am), at 03:09am on Thursday 19th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and overlooking a blanket of morning mist as it rolled across Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.
This impressive nine-arched red-brick viaduct is a prominent feature on the line to the 'Bat & Ball' station. The structure was built by the independent ''Sevenoaks Railway'', incorporated in 1859 to link the ''Chatham'' main line with the market town of Sevenoaks. And first services began on 2nd June 1862. The viaduct has nine arches of 30-foot span, and rises to a height of 75-feet above the valley and the River Darent.
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Nikon D800 23mm 1/1/6s f/4.5 iso200 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. AF-S auto mode. Manual exposure. Matrix metering.Auto white balance.
Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip. Two Nikon EN-EL batteries. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Nikon DK-19 soft rubber eyecup. Manfrotto MT057C3 057 Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections (Payload 18kgs). Manfrotto MH057M0-RC4 057 Magnesium Ball Head with RC4 Quick Release (Payload 15kgs). Manfrotto quick release plate 410PL-14.Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap.Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 22m 6.46s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 12m 11.25s
ALTITUDE: 46.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 24.39MB
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Processing power:
HP Pavillion Desktop with AMD A10-5700 APU processor. HD graphics. 2TB with 8GB RAM. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.90 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
Alaa Abd El-Fattah has endured much of the last twelve years in some of the worst prison conditions anywhere for his brave work in promoting democracy in Egypt. He was last arrested in September 2019 while attending Cairo's Dokki Police Station and in December last year was sentenced to five years imprisonment for "spreading false news undermining state security." More precisely, he had shared social media posts explaining the hell-hole reality of Egyptian prison conditions.
PROTEST OUTSIDE THE FOREIGN OFFICE
When this photo was taken, Alaa's two sisters, Mona and Sana'a Seif, were staging a protest in London's King Charles Street outside the British Foreign Office in the hope that the Egyptian government can be pressured to release him, as media attention began to focus on the upcoming COP27 conference at Sharm El Sheikh on Egypt's Red Sea coast.
UPDATE AS OF WEDNESDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2022
Starting from Sunday 6 November, Alaa escalated his hunger strike, and stopped taking water. His sister Sanaa Seif took a flight the same weekend to attend the COP27 conference at Sharm El Sheikh in a last-minute effort to save Alaa's life.
For the latest on Alaa's situation listen to his sister's Sanaa Seif's speech to journalists attending the conference on Tuesday 8 November - "They are very happy for him to die. The only thing they care about is that it doesn't happen while the world is watching."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqXibJ7PUTY
TORA PRISON - "A DAY HERE, IS LIKE A YEAR IN BELMARSH"
In April, Alaa began his hunger strike in a cell in one of the most secure sections of Cairo's sprawling and notorious Tora Prison - a maze of grim high concrete walls and watch towers, which strike fear into even the thousands of commuters who have to pass daily.
In 2012, one young Londoner confined to one of the least uncomfortable and most survivable wings of Tora prison, contrasted it with his own previous experience at Britain's high security Belmarsh. I can never forget his exact words. "A day here, is like a year at Belmarsh!" A little over 12 months later, he died of TB - the prison authorities had refused to listen to the pleas of his aunt, who fell on her knees during a rare visit, begging that he be admitted to the prison hospital.
ALAA'S HUNGER STRIKE CONTINUES AT WADI EL NATRUN PRISON
More than 200 days have passed since Alaa started his hunger strike. He has now been moved to the Wadi El Natrun prison complex in the desert north of Cairo, dubbed by inmates as the "Valley of Hell."
He may not survive much longer. However, as he holds British-Egyptian nationality, one would hope that the British government would be doing everything they could to secure his immediate release and it would be reasonable to suppose that the Foreign Office could get an immediate pledge in this regard, especially given that the British companies, including the likes of British Petroleum and BP, are the biggest investors in Egypt.
NO CONSULAR ACCESS
However, the British government have failed even to get him any consular access - think about that. That's an outrage. Even a convicted mass murderer, if British, would be entitled to consular access while in prison. That meeting would obviously not take place in his cell - but in a designated room in the prison or the highly supervised prison visiting area.
British men and women convicted of drug smuggling and other crimes in Egypt have received consular visits, so why not Alaa? The answer is because Alaa's crime is that he dared to tell the truth about Egypt, and the injustice both inside and outside its many prison walls. Nobody knows exactly how many political prisoners Egypt now has, but the number is estimated to be at least 60,000.
ALAA WAS ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE MOST INSPIRATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN
Alaa Abd El-Fattah was one of the leaders of arguably the most inspirational democratic revolt the world has seen in the last hundred years. Although the first phase of the 2011 uprising in Egypt lasted just 18 days, and although it followed the toppling of the dictator Ben Ali in Tunisia - the streets and bridges around Tahrir Square became a deadly stage watched by the world, where protesters from every walk of life were pitted against Egypt's feared state security forces. Against all the odds, and at the cost of many lives, Egyptians refused to leave the square, sleeping in front of the tanks and fending off attacks from government militia.
The Egyptian people's initial success in toppling the dictator Mubarak led to further revolts not just across the Middle East (most notably in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and Syria) - the highly organised Tahrir-Square sit-in provided the inspiration for strikes and workplace sit-ins against austerity across the United States and Europe and to the Occupy Movement of the same year. The people of Egypt showed that it does not matter how brutal, feared and authoritarian a government is, it can be toppled if people act collectively.
THE MILITARY BACKLASH
It's true that Egypt's flirtation with the path to greater freedom seemed to be only temporary - the Egyptian authorities deployed the usual divide and rule tactics - encouraging the less committed protesters to return home - and then rushed to elections without allowing time for genuinely democratic opposition parties to develop.
Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood won the presidential election in 2012 - the Brotherhood (contrary to the perception many people have here in the West) had genuinely progressive elements within it, but the chance for any transformative radical programme was prevented partly by the corruption and self-interest of some of the main political actors and partly by opposition to its democratic mandate from the deep state (the military, the Interior Ministry, State Security, the police etc.)
The army, seeing its chance, seized power in 2013, superficially in the name of the people, but in reality, to advance the interests of the generals. The new president, Abdel Fattah El-Sissi, moved quickly to crush all opposition, and ordering his security forces to attack Muslim Brotherhood supporters who had gathered in eastern Cairo at Rabaa al-Adaweya Square, killing at least 800 people - the bloodiest massacre of civilians in Egypt's modern history.
DON'T ALLOW EGYPT TO USE COP27 TO GREENWASH ITS REGIME - AND PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION TO SAVE ALAA
Now COP27 is scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh and Sisi has been given a golden opportunity to greenwash his murderous regime, which has also seen ever increasing levels inequality and corruption. While British representatives at COP27 will be given accommodation in the most luxurious five star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh and fall asleep listening to the sound of the waves, another British citizen, Alaa Abdel El-Fatah is near death, on a painful hunger strike in the darkest of places - his dimly lit cell. The only thing he might hear at night is the desperate cry from some prisoner in another cell appealing for medical help which most likely never comes.
If we care for freedom, real democracy and justice, we can't allow the British Foreign Office to forget Alaa - especially if it's simply not to upset the highly profitable relationship British multinationals have with one of the world's most authoritarian and corrupt regimes - a relationship which only benefits the wealthiest of Egyptians.
If you live in London, please show your support at the protest at King Charles Street - and wherever you live please sign the petition -
www.change.org/p/help-free-my-brother-before-it-s-too-lat...
This extraordinary helmet is very rare. Only four complete helmets are known from Anglo-Saxon England: at Sutton Hoo, Benty Grange, Wollaston and York. The helmet was badly damaged when the burial chamber collapsed. By precisely locating the remaining fragments and assembling them as if in a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, conservators have reconstructed the helmet. A complete replica made by the Royal Armouries shows how the original would have looked - (this image)The helmet comprised an iron cap, neck guard, cheek pieces and face mask. Its form derives from Late Roman cavalry helmets. The helmet’s surfaces were covered with tinned copper alloy panels that gave it a bright, silvery appearance. Many of these panels were decorated with interlacing animal ornament (‘Style II’) and heroic scenes of warriors. One scene shows two men wearing horned head-gear, holding swords and spears. The other shows a mounted warrior trampling a fallen enemy, who in turn stabs the horse. The rider carries a spear which is supported by a curious small figure, standing on the rump of his horse – perhaps a supernatural helper. Similar scenes were popular in the Germanic world at this time. The face-mask is the helmet’s most remarkable feature. It works as a visual puzzle, with two possible ‘solutions’. The first is of a human face, comprising eye-sockets, eyebrows, moustache, mouth and a nose with two small holes so that the wearer could breathe. The copper alloy eyebrows are inlaid with silver wire and tiny garnets. Each ends in a gilded boar’s head – a symbol of strength and courage appropriate for a warrior. The second ‘solution’ is of a bird or dragon flying upwards. Its tail is formed by the moustache, its body by the nose, and its wings by the eyebrows. Its head extends from between the wings, and lays nose-to-nose with another animal head at the end of a low iron crest that runs over the helmet’s cap. A precious survival, the Sutton Hoo helmet has become an icon of the early medieval period.
"... That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting."
- John Kenneth Galbraith
Although I was at first, very opposed to the fact that someone had spraypainted this old railcar along the South Shore of the 'Burgh, I realized that it wasn't being preserved. It was sort of just rusting away while other cars probably from the same era, were being protected, and had little plaques with historical information about them. When I looked back at this one after looking at those perfectly preserved ones, I thought this one was more beautiful.
The same thing goes with Arch. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Most of the time, we come across people who blab on and on about how cute he is. Other times, people comment on how "weird" he looks. Once, we even had someone yell out the window of their car that he was ugly. I think people either hate Bullies or love them. There's no way to be neutral about a breed with features as distinct and extreme as theirs.
So, my grandmother got married. We do not know precisely when, but perhaps in the late 1920’s. Perhaps she would have been in her teens.
We know very little about my grandfather. He was called İbrahim Hakkı. Those of his family who survived the Cretan massacres of ethnic Turks in the late nineteenth century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretan_Turks) had fled to the Aegean port of İzmir. He subsequently moved to Cyprus. We do not know precisely why or when he moved, but perhaps it was related to the chaos that descended upon the former Ottoman territories after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. We do know that he had previously been married, but that he and his wife had been separated because of the social consequences of the foreign invasions suffered by Anatolia at this time. When he tried to find out the whereabouts of his wife he was informed that she had been killed.
At the time of their marriage, my grandfather was considerably older than my grandmother, although we do not know precisely how old he was. No doubt he was considered a good match for her because he had an excellent income. He worked for the government of Cyprus (by then a British colony) as an agricultural engineer. My grandmother was well trained in cooking and running a household, but she had no formal education.
It was an unequal marriage between a very young woman who was illiterate and a considerably older man who was clearly very well educated. They had four children, two boys and two girls. One of the boys died of meningitis as a child. The other three grew to adulthood. The youngest child subsequently became my mother.
This striking building is San Francisco's third church dedicated to St Mary; the first, dating from 1854 remains as 'Old St Mary's Church' on the edge of Chinatown, but this is a direct replacement of the second, built 1891 and destroyed by arson in 1962. That was a time of considerable modernisation in catholicism, which encouraged the commissioning of a bold new design dominated (overwhelmed?) by a concrete saddle roof smoothly curving via hyperbolic paraboloids from a 75 m square cross-section at its base to a Greek cross cross-section at its 58m-high apex (75 m including the rooftop spire's cross).
This is the view up the middle of the eastern side; the blue is light entering though vertical windows whilst the (mainly) yellow glass is horizontal, in the roof.
The pattern of triangles, 1,680 in total, of 128 different sizes, outline the net of precast coffers supporting the roof skin.
I'm not sure precisely who designed the cathedral. It's clear that three local architects (John Michael Lee, Paul A. Ryan and Angus McSweeney) worked with the internationally-renowned Pier Luigi Nervi and Pietro Belluschi – did the latter two, acting as consultants, devise a concept executed by the former three? Nervi and Belluschi were certainly known for monumental concrete structures.
Development of the site began in 1965; the cornerstone was laid in 1967, construction ended in 1970 and the new cathedral was consecrated in May 1971, though formal dedication to Saint Mary of the Assumption didn't take place until 1996, somewhat later than its first papal mass: John Paul II visited in 1987.
Irrespective of its 'official' name, St Mary's Cathedral is also known locally, for its supposed external resemblance to a top-loading washing machine's agitator, as 'Our Lady of Maytag' (apparently a US brand of washing machines).
And a direct hit will be the highest possible.
Description and conditions Project 365 - www.flickr.com/photos/danchee/sets/72157628234157885/
Click to enlarge!
Precisely and delicately painted, this crowded scene is an unusual representation of crossing the English Channel in the middle of the 19th century. The pitching boat disturbs an improvised shipboard ball. On the left, a harpist has fallen between the legs of her fellow guitarist while a young gypsy, unperturbed, continues to ask for money. The people in this painting embody the different ways travelers respond to a situation. Some endure a violent bout of seasickness, tumble on each other, scream, and shout, while others smoke, sleep, or read, following their usual routines. Attention to costumes, different classes, and the minute description of characters creates an invaluable and humorous record of French society in the mid-19th century.
An adventurous painter, François-Auguste Biard took many trips during the first part of the 19th century. He was probably the first European painter to travel to the Arctic Circle and paint icebergs. He was also, as seen in this painting, a perfect observer of contemporary life.
Adapted from
Heather MacDonald, DMA label copy, 2010