View allAll Photos Tagged segmentation
As macro photographs go, this will not set the world alight, but I am pleased to have got close enough to this damselfly to be able to photograph it so - I might have got closer had I not mislaid my macro-tubes over the last few days.
Out of curiosity, I also made a focus-stack image based on a dozen depth-of-field segmentations. My feeling, viewing the two, is that it is impressive to be able to see the whole thing in focus, and distinctly lacks character at the same time. So, here we have it, with only a little sliver in focus.
Damselfly, July 2026. Pentax K-S2, SMC Pentax-M Macro 100/4.
Abstract
To understand the evolutionary significance of geographic variation, one must identify the factors that generate phenotypic differences among populations. I examined the causes of geographic variation in and evolutionary history of number of trunk vertebrae in slender salamanders. Batrachoseps (Caudata: Plethodontidae). Number of trunk vertebrae varies at many taxonomic levels within Batrachoseps. Parallel clines in number occur along an environmental gradient in three lineages in the Coast Ranges of California. These parallel clines may signal either adaptation or a shared phenotypically plastic response to the environmental gradient. By raising eggs from 10 populations representing four species of Batrachoseps, I demonstrated that number of trunk vertebrae can be altered by the developmental temperature; however, the degree of plasticity is insufficient to account for geographic variation. Thus, the geographic variation results largely from genetic variation. Number of trunk vertebrae covaries with body size and shape in diverse vertebrate taxa, including Batrachoseps. I hypothesize that selection for different degrees of elongation, possibly related to fossoriality, has led to the extensive evolution of number of trunk vertebrae in Batrachoseps. Analysis of intrapopulational variation revealed sexual dimorphism in both body shape and number of trunk vertebrae, but no correlation between these variables in either sex. Females are more elongate than males, a pattern that has been attributed to fecundity selection in other taxa. Patterns of covariation among different classes of vertebrae suggest that some intrapopulational variation in number results from changes in vertebral identity rather than changes in segmentation.
Elizabeth L. Jockusch
Evolution
Images in this gallery were captured by:
Mark Smith M.S. Geoscientist mark@macroscopicsolutions.com
Daniel Saftner B.S. Geoscientist and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer daniel@macroscopicsolutions.com
Annette Evans Ph.D. Student at the University of Connecticut annette@macroscopicsolutions.com
A few more iterations of my "Think Tank" (tachikoma) design using Hero Factory parts. I know they stretch the definition of a "Think Tank", as the body segmentation is more implied than well defined, nor are the sensor eyes pronounced in some (except for the "Scanner", of course), but think all they might still fit into the GiTS anime universe...
But what we would like to consider now is the actual appearance of man, his physical quality of 'image of God: which distinguishes him a priori from all other creatures on earth, so that to speak of the human body is almost to speak of man as such; our bodily form would in fact be unintelligible if it were not for our faculties of intelligence and liberty; it is on the contrary explicable only in terms of these qualities.
Let us say at once that the profanation of human beauty by the passions in no way authorises contempt for this work of the Creator: despite the good intentions of those who seek to defend virtue at the expense of truth and intelligence, to disparage this beauty is a kind of blasphemy and all the more so since the Avatara of necessity synthesises the total Creation in his body and so in its beauty.
Some will doubtless insist that all earthly beauty is imperfect and carries blemishes, but this is false in so far as they go on to deduce from this that there is no true beauty on earth. On the other hand, if earthly beauty can be perfect in its kind, it is none the less exclusive of other kinds, and so in a certain sense limited: the beauty of a rose cannot realise that of a water-lily, and in the same way human beauties, whether individual or racial, exclude one another; God alone possesses simultaneously all possible beauty, the Essence being beyond the segmentation of form.
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Frithjof Schuon
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Quoted in: The Essential Frithjof Schuon
The Perfect Storm - America Dark Enlightenment by Daniel Arrhakis (2025)
Neoreaction or “Dark Enlightenment” is the "new"formal and nostalgic elitist ideology.
In this absolutist restorationist conception, Trumpism is a intellectual counterculture for the limitation or destruction of the State, for an unregulated liberalism based on the power of the strongest, deep down in an Absolutist Fascist nature.
With great segmentation of the economy and social demographics in favor of an unregulated liberalism deep down in an Oligarchy of an Absolutist nature with unlimited and unquestionable power; to which all peoples and leaders of the world owe vassalage.
To achieve this goal, the deregulation of the world economy and the subversion of world decision-making centers is necessary, the destruction of the state as guarantor of rights and supports of minorities or the poorest as well.
Discredit and disinformation are essential to mold mindsets to new concepts of society and economy but also to question democratic institutions, the very division between political and judicial powers.
In this Trumpist conception Chaos is Democracy itself and Unquestionable Absolute Power the only possible Order in a society in which the law of the strongest prevails !
The Perfect Storm is there … and deep down everyone knew it would come … and many did nothing to avoid it !
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A Tempestade Perfeita - America Dark Enlightenment de Daniel Arrhakis (2025)
Neoreação ou “Iluminismo Das Sombras” é a “nova” ideologia elitista formal e nostálgica.
Nesta conceção restauracionista absolutista, o trumpismo é uma contracultura intelectual para a limitação ou destruição do Estado, para um liberalismo desregulado baseado no poder do mais forte, profundamente enraizado numa natureza fascista absolutista.
Com grande segmentação da economia e da demografia social em prol de um liberalismo desregulado, no fundo de uma Oligarquia de cariz Absolutista com poder ilimitado e inquestionável; ao qual todos os povos e dirigentes do mundo devem vassalagem.
Para atingir este objetivo, é necessária a desregulação da economia mundial e a subversão dos centros de decisão mundiais, a destruição do Estado como garante dos direitos e apoio às minorias ou também aos mais pobres.
O Descrédito e a desinformação são essenciais para moldar mentalidades para novos conceitos de sociedade e de economia, mas também para questionar as instituições democráticas, a própria divisão entre os poderes político e judicial.
Nesta concepção trumpista o Caos é a própria Democracia e o Poder Absoluto Inquestionável é a única Ordem possível numa sociedade em que prevalece a lei do mais forte!
A tempestade perfeita está aí… e no fundo todos sabiam que ela viria… e muitos não fizeram nada para a evitar!
A few more iterations of my "Think Tank" (tachikoma) design using Hero Factory parts. I know they stretch the definition of a "Think Tank", as the body segmentation is more implied than well defined, nor are the sensor eyes pronounced in some (except for the "Scanner", of course), but think all they might still fit into the GiTS anime universe...
The soldier beetles, Cantharidae, are relatively soft-bodied, straight sided beetles, related to the Lampyridae or firefly family, but being unable to produce light. They are cosmopolitan in distribution. One common British species is bright red, reminding people of the red coats of soldiers, hence the common name. A secondary common name is leatherwing, obtained from the texture of the wing covers.
Historically, these beetles were placed in a superfamily "Cantharoidea", which has been subsumed by the superfamily Elateroidea; the name is still sometimes used as a rankless grouping, including the families Cantharidae, Drilidae, Lampyridae, Lycidae, Omalisidae, Omethidae, Phengodidae (which includes Telegeusidae), and Rhagophthalmidae.
Soldier beetles are highly desired by gardeners as biological control agents of a number of pest insects. The larvae tend to be dark brown or gray, slender and wormlike with a rippled appearance due to pronounced segmentation. They consume grasshopper eggs, aphids, caterpillars and other soft bodied insects, most of which are pests.
The adults are especially important predators of aphids. They supplement their diet with nectar and pollen and can be minor pollinators. Soldier beetle populations can be increased by planting good nectar- or pollen-producing plants such as Asclepias or Solidago.
best viewed LARGE:
www.flickr.com/photos/rundstedt/4122056716/sizes/l/
*Thanks to phoebedslr for identifying this beetle.
These are a selection of Sminthurididae I found on a small patch of ground (The Arena) at Wilford Claypit on Sunday. There are absolutely loads of these ground dwelling Collembola about at the moment, you just have to find a patch of ground and get down to their level. I think that the change in weather and plentiful precipitation is helping to produce an ideal environment for these.
In the image above I have put together a selection of finds, I have also numbered each image, images 1-2 might be Stenacidia violacea (not 100% on that), images 3-4 I'm not sure about (could be a pale colour form Sminthurides schoetti), now 5-8 are all the same species of Sminthurides (S. signatus or S. schoetti?) and finally images 9-10 are a courting pair of the latter. In the first 4 images I can't make out any further segmentation of the 4th antennal segment, in the other 6 images there is segmentation of the 4th antennal segment. All of the above are less than 1mm long, the ones from 5-10 were about 0.5mm.
I'm always amazed at what can be found at this level, a world I never new existed for so many years, to think these fabulous creatures are living their lives and very few people even know of their existence.
VIEW LARGE and MORE IN COMMENTS
If you zoom in on the head of this eusocial wasp, you'll find that it has a drop of water on top of it.
As for species, it looks a bit odd with the more brown than black segmentation on the abdomen, but given the markings on the face and everything, I still think this is a common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and not one of the other eleven eusocial species in Sweden.
I found it stationary on a leaf on a windy day close to the beach near my mom's summer house in Värmdö, Sweden.
Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53691819359/
This artwork by Stuart Green 2019) and designer Ben Price in painted aluminium is in the Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in Brisbane.
It is a vibrant husk like form that references the complex seed and fruit forms found in the gardens.
" Stuart Green explores the intricate patterns and segmentation created by nature which change and develop throughout the life cycle of a seed.
He has appropriated the form of a seed on a monumental scale to explore the complex beauty and kaleidoscope experience that reflects the surrounding landscape of the artwork."
Well the mystery is I don't know what species of Sminthurides this is. I found this one on the same stick as the Ceratophysella denticulata. It was found by the edge of a very soggy and muddy field.
This one was about 0.6mm long and a plainish yellow in colour with no discernable markings, there does not appear to be any segmentation of the 4th antennal segment. I have included a selection of extra images in the comments for your viewing pleasure :o) I'm pretty sure it's a Sminthurides species, as it has that look to it, the reddened ends of antennae and general appearance, this is also a female :o)
Possibly a juvenile female Sminthurides aquaticus, thanks Frans :0)
Taken with my MP-E at x5 magnification on 72mm of extension tubes using an F/7.1 aperture :o)
VIEW ON BLACK
LaSalle was a brand of automobiles manufactured and marketed by General Motors' Cadillac division from 1927 through 1940. Alfred P. Sloan developed the concept for LaSalle and certain other General Motors' marques in order to fill pricing gaps he perceived in the General Motors product portfolio. Sloan created LaSalle as a companion marque for Cadillac. LaSalle automobiles were manufactured by Cadillac, but were priced lower than Cadillac-branded automobiles and were marketed as the second-most prestigious marque in the General Motors portfolio.
Like Cadillac, the LaSalle brand name was based on that of a French explorer, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle
he LaSalle had its beginnings when General Motors' CEO, Alfred P. Sloan, noticed that his carefully crafted market segmentation program was beginning to develop price gaps in which General Motors had no products to sell.[citation needed] In an era where automotive brands were somewhat restricted to building a specific car per model year, Sloan surmised that the best way to bridge the gaps was to develop "companion" marques that could be sold through the current sales network.[citation needed]
As originally developed by Sloan, General Motors' market segmentation strategy placed each of the company's individual automobile marques into specific price points, called the General Motors Companion Make Program. The Chevrolet was designated as the entry level product. Next, (in ascending order), came the Oakland, Oldsmobile, Viking, Marquette, Buick, and ultimately, the Cadillac. By the 1920s, certain General Motors products began to shift out of the plan as the products improved and engine advances were made.[citation needed]
Under the companion marque stragegy, the gap between the Chevrolet and the Oakland would be filled by a new marque named Pontiac, a quality six-cylinder car designed to sell for the price of a four-cylinder. The wide gap between Oldsmobile and Buick would be filled by two companion marques: Oldsmobile was assigned the up-market V8 engine Viking and Buick was assigned the more compact six-cylinder Marquette. Cadillac, which had seen its base prices soar in the heady 1920s, was assigned the LaSalle as a companion marque to fill the gap that existed between it and Buick.
Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that belong to the phylum Annelida and comprise the subclass Hirudinea. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular, segmented bodies that can lengthen and contract. Both groups are hermaphrodites and have a clitellum, but leeches typically differ from the oligochaetes in having suckers at both ends and in having ring markings that do not correspond with their internal segmentation. The body is muscular and relatively solid, and the coelom, the spacious body cavity found in other annelids, is reduced to small channels. The majority of leeches live in freshwater habitats, while some species can be found in terrestrial or marine environments. The best-known species, such as the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis, are hematophagous, attaching themselves to a host with a sucker and feeding on blood, having first secreted the peptide hirudin to prevent the blood from clotting. The jaws used to pierce the skin are replaced in other species by a proboscis which is pushed into the skin. A minority of leech species are predatory, mostly preying on small invertebrates. The eggs are enclosed in a cocoon, which in aquatic species is usually attached to an underwater surface; members of one family, Glossiphoniidae, exhibit parental care, the eggs being brooded by the parent. In terrestrial species, the cocoon is often concealed under a log, in a crevice or buried in damp soil. Almost seven hundred species of leech are currently recognised, of which some hundred are marine, ninety terrestrial and the remainder freshwater. Leeches have been used in medicine from ancient times until the 19th century to draw blood from patients. In modern times, leeches find medical use in treatment of joint diseases such as epicondylitis and osteoarthritis, extremity vein diseases, and in microsurgery, while hirudin is used as an anticoagulant drug to treat blood-clotting disorders. S20N_543
Millipedes have very poor – sometimes nonexistent – eyesight, and sense their way around using their short, segmented antennae, which continually tap the ground as they move along; millipedes are very clean creatures, spend a lot of time cleaning and polishing various parts of their body, and have a special brush-like group of hairs on the 2nd or 3rd pair of their legs which they use to clean their antennae
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American Giant Millipede – 2020SEP27 – Charlotte, NC
Look what I found! A Giant Millipede, Narceus americanus: it grows twice as large as any other North American millipede, a cylindrical millipede (distinguished from flat millipedes), dark reddish-brown or black, a red line on each segmente edge; like all millipedes, they have 2 pairs of legs on most segments, rather than 1 pair of legs on each segment (like a centipede).
Does it bite? No (uniike a centipede). What about cyanide? Although not this species, some secrete hydrogen cyanide, quite poisonous. Remember, millipedes are toxic – but as long as they are not eaten, hands washed after touching them, they're pretty harmless; however, many have a defensive secretion, benzoquinone, that can cause chemical burns on human skin, generally mild, but powerful enough to cause temporary skin discoloration, itching, and blisters – some millipedes’ secretions are much more powerful, though.
The division of an animal into repeating body parts is called segmentation, clearly seen in millipedes, the word meaning “one thousand foot;” despite that name, millipedes with the most legs come up shy of the 1,000-leg mark, only about 750.
Hope you enjoy the 10% of 99 captures I took here this day!
A millipede's primary defence mechanism is to curl into a tight coil, protecting its delicate legs and other vital areas on the underside of its soft vulnerable body behind a armored exoskeleton covered hardened plates called tergites
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American Giant Millipede – 2020SEP27 – Charlotte, NC
Look what I found! A Giant Millipede, Narceus americanus: it grows twice as large as any other North American millipede, a cylindrical millipede (distinguished from flat millipedes), dark reddish-brown or black, a red line on each segmente edge; like all millipedes, they have 2 pairs of legs on most segments, rather than 1 pair of legs on each segment (like a centipede).
Does it bite? No (uniike a centipede). What about cyanide? Although not this species, some secrete hydrogen cyanide, quite poisonous. Remember, millipedes are toxic – but as long as they are not eaten, hands washed after touching them, they're pretty harmless; however, many have a defensive secretion, benzoquinone, that can cause chemical burns on human skin, generally mild, but powerful enough to cause temporary skin discoloration, itching, and blisters – some millipedes’ secretions are much more powerful, though.
The division of an animal into repeating body parts is called segmentation, clearly seen in millipedes, the word meaning “one thousand foot;” despite that name, millipedes with the most legs come up shy of the 1,000-leg mark, only about 750.
Hope you enjoy the 10% of 99 captures I took here this day!
This photo of an opened oviduct with an ectopic pregnancy features a spectacularly well preserved 10-millimeter embryo. It is uncommon to see any embryo at all in an ectopic, and for one to be this well preserved (and undisturbed by the prosector's knife) is quite unusual.
Even an embryo this tiny shows very distinct anatomic features, including tail, limb buds, heart (which actually protrudes from the chest), eye cups, cornea/lens, brain, and prominent segmentation into somites. The gestational sac is surrounded by a myriad of chorionic villi resembling elongate party balloons. This embryo is about five weeks old (or seven weeks in the biologically misleading but eminently practical dating system used in obstetrics).
The photo was taken on Kodak Elite 200 slide film, with a Minolta X-370 camera and 100mm f/4 Rokkor bellows lens at near-full extension. The formalin-fixed specimen was immersed in tapwater and pinned to a tray lined with black velvet. The exposure was 1/4 second at f/8.
This image found its way to Wikipedia and on 29 Nov 2006 was promoted to the status of Featured Picture. It was Wikipedia's Picture of the Day for March 21, 2007.
More recently, I added an image of a nine-week embryo to my Photostream. What a difference two weeks makes!
Going backwards in time, I have an image of a 4- to 5-week embryo, which I also found in a tubal pregnancy.
Historical research reveals that diverse political rationalities have framed the political means and objectives of state frontiers and borders, just as the difficult work of making borders actual has drawn upon a great variety of technologies
The single word ”border” conceals a multiplicity and implies a constancy where genealogical investigation uncovers mutation and descent. Historical research reveals that diverse political rationalities have framed the political means and objectives of state frontiers and borders, just as the difficult work of making borders actual has drawn upon a great variety of technologies and heterogeneous administrative practices, ranging from maps of the territory, the creation of specialized border officials, and architectures of fortification to today’s experimentation with bio- digitalized forms of surveillance. This chapter argues that we are witnessing a novel development within this history of borders and border-making, what I want to call the emergence of the humanitarian border. While a great deal has been written about the militarization, securitization and fortification of borders today, there is far less consideration of the humanitarianization of borders. But if the investment of border regimes by biometric technologies rightly warrants being treated as an event within the history of the making and remaking of borders (Amoore 2006), then arguably so too does the reinvention of the border as a space of humanitarian government.
Under what conditions are we seeing the rise of humanitarian borders? The emergence of the humanitarian border goes hand in hand with the move which has made state frontiers into privileged symbolic and regulatory instruments within strategies of migration control. It is part of a much wider trend that has been dubbed the ”rebordering” of political and territorial space (Andreas and Biersteker 2003). The humanitarian border emerges once it becomes established that border crossing has become, for thousands of migrants seeking, for a variety of reasons, to access the territories of the global North, a matter of life and death. It crystallizes as a way of governing this novel and disturbing situation,and compensating for the social violence embodied in the regime of migration control.The idea of a humanitarian border might sound at first counterintuitive or even oxymoronic. After all, we often think of contemporary humanitarianism as a force that, operating in the name of the universal but endangered subject of humanity, transcends the walled space of the inter-national system. This is, of course, quite valid. Yet it would be a mistake to draw any simple equation between humanitarian projects and what Deleuze and Guattari would call logics of deterritoralization. While humanitarian programmes might unsettle certain norms of statehood, it is important to recognize the ways in which the exercise of humanitarian power is connected to the actualization of new spaces. Whether by its redefinition of certain locales as humanitarian ”zones” and crises as ”emergencies” (Calhoun 2004), the authority it confers on certain experts to move rapidly across networks of aid and intervention, or its will to designate those populating these zones as ”victims,” it seems justified to follow Debrix’s (1998) observation that humanitarianism implies reterritorialization on top of deterritorialization. Humanitarian zones can materialize in various situations – in conflict zones, amidst the relief of famine, and against the backdrop of state failure. But the case that interests me in what follows is a specific one: a situation where the actual borders of states and gateways to the territory become themselves zones of humanitarian government. Understanding the consequences of this is paramount, since it has an important bearing on what is often termed the securitization of borders and citizenship.
Foucault and Frontiers
It is probably fair to say that the theme of frontiers is largely absent from the two courses that are today read together as Foucault’s lectures on ”governmentality” (Foucault 1991; 2007; 2008). This is not to suggest that frontiers receive no mention at all. Within these lectures we certainly encounter passing remarks on the theme. For instance, Foucault speaks at one point of ”the administrative state, born in the territoriality of national boundaries in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and corresponding to a society of regulation and discipline” (Foucault 1991: 104).1 Elsewhere, he notes how the calculation and demarcation of new frontiers served as one of the practical elements of military-diplomatic technology, a machine he associates with the government of Europe in the image of a balance of power and according to the governmental logic of raison d’état. ”When the diplomats, the ambassadors who negotiated the treaty of Westphalia, received instructions from their government, they were explicitly advised to ensure that the new frontiers, the distribution of states, the new relationships to be established between the German states and the Empire, and the zones of influence of France, Sweden, and Austria be established in terms of a principle: to maintain a balance between the different European states” (Foucault 2007: 297).
But these are only hints of what significance the question of frontiers might have within the different technologies of power which Foucault sought to analyze. They are only fragmentary reflections on the place borders and frontiers might occupy within the genealogy of the modern state which Foucault outlines with his research into governmentality.2
Why was Foucault apparently not particularly interested in borders when he composed these lectures? One possible answer is suggested by Elden’s careful and important work on power-knowledge and territory. Elden takes issue with Foucault for the way in which he discusses territorial rule largely as a foil which allows him to provide a more fully-worked out account of governmentality and its administration of population. Despite the fact that the term appears prominently in the title of Foucault’s lectures, ”the issue of territory continually emerges only to be repeatedly marginalized, eclipsed, and underplayed” (Elden 2007: 1). Because Foucault fails to reckon more fully with the many ways in which the production of territory – and most crucially its demarcation by practices of frontier marking and control – serves as a precondition for the government of population, it is not surprising that the question of frontiers occupies little space in his narrative.But there is another explanation for the relative absence of questions of frontiers in Foucault’s writing on governmentality. And here we have to acknowledge that, framed as it is previously, this is a problematic question. For it risks the kind of retrospective fallacy which projects a set of very contemporary issues and concerns onto Foucault’s time. It is probably fair to speculate that frontiers and border security was not a political issue during the 1970s in the way that it is today in many western states. ”Borders” had yet to be constituted as a sort of meta-issue, capable of condensing a whole complex of political fears and concerns, including globalization, the loss of sovereignty, terrorism, trafficking and unchecked immigration. The question of the welfare state certainly was an issue, perhaps even a meta-issue, when Foucault was lecturing, and it is perhaps not coincidental that he should devote so much space to the examination of pastoralism. But not the border. The point is not to suggest that Foucault’s work evolved in close,
Humanitarian Government
Before I address the question of the humanitarian border, it is necessary to explain what I understand by the humanitarian. Here my thinking has been shaped by recent work that engages the humanitarian not as a set of ideas and ideologies, nor simply as the activity of certain nongovernmental actors and organizations, but as a complex domain possessing specific forms of governmental reason. Fassin’s work on this theme is particularly important. Fassin demonstrates that humanitarianism can be fruitfully connected to the broader field of government which Foucault outlined, where government is not a necessary attribute of states but a rationalized activity than can be carried out by all sorts of agents, in various contexts, and towards multiple ends. At its core, ”Humanitarian government can be defined as the administration of human collectivities in the name of a higher moral principle which sees the preservation of life and the alleviation of suffering as the highest value of action” (Fassin 2007: 151). As he goes on to stress, the value of such a definition is that we do not see a particular state, or a non-state form such as a nongovernmental organization, as the necessary agent of humanitarian action. Instead, it becomes possible to think in terms of a complex assemblage, comprising particular forms of humanitarian.reason, specific forms of authority (medical, legal, spiritual) but also certain technologies of government – such as mechanisms for raising funds and training volunteers, administering aid and shelter, documenting injustice, and publicizing abuse. Seen from this angle humanitarianism appears as a much more supple, protean thing. Crucially, it opens up our ability to perceive ”a broader political and moral logic at work both within and outside state forms” (ibid.).
If the humanitarian can be situated in relation to the analytics of government, it can also be contextualized in relation to the biopolitical. ”Not only did the last century see the emergence of regimes committed to the physical destruction of populations,” observes Redfield, ”but also of entities devoted to monitoring and assisting populations in maintaining their physical existence, even while protesting the necessity of such an action and the failure of anyone to do much more than this bare minimum” (2005: 329). It is this ”minimalist biopolitics,” as Redfield puts it, that will be so characteristic of the humanitarian. And here the accent should be placed on the adjective “minimalist” if we are not to commit the kind of move which I criticized above, namely collapsing everything new into existing Foucauldian categories. It is important to regard contemporary humanitarianism as a novel formation and a site of ambivalence and undecideability, and not just as one more instance of what Hardt and Negri (2000) might call global “biopolitical production.”The Birth of the Humanitarian Border
In a press release issued on June 29, 2007, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) publicized a visit which its then Director General, Brunson McKinley, was about to make to a ”reception centre for migrants” on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa (IOM 2007). The Director General is quoted as saying: ”Many more boats will probably arrive on Lampedusa over the summer with their desperate human cargo and we have to ensure we can adequately respond to their immediate needs.... This is why IOM will continue to work closely with the Italian government, the Italian Red Cross, UNHCR and other partners to provide appropriate humanitarian responses to irregular migrants and asylum seekers reaching the island.”
The same press release observes that IOM’s work with its ”partners” was part of a wider effort to improve the administration of the ”reception” (the word ”detention” is conspicuously absent) and ”repatriation” of ”irregular migrants” in Italy. Reception centers were being expanded, and problems of overcrowding alleviated. The statement goes on to observe that IOM had opened its office on Lampedusa in April 2006. Since that time ”Forced returns from Lampedusa [had] stopped.”
Lampedusa is a small Italian island located some 200 km south of Sicily and 300 km to the north of Libya. Its geographical location provides a clue as to how it is that in 2004 this Italian outpost first entered the spotlight of European and even world public attention, becoming a potent signifier for anxieties about an international migration crisis (Andrijasevic 2006). For it was then that this Italian holiday destination became the main point of arrival for boats carrying migrants from Libya to Italy. That year more than 10,000 migrants are reported to have passed through the ”temporary stay and assistance centre” (CPTA) the Italian state maintains on the island. The vast majority had arrived in overcrowded, makeshift boats after a perilous sea journey lasting up to several weeks. Usually these boats
are intercepted in Italian waters by the Italian border guards and the migrants transferred to the holding center on the island. Following detention, which can last for more than a month, they are either transferred to other CPTAs in Sicily and southern Italy, or expelled to Libya.Finally, there is a point to be made about humanitarianism, power and order. Those looking to locate contemporary humanitarianism within a bigger picture would perhaps follow the lead of Hardt and Negri. As these theorists of ”Empire” see things, NGOs like Amnesty International and Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) are, contrary to their own best intentions, implicated in global order. As agents of ”moral intervention” who, because they participate in the construction of emergency, ”prefigure the state of exception from below,” these actors serve as the preeminent ”frontline force of imperial intervention.” As such, Hardt and Negri see humanitarianism as ”completely immersed in the biopolitical context of the constitution of Empire” (Hardt and Negri 2000: 36).Humanitarianism, Borders, Politics
Foucauldian writing about borders has mirrored the wider field of governmentality studies in at least one respect. While it has produced some fascinating and insightful accounts of contemporary strategies and technologies of border-making and border policing, it has tended to confine its attention to official and often state-sanctioned projects. Political dynamics and political acts have certainly not been ignored. But little attention has been paid to the possibility that politics and resistance operate not just in an extrinsic relationship to contemporary regimes, but within them.12 To date this literature has largely failed to view politics as something constitutive and productive of border regimes and technologies. That is to say, there is little appreciation of the ways in which movements of opposition, and those particular kinds of resistance which Foucault calls ”counter conduct,” can operate not externally to modes of bordering but by means of ”a series of exchanges” and ”reciprocal supports” (Foucault 2007: 355).
There is a certain paradox involved when we speak of Foucault and frontiers. In certain key respects it could be said that Foucault is one of our most eminent and original theorists of bordering. For at the heart of one of his most widely read works – namely Discipline and Punish – what does one
find if not the question of power and how its modalities should be studied by focusing on practices of partitionment, segmentation, division, enclosure; practices that will underpin the ordering and policing of ever more aspects of the life of populations from the nineteenth century onwards. But while Foucault is interested in a range of practices which clearly pertain to the question of bordering understood in a somewhat general sense, one thing the reading of his lectures on security, governmentality and biopolitics reveals is that he had little to say explicitly about the specific forms of bordering associated with the government of the state. To put it differently, Foucault dealt at length with what we might call the microphysics of bordering, but much less with the place of borders considered at the level of tactics and strategies of governmentality.Recent literature has begun to address this imbalance, demonstrating that many of Foucault’s concepts are useful and important for understanding what kinds of power relations and governmental regimes are at stake in contemporary projects which are re-making state borders amidst renewed political concerns over things like terrorism and illegal immigration. However, the overarching theme of this chapter has been the need for caution when linking Foucault’s concepts to the study of borders and frontiers today. While analytics like biopolitics, discipline and neoliberalism offer all manner of insights, we need to avoid the trap which sees Foucault’s toolbox as something ready-made for any given situation. The challenge of understanding the emergent requires the development of new theoretical tools, not to mention the sharpening of older, well-used implements. With this end in mind the chapter has proposed the idea of the humanitarian border as a way of registering an event within the genealogy of the frontier, but also, although I have not developed it here, within the genealogy of citizenship.
What I have presented previously is only a very cursory overview of certain features of the humanitarianization of borders, most notably its inscription within regimes of knowledge, and its constitutive relationship to politics. In future research it would be interesting to undertake a fuller mapping of the humanitarian border in relation to certain trajectories of government. While we saw how themes of biopolitical and neoliberal government are pertinent in understanding the contemporary management of spaces like the detention center, it would seem especially relevant to consider the salience of pastoralism. Pastoral power has received far less attention within studies of governmentality than, say, discipline or liberal government (but see Dean 1999; Golder 2007; Hindess 1996; Lippert 2004). But here again, I suspect, it will be important to revise our concepts in the light of emergent practices and rationalities. For the ways in which NGOs and humanitarians engage in the governance of migrants and refugees today have changed quite significantly from the kinds of networks of care, self-examination and salvation which Foucault identified with pastoralism. For instance, and to take but one example, the pastoral care of migrants, whether in situations of sanctuary or detention, is not organized as a life-encompassing, permanent activity as it was for the church, or later, in a secular version, the welfare state. Instead, it is a temporary and ad hoc intervention. Just as Foucault’s notion of neo-liberalism was intended to register important transformations within the genealogy of liberal government, it may prove useful to think in terms of the neo-pastoral when we try to make better sense of the phenomenon of humanitarian government at/of borders, and of many other situations as well.
williamwalters.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2011-Foucau...
In her current exhibition entitled The Evidence of Things Not Seen at Kunstmuseum Basel | Gegenwart, North American artist Carrie Mae Weems, born in 1953, asks us to join her in exploring blind spots in (contemporary) history. For around 40 years, she has been investigating prevailing historical representations of events and uncovering the ways in which these are constructed and projected in politics, science, art, mass media, photography and architecture. By deliberately seeking out specific sites or re-enacting selected historical realities, she exposes the narratives of marginalized groups and thus uses her art to present us with narratives that have been neglected in contemporary historiography. These gaps, to which the exhibition title alludes, are created by dominant power structures, social segmentation in urban planning or quite simply by racism; the latter theme is at the center of Carrie Mae Weems' extensive photo projects, videos and installations. However, she juxtaposes the long history of violence against people of color with the equally long history of resistance, analyzing both aspects with keen insight.
In 2014, Carrie Mae Weems was the first black American artist to organize a retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Weems' work has long been known beyond the art scene in the USA. It is high time that this powerful, political work was presented to a wider public in Europe!
Found that the way the aircraft shadow crept over the mound quite animated and fascinating, so tried to capture the segmentation form of the aircraft to imply the movement.
Griffes-de-sorcières
Carpobrotus edulis est une espèce de plante grasse de la famille des Aizoaceae. En français, elle est appelée Croc de sorcière, Griffe de sorcière, Doigt de sorcière, Doigt de fée, Ficoïde comestible ou Figuier des Hottentots. Son fruit est comestible.
Originaire d'Afrique du Sud, elle fut importée en Amérique et en Europe au début du XXe siècle pour l'ornement et pour la stabilisation des sols. De nos jours, elle est considérée comme invasive dans un certain nombre de pays connaissant un climat méditerranéen.
Although it may have arrived by ship as early as the 16th century,[7] [8] C. edulis was actively introduced in the early 1900s to stabilize dunes[7] and soil along railroad tracks; it was later put to use by Caltrans for ground cover along freeway embankments.[7] Thousands of acres were planted in California until the 1970s. It easily spreads by seed (hundreds per fruit) and from segmentation (any shoot segment can produce roots). Its succulent foliage, bright magenta or yellow flowers, and resistance to some harsh coastal climatic conditions (salt) have also made it a favored garden plant. The ice plant was, for several decades, widely promoted as an ornamental plant, and it is still available at some nurseries. Ice plant foliage can turn a vibrant red to yellow in color. Despite its use as a soil stabilizer, it actually exacerbates and speeds up coastal erosion. It holds great masses of water in its leaves, and its roots are very shallow. In the rainy season, the added weight on unstable sandstone slopes and dunes increases the chances of slope collapse and landslides.
The ice plant forms large monospecific zones.
The ice plant is still abundant along highways, beaches, on military bases, and in other public and private landscapes. It spreads beyond landscape plantings and has invaded foredune, dune scrub, coastal bluff scrub, coastal prairie, and, most recently, maritime chaparral communities. In California, the ice plant is found in coastal habitats from north of Eureka, south at least as far as Rosarito in Baja California. It is intolerant of frost, and is not found far inland or at elevations greater than about 500 ft (150 m).source wikipédia
Tunicate, also known as urochordata, tunicata (and by the common names of urochordates, sea squirts, and sea pork[1]) is a subphylum of a group of underwater saclike filter feeders with incurrent and excurrent siphons, that are members of the phylum Chordata. Most tunicates feed by filtering sea water through pharyngeal slits, but some are sub-marine predators such as the Megalodicopia hians. Like other chordates, tunicates have a notochord during their early development, but lack myomeric segmentation throughout the body and tail as adults. Tunicates lack the kidney-like metanephridial organs, and the original coelom body-cavity develops into a pericardial cavity and gonads. Except for the pharynx, heart and gonads, the organs are enclosed in a membrane called an epicardium, which is surrounded by the jelly-like mesenchyme. Tunicates begin life in a mobile larval stage that resembles a tadpole, later developing into a barrel-like, sedentary adult form.
While most tunicates live on the ocean floor, salps, doliolids, and pyrosomes live above in the pelagic zone as adults.
Tunicates apparently evolved in the early Cambrian period, beginning c 540 million years ago. Despite their simple appearance, tunicates are closely related to vertebrates, which include fish and all land animals with bones.
A few thoughts about this picture. I liked the segmentation into contiguous regions in the image - the people, the buses and the buildings. Each region has its own characteristic geometry - the buildings characterised by strong vertical lines, the people by the stippling effect of the heads, and the buses snaking through and across the image. I liked the way the street lamps punctuate the space and seem like a race of aliens also passing through the square just like the people and the buses.
Abstract
To understand the evolutionary significance of geographic variation, one must identify the factors that generate phenotypic differences among populations. I examined the causes of geographic variation in and evolutionary history of number of trunk vertebrae in slender salamanders. Batrachoseps (Caudata: Plethodontidae). Number of trunk vertebrae varies at many taxonomic levels within Batrachoseps. Parallel clines in number occur along an environmental gradient in three lineages in the Coast Ranges of California. These parallel clines may signal either adaptation or a shared phenotypically plastic response to the environmental gradient. By raising eggs from 10 populations representing four species of Batrachoseps, I demonstrated that number of trunk vertebrae can be altered by the developmental temperature; however, the degree of plasticity is insufficient to account for geographic variation. Thus, the geographic variation results largely from genetic variation. Number of trunk vertebrae covaries with body size and shape in diverse vertebrate taxa, including Batrachoseps. I hypothesize that selection for different degrees of elongation, possibly related to fossoriality, has led to the extensive evolution of number of trunk vertebrae in Batrachoseps. Analysis of intrapopulational variation revealed sexual dimorphism in both body shape and number of trunk vertebrae, but no correlation between these variables in either sex. Females are more elongate than males, a pattern that has been attributed to fecundity selection in other taxa. Patterns of covariation among different classes of vertebrae suggest that some intrapopulational variation in number results from changes in vertebral identity rather than changes in segmentation.
Elizabeth L. Jockusch
Evolution
Images in this gallery were captured by:
Mark Smith M.S. Geoscientist mark@macroscopicsolutions.com
Daniel Saftner B.S. Geoscientist and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer daniel@macroscopicsolutions.com
Annette Evans Ph.D. Student at the University of Connecticut annette@macroscopicsolutions.com
I like this shot because in the thumb, our 22 pound cat MacDuff dominates the image and the flower is just a dark blob; while in large, MacDuff becomes an abstract blob while the detail and colors on the flower pop out.
From a Flickr strategic point of view, I am combining two icons, thereby getting BOTH the cat people and the flower people. If I somehow could have stuck a sunset, waterfall, and pretty lady in the shot too, this one would be really rockin.
© All Rights Reserved. Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my prior permission.
This work of Dutch glass artist Dorothé van Driel (1957-2006) has no title. In my view, she was the glass artist who really succeeded to ‘bring glass to life’ and create an expression of living glass. She did this by creating many of her objects through segmentation, an inherent property present in all living creatures. Moreover, this particular artwork has cracked over its segmental structure and over these cracks, the light penetrates into the object and brings it to life, as explained by the late Leonard Cohen. Seen in the garden of the Fundatie in Nijenhuis Castle in Heino (NL).
Cerceris australis
Family: Crabronidae
Order: Hymenoptera
Found on a Silky Pod Vine at the South Pacific Heathland reserve in Ulladulla NSW, Australia.
The wasp will paralyse its prey, usually beetles but sometimes bees, and carries them back to its nest with its mandibles. The prey is stored as provisions for the larvae. Nests are usually holes in soil.
In this genus, the segmentation of the abdomen is usually quite pronounced giving the abdomen an "accordion-like" appearance.
It has a pair of extra yellow markings on the mesoscutellum compared with a wasp I photographed in the same location, which only has a single yellow mark and which was identified as Cerceris australis. (I have separately posted pictures of a male which was photographed on the same day at the same location and on the same plant).
Note that males have seven segments to the abdomen. females have six.
Brett Smith advised the following: "You can also count the flagellomeres, 11 for male, 10 for female. This occurs with a huge raft of wasps ... most of those in the Apocrita sub-order, as discussed here:
www.ellura.info/Diptera-Hymenoptera.html..."
southernforestlife.net/notes/2025/cerceris-philanthinae
DSC07754 DSC07745 DSC07750
One of several Lipothrix lubbocki collembola found under mature pine in Brede High Woods. Additional pictures below attempt to show sub-segmentation of fourth antennal segment, and blunt setae on body.
The creatures most correctly called daddy-longlegs are in their own separate Order which is Opiliones. Common names for this Order are 1) daddy-longlegs, 2) harvestmen and 3) opilionids. They are characterized by having one basic body segment which shows segmentation on the posterior portion, at most 2 eyes and all 8 legs attach to the pill-like body segment.
This is the largest man-made tourist attraction in the State of Colorado, USA. Opening in 1958, it has a Catholic Chapel for 500, Jewish Synagouge for 100 with stones literally from Israel, and a 1300 seat Protestant chapel up stairs. Visit Iceman9294's Awesome Photostream for other great images. This facility also performs weddings and funerals. It is designed with a triangular segmentation placed together and is inspired by the horizontal shpe of a fighter jet with a 90 degree vertical placement. The best part is that it is free to the public for viewing and without tour guides to allow for maximum viewing. Only advise, plan to see it on a weekday as Saturday Weddings and Sunday Services may prohibit your viewing opportunity.
O Ativismo Digital Da Extrema Direita Em Portugal - Estratégias de Manipulação e Táticas De Infiltração do Partido CHEGA por Daniel Arrhakis (2026)
O Ativismo Digital Da Extrema Direita Em Portugal - Estratégias de Manipulação e Táticas De Infiltração do CHEGA
O fenómeno do ativismo digital da extrema-direita em Portugal e do partido Chega em particular, baseia-se numa estratégia tridimensional altamente profissionalizada, sustentada por relatórios de centros de investigação mediática. Esta máquina assenta na segmentação algorítmica de públicos, na normalização de narrativas de desinformação e na criação de ecossistemas económicos digitais lucrativos.
Redes de Apoio Digital da Extrema-Direita em Portugal
Investigadores de redes sociais e fenómenos políticos (e eu a titulo pessoal) têm analisado em detalhe a segmentação das redes de apoio digital associadas à extrema-direita portuguesa e ao Chega.
Estas dinâmicas refletem estratégias integradas de militância online, desinformação e radicalização.
Estratégias de Manipulação e Astroturfing
Para simular um apoio popular orgânico — uma técnica conhecida como astroturfing — estas redes recorrem a um ecossistema técnico avançado:
Uso coordenado de bots: Automação para replicar mensagens em massa.
Inteligência Artificial: Criação de contas geradas por IA e conteúdos falsos (deepfakes).
Gestão centralizada: Operadores individuais controlam múltiplos perfis falsos em simultâneo.
Impacto no Debate Público e Táticas de Disseminação
Além de amplificarem teorias da conspiração e promoverem a radicalização, estas redes boicotam o debate público tradicional. Devido à dificuldade em fazer chegar o discurso de extrema-direita aos canais tradicionais e a audiências mais alargadas, o grupo adota táticas de infiltração direta através de :
1 - Invasão de Órgãos de Comunicação Social
Objetivo: Criar uma falsa sensação de consenso ou de revolta popular generalizada.
Mecanismo: Utilização de redes de contas falsas (bots) e militantes coordenados para inundar as caixas de comentários de jornais e televisões.
Impacto: O leitor comum fica com a perceção de que a opinião pública mudou, enviesando o debate e silenciando vozes moderadas por exaustão.
2 - Ataques a Partidos Oponentes
Objetivo: Desgastar a imagem pública dos rivais e desviar o foco das propostas políticas deles.
Mecanismo: Inundação das páginas oficiais da oposição com insultos, memes difamatórios e acusações sem provas.
Impacto: Força as equipas de comunicação dos partidos a gastar tempo a moderar comentários e altera o foco das discussões para narrativas falsas.
3 - Alvo em Figuras Políticas
Objetivo: Intimidar decisores públicos e influenciar a agenda política pelo medo.
Mecanismo: Envio em massa de mensagens privadas ou tweets com ameaças veladas, ataques pessoais e exposição de dados privados (doxing).
Impacto: Provoca o afastamento de líderes do debate digital e condiciona as suas tomadas de posição públicas para evitar represálias.
4 - Infiltração em Grupos de Facebook Locais
Objetivo: Radicalização gradual através da exploração de dinâmicas de proximidade e confiança.
Mecanismo: Entrada em grupos comunitários (ex: "Vizinhos ou Amigos de [Cidade]") onde fingem ser residentes preocupados com a criminalidade ou problemas locais.
Impacto: Introdução progressiva de conteúdos xenófobos e racistas mascarados de "preocupação legítima", radicalizando cidadãos que não consomem canais de extrema-direita diretos.
Conclusão
Segundo esta análise, o ecossistema ativista da extrema direita, envolve a invasão de meios de comunicação social, meios oficiais de comunicação partidária e ligados a figuras publicas, a infiltração em grupos locais e a colonização de plataformas visuais, convertendo a polarização em retorno económico.
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The Digital Activism of the Far Right in Portugal - Manipulation Strategies and Infiltration Tactics of CHEGA by Daniel Arrhakis (2026)
The phenomenon of digital activism by the far right in Portugal, and the Chega party in particular, is based on a highly professionalized three-dimensional strategy, supported by reports from media research centers. This machine relies on the algorithmic segmentation of audiences, the normalization of disinformation narratives, and the creation of lucrative digital economic ecosystems.
Digital Support Networks of the Far Right in Portugal
Researchers of social networks and political phenomena (and myself personally) have analyzed in detail the segmentation of digital support networks associated with the Portuguese far right and Chega.
These dynamics reflect integrated strategies of online militancy, disinformation, and radicalization.
Manipulation Strategies and Astroturfing
To simulate organic popular support—a technique known as astroturfing—these networks resort to an advanced technical ecosystem:
Coordinated use of bots: Automation to replicate messages en masse.
Artificial Intelligence: Creation of AI-generated accounts and false content (deepfakes).
Centralized management: Individual operators control multiple fake profiles simultaneously.
Impact on Public Debate and Dissemination Tactics
In addition to amplifying conspiracy theories and promoting radicalization, these networks boycott traditional public debate. Due to the difficulty in bringing far-right discourse to traditional channels and wider audiences, the group adopts tactics of direct infiltration through:
1 - Invasion of Social Communication Bodies
Objective: To create a false sense of consensus or widespread popular revolt.
Mechanism: Use of networks of fake accounts (bots) and coordinated militants to flood the comment sections of newspapers and television. 1. Impact: The average reader gets the perception that public opinion has shifted, skewing the debate and silencing moderate voices through exhaustion.
2. Attacks on Opposing Parties
Objective: To damage the public image of rivals and divert attention from their political proposals.
Mechanism: Flooding the official pages of the opposition with insults, defamatory memes, and unsubstantiated accusations.
Impact: Forces party communication teams to spend time moderating comments and shifts the focus of discussions to false narratives.
3. Targeting Political Figures
Objective: To intimidate public decision-makers and influence the political agenda through fear.
Mechanism: Mass sending of private messages or tweets with veiled threats, personal attacks, and exposure of private data (doxing).
Impact: Causes leaders to withdraw from the digital debate and conditions their public positions to avoid reprisals.
4 - Infiltration of Local Facebook Groups
Objective: Gradual radicalization through the exploitation of proximity and trust dynamics.
Mechanism: Entry into community groups (e.g., "Neighbors or Friends of [City]") where they pretend to be residents concerned about crime or local problems.
Impact: Progressive introduction of xenophobic and racist content masked as "legitimate concern," radicalizing citizens who do not consume direct far-right channels.
Conclusion
According to this analysis, the far-right activist ecosystem involves the invasion of social media, official party media outlets and those linked to public figures, infiltration of local groups, and the colonization of visual platforms, converting polarization into economic gain.
Hofdijk housing, Rotterdam, 1977-1983. Architecture by Jan Verhoeven.
Our current exhibition on Dutch structuralism sparked a new interest for this type of architecture. Although I don’t particularly like it from an estheticial point of view, the segmentation, in order to create ‘human scaled’ spaces that invite residents to meet and interact with each other, allows for multiple perspectives and seemingly endless photographic possibilities.
Hofdijk consists of 584 dwellings in the centre of Rotterdam, joint together by a complex network of collective spaces like galleries and courtyards, that give access to individual houses.
The fringe of waxy "fingers" (no they are not legs) are secreted by special glands on the body of the female. This would indicate that the scale insect emerges from its old skin "fringe"-less and starts afresh with new ones. This also gives a gauge of how sedentary a lifestyle these scales live. She has barely moved a body length from the time she shed her skin to the present during which time she has 'regrown' her decoration.
I have immense difficulties coming to terms with these extraordinary insects and admit to barely understanding their biology, taxonomy or physiology.
Males have one pair of wings and look completely different.
To say the least, scale insects are strange. I have included this brief overview as an indicator of this reality and because more specific information seems very hard to come by in the mainstream…..
Adult females resemble immature stages: they are soft-bodied and lack wings, have compound eyes and obvious segmentation. The last three developmental stages (pre-pupa, pupa, adult) in male scale insects do not feed. Adult males usually live for less than a day; they are listless and slow. They may be dipterous (one pair of wings) or wingless, have compound eyes, or a variable number of simple eyes aranged in a line around the head, or dorsal and ventral pairs. Many scale insect species have done away with males completely, reproducing asexually. Scales have the greatest diversity of sperm structure and sex determining chromosome systems of any known group of organisms. One group has a placenta-like structure in the female that is used to feed first-instar males. Another is hermaphroditic - the only known example among insects. Most scale insects produce a waxy secretion that either coats the body or protects it beneath a domicilelike structure (called a scale cover). Secretions vary from a thin translucent sheet to a thick, wet mass, to a powdery bloom.
Pu'er, Yunnan, China
A millipede is a fairly docile arthropod – an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages – found worldwide, spending its time eating decomposing plant material, making it vital to the ecosystem
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American Giant Millipede – 2020SEP27 – Charlotte, NC
Look what I found! A Giant Millipede, Narceus americanus: it grows twice as large as any other North American millipede, a cylindrical millipede (distinguished from flat millipedes), dark reddish-brown or black, a red line on each segmente edge; like all millipedes, they have 2 pairs of legs on most segments, rather than 1 pair of legs on each segment (like a centipede).
Does it bite? No (uniike a centipede). What about cyanide? Although not this species, some secrete hydrogen cyanide, quite poisonous. Remember, millipedes are toxic – but as long as they are not eaten, hands washed after touching them, they're pretty harmless; however, many have a defensive secretion, benzoquinone, that can cause chemical burns on human skin, generally mild, but powerful enough to cause temporary skin discoloration, itching, and blisters – some millipedes’ secretions are much more powerful, though.
The division of an animal into repeating body parts is called segmentation, clearly seen in millipedes, the word meaning “one thousand foot;” despite that name, millipedes with the most legs come up shy of the 1,000-leg mark, only about 750.
Hope you enjoy the 10% of 99 captures I took here this day!
The crease pattern for the Fairy Fly design. The grid is 60x60.
On the right side there is more detail along with the folded base to scale with the square. When I designed this there was extra paper around the antennae so I used it to make segmentation. I'd recommend using a very thin paper for this.
A portrait taken impromptu in a bar. Her face was lit by her mobile phone.
I applied post-processing for two reasons. The first one was to reduce noise making the skin smoother; and the second to darken the background. I reconstructed the image in darktable: turning to monochrome, a bit of vignetting, a small amount non-local means, and a tiny bit of curve editing. Then, for further denoising, I used multiple layers of "selective Gaussian blur" in the Gimp: it is an anistropic filter that does not smooth edges (defined by a given intensity difference across neighbooring voxels). I merged these together using layer masks to have a lot of smoothing on the skin but not elsewhere. I reconstructed a second version of the image with strong local contrast enhancement and some curve editing to highlight the lines of the hair. I added it as an extra layer with a fully transparent mask and used a few strokes of brush to composite this layer in a few strands in the hair. Finally, I did a rough segmentation of the head and hair and blurred it heavily in the quick mask. I used this segmentation to make the background dark, bringing out the light of the face.
I set the millipede on a serving platter that happened to be handy, to try to get some photographs of it in the plain surface in the middle, but of course it wanted to wander off and away
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American Giant Millipede – 2020SEP27 – Charlotte, NC
Look what I found! A Giant Millipede, Narceus americanus: it grows twice as large as any other North American millipede, a cylindrical millipede (distinguished from flat millipedes), dark reddish-brown or black, a red line on each segmente edge; like all millipedes, they have 2 pairs of legs on most segments, rather than 1 pair of legs on each segment (like a centipede).
Does it bite? No (uniike a centipede). What about cyanide? Although not this species, some secrete hydrogen cyanide, quite poisonous. Remember, millipedes are toxic – but as long as they are not eaten, hands washed after touching them, they're pretty harmless; however, many have a defensive secretion, benzoquinone, that can cause chemical burns on human skin, generally mild, but powerful enough to cause temporary skin discoloration, itching, and blisters – some millipedes’ secretions are much more powerful, though.
The division of an animal into repeating body parts is called segmentation, clearly seen in millipedes, the word meaning “one thousand foot;” despite that name, millipedes with the most legs come up shy of the 1,000-leg mark, only about 750.
Hope you enjoy the 10% of 99 captures I took here this day!
Queen Anne's lace and soldier beetle
Cantharidae beetle -- Coleoptera
Wellsville, New York
To see more of my "Inspiring Insects" set, click below:
www.flickr.com/photos/wolfraven/sets/72157605602154384/show
From Wikipedia:
"Soldier beetles are highly desired by gardeners as biological control agents of a number of pest insects. The larvae tend to be dark brown or gray, slender and wormlike with a rippled appearance due to pronounced segmentation. They consume grasshopper eggs, aphids, caterpillars and other soft bodied insects, most of which are pests.
"The adults are especially important predators of aphids. They supplement their diet with nectar and pollen and can be minor pollinators. Soldier beetle populations can be increased by planting good nectar- or pollen-producing plants such as Asclepias or Solidago.
"Historically, these beetles were placed in a superfamily "Cantharoidea", which has been subsumed by the superfamily Elateroidea; the name is still sometimes used as a rankless grouping, including the families Cantharidae, Drilidae, Lampyridae, Lycidae, Omalisidae, Omethidae, Phengodidae (which includes Telegeusidae), and Rhagophthalmidae."