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Worm March Moon Rising
I knew what time and place the moon was to rise but it seemed to take FOREVER for the March 9th rising Supermoon. It was precisely this color. The same phenomena effects the sun. “Golden Hour” and better, the red light passing to the pink/red “Belt of Venus” alpenglow. That projected filtered to red light on the ice in the sky opposite of the sun. Same effect here but on the moon. This just the atmospheric gauntlet of dust, moisture of all phase states, pollution etc block out all but the red light. Lots less yellow in this.
So the “Worm Moon A.K.A. Lenten Moon, Crow Moon, Sugar Moon, Sap Moon, Chaste Moon or just the March Full Moon lol.
Of course when the moon OR the sun is apparently this low, you actually seeing the celestial object below the line of sight to the horizon. The image is actually bent around the horizon. The atmospheric lens literally guides the image around the surface to my camera/eye. Getting topography/ hills and a celestial object to cooperate the same time can be challenging. …I know the topography I work pretty well after ‘working it’ for decades. Knowing the direction the moon is going to set is a matter of looking it up on google. Get a map, (in my head by now) and figure out “what two or three things” can line up.
I decide where to go early on but am flexible enough to change mid stream because I’m very mobile. Getting around in the snowy hills is a requirement for this job lolol. I never know WHAT the show is going to be when I go out with cameras. I do usually know WHERE an alignment will occur. 😄
This moon didn’t sneak up on me by any means. Getting up on the high ridges is of course the place to be for such a shot. The backcountry high in the hills provide all the topography and perspective that any photographer could need. Having free access to many square miles of backcountry WY/MT is always a good thing with a camera. Both States in this Photo.. I was lucky the weather cooperated with me as it disappeared into a cloud deck 20 minutes later not to reappear for over a day.
Location: Bliss Dinosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana).
Title: Worm March Moon Rising
"Longuich ([ ˈlɔŋɡɪç ]) is a local community in the Trier-Saarburg district in Rhineland-Palatinate. It belongs to the municipality of Schweich on the Roman Wine Route. The place is on the right bank of the Moselle in the Moselle-Franconian language area.
Longuich is a Gallo-Roman (more precisely: Mosel-Roman) place name (pronounced: Long_gich), which is derived from a 1st-century foundation called Longus Vicus (long village, long district). The place has been inhabited since at least Roman times, as various finds indicate, in particular the Villa Urbana, whose reconstructed bathing wing can be visited.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Prussian mayor's office of Longuich emerged from the French Mairie Longuich.
Mosel (German: [ˈmoːzl̩]) is one of 13 German wine regions (Weinbaugebiete) for quality wines (Qualitätswein, formerly QbA and Prädikatswein), and takes its name from the Mosel River (French: Moselle; Luxembourgish: Musel). Before 1 August 2007 the region was called Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, but changed to a name that was considered more consumer-friendly. The wine region is Germany's third largest in terms of production but some consider it the leading region in terms of international prestige.
The region covers the valleys of the rivers Mosel, Saar, and Ruwer from near the mouth of the Mosel at Koblenz and upstream to the vicinity of Trier in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The area is known for the steep slopes of the region's vineyards overlooking the river. At 65° degrees incline, the steepest recorded vineyard in the world is the Calmont vineyard located on the Mosel and belonging to the village of Bremm, and therefore referred to as Bremmer Calmont. The Mosel is mainly famous for its wines made from the Riesling grape, but Elbling and Müller-Thurgau also contribute to the production, among others.
In the past two decades red wine production, especially from the Spätburgunder (Pinot noir), has increased in the Mosel and throughout the German vignoble and has become of increasing interest to the international wine community. Because of the northerly location of the Mosel, the Riesling wines are often light, tending to lower alcohol, crisp and high in acidity, and often exhibit "flowery" rather than or in addition to "fruity" aromas. Its most common vineyard soil is derived in the main from various kinds of slate deposits, which tend to give the wines a transparent, mineralic aspect, that often exhibit great depth of flavor. In the current era of climate change much work has been done to improve and gain acceptance for completely dry ("Trocken") Rieslings in this region, so that most of the more famous makers have found acceptance for such wines, particularly in Europe." - 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.
A medieval mapmaker had different priorities than cartographers today. Look, for example, at the a medieval mappa mundi (map of the world) that now resides in the British Library in London. Called the Psalter Map, it was made by an unknown hand, probably in Westminster, about the year 1250. Only 52 inches across, this document is thought to be a copy of a much larger world map, since lost, made for Henry III, which once hung in the Palace of Westminster.
In today’s cartography, national borders -- non-existent in medieval maps -- are precisely drawn, with the northern hemisphere (economically and politically dominant) on top. In contrast, the Psalter mappa mundi gives top position to the Garden of Eden.
Such pre-Columbian maps tend to strike the modern viewer as an embarrassingly primitive starting point in the long history of seeing the world as it might be viewed from the moon -- circular, yes, but containing much more than medieval map makers dared imagine or sought to portray.
What mattered most to the Europeans who drew the medieval mappa mundi and similar maps was not to depict the exact shape of countries, continents, and oceans, but to present the known world as a unity seen through a biblical lens. A Christian medieval map was not only a graphic presentation of what map-makers knew about the world, but also an image of the world in which what mattered most was not geography but salvation. The mappa mundi was meant to assist those who saw it in their pilgrimage toward the heavenly Jerusalem. Thus Jerusalem was placed at the center for it was here that history’s most decisive event occurred. After all, what was so significant as Christ’s victory over death? The resurrection made Jerusalem the center of all center points. Just as Easter was the axis around which the Church’s calendar turned, so Jerusalem, the city of the empty tomb, had to be the world’s hub.
The Psalter mappa mundi is crowned by the presence of Christ presiding over the world with angels on either side -- one angel solemn, the other smiling -- honoring him with incense. Christ is shown iconographically as Kyrios Pantocrator: the Lord of Creation.
With his right hand, Christ offers a gesture of blessing, while with his left he holds a small world globe that is, itself, a yet simpler map of the world. It is a circle containing a “T,” a simple Greek cross with Asia at the top, Africa at the lower right, and Europe at the lower left. These segments also represented the divisions of the earth allocated to the three sons of Noah: Shem, Japhet and Ham, who after the Flood became arch-ancestors of all the world’s races. The T separating the three continents signified the known world’s three main waterways. The upright stem running from west eastward to the center of the world was the Mediterranean. The left half of the crossbar represented the river Tanais (today called the Don), and the right half of the crossbar represented the river Nile.
In fact the Psalter map is simply an elaborated version of the T map. Both put east where, in contemporary maps, north would be. In both maps the Mediterranean Sea serves as the T’s upward stroke, fed by the Don on the left and the Nile on the right. But the Psalter map is crowded with detail. Places of biblical importance are stressed. Most prominent, directly beneath the circular face at the top of the globe, is the Garden of Eden, shown as the source of five rivers. A medallion is placed in the middle of paradise, Adam on one side, Eve on the other, with the Tree of Knowledge dividing them.
Other biblically significant details on the map’s top half include a small banana shape (Noah’s ark resting on Armenia’s Mount Ararat), the Red Sea (made red indeed, and showing the briefly dry path by which the Jews crossed), and walls imprisoning Gog in the land of Magog. Above Jerusalem is the Sea of Galilee, populated by the map’s one fish, with the Dead Sea off to the right.
Among the map’s 145 place inscriptions, many are places closer to home for the cartographer. For example, the city of Rome stands to the left of the Mediterranean, but it is appears as only a minor detail. In the mappa mundi, all roads lead to Jerusalem.
Not the least striking detail of the map is the crowd of figures shown against panels of red and black on the far side of Africa. Fourteen imagined races include dog-like folk, people with giant heads, tribes without tongues or ears, beings with four eyes, and those who don’t walk but crawl on their hands and feet. All this is an iconographer’s way of suggesting the drama of human otherness. Even stranger figures were carved in stone over the entrance to the basilica at Vézeley to dramatize the implications of Christ’s command to his apostles that they bring the Gospel to the entire world, not only to the familiar but to the unfamiliar.
Also featured on the Psalter map are twelve faces forming a necklace around the world-containing circle. These represent the winds that blow from the 12 compass points. The four red faces mark East, South, West and North.
There are also references to medieval contemporary life, events, and economics. The inclusion of Damietta in Egypt commemorates that city’s capture for the Crusade by Louis IX of France in 1249. Cologne is included, presumably because it was a major commercial and ecclesiastical center.
(from "The Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life" by Jim Forest)
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If you joined us for last week, you read our articles — history of Astrology and Horoscope, 12 Houses of Horoscope and their Love Compatibility in full details. That’s precisely what I am going to talk about Aries Horoscope Zodiac Signs here today. We know that from a lot of research of A...
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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin
Dublin (Irish: Baile Átha Cliath) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. It is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the Wicklow Mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179, while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359, and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.
There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by the Gaels in or before the 7th century AD. Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empire before the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland.
Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha −", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Guinness
Arthur Guinness (24 September 1725 – 23 January 1803) was an Irish brewer and the founder of the Guinness brewery business and family. He was also an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
At 27, in 1752, Guinness's godfather Arthur Price, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Cashel, bequeathed him £100 in his will. Guinness invested the money and in 1755 had a brewery at Leixlip, just 17 km from Dublin. In 1759, Guinness went to the city and set up his own business. He took a 9,000-year lease on the 4-acre (16,000 m2) brewery at St. James's Gate from the descendants of Sir Mark Rainsford for an annual rent of £45.
Guinness's flowery red signature is still copied on every label of bottled Guinness.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Storehouse
Guinness Storehouse is a tourist attraction at St. James's Gate Brewery in Dublin, Ireland. Since opening in 2000, it has received over four million visitors.
The Storehouse covers seven floors surrounding a glass atrium shaped in the form of a pint of Guinness. The ground floor introduces the beer's four ingredients (water, barley, hops and yeast), and the brewery's founder, Arthur Guinness. Other floors feature the history of Guinness advertising and include an interactive exhibit on responsible drinking. The seventh floor houses the Gravity Bar with views of Dublin and where visitors may drink a pint of Guinness included in the price of admission, which was €18.50 on 15 October 2018 with discounts depending on dates and times, described as "overpriced" by Condé Nast Traveler. In 2006, a new wing opened incorporating a live installation of the present-day brewing process.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Brewery
St. James's Gate Brewery (Irish: Grúdlann Gheata Naomh Séamuis) is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a British company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is Guinness Draught.
Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at IR£45 (Irish pounds) per year for 9,000 years, the St. James's Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. It became the largest brewery in Ireland in 1838, and the largest in the world by 1886, with an annual output of 1.2 million barrels. Although no longer the largest brewery in the world, it remains as the largest brewer of stout. The company has since bought out the originally leased property, and during the 19th and early 20th centuries the brewery owned most of the buildings in the surrounding area, including many streets of housing for brewery employees, and offices associated with the brewery. The brewery also made all of its own power using its own power plant.
There is an attached exhibition on the 250-year-old history of Guinness, called the Guinness Storehouse.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness
Guinness is a dark Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in over 120. Sales in 2011 amounted to 850 million litres (220,000,000 US gal). It is popular with the Irish, both in Ireland and abroad. In spite of declining consumption since 2001, it is still the best-selling alcoholic drink in Ireland where Guinness & Co. Brewery makes almost €2 billion worth annually.
Guinness' burnt flavour derives from malted barley and roasted unmalted barley, a relatively modern development, not becoming part of the grist until the mid-20th century. For many years, a portion of aged brew was blended with freshly brewed beer to give a sharp lactic acid flavour. Although Guinness's palate still features a characteristic "tang", the company has refused to confirm whether this type of blending still occurs. The draught beer's thick, creamy head comes from mixing the beer with nitrogen and carbon dioxide.[6]
The company moved its headquarters to London at the beginning of the Anglo-Irish Trade War in 1932. In 1997, Guinness Plc merged with Grand Metropolitan to form the multinational alcoholic-drinks producer Diageo plc, based out of London.
Horned Treehopper (Membracidae)
Treehoppers (more precisely typical treehoppers to distinguish them from the Aetalionidae) and thorn bugs are members of the family Membracidae, a group of insects related to the cicadas and the leafhoppers. About 3,200 species of treehoppers in over 400 genera are known. They are found on all continents except Antarctica; only three species are known from Europe. Individual treehoppers usually live for only a few months.
Morphology
Thorn bugs, due to their unusual appearance, have long interested naturalists. They are best known for their enlarged and ornate pronotum, which most often resembles thorns, apparently to aid camouflage. In some species, the pronotum is a horn-like extension, but can form more bizarre shapes. The specialised pronotum (or helmet) may not be simply an expansion of the prothoracic sclerite, but a fused pair of dorsal appendages of the first thoracic segment.
These may be serial homologues of insect wings, which are dorsal appendages of the second and/or third thoracic segments. Evidence for this theory includes the development of the helmet, which arises as a pair of appendages attached to each side of the dorsal prothorax by an articulation with muscles and a flexible membrane that allow it to be mobile. Also, the same genes are involved in development of the helmet and the wings. Distinguishing males from females is accomplished only by looking at the genitalia.
Ecology
Treehoppers pierce plant stems with their beaks, and feed upon sap. The immatures can frequently be found on herbaceous shrubs and grasses, whereas the adults more often frequent hardwood tree species. Excess sap becomes concentrated as honeydew, which often attracts ants. Some species have a well-developed ant mutualism, and these species are normally gregarious, as well, which attracts more ants. The ants provide protection from predators. Treehoppers mimic thorns to prevent predators from spotting them.
Others have formed mutualisms with wasps, such as Parachartergus apicalis. Even geckos form mutualistic relations with treehoppers, with whom they communicate by small vibrations of the abdomen.
Eggs are laid by the female with her saw-like ovipositor in slits cut into the cambium or live tissue of stems, though some species lay eggs on top of leaves or stems. The eggs may be parasitised by wasps, such as the tiny fairyflies (Mymaridae) and Trichogrammatidae. The females of some membracid species sit over their eggs to protect them from predators and parasites, and may buzz their wings at intruders. The females of some gregarious species work together to protect each other's eggs. In at least one species, Publilia modesta, mothers serve to attract ants when nymphs are too small to produce much honeydew. Some other species make feeding slits for the nymphs.
Like the adults, the nymphs also feed upon sap, and unlike adults, have an extensible anal tube that appears designed to deposit honeydew away from their bodies. The tube appears to be longer in solitary species rarely attended by ants. It is important for sap-feeding bugs to dispose of honeydew, as otherwise it can become infected with sooty moulds. Indeed, one of the evident benefits of ants for Publilia concava nymphs is that the ants remove the honeydew and reduce such fungal growth.
Most species are innocuous to humans, although a few are considered minor pests, such as Umbonia crassicornis (a thorn bug), the three-cornered alfalfa hopper (Spissistilus festinus), and the buffalo treehopper (Stictocephala bisonia), which has been introduced to Europe. The cowbug Oxyrachis tarandus has been recorded as a pest of Withania somnifera in India.
Systematics
The diversity of treehoppers has been little researched, and their systematic arrangement is tentative. It seems three main lineages can be distinguished; the Endoiastinae are the most ancient treehoppers, still somewhat resembling cicadas. Centrotinae form the second group; they are somewhat more advanced but the pronotum still does not cover the scutellum in almost all of these. The Darninae, Heteronotinae, Membracinae and Smiliinae contain the most apomorphic treehoppers.
Several proposed subfamilies seem to be paraphyletic. Centronodinae and Nicomiinae might need to be merged into the Centrotinae to result in a monophyletic group.
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org]
A view along The Sunken Lane looking towards Hawthorn Ridge, where the mine was detonated prior to the advance on 1st July 1916, with a still from the Geoffrey Malins film superimposed, showing the men of 1st Battalion The Lancashire Fusiliers.
I do not claim that the position is precisely matched, rather I have just tried to put some faces back into the location, and wonder what they must have been thinking and feeling in the moments before the attack, almost certainly none of these men would have survived for more than a few moments as soon as they emerged from the Lane.
RIP
Location and background information:-
The Sunken Lane is a lane running in a north-south direction situated in what was No Mans Land, roughly halfway between the opposing Front Lines west of Beaumont Hamel village until the fighting moved beyond the village in November 1916. From September 1914 the French Army occupied the Allied Front Line here. From August 1915 the British Army took over the Front Line sector here.A little further along the road from Beaumont Hamel to Auchonvillers, on the right, is the position where Geoffrey Malins famously filmed the mine explosion on Hawthorn Ridge on the 1st of July 1916. A track leading up from this point runs to the position which was known during the war as 'White City'; where there were stores and also dugouts used in the Somme offensives.
Lancashire Fusilier's War Diary for July 1st. It makes chilling reading:-
A transcription of part of the material in the Lancashire Fusilier's War Diary for July 1st. It was written by Lieutenant Colonel Magniac.
86th Brigade
1st Battalion The Lancashire Fusiliers
Summary of Events and Information
Account of action 1st July 1916.The Battalion was badly cut up by enemy’s Machine Gun fire suffering 508 casualties and 21 officer casualties. At dusk we returned to the trenches but held and consolidated Sunken Road. The Battalion fought nobly but had no chance of success against enemy’s Machine Gun fire.
Attack of 1st Lancashire Fusiliers on BEAUMONT HAMEL
At 7 am Battalion Headquarters moved from White City to Sunken Road, and at the same time the enemy began to shell the Sunken Road with 77cm guns, and inflicted about 20 casualties. They had probably spotted the communication trench leading from the end of the tunnel into the road.
07.20
The mine under HAWTHORNE REDOUBT was fired, and though it was not visible from the road, all felt the ground shake. ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies were now lining up in position for the assault. ‘D’ Company had to be careful not to expose themselves as the Northern end of Sunken Road is shallow, and ‘B’ Company had to carefully select their exits, as the bank is overhung and lined with trees at the Southern end. 86th Stokes Gun battery speed hurricane bombardment on German front line.
0730
The leading sections of ‘B’ and ‘D’ and bombing company dashed forward in extended order, ’D’ Company being led by 2/Lieutenants CRAIG, GORFUNKLE and SPENCER, ‘B’ Company by 2/Lieutenants PRESCOTT, EDWARDS, and KERSHAW. At the same moment 1 platoon ‘B’ Company under Lieutenant WHITTAM and 2 platoons bombers left our trenches South of BEAUMONT road. ‘A’ Company began to leave front line trenches in support of ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies.
The leading 2 lines of ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies had a few moments [grace] and then the Enemy Machine Gun opened and a storm of bullets met the attack. The third and fourth lines of ‘B’ and ‘D’ Companies were practically wiped out within a few yards of Sunken Road and only some wounded, including Captains NUNAELLY and WELLS the two Company Commanders managed to crawl back. ‘A’ Company had also suffered in their advance to Sunken Road, the three Subalterns all being hit and many men. Captain [MATHEY] reached the road and dashed in with the men who entered over Northern end.
‘C’ Company caught the Machine Gun fire as soon as they left the trenches. Captain DAWSON and Colour Sergeant Major NELSON being hit on the parapet when giving orders to Company to advance. 2/Lieutenant CASEBY and about 60 Other Ranks reached the Sunken Road, but one platoon under 2/Lieutenant JONES got blocked in the communication trench by wounded.
The bank into the Sunken Road is a steep drop of about 15 feet, and men encumbered with coils of wire mounts etc. rolled down this to the bottom.
This now ensured some delay whilst ‘C’ Company and remainder of ‘A’ Company who had entered down steep bank were collected and sorted from 100 wounded who had by now collected in Sunken Road, preparatory to further advance.
Sergeant CAULFIELD, a Lewis Gunner, had located a Machine Gun behind some debris in the village, and he pointed this out to the Commanding Officer. Two Lewis Guns were established toward [Left] Flank to put it out of action, but the German Artillery observation was very quick and they were immediately shelled by 77cm guns and 1 gun hit, still the Machine Gun ceased firing from that position.
0815
It took nearly half an hour to organise the further advance, and at 0815 the Commanding Officer ordered the Stokes Guns to open a rapid burst under cover of which 2/Lieutenant CASEBY led forward about 75 Other Ranks who had been collected. This reinforcement was launched from the [Left] end of the road to try and gain a footing toward Northern end of village, where the ground is higher.
All ranks dashed forward bravely, but on tipping the crest, just 10 yards from the Sunken Road they were met by the same heavy Machine Gun fire and only 2/Lieutenant CASEBY and about 10 Other Ranks reached the German wire.
It was now 0830, and no reports had come from the front, and it was not possible to see from Sunken Road what was happening on the flanks, so Commanding Officer returned to our trenches and got news there.
Major UTTERSON reported that besides the 10% reinforcements, who were holding front line system there was about 30 men, who had not gone over the top owing to being blocked by wounded. These were collected.
Very little movement could be seen in the German lines, and the village was certainly not occupied by our troops, and fire had died down. Around HAWTHORN REDOUBT about 25 Germans under an officer could be seen working toward the crater. One of our Machine Guns opened on them, but had to cease almost at once as enemy Artillery blew in the parapet by them in under 3 minutes.
0945
Returning to the Sunken Road there was nothing to be done, as we had no reinforcements. At about 0945 there was a sudden retirement on our Right or Southern flank, presumably Royal Fusiliers and Middlesexs’. Everyone thought for the moment the Germans were counter attacking [original must be re-examined as half a sentence is missing]. We had over 100 wounded in the Sunken Road and they tried to make [rush] for the tunnel. This was soon cancelled and about [50 fit] men were made to [line] the bank at either end. 25 under Sergeant GREEN began digging at the Southern end and making a barricade and about 35 did the same at the Northern end.
1145
Time passed and at 11.45 GS 43 from General Officer Commanding 86th Brigade was received. GM 17/1 sent in reply - (copies attached).
There was no time to receive an answer to GM 17/1 and orders were given to Major UTTERSON that at 12.30 he was to advance with his 25 men viz. all that was available - our front Trenches exclusive - exclusive of 10% who were left under our orders.
The remaining men in Sunken Road were got ready to advance, if Major UTTERSON’S reinforcements reached the road.
Although there was no chance of achieving anything on our own front, there were about 700 men in the trenches opposite the Hawthorne Redoubt and to help them it seemed necessary to attract as much Machine Gun fire as possible on ourselves.
Unfortunately only Major UTTERSON and 4 Other Ranks reached the road, and the troops on our right never moved, so our sacrifice was in vain. Still it showed us that the Enemy still held the village and that his Machine Guns were intact.
There was nothing now to be done except to hold on to Sunken Road.
Further steps were taken to improve entrenchments already begun, and the wounded who could move by themselves were allowed to crawl back to White City via the Tunnel.
1 pm.
Received BM 1. Copy attached - and reply CM 15/1.
1.50 pm
CM 16/1 dispatched.
2.10 pm
Captain FULTON (attached to Brigade Staff) arrived and talked over situation, and informed me that Sunken Road must be held at all costs.
Nothing else changed the situation for the remainder of the day, except the German shells which dropped into Sunken Road caused a few more casualties and the Germans sniped [and] killed a good many of our wounded, whenever they moved or tried to put on their field dressings.
At 6 pm remainder of men except 1 officer and 25 withdrew from Sunken Road, and at night all available stretcher bearers and men searched the field for wounded.
The day had cost the Battalion many valuable lives. Casualties were 7 officers killed, 14 wounded and 500 Other Ranks. The Battalion fought well, but the enemy was ready for us and had plenty of Machine Guns and against them no troops with a strength of only 1½ men per yard can hope for success.
A link to the footage shot by Geoffrey Malins:-
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.
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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.
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LATITUDE: N 48d 38m 15.80s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s
ALTITUDE: 7.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 24.56MB
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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
Olympus EM1 MKII with Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 300mm f/4 IS PRO.
In this third test shot of my new EM1 MKII along with the new Olympus 300mm f/4 Pro, I was impressed not only by the quality and resolution of the picture, by also by the ability of the tracking function of this camera.
Once you lock the focus bracket on the part of the bird you want (I chose the head), it keeps track of it very precisely. It is an important feature that makes a difference in the ultimate picture where you want to have the eye sharply focused, and not the wing of the bird - as it often happens with most cameras I have owned.
On another shot of a blue heron, I locked the trackinf AF bracket on the feet of the bird, and the EM1 MKII tracked the bird on its feet as it walked away from me: amazing!
Olympus has really pulled all the stops in the design of this camera AF system.
I can say already that I had reservations paying $2000 for a MFT camera but the AF-C/Tracking performance evidenced by the first few shots I captured reassured me that I had invested in the ultimate wildlife camera system.
Therefore I believe that the Olympus EM1 MKII and the Olympus 300mm f/4 IS Pro is a better system for wildlife photography.
it was a long comment on lenses when the initial test was about tracking functionality of the camera. But this experience of the D500 and the Olympus made me realize that the tracking performance of the camera means nothing by itself: it requires the use of a bright telephoto with fast focusing speed to produce the image that the camera claims to be capable of doing.
Buying the EM1 MKII for shooting BIF would be a frustration and a waste of money if the only lens you can afford is the Olympus M.ZUIKO DIGITAL ED 75-300mm f/4.8-6.7 II Lens: you would not capture many images in focus and you might actually have missed the bird by the time it locked the focus on it.
Let me mention finally the overwhelming advantage of having 6.5 Stops of stabilization when combining the 5 stops of the in body image stabilization (IBIS) of the EM1 MKII and the 1.5 stop IS of the Olympus 300mm f/4 IS Pro. Both worked combined and become additive. This will not work with Panasonic lenses and even other Olympus lenses except the last two launched:
- the 300mm f/4 IS Pro
- the 12-100mm f/4 IS Pro
This opens up a whole new world of photography in low light without having to crank up the ISO, the key known weakness of the MFT format as soon as you reach above ISO 1600,
You notice my use of the word system. The camera alone will be challenged by the similarly priced Nikon D500 which I own as well but the equivalent lens I would have to use to get similar quality and focal length (equivalent of 600mm f/4 in Full Frame) would be a 400mm in DX format. Unfortunately the 400mm f/4 AF-S does not exist and I could not afford the 400mm f/2.8, nor am I interested in a f/5.6 aperture using a 300mm f/4 with a teleconverter 1.4 which degrades the image quality and would be quite inferior to the exceptional Olympus prime.
The Nikon AF-S 500mm f/4 would outdo the Olympus in FL equivalent on the D500 but I would not be able to afford a $6,500 lens which would not be optically superior to the Olympus wide open anyway. I do not dwell on the weight of 8.5lbs (3,9kg) of the nikon lens vs the 52oz (1.4kg) of the Olympus lens. One is not hand-holdable and requires a tripod/monopod, the other frees you completely from one.
This leaves the budget conscious Nikon owners with the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 lens which I happen to own with the D500.
After a few minutes, I still cannot hand hold the heavy nikon zoom at 4.6lbs (2.0kg). Although it provides more flexibility than the Fixed FL Olympus prime lens, the Nikon is 50% heavier, is one stop slower which impacts the speed and accuracy of the AF tracking function. And it is optically in a different class (inferior) wide open - especially in the soft corners. I would need to close to f/8 to have a sharp photo across the frame which becomes a problem in low light nature photography where high speed capture is a must for Bird in flight for example.
Flagging and lagging behind.
Where does the time go eh?
A week ago we came back from our holiday and I feel like I have done precisely nothing!
This report is from Friday night and was a fantastic haul on a very warm and humid night and included several new species for the garden.
It was lovely to get two Tree-lichen Beauties (2nd and 3rd garden records respectively) and garden firsts of Six-striped Rustic, Olive and 2 White-points.
Svensson's Copper Underwing was noted after checking every single Copper Underwing last year to no avail, I was lucky to find one so quickly this year.
And that was just the Macro's....on the Micro front there was also plenty of interest.
Ypsolopha alpella was new for the garden and not a very frequent moth with me.
All in all a cracking night and just a shame that the weather has now turned very unsettled for this coming week, still it might be worth sticking out the trap just incase of something very special turning up!
Catch Report - 21/08/15 - Back Garden - Stevenage - 1x 125w MV Robinson Trap
Macro Moths
1x Six-striped Rustic [NFG]
1x Olive [NFG]
2x White-point [NFG]
1x Knot Grass [NFY]
2x Tree-lichen Beauty [NFY]
1x Old Lady [NFY]
2x Dusky Thorn [NFY]
1x Svensson's Copper Underwing [NFY]
18x Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
3x Copper Underwing
4x Square-spotted Clay
1x Iron Prominent
1x Yellow-barred Brindle
3x Garden Carpet
1x Yellow Shell 2x Mouse Moth
1x Angle Shades 5x Orange Swift
2x Straw Dot
2x Flounced Rustic
1x Double-striped Pug
15x Square-spot Rustic
1x Cabbage Moth
3x Dark Arches
3x Pale Mottled Willow
1x Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing
8x Large Yellow Underwing
2x Lesser Yellow Underwing
3x Shuttle-shaped Dart
1x Silver Y
2x Small Square-spot
3x Common Rustic
4x Straw Underwing
8x Setaceous Hebrew Character
4x Flame Shoulder-
1x Spectacle
2x Brimstone Moth
2x Dun-bar
2x Marbled Beauty
4x Riband Wave
1x Maple Pug
5x Vine's Rustic
38x Willow Beauty
1x Maiden's Blush
Micro Moths
1x Ypsolopha alpella [NFG]
1x Argyresthia albistria [NFY]
1x Ypsolopha dentella [NFY]
3x Caloptilia alchimiella [NFY]
5x Cameraria ohridella [NFY]
2x Cydia splendana [NFY]
1x Bucculatrix thoracella [NFY]
1x Parornix sp
1x Argyresthia goedartella
1x Cydia pomonella
1x Plutella xylostella
1x Hofmannophila pseudospretella
12x Agriphila tristella
2x Argyrotaenia ljungiana
1x Bucculatrix ulmella
1x Lyonetia clerkella
5x Epiphyas postvittana
1x Acentria ephemerella
1x Acrobasis advenella
1x Oegoconia sp
1x Celypha striana
1x Carcina quercana
1x Ditula angustiorana
10x Blastobasis adustella
2x Blastobasis lacticolella
5x Pandemis corylana
10x Pleuroptya ruralis
4x Agriphila straminella
3x Spilonota ocellana
12x Evergestis forficalis
3x Eudonia mercurella
1x Bryotropha terrella
2x Emmelina monodactyla
Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Zero metres, at 06:44am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.
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Nikon D800 24mm 4 Seconds long exposure f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 23m 17.28s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 23.01s
ALTITUDE: 0.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.77MB
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
Photograph taken at an altitude of Nine metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise at 05:35am, (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.
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Nikon D800 185mm 1/320s f/4.5 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 15.76s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.88s
ALTITUDE: 9.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 13.08MB
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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
Photograph taken at an altitude of One hundred and eight metres, in the Golden Hour around Sunset ( which was at precisely 19:38pm), at 19:40pm 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 43mm 1/30s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit). AF-S Single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 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. 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 52.62s
LONGITUDE: W 4d 1m 14.83s
ALTITUDE: 108.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 19.42MB
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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 2.10.0 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
Basically an all-new car, meant to do pretty much precisely what the very familiar previous one did. It’s a huge family hatch and property. Because the market has diversified, it will be joined towards the top of Ford’s range by a huge crossover-SUV called the Borders, plus of course some sort of...
i0.wp.com/www.autocars.asia/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Fo...
This is precisely why i love shooting with other flickr photographers. Unexpected and awesome things come out of your lenses. Me and Captain Suresh Sharma shot the entire passing out parade at the OTA (Officers Training Academy) at Chennai.
The touching story of the indian army and the reality of what their lives are will follow suit in the following weeks to come. This is a warm up of what you will get to see. I promise every one of you, the images you see will be inspiring and will make you feel INDIAN like you never felt before.
While we were shooting on the drill, i removed my camera from the tripod to check on my histogram when suresh walked down the alley. I found this to be a good profile image and went snap! Suresh responded with his.
Dilip on the Canon EOS 400D with the Tamron 70 - 300 MM F/4-5.6 Ultrazoom lens. Captain Suresh Sharma on the Canon EOS 20D with the Canon 70 - 200 MM F/4 L IS USM Ultrazoom Lens.
Jaguar 3.5 litre Replica *(1948)
Chassis Number 414778
Engine Number Z15555
Registration Number JYP 891 (London)
The original Jaguar SS100 had an illustrious competition career , the likes of Jaguar dealers Sammy Newsome and Ian Appleyard continuing its competition successes. SS100s achieved class wins in the testing RAC Rallies in 1937 and 1938 and won the Alpine again outright in 1948. Production was curtailed in 1939 upon the outbreak of war, by which time 190 or so of the 2 ½ litre cars had been manufactured and 118 of the later more powerful 3 ½ litre cars had left the production line.
This fine replica was recently offered at Bonhams 2015 summer sale though without records to indicate precisely when this car was constructed or the name of the constructor. It is known that it was in much its present form in 1988 although subsequent enhancements to its specification have taken place. It appears that the donor vehicle was a 1948 Jaguar 1½ litre. (the V5C document records engine number Z15555 but this may well be 715555).
The car sold at auction with a hammer price of £ 51,750
Many thanks for a fantabulous
46,268,896 views
Shot Brooklands New Years Day Gathering, 01.01.2016 - Ref 111-237
This photograph was taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of eight metres, at 06:58am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.
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Nikon D800 32mm 1/1.3s f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 23m 16.96s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 26.26s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 10.15MB
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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
Photograph taken at an altitude of Four metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 06:58am), at 07:02am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline 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.
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Nikon D800 110mm 1/800s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 54.81s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.70s
ALTITUDE: 7.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 10.27MB
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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
Tsukemen
- pork broth, fish powder, menma, chāshū, thick tsukemen noodles
I made it to Tokyo station after a 14-hour flight from New York, and Rokurinsha ramen ( more precisely - their legendary tsukemen) was just too much of a temptation to resist.
Rokurinsha is widely believed to be one of Tokyo's best ramenayas, and I must admit - my meal reflected that notion. The line was fairly long, but after a reasonable wait - I would say may be 20 minutes, or so - I somehow chose the right button on the ticket vending machine and was seated at a communal table for two; my youthful dining companion spoke no English, but I just followed his lead in proper tsukemen manners. The biggest difference between Rokurinsha tsukemen were the noodles - as thick as traditional udon, and much thicker and wider than any ramen or tsukemen I have had before. Noodles were exceptionally well made and cooked, but served cold - to prevent additional cooking, I might guess.
The biggest attraction was definitely the broth - unmistakeable tonkotsu consistency and taste were complimented by slightly darker color one might expect from a typical milky-white tonkotsu soup (actually, it has been a bit of an issue in my own kitchen - my tonkotsu always turns out darker than I would like it to be; I tend to use more bones and natural skin gelatin than necessary). I think Rokurinsha broth color comes from a generous amount of bones used in the broth, but also from an addition of dried mackerel and, to a lesser degree, seaweed. The key player in the soup was the ground fish powder, no doubt ( the latter can be seen at the 6 o'clock position in the picture). Fish powder added an assertive, if not aggressive, umami component - I wasn't even sure if I liked it at first, but when the thick noodles found their new cradle in the broth all my concerns were laid to rest - I was simply hooked and just couldn't stop eating. Phenomenal bowl of noodles.
There is a lot to be said about Rokurinsha ramen, but it hardly can add anything to what two local Tokyo and independent from each other food writers have written about this gem of a restaurant in the past:
- first, exceptional in many ways, Japan Times and Tokyo Food File writer Robbie Swinnerton;
- second, extremely interesting and engaging Tokyo Cuisine Guide with Tokyo Joe at the helm;
Please refer to post by those exceptional bloggers for a different, and perhaps, a bit more comprehensive opinion of Rokurinsha ramen and tsukemen. All I can say - my $9.- meal at Rokurinsha was beyond exceptional - if only I could have those noodles again.
Manhattanhenge - twice a year the sun sets in a position where it is aligned precisely with the street grid of Manhattan
This photograph was taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Two metres, at 07:38am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England. Here we look towards Kingsgate Bay and Kingsgate Castle.
A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.
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Nikon D800 18mm 1/60s f/3.5 iso100 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. 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 23m 15.49s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 31.25s
ALTITUDE: 2.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 16.43MB
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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
Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, during the first vestiges of ambient light prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (which was at precisely 04:51am), at 03:15am on Monday 7th July 2014, off Botany Road and the Viking Coastal Trail on the shoreline of Botany Bay, the Northern most of seven bays in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
Here, I am standing knee deep in the warm and rapidly returning tidal water after a one hour drive to the coast that had me in the shower at 01:30am.The seven bays are (from south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.
This frame looks out towards the Thanet offshore windfarm, which was officially opened on September 23rd 2010 and was for a time, the largest offshore windfarm project in the world. The eight lines of turbines, one hundred of them in total, run north-west to south-east, covering a total area of 35sq km off Foreness Point near Margate. Each turbine is 115 metres high with 44-metre blades, and the project cost between £780-900million
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Nikon D800 160mm 1/30s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 20.54s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.41s
ALTITUDE: 6.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 19.75MB
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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 in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Zero metres, at 08:01am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.
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Nikon D800 14mm 1/800S f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) AF-S single point focus. 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 23m 19.64s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 14.71s
ALTITUDE: 0.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.82MB
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
Horned Treehopper (Membracidae)
Treehoppers (more precisely typical treehoppers to distinguish them from the Aetalionidae) and thorn bugs are members of the family Membracidae, a group of insects related to the cicadas and the leafhoppers. About 3,200 species of treehoppers in over 400 genera are known. They are found on all continents except Antarctica; only three species are known from Europe. Individual treehoppers usually live for only a few months.
Morphology
Thorn bugs, due to their unusual appearance, have long interested naturalists. They are best known for their enlarged and ornate pronotum, which most often resembles thorns, apparently to aid camouflage. In some species, the pronotum is a horn-like extension, but can form more bizarre shapes. The specialised pronotum (or helmet) may not be simply an expansion of the prothoracic sclerite, but a fused pair of dorsal appendages of the first thoracic segment.
These may be serial homologues of insect wings, which are dorsal appendages of the second and/or third thoracic segments. Evidence for this theory includes the development of the helmet, which arises as a pair of appendages attached to each side of the dorsal prothorax by an articulation with muscles and a flexible membrane that allow it to be mobile. Also, the same genes are involved in development of the helmet and the wings. Distinguishing males from females is accomplished only by looking at the genitalia.
Ecology
Treehoppers pierce plant stems with their beaks, and feed upon sap. The immatures can frequently be found on herbaceous shrubs and grasses, whereas the adults more often frequent hardwood tree species. Excess sap becomes concentrated as honeydew, which often attracts ants. Some species have a well-developed ant mutualism, and these species are normally gregarious, as well, which attracts more ants. The ants provide protection from predators. Treehoppers mimic thorns to prevent predators from spotting them.
Others have formed mutualisms with wasps, such as Parachartergus apicalis. Even geckos form mutualistic relations with treehoppers, with whom they communicate by small vibrations of the abdomen.
Eggs are laid by the female with her saw-like ovipositor in slits cut into the cambium or live tissue of stems, though some species lay eggs on top of leaves or stems. The eggs may be parasitised by wasps, such as the tiny fairyflies (Mymaridae) and Trichogrammatidae. The females of some membracid species sit over their eggs to protect them from predators and parasites, and may buzz their wings at intruders. The females of some gregarious species work together to protect each other's eggs. In at least one species, Publilia modesta, mothers serve to attract ants when nymphs are too small to produce much honeydew. Some other species make feeding slits for the nymphs.
Like the adults, the nymphs also feed upon sap, and unlike adults, have an extensible anal tube that appears designed to deposit honeydew away from their bodies. The tube appears to be longer in solitary species rarely attended by ants. It is important for sap-feeding bugs to dispose of honeydew, as otherwise it can become infected with sooty moulds. Indeed, one of the evident benefits of ants for Publilia concava nymphs is that the ants remove the honeydew and reduce such fungal growth.
Most species are innocuous to humans, although a few are considered minor pests, such as Umbonia crassicornis (a thorn bug), the three-cornered alfalfa hopper (Spissistilus festinus), and the buffalo treehopper (Stictocephala bisonia), which has been introduced to Europe. The cowbug Oxyrachis tarandus has been recorded as a pest of Withania somnifera in India.
Systematics
The diversity of treehoppers has been little researched, and their systematic arrangement is tentative. It seems three main lineages can be distinguished; the Endoiastinae are the most ancient treehoppers, still somewhat resembling cicadas. Centrotinae form the second group; they are somewhat more advanced but the pronotum still does not cover the scutellum in almost all of these. The Darninae, Heteronotinae, Membracinae and Smiliinae contain the most apomorphic treehoppers.
Several proposed subfamilies seem to be paraphyletic. Centronodinae and Nicomiinae might need to be merged into the Centrotinae to result in a monophyletic group.
[Credit: en.wikipedia.org]
Photograph taken at an altitude of Forty eight metres, during the first vestiges of dawn light around Twilight, (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 02:49am on Thursday 3rd July 2014 off Lullingstone Lane close to the Lullingstone Roman Villa looking back across the field close to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.
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Nikon D800 70mm One seconds long exposure f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 21m 52.15s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 48.47s
ALTITUDE: 48.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 12.54MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU processor. AMD Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 8.1. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon VIEWNX2 Version 2.10.3 64bit. Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit
Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 07:00am), at 06:56am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline 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.
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Nikon D800 140mm 1/250s f/5.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 54.87s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.69s
ALTITUDE: 6.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.32MB
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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
Brimming with genuine character, the new Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class is set to take the world of compact SUVs by storm. Yet it is not just the distinctive all-rounder's practical and appealingly compact body form that sets it apart from the competition. It also brings together what were previously seen as entirely contradictory attributes. The Agility Control suspension serves up a unique blend of outstanding handling dynamics, exceptional driving safety and superlative ride comfort. Meanwhile the sophisticated, variable 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system joins forces with the latest electronic control systems to deliver consummate on-road performance and superb off-road suitability. It is precisely this kind of combination that lends the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class such immense appeal. The GLK-Class may be one of the more road-oriented Mercedes-Benz SUVs, but the "G" - alluding to the archetypal Mercedes off-roader - still has a rightful place in the model name.
Superlative performance comes courtesy of the powerful yet economical and eco-friendly four and six-cylinder engines. The BlueEFFICIENCY version of the GLK 220 CDI features the new entry-level four-cylinder diesel engine from Mercedes-Benz, which develops 125 kW/170 hp yet only consumes 6.9 litres of diesel per hundred kilometres. And the unshakeable foundations of the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class are similarly impressive. The highly robust body is key to the pioneering passive-safety setup, the extremely low noise levels, the exceptional degree of interior comfort - to produce that typical Mercedes feeling of wellbeing - and the high value retention. Furthermore, exemplary appointments and attractive equipment packages make the GLK stand out from the compact-SUV masses. Plus state-of-the-art systems such as the leading-edge PRE-SAFE safety concept and the Intelligent Light System (ILS) are available in this market segment for the very first time.
With its poised, confident presence, the mere look of the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class leaves one in no doubt about its intent to conquer the compact premium SUV segment. It is arguably the most sophisticated of all takes on this particular theme. And it displays echoes of the G-Class, the founding father of the Mercedes-Benz SUV family. Design chief Prof. Peter Pfeiffer takes up the story: "With the G-Class we created a style icon that has been a benchmark in SUV design for the past 30 years. Combining this bold concept with the latest Mercedes-Benz design idiom makes the GLK a vehicle of genuine character."
No other model in the compact-SUV segment, past or present, comes close to matching the GLK's distinctively expressive appearance. The body is beautifully proportioned (length 4528 mm, width 1840 mm, height 1689 mm), while there is a special allure in the interplay between the classic angular shape and the typical design features found in all contemporary Mercedes-Benz passenger cars. Here the unmistakable design idiom, consisting of taut lines and large, expansive surfaces, is combined with the typical body features of a practical off-road vehicle, such as short overhangs, an upright front end, slim roof pillars, a steeply raked windscreen and taut roof lines. Rather than being a stylistic end in itself, however, the body design allows the typical advantages of an off-road vehicle to be introduced to the more road-oriented compact-SUV category for the first time. Large angles of approach and departure plus good ground clearance make off-road ventures a sheer joy. The outstandingly clear layout of the body and good allround visibility, combined with the raised seating position, enhance everyday practicality and ensure relaxed driving, even in dense city traffic.
Superlative ride comfort, outstanding handling dynamics and excellent offroad performance
The AGILITY CONTROL suspension on which the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class is founded displays a high level of flexibility and resolves a conflict of aims that particularly affects the SUV class, where chassis engineers want to create a vehicle that is both sportily agile and comfortably smooth yet one which can also cope with off-road terrain. If the focus is on sporty, active handling, the suspension and, above all, the shock absorbers need to display a certain firmness, which precludes access to the brand's typical suspension comfort and limits the off-road options. If the vehicle is set up with softer dampers to ensure suspension comfort and off-road capability, dynamic handling naturally suffers. The solution is "amplitude-dependent damping". In this system, the damping forces of the shock absorbers are configured to respond flexibly rather than lineally. In normal driving mode on moderately contoured roads or during slow off-road manoeuvres, the system responds softly, enhancing both the occupants' comfort and the vehicle's off-road capability. To ensure that this level of comfort is maintained when driving hard or performing abrupt evasive manoeuvres, in these situations the dampers deliver a harder performance, ensuring optimum handling stability. At the same time, the driver of the GLK is supported by speed-sensitive power steering, specified as standard for the V6 models, which provides the optimum level of steering assistance for the situation in hand. Parking and off-road manoeuvring are made much easier because maximum power assistance is available. At higher speeds, the assistance is reduced in favour of greater handling stability.
All the base models in the GLK series are fitted with 17-inch, size 235/60 R 17 light-alloy wheels. In conjunction with the exterior sports package, which is included as standard when the car first comes onto the market, or the off-road styling package, all models are shod with mixed-size tyres which, together with the AGILITY CONTROL suspension and the asymmetric power distribution between the front and rear axle, form the basis for a even better transfer of power between the wheels and the road. And the more effective this power transfer, the less frequently the electronic control systems need to intervene. The road-oriented exterior sports package features size 7.5 J x 19 light-alloy wheels with 235/50 R 19 tyres at the front and size 8.5 J x 19 wheels with 255/45 R 19 tyres at the rear. If the GLK is ordered with the off-road styling package, the front axle has size 7.5 J x 17 light-alloy wheels with 235/60 R 17 tyres, while the rear axle features size 8.0 J x 17 wheels with 255/55 R 17 tyres. All models are equipped with a TIREFIT system for repairing tyre damage. A compact spare wheel, which can be used on the front or rear axle, is available as an optional extra.
4MATIC: high-performance all-wheel-drive system with sophisticated control systems
The 4MATIC powertrain at the heart of the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class is one of the most capable all-wheel-drive systems on the market. The driving dynamics systems ESP®, ASR and 4ETS are superbly harmonised with each other; when they go into action their quality of control is so good that top-notch longitudinal and lateral dynamism coupled with superb handling stability are ensured under all conditions, both on and off-road. Thanks to the compact, lightweight and frictionoptimised concept, with a longitudinally installed engine and block-design main transmission and transfer case, the system offers various advantages over its counterparts equipped with a transversely installed drive unit. Fuel consumption, for example, is about on a par with that of a comparable conventionally powered vehicle, while the minimal vibration and noise levels rival those of today's luxuryclass models.
The 45:55 percent basic distribution of the drive torque between the front and rear axle - along with the ESP®, ASR and 4ETS dynamic handling control systems - ensures effortless and predictable performance in all conditions. Optimum traction, maximum driving stability and superlative handling are assured at all times. When tuning the control systems, the engineers at the Mercedes-Benz Technology Center (MTC) made neutral self-steering behaviour a top priority. Only when the physical limits of driving are neared is there a slight oversteer tendency. All GLK models display these characteristics, even if road conditions vary widely. Whether it be dry or wet. On snow, ice or unsurfaced roads. If drivers never know whether to expect understeer or oversteer, they become unsure. This problem - a frequent occurrence in the SUV category - is solved once and for all by the Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class. The newly developed multi-disc clutch in the centre differential supports the system if the friction between the tyres and the road surface is particularly low, for example on snow or ice. A basic partial locking torque of 50 newton metres between the front and rear axle produces a significant increase in traction whilst the high level of directional stability is maintained.
The "G" button on the centre console makes the GLK with off-road engineering package even more assertive on rough terrain. Pressing the button activates a special driving program which varies the shift points of the 7G-TRONIC transmission, "softens" the accelerator pedal characteristics and activates the ESP® off-road function. In this mode the system is designed to operate with a higher degree of wheel slip while retaining directional stability. This control strategy improves traction off-road, particularly on low-friction surfaces such as sand, gravel or stone chippings. There is also a manual transmission mode, in which the shift paddles on the steering wheel can be used to change between the gears. A further switch activates the Downhill Speed Regulation (DSR) system, which automatically maintains a pre-programmed speed on steep downhill inclines. The off-road-specific body dimensions are equally impressive. The large ground clearance of 201 millimetres (GLK 280 4MATIC) and the short body overhangs (front 816 mm, rear 957 mm) make for favourable angles of approach and departure - 23 degrees and a maximum of 25 degrees, respectively. Meanwhile the relatively short wheelbase length of 2755 millimetres and the vehicle weight of 1830 kilograms, which is remarkably low for an SUV, allow the GLK to make good headway on even the most topographically demanding of terrain.
As well as a tyre pressure loss warning system, the tried-and-tested Electronic Stability Program (ESP®) for the GLK incorporates a vehicle/trailer stabilisation function, which defuses critical driving situations involving a trailer before they become dangerous by applying the individual wheel brakes as and when required. The towing capacity is 2000 kilograms.
Effortlessly superior: new four-cylinder diesel engine and proven V6 powerplants
State-of-the-art powerplants ensure an exceptionally high level of ride comfort and impressive performance right across the GLK range. Plus fuel-consumption figures are low, as is the emission count. Customers have a choice of four model variants: diesel aficionados can opt for the GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY or GLK 320 CDI, while those with a preference for petrol can select the GLK 280 or GLK 350, both of which feature a V6 powerplant.
In the GLK 220 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY, the all-new diesel engine generation posts an excellent set of figures. Like the V6 unit in the GLK 320 CDI, the four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 2.2 litres and an output of 125 kW/170 hp reflects the dynamism of the GLK concept as a whole and produces impressive performance coupled with lower fuel consumption and reduced emissions. Torque is equally impressive, with some 400 newton metres available across a broad engine speed range of 1400 to 2800 rpm. Technical highlights of the exceptionally compact and smooth-running CDI powerplant with rear camshaft drive include fourth-generation common-rail direct injection with an injection pressure of 2000 bar and a two-stage turbocharger system. The state-of-the-art powerplant propels the GLK from 0 to 100 km/h in just 8.8 seconds and on to a top speed of 205 km/h. The compression-ignition engine with extremely low untreated emissions delivers exceptional environmental performance and, like all diesel engines for Mercedes passenger cars, features exhaust gas recirculation, an oxidising catalytic converter and a maintenance-free diesel particulate filter as standard. In addition, the engine developers have succeeded in reducing untreated emissions by a decisive margin. The smooth-running four-cylinder unit consumes a mere 6.9 litres of diesel per hundred kilometres, emits just 183 grams of CO2 per kilometre and already meets the requirements of the EU5 emission standard. The diesel line-up is augmented by the proven V6 powerplant in the GLK 320 CDI, which develops 165 kW/224 hp and achieves a peak torque of 540 newton metres, enabling the GLK to perform even more admirably: here the top speed is 220 km/h whilst acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h takes just 7.5 seconds. The V6 engine also features exhaust gas recirculation, an oxidising catalytic converter and a maintenance-free diesel particulate filter. Diesel consumption is a mere 7.9 litres per hundred kilometres. Plus the engine complies with the Euro 4 standard.
The two smooth-running V6 petrol models - the GLK 280 and the GLK 350 - develop 170 kW/231 hp and 200 KW/272 hp respectively, all of which makes for rapid performance. Yet fuel consumption is only moderate. The 3.5-litre V6 in the GLK 350 4MATIC stands out in particular, achieving figures similar to those of a sports car. It has a top speed of 230 km/h and races from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds. Both engines also comply with the Euro 5 standard, consuming 10.2 litres and 10.4 litres per hundred kilometres respectively.
All of the engine variants for the GLK are matched with the 7G-TRONIC 7-speed automatic transmission as standard. But the exceptional performance and low fuel consumption are not just down to the perfect combination of the highly sophisticated engines with the 7G-TRONIC and the friction-optimised powertrain. Further key factors include the relatively low overall weight (GLK 280: 1830 kg) and the exceptional aerodynamics for a vehicle of this design (cd figure 0.35).
Complete safety package for maximum occupant protection
In combination with the front and rear deformation zones, the GLK's highstrength passenger cell provides a highly efficient foundation for the occupant protection systems. These include:
Adaptive, two-stage airbags for the driver and front passenger
Kneebag for the driver
Front sidebags and, as an option, sidebags for the rear seats
Windowbags across both seat rows from the A-pillar to the C-pillar
NECK-PRO crash-responsive head restraints for the driver and front passenger
Crash-optimised pedal system
3-point seat belts for all five seats
Belt tensioner and adaptive belt-force limiter for the driver and front passenger, belt tensioner and single-stage belt-force limiter for the outer rear seats
ISOFIX child seat attachments
Belt height adjuster for the driver and front passenger
Belt status indicator for the rear passengers in the instrument cluster
The optionally available PRE-SAFE anticipatory occupant protection system, made available in the compact-SUV market segment for the very first time, sees Mercedes-Benz taking safety to a new, high level in this segment. The highlight of the concept is the networking between the active and passive safety systems. PRE-SAFE uses the sensors of the dynamic handling control systems - for example, Brake Assist (BAS) and ESP - and optimises the protective functions of the passive safety components in potential accident situations. The standard-fit adaptive brake lights, which flash to warn the traffic behind when the brakes are applied abruptly, help to prevent accidents.
Photograph taken in the magic of the Golden Hour at 20:52pm (Sunset was at precisely 21:06pm), on Wednesday 5th June 2013 off the Viking Coastal trail beside the ruins of Reculver Abbey, about three miles east of Herne Bay in south-east England, in a ward of the same name, in the City of Canterbury, district of Kent.
This frame looks out towards the Thanet offshore windfarm was officially opened on September 23rd 2010 and was for a time, the largest offshore windfarm project in the world. The eight lines of turbines, one hundred of them in total, run north-west to south-east, covering a total area of 35sq km off Foreness Point near Margate. Each turbine is 115 metres high with 44-metre blades, and the project cost between £780-900million
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Nikon D800 200mm 1/1600s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit)
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 055XPROB tripod. Manfrotto 327RC2 Grip action ball head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap. Sandisc 32GB Ultra Class 10 30MB/s SDHC. 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 5.03s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.24s
ALTITUDE: 62.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 12.91MB
Photograph taken at an altitude of Six metres, in the magic of the Golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 06:50am), at 07:08am on Sunday 21st September 2014 off 1st Street and Beacon Avenue, from the concourse above the shoreline 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.
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Nikon D800 122mm 1/1250s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Mirror up. 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 54.87s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 23m 38.72s
ALTITUDE: 6.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 14.70MB
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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
Protected by Full Copyright: Please do not use this image without my written permission in anyway, doing so is a violation of federal law.
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I added a selective texture on the white background and when I worked on this I was amazed at how precisely straight this very old building is. (It is roughly circa 1850). I think I kind of lucked out in this case when the sky blanched out. I think it works for this photo.
btw, This photo has so much texture in photoshop but it all kind of flopped here on Flickr, bummer
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Better on Large:
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I had an interesting experience when I was photographing this area. A woman clutching a plastic shopping bag that appeared to be a homeless person due to the way she seemed to be wandering with no real direction started chatting away to me. At first, she didn't make much sense and it sounded like she was just rambling. She was pointing at debris in front of a building I was photographing and was telling me, "There is money in there; one time I found twenty dollars in there". Of course, I didn't know how to respond.
I crossed a road between buildings of blight and started to photograph the building above in this photo. After I took a few photos, I started to walk back toward the direction I came from. As I walked away, the woman called out to me. She was facing this clock pointing at it. She started to ramble again, or so I thought. At first, I could only make out that she was emphatic about me going back to the clock as she eagerly continued to point at it. Then she said, "Look, look! You can see the numbers on the clock. Take more photos of it, See? You can see the numbers on the clock"
I felt pretty awkward but I didn't want to treat this woman disrespectfully. So, I went back to take this shot. When I uploaded the photo, I thought about how this woman was right that this clock did still have the detail of the numbers still on it and how I had even missed this as it is camoflauged by the rust.
The woman spoke rapidly, and also in somewhat of a nonsensical way so all of what she said to me only sunk in later. When she was chattering about the clock detail she had told me that she used to be a photographer in New York. When I looked back at this set of photos I reflected back on what this woman said. I thought how interesting it was that this woman did indeed notice the detail on this clock, when I had thought she seemed to not even notice where she was going. I have thought since then how incredible this experience was that this woman very likely was once a very successful pro photographer in NYC and who would ever dream in a million years that a woman who had experienced this kind of success would now be a vagrant wandering the streets.
I imagine that most people would have typically done what they could to avoid her and believe that whatever the woman was saying it wouldn't be anything they were interested in. This experience taught me a lesson indeed about how we can be so very shallow and judgmental and ignore someone like this. Had I done this I would have missed out on having an opportunity for potentially someone much more skilled then me to encourage me to go back and take more shots to get the detail on this clock, as this very wise rambling homeless woman had advised me :-)
Photograph taken in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise at 07:15am, (Sunrise was at precisely 06:59am), at an altitude of Zero metres on Friday February 21st 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.
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Nikon D800 40mm 1/3S f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED IF. Jessops 77mm UV filter. Nikon MB-D12 battery grip pack.Two Nikon EN-EL 15 batteries.Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. Digi-Chip 64GB Class 10 UHS-1 SDXC. Manfrotto 327RC2 Grip action ball head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag. Optech Tripod Strap. Nikon DK-17M Magnifying Eyepiece. Hoodman HGEC soft viewfinder eyecup.Lowepro Transporter camera strap. Lowepro Vertex 200 AW camera bag. Nikon MC-DC2 remote shutter release cable. Nikon GP-1 GPS unit
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LATITUDE: N 51d 23m 20.60s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 13.25s
ALTITUDE: 0.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 15.99MB
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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
The 5Z93 empty stock movement leaving Carlisle Kingmoor depot precisely at 14:00 to Crewe on Sunday 16th December 2012, hauled by 47810, marking the end of the short-lived Direct Rail Services 'Cruise Saver Express Boat Train' diagrams. DRS Driver Michael Wylie enters into the spirit of the poignant occasion, with a 'Condor' headboard fitted to the loco, and powers away from Etterby Bridge, Kingmoor, with the empty stock from the previous day's Southampton-Edinburgh final 'Boat Train' service. Appropriately, this was the Brush Type 4 which hauled the final up 'Bournemouth Belle' on 9th July 1967.
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
This Six second long exposure was taken at an altitude of Fifty one metres, in the magic of Twilight, prior to Sunrise which was at precisely 04:47am, at 02:27am on Thursday 3rd July 2014 off Lullingstone Lane next to the Lullingstone Roman Villa and overlooking the field adjacent to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.
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Nikon D800 70mm 6 Second exposure f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. AF-S Single point 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.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 21m 52.08s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 48.55s
ALTITUDE: 51.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 14.55MB
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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 in the magic of The Golden Hour around Sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 07:46am), at an altitude of Nine metres, at 07:59am on Tuesday December 9th 2014 off Botany Road and Marine Drive, on the sandy shoreline of Botany Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, England.
A very chilly morning on the beach, around One degree, and a bracing wind that pounded flesh and bones, but well worth the one and a half hour journey there to enjoy a lovely sunrise. The seven bays in Broadstairs consist of: (From south to north) Dumpton Gap, Louisa Bay, Viking Bay, Stone Bay, Joss Bay, Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.
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Nikon D800 22mm 1/100S f/2.8 iso200 RAW (14Bit) Hand held AF-S single point focus. 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. 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 23m 18.47s
LONGITUDE: E 1d 26m 16.85s
ALTITUDE: 9.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 18.40MB
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
Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India.
The Patwon Ji ki Haveli is the most important among the havelis in Jaisalmer. This is precisely because of two things, first that it was the first haveli erected in Jaisalmer and second, that it is not a single haveli but a cluster of 5 small havelis. The first among these havelis was commissioned and constructed in the year 1805 by Guman Chand Patwa and is the biggest and the most ostentatious. It is believed that Patwa was a rich man and was a renowned trader of his time. He ordered the construction of separate stories for each of his 5 sons. These were completed in the span of 50 years. All five houses were constructed in the first 60 years of the 19th century.
The havelis are also known as the 'mansion of brocade merchants'. This name has been given probably because the family dealt in threads of gold and silver used in embroidering dresses. However, there are theories, which claim that these traders made considerable amount of money in Opium smuggling and Money-lending. - extracts from www.jaisalmer.org.uk/
"Survey station"... Found minature; 2011
Minimalist Artwork. Print on ABS plastic, on-going series, approx. 2cm x 2cm.
Glued to the outside wall of the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery in Margate, Thanet, Kent....
I am interested in the Fact that this work almost precisely mirrored Daniel Burens large installation inside the Turner Contemporary building main hall; even the extreme size differential of each piece is a mirror. Coincidence is KIng...
Noting further; the work pictured above includes diagonals in its geometrics. A difference, certainly...
:)
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This photograph was taken on the banks of the River Cray at an altitude of Seventeen metres at 04:33am on Thursday 22nd April 2018, in the golden hour around sunrise, (Sunrise was at precisely 05:58am),off Rectory Lane in the grounds of Foots Cray Meadows, over the River Cray in Bexley, Kent, England.
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Nikon D850 24mm 1/6s (Electronic front curtain) f/4.0 iso64 RAW (14 bit uncompressed) Image size L 8256 x 5504 FX). Colour space Adobe RGB. AF-C focus 51 point with 3-D tracking. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto 0 white balance (8030K). Nikon Distortion control on. Vignette control Normal.Manfrotto 055Xprob Carbon Fiber Tripod 3 Sections. Manfrotto 327RC2 Magnesium Ball Head. Manfrotto quick release plate 200PL-14. Jessops Tripod bag.
Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED IF. Nikon EN-EL15a battery. Matin quick release neckstrap. My Memory 128GB Class 10 SDXC. Lowepro Flipside 400 AW camera bag. Nikon GP-1 GPS module.
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LATITUDE: N 51d 25m 33.50s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 7m 41.40s
ALTITUDE: 17.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 130.00MB (NEF 89.3mb)
PROCESSED (JPeg) FILE: 41.70MB
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PROCESSING POWER:
Nikon D850 Firmware versions C 1.01 (16/01/2018) LD Distortion Data 2.017 (20/3/18)
HP 110-352na Desktop PC with AMD Quad-Core A6-5200 APU 64Bit processor. Radeon HD8400 graphics. 8 GB DDR3 Memory with 1TB SATA storage. 64-bit Windows 10. Verbatim USB 2.0 1TB desktop hard drive. WD My Passport Ultra 1tb USB3 Portable hard drive. Nikon ViewNX-1 64bit (Version 1.2.11 15/03/2018). Nikon Capture NX-D 64bit (Version 1.4.7 15/03/2018). Nikon Picture Control Utility 2 (Version 1.3.2 15/03/2018). Adobe photoshop Elements 8 Version 8.0 64bit.
Photograph taken at an altitude of Seventy metres, in the magic prior to the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:35am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking the 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 42mm 1/25s f/5.0 iso100 RAW (14 bit) Nikon RC-DC2 remote shutter release. Manual focus. Manual exposure. Matrix metering. Auto white balance.
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 4.31s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 52.28s
ALTITUDE: 70.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 16.37MB
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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 Eight metres, in the magic of 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 (known as a Skein of geese), 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 15.78s
LONGITUDE: W 123d 24m 12.85s
ALTITUDE: 8.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE SIZE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED (JPeg) SIZE: 11.89MB
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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 2.10.0 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
Now that more than 200 days have passed since Alaa started his hunger strike, 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 -
My passion in photography has always been The Golden Hour around sunrise and sunset, and the beauty of the ambient light around twilight and dawn. Time cherished nestled in the bosom of Mother Nature, my Nikon and I working together to try and capture the ever changing hues, the light as it dances across the sky, deciphering silhouettes and shadows, all get my heart pounding and pulse racing.
Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty fivemetres, amidst the first vestiges of dawn light, prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:54am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights overlooking the field adjacent to Eynsford Viaduct in the village of Eynsford, Kent, England.
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Nikon D800 38mm 1/160s f/2.8 iso100 RAW (14 bit) 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 4.54s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.89s
ALTITUDE: 65.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 23.92MB
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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
At 1.36 pm, precisely when the Amtrak Silver Meteor train was scheduled to arrive at Winter Haven station, this featherweight CSX freight rolled through. Haulage for the two freight cars was EMD GP-38-3 rebuild #2046. Sometime later, passengers were advised on the electronic notice board that their train wasn’t due until 3.17 pm.
Photograph taken at an altitude of Sixty five metres, during the first vestiges of dawn light prior to the magic of the Golden Hour around sunrise (Sunrise was at precisely 04:38am), at 03:54am on Thursday 12th June 2014 off Lullingstone Lane and Eagle Heights in the poppy field beside the 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 38mm 1/160s 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 4.54s
LONGITUDE: E 0d 11m 51.89s
ALTITUDE: 65.0m
RAW (TIFF) FILE: 103.00MB
PROCESSED FILE: 14.21MB
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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
Every vehicle owner knows precisely how uncomfortable dents and scratches could be. Not just that they appear absolutely terrible, they also have the possibility of causing some permanent harm to the automobile. This is why every little dent and each little scratch have to be fixed when possible
samsautobodyandpaint.com/dent-removal/
Tap on samsautobodyandpaint.com link to learn more
A Long Time Coming
رجب شھر الزرع و شعبان شھر السقی و رمضان شھر الحصاد
Rajab is the month of planting and Sha’ban is the month of watering
and Ramadan is the month of reaping.
Imam Abdul Qadir Jilani (ra)
On the 30th of December, I attended my first wedding in five years. Five days later I came down with a fever. It was only 99 so I didn’t think anything of it. A day later, on a friend’s suggestion, I took a COVID test. It came out positive. For a few minutes I just stared at it and one thought ran through my mind. No two. The first was when exactly I had not been in a state of ablution that had not sealed my body from a jab from a jinn. The second was did I regret going to the wedding.
I couldn’t figure out the first precisely. My ablutions had been getting increasingly less thorough because of the cold. Even though I never turned the water to warm because Qari Sahib had said, “Allah likes two things immensely; the fast of the summer and the ablution with cold water.”
I couldn’t regret the wedding. It was the first wedding of my friends’ children and this was one of my closest friend’s sons. One of two boys amongst the lot who I loved like I might have loved my own. His name was Shahmir. The other was Zamin.
I had a trip to Karachi planned like I did every year to exit Lahore as soon as it became unbearably cold. That was obviously cancelled and I prepared to isolate for at least 10 days. I was grateful that if I was going to contract the illness, it was of the version that seemed to be the mildest. In my room, I decided to work on the video that, in a sense, was taking me a year to make; for the 13th of Rajab, the birth of Maula e Kayinaat, Hazrat Ali (as).
Over the last two years I had made seven videos, all of them spectacular. The kalam, verse, was stupefying beautiful. Ustad Imran’s rendition of them only became more perfect. His last one for the birthday celebration of Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) had literally blown a hole in the sky. I had learnt that phrase from a painting by Georgis O’Keefe at the Seattle Art Museum.
"I want real things - live people to take hold of - to see - to talk to - music that makes holes in the sky."
I was using it incessantly.
I had been deeply disappointed by my inability to bring everything together for the video the year before but now everything was falling into place. I found someone who was reputed to be one of the best sitar players in town. His name was Rakae which in itself deserves a story because it was the same as a word from the narration in the video. The story was beautiful.
It was one of the instances, of which scholars count at least 300 if not much more, where a verse of the Quran was revealed solely for the blessed Imam (ratu). In this case giving charity while in ruku,’ specifically the position in the salat where one touches their hands upon their knees, thus always translated as “bowing in prayer.”
Lord only knows how many times I had paused my own position in ruku’ to imagine what he had done, what it must have felt like. Which I couldn’t really because anyone else moving their hand like that, to loosen a ring, would have nullified the prayer and had to start it over from the beginning.
When the Imam (as) did it a verse was revealed.
إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ
وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ
Only are your true helpers Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him)
and those who have attained to faith,
the ones who are firmly immersed in their prayers,
who give the dutied charity that purifies,
while they bow in worship.
Surah Al Maidah, Verse 55
The video was different from the onset. It didn’t start with the traditional beginning I had always used; either the Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim – In the Name of Allah, The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Merciful or the Kalima – the first pillar of Islam and the utterance that makes one a Muslim – La ilaha illallaha Muhammad Ar Rasool Allah – There is no Presence except that of Allah and Muhammad (peace be upon him) is His Messenger.
I had commissioned a letter from an artist friend, Abeda. The letter “Baa” which begins the Bismillah verse and placed a hugely significant quote next to it;
Verily, all secrets of the Divine Books are in the Quran,
and all knowledge of the Qur'an is in Surah Al-Fatihah,
and all knowledge of Al-Fatihah is in
“Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim,”
In the Name of Allah, The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Merciful
and all knowledge of “Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim” is in its “Baa,”
(the first letter of 'Bismillah')
and all knowledge of the “Baa” is in the dot below it
and Imam Ali (ratu) said, I am that dot under the “Baa.”
I had decided to use the exegesis of the verse in the video rather than a simple translation. That was the bounty of studying verses of the Qura0n from the Tafseer e Jilani by Ghaus Pak (ra). It was magnificent.
In my days of isolation I didn’t have much to do so I continued my classes with Qari Sahib online. I had been storing a list of verses I had chosen from different lectures by Uzair and we would study them from the Tafseer e Jilani one by one. On my own, I had been reading the Urdu translation of Surah Tauba and it was blowing me away.
Tauba is the Surah of Repentance. Needless to say it is intense. It is also the only Surah that doesn’t start with the verse every other Surah starts with; Bismillah Ar Rahman Ar Rahim, In the Name of Allah, The Entirely Merciful, The Especially Merciful. I didn’t know why that was. I tried googling it but only came across a lot of debate and differences in opinion that seemed tied to maslak, the ideology of different sects.
I asked Qari Sahib what he had heard about it.
“The main reason is that the angel Hazrat Gibrael (as) did not bring it with him for this Surah.”
He also gave me the reason from Imam Ali (as).
“The Surah Tauba was revealed to raise the sword against the infidels. Hence it did not start with Allah’s Mercy.”
The verses in Surah Tauba which struck me the most started with one in which a question is posed to the reader; where have you set the foundation of your faith? Which I ended up summarizing as; Is it upon being mindful of your Lord or upon deprivation and humiliation?
أَفَمَنْ أَسَّسَ بُنْيَنَهُۥ عَلَىٰ تَقْوَىٰ مِنَ ٱللَّهِ وَرِضْوَنٍ خَيْرٌ
أَم مَّنْ أَسَّسَ بُنْيَنَهُۥ عَلَىٰ شَفَا جُرُفٍ هَارٍۢ فَٱنْهَارَ بِهِۦ فِى نَارِ جَهَنَّمَ ۗ
وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهْدِى ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱلظَّلِمِينَ
Which is better, the one who has founded his building on God-conscious and a desire for His acceptance,
or he who has founded his building on the edge of a crumbling cliff that will tumble with him into Hellfire?
God does not guide people who are deliberately unjust.
Surah Tauba, Verse 109
Tafseer e Jilani
Afaman assassa: Is he, the one who laid his foundation and placed it…
Bunyanahu ala: supported by a strong beam, and a heavy pillar that is…
Taqwa: God-consciousness i.e. safe-guarding and fortressing…
Min Allah: from Allah i.e. from His Anger and His Displeasure…
Wa: and he…
Ridwanin: sought Allah’s Pleasure and a great reward and high ranks from Him…
Kahirun am man assassa bunyanahu ala shafa jurufin haarin: or is the one better, who has founded his building on the edge of a crumbling cliff i.e. the edge of a valley which has water in it and has rain falling upon it and it crumbles and some of it will still be destroyed more and make the rest disintegrate as well? So he placed his foundation on this
Fa anhara bihi: and thus he fell…
Fi naari jahannuma: in the fires of Hell i.e. a deep valley, very wide, full of the fire of deprivation and humiliation.
Wallahu: And Allah is Al Haadi, The True Guide, for his sincere worshippers.
La yahdil qaum ad-dalimeen: He does not guide the people who are of the Zalimeen, the ones who have left acting upon the things which He has ordered and forbidden.
It was the next verse that had pierced my own heart like an arrow even though I didn’t think my “foundation” was placed on anything other than raising spiritual consciousness. It was the idea of harbouring desires that were not going to be achieved and how they were shredding the heart. It sounded like Chinese torture. Doubt falling drop by drop upon the same place, tearing it to pieces. All the while not even knowing what was happening and therefore causing a continuing of the pain because of being set on something whose fulfillment had been fated not possible.
It’s not like I hadn’t been there myself. But I was younger. The desires were more inane. One forgot them. Or was it just that these days there was someone in my house I was looking after and that made those memories fade entirely? I couldn’t honestly tell.
Maybe the simple truth was just that at an older age, if one got consumed by a want, its effects were devastating. I had noticed it in people around me. Even though some of them were only in their 30s. When I thought about I realized that that people’s pain seemed to be always rooted in the same place; loneliness.
It was the Quran that had revealed to me that the state was masked in pain but it was born in anger. I wasn’t even touching the second part it mentioned – wickedness of nature. The obstacle was always the self; the absolute denial around one’s own fault, one’s own role in the “delusion.”
لَا يَزَالُ بُنْيَنُهُمُ ٱلَّذِى بَنَوْا۟ رِيبَةًۭ فِى قُلُوبِهِمْ إِلَّآ أَن تَقَطَّعَ قُلُوبُهُمْ ۗ
وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ
The building they built will always be a source of skepticism within their hearts until their hearts are torn to pieces.
Allah knows everything and He is Wise
Surah Tauba, Verse 110
Tafseer e Jilani
And because of the intensity of their anger and wickedness of their inner being…
La yazalu bunyanuhum alladi banawu: the building they built will just inherit and increase…
Ribatan: doubts and these ambiguities will increase…
Fi qulibihim: in their hearts, drop by drop…
Illa an taqatta’a qulubuhum: except that it (that doubt) will cut their hearts with the fire of desires that cannot be fulfilled and their hearts will be shredded and disappear because of the trials of being punished to the extent that they will never know.
Wallahu aleem-un: And Allah is All Knowing of their hidden delusion in their breasts.
Hakeem: (Allah is) All Wise who decides the recompense for it (that delusion) and how to call them to question over it.
I guess when one awaits the possibility of love pining for someone who has to appear or reappear, it’s hard to turn it around and see how that want could be exactly what’s causing the pain. It seems so natural a craving, so human.
Some of my loved ones were appearing to be in in the same predicament whether they were single or coupled. I spent my time thinking about what to tell them that might bring ease. Each situation was so unique except for that commonality of disappointment around feeling alone.
I had been coming across a few verses as cures to shake off the state. My favourite find was the following; charity that increased and blessed and purified but more than any of that, brought one the prayers of Allah’s Habeeb (peace be upon him). With that prayer came “forgiveness from God” and “sakoon, tranquility” and ended “the distractions that hindered the taste of spirituality.” And that wasn’t even all of it. Beyond the troika of perfection were other blessings upon blessings!
خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَلِهِمْ صَدَقَةًۭ تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ ۖ
إِنَّ صَلَوٰتَكَ سَكَنٌۭ لَّهُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ
Take from their wealth a charity, purifying them and cause them increase in it and bless them.
Indeed, your prayers are a comfort for them.
And Allah is The Hearer of All, The Knower of Everything.
Surah Tauba, Verse 103
Tafseer e Jilani
Khud: Accept, O Messenger who completes Messenger-hood (peace be upon you)…
Min amwalihim: from their possessions of those who are Al Mudnibeen, sinners and Al Tai’been, the repenters and Al Nadimeen the ones who are regretful, of that which has happened from them because of their going against you, when they asked for your permission that you leave this matter…
Sadqatan tuttahirruhum: (Accept) alms so you purify them from the filth of their nature that they are crazy about, which is love of possessions and the greed of gathering them and increasing them…
Wa tuzzakihim biha: by which you cleanse their batin, inner beings, from distractions that hinder them from the taste of spirituality…
Wa salle alaihim: and pray for them and ask for their maghfirat, forgiveness for their sins, and pray for them the prayer of all goodness.
Inna salaataka: Indeed your prayer and your caring for their states…
Sakana al lahum: brings inner peace for their hearts and dignity and calmness and the means of their being steadfast and firmly footed in the Realm of Allah’s Tauheed, His One-ness and Imaan, faith.
Wallahu: And Allah, Al Muraqib, The One who watches over them in all their states is…
Samee-un: All Hearing of their sincerity and their secret conversations with him…
Aleem-un: All Knowing of their intentions and their needs.
The remarkable thing is that the extreme difficulty of loneliness makes a human being the most vulnerable to waswasa, that which causes paranoia and doubt, from Iblis and devastation by one’s own nafs, the base self. Being alone renders one exposed to whispers of dismay. Iblis sows the seed, the nafs runs with it.
It could make the most patient person hasty, the most mild person perpetually agitated, the most grateful person an incessant complainer, the most pleasant person impossible to be around, the softest person harder than a rock, a loving person numb and indifferent, the generous person unimaginably miserly. Hearts that were open closed. Faces that were lit became ashen. Light turned to darkness.
In becoming their opposite, the loneliness also became the conduit for heedlessness, the opposite of being mindful. I discovered that accidently while reading the Tafseer e Tustari in my days of isolation. I was focusing on Surah Taha but then happened to come across the last line of Surah 7, Al Araaf.
Hazrat Sahel Tustari defined heedlessness for the ordinary. It was pride and pride was the root of the two sides of the coin of sadness; anger and self-pity.
The source of tranquility, other than God, caused negligence for the ordinary because they became arrogant over it.
[[7:205] …and do not be of the heedless…
وَلَا تَكُن مِّنَ ٱلْغَفِلِينَ
And do not be among the heedless.
Surah Al Araaf, Verse 205
Hazrat Sahl (ra) said: “In truth I say to you without any falsehood, in certainty without a doubt, that any person who spends a breath in other than God’s Remembrance does so while being heedless of God, Mighty and Majestic is He.”
He also said: “Heedlessness (ghafla) among the elite (khāṣṣ) is finding (sukūn) peace in anything [other than Him]. Heedlessness among the ordinary (ʿāmm) is taking pride (iftikhār) in anything [other than Him], that is to say, it is feeling proud of that tranquility.”
In all of this, I noticed that one thing seems to surface and then prevail; the inability to be loving, the absence of warmth, which was the only reason Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) said he was bestowed to humanity.
عن جابر بن عبد الله قال : لما نزلت سورة "براءة" قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : بعثت بمداراة الناس
From Jābir b. ʿAbd Allāh (may God be pleased with them all), that he reported that when Sūrat Barāʾa (Tauba) was sent down, the Messenger of God said,
“I was sent to treat people with affability (mudārāt).”
It was not lost on me that the Mercy of the Universe (peace be upon him) said that just as the Surah came that brought with it pronouncements of war while he highlighted friendliness.
I looked up the entire verse in the Tafseer e Jilani to study its first part. I was curious about everything in it, the soundlessness of voice for starters.
وَٱذْكُر رَّبَّكَ فِى نَفْسِكَ تَضَرُّعًۭا وَخِيفَةًۭ
وَدُونَ ٱلْجَهْرِ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْلِ بِٱلْغُدُوِّ وَٱلْءَاصَالِ
وَلَا تَكُن مِّنَ ٱلْغَفِلِينَ
And remember your Lord in yourself humbly and in fear
and without the loudness of the words in the mornings and in the evenings.
And do not be among the heedless.
Surah Al Araaf, Verse 205
Tafseer e Jilani
Then addressed Allah Subhanahu, Exalted is He, His Habeeb (peace be upon him) because addresses like these were only for his capacity and capability and could only be encompassed by his heart.
So He said…
Wadkur: Remember and remain in certainty…
Rabbaka: of your Lord, O Beloved (peace be upon you), who made you appear in His Form…
Fi nafsika: in your self because you are His Appearance…
Tadarruan wa kheefatan: humbly and in secret, with (your) humility expressed in the softest voice, being fearful of the heedlessness that exists in the world…
Wa doonal jahar e minal qawli: and without raising the sound of your voice, hiding it from those who are veiled and those who are ignorant of your ranks and respecting Allah Subhanahu…
Bil ghuduwi wal aasaal: in all time (from morning till evening) which passes upon you according to your being a human.
Wa: and overall…
La takun min al ghafileen: do not be of the heedless as you are, due to your certainty, on the Station of Divine Witnessing.
In looking up the hadith in Arabic, I had come upon another hadith that was beautiful;
عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ مُغَفَّلٍ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قَالَ
إِنَّ اللَّهَ رَفِيقٌ يُحِبُّ الرِّفْقَ
The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said,
“Verily, Allah is Gentle and He loves gentleness.”
The only other thing cure I found for what appeared to be everything wrong was surprising: hunger!
[[20:81] Eat of the good things We have provided for you, but do not transgress regarding them…]
كُلُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَتِ مَا رَزَقْنَكُمْ وَلَا تَطْغَوْا۟ فِيهِ فَيَحِلَّ عَلَيْكُمْ غَضَبِى ۖ
Eat of the good things which We have provided you and do not transgress therein,
lest should descend upon you My Anger.
Surah Taha, Verse 81
Hazrat Sahel (ra) said, “His words, Exalted is He, concerning this are [an admonition] that you should eat from them [the good things provided by God] in order to sustain yourselves, and should not satiate yourselves to the extent that you reach a state of intoxication (sukr) in which you are diverted from the remembrance [of God], for intoxication is forbidden.”
I had heard of intoxication being forbidden for all kinds of substances in arguments between the drinkers of alcohol and smokers of weed my whole life. What was mentioned by word in the Quran and what wasn’t. This was the first time I saw it in the context of food.
And Hazrat Sahel (ra) said: “Whoever forces hunger upon himself, his blood will decrease in proportion to that, and in proportion to how much his blood decreases, evil suggestions (waswasa) will be blocked from entering his heart. If a mad person forced hunger upon himself he would become sane.”
Wow!
The Prophet said, ‘There is not a vessel more detestable to God than a stomach filled with food.’”
Two things stood out dramatically. The blocking of evil suggestions from imposing hunger upon oneself and that the stomach overly filled was detestable to God. I felt deeply grateful I had been granted the ability to fast once a week. Mondays! To celebrate the joyous occasion of Nabi Kareem’s most blessed birth. It never felt hard. The Universe celebrated Mondays. The days I missed were always because of a waswasa exactly at the time of keeping the fast. It always appeared in one word, the same one to prevent the prayer at dawn, “Sleep.”
But I was not about to tell anyone to try hunger to cause calm. People think the exact opposite, that hunger makes them agitated and anxious. Even though Shuggy Aunty has kept fasts for days on end where only water can be sipped at the times of keeping and opening them. Yet she was always smiling and full of energy when I met her in those days. I used to marvel at her and one day she told me, “When you worship in isolation for days you don’t feel it because Allah is your companion and when you fast for days with nothing, He feeds you.”
Meanwhile in the quietness of my room, I chose verses to translate that ended up revealing the glitch in my spiritual journey as related to sincerity. Why it was stubbornly missing for me in relationships and deeds? Why it was absent despite my longing for it, my awareness around it? The find was accidental and it was extraordinary.
The desire for ikhlas to be in my actions and feelings was sincere. The problem was that I wanted it to appear in my behaviour and attitude towards others – ghair Allah – when it was not yet there in my behaviour and attitude towards Him.
The first verse I studied had only caught my attention in a lecture by Uzair because of the words “And I am the first Muslim – the first to surrender.” 123,999 Prophets later, The Messenger (peace be upon him) who completed The Message had said in the Quran what he was commanded by his Lord to say; “Ana awwal ul Muslimeen.”
لَا شَرِيكَ لَهُۥ ۖ
وَبِذَٰلِكَ أُمِرْتُ وَأَنَا۠ أَوَّلُ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ
For Him there is no partner.
And thus I have been commanded, and I am the first one to surrender.”
Surah Al Anam, Verse 163
And thus the Tafseer e Jilani revealed to me that the One-ness of Allah, such that there is no Presence except His, pre-requisites that only He can be entrusted the fate of matters, all of them, and there is no sincerity unless it starts with Him.
La shakreeka lahu: He has no partner who can disagree with Him or be against Him or be His Equal or try to be like Him.
There is no Presence at all except for His.
Wa bi dalika: And because of this fact, there is no one to entrust matters to except Him and there is no sincerity except towards Him.
Umirtu: I was commanded (this entrusting to Him and sincerity towards Him) from His Own Self for only His Tauheed, His One-ness…
Wa ana awwal ul Muslimeen: and I am the first to surrender, I am the first to believe in the Essence of His Tauheed, I am the first reflection of the Essence of His Tauheed and I am the first reflector of the Essence of His Tauheed.
Subhan Allah!
I remarked on the part of the verse that raised a flag for me with Qari Sahib;
Wa bi dalika: And because of this fact, there is no one to entrust matters to except Him and there is no sincerity except towards Him.
“I never would have thought that sincerity could not be found in me because I had not been aware that the root of its existence has to come from my relationship with God. I was always focusing on its presence or absence with other human beings.”
An element of that sincerity was taking form for me in my entrusting matters to Allah Subhanahu since I had read that the entrusting had to be for everything;
Tafseer e Jilani: “And the point is this: don’t connect your affairs to your own selves but entrust over your matters, all of them, to Allah and truly connect them to Him, The Exalted, alone. And don’t rejoice and don’t be saddened but dissolve yourself in Allah and be granted forever-ness so that you gain – فِى مَقْعَدِ صِدْقٍ عِندَ مَلِيكٍۢ مُّقْتَدِرٍۭ - a place of honor near The King Most Powerful.”
Then came the bounty of the second verse of the day honing in on the same point. The conveyance of something to another, ordinary like me, could only be conveyed if there was no rayakari, element of showing off, and only if it was meant to wish others well and hope for perfection for them.
Hence if someone wanted to understand something I was saying, there could be no ulterior motive, no grudge, no expectation of return, no exchange, no showing off. On top of that I had to be gentle, affable, and then I came upon another passage in the Tafseer e Tustari that instructed me that I also had to embody excellence of manners by always being ‘good’ to others.”
[20:44] And speak to him gentle words...
فَقُولَا لَهُۥ قَوْلًۭا لَّيِّنًۭا لَّعَلَّهُۥ يَتَذَكَّرُ أَوْ يَخْشَىٰ
And speak to him a word gentle, perhaps he may take heed or fear."
Surah Taha, Verse 44
It was related from Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, ‘Moses , when he visited Pharaoh, would say to him, ‘O Abū Musʿab say: “There is no god except God and I am the Messenger of God”.’
Hazrat Sahl (ra) said: Truly God, Exalted is He, invested Moses with the robe of those who possess refined manners (mutaʾaddibūn), and He removed from him the hastiness of those who impulsively rush in (mutahajjimūn), due to the bounty (faḍl) and empowerment (tamkīn) that he found [from God].
However, He did not will for him [Pharaoh] faith (īmān), for had He willed it, He would have said, ‘So he may believe.’
Rather, God, Mighty and Majestic is He, intended by this [Command] that Moses should show graciousness (mulāṭafa) through the most beautiful discourse and gentlest speech, for this moves the hearts of all people, just as the Prophet said, ‘Hearts have been created with the disposition to love those who are good to them and to hate those who do wrong to them.’
Two things became crystal clear. The hadith was for the ordinary. The extraordinary were good everyone, especially those who mistreated them. The level of difficulty was still sky high. All my actions had shadows of motives, apparent or hidden. They brought with them expectation which when unmet turned to grudge at worst and a deep disappointment at best. My intention always revealed its murkiness to me later. I was in a constant state of showing off in front of my nafs.
A second verse from the same lecture by Uzair brought the point home clearly. This time I was drawn to Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) saying that he was commanded by His Lord to be sincere in the faith, drawn to the verse because of the word he used; mukhlis-an.
قُلْ إِنِّىٓ أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِصًۭا لَّهُ ٱلدِّينَ
Say, "Indeed, I, I am commanded that I worship Allah,
being sincere to Him in the religion.
Surah Az Zumar, Verse 11
Tafseer e Jilani
Then said Subhanahu, Exalted is He, commanding His Habeeb (peace be upon him) in order to guide him and to convey to His (other) ordinary worshippers, a thing He said that is specified for wisdom, empty of the desires of the nafs for showing-off (of the self), only and only for wishing well and perfection (for others);
Qul: Say O Messenger who completes Messenger-hood (peace be upon you)…
Inni umirtu: Indeed I have been ordered from My Lord…
An a’buda Allaha: that I worship Allah as is His Right to be worshipped and be obedient to Him as His Right to be obeyed…
Mukhlisal lahu deen: bringing sincerity into the religion and offering surrender from myself in such a way that I make both, my obedience and my surrender with sincerity, the means of reaching Him, so that I gain recognition of Him as is His Right to be recognized and He pours upon my heart the purified waters of His Tauheed, One-ness and His Karamat, His Honour.
The obedience was with sincerity, the surrender with sincerity!
In my last piece I wrote about my discovery from the Tafseer e Jilani of the first reason of disobedience. It was jahalat, ignorance. The second as it turns out is lack of patience. The third is kufr, ingratitude and the fourth nafaq, hypocrisy. Allah grants ability to those in which He sees the capacity for faith and qabiliyat, capacity for it. He grants it to those who turn to Him in truth and sincerity.
Again and again, sincerity!
In a class with Qari Sahib, he shed light on what causes hardness for a human being.
“The tongue is harsh because of ingratitude. The heart is hard because of persistence and insistence upon sin. Nabi Kareem (peace be upon him) said, “There are seven roads that lead to Medina.” 1400 years later, there are still seven. Not eight, not six. The heart also has seven roads that lead to it; the mouth, the two nostrils, the two eyes, the two ears.”
The number seven, of the facial parts, they reminded me of the Ayaan e Saabita, the Seven Attributes of Allah. The ones we also possess as human beings; Basarat, sight, Sama’at, hearing, Qudrat, Power, Kalam, speech, Hayat, life, Irada, intention and Ilm, Knowledge.
I listened to what he said intently. It was why again and again and over and over, the Quran highlights to be acutely conscious of what is allowed and forbidden. It’s always the first thing everyone ignores because it seems less important than other tenets. At 51, I’m still struggling with little things I am commanded yet cannot bring myself to do. It took me 49 years of my life to go halal. 49 of 51! That’s pretty late in the day for a “seeker.”
But in the last few month, it had become increasingly clear that the deeds of Allah’s Habeeb (peace be upon him), the emulation of those deeds was the only way to everything. It was what made an ordinary love special. It was the means to attain the grand prize; imaan, faith! I searched the word “forbid” in my 100 some verses that I had translated thus far from the Tafseer e Jilani:
Surah At-Taghabun, Verse 16: Wa ati’u: and obey His Commands and stay away from what He forbids and don’t become disobedient from His Orders at all.
The End of Al Araaf: That you do it in a way that the evil prompting of the plotter, Satan, does not come into your heart. Nor the betrayals of the world with their deceit and unfaithfulness. None of this will be achieved by you except with remembrance through Allah’s Book which has advice and information and history. So obey the commands it orders and forbids and reflect on its overt secrets and the unveiling of its wisdom and its hidden secrets.
It is incumbent upon you that if you want to receive true guidance from the Book, you have to join yourself with the ahadith of Rasool Allah (peace be upon him). Because the ahadith are meant to explain it, reveal the secrets and signs in it, and make clear that which is ambiguous in it. The ahadith will give you the security you need to have true belief and secure you from slipping and turning away from guidance. It is the ahadith that which take you, according to your capacity, to the path of One-ness.
Surah Al Araaf, Verse 201: Min Ash-Shaitan tadakkaru: they remind themselves of what they been commanded to do and what is forbidden for them from Allah…Fa idahum: so in the same moment, due to the remembrance of what has been commanded and that which is forbidden…Mubsiroon: they become able to differentiate the placement of the sins and therefore become careful of them and come into the Refuge of Allah from those things that put them into false illusions about Him.
Surah An-Nisa, Verse 59: Atiu’ Allah: You obey Allah by acting upon His Commands and avoiding what He has forbidden.
Sheikh Nurjan: There are 500 ma’moorat, obligations, that Allah ordered us to fulfill, and 800 manhiyyaat, things which are forbidden, that we must leave. How can one count and follow 500 orders and leave 800 forbidden actions?
If you repeat that word alone, “ati`ullah, ati`ullah, ati`ullah,” reminding yourself with it, then Allah Subhan Ta’ala will completely dress you as if you have fulfilled all 500 obligations and left the 800 forbiddens. Allahu Akbar! Then you continue with, “ati`ur-Rasool, obey the Prophet,” and with Allah’s order, Prophet (peace be upon him) will dress you with all his Sunnah, voluntary actions, and in the meaning of Khaatam ar-Rasool, “Seal of Prophets,” as if you have obeyed him from beginning to end!
Surah Ar Rum, Verse 30: La yalamoon: do not know the reality of this religion. And they do not understand its uprightness and its connection with Allah’s One-ness. So it is dutied upon you all, who follow the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), that you accept the faith and are obedient in everything from that Allah commands and that which He forbids you from.
Al Araaf, Verse 157: Ya’monohum bil ma’roof and yanhahum ayn al munkir ya yahillu lahum tayyebaat: (The Prophet (peace be upon him)) who bids them what is fair and forbids what is unfair, and makes lawful for them the good things, which they forbid upon their own selves…
Surah Tauba, Verse 109: La yahdil qaum ad-dalimeen: He does not guide the people who are of the Zalimeen, the ones who have left acting upon the things which He has ordered and forbidden.
There were too many to include them all.
I spoke to Qari Sahib about it who said, “The root of ingratitude and obstinacy in denying and refusing guidance is pride. For that matter the root of all sin and wrongdoing is pride. There are three things that break that pride; poverty, disease and death. Let us pray that we don’t have to face them in order to be taught the hard way not to be prideful.”
I thought about the last thing he said, how poverty, disease and death were the azaab, the curse of pride. It seemed to be other than death, if one was afflicted with poverty and disease, it was actually being singled out to reform. It was a warning but it wasn’t an abandoning. It wasn’t a curse, it was a call to still come back.
My COVID ended. Life resumed. It was still bitterly cold so I stayed in a lot. Lahore was foggy, The sun remained in hiding. I heard lecture upon lecture by Uzair to kill the time. In one of them he started with a statement I had never heard from him before:
Uzair: “The lecture I am about to give you today will change your life. As it once changed mine.”
Then he recited the verse;
مَنْ عَمِلَ صَلِحًۭا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوْ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤْمِنٌۭ فَلَنُحْيِيَنَّهُۥ حَيَوٰةًۭ طَيِّبَةًۭ ۖ
وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
Whoever does righteous deeds whether male or female while he is a believer, then surely We will give him life, a good life,
and We will pay them their reward for the best of what they used to do.
Surah An-Nahl, Verse 97
“So Allah is saying that for the one who does good deeds and brings imaan, faith, it becomes compulsory upon Him to give that man or woman a new, pure life. Then Allah follows that by saying again that it also becomes incumbent upon Him to give them a reward and here is where it gets interesting. The reward is not for all deeds, it is is for bi ahsana ma kanu ya’maloon – the deed which was the best amongst what they did in their entire lifetime.
This needs to be explained as it is an extremely fine point and a totally new approach to understanding the Quran. Bi ahsana ma kanu ya’maloon means that of all the deeds performed, Allah chooses from them the best deed, then gives the reward for that best deed for all the other deeds as well. Even though they were not of the same standard or even near it.
For instance, if I said my namaz, the dutied prayers, all my life. Then in those prayers was a prayer of love, Namaz e Ishq, however you define it for yourself. Allah is saying here that I, Allah Subhanahu, will not give ajr, reward, to Uzair for all his prayers. If he prayed 200,000 times in his life, I am not giving him the reward for that number of prayers. No. He is saying, of the 200,000 prayers Uzair said in his lifetime, I will pick the one that was the most beautiful utterance from him, that was the best of them and then give all of the 200,000 prayers the reward similar to that one prayer.”
The crowd erupted into “Subhan Allahs” as did I.
“This is the nuanced approach to the Quran that is rare. Now let me show you how the same pattern is being repeated in the verse before.
مَا عِندَكُمْ يَنفَدُ ۖ
وَمَا عِندَ ٱللَّهِ بَاقٍۢ ۗ
وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ صَبَرُوٓا۟ أَجْرَهُم بِأَحْسَنِ مَا كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
Whatever is with you will be exhausted, and whatever is with Allah will be remaining.
And surely We will reward those who are patient their reward for the best of what they used to do.
Surah An Nahl, Verse 96
“What you have will end and what Allah will have will always remain forever. Then come the same words wa linajziyanna – We will give them reward – except this time it is for sabr, exercising patience and again it is bi ahsana ma kanu ya’maloon, for the best way that deed of patience was performed.
Meaning what? I, Allah, will look at how a person demonstrated the act of patience in a lifetime, as many times as it was exercised by them. So if a person’s child died, if someone lost all their wealth, if someone became separated from a loved one, if someone lost the dignity of their respect before the world, if someone underwent a loss of any kind, and the person showed sabr, patience, for the sake of His Lord, Allah says of the many times they suffered and of the many times they showed patience, if they were patient a 100 times, He will not give them the reward for being patient those 100 times. He will see which of those 100 incidents was the most difficult and which of those times the person showed the best manifestation of patience, bi ahsan, and then give them for the other 99 instances that highest reward as well.”
It was uncanny. The idea that one deed performed with excellence could benefit all deeds, make them all equally excellent. It certainly made me wonder what might be such a deed for me, what prayer, what act of patience. I became inspiration waiting to execute. A week later, I sprained my lower back. Or had a muscle spasm. Or a pinched nerve. I still don’t. That had never happened to me before.
As someone who doesn’t get sick often, Ma Sha Allah, I kept thinking of my reaction to the ailment. Other than just saying Inna lillahe wa inna ilayhi raji’oon – Indeed we belong to Allah and to Him we have to return – which is what I was taught to say if I lost the use of something, all I could wonder about was what would make it “my best act of sabr?” The hardest aspect of it was what I thought about the most, that I learnt from Ghaus Pak (ra); not wanting the difficult to end!
As I continued hearing the lecture, Uzair next cited a verse from Surah Ankabut, a favourite as the names of the Surahs go. The Spider! The verse started and ended in a pattern similar to the above two verses from An Nahl, incidentally The Bee; Those who believed and did good deeds, then first We will hide their sins committed previously, and then linajzzayanhum ahsanu alladi kanu ya’maloon, We reward them according to the best of what they used to do.
وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ لَنُكَفِّرَنَّ عَنْهُمْ سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ
وَلَنَجْزِيَنَّهُمْ أَحْسَنَ ٱلَّذِى كَانُوا۟ يَعْمَلُونَ
As for those who believe and do good deeds,
We will certainly absolve them of their sins,
and reward them according to the best of what they used to do.
Surah Ankabut, Verse 7
“So first Allah will hide the sins once committed and then, in the same pattern as the other verses, the reward will be given for the one deed which will be the best. And all the other deeds will be rewarded according to this best deed.
Now what exactly is the lesson from these verses? It’s not just that Allah is not considering all deeds when it comes to recompense. It is the fact that He is looking at only the best deed when it comes to doling out reward which means that Allah searches for husn – beauty – in our deeds. He searches for it. So do the same with others.
Don’t look at what’s wrong with them or bad in them. Focus on the beauty that exists in every human being for just being a human being. Someone’s wrongdoing doesn’t make their beauty be overshadowed before God. He doesn’t allow it to make their goodness be voided. Allah doesn’t deny that good, He still asserts it despite the wrongful act. Not only does He assert it, He ignores the ugliness and rewards only based on that beauty.”
The words gave me pause. Those people I had been thinking about whose personalities seemed so distorted, unlike who they were for most of their lives. Which in any case seemed to be because of something that induced empathy naturally; they were drowning in loneliness. How easy it was to forget what someone was really like because of single a moment when they were the opposite of that. How fickle could be love and attachment, loyalty and understanding between human beings who spent lifetimes together.
I thought of the verse in the video I had just made in which there were no friends except three; Allah, Huzoor Pak (peace be upon him) and Maula Ali (as).
إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ اللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا الَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ الصَّلَاةَ
وَيُؤْتُونَ الزَّكَاةَ وَهُمْ رَاكِعُونَ
Only are your true helpers Allah and His Messenger (peace be upon him)
and those who have attained to faith,
the ones who are firmly immersed in their prayers,
who give the dutied charity that purifies,
while they bow in worship.
Surah Al Maidah, Verse 55
Search for the beauty, Uzair was saying, and if you don’t see it, remember it as it was once there for you were a witness to it for years.
The lecture continued. “And it is not even about this being Allah’s Sunnah with Muslims. Even the infidels, the Mushrikeen, if they gain imaan, Allah says He will hide their sins and only bring their best deeds before them. So what does that mean for us in our daily lives? Every relationship has positives and negatives. Allah is saying by giving His Own Example, bring forth the best aspect of the person and retain that as your association with them.
إِنِّى تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَإِنِّى مِنَ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ
و۟لَٓئِكَ ٱلَّذِينَ نَتَقَبَّلُ عَنْهُمْ أَحْسَنَ مَا عَمِلُوا۟ وَنَتَجَاوَزُ عَن سَيِّـَٔاتِهِمْ فِىٓ أَصْحَبِ ٱلْجَنَّةِ ۖ
I sincerely repented and I am of those who submit to You.
Those are the ones We will accept from them the best of what they did and We will overlook from their evil deeds, among the companions of Paradise.
Surah Al Ahqaf, Verse 16
Tafseer e Jilani
Inni tubtu: Indeed I repent and return…
Ilayka: to You from everything that could not please You from my deeds because You are Aware of all my states better than me…
Wa inni: and indeed I…
Min al Muslimeen: become of those who submit to You, O my Lord, of those who surrender to You and become obedient to Your Command, entrusting their matters, all of them, to You, because there is no purpose in our hearts except Your Essence and there is no returning except to You.
The last line gave me pause. The kalam for the video was Man Kunto Maula by Hazrat Amir Khusrau (ra). Since it has been recited a million times I wasn’t sure how ours could be different. But that relied on Ustad Sahib’s skill and he made it unique. The jewel of the video for me, however, was the appearances of two lines of the kalam that have hardly ever been translated before. The direct address to God.
The first was in Farsi:
در آ دل در آ دل در آ دانی
Come inside my heart,
come inside my heart,
come into this place You know.
What Ghaus Pak (ra) was saying in the exegesis of the words Min al Muslimeen – there is no purpose in our hearts except Your Essence – it was resonating with the kalam.
Tafseer e Jilani of Surah Ahqaf, Verse 16 cont’d:
Ulaika: Those are the fortunate ones who are enthusiastic about expressing gratitude for Allah’s Blessings and are fulfilling the rights of parents and maintaining excellent manners with them and doing more for them than was obligated. They are the ones…
Alladina nattaqabbalu anhum: from whom We accept in the best form…
Ahsana ma aamilo: the best of what they did, being the most sincere when they did it, seeking the Pleasure of Allah, avoiding His Displeasure…
Wa natajawazu: and We overlook…
An sayyatihim: from their sins after they repented and returned towards Him being repentant, and they are…
Fi ashab al Jannah: among the dwellers of Paradise and will be in their company, in peace and in success without fear and they will not feel grief as the fulfillment of what Allah promised them.
Continued at: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/51871537551/in/datepos...